The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

“Are you sure about this, sir?”

“Yeah. With how we approach our fight now, I’m the only one dealing the finishing blows to the enemy monsters. That wouldn’t get you any EXP, you see. I haven’t done this before since your level was already ‘maxed out,’ but now… I say we must.”

“Whatever works to get your level catch up to mine, Master.”

Pochi said, arrogantly snickering up her nose to emphasize her point.

Normally she’d come off as sarcastic, but right now she was totally serious, and talked like that only to try and make things less awkward.

It’s been about half a day since we’d left Sodom together with Giorno and Lylia. On the way, we’d discovered a Wyvern nest, and decided to take a break here since it provided good shelter and concealment from other enemies.

Behind us was a cliff, while in front of us was all forest, save for a single narrow animal trail. Not many people used this path originally, but it seemed to have caught on with the adventurers as a shortcut to Brunnera.

Although the individual Wyverns here were C-ranked, their threat was comparable to Rank S when they formed a group, so the Adventurers’ Guild naturally classified their hunt requests accordingly.

I wasn’t so reckless as to take a break in such a dangerous place, of course, but just now, the original inhabitants had been instantly wiped out by Giorno, using his special skill, the Brave Blade.

Now that was what I would call a true slash. To my naked eyes, it was a single horizontal sweep, but when I’d asked him for an explanation later, it turned out to be twelve perfectly timed shockwaves in extremely quick succession.

Sword wave techniques weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but I’d never seen one so powerful and with a range so wide.

Traditionally… by which I mean in the future, one would gather arcane energy on the blade, and then release it by swinging extremely quickly. The ‘gathering’ step was absolutely necessary.

However, I hadn’t even seen Giorno gathering the energy; only him unleashing the waves at blinding speed. He’d been using that super-powerful technique of his like it was nothing, making short work of everything in his way.

He’d told me that he had used this skill to take down the Kiryu as well, so now it makes sense how he was able to keep up with that Dragon, I suppose.

If I had to identify the major difference between this era’s melee combatants and my era’s warriors, aside from power levels, then it would be how arcane energy manipulation was incorporated into the combat form.

Warriors had low arcane energy stock, so they generally tried not to needlessly expend them throughout their fights.

Essentially, fighters like Bruce expended their arcane energy to invoke their special abilities, while Giorno expended his ‘during’ the abilities’ actions, ticking down with every movement while they were active.

The arcane energy manipulation methods in this time period were even more advanced than what mages in my time were capable of. It was quite understandable that the people here may have a far easier time in battle.

The latter method required one to have a high amount of arcane energy, of course. One of the many perks of being in a time when Limit Breakthrough was readily available, I suppose.

When Pochi had gone up 32 levels, I’d noticed how one’s rate of HP and MP growth was greatly increased once one’s level exceeded a hundred. The same could be observed from her physical performance, with remarkable improvements in attack power, speed, and reaction time.

As she was now, Pochi could hold her own against an S-ranked monster.

However, it came down to my magical attacks to sweep down hordes of monsters and finish off powerful ones.

Seeking more flexibility, I took this occasion to discuss with Pochi, and in the end, decided to override the Familiar Contract.

The process entailed adding a clause that equally distributed EXP gained in battle between us.

With it in effect, both Pochi and I would gain EXP regardless of who dealt the finishing blow to a monster.

When we’d departed from the Dungeon three years ago, I’d suggested implementing this at one point, with the intention to take advantage of Pochi’s level, but she’d naturally shot it down. Her reasoning was that it wouldn’t be good for me to gain levels without actual combat experience.

But that was no longer the case now. Both Pochi and I understood that, so when she asked if I was sure, I could say without a doubt that I was.

“-and that’s a wrap.”

“Oh? That didn’t take as long as I expected.”

“Well, it was pretty easy. All I needed to do was write over the Familiar Contract’s formula, then confirm it with your approval. Besides, I’m not enough of a fool to mess up this simple spell, you know.”

“Hey, you fool over there.”

Yes, fool here.

“What is it, Lylia?”

“Unless you lack common sense, you ought to remember not to release your arcane energy whenever not necessary. If there are monsters nearby, they may attack you, thinking you to be a weak power source.”

“H-huh? Do the monsters in this area have a higher sensitivity to arcane energy, or something?”

“They all do. Did you not hear the Nation’s announcement when the Devil King entered his Fetal Stage?”

“Ah, oh… right… hahaha…”

Seeing how clueless I was, Lylia heaved a sigh out of exasperation.

Strange – hers was clearly different from how Irene sighed at everything; her eyes and face were practically warped in disgust. Quite a surprise how such a beautiful Elf could emote this… prominently.

“Giorno, I say we call off this bodyguard duty and hurry to Brunnera by ourselves!”

“Hahaha, don’t you be silly, Lylia. We’re doing this because you lost the eating contest, remember. We get them to our destination, we get paid. I thought you were happy to take this job, saying it’s killing two birds with one stone… or did I remember wrong, hmm?”

Giorno grinned sarcastically, further fueling Lylia’s frustration. The latter seemed to be reliving her bitter memories of when she had been bested in competition.

So that was their reason…

Giorno and Lylia’s money had been used up – in good part forfeited to us – which we were now using to pay for their services.

I see, I see… Money sure makes the world go round, no matter how small one’s world may be. Ooh, that was good. Let’s write that down in the Principles of a Philosopher.

One thing I failed to understand, though, was how Lylia was constantly glaring at me. Why? Shouldn’t she be doing that to Pochi instead, what with her having beaten her at the contest?

“But it is true that having Poer with us slows down our progress.”

Hello? Could you at least wait for your client to leave your presence before badmouthing him, Giorno?

“Which brings me to my idea, Poer. If you aren’t too tired, I’d like you to follow me.”

“Ah-huh… Well, I sure can…”

I left Pochi behind with Lylia and went for a walk with Giorno.

Once we were at the cliff side, Giorno hopped down to a ledge below, while I slowly descended using Whirlwind. For a moment there, I’d thought he was trying to commit suicide or something… how’d he even land safely from that height?

Was it his level? Or did he just use the Fortify Resilience skill?

While I pondered it over, Giorno stopped to point at a certain location at the bottom of the cliff.

What I saw there was a sprawling forest. Its center was an open area, not unlike a plaza, in which grain-sized figures could be seen moving about.

That’s… a pack – no, an army of Master Goblins?

I turned to Giorno. He was grinning quite mischievously while holding up his index fingers.

“One: Master Goblins can’t fly. Two: They have no means to climb up this cliff. Three: They don’t have the means for their attacks to reach this high, and-“

“Now you stop right there-“

“Four: Your spells are more than capable of wiping the lot of them up. Come on, go get them; it’ll be great!”

He sounded like he was having quite a lot of fun saying that.

So… he was suggesting that I terminate the army of A-ranked Master Goblins with long-range magical attacks.

Again, they were practically an army, their numbers most likely totaling over two hundred.

I’d already noticed in earlier battles, but the Fetal Stage sure has strengthened the monsters quite a great deal.

The Divine Messenger had said that all of them would have their powers elevated to a higher rank of strength, and now I understood what that entailed. Though it wasn’t necessarily a letter rank’s worth, they were indeed quite a bit more powerful.

But that also meant an increase of EXP I could gain.

If I could defeat all these Master Goblins, each of which now possesses strength close to Rank S, Pochi and I would gain at least a few levels. That was probably what Giorno had in mind.

“Are you sure I should be doing this? Leveling myself up without getting combat experience, I mean…? And Lylia just told me that I shouldn’t be releasing my arcane energy too much-“

“Poer, you’re on a level such that you’re not even supposed to be in battle at all. Think of it like your mother having to feed you when you were but a toddler.”

Now I’m feeling quite pathetic, having my power level analogized to a toddler’s incapability.

“You have to hold up a spoon before you can eat by yourself. Nothing wrong to start with that… don’t you think?”

Hmm… I have mixed feelings about this, but he did make a valid point there.

We’d probably part ways again once we reach Brunnera, so I suppose I should try to learn as much as I can until then.

So what I must pay attention to is the number level I’ll gain once I apply my points at Brunnera… huh.

“I’ll be keeping watch over the whole area, so if there’s something too dangerous for you, I’ll take care of it. We’ll be getting paid quite handsomely, after all. Consider this as a little bonus from us.”

“Hahaha, thanks for the help.”

I reply to Girono with a wry smile; he then urges me to do my thing.

Considering how the monsters were grouped together, it might be optimal to use the Pochi Pad Breath, but that will also cause a great deal of collateral damage. It looks like I’ll have to focus on precision after all.

“Here goes nothing! …Rise, A-rise, All Up!”

Having first used one of my favorite ability augmentation spells, and with Giorno watching over the process, I pointed my staff at the group of Master Goblins.

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