"I'm sorry… A Demon King's General seems to have moved into a small castle near town… It might've been the influence of the general, but the weak monsters in the region have all gone into hiding, resulting in a drastic drop in quests. A band of knights dispatched from the capital will be here next month to take out the general. But before that, there are only high-difficulty quests left…" Luna told our party as we were discussing the difficulty level of our next quest.

It was a good thing Luna came when she did, because I was feeling like I was about to explode.

Aqua knows about my last encounter with a dragon, yet here she is, talking animatedly about rumors of dragons making a nest in a forest 2 towns over.

While Darkness just kept talking about different monsters that would… hit… her, yeah, I'll go with hit since the word she actually used is quite obscene, even for someone like me.

What was Megumin doing? Well, she was hugging her new manatite staff and going on about testing it against some strong monsters.

Which would have been ok with me, but she didn't want to try it at anything below manticore or griffin level.

"Really… Why did he pick this moment to move here!? I don't know what this general is, but it better watch out if it's an undead!" Aqua complained in tears as she browsed through the employment magazine.

… Something was wrong with me because I was feeling sympathetic towards Aqua.

Poor girl was already in debt after the cabbage hunt, and with the last quest failing, she was kinda desperate for money.

She did try to get my help by attempting to compliment me, keyword being attempting.

When her poor attempt at sucking up to me didn't work, she did try to blackmail me, but Megumin, true to her word, kept my reputation intact by stepping in and telling Aqua that it was her own fault that she was in debt.

When I thanked her, she just shrugged and told me to just keep my end of the deal, and she would keep hers.

… And so, Megumin and I started our new daily routine.

The penniless Aqua was working hard everyday.

Darkness said she was going to go back home to train.

Megumin and I found an abandoned castle to cast her explosion spell on, and we went there everyday without fail.

Whether it was a cold evening with icy rain…

"Explosion!"

BOOM!

SPLASH!

"Achoo! Let's get back Kazuma." Sneezing from the cold, she muttered that while laying in a puddle of water.

… Or after a lazy afternoon lunch.

"Explosion!"

BOOM!

I dragged Megumin under the shade of a tree and offered her a drink of my neroid swish.

… Or a refreshing morning when we went for a stroll.

"Explosion!"

BOOM!

But no matter the time, Megumin would cast her spell at that castle every single day.

And I watched Megumin's spell every single day, and was even able to judge whether the condition of the explosion spell was good or bad.

"Explosion!"

"Oh, that seemed pretty good. The impact of the explosion could be felt through my bones, followed by the air tremors which trailed immediately after. It's strange that the abandoned castle is still intact but… nice bakuretsu!"

"Kuku, Kazuma understands the way of explosions more now. Your comment today hit the mark and was poetic, so… how about it? I'm not just saying this casually, but, Kazuma, do you seriously consider learning explosion magic?"

This was not the first time she has asked me this, nor do I think it will be the last.

"My answer is still the same Megumin. Yes, the path of explosions is interesting… but for the composition of our party, there's no need for two mages. And who would carry me once I am unable to move?"

"I would of course, who else?" Megumin said with a smile.

What was simply a deal between us was now more like the basis of our friendship.

We had conversations about explosions, the inner workings of magic, and the village where she grew up and her life there.

I also talked about my life, or a simpler version of it as I'm sure she wouldn't understand a lot of things about my world.

Don't think I am calling her stupid mind you, she definitely is a genius whenever she drops her chuuni act.

How do I know this? Well, when I asked her about how magic actually worked, and how new spells were created, she went through at least 5 paragraphs worth of data just from the top of her head.

It wasn't random data either, it basically explained the whole working of magic.

It was like compressing a high school physics book into a page.

I didn't understand it completely, and that was with the help I got from my intelligence stat.

And she just went through it like something basic.

So yeah, a genius indeed.

What would have happened if she actually learned other magic?

She wouldn't have met my sorry ass, that's for sure.

That thought aside, what I did come to understand was that magic and math went hand in hand the same way physics and math did.

That was another bad thing for me, as I was bad in math compared to your average asian.

I can do calculus and all that log stuff, but that's it.

It didn't feel like I was that good in comparison to my brother who used to breathe that stuff, even though he was 2 years younger than me.

I picked Megumin back up and started carrying her back towards the town.

"Hey Megumin, you always keep talking about mastering explosion magic. What do you actually mean by that, it can't just be about casting bigger attacks, right?" I asked her after a while.

"You're right in that guess, the thing is, explosion magic is kinda broken-"

"Well it does take all of your magic."

"That's the thing! It shouldn't do that! It should just take like 500 of my magic."

That's still a lot Megumin.

But it just soaks all my magic up, no one ever learns explosion magic because of that very reason, that's one of the reasons why I want to be the first one to master it."

"So what happens if someone with less than 500 magic casts it?" I asked.

"Then the spell just uses your life force to power itself." She said nonchalantly.

Then why do you want me to learn it you loli!

'Calm down Kazuma, it's not worth it, she is just like that when it comes to her explosions', said a voice of reason sounding like an oddly angelic version of my own voice.

'Nah, drop that bitch right here, you want to help her and she still doesn't care about your health', said another voice having a demonic touch to it.

"Kazuma?" Megumin asked softly, with a little worry mixed in her voice.

"Yeah? Oh, sorry, I spaced out a little. What were you saying?" I said.

"Of course, like always, my knowledge in magic is too much for you, my young padawan."

I taught her that word by mistake, and now she uses it to act even more like a chuuni.

And who are you calling young?!

"So, you think casting it daily will help?"

"Nah, I just do it because I like explosion magic."

… Seriously?

"But it will help me to learn better control over it, but to fix it, I would have to go to the basics and work on spell crafting."

We reached the guild and I dropped Megumin at a table and went to get the payment for my latest toad quest.

That was the other thing I made a habit of doing this last month.

The day Luna told us about the Demon King General, I waited for my party to disappear and went to talk to her about booking toad quests before they were posted.

I made her an offer of a 20% commission for the quest.

And she just smiled at me and pushed up her breasts, and the next thing I know, I signed a magical contract that gave away 30% to the guild and 20% to Luna.

It was still a good deal, as now I had a toad quest booked for each day before it was even posted.

Completing them was easy, as I just went into the toad fields at night with lurk and enemy detection on and slaughtered the sleeping toads.

Since I did this for 30 days straight, I ended up killing 159 toads in total.

Hell, the local farmers were starting to call me toad slayer as the local toad population was all but extinct at this point.

I'm pretty sure what I'm doing went against at least one of the treaties of the Geneva Convention.

But I did reach lvl 16, which pushed my base stats to 44.

And with the 3 times boost pushing it to 132, and with the added reward of 1.5 million eris, I can't feel too bad for what I did.

I went back to my table and sat next to Megumin, when I caught sight of Aqua performing her nature's beauty for guild members in a cheerful mood.

"What happened to her?" I asked Megumin, who was nibbling on some vegetable sticks.

"Aqua? She performed her healing spells on some of the badly injured parties, which earned her enough eris to pay her debt and then some. This is her celebrating."

"Good for her I guess, at least this proves that she really does know healing spells." I commented.

Which earned me a look from Megumin.

"What?" I asked.

"What's your problem with Aqua? I know she is not the brightest out there, and can be quite problematic, but still, she hasn't even gone on a quest with us for a month. If we are going to work as a party, we've got to work on these issues."

I sighed and rubbed my temple. "Yeah, you're right, I can't believe I have to be admonished by a little girl to do this."

"L-Little girl?"

"Hey Aqua, come over here."

"What is it, Kazuma?"

"Oh, I thought I should treat you since you did such a good job."

"Fu… To call me a little girl…" Megumin seemed stunned by me addressing her as a little girl, dejectedly eating her set meal in small bites.

After we all ate our meals, we went to the quest board as Aqua really wanted to do some hard quest, and as I was sure I could finally deal some damage to these monsters in a straight fight, I accepted.

Aqua went ahead and by the time we reached her, she had torn a request off the bulletin board and presented it to us.

"Hey Kazuma, how about this one?"

I took it from her and Megumin and I read through it.

'Hunting the manticore and griffon - The manticore and griffon are fighting for territory. It is dangerous to leave them alone, please hunt them both. Bounty is 500,000 eris.'

"You idiot!" I shouted as I returned it to the bulletin board.

"What we need is to let Megumin hit them with an explosion while they're together to settle it in one shot. Why are you so timid…?" Aqua asked me.

Darkness was not here, so this fellow was planning on letting me take the task of getting these two dangerous monsters to gather at the same spot.

I pulled Aqua behind me and started going through the quests.

- Swordsman mentor for my son. Req: Swordmaster/Rune Knight

- Anyone for resting my spell. Req: High Magic Resistance/Hit Point

- Repel a pack of 20 white wolves in the mountain range.

- Lake purification. The lake which was one of the water sources for the town has been polluted. We request for someone to purify the lake. Req: Priest with purification magic.

- Scout the Destroyer. The Destroyer has started to move towards the Crimson Demon Village. Scout needed.

I tore the last one and presented it to Megumin.

"Hey, what's a Destroyer?" I asked her.

As Megumin read through the request, her face became paler and paler.

By the time she had finished, her hands were trembling, and you could see beads of sweat on her forehead.

"I have to go." She said quietly.

"What?" I asked confused.

"I have to go! The Destroyer is a mobile fortress, and if it's moving towards my village, they are going to need every little bit of help they can get." Megumin said as she dashed out of the guild.

- Night -

It was night time in Axel city, the streets were quiet and the roads were clear of people.

Megumin had packed everything she had and was now moving towards the outside of the town to start her trip towards her village.

It was very dangerous to travel at night, even more so if you were alone.

But she needed to do this if she wanted to reach her village on time.

Hell, there was still a chance she would be late.

She was at the gates when she felt someone approach her from behind.

In panic, she whirled around, staff in hand to deal with her assailant.

Only to find Kazuma standing there, hands in the air, behind whom was standing an irritated Aqua and a nervous Wiz.

"It's me! It's me!" he shouted.

"You scared me!" Megumin shouted at Kazuma who was backing away from her.

"Why are you guys here, you can't stop me, I need to go and help save my village."

"I know I can't stop you, and I am not here for that. We are here to join you in this quest."

"Why?"

"Well, we are a party aren't we? We stick together through thick and thin." He said, smiling towards her.

That was it for Megumin, as she sprinted forward and engulfed Kazuma into a hug.

Kazuma didn't know how to react, her never got hugged by any girl in his life, so her just stood there in a tense posture, and by the time he relaxed, Aqua butted in saying:

"I understand why we are here, but why is she here?" Aqua asked, pointing towards Wiz.

"Yeah, that's what I was wondering about too." Megumin said as she let go of me.

"Well, you said we needed help, so I thought who better to ask for help than Wiz? This way, she can prove herself to Aqua too, so she will stop making barriers around her shop." I said, giving Aqua a glare who looked away with a pout.

"And also because she can teleport us to the village so we won't have to trek through the forest at night." I said now facing Megumin.

"So let's teach that Destroyer a thing or two!" I shouted.

"Yeah!"

"It's 1 in the morning! Shut the hell up you hooligans!" Came a shout from a nearby house.

"S-Sorry."