Meanwhile, Renzo floated over using telekinesis, arms crossed as he hovered in front of Kazuma, looking down at him with an amused expression. "Who the hell told you we came here just for the quest?"
Kazuma looked genuinely confused.
"Of course not!" Renzo let out an exasperated sigh before... patiently explaining, "The main reason we're here is to train your combat skills, level you up a few times, and help you earn skill points so you can learn abilities that synergize with Water Breathing—like Sacred Water Creation! And, of course, the Physical Growth skill, which improves your physical constitution through training!"
"Or do you not want to get stronger?"
To be honest, if it weren't for his own experiments, Renzo wouldn't have bothered wasting his time here at all.
Kazuma was immediately touched by Renzo's selfless efforts on his behalf.
He was so fired up that he practically shouted, "I got it, Boss! I'll keep killing monsters! Today's target is ten—no! Twenty giant toads!"
Renzo raised an eyebrow, nodding approvingly like a proud teacher. "Good! Go for it! I'll have Aqua buff and heal you along the way!"
"Alright, let's goooo!"
Kazuma tightened his grip on his sword, locked onto another target, and charged forward.
"Hey... are you sure tricking him is okay?"
Aqua, who had somehow appeared beside Renzo, struggled to hold back her laughter as she asked.
Renzo raised a brow. "I am telling the truth, aren't I?"
Aqua opened her mouth to argue but found herself at a loss for words.
This guy could spout nonsense with a straight face like it was nothing!
"You follow Kazuma and keep him buffed. I'll go hunt some stronger monsters to level up," Renzo said before vanishing with a whoosh, teleporting deeper into the mountains to massacre high-level monsters for more experience.
He spent the entire day farming. By the time the sun was setting, he finally wrapped things up and teleported back to Aqua and Kazuma.
"There you are! We've been waiting forever! Time to head back, right? And don't forget—my Bubbly wine!"
As soon as Renzo arrived, Aqua got up from the ground and latched onto him like a koala.
He was sprawled out on the ground, gasping for air like a dying dog, completely drained.
Still, when he saw Renzo, he forced a grin, weakly raised a thumbs-up, and proudly announced, "Boss! I went above and beyond—I killed thirty giant toads today! I'm already Level 5!"
Renzo arched an eyebrow. He had already sensed what happened here, but he still put on an act, glancing around at the numerous dead toad corpses before giving Kazuma a thumbs-up in return. "Not bad! Alright, let's head back!"
"But first, let's harvest the best parts of these toads."
These were premium ingredients—worth quite a bit of money!
Without further ado, Renzo soared into the air, flying over each toad corpse and swiftly cutting them apart with precise sword slashes.
Within minutes, he had expertly extracted the most valuable cuts of meat and had them floating neatly behind him, following along in an orderly line.
In just over ten minutes, he had processed all the toad corpses.
"Man, flying is so convenient!"
Kazuma watched the whole process with envy.
He wanted to learn how to fly too, but Renzo had already told him that he wasn't ready for that skill yet.
For now, he could only dream...
"Alright! Time to go!"
Soon, Renzo led Aqua and Kazuma back to Axel.
"Whoa! The ingredients are floating?! What's going on?"
"Duh! That's obviously one of that dude's skills!"
"Wait, swordsmen have skills like that?! I wanna switch to a swordmaster class!"
"...Are you an idiot? No swordsman—hell, not even a swordmaster—has skills like that!"
As soon as they entered the city, Renzo's little display immediately drew a crowd.
After all, having fresh meat floating behind him like a parade of fine cuisine was kinda flashy.
"You show-off," Aqua pouted in jealousy.
If she had an ability like that, she'd definitely gain a ton of new followers!
"And what about it?" Renzo smirked at her.
To be fair, Aqua was quite pretty, and her figure was definitely... well-endowed.
But her intelligence and frequent bouts of absolute lunacy were enough to crush any illusions one might have about her.
"Such a waste of potential," Renzo sighed dramatically.
"I get what Boss is saying! That's exactly how I feel too!"
Aqua didn't understand, but Kazuma nodded in complete agreement.
By the time they reached the Adventurer's Guild, they had already attracted plenty of attention.
"Oh my! You're back!"
Luna greeted them with a bright smile, glancing at the large amount of premium toad meat floating behind Renzo. "It looks like you've brought back quite the haul—far more than what the quest required! Come on, let's submit your quest report first!"
"By the way, would you like to sell that toad meat to the guild? We can offer you a pretty good price!"
Internally, Luna was thrilled.
'As expected, Renzo and his team are no ordinary adventurers!'
'For a first mission, this is an insane amount of loot!'
'They can become an Eris mach—uh, I mean, an excellent—adventuring party in the future!'
"This quest required killing five toads, at 10,000 Eris each. That's 50,000 Eris for the quest. As for the 30 high-quality toad meat cuts—each worth 20,000 Eris—that totals 600,000 Eris."
"Altogether, your reward comes to 650,000 Eris!" Luna smiled as she pushed a massive pile of coins toward them.
"Whoa! 650,000?! That's a fortune!"
Kazuma and Aqua's eyes instantly lit up.
They had been broke for so long!
For the past two weeks, they never had to worry about food or shelter thanks to Renzo, but they didn't have a single Eris to spend on personal purchases!
Now, they finally had their own cash! No way they wouldn't be excited!
"Um... Miss Luna, could you let go of the money now?"
As Renzo reached out for the reward, he noticed Luna's hands firmly pressed against the pile of coins—like a greedy dragon guarding her treasure.
He had almost forgotten—Luna was basically a money-hoarding gremlin.
Caught red-handed, Luna chuckled nervously. "Of course! Here you go, Renzo-san!"
"Then let go already!"
Renzo tried pulling the money toward him, but Luna still wouldn't budge. He rolled his eyes.
Finally, another guild employee couldn't take it anymore and helped pry Luna off the money.
Renzo wasted no time scooping up the coins, completely ignoring Luna's heartbroken expression.
Then, like a heartless man dumping his girlfriend, he immediately dragged Kazuma and Aqua over to a table to split the loot and order some food.
After all, everyone deserved a good meal after a long, hard day of work!
…Well, maybe not everyone.
Kazuma was so exhausted that he couldn't even lift his arms anymore.
Aqua? She was just disgusted.
And Renzo? With his strength, killing a few monsters was nothing. So did he really deserve a reward after such an easy day?
Oh, by the way—he was already Level 20.
High-level monster farming was insanely efficient.