Chapter 365

While Haruto was pondering why Aqua’s luck was so catastrophically bad, Aqua herself was staring pitifully at Kazuma.

"Kazuma, please! Lend me some money!"

Kazuma folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, completely unmoved.

He knew Aqua far too well. She might look miserable and helpless now, but the moment she got the money she wanted, her attitude would change completely.

"Not my problem!"

Kazuma cut off her pleading without the slightest mercy.

"You were the one who insisted that we calculate our rewards separately this time, remember?"

Even Kazuma had no idea what to say about Aqua’s performance during the harvest.

Who could possibly have imagined that after working an entire day, every single vegetable Aqua brought back would turn out to be lettuce?

Aqua lowered her head and nervously twisted the hem of her clothes between her fingers before admitting with remarkable honesty, "Because... because I thought I was going to make a huge amount of money all by myself!"

She had been convinced that with her abilities, she would catch an enormous number of cabbages.

Naturally, if she wanted to keep all that money for herself, their earnings had to be calculated separately!

How was she supposed to know that everything she caught would turn out to be lettuce?

They looked practically identical, so why was there such a ridiculous difference in price?

Hearing Aqua confess her selfish motive so shamelessly, Kazuma stared at her in contempt.

"You really are the worst."

Of course, thanks to Aqua’s own suggestion, every eris Kazuma had earned from selling his cabbages had gone straight into his own pocket.

The thought immediately improved his mood, and the look he gave Aqua became noticeably more smug.

"Please, Kazuma! Lend me the money!"

Aqua paid no attention whatsoever to his mockery.

At the moment, nothing mattered more than clearing her debt.

"I only need enough to pay everything back! Please, Kazuma!"

She was the Goddess of Water, for heaven’s sake!

If word spread through the heavens that a goddess had racked up debts and failed to repay them, the other gods would never let her live it down.

Seeing that Kazuma remained completely unmoved, Aqua’s eyes darted around as she prepared to try a different approach.

Before she could, however, Haruto walked over to their table.

He took out a heavy pouch of coins and pushed it in front of Aqua.

"There’s one hundred thousand eris in here."

"If you’re willing to cast a few Blessings for me and purify some water, the money is yours."

Kagura and Kanna had no objections to Haruto’s decision.

He had already explained Aqua’s true identity to them.

No matter how unreliable she appeared, Aqua really was the Goddess of Water.

Trading a hundred thousand eris for a goddess’s Blessings and water personally purified by her seemed like an extraordinarily favorable deal.

Aqua froze for a moment.

Then an enormous smile blossomed across her face.

"You’re Haruto, right? You’re such a wonderful person!"

Having immediately declared Haruto a good person, Aqua excitedly grabbed the pouch from the table and hugged it tightly against her chest.

"You’re ten thousand times better than Kazuma! No, a hundred thousand times! A million times better!"

As far as Aqua was concerned, Haruto’s requests were practically nothing.

A few Blessings and some purified water?

For the mighty Goddess of Water, those were trivial matters.

Now that she had money again, Aqua immediately straightened her back.

She shot Kazuma a triumphant glance, then practically skipped over to the tavern employee who had been watching her and handed over the money pouch.

Kazuma stared strangely at Haruto, completely unable to understand him.

Why would anyone willingly spend a full hundred thousand eris on something like this?

As far as Kazuma was concerned, Aqua’s Blessings couldn’t possibly be worth that much.

Aqua herself had atrocious luck!

What possible benefit could her blessing bring anyone?

Certainly not a hundred thousand eris’ worth.

Haruto, on the other hand, considered the deal an absolute bargain.

Both Aqua’s Blessing and water purified by the Goddess of Water had potentially immeasurable value.

Of course, Haruto had absolutely no intention of personally accepting any of Aqua’s Blessings.

He wasn’t taking any chances with whatever effect her questionable intelligence might somehow have on him.

In fact, Haruto already had a specific use in mind for the Blessings he wanted from her.

With Aqua settled, Haruto turned his attention toward Megumin.

Explosion was said to possess the greatest offensive power of any magic in this world.

More importantly, learning magic here merely required spending skill points rather than devoting years of time and effort to training.

Naturally, Haruto had no objection to adding the world’s most destructive spell to his arsenal.

He walked over to Megumin, took out another money pouch, and placed it in front of her.

"Megumin, I want to learn Explosion."

"This hundred thousand eris is your payment for teaching me."

The moment Megumin heard that someone actually wanted to learn Explosion, her head snapped upward.

Her eyes turned a brilliant crimson as she stared intensely at Haruto.

"Y-You want to learn Explosion?!"

"I’ll teach you as many times as you need! It doesn’t matter how often I have to demonstrate it!"

"No—rather, is there even any skill in this world other than Explosion that deserves to be learned?"

"There isn’t!"

"Explosion is the greatest, strongest, and most beautiful magic in existence!"

"Come! Walk the glorious path of Explosion with me! Together, we shall illuminate every corner of this world with the radiance of Explosion!"

Megumin grew more excited with every sentence, practically glowing with religious devotion.

To her, Explosion was the sole reason magic itself was worth studying.

That was precisely why she was more than willing to teach the spell to others.

She wanted more people to understand its beauty, experience its overwhelming power, and spread the glorious reputation of Explosion throughout the world.

Haruto blinked at her enthusiasm.

He hadn’t expected Megumin to agree quite this readily.

Of course, that made things much easier for him.

"Then I’ll be counting on you, Megumin."

"Heh-heh. Leave it to me!"

Megumin raised her chin proudly and puffed out her small chest, wearing an expression brimming with confidence.

"Then allow me to show you the true magnificence of Explosion!"

In this world, learning a skill from another person required the learner to first witness that skill being performed.

Only afterward would the corresponding option become available on their Adventurer’s Card.

So if Haruto wanted to learn Explosion, he naturally had to see Megumin cast it first.

Conveniently, Megumin had not yet used her daily Explosion.

She was therefore fully prepared to drag Haruto outside Axel immediately and give him a proper demonstration.

Megumin was certain that once he witnessed it, Haruto would become every bit as enamored with Explosion as she was.

Just then, Kazuma walked over with a serious expression.

"Hey, there’s something I need to warn you about."

"Explosion costs an absurd number of skill points to learn."

"Even if you have an advanced class, accumulating enough points for it isn’t easy."

Kazuma had never learned Explosion himself, but while researching skills earlier, he had checked exactly how expensive it was.

A full fifty skill points.

As a basic Adventurer, Kazuma received only one skill point each time he leveled up.

In other words, even if he learned absolutely nothing else and saved every single point, he would have to reach Level 50 just to accumulate the fifty skill points required for Explosion.

Megumin abruptly stopped in her tracks.

Her excitement faded as realization struck her.

She had been so thrilled that someone actually wanted to learn Explosion that she had completely forgotten this rather important detail.

No matter how willing she was to teach him, Haruto couldn’t learn Explosion if he didn’t possess enough skill points.

Megumin looked toward Haruto anxiously, tightening both hands around her staff as she bit her lip.

"Um... Explosion really does require a lot of skill points, but... but it truly is incredibly powerful!"

"Its destructive power is incomparable to every other form of magic! It’s absolutely worth the cost!"

Someone had finally volunteered to learn Explosion of his own free will.

Megumin had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away so easily.

Seeing how worried she looked that he might change his mind, Haruto suppressed a laugh.

Instead, he deliberately frowned and adopted a hesitant expression.

"Oh? Exactly how many skill points does Explosion require?"

"I’m not sure whether I currently have enough."

"If I don’t..."