Using Gacha to Increase My Companions and to Create the Strongest Girls’ Army Corps

Chapter 77 – The Appointment with Grin

[Yosh, the day to test our theories for the thing has come! Let’s do our best!]

[Understood! I feel very motivated thanks to our vacation!]

[Let’s not overdo things yeah? There’s going to be other people tagging along this time.]

A few days have passed since Luna’s first hunt.
It is the day of our appointment with Grin-san.
Thanks to the holiday we had, Noru looks as pumped up as ever while she did her guts pose.
We can go overboard a little as Grin-san is acquainted with us, but not too much as there are other people joining us this time.
If the current Noru were to attack an Orc at full power, it might turn into something harder to describe than minced meat.

[My muscles have been getting dull as we haven’t gone hunting recently.
I’ll be able to get a proper workout today!]

[You’ll mainly be on rearline support duty today, Shisuha.]

[B, but why!?]

Shisuha was on cloud nine as she thought she would be able to do some hunting today, but she bricked immediately upon hearing my plans for her and retorted loudly.
Her fervor is certainly helpful when it comes to farming manastones, but I also think she likes hunting way too much.

[We have already discussed this, our main objective today isn’t to hunt, it’s to research if there are other ways we can obtain manastones.
We won’t be the ones doing the hunting.
That’s what Grin-san and his companions will be doing, that’s what I have arranged for today.]

[B, but… what am I supposed to do with all this energy then!?]

[How would I knowー!]

We are supposed to have concluded discussions on what we will be doing with Grin-san and his party, how that equates to her assuming she’ll also be hunting baffles me.
I ignore Shisuha as she appeals to me with sad puppy eyes and her hands clasped in front of her chest as if in prayer.
My plans for Shisuha today are for her to fully support our guests as a priestess would normally do.
I have no intention of letting her hunt… But, seeing her like this has me slightly worried.

[Shisuha, if you end up causing any shenanigans this time… I’ll tell Luna that she can stop tolerating you.]

[Guee!? U, uu… I’ll be a proper Priestess this time, so please don’t, anything but that…]

I decided to give her a different sort of “motivation” as I was still worried.
Shisuha reacted with a sound that wouldn’t be expected from a lady, then said with almost teary eyes that she’ll behave.
I wasn’t expecting this to be so effective… Luna must really mean a lot to her.

[Ohー, to think I’d get to hear Shisuha say she will behave like a Priestess… but, why does it not sound convincing to me…]

[Onii-san, you shouldn’t be using such methods.
Don’t you feel bad treating Shisuha like that?]

[Eh… well, yeah.
Sorry.]

Noru gave a deadpan comment as she watched Shisuha’s skit.
Though it looks like the girls have figured out Shisuha’s real personality.
But, they also seem to have accepted her for what she is, so all is fine I guess…?

Then, Estel reprimanded me a little for my bad move.
The threat I used seemed the most effective (on Shisuha)… but I might have gone too far with it.

=====

[Grin-san, sorry to keep you waiting.]

[‘Sup, let’s do some good work together today.]

We went to the Adventurers Guild where we’ll be meeting Grin-san, and met up with his party who were waiting for us there.
A young couple was standing behind him.
The man with short brown hair nervously looked at us, while the woman with long brown hair smiles casually and pats his shoulder, telling him to calm down.

They were both similarly equipped with leather breastplates and armors, the man has a longsword sheathed on his waist, while the woman was holding a short spear.
They both looked younger than me… I’d guess they are fledgling adventurers?

[It was unexpected to get this weird request from you.
It’s not like you’d need my help Okura, you guys can hunt Black Orcs easily.]

[Ahaha… We have some private issues to sort out.
In exchange for not preying them, we will provide support to the utmost of our ability.]

[Well, that’s fine too.
It’s not everyday where average adventurers can get to experience the support magic of a mage and priestess, in addition I can let newbies like them safely hunt Black Orcs and gain combat experience; it’s win-win for both sides, amirite?]

There’s no way I can tell him this is an experiment for us to test out other means to get manastones.
It’s only natural for them to question our motives as to why we need to accompany them to hunt Black Orcs, rather than do it by ourselves.
I can’t help but thank Grin-san for accepting my odd request with no questions.
We settled talks regarding the rewards of this request, with me paying them a flat sum of gold and letting them have rights to all drop items found for the duration of this request.

I gave my word that we would provide full support as well, this was the last push that got Grin-san’s party to accept the request.
Grin-san motioned for the young couple behind him to come forward.

[I’m Okura, nice to meet you two and may today be fruitful for all of us.]

[N, nice to work with you! M, my name is Almiro!]

[You’re way too nervous, Almiro～.
I’m Camilla.
Thanks for making time today.]

We exchanged greetings and the young man replied first.
He stuttered here and there, perhaps out of nervousness.
He didn’t give the most dependable first impression, but he seems to be an honest young man.
The woman followed up and greeted us.
She sounds much calmer… more like, she gives a very laid back impression.
The pair feel green behind the ears, if I were to compare them to Dhius and Miguru-chan.

[They’re quite young.]

[Yeah, the two of them became adventurers not so long ago.
They are currently having trouble ascending from F to E rank, so Mana-chan asked me to guide them.
I myself have been sitting in E rank for quite some time too, there’s still a way to go for me to D rank… This’ll be a good opportunity for me to gain some experience as well.]

[I see.
We have some troubles of our own, our timing couldn’t have been any more fitting than this.]

After I exchanged greetings with the young pair, they moved on to greet Noru and the girls.
During that time, I had some small talk with Grin-san.

So, Grin-san is being something of a mentor for them.
Looks like I was right about them being fledglings.
With Noru and my Gacha gear I pretty much skipped this part of the learning process, normally I should be having more trouble living my life much like them…

=====

[Looks like we won’t be skipping leg day this time too, Okura-dono.]

We are currently traveling to the usual hunting ground where we hunt Black Orcs normally, now that the meeting up part is done.
Noru spoke to me in her ASMR voice so that our guests wouldn’t hear her.

[Yeah, we can’t use the Beacon as we have guests with us.]

[sigh This is one of the inconveniences of partying with other adventurers.]

Estel also joined in our conversation, as she let out a slightly dissatisfied sigh.
The goblin and orc forest is a decent walking distance away from Brunne.

We could have instantly traveled with the Beacon… But, this is something that we should hide from the residents of this world.
Someone might notice the Beacon, if we used it to travel.

[Is it so necessary to hide it that much? All kinds of things could be much easier if you used the items more openly…..]

[Hーmm… It’s kinda difficult to judge where the line is.]

[Perhaps if we knew how progressed the level of magic is in this world, we could pass off some of the Gacha items as “magic”.]

We have been careful not to let anyone else see the gimmick when we use stuff like the magic bags and carpet.
Honestly speaking it’s starting to be a pain, having to hide things like that.
But, it’s not like we could just up and stop doing so, since it will definitely be a bigger pain in the ass if we were found out.

I do wonder… How much of the Gacha items we could pass off as “magic”.
We were still weak shortly after coming to this world, so I was wary that we might get robbed, but now that we have strengthened up a bunch, we may be able to use the Gacha items in a more open manner.

[O, oi Okura… are we really going to be hunting here?]

[Eh? Yeah, we are… Is there something wrong?]

[Something wrong you say… This is pretty much the monsters’ nest! If we fought here, who knows how many monsters will pop out at the same time!?]

After walking for a while we could finally see our destination, the Goblin Forest.
As usual, goblins could be seen patrolling around the forest.
Grin-san called out to me in a slightly alarmed voice, as he caught up to me while worriedly looking at the forest.

He must have assumed that we will only be hunting at the outer edges of the forest and not actually enter it…maybe this is already too deep into the forest for normal adventurers.
…..It’s true that in my early days when my only party member was Noru, we were attacked by quite a number of monsters even though we didn’t enter the forest.

[It’s alright.
Our amazing Knight-sama will turn all the weak mobs into swiss cheese.
The Black Orcs will also appear more frequently this way.]

[Whew, so you have been hunting like that… So this is how you guys hunt such outrageous numbers in a day.]

Our objective is to hunt Black Orcs today, so this much is fine.
Since we have Noru with us, things shouldn’t get too dangerous even if shit does happen.
There’s also Estel and Shisuha, even if we get attacked by 100 Black Orcs all at once we would still be able to handle it.

[So what’s the plan? You guys gonna hunt the Black Orcs together with us?]

[No, we’ll take care of any goblins and regular orcs.
Grin-san, you and the newbies will be hunting the Black Orcs.]

The plan is for us the clean out all the regular mobs, and let Grin-san’s team focus on the Black Orcs.
Me and Noru will do the hunting, while Estel and Shisuha will be on the backline doing pure support with priority going to Grin-san’s team.

[Oh, got it.
But we shouldn’t suddenly start with Black Orcs, let us warm up with some goblins as well.
We also want to feel the difference of having the support magic.]

[Understood.
Grin-san, we’ll move in to do our part, when your team is done warming up.]

I thought we’d start right away, then Grin-san asked me if they could fight some goblins first.
There’s a considerable difference in movement, when it comes to having the support magic or not… I too was thrown for a loop when I first experienced it in the Labyrinth.
Veteran adventurers are really so thorough about this stuff, he’s not a veteran for nothing.
He’s the kind of role model that I aspire to become.

[Alright then, I’ll be casting support magic.]

[Hnngh… I can’t punch the monster even though I could reach it if I tried… Can I just punch 1 of them pretty please?]

[Please don’t, you know what’s at stake.]

Estel casually twirls her staff, then a light enveloped everybody in the area.
In contrast to Estel, Shisuha waves her staff weakly to cast her support magic.
She kept mumbling “Just 1…” as she sighed.
She still hasn’t given up! She’s going off the deep end…..
I’ll have to make her attend another session of Estel’s sermon again if her condition worsens.

I really hope she’ll repent after that…..

[Woah, so this is support magic.
I can feel strength welling up in my body.]

[Have you never been buffed by mage’s support magic before this?]

[Yeah, even though I have taken part in big subjugation requests in the past, I have only ever been part of the mob fighting squads.
There’s only so many guild mages and priestesses to go around, only a limited amount of people can get their support magic.]

Grin-san does a few swings with his sword after getting buffed.
It must really feel like a whole new world for him.
He did say something about participating in a Dragon subjugation before, so I thought he had experienced it before… Adventurer mages are really that rare.

[Almiro, Camilla, don’t get careless now just because you guys are buffed by support magic.]

[R, roger!]

[Gotcha～]

[Okay, let’s get to work.]

Grin-san gives a short pep talk to his team, they then proceed to run towards an isolated goblin.
Is working in a 3 man cell the norm for them?

The lone goblin, having noticed Grin-san’s team approaching, lifted its club up to intercept.
In response to that, the team fanned out as they advanced, with Grin-san taking the front, Almiro the right and Camilla the left; it seems they intended to attack from 3 directions at the same time.

The goblin looked to be at a loss in deciding what it wanted to do, as it shook its head in all 3 directions.
As that was happening, Grin-san closed the gap between him and his target and was in striking distance.
As Grin-san raised his sword to swing, the goblin braced with its club to guard.
However that didn’t matter, as Grin-san’s sword sliced through the club like a hot knife through butter and beheaded the goblin in one slash.

Oohー, kudos to Estel’s support magic, you become strong with it.
There’s also the passive party buffs from me and Noru in effect, that’s a 65% increase to attack power just from those.
It’s a little frightening just how many buffs you can get, just from partying up with my party.

[O, Okura! What the hell is this! Isn’t this too amazing!?]

[It’s all thanks to Estel.]

[Fufu, I’m amazing, right?]

Grin-san returned to us excitedly after defeating the goblin.
It must have felt pretty incredible to him.
He probably wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain the party buffs, so I simply said it was all Estel’s support magic instead.
She too smiled proudly at Grin-san, to match my excuse.

After having felt the effects of the support magic firsthand, the 3 of them began to go around hunting goblins solo; they also fought some normal orcs as they went around hunting for a short while.

[E, even I can kill goblins in a single blow…]

[We can even beat orcs so easily, mages are really something aren’t theyー]

[I was originally worried since we’re hunting Black Orcs, but this blows all the worries out the park.
It’ll be tough to work with our original strength after this, having tasted the boons of support magic.]

Grin-san, Almiro and Camilla-chan.
All 3 of them were overwhelmed by how nonsensically powerful they currently are.
The buffs from the support magic must be real game changers to them.
Grin-san now beamed with confidence after experiencing the buffs, he was apparently worried about having to hunt Black Orcs.

[I casted support magic too though…]

[It’s sorta hard to feel the effects of Shisuha’s support magic, since you need to get hit by attacks.]

[Speaking of which, does Shisuha’s support magic only increase defense?]

Amidst Estel’s support magic getting praised to the high heavens, Shisuha got slightly depressed as it went on.
Buffs to defense are basic but still very important, though it tends to get forgotten due to it not being flashy.
The healing magic of Priestesses gets the spotlight more often than their support magic.
I’m not really aware of the effects in detail, so I took the chance to ask about it.

[Let’s see… It increases defense, HP, magic resist, status ailment resist, and gives regen too I think.
Minor injuries should heal by themselves without needing me to heal them.]

[Ooh…that’s a lot more effective than I thought.]

Who knew Shisuha’s support magic had so many effects…..
Sorry for thinking it’s not flashy!
A lot of the other things she can do get outshadowed by the fact that she takes part in melee combat, even though she is supposed to be a great supporter……
Her performance as a sub-frontliner has also helped us out, so I have mixed feelings about this.

Alright then, it’s time for us to start doing our part too.

=====

[Grin-san! A Black Orc has appeared, be ready to focus on it! Leave the other monsters to us!]

[O, okay! Almiro, Camilla! Put your backs into this!]

[Roger!]

[Got itー]

Noru and I also joined the hunt, and mowed down the goblins and orcs that came towards us from deeper inside the forest.
Our objective, a Black Orc, has finally come bursting out from the woods, I informed Grin-san of it then moved to keep the other mobs away from his team.

[They may not look dependable, but there shouldn’t be any major problems.]

[Grin-san is properly giving them orders.]

By guiding it to a spot some distance away from the forest, we reduce the possibility of other monsters disturbing them to a minimum, and let Grin-san’s team focus solely on the Black Orc.
With their opponent being a rare variant, they are taking a cautious hit and run approach.
Grin-san would move in to shield the youths, if they aren’t able to dodge in time.
With Shisuha’s healing magic healing them immediately even if they do get hit, they are able to fight on with little worry.

Some time has passed since initial contact, the Black Orc finally collapses, with Almiro’s slash to the orc’s neck.
Uーmu, it is a rare variant after all.
It’s much tougher than the regular ones.

Let’s see, if the manastone counter in my smartphone increases with this, my theory would be proven correct…
I expectantly pulled out my smartphone, and looked at the manastone numbers.
We currently have 0 after rolling the CompGacha, so if it has increased to 1, the experiment would be considered a success…

[Huh…we didn’t get the manastone?]

[Eh…are you sure!?]

[We properly partied up, didn’t we?]

[Yeah, their names are on the Beacon menu.]

[What’s going on here…]

The result was 0.
In other words, we can’t get manastones from outsiders just from partying up.
The names of Grin-san’s team are in the Beacon selection menu, so I’m sure they are considered as part of our party.
Hーmm? What are we not getting here?