Chapter 4
Translator: TipToe
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“Huff . ”
While experiencing the now familiar feeling of falling down, the three landed onto the ground, their hands linked together . This was the first of several times that they would have to experience this . Tsutomu immediately faceplanted on the ground .
Around them were the guildhall and lime-colored grass that spread out as far as their eye could see . Somehow, this seemed like a nice place to land in, although Tsutomu could sight the occasional monster here and there .
“Alright then, Amy-san . Search for enemies, please . ”
“Okay~”
Amy rushed out of the meadow like the wind, and soon, Tsutomu could no longer see her . Meanwhile, Tsutomu took out a white cane from his bag . Seeing the color of his equipment, one could tell that Tsutomu was a white mage . He then started doing solitary image training .
(TipToe: image training – playing the actions in your mind to get better at actually doing them . )
After that, as Garm prepared to move out, Amy came back with ragged breaths .
“There aren’t any adventurers~ There aren’t any big monsters either~ Let’s go!”
“Roger . Well then, let’s start with those goblins over there . ”
“Umu, understood!”
Amy, who had just raised her hand and reported, and Garm, who had just finished preparations for moving, were still unarmed and in guild uniform . They might have been there to ensure that death would be a one in ten thousand chance, but mostly they were just there to deter other parties .
All guild staff members, aside from clerks, are eligible for an exam after they clear the 40th level of the dungeon . After that, if they score high on both a difficult written exam and a practical skill-testing exam, they will be interviewed by the guild chief, and if seen as non-threats, they can become recognized as official members of the guild staff .
Parties who would go after others guarded by two people in guild uniforms were almost nonexistent . There were the occasional people who thought that they were easy pickings due to being unarmed, but they immediately fled after Tsutomu brought out their weapons from his magic bag .
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“Well then, those three things are our objective . I’ll cast Protect . ”
As Tsutomu raised his white cane, the white gems in the front-lit up, and everyone was then covered in an ochre color . This was a support skill that hardens the skin of the people the spell was cast on, scaling with the caster’s MND . “Thank you~,” Amy said as she took off into a run, with Tsutomu and Garm following shortly after .
As one of the goblins noticed Amy, she kicked it in the jaw agilely . Garm threw his fist at another goblin that was headed towards him . Tsutomu kept his cane on the ground, as he looked towards the last goblin .
“Heal . ”
Amy wasn’t injured in any way, but Tsutomu healed her for good measure and for practice . As he waved his cane, a green fist-sized projectile came out, and it managed to hit her in the back as she was still moving .
For the time being, he continued to hit the still-moving Amy, much like a game of target practice . As soon as Amy got bored, Garm stomped on the goblin’s neck with his feet .
When the goblins died, they became green particles and disappeared without a trace of blood, leaving behind only a few small transparent magic gemstones . Amy brought back a few small pieces of the scrap .
“Tsutomu, your aim is getting better, huh? When you started out, you healed the goblins!”
“There have been fewer mistakes recently, too . Please take that into account . ”
“The face that Garm was making at that time was really funny too, it was like a dog itching to bite something!”
As Amy laughed hysterically and threw Tsutomu the stones, he laughed nervously and placed them into the bag . Garm stepped to the side upon remembering that facial expression .
Garm guided Tsutomu through the dungeon the first time he went in . When he hit the goblin instead of Amy with a heal, the goblin, which was previously weakened, became well . In the game you couldn’t heal enemies, so this came as a surprise .
After that battle, Garm told him that he should only heal them whenever they regrouped, so Tsutomu continued to think that this was totally different from the game .
And so, from the next day onwards, Tsutomu did exactly that . He would just look on from behind Amy and the goblins . He would heal them after the battle was over, and Garm would praise him .
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After mundanely repeating this for half a day, Tsutomu returned to the guild and confirmed that his skill level had risen by 5 . He also noticed on the bottom of his status card that he had acquired some new skills . A support skill, Protect, and an offensive skill, Air Blade .
The next day, Tsutomu was now required to cast Protect before the battle . Garm and Amy dealt with the goblins . Heal was cast after the battle . When Tsutomu asked if it’d be okay if he used Air Blade, Garm scolded him much like a parent would a child .
“Tsutomu, your job is to protect before combat and heal after combat . Nothing more . ”
“Uh, isn’t that a bit wasteful? Once I die, I can just respawn and come back, right? But yeah, it’s not like I want to get hurt, though . ”
“White Mages are expected to use support skills before the battle and heal the party afterwards . There’s no problem if you stick to doing that . ”
“…I see . ”
Tsutomu basically had no real experience in dungeons . So, he then grew rather weary from being coddled by Garm . Garm called out to him in a foreboding manner, and so Tsutomu put on a fake smile and held back his urge to dive into the dungeon .
After that, he trained for five days, practicing aiming his skills, and focusing and spreading the area of effect . It wasn’t perfect, but combined with the effects of the white cane, he had begun to see some results .
Afterwards, he watched the top clans in the dungeon explore for about half a day . He then realized that Garm was not in the wrong, and issued an honest apology .
“Basically, if you get hurt, you can just drink potions after the battle . ”
“The cheapest potion is 10’000 G, you know? If you watch carefully, there’re a lot of parties that come back with low HP . Even if your level goes up you won’t be able to consume them . This is why people in the grasslands are stuck there for a long time . ”
“Uwah~ Tsutomu, you sure are tough on those insects . ”
Parties who haven’t gone past the tenth layer are considered to be insects by the rest of the community, though the nickname was kind of harsh, Tsutomu remained silent .
As they were chatting, five more goblins approached them . Tsutomu applied buffs, and then Amy and Garm went after them bare-handed .
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Though Tsutomu wanted to stop getting carried and pull his own weight, he followed Garm’s instructions until he hit level 10 .
Besides, from the start, it was decided that Tsutomu would carry on like this until level 10 – though he did continue to selfishly practice aiming his heals .
The current mainstream party configuration was four attackers and one healer . This was what most top guilds followed .
There were tactics in the game that allowed the attackers to kill enemies quickly under the cover of a tank, but it was much harder to pull off here . Thus, Tsutomu was excited to hear about this . However, when he got to actually watching this happen on one of the monitors in the guild, he felt disappointed .
The basic chain of action was to apply buffs first, then strike . Basically, the injured people would just drink potions to heal, while the healer hid . The only trouble the healer would have would be reviving dead party members at the end of the fight .
Surprisingly, healers were for the most part disposable . Magical skills depended on one’s MND to be effective, and that’s what healers used to revive and heal .
When the healer applied buffs, monsters recognized them as a threat and dropped their focus on other members of the party to target the healer with hostility .
As Tsutomu watched this on the monitor, while sitting on a bench, he quietly asked Garm to explain the situation .
Garm said that the leading clan wanted to go as far as possible, so they would leave recovery to potions, and leave healers to revive in case of unexpected attacks .
And as long as they were the highest, they’d be displayed on the monitor, so their popularity within the city and the guild would increase .
When popularity increases, profit would follow . The equipment that the party members are using would skyrocket in value, and it would be advertised in weapon and armor shops .
The problem was that the rest of the clans tended to blindly follow the top clan’s strategies .
And when the top clan wasn’t doing so well, it followed that other clans weren’t too . Their equipment would be mostly destroyed, and they’d have little to no HP left after a dungeon run .
Healers and pack mules were treated less fairly than everyone else, as they weren’t profitable or popular . Tsutomu saw many in the guild treated as such . It wasn’t a situation he was comfortable with .
(Healers are neglected even though they’re crucial to a party . I definitely won’t forgive this unfair treatment . )
Even if game tactics weren’t necessarily going to carry over to real life, and healers were considerably more squishy, it was still unjust to treat them in such a way .
Above all, Amy and Garm undermined Tsutomu’s opinion of the healer being good . Amy, in particular, had some words to say about the class .
–To begin with, it was time to change that stereotype . Tsutomu was now level 10, and at that level, it was okay for him to be the leader of the party .
After that, he tried to defeat dozens of goblins and requested they go back to the guild, even after just leveling up .
“Alright, let’s head back immediately! There’s stuff I want to do when we get back, but do we have time?”
“Tsutomu, you’re in surprisingly good spirits today . Are you thinking of something lewd?”
Garm glared at Amy, who was teasing Tsutomu and playing with her hand .
“Tsutomu wouldn’t lust over you, pervert . ”
“If you want to die, you should be more straightforward . Do you want me to kill you as soon as we exit?”
“I doubt you can . ”
“Why are you guys like this?”
Amy threw a spare magic stone towards Garm . After trying to break up the fight between her and Garm, he gathered up the mess of stones .