「L-Lightning!」
The atmosphere shook and the magic powers rose.
The lightning magic that a young magician, Io Akos, released was dodged by the monster.
It was the werewolf that possesses agility greater than humans that dodged her magic. A humanoid wolf monster that has a body covered with fur, a muscular body, and sharp claws.
After the werewolf dodged the Lightning, it pounced onto Io swinging its sharp claws.
「Don’t space out!」
「Ghuee!」
Her collar got grabbed from behind and was thrown away.
It was a young male adventurer that holds a one-handed sword who grabbed and threw Io.
His well-used weapon and armor made him look like an experienced veteran.
「Biron, Leander. Support me」
「Alright」
「Gotcha」
Two adventurers showed their appearance from the sides of the werewolf as if to answer the swordsman’s call.
One was a light armored small plump man with bow and arrows as his weapon and the other one was a middle-aged man holding ten knives with both hands.
The plump man shot his arrows and the middle-aged man threw his knives.
*DosDosDos!*, the arrows and knives pierced the werewolf.
「UOOOOOO!!」
「Damn dog shouldn’t get cocky!」
The swordsman charged at the werewolf that was stunned by their supporting attack.
He attacked head onーーbut suddenly saw the werewolf’s counterattack, changing the direction of his sword to cleaving its body halfway.
An excessive amount of blood spurt out of the werewolf’s stomach. It continued to wail and tried to attack, but the swordsman dodged again and jumped back after stabbing it with his sword.
「Io! Aim at the sword!」
「Eh? Eh? S-Sword……?」
「Enough! Leanderーーyou do it!」
「Gotcha」
The three experienced adventurers cornered the werewolf with good coordination.
They cooperated with long range and long range, fought carefully, and defeated the werewolf.
And that, Io was unable to do anything until the end but watch.
Io Akos is a rookie adventurer that can be found anywhere.
She has the admiration towards great adventurers and their parties, unique to those rookie adventurers.
She would always go to the Guild to listen and get excited by their adventure stories.
Purification of dead spirits, magic beast subjugation, battle to death with a dragon.
She would get excited every time she hears that and dreamed of living in the same world someday.
However, she is nothing but a rookie adventurer.
She did not have experience nor power, she did not have the courage that would enable her to move her own body as she wanted in real battles.
She still, lacks everything of them.
Deep within the night, when the three adventurers were sleeping by the fire, Io was practicing by herself.
When one uses magic, there are generally three steps needed to be taken.
First, one must muster the needed magic powers within their body.
Next, one must change those magic powers to the shape of the magic they wish to use. There are people who express it as kneading clay, others imagine the ingredients of pudding being poured into its mold.
Lastly, one must release the shape of that magic outside of their bodies and shoot.
Io was repeatedly doing the first step.
No matter what magic would be used, it does not change the fact that one would need to gather the needed magic powers in an instant, which is the same with training the body, the more one trains on it, the more the amount they could use would increase.
In other words, although Io looks like she is just sitting, she is actually training strengthen her magic powers.
“I want to become stronger.”
“I want to become stronger and fight side by side with the adventurer I admire.”
She continued to train with that in mind without sparing the time to sleep.
「What the heck are you doing?」
Io raised her face.
It was the plump man standing in front of her. It the man called Biron who uses bow and arrows fought against the monsters with high accuracy.
「U-Uhm. I……」
「Sleep. You must sleep whenever you can, that’s common sense as an adventurer」
「But……」
「You’re already dragging our leg, shut up and sleep while you still can」
「……yes」
Io reluctantly lied to her side.
「Damn, I let her enter the party to meet numbers, but what a baggage 」
Hearing Biron’s footsteps getting far away, Io secretly shed her tears.
The ground of their camp felt very cold.
She bit her lip and controlled her magic powers while laying down.
She silently continued her training.
She continued it to become stronger. She continued to be more useful.
She continued to step into the world of the adventurers she admired.
She did her best to raise the amount of her magic powers little by little.
But the result of her hard work had no chance to be shown.
Starting from the next day, the adventurers declared Io as “just there for numbers” and completely ignored her. They cleared the Guild’s monster subjugation quest with just the three of them.
But even so, Io did not stop and waited for her turn. As she did that, she did her best to enhance herself.