“I just have to teach Elsa and Alto?”
We talk to Kaede right after leaving the dungeon.
At first she says she’s just good because she has the Lance Master skill, and that I should ask someone else to teach the basics.
Yes, she became good because of the skill, but even she wonders how far she can actually go with that weapon.
When I learned the Sword Master skill, Rurika and the others still taught me… Especially Siphon and Geitz.
And so, despite saying no at first, Kaede ends up accepting.
We could also use our connections to the beast king to get someone good with the spear to teach them, but…
“Beast people and humans are different, and I don’t know if anyone who knows the finer points is good at teaching them.”
Says Argo, so Kaede it is.
I guess we can’t help but have this rougher image of beast people. Sera’s like that too, although I’m sure it still varies from person to person.
“Do you want to start now, or tomorrow, since you came from the dungeon?”
“Can you do it now?”
“Yes, if they’re okay with it. So Elsa and Alto… Are you joining us too, Shizune?”
“A spear is like a staff so… Is that a problem?”
“…It will be rough for you. Are you sure?”
Shizune hesitates, but decides to join. I’m pretty sure she just wants to stay with Elsa and Alto.
“By the way, you’re all back pretty early. Did you lose?”
“Won and lost. Some of us are staying for the main competition, but some lost. Once we went against each other, we couldn’t all make it through.”
I follow Siphon’s eyes to Jin.
“Did Jin lose?”
“Yes, he had a bad opponent. I don’t know if I would’ve beaten Geitz either.”
“Really?”
Geitz really is an iron wall when it comes to defense, but the image I have of him is that he’s strong in defense but weak in offense.
“It would be one thing if there was a time limit, but Geitz has the advantage the longer a fight goes. People get tired even if they’re always on offense. The impact of blocking with a shield should tire people out too, but Geitz is good at lessening it.”
“Yes, that. It’s tough when you’re not my level.”
Argo also says I would have no problem.
We fought together in the capital and I’ve seen him in mock battles with the others, but I still can’t help but feel like Geitz is stronger than me.
That’s probably because I was completely outclassed when we first met, and he was such a good teacher to me.
“So, who advanced?”
Me, Geitz, Argo, and Shun.”
“So Naoto lost too?”
“Hmph, to me.”
So Argo beat him.
Naoto should be higher level, but Argo has more experience.
Naoto and the others fought a lot of monsters when they went to the dark forest and dungeons to level up, but I don’t think they’ve fought people a lot.
Now that I think about it, it would be important to have experience fighting monsters to get through the dark forest and into the demon king’s castle, but once they got to the demon king herself, they’d need that experience fighting people.
Or did the higher ups purposefully make it so they didn’t have that experience, because they were thinking about after the demon was defeated?
It would be hard to make them obey if they got too strong.
But in reality, they were completely outclassed by Ignis… I wonder if they figured the goddess would just descend if they failed. I don’t know if those people knew about the goddess.
“So how many people are fighting in the tournament?”
“Thirteen in total.”
“That feels pretty random.”
I say to Siphon.
“It’s because the beast king is only entering from the seeded bracket. He’s exempted from the first two rounds. Apparently there would be twelve if last tournament’s second place entered, because the second place is exempted from the first round.”
“So the beast king has the advantage when it comes to exhaustion?”
He was exempted from the qualifiers too.
“Apparently those have been the rules for a long time. He tried to change it, but it was rejected.”
Says Siphon with an awkward smile.
Why would he abandon that advantage… Of course, to fight more.
“There will be a lottery tomorrow, with the main competition in three days. It will take four days, so what are you all going to do?”
“We’re going to watch the main competition, but we’ll be in the dungeon until it starts.”
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Thanks for the treat.