"Explosion is the strongest spell. On the other hand, it requires a long casting time. Before I am ready, please keep that toad at bay."

We brought Megumin who had eaten her full along to seek revenge against those giant toads. I could see a toad in the distance on the plain. That toad had already noticed us and was charging our way.

"Hold on, I don't think it's wise to use 'The Strongest Spell' on a single enemy, why not use other smaller spell first to start it off?"

Megumin seemingly froze a little. She glanced at me a little before looking back at the frog. "I-I can't…" she muttered.

"What do you mean you can't?"

The girl turned towards me, her eyes blaring with determination. "My only love and passion is the Explosion Spell, I have no interest in any other spell in the detonation series or any other spell!" she exclaimed.

Deep breath, calm, she's just a kid…

"Okay Megumin, how big is the explosion?"

A confident smirk could be seen on her face. "My strongest spell has the lethal blast zone of twenty meter radius!"

Okay, twenty meters. "How long do you need to cast your spell?"

"For most people it will take a full minute, but I, with my mastery over the Explosions magic, it will only take half the…"

"Great, Aqua, speed buff!" I exclaimed before running straight towards the frog.

The green and white toad noticed me running towards it and slowly opened its mouth. I dodged the incoming tongue and rolled out of the way before circling behind it. "OI! ANY OTHER FROGS AROUND HERE!?!?!" I yelled as loud as I can.

A frog submerged from the ground and two more came from a distance. I dodged another tongue and made my way as far away from Megumin. With five frogs approaching me, I started to calculate how fast they are and how far is the furthest one.

"Get ready Megumin," the closest frog has reached me and I started sprinting back. "Start the spell!!!" I yelled and thus begun my most dangerous twenty meter sprint. If just one of the toads caught me, I will get caught in the explosion and I really do not want to experience 'The Strongest Spell' firsthand.

Darkness Blacker Than Night

I call upon thee, the all Destruction

Dance, Dance, Dance

Tear all asunder with thy might

And bring the end upon all Creation

"EXPLOSION!!!"

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The tip of her staff glows bright and a bunch of magic circle formed above me. I quickened my movement as the air around me started to heat up. I'm a meter away from the lethal zone but I still do not want to bet too much when it comes to the 'strongest magic'.

I jumped with all my might and landed right beside Megumin just in time to spectate her magic at work. A large orb of light twenty meters in diameter formed in the middle of the plains. It swallowed all the frogs around it, leaving no trace behind.

When it dies down, a scorched earth, twenty meters in diameter was all that was left. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the sight of it. "Strongest Spell huh?" I turned back towards Megumin and saw her…

Lying flat on her face.

"Hmmp… Explosion is my ultimate spell, it is powerful and used a lot of mana… Simply put, the mana I used exceeded my limit, so I couldn't move," she said without looking up from the grass.

I looked behind her and saw a toad emerging from the ground. "Great…" I muttered to myself. "So you literally cannot move?"

"No… I hear something, it's a frog isn't it? No good, I will get eaten. Excuse me, sorry, would you please save me…? Hya…!"

I let the frog ate her to teach her a lesson for being a chuuni. Thankfully, her head isn't swallowed so we can still have a conversation. "So, you literally won't learn any other skill huh?"

"Kazuma san, I don't think this is a proper time to be having this conversation," Megumin said, her head poking out of the frog's mouth.

I looked behind me and saw Aqua being chased around by a toad. I let her be for now, I have bigger problem to take care of. "You know if you were to use smaller level spell, you won't be eaten right now," I told her.

Megumin frowned a little. "Explosion is the only spell I will ever learn! If you think you and this frog can change this otherwise, then you are solely mistaken!" she exclaimed.

Goddamn Chuunibyou…

"If you die now from, say, suffocating inside a frog's stomach, that'll be the end of your explosion journey."

Megumin bit her lip, seems I'm taking a crack at her.

"Well?"

The girl closed her eyes for a moment before glaring at me. "FINE! Then leave me to die! If the Path of Explosion deems it that I shall live, then I shall live. If the path of explosion deems it that I shall die, then swallowed by this frog I will! I will always do explosion spell until death due us apart!!!"

As if answering her proclamation, the frog swallowed her whole, leaving me no room for further argument.

This has got to be the curse isn't? Her learning anything but explosion spell will turn her into a useful teammate. Guess I played my cards too early there…

"Okay, okay, jeez!" I ran up towards the frog to free her. Then I freed Aqua.

---

"Ugh… Ugug… sniff… it smells… it smells like fish…"

Aqua who was covered in slime sniveled as she followed behind me.

"It is smelly inside the toad, but the warm feeling isn't too bad…"

Megumin who I was carrying on my back was covered in goo like Aqua.

"I really don't want to know that," I told her.

If someone uses magic that exceeded their mana capacity, it would drain their life force to make up the difference. Using powerful spells when your mana is depleted might even lead to death. Which makes no sense for a child like her to use something like Explosion.

Okay… I should've seen this one coming. A high ranking teammate that is incredibly useless. Yeah, she is definitely one of them.

"So nothing I say will convince you to learn any other skill?"

"No, I will only use explosion,"

I sighed a little. "Welcome to Fantastic Dreamer, Megumin," I told her.

"I understand, you don't want…" she cut off mid sentence. "What did you say?"

"I said, Welcome to Fantastic Dreamer. That's the name of our party, do you have a problem with it?"

"Y-you mean, I can stay?"

"You meet all the requirements, why the hell not?"

I couldn't see her face since she's behind me, but I can feel her grip tighten a little.

"Th-thank you…" she muttered.

"You're welcome,"

Ahh, I wonder just OP this girl is after I break her curse? Will she finally learn something, anything else aside from explosion magic I wonder? Well, I was planning on solo-leveling anyway, so I wouldn't get too dependent on her.