Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 42: Adventurer's Spirit

"This was a great idea Christina!" Koko exclaimed, attempting to keep her balance as she stood on a log while rolling it up and down the road with her feet. "We can train and work on the road at the same time!"

"I'm really glad that I don't have to do that though. It looks extremely difficult." Christina said hesitantly, apparently not liking the idea of hefting boulders onto her shoulders and keeping balance on a rolling log while compacting the newly placed dirt on the road. Koko was doing this in order to keep the road as level as possible as she knew that the new dirt would sink once it settled, and Christina appeared to be having doubts as to if she could do the same thing, even though she had her own job which Koko knew that she wouldn't be able to do.

Creating her floating golden swords and pairing them in threes in order to make some sort of shelves with them, Christina was managing an endless train of moving swords as she was digging from a nearby river bank before carrying the dirt to the road in the same fashion that a conveyor belt would.

"But aren't you getting tired? Managing that many swords can't be easy." Koko asked in concern.

"I'm fine. I still have over three quarters of my MP left, so we should be able to finish quickly." Christina assured her.

"How much MP do you have?!" Koko asked in shock as Christina had been working for hours and wasn't even halfway though her MP yet.

"Slightly over nine thousand." Christina answered. "What is yours at now? I know that you've been training hard both during class as well as just before bed time."

"I'm still at twenty-one..." Koko laughed slightly at her own miserable number.

"I believe the average for our class is only about two-hundred, and they are supposed to be the elites of the freshmen, so..." Christina attempted to comfort her.

"Still ten times mine then." Koko laughed again. "But I guess it doesn't really matter. Like it or not, my MP isn't going to increase until I level up, so I might as well practice my techniques instead. And for that, this work is great!"

Now seeing how fast she could roll on the log, Koko moved off of the of the newly compacted dirt before beginning to roll down the road, moving her legs as fast as she could as the log bounced beneath her before it finally hit a large rock that ruined her momentum. And after missing her footing, Koko suddenly found herself falling backwards, letting out a startled shout before she fell to the ground with both of the large boulders that had been on her shoulders falling around her head as she hit the ground.

"Koko, are you alright?!" Christina ran up to her in a panic as Koko stood up.

"Yeah, sorry, I just got a little excited." Koko laughed genuinely now before she looked at everything that they'd done. "But still, I didn't think we'd get finished to quickly. Especially after not getting a shovel."

"It couldn't be helped. How could either of us have known that a single shovel costs ten silver?" Christina was the one that sighed now. "I honestly don't know how farmers can afford their own equipment."

"More than likely because they make a lot more money than adventurers do." Koko explained as she sat up. "Even if you sell your crops for only a single copper coin per item, you're still selling thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of crops from each field. Though, seeing as I'm not a farmer, I'm not exactly sure if it works like that or not."

"I see..." Christina said thoughtfully. "Then it's a good thing that people apply to the adventurers guild with quests, otherwise simply subjugating monsters wouldn't be worth the risk."

"There's more than money to being an adventurer." Koko smiled as she thought about it. "Sure, the money is always nice, but what's more important is the people you help while fulfilling the quests, the friends that you make and the journeys themselves. Exploring dangerous lands and seeing sights that no one else gets to see with the people that you care about most! That's the romance of adventurers!"

"I had no idea that you felt that strongly about it." Christina suddenly started laughing. "Most of the students at the academy are simply there to learn how to defend themselves so that they can become mercenaries or the like. Some of them might only be here to meet potential marriage partners..."

"Yeah, I've noticed... The disrespectful little brats." Koko growled as her anger rose on the subject. "What about you?"

"The Arch-Bishop insisted that I go to an academy to learn how to interact with people the same age as me." Christina explained. "While I wanted to attend the knight's academy, the curriculum for graduating was simply to long so I ended up coming to the adventurers academy where we only have to be here for two years."

"Well, I'm glad that you did." Koko smiled at her.

"Yes, I am to." Christina replied in kind before looking around them. "But seeing as repairing the road took a lot less time than what we expected, what should we do for the rest of the day?"

"There are still a few hours left before the sun goes down, so do you want to maybe go hunt some monsters?" Koko suggested.

"We're not allowed to fight monsters until the instructors permit us to." Christina replied. "It's one of the main rules of the academy."

"Really?!" Koko asked, completely shocked as she didn't remember reading that rule. "But I've been doing it almost every night since I came here..."

"So that's why you've been exhausted..." Christina looked at Koko disapprovingly. "Just what would you do if you met a monster with Magic Domination?!"

"That was half of the reason that I kept trying to find them." Koko explained. "If I can't raise my MP, then I'll just have to develop a resistance to it."

"You risked your life, just for that?!" Christina asked as if she were shocked.

"Of course I did. If I can't develop a resistance to it, then I'll die if I fight anything that as strong as you are right now!"  Koko protested.

"There are other ways of going about doing it!" Christina now seemed angry. "Why didn't you ask Instructor Austin for help?"

"I did!" Koko shouted furiously into the open space in front of her. "But that idiot only keeps insisting that I need to increase my MP and everything will be better! Best instructor in the academy my foot!"

"He does seem rather certain that you're nothing but a slacker... Well then, I suppose I have no choice." Christina suddenly laughed. "I'll help you from now on, just promise not to fight any more monsters until the academy lets us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Koko replied excitedly, thankful now that she could actually make progress in getting stronger again.

"Great, but that brings us back to my first question." Christina said thoughtfully. "What are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

"Want to spare again?" Koko asked. "Off of the road and without the intent to hurt each other this time, of course."

"You're on." Christina gave her a fierce smile in reply. "Fighting a fast opponent like you is the perfect training for me."

"Then let's go to the arena!" Koko said happily while easily jumping to her feet. "And if Richard tries to stop us, let's both gang up on him, okay?"

"That might not be a good idea..." Christina replied hesitantly. "If Richard were to use Magic Domination on you..."

"Y-yeah... I'd probably die instantly, wouldn't I?" Koko replied nervously as she rethought her words. "But I'm at least going to see if I can break through his barriers!"