The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 13: "Intelligence"

The ants must have seen the ice wolves use ice attacks while scouting or something.

Ice wolves weren't monsters native to this area. They had been ousted by a competing species, and this wolf pack ended up fleeing south. If the ants were indigenous to this area, it would be difficult to suddenly have to find a way to deal with an unknown species like ice wolves. Considering the climate, there probably weren't any other monsters in this region that could use ice.

Even so, the ants should still have the advantage by virtue of their overwhelming numbers, so maybe ants became weak when the temperature dropped. Well, insects in the real world were also weaker in low temperatures, but in this world, perhaps the ants didn't have any kind of magical defenses to cope with it. Or, maybe the ants were weak to ice for an entirely magical reason instead.

"...Well, for now, let's just try it out and worry more later. At this point, there isn't anything left to consider."

She would have Marion learn ice magic. First off was [Magical Affinity: Ice] and [Freeze]. She would like to get the [Ice Bullet] offensive spell as well, but the effect they needed right now was the ability to lower air temperature, not the ability to kill, particularly since their current goal was to capture an ant.

Regular magic attacks dealt damage based on the INT stat. Marion was a beastkin, and her INT was also extremely low, so her magic wouldn't be very potent. But even before that, she didn't have the minimum required stats, so she wasn't even eligible to learn magic yet. So first, Rare needed to spend some XP on increasing Marion's INT stat.

She didn't want to run empty on XP, so she spent in moderation. Still, Marion now had as much INT as a newbie elf specializing in casting magic. Thinking of how she was already a prodigious ranger, now all she needed was offensive magic and she would probably be able to take out a player at first sight. Not that Rare had any plans at the moment to go PKing.

"Well, Marion? Now, you should understand the basics of [Ice Magic]."

"Oooh... So cool... I do... I know how to use it too... Is this your power, Boss?"

"That's right. Aren't you glad?"

It wasn't technically Rare's power, but rather a function of the game system, but it was true that Rare was the primary impetus.

"This goes for all of you as well: if you work properly for me, then I can give you magic, power, and more. Marion, this is my down payment on you, but you'll work hard, right?"

"Yeah. I'll go freeze the ants and catch 'em!"

"Good girl. We'll all wait for you here, so it's up to you."

Marion dove into the nest. All that was left was to wait and see what happened. As long as they weren't too far away, Rare vaguely knew the status of her followers. If she judged that things had gotten too dangerous, she should be able to summon Marion back here.

Until Marion returned, she should think about how to spend the remaining XP strengthening everyone else. It slipped her mind while thinking about teaching her magic, but since Marion's INT went up, it's possible that may have affected the NPC's cognitive ability as well. From the start, the catkin girls' builds were oddly unbalanced, with only INT being low, so she was thinking it would be good to increase it for all of them.

She didn't exactly dislike their crude language, but if they were going to go to town in the future, it would be better if they learned how to be more polite. She wasn't sure if their ability to study would also go up with INT, but it was worth trying. If it turned out it didn't work that way, then at least it wouldn't be wasted since it still let them learn magic later.