This is a funny reverse! Usually it's the FEMALE Childhood friend that becomes too strong, making the Male feel he's holding her back and "foolishly" does the "kick them/banish themselves thinking their making some GRAND sacrfice for their future" thing because "poor communication kills!" (Hence why I said FOOLISH since it's OBVIOUS they only cared about the whole deal BECAUSE they wanted to do it with THEM, even if they never reach the top, but the Fool Has to be too busy "thinking of their friend's future since they aren't" only for us to get a "turns out he didn't want this after all, now that she's gone and they finally get it in their head once the SANCTIMONY wears off and he has a MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE" and then a NEW aggravating "poor Communication kills" starts where BOTH parties are too scared to approach the other! The girl cause she doesn't want to make the "Sacrifice" their friend made worthless despite the fact they don't want this! And the Guy, a BIGGER idiot that now thinks the girl hates him for making decisions without her approval! So they waste MORE time (and Arcs of the guy trying to reach her level that I fucking LAUGH when after they "win" their spot by her side back, she makes it clear she would have taken him back ANYWAY! At best you could say the power ups are nice, but the fact he did all that for nothing since he always had the ability to do all that WITH HER is the icing on the shit cake of BAD IDEAS DOOMED TO FAIL LOL)
So it's nice seeing a reverse of it where it's the MALE and another reverse in that the party kicked him BECAUSE they felt he was better off! Only they aren't happy about it, and I'm sure they'll be LESS happy about it when they discover he "didn't" take their abandonment for "his own good" as well (even to the point he REFUSED to go past B rank, likely out of SPITE to the idea! Not them, just the IDEA that he has to go to the top alone!)