Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

Following the demise of the mutated Gator monster was a variety of reactions from my team members.

Firstly there was Kazuma who took out his adventurer card and started yelling in happiness upon finding out that he gained a whole four levels in one go. I checked mine and there was no change at all even though I contributed to the monsters' end so it meant that only the person that struck the final blow would get experience.

Then there was Aqua patting Darkness on her back and telling her how awesome she was. The blue-haired archpriest mentioned teaming-up with Darkness to hand out some justice to heathens too but soon Megumin stormed in and started sternly reprimanding Darkness so no deal was done between the crusader and the archpriest.

While the weird scene of a small girl angrily lecturing a blonde knight sitting in seiza position played out in the distance I stood next to Aqua and said:

"That were some awesome buffs! And the heal in the end probably saved all of us, you are amazing too, Aqua!"

She was stunned for a second after hearing my praises but she soon adopted her usual boisterous pose and answered:

"You finally realize my greatness? Praise me more! Admit that you haven't seen a better archpriest in your entire life!"

Well, the last request wasn't difficult at all since I haven't seen any other archpriest in my life but I also included an apology for my actions towards her like Giant Toad business or Owl-poop business. I genuinely felt remorseful for my infantile behavior.

I haven't said all of this because the thought of Aqua and Hulkness teaming up to beat my b.u.t.t scared me or because I needed some healing for my Giant Toad form which after adrenaline rush went off I noticed had some broken bones. I really felt ashamed of my actions! Really!

Aqua seemed suspicious at first but after I said my piece she somehow didn't detect any falsehood in my statements and with a smile said that treating her with some good alcohol will clear any bad feelings she had.

Aqua's attitude towards me did almost 180-degree turn so I tried my luck and carefully asked her if she would be magnanimous enough to heal the Giant Toad form even though she hated it. Even if she denied I would ask her that frequently and hope she would finally cave in. Surprisingly, she did it immediately with a smile and without any incisive comment to boot!

Maybe if I tried to be nice to Aqua, she would be a nice companion too?

After he was done with celebrating his big leap in levels Kazuma also added a few things from his mind to Megumin's lecture and Darkness couldn't decide between being ashamed or ecstatic after being lashed with words. Terms like "muscle-for-brains" went flying but Megumin intervened and she continued instead of Kazuma with angry, but less offensive speech.

Megumin appeared extremely upset about Darkness's hotheadedness but somehow I knew that part of it was Megumin's frustration of not having an opportunity to use Explosion on the 'cool' monster.

When Megumin seemed to be done with Darkness Kazuma asked me:

"Did you acquire that Demon Gator's form as well?"

Oh right, I haven't thought about that with all the things happening around. I quickly used [List] to check my possible forms.

>Mouse

>Goblin

>Human

>Giant Toad

>Crimson Demon

>Owl

>Demon Gator (4m0s)

How Kazuma knew the monster's actual name- Ah, right, the adventurer's card was listing monsters that have been slain by the person.

Anyways, it appeared I needed another four more minutes of the physical contact to get the form.

"No, I need a few more minutes." I said and went to sit on the Gator's remains to acquire his form. Meanwhile, Kazuma announced to the team:

"Okay, the job is done but we still have to-"

But Aqua suddenly chimed in.

"Kazuma, I've been wondering, but do you think you are a party leader or something?"

"Isn't he?" x3

A choir of voices suddenly sounded out. Megumin, Darkness and I expressed our surprise to Aqua's statement.

"Of course not! As the highest-ranked job holder, I should be the party leader! It should be obvious that a goddess would hand out orders!"

"Goddess?" Both Megumin and Darkness had that cringe expression of "uwaaah" on their faces.

"Let's just go with a majority vote. Who wants to be the leader, hands up!" Kazuma seemed unperturbed, it felt as if he was expecting this sort of event and proposed a very simple solution.

Only Aqua and Kazuma put their hands up.

"Left hand up if you want Aqua as a party leader, right hand high if you want me as a leader. Everyone has a vote."

Of course, I would vote for Kazuma, the same as Megumin and Darkness. Kazuma was just an obvious choice. But then I had a thought. In three to two ratio three is still a majority. I immediately winked 'inconspicuously' to Kazuma and raised my hand.

And indeed there were two votes for Aqua and three for Kazuma. Megumin, Darkness, and even Aqua herself looked at me with surprised faces but I just shrugged. Only Kazuma seemed to understand my true intentions though. Why not garner some free points if there's a chance right in front of me?

"You cheated! People are righthanded so they usually pick the right side!" Aqua tried to use her weird logic but Kazuma just simply stated:

"Okay, once again. Reversed order! Left - me. Right - Aqua!" and the group reached the same conclusion again.

"Girls should help each other! Why did you choose Kazuma!?"

"I mean, he behaves like a party leader and you…not really."

"Yeah…"

Megumin and Darkness answered truthfully so Aqua quickly came to me to complain but I just nodded profusely and said that unfortunately they were in majority and we should adjust accordingly. Aqua didn't let up for a minute or two but soon calmed down.

Kazuma cleared his throat and started again. "Okay, the job is done but we still have to come back to the city. Kazuki, will you scout again?"

I switched to an owl form to check something up- and yeah. I suddenly toppled down on the monster's corpse.

"You alright?"

After transforming into a human again I said: "Unfortunately I strained my wings with hours of flying and that last rush-" Before I could even finish the sentence Aqua already patted me on the shoulder and said:

"I can heal you again, no problem."

While I transformed and Aqua chanted her spell I saw Kazuma giving me a 'good job' thumb up.

I instantly felt entirely refreshed and full of energy.

And I also suddenly felt extremely horrible after having a thought that manipulating Aqua could be a good way to go. Wasn't that the most sc.u.mmy thing I could do? Wouldn't I become like one of those jerks from novels that only use people as a convenience?! Kazuma, what are you approving with that thumbs up?!

I decided to really try to be friendly with her instead of using lies and deception as I have done since a few minutes ago.

After inwardly slapping myself I changed back to human and thanked Aqua. She just smiled back in answer.

When I got over my internal conflict and, according to my senses, enough time had passed I used [List] command again to check why I didn't hear the *ding* sound that should ring when acquiring Demon Gator form was done. I then noticed that the number didn't go down even a single second.

I changed my sitting position thinking that I just somehow didn't touch the monster properly but nothing I tried made that counter go down after multiple tries. When Kazuma saw me assuming some strange poses he asked curiously:

"Something's wrong?"

"My skill won't pick up that I am touching this monster anymore! It probably means that it works-"

"Only on alive monsters."

I nodded to Kazuma's words. All evidence lead to that conclusion.

All the imitations I acquired happened when the monster was still alive, including the Giant Toad with which I was stabbing for a few minutes straight. The amount of physical contact I had with that Gator while he was still alive was maybe a minute at maximum.

That was a real shame! But there was nothing I could do now. Even if I knew that fact beforehand I don't know if we could hold on for even a minute longer before someone got seriously hurt.

Megumin seemed even more disappointed than me. I somehow felt sorry for her and said to not worry and there will be more cool forms- wait, why was I comforting her and not the other way around?!

"Okay then, we gotta go back. Kazuki, you are up."

I patted Megumin's shoulder one last time and then transformed into an owl to do my scouting job.

My team had a 30-minute long, uneventful walk through the forest while I was scanning the area around them. Then I noticed the same party of adventurers who were previously fighting with some horned rabbits.

It seemed that after I left the area they stumbled upon a bigger group of those small monsters but they still beat them without any serious injuries. However, they looked extremely exhausted and weren't observing their surroundings.

There were at least twenty monster bodies laying around and the stench of blood seemed to reach that group of goblins I spotted on our way to the river bend. The three of them, equipped with two daggers and even a sword, were actually sneaking towards the group of adventurers while the fourth goblin was preparing to shot an arrow from behind.

With the goblins very quickly gaining distance there was no time for me to land, switch to a human and shout the warning so for the second time that day I decided to do what I called "carpet toading".

This time I made sure to fly at the right altitude to not hurt myself too much while landing.

I flew above the group of three goblins and then transformed into a Giant Toad.

What occurred next was a tremor after my toad's heavy body hit the ground and I felt the uncomfortable crunch under my toad's belly together with some liquid spilling out.

"Wha-?!"

"Giant Toad!"

"Where did it come from?!"

"The hell-"

The sudden appearance of a giant monster surprised the party and all exclaimed loudly.

Without minding them I shot my toad's tongue towards the last goblin that was even more dumbfounded.

One second there were his colleague goblins sneaking towards the adventurers and another second there was a Giant Toad flattening them completely. The next seconds weren't any better because he suddenly got pulled inside Giant Toads' mouth. It was a bad day to be a goblin archer.

As I wanted to check something I resisted the urge to vomit the goblin out. Instead, I just simply jumped in the air, as high as I could and changed back into an owl form.

Huh. So I could do that.

What happened with the goblin then?

Silencing out another round of confused screams from adventurers I changed once again into a Giant Toad and there was still a goblin inside my mouth so I spat him out. What came out was a lifeless corpse.

I suddenly felt an imaginary sweat coming down my imaginary human forehead. When I was angry at Aqua and transported her inside my toad's mouth I thought about changing forms to see what would happen. I was glad I opted to do some testing first.

Let's always do that. Test things before trying them out. Yeah.

I could hear adventurers' throats starting to get sore from all the shouting.

"WHAT?!"

"That toad- to owl-?!"

"That goblin just-!"

"I can't even-"

When I looked at them with my toad eyes they all became silent and gulped. I then noticed that I met two of these guys in the adventurer's guild. Dust and Keith were their names. There were another guy and a girl together with them.

I thought that explaining things would take too long and I have left my scouting job for a few minutes unattended so I just jumped, transformed and flew away. The adventurers started shouting again and I could even hear some thank-yous.

Fortunately, my own party seemed to be perfectly fine and kept going south. We reached the city without meeting up with that other party.