Chapter 67: I think I said this before, but you shouldn’t go to a labyrinth city until you’re at least over level 20

"Assault Mirage... you copied a rare skill right from the start!"

Lumia let out a surprised voice.

"It’s rare? That’s why I didn’t know it."

Ordinary skills that most adventurers could obtain by raising their level and accumulating experience were taught during Guild training.

However, rare skills that were hard to acquire by normal means and had few owners were barely covered in training.

That was why Kazui had never heard of Assault Mirage.

Even so, among rare skills it was relatively well known, and owners were not that uncommon.

That was only when speaking among rare skills, though.

"It’s a martial arts skill that uses Aura to create copies that have attacking power."

Lumia gave Kazui a simple explanation of Assault Mirage.

"Vice... the succubus who attacked me, used a skill like that."

Kazui recalled Vice creating a large number of copies while fighting Ebony.

"That one was magic, not martial arts."

At the time he had seen something like a magic circle of light, so he had realized Vice had used magic.

"There are similar skills in magic too, but they take time to activate, so the situations where you can use them are limited. Using them in the middle of close combat is basically impossible."

What Lumia said was generally correct.

The reason Vice had been able to produce so many attacking copies in such a short time was because she possessed high-level magical ability. An ordinary person could not do that.

"But Assault Mirage can be activated instantly once you master it, so you can use it even in close combat. It’s a pretty convenient skill."

Lumia added to the explanation.

"The only problem is that it uses a fair amount of Aura, so you can’t really make proper use of it until you reach intermediate rank or higher."

"Then while I’m still in training..."

"I don’t think you’ll be able to use it properly for a while."

With a disappointed look, Kazui asked Lumia.

"Hypothetically... what would happen if I used it now?"

"I won’t know unless you try, but..."

After that preface, Lumia offered her guess.

"Even if you managed to create a copy, you’d almost completely run out of Aura and it would vanish in an instant."

"If I can produce even an instant, couldn’t I at least use it as a diversion?"

"You might be able to, but it would leave you Aura-starved and unable to fight properly, so I think the risk is too high."

"I see..."

"Well, you probably shouldn’t use it until you pass level 10."

Mastering it would be difficult until intermediate rank, but simply using it should be possible around level 10. That was how Lumia saw it.

"Once you reach a level where you can use it, I’ll teach you how."

"I’ll take you up on that when the time comes."

While thanking her, Kazui thought.

(I was planning to go to Virgo once I hit level 5.)

Once he reached level 5 and was no longer a trainee, Kazui had intended to go with Yuri to the nearest labyrinth city, Virgo.

Just like the fifteen students from the same high school who had already left Aquila, he wanted to return to Japan.

But if he went to Virgo before reaching level 10, he would not be able to learn how to use Assault Mirage from Lumia.

He found himself worrying over what he should do.

"You’re thinking that you won’t stay in Aquila until level 10, so you won’t be able to learn how to use Assault Mirage, aren’t you?"

Asked as if she had read his mind, Kazui was so startled his heart nearly stopped and he panicked.

"No, um... that’s..."

"I think I said this before, but you shouldn’t go to a labyrinth city until you’re at least over level 20."

Lumia had given that same advice to Kazui and Yuri many times.

Not just the two of them. She gave the same advice to most of the new adventurers she was in charge of.

"I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to work as an adventurer in a labyrinth city before level 20, but it is difficult."

Adventurers from the Northern Continent and even the entire world gathered in labyrinth cities seeking treasure.

Naturally, the average level of adventurers active there was incomparably higher than in other cities.

In other cities you could work as an adventurer around level 10, but that did not apply to labyrinth cities.

An adventurer who had not even reached level 20 could not even find adventurer work.

On top of that, many labyrinth cities did not have a very good environment for training new adventurers.

The guilds there simply did not put much effort into raising newcomers.

In the past, labyrinth city guilds had put more effort into training new adventurers than the guilds of other autonomous cities.

But because high-level adventurers gathered from all over the world, the guilds stopped feeling the need to focus on newcomers and began neglecting their training.