Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

"I refuse."

"That would be a bit…"

I got hit with two girl's disapproving faces after I flew down to the ground, took care of the unfortunate goblin with a well-shot arrow and presented a different approach to my Darkness Leveling Strategy™.

Darkness, who just a few seconds ago was close to crying due to not being able to end the suffering of the goblin before her, had a surprisingly resolute air around her.

"Why?"

I asked curiously, wondering why she would disagree with my Darkness Leveling Strategy™.

"As a Crusader, it would be unhonourable of me to just stay still and do nothing while all the work is done by others!"

The idea I had was to just drop the goblin right onto Darkness's sword she would be keeping in the air. I had to admit that it was a pretty gruesome plan that wouldn't fix the core issue - Darkness's accuracy that was beyond abysmal. I thought about it for a moment and then asked just to be sure:

"Okay then… don't you have any learnable skills that would help you with your swordsmanship? The Bow skill I took gave me the ability to shoot pretty accurately without much former practice."

I saw Darkness suddenly start fidgeting around and avoiding eye contact:

"I have but… it's pretty expensive and ummm… I used all my Skill Points on strengthening my body to be able to take more…"

The last part of her sentence was too silent for me to hear clearly but I could pretty much imagine what she said, judging by her… not really decent expression.

I started to understand better why Chris was so worried about Darkness. She not only had those 'tendencies' but has also entirely left out the means of fighting back if something were to actually happen.

"So how much Skill Points would you require?"

"12 for a Two-Handed Wielding skill. Same for One-handed."

"..." x2

Even Megumin was left speechless after Darkness hit us with numbers.

"A basic skill like that for 10 points… Hey, isn't that strange?"

Megumin looked at me questioningly as if I had any way to confirm her doubts. Although I had no idea about Crusader's skills or any melee class for that matter, it sounded doubtful that a Two-Handed Wielding skill would cost four times more than a Bow skill in Ranger's class.

"I am telling the truth! See for yourself!"

Darkness fumbled and showed us her Adventurer Card and indeed she had no Skill Points left, a bunch of defensive skills taken, and an option to take melee skills for the stupidly exorbitant price.

"Is there a possibility that an Adventurer Card could be bugged?"

I involuntarily voiced. According to what Chris told me and what I observed the price for skill was dependant on the knowledge or experience one had had in the specific field so I couldn't believe the phenomenon written right in front of my eyes.

"Bugged?" x2

The two asked about the weird word so I quickly fixed my question:

"Is it not working properly? Maybe let's ask about it in the guild."

"I never heard of an Adventurer Card that was broken."

Megumin declined my theory and Darkness nodded to this as well. Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask later because if that wasn't the case then I feared that… Darkness's character was broken instead.

Was her d.e.s.i.r.e to be hurt erasing every possible ounce of logic in her brain regarding any means of counter-attacking? That couldn't be the case, right?

After a minute of thinking I couldn't find any solution to this problem so I proposed:

"Let's try it again, okay?"

Darkness nodded, albeit reluctantly, so I transformed and went off to hunt for another goblin test subject. I could see more than ten green monsters in the vicinity so I quickly came back to Darkness and similarly released it so it would fall right in front of her.

"Ugaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Darkness NOW!"

Goblin's cry accompanied by Megumin-Coach's timely instruction was followed by Darkness grunting with effort while swinging her sword. But this time as well she didn't hit the mark or another five following swings either.

I had to finish off the goblin because it was about to pounce on Darkness after her 9th missed hit.

"It's not a shame play I want to take part in!"

Darkness looked very close to crying and crouched down with her hand between her arms. Megumin came up to her and started patting her head while giving me a "What now?" look.

I felt as if I was somehow bullying Darkness by trying to help her. But if things were left like that Darkness would eventually fall behind everyone else and be unable to continue being an adventurer without her party.

And the fact that Darkness was secretly a noble lady only assured me in thinking that she wouldn't stop being an adventurer because she probably had some reason for it. Or were her 'tendencies' the sole factor?

Although the situation looked horrible I had one more idea which came to me after observing Darkness's second attempt to kill the goblin. And that idea passed the 'Darkness's Crusader's code of ethics'… probably. I walked up to Darkness and said:

"I just got an idea. Give me your sword for a moment."

Darkness finally moved her head to look at me with questioning gaze but soon she handed me her sword. I then prompted Darkness to observe me and made a certain pose and then swung the sword in a particular way.

"Can you do something like this?"

"Ummm… yeah, but how would that-"

"Then show me."

Darkness uncertainly followed my directions and quickly she looked like a proper… baseball batter with a sword instead of the baseball bat. She then took a swing and her blade drew a perfectly horizontal line in front of her.

"Great!"

I voiced towards the more and more confused Darkness as I changed into my Crimson Demon form and unpinned the cloak I had from my shoulders.

"Now I will blindfold you and you will take a swing on Megumin's shout, okay?"

Darkness nodded her head and let me put the thick fabric around her head but quickly asked afterward:

"You aren't blindfolding me to leave me behind, right? I would be on the mercy of all those wild beasts-"

Darkness's wild fantasies once again spilled out even with her hands being able to undo the blind at any moment.

"..." x2

I left reassuring Darkness to Megumin and I went to find the third sacrifice for the Darkness Leveling Strategy™. When I came back to the are with another crying goblin I didn't drop it directly in front of Darkness. I threw the goblin in the air and landed on the ground myself.

Then I transformed into my Giant Toad form and caught the monster with my Toad's tongue. Seeing Megumin ready to announce the instruction to Darkness I ejected the goblin as hard as I could.

"NOW!"

Darkness took a swing and the goblin… flew 10 meters past her.

But in two separate pieces.

"Darkness you did it!"

Megumin happily exclaimed towards the no-longer blindfolded Crusader but Darkness who surprisingly had a bittersweet expression on her face. It didn't seem like this method was sitting well with her.

When I was observing Darkness previously I saw her react on Megumin's shout instantly but when she was about to strike the goblin she always hesitated and ultimately never hit it. So I thought that by adding a blindfold she would be able to finally hit it.

I transformed back again into a human and started walking towards the two when I noticed a bizarre amalgamation of colors coming out from the treeline. It was a yellowy-black sphere with streaks of green here and there. And I saw it suddenly speed up when Megumin and Darkness came into its vision.

"Megumin-!"

Darkness saw it as well and she quickly reacted before I could even take out an arrow, not as I could even hit that shot anyways. She stood between Megumin and the creature and took its bull-rush to her crossed arms.

The next thing I saw was the same lump of colors falling down to the ground lifelessly.

"What the heck was that?!"

Megumin shouted as I finally approached them and could see under Darkness's feet. We all looked at the remains lying on the grass and I finally could tell what it was.

"It's a burned up cabbage. It probably survived your Explosion yesterday and fled."

It seemed weirdly fixated on Megumin even when Darkness shielded her but it just died crushing itself against Darkness's arms.

"You okay, Darkness?"

I asked because she didn't turn around to face us and I saw her shoulders going up and down quicker and quicker.

"That's it!"

Darkness finally yelled out loudly.

"That's how we should do it! Kazuki should throw monsters directly at me! Or better yet, he should throw ME AT THEM!"

"..."

"Don't be stupid Darkness. We will find another way to level you up, right Kazuki? Wait, why do you look as if you were seriously considering her proposition?!"

I certainly wasn't thinking that it was a plausible idea with Aqua around so I cleared my throat and answered.

"Ekhem...Yeah.Ummm... I already have a different approach in mind. But for now… did you get that goblin's and cabbage's EXP on your card's log?"

We put a massive damper on Darkness's excitement but after she took out her card and looked at it she once again exclaimed vigorously.

"I leveled up!"

Darkness Leveling Strategy™ 1 Complete!

We both congratulated Darkness who looked as if she had leveled up for the first time in forever. Which… probably wasn't far from the truth considering Darkness's approach to adventuring.

As a self-proclaimed temporary party leader, I decided that the goal was achieved for that day and Darkness was only slightly sad about me not listening to her pleads to launch her at monsters right then and there.

"What about the quest?"

Megumin asked after a few seconds of thinking. We indeed haven't yet completed our quest with only 3 goblins slain. My Young Griffin form could easily maul through a remaining number of goblins required but I had a different idea in mind that didn't include getting my Griffin's feathers all dirty with goblin blood which I shared with Megumin.

She only looked at me for a second before her eyes shone and she made an appropriate pose for a Crimson Demon.

"He He He! Then, it shall be so! Come on Darkness, stop sulking. Let's go!"

With Megumin urging her on, they both quickly sat down on my back as well and I flew high in the sky. I looked around the forest and quickly saw a group of goblins that I have been harassing all this time.

Megumin who was fervently scanning the area as well noticed them as well and her only words were "A little bit closer!" before she started standing on my back instead of sitting calmly. Darkness, on the other hand, started panic a little bit seeing Megumin's weird actions and quickly started securing Megumin so she would not fall down.

She was supposed to wait until I was ready but that's Megumin for you. I made sure to descend as slowly as possible before she shouted "Okay!" and then I started hovering us in the place. I was able to maintain the altitude for a good minute before I would be out of magic and Megumin, knowing that fact, quickly started chanting her spell.

"Explooooooosion!"

Her spell was even more majestic-looking from above the ground. We admired it in silence until and airwave hit me in the wings and I had to urgently move to catch balance. Megumin unable to move by herself was kept on board by Darkness who seemed to lament the lives of dead goblins lost that day.

"A view from the sky - 20 bonus points. Today's Explosion is worth 100 points!"

I could hear Megumin nonchalantly speak on my back while I was desperately trying to not hit the trees.

After a few seconds of desperately maneuvering in the air, I managed to calm down our flight. While making a mental promise to not forget basic physics I flew higher and headed towards the city.

(A/N: I am thinking of making Darkness Leveling Strategy™ a series of side stories. They would happen from time to time, outside of the course of the normal events in my fanfic and I would try to make them more humorous than what happened in this chapter. I was always curious how exactly did Darkness level up throughout the course of the original and I decided to try to answer that question in my fanfic.

PS. The first part of the title means "I refuse" in Japanese and is basically a Jojo meme. Search "I refuse" on youtube and you should find the meme.)