The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

~~Half Past Ten in the Afternoon, Twenty-Seventh Day of the Sixth Month, Hundred and Twentieth Year of the Sacred Calendar~~

And so here we are, north of Kugg Village…

“All right, Pochi! What is the current total of my experience points?”

“You’re really getting into this, sir. To put it nicely, it’s not very like you at all. To put it not nicely, you’re being so creepy!”

Really ticked me off how she had said that while knowing full well who I am. I mean, I had ALWAYS been like this each time I started my experiments!

Pochi, wearing the Appraisal Glasses, supplied it the arcane energy for its activation.

“Well, let’s see here… it’s 30,961,300!”

“And just over there, we have ourselves a wild Hobgoblin. Keep your eyes on the numbers, all right, Pochi? I’ll – Rise, Fire!”

“GYAH!”

No, it wasn’t; the monster WAS trying to attack us.

“Tell me, how much is it now?”

I said to Pochi while spreading out both my arms.

“30,961,472… how is this important, sir?”

“Since you must have gotten half of the total EXP payout, we now know that the Hobgoblin just now had an EXP value of 344. According to my old research, there is a degree of variance of EXP from monsters of the exact same species – well, it’s not that big of a difference. For example, Hobgoblins average at approximately 350.”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm…”

“I have a hypothesis… But first, Pochi, how much time did it take for the numerical values you saw to change?”

“It should be just a second… I think?”

I knew it.

On an unrelated note, Pochi sure looks nice with glasses on, huh?

Looking sharp each time she did the glasses-push gesture, too.

“The numbers didn’t change immediately upon killing the monster, but a second after – in which case, there’s no reason not to test this hypothesis of mine.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

Pochi, glasses now slid down onto her nose, tilted her head in questioning of my statement.

“It’s possible that, upon the monster’s death, the ‘experience’ is released from the monster and then transmitted to me. That, or it could have come ‘raining’ down.”

“In other words, ‘experience’ in this context is like arcane energy in that it’s invisible to the eye, but factually exists. Is that what you were suggesting, sir?”

“That’s right. The next time I kill a monster, I’ll put up a wall of powerful arcane energy – you keep looking at the numbers with those glasses.”

“Hmm… Yes, sir!”

Damn it, she totally tuned out right there.

Anyways, let’s see… oh, there’s a Great King Lizard just over there.

“Rise, Earth Javelin!”

“GRR…”

And now, release arcane energy!

“Hmph!”

“Ooh, that’s a lot of arcane energy, sir!”

“I don’t care what you think; just tell me my EXP! I can’t keep this up all day!”

“……Huh?”

“Well?!”

“…It’s still 30,961,472…”

“I know, right?! …Whew.”

“Ah, now it’s up to 30,961,586… This means… what does this mean, sir?!”

Pochi shouted, with her front paws on her cheeks.

Bah, how noisy… at night, no less. Good thing we’re a fair distance away from the village.

“It means that I can use arcane energy to prevent experience points from entering my body.”

“Ohh! But… what good will that knowledge do, sir?”

“Heh heh heh… So you see, the fact is that ‘experience’ exists in the air before getting to me. And now, we know that it can be controlled with arcane energy! And so!”

“And so?!”

“We might be able to redirect the ‘experience’ into a spell circle, then alter their values!”

“Wow! You have the magic formula to do that, sir?!”

“Hell no!”

“What a fool!”

“What?! I’m practically already a Philosopher for discovering that!”

“A real Philosopher should have a solution to everything!”

“Hell no, they don’t! Philosophers come in different skill levels, too!”

“And you’re fine with being this level of Philosopher, sir?!”

“Hell no!”

“Then let’s continue the investigation, sir!”

“All right!”

Huh? When’d we even start agreeing with each other?

And so we spent the night roaming around into monster territories, albeit low-level ones, and blew up every last one we came across.

At one point, my eyes caught in the distance some sort of light flickering on the top of an otherwise dark mountain.

“What in the blazes…? Pochi, can you tell what those lights are?”

“Hmm… it’s a little too far away, but they look like flames to me, sir.”

Flames, swaying in the distance… at least I think they are.

“That’s quite a lot of them, don’t you think?”

“Don’t you have any magecraft that gives you long-distance vision, sir?”

“Nope. I might be able to whip up one right now, though.”

“Oh, I wonder why you’re so quick to come up with such a thing…”

Ignoring Pochi’s petty nitpicks and sighs, I slapped together a magecraft for the intended effect.

“Rise, A-rise, Telescopic Vision!”

My new invention, an arrangement of simulated lenses, captured the target objects and transmitted the visual information to me.

“…How’s it looking over there, sir?”

“…Here, Pochi, you look through this. I bet this’ll blow your mind.”

Pochi walked up to me and focused her eyes.

“Lord Dragons…”

“Yeah, a flock of them.”

“What in the world?! There are dozens of them – no, that’s got to be at least two hundred!”

Oh, I see… These were probably the Blazing Dragons that Ferris had said she wanted to hunt.

The whole mountain was their nest – that’s the proof that it had long been the territory of the Lord Dragons. Fortunately, they don’t seem to have any intention of attacking us.

We should be safe as long as we don’t invade their nest. There’s still plenty of ground to cover around Kugg Village, after all. There’s something worse to consider, though. Namely, the reason for a flock of that scale to gather in one nest.

Pochi seemed to have realized that, too.

“They definitely are guarding something, sir.”

“Maybe they’re expecting the birth of their new king…”

“The fabled Blazing Dragon King, was it?”

“That’s what people call it, but to most people, it’s known as… Goku’ryu the Hell Emperor.”

“And its rank, sir?”

“Dunno. There’s been a theory that it was higher than SS, but… Well, their population was practically nonexistent in the first place, so they were wiped out pretty quickly, though.”

I recalled the information I’d known and told Pochi, prompting her to ask back,

“And who do you think was the one that wiped them out, sir? Surely it’s someone that we know very well?”

“…Legend has it that it was the work of one Holy Warrior.”

“Heh… And which one of the commendable and unfortunate Holy Warriors was it, sir?”

“I believe… his name was Poer.”

“Oh, I sure wonder where he is…”

“Where, indeed. We still haven’t seen him, so we wouldn’t know.”

““…………………””

“Nope! I’m out, sir! There’s no way I’ll win against it!”

“And you think I can?! I don’t even know its rank! There’s no way in hell I’m going at it!”

“Besides, it already takes a lot of work to kill even one Blazing Dragon! How do you think we’re going to get rid of all of them, sir?!”

“Hell if I know! The real Poer will eventually come along and make quick work of them, I’m sure!”

“But you ARE Poer, sir!”

“That’s just a fake name you gave me!”

“Isn’t it a nice name, sir?!”

“It sure is! Thanks a lot!”

“You’re welcome!”

And so we continued to spend the night roaming around into monster territories, albeit low-level ones, and blew up every last one we came across.

Then, just as Pochi was calming down, I coughed to clear my throat and prepared to say something.

“…What is it, Master? You’re acting… suspicious.”

Did I have that sort of look on my face or something?

Doesn’t matter – I had decided to talk about this one thing. I’ll talk – not that I think I have any other feasible choice anymore.

Pochi turned to face me and sat down; perhaps she was already prepared to listen seriously to what I have to say. So I sat down as well.

“Well… You see…”

“……”

She’s telling me to hurry up – her eyes are looking quite scary there.

“So you’re a wolf-dog… right, Pochi?”

“But of course! I’m a wolf, and I’m proud of it!”

Damn it, the way she’s talking is making this even more awkward.

“…So, a wolf… yeah…”

I stammered, prompting Pochi to continue,

“But above that, I’m your Familiar, Master! Have been for a good 800 years!”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

Could Pochi have caught on to what I’m about to say?

Her saying what she had just said to me felt like lifting a hefty weight off my chest.

Whether or not I would be able to phrase my question properly was still another matter, however.

The only-halfway easing of my mind kept my mouth shut, and Pochi’s glare sharp.

And then the numbness wore off.

“Master!”

“Yes, Pochi?”

“Master, you’re trying to suggest something about my archetype classification… Isn’t that right?!”

“Yes, that’s exactly it.”

“Then why have you been keeping quiet?! Why haven’t you ordered me to do anything?! Our Familiar Contract may have been weakened, but that doesn’t mean I can go against all of your commands!”

“You… you think this is something I can just ORDER you to do?!”

“No, I don’t! That’s why I’m telling you all this! To push you forward! I mean, to shove you forward!”

Yeah, that last correction was totally unnecessary.

I do appreciate that, though. I suppose I should thank her first.

“…All right. Thanks.”

“Be more grateful, sir!”

“T-thank you!”

“Not enough!”

“Oh, Pochi, my old friend, thank you for everything you’ve done for me!”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

Pochi loosened her expression and raised both her front paws up at the sky.

…Oh, I see. This was Pochi’s way of lightening the mood… I guess.

“Well, you better not regret insisting that I ask what I’ll be asking!”

“Oh, YOU better not regret saying what you’ll say, sir!”

“All right, Pochi! You wanna become a monster?!”

“NO!”

And so we continued to spend the night roaming around into monster territories, albeit low-level ones, and blew up every last one we came across.

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