Chapter 86

“Damn. Damn it…”

He became an adventurer at twenty. By the time he hit thirty and felt his body’s peak strength, he thought his time had finally come.

‘I thought being an Aura User would be nothing. So I joined a knight order under my territory, got a minor noble title, and even earned fame as a renowned knight… I thought that was just how it was supposed to go.’

But not only was he far from being an Aura User, even the wall of Mana Users was way too high for him.

Twenty years.

He never imagined he’d become a Steel Body user and still be stuck as a Novice after nearly two decades.

Even that disgusting beast who gets laughed at by most adventurers… he was a dazzling presence to him. At least he had broken through the Mana User barrier.

‘Sigh… Yeah. Damn it. What the hell am I even thinking about Mana Users? I’ll just save a bit more money and buy a farm back home. Still, considering I ran off from my village with nothing, I guess I’ve done okay for myself.’

‘Yeah. Even if I’m just a Novice, a Steel Body user is still a Steel Body user.’

Like most gifted people, he still had a body far stronger and younger than most guys in their twenties or thirties. His lifespan was probably longer than a normal peasant’s, too.

‘Hmm. This is more than enough to woo a young girl and have a kid.’

At that moment, a huge flame burst into the sky with a fwoosh! It dragged him out of his bitter thoughts.

Somehow, the group centered around the trainees had managed to light a fire without even kindling.

“…An artifact? Damn, must be loaded.”

The flames were dazzling just to look at. And then he noticed a wolf-eared girl, ears twitching in the firelight.

Tipola. Tipola Chaser.

She’s at the same Bronze rank, so they run into each other in a party at least once a year.

And… she’s a girl who awakened her body’s peak strength around the same time as him, and who’s also been stuck as a Novice for just as long.

But the feelings he’d held toward her for all this time weren’t a sense of kinship—they were a burning jealousy.

Long-Lived Breed.

An unfair race that lives several times longer than humans.

Twenty years was the peak of his life—but for that beast, it was just a blink.

And the Long-Lived don’t age like humans. They grow at a human-like pace until their late teens, then stay young for decades. It’s not just about lifespan—their prime years are far longer than a human’s.

‘…That beast will probably stay this young for over a hundred years. How unfair can gods be?’

Honestly, even that jealousy had started to fade. He just accepted it.

The thing he was actually jealous of now was the human guy next to him, a fellow trainee of the same species.

Tall. Well-toned muscles obvious even through his clothes. A heavy presence that didn’t match his age. Sharp, striking features that would make any woman glance twice.

…And most of all, the radiant youth and endless potential he carried, unlike him.

No wonder Kate, the so-called “idol” among adventurers, flirts with him calling him “promising.”

“Damn it, I hope you just drop dead…”

“Huh? Sir? What did you just say?”

“…Nothing. Never mind. Just scoop some water into the pot. We’ll need it to cook something warm.”

“Can we actually get it done today?”

“…Shut it, kid.”

He took a deep breath to calm the boiling jealousy. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt it, and he’d long since mastered the mental control to suppress it.

‘Potential is just potential. I used to be considered promising too.’

Whether by talent or timing, most human Steel Body users never escape being Novices. Despite their large population compared to other races, few reach Silver rank or higher.

‘Yeah. That guy will probably end up like me in twenty years.’

Belly sticking out, shabby clothes… wading through wet shoes… Cursing while holding soggy firewood… Just like any other common adventurer.

“Heh…”

Then, from nowhere, a sharp cry tore through the air, slicing through his mock curses.

“Monster!! Weapons up!!!”

“…What?”

He lifted his head and saw the wolf-girl—no, Tipola—raising her greatsword and shouting nonstop.

Next to her, Clio, kept drawing her bow toward a single direction, firing arrow after arrow.

“Monsters. Monsters? Monsters!! Damn it!!”

A step behind, he finally understood the situation and sprang to his feet, grabbing the spear he’d tossed aside. The jealousy that had been boiling inside him vanished instantly, crushed under the tension pressing down on his chest.

“Everyone! Get up! We’re under attack!!”

“Ah! Damn it!!”

“I haven’t even eaten, ths is insane!”

“Monsters? What monsters!?”

“Sword! My sword!!”

Among the five Pruuk followers, the one tacitly recognized as their leader scowled at the panicking group.

“Don’t rush forward! Trying to brawl with monsters where you can’t see anything!? Are you crazy!? Form up while keeping the fire protected!”

“There’s no fire!!”

“You idiot! I mean over there! Over there!! That’s fire, isn’t it!? Join them and fight!!”

“Y-Yeah!!”

The group grabbed their weapons and bolted toward the flames. In nighttime battles, securing vision was priority number one.

But the trainee on his side looked unusually calm and held up a hand, signaling for them to stay back.

“…!”

He was about to lose his temper, thinking he was trying to split the group even in this situation, when the trainee snapped his fingers.

“Light Sphere.”

Flash!!

A bright orb rose into the air, illuminating the entire area.

Under the light, a large number of goblins and kobolds appeared.

But the Pruuk followers, including Breed, were more surprised by something else than by the sheer number of monsters.

“…Magic!?”

“…A mage?”

“No, Kate said he’s a Steel Body user…?”

“Why would a mage even bother training his body like that?”

While they hesitated, caught in cognitive dissonance, the trainee pulled a hefty-looking mace from his bag.

He raised it and muttered:

“Call Lightning.”

Flash!! KA-CRASH!!!

A blinding lightning bolt shot through the air, striking the goblins and kobolds like popcorn in a pan.

“Eeeeeeeek!!”

“KYAAAAAAH!!”

The electrified monsters screamed in agony, their cries echoing everywhere.

“My god…”

“Whoa, damn…”

“This is insane. Magic.”

“…No wonder they insist on bringing a mage into labyrinth runs.”

“But… wait, that wasn’t a mace, it was a wand? And why does that wand look so ridiculously huge?”

After obliterating a dozen goblins and kobolds with a single spell, the trainee turned to the stunned adventurers and ordered:

“What are you waiting for? Don’t just stand there. Sweep them up while they’re scared.”

“Y-Yes!”

“R-Right!”

“These pathetic fools dare ambush us!?”

“Bastards! Lighting the fire was tough, but it worked out! Let’s warm up using your guts tonight!”

“Kill them all!!”

The battle became one-sided almost immediately.

It made sense—excluding Shia and me, there were five gifted users here. Including that anthrobeast fool who still stumbled around inside the wagon as if he were asleep, that makes six.

And all against seventy goblins and kobolds? Even a Novice-level Steel Body user could easily sweep a dozen goblins at a time.

In other words… unless the ambush had succeeded, the moment my Light Sphere lit up the area, the outcome was already decided.

Seeing the last few kobolds hesitating and trying to flee, I drew three throwing daggers from my sword belt and hurled them swiftly.

Shish-shik! Thud-thunk!!

“Kyah! Kekk! Kek!!”

Because I had thrown them so haphazardly, I only managed to kill one kobold, but it didn’t matter. The throws weren’t meant to hit them anyway.

“Chain Lightning (3rd Level).”

Patshtshtsht…!

Elmore’s Fire flared from the three throwing daggers enchanted with [ᛊ´], linking with my mace—or rather, my wand—in a stream of blue energy.

Flash! KA-CRASH!!

The three thick bolts of lightning, sizzling around the daggers, crossed and changed targets as I swung my wand. The stray arcs even swept up kobolds that had been outside the normal range.

“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!”

Clio, mid-draw on her bow, froze in surprise and shouted:

“Wh-What…? Chain Lightning? Isn’t that 3rd Level? I thought it was 2nd Level—how can you even use it?”

She was right. ‘Chain Lightning’—the wide-area version of Call Lightning—requires designating multiple markers at once, something only possible at the upper end of 3rd Level.

In other words, this was a spell far beyond what someone like me, who can’t even handle Call Lightning properly, should dare attempt.

But the world doesn’t always play by the rules.

“Multiple markers? You’re not using mental patterns—you’re relying on external runes etched onto objects. So just scatter a bunch of those objects.”

…That was the mindset Sodin had used to arrange the spell and teach me how to use it. And that was exactly what I had just unleashed.

“Wow… it actually works. Our little Mana Pup really slices right through.”

Of course, since this was barely more than a rough hack job, efficiency was terrible. To match the power of a properly optimized version, it would require dozens of times more mana.

But who cares? I have plenty of mana. If Sis said it’s a lot, then it must be true.

And…

“Hosik. You’re up.”

“Meow!”

Hosik, still in cat form, bit down on the neck of the last fleeing kobold, ending the unexpected midnight battle.

“See? Doesn’t that scream ‘mage’ now?”

“…Honestly, I think it would have been a hundred times easier and faster to just beat them to death with that brutal… whatever-it-is, wand-or-mace of yours.”

“…Shh. Don’t ruin the concept, just stay quiet.”

The next morning.

The anthrobeast who had crawled out of the wagon went ballistic the moment he saw the aftermath of the fight.

“Wh-What is this!? You should’ve woken me up! Y-You incompetent bastards!!”

Tipola, standing nearby, let out a small snicker.

“They say the one who farted gets mad… How amusing.”

For reference, the reason he hadn’t emerged from the wagon until the fight was over was because he had spent the night completely drunk, passed out and snoring.

And now he was barking and whining after the fact, looking utterly ridiculous.

Not content with just that, the tiny-brained creature even started picking on me. With his comically stubby fingers, he jabbed my shoulder and squeaked at me loudly.

“M-m-mage!? Y-you’re a m-mage!? If you’re a mage, you should’ve t-told m-me first, the p-party leader! You idiot, you’re clearly n-not fit to be a p-party member!! Back in the old days, you’d have been executed on the spot! Huh!? Waaah!?”