Most people would never know it, but as far as Cid was concerned, that "ordinary" little fight just now had filled him with grief and indignation.
If he hadn't already leveled up to Lv.2—if he didn't have a powerful magic spell—he could have unleashed his true mob-character secret art:
Act terrified. Freeze up in front of some terrifying monster. Get rescued by a passing powerhouse. End up drenched in blood.
That was the proper performance for a nameless extra!
Compared to that, what even was the fight just now?
He'd just followed the party and steamrolled the monsters of the first twelve floors. From start to finish, it was nothing but crushing domination.
What kind of "mob" was this!?
It hurt. It hurt too much.
Still wallowing in pain, Cid saw Raul walking over with a cloth in his hand—and decided to perform his mob-character secret art in a different arena.
"How much is this item?"
He put on the air of a street vendor—obviously petty, obviously stingy.
"About a hundred thousand," Raul said. "Don't worry about it. I'm lending it to you. No rent."
Raul patted his chest as he promised.
The Loki Familia had deep pockets. It was just a piece of cloth.
At least within the Loki Familia, Raul hadn't had to worry about money yet.
"Thanks, but no," Cid said, pushing it back with a perfectly timed look of distress. "If it gets damaged, I can't afford to pay you back."
A piece of Salamander Wool wasn't that expensive—only about a hundred thousand valis.
But "on the surface," Cid really couldn't pull that kind of cash together.
Haggling over such a small amount, even putting himself at risk because of it—this was the unavoidable tragedy of being a mob character.
Thus, this technique—the small person's penny-pinching—was officially added to Cid's secret-arts catalogue.
He rated his acting a nine out of ten.
The last point was deducted because he truly wasn't rich, so the "performance" lacked that pure, high-value artificiality.
"Man… you've got it rough, bro," Raul said sympathetically, taking the cloth back. "Be careful, then."
He didn't insist.
Among first-rate or even second-rate familias, the Astraea Familia was on the poorer end—barely any cash flow.
At least they weren't the very bottom. Some familias were in debt by hundreds of millions or even billions; that was real poverty.
Cid barely had time to bask in his success before Ankie finally couldn't hold back her curiosity and slid closer.
"Cid… Astraea Familia treats you so well. Why did you leave?"
She was curious about the beloved Astraea Familia in general…
…but she also had another purpose for getting close.
"Ankie," Riveria suddenly spoke up—her gaze strange as she sized Ankie up. "That's private. Don't pry."
Under that stare, Ankie guiltily looked away.
Riveria immediately understood.
Before they departed, Loki had told Riveria to recruit Cid.
Riveria had refused—but that didn't mean Loki wouldn't order someone else to do it.
Riveria had assumed Raul was handling it, since he already knew Cid.
But now it looked like Loki was trying a honey trap?
She was really willing to go that far?
It suggested that even if Astraea had held details back, Loki had still guessed that Cid's magic was extremely strong.
Or maybe Loki's petty dislike of helping a "rival" familia grow had gotten the upper hand.
What surprised Riveria was that Cid didn't seem to react much to Ankie's closeness.
Riveria had expected him to get shy—like earlier.
This calmness looked… mature, in a way befitting an adventurer…
Wait.
Don't tell me he's not into girls his own age.
This was bad. This kid might prefer "mature" women.
At that point, Riveria's opposition to "poaching" Cid went from internal reluctance to absolute refusal.
He must not join the Loki Familia.
Otherwise… she feared something might happen that would humiliate her.
"It's fine," Cid said, smiling easily. "It's not really a big deal. I just couldn't keep up with everyone's pace. We're still on great terms."
It was a safe answer—no one would suspect anything. If the relationship had soured, the Astraea Familia wouldn't have pooled money to buy Cid a grimoire.
As for why he hadn't reacted to Ankie moving closer… it was simply because he was still thinking about mob-character secret arts and hadn't gotten around to noticing.
"That's enough," Riveria cut in. "End the topic. We continue exploring."
If these youngsters got too close, Cid might really join the Loki Familia because of it.
At that moment, the person who'd been even quieter than Riveria for the entire journey finally spoke.
Ais.
"Riveria… I want to see the Dragon-Slaying Magic."
She looked up at Riveria with pleading eyes.
As Cid grew more proficient and his magic steadily grew stronger, Ais only became more curious about the "real" Dragon-Slaying Magic.
In her view, for Cid's level, that instant, chantless spell just now was already quite strong.
If a "normal" instant spell was this impressive while he wasn't even in the right "state," then Dragon-Slaying Magic would be insane.
"Cid already told you," Riveria said, her face full of helplessness as Ais clung to her hand. "He can only use it after he enters that state."
If Riveria hadn't known Ais wouldn't let it go, she'd have knocked her on the head.
Really, the fact that Ais had behaved this long—only killing trivial Lv.1 monsters with no challenge—was already astonishing.
Sensing she'd be worn down into compromise, Riveria first checked Cid with her eyes.
"Riveria, you're amazing," Ais begged immediately. "Can't you help Cid enter that state? Please, please!"
She couldn't take it anymore.
She just wanted to see it once. Just once.
"Fine. Fine," Riveria relented after seeing Cid nod. "But only this once. And my method isn't something I can use casually."
Truthfully, Riveria herself wanted to see just how much power Cid's magic had at full output.
When it came to curiosity, Riveria and Ais were actually the same.
Riveria had simply grown up enough to restrain it a little.
Only a little.
Even knowing there might soon be an encounter, Riveria still wanted to see Cid's magic.
To do it, she'd need to feed him a bottle of Panacea after he fell into a weakened state.
That was the price Riveria was willing to pay for curiosity.
"This area doesn't have much open space…" Riveria muttered irritably. "And I don't know if other adventurers are nearby. If only we knew where the Dark Faction was hiding."
All along, the only people tailing her had been a few scouts.
She didn't think she could draw in many more.
And more importantly: even after expanding her perception, she still couldn't tell which route the enemy would come from.
On the recommended routes shown on the dungeon map behind them, she couldn't detect any expert presences at all.
Where did the Dark Faction usually hide?
Then Riveria spoke, almost like she was talking to herself.
"If there's a door… what do they use to lock it?"
Cid, with sharp ears, caught the question and thought of his recent research.
So he answered casually.
"Since it's the Dark Faction… maybe they use a curse as the key."
"Curses?" Riveria's eyes sharpened, as if she'd grabbed hold of something.
"…!"
Seeing her sink into thought, Cid wanted nothing more than to slap himself.
He'd reflexively assumed curses only existed to harm people.
But after studying them more deeply these past days, he understood curses far better now.
Using a curse as a key—once you thought it through—was absolutely doable.
If Riveria figured out the method, it was over.
As Cid quietly despaired in outward calm, Riveria suddenly laughed—bright and satisfied.
At this point, the scene practically demanded background music:
A few careless words… untie all my doubts…
Then Riveria said the one sentence Cid least wanted to hear:
"Cid… you're our great benefactor."
....
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