— — — — — —
"Not interested. Don't tell me."
Kazuma gave Makarov a flat look. He already knew exactly how this would go — the old man pretending to be mysterious for five seconds before blurting it out anyway.
"Hey now, don't be like that! This is good news. Really good news!"
Makarov puffed up proudly, but froze when he realized Kazuma wasn't playing along. What did he mean "not interested"? Didn't this kid know how to humor his elders? He'd worked hard to set up his little surprise, and the brat wouldn't even give him that satisfaction.
Kazuma ignored him completely and went back to chatting with Mirajane, who had just brought over a plate of something new she'd been experimenting with.
"Fine, fine, you win!" Makarov finally gave in, sighing like a man defeated. "I'll tell you then. I was late getting back because I met with the other guild masters."
"Your mission completion rate is too damn high. Keep this up and no one else in the guild's going to have any work left."
"So, I put my old face on the line and begged a few of my old friends for a deal. From now on, they'll send over the quests that have been sitting unclaimed in their guilds for ages. We just have to pay a ten percent referral fee."
He let out a long sigh. "See? I'm out here working myself to the bone for you kids."
He wasn't exaggerating — it had taken him a lot of effort to convince those other guild masters.
Now Kazuma should have enough quests to last a whole year.
"Actually… that's great news," Kazuma admitted, genuinely surprised. He'd been worrying about this exact problem — if his shadow soldiers proved efficient enough, he could just keep using them to complete missions indefinitely. But the downside was obvious: it might hog all the available work, leaving nothing for the rest of the guild.
Now that issue was solved.
"Hahahaha."
Makarov raised his chin high, beaming like he'd just scored a major win. 'See, brat? Your old man's still got it.'
"That's really great, Master," Mira said sweetly. "Oh, and I have good news too!"
"Kazuma's learned a new kind of magic — he can summon a bunch of soldiers who complete missions for him. Just earlier, he took ten quests at once! Isn't that amazing?"
"Yeah, that's ama—wait, WHAT?!"
Makarov almost choked. Ten quests at once?! All those extra missions he'd just secured… would be gone in no time!
"Master," Mira said with a playful smile, "for the good of the guild, please use your unbeatable connections and charm!" She pumped her little fists in encouragement.
"I knew it… nothing ever goes smoothly in this damn guild…" Makarov groaned, tears welling up in his eyes. Ever since becoming guild master, he'd been living in a constant state of crisis. Retirement was sounding better by the day.
---
Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
"That's the last one. Looks like the shadow soldiers take about four to five days to finish a batch of missions," Kazuma mused as the final group returned. "Between travel, task completion, and reporting back, yeah… five days per ten quest sounds about right."
He took the paperwork from one of them and handed it to Mira for verification.
[Ding! Quest complete. Magic power capacity buff increased by 10%.]
"In just five days, I got 100% mana buff without lifting a finger," Kazuma said with a satisfied smile.
Through testing, he'd learned that summoning shadowkhans didn't consume much mana, and maintaining them was surprisingly cheap too.
Their stats weren't particularly high — aside from their unique shadow traits — so their upkeep cost was low. The real drain came from sheer quantity and distance. The farther and more numerous the shadows, the heavier the mana strain.
Luckily, Kazuma's reserves were enormous, and with his hidden energy stores, he had more than enough to sustain them.
Still, it wasn't wise to maintain too many for too long.
"I should trim the numbers a bit. Best to balance the drain with my natural mana recovery rate."
He picked up another set of quests to test his theory. While the soldiers handled those, he focused on his own training — strengthening his body through the Navy Six Powers.
...
A month went by.
After countless tests, Kazuma finally found the sweet spot: sixty shadow soldiers.
Any more, and his mana regeneration couldn't keep up. Any less, and it felt wasteful.
He divided them into ten teams of six — more than enough to handle the average mission anywhere in Fiore.
For the truly difficult ones, though, even hundreds of shadows wouldn't be enough. Those he preferred to handle personally.
And thanks to a month of training with the Six Powers, his body had changed dramatically. His physical strength had skyrocketed, his techniques had become second nature, and he'd even started to sense something new — the faint edge of Armament Haki.
Kazuma was curious to see if he would really awaken it without the help of the system.
Boom!
The guild's front doors suddenly burst open. This time, no one got flattened beneath them.
A tall man with spiky blond hair and a lightning-shaped mark above his eye strode in. He swept his gaze across the guild with open disdain, then walked straight to the bar, tossing a mission sheet onto the counter.
"Mission complete. Process it. And get me a drink."
Laxus sat down, eyes locked on Kazuma — his gaze sharp and openly hostile.
"You two better not start a fight," Mira said nervously as she picked up the paperwork.
"Stay out of this, you useless ornament," Laxus snapped. "I don't even know why the old man keeps a weakling like you around—"
He didn't finish. Mira's eyes welled up, tears spilling instantly — but before the sound of her crying could fill the room, it was drowned out by a deafening explosion.
"Laxus, don't you dare make our bar girl cry. If you're looking to die, just say so!"
Cannons and guns materialized around Kazuma in a flash, unleashing a storm of magic blasts toward Laxus.
"Hmph! Arrogant as ever. I've hated that attitude of yours for a long time. And I hear you've been calling yourself the strongest in the guild lately? What a joke."
Lightning crackled around Laxus as he blocked the barrage effortlessly. He hadn't just come back to turn in a job — he'd come back because he'd heard of Kazuma's rising fame. It had gotten under his skin, and he wanted to settle it with a fight.
Their gazes clashed, and the air between them trembled. Invisible magic power flared outward, colliding midair — the pressure alone made everyone in the guild feel like their lungs were being crushed.
The floorboards creaked. The walls shook. The whole guildhall seemed ready to collapse under the weight of their power.
"I don't claim to be the strongest," Kazuma said calmly. "I am the strongest."
Behind him, countless shadow soldiers emerged, filling the hall. Every one of them that had been out on missions had returned.
If this fight broke out for real, Kazuma wouldn't have the luxury of holding back.
.
.
.