Adventurer Party
The real reason I practiced magic was simple: to protect myself from the dangers ahead.
That was one reason, anyway, but there was a more practical one underneath it.
Namely — so no one would look down on me wherever I went.
It might be a different story if I'd been born without talent, but having talent and letting myself be disrespected anyway? That just made no sense.
With those thoughts in mind, I got started.
"I practiced lightning magic earlier, so…"
It seemed like a good idea to work on a different element this time. If I only trained one type of magic, I'd be in trouble the moment I ran into a monster or an opponent that countered it.
Learn a variety of elemental magic to prepare for exactly that — that was Sylvia's doctrine, and I was dutifully following it.
⟨ Fire Circle ⟩
Construct the formula, channel mana into it, and the spell fires. The whole sequence happened in the blink of an eye.
"Hmm."
It felt like it could be a little faster. Was there really any reason to insist on such an inefficient formula? It seemed worth refining a bit right here.
So I started improving the spell on my own. For the parts that didn't truly need mana, I distributed as little as possible — just enough to hold the shape — and invested the rest only where it mattered.
And a short while later—
Fwoooosh—
A ring of fire, radiating a gentle heat, formed around me. You could call it a circle meant to keep approaching enemies at bay — not offensive, but defensive. I kept practicing like that, over and over, until it was second nature.
The next day arrived. The warding spell and alarm spell still hadn't gone off.
Some people flinched and steered clear of anyone calling themselves a mage, while others looked at a mage and saw a walking treasure trove. The prejudice was that mages always carried expensive things.
'…Though I'm not sure it even counts as prejudice, honestly.'
Come to think of it, it wasn't really a stereotype at all. The necklace hanging around my neck right now was worth more than anyone could put a price on.
Mulling that over, I stretched out on my bed and connected to the gallery. There was a post I'd seen before — the very reason I knew as much as I did about mages who adventure, which is exactly what I was doing now.
"The search term was… that one, right."
Mages who adventure. I searched, and a handful of posts came up — not many, but among them was one marked as read.
I clicked it. A post written exactly eight months ago, and for me, an enormously helpful one.
Shorter than I expected, but it captured all the essentials. You could say it covered everything a mage needed to watch out for.
Still, I shouldn't take every word here as gospel. Information from the gallery should always be half believed and half doubted — in some ways it wasn't so different from cheap tabloid flyers.
With that thought, I closed the gallery and got up from the bed. I had an appointment today, after all.
"…I really hope they're normal people."
Please, let them be normal. Adventurers had a pretty high ratio of weirdos, but if the party already had a mage in it, surely that kind of riffraff would weed themselves out of applying.
Cherishing that hopeful expectation, I carefully pushed open the door of the Adventurer Guild.
Creeeak—
Someone must have oiled it — this time the door swung open smoothly. Inside stood a tall, ferociously scary-looking man with a sword; a dwarf with an axe who couldn't have been more than 140 centimeters tall; and a woman diligently polishing a dagger.
Seeing them, I felt my nerves tighten. It made being an adventurer feel real, somehow — that kind of feeling.
Before approaching the gathered group with those thoughts swirling in my head, I went to Esilly first and asked cautiously.
"…Are those people, by any chance, the ones applying this time?"
"Ah, yes! Those are this round's applicants."
Astonishingly, Esilly wasn't dozing off today. Marveling at the miracle, I greeted her and turned back toward the group, then offered my introductions.
"Hello. I'm Yujin — I'll be joining the orc subjugation party as of today."
At that polite greeting, the dwarf, who'd been quietly sitting and drinking beer, looked me over and spoke.
"So you're the mage?"
"Ah, yes. Yujin, joining as the mage this time."
"Hmph. Not a bad temper, for a mage."
"Thank you. By the way — shall we all introduce ourselves?"
It didn't look like anyone here was going to speak up first, so I took the initiative. I had no choice. If nobody said anything in a situation like this, things were bound to get awkward fast.
Having broken the ice, I introduced myself once more.
"My age is… a secret. The name's Yujin. I can handle lightning and fire magic. I can manage other elements to some degree as well, but lightning and fire are my specialties."
I said lightning and fire were my specialties, but the truth was I didn't have a specialty at all — I could handle every element at a competent level. If I'd said that out loud, though, nobody would have believed me, so I'd built in this cover story. Word was that an ordinary mage struggled just to memorize two elements' worth of spells.
At that, the menacing-looking man stifled a yawn and spoke up.
"Name's Theron. Mostly I use the sword. Shield too."
As he said it, Theron gave his sword and shield a rap each. He looked extremely confident in his gear.
A short while after Theron finished—
"Ah, my turn then?"
The woman with the dagger smiled faintly and started her introduction.
"Name's Violet. Daggers. Agility's my specialty."
And once she'd wrapped up, the beer-drinking dwarf scratched his head and said,
"Name's Dontas. A dwarf, as you can see. Mostly use the axe."
Dontas. What a name. If he'd been born in Korea, his nickname surely would've been "Pork Cutlet."
While I was lost in that useless thought, Theron took the lead and steered the conversation forward. Good. I'd never had much talent for leading people myself.
"—so that's the equipment sorted. Let's regather around noon."
"Ah, yes."
"Got it."
"Understood."
The four of us weren't close yet, so things were still stiff. But this was a party we'd only see through this one job, so there was no need to be anyway.
With that thought, we parted ways for a while — and I immediately connected to the gallery and wrote a post.
I posted it and waited a bit for the comments to roll in. And a short while later, I checked them.
Pelus — the one who'd given me adventurer tips before — came through with another golden nugget. Jerky, huh. Probably popular among adventurers because it packs in the calories without taking up much space.
Thinking that, I left a comment.
"…A Subspace Pouch really is convenient."
The thing was incredibly handy. I could see exactly why it cost as much as it did. I really needed to learn subspace magic soon — which meant I'd have to rake in money fast through adventurer work.
After frittering away some time on that, I checked the hour, saw it was close to noon, and headed back to the Adventurer Guild.