Character list for I Will Live Freely In Another World With Equipment Manufacturing Cheat. Spoilers unmarked up to the most recently translated chapter.
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Protagonist and summons.
Touji Akino
Yeah, Pochi. I understand.
Summoned by accident along with the hero and his built-in harem, he is impulsively and literally thrown out of the royal castle because he had no obvious or flashy "cheat" skill and his stats were bog-standard. After about 9 days, he has made a name for himself in the adventurer's guild as a porter, offering himself up at very, very reasonable rates with his [Item Box] skill. Upon hearing of this, the king sends armed knights to seize him by force. Not happy with this heavy-handed event, the guild helps him escape the country into a neighboring kingdom.- Accidental Discovery: Touji realizes he's got a cheat skill, not by a magical appraisal tool or scan, but by picking up a fruit in the market.
- All-Loving Hero: He rarely holds a grudge.
- Benevolent Boss: He treats his summons as equals, even though they're bound to him, and the norm is bossing them around as de-facto slaves.
- Cowardly Lion: He prefers to avoid combat and hang-back whenever possible, seeing as he knows his stats are bog-standard and his ability isn't exactly geared to fighting, but when he's forced to fight, he faces the threat head-on and will do whatever it takes to win that won't hurt his conscience too much.
- Difficult, but Awesome: His Grid Inventory and ability to see and interact with loot drops is already impressive, but his manufacturing and summoning abilities don't unlock until he reaches level 10, when his lack of combat training and bog standard stats make monster hunting difficult, at best.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: As Meyer frequently states, Touji's manufacturing cheats are beyond logic and are totally broken. What takes an expert alchemist months or even years to learn and create potions, Touji is able to do so on on a whim, with no effort. She is always surprised at the amount of high-quality merchandise he brings to her, which she can sell for enormous profit. His latest endeavor of creating a medium-grade magic sword has her shouting out how ridiculous Touji is to call it as 'not a big deal.'
- Does Not Like Spam: He can't bring himself to eat the meat of humanoid monsters, no matter how tasty it might be, even if it's well established that the monsters in question are literally mindless beasts.
- Easy Logistics: Due to his Item Box skill, it doesn't take long for people to realize how important Touji is in terms of supply and storage. The king is literally kicking himself for evicting Touji from the Hero Party without realizing his importance.
- Endearingly Dorky: His friends (and summons) find him embarrassing because he's goofy as all get out, especially when he sees loot drops, often forgetting that only he can see and interact with them, but his friends are his friends because he embodies all Seven Heavenly Virtues.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: He serves as a porter, for very reasonable prices, if not cheap, because he can piggy-back off the fighting prowess of the parties he's with to loot valuable item drops that only he can see and interact with.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Much as he strives to get through life without developing a grudge, he resents the "Hero" party he was summoned with because, at best, they did absolutely nothing to protest the summoning event nor the fact that he was literally thrown out of the royal palace and left to his own devices in an alien land. The Hero Party's later actions, which results in endangering the other countries, doesn't put them in a better viewpoint.
- Every Man Has His Price: Touji was uncertain to accept Juno as a familiar, until she showed him a treasure trove of materials she had collected for souvenirs.
- Excellent Judge of Character: While he does make small mistakes, he's really good at reading people, and chooses his friends wisely. The most iconic of the parties he porters for, New Destiny's Wind, helps him escape King Deprui's tyranny. Sharing his closely guarded ability secrets with Meyer Albert netted him an excellent distribution network for his crafted goods. When he meets Igneil and her unnamed party including Bret and Frey, most people would have presumed Igneil was the problem, as she was picking fights with the rest. He instead realizes that the rest of the party's the problem and Igneil is being exploited and abused. Lastly, when the guild forces a party together as part of a rank-up test, and the party includes Erica, he immediately pegs Erica as a "Party Destroyer" while she was still in town and pretending to be all goody-two-shoes, long before he even heard the rumors that there was indeed such a problem in the guild, and it isn't long before he's proven right.
- Food as Bribe: He wins over the rightfully suspicious and wary fairies in chapter 21 by having them taste Pochi's cookies.
- Good Feels Good: Make no mistake, he greatly appreciates the loot he gets from item drops, to the point people look at him strangely as he's doing celebratory dances for no apparent reason, but the primary reason he's quick to lend a helping hand is the simple satisfaction of the genuine gratitude he gets.
- Grew a Spine: He starts the story understandably quite cowardly. After managing to establish himself as an independent adventurer and escaping the kingdom of Deprui, he's become much braver, even taking down a King Slime that his summons couldn't deal with by himself, and rescuing Igneil from a literal legion of orcs, at tremendous risk to himself.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: His special skill is neither inherently apparent, nor suited for battle, but it's invaluable in just about everything else.
- Human Pack Mule: Something that Touji wants to avoid becoming if the Depuri Kingdom catches him. He knows that he'd be enslaved to carrying all the Hero Party's stuff.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Pochi once serves him Liverfin meat, and he finds it tasty. Then he's on a guild rank-up quest and sees that a Liverfin is a humanoid monster. He's not amused and punishes Pochi with some nice face mushing.
- Jack of All Trades: With exception of direct combat, Touji's abilities allow him to do just about everything else. His skill comes with the ability to read the information of anything he touches, he's got a massive Grid Inventory, allowing him to carry around literal tons of items, he can summon monsters from monster cards he gathers as part of the magical loot he, and only he, can collect, he can craft potions, medicines, antidotes, arms, and armors, and he can also enchant them. If he finds himself in a pinch, he can whip out his trump card, the king slime, King Kamon.
- Karmic Jackpot: People who treat him kindly have a strong tendency to have nice things happen to them. People who treat him badly tend to suffer for their folly.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When his bodyguards, the "Iron Wall Party," abandon him in the face of bandits, leaving him helpless, he reveals that he's got an [Item Box] skill, to prove he's more valuable alive. He retaliates to his kidnapping by looting the bandit den clean as he's escaping.
- Leaked Experience: Exploited. His magic skill steals a small bit of the experience of whoever he's got in his "party" list, even if they're separated by a great distance. This does make him feel guilty, but when he went to disable this feature, he got a warning prompt that there'd be a penalty far, far too expensive for him to pay, both to his level and to his stats, so he reluctantly left it on.
- Level Grinding: Since he doesn't have any help from Depuri's King or the Hero Party, (not that he wants it), he still has to go through the motions of gradually increasing his skills, level and Guild ranking. This includes doing handyman jobs to promote himself from F to E rank, civil works such as sewer cleanings, and even take part in the C-Rank test. His ability to leech EXP from party members does help, but he still has to grind.
- Older Than They Look: Many people, especially Meyer, tell him he looks (and acts) like a young teen. He is actually 29 years old at the start of the story.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Meyer loves to rib him about his experiences with Iron Will Party. (When he meets up with them during the Monster Stampede, he offers them healing potions, but thinks they'll cost ten times what everyone else will pay, AND he'll steal the XP of the Iron Will party after the Stampede's over to boot.)
- Seven Heavenly Virtues: He's got them all.
- Honesty: While he does keep certain aspects of his skill secret, he is very up front with people he trusts, and can't tell a convincing lie to save his life, literally.
- Humility: Receiving praise gives him pangs of guilt.
- Diligence: He happily works hard with integrity, considering loot drops he gets more than sufficient payment.
- Kindness: He's a total people pleaser, until he's given reason not to be.
- Charity: He accepted the poorly paying guild quests for handy-man services just because the clients needed them done, and when he helps fix up a restaurant, he revitalizes the place by advertising how good the beef-bowls are, free of charge, plus Pochi goes there to cook on his time off, and shares the orc-meat Touji doesn't want to eat. Furthermore, when he's sent with relief supplies to a border fortress, his task is only to deliver weapons and armor provided by Meyer, most of which he crafted himself. When he gets there, he lets Pochi clean out the stale and expired provisions and replaces them with his own stock, in addition to letting Pochi cook for the entire regiment. Said regiment was extremely grateful. Later on, even though the quest was canceled due to a village trying to hide a scam, Touji still convinces the other adventurers to help save that village from a horde of goblins and a necromancer.
- Temperance: Even after he starts being able to earn major bank with his manufacturing skills, he doesn't drown himself in luxury. He crafts purely for the joy of it and lives modestly. Furthermore, he doesn't want to draw unwanted attention to himself, in order to keep his manufacturing cheats a secret.
- Chastity: He never once looks at the attractive women in his sphere of influence with perverted thoughts, without an engraved invitation, (though he once flirts with the guild receptionist), and when Erica threw herself at him, buck naked, he remembered what a horrid woman she is and told her "thanks, but no thanks."
- So Much for Stealth: While escaping the bandit den, he trips over and shatters a wine bottle, alerting the bandits, so he and Pochi make a run for the nearest road, seeking aid.
- Stat Meters: Due to his penchant for playing RPG-online games, Touji has gained the ability to completely appraise items, measure health and apply basic game mechanics that only he can see and interact with. This also allows him to manipulate his Item Box inventory, dismantle Drop Items, Map functions, create items, Summon Familiars and evolve them as well.
- Summon Magic: His biggest contribution to parties, once he unlocks the perk, is summoning monsters to help with the chores or deal damage, such as Pochi for the camp-related stuff and Goleo for normal combat.
- Support Party Member: Most of his skill's perks aren't directly effective on the battlefield, such as making potions, armor, and weapons.
- Unluckily Lucky: It's difficult to tell if his luck's good or bad.
- He's caught up in the summon by accident and his skill isn't immediately apparent, so he's thrown out of the castle, literally, with nothing more than the clothes on his back and 5 gold coins, but because he was thrown out, he has almost complete autonomy of his actions, and his skill just happens to be invaluable in daily life. He's a newbie adventurer, therefore low-ranked, with what would normally be horrible wages but that's okay because his skill allows him to collect the loot the actual fighting force of any party he's with can't actually see, let alone collect. And when the king realizes he goofed and sends knights at him, the parties he's been with, and a merchant he met in passing are grateful for what he's done on their behalf and help him escape.
- As he's travelling to another town, having hired bodyguards, the bodyguards abandon him at the very first credible threat, leaving him in the hands of bandits, and when he's fleeing the bandits, he meets the helpful merchant again who not only happens to be the leader of a very influential merchant company, but lets him sell all the "bandit's" loot he's been carrying around, and becomes his primary distribution channel for the goods he makes.
- Then to top it all off, when he's doing a sewer maintenance quest, he stumbles upon a bunch a bunch of slimes and a KING SLIME. Defeating the last nets him his ultimate trump card, King Kamon.
Pochi
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: In a way. He just can't stand it when there are hungry people nearby, and if there's a kitchen available, he will immediately start cooking with the best ingredients he can get his hands on.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: And extremely bloodthirsty about it. In chapter 19.2, he sees some wild Kobolds and immediately whips out his cross-bow, going on a killing spree. When Touji objects, he whips out a memo pad and writes paragraph-long lectures to justify himself. When Pochi brings back the kobold cards of the wild Kobolds he kills, Touji stops complaining and uses them to evolve Pochi.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: He's clever, cunning, an excellent chef and housekeeper, and is great at accounting and providing manual labor when Touji is brewing potions.
- Money Multiplier: After being evolved to a Rare Type, Pochi's special skill is to increase Kettle Drop Rates by 50%. Considering that enhancing items and evolving Summons increase in costs, increasing Kettle Drop Rates is essential.
- Our Kobolds Are Different: He looks more like a Shiba Inu/fox-like canine than the Western reptilian-looking Kobold. He's also much smarter than the "wild kobolds" he defends Touji against, and Pochi is a loyal summon to Touji. Touji is as loyal to Pochi too, often concerned about his welfare.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Everybody loves to cuddle this guy.
- Servile Snarker: He doesn't hesitate to snark at Touji behind his back when Touji goes into a mania over loot drops.
- Silent Snarker: He can't talk, but he can convey pure snark at Touji by gestures and facial features.
- Supreme Chef: Justified. He learned how to cook by working at a restaurant which Touji was sent by the adventurer's guild to repair on an official request. As such, everyone loves his cooking. Everyone.
- Team Mascot: He's the biggest selling point of Touji's summoned monsters.
Goleo
- Berserk Button: For reasons nobody can explain, it takes offense at being called "heavy" despite being a golem made of stone. In chapter 20, Touji, Pochi, and Collect are trussed up by a level 51 monster which Touji takes to calling a "knock-off Pokémon" and looks surprisingly like Vitribel, the pitcher plant. It tries to grab Goleo as well, but fails, and Touji points out the golem is their last hope at escape as it's too heavy for the plant monster to bind. Goleo, enraged, throws its hammer at Touji, at which point Touji has to apologize for the "insult."
- The Big Guy: Before King Slime King Kamon came along, Goleo was this. In some battles Goleo still is this when King Kamon can't join in. (Thanks to a "Giant Potion" Touji uses on Goleo when fighting against the giant toothed worm known as a "Fairy-Eating Monster," Goleo becomes ten times its original size with ten times normal strength. Goleo easily rips off its head and Touji uses his sword to finish it.)
- Odd Friendship: With Ignis, the fire mage. The two of them get along swimmingly for some reason.
- Silent Snarker: Like Pochi, it can't speak, but doesn't hesitate to snark when Touji gets goofy.
- Super Power Russian Roulette: After collecting 100 other golem cards, Touji tries to upgrade this summon's rank. The upgrade is a success, however, the skill it gets is to take damage equal to 10% of its max health when it's summoned. Fortunately, healing potions and other forms or magical healing still work, so it's not a total loss.
Tirol
- Cute Slime Mook: It's a slime, one of Touji's summons, and it's adorable enough for a mook, as Touji himself states.
- Healing Hands: Extremely downplayed. Its special skill as an upgrade is 10 hp of healing every 10 seconds for every member of the party it's in. It's not much, but every little bit helps when All Deaths Are Final.
- One-Shot Character: To date, it's only been showcased when it was first summoned and apparently forgotten.
- Punny Name: "Tirol" is the brand name for a type of blue-berry flavored gum-drop in Japan, where the story is written. Goleo, who chose the name, had no way of knowing this, but since this slime looks like a giant blue gumdrop, it fits.
King Kamon
Purua?
Touji's summon that he gained as he was working on the guild request to clean the sewers when he fought, and defeated, a King Slime.- The Big Guy: The largest member of Touji's retinue. A "Giant Potion" or major source of water allows him to get even larger against nastier enemies (like the orihalcum golem and a combined Lizardman/Liverfin force seeing Touji and those with him as an Enemy Mine situation).
- Blood Knight: He's a completely shameless battle junkie and likes nothing more than a good fight. In fact, when summoned to deal with a legion of orcs and an orc king, the message he gave Touji after the battle was over is "More, More! I WANT TO FIGHT MORE!!! THAT WAS FUN!"
- Brutal Honesty: Despite being in the monster collection book at the time, King and the other summons could still see what was happening to Touji. King makes his displeasure of Erica's actions very clear as he tries to strangle her, nearly shoots her head off and beats her down.
- It Can Think: Unlike regular slimes, even slime kings, he can read and write, and is skilled enough with the water-cutter jets he uses to attack that he can carve out messages soft earth or solid stone.
- Me's a Crowd: He can counter being greatly outnumbered by splitting into a bunch of smaller king slimes, should the need arise.
- No-Sell: Invoked. He has a skill that makes him immune to physical attacks for a second. So when he's facing of against an orc king, the beast attacks him with its scimitar. His response is to glance at it like a sarcastic "really?" before one-hit killing it.
- One-Man Army: The very first time he's summoned, he's up against a legion of orcs and an orc king. Result: Literal curbstomp in his favor.
- Roar Before Beating: He normally starts battle by yelling "Gururururu!"
- Sensing You Are Outmatched: When Touji summons him to help deal with an out-of-control orihalcum golem, he states that he can't beat it, but qualifies that if they all work together, they can.
- This Is Unforgivable!: King knows Erica's actions went way out of line, and made her look to him like another Enemy.
Collect
Quah?
A summon Touji collected by sheer chance when the target monster accidentally killed itself fleeing from Ignis's party and crashing into Goleo.- A Dog Named "Dog": Its species name is "Collect Peaks" and its personal name is "Collect."
- Good Luck Charm: Simply being present boosts the quality and quantity of the loot drops Touji finds from defeated monsters.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: It is surprisingly easy to kill. In fact, the monster its monster summon card came from died simply crashing into Goleo by accident.
- Pokémon Speak: It "speaks" through using the word "quah" with various inflections.
- Sensor Character: It can sense treasure nearby.
- Stock Money Bag: Both Collect and its species are highly prized, not only for their parts, but also because they tend to build their nests with gold, jewels and other valuables. Adventurers tend to follow Collection Peaks to their nests to get a bonus.
- Weak, but Skilled: Collect has the invaluable skills of scouting the surrounding area for enemies and sensing precious materials Touji can't find with his item drop ability. However, its defenses and attack power are abysmal even after leveling up so the bird has to be indefinitely exempted from battles if it doesn't want to go down in one hit.
Juno The Dungeon Core
I wasn't going to hurt anyone! Please stop attacking me!
While searching for rare metals to work with using Collect, Touji is drawn to her dungeon by Collect's cries. He encounters her while exploring her dungeon, and she surprises him as he's preparing to snack on the meal Pochi prepared. She then offers to pay him in orihalcum if he'll do her a favor, defeat an orihalcum golem that went out of control in her dungeon, threatening her freedom, if not her existence.- Actually A Doom Bot: The fairy seen in the page image, the very same one she used to speak with Touji, is actually a drone, according to her own testimony. The real dungeon core is hidden somewhere in the room where Touji fought the orihalcum golem.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns in chapter 23.1, having made a dungeon corridor that connects to the room Touji rents at the inn.
- Did Not Think This Through: The way she chose to approach Touji was suicidal. She just suddenly appears as he's eating, nabs the meal he was planning to eat while his head is turned, and then spooks him by just addressing him as she's standing on his dinner table. When Touji asks who she is, she just smugly declares she's the dungeon boss. Confused, shocked, and more than a bit scared, Touji declares open season and tries to smash her to bits until she offers to pay him in orihalcum, at which point he manages to settle down and hear her out.
- Every Man Has His Price: Initially, Touji was reluctant to accept Juno as a new member to his familiars, until she showed him a huge treasure trove of rare minerals, herbs and other materials. This guaranteed her to have pancakes every day for life.
- Gone Horribly Right: She gathers orihalcum for years, by her own testimony, to build a powerful orihalcum golem to protect her dungeon core from intruders, so she can explore the surrounding area. So far, so good. In order to activate it, she channels most of her dungeon resources into running and maintaining it. The last part causes the golem to monopolize the dungeon core's operation, and the moment she inevitably returns to the core, she'll be trapped inside, helpless, and the golem is too strong for her to deal with herself, forcing her to have Touji deal with it, offering up the remains as payment.
- Hates Being Alone: Despite all appearances to the contrary and how rocky things started between her and Touji, she desperately asks him to keep her company. When he says his duties as an adventurer demand he be elsewhere, she begs him to return as often as possible.
- Home Base: Being able to move the core and set up the dungeon anywhere means that Touji now has portable living quarters and extra storage space. No more camping out in the wild.
- Mistaken Identity: Juno's drone is seen as a fairy by others, and Touji just decides to go with that misconception, since it would cause a lot of problems if Juno's true identity as a dungeon core is revealed. Juno reluctantly accepts the decision.
- No Name Given: We don't learn her name to be Juno until Chapter 23.2.
- Sweet Tooth: She's easily swayed by Pochi's cooking, especially his cookies and pancakes.
- Smug Snake: During Touji's battle with the orihalcum golem, she kept patting herself on the back for what a good job she did in building the very same thing she asked Touji to destroy.
- Stock Money Bag: Juno needs to amass materials to form her dungeon, which in turn gives Touji a supply of raw crafting resources without having to mine it himself.
- This Can Not Be: Twice. She's stunned and horrified when Touji gives King Kamon a magic potion that makes him 10X larger and 10X stronger, allowing the king slime to finish the golem off. Again when Touji is able to fit the entire golem in his [Inventory] when it's defeated.
Adventurers:
New Destiny's Wind
You are such a nice guy, Touji. (Touji attacked by pangs of guilt.)
The primary party Touji portered for in the kingdom of Deprui that summoned him.- Chekhov's Gunman: When Touji is trying to flee the knights of Deprui, they show up and provide him an escape route, as the porter for the merchant they had an escort mission to lead out of the country.
- Debt Detester: Feeling guilty that Touji couldn't peruse the level-locked equipment they crafted from the loot of the kills they had him carry, they offer monetary equivalent, which he turns down, due to secretly collecting loot drops. In exchange, when Touji is fleeing the Deprui kingdom knights who are unjustly trying to capture him, they help him escape the country, at great risk to their own freedom and reputation.
Iron Will Army
Sure, we lost in the territorial battle that one time, but that doesn't count!
A nominal C-rank party Touji hires to escort him to another town after fleeing the capital.- Closest Thing We Got: The reason Touji agreed to let these guys escort him to the next city, despite seeing how moronic they are, is that they were the only party available and willing to escort him out of town on short notice, even if he paid a premium for the service. Although they ultimately failed him when it really matters, Touji has no rational complaints since they netted him quite a few boons in loot drops from monsters, especially Pochi, who Touji sees as a godsend, and Touji's encounter with the bandits went better than he had any right to expect.
- Dumb Muscle: They're only good at attacking and smashing every monster in sight. In everything else, they are total morons.
- Faceless Mooks: Only the leader's face is shown. The rest are wearing visored helms, making it impossible to see their faces, and when they abandon their equipment, it's off-screen.
- Miles Gloriosus: They are fond of boasting of their supposed battle-prowess, but at the first sight of a credible threat, their bravado crumples like an empty Styrofoam cup.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: They abandon Touji, and all their equipment, when a bandit party challenges them on the road. To be fair, the bandit party had a great many well-disguised scarecrows nearby to make their numbers appear completely overwhelming.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: They reunite with Touji during the Monster Stampede, and though Touji offers healing potions to Iron Will Army, he thinks they'll pay ten times the price others would for each potion, AND he'll steal their gained XP from the Stampede without hesitation to boot.
Igneil's former party
Igneil, we really need your fire power. Come-on, we'll even give you the benefit of eating at the bakery owned by Frey's parents for free!
The party Igneil was in when she first met Touji. At first glance, all party friction seemed to come from Igneil, but it quickly becomes apparent that they were exploiting her by having her do the most work and abusing her by giving her the smallest rewards, and on top of that, not only had her sleep in a freaking stable, but when the Collection Peaks corpse was turned in for the reward, they took half of the total and gave it to Frey's bakery and then split the remainder equally, rightly earning her ire. Then to top it all off, they abandon her in the face of a legion of orcs, breaking her staff so she can't defend herself. If not for Touji hearing her screams as he was gathering materials in the area, she would have undergone monster gang-rape and impregnation, and perhaps death.- Deconstructed Character Archetype: The party seems to be composed of the swordsman Bray as the leader, the Wind magician Frey, and an unnamed scout/ranger with a bow. They previously had Igneil as the Fire magician, but she quit the team after they had given away half her share of the Collect quest reward without her permission. Overall, they are an incompetent and unbalanced team and are the reason why Igneil had been demoted from C to D rank. Their leader Bray is considered Money Dumb and is smitten by Frey. Additionally, Frey's parents own a failing bakery and most of whatever money that is earned by the team, goes to the bakery's support. This also the reason why the team seems to be always short on funds or broke. It's very likely that if Igneil had stayed with the group, her rank would have probably dropped even lower.
- Hanlon's Razor: At their best, they are so incompetent and lazy that it's impossible to tell if their intentions have active malice or not.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: The reason Igneil's rank dropped from C to D after leaving their party was because they were so incompetent, they dragged her into all their failures, treated her like livestock, pretty literally, and gave it their best effort to make it look like it's all her fault.
- Money Dumb: Except for Igneil, the team does not have any money sense. Igneil even complained about the team not being able to afford a cheap inn and being forced to sleep in the stables. The straw that broke the camel's back, was taking half of the Collection Peaks reward and donating it to Frey's failing bakery, and dividing the rest among the team. This is seen by the leader as charity but is in fact, blatant embezzlement (Stealing from the Till). It's like an employer saying to an employee, "I took 50% of your paycheck and donated it to my favorite charity. You understand, right?"
- Moral Myopia: Downplayed. When they encounter Touji and Igneil in the campsite where everyone is trying to rest between waves in an active monster stampede, they put forward, at best, a bunch of half-baked apologies, empty assurances that they will improve, and offer free meals from Frey's bakery. Igneil calls them out on all of it and promptly tells them that the bread sold at Frey's bakery is flat and tasteless, and that's why her bakery is failing in the first place. After the shock of this declaration wears off they glare at Igneil like she's the one in the wrong, especially when she joins Touji's camp and actively enjoys the meal provided by Pochi, Touji's summon.
- Stealing from the Till: The final straw for Igneil is when their leader took half the award for the Collect quest and handed it to Frey's bakery without her consent and then split the rest equally. Before she could make the break from the party official, however, they abandoned her with a broken staff in the face of a legion of orcs, and they have the gall to think they can just smooth things over with free goodies from the bakery when they meet again at the monster stampede emergency quest.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: They honestly believe that the bread from Frey's bakery is so, so good that it can make up for ruining Igneil's adventurer rank, abusing and exploiting her when she was in the party, and to top it off, abandoning her in the face of a literal legion of orcs with no way to defend herself.
Ignis/Igneil
I wish I had a golem!
First encountered by Touji tearing into her party for many petty slights and inconveniences. It later turns out that her complaints were more than valid as she was actively carrying the party, but given the tiniest possible share of rewards, and when the party found themselves in danger, she was dumped as bait, to be gang-raped by a literal legion of orcs, before Touji comes to her rescue.- Ancestral Weapon: The staff she wields after selling off the orc king testicles was once her mother's. She was forced to pawn it at one time but got it back, thanks to Touji, and she's grateful.
- Brutal Honesty: She says what she means and means what she says, without pleasantries or dancing around the bush. You're offended by that? That's your fault.
- Conditional Powers: She can only use her fire magic when she's equipped with a mage staff. This is the reason the orcs were able to capture her as her staff was broken by her former party when they used her as bait.
- Cuteness Proximity: She always goes gaga when Pochi is around and loves to snuggle the kobold summon.
- Fatal Flaw: Wrath. She is easily baited into self-destructing by insults against her or those she likes. She tends to immediately retaliate to any slights with a predisposition for immediate gratification at the expense of long-term prospects.
- Fiery Redhead: She has red hair and is a fire mage.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She trusts and bonds with Touji because he's repeatedly bailed her out of trouble. When the Collection Peaks her party was chasing crashed into Goleo, he hands over the corpse, for free, no questions asked. When she's about to be gang-raped by a legion of orcs, he not only comes to her rescue, at terrible risk to himself, but offers to share the orc corpses, aside from the testicles of the orc king, which allows her to get back on her feet, both figuratively and literally, she declines. Lastly, when her former party, who abandoned her to said orc legion, and broke her staff so she couldn't defend herself, tried to rope her into returning to the party with ridiculous "benefits" like free bread from a failing bakery, which is failing because the bread in question is terrible, he lets her share his camp so those yahoos finally get the hint and leave her alone.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: She begs Touji to flee before the orc legion arrives because she's got a broken ankle and can barely limp, even with the splint Touji made for her. Touji never gets the opportunity because no sooner do they get to the door of the cabin where the orcs were holding her than the orc legion has them cornered and the place surrounded, escape impossible.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: She is a good and kind woman, but her former party got her demoted from C-rank back to D by stiffing her on her share of the rewards, subjecting her to sub-standard conditions, like having her sleep in a stable, as opposed to an inn, and going out of their way to make it look like she's the problem.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is Ignis (for ignite) and she's a fire mage.
- Odd Friendship: She and Goleo get along great for some reason nobody understands.
- Poke the Poodle: When her old party tries to beg her to come back, after leaving her to be gang-raped by orcs, they claim she can get free meals at the bakery her share of the rewards for the "Collect Peaks" quest went to support, which they took without her consent. She retorts that the bread coming from that bakery sucks, and she always hated it. The former party has the gall to look at her as if she's the one in the wrong.
- Rape as Drama: Touji rescues her from impending gang rape by a legion of orcs.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When her former party tries to bribe Igneli back with free bread from Frey's bakery, she finally snaps at them and tells them how much grief she gotten from their incompetence. She finishes by adding that the bakery bread tastes awful, which is why it's failing in the first place.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: She's got flaming red hair and is a very nice girl once you get to know her.
- Spell My Name With An S: Translators can't agree on how her name is supposed to be spelled. Some go with "Ignis" while others go with "Igneil."
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a very masculine type of woman, but she loves to dress up Goleo like she's playing with a barbie-doll. Goleo for its part actually likes it. She also loves to snuggle Pochi, who is ambivalent.
Garrey
Normally, we'd report everything to the guild, but I think it would be best if we don't talk about what happened here in this lake.
Introduced grumbling about the particulars of the C-rank up quest, after all the party members finish their introductions, he nominates himself as the leader, allowing no objections. During the test, he proves to actually be one of the more competent and trustworthy party members.- Grumpy Old Man: He's elderly and irritable, complaining that he wanted the test to be an escort mission rather than a monster survey because he wanted connections to make more wealth faster.
- If Only You Knew: His biggest complaint at the start of the rank-up quest was that he wasn't going to be making connections with an influential and wealthy merchant. In the party is Touji, who has close ties with Meyer Albert of the Albert merchant association, and Touji himself is a very, very successful craftsman.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He starts the mission demanding everyone show what provisions they've brought. He rails on Node for only bringing seasonings, and Node retorts that he's a proficient hunter, accustomed to procuring his own food while on the job, and Garrey rails on Erica for bringing absolutely nothing to the table, both figuratively and literally. When Grays then says that he wouldn't mind sharing his provisions with her, Garrey points out that lack of nourishment can easily escalate to a self-sustaining vicious cycle of fatigue, weakness, illness, and ultimately death. He's right.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rude and crude, but he was taking the rank-up test mission seriously and drew up plans down to the last minutiae that, if followed, would have led the party to the best possible chances of success.
- No Social Skills: The reason he's such a bossy jerk in his introduction isn't malice, it's that he simply doesn't know how to relate to others. He gets better at working with Touji, Node, and Igneil.
- Odd Friendship: After the exam is taken care of, he and Node team up and form a party. They invite Touji, but he declines.
Node
Karma can be a cruel mistress.
The party ranger.- Fighter, Mage, Thief: As a ranger and scout, he fills the "thief" role of the party to Grays's fighter, and everyone else's mage, with Touji being a Jack of All Trades.
- Shrinking Violet: A male example. Since he's accustomed to hunting solo, he tends to be shy in front of people.
Grays
Come on. Aren't you all and that summon going too far? (Takes corpse to the face)
One of the party members of Touji's C-rank-up party quest. He sides with Erica's schemes to actively sabotage the party in return for getting laid.- Fatal Flaw: Lust. Because he let his gonads do the thinking for him, he actively supported Erica's schemes to fracture and endanger the party.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For his part in Erica's scheme to actively sabotage the rank-up quest, he's demoted to E-rank. It's also implied that he got ED as a result of screwing around with Erica.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: He happily screws Erica anywhere and everywhere they go while on the quest, even though the party's on a monster survey, checking for monster stragglers from the last swarm.
- Selective Obliviousness: Within hearing, Erica throws him under the bus, and tries to latch on to Touji, after learning the latter can summon a king slime. Despite that, he still actively protests on her behalf when King Kamon is rampaging, taking a Liverfin corpse to the face with so much force, his armor is dented.
Erica
I'm going to be the only one ranking up! The rest of you can just remain D-rank trashes!
A healing mage Touji's party is saddled with as part of their collective C-rank up quest.- Apple of Discord: She's not actually in the party to rank up. She's specifically placed in parties by corrupt guild staff to cause dissension because these staff members arbitrarily decided the test was too easy but couldn't be bothered to go through proper channels to change the rules properly.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When the party first meets her, she's all cute and bubbly, looking like an adventurer that's eager to pass the rank-up exam. The moment the party's actually on the quest, away from the city (and she thinks) prying eyes, she reveals her true colors and almost immediately starts giving the rest of the party grief.
- Blackmail: She forces a change in party leadership by stealing a precious memento from the leader and threating its existence if he doesn't do what she says, how she says it.
- Close-Call Haircut: After Touji rescues her from his own summon, King Kamon, who he specifically tells she's Not Worth Killing, she stupidly insults him, calling him "lame-ass tamer." King Kamon retaliates to the insult by using a high-pressure water jet to blow off her hair decoration and destroy the tree right behind her head.
- Fair-Weather Friend: She's extremely opportunistic, throwing Grays under the bus when she sees Touji has a Slime King in his list of summons, claiming that Grays was forcing her to be a bitch with threats of violence. Touji doesn't buy it for a second, even though she's throwing herself at him, buck naked, at the time.
- Femme Fatale: Her favorite way to sow discord in parties is to find the horniest guy(s) and having them fight over sharing her bed. For Grays, the "fatale" becomes almost literal because when the two of them are enjoying a Two-Person Pool Party in the lake the party was sent to investigate, said lake was being contested by two species of monsters.
- Good Powers, Bad People: She specializes in healing magic, but only uses it on herself. For the rest of the party she's in, she steals, lies, cheats, causes needless infighting, and puts them all in mortal jeopardy by leading them into monster ambushes while she escapes.
- Moral Myopia: She lies, cheats, steals, leads the party Touji's in into a monster ambush and puts Touji's life in danger by throwing away an important trinket belonging to the party leader into a lake being fought over by Liverfin and Lizardmen, then has the gall to call herself the victim when King Kamon retaliates and comes for her head. Then when she's arrested, she protests that Touji assaulted her, and she legit wonders why she's the one being arrested.
- Psychological Projection: Since she's fond of sleeping around to gain advantage, she has no problems accusing Igneil of sleeping around to further her rank. At this accusation, Igneil lost all restraint and was raring to make one serving of "Healer Whore BBQ!"
- Offscreen Karma: Apparently, after being arrested, a bunch of her former victims track her down for revenge.
- Put on a Prison Bus: She, along with her corrupt guild staff supporters, are all arrested and sentenced to hard labor. Plus, her previous victims catch up to her and take their respective pounds of flesh when she's on the way to said labor camp.
- Revenge Myopia: Which doesn't go anywhere. She swears vengeance on the rest of the party for daring to retaliate when she put them all in mortal peril, until she's arrested and held to account for her crimes. Then she swears vengeance on the guild as a whole for being arrested, but all her previous victims catch up to her first with an even bigger grudge and make her pay for what she's done, in addition to her prison sentence.
- Too Dumb to Live: She goes into an angry rant, bragging about how she's going to sabotage Touji's rank up and slut-shames Ignis when she objects, when the party, who already has a grudge, is in the middle of the wilderness, she thinks there are no eye witnesses, except said party, and her one and only groupie, Grays, is unconscious. If Leslie, the receptionist, and secret judge, wasn't watching over them and decided to intervene, Ignis would have retaliated to all the crap Erica put the party, and herself in particular, by burning Erica to ash, and since the party agreed that "this never happened" nobody would have been the wiser...
- Ungrateful Bitch: She responds to being rescued from monsters by Ignis and Touji, not with gratitude, but with insults and throwing away the former party leader's memento into a lake being fought over by monsters, just for a laugh.
Leslie
After watching what's been going on for the last three days, the one endangering the party is you, Erica.
Introduced as a nameless guild receptionist who tasks Touji with guild requests. Chapter 19 of the manga reveals she's also an active A-rank adventurer in charge of secretly monitoring adventurers to keep them on the straight and narrow, judge rank-up exams, and even has the authority to make arrests.- No Name Given: Her name, Leslie, is not revealed until she reveals herself as the examiner watching over Touji's C-rank quest and an active A-rank adventurer.
- Quest Giver: Most quests Touji takes come from the fliers placed on the adventurer board, but there are a few mandatory (or nearly so) quests she assigns to Touji to improve his reputation and rank.
- Rank D up quest: Slay three goblins to cull their numbers. Result: Passed with flying colors. Reward: Touji ranks up from E to D. Undisclosed loot drops from the goblins and loot drops from the Collect Peaks bird Igneil's party was chasing, including the summon card for Collect.
- Resupply a border fortress: Deliver weapons, armor, and other equipment to the Northern border fortress. Result: Quest cleared without difficulty. Reward: Unspecified, plus the money gained from selling the meals Pochi cooked for the soldiers present.
- Sewer Investigation and Maintenance: Clean and repair the city's long-neglected sewers. Kill any slimes or other monsters found. Minimum reward, 60,000 kettles. Result: Eradication of a large number of sewer slimes and a king slime, in addition to cleaning and repairing the sewer to peak condition. Reward: Over 100 normal slime cards, 1 epic King Slime card, King Kamon, untold quantity of other loot drops, and 90,000 kettles from the guild.
- Emergency Quest, Monster Stampede: Due to the actions of Deprui's "Hero" party, a large quantity of monsters is heading towards the city, and they need to be stopped. Result: Although Touji did not participate in combat, the distribution of high-quality healing potions, for cheap, duly impressed all the adventurers on site and the guild staff. Rewards: Untold quantity of loot items from the monsters killed by other adventurers and the almost complete profit from selling the potions Touji made with materials he gathered freely.
- C-Rank up quest: Form a party with other adventurers also taking the quest. Investigate the area of the stampede to determine damage to the local ecology and search for stragglers. Result: Despite Erica's sabotage, quest cleared. Reward: Untold loots from King Kamon annihilating the Lizardmen and Liverfin fighting over a lake in the area, Touji ranked up from D to C.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She declares everyone, except Erica and Grays, innocent of wrongdoing and congratulates them on officially gaining C-rank in chapter 19. Erica and Grays get arrested for punishment for their part in endangering the party.
- Secret Test: For those who wondered why she always took Touji's testimony for what he did on quests at face value, chapter 19 reveals the reason. She's an official A-ranked adventurer whose actual job is to watch over lower ranked adventurers and make sure they stay on the straight and narrow, so it's safe to presume she's been keeping an eye on Touji, especially since it's common knowledge there was a commotion regarding him in the Deprui branch of the guild.
- Spanner in the Works: Because she's an honest examiner, and an A-rank adventurer, she arrests Erica and blows the lid off the conspiracy by the butt-hurt Rogue faction in the adventurer's guild upper management that had been intentionally sabotaging C-Rank up quests.
- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Introduced as a nameless receptionist, she is actually an active A-rank adventurer with the authority to arrest criminal adventurers.
Supporting Characters:
Meyer Albert
I smell the type of luck that means plenty of riches, Touji!
A traveling merchant who helps Touji escape the capital into another country.- Ambiguously Brown: She's very tan and her ethnicity is unclear.
- Dramatic Irony: She complains about King Deprui selling fairy tales (and boring ones at that) of the Hero party's exploits as propaganda to Touji, wondering why he's selling those works of borderline fiction in foreign countries, completely unaware that Touji, buying those books in bulk, to deconstruct them for parts, is the reason merchants sell them to the very country she and Touji live in.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: She pays Touji well for his goods and keeps his secrets because she can sell them for plenty of profit and keeping his secrets gives her a monopoly on a goldmine of production.
- When she responds to a monster stampede in William, while Touji is away in another city gathering ingredients, she emulates his model of selling high-quality potions for cheap to the desperate adventurers. She gets immense gratitude from the critically injured adventurers, cleans out her stock, and still makes an insane amount of profit.
- Intrepid Merchant: She travels between countries in trade.
- King Incognito: Touji only learns she's the heir of a powerful and influential merchant clan when she invites him home for a business deal. Later on, she saves Touji from being scammed into buying an overpriced, knockoff kitchen set. The scammer claimed to have close ties to the Albert corporation and threatened them. Meyer simply retaliated by having the lying merchant permanently blacklisted from the Merchant Guild. Touji gets the kitchen set from the blacklisted merchant for practically nothing, meaning Meyer's actions stuck.
- Stealing from Thieves: She has no problem in selling the stolen loot that Touji had taken from the bandits. After all, when you steal from thieves, chances are they won't go to the cops.
- Wise Beyond Her Years: She started being a merchant and trader at the tender young age of 12, and she's only 19 now.
- Younger Than They Look: She may look like she's in her early 30's but she's actually 19 at the start of the story.
Rowen, Leader of the Fairies
So you want the fairy berries, huh? Well, at least you're honest, for a human.
Touji meets her after rescuing her people from the plant monster and bringing them back to health with his mana potions. She goes on to reveal that her people have been frequent targets of hunts from humans and have been driven out of their home by a monster immune to their magic.- Beauty Equals Goodness: She is very physically attractive and is a good woman from all that's currently known.
- Blow You Away: She's been shown using wind magic.
- Calming Tea: Though she's anxious when the other fairies eat Pochi's cookies, she was won over with not just a cookie but also a cup of Pochi's fresh-brewed tea.
- Debt Detester: Even after revealing that her people need the fairy berries to live, she was still willing to hand Touji 90% of the berries in their one and only bush as thanks for rescuing them from the plant monster. Touji politely declines, instead asking about Ultra Pure Water, and that's when he learns of the Fairy Eater monster.
- Fantastic Racism: In self-defense. She and her people are frequently hunted and harmed by humans, so she's very suspicious of Touji's benevolence. In reality, her lack of trust towards humans is justified, as her people have been hunted, and their wings and body parts are used as magical materials to make wands, and other artifacts.
- Good Is Not Soft: When Loki comes back to the village, acting like he's done nothing but harmless "pranks," she asks if his apology is sincere and then banishes him, for life, for putting all the fairies at risk. Qualifying her statements when he protests that he should be grateful fairies are pacifists because provoking the fairy eater, despite repeated warnings, would be a death penalty offense if they weren't.
- Intimidation Demonstration: When Loki refuses to leave and tries to bring Touji into the argument, she hurls a horizontal tornado in Loki's direction with the statement that it's his final warning, and he'd better scram.
- Winged Humanoid: Like all fairies, she sports butterfly-like wings and is a very attractive woman.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: When she's rewarding Touji for his aid and giving him a tour of the village, along with teaching him how to make ultra-pure water and grow fairy berries so he doesn't have to come back, though he'd be welcome if he did, she shows Touji human valuables like gold and jewelry, that the fairies have collected in the forest and view as trash. Touji happily collects them and takes them away.
Loki
You haven't heard the last of me, you ingrates!
The fairy responsible for the Fairy Eater monster attacking fairy village. He had a habit of pranking and provoking humans, monsters, and the fairy eater, despite repeated warnings. When his pranks went too far, putting all the fairies in mortal danger, he ran, abandoning them. After Touji rescued the village by defeating the fairy eater, and was sharing a meal of sweets with said fairies, he shows up, begging for some of it, and when denied, acts as if he did nothing wrong.- Be Careful What You Wish For: He repeatedly wanders off from the village boundaries and pranks both humans and monsters because he's bored, constantly whining that life in the village is boring. Rowen gives him what he asked for, banishment, so he's free to wander the world as much as he likes.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: After Touji's dealt with the Fairy Eater and Pochi is serving sweets he prepared, Loki shows up and asks for some, like he did nothing wrong. The fairies respond by telling him he's not welcome. He responds by acting as if he came back because he was worried about all the others, which doesn't fool anyone. The fairies respond by asking him where he was when they were trying to evacuate and needed his help to relocate the berry bushes they need to live. He protests that he panicked and was in hiding, then protests that he couldn't have possibly known the fairy eater would respond the way it did. The fairies respond that he was repeatedly warned to cool it with provoking the fairy eater, but he wouldn't listen, and eventually the fairy eater retaliated. He protests that the fairy village was boring and he had nothing better to do than prank humans and monsters. Rowan responds by granting his wish to have nothing to do with the "boring" village, banishing him. He protests his banishment by proclaiming that Rowan wouldn't dare talk to him the way she is if their parents were still around. The fairies unanimously respond by throwing objects at him to drive him off. He tries to get Touji to put in a good word for him only to get a near-miss tornado and a final warning, at which point he reveals that he's not in the least repentant for what he's done and deserves no mercy, calling the rest "ingrates" and "idiots" for not appreciating that he livened up their existence with his "pranks."
- Dirty Coward: When he provoked the fairy eater to attack, he lured it to the village and then fled, abandoning all his fellow fairies to near-certain death. When he's called to task for it, he utterly refuses to admit he did anything wrong, and is shocked the rest of the fairies hate his guts.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He lived for the excitement of provoking beings he knew would kill him if they caught him.
- He goes and pranks humans when he was repeatedly warned that humans hunt fairies for their body-parts, and his pranks gave the humans plenty of reason to be unsympathetic.
- He repeatedly pokes the fairy eater with a stick while it's sleeping, knowing it's a fairy eater and he's a fairy, and he's shocked when it wakes up and comes after him.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Exaggerated. He put the lives of all the fairies in peril by repeatedly provoking the fairy eater until it retaliated and then acting like all he did was a harmless prank when he's banished from the village as a result.
- Karmic Death: He puts the entire village in mortal peril, and they would have all died if not for Touji, but absolutely refuses to believe he did anything more serious than a harmless prank, and acts like the wounded party when he's banished, swearing vengeance. Touji finds loot drops that indicates he met his death by unknown means. Touji even lampshades it when he chances on the loot drops.Karma and the world can be quite cruel sometimes.
- Killed Offscreen: Even Touji doesn't see his death, just happens upon loot drops including a fairy summoning card and fairy wing. Plus a splash of blood. It is ambiguous if Touji collected the drops or not.
- Logical Fallacies:
- He lives and breathes reverse-slippery slope fallacy by honestly believing that he's done nothing wrong just because things turned out alright.
- He goes full-tilt Insane Troll Logic to tell himself and all the other fairies that they should be grateful he put their lives in danger on a repeated basis by provoking humans and nearly got them killed when he provoked the fairy eater one time too many and had the fairies wind up nearly eaten by a giant pitcher plant when they fled their home.
- He tries the Chewbacca Defense by questioning Rowan's authority to banish him, protesting that if their parents were still around, she wouldn't dare. It doesn't work, and he only alienates all the fairies present even more.
- Meaningful Name: His name is Loki and he engages in wanton chaos just for the thrill of it, caring not a bit about consequences.
- Moral Myopia: Repeatedly putting the village in mortal danger by provoking humans and monsters, despite repeated warnings? Oh that's just harmless pranks. Getting banished because he abandoned all the other fairies to die? HEY! That's unjust!
- No Body Left Behind: Touji only realizes this lout died because he finds loot drops and some drops of blood. His corpse is nowhere to be found.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: He protests that he goes around pranking humans and provoked the fairy eater only because village life is boring and he had nothing better to do. He's shocked that Rowan grants his wish by banishing him, so he can get all the excitement he wants.
- Psychological Projection: Since he was a thrill-seeking fool who got his jollies by Tempting Fate, he presumed all the other fairies were just as bored and borderline suicidal as he was, and would appreciate the "excitement," despite repeated warnings. When he's being banished and chased off, he angrily pouts and protests that they're all "ingrates" who don't appreciate his efforts to entertain them, and "idiots" who are just too stupid to realize how much they need him. Yeah, he won't be missed.
- Psychopathic Manchild: When the fairies have had enough and Rowan banishes him, he acts like a petulant toddler, no worse, even toddlers have better self-awareness. As toddlers know when they do something so bad that their friends and family are hurt and angry, they clearly screwed up. He doesn't even realize it when he's got objects being thrown at him for his douchery.
- Too Dumb to Live: Combined with Lethally Stupid. He knows the fairies call their village "Fairy Paradise" because they're in hiding and yet repeatedly leaves its borders to go harass humans and monsters then flees right back to the village. He nearly gets them all killed by kiting the fairy eater there and actually leaves them to die at the tendrils of the giant pitcher plant while he hides. At the end, he even runs right into his death when he's banished from the village and warned to never return. And he thinks the rest of the fairies are idiots while he's brilliant.
Others:
King Deprui
Hello, brave Hero, and welcome to Deprui kingdom!
The king who summons the four "heroes" and Touji, being directly responsible for wrecking all five lives as a show of force to the neighboring countries, and having Touji literally thrown out of the castle for not having immediately and glaringly obvious combat-ready skills. Not learning his lesson, he sends knights out to capture Touji upon hearing that the latter managed to make himself a household name as a porter in the adventurer's guild with an Item Box skill, causing Touji to flee in response, with the guild actively helping him escape as a protest.- Adipose Rex: He's the king and he's fat.
- Did Not Think This Through: Repeatedly.
- He has Touji thrown out of the castle, literally, because the poor guy has bog standard stats and his other world blessing isn't glaringly obvious and immediately useful in battle. This leaves Touji lost, helpless, and quite bitter in an alien land, and naturally completely screws over the hero party's logistics when they have to be fielded, since Touji's the one who winds up with the much, much needed Item Box skill the party needs.
- When word reaches his ears that Touji awakened an Item Box skill and has been serving quite well as a porter in the adventurer's guild, rather than put forward a request through the guild, offering a fair wage, he sends his knights in force to try and capture him. Already having a bad experience with this king, Touji dodges the summons and bolts, for fear of his freedom and safety. The guild, in its entirety, was quite pleased with Touji's exemplary behavior and so the staff and adventurers actively aid in his escape.
- Now desperate for accomplishments and to raise his Heroes' strength, the king sends the four teens on monster suppression missions, with little regard for the local ecology. This leads to the monsters in question fleeing into neighboring countries and screwing up their local ecologies. Of course, the neighbor countries are not happy about it.
- The neighboring kingdom of Lelslie, in particular, takes extreme displeasure at the country's actions and responds militarily. The capital city of the Deprui kingdom is put under siege by an army of level 50 hardened soldiers. With each member of the Hero party only being level 20, he still fields them to fight. Naturally, the siege lasts for weeks, and even though the "heroes" ultimately win the fight, by the skin of their teeth, none of the citizens or neighboring countries are happy with the result.
- The King tries to recover his public image with a PR campaign, equating the summoned Hero party with an actual hero that saved the world from a legit Demon King threat. Only Touji is willing to buy the books, and then, only to reduce them to scrap paper and blank magic scrolls, so he can enchant and enhance the equipment he makes.
- The Ghost: We don't really know much about him, since he appears only once and is never seen again.
- Minor Major Character: He is a king, yet only gets one scene, where he announces "welcome, brave hero" at the summon of Touji and the Hero's Battle Harem.
- No Name Given: We know he's King Deprui, because his kingdom is named after him, but that's it. The rest of his name is never mentioned.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: Downplayed. He literally threw Touji out of his castle when the guy didn't manifest any glaringly obvious combat skills, but later learned he has the exceptionally rare [Item Box] skill. But by that point, Touji is already alienated, and he makes it worse by sending his knights to capture Touji, rather than go through the adventurer's guild with a fair contract. So Touji bolts, and both the "Heroes" and his kingdom suffer.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Had he treated Touji with just a bit more dignity, he and his kingdom would be far more prosperous and maybe not so hated that he has to commission the mass-production of Fairy Tales to bolster his summoned heroes' image.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Since he apparently never bothered to teach the "Heroes" that the world is pointedly not a video game, where everything takes care of itself off-screen, and careless overhunting has dire consequences, the four teens in question repeatedly wreck the local economy and ecology of towns they visit, trigger monster stampedes, and have at least once triggered a brutal war, and are likely to trigger others, since they never correct their behavior, nor are they even willing to realize their wrongdoings. Even printing propaganda to try and beautify their actions is, at best, a stop-gap measure that is likely to backfire eventually.
The Hero party
- Battle Harem: One boy, three girls, all of whom have immediate and obvious battle-oriented jobs and skills, and the girls are all seen hanging off the boy.
- Bystander Syndrome: As Touji is being literally thrown out of the royal castle, they do nothing, aside from looking on in pity.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the stereotypical Stock Light-Novel Hero. The boy is summoned with a ready-made harem, all of whom are provided with powerful initial stats and glaringly obvious combat-related jobs and skills, but none of them have any proper combat training, and none of them have built-in logistic support, so they're completely dependent on King Deprui's good graces, which are few and far between. Furthermore, the story doesn't focus on them, but instead on the people affected by their so-called heroics. Naturally, their performance is lackluster, at best.
- Easy Logistics: Completely lacking. The Hero group is primarily combat-oriented, (Hero, Sage, Sword Saint and Saint) and is greatly unbalanced with no means of logistical support. They cannot venture far into dungeons or hunting areas, and must constantly return to base to re-supply and drop off their kills. It also doesn't help that porters who come with them don't survive very long. Due to the King Removing the Crucial Teammate, the group doesn't even have the logistical support during the quests in terms of healing/buff potions or enhanced equipment. In a later arc, one of the King's men buys an enhanced sword at an auction with a whopping price tag of 200 million Kettles. This sword was later given to the Hero group to use. Unknown to them, it was Touji who made that sword. Had they not kicked him out, they could have gotten that weapon for free.
- Hated by All: Everyone who knows of their antics, not the fairy tales King Deprui wants everyone to believe, absolutely hates their guts. The royal capital of Deprui loathes them for triggering a war, and even though they won a Victory by Endurance against terrible odds, the price was severe. The adventurer's guild, in its entirety, hates them for repeatedly triggering monster stampedes with careless overhunting. The cities, towns, and villages who have the distinct displeasure of experiencing their "heroics" first hand want them dead because they destroy the local economy by wiping out all the nearby monsters, forcing the vast majority of adventurers to seek employment elsewhere, or starve, and then trigger a stampede that heads back to the now understaffed location. Even Touji, a man who goes through life trying to live without grudges, can't stand them and buys the heavily whitewashed books of their exploits only to destroy said books, so he can use the scraps in his equipment enchantment processes.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: The Hero party is completely unaware of how their actions are causing massive amounts of suffering among the other nations. By over-hunting the local monster populations, they had caused 2 monster stampedes. Large numbers of adventures were abandoning nearby areas, causing a shortage of workforce and defense. The Hero party doesn't even question the fact that there is no Demon Lord to fight and that they are merely for propaganda. They were so cocky about their initially-high combat stats, that they were given a harsh wake-up call when an army of battle-hardened veterans laid siege to the kingdom and they just barely managed to win. It is later revealed that they assumed that Touji would eventually become their pack mule, even though Touji has explicitly stated he would never join them.
- Kidnapped by the Call: The teens don't even question the fact that they were literally kidnapped from their world to become the "Heroes," when there's no reason to be there other than for the Depuri Kingdom to show off their might.
- Nominal Hero: They are heroes only because King Deprui says they are, with the boy having a job called "Hero" to boot.
- No Name Given: Their names are not mentioned.
- Out of Focus: They were only on screen in chapter 1, and never appear again. Everything Toji and therefore us, the readers, hear about them comes second or even third hand. Nothing about their daily lives, adventures, or circumstances is ever mentioned, aside from the consequences of their actions, and they're not flattering.
- Propaganda Hero: They were summoned, not to deal with a Demon King or the like, but so the Depuri kingdom could flex and show off in front of all the others. In fact, the demon territory has signed a long-lasting truce and are at peace. It also doesn't help that in order to bolster Hero group's reputations, (and cover up all the messes that their 'heroics' have caused), the Depuri King had commissioned a series of fairy tale books to make them appear as heroic as the original hero who defeated the Demon King. It is unknown if the people of Depuri actually believe and buy this propaganda, but Meyer is confused as to why the books are being sold in other nations. Furthermore, she finds the stories to be so boring that she didn't even finish half of the only volume she had.
- Selective Obliviousness: As pointed out by Meyer in chapter 23.1, even when they see that their careless overhunting completely devastates the towns they visit and sends monster stampedes into nearby areas, they just shrug it off and go "oh well, there's no more monsters, so let's just go back to the Deprui dungeons and level up some more" without doing squat to even consider the consequences. Even King Deprui can no longer rein them in at this point and prints propaganda to keep the world as a whole from joining together and smashing his kingdom to dust.
- Tyke Bomb: They are all teens under the age of majority, and King Deprui summoned them explicitly to send them to the battle-field, either against monsters or other humans.
- Unwanted Assistance: The Hero group is under the impression that by hunting the local monsters to near-extinction, they are not only gaining experience and leveling up, but they’re also making the areas safe for the kingdom's citizens. Unfortunately, this having the detrimental effects of driving the monsters into other areas in dangerous stampedes, depriving the local economies of much-needed raw materials and natural resources, causing mass immigration of adventurers and workforce, and endangering the lives of citizens of other nations.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: With their careless monster overhunting, caring about little more than raising their levels, they have repeatedly wrecked monster ecology and human economies alike and triggered at least two known monster stampedes. The second to date, the town of William, had an adventurer's guild that was woefully understaffed because the "heroes" had pretty much hunted all the local monsters the locals need for money and materials to extinction, so when the stampede arrived, the casualties were severe.
- Useless Protagonist: Despite being the "Hero Party," all the members are basically just for show since there is no Demon King or evil army to fight. In actuality, they are worse than useless and are proving to be liabilities, since their reckless actions are causing more trouble for the neighboring countries.
The bandits
We have a proposition for you. You can leave your equipment, belongings, and client and sneak back off to live another day like the losers you are. You can even beat yourselves up and tell the guild you were ambushed by bandits!
A bandit gang that challenges Touji and his hired bodyguards between towns as he's headed toward the border.- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Once they've got Touji back to their lair, the entire gang drinks themselves silly, leaving him completely unguarded. The instant they all doze off, Touji summons Pochi, loots their treasury, and flees.
- Killed Offscreen: Touji notices that at least one of them died when he's examining his status screen as he's preparing to do some manufacturing.
- Let's You and Him Fight: On the receiving end. As they're escaping, Pochi calls up a bunch of wild kobolds to attack the gang and cover their escape. It's enough of a distraction for Touji to make it to the road and get help from Meyer.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By kidnapping Touji and dragging him to their den, they gave him the perfect excuse to offload his item drop loots with Meyer, without having to reveal his Loots Drop ability. Furthermore, by "escorting" him to their den, they added themselves to his "party" and thus started giving him passive exp from their exploits.And as a final indignity, when Touji escapes, he steals every bit of loot they had, basically robbing the robbers.
- Paper Tiger: They manage to trick Iron Will Army by putting up a bunch of well-disguised scarecrows to inflate their numbers. Had the supposed C-rank party been actually competent, this ruse wouldn't have worked.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: When Touji makes his escape from the bandits, he not only took back all of the things from his Item Box, but he also took every bit of loot the bandits had been hoarding and sold it to Meyer.
