Chapter 547: The Strength of the Young Team

After departing Swen, the first day passed without the group encountering any monsters.

That was only natural while they were traveling along a well-maintained road. Nothing unusual happened over the next several days either. On the sixth day, the three teams entered a mountain path and pushed deeper into the Antas Mountain Range.

The Antas Mountains were an area known for being home to many formidable monsters.

Sure enough, the group soon encountered five ogres.

Ogres, with their demonic appearance and resistance to physical attacks, were monsters that boasted B-rank–level strength if one tried to fight them using only swords.

Tauro knew well how dangerous ogres could be, and so did the A-minus team Blue Thunder Beast and the B-minus team Silver Twin Mages.

At first, Tauro and his companions considered handling the ogres themselves as a sort of greeting, but the twin sisters Gemma and Gemis of Silver Twin Mages stepped forward and declared together:

“We don’t need your help!”

With that, they began chanting.

Having been told so bluntly, Tauro and the others couldn’t do anything.

Gemma and Gemis placed Jimin, their one-handed sword-and-shield user, and Budar, their ranger and pharmacist, in the vanguard while the twins kept their distance from the ogres. First, the younger sister Gemis, a flame mage, unleashed a wide-area spell that dropped a massive fireball onto the group.

The ogres were scorched by the intense heat and destructive power.

Then, as a follow-up, the older sister Gemma, a water mage, impaled the ogres with countless water spears.

Countless spears of water pierced their bodies, which were already burning from the flames, finishing them off one by one.

In no time at all, all five ogres were reduced to pitiful heaps by the twins’ magic.

“Whoa…! It feels like overkill, but those ogres went down in an instant,” Tauro said, impressed by the twins’ coordination.

“This is the true strength of Silver Twin Mages!” Gemma declared proudly.

They had clearly wanted to show this off, deliberately using excessive force to defeat the enemy.

It was likely their usual winning pattern when hunting large targets.

“I understand why Silver Twin Mages are considered Swen’s promising young team, but if you fight like that every time, won’t you run out of magical power later?” Aeris pointed out.

Powerful magic consumed a great deal of magical power.

No matter how talented the twin mages were, once their magical power ran dry, they would be unable to cast effectively.

In a region like the Antas Mountains, filled with powerful monsters, managing one’s magical power was critical.

“Hehehe. We have an excellent pharmacist on our team!” Gemma replied, as though she had expected Aeris’s comment, and gestured toward Budar beside her.

Budar reached into the pouch at his waist and handed a magic-restoration potion to each twin.

“Well? What do you think? Our Budar can make extremely valuable magic-restoration potions. Thanks to these, my sister and I have no weaknesses. Pretty amazing, right?”

Gemma said this as she drank the magic-restoration potion.

“Judging by the color, that magic-restoration potion is still an unfinished version. Wow, that brings back memories. When I first started making them in Dansas, I could only make unfinished ones like that too. They’re still very useful, though,” Tauro said nostalgically, remembering the village where Black-Gold Wings had first formed.

“That’s true. Back then, your magic-restoration potions were still far from what they’re now,” Aeris added, also looking nostalgic.

“U-unfinished!?” Gemma exclaimed, shooting a glance at Budar to confirm.

Startled, Budar shook his head vigorously.

For Budar, his magic-restoration potions had been the decisive factor in passing Silver Twin Mages’ entry test. He had complete confidence in his work and had never considered them unfinished.

“Don’t be ridiculous! There aren’t many pharmacists who can make magic-restoration potions, you know? Calling them unfinished—!” Budar protested angrily, offended that the potion he took such pride in had been dismissed.

“Ah, sorry. I can make magic-restoration potions too. For comparison, this is the completed version, one grade above yours. And this is an even higher-grade version. Feel free to take a look,” Tauro said.

Tauro was genuinely happy to meet another pharmacist who could make magic-restoration potions, so he took several from [Magic Storage] and displayed them side by side.

“! …I can tell immediately. The color is clearer, and the purity is much higher than mine… And this is an even higher-grade version? What an incredible luster… Just looking at it, I can tell it’s extremely effective.”

Budar, clearly an accomplished pharmacist, froze in shock at the sight of Tauro’s potions.

“Ggh! D-don’t think you’ve won! You still can’t beat us twins when it comes to magic!” Gemma blurted out sourly after seeing her team’s prized pharmacist completely outclassed by Tauro’s magic-restoration potions.

“I wasn’t trying to compete. I’d just be happy to talk shop with you about pharmacology, Budar-san…”

Tauro had simply wanted someone to talk to about potion-making, something he had honed through steady, quiet effort but rarely had the chance to discuss with others.

“I don’t know exactly what the standard is for magic among adventurers in the B-rank band, but… you two really are impressive. Still, your magical control is rough, and burning through so much power on excessive attacks is a bad habit. You should assess the enemy carefully and adjust your output to match its strength,” Aeris said.

Aeris personally knew several truly exceptional mages.

Among them were Maria, the dragonfolk [True Saint], and Slane, the dragonfolk [Divine Mage]—casters capable of ultimate spells that could turn vast areas into scorched wasteland, yet who deliberately avoided using such power unnecessarily.

At that level, what mattered was defeating an enemy efficiently with precisely the amount of magic required, without waste.

Aeris herself had been lectured repeatedly on that very point and trained to the same standard.

That was why, when she saw something of her past self in the talented twins, she ended up sounding like an instructor.

“S-shut up! If you’re so confident, then the next time a monster appears, your team has to defeat it! We’ll judge your strength then!” Gemma snapped defiantly, with Gemis nodding in agreement.

“Hey, don’t forget that this job isn’t about competing with each other,” Jack, leader of Blue Thunder Beast, finally stepped in to mediate.

At that, Silver Twin Mages fell silent, clearly holding back what they wanted to say.

They then put some distance between themselves and Black-Gold Wings and moved ahead.

Tauro and Jack exchanged wry smiles.

“Well then, let’s keep moving,” Jack said simply, and started forward.

Tauro and the others nodded and followed behind Blue Thunder Beast, taking up the rear of the formation.