This kid... He's fully unlocked all of our power.
The Fighter—the soul of the Fighter's Magical Gear Belt—shakes his head, not knowing what to say.
"We only intended for him to borrow our power when he truly needed it... Who would've thought he'd fully assimilate us instead? Now if he dies, we die with him," the Paladin says seriously.
Then both of them turn to look at the other two.
"HUEHEHEHEHEHEEE!" The hunchback keeps laughing nonstop, clearly overjoyed and hasn't stopped since earlier.
It seems he can't believe that he—a low-tier Gear—has evolved and transformed into a much more beautiful and far stronger new form.
Even he didn't expect this. The kid might not just be "potential"—he awakened the Gears while completely bypassing their usual conditions? This kid is a monster.
As for the other one...
"I... I never thought the day would come when my name would literally change..."
"What's wrong? You upset about it or something?" the Fighter asks.
"No, it's just... The Gear's name... It perfectly describes what happened at the end of the life of its original owner—or in other words, me."
Boots of the Sacrificer.
"And mine is The Great Big Brother... A name that's completely different from my original nature!" the Paladin complains.
"Mine is Belt of the War God. My ability now greatly boosts overall combat performance. All martial arts styles become less specialized in raw fighting power, but in exchange, they gain far more versatility in combat approaches. Plus the passive: massively increases all stats—especially defense—when the user is the last one standing," the Fighter explains clearly.
"Mine activates when someone truly needs saving—the passive kicks in, dramatically boosting physical strength and making it easy to wield any heavy weapon. It's somewhat similar to the Armor of Love, but the usage is completely different," the Paladin says.
"And mine... When the user is truly ready to sacrifice themselves, the boots increase speed based on the user's determination. In normal situations, though, they're no different from the Boots of the Coward," the coward says.
Then all three turn to look at the hunchback.
"Grudge Accumulation Blade. It gave up the instant-kill ability in exchange for a strange new one..." the hunchback begins explaining.
"This weapon absorbs hatred from the surroundings, building it up into 3 charges. Once full, it summons shadowy assassin projectiles for the user to wield—they can be used in close combat or thrown from range. What's terrifying about these projectiles is... 10% chance for extreme sanity drain, 10% extreme poison, 10% random debilitating status, 50% severe wound that pierces straight through the soul."
"...What about the remaining 20%?"
"...20% guarantees instant death to the user."
"..."
Absolutely never use this weapon—it's basically suicide!!
"But damn, it's still insane... This kid doesn't just have a spirit strong enough to meet us in person; now he's soul-bound us to him, completely disabling all the usual costs and drawbacks of using our Gears. Unbelievable."
"But the problem is..."
All four look toward the giant serpent that's currently petrified.
"The Evil God is still here."
"Eh... Becoming the vessel for the Evil God means his fate is still controlled by something far stronger. It's sleeping right now, but who knows when it'll wake up?"
"Wait, then who was the one talking to us earlier?" the Paladin asks.
"Probably a subordinate. If the real Evil God had spoken to us directly back then, we wouldn't even be here anymore," the Fighter replies.
"Sigh... I hope the kid doesn't run into anything too terrible," the hunchback says.
"I-I hope the kid can resist it!" the coward stammers.
After all, none of them want to become tools for the Evil God if Kai gets his body taken over.
***
Snap!
A bolt of lightning streaks toward the horde of monsters, wiping them all out in an instant.
Baron then glances over at Aura Clint.
The monsters had tried attacking her, but their weapons and limbs shattered the moment they made contact.
In fact, just her slight movements were enough to send any monster that touched her flying away.
'I don't even know who's the real monster here anymore,' Baron thinks to himself before snapping his fingers to fire another bolt.
To be honest, he's a little curious about the strongest person in S-class, especially since she occasionally visits Kai and chats with him whenever they bump into each other at school.
Yeah, he's also curious about the relationship between the two of them.
The Clint family is famous for their signature skills all being related in some way to fire.
The Libert family is the same—their specialty is lightning.
Additionally, the Clint family founded Blue Sky Academy; her great-grandfather was the very first principal.
That's why Aura Clint—the strongest member the family has ever recorded, with an extremely mysterious ability that her clan keeps tightly hidden—draws every eye toward her.
"Hey, what are you two standing around for? Get over here."
Both Baron and Aura turn toward their current guide.
The Desert Shark, Abaric.
He's an adventurer with the ability to transform into a shark and swim through the ground.
He's a powerful S-rank adventurer, though adventurer ranks don't necessarily make someone stronger than A-class or even B-class students.
But anyway, right now he's guiding me and her, so I'll keep quiet.
The two of them walk over to Abaric and look down into a pit.
"Looks like someone fell down here. Plus there are a lot of tracks—like an entire party passed through recently. Seems they were running from something," Abaric says calmly while spinning his knife.
"An entire party had to run...? Just how strong is the monster around here?"
"Who knows. We haven't encountered anything unusual yet besides those perverted orcs. Maybe we should hang back a bit?"
"...Aren't we here to rescue them?"
"...Oh right. Then let's split up—one person searches, the other comes with me to check out the monster."
"Uh..." Baron scratches his cheek, then suddenly Aura raises her hand.
"I'll go search."
Whoa, the strongest one is taking the easiest job??
"Fine by me. Where do you plan to search?"
Aura points straight down into the pit.
"...Why search down there? Whoever fell is probably already dead."
Hearing that, Aura scratches her head.
"Well... I just have a feeling... Someone I know is down there."
"..."
Abaric immediately facepalms.
"Fine, I'll go alone. Baron, you look for the others. Aura, investigate down there."
"Got it."
Baron glances back at Aura one more time, wondering if she's... a little off somehow...