GILF Hunter

Rin recalled the memory of when she entered the treasure vault dungeon with Frey not too long ago.

It was back when everyone had scattered to search the rooms and open treasure chests.

Frey, who had been watching Rin open a chest from behind, stood there silently for a moment before speaking to her.

’Focus. Stop thinking about other things.’

’I-I am focusing. I haven’t even made a mistake...’

’It’s obvious your mind is elsewhere.’

It sounded like a forced nitpick, but to be honest, Rin did feel a bit guilty about it.

Rin eventually took her hands off the treasure chest she was disarming and let out a small sigh.

’So, what is it exactly?’

Frey asked as she plopped down on top of the treasure chest.

Rin flinched and hurriedly stood up.

’Ah, I haven’t finished checking that for traps yet...’

’There are no traps on this.’

’What? Then you should have told me sooner!’

Rin, who had been clinging to the chest for a long time checking for traps, cried out.

Of course, saying such a thing to Frey only resulted in another scolding about why she couldn’t tell just by looking.

Sitting next to Frey, Rin hesitated for a long time, wondering if she should say this to her, before cautiously opening her mouth.

’Um, did you happen to see that during the invasion? The magic Airi used...’

’Ah, that magic? Of course I saw it. It was so big it probably could’ve been seen from the next city.’

Rin spoke with a face that showed she didn’t know how to convey her worries to Frey.

’If I work harder... could I also take on a role like that?’

’You, using magic like that? As if...’

’No, I don’t mean I want to use magic or anything... I mean I want to reach a level where I can take on a role of that importance.’

It wasn’t a clear expression, but Frey could roughly understand what Rin was trying to say.

’Why, did your leader tell you to do something like that?’

’It’s not that. It’s just...’

Frey had never felt this kind of worry personally, but she had seen it often within the mercenary group.

Senior mercenaries whose growth had hit a dead end, being gradually caught up to by their juniors, often became obsessed with these thoughts.

In Frey’s opinion, it was fine if she just did as much as she was doing now. But the thoughts of those involved seemed different.

’Everyone’s role is different from the start. Even in our mercenary group, I’m better at fighting, but Erika, the Vice-Guild Leader, handles all the headache-inducing work. Everyone has their assigned tasks.’

...Wasn’t that just forcibly dumping the work the leader should be doing on her?

Rin suppressed the words that were about to slip out reflexively.

Frey slightly felt Rin’s impudent gaze, but since she was in the middle of a serious counseling session, she let it slide for now.

’Isn’t what you have now enough? What’s the problem?’

Perhaps in Frey’s eyes, it looked like she was being greedy.

Rin also agreed with that opinion to some extent. If she hadn’t heard that story from Ian... she might have lived on quite satisfied with her current level.

Rin decided to tell Frey the story about the secrets of the Labyrinth that she had heard from Ian a long time ago.

In fact, this wasn’t exactly a secret. It was just that people weren’t likely to believe it, so neither Rin nor Ian went around talking about it.

’Don’t listen to this too strangely... What would happen if a massive monster appeared from inside the Labyrinth?’

’What kind? A dragon?’

’Um, honestly I don’t know what it is either... Anyway, a lot of strange monsters have been coming out of the Labyrinth lately. That kind of feeling.’

Frey fell into thought for a moment after hearing Rin’s story.

’Hmm. That guy certainly doesn’t look like he’ll be able to retire peacefully. It feels like he’ll end up fighting something like that at least once.’

Frey thought she understood roughly what Rin was aiming for.

’So, you want to be a protagonist, right? When that moment comes.’

’Exactly!’

Frey, who looked Rin over from head to toe, shook her head without hesitation.

’I don’t think it’ll work.’

’Eh... Weren’t you supposed to be cheering for me?’

’I’m telling you, you’ve already turned out well enough as it is.’

For a rookie mercenary who couldn’t even use a sword to rise to become a main party member of a B-rank mercenary group, wasn’t that enough?

’If an important task needs to be given to a combatant, wouldn’t Lia—was that her name? She’d be better.’

’Sigh...’

Rin let out a small sigh.

To be honest, she thought Ian would have the same opinion as Frey. And in Rin’s mind, the party balance looked better that way too.

Was the gap really that large when compared directly like this?

’What exactly am I lacking?’

Rin wanted to examine herself through the objective eyes of an outsider like Frey, so she asked her about her shortcomings.

Frey looked at Rin, thought calmly for a few minutes, and then gave her an answer.

’Offensive and defensive balance, calmness in crisis situations, and your awareness of your surroundings during battle is a bit lacking...’

’Is... is there more?’

’Since you can’t use mana infusion, it’s hard to respond broadly to various situations. Also, when battles get long, physically speaking...’

’Y-you can stop telling me now.’

’Be quiet and sit down here.’

Rin listened to a lecture from Frey about her weaknesses for a long time.

＊　＊　＊

’....’

That was a hard time.

That was the kind of conversation she had with Frey.

It was a personal counseling session shared between the two, but it wasn’t content that particularly needed to be hidden.

Rin honestly confessed the things she had discussed with Frey to Ian.

To solve this worry, she ultimately had to hear Ian’s opinion.

’...That’s the kind of thing we talked about. What do you think, Leader?’

’You were having those kinds of worries?’

’Because I want to know if I’ll be able to fight properly when the time comes.’

Setting aside being cool or anything like that...

She simply didn’t want to lose her place as the first member who had stayed with Ian the longest.

She had somehow kept that spot until now, but seeing Airi in action right next to her this time made her lose confidence.

And she grew more worried because of Ian’s appearance, as he remained troubled even after easily stopping the invasion through such an incredible method.

She felt certain that an even greater crisis than this would surely come.

’....’

Ian was also in the middle of worrying about that problem in many ways. Rin had likely felt that too.

What Ian had prepared until now was the middle stage, commonly called the build-up.

Since he didn’t know what kind of party would ultimately be formed, he had saved important elixirs and accumulated as many points as possible, keeping possibilities open for as many routes as he could.

Now was the time to make a decision.

’You can be honest with me. Even Miss Frey said this is probably my limit...’

Ian shook his head.

There was one part of Rin’s story that was wrong.

’Actually, there is a way for you to get stronger.’

’There’s a way? If you’re overdoing it just because of my request...’

’No. I was thinking of that as about the fourth method.’

That’s a subtly realistic ranking...

Rin felt a bit excited.

She wondered if Ian was just saying that to comfort her, but hearing that ranking made it feel strangely realistic. It seemed Ian had been seriously considering it as one of the choices.

Ian recalled the two types of final builds he had planned in advance.

Though he called it the fourth, in reality, the first and second ranks were methods he had only planned but had to give up on without even trying. It was because he couldn’t secure the desired party members or the necessary equipment.

In the first place, the ideal composition coming together as desired happened maybe once in ten tries.

He had only considered them because they were the best-case scenarios; he didn’t particularly expect things to go that well.

Ultimately, what remained were Lia and Rin, those two.

In terms of stability, it was obviously Lia.

If he invested all resources to grow Lia, she would become a force capable of sufficiently performing on her own even in the final battle.

Equipment choice was flexible, and there were no major constraints on attributes, so she could be deployed without issue to sieges, melee, or boss battles and perform significantly well.

But...

Would that be enough? That anxiety kept coming to him.

Looking simply at the numerical side, Lia was the answer.

But in Ian’s gut... he kept feeling that perhaps a more daring plan was needed right now.

Rather than a safe hexagon, a strategy like a sharply honed awl.

’Rin. There is a way, but this isn’t an ordinary method.’

’...I figured it would be difficult.’

Rin nodded.

It was an obvious point. It wouldn’t be something that could be solved by the simple training she had done until now.

Seeing Rin’s expression as if she had finished her resolve, Ian also nodded.

Part of why he had been hesitating until now was the worry that he might be giving Rin too difficult a task.

Having heard Rin’s resolve, Ian finally made a decision after long deliberation.

’I understand, Rin. You want to get stronger no matter what it takes, right?’

’...Yes.’

Rin answered Ian’s final question with a serious face.

She was prepared for the fact that it wouldn’t be easy. It would surely be several times harder than the training she had done so far.

Seeing Ian speak like that, it could even be something dangerous. It was an answer given while being prepared for all those things.

Ian nodded as if he understood Rin’s resolve.

’Right.... Even if something shameful happens?’

’...Pardon?’

’No matter what price has to be paid...’

’...Wait.’

Seeing Ian’s expression, Rin hurriedly stopped Ian’s words.

’Wait, wait a second. I need to hear what kind of price it is before I think about it...’

Having made up his mind, Ian was already opening the Potential window.

Located at the very back of the Potential page, among the training-mode-exclusive potentials, were the traits of the [Corruption] lineage.

What Rin needed was the trait situated at the very end of that list.