Preparations

I closed the skill shop hovering before my eyes. There was nothing in it I needed to buy. Even if I turned to synthesis later, I wouldn't be able to pull anything better — Rare or Super Rare at best. Learning the combination recipes would mean actually trying them, and there weren't many people with both the gold and the spare skill slots to gamble on that. Once you registered a skill, you couldn't remove it unless you overwrote it with something Legendary-grade or higher, so the risk was far too high.

The Rare skills I did have were either coincidences, or cases where Rare skills had been revealed from the start as class traits. Aside from those few exceptions, they were genuinely hard to come by.

That said, I wasn't about to fill my skill slots to the brim betting only on the Legendary skills I'd learn later. I didn't have the budget for it, and I had no idea what might happen — I wasn't going to take that kind of risk. Besides, not every skill I was going to pick up going forward would be Legendary anyway.

There were plenty of skills I was targeting even here on the Lower Floors. The Saintess's skills, and those of the Holy Knight who had protected her. Those were the ones I was after. And with my slots having just expanded massively, it looked like I could take them all for myself.

The all-rounder vanguard, complete.

The inheritance items those skills slept in were buried within each of the gnoll great tribes. I needed to extract them.

It wouldn't be easy, but it wasn't impossible either. In about two years, other trainees would start coming up, and before then I could bring down one or two tribes. By that point the gap would have grown so wide that the rest wouldn't be able to catch up. Monopolizing them shouldn't be too hard.

"Hyung, this — this..."

"Yeah. I said I'd buy you skills, didn't I?"

"How is this even..."

"I only had a hunch myself. I only just found out it was real."

I said it offhandedly as I pulled a hundred gold from my inventory and handed it to Ha Yoo-jin. He was only eight, after all. He'd been through more than a child should, but it was only natural that something right in front of his eyes would still captivate him like a kid.

"Use this to buy Dagger Mastery and learn it."

"...Yes. Thank you, hyung."

Ha Yoo-jin started gesturing at the empty air with a thoroughly delighted expression. He'd probably been frustrated. The rest of the party was clearly growing more comfortable in combat through steady training and hunting, and he must have felt like he was lagging behind. He had no idea that matching that pace without any skills was already absurd.

It couldn't be helped — his comparison group was our party, which sat at the very top.

With that, my remaining gold dropped back below five hundred.

Before long, Ha Yoo-jin had learned Dagger Mastery. I checked — Normal grade. He swung his dagger through the air a few times, then spoke with a thoroughly satisfied look.

"Hyung, hyung! It jumped straight to level 2!"

"Yeah. You've been working hard."

I praised him as he showed off with a child's pride. He really had put in the effort. Unlike me, a regressor, the traces would be etched into his body itself, so jumping straight to level 2 didn't strike me as strange.

I asked him, as if merely curious.

"By any chance, are there skills like Trap Detection or Trap Disarming in there?"

"Just a second!"

He immediately started scanning the skill list.

"Yes! There are!"

I pulled out another two hundred gold.

"You should learn those too."

These two techniques were all but essential for a rogue. If you tried to pick them up without the power of the skills backing you, you could lose your life to an unusual trap. Later on, whenever trainees went to explore dungeons or ruins, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they always prioritized recruiting a rogue who'd learned these two. Once they leveled up, their grade would rise to Rare, and detecting and disarming magical traps would become possible as well.

Essential skills, you could say.

"Yes, understood!"

Ha Yoo-jin learned both without a word of complaint.

...Thanks to that, my remaining gold dropped below three hundred.

"Alright. Let's go."

"Yes, hyung!"

I'd accomplished what I came for.

I was a little disappointed, honestly. If I'd had more money, I could have gotten Observer's Eye, and if I could have picked up still more skills, True Sight or Unshakable Heart.

Observer's Eye was useful for trap discovery and tracking, and its higher-tier skill, True Sight, even granted resistance against hallucination and illusion attacks — both excellent, so I was sorry to pass them up. True Sight in particular could compensate for other skills: you'd still be able to discover magical traps even if your Trap Detection level was lacking, though you couldn't disarm them, which made it all the more regrettable.

Unshakable Heart was one of those skills anyone of any class would want if they had a spare slot.

But at this point, what we had was more than enough to be grateful for.

Ha Yoo-jin kept thanking me as he turned the dagger over and over in his hands, constantly moving it around as if getting a feel for the skills. To an outsider, it might have looked dangerously like a child playing with a blade.

No — that's exactly what it was. And that only made ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me more excited. A talent of the highest caliber, and he was enjoying himself on top of it.

I'll raise him as far as I can.

Especially given that he was a child, and looking at how he depended on me now — if I managed him all the way through, there was even a chance he'd become a complete fanatic.

I didn't think that kind of outcome would be a bad thing.

Ha Yoo-jin and I finished registering the skills and went looking for the rest of the party around the city. The two of us wandered the market together, and I bought him some light snacks. Before long he'd stowed the dagger in his inventory and started genuinely enjoying the stalls with me.

He looked, just a little, like he'd returned to childhood.

"Oh? When did you get here?"

And while we were wandering the market, we ran into the party members who'd gone off earlier.

"We finished our business. We got lucky — I found a way to learn skills."

"Huh? That was your errand? In that short amount of time, how did you even..."

"The place I learned skills before just happened to look like an altar, so I figured it was worth a shot. Thanks to that, though, pretty much all our remaining gold got wiped out. Haha."

"Ah..."

At the mention of the gold being wiped out, Joo Ha-yeon looked a little grave, and Ha Yoo-jin wore a vaguely apologetic expression. I ruffled his hair and told him I was joking.

"Well, we've still got over two hundred gold left, so don't worry too much."

"...That's true. Money. I forgot how well you bring it in, Shin-hoo. And considering how much you've invested in us..."

As they started developing a sense of economics through mercenary work, the party was only now realizing just how insane the investments I'd made in them had been. The fact that a hundred gold for a single skill was money they couldn't have earned even working for years if I hadn't raised them — that must have been a genuine shock.

If I hadn't properly raised them, they would have ended up as E-Rank or D-Rank mercenaries at best, and their commission fees were fifteen to twenty silver for E-Rank and twenty to thirty silver for D-Rank. Factoring in daily inn costs, meals, consumables, and the rest, it was a truly miserable existence. And the party members besides Ha Yoo-jin remembered that I'd spent chunky gemstones and thousands of gold like water trying to create skills for them.

"...Shin-hoo. If we don't have much money left... maybe we should try to save..."

"Haha. Don't worry. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Us getting stronger is more important. Look — we invested that money, the party pulled ahead, our skills improved and we became safer, and this time the commission even covered all our equipment, didn't it? The cost of this gear alone is at least two thousand gold, and by my estimate it'll come out to nearly three thousand."

"...That's true. Still, just in case, I'd rather you didn't spend quite so freely..."

"Understood. At the very least, I won't have us sleeping on the street, so don't worry."

"...I'll trust you."

My thinking that you have to spend when the time calls for it hadn't changed, but she had a point.

Our conversation left the party freshly aware of how much I'd sacrificed for them, and a subtle atmosphere formed — grateful, yet apologetic.

This kind of mood wasn't good. I spoke up immediately to change it.

"Alright, we head back tomorrow, so let's enjoy the rest of today. This isn't Earth — everything shuts down once night falls. And starting tomorrow, it's back to training. So go all out and have fun."

"...Right. That's true. This isn't Earth. Hehe."

"...Training..."

A slightly mixed reaction. But fortunately, the party started drifting back to normal, pulled along by the bustling market atmosphere.

Feelings of indebtedness like this needed to stay buried deep in the heart. Letting them surface — especially in front of me — wouldn't do anyone any good. Given the party's personalities in particular, it was far more effective to let that sense of debt settle silently, deep inside.

I spent a pleasant day with them. It was a city, after all, so there was considerably more to see than in a village. There were even jesters, and a few small performances. Even if this was a remote outpost on the border, it was a castle with a fair amount of history, and being a border territory meant frequent fighting and plenty of stress — so the performers looked like people the lord had hired specifically.

And of course, this region — or rather, anywhere — had a well-developed entertainment district that couldn't be left out, so even as we toured the market and watched the jesters and short performances, the party steered us firmly away from that direction. They seemed to have figured out the location while we were at the temple.

Thanks to my first cycle, I already knew where it was, so I caught on to their purpose the moment I saw them steering us. I just pretended not to notice. Thanks to a certain technique of mine, I didn't particularly need to go there anyway.

We ate dinner and headed back to the inn, and the party returned to their respective rooms looking satisfied.

The next day, we returned to Britus Village.

I'd heard that even after a raid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠receded, they kept the mercenaries hired for at least another month. It wasn't uncommon for the enemy to come back. Thanks to that, we maintained a sweet situation of getting paid while we trained. Even once the other mercenaries' contracts ended due to the investigation commission, we'd be staying on anyway.

The village chief didn't say much about that extra cost. It also served as insurance, just in case.

The equipment took longer than expected — nearly three weeks. The party's eyes lit up as they looked at their newly issued gear.

"Then allow me to explain the equipment. First, the steel armor and weapons are made from our Tidrind Territory's high-quality steel mixed with a small amount of black iron, resulting in excellent quality..."

A man from Murkus Blacksmith began explaining the gear to the party. But it was pointless — we could see the equipment as information windows, so we didn't need such a detailed explanation. Sure enough, the party members all appeared to be looking at the man's face, but their focus was ever so slightly off.

They were looking at empty air. Clearly checking the information windows.

"...In particular, since Miss Na Seoyun and Master Ha Yoo-jin are still young, we've included internal strap-style adjustments so the size can be modified somewhat with an eye toward the future..."

But the man from the blacksmith, seeing us keep looking at him, seemed to think we were listening very attentively, and got more and more excited showing off the equipment.

I let out a small laugh. It was a somewhat amusing situation. I was just as curious, so I checked the equipment information.

Even though they were both Rare items, the Greatsword of Feeble Gravity — being a greatsword — only had about half the attack power of the longsword. Part of that was the greatsword's own poor quality, but the real issue was that it was a dungeon drop. Dungeon drops tended to be heavily influenced by the floor they came from. A weapon that dropped in the tutorial was never going to be that good.

Even accounting for that, though, the black iron longsword's quality was extremely high. Even on the Middle Floor, it wasn't that common for an unenchanted Rare weapon — especially a longsword — to have fifty attack power.

Thoroughly satisfying performance. The armor's performance was also generally very high.

On top of that, the ready-made spear and several daggers I'd requested separately were clearly lower in attack power than the black iron longsword, but they were a decent level for off-the-shelf products. The Normal-grade spear had thirty-two attack power, and the daggers twenty-two each. ...It was ironic that a Normal throwing dagger's attack power correction was on the same level as a Rare-grade greatsword.

While I was looking over the equipment, the party started trying on the delivered gear one by one. The explanation seemed to have wrapped up at some point.

Na Seoyun, now fully geared up, came running over to me.

"Oppa, oppa!"

"Hm? What is it?"

"How do I look?"

Na Seoyun spun around in front of me, showing off how she looked in the armor.

...Is this a new dress?

Honestly, I was a bit speechless. It wasn't even showing off a new outfit — she was showing off armor. A small laugh escaped me.

"It looks great on you."

"Really? Really?"

"Of course. You look really cool, and pretty."

A safe compliment. Na Seoyun had gotten to the point of speaking quite casually with me. She broke into a huge smile, clearly pleased by the praise. She especially reacted well to being called pretty. ...Honestly, how pretty could someone look in armor? It was light armor, sure, but armor was armor. The custom fit meant it sat well on her, and the design wasn't bad, but still — it was armor. I hadn't expected her to be this happy over what was essentially lip service.

Then Ha Yoo-jin came over, and I had to give him similar praise.

The party was delighted with their fitted equipment for only a moment before I ordered them to train in the armor.

"...Ugh! My new armor!"

"...Hyung, that's so mean..."

"......"

She didn't say anything, but Nam Eun-ju seemed to have been privately fond of her armor too — she made a miserable face at the dirt and dust kicked up from rolling on the ground.

...Or was that just because the training was hard?

"What's all this? Custom-fit or not, you have to get used to it on your body. Were you planning to go into combat while it still feels awkward? Don't tell me that's what you were about to say. Is combat a game to you?"

I spoke in a slightly angry tone. I understood being excited about new armor. But its purpose was combat, first and last. We had a dangerous mission ahead of us.

"...I'm sorry, oppa."

"Sorry, hyung."

Fortunately, I was able to settle the party's overly high spirits to a reasonable degree. It couldn't be helped. Day by day, the commission date was drawing closer.

Occasionally Village Chief Rusell would come by to watch our training. It didn't seem like he intended to pressure us so much as that he was anxious. He seemed worried that another raid might come while we were training. Even if the investigation wasn't going to wrap up in a short time, the longer it dragged on the more uneasy he'd feel, so it was understandable.

Time passed, and around the date I'd roughly estimated—

"Finally! Yes! Finally!"

Nam Eun-ju's voice, overflowing with emotion.

"Unnie! Congratulations!"

Na Seoyun's congratulations followed — she had already recovered her Strength stat first. The party members, who'd watched Nam Eun-ju's hardship with their own eyes, didn't hold back on the congratulations and praise.

I looked at Nam Eun-ju and thought:

The preparations were finally complete.