Krys had suggested to Stercus that he should learn a spell. After all, if all you can do is run around and hit things with a sword you'll become quite predictable. The best countermeasure is using spells.

The first spell was invented long ago when one day a god just thought to himself "What if humans had the power to blow themselves up?" Being gods, he and his brethren are able to manipulate the mana in such a way that certain actions have certain effects. The gods create spells then create special magic books to teach humans how to use them.

Stercus stumbled upon the book of the fire goddess Ignis Gloriae and was intrigued by the spell Fire Machine Gun. It was a spell that shot many little fireballs from out the user's palm quickly. You know, like a machine gun. Stercus didn't care about that though. It was a spell with the words "Machine" and "Gun" in it, two words that have interested him since childhood. Thus, he wanted it.

But the spell had a few conditions before it could be learned. First, the user must know the spell Fireball. Next, their Magical Endurance stat must be at least a 25. Finally, they needed to be at least a level 15. So Stercus was out to do that. He seemed to be much more motivated than when he trained to be an adventurer in the first place. He was so motivated, one would almost think his life depended on it.

Pan also wasn't just slouching around. One of his brothers had recently been demoted by an elf who referred to himself as A. A had made quick work of them and utterly destroyed them. It's not like it was hard when you were fighting Maso, the God of Masochism. He just took more damage and succumbed to the pain, not paying attention to how much health he had left. Pan however was having none of that. He decided to train his brother in combat to make sure this didn't happen ever again when he got promoted back. It didn't seem to be working but I have a feeling Maso was trying to get it as tough as possible. Anyways, Pan was just as motivated as Stercus.

This even made Pan start to realize how much he needed to level up, so he started taking on quests by himself. Stercus soon followed and took some quests by himself as well to raise his level. And that leaves Krys...

Krys was bored. She didn't really have anything that she could do. She had no sort of motivation, her party left her, and there was even a decline in giant toad hunting quests so she couldn't even do that. Thus, she was just sitting at the bar, drinking some beer, and watching some fantasy football. Oh, and crying just a bit. Sure it looked like she was bawling but her eyes were just a bit sweaty, that's all.

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Okay, her reaction was a little overboard, but she didn't have as much motivation as the others. She really only became an adventurer because she needed the money and she was only able to become friends with Pan due to pure luck. Despite his reputation, he was her only friend (must be really sad to have a wanted criminal as your only friend). Her relationship with Stercus was more of a master-student one, and she never really interacted with anyone else. This left her with nothing to do.

"Even the beer tastes salty," Krys said as her tears flowed down to her mouth.

"Um excuse me," said the guy next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Completely fine. Now scram."

"I would, but you kept mumbling to yourself about how your friends left you or something. I can't just ignore that."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?"

"Well," the man thought to himself for a moment. Imagine Stercus, but he was slightly older and better in every single way. That is what this guy looked like.

"What made them leave in the first place?"

"They're pursuing their own goals, and I'm just a liability."

"Then why don't you make yourself useful? Maybe you should train!"

"But what do I train in? I don't feel like killing monsters all day."

"Well, that depends on your skills and personality."

"Yeah, I don't care anymore."

"But don't you want to-"

"I said I don't care anymore!"

"Well then," the man said. This was a bit tougher than he thought it would be. "Well, I'm Diamond. Who are you?"

"Why does that matter?"

"You need help, don't you? I can help you."

"With anything?"

"Anything."

Krys thought about it for a while. "Make me stronger."

"But that's exactly what I suggested earli-"

"I SAID MAKE ME STRONGER!"

"...aight ma'am. So tomorrow we should ju-"

"DO IT NOW!"

"Okay, follow me."

Diamond took Krys into the forest, deep enough so that they wouldn't see civilization for a while but not close enough to any monsters that can interrupt them.

"Okay, there are many ways to get stronger," Diamond said. "Before we can do this, we need a record of how strong you already are. So let's test that first Krys. Krys?"

Krys had fallen asleep due to drunkenness.

"Fuck."

Name: Krystal Orez STR 35 Age: 17yrs 136days SPE 50 HP: 67/67 DUR 30 Level: 10 INT 56 Exp: 134/1024 LCK 19 Spells Known: 3 MNT 20