Chapter 16.1 (1/2)

Chapter 16.1

「Stop right there!」

Hiroshi and another knight had been locked in a duel until Douga had spoken up, relaxing and taking their distance from each other. Since he had free time, Hiroshi was currently being forced to participate with the knights in their training in order to resolve battle-related problems.

「He’s continuously tied with 20 people and counting.」

「Yep, guess when it comes to people who actually train ’emselves, I can’t do much.」

Hiroshi could only give a wry smile at Julius’s review of results. In actuality, Hiroshi’s attacks didn’t get anywhere with this platoon, who were the elite of the elite in this order of chivalry. With that being said, the knights as well could not peacefully accept these results.

「Hiroshi-dono, are you really a craftsman?」

「Honestly, it felt like we were taking on Sir Douga, or even someone with more resilience than him.」

「Nah, other than actin’ as a tank, I’m purty average at everythin’ else.」

「But that’s already ridiculous!」

One of the imperial guards burst out, but Hiroshi tilted his head, not able to comprehend what he was trying to say. Why were they so surprised that a tank was essentially a novice with attacking in terms of division of roles?

「Be as that may, do ye not think that by merely learning how to deal with attacks, your skills also get an ample increase?」

「There aren’t many people who can pack so much into just one Smash, you know.」

「Whaddya mean? Old man and Ju-san could easily do that much if they put their minds to it.」

「All we did was match you. Plus with your level of defense, there isn’t even any point in attacking you with practice swords like these, because no amount of firepower could break through that.」

Cut down by Julius so easily, Hiroshi had an expression of discontent on his face.

「I am sure that ye have many a thing that ye’d like to say, but first, I’d say that ye need to understand yourself a bit more precisely.」

「How do I even begin to precisely understand myself…」

「No need to hurt your brain over it. The gist is that your defense is at least equal to Sir Douga, or even superior in certain aspects.」

(I think I had a similar conversation with Makoto way back), thought Hiroshi as Julius and Douga did their best to make him aware of his own capabilities. But it seemed like Makoto was on to something, as he hadn’t thought that he would have more than an equal chance of winning against Farlane’s strongest, Julius. In all honesty, they couldn’t find it in them to understand how someone’s actual power and their cognition of it could be so contrary, having gone through many a battle themselves.

However, it was pointless to give up just because of that. First, though the swords were just shams used for practice, they had to help him understand that it was not normal for someone wearing nothing but clothes to receive the steel-like, earnest hit of a trained knight head-on and just say “Ow, that hurts!”. If he were in the same situation, even Douga would get some sort of bruise and it was normal to break some bones as long as you didn’t mess up. Incidentally, as to why Hiroshi was wearing only regular clothing, it was because if he were to wear training armor, his movement would become absurdly slow. Julius had noted that if any future battles were like the previous, he wouldn’t be fighting with armor anyway, and Douga had added that various adjusted enchantments were on him to prevent him from likely getting any wounds, which was how he had ended up participating in a mock battle with just his clothing on.

In addition, no matter how far you searched in the world, there was no way you could find someone with the kind of magic resistance that could nullify and crush Great Magic unleashed by someone with higher-than-average mana. All things considered, this meant that it was practically impossible for humanoids (elves and dwarves included) to damage him with magic. With these two conditions in mind, it was best to think of this man as impossible to kill by normal means.

With that being said, his attack power being less than that of an average adventurer was a minus that they couldn’t ignore. After all, the moment that he could no longer fool his opponent with his abnormal defense, they would focus their attacks on Haruna, undoubtedly behind him, and the situation could get ugly from there. He needed to be taught thoroughly that as long as he couldn’t think of a plan to strengthen his firepower in a short amount of time, he would first have to figure out how to not let his opponents know that he was a paper tiger.

「First, do something about your weapon. The handaxe and shovel you use aren’t too bad either, but they’re a bit too light.」

「Even if ya say that…I dunno if I have enough time to make the ingredients, and how many do I even gotta have?」

Both of them began contemplating Hiroshi’s question. From what they examined out of his skill with his main weapons (excluding a number of large ones), the non-heavyweight weapons that he could use decently were only his dagger and shovel. Everything else was that of an amateur. With the aforementioned weapons, he could easily slay a Berserker Bear, and could in a sense hold his own against Pieranorks, but as he didn’t have any attack skills other than Smash, they had no choice but to conclude that he was not by any means at a satisfactory level.

Out of all that, if they had to identify anything particularly good or bad, they felt that he was a bit more adept at axes and blunt weapons. Adding to the fact that there wasn’t enough time, they would probably do well to start from there.

「I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to give him a two-handed axe.」

「And a weighty one with a long handle at that…Yeah, something along the lines of a pole axe.」

「Or mayhaps he could go for a blunt weapon like Heavy Mace as opposed to an axe. At any rate, a lad like yeself probably wouldn’t suffer any fatal wounds even without a shield, so all ye need use is something with a bit of power.」

Douga and Julius brought over bulky, heavy weapons to show Hiroshi. They were all weapons that had bad handling and slow attack speed in the game, and if you were to hit someone it would be over for them but these weapons were still not popular. Without quite a bit of strength and adjustment, even assuming you hit your target, it would collapse your balance, leaving you wide open to plenty of hits. It was quite understandable why they weren’t popular.

Incidentally, a mace is essentially a long pole with a large steel sphere at the edge. If you were to attach thorns to it, it would become one of the weapons known as a Morning Star. Its biggest selling point was that you didn’t have to think about the direction when swinging it, and its rustic and barbaric nature made it a specialized, primitive weapon for fending off any weapon.

「Ya say it like it’s easy, but these’re all tough ’n hard t’handle. I mean, d’you even know how scary it is just to swing it at the air?」

「Nonsense. Ye’ll understand once ye practice swinging it around fer a bit. Heck, even I can make a fine swing with that large spear.」

「Do ya really think it’s convincin’ t’hear that from someone of yer occupation, old man……」