Sand Gathering and an Encounter Battle: Aftermath

We resumed digging sand and putting it into barrels, repeating the process over and over. Doing such a simple task in silence was bound to get boring, so it was only natural that we chatted while working.

"Sigh... I was completely useless in that last battle."

The one who said that with a sigh during our conversation was Nenashi. I had noticed that Nenashi had seemed downhearted ever since the battle ended. As Nenashi had said, the reason seemed to be that they had been unable to do much during the fight against Life Metal Mad Shark.

It was true that Nenashi had not been able to contribute much. Their greatest specialty, restraining enemies with vines, had been ineffective. They seemed to be taking it very seriously.

"It was just a terrible matchup. You don't need to worry about it that much."

"Yeah, yeah! Shiitake-sama guarantees it!"

Eiji and Shiitake comforted Nenashi, whose voice was gloomy. Like the other two, I did not think Nenashi needed to worry. Some matchups were simply unfavorable. However, Shiitake, don't use comforting Nenashi as an excuse to stop working. Sure enough, Iris poked Shiitake in the ribs.

However, no matter what anyone said, Nenashi's mood did not improve. What Nenashi wanted was probably not words of comfort, but a solution to the problem: what should they have done? I had no clever idea, so I could not say anything.

"Should I acquire a weapon-type Skill after all? But raising a Skill level little by little from now on would take a long time... Hmm..."

"Hey... Nenashi. Why don't you do it the way I did before?"...