An Adventurer Mom, Who Awakened [Housewife] Skill Through a Login Bonus, Is Making the Most of Her Adventurer Life With the Weekly Flyers She Gets! - Chapter 26

Winning the tournament meant an automatic promotion in team rank as a bonus prize.

The requirements to move up from C-rank to B-rank were notoriously strict, and this tournament victory was a golden opportunity to achieve that.

Saza and Lucy’s team was no exception.

Everyone was fired up, determined to win.

Even though it was just the first round, the fact that the two rookies were chosen to represent the team in such a crucial battle was proof of how much was expected of them.

“Yet still!”

Lucy grit her teeth with a sharp giri giri.

She didn’t know how the opposing team managed to reach C-rank but she’d heard that occasionally, a team gets lucky, clears a higher-level quest and ends up ranking up unexpectedly.

But those kinds of teams usually couldn’t maintain their rank and would soon drop out.

This was supposed to be an easy win against a clearly weaker team.

They were supposed to be a『delicious』opponent and yet it was Lucy’s side that was being pushed into a corner.

One more loss, and the match was over.

But this is where it ends.

After Rick came Laura and Kachua, who weren’t combat types.

If she could just beat Rick, the momentum would shift entirely in their favor.

Lucy had one secret trick up her sleeve.

“No matter how fast you are, you won’t be able to dodge this, will you?”

With those words, Lucy smirked, gripping her attack staff in one hand.

Watching the scene unfold, Kachua and the others muttered,

“Looks like she’s definitely scheming something.”

“Yeah, no doubt.”

Rick was a thief-type, meaning he was fast. On the other hand, Lucy was a mage, not exactly known for speed.

Rick had a high chance of getting the first move. Normally, this would be a bad matchup for Lucy, yet the opposing team had still chosen her for this crucial, do-or-die battle.

There had to be a trick.

But the same went for Kachua’s side.

“Rick, do your best,”

Right before the fight, Laura cast a protection spell on him.

Casting enchantments like that wasn’t against the rules.

The opposing team was doing it too.

“Yeah, I’m off,”

Rick nodded back, looking a little nervous.

“【Enflame Bullet!】”

The moment the match started, Lucy quickly launched a mid-tier fire attack spell.

【Enflame Bullet】was a short-chant, wide-range attack spell. Its utility was excellent, though it came at a high mana cost. Just as its name suggested, multiple blazing fireballs rained down across a broad area. No matter how fast Rick was, there was no way he could dodge it.

And thief-types had low resistance to magic.

‘It worked!’

She was certain she’d landed a critical hit.

But just as Lucy smirked—

Rick came leaping through the wall of flames right before her eyes!

“No way…!”

Lucy’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Rick charged straight in and struck her with a direct blow.

Lucy couldn’t react to the lightning-fast attack and took the damage full on.

Rick had won!

They knew Lucy would open with some kind of magic.

She was a fire mage, after all. That’s why Laura had cast a protection spell specifically geared against fire magic ahead of time.

Gamma Team takes the first round—victory!

＊＊＊

Gamma Team advanced smoothly through the second, third and fourth rounds but in the fifth match, although Og and Ann secured their wins, Rick finally lost.

The reason Gamma Team was doing surprisingly well in the tournament was because Kachua and the others were complete unknowns.

The stronger a team is considered—like the favorites to win. The more their abilities are known and counter-strategies are prepared. But no one knew what these rookie adventurers were capable of.

However, in the previous match, Rick’s fighting style had been observed.

Rick was fast but seasoned adventurers were well-versed in how to defeat monsters faster than themselves.

Their opponent this time was a high-ranking swordsman, known as a Swordmaster.

Rick had taken the initiative but the enemy withstood his first strike and immediately launched a counterattack.

Rick couldn’t recover from the barrage and ended up losing.

“Damn it, I was just one win away!”

Rick gritted his teeth in frustration.

That’s right. If they had won that fifth match, they would have made it into the top eight.

“It’s my turn now.”

Laura calmly stepped into the arena.

The fourth player wasn’t Kachua—it was Laura.

“You got this!”

Rick shouted his support loudly, and Laura responded with a nod, “Yeah.”

Normally, porters and healers who stay in the rear wouldn’t participate in the tournament but Gamma Team only had five members.

They had prepared a hidden ace in case Rick lost.

That ace was Laura.

When the opponent realized that the frail-looking healer girl was his match, he looked visibly surprised.

“It’s a match, so don’t take it personally.”

As the match began, the man drew his sword and warned her.

Healers typically struggled to learn offensive magic, and at Laura’s level, it was rare for a healer to know any attack spells.

Even if they did, they weren’t specialists in offensive magic, so the power wouldn’t be very high.

She was thought to stand no chance but Laura, composed as ever, raised her staff.

“『Arrow of Light』!”

“…!”

【Arrow of Light】was a rare, light-element spell—and it was even a mid-tier offensive magic.

Magic can be learned in two ways: automatically, when one’s level rises or certain conditions are met and through reading special books known as spellbooks.

In Laura’s case, she learned it by purchasing and studying a spellbook.

However, light-element attack magic was rare, which made such spellbooks extremely expensive.

Kachua and the others had poured all the money they’d saved up until now to buy that spellbook.

For a healer who wasn’t expected to handle offense, there were far more practical spells to learn. Light-element attack magic was the kind of spell you could afford to save for last.

And yet, Laura deliberately chose to learn this one.

What’s more, the staff she carried, which enhanced her healing magic, also amplified the power of her light-element attack spells.

Laura defeated her opponent.

Gamma Team wins the fifth round!

They’ve made it into the top 8.

＊＊＊

In the next match, Rick lost and at that point, the team withdrew from the tournament.

Laura’s『Arrow of Light』had only worked as a surprise tactic once—it wasn’t something that would succeed two or three times.

From this point on, the only remaining teams were the elite of C-rank.

With their current strength, Gamma Team had no chance of making it through and for Laura and Kachua, who weren’t used to fighting, even if it was just a tournament match, attacking other people was still too heavy a burden.

They had already achieved their goal of placing in the top eight, so they decided it was wiser to withdraw gracefully.

In addition to earning the right to access the Adventurer’s Guild’s library for half a day, Kachua and her team also received discount coupons for the tool and weapon shops.

Three days after the tournament, the team gathered at the Adventurer’s Guild for their library access.

Kachua’s son, Ed, came along too.

“Um… is it really okay for me to come?”

Ed looked a little nervous.

Although one could register at the Adventurer’s Guild starting at age nine, Ed was still eight.

Since some adventurers carried sharp weapons and other dangerous tools, children normally weren’t allowed inside.

But today, they had gotten special permission just for this.

“It’s fine, remember? You promised the magic book you’d meet again, didn’t you?”

When Ann asked that, Ed nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes!”

Ann smiled gently at him.

“That means the book liked you.”

“But, um, the one I saw was from Loa Academy…”

“Ah, well, magic books are… hmm, it’s faster to just show you. Come on, let’s go.”

Following Ann’s lead, the group moved to the fourth floor of the Adventurer’s Guild, where the magic books were kept.

Even Kachua had never been in this area before.

Her heart pounded with anticipation.

“Ann, are you familiar with magic books?”

Kachua asked, and Ann shook her head firmly.

“Not really. I’ve never cared for libraries. But a magic book with power—if you piss it off, it can be seriously dangerous. So I’ve got the minimum knowledge needed to deal with them. Let’s call it… basic adventurer common sense?”

“Common sense, huh…”

At the entrance to the library, a guild staff member used a large key to slowly and carefully open the heavy metal door.

It looked like the kind of vault you’d see in a bank.

“Wow, Mom, this place is locked up tight.”

“It sure is.”

They thought they were whispering, but apparently the staff member heard them.

“Everything in here is too valuable to risk getting stolen. That’s why we keep it protected here in the Adventurer’s Guild, where there are plenty of strong people around.”

He kindly explained.

“Alright, please go ahead.”

The guild’s library they were shown into was about the size of a spacious conference room, and no one else was there besides Kachua and her team.

“This time slot is reserved exclusively for the Gamma Team. Take your time.”

With that, the staff member left the room.