My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

I apparently woke up an hour later.

I soothed Mr. Zeal, who was worried and urging me to keep resting, and sat up.

My body felt a little sluggish.

Maybe it was because I’d concentrated harder than ever in my short life to pull off two different types of support magic for the first time; my head hurt a bit.

I’d never focused this intensely even when playing games.

“It’s probably because you used magical circuits you don’t normally use. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you,” Mr. Zeal said with a regretful look, and I hurried to reassure him.

Support magic only works when cast by someone other than the person receiving it.

And because it uses a different quality of magical power than attack magic, some mages apparently can’t use support magic at all.

To me, who only knew attack magic, it was a real bolt from the blue.

Even in games, power-up or speed-up spells are common. There’s no reason this world wouldn’t have them.

It’d been a blind spot.

I’d been a gorilla-type player who focused only on offense, so support magic had simply fallen out of my head.

“The ones earlier attacked in packs, right? There might be other similar packs around,” Mr. Zeal said.

I think he had me learn and use support magic partly to increase my options, but mainly so he wouldn’t have to drain his own stamina and magical power. Sacrificing others to keep the strongest character alive is something I used to do a lot.

Those treants earlier were in a group.

If I had to describe it, it felt like a big family moving together.

Rather than there being other treant packs, it’s more reasonable to assume this place is the treants’ habitat.

If they were waiting for us to scatter, it was probably a hunting ground.

In any case, we’d acted exactly as they wanted.

Mr. Zeal widened his eyes slightly and gave a wry smile.

“So this is what it’s like being a hero party, huh? Akira and all, your knowledge is oddly skewed.”

Now it was my turn to give a wry smile.

“Akira and I were interested in almost the same genres. Over there it was a form of entertainment, so we weren’t specialists, but we weren’t completely ignorant either. That’s where Akira and I stand. So, for example, you wouldn’t get the same answer from Kyousuke.”

Entertainment… Mr. Zeal hummed.

He probably couldn’t grasp that things that become tactics in our world are treated as entertainment elsewhere.

I’m sure this world will become peaceful in a few hundred years—especially if people like Mr. Zeal exist.

Come to think of it, does Tsukasa Satou play games? He doesn’t look like someone who watches anime, but appearances can be deceiving. I’ll talk to him about it sometime.

“In any case, your guess is likely correct. This is the treants’ dwelling. It’s almost certain other groups have been attacked. And these treants have a troublesome trait.”

As he said that while moving, Mr. Zeal prompted us, and I gathered the gear that had been scattered around for battle.

“Treants can measure an opponent’s actual strength. Not quirks or techniques, just raw ability. That’s why they’re hard to defeat. Do you know why?”

“…Because the treants will counter. If I were a treant, after measuring someone’s strength I’d send allies whose strength matches or exceeds the enemy.”

I answered while running, and Mr. Zeal nodded.

His face was stern, eyes fixed ahead.

“We split our eight-person group into three. This is my subjective view, but I think the group that will meet the strongest treant isn’t us—”

At that moment, a huge pillar of light shot up in the direction we were heading.

A delayed roar followed, and the whole forest rustled.

“I believe it will be the group with hero Tsukasa Satou, not us,” Mr. Zeal said, his face going pale.

We quickened our pace a little.

“But that pillar was Tsukasa’s technique, right?”

“Yes, I think so. But if the battle continues here, we might awaken the lord of the forest.”

Mr. Zeal said the previous heroes had awakened it and suffered greatly.