Growing Closer

"You're amazing! You've mastered so many professions at once."

At Lu Cang's unreserved praise, Maizer's old face turned a little red.

Maizer was a man wearing a cowboy hat and carrying a longbow on his back.

He smiled wryly. "I wouldn't say I've mastered them. I took up side professions because I felt there was no hope of advancing in my main one."

"Your talent is the amazing thing."

His voice carried genuine admiration.

He'd joined Lu Cang's team after learning a little about him.

Who wouldn't admire a magical genius second only to Izpalut? And that was Izpalut—the youngest Level 5 mage on the Ruin Continent, and one of the greatest magical prodigies in history.

"Besides, I'm only a Level 2 archer, a combat profession."

Lu Cang shook his head. "No, Big Brother Maizer. I think it's amazing that you found the path that suits you."

"Combat professions aren't the only useful ones."

"As a Level 3 gatherer, you must be in high demand among teams, right?"

Heh... As a middle-aged man with years of workplace experience, Lu Cang knew how to flatter people.

And compliments like these had a completely different effect coming from a child.

Maizer met Lu Cang's earnest gaze.

A warm feeling welled up inside him.

He'd thought Lu Cang would be a difficult-to-approach genius... He hadn't expected him to be such a sweet kid.

There was always a subtle divide between geniuses and ordinary people.

Even when a genius stood right beside you, you still felt there was an invisible barrier between you.

Lu Cang's warm manner became a gentle current that melted that subtle divide.

"Haha, that's true. Lots of teams want me to help them with gathering!"

"Honestly, choosing which team to help each day is a real headache."

Tsk, he really was easy to win over.

Maizer, getting carried away after a couple of compliments? Really?

"But it does seem convenient to learn an extra profession."

"I want to take up a second profession too. What do you all recommend?"

Lu Cang steered the conversation back to what he wanted to ask.

There was plenty written about this in books.

But books and reality could differ quite a bit.

Even on Earth, nobody would rely on popular science books from years—or even decades—ago as a guide to the present.

"A second profession?"

Loth lowered her head and thought for a moment before saying, "Usually, people take up a second profession when they feel they can't advance any further in their main one."

"After all, it's seen as a kind of deviation from the guiding principles."

A deviation from the guiding principles.

Lu Cang knew about that.

He'd been very interested in the subject, so it was one of the first things he'd looked up.

Promotion Rituals were the practice of the guiding principles.

Taking up another profession meant straying from the path laid out by those principles, making subsequent Promotion Rituals more demanding.

It was probably like working two jobs at once, getting caught by your boss, and still hoping to get promoted...

That was why Iz and the others wanted him to follow the mage's path first, reach a high level, and only then take up another profession.

That way, he'd have to endure a lot less hardship.

"But if I had to recommend one, the profession most closely related to mages is scholar."

Scholar, huh?

Lu Cang had read about that profession too. The librarian in Rhein Town was a scholar.

He'd heard the librarian was a Level 4 scholar who'd read every book in Rhein Town's library and could recite them all from memory.

If that was true, he certainly was well-read.

"But as far as combat goes, healing and magic have quite a bit in common. I've met an adventurer who was a mage and took up healing as a second profession. He did pretty well."

"Enchanters, who work in crafting, also need to train their magic. If your main profession is mage, you can make twice the progress with half the effort."

So the recommendations were scholar, healer, and enchanter?

Thinking of Kumiloni's abilities, Lu Cang did feel more inclined toward healing. Being able to treat himself when injured would greatly improve his chances of survival.

Scholar wasn't a bad choice either. The ability to acquire information more quickly would help him learn about this other world faster.

As for enchanter... He'd pass for now. Blacksmith, enchanter, and other crafting professions all seemed pretty useless to Lu Cang.

It wasn't that they had no future. He just didn't think he'd use them for a long time, and they were difficult to turn into a direct boost to his combat power.

"By the way, aren't you Izpalut's apprentice?"

"We're all amateurs when it comes to recommending professions... I've heard that the White Tower and the Life Church have people who research this subject specifically."

"They should have more insight."

"As for my advice, I was just talking off the top of my head, haha."

After answering Lu Cang, Loth actually seemed a little embarrassed.

Who was she, anyway?

How had she ended up advising Iz's apprentice on a career change?

"It's okay, Big Sister Loth. Your advice was really helpful."

"I'll remember it."

"Besides, we're all on the same team. There's nothing wrong with chatting about things like this—"

"I'd really like to be friends with everyone."

Mischievous kids were annoying, but kids who knew how to talk were truly lovable.

Lu Cang had just proved it.

They became much more willing to chat with him, and they answered nearly every question he asked.

Even when he asked about personal matters, they never suspected he had ulterior motives.

Talking to people gave him information that was more relevant to the present than anything in a book.

Aside from information about changing professions, he also learned about the earnings and pay of Level 3 adventurers, the skills they'd learned, where they were from, and what foods they liked.

He even found out why Loth had gone bankrupt...

Somehow, he also dug up the gossip that Maizer was dating two women at once.

Even the usually quiet Trand talked about his happy family and showed everyone his pocket watch, which held a picture of his wife.

He was risking his life as an adventurer to earn money for the child who was about to be born.

What a death flag...

Trand, I'd rather you hadn't told me all that.

Besides that, they shared some crucial information about how monsters formed.

Monsters appeared alongside the flow of something called the Demonic Tide...

It was an invisible force that existed all over the world and flowed from place to place.

As it flowed, monsters appeared out of nowhere in places beyond the notice of living beings.

The stronger the Demonic Tide, the more monsters it produced—and the more powerful they were.

Dungeons formed alongside the Demonic Tide as well.

But unlike wild monsters, dungeon formation depended on many other factors too, such as the month, the position of the stars, and... the stirrings of certain ancient nests.

The Demonic Tide couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

But there were ways to detect it.

Every day, the kingdom used special methods to broadcast a report on the weather. These reports covered not only wind, rain, thunder, lightning, temperature, and humidity, but also the flow of the Demonic Tide and the changing of the months...

Powerful adventurers followed the Demonic Tide's direction to find opportunities to make money.

The places where the Demonic Tide was strongest were often where adventurers gathered.

For Lu Cang, hunting monsters wasn't just about killing them.

Talking with these adventurers was an important part of the process too.

"I see the target..."

As they neared their destination, Maizer was the first to stand up in the carriage.

He'd spotted the target, and Lu Cang looked in the same direction.

Lu Cang couldn't see it.

Was it because of the archer's vision?

Archers had sharper eyesight and could see farther. They couldn't match true observers, but their vision was still better than that of most other combat professions.

It seemed Maizer's field of view really was wider than his.

The area was covered in sparse woodland.

The trees didn't block the view completely, but it was still hard to see into the distance.

Lu Cang stood up.

The ring on his right hand glimmered.

It was the spatial ring he'd bought at the magic item shop yesterday. It had cost ten gold and had a storage space of twenty-seven cubic meters. Living creatures couldn't be stored inside.

A flash of light appeared, and a gray staff materialized in Lu Cang's hand.

It was the start of a new month, so please vote for me... I'm not supposed to post extra chapters, but I'll release one more today to ask for your votes.

I promised I'd go all out once the novel was available for purchase. I'll post at least 50,000 words on launch day. For now, please vote for me!