“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask... How exactly do you acquire skills?”

It was the day after we’d fought the Giant Toads. We were having a late lunch at the Guild tavern. In front of me, Megumin, who apparently had no money and had been unable to eat anything decent until she met us, was singlemindedly working her way through a combo meal. Aqua was getting a nearby waiter to bring her seconds.

She sure had a fine appetite for a woman her age.

You’d think a party of two girls and one guy would basically be a starter harem, but this wasn’t hot at all.

Megumin looked up, fork still in hand.

“How to learn skills? Why, from the place on your card that shows currently available skills, of course... Oh, your class is Adventurer, is it not? Since that’s a starter class, you have to have someone teach you new skills. Have them show you a skill, then guide you through it. Then it will appear on your card, and you can allocate points to it. Simple.”

Okay.

| was pretty sure the clerk at the Guild said Adventurers could learn any skill. Meaning...

“Meaning if | got you to show me how to do it, Megumin, | could even learn Explosion?”

“Yes, exactly!” “Wow!” She became inordinately excited by my offhanded question.

“Yes, that is it exactly, Kazuma! It would take an outrageous number of points, true, but Adventurer is the only other class beside Arch-wizard that can learn Explosion. If you’d like to learn it, | will show it to you as many times as you want! After all, is there any other skill that is even worth learning? No, of course not! Now, Kazuma, join me on the explosive path!”

Her face was so very...very...close...

“C-calm down already, jailbait! | only have three skill points, anyway. Can | learn Explosion with that?”

“\jailbait...?!”

Megumin was too overcome to continue the conversation, so | turned to Aqua.

“An Adventurer who wanted to learn Explosion wouldn’t manage it with ten or twenty points,” she said. “If you worked at it for about ten years, saving up every single skill point, you might be able to learn it.”

“Who would wait that long?” “Y-you Say l...am jailbait...2”

Megumin, seemingly in a state of shock at my turn of phrase, hung her head and returned to wolfing down her meal.

Anyway, since the ability to learn any skill at all was one of the few advantages of my class, | might as well make the most of it.

“Hey, Aqua. You must know all kinds of useful skills, right? Teach me something easy. Something that won’t take too many points but will still be helpful. I’m looking for a good deal here.”

Aqua held her water glass thoughtfully and was quiet for a moment.

“..Wellll, all right. But just so you know, my skills are serious stuff. | don’t go around teaching them to just anybody, got it?”

There was Aqua, trying to make herself look important again—but since | needed her to teach me, | would just have to tolerate it.

Nodding solemnly, | watched Aqua perform her skill.

“First, look at this glass. It’s full of water, right? You’re going to take it and balance it on top of your head so it doesn’t fall off. Here, try it.”

| managed to steady the glass on top of my head, all too aware of the stares of bystanders.

Then Aqua produced a seed of some kind from who knew where and set it on top of the table.

“Now use your finger to flick the seed up into the glass. If you get it, presto! The seed will absorb the water in the glass, and—”

“Hey, who asked to learn party tricks, you useless goddess? “Whaaaat?!”

She seemed excessively surprised by my reaction and joined Megumin in sitting dejectedly. She idly flicked the seed around the table.

| didn’t know what she was so upset about, but | wished she would take that stupid glass off her head. It was attracting attention.

Suddenly, someone nearby piped up:

“Ha-ha-ha! You’re a funny one! Hey, are you that party Darkness wants to get in on? You want to learn something useful? How about some Thief skills?”

That’s when | saw the two women at the next table over. The one who’d called out was a youngish girl with silver hair, very attractive, wearing leather armor and a casual air. There was a small cut on her cheek. She seemed a bit cunning, but also open and cheerful.

Beside her sat a lovely girl with long golden hair and a full set of plate mail. She seemed cool and aloof and...

Wait. Wasn’t she the female Knight who'd tried to join the party the day before?

The “Thief” looked to be a year or two younger than me. “Um, Thief skills? What kind of skills are those?”

The girl seemed pleased by my question. “I’m glad you asked. They’re very useful, for starters. You can detect and disarm traps; you can set an ambush or steal an item. There are even a bunch of great passive abilities. Your class is Adventurer, right? Well, you don’t even need many points to learn Thief skills. It’s a great deal. What do you say? I'll teach you some for the price of one Crimson Beer So cheap!

And on reflection, | realized there was no risk in having this girl teach me something. If | wanted to learn more Thief skills, | could always ask any of the Thieves wandering around town.

“All right—it’s a deal! Waiter! One Crimson Beer for the lady, please