Promotion To Copper-ranked Adventurer Arc

  Seneca was determined to commit herself fully to her activities as an adventurer. However, when she mentioned this to Maiol, she was met with the following response:

  "I'm sorry, Seneca. If I continue as I am, I'll just be a hindrance. I need to train for a while. I feel like I'm about to grasp something important. So, can we hold off on the party activities for a bit?"

  Seneca gdly accepted. She was pleased to see her companion striving to move forward.

  With time now at her disposal, Seneca began pondering what to do. Just as she was thinking, Emily unexpectedly visited her at the dormitory.

  "Seneca! Thank goodness! Do you have some free time in the next few days? There's a noble who's suddenly had an engagement arranged, and there are so many things that need to be prepared urgently. Would you be able to do some embroidery for me? And just so you know, the reward will be quite exceptional!"

  "Of course, I'll do it!" Seneca replied, feeling that this was the perfect opportunity.

  However, little did she know, it would turn out to be a mistake.

  ...

  Inside the orphanage’s rge room, piles of fabric were stacked high.

  "There’s a lot more than I expected," Seneca muttered to herself.

  She had a bad feeling ever since Emily suggested they use the orphanage’s room for the task, as the space was rger. Seneca had assumed she would be embroidering some clothing, but it turned out the materials provided weren’t just fabrics for garments.

  Now, Seneca found herself embroidering the coat of arms of some noble family onto a luxurious-looking red fabric.

  The heraldic design featured an eagle inside a circle, repeated endlessly across the fabric, with a seemingly never-ending demand for more of these pieces.

  Seneca couldn’t make sense of it. And embroidering such intricate details by hand seemed, to her, utterly ridiculous.

  According to Emily, the client had initially requested, in a rather modest manner, that the design be embroidered if possible, and if not, they would explore other options. Apparently, the noble had approached every tailoring shop in the country with the same request, but this shop—Seneca’s—was the only one to accept the task.

  Why this had happened only irritated Seneca more as she tried to avoid thinking about it too much.

  The basic skill of [Sewing], Seneca reflected, was simply the act of stitching fabric with a needle. She decided to refocus on the fundamentals of her craft, hoping to improve. But even that seemed to reach its limit after just two days. From then on, she kept going out of sheer habit.

  Yesterday, Emily had come by to check on the progress. It seemed the employees at Torga’s shop had hardly slept. Emily, too, had been pleading with Torga, working long hours, while Seneca had been forcing herself to power through, taking only brief naps.

  This task, it seemed, was one of such worth that it warranted such sacrifices.

  Rumour had it that the payment for this job alone was worth multiple times Torga’s entire annual revenue. That was enough to keep everyone motivated.

  Seneca, with her boundless energy and seemingly endless magical power, had kept pushing forward. As a result, by the third night, she had even begun to embroider in her sleep.

  Though she had used vast amounts of magic to perform quick, basic stitching, it didn’t help with the delicate nature of the task. It became clear to Seneca that what she needed was the ability to control the needle with nothing but the power of her mind. However, achieving that would require an enormous amount of resources.

  Seneca stopped her musings and focused her attention back on her work. At this te stage, her thoughts mainly revolved around petty frustration, thinking, "When I finally finish this crest, I’ll find a way to get back at whoever’s responsible for this."

  Even the substantial payment she would receive couldn’t shake the frustration that built up inside her. But she kept telling herself that she had agreed to this task, so it was her responsibility to see it through.

  ...

  Meanwhile, Kito had been meeting with Maiol in between her studies to discuss the topic of leveling up.

  As Seneca’s best friend, who had achieved the fastest level-ups in recorded history, it was only natural for Kito to seek insight from her.

  The number of people who knew about Seneca's level-up was minimal. Kito and Maiol had informed Yulia, but they had been strictly instructed to keep it a secret. For the first fifteen months after gaining her skill, they weren’t supposed to reveal anything to the guild.

  Kito and Maiol, as those who shared this secret, had been meeting recently to deepen their discussions. They also spoke to Seneca about it, but her skills were so unique that certain aspects were difficult to grasp.

  From their ongoing debates, Kito and Maiol had come to the conclusion that Seneca’s rapid level-up had been due to her gaining a refined level of proficiency that, under normal circumstances, couldn’t be acquired until reaching level 2.

  To level up, it seemed that one had to achieve feats that would normally be impossible at level 1 but would be attainable by level 2. If that wasn’t possible, one could try something comparable as a shortcut.

  ...

  Kito had gathered records of individuals who possessed the [Alchemy] skill and had been reading through them intensely, contempting methods by which she could reach level 2 within a few months.

  However, she decided not to focus on leveling up for now.

  She believed that for Seneca and Maiol, raising their levels would benefit them. Their activities didn’t solely revolve around [Sewing] or [Detection]. As adventurers, they needed to develop well-rounded abilities, which made it seem like raising their levels quickly was the right course of action.

  On the other hand, Kito’s focus was on [Alchemy], which was the core of her activities. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to raise her level before she had gained enough experience.

  Leveling up to level 2 seemed fine, but thinking about the tasks and progression towards level 3 made Kito wonder if it would be wiser to hold off a little longer and wait for the right time.

  After some thought, Kito realised that perhaps she had become somewhat arrogant.

  Reaching level 2? Level 3?

  She was hopeful, but she also realised that very few people in the capital reached level 3 as an alchemist. Somewhere in her mind, she had started to believe that she could achieve such a feat easily.

  Having lofty goals and aspirations was a good thing. Hope was important, but arrogance should be avoided. Dreams should never remain in the realm of fantasy.

  Kito decided not to focus on leveling up for the time being, but she promised herself that when the time came, she would pursue it in moderation and steadily build up the higher levels of proficiency needed.

  ,,,

  Maiol was deep in thought.

  Having told Seneca that she would be training, she had taken to spending her time outside, in the nearby forest, trying to clear her mind and conduct research. But since Seneca had gone to the orphanage for her embroidery work, Maiol had returned to working at the dormitory.

  From their discussions, Maiol had come to understand that by achieving tasks that were usually possible only at level 2, even at level 1, it was possible to level up.

  It wasn’t easy, though.

  Maiol knew that Seneca had vast magical power, which allowed her to sew leather with all her magical energy. But for someone like her, who cked any particurly distinguishing features, it seemed far more difficult to overcome such a challenge.

  Yet, despite this, Maiol could not stop herself from pursuing her goal of leveling up.

  She had once thought it was impossible for her to become a hero.

  The fact that she had been accepted as a special schorship student at the Royal Adventurer’s Academy had been a result of sheer willpower. But now, she wasn’t sure if that was something she had truly aimed for in her heart.

  But Seneca had acknowledged her. She had recognised her efforts.

  That, more than anything else, made Maiol immensely happy.

  So, she kept telling herself that now was the st chance, and she pushed herself every day to move forward, no matter how ridiculous or awkward it might look.

  "If I let this moment slip away, I'll never catch my dream. So, no matter how foolish or clumsy it seems, I must take a step forward."

  With that resolve, Maiol spent her days focused on her goal.

  For those with the [Detection] skill, when their level increased, their range of detection expanded. Generally speaking, the wider the range, the higher the skill level. However, Maiol couldn’t imagine how she could detect things far beyond the range of level 1. That, she decided, was something to give up on.

  Another thing she knew was that when the skill levelled up, the amount of information one could obtain increased. The types of things that could be detected also expanded, and one could even detect things as if they were right in front of them.

  Maiol thought this might be where she could make progress. She began to wonder if she could speed up her level-up by continuing to gather more precise information.

  To test this, Maiol activated [Detection] at its maximum range.

  There were no monsters nearby, but she could detect magical reactions. One particurly strong reaction was coming from the orphanage—Seneca.

  There were other magical responses scattered throughout the area, but she couldn’t identify who they belonged to.

  Maiol continued to analyse the information she was receiving.

  The accuracy of the information was high within the innermost third of the detection range. She could discern human movements with ease.

  Beyond that, if there was significant movement, it became noticeable, but the information was more vague—perhaps it was a person, or maybe it was a magical stone, that was all she could tell.

  On the outer edge of the range, all she could gather was the mere presence of something, and the accuracy was low.

  Maiol then narrowed her focus to the innermost third of the range, hoping to gain more detailed information.

  This time, she was able to detect that Seneca was moving her hands at incredible speed. She was definitely working on something—likely her embroidery.

  Maiol concluded that if she continued gathering high-quality information within a limited range, she could perhaps speed up her level-up process.

  She had reduced the range of her [Detection] to its smallest possible, confined to the dormitory room.

  Normally, people with the [Detection] skill tried to expand their range, since the rewards for doing so were exponentially greater.

  Maiol had always focused on expanding her detection range since gaining the skill.

  But after meeting Seneca, she had changed direction.

  She now used her [Detection] skill in a more focused manner, honing in on smaller areas to track monster movements in battle and neutralise threats early on.

  Given this shift, Maiol now felt that improving the precision of her information might be more suited to her training.

  Whether this would help her level up to level 2, she wasn’t sure. Time was running out. But Maiol had come to realise that what truly frightened her wasn’t failure—it was letting failure pass by without learning anything from it.

  Seneca often made mistakes, but she always improved through them. It was through this cycle of failure and improvement that she eventually found success.

  Maiol had witnessed this firsthand.

  While Seneca’s rapid level-up might have been partly due to chance, it wasn’t the whole story.

  Seneca, in Maiol's eyes, was truly special.