Field Trip Prep (3)
In Soul Academy, there were three main ways to raise a character's Charm stat.
The same went for every other stat: you either grew the character's base performance, forced it up with gear, or brute-forced the problem with consumables.
Most players only bothered with big Charm numbers through items or doping. Since Charm was utterly useless for clearing dungeons, the average player never touched it.
Of course, if you committed to a particular gimmick build, there were players who seduced their way through entire characters with a pure-Charm setup — but that was the exception to the exception.
The method I planned to use was exactly the same as in the game.
It was far too late to grind the stat itself within a week. How much could I possibly raise it in that time?
Whether thanks to the Mesugaki trait or not, my base Charm seemed to be guaranteed, so the rest would have to be handled with gear and doping.
"So I am simply to procure these items for you?"
'Yes. That's right.'
"Sharp as ever, info broker. I suppose being my errand dog has trained your instincts?"
"Haha. Naturally."
Alsaetin skimmed the list I'd written out and handed him, then frowned faintly.
"Hm. Are you certain this is correct?"
'Why? Something wrong?'
"It's... rather fixated on you, isn't it? For a mere information peddler."
"My apologies. It's simply that none of these seemed like items a young lady of your standing would normally be interested in."
Fair enough.
Every single thing I'd written down was appearance-related. Clothes from famous boutiques in the capital, cosmetics and perfume, and on top of that, a whole assortment of accessorizing goods for my own use.
Given that my usual interests revolved entirely around making myself physically stronger, it was only natural for Alsaetin to find the list suspicious.
'That's the list. Alsaetin.'
"Info broker. It's correct, so just do as you're told. And don't get cheeky with me. Understood? Trash-merchant?"
"Yes, understood."
'And...'
"How long will it take to get all this?"
"Do you have a deadline in mind? I shall tailor my efforts to match it as closely as possible."
'One week.'
"One week. Can you manage?"
"It will be no trouble at all."
Alsaetin nodded without a moment's hesitation.
That's more like it. I'd built this request around maximum compromise precisely because things were so urgent — if he'd said no, I might have actually cried.
'Then...'
"Get it done as fast as you can. Info broker."
True to his word, Alsaetin delivered everything I'd asked for before the field trip began.
Seeing in the flesh what I'd only ever seen through a monitor made my head spin.
In the game, it didn't matter what I slapped onto a character — it was the character wearing it, not me. That was no longer true. Whatever I prepared, I was the one who'd have to wear it.
Which meant I was the one who had to put on the bunny girl outfit Alsaetin had brought.
When it had all been hypothetical, spinning around inside my head, I'd thought it would be fine. I was getting used to wearing the Academy uniform these days, after all. I figured I could endure a little something further.
Best of all, I'd only need to change into it when meeting the Lord of the Forest.
When I ran the simulation in my head, it was fine. All I had to do was swallow a moment of humiliation — that was the whole of it.
But holding the real thing up against my body was a completely different story.
This is NOT clothing, no matter how I look at it! It barely performs the most basic function of clothing, which is covering skin!
"What? As long as the important parts are covered, it's fine?"
YOU try being the one who has to wear the bunny outfit! See if those words still come out of your mouth!
Circumstances being what they were, I had no choice but to stash it in my Inventory — but honestly, I didn't want to wear it. If not for the quest that damn Pathetic Chief God had shoved at me, I'd have burned the thing on the spot.
But the word "humiliation" — squatting squarely across my only escape route — terrified me too much.
That was just how vast the fear of the unknown was.
Think about it. Remember when the Pathetic Chief God buffed the Mesugaki skill just to mess with me?
Back then, I'd blurted out things like "lewd Saintess" at Phoebe. That's how earnest this Pathetic Chief God is about His punishments.
Did anyone seriously believe the penalty for failing the quest would be something light? Of course not.
In hindsight, the bunny girl outfit was probably overkill. It gave the biggest Charm boost, sure, but there were plenty of other outfits that raised Charm too.
Still, at the time I'd been scared. What if my Charm fell short and the Lord of Saithil Forest refused to see me at all?
If I wore something else, I'd pile up the black history and take the punishment on top of it. Where's the justice in that?
Haa. What's the point of regretting it now? There's no turning back.
Right. I'll just squeeze my eyes shut and put on the bunny outfit. That's all it takes.
The bunny outfit. In front of Frey, Joy, and Phoebe.
GYAAAAAAAH!
You perverted Pathetic Chief God!
You are TRULY diabolical, aren't you?! You knew that whether I went down this road or that one, I'd end up needing the bunny outfit, didn't you?! That's why you set it up this way, right?! RIGHT?!
Don't use the power of the divine on stuff like this, you damned perverted bastard!
"Students!"
I'd been busy cursing out the Pathetic Chief God when the shout from up ahead yanked me out of my daydream.
"That forest ahead is Saithil Forest, the site of your field trip!"
Put simply, the Academy's field trip was a hunting exercise conducted across a forest field. The idea was to give students — who'd never known danger in their safe, sheltered lives — a taste of real combat where genuine peril lurked around every corner.
After all, the Academy's entire purpose was to cultivate talent capable of facing the dungeons that threatened the world. They couldn't just leave students giggling and chattering behind a fence forever.
And what would happen if someone came to the field trip and spent the whole time cowering and dodging every monster encounter? Naturally, there were measures in place to prevent exactly that.
Fail to bring back fifteen or more trophies from the monsters you killed in the forest, and your grade took a penalty. To advance to the next year, you needed a score well above the Academy average — high enough that, for most people, repeating the year was all but guaranteed.
In other words: fight, or stay a first-year forever.
But it wasn't all stick. There was a carrot, too.
The number of trophies you carried at the end of the trip earned you bonus points on top of your base grade, and as I recalled, hauling back a full hundred granted the maximum bonus. The top five parties also received material rewards beyond their grades, ranked by placement.
So my goal was exactly one thing.
'Our goal is...'
"Our goal is simple. First place. There's no way I'm letting a bunch of other scrubs sit above us."
Taking first in this field trip. And on top of that, meeting the Lord of the Forest and earning his recognition.
"Knew it."
When I made the declaration, Frey nodded as if she'd expected nothing less.
"We'll do our best!"
Joy clenched her fists at the lofty goal, brimming with determination.
"I'll give it my utmost."
Phoebe nodded with a smile.
Looking at my party members, I felt my chest swell. This was not a party a person could normally assemble in the early days of the Academy.
Usually, recruiting even one of these three at this stage earned you praise for effort; landing two got you called a veteran player. All three? If I'd posted this on the community forums, they'd have screamed "cheater."
I was basking in the warm glow of rewards earned through all my hard scrabbling when Frey raised her hand.
"Got a strategy?"
'Yes. We do.'
"We do. Curious, are we, scrub-swordsman?"
"Yeah."
'We're going to hunt people.'
"We're going to hunt down a bunch of pathetic trash."
"...What?"
The moment the words left my mouth, a question burst out of Phoebe. What? Did I say something weird?
"Um. What exactly do you mean by... hunting people?"
'Exactly what it sounds like. That is to say...'
"Scrubby little Saintess. Are you turning scatterbrained like Joy the more time you spend around her? It means exactly what it says. We're going to take everything those other scrub side-characters are carrying. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to learn even scrubs like them can be of use to me."
What was the most efficient way to farm trophies during the field trip?
Taking them from other students after they'd done the work of killing the monsters.
Grinding monsters one by one and picking up their drops had a hard ceiling. If this were a game, that method alone could carry you to first place — but sadly, I was no longer a player on the other side of a monitor.
Which meant I had no choice but to become the villain.
"Is... is that really allowed? It breaks the rules, doesn't it?"
"Phoebe. That's fine."
The one who answered Phoebe's doubt was Joy. She took Phoebe by the shoulders and shook her head.
"Pillaging is actively encouraged during the field trip."
"...What?"
"My brother told me all about it."
It was simple arithmetic. The number of monsters lurking in the forest was finite.
However sprawling Saithil Forest might be, its monsters weren't infinite the way a dungeon's were. For the first stretch of the trip, you'd run into monsters every time you wandered somewhere new — but by around the second day, that would stop.
And once that happened, how did you keep collecting trophies?
You could comb the forest for the few remaining monsters, but that was hideously inefficient. Why spend half a day scrounging up two or three drops when you could instead target the students already loaded down with a full haul? Easier, and far more comfortable.
"But still—"
"Phoebe, think about it. Did the professor say anything in the rules about not taking from other students?"
"He clearly said we must not threaten anyone's life."
"It's the opposite. As long as you don't threaten anyone's life, anything goes."
If the Academy had truly wanted to prevent pillaging, they'd have written "you may not take trophies from other students" into the rules. But there was no such clause, was there? They hadn't merely forgotten to mention it — in practice, they'd condoned it.
When this was a game, pillaging was the definitive meta. Grinding was for suckers.
"But. That's stiwww..."
Phoebe, gentle soul that she was, seemed troubled by the idea of taking what belonged to others — but her qualms didn't change reality. Not any more than the bunny girl outfit lurking in my Inventory was about to vanish.
'Don't worry. We won't be pillaging anyone on day one.'
"Relax, scrubby Saintess. I won't be fleecing the scrubs on the very first day."
There was hardly anything to take from people who hadn't even started hunting yet. There was no reason to ambush a bunch of students still laughing and horsing around.
The perfect moment was the first night. I'd strike once they'd worn themselves out fending off prowling monsters and dropped off to sleep one by one.
Get robbed once, and everyone's guard goes up for the rest of the trip. What a hassle.
"So in the end, we're stealing what other people worked hard to earn?! That's what you're saying?!"
'Pretty much?'
"That's right?"
Phoebe. I think you've got some misunderstanding going on here, because this isn't a bad thing, okay?
The Academy is the one making us do this in the first place — what am I supposed to do about it?! I'm not the perpetrator here!
I'm just an innocent victim of the system the Academy created!
Even ask anyone in their second or third year and they'll tell you this is the canonical way to play. Honestly, getting flak for it from you of all people feels a little unfair!