Athletics Training Upgrade?
Yesterday, Dad joined our class, so after class ended, he just carried me home. After my nap, we had time to take it easy and do some gathering.
He and Mr. Muscle-Squirrel are old friends from their adventuring days, it turns out. They didn’t form a permanent party, but they’d often go together for monster hunts and the like—“Let’s take that job together!” sort of thing, he said.
Dad doesn’t really talk much about his adventuring companions.
But according to what I’ve read in light novels, most adventurers retire because they either lose someone or suffer a terrible injury.
I can’t imagine Dad being seriously hurt, so it’s probably the former. That’s why I don’t pry.
There’s still plenty of woodwork to be done, so it sounds like Dad’ll keep coming to our magic lessons for a while.
Once we master the spell for the area we’re in charge of, we’ll move on to another one—and when we can handle them all, we’ll be done.
So next time, I’ll probably be grouped with the six-and-older kids.
Since I can use Air Cutter, I can handle the fine work just fine. I’m looking forward to it.
The next day’s arithmetic class was card-making again.
“You lot only made one deck for class use? That’s nowhere near enough,” said Teacher Elia.
Still, over the last two days, the stamps had been made—two of each design for the marks.
“This time we’re stamping, not drawing, so it’ll be a lot easier. But I’ll need some of you to write the numbers yourselves. Let’s see… Mare and sisters, could you handle that part?”
“Oh my, so we’re not using stamps? Very well,” said the three sheep sisters.
So, we pressed the mark stamps onto the cards they numbered by hand.
The big marks looked better on the ones, so Mire and Mure wrote those numbers themselves.
Of course, Teacher Elia handled the face cards. We haven’t seen those yet—I guess we’ll get to next class.
Then came martial arts training.
After the usual running, it naturally turned into another session of “athletics course building”.
“What about weapon training?”
“Well, you guys are not ready for real sparring yet. Right now, we’re just figuring out what suits each kid and teaching ’em how to handle weapons properly.”
“We can’t use most of the weapons yet anyway, so this is more fun! And Vio can join in too.”
“Yeah, and not the whole field’s like this. There’s still space for weapon drills.”
With even the instructor saying that, I guess it’s fine.
The sheep sisters, who usually just watch after the “run” (more like a walk), were helping with the earth magic to build the course.
The teacher made a Sasuke-style wall in three levels—the third one was straight-up impossible.
The ground in front dipped like a pitfall, and the wall itself curved back, making it ridiculously tall.
For reference, the first wall was about the height of a six-level vaulting box (shorter than me).
The second was about as tall as the village wall—around two meters. That’s the one Tony cleared with ease last time.
The third was about the same height viewed from the side, but with the pit in front, it added roughly another meter. Pure cruelty.
“Even Tony couldn’t clear that one, huh?”
“Maybe from the other side, sure. But from this side? Not happening.”
“I couldn’t even make it over the second one. But being able to climb walls like that’d be useful if we ever had to chase down bandits, wouldn’t it?”
Said Kathe with her tail drooping.
The seven-and-older group was studying the course with serious faces.
“Whoa, this one’s even cooler than last time! You can use earth magic now, Vio? That’s awesome!”
“Dad’s good with wood and earth magic, so he’s been teaching me.”
“Looks tougher than before, but also more fun!”
The little ones were more excited than worried.
The sheep sisters, proud of their work, had returned to the rest area.
Once the setup was done, everyone started running the course in turns.
“Whoa, that’s slippery—dangerous!”
“If this counts as a damage zone, we’d better take it slow.”
The balancing bridge area stood in for a suspension bridge. It even had a slight tilt, so one misstep meant falling. The first half had continuous beams, but after the first wall, they got thinner, higher, and spaced apart like stepping stones.
Tony hopped across, but had to be careful where he landed, or he’d slip.
“Mmm, this is tricky…”
“This is way tougher than last time!”
Ren and Hachi started cheerfully, fell off the log steps right away, slipped on the tilted beams, and kept running back to the start. But they were having fun, so that was fine.
There were multiple routes from the start, so it didn’t get crowded.
I cleared the first wall and was standing before the second, thinking.
If you’re careful, none of the traps so far really trip you up—but a solid wall is another matter.
“You thinking of stopping here? Just this much is a fine workout.”
I wanted to see the rest of the course, though.
“Teacher, can I use magic to get over the wall?”
“Sure can.”
“Huh!? Magic’s allowed!?”
“For real!?”
The six-and-older kids looked stunned.
But yeah, he never said we couldn’t. The only rule was that if you fall, you start over.
“Just don’t go breaking the wall, all right? Think of the wall and the mound as immovable dungeon terrain. As long as you don’t destroy it, you can use magic to help yourself.”
Right, he never said “no magic.” And magic’s part of my own ability set, same as body strength. I already use strengthening spells anyway.
So—magic it is.
I placed my hand on the wall and channeled power into four spots.
“Block!”
Little blocks of earth popped out of the wall. Stairs would’ve been easier, but that wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
I grew small footholds about fifty centimeters apart up the two-meter wall, and used them to climb.
Heh, feels like rock climbing! My body’s light, so it’s not even that hard on the arms.
“Ohh~ that works too!”
“I could climb that. I’d make the steps a bit bigger, though.”
“Yeah, but the bigger they are, the more mana it takes. Think about that too.”
True enough. In a dungeon, you’ve gotta think about how far you’ll go—run out of mana mid-route and you’re done for.
Kathe nodded, then made her blocks bigger but fewer.
I managed the second wall but fell off a log afterward and had to restart.
A few others tried the third wall, but the curve threw them off, sending them tumbling back.
We kept retrying until class ended.
Next time, I wanna at least reach the third wall smoothly.
If I’m gonna tackle that one, vine magic might help. Guess I’d better start practicing it.
What do you think about this chapter?
