The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

~~Nine O’clock in the Afternoon, Thirty-First Day of the Seventh Month, Hundred and Twentieth Year of the Sacred Calendar~~

Finally… At long last…!

“Fwaha! Fwahahahaha! How’s that?! Did you see that, Pochi?!”

“I sure did! I saw it with my own two eyes, sir!”

“More! Keep the praises coming, doggo!!”

“Quite impressive for a fool, sir!!”

…Oh?

Getting a sense of déjà vu here…

“In all seriousness, I never expected to get a whopping 10,000 EXP from just an E-ranked Trent, sir!”

“The amount is shared half-half between us, remember. The Lana Trent normally gives out about 200 EXP, which means I’ve successfully tampered with the value to get a hundred times the experience.!”

“I was worried when I’d heard you were doing alchemy, but… Is keeping this on all I have to do, sir?”

Pochi held out the orange scarf around his neck with her paws.

“Yeah. It couldn’t be done with Spell Circles and Craft Circles, but with this Artifact… the XP-Booster, we can train up a lot faster. It’s practically a forbidden shortcut!”

The one Pochi had was a scarf, while I had applied the effect onto my mantle.

Having reached the conclusion that it wouldn’t be achievable with Circles, I had moved on to try out the Artifacts.

I’ve had to use the monster eyeball I had obtained in Brunnera, too.

The eyes of high-ranking monsters were similar to Evil Eyes in their components. I had used the one I had as a specialized component for information disclosure and analysis, like my Appraisal Glasses.

Made into a fixed-position type Spell Circle, it had been placed on top of another magic formula. Then, I had used a property-absorption formula to apply the effect onto a scarf.

As for the scarf itself… when I was walking around Kugg Village earlier, Pochi had taken a liking to the local fabric, so I had purchased some and made a scarf out of it.

And, well, I only had so much material on hand, so they had been used up in making two of the Artifacts.

“This will really make a difference when we start taking down strong monsters, won’t it?”

“That’s right. The multiplier won’t change, but… hmm, guess it’s easier to write it out than saying them all.”

I wrote some brief descriptions on the ground with the handle of my knife, just like I had done when explaining the Archetype Changer.

～～～～～～～～～～～～～～

MONSTER RANKS: SIMPLIFIED EXP YIELD BREAKDOWN

Rank G: 1-10

Rank F: 10-200

Rank E: 200-400

Rank D: 400-1000

Rank C: 1,000-2,500

Rank B: 2,500-5,000

Rank A: 5,000-10,000

Rank S: 10,000-50,000

Rank SS: 50,000+

Apostles of Despair: Unknown!

～～～～～～～～～～～～～～

“Well, that pretty much sums it up. Generally speaking, of course. I know of an E-ranked monsters that give only 10 EXP, at least.”

“…It’s incredible, sir.”

Pochi said, her voice trembling – quite a rare sight from her.

But her reaction was only natural. The XP-Booster’s beneficial effect was indeed incredible.

“We could get as much as a million, or at least half that, from things we can easily take down like the A-rankers, sir.”

“I know. Isn’t that awesome?”

“Super-duper awesome!”

Hyped up by Pochi’s words, I pointed at the Blazing Dragons’ mountain.

“All right then, Pochi! Go kill those Blazing Dragons by yourself!”

“NO!”

“Why not?! You should already be strong enough to take them without dying yourself, right?!”

“You can’t just assume that I will or will not die like that, sir!”

Tsk, she’s not so easily fooled.

Her personality really hasn’t changed one bit.

I had been closely observing Pochi, who had become a Violet Phoenix of the Heavenly Beasts, over the past month.

The transformation had been a great success, as far as results were concerned. The growth of her powers had been much greater than even the Dragon archetype modifier that I had previously recommended.

Although her levels hadn’t gone up yet, her power and speed had increased dramatically – so much so that Pochi herself had been rendered speechless; normally she would start bragging immediately.

I reckon she’s able to overpower Dīnō by now.

To be honest, it had taken me all I had to keep myself on her back each time she ran.

Now, this is concerning… is the ability difference between me and my Familiar becoming too apparent?

“…But you have some ideas, don’t you, Master?”

“Whoa-?! Since when were you there?!”

“800 years ago and then some, I guess?!”

“Look, you can’t just read my mind like that, you know. But I DO have some ideas, though.”

“Huh… so, what ideas, sir?”

Pochi asked, showing interest.

“Hahahaha, try reading my thoughts this time!”

“Hmph!”

“H-hey, you can’t throw a tantrum now! Do you have any idea how much disaster your power will cause?! Hey, you idiot! STOP!”

“NO!”

Pochi sentenced me to be dragged out of the village; she blew away all monsters in her path on the way back to the Adams’ residence.

“I-it seems that you’ve been playing hard, young Poer. You look like you’ve swum under the earth!”

“W-well, that analogy isn’t so far off from reality, sir. I did take quite a few dips… ack. Oh? Leaving at this late hour, Sir Polco?”

One carriage was at the ready in front of the mansion.

A few convoy guards were gathering here, too.

“Right, sorry for the lack of notice. It’s urgent – we’ll be leaving for Regalia immediately. Feel free to use ‘that’ as often as you want – I don’t mind at all. Also, if there’s any problem, just report it directly to Guile.”

Saying all this, Polco then pointed at fav- I mean Guile, who was leaning against the gatepost in front of the guardhouse.

His forehead was shiny as ever – at night, no less.

“I’ve told Ferris to behave herself and listen to you, too.”

“I understand. Best wishes on your mission, sir!”

“Mm-hm, well then! Time to go!”

The carriage left the village, its guards in a formation around it; the lights from their lanterns gradually disappeared from sight

It was worth considering how the mansion was now short-staffed, considering the timing of his departure.

We’ll have to be more careful and focused than ever before.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“What did you just say?!”

“Lady Ferris is…”

“”GONE?!””

“Yeah! We didn’t detect any intruders, so she probably walked off by herself!”

After lunch the next day, Pochi and I heard from Guile that Ferris had gone missing; we immediately headed to see Bright at the reception house.

There, we met Jetta, who came running to us down the corridor, her face gave out a panicked look.

“What did you just say?!”

“Master Bright is…”

“”GONE?!””

“Yes! He was in the room just now, but then I went away briefly to prepare tea – and he was gone when I was back! The window was open, so perhaps he’d snuck out there…!”

Pochi was practically seized with a fit of hysterics; I left her alone and tried to figure out where they might have gone.

Pochi was no wolf now, which meant her nose could no longer be used for reliable tracking.

Since he had left through the window, could those two have exited via the residence’s back gate?

Bright is a smart kid; no way he’d have such a foolish initiative.

So it was likely Ferris, then? What could she be after?

Huh? Could it be the-

“HYAAAHHH?! What should we do, Master?! What should we do?!”

“Calm down, Shiro. Try to recall – what class did we have this morning?”

“Well, if I remember correctly… it was Ferris’… final examination for intermediate magic, sir.”

That’s right – although Bright had started training earlier, he was now a step behind Ferris as far as examination progress went.

“And what did I say to her then?”

“Hmm… ‘If used correctly, even intermediate-level magic spells can defeat A-ranked monsters,’ sir.”

“I did correct myself right after that, though – ‘but of course, if your level is not up to par, then you’d be dead in seconds,’ you know.”

Right, I had immediately corrected myself, having realized seconds later how I shouldn’t have said that, what with young Ferris’ tendency to run amok.

“Yes, that’s what you said!”

“But what’s important is after that, Shiro! You said something to Ferris, didn’t you?! What did you tell her?!”

“H-huh…? Well, ‘my Master has been killing A-ranked monsters since he was level 29!’ …I think…”

What a damn braggart!

“Well, what are their levels now?!”

“…They just got to 30, according to yesterday’s reports…”

“And what A-ranked monsters are living in this region?!”

“…AH!”

“Now you know – so hurry it up, you damn furball!”

Our destination: the northwest mountain… territory of the Blazing Dragons.

“I’M SO SORRY, SIR!!”

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