Further Growth

—Raust—

In one of the deserted vacant land, I, alone, quietly stood there with my eyes closed.
In my mind was yesterday’s phoenix subjugation.

Thanks to that quest, my and Zieg-san’s party earned a lot of money.
However, I couldn’t honestly rejoice with that.
The reason was the presence of the mutated phoenix.

Now that I’ve calmed down, I don’t think the phoenix had reached the stage where it could be called a mutation.
Even I could clearly assert that, its inability to take different action and just fully focusing to heal itself despite under attack and the intimidating air I could feel from it was clearly inferior compared to the mutated hydra.

…Nevertheless, the phoenix was definitely trying to mutate.

Rapid regeneration from dying state.
The sight at that time was the best proof.

Also, now that two super-high difficulty monsters mutated at an abnormal speed, the possibility of the hydra’s mutation being a coincidence has disappeared.
Obvious anomalies are taking place in this labyrinth city.

According to Zieg-san, apparently, the news of the mutation will also be reported to the adventurer guild headquarter in the royal capital.
Within a few days, masters will visit labyrinth city again to investigate.
However, I don’t think the labyrinth city guild, which is hostile toward the capital’s guild, will quietly let the investigation proceed.
…Probably, the labyrinth city will be turbulent from now on.

With that in mind, I unintentionally let out a wry smile.
I could only imagine the future where I would be used when Master came.

「Ahaha would be great if Ronaldo-san can come along to become Master’s stopper……」

Also, I whispered such words.
But, I thought about these only for a short time.

「Fuhh…」

The next moment, I switched gear.

After phoenix subjugation, various troubles occurred.
It was cumbersome, and some of them plagued my mind.

But that wasn’t the most memorable thing about phoenix subjugation.

Immediately after closing my eyes, I recalled the moment I cut the phoenix’s head with my dagger.
No, not exactly.
What I remembered wasn’t the appearance of the phoenix, but my state as I did that.

I could picture my state at that time in my head just by simply closing my eyes.
The extraordinary lightness of my body, the power that overflowed from it.

—— And the feeling of crossing the wall.

「-!」

To reproduce that image, I combined magic power and ki and reinforced my body.

「…Just as I thought…….」

The next moment, while moving my body to test the body strengthening, I muttered those words.
It was just a whisper to suppress my inevitably rising emotions.

However, there was joy and excitement that couldn’t be hidden in my voice.

「I’m finally over the wall…」

A large wall that had hindered my growth for one year.
With that mutter, the feeling of getting over the wall seeped into my mind again.

The smile that floated on my mouth represented my delight.

◇ ◆ ◇

It was about a year ago that I realized the limit of body strengthening by magic power and ki.

By nature, body strengthening with magic power and ki imposed a heavy burden on the body.
For example, the first time I successfully strengthened my body, I broke my ribs in exchange for dozens of seconds of strengthening.
If I didn’t remember about strengthening of healing magic stone, I might have stopped trying the reinforcing method.

However, despite it being a double-edged sword, the feeling I had was hope.
That was why I was willing to hurt myself, desperately training it over and over again.
In the early days, I was full of injury even before fighting the monsters, even after gradually getting used to the strengthening, I was still getting injured by it.
Nevertheless, I continued to practice every day.

…But one day, by dying, I finally knew the limit of magic power and ki body strengthening.

I was able to cover for the injuries from the body strengthening with my healing magic, and by continuing to use the strengthening, the injuries were reduced to an extent.
However, it was impossible to fully eliminate the injuries.
The stronger the strengthening, the greater the injuries.
In other words, considering the injuries it caused, body strengthening with magic power and ki was just a makeshift technique for the desperate.

I could no longer train body strengthening by magic power and ki beyond a certain range.
More precisely, beyond a certain range, the injuries would be too much it could kill.
That was the limit of body strengthening by magic power and ki.
A big wall I knew I couldn’t get over.

「-!」

But now I was over that big wall.

This is the type that I learned from Ronaldo-san, I was convinced of that as I strengthened my body.
The difficulty of performing precise movement while strengthened was not different from before.
Even so, the pain like my body creaking just by strengthening it was gone, I got the urge to laugh despite myself.

The pain wasn’t gone completely.
The pain would hit my body immediately if I relaxed my concentration.
However, it was a world difference compared to before.

That wasn’t the only change.
Until now, my movement after strengthening was considerably stiff.
But now, my body was clearly easy to move.
In this case, it might even possible to fight with body strengthening from the beginning.

Perhaps the trigger of this change was the defeat of the mutated hydra.
And then, it was completely awakened in the fight against the phoenix.
I thought the emergence of super-high difficulty monsters would only bring disaster, but apparently, it gave me this power.
Considering this, the smile on my face became wider.

This will make me stronger.
Then………

Driven by that emotion, I got the urge to continue training, but I stopped myself and shook my head.

I lost my mind and about to train, but I now needed to go to the city.
If possible, even only for a short time, I want to see my growth, but I really need to meet the city folks already.
As I thought so, I walked toward the city while glancing at the vacant lot with regret.

「Finally, found you.」

…But the next moment, I stopped myself at the figure that appeared before me with those words.

「Defect bastard, today is the last time you can make that face.」

He stared at me while baring his hostility, the speaker was the first-class party that clicked his tongue at me and Narsena before.