Prerequisites

"Of course, gaining a higher level of Frost Affinity outright would be best."

"It would definitely make learning ice spells much faster."

"Then... couldn't the same apply to spells of other elements?"

A spark of excitement flashed in Rain's eyes.

The last page of the Beginner Monster Compendium published by the Mill Town branch of the Adventurers' Association described the Winter Wolf, a ferocious ice-type monster with a Challenge Rating as high as three.

A note beneath it, printed in large red letters, warned that Winter Wolves were not beginner monsters. Its main purpose was to caution novice adventurers against venturing onto the snowfields, where even the weakest monsters were Winter Wolves.

The description was brief, but Rain distinctly remembered that Winter Wolves had extremely high Frost Affinity and excelled at casting Ice Blades.

An hour later.

In the association's back courtyard.

"Rain, you're here early." Lia was arranging the straw dummies, archery targets, and other training equipment.

As Instructor Humbert's assistant, Lia was always among the first to arrive each day.

Humbert himself usually did not reach the association's back courtyard until around nine-thirty.

"Morning, Lia," Rain said with a smile.

Over the past few days, Rain had discovered the trick to practicing with a shield.

When he sparred with someone and blocked their attacks, his progress was especially fast.

As time passed, more young people arrived in the courtyard and joined the training.

A round-faced boy with an earnest look waved excitedly the moment he saw Rain.

His name was Robin, and he had been Rain's sparring partner lately.

Rain and Robin had been practicing Shield Block and Spear Thrust for about an hour when Rain caught sight of a tall, powerfully built young man entering the courtyard.

After exchanging a few words with Lia, the newcomer walked toward Instructor Humbert.

Humbert was not far from Rain, so Rain heard their conversation clearly.

"Instructor Humbert, I've come from Dorn City. Even there, I heard about your extraordinary skill with the Warhammer. I'd like to learn from you."

"You may, young man, if you can lift the Warhammer in the corner and ring the bell above it. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to turn you down, even if you've come all the way from Dorn City."

Humbert remained calm as he pointed to the heavy Warhammer in the corner of the courtyard.

"Of course. Miss Lia has already explained everything to me." The sturdy young man bowed slightly to Humbert, then headed for the corner.

At the sight, even Robin stopped sparring with Rain.

Most of the young people present kept glancing toward the corner.

"Rain, do you think he can do it?" Robin asked curiously.

"I don't know." Rain shook his head.

The young man gripped the handle and took a deep breath. Before long, he had lifted the dull gray metal Warhammer off the ground.

It seemed lighter than he had expected, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

But the moment he tried to raise it over his head and strike the bell two meters above the ground, his expression changed dramatically.

Rain, Robin, and the other onlookers could see the veins bulging in his neck and his face turning red by the time he had lifted the Warhammer to shoulder height.

The muscles in his arms were trembling violently.

"Hah!"

With a low growl, he heaved the Warhammer over his head. But he lost control of it, and before he could swing, it crashed into the wall beside him.

"What a shame! He's much stronger than I am, but he still failed." Robin shook his head.

Rain nodded.

He knew this seemingly simple test was anything but easy.

The difficulty lay in the second step.

Rain had no intention of learning to use a Warhammer, but on his third day here, curiosity had gotten the better of him. When no one was around, he had quietly tried it himself.

Even with the Goblin Warrior's Vigorous lv1 enhancement, Rain had found it quite a struggle to lift the Warhammer over his head.

Under those conditions, lightly tapping the bell with the Warhammer without damaging it or scraping the wall was all but impossible.

He could ring it, but he would either damage the bell or scrape the wall.

The young man, his face flushed, bowed to Humbert and quickly turned to leave.

The stranger's brief interruption did nothing to dampen Rain's enthusiasm for training.

Night fell.

In a room on the second floor of the Oak Inn.

Rain sat beside an oil lamp at his desk, studying an illustrated book.

It paired illustrations with written descriptions and had a metal cover that made it look rather expensive.

Rain had bought it for two silver coins. It was a compendium of common monsters around Mill Town, compiled by the Mill Town Adventurers' Association.

It did not cover every monster, of course, only thirteen common types.

At first, Rain had been reluctant to spend the money.

But he would have to face these monsters sooner or later. Learning about them now would help him plan how to grow stronger.

The first page naturally featured Goblins. It said nothing about mutated individuals, but it did note that groups of Goblins of moderate size or larger often included Goblin Warriors.

The second page covered Kobolds, the third Giant Vampire Bats...

Rain was now reading the ninth page, which showed a Boarfolk with a pig's head, a human body, and a large wooden mallet.

"Deadwater Valley Boarfolk: a subspecies of Steel-Tusk Boarfolk that migrated to Deadwater Valley over a thousand years ago. Slightly weaker than Steel-Tusk Boarfolk. Challenge Rating: one."

"Boarfolk really are built..."

Rain gazed enviously at the Boarfolk's bulging, rock-hard muscles.

If he could gain the power of a Boarfolk bloodline, his strength would probably leap forward by two whole levels.

"What a shame. A Challenge Rating of one is far higher than a Goblin's."

Rain sighed and shook his head.

A Goblin's Challenge Rating was only one-eighth. Even the small group he had encountered last time, around fifteen Goblins, would have had a combined Challenge Rating of roughly one-half if the mutated individual were excluded.

That gave him some idea of how formidable a Boarfolk with a Challenge Rating of one would be.

Challenge Rating was the principal measure of a monster's strength.

A rating of one had once meant the strongest monster a standard four-person party of Professional Adventurers could kill without injury, provided they worked together.

In practice, though, parties differed in their members and equipment. Some adventuring parties had three members, others five or even six.

That vague definition had long since been abandoned.

The current definition was much simpler and more direct: a monster with a Challenge Rating of one was roughly equal to a fully armed warrior of Class Level one.

In other words, if the two were placed in an arena to fight, they would most likely kill each other.

Why use a warrior for the comparison instead of a spellcaster?

It was not that warriors were stronger. A spellcaster's strength varied enormously depending on the spells they knew.

A warrior's strength, by contrast, was far more consistent.