"You're the one."
Targeting a massive pink toad, Rin pushed off the ground, launching forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
"I'll finish you!!"
Dropping from above, Rin descended like a meteor, delivering a flying kick to the pink toad.
"Splat!"
And once again, a familiar scene unfolded before Rin's eyes.
The moment his foot touched the toad's head, there was no resistance. His entire body, like diving into water, passed right through it.
"Boom!"
The earth shattered, rocks blasting in all directions. Rin stood at the center of a massive crater, drenched in blood, his clothes soaked with thick chunks of flesh and internal organs.
Behind him, the exploded remains of the giant toad lay scattered.
"...What the hell?"
Feeling the slimy mess all over his body, Rin shuddered in disgust. "I didn't use magicules, right? Can a pure physical body really be this strong?"
"No... something's off."
He opened his attribute panel and looked at the extra skills, especially the passives.
Leaving the magic-type passives aside, the physical ones included Lancer, Knight, Swordsman, Crusader, Dragon Knight, Martial Artist, Pugilist, and Thief.
With that many class enhancement passives stacked, even if each was just Lv1, that was already more than a 100% increase.
And that was assuming all his magicules had been converted into experience and used to reinforce his body.
"A body strengthened with magicules as the foundation..."
"Plus all those passives and the Martial Artist's enhancements... My stats must've been boosted by at least 300%."
With that kind of amplification, Rin's already A-rank physique had been pushed to the level of Special A.
In the Cardinal World, existence value didn't have a direct correlation with actual combat power.
The Storm Dragon with 80 million existence value wasn't necessarily stronger than an awakened Demon Lord.
But right now, Rin was something else entirely.
Magicules had fused directly into his muscles and blood. Just that alone already placed him above nearly every monster.
"...Damn."
"I really underestimated myself."
He cast a water spell to rinse off the gore, feeling a little better.
"Ponii?"
"I'm good."
Rin and Ogerpon both looked like total wrecks, but when they made eye contact, they couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Alright, just a bit more. Then we go back and shower."
Rin didn't head back right away. He continued hunting giant toads.
But this time, he didn't charge in recklessly. Instead, he used basic Fireball magic to attack from range.
And when he killed his 50th giant toad, he finally heard the sound of his magicule count increasing.
"Fifty toads, two experience each... That's 100 total."
Rin was currently Level 15, fighting Level 5 creatures. Naturally, there was an experience penalty, hence only 2 EXP each.
But what really shocked him wasn't that. It was the conversion rate between experience and magicules.
From magicules to experience, the ratio was 1:10.
But from experience to magicules, it was 100:1.
That insane gap made Rin genuinely speechless.
"...Why?"
He pondered for a while, then came up with a possible explanation. "Konosuba's EXP is a lower-tier energy. When lower converts to higher, the ratio's gonna be awful."
"The earlier magicule-to-experience conversion probably had some kind of interference involved."
Kind of like weak signal reception, some of the magicules probably got lost in translation.
"If that's how it works, then EXP's cost-effectiveness is terrible."
"Even if I hit max level, that's only a million experience points."
"Which means... just 10,000 magicules."
And how many monsters he'd have to kill, how much experience-loaded food he'd need to consume to hit max level in this ridiculous world...
Rin couldn't even begin to estimate.
"Whatever. Even if it's just 10,000... it's still magicules."
"No complaints."
He shook his head and tossed aside all those stray thoughts. Turning to Ogerpon, he said, "Let's go. We're heading back."
"Boom!!"
Just as the two were halfway there, a blinding light shot down from the sky, landing just outside Axel City.
"...That?"
Seeing the oddly familiar sight, Rin immediately thought of something. "Satou Kazuma just brought Aqua here, didn't he?"
As for his opinion of Kazuma...
How to put it?
It was kind of abstract.
Rin didn't dislike him.
As a protagonist with no cheat, stuck leading a group of problematic teammates, who still managed to take down the Demon Lord...
Honestly? That guy was impressive.
Of course, Rin had zero plans to make contact with the original party.
Right now, he was completely focused on one thing, getting stronger.
He didn't have time to waste getting dragged into Konosuba's slapstick daily life plot.
"Let Aqua and Kazuma go work on a construction site for two weeks first."
"This way, Ogerpon."
And with no hesitation, Rin pulled Ogerpon along and walked in the opposite direction, away from Aqua and Kazuma.
Getting close to them now would be a disaster waiting to happen.
Especially Aqua...
Even with the past favor of a cheat, Rin wasn't dumb enough to get near that one.
The two of them returned to the inn and cleaned up there.
No one along the way really cared about their blood-soaked and battered appearance.
Adventurers couldn't afford to look clean anyway.
But neither Rin nor Ogerpon realized...
On the other side of the stream, a certain blonde girl in Crusader armor was staring at them, trembling violently, her face flushed bright red.
"Huff~ Huff~"
The girl called Darkness clenched her fists tightly.
"That man... he didn't even spare his own familiar!"
"Guhehehe~"
Suddenly, Rin shivered.
"Pon?"
"Nothing."
He scratched his head in confusion. "I feel like... something creepy is watching me."
"A ghost?"
"Don't know."
He looked left and right, but saw nothing suspicious.
He didn't bother using detection spells either, there was no need.
In Axel, there was nothing that could pose a threat.
"No need to worry."
"If anyone really tries something..." Rin said casually, "I'll show 'em what it means to blow up a giant toad in one hit."
(To be continued.)
Junkdog's Note: Support with power stones, please.
Bonus chapter for every 100 PS, and 2 bonus chapters for every 10 reviews (currently 2/10).
So do drop some PS and review if you enjoy this. Thanks xD.