Growth Hero

by Brent Tyman

  This only made me realize that I’d probably need my own party as I progressed in the Dungeon, especially since I had no healing potential to speak of—at least without knocking myself out in the process.

  And my defense was truly lackluster at best.

  I shook my head to clear these thoughts away, as I wanted to focus as much as I could on Juliana’s party. This had turned out to be a good learning experience for me after all. I knew how to set up parties in my RPG games, but it would be better if I learned how to do it in real life, too.

  Daiver seemed to be the only one who actually said anything as they progressed through the cave system in the first floor, mostly yelling profanities at the packs of Rats. Juliana and the rest seemed very focused on their roles and that left little room for any small talk, or for me to ask the questions I had.

  After about an hour or so, with the smell of smoldering and crushed guts permeating the air, they finally took a break.

  “Haha! What a rush!” Daiver yelled as he turned to me, his armored boots covered in blood. “See that, Alex, that’s how a noble party and heirs of the Tasberg Sovereignty fight.”

  “Must you really go bragging about it, now?” Vencia huffed. “Do you know how tedious it is to keep you in my sights at all times? These rats are nothing, but once we venture down to the stronger monsters, you can’t be so reckless.”

  “I must say that this does seem to be a waste of our talents, perhaps we can convince our teacher to allow us into the second level at the least?” Karl suggested as he pushed on his spectacles and then rubbed his hands together absently.

  “Karl, we are talking about Daiver’s recklessness,” Vencia complained.

  “Can’t we just talk about Alex’s defined and slim body? The fact that he was watching me work so hard really motivated me…” Kesara breathed as she threw me a wink.

  “Casting Minor Recovery isn’t all that exerting for one such as yourself,” Karl retorted.

  Kesara looked aghast at that and huffed out a breath. “It is when I have such an audience watching me at all times!”

  I found my head turning slightly to the side a bit in confusion. This party’s repartee was far less… agreeable compared to the party banter usually found in RPG’s. I supposed having like-minded individuals in a party didn’t have to be a requirement, as long as the job got done, but this was a new level of banter.

  “What did you think of our style, Alex?” Juliana said as she approached me. “The first level of this Dungeon is far beneath us, but it provides a straightforward way to test our methods.”

  At least Juliana had a much more pragmatic approach to this party business. She probably needed to be, seeing as she was the heir to an entire nation!

  “Yeah, you all are pretty good. I guess Vencia wasn’t joking when she said that you had a lot of magical power.”

  She laughed at that and I found myself getting lost in those emerald eyes, yet again.

  “Haha, yes, well… It may look impressive against Rats, but I assure you that it will only get more dangerous as we venture forth.”

  Juliana broke down some of her strategies for ensuring the party stayed viable, such as keeping Vencia well away from danger for the critical heals and focusing down one monster at a time.

  I almost laughed halfway through her explanation, as it honestly sounded like Juliana was as much a gamer as I was. I had longed to find someone to talk shop to on my favorite RPG’s; it just wasn’t the same on online forums. This was really refreshing.

  Just as I was about to ask about the binary like Rat behavior and if it extended onto other monsters, Daiver butted in all of a sudden, his eyes gleaming.

  “Hey Alex, how come you haven’t mentioned any of your stats or skills? What are peasants good at nowadays?”

  “Daiver! How dare you?” Juliana snapped at him. “His stats are none of your business and you will not address him as such.”

  “You know, I am interested in knowing this too,” Kesara suddenly chirped, coming close to my side. “I figured he was a Strength nut like Daiver here, considering this body.”

  “Alex strikes me as an intellectual, so most definitely a mage,” Karl remarked.

  Me? An intellectual? Ha!

  I had banged my head on the table repeatedly back in my college days when I’d had to write a dissertation on some topic I had completely forgotten about. Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to write another of those. Never again.

  “Considering his acquisition of that healing spell, perhaps he has a knack for a support role as a healer,” Vencia remarked.

  It looked like everyone was suddenly interested in me and I really didn’t want to disappoint them, considering how low my stats were. The reception I got from those clans abruptly jumped to the forefront of my mind.

  It was probably best to keep things vague and just mention the stat I was working on.

  “Well… since everyone is asking, I’m currently grinding… er, I mean, training my Strength up as best I can.”

  “Yes! I knew it,” Daiver shouted, spreading his arms into the air. “Take that Vencia, heals don’t mean a thing if you don’t have Strength to back it up.”

  “Ugh, that doesn’t mean anything, you doofus,” Vencia hissed back at him.

  “I’ve got a proposition for you, Alex,” Daiver said, his face turning unusually serious. “I’ll give you a single free punch to my face. Punch me right here,” he pointed to his cheek, “so I can see how strong you are.”

  The entire party erupted into groans when Daiver pointed to his cheek, daring me to action.

  “Uhh… What?” I asked, more out of surprise than anything else.

  “He does this with everyone,” Vencia huffed, crossing her arms.

  “Every Strength based individual from the other major Clans were subjected to this as well. I believe it is so that he can reaffirm the belief that he is the strongest student in the Academy. I don’t see the value in this, as his primary role is to increase his Defense stat and possessing more Defense does not make one the strongest,” Karl explained as Daiver kept pointing to his cheek.

  “I pity your future fiancée,” Kesara said as she rolled her eyes. “To be subjected to this kind of…”

  “Hey, hey,” Daiver said, “It’s all in good fun. I’m just proving that no one can top my Defense, hence making me the strongest. Just punch me here, Alex, and that will be that.”

  Did having stronger Defense prove he’s the strongest? I was fairly sure having more Strength would prove that, so Karl was probably right in that this made little sense.

  I looked to Juliana for what to do here and she had a look of disgust on her face directed at Daiver. She didn’t voice a complaint, though, so I guessed it was fine?

  Seeing as the man was the party’s tank and sported some pretty heavy armor, he must have had a Defense stat that far outweighed my Strength.

  Now that I thought about it, I realized a Tank had to increase their Strength stat in addition to their Defense stat, to keep their damage competitive. I figured he was probably cocky, due both to having increased his Defense and his Strength to a good level.

  I wondered, did a mage need to increase both Magical Power and Magical Capacity at similar rates? Yet again, I needed to do more research on how these stats worked together. Maybe I could ask Julianna about it.

  “Well… I guess. If you insist…” I said as he pointed to his cheek again with a nod.

  This better not end up with me feeling like I’d smashed my fist into a brick wall or something. Getting a busted hand to satisfy the noble’s vanity didn’t appeal, not in the slightest. I pulled back my right arm and positioned myself so that I could throw as much weight as I could behind it.

  “If Alex breaks his hand, then you will feel the full wrath of my magic,” Juliana threatened as I swung, pivoting from the hip, as hard as I could.

  My fist connected with Daiver’s cheek and I winced, dreading the incoming pain headed my way.

  Onl
y that never happened.

  To me, it felt like I had swung my fist into a half-full carton of milk.

  It appeared like Daiver’s face caved in for a split second, at least to my eyes it did, before his entire mass flew through the air and smashed into the opposite wall of the cave where we had stopped.

  The force of the blow caused me to stumble forwards a few steps before I caught myself. I could still hear the sound of bone crushing as I looked to see him knocked out as his body slid to the floor with a thump.

  The party looked over at Daiver’s limp form in disbelief, then looked at me with puzzled expressions. Even Kesara’s mouth had dropped into a perfect ‘o’ shape. To make matters worse, the sound of chatter caught my ears.

  I looked over to see the Academy teacher, Lady Kotobara, had appeared around a corner, with the rest of her students in tow. She wore the slight frown that usually rested on her face, but stopped in her tracks as Daiver’s knocked out form appeared in her vision.

  Her eyes first widened in surprised, then narrowed as she swept her gaze across the cave. Eventually, her steely stare landed on me. Probably because I still had my hand curled into a fist and couldn’t have looked more guilty if I’d tried.

  Forget a tutorial, this world needed to whack me upside the back of the head every time I made a questionable decision. It was almost like the Gods were laughing at me.

  And to be honest, I didn’t blame them.

  Shit…

  9

  “Holy, Daiver finally got smashed. Serves him right.”

  “How though, Juliana wouldn’t attack her own retinue, would she?”

  “There’s that man again!”

  “Who is he?”

  When I had first met Doyle and his soldiers on my first day here, I had debated simply running if things turned sour. Luckily that had turned into me saving Juliana’s life and earned me a free trip to this city.

  This situation though, didn’t look good, and I was already eying possible exits from this cave for my escape. Thank the Gods this Dungeon was huge and had many corridors I could use to easily lose any tail.

  Lady Kotobara gave me one heck of a frown before turning her attention to Juliana as she approached.

  “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded.

  “Ahh…” Juliana muttered, all of a sudden speechless. “You have caught me at a bad time, Lady Kotobara.”

  “Not having as bad a time as Daiver, though,” Vencia snickered behind a hand to her mouth. Lady Kotobara instantly whipped around to scowl at the blond woman.

  “Silence,” she snapped. “Do your duty and heal the man this instant.”

  “Do I have to…” Vencia started to say before a dangerous look from Lady Kotobara caused her to stop mid-sentence and scurry over to Daiver’s limp body.

  “Has the heir to the Sovereignty recovered from her lack of words?” Lady Kotobara asked as she returned her gaze to Juliana.

  “Teacher, Daiver simply met his… match and fell?” Juliana offered, though it came out more like a question than a statement.

  I pressed my lips into a thin line and tried not to cringe. It was clear that Juliana was trying to cover for me, but even to me, that had to be the lamest explanation I had ever heard—getting pretty close to the ‘dog ate my homework’ level of excuses.

  Lady Kotobara’s eyes narrowed even further, but Kesara promptly stepped forward.

  “Lady Kotobara, remember that Daiver isn’t the sharpest man around, not like my Alex. Maybe he angered the wrong Rat and smacked his own head into the wall in the struggle.”

  I failed to see how that was any better, but it felt nice at the least that they were trying really hard to cover for me.

  “My patience ran out long ago and I will not accept such farcical explanations,” Lady Kotobara hissed through her teeth. “Despite Daiver’s aggressive attitude to his peers, his boastful claims were not totally unfounded. No rat, or any creature on this level, could have possibly been a threat to him with the rest of you here.”

  Her head slowly swiveled to face me.

  “That leaves this Alex, whom I have yet to be introduced to, indeed, even notified about.”

  It was probably best to come clean and then run as fast as I could once this Lady Kotobara became hostile. She didn’t seem the least bit gullible and gave no credence to either Juliana’s or Kesara’s claims.

  “I’m just known as Alex. Alex Augere is my full name. Juliana invited me to watch her party fight in the Dungeon, to see firsthand how excellent the training at your academy is, hence why I’m here.”

  “Hmm… Augere… I don’t recall every Sovereignty Clan. Who is your Clan head?”

  I had no idea what to say to that, and Juliana stepped in as I wracked my brain for a response.

  “Alex doesn’t belong to a Clan; he is new to the city. As for Daiver…” she shrugged.

  Juliana then gave a short explanation of my origins to the Lady in slightly hushed tones, which I assumed was to prevent the students behind Lady Kotobara from eavesdropping.

  It appeared she knew about Juliana’s illness, as her hostility to me eased a bit when Juliana mentioned my role in saving her. Daiver’s current predicament, on the other hand, didn’t look too good for me, but I was surprised to find that Lady Kotobara seemed more puzzled by the ordeal than angry.

  “Hmm, maybe I underestimated Daiver’s resilience, something I will have to have words with him about back at the Academy. As for you, Alex, given that Daiver invited this attack on himself, I will overlook this.”

  “Strength of this caliber is truly fascinating. The difference in Alex’s Strength stat and Daiver’s Defense stat must be greater than ten at the least, maybe even more?” Karl muttered, which caused Lady Kotobara to roll her eyes.

  “Not now Karl, leave your deductions for the classroom and focus on your training in the Dungeon. Juliana, since you failed to mention Alex’s presence here and failed to recognize the danger you permitted to happen to your party member, this must be reported to the headmaster. I also will have some words for you later.”

  Juliana tried to protest, but Lady Kotobara was having none of it.

  She ordered some of the guards I had initially seen outside the Dungeon to escort me away from the Academy students, and to be honest, I was glad to get the heck out of here.

  I found it really endearing when everyone protested at this, even Vencia, who was still healing Daiver at the time, but either way, I bid farewell to them as the guards led me off.

  I tried not to pay attention to the other Academy students as they talked about me as I passed them.

  “Did he really take down Daiver?”

  “Ugh, that idiot broke my hand a few days ago with his heckling.”

  “How strong can that guy be?”

  The guards took me to the nearest line that pointed to the entrance of the Dungeon and shooed me away as they headed back.

  I really wanted to grind, as that was what I had originally intended for the day, but now I wished to take some time to think on and process what I had learned.

  With that in mind, I decided to leave the Dungeon and head back to the city.

  I noticed there seemed to be quite a lot of adventurers in this area of the Dungeon, more than I had seen over the past few days, but I figured it was due to their interest in the Academy students. When Juliana had originally mentioned this Academy, I had never imagined it might be as big a deal as it was.

  I wasn’t sure where to go once I walked through the gates of the city, after making the short trek from the Dungeon and down the path. Since I did have a room booked at the Windy Wolf, I figured it was probably time I settled into their common room for a while.

  Despite having spent nearly a week in this city, I still knew little about the culture here. Everything seemed typical for how a fantasy RPG town might operate, the only curious thing I had noticed being that there was a huge military presence in Tringall.

  I supposed that should be ex
pected, given that Tringall was a city-state in its own right, flanked by three major nations; seeing a soldier on every single street was quite sobering.

  The biggest talk in the city, from the small whiffs of conversation I could make out in the crowded streets, was also about the Academy. It was mostly just detailing their links to the nations surrounding the city, as far as I could tell.

  When I reached the Windy Wolf, I asked the innkeeper for a drink and sat down at an empty table. The inn was usually quiet at this time. There were only four other people in the common room, each of us minding their own business.

  As I waited for my drink, I tried to work out how I should proceed from here.

  If today had showed me anything, I would have a lot more success in the Dungeon with a party, which was pretty much what Selina had said to me too.

  I had to decide if it was worth pursuing a party or sticking with what I knew and continue soloing the Dungeon. Instinctively, I’d thought I wouldn’t need to have this debate until a long way down the line, but establishing a party sooner rather than later offered a number of benefits I hadn’t considered before.

  Plus, it was clear that I already made a pretty viable damage dealer, given how hard and fast Daiver went down to my punch.

  Speaking of which, how were my stats looking? I hadn’t looked at them since I had shared them with Selina. I willed for my stats to appear for me and was met with the usual blue screen a moment later.

  Stats

  Strength: 63

  Speed: 1

  Defense: 1

  Magical Power: 1

  Magical Capacity: 1

  Luck: 1

  Holy Jeez! From one to seven and within a week from seven to a cool sixty-three! This increase seemed pretty insane, and I now had proof that it was higher than the boastful Daiver’s stat.

  With this sort of increase, I could see why the Goddess had been hesitant to give me this skill. It was seriously overpowered, and I had only been going to the Dungeon for about a week!