Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===

Apparently a specific dragon occasionally flew overhead and glared fiercely down into the city. Some said it seemed to be searching for something. They didn’t know what that was, but if it found it, there was a definite risk of it descending and attacking. Having a large SS-rank dragon repeatedly flying by and assessing them invited unnecessary chaos into people’s lives, so they wanted to put an end to this before the dragon actually attacked.

“Ughhh…”

Gilbezos lay his head down on the guild’s round table and went limp.

…SS-rank? What even was that?

Didn’t that mean this dragon was even more powerful than Balsta, the S-rank Lindworm-form dragon that had badly beaten him and so many others? That was a whole extra S there!!

“But wait, Gilbezos. This Yuileen slaying job might be a good thing.”

“How so? What’s so great about it? Fighting a monster like that is suicide.”

“When Brave Liar was still a proper Hero, he slayed at least five SSS-rank dragons on his own. If you really want to defeat him, you can’t let a mere SS-rank dragon scare you, can you?”

…Hm, she had a point.

Ugh, was that really what this came down to? Gilbezos had reached 6500 LAW, so he could incorporate at least one Rank 9 skill into his strategies. How overpowered were those overpowered skills? Maybe he should take on a stupidly powerful enemy to find out.

That said, Gilbezos wasn’t going to suicidally rush in at the dragon on his own or anything. This would probably be a larger scale battle, just like the one with Balsta.

“Hey.”

He turned toward the quiet man’s voice to find a familiar face here on the Sky Territory.

It was the bearded man who had joined him on the Balsta hunt before. His name was…hmm? Regardless, what a coincidence to run across him again in a dragon-related context.

“What are you doing here? You’re not on another dragon hunt, are you?”

“Yeah, we did get beaten pretty badly last time.” The bearded man laughed and scratched his head. “But if I’m going to till a field out on the country and leave all my cares behind as I begin my second life, I want to first free myself from any dangerous regrets. I don’t want to have nightmares about that every time I shut my eyes. And I want to retire early, but I’ve been borrowing so much money.”

So that was it.

Maybe this was similar to why Gilbezos was pursuing Brave Liar to keep his promise.

“I know I’m only being sentimental and it’s not really fair to this Uroboros-form when it has nothing to do with that Lindworm-form. Still, I want to defeat a dragon myself to help get my mind in order. So even if it’s reckless, I intend to take this job.”

Gilbezos was honestly glad to find someone he knew here.

However, what exactly could this bearded man do? When they had lost so badly to Balsta, he seemed to have joined the team bolstering their fire type defenses on the vanguard, but Gilbezos had never heard his actual job.

“Ah ha ha. I’m actually a heavy gunner mage.”

…Oh? That was unusual.

Such a rare and unique job was not what Gilbezos had expected.

“I have fairly strong magic in the fire and other types. The incantation times are on the longer side, so my magic can get interrupted by any physical attacks. If you can cover for me there, I can do good work.”

So he was essentially a gun turret for attack magic. Knights fortified with shields and armor would guard him and buy him time while he used group targeted attack magic to wipe the enemy party. The slow movement speed would make him an easy target and everything he did would have a high MP cost, but if those flaws were covered, he could become a significant damage source.

And…

“You’re trying your hand at the dragon hunt? Th-then you’ll need a vanguard with decent physical attack, won’t you? I can play that offensive role.”

A girl in a miniskirt and a rough cloth wrapped tightly around her chest sat down at their table. Her purple hair fell to her shoulder blades, she looked to be around 16, and she wasn’t carrying any obvious weapons. She was likely a boxer who fought only with her fists. They were specialists who didn’t even use kicks.

But wait a second.

…Wasn’t this girl part of the enemy group during that battle in the forest? Gilbezos recognized those cloth-wrapped boobs. She was one of the older girls who had followed the whip-wielding tamer dominatrix’s orders.

Gilbezos went ahead and asked the question on his mind.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ugh,” groaned the boxer.

She wouldn’t look him in the eye. She fidgeted as she managed to get a quiet voice out.

“…Th-the forest seemed to glow all of a sudden and then I started floating up into the air all on my own.”

“…”

Really!? Those stupid high elves!!

The chief’s overpowered Group Flight spell was certainly impressive, but was its range so wide it had carried one of the enemy humans along with them!? Thankfully it had only been one, but it could have been way worse!!

“I call a truce! Please can we work together for now!? I-I-I-I don’t know how to get home with nothing but sky in every direction and I don’t want to stay on this Sky Territory forever! Okay? Okay? Please, I can’t stay up here! I’m afraid of heights!!”

She must have thought he would mercilessly abandon her here because the boxer, who was normally fierce enough to clench her fists and go monster hunting bare-handed, had her hands clasped together to beg. She even had some tears in her eyes. Yeah, and he found it awkward when older people cried.

“…Fine, I guess.”

“Eh? Really? For real? Thank god!!”

When she smiled so brightly, she looked just like an ordinary cute girl. An older girl, but still.

Their battle in the forest had been more about their different positions, so Gilbezos didn’t have all that much of a grudge about it. Now that the high elves were safe, he had no more reason to battle her. And even if the boxer girl reported back to her old friends after returning to the surface, the high elf hunting team (or what was left of it) wouldn’t stage a large-scale attack on Sunset Autumn Skyland. To reiterate, the ad cranes connecting the ground to the sky cost a fortune per person. Transporting a large group up here would leave them deeply in debt even if they did capture the high elves.

And since their objective was dirty money, he could actually trust them in this case.

…Rank 9 at the top of the Skill Tree did have Group Flight that could transport a group to the sky, but that moved so slowly their approach would be noticed.

“With that settled, I’m Boxer Penelope Embuls. Nice to meet you★”

…So would their general formation to have Penelope out front for physical attacks and the heavy gunner mage man in the back doing incantations?

There was one thing Gilbezos wanted to point out here. It was a fairly critical point when it came to big boss battles.

“Um, where’s our healer?”

“That’s a great question, boy. If no one else is going to do it, why don’t you volunteer?”