Last time I saw a plot like this was the pre-fallen Lucifer event in Rage of Bahamut (R.I.P.). That one turned out really good in the end, so I'm excited to see how this one turns out.
Literally Fine exists. Her whole stint is being the male cousin of Zayd who the gender change skill was illegally used on so Zayd could win fights. MC finds out about it after beating Fine, and has been working on a plan to use that info to take Zayd down.
To be fair, in this story Parallel thinking was used to keep Sora both awake and asleep at the same time. It even freaked out the night watch that was with him.
Damn you, why did you have to point this out to me? I was already having the weird revelation that I actually knew everything she was thinking about in the image!
Now this is the benefit of experience. Sure he may have been slower to rank up than the others, but it's not like he was doing nothing the entire time either, and this chapter shows the results of that extra time.