After that, they threw a welcome party for Lloyd and told him to eat as much as he wanted — they were covering the bill tonight. Lloyd didn’t need to hear that twice and started eating like he’d never seen food before. His new party watched in amusement. They asked if he was starving, and Lloyd cheerfully replied that the food in this town was amazing.
That surprised everyone — because, honestly, the food was just… average. Lloyd explained that compared to what he grew up eating, the food here was bursting with flavor. Yui was instantly curious about his childhood. Lloyd shared that he lived with his teacher, who cooked whatever grew in her garden — sometimes wild mushrooms, other times random beast meat, always served without any seasoning. He learned to cook, but even his best efforts couldn’t match this city’s plain food.
At this point, Yui didn’t care about the food anymore — she was far more curious about Lloyd’s mysterious teacher. The others chimed in too. Silica asked if his teacher was also a white mage. Lloyd shook his head — she was more of a combat mage. He often saw explosions whenever she worked alone.
Silica was amazed that a non-white mage trained Lloyd so well, but Lloyd assured them that Merlin was beyond amazing. When Silica mentioned she’d love to learn from her, Lloyd stopped her immediately, warning that she’d regret saying that for the rest of her life if she ever knew the truth. (Clearly, there’s a story there.)
After some more chatting about Merlin, they got serious and held a strategy meeting for their mission. Yui, who admitted she was terrible at presentations, asked Dagas to explain the details to Lloyd. Dagas explained that their mission was to eliminate monsters destroying local farms. Silica added that multiple monster species had formed a pack, which was a first for Lloyd — and even new for them.
Then Cross pointed out that since they’d be facing a large number of enemies, both he and Yui would struggle — physical attackers aren’t great against mobs. Yui agreed and said Silica would have to carry them with her wide-area spells. But Silica looked uneasy — those spells drained a lot of mana.
Yui then asked Lloyd if he could use offensive magic. He admitted he could, but only basic-level spells and they weren’t exactly impressive. Moving to the formation strategy, Dagas said that he and Yui would gather the monsters together for Silica to blast them all at once. Cross would guard Silica and Lloyd, while Lloyd would focus on healing and support.
With the plan set, everyone headed to the inn to rest — except Lloyd, who wandered off in another direction.
Dagas stopped Lloyd, asking where he was going, and Lloyd nervously admitted he was too broke to afford a room at the inn. Without hesitation, Dagas tossed him a pouch filled with more gold than Lloyd had ever seen in his life. Lloyd panicked and said he couldn’t accept it, but Dagas coolly replied that it wasn’t charity — he’d just deduct it from Lloyd’s future salary. No escape from that deal! So Lloyd accepted and promised to work hard to repay it.
The next morning, the team gathered in front of the inn. Yui arrived last and noticed no one was carrying luggage. The others proudly told her that Lloyd stored everything with his magic storage. Not wanting to miss out, Yui handed over her gear too, and Lloyd stashed it away instantly. Yui and Silica were thoroughly impressed, but Lloyd humbly offered to teach them the spell. This shocked them — no one had ever seen storage magic like this outside of Lloyd. Still, he insisted it was easy, though expanding capacity required training.
They set off on their mission. On the way, Lloyd learned that long quests are more fun with friends. They reached the campsite way ahead of schedule thanks to having no baggage. As they unpacked, Yui tried to sneak off for a splash in the river, but Dagas scolded her — there was still firewood and food to gather! Lloyd volunteered for the firewood, and Yui thanked him before dragging Silica away for a bath.
While gathering sticks, Lloyd spotted a fruit from his childhood and picked some for the team. Suddenly, he heard Yui scream. He rushed back to find a giant serpent monster attacking the bathing Yui and Silica, who were totally defenseless. Lloyd dashed in, drawing the monster’s attention, giving the girls time to cover up. He even tossed them their weapons like a gentleman — after making sure they were decent.
He cast two enchantments on them, and Yui sliced the monster in two with a single strike! But the severed head kept fighting, so Silica blasted it with a fireball — way stronger than usual. She was confused by her own power, not realizing Lloyd had buffed her.
Afterward, Yui thanked Lloyd and asked him to store her sword… but then her towel slipped, giving Lloyd an unintended glimpse of the plot. Naturally, she slapped him into next week.
Back at camp, Lloyd started teaching storage magic. He told them to “open a space with your palm,” but they all looked like they were squishing invisible balloons. Lloyd felt like a terrible teacher until Silica, after some trial, succeeded by chanting the spell. Everyone realized they needed incantations — unlike Lloyd, who was just casually overpowered.
Later that night, during watch, Yui thanked Lloyd for joining them. He joked that he was unemployed, so he should be the one thanking her. Curious, he asked why she was so determined to finish this quest. Yui shared that monsters had destroyed her village when she was a child — she was the only survivor. That’s why she couldn’t ignore this mission.
But suddenly, Lloyd shushed her — monsters were nearby. Yui drew her sword while Lloyd told her to wake the others. Soon the team faced a swarm of spider monsters. They tried to retreat, but Yui stepped on a twig — classic horror movie move — and the spiders surrounded them, spitting webs. One even snatched Silica’s staff.
Lloyd quickly enchanted the team. Yui slashed through the webs, Cross recovered Silica’s staff, and Yui chopped off spider legs like she was dicing onions. Then, she literally surfed on a spider’s silk spray to the next one — slicing its legs too.
Next, Lloyd told Silica and Cross to go on the offense. Silica launched fireballs, and Cross shot arrows through them, lighting the spiders up like a barbecue. When it was all over, Lloyd realized he’d been shouting commands like a leader — and apologized for overstepping. But Dagas praised him, saying he had natural leader vibes. The others agreed and encouraged him to keep leading in battle.
By morning, everyone had learned storage magic well enough to carry their own gear. As they continued their journey, Lloyd kept pondering — why were those spiders even there in the first place?
Leave a Reply