Growth Hero

by Brent Tyman

  “Sure, I’ve gotta get stronger by any means possible,” I replied. “Clarissa has been helping me up my Defense stat these past few weeks and I can’t afford to slack on it, even for a few days.”

  “Ah yes,” Juliana said, still keeping her hand on my thigh. “I’ve yet to explain your methods to everyone. Perhaps I should leave that for a bit later, but how have your stats come along?”

  At the mention of my stats, Karl immediately disengaged from his argument with Kesara and leaned towards me, poised to take a note.

  “Would you please go over your stats for my records, Alex?” he asked. Almost pleaded, in fact. “It’s been on my mind for quite some time.”

  “Uh,” I said. “Sure, one sec while I have a look.”

  While Karl seemed to be overly enthusiastic over this, everyone else clearly had more than a passing interest as well, for some reason.

  Jeez…

  I brought up the interface that displayed my stats and waited for the blue window to populate with text.

  Stats

  Strength: 68

  Speed: 2

  Defense: 95

  Magical Power: 1

  Magical Capacity: 1

  Luck: 1

  “Oh wow,” I said with absolute surprise. “I guess all that pain was worth it.”

  And as a bonus, my Speed stat had gone up a solid extra point, without my growth stat coming into play at all.

  Nice!

  “Please do not keep me in suspense Alex,” Karl prompted. “The ink on my quill is starting to dry out.”

  He had an inkwell right next to him, but I could understand his impatience. Karl seemed crazily interested in his scientific pursuits and note taking.

  “Well, Strength is sitting at sixty-eight and my Defense has reached a pretty crazy ninety-five, which I think is great,” I said. “My Speed is pretty crappy, at a measly two and the rest are still sitting at one, but I think it’s been a productive few weeks in the Dungeon.”

  Carl quickly noted down my Strength with utter fascination, but I noticed that he had frozen up when I mentioned my Defense.

  I looked around. Everyone had frozen up at my words and I raised an eyebrow at the lot of them.

  “What? I’m working on each stat one at a time, and I’m fairly certain I can get all of them up to a decent level with more training. Don’t judge me too harshly on it now.”

  “It’s not that…” Vencia muttered.

  “Oh, my Gods! Alex, you have almost as much Defense as my father!” Kesara cried. “And he has decades of experience under his belt.”

  “This is incredible!” Karl shouted. “No wonder you could face a Demon. They have extremely high Strength, perhaps in excess of one hundred at times, but with a Defense this high, you could withstand such attacks easily—with healing support, of course.”

  I wouldn’t really call it easily, since it had hurt like heck, but Karl seemed lost in his own world and wouldn’t likely hear my protests.

  “Please tell me how you have achieved such incredible results! Is there a monster in the Dungeon that is easy to defeat for you?” he asked quickly.

  “Karl…” Juliana admonished.

  “Or perhaps your own Clan has grizzled-eyed veterans who have shown you the ropes?”

  “Karl…”

  “Or perhaps the Gods have blessed such a fine specimen as yourself with an exceptional talent, which I don’t think I could feasibly document or extrapolate a suitable methodology to explain, but…”

  “Karl!” Juliana shouted with such intensity that I wouldn’t have been surprised if the expensive glass bottles lying around the study had suddenly shattered into bits.

  To be honest, that last theory of his was nearly on the money.

  “I’ve been to the fifth floor with Alex and he has demonstrated his methods to me, which will significantly increase our odds in the Dungeon. If you would please listen, I’m sure you will find it all very interesting,” she said.

  “Oh, this should be good!” Kesara said. “I would love to hear about Alex’s vigorous methods of monster subjugation.”

  “Must you really turn everything into… whatever that was?” Vencia huffed as she crossed her arms.

  “Vencia dearest, you aren’t going to captivate a fly, let alone a man, with such negative attitudes. I have it on good authority that Alex loves my positive vibes,” Kesara retorted, batting her eyelashes once more at me.

  “Isn’t that right, Alex?”

  “I doubt anyone could stand such playacting without vomiting. I’m not sure why my Lady even puts up with it,” Vencia said, rolling her eyes.

  “How dare you…”

  Oh God, here we go again…

  Luckily, for everyone’s sanity, Juliana nipped this argument in the bud.

  “Stop fussing and listen,” Juliana ordered. “No more snide comments from either of you, understood?”

  Both of them mumbled their acceptance when another voice suddenly boomed from behind me.

  “Sorry Alex, but this is payback!”

  I didn’t have time to react when I caught sight of a fist out of the corner of my eye smashing into the side of my face at full force. I thought I would have been knocked out, or at the very least, thrown from my chair, but instead… the most unusual thing happened.

  Daiver stood beside me as I slowly turned by head. I saw the moment his face went from gleeful to full on horror and I heard the bones in his fist crack beside my ear before he pulled it back and screamed.

  “Owww, what magic is this!” Daiver shouted, waving his hand around for a moment before hugging it close to his chest.

  “Daiver, how could you attack Alex like that!” Juliana snapped as she stood up, her face full of rage.

  “Vencia, Kesara! Please! It feels like it’s burning!” Daiver ignored Juliana, still coddling his hand.

  “I don’t heal idiots after they do idiotic things,” Vencia said, tapping her finger on the table. “You already took advantage of my freebie.”

  “And he wonders why no ladies will allow him to court them,” Kesara grunted, shaking her head.

  “Dear Gods, it was like punching a brick wall. Argh, damn. I’ve never encountered such a foe,” Daiver hissed in pain.

  “Yeah, I barely even felt it,” I said, shrugging and then rubbing my cheek in confusion. “Nice to see you too, Daiver, it’s been a while.”

  “Even so, I will not allow such disrespect in my presence!” Juliana thundered. “You will apologize to Alex, now!”

  “Argh, fine. Then can the ladies here please spare my poor hand some healing?” Daiver pleaded.

  “No!” Everyone boomed.

  All I heard from Daiver was a small whimper.

  “Rats…”

  17

  Daiver ended up apologizing after a few more minutes of whining. I still felt bad about knocking him out, the first time around, but his sneaking up and ambushing me didn’t sit well with everyone else, even if I’d barely felt his punch.

  That must have been my massive Defense stat at work. It showed how far I had come since my first day on this world. It also revealed how powerful Demons were, and how far I still had to go.

  Once Daiver settled down, he took a seat at the table and Juliana prompted me to go over my methods for diving in the Dungeon. I expected Karl to be the most interested in this, but it seemed everyone was paying close attention when I explained different monsters’ behaviors and how to use them to your advantage.

  “I had observed similar behavior in the past but had always dismissed it as a fluke!” Karl shouted, scribbling madly once again. “This serves me right for ignoring such obvious signs!”

  “It isn’t really all that ‘obvious’, if you never figured it out, is it?” Vencia mused absently.

  “We should try it.” Kesara said. “I wouldn’t mind adding Alex to our party. It might bring up the overall intelligence of our group, since Daiver is dragging it down with his…”

  “Oi! I’m a tru
e gentleman and heir to a Duchy! That makes me far more important than a count’s daughter!” Daiver snickered.

  “Ah, the perfect thing to say to a lady,” Kesara smirked back.

  “As we cannot enter the Dungeon for a few days, any training with these new methods must be tabled, for now,” Juliana said, getting everyone’s attention back.

  Her eyes unfocused slightly. “I see my father has requested my presence as well.”

  “Your father likes to drop in all the time,” Kesara complained. “He’s the only man I would describe as overbearing…”

  “Is it wise to talk ill of him like that?” Vencia questioned. “He is my Lady’s father.”

  “It’s fine, Vencia,” Juliana said immediately. “I said previously when I formed this group, that everyone may speak as they will and that hasn’t changed.”

  Juliana looked over at me and smiled.

  “I should go see him this instant. Would you accompany me, Alex?”

  “Sure, why not? It isn’t like I have anything better to do,” I said.

  I helped Juliana up from her seat and waved goodbye to everyone as we strolled out of the study. I let her lead the way; I had zero idea where it was we were supposed to be going.

  “If the Dungeon is off limits, I’m not sure what to do now,” I said to her. “Do monsters roam around the surrounding area at all?”

  If this place was anything like a light novel or RPG, then there should be monsters idling in forests, just waiting to be farmed. I might even be able to fight a wider variety of monsters, too.

  “There are,” Juliana said, but just as she got my hopes up, she dashed them.

  “Monsters in the wilderness are far more spread out and differ widely in power. Along the outskirts of the forest, like where we first met, would have weaker monsters, but there may be as much as an hour between packs.”

  “Well, that won’t work, will it?” I lamented. “Guess it isn’t really worth it, at that point.”

  Juliana nodded as she patted my shoulder.

  “This isn’t true for some areas, such as my own homeland where monsters live in far denser numbers, but Tringall laid waste to the local monster population decades ago.”

  Well, that was just great. I supposed I could just mill about in the city for the next few days until the Demons were dealt with, but I was pretty sure I’d get bored quickly. If only the Goddess had let me bring my gaming PC with me. Then again, how would I have powered it? Magic?

  “One thing has been on my mind…” Juliana said out of the blue. “How have you advanced your stats so quickly? Your methods are impressive, to say the least, but I feel there must be some other aspect I am unaware of.”

  Oh yeah, Juliana didn’t know about my cheat Growth skill, yet. I supposed now was as good a time as any to talk about it. She grew silent as I explained what my Growth skill did; she had more or less the same reaction as Clarissa.

  “Hmm, this kind of skill isn’t anything I’ve ever heard of. I wonder… Did it also increase Clarissa’s stats as well?”

  I raised an eyebrow at that; I wasn’t sure what she meant.

  “Huh? Why would it increase Clarissa’s stats?”

  “Didn’t you know? When you fight as a party, experience gained towards your stats is shared between everyone. It is how my stats in Speed and Defense have grown, though I rarely spend the time, or go through the pain to level them up.”

  “Really?” I asked, confused. Either Clarissa had forgotten to mention it, or she had and I had just glossed over it.

  “Wait a moment, and I’ll just check on her stats through the Clan interface,” I said.

  I brought up the Clan interface, the red background contrasting strongly with the shiny walls inside of the Academy and flipped to her stats.

  Name: Clarissa Vos Hoganna

  Race: Human

  Stats

  Strength: 32

  Speed: 35

  Defense: 111

  Magical Power: 41

  Magical Capacity: 59

  Luck: 8

  “Jeeeez,” I whistled as I looked at that Defense stat. “Her stats have gone absolutely bonkers.”

  “Oh?” Juliana said, her interest piqued. No doubt she was quite interested in how her classmate was doing, stats wise.

  “She gained a few points in Magical Power and Capacity from all her heals to me, but her Defense stat shot up to one hundred and eleven,” I said.

  “That can’t be,” Juliana said as she shook her head. “A healer with Defense that high is simply ridiculous. Surely there must be some mistake.”

  “Unless the Clan interface is malfunctioning, that’s what it says here,” I affirmed. “I wonder why she hasn’t mentioned it yet.”

  “No doubt that… that minx either hasn’t checked her stats or is waiting for the most opportune time to rub it in everyone’s faces.” Juliana bristled at the thought.

  I guess this was probably a step backwards in Project ‘help Juliana and Clarissa to get along’.

  “So, parties share experience points for increasing their stats, right? How come my Magical stats haven’t increased?”

  Clarissa had thrown at least a couple hundred heals at me by this point, so surely that should have increased my Magical stats by now.

  “Hmm,” Juliana said, tapping her chin in thought as we walked. “Have you ever cast a spell other than the Dynamic Healing one on me?”

  “Nope, never,” I affirmed.

  “Then it could be a case that you simply need to cast more active spells to encourage those stats to grow,” Juliana suggested. “I know that increasing one’s Magical stats above one is supposed to be difficult, in and of itself. Though, admittedly, I never experienced such hardship with my aptitude for magic.”

  “So, I just need to cast spells more and it should start growing properly?” I mused.

  She nodded.

  It wasn’t a big deal right now, since I wasn’t focused on magic at all, but it was something I was most definitely interested in for the future. Casting fireballs like Juliana would definitely be cool. This world had magic, so why not take advantage of it?

  “My father is in the headmaster’s chamber,” Juliana said as she used her hand on my lower back to steer me. “This way, Alex.”

  As always, I got plenty of looks from students and teachers alike as we passed by. Juliana got greetings and bows from red uniformed students, which would be the ones from her nation, so it was similar to how it had been with Clarissa and any students wearing green.

  Still though, the attention and curious looks all felt strange, but I supposed it couldn’t be helped. I was just glad for the opportunity to appreciate Juliana’s fine form and beauty up close.

  She really was breathtaking.

  The headmaster’s chamber felt an age away from the Tasberg study room as we climbed up circular stairs that appeared to have no end to them. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from audibly groaning in front of Juliana.

  “Is it much further up?” I huffed and Juliana laughed.

  “Quite a bit more, I’m afraid,” she said, but stroked my arm happily. “I’m glad you agreed to come with me. My father can be… quite the handful.”

  That bright laugh of hers, followed by a dazzling smile was all the motivation I needed. God she was beautiful…

  “Happy to be there for you,” I said, smiling back.

  These stairs still sucked, but mercifully, we eventually came to the end of them. From there, it was only a short walk to a set of double doors with several guards posted in front of them.

  I hadn’t noticed it before, but not all the guards here were the same. Two of them had the same armor as the ones at the Academy gates, while the others wore the same red as Juliana’s uniform. Even their chain mail and plate armor had been dyed a deep shade of red.

  I idly wondered how much that must have cost.

  “My Lady,” a red guard said, giving a short bow as we approached. “The Sovereign is waiting inside fo
r you.”

  “Thank you,” Juliana replied in a formal tone. “This is Alex, my guest. He will accompany me.”

  The guard looked ready to protest, but Juliana had already glided past him to the double doors, prompting me to follow when she took my hand.

  These red guards must be part of Juliana’s father’s detail while the other two were from the Academy. At least the Academy guards looked normal, wearing simple chain mail with little flair.

  Now that I was close enough to scrutinize them, the only thing that highlighted these guards as Academy guards were thin straps of white ribbon stretched across their chests. The ribbon had an emblem embroidered on it, a small mansion that likely represented the Academy, but that was it.

  It surprised me that its guards were the most normal thing about the Academy. Compared to the pricy furniture and walls, their uniforms were rather… drab. Most of the tuition they received must have gone into the building’s furnishings instead.

  The double doors opened before us and we stepped into a massive room with bookshelves lining every wall from floor to ceiling. It was almost like we had walked into another library, until we got to a large table at the back of the room where some other furniture was present.

  The table had two occupants in its comfortable chairs, which provided a stunning view of the back of the Academy. Here there was nothing, but a wide courtyard filled with amazing greenery. There were plants of all kinds, in a topiary garden that merged perfectly with the mansions off in the distance.

  The view was so breathtaking that it took me a moment to realize that the two figures at the table were talking.

  “I must advise you yet again against the foolishness of this endeavor,” an older man said. He had flowing white hair that curled at his shoulders, with a neatly trimmed mustache.

  “To think a man such as yourself, at the height of Tringall’s council, would display such a lack of ambition is disappointing,” the other man said. I couldn’t get a good look at him since he was facing away from me, but he had the same hair color as Juliana, a rich, dark brown.