The two newbie girls were named Leonora and Anastasia. Leonora was a Magic User with a specialty in offensive magic. Anastasia was a Priestess with a specialty in support and healing magic.

They were both magic users, so they didn't have much stamina, and they probably wouldn't be able to survive this town's training. Actually, it was amazing they had made it this far.

The truth was, they had been called to Iraira's office early on and told to give up on becoming adventurers, but they had pushed on out of spite. But this training, so heavily focused on physical strength, was impossible to pass.

They had started to think it was pointless and that they should just give up and try becoming adventurers in another town.

Ryu's advice to them involved how to use magic.

"Use magic? You mean cast support magic on ourselves?"

"That's one way...But can you two use support magic?"

"I can't. I'm offense-only."

"I'm a healer, I'm good at healing, detoxifying, and removing status ailments, but I'm not very good at support magic."

"But is it allowed to use magic during training?"

"I've done some research, and it seems like there's no rule against using magic during training. Which means it's acceptable to use magic to enhance your body to pass."

"But what magic do we use? For support magic, there's stuff like strength enhancement, speed enhancement, sensory enhancement, defense enhancement, attack enhancement, status ailment resistance enhancement, and even luck enhancement."

"None of those seem to help with running or strength training."

"Strength enhancement, stamina enhancement, those would help, right? Basic healing magic has some effect on fatigue..."

"Even if it worked, you'd run out of mana if you kept it on for hours."

"No, I think almost everyone who passed used magic to enhance themselves."

"What do you mean?"

"...Mana? You mean not magic?"

"That's right. Not "magic" in the sense of advanced, complex formulas. It's more like...primal..."

Actually, there was something Ryu had been wondering about ever since his memories of his past life on Earth returned.

The people in this world were incredibly strong compared to humans on Earth. He thought their physical structure was fundamentally different, but commoners seemed pretty similar to humans on Earth.

But adventurers and knights were far stronger and tougher than normal people.

Curious, Ryu had used the Divine Eye to observe the difference in the bodies of commoners, adventurers, and nobles.

What he found was that the humans in this world apparently used mana to enhance their bodies.

They all used mana to strengthen their bodies on a subconscious level. But most people were unaware of this mechanism, and they distributed the enhancement unevenly, so they had different strengths and weaknesses.

(Actually, there were swordsmanship schools in this world that were aware of this mechanism and actively trained their students to hone their skills. But those schools kept their techniques secret, so not many people knew about them.)

That meant that if you used mana effectively, you could intentionally enhance your body.

Ryu advised the two aspiring adventurers to give it a try.

"It's the same principle as support magic, but instead of activating it as magic, you directly channel your mana into bodily enhancement on a more primal level. I think.

The reason swordsmen and warriors are so strong is that they're using mana to enhance their bodies. On the other hand, they use mana for body enhancement, so they have less mana and aren't good at magic.

Conversely, those who are good at magic actively channel their mana into magic, so they don't have enough mana for physical enhancement.

But magic users and healers have more mana to begin with and are good at handling mana, so if they intentionally channel mana into physical enhancement, they should be able to strengthen their bodies as easily as warriors and swordsmen."

It was easy to quit, and they wanted to get back at Iraira for her condescending attitude towards magic users and healers. So Leonora and Anastasia decided to keep trying for a little longer and try what Ryu suggested.

...

At first, they struggled, but after several days of training, they gradually got the hang of it.

They were magic users and healers to begin with, so they had more mana than the average person and were good at manipulating it. Once they understood the technique, it went quickly. They started channeling mana into their bodies to enhance them, and they gained incredible physical ability.

Before they knew it, they could keep up with the top group in the marathon.

"You! What did you do to those two?"

Ryu was suddenly addressed by Iraira.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. Hmph. Fine. Results speak for themselves. We're doing mock battles tomorrow."

The next morning, all the trainees were gathered at Iraira's command.

"Alright, come forward!"

Two adventurers stepped forward at Iraira's call. When he took a closer look, he saw that one of them was the guy who had picked on him on the first day. His name was Papico, he remembered it because it was funny.

The other one...Ryu couldn't remember the name. As he thought about it, the two introduced themselves.

"I'm Papico, E-rank adventurer.""I'm Cairo, D-rank."

That's right, Cairo.

"Ryujeen."

"Huh?"

"I heard that you were an adventurer for four years, but you stayed at G-rank for a long time. You couldn't give up on being an adventurer despite your lack of talent, so you decided to start over in another town, did you?"

"I didn't get along with the guild master, he wouldn't let me rank up."

"Hmph. You can't lie to me. I had someone check you out. You've only been gathering herbs this whole time, and you were called 'Useless' , weren't you?"

Leonora and Anastasia were angry when they heard "Useless." They had seen how Ryu's advice had dramatically improved their skills, and they knew he had easily kept up with the obstacle marathon.

But Ryu was more confused than angry. He thought the Mirmul guild's registration information had been lost. Or maybe Iraira had investigated using her own connections. She was a former S-rank adventurer, she'd have a lot of adventurer connections.

The Mirmul adventurers had all perished, but some had been in town when Ryu was only gathering herbs and had left town later. If she had gotten information from someone like that...it would explain why the information was outdated—it didn't include anything after Ryu's awakening.

"I hate those who have no talent but want to be adventurers! People without strength should stop being adventurers, all it does is get you killed!"

Next Episode

Mock battle against adventurers!

Stay tuned!