Chick 193
by CristaeHunter of the Chick Class Does His Duty! Episode 193
Gru picked up the duck-shaped clip first and spoke with pride.
“This one, I found pretty stones in the dungeon and popped them right out to make it.”
“You made it from cores? That’s honestly amazing.”
“And this one, when you stick it on, things shrink! A big band makes things big, and with a small band, they get small…”
With every item Gru showed, Kazuki touched and examined it, letting out exclamations of awe.
Though they looked like children’s toys, each one, upon closer inspection, was truly an item that could only be born of an L-class craftsman.
The core of an Artificer’s power was how flexibly they could work with mysterious materials taken from dungeons.
Extracting the full potential of a material, then remaking it into a form of their own.
In other words, a fusion of pre-existing things.
But…
Kazuki picked up the bear suit and turned it over in his hands again.
‘Did she take this concept from a fictional material in a movie…?’
Voice modulation, as a function, was nothing particularly novel, so others might have seen it as just a cute item.
In reality, it was like conjuring up an imaginary material out of nothing but her imagination.
Gru could create any material and imbue any ability without limitation.
Suddenly, Kazuki thought someone might one day call Gru’s ability by another name.
‘Creation.’
A low sound, almost a groan, escaped Kazuki before he realized it.
A true outlier.
He was the only other S-class craftsman besides Gru, yet the only way to describe her ability was just that.
To Joorim, who had Lee Jo as an older brother, perhaps it didn’t seem so incredible. But to another artificer like Kazuki, it was a wall of pure talent he could never surmount.
Grinning broadly at last, Kazuki thoroughly ruffled Gru’s hair with his large hands.
“Gru-chan, you’re really, really incredible! Maybe you don’t even need a master.”
A child with a one-of-a-kind gift.
She was still a cute little chick, but with a little help, she might flower into something extraordinary in no time.
She’d surely be able to make that odd potato or whatever it was, too.
“This place is heavy with mana, so you might be able to sense it even better here.”
Gru looked puzzled. Kazuki abruptly asked,
“Do you know what’s most important for skill mastery?”
“Um, leveling up!”
“Right. And also, enlightenment.”
Kazuki smiled slyly, then tapped Gru’s forehead with a thick finger.
[Activating skill: ‘Sensory Expansion.’]
Swooooosh—
A sudden wind swept by.
The scent of the undergrowth filled her nose, passing through her whole body with vivid clarity.
This wasn’t her usual perception—her five senses were far keener than before.
It was as if Kazuki’s own senses had been transferred to Gru.
“Close your eyes and try to feel it.”
With her eyes closed, her hearing sharpened even more.
She could hear, off in the distance, the faint scurrying of a little rabbit. The drifting of clouds. Even the minute sound of a sprout unfurling above her head.
“You shouldn’t only look with your eyes—try to sense everything.”
Then—
Ding!
[Proficiency increased by 10.]
“…!”
Gru’s eyes shot open.
It was the first time her proficiency had risen so much all at once.
‘That’s amazing!’
Kazuki burst into a wide grin at the sight of Gru’s astonished, round eyes.
He set her on his knee and placed a pine cone in her hands.
“Touch and feel everything. For proficiency, using your five senses to know the essence of things is important.”
Five senses? Listening to his husky voice, Gru tried to count her senses, one by one.
Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling… and then.
Gru hunched her shoulders and gave a little shiver.
“…Tasting, too?”
“Well, that’s good, but you don’t have to lick things, Gru-chan.”
Relieved, Gru broke into a silly giggle, and Kazuki stroked her forehead.
“All right, training’s over! Let’s play!”
“Huh? But we’ve been playing this whole time.”
“No, no. You learned a lot today~”
She did learn… and her proficiency went up!
“Gru wants to become a really amazing hunter, as fast as possible.”
“Why?”
“For filial piety. And there’s another goal, too.”
“What is it?”
Well… Gru hesitated, fidgeting.
The first goal was to tell ‘Amakusa Bikey!’ to get out of her way.
The second!
“To pull Mouse-man’s moustache!”
“Mouse-man?”
“Yeah, he’s the boss in Master’s country.”
“Oh, the Prime Minister…! You’re right. He does look like a mouse!”
Nodding vigorously!
“Ahahahahaha! That’s a big goal, all right~”
Kazuki laughed until tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, then wiped them away and said,
“You know, Gru-chan, even now you’re greater than your Master. You just haven’t figured out how yet. But you’ll be an amazing hunter—enough to tug Mouse-man’s whiskers yourself.”
“Really?”
“Yep. So, what Master wants to say is…”
Kazuki hesitated, then spoke.
“You should use your power for good. For more than just pulling whiskers. My papa has a lot of power too, but he’s not a good man.”
“Papa?”
“My father.”
“Gasp! Master, do you hate your dad?”
“Hmm… Well, I haven’t decided yet.”
Kazuki’s grin showed his pointed fangs.
“Why?”
“I’m not sure myself.”
“Hmm? Why don’t you know?”
“Because…”
As he recalled a distant time, Kazuki smiled quietly.
“When Master was little, he didn’t know who his mother and father were. He lived with his cousins instead.”
“I see.”
“But my aunt and uncle hated me very much. They beat me every day, and didn’t give me food…”
“What?!”
Gru had unconsciously sat up. Kazuki gave a chuckling laugh.
“That was a very long time ago. It doesn’t hurt anymore. Because not long after, my father came and rescued me.”
“Your dad found you?”
“Yes.”
“Then did you live happily ever after with your dad?”
“No.”
Kazuki remembered that day.
In a living room splattered with blood, Reiji bent low, shushing him softly.
[“Good children shouldn’t look, Kazuki-chan.”]
Later, the police told him: his aunt and uncle’s bodies had been torn apart as if mauled by a wild beast.
“After that I went to an orphanage.”
A strange feeling of being protected—mixed with resentment at having been abandoned.
His relationship with his father had always remained ambiguous.
Reiji sent him money regularly. But he never called or wrote; only money, nothing else.
Was it love for a son, or just a sense of obligation?
It wasn’t until years later that Kazuki realized he’d never spent time worrying about those things.
He just grew up with a little more in his pockets than most kids, doing the things he wanted to do.
“In my heart, I have lots of feelings about Papa. But I haven’t yet decided which one to follow.”
His smile, strangely, looked sad, and for a while Gru was silent.
Dusk was slowly falling.
Sitting together in the clearing, Kazuki twitched from time to time, rubbing at his shoulders.
“Little disciple, let’s head back.”
Gru was still scampering about, playing with everything, delighted by the sensations he’d given her.
When Kazuki called her, she trotted over on quick little feet.
“Okay!”
“Aren’t you hungry? Let’s hurry and get something to eat. I heard temple food is delicious?”
“Temple food?”