《Blades and Bonds》


 PROLOGUE : Apologies and Visions

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    PROLOGUE: Apologies and Visions


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    BOOM!


    The explosion was so loud it left an imprint in my eardrums. My head continuously ringedas everything went silent for a brief moment. I felt my legs becoming weaker and weaker as I pushpast beyond my limit.


    "Keep running! Don¡¯t let his sacrifice be in vain!" A man ahead of us was out of breath as he led the way towards a portal. Everything in my body hurts like hell. My lungs, heart, every joint, and strand of muscle is riddled with pain. Tears ran down my cheeks and my nose is filled with accumulated snot that started to exit one of my nostrils touching my top lip. But I didn''t stop moving. I kept running like my life depends on it. Actually, my life does depend on it. If I stop now, I will die. I have no time to think about anything else. I don''t want to die.


    "Watch out!" I heard someone shout behind me but I didn''t bother to look since it''ll only slow me down.


    STAB!


    "Argh!" I hear someone cry in pain that prompted me to look at the source. A part of me wishes I didn''t. A spear entered his back and went out the center of his chest. We both locked eyes as I see him take his last breath before turning into dust. A girl behind him screamed in shock. I noticed another spear from coming from a distance.


    "Watch out!" I ran for her but the moment she swings her head around, it was too late. The spear went right through her right temple and exited the left. Pieces of flesh and probably her brain flew towards my way sticking to my cheeks.A couple of seconds after, she turned into dust floating away with the wind. I feel someone grab my arm and yank me back. When I turned, I see the man leading us looking right at me. He releases his grip and continued advancing towards the portal while giving me a scoff as if I did something wrong.


    "Run!" He went on a full sprint and the minute I took the first step, I felt something nick my ear making me wince in pain and almost stumbling down. I heardsounds passing me not only once, but a couple of times making me duck my head thinking a spear is coming for me. My ear stings as if I was cut by paper and the minute I touch it, I felt something warm trickling down my cheeks.


    B-blood?My voice disappeared from the shock as I stared at my hands covered with red liquid. I began running without looking ahead and I suddenly stumbled into something making me eat the floor. But somehow, rather than landing on the cold hard ground, something became my cushion. I look down and I was covered in red.


    "W-w-wha-AHH!" I tried running away as I see a piece of his flesh scattered around the ground. Is as if, he was cut into cubes and brought into one pile. I got away from his mutilated corpse and as soon as I did, it turned into dust. I hear another scream from a distance and as I turn my head, I see one of my teammate''s arms brutally ripped from the elbow by a wolf.


    "It hurts! It hurts!!!!" He kept shouting as he falls to the ground. The loud noises he''s making brought in more attention from the pack of wolves and next thing I know, they all pounced on him. They didn''t stop devouring him until he turned into dust.


    "N-no¡­No!! I don¡¯t want to die!!!" I was frantic watching everyone die one by one. I tried sprinting towards the portal and different thoughts came in my mind crying my hearts out.


    Why did it end like this?! Why?! There''s nothing I can do...I''m weak. I''m so damn fucking weak!I cursed myself for picking the wrong class.Without a moment¡¯s notice, something hits me from behind with such great force that I stumbled forward involuntary kissing the ground with my face. I held my nose to try and stop the blood from pouring out.I look like a mess. Tears won''t stop coming out and I''m shaking uncontrollably.


    I used my right hand to push myself up and as I check what crashed into me."Wh-wh- y-you. H-how-" I see him lying there. Our leader. His body didn''t look right at all. It seemed as if a giant grabbed him and squeezed him like a lemon. Blood was dripping out of his mouth and practically anywhere his blood can exit out of his body, it did. His eyes are similar to a dead fish but for some reason, his gaze was aimed at me.


    "H-hey-" I tried touching him, but his body quickly turned into dust before I was able to shake him. A suddenswooshcame to my left and I felt something push my leg. As I look, I see a spear pierced my left thigh and exited out the other side.


    "Ahhhhhhrghhhhhh!" The pain was intense as it suddenly sprung up from my leg traveling throughout my whole body. I tried to pull out the spear but it had a stopper that prevents me from pulling it out unlessI want to rip my leg to shreds. I felt something hit my hand and in an instant, it went numb as my body started tilting sideways.


    Thud!


    I fell on my side as I lost my balance. I looked and noticed my arm was gone and like my leg, a sudden jolt of pain erupted from my arm traveling through my whole body. The pain was so muchI almost lost consciousness. My leg felt like shattered bones inside puncture my flesh in all direction.I felt every inch of my body shake violently and cold sweats have slowly crept its way out of my skin. All I can do is scream on the floor to mask the pain by ripping my throat with my voice.


    "Somebody help me!!¡± I shouted as hard as I can but no one will ever hear my cries. I''m the last one alive.


    Fuck! I don''t even know anymore! Why the fuck I''m here?! What the fuck did I do so wrong to deserve this?! I continue to rip my mind apart with different thoughts not noticing that my life is flashing before my eyes. I look at a distance and finally, I saw my end.


    It''s an ogre. Not just any damn ogre, he looks like the dungeon boss and he''s looking straight at me running and screaming some dialect I can''t even understand. Buckets of saliva are spewing out of his mouth like a rabid animal. Howls began towards my right and I don''t even have to glance to know those wolves are coming to rip me with their teeth¡¯s.I tried to think of a possible way out but I ran out of options.


    I''m going to die. Mysobs replaced my voice and I couldn¡¯t accept it. I knew my death is just moments away as my body weakens and I lay on my back feeling helpless and alone not being able to do anything.


    "I''m going to die," My voice feels weaken as I felt tired to even keep my eyes open. "I''m going to die. I''m really going to die. Somebody, save me."


    I should have never stopped.I should have kept running. But I didn''t want to leave without them. I didn''t want to abandon them. I knew they would do the same for me. They won''t abandon me. So I won''t abandon them.


    Trying to breathe through my nose is difficult since it''s broken. My sides don''t feel any better.


    "Fuck," I say with difficulty. My mind breaks and I just want to wake up from this bad dream. "Fuck..."


    My conscious starts to fade as the very last energy I have begun to exit my body. I stared at the roof of the cave and my body felt numb. The only sensation left is the feeling of thetears running down across my cheeks. I can feel the ogres footsteps, hear the wolves, the spear, the blades ringing I hear everything in all direction.


    You''re going to die you know. Just accepted it. Stop struggling.A voice that''s mine but I don''t feel like it is. It keeps repeating in my mind. But for some reason, everything seems to calm down and in a split second, everything was in slow motion.Ah, I guess they''re giving me time to say my last words.


    I tried to say something but my lungs getting filled with my blood just make me cough non-stop. I can''t even say my last words properly as I struggle to breathe. I close my eyes and tears drip towards the side of my face. My life, the images of my childhood, my dad, my friends, my room, my school, even the people I didn''t have a close connection with flashed before me. But what really stayed in my mind is the smile my mom gives me every time she enters the door coming home from working so late. With the last remaining strength I have, I used it to smile back.


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    "I''m sorry, Mom," I whisper as I made the biggest smile I can muster. "I''m sorry."


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    *The past*


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    Every day, life moved along even if we liked it or not. The world will spin even if we like it or not. Which motivates us to continue thriving for our best? One answer, our dreams. A fictional reality we created in our conscience. Something we all want to achieve. Something we all want to be in. But dreams have a very thin line separating itself from a nightmare. What we strive to be or be in might turn out what we don''t want. But dreams, it''s needed for people to continue moving forward and feel the sensation of being alive.


    I was born around the 26th of March. I think every newborn is an ugly thing to look at. Covered in blood, that''s not a pretty sight at all. But for some odd reason, they like ugly newborns even if they''re covered in blood. Talking in an annoying tone as if it sounds like they have the wrong voice box installed and have it programmed to the highest annoying pitch while smiling and saying words nobody could fully understand.


    Growing up was pretty easy at first. Just follow what they say and I get a compliment. Do the opposite and they scold me. So I just did everything I was told to avoid the corner of the room. But what''s unavoidable and very hard to not see is the planet floating in the sky like a newborn sun. Even though it looks really close, it''s far away from our reach. The planet in the sky is a carbon copy of the earth in my opinion. The only difference is, it''s more colorful compared to pictures I see of my world. Scientist tried to study the new planet that emerged out of thin air but couldn''t find a reason why it exists and its purpose.


    For a couple of months, it was the top searched item on the web. News covered the planet almost every day. It was observed every day to see if there are any signs of life. But as the time progress, the people''s interest faded. Now, the floating planet in the sky has become a part of life. Since they can''t figure it out, it''s either we accept it or reject it. It''s not like anyone can make the planet vanish, so, people decided to accept it bit by bit until its value is the same as the moon. Just another thing we can gaze at.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    It wasn''t long until I started to understand the basic knowledge of the conversation. But it''s mostly me listening to people talk while I nod my head in agreement. My parents read me stories about the floating planet in the sky. The folklores, theories, and assumptions have flooded my mind as a kid with an infinite imagination. I also heard it''s a mirror effect. How we all have a doppelg?nger within the other planet. All of these, I believed at first. Well, until I figured out later on that it was all a hoax. It''s like being told Santa Clause was real all your life until some asshole comes in and crush your dreams boasting that Santa is just a figment of the adult''s imagination for little kids to stay proper.


    "Accept reality." That''s what I overheard most adult around me said to each other.


    "Kid, no one can reach it." Strangers crushing my imagination but, nonetheless, the stories my parents told me were very interesting.


    "That planet is there but we can''t even reach it. Not Even NASA." My dad says as he walks towards the door and sits on the floor to tie his shoes. I''m sitting on the living room floor playing with my toys. Mom is in the kitchen making me breakfast.


    "They tried to send probes to investigate it but it vanished. Since it''s a waste of money to build something that cost millions for it to just disappear, they stopped doing that all together." My mom replied back engaging a brief conversation while beating the eggs.


    "Hmmm, but I still wonder what''s on that planet. Well, let''s continue this conversation later. Honey, I''m off to work now~" My dad stood by the door waiting for my mother.


    "Take care~" My mother replied back while hurrying to give him a kiss before he stepped out the door. And that was the last conversation they had together. Later that day, we saw his name on TV as part of the headline news. He worked at a construction site and one of the cranes fell on a couple of people. Including him. They all died on impact. I remember my mom hugging me tightly and crying non-stop.


    After my father''s death, she continued to take care of me all by herself. Worked three jobs to just pay all of our bills and debts. She became my father and my mother. We did get money from the company where my father worked but it wasn''t much. The owner of the company is the son of a powerful government official so basically, he got away from the incident paying little money as possible. They made it seems like it was the fault of the crane operator and even managed to blame everyone who died including my father. Saying that they were drinking on the job. That''s bullshit. As far as I can remember, my father is allergic to alcohol. This shows how power, is everything and can even break the very facts and alter events to their liking.


    What they didn''t know is that my father was the breadwinner of the family. Without him, surviving became very hard. Even though I was young at that time, I still remember it clearly. That was the beginning of our hardships. We got kicked out of our apartment since we couldn''t afford a two bedroom. Heck, we couldn''t afford anything at all. My parent took out loans to get that place and now my mother is paying it all by herself along with other expenses such as food and sanitary necessities. We sold all of our possession to get rid of our debt but it wasn''t enough to cover our needs. I wanted to help but there are very limited options a seven-year-old kid can do. At times, we slept at the park during the night or we would go to a spa and sleep there. This became our daily routine.


    When my dad was alive, mom wanted to become a housewife so she never really had the intention to look for work. But now that she needs to, a lot of company turned her down due to lack of experience. But luckily she was hired and decided to look for more work to fit her 24-hour schedule. She would work at a restaurant in the morning serving customers and at night, she would be at a local bar serving drinks to her guests. After that, she would head over to a convenience store and work till dawn.


    Working multiple jobs means there''s no one to watch me so I would sit in a library in the morning and at night I would sit in the bar somewhere where I don''t get in the way since the owner was nice enough to let my mother bring me to her work. After that, I would follow her to the convenience store and the manager there also let me wait in the employee room. I would wait in there and read the books I borrowed from the library. I don''t know how my mother did it but she did. I guess the will to survive will always beat hardships.


    Since I had nothing to do, I used my spare time to study. I didn''t have the luxury to go to an elementary school since it cost money at that time. So, I did my best and self-studied. After my mother managed to save enough money to rent a small studio apartment, that''s when I never left the house. With all the spare time I had, I became a bookworm. I studied and studied until my mother arrived home to sleep for 3 hours. I feel that we needed to share the same burden but since I was young at that time I couldn''t work. So I only sleep when she gets home to sleep. This way, I felt like I was suffering with her and she wasn''t doing it all alone. Even though my mother is tired, during her days off, she would ask me if I want to go to an amusement park.


    "Yasu~ Want go to an amusement park?" She hugs me from the back as I sat near our window reading my a textbook about writing properly.


    "No mom. I need to study." I reply back at her.


    "Aw. You can study after! Come on let''s go!" She tells me pulling my arm.My mom is adamant on going. But I was more set on staying home. Don''t get me wrong, I''m still a kid. I want to go out and have fun. Eat food, play with other kids. But, more than anything, I wanted her to rest. It''s the only day off she has and I want her to use it to rest. So I kept declining till my mother gave up. She was pouting at me the whole day but she became happy again when I helped her make dinner. I guess she just wants to spend quality time with her son.


    I''m sorry mom. But I don''t want you to leave me as dad did to both of us by overworking yourself. This is the best thing I can do for her.


    I''ve always wanted to go to school and have managed to teach myself everything till I entered middle school. During middle school, I grew up thinking I need power. I read from books that knowledge is power so I studied like a madman. I didn''t talk to my classmates or had friends. I went to school alone, ate lunch alone, studied alone all I did is study upon study upon study non-stop. When it comes to remembering things I''m average but my non-stop studying helped me ace a lot of tests. I did what I had to do and no one bothered me.


    Bullying is something that will never disappear from any school. But I was never bullied. Even though I''m weak, no one seems to care about me enough to waste his or her time. Well, I couldn''t care less about them in return. All I want is to gain as much as I can and advance my knowledge to gain the power to prevent any harm to my mom and myself. I want the power to give her a good life so she doesn''t have to work too much. And the only way I know to achieve my goals is to study. Through middle school, I think my presence never existed in the first place. I got good grades but no one seems to notice except my mother.


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    Middle school years


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    I open a door and enter a small apartment. The kitchen, bedroom, living room, dining room, is all in one room. The only thing that''s separate is the bathroom.


    "I''m back," I remove my shoes near the doorway placing them neatly on the ground. Even though I know no one will answer, I''ll always make it known I¡¯m home. My mom is at work and doesn''t get out until 3 am and currently right now it''s 6 pm. As I approach the circular floor table in the middle of the room, I see a sticky note right on top of it.


    Yasu, there is food in the fridge. Just heat it up. ^_^


    - mom


    *P.S. How''s School?


    I smile as I read the note. Even though she has no time for herself, she still does things like this that makes me feel loved. She gets home, sleeps for a couple of hours to go back out and work. I wake up early and make breakfast for both of us so she doesn¡¯t have to worry about cooking for me. Once she wakes up, she''ll eat the food I made regardless of what time it is and makes dinner for both of us while I''m at school. We do this routinely. I wanted to tell her she doesn''t need to make me dinner so she can sleep in more but, I know she would get upset so I let her do it as long as she''s happy. I place the note in a hidden box I stored behind the cabinet. Here is where I store all my valuables, which mainly consist of these notes and a diary.


    "Got to pick her up from her work tonight," I quickly eat my dinner so I can start doing my homework and finish it early. My time in middle school was a breeze but a lonely one. Getting the top grades on everything made it easier for me to get offered from different high school to take a scholarship program. There are a couple of places I wanted to go to but two stood out the most. Both didn''t offer me a scholarship so I had to take the entrance exam and achieve the top score to get a scholarship. I aimed for the second best school since it was closer to my home. I guess my years of non-stop studying have paid off and a lot of the questions have become simple to understand.


    Upon passing the entrance exam with flying colors, the school gave me a scholarship as long as I maintain the placement within the top ten. But, I gave it away to someone else. It looks like she needed it more than I do. Or is it maybe because I fell for her at first sight? Either way, I was happy to help. After that, I aimed at the higher tier school that is on par with national institutes. I just went for it and took the test there. This one I need to be in the top three students to get a full scholarship. Luckily, I managed to land the first position and they gave me scholarship along with living expenses that I used to help my mother with our monthly bills. I told her it''s the school''s policy because if she knew that it''s the pocket money they give me, I know for a fact she''ll refuse to accept it.


    <hr>


    *The present*


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    High school, it''s another hurdle. I see it as a zoo catering to wild untamed animals. The way I view it, middle school, everyone is too focused on playing games. In high school, everyone is too focused on who they want to be with or fool around. I guess college is where people focus on who they want to be. But this is stupid in my opinion. Why not focus on who you want to be at an early stage? This way, a person can achieve it sooner. But no, most of my classmates think of who''s hot and who''s not. It''s currently lunch time andI sit in my chair looking out the window towards the floating planet in the sky. Many different questions enter my mind. Does anyone actually live there?I wonder what the aliens look like.Do they have a school there? I was too busy minding my own business that it took me a while to notice that someone was tapping me on the shoulder


    "Hey, Yasu, you listenin''?" I hear Daikichi ramble non-stop about his dream girls. Daikichi is the only friend I have and the only person I talk to besides my mother and Kana.


    "Mhm." I let out a sound without breaking off my gaze towards the planet.


    "Dude, Stop starin¡¯ at that planet, it isn¡¯t going anywhere." Daikichi waves his hands in front of me and I just ignored it and continued to stare at the planet in the sky. He gave up and decided to clean up our table putting plastic wrappers in a bag.


    I wonder if there are people there. Different scenarios in my mind caused me to daydream most of the time.


    " As I was saying, Carla, the new exchange student is above hot category. Maaaaaaaan you know how hard it is to be put into that category?! She is really hot, only if she speaks fluent Japanese I will probably swoon her off her feet! I mean, she doesn''t even have a boyfriend and none of the guys can approach her because she''s so, hey Yasu, you listening?¡±


    "Mhm." I kept my gaze up until the bell rang breaking my concentration.


    "Ah crap, lunch is over. I''ll see you later after school. We got to continue this convo. Later gator!" Daikichi holds up his fist waiting for me to pound it.After fist bumping, he runs out of the room and rushes to his class. A place full of classy wealthy kids that don''t like to get dirty, and then there''s Daikichi. Don¡¯t get me wrong, he''s probably wealthier than everyone but the way he acts, sometimes makes me think if he''s lying. I take out my notebook as soon as the teacher enters the classroom.


    "Did everyone have a nice lunch?" She asked all of us as she opens her notebook and starts writing on the board. Some people reply to her question while others started writing on their notebooks. As for me, somehow I was more drawn into the planet in the sky.


    As the lessons start, I continue to stare out the window. For some reason today, I can''t seem to break my gaze of the carbon copy of the earth. I wanted to take it easy from all this studying and just relax. Just for a day. As I kept watching the planet, somehow, my vision is starting to fade. I quickly rub my eyes but it kept fading and fading up until I was bombarded with a quick flash of still images as if someone¡¯s life was flashing before my eyes. Pictures I don''t know about or for the matter if it exists in this world keep appearing. It took a couple of seconds and after the images disappeared, my eyes felt like it was being burned from the inside.


    "Aggrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh!" I fell to the ground in pain as my vision disappears. It feels like someone shoved a hot metal and held it in place burning my eyeballs. I hear people scream around me as I felt hands trying to see if I¡¯m okay.


    "Yasu! What''s going on?! Are you okay?!" Somebody is asking me over and over if I''m all right but somehow his voice sound muffled. "Someone! Call a teacher! Call the principal! Call someone!!"


    I''m on the floor looking like a fish thrown into land flapping in and out. I convulse from the pain while I''m on the ground holding my eyes. A new after image started appearing, but this time it has words in it. I don¡¯t know if this is real but I know what I have seen. The words ''Your time has come'' stayed in my mind until I lost consciousness.

 CHAPTER 1: The Other World

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    Chapter 1: The Other World


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    I look at the clock and watch the minute hand over lap the number three. The day finally comes to an end and what I experience earlier didn''t make it go any faster. The bell suddenly rangletting all students know it''s the end of the day and the beginning of club activities. Everyone in the classroom started packing up their books getting ready to either go home or go to their clubroom. Every student in this school needs to be part of a club which I didn¡¯t like since it took time away from my studies. I tried making a study club, but they rejected it since clubs suppose to be something fun and active yet, they have the classic chess clubs that I find more boring than studying.


    "Yooooooooo, YAAAASSSUUUU!" Daikichi called out my name while waving his hands standing in the doorway. He¡¯s about 5¡¯6, skinny, wears lame glasses and yet, gives off a feeling of a rich conglomerate owner¡¯s son but doesn''t act like one.


    ¡°Yo Daikichi." I nod to him as he walks towards my table and waits for me to pack all of my things.


    I bet he''s going to ask me a question about what happened earlier.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Dude, what happen to you earlier?!"


    I knew it.


    "I heard you went all ballistic on the floor!" Daikichi grabs my shoulders and looks me up and down. "You alright? Why you¡¯re not in the nurse office right now?!¡±


    ¡°Relax with the questions. I¡¯m fine now. Let¡¯s go, I¡¯ll tell you on the way to the club room about what happened.¡± I reply to him as I walk out the classroom with him following behind me.


    We both belong to the piano club. I needed to join a club and I thought piano would be the most relaxing one. Not much of a piano player but I¡¯m a fast learner. Since it¡¯s mandatory, I might as well join something I can use to relax. As we walk our way towards the clubroom, I explained to him what happened during the incident I had earlier. I can see him trying to hold off his laughter and knowing Daikichi, he finds almost andything or should I say, he finds everything amusing.


    ¡°Bro! That is insane!¡± He laughs out loud as we walked down the hall towards the stairs of the school building.


    "Ha-Ha very funny," I say lightly punching him in the arm. ¡°Even I don¡¯t know what the hell was that.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it has some grudge against you! What did you do to it? Wait, what is it anyway?¡± Daikichi asked me and it made me wonder more, what it was.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It''s like something sent me pictures on my mind.¡± I say pausing for a brief moment. "I don''t even know, maybe its new military weapon and I got caught it the crossfire? Maybe I''m just going crazy."


    ¡°Seriously? Why would the army send pictures to their enemies? Hey guys! Look! I can kill you with images!You know what I think it is? Your guardian angel. It was sending you images because you pissed it off for studying too much.¡± Daikichi responds with a smug look.


    ¡°Probably. We should hurry; we don¡¯t want to make Kana mad for being late. You know how she is.¡± I tell him as I jogged up the stairs speeding up my movement. The minute we got to the top floor of the building, we both start running towards our clubroom, which is located next to the band club in the far corner. It¡¯s the biggest room up here making it perfect to play the piano due to the ambient sound. Sometimes, the acapella singers or bands come by to use the room for practice or, listen to us play the piano.Daikichi opens the sliding door peeking briefly inside as if a monster will pop out any minute.


    ¡°Heeeeey~, club pres~, we''re here--"


    BAM!


    A figure came flying towards me pushing Daikichi to the side while crashing into me making me stumble to the ground.


    ¡°WAAAAAAAAAAAH! I thought you died!" Kana hugs me tightly as she cried. She started inspecting me frantically for any injuries as I sat there watching her go crazy. "Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Do you need to go to the hospital?!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, just had a bit of issue earlier with my eyes, but I¡¯m fine now," I say to her. Her name is Kana. She is a beautiful junior in our school and the president of the piano club. She is around our height. A lot of guys are attracted to her because of her looks and her figure. She also currently holds the third position in the school ranking of seniors. I¡¯m number one from the freshmen side, Daikichi is number two. But the overall ranking of the school in regards to everything is, me at top rank. Daikichi at number two spot and Kana at number three. A lot of seniors were outraged at us taking up the first two spot since it has never been done before.


    Freshmen''s being at the top of the overall ranking is something impossible to do. I don''t know how I did it but I guess getting the highest marks on the test and doing all the extra credit work made the school recognize my efforts. I was really aiming to be a number of the freshmen ranks but I didn''t expect to be number one on overall rank. I asked them about how they figure out who remains at the top. They told me its all based on current events and achievements. Those who do more deserve to get the top spot. Those who slack and do less work deserves to be at the bottom. Years in school have nothing to do with the ranks. But in reality, even the bottom rank is set to work for a company after they graduate. In the end, they couldn¡¯t do anything since it clearly shows we both worked harder than any of them in regards to everything we do so, they all just mumbled to themselves until it became normal again.


    ¡°I was so scared!" She says as she hugs me again. She quickly looked at Daikichi glaring at him. "DAIKICHI!!! YOU''RE SUPPOSE TO PROTECT YASU!¡±


    ¡°Eh?! It¡¯s my fault?!¡± Daikichi responds and I can see him laughing a bit.


    Kana let me go and like a ninja, she was quick and had her hands on Daikichi¡¯s neck. "YES, IT IS!! MAKE SURE YOU GET HURT FIRST BEFORE YASU! OUR CLUB NEEDS HIM MORE THAN WE NEED YOU!"


    Daikichi''s head shakes back and forth as Kana tries to choke him but not too hard to the point he can¡¯t breathe. ¡°Kana--------you''re----going----to-----break----my------neck------yasu-----help.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine Kana.¡± I say placing my hand on her shoulder. ¡°Stop shaking Daikichi to death. How is he going to protect me if he¡¯s dead.¡±


    That looked painful.I whisper in my mind as I see her hand wrapped around his neck.


    "Ah! You¡¯re right. Sorry, Daikichi.¡± Kana says as she lets go.


    "No problem. What are necks for right? cough* Cough*¡± Daikichi says as he tries to catch his breath.


    ¡°Ah, since you guys are here, listen to this song and tell me if you guys can identify the composer," Kana says as she drags us both inside the clubroom. Since the place was as big as an auditorium, there are two grand pianos in the center facing each other while a couple of electric piano on the side. Even the clubrooms in this school were set up with the highest quality equipment. Probably, one of the electric pianos cost more than two months rent combined. There are seven pianos here and I heard from Kana that a grand piano can easily cost around $10,000 and up. There are two of them. Everything about this school is high class. The food, the library, even the restroom looks like it came from a five-star hotel penthouse riddled with decorations fitting only the wealthy one percent. Kana sits at one of the grand pianos and started playing. It was a very calming sound, something I am too familiar with.


    ¡°Raindrop by Chopin, Am I right?¡± I asked her.


    "Yup! This is what we''re going to play at the music festival this upcoming weekend! It¡¯s an easy song and by the amount of talent you have Yasu, you should have it mastered in no time.¡± Kana says as she looks at me while smiling.


    "Wait, you want me to play at the music festival?" I asked her with a surprised look.


    ¡°Yeah, I played last year. So, I decided for you to play in my stead.¡±


    ¡°but ---¡° As I try to speak, Kana interrupts me.


    ¡°NO BUTS. Presidents order is final.¡± She says as she crosses her arms.


    ¡°Yes, ma''am¡­" I responded back to her who then immediately smiled.


    I sat down and started practicing Chopin''s raindrop. I always have this code, everything I do, I must do it to the best of my abilities and excel. Nothing is impossible.


    The sun starts to sets covering the sky with an orange hue. I decided to stop practicing and pack my stuff to pick up my mother from her part time job. She doesn¡¯t work as late as she used to like in my middle school years but I still pick her up from work and walk her home. Since she gets out late, I¡¯m always worried about her. If she ever goes home by herself late at night and something happens, I won¡¯t know what to do. As I pack all the music notes in my bag, I hear Daikichi and Kana arguing as usual. I sat on one the electric piano since I can plug a headphone in and listen to myself play over and over again without getting distracted while Daikichi hits random notes. He excels in a lot of things but the piano isn''t one of them.


    ¡°Daikichi, loosen this damn fingers! Are you trying to destroy the piano?!!¡± Kana screams at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m doing the best I can!¡±


    "Well, the so called best that you can do, sucks!!! Look at yasu, he¡¯s already at another section and you¡¯re still in the beginning stages!! That''s it, I¡¯ve had it. You¡¯re not leaving today till you¡¯re able to play this song without mistakes!!!¡± Kana says and I can see the fury in her eyes.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Eh?!¡± Daikichi tried to stand but Kana pushed him back down. I can see his complexion turning pale.


    ¡°Stop complaining! Play!¡± Kana shouts in his ear that made him look at me with puppy eyes.


    ¡°Y-yasu. Buddy, d-d-don''t we have to run an errand for our dear mother.¡± Daikichi says that made me chuckle a bit. He¡¯s been to my house and calls my mom mother.


    ¡°I¡­have no idea what you¡¯re talking about. Have fun!¡± I tell him as I stand up.


    ¡°No! Don''t leave me alone with this demon from the mist!!!¡± Daikichi looks at me like he¡¯s about to die. I see Kana clench her fist glaring at him so hard.


    ¡°Huuuuuuh??! What did you just call me?!¡± She looked even more furious now. If I don''t leave she might trap me in here as well.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± Daikichi shouts my name.


    ¡°Later gator.¡± I leave as he cries my name over and over again while Kana holds him down to the chair. Seems like Kana has a thing for Daikichi. She¡¯s nice to me because I¡¯m like a brother to her. But for Daikichi, it¡¯s different. She is rough with him but in my vision, it¡¯s more out of love. I always wonder when they will go out with one another but, every time I bring it up to Daikichi, he brushes it off and tells me she''s a monster.


    "One day, those two will get married," I whisper to myself as I walk towards the stairway that leads down to the ground floor. Another thing about this school is, how many floors it has. It''s so big it actually has an elevator.


    ¡°Might as well buy food on the way home. I wonder what mom wants to eat for dinner.¡± I say as I leave the school grounds and head to the station. I take out my phone from my pocket and started dialing my mom''s number. Everyone has the latest fad and the most expensive cell phones while I have a flip phone that probably dated back in the year 2000. Quite an old model but it''s cheap and it does its job. My mom wanted to get a family plan and get us both expensive phones but I decline since all I really need to do is make phone calls. I press the green button and place the phone on my left ear. It didn''t even ring a twice and my mother picked up right away.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I hear my mom¡¯s voice from the other line.


    "Hey mom," I reply back to her. "I''m going to buy dinner. Do you prefer anything?"


    ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to the family restaurant near the station since it¡¯s on the way there.¡±


    ¡°Ah ok, then get me the braised fish combination platter.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll come pick you up after your shift so wait for me mom.¡±


    "Ok honey, be careful of cars okay? Don''t go crossing a red light. Make sure you look both left and right. If you see something suspicious, go to a police box and tell them or call the police." My mom nags me every time I call her. Even though I''m in high school now, in her eyes she still sees me as her little boy.


    "Ok, mom I will," I reply to her smiling even though she won''t see it.


    ¡°Now, how was school?¡±


    "It was fine. Actually, mom, Can I ask you a question?"


    "What is it, honey?¡±


    ¡°Did dad ever have an eye problem?"


    ¡°Your dad had 20/20 vision. Why? Is your vision blurry? Do you need glasses? This won¡¯t do. I¡¯m going to leave work early and we¡¯re going to the eye doctor now. ¡°


    "Relax mom, I just asked," I tell her. "My eyes are perfectly fine." I was going to mention what happened to me but I decided not to since she worrying too much.


    ¡°Are you sure? Still, we''re going to the eye doctor. If you don¡¯t want to go now, we''ll go tomorrow. Don¡¯t go to your club activities and come straight to my work. I¡¯m going to leave early and bring you to get an eye exam.¡±


    "Ok, mom," I replied back. My mom still works part-time in the convenience store. Even though I told her she doesn''t need to work because I get living expenses from my school and it''s enough for both of us to survive, she still decided to work there part-time because she don''t want to stay home and do nothing. I guess it¡¯s to keep her mind busy. She still hasn''t gotten over my father''s death even after a couple of years.


    ¡°Ok mom, I¡¯m going to hang up now I¡¯ll call you later when I¡¯m near.¡± I tell her as I walk down the steps of the station.


    ¡°Ok honey, I¡¯ll see you later. I love you, Bye.¡±


    "Love you too mom, Bye." I hung up and sped down the stairs. Since the restaurant is quite a way from my school, I have to take a train to get there. It¡¯s the same subway line I ride to go to my mom but instead of stopping at Harajuku station, I get off two or three more stop after that. I enter the subway and scan my card on the scanner and hop on the train that''s waiting in the station.


    "Lucky~ I caught the train before it left," I say as the train leaves the station. I sit down and that¡¯s when I noticed, there isn¡¯t anyone in it.


    It should be rush hour right now. How come this train is empty? Did I get on the maintenance train by accident?I say in my mind. I decided to look around and all the whole train is empty.


    "What the fuck¡­" I took out my cell phone from pocket and decided to call my mom. ¡°huh, no signal?¡±


    Out of nowhere my vision somehow started getting blurry as if my eyes are adjusting itself. I try to rub them clear but it doesn¡¯t work. My heart started pounding because it¡¯s similar to what happened to me earlier. All of a sudden, my eyes started burning like before.


    ¡°AGGGRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± I scream as the pain brought me to my knees. I dropped my phone and I hear it roll and slide away from me. I was waiting for more messages but nothing, my eyes just burned and it felt like someone is lighting my eyeballs on fire that I could feel the heat from the back of my eyes.


    ¡°AHHHH!!! HELP!¡± I shouted out but nothing. This train is empty. All of a sudden, the train stopped so fast it caused me to stumble forward planting my face in the ground. Right at that moment, the sensation stopped and when I opened my eyes, the whole world was dark. Blackness. Just complete blackness. I tried to rub them but nothing. I started to feel nervous as I blink my eyes opening and closing them as fast as I can try to regain my vision back.


    "Oh my god, no, no, no, no, no." I started rubbing them roughly now. My heart is beating so fast it feels like it''s going to pop out of my chest. ¡°No, no, no, no, no, oh please no, don¡¯t let me go blind.¡±


    I kept rubbing my eyes but nothing is happening. ¡°NO! FUCK!¡± I punch the floor of the train as the frustration of not being able to see get the best of me. I took a deep breath and exhale slowly whispering in my mind.


    Calm down, calm down. This must be a dream. Wake up.I say as I tried slapping my cheeks but nothing.


    "WAKE UP YASU! WAKE THE FUCK UP!¡± I scream to myself but nothing. I tried to stand up and walk forwards but it felt like someone tripped me causing me to fall back to the ground.


    THUD!


    ¡°GUACK! Who¡¯s there?! H-help me. I can¡¯t see!¡± I say as I lay on my chest but nothing. Not one sound is happening around me. I felt the train stop earlier thinking I stopped at a station but nothing. Everything is so quiet.


    Tap


    Tap


    Tap


    Tap


    Tap


    Tap


    .


    .


    The sound kept getting closer and closer as it gets louder and louder.


    Tap


    Tap


    Tap


    ¡°W-w-what? Footsteps?¡± I whisper as I listen closely to the tapping.


    Tap


    Tap


    .


    .


    .


    .


    It stopped right next to me.I whisper in my mind trying not to move as I remained on my chest. I waited for a couple of minutes but nothing.


    ¡°H-hello? Can you please help me. I-I-I can''t see! Can you call an ambulance? Please h-h-help me!¡± I say as I push myself up to get on my knees.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    No response. Is anyone there? I¡¯m sure I heard the tapping.


    ¡°h-h-hello?¡± I asked again but nothing.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    I try to feel around the floor to try and find my phone.


    *Rrrrrrriiiing


    *Rrrrrrrriiiiiiing


    *Rrrrrriiiiiiing


    *Rrrrring¡ªcrrrack!!


    I hear a crunching sound, which abruptly stopped the ringing.


    *Crack


    *Crack


    *Crack


    It sounds like-my phone!!!


    ¡°W-wh-what that the fuck?! My phone?! Is that my cell phone?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I tried to feel around trying to grab onto whoever is destroying my phone. Even though I can''t see, I know it''s my phone. I think it is. Besides, I''m the only one here and it was my ringtone.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± Who are you?!¡± I swing my arms wildly into the air trying to find his leg. I can hear the person walking around back and forth but I can''t seem to grab him. Then, everything stopped and it got quiet. The sound of the train tracks, the footsteps, everything disappeared. I still can''t see and I only heard my own breathing.


    ¡°Huah-Hah-hah-hah.¡± I felt a faint whisper in my ear. ¡°KKKUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAKKEKEKEKEKEKKE!" The voice didn''t sound human at all. It sounded like someone gargling on his or her own blood along with a sore voice. But the scariest part was the laugh. It was a very high pitch to the point it was hurting my ear.


    ¡°AGGGRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± I scream as my eardrums felt like it was about to burst. ¡°Shut up! Shut up-¡° Without expecting it, I feel something stab me from the back. It went through me and exited the left side of my chest. I could feel warm liquid dripping from my chest down to my stomach. I can feel my clothes hugging my skin as the liquid soaks up my uniform. But no pain.


    Huh? I¡¯m having trouble breathing. Whatever impaled me from the back slowly came out where it came from.


    SLluuurrrrrrccchhh!


    ¡°URRGGHHHHGGGUUUAAAAHHH!!¡± I scream from a strong jolt pain I felt that¡¯s twice as worse, no, hundred times as worse than I have ever felt before.


    *pant


    *wheeze


    *pant


    As my breath started getting slower and my consciousness started to leave me, I faintly heard a heartbeat. Rather than hear, I felt it as some liquid hits my face at every beat and I smell a metallic odor. I didn''t even notice it but I¡¯m laying down flat on my stomach and my body feels like it¡¯s going numb.


    Even though I want to move, I couldn''t.


    Bu-Bump


    Bu-Bump


    Bu-Bump


    Bu-Bump


    ¡°w-w-what? W-who¡¯s¡­.Huh?¡±


    Bu-Bump


    Bu-Bump


    I could hear the heartbeat getting slower and slower. Before it completely disappeared, I heard him whisper something in my ear. ¡°To be reborn you must first, die.¡±


    It laughed a sinister laugh as I lose consciousness.


    .


    .


    .


    <table width="743">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    WELCOME! HUMAN!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Huh?"


    <table width="743">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    OPEN YOUR EYES! Kekekekekeke~


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°W-w-what?¡±


    <table width="743">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Seriously, OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Upon reading, I follow the instructions and slowly open my eyes. Since the place was dark, my vision adjusted quickly and I noticed I¡¯m staring at a brick ceiling.


    <table width="743">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Great! Now that you''re awake, why don''t you stand up and follow the light!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As instructed by these weird windows, I stood up. The room was suddenly illuminated as a bright light appeared out of the wall like a ghost.


    "What. The. Fuck." my voice trails off as I see it proceed to float towards a wall and stopped before it collided with it. After a couple of seconds, a door and a sign appeared out of the wall. I decided to walk closer to it and as soon as the sign is within my view, I stop in my tracks and stare at it. This kind of stuff only happens in dreams.


    Am I still dreaming? When will I wake up? Is this the after life?I whisper in my mind putting my hand on the sign that''s attached to the door. As I stare at the sign, I subconsciously read it out loud. ¡°Welcome to the new world.¡±


    Like a magic word from fantasy novel, the words disappeared and the door slowly opened.

 CHAPTER 2: The world of games with one life

    <hr>


    Chapter 2: The world of games with one life


    <hr>


    Welcome to the New World.


    "Yup. That''s what it says. No matter how many times I glance at it, it is written there, new world." I whisper as I look at the sign above the opened door. I peeked in and the hallway on the other side and it¡¯s pitch black. I can¡¯t even see whats at the end of it. I''ve been contemplating for the last thirty minutes if I should go through the door and brace the darkness along with whatever''s inside or, find another way out. But I have to think of all different choices before I make a move.


    "There isn''t any other way out," I say to myself pacing back and forth. "The room has four walls and there isn''t any other source of light except that orb."


    Where is the air coming from? The hallway?


    A lot of things are in my mind while I¡¯m trying to find anything that makes sense. But, nothing makes sense except the fact that I was kidnapped and probably put in a room to be killed.


    ¡°Wait, shit, is there a time limit? Theres no TV and I don''t see any jigsaw doll.¡± I say to myself as my heart pounds faster.


    Keep calm Yasu. Don''t go crazy. The minute you go insane, you''ll lose the sense of direction and the ability to think logically.I whisper in my mind over and over again.


    "But I''m not bound or anything," I say as I look at my wrist and ankles. "And what the fuck is that orb? The first time I see something like it."


    The orbs just float in mid air above the door. It''s just a light but I don''t feel any heat coming from it. I was tempted to touch it.


    "Wait, this place might be a lucid dream? If I am dreaming, how do I wake up? How did I fall asleep? I wonder if I¡¯m still in school and never woke up when I was in the nurse office earlier." I say to myself remembering I passed out when my eyes were hurting at the first time in class.


    I tried different ways to wake up from this dream. I tried going back to sleep but my body is too active. Falling asleep was impossible at the moment. And to be honest, I¡¯m scared to fall asleep and wake up being operated on. I tried closing my eyes and meditating but I have never experienced a lucid dream so I''m quite baffled on what to do or how to wake up. I study the room some more pressing each tile to see if there''s any hidden door but nothing.


    ¡°Should I go, or should I not go? I mean, what¡¯s the worst that can happen to me right inside my own dream. Just 30 minutes ago, my eyes burned and I became blind inside an empty train along with someone who stabbed me and ripped my heart out. If this was real, being alive now is impossible. So this must be a dream.¡± I keep myself calm since I decided this is all a dream to keep my sanity.


    Yes, a dream. I can''t die. I can''t leave my mother alone.I say in my mind. I started to get impatient. Even though trying to believe it''s a dream can''t remove the fact that I got my heart ripped out and probably died.


    ¡°NO! I''M NOT DEAD! ARGH FUCK IT!¡± I decided to push through the tunnel at a full sprint. But to be honest, I''m not scared of the dark. I''m terrified of not being able to see anything. I guess my experience before gave me a phobia losing my sense of sight. I sprinted through that so fast I never knew I could go at that speed. It¡¯s so dark inside that I can¡¯t see what''s in front of me. If I run into something I wouldn¡¯t know if there¡¯s a wall in front of me.


    BAM!


    I hit something as I ran full speed to what felt like a wall. My forehead made the first contact since I was tilted a bit forward when I ran. The rest of my body followed right after. I was going so fast that I felt dizzy after hitting the wall with my head making me almost lose consciousness.


    ¡°Ugghh¡­¡± I groan while placing my hand on my forehead. My dizziness was quickly replaced with a headache. My nose doesn¡¯t seem to be broken but blood started dripping out from my nostrils. I know its blood since I started smelling something metallic.


    "Ugh¡­" I wipe my nose with my shirt. It''s too dark and I can''t even see if I''m staining my shirt or not. But then, everything around me was suddenly illuminated. As I look back, I thought I would see someone holding a torch but it''s just the orb slowly passing over my head.


    ¡°Oh¡­was I supposed to follow that?¡± I whisper as I slowly stood up. My hand was covered with blood and my clothes were also covered with blood as I used it to wipe my nosebleed earlier. ¡°Dammit.¡±


    As I look up, I see the orb stopped exactly where I crashed and illuminated what I bumped into. It¡¯s another door. I pushed myself up and touch the wooden door that has tribal carvings into it. I ran my fingers through the carvings as it seemed like the best artisan in the world with its fine details made it. Even though I have seen a lot of art exhibits, I have never seen anything coming close to this.


    ¡°Whoa¡­¡± I say as I touch the carvings and inspect it. Upon making contact with the door, it opened itself slowly exposing the bright room inside. For a moment I thought I was going blind again as my eyes were having a hard time adjusting from complete darkness.


    ¡°Not again.¡± I curse trying to keep my eyes a bit open to help myself adjust faster. When my vision adjusted to the brightness of the room, I relaxed a bit knowing I didn¡¯t go blind the second time. As I look around, I can see a bunch torches attached to the wall illuminating the inside. It looks like I was thrown into medieval times. As I step in, I notice the room is a circle because it lacks corners.


    I notice that there are other doors that go all around the wall. Most of the doors are open and In the center is a statue of a person wearing a hooded armor. Well, it''s not a person but more like an angel half demon hybrid. It has a wing of an angel on the left and a wing of a demon on the right. The hands of the statue are towards its front holding on top of the sword handle that is impaled onto a pedestal it¡¯s standing on. The minute I laid my eyes on the statue I noticed what''s underneath of it.


    There are people!I shout in my mind. I wanted to go to a full sprint but decided to slowly walk to them. Seeing a guy with blood in his clothes running isn¡¯t really a good first impression.


    They''re standing close to the statue. Almost all of them are wearing high school uniforms. Except for one man who is at the statue sitting on the floor leaning against the pedestal. There''s also a person in baseball gear but he looks like a high school student.


    As I approach the group I can hear them talking to each other. They all seem to be in the same boat as me based on the conversation they''re having. I never really engaged to talk to people so I silently listen to their conversation and hope they notice me. Stick to small words when it comes to people not within my close circle. This is why it¡¯s harder for me to make friends and harder for people who are trying to become my friend.


    A girl with a familiar uniform was saying something. I had to get a bit closer to hear what it¡¯s about and it seems like my presence is oblivious to them.


    ¡°...I don¡¯t really know. I was on my way home and out of nowhere, something hits me from behind and I lost consciousness. Then I woke up inside a room.¡±


    ¡°Same here!" Another guy replies. He looks like your typical pretty boy all the girls go for. " After I woke up, some weird message popped up and told me to follow some orb.¡±


    ¡°For real! That orb was weird! I thought I was inside my game for a moment.¡± Another guy replied. This one seems like he has adhd. He seems too excited. He probably also likes manga. His shirt is green with a sentence ¡®a-chan 4 ever'' in caps. Not a shirt people would normally wear walking around outside.


    What if he said is true and we''re inside a game?I say in my mind as I continued to listen


    "What if we''re inside a game?" the guy in baseball gear says.


    Wow, did he read my mind? Hello, my name is Yasu. I say in my mind but it seems like he cant read minds. Haha, what was I expecting?


    "I mean think about it guys, somehow we all got knocked unconscious and was brought here. Oh my god. Is this like Battle Royale?!¡± he continues on.


    ¡°It can¡¯t be, if we all got knocked unconscious, it might be a dream.¡± Another one replied. This one looks normal. No special features. I myself thought it was a dream at first, but as much as I want it to be a dream, it feels like it isn''t.


    ¡°To figure it out, why don¡¯t we tell each other our last moment before we lost consciousness?" The pretty boy says. "How about, we state our name, age, then the last thing we remember. We might find a clue from it.¡±


    Wait, don¡¯t they notice me that I¡¯m standing here? Should I say something? I say in my mind. I kept quiet and just listened to their conversation.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go first then. My name is Hiroko, age 17." Hiroko says and then paused. Probably trying to recall her last memory. "Last thing I remember¡­lets see¡­I was walking home from school with my friends. As soon as they left, something hit me from the back of my head which knocked me out.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you Hiroko. My name is Junpei, I''m also 17 years old and the last thing I remember, someone pushed me down the stairs causing me to fall I landed on my face and I lost consciousness because of that.¡± Junpei says after.


    Ouch.I say in my mind as I touch my nose.


    ¡°H-hello, my name is R-Riki. I¡¯m also 17 years old and the last thing I remember is taking a nap. When I woke up, I was inside this place.¡± Riki says nervously. I guess he''s not used to people. He''s kind of like me but for a different reason. His stuttering reminds me of my first day of school.


    ¡±Name is Sawada Hiteyoshi, also 17. Last thing I remember I got hit by a baseball bat in the head.¡± His shirt has the number 18 on it.


    "Hi, I go by the name Tobi, also 17. The last thing I remember is being tazed.¡± Tobi says.


    Whoa, tazed. That must have hurt.I whisper analyzing all of them are knocked out differently but, mine is the most gruesome.


    ¡°How about you sir?¡± Junpei looks at the older man sitting at the foot of the statue.


    ¡°Name is Rikimura. 35 years old. I got drunk, passed out on the street, then I woke up here, kiddo.¡± Rikimura says. It looks like he''s still drunk. Everyone looks at each other. Hiroko has a facial expression that clearly says, what a loser. Kind of irked me. Why judge him, he might have had a long day and decided to drink to unwind. I hate it when people judge others based on what they look or do with their lives.


    ¡°Wait¡­.who are you?" Finally, someone noticed me. It was Sawada who asked me who I am.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°U-u-uh...I¡¯m Yasu. I-I just got here a few minutes ago.¡± I reply back.


    ¡°What¡¯s the last thing you remember?¡± Junpei ask me. Now I¡¯m thinking whether I should tell the truth or lie and keep it subtle. I chose the truth.


    ¡°I got on an empty train. When I noticed it was empty I tried calling someone and then my eyes burned from the inside and I became blind. Next thing I know someone stabbed me from the back and ripped my heart out. Since I can¡¯t see, all I could hear is my own heartbeat outside my body. Then it whispered something about being reborn I must die first stuff and I lost consciousness.¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    Did I say too much? Was that weird? Should I have stuck to small words and lied?I whisper in my mind as I look at them. Most of their mouths are wide open. Even the old man who was listening from a distance has a surprised look. When Junpei was about to say something, the whole place started shaking violently like an earthquake was happening. In most cases like these, we run to a table and hide underneath. Since there''s no table here to hide, everyone got on all fours. Some holding their head trying to brace themselves just in case the ceiling collapse.A couple more minutes and the earthquake stopped.


    ¡°Everyone alright?!¡± Junpei asks everyone. I see their heads nod and it seems like Junpei was shielding Hiroko.


    Wow, what a gentleman.I whisper as I look at him taking extra care of her.


    ¡°What the hell was that?!" Hiroko asked which is something anyone should have known by now what it was. An earthquake.


    "It''s Meeee~" A voice rang out loud everywhere as if someone turned on a loud speaker. We all looked around to see where the voice is coming from but nothing. We couldn''t find the source. We looked around and once we found the source, we all froze. The statue in the center of the room was waving at us.


    ¡°T-the statue is talking!¡± Hiroko screams and even Rikimura-san who was sitting below the statue ran towards us.


    "HAHAHAHA! Don''t act so surprise you, little babies. Now, since all of you introduced yourselves to each other, let me do my introduction. Hi, my name is Luro. I''m ageless and the last thing I remember was bringing you all here together! Now before you, all go asking me why and what''s my purpose and all that yada yada, let me beat you to the punch and tell all of you why you''re here. And the sole reason is, for my own amusement~"


    When Luro said that last line, he tried singing it. We all didn¡¯t say anything. Or rather, we couldn¡¯t. Our body is frozen solid and none of us can move or talk as if he froze our bodies and speech. The only thing we''re doing is looking at the statue continue it''s rambling.


    ¡°Well then, without further ado~ Let me tell you all where you''re at and what you need to do to get back home. You guys are on the planet that is floating in the sky. You guys have probably seen it from your planet. What was that called again? Plizzanet earth? Hahaha.¡± He joked and laughed at his own joke.


    ¡°Ok little babies, as I was saying, this place is what I call, new world. Copying the infrastructure of the earth is how this planet was made. The only difference is~ anyone wants to take a guess?" As soon as he asked that question, our body loosened up and we all fell to the floor.


    ¡°How about you there? The guy with a funny looking shirt? What is the difference between this and earth?¡± We all look at Riki waiting for an answer.


    ¡°T-t-this place i-i-is d-dark?¡± Riki says back to him nervously.


    ¡°Well duh, theres no electricity here or moder lightbulbs. You play video games more than you eat, you should know what this place would be the minute you saw my notifications. Now, try again~¡±


    ¡°T-t-this place is a g-g-game!¡± Riki says stuttering while closing his eyes anticipating for something to hit him in the face if he gets the wrong answer.


    "DING! DING! DING! DING! We got the right answer!" The statue started clapping but no one is clapping with it. "Basically, it''s a game but it''s not. Have you guys ever read a light novel where there the main character gets transferred into a virtual reality realm? Well, this is not a realm but a real planet. And you all are the players inside of it. In a few moments from now, your all going to be picking a class that suits your taste. You all have only one life, which means~ you die when you die! Yay!¡± Luro held his hands like it''s some nice grand surprise he gave us. No one said anything. I know what they¡¯re feeling since I''m in the same position as them.Fear. We''re all feeling fear.


    ¡°Ewww what a boring group. Oh well, no worries. All of you will only have one goal and that is, to kill me~. Kill me and I will release all of you~ Now, let''s stop wasting time and start picking classes!"


    Luro was about to snap his fingers when Junpei interrupted him, ¡°w-w-wait! Kill you?! WHY?¡±


    "I knew you would ask that. Well here the thing, if all of you die, I will crash this planet to your planet and we will all die! YAY!" Luro opens his arms happily.


    ¡°Wh-what?! You can¡¯t do that! We have families on earth! Bring us home now!¡± Hiroko demanded the statue.


    ¡°Nuh-uh. No can do missy. Only when you find me and kill me, you can go home. So no bueno. Please try again later. Now, instead of worry about menial things, you should worry about your current situation. Do you know where you guys are right now?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡± Luro asks pointing at Riki who raised his hand like it was a classroom.


    ¡°w-w-were in a dungeon?¡± He replies to him and Luro started clapping.


    ¡°CORRECTO! You are all in the middle of a dungeon! Yay! If you guys don¡¯t pick a class now, trust me, you all will die very fast. So, let¡¯s get to class-a-changin shall we little babies?¡± After saying that, Luro snaps his fingers and a new window popped up in front of us.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="443">


    Welcome to the class Window!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="443">


    Please read all the class carefully! Once you¡¯re ready, say, ¡°READY.¡±


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="443">


    Knight


    Archer


    Assassin


    Blade


    Healer


    Berserker


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "I see a lot of familiar classes the same as those MMORPG games I played. What I remember, knights would be good if I need to defend myself. I played RPG games before and this type of class is what they call a ¡°Tanking class¡±. A class that can take a lot of damage. But sometimes knight is only good to take hits and will deal less damage. Archer is basically Robin Hood status. You climb trees and do a lot of sensing. But it''s not good for close combat. Assassins are probably good with stealth. The blade is a versatile class. They do a lot of damage and have enough defense to be able to do "soloing" which is when a player does quest and dungeons all by themselves. Healers are healers. They heal and stuff. Berserkers are a lot like a blade but specialize in two-handed weapons. They run on rage, which makes them angry all the time. Their defense is a lot less since I think they are focused on offense." Riki says explaining each and every class we see in the window.


    Pick blade.A voice came ringing out of my mind. What? Did I just think of that?


    ¡°Hey uh Riki was it? What is the blade class usually like?¡± I asked him and he was flustered seeing me talk to him.


    ¡°O-oh uh like I said before, b-blade usually consists of dual wielding swords and m-mostly in charge of doing damage.¡± He explains to me. ¡°H-how about this e-everyone. W-we cant pick class based on w-what we need a-as a team.¡±


    ¡°That sounds good.¡± Junpei replies to him and even though it sound good, I don''t like the idea of being pushed a class I don''t like.


    I guess the safe class I should pick is healer; I¡¯m not much of a fighter. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯ll pick knight and tank for everyone, we need a healer, Hiroko, can you pick a healer?¡± Junpei asked her and I can see she didn''t like it.


    ¡°Ugh. I don¡¯t want to. I want to be an archer.¡± She tells him. ¡°Ready, archer.¡±


    Wow, she picked without thinking.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯ll pick b-berserker.¡± Riki says and he decided to initiate his choice.


    I guess healer is mine. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Ready.¡± I say and all of a sudden the place started rumbling again.


    ¡°Oh oops, minor glitch. Don''t worry this wont cave in.¡± Luro says as he sat on his pedestal. As soon as I regain my footing, I look at the options and somehow, the class healer is missing.


    ¡°Huh, where did the healer class go?¡± I asked and Junpei decided to check it out.


    ¡°Ready.¡± He says and I see him looking for it also. ¡°Huh, it is missing.¡±


    ¡°Ah, probably the limit exceeded for the class. You guys aren¡¯t the only one picking so pick fast.¡± He says laughing.


    Dammit. I¡¯m not much of an assassin I think, and I¡¯m not a fighter so blade and berserker is out of the question. Only class good for me is archer or knight but somehow I don''t want to be an archer. I say in my mind.


    ¡°What class are you picking?¡± Junpei asked.


    ¡°Probably knight, I¡¯m not much of a fighter so I guess knight have shields.¡± I say to him.


    ¡°Don''t pick knight because I¡¯m going to be a knight. You should pick blade so you can help us deal damage.¡± Junpei tells me and I¡¯m beginning to not like him for telling me what to do.


    ¡°Uhh-¡°


    ¡°Yeah, you can still use other weapons including shield, you might not be able to have skills for shields but at least you¡¯ll get nice skills on swords.¡± Riki tells me.


    ¡°Since healer is gone, should we pick all knights? So this way we can protect ourselves and each other?¡± I tell them and some of the guys weren¡¯t even paying attention.


    ¡°Well I already picked berserker and Junpei picked knight. Hiroko picked archer.¡± Riki says looking at the rest of the guys who hasn¡¯t made a choice. ¡°What are you guys going to pick?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going for assassin.¡± Sawada says.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to pick archer.¡± Tobi says and somehow Hiroko didn''t like it. I can see her a bit frustrated.


    ¡°I¡¯ll pick knight.¡± Rikimura says and no one said anything.


    ¡°See, we have two knights already, you should pick blade. You¡¯ll be our main guy for attacks. And blade moves fast and are super agile.¡± Riki says.


    Pick Blade.A voice appeared in my head again after my own thought.


    "Ok, I¡¯ll pick blade.¡± I tell everyone. ¡°Ready."


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="443">


    Great! Which class would you like? Please say it out loud.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Blade.¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="443">


    Congratulations on becoming a blade!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="443">


    You are now able to use item bag and skill window. To use item bag say ¡°item bag¡±. To see your skill window, say ¡°Skill window.¡± As you progress throughout your journey and level up, you will gain new skills that will help you fight the evil lord Luro!


    Have fun and don¡¯t die too fast!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It feels like I''m inside a game. As everyone else finished picking their class, they all seem to calm down. I guess they are all in the same mindset as me now. No time to waste on useless chatter. I decided to try out the command I read the congratulatory message.


    ¡°Item box.¡± The minute I said it, a bag came out of nowhere and dropped in front of me.


    ¡°Ah, that is a multi-dimensional bag!" Luro says to me. "You can store as much as you want inside as long as it¡¯s not a living thing. Cool isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Why us? Why is it us you brought here?¡± Junpei asked the question we¡¯ve been thinking.


    ¡°Well little babies, no particular reason. Kekekeke." Luro replies back. "I just did it randomly. Having high school kids run around is better than adult conspiring to take over the world. To which is why there is only one adult in this room. In this world, you make the rules and laws. You¡¯re the first players but remember, you¡¯re not the first inhabitants.¡±


    "First players?" Junpei asked again.


    "Yes, first players. Meaning~~ you are the first players from another world! There are already other living creatures in here but you¡¯re going to have to find them out yourselves.¡± Luro replies and nobody said a word. "Ah, before I forget. You''re not the only group I brought here. There is also another group along with you guys that I have summoned to this world. Makes the game more fun if two groups are racing against each other to kill me! Kekekekeke.¡±


    Another group? I say in my mind hoping none of my friends are here. I still cling to the theory this is a dream but, the reality is slowly creeping up into me destroying my theory.


    "I already talked to them and they are probably on their way out. I placed them in a different dungeon similar to yours so their circumstances aren''t any better than you guys. Since I made two groups, I decided to create a guild based on the group you¡¯re on! The other group, which consists also of 6 high school kids and 1 adult, are named Gold District. While you guys will be named Diamond District! Awesome right?! I think I like the Diamond District better than the gold district. Diamond sounds much more, fancy~.¡± As the statue laugh, none of us find it funny. I bet we''re all thinking how our lives are in the hands of this maniac.


    "Oh, and one more thing, if you use the command ''Show class description'' this will show you your class description. On other news! You should have done this before picking that class. kukukukukuku but I think it''s better this way! Don''t we all like surprises?¡± He says looking at me and somehow, I feel nervous.


    ¡°kekekekeke~ Now, this command is just a small hint on what you¡¯re supposed to do with your class. Oh my, I''m trying to help the people that will kill me, aren¡¯t I nice~¡± He says the last sentence and I notice him still staring directly at me. I averted his gaze trying not to make it seem I know he¡¯s looking at me.


    Why is he looking at me? I asked in my mind.


    His head tilts left more than the normal neck can handle creating cracks on the statue¡¯s neck. After a few minutes, he went back to his original position and sat on the pedestal he was standing it. Everyone started saying the command one by one.


    "Show class description," I whisper to myself and I wish I didn''t. ¡°No fucking way.¡±


    My mind just completely went blank. I don''t know what to think.


    "What the fuck is this shit!" I shouted in anger as I read my class description while myheart beats faster than usual. Everyone looked at me and I didn¡¯t care if I was making a scene. The description in front of me is something I didn''t expect catching me off guard.


    ¡°This is a fucking cooking class!!¡±

 CHAPTER 3: A Cook Inside The Dungeon

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 3: A cook inside the dungeon


    <hr>


    ¡°Blade? A cooking class?! What the fuck is this shit?!" I shouted loud enough to get everyones attention. I notice some of them are trying to hold a laugh. But this isn''t funny at all. This class specializes only in cooking and it¡¯s probably useless in combat.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class Description of "BLADE"</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">A cooking class. You''re on a path to master all types of cooking. You can even master beverages and other godly goodies that can satisfy a person¡¯s stomach. Advance this class to the maximum capacity and achieve ''master'' blade status! You are an individual that fight behind closed doors! Just sit back, relax, and let the food do the talkin¡¯!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh my fucking god. This class is useless in combat! This must be a mistake!" My heart is palpitating too much at this point. The voice in my mind betrayed me and the information Riki said isn''t true.


    Why the hell did I listen to them. This is not a dual wielding attacker. This is a fucking cook!I say in my mind.


    I picked blade so that I don¡¯t have to rely on other but now, it became just the opposite of what I want. In order for me to survive here, I might rely on them to help me.


    ¡°Let me seeeeee~," Luro says and I didn''t notice the statue is standing behind me reading the class description.¡°Hmmm, this is not a mistake. Kekekeke. All class is created properly by no other than great god: me!"


    ¡°How do you expect me to fight out there with this?!¡± I shout towards him. My mind is a mess. My logical thinking has become clouded by fear and my poor judgment.


    Luro shrugs. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not a cook. Kekekeke.¡±


    ¡°But you created this class!¡°


    ¡°That I did.¡± I can hear in his voice, he just doesn''t care at all.


    At this point, my mind is going blank. I didn''t know what to do except scream back at him. "You created this fucking world!"


    ¡°That I did.¡±


    ¡°Why?!¡±


    Luro smirks. ¡°For fun~¡±


    Is he mocking me? Is he?! He¡¯s fucking mocking me!I say in my mind. I feel tired from all the screaming. Everyone''s not saying anything and just looking at us back and forth as we exchange blows with our words.


    Luro turns towards Riki and crosses his arms. ¡°Besides, who told you it was a dual wielding combat class in the beginning?¡±


    ¡°But the name blade. I thought....It-¡° Riki tried to reply but he was interrupted from finishing his sentence.


    ¡°Exaaaaactly~ You thought. Let me give you all a word of advice, think differently from now on. If any of you want to survive, a lot of basic information on earth doesn¡¯t apply here. So~ Stop thinking like you''re on earth! This place is better than your dull planet~ It''s a wonderful place to be in~ kekekekekekekeke~¡± Luro says and I don¡¯t say anything back. My mind is a mess. I can''t think of anything except the situation I¡¯m currently in.


    I''m fucked. I¡¯m genuinely fucked. I can¡¯t cook my way through this world! What am I suppose to do? Feed the enemies to death? For a person who studies all his life, I did the worst fucking mistake and let my feelings choose for me rather than using facts. I messed up. I really fucking messed up.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Now, we have wasted a lot of time. Let me give you guys your weapon and then you can go on figuring out how to leave this dungeon." Luro says. "Now, remember even if it is a game, you all only have one life. If you die¡­well you die..kekekekekekeke.¡±


    While he''s laughing like a maniac, my gaze is focused on the ground. My eyes are getting blurry as tears accumulate. My mind is a mess.


    How am I supposed to go home like this? I¡¯m the weakest in the group and probably a hindrance in the future. I say in my mind. Then I hear him snap his fingers and a new notification emerged in front of my vision.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Luro the ALMIGHTY GODwants to give you a gift? Accept?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    At least I get a weapon. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Accept.¡± Junpei was the first to talk and a weapon materialized in front of him. It¡¯s a sword along with a shield. Along with the weapons, a piece of armor also materializes a metal chest plate.


    ¡°Accept.¡± Hiroko followed right after him and said the word. A bow and quiver with arrows appeared in front of her along with what seems to be a leather jacket.


    Seeing Hiroko and Junpei getting their weapons and armor, the rest of the group followed them. Riki got a two handed hammer along with a metal chest plate similar to Junpei''s. Sawada ened up picking assassin instead of archer and Tobi picked the archer since the weapon they got is a dagger and along with the leather hood and Tobi got the same type of weapon and armor as Hiroko. Rikimura-san got the same type of weapon as Junpei.


    ¡°Hahahahaha I look forward to seeing this group come out alive from this dungeon! Well then, arrivederci little babies! Don¡¯t die until you have killed me! Kekekekekekekeke~¡± Luro says as he walks back to the statue¡¯s original position and froze in place as for how it was in the beginning. Just like that, Luro was gone and we''re all by ourselves again. The notification is still here, right on my face. I try to calm myself and accept the fact I messed up. If I throw a tantrum now, these people will think of the worst of me. Even though they orced this stupid class onto me, I''m partly at fault for now following my gut instict.


    "Ok, ok, I got this. It''s not the end of the world yet. As long as I have weapons, I can make do." I mutter to myself.As I look at the rest of the group who is busy equipping their armor and testing out their weapon, I just remembered, I displayed a side of me I don''t usually do. I feel embarrassed knowing the fact they saw me screaming like a kid.


    They must be judging me now thinking that I''m a psycho. Fuck.I say in my mind as I averted their gaze and just focused on the message in front of me.


    ¡°Accept.¡± The minute I said the word, the notification disappeared and my weapon along with my armor materialized out of thin air.I started laughing.I got something really good to laugh at. I laughed so loud that the rest of the group stopped what they were doing and just looked at me.But my laugh turned quickly into a scream.


    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" I let out all my frustrationas much as I can until my throat rips apart inside and I taste the blood inside my mouth. I got on my knees and started sobbing.


    ¡°Fuck, Fuck¡­¡± my voice trails off as it slowly gets replaced with silent sobs. The weapon that materialized is a spatula and a frying pan. My armor? An apron. Stupid fucking apron.


    ¡°Fucking asshole, at least give me a knife to cut things with¡­¡± I¡¯m crying while smiling and laughing. Oh man, I¡¯m broken on the inside.


    This is just too much. I did one careless fucking mistake and now I''m in deep shit. It wasn''t like me to move without thinking things through. Why did I do that? Why didn''t I check the class description? Why did I pick because of a stupid voice in my head!? Why?!I was going crazy in my mind.


    While wallowing in my situation, I hear footsteps approaching me. Junpei is walking towards my way. I wanted to look up but I didn''t want to look at him in the eye and see pity or worse, see the same look I got when my mother and me we''re homeless. I keep looking at the ground sobbing quietly. I hear him stop right in front of me and I can see his shadow overlapping mine.


    Please don''t make fun of me. Please don''t pity me. Just leave me alone.I say in my mind.


    "Hey, Yasu was it? Don¡¯t worry about it. Just stick close to me and I¡¯ll guard you with this shield. Junpei says as he holds the shield up. ¡°The only way for us to survive this is if we all work together. Isn¡¯t that right everyone?¡± Junpei looks at everyone in the room.


    As I glance at their faces, they all nod but I can see that they already see me as a hindrance. Even though its all their fault for forcing me into this class, I didn''t say anything.They don''t know me and I don''t know them. But at least I''ll have the common decency to hide my expression if I was in their position.


    ¡°Everyone, we need to think of a way of getting out of this place. First thing first, who here has played online RPG game before? Raise your hand.¡± Junpei asked and everyone raised a hand. "Ok good, this means we all have the general aspect of an RPG game. The first thing we need to do is check our stats. I figured out how to view or stats. Everyone, please say status window. This will show you information such as; list of skills, our current level, guild, and even our class. I think we''re all level one."


    "Status window." I whisper under my breath and a window came up.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1" width="593">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Yasu</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">BLADE</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Grill</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Chef''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Purify</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Midas Touch</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">All the food and beverages you create taste better.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <th style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </th>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name: </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Junpei</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">KNIGHT</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Shield Smash</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Sword Slash</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are a Hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Valor of the Knights</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Boost your leadership status.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Protector</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You feel less pain from attacks.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hiroko</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">ARCHER</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Deadshot</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Arrow Rain</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re a hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Sharpshooter</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">This improves your accuracy.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Leather Aim.</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Wearing a full set of leather increase accuracy.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Riki</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">BERSERKER</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hammer Smash</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stomp</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re a Hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Berserk</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">This skill randomly activates during combat to give you a boost in strength.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Going HAM</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are much stronger when wielding hammers.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Sawada</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">ASSASSIN</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Assassination</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth Step</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re a Hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nightvision</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Gives the ability to see better in the dark.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Feather Step</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Makes every footstep silent while crouching.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tobi</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">ARCHER</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Deadshot</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Arrow Rain</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re a Hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Sharpshooter</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">This improves your accuracy.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Leather Aim</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Wearing a full set of leather increase accuracy.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Name:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Rikimura</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Class:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">KNIGHT</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Guild:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Diamond District</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill level:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Shield Smash</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Sword Slash</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skills:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Passive skill description:</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hero''s Soul</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re a Hero.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Valor</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Boost your leadership status.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Protector</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Feel less pain from attacks.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°This stats are weird. Where''s the stamina, and stuff.¡± Riki says looking confused.


    "The what?" Junpei asked.


    Even though I''m not an avid gamer like Riki, I know what he''s talking about. On those RPG games, you start with basic stats. You''re given points to distribute within the build of your character. Adding more points on stamina improve health, adding more points in strength makes your character stronger. But in our case, none of these are available. But for now, I can''t trust anything he says. He gave me a false sense of safety earlier with his bullshitinformation.


    "Show Stats. Hmm nothing, let see, show points? Nothing. How does this even work¡­" Riki plays around with the commands. Basically, the interface we''re all using is probably all voice activated. We say the commands and it appears. The only issue is, we don¡¯t have a list of commands for this world. We don''t know what commands bring out what information.


    Wait, how come he''s not apologizing for giving us wrong info?I say in my mind.


    "Help? Nothing. Show command list? Nothing. What the hell...." Riki continues. "Hmmmm¡­.how about seeing it separately. Let see....show stamina? Nothing. Show strength? Still nothing..." Everyone''s now saying a different set of words to figure out more of our system but nothing is happening. Riki kept trying more commands until he''s able to get something to pop open.


    "Show DPS? Show DPH? BINGO!" Riki screams. "Guys! Say show DPH!" Riki says and we all did.


    "Show DPH," I mumble and a notification came up.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">DPH</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "What''s DPH?" Hiroko asked and Riki happily explained.


    "Well, DPS stands for damage per second. DPH Stands for damage per hit. It basically represents how much damage you do every hit.¡± Riki explained. "Look, if you hold your weapon, your DPH increases! Without a weapon, my DPH is 20. When I hold my hammer, it goes up to 100!" taking out their weapons and holding them.


    "Whoa, mine went up to 100 also," Junpei says.


    "Me too!" Tobi says. Actually, it''s not just them three, everyone''s damage per second is around 100 with their weapon equipped. I hold my spatula and frying pan since it''s the only weapon that was given to me.


    "Fuck."I?whisper to myselflooking at my DPH. It¡¯s still at one. It doesn''t matter if I¡¯m barehanded or holding my weapons. It remains at one.


    This is not good.Why is mine at 1? Am I really not suited to fight? Does this mean I have to hit them multiple times to kill them? What if...what if their health is around 300?! Do I have to hit them 300 times?!I say in my mind.I tried to not give an impression that my attack damage is one. They already know I''m weak; I don''t want to put myself deep in the gutter more than I already am.


    ¡°Ok now, how do we get out of here?¡± Junpei asked and all gazes fell towards him.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know if any of you noticed but there''s a lot of doors that surrounds us. All of them are open because that''s where we came from.¡± Rikimura point towards the only closed door. ¡°Except that door. I was thinking we''re missing a person, but since that statue said there''s only seven of us, I guess that''s the exit."


    The door is located right next to the one I exited earlier. We all walked towards it and Hiroko started inspecting like she''s some door professional.


    ¡°If you look at it closely, the door is taller than the ones we came from. It also has the carvings and design on it but it is missing the handles. This means it must be pushed from the inside. Guys help me out.¡± Junpei asks and we all move towards the door trying to push it open. At first it didn''t budge but the more we tried, it started moving slowly.Once we managed to get the door open enough for all of us to fit through, we see a dark hallway. Three torches are illuminating the section near us but the hallway then continues its blackness as far as our eyes can handle.


    We started walking out and the minute we did, a notification appeared in front of us again.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have lefta safe zone.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I got startled by its sudden appearance and I''m not the only one since Hiroko let out a yelp. I guess it¡¯ll take time to get used to these notifications suddenly popping up.


    "I guess that room is the safe zone," Riki says in a low voice like when someone might hear him.


    "Should we go?" Hiroko whispered.


    "Well, I don¡¯t think we can stay here any longer," Junpei whispers. He looks back towards the inside of the safe zone and continued talking. "There are hardly any resources for us to sustain a living.There¡¯s no food, beds, water, or anything here as far as I know. And it¡¯s not like we have to wait for rescue. No one is coming to rescue us. We have to get out of here on our own."


    "Well, even if you guys want to stay, I think I''m going. I don''t want to die here." Sawada says and he started walking towards the dark. Everyone probably thinks the same since we all ventured out away from the safe room. We don''t know each other very well so I can feel everyone a bit distant from each other.


    So far as for now, it''s every man for themselves. I say in my mind worried that if every they leave me behind, I''d be as good as dead.


    Right now I¡¯m staying close to Junpei who has his shield up and sword ready just in case any monsters come out from the shadows and attack us. As we progressed through the hallway, new torches keep igniting while the ones we got far away from turned off leaving us with darkness in both directions. We kept on advancing forward until we hit another double door. This one is different. It''s made of marble that has design encrypted onto its lower half.


    "Words? Of this world?" Junpei says inspecting the unknown language carved into the door. He started pushing it open and when we''re about to help him, Hiroko interrupted us.


    ¡°Wait.¡± Hiroko grabbed Junpei on the arm. ¡°Before we go through this door should we have a formation?¡±


    ¡°Formation?¡± Tobi replied.


    Hiroko then lets go of Junpei¡¯s arm and looked at Tobi. "Yeah like those army guys has. Once we''re on the other side we should watch all sides."


    Army guys? This girl.I say in my mind.


    "Ah, I got it. How about the ones with a shield cover the front and the back while archers cover the left and right. The assassin should scout ahead but not too far from our reach just in case it gets ugly. Yasu, stay in the middle of the group and Riki, you stay with Yasu and deflect any enemies that might attack us from above.¡± Junpei says.


    I don¡¯t mind staying in the middle. I''m useless in combat and it''s the best ideal scenario in this case. I say in my mind.


    ¡°S-sure," Riki replied. He then turned to me and gave me a smile. "I got you, man. I¡¯ll hammer our enemies to death!" He holds up his two-handed hammers showing it to me and I just nod in agreement. I guess he feels a bit responsible giving us or I should say, giving me the wrong information earlier.


    ¡°Everyone agree?¡± Junpei asks the rest of the group. We all replied with a yes or a nod.


    The only thing I can use now is my brain. But I don''t want to make unnecessary movement and give out opinions and challenge Junpei''s position of being the leader. Even though we didn''t pick him to be the leader, it seems like he stepped up on his own and no one questioned it. Not even Rikimura-san who¡¯s older than all of us. And, If I try to lead them now to tell them what to do, they might hate me or hate the fact that someone weak is leading them. I have a couple of better solutions but for now, I''ll stay quiet to avoid friction between us.


    We started pushing the marble door open. Getting the doors to open was a lot harder. This one required a tremendous force from all of us and even when we pushed it with all our might, we''re only able to open it partially for us to side step one by one. We tried to push it further but it won¡¯t budge anymore. Looking through the opening, it was pitch black inside.Not a good sign. Sawada, without notifying us, ran back where we came from into the darkness.


    ¡°Sawada what are you doing! Sawada!¡± Junpei shouted out in the dark. We all stared at the darkness where Sawada ran off into. We''re all thinking he ran off back to the safe zone but then Sawada came out of the dark hugging a few torches.


    ¡°Sawada! What the hell man! What¡¯s wrong with you?!¡± Junpei says. It seems like he''s really worried.


    "Sorry, sorry, I just don''t want to go through the other side blind so I went to pick up torches for us to use," Sawada replies and gives him a torch.I don''t know why he ran off in the dark if he could have picked up the torches near us that are lit up and used it. Why would he run into the dark to get torches? I don''t know.


    Maybe he''s trying to impress them. Wait....how come the torches didn''t light up? I remember it lit up by itself when we passed by...does it only work when we''re all together?I have so many questions running through my mind.


    ¡°Damn man, tell us before you go ghost recon on us. Jeez, don¡¯t scare us like that.¡± Junpei says giving Sawada a light tap on the chest with his fist.


    What? Are they friends already? Ghost Recon? That''s a cringy comment.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Hahaha. Sorry, sorry.¡± Sawada replied. After their brief bromance moment, we tried again to open the door more.


    ¡°ARGH! Fuck it! This won¡¯t open any further. We just have to go one by one through the opening. I¡¯ll go first, Rikimura-san, please go last since you also have a shield. I don¡¯t want any one coming up behind us and were unprotected.¡± Junpei suggested.


    "Sure kid," Rikimura says. We started to enter the opening one by one. First was Junpei, and then Hiroko followed. The third person to go was Riki then Sawada. The three of us was left on the other side. Tobi was preparing to enter through the opening when we all heard Hiroko scream from the other side.


    ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAA!¡± I hear Hiroko scream.


    ¡°Hiroko get back!¡± Junpei shouts out.


    ¡°Everyone get through the door quick! Help us!!¡± Sawada shouted out and we all rushed through the opening. What awaited us on the other side was hell incarnate itself.


    It¡¯s just unfair, really unfair.I whisper in my mindfeeling a cold sweat tricking from fear.

 CHAPTER 4: The beginning of the end Part 1

    <hr>


    Chapter 4: The beginning of the end part 1


    <hr>


    ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAA!¡± I hear Hiroko scream.


    ¡°Hiroko get back!¡± Junpei shouts out. It seems like they ran across enemies.


    ¡°Everyone get through the door quick! Help us!!¡± Sawada shouted out and we all rushed through the opening. What awaited us on the other side was hell incarnate itself.


    It¡¯s just unfair, really unfair.I whisper in my mindfeeling a cold sweat tricking from fear. I stare at skeletons aimlessly walking around. They''re nothing but bones. No flesh, no organs, no eyes, nothing but bones. All of them have incomplete set of body armor but almost all of them are holding a weapon. Their movements are so unnatural and every step they take produces a clicking sound. I felt like I was in a scene of a horror flick. My skins began crawling as I get goose bumps just thinking about walking through the horde of skeletons.


    Fuck.I say in my mind, as the horde of skeletons in the room is too many to count.But, I think the skeletons aren''t a problem. They don''t run. They walk and they do it at the slowest pace possible. I bet we can easily outrun them if we wanted. Junpei, Hiroko and Sawada regroup with us near the door. If we didn''t have torches with us, this room would be completely shrouded in darkness. Upon looking at the skeletons more; I notice something above their head.


    ¡°U-undead skeletons?¡± I say as I try to read it.


    ¡°They¡¯re level 1!¡± Riki shouts as he grips his two-handed hammer. He looked like he was itching to swing it around as he smiled looking at a skeleton approaching us slowly.


    UNDEAD SKELETONS level 1


    HP 800/800


    ¡°Look! It shows their health!¡± Riki screamed. ¡°I got this! Yah!¡± he shouted the weakest battle cry as he charges one of the skeletons with his two-handed hammer. His first swing shatter the bones scattering it around him. Upon impact, I also saw a negative number appear above the health.


    ¡°Holy shit, it¡¯s really like a game.¡± I whisper looking at the enemy¡¯s HP dropped by 85.


    ¡°HA! Skeleton! You''re nothing!¡± Riki shouts at the horde that slowly moved towards him. His eyes look a bit crazy and I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because of his class or that how he usually is in real life. Is as if, he has a ball of energy inside him welling up ready to explode. He has a smile that makes me uncomfortable to look at him. Everyone felt relieved that he took out a skeleton with one swing but I didn''t. The skeleton isn''t defeated just yet. As Riki prematurely celebrate, the bones around him started rebuilding itself back until it was whole again. It did so within a couple of seconds. It locked its sight on Riki and started advancing towards him.


    *Click


    *Clack


    *Clank


    *Click


    *Clack


    *Clank


    ¡°Oh shit, hey watch out!¡± I hear Junpei shout to Riki who didn¡¯t notice the skeleton creeping up behind him. ¡°Hiroko! Tobi! Shoot it with arrows!¡±


    ¡°What the?!¡± Tobi screams as he sees his arrow pass through the skeleton and disappear into the blackness. Hiroko along with Tobi released their arrows but it did absolutely nothing.


    ¡°Junpei! Arrows don¡¯t work on them!¡± Hiroko screams.


    That¡¯s a given. It''s a skeleton, it doesn¡¯t have flesh. For all I know, their bones are stronger than your arrow. Why are they all screaming? Panicking is the worst thing to do in this situation.I say in my mind.


    I was brought back to reality when Junpei rushes towards Riki to help him with the skeleton. Just a minute ago Riki looked like a madman but now, after noticing a skeleton was creeping behind him, he froze in place and his legs are shaking as his eyes gets teary.


    ¡°Riki! Fall back!¡± Junpei shouts as he passes him and rushes towards the undead skeleton. ¡°Yah!¡± Junpei swings his sword towards the Undead Skeleton shattering it upon impact of his sword. Again, more negative numbers appear above the skeletons head as junpei slowly shaves of the HP of the monster. But as the skeleton shatters into pieces, it only rebuilt itself back up.


    ¡°One more time!¡±Junpei screams as he was about to swing.


    ¡°Junpei stop!¡± I shout towards him. ¡°Don''t shatter it! Just pick it off bone by bone!¡±


    He nods my way and started his swing again but this time he aimed it at the head. When his sword made contact with the skull of the undead skeleton, he managed to knock the head off and make it fly into a distance like he was hitting a home run. I guess the bone is a lot tougher since he couldn¡¯t really slice it. It''s more like he''s knocking pieces of the bones of its skeletal structure. As my calculations were right, hitting only a piece of bone deals the same damage as if he were to shatter everything.


    The undead skeleton did take damage but the body still stood without a head and continued to walk towards Junpei. He started attacking it piece by piece by using his sword to knock of bones part by part sending it flying every direction. Riki would have been much better handling these things since he has a two-handed hammer. But I guess fear got into him and he couldn''t move. He just watched as Junpei knocked on bones one by one slowly shedding the HP of the monster up until it reached zero.


    The last attack caused the undead skeleton turn into dust. Including the head that flew off earlier. We''re all in awe of what just happened. We all see it in games but seeing it in real life somehow makes it more ridiculous and scary at the same time. Seeing Junpei attack the skeleton and causing random red negative numbers appear, it just left us all speechless and frozen. We see Junpei grab something near the pile of ash that the undead skeleton left behind before looking back up at us.


    Junpei suddenly goes into a full sprint pointing at us. ¡°Behind you! Watch out!¡±


    With our focus on the battle between Junpei and the Undead Skeleton, we didn¡¯t notice another skeleton creeping up on our right side until we hear Rikimura''s shield let out a loud bang as he fell forward.


    ¡°ARGH!¡± Rikimura-san groan as he falls forward due to the impact of the second Undead Skeletons sword made with his shield. The skeleton swung its sword again towards Rikimura-san and he barely manage to dodge it by rolling to the side. The skeleton strength is abnormal. Sawada started attacking it the same way Junpei did. After Rikimura-san regained his composure, he charged towards the skeleton to help Sawada tear the undead skeleton piece by piece. They started with its head and moved their way down the body until its HP reached 0 prompting it to turn into dust. The sword it was using fell to the ground while it turned into ash with everything else. Junpei and Riki caught up with us and we all retreated to the dark hallway at the other side of the door.


    ¡°Is everyone alright?¡± Junpei asked and we all nod. He turns his head towards Rikimura who was taking the shield off his back, ¡°Are you okay Rikimura-san?¡±


    "Yeah, I''m fine kid. I''m not hurt, just my shield." Rikimura voice trails as he inspect his shield. We see it has a big gash down the middle. I guess this is where the undead skeleton left its mark with its sword. It¡¯s still usable as long as the skeleton doesn''t hit the same spot where the gash is or else, it creates a bigger hole.


    ¡°Better your shield than yourself," Junpei says as he approaches him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I saw some of them also carrying a shield, maybe you can use those to replace that once we figured out how to attack them."


    I peeked in the opening of the door looked at all the skeleton scattered around the room. We just dealt with two level one skeletons and we''re already at this state. Junpei and Sawada seem to be tired after fighting the undead skeleton because their breathing seems faster. Riki can''t seem to hold up his two handed hammers anymore. Rikimuda-san shield is damaged while me, Hiroko, and Tobi are useless against these skeletons.


    ¡°Fucking hell¡­this is not good.¡± Sawada slumps down the ground and presses his back against a wall. Tobi peaks out the entrance with me and his expression state that he''s in a deep thought.


    ¡°These skeletons are level one but they feel like there¡¯s something off with them. When they hit Rikimura-san earlier, he almost flew forward. Even though they¡¯re level one, their strength is abnormal.¡± Tobi says as he turns to everyone.


    "Don''t forget their HP." Hiroko added onto the conversation.


    "Yea that also." Tobi replies.


    How do they know that''s not the norm for this world? Maybe level one monsters have 500hp or higher. An assumption like these can get them killed.I say in my mind. I stayed quiet since giving out my opinions at this moment seems like it might be the wrong time.


    How come I can''t see everyone¡¯s health? Does it only work on monsters?


    So many different thoughts run through my mind as I try to analyze our situation. I can¡¯t seem to shake off the feeling that there¡¯s something wrong with this dungeon. But then again, this whole event I have been through is way out of my calculations.


    Sigh*


    When I noticed earlier, the skeleton has 800 health points. My DPS or damage per second is one.


    That means, to kill one, I have to hit them eight hundred times?I say in my mind.


    ¡°Junpei.¡± Rikimura calls out to him. ¡°When you went and fought against that skeleton down there, did you see anything the other side of the room? Like a door or something?¡±


    ¡°?To be honest, I didn¡¯t focus on anything else except the skeleton that was about to attack Riki. How about you Riki? Did you see anything down there?¡± Junpei asked as he turns to Riki who''s sitting on the ground leaning on the wall.


    ¡°N-no, I¡¯m in the same boat as you. Somehow I just felt angry and wanted to destroy everything in there. But after seeing it build itself back up, the feeling disappeared and I froze in place.¡± Riki replied.


    I guess that¡¯s because of his class? I hope he doesn¡¯t become a psychopathic battle maniac.I say in my mind.


    "I guess we''re going to need to fight our way through the other end to find out," Junpei spoke out while peeking through the door opening.


    ¡°Ok guys, why don¡¯t we think of a plan to kill all of these things so we can get to the other side. Besides, they''re level one so I guess it wouldn''t be much of a problem if all of us attack together.¡± Junpei tells us as he looks away from the door and faces towards us.


    While everyone was about to agree, I decided to butt in my opinion. To me, any carelessness means instant death. I don''t want to die.


    "That what I''m afraid of." I tell him as I turn to everyone.


    Everyone turned towards me and it felt uncomfortable being the center of attention. I might be weak but I¡¯m not dumb. I know for the fact that going through these skeletons at our current level will be more of a survival than a task we need to get done. We need to get stronger but we can¡¯t go pushing through stuff like this without thinking of a consequence since, after all, we don''t re-spawn back if we die. Even if they hate me for what I''m about to say, I don''t want to die here following blindly.


    ¡°Afraid of what?¡± Junpei asked I¡¯m trying to read if he¡¯s furious but his expression leans more towards curiosity.


    "Well, I don''t want to interfere with your plans. But, what if there''s no door on the other side?" I asked him.


    "That can''t be. There must be a door otherwise there¡¯s no exit at all." He tells me. I can already see he doesn''t like being told off.


    "How can you be sure?" I asked him challenging his facts. He might be caught up being a leader but I don¡¯t think he knows the consequences of his actions.


    ¡°We-I-uh¡ªwe--¡° They all look at Junpei who''s trying to think of an answer. But before he found one, I continued on.


    ¡°We can¡¯t really find out until we go through all of them. Is what you¡¯re going to say right?¡± I asked Junpei and he nods yes.


    ¡°But what if we do go through all of them and to only find out we wasted our time exterminating these things to basically hit a dead end? Then what? We have no food, no water, or anything to help us regain our energy.¡± I reply and no one responds so I continued on.


    ¡°I¡¯m not in a position to say this but, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that easy to go through these things. You guys are worn out after two skeletons what happens if we fight more than that at the exact same time? We won¡¯t even make it to the end before we run out of energy.¡±


    I don¡¯t want to seem like I¡¯m calling them weak since I¡¯m the weakest of the group. Being called weak by something weaker than you bound to piss people off.


    Am I talking too much? Is this fine? I''m just trying to survive. Even though what I said isn¡¯t what he wants to hear, Junpei needs to hear it. He or they all might hate me for it but if no one mentions anything, this guy will just keep steaming forward and eventually might lead us to our graves.I say in my mind as my heartbeat speeds up.


    Since no one is saying or mentioning anything, I feel the pressure and tension. I can see Junpei thinking properly this time but I hope he doesn''t hate me for bringing it up.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    ¡°That¡¯s true. You make a good point.¡± Junpei replied finally.


    Oh, thank god. I say in my mind.


    Junpei then turns to Sawada. ¡°You played baseball in our world right?¡± He asked him.


    ¡°Yeah, why?¡± Sawada asked Junpei.


    ¡°How far can you throw a baseball?¡± Junpei asked him.


    ¡°I was the team pitcher so I can throw quite a distance.¡±


    ¡°Could you throw one of the torches over the other side? If we can illuminate it, we can see if there is a door or not on the other end without actually going near it.¡± Junpei proposed an idea.


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s a good idea. Sure.¡± Sawada says.


    Good idea? I think the speed of the throw will put out the fire.I say in my mind.


    Sawada grabbed one of the lit torches and prepared to send it flying over the horde of Undead Skeleton.


    ¡°Augh!!¡± He groans as his arms swing forward launching the torch over the skeletons. It went flying over the horde but as soon as it flipped around, the fire on the torch gave out.


    ¡°Ah, I knew it. It¡¯s not going to work. Worth a try I guess.¡± Junpei says as he saw the fire on the torch disappear. I already gave too much of my input so I stayed quiet even though I knew it was a bad idea and a waste of a torch. Junpei started walking towards the darkness and turned to face us.


    ¡°Everyone! Let¡¯s go back to the safe zone. We need to figure out a way to deal with these things and come up with a backup plan just in case there''s no door on the other side.¡± Junpei said and we all agreed and started heading out the door where we came from. We all started walking back and Junpei indicated he would watch the rear and for all of us to move on ahead. He instructed Rikimura to be in front just in case something pops out the dark. But right before Rikimura head in front of us, he whispered something to Junpei that I managed to catch.


    ¡°You¡¯re the leader, Don''t forget it," Rikimura whispers.


    A leader suppose to make valid decisions. Dumbass.I pretended I didn''t hear and just continued walking. It¡¯s always like this when you have no power. You have no voice on anything.


    An hour has passed. But in reality, we don¡¯t really know. It¡¯s just my assumption. None of us are wearing a watch or have any electronics at all. We woke up with the last set of clothes we were wearing. As we lounge around inside the safe room, we''re still thinking about how to go through the horde of the undead skeleton. Fighting them seems a little bit too reckless and running through them seems impossible. We can outrun them and probably get to the other side but it would attract too much attention. If there isn''t a door on the other side, we''ll be trapped and surrounded by a bunch of undead skeleton in which at our current level, is a death wish.


    ¡°Does anyone else have any ideas?¡± Junpei asked but everyone stayed quiet. Seems like everyone is out of ideas. But my mind is on one thing. The sword the skeleton dropped.


    ¡°H-How about the sword the undead skeleton dropped?¡± I asked Junpei.


    Yea I want the weapon. Even if my attack is one, I have a better chance of using the sword than this frying pan.I say in my mind looking at the frying pan before stuffing it in my bag.


    "Oh, yeah I forgot about that." Junpei then grabs the sword leaning at the foot of the statue. ¡°I decided to pick it up since it might be of use. But it seems like our swords are higher damage than this thing. It lowers my DPS when I hold it.¡± Junpei says as hold the sword in front of me.


    During our brainstorming hour in the safe room, we found another command. If you touch a weapon and look at it while saying ¡°weapon description" it will show you the information of what you''re holding. Most weapons in games will have a damage range. This world doesn''t. I guess the only way to find out if the weapon is stronger than your current one is through DPS. Based on what Junpei said, when he holds it, his DPS goes down compared to his other sword.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    Shitty Undead Sword


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    One-Hand


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Durability:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    100/100


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Quality:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Uncommon


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This sword is pretty shitty compared to a real sword. It can still do damage but not much.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Can I have it?¡± I asked him. ¡°I think the sword is better than my frying pan.¡±


    He agrees and held the sword out towards me, ¡°Sure, here you go.¡±


    The minute I touch the sword and Junpei let go of the handle, the sword dropped straight to the ground.


    ¡°What the?!¡± The sword was really heavy. I tried my best to pick it up but I couldn¡¯t. While struggling, a new notification popped up in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    As a blade, you do not have the skill to wield a sword. All movement speed will be reduced by 80% while touching any sword.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Oh come on!!" I let go of the sword and it drops to the floor normally making a clanking and clattering sound. Looking at the notification, I think it''s mocking me.


    As a blade, I don¡¯t have the skill to wield a sword. As a blade? Are you kidding me.I say in my mind.


    ¡°What happened?!¡± Junpei asked me surprised and picks up the sword like it weights nothing.


    ¡°The minute you let go of the sword, it got really heavy,¡± I say while panting since I feel like I just ran a marathon. ¡°I couldn¡¯t pick it up. Then, a notification popped open in front of me and it said I can¡¯t wield a sword.¡±


    Sigh...There¡¯s no doubt about it. I¡¯m more useless now than ever.


    "Let me see," Tobi says as he grabs the sword from Junpei¡¯s hand. He then lifts it up like nothing.


    What? How come he can hold the sword like nothing? He''s an archer for gods sake! I say in my mind.


    "Hmm, it does feel a bit heavy but nothing abnormal about it. Are you sure Yasu?" He asked me as he inspects the sword.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Let me try again.¡± I tell him. As soon as Tobi let go of the sword on my hand, it proceeded to drop on the floor. With my grip on the handle, it brought me down with it.


    ¡°Argh!¡± I scream as I felt the force of the sword pulling some unused muscle in my arms.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    As a blade, you do not have the skill to wield a sword. All movement speed will be reduced by 80% while touching any sword.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I let go of the sword and started catching my breath again. ¡°Yup it¡¯s real.¡±


    ¡°Hiroko, everyone, come and try to pick up the sword. Let¡¯s see who else can¡¯t pick it up like Yasu.¡± Junpei says and everyone picked up one by one and all of them are able to carry it like a feather.After that, I tried everything from all different weapons and even their armor, I still couldn¡¯t pick anything up.


    I couldn''t wield, anything.


    The same type of window appeared in my vision stating I can''t wield practically anything as a blade. When I tried the armor I was pinned inside the armor I was wearing and couldn¡¯t move it. Riki and Tobi had to remove the armor from me to free me.


    "Ok, this is weird," Junpei says and I can see him in a deep thought. ¡°Everyone can pick up any other weapon or wear any armor except Yasu.¡±


    What is there to think? Like the notification said. As a fucking useless blade, I can¡¯t wield anything!I curse in my mind while trying to keep a calm front.


    "It is weird. But if you look at it closely, he does have a non-combat class. It should be normal for him not to be able to wear or wield stuff that is meant for combat." Hiroko says.


    ¡°But that¡¯s not entirely true. The leather armor is just armor. We can categorize it as a piece of clothing rather than a weapon.¡± Tobi replies.


    "That''s true," Junpei says as he looks at the sword he tried to give me earlier. "Tobi, use the sword for now. I don''t really have a plan but we can''t just do nothing and sit here. The first thing we have to do is level up. If we level up, we might learn new skills that might help us get out of here."


    Tobi nods and went to equip the sword.


    What about me? Do I only use the frying pan or spatula?


    "Ok, everyone ready?" Junpei asked and everyone nod. Everyone started walking out the safe room and as I exit, Junpei stops me from coming out.


    "Hey, Yasu, why don¡¯t you stay here for now till we are able to kill what¡¯s out there like nothing. That way, we can be sure to be able to protect you at the same time. For the mean time, you can try and learn if there are any other commands we can use to view more information. Cool?¡±


    Ah, I knew it. We haven¡¯t even left the dungeon and I¡¯m already a burden.I say in my mind.


    "Yeah sure, I''m quite useless out there anyway," I reply back to him with a smile but I cant help hide the feeling of uncertainty. If, and if they find a door, they can easily leave me here to die.


    Junpei puts his hand on my shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry and leave the fighting to us. Once we confirm there¡¯s a door out there, we¡¯ll come back and let you know.¡± He says to me and I nod at him.


    He indicated for everyone to move out. Since there isn¡¯t really a point for me to be out there and watch them fight for their lives, I decided to stay. But I¡¯m still worried. They don¡¯t know me as much as I don''t know them. But I have no choice since it''s the only logical solution at the moment for my condition.


    "Please don''t leave me alone," I whisper as I watch them all disappear into the dark. I went and sat down at the foot of the statue and leaned against its pedestal. Since I have nothing to do, I started randomly saying words to see if a notification will come up.


    ¡°Help window?¡±


    ¡°Grill?¡±


    ¡°Grill status?¡±


    ¡°Grill skill?¡±


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Party?¡±


    ¡°Grill?¡±


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Grill skill?¡±


    ¡°Grill Description?¡±


    ¡°Grill Skill Description?¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    EXP:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Cooking


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4">


    this skill will let you grill any form of edible ingredients.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Ah! There it is.¡± I say to myself as I see a skill window appeared in my vision. I study it to figure out more about my only skill. Maybe I''ll know how to level it up from reading its description.


    "Whoa. Does it gain experience? I wonder if I level up when I level this one." I say to myself. Since I don''t know how long they will be in there, I decided to use this free time I have to try and level up my skill. I also wanted to test out if the skills have a limit.


    Can it be higher than my current level? Is it better when it''s higher level? Will this help boost up my damage if I level this up?So many questions ran through my mind.


    I have to level this up no matter what if I want to survive. But the main issue is how?


    I stood up and decided to look around the area to see if there''s anything I can grill. Doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s bugs, I need to test it out and see.


    "Damn this place is clean," I whisper to myself. Not one thing in sight that I¡¯m able to cook. I decided to venture back to the room I came from. The minute I hit the dark hallway, the light orb appeared again and followed me on my way back.


    *Squeak


    *Squeak


    *Squeak


    I squint my eyes to try and improve my vision in the darkness.


    ¡°Rats? Mouse? They weren¡¯t here before.¡± I whisper as I silently walk through the hallway. I tried to find the source of the squeaking but as I move, so does the sound in the darkness.


    When did these things appear? Were they here before and I just didn''t notice?I say in my mind.


    "Dammit, this is going to be difficult." I kept on following the sound until I reached the starting room where I woke up. That''s when I saw them.


    ¡°Oh boy, that''s a lot of rats.¡± I say to myself. I don''t feel rats but I hope these aren¡¯t overpowered rodents.


    sigh*


    "I have gone crazy looking for rats in a dungeon." I say to myself. I probably look really lame or insane trying to dominate or kill a bunch of rats. I knew they were rats by the sheer size.I started chasing a rat around but they''re too fast. Catching one of these little bastards are harder than looking for them. They run really fast and can sidestep like a football player. I have to take a rest every now and then because my stamina was never good in the beginning even back at earth. I did close the door so the rats won''t escape the room. I don''t know how long I have been in this room but it felt like ages.


    ¡°Damn bastards.¡± I say as I sit down near the exit to catch my breath. Like it was God''s gracious gifts if there are gods in this world, one of the rats decided to get close to me and started gnawing a piece of grass growing through open cracks on the ground.


    Grass? How? There''s no light in here. I was thinking in my mind.


    I guess some aspect of this world breaks normality. I hold my breath and exhale slowly.


    ¡°Yes eat that grass and stay busy you omnivore bastard.¡± I whisper to myself as I started to slowly approach the rat trying not to let it notice me. Then when I''m at a right distance, I pounced on it and managed to grab hold of its body with both my hands. But the rat sensed it was in danger so it squeaked really loud as it struggled to break free from my grip.


    SNAP!


    I snapped its neck and making the squeaking stopped. It¡¯s body became lifeless and I also saw little amount of blood coming out of its tiny mouth. I set the dead rat down the ground and clapped my hands together offering a prayer to my first kill in this world.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry buddy. I have to kill you in order to live.¡± I say to myself before praying for the rat to go to heaven.


    ¡°Will I level up if I kill all of these rats?¡± I asked myself.


    As far as I know, the rats don¡¯t have a name above their head or a level. Even their HP is missing. Are these not monsters? I killed it in one hit and it didn¡¯t show me a negative number.I say in my mind.


    ¡°These might not be the same class as the skeletons. What are these? I don¡¯t know.¡± I say to myself. I was worried it would turn into dust but I was glad it didn¡¯t.


    I picked up the dead rat and headed down back to the safe room. When I got close to the other door at the end of the dark hallway, I can hear shouts coming from the other side.


    Huh? When did I close this door? I¡¯m sure I kept it open on this end.I say in my mind. I push open the door and as soon as I get a view of the statue room, I can see everyone walking around shouting my name.


    They didn''t leave me.I say to myself and I felt happy.


    ¡°Yasu! Where are you! Yas¡ª¡° Junpei was shouting and upon seeing me, he stopped shouting and ran towards my way.¡°Yasu! Where did you go?¡±


    I lifed up the dead rat on my hand and showed it to him. This made him step back while Hiroko let out a annoying sqeal.


    "It''s dead already," I say to her as I hold the dead rat up and I see all of them jump back except Tobi.


    ¡°Say, what are you going to do with that?¡± Tobi asked.


    ¡°Well, I''m going to grill it," I tell him. I also explained about the new command I learned on how to view the skills. I kept it to small words this time. Everyone tried it and they started analyzing their skills. I wish I could see what they were. But I notice in this world you can only see your own window but not everyone else. You can see enemy¡¯s health except for your teammates.


    I wonder how Luro looked at mine earlier. I guess, since he¡¯s the creator, he more like a game master and have control mostly for everything.I say in my mind.


    ¡°This is great!¡± Junpei says with energy towards me. ¡°Yasu. there¡¯s a door!¡±


    ¡°Seriously?! DIdi you guys open it? Is it the exit?!¡± I reply back happily as a new hope filled my heart.


    "Sawada is an assassin and he can see in the dark. The only problem is that he has a range on how far he can see in the dark. But, the higher the level he gets, further he can see!" Junpei says explaining how they saw the door.


    ¡°Also Hiroko and Tobi gained a new skill called flaming arrow! They basically release an arrow that is ignited towards the end and even when they release it as such high speed, the flame won¡¯t go out! As for Rikimura-san and me, we gained a new skill called war cry! If we use it, all of the enemies around us will focus their attention on us for a brief moment! This is so awesome!¡± Junpei was so excited it¡¯s only a matter of time till he starts jumping up and down. I look at everyone else and they all have the same expression as Junpei. I guess this ignited the flame inside them to survive because now, we have a way out.


    "But before we go, we need to eliminate all of those undead skeletons. But there is a problem." Junpei suddenly looks sullen, "We''re¡­" he hesitates to say.


    "You guys are what?" I reply back. I''m a bit worried about what they''re going to say. Did they encounter a dungeon boss? I would help them but I''ll die without even making a scratch.


    ¡°We¡¯re hungry. It seems like hunger impacts our stamina worse than we were back on earth.¡±Junpei says and I was relieved. If there were a dungeon boss now, it would be difficult for all of us.


    "Yeah, I guess rather than distributing the stat points, it''s represented by our own physical strength and endurance," Riki explains. I don¡¯t say anything but I¡¯ll never trust anything he says. Actually, I¡¯ll never trust anything from now on unless I have proper facts.


    ¡°Like back on earth, to get better stamina, we need to train our body for it. But somehow, hunger has a big effect. More than what we¡¯re used to feeling. We''re more tired and actually move slower. And it''s really hard to focus. Hiroko and Tobi¡¯s aim get¡¯s worse when they¡¯re hungry. For me and I guess everyone else who uses a melee weapon, our swings get¡¯s slower." Riki says.


    "It''s quite dangerous to fight the skeleton in this state. One wrong move and we can all end up dead. Even going back to the safe room was a task since we moved so slow." Junpei explained.


    The room was silent for a good minute.


    Finally. I can shine.I say in my mind as I approached them.


    ¡°Guys, I can help.¡± I gave Junpei a smile and held out the rat. His face went pale and it seems like they all knew what I was talking about. "I have a cooking class after all."

 CHAPTER 5: The beginning of the end Part 2

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 5: The beginning of the end part 2


    <hr>


    ¡°There is no way I¡¯m eating a filthy rat!¡± Hiroko protest against the idea.


    ¡°Even when we might not have a choice, is it safe to eat?¡± Junpei says looking at the dead rat on my hat.


    ¡°Yeah if I cook it I think. Anything I make gets purified.¡± I tell him and he still looks unsure.


    ¡°Ok, everyone. Lets trust Yasu. We need food and his is the only option. Unless you guys have a better idea?¡± Junpei asked and no one said anything. I see Hiroko glaring at me like it¡¯s my fault for bringing it up.


    ¡°Sorry?¡± I told her and she gave me a scoff before storming off to sit at the foot of the statue.


    How is this my fault? Bring me better ingredients to grill if you''re complaining so damn much. I say in my mind.


    They have no choice but to eat the rat if they want to fight and get out of here. I need to make sure they don''t go hungry if I want to get out of here since I can''t fight at all.


    ¡°Ok Yasu, lets do it. Guys, after we eat, we can go out again. Please this time lets not try to accidentally kill each other?¡± He says jokingly and they all started chuckling.


    ¡°What? Really?¡± I asked Junpei about what he just said earlier.


    ¡°Yea. We almost killed each other.¡± Junpei tells me. ¡°So, what do you need us to do?¡±


    ¡°I need you guys to help me collect more rats." I told him.


    One rat won¡¯t be enough for seven of us. The room I started in has a whole bunch of them but it¡¯s hard to catch them by myself.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Sure that¡¯s not a problem.¡± Junpei then turns back to everyone, ¡°Guys! Let¡¯s go rat hunting!¡±


    Everyone screams in unison like they¡¯re going to war. I guess finding a door out there have managed to bring up their spirits. They¡¯re livelier than usual even though they''re being forced to eat a rat. As I see them happily another issue just dawned my mind.


    ¡°Ah, one problem.¡± I tell to Junpei and everyone¡¯s gazes¡¯ turns towards me making me feel uncomfortable again.


    ¡°What is it?¡± He replied back with a worried look.


    ¡°Water. We have no water. We can¡¯t drink the blood of these things.¡± I tell them holding up the rat. ¡°Even if we can, I rather not. I don''t want to catch a disease from this world.¡±


    ¡°There''s a stream of water on the room I woke up from.¡± Hiroko says. She is still sitting on the foot of the statue. ¡°If it''s safe to drink, I don¡¯t know. We need to boil it first just to be safe.¡±


    ¡°That great! Hiroko, since you don¡¯t like the whole idea of the rat dinner, how about you are in charge of collecting water for us?¡± Junpei asked Hiroko and she nods in agreement. ¡°I¡¯ll come with you and help collect the water using my shield.¡±


    Junpei seems to like Hiroko but it¡¯s seems one-sided. The two of them heads out to collect the water while Riki, Sawada, and Rikimura-san comes with me to collect rats. Tobi volunteered to stay behind and skin the dead rat I caught earlier and gut it out. Seems like he has experience when it comes to skinning and gutting animals. Either way, it¡¯s even better since I can¡¯t hold a weapon except for this spatula and frying pan. I don¡¯t think I can use the spatula to cut the rat open.


    ¡°Say Yasu.¡± Riki says trying to strike up a conversation. ¡°Which High School did you go to? We''re all high school student except Rikimura-san. It seems like we all came from different schools also.¡±


    ¡°I go to Seito Private High.¡± I reply back without looking at him as we walk through the dark hallway.


    ¡°Huh?!¡± Both Riki and Sawada say at the same time trying to catch up to me.


    Crap, I shouldn''t have mentioned that. I say in my mind. Whenever I mention my school, people go crazy with questions.


    ¡°Seito private high school?! The privileged prestigious private high school that only a selected few can attend?!¡± Riki says in surprise.


    Privileged prestigious private high school? Wow that sounds really hard to get into. I say in my mind.


    ¡°I guess, Yeah.¡± I say in a low voice. I don''t really like attention so I never mention my school unless they ask for it.


    ¡°Oh my god, how is it over there? Are the girls nice? Are you part of the manga club there? That place is where the top mangaka artist graduate from!¡± Riki asked me. Without being able to answer right away Sawada interrupted me with his own questions.


    ¡°How about the baseball team! Are you part of the baseball team?! Say, when we get back, can you put in a good word for me! I want to transfer there. All the people in the baseball team there go straight to MLB after graduating!" Sawada days.


    It''s true most of the well-known people in my country came from my school. I¡¯ve even seen a few of them to visit as alumni. Celebrities, politicians. Conglomerate heirs, I see them on a daily basis that seeing them in the streets started to seem normal. But it''s not like the school itself will turn you into a public icon. Those people worked their ass off to achieve that position in life. But most people think it''s because of the school they led a good life and ignore the fact that they worked really hard to achieve them.


    ¡°Uh, sure.¡± I say uncomfortably. I don¡¯t really know how to handle people all together since I have very little experience with it. When it regards to interaction, I talked to myself more than anything. I tried to reply but couldn¡¯t summarize the proper answer to give them. Just when I was in a pinch, Rikimura focused the attention elsewhere.


    ¡°Guys, we¡¯re here. The door is closed. Did you close it?¡± Rikimura asked.


    ¡°Y-yea, I didn¡¯t want the rats to escape the room. So I trapped them in there.¡± I reply back. As we open the room, we see all the little buggers scamper around the floor trying to find a place to hide. We closed the door behind us and started collecting rats for dinner. We would catch them; snap their neck like I did before and then we store them in our dimensional bag. They didn''t notice except me but these rats are really not turning into dust like the skeletons.


    Is it because they don¡¯t have HP and name? Are these rats¡¯ different categories than the skeletons?I say in my mind.


    For now, I let the questions I have go pass me and focus on collecting rats. After an hour we collected a few more than what we can handle. Even though Riki, Sawada, and Rikimura-san are combat type class, they still had a hard time trying to catch the little creatures. Now that I thought about it, it¡¯s better to cook them now so when Junpei and the others go out to level up and clear the undead skeleton, they won¡¯t have to come back to the safe room to just eat. We can store their dead body in the dimensional bag means we can store the cooked meat. This also helps me level up my cooking.


    I do hope I level up. I say in my mind as I store the last remaining dead rat in my bag. Good thing about the dimensional bag, we don¡¯t have to worry about how much we carry because it weights the same no matter how much we store in it. Does it maintain the quality of cooked food? That''s another issue I don''t know about. I''m still not quite sure how these bags work and it''s making me more curious than ever.


    On the way to the safe room, Riki and Sawada bombarded me with questions over and over about baseball and manga. As soon as we enter the safe room, we see Junpei and Hiroko boiling the water by using Junpei¡¯s shield as a container. They created a makeshift stand using two swords impaled to the ground and using a stick of some sort that''s tied between the hilts of the sword on each side. Using a string, they tied the handle of the shield and hanged it around the stick. And placed it in the middle. There are two more swords to hold the shield in place so it doesn¡¯t tilt and dump all of its contents. Under the shield are the torches that had blue flame in it acting as a fire pit.As we approach them, Junpei notices us and greeted us with a smile that completely faded away as soon as Riki and Sawada activated their dimensional bag to dump out the dead rats.


    ¡°Hey¡ª¡° Junpei stopped mid-sentence, as he looks at all the rat we caught and killed fall out the bag gracefully.


    Hiroko looked with disgust and started to gag. She ran out to one of the dark hallways and started vomiting. Tobi quickly was at our side holding the dagger that Yamada lent him earlier to cut open the rat I caught. He let out a whistle looking at the pile of rats we caught. We were too busy just stuffing them that looking at them now, it was too many rats.


    ¡°You guys caught a lot huh.¡± He says as he inspects each rat.


    ¡°Yea, we decided to catch more than normal so you guys can bring it when you level up." I say to him. Tobi then looked up at me and putting an expression in his face that¡¯s shows gratitude. I did nod at him back in return.


    ¡°Junpei, if I can ask. Where did you get that stick and those strings?¡± I asked pointing at the stick that is part of the makeshift fire pit to where the shield is tied. I don''t remember seeing it around here. They probably came from the undead skeletons but I just want to verify if I can use them.


    ¡°Ah that? I had that in my dimension back. It¡¯s actually a mage staff. One of the undead skeletons dropped it. None of us can use it but I took it anyways since it¡¯s the only staff that we ever found. Same for the strings. Now that I think of it, how come there is no mage class?¡± Junpei wonders. I guess I can¡¯t use the stick. Now that he mentions it, If we had a mage class, it would be easier since most mages control elements like fire and water.


    ¡°True, even other class like necromancer or priest aren¡¯t there to chose from the beginning.¡± Riki says.


    ¡°Remember what Luro said? What''s applied to our world might not be the same here.¡± Hiroko interrupts as she walks back towards us trying not to stare at the rat corpses. ¡°Even if it''s common in video games to have those class, it doesn¡¯t actually mean it will be here.¡±


    ¡°Hmm that¡¯s true. Ah who cares.¡± Junpei then looks at me. ¡°Yasu, I¡¯m getting hungry. Even if its rat, I think I¡¯m going to be able to eat it.¡±


    ¡°Sure ill get it ready. Tobi, can you skin the rest of them?¡± I ask him and he nods in agreement. Tobi took the one rat he skinned and I decided to cook that while he does the rest.


    ¡°Ok, let me grill one first.¡± I say as I took a torch from the fire pit and placed my frying pan on top the flame. I place the rat meat Tobi skinned and deboned and waited for the pan to heat up. I start hearing a sizzling sound that indicates the mouse is being cooked as the pan heats up. What happened next was something I didn¡¯t expect being a cooking class and all. The rat turned into a dark charcoal like it had been overcooked and burned to crisp in a split second.


    ¡°What the-.¡± I say as I look at the black thing on top of the pan.


    ¡°Whats going on?¡± Tobi ask me as he walks back with more rat meat in hand.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know.¡± I reply back to him. They then sat around me and formed a circle around the second makeshift campfire we made for cooking. They all looked at me waiting for my next move. I guess they¡¯re that hungry. Even Hiroko who was against the idea in the first place was sitting quietly waiting for food to be cooked. She is still not looking at the dead skinless rat pile.


    Now think, Yasu think! Why doesn¡¯t it work? I¡¯m a cook so it should work right?I say in my mind.


    ¡°C-can you try this?¡± I hand the frying pan to Tobi and told him to cook one of the skinless rats. Same thing happened.


    Now that¡¯s normal for him since he is not a cook. But what about me? I¡¯m a cook for fuck sakes. A cook that can''t cook is just adding salt to my wounds. Think Yasu. Think.I say in my mind.


    Wait. Maybe what I''m doing now is frying and not grilling. Grilling is putting the meat over fire and letting it cook. All I need is something to hold the meat so I can set it over the fire. But I have nothing to poke this thing with and set it over the fire.


    Like he was reading my thoughts, Sawada hold out his dagger towards me, ¡°You can try this.¡±


    I grab the dagger but I forgot I can¡¯t wield it and it falls on the floor like heavy cement.


    ¡°Oops, my bad, I forgot you couldn¡¯t wield anything.¡± Sawada picked up his dagger and inspect it for any damages.


    ¡°Ah, I got an idea.¡± I say. I placed the uncooked rat on the spatula. Since the spatula has spaces in between, I was able to use it as a makeshift grill. The only issue is, the spatula is metal. It will conduct the heat and would probably burn my hand. I take out my apron and wrapped a part of it on my hand and held the spatula again.


    ¡°Ok, let me try this one more time.¡± I say and everyone watches patiently.


    I placed the spatula and the uncooked rat meat on top of the fire. The spatula did get hot but I didn¡¯t burn myself because of the apron I used as a makeshift oven mitts. After a couple of minutes I use the frying pan and placed the rat meat in it upside down. Using the spatula, I scooped it up again so the uncooked side is now facing the fire. The smell of meat being cooked have worked its way through our nose and everyone started salivating. The smell woke up the hunger in them and I can hear their stomach grumbling.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°I-Is it done yet?¡± Riki asked looking at the rat meat cooking in the fire like a lion looking at its prey.


    ¡°Almost.¡± I think it''s because of my passive skill called chef''s soul that¡¯s giving me a chef''s natural abilities that I can feel if the meat is about to be cooked or not. Now it makes me wonder, what are the chef''s natural abilities in this world.


    ¡°Ok now it¡¯s done.¡± I place the cooked rat meat down again on the frying pan. I told Sawada to cut it into seven pieces evenly in which, he did at lightning speed.


    I guess he really is that hungry. I say in my mind.


    Once the meat has cooled down enough to touch with our fingertips, I indicated for everyone to dig in. Everyone, when I mean everyone including Hiroko grabbed her own portion of the cooked rat meat.


    ¡°Ok Hiroko, you can do this. Think of it as chicken. Yea its only chicken.¡± Hiroko says to herself as she holds the cooked rat meat in front of her. She then closes her eyes and takes a small bite of the food in front of her. She paused and looked at the cooked rat mean she¡¯s holding. Next thing I know she started gnawing on it like an animal. Upon seeing Hiroko devour the cooked carcass, everyone else follow suit.


    ¡°oh damn this is good!¡± Riki said while chewing at the same time. Everyone else was too busy filling up his or her stomach that the cooked rat meat have disappeared in under a minute.


    ¡°Oh my god, I can¡¯t believe I just ate a rat. And it tasted so good.¡± Hiroko says as she has her head down and her hand on her forehead.


    ¡°Tobi started laughing making Hiroko look up to him, I was thinking she¡¯d scream at him but she did the unexpected. She started laughing also. Then Sawada, Junpei, and Riki started laughing. I can see Rikimura-san with a smile in his face chuckling a bit. Even I started laughing and we were all laughing together.


    Ah, so this is what it feels like to have a circle of friends. Doesn¡¯t feel so bad. Not bad at all. I think, I can survive with these guys.I think in my mind. But something feels weird. We¡¯re laughing a bit too much and I think it has nothing to do with our inner feelings. I guess these are not normal rats after all.


    It has been a couple days. We can''t really be sure but that''s what we believe because our body still reacts to the time zone on our world. We get tired and yawn at certain times, which indicate nighttime, then when we all wake up almost at the same time. We can¡¯t see the sun inside the dungeon so we only go by this and that¡¯s how we survived thinking it''s been a couple of days. I cooked all of the rat meat and we figured out that the meat doesn''t get spoiled being stored in the dimensional bag. So we decided to catch the remaining rats and cook them all. I took half of mine and divided it more to them since I¡¯m not out there fighting, I don¡¯t need as much meat as they do.


    As for our water, we switch to storing it in the worn out shield they got from killing a skeleton that was using it. They all noticed and told me that the skeleton will drop random items. Sometimes it¡¯s the weapons they¡¯re holding or sometimes it¡¯s the armor. There are also cases where it just drops bones or other materials like strings. Running back and forth from the safe zone to the skeleton room takes too much energy for them. So I told them to leave a helmet near the door and ill transport back and forth water using my frying pan. I did this every thirty minutes to keep the water filled.


    At night, we all gather by the fire pit near the statue and I tell them stories of Seito Private High. How I¡¯m in the piano club and how violent our club president is to Daikichi because she loves him. I leave the part of me being the top student out. I''m already standing out as it is. They don¡¯t need to know my position on the school. They might think I¡¯m boasting. But, I¡¯m more comfortable now talking to them as they are with me. I feel the way with them as I feel for Daikichi and Kana. Friends.


    In the morning, we eat rat meat for breakfast. They have gotten used to it now and were laughing much less this time but nonetheless, we¡¯re still laughing a bit at every bite. After breakfast, they go off and exterminate undead skeleton throughout the whole day while I go back and forth making sure they have water to drink. There¡¯s nothing much I can do. There are so many limits on everything for me that I have to make do with what I can use. Junpei and the others have been in and out of the undead skeleton room now. They all hit level 5 and are able to manage two to three undead skeleton each person. The only issue is the undead skeletons are level one and they don¡¯t provide much experience to level up beyond at that point.


    Before, after killing five to six undead skeletons levels them up to level two. To level up to three, they had to kill fifteen undead skeletons each. To level up to four they had to kill 20. To level up to five their kill count went up to 40. There¡¯s so many undead skeletons that killing one makes another one emerges from the ground like a plant. After a while, they¡¯ll come back to eat lunch or dinner, then go back out till they get tired. It seems like sleep also recovers a bit of stamina but not as fast as food.


    ¡°Hey guys.¡± Sawada speaks during breakfast. ¡°Yesterday, did you guys notice something weird?¡±


    ¡°Noticed what?¡± I asked him curious. I¡¯ve watched them a couple of times fighting but, it sems like the skeletons are attracted to lower level since they all come at me even when I¡¯m standing by the door. This prevented me from staying making me more curious on what goes on in there.


    ¡°The undead skeleton stopped spawning.¡± Junpei replies.


    ¡°Does this mean this is the last group?¡± Tobi asked as he gnawed on his rat meat.


    ¡°Please let it be the last group. I can¡¯t take it anymore in this dungeon. I want to take a shower. I smell like one of you guys now.¡± Hiroko says as she smell her clothes.


    ¡°Hey who knows, maybe Hiroko is a guy!¡± Sawada says jokingly and they all start chuckling. Well, everyone except Rikimura-san and Hiroko.


    ¡°Ha-Ha, very funny. I¡¯m not a guy, right Yasu?¡± She says looking at me.


    Why is she asking me again?I say in my mind. Before I was caught off guard on how much she talks to me know. It¡¯s like all her attention is aimed at me. I remember the first time we were here she would ignore me but now she talks to me more than Junpei, which worries me. It might make him hate me. I¡¯m not stupid but I would just assume she see¡¯s me as a friend now. I¡¯m not complaining. She is pretty after all but somehow, her face looks familiar to me.


    ¡°Uh no. Unless you want to be.¡± I reply to her, joking around. Everyone starts laughing more and now Hiroko is turning red. She storms off the exit and yells at us.


    ¡°Whatever!¡± Hiroko screams as she goes off her room probably to wash her hands.


    ¡°Ok guys lets stop messing around.¡± Junpei says and they all finish eating breakfast while I slowly eat mine. Since I don''t have much to do, I do thing as slow as I can. After eating they all head to Hiroko¡¯s room and wash their hands. Then they all gear up and head out to exterminate more skeletons. Probably this is the last time they will go out. I hope they kill everything so we can get out of this place. Outside world has probably more animals for me to grill.


    ¡°Yasu, we¡¯re heading out now. We¡¯ll be back after we clear out the rest of the undead skeleton. Then, we will figure out a way out of here.¡± Junpei says looking at me.


    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you guys to come back. Stay safe.¡± I tell them and they all turned around and head out towards the skeleton room. We seem more like a team now rather than before where we felt stranger to each other. Riki and Sawada bombard me with questions about going to my school every now and then. Hiroko is a lot gentler with me now. She was surprised though when she found out I go to Seito Private High. She probably sees me in another light. Tobi taught me how to skin the rat even though I can¡¯t hold a knife; he still showed me how to do it.


    Junpei as usual, acts like a leader. Thinking of new ways to eliminate the undead skeletons while minimizing the risk of everyone being exposed to danger. Rikimura-san is the same as usual. He has leadership characteristics but he rather just laze around when he can and keep to small talk. As they leave the safe room, I myself get ready. I decided to store my spatula, frying pan, and my apron in my dimensional bag.


    I called out my dimensional bag and it appeared in thin air and dropped in front of me. The apron doesn¡¯t really provide much protection so it¡¯s useless to wear it unless I¡¯m cooking. I put it in the dimensional bag along with the spatula and the frying pan. I go to Hiroko¡¯s starting room and wash my hands and face.


    Today, there is only a couple of undead skeletons left. I would have gone with them but to be on the safe side I stayed behind until it is completely clear. If some dungeon boss appears, I¡¯ll just be in their way.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Status Window.¡± I say into air.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2" width="683">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Diamond District


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2" width="683">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Skill Level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="136">


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="544">


    All the food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Even though I leveled up, the only significant change I got was a boost in DPH and a new skill called ¡®fry¡¯.


    "Show DPH." I whisper.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="455">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="225">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Damn, it only increased by one." I whisper to myself. "Fry Skill Description!¡± I shouted out and a window popped up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="173">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td width="166">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td width="160">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td width="177">


    Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td width="173">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td width="166">


    1


    </td>


    <td width="160">


    Cooking


    </td>


    <td width="177">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4" width="683">


    This skill will let you fry any form of fry-able food. MMmmm~ Fried Serpant King...


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Hmmm. So I guess I can use the frying pan now huh. Kind of sucks we ran out of rat to cook.¡± I whisper to myself. "Fried Serpant King? What kind of description is this?"


    I head back inside the safe room and waited for them to come back. I sit back down in the foot of the statue and rest my back against the pedestal.I reminisce in my mind my time all together since this ordeal started.


    I have been dragged to an unknown world to kill some evil god who got nothing better to do.?But I found people I can rely on. Even though I am weak, I will try to protect them. I¡¯ll improve my cooking so they don¡¯t go hungry.


    As I drown in my own thoughts, I was pulled back up to reality when I hear Junpei shout.


    ¡°YASU! WE CLEARED THE ROOM OF THE SKELETONS!!¡± I see Junpei and the rest of them running towards me.


    ¡°FINALLY!!¡± I scream back as I stood up and regroup with them.


    ¡°OK, so we opened the door through the other side and we checked, there is nothing there! I think our trial for this dungeon is to clear the room full of skeletons. Now, all that¡¯s left is to leave this forsaken place and finally see sunlight! Once we rest, we will leave as soon as possible!¡± Junpei says with excitement.


    ¡°I was a bit worried, since we ran out of food.¡± I tell him. ¡°Ok guys, rest. I still have left over rat meat so eat it if you need to. I don¡¯t need it anyways.¡±


    Even though I might get hungry later on, I decided to give it to them. They need it more than I do since they¡¯re going doing all the hard work fighting the skeletons. Once I divide my portion up and only left a few for myself, we all sit down the makeshift fire pit one last time.


    Once everyone has rested, Junpei stood up and spoke to everyone. ¡°Ok everyone ready?¡±


    We all reply with a nod and stood up to travel back towards the undead skeleton room. It¡¯s now more illuminated that the last time I saw it. Torches were scattered everywhere illuminating certain dark areas. There are a lot of weapons and armors that are on the ground. Not one undead skeleton in sight.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you guys pick these up? We have a dimensional bag anyway.¡± I asked


    ¡°We all though of that, but I don¡¯t think we can get enough money for it even if we sell it outside. The weapons Luro gave us are a lot stronger than these so it¡¯s pretty much useless to us. Since you can¡¯t use a weapon, it¡¯s pretty much useless to you. So in general, all of these are useless.¡± Hiroko replies back


    ¡°Oh, ok.¡± I reply to her looking around the room.


    Such a waste. I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°Say Yasu.¡± Hiroko suddenly says and I didn''t notice she was walking beside me. ¡°You went to Seito High School right? Do you know who is the top student there?¡±


    ¡°By top student you mean-¡± My voice trails off. I was getting nervous and kept on walking without looking at her.


    ¡°The student who has the higher rank throughout the whole school. That school is already a higher rank that most all of the high schools. To put it in much more simple terms, he is basically the smartest person through all of the high school combined.¡± Hiroko says.


    Smartest person through all high school combined? Can¡¯t be, I just studied hard while everyone else goofed off.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Do you know who he is? If you do, can you introduce me? I mean I wouldn¡¯t mind being friends with him. I-I think I could be a friend with him. I mean as long as he doesn¡¯t find me weird. We can study together if he wants. Studying with the smartest person throughout all the high school is a privilege itself. I mean-I-mean--¡±


    She¡¯s talking about me. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Calm down, calm down.¡± I interrupt her. Seeing her get flustered is kind of cute.


    ¡°So do you know him?¡± She asked as she looks at me. This is the first time I see her up close. Her eyes are quite nice. They¡¯re hazel. Her facial feature isn¡¯t bad either. She had a smooth white skin complimented with her rosy lips. Her eyes are slanted that shows her Japanese heritage but it is big enough to see her hazel eye color. Her light brown hair is tied up to a ponytail that shows her slender neck.


    Crap, I feel hot.I whisper to myself as I feel a sweat is coming on. From then I was in trouble, I forgot how to properly breathe.


    ¡°I-uh¡ªY-yeah- I-I know him.¡± I reply to her averting my eyes away from hers. Trying to calm my self down but I feel like my face is getting hot.


    ¡°What really! So can you introduce me?!¡± Hiroko asked as she gets in front of me and grabs me by the shoulder.


    Holy shit she¡¯s strong. I say in my mind as I feel her grip like a titan.


    ¡°Y-y-yeah.¡±I reply trying to not show I¡¯m in pain from her grip.


    ¡°Really?! Thank you! Thank you so much!¡± Hiroko kept saying as she hugged me tight jumping up and down. I wish this could go on forever. But her hug is stronger than her grip and I feel like I¡¯m going to pass out. And besides, people are watching including a certain person who might not like what he¡¯s seeing so I tried to separate from her.


    ¡°I-I-Its noting. We¡¯re friends after all.¡± I say after breaking free and she replied to me with a smile. A certain smile that can make you feel the heat in the summer.


    Ah, I feel hot. I say to myself as we walk to the door at the end of the room.As we reached the door from the other side, it is semi open. We go through the opening one by one and once we get to the other side, what greeted us is a cave like structure. On the roof of the cave are stalactites forming through. It has a bluish glow that illuminates the whole cave. It¡¯s fascinating and scary at the same time. If a huge earthquake were to happen, these stalactites will pierce us from our heads.


    ¡°Whoa.¡± I say as we walk through the cave.


    ¡°We already checked this cave to the end and there is another door which is probably the exit.¡± Junpei tells me. ¡°We couldn¡¯t open the door though.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked curiously.


    ¡°The door has 14 hand prints on it. I¡¯m guessing each one of us has to touch it to activate the door. The reason we couldn¡¯t open it is because-¡°


    ¡°You guys needed my pair of hands.¡± I interrupted him.


    ¡°Exactly. We all needed to be here to open the door.¡± He tells me. My heart won¡¯t stop beating fast.


    What is it? Is it because were finally leaving the cave?No it can¡¯t be.?Wait, is it because of Hiroko??N-no, it can¡¯t be. I can¡¯t do this to Junpei, he protected and guided us all this time. What I should be doing now is helping him get Hiroko.I say in my mind. I feel anxious and excited all together. It¡¯s such a mixed feeling I decided to ignore it. We reached the door with 14-hand print on it. It¡¯s made of white marble also but this door doesn¡¯t have any design except the hand marks. It seems like it was carved out of the door.


    ¡°Okay guys, place your hand on a pair of handprints!¡± Junpei shouts and we all put our hands over the 14 prints that are carved along the huge marble door. Then next thing I know the door lit up through the center and separated into two. It started opening from the sides and what awaited us inside was the reason of my heart beating so fast.


    The true beginning of the end has started.

 CHAPTER 6: The middle of the end part 1

    <hr>


    Chapter 6: The middle of the end part 1


    <hr>


    The marble door split from the middle and started sliding sideways. My heart just jumped a few rpm after seeing what¡¯s on the other side. Skeletons that looked different from the ones that we saw, wolves, goblins, trolls, giant worms, the place was teeming with enemies.


    "What the fuck.¡± I whisper to myself feeling like my heart would jump out of my chest any minute.


    I have a bad feeling about this. I say in my mind.


    One of the wolves suddenly took notice and let out a howl loud enough for everyone to hear. More wolves face our direction and I can see their legs become stiff while standing tall. Ears pointing up along with the hair in their back. Even from far away, I can see their fangs as white as the marble door as if someone have been brushing them daily. Their eyes are the scariest part. Bloodshot red that glows under the darkness of the room.


    A goblin riddled with golden armor stepped up to the front holding a horn.


    ¡°G-guys. Let¡¯s go back to the safe-¡° Riki suddenly stop as the goblin blew his horn so loud that it hurts listening to it. The sound weakened our knees as we all go down on the floor.


    ¡°Argh!¡± I struggle on the ground trying to keep my conscious intact. It felt like I¡¯m about to pass out any minute. The world suddenly became quiet again and I was able to catch my breath. As I glance up towards everyone, they¡¯re on the same condition as me. I glance back at the goblin who blew the horn and I see them slowly advancing towards us.


    Goblin Leader Lvl 25


    HP 1200/1200


    ¡°S-shit! Everyone! Run to the saferoom!¡± I shouted out and they all looked up seeing every monster in the room goes on a full sprint towards us. We all scamper to get up as fast as we can running towards where we came from. But as soon as we got to the other room where the undead skeletons were, the door was closed shut.


    ¡°What the heck?! Who closed this?!¡± Junpei shouts and I can feel the fear in his voice. He tried his best to open it but the door was missing a handle from this side making it impossible to open it.


    ¡°Push! Push the door!¡± I shouted trying to push it but it wouldn¡¯t budge.


    ¡°Dammit! It only opens one way! We have to pull it!¡± Junpei shouts but the longer we take our time here the closer they¡¯re getting to us. He punches the door over and over again until blood marks are left on the door.We can hear all of the monsters coming at us from the other room and we¡¯re stuck at the stalactite cave that¡¯s after the skeleton room. I felt like crying. I didn¡¯t want to die, let alone die this way.


    ¡°Guys.¡± Junpei softly whispers as he stepped infront of us. Theres only one way I can think of.¡±


    ¡°What?! No! You can¡¯t! We all have to leave out of here together! You promised!" Hiroko protested, and I got what he¡¯s talking about. He has a skill called war cry. If he activates it, all the monsters will attack him giving us chance to escape.


    ¡°There must be another way!¡± I tell him.


    ¡°We have no time!¡± He snaps back at me. ¡°They¡¯re coming, and this is the only way for us to survive. One of us has to stay behind.¡±


    We didn¡¯t know what to do. Everyone now is crying including me. We couldn¡¯t do anything.


    ¡°Rikimura-san.¡± Junpei says calmly. ¡°I want you to lead them out of this cave.¡±


    ¡°Junpei no!¡± Hiroko protested again. Junpei grabs her by the shoulder pulling her to him.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok. I promised to get you guys out. I will keep my promise.¡± Junpei whispers to her as he hugs her tight while she cries in his arms. ¡°Rikimura-san, please.¡±


    ¡°Sure kid.¡± Rikimura replied agreeing to lead us out the dungeon.


    ¡°Guys, I¡¯m sorry. Stay alive for me? Okay?¡± Junpei then runs off towards the horde of enemies that started coming through the marble door. ¡°War cry!¡±


    All of a sudden, they all turn to him and he was engulfed by a sea of monsters.


    ¡°Junpei!¡± I scream as I try to see where he is.


    ¡°No!¡± Hiroko shrieked as we lose sight of him in the middle of the monsters.


    ¡°Everyone! Listen! We have to go! Run past them now! The war cry skill doesn¡¯t last long!¡± Rikimura shouted out as he ran around the horde. We all had no choice but to follow him. We run past all the enemies attacking Junpei. No matter which angle we look at, we can¡¯t find him. Tears are coming down my face and even when I wanted to stop, I had no choice but to run.We ran till we¡¯re through the marble door, but a knot formed in my throat knowing the fact that we left him to die. We kept running till we reached the end of the other room. We quickly pushed the wooden door and ran through a dark hallway that was slowly being illuminated by the torches as we pass them.


    As soon as we reach the end of the dark hallway, we see another door with carvings in them. We quickly push it but this time, the door didn¡¯t budge.


    ¡°Ah shit! Come on!¡± Rikimura shouted out of frustration as we hear howls echoing through the hallway. We all stopped as the howl stopped, and silence filled the hallway. Thinking that they stayed behind the other room, we stood still trying not to make a noise. All of a sudden, we see a light flicker from a distance and the flickering get bigger and bigger every time.


    ¡°Those are the torches lighting up!They''re coming!" Sawada shouts as he frantically push the door. We all pushed as hard as we can and as I glance back, the flickering light is getting bigger and bigger while noises started echoing through the hallway. Like a miracle, the door finally budge and it started opening to only stop after a few seconds.


    ¡°Everyone go!¡± Rikimura shouts as he gets out the opening and it was only big enough for us to fit one by one.


    Hiroko was right after him and after her, I went through the opening followed by Sawada. Riki came after but he couldn¡¯t come fully through as he tried to pull his hammer through the opening.


    ¡°Leave the fucking hammer and go!¡± Tobi shouted at him and Riki let go to let him through. As Tobi gets out, he suddenly grabs my hand looking at me in the eyes.


    ¡°Ya-su.¡± He softly said my name and all of a sudden, his body was pulled back as the monsters caught up to him pulling him back in the hallway.


    ¡°Ugh! Dammit! Let him go!¡± I shouted as I played a tug of war the monsters trying to help Tobi become free. Tobi screamed in pain as I see a goblin lodge a dagger on his back. At that last minute, rather than holding on to me, Tobi pushed me making me fall back on everyone. At the same time, the door shut close and I can see Rikimura-san pushing it.


    ¡°He¡¯s gone! It¡¯s too late! Let¡¯s go!¡± He shouts, and everyone started running towards the end of the cave. The cave itself was full of stalactites and at the end, a bright white light illuminated half the cave and it¡¯s like staring at the sun. As we got close, the light dimmed, and we finally read the sign on top of it.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Portal to the outside


    ¡°That¡¯s the exit!¡± I shouted out and we all ran as fast as we can. Not one bit I feel happy exiting the dungeon knowing the fact that we just lost two people, but I couldn¡¯t stop. I had to keep running even when my legs feel like it¡¯s going to give out any minute.


    ¡°Everyone! Run to the portal!¡± Rikimura-san says as we all get closer and closer. All of a sudden, the cave wall to the left started crumbling exposing another section and the sight itself made think that we were never meant to leave this dungeon alive.


    Elite Alpha Wolf Lv40


    Elite Undead Captain Skeleton Lv40


    Elite Goblin Soldier Lv35


    Elite Troll Lv35


    These monsters look a lot bigger and deadlier than the ones on the other room. We had no choice but to try and dodge them. There is no going back and no safe room around.


    BOOM!


    The explosion was so loud I thought my eardrums ruptured as the surrounding area went silent. The entrance where we came from was covered in smoke. As I tried to regain my balance, I mistakenly caught a glance at smoke that made me stop for a second. A large figure behind the smoke was looking at us. I can see its eyes glowing through and its body was big enough for his head to hit the ceiling of the cave. It was a giant. As the smoke slowly dissipate starting from the head, I saw its name that made me go pale.


    Dungeon Keeper Lv???


    ¡°H-holy shit!¡± I shouted as I ran as fast as I can, and I see them already nearing the portal. All of a sudden, a bright light came from behind me and as Sawada turns around to see, he jumps in front of it blocking the light from reaching Hiroko. His body exploded into pieces as it rained fire and blood.


    ¡°Sawada!¡±I scream as I see his head fall to the floor rolling around for a few seconds before turning into ash.


    ¡°Sawada! No!¡±I tried to grab some of his ash that flew my way, but a hand pulls me forwards almost making me stumble to the ground.


    "Don¡¯t let his sacrifice be in vain! Run!" Rikimura-san shouts as he runs towards the portal. Thinking of my mother, I ran with all my might to catch up to everyoneeven when everything in my body hurts like hell. My lungs, heart, every joints and strand of muscle is riddled with pain. Tears ran down my cheeks and my nose are filled with accumulated snot that started to exit one of my nostrils touching my top lip.But I didn''t stop moving.I kept running like my life depends on it. Actually, my life does depend on it. If I stop now, I will die. I have no time to think about anything else. I don''t want to die.


    "WATCH OUT!" Somebody shouted ahead of me and all of a sudden, I see a black blur passing me.


    "GUACK!" I hear Riki cry in pain that made me stop. Apart of me wish I didn''t. A spear entered his back and went out the center of his chest. We both locked eyes as I see him take his last breath before turning into dust.


    "AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Hiroko shouted in shock as she was right behind him. I notice a one of the elite troll from a distance throwing another spear.


    "WATCH OUT!" I called out as I ran to her but the moment she swings her head around, it was too late. The spear went right through her right temple and exited the left. Pieces of flesh and probably her brain flew towards my way sticking to my cheeks.A couple of seconds after, she turned into dust floating away with the wind. I feel someone grab my arm and yank me back. When I turned, I see Rikimura-san looking right at me. He releases his grip and continued advancing towards the portal while giving me a scoff as if I did something wrong.


    "Run!" He shouted out as he went on a full sprint. The minute I took the first step, I felt something nick my ear making me wince in pain and almost stumbling down. I heard a sound similar to thin metal pass me not only once, but a couple of times making me duck my head. My ear stings as if I was cut by paper. I touch the source of the pain it I felt something warm trickling down my cheeks.


    B-blood?I whisper in my mind as I stared at my hands covered with red liquid. I began running without looking ahead and I suddenly stumbled into something making me eat the floor. But somehow, rather than landing on the cold hard ground, something became my cushion. I look down and I was covered in red.


    W-w-wha-AHH!" I tried running away as I see piece of his flesh scattered around the ground. Is as if, he was cut into cubes and brought into one pile. I got away from Rikimura-san¡¯s mutilated corpse and as soon as I did, it turned into dust.


    "N-no, No! No!! I don¡¯t want to die!!!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I watched everyone die. I tried sprinting towards the portal and different thoughts came in my mind as I cried.


    Why did it end like this?! Why?! There''s nothing I can do...I''m weak. I''m so damn fucking weak!I cursed myself in my mind for picking the wrong class.Without a moment¡¯s notice, something hits me from behind with such great force that I stumbled forward kissing the ground with my face.


    "ACK! FUCK!" I hold my nose with my left hand to try and stop the blood from pouring out my nose.I look like a mess. Tears won''t stop coming out and I''m shaking uncontrollably. I used my right hand to push myself up to check what crashed into me."Wh-wh- y-you. H-how-"


    I see him lying there. Junpei. His body didn''t look right at all. It seemed as if a giant grabbed him and squeezed him like a lemon. Blood was dripping out of his mouth and practically any where his bloodcan exit out of his body, it did. His eyes are similar to a dead fish but for some reason, his gaze was aimed at me.


    "H-hey-" I tried saying something to him, but his body quickly turned into dust the minute my hand got close. A suddenswooshcame to my left and I felt something push my leg. As I look, I see a spear pierced my left thigh and exited out the other side.


    "Ah-AH!. Fuck!" I shout in pain as I tried to pull out the spear, but it had a stopper that prevents me from pulling it out unlessI want to rip my leg to shreds. I heard another sound and my body started tilting.


    Thud!


    A circular blade came flying through cutting an arm off cleanly. I fell on my side as I lost my balance and the pain in my leg and severed arm was so muchI almost lost consciousness. I felt my leg twist as I fell down making the shattered bones inside puncture me everywhere.I shouted in pain grabbing my leg with my only remaining arm.I felt every inch of my body shake violently and cold sweats have slowly crept its way out of my skin. All I can do is scream on the floor to mask the pain.


    "ARRRGHHRRRRAAA!!! HELP!! ME!!! SOMEONE!!! HELP ME!!!" I shouted as hard as I can, but no one will ever hear my cries. I''m the last one alive.


    Fuck! I don''t even know anymore! Why the fuck I''m here?! What the fuck did I do so wrong to deserve this?!I complained in my mind as I cried uncontrollably.I continue to rip my mind apart with different thoughts not noticing that my life is flashing before my eyes. I look at a distance and finally, I saw what was hiding behind the smoke. What squeezed every ounce of life out from Junpei. What threw him to me that made me stumble down.


    The gatekeeper. A giant ogre that looks like the dungeon boss. He''s looking straight at me running and screaming some dialect I can''t even understand. Buckets of saliva are spewing out of his mouth like a rabid animal. Howls began towards my right and I don''t even have to glance to know those wolves are coming.


    Fuck.I curse as I tried to think of a possible way out but, I ran out of options. I''m going to die. Mysobs replaced my voice. I knew my death is just moments away. I lay on my back feeling helpless and alone not being able to do anything except, quietly sob my life away.


    "I''m going to die," I say between uncontrollable sobbing. "I''m going to die, I''m really going to die, somebody, save me."


    Trying to breathe through my nose is difficult since it''s broke when I crashed into the ground earlier. I probably have a couple of broken ribs because my sides hurt like hell.


    "Fuck," I whisper with difficulty. My mind breaks, and I just want to wake up from this bad dream. Everything is just out to get me, and I can''t escape.


    "Fuck." My voice starts to fade as the very last energy I have begun to exit my body. I stared at the roof of the cave and my body felt numb. The only sensation left is the feeling of thetears running down across my cheeks. I can feel the ogre¡¯s footsteps, hear the wolves, the spear, the blades ringing I hear everything in all direction.


    You''re going to die you know. Just accepted it. Stop struggling.A voice that''s mine but I don''t feel like it is mine. It¡¯s the same voice I heard that told me to choose blade. It keeps repeating in my mind. But for some reason, everything seems to calm down and in a split second, everything was in slow motion.Ah, I guess they''re giving me time to say my last words.


    I tried to speak but I started choking on my own blood.I can''t even say my last words properly as I struggle to breathe. I close my eyes and tears drip towards the side of my face. My life, the images of my childhood, my dad, my friends, my room, my school, even the people I didn''t have a close connection with, flashed before me. But what really stayed in my mind is the smile my mom gives me every time she enters the door coming home from working so late. With the last remaining strength, I have, I used it to smile back.


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    "I''m sorry, Mom," I whisper as I gave her the last smile I can muster. "I''m sorry."


    I notice the Gatekeepers foot over my body as it suddenly dropped down turning my world black.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Your HP have reached 0. You died.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    .


    .


    .


    Huh? Is that a notification?

 CHAPTER 7: The middle of the end part 2

    <hr>


    Chapter 7: The middle of the end part 2


    <hr>


    As I open my eyes, my vision slowly adjusted at the dim light of the room. The light itself hurts staring at it like I was staring at the sun directly. Right when I had a clearer view, a notification appeared right in front of me.


    ¡°Urgh, where am I?¡± I groan as I force myself up. I feel around the ground and it¡¯s hard as a rock and cold as ice. ¡°This isn¡¯t my room.¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Good Morning! Please follow the light!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A notification suddenly appeared making me lean back, but it followed me keeping the same distance.


    ¡°The heck is this?¡± I whisper trying to touch it, but my hand just goes through. As fast as it appeared, as fast as it disappeared in front of me. I slowly stand up and it feels like I¡¯ve been sleeping on the floor at a wrong position. My body ache at certain position as I rub my neck from stiffness. I look around some more but as my eyes adjust to the dark, I notice the walls, floor, and ceiling was made out of giant bricks. My heart beats a bit faster as I try to process my last memory. I remember falling down the stairs and my brother calling out to me before I passed out.


    ¡°Was I kidnapped? A prank?¡± I whisper as I rub my arms trying to keep warm from the cold. I approach the light to try and feel at ease because it feels like something will jump out of the dark at any moment. As I got close, I noticed a door with a sign in front of it.


    ¡°Welcome to the new world?¡± I read the words out loud and somehow, it activated something as the words disappeared along with the sign and the door slowly opened into darkness. The light source which looks like a ghost orb floats towards the dark illuminating a hallway. Not wanting to be left in the dark, I followed the light as it slowly advanced through the hallway that¡¯s wide enough for two people to walk side by side.


    ¡°This must be a dream; do I keep following it until I wake up?¡± I whisper to myself and being surrounded by darkness makes me feel really uncomfortable. As I walk following the light orb, so many different thought came rushing in my mind. I didn¡¯t know what to think of the situation. I tried assessing my position and how I got here. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m dead since I feel way too alive.


    ¡°Ouch!¡± I wince in pain as I pinch my arm feeling the throbbing pain. ¡°I am alive.¡±


    Well, now that¡¯s the problem. I have no idea where I¡¯m at, and my brother is not here with me and I have no idea how I got here. I say in my mind.Ok try to recall the last thing I remember. The last thing I remember is being pushed down the stairs. I just got out the classroom and was heading to meet my brother in front of the school.


    It was all too surreal. My memory didn¡¯t add up with the current situation. The last thing I remember doing is looking out the window to watch the sunset being engulfed by the horizon from a distance.


    I remember I quickly rush back down and as I was making my way down the staircase, a force pushed me of that made me lose my balance. I stumble down the stairs while my bag proceeded to vomit all of its contents onto the stairs. For some reason I was going really fast and I couldn¡¯t stop myself from hitting the ground, face first.


    I remember my vision turned black, but I didn¡¯t lose consciousness. I could hear students rushing towards me because some of them called my name over and over again. I remember hearing a teacher, but I couldn¡¯t make out who it was. I felt a warm liquid trickling down my face and I¡¯m starting to get sleepy.


    ¡°The last thing I know, I hear my brother calling my name before passing out.¡± I whisper as I walked with the orb. ¡°Maybe this is all a dream? Maybe I¡¯m in a coma and for me to wake up I have to see what at the end of the tunnel.¡±


    The orb of light finally reached its destination stopping right in front of another wooden door. I pushed the door open wide open with ease and was introduced to a circular room with multiple closed doors on the side. The middle of the room was a half angle half demon statue. As I walk in, I notice another door opens and a girl with hazel brown hair emerges from the inside. She was quite the looker. I noticed she also wearing a high school uniform making me look at my clothes which is my school¡¯s uniform.


    ¡°Ah shit, this is probably not a dream.¡± I whisper as I inspect my clothes. I look back up to see where she is, and I can see her staring right at me making me lose my train of thoughts. I¡¯m not really quite sure which school it is from, but her uniform looked familiar and it looks really nice on her. She seems like she¡¯s also confused on what is going and because I can see her looking around the room. After a few seconds, she approached me, and I started walking towards her meeting at a halfway point.


    ¡°Um, do you know where this is?¡± She asked me. But I couldn¡¯t answer because as soon as she got closer, I can see her hazel brown eyes, which is something that is very hard to look away from. She waves her hand in front my face, and it brought me back to reality.


    ¡°Uh¡ªI-I-I don¡¯t really know. I woke up just a couple of minutes ago. Some message told me to follow a light and here I am.¡±


    ¡°?Same here. Where the hell are we?¡± She says then she looks around the room. We¡¯re both interrupted from our moment when four doors started opening all at the same time. First is an older guy who seems like he just came from a party. He still had his suit on but it looks a bit disheveled. Next was a person who¡¯s wearing a full baseball outfit. After that is another guy who is wearing an A-Chan shirt then the last one is just a normal high school student. All of them approached us two as soon as they saw us.


    ¡°Um, do you know where this is?¡± The older guy asked.


    ¡°W-we don¡¯t know. That¡¯s what we¡¯re trying to figure out.¡± I reply back to him. I just explained to them how I woke up and followed some light orb. We started talking to each other to the point that I suggested to introduce ourselves. The girl¡¯s name is Hiroko, the guy who¡¯s now sitting by the statue is Rikimura-san, the guy with an A-CHAN shirt is Riki, the baseball player is Sawada, and the normal looking kid is Tobi. Including me, there are six of us in total.


    Since there are two more doors left, I guess there are two more people coming. After we finished out introduction, we hear Sawada ask someone who he or she is. We all looked and we see a guy standing with us who looks like he¡¯s a movie star¡¯s kid. He is wearing a familiar uniform. I know I have seen it before but I can¡¯t remember.He introduced himself as Yasu. When we asked him about his last memory, what he came up with is utterly ridiculous attempt to either impress us or scare us. As I was about to ask him about his real memory, the whole place started shaking making us take cover. I put myself on top Hiroko not really thinking how she would react, but she never pushed me aside, so I remained there till the shaking stopped. It all happen so fast after that, we ended up picking classes and I felt bad for telling Yasu to pick a blade class. It turned out it was a non-combatant class and he almost had a meltdown.


    Fast forward, Yasu ended up picking a non-combat class.


    ¡°What the fuck?! No, this must be mistake! How can this be?! A cook?!¡± Yasu screamed out loud.Some of us tried to hold our laughter for his misery. But we probably think of the same thing with this guy. How unlucky. After a while, the statue told us he gave us a gift and a notification appeared in front of me.


    I hear Yasu started laughing like a maniac and screamed at the top of his lungs right after. He started shouting curse words towards the statue. After using up all of his energy, he cried silent tears. I would to if I was in his position. In front of him is the weapon and armor designated for his class, which are, a spatula, a frying pan, and an apron.


    That¡¯s when it hit me, he reminds me of my brother. How the world is unfair to him. I decided to help him and as I get closer, I see him look up to me. There are tears in his eyes, and quietly sobbing.


    He''s like my brother. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Hey Yasu, was it? Don¡¯t worry about it. Just stick close to me and I¡¯ll guard you with this shield. The only way for us to survive this is if we all work together. Isn¡¯t that right everyone?¡± I tried reassuring him.I instructed to everyone to use their status window command and see the stats.I look at Yasu and I can see worries plastering across his face.


    I need to protect this guy. I say in my mind. Right now, there¡¯s nothing I can do or say to remove the worries on his face. Maybe, once we all get to know each other more, the mood will lighten up. We tried to figure out a way out the dungeon and manage to open a door that leads us to a hallway leading to another room with a marble door. After opening the door slightly, Hiroko, Riki, Sawada, and me were welcomed by darkness. Complete darkness.


    We move forward and when Hiroko shines her torch, a skull then surprised her. She screamed, and she tries to hit it with the torch, which somehow magically flew out of her hand and into the rest of the skeletons we didn¡¯t know exist until the torch illuminated them.On top of their head displayed their name and level like it was a game.


    Undead Skeleton Lv1


    HP 800/800


    While we ran back to the group, Riki then charged the undead skeleton. But it wasn¡¯t enough to kill it. I decided to help him and started attacking the undead skeleton with my sword. The whole ordeal was out of this world. We ended up back in the safe room afterwards with no injuries except Rikimura-san shield.For the first time, Yasu talked a lot. He actually guided me the right decision. I guess he¡¯s not weak like my brother after all.


    There are a lot of things we figure out. First, Yasu couldn¡¯t hold any weapon at all except the spatula and the frying pan. Everything else, weights like a ton for him. I decided for Hiroko and Tobi to use the swords for now. We then headed out the safe room and tried our luck one more time. Before we left the safe room, I told Yasu to stay for now until we¡¯re strong enough to protect him. Depending on how he looks like your typical rich boy, I though he would protest as much when he fought with Luro earlier.But he just agreed. He even said he is useless out there since he can¡¯t fight so he agreed to stay in the safe room and wait for us to come back.


    How can he trust us? We can easily leave him here and not come back. I say in my mind as we walk back towards the undead skeleton room.


    We decided to attack them one by one all together until we leveled up to two. Then once we are higher levels later on, we can take them on by ourselves. Thirty minutes have passed and we have killed over thirty skeletons.All of us have reached level two and I told them to view their skill window just incase if there are any changes to their status or if they got a new skill.


    ¡°Guys I got a new skill! Its called flame arrow!¡± Hiroko screams


    ¡°Same here¡± Tobi added on.


    ¡°Seems like everyone got a new skill.¡± I say with energy. ¡°Guys don¡¯t use it before we figure out what it does. Got it?¡± They reply with a nod. Except Sawada, who is looking at the horde of undead skeleton.


    ¡°Guys¡­¡± Sawada voice trails off. ¡°T-There¡ªthere it is. Guys, there¡¯s a door on the other side.¡±


    ¡°What?! Are you sure?!¡± I asked him in surprise.


    ¡°I am sure. I don¡¯t know but I guess leveling up makes me see in the dark better. But now I can see a door shape down there. Its faint I can see its outline!¡± He replies to me while squinting trying to get a clearer picture of what¡¯s in the darkness.


    ¡°Tobi Hiroko! Can you guys use your flame arrow to briefly illuminate the other side?¡± I asked them and both Tobi and Hiroko nods yes. Both of them still don¡¯t know how to use it. First they say flaming arrow while their palms are open to see if one would materialize. It didn¡¯t.


    Then they both equipped their bow and arrow.¡°Flame arrow!¡± Both of them say it and the tip of the arrow ignited and fire covered the metal head.


    ¡°Whoa.¡± Riki says looking at the flames.


    ¡°Ok Sawada, where do we aim it at?¡± Tobi asked and Sawada points to a direction and both Hiroko and Tobi launches the arrows with flaming heads over the horde of undead. Even with the velocity of the arrow, the fire never went out. As the arrow hit the wall at far side of the room its flame them went out. But for a brief moment we all saw it.


    ¡°A door! Did you guys see it! There¡¯s a door!¡± Riki is going crazy. Everyone else is excited. Our hope of escaping this place still stands tall.


    ¡°Let¡¯s start exterminating them!¡± Riki says as he holds his two handed hammer ready for battle. He then decided to use his new skill rush.


    ¡°Rush!¡± As soon as he scream his skill, a faint glow erupted from the bottom of his feet, the minute he took his first step he was lunched a couple of feet above the ground. He then falls down and his hammer landed a couple of inches to where his head is.


    ¡°Riki!¡± I screamed as I rushed to his side.


    ¡°Ughhh, what the hell.¡± He says as I help him stand up.


    ¡°I told you not to use the skill until we know how to properly use it!¡± I scold him.


    ¡°My bad, but somehow, I know how to use it. It just that.¡± His voice trails off.


    ¡°Just what?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°When I used the skill, somehow my thoughts just blanked out and I was confused for a minute. Then I suddenly felt tired, hungry and sluggish. Next thing I know I¡¯m flying in the air.¡±Now that he mentions it, I feel the same and it brought me to my knees.


    ¡°What the-¡± I say confused how my knees just gave out.


    ¡°Junpei!¡± I hear everyone screaming my name and I see them rushing towards Riki and me.


    ¡°Junpei, you ok?¡± I hear Riki say as he helps me up to my feet this time.


    ¡°Yeah, my knees suddenly gave out.¡± I reply to him.


    ¡°I had a feeling its going to be like that.¡± Riki replies.


    ¡°What? What is it?¡± Hiroko started going crazy with questions. ¡°Are we infected by a virus?! OMG no---no¡ªno, I-c-can¡¯t b-b-e---¡°


    ¡°Relax. Were not sick.¡± Riki replied calmly.


    ¡°Then what is it?!¡± She asks him while grabbing his shoulders.


    ¡°U-u-um, I think it¡¯sbecause of our stamina draining?¡± Riki says flustered as Hiroko¡¯s face is near his.


    We went back in the hallway and decided to rest. We sat and leaned on the wall as we talked about plans on how to eliminate the skeletons. We all didn¡¯t feel like walking back to the safe room since we seem to be out of energy. Somehow, none of us is thinking straight and we¡¯re throwing a bunch of absurd ideas. I even proposed to talk to the skeleton.


    What the hell was I thinking?


    ¡°Ok, I think we rested enough, let try one more time.¡± I tell everyone and the minute I stood up, my knees gave out and I almost fell back down. Good thing the wall was there.


    ¡°W-wh-what the-¡° Sawada says and I notice everyone is struggling to stand up. We all slump back down.


    ¡°There¡¯s no doubt about, I think our stamina is depleted.¡± Riki says and he started saying random commands to view the stamina but it¡¯s to no avail.


    ¡°How do we refill our stamina?¡± I asked Riki.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. A stamina potion probably but we don¡¯t have one. I checked my bag.¡± Riki replied.We all stayed silent for a minute and like an orchestra, everyone¡¯s stomach started growling really loud. We all look at each other.


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t you guys think it¡¯s because we¡¯re hungry the reason why we¡¯re like this?¡± Sawada says.


    ¡°That¡¯s also a possibility.¡± Riki replies. ¡°Some games back on earth, hunger affect stamina also. So it might be because we¡¯re hungry. We haven¡¯t eaten anything ever since we got here.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t we glad we have a cook on our team?¡± Sawada say trying to laugh at his own joke.We all stay silent for a minute but we¡¯re all been thinking of the same thing. Yasu is part of our team and now I feel bad just casting him aside like that because we thought he¡¯s useless.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go back. We need to talk to Yasu and figure out how are we going eat.¡± I tell them and they all nod.It took as a while to stand up properly. As we¡¯re walking down the dark hallway. Hiroko then spoke what everyone was thinking earlier when we saw Yasu for the first time.


    ¡°When he first came up upon us, seeing how he is, I though he was going to be an asshole.¡± Hiroko says.


    ¡°Who?¡± I asked just to validate she was talking about the person in my mind.


    ¡°Yasu.¡± She replies.


    ¡°Yea same here.¡± Riki agreed. ¡°When I saw him, I initially thought I wont get along with him. He looks like he¡¯s from a rich family where his parent gives him everything. I bet he never worked his entire life.¡± everyone nods in agreement except Rikimura-san.


    ¡°Guys don¡¯t think like that.¡± I tell them. ¡°We don¡¯t even know his background. Besides, I don¡¯t know if you guys notice, not once he ever complained to us about having the weakest class. Even earlier he asked me if he could have the sword to try and fight along side us. And when I told him to stay, he didn¡¯t even put up a fight and just agreed even though I know I hurt his pride he still didn¡¯t retaliate.¡±


    I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m defending him. I guess its because he similar to my brother, so I feel compelled to protect him. We all then quietly slowly walked towards the safe zone. Not one word was said after my speech.Once we got inside, we couldn¡¯t find Yasu anywhere. Everyone became frantic because he is the only one who can cook for us. I became frantic because I though he might have been killed by a monster somewhere. We all scream his name over and over again but no response. One of the doors suddenly opens up and we see him emerges from the inside.


    ¡°Yasu! Where did you go?! I thought something happened to you---and---¡­is that a dead rat?!¡± I jump back, and I can hear Hiroko scream.


    What the hell! Why is he holding a dead rat?!


    He tells us to relax and proceeded to taunt us holding the dead rat in front of our face. We all jump back except Tobi, who then asked the question we¡¯re all thinking.


    ¡°Say, what are you going to do with that?¡± Tobi asked Yasu who¡¯s still holding the rat carcass.Yasu then explained to us how a new command could show you the skill description.We all tried it out.


    ¡°Sword Slash Skill Description¡± I say looking at my skills.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sword Slash


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Combat


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    15%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This skill will let you cut your enemies of the same level or lower like they''re made of butter. The stronger the skill level, the more damage it deals.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Shield Smash Skill Description¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td>


    SKill Level:


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Shield Smash


    </td>


    <td>


    2


    </td>


    <td>


    Defense/Offense


    </td>


    <td>


    5%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4">


    This skill uses a shield to smash things into pieces. Tihs can be used as a defensive skill to deflect or parry attacks.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Warcry Skill Description¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Warcry


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    <td>


    Defense


    </td>


    <td>


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4">


    This skill will get the focus of all of the enemies around you. Use it wisely, it can lead to your death if it''s used the wrong way.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    So that¡¯s what war cry does. I say in my mind.


    I talked to Yasu and told him how we are all level two and that we found a door on the other side. He seems really excited about it. I talked to him about the possibility of being hungry and causing our stamina to plummet.He just smiled. That¡¯s the moment we knew he was going to feed us rats. Hiroko tried to protest but she has no choice and just slumped down towards the statue¡¯s pedestal. Hiroko looks at Yasu with a mad expression but we can¡¯t really blame him. That¡¯s the only thing here to eat. We can¡¯t really eat bones. look at Yasu who seems to be looking at his own Status Window.


    I wonder what his status window shows. I whisper in my mind intrigued what a non-combatant status looks like.


    He proceeded to explain about our water problem. I wonder which high school he goes to, he¡¯s really smart for a guy who looks like he gets everything he asks. Hiroko mention about a water source in her room and I volunteered to go with her.


    Finally! This gives me a chance to be alone with her and get close to her.I say in my mind.


    As Yasu and the rest of them leave to get some more rats, I go with Hiroko to collect water.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s your plan on collecting water?¡± Hiroko asked me.


    Crap, I was so focused on her I forgot to think about that.I say in my mind.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Uhh, were going to use my shield to collect the water.¡± I replied.


    ¡°Uh, ok, how are we going to boil it?¡± She keeps asking difficult questions.


    ¡°Um, we can use the shield to boil it since its¡¯ made of metal. As for the firepit, uhhh¡­¡± I tried to come up with a solution and she cuts me off.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t thought that far, ahead have you?¡± Hiroko asked


    ¡°Um, no. sorry.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°We can use the shield as a container to boil the water. As for the fire pit I have an idea.¡± She says as we head over to her starting room. As we enter inside, the place looks exactly like ours but the only difference is there is a small pond like section in the corner. Water is then coming out of the cracks on the bricks.I didn¡¯t know what to say to her or start a conversation so we just collected the water and went back to the statue room. As soon as we set down my shield near the statue, Hiroko then went out the hallway that goes towards the undead skeleton room.


    ¡°W¡ªw- wait for me! ¡° I say as I rush to collect my sword leaning against the pedestal of the statue. On my way out the hallway, she then comes back hugging a few torches.


    ¡°Uh.¡± I say confused.


    ¡°What, you think I¡¯m going to fight alone in there? That is crazy.¡± She then smiled and walked pass me and headed towards the statue. She took out two swords from a bag.


    When did she collect those?I whisper in my mind putting my sword in my dimensional bag.


    Without much effort, she plunged the sword straight to the ground and pierced the hard cement bricks right through. The sword is now almost halfway through.


    Damn, she strong. I say in my mind as I watch he do the same to the other sword and then looked at me.


    ¡°You don¡¯t happen to have a stick, do you?¡±She asked me.


    ¡°Um, no.¡± I replied. Then I just remembered I did pick up something similar.


    ¡°Ah, Wait! I think I do, give me a minute.¡± I called out my dimensional bag and took out a staff I managed to pick up from one of the undead skeletons we killed earlier.


    ¡°Is that a staff?¡± She asked me while looking at the wooden stick that is curved a little bit.


    ¡°Uh yeah. It¡¯s the only valuable thing I can think of in there. So, I picked it up when I killed a skeleton earlier.¡± I explain to her. I hope she doesn¡¯t find me greedy for not telling.Without caring about the value of the item I just took out from my bag, Hiroko grabbed the stick and placed it at the hilt of the swords. She then took out a string from her dimensional bag and started tying the stick on both sides.


    Where the hell did she get those? I asked in my mind.


    I watched her work swiftly building a makeshift stand for the fire pit. She grabbed the torches and clustered it together. Using a lit torch on the wall, she ignited all of the torches under the makeshift stand.


    ¡°Now let¡¯s see if this mage staff is worth anything at all.¡± She says as she studies the staff watching it if it will burn or not. A couple of minutes later, the staff is still intact and all.


    My staff. I say in my mind as I see the only valuable weapon I found being used as a stick.After a few minutes, she took out the torches and separated it.


    ¡°Junpei, grab the shield with water and come hold it up here so I can tie it down to the stick.¡± She tells me andI have to impress her so I had to make sure this looks like nothing when I lift it up. That shit was really heavy.She made me hold it under the stick as she quickly tied the strings onto the handle of the shield and the holes on the side of it.


    ¡°Ok you can let go now.¡± She told me. I did and the shield first swayed sideway bit by bit until it came to a full stop.


    Whoa, she¡¯s amazing! I say in my mind.


    We waited for the water to boil, which took longer than expected. This is a great time for me to start up a conversation to find out more about her.


    ¡°Say, Hiroko is there anyone you really want to go back to after this?¡± I asked her.


    What?! What kind of question did I just asked?! I say in my mind.


    She keeps looking at the blue fire and she simply answer with two words. ¡°My Family.¡±


    ¡°Ah, ok.¡± I pause for a minute. ¡°Is there anyone else? Like friend or boyfriend?¡±


    Oh my god, I¡¯m asking for it. Dammit! Favorite color! Favorite color! I¡¯m going crazy in my mind. She stays silent and I thought I fucked up already.


    ¡°There is one.¡± She says as she still looks at the fire.


    ¡°Oh, who?¡± I asked her, and my heart is beating so fast.


    Am I about to get dumped without asking her out? How is this even possible?! I say in my mind.


    ¡°He¡¯s not a friend. Basically I don¡¯t even know his name. He¡¯s a person I admire who helped me when I needed help. I just want to go back and meet him once.¡± Hiroko explained.


    Oh ok, good if she doesn¡¯t know him that¡¯s a better chance for me. Without noticing my curiosity of the subject, I just opened my mouth.


    ¡°What happened to him?¡± I blurted out.


    ¡°Well, I go to Chirin High School. As you know, that¡¯s the second best private high school in the country. They only admit 500 new students every year. If you take the entrance exam within the 500 rankings, you¡¯re in. First top 10 student get¡¯s a full scholarship program. The problem with that is, everyone is smart, too smart. So, it¡¯s very hard to beat people unless you get close to a perfect score or get a perfect score.¡± She paused and took out one of the torches to decrease the fire.


    ¡°I took the exam and hoped I would be within the 500. Going to this school gives a better chance to go to an Ivy League college under a scholarship program. Unless you go to the only high school more exclusive that Chirin which is near impossible to get in. My family is middle class. My parents worked almost 24/7 in the same company almost doing overtime everyday. Then one day, a loan shark came and took all of my parent¡¯s savings for some debt they owed. This put us in a very tough position. And their last resort was, me. They paid for the entrance exam of the school with the last remaining money they had. They kept saying they did it because I¡¯m their last resort but I know they did it because it¡¯s my dream to go to an Ivy League college. Without concerns for their well being, they gave up every last bit of penny they have to help me fulfill my dream.¡±


    The water started boiling as bubbles started rising within the water. She took out most of the torches and only left one to keep the water simmering.


    ¡°So, I had to get in no matter what it takes.¡± She continued on. ¡°Even if I don¡¯t get in the top ten, I can work to pay for school fees. After taking the entrance exam I waited for my results.¡±


    She paused again and took out the last torch to prevent the water from evaporating.


    ¡°Then what? What happened?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t make it. I was ranked 501.¡± She replied.


    ¡°What?! That must be a mistake? You¡¯re smart! They should be begging you to get in!¡± I tell her. She just looked at me and gave me a smile that melts my heart even more.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I though also.¡± She continued on. ¡°I went to the admissions office and complained. But all they told me was ¡®there is always someone smarter than you¡¯excuse. I begged them over and over and over again to let me in. I even explained to them my family situation. But they wouldn¡¯t budge at all.¡± She paused and tried to dip her finger in to see if the water chilled down a bit. Probably not, she quickly took out her finger.


    ¡°What did you do?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Nothing. There was nothing I could do.¡± Hiroko paused for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s when he came in. He must¡¯ve heard me from the beginning because he walked it and asked the admissions office if he could give his scholarship to me. Everyone was dumbfounded at that moment. Nobody knew what to think. Even I looked at him like he¡¯s crazy.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you looked at him? That means you know what he looks like?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I was crying the whole time, so my vision was blurry. And when I looked up, I only saw him from his back since he stood right in front of me. He explained to them that he is willing to give me his scholarship if they permit it. He got on his knees and bowed his head on the floor and begged them one more time to give his scholarship to me.¡± Hiroko tried to test the water temperature again with her finger.


    ¡°Did they agree?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s how I got in Chirin High School with a scholarship.¡± She replied to me.


    ¡°Wow. That¡¯s amazing. In the current situation you were in at that time, even I would do that for you.¡± I told her, and she smiled at me.


    ¡°I doubt it.¡± She replied back.


    ¡°I would!¡± I tried to tell her. I really would do it.


    ¡°Even if you we¡¯re on a much worse situation than me?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I was confused.


    ¡°After school year started, I saw the same instructor who agreed to switch the scholarship. Based on what she told me, he is the only child of a single parent because his dad passed away in an accident. They weren¡¯t rich but are actually poor, more badly situation than me. To escape that type of lifestyle, his mother worked more than one job to make ends meet. At least my parent had stable job at a company. They didn¡¯t. It was his last ticket to a better life and he gave it all away to me. That¡¯s why I need to find him and thank him and help him anyway I can.¡± Hiroko says and takes a gulp of the warm water.


    I couldn¡¯t say anything. I don¡¯t think I can top that in this situation.


    ¡°Do you love him?¡± I blurted out without thinking. Sometimes I feel like I should glue my mouth shut.


    ¡°That¡¯s why I want to find him. So, I can find out.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Oh, do you have any lead now?¡± I replied


    ¡°Yeah, he became a top ranker on another high school.¡± She says.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you visit him there?¡±


    ¡°I tried. But they didn¡¯t let me in. Theywouldn''teven give me his name because of school policy. Even when I asked the students who go there, they wouldn''t give me his name because of that policy.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow, must be a rich high school to have a policy that even students uphold. Which school is it?¡± I asked her. It took her a while toanswer. She kept on looking at the last torch she took out underneath theshield.Then She spoke of a name we''re all familiar with.


    ¡°Seito Private High School.¡± She then lit the fire on the torches and placed them again under the shield. Then everyone came back including Yasu.


    After Yasu was able to cook the rat, we ate it. Even when we had doubt¡¯s the rat probably is on my top five best food in the world. We got around the makeshift campfire near the statue and started talking to each other about our lives while we gnaw on rat meat. At first it sounded disgusting, but now, after eating a couple of them, it doesn¡¯t really seems so bad. But it turns out these rats have some laughing drug in them because we can¡¯t stop laughing every now and then after eating.We passed around stories of our time back at earth and that¡¯s when Riki and Sawada informed us that Yasu is from Seito Private High School, the most prestigious high school in the country, the same high school Hiroko one-sided love resides, we both we¡¯re speechless.This high school is so hard to get in that the most stupid student in that school will be the smartest student in all of our school combined.Seito Private High School is where the truly gifted goes to.


    After Hiroko hears the news about Yasu¡¯s current school, she couldn¡¯t stop staring at him. It''s likes she wanted to ask about her savior but she couldn¡¯t do it directly. She started talking to him more trying to get information of the whereabouts of her rescuer bombarding him with useless questions. I can see that Yasu feel uncomfortable on the sudden change.


    Good. That means hedoesn''t have feelings for her. I say in my mind as I see him finding reason to leave the room to get away from Hiroko. Everyone seems to get sleepy at the same time and we all decided its night when it happens.


    All of us sleep in Hiroko¡¯s room. The sound of water stream coming out of the crack helps us all sleep. We cycle on keeping watch. Even though it¡¯s a safe room, we still don¡¯t feel safe. Probably because of the giant statue that has the ability to move or the fact that we¡¯re still in an unfamiliar place. But, it¡¯s mostly Yasu staying awake through the night. He says he¡¯ll just sleep while we go hunting. Exhaustion get¡¯s the best of us and we all fall asleep really fast. Something shakes me awake and the minute I open my eyes, I see Hiroko looking at me.


    ¡°Yasu disappeared.¡± Hiroko says and when I look around, I see everyone is mostly sleeping except Yasu since he¡¯s nowhere to be found. I quickly wake myself up and look around outside to see if he exited the door to the Undead Room. But the door is closed. We close most all doors before we sleep to prevent anything from coming at us while we sleep. But there¡¯s one door open and that¡¯s door to his room where they collected all the rats.


    ¡°Is he catching more rat?¡± I say as I grab a dead torch and lit it. I head into the dark hallway and Hiroko followed behind me. As we get close to the door that is partially open, we can hear grunts and moans.


    "Is he masturbating?! I say in my mind.


    Like a bunch of curious kids, we both peeked through the opening to see if he¡¯s really masturbating or not.He was inside the room trying to pick up something. It very hard to see because the opening of the door is very small, so we decided to push it open slowly. Enough for us to see properly.Once we got a better view, we see Yasu trying to pick up a sword. The same sword Sawada and Riki used to catch rats.He grunted and cursed as he kept trying to pick up the sword over and over and over again.


    ¡°C¡¯mon you fucking sword!¡± He shouted out of frustration. He tried and tried but the sword never moved an inch. He then sat back down in from of the sword and lay down with his left arm over his head covering his eyes as he started crying.


    ¡°Fuck. Why the fuck am I here.¡± He said between sobs. ¡°Stupid fucking Luro. Stupid fucking class.¡± he just sobbed quietly trying not to let out a sound that might echo back to the statue room. He held out his hand in the air like he was trying to grab something. ¡°Mom. I¡¯m sorry. I was on my way to buy you food and I never came back. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    His words created knots in my throat making it harder to swallow. He rests his hands again into his face covering his eyes.


    ¡°I promise you when I get back, I¡¯ll buy you anything you want. So please don¡¯t breakdown. Don¡¯t go wasting your energy looking for me. Don¡¯t go wasting your energy working at that convenience store. I promise you I¡¯ll beat this world and come back. So wait for me mom!¡± He started sobbing like crazy.


    We both wanted to comfort him and tell him we also miss our family. But we hear him cry some more and we decided to give him space. We headed back to the Hiroko¡¯s room and waited for Yasu to come back. Once we hear the door slowly creak open, Hiroko and me pretended to sleep. I was laying down on the right side of Hiroko while Yasu¡¯s spot was on the left. I heard him shuffle and set himself down the wall. I slowly turned around hoping Hiroko was facing me.


    She wasn¡¯t.


    She was facing Yasu who¡¯s have his head on resting on his knees. Then out of nowhere, I see Hiroko¡¯s hand slowly move towards Yasu like she¡¯s trying to reach him. But she quickly pulled her hand back to herself. I couldn¡¯t sleep very well that night.


    It has been a couple of days now since we¡¯ve been going in and out the undead skeleton room. Yasucooked the rat for us and we didn¡¯t have a problem with food anymore.


    ¡°Hey guys, did you notice it?¡± Tobi asked.


    ¡°Notice what?¡± I asked back.


    ¡°Yasu, he-¡± Tobi replied but paused midway. The minute we mention Yasu¡¯s name, it¡¯s like an alarm now for everyone and it gets everyone¡¯s attention in a heartbeat. Especially Hiroko.


    ¡°He what?!¡± She screamed which surprised all of us. Pain in my chest started happening and it feels like its harder tobreathe but I kept my composure and listened on.


    ¡°Our food.¡± Tobi says.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, He poisoned it?!¡± Riki jokes around but Tobi have a serious expression.


    ¡°No you idiot, what I¡¯m saying is we¡¯re eating more than him.¡± Tobi replied. ¡°Even though we¡¯re suppose to divide it evenly among seven of us, it wasn¡¯t. I saw him take half of his and added it to our portion. He was trying to hide it but I saw him. He¡¯s giving half of his food to us.¡±


    After Tobi says it, we notice that we hardly see him eat. Even when we eat dinner together, he will just take a few bites of his food and store it saying he already ate before.


    ¡°He¡¯s even running back and forth the dark hallway to fill up our water container every now and then.¡± Sawada added to the conversation. ¡°To think of it, how can he sleep if he¡¯s running back and forth colleting water? He even does night watch.¡±


    We all have sad expression on our faces. We all feel the same way, gratitude, guilt, and over all the will to protect. We wanted to protect him like a lost lamb. And the only way to do that is to clear everything here so we all can get out. Outside, Yasu will have a better chance of surviving. There are probably a lot more things he can cook. If we find a town, it would be better. He can stay and level up while we go hunt for Luro. But for now, we need to focus on getting out of here.


    An hour later in the dungeon, we get to the point that we can eliminate the undead skeletons with ease. We did notice something off as we kill them one by one. All of the skeletons were not spawning anymore. Before, when we kill one, another one will appear. But this time, when we kill one, nothing appears anymore. So, we decided to walk back to the safe zone and rest for the day.


    If my hunch is correct, this is the last batch.I say in my mind as we walked down the dark hallway towards the safe zone.


    The next day, we¡¯re all excited to kill the last remaining enemy. Everyone is in good spirit even Yasu. After joking around eand eating breakfast, we all head back out towards the undead skeleton room. The amount of skeletons here didn¡¯t change. This proved my theory and this is the last batch. We¡¯re brimming with energy and we got to work right away eliminating the last remaining skeleton.


    ¡°YES! FINALLY! WE¡¯RE DONE!¡± Riki scream in excitement and slumps down the ground.


    ¡°Finally! I¡¯m sick and tired of killing those things.¡± Sawada says as he sits on the ground.


    ¡°Now, there¡¯s only one left thing to do. It¡¯s to get out of here.¡± I say and I look towards the door we¡¯ve worked hard to reach.After we rested for a few minutes, we decided to go through the door to see if there are any monsters in the other side. If we deem it safe, we¡¯ll call Yasu to come with us.


    ¡°Ok guys, Push!¡± I scream and I put all of my force pushing the double wooden door open. It creaked as the hinges lacks oil maintenance. Once we¡¯re able to open it completely, we¡¯re all out of breath on what¡¯s at the other side.We¡¯re introduced to a cave that has blue crystals hanging down from ceiling. We continued on, but we advance with caution just incase a monster jumps us from the dark.


    Once we got to the end of the cave, there is a huge white marble door blocking our path. We tried to push it open but it wont budge. That when we notice there are fourteen handprints on the door. Us six all together is in total of twelve hands. Were missing a pair.


    ¡°We need Yasu.¡± I say subconsciously, and we head back to the safe zone. I see Yasu leaning no the statue¡¯s pedestal with an expression that I can¡¯t quite explain but somehow, I can feel his frustration.


    Isn¡¯t he scared? That thing might come alive and kill him. I say in my mind.


    I call out to him and I explained him everything. I can see his eyes gleam with energy and we¡¯re all really excited to leave this dark dungeon.


    I can¡¯t wait for some sunlight! I say in my mind.


    Once we all have the energy, we left the safe zone. None of us looked back. We have no attachment to this place. I think they all feel the same way, they can¡¯t wait to get the hell out of here. We walked all the way to the white marble door. On the way, I can see Hiroko talking to Yasu then ends up hugging him jumping up and down. Again, the pain in my chest appeared.


    We reached the marble door that we got to earlier. We all placed our hands on the prints and the doors starting lighting up splitting in the middle. It opened sideways and what awaited us inside is our worst nightmare. There were all types of monster you can think off in one room. Goblins, trolls, wolves, and even undead skeletons are there!


    One of the wolves howled and a goblin stepped in front and blew his horn. It was so loud I felt like my eardrums will burst. After a while, I hear someone scream to run to the safe room and we all scampered to get up. It all happened in a blur. One moment we¡¯re happy leaving now we¡¯re all running for our lives back to where we came from. We rush out the marble door and rushed towards the skeleton room.


    No. No this can¡¯t be, no! I scream in my mind as I enter a state of panic looking at the door completely shut. We tried to open it, but it wouldn¡¯t budge. It probably needs to be pulled from this side, but it is missing a door handle. I tried punching the door over and over, but it wouldn¡¯t break. Riki tried his hammer but it wouldn¡¯t even get a dent.


    I have to save everyone. I say in my mind as I tried to calm myself and gathered my resolve.As a leader I have nochoice. I need to save everyone. They all have been following me and it might have been me that lead them to this moment. I need to save everyone. I need to save Hiroko.


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    ¡°Guys, it¡¯s has been a pleasure to lead all of you. But this is where I separate with all of you.¡± I say and I walked towards the other door facing away from them. ¡°I¡¯m going to activate my warcry skill, while all of them are busy attacking me, I want you all to run out the room and find an exit.¡±


    I hear Hiroko and Yasu protesting along with everyone else.


    It¡¯s ok, I think this is my fate. This is why I was brought here. Why I became leader. I need to make sure all of you come out of here alive. I say in my mind.


    Tears come out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks as I watch the enemies exit the dark cave one by one.I looked back to my friends one more time and gave them a smile, my last smile. I tried my best not to choke and told them my last words.


    ¡°Guys, I¡¯m sorry. Stay alive for me? Okay?¡± I say. I turned and sprinted towards the incoming horde. ¡°WAR CRY!¡±


    I screamed at the top of my lungs as I ran for them. A red light enveloped me and all of the monsters came rushing towards my direction. I hear them scream my name, but I was surrounded with so many monsters trying to get a piece of me. Every monster was attacking me from all sides. I hear barks, growls, and screams all around me as I was trapped in the middle of the horde. All of my friends have probably left the room since I don¡¯t hear my name anymore.After a while, they decided to give up. The horde left the way they came in leaving me battered and bruised on the ground. It felt like a hundred foot stomped on me every part of my body.


    ¡°H-Huh?¡± I say as the room became so quiet. I tried to stand but that¡¯s when the pain caught of with my brain. My leg was dislocated from its joint.


    ¡°Ah fuck!¡± I shout in pain as it echoed through my whole core. I have no choice but to try and force my leg back to it¡¯s joint. If I don¡¯t, I won¡¯t be able to move at all.


    gasp.


    SNAP!


    ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± My throat ripped, and I tasted my own blood. The pain shot up and traveled through my spine up to my head. It felt like someone is using a dull knife and stabbing an open wound. It took all the air out of me and I wasgasping for air.I pant trying to catch my breath. After I managed tostabilize my breathing. I knew I had to quickly get up. All of the monster that was attacking me are now after everyone else. I need to save them.


    ¡°Get up! Get up Junpei!¡± I scream as I forced my body up. Pain is the last of my concern. For all I know, those things are chasing after them. When I manage to get myself up, I moved toward everyone else. I had no time to feel pain so I run as fast as I can. I ignored the pain shooting through my whole entire body and ran hoping I can catch up to them.I hear the wolf howl and I run towards it. But no matter how fast I run, I can¡¯t seem to catch up and the noise seems to be always ahead of me. I pass the marble doors and enter another dark hallway. I kept running and running until I see a light towards the end of the hallway.


    BOOM!


    "Huh?" I asked confused.


    I look down and there are huge fingers wrapped around my body as smoke surrounded me. I could hear breathing behind me and I could also feel its breath. I turn my head and I see what they we''re running from. It brought me to its eyes and all I could do is stare at its large pupils. I look above its head and I could see its name.


    Gate Keeper Lv???


    I felt its grip tighten and felt like I was about to burst from my head and I black out.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    Huh? I just want to sleep. I whisper in my mind. I feel like someone shaking me and calling out my name over and over. Is that my brother? No it can¡¯t be. It¡¯s a female¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Junpei! Wake up!¡± The female voice seemed familiar. I follow the instruction of the voice and when opened my eyes, I was in a white room. I see Hiroko¡¯s face looking straight down at me crying. I slowly sit, and I can see everyone except Yasu in the white room with me.


    ¡°Where are we?¡± I asked them, and Hiroko quickly gave me a tight hug.


    ¡°Junpei!¡± she screams and sobbed. I felt warm and relieved I get to see her and everyone else. I hug her right back until she calmed down.


    ¡°Guys where are we?¡± I asked everyone.


    ¡°We all died.¡± Rikimura-san replied.


    ¡°Wait¡­Where¡¯s Yasu?¡± I asked.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know. He was the last person to stay alive. Since like he isn¡¯t here, we all think he made it to the portal.¡± Sawada says.That¡¯s when my feelings caught up to me and I started crying.


    ¡°Guys, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± I apologized to them. ¡°If I was a better leader, none of this could have happened.¡± I started crying and now everyone started doing the same thing.


    We all know we¡¯re not going to ever meet our family back on earth. We failed; this is the end for us. We all cried not stop. I¡¯ll never see my brother again. The same goes for everyone else. They¡¯ll never see their family ever again.


    I kept on crying until I notice a door. ¡°Is that a door?¡±


    I walk towards it and everyone follows me behind me. When I got close to it, it automatically opened itself. Inside the door is another white room with a chair and a table in the middle. Right in the center of the room, a person is sitting on the chair reading a newspaper.


    ¡°What is this? Front desk to heaven?¡± Riki whispers and we¡¯re all huddled together walking as a group towards the person. We can¡¯t see his face because of the newspaper he¡¯s holding up. As we got close, he brought down his news paper and looked at us.


    ¡°Luro¡­¡± I say, and he gives me a smile.


    Luro removes his glasses and place it down the table.¡°Heya Little babies! How¡¯s Life?¡±


    ¡°You asshole!¡± Hiroko charges at Luro. She flew over the table and tried to punch him but her fist just went through a holograph and she went stumbling towards the other side.


    ¡°Tsk Tsk Tsk. Always hot headed are you little missy.¡±Luro says looking at her. Hiroko then went running back at our side.


    ¡°W-Where are we? Are we dead?¡± Riki asked.


    ¡°You¡¯re in a white room as you guys can see and yes, you¡¯re all dead. Good job on dying before even leaving the dungeon. What a bunch of useless rats.¡±Luro responded.¡°Well, for now. I¡¯m going to give you guys a chance to be spawned back outside the dungeon. But this is only a ¡®one time¡¯ offer I¡¯m proposing.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Riki says happily.


    ¡°But, nothing is for free. Not in this world, and not in yours.¡± He tells us, and I somehow have a bad feeling.


    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked without hesitation.


    ¡°Well, as you know. All of you have died. When I say all of you, I mean all of you.¡±Luro says as he stood up and walk around the table to lean on it.


    Yasualso died? I asked in my mind confused as I dont see him with us. But, where is he?Did he get the special offer? Was he spawned back? He....hedidn''t even-w-


    As I was trying to finish my thoughts, Luro interrupted it.


    ¡°Well here¡¯s the deal little babies. I can revive people who died. But, on one teeny itty-bitty condition.¡±He paused for a minute waiting for our reply but no one said anything.¡°Everyone or Yasu?¡±


    ¡°Wh-what?¡± I say confused.


    Luro sighs really loud for all of us to hear.¡°Don¡¯t worry, everyone will be revived. But, If I revive everyone outside, I can only do it with the current people in this room. You see, Yasu is still alive and for some reason, that bastard hasn¡¯t died yet because he thinks he¡¯s shooting a drama crying his hearts out.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t we wait for him?¡± Hiroko asked.


    ¡°By my calculations, when his soul gets here, your soul will pass the time limit and will vanish so if you wait for him, you¡¯re waiting for your deaths.¡± Luro says.


    ¡°What do you mean everyone or Yasu?¡± I asked him as what¡¯s he¡¯s saying doesn¡¯t add up.


    ¡°Well, as you can see, I¡¯m still an evil god. I can spawn you all outside with the same class and abilities. But I will only spawn only you guys outside since he decided to not die the same time as all of you. Isn¡¯t that a selfish act? He doesn¡¯t deserve to be outside for being selfish. But, if you choose, I can spawn you all inside the dungeon with him, so you can try to have a go again. But when I do, I will reset the whole dungeon and also reset your levels and class. Basically, you will start from scratch. Oh, and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m that evil. If you decide to spawn outside, I will spawn him in the dungeon with his current class and level. If you decided to spawn inside the dungeon, I will change his class to a fighter one, so he can fight alongside you. Hurry up and pick, your time is running out.¡±


    Holy shit, this guy is a maniac. I say in my mind. We¡¯re left with a choice that will leave a scar in our hearts. Out of nowhere, one of us made their choice already.


    ¡°I choose to go outside.¡± Rikimura-san says.


    ¡°Good! Now four more and we have our winner! Clock is ticking little babies~¡±Luro replies with a mocking tone.


    ¡°How can you choose so fast?!¡± I asked him.


    ¡°I also choose outside.¡± Riki says and I glare at him.


    ¡°Three to go.¡± Luro says without breaking is gaze on the newspaper.


    ¡°Do you really think we can go through all of that again? We don¡¯t have a healer.¡± Rikimura-san said what Riki was thinking.


    ¡°We can go back to him once we are out. It¡¯s better to do it that way in my opinion.¡± Riki continued.


    ¡°Are you guys listening to yourselves? He will spawn in the dungeon alone with a non-combatant class!¡± I tell them, and they didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°I also pick outside.¡± Hiroko whispers and it caught me off guard.


    ¡°What? Hiroko?¡± I asked her, and she didn¡¯t look at me in the eye.


    ¡°I feel sorry to Yasu but, I want to survive and go home. I don¡¯t want to die again. I don¡¯t think he will spawn us again if we die a second time.¡± She tells me, and she suddenly got on her knees as she covers her face with her hands as she cried. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Yasu, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°I will pick outside.¡± Tobi says and even he feels the guilt of his choice.


    ¡°M-me too.¡± Sawada says, and I look at them like they¡¯re crazy.


    ¡°Well dear leader-kun? What do you choose?¡± Luro asked me.


    ¡°I-¡° I tried speaking but, what good will it do if I pick inside? They all picked to go out. ¡°Can you tell him something?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Luro replies as he looks at me.


    ¡°Tell him, we¡¯re coming back for him. So, stay alive. We will rescue him.¡± I tell him, and I felt the guilt in my stomach.


    ¡°Okay now that¡¯s six in total. Outside ya go little babies.¡± Luro says and with one snap of a finger, our bodies glowed as orbs float around us. Luro the snap his fingers again and everyone started disappearing.


    What have we done. I say in my mind before I lost consciousness.


    When I opened my eyes, I can see leaves falling and I feel a cool breeze gently blowing through my skin. Birds are chirping and flying from one branch to another. The trees are blocking partial of the sunlight and some of it that passes through hitting my skin gives a nostalgic feeling of warmth. I slowly rose and saw that everyone on the ground waking up one by one.


    ¡°The outside? We¡¯re outside!¡± Riki screams. The outside world is a lot more colorful than I imagined. The grass, the sky, everything is a lot brighter.


    ¡°Oh my god, what have we done. Yasu¡­¡± Hiroko says as she has her hand over her face as she cries.


    When I tried to comfort her, a voice came ringing out behind me. ¡°Yo!¡±


    I look back a guy, who has the same shirt as Riki coming towards us. We both stared at each other for a while until I see a couple more people walking behind him. There are six people in total walking towards us and he stops right before me and held out his hand to help me up. I grab his hand and he pulled me straight up.


    The minute we¡¯re at eye level, he smiled at me. ¡°The name is Balo, I¡¯m the leader of the Gold District. Nice to meet you.¡±

 CHAPTER 8: The end of the end part 1

    <hr>


    Chapter 8: The end of the end part 1


    <hr>


    Huh? Where am I?I say in my mind as my jaw¡¯s feel like it¡¯s wired shut. The last thing I remember is dying and a notification appeared that my life reached zero. Which is weird for someone that¡¯s dead.


    Ugh, I can¡¯t move. It¡¯s so dark,I tried struggling but is as if my whole body went numb and lost all feeling. God dammit! What¡¯s going on?!


    ¡°Well you died that¡¯s what. And why curse at me? I didn¡¯t kill you.¡± Someone says over me. A voice too familiar that even without my vision, I can distinguish.


    Luro you bastard! Where am I?!I curse him with all the bad words in my mind.


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re so friendly. Ah, wait; you¡¯re trapped in a limbo. Let me get you out.¡± He says and with a snap of his fingers, I was able to open my eyes and move my body. I gasped for air as if I held my breath for too long under water.


    ¡°Where am I?¡± I whisper looking around and I¡¯m in a white room that has no walls. The floor and ceiling look like it can go on forever.


    ¡°You¡¯re in the section between life and death. I call this, the neutral zone.¡± Luro tells me as he walks around. He¡¯s wearing a red suit with glasses that probably is just for fashion. His hair is greased back and even his horns have a glossy shine in them. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you remember, but, you kind of died like a bitch.¡±


    My memory is still vivid. I can clearly picture the gruesome way I died. I look down into the grown knowing that I won¡¯t be able to see my mother, brought tears to my eyes.


    "Goddammit." I weakly say crying to myself. "W-where''s everyone?"


    ¡°Your team? You mean them? They spawned back into the world.¡± He tells me making me look up to him.


    ¡°I-I thought it was permanent death?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°It is, I¡¯m just too generous.¡± He tells me as he walks around me. ¡°Now, want to know what will happen to you?¡±


    ¡°W-what?¡± I asked him nervously.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to spawn you back into the dungeon.¡± He tells me, and my heart sank.


    ¡°Do I have another option?¡± I ask him.


    ¡°Nope, well, you do. You can remain dead and pass on.¡± Luro says as he walks around me some more.


    ¡°What about everyone else?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°They will spawn outside the dungeon. Ah, they know you will spawn inside the dungeon, so they told me to tell you, that to wait for them or something. They¡¯re going to rescue you or something.¡± He tells me, and I somehow feel relieved. Even knowing my fate, they decided to try and save me rather than leaving me to die.


    ¡°Ok. I accept. I trust them.¡± I tell him. But to be honest, I had no other choice. This is the only chance to live on so I¡¯ll take it. Luro gave me a smile and somehow, I feel like he''s hiding something. Like it isn''t all that it seems to be.


    "Good, well then, have fun little one." He says as he snaps his fingers and I lose consciousness. I slowly woke up inside the cold hard floor in my room. Is as if it was the first day I got here. An orb illuminates the door with a sign on it. I read the sentence on the sign and proceed through the dark hallway following the orb this time. As soon as I got to the circular room, the silence finally hit me. I''m all alone now.


    ¡°Ok Yasu, you got this," I whisper to myself as I try to walk towards the other rooms to double check and each and every room is empty. "I''m really alone."


    I walk towards Hiroko¡¯s room and used the water to wash my face and drink to elevate my hunger. I don¡¯t know how fast they can come to me, but I need to find a way to keep myself from being hungry. I don¡¯t have much food left and the only thing I can substitute is water.


    "Dammit, what now," I say to myself as I walk back out to the statue room. I sat near the statue leaning on the pedestal trying to figure out what I should do next. My mind is empty. I didn''t have a plan and what I can do is very limited due to my class. I look at the door that leads to the skeleton room and it''s wide open completely more than what we left it. As much as I fear to venture out, I need to know if all the monsters respawn. If it did, I''d be in really deep trouble if I have to go through the undead skeletons.


    I decided to brace myself and slowly walked towards the opened large wooden double door. As I step out, I see the notification that I exited the safe zone. The torches started lighting up on each side and I took one from the wall and carried it as I slowly walked in the dark tunnel. As I got to the end, the door is also wide-open more than what I remember. I slowly peeked through and I sighed with relief when I saw all the weapons and armor scattered in the ground.


    ¡°Is as if the same as we left it. I guess I don¡¯t have to fight the undead skeleton, but I have to try and fight the rest on the other room?¡± I whisper to myself. ¡°Shit. This is the same as death.¡±


    Just selfishly thinking of being alive and accepting Luro¡¯s proposal, I noticed I¡¯m not better off. I slowly walked towards the end of the skeleton room and peeked through the door. Thinking that the monsters are in the next room, I let my guard down as I peeked through. All of a sudden, a wolf that was sleeping beside the door woke up as soon as I peek my head out the side. We locked out for a moment before it started growling at me. It let out a loud bark and all of a sudden, more wolves came out of the dark corners of the cave while goblins and trolls came out the door on the other side.


    ¡°Oh shit!¡± I curse running back as the wolf goes on a full sprint towards me. One of them almost caught up and using the torch in my hand, I managed to impair its vision for a bit giving me time to gain some distance. As soon as I passed the skeleton room, I went into a full sprint towards the safe zone trying to gain some more distance, so I can have enough time to close the door. But as I tried, the door won¡¯t budge as if they were glued to the ground.


    "Fuck!" I cursed as I let go of the door and ran to the safe room. As I get close to the entrance, A wolf suddenly pounces on my back and got a hold of my shirt. It wildly shook its head side to side flinging me around with superhuman strength. The shirt ripped off its mouth and my body went flying towards the safe room. I see it jump and I and out of instinct, I used my hands to try and block him. But rather than getting bitten, I heard a loud yelp as if something hit it so hard it made it cry. I look, and I see the wolf shaking its head trying to shake away its concussion. A bright green light separated us as it covered the entrance where I came from acting like a wall deflecting every attack that''s coming from the goblins behind him. I see arrows, spears, and blades all coming my way, but the force field blocked every attack.


    ¡°Ha! That¡¯s what you get!¡± I scream at it and as I see the wolf and the horde couldn''t come into the safe zone.


    ¡°Get out of here!¡± I scream to the wolf, but it snarled at me before walking away with everyone else. ¡°Whew, so this is why it¡¯s a safe zone.¡±


    This is bad. The exit is through the other end. I need to get past them somehow.I whisper to myself, as I remain laying down.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to die," I whisper to myself as I place my hand on my eyes. I just lay there crying up until I got tired and fell asleep. It¡¯s been a couple of hours since I woke up and I¡¯m starting to get sleepy again.


    "I guess it''s night time," I whisper as I yawn trying to keep myself awake. I retreated back into Hiroko''s room taking a couple of torches with me. Good thing is that the flames never run out as soon as they''re lit. It stays on forever or up until I put it out. "Status window."


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond District


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All the food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    MB


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    ???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Ugh, it¡¯s all the same. He really did spawn me back with this shitty class.¡± I groan as I look at my status carefully. ¡°MB? This wasn¡¯t here before.¡±


    I ignored the new passive skill for now. There''s no description and the skill window only work on my regular skills, not the passive ones. I called out my dimensional bag with a command and it dropped in front of me. I took out a piece of rat meat and ate it slowly taking the smallest bite as I possibly can. After taking a couple of bites, I store it back into the bag and walked towards the tiny pond in Hiroko''s room. I used the frying pan to collect some water and dumped it on the makeshift campfire.


    "Good thing this is still here," I whisper as I dump the water onto the shield, so I can slowly boil it. I made a mistake earlier drinking from the pond directly. Luckily, I didn''t get any stomach ache, but I rather not take any chances after that. As I wait for the water to boil, I suddenly hear one of the wolves let out a howl that almost made me run to a room. I remembered the forcefield, so I decided to approach the entrance of the safe zone.


    "What the fuck," I whisper to myself. As I got closer, one wolf started growling at me. I feel a bit safer with the invisible shield from the safe zone but sleeping here while those things are watching me is another thing. "Fuck, I have to sleep with these things outside?"


    I watch the wolves settle themselves outside the safe zone.I taunted them a couple of times but then gave up when they started showing no interest. After boiling the water, I started getting sleepy as I started to frequently yawn. I was planning on sleeping by the pedestal since it¡¯s closer to the boiled water, but I headed to Hiroko¡¯s room and slept there instead. The sound of a small stream hitting a pond of water helps me calm my nerves. It¡¯s better than sleeping in the statue room where a giant door is wide open with the enemies on the other side. As I listen to the water, I slowly started becoming drowsy and I quickly fall asleep.


    As soon as I wake up I checked if the wolves are still out there. They are, and they multiplied. They literally made the hallway their campground. I went to my room and tried to pick up the sword again. But to no avail, it''s still heavy. I quickly gave up since it doesn''t make sense to waste energy unnecessarily. Back at the main room in the middle where the broken statue is, I tried to attack the statue and managed to destroy a piece off its wing. The piece that fell was sharp enough to stab something. I contemplated on getting one of the wolves with this as a weapon but since they''re all grouped up in the entrance; I''ll die before I kill the first one.


    "I hope they''re coming for me," I whisper as I walk towards a wall. Using the sharp rock, I started carving the days I''m stuck in here. I tried counting how many times I slept as a way for me to track down the days I''ve been here, but I decided to start today as the first day carving a line on the wall until I made a mark. Not much I can do but try to keep track of everything. I''m hoping I can pull one of the wolves in the safe zone but, the force field will probably stop me.


    One, quickly becomes two, three four, and I carved so much on the wall that the rock started becoming dull. I used the sword to try and sharpen it but it''s a lot harder when I can''t pick up the sword and try to make do with what I can. Every time I get sleepy, the wolves outside would howl non-stop keeping me awake. Is as if they know and is trying to test my patience and sanity.


    ¡°Ughh shut up!¡± I shouted as loud as I can, but they never did. Their howls echoed through the hallway reaching Hiroko¡¯s room even when I have the door closed. When everything is so quiet, any noise gets amplified so much that I started having anxiety thinking that something will attack me from my sleep. Different thoughts came through my mind as days pass by. If its day, I don¡¯t know. I have lost the sense of daytime and I¡¯m starting to forget the feeling of the sun. I laid down listening to the water and the wolves howl and started thinking of my life in this world.


    In my entire life, I died twice. First was in the train, the second was near the portal of the dungeon. Both of them weren''t a really nice way of going. Getting your heart ripped out or being stabbed, cut, and stomped on while being eaten by wolves isn''t really any better. I talked to myself in my mind trying to keep my sanity. But the thought of going through pain, going through the same situation created a fear in my heart that stopped me every time I tried to be brave and confront the wolves outside the safe zone.


    The next morning, I started feeling much worse as my body feels slugging and any sudden movement makes my head spin. A piercing headache didn¡¯t help as the rumbling of my stomach kept me awake. I stepped out to the statue room and I sat by the pedestal of the statue and put my head down towards my knee while hugging my legs.In that position right there, I waited.


    "I trust them," I whisper but even talking is painful, as my mouth feels dry at every word even when I drank all the water I can drink. But how long can I continue believing them? I don''t know. The day''s kept adding up as more lines I carve in the wall. My daily routine of waking up, washing my face, drinking as much water as I can before taking a tiny bite onto my remaining food caused me to feel the stagnant pressure of my situation. The pattern has become so heavy that I feel like a programmed robot to do the same thing over and over till I die.


    But at least a robot doesn¡¯t need food. A couple more days have passed, and I cut down on my daily food intake to one tiny bite a day. I don¡¯t have enough rat meat to last me for a long time, so I tried my best to save whatever I have left. But as time goes by, my food depletes with it and I was brought to only drinking water multiple times a day. I don¡¯t really know how many days have passed since I stopped keeping track and carving the worse require too much energy. Has it been really days in here, I¡¯m not completely sure. But one thing I do know, it feels like an eternity.


    I sit by the pedestal of the statue and rest my back on it. More days passed by and I started to feel numb at certain parts of my body. It became so worse that I stopped moving at all. I wake up near the pedestal; I sleep where I woke up. I can''t gather water anymore. I don''t have the strength for it. I should thank physics. An average person with a normal weight can live up to eight weeks without food. Without food, my body will burn the fat and that fat can extend my life for a couple more days. But, I''m on my last stretch. I don''t know if I will wake up tomorrow.


    "How long¡­" I tried muttering, but I couldn''t make up the next words, as it requires too much energy. It feels like my lungs might give out any minute. I look at my hands they look really skinny in such a short amount of time. Now that I don''t have food altogether, my body started burning my fat and flesh to the point that I can see the outline of my bones from the top of my hands. I can''t cry anymore, I don''t have the energy to even shed a tear. I just sat there, staring at a wall.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ¡°Wow, you look like shit.¡± Luro suddenly appeared in front of me but I couldn¡¯t even talk to curse him out. ¡°Well, this is unexpected.¡±


    I see him put his cold fingers near my neck, but I didn¡¯t even try to move, as it requires too much energy to even lift a finger.


    Go away, I say in my mind.


    ¡°I will, I just passed by to check on you but damn, you look like you¡¯re going to die any minute.¡± He tells me as he stands back up. ¡°Well, since you¡¯re about to die, why don¡¯t I show you a nice clip.¡±


    A clip? Like a movie? I asked him in my mind.


    ¡°Hmm, well depends on you how you interpret it.¡± He tells me as he sat down in front of me. ¡°Here, let me just show you.¡±


    He snaps his fingers and a hologram with a white noise appeared in front of me. After a while, an image slowly formed as clear as if I was watching through an HDTV. I see Hiroko on top of Junpei crying while trying to shake him awake. After a while, I see him wake up and it didn¡¯t take long for him to start crying.


    Everyone. I say in my mind as I watch what¡¯s going on.


    "Ah, let me turn up the volume on this part," Luro says as he sat beside me like we¡¯re on a date watching a movie. The volume increased and it was loud enough to wake up the wolves sitting outside. But, upon seeing Luro, they all ran to the skeleton room yelping.


    I watched as I listened to them talk. Junpei was crying that he let them all down as a leader. I wanted to cry myself but I had no energy left. After a while, they see luro sitting on a table wearing the same clothes he has now. I see them have a bit of scuffle but they all started calming down as soon as Luro started talking to them.


    ¡°Well here¡¯s the deal little babies.¡± I hear Luro talk in the monitor. ¡°I can revive people who died. But, on one teeny itty-bitty condition.¡±He paused for a minute waiting for our reply but no one said anything.¡°Everyone or Yasu?¡±


    You fucking asshole, what did you do?I asked him in my mind.


    ¡°Shhh, this is not the best part yet. Keep watching.¡± He tells me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everyone will be revived. But, if I revive everyone outside, I can only do it with the current people in this room. You see, Yasu is still alive and for some reason, that bastard hasn''t died yet because he thinks he''s shooting a drama crying his hearts out." Luro says that made me want to strangle him.


    ¡°Can¡¯t we wait for him?¡± Hiroko asked.


    "By my calculations, when his soul gets here, your soul will pass the time limit and will vanish so if you wait for him, you''re waiting for your deaths," Luro says.


    ¡°What do you mean everyone or Yasu?¡± Junpei asked him and I feel a gut-wrenching feeling as I keep watching the clip.


    "Well, as you can see, I''m still an evil god. I can spawn you all outside with the same class and abilities. But I will only spawn only you guys outside since he decided to not die at the same time as all of you. Isn''t that a selfish act? He doesn''t deserve to be outside for being selfish. But, if you choose, I can spawn you all inside the dungeon with him, so you can try to have a go again. But when I do, I will reset the whole dungeon and also reset your levels and class. Basically, you will start from scratch. Oh, and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m that evil. If you decide to spawn outside, I will spawn him in the dungeon with his current class and level. If you decided to spawn inside the dungeon, I will change his class to a fighter one, so he can fight alongside you. Hurry up and pick, your time is running out.¡±


    Don''t tell me, they... I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°that they did~¡±He whispers as I see him nod beside my trying to hold back his laughter.


    "I choose to go outside," Rikimura-san says that made my heart sank.


    "Good! Now four more and we have our winner! The clock is ticking little babies~" Luro replies with a mocking tone.


    ¡°How can you choose so fast?!¡± Junpei asked him and I¡¯m glad he still on my side.


    "I also choose outside," Riki says and I wanted to kill him at that spot.


    "Three to go," Luro says and I watch the remaining clip to see what everyone else would pick.


    ¡°Do you really think we can go through all of that again? We don¡¯t have a healer.¡± Rikimura-san says, and I couldn¡¯t take it anymore.


    Turn it off. Turn it off! I shout in my mind.


    ¡°Keep watching, the best parts are yet to come.¡± I hear him and he somehow forced my head to watch, as I wasn¡¯t able to turn or close my eyes.


    Stop! Turn it off!I shout in my mind but all he did was shush my and cover my mouth with his hands.


    ¡°I also pick outside.¡± Hiroko whispers and my heart drops even more as my eyes started welling up.


    ¡°What? Hiroko?¡± I hear Junpei asked her and I prayed that he at least wouldn¡¯t leave me.


    ¡°I feel sorry to Yasu but, I want to survive and go home.¡± She says and I can''t help feeling betrayed. "I don''t want to die again. I don''t think he will spawn us again if we die a second time. I''m sorry Yasu, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    "I will pick outside," Tobi says, and I can''t even do anything.


    ¡°M-me too.¡± Sawada also picks me to stay in the dungeon. The people I hoped would be my companions still found me to be a hindrance. I feel Luro¡¯s hand slowly move away and my body relaxes as he removed whatever prevented me from even blinking.


    "Well, dear leader-kun? What do you choose?¡± I hear Luro asked Junpei in the monitor.


    ¡°I-¡° He tried speaking and I prayed and prayed in my mind that at least, he¡¯d pick to be in here with me. ¡°Can you tell him something?¡±


    "Sure," Luro replies to him and I see Luro from the side peeking at me giving me the most sinister smile. But my vision was glued to the screen hoping that I wasn¡¯t abandoned here.


    ¡°Tell him¡­¡± I hear Junpei talk and my heart was beating so fast it felt like it would jump out. ¡°we¡¯re coming back for him. So, stay alive. We will rescue him.¡±


    From then on, everything somehow went slower and look to the ground. I couldn¡¯t comprehend what had just happened.


    ¡°Oh look!¡± Luro says like he¡¯s watching the best part of a movie. I weakly look up and I see them shaking hands with what seems to be people. ¡°Those are the gold district team. They met up and went on to build a camp together. They¡¯re friends now.¡±


    My heart wrench at the word ¡®friend'' every time he mentions it. I can''t seem to accept that they chose to leave me behind. They could have picked to restart. I would have a different class, we would have figured out how to get out together but, instead, they picked the easy way and set me up to my doom.


    ¡°Well, I just wanted you to see what actually happened. You know, that they knew that you would be here regardless what choice they pick, it¡¯s just that, they chose to not suffer with you. What a bunch of selfish cunts huh?¡± Luro says and I didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Well, hope you like my final gift. Bye~¡±


    He snapped his fingers and he disappeared leaving me alone in the statue room.


    Was it my fault that this class was named wrong?I whisper to myself with a blank expression.I didn¡¯t do anything wrong.


    .


    .


    I give up, I say in my mind as I found myself moving towards the dark. My mind keeps going blank and I can¡¯t even control my body as I move like a zombie. The darkness was alluring. It feels like a blanket waiting to cover me from all this pain. I kept walking and walking till my legs gave out and I fell to the ground. I didn¡¯t even make any sound as my body feels light like a feather but at least I feel the coldness of the floor.


    Ah, let me sleep. I whisper in my mind as I slowly close my eyes. All of a sudden, I hear footsteps that jolt me back awake. I kept my ear in the ground and I hear the footsteps coming closer and closer. Thinking it''s them, that Luro lied to me, I used my remaining strength and force my head up. I happily look up welcoming them with a smiling face but it all soon faded as I see them standing in front of me. The darkness I walked towards must have been the darkness from the hallway and I collapse outside the safe zone.


    No, I whisper in my mind as I look at them smiling down at me. The same smile I feared before I died.


    ¡°No! Get away!¡± I found the strength to scream but my arms didn''t move nor my whole body for the matter. Even if I want to get away from them, I couldn''t. I shouted and screamed as I see one leaning towards me while laughing.


    ¡°oggabruk Naroosh dukratah." A goblin whispered in my ear and I tried my best to even move an arm, but I couldn''t. I see it stand up and I fell something grabbing me by the collar of my shirt and my body started moving forward. I screamed and begged but all they did is laugh as the goblin dragged me into the dark. After entering the skeleton room, they threw me down the ground and I feel something grab my hair and pull it straight up almost ripping it off my scalp. I tried to scream but a hand covered my mouth and all I could do is look at it in the eyes with fear. Goblins, wolves, trolls, they all made came in the skeleton room as I see campfire scattered around.


    I feel a sharp pain in my left leg and I see a goblin running his knife slicing my skin. I tried struggling but my body was too weak and all I could do is a scream but even that I was denied as the troll holding my head kept my mouth covered muffling my voice. I felt the sharp pain as the dagger dug more into my leg but stopped before hitting my bone. I cried and tried to struggle but anything I do is useless. I feel the knife dig in as my leg was being cut open and I lose consciousness due to the pain.


    I woke up slowly adjust to the light of the campfire and once I come to, I feel my arms tied up to something. I see them sitting around a campfire laughing while the goblins are dancing around holding a plate. Trolls were stuffing their face with what looks like meat and the wolves are on the side eating also. A sudden sting jolts my attention towards my leg and my heart sank as I see my legs cut wide open exposing the bones. I notice blood coming out, but a magic circle would appear reversing it back. It looked like they cut off a piece of my leg and tears welled up in my eyes as fear succumbs to me.


    They are eating me alive! I shouted in my arms as I tried to struggle but my arms don''t even have any strength left. I hear footstep coming towards me and as I look up, a goblin looked me down smiling. Fear made my heart race and I begged and begged for him to let me go but my cries only sounded like inaudible sounds. I see it slowly coming down lifting up one leg and brought a dagger in my calves and slowly cut stripping away my flesh up to the bone. I felt the pain and this time, it was enough to keep me awake during the whole ordeal. After he''s done cutting a piece of me, he walked back to his group and all threw my flesh in the pot that simmering in the middle. My leg stung and the pain of being cut alive lingered as I cried and cried.


    One of the goblins came back and fearing he would do it again, I tried my best to move my leg, but it didn''t. All of a sudden, he took out the loincloth he''s wearing exposing himself and rolled it before putting it in my mouth and tying it in the back of my head muffling my cries even more. The taste and smell of the loincloth were too much that it made me gag but vomit didn''t come out as my stomach was empty. He went back to his group and they all started laughing talking in a language I can hardly hear. The pain in my leg made it difficult to stay still as it throbbed and throbbed resonating throughout my whole body. Magic circles appeared randomly preventing me from bleeding to death and I feared the worse has yet to come. They''re going to keep me alive as much as I can, so they can eat me.


    Somebody, please, help me. I begged in my mind as I cried to myself through the night.


    I forgot how long I¡¯ve been here. Every now and then, I would get a piece of me cut away from my body and the pain is something I could never get used to. I passed out a couple of times which is scarier than staying awake since every time I come to, I notice myself looks completely different. My whole leg is almost missing meat but yet, I was still alive due to the runes that somehow regenerated me slowly keeping me alive. Is as if they made me into a meat farm. They would wait for the runes to slowly recover what they took and once I built enough flesh, a goblin would come and cut me up again. It was a never-ending nightmare and I hoped day by day, minute by minute that they would kill me.


    Everyone in the room I''ve seen has eaten me. Sometimes, they would leave altogether leaving one behind to keep watch to only come back and cut me up again. The only one I didn''t see eat me was the troll that was left to watch me every time. It seems like he only eats everything else except the flesh that comes from my body. I see him walk past me and the look he gave me was different than everyone else. A look of pity. A look of anger, a look that means to let me know my place. A human flesh farm that sits in the bottom of the food chain. I see him take out a bottle of what seems to be water and slowly poured it into my mouth letting me drink and satisfying the dry feeling in my throat.


    After a while, he would sit back down and fiddle with his knife. He keeps glancing my way and I know what''s he''s thinking. He wants to cut me up and eat some flesh before his companion gets here. But most of the time, he would hide his knife back and just sit facing away from me. But this time, it was different. He stood up holding a knife and I braced myself from the pain of being cut up. I close my eyes and clench my fist as I hear him walk near me anticipating a blade to enter my flesh. But all of a sudden, I felt the ropes on my arm comes loose as my body falls sideways. I open my eyes and I see him picking me up and throwing me on his shoulder.


    Ah, he¡¯s going to kill me now. I whisper in my mind as I accept my fate. As he turns around I hear a sound from a distance making me slowly lift up my head. Everyone came back and they all started screaming running towards us. All of a sudden, the troll holding me went into a full sprint towards the hallway and I hear everyone shouting and screaming while they ran after us.


    What? What is he doing? I say in my mind as I watch the ground turn dark as we entered the hallway. I suddenly hear a swoosh and felt the impact of it. I feel blood trickling down my chest yet, I feel no pain. The floor slowly exposed itself as we probably got closer to the entrance of the safe zone.


    I guess they¡¯re going to kill me he- The voice in my head suddenly stopped as I see the liquid traveling down dripping to the floor was purple. I see its legs was struggling to walk and all of a sudden, I felt the trolls hand grab me from the waist and my body went flying towards the light. My body came into a loud thud as I rolled around the ground to an only stop facing the hallway I came from. I see the troll slowly slump down the ground with a spear through its chest and everyone else came behind him using swords and blades to finish him off. I see all of them look at me and I felt the fear in my stomach as I notice bloodthirst in their eyes. Yet, they didn''t move.


    I¡¯m¡­.I¡¯m in the safe zone? I say in my mind as I watch them shout before grabbing their weapons lodged in the dead troll and leaving back towards where they came from. I¡¯m in the safe zone!


    Happiness filled me as I felt safe for the very first time but, it wasn¡¯t long till I started to notice I was losing consciousness. I struggled to stay awake looking at the dead troll that carried me and anger filled my core. Using my strength, I slowly dragged myself toward it. My body is telling me to heal but my mind, it was thinking about something else.


    Hunger.


    But the situation finally caught up to me as my body stopped moving.


    I¡¯m going to agian die in the end, I whisper in my mind feeling frustrated I didn¡¯t get a chance to even live.


    I¡¯m sorry. I whisper in my mind as my eyes slowly closed.


    No.


    I can¡¯t.


    I want to live.


    I¡¯m not going to apologize.I didn¡¯t do anything wrong.I whisper in my mind holding on the last bit of my consciousness. Wait for me, mom. I¡¯m coming. I will come back.


    All of you¡­


    Why¡­


    I just want to go home¡­.


    You¡­


    All of you¡­


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Fuck all of you!!!¡°I shouted as loud as I can and like a car being restarted, I managed to open my eyes as life was brought into me. Something in my mind snapped and all of my fear, my worries, my nervousness, my pain, all of this was replaced with anger. I didn¡¯t care about anything anymore. Using my last energy, I forced dragged myself towards the dead troll. I felt every joint and muscle riddle with pain. I notice the rock I used to carve my days on the ground and I grabbed it while struggling towards the troll. I laughed at the pain as the adrenaline-fueled by my anger travel through my bloodstream. I just didn''t care if my body rips to shreds.


    ¡°I¡¯ll fucking get out of here or die trying!!!!¡± I shout asI jam the rock in the dead troll and used it to dig into its flesh. ¡°How dare you fuckers eat me alive! Eye for an eye! Tooth for a tooth!¡±


    I clamped my jaw on the troll''s neck and using all my might, I ripped off a chunk from its body. I couldn''t the taste anything. Even when I chewed and swallowed the raw meat, I didn''t feel it. I clamped down one more time and the thought of paying them back the same way they did me was exhilarating and I kept laughing as I ate the troll. I lost everything as my mind went black. I lost my fear, I lost my taste, I lose the pain I felt, but the most valuable thing I lost, is my mind.


    I slowly woke up inside looking up a dimly lit ceiling. As I tried to sit up, I notice I¡¯m able to move my body again. All of the meat I lost came back but I still looked skinny. My head was pounding, and a strong smell of metal lingered in my nose and even in my mouth. I look to the side and I see a corpse, the troll missing a portion of its face and the side of its body. It looked like as if a cannibal ate it. I look down and I was covered in purple blood holding onto a rock that was covered also. Suddenly realizing what I had done, I went on all fours and gagged but nothing came out as if I never ate anything.


    All of a sudden, I hear howling and as I looked up the hallway where the wolves made their den. Anger welled up inside and my body just moved towards them wanting to rip all of them to shreds. The minute I got out, I easily got in front on one of the wolves and I was quickly on top of it already ready to beat it with the rock on my hand. I could sense fear in its eyes, but it couldn¡¯t sense it in mine.


    ¡°Well hello there~ Welcome back~¡± I smiled the biggest smile I can make and lodged the sharp end of the rock in its eye. Blood spurts out onto my hands as it yelped in pain. I started licking the blood off like a vampire and I turn towards the wolf yelping trying to back away.


    ¡°Huh?! Where are you going?!" I shout and the other wolves behind started running away leaving the injured one at my mercy. It tried to run and before it got a chance to get away, I grabbed its tail and yanked it towards me. It yelped some more, and I used my foot stomping on its ribs. I could hear bones cracking and it spits out blood. Since my attack only deals two damage, I started stomping on its ribs some more and I feel a bone come out and pierce me under my foot.


    ¡°Argh!!! Hahahaha!¡± I grabbed my foot looking at the piece of rib from the wolf and yanked it out without care if I was going to bleed to death. The pain was immense but somehow, it fueled me more as I get more excited with all the blood everywhere. Using the bone of the wolf, I stabbed its other eye and it yelped some more in pain before slumping down the ground as its health reached zero. But I didn¡¯t stop there. I kept taking out the same bone and stabbing it repeatedly.


    ¡°Die! Die! Die! Die die die die!!!!!!¡± I curse at the dead wolf between hits as blood splatter everywhere covering the walls and my clothes.I hear a growl in front of me and one wolf has its hair and tail sticking up. I noticed it brought cavalry along as goblins and trolls walk towards me with such an annoying demeanor.


    "Hello! I''m quite, hungry~" I sang as I lurch myself towards the wolf and it didn''t expect for me to move that fast. I didn''t expect it either. With a swift swing, I lodge the bone into its eye and I see a bigger number appear with the word ¡®critical hit'' appear above its head. Thinking that the damaging the deals with bigger damage, I let go of the bone and grabbed the yelping wolf by its jaw. I feel its sharp fangs dig into my palm as I force them apart. I hear its muscle rip as I yank it jaw out of its face and more blood spurt into my face covering me from head to toe. I see more ¡®critical hit'' appear on top of the wolf as its life suddenly reached zero. But I didn''t care, and I just wanted to kill. I wanted to kill everything.


    ¡°What happened little goblin?¡± I asked as the goblin that acted all high and mighty have regressed into the ground pissing. Everyone else behind him started running back screaming a language I couldn''t understand. But one thing I know, we have a common language. Fear. The goblin tried to ride one of the wolves to get away and I managed to grab onto its tail. It¡¯s a lot bigger than the other wolves I killed as it managed to drag me across the hallway. I tried pulling myself up until I was able to clamp on its leg with my mouth. I bit the leg as hard as I can and the wolf yelped in pain as my teeth dig into its bone. It stumbled to the ground and we all crash in the entrance of the skeleton room. I slowly stand up eye all of them while smiling.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this exciting!! Let¡¯s all die, together shall we?!¡± I shout as I ran to the wolf I bit and using my hands, I poked its eyes as it yelped in pain going blind. The goblin tried to scamper up, but I managed to jump on it and clamp my hands on its neck. I strangle it as it trashed around scratching my arms trying to breathe, but I kept squeezing up until its body became lifeless and it fell unconscious. Using my teeth, I bit its neck and blood squirted all over my mouth as I rip off a chunk of its throat. I placed both hands on the wound and I yanked it apart as if I was ripping a shirt into two.


    "Ah~ that felt so good," I say as I slowly stand up and walked towards the yelping wolf that went blind by my thumbs.


    I looked back to the crowd that was watching me and I gave them a smile. Even the undead skeletons aren''t moving an inch. They all just stared at me. The troll''s and the goblins screamed and watched me rip their friend get''s ripped apart. I stepped on the wolf''s leg snapping it in two making it yelp some more. Its voice is the only thing that echoed in the room as I watch it struggle to survive.


    ¡°Was it fun to eat me alive?! Huh?!¡± I say out loud to the watching crowd.


    This time no one made a move and I can see it in their body that they feared me. I grabbed the yelping wolf by the tail and dragged it towards the dark hallway leaving a trail of blood on the ground. It yelped and yelped but none of the other monsters did anything. They just stood there and watched me drag their companion into the dark. Before I disappear, I look back and put a smile on my face.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill all of you~¡± I sangas I turn around and walkedin the dark.

 CHAPTER 9: The end of the end part 2

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 9: The end of the end part 2


    <hr>


    I drag the wolf back towards the dead zone. It kept yelping and yelping and it¡¯s worsening my headache. I pass the other carcass and I notice it never turned into dust. I see a rib sticking out and using it, I decided to kill the wolf by stabbing it from its bottom jaw.


    ¡°Ugh! Come on! Fucking stop struggling!¡± I shout as I force the head down towards the sharp edge of the rib bone, but it used its last remaining strength to push itself up and we ended up battling with our strength. ¡°Go. Down!¡±


    I kicked its foot making it slip and using the momentum, I pushed its head through the bone and it went through like butter. I watch it struggle for a bit as its health slowly decrease as more ¡®critical hit¡¯ appear above its head floating into the ceiling over and over again. Once its life reached zero, its body went limp, but it didn¡¯t turn into dust.


    "Perfect, this way, I can eat you bastards when I kill you," I whisper as I grab it by its fur and pull it out. Blood was coming out of its mouth as more blood gushed out the hole under its jaw. I laughed and laughed as I play around with it mouth trying to make it talk.


    ¡°I should have never betrayed you. I should have never tried to kill you. Woof woof!¡± I imitated its mouth as it goes up and down.After having my fun, I pulled its carcass passing through the door towards the safe zone. I forgot about the force field, but it never activated as the carcass passed through. I went back out the hallway and grabbed the other two dead wolves slowly dragging it into the statue room leaving a blood mark on the ground.


    ¡°Shit, how do I skin you?¡± I whisper to myself as I look around and found the rock I used to stab the troll corpse and kill the other wolf. It was covered in blood still stuck in the wolf¡¯s head. Getting excited at my first proper meal, I didn¡¯t bother washing the meat and just threw it in the shield to cook it. Since I gained the fry skill from leveling up to two, I managed to fry the meat without turning it black. Once cooked, I didn¡¯t wait for it to cool down and ate the meat devouring it like a monster. It burned my mouth, but the pain was like ecstasy. I ate and ate and ate up until I managed to devour half the wolf in one sitting.


    ¡°Ahh~¡± I say laying down as I rub my stomach. ¡°That hit the spot.¡±


    My body must have been really exhausted and fell asleep within seconds.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°What a moron you are.¡± I hear a voice and as I look, I see Junpei standing over me.


    Hiroko appears to my left and mumbles, ¡°What a moron you are. You deserve to be eaten alive.¡±


    Then they all appeared one by one surrounding me calling me names while manically laughing.


    ¡°Get away! I¡¯ll kill you! I¡¯ll kill all of you!¡± I shout waking up from my dream. ¡°Shut the fuck up! Shut up! Shut the fuck up!¡±


    Their voices rang in my ears non-stop. I see the carcass of the troll and all of my rage just exploded in my body as I punch its head over and over again.


    ¡°Shut the fuck up! Who told you to talk to me?! Shut the fuck up!¡± My fist hit the face over and over again. I feel my skin ripping apart, but the pain somehow made me smile.


    Shut the fuck up~I sang in my head. I feel like nothing could stop me now. Fuck everything. Fuck all of them and fuck this world. If I survive this place and get out of here. First thing I would do and pay a visit to my dear friends and beat them with my frying pan. Not kill them, just beat them to a bloody pulp. Death is an easy way out for those fuckers.


    I stop as I lean back laughing. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Should I torture Luro also? You hear that you bastard?! You better hope it¡¯s not me who finds you!!¡±


    I¡¯ll start with Hiroko first. I whisper in my mind as I blankly stare at the ceiling.I¡¯ll beat her senseless until her pretty face becomes ugly. She¡¯ll be so ugly not even Junpei wouldn¡¯t want to touch her. Then I¡¯ll beat Junpei. If my frying pan breaks, I¡¯ll beat him with his own fucking shield. Then Riki, Sawada, Tobi and that old cunt Rikimura.


    I kept thinking on how it would be such a thrill to see them cry as my frying pan hits their face. I¡¯m not going to kill them, but I¡¯m going to make them wish they were dead. I¡¯ll make them want to die but keep them alive.


    ¡°Should I heat up the frying pan first before I beat them?¡± My body was filled with excitement making me hug myself. I felt the sticky upon touch and as I look down, I noticed I¡¯m still covered in blood from head to toe.


    Holy shit.I whisper in my mind as I look at my body back to normal. Just the day before, I looked like a zombie with missing flesh, yesterday I looked like a dead man walking, now I look normal again. I took out my bloodied shirt and see that even my rib cage isn¡¯t showing anymore. Is as if, I never starved or didn¡¯t go through the ordeal of being eaten alive.


    ¡°I healed?¡± I asked myself and I suddenly remember my foot that was injured by the wolf¡¯s bone. I quickly look at it and the hole that was in my foot disappeared as if it never happened even the areas where I was missing flesh was back to normal. But a sudden fear enveloped me as I remembered the pain and I held my head covering my ears trying to drown everything. After a while, I managed to calm down and decided to wash as I was covered with so much blood, the water in Hiroko''s room turned red. I didn''t care and washed every part of my body and even my clothes. I placed them near a torch and walked around naked drying my body. I sat near the pedestal looking at the ceiling excited about how many times I can level up cooking the wolves and remaining troll corpse.


    ¡°I wonder what the giant ogre would taste like?¡± I asked myself as I approach the half-eaten wolf and started ripping out meat using the sharp rock. I placed them in the pan and collected as much as I can before lighting the torch on fire. I noticed that after cutting the other half of the wolf, it was a lot of meat. I remember eating and eating up until I started feeling the food enter my stomach which is about eating half of the wolf.


    ¡°If I can regain and heal wounds in a day, I have a bigger chance of survive this hell.¡± I tell myself as I cooked all of the wolf meat. It took me roughly two days to get the meat out of the other wolf and cook it. I stored all the meat in my bag after cooking it. I left the innards and any inedible parts out but decided to cook them to just gain some level. As for the corpse of the troll ate raw before, I dragged it to one room and left it there. As much as I want to chop up its corpse, I can¡¯t forget the fact that I was saved by him.


    ¡°Fucking shit, getting saved by an enemy.¡± I whisper as I focused on cooking the wolf meat. After cooking all of the wolf parts, I¡¯ve gotten to level nine and gained new skills.


    ¡°Status window.¡± I say remembering my new passive skill.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Name


    </td>


    <td>


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Class


    </td>


    <td>


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Level


    </td>


    <td>


    9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Guild


    </td>


    <td>


    Diamond District


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Grill


    </td>


    <td>


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Fry


    </td>


    <td>


    8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Boil


    </td>


    <td>


    5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Steam


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Bake


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td>


    Gives you a Chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Purify


    </td>


    <td>


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td>


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    MB


    </td>


    <td>


    ???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°MB huh.¡± I whisper before taking a bite of a cooked wolf meat. ¡°I wonder¡­munch* munch*what the fuckmunch*is this shit.¡±


    Studying my body one more time. Regaining my original body in a day was amazing, now I¡¯m wondering if I can tone my body down in a quick amount of time also. If I want to get out, I need to fight. But I can''t hold any weapon, so I have to fight them barehanded and aim for any critical strike.


    "As I remember what those fuckers said, stamina represents our physical appearance as well as our physical health in this world. If I work out, will it boost my strength? Will my DPS increase a bit at least?" I questioned myself. If I can gain body original body mass in a day, I probably can gain a much more toned body in a short amount of time. This will help me move better. The more my body can withstand or handle attacks, the better chance I have getting out of here. I decided to push my body to its limits and use my healing abilities to heal all the ripped tissue in a day. Doing insane number of push-ups till I feel like my arms would break. I stopped tracking the days on the wall and just focused on getting myself ready to fight all of them head-on.


    ¡°I guess gaining and healing is two different aspects in this world. I wonder how healing works?¡± I say to myself looking at my body still the same even after a couple of days of intense workout session. So many questions run through my mind. The better I understand this worlds system, the better I can utilize it to survive. ¡°Hmmm, let me try something.¡±


    I went back to my original room where there¡¯s a sword lodged in the center. All of a sudden, fear enveloped me again as I remembered the feeling of blades cutting me to pieces and I started hyperventilating. I closed my eyes and chanted ¡®I¡¯m alive¡¯ over and over again trying to drown my memories of the pain. It took me a while till I calmed down and looking at the blade somehow, it¡¯s restarting my panic attack so I decided to go back out towards the statue room to get away from the blade.


    After I calmed down, I closed my eyes and leaned at the pedestal of the statue.


    Think Yasu think. What made you regenerate fast?I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°Wait, is it because of eating?¡± I asked myself. I need to try it out. Rather than cutting my self, I was more comfortable putting my hand over the flames of the torch. I wait till it started hurting and the pain made me laugh as I smell my skin burning. I guess I didn''t fear but feared blades as it kept bringing back the feeling of being cut every time I look at one. Even the swords that''s being used to hold up the shield was making me sick.


    After burning my hand, I washed it and wrapped the apron to cover the wound. I step out onto the statue room and decided to sit around and wait to see if my wound heals without eating. After a while I took out the apron but the wound seems like it got worse forming blisters. I took out my bag and started eating a piece of wolf meat. I put the apron back on my hand wrapping it as it started stinging but not unbearable like being cut alive. After a while, I slowly unravel the apron again and I noticed the pain was gone. I quickly remove the apron as my theory, eating probably heals me because the blisters were gone and my hand was back to normal.


    ¡°Well what do you know, probably the reason I ate the whole wolf in one go was due to my body¡¯s condition before. The more severe it is, the more food I need to heal.¡± I say trying to understand how it works.


    "There¡¯s a possibility that this is my class natural ability? Ha, I¡¯m starting to like this class." I say as I remember chef''s soul. For all I know, the abilities can be more than one thing and healing by eating food might be one of them.


    But this one healed so fast. I guess severe damage takes time to recover from?I whisper in my mind studying myself.


    ¡°If I get hurt, all I need to do is eat. I¡¯m a cook so I can level up while I heal myself at the same time. This means, I can take all the damage I want as long as I don¡¯t die I can heal the next day!¡± I started laughing at my new profound ability. The excitement I feel in my core was making me itch to go out and murder everything. I can feel it, I lost my sense of morality. After snapping out of my weakened state, I feel like a newborn man.


    I walk back out towards the statue room and walked towards the shield filled with water. After cooking, I boiled the water I collected from Hiroko¡¯s room. If I was my old self, I would have been disgusted seeing someone drink colored water but, now, I just feel that those thoughts are unnecessary. The water turned purplish red become of the blood I washed off, but it seems like, anything I do in regard to being a cook purify anything making it drinkable and safe to eat. But the only downside is the taste. It remains the same.


    After taking a couple of few sips, I hear a scuffle near the entrance of the hallway. As I look up, I see a goblin standing there just watching me. It suddenly shouted a bunch of words that I can''t comprehend while hitting its shield with a dagger.


    Is it taunting me?I thought about how intelligent they can be as I thought up different scenarios in my mind. They might have set up a trap.


    But all of them flew out giving me a blank slate as my body started walking towards the goblin. My mouth formed a smile that made it stop hitting it shield and I can see its legs starts shaking before taking off towards the skeleton room.


    ¡°Where you going~ Gooobliiin~¡± I sang as I ran after it and I can somehow close the distance if I wanted to. My body feels light and faster than before. The thoughts in my mind disappeared to be replaced with a voice in my head. Kill,kept echoing like a record on repeat. I feel like I¡¯m going crazy of excitement.


    ¡°Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!¡± I shouted out repeating the voice in my head as I ran after it. I let it get ahead wanting to see what it will lead me to, but it suddenly tripped and tried to scamper back up. I caught up and using my foot, I stomped on its leg twisting its foot the wrong way. I hear crunch and a loud snap as I dig into the ground. It screamed in agony as I laughed and smiled of joy watching blood come out of its twisted ankle. After a few minutes, I stopped and leaned over putting my mouth near its ear and whispering, ¡°crawl little baby, crawl.¡±


    It shouted in a different language as I laughed watching it struggle to crawl towards the door that leads to the skeleton room. I hugged the wall and followed it in the dark while it tried it¡¯s best to get away from me. The smile on my face never left and the excitement I felt only doubled as the adrenaline rush through my system. After reach the door to the skeleton room, it shouted some more and I see a wolf starts barking at the door looking at my direction. Using all my strength, I jumped out and my body flew faster than I anticipated. My body met with the wolf¡¯s mouth as it barked, and I can feel its teeth digging into my flesh as I accidentally jam my knee in.


    It tried to yelp but before it had a chance, I grabbed its mouth and took my knee out and jammed my foot at its lower jaw. Using all my strength, I pull up the top half of its jaw and using my foot, I pushed down the bottom ripping it apart. Blood spurts out in all direction as I laugh watching its face get ripped in half. I feel its teeth cutting my palm, but I kept pulling till its lower jaw ripped off making me stomp on the ground. A small crack formed beneath me as my foot hit the ground and it stunned me for a moment. I notice a movement to my side and I see the goblin trying it¡¯s best to get away crawling with all its strength.


    I slowly followed it as it crawled to its teammates. Upon seeing me, they all sprint out the skeleton room passing the stalactite and running towards the other hallway. I can hear the goblin in front of me shout with all his might as tears come out of its eyes. I slowly lean placing my head next to his while looking at the door where everyone ran out too.


    ¡°So, what now?¡± I whisper smiling and I can feel the goblin shake in fear. I placed my right hand and stroke its bald head like a dog while whispering, ¡°Hush hush little baby, don¡¯t cry~¡±


    I stood up and dragged the goblin while walking toward the hallway in front of us. The same hallway that leads to the portal.


    ¡°Ah. Ah. Ehem. Wow acapella is good in this hallway.¡± I whisper as I let him go. I look at the goblin in the eye and gave it a smile that made his complexion turn pale. I squat down and it didn¡¯t say anything as it froze in fear.


    ¡°Say goblin, let everyone hear your song.¡± I smile as I slowly place my thumb in its one eye. ¡°Sing little goblin, sing.¡±


    I jammed my thumb in its eye and it screamed as it grabbed my hand trying to pull my thumb out. I laughed and laughed as I poke its other eye and it screams echoed through the hallway behind me. I tortured it till it satisfied my anger and the hallway was replaced with silence.


    I took the goblin''s corpse back to the safe zone along with the dead wolf and deboned them using my bare hands. I was still a bit puzzled how strong I''ve become. Ripping off bones like it''s child''s play. Even earlier I dented the ground when I accidentally stomped it at full force. I cooked the goblin meat first and ate one to test its taste. Nothing too iconic, just a similar taste to red meat but on the stale side. After cooking the meat of the wolf and the goblin, I checked my status and my level never went up.


    "I guess I need to cook more?" I whisper looking at my status window. But after a while, I started testing my strength and punched a wall. At first, my hand felt like it would shatter and the wall didn''t even make a dent. Since I could heal any wound by just eating, I repeatedly punched the wall until my knuckles bled and used food to restore it back. After a while, I notice I''m starting to create small dents onto the wall and the thought of being able to fight without weapons brought excitement to my body that I started punching the wall with both first not caring if I turn my bones into dust.


    ¡°Seven thousand!¡± I shout as I brought my fist towards the wall. It¡¯s been a couple of days, probably but I can¡¯t tell since there¡¯s no indicator for daylight. The impact of my punches has created a small dent as if a police door buster hit it at full force. I laugh at the unbelievable progress I made by just punching the wall for a couple of days. My arms somehow formed a finer tone as I see more muscle making me a bit leaner. I ate after I worked on the wall and as soon as I heal, I would go back to punching it till I moved on to the statue breaking off parts of it. After a few more days of non-stop hitting the wall, I decided to visit the skeleton room to see if they all came back but nothing. I was tempted to walk out the other hallway but, if the gatekeeper is still there, I can''t just nonchalantly walk out asking for trouble. I might bite more than I can chew.


    ¡°Stupid gatekeeper. Damn bastard. Meh, it doesn¡¯t matter. I feel good. I never felt this good in my entire life before.¡± I say as I walk back to the saferoom and sit back down the pedestal of the statue. ¡°Show DPH!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    9


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "I¡¯ll die of old age before this even reach one hundred," I whisper to myself studying my DPH. It seems like it''s in correlation with my level. If I level up to ten, it will probably go up to ten. "I''d be so old- Age! Crap! I forgot my birthday! Did it pass already?¡± I remember before I was brought in this room if I wasn''t kidnapped, I''d be celebrating my birthday the following month.


    ¡°I know I came in here around January. Has it been two months already? My birthday might have passed already.¡± I say reminiscing my birthdays. I remember that even though my mom worked a lot, she still managed to celebrate my birthday every time. Her coming home from work calling out my name carrying some form of a gift. The last birthday gift she gave me is a sweater I kept safe and only wore it on special occasions. It was a special type of sweater that the sleeves can be removed for summer time. Good thing I didn''t wear it that day I was transported here or else that sweater would have been destroyed or covered in blood.


    From then on, I made a resolution as I look up the ceiling whispering, ¡°Tomorrow, I¡¯m leaving this place.¡±


    I went to sleep and as fast as I fell asleep, as fast as I woke up. After washing my face and eating breakfast, I decided to head into the end of the other hallway to get a grasp on what I am facing. I quietly sneak through the door leading to the undead skeleton. I can''t really blend in with anything and the only pair of clothes I''m wearing has bloodstains on it along with dried pink spots where the brain mush left its memory. I look like a cannibalistic zombie; I doubt anyone would want to attack me head on. My face and hands were nice and clean since leaving the dried blood might cause some irritation.


    "Hahaha look at me, worried about irritation in this situation," I whisper to myself of the foolish idea. I slowly tread through the door holding my frying pan like a sword,and even that, I never washed. Actually, I never used it since I mostly fried food on the metal shield. I proceed out of the other door towards the cave and back into the other hallway. As soon as I reached the end, I slowly peek out and what I¡¯ve seen made me rethink about the monsters from this world.


    ¡°well, I''ll be damned¡­" I whisper baffled that even the wolves are helping put what seems to be a barrier blocking the portal. They were using rocks from the cave to build a barricade. I see some trolls and goblins act as lookouts. ¡°They¡¯ve become much organized? Are they doing this to prevent me from going out?¡±


    Crap, if they¡¯re this organized, it¡¯s going to be harder to deal with these fucks.I decided to go back in where I came from to head back to the safe room and think of a strategy when all of a sudden, I hear a growl near the entrance.


    "Ah shit," I say as I notice a wolf looking right at me. It barked the minute I looked at it in the eyes and it brought the attention of all the monsters building the barricade. Getting annoyed at its continuous barking, I launched at it with my frying pan at hand and I swing down but it dodges my attack and started running away towards the portal where all the enemies are. All of the goblins and trolls started screaming while the undead skeletons started hitting their shields with their weapons.


    ¡°What the fuck!¡±I shouted out grabbing a rock and throwing it at them. ¡°You fuckasses are really annoying!!¡±


    I guess I pissed them off as they all started returning fire, a bunch spear came flying towards me and I quickly jump to the side to dodge them while running towards the entrance of the hallway behind me. I zig-zagged my way there to prevent them from hitting me with those spears and blades. I can hear some of the goblins and trolls are following me with their wolves as they charge like an organized army. As I enter the dark hallway, I kept a smile on my face disappearing into the dark.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°Grah!¡± I hear a troll shout as he stopped near the entrance. I hid in the dark and kept still trying not to make any noise. Luckily, they must have taken all the torch to use since the hallway never lit up. I wanted them to think I ran towards the safe zone giving me the element of surprise. The hallway isn¡¯t big enough for all of them to fit so I can probably handle them if they enter in pairs. Suddenly, I notice a troll comes in with a goblin and I swung at full force with my frying pan directly in its head. The sound of metal hitting its skull have ringed out the hallway and throughout the cave. The rest of the group that¡¯s standing outside the dark hallway couldn¡¯t move an inch and was afraid to go inside to try and save their comrade while the goblin that came with the troll ran back out. I kept hitting the troll with the frying pan as I laughed and laughed until the hallway was silence again.


    After killing the troll, I waited in the hallway for another victim but no one came in. I used the dead body as bait to see if one of them will try to retrieve it. As I was about to give up on waiting, a goblin sneak in and slowly walked towards the dead toll.


    "Bad move," I whisper.


    I bolted out the darkness and swung my frying pan contacting its temple. The goblin fell to the ground and I hit it as hard as I can with the frying pan. Blood came pouring out of its nostrils and it looked up to me in fear. I looked back at it and gave it a smile. The goblin screamed non-stop probably calling for back up but none of them came out to try to be a hero. The goblin shouted and screamed more as it started thrashing around like a little kid. I used the frying pan and hit the goblin square in the face breaking its nose while shutting him up.


    As I watched it try to regain its sensed, I grabbed its left leg from the heels of its foot then I lifted it up. Using my left foot, I stomped down towards its shin and I hear a bone snap and the goblin screamed to the top of its lungs.


    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± I shouted at it, but it didn¡¯t work as it screamed louder. I continued to torture the fucker. I grabbed his hair and yanked its face up to force it to look at me. I want it to see my hatred. My anger. I want it to know it made a wrong choice fucking with me. ¡°For something that level 15, your quite weak when you don¡¯t have your weapon.¡±


    goblinlvl 15


    HP 800/800


    ¡°Say, do you know what this is?¡± I lift up the frying pan covered in blood and hover it near its face. It didn¡¯t say anything but just looked at the frying pan and back to me. ¡°Well, you will soon find out.¡±


    It tried to trash again trying to get away as I laughed while rubbing the blood on the pan at its face. It tried to cover itself using his hands a shield and closed its eyes as if it accepted its fate.


    ¡°No No No, that won¡¯t do. You can¡¯t see the glory if you have your eyes closed and your hands in your face.¡± I smile while I look at it whimper in fear. I grabbed its hands and proceeded to break them forcing it to snap from the elbow as I bent it the opposite way. A bone stuck out as it screamed and trashed from the pain.


    "Let''s make it so you see the picture-perfect situation," I whisper as I grabbed its eyelids with my fingers. It probably felt my eyes dig in but I carefully made sure I didn''t damage its eyes as I proceeded to yank its eyelids off his face. It felt like a tough rubber as it didn¡¯t come off at the first pull. I jammed my foot in its face and used it to push his head down while my fingers clamp on its eyelids.


    ¡°What. The. Fuck!" I shout between pulls "Come off!¡±


    The goblinkept on screaming and screaming that his voice and struggles echoed throughout the hallway.


    Good, I want them to hear it scream,my voice repeated in my mind as I gave it a smile during our tug of war.After a few more pulls, it finally gave in and its eyelids ripped off its face as I pulled it off with a bit of skin that ran up its forehead. It was like peeling a mango.


    The goblin shouted and cried as it tried to grab its opened eyes with its remaining hand. I put my face near him and I could see blood dripping from its wound making it look like he''s crying blood.


    ¡°One more eye to go~¡± I sang as I grabbed its other eyelid and tried to yank it off like the first one. It took roughly twenty minutes to yank off the other eyelid. It kept trying to grab me, so I broke its other hand immobilizing it completely. Now, the goblin has two broken arms and one broken leg with no eyelids making it look really freaky as it couldn''t close its eyes. But after a while, it just laid down as it breathed unnaturally. It still alive but I guess it lost all the will to live. I went back and continued what I was going to do in the first place. I stood on top of it and then raised the frying pan. This time it couldn¡¯t block its face and couldn¡¯t close its eyes.


    "Ah, you see? Isn''t it better this way~¡± I sang before I brought down the frying pan to its face slowly smashing it to pieces at every hit.


    It¡¯s been at least thirty minutes of nonstop bashing till the goblin reached zero health. Hitting it with the frying pan hardly took any damage and very rare case I saw a critical hit. I sat back down in the dark waiting near the entrance to see if any more will decide to walk in the darkness trying to be a hero. I would gradually expose myself to them from time to time taunting them but all they did is scream when they see me but never took the initiative to run after me.


    ¡°What a bunch of lame bastards,¡± I whisper as I turn around to walk back to the safe zone and think of a plan how to get past the barricade they made near the portal. I doubt I can make them run away when I corner them into a wall. I look at my frying pan bent the wrong way covered in blood. It¡¯s starting to become loose from the handle and feel like if I use it one more time it will break.


    ¡°Can¡¯t have you breaking now~ I need you for a couple of people to say hello to~¡± I sang as I put my frying pan inside my dimensional bag pack. I grabbed the dead goblin and dead troll by their leg and dragged them towards the safe zone.


    "Wait, I could have used the dimensional bag!" I say thinking how stupid it was to waste my energy carrying these corpses. I tried to fit a goblin in my bag but somehow, I can only fit its leg since the bag¡¯s opening doesn¡¯t stretch. Which means, to store it, I need to chop it to pieces which I can¡¯t do since I can¡¯t even hold a sword, so I just gave up trying and dragged both corpses towards the safe zone. Once I got back, I dumped the dead troll and goblin near the pedestal.


    As usual, I couldn¡¯t use a knife to cut the troll or goblin, so I used my teeth to gnaw on the legs and arms. Biting chunks of flesh and piling them up in the shield to cook them. It¡¯s harder for the troll and goblin because their skins are like rubber. Once I know I have enough to cook, I rinse my mouth of the blood from the two. The goblin had red blood like humans but the troll¡¯s blood was purple. I didn¡¯t want to take a chance and catching troll disease if I drink its blood. I only took meat from its arms and legs and decided to leave the rest since it was too much to keep biting. I have enough wolf meat to last me for a while. I just want to see if I get experience points on cooking these things. I lit the fire and decided to fry the meat. I don''t have oil so the meat sticks to the damn metal shield but it still counts as frying. While I let the meat sizzle, I look at my frying pan which has blood stains and dents here and there.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised this thing hasn''t broken yet," I whisper looking at it from all angle. I store it back in the dimensional bag. I wanted to save it for them. I really wanted to hit them with it. So I vowed, I would only take out the frying pan when I see them. My attack power is the same with or without the weapon, so I can punch them to death. If I break my fist, I¡¯ll just eat and let it heal overnight but it sounds more exciting to beat them with a blood-covered pan. After a while, I flipped the meat to let the other side cook. Probably due to my class being a cook, I notice a strong urge overcomes me to flip the meat when one side is cooked. I don''t even have to inspect it, I just know when I need to flip it. I felt my body starts recovering after eating a wolf meat and I lay down next to the fire and closed my eyes and listen to different sounds aroundme.


    I can hear the small stream hitting the tiny pond in Hiroko¡¯s room,I can hear the fire next to me.I can hear the flesh of meat cooking.I can hear my own breathing.


    I¡¯m alive¡­Yes, I¡¯m still alive¡­


    DING!


    The sound surprised me as a notification appeared even with my eyes closed.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on reaching LVL 10!


    - You have gained a new passive skill


    - You have gained a new skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The excitement of learning a new cooking skill made me sit up as hastily call out my status window.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Name


    </td>


    <td>


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Class


    </td>


    <td>


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Level


    </td>


    <td>


    10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Guild


    </td>


    <td>


    Diamond District


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Grill


    </td>


    <td>


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Fry


    </td>


    <td>


    9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Boil


    </td>


    <td>


    5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Steam


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Bake


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td>


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Purify


    </td>


    <td>


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td>


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    MB


    </td>


    <td>


    ???


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Knife


    </td>


    <td>


    This gives you the ability to wield blades of all kind.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°N-no way.¡± My heart beat faster as I look at my new passive skill. ¡°Wield any blades, does this includes swords?!¡±


    I quickly run to my room so I can try to pull out the sword lodged on the ground. But the minute I touch the hilt, my panic attacked started making it harder to breathe as I remember all the pain I went through.


    ¡°I-i-cant.¡± I feel like I want to vomit as I run out of the room. As soon as I got outside, my breathing went back to normal, but my body won¡¯t stop shaking. Looking directly at swords from a distance doesn''t give me panic attacks. Even when walking past them. But somehow, when I think in my mind of holding one my body starts to remember my flesh being cut by the goblins dagger.


    ¡°Fuck! Come on!¡± I shout frustrated at my inability to hold the only thing that can increase my chances of getting out of here. I tried again but every time I feel the coldness of the blade makes me picture it entering my body slowly peeling off my skin.


    ¡°I can¡¯t survive, mom,¡± I talked as I cried, and I feel different emotions go through me at once. Anger, sadness, happiness, everything, I was feeling it. It took a while till I calmed down. I wanted to get out of here fast. I''m sick and tired of the darkness and I''m starting to forget what sunshine looks like. I''ve been taking the risk but now, but my chances before were greater than slim. With the ability to hold a weapon, I have a better chance of defending myself but the inability to even touch a sword makes me frustrated.


    I walked back out towards the statue room and took my anger out on the statue by punching it till I broke one of its legs and it came toppling down. I kept punching it even as it fell up until I turned it into rubble.


    ¡°Oho~ What is this? Am I being attacked?!¡± I hear a voice and I noticed the statue¡¯s head that rolled away looked at me with a changing expression. ¡°Come on now don¡¯t destroy me-¡°


    I swung at it at full force and it shattered into pieces.


    No matter what I do, I am meant to die here. He wants to kill me! I shout as I felt a huge ball of anger surge in me and I clench my fist till I felt my nail dig into my palm.


    ¡°I will not die here!¡± I shout as I run out of the safe zone. My mind couldn¡¯t think of anything except to bulldoze towards my enemies and rip their eyes out. Rip their limbs off their body. Rip their hearts out and make them watch it beat outside their chest. I ran like a madman not caring if there¡¯s an ambush waiting for me. I lost all sense of direction, I lost all sense to think, I lost my sanity as aimed to kill them all. To destroy them till they beg me to live.


    As I reached the skeleton room, I noted some of the goblins, trolls, and skeletons are collecting the weapons scattered around. As soon as they saw me, they dropped everything trying to get away, but my body moved too fast as I was able to catch up in no time. One goblin tried to use a shield to block a punch, but the impact made him and the shield fly to a wall. The feeling of destroying him made me more excited as I went after the troll that ran out of the room heading towards the next hallway. I was able to catch up to him grabbing the troll by the neck and forcing him down. I brought my fist towards its faces with the weight of my anger and it went right through destroying its skill as I see a critical hit float above its head diminishing its life to zero in an instant.


    ¡°Let¡¯s all die in hell!¡± My voice echoed with the impact of every punch as I kept hitting the dead troll with my fist over and over again. The goblin that flew with his shield tried to bash me and I quickly jump to the side making the goblin trip over the troll¡¯s body. Its shield flew out of its hand and as It tried to get up, I stomped on its leg breaking its ankles. It screamed in pain as I laughed with joy. It was a new feeling that surged inside me. Like I was a whole new person that lose the ability to feel remorse and I liked it. It made me feel like a winner, a feeling of victory that lasted only for a moment up until I felt a sharp pain in my body as it was forced to the side.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I grimace in pain as I roll to the ground.


    ¡°Rogarukah! Marakoh!¡± I hear a voice and as I look up, I notice a troll riddled in golden armor standing tall over me. It lifted a club over my head and in a quick swing, it brought it down trying to smash my face in. I roll to the side dodging its club and the impact was hard enough to crack the ground. A sudden sharp pain hit me in the side as It kicked my ribs and I felt all the air disappear in my lungs while my ribs crack into pieces. My body rolled to the ground as I grabbed my side trying to ease the pain.


    ¡°Bwahaha!¡± I spit blood as I laughed at the pain. I laughed at the troll as I looked at it in the eyes. ¡°Is that the best you got!¡±


    It grabbed me from the collar of my shirt bringing my face close to his. I see the fury in its eyes and I blew kisses towards him before spitting blood at his face. It threw my body across the room and I felt like a ragdoll bouncing around before hitting the far wall.


    ¡°That¡¯s the spirit you son of a bitch!¡± I shouted as I look up glaring at the troll. I couldn¡¯t stop smiling. Even when facing a formidable enemy, I couldn¡¯t stop smiling. Even when my ribs are breaking, I couldn¡¯t stop smiling. I just felt really happy. It started walking slowly as I struggled to get up. I see a sword in front of me and the thought of holding it is making my skin crawl. But, my happiness was a lot stronger as I slowly reached out to the sword. It felt like it was only me and the sword. Everything turned into silence as I looked at the blade. Grabbing the hold sent shivers down my spine. The thought of getting myself cut made me sick but I couldn''t stop smiling. Every pain I felt, every anger I emitted, the happiness I showed, the sadness I cried, everything flashed before me. And as quickly as it appeared, as quickly as it disappeared leaving me to look at my reflection on the sword. From then on, everything felt lighter, I didn''t feel like vomiting as I felt calm holding the sword. Is as if, it became part of my body.


    "We are one," I whisper as I look at my reflection and I could see myself smiling. A smile so sinister it brought me joy looking at it. "Give up everything and, kill everyone."


    The troll stood in front of me raising his club over my head. It swung downwards, and I find myself moving without thinking stepping close as I swing my sword upward aiming for its wrist. The blade entered his skin only to stop where the bone is, using all my strength, I pushed upwards, and the sword went through the bone cutting his hands cleanly. Blood spurt out of his veins hitting my face at it rained is blood. He stumbled backward screaming as I stood my ground as I close my eyes and tilt my head back while opening my arms as if was welcoming rain made from blood.


    "Ah~ That feels good," I whisper as I listen to the sound of his screams echo throughout the room. I slowly open my eyes looking down at him and I can see he''s trying to grab a dagger with his remaining hand. I quickly stepped on top of his palm as I lodge the sword downwards impaling his arm to the ground. He tried screaming but I quickly muffled his mouth with my hand as I brought my face close to his.


    ¡°Shhh~ You wouldn''t want you friends to hear you being a bitch you know," I tell him smiling as the excitement feels my core. I could see it in his eyes that he feared me. It made me even happier. I slowly let go of his mouth and walked around him. The troll tried it¡¯s best to remove the sword impaling his arm but it didn¡¯t budge as I lodge it as far as I can into the ground. Without his other hand, he couldn¡¯t grab anything let alone pull the sword out. I see him try to stand up, but I guess the pain he feels was enough to force him down. I picked up another sword and without saying anything, I stabbed one of his legs pushing the sword down the ground. He screamed more in pain as I quickly stab his other leg making him look like a frog ready to be dissected.


    He screamed in pain as I twist one of the swords lodged in its leg making it bleed more. I slowly pull it out making him go crazy. I¡¯d stop for a few second to slowly push it back in and his screams echoed in my ears. I walked around its body while waving my hand around as if I was conducting an orchestra.


    ¡°Louder! Encore!¡± I shout as I move the sword around and I could see its body shaking from the pain. ¡°Ah, wait, I did get a new skill.¡±


    I called out my status window and looked for the name of the skill. Huh, sharpen, do I need to sharpen blades?


    I read the skill description and it says it gives the ability to increase the sharpness of any blades at the price of durability. I grabbed one of the daggers on the ground and using the armor around the troll¡¯s body, I scraped the edge of the blade trying to sharpen it. I wanted him to become paranoid hearing and feeling the blade scrape back and forth. I checked the skill to see if it leveled up but nothing.


    ¡°Hm, I wonder how to activate it. Is it voice activated? Sharpen?¡± The minute I utter the word, I felt the dagger vibrate as it faintly glowed. ¡°Wow. It is voice activated. So fancy~¡±


    I study the blade and after a few minutes, the vibration stopped and the light surrounding the dagger disappeared. I activated the skill again and the glow came back as fast as I said the word. Wanting to test it out, I slowly stab the troll¡¯s armor and it went through faster than I expected as if I was stabbing gelatin. The troll shouted as the blade of the dagger reached his back. I slowly pull it out while I kept a big smile in my face looking at the blood drip from the dagger to my hand. I walked back towards his head and brought my face close to his while showing him my bloody hand.


    ¡°Hey, want to go through what I went through?¡± I whisper in his ear I brought the blade close to his cheek and slowly run the tip across his face.


    ¡°Grougah! Grougah!¡± It tried speaking as I laughed at its plea.


    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you unlucky, I can¡¯t understand one bit of what you''re saying," I whisper as I slowly stab the dagger into his cheek. I watch blood drip out of the wound as he tried to trash his head around. I held him by the neck forcing him down towards the ground with one hand. My strength was enough to hold him still as I slowly stab his cheek again tilting the blade sideways. I slowly took out the skin on his face and I didn''t even get halfway till he passed out from the pain.


    I waited for him to wake up, but he never did. Trying to vent my frustration, I stabbed the troll multiple times trying to jolt him awake but I ended up killing him in his sleep.


    "Blah." I felt defeated as I failed to make him scream in pain and watch him suffer. I sat on top of his corpse as I cut its armor and I was able to flick it off his body using a sword.


    ¡°I guess if I use a weapon to carry them, I¡¯m able to as long as I don''t directly touch them. What a weird concept.¡± I say picking up the troll¡¯s hand using the sword. ¡°I wonder if I can make a glove out of this. Wait.¡°


    Let¡¯s have some fun~ I say in my mind dancing around the corpse.


    ¡°Happy Halloween! Hahahaha is it even Halloween back at earth? I would win any contest. Realistic troll costume. I wonder if I can fool those bastards by the portal." I sat there thinking. "Well, it won''t hurt to try, the element of surprise.¡±


    I study the troll and the height doesn¡¯t seem to pose an issue. The problem that I might encounter is our weight is quite different. It¡¯s fat.


    ¡°What if I take out its bones? I think I can cut a small opening and use a dagger to carve out its bones from inside. Then I probably could wear it from inside. Hahaha, I''m going insane! A homemade troll costume!¡± I say as I drag the dead troll towards the hallway that leads to the safe zone. As stupid as the idea can be, I can¡¯t help feel excitement throughout my whole body.


    "Might as well kill everyone and cook them," I whisper to myself as I walked in the dark. After dumping the body in the safe zone, I went back and collected the other bodies lying around. I started cooking while I worked on deboning the troll to make it into a costume.


    It took a couple of days to elaborate my plan. To create my own homemade troll costume, I cut an opening through it back where I stabbed it multiple times. I removed all of its guts as I threw them in the shield to cook them. Luckily, my skill sharpens made it easier to cut the meat from the inside as it went through like butter. Every time I hit a vein, blood would spurt out and spray everywhere even when it¡¯s already dead. I could skin it and wear the skin but I need some of its meat intact to fill in the gap between so the whole thing doesn¡¯t sag. I need it to make it as believable as possible.


    ¡°This is a stupid idea Yasu. A really stupid brilliant idea!¡± I tell myself as I debone the troll but a smile never escaped my face even when I know that my IQ is slowly dropping. ¡°This is my stupid idea~¡±


    It was a lot harder to carve the end parts like hands and feet so I cut it up and decided to make my own troll skin gloves and shoes. I tried storing the whole body but it didn''t fit through the bag¡¯s opening so I had no choice but to work without sleeping. Any amount of flesh I cut off I throw into the shield to fry and I noticed I stopped leveling up even when I cooked almost the whole troll. I don¡¯t know if a day passed by my time in the dungeon consist of me carefully carving the other parts and deboning them while constantly fitting it into my arm, legs, and even my head. After all the hard work, I managed to finish right when the flesh of the troll emit a decaying odor.


    ¡°I¡¯m such a genius!¡± I say I wearing the troll costume that¡¯s a perfect fit for my body. "Oh, now how do I cover the joints?"


    I whisper to myself as I look at the area¡¯s where I separated the limbs and the leg. I suddenly remember the Goblins loincloth and even the cloth undergarments of the troll that I was able to pick up and carry. I used most of them to cover up the cut pieces and if I had a mirror, I probably looked like a troll that came back from fighting an army. I tried moving but my clothes made it feel uncomfortable to even move my legs and arms.


    ¡°Butt naked is the way to go~¡± I whisper to myself as I undress to wear the costume. I felt it a lot more disgusting to have a skin contact with its cold flesh. It felt like I was being hugged from all side. ¡°Ugh, this feels¡­amazing?¡±


    I started walking towards the hallway to enter the skeleton room. I tried imitating the troll even trying to sing in their language as I walk in the dark. As soon as I got out, I notice two goblins collecting the swords again. They quickly took notice and I thought of my hard work ending would end a blink of an eye. But it didn''t. One of the goblins stood up and waved at me with a happy expression as the other ran my way


    What the-I whisper as I walked toward the goblin running trying to meet him halfway. As soon as a goblin got near me, I used my fingers to stab both its eyes and it started screaming flailing on the ground. The other goblin just stared at me with disbelief. I took out my troll mask exposing myself and I see his complexion turn pale.


    "Well, what do you know, you guys are more stupid than me," I whisper as gave it a smirk. In a quick motion, I quickly closed the gap between us as I jammed my pointer finger in one of its eyes and it started screaming in pain falling back. Using my right foot, I kicked him in the nuts and my strength seemed abnormal as his body went flying crashing into a pile of swords. I slowly walked to the goblin as it tried to stand. I kicked it back down and stepped on its back like a cockroach.


    "Let''s see who''s stronger, your head, or me," I whisper as I grab onto its head and pulled it. The goblins tiny hands held onto my arm trying to prevent me from pulling its head off his body, but it failed as I see it¡¯s the skin around the neck slowly rips. Like a rubber band snapping, I pulled its head off its body and its arms went limp. The other goblin screamed and screaming trying to walk away but it couldn¡¯t see anything as it walked towards me.


    I slowly walk behind him and the minute he hears a noise, he tried running to the only trip on his dead companions¡¯ body. I lodge my foot on it¡¯s back and using my hand¡¯s I grabbed its head and pulled it off his body like the other goblin. The minute the skin around its neck ripped, his head came right off his body as I tore it with my bare hands.


    "I''M YOU''RE FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR TROLL MAN! HAHAHA!" I laughed as I held its head up to my face. ¡°You sir are an ugly thing.¡±


    Not wanting to lose time, I walked towards the dark hallway leading to the portal while I put my mask back on. I sang in the dark slowly walking toward freedom. I can feel inch by inch its flesh meeting with my skin. I felt like I was being hugged fully from inside the deboned dead carcass. It was cold due to the fact that the whole dungeon is cold.


    If they think I''m one of them, as soon as I get near the portal, it¡¯s a full-on sprint from there. I walk out trying to copy the motion of a troll. I don¡¯t know how I look from the outside but I guess I look like a normal troll since I didn¡¯t hear screams. The troll was wearing nothing but my apron. I guess it looked normal to them. I covered the wounds and walked limping pretending to be hurt. I got close to the lookout when all of a sudden, I hear a ¡°Grwoah?¡± towards my side as a troll comes out of the shadows.


    ¡°Grwoah? Broakgoosh Taramo Dogara. Grwoah?¡± It tried to speak to me and I held the urge to rip him apart.


    fuck, how do I reply?I whisper in my mind as it looked at me.


    ¡°Um, um, G-g-groog chiga chiga chiga choo?¡± I tried imitating the sound, but I don¡¯t think it worked. The lookout turned around to screamed to the rest of its group. I quickly grab a dagger from my dimensional bag whispering my skill as I pushed it to the back of its neck. The sound of his voice turned into gurgles as I stabbed it multiple times for its life to reach zero. Even when it¡¯s on the ground, my hatred got the best of me as I stabbed it over and over until I severely mutilated its neck separating its head from its body. As I slowly look up, I noticed I¡¯m surrounded by trolls, wolves, goblins, and undead skeletons as all of their screams slowly came back while I fade out of my trance.


    I¡¯m dead. I¡¯m so fucking dead. If that¡¯s the case¡­Then¡­


    I ripped the costume revealing myself inside. Butt naked, crazed look in my eye, covered in blood while eyeing all of them. They might kill me but that didn¡¯t matter. I jumped on a goblin and I lodged my dagger into its left eye. Its screams were enough to keep the others at bay from fear but somehow, I felt dizzy as they all ran for me. I swung my dagger around me while shouting my skill over and over again. My head started pounding some more. It felt like my heard switch with my brain and it¡¯s about to burst. My vision slowly fades and the last thing I remember was the feeling of something jumping on my back as I completely black out.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to a liquid dripping down my face. It was dark, and the smell of metal lingered. My body felt heavy as if I was buried alive.


    ¡°Huh?¡± My throat feels dry as I tried to utter a word. I feel my palm closing and I tried to dig my way out of my tomb. As soon as the light came through, I noticed what I was buried with.


    All of them. Dead.


    I pushed dead bodies off me as I slowly stand up looking around. Some of the trolls and goblins don''t have a head. Some of them are cut in half. There was a goblin that had a spear lodged from its mouth and came out of it rear end. Some undead skeleton was in pieces like something have stomped on their skulls. The whole place was a bloodbath. Purple blood, red blood, there was blood everywhere mixed together. Splattered everywhere, on rocks, on the dead bodies even to the ceiling of the cave. Puddles of blood accumulating from dead bodies made the ground beneath me feel warm.


    "Well shit," I whisper as I stood in the middle of the massacre. Butt naked but not a wound in sight. I was covered in blood from head toe. Few places of my body ached but nothing major. All of my limbs are still intact. ¡°What the fuck happened?¡±


    I tried to recall my memory but nothing. All I remember was being found out and my head started hurting then that¡¯s it. Everything else is a fuzzy memory. I look around some more and I finally noticed it. The portal. With everyone dead, I have a clear path out of the dungeon. Happiness enveloped me as I smiled while running towards the light.


    ¡°Finally! I can escape! I¡¯m one step closer to going back home!¡± I shout as I quickly ran butt naked to the portal with all of the happy thoughts on what I am about to see outside. How it will change things around me.


    Swooosh!BOOM!


    A bright hot light flew past me as it went straight for the portal. As soon as it made contact, it exploded into pieces and launched me backward.


    ¡°No!¡± I shouted out as I regain my footing. I ran as fast as I can, but everything crumbled as the while light quickly disappeared. My last hope of escape just shattered into pieces. "n-n-n-n-no no no no no please don''t break. No no no No! No!No!" I triedto piece the portal together frantically, but it just kept crumbling as the floor vibrates. I looked around and see rocks jumping from the ground as if someone installed base speaker underneath.


    All of a sudden, I hear a loud scream behind me that made me cover my ears. It felt like it was going to explode if I didn''t. When I look back my heart sand but quickly became excitement as a smile replaced my expression.


    "Gatekeeper," I whisper as I slowly stood clenching my fist. The gatekeeper was standing in front of me. Even when he¡¯s far away, the sheer size of his body made it look like he was within my reach.


    ¡°You will pay for that! You overgrown lard!¡± I screamed at it as I slowly walked his way. ¡°You bastard. That was the exit. You!! You¡¯re fucking dead!"


    Without fear, I ran towards the gatekeeper ready to fight it to death.

 CHAPTER 10: Yasu versus the gatekeeper

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 10: Yasu versus the gatekeeper


    <hr>


    Swoosh BOOooOOM!


    It threw more fireballs my way. I jump to the side and the impact made me fly towards a pile of corpses. More than one fireball went pass me as I see some hit the barricade exploding it to pieces.


    Fuck. If that hits me, I¡¯m dead, my mind ran so many different thoughts as I look at the smoke coming from the blackened wood.


    ¡°What am I worrying for? Death doesn''t sound as scary as getting your skin peeled.¡± I whisper as I picked up a sword that was lying near me. I look up towards the gatekeeper and it size is somehow bigger than when I saw him before. He sent multiple fireballs my way and I run pass dodging it. The heat from each attack is like a sun being thrown at me in succession. But the fear of death stopped lingering in my mind as a smile covered my face from excitement. I felt like a kid running towards his prize. I kept running up until I got close to the base of its foot.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± My voice echoed throughout the cave as I brought the sword towards its ankle. I push my sword as it sliced through its flesh. It felt like I was cutting thick mud and the sword snapped halfway in making me stumble down to the ground. ¡°Argh!¡±


    It must have hurt the gatekeeper as it let out a sound similar to agony, yet it¡¯s a melodic tone to my ears.


    ¡°Sing motherfucker! Sing!¡± I shouted as I grab two more swords out of my dimensional bag. I jumped on top its foot and using all my weight, I brought down the tip of the sword and stabbed it pushing it as far as I can hoping it reaches a bone. The gatekeeper suddenly brought its foot up and I held on as much as I can be dragged along with it. In an instant, it brought its leg down, and I jumped right before his foot made contact with the ground. The impact was strong to blow away everything to the side yet; it didn¡¯t affect me at all. His stomp created a crater and shook the whole dungeon. As soon as I land, I rushed back in aimed to cut one of its toes. If I can limit its movement, I can figure out a way to get to its head and slice its neck. The only way to prevent it from moving too much is to make it feel pain at every step. Everything is too big to cut except its toes.


    BOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOOoM!!!


    ¡°Ack!¡± I scream as I fly across the cave crashing into a pile of corpses and debris that acted as a cushion. I felt a sharp pain in my back and rather than worrying, I felt happier as the exhilarating feeling of the battle gets the best of my mind. My brain ordered my body to pump more adrenaline making me feel the energy across my flesh. I looked at the gatekeeper and I noticed its palm was open as a smaller version of the fireball float on top spinning clockwise. It quickly released from his hand as a white light flashed almost blinding me and in an instant, the fireball suddenly is few feet away from my face. Without space to think about a way to get out of the situation, my hand moved upwards on its own as I whisper my skill. As soon as the fireball and my sword met, the heat it emitted was enough to make it feel like I¡¯m standing in front of the sun.


    The sword felt hot upon touch as it burned the hilt melting the handle directly at the top my hand. Like a bullet being cut in half, the fireball split down the middle and flew in each direction away from me. I was surprised as I look back at the burning corpse where the fireball hit. I wanted to try it again hoping he¡¯d send me another fireball my way but I noticed the gatekeeper standing slowly taking out the club on it¡¯s back.


    ¡°Ready to fight like a true man huh?! Sharpen!¡± I ran towards it as it prepared to swing its club. I managed to outrun its swing as I placed myself underneath the gatekeeper, using its remaining foot as a shield from the impact. The whole cave shook as debris from the ceiling fell around us. I ready myself as I point the tip of my sword towards its ankle. Using all my might I pushed my sword through until I felt it hit the bone. Without waiting for it to lift up its foot, I pushed the sword to my left and it went through like butter before snapping in half. Blood spurt out of its wound covering me from head to toe encasing my naked body like a canvas. I took out my dimensional bag and grabbed two more swords. I activated my skill and stabbed it where I left off as I brought the sword to the right, trying to complete the cut. It screamed in pain as lost balance and started to tip over.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± I shouted as I sliced the ankle over and over again. I see negative numbers appearing above the cut, but I ignored it as the exhilarating feeling of cutting his flesh while he¡¯s still alive made me lose my mind. The gatekeeper screams in pain while falling down. Using all my strength, I jump towards its other leg lodging my sword on the side. All of a sudden, I felt a strong gust of wind as my body flew and everything around me turned into a blur.


    "Shit!" I shouted as my body flew in mid-air from the attack of its club. I didn''t notice as he fell, he swung his club down toward me. Luckily, he missed but the impact of the attack was enough to send me flying again towards one direction. I couldn¡¯t control my body as it flew faster than usual and using my arms, I covered my face, as I couldn¡¯t change position. I brace for impact and the minute I hit something, my face felt like it was punched by a giant glove as it rocked my brain almost knocking me unconscious. I felt the liquid trickle down my face covering one of my eyes with a red curtain and the agitation along with anger resurface as I get frustrated.


    ¡°Dammit!¡± I shout wiping the blood off my face as I tried to clear my vision. ¡°Oh shit!¡±


    I jump to the side as I see his club fly my away and the impact made me fly again but this time, towards where the portal used to be. My body bounced off the ground but didn''t stop as I scraped the skin on my arm at the rough ground. The stinging sensation was enough to make anyone cry but it made me happier as I laugh weakly being jolted awake by the stinging pain. In my mind, even when I¡¯m getting badly hurt, at least this time, I can fight back. I slowly stood up looking towards the club as the gatekeeper slowly pulls it out of a hole he made in the wall. He limped towards me as one of his feet is severely mutilated from the ankle. I can see the anger in its eyes yet I feel something else. It seemed to me like fear as he averts my gaze.


    I smirk while cursing under my breath. I looked around and found a sword laying around me. I grabbed it and the damage I got from flying around is starting to take its toll as I slowly walked towards the gatekeeper while scraping the blade on the ground. I tried to relax my body and focused my mind on killing him. I didn¡¯t have time to rest, resting means death. Stopping means death. Any wrong move I make means death. But as I got ready to sprint, my knees suddenly felt weak as I almost fell to the ground. I used the sword to keep myself upright and my breathing became abnormal and it felt like I ran a marathon.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± I shouted as I move away from the spot running as fast as I can keeping my mind on one thing and not giving a care about my body. As soon as I got close, I dig into its skin and dragged it I ran around its foot. Like a tree, the gatekeeper titled sideways falling directly into the ground as I severely cut one of its foot. The shockwave and impact of his body meeting the ground shook the cave and more debris fell to the ground as I try to dodge them. It crumbled the ceiling exposing blue stalactites underneath as his screams echoed causing the whole place to vibrate. I took this opportunity to attack its other leg and with a constant swing of the swords, I see negative red numbers appear at every swing over and over again. My sword would snap prompting me to take out another sword I look at its name and to see how much health it has and if it¡¯s diminishing.


    Gate Keeper LV???


    HP 997,000/1,000,000


    ¡°Holy hell¡­¡± My voice trails off as I look at its life. I didn¡¯t notice I stopped attacking as I was caught unprepared by the gatekeeper hands. It wrapped around my waist and it felt like it''s going to squeeze me to death.


    ¡°Argh!!! Fuck!! Let go of me!!¡± I shout as it slowly brought me to its face.¡°Sharpen!¡±


    I stab the sword through its thumb and I feel its grip loosen as I began to fall to the ground. Using all my might, I threw the sword in its eye like a dart. It went straight through and it screamed more as it closed it while thrashing around. His hand hit me directly sending me straight to the ground at a speed even I can¡¯t control. I hear a popping sound on my shoulder as soon as I hit the floor and my ribs felt like its puncturing everything inside my body.


    ¡°Argghhh!!!¡± I screamed in pain grabbing my right arm. The pain shot through my body and spread through my spine towards my head. My ribs didn¡¯t help as it felt like it broke into pieces as I ran out of breath gasping for air.


    ¡°Uckgah! Hah¡­.hah¡­..wheeze*¡­¡­.hah. ¡± I tried crawling towards a sword and I feel half my body going numb. I suddenly gave out as I plop to the ground unable to push any further. The gatekeeper is lying on its back grabbing its left eye while screaming his lungs out.I tried to stand but I couldn¡¯t. Half my body lost its feeling. I ended up only with my left elbow supporting my whole body as I stared at the ground.


    ¡°Bleergh!!!¡± I vomited blood and I can feel it come out of my nose. My right arm is numb and it¡¯s spreading throughout the right side of my body and everything is starting to fade out of existence. Right when I almost lost my consciousness to the dark, that''s when I noticed her.


    She¡¯s walking towards me.


    ¡°Ah¡­¡± My voice fades as she stops right in front of me. The pain quickly disappeared as my surroundings become silent. At this moment, it was only us two as I watch her kneel and sat on her heel in front of me.She has a smile that I¡¯m too familiar with and it brought me to tears.


    "Mom," I whisper towards her as I tried to reach out but my body just fell to the ground.She doesn¡¯t say anything but touches my cheeks with her left hand and wipes my tears away from my face.


    ¡°M-Mom¡­I-I-¡­I-I-I can¡¯t¡­I¡¯m sorry¡­Mom." I bring my head down as more tears pour down my face and I started crying heavily. "I¡¯m tired. Mom. I¡¯m tired.¡±


    I felt her come closer to me as she brought her face near my ear,¡°My son, I believe in you.¡±


    I quickly look up and she was gone. Like a figment of my imagination, she disappeared without a trace.


    ¡°Mom¡­¡± I suddenly felt a surge of energy. Anger, happiness, pain, joy, everything came all at once and it enabled me to feel again. I decided to stand up and without hesitation; I snap back my elbow in position.


    SNAP!


    ¡°Argghhhhhhhhhahahahahahaha!¡± I scream like a monster.I didn¡¯t care if I turn into one. I have to survive this, I need to get back home. I look at the gatekeeper who slowly tried to stand up and somehow, he doesn¡¯t look as big like before.


    ¡°I have to go home¡­.¡± I weakly whisper as I walked towards the sword I dropped earlier. ¡°My mother is waiting for me.¡± I grab the sword and while I have the energy to move, I rand as fast as I can towards the gatekeeper. I ran to it''s back and using all my strength, I jumped and ran towards its neck. Using all my strength, I pushed down the sword stabbing it straight through the spine and the gatekeeper screamed in agony as it felt my sword.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± I shouted out my skill and it made my sword go through with ease. It tried to stand and it only made it worse as the momentum of gravity and the sharpness of my blade made me slide down its back. I kept going till I reach its tailbone and I came crashing down the ground laughing. My body ached at the impact but the adrenaline fought off the pain as I stood up and stabbed the gatekeeper from its left shin. My sword snapped in half and I lost all ability to think as I used my hands and grabbed as much flesh as I can rip them out one by one.


    ¡°Fuck! Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you!¡± I shouted in anger as blood sprayed everywhere. The gatekeeper lifted its leg and I went along with it as I held on to its flesh.


    ¡°Item bag!¡±


    I took out a dagger from the bag as I held on with one hand. Right when his foot reached the height of his stomp, I pushed the dagger through its flesh while activating my skill and I managed to reach its shin bone as my arm goes elbow deep.


    ¡°Groaaahhhh!!¡± It screamed in pain as it felt my dagger pierced its shin. I¡¯m all covered in its blood and my right elbow is shooting pain so unbearable, any sane human will pass out. But my adrenaline ran through my body helped me stay conscious as I laughed and laughed like a maniac. While my right hand is lodged inside, I grabbed on its flesh from within and used it as a handle to hold my position so I don¡¯t fall. I called out my skill again and pulled out the dagger to jammed back.


    ¡°Groaaaaaahhhhh!!!¡± It screamed as it swung its leg trying to shake me off but I never let go. I have one hand inside holding on its flesh while the other has a blade lodged to its bone and even if it kills me, I¡¯m never letting go. The gatekeeper loses his balance and started falling backward. As I got closer to the ground, I tried to jump off but the momentum was too fast and I hit the ground as fast as he came down.I bounced around the floor in a fetal position and ended up lying on my back completely exhausted.


    ¡°Hah. Fuck.¡± I pant as I try to regain my breathing. I don¡¯t even know how much blood I lost and my vision is starting fade.¡°Ha¡­..haha..¡±


    I started laughing maniacally as I think about the position I''m in. Covered in blood, butt naked, fighting a dungeon boss who has 1,000,000 HP. I look over it to see how damage I caused and looking at its numbers made me laugh even more.


    ¡°fucking hell~¡± I chuckle looking at its name above his head.


    Gatekeeper Lvl ???


    HP HP 993,400/1000000


    ¡°After all that¡­. I only made a dent in its health¡­¡± I relax my body. ¡°Ahh, it¡¯s no good after all.¡±


    This is my end. I so tired. I whisper in my mind as I listen to myself breathe slowly. The gatekeeper tried to stand but the pain all over its body is giving it a hard time as it struggled to even get a footing. I see him looking at me while screaming words I can''t even understand.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    "Well, what do you know? You can fucking talk.¡± I whisper as I glared back into its eyes. I slowly move my vision towards the ceiling of the cave as a bright light above us caught my attention. ¡°that..cough* cough*¡­wasn¡¯t there¡­before.¡±


    Stalactites are icicle formation that hangs down from cave ceilings and towards the end are sharp points that can probably stab the gatekeeper right through if it falls on him. So much of the rocks fell down that it exposed the whole ceiling full of stalactites with one giant crystal right in the middle.


    ¡°I¡¯ll bet everything¡­.¡± I whisper as I tried to push myself to roll on my stomach. Using my remaining strength, I push myself up and the pain all over my body was enough to make me shake. I clench my fist and I felt my nails dig into my palm as a big smile was still plastered in my face.


    If I die, this will be a nice way to go. With a bang. I whisper in my mind as I forced myself on my feet.


    Knowing my chance of survival is less than before given my current condition, I forced myself to stand still as I call out my dimensional bag. I took out the last two swords I stored and got myself ready to face the gatekeeper one last time.


    Who will die first? Will it be you? Or will it be me?I let out the voice in my mind, as I¡¯m too exhausted to talk.


    ¡°Sharpen," I whisper facing the gatekeeper that has managed to stand its ground even with a severed foot. It held out its palm and the same concentrated fireball appeared. In a quick release, it shot the fireball at me and using my last ounce of strength, I sliced it in half sending it towards the wall behind me.


    BOOM!


    I looked up the ceiling of the cave and notice the big stalactite above the gatekeeper shook side to side.


    One last push.I whisper in my mind as I look back at the gatekeeper and gave it a smile.


    ¡°Is that¡­all. You got?!¡± I shouted out and it held out both hands. More fireballs appeared on its palm and I gave it the biggest smile I can. ¡°That¡¯s it, give it to me!¡±


    BOOM!


    I slice the fireballs in half as much as I can, and it kept hitting the wall behind me. I felt my skin being cooked alive, as the heat passing by didn¡¯t stop. I glanced at the stalactite and it kept swaying and swaying. I prayed it dropped but my energy is running out as the swords felt heavier and heavier at every attack.


    ¡°Give me more you fucker!!¡± I scream taunting the gatekeeper to send more fireballs but he suddenly stopped. I see him bend down to pick up his club and it made me smile even more.


    ¡°Perfect¡­One swing from that and¡­¡­.we¡¯re history.¡± I whisper as I watch the gatekeeper pick up his club. He used his left hand and touched the tip of the club while chanting something. All of a sudden, the club was encased in flames as fireballs appeared around him. The moment he turned towards me, I started sprinting towards his direction. With one slow motion, he swung his club downwards trying to smash me into the ground as I dodged all of the fireballs coming my way. For some reason, I noticed myself running faster than before and know this is my last chance; I stopped moving and looked up towards the wooden club that''s coming down towards me.


    ¡°Checkmate," I whisper as the club hits right in front of me sending me flying across the cave. My body lost its feeling and I felt tired as my eyes started to close. The fire emitted everywhere felt like I was being burned alive by a flamethrower. The shockwaveblew everything away from its blast. The blast itself muffled the sounds around me. I had so many thoughts go through my mind as I flew uncontrollably. I was so tired. Right before I pass out, I see the stalactites started breaking off and the ceiling. I saw a glimpse of the whole cave crashing down and everything went black with a smile on my face.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to darkness. My body ached all over and I couldn¡¯t move anything. I can feel my throat dry as if someone poured sand in my mouth. Darkness surrounded me in every direction except for a certain part emitting a faint white dot.


    ¡°Am I¡­in hell?¡± I say with my hoarse voice box. Slowly, the feeling came into my left arm and I tried my best to move it. ¡°Item bag.¡±


    I hear my bag drop near me and using the only hand that I''m able to move, I felt around the dark until I found it. Luckily the dimensional bag works a certain way that lets me use it in the dark. If I place my hand inside and think about what I want to take out, it appears enabling me to pull it out. I thought about the cooked meat and as soon as I got ahold of one, I brought it close to my mouth and chewed as much as I can before swallowing it. It felt like I was swallowing sand as the dryness of the meat hurt my throat. After finishing the meat, my exhausted conscious caught up to me again and I pass out in the dark.


    I slowly woke up to darkness and the cold ground was enough to make me shiver. This time around, I was able to move both hands and I tried to set myself up. I called out my bag again and took out two more pieces of meat and ate them as fast as I can.


    ¡°Well I¡¯ll be damned, is this the hallway?¡± I whisper weakly as my energy hasn¡¯t come back but the meat, I ate earlier was enough to repair a bit of the damage done to my body. The wound in my back hurt a lot less and the burnt skin around my arm probably disappeared as the stinging sensation disappeared. I dragged myself near a wall and leaned on it trying to catch my breath. I ate some more meat and waited till I started feeling the wound on my back slowly heal. I would pass out to only wake up feeling a bit better than before. I repeated the process until I managed to eat all of the meat I stored in my bag. Even with that amount, it wasn''t enough as I had a hard time trying to get up. I use the wall to help me stand up and leaned on it to help ease the pain I felt around my legs.


    Hah*


    Pant*


    Huah*


    ¡°I need to eat more.¡± I started moving towards the light and when I reach the end, I see part of the hallway¡¯s ceiling collapsed blocking the path.I tried to remove a rock but I was too weak and hurt. I can still feel a small wound in my back and I think a couple of my ribs are fractured. I sat near the rubble and rested my eyes as I waited for my body to heal a bit more before trying. After a while, I slowly remove the rocks one by one until the opening is big enough for my body to crawl through. I felt a breeze come out of the opening and I can smell a metallic odor. I brace myself as I crawled out the opening to see if the gatekeeper died. But as I crawl out of the hole, I was welcomed to a crystal paradise. All of the stalactites from the ceiling have shattered on the ground and left the whole floor with a bluish light that made it looks like a glowingflowerbed. Some of the huge stalactites didn¡¯t break but punctured the ground instead.


    The gatekeeper was laid out where it hammered the club earlier. It probably fell backward before the stalactites hit him. I can see a huge stalactite pierced it through the chest and blood was flowing out covering the surrounding area. This caused the light from the stalactite to emit a red glow.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me¡­¡± I whisper as I limp towards the gatekeeper¡¯s head.


    GatekeeperLVL ???


    HP 1 / 1000000


    ¡°Item box.¡± Since I didn¡¯t have any weapons left and I didn¡¯t feel like digging through the stalactites for weapons, I took out the next best thing that can produce damage. My spatula. ¡°Seems like I won the bet and you died first. Bye bye~¡±


    I hit it with the spatula and a negative number appeared above its head. The minute its life reached zero, it stops breathing and I laughed till I fell on my ass. I laid back down and the sharp crystal didn''t make it feel comfortable. But at least, it made me feel that I¡¯m alive. Looking up at the remaining stalactite, I smiled and let myself relax completely.


    "You fucking finally died," I whisper as I slowly close my eyes.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="139">


    CONGRATULATIONS!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°What the...¡± I opened my eyes at the sudden notification appearing in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="192">


    YOU HAVE CLEARED THIS DUNGEON!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="780">


    To commemorate you forkilling the dungeon boss, this area will become a memorial! Your name will be placed upon this dungeon! For anyone who walks in here to study the history you have created, they will know the person who has conquered this place! Rejoice! Your name will go down in history!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°That¡¯s it? After all that work on killing that fucking gatekeeper and all I get is my name in this place?!¡± I shouted out loud. ¡°Fuck you Luro! Get me the fuck out of here!!!¡±


    Forgetting about my current condition, I run out of energy and I started panting trying to catch my breath I laid there not wanting to move and before I noticed it, I fell asleep beside the giant corpse.I slowly wake up and my head felt like it would split open.


    ¡°Ugghhhh¡­my head," I say as I touch my temple. My whole body felt tired and weak. But, the pain in my ribs is gone and the stinging sensation in my back also disappeared. Some of the bigger wounds I had before are now replaced with a scar. I tried standing but my whole body still felt weak to even stand straight up. My throat feels dry and it¡¯s causing me to gag like I just inhaled bag sawdust. I slowly push myself up and I felt drunk looking at the gatekeeper¡¯s head. My vision swayed side to side, but one thing lingers in my mind, I need to eat. I looked around and noticed a stalactite with a sharp edge. Using it, I carved out a piece of its ear. I was tempted to eat it but I decided not to. After all, I need a bit of humanity left in me. I held onto the piece of ear and sluggishly walked towards the dark hallway. I crawled back in the hole and entered the dark hall. I slowly moved through the hallway heading towards the skeleton room. I tried not to throw up but my throat is so dry it''s getting uncomfortable.


    It¡¯s so quiet.I whisper in my mind as I tried to keep myself from passing out.Now, I¡¯m really alone.


    The silence is unbearable. With no exit and no one here, I can''t stop but feel helpless about my situation. I enter the other dark hallway that¡¯s leading to the safe room and used the wall to hold myself up. As soon as I entered the safe room, I slump down near the shield that was filled with water. I drank the water like a madman until I noticed it turn red due to the dried blood that''s on my body.


    "ugh..." I say wiping my face. "I need to wear some clothes..."


    I look at myself butt naked. I took out my shirt and pants and wore them. I walked to the shield and using the ear, I cupped out the remaining water before throwing the ear on it. I grabbed one of the torches and lit a fire underneath. Not wanting to wait and fall asleep, I walked towards Hiroko''s room to wash. I didn''t even bother removing my clothes as I washed the blood off my heads and face.


    ¡°I need to cut up that gatekeeper. I need to-¡° I suddenly stopped as I looked at my reflection on the water. ¡°I need to find a way out.¡±


    I felt helpless. I felt like everything was for nothing. For some reason, my focus disappeared along with my motivation. I slap my cheeks to wake myself up andI walk towards the statue room. After the cooking the ear, I didn¡¯t bother cutting it to pieces and ate it. It tastes like an undercooked chewy pork skin. But food is food; I had no choice to be picky if I want to survive. After eating, I still felt weak and when I leaned on the pedestal to relax, I quickly fall asleep.


    .


    .


    I woke up with enough energy to walk around without any pain. My motivation never woke up. I just laid there and stared at the dark ceiling.


    ¡°Maybe there¡¯s another exit there. Don¡¯t lose hope Yasu. Don¡¯t lose hope.¡± I say to myself as I stood up. I started walking back towards where the gatekeeper laid thinking about the hole in the wall he made during our bout. But before I go and explore, I needed the energy to keep myself fed so I decided to cut he gatekeeper into pieces big enough that I can store in my bag.


    "Is it because I''m a cooking class?" I asked myself as I walk towards where the gatekeeper lays thinking about its corpse not turning into dust. All the enemies I have killed didn¡¯t turn into dust. No matter how much I cut them to pieces. As soon as I got in where the gatekeeper lays, I walked around digging through the stalactite looking for a weapon I can use to cut chunks of meat off its body. I found a couple of swords and trying to distract myself from the hopeless situation, I started working on cutting it to pieces then storing the meat in my bag. What seemed like minutes turned into hours and without the ability to track time, I kept working on the gatekeeper up until I cut up the legs.


    ¡°Argh! This is useless! What am I going to use all these level for if I can¡¯t fucking get out of here?!¡± I shouted stabbing the sword into the gatekeeper. ¡°It¡¯s all your damn fucking fault!¡±


    I took out all of my frustration until I felt exhausted and I sat down looking at my bloody hands. ¡°Dammit. This can¡¯t be the fucking end. God dammit.¡±


    After a while wallowing, I started wandering around the cave looking for any hidden paths, I grabbed a couple of stalactites on the ground and used it to illuminate the dark hole the gatekeeper made earlier. The stalactite can only illuminate what¡¯s around me and as I walked around, I got annoyed not being able to see anything.


    "This tiny shit is no use," I say as I drop the stalactite onto the ground. I decided to head back out and I grabbed a couple more stalactites and threw them in the dark. I kept doing this until I illuminated the area where the gatekeeper came out from.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± My voice trails off as I see all of the elite monsters that killed us before.All of them. Dead. Some aresevered in half while the rest are missing legs, arms, and even some of the wolves are missing their heads.


    ¡°What the- was the gatekeeper eating them?¡± I whisper as I creep in the room. I walkedcloser and search the elite troll¡¯s dead bodies for weapons. I found their swords scattered around near their corpse and I picked it all up and threw them inside my dimensional bag. I¡¯m more frustrated than happy. There''s no exit. I left the hole in the wall and I walk towards the other hole he made with the club. But that place was empty, nothing around and no hidden path. I walk back out and went towards the broken portal. It¡¯s still a pile of rubble and mostly buried by stalactites.


    "What am I going to do now¡­how the hell am I going to get out of here¡­" Since there is no point of staying here, I decided to go back to the safe room.


    "Fucking bastard," I say as I cut a piece of the gatekeeper¡¯s flesh before throwing them in the heated shield. I cooked the gatekeeper''s meat and devoured it in an instant. I was so hungry I didn''t even notice its taste. After eating, my eyes felt heavy and I went sleep in Hiroko''s room to calm myself using the sound of the water.


    I woke up crying, I went to sleep angry. The thoughts in my mind just didn¡¯t help as I dreamed about what¡¯s outside the dungeon. Sunlight, trees, nature, the vision of earth in the sky if it¡¯s visible from this planet. The portal to the outside is destroyed and there is no other way out. Every day became dull. Sometimes I''ll go to the gatekeeper''s corpse and take my anger out on it. I didn''t even bother cooking it. I just want it to rot away and suffer. I continued to stab the dead corpse until I¡¯m out of energy. When I do, I¡¯ll travel back to the safe room, eat, and decided to sleep for the rest of the day. As soon as I woke up, I just rolled to the side facing away from the puddle of water. "There is no point to move around. I just find it a waste of energy. I close my eyes and listen to the sound of the water hitting the small puddle.


    *Sigh


    "I can''t sleep," I whisper sitting up. I decided to go back out the main room to take a drink of water. Spending a couple of days here with no enemies to worry about or kill is making me go crazy.I stored some water in my pan not wanting to waste it every time I need to use the shield. As soon as I got close to take a sip, I notice my tears started falling out onto the water.


    ¡°Huh? What the..¡± I wipe my cheeks as tears kept falling on its own. ¡°Ahahaha I¡¯m crying hahaha! I¡¯m still fucking crying!¡±


    I sat there as I laughed and cried all at the same time. ¡°Fuck¡­. why did this happen to me¡­.. what do I do¡­.help me¡­.please help me¡­mom¡­.help me¡­¡±


    Frustration got the best of me as I started punching the ground as my tears mixed with my anger. I could see my fist starting to bleed but I didn¡¯t stop until I took out all my frustration at the ground.


    "Item bag," I call out my dimensional bag to take out my apron for my bloody hand. As the bag appears in the thin air, it landed beside the frying pan tipping it over.


    ¡°My water," I say between sobs as I watch my water waste onto the ground. I watched the water pour out of the pan and travel down the crack of the tiles. It traveled downwards since the floor is a little bit slanted. Its final destination was on a bigger crack and piled up on it.


    Sob* sob* sob* huh?


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Wait a minute," I whisper as I stood up and looked at Hiroko¡¯s room. ¡°The fucking water!¡±


    I ran to Hiroko¡¯s room and lit a torch and shine it down towards the puddle in her room.


    ¡°This water! This should be coming from somewhere!¡± I say to myself as I watch a small stream come out of the crack on the wall.


    Whatever¡¯s on the other side of this wall might be an exit. I''m might be able to get out after all.

 CHAPTER 11: The world outside the dungeon

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 11: The world outside the dungeon


    <hr>


    I shine thelighttowards the wall where a small stream of water is leaking out of its cracks. The water travels down the ground accumulating enough to be called a small puddle. Luro probably put some thought in this as the ground was dug up for the sole purpose of filling up with water.


    ¡°This might be my way out!¡±I shout as I touch the wall and the water travels down towards my elbow. I place my ear towards the wall but I only hear the sound of water.


    ¡°Ok¡­ok calm down. Relax. Don¡¯t get too excited. There might not be anything on the other side¡­. always anticipate the worst in this world Yasu.¡± I say to myself. ¡°Item bag.¡±


    I took out the sword I used to cut up the gatekeeper and pointed it at the wall. ¡°Sharpen!¡±


    I pushed the sword through and it went all the way in up to the hilt. I pushed the sword down up to the base of the wall and pulled out the sword. I went back to the same position where I started and stabbed it again. This time, I kept the swords sharp edge pointed towards the right. I noticed the skill disappeared and I called it back out before dragging the sword to the right. I pulled it out and stabbed it the same position where I left off pointing the sharp edge towards the ground and dragged the sword to the bottom. I called out my sharpen skill again and stabbed the bottom and dragged the sword to the left creating a rectangle shape on the wall. I took out the sword and lodge it in the top. I pushed the sword up trying to pry open the wall but it wouldn¡¯t budge. I kept pushing up and my sword snapped in half. I took out another sword and tried again but to no avail, the wall wouldn¡¯t budge as my second sword snapped in half.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shouted in frustration as I felt the wall didn''t even move an inch. I put my face near the wall and check if it got pulled out a bit, it wasn¡¯t and anger just got the best of me. I took out two more swords and this time I activated my skill as I starting slashing the wall non-stop. I went in all direction creating marks everywhere and after two to three swings; my sword would break upon impact. I took out a few more swords and have managed to create so much damage to the wall it looks like it will crumble any minute.


    "One final push," I whisper as I step back all the way to the end of the room. I sprint towards the wall with my left shoulder in front of me ready to tackle it hoping it will break in place. I ran straight to the wall and the impact almost felt like I dislocated my shoulder. I fell to the ground as the pain intensifies and it took a while for my breathing to go back to normal. I placed my ear near the cracks and no doubt about it; it¡¯s hollow on the other side. As I pull away from the wall, all of a sudden water came pouring down on top of me. I ran out of the puddle as the water that hit me was too cold to even shower in.


    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± I whisper as I look at myself wet from head to toe. As I look up to see where the water came from, I noticed a piece of the wall came off as water came gushing through the hole. It was right above where I was attacking before. A section close to the ceiling. ¡°Don''t tell me¡­¡±


    I slowly got near studying the wall and I can see the section I¡¯m probably trying to break is the foundation and the hollow space is at a higher point.


    "No wonder this section doesn''t break," I whisper to myself defeated by a stupid wall.¡°Ok, I fucking got this. I have to get out of here.¡±


    Using a dagger, I stabbed at the lower part to create a foothold. I took out a sword and using it with my skill activated, I aimed at the area surrounding the hole and sliced around it. As soon as I completed the circle, the water pushed the wall out almost dropping on top of me. More water came in as it filled the floor of the room traveling out towards the hallway. The water came in strong but slowly weakened up until it hugged the wall as it travels to the puddle. I felt the wind come through and the smell of nature entered my nose making me excited even more.


    ¡°There¡¯s wind¡­there¡¯s wind! hahaha!¡± I laughed as I close my eyes to feel a cold breeze coming through.


    inhale*


    ¡°Mom! I¡¯m coming home!¡±I shouted and it echoed into the darkness beyond the hole. ¡°Ok Yasu, don¡¯t just blindly run in there.¡±


    I turn around to head back out to the statue room. I¡¯m going to need to pack stuff I need. I don¡¯t know how far the exit is.I¡¯m too tired from attacking the wall and knocking myself out so I decided to sleep and rest before leaving. I closed the door leading to Hiroko¡¯s room since I don¡¯t know what¡¯s beyond that darkness and I don''t want to get attacked in my sleep. This also helped stopped the water from traveling any further.


    ¡°I should do inventory check while I can," I say as I take out items inside my bag. "Ok, I got a couple of torches, five swords, a good amount of cooked gatekeeper, my spatula, the beat up frying pan, and my apron. Maybe I should collect the stalactites."


    I left the safe room and headed towards the cave where thecorpse of gatekeeper is at. I haven¡¯t opened the door on the other side of the undead Skeletons for a while now. I stopped keeping track of days because I didn¡¯t need to.At first, we all had trouble opening the door but now, I can do it easily by myself.This just shows that gaining physical strength in this world and earth is a lot different."Status Window," I say as I continued walking.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    13


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    25


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a Chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mind Break


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Upon immediate extreme danger, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As I study my status page, I noticed I leveled up to 13 by cooking the rotting carcass of the gatekeeper.


    "The hell, I cooked both its legs and I''m only level 13?" I whisper confused. Cooking such a high-level monster should have at least spiked my level up a few but I only managed to level up three times. I decided to ignore it for now and focus on getting what I need so I can rest. I didn¡¯t want to stay in the dungeon any longer. I walked towards the dark hallway that leads where the gatekeeper is and even when I have the door closed, the pungent odor coming from the decaying carcass was enough to make me gag. I could have cooked the whole gatekeeper but seeing as how it didn¡¯t level me up a lot, it¡¯s a pointless task now. I continued to walk forward and as I reach the other side of the dark hallway, the smell got stronger and stronger as I got closer to the end of the hallway.


    ¡°Ack! Fuck that smells bad!¡±I say in a muffled voice as my hand covers my nose and mouth. Once I reached the end and out the hallway, I see the gatekeeper is starting to decay in some parts as the skin seems to sag. The smell coming from it was so strong that it also affected my eyes making me tear up.I started collecting stalactites off the ground picking up the largest ones I could find. Since the smell was too strong, I couldn''t hold it in anymore as run out towards the dark hallway. I kept running until I reached the skeleton room, but I wasn''t able to hold it as I vomited all over the ground. The smell was so strong, it stuck around my nose and I couldn''t get rid of it even when splashing my face with the water in Hiroko''s room. After a while of trying to remove the odor around my body, I gave up and went to the statue room and leaned my back on the pedestal of the statue. I placed a torch in front of me to help speed the process of drying my clothes and somehow I fell asleep in the process.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    .


    .


    .


    Mom. No, don¡¯t walk away from me, mom! Mom! Don''t leave me!


    "Guah!¡± I suddenly woke up panting from a nightmare. ¡°what the hell..."


    I rest my arms on top of my eyes trying to erase the image of my mother leaving me behind. Even though she never said anything, I somehow knew she wasn''t coming back in the nightmare. I begged and begged but she kept walking. I tried chasing her but my legs were chained to the ground.


    ¡°Stupid dream," I whisper as I stand up and walk towards Hiroko¡¯s room to wash my face.I ate and drank boiled water as much as I can. I don¡¯t have any container to put water in to drink so I have to take a chance later on using the stream. I stood in front of the hole and stared at the dark that goes beyond as far as my eyes can see.


    ¡°Ok, this is it. All or nothing.¡± I take a deep breath and I climb into the hole exiting the other side.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You''re leaving the ''Safe Zone''


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ignore the notification kept on walking till I disappeared into the dark.


    Yasu, let¡¯s never ever return here again.I say in my mind as I push forward into the unknown without looking back.


    It¡¯s been a while since I left the dungeon safe room and as I continue to walk forward, I notice this place is like a tunnel. Cave walls form a round structure toward the ceiling. I don''t know how long it goes. All I did is followed the water stream hoping it will eventually lead me to freedom.I continued walking until my legs felt tired and took quick breaks here and there eating a piece of meat to replenish my energy. As I follow the stream further into the dark, I notice the stream of water will turn left, turn right, goes up, and turn some more. A very unpredictable way of traveling but I had no option as I walk through the dark with limited view. Even if this place is like a maze, the more I move, the closer I can be towards my ticket out of here. I started using thestalactitesas the light source. It shines brighter than the torch and illuminated a larger area enabling me to see around me a lot better. It was so dark in there when my torch suddenly went out due, I couldn¡¯t see where my bag landed after I called it out to take a stalactite.I had to call it a few times till it landed on my hands stretched outwards towards the darkness.


    I kept on following the stream and I noticed changes in the surrounding as the stream reverted into a straight line as the floor goes on an incline. As I move, I notice that the rocky formation is getting steeper and steeper. Not only that, the water got stronger and stronger. I kept following the stream until I reached an even ground.I kept walking up until I felt a cold water beneath me.


    "What the fuck," I whisper as I look below me on a shallow water. I kept walking forwards while keeping my gaze down and I noticed it never got any deeper. When I got to the other side, the feeling of relief substituted for my worries as I see a waterfall.


    ¡°How am supposed to climb that?¡±I whisper as I inspect the area for any place I can climb to get to the top.The cave wall all around the area is vertical but then curves towards the ceiling of the cave. The only way I know is the wall near the left side of the waterfall. It does still curve towards the wall but its more vertical than the rest of the formation in the area.I have no choice, I have to try and climb it.


    "Item bag," I whisper and took out a sword. I placed the stalactite in my mouth and used the sword to try and climb the wall. I was halfway up the wall when I decided to look down. Even though it didn¡¯t look high from the bottom, this looks pretty fucking high. But not as high when the gatekeeper dropped me.


    Whew, ok Yasu you got this, just keep going and don¡¯t look down.I whisper in my mind trying to calm my nerves then I continued climbing.My sword suddenly snapped and I almost lost my grip on the other sword. I lost the stalactite as it fell below me but it was still bright enough to dimly illuminate where I¡¯m.


    ¡°Fuck!¡±I curse in frustration as I held onto the last sword. But the weight on one sword is slowly pulling it out of the cave wall. ¡°Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Item bag!¡±


    I called my dimensional bag and caught it before it fell to the ground. I used my mouth to hold it as I use my remaining hand to take out a word. Making any sudden move might pull out the sword from the wall so I moved slowly and carefully until I was able to take out a sword.


    "Sharpen," I whisper and I felt the sword vibrate. I stabbed the sword in the wall and in the nick of time, the other sword came off due to my skill. While it''s still activated, I stabbed the sword downwards below me to use as a foothold. "Whew."


    I relax for a bit letting my heart calm down. Even if I have ways to heal myself in case, I fell off the wall and get hurt, I rather avoid it all together and get out of this dungeon as fast as I can. After resting for a bit, I called my bag again and caught it on time before it fell to the ground. I took out the smallest stalactite I have and placed it in my mouth to help illuminate the wall better. I continue to climb until I reached a point where it started to curve towards the ceiling of the cave. Using the swords, I stabbed it downwards as I moved my way towards the ledge.


    Fuck. I¡¯m stupid.I whisper in my mind as I started climbing sideways. I could have climbed closer to the ledge, why the hell did I climb this far from it.


    Once I got closer to the ledge, I used the sword on my right hand and jammed it on top of the ledge. I followed the same process with the sword on my left hand and sing all of my upper strength, I pull myself up the ledge.Once I got on top, I laid flat on my back and relaxed to get my breathing back to normal. I could feel the heartbeat in my arms and relaxing it felt good.


    ¡°hah¡­..hah¡­.. finally¡­¡±I say between breaths. After I have regained my breathing, I took out a couple of wolf gatekeeper meat and ate them. I didn¡¯t have any container, so I had to take a risk of drinking the stream from inside the cave. Upon drinking it, it tasted much better than the boiled ones I do inside the safe room.I didn¡¯t get sick after resting for a while, so I guess the water is fine and decided to push further. It felt like I¡¯ve walked for miles and miles and I don¡¯t think I¡¯m reaching the exit anytime soon. I did a couple of camps resting every now and then to rest but not fall asleep.


    The whole place gave an ambient yet eerie feeling in my gut as if anything will pop out the dark at any moment. No noise except the faint whistle of the wind and my own breathing. The area is still pitch black and the only light source that comes from the whole place is my stalactite.After resting for a while, I kept walking but now I¡¯m getting more anxious as the wind felt stronger and stronger.


    ¡°I''m getting out of here, I¡¯m getting out of here!¡± I shout as I run through the dark. I kept running up until I saw a faint light at a distance and the thought of seeing light and nature felt warm in my heart and I ran faster from excitement. But all the feeling faded as soon as I reached the end.


    A wall. A wall that had huge cracks in it. Water came down from a tiny hole in the ceiling of the cave and a couple of broken stalactites was scattered on the ground dimly lighting up the center. The wind I felt was coming from the other holes on the ceiling.


    ¡°No¡­No! Fuck!¡±I shout in frustration as I hit a dead end. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be fucking kidding me!¡±


    This cave is the end. I couldn''t climb to the ceiling and exit from there. Even if I do, I don''t know how long those holes go by looking at it, it''s not the same size as my body. I won''t fit.


    ¡°this can¡¯t be. This fucking can¡¯t be it! God dammit!!!¡±I kept shouting and my voice echoed inside and resonated throughout the darkness. On my rage rampage, I started grabbing stalactites on the groundand beaned it at the cave wall."I! Will! Not! End! Here! Item bag!¡± I called my dimensional bag and took out the two swords I used to climb.¡°Sharpen!¡±


    Using the wall to ease my anger, I bombarded the cave wall slicing it as much as I can. My anger got the best of me and I broke my swords hitting the wall with it. But I didn¡¯t stop. I stabbed and stabbed the wall until I fell to the ground on my knees crying."no¡­please¡­let me out of here!¡± I shout, and I feel like my throat is ripping apart. Right at that moment, I heard noises from around me similar to tapping shoes. Multiple of the ran around the dark and I slowly listen as the sound got closer.


    ¡°I slowly turn around expecting Luro but it caught me in surprise. what the fu-¡° I jumped to the side as it tried to stab me. Its claws were sharp enough to go through the wall in one swift motion pulled out its claws destroying parts of the wall with it.


    ¡°A crab rat?¡± I asked confused.It snapped it''s crab-like claws as it moved side to side. It was a monster that had the upper body of a rat, but its lower body is of a crab.As it got closer, I managed to get a glimpse of its name before it ran back to the dark.


    CENTAURUS CRABIUS RATUS LVL 30


    HP: 200,000 / 200,000


    ¡°Pfft~Ha..hahahahahaha!¡±I started laughing at it. It was by far the weirdest monster I have seen.As I was laughing, it screamed at very high pitch noise in the dark and it felt like my ears would explode along with my head. ¡°Argh, shut the fuck up!¡±


    ¡°Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!¡± It screamed some more, and I couldn¡¯t even stand as my vision vibrates. It suddenly stopped, and my vision became stable again. I heard the tapping sounds in the dark as it moved around, and I tried to follow it with my eyes. It suddenly jumped out the dark with its claws coming straight for me. I jump to the side and its attack destroyed the ground in an instant. After it pulled it out, it looked right at me before retreating into the dark. I quickly took out two more swords and got myself ready for its next attack.


    ¡°SharpenOkyou rat bastard. Do that shit again-¡° Thecrab ratcame jumping out of the shadows again and this time, towards my left with its claws wide open trying to snap me in half.¡°Fuck!¡±


    I tried to jump forward and cut it using my sword but it too fast as it quickly disappeared in the dark.


    This is no good.I¡¯m at a disadvantage. My back is wide open, and I can¡¯t see where it is.I run towards the wall where it attacked earlier and placed my back against it. This way, the crab rat can only attack me from the front. I decided to wait for it to come out of the dark. When it does, I¡¯ll dodge it and let the crab rat crash into the wall behind me.Hoping his claws get stuck, I''ll slice him off the face of the earth.


    ¡°Oh come on out you ugly vermin~¡±I sang towards the dark beyond.As I anticipated, the crab rat came rushing out the front coming towards me at high speed. Once it got close, I jumped to the side and the crab rat came crashing down on the cracked wall.In a split second the crab was sent back by the gushing water that came out of the broken wall.


    ¡°Oh fuck!¡± I scream jumping to the side trying to dodge the water and the crab rat.The whole wall erupted, and a tidal wave of water came rushing in.¡°Fuck.¡±


    The water hit me blasting my consciousness to oblivion.


    *chirp


    *chirp


    *chirp


    ¡°huh?¡± I whisper to myself as I slowly open my eyes to a white bright light.


    *chirp


    *chirp


    Once my vision focused, the light faded into a ball flowing above the sky. The sun was glaring down at my face and it felt hot upon touching it. I was laid on my back and I can feel a cool liquid submerging my legs. When I looked at the weight in my chest, I see abluebirdlooking at me chirping.The minute we lock eyes, it flew away into the distance towards the sun making it harder to see where it flew. As I slowly push myself up into sitting position, my vision was staring at trees from a distance and there is a clear blue water between me and the trees.


    I stared at the lake in disbelief. It was clear as a crystal and glistened under the sunlight. I feel my feet being tickled and as I look down, different types of fishes were swimming around making it look like an aquarium. As the water gets deeper and deeper, it gets darker up until its pitch black at the center of the lake.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡ªI-I¡¯m¡­I¡¯m outside!¡± I shouted with a smile on my face and laugh as happiness filled me. To be able to feel the sunlight, feel the wind, and see daytime, it¡¯s like a whole new world. A much better one than what I was in.I look up to see the clear blue sky and that¡¯s when I notice. Earth. Tears came rushing out my face from disbelief. I¡¯m finally one step closer to go home. I cried to my heart¡¯s content as I stare at the planet from a distance.The plant in the sky.My goal.The place where my mother is. The place I called, home.


    "Beautiful isn''t it? Oh, will you stop crying so loud? My ears are going to break jeez~" The voice behind me interrupted my emotional moment. As I look back to see who it is that needs to receive my fist, my happiness quickly turned into anger.


    ¡°Luro," I say calling out his name.


    "You, you''re not like the others. Every time you see me you don''t try to attack me. Why? Didn''t I say that you need to kill me so you can go home." He asked me as he leans towards a tree and the bluebird lands on his shoulder. I know I''m not strong enough. I barely made it out of the cave alive and if I attack him now, I might die so I held myself back from attacking out of fury.


    "Shut the fuck up. What do you want?" I snarl to him.


    "Well at first let me congratulate you on beating my expectations! Bravo! Bravo!¡± Luro claps his hands with a smile on his face that makes it more punchable than before.¡°I thought you would die but, you survived and ended up clearing the dungeon!¡±


    "Stick to small talk you fuck," I say to him with authority.


    "Whoa there little baby relaaaaax~ Now¡­I¡¯m here because I want to tell you a story as a congratulatory gift. Say, do you want to know what happened to your friends? If they died or not? You¡¯re going to want to hear this~¡±He sings as he says the last line.He looks at me with one of his eyebrow raised. And an expression that says he''s waiting for my answer. Like a puppy waiting for a treat. I want to strangle this puppy till its eyes pop out of its socket. I sit back down the grass to relax. Then I look up to him as he stands over me. His red pupil tells me his excitement and I gave him a smirk.


    "Go on, I''m listening," I tell him and he gives me a smile.

 CHAPTER 12: The Gold district team

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 12: The Gold District Team


    =Hiroko¡¯s POV=


    <hr>


    ¡°The name¡¯s Balo, leader of the gold district. Nice to meet you.¡± He says as held out his hand towards Junpei. We''re all just getting used to the outside. I¡¯m kneeling on the ground crying my eyes out on what just happened. I stood up and I quickly run towards Balo grabbing both of his shoulders.


    ¡°H-help us! Please! One of our team members is still inside the dungeon! Please help us save him!¡± I begged him, and he looked surprised for me to be so close to his face.


    ¡°R-relax a bit! Relax! Wait¡­this isn¡¯t all of you?¡± Balo asked me.


    "N-no. There is one more person who is not here with us..." My voice trails off as I look at the ground. I feel guilty for leaving him in there. I''m imagining him going through everything all alone. The thought was too much for me to handle and I drop down to my knees and started crying. I held my hands toward my face and covered it to prevent people from seeing my expression.


    ¡°Yasu¡­.I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry." I whisper as tears come rushing down my cheeks. Everyone kept quiet and just listened to me cry. That''s when one of the gold members broke the silence. She came to my position and kneeled right beside me. She stretched her hand out towards my direction and gave me what I needed the most at the moment. A hug.


    ¡°There, there. It¡¯s ok. Cry all you want, we know how painful it is to lose someone.¡± She says while patting me on the back. By the looks of it, it seems like she is the oldest of the group. She is the gold district¡¯s adult member. I cried more and ended up huggingher. I cried on her for a good couple of minutes. Right when my crying subsided, she pulls herself away but kept her hands on my shoulders.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll do what we can, ok? But before that, we need to introduce ourselves. My name is Kumiko, but you can call me sensei or Kumiko-sensei.¡± She tells me as she gives me a warm smile.


    ¡°S-sensei. Help us.¡± I say to her with snot and tears pouring down my face. She turned to everyone else waiting for a response.


    ¡°M-m-my name is Sawada!¡± Sawada has a stiff expression and his body went rigid.


    ¡°Hello, My name is Riki. I-I¡¯m a strong follower of A-Chan!¡± Riki nervously speaks and it caught Balo¡¯s attention.


    What¡¯s wrong with him?I say in my mind thinking how he can be happy telling her his weird hobbies when in fact we just left Yasu in the dungeon.


    ¡°My name is Tobi," Tobi says as he bows down properly.


    ¡°I¡¯m Rikimura," Rikimura-san says. I look at him with anger. He¡¯s the one that initiated the choice in the first place. If he never talked in the beginning about whom he¡¯ll choose, we probably could have thought another way to negotiate with Luro. But deep down inside, I blame myself for going along. In the end, my need to survive is stronger than wanting to save him and its slowly eating me alive. He notices my glare and looks away not caring about what he had done.


    ¡°My name is Junpei and I¡¯m the leader of this group. Kumiko¨Csensei. How did you guys find us here? Seems like you already knew we were going to wake up here.¡± He asked, and it caught my attention how they quickly found us.


    ¡°Well, you guys probably know about a maniac named Luro," Balosays. Just hearing his name is making me furious. ¡°Well, he came and told us you¡¯re all going to be here. Gave us directions to pick you up because he put all of you on our team."


    Ah, so we''re not diamond anymore. I say in my mind. Somehow, my heart feels heavy knowing the fact that we¡¯re not part of our old group.


    ¡°How about you, what¡¯s your name?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked me while smiling warmly.I can see a genuine character in her eyes. I guess she somewhat became the mother of this group. Even though we just met, I can feel she really cares for us like everybody else.


    "My name is Hiroko," I tell her.


    After our introductions, I pleaded with them to go back in the dungeon but Balo told us to go back to their camp first to figure out how to save Yasu. I was happy there''s still hope but deep down inside, I''m scared. I''m scared for him waking up all alone in the dungeon. We all started heading back the Gold districts camp and it didn¡¯t take long for us to reach it. They¡¯ve managed to set up camp somewhere in the middle of the forest. Balotold us about how they managed to get out of the dungeon twoweeks ago. They were put in the same type of dungeon as us. But they had one advantage. Their class. The class they picked put them on an advantage and they managed to kill the gatekeeper on their dungeon. And from what I noticed, all their class is different from ours.


    Balo picked a class calleddual. He said his class specialize on dual wielding weapons and mainly focus on attacking. Pretty much the class Yasu wanted. Kumiko-sensei chose to be a healer. She specializes in healing, removing curses and also putting a curse on others or inflicting attacks that damage over time. A person in their team named Akane picked a mage class. She can control all four elements from fire, water, earth, and wind. She seems excited to find another girl her age and stayed close to me the whole time.


    ¡°Soooo, how did you guys get out? Like why were you all sleeping earlier? To get out of our dungeon, we had to go through skeletons, wolves, an elite version of them and then the giant stupid ogre. In the end¡­he¡­" Akane started tearing up and she was on the verge of crying when Kumiko-sensei comforted her.


    ¡°Akane-chan. Its ok, remember we promised to be strong for him.¡± She says patting her back.


    ¡°I know. It¡¯s just¡­I miss him.¡± Akane replies and hugs Kumiko-sensei. She lodges her face on her boobs and I can see some of the guys from my group are envious. It irks me how they¡¯re not affected by just what happened. But then again, we didn¡¯t know each other that long. But to me, it felt like Yasu was a real friend. Noticing Akane crying some more, I wanted to ask whom they are talking about but it seems like a sensitive matter, so I just stayed quiet. Noticing my curiosity about the subject, Kumiko-sensei gave me the information I was looking for.


    ¡°He was our Leader.¡± She says as she pats Akane on the head as we all walk through the forest. ¡°After he passed away, Balo became our leader. His name was Akihito. He and Balo were close friends back at earth. They were both transported here. He had leadership qualities that we all seek for someone who can lead us out the dungeon. He wasn¡¯t obnoxious and respected everyone equally. That¡¯s why we all cherished him as our leader¡­but¡­he had one flaw.¡±


    Kumiko-sensei looks up the sky to watch different birds fly across above us. For a good minute, we all waited for her to continue on. Right when I was about to ask, she spoke words that pierced my heart.


    "He had a non-combat class," Kumiko-sensei says as she looks back down towards us. Everyone got quiet and all their expression caught up to them as they looked at the ground.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what class did he have?¡± Junpei asked the question we¡¯re all probably thinking in our mind.


    "It''s called Footwork," Balo replied this time. ¡°When he picked the class, he thought he would become a martial artist or something. He was wrong, the class he chose was a dancer class.¡±


    Again, something stabs my heart and it felt like something was lodged in my throat. They''re way far too similar in circumstances.


    Yasu, I say in my mind.


    ¡°A dancer? You mean he specialized in dancing?¡± Junpei asked another question.


    ¡°Yeah. When Luro gave us our weapons, the weapon he got was shoes and a hat.¡± Kumiko-sensei replied. ¡°His attack damage was really low, and he couldn¡¯t wield anything except his dancing shoes and hat. At first, we all thought, how is this guy going to survive.¡±


    We all waited for her to continue on and after Akane removes her face, she pats her in the head giving her a smile. Then she looked up not to us but forward and continued walking following Balo while Akane moves closer to me and clings on my arms.


    "But he proved us wrong," Kumiko-sensei says. "He managed to become our leader without fighting in the front line."


    ¡°H-how?¡± Junpei asked.


    ¡°Knowledge. He told us how to deal with the skeleton and even helped us deal with the gatekeeper. He figured out or would guess where the weak point is and would shout directions over us as we fight.¡± Kumiko-sensei says.


    ¡°When we¡¯re not fighting inside the safe zone, he would crack up jokes to make us laugh. He kept the group moving forward and motivated us when we needed it. He--¡± Akane stopped talking again and I can see tears welling up in her eyes.


    ¡°He¡¯s really stupid.¡± Balo interrupted.


    ¡°He would give us more share of his food and put on a smile all day long. But when its night, he would cry to himself.¡± Akane says burying her face into my arms.


    "Really fucking stupid," Balo said again. But not because of anger, I can hear the frustration in his voice. He talked to us as he walks in front of us without looking back. Then I see him stop walking and everyone followed suit.


    ¡°But,¡± Balo says and he paused for a minute before continuing. ¡°He trusted us. He trusted us with his life.¡±


    That last line has put a mark on all of our hearts. We all couldn¡¯t say anything and felt a deep regret.


    ¡°In the end, we failed him. He died in front of us. He died in my arms.¡± Balo continued to walk and that was the last word we heard throughout the whole trip. No one said anything. They¡¯re all probably thinking the same thing I¡¯m thinking.


    We didn¡¯t trust him. I didn¡¯t trust him. Why? Why didn¡¯t I trust him?I say in my mind even though I knew the answers to my question. I kept walking without talking until our journey towards the gold camp came to an end.


    Once we got there, we had a good look at their base. They''ve set up camp in the middle an opened plot of land right next to a giant tree. It''s basically near a small lake in the middle of the forest. Trees were surrounding the area but there''s enough flat land that distances their camp from the trees. If anyone or anything were to attack them from the forest, they could see it from a distance.


    They''ve made a makeshift shelter using sticks and leaning them against each other horizontally. They piled a bunch of leaves and build a wall around it. They have built a fire pit in the middle between their sleeping area and the lake. I guess this way if something were to set on fire, they can run to the lake and put it out real quick. As we all take a better look at the forest from a distance, the trees in the forest are something new to us. Its green color was a lot brighter than earth. Even the lake had crystal clear cyan water that contains various types of fishes. Looking at it made it seems like we''re staring at an aquarium. The grass on the ground felt soft and was a much brighter green than the one we had back home. Is at if the plants in this planet are more alive, and the air is the cleanest we ever breathe in. As we look towards the distance, the sun was starting to set layering the sky with a yellow-orange hue.


    Balo helped us build our own cots. I put mine next to Akane since she was so adamant onsleepingnear her and Kumiko-sensei. I''m not going to lie, it¡¯s refreshing to see another female besides myself. Before I used to sleep with the guys inside the dungeon and I was starting to turn like one. But now, I can be a girl again with these two. I thought about how Yasu would enjoy the view we¡¯re currently seeing, and I started to feel guilt creeping up my throat.


    We''re here about to sleep under the moon and with planet earth in the sky while feeling the cool breeze ofnight-time.While Yasu, he''s probably sleeping back in the cold hard floor of the dungeon. Alone. I whisper in my mind and I tried hard to not cry.


    We all went to the lake and washed. It felt like weeks since I cleaned myself and it was kind of nasty seeing the water wash off all the dirt and grimes all over my body. Kumiko-sensei and Akane helped cover me as I washed while the guys went on the further end of the lake. Even though it seems barbaric washing like this, it''s refreshing after all the ordeal we went through inside the dungeon. After feeling clean, we gathered around the campfire as Balo instructed.


    "Ok, everyone! let¡¯s go eat first then we can figure out how to save your friend.¡± Balo says. A relief has flown through me. If these guys can beat the gatekeeper, they can help us save Yasu. Everyone has the same happy expression as me except for one person. Rikimura-san.


    Ah, who cares about him? His one vote doesn''t do any difference now.I say in my mind.


    We all sat around the campfire and they handed us cooked boar meat. Once we took a bite of the boar meat, our reaction wasn¡¯t what they expected. We all looked at the meat and started crying. All of us cried except Rikimura-san who ate his portion in silence.


    ¡°W-wh-what happened? Is my cooking bad?!" Kumiko-sensei was surprised by our reaction and seeing her panicking face was refreshing.


    ¡°N-No Kumiko-sensei. Your cooking good. I just remembered-I." I tried to tell her, but I ended up crying. Akane who is sitting next to me also started crying. Now everyone on the gold district group has no idea what is going on.


    ¡°W-What happened?! Are you guys alright?! Are you hurt?! I-I-I can heal! Give me a minute!.... Heal!¡± Kumiko-sensei held her hand out and a green light emitted from her palm. Our body started glowing with the same light from our head to toe. It felt warm and refreshing and we all felt our body waking up. ¡°Are you all alright now?! If not, I can do it a couple more times?! Hea-¡°


    Just when Kumiko-sensei was about to heal us again, Junpei stopped her. ¡°W-We¡¯re fine sensei. We just remembered someone¡¯s cooking.¡± Junpei says as he wipes his tears away from his face and everyone then follows.


    "We have a member of our group that also has a non-combat class," Junpei says.This caught everyone from the gold districts attention including Balo¡¯s.


    ¡°Really? What class did he have? Wait, is that you?!¡± Masato asked. Masato is a tall guy who wears glasses and a robe. His class is a summoner. He has the ability to summon celestial beast at his will to fight for him during combat. I see a small fox following him around which is kind of cute.


    ¡°No, no it¡¯s not me. His class was a cook.¡± Junpei replied.


    ¡°A cook? Wait a minute, is he the one stuck in the dungeon?¡± Akane asked and we all nod in agreement.


    "Holy shit. That is bad.¡± Balo whispers as he goes on a deep thought. I couldn¡¯t bring myself to tell him it¡¯s our fault.


    ¡°We''ll definitely save him. If cooking is his class, he must be good at it. Did he ever got to use his cooking skills?" Akane asked.


    ¡°Well, there wasn¡¯t much to cook inside the dungeon. So, the only thing he fed us are the rats.¡± I reluctantly reply.I didn¡¯t want anyone to know we ate rats, but I wanted them to know how rats can taste good when Yasu cooked it.


    "Rats? You guys were able to eat that thing? Those were disgusting." Balo says and it confused me. I remember it tasting so good.


    ¡°But¡­pfft!¡± Balo started laughing and everyone else from the gold district did the same.


    "What''s so funny? Those rats tasted good when Yasu cooked them!¡± I say.


    "No, no, we''re not laughing at you guys for eating rats. It''s just¡­that''s the first thing we ate also was rats. Until we were able to kill a wolf, we ate rats. I don''t know about the rats in your dungeon but the ones in ours were weird. It was really disgusting and every time we ate it, we felt like laughing.¡± Balo replied. Seems like they all had a similar experience to ours. This has made it easier for everyone to connect and we all started laughing together.


    Ah, if only Yasu was here. He would cook for us. I thought to myself.


    ¡°So, his name is Yasu huh," Balo asked.


    "Huh, oh yeah," I reply


    ¡°Say, if you guys don¡¯t mind me asking¡­¡± Balo voice trails off but then he asked the question they¡¯re all probably thinking from the get-go. ¡°Why is he still in the dungeon and not here with any of you?¡±


    We all stay silent for a moment. Then Rikimura-san spoke. ¡°He was sacrificed for us to get out of the room.¡± Everyone looked at him with a surprised expression.


    ¡°S-sacrificed?¡± Naoki asked. Then the atmosphere got heavy. Naoki is a high school student that looks like a grade schooler. His class deals with paper-mache. He told us earlier that he¡¯s able to create figures from papers to fight alongside him. His class is like a summoner but he¡¯s able to also create weapons like swords also.


    Junpei was about to open his mouth when Rikimura-saninterrupted him. ¡°Yeah, Luro decided for him to stay behind for us to get out. We protested but we couldn¡¯t do anything. Then next thing we know we woke up outside.¡±


    What? Did he just lie? How can he just lie like that? I scream in my mind and I give him a furious look.


    "Wow, that must have been heavy for you guys," Takumi spoke. Takumi also has the class dual like Balo since he¡¯s wielding two swords.


    "Yeah, that''s why we need to save him," Rikimura-san spoke.


    This bastard he¡¯s lying! Fury was slowly creeping, but I held myself back. If I do anything stupid now to lose all their trust, they won¡¯t help us save Yasu.Junpei who is sitting on my right grabbed my hand and when I look at him, I can see him slightly shake his head. His grip was a lot tighter than usual indicating that¡¯s he¡¯s also furious but there was nothing we can do. No one said anything after that. We all ate our dinner and rested for the night. Most of the gold members are asleep except forBalowho kept night watch and switched with Takumi midway through the night. As for us, seems like our sleeping cycle is messed up. I¡¯m still fully awake. So is everyone else. Morning came quickly and I didn¡¯t sleep a wink.


    ¡°Wake up! Everyone Wake up~¡± Balo shouted from outside our cot while singing happily. As soon as I got out, I felt the sunlight beaming down on us and for the first time, it felt nice to feel that I¡¯m alive.


    ¡°Guys, go wash up. Breakfast is almost ready. After eating, we¡¯ll leave to look for your friend right after.¡± Balo says and he leaves to join Akane who¡¯s in charge of cooking breakfast. We head towards the lake to wash our faces. Everyone from the gold district was already awake. Four of their member¡¯s and Rikimura-san went hunting while Akane and Balo prepared breakfast. I would think Kumiko-sensei would do the cooking but knowing her healing abilities, she more needed in the front lines just in case someone gets injured. Once we got to the lake and a distance away from Akane and Balo, I asked the questions the rest of my group was probably wondering all night.


    ¡°Junpei, why didn¡¯t you say anything? Rikimura-san lied about Yasu.¡± I whisper and everyone from my group is listening.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°I know. I wanted to say something, but I didn¡¯t.¡± Junpei whispered back. ¡°We don¡¯t really know these guys as well as they don¡¯t know us. Even if they look nice, if they found out that it was our fault Yasu ended up in the dungeon, so we can go save ourselves, I don¡¯t think they will help us find him.¡±


    ¡°But-¡± Riki tried to speak but stopped himself.


    ¡°If they found out, anything we say will sound like an excuse. No, actually it will sound worse because we chose to save ourselves instead.¡± Junpei whispered back.


    ¡°So that¡¯s why he lied, so they can help us save Yasu," Sawada said.


    ¡°Probably. As for now, I think it was the logical decision. Come on, let¡¯s finish up quick and help them set up.¡± Junpei says and he quickly dries his face with his shirt and started walking towards Balo and Akane.


    ¡°Even if that¡¯s the case, I don¡¯t like the idea of lying to the people whose giving us a lending hand," Tobi whispers and paused for a minute to dry his face with his shirt. "But we need to save Yasu. He won¡¯t survive in there for very long.¡±


    We couldn¡¯t say anything, so we just quickly washed up and walked behind Junpei following him towards Balo.


    ¡°Eggs?! Where did you guys get these?!¡± Riki ask as we got close seeing eggs boiling on some makeshift pot.


    "Well, there''s a lot of nests around the forest. We just look for a nest and take a few eggs from it. We feel bad because we''re taking their babies to eat, but we have to survive. Come, let''s eat." Balo says as we all sat by the campfire. That¡¯s when the four members of the gold district came out of the forest along with Rikimura-san. They joined us, and we all ate breakfast together.After eating breakfast, we all started getting ready to look for Yasu. We don¡¯t really know where to start that¡¯s when Balo came to us with a big news.


    "Ok guys, you ready? It''s going to take a couple of days trekking the forest to get to the portal, but it should be an easy travel from here to there.¡± Balo said.


    ¡°Wait. You know where the portal is?!¡± Riki asked surprised. We''re all dumbfounded how wellinformedthey are.


    ¡°Yeah. Your portal, it¡¯s right next to ours.¡± He replies and gave us a smile. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± That brought up our spirits. We''re able to safe Yasu sooner.


    Wait for us Yasu. We''re coming.I say in my mind as we depart to head to our portal. Riki and Balo seem to get along very well. We followed marks on the trees theyhave made to be able to goback to the portal if they needed to. The portalseems pretty far from wherethey camped.


    "Ok, We don''t really know how long it took us to get to the lake since we were aimlessly wandering around without counting how many nights it had been. We were trying to find a village. For all that we know, these marks we did might go in a couple of loops." Balo says.


    As we''reall walk through the forest, Akaneasked meout of nowhere a surprising question.


    ¡°Sooooo Hiroko, do you have a boyfriend?¡± She asked and some of the boy¡¯s ears perked up. Her question caught me off guard and my mind went blank.


    ¡°W-what are you asking Akane-chan. O-of course Hiroko-san doesn¡¯t have a b-boyfriend. Right Hiroko-san?¡±Naoki asked me to look for an answer that leads to a no. Right before I give him what he wants, Akane interrupts me.


    ¡°I¡¯m not talking to you Nao-Nao!¡± Akane retaliates back to Naoki.


    ¡°W-What, I told you to stop calling me that!¡± Naoki retaliates back to Akane.


    ¡°Nao Nao Nao Nao!¡± Akane repeats to Naoki over and over again trying to agitate him. I laugh a little to their quarrel. They seem like a married couple. I decided to speak to stop them from fighting.


    ¡°No, I don''t have a boyfriend," I say.


    ¡°See?! I told you!¡± Naoki says to Akanewhichmade me laugh a little.


    ¡°D-do you have anyone y-you like?¡± Takumi asked and now all of the guys are listening.I pause for a moment then I answer.


    "I''m looking for someone," I say


    ¡°Really?! What is he like? Is he tall? Is he handsome, Smart, wait¡­..is it Yasu?!¡± Akane asked.Her last comment startled me a bit and I can see Junpei looking at me with such intensity I can feel it.


    ¡°R-r-relax with the questions. As for his identity, I don¡¯t know. I only saw him once. And no, it¡¯s not Yasu.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°So who is it?¡± Akane insists on finding out.


    "The one I like is the one I admire the most," I reply to her. "He saved me on my worst time even though he was in a tight position himself. The only memory I remember of him is his back. And ever since then, I have been looking for it. He is the number one student from Seito Private High School."


    ¡°S-Seito Private High?! You mean that prestigious school only a handful prodigies get elected in?! That high school?!¡± Akane was surprised once she heard the name. I can¡¯t blame her. Even when I heard about Yasu going to the same school, I was surprised. Being in the same room with a person that goes to that school makes it somehow special. It¡¯s like I was with a celebrity.


    ¡°Yasu also goes to Seito high school," Riki says nonchalantly and everyone looks at him with a surprised expression Including Kumiko-sensei.


    ¡°Wait....what?!Are you serious?! People who go to that schoolare big leagues!They are the real deal!¡± Balo says.After that, somehow Balo was more pumped than ever that we moved at a faster pace than usual. We took turns taking watch at nighttime. Since there is no safe zone out here, we can get attacked on our sleep by monsters. But all we have seen towards our journey back to the portal is a couple of boars. Balo told us that, ever since they got out of their dungeon, they only come across boars, which I prefer. The boars seem pretty weak. I don¡¯t want to go through the same experience as last time.


    It took us a while to reach the location. Balo told us that when they were inside their dungeon, time seems to go faster since they don¡¯t know if its daylight or not. When they go to sleep and wake up it¡¯s easy to think it¡¯s the next day but in reality, it¡¯s probably still the same day. The reason is when they got out; they got sleepy mid-day and were awake all night. They had to adjust to the time outside the dungeon. We feel the same way since all of us are awake at night and decided to take night watch a couple of times. Once we arrived, it was inside the forest hidden by a bunch of shrubs and tree branches.


    ¡°Whoa.," Tobi whispers as we stand in front of a cave entrance.


    ¡°Ok guys, we¡¯re here. Inside the cave iswhereour portal is located.¡± Balo says. ¡°When we got out, we saw that there¡¯s another portal next to our which is exactly identical. We decided not to get into it because; we didn¡¯t want to encounter the gatekeeper again. Sorry about that, we didn¡¯t come to save you guys.¡±


    Balo¡¯s apology is a genuine one. I feel bad making them go through danger for people they recently met but, we need to save Yasu.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We understand you guys had a tough time. Thank you for helping us.¡± Junpei says and we all remember that their leader died before he even exited the portal. Balo gives us a smile and he walked in the cave with everyone following behind him. Once we got inside, we needed to go deep in the cave to get to the portal. I don¡¯t know about the others, but my heart was pounding really fast.


    I was scared. I¡¯m going back to the place I was killed. I was petrified.


    At the end of the cave was a pool of water. The ceiling hanging over the pool was a single large stalactite similar to the ones we had inside the dungeon. It illuminated the whole cave. We see some of the stalactite broke and fell into the pool and sank in the bottom. The broken stalactite illuminated the whole pool underneath and we could see crystal clear all of the fishes swimming in it. The only difference between the stalactite in our dungeon and this one was its color. This one was purple and the ones in our dungeon were blue.


    ¡°Alright everyone listen up," Baloshouts atall of us as we sitdown to rest. ¡°We¡¯re going to camp here for today and leave tomorrow morning when we are fully rested. The portal is just on the other side of this wall. For us to get to it, we have to go underwater and swim to the other side from underneath. We thought about destroying it but, we didn¡¯t want to cave it in and get you guys trapped after getting out. Once we surface, the portal is right at the end of the other side."


    Balo points towards the wall that is towards the end near the pool of water. I feel touched that even with the ordeal they went through, they still thought about other people. But at the same time, I was scared of what¡¯s beyond the wall. Across this wall is where we all woke up in. Where we all fought in. Where we all died in. On the other side of the room, is where we left Yasu.


    We all set up camp and rested. For dinner, we had the usual boar.


    ¡°Say, how come you guys can cook? When we tried to cook inside the dungeon, the meat kept getting burned.¡± Tobi asked.


    "Really? That''s weird. I don''t really know. We were able to cook from the beginning. If we didn¡¯t we would have starved to death.¡± Balo replied.


    "Hmm, let me try." Tobi then grabbed the boar meat that is lodged on a stick and placed it over a fire. The meat started cooking and we were all watching the meat waiting for it to turn into ash. It didn¡¯t.


    ¡°What the¡­ that¡¯s weird. I can cook.¡± Tobi says in confusion. We were all confused at that moment.


    Why did the rat meat burn when we tried cooking it?I say in my mind.


    ¡°When I tried to cook in the dungeon with Yasu, the meat I had on a frying pan burned," Tobi says.


    ¡°Wait¡­Did you say frying pan?!¡± Kumiko-sensei asked in a surprised manner.


    "Yea, the weapon that materialized for our teammate was a spatula, frying pan, and an apron," Tobi replied.


    ¡°Seriously?! I am in so need of a frying pan right now. We¡¯ve been using sticks to cook the meat. It would be better if we didn¡¯t have to grill everything over the fire.¡± Kumiko-sensei replied.


    ¡°Wait, you said you used his frying pan?¡± Balo asked Tobi.


    "Yeah," Tobi replied.


    ¡°Hmm. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s the same but when we tried to wear the dancing shoes Akihito had, somehow, we couldn¡¯t dance at all. When he wears it, his moves can be compared to a professional dancer or maybe even better. His moves flowed like water. But when we tried it on and dance in the shoes, we looked like penguins.¡± Balo says.


    ¡°So you''re saying that we can''t cook using his utensils?" Tobi asked and paused for a minute to turn the boar meat towards the other side. ¡°Maybe your right. The meat burned when I was using his frying pan holding it over the fire. I never really tried using a stick up to now.¡±


    We talked some more of our hobbies and what school we came from. Everyone was surprised when they found out I go to the second-best high school. After that, we ate our dinner, and everybodywent to sleep. Except for me. I couldn¡¯t sleep so I decided to soak my feet in the pool of water to calm myself.That¡¯s when Balo and Kumiko-sensei approached me. At first, I didn¡¯t hear them and scared me when Balosuddenly asked a question. They were on night watch duty.


    ¡°Can¡¯t sleep?¡± He asks.


    "Ah! You scared me." I say as my heart races. "No, I can''t. Even though we''re this close, I more worried now compared to when I was far away."


    ¡°Stop worrying Hiroko-chan. Even though you guys didn¡¯t pick him, in a sense, it wasn¡¯t your fault. He probably won''t blame you for it." Kumiko-sensei spoke. Her sudden words made my heart beat faster and my expression became pale like I was caught red-handed.


    "W-what?..H-h-how did you--I-I-i- I didn¡¯t mean-" I stutter at my words trying to apologize. That''swhen Balo let out a laugh loud enough for me to hear but not wake everyone else.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Hiroko. We will still help you save him. We¡¯re not that of bad guys after all. And how did we find out? As dual, my perception is really high. We can hear sound from a very far distance. I heard you guys talking when you were washing your face in the lake the first time we met." Balo replies. Tears came flowing out my eyes with the shame of lying to them. Even after finding out they still decided to help us and even tried to reassure me to prevent me from worrying more.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry. We didn¡¯t mean to lie.¡± I tell them over and over again and that¡¯s when Kumiko-sensei hugged me. Her hug took all of the heaviness on my shoulders and all I did was cry on her. After I calmed myself down. I decided to explain them everything. How we woke up and how we came across Yasu. How he helped us prevent from going hungry by giving half of his share of food to our portion. How he helped us prevent from going thirsty by transporting water back and forth. How he cried at night by himself trying to pick up a sword he knew he would never be able to lift.


    *Sob


    ¡°It¡¯s our fault he died," I say while crying. ¡°We didn''t think things through. We dragged him out the safe zone and brought him to the enemies we couldn''t even kill. Then we all died first and left him alone to defend for himself. He did everything for us but in the end, all we did for him was to throw him back in the same place to save ourselves.¡±


    Balo didn¡¯t say anything. He had an expression like he was hurt and was in a verge of tears. Kumiko-sensei was already crying but she rubbed my back over and over again to calm myself down.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko-chan. We all make mistakes and when he sees all of you go back there for him, he will forgive you guys. Based on what type of character he has, he will hold on for as long as he can and wait for you. For all of you to rescue him.¡± Kumiko-sensei says trying to reassure me.


    ¡°Yea doesn¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll save him. We might have to deal with the gatekeeper but since we dealt with him before, we should be able to kill it with all of your help. Besides, based on Yasu¡¯s character, he''s not the type to go on a rampage and mercilessly kill everything without regards to his life. He''s smarter than that." Balo says.


    I hope he right. I hope Yasu will welcome us. I hope, he¡¯s still alive.


    ¡°Ah! I still have some left." I say suddenly realizing what''s inside my dimensional bag. Tears are still pouring down my face but remembering that I still had some put a smile on my face.


    ¡°Have of what?¡± Balo asked. Both Balo and Kumiko-sensei are looking at me with curiosity. I smile at them.


    ¡°Item box.¡± Then I took a couple out of my bag and both of them smiled. ¡°You guys want some?¡±I hold out my hand holding a few rat meat Yasu cooked for us. They both looked wary but took the meat off my hand. The minute they took the first bite, their expression changed, and we ate the rat meat silently laughing through the night.


    Once its daytime and everyone is awake and ready to go, we proceeded to dive in the pool. Akane couldn¡¯t swim. Shealreadyhada hardtime gettingout from the other side that she almost died from drowning. Making her go dive again isn''t such a good idea.So, she decided to stay and wait for us. Sawada decided to stay with her justin casemonsters attack them; both of them should be able to defendthemselves. We dived down the pool and swam towards the other side. Swimming underwater is a lot easier in this world because our vision doesn¡¯t go blurry. We can see clearly as if we were wearing swimming goggles. But it¡¯s still water; we had to hold our breath.


    Once we got out of the other side, a brick wall that seems like it was built long ago and was blocking our path. The only weird part of the wall is a glass door that¡¯s right in the center of it. This glass door is a hit of modern design and it was something out of the world concept.


    ¡°Ok everyone, through this glass door is another wooden door that leads to the portal. The only problem is that this glass door only opens from this side. When we got out, this glass door and wooden door was already opened. I decided to go back and close the other wooden door just in case a monster comes out of your portal. That''s when the glass door closed behind me from the other side and I got trapped in there. I tried pushing the door, but it doesn¡¯t budge. There is no way of pulling it from inside since there is no handle. I tried breaking it, but it wouldn¡¯t break. Good thing Masato swam back and found me here banging the door nonstop. That¡¯s why when we got it opened, we left it open so you guys don''t get stuck here if you got out of your dungeon. Thus, being said, one of us has to stay here just in case it closes again. We don¡¯t want to be stuck in there.¡± Balo says


    "I''ll stay," Rikimura-san suggested. It¡¯s better, I don¡¯t want him near me. ¡°Me and Junpei both have a shield and it¡¯s ideal to have one person who has a shield stay out here just in case monsters come and attack me from out of nowhere. I can defend myself.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, that¡¯s true. Ok then please stay Mr. Rikimura.¡± Balo says to Rikimura-san in which he replied with a nod.All of us except Rikimura-san entered the glass door and we reached the closed wooden door in a couple of minutes.


    "Ok, you guys are ready?" Balo asked us. We all nod. He opens the wooden door and what awaited us inside was something we didn¡¯t expect.There were two portals next to each other that looked like the one that we saw inside the dungeon. Markings are engraved on top that says, ''To the dungeon''.


    The only difference is, the portal on the left was intact and functioning while the portal to the right, was destroyed.


    ¡°Nice thinking. Destroying your portal is a good idea to prevent monsters from traveling through.¡± Junpei says as we come closer to the portals. We are at awe with their strength of being able to destroy it. But it was weird. Balo and the rest of the gold member didn¡¯t say anything. They just looked at the destroyed portal with a heavy expression plastered in their face.


    "What happened? What''s going on?" I asked.


    ¡°That portal isn¡¯t ours. The one to the left is where we came out from. The one to the right is yours.¡± Balo says looking at the rubble.


    ¡°oh no¡­¡± Kumiko-sensei says as she puts her hand over her mouth.


    ¡°no¡­.no¡­.No! This can¡¯t be!¡± Junpei says as he approaches the broken portal that''sshattered into pieces. I drop to my knees and started crying. It felt like the whole world was dumped on me and the heaviness is making me feel like I¡¯m drowning.


    "T-t-the portal is broken, that means Yasu, inside, he, he must be--," I say as tears fall out of my face and I cry on the floor. Everyone else couldn''t say anything and all that filled the room is my sound of grief.


    "Y-you don''t know that Hiroko-chan. He might still be alive in there. We just have to figure out a way to rebuild it somehow." Kumiko-sensei tries to reassure me.


    "Yeah! We can rebuild it! Guys help me piece it back. Maybe if we build it, it might activate again!" Junpei says at everyone. He then approached the broken statueandstarted rebuilding it.But as he builds the pieces, it kept crumbling down.


    "NO! DAMN IT!" Junpeiscreamswith frustration. I kept on crying and no one else said anything. We all knew that even if we find a way to properlyrebuild it, it would take some time.


    By the time we get it up and running again, Yasu inside will be already. I say in my mind as I blankly stare at the ground.


    ¡°Yasu! I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry! Please forgive me!!¡± I cried and apologized nonstop and no one said or did anything. We all just cried nonstop. By the time I''ve calmed down, everyone else has a sullen look and grief on their faces.


    ¡°Yasu! You hear me! Stay alive in there! E-even if you don''t! I¡¯ll come back for you! I promise!¡± Junpei screamed towards the broken portal. There was nothing I could say except apologies. And I apologized till I couldn''t anymore. We had no choice but to accept it.Yasu, we won''t be able to rescue him on time. There wasn¡¯t anything we can do. We have no knowledge of rebuilding the portal.


    ¡°I know, it¡¯s not the right time but, we all should head outside first to get some fresh air. Maybe we can find a village and ask around if they know how to re-activate a portal.¡± Balo suggested and we all just weakly nod. Hiroko sensei helped me up to my feet and I used her as support to walk towards the wooden door.Once we pass the wooden door. We are still silently sobbing with a hole in our heart for really losing a teammate. I guess this is how Balo and the other felt when their leader died. When we got to the wooden door, Rikimura-san was still standing on the other side.


    The glass door was closed shut.


    ¡°Mr.Rikimura. Open the door. Were back.¡± Balo says to Rikimura-san. But all Rikimura-san did is watch him and then he smiled.


    ¡°Uhh, the door? Can you hear me from that side? The. Door. Open. Please.¡± Junpei says as he gestures to open the door thinking Rikimura-san can''t hear him


    "I can hear you just fine and no I''m not going to open it," Rikimura-san spoke with a tone we¡¯re unfamiliar with.


    ¡°W-what? Stop playing around Mr. Rikimura and open the door.¡± Balo was starting to raise his voice indicating he was getting annoyed.


    ¡°No can do Mr. Gold Leader. As you guys can see your lives are in the palm of my hands. Now, I will give you one proposition. Become my slaves or die here."


    ¡°huh? You fucking crazy? Open the door!¡± Balo¡¯s demeanor changed and I can see him starting to become agitated.


    "You bastard! Open this door!" I scream at him as my temper and my emotions mix together.


    ¡°Ha¡­hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Who are you to demand something from me in this situation?¡± He asks me as he raises his eyebrows and looks at me up and down. ¡°You know what, why don''t you become my plaything and maybe I''ll let you out? As long as you satisfy me every night¡­¡±He says as he looks at me licking his lips.


    ¡°W-what?! Are you fucking nuts?! Let us out or I swear to god I¡¯m going to kill you!!¡± Junpei snaps after hearing his proposition.


    ¡°Ha¡­hahahahah..hahahahahahahahahah! Swear to god? Like Luro? Oi, you brat!!" He gestured at Balo.


    "What?" Balo responded with a firm tone.


    "I lied earlier. Luro didn¡¯t sacrifice that Yasu kid. We sacrificed him! HAHAHAHAHA! Stupid kids followed my lead and we all chose tokill him for the brat standing next to you!!" Rikimura-san started laughing like a maniac.


    "Tell me something Idon''tknow youpsychopath. Open this fucking door so I can gouge youreyeballout you piece of shit!" Balo responded back.He is really mad. His expression has changed and the only thing keeping Rikimura-san safe from him is the unbreakable glass door.


    "Junpei. Do you really think I chose you to live because you¡¯re valuable? Ha! Get real you fucking brat! The reason I chose you is that you''re the easiest to control~ That brat Yasu, he was slowly breaking. He was harder to control. How do I know? Iwentthrough the same fucking thing back on earth!! Did it ever occur to you idiots what I did back on earth? What I am? huh?!" Rikimura san asked with a crazy expression.


    "W-w-who are you?" Riki asked with a hint of fear in his voice.


    "Me? I''m just your average schadenfreude. I like to see people suffer. You know what I used to do back on earth before I was brought here? I used to kidnap people like you idiots. I would violate them and kill them slowly. I would make sure they stay alive on their last breath and feel the pain and suffering they can imagine! hah~ hah~ hah~. ooooh sooooo gooooooood~" Rikimura-san started panting like he¡¯s having sexualintercoursewith himself. Then he unzipped hispantsand dropped them.He startedmasturbatingin frontof us. There was nothing we can do to stop him.


    "Oh! Oh! Oh! Revelation is cumming! I''m cumming!! Ahhhh~! hah, ~ haaaaaaa~oooooh so goood." Rikimura-san ejaculated at the glass door and we''re all looking at him at disgust as he put his pants back up.


    ¡°You, you¡¯re not fucking human you insane psychopath!¡± Junpei screamsto Rikimura-san.


    ¡°Me? Hahahahaha I am human. It¡¯s just that, master Luro preferred me than all of you. He thinks I am a high candidate to become ruler of this world!" Rikimura-sansays as he opens his hands.


    ¡°Huh?!M-master Luro?!¡± Tobi says.


    ¡°Yes! He is the new being worthworshiping. He brought me to this world knowing that I can become a fine leader! A fine ruler! A king! A god! Backon earth, I was nothing! Everyone looked down at me! That''s why I tortured them. I chose the poverty-stricken bastards since no one would look for them. I never got caught but I was always cautious.But in this world, I can be reborn!¡± He says as he has his hands out. ¡°For the looks of it, he brought me because he likes me. He brought me here to follow him. To be with him. To become one, with him.¡±


    His last light sent chills down my spine. All this time, a person with this mentality has been with us, walking with us, sleeping with us. It brought fear to my heart more than I can imagine.


    "Well, I have no need for any of you anyways. I was thinking maybe I could create a kingdom. And for a kingdom I need slaves. So, either become my slaves or die here. You can only choose one. We have done it before, so it should be that hard~¡±Rikimura-san says as he tries and sings the last part and smiles at us.


    "Go to hell, you psycho!" I screamed at him saying the words everyone is probably wanting to do. His expression then changes, and he stopped smiling.


    "Well then, suit yourselves. But if you do get out of here, I will know. And I''m going to come to get you one by one. I will start with you first Hiroko. I want, to taste your meat~"He says as he licks the glass door.


    BANG!


    ¡°Fucker! Open this shit!¡± Junpei kicked the door so hard Rikimura-san fell back for being startled. He slowly got up and then smiled at us.


    "Well, then brats...I need to go and get my fix. Chiao~" Rikimura-san disappeared underwater heading out the cave.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Balo screams as he kicks the glass door. ¡°Fuck!¡± He was frantic on trying to open the glass door and I know why. Our teammates are about to meet ournewest enemy without knowing anything. Sawada and Akane, they¡¯re in danger.

 CHAPTER 13: Bonds arent spoken words

    <hr>


    Chapter 13: Bonds aren''t spoken words


    <hr>


    "Fuck!" Balo shouted after kicking the door. We¡¯ve been stuck here for a while now and I felt helpless at our situation. We looked around the room, but we couldn¡¯t find anything.


    ¡°Fuck! That bastard!¡± Junpei shouts kicking at the glass door.


    We''re all at an edge. Everything went to complete crap in an instant. But right now, we¡¯re more worried about that girl Akane and Sawada. We can¡¯t go out to them and it¡¯s been over an hour now ever since Rikimura-san left us trapped in here. I¡¯m keeping my hopes up that they manage to defend themselves against Rikimura-san. Junpei and the other went around the area to see if there¡¯s any hidden lever to open the glass door. I sat around it looking out just in case one of them comes to our aid or if Rikimura-san comes back. Kumiko-sensei decided to join me and kept me company. We tried everything including attacking the glass door. All of our attacks explode on impact. But when we wait after the smoke dissipates, not even a dent is on the door. Even the wall around the area doesn¡¯t break. It seems like a barrier protects the whole wall. Junpei and the rest come back from searching and have found nothing.


    ¡°Fuck. The whole place is a dead end.¡± Junpei says as he slumps down towards a rock formation.


    ¡°Damn I should have known he was fucking weird...¡± Balo says. ¡°Say, why didn¡¯t you guys know he was a psycho? And what the deal with that Yasu stuff? Can¡¯t control him? Right now, I rather have him than that fucking psycho here."


    ¡°We didn¡¯t know. The whole time in the dungeon he seemed normal. Even when we got out of the dungeon, he was normal. Only when he made the choice of choosing Yasu to die was out of character but at that moment, we all needed to survive.¡± Junpei says.


    *Scoff


    "Yea well you guys picked the wrong one to come out with," Balo says in a low voice but it was loud enough for us to hear. It irked Junpei causing him to retaliate back while we all kept silent.


    ¡°Hey, watch what you say! It wasn¡¯t our fault he went psycho!¡± Junpei snarls at Balo.


    "Not your fault? Who is the fucking idiot that decided to follow him? Wasn''t it, you guys? He decided to kill one of your teammates and all you did is followed him like a sheep! It¡¯s your fault for not knowing his character the minute he joined your team!¡± Balo replies back and I can see the agitation in his eyes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bring Yasu in here!¡± Junpei shouts back and even I couldn¡¯t say anything. ¡°I admit, it was our mistake and it¡¯s something that we have to live with. But we didn¡¯t have a choice at that time!¡±


    ¡°Not have a choice?¡± Balo says as he takes a step forward towards Junpei. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you idiots consult each other first?! You didn¡¯t decide anything except follow him! He initiated the choice to leave your friend to die. You followed. He lied about it back at our camp and what did you do? You followed! All you have been doing is following his shadow! If you look at it, he kind of makes sense. You¡¯re easy to manipulate.¡±


    The minute Balo finishes his outburst. Junpeiattacked Balo by taking a swing at him. Junpei swing doesn¡¯t connect since Balo dodged by weaving back and he took a swing at Junpei using his left hand which connected and caused Junpei to fall to the ground.


    ¡°Stop it!¡± I scream at them. Junpei quickly got up and tackled Balo to the ground and the two started wrestling. ¡°Guys stop it!¡±


    Riki jumped in to try and separate the two along with Tobi. The two wasn¡¯t strong enough so Naoki, Masato, and Takumi all jumped in. They have managed to pull the two apart and Tobi and Riki are holding back Junpei while Masato, Nako, and Takumi are holding back Balo.


    ¡°You fuck! You¡¯re an ungrateful prick! I bring you here risking my teammates in the process and all you got us trapped in this fucking hellhole! Because of your damn incompetence, I left a teammate out there with that psycho member of yours!¡± Balo shouts as his team held him back.


    ¡°Huh?! Do you think we walked around with him knowing he''s a fuckingpsychopath?! Besides, youcould¡¯ve refused to help us!" Junpei screams back. Junpei broke free from Riki and Tobi grasp while Balo also broke free from his members. When the two were about to punch each other again, Kumiko-san got in between slapping some sense on both of them.


    ¡°Both of you stop it! This isn¡¯t helping our situation!¡± Kumiko-sensei shouts as the two grabs their cheeks. Everyone''s out of breath and tired and the room was filled with low breathing. But once the screaming stopped, that''s when we heard a voice.


    ¡°G-g-guys. Help¡­¡± We all look to where the sound is coming from and we see Sawada outside the glass door on the floor. He is drenched from coming out of the pool of water. He is holding his right shoulder and blood was flowing out onto the floor. There is also a cut on his neck and his left eye closed. He had multiple stab wounds and he¡¯s barely managing to stay awake.


    ¡°Sawada!¡± I scream as I run to the glass door. He seems disoriented and he¡¯s trying to pull the door that¡¯s supposed to be pushed from his side.


    "Push it! Sawada! Push the door!" I say instructing him how to open it. Using his last bit of strength he opens the glass door from his end and we all came rushing to his side as he falls to the ground.


    ¡°Sawada!¡± I shout towards him as I catch him fall. Kumiko-sensei rushes to my side and I see her activating her skill. The only part that was untouched form his body was is left chest towards the heart. Everywhere else there are multiple stab wounds that missed all of his vitals and it looks like it was on purpose.


    ¡°F-fucking Rikimura! Ill fucking kill him!¡± Junpei screams.


    ¡°H-H-Help.¡± Sawada tries to say.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok we¡¯re here. Relax and don¡¯t worry, this doesn¡¯t look like you were hit on your vital spots so just wait and let me heal you. Since your severely injured, your energy won¡¯t come back as fast but at least I can close the wound.¡±Kumiko-sensei says as she tries to reassure him. But all he did was pant. Kumiko-sensei opens his closed eyes that made us gasp. It was missing.


    ¡°N-n-not m-me. Help¡­Aka..ne.¡± Sawada says right before passes out. The minute he says her name, Balo and the rest of the gold district members jumped in the water and rushed to the other side. Kumiko-sensei also wanted to go and help just in case Akane is severely injured but she has to close his wound first or he will bleed to death. Once she''s done, she rushes jumping in thewater and swims to the other side.


    ¡°Hiroko, Riki, Junpei go and help them out just in case Rikimura is there. I¡¯ll stay and watch over Sawada. Once he wakes up, we will swim over.¡± Tobi says and us three dives into the water to get to the other side. As soon as we emerged out of the water, we see Balo and the rest of the group circling Akane.


    ¡°Oh no¡­¡± I whisper seeing the scene. Akane¡¯s condition was worse than Sawada. Her left arm was almost severed from her elbow. She has multiple cut wounds all over her body and one of her eyes is also missing. Her other eye is swollen shut.A cloth was wrapped around her neck, which had blood oozing out of it. She was covered in blood it was leaking out of her mouth and the cuts she had all over. Her clothes were ripped open like someone forcefully did it. She had bruises to her face that is starting to turn black and blue. She was just lying there on the ground, not moving.


    ¡°Akane! Wake up! Akane!¡± Kumiko-sensei screams as she heals Akane¡¯s wounds. Tears are coming out of her eyes.


    ¡°Akane!¡± Balo also screams kneeling down beside her. In an instant, his expression changed into fury as he runs out of the cave. The rest of the gold member followed him along with Junpei and Riki.


    "Urgh." I Hear Tobi groan as he pulls Sawada out of the water and dragged him near us. He took out his weapon and stood to watch as he noticed everyone gone. All of a sudden, Akane started coughing out blood and the minute she opened her mouth, I felt more hopeless than ever. Her tongue was missing.


    ¡°Akane! Stay with us! Don¡¯t worry! I¡¯ll heal you! Stay with us!!¡± Kumiko-sensei screams as she frantically tries to close all the wounds Akane sustained. She is crying as screams heal over and over again. She kept on screaming on Akane¡¯s unmoving body. But no matter how hard she healed. Akane didn¡¯t wake up.


    I couldn''t do anything but sit there helping her prevent blood from coming out. Guilt has made it harder to swallow. It was all our fault. We brought them Rikimura. In my mind, this must be Karma for leaving Yasu behind.


    After the whole ordeal, everyone came back from trying to find Rikimura but luck wasn¡¯t on their side. It¡¯s now nighttime. We decided to stay inside the cave for now since it¡¯s easier to watch the entrance. If Rikimura-san decided to attack us, he has to go through the entrance to do it.


    ¡°How is she?¡± I asked Kumiko-sensei who is tending to Akanewhile shereststo regain her energy back. She almost died earlier. If Kumiko-sensei didn¡¯t manage to heal her on time, she would have died. But she hasn¡¯t woken up. She¡¯s lying down on a pile of leaves that was set on the ground as a makeshift bed. All of her wounds are healed. We don¡¯t need bandages since Kumiko-sensei healing ability closes all type of wounds and cuts and probably replaces lost blood. But her limb never grew back. I guess Kumiko-sensei can only heal wounds to a certain degree. Even Sawada¡¯s eye never grew back.


    ¡°She¡¯s resting. Akane is strong so I know she will pull through this.¡± Kumiko-sensei says as she parts Akane¡¯s hair stroking her head. I couldn¡¯t say anything to make them feel better. I feel like it¡¯s our fault. We brought this on to them. If we went by ourselves to save Yasu instead of them, Akane and Sawada wouldn¡¯t be in this condition. I felt guilt envelope my body.


    ¡°Hiroko-chan, I need you to be strong. We need to protect Akane just in case that psycho comes back again. I know you¡¯re thinking it but it¡¯s not your fault or your team¡¯s fault that this happened. We decided to help you. It¡¯s nobody¡¯s fault but that psychopath. Right now, I need you with me.¡± Kumiko-sensei says like she read my mind and is trying to reassure me.


    "Yeah," I reply still feeling guilty over the situation. Junpei decided to watch the entrance while Sawada sleeps right next to Akane. Balo and the rest of his group went out hunting for Rikimura-san again after resting for a bit. Riki and Tobi are out gathering food and materials for the fire. For now, Balo indicated that everyone must go in groups. Going alone is a lot more dangerous. We¡¯re not dealing with only boars now. We¡¯re dealing with a serial killer. Balo and Junpei still don¡¯t talk but at least they¡¯re not trying to kill each other anymore.


    Once everyone got back, we ate dinner in silence. While Balo and the rest of his group slept, we decided to stay awake since its easier for us due to our messed-up sleeping habits. I decided to soak my feet in the water to calm myself.


    "Status Window," I whispered trying not to wake everyone up.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Hiroko


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    ARCHER


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    15


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gold District


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Deadshot


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    12


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Arrow Rain


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Flame Arrow


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Wind Arrow


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Infrared


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Hero''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    You''re a hero.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpshooter


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    This improves your accuracy.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Leather Aim


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Wearing a full set of leather increase accuracy.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m a gold member now. I forgot.¡± It sucks a bit leaving our original guild. The diamond district sounded much better than gold. ¡°I got out of the dungeon when I was level 5. Since we hunted a few level 12 through level 16 boars on our way here form the gold camp, my level skyrocketed up to 15.¡±


    I read all my new skills, but it didn¡¯t help with anything. I¡¯m far too weak to do anything.


    "Wind arrow, skill description," I whisper reading one of my skill.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    WInd Arrow


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    5


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Offense


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    32%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This arrow won''t be affected by the wind direction. Any arrow you send out will land where you aim.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Infrared Skill description¡± I read the next one.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Infrared


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    8


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sensory


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    14%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    this skill will give you a brief vision of heat signatures. Try not to look at the sun...


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Show DPH," I whisper as I grab my bow.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I view my attack damage and holding my bow, it increases as usual. Barehanded, my attack damage is 500. Which I think is pretty overpowering thinking about the undead skeleton¡¯s health on the dungeon. I probably can kill then now with two punches.


    "So, when I level up, my general damage without a weapon also increases a tremendous amount. Status window." I call out again my status windowand study them."Hm, I use infrared when hunting. It is useful when aiming at the weakest spot of the boar¡¯s body. But I guess it won''t work on any undead since their body probably doesn''t have any heat signatures."


    I think about more of this world monsters. Everything is so unreal. Even the boars here are not the same as the ones on earth. Quiteharmless but, the skin is like rubber. It¡¯s very hard to penetrate.


    Hmmm....with my infrared skill, it shows me its weak points which are the section where it''s mostly red means its closer to flesh. I say in my mind as I study my skills. I felt a hand tap me in the back and I see Kumiko-sensei handing me a cup made out of wood.


    ¡°It¡¯s not tea but, its better than nothing.¡± She says as I take a sip of hot water.


    ¡°Thank you. And I¡¯m-¡°


    ¡°Ah, nope, stop saying that. I told you, it¡¯s no one¡¯s fault.¡± She tells me as she gave me a smile. I know she¡¯s hurting seeing Akane in that condition and I can¡¯t help thinking of other possibilities if they never met us. She sat beside me to soak her feet and she started talking about her life back on earth. After a while, we both felt tired and switch with Balo and Riki as they wake up to take night watch.


    .


    .


    .Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    ¡°Are you serious? So, do you know where it is?!¡± Riki asked Balo and his voice was loud enough to wake me up.


    ¡°Shhhh, you¡¯ll wake them up.¡± He whispers to him. I got up and walked to them as I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll fall back asleep.


    ¡°You guys found him?¡± I ask Balo and luckily, he isn¡¯t cold to me like he is towards Junpei. I sat near them and he handed me a cup of warm water since it¡¯s really cold during the night.


    ¡°Balo told us the mission they were doing before meeting us, "Riki says as he takes a sip of the hot water.


    ¡°What? A mission?¡± I asked surprised.


    ¡°Yeah, when we got out of the dungeon, Luro came to us. It turns out each guild have a castle. That castle is a safe zone. Also, there are other people in this world Luro created. From what he told me, there are elves, dwarves, and humans he created along with the world.¡± Balo paused and took a sip of his hot water.


    ¡°The Elves are called Monstra, the Humans are called Hominum, and the Dwarves are called Nani. There are also other races, but he didn¡¯t want to say. So, our real main goal is to find the castle and start from there on planning how to kill Luro.¡± He continued on to explain everything in detail. He went along to explain their plan. Find a village and get clues from there. When he was about to continue on, I hear a rustle making me look behind me.


    ¡°Sawada!¡± Riki shouted but covered his mouth suddenly not wanting to wake anyone up. Sawada saw us and gestures to help him up which we did guiding him towards the campfire.


    ¡°Sawada, how do you feel?¡± I asked him and I see he¡¯s still exhausted.


    ¡°ugh¡­.my head¡­it feels like it¡¯s going to split open," Sawada says as he touches his head. His hand then went slowly down his face towards his eyes that was supposed to be there, but it isn¡¯t. His expression quickly changed. It showed his rage and anger towards the culprit who took his eye.


    ¡°Sawada-¡° I tried to reassure him but he suddenly spoke with anger in his voice.


    ¡°That fucking bastard¡­I¡¯m going to rip his eyes out when I see him.¡± Sawada pounds the ground with his fist.


    ¡°I know you just woken up and still getting your energy, but you mind telling me what happened to the two of you?¡± Balo asked. Sawada tries to sit up properly. Balo helped him up as sawed prepares to tell his story.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you can hear it from anyone else but me.¡± he looks at Akane with a sad expression reminding us that she won¡¯t be able to talk properly anymore without her tongue. ¡°When you guys left to go to the portal, me and Akane decided to hunt some boars that are around the area. When we got back, we see Rikimura-san coming out of the water. We both went running towards him and asked him what happened and where¡¯s everyone else.¡±


    Sawada Paused. He clenched his fist but loosened it afterward.


    ¡°He told us that you guys have gotten Yasu out the portal, but his condition wasn¡¯t so great. He said that you guys needed a few sticks to create a stretcher for him to be transported here. I was so glad by hearing you guys have gotten Yasu that I didn¡¯t catch the lies in his stories. He said he needed help to get the sticks and asked Akane to help him. He told me to stay just in case one of you guys come out of the water and needs help. That¡¯s when both of them exit out the cave.¡±


    He paused and indicated he needed to drink water. Balo went to get some cold water and handed it to Sawada. ¡°drink slowly.¡±


    After taking a sip of the water he then continued on.


    ¡°But, I wasn¡¯t stupid. Thinking about what he said, that¡¯s when it hit me. How in the hell are you guys are going to be able to swim underwater with astretcher? So, I decided to exit the cave and look for them to ask what''s the stretcher for. Then I hear muffled cries and decided to follow the sound. That¡¯s when I saw him, that fucking bastard. He was trying to force himself on Akane. She was struggling too much for him to be able to do anything, sohe decided to punch her in the face. Before she even screamed for help, that¡¯s when I got out the bushes and kicked Rikimura-san on his sides so hard he went and stumbling sideways. Then I launched at him and punched him in the face over and over again.¡±


    He paused and closed his one eye to relax. Then he continued to speak.


    ¡°That¡¯s when he shouted a skill. It paralyzed my body and I basically froze in place. He started laughing hysterically and telling me how I should have waited for my turn then he kicked me down and stomped on my gut that it forced all the air out of me and I couldn¡¯t breathe. Once the paralysis wore out, Akane tried to use her staff she was holding with her left hand she took out from her dimensional back and that¡¯s when it all happened in a flash. Rikimura-san almost cut her hand off from the elbow. She started screaming in pain. I tried to get up and stab him with my dagger, but he was quickly on top of me before I even got up and lodged his sword on my back towards my rightand impaled me through the ground. ¡°


    He paused, and we can see tears accumulating in his eyes. He then continued to talk. ¡°Then he¡­..h-he took my dagger and started torturing Akane in front of me¡­.I screamed for him to stop but he wouldn''t. He stabbed her precisely on certain spots slowly and I can hear her scream in pain. I managed to force myself out the floor with the sword still in inside my back coming out my right side. That''s when he decided to take one of my eyes. He yanked it out with his hands and the pain of getting my eyeball ripped from my head was so painful it brought me back to the ground. That''s when he grabbed the sword that still lodged in me and impaled me to the ground one more time. "


    Sawada touches his right chest where a huge open wound was earlier before Kumiko-sensei healed it.


    ¡°He went back to Akane and tortured her more. She kept of screaming begging him to stop but he didn¡¯t. Then he said, ¡®You¡¯re too loud¡¯ and that¡¯s when he cut her tongue. She screamed more in pain but I guess it was too much as she passed out from it. ¡°


    He paused to take a breath then Sawada continued on. ¡°I only had one eye left and the tears made my vision blurry. But I can see him get closer. He then whispered to my ear ¡®Now it¡¯s your turn¡¯ and he tortured me. Unlike Akane, he decided to keep me awake. Every time I would lose consciousness, he would slap, punch, or press on a wound with his fingers to wake me up. After when he was done, He told me to not worry, I¡¯ll meet everyone soon enough. And left. He left us there to bleed to death. ButI wasn¡¯t going to die there. Using my last of energy, I grabbed Akane and dragged both of us back here in the cave.¡±


    After Sawada finished talking, all of our expression was a mix of hatred, sadness, and guilt. We were angry at Rikimura-san for doing such an inhumane thing. We were sad that we couldn¡¯t do anything about it. We were guilty of leaving them here instead of bringing them with us. If we did, they wouldn¡¯t have to suffer. Sawada story brought tears in Balo¡¯s eyes, including mine and sunrise came without us even noticing.


    None of us got enough to sleep that night. In the morning, we explained to everyone what happened, and they had the same expression we had when Sawada told us the story. Balo and Junpei reconciled knowing that they¡¯ll need each other to deal with Rikimura. But in reality, they know that like their quarrel is just small matter compared to what those Sawada and Akane endured.


    ¡°Ok everyone, it¡¯s very hard to predict whether that asshole Rikimura is watching us right now. But we can¡¯t stay in this cave. We have to keep on moving and find our castle. This way, we can defend ourselves much better and get a better night sleep.¡± Balo says. ¡°Once Akane wakes up, we¡¯ll leave this damn cave.¡±


    It was around noon when Akane woke up. She tried to talk, but she couldn¡¯t. It turns out not only her tonguewas cut but it seems like her voice is gone completely. She became distraught on her condition and she ended up with a blank stare and was unmoving for the rest of the day. She isn¡¯t as energetic as she was when I met her. But who can blame her, she went and undergoan ordeal that none of us have even gone through. Not even on earth. We tried to convince her but she wouldn¡¯t budge. She didn¡¯t want to leave the cave. So, we didn¡¯t force her. Balo decided we would leave when she¡¯s ready. A couple of hours became days and Akane¡¯s mental condition never got better.Balo and the others couldn¡¯t get through her so he asked me and Kumiko-sensei to talk to her since she¡¯s more attached to us.


    ¡°Akane, you have to eat a lot today okay?¡± I tell her as I try to feed her with a cut up boar meat. Akane eats but she doesn''t eat enough. She lost a tremendous amount of weight and seems like the fire in her to survive is gone. If she were left alone by any chance, she would end up killing herself from starvation. It¡¯s only me,Akane, Riki, Sawada, and Takumi in the cave. The rest went out to kill boars around the area to collect meat for the coming days. If Rikimura-san had a skill that can paralyze enemies in his surroundings, Junpei should get it also. This will help if either Rikimura-sanor enemies decided to attack us and we get surrounded.


    So, while I help Akane recover, the rest of the group went to help level Junpei up. It has been a couple of days since we last saw Rikimura-san so were much more relaxed but still was cautious.


    ¡°Great! Doesn¡¯t it taste awesome?¡± I say as I try to cheer her up. But she just chewed. She didn¡¯t smile. I decided to feed her since she wouldn¡¯t eat a lot herself. ¡°Akane, I know you have been hearing this a lot but, we¡¯re here for you okay? We¡¯ll never leave you by yourself again. I¡¯ll never leave you by yourself.¡±


    She then looks at me, then looks back at the water she always stares at every day. She tried to drown herself one night and we were able to get her out before she did. Ever since then, one person has to stay awake and watch her. I decided to sit by the water with her tell her my story about the guy who saved me.


    ¡°When I was back on earth, I wasn¡¯t the smartest girl. But I studied hard. It turned out it wasn¡¯t hard enough. I didn¡¯t get accepted on the school I really wanted and needed to get into.¡± I tell her


    ¡°That¡¯s when my knight and shining armor came and saved his damsel in distress from peril.¡± Saying that made Akane smile a little. I decided to continue on.


    ¡°My prince charming. His back was so handsome. As for his face, I don¡¯t know about that. I still don¡¯t know what he looks like.¡± Akane now is looking at me with curiosity within her eyes.


    "When I went to take the entrance exam, I failed it. That''s when he came swooping down in his golden horse and came to my aid. He begged the faculty to take me and even gave his scholarship to me. But who knew, the prince charming didn''t live a lavish lifestyle. He had a worse condition than what I had at that moment. My prince charming turned out to be a frog. That''s why I have to find him and turn him back into a prince." I tell her, and I look her in her eyes.


    ¡°And I feel the same for you Akane. I will be your prince charming and help you become the princess you¡¯re supposed to be. So, don¡¯t lose hope okay?¡± I say to her. Akane is now looking at me with tears in her eye. She then suddenly hugged me and cried silent tears.


    ¡°There, there. Cry as much as you want. We will protect you.¡± I tell her as I rub her back.


    Then everyone else came back. Akane decided she was ready to leave and we all decided to rest one more day. Traveling out at night might be a little bit difficult for Sawada and Akane who had only one eye. Junpei and the other also need rest from killing the boars around the area. Once morning hits, we all packed up and decided to leave the cave. Everyone was cautious about their surrounding, but I had another feeling inside.


    I had the feeling of guilt. I¡¯m leaving Yasu for the second time. We''re already having a hard time out here as it is but at least we have a source of food and water. But Yasu, he¡¯s all alone inside the dungeon probably having a much harder time than us. To him, every day is a survival.


    I¡¯m sorry.I say in my mind as the distance between the cave and myself gets further and further apart. I¡¯m sorry, Yasu.Please forgive me.


    .


    .


    .


    A couple of days have passed. We covered quite a distance heading back to our camp by the lake. It¡¯s now starting to get dark and we decided to make camp. Akane tugs on my armand indicates for me to build my hut next to hers.


    ¡°Sure. Say, why don¡¯t we build it bigger so both of us can sleep in it.¡± Fire lit her eyes and she was motivated. She grabbed Sawada and forced him to help her collect wood. Ever since their unforgettable experience, they became closer to each other.


    ¡°Ah! Ah! Ah! Don¡¯t pull on my ear! Jeez ill go, ill go!¡± Sawada says as he follows Akane while she is pulling his ears like a dog.


    ¡°Those two really have gotten close huh?¡± Junpei says as he stands next to me. Junpei and the other boys are starting to have an amazing body that me and Akane sometimes get caught at staring. We even catch Kumiko-senseiblushing at times.Since they train every night to level up, their muscles have started to form.


    "Y-yea," I say as I try not to look at his abdominals, which are currently exposed right beside me.


    *Sigh


    It''s just chocolate bars, just chocolate bars Hiroko so stop freaking out. Just look at it and think of it as chocolate bars.I say in my mind as I feel my face becomes hot.


    Akane came back and like a guard who is protecting her VIP client, she came rushing towards between Junpei and me, dropping all the wood she was holding with her one handand leaving Sawada to carry all of them. She gestures with her hand pointing at her eyes and back to Junpei like saying, ¡°I¡¯m watching you.¡±


    ¡°Haha. ok ok, I got it." Junpei says and then he walks away. I clap my hand together and gestured her a thank you. Akane hugs me and we both started building our hut together. Nighttime has fallen, and we allfinished our dinner and started to fall asleep. Tonight, it''s Junpei and Balo¡¯s turn to do night watch. I still feel guilty about leaving Yasu and the fear of Rikimura-san prevented me from sleeping at night. What he said about getting to me first sent shivers down my spine. As I was falling asleep, I feel Akane¡¯s presence as she tries to wake me.


    ¡°Akane?¡± She then gestures to be quiet and gestured she has to go pee. ¡°Ah..haha ok. I¡¯ll go with you.¡±


    A smile was on her face and gestured me to go since she can¡¯t hold it in anymore. Ever since the ordeal, she can¡¯t go alone by herself at night to pee in the woods. I wouldn¡¯t blame her; even I get scared when I pee in the woods at night. When we got out the hut, we see Junpei Leaning against a tree near thefire pitand Balo sitting on a log tending to the fire. When I was about to gesture to them, Akane stopped me.


    ¡°W-what? Why?¡± I asked. She then pointed towards her private part than her ear and shook her head side to side.


    ¡°Wait, you don¡¯t want them to hear you pee?¡± I asked, and she nodded. ¡°haha¡¯ ok as long as we don¡¯t go too far out, we should be fine.¡±


    We went around our hut and decided to pee near a tree only a couple of ways away. I also felt like peeing, so I did. We didn¡¯t need a light because the moon¡¯s light illuminated the darkness that¡¯s enough for the human eye to see properly.


    Akane and I are on squatting position facing each other exposing our private parts as yellow liquid leaves our body. At first, I would find it uncomfortable even with my friends exposing myself but to Akane, I felt like she was my sister and I had no issue with it. Though I would admit, looking at each other¡¯s private parts while we both piss at the same time will look kind of weird for another person¡¯s perspective. Once we finished, we pulled up our panties along with our pants and started heading towards the camp. Since it wasn¡¯t that far I could still see the light of the fir---


    Huh?I say in my mind as I was unable to move my mouth. I can see that Akane who is in front of me is also in the same boat. She also stopped moving and it seems like she froze in place.


    Then all of a sudden, my body became loose and we both fell to the ground. As I was about to say something to Akane, something grabs me from behind and covers my mouth preventing me to scream. I trashed and kick the ground but the force behind me was too strong. Akane tried to grab the hand that is hugging me, and she tried to bite it, but she was kicked in the gut and she went down fast vomiting our dinner.


    Since Akane couldn¡¯t talk, she couldn¡¯t use her magic or spells. Then the entitygrabbing me from behind punches me onmygut and I go on all fours and vomit my dinner. Then I feel an arm hold my neck in a lock and prevent me from breathing I can feel my body slumps as it loses oxygen and I start to lose consciousness.


    I was picked up before I completely black out. Whoever picked me up started running away from my camp and Akane.Somehow, I can''t move my body, but I can see Akane running after me trying to scream but her voice won¡¯t come out. She then trips, and she looks up crying with tears coming out on her one eye and hair was covering the other. She cried as I was taken away from her. Fearing the fact, then she might never see me again, she stood up and ran after me but the one holding me was too fast. Her image became small then I lose consciousness.


    I woke up slowly on a dark cave. There was a hint of light coming out from stalactites scattered around everywhere.


    ¡°Ugh..¡± My head was hurting, and I feel very dizzy. ¡°h-huh?.......W-w-where am I¡­.¡±


    I look around and the coldness of the cave made me hug myself. I look down and I am almost completelynaked. My underwear is still on, but my top, bra, and pants are missing.


    ¡°Ah!!" I tried to cover myself, but my hands aren¡¯t enough to keep me warm. I started screaming frantically not knowing my current situation. I just screamed for help over and over again.


    ¡°No one is going to help you~¡± He came out of the dark side of the cave and slowly walked towards me holding a piece of stick and a dagger.


    ¡°R-r-rikimura-san! Let me go-¡± I scream at him as he slowly comes towards me. But my body suddenly froze as I was unable to talk.


    ¡°No can do~~¡± Then he grabbed my hair and pulled it up sending pain into my scalp. His face is right in front of mine and I smell his breath and it smells like he hasn¡¯t brushed his teeth in a very long time.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? I will come for you first. Let the games begin~~¡± He lets go of my hair and sat down in front of me and started sharpening a stick he was holdinglike it¡¯s a pencil.He tied up my hands and feet with a vine and I felt helpless as my body was paralyzed. There is nothing I can do. After regaining the feeling, I tried to struggle but my feet are tied together it¡¯s hard to move them. I manage to throw both legs out and kick him when he got close. Rikimura-san fall backward, and the dagger cut him in the face.


    ¡°Fuck! You bitch!¡± He screams as he sends his foot flying to my sides and kicked me.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I felt a sharp pain towards my side where he kicked me. Then without warning, he kicked me a second time on the same spot without decreasing his strength. ¡°Ack!!¡±


    "See? Don''t try to fight or this will happen a lot. Now, where were we? Ah yes, I would like for you to sing."


    H-Huh? Sing? I whisper in my mind as I vomit my dinner. I¡¯m lying on my back with my front exposed. Rikimura-san then gets on top and sits on me.


    ¡°Ok, you ready to sing?¡± He asks me.


    "F-fuck you," I say between breaths.


    ¡°Yes, I know. We¡¯ll get to that later on when I feel like it okay? For now, we sing. La~ la~ la~ la~ la~¡± He tells me showing me the sharpened stick. Rikimura-san started singing. He then slowly broughtthe sharpened stick towards my right shoulder above my boobs and slowly punctured my flesh. The pain was so intense. I felt the stick slowly go through my skin that made me scream at the top of my lungs.


    ¡°la~ la~ la~ la~ la~ there we go sing!¡± He sings as I scream to the top of my lungs as the pain spread throughout my body. I felt like convulsing but his weight on top of me limited my movement. My blood started flowing out where he punctured. Then he slowly pulled out the stick, which sent more pain to my brain.


    ¡°Stoooooop!¡± I shouted in pain but he wasn¡¯t listening.


    ¡°la~ la~ la~ la~ la~¡± He kept on singing as he slowly pulled out the sharpened stick. I felt like a small amount of the stick logged inside my body and splintered my flesh.


    ¡°So, how¡¯s our acapella?¡± He asked me while bringing his face close to mine.


    ¡°f-f-fuck you.¡± I try to say between pain signals.


    ¡°What? Is that so? You want an encore?!¡± He then jammed the sharpen stick again on another spot next to the previous one and the pain is as much as the first time.


    ¡°Arrrrrgghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as the stick puncture my body. This time he covered my mouth and my muffled screams echoed through the cave. He continued to puncture holes on me as I lose track of time.


    He will leave after two 2 or three stabs then will come back the next day and do it all over again. This continued on until my body is full of holes. I sobbed quietly as the pain was everywhere. From the tip of my toes up to the tip of my fingers, my head, my face, it was everywhere.


    "Someone, save me," I begged under my crying breath, but I know no one can hear my plea.


    ¡°Im baaack~¡± Rikimura sang as he got back.


    ¡°P-please stop. No more. I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m sorry please no more.¡± I beg him.


    ¡°What? You¡¯re not going to say fuck you anymore?¡± He asks as he looks down at me sobbing.


    ¡°N-no I-I¡¯m not. I¡¯m sorry. Please let me go I beg you please I¡¯m sorry.¡± I say as I beg for my life.


    ¡°Hmm¡­well that¡¯s too bad. Why? because now I¡¯m in the mood~¡± He says as he unzips his pants and took out his erection. ¡°See Hiroko? My buddy here likes you~¡±


    ¡°N-No. Please n-no spares me. Please! NO!¡± I shout at him. I didn¡¯t want my first time with this psychopath.


    ¡°yes! Oh yes! Scream some more! You¡¯re making me more excited!!!!¡± He shouts as he opens his arms and twirls himself around the cave. He then stops to looks at me bringing his face close to mine. ¡°You know what, let¡¯s make it more interesting shall we?¡±


    ¡°W-what?¡± I asked him as I try to sob the nightmare away.


    ¡°How about I cut you free and you try to escape. How about that? If I catch you, we¡¯ll have fun all night long~¡± He tells me before removing all of his clothes and standing over me naked.


    ¡°P-please let me g-go,"I begged him, and he just gave me a smirk as he approached me and cut the vines tying my arms and legs.


    ¡°Ok, now stand Hiroko.¡± He instructed. I tried to stand but all of the punctured holes in my body and legs sent pain everywhere and I fell back to the ground. "Come on! Try harder! See you try so hardmakes meharder! hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"


    I tried to get up again, but the pain was too much that I started to try and drag myself out. My cries echoed through the cave and I can hear him laughing behind me. The pain was too much every time I moved that caused me to pass out. I was suddenlywoken up with water hitting on my face and it felt warm yet had a pungent odor.


    ¡°Wake up! You bitch! Who told you to sleep during our game?!!¡± Rikimura is standing above me. Naked while he peed on my face.¡°You have to be awake when I jam myself in you. So, I can hear you scream~!¡±


    Then he started masturbating to get his erection back up and he got on all fours on top of me licking his own piss off my face. He removed my panties and nowI''m completely naked. I¡¯m laid sideways on the floor with my back near the exit of the cave. I can feel a breeze hitting me that¡¯s coming from the outside. My conscious is fading and my vision is starting to get blurry. Rikimura-san words are becoming distant.


    Ahhh. So, this is what it feels like to know my end is coming. I guess I deserved it. I whispered in my mind as I picture my family and apologize one more time, I¡¯m sorry.


    I can feel Rikimura-san erected meat touching my private part near my rectum.As I brace myself for the worse. That¡¯s when I heard a voice.


    ¡°Wow, you have some weird shit going on here. Did you just lick your own piss off her face? That¡¯s fucking disgusting.¡± His voice partially brought my conscious back. My vision is still a bit blurry and I¡¯m down in the floor laying sideways unable to move. I can see Rikimura-san looks up towards the exit of the cave and his expression quickly changed.


    ¡°Y-y-you? B-b-but how? How did y-y-¡° Rikimura-san stutters. He then got up quickly and slowly stepped back. All my energy is gone, and I can¡¯t move my body anymore. My vision is beginning to fade out. But I notice a shadow over my body and I see a foot stepping over me.


    ¡°J-Junpei?¡± I say in ahoarse voice, but hedoesn¡¯t answer.


    ¡°How can it be?! How can you be alive?!¡° Rikimura-san is shouting and I can hear the fear in his voice. It seems like he knows him.


    ¡°Oh shut the fuck up, will you? Stop asking me questions~ pleeeeaase~¡± The voice atop me rings out. His voice is a lot more sinister and psychotic than Rikimura-san.


    But it seems familiar.


    ¡°W-w-w-who are yo¡ª¡° I tried asking but he interrupted me.


    "Will you also shut the fuck up? Both of you areannoying me with your stupidquestions. I¡¯ll kill you if you talkagaaain~¡± He sang. His voice feels cold and even when I can¡¯t move, it sent chills down my spine.


    Ah, my consciousness is disappearing again. I whisper in my mindbut before I pass out the foot moved closer to Rikimura-san and I got a full picture of his back. Its outline seems familiar. Due to my vision being blurry, I really can''t get a clear image. Huh? I-I-its him?!Why is he here?!My savior!It¡¯s him!The one I have been looking for! It¡¯s him!


    I reached my hand out towards its back, but my condition got the worse of me and my hand falls to the ground. My vision is getting smaller and smaller and right before I lost consciousness, I hear him talk one more time.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we cutthe small talk? Sharpen~¡± My savior sang his last words and my eyes closed fully as I succumb to the dark.

 CHAPTER 14: Psychopath vs. Psychopath

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 14: Psychopath vs. Psychopath


    <hr>


    "Go on, I''m listening," I tell Luro and I can see him smiling and if it gets any wider, the end of his mouth will reach his ear. He sits across of me and instantly materializes a fire pit and two sticks with a snap of his finger. He snapped again, and two fishes popped out of the lake, landing next to him. He grabbed the fish and stabbed the sticks through but suddenly stopped halfway.


    ¡°Oops, I forgot to take out the guts. Kukukuku.¡±He talked to himself as I never reply glaring him down. He snaps his fingers again and the fish heads, guts, scales, and even the bones of the fishes materialized beside him as he stabs the fish slanting in near the far too slowly cook one side. I don¡¯t know why he¡¯s going through all the trouble of cooking a fish if he has that much control of the world, he can just materialize cooked food.


    ¡°Ok, so as I say, let me tell you what happened to them.¡± Luro then continues to explain what the rest of the group did after they got out of the dungeon. I listened to him the whole time, but my attention was focused on the fish that¡¯s slowly cooking.


    ¡°Hah! Who the hell told them to save me?¡± I tell him.


    ¡°But they¡¯re your friends~ Are they not? Oh, and that Rikimura fellow is really crazy.¡±Luro says as he grabs one of the cooked fish and hands it to me. Since I got out anyway, no need to rush things as I waited for it to cool down before taking my first bite.


    ¡°And? What? Am I supposed to be thankful?¡± I say raising an eyebrow to Luro who only gave me a shrug as he bites his own fish. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you want me to say, ¡®oh dear friends, I forgive you in the bottom of my heart.¡¯ Get real!¡±


    I placed the fish back into the fire just in case he poisoned it. Since it¡¯ll be categorized as something I cooked, any type of poison should have been nullified. I bite on the fish and the texture is something out of this world. Even the taste is too good to be true. I listened to Luro as he talks while I devour the fish nonstop.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s up to you what you want to do~ I just gave you information about the current situation.¡±He says as he snaps his fingers and brought more fish out of the lake. He snapped again to remove the heads and the guts before standing up.


    ¡°Fuck them. Stupid cunts pissing in the dark by themselves. Why should I save them? They didn¡¯t even save me.¡± I say as I started grabbing one of the gutless fishes and using the stick I¡¯m holding to impale it. I place it to cook in the fire and wait patiently not paying attention to Luro.


    ¡°Well~ you got a point. Alright before I go, why don¡¯t I give you a bonus?¡±Luro says that make me look up to him.


    ¡°Oh~ I like bonuses. What is it?¡± I asked. Luro takes out a paper from his pocket and hands it to me.


    ¡°Ha? The fuck am I going to do with this shit?¡± I tell him looking at a map.


    ¡°It¡¯s up to you what you want to do with that information~ well then, Ciao!¡±Luro says as he disappeared into the forest leaving me with a pile of gutted fish and a map of a direct path towards Rikimura and Hiroko.


    ¡°Since Rikimura initiated everything, I should pay that bastard a visit and skin him alive," I whisper to myself as I turn the fish to cook the other side. I didn''t bother saving the fishes in my bag as I devoured all of them and laze around for the rest of the day. I wanted to take the new view in. Just only a while ago, I was staring at the dark and dungeon walls. Now I can see birds, trees, grass, soil, and the sky. But the one that took the most out of my attention is the planet in the sky. I stared at it trying to sink in the image in my mind until I fell asleep.


    I woke up when the moon is up in the sky. I decided to leave and set off to find the cave the next day. I tried to catch a fish myself but it was a lot harder than I thought so I opted on hunting animals that roam around me. So far all I''ve seen are boars and was quite easy to kill. I was able to catch up to one and using my sword, I slice its head cleanly right of its body. Without a care of its life, I left the head where it laid and dragged its body where the campfire is. No point of praying when these bastards don''t pray for me. I slowly gutted the boar and cut chunks of meat off its bones. I wasn¡¯t fond of pork but the minute I took a bite, the pork in this world is amazing even if it¡¯s from the wild. I cooked it as much as I can while checking my status to see if I level up, I didn¡¯t. Once I get things situated, I decided to learn more about my skill and how to utilize them properly.


    ¡°Ah, finally some fresh air!¡± I shout as loud as I can as I stretch my arms. I hear a rustle between the bushes near me and out of nowhere a bear came out slowly walking towards the fish guts. Its fur is a light brown color and it slowly moved towards the pile of fish guts. I slowly grab the sword I kept near me as it ate the guts. I decided to get near it to kits it¡¯s head off and the minute he took notice of my presence, the bear stood up looking right at me. It towered over me but the thought of how small the bear is compared to the gatekeeper made me chuckle a bit. It suddenly went back down and charge straight at me roaring. I evaded it¡¯s claw as it tried to slash me in my chest. I took a swing at its neck while activating my skill and it cut through easily causing critical damage to appear right above its head.


    Brown Bear Level 10


    HP 0 / 1700


    "Well, aren''t you lame?" I whisper as I walked to its carcass. I decided to skin it and store the pelt in my bag. I quickly worked on cutting chunks of meat and threw them in my bag without bothering to cook them. ¡°Ah, I have an idea.¡±


    I went back to the boar remains and grabbed some of its fat that I discarded. I took out my frying pan and placed the fat on top. I placed the pan over the fire and waited for the fat to cook. Once the heat reached it, it started sizzling as oil came out of the fat. After getting a bit more oil, I took the fat out and threw it to the side. Using the oil from the boar fat, I cooked the bear meat and the smell was enough to make me hungry again. Once it cooked from both side, I took a sword and cut the meat into pieces. Using a stick I sharpened, I stabbed the bear meat and blew on it to cool it down before devouring it. The taste was out of this world. Something unexplainable, it was good yet, it was something I never tasted before. Since I slept through the whole day, I decided to stay up and cook all of the bear meat in my bag.


    Morning came and I started heading out deeper into the forest. According to the map, I need to walk through the forest till I find a stream and follow it. Then break off the stream halfway and follow what seems to be a trail towards a bear den. I walked through the dense forest and I can¡¯t help feel excited at the new surrounding. Seeing the sunrise was something I dreamt of inside the dungeon but now, I get to see it anytime I want as long as I stay awake long enough. I noticed that my sleeping habits and the time zone outside is quite different. I felt tired and lethargic walking through the forest yet, I felt energized at night. I decided to fix this issue as soon as possible by staying awake till darkness hits the horizon.


    I made camp near a large tree that has a hollow root underneath. It is large enough for one person to fit and good enough to be my sanctuary for when I sleep. I climbed the large tree to be able to see the sky since the leaves blocked my view. As soon as I get high enough, I used a sword to cut a branch off exposing the night sky. I sat on a branch at the tree leaning my back on its base while munching on cooked bear meat. I watched the stars cover the night sky yet my gaze kept on going back to one place.


    "Wow, it looks a lot better at night," I whisper as I watch Earth in the sky. For some reason, when its night here, it''s night there as I see all of the lights on the planet turn on. It looked like a real night Christmas ornament. I thought about my past and my life before everything and I thought to myself, what would have my life been if my Dad didn¡¯t die. I probably would have never decided to study like a maniac and my Mom probably would never need to overwork.


    ¡°Damn those rich bastards. They blamed him when they killed him.¡± I whisper as anger resurfaces thinking about it. ¡°This is why I need to go home, I need to protect my mother.¡±


    I reached for the planet in the sky with my left hand. It feels close yet, it''s so far. I started feeling tired as I yawn my consciousness away so I decided to climb back down and sleep under the tree using the broken branch to cover the hole hiding me from the world outside. The minute I laid down on the cold dirt, I fell asleep in an instant as exhaustion caught up to me.


    I woke up as the sunlight entered the forest. It was a cold morning and a thin fog has made it way through decreasing my visibility. I waited for a bit and as soon as the sun reached its height, the fog disappeared enabling me to push further. I followed the map using landmarks to try and identify my position. The map itself is missing the direction of north, east, south, and west. It doesn''t even label any landmark from trees to mountains. It¡¯s like looking at a kid¡¯s drawing without the key. The best way for me to follow the map is looking at the drawing as it painted large trees bigger and mountains bigger than hills. So far, I felt like I¡¯m going the right way but without proper direction, it¡¯s a lot harder to figure out my exact position. I kept walking through the forest and right when I thought I was lost, I managed to reach the stream of water. It wasn¡¯t a river but it was enough to cup my hands into and wash my face with.


    Seeing how it ran through rocks probably being filtered as it made its way down from its source, I decided to drink straight into the stream as the water looked crystal clear. It didn''t taste funny to me as I gulped down as much as I can. I don''t have any source of water nor container to hold water in so this was a lifesaver. Otherwise, I would have started drinking my own piss. I rested for a bit near the stream and I just noticed the clothes I''m wearing, seems like it was fixed and cleaned as it didn''t look like it went through a battle. I remember bloodstains from goblins and trolls riddled my shirt but now, all of it was gone including the holes.


    "Bastard must have saved me and fixed my clothes," I whisper thinking about the last thing I went through in the hidden passage. "I wonder what that crab rat tasted like¡­"


    I snapped back to reality as I hear twigs breaking from a distance. Thinking it¡¯s Rikimura since I¡¯m getting closer to the cave they¡¯re in, I hit behind a log on the ground as I listen to the sound gets closer and closer. After a while, I see wolves come out of the forest to take a drink on the stream. I slowly stood up and they all looked at me. I clench my fist thinking they¡¯ll attack me but all of a sudden, they ran back towards where they came from and disappeared into the forest.


    "Hah, weaklings. I guess today is their lucky day I have to do something else. I would have ripped their heads off with my bare hands." I say to myself as I started moving following the stream. It didn''t take long until I found the path towards the cave. If I didn''t have a map, I would have been confused to go which path since there''s one on either side of the water stream. Luckily, the map shows which way the stream flows as I picked the right path.


    ¡°Ok, so the cave should be this one," I whisper as spot a cave from a distance, which is covered by grass. If you looked from behind the cave, it looks like a small mound I decided to enter the cave and the quietness made me remember the dungeon. ¡°Hellooo~ anybody home~¡±


    Fuck, this really makes me remember the damn dungeon. I say in my mind as I reached a dead end. I step back out and look around for more caves, I found another one near where I left and noticed a bear sleeping in it. I quickly dealt with it right when it woke up. I cut up its body storing the parts in my bag before stepping out to look for more bear den. I found another one not far from where I was but as the first cave, this one was also empty. The third cave I found had boars sleeping in it and I killed all of them before they woke up.


    ¡° Four, Five, six, Fuck! How many caves are in this area!!¡± I shoutas I lose my patience walking around the area aimlessly. I could care less if anybody hears me. ¡°Fucking hell¡­¡±


    I decided to camp for the night. I opted out creating a campfire since it¡¯s a lot visible at night than daytime. I found another branch for me to climb and watch the night sky. I started feeling drowsy and as my eyes slowly close, I hear another rustle from a distance.


    ¡°Ugh¡­what is it this time? Can¡¯t these fucking animals sleep? Item bag.¡± I Whisper to take out a sword in my item bag. ¡°Well, they won¡¯t make a sound if they¡¯re all dead.¡±


    Even if it¡¯s night, the moonlight shone down enough through the forest that it lighted parts of it brightly. Since I was in the dark dungeon, my eyes are used to the dark as I can see everything. I slowly hug the branch pressing my chest against it. I notice the noise is getting louder and louder. I hoped it¡¯s another bear since their meat was delicious. I see a bush from a distance tussling and the minute the noisemaker came out, my grip on the sword tightens as my expression changed into fury. I see him almost tripping at a root of a tree dropping all of his collected twigs. He suddenly cursed under his breath as I see him pick it all up one by one.


    Well well well. I whisper in my mind as I tried to blend in with the branch. I see him walking around underneath me collecting more twigs and I had an urge to drop down and stab him straight on the top of his head. But I held back the urge as I cursed him in my mind. Rikimura, you¡¯re dead. You¡¯re so fucking dead.


    Even if I wanted to, I¡¯ll never forget his face and everyone else. Wears glasses with long curly hair. He¡¯s not wearing his suit jacket anymore but he¡¯s still wearing his formal shirt underneath the metal armor. I can see blood stains on his armor and also on parts of his shirt.


    Looking for sticks at night? I guess he doesn¡¯t want to be caught by the others. Smart move old man.I say in my mind. I heard from Luro this guy is completely loony in the head. He went and tortured some girl named Akane along with that punk Sawada. Sawada fucking deserved it.


    I watch him walk around the area picking up as many sticks as he can before retreating back where he came from. I wanted to pounce on him right there and then and rip his guts out with my bare hands, but I didn¡¯t. If I kill him now, I won¡¯t be able to find Hiroko. If I don¡¯t find her, the rest of them might rescue her. If that happens, I¡¯ll miss my chance of settling the score with that bitch. Instead of killing Rikimura, I let him travel to a distance before following him in the dark. I think I have the advantage more in the dark since spending in that hallway where the crab rat was; it gave me scotopia vision.


    What the fuck, is he going to collect sticks all night long? I whisper in my mind as I try to move silently watching where I step so I don''t make a sound. He started picking up the pace and walked fast towards one direction as I tried my best to keep up behind him without making a sound.


    "Bingo," I whisper as Rikimura led me directly to their cave. I decided to camp near a tree around the cave and wait till daylight. If he¡¯s awake at night, he¡¯ll be sleeping during the day. A perfect way to ambush him. As I wait around at night, I was hoping to hear screams but nothing. I waited all night long but nothing. No screams no shouts no voice what¡¯s so ever.Daylight started to rise, I watched the sunrise towards the horizon. I didn¡¯t sleep at all. But my body feels good as ever. In the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Rikimura running out the cave.


    ¡°Where the hell is he going?¡± I whisper as I see him disappear into a bush. I decided to climb down the tree and enter the cave while he isn¡¯t here. I needed to verify if Hiroko is in there. If she is, it won¡¯t hurt to say hello and slap her with my frying pan till she falls unconscious. I walk slowly around and enter the entrance of the cave and noticed the inside of the cave was a rock formation. It was basically an entrance within an entrance. The rock formation is covered by wet mud that probably dried up. This insulates the sound and prevents it from escaping from the inside.


    ¡°Smart fucking bastard. No wonder I couldn¡¯t hear anything." I whisper as I carefully read through the cave. I''m wary of traps just in case something is laid out to prevent intruders. But, there was nothing waiting for me. ¡°So this must be the entrance.¡±


    I inspect the skid marks on the ground around a big boulder.


    ¡°I wonder if I¡¯m strong enough to push this¡­¡± I say to myself as I start to push the rock to the side. It slid sideways with ease making me at awe to my own physical strength. As I peek in, the inside is another empty space and down the other side of the cave is a hole. I approached the hole big enough for me to enter upright. It seems like it was carved out of the rock formation carefully so only one person can come in or out at any given time. Once I got through the hole, that¡¯s when I saw her.


    "Heh, what a nasty sight you are," I whisper as I walked towards her body. She was almost naked and the only thing that she is wearing is her underwear, which is soiled in piss and shit. ¡°Is she fucking dead?¡±


    I study the surroundings and I can see sharpened stick with dried blood in it. I look back at her and noticed her hands and legs are tied together using a vine. She¡¯s lying sideways with her right cheek touching the ground.


    ¡°pfftt~well don¡¯t you look funny?¡± I whisper. I see her whole body was covered in holes making me realize whey there are so many sharpened sticks laying around. The holes on her body are filled with mud and some have begun to redden which early signs of infection. "What the fuck did he use you for? Pencil sharpener?¡±


    I look closer at her face and it doesn¡¯t have any punctured holes. Her face was kept clean. Tears are running down her eyes that leave a sign she was crying all night. As I look at her she seemed familiar. I can¡¯t seem to remember so I didn¡¯t dwell on it.


    No point on remembering her, I say in my mind. I took out my dimensional bag and held out my frying pan. Should I beat the shit out of her face until she wakes up? Should I do it? I should. No, I shall.


    I lifted up the frying pan above her head and right before I plunge the frying pan down towards her head she spoke words in her sleep that stopped me from doing it.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­I¡¯m sorry¡­.¡± She mumbles.


    ¡°H-h-huh?¡± I whispered but she didn¡¯t wake up. ¡°Hahaha, well you better fucking apologize you scum.¡±


    ¡°Mom...mom...help¡­¡± She mumbles again and this time, I felt a sharper pain in my heart. I remembered my own mother.


    What if her mother is like mine? What if her mom is all alone and looking for her? I shouldn¡¯t do this to her mother.I contemplate in my mind as I hold the frying pan over her head. But, Hiroko deserves this. She and the rest of my teammates deserve this.


    But¡­


    ¡­her mother doesn¡¯t deserve this.


    ¡°Fuck! Fucking hell! Why do you have to fucking mention your mother!!!¡± I shouted over her but she never woke up. I don¡¯t feel bad for her but I felt bad for her mother. ¡°Fine you stupid pencil sharpener, I¡¯ll leave you alone for now and deal with Rikimura.¡±


    I slowly stood and looked down at her with hatred. I decide to leave the cave before Rikimura comes back. If he catches me in there, he might run out. I have to have to catch him off guard while I block his exit.


    It took a couple of hours till Rikimura came back. From afar, you would think he¡¯s a normal person if you didn¡¯t know his true nature. He walks in and I decided to wait a while before following him inside. Once I think its good time, I walked back to the entrance. The boulder is already slid open and I slowly shimmy through the gap. I carefully walk inside the cave and hugged the wall to the far side. I can hear Rikimura talking in a tone even I¡¯m not familiar with.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Wake up! Who told you to sleep?!¡± I hear him shout with a demeaning tone. ¡°You have to be awake when I jam myself in you so I can hear you scream~Kuahahahahahaha!"


    I chuckle as his laugh reminds me of a comedy skit. It wasn¡¯t really and seemed forced to sound evil. I hear Hiroko pleading and crying. But her voice sounds weak and her crying suddenly stopped. I guess she might have passed out again. Happily thinking about my grand entrance, I slowly walk in and the scene I have encountered made me want to laugh more but I held myself back as I stare him down. Rikimura was on top of Hiroko who¡¯s on the ground with her back facing me near the entrance. I see her panties are brought down to her knees. Rikimura is also completely naked and holding his junk. Even though I¡¯m standing here, he didn''t notice me since he¡¯s too busy trying to get laid so I decided to say something.


    ¡°Wow, you got some weird stuff going on here.¡± I almost laughed at myself for saying a ridiculous line. But Rikimura¡¯s reaction made it all better. The minute he looked up, his complexion lost all color.


    ¡°Y-y-you? B-b-but how? How did y-y-¡° He asked me as he gets off Hiroko slowly retreating to the other end of the cave.


    Perfect, the further you are from the exit the better~I sang in my mind. I step closer to him to force him to retreat more into the cave. In the process, I step over Hiroko and I noticed she¡¯s partially awake as she stares at my foot.


    ¡°J-Junpei?¡± I hear her whisper and I wanted to rip her tongue out.


    Just you wait, I will fucking stab you after this, you bitch. I say in my mind as I focus on Rikimura.


    I see Rikimura retreated as far as he can still confused at my presence. ¡°How can it be?! How can you be ali¡ª¡°


    "Oh shut the fuck up, will you? Stop asking me questions. please~" I interrupt him while playfully begging to clamp my hand together.


    ¡°W-w-w-who are yo¡ª¡° Hiroko spoke weakly.


    "Will you also shut the fuck up? Both of you are annoying me with your stupid questions. I¡¯ll kill you if you talk again~¡± I sang the last part and the whole room got quiet. It feels good to be feared but it will probably feel a lot better to watch them scream as I peel off their skin. I remembered my ordeal in the cave and it''s all thanks to them. The sensation of being eaten alive, being cut up to pieces while you watch was something I would never forget. Anger and adrenaline rushes through


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we cut the small talk shall we? Item bag~¡± I tell him tilting my head to the side as I slowly take out a sword from my item bag. Huhuhuhuhuahahaha Sharpen~¡±


    Rikimura called out his item bag in haste as I launch myself towards him. He took out his shield in a nick of time as I tried to slash him from his shoulder. My attack created a loud bang on his shield. I was expecting it to go through, but it only created a small gash on the top as my sword get stuck.


    ¡°Ara? I was expecting to cut you through~¡± I sang as I stared at him straight in his eye. I can sense confusion and fear as his breathing becomes abnormal. I felt my skill disappear and I smile as push the sword down with all my strength. He got on his knees as the pressure of my sword got the best of him.


    ¡°How can you be alive?!¡± He shouted as he used all his strength to deflect my sword causing my hand to fling back as I stepped back a few steps almost tripping on Hiroko¡¯s unconscious body.


    ¡°Argh! You bitch! Get the fuck out of the way!!¡± I then grabbed her by the hair and using all of my strength threw her to the side. I watched her body hit the cave fall before crashing down the ground. I look back at Rikimura who had a confused look.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked him. He then snaps back to reality and asked me a question.


    ¡°Y-you¡­How did you get out?! Aren¡¯t you here to save her?!¡± He shouts at me.


    ¡°Huuhh?! Save this bitch? Hahahahaha you must be mistaken you naked mole rat. I¡¯m here to kill both of you~¡± I tell him as I started walking his way. I see him take out a sword and readied himself to face me one more time.


    ¡°You fucking evil scum.¡± He tells me, and it made me laugh even more.


    ¡°Me? Evil?! Yes, I¡¯m evil. I¡¯m the very embodiment of hatred you all gave birth to. Thank you~¡± I sang to him and I ready my sword to slash him one more time. ¡°Sharpen!¡±


    I ran towards him and I can see he tried to deflect with his sword this time along with the shield. He must have thought I would come down from the top like last time, he was dead wrong. I aimed my sword directly towards his heart as I pointed the tip ready to stab him. If I can¡¯t slice him, I¡¯ll stab him to death. He deflected with his sword but my skill was a lot stronger as it went through his blade cutting it half. I didn''t stop as I kept going aiming at his heard which he placed his shield in-between. The minute it made contact, it went through quick and I see him wince in pain as it goes through his arm. I pushed some more and his arm managed to move it away from his heart as my sword stabs through his left shoulder.


    ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± Rikimura pain face brought joy to my heart as I laughed and pushed my sword crucifying him into the cave wall. My sword suddenly snapped in half and I see him struggle to take his arm out. I called out my dimensional bag one more time and took out one more sword.


    ¡°Ahahahahahahah!¡± My hysterical laugh made him crazier as he tried his best to break free. The pain he probably feels now is too much as he stops to gasp for air after freeing his arm. ¡°Awww you already in pain?¡±


    I grab his face with my hand clamping on his cheeks forcing him to face me. ¡°Say, want to know how it feels to get your skin peeled?¡±


    I ran the tip of the blade across his cheeks and his eyes brought me more joy as he looked at me with fear. I started stabbing his cheeks with the tip of the sword and he screamed in pain as blood flowed out of the wound. I took my blade out and threw it to the ground as I grabbed the broken blade lodged on his shoulder. I didn''t care if it cut me as I jerked the blade around. I pressed his head against the wall as he tried jerking around due to the pain.


    ¡°Fight! You fucking ant! Fight the pain hahahahahahaha!" I lost all control of my thoughts as a different scenario entered my mind. I wanted to keep him alive to hear him scream over and over again. I wanted to tie him up how I was tied up and eaten alive. I''m a cook, I should be able to cook a human and eat it. I wondered if I would level up from cooking him and I wanted to try it out so bad. I brought my face close to his as I whispered in his ear, ¡°I wonder if I can level up cooking you~¡±


    His eyes went crazy and he tried to struggle more before shouting, "Full paralyze!" My body suddenly went stiff and I unable to move and the small movement of his head made me fall to the ground.


    W-what the fuck! I shout in my mind, as my mouth was unable to move for a brief moment. Rikimura pushed himself off the wall and removed the sword lodged in his body as he screamed in pain.


    ¡°You filthy fucking vermin! How dare you stab my precious body! How dare you interrupt my precious moment with Hiroko!¡± He shouts my way as he walked with the broken sword on hand. He looked down at me with a crazed expression and I wanted to remove his eyes out with my bare hands. ¡°Semi-paralyze.¡±


    The minute he uttered the words, my arms and body came loose from the frozen position but I was still unable to use them. Luckily, I was able to move my mouth to utter a line, ¡°H-hey, your dick is really small.¡±


    I see him grit his teeth as I laughed and mocked him. I see him lift up his hand and in a split second, he jammed the broken sword he had on hand at the same spot I stabbed him.


    ¡°Ahhhh~ Hahahahaha is that all you got?!¡± I shouted at him and he was surprised at my reaction. To me, this pain is nothing compared to the ordeal I went with the goblins and ogre.


    ¡°You, you should have killed me when you had the chance. Now, I¡¯m going to have fun with you~¡± He tried imitating Luro in all aspect. Movement, speech, everything he does annoys me to the core. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my ribs making me lose my breath. He kicked me over and over again and the pain of my ribs being fracture was like being stabbed from the inside. After his seventh kick, he stops as he brought his face closer to mine. I cough slowly regaining my breathing and I can feel and smell his bad breath.


    ¡°You should¡­¡± I whisper but suddenly stopped as I felt like vomiting. He waited for me to continue talking while pulling my hair forcing my head up to face him. The expression on my face was probably something he didn¡¯t expect as I see his forehead wrinkle from anger. ¡°You should¡­brush your teeth.¡±


    His expression got more worse and as I laughed and laughed. He let go of my head and my body fell to the ground like a lifeless rag doll. He started pacing back and got on his knees in front of me picking up sharpened twigs. He brought the twig close to my face and the smell of shit reeked the tip.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how tough you are now kid.¡± He whispers to me trying his fake evil smile one more time and it made me burst out of laughter. ¡°What¡¯s so funny?! Huh?!¡±


    He brought the tip of the twig close to my skin and rather than remaining quiet, I laughed some more. I felt the stick puncture my skin and I didn¡¯t bother squirming around even when I started feeling my body regain its movement.


    ¡°Ow~ that hurt ya know?" I tell him while laughing and I can see the confusion in his face. Noticing I regained my movement, He tried to say his skill one more time and as he opened his mouth, I jammed my fist in and I felt his teeth sink into my knuckles. Using all the force I can muster, I punched his face straight down the ground. Some of his teeth flew off while a few lodged in my knuckles and the stinging sensation just made me smile even wider.


    He tried screaming cupping his mouth and using the moment he¡¯s distracted, I pulled out the twig and jammed it on his other hand. He shouted in pain as he tried to swat me away with his other arm that I damaged earlier. I caught it right before it hit me and bringing out all of the anger within me, I jammed a thumb inside his wound pressing as hard as I can until I reached his bone.


    ¡°Semi-Paralyze!¡± He shouted his skill one more time and I fell to the ground, again unable to move my whole body except my mouth. ¡°You are a fucking piece of shit!¡±


    He pulled out the twig and threw it to the side. He rolled me over on my back and punched me in the face over again non-stop. I hear him cursing out every word he can think of as I laughed and laughed while blood comes out of my nose and cuts appearing on my face being punched over and over again.


    ¡°Sing motherfucker! Sing!¡± He shouts to me as I kept getting pummeled.


    ¡°Happy¡­punch*¡­.birthday¡­punch*¡­to you¡­. punch*¡­.happy birthday¡­. punch*¡­.you small penis bastard! Hahahaha!" What I said must have made him more made as he used both hands to pummel my conscience away. I felt my eyes closed and as my body still remained paralyzed, I couldn''t do anything but let him beat me to death. But I wanted to try it. I wanted to see one more time. I wanted to know how far my mind break will. He suddenly stops, and I felt like my face was the aftermath of being hit by a meat tenderizer. I hear him standing up as my body regained its movement. I feel his feet stop on my head as I cough out blood.


    ¡°You, you fucking bastard. I don¡¯t know how you survived but, this is as far as you go. Torturing you won¡¯t be fun. I¡¯m going to kill you here.¡± He tells me while putting pressure on my head with his feet.


    ¡°W-wh-what no-no. I-i-if t-t-that¡¯s the case, c-c-can I whisper you m-my last words?¡± I tell him acting like I was afraid.


    ¡°Suuuure~¡± His acting was so bad trying to imitate Luro. I hear him bend down and I feel his breath near my face.


    ¡°R-r-rikimura, y-you...have¡­t-the...smelliest...feet I have ever sniffed my entire life! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!¡± My mockery probably made him furious as I hear him scream in frustration right before I felt his feet stomp me on the head making me black out.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up at the dim light of the cave. My head feels like it''s going to split open at any minute. A similar feeling, I had when I woke up surrounded by dead bodies. I slowly sit up and as I got a brief blurry vision of what''s around me, I laughed and laughed until I felt the pain in my ribs. I noticed I¡¯m holding onto something and as I brought it up close to my face, I got a clear picture of what it was a severed arm. I looked at it closely and no matter how much I study it, it¡¯s Rikimura¡¯s arm as I noticed the wound I made earlier with my sword.


    ¡°Ugh, the fuck why am I holding his arm?¡± I whisper grabbing my sides as the pricking sensation came back. ¡°Item bag.¡±


    I took out a piece of bear meat and munched on it to slowly heal my wounds. The swelling on my eyes has slowly healed as my vision got wider and wider. On my right hand is a stick that seems like it a sharpened pencil.My hands were covered in blood and I can feel blood pouring out the wound where the sword was lodged in. But other than that, I didn¡¯t have any major damage except my headache and my sides hurting for all the kicking Rikimura did. When I looked around some more, Hiroko was still in the same position I kicked her to but Rikimura was gone.


    ¡°Are those teeth and fingernails?¡± I whisper getting closer to it. ¡°Holy shit, it is.¡±


    It looked like it was yanked off his hands and not only the fingernails, there were teeth and hair scattered around me.


    ¡°What in the world¡­.¡± I whisper picking them up with a disgusted look. I looked around the ground some more and I noticed a blood trail coming out of the cave.


    I slowly stood up still groggy from having my brain rocked so many times from his punches. But as I got out, I see Rikimura on the floor near the exit crawling as both his legs were bent the wrong way.


    ¡°Rikimura~¡± I sang at him and he looks back with horror in his eyes. I can see some of his teeth are gone and patches of hair are missing from his head.


    ¡°P-p-please. N-no more! I-I submit! I give up! Y-you¡¯re the strongest! Please spare me please!¡± He begs as he looked back before trying his best to retreat. I don¡¯t know how I made him to this state, but I was glad it did. As I got a closer to look at him, he placed his hands over his pace probably thinking I was going to punch him. He had multiple holes on his back and one of his nipples was ripped off as blood was pouring out it. A couple of his fingernails were gone and some of his fingers were bent the wrong way or missing from his hand. One of his eyes was swollen shut and it''s turning black. But the best part was, one of his arms is missing. Remembering how he kicked me nonstop, fury came out of me and I ended up kicking him on his side. It was strong enough to roll him on his back and I stopped at what I''ve seen. His penis was gone.It was ripped off.


    "Pfft, ~ Bwahahahahahahahaha! What happened to you?!¡± I Asked him, but he didn¡¯t answer except when he begged me to let him go. A minute ago, you were punching me and ever gave me a death sentence. But now, you look like shit!! Hahahahahahaha! What happened to your dick by the way?!"


    ¡°S-S-stay away! P-please no more! I already ate my own dick as you told me! I- I can¡¯t do it anymore! Please! Stop!¡± He shouted from fear as he tried to get away from me. I slowly walk beside him like I was walking a pet and he tried his best to crawl out of the cave.


    ¡°Where are you going?! We just haven¡¯t even got to the main part yet!¡± Using my strength I pulled him back inside the cave by his hair. He trashed around screaming which reminded me of his skill.


    ¡°Since you don¡¯t want to shut up¡­¡± I whisper looking him in the eye.


    ¡°P-p-please¡­l-l-let me go. I-I-I I won¡¯t do it anymore.¡± He suddenly spoke. ¡°P-please spare me!¡±


    "Ha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is great!¡± I shout placing my hand over his mouth muffling his voice. ¡°Say, Rikimura. I heard an interesting story~¡±


    I can see the fear in his eyes and the expression of defiance completely disappeared.


    ¡°I heard! that you¡­ripped a poor girl tongue out? Is that true?¡± I asked him to remove my hand from his mouth, but he didn''t say anything as he looked at me with tears coming out of his eyes. "I also heard, she was too loud for your ears, so you ripped out her tongue. Now, you''re too loud for my ears¡­what a coincidence huh?"


    ¡°N-no please-¡° The minute he opened his mouth I grabbed his tongue with my hand digging my nail onto it. I yanked it out as far as I can and before he was able to react, I knee¡¯d him in the jaw making him bite his own tongue off. He started shouting as blood came out of his mouth. I circled him as he tried to talk but his speech became mumbles while spitting blood everywhere.


    His mouth was wide open and before he tried to say something, I grabbed his tongue and stabbed it with the sharpened stick I had.


    ¡°Sing! Motherfucker! Sing!¡± I shout in his face making him fall back. ¡±Sing your lungs out hahahahaha!¡±


    The pain and fear must have been too much, and he passed out.


    ¡°Now, now, that is no good Rikimura. You can¡¯t sleep on me~¡± I whispered looking down on him. Without holding back, I slapped him as hard as I can, and his consciousness was jolted awake as he looked around for a few seconds looking lost. As soon as he sees me, his fear came back as he started screaming and talking in mumble tones.


    ¡°Now, Rikimura. Say ¡®Paralyze¡¯? I want to see if it still would work.¡± I tell him as I hold the sharpened twig I used to stab his tongue with towards his throat. ¡°If you don¡¯t, your windpipe will get another access to air~¡±


    ¡°N-N-Npalaynze. P-P-Pngayananye.¡± Rikimura tries to say the word but all that comes out are mumbles.


    ¡°Well what do you know, you can still make sounds hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.¡± I stood up while glaring him down. ¡°Say, Rikimura, how does it feel? It doesn''t feel nice right? To be on the verge of death and at the mercy of your enemy.¡±


    My smile and joyful attitude were completely gone as my anger resurface. He didn¡¯t say anything and just looked at me with fear as I walked around him.


    ¡°You see, you dick-less piece of shit, you should know the consequence of your actions. You''re probably thinking that I''m going to kill you right?" I asked him while kneeling down to get close to his face and he weakly nods in fear. ¡°You know what I¡¯m going to do, I¡¯m not going to kill you. No. No. No. Death is a much easier way. I want you to suffer. Suffer in this world for as long as I let you.¡±


    I move closer to his ear and whispered, "You''re going to suffer for as long as you live~"


    I hear him whimper and cry as I slowly stood up, He didn''t look up to me as he started losing his will to live. Using all my strength, I kicked him directly in the head holding back a bit of my strength to not kill him but enough to knock him out. His body fell to the side lifelessly. I bend down to check his pulse and I can feel a faint heartbeat in his wrist.


    "That¡¯s what you get you fucking psychopath..." I whisper as I stood up and stared at Rikimura hoping he would wake up again, but he didn''t. ¡°Don''t die on me Rikimura~"


    I laughed at the refreshing feeling of seeing him at the worst condition he can be in. Even if he survives, without his tongue and one of his arms, surviving won¡¯t be easy. After a few minutes, I looked back at the cave and remembered I needed to do one more thing. I walked back in and the minute I got to the entrance, I fell to my knees as my injuries slowly caught up to me. I took out a few more bear meat and ate them to slowly heal all of my wounds. As soon as I had the energy to stand, I slowly stood and walked towards the far left of the cave where I kicked her. I looked towards Hiroko''s body and bent down to check her pulse.


    She''s still alive. I whisper in my mind as I felt a faint heartbeat on her wrist. I picked her up throwing her over my shoulder and even with that much movement, she never woke up from her slumber. I slowly walked towards the exit out of the cave bringing her all the way outside. It¡¯s still daytime probably half past noon. I dropped her on the ground and stared at her with resentment and hatred.


    "Fucking bitch," I whispered as I get on my knees next to her. I grabbed her hair and pulled her head up to get a good look at her face. Ever since in the dungeon, I had a familiar sense with her and finally, my memory caught up to me. "I remembered who the fuck you are. After all that I have done for you, you are fucking throw me to my death and followed like a sheep."


    I let go of her hair watching her head go back down the ground. My anger was strong but, the sense of betrayal from her was far stronger than anybody else. I clench my fist as I felt frustrated looking at her.


    ¡°Hiroko, why would you choose me to spawn back there by myself," I say sitting down on the ground looking up the blue sky. "What did I do to you? Didn¡¯t I help all of you inside the dungeon? You talked to me first. I didn¡¯t have to respond but I did and decided to trust you. I didn''t remember who you were, but now, I do. You betrayed me. I trusted all of you and all of you fucking betrayed me. I know my class is weak¡­but, I also wanted to survive. I also wanted to live as much as all of you did. What gave you the rights to choose my fate? What gave you the fucking right!¡±


    I stood up out of anger while clenching my fist as hard as I can. I called out an item bag and took out a sword held it on top of her head pointing downwards.


    ¡°You told me you were sorry, well¡­.Hiroko¡­..I''m Sorry." I whisper as I look down towards her untouched face. ¡±I¡¯m sorry¡­¡±


    huh? I say in my mind as tears came flowing out of my eyes. I touched it with my hand and I couldn¡¯t even focus as my vision gets blurry. I quickly wipe it and place the sword over her one more time.


    "Hiroko, I''m sorry," I whispered as I push my sword downwards.


    .


    .


    .


    I walk around the forest looking for Junpei and the rest of the Gold. I¡¯m carrying Hiroko¡¯s body on my back and as I walked, I decided to talk to her body.


    ¡°Say, Hiroko, if you were back on earth, and met me on the street, would you say hi to me?¡± I asked her a question even though I know she won¡¯t respond. ¡°Say Hiroko, I finally remember who you are."


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Say Hiroko. ¡°My voice cracks but I prevented myself from crying any further as I stop for a moment to relax my mind. I continued to walk through the forest as I talked to her. ¡°I wished none of this happened and we all could be friends back at our world. Even if we all get back, I can¡¯t forgive everyone.¡±


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°But I don¡¯t regret it. I don¡¯t regret meeting all of you. I don¡¯t regret¡­giving you the scholarship. I was happy at that moment I was able to help you.¡± I tell her reminiscing the first time we actually met.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Say Hiroko, you want to know why I gave you that scholarship?¡±


    .


    .


    ¡°It¡¯s simple and easy actually," I tell her while pausing for a minute totellher the reason.


    .


    .


    ¡°I fell in love. It was love at first sight.¡± I smile remembering the feelings I had back then. ¡°I wanted to help you and see you smile. But who knew, I would forget your face through time.¡±


    ¡°I guess¡­I didn¡¯t love you that much after all.¡± I continued to walk until I hear people shouting making me crouch behind a bush.


    ¡°Hiroko! Where are you! Please scream if you can hear us!¡± I hear Junpei''s voice echo throughout the forest and my anger resurfaces.


    ¡°Hiroko-chan! Please let us know where you are!¡± I hear a new voice follow suit after Junpei.


    ¡°Rikimura! You asshole! Give Hiroko back!¡± Another new voice rang out as I listened behind the bush.


    ¡°Ah, Hiroko, you have friends looking for you¡­I wish I had that. I wish you guys screamed my name looking for me. I wished you guys didn¡¯t give up.¡± I whisper faintly the last words as I set her body down the ground. Since everyone¡¯s voice seems near, they eventually will find her. As I turn around to run the opposite way, a girl was staring right at me.


    Fuck, how long has she been there? I said in my mind as I slowly go around her. She stared at me like I¡¯m a dangerous animal but the minute she saw Hiroko behind me, she lost all her fear as she quickly ran to her side and ignored the fact that I might hurt her. She started crying silent tears as soon as she sees Hiroko¡¯s condition. I slowly backed away I and as I began to move, she looks at me again. I gesture to her to be quiet, and she nods weakly without making a sound. Hearing the voices gets closer and closer, I turned around and ran away as fast as I can. I ran away from them. I ran away from Hiroko. I know I might regret it in the future but¡­I¡¯m glad.


    I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t kill her, I whispered the same line in my mind over and over again as I ran through the forest.


    Mom. I remembered her as images of her smile appeared in succession in my mind. I kept running even if my lungs felt like it¡¯s going to give out, I kept running to drown my sorrow with pain.


    ¡°Mom, I''m not a monster after all," I whispered as tears ran across my cheeks. I ran as fast as I can to drown my choice. I ran until the voices drowned in silence.

 CHAPTER 15: The will to get stronger

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 15: The will to get stronger


    <hr>


    I ran. And ran. And ran. I continued to run until I collapsed to the ground.


    ¡°hah¡­.hah¡­¡­.huah¡­¡­¡­..Argggghhhhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhh!!!¡± I screamed as loud as I could till my voice ripped my throat. I placed my hand over my eyes and listened to my own breathing. I ran so far that daytime already ended. Even my screams won¡¯t reach them anymore.I know deep down inside, my scream meant more than frustration as I tried to elevate the throbbing pain in my heart.


    ¡°Fucking Luro. Fuck this world.¡± I whisper as I pant nonstop slowly trying to regain my breathing. I''ve run as far as I could but, I knew it wasn¡¯t to get away from them. It was to get away from the pain, the suffocating feeling I had. As I lay on my back and look up the dark sky. Stars riddled the dark canvas and it was enough to bring me out of reality. Even though everything about this world is different than earth, the stars are the only thing that didn¡¯t change.


    Being outside, or inside¡­I guess it doesn¡¯t matter huh,my thoughts echoed as I watched the stars through the forest.


    I can see the sky. Breathe fresh air. Sleep at night. Wake up in theMorning.Stare at earth. And not worry about my next meal.But¡­It feels the same. I¡¯m alone.


    Knowing that I was discarded was something that left a scar in my heart. Hearing them tried to save me and giving up for the second time is like giving a child a candy he¡¯s been wanting his entire life only to be taken away before he even tastes it.


    It¡¯s cruel,I whisper in my mind as I close my eyes.


    ¡°Really fucking cruel,¡± I open my eyes and raise my left-hand reach for the stars. ¡°So if I don¡¯t kill you, you will destroy the earth.¡±


    .


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    .


    ¡°Now I can¡¯t have that, my mother is on that planet," I say as I slump down my hand on the ground. "You hear me Luro? I can¡¯t let you destroy my planet. I will fucking kill you if it¡¯s the last thing I do, and I will go home.¡±


    After resting for a bit, I walked around looking for a tree to climb. As soon as I found one big enough and tall enough, I watch the moon as it illuminates through the forest. I watch earth as it stays in the night sky and my eyes felt heavy as my exhausted body is slowly healing. I let exhaustion win over me as I close my eyes and succumb to sleep. I woke up with an annoying sound similar to an alarm. As soon as I open them, I notice a bluebird chirping on a branch above me. Once our eyes met, the bluebird flies away and lands on a different tree from a distance.


    I tried to shout at it but my voice feels weakened, ¡°What the fuck, is he watching me? Why do I always see him when I wake up.¡±


    I slowly climb down the forest and as soon as I got to the ground, that¡¯s when I noticed the area covered in thick fog. I walk around the fog looking for any water source I can use. I don¡¯t know how far I ran but I don¡¯t think I¡¯m anywhere close to the area where I woke up from after getting out the dungeon. I kept on walking and walking but nothing. No lake. No puddles. No stream.


    ¡°Argh! Fuck this fog.¡± I curse my frustration away as the density of the fog made it harder to see what¡¯s in front of me. For all I know I could be running into an enemy and we won¡¯t be able to see each other until we¡¯re face to face.I navigate using the trees as I tried to follow a straight path and if I come across a tree, I mark it before I push forwards walking ahead.I take out a few cooked boar¡¯s meats I stored and ate them while I traverse through the thick fog. I ate slowly taking small bites since eating dried meat made me thirstier.


    I took a couple of breathers relaxing on a tree root as I try to wait out the fog but it never disappeared. I hoped wasn¡¯t going in circles but I felt somewhat relieved to not run into a tree that I already marked. I walked and walked which probably felt like hours. The fog was still heavy even when the temperature went from cold to hot summer. I can¡¯t even see a few feet away from me.In the beginning, I almost starved to death without food. Now I feel like dying from thirst as I gag due to the dryness of my throat.


    Nice luck you got Yasu. You are fucking unlucky bastard.I say in my mind. I walked nonstop and for some reason, I haven¡¯t come across any trees. Most likely they will appear from the fog one after another but this time I haven¡¯t seen any trees as I slowly walked forward.


    "Ah shit," I whisper as I step onto something cold. As I look down, my eyes went as I smiled with excitement, ¡°Water!¡±


    Without care, I drank the water on the ground to quench my thirst. Its taste was better than the bottled water back at home and I kept of drinking till my throat felt normal and my stomach felt full.


    ¡°Guah! Ha¡­.haha¡­¡­.hahahahahahahahaha! I¡¯m alive!¡± I shout as I sit down on the ground.I feel the grass around me and it feels really soft to the touch. I lay down and it felt like I¡¯m laying on a very expensive bedsheet.


    ¡°Compared to the cold hard floor of the dungeon, anything is heaven," I whisper as I close my eyes listening to the wind. The comfortable feeling made me doze off and my mind went to asleep. I woke up at night again as the stars on the sky are the first thing I noticed. I sit up and my body felt better than before. I looked around and the fog had disappeared while I was asleep. What I arrived at is an open field in the middle of the forest. Inside the forest, it¡¯s hard to see sometimes at night due to the trees blocking the moonlight. But this place has the moon illuminating the whole area making my eyes easier to adjust.


    I decided to look around more and I notice the puddle I drank from is actually a huge lake in the middle of the plains. There¡¯s a giant tree from a distance that¡¯s close to the lake and as I squint, I noticed that there are man-made huts next to it. My curiosity got the best of me and I quickly ran towards the huts. As I got close, I can see tent¡¯s around the area but no people. Leaves were laid down under the tents to act as a form ofbedding. A fire pit was created near the lake probably to prevent burning everything.


    "I was hoping there are people." I easily get agitated and I tried to calm myself by focusing on other things. My mind slowly trails off as I start to figure out who made the tents.


    ¡°Gold district," I whisper as I looked around their base. If people were to live here, the tents wouldn''t look so shabby. It seemed like it was made in a rush or without proper knowledge of structure. I¡¯m not eliminating the process that other people that inhabit this world probably made it but, I see someone¡¯s high school jacket inside one of the tents that''s probably not from this world since it was made with a mass-producing method. Once I inspected it, I knew it was from my world since it says it¡¯s the property of Rokudou High School.


    ¡°I wonder who goes to Rokudou?¡± I asked myself. ¡°Well, finders¡¯ keepers. Losers weepers.¡±


    I took the Jacket and wore it, as the air gets colder during the night. I found a few swords laying around and I took them putting it inside my dimensional bag. I don''t know why they would leave it here since our bag has unlimited space.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a trap?¡± I whisper cautiously looking around me. I walked towards the firepit and kneeled down beside it touching the burnt wood. ¡°The fire seems like it hasn¡¯t been ignited in a while. I guess I¡¯ll make camp here for the night then.¡±


    I decided to look for rocks, but it was harder to create a spark hitting them. So, I decided to use a stick and drill it into another piece of wood hoping amber will appear. But that also gave me a hard time and I cut my palm due to splinters of the sticks.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shout in pain as I pull pieces of wood out of my palm. ¡°Ugh, there should be another way to make fire. I wish I had a lighter. Everything would be so damn easy.¡±


    I took out what¡¯s in my bag and I have a couple of stalactites, raw boar meat, raw bear meat, cooked bear, cooked boar, dead torch, a couple of swords and daggers, sticks, and any other things I found in the forest that I thought had a use.


    "I wonder if this can be used as a splint?" I say as I grab one of the stalactites and a rock. Using the rock, I tried chipping of the crystal, but the rock chipped off instead. "Well, this suck.¡±


    I grab another stalactite from my bag and decided to use it as light for the night. The are was a quiet and eerie feeling of something creeping up. But this was all in my imagination since not even a single animal entered the plains. I lay down on the ground near the water as I looked at the stalactite in my hand. Getting a closer look, the cyan color made it more beautiful. The whole crystal had white tiny dots that look like crystal salt and it''s the one that''s emitted a faint glow. I grabbed the other stalactite and having the purple and blue crystal side by side made the glow even stronger as if it reacted to one another. I put them closer and the stalactite would glow brighter while it faintly vibrates. I wonder what happens if they touch. I whisper in my mind and the minute the two stalactites made contact with each other, sparks flew everywhere almost getting into my eyes.


    ¡°Woah!¡± the sudden spark surprised me. The sparks were bright enough to disorientate my vision and I see embers landing on the water. ¡°Damn, wait, maybe I can use this to start a fire?¡±


    I gathered a couple of sticks and placed them together. I piled up on top of the dead fire pit and crumbled dried leaf on it. I placed underneath the remaining dust of the wood I tried to grind earlier. I also place the dried leaves under a pile of wood but left enough space for my hand to go through. I hit the stalactites together a couple of times and spark flew out every time. The wood dust along with dried leaves ignited as soon as embers made contact with it. I quickly placed more dried leaves and made the fire bigger and bigger until it engulfed the piles of wood right above it.


    ¡°Me. Yasu. Make. Fire! Ooga Ooga!!¡± I tried to imitate a caveman as I dance around the fire pit with joy, but I ended up looking like a monkey. I quickly cooked the remaining raw bear meat and hearing it sizzle in the fire made me salivate. I didn¡¯t have any other frying pan, so I used a flat rock I found around the camp and place its other half in the fire while the other half sticks out. The rock was heated enough that I could put thin slices of meat to cook.


    ¡°Damn, somehow everything tastes way better now," I say as I bite into the boar meat and its taste was out of this world. Much better than the first time I cooked it. The meat was so tender even where I cooked it over a rock; it was breaking apart easily in my mouth. After eating, I decided to wash as my body reeked of sweat and dirt. It¡¯s been quite some time I actually had a proper bath and I decided to swim to wash as much as I can. Right after I got out the dungeon, I went straight ahead towards Rikimura and, his cave especially didn¡¯t make me feel clean.


    "Ugh, disgusting bastard," I whisper as I stood up calling out my dimensional bag. Now that I have time, I wanted to feel clean. I grab two of my dead torches and used the fire pit to light it up. I plunged the bottom of the torch in the ground and illuminated the area near the lake. As I remove my shirt, I can see my whole body is full of scars I sustained inside the dungeon. I noticed scars that weren''t there before appeared in my body.


    ¡°Whoa¡­¡± I say as I look at my body gained more muscle and definition the last I saw it. ¡°I look ripped.¡±


    My abdominal muscles are visible along with the definition of my arms. I quickly removed my pants and I¡¯m completely naked. I can see my thighs also have gotten bigger.


    ¡°With the proper training of martial arts, I¡¯ll be deadly without a weapon. Show DPH.¡± I whisper trying to inspect my damage output.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    13


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Haha, I''ll be deadly if my damage without my skills gets bigger," I say to myself dreaming of learning a stronger skill. ¡°I guess my level and damage goes hand by hand since it¡¯s always the same. But then it doesn¡¯t really fully apply as soon as I can deal critical hits.¡±


    I decided to fully study it later after I take a bath in the lake. I slowly wash from all of the dirt and grimes that accumulated through my time in the dungeon. The water was the perfect temperature and it feels cool on my skin but not too cold to have me shivering.


    ¡°Ahhhhh this feels good," I say as I lay on the water floating. I''m not worried about any monster because the water was so clear that the light from the moon shined the bottom of the shallow end.


    ¡°Haap!" I held my breath as I dive underwater submerging myself to drown all of the noise. All I can hear is the muffled sound of water entering my ear. I emerge out of the water and the night air was enough to make me briefly shiver. Water travel across my body dripping to my elbow as I use my hands to comb my wet hair backward. I stare at my wavy reflection on the water and reminisce my hardships in the dungeon and my fight with Rikimura.


    "I went through hell in there," I whisper as I destroy my reflection. ¡°But it seems like I¡¯m one step behind them. If it wasn¡¯t for my mind break skill, I probably would have died fighting Rikimura.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I knew in my heart I wasn¡¯t strong enough. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly trying to calm myself as I look up the moon.


    I need to get stronger. My voice echoed in my mind as I close my eyes and listen to the wind. I let my body fall back into the water as I relaxed my muscles. I kept my eyes closed and the silence underwater was comforting yet, uncomfortable as loneliness sinks in my heart remembering my mother. I got out of the water and dried myself near the fire. I sat and let the wind along with the heat from the fire dry my skin.


    ¡°Ah, I forgot, my clothes," I say as I take out all of my clothes stained with blood and dirt. Since I was near the water, I washed all of my clothes in the lake as much as I can. I have no soap but somehow, the lake removed not only the dirt but also the pungent smell of dirty laundry. The only stain that stayed permanently are the blood stains and somehow, it made me happy looking at them as if they were battle scars. I hang my clothes near the fire and let it air dry. I sat around the campfire wearing only the jacket I found. It was clean, so I wore it to cover myself from the wind. I sit on thegrassinstead of the log and use the log itself as a backrest. I took out the bear meat and cut it into thin slices and cooked it on the hot stone. I decided to spend the night cooking, so I don¡¯t have to worry about creating a fire every time I need to eat. I also decided to cook all of the boar meat I had left. hoping I could gain a level, I cooked all of it non stop but when I called out my status window, everything was still the same.


    "Status window," I say, and my status window popped open in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    13


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    14


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    20


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    35


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas Touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mind Break


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Upon immediate extreme danger, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Same damn level.¡± I say getting frustrated as I feel stagnant at level 13. ¡°As I checked earlier, my damage per hit is the same as my level even when I hold a sword. But when I use my skills like sharpen, it boosts up my damage to an unbelievable amount but only for a few seconds since the skill can only last that long. Ugh, this system is so confusing.¡±


    I leaned back at the log and stared at the fire flickering. My internal time is still messed up as I felt fully awake even when the moon has risen to its highest point. Minutes became hours and after drying my clothes, I wore them and took out a bedding from one of the tents and set it down near the fire. I didn¡¯t put it too close just in case. The last thing I want is to cook myself alive while sleeping. I laid down and looked at the night sky. Thanks to having no trees around, I got a much clearer view of the sky and earth floating above. I sit back up and call out my status window one more time.


    "Ok, so this means that the higher the level the skill sets, the stronger my damage becomes when I use it," I say inspecting all of the numbers. ¡°I wonder if it has a limit. But then again, leveling up is quite useless to me, so why don¡¯t I just level up my skills? But then again, I got these skills when I leveled up so I¡¯m sure there will be more skills I¡¯ll attain when I level up more that¡¯ll come useful down the line. I wish I had a pen and paper to write this shit down.¡±


    I had so many thoughts in my mind as I try to understand more on how this world works. I never gain experience when I kill monsters.


    ¡°It''s only when I cook them." I talked to myself. "I notice that every time I finish cooking something, a faint white orb comes out of the cooked food and goes into my chest. But the white orb only appears from monsters that have a level. The boar and the rat didn''t have a level above its head, yet the bear did. When I cooked the bear, it gave me a small amount of white orb so it''s probably due to the level of the monster. The higher the level, the more orbs I get? How come the gatekeeper didn''t give me shit? But then again, its level was a question mark, so I guess it¡¯s something unidentifiable? This system is so confusing. I wish it came with a manual.¡±


    I questioned everything in my mind as I kept trying to analyze how the leveling system work. I thought about how mine is a lot different than the rest of the gold or them and if I don''t get a full idea, I don''t know how to increase my strength.


    ¡°To prevent from confusing myself, I¡¯ll just simplify it," I say as I thought of a way to make it easier to understand. "Monsters without level is mainly food resource. Any monsters that have a level are the ones that turn into dust. But then my class is a cook, so I guess anything I can kill doesn''t turn into dust so I can cook them and level up. Monsters below my level don''t give me much experience points when cooking. Monsters that are higher level than me does to a certain extent. Any boss level monsters with a question mark give me low experience points since they''re unknown.¡±


    Even when I come up with my own conclusion, I know in my mind the best way to really understand is to find civilization and collect information. As for now, all I have are speculations. Even my mind break skill I know little to nothing about. "I need to control this. I need to know how to activate it while I''m still conscious. There''s no point of killing everything around me and I can''t remember a single thing about it afterward."


    This skill will be really useful when I get into tight spots and when I decide to fightLuro. As for now, I need to get stronger.I thought to myself.I¡¯m weak.


    ¡°Ah¡­her body was really fine. If the holes were removed.¡± I thought about Hiroko. ¡°Urgh, what am I thinking! She¡¯s the last person I would touch. But, her skin¡­would be smooth to touch¡­.¡±


    I¡¯m definitely not dying single. I thought about it, finding a girlfriend in this world won¡¯t be so bad. I can bring her to meet my mother. I bet she would be ecstatic seeing me introduced her someone. I suddenly remember the girl that I last met before I dropped off Hiroko¡¯s body. She was a bit above average yet, I know she can¡¯t talk. I remembered Luro talking about Sawada losing an arm and it made me happy to know he¡¯s going to suffer.


    ¡°Ehem, hey Sawada, can you give me a hand?...pfft~¡± I joked about his pitiful state. I wished I could have seen him.I should have got Rikimura¡¯s arm and gave it to him.


    ¡°Need a hand? I got you one¡­pfft~ hahaha...¡± I felt like I was going crazy. ¡°heh, I¡¯m already crazy as it is. I wonder where his hand is, If I could find it and preserve it, I wouldn¡¯t mind bitch slapping him with his own hand.¡±


    I thought about different scenarios for when we meet because I know one way or another, we will meet. After a while of imagining different ways to use the frying pan on them, I stood back up to get my dry clothes and wear them as the temperature started to drop. I didn''t want to sleep since I might wake up with them surrounding me and if that happens, it''s endgame for me. Rather than lazing around thinking about stupid things, I decided to go climb the biggest tree near the lake. This way I can get a better look at what''s beyond the forest if I ever find it. As soon as I got on a branch high enough, I could see the forest illuminated by the moonlight and it goes beyond as far as my eyes can see. I see a large rock formation sitting on to the right side which baffles me since I never saw it from inside the forest. But then again, I ran away from where I was, and the trees blocked most of the view over the horizon.


    ¡°Well shit, this forest looks like it can go past beyond-¡± I suddenly stop squinting my eye. Even if it¡¯s faint, I can see a light atop of the huge rock. The rock formation itself was familiar as it looks like it¡¯s something where a baboon can raise a lion cub for everyone to see. Since the forest limits my vision from inside, I didn¡¯t notice it. Even being in the plain, it wasn¡¯t visible by the lake. but looking at it atop the tallest tree near the lake, there¡¯s no doubt about it, it¡¯s light. ¡°I guess that¡¯s where I should start.¡±


    Getting there isn¡¯t a problem but if the rock wall goes directly vertical, I need to go around the other side and start from the part that¡¯s closer to the ground and climb it. If I get on top of that rock, I can have another view of this whole area and find out what the light is. While Luro explained to me the situation of the gold, he also mentioned that there''s a different kind of civilization in this world. Apart from your regular day in life boars or other enemies fit for my sword, there also other races like elves, dwarves, humans, and even animal-like humans called the beast tribe. He even cleverly named the other races making it difficult for us to figure out which is which unless we see them face to face.


    ¡°I wonder what they taste like¡­.¡± I say to myself. ¡°I¡¯m a cook after all. I need to expand my scope of edible materials.¡±


    I sat in the tree keeping an eye out on the light just in case it moves or disappeared. But the light went beyond my expectation and remained in one spot even when the sun started rising from the Horizon. I traverse down the tree and decided to depart towards the rock formation. I move much better during nighttime since I feel more energized but, the only way to fix my internal clock is to force myself awake and sleep at night. But then again, I felt more comfortable traveling in the dark since that¡¯s what I¡¯m more used to being in it. After collecting what I need from the camp, I left the campfire lit just incase I decided to go back, it¡¯s easier to find the light of the campfire at night than walking around in circles. I left enough wood for it to keep burning but, I wasn¡¯t quite sure how long it will last.As I travel across the forest, I came across the usual boars and some bears. Wolves was a lot harder to spot since the only wolf I saw was when I reached the stream for the first time. At first, I collected the raw meat but then I stopped since it takes too much time and I had enough food to last me for a while. But I never let them live as I left a wake of corpses on my trail.


    Daytime quickly turned into the sunset as the night sky slowly welcomed me. I climbed the largest tree I can find and placed myself atop a branch big enough to carry my weight. Changing my sleeping habits will make it harder to travel at night but, I rather be fully awake at daytime. As soon as morning hits, I pushed forwards towards the rock trying not to forget my sense of direction. I left marks whenever I camp pointing carving an arrow on the trees towards where I should be heading. After walking for a while, I came across a cave entrance covered with vines. As enter it, the place look¡¯s like it was used as a campsite. It was pretty dark except towards the end of a cave where a pool of water sits and under it, a large purple stalactite illuminating the water. There¡¯s a leaf bed made near the water and a section of the cave had dried blood stains on the floor.


    ¡°I guess this is where Rikimura tortured that Akane girl. Ha, he must really like caves." my voice trails off as I inspect the dried-up blood. "pffffft~ Hey Sawada, What did the cop say to the criminal when he caught him? ¡¯Hand¡¯ it over! Hahahahahahaha!¡±


    Sigh*


    I¡¯m losing it¡­hehe


    I spent the night in the cave and once daytime came, I forced myself up and left the cave while eating my breakfast. I¡¯m starting to get sick of eating boar and bear alternatively. I was itching to kill something else wondering how it will taste. Daytime became night and I would climb a tree resting on a branch. I¡¯d watch earth till I fall asleep and wake up to the birds chirping around me. It took me another extra day to reach the giant rock and once I got close, it looks way bigger than I expected.


    "It looked so close yet, this shit is actually pretty damn far," I say as I place my hand on the rock. It was smooth upon touch as if someone scraped it with fine grain sandpaper. ¡°Fucking Luro focusing on the wrong details.


    Ok, let¡¯s not make the same mistake again.I whisper in my mind remembering the wall I climbed in the dungeon. I didn¡¯t think it through and climbed at a distance instead of near the ledge. ¡°Find the easiest point to climb first then climb it Yasu.¡±


    ¡°Ok Yasu, I shall do just that," I answered myself.


    ¡°Good. Now proceed on.¡± I reply to myself.Boredom and loneliness have gotten through me that I accepted talking to myself. Sometimes I¡¯ll pretend to act surprised at my own answer. I scaled the giant rock and found a section that''s closest to the ground.


    ¡°I wonder if I carry the dimensional bag, will it disappear?¡± I whispered looking up the rock trying to calculate the distance. To test out my idea, I took out my item bag and wore it using the straps. I waited for a bit but it never disappeared. "Well I''ll be damned, I learned something new."


    ¡°This is such a good idea Yasu! Good thing you found out that by carrying the dimensional bag like a backpack prevents it from disappearing! As long as we''re holding it, it won''t vanish. What would I do without you Yasu¡­¡± I smiled as I took out a sword and stabbed it on the rock.


    ¡°I know I know, I am a necessity in your life now. If I were a girl, you would probably marry me. Isn¡¯t that right Yasu?¡± I asked myself as I stabbed the second sword and using my upper body strength, I pulled up placing my foot on the sword. Rather than wholly relying on my arms, I would create a foothold using the sword and step on it. I''d grab the other sword and stab it as far up as I can. I''d yank it to test the stability and once I think it won''t pull out or break, I¡¯d pull out another sword in my bag and repeat the process. It¡¯s a waste of sword but, I was going to go back down anyways using it so it¡¯s not like I¡¯m leaving it here. This still requires upper body strength but not as much as before where I solely relied on my arms. This would be doable in that concept if the rock wall wasn¡¯t so damn tall.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see you at the top Yasu!¡± I tell myself to pump up my own ego. "The last man buys boar meat for lunch!"


    I started climbing the rock like I¡¯m racing with somebody. Well, I am. I¡¯m racing with myself.


    Let¡¯s see who wins. I say in my mind as I climb the face of the rock. As soon as I got on the top of the rock, I can see it incline more and towards the end but my gaze was towards the source of the light.


    ¡°Is that¡­No way. No fucking way.¡± My voice trails off as I stared at it.What I see towards the other end is a cave. It¡¯s not a big cave but a small one. It¡¯s so small that I can see what¡¯s inside the cave at plain view. Something that, I looked for.Something that, I found.Something, that¡¯s taken away from me.Something I¡¯ve never got to experience.What¡¯s inside the cave¡­it¡¯s a portal.


    ¡°Ok Yasu, Screw finding civilization, let''s focus on getting stronger," I whisper to myself as I walked towards the light. ¡°Are you sure Yasu? We don¡¯t have good memories about dungeons.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure Yasu. I don¡¯t like it myself. But- We have to get stronger.¡± I answered myself. Even now, I felt like vomiting knowing about going inside another dungeon but my urge to get stronger, my hatred of this world, is overpowering my fear as my legs unconsciously move towards the portal.


    ¡°Exactly. Stronger enemies mean a better way to level up.¡± I smile as I stared at it. "What¡ªyou''re not saying that we¡ª"


    ¡°Yes Yasu, we will go in there¡ª¡° I answered myself. ¡°And cook everything that¡¯s moving. I¡¯m also sick and tired of cooking boars. Aren¡¯t you?¡±


    I stopped right in front of the portal and looked my hands before answering my own question, "Yeah Yasu. There¡¯s probably different kind of monsters in there. I hope they¡¯re not skeletons. We can¡¯t cook skeletons.¡±


    "Well then¡­let''s go Yasu.¡± I tell myself walking towards the light with the biggest smile on my face. ¡°But, we have to murder them first.¡±


    ¡°Yeah~¡± I sang as I entered the portal leaving only silence behind.

 CHAPTER 16: Yasu versus The second dungeon

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 16: Yasu versus The second dungeon


    <hr>


    As I got closer to the portal, my heart started beating a lot faster. I can¡¯t erase my experience in the dungeon and different thoughts in my mind flashed before my eyes as I closed them. I clench my fist as my breathing became abnormal.


    ¡°I got this. There¡¯s nothing to worry about. I fucking got this.¡± I tried to calm myself as I controlled my breathing. I slowly open my eyes and the brightness of the portal was enough to make me want to wear sunglasses. I took the first step and it felt heavy. It''s like I was walking through mud. ¡°I fucking got this!¡±


    I forced myself to jump through and as soon as I go through the light, my heart felt like it would jump out my chest expecting a gatekeeper. But the other side was ambient with no forms of life or any existence except a big marble double door at the end. There were huge bright red crystal stalactiteshanging from the ceiling adding to the chilling atmosphere of the cave. I tread slowly through trying to make little to no sound at all. With my past experience, the fuckinggatekeeperwas at the entrance of the dungeon so I don¡¯t want to make the same mistake twice. Just in case it comes bursting through the wall, I have to be prepared. As I approached the door expecting to use my handprint to open it but, there was no carving on it. As I place my hand on the cold marble, a notification popped up obstructing my view.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You are about to enter the ''The Dungeon of the Sky King.'' proceed?


    Say YES or NO


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Dungeon of the Sky King?¡± I say to myself as I read the notification. ¡°Hah, well doesn¡¯t that sound fucking scary. Yes.¡±


    The light appeared at the center of the door and in a few minutes, it started sliding sideways. Once the marble door fully opened, the monsters on the other side made me stop from stepping in. I quickly took out my item bag and pulled out a sword. That''s when I remember I left most of the sword lodged in the rock wall.


    "Dammit, I got to go back and get them," I whisper as I retreat trying not to alert the overgrown reptiles. Once I got a safe distance, I turned around to go back out but to my dismay, the portal was shut off. ¡°What the fuck.¡±


    I walked near it thinking it might activate but nothing. In a few minutes, a notification appeared in front of me that made my heart beat faster.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    NO ENTRY.


    This portal deactivates as soon as the player accepts to enter the dungeon. You must clear the dungeon to active it or use the other activated portal that is located at the dungeons boss room.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°N-no no no no, you''ve got to be fucking kidding me!" I shout reading the notification. I''m in a bad situation. I have a lot of swords but most of them are the weak ones I collected from the skeletons, goblins, and trolls. The higher tier weapons I used to climb since they seem to be the only ones that would hold my weight. I felt frustrated I made another mistake due to my impulsiveness. "God fucking dammit!"


    I tried to look for any hidden switch but nothing. Every time I leave and get close, the same notification appeared telling me I have to deal with the last boss to get out of here. Even if I tried to get to the other portal, the last boss must be guarding it so I have to kill him regardless.


    ¡°Ok Yasu, relax. It¡¯s not as bad. You see those things across that door? They don''t seem to have any mental capacity to think. We got this.¡± I talked to myself as I turn around.


    ¡°But how do we kill those things?¡± I asked myself as I start walking towards the door.


    ¡°Let''s try to cut a head off," I whisper smiling towards them. These ones looked like normal crocodiles but their bag legs are similar to a frog. The minute I got close to the door, I see them hopping around like frogs. I step through the door and another notification came up grabbing my attention.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You''re leaving the ''Safe Zone''</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°So that''s the safe zone huh-" I suddenly stop as I notice something move behind the notification. The minute it disappeared, I see one of the crocodile''s charges at me running like an iguana. ¡°W-w-whoa! What the fuck! Sharpen!¡±


    It came straight for my face as it jumped flying forward.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I jump sideways barely dodging the crocodile. I saw it had so many sharp teeth, too many to count. Its eyes are completely bloodshot red. It stopped right in front of the safe zone as the force field stopped it from flying any further. The creature roared again as it ran with its hind legs coming for me. It suddenly jumped like a frog aiming for my head and it frustrated me that it was able to push me back.


    ¡°You son of a-! Fucking get sliced in half!!!!¡± I shout as I brought my sword downwards. I was expecting something like the gatekeeper but my blade just went through its body easily. I saw a negative number float above its split body as blood poured out everywhere. ¡°Hah, you¡¯re not as strong as you look.¡±


    LeapingCroc Lv20


    HP1320/2000


    ¡°How the hell-"Right when I said that, muscle came out of the body joining the split piece together. It happened so fast I almost got caught off guard as it turned around trying to bite my leg. I jump back but it jumped following me. I didn''t have any other choice as I used my sword and sliced it from its mouth. My sword got stuck since my skill disappeared and the strength of the crocodile was unbelievable. It was pushing me back even when my sword is slowly cutting it. I activated my skill again and my sword went through its body easily slicing the top of its head away from its body. I dealt a critical hit this time depleting its health to zero.


    ¡°Fuck! What the fuck¡­.¡± I whisper and quickly run back to the safe zone once I noticed two crocodiles stood straight up facing me. "What the hell was that¡­"


    After a while, I went back in and decided to go after a crocodile that¡¯s slowly walking away from its group. The minute it saw me, it stood straight up and ran like an iguana. I brought my sword towards its neck and this time, I dealt a critical hit bringing its life instantly to zero. At the same moment, my sword snapped and the blade flew towards the group. This got all of their attention and each and every crocodile stood up. Without wasting any more time, I ran towards the safe zone without looking back and the minute I reached the other side of the door, I heard roars behind me as each and every crocodile hit the force field. I wasn''t running out of breath this time but the sheer pressure of knowing I¡¯ll die if I face all of them at the same time made my heart beat pound strong enough that I felt it in my ear.


    ¡°Fuck, this is not good. I won¡¯t be able to handle this many at once.¡± I whisper to myself as I slowly stood up. ¡°Fuck.¡±


    I have no choice. I have to try and kill all of them. I whisper in my mind. I had no other way out but to go through the other door at the end of the room. I watched them all give up trying to get through the force field as they slowly crawled back towards the other door. I waited for them to settle and by the sheer numbers of crocodile walking around, my chances of reaching the other door are close to zero.


    ¡°¡­.. forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty¡­.holy fuck there''s fifty of them! Fuck!¡± I shout at the sheer number of crocodiles aimlessly wandering around. ¡°I hope they don¡¯t spawn back.¡±


    I have to isolate them. The problem is how do I do that? I say in my mind studying a way to attract one without alerting the rest. I tried throwing rocks at a few crocodiles but nothing. They don¡¯t even notice a rock is hitting them. I took out my bag and wore it in my back. This way it won¡¯t disappear, and I can quickly take out a sword if the one I¡¯m holding breaks.


    ¡°What if I use food?¡± I say slowly exiting the safe room. I took out a piece of cooked bear meat and threw it towards one crocodile. I see it follow the food and in one swoop, ate it without chewing. ¡°The hell, what¡¯s the point of having so many teeth if you just swallow shit up.¡±


    Using small pieces of meat, I guided one of the crocodiles near the entrance and as soon as it got near, I jumped in front of it stabbing my sword straight through its skull. I saw it health depletes in half. I took out the sword and stabbed it over and over till its life reached zero. These monsters a far more different than the ones in the other dungeon. Any hit on critical points like the head can give me a critical strike. But now, even when I sliced them in half, it comes out a lot less making it a lot more work to kill one. If they were goblins, I can install fear in them making it easier to deal with one but, these are mindless animals. They''re like zombies, they don''t feel fear and only react to food. I knew it''s going to be a long time till I kill all of them and I don''t want to waste all my weapon in this first room. I knew from that moment, If I kill them at the expense of all my swords, I''d be stuck here forever until I find more weapons. All I can do is hope the next room has skeletons or goblins with weapons.


    Breaking off my analysis moment, I decided to drag the dead crocodile towards the save room. Even when they look light, it feels like I''m dragging a boulder. I decided to pull its tail when all of a sudden, I felt something bite my shirt from the bag. ¡°Ack!¡±


    In an instant, I was thrown towards the crocodile and I see them all stand up around me.


    "Ah-U-u-um...can we talk?" I say and all of the crocodiles came flying towards me. I was pushed to the ground by one of them and I lose consciousness when I hit my head in the ground at full speed.


    I slowly wake up to the smell of metal. I have a severe headache and as I touch my forehead with my palm and I felt liquid trail down to my elbow.As my vision focus, I noticed that I¡¯m not inside the crocodile room anymore but I¡¯m sitting down leaning on the dead portal.


    ¡°Ughhh...the fuck...how did I get here," I whisper as I stand up. I notice that my hands are covered in blood. Not only that, my clothes are covered in blood as it turned my dirty shirt completely red. I search my body around but I don¡¯t have any cuts anywhere. Only a few bruises that are turning black and blue around my arms.


    ¡°What?...Di¡ª¡° I suddenly stop talking when I notice writing on the floor of the portal.


    don¡¯t die~


    These words are written inblood.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I study the writing on the ground. I decided to walk back towards the crocodile¡¯s room and the minute I got a good view of the inside, it reminded me of a horror movie. There where blood and corpses everywhere. They all have been cut up to pieces. Some of the crocodiles was missing a head while some are ripped apart using a barbaric way as flesh weren¡¯t cleanly cut. As I inspect more inside, I see that there is one more alive on the far end near the door. Its skin was missing and four of my sword stabbed it in the legs and arms making it look like a science lab project. Its tail wascut halfwayand lodged inside its mouth.


    There was another message written on the door.


    For you! Please level up! So, we don¡¯t die~


    ¡°What the fuck. We? What does it mean we¡­¡± I whisper to myself. It didn''t look like my handwriting. I don''t think Luro is nice enough to help me. ¡°There''s only one other person who wrote this¡­¡±


    I didn¡¯t want to dwell on it too much but, having the idea of another person inside me with a mind of its own makes me worried a bit. I decided not to open the door yet. Instead of going through and throwing myself into the arms of the enemy, I¡¯m going to cook all of these crocodiles and level up. If I level up more, I might get new skills that would help me clear this dungeon.As for now, I don¡¯t want to rely on my passive skill. If I don¡¯t remember anything when passing yetI''m writing stuff on the walls in my sleep, that can¡¯t be a good sign.It took a while until I cooked all of the crocodiles in the room. I stored the good ones in my bag and the ones that are starting to smell I threw to the side. I have enough food to eat, I didn¡¯t want to get sick by eating something disgusting. Poison might have been removed due to my class, but garbage will always taste like garbage no matter how much I clean it. Since the meat is high level than me, it gave me a lot of experience orbs per cooking. I only have one corpse left and that one was the crocodile that was left at the door alive.


    ¡°Status Window¡± I whisper to myself trying to see how much I have leveled up.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    19


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    29


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    27


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    45


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Inspect


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Give you a chef''s natural abilities


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mind break


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Upon immediate extreme danger mental and physical, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Five levels and only one skill¡­¡¯inspect¡¯ huh...I wonder how it works.¡± I whisper as I study my status window. ¡°Inspect skill description¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    InspectStolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    None


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Observation


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    None


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    As a cook, you need to know the elements of your ingredients. This skill will show you the description of the ingredients. This is similar to the weapon description command but directed towards life forms and other materials. You can''t use this on weapons.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Heh? It would have been better to get a fighting ability. No level skill? The hell.¡± I mutter as I munch on cooked crocodile meat. Its meat isn''t much to go crazy about. It''s like a mixture of pork and fish. After eating, I went back into the flying crocodile room and decided to cook the last remaining corpse. I left the last crocodile that was alive near the door. It was going to die anyway so I just let it die on its own. I didn¡¯t know it would take a while for its HP to reach zero.


    ¡°Well¡­It¡¯s not like I level up when I kill them. I rather save the sword durability.¡± I say as I walk towards the corpse. As I got close, I decided to use my inspect skill to see if its useful at all. ¡°hmm¡­inspect?¡±


    Whoa. I say in my mind.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Level 20 Leaping Croc (Aggressive)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Monster


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Food, clothes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Reptiles


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Flying croc is a monster that can only be found inside ''The dungeon of the Sky King''. An aggressive creature that will attack anything moving within its radius. Has a weakness against fire but is strong against water, earth, and wind elements.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Ha, this is useful!" I say with excitement. Seeing what their weakness makes it easier for me to deal with them. I decided to try the skill on a few other things.


    ¡°Inspect!" I shout holding a blue stalactite I had in my bag.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    RAREBlue Stalactite Crystal


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Item


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Alchemy, Flint


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Crystals


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    This is a rare blue stalactite crystal that can only be found in ''The dungeon of the beginnings''. This crystal can be sold to the Monstra race at a high price. Hitting two different color stalactite will cause ember to explode everywhere.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°So that''s the name. Dungeon of the beginnings...Monstra race?" I was curious what the monstra race is. I picked up a rock and decided to see if my skill works on it. "Inspect.¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    COMMONRock


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Item


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    none


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Minerals


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    This is a very common rock.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°I can see if it''s rare or not. Haha, Inspect!¡± I say as I hold the stick I took out from my bag.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    COMMONSharpened Oak Tree Stick


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Item


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    cooking


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Trees


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    This is a sharpened oak tree stick. can be used to cook food over the fire.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Hmm...so some description revolves around cooking....how about¡­Inspect!" I say looking down at my pants.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    LEGENDARYYasu''s Penis


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Body Part


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Reproduction


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu''s bloodline


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    This is Yasu''s penis. Weak against males, strong against females.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Even my dick gets a description! Perfect! Just perfect!¡± I say with joy. After having fun with my new skill I decided to cook the last remaining crocodile. I was hoping it would level me up, butIt didn¡¯t. I know a new skill will be born if I hit level twenty since I got the skill to hold blades at level ten.


    I guess going through the door is the only way to level up more if I kill whatever is on the other side. I sayin my mind.


    ¡°Ok, Yasu. You ready?¡± I say to myself


    ¡°Yes Yasu, let''s do this," I answer myself.


    I push thewooden dooropen that¡¯s been on the other side of theLeaping Crocodilesroom. Thinking that I would have to face against a more difficult enemyI ready myself for anything that mightattack me. The door creaked and the bright light inside was hard to stare for a bit. Once my vision adjusts, I was flabbergasted at the monsters on the other side.


    Huh? I say in my mind not wanted to alert them with my voice. Are these really dungeon monsters?


    What awaited me on the other side was a room full ofgiant yellow furry babychickens.All they do is hop around the room. They''reyellowand their face doesn¡¯t seem too aggressive. They look exactly like a chick, but bigger. A lotbigger.


    ¡°What the¡­..well¡­..this is new," I say as I slowly approached one of the chicks and prepared myself just in case the furball decided to attack me. It didn¡¯t. I got close enough to even touch it and they just ignored me and hopped around. I relax but I still held my sword just in case.¡°Well¡­should I kill all of them?¡±


    I walk around the giant baby chicks. But they just ignored me since they¡¯re passive, I decided not to kill them yet.


    "Inspect," I say as I look at one of the chicks.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Level 25 Giant Chick (Passive)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Monster


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Food, clothes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Birds


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Giant baby chickens. These giant little creatures can only be found inside ''The dungeon of the Sky King''. These are harmless creatures that will never attack even if they are attacked. Strong against Earth and Wind elements. Weak against Fire and Water elements.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Huh? Giant little creatures? Who the hell wrote these descriptions¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I walk near one of them. ¡°Harmless huh¡­I guess I can camp here for the time being. I¡¯m getting sleepy.¡±


    The giant chick cave was perfect to stay in. It resolves my water issue since there''s a stream of water coming out of a tiny hole at the roof of the ceiling. Stalactites hanged above illuminated the whole place perfectly. There isn''t any dark area in the cave where an enemy can hide and ambush me. The ground looks like it was plowed. I guess by the giant chick looking for food. I see some of them will dig out a worm that is too big for comfort. But the worms are as harmless as the giant chicks once I inspected them.


    I decided to stay near the small pond near the wall of the cave. Stalactites have fallen inside that shows the shallow depths of the pond. I went to wash in the tiny waterfall and used it as a shower. Since no one is here, I don''t mind being completely naked inside the room of giant chicks.


    ¡°Ahhhhhhh refreshing!¡± I say as I stand below the waterfall. The water was cool enough to be comfortable in. If I ever can¡¯t find a way out, I¡¯ll just have to follow this water again. Once I rested well enough, I dried myself using the fire pit I build near the water. I stored sticks in my dimensional bag before coming here, which now became useful to make fire for cooking food.I ate the crocodile meat and I went to sleep. I woke up surrounded by sleepinggiant chicks.I guess the heat from the fireplace have caught their attention and have huddled around my camp blocking a way out. I had to climb one of them to get over the other side and even when I stepped over their fur, they never budge or woke up. I lost my footing trying to get down and I fell on my ass on the other side.


    "Ack! Fuck! Leave some room for me to walk out next time will you!" I say to the giant chick. It didn''t seem to care how loud I was since it kept on sleeping. There was another wooden double door on the other side of the room I haven''t opened. It was larger than the other one I passed. Bigger than the first door. It was the biggest door I have ever seen.


    ¡°Perfect looking door from the kingdom of Yasu. Maybe I can dress these chickens with armor.¡± I whisper to myself as I walk towards the giant door. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s not get these guys killed huh Yasu? They¡¯re good companions to keep us busy.¡±


    ¡°Ok Yasu, let''s try to keep them alive to the end," I answer myself vowing to protect them. ¡°Heh, I guess I got something to protect now. Well, I might have to kill all of them later on to clear the dungeon so let¡¯s not get too attached.¡±


    Since it¡¯s made of wood, I decided to cut open a hole in it using my sword. ¡°Sharpen!¡± Using the same method, I did to find the hidden passage at the first dungeon, I cut up a hole big enough for me to look through.


    ¡°Viola! Good job Yasu, now we can use this hole to peek through. Now let''s see what''s on the other side¡­" I whisper as I place my face near the hole to get a glimpse of what the other side of the door looks like.


    If the door is this big, there¡¯s something on the other side that matches it.I say in my mind as I peek through the hole. But to my dismay, I couldn''t see anything. It was too dark. Nothing but complete darkness. I went and grabbed a stalactite that''s scattered around the ground and threw it inside the hole. It illuminated the inside but only close to the hole. To get a better angle on what''s inside, I cracked the door open a little bit. I''m surprised at how strong I got ever since the first dungeon but then again, this door might have been made to easily open. I managed to push one of the door panels a little bit for my body to slide through. Trying not to stand in looking like a dumbass waiting for something to appear, I went back to the giant chick''s room and pulled the door to shut it.


    ¡°What the...¡± I tried pulling at the door to close it back up but it seems like there¡¯s a mechanism that only lets you open it. I tried pushing it a bit and it moves but when I tried closing it, it feels like something is blocking it from moving at all.


    ¡°No wonder I could open it so easily," I say in frustration as I gave up closing the door. ¡°Its small space anyways I don¡¯t think anything can go through unless they¡¯re my size or a snake.¡±


    I peeked through the hole to see what the stalactite illuminated but there is nothing in there. That place is completely pitch black and my stalactite in the middle seems like it was being enveloped by darkness.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing there. Should I go?" I asked myself contemplating venturing into the dark. I still have a torch in my bag¡­Damn it''s really dark in the---¡±


    All of a sudden, a large shadow moved above the stalactite and I got a brief glimpse of its skin. It was like a snake or something reptilian.


    ¡°A-a giant snake? No, it can¡¯t be. I briefly saw a leg. Maybe a dragon? What the fuck was that.¡± I say to myself as I look around towards the dark some more. ¡°Fuck...if only I can see it, I can use my inspect skill. Inspect!¡±


    I tried using it but nothing came up. I camped in front of the hole for hours looking if it will pass again. I can¡¯t just run in there not knowing what I¡¯m dealing with. I wasted the whole day since I startedgettingsleepy. I decided to sleep but I was a bit wary of the opened door that I didn¡¯t get a good night sleep. Once I woke up from a power nap, thegiant chicksare still surrounding me but this time, they left an opening for me to exit.


    Huh?Can they understand me? I wondered to myself. I went camping at thefront of the hole some again till I felt sleepy sitting there for hours. Not once anything passed through the stalactite. I even threw some more around but nothing, just complete blackness surrounding the black room. I decided to try and lit up the room as much as I can but nothing. The whole room was empty yet, I felt an eerie feeling waiting for me if I carelessly wander through it.


    "I guess I''ll go eat and thensleep. I''ve been here for hours and nothing is moving in there." I whisper as I went back to my camp ontheother sideof the room.Sometimes I¡¯ll talk to thegiantchickthatalways stayingclose to the fire. I''ll tell himabout my life, how I got here, and anything I can tell him. Now, I woke upand with the samegiantchick right beside me. I pet it, washed my face and camped out the hole again. Still nothing. I was tempted to go out,but that¡¯s stupid. Going out in the dark without knowing my enemy will lead me to my death.


    This time I decided to sleep on one of thegiantchick''scomfy fur. Itwas on its belly and its legs spread out near the fire. This chick is taller than me when they stand but lying down made them a good backrest. I sleptleaning on the one that¡¯s always closer to the fire. Woke up and followed the same routine. Pet one of thegiant chicks,wash my face and go camp at the double door.The one I pet every morning has a black spot on its beak. He¡¯s the one that let me lean on while it sleeps. I tried a differentgiantchickbefore, but they will move during the night prompting me to abruptly wake up. This chicken is the one that stayed with me the most, so I decided to name him.


    "I''ll be back Mole," I say as I leave my camp and head for the door that''s not that far away. This time I threw some moreStalactitesinside the black room. With so many scattered around the ground, I still didn¡¯t find what walked over the first one. I decided to call it in for thedayand try my luck tomorrow. I didn¡¯t need to rush since there¡¯s no time limit in the dungeon. I went back to mygiant chickcamp and I see Mole near the campfire.


    "Hey Mole, I''m back. Still nothing. Fucking shit is still pitch black in there." I say to Mole who seems sleepy and has his eyes partially closed as he rests near the campfire. I quickly wash my face and took out boar meat this time to munch on. I went near the campfire and leaned against Mole''s body. "So, continuing my story from yesterday, I wasabandonedthe second time. Can you believe that?! I went to try and kill them but I couldn''t do it. Stupid conscience got the best of me."


    Mole did nothing but breathe as he listened to my story. I know he¡¯s away since he would move his head a bit from time to time. "Oh, oh, I have someone who became my friend back home. You see I''m not that really friendless. Back home there''s this guy name Dakichi who became a friend of mine without me even noticing. I used to find him annoying and loud but soon I got used to it. Oh, and I have a club president who is like a sister to me. I think she likes Daikichi because they always fight and it seems like a love quarrel to me. But eh, what do I know, I never had a girlfriend and still holding on to my V card. Wait you¡¯re not a female, are you?"


    Mole moved his head a bit and it made me laugh asking a dungeon monster if it¡¯s a girl.


    "Haha, I take that as a no. If you were then I''m going to need to rename you to Mola. Well, then I''m going to sleep. Goodnight Mole." I say and I went to sleep on my back near the fire. Mole''spresence made it warm and comfortable that I succumb to sleep instantly.


    .


    .


    .


    crack.


    Piiiiiiii!!!


    Crack!!


    PIIIIIIIII!!!


    Crack.


    I woke up tosounds of something cracking. ¡°huh? What is that¡­are you¡­ guys¡­¡­laying eggs? Will you guys do it in the morning? I need to sleep more.¡±I decided to turn away from the sound. Right, when I''m about to fall back to sleep I hear something screech. ¡°Huh, what the fuck¡­¡±


    I sit up and turns around rubbing my eyes to get a clear vision of what they¡¯re doing. As it clears, the scene I woke up to made me freeze in place. Not because of fear. I froze in place seeing the things I wanted to protect are all gone except spots ofbloodandfuron the ground. The door to the dark room was wide open and a giant fuckinglizardis in the middle of the room squeezing the lastgiantchickwith its tail and its mouth wide open about to devour its head.


    ¡°No!¡± I quickly stand up grabbing the two swords I left out my bag. I didn¡¯t care about anything. I need to save him. I need to save that lastchick.


    ¡°Let him go! You motherfucker! Sharpen!!¡± I shout as my body was filled with anger. I rush towards thelizard as fast as I can and once, I got near its tail, I sliced it off loosening the grip at the last chick. It hissed at me while backing away. The tail then opened, and thegiantchickwas set free and limped toward my camp.


    ¡°You¡¯re fucking dead!!! You hear me?! You¡¯re fucking dead!!!!¡± I rushed theLizardand I got a good look at its name.


    Giant Komodo Dragon Lvl 30


    HP 9200 / 10000


    ¡°Arghhhhhh!!!!¡± I scream as I swing my sword towards its feetknocking off two thousand of its health as I deal a critical strike. It growled, and its voice paralyzed me in place. ¡°Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!¡±


    As soon as his growling stopped, I didn''t wait to recoup. I rushed it and I was determined to cut it to pieces. The Komodo dragon is still laying on its belly trying to get up but its severed foot made it impossible as I saw him struggle. I aimed for its throat and made as many cuts as I can tell my sword broke into two pieces. I called out my dimensional bag and took out two more swords. I activated my skill and my last attack brought his HP to zero as the Komodo dragon fell sideways to the ground. The area where I sliced it multiple times hadbloodflowing out and I can see Iseveredits throat and probably its whole neck bone.


    I didn¡¯t notice another one right behind it as a tale came from my right trying to hit me. All of a sudden, I felt my body pushed to the side and I saw the last chick being hit by the tail. It was sent flying to my camp crashing into the water.


    ¡°No!!!! How dare you!!! How dare you kill them!!!!¡± I shouted as I ran for the Komodo dragon. Its tail tried to hit me again and using all my strength, I slice it right of and it screeched making me fall to my knees. The minute it stopped, I ran towards its belly lodging my sword as I activated my skill. I ran towards its tail and my sword was dragged across its stomach opening it. All of its guts spilled out the hole as my weapon broke in place. I lost all thoughts as I ran for its intestines and yanked it out with my bare hands. It suddenly jumped back towards the darkroom and I noticed the door fully opened. I watched it run to the darkest part of the room as darkness engulfed it. I was out of breath and my whole arm was covered in blood.


    ¡°The last chick!¡± I scream as I remembered it flying away. I quickly turn around and it got out of the water only collapse near the campfire. I quickly rush to its side and I can see it breathing slowly. Its eyes were closed butbloodwas flowing out of its beak. My heart sank as I looked at its beak. It¡¯sMole. There¡¯s a black dot on its beak.


    ¡°oh no¡­..no¡­.no no no no no. You can do this okay? Survive okay? I¡¯ll make sure you don¡¯t die so survive. Please! Don¡¯t die!¡± I pleaded to it as his breathing get weaker and weaker. He forced his eyes opens and tilts its head a bit towards me. I can see his eyes looking right into mine.


    ¡°M-Mole you can do this! Survive!¡± I scream at him and tears have made it way out my eyes. Mole blinked, and his face scrunched as if he was smiling at me. Using the last of his energy, he placed his beak on top of my forehead letting out faint ¡®eek¡¯ as it drew its last breath. Mole¡¯s head slowly fell towards the ground and everything turned to silence.


    ¡°no¡­¡­.no¡­¡­..no no no no! No! Noooooo!!!!!! Wake up! Don¡¯t die! PLEASE!!!¡± I shook its body awake but he isn¡¯t moving.¡°Ha¡­haha¡­.HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!¡±


    I broke down in tears as I hug the corpse ofMole.I cried and cried. "NOOOOOOOUWAAAAA MOLE! NOOOOO DON''T DIE! PLEASE DON''T LEAVE ME!"


    Out of nowhere anothergiant komodo dragonentered the room coming towards me. Fueled with rage I rushed toward.I didn¡¯t care as I rushed the Komodo dragon with fury in my eyes. I wanted to kill it, I wanted to rip it to shred and feed it to his friends. I wanted to eradicate his whole species.


    I didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°YOU BASTARD! YOU FUCK! HOW DARE YOU!¡± I startedpunchingaway and its tongue grabbed me. It lifted me up and it a quick motion, flung me back to the ground. I felt my bones break as I spit out blood.


    I struggled to stand up, but my mind wasn¡¯t even in the room. I lost it as I reminisce about not being able to sleep with them surrounding me. I thought about not being able to lean onMole. I thought about not being able to petMole.


    ¡°It was my fault.¡± I Weakly whisper as I fell back to the ground. I can hear it hissing while stepping over me. As I look towards the black room, I see a lot more come out that made me chuckle.


    I shouldn¡¯t have opened the door. I say in my mind. I shouldn¡¯t have got close to him. I should have killed them from thebeginning.


    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t¡­ have gotten close at all," I whisper as the sounds on the area muffles in my mind and everything went black.


    .


    .


    .


    "Huh? Where the hell I''m at now- the flying fucks of SHIT! THOSE ARE GIANT LIZARDS COMING AT ME!¡±


    *Sigh


    "This fucking mama''s boy¡­¡­always leaving me to deal with a shit load of enemy to deal with. Why do you keep passing out when there''s a horde coming to get you or a naked dude fighting you? At least pass out when there''s a horde of foine ladies ready to get banged the fuck up! Hehehehehe,¡± He laughed as he stood up.


    ¡°I even left a message for him not to die¡­.¡±


    *Sigh


    ¡°ku¡­¡­kuku¡­¡­.kukukukukukuku. At least I¡¯m not naked this time! Yay!¡± My alternate slowly walked towards the horde of Komodo dragons and smiled.


    ¡°Well then~, let¡¯s have fun, ya fucking lizards~¡± He sang the last line as he welcomed the horde of monsters with open arms.

 CHAPTER 17: The alternate of an unstable youth

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 17: The alternate of an unstable youth


    <hr>


    "Well then~, let''s have fun, shall we? ya fucking lizards~¡± Yasu alternate personality sang as he readied himself to face the Komodo dragons. All of his broken bones healed at a rapid rate and in such a short moment, his body was as good as new. ¡°What was that skill again? Ah, shaaaarpeeen~¡±


    After singing his skill, he jumps onto the incoming horde ecstatic to face such a foe. He took a swing at the one in front and its body was sliced in half in an instant, killing it as the damage was beyond belief.


    ¡°BUWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!¡± Yasu¡¯s alternate laughs like a maniac not caring about the rest that¡¯s charging straight at him. ¡°Nothing can stop me!¡±


    He giggled like a little girl dodging all of their tails like it¡¯s child¡¯s play. He jumped towards another giant komodo dragon and it used its tongue to grab him by the waist and flinging his body across the cave.


    ¡°Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee~"He enjoyed the ride as he went flying across the cave. Using his body weight, it flipped in midair landing on the wall vertically. The impact of his land caused a crater big enough to think a giant punched the wall with extreme force. The whole cave shook as stalactites and rocks fell to the ground shattering in pieces. Like an abnormal being, he jumped off the wall creating an explosion beneath it causing the whole wall to erupt. Like he was dancing in midair, he started flipping around spinning in all directions with ease and carefully carving all of the Giant Komodo Dragonas he passes them.


    ¡°Ahhhhh~ that felt refreshing~¡± He sang as he slowly stood up with a horde of komodo behind him frozen in place. All of a sudden, blood spurts everywhere from their bodies causing it to rain blood for a brief moment. ¡°And...wait for it.....wait for it..."


    BOOOOOOOM!!!


    The Komodo dragons burst into pieces and its flesh rained everywhere along with its blood.


    ¡°Ahhhhhhhh, this feels refreshiiiiing~," He says as he held his hands outwards while looking above with his eyes closed. He felt the blood drop on his skin like he was standing under a rainfall. ¡°Ok, now what type of message I should leave him?¡±


    He looked around for a place to write his messages and with his enhanced sense of his surroundings, he felt that the fight wasn¡¯t over.


    *sigh


    ¡°You lizaaaaaards~ ya¡¯ll about to know what genocide means~ kukukukukukuKUACK!¡± He started coughing as a small piece of komodo meat went into his mouth straight into his throat. ¡°Ugh, a Komodo part got in my mouth¡­ew.¡±


    Yasu¡¯s alternate started humming as he skipped towards the dark room singing, ¡°La-la-la-la-la-la~ iteeeem bag~¡±


    His dimensional bag dropped in front of him and as soon as he picked it, he took out a dagger from inside while storing the blood covered sword.


    ¡°Heh? Sticks?..............pffft~ This reminds me, the old man in that cave with the naked girl. Bastard almost killed me. If I didn¡¯t wake up on time he would have stomped on my head flat...kukukukukukuku good thing I cut his dick off and made him eat it raw...ehem...''Say, old man, why you sucking your own dick thooooo!!!! pffft!¡±


    ¡°Ah! I need to illuminate that dark room. Hmmm let me see...what can I use...¡± he says as he looks around the cave. He spots a Giant Stalactite that¡¯s sitting on the corner of the room. ¡°Bingo~¡±


    He walked towards the hugestalactite and using it superhuman strength, he picked it up like nothing and carried it over the entrance of the dark room with one hand. Yasu¡¯s alternate threw the hugestalactite towards the center of the room like a basketball. It went up briefly illuminating the ceiling of the dark room before it went plummeting down. Using his superhuman speed, he jumped towards the falling stalactite as he clenched its fist. The jump created another explosion and it left a dent on the ground.


    ¡°Superhero punch!!¡± he brought his fist towards the falling stalactite and upon impact, the stalactite burst into thousands of pieces as it flew everywhere making it look like a firework. The stalactite pieces flew in all directions illuminating the whole room including what¡¯s attached on the walls. Giant Komodo dragons are all attached to the wall like spiders and there were so many of them which made him smile even more.


    ¡°Ummmmmm¡­Ding! Ding! Ding! The facts man is here!...ahem...Komodo Dragons¡­.Komodo dragons are heavily built monitor lizard that uses its tongue like a snake to detect its surroundings.¡± He explains as paces back and forth in the middle of the cave. ¡°You can find them in Komodo or its neighboring islands back at earth. Hence, where the name Komodo dragon come from."


    The giant Komodo dragons slowly got off the wall one by one as they start surrounding him. There was nowhere to run and rather than being worried, Yasu¡¯s alternate smiled even wider.


    ¡°Komodo Dragons are land lizards and are heavy enough to be generalized as an obese category within the weight class of the human perspective...¡± he paused then called out its item bag and took out a sword and held it on his free hand.


    ¡°So¡­tell me you overgrown lizards, why in the flying fuck you¡¯re on the walls?!!! Stick to scientific facts you bastards!¡± his shouting made all of the giant Komodo dragons hisses at him as they prepared to attack him. He turned around and smiled walking towards the double doors and like bright intelligent beings, they didn¡¯t rush him when he had his back turned. Using his superhuman strength, he forced the door closed breaking the lock mechanism that was put in place. As he slowly forced the door to close, his smile never left his face as he whispered the word, ¡°Sharpen.¡±


    He kept the smile on his face as the door close shut.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to a metallic smell. The smell and the feeling of wet cloth are right beneath me. I¡¯m sitting on something wet and when my vision clears, I¡¯m facing directly at a door. Red crystal stalactites were scattered at the bottom shaped into a heart.


    THIS IS THE EXIT!


    P.s. You retard! Are you fucking retarded?!


    ¡°H-h-huh?...¡®What the¡­ ugh¡­.my head¡­¡± I whisper as I touch my head and my hand feels sticky and reeks of metal. I also felt something sticky bellow me and when I look down, it almost looks like I was in a horror flick. ¡°What the fuck¡­¡±


    I tried to get up but there was too much blood I ended up slipping and falling down. I fell right on my ass as I reach the bottom of the mound. It wasn¡¯t just any type of mound, it was made out of flesh and by the looks of it, and it¡¯s from the Komodo dragons.


    ¡°The hell is all this¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I look over a throne made by using the Komodo dragon parts. Heads, tails, intestines, guts, flesh, all of them were thrown into a pile and a shape of a chair was formed from the top.


    What the fuck, I whisper in my mind as I slowly stood up.


    ¡°Where the hell am I?¡± I look around and see a lot of stalactite crystal scattered on the ground illuminating the whole room. ¡°Ugh, my head.¡±


    My head feels drunk as if I was spinning non-stop disorienting myself. I felt like vomiting and I tried to hold it back but, the smell of blood didn''t help. I vomit onto the ground and as I got a closer look, the whole floor was covered in blood.


    ¡°Ughhh.¡± I look back up the mound and the amount of flesh piled up into one place means one thing, my alternate killed everything in this room and decided to pile it up. I tried to recall my last memory and that''s when I remembered, mole. I reluctantly walked towards the giant chicks room and as I pass the door, I noticed the hinges broke exposing the locking mechanism. The door itself that I couldn''t close was now pushed the wrong way and one of the doors was ripped off the hinge as it lies in the ground close to the other side. As I got out of the dark room, I see myself clearly and I¡¯m completely drenched in blood making my clothes skin tight.


    Tears welled up in my eyes again as I see the only friend I made in this world laying motionless.I approach Mole corpse trying to hold back my tears but they ended up coming at as it traveled across my cheeks.


    ¡°Mole, I¡­Mole...I''m not going to let you rot in here," I say as I place my hand on his beak. It¡¯s the only thing I can do for him. I can¡¯t bury him here. I don¡¯t have a shovel and my sword would take a long time digging the ground. Burning him doesn¡¯t feel right and I don¡¯t have a container to put his ashes in. If I can cook him, I can bring him with me. I will devour him so at least his soul would live within me. I cleaned myself first and decided to take out a dagger from my bag to use on Mole to skin him.


    ¡°Huh? Where¡¯d my daggers go?¡± I say to myself. ¡°The hell is these bloody swords?¡±


    I looked around the room to see if my alternate has dropped it but nothing. It was nowhere to be found. I did notice a circular dent in a wall I wasn¡¯t quite sure if it was there from the beginning or not. The same dent also is on the ground near the entrance and get a good look at the area, it was like a war zone. Slashes on the wall, ceiling, bloodstains, craters, it looked like a serious battle happened. I look at my body checking for any cuts but nothing, I was clean with only a few bruises. My legs, arms, and even my left fist did fees like it¡¯s about to become jelly.


    ¡°Ughh..¡± I say as I enter back at the Komodo dragon room looking at the mess. I tried my best to see in the dark and I managed to find one yet, I wasn¡¯t quite happy where it was. It was lodged on top of a Komodo dragon¡¯s head that¡¯s placed above the pile of flesh.


    "Fuck," I Whisper to myself. ¡°Dammit, I just cleaned myself.¡±


    I climb the throne to grab my dagger. As soon as I got down, I¡¯m covered with blood again. I head back towards the giant chick''s room and wash one more time. After washing up, I started skinning Mole and my tears won¡¯t stop coming out of my eyes making it harder to clearly see. The whole time I''mskinning him and up to the point I had to cut him up to cook, I was crying. I decided to keep Mole¡¯s skin for its fur. It will be useful as a bed or a blanket.


    ¡°With this, even when he¡¯s gone, I can still lean on him¡­¡± I say as I hug his soft fur burying my face in it. After cutting him up to pieces I ended up with Mole¡¯s meat in front of me stacked up. Before I decided to cook it, I clapped my hands together and said a few prayers for Mole wishing he would rest in peace. I started frying the chicken meat and there was too much that some I grilled, and some I boiled. He had so much meat it would last me for weeks. His guts and innards I placed in my bag since it was able to fit through. I even took a bone that fit my bag so I can bury it once I get out the dungeon.


    DING!


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You leveled up to 20!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Dammit, mole helped me again.¡± Tears fell out of my eyes as I looked at the notification. I decided to check it later on and focused on eating first. The first bite of Mole¡¯s meat made me cry more tears. I felt bad for eating him but he tasted too good to be true. I ate and cried at the same time.


    Not wanting to waste the pile of Komodo dragon meat, I decided to cook the big mount of flesh one by one onto the fire pit. It seemed like forever as I started taking chunks of meat off the pile and cooking them. I slept at least three times until I was able to finish the pile of Komodo dragons. Due to my resentment towards them, I threw the cooked komodo meat onto one are in the darkroom and didn''t bother eating them. I didn''t want to eat them. I rather watch their body rot in place.


    After finishing the Komodo dragons, I decided to sleep one last time in this room. It had such a painful memory in here that I didn''t even want to stay in it any longer. But, I had to sleep just in case there are more enemies on the other side of the door. Even though I slept a couple of times, my body still feels really worn out and if I decided to push through, I might collapse out of exhaustion. All my small cuts and bruises were restored after I ate but my energy hasn¡¯t which was weird given the amount of time spent cooking the Komodo dragon meat. The minute I laid down on moles fur, sleep have succumbed me in a split second. Moles comfortable fur helped me sleep without tossing and turning for the night.


    Once I was woken up, the emptiness of the room still lingered, Again, I¡¯m alone.


    My body felt worse than before. I feel energetic but every part of my muscle especially towards my legs and my left fist ached. I¡¯m not quite sure why but, it¡¯s probably because of my mind break skill taking a toll on my muscles and it takes a longer time to heal. But why is only on certain parts of my body baffles me.


    I slowly got up and wash my face stored Mole¡¯s fur in my bag, I quickly got up and left the cave heading towards the door across the Giant Komodo Dragon¡¯s room. I didn¡¯t want to stay here any longer. I just got out and saw sunlight but now, I¡¯m starting to revert back to my nocturnal self. As I got to the door, I inspect the writing one more time.


    ¡°I thought I would subconsciously go on a rampage like a wild animal but I guess my theory is right. It¡¯s me writing this while I¡¯m unconscious.¡± I whisper to myself.The thought of having an alternate personality made me think of multiple personality disorder. "If people sleepwalk, I guess I sleep fight."


    I wonder how he is, I say in my mind thinking about my alternate personality.


    Once I set my mind, I pushed open the door and it leads to another dark hallway. But the familiarity of this hallway and the hallway in the first dungeon was making my heart ache as my worst memories resurface. A blue torch was placed near the door and as I walk through, it would light up illuminating my path.


    ¡°Fucking d¨¦j¨¤ vu. Mole, this place sucks.¡± I say to myself like I¡¯m talking to Mole¡¯s spirit. I kept on walking until I reached the end of the hallway and another wooden door blocked my path. This door is small enough to fit only one person at a given time.


    ¡°The fuck, does someone live here? Item bag.¡± I whisper to myself as I took out a sword. I can see a light from underneath the door. I grab the handle and slowly turn until I hear a click on the other side. Without hesitation, I opened the door as wide as I can ready to meet anyone. ¡°Huh, no one is here.¡±


    The inside had a few torches surrounding the room illuminating the whole area. The room wasn¡¯t that big since it was the same size as a single bedroom. There is a bed located towards the right wall near another door and the other side of the wall had a prehistoric looking stove from the Stone Age. It had one hole on top and a giant space in the bottom where blackened wood rest. Hanging around the left wall are cooking utensils like pots, spatulas, frying pans, and knives. Which are right over a counter that has a couple of large and small glass containers that have water in it. Bottles of spices were placed right next to water containers.


    Towards the left corner of a room is a small hole that has water coming out of it landing on a tiny pond at the ground. But what caught my attention is a table pushed against a wall across me and its in between the pond and the bed. There were a couple of books stacked up on top of the table and papers scattered around even on the floor near the table. The whole place was kept neatly organized like someone was living here. Yet, I can see a dust layer over the counters and table meaning that who ever lived here, was gone a long time ago. But the most important out of the room is Another item which caught my eyes the minute I opened the door.


    "Whoa¡­," I say as I took a step forward looking at a large chest at the foot of the bed. The minute I enter the room a message popped open in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You are now entering a ''Safe Zone''.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Seeing the message pop open brought happiness to my face and I quickly inspect everything in the room like a child in a museum.


    ¡°Inspect!¡± I shout looking at the stove.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Stone Stove


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Type


    </td>


    <td>


    Uses


    </td>


    <td>


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Appliance


    </td>


    <td>


    Cooking


    </td>


    <td>


    none


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    This is a stone stove meant to be used for cooking.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Inspect!¡± I scream as I look at the glass bottle.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Glass Container


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Type


    </td>


    <td>


    Uses


    </td>


    <td>


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Item


    </td>


    <td>


    Container


    </td>


    <td>


    None


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    This is a glass container that can hold any type of liquid.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Finally! This will solve my water issue.¡± I say happily picking up the containers and inspecting them. ¡°Since I can''t carry a helmet, I can''t store water. At least now I have containers to store water in! ¡­Oh andthese¡­Inspect.¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Cooking Knives


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Type


    </td>


    <td>


    Uses


    </td>


    <td>


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Item


    </td>


    <td>


    Cooking


    </td>


    <td>


    Knives


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    These are knives meant ONLY for cooking. Using this to fight will cause it to break instantly.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh? So there are blades only for cooking. Inspect.¡± I say holding everything else I can find inside the room. After inspecting most of the item''s in the room, I approached the table near the wall to grab one of the books. The minute I touched it, a notification appeared in front of me that made my eyes go wide.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Heaven''s Slice Skill Book (Mythic)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    Learn it?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Accept


    </td>


    <td>


    Decline


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°what?!" I stare dumbfounded at the notification. I have been trying to level up to get new skills thinking that how I get skill in this world. ¡°Ha¡­¡­ha ha¡­¡­¡­.Hahahaha!!! Accept!¡±


    As soon as I say the word, the book started glowing and it floated off my hand. Then it opened the cover and flipped through the pages at such speed that the book closed before I even know it as it dropped to the table. After a few seconds, the book turned into dust as a pile of ashes spread itself on top of the table.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have learned ''Heaven Slice'' skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I grabbed another book and another notification opened up.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Overdrive Skill Book (Legendary)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    Learn it?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Accept


    </td>


    <td>


    Decline


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Accept!¡± I shout happily looking at a new skill.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have learned ''Overdrive'' skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I picked up another book.Nothing came up on this one. As I read the first page, it¡¯s a journal of some wanderer. I decided to read it later so I placed it back down the table. I picked up the last book on the corner and a bigger smile was on my face.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Seismic Step Skill Book (Rare)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    Learn it?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Accept


    </td>


    <td>


    Decline


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Accept!¡± I shout happily watching the book turn into dust.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have just learned ''Seismic Step'' skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Ha!! This is awesome!!!Status window!¡± I looked at my skills and I¡¯m at awe seeing how much I got in just a single moment. If I can find more books like these, I can get stronger and stronger. "Cooking all those Komodo only leveled me up eight times. Meh, better than nothing."


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Name


    </td>


    <td>


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Class


    </td>


    <td>


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Level


    </td>


    <td>


    28


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Guild


    </td>


    <td>


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Skill Level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    grill


    </td>


    <td>


    45


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    fry


    </td>


    <td>


    36


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    boil


    </td>


    <td>


    13


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    steam


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    bake


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td>


    49


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Inspect


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Overdrive


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Heaven''s Slice


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Seismic Step


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Passive skills


    </td>


    <td>


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Chef''s Soul


    </td>


    <td>


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Purify


    </td>


    <td>


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Midas touch


    </td>


    <td>


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Mind break


    </td>


    <td>


    Upon immediate extreme danger mentally and physically, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Chef''s knife


    </td>


    <td>


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all type.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Leather


    </td>


    <td>


    Gives you the ability to wear leather equipment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Leather! Damn! I don¡¯t have leather armor.¡± I say to myself as I look at the bottom of the page. ¡°Overdrive skill description!¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Overdrive


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    <td>


    Survival


    </td>


    <td>


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4">


    This legendary skill will put you in a superhuman state. Be wary, after this skill is used, your body will go in hibernation mode and moving will be impossible for a couple of hours. This must be used only for last resort if you have no choice.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Like a berserk skill? Wow, what an effect. Heaven''s Slice skill description!" I say with excitement. The name of the skill gave me goosebumps and made me smile bigger and bigger. The minute I saw its description, I screamed and jumped up and down the bed like a kid. ¡°Yes! A combat skill!!!¡±


    I must¡¯ve looked stupid being happy to get one combat skill but as a non-combat class, this is a game changer.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>


    Heaven''s Slice


    </td>


    <td>


    1


    </td>


    <td>


    Fighting


    </td>


    <td>


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="4">


    This mythic skill can only be used in mid-air. You will bring down heaven''s towards your target. this skill can stack with another skill.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As soon as I calm down, I decided to lie on my back on the bed. ¡°Seismic Step skill description!¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Seismic Step


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mobility


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This rare skill will give you a boost in agility for a split second. Creating vibration on the ground will help you move at a lightning speed towards your target direction. the higher the skill level gets, the longer the duration it remains active.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°I can¡¯t wait to try these out~¡± I laugh with joy as my whole situation in this world is slowly changing. But, my happiness slowly fades as soon as I remember my friend that died earlier. He is the reason I leveled up to twenty. He¡¯s the reason I got this far without being hungry. He is the reason I got a good night sleep.


    *Sigh


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Mole, I will avenge you by destroying the sky king and making this a memorial site. Just watch me, Mole...¡± I say while reaching for the ceiling and clamping my hand to form a fist. ¡°Just watch me.¡±


    I just lay there thinking about my next move. I decided to close my eyes for a minute but it turned into a deep sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed but my fist and legs still feel a bit sore.


    ¡°Ugh¡­the hell¡­¡± I whisper as I remove myself from the bed and waddle towards the water pond in the corner of the room. I splashed the cold water onto my face jolting me awake. As I yawn in place, I felt my stomach rumble. Since I still have some of uncooked Mole¡¯s meat, I decided to use the stone stove in the room to cook food. Even some of the basic spices I can use to enhance the taste. As I walked towards the stove, I didn¡¯t notice it in the beginning but there was a small sliding door on the wall above it. When I slid it open, I saw more spices inside including cooking oil.


    ¡°Whoa...¡± I say as I grab the cooking oil and placed the pan over the hole, which is a perfect fit. It was big enough that the pan the pan won¡¯t fall through. I grab one of the torches and lit the wood inside the furnace. I watch the fire get bigger as it encased the charred wood but it stopped before it reached the bottom of the pan. I grab a sliced uncooked meat and I started cooking it. Since I don¡¯t feel good cooking and eating my only friend in this world, my morning contained a quietambiance.


    After I ate, I decided to open the chest located near the bed but it was locked with a key. ¡°huh? The hell¡­.¡±


    I tried using my sword to cut it open with my skill but it didn¡¯t break. No matter how many times I tried, it wouldn¡¯t cut. I look around the place and I couldn¡¯t find the key. I looked under the bed, inside the book, every corner of the room. No key. So I decided to give up and not waste energy. Rather than pushing through to get to the other side, I decided to rest in the room until I fully recovered. Parts of my body ached so I waited and lazed around the room relaxing.


    It''s not like this place has a time limit.I say in my mind as I look at the journal. If I keep going at this pace my body will soon breakdown from being overused.


    I decided to sit up and leaning my back against the wall. As I read the title of the book, ¡°The Journal of a Wandering Adventurer.¡±


    I was hoping it has information about this dungeon and how to face the sky king so I slowly opened to the first page.


    ¡°Sky king huh¡­I wonder what he¡¯s like¡­.¡± I say as I flip the cover of the journal.


    <table style="background-color: #2e2e2e" width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    The journal of the Foolish Wanderer


    Journal Entry #1


    In the ancient times, a baby was born to be one of the greatest enemies this world will face. But what was once a powerful being has become a forgotten lingering myth that is told to kids forcing them to sleep on time. We laughed about his existence, mocked our ancestors of their hardships, we didn''t take it seriously as we should have. The sky king is still alive to this day. He is a threat that can wipe out villages, burn down the forest, and take our loved ones right from our grasp. I would know, he took mine. Oh, Stella, I will find you and return you home. And if I don''t succeed, I will die and wait for your passing. But for anyone to know my travel and my journey to save you, my love, I will put in on paper and show everyone how real the sky king is.


    Journal Entry #2


    The sky king is not a mythical creature that can shapeshift into a human form. The sky king is not a demonic existence that hides on the dark side under the bed. He is far more dangerous than that. I heard he ruled the sky with his mighty power and terrorized living creatures that are below him. He would drop down and kidnap those who weren''t fast enough to make it in their house. But due to his nature of swiftness, no one knows what he looks like. That''s why we imprinted on our minds that he is a devilish figure that even the most sinister demon will tremble upon meeting. We called him the only race of the hidden mist. He is like a smoke that will form through our breath in the winter''s cold wind. We must be wary; he will sweep down anytime he can to devour those who are weak with a fragile existence. My Stella, she was taken away from me. By that demon in the mist. I went to sleep with and woke up without her. That''s when the villagers told me, she was taken by the demon in the mist. Oddly enough, my uncle also went missing.


    Journal Entry #3


    There were stories where the sky king has lived all his life. It was on top of a rock in the northern forest of Agumbla. I searched around for this rock but every time I seem to get close, a mist will envelop the area and I will lose my way. Without the perception of direction, I decided to use the trees as my guidance. Once I have found this rock from the wandering stories that have reached my ear, I will come for you Stella. I won''t stop till I find you.


    Journal Entry #4


    After a week inside the northern forest, I have finally found the rock. But one issue will lead me to another. I need to climb the rock to get above the sky. Within my collected notes and stories of the location, a portal should be in the tip of the rock. It''s the portal to his lair. His dungeon is a place also where his followers reside to devour anyone who is foolish enough to enter. It is true to what they say. Love can make you foolish and I love you, Stella. I will never stop searching for you. I will never forget your beautiful face that drives me day by day. I will find you Stella, and we will go home. I will bring you home.


    Journal Entry #5


    I have managed to climb the rock and it is what they say. A portal is located near the tip of the rock. As I enter it, I was welcomed to a red like crystal formations on the roof of the cave. I see some have fallen on the ground and its red transparency made it look more valuable than a gemstone. I decided to take some with me and made a vow to myself. Once I have rescued you, I will propose to you so we will never be apart ever again. A mere mist cannot contain my love and I will devour anything that stands in my way to get to you, my love. When we get out of here, I will make our love eternal.


    Journal Entry #6


    I have come across a roadblock. When I have entered the dungeon, I was greeted by a horde of what it seems to be leaping crocodiles. A mere wanderer like me cannot take on all of them by myself. I don¡¯t know what to do.


    Journal Entry #7


    My long wait has finally paid off. I decided to wait at the entrance of the room for a lone crocodile to get close to me. Once it does, I will pounce on it and using all of my energy, I will attack it till its dead. I am not as strong as your regular adventurer but my family heirloom has done me quite well. That''s when I have noticed. Once I have waited long enough, on a certain time all the crocodiles will fall into a deep slumber. Using this opportunity, I sneaked passed them and reached the other door without harm. I was brought to another room that had giant yellow creatures called Chick inside. They were harmless and have quite a comfortable fur. Since this area seems a lot safer, I decided to sleep for the night and continue my journey once I have woken up. Good night my love.


    Journal Entry #8


    I decided to proceed, and I have come across another roadblock. The door was too hard for me to open. I will find a way to open it. This door can¡¯t hold me back. I know your waiting for me my love. And I will reach you one way or another.


    Final Journal Entry


    Through the information I have obtained before coming here, I believe I am close to reaching the sky king lair by reaching a place called safe zone. It had a bed and necessities for me to recoup my diminishing energy. To get here was a task itself. Once I manage to open the heavy door on the giant chick¡¯s room, I was welcomed by darkness. Using the crystal, I plan to use for our marriage, I light my way through the dark. I heard the door shut behind me and everything was complete darkness all around except for our love stone. My foot moved a faster pace than normal and once I have reached the other side, a wooden door was standing before me. That is when I heard sounds around me. I don¡¯t know what it was, but it managed to produce a feeling of being terrified that shook the very core of my body. Without looking back, I quickly opened the door and in the nick of time, I was saved. A giant lizard-like creature tried to bite me but the entrance of the door was too small for it to fit. I was saved, my love. Now it is my turn to save you. I plan to rest here for the night. I decided to leave all of my personal belongings inside the chest and bring the key with me. Tomorrow I will venture out this safe room to face the sky king. Tomorrow, I will win, and save you, Stella.


    I''m coming for you, my love.


    Your one and only,


    Drakun Tarabay


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°A love story huh, Tragic. Knowing that this damn dungeon still stands, he probably didn¡¯t win. I wonder if Stella is still alive.¡± I say as I look at the door next to the table. ¡°This is probably the door that leads to the lair of the sky king.¡±


    All day long as I rest I imagine what he looks like. I went from a giant to a dwarf, to a human, to even a mist like what the journal said. I even imagined Luro greeting me. I look back at the journal with amazement. To know about stories such as these, makes me feel alive more than ever.


    ¡°Yes Yasu, you¡¯re alive. Don¡¯t lose hope. You still have a chance of getting home. You¡¯re alive.¡± I whisper as I close my eyes while I lean on the wall still sitting on my bed. I probably stayed in that room for a week straight till I felt like my body was a hundred percent. Before I go on a full sprint, I decided to check out the enemy first. If the final boss ever comes after me, I¡¯ll run back here to the safe zone so it wouldn¡¯t be able to hurt me. But I need to get close to use inspect skill.


    "Ok, Yasu, just go there and check it out. Then come back here. Yea, that''s what we will do. Besides, we need to get a grasp of our new skills." I whisper as I push the door open on the other side of the room. Another dark hallway greeted me and I took a deep breath trying to calm myself. I wanted to train so badly using the new skills but I wanted to see who my enemy is first. I''m this close so, taking a quick peek won''t hurt. I walked out of the room and all of the torches in the wall lit up as I pass them. I noticed that the roof, the wall, and the ceiling get further apart as I walk more down the hallway. To me, this meant only one thing. If the hallway is getting bigger, the enemy on the end will be huge.


    ¡°Fuck¡­ I hope he¡¯s not another gatekeeper.¡± I whisper to myself. Once I reached the end of the hallway my theory was proven wrong. There is a gigantic wall in front of me, no doubt, but the door itself is my size. This can only mean one thing; the enemy might be another person or another race.


    "At least it isn''t as big as a gatekeeper," I whisper to myself as I open the door. What''s on the other side paused me on my tracks. This time it wasn''t excitement. It wasn¡¯t because I was paralyzed with a skill. No, it¡¯s far something worse. For the first time in a while, I felt fear.


    ¡°That¡¯s a lot worse than a gatekeeper," I whisper as I stared at it sleeping. What the book said was right. It is the same.This creature was only in the myths and stories. But that¡¯s back home on earth. Here in this world, it¡¯s real, as real as me. I watched its stomach expand and contract watching it breathe.


    "Ok Yasu, slowly back the fuck up and don''t wake it u--" I stopped talking as it opened its eyes and stared at me. My body froze in place and I didn¡¯t move an inch thinking it might detect my movement. But I can see its look right in my eyes as I looked at his. His eyes are bigger than my whole body and the sheer size as it stood up made the gatekeeper look like a child in comparison. I stayed in place as my instincts telling me if I look away, I''m dead.


    So I stared at it. And it stared at me. I could see its yellow vertical slit iris. And is looking right at me.


    .


    .


    .


    A dragon is looking right at me.

 CHAPTER 18: Yasu vs. The dragon called Sky King

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 18: Yasu vs. The dragon called ''Sky King''


    <hr>


    ¡°I-i-inspect.¡± I whispered while looking at the dragon. The minute I see the notification, I tried my best to memorize it as best as I can before it disappears.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Elder Wind Dragon (Sky King)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Boss


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Food


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dragons


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    This elder wind dragon is called the Sky King. This is a very dangerous monster and must not be approached alone. It''s weak against fire but can go against water and earth.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The dragon suddenly roared and it was enough to shake the cave-like there''s an earthquake. I couldn''t stand completely still and ended up losing balance as I fell back from the shockwave of its voice.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I fell on my ass the dragon¡¯s mouth started glowing and a small amount of blue lava leaked out between its teeth. ¡°Oh fuck!¡±


    I stood up as fast as I can and ran towards the safe zone. If he breathes fire in the hallway, there''s no way I can survive. As I ran with all my might, I heard a loud explosion and I didn¡¯t bother looking back. I slowly felt the heat behind me and as I ran, it intensified making it feel like I have my back against a volcano¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I shouted my new skill remembering about it. In a few seconds, I felt a tingling sensation at the bottom of my foot and the next step I took launched me forward a couple of steps. Not worrying about my balance, I ran as fast as I can, and I see the surrounding area turn into a blur. Yet, the heat never left my back and the sound of the flames scorching the hallway made my heart pound at unbelievable speed. I felt the tingling sensation slowly disappear and I notice I¡¯m getting slower and slower.


    ¡°Seismic step! Seismic step! Seismic step!!¡± I kept on repeating the skill over and over as I ran with all my might. ¡°There it is! The door!¡±


    I felt relieved I left it open, but my worries never left as I thought about the flame entering the force field. Using all my strength, I ran as fast as I can till I passed the door. I tripped on my foot stumbling to the ground. I thought about the fire getting in and as I got up to keep running, I noticed the force field blocked the blue flame as it stopped right by the door. The fire slowly dissipated, and the darkness of the hallway came back. It wasn¡¯t just dark, the walls, the roof, and the floor was scorched black. The fire burned everything inside the hallway including the torches, which turned black and started to fall off the walls. If I were a split second late, I would have been burned alive.


    I laid back panting as I used all my energy running. My sides hurt from using too much oxygen and it took a while until my breathing went back to normal. I slowly stood up and sat on the chair at the table to relax my legs since they feel like they''re about to give out. "Fire? That thing just spit fire at me and fire its weakness? Doesn''t make sense..."


    After resting a bit, I walked towards the water source of the room and drank my fill. ¡°Huah! Cough* cough* Ok, so it¡¯s strong against earth, and water.¡±


    I wiped my mouth as I walked towards the bed thinking about the situation. But it¡¯s weak against fire...a dragon weak against fire?That shit just doesn¡¯t make sense¡­


    I know deep down inside, there is no way of me facing that thing right now. I need to first level up my skills. I didn¡¯t feel like going back out to inspect the dragon one more time, so I sat in the table and used the empty pages of the paper to write down what I remember from inspecting it.


    ¡°Ok, so that shit is weak against fire but its breaths fire. It¡¯s strong against earth and water.¡± I Whisper to myself scribbling what I remember. ¡°Shit, this information is useless when it fucking breathes fire.¡±


    I laid back down and inspected my skills. I had no choice but to level them up and looking at seismic step, by just using it in the hallway, I managed to level it up one time. My legs still feel weak from running like crazy, so I decided to rest in the room before heading out to level up my skills. Since I didn¡¯t have a way to track time, I used my sleeping habits to try and tell how many days I¡¯m here. It took at least three times sleeping till my legs felt normal. Even when eating to help regain it faster, for some reason, my healing ability got slower than before.


    ¡°Shit, is it because my level is getting higher?¡± I whisper looking at my status window. After having breakfast, I walked out to head towards the back of the dungeon and practice in the other safe zone. As I walked through the dark hallway, a pungent smell got stronger and stronger as I got close to the door that leads towards the Komodo dragon¡¯s room. It was so strong I couldn¡¯t keep going as I ran back towards the safe zone. Thinking of a way to mask the smell, I used my T-shirt and doused it in water and sprinkled spices on top to use it as a gas mask. Even with that, I still smell the rotting komodo dragon I cooked a while ago. Now I¡¯m starting to regret not putting it in my bag. ¡°Ugh¡­I¡¯m beginning to taste the smell¡­¡±


    I had no choice but to push through, even if the smell is bad, I rather smell it than die fighting the dragons because my skills are too weak. When I got to the giant Komodo dragons¡¯ room, I see a mountain of maggots eating the food I piled up in a dark corner.There were so many that I hardly see the flesh from within.


    ¡°Ugh, that¡¯s just nasty," I say as I stare down at the maggots. ¡°How about I use Seismic Step from here to the other safe zone?¡±


    I remember using it earlier, it felt like I was running on a thin path that any misstep can lead me to fall down. Luckily earlier, I was able to maintain my balance as I ran.


    ¡°I remember reading for the skill description, the higher level it becomes, the longer the duration the skill remains activated. Ok, let me try it out. Seismic step!¡± I shout my skill and the same tingling sensation started at the bottom of my foot. ¡°So, if I take the fest step-¡±


    I was suddenly launched forward a couple of feet and when I tried to stop by stomping down the ground, my body was sent flying to the roof if the Komodo dragon cave almost hitting it. As soon as I got to the ground, I barely landed safely as the height was high enough for me to break something if I didn''t land the right way. I managed to roll away preventing me from taking the full impact of my fall.


    "Holy shit," I Whisper as I slowly stood while feeling the vibration under my feet fades away. "Let''s not do it here, let me go in the hallway."


    I tried it again inside the hallway which is a lot smaller space. If I end up flying, I¡¯ll just hit the roof. I took a step forward again and it launched me a forward a couple of feet. Rather than stomping, I let my foot touch the ground and I slid across the floor until I came to a full stop. Even if the surface of the ground is rough, it felt like I was sliding through the ice.


    ¡°Heh, I¡¯m getting the hang of it, somewhat. Well no time to waste, seismic step!¡± I shout my skill and the vibrations came back as I ran towards the other portal. Rather than focusing on all my skills all at the same time, I decided to do it one by one and get used to them. I started with seismic step by running from the safe zone by the portal to the other safe zone. I did it a couple of times till my skill reached past level twenty. I managed to get used to it quick, but I feel that I¡¯m still far from mastering it.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡± I shout my skill as I swung my sword and it sent out a crescent moon shaped light toward a wall. It was strong enough to create a gash on the wall but, if I compare the wall to the dragon, it is enough to damage.


    Weaker than I thought it would be. I say in my mind as I sat neat Mole¡¯s skeleton. I probably can do the same damage slicing this wall with sharpen.


    ¡°Hmm, let me try, sharpen!¡± I felt my sword vibrate and as I sung downwards, I called out my skill ¡°Heaven Slice!¡±


    Proving my theory, it didn¡¯t matter if sharpen was activated or not.


    ¡°Eh, better than nothing, I guess. Maybe it¡¯ll get stronger when I level the skill up so. Decided to kept hacking towards the wall till my arms gave out.


    Once I get tired, I¡¯d run to the other safe zone using my seismic step skill. Everytime I move, I use the skill to be able to control it fully. Once I managed to rest, I¡¯d eat and go back doing the same thing over and over again. I don¡¯t know how long I have been in here, but I would guess a couple weeks and using the skills got easier and easier. I was able to jump around without worrying and I even managed to jump back and slide across the floor without falling. My heaven slice skill was a lot easier to use and I managed to activate them while holding two swords. After another day of grinding, I decided to stay in the room for the time being and practice the last skill I got.


    ¡°Overdrive," I whisper in my bed and I felt my whole-body temperature rise as it gets hot to a point I''m sweating. There''s a faint glow coming out of my skin. I remembered when I tried it for the first time, I felt invincible. But what I didn''t expect is what happens after it disappears. My body became a vegetable and I couldn¡¯t move for a couple of hours. I don¡¯t know how many hours since I don¡¯t have a watch, but I would say around 3 hours or so as I tried, I counted it in my head. Not only that, I felt lethargic and weak. This is why I remained on my bed, so I can go straight to sleep.


    "Show DPH," I say, and a window pops up showing my damage per hit.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    28(+397,000)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°That number is so fucking abnormal. I can destroy a tank with this. I wonder what happens if I stack it with other attacks.¡± I quickly took out a sword and held it in my hand, ¡°Sharpen!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    3,001(+397,000)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Like a fuse going out, I felt the overdrive skill disappeared and the after effect happened in an instant. I become drowsy like I have never slept for weeks and it was harder to keep my eyes open. I tried to fight it but as soon as I closed my eyes, I went straight to sleep. For a couple of days, I did nothing but strengthen my body. More push-ups, sit-ups, and any other exercise that will help me improve physically, I did it. Even if it doesn¡¯t change my damage output, it¡¯s still better to have a body that can support my skills.


    ¡°Ok, I think I¡¯m ready. If I stay here any longer grinding, I¡¯d lose it.¡± I Whisper as I ate. ¡°That fucking dragon, I will kill it. Devour it. I¡¯ll do everything to leave this place.¡±


    After eating, I decided to store all of the things in the safe room inside my dimensional bag. The only thing I have regretted leaving behind is the stove, bed, and the chest unless I get lucky and find that wanderers'' dead body, he should have the key to it.


    ¡°Oh, I forgot about Stella. Well, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s alive. She might not even be real at all." I say to myself as I stand in front of the door leading to the dragon. "Ok Yasu, are you ready to face the evil sky king?¡± I asked myself.


    ¡°Yes Yasu, all for one and one for all," I answered myself.


    ¡°Yes Yasu, we will kill and devour. Let¡¯s go and taste us some dragon meat~¡± I sang as I leave the safe room without looking back. I slowly crouched near the entrance where the door used to be. I guess the fire was strong enough to turn it to dust. I hugged the wall and slowly peaked the entrance.


    I had a feeling you would be sleeping.I say in my mind. Last time I did a low whisper, it heard me. I slowly walked inside the dragon¡¯s lair and as I watched it sleep, seeing it laying down doesn¡¯t seem too bad. I slowly step towards him and It still hasn¡¯t woken up. I look around the room and check for the portal and I noticed a faint light near its tail.


    There it is!I shout in my mind as I see it still intact. But my body didn¡¯t want to exit the dungeon. I closed my eyes and thought about the experience I had in the dungeon. Resurfacing all of my hatred to this world and everything in it. I grit my teeth as I stared down the dragon. Without hesitation, I decided to attack the dragon while it sleeps.


    ¡°Sharpen!Seismic Step!¡± I shout as I prepared to jump over it. As soon as I took a leap, my body was sent flying up while leaving a small explosion on the ground. In an instant, I was over its head and I clenched my sword as I swung down towards its neck.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice! Die!¡± I shout as I swung down with all my might and this time, the skill was sent down at such speed I didn¡¯t expect. The minute it made contact, it exploded causing a huge wave of winds making me lose control of my body mid-air while I was sent flying back towards the entrance. Since I was still high up, I had to use Heaven¡¯s Slice skill again to try and help me land. ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    I brought my sword towards the wall and the impact helped me land on my feet near the entrance door.


    ¡°Huh? Did I kill it?¡± I whisper as I look over the cloud of smoke over the dragon¡¯s head. The dragon wasn''t moving, and I don''t know where the smoke comes from when I use Heaven''s Slice but who cares, as long as I kill that thing. ¡°It can¡¯t be, I only deal a thousand points damage.¡±


    As soon as the smoke dissipates, I could see the dragon¡¯s head is still intact. Better yet, I didn¡¯t, even make a dent in it. The worst part is, it¡¯s now awake and its yellow eyes are set on me. The dragon slowly rose from its slumber and revealed me its height. Its wings seem like it¡¯s badly damaged since I see holes in it yet, it still opened it wide probably showing me how fierce it is. But, flying around won¡¯t be possible since the cave was big enough to prevent him from doing so.


    Perfect.I whisper in my mind. Moving around would be difficult on that thing in such a tight space.But this dragon makes the gatekeeper look like an ant.Fuck¡­


    Without warning, the dragon spits a blue fireball from its mouth towards me.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± I shout as I slice the fireball. The heat it emitted was worse than the gatekeeper¡¯s fireball as it burned my skin without touching it. I felt something hot behind me and when I looked back, the blue fire stuck to the wall and was spreading through the ground.


    ¡°This dragon¡­. It knew where to aim.¡± I say as look at the entrance where I came from being covered in fire. ¡°Ah, shi-¡°


    The dragon roared so loud it felt like it¡¯s going to burst my ears and explode my head. I tried covering them with my hand and I did my best to reaming standing, but it was too much as it brought me straight to my knees.


    ¡°Shut the fuck up! Argh!!¡± It felt like if he didn¡¯t stop roaring, my head would actually explode.


    The dragon¡¯s roar suddenly stopped but I was still a bit disoriented. As I look up, I noticed light emitting from its mouth and I jumped to the side dodging the second fireball. It erupted behind me and from this point on, I know there''s no backing out of this situation.


    ¡°Seismic step!" I started running towards it gripping the swords on my hand.¡°Sharpen!¡±


    Whilst my skill is activated, I jumped towards its head aiming for its eye. If I can¡¯t damage its hard skin, the eyes should be a weak point. If I blind the dragon, it won¡¯t know where to launch the fireball.


    ¡°Heaven slice!¡± I swung downward once I got close and my skill went flying towards its eye. Like earlier, my skill exploded upon impact.The dragon let out a quick roar and the shockwave blew all the smoke away sending me flying across the cave.


    ¡°Oh shit, heaven''s slice!" I went flying straight to a wall and before I made an impact, I swung my sword and the explosion helped slow down my speed yet, it wasn¡¯t enough as I came crashing. Right before I fell down, I stabbed my sword onto the wall helping me get to the ground. The minute I reached the bottom, my sword snapped as the durability reached zero.


    ¡°Item bag!¡± I took out two more swords I had stored in the bag. I felt my skills are running out so I decided to activate them again. ¡°Sharpen! Seismic step!¡±


    Using the muscles on my legs, I jumped as high as I can and the ground below me erupted in place. I flew towards the dragon¡¯s face aiming at the same eye. I don¡¯t know if I actually damaged it earlier, but while it¡¯s disoriented, I¡¯ll take this opportunity and attack.


    ¡°Go blind! Heaven slice!¡± I swung my sword downwards and before my skill came out of the sword, something black quickly passed me shattering my weapon to pieces. ¡°Argh! The hell-¡°


    I look at its tail blocking its face. It suddenly swats me in mid-air and luckily I curled up into a ball so the damage I took wasn¡¯t much, but it still hurt like I was being hit with a metal baseball bat. My body flew so fast I couldn''t move it and I was going straight to another wall. The swords on my hands are shattered to pieces I can¡¯t take one out mid-flight towards the wall. I decided to leave it to luck and activate the skill hoping it would work with a shattered weapon. ¡°Heaven slice!!¡±


    I swung towards the wall and the broken sword still managed to activate my skill as a crescent moon shaped light came flying towards the wall I¡¯m heading to. The explosion was enough to slow me down and like before, it was enough to stop me fully as I hit the wall. I lodged the broken sword on the wall and it helped me slow down my descent like before.


    The minute I got down, I felt the area heat up and as I look behind me, a fireball was heading my way. Without time to think, I subconsciously called out my skill as I jumped sideways. My body flew and I landed on my feed sliding till my skill ran out and I came to a full stop. ¡°Fucking tough bastard! Item bag!¡±


    I took out two more swords and looked around to see where else I can attack it. But I noticed that the dragon hardly moved from his spot. It¡¯s not like it couldn¡¯t move, it wasn¡¯t chained down the ground. It just chose not to move.


    ¡°Seismic Step!¡± I used the skill to quickly get underneath it. Attacking it from the head is now would be useless, I''m running out of swords and flying towards the wall every single time is starting to take a toll on my body. As soon as I reached a leg, I swung my sword while using my skill and it erupted upon impact. I didn''t stop as I bombarded the dragons log with an attack one after another. I stopped as it lifted its leg and I see I barely did any damage to its¡¯ scales. I ran towards another foot and hid behind as the dragon stomped to the ground. The shockwave was enough to blow away everything even the fire on the entrance I came in. As I was about to run for it, a fireball came flying towards the entrance blocking it again.


    ¡°You son of a- you¡¯re more annoying than the gatekeeper!!!¡± I felt frustrated. It felt like the dragon is playing around with me, as I dealt little to no damage at all.


    Wait,I say in my mind as I thought about something I missed the whole time.


    ¡°The stalactite!¡± I ran out from the back of the dragon so he doesn''t see me. The minute I looked up, smiled covered my face as I see a huge stalactite right above the dragon. ¡°Seismic step!¡±


    Using all of my strength, I jumped as high as I can to try and land on its back. Once I did, I jumped from his back to the stalactite and I felt my body fly upwards at a faster rate. Probably my skill leveled up so more causing it to get stronger.


    ¡°Sharpen!¡± I shout as I flew towards the stalactite. As soon as I got to a close distance, I swung my sword creating a gash in the crystal. I felt my body start descending frustrating me even more as the stalactite remained intact. ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    I swung my sword towards the side of the stalactite hoping it will break free but it didn''t. I land on my back on top of the dragon and the impact was similar to landing on a hard slab of metal. Not paying attention to the pain, I activated my skill again and jumped one more time. I swing my swords at the crystal and it created another gash. Cracks starting forming and it traveled through to the other one I did earlier. The stalactite suddenly broke off descending towards the dragon. It passed me as I fell with it and I managed to get myself over the stalactite as I fell with it. I grabbed on and waited till I got close to the dragon.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡° I shouted as I jumped sending the crystal plummeting at high speed. The crystal shatter on its back but tiny sharp shards lodged itself as blood spurts out of the dragon. Some of its scales flew off exposing its flesh. The dragon roared from the pain and the shockwave of its roar was enough to send me flying back up. I managed to reach the roof of the cave as I lodged a sword helping me from flying everywhere as the dragon wildly shook its head sending flames in all direction except upwards. After it calmed down, I see it look around probably trying to see where I am. My swords are still lodged inside the rock formation of the cave ceiling. Using this opportunity, I lodged my foot on the ceiling placing myself upside down. I felt the blood travel to my head as I looked down at the exposed back of the dragon.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I jumped off the ceiling and my body went down towards the dragon like a bullet. Using all my strength, I swung my sword trying to control the unbelievable speed down at the exposed back, ¡°Heaven Slice!¡±


    The skill erupted the back sending blood and flesh everywhere. Luckily I landed inside the wound as the blood and soft flesh helped cushion my fall. I slowly stood covered in blood as I smiled around me. I grim my sword slick with blood as I aimed at the flesh around me.


    ¡°Heaven slice! Heaven Slice!¡± I shouted my skill over and over again as swung everywhere wildly. The explosion of each attack rung my ears into silence but I didn''t stop as the blood exploding everywhere made me happy. It rained down on me and I was knee deep in its blood. I could hear it scream in pain as I opened its back wider and wider.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I jumped as high as I can and gripped my sword with both hands. As I descended, I swung down as hard as I can, "Heaven slice! Die, motherfucker!"


    My skill came descending down towards the exposed flesh and it exploded upon impact sending blood to explode in all direction. I saw a critical hit but the damage it dealt wasn¡¯t enough.


    ¡°Hah! Eat that you fucking piece of shi-¡±


    BOOM!


    The fire erupted in mid-air. In the last moment, I managed to use my sword and block the attack with heavens slice. But the explosion damaged my body more. I came falling down towards the dragon¡¯s wound on its back. I landed inside of it and was quickly surrounded by blood.


    ¡°Ughh¡­.cough¡­.cough¡­.F-f-fuck¡­..¡± I cough out blood as it surrounds me. I could feel my body took a lot of damage and my consciousness is slowly fading away.


    Wanna switch?I heart a faint voice in my mind.


    ¡°H-huh?¡± I notice everything went silent.


    Wanna switch? Wanna switch? Wanna switch? The voice in my mind repeated non-stop and it¡¯s making my head hurt.


    ¡°N-no¡­.NO!¡± All of a sudden, my body felt energetic. I quickly stood up and ignored all of the pain that''s is vibrating throughout my spine. ¡°Item bag!¡±


    I decided to take out more swords but nothing came out. No matter how much I picture pulling one out in my mind as I have my hand inside the dimensional box, nothing appeared. No dagger, no sword, I had no weapon left. Getting frustrated, I decided to take out the kitchen knife since it''s better than nothing. Like a madman, I starting clawing my way inside the dragon using my dagger. I didn''t get enough distance till my kitchen knife broke and I started using my bare hands ripping the flesh off its body. But my effort was stopped short when its tail came swooping down looping around my waist. In an instant, I was flung across the cave. The dragon roared as I came crashing towards the wall and the impact of its voice didn''t help as I fell to the ground, hard. I had no sword to latch on the wall, and I had no way to break my fall.


    *Thud


    ¡°Ack!!¡± I felt something snap in my left shoulder as I land sideways. I grabbed it as hard as I can and pushed my shoulder back in place. The feeling of my bone scraping against each other was too much but, remembering the feeling of being eaten alive just made me laugh.


    ¡°Ha¡­haha¡­hahahahahaha!¡± I found everything funny. Anything I go through, the first dungeon was still the worst experience I ever had. I looked and the dragon didn''t move as I see its head bob. Probably trying to recuperate since it has a giant wound on its back.


    *Cough


    *Cough


    *pant


    *Pant


    ¡°Fuck Yasu, why are you always in a difficult position.¡± I slowly force myself up while looking at the Dragon.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Yasu, Maybe it¡¯s fate?¡± I answered myself and I could feel my voice giving out. ¡°Are you sure? Cause I sure as hell think it¡¯s a curse.¡±


    "A curse?! Blasphemy! This is life itself, my friend!" I smile while blood is dripping from everywhere.


    ¡°Exactly what is on my mind Yasu, this is life itself. And we need to crush it with our bare hands.¡± I whisper to myself and I went on a sprint towards the dragon. I notice my dagger in the ground and I picked it up on the way.


    ¡°Sharpen~¡± I sang as I felt happy. Even when I¡¯m bleeding everywhere, fighting a dragon with no chance of winning, I felt happy like something inside my mind snapped freeing my thoughts. I look up the dragon to see how much health it has and I smiled even more noticing I barely did any damage at all.


    Elder Wind Dragon(Sky King)


    HP 6,047,349 / 7,000,000


    "Pfft, ~ Bwahaha! We even didn¡¯t dent that thing! That health! Its like seven Gatekeepers Combined!" Gripping the dagger, I ran towards it.


    Whether it¡¯s 7 million or 700 million, I will kill that thing. I will devour it. Different thoughts came in my mind as I ran straight towards the tail.


    I¡¯m too weak now. I need to level up. But I can¡¯t leave this place until I kill that thing. So there¡¯s only one solution, cook its meat while it¡¯s still alive.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I jumped and flew straight for the wound. Using my dagger, I cut huge chunks of meat off its body and it roared in pain as I laughed with joy. I took out my item bag and threw the flesh inside.


    ¡°Medium rare dragon you say?! Coming right up!!!¡± Using my dagger, I cut huge chunks of flesh from its body. It roared again, and the ground vibrated as pieces of the wall and ceiling fell to the ground. I laughed some more cutting meat off its body. It probably felt a puny existence slowly cutting him up alive. ¡°Pwahahahahaha! Feel the pain!! It doesn¡¯t feel good right?!¡±


    I saw a shadow looming over me and before the tail came crashing down at my position, I activated seismic step and jumped barely dodging its tail.


    ¡°Guack!!¡± All of the air was taken out of me as the tail managed to catch up swatting me towards the wall of the cave. ¡°H-h-heavens¡­.slice¡­¡±


    I swung towards the wall as fast as I can and the explosion slowed me down as I hit the wall with my sides. Ignoring the throbbing pain of my whole body, I lodged the dagger in the wall as I descended down towards the ground. The minute my feet touch the floor, multiple fireballs came my way as it started shooting them out of its mouth in succession.


    ¡°Sharpen! Heaven slice! Heaven slice!¡± My skill met with the fireball exploding it in place yet, it wasn¡¯t enough to deflect everything as I jumped to the side dodging one. The explosion felt like I was in hell as the fire almost cooked me alive. I activated seismic step and ran towards the belly of the dragon removing me from its vision. It wasn¡¯t long that I was right under it. The dragon swung its tail wildly everywhere destroying anything it comes in contact. The dragon stopped, and I notice its head moving around. All of a sudden, it breathes out fire covering the ground with fire except right under it.


    Can¡¯t see me huh, I say in my mind.


    I felt my body slowly weaken and if I don¡¯t eat anything, I won¡¯t be able to even move from all the damage I sustained. I quickly pulled out dragon meat inside my bag and using my dagger, I stabbed the meat and placed it over the fire close to me. I felt the meat cook at a rapid rate and without care, if it will burn my mouth, I devoured the meat as fast as I can. It kept looking around and I kept cooking more meat and ate enough for my body to heal minor injuries and bring back my energy. My body still felt damaged, but I was able to hold out as I cooked some more dragon meat.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You reached level 29!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A smile slowly crept on my face. I kept cooking as much as I can till another notification appeared.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have reached level 30! You have gained a new skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Finally!!¡± I threw the dragon meat in my bag and gripped the dagger as I watch the dragon stand still while moving its head around. ¡°Status window!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    30


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    50


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    40


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    61


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Inspect


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    15


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Overdrive


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Heaven''s Slice


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    28


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Seismic Step


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    40


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Pound


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive SKill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s Knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    LeatherStolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wear leather equipment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted, and my dagger¡¯s handle started glowing including my hands. The fire started dissipating and I decided to rush towards the legs of the Dragon. ¡°Seismic step!¡±


    As soon as I got close to its leg, I swung my dagger towards its legs and the minute it made contact, my dagger shattered to pieces.¡°Goddamit! Seismic step!¡±


    I jumped up trying to get to its wound again. ¡°Sharpen!¡±


    I aimed my broken dagger towards the wound on it¡¯s back as soon as I was about to pierce it, its tail came and blocked my attack and it felt like I punched metal. The impact was enough to make me drop my dagger as my body slowly descended to the ground. Out of nowhere, I stopped in mid-air as I watched the broken dagger fall to the ground. I noticed the dragon¡¯s tail was looped around my waist. Instead of sending me flying to the wall, the dragon brought me to its face. It opened its mouth exposing its snake-like tongue as saliva dripped everywhere.


    ¡°Let me the fuck go!¡± I suddenly stopped struggling as I see the mouth of the dragon glow. ¡°Y-YOU BASTARD! FUCK! AAAAARRRGH!!¡±


    I trashed as much as I can, but it felt like someone bent a piece of metal around me preventing me from doing anything. I punched its tail over and over again until the skin on my knuckles rips. Even when I saw my own blood splattering everywhere, I kept punching hoping it will let me go but it didn''t. The blue flame emitting from its mouth was hot enough to make me sweat.


    ¡°No!! I will not fucking die here!! You bastard!! You hear me!! I will not die here!!!Sharpen!¡± I tried calling out my skill thinking it would work for my hands, but it didn¡¯t. ¡°Dammit! Argh! Pound!!¡±


    My hand started glowing like before but this time I¡¯m not holding a dagger.Without thinking about anything, I clenched my fist and punch in front of me as the fireball left its mouth. My fist met with the fireball and thinking that it¡¯s my end, I closed my eyes preparing for the worst. All of a sudden, I felt its tail loosen


    ed its grip and I went free falling down towards the ground.


    ¡°S-shit! Pound!!¡± I clenched my fist as I aimed at the ground hoping it would break my fall. Right, when I got close, I brought my fist down hitting the floor and everything under me erupted. The shock wave of the punch has slowed me down and I landed on my side softly. I slowly stood up from my position and look up at the dragon and notice its mouth emitted was smoking while it moved its head side to side.


    Elder Wind Dragon (Sky King)


    HP 4,046,739 / 7,000,000


    "The hell happened. Wait..." I whisper as it suddenly hit me.


    How could I forget, My voice echoed in my mind while I smiled really wide. How could I fucking forget something so important.


    ¡°The dragon''s weakness," I whispered taking the first step towards the dragon. "It¡¯s fire. And, the fire that only comes from this room, isout of its mouth."


    ¡°I stopped a few feet away in front the dragon and looking up to it would make anyone tremble in fear. I didn¡¯t as I felt relaxed than ever.


    ¡°Seismic Step! Pound!!¡± I jumped towards its face hoping its tail would catch me again. ¡°let¡¯s end this, Sky King, ~¡±


    Its tail didn¡¯t try to catch me as it opened its mouth. I know it¡¯s not a fireball since lava flowed out of its mouth. ¡°Shit!¡±


    Blue flames came out of its mouth and I punched in front of me. The fire was enough to burn the hair from my arm yet, my skill was enough to dissipate it in an instant. It tale came swooshing down my way hitting me in the side and it felt like I was hit by a truck. It must have put all its strength as it tried to kill me midair. My body flew to the side as it came flying towards a wall at high speed.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shout my skill aiming at the wall and even that wasn¡¯t enough to break the impact as my left arm felt like it broke in different places. My body soon followed hitting the wall and I almost lost consciousness. With the remaining strength I had, I called out my skill punching bellowing me with my right hand and I managed to break my fall.


    My left hand lost its feeling as my body lost all energy to even move a finger. I saw a shadow looming over me and I see its tail coming close.


    Fucking hell, I can¡¯t move. How long is your fucking tail? Iwhisper in my mind as I tried my best to hold on to my consciousness. I feel it pick me up as it looped its tail around my waist. No matter how much I tried, I couldn¡¯t even lift an arm as it brought me over its head. I see it look up to me and opened its mouth as the tail slowly loosen dropping me straight to its throat.


    I felt my body hit its tongue as it felt like scraping through sandpaper. My unmovable body rolled down towards its throat and I couldn¡¯t do anything to stop myself. All of a sudden, I stopped a few feet away from its tonsils as my shirt get caught onto something. But being eaten alive was the least of my worries as I see blue lava slowly make its way up its throat.


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    ¡°Over¡­..drive¡­¡± In a quick moment, I got all the energy back and my body felt stronger than before. ¡°Seismic Step!¡±


    I lodge my foot down the wall of its throat and using all the strength in my legs, I jump upwards. It probably felt me moving around inside its mouth as it slowly closed it preventing me from flying up.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I brought my fist towards its teeth and it obliterated everything in front of me. It tried to grab me with its tongue, but I manage to step on it and jump higher at a speed I didn¡¯t even know I could do. I flew up to the ceiling of the cave and managed to grip onto a rock hanging from the ceiling. My body feels like it¡¯s on fire from the inside yet, I can¡¯t shake off a weird feeling.


    I felt light, I felt, free.


    It still sees the blue lava slowly coming out of its throat, ¡°trying to burn me up here huh¡­¡±


    I notice a few rocks fell around me. Its exposed stalactites were hidden underneath. "I got an idea. Pound~"


    Using all my strength, I punched right above me and the whole ceiling came down including the stalactites. I was going to use a rock but a stalactite large enough came crashing down faster than me. I managed to place myself on top as the dragon began to release the fire out of its mouth.


    "Pound!" I shouted as I brought my fist towards the stalactite and it descended like a bullet towards the dragon''s throat. It was large enough to get stuck and block lava from getting out of its body. The dragons belly erupted and everything else followed with it. The shockwave was enough to send me flying towards one direction as flames spread everywhere and I felt my skin being burned alive as the flames burn my clothes. My overdrive skill slowly disappearing as I began to feel weak and lethargic. A big ball of blue fire started spreading out everywhere scorching everything. I noticed I¡¯m flying toward a wall and used my remaining strength to create a fist.


    ¡°Pound¡­¡± I swing towards the wall and it erupted breaking my speed. But it wasn¡¯t enough as I hit the wall head-on knocking me out in the process as I fell to the ground.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    <hr>


    Yasu''s Alternate POV


    <hr>


    ¡°Huh?...........YYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!¡± I screamed as my whole damn body was freaking throbbing. It felt like a sauna as everything around me was hot. ¡°Ahh~ This feels nice- the hell is that?¡±


    I slowly sit up and watched a big blue ball of flame engulf everything on its path.


    ¡°Whoa whoa whoa! The fuck Yasu! What the hell is this shit!¡± I quickly stood up and ran towards the entrance that¡¯s still covered by fire. ¡°Move!¡±


    I swung towards the entrance and the flame went out along with the walls creating a bigger hole in the process. I looked at myself and my clothes burned making me run naked. My skin at some parts was badly burnt and it stings by just touching it. All the hair on my body from head to toe was gone. Even my damn eyebrows were gone.


    ¡°Ouchie! Jeez, what the hell is going on- No time to think! Gotta run!¡± I ran as fast as I can as I see the blue flame engulfing everything in the hallway behind me. ¡°What was that skill again? Ah, seismic step!¡±


    My body suddenly was sent a few feet forwards and I felt free running at high speed. Yet, for some odd reason, the damn flame got faster as it chased me down the hallway.


    "It''s COMING ITS COMING! IT''S FUCKING COMING!! YOU BASTARD YASU!!" I ran like there¡¯s no tomorrow.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You just entered a safe zone.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Saaaafeeee!! Whew-¡± I felt happy accomplishing something Yasu can¡¯t and with joy as I closed the door behind me as the flames engulf everything outside the safe zone.¡°Whew, almost got my butt cheeks fried. Dman, I¡¯m naked again. The hell was that fire-¡±


    THUD!


    Like plank, my body just fell forward, and I couldn¡¯t move anything. ¡°W-w-what...WHAT the FUCK?! I CAN''T MOVE?! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!¡±


    I started crying thinking about all of the things I wanted to do just became impossible as I regress into a vegetable.


    ¡°Fucking Yasu...¡±I say between sobs. ¡°You bastard¡­¡±


    I cried for hours until my time was up, and I passed out.


    .


    .


    .


    <hr>


    Yasu''s Alternate POV - end


    <hr>


    Yasu POV


    <hr>


    I slowly woke up into darkness.


    Ah, I guess I died. I whisper in my mind, as my body wouldn¡¯t move. I felt bitter and cold that I didn''t even get a chance against the dragon. I don''t know if I killed it, but I hoped it died along with me. My mind felt tired as I laid in the dark. I imagined Luro will show up any minute, but nothing happened, and I went back to sleep.


    I woke up again in darkness as the pain in my body shot through my spine. I gasped for air going on my side. ¡°Ughhhh¡­Where am I?¡±


    I push myself up and I felt the bones in my arm would snap any moment. As soon as I managed to sit, a sudden wave of pained traveled through my body even up to my fingertips sending me back down the ground in a fetal position as I gasped for air.


    "I-item bag," I whispered and to my surprise, I hear a noise drop right in front of me. I felt around the dark at the expense of my comfort. My body ached at every move making me sweat non-stop. Relief came as soon as I was able to touch my dimensional bag. I quickly took out a piece of cooked dragon meat and ate it as fast as I can, almost choking on them. I laid back down the ground resting my arms as it feels like it¡¯s going to fall off. Even when after I ate, my whole body was in pain. My fists, my legs, my ribs, everything hurts like hell even with the slightest movement. I laid there in the dark, I didn¡¯t know where I was, I thought about it, last, I remember is passing out in the dragon room. I didn¡¯t know how I survived or if I actually survived. I wanted to get up and take out a stalactite, but my mind was so exhausted I went to sleep before I even noticed. I suddenly woke up gasping for air. I must have had my mouth open as my throat felt dry.


    ¡°water¡­¡± My voice was husky making the dryness of my throat difficult to talk. I slowly push myself up and my body felt a bit better. The joints on my arms and ribs still felt sore and standing up was difficult as my leg shook. ¡°Item bag.¡±


    I hear my bag dropped in front of me and it didn''t take long till I found it feeling in the dark. I located the hole on top of my bag and the minute I placed my hand in, I thought about a stalactite till I felt it in my palm. The minute I took it out, I felt confused.


    "This isn''t the dragon room," I whispered looking around. "Where the hell- the safe zone?"


    I noticed the bed and the chest right by its foot. The room was small enough that one stalactite was enough to dimly illuminate the whole room. I felt cold as the hair on my arms stood straight up forming goosebumps on my skin. I decided to walk near the water source in the room and drank till I felt full and my throat slowly felt refreshed. I walked to the bed and sat at the side.


    "Ugh, my head¡­" I touch my temple gently putting pressure to help elevate the pain. "Well he has his uses I guess¡­"


    I quickly understood what''s going on. With the throbbing pain in my head similar to what happened before and the gap in memory, I knew it was my alternate side waking up in the nick of time.


    He probably managed to run here saving both of us. I whispered in my mind as I rub my temple. Luckily the stalactite I took out was small making it easier to look at the room. I took out my dimensional bag and grabbed a cooked dragon meat. I slowly munched trying to speed up the process of my regeneration. I knew I can''t stay here any longer. Ow that I''m awake and able to move, I needed to check if the dragon really died. If this dungeon is similar to the first one, I should have gotten a notification by now indicating I beat the dungeon. Since I didn''t, I felt frustrated as the time goes by. I looked at my body and even if I can''t see it due to improper lighting, I noticed all the hair I had was gone. I felt my head and all my hair is gone leaving a smooth skin.


    ¡°Shit, even my eyebrows are gone.¡± My voice felt weak, but the scratching feeling has disappeared completely. Without wasting any more time, I headed down the hallway towards the dragon''s room. Since everything went dark, I used the stalactite to guide my way and the floor, the walls, and the ceiling made me sweat from the heat it emitted. It felt like I was in a sauna. I kept walking till I noticed the entrance. The fire that was blocking me from escaping earlier was completely was gone and the wall on the surrounding area was destroyed. Not wanting to run into the dragon in the dark, I grabbed a couple of the big stalactite and threw them inside the room.


    It didn¡¯t take long till I found the dragon as a stalactite landed near it. I felt joy yet confused at the same time I see the stalactite illuminating its neck as it slowly regenerates and if I don¡¯t do something now, it¡¯s head will come back to life. I grabbed a few more stalactite throwing them around trying to get a full view of the dragon. It''s on its side probably waiting for its head to regenerate.


    Elder Wind Dragon (Sky King)


    HP 1 / 7,000,000


    "Pfft, ~ Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! You¡¯ve got to be kidding me?!¡± I laugh so hard I felt the pain in my ribs as it slowly came back. "Ah shit, I got to relax. But first, let me finish this bastard off."


    I called out my dimensional bag and since I didn¡¯t have any other weapon, I took out my spatula and slapped the dragon with it. Its life reached zero and in an instant, its arms and wings slumped to the ground as its neck stopped regenerating. Blood started pouring out of the neck and in an instant, a notification popped up in front of me.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have cleared the dungeon of the SKY KING!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You will be given the title ofThe new Sky King.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    For achieving something that no one has ever done, you are given a new skill only obtainable through giving the final fatal blow to the sky king.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have just learned a new skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    For clearing the dungeon with a party of 1, you are given a new skill only obtainable upon clearing the dungeon of the sky king, lone wolf style.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    For clearing the dungeon, you will have the ability to name this dungeon. After naming, it will become a memorial site where adventurers from around the new world can visit and learn the history you have created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Would you like to name this dungeon?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yes.¡± I sat down leaning my back against the dragon. My legs weren¡¯t fully healed and I felt tired by just standing straight.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Please say the name out loud.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yasu and Mole''s Adventure Land," I say the name I had in my mind. It''s only befitting to includes Mole¡¯s name as my tribute towards him.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    "Asshole and Mole adventure land."


    Is this correct?


    Yes or No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°No!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Please say the name out loud.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yasu and Mole¡¯s adventure land!¡±I shout getting frustrated.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    "Yasu and Mole adventure land."


    Is this correct?


    Yes or No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yes," I whisper and just like that, I felt safe for the first time.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Naming complete.


    ''The dungeon of the sky king'' is now a memorial site. Adventurers who visit will learn the history and will come to know ''Yasu and Mole Adventure Land.'' adventures.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°The hell¡­ah who cares. Finally, I beat this dragon¡± I whisper in joy as I lean my head on it closing my eyes. Remembering about the portal, I decided to stand up and walk towards its tail. The last I remember the portal was there so I wanted to check if it is still intact, but I highly doubt it. ¡°Ah, I knew it.¡±


    The portal was in pieces. It was an amazing sight as it looked like it never got burnt by the fire. The white marble was still, a white marble. Since there was another portal on the other side, I didn''t need to go crazy trying to get out.


    ¡°Since I beat this place that should be open now," I say to myself as I walk back towards the safe zone. When I arrived, I took out a blue and red stalactite and lit a fire under the stove. Luckily, the wood caught on fire after a few tries sparking it. Once there enough flames, I grabbed a few dead torches hanging on the walls and lit them up. I placed them back in the wall around the room before decided to sleep for the time being. My body hasn¡¯t fully healed and even when I ate earlier, it seems like my recovery is slower than usual. The minute I laid down on the bed, I fell right asleep.


    I woke up for a brief moment to drink some water and take a piss outside the hallway. I decided to put the bed against the other door that leads to the working portal. Since it was activated, anyone can just walk right in on me sleeping and kill me. Having the bed against the door will wake me up if someone tries to push their way in since the door only opens inwards.


    The minute I laid down, it didn¡¯t take long till I fell asleep. I woke up in a much better condition. I decided to stay in this dungeon to fully heal. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m in a hurry to leave. This place is safe now and it''s better to idle here than outside where I can get murdered by a monster in my sleep.While recovering, I decided to cut up the dragon and cook it. I have all this time and a dragon that size will boost me a couple of levels higher. Using the remaining kitchen knife, I cut up as much meat as I can from its neck. Its scales were hard and didn¡¯t want to come off the body.


    "Ah! The swords!" I suddenly remember the swords I left lodged in the wall outside the dungeon. Without wasting any time, I ran towards the other portal using seismic step. My fight with the dragon made it easier to use my skills as I ran without even feeling of falling off. My face was full of smiles the minute I saw the portal.


    ¡°It¡¯s fucking on! Haha!¡± I shout as I ran straight outside. I was hoping it was daytime but the minute I got out, the sky was plastered with stars as the moon shined down on top of the forest. I felt the air hit my skin and the cold breeze was enough to calm my muscles. "Ahhh~ the world outside.¡±


    I decided to stay out here for a while but before that, I needed to cut up the dragon and store as much meat as I can in my bag. I ran towards the edge I climbed. As soon as I got close, I laid down on my chest as I peeked over the edge.


    ¡®There you are~¡± I whisper as I see one of my swords lodge near the top, close enough for me to reach it. I manage to grab the hilt and pulled it out of the wall without falling over. I stood back up and ran inside the dungeon happily speeding towards the dragon. As soon as I got close, I started cutting up its meat with the sword. I didn¡¯t bother activating my skill since I didn¡¯t want to decrease the durability of the sword. If it breaks, I have no other option but to climb down the rock and pick up all the swords I stabbed in the side of the rock. After collecting enough meat, I took a rest and as I look over, the amount of meat I collected of the dragon¡¯s corpse was a lot but comparing it to the body, it¡¯s not even a portion making me demotivated to even cut up the whole thing. Using a fire from the torch in my room, I created a small campfire beside the dragon using sticks and leaves I had stored in my bag. I broke the chair inside the safe zone and used its wood to feed the fire and keep it burning. I scattered more stalactites around the room illuminating the dark parts.


    ¡°ok time to cook this thing.¡± I used sharpened sticks and stabbed the meat through. I placed it near the fire and left it to cook while I cut up more of the dragon. If one side cooks, I¡¯ll start to feel it, which is a benefit of my skill. I don''t need to keep track of time and watch the food cook every time. What seemed like minutes probably turned to hours as I lost track of time. Thinking the meat burned to crisp, I walked back to check and to my surprise, it was still raw.


    ¡°The hell, it should have at least been cooked by now. How come it looks the same.¡± I whisper inspecting the meat. I took out the cooked dragon meat and definitely, the color seems different as the dragon meat was golden brown cooked and light pink when it¡¯s raw. Thinking that maybe there¡¯s a certain way to cook the meat, I walked back to the safe zone and placed thin pieces of dragon meat over the pan. I placed it over the fire on the stove and after a few seconds, I heard the meat sizzle as the oil got hot. I left it there to cook as I sat at the edge of the bed.


    ¡°Status window.¡± I came up as fast as I finished saying the command.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    34


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    60


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    50


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    61


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Inspect


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    20


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Overdrive


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Heaven''s Slice


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    30


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Seismic Step


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    45


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Pound


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    20


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dragon Breath


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sky king¡¯s wind


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mind break


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Upon immediate extreme danger mentally and physically, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chefs knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Leather


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wear leather equipment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Damn, it''s becoming bigger.¡± I go through the list of skill I currently have. ¡°Still weird to not have points to distribute or magic and stamina, but eh, who cares. Pound skill description."


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Pound


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    20


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Cooking


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    13%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This skill gives you the ability to pound things. This ability is perfect for flattening things like ground, meat, and dough. This can be used in combat as a barehanded skill to apprehend and immobilize prey. But it''s really strong when used with hammers.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s why it worked only with my fist.¡± I felt excited to see the new skills I got from beating the dungeon. ¡°Let me see the other one, Dragon¡¯s breath.¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dragon¡¯s Breath


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    combat


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This skill lets you breathe hot air. Hot enough to burn things and set your enemies ablaze.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Pwahaha, this one is a weird skill. Better be careful saying this.¡± I say testing my breath to see if it¡¯s hot. ¡°Next is, sky king¡¯s wind skill description.¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Skill name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Skill experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Sky King¡¯s Wind


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Buff


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4" width="590">


    This skill will encase your sword with the wind. It has no damage but the stronger it gets, the stronger the wind it creates. Level it up and be the cause of catastrophic tornadoes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Eh, no attack damages. I guess I¡¯ll level this up last.¡± I was disappointed at the skill but nonetheless, I know it might have its use in the future. ¡°Ah, the meat.¡±


    It¡¯s been a couple of minutes and by now; the meat should have been cooked. As I walk near the pan, I still see the meat sizzling and the topside is still raw. I flipped the meat using my spatula and to my surprise, the other side is still raw.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± I whisper as I look at it. I decided to increase the fire adding some torch inside and waited some more. This time I started counting to help elevate boredom and pass time. I need to know why it¡¯s not cooking. If it doesn''t cook, I would be wasting so much meat since I can¡¯t use it. ¡°Shit, it cooked earlier. Wait doesn¡¯t tell me, it only can be cooked with dragon flames?¡±


    I grabbed one of the dragon meats in my bag and held it out in front of me. ¡°Inspect!¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    Elder Dragon Meat (Raw)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Uses:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Family:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Food


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Ingredient


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Elder Dragons


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    This is an elder dragon meat. Elder dragon meat is one of the rarest delicacies in the world. It is hard to obtain and hard to cook. Elder dragon meat is different from regular dragons. To cook it at the normal time; one must cook with an elder dragon fire. Using any other form of flames can cook the elder dragon meat but it will take roughly one year to do so.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me?! One fucking year?!¡± I felt frustrated by reading the description. ¡°Dammit! Calm down Yasu, calm down.¡±


    I tried to control my breathing as I tried to relax. No need to needlessly waste energy yet, deep down inside I want to smash the dragon meat to pieces.


    No wonder it cooked so damn fast when I was fighting the dragon. I need his flames to cook it or else, it will take me a year to cook one piece. I have well over one hundred pieces. I whispered in my mind as I placed the meat back in my bag.


    I slump down the bed thinking about if I wanted to level up with the dragon, it won¡¯t be worth it. It will take a year to even cook one and by the time I go through what everything in my bag, I¡¯d be too old to lift a sword. I felt frustrated as I clench my hand creating a fist. To take out my frustration, I decided to level up my pound skill using the dragon¡¯s carcass.


    ¡°You motherfucker!¡± I swung towards its stomach and my skill only manages to create a small dent. I kept activating the skill over and over again up until the dent itself got bigger and bigger. My arms felt sore and my knuckles ached. Even when the stomach has no scales, its skin was still tough. Not wanting to damage my hand any further, I headed back into the safe room and cooked mole¡¯s meat before going to sleep. After waking up, I checked my body for any more bruises and I didn¡¯t see anything. My joint still felt weak but the stinging sensation at every movement disappeared. I went back to the dragon and took out my frustration as I bombarded it with punches deforming its stomach.


    ¡°Seismic step! Pound!¡± I jumped towards the stomach from a distance and I noticed the floor erupts at a bigger scale as I fly up the sky a lot higher. As I descend, I punched the corpse hoping I would break it scales apart to take with me and at the same time, I wanted my skill to be stronger than the scales. This way, if any stronger enemies come along, I will be able to destroy them, and I¡¯ll have a bigger chance against Luro. After all, I can¡¯t rely on anybody else but myself.


    The belly jiggled as I deform it more. I felt frustrated I can¡¯t even destroy a dragon¡¯s skin. And if it wasn¡¯t for the stalactite earlier, I would have never really death any damage. "Ok, just a few more and I''m going to be able to break that thing!"


    Since my seismic step is at the same level as my pound and sharpen skill, I¡¯m able to maintain it for a longer period of time as I step back to jump up towards the ceiling of the cave. I bend my legs as I am pushing my why body up as fast as I can. I came off the ground exploding a bigger area that made me gawk for a few seconds. The minute I reached the height of my jump, I clench my fist as set my sight of the dragon¡¯s abdomen. Using all of my strength, I punched forward right before I landed on the dragon and the explosion was a lot bigger this time causing the whole area to burst in smoke as the dragon got pushed more onto the ground. I land by its legs as my attack cause a shockwave to push me a bit to the side. I felt something splatter on my face and as I went to touch it, I notice why left hand was covered with blood.


    "Oh shit, I destroyed my hand," I whisper looking at it but, I didn''t feel any pain. I took out a glass water container and washed my hands to see where the wound is. "What the, no wound. Wait, don''t tell me¡­:


    My voice trails off as I see the smoke dissipate. A smile quickly came as I looked at the dragon¡¯s stomach burst out with all of it¡¯s inside scattered around the ground.


    ¡°Uggghhh its stomach acid came out...¡± I whisper as I jump down the dragon and watch green gooey liquid emitting smoke come out of its stomach. As I walked close inspecting the hole, my attack basically damaged its ribs from the inside as the stomach burst.


    What the fuck is that? I whisper in my mind as I see something white floating around the stomach acid as it slowly traveled out landing in front of me. I grabbed the letter and the green goo was warm to the touch yet, it didn¡¯t burn me like I thought it would.


    ¡°A letter?¡± I whisper as I pick it up quick. I tried to open it by ripping a red sticker off but it wouldn¡¯t budge. Then a notification came up.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Private message. Please say the password to open and show its contents.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s cool. How the hell did this survive in there? Wait, why does the dragon have this in his stomach?¡± I flipped the envelope around studying the letter. After wiping off the green goo, it was whiter than my shirt, if I had one. I¡¯ve been rocking the naked bald look ever since I woke up since I didn¡¯t have any other clothes. The letter piqued my curiosity and I decided to try to figure out how to open it. I brought it back with me to the safe room and held the letter in front of me and started saying random words.


    ¡°Hmm, let see¡­. is it Dragon?" I tried guessing the password but nothing. "Food? Sky King? Luro? Dungeon? Oh wait, maybe it¡¯s Stella?¡±


    Even Stella''s name didn¡¯t open it hoping it came from the wanderer.


    ¡°Hmm¡­what was the guy''s name?¡± I say as I flip through the Journals of Stella¡¯s Lover.¡°Let¡¯s see Drakun? Drakun Tarabay?¡±


    After saying his full name. The envelope lit up as the seal disappeared. I was waiting for more, but I guess that was it as the light slowly faded. I decided to open it and inside is a piece of paper with a single ring.


    ¡°Must have been the one he was carrying to give her.¡± I took the ring and put it my finger. ¡°Haha, it fits.¡±


    I took out the piece of paper and unfolded it. Inside was a message written in cursive making it hard to read in the dark. I walked towards the table where a torch was hanging right in front and read the letter.


    <table style="background-color: #878787" width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    If you are reading this then you have managed to find this letter and open it using my name. You have probably read my journal and know about my foolish journey. Finding this means you have beaten the Sky king or, you were eaten. I hope is the first one. If it is, please pass this along to my love, Stella if you ever find her. I''m currently writing this inside a dragon''s stomach after it ate me.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Huh? That''s it?" I opened the envelope and I saw another piece of paper sticking onto the envelope. After carefully pulling it out, I unfolded it reading the content. I noticed wet marks have dried up in certain areas which I find weird that tears stained the paper but the dragon¡¯s stomach acid didn¡¯t.


    <table style="background-color: #878787" width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Dear Stella,


    I have found my uncle here and he died in my arms. Before the acid inside the stomach took life from him, he has told me he went and tried to rescue you after a man with wings abducted you. It still baffles me why he would to such lengths, but I guess he thinks of you as a family. He wasn''t successful on his attempt as someone hit him on the head and he fell unconscious. He woke up inside the safe room of the dungeon and that''s when he came across the dragon.


    I am glad you were not here. But I''m also scared that I don''t know your whereabouts. I hope you are all right. If you are in any harm but managed to escape, I apologize if I didn''t come and saved you. After fighting with the dragon, I was easily defeated, and it decided to eat me instead of turning me to ashes. That''s when I saw my uncle. I am quite lucky with the habit of bringing a pen and paper with me anywhere I go. I guess this way, I am able to write my last words to you.


    Stella my love, I will always love you from the bottom of my heart. I want you to know I never forgotten you and even up to the last moment of my life in here, you will be on my mind. I know my end is coming. The liquid has currently submerged me waist deep have started to get warm and I think the temperature is rising. I''m not able to climb out of here because its stomach wall is really slippery. I have my sword in here, but I don''t have the strength to cut it open on the inside anymore. Good thing my family sword won''t dissolve in this acid. Whoever finds this sword will be very lucky to have something indestructible.


    Stella, please be happy. I want you to forget me and live your life. Build a new family and smile. Even though it pains my heart knowing I won''t be able to see your face anymore, I want you to wake up staring at the face of your new loved one. Stella, please don¡¯t be burdened by my death. You have to keep moving and live on for as long as you can.


    Don¡¯t come too soon over this side of the river.


    Goodbye Stella. Goodbye, my love.


    The one who loves you the most in this world,


    Drakun Tarabay


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°A man with wings? Fucking Luro messing with people.¡± I folded the letter and as I was about to place it back the envelope. There¡¯s one more thing inside. I flip the envelope trying to empty its contents in my palm and a key fell out.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± My voice trails as my attention go towards the chest. I quickly walked over to it and placed the key inside the keyhole. The minute turned it to the left, I heard it click and the top cover of the chest slowly open up. Inside the chest were leather armor, a pair of ragged looking clothes, and a pouch. I picked up the pouch first thinking it has money inside and the minute I opened it, so did my eyes.


    ¡°Diamonds!! Holy shit this is a lot of diamonds!!¡± I shout looking at different diamonds varying in sizes. ¡°Let me check anyway, inspect!¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    Pure Diamonds (Extremely Rare)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Uses:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Family:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Currency, accessory


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Currency, trinkets, others


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Minerals


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    This is a pure diamond, the most valuable and rarest kind of diamond you can find in the world.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I quickly put the diamond inside my bag smiling thinking about giving it to my mother. ¡°Oh, I can''t wait to see the look on her face when she sees this.¡±


    I browse through the contents of the chest and decided to wear the ragged clothes and the armor. It was easy to move and feels sturdy. Even the boots and gloves were made from leather and it was a perfect fit.


    ¡°Finally I¡¯m not naked anymore! Ugh, only if I had hair, it would have been a perfect day.¡± I whisper as I felt my head which was smooth. I was hoping inside the chest were weapons but there wasn¡¯t one. Not even a dagger. It¡¯s all thanks to that letter I got new clothes. If it¡¯s fate, I will find this Stella chick and give her the letter. But before that, I need to find that sword he left inside the dragon. I went back to the carcass talking to myself in the hallway.


    ¡°Say Yasu," I say to myself knowing I¡¯d reply. "Yes, Yasu?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re filthy rich, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°Yes Yasu, we are.¡±


    ¡°Say Yasu, what did Yasu say to Yasu?¡±


    ¡°What Yasu?¡±


    ¡°Say Yasu, we¡¯re filthy rich, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say that earlier Yasu?¡±


    ¡°Exactly Yasu. Exactly.¡± I laughed at myself as I reached the carcass of the dragon. If the letter was right, the sword should be somewhere in that acid which is still spilling out the stomach.


    "Well then, let''s speed up the process and clean the dragon''s insides," I said clenching my fist. "Seismic step! Pound!"


    I jump right above the dragon and as I descended, I focused on hitting it on the side hoping the impact will spit out the sword. The minute I punched it, I manage to damage the dragon bursting all of its insides out the hold. That''s when something caught my eye as it clattered around the ground. IT was covered in goo yet; the design was something you can¡¯t miss. It looks like a demon king designed the sword as red letters from this world was carved on the side and the hilt was wrapped with a red cloth. I was thinking of a one-handed sword that¡¯s made with materials stronger enough to not break from any impact but looking at the sword, Now I know why this is definitely strong enough to survive.


    ¡°No wonder that dumbass didn¡¯t have any strength left. ¡°I say as I pick up the sword with one hand. ¡°This is one huge motherfucker. Weapon description!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    Dragon Slayer


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Two-hand


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Durability:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    3000/3000


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Quality:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Uncommon


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This dragon slayer is made from the fire of an elder dragon. This is a mythic item and can be categorized as a national treasure.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Whistle*


    "Well, I''ll be damaged." Reading the description. "I wonder why weapons don''t show any attack power."


    I have thought about it a few times but, the weapons don''t show its attack power making it a lot harder to figure out if it is strong or not.


    ¡°Meh, what do I care, even if this thing¡¯s attack power is one million, that is useless for my class which stays the same as my level no matter what weapon I¡¯m carrying. I wonder how big my attacks are with this thing.¡±


    I walked a bit further back and grabbed the handle of the sword with but hats over my head. ¡°Ok, here goes nothing, Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    I brought the sword down towards the ground and the white crescent moon came rushing out of my sword. It was the biggest I have ever done. Thinking it will explode on impact, I stabbed the sword to the ground trying to hold on just in case. But rather than exploding on impact, it went through the carcass without losing its speed. As soon as it exited the other side, it exploded the wall behind the dragon sending rocks flying my way.


    "Well shit, that was unexpected," I whisper as I walked around the dragon to check if it really cut through its touch shell. But the minute I got to the other side, I stopped on my tracks noticing the wall slowly breaking off exposing a hollow are on the other side. I peeked through and it was completely pitch black. I know there are no monsters left in this dungeon as I beat it but, its better to be safe than sorry. I grabbed a few stalactites on the ground and threw them past the hole into darkness.


    ¡°What the hell is that?¡± I whisper as I walked in following the stalactite that landed on the end illuminating something white. As I got close, I was surprised by a sudden notification appearing before my eyes.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to the Trials of the gods Hidden Dungeon!


    This Dungeon is not for the weak hearted. You must be strong not only mentally but also physically. To qualify on entering this dungeon, you must be or with the individual who has the title ¡°The New Sky King.¡± Only then you can enter the dungeon and test you might against all odds. This is a time constraint dungeon. Which means you won¡¯t be able to get out until the time runs out. New waves of monster¡¯s re-spawn in the area until the time limit so you must be prepared.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Time Limit: 8760


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Accept?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°What the fuck. 8769 minutes¡­that¡¯s¡­¡± I whispered calculating it in my head ¡°That¡¯s one fucking year!!


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Saaaay Yasu?¡± I asked myself. ¡°What Yasu?.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s take another detour~¡±


    ¡°Haha, we never had a place to go anyways," I answered myself getting excited at a new hope in front of me. ¡°Well then, Let''s go~"

 CHAPTER 19: The taste of being alive

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 19: The taste of being alive


    <hr>


    Hiroko''s POV


    <hr>


    ¡°Say, Hiroko, if you were back on earth, and met me on the street, would you say hi to me?¡± I hear a voice but no matter how hard I tried to reply or talk, I couldn¡¯t. ¡°Say Hiroko, I finally remember who you are."


    Who are you?! I asked in my mind while my consciousness limbos in the dark.


    ¡°Say Hiroko.¡± I can hear him speak in pain and it suffocates my heart to hear him like that. ¡°I wished none of this happened and we all could be friends back at our world. Even if we all get back, I can¡¯t forgive everyone.¡±


    What? I couldn¡¯t understand what¡¯s going on.


    ¡°But I don¡¯t regret it. I don¡¯t regret meeting all of you. I don¡¯t regret¡­giving you the scholarship. I was happy at that moment I was able to help you.¡± His voice echoed in my mind over and over again.


    I need to wake up¡­I whisper in my mind trying to force my eyes to open. I knew I was in a dream. I need to wake up!


    "Say Hiroko, you want to know why I gave you that scholarship?" He asked me and even when I wanted to ask him why I couldn''t. "It''s simple and easy actually, I fell in love. It was love at first sight. I wanted to help you and see you smile. But who knew, I would forget your face through time."


    I wanted to hug him. To let him know I¡¯m here. Come on! Wake up! I shouted in my mind over and over trying to force myself.


    But what he said pierced my heart shattering it to pieces. ¡°I guess¡­I didn¡¯t love you that much after all.¡±


    I hear footsteps rustling across me and the footsteps slowly are getting weaker and weaker as if he was walking away from me.


    W-wait! Don¡¯t go! No! Don¡¯t go!I shout in my mind and even when I want to reach my hand out towards the dark, I couldn¡¯t. I kept trying and trying till I suddenly woke up.


    ¡°Don¡¯t go!!!¡±I opened my eyes to the rustling of the trees. Akane grabbed my hand and looked down to me with tears coming out of her eyes.


    "Hiroko! Hiroko! Hiroko-chan!"I hear different voices screaming my name around me. I felt sick by just moving my eyes and even when they sound so close, my consciousness felt distant. I hear them calling out my name over and over again as I notice Balo¡¯s face, Kumiko-sensei, Junpei, and Akane all looking down at me with tears running across their cheeks. Thinking it¡¯s a dream, I gave them a smile before I fell back to sleep and wake up to my nightmare.


    My conscious slowly eased into the sound of wood crackling in a fire. I hear the wood get shuffled and my mind managed to picture embers coming off the flames and landing onto the grass.


    Huh? I slowly opened my eyes as I hear what sounds like a river. As my vision slowly adjusts in the dark, I noticed I''m inside a makeshift hut. I''m laying down a leaf bed and to my right, Akane is huddled close to me sleeping. Her eyes seem puffy probably from crying. As I try to move my position, I see Kumiko-sensei to my left sleeping. It was difficult to sit up with them so close but when I managed to, I looked at my hands trembling in fear.


    It wasn¡¯t a dream after all. I asked myself in my mind as I hugged myself. I couldn¡¯t remove the feeling of my flesh being punctured and driving my mind crazy. I tried to relax myself reassuring I¡¯m safe since I¡¯m with them now, but I need to know how I got out. If my last memory before passing out was correct and not my imagination.


    ¡°Ughh¡­.¡± I feel like my head is splitting open. I tried to swallow my own saliva, but my throat is so dry it made me want to puke. Due to the darkness in the room, the lightthat''scoming through the entrance is giving me a headache. I decided to close it since it''s hurting my eyes and that''s when Ihear the boys talking to each other.


    ¡°Fucking Rikimura. when I find him, I¡¯m going to riddle him with holes. That fucking psychopath.¡± Junpei says.


    ¡°But that¡¯s weird. Why would he leave her for us to find her? Don¡¯t get me wrong; I¡¯m glad we found her with injuries we can heal. But if we look at what he did to Akane and Sawada, it seems out of character.¡± Balo replies.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really care. All I know now is that Rikimura needs to be dealt with. If we don¡¯t deal with him now, he will come after the rest of our group later on.¡± Junpei says. I hear someone tossing more wood into the fireplace. That¡¯s when I decided to step out of the tent. As I got out, I noticedwe¡¯re still inside the forest and our camp is next to a river and it''s currentlynighttime.


    ¡°Hiroko!¡± Junpei screams as he sees me. He quickly got close to me to aid me towards the fire pit. I gestured for him to be quiet since Akane and Kumiko-sensei are still sleeping. He nods, and I see Balo coming to my side also to help me sit. I feel like my entire body went through rigorous training and every joint hurt to just even move.


    ¡°How do you feel? Are you all right? Can you talk? You should rest more, I¡¯m here and I won¡¯t let anything harm you again. Do you feel any pain? Do you-¡° I interrupted him by placing my finger in front of his lips gesturing him to be quiet. His nonstop questions and concern are overwhelming me.


    "W-w-water," I whisper and Balo quickly goes to the stream and using a giant leaf rolled as a cone, he scooped up water and came running to me. As soon as he hands me the water, I gulp it down not thinking if it¡¯s safe to drink directly from the stream. ¡°M-m-more.¡±


    I gave him back the leaf cone. Balo then ran back to the stream of water and got more water. After drinking my fill,I relax my body near the fire since the night air is making me shiver. Junpei removed his school jacket and placed it over me. I leanedagainst a log next to it.My body feels reallyworn out.I feel really sluggishand exhausted.


    ¡°Ugh¡­Akane¡­what is it... it¡¯s night out and Hiroko needs slee----huh? Hiroko!!Junpei! Balo! Hiroko is gone!¡± I hear Kumiko-sensei shout frantically as both of them run out the tent with pale expressions. As soon as they seem me, I weakly waved towards them and I can see Akane crying a lot more and the color on Kumiko-sensei face slowly returned as she sighs with relief. Akane rushes towards my side and hugs me so tight I felt like I was being squeezed to death. I was about to say something, but I can feel her whole body shaking. Knowing the fact that I am able to see her and everyone else made tears pour out my eyes to the point it became uncontrollable sobs.I hugged Akane back andjust cried. I cried trying to drown my tormentedmemories.


    It¡¯s still the middle of the night and I can see the moon right above us. After drinking a few more times, I¡¯m able to talk with only feeling a subtle sting down my throat every time I raise my voice. Seems like I screamed my lungs off and remembering the cave, I couldn¡¯t remove the picture in my mind of myself, begging and screaming in pain. I tell them my experience with Rikimura-san and what I went through. I can see Junpei''s eyes fueled with fury. Kumiko-sensei eyes are on the verge of tears and I can see Akane already crying like crazy. I don''t blame her, we both had to go through Rikimura-san''spsychopathic nature.


    "¡­and that''s all I remember," I say to them ending my story.


    ¡°Wait¡­you mean someone saved you? That can¡¯t be possible. Remember what Luro said to us? We''re the only ones here from earth. Aside from the natural inhabitants that were created with the planet, we are the only ones here from earth." Balo says as he analyzes my story.


    ¡°Its ok now Hiroko, we''ll never let you out of our sight again," Kumiko-sensei says as she hugs me and the warmth of her body was reassuring. After I calmed down, we started eating boar meat.


    ¡°I thought it was all a dream till you guys found me outside the dungeon. It all seems to connect. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s him.¡± I say as my voice that rings out my mouth doesn¡¯t sound like mine. ¡°I¡¯m sure he from earth. His back looks familiar as if he-¡°


    I stopped myself from talking and stared at the ground thinking of different scenarios.How can he be here?Why did Luro bring him here?He¡¯s already having a hard time? Why him?


    So many questions ran through my mind as I watched his back in my memories over and over again.


    ¡°Hiroko? Are you okay?¡± Kumiko sensei asked me, and I snap out of my own world giving her a nod.


    ¡°Besides, it seems like Rikimura-san also know who he is," I tell them. "The minute he saw him, he didn¡¯t ask him who are you. He said, ¡®Why are you here?¡¯. So, he must know who he is.¡±


    I stare at Junpei who seems to be thinking the same thing I am. It can only be two options. One, it¡¯s the one I am looking for and Rikimura-san and he areacquaintedback at earth ortwo, it''sYasu. My heart suddenly beats faster at the thought of Yasu being outside of the dungeon. I started totrailoffeveryonepresence and started talking in my mind.


    No, no no no it can¡¯t be. As much as I want to believe it, it seems impossible for him to get out the dungeon unless Luro brought him out. Knowing his nature, he would rather watch him suffer than help him. Wait¡­.a-am I hoping it¡¯s not him? No¡­no¡­no don¡¯t think about it.


    I felt a tug on my shirt and as I looked, I see Akane with a worried expression looking at me. I gave her a smile as I touch her hand which still grabbed on my shirt.


    My shirt?I say in my mind looking down and noticed I¡¯m wearing clothes that aren¡¯t mine. ¡°M-m-my clothes?!¡±


    I cross my arms trying to cover myself as if Iwas naked. The humiliation of them seeing me naked is turning me red from embarrassment.


    ¡°D-d-don¡¯t worry. When we got there, Akane had you covered up the most important parts. And I well; I don¡¯t need my shirt, so I gave you mine. Balo had spare pants inside his dimensional bag so he gave it to you. The only thing is uh¡­umm underwear¡­ we didn¡¯t have any.¡±


    Junpei says fidgeting on his spot. Now that he mentions it, he¡¯s wearing nothing under his metal armor. I relaxed a bit knowing the fact that they didn¡¯t see me. Then I remembered.


    Rikimura-san. He-he almost¡­..his¡­..his thing almost¡­


    The thought of him ravaging my insides like I''m his toybrought shudders and disgust. I started shaking from fear as my breathing became unstable. I placed my head down while hugging my knees as I closed my eyes trying to forget those nightmares.


    I never want to go through that again.Akane placed her hand on top of my shoulder and shook me awake from my thoughts. She then starts pointing at herself and a happy expression filled her face. I thought she was telling me to look at her but, it was actually something else.


    ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t understand. What is it Akane? Are you happy? I''m also happy to see yo--¡± I tellher, andshe interrupts me whenshakes her head gesturing no. She pointed at herself again and this time she tried to mouth her intentions.


    ¡°ee oo emmm?¡± I ask her while trying to read her lips. She shakes her head again. Then her face changed like she had an idea. Then she pointed at Balo and gesture for him to stomp the ground flat. Akane grabbed the smallest stick in the ground and started writing on the spotBalo just stomped flat. After she finished, I moved closer to read it out loud.


    ¡°I saw him. I saw him?¡± I read what she wrote when it suddenly hit me. You saw him?! What does he look like?!!¡±


    My interest peaked way beyond what my body can handle, and I feel tired by just having a sudden outburst of energy.


    ¡°Relax Hiroko-chan. Your body, it¡¯s not fully healed yet.¡± Kumiko-sensei tells me as she forces me to sit back down and calm myself.


    ¡°I¡¯m ok¡­I¡¯m ok¡­Akane, please tell me. Tell me what he looks like.¡± I ask her. No, actually I begged her. This is the closest I have been to know his full appearance. Akane started writing again and I quickly turned my attention to the ground.


    ¡°He looks really scary.¡± I read it out loud as she wrote it. She erased what she wrote and wrote a new one, ¡°I saw him carrying you.¡±


    ¡°So, he was the one who brought you to us," Balo says. Akane started writing again and I read it aloud as she writes.


    ¡°When we locked eyes, we just stared at each other.¡± I read and after a few seconds, she erases it and writes a new one. ¡°He gave off a feeling similar to Luro.¡±


    ¡°Wait don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s Luro¡¯s henchman?¡± Balo asked and we all remained quiet. I see Akane erase the floor again. This time, Balo continued to read as I felt exhausted.


    ¡°He was hurt. Blood was dripping from a wound.¡± The minute Balo read it my heart sank. Knowing he got hurt protecting me is unbearable. My eyes started tearing up. I wanted to run out of the forest and find him. He helped me but he''s out there all alone, without no one to care for him. I really wanted to find him.


    ¡°D-did he say anything?!¡± I run to Akane grabbing her arms. She was surprised at my sudden outburst but as her expression calmed down, she shook her head side to side.


    ¡°Akane, after he saw you, what did he do?¡± Balo asked her and she stomped on the ground again to write.


    ¡°He just ran away.¡± Kumiko-sensei read it this time and I didn¡¯t know what to think.


    ¡°Ran away?¡± Junpei asked. Akane just nodded.


    ¡°Huh? Why would he do that? Did he see us as a threat also?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked herself. While they¡¯re thinking about the situation, in my mind, it¡¯s filled with him. He saved me and yet, I couldn¡¯t save him. Here I am regaining my energy without a wound, but he¡¯s all by himself somewhere hurt with no one there to help him. He saved me the second time. And yet I can''t even save him at least once. The thought made my heart drown in pain. I rest my head on my knees while hugging my legs sitting in a fetal position. I can feel Akanesit right beside me and hugs me. Even though I can¡¯t hear her crying, I know she is. My sobs have become loud and uncontrollable. The whole camp is got quiet, and my cries echoed through the woods. I cried through the night until exhaustion has succumbed me.


    I woke up the next day feeling a lot worse I couldn''t sleep because of the nightmares I get of my horrible experience. My energy hasn¡¯t come back even though it didn''t ache anymore,I feel very heavy to just move around. I step out of the tent and see everyone moving about. I noticed Jumpei sharpening a few sticks, which made my stomach turn remembering Rikimura do the same.


    ¡°Oh morning Hiroko, you should rest. We won''t leave until you are fully healed. Just relax inside the tent. And don''t worry, we''ll be right here. We won''t let Rikimura or anyone else harm you. I promise.¡± Junpei says andI nod and retreat back inside.


    I lie down and stare at the sunlight passing through small holes in the ceiling made of tree leaves.


    "I wonder what''s he doing now," I say to myself as I slowly doze off.


    I woke up with another nightmare and gasping for air. My whole body is covered in sweat and I see Akane huddled next to me. I decided to step out to get fresh air and I noticed it''s nighttime already. As I approach the entrance of the tent to exit out,I head a conversation that stopped me from my tracks.I worked my way closer to the entrance and listen to their conversation.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, that looked like his camp. I didn¡¯t want to go inside just in case he there.¡± I hear Balo whisper.


    ¡°What should we do? Should we get everyone else first then confront him? I think with all of us together, he can''t overpower us.¡± I hear Kumiko-sensei reply.


    Ah, the others I forgot about them. I whisper in my mind not wanting to make a noise.OnlyBalo, Junpei, Kumiko-sensei, and Akane are here. The others, I guess they''reback atthe camp near the lake and the giant tree.


    ¡°Should we tell Hiroko?¡± I hear Balo asked which Junpei replied without hesitation.


    ¡°No. She has been through enough as it is. I don¡¯t want her to re-live what she went through. Balo, I¡¯ll go tomorrow, early morning. I¡¯ll surprise attack him. If he¡¯s sleeping, he can¡¯t use his skill on me. Tell me how to get there.¡± Junpei says.


    ¡°No dude, that¡¯s dangerous. What happens if he gets an upper hand on you? I think we all need to go together.¡± Balo says. ¡°This way, we can protect each other if he decided to use the skill.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Kumiko-sensei agrees and I can hear them lower their voice mumbling to each other. I guess they¡¯re trying to make a plan on how to deal with Rikimura.


    I quickly lay back down my leaf bed.So many thoughts in my mind that it made it harder for me to sleep through the night. I woke up earlier than everyone else. Basically, I couldn''t sleep due to my nightmares so I just lay down with my eyes closed. Balo is in night watch while Junpei, Kumiko-sensei, and Akane are all inside the tent sleeping. The next morning, they explained to me their plan and Junpei was hesitant of letting me go. I agreed knowing that, I need to get a closure or else, I¡¯ll keep getting nightmares. I didn''t want to live in fear always watching my back to see if he¡¯s there. I wanted him gone.


    After eating breakfast in silence, we all got ready to find the hideout I was kept in. Even though I tried to look confident, I know for the fact that inside I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m scared to go through that again. I¡¯m scared to even set a foot in there. But I have to. Rikimura is the only one who knows who he is.


    If going back inside Rikimura-san hideout will give me nightmares, then so be it.I say in my mind to stop myself from shaking but my hands couldn¡¯t stop. I kept them inside my pockets so nobody can notice my fear. We walked through the dense forest while Balo leads the way. It seems like he''s the one that found the hideout while he was scouting around for boars with Kumiko-sensei. After a while of following the marks he left on the tree''s we found the hideout. It was a cave entrance covered in dirt and leaves making it difficult to see from far away. As we stood near the entrance, my heart palpitated so fast I felt sick. I wanted to throw up as my memories of the cave haunted me over and over again. Akane and Kumiko-sensei stroke my back trying to calm me down and after a while of trying to control my breathing, I managed to calm down as long as I avert my gaze away from the cave.


    ¡°Ok guys, I found other caves in the area but this one was different," Balo whispers to us as we slowly crept inside the entrance. I kept my gaze down the ground and barely listened as I tried to flood my thoughts of happy memories I had back at home. My heart feels like its going to pop out of my chest. My breathing became irregular and I tried to hide it but somehow, I feel like oxygen inside the cave is getting thinner and thinner than I had to stop.


    ¡°Hiroko, are you okay?¡± Kumiko-sensei quickly got beside me and I see all of them have a worried look.


    ¡°Y-yea, I¡¯m fine. Let''s move on." I told them trying to force a smile but deep inside of me, I want to cry. Akane quickly grabbed my hands and hugged it. I can see her eyes are getting teary and I told her I¡¯m okay. Akane gave me a smile and somehow it made me felt a bit relaxed calming down a bit knowing she¡¯s right beside me.


    Yes, Hiroko. You''re not alone this time. Your friends are here. You can do this. I say in my mind and we all push forwards deeper in the cave.


    ¡°There, you see that? Look at the floor. That rock looks like it slides sideways.¡± Balo points towards a rock formation on the wall. The floor had skid marks of the rock being pushed side to side.


    ¡°Okay, Balo, Let¡¯s open it.¡± Junpeiwhispersand both of them move towards the rock. The boys pushed the rock sideways exposing a bigger gap. A gust of wind came out of the inside formation and an atrocious smell exited the cave that is similar to feces and body liquids mixed together on a hot summer day. The smell was so strong that it brought us back out the cave gasping for fresh air. Balo, Kumiko-sensei, and Akane threw up while Junpei tried to hold it in. I remember being covered in my own piss and shit that it didn¡¯t affect me as much.


    ¡°Ugh, what in the actual fuck¡­¡± Balo says as he wiped his mouth.


    ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s his cave?¡± Kumiko-sensei asks as she finished vomiting.


    ¡°I Don¡¯t know. I never really went that far inside.¡± Balo says.


    "Well, there only one way to find out," Junpei say as he walked towards us after vomiting on a tree. After a while of breathing fresh air, we all decided to lurk inside the cave one more time. Akane stayed behind me grabbing my leather armor. Junpei is in front of us while Balo stays near the back behind Kumiko-sensei. The smell was less since it escaped to the outside but it was still strong enough to make them occasionally gag. We then got to the far end of the inside cave and another entrance was there. Once I saw the inside, I knew that this was the one. This was the cave I was tortured in. My hand and legs started shaking and my heart was palpitating so fast it felt like I was having a heart attack.


    ¡°G-g-guys, lets rest for a minute," I tell them and they all agree so we hugged the far end wall. Junpei and Balo kept watching while Akane and Kumiko-sensei helped me get my breathing back to normal. Which isn¡¯t working as I hoped since the smell inside the cave isn¡¯t helping at all.


    ¡°Are you okay Hiroko-chan?¡± Kumiko-sensei asks me as she rubs my back. I can see Akane getting teary as she looks at me grabbing on my hand. Even though we are the same age, I feel like she¡¯s a little sister I never had. I smile at her then I silently say¡®I¡¯m Okay¡¯while giving her a smile. Akane then smiles back.


    ¡°I¡¯m okay Kumiko-sensei," I tell her. ¡°And Balo, your right. This is Rikimura-sans hideout. That place through that entrance is where I was held hostage and-.¡±


    I hug myself to prevent my body from shaking uncontrollably. Balo just nods and me probably telling me I don''t have to continue explaining. We waited a couple of minutes and my shaking hasn¡¯t stopped. I can¡¯t wait here forever. It¡¯s either now or never.


    ¡°Let''s go," I tell everyone as I stood up from my position. My shaking hasn''t stopped but my desire to find clues on his whereabouts are stronger. I started walking towards the entrance and Junpei quickly walked beside me while everyone else is behind us. Akane is grabbing on my shirt like a lost child.


    As we got close to the entrance, we slowly crouched. Junpei indicated for us to stay first and follow in about 5 minutes just in case he uses his paralyze skill. Junpei managed to level up and learn the skill. On our way to the cave, he explained to us how the paralyze skill can only work on a certain radius. If we''re not within the radius, we won''t be affected. But the higher the levelthebiggerthe radius gets. Junpei creeps in and we waited for him to activate his paralyze skill. If he paralyzes Rikimura first, he won''t be able to do the same to us.


    ¡°Paralyze!¡± Junpei shouts and my heart kept beating at a rapid pace. After a while, Junpei peeks back out and stares at us. ¡°Guys get in here quick."


    The minute we made our way through the entrance, the scene that we encounter baffled us, even me. Rikimura-san was laying down the ground with only one arm. He is completely naked and is covered in his own feces. Around the area was a scene I don''t remember. Nails, hair, and even a stick covered in feces were scattered around the ground. He had holes in his skin similar to the one he did to me but, it seems like someone played connect the dots with them using a blade. Blood had started to dry and I can see some of them started having a puss.


    "I-is....is he still alive?" Kumiko-sensei whispers looking at the unmoving body of Rikimura-san.


    ¡°Junpei, did you kill him already?!¡± Balowhispersto Junpei trying to joke around but I think they know this is a serious matter. My savior might not be as innocent as I thought he was.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t do it! But holy shit, this is brutal.¡± Junpei says as he kicks Rikimura-san body. Rikimura-san woke up and the minute he saw us, he started mumbling and screaming but Junpei¡¯s skill prevented him from even moving an arm.


    So, this is paralyze¡­I Whisper in my mind and I felt furious by just looking at him. Fueled by hatred, my body moved on its own towards Rikimura. Everything around us two was gone as I only saw him. Using all of my strength, I kicked him in the gut and his body moved a few inches from where he¡¯s at. He started coughing and vomiting on the ground. He looked up at me and his gaze wasn¡¯t the same as before. It¡¯s like I was looking at myself when I begged for mercy. I hated it.


    ¡°Die!¡± I shouted as I kicked him again and again until I felt someone grab me from the back and pulled me away from him. ¡°Let me go! He needs to die!¡±


    ¡°Hiroko! Relax! We need information from him!¡± Balo shouted as he held me back. The moment of braveness and burst of anger turned into fear as I feel scared at his presence.


    ¡°You fucking bastard! You deserve this!¡± Junpei shouted grabbing him by his remaining hair. He dragged Rikimura out of the cave while Balo and Akane held me back. I couldn¡¯t take it in here, I needed to get out. I was overwhelmed by my own feelings and I passed out.


    I woke up to someone shouting. I couldn¡¯t understand what was going on around me. As soon as I got a clear understanding of my surroundings, I notice Rikimura mumbling while he had his remaining hand covering his face. He was still naked on the ground as he cowers in fear in front of Junpei. I see Akane and Kumiko-sensei heling me up as Junpei tried to tie up Rikimura while cursing him out. I see Balo run out of the cave and head straight towards me. I see him holding his nose in the verge of gagging probably due to the smell of the cave. He tried to discreetly hand me something and when I looked, I see my clothes, which I quickly grabbed it and placed it in my dimensional bag.


    "Took it just in case you might want it back," Balo says.


    "T-thank you," I tell him. I say trying to avert his gaze and when I noticed, Junpei tied Rikimura to a tree. He used a vine looping it around the tree and Rikimura¡¯s body.


    ¡°What the fuck," Balo says as he looks at him. ¡°We found out, he¡¯s missing a tongue also.¡±


    Balo¡¯s voice is becoming muffled as my focus stays on Rikimura. I hated him with everything I had. I clenched my fist and stood up glaring at him. This time no one stopped me yet I hear everyone¡¯s voice calling my name over and over again. As soon as I got close, I can see his eyes full of fear that made me smirk while glaring him down. Using all my strength, I slapped him as hard as I can. I didn''t care if he had info about my savior. I didn¡¯t care if I break his neck, I wanted him to feel the pain I went through. No one stopped me this time as I didn''t go crazy but I can notice they¡¯re wary ready to pull me back if I go insane again.


    ¡°Now, tell me. Where is he? Who is he?!¡± I asked him as I stand over him looking down at his face.¡°ahh¡­I forgot you can''t talk. It¡¯s quite nice to not hear your fucking voice. Who did this to you? Did you get bored by any chance and did it to yourself?¡±


    I place my foot towards his chest pushing him against the tree as hard as I can. I see him mumble as he struggles to breathe.


    Suffer like this you son of a bitch.I cursed him in my mind.


    ¡°Junpei," I say out loud.


    ¡°Uh-Y-y-yeah?¡± Junpei replies to me as he stands by my side.


    "Untie him," I reply back.


    ¡°Hiroko, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a goo¡ª¡°


    ¡°Forget what you think! Do it now!¡± I scream as I interrupted Junpei.


    Junpei then moves to Rikimura-san and using his sword, he cuts the vines tying up Rikimura-san to a tree.Rikimura-santried to run and I managed to kick him to the side making him stumble to the ground. I see him cough blood while tears come out of his eyes.


    ¡°This is nowhere close enough to what you did to us," I whisper to him, as I got close. I stood behind him and grabbed his arm pulling it back. I hear him scream in pain and I didn''t stop until I dislocated his arm. He screamed non-stop rolling around the ground but, in my mind, it still isn''t enough. I want to see him suffer more. He tried crawling away using his legs but it didn¡¯t do him any good.


    ¡°Do you really think you can get away?¡± I whisper as I step on his back putting all my weight on it. He¡¯s making so much noise it¡¯s giving me a headache. I didn¡¯t care. ¡°Eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.¡±


    Igrabbed one of my arrows and snapped it in half. I hear them scream but I didn''t want to listen to anyone as I jam the arrowhead in his thigh.


    ¡°Gaaaaaahhhhhhh!" He screamed as I twist the arrow inside his thigh. I twist the arrow more and Rikimura-san screamed until he passed out. ¡°Fuck! Wake up!¡±


    I slapped him around a few more times and my hand started to hurt. But Rikimura-san never woke up he stayed unconscious as his cheeks started to swell up. I ended up sitting on the ground crying looking at my hand full of blood. I hate what he did to me but I suddenly realized, I hate what I have become because of him. All I saw is red as I grabbed the arrow and pull it out of his leg. I moved towards his head and that''s when I felt an arm around me holding me back.


    ¡°Hiroko! Relax!¡± Junpei shouts as I flail around trying to break free.


    ¡°Let me go! He needs to die!¡± I shout as I struggle some more and this time, Kumiko-sensei hugs me from the front. I can see her body shaking and it finally made me stop struggling as her voice gets through me.


    "Hiroko! It''s ok! But please! Don''t be like him!" Kumiko-sensei shouts as she hugs me tight and I knew what she was talking about. She didn''t want me to be a killer. I cried and cried as loud as I can, trying to drown all the pain in my tears. I slump to the ground and I couldn''t control myself as I bawl out.


    "There, there, I know you have been through a lot. It''s ok to cry Hiroko when your heart is in pain." Kumiko-sensei says as I tried to stop crying but all that comes out my mouth are wails of pain, regret, and anger. "I know Hiroko-chan, I know. But the one who saved you is strong enough to have survived on his own. Don¡¯t lose hope okay? You will soon meet him. I believe in that. But don¡¯t turn yourself to your anger.¡±


    Her comfort and warmth made my tears come out more and my crying has gotten louder and I cried till I couldn¡¯t cry anymore.


    It''s now mid-day and they decided to go back to camp. I woke up not long ago and decided to wash on the stream since the smell of feces and urine was too strong. We brought the unconscious Rikimura-san with us. Balo and Junpei have tied him up on a tree and kept a close watch. They also threw water at him thinking he would wake up but he didn¡¯t. He smelled like someone who hasn¡¯t showered for days along with the smell of urine and his own crap. We all sat around the campfire looking at the flame while Akane huddled herself to my left while Junpei sat on my right.


    ¡°U-um¡ªJunpei?¡± I call out his name.


    ¡°Hm? What is it Hiroko?¡± Junpei says smiling towards my way.


    ¡°Um¡ªum---about earlier¡­..I''m sorry," I tell him. I felt bad I lashed out on Junpei earlier even though he was only trying to help me.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko. I know you went through a lot. Rikimura deserves far worse than that. It''s not your fault.¡± Junpei says while keeping a smile in his face. I looked back at the fire feeling a bit relaxed he didn''t hate me and as I stared at the fire, thought of his suddenly entered my mind.


    Yasu. I whisper in my thoughts and the guilt came back to me and made it uncomfortable to even breathe normally. After lunch, I decided to stay inside the tent. The sight of Rikimura-san brings back unwanted memories and makes me want to rip his eyes out. Akane also stayed there with me along with Kumiko-sensei. I guess Akane also felt the same as me and Kumiko-sensei is like a big sister to us both keeper us to her close watch.


    ¡°So you''re saying that he gave you his scholarship after you failed the test? Then you found out that he gave it to you knowing the fact he needs more himself. Wow¡­that''s¡­. isn¡¯t that love?¡± Kumiko-sensei says and the word made my heart flutter.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. That¡¯s why I have to find him and find out.¡± I tell her. I feel like my face is getting hot.


    ¡°What happens if you do find him and he says he loves you?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked me.


    ¡°I-I-I guess I would¡­¡± I stopped mid-sentence as I remember my dream. Akane suddenly grabbed Kumiko-sensei arms and brought her face to hers. Then she started mouthing off silent words.


    ¡°My savior! I can¡¯t live without you anymore! Take me!¡± Then Kumiko-sensei falls back and Akane goes on top of her still mimicking a guy. "My Savior, I shall become your first."


    Kumiko-sensei says as she pulls Akane towards her. Then both of them started laughing and screaming. Even though Kumiko-sensei is older than us, she looks so young that she can pull off being out older sister better than a teacher. My face along with my body started getting hot and I felt at peace with them even when they¡¯re joking around. They giggle some more when we suddenly heard shouts coming outside the tent.


    ¡°S-Sawada! Everyone! You¡¯re here!¡± All three of us step out of the tent and we see all of the boys came from our camp. Once Sawada, Tobi, and Riki saw me, they came running and hugged me.


    ¡°Hiroko! We were so worried!¡± Riki says as he hugs me along with the other two. ¡°Y-You disappeared from our sight! Rikimura where is he! That bastard!¡±


    "He''s right behind you," I tell him. Sawada started laughing and told me to stop playing around.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not. He¡¯s right behind you.¡± I say then all of them turned around and see a naked Rikimura-san unconscious and tied to a tree.


    ¡°You asshole!!!¡± Sawada screams and he started charging the unconscious Rikimura-san but ended up being stopped by Balo and Junpei.


    ¡°Sawada! Relax! We will get a chance later on! For now, we need him alive.¡± Junpei says as he held Sawada back. Once Sawada managed to calm down, Junpei explains why I need him. After dinner, I decided to tell everyone my experience and I can see the fury in all of the guy''s eyes.


    "That perverted prick!" Tobi shouts and I see the fury in his eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko, were behind you one hundred percent!¡± Takumi, a guy from Balo¡¯s team tells me as he stood up. ¡°We are the newly formed Hiroko-Chan Fan club! We will protect you at the cost of our lives! We will fight that Penis-less bastard!¡±


    What the hell is wrong with these gu¡ª


    ¡°Hiroko-chan! Hiroko-chan! Hiroko-chan!¡± Takumistarted chanting and all of the guys except Sawada, Balo, and Junpei started chanting.


    ¡°Umm guys¡­.¡± Junpei says and the chanting stopped. ¡°Umm¡­H-how¡­..how do I join?¡±


    ¡°pfft hahaha welcome new member!!¡± Takumi says and he started chanting Junpei¡¯s name and everyone started following him.


    ¡°Hahaha, setting jokes aside, what do we do with him?¡± Sawada points at Rikimura who suddenly started waking up making us stand up. Then the fury inside my heart ignited. I am glad he woke up but I''m angry at the same time. A part of me didn''t want him to wake up and just let him die in his sleep.


    When I tried to walk to him, Balo quickly stopped me, ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko I got this. I¡¯ll get the information out. Your not 100 percent yet, so just sit there. Junpei, come with me.¡±


    Balo and Junpei stoop up and approached Rikimura-san who is looking at all of us now with fear in his eyes. Once he saw the two boys approach him, he started screaming making that tongue-less noise again.


    ¡°Relax, Relax Rikimura. We just need information and we will let you go. Now, kindly tell who is the guy that saved Hiroko. Do you know where he is right now?¡± Balo says. Rikimura-san shakes his head. I know Balo is lying. He is still really furious about what happened to Akane.Balo cut the vine that¡¯s holding Rikimura to a tree and Junpei handed him a stick to write on the ground beside him.


    ¡°Ok, seems like you know who he is, write down his name in the floor. Now if you decide to lie and give us the wrong information. We will slowly kill you here. Understand~?¡± Balo says in a menacing voice. Rikimura-sanstarted writing on the ground and Junpei read it out loud for everyone to hear.


    ¡°The devil himself came out of the dungeon.¡± Junpei reads the writing confused on what¡¯s he¡¯s talking about. Rather than happiness, it brought some uneasiness in my mind.


    ¡°Okay Rikimura-san, who is this devil you talk of. Is he the one who saved Hiroko?¡± Balo asked and Rikimura-san nods in agreement.


    ¡°Write down his name Rikimura. And stop fucking playing around.¡± Junpei says while he erased the previous writing with his feet. Rikimura then started writing on the ground again and after he finished, half of us paused, as we are familiar with the name. I started breathing heavily and I couldn¡¯t understand what was going on.


    ¡°Oi oi oi oi are you serious? Yasu?¡± Tobi whispers as he looks at the name.


    ¡°You fucking piece of shit,¡± Junpei seems agitated and grabbed Rikimura-san by his neck. ¡°You bastard! You know how to piss me off huh?! You have no right to even mention his name!!¡±


    Even I am furious for him writing down Yasu¡¯s name. It pissed me off so much I stood from where I am and approached Rikimura-san. I took out an arrow from my dimensional bag and I brought it close to his throat.


    ¡°You! You motherfucker! How dare you make fun of the dead! You, he even helped you inside the dungeon! He helped all of us! You have no right to mention his name!¡± I shout at him as I pull the bow back. I can see Rikimura-san shaking from fear and then he stopped. He put on a big smile and started laughing. He kept on laughing but he isn¡¯t looking at me. His gaze is somewhere else. I suddenly hear a clap from behind us and thinking it''s Yasu, I turned around with to be only greeted by Luro. Everyone now stood up and took their weapons out of their dimensionalbag. Akane ran behind us and with all of our attention towards Luro, we didn¡¯t notice Rikimura-san and he went full sprint towards Luro and knelt down in front of him like he is worshiping a god.


    ¡°That fucking bastard.¡± I hear Sawada say.


    ¡°Wow~ You little babies are something! Why not give the poor one-handed penis-less man some clothes! That is soooooo inhumane~ kekekekekekekekekekeke!¡±Luro says advancing towards us and Rikimura follow behind him like Gollum.He sat down near the campfire and took one of the meat cooking on a stick and started eating it.


    ¡°Mhm mhm mhm. Who made this?! Is soooo goooood~¡±He says as he kept on munching on the meat.¡°But, not as good as the stuff he cooks~¡±


    ¡°What do you want from us Luro?¡± Balo breaks the silence.


    ¡°Well, I want you all to kill me¡­that¡¯s what I have been saying all this time~¡±Luro says without looking at Balo while he eats the meat.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°We would but I know we''renot strong enough. Besides, you¡¯re a hologram, aren''t you? Last time we tried to attack you we couldn¡¯t.¡± Junpei says remembering the area we spawned in when we died.


    ¡°Thaaaaats why~ you all have to find my Lair and attack from there! Duuuuh~¡±Luro says as he tosses a piece of meat towards Rikimura-san like he¡¯s a dog.Rikimura quickly grabbed the meat like he¡¯s been starved for years.


    ¡°Now, you little babies were amusing but now you all have become boring. Why is that? Let''s just say this Rikimura business and that savior crap is getting really annoying. It¡¯s like watching the same episode over and over and over again. Like, come on! Kill him already!¡±Luro says and he quicklystabbed Rikimura in the chest with his bare hands. They both looked at each other for a few seconds Rikimura looked down towards his chest. His eyes suddenly went white as his hand goes limp dropping the food on the ground. We all froze in place and couldn¡¯t say anything as we watched Rikimura¡¯s body turn into ashes.


    "Kukukukuku! This is how you guys suppose to kill a person. This is how I killed Yasu to bring him here~"Hearing him mention Yasu''s name made mechargedtowards Luro. He just killed the only clue I have to look for himnow he''s telling me he did the same thing to Yasu have clouded my mind with hate and fury.While I run towards Luro, his body suddenly disappeared appearing further back into the forest.


    ¡°Ewww. This is why I don¡¯t want followers. Image that thing standing beside me as I sleep?! What if he rapes me?!Ewwwwwww~¡±Luro says as he squirms around.


    ¡°Everyone! That¡¯s not a hologram! That¡¯s the real one!!¡± Balo shouts as he charges towards Luro with everyone else behind him. I launched an arrow towards his face and he easily dodged it tilting his head to the left.


    ¡°That¡¯s the spirit! Kekekekeke~¡± Luro replies as he opened his arms expecting a hug. Everyone¡¯s sword went through Luro body but he just stood there. Rather than dying, Luro gave us a smile as blood flows out of his mouth. Everyone was started and jumped back while pulling their weapons out of his body. Luro made a gurgling sound chocking on his own blood before laughing like a maniac spitting blood everywhere.


    ¡°W-w-what the fuck?! Everyone! Attack again!¡±Balo shouts and they all did. I sent my arrow towards his face and it went through his eye without him even blinking or flinching.


    ¡°Ow~ that hurt¡¯s you know?¡± He says before laughing at us. Smoke started appearing on his wounds, and in a quick shout, everyone has pushed away from him by force. I watched his whole body heal his wound and in an instant, it looked like we never even attacked him in the beginning. He pulled out the arrow from his head taking an eye out to only regenerate a new one in an instant.


    "Fucking monster," Balo whispered as he slowly stood up.


    ¡°Who me? No no no. I¡¯m a god.¡± Luro smiled and it gave me chills down my spine. ¡°Well, I just wanted to check on you guys. I''ll see you when you little babies find me~ kekekekekekekekekekekekeke~¡±


    He turned around not and started walking deeper into the forest. He waved us goodbye and we could hear him laughing which gradually fades into silence.


    ¡°F-f-fuck¡­what is he?! A zombie?!¡± Riki says he slumps to the ground.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But it¡¯s definitely not going to be easy killing him.¡± Balo says putting his weapon back inside his dimensional bag.


    ¡°Dammit! Even our skillsdon¡¯t work! I used a skill on him when I lodged my sword and he didn''t even flinch!¡± Takumisays.No one said anything after that. We all waited a couple of hours to see if Luro will come back but then we settled down in the camp. Knowing that someone or something like that exists as our enemy made us all on the edge through the night.


    I tried to sleep but my nightmares didn''t disappear. I still can''tforgive Rikimura-saneven in his death for what he did to me. Torturing me, Sawada, Akane, and leaving Yasu to die, he had it coming. But deep down inside, I felt guilty. I also chose to leave behind Yasu. If I was given another chance to choose and if Yasu is the same as the one I was looking for, I would have picked him. I felt agitated we had to choose.


    Yasu, are you really alive?I whisper to myself as lay down inside the tent. If you saved me, why didn''t you stay¡­


    I close my eyes and tears traveled across mycheek. I didn''t sleep that night. None of us did. In the morning, we all decided to travel back to the gold camp. There is no point for us camping here anymore. Rikimura-san was killed off and staying near where I was tortured didn''t help with mynightmares at night. Getting back was a lot faster than I expected. It took us around a day to get back where we were before. I heard from Sawada that they tried to leave to follow Junpei and Balo but they took a long time for them to actually leave camp because a fog enveloped everything around them and they couldn¡¯t see where they were going. They had to wait till the next day for the fog to clear up and they told us that, they heard noises at the night before making it impossible to sleep thinking Rikimura was with them. To which is why they never lit a fire and stayed closed together in the dark. Once morning hits and the noise were gone, they decided to leave and relentlessly walked until they found us.


    ¡°It can¡¯t be Rikimura," Junpei says as I hear them talk trying to figure out what made the noises at night at our camp. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a boar or something.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know but we heard it splashing around the water from a distance. I even heard a brief voice.¡± Sawada replied back and the first thing in my mind is Yasu. How nice it would be to come back into the camp and he was there. But a part of me wishes it weren¡¯t him. Because if he really got out of the dungeon, and he¡¯s the one I¡¯ve been looking for, I don¡¯t think I can take it if he hates me. I walked in silence just looking at the ground following them when I felt a presence come near me. I look to my left and I see Akane nonchalantly smiling while grabbing my arm. I was glad she stuck around me since her smile and attitude were rubbing off me and I start feeling a bit better.


    Once we got back I suddenly slump near the fireplace. It gave off a warm feeling as the small fire kept going hanging on to its last breath. I wondered why they did such a dangerous thing leaving a fire unattended. They could have lit the whole forest on fire.


    "Guy''s that was dangerous to leave the fire pit lit," Balo says as he added more leaves helping the flame get stronger. ¡°What if you burned down the forest?¡±


    "Holy shit, holy shit. I fucking told you someone was there!" Sawada and the other guys who came after we were surprised looking at the campfire. "We haven''t lit that thing in a couple of days!"


    ¡°What?¡± Junpei replies back and we all got quiet slowly looking around. Junpei and Balo took out their swords as they slowly approached the tents. Once they got close, the suddenly opened the curtain made out of leaves and the body suddenly relaxed as they put their swords away.


    "No one is here," Balo says looking around us and if someone were here, we would have seen him or her running away from a mile away.


    "Fuck, my jacket is gone," Junpei says as he looked around the camp. This made Balo also rush towards his area and I hear him curse to himself.


    ¡°Ok be alert, it seems like someone was actually here. My damn good sword is gone.¡± He says looking around some more. I wondered why he didn¡¯t store it in his bag but then again, I didn''t want to ask. They must have left everything in a rush to come and save me, which I¡¯m grateful of.


    What if¡­. what if he was here?I whispered in my mind and I felt my heart race. I quickly ran out the flat land and did a quick look around but nothing. Rikimura-san is dead now so that means it can only be one person who was close enough to this camp. Junpei and the rest of the guys run out after me.


    "Hiroko what happened?! Did you see something?!" Riki says as he catches up with everyone and me.


    ¡°What if it was him?¡± I say and they all remained silent knowing who I was talking about.


    ¡°It can¡¯t be, how would he know about this place?¡± Riki says and it irks me the way he said it. I was about to say something when Balo interrupted me.


    ¡°It¡¯s a possibility. Think about it, other than all of us here, who else was close to this camp?¡± He said and everyone didn¡¯t reply as they all looked around.


    ¡°So what should we do?¡± Takumi asked Balo.


    ¡°Well, let''s all go back and get settled. Let¡¯s wait here just in case he comes back. If this guy is really your friend, I don''t think he would be stupid enough to attack all of us at the same time. Maybe we can try talking to him. If he¡¯s not Yasu, we need to be alert regardless.¡± Balo said and I felt prickling pain in my heart knowing that, if it¡¯s Yasu, if it¡¯s really him, I¡¯ll have to know there¡¯s a chance that he hates me now, and if Yasu is the same person I¡¯ve been looking for, I can¡¯t take it if he hates me.


    We all walked back to the camp and washed on the lake. They told me to just rest while everyone did their best to reinforce the camp, building fences to deter any animals that might come our way. They even strengthen the tent¡¯s just in case it rains, water won''t get inside. Nighttime quickly hits the horizon and everyone decided to rest while Sawada, Junpei, Balo, and Tobi kept watching but I know they probably can''t sleep with all that''s happening around us.


    Not worrying about Rikimura is a relief but seeing how he dies just made everything more real. We died once but being reborn made it feel like it''s a game. But this time, if we die, I know we won¡¯t be back. Since I couldn¡¯t sleep, I decided to step out and sit by the campfire. Akane saw me leaving and followed me out. Junpei and Balo were outside with Tobi and Sawada sitting around the campfire.


    ¡°Can¡¯t sleep?¡± Junpei asked me as I approach them.


    ¡°Mhm," I say as I sit myself down on the ground and rest my back on a log. Akane followed suit and sat right beside me.


    ¡°You''re not the only one. After what happened, it kind of scares me to go to sleep. I don¡¯t know how Riki does it. The guy is completely knocked out.¡± Tobi says.


    ¡°My nightmares get so vivid sometimes it makes me harder to fall back asleep," I said hugging my legs in a fetal position. No one said anything. I can feel we all wanted to ask the question but we didn¡¯t. Scared of what actually might be true.


    ¡°But why would he write Yasu¡¯s name?¡± Tobi suddenly broke the silence. ¡°Did he really got out of the dungeon?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know. It might be just Rikimura-san messing with us. But, what if he did get out?¡± Junpei wonders himself and I can see a confusing expression between happiness and fear.


    ¡°Maybe Luro took him out of the Dungeon?¡± I tell them.


    "That also would make sense. But¡­¡± I could see Junpei confused as he fed the fire with more sticks. ¡°How did he deal with Rikimura?Remember he had a non-combatant class. Hecouldn¡¯t evenwield a sword. Rikimura was missing an arm andlooked like shit when we saw him.¡±


    ¡°He even smelled like one too," Balo says making us remember the smell and I hated the idea of being captive in there. Luckily they didn''t find me like that.


    "What if, hypothetically speaking. Yasu managed to yank off with his bare hands?" Tobiaskedand thesilence quickly came back. Even if as absurd as it might sound, nothing in this world is normal which makes everything much scarier as the possibilities of what used to be impossible to do have started to become something we can accomplish.


    "Akane, when you saw the one whosaved me, was he wearing a school uniform?"I turned to Akane and asked her.She shook her head from side to side.


    It justdoesn''t make sense.I whisper in my mind as I rest my head on my knees.


    ¡°But what if he did get out?¡± Balo asked us making me look up to him. ¡°The main question that we should think about is how did he get out? The gatekeeper and other elitemonsters guarded our portal it should have been the same with yours.¡±


    "That''s true," Tobi replied to him as he threw more stick into the fire. "Last time we tried to run past them, we all died. I don''t think he can run pass them by himself.Those damn wolves had such a high range of perception they saw us right when we exited the door."


    "Let''s not forget that your portal is broken into pieces. Unless he broke them after he got out which will be difficult only for one person. Even we couldn¡¯t break our portal when we tried before." Balo says.


    ¡°I think we should be careful this time," Junpei says as he leans back and looks up at the night sky staring at earth. Silence quickly came as no one said anything and I felt a pain in my heart making it harder to swallow my saliva.


    "Yeah, I think we should be more cautious," Balo replies back.


    ¡°Last time I decided to trust arandom stranger ended up sleeping at night with a psychopath. I know wecan''t bring back time but if I did and I knew about Rikimura, I would stay in there with Yasu." Junpei says as he looks back towards the fire.


    "I think your right," Balo replies right back at Junpei while throwing sticks into the fire. ¡°Don''t hate me for this but, if it is your friend Yasu who saved you. That¡¯s good he got out. But if it¡¯s someone else, that person is strong enough to cripple Rikimurawho injured three of our team. He¡¯s strong enough to survive without a healer.So far, whoever it is, this person who saved Hiroko is similar to an overpowered game character."


    ¡°What if it was really Yasu. If it¡¯s him, I hope he doesn¡¯t what we did. I don¡¯t want him as an enemy.¡± Junpei words trail off as he looks towards the ground.


    "You mean he might become our enemy?Yasu?" Tobiasked.


    "Well, first of all, he might not be Yasu," Junpei says trying to lighten up the mood. ¡°He might be another worse psychopath Luro brought to this world.¡°


    "Ialso don''t want to risk my team or all of your lives at something we aren''t even 100 percent sure is an ally," Balo replies back. ¡°I have to lead everyone to find our castle.Since you¡¯re allpart of the gold district guild, that is also your castle. But that doesn''t mean I will stop you if you decided to look for this individual. That choice is yours to make. I''m not Rikimura that''s about to force you guys to choose."


    "I think we should look for the castle also," Tobi replied.


    "Same, we can worry about anything else after," Junpei says.


    "Hiroko? How about you?" Balo asked me. I couldn''t say anything. I already asked them to look for Yasu and ended up getting Sawada and Akaneseverely hurt.I can¡¯t ask them to look for a stranger we might think that¡¯s it¡¯s Yasu. I need to get stronger. I need to get stronger and protect everyone close to me. I need to get stronger to go home.


    ¡°Same, I''m with you," I tell him.


    I¡¯m not leaving them behind. I¡¯I just need to get stronger first. Then, I''ll come back. I''ll come back for them. I''ll come back for Yasu and my Savior.I say in my mind over and over again.


    Sun quickly rose and Balo decided to tell the rest of the group were leaving the camp today to look for the castle.


    ¡°Ok, everyone ready?¡± He asked us. We all nod and we started heading out to look for gold district castle.To look for our castle.


    That¡¯s right. I¡¯m not a Diamond anymore. I¡¯m a gold now. I felt bitter as I walked out of the camp. Not because of leaving our first home, I felt like I¡¯m leaving a piece of me behind.


    Yasu, if you¡¯re alive. Please be safe.I say in my mind as I walked with everyone.


    We decided to follow the stream we saw earlier. If people have a right sense in this world, they should be establishing themselves near a body of water. We have all the time in the world so walking and following the stream doesn¡¯t seem so bad as we took our time keeping a sharp sense of our surroundings. Walking through the forest also doesn¡¯t seem like a good choice since we can end up walking in circles without proper guidance. But as we follow the stream, we notice the trees would lessen and then become a thick forest again over and over. We walked throughout the whole day and once nighttime hits, we made camp near the stream and take turns keeping watch. This process repeated over and over again up until we reached a lake leading into a river.


    ¡°Ok, guys, the water is coming in from the waterfall there and coming out from that side.¡± Balo points out two locations opposite of each other. ¡°Should we follow the current of the river or, should we go the opposite and see where all this water is coming from?¡±


    "I think we should just follow the river," I whisper sitting down on a rock while massaging my foot. Everyone feels the same as they all sat around me resting their legs. "I hope we find something soon."


    "Me too, my legs are going to give out if we keep walking," Riki says as he slumps back down with a smile on his face. "Ah, this grass feels nice~"


    After resting for a while around the lake, we all agreed to my proposition and decided to follow the river flow. We kept walking till the sky slowly turned orange and we decided to make camp by the river.


    ¡°Anyone got any strings?¡± Tobi asked and everyone shook their head side to side. ¡°Ah, nevermind, I have one.¡±


    He took out the shoelace off his shoes and tied it together. He cut out two tiny pieces of the end of the shoelace and tied the top of his shoe so it doesn''t come off his feet. He sat by the river and started shaving a stick off its rough edges and by just looking at him; it¡¯s making me sick to my stomach. It made me remember Rukimura when he was sharpening the sticks to torture me. To keep myself distracted, I helped set up tents by grabbing branches Junpei and Balo cut off the trees. Luckily, our class helps big time, as we¡¯re able to cut branches off a tree with ease.


    Nighttime quickly hits the horizon and we all sat around the campfire eating fish. Tobi managed to catch a few fish and he easily gutted them before stabbing it onto the sticks and placing them on the fire.


    ¡°I wonder if when will we ever come across someone. Remember he said that there are other people here. There are probably other adventurers.¡± Riki asked as he ate his fish without reservation.


    "Yeah. But soon we should come close to someone or a town. If we don''t and reach the end of the river, we have no choice but to follow it backward." Balo says and the thought of walking back just made me feel more tired.


    "Well, if we come across the ocean, we can stay by the beach. Definitely, we will come across something." Junpei proposed and we all nod thinking it''s a good idea. To be honest, I am sick and tired of seeing trees. Walking by the beach doesn¡¯t sound like a bad idea as long as there are no monsters around. After eating dinner, everyone went to sleep while I stayed awake. I can¡¯t sleep for too long or else I¡¯ll have a nightmare so I only do power naps to prevent myself from dreaming.


    Morning came but this time, a fog enveloped the area. Sawada and Tobi told me this was the same fog they encountered and by the looks of it, it really does bring our visibility near to zero. We can only see what''s in front of us. We kept as close as possible to the river and did a roll call every now and then to make sure no one strays away from the group.


    ¡°Ugh! This seems like it can go on forever!¡± Riki says as I see him barely visible in front of me.


    ¡°The hell is with this fog? This is the thickest fog I have seen.¡± Takumi says as he tried waving his hands around clearing some of the fog in front of him but it quickly came back.


    "That''s what she said," Tobi whispered and they all started laughing at the joke. Even I chuckled a bit.


    "Haha. Very funny. I wonder if this world has jokes.¡± Takumi replied back and it made me wonder, how different are the people from this world compared to ours. Do they have religion, do they have a government similar to ours? To they wage war against their own people? So many questions entered my mind that I didn''t notice they were doing roll call until Akane pulled my arm.


    ¡°Hiroko! Are you there?!¡± I hear Junpei shout and it brought me back to reality.


    "Oh, sorry. Yeah, I''m here." I reply back and I can hear them sigh with relief and I gave Akane a smile.


    ¡°Whew, jeez. That scared me a bit.¡± Junpei whispered and they all giggled to themselves while we walked following the river.


    ¡°Guys stop by me!¡± I hear Balo shout and he kept talking as we followed his voice. Once we regrouped, I can see everyone once they''re really close.


    ¡°What happen Balo?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked and he points towards above us. I didn''t notice it before due to the fog but there¡¯s no mistaking it. It''s a sign.


    Welcome to Boar Village


    ¡°Anybody there!¡± We hear a voice distant from us making us huddle together.


    ¡°What should we do? Should we answer?¡± Riki whispers to us.


    "No one says anything, let me do the talking. If it''s an enemy, he''ll be caught surprised by all of us. Take out your weapons just in case.¡± Balo whispers and we all did taking out our weapons from our bags.


    ¡°Hello! Anybody out there?!¡± The voice asked again and it''s making my heart pound not from excitement, but from fear.


    ¡°Y-yeah! Sorry I can¡¯t see anything with this fog!¡± Balo shouted back.


    ¡°Are you adventurers?! You¡¯re pretty gutsy traveling alone during the fog season!¡± The voice shouted back. ¡°Just follow my voice! The village is protected by anti-fog magic, once you get through the boundary, it should clear up in an instant!¡±


    After that, the person kept shouting ¡®here¡¯ repeatedly making it easier to pinpoint where he is. Without any other choice, we followed the voice having Balo and Junpei in front while Takumi watched our backs. All of a sudden, the fog all around us disappeared and we¡¯re standing on top a gravel path. We see who was talking to us and it looks like a medieval guard. He stands next to a booth looking at all of us one by one.


    ¡°Oh, I thought you¡¯re only one. That¡¯s a lot of you. Sheathe your weapons and come here. He waved to us and we all put away our weapons. He was surprised to see our bags drop to the ground. "Show me your adventurer''s card.¡±


    "Ah, we don''t have adventurer cards," Balo replied back worried how the guard would react.


    ¡°But you guys are adventurers, are you not?¡± He asked and we can see him a bit wary of our presence.


    ¡°Yes, we are," Balo replied to him without talking too much. As far as we know, we can¡¯t verify if that guard is real.


    ¡°Can you guys call out your status window?¡± He asked and we all nod. ¡°Ah, then you probably forgot to add yourselves to a guild.¡±


    "We''re on a guild," Junpei says and it''s making the guard more confused.


    ¡°Then you should have an adventurers card. Just say, show card.¡± He tells us.


    "Showcard," I whispered first and a card appeared in front of me as it kept floating spinning in one place. I grabbed it and the card looked similar to our ID¡¯s at home. It has my picture which I never remember taking. It also contains my guild, class, level, age, gender, and height.


    "Ah, a young lady so you have yours. Let me have it for a few seconds, I need to register you as a visitor.¡± He tells me as everyone else took out his or her cards. The minute I gave him my card, his eyes went wide in shock. ¡°Gold district?¡±


    "Y-yeah, we''re all from the gold district," I tell him and he kept looking at my card.


    ¡°I have never heard of this guild.¡± He tells me as he began writing some information down on the paper.


    ¡°Must be a new guild huh, well, here you go young lady, you¡¯re all set.¡± He tells me as he hands over my card back to me. I inspected it more while Balo stepped up next to give his card to him.


    "Here you go sir," Balo says as he politely gives his card to the guard.


    "Whoa, you''re the guild leader?" The guard asked him as he nods in silence. "This is the first a guild leader ever came to this parts of the forest.¡±


    ¡°Where are we exactly?¡± Balo asked.


    "Young man, you are inside the boar forest. This is the boar village which acts as a rest stop for novice adventurers." The guard replied as he wrote Balo¡¯s name down and some other markings I wasn¡¯t familiar with.


    After Balo, everyone handed their cards one by one and it took a couple of minutes till the guard registered everybody.


    ¡°Pa!¡± A sudden voice came out from our left and the minute we look, we see a little girl running towards us carrying what seems to be a basket for lunch. ¡°Ma sent me to deliver this to to you! It¡¯s lunch!¡±


    The guard left the booth to meet his daughter halfway and picked her up while taking the basket away from her.


    ¡°You¡¯re a good girl! That''s my daughter~ Want to eat with me?¡± We hear the guard talk to his daughter as he walked back to the booth. The little girl happily nods and we found it as a cue to leave. Before we left, the guard stopped us as he places his daughter on his seat and the lunch on his table. "Before you go, let me just welcome you all to Boar Village. If you have items or other weapons to sell, you can visit the Boar Shop located that way. The boar''s Inn is that tall building at the end of the village. Ah, and if you¡¯re going to leave, let me know so I can write it down.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Balo nods to him and he gave us a smile before walking away to go to his table and eat his lunch with his daughter. We all followed Balo to the gravel that leads towards the right when all of a sudden he stopped almost making me bump into him.


    ¡°Let''s go to boar¡¯s shop first. We have no money to pay for a room.¡± He tells us and we all nod heading towards the left path. It wasn¡¯t hard to find as the sign above the store was visible from far away. The minute we opened the door, a door chime rang and a lady came out of the back door to walk towards the counter. The inside was like a medieval shop displaying weapons, items, even a few clothes hanged on one section of the shop.


    ¡°Hi~ How may I help you?¡± A female clerk asks us as we approach the counter. Seems like some of the guys are already attracted to her because I can see their movement became stiff. I decided to approach her instead of one of them. I have a feeling we will be here for a long time if I don''t handle this quickly.


    ¡°Hello, can you tell us how much these will go for?¡± I hand her the swords I had stashed inside my dimensional bag. At least I¡¯ll get cash from the swords I collected. She then grabs one of the swords and inspected it.


    ¡°Where did you get this if I may ask?¡± She looks at me with extreme curiosity in her eyes.


    "Umm, we got it inside a dungeon. I know it may not be mu¡ª¡°


    ¡°A dungeon?! Which one?! What was the monster that dropped it?!¡± She got too excited almost jumping over the counter as her eyes go wide with shock. After calming herself probably noticing my uncomfortable look, she goes ogling the sword in her hand like it¡¯s a piece of gold.


    ¡°Uh, we got them from an undead skeleton. They¡¯re around level one.¡± I answer feeling confused about her reaction.


    ¡°T-the skeletons found in the end room at the dungeon of the beginning?!¡± She says and she kept looking at the sword then she hands the sword back to me with a sad solemn look. ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I can¡¯t give you money for this sword.¡±


    ¡°What? Why?! I know it looks pretty weak bu¡ª¡°


    ¡°No, no no no no I don¡¯t mean that it is useless.¡± She interrupts me. ¡°It is the actual opposite. Its worth is too much. If I give you money based on the value of this weapon, I¡¯m going to need to sell this shop and everything in it. This sword might look weak but the materials in it are similar to a diamond. Which is one of the hardest materials to find. In short, I don¡¯t have enough money to buy the sword from you.¡±


    ¡°What?! This is that expensive?!¡± I was surprised by what she said. I can hear Riki cursing that he should have collected every sword in the dungeon.


    ¡°It is, another factor that adds on the value is the difficulty of collecting these swords.¡± She continues on. ¡°Adventurers die just from the entrance of the dungeon trying to collect these things.¡±


    Somehow I can understand. We all died at the entrance also. ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll give you this sword and give us enough cash for us to stay at the Boars Inn and cover our food expense for a week.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? Once the trade has been made, I can¡¯t return the sword to you if you decided to want it back.¡± She tells me as her gaze sticks to the sword in my hand.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. How about it. Deal?¡± I say as I hold the sword in front of her. I had a couple more in my bag anyways.


    ¡°Deal!¡± She says as she happily grabs the sword out from my hand. She then went to a back room behind the counter and came out with a pouch.I open the bag and it¡¯s full of coin shape copper, silver and gold with no print in them.It''s like someone melted the material into a circular shape.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s not much but this should last you for a month staying at the Forest Boar¡¯s Inn.¡± She says. ¡°It¡¯s the best I could do for giving me such a fine weapon.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Um, were not from these lands. Were from a different, uh¡­continent that uses a different currency. Can you tell me the value of each coin pieces in the bag?" I ask her trying to figure out the value of the coins.


    ¡°Oh? Sure. This is the first time I have to explain the currency but I¡¯ll be glad to!¡± She then grabs a copper, silver, and gold coin chip inside the bag.


    "Ok, this is a copper chip. This is the lowest currency here on this continent. This is a silver chip. You can obtain these by collecting 100 copper chips and exchanging them for one silver chip or finding them inside dungeons. This is a gold chip; you can obtain these by collecting 100 silver chips or also finding them inside a dungeon. The highest currency that is made only for the wealthy individuals are diamond rocks. One diamond rock is equivalent to 1,000,000 gold chips. But the diamond rocks can only be found inside the dungeon or when you mine deep within the ground.¡± She says as she drops the coins back inside the bag in my hand.


    ¡°Inside the bag are 1000 copper chips, 100 silver chips, and 50 gold chips. It¡¯s all I could afford to give you. If I managed to de-materialize the sword and sell its contents, come back and I can give you more.¡± She continued on.


    ¡°No, it''s fine. Were content with this. Thank you very much." I tell her as I bow to give proper thanks. She then bows back to me.


    "Thank you for bartering with us! If you ever come across such as fine material, please do tell, I would like to do business with all of you one more time." She says as she smiles at us, which made the guy''s heart pound faster than they can run.


    "We will," I say as I leave for the door. I can see some of the guys are hesitant to leave the shop.


    ¡°Guys, let''s go. We can come back later. Unlike you boys, us girls need a proper bath.¡± I say and they all slump their shoulders and leave the store. Then the little girl guided us some more towards the Forest Boar¡¯s Inn. Once we reached the boar''s inn, the minute we open the door in the inn, everyone inside looked at us. The Inn looks more like a bar from the Wild West we see from those American movies.Now we really do stand out a lot more. Comparing our armor to theirs, our looks really high class. Even the leather I¡¯m wearing is a lot brighter than the ones the patrons are wearing.


    ¡°Umm guys, try not to cause trouble and let''s just walk towards the bartender and ask for a room," Balo whispers to us and we all walked silently towards the bartender.


    ¡°Whoa, you''re not from around here are ye?" A burly looking man asked us.


    ¡°Umm, no. We actually come from a different continent. We don¡¯t have a place to stay. Do you have an available room for all of us?¡± Junpei says continuing the lie. We don¡¯t know why but it feels dangerous if we indicate that we come from the planet in the sky. We¡¯re already the center of attraction as it is.


    ¡°Ye, I got rooms for ye young-ins¡¯ to board. How many ya need?¡± The bartender asked.


    ¡°How big are the rooms?" Junpei asked.


    ¡°Big enough to fit half of ye adventurers.¡± He replied


    ¡°Two is fine. Girls will share one, and the boys share the other one. Cool?¡± Junpei asked us. We all nod in agreement. Who cares, as long as we have beds or cushion to sleep on, I would share with the boys if I need to.


    ¡°A days¡¯ worth of stay cost about 70 copper.¡± The bartender says while taking out a piece of paper. ¡°If ye fellows going to stay longer, one week will be 4 silver chips and 90 copper. For two rooms that would be 9 silver and 80 copper in total.¡±


    I hand him the exact amount and he gave us two keys. Before we part, I gave half of the money to Balo for any other expenses they need in which he happily accepted. I felt excited sleeping on an actual mattress yet, I didn¡¯t hope too much. For all I know, their beds are made out of straws. A waitress led us to our room towards the second floor and the minute we got there, it felt like a part of our home was brought here into this world. It was a Japanese style room with tatami mats on the ground and a couple of futons were laid on the ground at one corner.


    ¡°Inside the closet has more sleeping mats.¡± The waitress pointed towards a sliding door. "Please don''t break anything inside the room or steal anything. If you guys want to eat, the kitchen is open from 6:00 am and closes at 11:00 pm. But the food is not part of your stay, you have to pay for your meals. Bath is open 24 hours but please maintain the facility clean. If you have any other questions or concerns, don¡¯t hesitate to let us know~ okay then have a wonderful stay~¡±


    I gave her a nod and she quickly left the room gentle closing the door behind her. I walked towards the window and opened it letting some fresh air inside. Kumiko-sensei opened the closet and inside are a couple of futons or as they call it in this world, sleeping mats. There¡¯s also a stack of blankets and pillows. There is an oil lamp hanged in the walls indicating the source of light at night. It figures I don''t think this village has electricity.


    ¡°I¡¯m going back to the boar shop to buy shampoo and conditioner if they have some. You guys want to come with me?¡± I asked Akane and Kumiko-sensei. Akane quickly agrees and I can see Kumiko-sensei slowly dozing off on top the futon laid down the ground.


    ¡°You guys go, I''m too tired. Wake me up when you¡¯re going to take a bath.¡± Kumiko-sensei weakly says and we both left leaving her behind to rest. Once we got there, the clerk we sold the sword to earlier saw us and her eyes quickly perked up.


    ¡°Hey! Welcome back!¡± She happily greeted us.


    ¡°Do you have shampoo and a conditioner?¡± I asked her but she suddenly looked confused. "uh, like, you have anything that will help wash the dirt off our hair and make it feel smooth?"


    The minute I explained it to her, she quickly realized what we were talking about and took out two bottles from under the counter.


    "I sure do!" She then hands me a bottle with pink liquid and labeled as a head cleaner. Another bottle with blue liquid labeled as hair repair. ¡°so you call this shampoo and conditioner from your continent huh, that sound much better maybe I should change it to that to boost the sales. Ah, I also have this.¡±


    She took out another box under the counter and hands it to me. The minute I open it, a wave of fragrance came through me as the smell was too familiar.


    ¡°Oatmeal Soap!¡± I say as I smell the soap inside the box.


    ¡°Yup! The best in my shop. It is mixed with aloe for a much better fragrance and the oatmeal helps moisturize the skin. Perfect for your flawless bodies. Do you call this soap? Huh, I should change it to that also~¡±She says as she wrote down notes on paper.


    ¡°Ah, do you also have pen and paper?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Sure do!¡± She then goes behind the counter and took out a pen and paper inside a drawer.She then hands it to me and I hand it to Akane.


    "For you. This way we can communicate better." I tell her with a smile on my face and she looks at me with tears accumulating in her eyes. ¡°Hahaha Don¡¯t cry Akane. You deserve better than this. I would heal your tongue if I can, but I don¡¯t have the power for that.¡±


    I then face the female clerk and I can see her eyes also welling up.


    ¡°Umm. How much is everything?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Free!¡± The clerk started crying. It took a while for her to stop and she didn¡¯t accept any payment even if I tried. On our way back, Akane is happily skipping beside me as we walk towards the Inn clutching the gift I gave her with her only hand towards her chest. I can see a smile on her face and it made me feel good. I like to see her smile. I see some of the villagers or maybe adventures looking at us making it uncomfortable as we sped up walking toward the inn. Once we got back, all eyes were on us again which we tried to ignore as much as we can. I noticed some of the guys going downstairs and they waved at us the minute they saw us.


    ¡°Hey guys, where¡¯s Balo, Junpei, and Sawada?¡± I asked them.


    "We need soap and shampoo. We¡¯re going to check the item shop if it has some. They¡¯ didn¡¯t want to come with us and wanted to rest.¡± Riki replies.


    ¡°Ohhhhh...¡± I say as I pass heading up the stairs.


    ¡°W-w-what? We are only going to buy shampoo and soap.¡± Riki says. I look back and I gave them a smile.


    ¡°Suuure. Ah, you guys know where the bath is at?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Yeah, it''s on the second floor, all the way to the end. There''s a door on the left, it''s the girl''s bath." Tobi says as he walked with us towards the second floor while pointing down the hallway. I thanked him, and he quickly ran downstairs to regroup with the boys as they walked out of the inn. We headed towards my room and woke up Kumiko-sensei. It was one of the best times I had on this planet. Feeling cleaning and removing all of the dirt off my body made it feel like I just shed a pound.


    The next day, we regroup for breakfast and made up plans on what we should do next. We all agreed to stay in the village for a while till we gather enough information to head out. Even if we wanted to leave, the fog surrounding the village was still thick and according to the people living in the village, the fog would sometimes last about a week for it to disappear. Nighttime came as fast as the sun disappeared and I stayed in our room sitting by the window looking at moonlight through the thick fog that covers the surrounding area of the village.


    Balo and the rest of the guys along with Kumiko-sensei are walking around the village to see what else they can find. So far, we found that the village has a library of its own which Akane decided to stay in for the day reading books.


    ¡°Show DPH¡± I whisper.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    9,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I don''t know about everyone''s damage but¡­does this seem overpowered?I say in my mind as I look at my attack damage per hit. I remember we barely reached 100 attack damage now it¡¯s almost close to becoming 10,000. If I go out after the fog, I probably can one hit most of the monsters that we¡¯ve encountered so far.I remembered, I also managed to get a new skill when I level up.


    "Tame skill description," I whisper and study my skill description.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Tame


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    support


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This skill will let you tame monsters as a pet. This skill relies not only on how strong you train the skill but also your own personal level. The higher the level you are and the skill, the higher level monsters you can tame.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°I recently got this when I leveled up to 25. It seems like I can only tame leveled creatures, but I don¡¯t know how low. Most of the monster in the forest are level 15 wolves or above. I haven¡¯t seen a level 1 monster in the area.¡± I whisper to myself. ¡°Tame!¡±


    My hand started glowing white but yet, I still don¡¯t know how to use the skill.


    Should I touch an animal? Or should I hypnotize them with it?....either way, I can''t test it until I see a low-level monster. I whispered to myself.


    *Knock


    *Knock


    ¡°Hiroko-chan, let''s go eat dinner~," Kumiko-sensei tells me as soon as she opens the door.


    "Ah, sensei, you''re back. Ok give me a minute, I''ll head down." I tell her, and she gave me a smile before closing the door behind her. I stood up and walked into the closet grabbing the new clothes I got from the shop earlier. We''ve been going back and forth that the shopkeeper practically let us grab anything we want without paying. Well, it''s probably because I gave her another sword. After getting dressed, I headed down and see all of them on one table. Everyone still gives us the looks from time to time but we started getting used to them. Akane waved at me and patted the empty seat beside her. I gave her a nod and sat down while a waitress automatically approached our table and gave me a menu.


    ¡°So, you guys find anything?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Not anything new. It¡¯s the same. They tell me it¡¯s the stuff from the legends while others tell me it exists somewhere." Balo replied.


    ¡°They did mention about a portal though. They say that there is a portal inside some dungeon.¡± Takumi says.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s the ¡®Dungeon Of The Sky King¡¯?¡± Tobi asked.


    ¡°Yea! That! How do you know?¡± Takumi asked.


    "Well, when we went and asked around what different type of monsters are around the area," Tobi replied, and he took a sip of water before continuing to talk. "Villagers said a lot of the monsters in the area are normal animals with a higher level.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I heard about that," Junpei said interrupting Tobi. ¡°I heard from the village chief that sometimes, monsters inside a portal will come out and terrorize villages. They told me about a leaping crocodile that attacked this village a while ago. They used to come every month, but they haven¡¯t seen one in a while.¡±


    ¡°Wow, Leaping Crocodiles? You mean like a frog?¡± Takumi asked.


    ¡°Yea. And guess where they came from?¡± Tobi asked.


    ¡°The dungeon of the Sky King?¡± Balo asked.


    "Exactly," Tobi replies back.


    ¡°Also, I heard from the village chief, that It had some weird story about how the Sky King abducted a castle princess," Junpei adds on piquing our interest. "A prince and along with his uncle decided to travel and look for the dungeon to save the damsel in distress. But the prince and uncle never came back. They even have a reward poster about the prince whereabouts."


    Junpei places a poster on the table that has a drawn picture of a very hot guy that has a smile that would melt every girl¡¯s heart.


    "Oh wow, he''s handsome," I say as I grab the picture to get a closer look. ¡°Drakun Tarabay¡­Whoa! look at this reward?! 100 diamond reward?!¡±


    ¡°Whoa, let me see?¡± Balo asked and I hand him the poster. ¡°Please find him or his whereabouts. You will be rewarded 100 diamonds if you bring his sword to the king as a proof.¡±


    ¡°Wait? A sword and not bring him? Do they think he is dead?¡± I asked. Junpei nods and after taking a bite of bread the waitress just placed our table, he continued talking.


    ¡°Pretty much. Based on the stories I heard, the king wasted a lot of money to find his only son. Shoot I would too if he''s the only heir to the throne. But now the king gave up and gave his position to his nephew who became the new king. The nephew who is a close friend of the prince decided to send out a search party to find him and even made this flyer. But they didn¡¯t find him and wasted more money. So, before the whole royal family almost went broke, they decided to leave it to the adventurers to find him dead or alive.¡±


    ¡°wow¡­what a story¡­.¡± I reply back.


    ¡°You think that¡¯s the whole story? Hear this one, remember the princess who supposedly was abducted by the sky king?¡± Junpei asked me.


    ¡°Yeah, is she dead?¡± The story fascinated me.


    ¡°Nah, she actually never went missing. She went on a journey to find a flower that would help the prince fall more hopelessly in love with her and finally making him propose. But she got lost in the forest, fell into a ditch, broke her leg and was stuck there for three days. She had enough food to keep herself alive. By the time they found her and brought her back in the castle, the prince already left to look for his princess thinking she was abducted by the sky king.¡±


    "What? Wow, he''s unfortunate. Say what happened to the princess, she''s single now isn''t she?" Riki asked.


    ¡°Well¡­.¡± Junpei says but hesitated to continue on.


    ¡°Oh, come on Junpei, tell us. Don¡¯t leave us hanging.¡± I say to him. Junpei then smiles and took out another paper. The paper was a reward poster for the princess. This one was a higher reward to those who bring her back alive. The reward was 1000 diamonds.


    ¡°What? She¡¯s also missing now?¡± Balo asked and his eyes suddenly went wide seeing the reward. ¡°1000 diamonds?! That¡¯s higher than the prince reward!¡±


    ¡°What happened? Did she get abducted also?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked. A waitress then came by and placed our food in front of us. As the waitress hands out our food, Junpei continued telling the story.


    ¡°Ok ok. Well for the princess, as soon as she got back, no one told her about the prince disappearance. They waited for her until she recovered so it doesn¡¯t damage her health or something along that line. Once she found out, she started training like crazy for one year and became a female knight. Then one night, she disappeared and left a note saying that she will look for her love.¡±


    Junpei paused a bit to cut up the steak he ordered before continuing with the story.


    "The current king which is the nephew was also in love with the princess. The princess was in love with the other prince that gone missing. It''s basically a whole mess of a love triangle. After the princess went missing, the new king went psycho and sent out the whole army to look for her. They didn''t find her. Thus, this very high amount reward poster."


    ¡°Wow, what the hell...wait¡­how about the uncle? Who¡¯s looking for him?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That¡­I don¡¯t know. He has no information. I guess he wasn¡¯t that important.¡± Junpei says.


    ¡°Wow what a nice old tale huh?¡± Sawada says.


    ¡°it is a nice tale, but as for being old...the prince went missing last year and the princess went missing just a month ago," Junpei says.


    ¡°What?! You serious?! What the hell are we waiting for?! We need to save her?!¡± Riki stands up.


    ¡°Riki calm down. The first thing we have to do is find our castle. Then once we found it, then we can go do quest like this if we need to. Remember what our main goal is? It''s to kill Luro.¡± Balo says and Riki started sulking as he sits back down.


    ¡°But we might save her on the way. Seems like our destination is the same. If what they say about the portal inside the dungeon leads to our castle, we need to find the dungeon to verify it.¡± Balo says.


    We all agreed and decided to leave tomorrow morning to look for the dungeon of the sky king. We slowly ate dinner and talked about our lives back home. After finishing our food, we headed back to our room and we fell asleep quickly and this time, for the first time in a while, I slept through the night without having any nightmares.


    Luckily for us, the fog disappeared clearing up the forest by morning time. One of the villagers decided to guide us towards the rock. He said that if we go through the forest to find it, we will get lost since the area close to the rock has the ability to confuse adventurers.Thetrek towards the dungeon wasn''t that bad. Our guide led us through the forest and within two days, we hit the giant rock formation.


    "Ok, so all youadventurersjust need toclimb this rock and the portal should be at the top of the rock inside a small cave.¡± The guide tells us as he prepares to walk back. ¡°No one has ever climbed the rock since its very high and consumed a lot of adventurers lives who tried to climb it. Thus, I can¡¯t really guarantee if the portal is there. Well, this is as far as I can bring you. Ok everyone, good luck!"


    We thanked him and paid him extra for his troubles and he left to go back to the village.


    "Ok, now how do we get up there?" Balo asked looking up rock wallin front of us. Climbing it is dangerous without proper equipment.


    ¡°Are those swords lodge on the side of the rock?¡± I asked squinting while I look upwards. ¡°Holy shit it is.¡±


    All of a sudden, a rope ladder was unrolled from the top and it descended towards us.


    "Awesome! We can use this to climb!" Riki says as he inspects the ropelater if it will give out putting hisweight on it.


    "Riki wait.Don''t climb yet. This looks like a trap. Remember what our guide said.¡± Junpei whispers as he looks upwards. ¡°Youdon''t want to get caught off guard climbing."


    "The guide just said people died climbing this rock," Balo added on.


    "I''ll Climb first. Nobody climbs the rope ladder just in case I need to do descend quick." Junpei says and before we protested, he started climbing. We watched him as he slowly climbs his way to the top. Once he reached the edge, we can see him disappearon the top of the wall.


    "Junpei! You alright?! Anyone up there?!!" Balo shouted but he didn¡¯t reply.


    We started getting worried when all of a sudden, I hear his voice.


    "Yeah, I''m fine! Just start climbing now! Someone is waiting for us!" Junpei screams and we all started climbing the rope ladder.


    I decided to climb last and support Akane above me.It seems like it was harder for her to climb. As soon as I got to the top, a familiar face was standing blocking us from the portal right behind him.


    "Luro! What the hell do you want now!" Balo snarls at him.


    "As I saaaiiiid~ For all of you to kill me~ and I''m just here to help you little babies climb this magnificent rock! Take in the view, the fresh air, Weeeeee~" Lurosays as he runs around doing airplane gestures. "And I also came on another thing. You guysdon''t have to go inside this dungeon. It''s not needed."


    Huh? whywould he--I say in my mind.


    "Why the hell should we listen to you?!" Junpei screams at Luro.


    "Uhhhh it''s uh for your own good? Yea for your own good That¡¯s it!"Lurosays.


    "Ha! Get a life you fucking demon!" Sawada screamed at him and then Luro stopped smiling and started pouting.


    "That...thatwasn''t nice¡­Well, it should be enough stalling by now. Bye~"Lurosays and all of a sudden, he startedrunning towards the edge of the rock and jumped off. We ran to look where he is going to land, but he disappeared.


    "What the fuck. That damn psycho I''m going to kill him one day." Junpei says.Then we gathered at the front of the portal.


    "Okay everyone ready?" Balo asked and we all not in agreement. "Ok then, Let¡¯s go!"


    Balo then ran in the portal and we all followed right after him. Expecting to be attacked by a gatekeeper or elite monsters, we ran in screaming. But what welcomed us made me drop my bow and arrow as I froze in place as I read the notification. Tears poured out of my eyes whilehappiness filled the hole in my heart.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to Yasu and Mole Adventure Land!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    This dungeon turned into a memorial site after the death of the sky king.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conquerer (Master):Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conqueror Class:BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Yasu. He¡¯s alive." I say as tears ran down my cheeks.

 CHAPTER 20: Levels and Trust

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 20: Levels and Trust


    <hr>


    Yasu''s Pov


    <hr>


    ¡°Sky King!!¡± A shout erupted behind me as I was about to accept the challenge of the hidden dungeon. Agitated by the voice shouting over and over again, I decided to step out of the hole in the wall and walked around the dragon trying to locate the source of the sound.


    Huh? Who the hell?I say in my mind as I looked at her with confusion. She was wearing an armor fit for a knight yet, it looked like I was custom made just for her. Her face was something that can rival A-list actress. Probably even better.


    ¡°Die! Sky King!¡±The female knight dropped her bag and jumped towards the air while taking out the huge sword behind her. At awe seeing her small frame hold a sword bigger than her, I almost forgot to dodge her attack as it came down towards me at high speed. In a nick of time, I managed to activate my seismic step as I jumped to the side sliding on the ground upon landing. Once I looked up to her, she lifts up her two-handed sword and points it at me.


    ¡°Where is he?! Where¡¯s Drakun?!¡± She shouts at me and it¡¯s starting to agitate me.


    ¡°Dragon? Are you fucking blind? It¡¯s right there.¡± I snarl at her pointing at the carcass of the sky king.


    ¡°Tell me where is Drakun?!¡± She shouts again and her tone of voice is starting to really piss me off.


    ¡°Huuuuuh?! You mean that stupid fucking wanderer? He¡¯s fucking dead!¡± I shout back at her. I called out my bag and at the moment I took out the Dragon Slayer, her eyes went wide as her complexion has gotten paler.


    ¡°How dare you?!¡± She shouts at me with tears streaming down her face.


    ¡°Look, you must be his sister or something. Mind buzzing off so I can continue with my day? Unless you want to die.¡± I calmly said giving her a smile. Rather than running away, she grips her two-handed sword and got on a battle stance. I smiled wider as I started approaching her whispering, ¡°Just what I wanted.¡±


    I jumped towards the ceiling of the cave and as I descend, I shouted my skill while swinging the two-handed sword downwards. Her sword started glowing as she swung upwards.


    ¡°Lights parry!¡± She shouted and when our swords met it exploded upon impact sending me flying back up and her flying towards the entrance where she probably came from.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s slice!¡± I swing my sword towards the wall and I managed to catch my own speed and I land on my feet. ¡°This bitch. Let¡¯s see which is stronger, my punch or your Armor.¡±


    I store the sword away in my bag. And I ran full speed towards her while re-activating seismic step. She was caught off guard by my speed making me get behind her easily. The minute she turned around, I gave her a smirk as I got into a stance.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shout as I clenched my hand into a fist.She probably didn''t have the energy to jump away as she closed her eyes and used her arms as a shield. "Bye bye~ drakun sis.¡±


    ¡°Sis?¡± She suddenly looked up to me looking confused. ¡°What? I¡¯m not¡ª¡°


    I brought my fist towards her abdomen and the minute my punch met her armor, she went flying towards the dragon going right into the hole. The dragon erupted from the inside probably by the impact of her body but it wasn¡¯t enough to destroy it as it only expanded without ripping.


    "Damn that dragon is really tough," I whisper as I walked towards the hole in the stomach. Blood was oozing out everywhere and the smell of it starting to rot was enough to make want to barf. I see her inside laid out on her back and her top armor completely blew off ripping her clothes to shreds. I walk inside the dragon and grab her by the hair picking her up. She¡¯s still breathing but the damage of my attack left a dent on her abdomen.


    Well shit, aren¡¯t you weak. I whisper in my mind as I drag her out by her hair setting her down near the campfire. I tried slapping her awake, but she never opens her eyes and I can see blood coming out of her mouth. She suddenly coughed spitting blood into my face and it made me want to punch her mouth in.


    "Fucking disgusting," I whisper as I wipe the blood off my face. I slowly stood up waiting to see if she would open her eyes, but she didn¡¯t. ¡°That¡¯s what you get.¡±


    I looked around the room remembering she dropped her bag earlier. I spot in near the entrance and wanting to see what she had I walked towards the bag opening it roughly. I flipped the bag over upside down and few items fell out that probably have no value to me except for a few bottles that clattered around.


    ¡°Is this¡­¡± I picked up 3 bottles with red liquid inside. I opened one of them and it smelled like a cold medicine. ¡°Inspect!¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="443">


    Health Potion (Rare)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Uses:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Family:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Recovery Potion


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Recovery, drug


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Elixirs


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="443">


    This is an elixir made by an apothecary. This can heal wounds in an instant, at a certain limit. The higher the rarity, the more severe wound and damages it can recover.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°It is!¡± I shout looking at the potion on my hand. It isn¡¯t big, enough to fit in my hand but I wondered how much it can heal. I looked back at the dying girl and a smile crept in my face as I found my guinea pig. I grabbed some other things like bandages, rope, a bag of coins, a fancy looking dagger and put them all in my bag along with the two remaining health potions in my bag. I stood up and walked towards her with a potion in hand. I dripped some of the potions into her mouth and I saw her body briefly glow as the blood on her mouth disappeared. I checked the dent on her abdomen and it¡¯s still there. I dripped some more and ended up wasting half of the potion till the dent on her abdomen disappeared. Not wanting to waste anymore, I put the cork back in place sealing it shut before putting it in my bag.


    I looked at her and having a full view of her topless wasn¡¯t bad at all.


    ¡°How can you be a stupid and an idiot at the same time? Aren¡¯t they the same thing Yasu?¡± I ask myself. ¡°Yes Yasu, they are the same. It''s like insulting you twice in one sentence."


    ¡°Ohhh, that¡¯s¡­that¡¯s smart!¡± I say as I looked at her laughing to myself.


    ¡°Hey Drakun, your sister almost met you across the river. I guess stupidity runs in the family huh?¡± I say as I poked her cheeks, but she still didn¡¯t wake up. ¡°better tie you up.¡±


    Not wanting to get attacked again and waste any more time, I decided to tie her up but then again, I thought about it, she might be strong enough to rip the rope apart. I look at the carcass of the dead dragon and I burst out laughing as the stupidest idea came in my mind.


    ¡°What if I stuff her body between the flesh of the dragon. The weight of the meat should be enough to hold her down.¡± I whisper walking to the dragon. It was strong enough to not rip to shreds, I don¡¯t think she¡¯d be strong enough to rip it apart. It had still a lot of flesh near its chest. Without wasting time, I used the dragon slayer to removes some of its scalesand I open a slit in it. I jammed my hand inside and I can feel the pressure of the meat closing down on my hand and I had difficulty moving it around.


    ¡°Hahaha if this doesn¡¯t work, I can just cut her head off. But first, I need to ask some questions.¡± I saw as I pull out my hand using force. ¡°She¡¯s part of this world, she must know some shit I don¡¯t.¡±


    I went back to her lifeless body and picked her up. Noticing the bottom armor might be a hindrance to my master plan, I decided to take it off using the dagger. I carefully cut it from the side and used my weapon to flick it off her body since I wasn¡¯t able to even carry it. It didn¡¯t take long since I got so used to carving flesh off bones, but I accidentally cut up the clothes under her armor making her completely naked from top to bottom. I picked her up and brought her to the opening I made in the dragon carcass. I jammed her feet first inside the slit opening and then I slowly pushed her inside.


    ¡°Oh damn, you lucky this dragon is a virgin!¡± I shout as I struggle to force her in. With all of these happening, she still hasn¡¯t woken up. I see that she is waist deep inside the dragon. Using all my strength I pushed her in more and she slid right inside up to her neck.


    ¡°Oh my fucking god¡­¡± I laugh as I looked at how stupid this idea was. I placed my finger towards her nose to see if she¡¯s still breathing. I didn¡¯t know how much weight her body can handle her breathing was normal and she seems like she¡¯s sleeping rather than being unconscious. I was tempted to slap her awake but, I was getting hungry and starting to feel tired, so I decided to focus on cooking the dragon meat instead.


    I built a campfire near her and sat around eating cooked meat I had in my bag. I waited for her to wake up as I tried to analyze myself.


    ¡°My class is a non-combatant class. Anything I kill doesn''t vanish." I whisper as I much on the meat. "My DPH and level are always the same. I level up by one, my DPH goes up by one."


    I don¡¯t get experience by killing monsters.I say in my mind as I stuff enough meat in my mouth preventing me to talk. I get experience by cooking them. I also get experience by cooking non-leveled monsters.


    I took out a water container from my bag and gulped down the food. ¡°Ah~ that hit the spot. Now, there¡¯s some other shit with getting experience based on what I cook. Gatekeeper I hardly got any experience. This dragon I got a lot but, fucking this needs its own flames. The fuck, shit sounds like I needed to kick that thing while it¡¯s alive spitting flames everywhere.¡±


    I leaned back on the dragon as I watched the flame slowly burn the wood. So far, my luck hasn¡¯t run out huh¡­I was lucky enough to survive the first dungeon. And I was lucky enough to survive this one.


    ¡°Ugh¡­where am I?¡± I hear a voice to my left and noticed the girl woke up. ¡°Huh? I can¡¯t move!¡±


    She tried getting out but all she was able to move was her head. She shouted some of her skills, but none worked out for her. She looked confused but the moment she saw me, all of her memories probably returned as her expression turned pale. Yet, her expression quickly turned to rage as she started shouting. ¡°Sky King! Get me out of here this instant!¡±


    ¡°huh? Are you sure you¡¯re in a position to make demands to your enemy?¡± I asked her as I slowly stood up. ¡°Let me ask you, why should I let you out? So you can try to kill me again? Pfft, ~ Get real! Dumbass!¡±


    ¡°I will kill you!! Sky King! You terrorized lands! You need to be exterminated!!¡± She shouts my way and it baffles me she¡¯s retaliating back.


    "Regarding your current position, I can''t seem to figure out if you''re a dumbass or just fearless," I whisper to her glaring at her eyes. "And me? Sky King? Bwahahahahaha! I would guess you¡¯re stupid than fearless.¡±


    ¡°You¡ª¡°


    ¡°But I what?¡± I interrupted her rising my eyebrows as I got close to her face. ¡°Do you even have a photo of the Sky King? What made you jump to a conclusion that I was the sky king?¡±


    ¡°A-a what?¡± She asked me confused.


    "Ah, you might not have photo''s here," I whisper as pull back away from her face. "I mean a painting. Those drawn portraits of people."If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Stop pretending you''re not the sky king! Show your true colors you demon!" She shouts and I''m starting to lose interest in asking her about this world.


    ¡°For something that¡¯s pretty¡­you¡¯re pretty fucking stupid!¡± I tell her and she started gritting her teeth. If the dragon weren¡¯t holding her down, She probably would bite me in the face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what you think¡ª¡°


    ¡°And I don¡¯t care about your opinion," I whisper as I clamp on her jaw preventing her from even talking properly. "Listen here, you dumb bitch. I don¡¯t know how you idiots work in this world but where I come from, hostages talking back to their captors means a death wish. Want to die bitch?¡± I tell her. She just stared back at me with a worried look. I slowly let her jaw go and she didn¡¯t say a work till after I stood back up.


    ¡°S-so you''re saying, you¡¯re not the sky king?¡± She asked me as she straight into my eyes. My expression has relaxed but I didn¡¯t stop keeping tabs of my surrounding. For all I know she¡¯s trying to get out while she stalls.


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re finally listening," I tell her.


    ¡°You, did you conquer this place? Did you see the sky king?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Yes. I saw it. I fought it, and I fucking killed it. What¡¯s with your obsession with the damn sky king?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°He, he took my fianc¨¦. Drakun Tarabay.¡± She tells me with a solemn look. ¡°I¡¯m not his sister.¡±


    ¡°Then you must be Stella," I told her, and her expression suddenly changed from sadness to confusion. ¡°Ugh, talking to you is tiring. I¡¯m fucking leaving.¡±


    ¡°W-wait!¡± She shouts as I turned around to walk away.


    ¡°What?! The fucking hell do you want now?!¡± I shout back getting irritated at her voice.


    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m a princess.¡± She says and without blinking, she continued talking making me more impatient. ¡°D-Drakun Tarabay is my fianc¨¦ and he went missing a year ago. And if you help me I will¡ª¡°


    ¡°Listen here you idiot, I don¡¯t give a shit who you are or whatever your purpose in life is," I tell her as I grab her face covering her mouth. ¡°To make everything easier for you peanut size brain to understand, let me explain to you. Drakun is dead. End of story.¡±


    I squeezed my grip over her mouth and I can see she probably feels it as she winces in pain. I slowly let go but she didn''t say anything as she tried to catch her breath.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care anymore. Drakun is dead so are my people. My marriage with him was for the benefit of my people. Now that he¡¯s gone, the marriage is off and my people will starve.¡± She says and tears poured out of her eyes.


    ¡°Oh is that so. Say, I''ll have a few questions to ask you. If you answer all of them, I will pull you out. Deal?¡± I tell her and she looks at me with tears in her eyes and she nods indicating a yes.


    "Ok first question, besides being a princess, your probably an adventurer. Do you see levels on top of some monsters heads?" I ask her trying to figure out more of this world''s system. If she is an inhabitant here, she probably knows more than I do.


    ¡°Yes. Don¡¯t usually only adventurers see that? It¡¯s a necessity to become one.¡± She says.


    Oh, so only adventurers can see levels.I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°You probably killed a couple of leveled monster. Do they disappear after you killed them?¡± I asked her.


    "They do. That''s part of the microcellular decomposition cycle.¡± She replied


    ¡°A what?¡± I asked her trying to elaborate more.


    ¡°Our body turns into dust after we die and our soul is transferred to another infant to start anew with no memories of the previous life. Some of the other individuals managed to keep their memories but are killed off due to going crazy.¡± She explained.


    ¡°So if I die, I can have another go at life huh¡­¡± I whispered to myself. ¡°What happens if a monster is killed but their body doesn¡¯t turn into dust?¡±


    "The only monsters that don''t turn into dust are the one without levels like livestock and house pets.¡± She explained to me. ¡°Other than that, a monster that has a level not turning into dust is stuff from the legends.¡±


    ¡°Legends?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yeah. Haven¡¯t you read it before? In our history books?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°If I did, would I be asking you?¡± I snarl at her.


    ¡° Relax, I was only asking. Anyways, only certain adventurers have that god-like ability which only exist in history books.¡± She says.


    ¡°What are the certain adventurers that have this ability?" I ask her.


    "Well, according to a book I have read, they are categorized as a non-combatant class.¡± She tells me and it''s somehow making me smile.


    ¡°Non-combatant class?¡± I asked her smiling. She tried to avert my gaze as she continued talking.


    ¡°It¡¯s a rare class specification that no one has.¡± She continued talking while averting my eyes. ¡°B-being an adventurer requires to have a combatant class. When everyone takes the adventurers test, the class they are given is random. It¡¯s only in history these non-combatant classes exist.¡±


    I guess us picking the class we want is an unnatural occurrence. Fucking Luro.I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°And what are these class called?¡± I ask her.


    "In history, there is only two class that is in the records. One is a gives the individual a specialize ability for unparalleled body movements called footwork. The other class is a lot rarer than the first." She says and it brought a smile to my face.


    ¡°Rare? How so?¡± I asked.


    "The amount of information it has is very limited. All the history books say they specialize in cooking and creating new ways of edible arrangements by mixing ingredients that are considered to be foods for the gods." She explained to me and I can''t help feeling excited.


    "These are non-combatant classes right? What makes them god-like?" I ask her. I have a general idea since my skills are overpowered but I asked anyways to get a second opinion.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know much about why they are godly ability except for the fact that you have to be gifted by birth to obtain them. But I did come across one record that says their skills can rival gods. Their skills can get so strong that if it was a fighting skill, they might be able to take on a whole army. I never met one so I don''t know if they actually fight at all. If they do, they probably can stand against the world itself.¡± She explained to me and somehow, my future is looking brighter and brighter.


    ¡°Is that so¡­¡± My voice trails off as I think about all the possibilities this class have.


    I don''t have zero chance of surviving after all.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Um.¡± She said nervously. ¡°Can I ask you why are you asking me these questions?¡±


    ¡°Curiosity. Say, you probably have a level right? What level are you?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I¡¯m level 152.¡± She replied back.


    ¡°Hah? You kidding right?¡± I tell her raising an eyebrow.


    "No, I''m not." She replied proudly making me want to punch her face in.


    ¡°How do you level up? Do you know anything how these non-combatant classes leveling system?¡± I ask her.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about the non-combatant class but as for most adventurer around the continent, we level up by killing monsters.¡± She tells me.


    "Elaborate," I tell her.


    ¡°Well, when we kill monsters on our level or higher, we gain life orbs. These life orbs are what increase our experience and can only be obtained through killing monsters of the same level or higher. The higher-level monster you kill, the more life orbs you get. Since you killed the Sky King, which is a legendary being, you probably leveled up a hefty amount and are higher than mine. I don¡¯t know how you did it. I wasn¡¯t sure if I was able to kill him myself. How did you kill the Sky King?¡± She asked me looking into my eyes while I ran different thoughts in my mind.


    Ok, so I guess mine works the same way. Killing monsters don''t work for me. I have to cook them to get experience. Since experience means the knowledge or the amount of time I spend doing something, a cook''s experience can only be obtained through cooking. If I cook monsters that are my level, I probably get average experience orbs or ¡®Life orbs'' as they call it. So that means if I cook higher level monsters, I gain a bigger amount of life orbs. Since I have a non-combatant class, I don''t have the same effect on these monsters turning into dust as they do. I can kill them and they remain dead for me to cook and level up. Guessing on the superiority of this dragon, it''s probably the reason the meat takes certain special fire to cook it properly. So the more superior the monsters, the harder the meat cooks? That doesn¡¯t make sense for the gatekeeper. That thing was definitely superior. How come I cooked it easily? But then again, it didn''t give me any experience orbs. Is it because it wasn¡¯t superior like this dragon? Argh!! Fuck this is confusing.


    I scratch my baldhead while pacing back and forth. Stella moves her head following my movement. I spoke in a low tone that made it harder for her to hear me properly.


    ¡°Ummm. Can I get out of here now?¡± She asked me and interrupted my train of thoughts.


    ¡°Not yet, I have more questions. Say, how fast do people tend to level up? How fast did it take you to reach your level?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Um well, it is easy to level up when we are all low level.¡± She tells me and watching her head talk as it sticks out the dragon is making it harder to hide a laugh. She continued talking as I listened to her explanation.


    ¡°After we reach level 15 it becomes a bit difficult to level up. The higher your level gets, the harder for you to level up. It took me a little over a year to reach my level but that¡¯s because I had someone help me kill higher-level tier monsters that gave me a lot of experience points. But there are other cases where killing something higher doesn¡¯t really give a lot of experience points to some adventurers and their skills went way pass beyond their level.¡±


    ¡°And why is that?¡± I ask her.


    "This is a limit to prevent a certain class from becoming overpowered. For example, the Dual class is a class that specializes in offense. They wield two blades that basically make them a killing machine. This class level up much more slowly than the rest due to the fact that they can kill a lot more monsters in a short amount of time."


    Dual? So that''s the class I wanted, in the beginning, I say in my mind thinking more about the level system.


    ¡°Do you know who Luro is?¡± I asked her she then looks up to me with fear plastered in her face.


    ¡°T-t-The devil god?!" She says surprised. I can see the fear in her eyes. Seems like he doesn''t have a good image.


    ¡°Yeah. The fucker who has wings. Looks like a maniac and is very rude.¡± I tell her and she looks at me with disbelief.


    ¡°You saw him?!¡± She shouts with disbelief in her voice.


    ¡°Yes. He¡¯s the reason why I¡¯m here. Do you know if he has any weakness?¡± I asked her, but I guessed she didn¡¯t listen to my question.


    ¡°When did you see him?! Are you his henchman?!¡± She shouts, and her voice is starting to give me a headache.


    ¡°Would you shut the fuck up or else I¡¯m going to grab your tongue and rip it out. Trust me, it isn¡¯t the first time I have done that~¡± I tell her as I raise my eyebrows and she went silent. ¡°Ok good, now to answer your stupid fucking questions, it¡¯s a no. I¡¯m not Luro¡¯s fucking follower. I¡¯m the opposite. I need to kill him. Now if you have any information on his whereabouts or his weakness, tell me quick.¡±


    Her expression relaxed a bit as she shook her head from side to side. "No one knows where he is. If we did, we would''ve tried to kill him. That bastard brought famine and death to so many villages he needs to die!"


    Didn¡¯t you just fucking hear what I said? I¡¯m trying to kill him!¡± I tell her, but her reaction shows me how terrifying Luro is to the inhabitants of this world.


    ¡°He needs to die! He needs to die! Please kill him!!¡± She kept shouting and it¡¯s making me clench my fist.


    ¡°Tch, well have fun shouting your lungs. Bye~¡± I tell her smiling as I started to walk away from her.


    She can die there for all I care.I whisper in my mind as I focused on the hidden dungeon.


    ¡°I answered all of your questions! You have to let me go!¡± She shouts at me. Getting more pissed off, I walked towards her grabbing her hair and pulling it back as much as I can, I see her wince in pain as I grabbed her hair near her scalp.


    ¡°All this fucking time you shouting and demanding me, you still haven¡¯t fucking noticed?!¡± I shout at her face.


    ¡°N-notice what?!¡± She asked me.


    I laughed as I let her hair go. I looked straight into her eyes ¡°You! Your one of a kind woman! I don¡¯t know how long it will take for you to notice but let me just skip all that waiting! Do you even notice what¡¯s restraining you?¡±


    ¡°W-what is this?!¡± She screamed as she tried to break free.


    ¡°Bwahahahahahahahaha! Let me tell you then!¡± I tell her as I opened my arms ready to tell a story. ¡°The sky king you have been searching for a long time is none other than a dragon! Which is a huge fucking dragon by the way. But that¡¯s not the main thing. I thought it wouldn''t work but here you are! Lodged inside a dead carcass! Unable to move!¡±


    ¡°Y-you, what are you?!¡± She asked and I grabbed her hair again pulling it back forcing her to look up. Not wanting to hear her rambling and shouts, I covered her mouth with one hand.


    "Let me tell you a little something about myself," I whispered close to her face and I felt my breath hit the top of my hand. ¡°Did you really think I¡¯m that nice to just let you go?¡±


    I moved closer towards her ear.


    ¡°I am a normal guy that broke out of hell. A hell my enemies decided to throw me in.¡± I whispered in her ear. I pulled myself back and let her head go. "Let''s see how well your luck plays out. Stella~"


    I stare down at her as if I was looking down at the goblins and trolls that tortured me. Anger resurfaces and my face contorts while I reminisce the pain my body endured. I see her look at me and the color of her face was completely pale as sweat slowly trickle down her forehead.


    I clench my fist and activated my pound skill. I grabbed her by the hair and forced her head to face me directly. She screamed nonstop and before I punched her in the face, she quickly passed out from the shock as her head became like a ragdoll. I stopped before y hand reached her cheek frustrated she didn''t see my fist coming.


    "Son of a bitch. Now you shut up?" I whispered as I lowered my arms and let her hair go watching her head go down. ¡°Yasu, it¡¯s now or never.¡±


    "Now or never," I reply to myself


    I needed to level up fast and gain as much battle experience as I can get. If what she says is true, if I level up my skills, I can deal with stronger enemies even if I am lower level than them but, I think it will only work on a certain amount. Even if I did kill the Sky King, It wasn''t because I overpowered him. Every time I fight, my life is on the line and I''m sick and tired of that.


    I need to get stronger.I whisper as I walk around the dragon towards the dark hole in the wall.I want to get stronger fast. And the only way for me to achieve that is by entering the dungeon. This way, I can level up and gain experience of combat at the same time. Cooking the dragon will help me level up, but strength is nothing if I don¡¯t know how to properly use it.


    I kept on walking until I¡¯m standing at the entrance of the hidden dungeon. Inside is a dark hallway that¡¯s illuminated by blue torches. The door started closing by sliding back in place behind me and I never bothered to look back.


    ¡°Yasu! Where are you?! We¡¯re here! Yasu! Yasu wait!¡± I hear a familiar voice shouts my name right before the door closed shut and I was enveloped in a dark silence.


    ¡°Never trust anyone Yasu," I say to myself as I walked towards the darkness. "Not even yourself."


    I kept walking until I disappeared in the dark.

 CHAPTER 21: Our Differences

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 21: Our Differences


    <hr>


    HIROKO POV


    <hr>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to Yasu and Mole Adventure Land!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    This dungeon turned into a memorial site after the death of the sky king.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conquerer(Master):Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conquerer Class:BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yasu¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I drop on my knees and tears came pouring out of my eyes. A relief has enveloped me and I couldn¡¯t stop crying due to having too much emotion engulf me.


    ¡°Wh-Whoa! This is insane! How did he- Yasu got out!¡± Riki shouted in happiness as I kept crying. Everyone else has a happy expression except the people from the gold who kept their guard up just in case a monster attacks us out of nowhere.


    ¡°Haha! He¡¯s alive!¡± Junpei¡¯s happiness couldn¡¯t be contained as a smile crept along his face. It took us a good minute to calm down. As soon as my crying has become controllable, I noticed I''m sitting on something. I quickly stand up and what was written on the ground made my heart skip a beat and I can hear Kumiko-sensei gasp in surprise as she sees the message also.


    Don¡¯t die¡­


    The words were written in blood. As I finally notice the surrounding area, it looks like a battlefield and the ground has a huge crater. I quickly bolted towards inside the dungeon. I have to find him.


    ¡°Hiroko! Wait! Wait for us!¡± I can hear Junpei shouting behind me but I didn¡¯t stop running as my heart kept racing wanting me to get closer and closer to him. We encountered skeletons in the first room. I thought they would stand up and come to us like the undead skeletons but these seem like due to the aftermath of a battle where the flesh decayed leaving the remnants of its core.


    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± I hear someone say behind me as I slowed down.


    ¡°Crocodiles?¡± I hear Balo say and I quickly bolt towards the second door towards the end. As I got closer, another message was written in blood making it unbearable to look at as my mind went wild with different thoughts.


    This is the exit.


    Seeing the blood made my chest feel tighter and I became more anxious. I ran through the door as fast as I can. The other side was another cave. A small pond and a couple of skeletons were scattered on the ground. There are black-charcoaled pieces to what looks like burnt meat and a rotting odor enveloped the cave making me hold my nose shut.


    ¡°Ackp! What the hell is that smell?!¡± Kumiko-sensei says in a muffled voice as she covers her nose and mouth with one hand. She has just caught up to me along with Junpei and I see everyone else behind her.


    Riki inspects a pile of bones near the pond. ¡°Whoa, holy shit look at the size of those bones!¡±


    I can''t help feeling uneasy as every room I go into seems like remnants of a battle and I fear that I might walk into Yasu¡¯s lifeless body.


    ¡°What are these? Chickens?¡± Tobi mumbles as he walks around the skull. Looking at it increased the pace of my heartbeat making my mind run wild.


    If these things were this size, fighting them must have been difficult!I say in my mind.


    I quickly advance towards another door and the rotting smell is so strong it made my eyes teary by just walking through it.


    ¡°Umpf!" Sawada covers his mouth as we all rushed towards the other side. I see a pile of what looks like flesh rotting from the corner as maggots slowly ate it. Trying not to hurl, I rushed to the other side. Red shattered stalactite crystal was scattered around the ground dimly illuminating the area.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­..that¡¯s just nasty¡­¡± I hear Balo whispers as he looks towards the pie of flesh full of maggots. "Guys, let''s move on quick, I don''t want to stay in this room any longer.¡±


    We quickly moved towards across the other side where red crystals are illuminating a door and another message was written on it.


    Hey, stupid, are you stupid, I read in my mind.


    ¡°Why are all these written in blood?! Who¡¯s writing these?!¡± I shout as I quickly open the door. A dark hallway greeted me with a similar feeling to the first dungeon we all woke up in and it brought back more unwanted memories. I quickly ran through the hallway until I reached another door.


    ¡°How many doors are there?!¡± I shout getting frustrated that we come this far to just keep opening doors to empty space. With my thought on being this close to finding Yasu, I quickly open the door and barge right in.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to the Safe Zone.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Whoa¡­ this safe zone is small compared to the dungeon we all started in.¡± Balo says as he walks inside the room looking around.The safe zone can be compared to a tiny studio apartment minus the bath. There''s a bed, a table, and a kitchen area.


    ¡°What is this...a furnace? This place looks like it was scavenged¡­¡± Balo says as he approaches the kitchen area looking through the hole where charred firewood sits. The bed was missing its sheets and pillows. Small empty bottles are scattered around the tabletop and the cabinets were emptied clean. Few loose papers are scattered around the table and floor. A chest was left wide open but it was empty inside.


    ¡°He-he must have made it in here!¡± I say as I looked around. ¡°I know he was here! Who else could have scavenged this place!¡±


    I rush to another door adjacent to the one we entered in. I rest my hand on the knob but I noticed my hands are shaking and I didn''t know whether it''s from nervousness or excitement.


    "Ok Hiroko, you can¡¯t be nervous now.¡¯ I whisper to myself trying to calm my hands. I slowly turn the knob until I hear it click in place. I pulled back the door slowly and hot air came in making me sweat as the door creaked open towards darkness. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, it was all black like something scorched it with fire or rubbed charcoal on the walls.


    ¡°Guys! Can you get the torches off the walls in that hallway?¡± Balo shouted behind us at the boys who are just entering the room. Balo is standing right behind me trying to peek what''s at the end of the darkness. "Junpei, Tobi and Kumiko-sensei, let''s push forward with Hiroko while the rest of you take what you can from this room."


    Balo instruct and everyone follows without hesitation. Him coming with us and not staying to scavenge tells me that he wants to find him as much as we do. We push on while the rest of the group remains to look around what they can store in their dimensional bags. While they were busy scavenging, me, Balo, Kumiko-sensei, Tobi, and Junpei pushed further into the darkness. Beside me is Akane holding onto my shirt like a kid. The more we walk, the bigger the hallway got. At first, we started hearing strange noises that would make us stop every now and then. We kept walking and the sound suddenly disappeared.


    Tobi decided to peek towards the entrance to get a glimpse of what¡¯s inside. ¡°What the fuck is that?!¡±


    ¡°Tobi! Get behind the wall don¡¯t just stand there!¡± Junpei tells him in a low voice but Tobi just stood there with his mouth wide open. We all decided to see what made him speechless.


    As soon as we all saw what he was staring at, like in unison we all said, "What the fuck."


    "It''s a headless dragon probably," Tobi whispers as pans his head around trying to look at the dragon from one end to the other.


    ¡°Holy fuck, that bigger than the gatekeeper.," Balo whispers as he stares at the carcass. Even I''m caught off guard at what I''m seeing. I got more nervous and anxious. Even from a distance, it looks enormous. We all have never seen the gatekeeper except Junpei. From the stories Balo told us about the gatekeeper, it was a giant.


    ¡°That thing makes the gatekeeper seem small...¡± Balo whispers and it somehow made us feel more nervous. I started looking around the room panning my head from left and right but I couldn¡¯t find it.


    ¡°The head, where¡¯s the head?¡± I whisper back and everyone starts looking around also. ¡°The only person that could have done this is Yasu. He might still be here!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t wait any longer so I quickly run towards the source of the voice. I can hear Junpei shouting behind me. ¡°Hiroko! Wait!!¡±


    I didn¡¯t care. He¡¯s right within our grasp. He''s within my reach. As I arrive at the carcass and I see a head sticking out of it. ¡°Guys! There¡¯s a head here!¡±


    ¡°A what?!¡± Kumiko-sensei exclaimed, as she got closer and gasped in surprise as she sees the head sticking out of the body. I quickly looked around the area and looking for Yasu.


    ¡°Yasu! Where are you?! We¡¯re here! Yasu!¡± I screamed. The head slowly woke up groaning making us all jump back. As soon as she opened her eyes, she was looking at me with a confused look until reality has managed to catch up to her.


    ¡°Help! Help! He¡¯s going to kill us! We need to get out of here!¡± She started shouting frantically.


    All of a sudden, I hear something scraping as if a large rock was being pushed around. I ran towards the noise on the other side of the carcass and I ran as fast as possible until I reached a blasted wall. The whole area was dark but there¡¯s light coming from an opened door. After all this time, I finally found him. The familiar back profile that, I have longed for.


    There he is! I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°Yasu wait!¡± I shout as I ran for him. A large marble door was slowly closing behind him and I wasn¡¯t even halfway when the marble door closed shut behind him and darkness enveloped the area again. ¡°No! Yasu! Come back!!¡±


    Junpei grabs my arm and held me in place as I struggle to move forward. ¡°Hiroko! Wait! We don¡¯t know what¡¯s in there!¡±


    "I don''t care! He was just here! I was so close!" I thrashed around trying to break free from his grasp.


    ¡°I know Hiroko relax! Guys! Get your torches and come over here!¡± Junpei shouts behind us and I kept trying to break free from his grasp as all I see was the marble door in front of me. The rest of the group caught up to us with torches in hand and we all quickly ran towards the marble door.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to the Trials of the gods Hidden Dungeon. This Dungeon is not for the weak hearted. You must be strong not only mentally but also physically. To qualify on entering this dungeon, you must be or with the individual who has the title ¡°The New Sky King.¡± Only then you can enter the dungeon and test you might against all odds. This is a time constraint dungeon. Which means you won¡¯t be able to get out until the time runs out. All monsters re-spawn in the area until the time limit so you must be prepared.


    Time Limit:8760 Hours


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Status: In Progress


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Do you wish to enter?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yes!¡± I shouted as happiness filled my heart but it suddenly all came crashing down as another notification came up.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DENIED.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    You cannot enter without the title: The New Sky King


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°W-what?!!¡± I felt frustrated. I kept on cursing at the door while hitting it with my fist. ¡°Open the fuck up!¡±


    I drop on my knees and started crying. ¡°Open up¡­please.¡±


    I tried to punch the door again but Junpei held me back shouting some words and I couldn¡¯t hear anything. All I thought about was getting through the door. I cried and cried until I managed to slowly calm down, but my body shook and I couldn¡¯t control it or stop it as I sat in the dark. My mind was going blank as I stared at the ground not wanting to look up at the marble door.


    ¡°Can one of you get Kumiko-sensei?¡± Junpei says as he holds my hands. It started bleeding a lot due to my flesh being cut open. The surrounding area was turning black and blue but I couldn¡¯t feel anything as my body started to feel numb. The fact that I can''t get to him is real. I thrash around trying to break free but Junpei kept a firm hold on me. I see Akane and Kumiko-sensei running back with Sawada.


    "Hiroko-chan! What happened?! Are you okay?!" Kumiko sensei asked me as she sees me in the ground with a bloodied hand, with tears and a blank expression.


    ¡°She started punching at the door and I think she damaged her fist pretty bad.¡± I hear him say and I felt something warm envelop my damaged hand.


    ¡°There there, It¡¯s ok Hiroko-chan.¡± Kumiko-sensei pats me in the back trying to comfort me.


    "For now, let''s go back outside towards the light. The darkness in here doesn''t make me feel more comfortable than the giant corpse outside. You boys need to help Balo also. We''ve been trying to get that girl out of that thing but she''s lodged in there good."


    After healing my hand, Kumiko-sensei pulled me up to my fit and firmly held on to my guiding me back to the outside. Akane went and held my shoulders helping me keep my balance as we all walked away from the marble door. I couldn¡¯t say anything and just cried. Too much overwhelming emotions flooded through me and I passed out.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to sounds of a fire flickering the wood as it burned it slowly.


    ¡°Ok guys one more time! 1¡­..2¡­¡­.3¡­¡­pull!¡± I hear Balo¡¯s voice along with the others. I slowly sit up and noticed Kumiko-sensei was already at my side helping me.


    "Relax, are you okay?" She asked me and I couldn''t say anything as my eyes get teary by just looking at her. She hugged me close stroking my back and I cried on her chest till I couldn''t cry anymore.


    ¡°Ah! Please do be gentle!¡± I hear a girls voice while everyone struggled to pull something.


    ¡°It¡¯s like pulling Excalibur out a rock. It¡¯s impossible!¡± Riki says and as I looked around, I noticed them trying to pull the girl out of the carcass by her head. Akane is sitting beside me looking at me with tears accumulating in her eyes.


    Sniff*


    ¡°I''m..I''m ok Akane," I tell her, and she smiles but continues to hug my hand. I lied to her since I don''t feel okay. All of my thoughts are on how I missed my chance to meet him again. How I missed my chance to explain, to ask questions, how we keep missing each other by a few seconds.


    I hear Balo scream in unison with the boys as they all shout, ¡°Pull!¡±


    All of a sudden, they all shouted as the boys fell backward while the girl came out of the dragon falling on top of Balo.


    ¡°Finally I¡¯m free! My body feels light- Kya!! Don''t look!!¡± She shouts trying to cover her naked body that¡¯s covered in blood. She sees ups and came running to us as Kumiko-sensei used her body to block her from the boys.


    ¡°Boys turn around!¡± She shouts and they all did facing the opposite way. "Um¡­where are your clothes?"


    Who cares about her clothes, we need to find a way to open the door.I say in my mind.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t recall removing them! I passed out when I took damage and I woke up stuck in there. I remember losing consciousness with my clothes on. That means, oh my god! That perverted bastard!!¡± She says as she tries to hide her body. The last line somehow lit a fire in my heart and I wanted to toss her into an abyss. But knowing the fact that she might be my only source of finding out more information I held my thoughts.


    ¡°M-my bag! Do you guys see a bag around the area?¡± She asked us.I looked around a spotted a bag near the entrance where we came from. I walk towards it and I could see it has been ransacked of its contents. I picked up the bag and walk back to give it to her. But my inner feelings are telling me to toss it in the fire. She took the bag from my hands and nodded gesturing a thank you. She rummaged through her back, but her expression got worse.


    ¡°My¡­my potions!!!¡± She shouted as she put the bag upside down dumping all of its contents on the ground.


    ¡°Healing potions?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked. So far we didn¡¯t need really focus on a healing potion since Kumiko-sensei can heal.


    ¡°Yes! Those potions weren¡¯t your ordinary potions! They cost around 5000 diamonds each!¡± She screamed. ¡°He took them! And my family dagger is also missing!¡±


    ¡°U-um do you need clothes? We have spare if you need them. Umm, what is your name?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked.


    ¡°Oh yeah, my clothes." She suddenly realized she''s naked looking at her blood covered body. She whispered some words and a ball of water appeared on top of her descending down cleaning the blood off her body. "Thank you for the offer but I also brought spare with me.


    She went and chanted a spell silently and a zipper appeared on the bottom of the bag. Once she opened it, a small black box was inside. She opened the black box and like a magician, she took out clothes that normally wouldn¡¯t fit inside a box that size.


    ¡°Whoa. What is that?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked.


    "Oh, this? This is a dimensional compartment. This lets me store as many items as I want without worrying about space and weight." She says as she quickly puts on undergarments she took out from the box. Then wore a white blouse along with skinny jeans that hugged the figure of her legs. Then she took out a chest plate, shoulder guards, shin guards, boots, and metal gloves from her dimensional compartment and wore all of them.


    She looks like a knight class.I whisper in my mind as I see her tighten the straps of her armor.


    "Oh, like our dimensional bag," Kumiko-sensei says as she takes her bag out of thin air and the girl eyes then widen.


    ¡°D-d-dimensional bag! Where did you get this?! This is my first time seeing one! And it appeared out of thin air!¡± She screams as she inspects the bag.


    "Someone, uh, gave it to us." Kumiko-sensei skipping to mention Luro''s name. "Um, what''s your name?"


    ¡°Oh my apologies, my name is Stella Crosstain. Sorry for the late introduction.¡± She says as she bows greeting us.


    Stella?....Oh! Its ste¡ªI was suddenly interrupted by Riki¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Oh my god! You''re Stella?!¡± Riki shouts as he ran towards us not even asking if he can turn around. Riki vigorously shook her hand and created some story on how he was on a journey to find her and save her. All she did is smile at him but I can feel she is a bit uncomfortable with all the attention she¡¯s getting from him. Still irritated from what she says earlier, I decided to ask her a question.


    ¡°Stella, you know you have a reward poster. We¡¯ll get a ton of money just bringing you back.¡± I tell her and everyone looked at me but didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°W-w-what? I have a reward poster?¡± She replies this irritates me more for some reason.


    Scoff.


    ¡°How come you don¡¯t even know. Now, did you meet that stupid prince of yours?¡± I say back to her and I can feel everyone tense up but not say anything.


    ¡°W-w-what?! Stupid?! Drakun is not stupid!¡± She screamed back at me.


    ¡°Ha! He seems pretty stupid enough to me!! Chasing a princess that''s not even kidnapped...that seems pretty stupid!¡± I screamed back at her. I didn¡¯t care for some reason and wanted to punch her as I kept remembering her calling Yasu a pervert earlier.


    ¡°W-w-watch what you say! Drakun is a nobleman! If-if it wasn¡¯t for that psychopathic friend of yours, I would have his sword at least to bring back!!¡± She shouts back, and I just lost it. I called my dimensional bag and took out my bow and arrow. The minute she sees me holding my weapon, she grabbed her dimensional compartment and took out a sword as big as her.


    ¡°Whoa!!¡± Junpei stepped in-between us holding out his hands telling us to calm down. ¡°H-Hiroko relax. Also, you Ms. Stella please put your sword down.¡±


    I don¡¯t care, come at me and I''ll lodge a fucking arrow between her eyes!I shout in my mind as I kept my aim pointed at her head.


    ¡°She¡¯s the one at fault for calling Yasu a psycho!¡±I tell Junpei.


    ¡°W-What? How the hell is it my wrongdoing?! He lodged me inside that dragon and then left me there to perish!!¡± She says and the atmosphere was so tense I was sure to send an arrow towards her forehead up until she slowly put her sword down. Seeing her relax a bit I also aimed my bow down, but I was still conscious just in case she initiates a surprise attack.


    She took out her dimensional compartment and placed the sword back in. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t want to quarrel with my saviors. I apologize for calling your friend a psycho but, he¡¯s a demon in my standards. His strength is out of this world and his mind is not of those that are sane. He led me on saying that he will release me after I answer all of his questions but then just left me there to die. Luckily, he didn¡¯t finish me off as I passed out from the shock and fear. If you all didn¡¯t come, I would have been stuck there until someone found me. I couldn¡¯t move nor do anything since all my skills work only when I hold my two swords. If no one found out that I was there, I would have died a slow painful death of starvation.¡±


    She started hugging herself shaking. A couple of hours passed and we both calmed down a bit. Some of us are sitting down the campfire. Some of the boys are exploring the whole dungeon corner by corner just in case we missed something.


    "I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to anger you. You all are my savior and I am grateful for that. As a princess of a country, my actions reflect my people and I have shown you all an ill-mannered nature that''s not befitting a princess. I apologize." Stella says as she approaches me. She then bows down gesturing an apology. Everyone around the campfire looks at me waiting for me to also say my apologies.


    ¡°I¡¯m also sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to scream at you earlier.¡± I say as I avoid everyone¡¯s gaze and still look towards the fire. Maybe I meant it or maybe I''m using her to vent my feelings of the situation. I can feel her attitude change as her bubbly personality came in a form of questions eager to find out who we are.


    ¡°So, you guys are looking for me? I see that you know that person who was just here. What class is he?¡± She asked us, and I look at her. I can see her eyes are full of excitement and curiosity.


    "He''s a non-combatant class," Junpei says and Stella''s eyes widen and her jaw drops.


    ¡°Non-combatant class?!¡± She exclaimed stating up from her seat.


    "Yea, he''s a non-combatant," I repeat what Junpei said and she slowly sits down at awed at what we said.


    "No wonder he was asking me so much question." She whispered to herself and before I got a chance to ask her, Balo came back with everyone else.


    ¡°Hey Stella, we''re actually looking for our castle. We heard stories and rumors that it is something beyond a portal in this dungeon. So far, the only portal I see is the one we came from.¡± Balo says.


    Now that I think of it, is the other portal perhaps the dungeon door Yasu entered?I whisper in my mind trying to figure it out. it can¡¯t be since there¡¯s a time limit on the door and it requires for someone with the title of the new sky king to enter.


    ¡°Hmm, there should be one somewhere here.¡± She says looking around and the boys went out to search again. Junpei along Tobi and Hiroko-sensei also started looking around the room for the new portal. The one that¡¯s left sitting around the campfire is Akane, Stella, and myself.


    ¡°Say, uhh Hiroko was it?¡± Stella asked me.


    "Yeah," I replied.


    ¡°I see that you¡¯re really close to that fellow.¡± She tells me. I can see she wants to ask me a question, but she is holding herself back trying not to anger me again.


    ¡°What is it? Seems like you want to ask me something.¡± I tell her. Her eyes then perk up and she stood up to sit closer to me.


    ¡°Who is he? He has a non-combatant class, which is near impossible to get. So far in history, he is the only one in this whole world who has it. Did you come from the same guild or you formed a party with him? You say he¡¯s your friend and comrade. I¡¯m just curious to know. Do you happen to know what class he has?¡± She asked me, and her eyes stare directly into mine.


    Near impossible to get?I asked in my mind confused.


    ¡°He¡¯s a blade which is a cooking class. And he came from the same world we all came from.¡± I tell her and her expression became more excited.


    ¡°Are you guys from another world?! Y-You mean the planet at the sky?! You¡¯re from there?!¡± She asked me and I nod in agreement. She then started screaming and jumping up and down.


    ¡°Y-y-you! All of you! Please come with me back to my city! My father shall know about this. He will be thrilled for me to know such rare individuals!¡± She says.


    "No-can-do Ms. Stella," Junpei says as he gets back to the campfire.


    ¡°What? Why?! We can provide you with everything you will need to live here!¡± She says.


    "We''re not here to get settled, Ms. Stella. A creature named Luro brought us here to kill him. And that is our main goal after we find our castle. If we kill him. We will be able to go home." Balo says as he walks up behind Junpei.


    Stella slumps down the floor feeling defeated. But then she perks right back up. "Wait¡­.you say kill Luro? The evil god?!¡±


    They all nod in agreement except me who played with the embers of the fire.


    ¡°No wonder he said the same thing¡­¡± She says and it brought my attention.


    ¡°Says what? Who?¡± I ask her.


    "Your friend. Uh, Yasu was it? He said the same thing you guys just said. He told me his main goal is to get stronger so he can find Luro and kill him.¡± Stella explained as she sat near the fire.


    ¡°Wh-What else?! Did he say anything else?! Anything about us?!¡± I told her as I grab her shoulders.


    "Ah¡ªah¡ªyour grip¡­it hurts.¡± She told me and I loosen but I still held on to her.


    ¡°Well, he didn¡¯t say much. He was really scary.¡± Stella continued to explain. ¡°He told me he survives hell after being thrown in there by his enemies.¡±


    What she said last brought pain in my heart. Everyone else from our side had a grim expression hearing her words.


    He knows.Yasu knows.He knows we decided to leave him in the dungeon. I say in my mind as I let go of Stella. I slump down the ground and my face was caught with a blank stare. I didn''t know what to think. Nothing good has been happening to all of us. My mind was so exhausted with so many different thoughts that I passed out.


    I woke up slowly with voices of people around me. "So you''re saying that he beat you with a single punch and based on your knowledge, he has a very rare class that is only heard or known from legends and folklore?"


    As I slowly sat up, Akane quickly got to my side guiding me up. She then offered me to drink water from the bottle. Everyone was circling the campfire eating bread. After a while getting me up to speed, they continued their conversation as I listened on.


    ¡°That just doesn¡¯t make sense. He can hold a sword since your telling me he was swinging your fianc¨¦ sword like nothing. He had skills that you had to block or else you would have been cut in half?¡± Balo continued. ¡°Are you guys sure his class was a non-combatant class?¡±


    Junpei has a concerned look in his face as he says, ¡°I¡¯m not even sure now.¡±


    ¡°Yasu being able to hold a two-handed sword¡­¡± I hear Tobi slowly filter out of the conversation as he goes into deep thought.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not forget, he managed to knock her out with one attack barehanded. Which is hard to believe. What¡¯s next? He actually took out this dragon barehanded? That just doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Balo says.


    "Well as I said before, in the history books of this planet, it is indicated that those who are non-combatant class specifications are considered as a legendary class. It is either only obtained through fate. Which means you have to be born with the fate of being a non-combatant class. But that''s only about it, it''s history. Not once was there ever an event that someone had those non-combatant class. Well, until now that is.¡± Stella replies.


    ¡°From what I remember, Yasu couldn''t even pick up a sword since it weighs a ton for him. What if Luro gave him a class change for him to survive?" Tobi says.


    ¡°That is also a possibility he did that to pin us against each other. But then again, most of the time he would rather see us suffer than help us. A prime example is Rikimura." Junpei says and the name he mentions stings my existence.


    ¡°Guys who cares?! All we know is he is alive and he can kick ass!¡± Riki says.


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what we should be scared of," Balo says looking a bit worried.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Junpei asked and it looked like Balo is mulling over something. It took him a few seconds to even respond to Junpei.


    ¡°Well, if he is a legendary class, we need him more than ever to kill Luro. But the issue is¡­¡± His voice trails off and we all stayed quiet waiting for him to continue on.


    ¡°The issue is, what happened between you guys. For all I know, He might turn the blade towards us because of that. If he actually got out of the dungeon by killing a gatekeeper, that¡¯s already a big deal. Now he conquered this dungeon all by himself, he must be really strong to accomplish such a thing without proper combat abilities. On top of that, he killed this dragon, which is bigger and probably stronger than the gatekeeper. Having him as an enemy is very dangerous.¡±


    "Oh and Ms. Stella, our condolences," Kumiko-sensei says as she bows her head towards her trying to change the topic. Stella gave her a nod of thanks and I was confused a bit of what¡¯s going on up until Junpei filled me in that Stella''s fianc¨¦ died inside the dragon¡¯s stomach.


    "Must have been a devastating news," Junpei adds on also offering his condolences.


    "To tell you all the truth, I never really did love him," Stella replied back, and we all stayed quiet to hear her story. "I like him but love wasn¡¯t in the picture. That¡¯s why I went to look for the flower that will make me fall in love with him. Which caused my disappearance and this whole mess.¡±


    "So you''re saying that it wasn''t because the flower was to make him marry you, but the other way around?" Riki asked her.


    ¡°Yes. I didn¡¯t want to marry a man I don¡¯t love. His uncle told me of a flower that will bewitch me and make me fall in love with him. But it ended up as a hoax and I ended up trapped in a hole with a broken leg.¡± She says.


    ¡°Why did you want to marry him? Could you just cancel?¡± Kumiko-sensei asked her.


    "I wish it was that easy. Marrying him is for the sole reason of protecting our kingdom. We have all the resources and money but what we lack are manpower and an army. Drakun''s family and land had the opposite. They had the manpower and an army but lacked resources. Our marriage was to combine the two nations and help build a stronger kingdom that didn''t lack anything." She explained.


    "And now, they lack the original heir to the throne, and now the princess. Wouldn''t marrying the new king be the same outcome?" Balo asked her.


    "No, it wouldn''t. He was already set to marry another princess and if I become intertwined with him, I would be labeled as his mistress rather than the heir to the queen''s throne." She says.


    ¡°Oh, seems like he likes you enough to leave his current one though¡­¡± Junpei says reminiscing about all the information he had acquired.


    "That would even be worse. He would be removed from the family and lose his position as the current king. Besides, the current king is a disgusting individual. Can you imagine he wanted me to be his hidden mistress? Says that if I fulfill his every need I don''t have to worry about living and my family and people will be safe as long as I bore his saplings." She says, and I can see her fist clench. Before we could ask another question, she then asked something unexpected.


    ¡°You guys know Yasu as he was your teammate. How did he become like that?¡± She says.


    ¡°He¡¯s what?¡± Junpei asked also confused at her question like me.


    "When I first saw him I thought he was the sky king and tried to kill him. But then as I told you he quickly overpowered me. But what scares me the most is his aura. It''s really evil and sinister. He didn¡¯t hesitate when he attacked me and the last, I remember, he had no remorse trying to kill me.¡± She says, and it also baffled us on his new personality. It doesn¡¯t sound like the one we know.


    ¡°Ah, I wish I could re-watch their fight somehow. I bet it would have been epic.¡± Riki says and even I wondered how it was like, going Solo with a dragon.


    ¡°Oh, and I completely forgot, Hiroko, while you were unconscious, we found the portal but, it was shattered into pieces," Junpei tells me. He then points towards the tail of the dragon and I see a rune that''s slowly rebuilding the portal to be whole again.


    ¡°Luckily for us, Stella is here, and she has a spell that can rebuild portals, but it takes a couple of days to finish. She just started a while ago so when it is done we will depart as soon as possible through the portal.¡± Balo explained and I nod in agreement.


    "Since it will take a couple of days, we decided to stay here and scavenge this dragon. Stella says its scales will bring a high price if we sell it. But holy hell, this thing is really huge." Junpei says looking at the corpse from a distance. They camped near the hallway since the smell of the dragon carcass slowly rotting has started to become stronger and stronger.


    ¡°It sure will make you all wealthy individuals. Do you have any other questions? I¡¯ll try my best to answer them.¡± Stella says, and everyone decided to ask her more about this world and she told us everything.


    While they all asked questions, I remained quiet. My mind is fixated on the white marble door Yasu entered. After talking to her, we decided to rest of the time being as most of us started to feel sleepy.


    As we all lay down and stare at the remaining stalactite in the ceiling, Riki asked one question that slipped my mind.¡°I wonder who¡¯s Mole...¡±


    My thought was replaced by someone like a hot elf or a catgirl following him around. This made my chest tighten and added to the things that would probably keep me up tonight. Everyone was fast asleep except for Balo and Junpei. Even Stella was sleeping soundly. I decided to stay up since I somehow don''t feel tired at all.


    ¡°Say, you guys, can I tell you something? But don¡¯t take it to the heart okay?¡± Balo says.


    ¡°Sure go ahead. What is it?" Junpei says and I nod.


    ¡°We need to find a way to get him to our side. I know you guys have history but as I said earlier, we need him more than he needs us." Balo said, "But, I hope we don''t end up fighting him."


    The thought of fighting him never crossed my mind.


    ¡°If it¡¯s to protect everyone else and Hiroko, I would fight him if I need to," Junpei replies and somehow it didn''t make me feel safe or happy.


    "I don''t even know if we''re strong enough to face him¡­" Balo says and we all think the same. "I mean look at the size of this dragon, it''s enormous. And he brought it to this state."


    "I hate to admit it but right now Yasu is stronger than all of us combined," Balo says. We all just sat in silence until I started to feel sleepy and decided to sleep next to Akane. A small nudge has woken me up and I can see Akane¡¯s face staring down at me.


    ¡°Huh¡­Akane what is it?¡± I asked her. She then pointed towards the dark cave where the white marble portal is. I see some of the guys trying to remove the scales of the dragon while the rest have gone missing.


    ¡°Where the rest of them?¡± I say trying to rub the crust of my eyes and she pointed towards the dark cave again with a happy expression. I stood up and she pulled me guiding me towards the dark cave. That¡¯s when I see Junpei and the rest of them in front of the large chest towards the dark corner of the room. As soon as Junpei sees me, he waves me to hurry over towards to them.


    ¡°Hiroko look! A treasure chest!¡± Junpei says pointing at a chest big enough for two people to sit inside.


    ¡°We need your help to open it. There¡¯s a riddle here in the wall. You¡¯re the smartest person in this whole room maybe you can figure it out.¡± Junpei says and I approach the chest and read the riddle on the wall.


    "Those who wish to talk must first feed the baby liquid. Dragon be lenient on our dreams." I read out loud.


    ¡°It¡¯s talking about a baby, maybe a baby dragon? But we don¡¯t see any eggs around the area.¡±Balo says looking around. I see they illuminated it more by bringing some of the red stalactites into the cave. Now I can see from wall to wall. I walk around trying to find any more writings. Nothing. I walk back towards the chest. I see the lock is engulfed in blue flames.


    ¡°We tried breaking it but the blue flames is protecting the lock. It¡¯s practically indestructible.¡± Junpei says and I try to examine the chest.


    "Can you figure it out?" Balo asked me, and I just nod. "Ok, well while Hiroko tries to figure this out, let''s go and help to remove as much scales as we can from the dragon."


    Akane and Kumiko-sensei stay behind and started creating a campfire near the treasure chest. Akane helped me try to solve the riddle by using her notebook to write the riddle down.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­those who wish to talk¡­feed the baby liquid¡­hmmm¡­does it mean to talk?¡± I tried saying some commands on the chest but nothing happened.


    ¡°Dragon be lenient on our dreams...the hell is this¡­¡± I tried and tried to solve it but it¡¯s somehow difficult. I see the guys almost de-scaled the whole dragon. It¡¯s quite fascinating how our bag can hold so much and still weight the same. I tried one more time to look for clues and walked around the cave with Akane following me behind. I pause every time I was the marble door.


    ¡°Open¡± I whisper.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DENIED.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    You cannot enter without the title:The New Sky King


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    sigh*


    I decided to walk outside and see if they completely removed the scales. Seeing the door every time makes me depressed even more. I see everyone gathered around the campfire near the portal trying to cook something.


    ¡°What the hell, this has been here for over an hour and it¡¯s still raw!¡± Tobi says flipping the piece of meat cooking in the fire.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I say as I approached them with Akane behind me.


    ¡°This dragon meat won¡¯t cook no matter how long I leave it in the fire. Maybe this isn¡¯t edible¡­¡± Tobi says poking the meat with his sword and basically putting it inside the fire pit.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that rotting?¡± I asked, and he just gave me a shrug. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s edible?¡±


    ¡°I have eaten it before; dragon meat is so delicious!!¡± Stella says to us.


    ¡°Damn, all this meat is going to waste. Wait, doesn¡¯t Yasu level up by cooking? As far as I can remember, he only got leveled up by cooking the rats.¡± Junpei says and we all think about why he didn¡¯t cook this dragon and level himself up.


    "Well, maybe it took him a long time also to cook one and by the size of this dragon, it will take him centuries to even cook the whole thing," Balo say and analyze the size of the carcass.


    ¡°But still, that¡¯s an easier way to level up. He could have stayed here and just focus on leveling to cook this dragon.¡± Balo says and he does make a point.


    "Why did he go in the dungeon to risk his life?" Junpei says but we will never know until we meet him.


    ¡°Well, I think I kind of have an idea why¡­¡± Stella tells us looking at the fire waiting for the dragon meat to even start cooking.


    ¡°When I was training with a party, I also thought getting to higher level fast is the key to becoming strong. So I had one of my personal knights level me up. Of course, my stat rose when I leveled up, but I noticed it became harder for me to solo monsters on the same level when I got to a higher tier. That''s when I noticed my skills. They never leveled up because I never used them." Stella says.


    ¡°You mean you leveled up without using your skills?¡± Tobi asked.


    ¡°Yes. I had a higher-level person weaken the enemy enough for me to deal a final strike that one slice of my sword was enough to kill them. I never really noticed till I reached level 30 where I decided to solo some monster and had a really hard time dealing with them.¡± Stella says.


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Tobi replies back.


    "That''s why I can understand why your companion didn''t just level up by cooking this dragon. If he is by himself since becoming an adventurer, along the way he would have figured out the leveling system and decided to focus on his skills. Unless he just wants to kill things." Stella says.


    I was about to say something when she continued talking. ¡°But I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the case. You did say he goes to the smartest institute in your world. Something likes this, he would have easily figured out on his own accord.¡±


    We all think about what she said. Some of our skills are higher level than us. And what she said makes sense. Without our skills, we pretty much are useless. The next day, everyone decided to train their skills. They have the biggest target practice, the dragon carcass. Even I took time off trying to figure out the riddle and train my skills. Days have passed and I completely gave up on the chest. The riddle was too hard for me to figure out and we all decided to come back for it later when we find the castle. We moved and stayed in the hallway near the safe zone since the dragon carcass is starting to really smell.


    During the day, the boys will go out to train their skill on the dragon while Akane and I, stay around the safe zone telling stories to Stella about the earth. We also hear stories from her about this world and her kingdom. Kumiko-sensei alternates back and forth staying with us certain days and with the boys certain days practicing her healing.


    This has become a daily routine and I don¡¯t even leave the safe zone anymore. I don¡¯t feel motivated to do anything. No matter what I do, I can¡¯t open that door separating me from him.


    Nothing. There is absolutely nothing I can do but wait. I say in my mind and I kept thinking till I fell asleep. I feel something shaking me awake and when I slowly open my eyes, I see Akane smiling at me.


    ¡°Akane. What is it?¡± I tell her and she started mouthing off ¡®Its time to go¡¯ over and over again until I managed to understand it. I stand up and quickly woke myself by slapping my cheeks lightly. I see Balo and Junpei are awake already. Or maybe they didn¡¯t sleep so I decided to walk over to them.


    ¡°Hey Hiroko, ready?¡± Junpei asked me.


    ¡°Ready to what? Is the portal fixed?¡± I asked him, and he nods happily. After breakfast, we all headed straight to the portal. It¡¯s been a couple of days since I have seen the dragon and once I got a view of it, it looks horrendous. Cuts, holes, and other damages surround the body. The odor got stronger and it made me cover my nose and mouth at the same time. I look over towards Junpei and the others and they all seem fine with the smell. Before I can talk, Junpei answered my question.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been in here for most of the time I guess we got used to the smell.¡± He says as we walk towards the portal. Since I rarely left the safe zone, I wasn''t used to the smell and my breakfast wants to come out.


    "Ok everyone listen up! The portal is fixed and we all have leveled our skills tremendously! But, I don''t know what''s on the other side of the portal so I want everyone to be prepared and alert at all times!" Balo screams over all of us as he stands in front of the portal. We all nod in agreement and Balo smiles at us. He then turns around and enters the portal first. Then everyone else followed. The last people were me and Junpei. I look over the direction where the hidden dungeon door is and I can¡¯t shake the tight feeling I¡¯m having on my chest. I feel like I¡¯m abandoning him one more time. Junpei seems to notice my hesitation and he came closer to me and put his hands on my shoulder.


    Did he always seem this big?..... He looks like he got taller.I say in my mind as he looked at me straight in the eye.


    "We''re not leaving him behind this time Hiroko, we will come back for him. For now, there is nothing we can do but wait. We have to wait for him. If he''s strong enough to kill this dragon, he should strong enough to survive in there. Let''s have faith in him." He tells me and I just nod but there¡¯s still a part of me that wants to stay in here and wait but I can¡¯t wait here till the door opens. I feel guilty pushing forward but I need to survive. My gaze somehow ends up towards the direction of the dungeon door.


    If only I was a few minutes faster, I would have caught up to him.I say in my mind as I turned towards the portal.


    As soon as we get to the other side, the surrounding area was covered with trees. But not like the one in the forest. These trees, they have no leaves like trees during winter. The temperature is still warm along with a cool breeze of the wind. But what caught our eyes are around the surrounding sky from a distance. We all cautiously walked and even the princess indicated to us that she has never been to these lands and it was a first for her to see something unexplainable such as that.


    What we''re all staring at is snow.Snow is normal occurrence back on earth. But what¡¯s abnormal about this snow, it¡¯s only falling on a certain section beyond the horizon. It¡¯s not falling on our location and the temperature is definitely summer. It¡¯s like a force field surround the are preventing the snow from entering but also the cold wind.


    ¡°Ok guys wait here. Let me see first if the temperature is the same from this side compared that that area.¡± Balo says and he then walks towards entering the snowy region. ¡°Oh shit! It¡¯s fucking cold!¡±


    He ran back to us and I already could see his body shivering.


    "Damn, we don''t have jackets," Junpei whispers making me look at my clothes.


    ¡°Fuck, we can¡¯t enter that dressed like this. We need to get jackets. Did the shop back at the town have jackets?¡± Balo asked.


    "I think they did, I saw armors also in a display so they should have some form of clothing," Tobi says


    ¡°But to go all the way back to just get jackets¡­" Balo''s voice trails as he thinks of a solution. "Ok, anyone wants to volunteer to go back? I don¡¯t think we can go anywhere dressed like this.¡±


    Even though Balo asked, no one answered. Getting to the dungeon wasn¡¯t that easy. Going back will be the same and no one wanted to do the trek especially climb down the dangerous rock.


    ¡°Um, I can create jackets for all of you as long as I have the materials," Stella said and all of our attention was brought to her.


    "You can what?" Balo asked with a surprised look.


    ¡°I can build you guys leather jackets. I have armor crafter as my second sub passive class.¡± Stella says and it brought confusion yet excitement to all of us. As far as we know, we only have one class. We never knew we could have another second class.


    ¡°Wait, you mean we can have another class?¡± Junpei asked.


    "Yes. You guys didn''t know? It''s basic for adventurers to pick a second sub passive class after level 10. I picked mine as an armor crafter. The class lets me craft any type of armor from cloth, leather, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond armor. The only things I can create by myself are cloth and leather since it doesn''t require me to use a forge." Stella says.


    Some of the guys are excited to be able to pick a second sub passive class. She told us a couple of available class we can pick from but, Stella said there is a bigger list if we go back to her city and visit an adventurer¡¯s hall. Which we all agreed to do once we have found our castle.


    "Ok, so I have most of the material but the only thing I don''t have is leather," Stella says.


    We all look through our dimensional back and none of us have packed any leather at all. Everyone looks around trying to see if they can spot an animal but even if we find one, it won''t be enough leather to make a jacket for all of us.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Wait a minute¡­guys¡­. what about the dragon?" Junpei says and everyone looks at me.


    ¡°Holy shit that¡¯s a lot of leather! Ms. Stella, will that work? Will the dragon skin work as a material?¡± Balo asked.


    ¡°To be honest, I have never used a dragon skin. Because well, they are very hard to encounter let alone, kill.¡± Stella says. ¡°We have no other choice. There¡¯s only one way to find out.¡±


    Rather than all of us going back to get leather, we sent Tobi along with Riki and Masato to get leather. Tobi is a lot more experience with skinning an animal so he volunteered to skin the dragon. It took them an hour or maybe even more to get enough dragon skin.


    "Ok everyone, give me a minute," Stella says as she places her hands over the materials. Then she started chanting a spell and next thing we know the skin started evaporating along with the other material. A bright light formed and a jacket materialized from thin air. She did this about eleven times until each and every one of us are holding a pair of leather jackets made of dragon skin.


    ¡°Ok everyone, this is a one-time fit jacket. Which means, the minute you wear it, it will shrink to your size.¡± Stella says as she wears her jacket and the material shrank to her size. ¡°Wow, this material is so comfortable.¡±


    We all copied her and to our amazement, our jackets shrank down to the size of our body structure making it a perfect fit.


    "This is amazing! This leather jacket looks so badass!!" Riki says feeling around his body.


    We can see a subtle scales design on the dark leather jacket. It seems like a there¡¯s also a hint of blue in the color that shows only under the sun. It was comfortable to wear and flexes without creating a crease. Without wasting any more time, one by one we entered the snowy region after Stella created some gloves and beanies using the cloth she had in her dimensional compartment.


    "Uh, g-g-g-guys. M-my body is warm but m-my face is not. I-i-isn''t it dangerous to have a quick b-b-body temperature like that?" Riki asked as he rubs his face around trying to warm it up. What he says does make sense on our world. But here, our body reacts differently.


    "I-I-I don''t know. Ms. Stella, is there medicines for a fever here?¡± Balo asked her and the minute he finished her expression became confused.


    ¡°Fever? What is that?¡± Stella asked as she tilts her head sideways.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­.let me see how should I explain this¡­..Ah! A fever is when the body gets really hot and it makes you feel like everything is spinning when you try to stand.¡± Balo says as he tries to explain the symptoms of a fever.


    ¡°Ah! You mean the flame sickness!¡± Stella says clapping her hands one time. ¡°Yes, there¡¯s a medicine for that. Actually, I have them in my dimensional container. Just let me know when you need it and I will provide it for you."


    We all walked through the snow region and the further we get from the portal, the stronger the blizzard gets up to the point that the snow is up to our waist.


    ¡°Guys! Are you all ok?!¡± Junpei shouts as he looks back at us lagging behind him. I don¡¯t know how he can see us clearly with this blizzard. Balo is right in front of him while Tobi and Sawada are behind the group to protect our rear. The rest of the boys are right behind them and after that, us girls. Stella decided to stay with us since all of the boys kept asking weird questions and at the same time, she kept watch of our rear just in case some monster comes out and attack us from behind.


    Once the blizzard has subsided, we decided to clear snow on the surrounding area to create a camp since the sun has started to set and the temperature dropped even more. This is where our skills come in handy. We cleared the ground of snow in just a few minutes. Stella threw a metal ball in the air while saying some magic words and the metal ball started floating as a light came out from all sides and covering us in a dome-like force field that stopped the now but didn¡¯t prevent the wind.


    Since the force field was bigger than what we have cleared, we used the remaining pile of snow to build an igloo. Using branches of dead trees, we lit a fire inside the igloo to warm ourselves. We thought the heat of the fire will melt the igloo but it didn¡¯t. I think the cold wind outside froze the igloo solid and prevented it from melting. We built three igloos close to each other. Two of them were for the boys and us girls stayed together in one. Even though we are surrounded by snow and ice, it was quite warm inside the igloo that we didn¡¯t need to wear our dragon jackets.


    ¡°Hiroko, can I ask you a question?¡± Stella says. I can see curiosity in her eyes.


    ¡°Hm? What is it?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I have noticed, you care for Yasu quite more than the rest. And I heard from the guys that, you met him or how I should say, encountered him before. What happened?¡± She asked me and I can see her eyes go wide.


    I explained to her how we are all brought here by Luro with an objective to kill him to save our planet. I told her our whole ordeal in details what happened inside the first dungeon. How all of us survived the hardships to just die in the end. How all of us chose Junpei over Yasu. I told her about Rikimura-san kidnapping me. How he tortured and tried to rape me to be saved by the same person I have condemned to death. I tell her everything I know about him.


    "So you''re saying that he went out to save you and after saving you, he brought you to your group and left? Why didn''t he stay and waited for everyone else?" She asked and even I don''t know the answer to that question.


    "I-I don''t know," I tell her.


    "Well, as I told you before, it seems like he has a grudge against you guys," Stella says. "Wait, how does he know you''re all alive? Didn''t you say you all died before him?"


    Huh, that¡¯s true. How did he-I say in my mind.


    "Luro," I said out loud. "There''s only one way for him to know. Luro must have told him that we''re all alive and he must have told him what happened after!¡±


    "Oh no," Kumiko-sensei says in a worried tone.


    ¡°That¡¯s why he hates us! Luro probably twisted the story!¡± I say just noticing now.


    "Luro isn''t really a bag of sunshine. Imagine how he must have twisted the story to make him like that. But still, if Yasu goes to Seito High School he must have at least some common sense not to believe him." Kumiko-sensei tells us.


    ¡°Now now, isn¡¯t it bad to talk about someone behind their back?¡±A voice came ringing outside of our igloo. A voice that sounds too familiar. We all rush out and we see the boys coming out of theirs. Luro is sitting in the center with a makeshift fire that has red flames and no matter how strong the winds were, the flame never blew out.


    ¡°L-luro! It¡¯s Luro!¡± Stella shouted out falling on her ass.


    ¡°You! What did you tell Yasu?!¡± I snarl at him.


    ¡°Kekekekeke feisty as usual huh.¡± Luro snapped his fingers and the wind suddenly disappeared calming the night with subtle snow falling above the force field. ¡°Me? I didn''t say much...just how you all are not coming back and what type of choices you all made. You know, the usual stuff~"Luro replied and his answer infuriates me that I took out my bow ready to send an arrow to him.


    ¡°You turned him against us! You bastard!¡± I shouted out trying to kill as I sent an arrow flying but it disintegrated once it got close to him.


    ¡°Now now, I didn''t sugar coat it. I told him what actually happened.¡± He tells us as he fiddle with the fire and then placing his hands near it trying to warm himself. ¡°The one that turned him against you¡­is the dungeon itself.¡±


    "Lies!" I shout towards him as I prepared another arrow but I see a hand held me back.


    ¡°What do you mean the dungeon turned him against us?¡± Junpei asked in a calm tone but I can see he¡¯s furious as he grits his teeth.


    "Like wow, Yasu has become so popular. All of you were talking about him all at the same time that made me want to come here and listen to your stories.¡±Luro says looking at us. Right before I say something back, he stood up and started walking around.


    ¡°Now, I can give you guys what you all are looking for. Answers to all of your questions! But, it comes with a price. So what will it be? Find out now and deal with the price or, wait for one year until he comes out and asks him yourselves. Now, if he survives that is. And if he does, you all are in for a treat~¡± Luro started laughing maniacally as he sat back down the log placing his hand near the fire. ¡°Now what will you choose?¡±


    Even when he¡¯s talking to all of us, he¡¯s looking right at me. I feel like he specifically wants me to choose.


    ¡°Screw you!¡± I shout at him and with his annoying demeanor, he acted surprised in the fakest manner.


    ¡°S-s-screw m-me? I-I-I-I don¡¯t know what to say. Please be gentle. I¡¯m a virgin.¡±He says as he touches his face both of his hands pretending to be shy. Seeing him is making my blood boil. Right before I send another arrow his way, Balo stopped me again.


    ¡°Hiroko wait. We can ask where our castle is.¡± Balo whispers to me. "Guys! If we choose one, there is a consequence. Are we all prepared for that? I want to know where our castle is as fast as possible but if one of you is not comfortable, I need to know and we won''t choose one. I don''t want anyone to be forced into a decision."


    Everyone nods in agreement. I guess they all want to find where the castle is located. On the other hand, I have different questions in my mind.


    ¡°Ok. We choose to know all of the answers to our questions.¡± Balo says and everyone moves closer together by our side.


    ¡°Ok little babies, go on. Ask away~¡±He says as he opens his arms wide inviting all of our questions.


    "Where is our castle? And how do we get there?" Balo asked him first.


    ¡°Hmm, you¡¯re going the opposite way. You have to go that direction. Just kept walking straight until the land turns to mist.¡±Luro points behinds us. "Now once you get over the other side, you won''t see the castle immediately, you have to break the seal hiding it in the mist."


    ¡°How do we break the seal?¡± Junpei asked.


    ¡°To break the seal is easy. You just have to kill an animal. It¡¯s a lizard of some sort. I call it the eyes of the mist. Kekekekekeke.¡±Luro says.


    And everyone seems happy now that they know where the castle is.


    ¡°Why is Yasu like that? Why didn¡¯t he come to us? What did you do to him?!¡± I started bombarding him with questions and Luro just stared at me without changing his expression.


    ¡°Hmmm, too many questions. Let me answer them one by one. Yasu became like ¡®that¡¯ and I believe you¡¯re referring to his attitude because of the hardships he went through the dungeon. As you all know, he a non-combatant class correct?¡±Luro says and we all nod.


    ¡°But did I ever say that he cannot fight? You all and including himself categorized it as a weak passive class. But in reality, he can get much stronger than all of you since his class requires a lot more work to level up. I believe in the law of gravity. Don¡¯t all of you do?¡± Luro says waiting for an answer but no one responded.


    "Tsch, what a boring bunch. Well, anyways~ what is strong will have a weakness. What is weak will have the strength. It''s like a game isn''t it? The weakest class triumphs to be the strongest if the player properly utilizes it~. One wrong move and the player''s character become useless. Now, Yasu, is he useless? Or is he overpowered? Well, explaining will take such a long time~ so let me show you his past experiences instead~ kekekekekeke~¡±


    Luro then waved in the air and a holograph monitor appeared.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I scream as I see him on screen. It showed when he first woke up and it seemed like he''s looking for us. We see him exit the safe room to be chased back inside by the monsters we first encountered. The video then continues on and it shows him waiting and waiting and waiting. He keeps on waiting until he runs out of food. He waited for us to come to rescue him but we never came.


    But what appeared next just made me sick to my stomach. We see him being dragged by his hair towards the skeleton room by a troll. They tied him up and started cutting his leg open removing his flesh bit by bit as he slept. After he woke up, they muffled him and kept torturing him cutting chunks of flesh every day. He begged them to kill him but the trolls and goblins just laughed and laughed as they slowly ate him alive.


    Tears started rolling down my eyes and most of the girls including some of the guys are also crying. But we never took our eyes off the monitor. They kept cutting him and used magic to prevent him from bleeding to death. He suffered up until his expression became blank. I wanted to save him, I wanted to go in there and kill all of them but I can¡¯t reverse the time. I felt angry with myself, at everyone, I felt angry at the world.


    ¡°Please¡­stop. No more.¡± I whisper as I got on all fours crying my hearts out.


    ¡°Yes! Go! Go! Go!¡± Riki shouted and everyone felt excited looking at the screen. The minute I look up, I see a troll carrying Yasu running through the hallway. The other trolls were behind him and it seems like they¡¯re chasing him. One troll threw a spear and it went through the other troll that¡¯s carrying Yasu. Using his last remaining strength, he threw Yasu towards the safe zone before falling down and in a split second; everyone was on top the troll hacking him to death.


    ¡°Yasu! No!¡± I scream as I see a scene cut towards him crawling back out to the hallway and he started eating the dead troll. After a few minutes he passed out on top and I prayed that none of the monsters come back and get him. But while he was unconscious, his body stood up weirdly moving towards the safe zone dragging the dead troll with one hand. After getting inside, he passed out falling back down the ground. Right at the same moment, I saw wolves arriving outside the safe zone and if he was a few seconds late, they would have caught him.


    The scene skips where he started walking towards the wolves outside the safe zone. All the meat he lost was back but, his demeanor was different as a slowly exited the safe zone. It happened so fast but everything turned into a bloodbath. Yasu laughed as we watched him rip a wolf''s mouth apart with his bare hands and used its own bone to kill everything around him.


    ¡°Hmmm, these blood showers are quite boring so let''s skip to the good parts shall we," Luro says and the video then skips to a scene where Yasu is torturing a goblin.


    ¡°Oh my god, what the¡­¡± Kumiko-sensei says as she watches a new form of horror unfold.


    We all watch a Yasu break the goblins hands and legs and forcibly ripped its eyelids with his bare hands before bashing its face in until it dies with its frying pan.


    "Oh my god, I think I''m going to be sick," Stella says as she covers her mouth. Then the monitor skips to another scene where Yasu is wearing a troll costume.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± Balo whispered. ¡°Is that real?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s real~ kekekekekeke. He¡¯s quite a piece of work. He killed a troll, deboned him from inside and wore its flesh to just get out of the dungeon. His IQ dropped to a whole new level~¡±Luro says and we all are dumbfounded.


    The video then shows him being caught and he passed out in while being surrounded by the enemies. What came next was something out of a fictional story. Yasu screamed like an animal then started laughing like a maniac. The monitor suddenly was filled with blood as he slashes all of those around him with ease. The monitor then points close up of his face and we can see him laughing and smiling as he kills them mercilessly. Yet, I caught a glimpse of him staring right into the camera for a few seconds.


    ¡°Did he just¡­¡± Junpei whispered catching it also.


    ¡°That I don''t know. Even I was freaked out when he looked at me.¡± Luro tells us while looking at the scene.


    ¡°How come he got so strong?¡± Junpei asked.


    "Ah, that? That my friend, that¡¯s actually is his alternate¡¯s debut. I would say its all of the hatred within him a formed another personality and alas, ¡®Evil Yasu¡¯ is born. But I call him Kuro since Kuro means black and that''s Yasu dark side. Kuro is a befitting name for that thing." Luro says as he looks at the screen with disgust.


    After killing all of the monsters inside the dungeon, Yasu''s alternate screams his lungs out while laughing afterward.


    "Ah, let me go turn up the volume~ kekekeke," Luro says as the monitor audio becomes louder.


    ¡°This! Fucking! Feels! Good! Hahahaha!! But why am I naked? I hope this doesn¡¯t become a habit of waking up naked.¡± Yasu¡¯s alternate says as he questions himself. ¡°Hear that Yasu! Don¡¯t bring me out when you¡¯re naked!¡±


    After that, we see him collect a bunch of carcasses and pile it up onto a mound only to place him underneath.


    ¡°What is he doing.¡± Balo voice trails off as he watches him struggle to crawl under all the dead bodies. After a few minutes, he pushes the dead bodies off him as he looked around confused. It cuts to a scene where we see him run towards the portal to only explode into pieces in front of him.


    ¡°So that¡¯s how the portal got destroyed!¡± Junpei says reminding us of the scene where we come across our portal destroyed. We see a giant looking troll standing behind him with smoke coming out of his palm.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Riki asked


    ¡°That is the Gatekeeper~¡±Luro answered.


    This is our first time seeing the gatekeeper except for the gold district member and Junpei. Yasu charges at the gatekeeper his fights made our fights with these boars like baby stuff. Even though Yasu kept of being brought down, He keeps on standing up and charging at him.


    "Yasu," I say as more tears fall out of my eyes.


    "Holy shit, he''s soloing it," Riki says excitedly as if he was watching a movie. But I felt regret and I felt guilty making it harder to watch the screen.


    What are we to take your future away?I say in my mind. I can¡¯t help feeling this is our fault that he had to fight to the death. In the end, we all knew he just wants to survive like the rest of us. We didn''t think things through and brought this hell upon him to save our skin. I felt the guilt in my heart and it¡¯s making it harder to even swallow my saliva.


    I watch Yasu struggle fighting something we all should have been fighting together. But there he is, fighting it all alone. The fight was incredible but it was painful to watch seeing Yasu struggle so much. He started taunting the gatekeeper and it started shooting fireballs at him. Then next thing we know, the gatekeeper grabs its club and swings down towards him sending Yasu back in the hallway of the dungeon and all of the stalactite crystals fall on the gatekeeper impaling him.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Riki scream I surprise and we all felt relieved he killed it.


    "Amazing isn''t it? Well, let''s skip the boring parts~¡±Luro says as he snapped his fingers. The video stops to where found an entrance in my room. Yasu follows the dark path where the water came from until he encounters a crab towards the end and then the video shuts down.


    "And that my friends are his memories of the first dungeon," Luro says


    ¡°W-wait. How did he get out? You didn¡¯t show us that?!¡± Junpei says.


    "Well, as for that, water gushed in while he was battling the crab rat almost drowning him. Since he intrigued me so much I decided to pull him out of the water on time. Aren¡¯t I nice?¡± Luro snaps his finger as he laughed and another clip appeared as Yasu just briefly evaded Rikimura¡¯s stomp.


    ¡°Rikimura!!" Sawada screams as he gets reminded of his missing eye. By now, our entire gaze is glued to the monitor as we watch the fight between Yasu and Rikimura. With one punch, Yasu sends Rikimura flying towards a wall with ease. The scenes after that made Kumiko-sensei almost faint.


    Yasu ripped Rikimura''s nails from his fingers and tortured him the way he tortured me. Yanking his hair out of his scalp then severing his arms and legs. We can see Rikimura being forced to cut his own genitals and then eating it. After that, Yasu shoves a stick up Rikimura''s ass and made him crawl to the exit. That''s when Yasu fainted and seem to have woken up again.


    ¡°Was that his alternate? Ugh, I think I¡¯m going to be sick.¡± Kumiko-sensei whispers and I can see her trying her best not to hurl.


    ¡°I know right? I thought I was evil but holy baloney¡­he takes the title.¡±Luro replies. Thinking it was all over, we suddenly see Yasu yanking off Rikimura¡¯s tongue with his fingers and forcing him to talk.


    ¡°Is that still Kuro?¡± Balo asked.


    "Nope, that''s actually Yasu," Luro says. Then the monitor cuts to the next scene. Yasu, carrying me through the forest. My eyes went wide.


    I knew it is him! He saved me!I shout with joy in my mind as I watched him carry me through the forest.


    ¡°Say, Hiroko, if you were back on earth, and met me on the street, would you say hi to me?"Yasu asked my unconscious body.


    "Say Hiroko, I remember who you are," Yasu says and it made my heart beat more. "Say Hiroko, I wished none of this happened and we all could be friends back at our world. But, I can''t forgive you, or everyone else.¡±


    ¡°Wha- what? It wasn¡¯t our fault Yasu! We-we-we---¡° I was interrupted by his next sentence.


    "But, I don''t regret. I don''t regret meeting all of you. I don''t regret¡­giving you the scholarship. I was happy at that moment I was able to help you." What he said made my heart beat. So far I had been assuming, but now, I finally have my answers.


    Yasu is my savior. He said it himself! I shout in my mind as I happily watch the scene.


    ¡°Say Hiroko, you want to know why I gave you that scholarship?¡± He asked me making my heart beat faster. "It''s simple and easy actually. I fell in love with you at first sight.¡±


    When he said that, I felt like the world has become lighter as I felt happy hearing him say it.


    ¡°I wanted to help you and see your face smile. But who knew, I would forget your face through time.¡± He continued talking. ¡°I guess, I didn¡¯t love you that much after all.¡±


    What he said made me feel like I was drowning at the bottom of the sea. And then he continued talking and I just froze in place. I can feel some gaze is at me but I didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. I felt like running away. It was harder to breathe as I look down toward the snow beneath me. I feel some presence surround me but I didn¡¯t look at any of them and just stared at the snow on the ground while tears run down my cheeks. I hear Junpei and the others voices through the screen and I didn¡¯t bother looking up to it.


    ¡°Ah, Hiroko, you have friends looking for you. I wish I had that. I wish you guys screamed my name looking for me. I wished you guys, didn¡¯t give up.¡± Yasu says and then the video goes black. More prickling pain entered my heart making it harder to breathe. I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. I just wanted to get out of here. I just wanted to bury myself in the snow and silence the world around me.


    I couldn''t do anything as my whole body goes numb. I couldn¡¯t feel the cold wind. I couldn¡¯t feel the snow beneath me. I couldn¡¯t feel anything, as I wanted everything to stop. I covered my ears and shut my eyes trying to erase everything in my mind. It was our fault. It was my fault.


    WhyMy voice echoed in my mind. Why didn¡¯t I¡­Why didn¡¯t I pick him! Why!


    But all of these words are trapped within my mind as wails escape my mouth and nothing more. All I could hear are my sobs and the wind. We''re all quiet. We didn¡¯t know or couldn¡¯t say anything. Compared to what he lived through, we all have been living a dream while he was living a nightmare. None of us knew how to react or respond.


    ¡°Ok little babies, any more question in regards of Yasu? As you all can see, I had nothing to do with his change. It was the dungeon and you guys that changed him. Kekeke~ Ok, time is ticking, one final question.¡±Luro says with his arms wide open. I can feel Akane near hugging and me with Kumiko-sensei but I didn¡¯t even move as I stared blankly at the snow.


    "I have a question Luro," Balo asked.


    ¡°Sure, What is oh dear leader-kun?¡±Lurosays as he tilts his head sideways.


    ¡°What is the best way to kill you?¡± Balo asked. Luro then sits back down to his makeshift fire pit.


    ¡°Kukukuku, That''s a good question. To kill me, you must destroy two of my hearts. That is the only way to kill me~¡± Luro says as he puts his hands over the fire trying to warm them up.


    "How do we do that? Where are your two hearts?" Balo asked again and this time Luro stands up and started walking towards the snowing region outside the dome.


    ¡°kukukuku, I already answered your final question. Bye Bye~" He waved at us as the blizzard appeared outside the dome and he disappeared in it.


    "Damn slick bastard," Balo says. Nobody said anything, we all stayed quiet and Akane along with Kumiko-sensei and Stella helped me back in the igloo. The boys decided to combine our entire igloo into one giant dome and we all stayed inside huddled around the campfire. I''m still in shock and couldn''t say anything. No, I don''t want to say anything and I pass out.


    I briefly woke up to voice around me.


    ¡°Holy shit guys. Yasu. That¡¯s, .that¡¯s some insane stuff. It¡¯s crazy how he manage to kill that gatekeeper. I can''t imagine what he did to that dragon¡­What the fuck I wish he showed that also.¡± Sawada says as he sits around the makeshift fire. I feel an empty hole in my heart that won¡¯t be filled until I get a closure from him. Until I verify that he¡¯s still with us. But everything, everything on the video is against us.


    ¡°Yasu will kill you guys. Or at least try when we meet him.¡± Balo says what''s been on my mind the whole time. None of us said anything. I felt like I was drowning in the ocean. A heavy feeling enveloped me and I didn¡¯t want to move. I didn¡¯t want to do anything. I just wanted to stay here and let the cold envelop my existence. We stayed around camp for a while. I don¡¯t want to eat, drink, or say anything. I just sat in one spot inside the igloo replaying his words over and over in my mind.


    ¡°Balo, once we find the gold castle, we can go our separate ways. I don¡¯t want you guys getting caught up in this.¡± Junpei says and he knows for the fact that Yasu might come after us when he leaves the hidden dungeon in a year.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we all are on your side. We already formed a bond like family. You guys are also part of gold so we all have to stick together. Besides, a lot can happen in a year, he might be different after he gets out of there.¡± Balo replies back.


    Please, don¡¯t. Please don¡¯t make him our enemy.I say in my mind hugging my legs resting my head on my knees. The day quickly ended and I fell asleep.


    ¡°Ahhhh!!¡± I screamed waking up from a nightmare.


    ¡°Hiroko! Are you alright! Hiroko!¡± I can hear Junpei screaming. Tears started pouring out my eyes and I started crying uncontrollably.


    "Its ok Hiroko, Its ok. It''s just a nightmare." Kumiko-sensei says as she hugs me.


    "S-s-sensei. Y-Y-Yasu. He-he¡ªhe killed us all! I begged him and begged him but he killed us all! Yasu, he¡­.he¡­..he stopped becoming human! He needs our help sensei! He needs to know that we''re still here for him! He needs to know he can count on us!" I tell her as I hug my hands around sensei taking in all of the comforts she''s providing on my shaking body.


    No one said anything and my cries have filled the igloo. As soon as my shaking stopped, I decided not to sleep at all because I have a feeling the nightmare will come back and haunt me again. Having nightmares about Rikimura was all replaced by nightmares of Yasu killing us all over and over again. I sit around the fire pit inside our igloo and Kumiko-sensei decided to keep me company while Akane sleeps on my lap. Some of the boys are asleep except Junpei and Sawada. In all of this commotion, Stella never once woke up after falling asleep earlier after we met Luro. Seems like she¡¯s a heavy sleeper as she slept through the whole thing of me screaming.


    "So, what now? After we find the castle, what do we do next?¡± Sawada asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Even Balo doesn¡¯t know what to do. But for now, we have a clue on how to kill Luro.¡± Junpei replies. ¡°Destroy both of his hearts huh¡­ Damn, if only we asked that in the beginning to figure out where his two hearts are.¡±


    ¡°No, not that. I mean Yasu. What now. What do we do when we see him?¡± Sawada asked but no one said anything and silence filled the igloo again. Morning has come and the sun replaced the night sky and shines down on leftover snow creating a sparkling horizon. I feel like all of the energy was taken out of me and still hasn''t come back. But I couldn''t stay there. I had to keep pushing forward to keep myself from breaking completely. We walked back towards the portal until we passed it and started trekking towards the opposite direction.


    During dinnertime, I would eat my dinner without saying a word. When the sun has risen indicating it¡¯s daytime. I¡¯m the first to wake up. When the sunsets indicating its nighttime, I¡¯m the last one to sleep. This way I can cut my sleep short and the nightmares of Yasu doesn¡¯t haunt me. I feel more lethargic than before but at least I don¡¯t wake up screaming anymore.


    We walked and walked to what seems to be miles and miles of dead wintery forest. Not once we have come across any type of monsters. No boars, bears, wolves, there was nothing. Junpei tried to talk to me every day but I stopped responding. My mind is a mess. All I want to do is wake up in my room and think that all of this is a bad dream.


    But it isn¡¯t. This isn¡¯t a bad dream. It¡¯s our reality and I have to live with it until I¡¯m able to go home. Nightfall has come down on us and we¡¯re all huddled near a campfire eating our dinner. It stopped snowing and the wind has subsided into a calm breeze.


    "Guys, we''re running out of food," Balo says as we eat. No one-act surprise, we all notice that we eat less and less during the day to save whatever we have left. Even Stella has given us her portion but it still won¡¯t be enough.


    "We need to find this castle quick," Junpei says as he finishes his meal. He''s looking at a compass that Stella gave him for us to navigate. She has so many useful items stored inside her tiny dimensional box that sometimes it makes me wonder what else she has in there. Either way, the compass prevented us from going in circles.


    During the night, they discussed plans for tomorrow and what should we do about our food rations. I slowly stepped out of the circle and sat on a log looking at the sky staring at earth. The moon is illuminating the sheet of snow laid across the horizon.


    ¡°We will get there soon enough.¡± I hear Junpei¡¯s voice behind me. He sits right next to me and hands me a hot cup of tea. The tea powder something we also got from Stella¡¯s dimensional box.


    ¡°Drink this to warm you up a bit.¡± He says as I take the cup and wrap my hands around it. The hotness of the cup managed to keep my hands warm. Even though I should be thanking him at this moment, I didn¡¯t say anything.


    "Even though it looks so close, yet it''s so far," Junpei says looking at earth floating above us. "I wonder what my brother is doing. I hope he''s defending himself. I wonder if our body disappeared when we were brought here, I sure hope he doesn''t think I''m dead."


    Junpei continues to talk but I still don¡¯t say anything. ¡°I wonder if our country noticed our disappearance. I mean, fourteen people disappeared all at the same time within the same place¡­ that should spark a debate.¡±


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Hiroko, I like you.¡± Junpei suddenly blurted out making me choke on the hot tea.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°you wha-¡° I tried saying something but he continued talking and I feel like I burned my tongue a bit from the hot tea.


    ¡°I know you like Yasu because he saved you and you two have somewhat of a history together. But I like you and I¡¯ll try my best to protect you and keep you safe.¡± Junpei says and I didn¡¯t say anything. It''s not that fact that I didn''t want to say anything, this time, I actually had nothing to say and didn''t know how to reply. I just looked at him and he just stared at our planet in the sky with a warm smile on his face.


    "You don''t have to say anything or reply, I just want you to know that I''ll be here for you no matter what," Junpei says as he turns to look at me. He then smiled that made my face warm. Right before I tried to say something to him, Balo interrupted me by calling out his name.


    ¡°Junpei! Come here for a minute, we need the compass.¡± Balo says and Junpei then stood up and moved towards the group and they started discussing the direction we are heading and looking at the compass.


    That night, for the first time, I slept without having a nightmare of Yasu.


    Akane shakes me awake and I was still disoriented but I can sense everyone around me is being woken up one by one by Balo and Junpei.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Stella asks as she wakes up but was stopped from finishing her sentence by seeing what¡¯s around us. We are surrounded by a thick fog.


    ¡°Holy shit where did this fog come from?¡± Riki says as he rubs his eyes trying to see if he¡¯s dreaming or not.


    "I don''t know," Junpei says.


    "I nodded off and didn''t notice the fog. When I woke up, it was like this." Balo says and we all look around can''t see anything from a distance. Even when looking up, nothing. The fog was so thick it blocked everything around us.


    ¡°Remember what Luro said? I think we¡¯re getting closer to our castle.¡±Junpei says.


    "Ok guys, get ready and let''s keep going," Balo says as he stands up and taking out his sword from his bag. "Keep your eyes peeled for any lizard of some sort.¡±


    Today I have more energy than usual since I actually got a good night sleep without having any nightmares. But we can¡¯t deny the fact that we¡¯re still hungry. I guess Yasu felt a lot worse than we do when he actually ran out of food. The simple thought of him made my chest tight and I tried to distract myself to ease the pain in my heart. We walked slowly this time looking around us for any lizard. We all stay close to each other since its very easy for one of us to get lost in the fog this thick if we venture out too much.


    The visibility is very low and we easily lose sight of anyone who goes in the fog away from our group. Good thing we have a rope, if anyone needs to take a potty break, we tie the rope around them so that way they have a way to come back to our group. Akane tugs my shirt and indicates she has to pee.


    ¡°Everyone let¡¯s take a quick break. Akane needs to pee.¡± I say which surprises everyone since this is the first time I have talked since we encountered Luro.


    ¡°Uh sure sure! Everyone take five!¡± Balo says also surprised to hear me talk. They tied a rope around Akane, Stella and me since I needed to go also and Stella will act as our bodyguard. Akane holds my arm looking around scared thinking that anything might pop out of the fog.


    "Its ok Akane, I''m here," I say to her while grabbing my bow wrapped around me.


    ¡°Wow, this fog is really thick," Stella whispers as she walked behind us with her big sword in hand.


    I gave her a smile and once we got a good amount of distance, we decided to do our business as quickly as possible. Having no visibility around us makes me feel anxious and I try not to show it to Akane. Also the fact that I was kidnapped while taking a piss doesn¡¯t help calm my nerves either.


    "Ok, let''s go back," I tell them and Akane happily grabbed my arm and as we both walked our way back following the rope.


    ¡°Guys! We¡¯re coming back!¡± Stella shouts and her voice was loud enough for them to hear.


    ¡°Ok!¡± I hear Balo shouts back and it made me feel relaxed knowing they are still there. Out of nowhere, I feel my arms being pulled back by Akane who froze in place.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Akane?¡± She¡¯s looking out towards our left without blinking.


    ¡°Wha-what happen? Did you see something-¡± I suddenly stopped talking as I followed where she staring at. Even Stella remained quiet as we stared at it from a distance.


    "Guys! Come here quick!" I shout as loud as I can and I hear everyone foots steps as they ran to us.


    ¡°Hiroko! What?! What is it?!¡± Junpei asked me and rather than responding, I pointed towards what we¡¯ve been staring at.


    ¡°What¡­what the hell is that?¡± Stella says as she stares at a yellow light from a distance.


    "Is that that might be¡­our castle lights!¡± Riki screams with joy. Somehow I¡¯m excited but for some reason, I feel uneasy.


    ¡°Finally! Guys lets go!¡± Riki says as he starts running towards the light.


    ¡°Riki! Wait!¡± Balo screams at Riki who doesn¡¯t listen and keeps on running. We all have no choice but to run after him. The more we got closer, the bigger the light becomes.


    ¡°Ah!¡± Riki shouts but he suddenly stopped as he covered his mouth muffling his scream.


    ¡°This fucking idiot, everyone run quickly!¡± Junpei shouts at us as we all sprint towards Riki thinking he might have stumbled upon a trap. Once we arrive, we see him on the ground trembling.


    ¡°Riki, use your brain for once. Are you oka-¡° Junpei tries to ask but froze in place as soon as he sees what we all have thought to be our castle lights.


    ¡°w-w-what the¡­what the fu-¡± Tobi¡¯s voice was muffled by Balo and we tried to be as quiet as possible. What we¡¯re staring at is staring at us.


    Due to the fog limiting our vision, we can¡¯t see whom these eyes belong to. But, its slit iris is giving us an idea who these eyes belong to.


    ¡°Nobody¡­move.¡± Balo whispers. If its eyes are this big, its body must be enormous. My heartbeat is pounding really fast. All feelings are getting mixed up inside me. Fear, anxiety, excitement, everything is a mess and I feel like vomiting. But I don¡¯t take my eyes off it and everyone is doing the same. It has been a minute and we all haven''t moved an inch.


    ¡°It should have blinked by now...¡± Balo whispers


    "Maybe it''s dead?" Junpei whispers and we all hope it is.


    ¡°W-w-what do we do?¡± Kumiko-sensei whispers Balo but he was clueless.


    "H-h-how about we back away from it slowly¡­going near it or just standing here waiting to freeze to death is not the better option." Balo whispers and we all nod. Balo then indicated to Riki to slowly stand up and back away. We all walked back slowly without removing our vision of the eye. We kept going until the yellow eye was surrounded by fog again and become a yellow blur. We went a bit further out but enough distance to keep an eye on the yellow light. If it disappears, it means its alive and dealing with it while the fog surrounds the area would be difficult.


    ¡°Holy fucking shit! That was scary!¡± Riki says as he slumps down in the snow losing all the strength in his legs.


    ¡°Riki, stop running off on your own. You could have gotten killed and all of us killed for fuck sakes.¡± Junpei tells him and Riki apologized for not thinking properly. Even if it¡¯s daytime, we decided to make camp at a fair distance to where we can monitor the eye. As much as we want to verify if it''s dead or not or if it actually belongs to a body, fear gets the best of us.


    ¡°Ms. Stella, do you know anything about dragons?¡± Junpei asked as we sit around a small campfire. Me and Tobi are facing the eye just in case it makes any sudden movements.


    "Not much, the only information I got from books. I heard that dragons are the mystical beast that can only be seen on undiscovered lands. Not all dragons are the same. Most dragons are based on elements. Dragon of fire, the dragon of wind, the dragon of earth, the dragon of lightning, the list goes on and on." Stella explained.


    ¡°Let me guess, the dragon that Yasu dealt with is a wind dragon?¡± Balo asked.


    "Yes. It was also probably an elder dragon." Stella says.


    ¡°An elder dragon?¡± Balo asked


    ¡°An elder dragons are dragons that have evolved. They are basically much more difficult to kill and one of them can wipe a city out. That¡¯s why they are sealed into dungeons to prevent a catastrophe.¡± Stella explained.


    This put Yasu in a higher pedestal where we can¡¯t reach. He faced an elder dragon and won while here we are frozen facing a dragon we don¡¯t even know what looks like and whether it is dead or alive.


    "Damn, Yasu is really badass to kill something like that solo¡­we already had enough trouble killing the gatekeeper as it is in the first dungeon. For him to solo a gatekeeper and an elder dragon¡­" Balo says what we were all thinking on our mind.


    ¡°Say Balo, you guys fought the gatekeeper, was he difficult to deal with?¡± Junpei asked. So far Junpei is the only one from our group that has seen the gatekeeper. We all died before even getting a glimpse of him and we only saw what it really look like from Yasu¡¯s memories.


    "Well, he wasn''t really a walk in the park. I lost my best friend fighting him. The gatekeeper was huge. Its eyes are as big as our body. Wields a giant club that creates huge shockwave every impact. But the main issue wasn''t the strength, it was its life. It has over millions of HP." Balo says and all we can do is imagine is how terrifying it would have been.


    ¡°The only good thing is that his life doesn¡¯t regenerate. We had to stop attacking him since we were exhausted and when we come back the next day, he still was left with the same health as before. So day-by-day, we would shave away a portion of its health until we killed him. We got greedy in the end and one of us died in the process. ¡± Balo says with a sad expression and no one said anything for a couple of minutes.


    ¡°I have stared into the gatekeepers eyes and that thing over the fog seems it''s a lot bigger," Junpei says.


    ¡°That thing is bigger, I''m sure of it," Balo replied.


    ¡°Stella, do the books you have read indicate the level of difficulty when it comes to the dragons? Like which element is stronger to kill?¡± Balo asked.


    ¡°Well, it really depends on what you specialize in. If you were a fire mage, you can do a lot more damage to the water dragon. But, in my opinion, a wind dragon is more difficult since it specialized using the wind and mainly fly around with a speed that only wind dragon can accelerate.¡± Stella says.


    ¡°Hmm, I wonder. Akane is a mage she should be the perfect candidate to kill these guys.¡± Balo says and Akane just smiles at him.


    ¡°Wait¡­Ms. Akane is a mage? What kind?¡± Stella asked curiously.


    ¡°Well¡­that we don¡¯t know. All we know is that she a mage.¡± Balo says.


    "Well, each mage specialize on an element. So if a mage specializes using fire, they are considered fire mages. What do you specialize in Ms. Akane?" Stella asks Akane uses her notebook to write the answer and shows it to Stella.


    ¡°Aall elements?! You''re an archmage?! Are you like a sage or something?!¡± Stella says in surprise and Akane looks confused.


    ¡°Are Arch Mages special?¡± Balo asked.


    "To become an Arch Mage, one has to go through years of rigorous training and study to master the basic four elements! Then they go through more training to learn more elements the world has to offer like lighting, shadow, and a lot more! Archmages are strong individuals that control all type of elements. There are only a handful of archmages and most of them are leaders of their own mage guilds. Actually, all archmages are leaders and if not, no one dares to go against them since one mage is powerful enough to destroy a whole kingdom overnight!" Stella explained to us making us look at Akane differently.


    ¡°Wow, Akane, you¡¯re way to overpowered," Balo says and Akane just smiles and shrugs.


    "Most Archmages that is recorded are very old that''s why we don''t see a lot of them since they live a short amount of time as archmages and die of old age. This is the first to see someone so young. Oh, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, why is it that Akane doesn¡¯t talk?¡± Stella asked.


    We never really got to tell her our classes including Akane¡¯s condition. Sawada decided to explain to her the ordeal both of them went through and Stella just looked at him listened.


    ¡°That, that¡¯s is so cruel! Don¡¯t worry miss Akane, when we find your castle, I will bring you to our restoration necromancer. He can revive or restore lost body parts.¡±


    Stella says as she holds Akane''s hands and Akane eyes light up like a Christmas tree.


    ¡°W-w-wait¡­.you can restore body parts?! How?! Sawada ask.


    ¡°Well, not me but a necromancer can. As long as we bring him the right ingredients, he can restore a person body to its 100 percent condition.¡± Stella says and it brought hope to Sawada and Akane. I¡¯m happy especially for Akane. She can use her magic again. I quickly hug Akane and she does the same crying but not of sadness but happiness. That moment I turn around towards the group, Tobi screamed.


    ¡°Oh shit, shit shit shit!¡± Tobi cursed non stop as he stood up looking in one direction.


    "What happened?" Junpei asked him confused about what''s going on.


    ¡°T-the yellow light¡­¡± I whisper as I looked around but I couldn¡¯t find it. ¡°It¡¯s gone!¡±


    ¡°Where did it go?!¡± Balo asked and we all stand up to arm ourselves.


    ¡°I-I-I don¡¯t know! One moment it was there and next thing I know, it was gone!¡± Tobi says as he frantically looks around.


    ¡°Fuck! Guys keep your eyes open! It might have moved!¡± Balo screams and we all look around frantically of our surroundings. I felt the ground vibrate and I tell everyone to stand still.


    Thud*


    Thud*


    Thud*


    It felt like a hammer strike down towards the ground causing the whole place to shake. We all started backing up to each other forming a circle as the tremors get stronger and stronger.


    "G-g-guys¡­it¡­it feels like its coming closer to us," Balo whispers as we all frantically look around. We all didn¡¯t say anything or to best describe it, we couldn¡¯t say anything. As fast as it went as fast as it disappeared.


    ¡°Wh-Where did it g-¡° Riki says making so much noise.


    ¡°Shhh¡­¡± Balo interrupted Riki. That¡¯s when I saw it.


    A giant yellow light formed in front of me. This was way brighter and I froze in place thinking it can see me through the fog. But something feels odd. I¡¯m sweating. Even with all this snow and cold wind, I''m sweating. I felt the water around my feet and it felt warm to the touch but the temperature slowly got hotter and hotter.


    ¡°W-water?¡± I say confused and that¡¯s when Stella jumps in front of me.


    ¡°Everyone get behind me!!¡± She shouted and everyone ran behind her. Next thing we know, a huge wave of yellow fire came rushing towards us like a tsunami.


    ¡°lights Parry!¡± Stella shouter her skill and the two-handed sword on her hands lit up. She brought it down towards the wave of fire slicing it in half like a prophet.


    The land around us was quickly covered with yellow flame. It was like being in the middle of a fire tsunami and if it wasn¡¯t for Stella, we would have burned along with everything else.


    ¡°Agrrh!¡± Stella screams as she tries to hold the wave of fire back as much as she can. The fire quickly dissipated ¡°Is everyone ok?!¡±


    Then the monster on the other side of the fog suddenly roared so loud it felt like my eardrums will burst from the inside. We all fell to our knees and after its roar has become disoriented. Once I slowly got my vision together, I''m still frozen in place.


    "W-w-what? I''m paralyzed!" I scream. As I slowly force my head to look at my team, I can see most of us are in the same condition. The roar of the monster has cleared all of the fog including the fire and has exposed a wasteland of charcoaled trees around us.


    ¡°It¡¯s a dragon!¡± Riki shouted at the sight of the ferocious entity in front of us. It was big as a blimp. And it¡¯s standing position shows how insignificant our existence compared to it. And it¡¯s looking right at us with yellow lava flowing out of its mouth.


    ¡°It¡¯s firing another one! Get ready!¡± Stella shouts and we all forced our selves huddle behind her. As much as I want to fight that head-on, I don''t think I can even do damage. My legs are still shaking and the feeling hasn''t fully come back. The dragon shot a fireball this time from its mouth and Stella quickly brought down her two-handed sword towards it slicing it in half. The sliced fireball flew past and erupted behind us causing tremors that shook the ground violently. The area was quickly filled with fire. Looking at the damage it causes with one attack was something out of fiction movies. It quickly flattened the land and the trees that were already burnt to crisp. A black snow started to fall upon us and soon we were all covered with ashes.


    ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRR!!!!!


    "Don''t panic! We know what to do!" Balo screams and most of the gold members scream as they get ready to fight the colossal dragon. Somehow they all are able to move freely while the rest of us originally from the diamond district are still unable to even take a step. Even Akane who mostly follow me around is now standing tall beside me.


    "Masato! Summon birds to distract its eyes! Everyone! Focus on attacking its legs!" Balo screams and everyone from the gold district springs into action. We have seen them fight boars and other animals but not in unison like this.


    ¡°Dual¡¯s combo! Takumi let¡¯s go!¡± Balo screamed and both him and Takumi sprint towards one of the dragon¡¯s legs. Their speed has doubled as they swung their swords so fast and its hard for my eyes to keep up. Yet, the dragon¡¯s scales deflected all of their attacks and yet they didn¡¯t stop and kept bombarding the dragon with their swords.


    ¡°Paper kings!¡± Naoki shouts and two giant Paper Mache appeared out of nowhere and knock the dragon towards its side.


    ¡°Great job!¡± Stella screams and she then jumps towards the air so fast she left a crevice on the ground. She brought down the tip of her two-handed swords towards the neck of the dragon stabbing her sword right through. The dragon roared as Stella stands on the top of it piercing its neck. The roar was so loud it paralyzed all of us again. She probably didn''t notice but a tail hit Stella sending her flying across the land crashing a few feet away from us.


    ¡°Ms. Stella!!¡± Kumiko-sensei shouts as she ran to her. The dragon suddenly sends a fireball flying towards Kumiko-sensei. Akane went running toward Kumiko-sensei and stood right in front of her before the fireball hit exploding upon contact.


    ¡°No!!! Akane!!¡± I scream as I tried desperately to move but I couldn¡¯t. Everything around them was engulfed in flames. Everyone was stunned. Balo dropped to his knees as he witnesses two of his teammate along with Stella disappear within the explosion. The dragon extended its wings and one with motion, the wind it generated was enough to send Balo and the rest of the gold that''s near the dragon flying towards all direction. I sat hopelessly watching everyone get hurt and everyone from my team including Junpei are still paralyzed.


    ¡°Move! You fucking legs! Move!" Junpei shouts as he punches his thigh. But it didn''t work as he slumps back down when the dragon roars one more time. I see it¡¯s mouth glow ready to launch another fireball and I know it¡¯s aiming towards me.


    ¡°Hiroko!!¡± Junpei shouts my name over and over as he tried to craw to me. I can see he''s trying his hardest to move to help me but he just couldn''t. I look back at the dragon and for some reason, time became slower.


    ah¡­.this is it¡­.I''m going to die¡­I whisper in my mind I sat helplessly waiting for the dragon to send a fireball my way. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry, Yasu.¡±


    I close my eyes and I could hear everyone shouting yet, it somehow slowly muffled up until it turned into silence.


    BOOM!


    An explosion happened from a distance and the wind almost flipped me over. I opened my eyes and see a cloud of dust covering the dragon¡¯s head.


    ¡°W-wh-what?¡± I stared at the dragon waving its head side to side trying to regain itself from being disoriented.


    Did the fireball explode from its mouth? I whisper and all of sudden, three icicles flew over me at high speed stabbing the dragon from the side. The dragon roared in pain as the ice jammed so far in and in an instant, it exploded as if a grenade was placed inside.


    ¡°Where did it come from-¡° I was stopped from my sentence when a magic circle appeared on top of the dragons head and materialized a giant iceberg. The magic circle disappeared, and the iceberg came crashing down its head causing the whole place to shake violently as the dragon roar from the pain. The iceberg suddenly exploded, and a white bright light engulfed everything making it harder to see. The shockwave of the impact created a strong gust of wind and before it reached us, a wall came out of the ground shielding me from the blast. The wind was so strong it blew away almost everything.


    I tried my best to hide behind the rock wall and I could see it cracking in place slowly. I tried looking where Junpei is at and I could see another rock wall covering him and everyone else. After the blast subsided, I slowly sat up and everything around us was covered in dust making it harder to see. All of a sudden, a tornado appeared sucking in everything as it moved towards the dragon. At that moment, happiness filled my heart as I saw them hiding behind a rock wall.


    ¡°Akane!" I shout towards her and she gave me a smile waving my way. She¡¯s holding a staff and right beside her is Kumiko-sensei who¡¯s healing Stella. Akane looks back towards the dragon and with a quick wave of her staff, the wall protecting us crumbled. Even with the explosion, it wasn¡¯t enough to kill it as the dragon stood its ground.


    I looked back at Akane and I can see her silently chanting as words surrounded her. More icicle appeared and like a bullet, it flew towards the dragon¡¯s eyes. Its tails quickly deflected it as huge roots come out of the ground looping on its legs.Akane raised her staff with the only hand she has and started chanting silent words again.


    This time a lot of small blue magic circle formed in front of her and each one sent a barrage of icicle towards the dragon. The dragon¡¯s tail came around and used it to deflect all of the icicles but Akane didn¡¯t stop and held her ground bombarding the dragon non-stop. Balo and the rest of the group came back surprised that Akane has managed to suppress the dragon from attacking us.


    ¡°Holy shit! Support her!¡± Balo shouted as he pointed his sword towards the dragon. ¡°Dual slash!!!¡±


    Both his sword glowed as he started swinging wildly towards the dragon. Small crescent light came out of each swing of his sword and it flew towards the dragon creating a bigger explosion. Takumi did the same and the rest attacked it nonstop trying to shed as much of its health away. Explosions happened one after another and I can notice Stella slowly getting up.


    ¡°Keep attacking! Buy me some time!!¡± Stella shouted out as she tries to regain her posture to stand up straight. She took out her dimensional compartment and pulled out another sword. She lodged it in the ground and started chanting as she held the handle. Her sword started glowing and the longer she chants, the brighter it got as orbs came out of the ground getting sucked into her sword.


    I felt frustrated. Everyone is fighting with their life on the line and yet here I am, paralyzed. I tried to stand again but my legs are shaking uncontrollably and it¡¯s making it harder for me to gain balance. I look at Junpei and the rest of us and they are having the same problem.


    ¡°Move! Dammit, move!!¡± I shout as I hit my legs over and over but nothing. The shaking won''t stop.


    ¡°Ok stop!¡± Stella shouted out as she pulled the sword out of the ground. Using all her strength, she threw the sword towards the dragon like a spear and it went flying so fast it created destruction on its path. The minute it stabbed the dragon on the side, it was strong enough to tilt it sideways as it fell to the ground ripping the roots that were holding its legs.


    ¡°Everyone! Run! Get as far away as you can!¡± Stella shouts and I can see the sword she threw started turning red. I felt someone pick me up and as I look, I can see Akane and Kumiko-sensei holding me up as they ran away. Balo went and picked up Junpei while the rest of the guys helped Tobi, Riki, and Sawada.


    ¡°We have to get away from her as far as we can! My sword will explode any moment!!¡± Stella says as she led the way and we ran away from the dragon as fast as we can. A bright light erupted behind us followed by a huge explosion and we didn¡¯t stop running away as I felt the explosion from behind us. In an instant, all of us were sent flying forward as my body was picked up by the shockwave and I lost consciousness as I hit the ground.


    .


    .


    .


    Hiroko.


    Hiroko.


    ¡°Hiroko!¡± I woke up seeing Junpei''s blurry outline. My whole body hurts especially my face. ¡°Hiroko! Can you hear me?!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t speak and my whole body felt like I ran towards a wall at full speed breaking every bone I had. I¡¯m laying on my back and as I try to stand up straight, I felt an immense pain towards my sides.


    ¡°Argh!¡± I scream in pain as I put my hands towards my left rib cage trying to catch my breath.


    "Hiroko! What''s wrong?!" Junpei says as he tries to help me up.


    ¡°My sides¡­it hurts¡­I think I fractured a few ribs..¡± I whisper to him as I fall back down the ground.


    ¡°H-H-hang it there Hiroko!¡± Junpei says and I nod towards him. I see him run off towards one direction. The fog has completely disappeared so we much better than before. I see Junpei finding another person towards some rubble and when he helped him up, I noticed it was Balo. Then both of them ran off different direction I guess looking through the rubble for everyone else. I see Balo finding Akane and she seems like she injured her leg.


    Junpei found Kumiko-sensei and she seems fine also. But somehow my vision is starting to get blurry and I felt a warm liquid towards my palm. I look down at my palm and my hands are covered by blood. I looked back towards Junpei and I see him running with Kumiko-sensei. I can hear Junpei scream my name over and over again as he gets closer and closer but my vision is getting smaller and smaller.


    "I feel tired," I whisper towards them as I succumbed to the dark.


    .


    .


    .


    I see him standing on the doorway. Behind him is a white bright light. He¡¯s smiling towards me as I lay on my bed staring at him.


    "Hey," Yasu spoke to me.


    ¡°Yasu? Is that really you?¡± I asked him and tears came pouring down my face. ¡°Is this real? Is that really you?¡±


    He didn¡¯t respond and just kept smiling. He slowly walked toward the bedside and sat at the edge. His hand slowly caressed my cheek and wiped off my tears. He slowly got close putting his lips near my ears.


    ¡°Hiroko.¡± His voice was comforting, and I wanted to hug him but my body froze in place as everything went dark.


    ¡°Yasu?¡± I asked and all I could hear was him breathing.


    ¡°Go die, you bitch.¡± His voice was full of malice and I felt his hand clamp my neck making me gasp for air.


    GASP!


    Cough*


    Cough*


    Hah*


    Huah*


    ¡°W-w-where am I?¡± I whisper as I woke up to darkness trying to catch my breath. It took me a while to understand my surroundings as my vision slowly adjust to the dim lighting of a room. There¡¯s a bed where I¡¯m lying on and across me is a window that shows a full view of the moon. There¡¯s an oil lamp hanging on a wall set to the lowest flame possible. Enough to subtly illuminate the room but dark enough for one to get a good night sleep.


    ¡°W-where am I?¡± I whisper again as I look around some more and I can see that I¡¯m wearing some type of wool clothing. I work my way to the edge of the bed and I can see slippers are set on the floor for me. I put them on and even when my body felt weak, I was able to stand slowly. I feel my body sluggish at every step and remembering my memory, I checked my sides and the wound I got was completely gone. I go towards the window and all I see is a green forest that goes as far as my eyes can see. I study the curtains and it looks like it made out of expensive material as it was soft to the touch.


    ¡°Am I still dreaming?¡± I pinch myself and I felt a small sting on my cheeks. ¡°This is not a dream.¡±


    I walk around still not knowing where I am or where everyone is. I walked towards a door on the other side of the room and it creaked open into another hallway. The floor was covered with a red carpet and one side of the hallway was full of windows letting the moonlight in. I walked towards the window and like the one in the room, outside was another forest. I see one side of what seems to be a castle and noticed a light at one of the windows on the lower floor.


    I turn to my left and slowly walked the corridor examining if there¡¯s any staircase I can descend from. I notice an entrance by the end of the corridor that has a spiral staircase that leads down. It was pretty dark, so I grabbed one of the lamps hanging on the wall and used it to illuminate my way. I kept on going down until I hit another corridor that is similar to the one above. This one is closer to the ground so the window shows the body of the trees and the darkness within inside the forest.


    ¡°Where the hell am I¡­¡± I whisper to myself. I continued to walk down the corridor towards the end of the hall until I reach the room I saw the light earlier. I quickly shut off my lamp and I can see a light at the bottom of the door escaping the room. I slowly put my ear on the door and tried to listen for any sound coming inside. I hear people laughing and their voices sounded familiar. I quickly open the door and the brightness of the room has blinded me and it took a while to adjust. I see everyone looking at me and Akane ran towards me hugging me tightly.


    ¡°Hiroko!¡± Everyone shouts in unison as they ran my way helping me get to a chair.


    ¡°Hiroko-chan!¡± Kumiko-sensei says and comes over also to give me a hug. ¡°Hiroko-chan, how are you feeling? Do you feel dizzy? Let me heal you just in case.¡±


    ¡°W-w-what happened? Where are we?¡± I asked as Kumiko-sensei activated her spell making my whole-body glow green.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember anything?¡± Balo asked me and I shake my head. ¡°Well...right now we¡¯re in our castle¡­Hiroko, we found our castle!¡±


    ¡°After our fight with the dragon you passed out from being wounded," Junpei explained to me as he hands me a glass of water. ¡°You landed on a wood and it punctured your right side. Good thing Kumiko-sensei managed to heal you right away or it would have been too late. But¡­even after healing you, you wouldn''t wake up."


    ¡°How long was I asleep for?¡± I asked him after gulping down the water.


    ¡°Two weeks.¡± He tells me, and it made my eyes go wide.


    ¡°Two weeks?!¡± I asked in surprise


    "Yea, no matter what we do you would wake up. We even had to make a choice either to keep going or head back. But since it seemed like we were closer to finding the castle, we opted to carry you around and look for it. It was the right decision we made since we found it in no time. Remember the dragon we killed? It was the Lizard Luro talked about. After we killed it and it''s disintegrated, the fog around the area cleared up." Balo says.


    ¡°So, we were right next to the castle the whole time?¡± I asked still confused. ¡°Wait¡­when I looked outside earlier I didn¡¯t see any snow.¡±


    "That''s because we''re in the middle of it. Remember the portal area where the snow doesn''t fall? It''s almost the same concept but some type of camouflage hides this castle. The only way we found it is by using the gemstone the dragon dropped. It basically lit up whenever we got close and once we got into the area, the gemstone disappeared and revealed the castle." Balo explained some more and like a great timing, I felt my stomach vibrate.


    ¡°You must be hungry," Kumiko-sensei says as she places her hand on my shoulder while Tobi left the room. I felt embarrassed letting out such a sound, but I couldn¡¯t help it as I nod towards her. Tobi comes back with a plate full of food. Not something was thrown on the fire but proper food, cooked with ingredients.


    ¡°Curry chicken at your service milady.¡± He hands me spoon and fork and the smell of the food made my stomach grumble louder. The smell of curry chicken has made me salivate. I quickly took the first bite and the taste of chicken mixed in curry sauce along with rice have made me glad that I¡¯m still alive.


    ¡°W-where did you get this?¡± I say as I start to gobble up everything on the plate.


    "Well, the chicken came from around the area. The surrounding land is filled with animals. The spices were from the kitchen cupboard. I might not be able to cook anything else but when it comes to curry, hands down I¡¯m the best.¡± Kumiko-sensei says as she hands me a glass of water.


    As I ate they told me more stories of what has been going on during those two weeks I was sleeping. Stella decided to go back to her city to speak to her father. Some of the boys went with her to sell the dragon scales and get a few more things like seeds to get us started to properly live here and become self-sufficient.


    ¡°Live here? Don¡¯t we all want to go home?¡± I asked.


    ¡°We do, but we don¡¯t know how long it will take us to find Luro so we need to make sure we can sustain living here. Don¡¯t want to kill off all the animals to feed us all and next thing we know, we¡¯re out of food.¡± Balo explained and as I stuff my mouth full of curry chicken.


    They told me some section of the castle is in ruins and needs maintenance. Stella offered to fix it and actually wanted to live here so she left to pick up some of her servants and workers to help us with the castle.


    ¡°She¡¯s also going to bring back necromancer that can help Akane," Balo says making me felt relieved. They told me after healing me, they went to where the dragon was. It''s body already evaporated into dust and left the gemstone, which they used to find the castle. Even with the good news, it was difficult to take in all the information. I remember everything. I remember how useless I was during the battle with the dragon. How I didn¡¯t even lift a finger. After I had my dinner, we all decided to sit around the fireplace on one of the rooms. Even though it isn¡¯t snowing, it was still cold at night as if it was winter.


    ¡°So you¡¯re telling me, Akane have been practicing ever since we entered the dungeon?¡± I asked still baffled at how strong Akane really is. She fell asleep in my lap like a child but her strength right now is enough to hold a dragon at bay.


    ¡°Yea, she wanted to try to see which of her magic spells would work without actually vocalizing it. And we¡¯re lucky that those two spells she learned to use without a voice are actually strong against that dragon. Otherwise, if she had gone and learned fire instead, it would have been useless.¡± Sawada explained.


    "But how did she learn those spells? Don''t we learn new skills when we level up?" I asked still confused.


    ¡°That what I thought also, but it seems like you can learn from skill books. It seems like she went and bought herself some skills book and a new staff when we were in the village without us knowing. I guess she wanted to surprise us. Who knew she would pull through at the right time.¡± Sawada says, and I gently stroke Akane''s head.


    Even though she looks so fragile and weak, she¡¯s actually the opposite. It also brought a heavy feeling in my heart. Throughout that whole time, I was useless.


    ¡°Balo, Kumiko-sensei... I¡¯m sorry.¡± I say to them and it caught them off guard.


    ¡°S-sorry for what?¡± Balo asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I was useless at that time. I was paralyzed and couldn¡¯t move my legs even when I wanted to.¡± I tell him and somehow, I couldn¡¯t look them in the eye.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko-chan. We understand.¡± Kumiko-sensei gently pats my shoulder as she sits beside me. ¡°Believe it or not, we all went through the same thing back at the first dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Haha, you and Junpei are alike. He went on an apologizing marathon after that.¡± Balo joked around and I can see Junpei embarrassed. ¡°But yeah, don¡¯t worry about it. As Kumiko-sensei mentioned, we went through it before. I remember our legs froze also at the sight of the gatekeeper.¡±


    I can see the sadness in his eyes as he stares at the fireplace.


    ¡°That¡¯s why don¡¯t feel sorry Hiroko-chan.¡± Kumiko sensei says. ¡°Don¡¯t feel sorry everyone.¡±


    ¡°Yea, We knew what you all were going through and at that moment, we had no time to react to any of it.¡± Balo continued as he feeds the fire with some wood. Even though I know fear also contributed to the paralysis, I still feel hopeless and weak.


    As silence filled the room different thought have come to my mind. What have I been doing? I¡¯ll die in no time if I continue on like this. I vowed to myself I¡¯ll get stronger yet¡­I need to get stronger.I want to protect those around me.


    ¡°Well well well, who would have thought you all would survive that? Kekekekekekekekekekekeke~¡± A voice interrupted my thoughts and as we all turn. We see him standing by the doorway leaning against its frame.


    ¡°What do you want now?¡± Balo asked and as I was about to go into my bag for my bow when he stopped me. ¡°You¡¯re not here to fight us, you only show up when you have something to say. Even if we try to kill you now, you won''t die. So spill what you have to say and get lost.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m beginning to like you. You''re straight to the point. Waste no time I say." Luro says as he pushes himself off the door frame and walks slowly towards us laying down on one of the bed. ¡°So you guys ready for your consequence?¡±


    What he said made my heart skip a beat and I know everyone felt tense.


    "Spill it and stop wasting our time," Balo says and Luro looked at us with a smile on his face. Not a genuine smile, but a sinister one. Like he did something and can¡¯t wait to see us struggle.


    ¡°Little babies...¡± He whispered as he stood back up. ¡°New players will enter the fray in a year.¡±


    The minute he said that we all knew what he was talking about and didn¡¯t say anything. I can see Balo and Junpei clenching their fist.


    ¡°Kekekekekekekekeke, and guess where they will wake up in~¡± Luro sings as he walks towards the door.


    ¡°W-wait!¡± Balo shouts to him and Luro stopped by the frame of the door and without looking back he gave us a reply we have been thinking of.


    "Look for where everything started~," Luro says and he walks out the door shutting it behind him. Balo and Junpei run out and the minute they open the door, he disappeared without a trace.


    ¡°The first dungeon...new people will wake up in the first dungeon," I whispered and somehow, the night just got darker.

 CHAPTER 22: One Year Later...

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 22: One Year Later...


    <hr>


    ¡°W-welcome to the new world?¡± I tried reading what¡¯s written on the door but I''m having a lot of difficulties pronouncing each word. My brother is still unconscious, and I tried shaking him awake but he never did. I sat beside him and curl my knees to my chest resting my head on it.


    W-where am I? I remember everything that happened¡­is this the afterlife?I think about multiple questions and scenes in my mind. I remember seeing my brother and my hand full of his blood. But now, he¡¯s completely fine. Everything that¡¯s going on doesn¡¯t make sense.


    ¡°Ughhh¡­¡± My brother slowly opens his eyes as he touches his forehead.


    ¡°B-Brother!¡± I say quickly standing up happy to see him alive.


    ¡°Ughhh¡­my head¡­ what the hell¡­¡± He says as slowly sits upright. Once he gets adjusted to the darkness, he looks around the room and like me, had a confused expression. ¡°Where....where am I?¡±


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know brother. Are you okay? Does your head feel okay? Do you have a-" I asked him. The minute he sees me he pushed me away with such force that I fell back hitting the ground hard.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I shout in pain as I subconsciously used my elbow to break my fall.


    ¡°What the fuck do you think? My head hurts! Where the fuck is this?!¡± He says without even looking if I was hurt by the fall or not but, I don¡¯t mind. It¡¯s always like this. I¡¯ve gotten used to it. Even though how much he hates me, he¡¯s the only family I got, and I can''t abandon him.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. I woke up here a-also. The l-last thing I-I remembers was t-that person grabbing my head. And-And-¡± I tried to explain to him, but I can see he¡¯s starting to get irritated, so I stopped talking.


    ¡°You¡¯re so damn annoying.¡± My brother says, and I stay silent looking at the ground. ¡°I''m not stupid like you. I remember what happened last. Fuck, I guess this is the afterlife.¡±


    He then looks at me with a cold stare I¡¯m too familiar with. I tried to avert his gaze trying not to get hit again and when I felt him move, I closed my eyes while putting my hands in front of me trying to shield any incoming attack. I waited but I just hear him walking away from me. I open my eyes and I watched his back as he slowly walked towards the door, but I could hear him mumble that made my heart ache. ¡°Fucking hell, even in the afterlife they still throw you at me. Tch.¡±


    "I-I''m sorry," I whisper as I slowly stand up rubbing my elbow.


    ¡°Welcome to the new world? What the fuck is this shit?¡± My brother reads the sign and enters the dark hallway without waiting for me. I follow him keeping a distance not wanting to get near his personal space. On the other side is a hallway so dark we couldn''t see the end of it. The orb light started floating towards the hallway lighting it bit by bit.


    ¡°What the hell¡­.¡± My brother whispers as he walks in and follows it. I quickly try to stand almost stumbling back down. As soon as I got my balance, I quickly followed behind him. We walked following the white orb blindly until we come across another door. A wooden one with a lot of nice stuff on it. It looks like someone carved a scene on it. The white orb stops at the top of the door shining the image completely. There is a man carved into the door fighting a dragon. Right next to the dragon is a giant, and it''s holding a club ready to strike down on the man. On the bottom right corner, there is a group of people that seem to be walking away from the battle. I trace it with my hand and it''s amazing how smooth it was carved out the door.


    "I guess it wants me to open this¡­" My brother says, and he gets ready to push the door open. I don¡¯t say anything and just stand back. If I do say something or try to help him, I know he will hit me again. He tried to push but it doesn¡¯t budge at all. He tried and tried again but it won¡¯t open. He tried kicking it, nothing. The door is shut closed. Thinking two people are better than one, I tried helping by placing my hand on the door trying to push it open.


    I suddenly felt a force almost turning my head around as he slapped me with all his might.


    ¡°Ah!¡± I shout as I felt a sting on my cheek and tears slowly come out of my eyes. I felt dizzy as I fall on my knees and I tried as hard as I can, not to cry but the pain on my cheek was too much.


    ¡°Stupid fuck! Now you decide to help me?!¡± My brother shouts and his voice pierces my ear as I tried to ready myself from being hit. When I see his hand raised above over me, I raised my hands to try and deflect any incoming attack.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry! Please forgive me! I¡¯m sorry!!¡± I say over and over again as tears quickly poured down my cheeks. I closed my eyes to brace myself for the next attack, but I didn¡¯t feel anything. I slowly open my eyes and through my bangs covering my face, I see my brother¡¯s eyes looking down at me with so much hatred it felt like he wanted to kill me.


    "I-I-I''m s-sorry," I say trying to not look directly into his eyes.


    ¡°Tch¡­why do I have to waste my energy on you even in the afterlife. Fucking hell.¡± My brother says in a low tone, but he said it loud enough for me to hear. No matter how much he says it to me, how I should have never been born, how I should just disappear from his life, every time he says, it still hurts me.


    But I can¡¯t let him go. He¡¯s the only family I got. The only human connection I will ever get. I never left the house, or I should say I wasn¡¯t allowed to. My brother didn¡¯t allow me to go to school because he said he couldn¡¯t afford it and school is a waste on someone like me. Everything I have learned up to now is from watching TV whenever my brother is not home. I do dream of going to school, to at least learn how to write and read difficult words. I can only read basic stuff but it¡¯s still too difficult for me sometimes.


    ¡°Get the fuck up and help me with the door!¡± My brother shouts and I quickly stand up ignoring the stinging sensation on my cheek. I place my hands on the right side of the door and help my brother push it. ¡°Push!!¡±


    I push with all my might and I can feel my frail skinny arms shaking but I kept pushing and pushing until the door started opening letting in a small light coming from the other side.


    ¡°NGghnn!¡± I muffled my voice keeping my mouth closed as I give it my all to push the door wide open. It suddenly snapped open and I came tumbling down towards the other side.


    ¡°Ughhhh¡­¡± I can hear my brother mumbling curse words as he also fell forward rolling on the ground. I can see a small amount of blood coming out of his left elbow that made me worried.


    ¡°B-Brother!¡± I shout running to his side and I can feel a stinging sensation on my knees. ¡°A-A-are you okay brother?"


    He looked up and I thought he would scream at me but suddenly smiled as he looked past me.


    ¡°Are you guys ok?" A voice came out from behind me making me jump forward as I fell on my ass. The minute I turn, I can see a girl and a guy standing near us. She looked really pretty and he looks really handsome. I have never been in this situation where I''m face to face with another person except my brother. It was too much for me to handle that I froze in place.


    ¡°M-m-my¡­I-I-¡° I started choking on my words and I couldn¡¯t talk properly. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would jump out of my chest. My brother noticed me struggling to respond and he decided to get in front of me.


    ¡°H-hey, we¡¯re fine. Just a little banged up from trying to open the door. Do you guys know where we are? What¡¯s this place? Is this the afterlife?¡± My brother asked them, and the female offered a hand out to me. I looked at my brother not knowing what to do and he sees me looking nervous.


    What does she want? Why does she have her hand out?Does she want me to give her money?I don¡¯t have any money.I say in my mind as I didn¡¯t know what to do or what she wanted from me. I see her looking at me confused.


    ¡°Ah, sis, get up.¡± He tells me as he keeps looking at her hand and I grabbed it. She pulls me up too fast and I fell onto her boobs.


    They feel soft¡­I bet pillows feel like this. I whisper in my mind as I rest my head on it. Noticing that I did something unthinkable, I quickly pull myself back worried she¡¯d hit me for touching her.


    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m sorry!¡± I say closing my eyes waiting for her hand to come flying to my face any minute.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok, it¡¯s ok, she won¡¯t hit you. There, there my dear little sister.¡± My brother comes running to me hugging me and petting me in the head which is something he never did so it got my mind going crazy.


    ¡°W-w-wha-¡° I tried to say but my brother held me tight that it hurts.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok, dear little sister. I¡¯m here to protect you.¡± He says, and I look up to him directly into his eyes and I can see his hatred aimed towards me. I know what that means. He¡¯s telling me to stay quiet. My brother then releases me and turns to talk towards the group.


    ¡°We-we¡¯ve been abused by our mother¡­forgive us¡­. the last thing we remember is being hit until we passed out. We woke up in there a few minutes ago.¡± My brother points towards the dark hallway we just came out of.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know. Some of us here either died or went to sleep and woke up here. Aww, you poor thing.¡± The girl who helped me up says and she looks at me with a sad expression and I retreated behind my brother.


    ¡°Yea like no joke. I fricking went to sleep and next thing I know, bang! I¡¯m looking at a stone ceiling.¡± The guy with long hair says.


    I stay behind my brother and I looked around and the place is filled with a lot of people. Some of them are sitting around while some are trying to open a large door. There are some female people along with some male people. If I only know how to count, I would count how many there are. Everything was so new to me. Seeing so many people in one place is something I only have seen on TV.


    ¡°How long have you guys been here?¡± My brother asked.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­a couple of days? We don¡¯t really know what going on either. We all think it¡¯s the afterlife, but we feel too alive to be dead. At the same time, we''re all stuck here. We''ve been trying to open that big door since we all got here but it won''t open.¡± The girl says. I noticed she''s wearing shiny purple clothes. I see my brother is also staring at her clothes but near her neck where I had my head resting a minute ago.


    "Ah¡­that must feel comfortable," I say without noticing that I said it out loud. My brother turned to me and gave me a quick gaze indicating that if I talk again, I will get hit. So, I hid behind my brother more to prevent myself from staring at her clothes.


    ¡°Well if this isn¡¯t the afterlife, what the hell is this place¡­" My brother''s voice trails off as he tries to examine the situation. He looks around and studies the structure of the room. The ceiling seems pretty far away.


    "We''ve been trying to find an exit but nothing. We checked all of the room we woke up in and it was a dead end. I bet where you came from it''s like that right?" The longhaired guy asked my brother.


    "Y-yea. We woke up and followed a light orb that led to that door we just opened up." My brother says.


    "Hmmm...that''s what I''m afraid of. I was hoping that there is an exit within your room. But your door won¡¯t open no matter how hard we tried. But now I guess the only way out now is probably that giant door." The longhaired guys say, and his face has a look of disappointment.


    ¡°By the way, my name is Daikichi, my girlfriend here is called Kana. What are ya names?¡± The longhaired guy asked my brother with a happy expression.


    ¡°My name is Park Jung-Gi. Or call me Jung for short. Nice to meet you.¡± My brother replied back with his hand reaching out to his and they both wiggle it up and down. I look down my hand and try to study why they are wiggling each other¡¯s hands.


    ¡°How about you? What¡¯s your name?¡± The girl came closer and asked me. I didn''t want to get in more trouble, so I hid behind my brother more. If I talk, I know he will hit me later on for it.


    ¡°Sorry about that, she¡¯s a little shy when it comes to other people. My little sister name is Park Su-Yeon, you can call her Suyeon. Say hello to them Suyeon.¡± My brother looks at me and gives me a smile. Even though I know it¡¯s fake I felt happy. He never smiled at me before.


    I slowly approach the female and bow my head. ¡°He-hello.¡±


    When I look up, I can see her through my bangs. She seems really happy.


    ¡°Omg, omg Daikichi she is sooo cute," The girl named Kana goes and hugs me.


    ¡°Uh-huh¡­.¡± Daikichi responds. Then Kana grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards a big stone human. I started to panic, and I look at my brother for help, but he just gave me a smile.


    ¡°Go on with her Suyeon, I¡¯ll talk to the rest of them to figure out our situation. Don¡¯t cause any trouble now.¡± His last sentence brought chills to my spine. I knew what he meant. I¡¯ll get hit if I bring him trouble. So, without any resistance, I quietly followed Kana.


    ¡°Come Suyeon, I''ll introduce you to everyone.¡± The girl named Kana dragged me towards where a stone human is standing tall. I see a lot more people sitting around it. I don''t think it''s alive since it made out of the same stuff the floor and wall are made off.


    ¡°And who might this young lady be?¡± A big rough scary looking old man speaks, and I quickly hide behind Kana.


    ¡°Goro-sensei! Don¡¯t scare her now!¡± Another female stands up and she looks a lot older than most of the people here.


    ¡°Hahaha sorry, my name is Goro, what is your name missy?¡± He asked me, and I just hide behind Kana without saying anything back.


    ¡°It seems like she¡¯s not used to people Goro-sensei, her name is Park Su-Yeon.¡± Kana answer for me.


    ¡°Oh, I see¡­you must not understand our language. Su-Yeon, that¡¯s a Korean native name.¡± The big burly man named Goro says and then forcibly coughed as he put one hand in his back. ¡°Hmmm let me see if I remember Korean¡­um¡­an¡­ayoung hasyou?¡±


    He held out his hand out I guess for me to hold and wiggle up and down. I look at his face and he gives me a warm smile that made me relax a bit. I decided to follow what my brother did earlier and grab his hand and wiggle it up and down roughly.


    ¡°No no no no sensei, it''s anyoung haseyo. Not ayoung hasyou¡­¡± The older female says and Goro the burly man laughs very deeply.Even though he looks really scary, he gives off a harmless vibe and I chuckle a bit.


    ¡°See, the little missy doesn¡¯t mind.¡± He continued saying.


    ¡°Jeez sensei...Can you be more like an adult? It¡¯s our job to show these kids a good proper etiquette¡­jeez¡­¡± The older female says as she turns to me and holds out her hand which I roughly wiggled up and down.


    ¡°Haha, you have a very extravagant handshake. Hello there Suyeon, my name is Miki, you can call me Miki-san or Miki-sensei. It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± She says as I let her hand go. ¡°You probably don¡¯t understand what I¡¯m saying, hmm let me see¡­Anyoung Haseyo Suyeon-shi? Uhh¡­uhh...ai-¡°


    ¡°Haha, it''s ok Miki-sensei. She understands us. She just doesn''t talk that much. But I heard her talk earlier." Kana says, and she puts her arm around me.


    ¡°Oh, I thought she doesn¡¯t speak our language......How old are you Suyeon?¡± Ms. Miki-sensei says but I don''t say anything.


    "Huh, not talkative aren¡¯t you." Another male person approached us. His hair was black with dark brown streaks on it. He looks good that I stared into his face without noticing. "Is there something on my face?"


    I quickly hide behind Kana trying not to stare at him and my face feels hot for some reason.


    ¡°Wow Amaguchi, you already got dumped. Hello there~" A girl behind him peeks out waving at me. She has blonde hair and her eyes are as blue the ocean that I always watch on TV. I always dreamed of seeing the ocean in real life. "My name is Lisa, what''s yours?"


    Her stare made me lose my mind and it goes blank. All I did is stare at her eyes non-stop.


    ¡°Wow look, you¡¯re so ugly you made her lose her train of thought.¡± The guy named Amaguchi tells her and I see her pinch his arm making him shout in pain.


    "Very funny you baboon. Say Suyeon, which school do you go to?¡± She says while tilting her head sideways and I follow her tilting my head sideways. "Pfft~ You¡¯re funny!"


    Using my left hand, I bring my bangs up exposing my face to get a better look at her eyes. I quickly check my forehead to see if I have a fever since I felt hot earlier, but I feel fine. They all stopped talking and even the red-haired guy slowly opened his mouth.


    "Oh my...." Ms. Miki-sensei says as she grabs my cheeks and brings her face towards mine.


    "What a beauty! Why hide it with these hideous bangs!" Lisa says.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    My mind is going blank again. She is so close to my face that I started to feel uncomfortable that I wanted to cry. My eyes started tearing up, but I did my best to hold it in by biting my bottom lip gently and holding my breath.


    "Soooooo cuuuuuuuuuteeeee~," Lisa says as she sees my expression.


    "But look at you! you''re so skinny¡­Here have some candy~" Ms. Miki-sensei hands me a candy and I accept it without a second thought. I don''t want to bring trouble to my brother, so I stayed quiet trying not to say anything but I¡¯m really hungry.


    "Wait...what happened to your face?" Kana asked as she inspects my cheek that has been swollen and red from my brother¡¯s slap. "Omg! Your knees are bleeding! Your elbows are also bleeding! What the hell!"


    Kana then drags me to another room that has a water pond in it to wash my wounds. It stung whenever she splashed water on it, but the cold water made it feel good afterward. After washing up, I was brought back to the room and I see my brother and the longhaired guy named Daikichi approach us.


    ¡°Hey hey hey beautiful," Daikichi says and Kana started blushing.


    "Aww Daikichi....thank-"


    "Oh no, not you, I was talking to your door here! it¡¯s so beautiful!" Daikichi says as he does a pose towards the door like what I see on TV when someone does this event called proposing.


    "Hey door, will you marry me?" Daikichi says and everyone burst out laughing.


    ¡°Daikichi!¡± Kana shouts at him and gave him a mad look like how my brother looks at me every day yet it felt different. I see Mr. Goro-sensei laughing and I chuckle a little. Being surrounded by people is not as bad as I thought it was. Then that¡¯s when I noticed. My brother is standing right in front of me looking at me. My heart started beating really fast and I tried to control my breathing to help prepare myself for any beating.


    ¡°Awww it''s so good to see my sister laugh.¡± He pats my head while giving me a smile.


    I was so stupid. How could I try to enjoy? We don¡¯t even know our situation. For all I know, it''s probably my fault we were brought here.I should have stayed quiet. I say in my mind as I close my eyes. But rather than hitting me, he just walked away towards the big door.


    ¡°Why don''t we try opening this door one more time? Maybe we get more answers on where we are by going through this door.¡± My brother says to Daikichi and they move closer towards the big door. I see all of the boys and some of the girls are pushing it together, but it won''t budge. While they worked on the door, me and Kana along with Ms. Miki-sensei move back towards the statue. I sit near the foot of it leaning my back against the stone block it''s standing on. They tried asking me questions but this time I knew better. I stayed quiet until they gave up talking to me and just start telling me stories. I pretend to listen but in my mind was something different.


    Was I safe? Will, he hit me later on? It was very hard for me to tell. I couldn¡¯t say anything or do anything. I just stayed quiet and hoped he doesn''t hit me later on.They worked for a while trying to open the large door, but it won¡¯t budge. Even with the help of Mr. Goro-sensei who looks like the strongest person here, the door won¡¯t open. They all gave up and sat around the statue talking to each other. Some of the boys looked around the room trying to see if there is any hidden switch for the big door, but they didn''t find anything.Now that I noticed, the whole room was in the shape of a circle and the walls were filled with open doors where each of us came out. Only one door was left closed and that is a big one in the direction the statue is facing.The statue itself was scary. It is an image of a hooded person to what seems to have wings. But both wings are not the same. One looks like those flying animals have that I see on TV that looks fluffy and soft. While the other looks very weird. It looks like a piece of ripped shirt in the shape of a wing.


    The statue is holding a sword lodged inside what we¡¯re all leaning on and the statue itself is riddled with cracks and signs of old age. Actually, the whole room leaves signs of old age. The floor was made out of bricks, but a small amount of grass is escaping the cracks and vines are crawling up the walls and even covering some of the doors that were opened. We''re all gathered munching on what seems to be meat with a Smokey flavor. They found it inside a sack under the statue''s legs and have been feeding on it ever since. I slowly nibble on mine trying not to attract attention. But the girl Lisa has been staring at me non-stop also the guy named Amaguchi has been stealing glances.


    ¡°So, let me get this straight, we all either died and woke up here or some of you went to sleep and woke up here¡­But this is not the afterlife? It sounds like the afterlife to me¡­¡± My brother says.


    "I know, but...never mind," Daikichi says but stops himself from continuing on.


    "Go on, tell us. It''s better to have a theory to hold on to rather than have nothing." Amaguchi says to Daikichi.


    ¡°Well...you know. I think we¡¯re at the place where the group of people disappeared to.¡± Daikichi says but I see his expression is quite sad. Kana then leans her head on his shoulder and her expression is making my heart hurt.


    "Wait...you mean the great disappearance that happened a year ago?" My brother asked.


    "Yea, you know where that one dude no one could ever find, kidnapped and took people to play some sick game he had," Daikichi says somehow his expression has become very heavy. "Maaaaaaan I hope it isn''t but...I don¡¯t know¡­¡±


    "But what? Come on Daikichi, don''t hold out on us if you know anything." My brother says. He is starting to blend in and become one with the group. I stay quiet to myself and nibble on the meat bit by bit, but the Kana and the Lisa girl keeps close to me making me feel uncomfortable sometimes.


    "Well, it might be just a freaking coincidence but¡­are not most of us here...a high school student?" Daikichi asked and everyone looked at each other. "I want to believe it¡¯s a coincidence but, it''s just weird the majority of us are still in high school. I mean, the only people who''re not high school are Goro-sensei, Miki-sensei, and Kana. But Kana just recently graduated."


    "Well....I''m not a high school student. So is my sister." My brother says, and everyone stays quiet and looks at us. Having so many people look at me at the same time made me feel nervous and I hide behind my brother.


    "Wait...you guys are not in high school?!" Kana asked.


    ¡°Well, she would be, but she didn¡¯t get a chance. Our mom couldn¡¯t afford high school let alone our living expenses, so she decided not to send her to school. My mom used most of her saving on alcohol.¡± My brother says, and I see everyone¡¯s gets an expression of sadness but more like because of what he said. I see Mr. Goro-sensei getting mad which the same goes for Ms. Miki-sensei. Except that in reality, our mother died before I was born, and I was left in the care of my mother after our father disappeared with a different woman when I was a baby. I didn¡¯t want to lie especially to Lisa and Kana, but I didn¡¯t want my brother to beat me up, so I just kept nibbling on the piece of meat.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I will protect both of you!¡± Mr. Goro-sensei says as he stands and holds his clamped left hand towards his chest. Everyone nods in agreement.


    "Me too," Amaguchi says but I can see he''s staring at me.


    "Me three!" Lisa says as she grabs my arms and yanks me toward her. My heart was pounding so fast that I wiggle out of her grasp and hide behind my brother.


    ¡°Hahaha, its ok little sister they...won''t hurt you." My brother says and when I look into his eyes through his bangs, I feel his cold stare. "Thank you, sensei. I took the responsibility to be her guardian. She''s not in high school but it was my dream to send her to one. But now...in this place...it''s going to be hard.¡±.


    "Wait...how old are you?" Daikichi asked.


    "Oh me? I''m 26." My brother replies, and they all are in shock.


    "W-what?! I thought you were 18! You look young!" Daikichi screams and my brother just laughs.


    ¡°Hahaha yea everyone says that to me...How about you uhhh¡­K-Kana? You recently graduated from high school?" My brother asked, and he seems to be interested in her.


    ¡°Oh, I graduated not long ago. I¡¯m actually Diakichi senior and his club president when I was at school.¡± Kana says as she hugs Daikichi¡¯s hand. I look at my brother and I can see a bit of envy in his eyes.


    ¡°This is what I¡¯m saying, don¡¯t you guy find it a bit weird? There are a lot of us in here. Approximately 20 high school students including your sister. Then there¡¯s Kana, Jung-gi, Miki-sensei, and Goro-sensei.¡± Diakichi says. There is a lot of us in here and some of them I can¡¯t remember the name.


    ¡°it can¡¯t be just a coincidence....¡± Amaguchi says.


    ¡°I remember on the news, some of the guys who disappeared last year was taken from their hospital beds after getting into a freak accident. And some of us...well...got into a freak accident...¡± Lisa says. I also remember that on TV. A guy who fell from the stairs that were in critical condition suddenly disappeared in the hospital.


    "Kana," Daikichi calls out her name and I can sense a very heavy feeling. "If we¡¯re actually brought here¡­we have a chance of locating him.¡±


    ¡°Find who?¡± My brother asked. "If you don¡¯t mind me asking."


    ¡°My best friend. He was one of the people who disappeared. Or I should say.......kidnapped.¡± Daikichi replies looking down the ground. His smile completely disappeared, and I can see Kana''s eyes starting to get teary. No one said anything as the atmosphere got heavy.


    ¡°Wooooooow~ You guys~ Such a big relaxed group~¡±A voice came ringing out from above us and when I looked up, the statues head was looking down on all of us.


    ¡°Kya!!!¡± Some of the girls screamed as they scrambled away from the statue while I just stared at it not knowing it¡¯s abnormal for statues to talk.


    ¡°W-w-what the fuck?!¡± Daikichi shouts and I see them all run towards the far end of the room. The statue moved to stand near me and I can see its stone eyes looking at me. Thinking about the handshake we''ve been doing earlier, I held out my hand and it gave me a smile as It grabbed it and shook it gently up and down.


    ¡°S-s-suyeon. C-come here.¡± Kana says nervously as I look at her. Thinking I did something wrong, I looked down on the ground as I ran towards her side. She grabbed me and placed me behind her shielding me from the statue.


    ¡°Aww, I was having fun interacting with her.¡± The statue says as it stood back up. It¡¯s voice somehow sound familiar to me like I¡¯ve heard it somewhere before. Yet I brushed off the idea since I never met anyone outside our apartment. ¡°So, hows everyone¡¯s day so far?¡±


    ¡°W-who are you? A-are you like Zeus or something?¡± One of the guys asked the statue.


    "Zeus? Who the hell is that? I''m the one and only, most handsome god Luro!¡± It spoke its name, and everyone recognized it, even me. I watched it on TV before. When the people disappeared, a letter was sent to their families a week later. In the letter was the message about the people who got kidnapped and are playing a game to save the world. That letter was signed by the kidnapper and his name was Luro.


    ¡°You! Where are all the missing children?!¡± Mr. Goro-sensei shouts at the statue and I can fury from his eyes.


    ¡°Those guys?... don¡¯t know~¡± Luro responded while singing the last line. ¡°Some created a city, while one dude is stuck inside a dungeon. He probably should be exiting in a couple of days though¡­¡±


    Mr. Goro-sensei charged right at the statue and in a blink of an eye, he was sent flying towards the wall.


    "Guack!" Goro-sensei shouted in pain as he fell to the ground. The impact was so hard it immobilized him, but it didn¡¯t knock him out.


    "Goro-sensei!" Kana screams and runs towards Mr.Goro-sensei direction.


    ¡°Now~ Now~ Let¡¯s not get violent shall we? Kekekkekekekeke. You all must be wondering why are you¡¯re all here? Well¡­anyone want to take a guess?¡±Luro asked us and no one said anything.


    Everyone remained quiet except Daikichi who stood his ground and didn¡¯t cower like the rest. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s some sappy shit like saving this world?¡±


    Luro then sat down towards the pedestal and started clapping. The sound of rocks hitting each other vibrated throughout the whole room.


    ¡°Bingo~," The statue named Luro says after he stopped clapping.¡°You are a smart man. No wonder you became the new #1 of Seito High school~¡±


    I have seen it on TV before. Seito High School, the number one high school from the country. A place where you can only be admitted in if you had strong connections or a gifted individual. After the number one top student disappeared, the school itself was in the public eye for quite some time.


    ¡°How the fuck did you know that?¡± Daikichi asked and I can see him grinding his teeth out of anger. Something my brother used to do to me when he¡¯s really mad.


    ¡°I know everything little Daikichi, the friend of Yasu.¡± He says, and I can see Daikichi wants to charge at him. Thanks to Kana, she managed to hold him back.


    ¡°You bastard! Where is he?!¡± Daikichi shouted out and the statue just laughed at him.


    ¡°Now~ Do all of you know where you all are?¡± Luro said ignoring Daikichi¡¯s question.


    "D-D-Didn¡¯t you just say we¡¯re in the planet on the sky?¡± Amaguchi says nervously.


    ¡°kekekeke I don''t mean that I mean this room, do you know what this room is?" Luro says and no one says anything.


    ¡°Jeez~ You guys remind me of a certain group¡­so boring~ Well let me just cut to the chase. You all are inside a dungeon. All of you are players of this world. Let¡¯s say¡­new players kekekekeke. You main mission or goal or quest or whatever you all want to call it, is to kill me~ If you don¡¯t succeed and all of you die, I will crash this planet into the place where all of your family live and we all can die together kekekekekekek aren¡¯t I nice~¡±The statue turns its head making me follow it.


    ¡°W-w-what? What is this blasphemy! Release us this instant!¡± Ms. Miki-sensei says.


    ¡°kekekekeke no-can-do sensei~ the only way for you to go home is to kill me~ and your demands reminds me of a certain girl...¡±Luro says and he stands back up on top the stone slab thingy. But somehow his voice, the way he laughs and talks¡­. it all sounds familiar.


    Ah! The one that was in our room! I say in my mind figuring out who he is. I quickly tug on my brother¡¯s clothes and he gives me a glance like he wanted to hit me from bothering him.


    ¡°B-b-brother, he¡¯s the one that killed us¡­¡± I whisper to him


    ¡°Shhh shut up, will you! I know that I also heard his voice. Now be quiet!" My brother whispers back, and I hide back behind him.


    ¡°Now, let¡¯s get to the main juice of this story, shall we?¡±Luro says and then he snaps his finger and a notification came up in front of me.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to the NEW Class window.


    Please read each class carefully.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


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    Knight


    </td>


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    Assassin


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    Archer


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    Blade


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    Healer


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    Berserker


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    Dual


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    Mage


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    Summoner


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    Guardian


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    Warlock


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    Paper-Mache


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    <tr style="text-align: center">


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    Footwork


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    Once you''re ready to pick a class, say "ready."


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "What''s in front of you is a list of class you all can choose from! Yay! I included everything there! Aren''t I nice? ~ kekekekekeke¡±Luro says and we all are speechless at the notification in-front of our faces. I tried touching it, but my hand just goes through.


    ¡°W-w-what are these?¡± Lisa says nervously as she looks at her window.


    ¡°Sigh¡­I just said it! A list of class you all can choose from! Didn¡¯t any of you play a game similar to this back at your home planet? Well, think of that and this the same thing~ only difference is¡­that is a game¡­. this is real life! Kekekekeke.¡±Luro crosses his legs as he sat on the pedestal.


    ¡°Wait¡­what?¡± Amaguchi asked making Luro put his hand over his forehead as he shook his head side to side.


    ¡°Jeez, must I explain everything in detail?¡± Luro asked and no one said anything, so he continued talking. ¡°It¡¯s like those MMORPG games you guys play, or is it RPG? Ah, who cares kekekekekeke. Just don''t die mkay~ no respawns!¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t answer my question!¡± Daikichi shouts and his voice was sharp as it resonated in the room. ¡°Where is he?!¡±


    ¡°Damn, why so loud? If you¡¯re talking about your dear friend, go find him. I¡¯m too lazy to keep tab of what the hell he¡¯s doing.¡±


    ¡°You bastard!¡± Kana shouted out and I can see she also want to charge at him.


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re so like him. So damn feisty. Hehehe don¡¯t die, I won¡¯t revive you.¡± Luro says and somehow, the way he said it was scarier than the tone my brother usually uses. It made me scared looking at him. ¡°Well, I did make a few exceptions last time but this time, if you die, you¡¯re dead. Simple as that~ kekekekekekeke. Whenever you all are ready, just say ¡°ready¡± then say the class you want to choose~ simple right?¡±


    Right when some of the people about to say ready, Daikichi shouts out loud drawing everyone¡¯s attention, ¡°Everyone wait! You, Luro was it? Are these class permanent?¡±


    ¡°I hoped you would never ask that question...but then again...you''re not a buffoon like them," Luro says as he gave him a chilling smile. ¡°And here I am hoping you all pick the wrong classes you don¡¯t want and complain and die and blah and blah¡­.sigh*.......way to take the fun out of it.¡±


    Luro stood back up and got on top the pedestal before speaking again, ¡°Yes they are permanent. If you want to know the description of each class¡­well¡­figure it out yourselves! kekekekeke buhbye~¡±


    ¡°Wait! Wait! What do we have to do next?!¡± Amaguchi shouts but the statue stopped responding as it slowly moved back to its original pose and silence fell into the room again.


    ¡°Is this all real? I-I-I don¡¯t think I can do this. I want to go home!¡± One of the girls within our group shouts as she slumps to the ground covering her face with her hands. Some of the people I don¡¯t know started having small talk with each other. And some of them slump down towards the ground leaning against the wall. I guess no one wants to go near Luro.


    I quietly stick with my brother, but I keep a distance since I can see he¡¯s irritated. I guess meeting the person who killed us made him mad. Everyone agreed to not pick a class and move back to our starting rooms to rest. I guess staying with the stone Luro made everyone not want to be in the main room. A lot of the kids grouped up. I wanted to be in the same group as Kana and Lisa but my brother pulled me to the side and told them that I wasn''t comfortable with people yet so we''re going back to our room. I was a bit sad leaving Kana and kept stealing glances at her when my brother and I walked towards our room. We each took torches from the wall to illuminate the room much better.


    As we walk the dark hallway, I stay behind my brother, so I don''t get in his way. I hear him mumbling and cursing from time to time. The minute we got into the room, he throws the torch towards the dark area of the room and turns towards me.


    ¡°Guack!¡± I held my stomach as the air was taken out of me when he punched my gut. I got on my knees and I tried my best to breathe. ¡°Kuack¡­.gasp* Hua! Hah~ hah~¡±


    My brother kicked me in the side toppling me over and I yelped in pain.


    ¡°Stupid bitch. Who do you think you are to get close to them?! You are nothing but dirt! A fucking bug! You got that?¡± He says as he puts pressure with his foot on top of my head.


    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m sorry! I''m sorry! I didn¡¯t know what to do!¡± I shouted while covering my stomach from the pain. He lifts up his foot, but he grabs my hair and pulls it up. It felt like my hair is being ripped from my head.


    ¡°Shh! Would you be quiet?! Would you want them to come here and see you like this?¡± My brother whispers to my ear and I shake my head. He then lets me go and I run towards the corner of the room and got into a fetal position how I usually protect myself. If I have a wall surrounding me, He can only hit me from one side. But my brother doesn¡¯t follow and just sits by the torch he threw on the ground. He even took mine and lit up his area much more. I didn¡¯t want to move, or I might get hit so I stayed in the darkest part of the room and sobbed quietly. I sobbed silent cries, so my brother doesn¡¯t hear. I cried until I actually fall asleep.


    ¡°I did it! I figured it out!¡± My brother shouts waking me up from my sleep. I felt the pain in my stomach still as I tried to sit up. He seems really happy looking at something in the air. I¡¯m tempted to ask what he has figured out, but I¡¯m scared to get hit again. He then sees me looking at him and his happy expression turned to anger.


    ¡°What the fuck you are looking at?!¡± He screams at me.


    ¡°N-Nothing brother. Nothing.¡± I say as I quickly look towards the ground. I curl up and rest my head on my knees as I hug my legs. I was about to doze off to sleep again until I heard footsteps coming near me. I looked up and I see my brother standing over me with a smile on his face.


    ¡°B-B-Brother?¡± I say, and he just stood there smiling. Then he slowly got on a squatting position and his eye level is the same as mine.


    ¡°Guess what I found my dear little sister?¡± He asked me with a smile on his face.


    ¡°W-what is it brother?¡± I asked happily. It''s the first time he was actually interested in telling me something and I''m not about to let it pass to form a bond between us.


    ¡°I found the best class suited only for you.¡± He says placing his hand on top of my head and slowly patted it, which made me really happy.


    ¡°It¡¯s called¡­Footwork. Go ahead sis, pick it.¡± He says


    ¡°F-Footwork? W-what does it do brother?¡± I asked happily. It was the first time he was interested in helping me.


    ¡°Do you trust me? Do you trust your big brother?¡± He asked me, and I nod happily. "Then don''t ask a question and just pick the class. Say ¡®ready'' my dear little sister."


    ¡°Ready!¡± I shout happily, and another notification appeared.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Great! What class would you like to be?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Footwork!¡± I shout the name of the class and watched the notification disappear while my brother laughed and laughed making me happy seeing him laughing rather than glaring at me.


    I believe in my brother. I say in my mind as I watch him happily. He¡¯s my brother. He''s family. I believe in him.

 CHAPTER 23: The start of a new beginning

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 23: The start of a new beginning


    <hr>


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on becoming an adventurer!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You are now able to use dimensional bag and skill window command. To use your dimensional bag says the ''item bag'' command. As you progress throughout your journey and level up, you will gain new skills that will help you fight the evil lord Luro! Have fun and don''t die too fast!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I read the notification as best as I can yet some of the words were hard for me to even pronounce.


    ¡°Ok now little sister, say show class description¡­¡± My brother says as he looks at me trying hard not to laugh.


    ¡°Show class description!¡± I happily say it and another notification appeared in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class Description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Footwork - A dancing class. You are on a path to master all types of dancing moves. Be better than a professional. You are above those who are gifted with dancing abilities. They will revere you like the dancing god/goddess. Advance this class to the maximum capacity and achieve master footwork status! Don''t fight; let your moves captivate your enemy to death!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "A d-da- a dancer? What¡¯s a dancer brother?¡± I ask my brother, but he didn''t answer and just laughed a bit. By looking at it, I remember dancers that I used to watch on TV. A lot of them tend to move their feet and somehow move at the same time with other people or with another person hugging. But I never really knew what they meant or why they do it. ¡°I-I-Is this a strong class brother?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is! It is the best of the best!¡± He said as he burst out laughing falling to the ground. Even though I don¡¯t get it, I feel a little bit happy he¡¯s not mad at me anymore. I thought about it, now that I¡¯m able to do something, my brother will probably stop saying I¡¯m useless anymore. While I was busy re-reading the words to try and understand it fully, another window opened up.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    The class has been set.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Materialize the starter kit?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Accept


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Decline


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh! Accept!¡± I say out loud. The notification disappeared, and something started materializing in front of me. It quickly dropped to the ground and as I crouch to see what it is, my brother pushed me back before I even got close and I tripped on my own foot making me fall on my ass. My brother started inspecting the items as if it was his own.


    ¡°Ohhhh, a shoe and a hat! I needed some shoes!¡± He says as he tries it on. We were taken inside our living room which we usually don''t wear shoes or slippers inside. I never had any slipper or shoes since I never left the house, so my brother never bought me anything except the clothes I¡¯m wearing. When we woke up to this world, we woke up wearing the clothes we had on. I can see some of them earlier are in pajamas and some have hospital gown or their high school uniform. We died barefoot and woke up the same condition. Now that I noticed, my feet have a few cuts that are starting to sting.


    ¡°Aish! Fucking shoes are too small!¡± My brother screams as he tried to wear the shoes, but they don¡¯t fit him. He then gave up and threw the shoes aside, but he wore the hat before he moved back to his position looking at a notification I can¡¯t see. I was tempted to run towards the shoe and try them out but I didn¡¯t want to get beat by my brother again, so I just stayed in the dark corner staring at the shoe from a distance. My brother sat around the torches and started looking at his dimensional bag. After a couple of minutes, I heard him say, ''ready'' and ¡®guardian''. After a few minutes, he said ''accept'' and two things materialized in front of him.


    "Oh! Ha!" My brother laughed proudly as he holds a sword with one hand and a shield with another. It seems like he Cleary chose a ''tanking'' class. "Yes! I can survive with this! I''ll be the best of the best and make that Kana girl fall in love with me!"


    I kept staring at him and I didn¡¯t notice I stared too long as he glared at me making me avert my gaze. Since he picked a tanking class, he probably has his health boosted. I might be stupid in all cases of reality but when it comes to games, I have spent enough time playing them when my brother is not home. I probably know more than him, but he just doesn''t know. I want to tell him, but I know I will just get beat up again, so I just stay quiet. If I remember, he only plays games to play with a few people he met but I never see him enjoy or take a real interest in it. He will play a free online game but then lose interest and would rather go out and drink.


    While he¡¯s out working or drinking, I would play games on his computer all the time. He caught me in the beginning and has gotten a harsh beating because of it. But since then, I made sure to keep the volume on mute and would exit the game whenever I hear him trying to fit the keys in the door. I¡¯ve also learned how to hide folders in his computer to hide the games I play. His drinking habits come in handy at times. He always has a difficult time trying to even put the key. The best times are when he''s out drinking on the weekends. Sometimes he will come home the next evening which gives me a full day and night of playing games non-stop without worrying about getting caught.


    Even though I know it''s not real, I feel like I''m the characters I play and the freedom of adventuring and doing a quest every time gives me joy in the tiny apartment my brother owns. Now, the very idea of adventuring and doing a quest in real life made me happy and excited. My brother got back to trying to say random commands and I started whispering to figure out how the system works.A lot of our interactions with these notifications are through voice but I can say them low enough for me to hear and it still would work.


    "Status Window," I whisper to myself. Knowing that I can''t see his notifications, he probably can''t see mine.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Park Su-Yeon


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    FOOTWORK


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    none


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Jump


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dancer''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a dancer''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Ossium


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Your bones are far stronger than the average.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sixth Sense


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    You can detect the slightest movement around you.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Jump? I wonder what this skill is. I say in my mind.


    "Skill description," I whisper to myself, but nothing happened. I guess it is a bit different. ¡°Jump Skill Description?¡±


    Ah, there it is.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill experience:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Jump


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    movement


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    0%


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    This skill will let you jump.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    But I already know how to jump¡­ I say in my mind. I stare at my status window some more and study the passive skills. I tried so many commands, but nothing shows more detail on the passive skills.


    "I guess whatever is written there is it," I whisper in a low voice.


    I wonder what¡¯s the dancer natural abilities¡­ I whisper in my mind trying not to alert my brother.I''m going to experience a lot of things I only dreamed of when looking at the computer screen. Leveling, grinding, forming parties and creating guilds, I hope this is all possible for me to do. If my brother lets me.Hmmm, I wonder what this place is.


    So many things ran through my mind and I tried to focus on figuring out where we are.


    "location," I whisper but nothing happened. I look at my brother to see if he heard me but now, I see him lying down. "I guess he''s sleeping..."


    I decided to try a few more commands. "Dungeon Information. Dungeon Location. Location information."


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    The dungeon of the beginning V2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Location:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Unknown


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Conquered:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Conqueror¡¯s name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    A place where your dreams or nightmare wakes up in.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "There it is!" I scream with excitement and I quickly cover my mouth holding my breath. I looked at my brother but he hasn''t moved an inch, so I decided to breathe again.


    That was close.


    "Ohhh, someone finished this dungeon? Yasu? Isn¡¯t that Kana and Daikichi¡¯s friend?" I whisper remembering them mention his name when Luro appeared earlier. I slowly lay on my side facing the wall and continued to read the notification.


    "T-this dungeon h-has been c-c-c-cnquwred by an adventurer. This dungeon will have no monster in it and it''s safe to explore. Huh.....I guess there will be no monster here." I whisper to myself.


    A dungeon huh¡­I wonder what the outside looks like.I say in my mind. I continued to daydream about the outside world and the adventures I¡¯ll have and I daydream for the day my brother stops hitting me and I keep daydreaming until I fall asleep.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Wake up!¡± my brother shouted as he lodges his foot on my stomach taking the air out of me.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I let out a small yelp as I try to regain my breathing. After getting my breath to normal, I quickly scramble up still disoriented on what¡¯s going on by being woken up too fast. I didn¡¯t know where I was, and it took me a minute to figure out and remember everything.


    ¡°Hurry up! We need to go! That damn Daikichi bastard came and woke me up. Fucking asking all these questions why you¡¯re in the dark. Had to tell him you like the darkness so when they ask, tell them the same got it?!¡± My brother says, and I quickly nod without saying a word. He then started walking towards the door and I follow behind him. Before I left, I noticed the shoes in the ground he threw to the side last night was still there.


    ¡°B-b-brother¡­¡± I call out to him and he turns around looking straight at me. I wanted to say nothing and just leave the shoe, but I wanted them.


    ¡°What?!¡± My brother shouts at me and it made me flinch a bit.


    ¡°C-c-can......c-can I have those shoes?¡± I ask pointing at the shoes. I never had a shoe before and I always dreamed of having one.


    Please say yes¡­Please say yes¡­Please¡­I repeat in my mind over and over again waiting for my brother to reply.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­......If I let you have them, that damn fucking Daikichi will probably stop suspecting me and asking those annoying questions, Kana might feel bad about me not having shoes also. Ok, keep them." My brother says, and I was filled with joy and happiness.


    ¡°Thank you, brother! Thank you!¡± I say happily to him.


    ¡°What are you waiting for?! Hurry up and get them!!¡± My brother shouts and I quickly run towards the shoe and grab both of them hugging it tightly with both my arms towards my chest. I run back towards him with a smile on my face, but I quickly averted his gaze as he glared at me. We proceeded towards the room where the statue is. I followed behind my brother happy and we both walked through the hallway without saying a word. As we got there, I see Daikichi and Kana already in the circular room near the big door. There are also some other people with them including Mr. Goro-sensei, Ms. Miki-sensei. Kana notices me as we slowly approach them and runs towards me.


    ¡°There you are!¡± She says as she gives me a tight hug and then she lets go to take a quick look around my face. Her face is so close that it made me feel nervous and my face started feeling warm. She kept looking around my face like I have something on it and I was confused so I used my hands to see if I have a dirt on my face. ¡°Looking as pretty as ever! I was waiting for you so we both can wash up!¡±


    I didn¡¯t know how to respond so I look at my brother but Daikichi has him preoccupied with a conversation.


    ¡°Come now. I need someone to help me wash~¡± Kana says as she pulls me towards the door where she helps me wash my wounds yesterday. ¡°Hey Jung, I¡¯ll be borrowing your little sister for a bit~¡±


    My brother turns to look at her and then me. ¡°Oh...uh..uh sure. Where are you guys going?¡±


    My brother asked, and I can see a worried look in his face. Is he worried about me?


    ¡°We¡¯re going to wash up. So, no one goes inside that room okay~" Kana says as she points towards the room we entered yesterday, and she continued to pull me towards the dark hallway.


    ¡°Oh, ok.¡± My brother says and then he continues to talk with Daikichi. But as I enter the room, I can see him glancing at me.


    ¡°Oh, let me come with you! I need to wash up also!¡± Ms. Miki-sensei says, and she follows us into the hallway. ¡°Mr. Goro-sensei, if you may and thank you~¡±


    I can see Mr. Goro-sensei starting to close the door behind us until a small line of light is seen. But then it was blocked by something on the other side. The only light we have now is the torch Kana is holding on and I silently followed her to the room. Once we arrived, I can see the room was well lit with a few torches cover all side of the room¡¯s dark corners.


    ¡°Come come." Ms. Miki-sensei grabs my shoulders and guided me toward the water. I can see Ms. Miki-sensei and Kana sit by the small water pond and they put me in the middle between them.


    ¡°Ok suyeon, how was your sleep?¡± Kana asked me, and I just nod. I guess they understood that it means okay. But then Kana started asking more questions. ¡°How did you get those injuries yesterday?¡±


    "I-I fell," I tell her which, I wasn''t really lying about. I did fall down when my brother pushed me.


    ¡°You can tell me anything ok?¡± Kana asked as she grabs my shoulders tight but not like when my brother does to the point it brings pain to my arm. Her hands felt warm. But I can''t say anything. If I do, my brother might hit me afterward or worse, they might take my brother away from me. The only family I have left. I can''t let them do that. So I just nod. I was hoping for them to get mad at me back but they didn¡¯t say anything and kana never let go of her hands on my shoulder.


    ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± I look up and I see Lisa standing by the entrance and she came rushing towards me. "There you are~!"


    Lisa hugs me tight and I wince in pain as I get the shoe pushed against me when I have it around in my stomach. I guess the punch earlier left a bruise. Ms. Miki-sensei noticed me in pain and gently pulled us apart.


    "Are you alright?" Ms. Miki-sensei asked me, and I nod. I don''t want them to know about the bruise or see it. Lisa sees the shoes I''m hugging and looked at it with curiosity.


    ¡°What''s that?¡± Lisa asked noticing the pair of shoes I''m hugging very tightly.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°I-it¡¯s my s-shoes! My brother gave to me~!¡± I say out loud with a happy expression. "Doesn''t look awesome! My brother let me have it~!"


    I can see them look at each other.Did I say something wrong?


    Kana game me a warm smile. "Cool! Let''s clean up and we will help you put your shoes on!"


    She then told me to clean my foot first and used what seems to be like a shirt to dry my feet. Then like those princess movies I always watch on TV, Kana and Lisa helped me put on my shoes and even tied the laces for me. The shoe itself is a brown cloth that has a tough rubber material underneath. Wearing the shoes have made me smile over and over again that for a brief moment, I forgot about the girls in the room with me and it was just me and my shoes.


    ¡°hahaha, you look so happy! It¡¯s like this is your first time wearing a shoe!¡± Lisa says as she smiles at me not knowing that this is actually my first time wearing and even owning a pair of shoes. I watch Lisa wash up and seeing the water made me want to go to the bathroom. Kana noticed and ushered Lisa to hurry up, so we can go. I have only been here for a day and I don''t know if there is a bathroom in this place. I quietly followed them out of the room and each step I made felt different. I have been barefoot for so long that even wearing the shoe makes it as I stepped into a new world. We move towards back to the circle room. Some of the guys were waiting outside I guess to wash up. I see my brother standing by the big door still talking with Daikichi and they were joined by Amaguchi.


    "Mr. Goro-sensei, you can go wash up. The girls need to go to the restroom, I''ll go watch the door for them." Ms. Miki-sensei says. He nods and enters the room along with some of the boys. Kana then led us to another room on the far end. I noticed the door is completely closed. "Ok Girls, go do your business and I will wait here and guard the door."


    As we get in, I can see the hallway is quite dark. I guess most of the torch is taken from this room. Kana is holding on a torch and was leading us. Right when we got into the end, the other door is also kept closed. Once Kana opened it, a smell of piss and feces has exited, and it made me cover my nose and mouth.


    "Ackp! I never get used to this!" Lisa says in a muffled voice. She covers her nose and mouth with her hands and even I felt uncomfortable with the smell. As we enter the room, I can see a few torches lighting up the place enough to see one side. But there is this dark section that I guess is where they dump all their feces because I can smell a strong odor coming from it.


    "Ok, you can....uhhh....pee in any wall just not in that dark area. If you do decide to do a number two, make sure you do it in that plate over there and then dump it in the dark section."


    Kana says and points towards a metal plate that¡¯s on the ground near the dark corner. I nod and ran towards a wall and crouched down and peed. After I was done, there''s in no toilet paper to wipe myself with so I had to just bring my underwear up. Kana was next, and Lisa couldn''t hold it anymore, so they peed side by side. I was given the torch to hold while they did their business. Once they were done, I hand the torch back to Kana and she led us back out.


    Once we got out, we went back to the water room and clean our hands and back out again we went to the statue room. Daikichi handed us breakfast and everyone talked about the different type of class while I silently eat my food. We all huddled around the big door since we all think the statue might move any minute.


    ¡°So, did you pick a class? I picked mine already!¡± Lisa says, and she calls out her dimensional bag and pulls out a staff and a robe.


    ¡°JaJaaaan! I picked a mage!¡± She then puts on the rope and spins around with it. She¡¯s quite beautiful so she looks good in anything.


    ¡°Oh yeah. Me and Daikichi picked a class last night. He picked Dual and I picked a Healer. So, I can heal him and prevent him from dying. He''s as reckless as a wild animal!¡± Kana says as she also pulls out a robe from her bag and a small wand.


    ¡°You¡¯re a healer?! I¡¯m also a healer!¡± Ms. Miki-sensei says and pulls out the same item.


    ¡°How about you Suyeon? Did you pick anything yet?¡± Amaguchi asked and I nod my head.


    Right when I was about to say, my brother spoke out of turn. "What?! Suyeon you picked a class?! I told you not to!"


    My brother looks at me like he¡¯s worried which got me confused since he''s the one that told me to pick the class.


    "W-w-wha...I-I-" I started stuttering and getting nervous.


    Everyone was at me and it¡¯s making me feel uncomfortable. Did I say something wrong?


    "Suyeon, what did you pick?" Lisa asked placing her hand on my shoulder making me feel a bit comfortable to talk.


    "F-f-footwork," I say nervously, and everyone stayed silent.


    "Footwork? That sounds like a martial artist." Mr. Goro-sensei says but no one said anything.


    Did I say something wrong again?I asked in my mind as everyone''s expression was a mixture of pity, while I saw some people laughed a bit. Kana, Lisa, Daikichi, and Amaguchi all had a grim expression making me worried.


    "How come everyone looks so grim?" Mr. Goro-sensei asked what was on my mind.


    "S-sensei...That class...it''s not a fighting class.." Amaguchi says and my eyes go wide.


    But my brother said it was the best class for me!I look at my brother and when our eyes met, he gave me a quick smirk.


    "Oh no...Suyeon! I told you not to pick a class without me!" My brother says as he comes and grabs my shoulders.


    I''m still at shock and my breathing started getting heavy.


    "Suyeon, are you okay?" I can hear someone say but I couldn''t tell who. I just stared at nothing. I can hear everyone calling my name over and over again, but it¡¯s muffled until the world became silent.


    Not a fighting class?What about my adventure?What about the stuff I dreamed off? I repeat this question in my mind over and over and over again until I was overwhelmed, and I pass out. I slowly come to the darkness of my room.


    "ugh.." I moan as my head feels heavy.


    "So you have finally come to?" I hear a voice and when I look up I see my brother looking down at me.


    "You stupid bitch.¡± My brother says and with all his strength he grabbed me by my hair and tried to pick me up. I tried screaming as the pain of my hair being pulled but my brother put his other hand on my mouth covering it and blocking the sounds from exiting. All I can do now is create muffled screams.


    "Mmmmm!!!!!" I tried to scream as the pain intensifies.


    I tried standing to ease the pressure, but my legs feel weak and even how hard I tried I kept on stumbling. I couldn''t turn around because my brother is holding onto my head firmly, I grab him by the wrist and I tried myself to ease the pain on my head by picking myself up, but my arms are too weak. All I can do is cry muffled screams and look my brother in the eyes and hope my tears will help him forgive me.


    "You almost snitched on me!! What were you about to say huh?! That I made you choose that class?" He tells me in a low tone and I tried shaking my head but the pain on my head was too much that the slightest movement would make me cry more and more.


    "Mhgmisroyygmgmmmmhh!!!!!" I tried apologizing, but my voice won¡¯t come out as he covered my mouth. He then let¡¯s go of my hair and kicks me in the gut taking all the air out of my lungs. I curl up from the pain as he kicked me right where he punched me last, so it hurt more than usual. I wanted to scream and cry but I couldn¡¯t as I gasp for air. I see my brother take out his sword and lodge it down in front of me.


    "kill yourself." He says.


    "Cough* Coughb-b-brother I¡¯m sorry!Cough*I''m sorry please forgive me!" I tried to apologize but all he did is stare at me.


    Did he really want me to kill myself? I look at the sword and it''s right in front of me.I don''t want to die.


    "I-I-I can''t brother! I''m sorry!" I say it again.


    "Must I do everything for you?!" He says as he grabs one of my hands and places it down the ground with my palm facing up.


    "I''m sorry! Brother, I''m sorry!" I pleaded with him again and again but then stomps of my hand and the pain of having my fingers stepped on have mixed with the pain in my stomach was too much that I almost passed out. Using the tip of his sword, he cut my wrist and blood started pouring out. I tried screaming but he muffled my mouth again preventing my voice from coming out. I stared at my wrist that got cut open and blood flowed out non-stop. I started to feel dizzy and my eyes become heavy as I notice my brother come close to my face.


    "Don''t worry little sis, this won''t be in vain." He says and I lose consciousness.


    .


    .


    .


    Suyeon. I faintly hear someone¡¯s voice calling out my name over and over again. The longer it got, the louder the voice gets as if it was getting closer and closer.


    "Suyeon!!" I briefly wake up to someone¡¯s screaming as I slightly open my eyes. I can barely see Kana looking down at me crying. ¡°Suyeon! Hang in there! Don¡¯t die on me!¡±


    Ah....it feels warm.I whisper in my mind thinking it¡¯s a dream. I glance towards my wrist which my brother cut earlier, and I can see Kana''s hands on top of the wound with a green light surrounding the area. I can see my brother crying in the back. He''s on his knees holding on to his hand and I can see blood coming out of his palm.


    "I-I-I decided to leave my sword and shield out just in case and I woke up and I see her holding my sword and she cut her wrist! I tried to stop her, but she ended up cutting me! Please! Please! Save my sister!" I can barely hear him talk but I felt so tired that I decided to close my eyes and go back to sleep.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly come to a couple of voices around me having a conversation. I keep my eyes closed since I feel like it was harder to keep them open.


    "How is she?" I hear Mr. Goro-sensei says.


    "She''s fine. We got there in time. If her brother didn¡¯t wake us up, she would have been dead by now." Daikichi says.


    "How is he?" Ms. Miki-sensei asked.


    "He''s looking pretty shaken up. I had him move with some of the guys and they all are sleeping in one room. Amaguchi is there." Mr. Goro-sensei says


    "Tell Amaguchi to keep an eye on him," Kana says, and I can feel anger in her voice.


    "Sure......Why did you want Suyeon here and not her brother? Shouldn''t they be not separated? Especially after what she did to herself. Wouldn''t she would want to wake up to her brother¡¯s presence?" Mr. Goro-sensei says.


    What did I do to myself? I don''t remember.


    "I know, but I just have a bad feeling about this," Kana says and the room fell silent.


    "Well, she was abused by her mother, she might have suicidal thoughts more than we know. We just need to keep an eye on her." Ms. Miki-sensei says.


    Suicide? I never thought of killing myself.


    "Not only on her but her brother. There''s something weird about him." Kana says, and no one said anything. I felt exhausted still and I went back to sleep. I woke up with everyone sleeping and I tried my best to slowly sit up without waking them up. I can hear Mr. Goro-sensei snoring along with the breathing of Kana right next to me. A lot of questions ran through my mind as I placed my head down on my knee.


    What did I do so wrong?Did my brother really wanted to kill me? Am I better off dead? So many different questions ran through my mind and the thought of my brother trying to kill me brought tears to my eyes. I admit he beats me up, but he gave me a place to sleep and stay and he never forcibly threw me out of the house even though he wishes I was never born or dead. But this is the first time he actually acted on it.


    This is the first that I felt like he wanted to really erase my existence. The thought of it brought tears and I cried silently. I can feel an arm go over me and pulls me closer. As I look up, I can see Ms. Miki-sensei looking at me.


    "It''s ok. Let it all out Suyeon. It''s ok." She told me as she puts me in the back. It¡¯s the first time someone actually did it and I felt calm, but my crying wouldn''t stop, and I lodged my face in her chest to drown out the sound, so no one will hear me. For the first time, I cried on someone that night till I fell back to sleep.


    I slowly wake up to rustling sounds around me. I see someone crouched down over me, but my vision is still blurry. The minute I rub my eyes and get my vision clear, I see Lisa looking over me with tears building up in her eyes.


    "Suyeon! Uwaaaah!!!!" She started crying fully as she gives me a tight hug. "Never do that! Please don''t kill yourself!"


    Kill myself? When did I-


    "Your brother told us you tried to kill yourself! He even told us you did it back at earth and he had to save you every time!" She says as she continues to hug me.


    Does it every time? Not once I ever attempted or even think about it. I say in my mind confused.


    Lisa then let¡¯s go but holds my shoulders firmly. "Listen ok? No matter how hard it gets, don¡¯t give up!¡±


    Amaguchi had to help her up and bring her out of the room as Lisa cried nonstop. I see Ms. Miki-sensei come over near me and gave me a warm smile.


    "How are you feeling? Are you okay?" She asked, and I silently nod. I tried to stand but I feel like I lost all my strength on my legs.


    "Whoa there tiger. Chillout for a while. You lost a ton of blood so just stay here and rest up okay?" Daikichi says as he catches me falling and then guides me back to sit down on the ground. I see Kana walk back in the room along with Lisa and Amaguchi and they are all holding a dried meat I ate when I first met them. Goro-sensei walks in after them already eating his portion.


    "Mr. Goro-sensei! Can''t you be more dignified when you eat?!" Ms. Miki-sensei says and Mr. Goro-sensei just shrugs.


    Then right behind him, I see my brother. "Suyeon? Are you okay?"


    The minute he comes near, even though I feel light headed, I quickly stumble to the darkest part of the room.


    "S-suyeon?! What''s going on! Big brother is here! Are you okay-" My brother tried to come near but as he got close, Goro-sensei stopped him. He whispered a couple of things to my brother and they both started walking out as my brother steal glances my way. I covered my ears and curled up in the dark corner.I don¡¯t want to hear anything.I don¡¯t want to see anything.I felt someone shaking it and it startled me that I wanted to scream. Once I see Kana in-front of me, I broke down in tears and hug her and I just cried. Cried without saying a word. I just cried, and my wails filled the room. I was used to it. I apologized to stop him from beating me. Even though I never go against him, I didn''t fear him because he is family. The only family I have. But that was the first time. I¡¯m scared of him. I¡¯m scared that he will take his sword out. I¡¯m scared that he will try to kill me again. I¡­.I feared my brother.


    I finally calmed down, but I didn''t want to talk to anyone. I thought I have been through worse, but I guess it wasn''t. I see Kana trying to talk to me and Lisa also tried.


    Why would they do this?I asked my mind as I see them really trying to get me to talk. Some of my brother friends went to my house and found me with bruises. Before they left, they told me that it would get better than they would try to change my brother and just wait. But nothing. I waited, and nothing happened. But this is a bit different, they seem like they really do care.


    Was it like this in the outside world?I had a lot of questions in my mind and I''m trying to figure out the answers. I am not used to anybody else¡¯s company except my brothers, I didn''t know how to respond to their kindness but to avert their gaze.


    "Sooo back at earth I had this guy I like but he didn''t like me back...bummer. Out of all the people he wanted, it was my best friend. Well, we''re not friends anymore bwahahahaa." Lisa says, and she continues on with stories from her world. I just sat in the dark and she sat in the dark with me. Night came since everyone got sleepy. Everyone decided to stay in the room even Mr. Goro-sensei is here. The only ones not here are a couple of the boys and my brother. Even Amaguchi moved to this room to keep me company. I lay down on the dark corner of the room and stayed there. I pretended to sleep, and I can hear them having a conversation again. I slowly awoke with my head on someone''s lap.


    "ugh..." I mumble as I tried to stand but a hand forced me back down.


    "Relax. It''s ok. You seem exhausted. Just take it easy." I look at whose lap I was resting, and I can¡¯t see her face.


    "H-huh, who are-" I tried asking and the next thing I know, the face of the person started warping into my brothers and the voice became distorted.


    "It''s ok. Go sleep. Go to sleep. Go sleep. Go to sleep. Go sleep." The distorted face of my brother says over and over, and his head started twitching nonstop.


    "No! get away!¡± I shouted and thrashed around trying to get up. As soon as I did, I tried to run away from him but he grabbed my leg and pulled me back down.


    "D-d-don¡¯t g-g-go~" The distorted figure let out a sound that made me fear for my life as I tried my best to kick it in the face. I screamed and shouted at him and thrash around trying to break free from my nightmare and my dream with reality mixed as I woke up thrashing in place.


    "Calm down Suyeon!" Amaguchi says as he holds me tight trying to limit my movement.


    "Holy hell! Where she getting this strength from!" He says as he struggles to hold me down.


    "Suyeon!" Kana shouts as she runs towards me and helps Amaguchi hold me down while trying to calm me. I see Lisa and Daikichi behind her and I struggle as much as I can thinking this is all part of a bad dream.


    "Let me go! I need to go! I don¡¯t want to die!" I shout struggling to break free. Right now I feel like my insides are burning and I feel like I want to scream till my throat rips open. I scream with all my might until I felt my throat scratch and the taste of blood made me stop. I struggled as much as I can to break free but now everyone is trying their best to hold me down. I imagine them all going to turn like my brother as I struggle to break free so I can run away.


    "It''s ok Suyeon! It''s just a bad dream!" I hear Ms. Miki-sensei says but all I remember is my brother trying to kill me. I remember how he always looks at me. I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m scared for my life. I''m scared my brother will come and kill me. The next thing I know everything goes black and I pass out.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to the sound of water hitting itself. I kept my eyes closed scared of what I might see as I hear voices around me. I didn''t want to wake up to another nightmare.


    "That fucking bastard," Lisa says on a low tone.


    "Let''s not jump to conclusion but, what the fuck did he do to her?" Daikichi asked in a whisper.


    "Some people are just born evil. They don¡¯t deserve our sympathy. They need to die." Kana says and I can sense some anger in her voice."I''m sorry. I''m usually not like this but, when someone gets abused. I just get really mad."


    My mind is full of unwanted question and I want to wake up from this nightmare but a part of me wants this to be a dream. The same dream I always think about. Freedom with no problems and surrounded by people who will like me. This was the first time I doubted myself from trying to be happy. I slowly sat up and tried to adjust to the room.


    "Suyeon!" Lisa shouts the minute she sees me and hugs me really tight. "Suyeon! You''re awake! We were worried!"


    I quickly looked at the ground trying to avoid eye contact but they all greeted me anyways. I felt like a zombie, I felt tired and I didn''t even want to go out. If I do I will meet my brother and for sure he will kill me. I don''t want to die. Everyone has been planning on how to open the door but to no avail, they can¡¯t figure it out. I¡¯ve been staying in the room where the water is and I was never alone. Someone is always in there with me to keep me company. Whether it''s Lisa, Kana, Ms. Miki-sensei, someone is always talking to me even when I barely respond. I haven''t seen my brother in a while and I''m afraid to meet him.


    But today I needed to go out and pee. I told Lisa I need to go and she gladly helps me up and called for Amaguchi. The three went out towards the hallway and my heart was beating so fast it felt like it will jump out of my chest. Once we got by the door, I see Kana and Daikichi along with Ms. Miki-sensei talking and when they see me they all rushed my way.


    "She needs to pee," Lisa says and Kana nods. She then grabs my right arm and guided me. I still feel weak and its because I guess I lost a lot of blood. I heard my brother is in one of the rooms with the boys and hardly comes out now. Sometimes they don¡¯t even let Amaguchi or Daikichi in. I quickly did my business as fast as possible. I didn''t want to have a chance and meet my brother. Once I finished peeing, we headed back to the water room. We see Goro-sensei and once he noticed us, he started walking our way.


    ¡°Seems like the little missy is awake. How do you feel?¡± Goro-sensei says. I just nodded and he just gave me a smile and gave me a pat on the head. "Well I can''t figure out a way to open it so why not just bust through? Why don¡¯t you all help me pick a class that will do just that."


    "Oh, you have not picked a class Goro-sensei?!¡± Miki-sensei says.


    ¡°Haha no, I haven''t Miki-san," Goro-sensei says.


    "Sensei! Call me Miki-Sensei!" Ms. Miki-sensei says as her face turns red. She then instructs Mr. Goro-sensei on how to see the class information.


    ¡°Ahahahaha. Ok, let''s try this. Guardian information!¡± Goro-sensei shouts proudly and it seems like he was startled by something appearing in front of him. But all in my mind is to get back into the room and sit in the darkness.


    "Hmmm¡­. I see. I guess I''ll go with a guardian. Ready! Guardian!" Goro-sensei screamed his choice and his loud voice resonated throughout the room. ¡°oho what is this? ACCEPT!¡±


    The minute Goro-sensei accepted, a sword and a shield appeared in front of him.


    ¡°Aha swords and a shield. Perfect fit for me.¡± He says as he picks up the sword and swings it around like it¡¯s a feather. ¡°Ok boys! I¡¯m ready to fight!¡±


    Goro-sensei looks really strong even with only the shield and the sword.


    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s see if I can slice that door open," Goro-sensei says as he walks towards the big door. Upon reaching it, we were expecting him to go wild with his weapon but he just stood there like he was reading something. I wanted to politely ask them if I can go back in but before I even had a chance to speak, Goro-sensei started laughing.


    ¡°Oi! Daikichi! Everyone! Come here!¡± Mr. Goro-sensei shouts happily and everyone including me started moving towards near the door. The minute we got close, a notification popped up starling me in the process.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Do you want to open this door?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Does everyone see the same message?!¡± Daikichi asked and everyone nods.


    "Wait...this never showed before. Does this means everyone just needed to pick a class?¡± Amaguchi says as he looks at Goro-sensei. ¡°Sensei¡­¡±


    ¡°Hahaha sorry, kiddo. Well then, let''s get out of here. Yes." Goro-sensei says as he pushes the door but it never budged. Everyone was startled when another message appeared in front of us.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    To open this door, this dungeon must reset. All of its monsters and condition will revert back to normal with the addition of extra boss. You will get another shot at conquering it one more time.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Do you wish to proceed?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Well, it''s not like we have a choice, do we? We''re running out of food and we need to get out of here to look for something to sustain all of us. I say we go." Kana says and everyone agrees.


    ¡°Ok! Here goes nothing! Yes!¡± Daikichi shouts as he takes out his weapon but nothing happened until a few minutes in when the room started shaking making it harder to stand in place.


    ¡°Earthquake! Get down!¡± Goro-Sensei says as the whole room shook violently that torches fell off the wall. Everyone got on the floor and some of them are covering the back of their head with their hands. Lisa quickly got on top of me while Amaguchi got on top of her. The shaking lasted for about a minute and it was shaking so much that it felt like the whole room was going to crumble on top of us. After the minute has passed, the shaking suddenly stopped in an instant.


    Creeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaak*


    The door slowly opened and the sound it made vibrated my heart making it beat faster. Once it fully opened, on the other side was another dark hallway. The darkness goes beyond what our eyes can see. We all slowly stood up and Goro-sensei who''s closer to the door slowly walked out. But the minute he stepped out the door, the two torches near him lit up with a blue flame. Goro-sensei stopped moving. It¡¯s like he¡¯s reading something else.


    ¡°S-s-sensei. What do you see?¡± Miki-sensei asked but Goro-sensei didn''t answer as he stared at something in mid-air.


    ¡°Goro-sensei?....what is it?¡± Daikichi asked as he helped Kana get up and Mr. Goro-sensei slowly turned towards him.


    ¡°Kiddo it says that I just left a safe zone." After him saying that we heard a sound that brought chills to our spine. Screams and shouts that isn''t human. Footsteps that sound like an impending death march slowly got closer and closer as each and every stomp got louder and louder.And it¡¯s coming from beyond the darkness and they¡¯re coming towards us.

 CHAPTER 24: Reaching the Limit

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 24: Reaching The Limit


    <hr>


    I hear birds chirping above me as I slowly wake up stretching my arms. ¡°Nghh that was a good nap.¡±


    I look up and see a bird-chirping non-stop above me. The same bluebird I saw a year ago visits me every day waking me up. I looked at the bird as it twitches its head side to side looking at me straight in the eye.


    ¡°Why the hell do you keep waking me up in mid of a good nap. Shoo, shoo.¡± I whisper waving my arms for it to fly away. I didn¡¯t kill it since it did save my life a couple of times by pecking on my cheek while I was asleep as I was surrounded by enemies. I slowly stand up stretching my whole body before walking towards the lake to wash my face. Using both my hands, I cup the clear water and splash it on my face. The cold feeling of the water brought my senses to full gear as I look up and the sky is as blue as ever.


    ¡°One year in here and I still can¡¯t get used to it. This place looks nothing like the inside of that sky king dungeon.¡± I say as I stared at different birds flying around the sky. The cool breeze rustles the trees as I sat near the lake and soak my feet in the shallow end. ¡°Ah¡­this is life.¡±


    I have been here for almost a year now. Time flies in this damn hell hole. I whisper in my mind as I laid on my back feeling the grass beneath me. The timer¡¯s going to run out soon.


    ¡°Fuck, this was hell in the beginning but after killing everything¡­this place is like a paradise.¡± I say as I close my eyes reminisce my time in here. When I got in the dungeon, I was automatically attacked by kobolds. Rat wolf looking human hybrid abomination. It didn¡¯t take me long to murder them all and after they all got annihilated, ogres started spawning everywhere. Then the werewolves, and as I progressed further, it got tougher and tougher as stronger monsters appeared. I fought so many different enemies I lost track of everything and focused on killing one after another till my arms gave out. Luckily during the night, monsters would sleep but would come back at random times cutting my rest short. The last enemy I had to deal with was an overlord.


    ¡°Damn that overlord, well, he did give me a nice sword and this nice garb I''m wearing," I say inspecting my clothes coexisting with my guild¡¯s color, a cyan blue that shines under the sun or moonlight. I picked it up after killing the overlord and it resized into my size as repaired itself to its original state. I take out a pure black sword out of my bag that looks like a katana. The blade, the hilt, the housing, everything was black to the core. I briefly unsheathe the sword and the blade was so dark I couldn¡¯t see my reflection.


    "Show weapon description," I whisper as I held the sword towards the sky.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    Dark Blade


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    One-hand


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Durability:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2000/2000


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Quality:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Mystic Rare


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    A price possession of one of the overlords.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Dark blade huh¡­tch¡­.I killed everything here so I got no one to rule. Laaaaaaaaame!¡± I say as I sheathe back the blade and throw it inside my bag. ¡°Dungeon timer!¡±


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Time till completion


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Remaining Time:7 hours


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Hm, what shall I do for the meantime...¡± I whisper as I stand back up and walk around the whole dungeon just in case, I left an enemy alive, but nothing. Nothing except that stupid blue bird the hovered above me. There''s also fishes in the lake which I let live. I cooked almost all of the meat but some of them I cooked rotten since it was impossible to cook everything while fighting. And by the time I finished killing every single monster that attacked me, a lot of the corpse rotted into something unrecognizable. Sometimes I¡¯d go for days without touching the fire as I get attacked one after another. But once everything was over, I cooked every single corpse that I can find. I had enough time to cook everything since I finished the dungeon a month early from the time limit.


    I walked around the dungeon rummaging through the rubble as I whistled trying to keep myself busy.


    ¡°La~ la~ la~ la~ I beat the dungeon~ la~ la~ la~ who¡¯s the best?!¡± I say throwing a pose into nothing like I had the audience. ¡°Me~ la~ la~ la~ la~¡±


    I continued to sing and skip around the dungeon. The whole place itself is a mess. Bones, destroyed trees, craters, everything looked like three to four world war happened all at the same time. Trying not to smell the rotting cooked meat, I piled what I can pile towards one area far away from the lake and burned it to the ground. But sometimes the wind will carry the remnant odor towards where I camped making me gag at times. Yet, the only intact area is that one single giant tree by the pond I tried my best to keep in one piece. Once I got here, the dungeon looked like a remnant of a civilization and now, that¡¯s even unrecognizable.


    ¡°Yasu, you ruined a piece of history," I tell myself remembering my battle. It¡¯s either I get lunched to a section or my attack miss an enemy, and everything would go up in flames or explode upon impact.


    I can¡¯t wait to get out of here. I whisper as I look at the giant door that seems to be in the middle of nowhere still intact and without a single scratch.I go back towards the tree and sat under it leaning my back at its roots. I rummage through my bag and I take out a couple of giant diamond rocks that I found and inspected it under the sun I still have some of the kobolds swords and I even scavenged their leather armor since it''s the only material I can still pick up and equip. All the weapons I was able to get, I stored in my bad and all the armor I couldn¡¯t pick up, I left lying around where it was last used.


    ¡°I can probably sell later on. Ah~ thank god you¡¯re still alive¡± I say, and I take out my old beat up frying pan and kiss the bottom of the pan. ¡°You shall be put to good use!¡±


    I placed the pan bag in my bag and used my bag as a pillow while I laid under the shade. One year has passed but it seemed like yesterday I was left in the dungeon to die. My hatred towards everything is still the same yet it managed to evolve into another feeling. A feeling I couldn''t wait to act upon as it brought my skin to itch from excitement. Yet, there were times I felt the loneliness of not having the ability to talk with anyone. I would go through different emotions from sadness, anxiety, depression, yet it all ended into feeling anger as I rage through my enemies killing them to appease myself.


    "I had no one to talk to except myself and that fucking bird," I whisper to myself. "Maybe I''m not normal. Meh, who gives a crap.¡±


    I looked up and remembered how it baffled me, in the beginning, this place has a sky and a sun. There¡¯s no cave walls, no roof, nothing except the vast desert beyond the area and if I go further out, I appear back on the other side like I''m Pac-Man.


    ¡°Oi! Bird! Where are you?! Get ready you fuck! We¡¯re leaving in a couple of hours!¡± I shout towards the sky and the bird somehow flew down and landed in front of me and started picking at the ground. ¡°You understood me?¡­ I wonder what Mr. birdy taste like.¡±


    The blue bird flies away and lands on top of a tree as if it understood me making me laugh out loud. Feeling a bit hungry, I take out a couple of smoked meat in my bag and started eating them. I cooked so much of my enemies that it¡¯s always a surprise what I pull out of a bag. All the smoked meat looks the same and I couldn¡¯t picture a single entity to take out of the bag.


    ¡°Hmmmm¡­this taste¡­. must be those damn werewolves¡­.¡± I mumble as I know what they taste like. Like a juice piece of paper. ¡°Man, this is nasty, why am I even still eating these fuckers.¡±


    I decided to throw it away as I spit out whatever¡¯s in my mouth. All of the meat from the monsters either tasted like dirt, pork, and even the overlord tasted like I was eating tofu sprinkled with spices. But the best one out of all of them is the Karkinos. Karkinos are these giant crabs that moved so fast making it harder to kill them. Their shell was so strong that a couple of swords broke upon impact so dealing with them was really difficult. But after killing them and eating them, their meat tastes like it''s the highest quality crab you could ever eat as it melts in my mouth.


    After eating one of them, I made sure I cook as much of their meat as I can. I also learned new cooking skills like stew and boiling and a lot more things. I boiled most of the crabmeat since I didn¡¯t really have enough jars to fill up the stew. I sat under the tree as I closed my eyes trying to remember my last fight with the Overlord.


    ¡°He must have been a demon," I whisper under the tree as I slowly open my eyes looking at the rustling leaves of the giant tree. ¡°The overlord huh¡­¡±


    <hr>


    Yasu''s Memory


    <hr>


    ¡°Who¡¯s next?!¡± I shout in anger after killing the last remaining Shadow lurker. I lodge my sword down the ground and slump right next to it as I pant trying to control my breathing. Nothing is spawning anymore, and I felt like my body went through rigorous beatdowns as my joints ached and my muscles hurt for not having time to regenerate. I scream at the top of my lungs trying to let out all my frustrations and all of a sudden, a bright light erupted from above as a giant circular rune filled the sky and turning it purple. Slowly, a hoof came out of the rune and descended like it was coming from heaven.


    ¡°What the fu-¡° I jumped to the side as it descended down towards me at high speed almost stomping on my head. The explosion it created was big enough to send me flying and I managed to lodge my sword down the ground deep enough to hold on. Everything was filled with smoke. I tried to get a glimpse of what beyond the dust clouds as I see a figure slowly walking towards me. It suddenly screamed and the shockwave of its voice cleared the dust in an instant.


    ¡°Satan?¡± I whispered tilting my head as I stare at a horned creature looking like he just came from the pits of hell. He had tails and his horns were similar to the Minotaurus that I killed a couple of days ago but his skin is blacker and shinier. His eyes had red iris with black sclera. He had wings similar to a bat and I can see a tail sticking out of his ass. His skin was red and had black long hair.


    It has a nice garb. My favorite color¡­ I whisper in my mind as I eye its clothes and weapon.


    ¡°Human. I congratulate you for bringing me out!¡± It shouted out and its voice resonated a shockwave that I briefly felt with my skin.


    It talks?Holy fucking balls! It talks!The first enemy I have come across talking! I say in my mind as I slowly stood up smiling.


    ¡°To bring me out. One of the overlords. The ruler of the southern demon tribe. Me! The great general of the demon clan!! For my name is Adr-¡°


    While my seismic step was activated, I stepped close and swung at its face sending the overlord flying towards one part of the ruins.


    ¡°Who gives a shit who you are!! Pound!¡± I shouted my skill as I launched myself towards it. I can see he¡¯s regaining his balance and when he saw, His hands lit up red as he clenched his fist.


    ¡°You puny human!¡± He cursed at me as I brought my fist down towards him and he does the same. Once both our first connected with one another, the surrounding area erupted and trees, rubble, rocks, dirt, everything was blown away. He was sent flying more and I was sent back where I started crashing onto the remaining trees. I stomped both my feet down the ground but the impact was too much I crashed into a big rock destroying it in the process. Before I would have been badly hurt by crashing into things, but I got a new skill called chef¡¯s coat which basically encases me with an invisible force field that receives most damages on impact. But it doesn''t mean I won''t get hurt. I just won''t get severely hurt.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡°Ack! Shit!¡± I tried to cover my eyes as more rubble comes flying my way hindering my vision. I caught of glimpse of something red and my face felt like it was hit by a cannon. The force sent me flipping backward towards another ruin and I can feel my skill wearing off.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s coat!¡± I shouted right before impact to protect myself since I couldn¡¯t stop my momentum as I came crashing down on the ground destroying everything in my path. I see him fly to the sky as multiple tiny runes appeared around him. Suddenly fireballs came out of the circular rune like a gun as a rain of flaming balls came towards me.


    ¡°Shit! Tenderize!¡± I shout my skill as I punched the air nonstop. Red orbs came flying out of my fist like a bullet and I tried my best to hit each and every fireball he sent at me. Each attack I recoil my arm like a gun, and I can feel the strain up to the marrow of my bone.


    ¡°You missed me!¡± I laughed like a maniac as I bombard his attacks with mine. The impact of every attack created an explosion the shook the whole area. The recoil on every attack kept pushing me back as I tried my best to stand my ground. I can see he¡¯s struggling to keep up the rune circles, but I just kept going as I re-activated my skill over and over again. I can see he¡¯s exhausted, and I guess the attack took a toll from his stamina as my attacks didn¡¯t even dent mine.


    He dodged my attacks as he flew towards me and the minute, he got close, I jumped back barely dodging his fist as it dug to the ground.


    ¡°Well hello there Satan~¡± I whisper as I clenched my fist and swung while I took a step forward. My seismic step skill was still activated, and I closed the distance so fast he didn¡¯t have time to react as face met my uppercut. His body went flying upwards at he flipped nonstop before descending down the ground at a distance. ¡°Rule number one! Make sure your enemy is dead!¡±


    ¡°Roger!¡± I answered myself as I jumped up the sky placing myself over him. As I descended towards him, I took out the dragon slayer in my bag and placed the sword in front of me. ¡°Heaven¡¯s slice! Dragon¡¯s breath!¡±


    I felt my lungs heat up as I inhaled as much as I can before breathing out into the sword. The blade turned amber red and I can feel the handle heat up as it burned my skin. It suddenly burst into flames as I swung at full force downwards towards the demon. My attack went flying down towards him and the explosion it created was like a miniature atomic bomb as I was caught up in my own blast sending me flying back up into the air. I descended down the ground and I swung my fist while activating pound to break my fall. I look at the area where he was, and it was covered in flames that got as high as a two-story building.


    "Burn baby burn! Hahaha, you fucking piece of shi-¡° I stopped as he cleared the flames with one single swing of his sword. ¡°Tch! Rule number one! Make sure your enemy is fucking dead!¡±


    It quickly closed the distance between us two and was already swinging his sword downwards. In the short moment, I had no time to do anything but block his attack as I placed the dragon slayer in front of me. The ground beneath us erupted upon impact and it felt like I just caught an elephant. His force was so strong that I got to my knees as the surrounding area around me erupted.


    ¡°Sky king¡¯s wind!¡± I shout and my dragon slayer was encased with a strong gust of wind deflecting his attack in an instant. Without waiting for him to swing again, I swung upwards. ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    His hand recoiled back exposing his stomach and I clenched my fist as I ducked down putting all my weight towards my left foot.


    ¡°Tenderize!¡± I shout my skill and my hand glowed red as I aimed it towards his abdomen.


    ¡°Arghh!!¡± He screamed in pain as he flew away from me. My attack is meant for long distance as I felt a part of the attack damaging my arm. But I have no time to stop now, I needed to go all out.


    ¡°Ahahahahaha!¡± Its voice was so strong it shook the whole place and I felt the vibration pass through my body. ¡°Human! You are a worthy foe! Let me give you the position as a general in my army! Let us rule over- guak!¡±


    I punched it again mid-sentence as I closed the distance using seismic step and I sent him skidding a few feet away from me.


    ¡°Hahahaha! You are amusing!¡± It screamed as it flew to the sky.


    Ah¡­I forgot.It had wings.It doesn¡¯t matter, I¡¯ll just have to fly up there and rip it off.I gave it a big smile and then I jumped towards it at an incredible speed. I can feel my body is getting weaker from exhaustion from fighting the Shadow Lurkers right before him. No matter how strong my skill has gotten, it will become useless if I can''t move.


    Since I know if I keep fighting like this, I won¡¯t be able to move due to stress my body is going through, I just decided to go out with a bang and take my chances and rely on my luck that I kill that thing before I become immobilized.


    ¡°Overdrive!¡± I shouted out and my whole body glowed red as my lost energy came back in an instant. It sees me coming towards him and he brought his sword down to meet me. As I flew up, I gripped on my dragon slayer and swung upwards meeting his. I only get one chance from this. I have to do it at the right time. When my sword hit his sword, the impact sends both of us the opposite way. He was sent flying back up and I was sent flying back down.


    "Tenderize~" I sang quietly so it doesn''t hear me and my hand glowed black. Using overdrive, my skills become a different color. I aimed at the ground and punched with all my strength. The explosion caused me to take damage as I was sent flying back up at high speed.


    Towards the sky. Towards him. And he¡¯s not expecting it. I flew so fast that when I reached him, we both were sent flying up more as I grabbed onto him. He tried to struggle but I had a firm grip on something he can¡¯t shake me off of.


    ¡°Remove your dirty hands off my wings you human!¡± he said as he violently trashed in midair trying to throw me off.


    ¡°Hhahaha Why?~ Are you afraid?¡± I whisper into his ear.


    ¡°Afraid of wha-¡°Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, I pulled its wings apart and blood spurt out of his back. ¡°Arghhhhhhh!!!!!¡±


    I felt something wrap around my waist and it flung me down the ground placing me under him as we both fell. I see his palm glows red as he held it out towards me and I crossed my hands trying to. Protect my face.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s coat!¡± I shouted my skill as he sent black flame towards my face and even with the chef¡¯s coat, it felt like I was being cooked alive. ¡°Sky kings wind!¡±


    I swung my sword dissipating the flame and as soon as I got a clear view, I can see a lot of circle purple runes circles like before.


    ¡°Oh hell¡­.¡± I whisper before the fireballs made an impact and the next thing I know, everything around me exploded as I hit the ground hard. It kept going and the explosions ruptured my ear drum, and everything went silent. The attack stopped and my whole body wouldn¡¯t move. My shirt, pants, everything was burned away. Even though I had chef¡¯s coat activated, I still had burnt marks everywhere yet, it was enough to protect my hair from being obliterated. But each and every fireball felt like a punch strong enough to be a professional boxer¡¯s ultimate move.


    ¡°F-f-fuuu¡­.ck¡­.¡± I tried saying by even my voice feels tired. I see him walk over me with blood dripping from his back and I smirked at him as he picked me up by the neck. I couldn¡¯t hear what he was saying as I kept smiling. He probably noticed as he waved his hand and my hearing came back as good as before.


    ¡°Hahahaha! This is what you get! Know your place human!¡± He says looking at me. ¡°If you have chosen to follow me as my subordinate, your life would have been spared¡­.human.¡±


    ¡°R-r¡­.ru¡­..le¡­¡­¡­n-nu¡­.numb¡­..er¡­..one¡­..m-make¡­..su¡­¡­re¡­¡­¡­you¡­.re¡­¡­..en¡­.nemy¡­¡­i-is¡­¡­dead¡­¡± I tried saying as he gripped my neck hard trying to choke me to death.


    ¡°Any last words human?¡± He asked me as I felt his grip loosen letting in a bit of air into my lungs.


    ¡°Yeah, overdrive.¡± I felt energizing as my whole body was covered in a dark red glow. Before I was only able to use it one time, now I¡¯m able to use it two times. But the second time is way more dangerous than the first. I grabbed his horns and he tried to struggle but I quickly overpowered him as I brought his head to the ground. Using all my might, I snapped his horns from his head and one managed to rip off half of his scalp. He was too busy cupping his face as I grabbed his sword and swung towards his left leg. He fell to the ground screaming as he sent a fireball my way. I didn''t feel anything as I walked towards him. He tried to send another fireball, but I quickly gut of his arms and kicked him in the gut forcing him to roll onto the ground before stopping with his chest facing the ground.


    Without saying anything, I jammed the sword right into his back and pushed it as far as I can, until it went in up to the hilt of his sword. He shouted in pain as he tried trashing around and I took out another sword stabbing his arm in place.


    ¡°Stop!¡± He shouted at me as he tried to thrash around but the sword was lodged in deep enough that he couldn¡¯t move. He kept screaming and shouting at me but I can feel fear from his voice. I took out one more sword and I slowly stabbed his left leg making him scream more which was music to my ears. I want it to feel fear. I wanted it to fear my existence.


    I see its tail and I cut it as it started to loop around my left leg. Using another sword in my bag, I swung at the base of his tail cutting it before he tightened the grip on my leg.


    ¡°My tail! What have you done?!!!¡± he tried to break free again and I can see his body twitching from the pain. Now that I look at it. He looks like a frog ready to be dissected. I walk towards its face and I look at it in the eyes with the same hunger I have always had. A hunger to kill my enemy before me. A hunger to bring death upon him. I inspect its health.


    LORD Rakh no¡¯r tunuma (Overlord)


    17,876,345 / 18,000,000 HP


    ¡°I-I-I beg you human. R-release me and I-I will spare you!¡± He says making me laugh out loud with his choice of words.


    ¡°Spare me?! Me?! I don¡¯t think you¡¯re in any position to say that~¡± I sang as I walked around him. I noticed my dragon slayer where I dropped it earlier and my just looking at the sword, I thought of another idea. I went and picked up the sword before stepping over him standing on top his back.


    ¡°Now¡­where we¡¯re we¡­.ah! I was telling you about my rules!¡± I say and I stand on top of him pointing the tip of the blade on top his back. ¡°Rule number one, make sure your enemy is dead. Rule number two, make sure¡­your enemy is dead. Rule number three! Want to take a guess?¡±


    ¡°M-m-make s-s-sure your e-e-enemy is d-d-dead?¡± He tells me and I can feel the fear of his face as he feels the tip of the blade hovering above him. ¡°I-is it? Damn you human! Rakh mork-mnhhhhh!!!¡±


    He tried saying some words I couldn¡¯t understand and not wanting to get hit by so many runes, I walked over his head and grabbed his tongue pulling it as far out as I can before stomping on his head making him bite it off. I walked back on top as he screamed, spitting blood everywhere.


    ¡°Rule number three! Never turn your back on an enemy!!¡± I shout as I pushed down the dragon slayer towards his back, stabbing him through. He screamed at the top of his lungs as I slowly push it as far as I can. I know this is not enough to kill him, but the pain will probably make him want to die in an instant. ¡°Dragon¡¯s breath!¡±


    I blew onto the blade and it turned red right before it burst into flames. It started hearing sizzling noise and I see smoke coming from his back. He kept screaming non-stop as he tried moving but my swords bind him in place. I see his health is getting lower and lower as my flames burn him alive from where the sword entered.


    I¡¯m going to kill him this way.I whisper in my mind as I watched negative numbers appear above him as I held the sword in place. Feel the despair as it slowly consumes your life.


    "Feel it!" Using all my strength, I push the sword deeper into the ground casing a critical strike to appear randomly. She screamed in pain screaming incomprehensible words, but I know sooner or later, it all will stop.


    I¡¯m going to keep this up until I¡¯m sure he¡¯s dead. I whisper in my mind as I smiled seeing him suffer. Once he gets to the afterlife, he''s going to regret going against me.


    <hr>


    End of Memory


    <hr>


    ¡°Well...he did deserve it. Bastard threw fireballs at me, good thing I drank that potion on time.¡± I say to myself. ¡°But then again¡­what if I could have tamed him¡­as a pet?¡±


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Nope¡­ impossible. Really impossible.¡± I say to myself remembering what he looked like.


    Just thinking of having him follow me around is scary enough¡­Is there a pet system in this world?I say in my mind. Then I quickly remembered Mole making me feel sad all over again. I lay down toward the grass and let the wind breeze through my hair. The wind is cool enough under the shade I quickly fall asleep. Even though being passed out for three days after my battle with the overlord, I still feel exhausted.


    I woke up and it was nighttime inside the dungeon. I quickly look into the dungeon door and I can see it open. I must have slept through the time limit and luckily it didn¡¯t close on me.


    ¡°Finally~¡± I sang as I stretch out my arms. ¡°I can finally get out of this forsaken place.¡±


    I hear a fire crackling and don¡¯t remember lighting up a campfire before I slept. When I turned, I had to slowly adjust to the light of the fire. Once my vision clears, I see a campfire was made and a couple of fish on a stick was cooking near it makes me remember when I saw outside for the first time.


    ¡°Well well well, I didn¡¯t want to wake you up when I saw you sleeping. How¡¯s my favorite player?¡±He says as he sits by campfire holding a stick with fish in it.


    ¡°Was doing well till you showed up. Luro.¡± I told him walking near the fire grabbing one of the fishes cooking and turning them myself.


    "Well, that''s good kekekekekekeke.¡±He says and his laugh reminds me of a hyena.


    ¡°I have been here for one year and you never showed up once. After I finish, now you do. What the fuck do you want?¡± I ask him as I take a bite out of the cooked fish.


    ¡°Kekeke~ Well, I just brought new people here to play with all of you.¡± He says and I didn¡¯t really care as I focused on the fish. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of them! Two groups! Both groups woke up in each dungeon as you all did!"


    ¡°Ha, and which planet did you take them out from? Jupiter? Mars? Your anus?¡± I asked him as I grab one of the fishes and briefly placing it on the fire to remove any poison by cooking them myself.


    ¡°Bwahaha! That¡¯s a good one!¡± He says as I see him stand up and walk towards the exit waving his hand with his back towards me.


    Rule fucking number three, never turn your back on your enemy.I say in my mind as the urge to stab a sword in his back made me itch to call out my dimensional bag. I watched him walk away till he completely disappeared in the dark hallway where I came from a year ago.


    .


    .


    .


    Who he did he bring here this time?I say in my mind. I tried to shake it off, but my legs started being restless as I wanted to get out of here and check. Knowing him, he must have brought some people we know and if he did, the thought of her coming here is making me more anxious. I place the fish down and stare into the fire as it slowly ate the wood. If there are any other gods in this world.I pray to them that,that Luro doesn¡¯t bring my mother into this world.

 CHAPTER 25: Back to where it all started

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 25: Back to where it all started


    <hr>


    What if he did bring her? What if my mom is here?If she¡¯s in the first dungeon¡­ It should be fine right? I cleared it so there should be any monsters left. But¡­What if Luro restarted the dungeon? So many scenarios were happening in my head. I couldn¡¯t calm myself even when I tried to control my breathing.


    ¡°Fuck! Luro come out!¡±I shout but nothing happened.¡°Fucking piece of shit!¡±


    No matter how much of a tantrum I make, there¡¯s nothing I can do but look for the first dungeon and check myself if she¡¯s here.


    If¡­If she there¡­If my mother is in this world.I whisper in my mind remembering her smile, which made me feel more anxious.


    "I have to leave now," I whisper to myself as I got up and ran for the exit. Any minute I waste here can be crucial for the new adventurers. The faster I get there, the faster I can see if she¡¯s here. As soon as I got to the door, I wasted no time and didn¡¯t even bother looking back. I spent one grueling year in this place. I hold no fun memories or even any sort of attachment here. The hallway seemed longer than what I remember as the light at the end was just a faint dot.


    Light? I remember it''s supposed to be a dark cave on the other side¡­I say in my mind.


    ¡°Tch, I¡¯m not making any progress like this. Seismic step." I whispered my skill and I managed to reach the end at no time. I kept running until I entered another room that I have never seen before. It looked like a hall with a conference table in the middle and a fancy looking chandelier hanging above it. A notification suddenly appeared in front of me and I knew I was in the right place.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome to Yasu and Mole adventure land!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    This dungeon turned into a memorial site after the death of the sky king.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conquerer(Master):Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dungeon Conquerer Class:BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°There¡¯s no mistaking it, I¡¯m still in the Sky King''s Dungeon," I whispered to myself as I approached the table in the center of the room. The floor itself was covered in carpet and the walls were even repaired and covered with bricks.¡°Why the fuck it does look so different?¡±


    Along with the chandelier that has candles on top of it, a few torches and paintings were hanging off the wall but the most eye-catching thing in the room is a giant double door where the hole on the wall used to be a year ago. It had so many details in it and the rim of the double door looks like its made out of gold. The design on the door itself shows a group of people fighting a dragon and words are carved with the design.


    ¡°Is this real gold?¡±I whisper to myself as I go near and touch the doorframe.¡°Those who wish to talk must first feed the baby liquid. Dragon be lenient on our dreams?¡±


    I walk around the room some more to inspect most of the carvings. As I got close to a section of the room, I see a lot of bookshelves and a table next to a chest. The minute I got close to the chest, I noticed the same sentence is on the wall above it. I tried to open the chest but it won''t budge. I see runes on the lock with a blue flame. It''s probably what''s making it indestructible.


    ¡°Wait¡­the sentence¡­ a riddle?"I see a couple of papers on the table with notes about the riddle. "Wow, whoever tried to solve this went pretty fucking crazy...¡±


    There are different methods written on so many papers. I see one paper was translating each and every letter to a number and a bunch of formulas is adding the numbers together. Intrigued on what¡¯s inside the chest, I decided to inspect the sentence above the chest one more time.


    ¡°Those who wish to talk must first feed, the baby liquid? Dragons be lenient on our dreams? Hmm.." I whispered as I inspect the first letters on the riddle to see if it forms a word. After reading it a couple of more time''s I managed to figure it out.I quickly grab a paper and grab one of the pencils and scribble the sentence on the paper.


    ¡°Wow, this is some retarded riddle.¡± I whisper to myself as I arrange the ¡®be lenient on our dreams¡¯ taking the first letter and writing the word blood. ¡°Those who wish to talk must mean those who wish to open this chest. Feed the baby liquid, this might mean feed the rune some liquid which is probably dragon¡¯s blood.¡±


    Even when solving the riddle, I didn''t feel happy since I didn''t have a dragon''s blood. "Wait a minute, I''m the new sky king. Will my blood work?"


    I took out a dagger from my bag and cut my palm open letting the blood drip on top of the rune. It suddenly lit up before turning into dust and the chest opened up.


    "Heh, what do you know, I''m a fucking dragon," I whisper as I approached the opened chest and checked the contents inside. ¡°The fuck is this? Hermes shoes? Inspect.¡± I whisper as I see a knight looking shoes with wings coming out of the side. I tried to pick it up not expecting anything but feeling the heaviness of the shoes as it looked like a metal armor. Surprisingly, I was able to lift it up as it weighted nothing.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wandering Dancer Boots


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "What the.." My voice trails off as no other information came up except the name. ¡°Wandering dancer boots weapon description?"


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    Wandering Dancer Boots


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Weapon & armor


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Durability:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    17000/17000


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Quality:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    One of a kind


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    These boots are made from dragon¡¯s skin and mythic leather metal.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°The hell is a mythic leather metal?¡± I say baffled on the first clothing type weapon I come across. I tried to wear it but a rune appeared pushing my foot out as a notification came up in front of me.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Cannot be worn. Only ''dancer'' class adventurers can use this item.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Not wanting to waste time, I threw the boots and its matching gloves in my bag as I rummage through the rest of the chest contents. Since the shoe is useless to me I¡¯ll just sell it along with the other things that don''t have any use to me. I found a couple of health potions and what seem to be magic potions. I see a black book and as I picked it up, I felt the weight heavier than any books I have ever come across.


    "inspect," I whisper looking at the book.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Book


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Description: Unknown


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°The fuck is this?¡±I say as I see a totally different notification. "Hmm, might be just a blank diary for people to write in." I decided to store the black book in my inventory adding it to my collection of books I have collected from the hidden dungeon. I rummage through the remaining contents, which was some useless crap that I stored in my bag. The last one I picked up is another book that has a lock and a rune was on top of it. I tried to open the lock but it won''t budge. I tried cutting it with my skills but it won''t get destroyed. I even tried punching it with my skill, it just bounced around the room without having a single dent. Every time I tried to force it open, a notification keeps popping up in front of me letting me know I¡¯m not getting anywhere.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Can only be opened by a ''Dancer Class'' adventurer.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Dancer class? That sounds lame¡­ but then again my class specializes I cooking."I say as I store the book in my bag. I can sell it to any dancer class adventurers if I come across later on. ¡°Well I guess it¡¯s time to head ou-¡°I was stopped in my tracks when I noticed someone standing there with the door wide open right behind her.


    A kid? When did she get here? I whisper in my mind as I took the first step. I can see fear from her eyes as her body shook while holding a large key she probably used to open the door.As I got closer to her, the little girl went running out the door crying leaving what seems to be a trail of piss.


    ¡°Did she piss herself?¡± I whispered walking out the door and I can see her entering a portal screaming like it¡¯s the end of the world. I could have caught up with her with a seismic step but I decided not to. She poses no threat to me. If a little girl is here, then there must be either a village nearby. ¡°Tsk. was she like a grand master of stealth? I didn¡¯t notice that runt standing there.¡±


    Getting a clear picture, I see the dragon displayed in the middle of the cave section as if it was a museum. Museum barriers that look too expensive to use surrounded the dragon itself probably to prevent anyone from touching it. It was amusing as I walked around it. It seemed like whoever built the dragon have managed to glue the broken pieces back together and display it in its full glory and size. Yet my amusement turned into a rage in an instant.


    "Fuckers, who the fuck they think they are to this shit here," I whispered as I clench my fist remembering my hardships in the dungeon. It felt like everything I worked hard for, my experience, the very fact that I almost died was forgotten and was replaced by something people can gawk at. Trying to calm myself, I looked away from the dragon and walked towards the other door that leads to the saferoom. I didn''t want to spend another minute here knowing the fact that my mother might be in this world. Opening the door led me to the hallway that got narrower and narrower as I walked further. But like the rest of the area, the hallway had a red carpet laid out as far as my eyes can see. Lanterns were hanged off the walls illuminating the designs that were carved from one wall to the next.


    ¡°I remember this place was scorched black. They even went as far as redesigned this bullshit?¡± Iwhisper as I walk further down to reach the other door in the end. Memories ofthe dragon came flooding in my mind. Remembering he blew fire into this hall leaving the walls, ceiling, and the floor black. But now, it looks like a scene straight out of a Roman Empire and it¡¯s pissing me off they erased the very history I created here. Knowing the color scheme of the whole dungeon using gold paint, it¡¯s very easy to understand who¡¯s behind all of this. I finally reached the end of the hallway and the single door was replaced with something sturdier. Like the other door I saw, it¡¯s frame was painted gold and the door itself has carvings of a dragon and a bunch of small people on the bottom getting ready to attack it.


    I turn the knob, but it just clicked in place as it was locked from the other side. I clenched my fist as I stepped back getting ready to blast the door open. Right when I was about to punch it, a voice came from the other side. ¡°Evie is that you? Did you get the paper in the other ro-¡°


    The voice stopped talking as soon as he opened the door and saw me. An old man, wearing glasses, probably in his forties stared right into my eyes with confusion.


    ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡±I asked him and he just stood there.


    ¡°I¡¯m the dungeon keeper. How did you get in here? The dungeon is closed for the day due to internal reconstruction?¡± He says and I can feel the nervousness in his voice. ¡°Give me a minute.¡±


    He suddenly shuts the door on me and after a few seconds, he swung it open holding a sword.


    ¡°Who are you?!¡±The dungeon keeper shouted as he got into a stance. ¡°I didn¡¯t get any notification from the guards that anyone is coming here! The dungeon pass doesn¡¯t open till this afternoon! You must be a dungeon robber! Get out of this place! It¡¯s protected by the gold district!¡±


    ¡°First the kid, now this¡­what the fuc-¡°I tried to say and explain where I came from but the minute he hears me say the word kid, I can see the colors exit his face.


    "W-where is evie?! What did you do to my daughter?!¡±The man shouted as he started swinging his sword at me. I quickly deflected it punching it away from his hands. It seems like he¡¯s not a fighter as he quickly lost balance dropping to the ground on his knees and hands. I grab him by the hair and pulled his face up towards mine as I look into his eyes with hatred.


    ¡°Want to fucking die?¡±I whisper and he quickly shakes his head as his breathing got unstable. "Then get the fuck out of my way so I can pass through!"


    I pushed him to the side, and he went tumbling towards the wall. ¡°I-I-I will not! I was given the task to k-keep this place Safe! Where is my daughter?!¡±He asked me frantically grabbing me by the waist trying to prevent me from moving. I jammed a knee in his abdomen, and he started vomiting on the ground as he grabbed his stomach. I walked near him, and I can smell his vomit making me want to punch him into it.


    ¡°That runt went running out the portal as soon as she saw me. Now, move. Or, I will make you move without your fucking legs. Want to crawl for the rest of your life?¡±I say to him looking down into his teary eyes. His eyes suddenly rolled back, and he fell on top his vomit passing out.


    ¡°Haha, you stupid fu-¡° I suddenly hear footsteps and metals clanking from the end of the hallway where I came from. I grabbed the dungeon keeper by the hair and dragged him inside the saferoom locking the door behind us. ¡°What the fuck¡­¡±


    Everything looked so different from what I remembered a year ago. The stove was rebuilt and there are new shelves installed on the walls that were filled with bottles of spices. The bed was neatly fixed and I can see the table is full of books and papers. I let go of the dungeon keeper¡¯s hair and his head plopped to the ground so hard it woke him up from his slumber.


    ¡°Now. Try not to pass out. If you do I might just fucking kill you in your sleep. People are coming, I don¡¯t have time to deal with any of you since I have important matters. Mind turning them away?¡±I tell him while tilting my head and he quickly nods as we both hear the footsteps getting closer and closer.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    BANG! BANG! BANG!


    "Sir! Are you there?! There''s an unknown man wandering the dungeon! Are you safe?!" A voice ranged out from the other side of the door and I can see the dungeon keeper frantic not knowing what to do. He looks at me and looks at the door nonstop and I gestured to him to not say anything or else I''ll kill him, and he nods as he quickly got up and got near the door. He quickly opened the door as I stood behind the wall hiding from plain sight.


    ¡°What happened?¡± The dungeon keeper asked trying to sound calm and so far, he was doing a pretty good job at it.


    ¡°Your daughter told us he saw a scary looking man in the forbidden room. Did you see anyone? And are you okay? You have vomit on your clothes and the floor here.¡± The voice sounded like a commander as it gave a feeling of someone used to commanding people to do his bidding.


    ¡°Papa!"I hear that little girl voice and I see the dungeon keeper briefly step out shutting the door behind him. I placed my ear near the door and listened to their conversation just in case he rats me out.


    ¡°Dungeon keeper? What¡¯s the matter?¡±The commander asked again, and I clench my fist while whispering a skill.


    If they come in here, I have to deal with them swiftly before they bring more soldiers. As much as I want to fight, I need to get out of here fast.I say in my mind preparing myself to fight all of them.


    ¡°Oh¡­uh¡­n-nothing. I ate something bad and didn''t want to vomit in my room. I''ll clean this afterward. Did you say an intruder?" The dungeon keeper replies and I relaxed a bit.


    "Yes, the door to the forbidden room is wide open and when I say door, I mean the door inside the forbidden room that leads to the hidden dungeon." The commander explained as I listened to the other side of the door.


    ¡°Wait, you mean the hidden dungeon? Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± The dungeon keepers voice slowly trails off as everyone remained silent for a few seconds.


    ¡°Exactly what I¡¯m thinking of also.¡± The commander whispers to him and silence fell to the room again for a few seconds before continuing to talk. ¡°That is why I sent a squad to find him. Since our lords are not here, and they instructed me he might come out any day now. No one came through here?¡±


    ¡°No, no one came here. I sent my daughter to retrieve some papers on the forbidden room and then you guys came knocking. You say the door is completely open?¡±The dungeon keepers whispered back, and I can hear metal clanking as people¡¯s feet shuffle around.


    ¡°Yes, and the secret chest is wide open with all of its contents missing.¡±The commander explained.


    ¡°Wait, the chest?!¡±I can hear the dungeon keeper shout in surprised.


    ¡°Yes, the same chest the lords had a hard time opening."The commander tells him.


    By lords, I guess they''re talking about the gold district members?They¡¯re not here? Don¡¯t tell me they went¡­ My mind trails off as I felt my heart beat a bit faster. I needed to get there before them and now, I think I might be too late.


    ¡°Did you notify the princess?¡±The dungeon keeper asked catching my interest in the word princess.


    ¡°I sent a messenger to tell her. They are on their way here as we speak. So far it looks like the intruder is gone. I am hoping it¡¯s the person our lords have told us about. If it were a dungeon robber, we need to deal with it before the princess gets here.¡± Ihear the commander pause and I suddenly hear a loud bang on the wall. ¡°Dammit! I should have stayed the night in the room instead of camping outside the portal. I station my people to keep watch on the portal but the only person they have seen come out of it today is your daughter. I hope he didn¡¯t slip out without us noticing.¡±


    ¡°Did anyone see what he looks like?¡±The dungeon keeper asks.


    "Not any one of us. Only your daughter saw him. Did you not hear any sounds earlier?" The commander asked.


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. Our lords placed a soundproof rune on this safe room to block any sound from the outside when the dungeon was being constructed. They never removed the rune so upon closing the door, any sound from outside is blocked off. I can only hear if I place my ear right by the door. I keep it open most of the time but in the mornings, I keep it closed.¡±The dungeon keeper says.


    ¡°Papa! He was super scary! He made Evie pee!¡± The little girl says and the way she chooses her words are so out of context.


    "It''s ok Evie, you did good bringing commander here. Tell me, Evie, what did he look like?" The dungeon keeper asked her daughter.


    ¡°He was scary! He had black and blue clothes and he looks really mean!¡±The little girl says.


    Me? Looks scary? I thought I look delightful,I whisper in my mind as I listened on their conversation.


    ¡°Did he say anything to you, Evie? Like his name?" The dungeon keeper asked.


    ¡°Nope! Evie was too scared, so I ran to the portal. I¡¯m sorry Papa! I shouldn¡¯t have left you!¡±I hear the little girl started crying as I hear her annoying wails.


    ¡°There-there, it''s ok. It''s good you went to find commander. You did well." The dungeon keeper says.¡°Commander, no one has come through here, he might have exited the portal where you guys came from.¡±


    ¡°That is what I was thinking of. Ok, if you see anything, let us know. I will station two guards out here in the hallway." The commander says as I started hearing footsteps walking away from the door.


    "Oh, can you do me a favor commander, please take my daughter and bring her to my sister''s inn by our lord''s castle. It is much safer for her to be there than here." The dungeon keeper says.


    ¡°No! I want to stay with Papa! I¡¯m not leaving Papa again!¡±The little girls shout, and it reminded me of what people say to initiate a death flag.


    ¡°Evie, be a good girl and go to auntie ok? I will go there as soon as I get thing sorted out here. After that, we can go look for bugs ok?¡±The dungeon keeper whispers to her daughter and I can hear her crying on the other side of the door.


    ¡°Ok. You promise?¡±The little girls say.


    ¡°Yes. I promise. Now go follow commander and don¡¯t leave his side until you get to aunties inn.¡±The dungeon keeper says, and I can hear the little girl¡¯s footsteps slowly fading away.¡°Commander Take care of my daughter. I¡¯ll let you know if there is anything.¡±


    ¡°Alright safe keeper. We might also ask for your help for the hidden dungeon once we deem it to be safe to explore. As for today, we will close the whole dungeon so the adventurers that are supposed to travel through here for the afternoon will be rescheduled for tomorrow or until we fix this mess. All right men! Move out!" The commander¡¯s voice was loud enough to make me pull away from the door.


    ¡°Sir! We will be out here. If you need anything, please let us know.¡±I hear a voice briefly and as the dungeon keeper says, I need to place my ear near the door to fully hear them.


    ¡°Sure, let me know if you see anyone suspicious.¡±The dungeon keeper replies, and I step away from the door to hide behind the wall as I hear his footsteps coming closer to the door. The door slowly opens and the dungeon keeper steps in swiftly closing the door behind him and locking it. He then turns towards me and his facial expression has changed from being a coward to something similar to what a butler would probably look like.


    ¡°Sir Yasu, welcome.¡± He says as he kept his head down and it caught me off guard, he knows my name.


    ¡°How do you know my name?¡± I whispered to him as soon as he got back up.


    ¡°You can speak normally sir, they won¡¯t hear us.¡± He says and I just gave him a nod. ¡°The lords told us of your arrival. I apologize we weren¡¯t there to welcome you.¡±


    ¡°Now that you know who I am, stop holding me back or I will kill you.¡± I snarl at him and I can see him nervous even under his poker face, his body was shaking. ¡°Remember, keep them from following me, understand?¡±


    He nods and I walk towards the other door of the saferoom. I quickly open it and I noticed the dungeon keeper is following me.


    ¡°And why the hell are you fucking following me?¡± I asked him as I stepped close almost making him fall back.


    "S-sir, I need to make sure you''re safe. You are one of the lords, a member of the gold district." He tells me and my eyes go wide while I tried not to let out a laugh.


    "You''re joking, right? Tell me you''re fucking joking? Status window!" I shouted out and saw my status in an instant. I checked the guild section and it still said diamond district. "Fucking punk. I¡¯m not your lord old man. Don¡¯t you have a lord already? Don¡¯t include me in it.¡±I whisper back to him and I started walking through the hallway.


    ¡°My lord! Wait! Please wait till sir Balo and the rest of the gold member comes back. We can prepare a room for your stay.¡±The dungeon keeper says and he¡¯s starting to piss me off.


    Balo? Who the fuck is that?I say in my mind.


    I quickly grab him on his neck and picked him up with one hand and slowly add pressure to my grip as I watch him struggle to get air.


    ¡°Call me lord one more time¡­I¡¯m going to make sure your lungs lose air. Slowly.¡±I whisper to him and he nods nervously. I let him go and he plopped to the ground coughing.


    ¡°But please wait my lo- Mr. Yasu.¡±He tries one more time to make me stay but nothing is going to stop me especially if it¡¯s something concerning my mother. I have to go. I ignored his pleas and kept walking. I hear him scuffle up as he followed me through the hallway. As soon as I exit the hallway, I was greeted with another hall. This place is the same as the dragon room. The Komodo Dragons I fought one year ago are all displayed around like a fossil museum.


    ¡°What the fuck are you guys doing to my dungeon?"I say what I was thinking in my mind.


    "The Lords think it would be good for adventurers to see the type of monsters this dungeon had. It was a way to attract people also towards the gold city." He explained to me that made me raise an eyebrow.


    ¡°Gold city?¡±I turned around and asked him.


    ¡°Yes, after our lords found their castle, princess Stella has brought enough people to create a village around it. As soon as the news spread that there are strong adventurers controlling an area, a lot of people moved here and grew the village into a city.¡±The dungeon keeper says.


    ¡°That¡¯s fucking impossible. You can¡¯t just erect a city in a year.¡± I tell him but then stopped as I. thought about the situation and this world, it might have been possible with magic. Then I remember Stella. The girl I lodged in the dragon a year ago.


    ¡°Stella? That female knight? She¡¯s still alive? That¡¯s the princess the commander talked about earlier?¡±I asked.


    ¡°She became the bridge and connection between Gold city and Viltair City. Which now formed one of the strongest alliances.¡±The dungeon keepers say which I nod in amazement that they did so much in a year.


    So, they saved her, her bones would have been a nice display. I whisper in my mind chuckling a bit remembering my memory of her a year ago. I continued to walk towards the room where I left Mole¡¯s bones. As soon as I got there, it was the same as the previous room. But this room gave me a heavy feeling. Mole¡¯s bones were organized near the pond. The place was cleaned off but the floor and the whole cave structure still remained. A gravel path was laid which I followed till I got to Mole¡¯s bones.


    ¡°Ah, this is the bones of a giant monster chicken.¡± The dungeon keeper started explaining and I paid no attention to it till he kept on rambling. ¡°We named him the chicken of death due to its sheer size. This bone represents the monster-¡°


    ¡°Shut the fuck up.¡±I interrupt him. I walk towards near the skeletal remains of my only companion and place my hand towards its beak. I remember all the times I spent here and how he protected me. ¡°Mole, I¡¯m back.¡±


    ¡°S-sir¡­this is Mole?¡±The safe keeper asked.


    ¡°Yes. These bones are the remains of Mole.¡±I reply back.


    ¡°Oh my god... I will get this fixed right away! Please wait here my lord while I inform the guards to get us a constructor!¡± The dungeon keeper then bolted down towards the safe room. Right there and then, I quickly take down the bones of my friend and store his remains in my bag. Somehow, I found a way to level up my bag and it now stretches to a certain extent enabling me to store bigger items in it.


    ¡°I need a proper place to bury him. A place that looks over the horizon and the sunset.¡±I say to myself.


    I owe it this much after he gave his life away for me to survive. He needs to be in a place he can watch a beautiful sunset every day. I whispered in my mind as a knot started forming in my throat.


    After storing all of his remains, I quickly exit the cave and I was introduced to the jumping crocodile room. I kept walking towards the other safe room, and I see the portal with proper signs.


    ¡°My lord! Wait!¡±The dungeon keeper shouts as he ran towards me. He¡¯s alone so I guess he hasn¡¯t exposed me yet. I was about to grab his neck again when he interrupted me by taking out a piece of rolled paper from the bag he¡¯s carrying.


    ¡°Sir Yasu, here is a map of the continent. Since you don¡¯t want to stay here, it would be best to have a sense of direction.¡± He says as he hands me the rolled paper. I quickly unroll it and the contents inside made me smile.


    ¡°well what do you know, you''re useful after all," I tell him and he seemed happy even when I was being sarcastic. The map is quite well done. It shows the location of multiple dungeons. One of them is probably where I¡¯m heading and I can already pick which one it is.


    The dungeon of the beginnings huh¡­.what a fancy name.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Ah! The dungeon where my lords have come from! It is quite a sight.¡± He says noticing me staring at one section of the map. ¡°Too bad the second one is flooded with water.¡±He says happily. The second one is probably where I came from.


    "Say, old man, your lords¡­the people from the gold district. You said they''re not here right? Where did they go?" I asked.


    ¡°They went to the Dungeon of the beginnings. They told us more adventurers will come.¡±He says and my hunch is right.


    Luro probably told them he brought more people from our world. And now they¡¯re on their way there.


    "Say, old man, when did they head out?" I asked.


    ¡°That was¡­ let''s see¡­ they left right after the sun rose. They wanted to stay to wait for you but lord Balo said it was more important to find the adventurers and then meet you later on. So they left Princess Stella to manage the city and meet you while they were gone. If I¡¯m correct, she¡¯s on her way here now.¡±The dungeon keeper says.


    Great.These fuckers might beat me to it. And Stella is coming here. She probably wants to kill me for leaving her lodged in the dragon.I say in my mind. I quickly stored the map in my bag and headed out the portal with the safe keeper following me behind. When I got out the other side, the place looked like a shrine. Much different from what I remember. A giant staircase was right in the side of the mountain. It looks like it was carved from the mountain itself.


    "Well, at least they did one thing right. It will be easier for me to descend from here." I whispered as I walked down the steps. ¡°Ah, this pace is to slow! Seismic Step!¡± I quickly descend down the steps running at full speed.


    "Sir Yasu! Wait for me!"I hear the dungeon keeper screaming behind me, but I have no time to wait for him. As soon as I reach the bottom, I see a lot of people around what looks like an entrance.


    ¡°What the- Hey you!¡± Aguard screams towards me and I give him a glare. ¡°That¡¯s dangerous to run down the steps! Where¡¯s your dungeon pass?¡±The guard as holding his hand out.


    ¡°Dungeon pass? What the fuck is that?¡±I say to him.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a dungeon pass? Then how did you go through the dungeon?¡±The guard says and I can see his hand slowly reach his sword.


    Ah shit. This stupid dungeon robber crap again. I say in my mind and I started feeling agitated that I¡¯m getting stopped over and over again.


    ¡°Sir, come follow us.¡±The guard says. ¡°There have been a lot of Dungeon robbers going on, we just need to confirm your identity.¡±


    I just ignored him, and I started walking away.


    ¡°Men! We have a bandit here! Arrest him!¡±He shouts as he takes out his sword and all of the other guards follow suit and surround me with their weapons drawn. A lot of the adventurers step back and spectate what¡¯s about to happen before them.I look the guard straight in the eye, and I gave him a smile.


    "Well then you pussies, what are you waiting for?" I say taunting the guards. I can try to reason with them but, it''s faster to beat them to a pulp and run away. I can use seismic step but, I guess I wanted to try out how strong I¡¯ve gotten.


    ¡°Die you bandit!¡±The guard shouts and runs towards me with his sword in hand. I''m as so used to fighting faster enemies than him inside the dungeon that his movements were too slow.


    ¡°Pound!¡±I called out my skill quickly closed the gap between us as I brought my fist towards his gut. The impact sent him flying towards the forest disappearing in it. I laughed watching him fly and the guards attacked me one by one in different directions. I sent them all flying towards different directions like a pinball, but they kept coming non-stop.


    ¡°Everyone! Halt!¡±Another guard shouts as he slowly walked towards me with a demeanor that makes me want to send him flying to the moon. ¡°It seems like we have a strong bandit. Say little one, give up or I will make you submit.¡±


    ¡°Pfftt~ Make me submit? You''re joking, right? Why don''t you run off and go find bananas instead? You fucking gorilla." I say to him and I can see the fury in his eyes.


    ¡°What did you just call me?!¡±He replies back taking out a huge sword the same size as my dragon slayer.


    ¡°Does gorillas from this planet have small ears that they can¡¯t hear properly?¡±I say taunting him. ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t understand me? Ogga booga ooh ooh ooh!¡±


    I started making gorilla noises and it pissed him off more as he shouted while rushing towards me. I quickly jump back to avoid his swing and shouted, ¡°Tenderize!¡±right when my hand met with his face. My attack exploded upon close contact and he went flying towards the forest like everyone before him.


    ¡°Well then, I guess this gorilla lost! Bwahahahahah! Who¡¯s next?!¡±I shouted while feeling the adrenaline of fighting but none of the guards approached me. Even the adventurers who were watching from the sidelines seemed scared.¡°Seismic Step!¡± Ishout my skills and quickly ran away from the scene.


    ¡°Oh my god! What happened here?! My lord! Wait! Sir Yasu! Wait!¡±I hear the dungeon keeper shouting my name over and over, but I was already too far away from running into the woods. I had my fun but I don¡¯t really have the time to waste here since I needed to find the first dungeon as quickly as possible.


    Those guys, they might be on their way to the first dungeon. I need to get there before them.I whisper to myself as I clenched my fist from anger while running through the forest.


    ¡°If you¡¯re there. I¡¯m coming¡­I''m coming to you, mother.¡±I say as I run with all my might.

 CHAPTER 26: Meeting the Gold District

    <hr>


    CHAPTER26:Meeting the Gold District


    <hr>


    I ran through the woods with ease. My body felt lighter outside the hidden dungeon. I guess the gravity from inside the hidden dungeon and the outside world was completely different. I kept running until I reached a small stream of water. Since the sun as starting to set into the horizon replacing the blue sky with a yellowish-orange glow, I decided to camp near the water creating a campground. I sat in a log as I lit up a campfire using rocks and some stalactites I got a year ago. The ember quickly ignite the dried leaves I collected around the area and in no time, I had a decent campfire going at the same time the temperature started dropping.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see, currently I¡¯m here.¡± I ran my pointer finger through the map retracing my steps. ¡°If I go that way, I should reach the first dungeon probably by tomorrow.¡±


    After a couple of hours, I covered a lot of distance almost making me reach the halfway mark to the dungeon. I put the map in my bag and quickly ate dinner as the moon slowly rose halfway up the sky. I climbed a tree and leaned against it while sitting on a branch gazing at Earth. I felt relaxed looking at my home planet and seeing after a year, it looked more majestic than I remember.


    ¡°I guess if it¡¯s night here, its night there.¡± I yawn letting my body relax and digest what I ate. I see lights that represent street lamps, building lights, stoplights, the lights of people¡¯s rooms on earth. I see them as a tiny speck scattered across the surface of the planet. They look like a piece of galaxy plastered onto a sphere. Even looking at the night sky of this planet, stars were everywhere.


    ¡°So many stars¡­¡± My voice fades as my consciousness disappears and I fall asleep.


    I wake up with the same bluebird chirping in front of me like an annoying alarm. I tried swatting it away, but it flew before my hand managed to hit it. I must not notice but, I wondered how he got in with me to the dungeon. Even out here I see him and I¡¯m beginning to start thinking he¡¯s a hallucination. I take out a glass container filled with water and a piece of cooked meat out my bag. I study my glass container and I remembered that there were so many utensils I found inside the hidden dungeon, is as if someone has lived in it for quite some time.


    After eating breakfast, I continued to walk alongside the stream. I saw the occasional monsters pass me every now and then and the minute we lock eyes, they¡¯ll bolt towards the forest in an instant. Boars, wolf, and bears, doesn¡¯t matter what animal came out, none of them attacked me. I have enough meat in my bag so I don¡¯t bother killing them. It¡¯s a waste of energy and time. I proceeded to follow the stream until I have to break off of it and walk on a beaten path that leads to a cave.


    ¡°If I¡¯m correct, there should be a cave somewhere here.¡± I walk following the trail keeping my step light as a feather trying not to alert anyone that I¡¯m here. As far as I know, they all could be here and if I have the element of surprise in my advantage, it¡¯ll be easier to deal with them with one skill.


    ¡°Yea I know right.¡± I hear a voice fades in as I walked further into the forest. I crouched around looking at the ground making sure I don¡¯t step on a twig.


    ¡°Maaan~ princess Hiroko is as beautiful as ever. She rivals Princess Stella looks. Actually no, she¡¯s even better looking!¡± One voice says and I almost laughed out loud as the last thing I remember was seeing her butt naked with shit stains on herself.I crawl towards a bush to see where the voice is coming from and once, I got a clear view, I see a couple of soldiers hanging around a fire pit in front of what seems to be a cave entrance. There¡¯s a pot on top the fire and steam slowly float up to the sky. It seems like something simmering inside and the smell was enough to make me hungry again. They all surround it holding a bowl probably waiting for it to finish simmering.


    ¡°Ugh, Chef! Is it done yet?!¡± One of the soldiers shouts making me duck in the bushes. I felt like lodging a knife in his throat as I smiled at them full of openings. He looks like the captain of the group since his armor is mixed with gold compared to everyone''s pure silver attire. After a few seconds, an old man comes out of the cave holding a ladle.


    A hairless gorilla? I whispered in my mind trying not to hold a laugh. If I didn¡¯t know he¡¯s a chef, I''d mistaken him to be the leader.


    ¡°I told you to wait!¡± The chef screamed and used its ladle to hit the captain in the head.


    ¡°AH! Sorry! Sorry, I¡¯m just really hungry.¡± The captain replies back rubbing his head. After hitting him with a ladle, the chef goes near the pot and used the ladle to taste the stew.


    ¡°Ok boys and girls! It¡¯s ready! Go eat!¡± the chef shouted so loud I felt his voice vibrate on my skin. More guard came out of the cave and started feasting on the soup. So far, I¡¯ve only eaten grilled or fried food since it¡¯s easier to make and I never really had time to sit down and make something proper even if I had the ingredients and spices.


    ¡°Who¡¯s hiding behind that bush with your killer intent. Why don''t you come on out, demon. You¡¯re no match for these boys. They¡¯re the gold district elite squad.¡± The chef looked directly at the bush I¡¯m hiding at and all the guard around him burst out laughing.


    What? How did he notice me? Are they laughing? I say to myself and I started getting irritated.


    ¡°Yea baby demon! Pfft~ we know you¡¯re there since the beginning! A surprise attack wouldn''t work on us.¡± The captain says and I¡¯m getting more pissed off.


    Casually laughing and eating while taunting me, I¡¯m going to fuck them all up! I quickly jumped out and rushed at the captain who¡¯s still eating his food.


    ¡°Seismic step! Pound!¡± My fist glowed from my skill and a few soldiers looked my way. I see some of them started moving but I was too fast that my fist made contact with his cheeks as he decides to turn towards me.


    PUNCH! SWOOSH!


    My punch sent him flying towards the inside of the cave followed by a muffled bang.


    ¡°Captain!¡± Everyone shouted in unison as they see their captain disappear into the dark of the cave. No one moved confused at what just happened.


    ¡°What? Did you fuckers bite more than you can chew?¡± I taunt them and I see a lot of their expression changed from confusion to anger.


    ¡°You bastard! Guys! He seems like a bandit! Get him!¡± one of the guards shouts at me making me laugh as he slowly ran my way. I punched him in the gut after evading the swing of his sword and he went flying up for a few seconds before crashing back down the ground. All of the guards drew their swords and some of them scrambled away to get their weapon.


    ¡°Laughing like you¡¯re some fucking god. Who the fuck you guys think you are?! Huh?!¡± I shouted as I jumped onto one of the guards kneeing him in the gut. He winced in pain as I held him in place while jamming my knee as far as I can. Using seismic step, I skid back evading his vomit as it almost hit my clothes. The next guard tried to attack me, but I quickly dodged bending forward as he swung at my back. Another guard came from above as he swung his sword down and I sidestep dodging his attack while placing myself behind him. I kicked him behind the knee causing him to kneel and as he fell, I grabbed the back of his head and pulled it towards me forcing his face to look up to mine. I gave him a smile and I can see the color came out of his face as my fist came down on it and using brute force, I slammed his face towards the ground.


    Small rocks flew everywhere as his face creates a dent on the soul below us. I remembered when I fought the guards near the sky king dungeon, they all flew in all directions where I punched them. It would normally kill them. Well, that is if it was earth. Most of them stood back up in pain so I know these guys won¡¯t just die in one hit. Especially if they are an elite squad.


    ¡°Elite squad? You fuckers seem more like punching bags~¡± I walked towards the group that''s blocking the cave entrance. Some ran around me trying to surround me and yet, they were smart enough to stop attacking trying to look for an opening. I look and they all flinched back scared to come close. To provoke them, I stomped on the soldier that I punched earlier pushing head more into the ground.


    ¡°Well then, are you just going to stand there and watch me stomp on your friend here?¡± I open my arms while I moved my left foot as if I was putting out a cigarette.


    ¡°You! Let him go!!¡± A girl with silver plate armor shouts as tears streak down her face. Even when the other soldiers told her to stop, she rushes towards me. She swings her sword horizontally trying to cut me in half and I dodge by jumping up back, flipping into the air. To add more fuel to her fury, I used the foot I have on top of the guard to jump up causing his head to lodge more in the ground as the surrounding area erupts creating a crack on the ground.


    ¡°Oops~ I¡¯m sorry, I forgot he was down there~¡± I mocked her as I land on my feet a few feet away.


    I guess this one is a berserker.I say in my mind remembering Riki who had two-handed weapons.


    ¡°Balur!¡± The female berserker shouts as she pulls up the soldier out the ground.


    ¡°Wrong move missy~¡± I whisper as I rush catching her off guard. I punched her right on the gut and she flew towards the forest at such speed breaking all the trees she came in contact with. ¡°Never turn your back on an enemy~¡±


    All of them rushed towards me and I decided to use my new skill to deal with them all at the same time.


    ¡°Knockout!¡± I shout as I brought my fist down the ground. A circular rune emerges under all of us and all of the soldiers fell down one by one. This new skill knocks anyone unconscious that touches the rune. At first, I had to hit them directly because the rune wasn¡¯t as big. But as I level it up, the rune got bigger and bigger and I¡¯m able to knock unconscious multiple enemies at the same time by having them step on it. The skill works depending on their strength. The strong monsters don''t go to sleep but become delirious for a few seconds. Lower level monster just goes straight to sleep.


    ¡°Ah hahaha! Weaklings!¡± I shout as I see all the soldiers fall one by one around me. This is the first time I use this skill on humans. I guess they all weaker than me since everyone who stepped in the circle was knocked unconscious. I look at all the sleeping bodies around me and I see one is still awake as he tried his best to seem dead.


    ¡°Ahhh~ You didn¡¯t step in the rune, now that¡¯s going to suck. I have to punch you till you sleep.¡± I say as I slowly walk towards the chef. He probably heard what I said and quickly got up getting on his knees as I stop right in front of him.


    ¡°S-spare me! I have a family! Y-you can take whatever you want!¡± The chef shouts and I just kept looking down at him smiling.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you run along now and tell Junpei and the rest of the diamond to come out so we can talk," I say and I brought my face close to his. ¡°You see, I have unfinished business with them.¡±


    I stood back up and gave him a nod. He quickly bolts towards the cave and was too busy running away that he doesn¡¯t notice I was following behind him.


    Good. Keep running. You¡¯ll lead my right to them.I say in my mind. He kept running until he reached a bridge that goes over a small lake being lit up by crystal stalactite on the bottom of it. It looked like there was a wall over the tiny body of water since a perfect shape was carved open for the bridge to fit and anyone walking through it. If they didn¡¯t carve a hole in the wall and built a bridge, people would have to swim under the water to come up on the other side. I see the captain on the wall, and it looks like he¡¯s unconscious and stuck in it. The chef didn¡¯t even stop to see if the captain is alright as ran through the bridge.


    For the fucker than notice me earlier, now he doesn¡¯t even know I¡¯m following him.I say in my mind. What the hell is that? A glass door?


    The chef passes through an opened glass door. I quietly follow behind him matching his footsteps so he doesn''t hear me. Right inside, there is two portal at the end of a room. The place itself looks like the sky king dungeon as the walls were carved with designs and the floor was replaced with red carpet. The room is empty because everyone probably came out to eat the stew. The chef kept running towards the left portal quickly jumping in it disappearing.


    ¡°That portal probably leads to our dungeon. And the other one to the dungeon the gold people woke up in.¡± I whisper to myself analyzing the situation as I stop right in front of the portal. ¡°Back into this hell hole again huh¡­¡±


    Without wasting any more time, I walk into the portal and it took a while for my vision to adjust as It was hit with a bright white light. Right in the other side, I see the chef sitting on the ground looking at something that probably terrified him to the core.


    "We meet again, gatekeeper," I whisper and I stand beside the chef and watch the gatekeeper fight a couple of people I''m unfamiliar with.


    ¡°W-w-how did you get in here?!¡± the chef asked as he looks up to me.


    "Through the portal like you did," I said mocking him and all of a sudden, a loud explosion erupted from a distance sending a strong shockwave at us. I see the chef fly towards the portal but managed to miss it as I flew upwards hitting a wall from a distance.


    ¡°Compared to the dragon, it¡¯s quite small. I think it¡¯s smaller than the gatekeeper I fought¡­¡± I whisper looking back at the gatekeeper. Yet, something feels off as it looked different from what I remembered last.


    Don¡¯t tell me, I¡¯m in the wrong dungeon?I whisper in my mind as I tried to remember the last thing that happened in the dungeon. I remembered killing the gatekeeper enabling me to re-name the dungeon but yet, after getting in here, I didn¡¯t get any notification at all.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t my dungeon. This is the gold. Didn¡¯t they kill this thing?¡± I whisper looking at probably gold district members fighting the giant. ¡°Well then, let me get out of here before they notice-¡°


    I suddenly stopped moving trying to get a clear vision of the group they¡¯re protecting at a distance. I see a group of people gathered around one corner of the room with a woman in front of them holding her staff. A green orb was encasing everyone including what seems to be a person wearing gold armor. He¡¯s sitting on the ground with his hands on his stomach as he pants heavily.


    ¡°Fuck, it¡¯s too far. I can¡¯t see from here.¡± I whisper to myself as I try to see if my mother is in the group. I need to make sure now. Yet, my heart was beating so fast it felt like it was using overdrive as I crept closer and closer following the wall and hiding behind the rubble.


    BOOOOM!!


    The gatekeeper screamed and sent another shockwave. Causing the rubble to push me against the wall. Using my arms, I prevented it from crushing me with ease. After it subsided, I peek back out and notice people struggling to even land an attack as the gatekeeper dodged them.


    It¡¯s been a year now, they should have gotten stronger, but it seems like they¡¯re having a hard time. I whisper in my mind as their attacks seemed off.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t they just kill it?¡± I whisper looking at the fight. The gatekeeper started sending fireballs towards a person and he was cutting them like butter. A couple of people are fighting from a distance sending different attacks towards the gatekeeper¡¯s face but nothing worked as it smiled at them.


    Something feels off.The gatekeeper looks smaller, but something is off with the way they fight. Did it smile before? I whisper to myself looking at the negative numbers appearing and disappearing in an instant. I decided to get a closer look and have a clear view, I see most of them look tired and pale. Like they''re barely hanging on. But then, I noticed something else.


    ¡°Ogre king?¡± I whisper as I see the name on top the gatekeeper.


    ¡°You humans! You all amuse me!! But you will never kill me! For I am the ogre king!! The king of all ogres!!!¡± the Ogre King shouted so loud I felt the shockwave of its voice vibrating my skin. Not only that, it surprised me it could talk.


    "Well duh, you''re the king of ogres that''s why your name is ogre king," I whisper to myself mocking what it just said.Stolen story; please report.


    ¡°Leave now! These humans are mine!¡± The ogre king shouted at the gold members and pointed towards the group of newcomers. While they were busy, I decided to sneak towards the rubble near the wall of the cave to get a better view of the people in the group. Once I''m close enough, I see unfamiliar faces except for one, my school''s nurse.


    ¡°What the¡­.what is she doing here? Is she the one Luro is talking about?¡± I whisper to myself. ¡°I need to check my dungeon to make sure.¡±


    I sneak back to where I came from and the ogre king suddenly shouted making me hide behind rubble.


    ¡°You there!!¡± The ogre king suddenly shouted making me duck behind rubble. ¡°I can feel your killing intent from here!! You can¡¯t surprise attack me!! For I am the Ogre King!!! The king of all ogres!!!¡±


    Is he talking about me?I say in my mind remembering the chef who detected me earlier. I slowly peek out the rubble and I see his back still faces me.


    "Ok, he''s not talking to me," I whisper and I slowly creep behind the rubble inching my way closer to the portal.


    ¡°Who are you?! Show yourself!!!¡± The Ogre King shouted as I crept behind the rubble looking at the portal. All of a sudden, flames burst out in front of me making me jump back as I activated my seismic step skill. I skid around the ground and managed to stop near the group of people that are protected by the green shield.


    ¡°I looked at the person with the fanciest looking armor and our eyes met for an instant. I break my glare off him as the Ogre King sends another fireball my way.


    ¡°Che, Tenderize!!¡± My fist glowed as I swung towards the fireball. My skill exited out my fist like a bullet and exploded the fireball from a distance. ¡°There goes not being seen.¡±


    Everyone¡¯s attention to me now, including the members of the gold district. Even the ogre king is looking at me.


    ¡°How dare you ignore me, you mere human!! I am the Ogre King-¡°


    ¡°I fucking know!¡± I shouted back interrupting its annoying speech. ¡°You said it so many fucking times! You¡¯re the fat son of bitch Ogre Queen!¡±


    I taunted it and I can see it¡¯s expression slowly changing. ¡°What?! What did you call m?! I am the great Ogre Ki-¡°


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted out and with my seismic step still activated, I jumped towards his face closing the distance in an instant. My fist met its left eye and it exploded as slime and blood covered my entire body.


    ¡°Graaaaahhhh!!!!!!¡± The Ogre King screamed in pain as he swung his arms swatting me towards a wall.


    ¡°Hahaha! This brings back memories!! Chef¡¯s Coat!¡± I brace for impact towards the wall as I flew at high speed. The impact was so strong I created a crater on the wall, but I came off with only a few minor cuts and bruises thanks to my skill. ¡°Shit. I¡¯m covered with eyeball slime! Fuck! This is nasty! Ugh, tenderize!!¡±


    My hand''s glowed red and I bombarded its legs with my attack, and it didn¡¯t have time to dodge as my attack exploded on his knee. I kept punching sending a barrage of attacks towards its legs forcing it to go on its knees as I severely mutilated it.


    ¡°Item Bag!¡± my bag appeared in front of me and I took out my dragon slayer. I can see some of the newcomers are ogling my weapon.


    ¡°Sky king¡¯s breath!!¡± I breathe into the sword and it glowed red before bursting into flames encasing the blade.


    I don¡¯t have time for this. I need to end this quick.I braced myself as I prepared to jump towards its head.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see which is stronger! your skull or my skill! I jumped forward flying towards his head. I gripped the scalding hot steel of the sword and swung downwards towards his head. ¡°heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    He tried to block my attack with his hand but my attach went through his wrist exploding on his face.


    ¡°Graaaaaaahhhh!!!!¡± The ogre king fell down the ground and like a kid, rolled around trying to put out the fire on his face. The shockwave of my attack managed to send me upwards as I slowly fell back down on top of it. I aimed my sword downwards pointing the tip of my blade at the Ogre King who was too busy slapping the flame out of his face with his remaining hand.


    ¡°Tsk. One more time~¡± I sang, and I get ready to attack again.


    ¡°Clean Cut!¡± I hear a voice ring below me and I see one of the gold members severing the Ogre King¡¯s head. But that didn¡¯t end it. It¡¯s body rolled over as it picked up its head attaching it back in place.


    ¡°Oh you got to be shitting me, is he a zombie?¡± I whisper as I land beside one of the gold members.


    ¡°I damaged it quite...a bit. The rest¡­is up to you...¡± The guy who attacked it suddenly fell to the ground as he pants in place.


    ¡°Balo!¡± The lady that¡¯s covering the newcomers shouts with tears coming out of her eyes.


    Balo? That sounds familiar.I say in my mind as I watched one of them pick him up and bring him to the girl by the green forcefield.


    ¡°Hey! You!¡± My voice was loud enough to make him face towards me looking at me with his remaining eye. My attack managed to blast half of his face erupting his left eye and showing a bit of his skull. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this. Just fucking roll over and die. I¡¯ll massacre you right here like what I did to an overlord.¡±


    For a minute he was confused on what I said, and I can see some of the gold members are the same.


    ¡°Filthy human. What did you say?¡± The ogre king asked confused, but his expression quickly turned to disbelief. ¡°You¡­you¡¯re the one that killed the overlord?! The ruler of the southern demon tribe?!¡±


    ¡°Southern demon tribe? You¡¯re talking about Satan looking bastard? Yea I killed him and took his clothes. Tada~¡± I say giving him a pose showing the clothes I¡¯m wearing. ¡°Handsome, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    The ogre king just stood there and didn¡¯t say anything as his expression turned from disbelief to complete fear.


    ¡°Why you look so serious? ~¡± I tilt my head sideways giving it a smile.


    ¡°S-s-spare me!¡± He screamed and kneeled down.


    ¡°Why?¡± I can see his eye is going crazy looking everywhere. The other is gone due to my attack earlier. Everyone is at awe seeing a king of ogres bow down to me.


    ¡°I-I-I didn¡¯t know it was you! I-I will leave these humans alone!¡± He started begging as he tried to back away using his remaining hand and leg.


    Was the overlord that well known?I say in my mind.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked again and I can see he¡¯s trying to find an answer.


    ¡°B-B-because I-I can promise I won¡¯t hurt anyone!¡± He looked a bit happy making me want to laugh how such a big enemy can look so weak.


    ¡°Why?¡± I took another step.


    ¡°I-I-I will be your greatest ally!¡± He started getting frantic as I got closer and closer.


    ¡°Why?¡± Asking him while tilting my head side to side as I gripped my sword was exhilarating. The feeling of something as big as him cowering in fear towards someone as small as I somehow made me feel better about my existence in this world.


    ¡°I-I will give you land!¡± He smiled again thinking I¡¯ll accept his offer but I kept walking towards him at the slowest pace possible.


    ¡°Why?¡± I lifted up my sword placing it on my shoulder and the hot blade caused smoke to emit out of my shoulder as it burned my skin. Yet, the pain wasn¡¯t enough to make me flinch as I walked towards him.


    ¡°I-I will give you power!¡± His voice is getting louder and louder as he got more frantic as I get closer to him.¡°P-please spare me!¡±


    ¡°Why?!¡± I stopped tilting my head as my expression changed causing him to freeze in place.


    ¡°P-Ple-¡°


    ¡°Why? Why why why why why why why oh why oh why?!!!¡± My voice slowly rose to a shout and I kept asking him over and over as I shouted at the top of my lungs up until I got right in front of him.


    ¡°P-please. Spare me.¡± He begged and begged as I look down the ground. I slowly lifted up my head facing him while putting on the biggest smile I can muster.


    ¡°No.¡± I jumped up stabbing my sword on his remaining eyes and he shouted so loud it felt like I was near a jumbo speaker. ¡°Well then, let me show you how I hammer a nail in~ pfffttt~ not that you can actually see it. Item bag~¡±


    My dimensional backpack materialized in front of me and I took out one of the new weapons I got from the dungeon.


    "You see ogre king when I learned the new skill tenderized, I also learned a new passive skill with it, and that is, the ability to wield hammers. Now, where were we? Ah, tenderize!¡± The hammer glowed red and right when I¡¯m about to jump, a voice came ringing out behind me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± One of the guy''s who are also holding two swords looked at me with fear in his eyes. Not of fear because I''m dangerous but it felt like he feared something else ¡°Don¡¯t kill him! If he turns into dust, our friend will turn into dust inside him. She was eaten alive!¡±


    ¡°No wonder you people take too long to kill this thing.¡± I felt agitated for him stopping me at my moment but thinking about it from the beginning, I can guess that¡¯s another factor to why their movement seems off. They¡¯re probably trying to subdue the ogre king rather than killing it.


    ¡°That¡¯s right! You kill me and she dies! Hahaha! You humans! In the end is nothing but a showoff! Do your worst!!¡± The ogre king laughed like it¡¯s his victory.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked tilting my head towards him. He probably sensed something from my voice as he stopped laughing all together. ¡°Are you stupid? Do I look like I¡¯m their friend?¡±


    ¡°Y-you¡¯re not?¡± It asked and that¡¯s when I seismic stepped towards its knee. I hammered its knee and I can hear the kneecap breaking into pieces before exploding to pieces. He screamed in pain as he fell on his side. Pieces of meat, skin, and bone shards spewed behind him as his leg was severed by my attack.


    ¡°You demon!!¡± The ogre king shouted as he got on his back. I see his remaining hand glow green as he placed it over his severed leg.


    ¡°Whaaaat?! Me, a demon?! Preposterous!¡± I say as I walk towards his ear. ¡°You look more of a demon than me you fat ogre~¡± I smiled and he started screaming and talking a language I can¡¯t understand.


    ¡°Gruaboolah! Gaba bosha nooba! Gashi! Gashi! Gobarashi!¡± He shouted over and over again yet I didn¡¯t pay attention as I daydreamed of killing him.


    ¡°Now, what is that green glow in your hand?¡± I screamed and without notice, I hammered it¡¯s elbow joint¡¯s shattering his bones on the inside making his arm go limp. I kept hammering over an over as I crunched his bones into dust. He screamed in pain as I laughed watching his blood splatter everywhere at every impact. Even when he has the power to regenerate his head, it¡¯s probably a one-time skill since he never regenerated the other broken and severed parts of his body.


    ¡°P-p-please. No¡­more.¡± The ogre king¡¯s voice was full of pain while he begged for his life.


    ¡°Now, Now, what¡¯s the matter?¡± I asked him while walking toward his head. I waited for him to answer back but all he did is pant trying to regain his breathing. I climbed on top of him and stepping on his stomach felt like I was on top a large waterbed. If I jumped up and down, it probably would be like jumping on a giant trampoline. ¡°Well then, let me show you what C-section is~¡±


    I threw my two-handed hammer to the side and now I notice, even though he is smaller than the gatekeeper, he¡¯s still big compared to my size. Four to five people can lie on top of his stomach and still have room to spare for more.


    ¡°Let the operation commence! Item bag!¡± I shouted out my dimensional bag and took out a sword. "Sharpen~¡±


    My sword gave a vibrating hum and bright white color encased the blade. ¡°Let¡¯s see, I should cut, right here!!¡±


    ¡°Graaaaaaah!!!!¡± The ogre king screamed in pain as I slowly stab my sword through his skin. ¡°If I remembered correctly, regular human anatomy, the stomach is around near the chest but I hear gurgling sound around your abdomen.¡±


    Then again, this guy is not human.I whisper in my mind as I run my blade through the top layer of his skin. He shouted in pain and I can feel his body tensing up as it became more stable to walk on.


    ¡°La~ la la~ la~¡± I sang as I cut the skin off him. I want it to feel the blade inch by inch as it cuts into his flesh. But not only that, I want everyone who''s watching to know a certain message.


    ¡°Aaaarrghhh!! Stop!!! Pleas-Blerghh!!!!!!¡± The ogre king vomited like a geyser sending whatever he ate flying up towards the ceiling of the cave. I was happy he didn''t vomit out the girl he ate since it gave me more of a reason to continue skinning his stomach. He kept screaming and the sound of his voice started irritating me.


    ¡°Ok! Shut the fuck up! I¡¯ll stop using my blade. Sheesh!¡± I shouted as I pulled out my blade off him and threw it in the side. My hands, legs, clothes, and even parts of my face was covered in blood.


    ¡°P-please¡­.s-spare me.¡± It begged again. The ogre kings arms were smashed, his legs were severed, and now the skin covering his abdomen is flipped open exposing his muscle. Yet, he still has a good amount of health.


    ¡°Say, ogre king you listening?¡± I could see his head weakly nods as he pants trying to catch his breath. I walked towards his chest and sat on it before continuing what I was about to say. I spoke loudly and clearly so that everyone in the cave can hear. ¡°You know, I died once. I wished for everything to be a bad dream, but it wasn¡¯t. I begged my enemies, to spare me, to kill me, but they didn''t even listen. I was eaten alive, tortured, and put in all kinds of hell.¡±


    ¡°W-wha-¡°


    ¡°Shhh, just listen.¡± I interrupted him and he remained quiet.¡°Well as I say, I died and that fucking cunt, Luro revived me back onto this hell hole.Well, not this one but the other hell hole.¡±


    ¡°L-luro-¡°


    ¡°Shhh, I told you not to talk. Don''t make me rip out your tongue.¡± I tell him as I smiled and I can feel his body tense under me. ¡°Ok, to continue, I revived, alone. I was all by myself facing every damn fucking thing this shit threw at me.¡±


    I took a deep breath while closing my eyes. Even though a year has passed, the memories I had in the first dungeon is still so vivid that sometimes, I have nightmares from it.


    I exhaled all my depression away as I opened my eyes looking up the stalactites whispering, ¡°But, I survived.¡±


    ¡°You see. I put the pieces back together.¡± I say out loud standing back up and walking towards his abdomen. I kept my gaze towards the gold members and I could see all their expression mixed with disbelief, caution, and fear.


    ¡°I know they got played.¡± I stopped right in front of the wound as I faced them all. ¡°That psychopath tricked them. I was mad at everything. But when I manage to regain my mind¡­¡±


    I paused for a bit as I changed my expression as a ball of anger made me feel like I want to destroy the world.


    ¡°I finally used my brain.¡± I pointed my finger towards my temple and I can smell the metallic liquid, as my whole hand is covered with the Ogre King¡¯s blood. ¡°I know, they didn''t choose for me to be alone inside that dungeon.¡±


    I look up and stared at the stalactites above us remembering how I killed the gatekeeper. I can hear the ogre king breathing. I can hear the gold members breathing. I can hear my own breathing.


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    "They chose for me to die," I say out loud as I kept staring at the stalactite. ¡°Because I was weak, they chose to save themselves than fight with me!¡±


    I looked down glaring at all of them. No one said anything and yet, I felt like I wanted to jump up the sky and have the stalactite rain down on all of us. ¡°Ogre King! Don¡¯t I get the right to blame them along with Luro? They¡¯re no better than him. Like seriously, why would you follow the rules of the same fucker that brought us all in this place.¡± I say and this time I¡¯m looking at the gold members. I can see their faces are covered with fear and nervousness. ¡°Ogre king, want to know what I used as one of my weapon in the beginning?¡±


    ¡°W-what?¡± The ogre king hesitantly asked.


    "My hands." The minute I gave him an answer, I used my hands and grabbed a portion of the abdominal muscle. Using all of my strength, I pulled a chunk of flesh off his body.


    ¡°Stooop! Agrhhhh!!!¡± The ogre king shouted in pain as I savagely rip his flesh piece by piece with my bare hands. He kept screaming but I kept going until I can see his stomach.


    ¡°There you are~ Chef¡¯s coat~ Pound~¡± I sang my skills as I clenched my bloody hand into a fist. I swung directly into his stomach and my hand burst through making me elbow deep inside. The Ogre King screamed as I feel around its stomach looking for anything I can grab. I felt around until I feel a weird texture of gooey strings. I grabbed it but the hole I made was too small since it only fit my hand. So I couldn¡¯t pull it out.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I say getting irritated. Using my other hand, I grabbed the hole and ripped it apart to get a bigger opening.


    ¡°GRaaaaaaaahHHHH!!!! Stooooop! Pleaseeee!!!!¡± The ogre king shouted and begged but I just laughed as I see it¡¯s stomach rip open. I yanked out the strings I was holding on earlier and when I got a better look at it, its hair. Black hair. Using the girl¡¯s hair, I pulled her out of his stomach and threw her to the side. Some of the gold members rush to her aide and when I looked closely, she seemed familiar.Probably reminded me of Stella since she¡¯s completely naked and I can see her skin is starting to burn as the acid in the stomach probably slowly ate her.


    ¡°Akane!¡± The lady that was protecting the newcomers is now running towards her.


    ¡°Akane!¡± One of the gold members got to her quickly placing his cape over her body. He places his ear near her probably trying to see if she¡¯s still alive. ¡°Sensei! She¡¯s alive!¡±


    The lady chanted a spell and next thing I know, a bright green force field encased Akane and her wounds started healing in an instant.


    Ah, so that¡¯s what it was. She¡¯s a healer.I say as I remember the very first mistake we did. We didn¡¯t pick a healer. I turned towards the Ogre king and walked close to its face. I can see its HP is depleting slowly. I grab my dragon slayer and slowly lodge it in its eye. It shouted in pain as I see critical hits hovering above us while the Ogre King screamed in pain.


    "It''s amusing how you''re still fucking alive," I whisper as I take out another two-handed hammer out my bag. ¡°Ok, Lets end this shall we? Seismic step!¡±


    I jump up towards the stalactite in the ceiling of the cave as I gripped my dragon slayer on one hand and a two-handed hammer on the other.


    Since I activated my seismic step, I was able to reach the stalactites as I flipped placing myself upside down. I see some of the gold members are moving towards the newcomers carrying Akane while they kept glancing back to me. I noticed the one they called sensei started creating more barriers after everyone regrouped up to the point that it became solid and I couldn''t see through.


    ¡°Wise move old lady. Tenderize. Pound~¡± I whispered and both my weapons glowed. ¡°Sky king¡¯s breath~¡± I breathe unto my weapons and both glowed red before bursting into flames, As I felt my body slowly come to a descend, I pushed my legs off the stalactite blasting off the ceiling heading back down towards the ogre king at high speed.


    Die. I whispered to him right before I made an impact with his face.


    BOOOM!


    The whole cave shook and pieces of the rocks starting breaking off the cave ceiling. The wind coming from the impact blew the entire ruble towards the wall and the flames from my sword spew out in all direction covering everything around me. The cave shook as the stalactite fell to the ground creating sparks as it made contact with the rubble. Once the shaking stopped, I noticed the gold members removing the force field to bring it back up where I can see through them as the flames slowly traveled everywhere. The body of the ogre king was blasted in half and slowly burning around me. There were flames everywhere and I can see the gold members looking around to only stop as they see me glaring at them.


    I was standing right in the middle of everything. "Chef''s coat," I whispered to prevent myself from being burned by my own attack. They stared at me as I glared at them. I didn''t move as I stood in place. Even without saying anything, I know they hear my message.


    Don¡¯t fuck with me.I started walking towards them and I see some touch their weapon. The guy who was inside the force field stepped in front of them preventing them from taking out their weapons. They couldn''t get out of the force field as the whole area was encased with fire so I slowly walked through the flames up until I reached the other side of the force field. I felt warm stepping inside and I felt my energy slowly regenerating. When I got right in front of them, no one said anything as I towered over the person who¡¯s probably their leader. The guy slowly walked towards me and I held outmy hand that''s covered with blood.


    "Well hello there~," I say while I give him a big smile. The biggest smile I can muster. He grabbed my hand and warily shook it without breaking off his gaze at my face. He didn''t say anything and just stared at me curious about my identity. He probably has an idea but he doesn''t say anything so I decided to give him the answer he''s looking for.


    ¡±I¡¯m the leader of the Diamond District.¡± I let go of his hand and I look at him straight in the eye with malice before reverting back to my smiling expression calmly telling him my name, ¡°Call me Yasu...you peasant.¡±

 CHAPTER 27: Losing sight of things

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 27: Losing sight of things


    <hr>


    I continued to smile at him even after shaking his hand and yet, no one said anything the whole time. I can hear the sizzling of the Ogre King¡¯s flesh from a distance and the heat from my flames is starting to make them sweat. I couldn¡¯t blame them since the whole cave now feels like a sauna.


    Ding!


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    Congratulations!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    You have cleared this dungeon!


    Would you like to name it?


    Yes / No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Yes," I whisper and they were startled by me suddenly talking to the notification.


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    Please say the name out loud.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yasu and Mole¡¯s Adventure Land 2¡± I didn''t care what they think but I decided to name all of the dungeons I conquer this way to preserve my memories of Mole.


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    You have said, "Yasu and Mole''s Adventure Land 2." Is this correct?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Yes," I answered the notification as they probably see me staring at a blank face.


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    Rejoice! This dungeon has become a memorial! Adventurers who visit this dungeon will come to study and learn ''Yasu and Mole''s Adventure Land 2'' adventures!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    They all perk up probably seeing the name change and getting the welcome message.


    ¡°M-my name is Balo, I¡¯m the leader of the Gold district," Balo says as he stood in front of me and I gave him a nod as I stare right into his eyes. I must have been glaring, as he seemed worried and scared to look at me straight in mine.


    ¡°Y-you¡¯re hurt!¡± The lady who was protecting everyone with her green light suddenly spoke as she approaches me seeing the cut on my arm.


    Huh? When did I get this?I whisper in my mind looking at the shallow cut. She tried to grab my arm but I abruptly move back startling her.


    ¡°R-r-relax. I-I won¡¯t hurt you.¡± Her voice was full of nervousness and worry. She held out her hands and slowly approached me like I¡¯m some kind of unknown animal, ¡°L-let me heal the wound.¡±


    "No need old lady," I tell her and I can see a bit of fury in her eyes when I called her old lady.


    ¡°W-wha- I¡¯m not an old lady! Call me Kumiko-sensei!¡± She says defensively.


    ¡°uhuh¡­ whatever rocks your boat old lady.¡± I tell her again and I can see her face turning red.


    Try something, I dare you.I say in my mind but she just moved back towards the Akane girl and continued to heal her.


    While she''s busy with Akane, Balo decided to speak to me. ¡°Haha, she means no harm. So you¡¯re Yasu. It¡¯s nice to meet you. You see we¡¯ve been waiting to ¨C ¡°


    ¡°That¡¯s all dandy but I don¡¯t give a rat¡¯s shit who you all are. I¡¯m not here to meet any of you, save anyone, or be friends. I¡¯m here looking for somebody I know that Luro brought might have brought.¡± I interrupt him as I walked towards the group to get a better view on who¡¯s here.


    I looked at all of them and some of the girls started blushing. I see my school¡¯s nurse and she just stared at me. I smiled at her while waving but she never moved as she continued to stare at me. Though, she''s known as the school''s nurse, she actually a doctor. Samantha or Sam for short is from Mount''s Sinai Hospital in New York. She was hired by Seito Private High School to handle the school''s infirmary. She doesn''t like being called a doctor so most people call her Ms. Sam.


    ¡°Y-Yasu?¡± She finally spoke and I gave her a nod. ¡°Yasu!¡±


    She ran towards me almost tackling me down hugging me tightly. Even though she sounds happy, I can feel her body shaking.


    ¡°Ms. Sam," I tell her and she loosens her grip.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m just so happy to see you.¡± She says as she looks at my face inspecting for any wound.


    "Long time no see Ms. Sam," I tell her giving her a smile. Even though I hate the idea of someone I know being in this god-forsaken world, it still felt refreshing seeing a familiar place.


    ¡°The whole school went crazy when you disappeared. They hired and dispatched private security to look for you." She says as she looks at the wound on my arm. She got close to it but this time I didn¡¯t flinch as she tried to heal me.


    Ah, she¡¯s a healer class.I whisper in my mind as I watch her hand glow as she hovered it over the wound.


    "Were you looking for me? How did you know I was here?¡± She asked me happily.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m looking for my mother," I tell her and I can see her with a surprised look.


    ¡°Your mom? She¡¯s here?¡± She asked and I can feel her voice shaking. I know her and my mom have secret meetings to keep tabs on me while I¡¯m at school and she¡¯s practically my big sister since she¡¯s too young to be my aunt.


    "dammit, I need to check the other side then," I whisper to myself looking at the portal, which was engulfed in flames. "Did you meet my mom while I was gone? How is she?"


    ¡°Oh, y-yeah! She fine! The school hired her to keep a close eye on her. You¡¯re important for the school so is your family.¡± She tells me and I felt a weight was lifted off my shoulder.


    ¡°What else?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°After you disappeared, the police kept an eye on her thinking your kidnappers will ask for ransom or even attack her. But nothing happened and the school was beginning to be anxious at your disappearance so they built a living area just for her within the school to keep close surveillance. Kana and your friend Daikichi visit¡¯s her from time to time.¡±


    My mind became blank and the thought of my mother almost made me cry but I couldn¡¯t shed a tear. Not in front of everyone. I held in and just gave Ms. Sam a nod mouthing off thank you even though I¡¯m really happy inside.


    I can¡¯t look weak in front of them. Not now.I say in my mind.The other dungeon. I need to make sure my mom¡¯s not there.


    I quickly turn around and looked at Balo who¡¯s being held up by one of his teammates.


    ¡°Who¡¯s in the other dungeon?¡± I ask him and he was caught in surprise and I can see a hesitation in his expression.


    ¡°U-uh¡­¡± He tried to stall but I was getting impatient and irritated.


    ¡°Try not to lie, the last thing you want is me as your enemy," I tell him and I can feel the whole area go silent.


    ¡°Junpei.¡± Balo whispers and the mention of his name is boiling my blood as I started clenching my fist.


    ¡°Junpei and the rest of the old diamond members are dealing with the other dungeon as we speak.¡± Another guy stepped up and everything he said went in one ear and out the other. I didn''t want to hear any more about them so I turned around and stepped out the green force field. I hear cries as I step out onto the flames but my chef¡¯s coat skill protected me enough to activate a skill.


    ¡°Sky king¡¯s wind.¡± I faintly whisper and both my dragon slayer and the two-handed sword was encased with a strong gust of wind. I swung towards the flame and the wind coming out of my weapon eradicated most of the fire exposing the charred steaming ground and walls. I see the portal still intact and I started walking towards it while putting the weapons back in my bag.


    ¡°Y-Yasu! Wait! Where are you going?! W-wait for me!¡± Ms. Sam shouts running after me. I stopped right in front of the portal to turn around and she caught up to me bumping into my chest.


    ¡°Ms. Sam. I would suggest you stay with them. I¡¯m going to the other dungeon to check who else Luro brought here.¡± I tell her as I push her off me. I looked at Balo who¡¯s slowly making his way with the help of his team. We both meet eyes making him stop on his tracks as I talked without breaking of my glare, ¡°You see, that bastard Luro came to me telling me he brought someone here. I have to make sure it isn¡¯t my mother.¡±


    Without waiting for him to reply, I turn around to enter the portal when a sudden voice came shouting in my ear ¡°My Lord! There is a-¡°


    The soldier I sent flying to the wall earlier bumped into me and we both drop to the ground along with Ms. Sam.


    ¡°Ack fuck!¡± I shout as I used myself as a cushion for Ms. Sam. I felt rocks lodge in my back leaving a stinging sensation as I curse under my breath.


    "We meet again you fucker," I say as I look him in the eye.


    ¡°Y-you! Dungeon Robber!!¡± He was about to unsheathe his sword when the whole gold team stopped him from doing so.


    ¡°C-captain. Relax. He¡¯s not a robber. He¡¯s an acquaintance.¡± Balo says. I can see him really weak.


    ¡°M-My lord!! What happened?!¡± The captain shouts and he rushes towards Balo ignoring that he just pushed me to the ground and didn¡¯t bother helping me up. One of the gold members tried to help me up but I swat his hand away as I stood up with Ms. Sam.


    ¡°Fucking hell," I muttered as I got up dusting off my pants.


    "Relax Captain. We were all hit with poison the Ogre King. Our stamina is cut in half making it hard to just even move. Akane is still unconscious but she''s alive. Tell me, Captain, why are you here?" Balo asked.


    Why wasn¡¯t he here in the first place?I asked in my mind remembering how this guy leisurely ate outside while his lords are fighting to the death.


    ¡°O-Oh yeah! We have retrieved all of the new adventurers. Sir Junpei and the rest already went on ahead back to the city since a message was received from princess Stella that sir Yasu has exited the hidden dungeon." The captain says while glaring at me making me want to gouge his eyes out with my bare hands. I gave him a smirk while I slowly held up a middle finger.


    ¡°You!¡± The captain shouted as he approached and like private guards, the gold members got in his way startling him.


    ¡°What do you want bottom feeder?¡± I snarl at him while I call out my item bag taking out the dragon slayer. Most of the gold member eyed my weapon with fear.


    "My lord! This person has attacked us for no reason and almost killed one of our soldiers! He even kidnapped the chef who managed to escape back out of the portal!¡± The captain says and I decided to walk towards him gripping my sword with one hand.


    ¡°I what?¡± I asked him in a sinister voice. ¡°You dumbasses called me a demon, dungeon robber, and laughed at me. It¡¯s only practical for me to stomp your heads to the ground and create a garden with your bodies. Be lucky you¡¯re alive you fucking prick.¡±


    ¡°W-w-whoa.¡± One of the gold members tried to stop me from going to the captain And quickly pointed my sword at him making him turn pale. ¡°You sure you want to get in the way of my sword?¡±


    ¡°Yasu! Put that away!¡± Ms. Sam shouted in my ear as she pushed my sword down using my hand. ¡°Don''t just say stuff like that!¡±


    I scoff looking at everyone while I turned to Ms. Sam smiling, ¡°Just kidding~¡±


    I put my dragon slayer away and threw the bag over my shoulder so it won''t disappear. "You''re a lucky one she''s here," I say looking at Balo and he knew what I was talking about since he didn''t say anything back and just acknowledge me by nodding his head. Without wasting any more time, I walked towards the portal while Ms. Sam followed behind me non stop talking about what is wrong with me which made me smile hearing a familiar voice. As soon as I exit towards the other side, what greeted me is all of the guards I knocked out earlier.


    Ah great¡­ I whisper in my mind as I eye all off them.


    ¡°Bandit!!¡± Someone shouted and they all stood up drawing their weapons.


    ¡°W-wh-wha-¡° Ms. Sam stuttered as she got in front of me. I can see her body shaking from fear and I smile knowing she¡¯s putting herself between the soldiers and me. I spot a couple of new people sitting around a table while some healers are healing their wounds. I also spot the girl I punched earlier towards the forest. She was tending to the guy I stomped earlier and her expression is a mixture of anger and fear as she couldn¡¯t even stare at me in the eye. I see a couple of guys from the newcomer''s group are giving me a bad look and it makes me want to skin them alive for that reason.


    My mom isn¡¯t here. Luro did something right for once.I whisper in my mind as I see unfamiliar faces. Most of them are Japanese except for one guy who looks Korean. We all have slanted eyes but I can tell he''s Korean due to the shirt he''s wearing has Korean words.


    Or maybe I¡¯m wrong. Ah, who cares. I whisper in my mind as I got too caught up trying to identify them.


    ¡°Get them!!!¡± One of the guards shouted out and they all got ready to attack Ms. Sam and me who were looking around like crazy. Right when they¡¯re about to charge, a voice came ringing from behind me making them all froze in place.


    ¡°Everyone! Stop!¡± I turn around and I see the captain right beside Balo.


    ¡°I apologize sir Yasu. We did not know it was you.¡± The captain says and everyone¡¯s looked confused about the situation.


    When they grasp the situation, all of the guards got on their knees and shouted, ¡°Sir Yasu! Forgive us!!¡±


    "what the fuck¡­" I whisper as I see all of them kneel before me. The newcomers we''re startled and looked at me like I''m some celebrity. The girls are giggling amongst each other while the guys keep giving me that damn look that makes me want to turn their eyelids inside out like a goblin.


    The rest of the gold along with the other newcomer group exit the portal and I notice one of them is carrying Akane quickly placing her down near the healers as they all started healing him with the girl I called an old lady earlier.


    Balo sees the new group of people and turns towards the captain. "Is that all of them? They seem less in numbers compared to the number of people in our dungeon."


    It¡¯s Moles dungeon now you fuck. I just named it.I say in my mind as I listened to their conversation.


    "Yes, that''s all of them. According to the report from the soldiers and the newcomers, Lord Junpei and the rest arrived on time when the newcomers were fighting the gatekeeper. Sir Junpei and the rest dealt with the gatekeeper swiftly but the newcomers retreated to the safe zone out of fear. Lord Junpei ordered us to retrieve the newcomers as they left the dungeon to meet¡­¡± He suddenly stopped as he looked at me, ¡°Sir Yasu.¡±


    Tch. Lucky cunts. Left before I even got there to slap them all. I say in my mind as started walking towards the new group to get a better look.


    ¡°Then what else happened?¡± I hear Balo asked as I passed him.


    ¡°Well, you instructed us not to enter your dungeon until one of you comes out and deems it safe to explore so I dispatched a group to retrieve the newcomers while I and a couple of soldiers stand guard outside to deflect any unwanted intruders.¡±


    Stand guard outside? You fuckers were happily eating while the gold fucks are on the verge of death.I say in my mind but I continued on listening.


    ¡°That is when¡­.we encountered sir Yasu and mistaken him to be a demon and a dungeon robber. My apologies again sir Yasu.¡± The captain faces towards bowing.


    ¡°You forgot one thing, I was also called a bandit.¡± I snarl at him stopping at my track looking at all the soldiers that have their heads down facing the ground with pale expressions.


    ¡°I apologize for my men''s misconduct." The captain never stood up and he remained with his head down until Ms. Sam helped him up and he continued talking to Balo. ¡°I was immobilized during our confrontation, but I was freed thanks to my soldiers that I sent to retrieve the newcomers from the other dungeon."


    Immobilized? More like your ass was so hard it went through a wall and you got lodged in.I let out a small laugh and I can see the captain getting nervous. I didn¡¯t mention anything and let him continue his sweet talk towards Balo as I turn around and walked towards the other newcomers.


    "W-When I met with the newcomers, they have told me one has passed away from their team while a few people have gone missing." I hear the captain say making me stop on my tracks.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the one that passed away?¡± I asked as I turned to them and they all looked at me. ¡°Where?!¡±


    My voice was so loud that even Ms. Sam who was standing beside me was startled making her jump back.


    ¡°W-w-we haven''t had the chance to fully inspect the dungeon and my soldiers were too busy getting the newcomers out to properly scan the area. We didn''t have time to see who died and c-couldn''t find the ones that were missing.¡± The captain says.


    There¡¯s only one exit. How can they go missing?I say in my mind. Unless¡­Did they find the hidden passage?


    I quickly approach the newcomers and I can see some of the girls started fixing their hair. As I walk through the soldiers, they bowed as I passed them and part a way for me to walk a straight path.


    "H-hi~," One of the girls says as soon as I got close.


    ¡°Who died?¡± I asked the girls without changing my expression.


    ¡°U-u-um¡­¡± One of them replied. She was turning red and couldn¡¯t look me straight in the eye. I grabbed her by the neck and all of the newcomers stood up while I picked her up with one hand.


    ¡°Stop making me wait or else, I''ll squeeze your neck till I crush your windpipe," I tell her slowly squeezing her neck and she was trying to rip my hand away as she scratched my skin. She tried kicking me but I didn''t care as all my anger just makes me squeeze her neck tighter and tighter with my hand.


    ¡°Yasu! Stop!¡± Ms. Sam suddenly hugged me from the back making me loosen my grip on the girl¡¯s neck. I let go completely and she fell to the ground coughing. I watched her struggle to breathe as she looks up to me in fear.


    ¡°Now tell me, what¡¯s the name of the adult with you guys?¡± I asked not breaking my gaze towards the girl.


    No one said anything till the Korean looking guy stepped forward. ¡°Hey hey, relax. Her name is Miki. We call her Miki-sensei.¡±


    ¡°Hello?¡± I wave my hands in front of her eyes and she snaps away from her imagination.


    "And who the fuck are you? Their leader?" I snarl at him making him flinch as my glare made him stop from taking the next step. He didn¡¯t say anything as I clench my fist. Looking at how many of them nonchalantly recovering knowing that someone from their team died inside the dungeon. It made me remember Junpei and the others and how they left me inside to fend for myself to save their own skin. I wanted to go on a fit of rage, but I held myself back as Ms. Sam held me in place.


    ¡°Y-Yasu calm down.¡± Ms. Sam says and I can feel her body shaking.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine now, let go Ms. Sam, I need to check something.¡± I tell her and it took a while for her to loosen her grip on my waist. I started walking towards the other dungeon where I came from and no one stopped me. I passed the Korean guy and he couldn¡¯t say anything as I glared at him.


    "Don''t get too friendly with me or I''ll rip your eyes out of your head," I whispered to him as I passed him and didn''t even bother waiting for his acknowledgment.


    ¡°Yasu wait!¡± Balo¡¯s voice got everyone¡¯s attention including mine and I notice Ms. Sam is still quietly following behind me. "A-Are you going to check the inside? Our team is not in good condition so I''m going to have them rest for a bit. I know you won''t wait for us so please take some soldiers with you just in case."


    Take soldiers with me? Do I look that weak to you? I say in my mind.


    ¡°No need. They¡¯ll just get in my way.¡± I quickly reply.


    ¡°Fair enough. We¡¯ll be out here if you need anything.¡± Balo says as the captain helped him sit on a chair while the healers started healing him from the poison. Sitting there with a higher-class gold armor does make him look like a lord. I hear a commotion between the two new groups as some of them knew each other hugging and crying in place.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    I look at Ms. Sam who''s stood by me the whole time. "Ms. Sam, stay here, I''m going to check something out real quick and if there''s an enemy like the Ogre King, it''s going to be harder to fight him while trying to protect you."


    ¡°B-but what if you get hurt? I can heal you. I have a healer class.¡± She says and I shook my head.


    "You''re probably not strong enough to heal large wounds, besides, I have a skill that lets me heal in an instant," I tell her and after a while of persuading, she agreed to stay as long as I come right out. I gave her a nod, but I felt bad lying as getting out right away wasn''t on my agenda. I wanted to check the hidden dungeon and settle my score with the crab rat I met a year ago. I turn around and before I even took one step, I hear my name again.


    "Sir Yasu wait!" The captain shouts running to me. "You might need this."


    He hands me a rolled paper and when I unrolled it, I see a map of the dungeon.


    "Dungeon of the beginnings? Who the fuck named this?" I whisper to myself as I inspect the map. It basically shows the layout of the dungeon. "It¡¯s missing a few details. You got something to write with?"


    The captain quickly took out a charcoal looking pencil and placed it in my palm as he bowed.


    The fuck is wrong with these people. Stop bowing. I say in my mind.


    "Let''s see...this should be this....written here.....this...and this.....and done!" I say as I finish scribbling on the map showing where the hidden passage is and also other labels I think is necessary.


    "Perfect! But one year in this world and my hand somehow have gotten worse." I whisper to myself as I inspect my writing. I never did have the best handwriting but now, it looks more like a chicken scratch. I store the map in my bag and decided to enter the portal. Right before I enter, the Korean guy stopped me by tapping on my shoulders.


    ¡°H-hey! Are going back in there? That place is hell. Good thing these people saved us or else we would have been toast.¡± He tells me. I was about to activate my skill and obliterate his head, but I stopped as I noticed Ms. Sam staring at me with a worried expression. ¡°Mind getting the fuck out of my way?¡±


    ¡°Haha, come on man, relax. And you¡¯ll find nothing in there. Bunch of dust and rubble now.¡± He tells me trying to act friendlier and it¡¯s making me grit my teeth.


    ¡°Listen, right now, you¡¯re lucky a certain someone is looking at us or else I¡¯d pull out your insides with my bare hands. Want to give it a try?¡± I whisper to his ear and I can feel his breathing become abnormal before bursting out into nervous laughter. The captain probably noticed as he stepped between us grabbing the Korean guy''s shoulder.


    ¡°Ha ha, come, Mr. Jung-Gi. We need to properly heal you.¡± The captain pulls him away from me probably saving that guy¡¯s life.


    I wish we¡¯d meet outside in the future. I will cut your balls and feed them to you.I say in my mind as I watch him walkway before turning and entering the portal without hesitation. Like the other portal, my eyes were caught it a white flash making me unable to see for a few seconds till the flash quickly dissipated exposing the other side which was reduced to a pile of rubble. The place looked exactly the same as I remembered one year ago but the stalactites are hanging on the ceiling once more. I walk past the dust and enter the hallway leading me to another room that also has piles of dust, armors, and weapons.


    I decided to collect as many weapons I can, but I left the ones I think are useless and won¡¯t sell for much. But my main reason never left my mind as I hastily collected as much as I can before entering the dark hallway. It didn¡¯t take long till I reached the other side and as I approach the white marble door, I remembered we used our handprints to open it. Looking at the other side of the door, the print''s is still there but there are a lot more pairs compared to what I remember.


    "I''m guessing it was after opening this door that one person died while other''s disappeared. I remember it was impossible to open this unless everyone puts their hand on it." I whisper studying the door. I decided to push further on through the cave and enter the undead skeleton room which is also full of dust and weapons. The sheer feeling the dungeon gave brought back unwanted memories as my heart raced, remembering where I was tied up and eaten alive. I quickly gather what I can and walk through the undead skeleton room to enter the hallway that leads to the safe zone. I felt like I was retracing my own history as I recalled being carried by a troll. Even when he''s my savior, I can''t help feeling the hatred towards his whole entire race and existence.


    Fuck, I back here again. I say in my mind as I walk the dark hallway towards the safe room. I grabbed one of the lit torches from the wall and used it to light my way. Once I reached the end of the dark hallway, I see the door to the safe zone was shut closed.


    ¡°Huh? Who the fuck closed this shit.¡± I whisper studying the door. I grab a circular handle and pulled it towards me. It slowly opens echoing the creaking joints throughout the ambiance of the hallway. As the door slowly opened, a pungent odor escaped the room like a wave of far someone threw in my face.


    ¡°Ugh, this place smells.¡± I muffled as I walk in.


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    You have entered a ''safe zone.''


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ignored the notification and continued walking towards the center. I didn¡¯t need to hold my breath, the smell of the gatekeeper¡¯s decaying body a year ago was a lot worse. I inspect the circular room where I spent most my time in the beginning.


    ¡°Did they break this?¡± I say as I pick up broken pieces of the statue.


    Somebody smashed it to pieces. If this whole dungeon was restored, this statue would have been restored also.I say in my mind as I sit on the ground leaning on to the pedestal.


    "Ah¡­.it feels the same," I whisper as I close my eyes listening to the sound of the water. I reminisce the time I had here. Memories I''m not fond off but something I can''t seem to forget. "I guess it''s time to go."


    I place my hand on the pedestal of the statue and used it to push myself up. I decided to check all of the room starting where I woke up from and I was still the same as I remembered with the only difference of vines hanging off the walls and weeds growing out of the cracks on the ground.


    "Still the same old darkness," I whisper to myself before exiting back out towards the circular room. I checked each and every room and to my surprise, the wall in Hiroko¡¯s room is still intact. ¡°Huh, so they didn¡¯t get out of here. Missing¡­don¡¯t tell me they were killed off?¡±


    I walked back out and walked to the last door on the other end of the circular room. I stood in front of it holding my nose. "Ugh, what the hell, did they use this as a toilet?"


    The smell was a mixture of feces, piss, and burnt rubber. It was quite hard to explain in reality.


    Now that I think about it, we never pissed or shit no matter how long we stayed in here¡­ I say in my mind.I only started feeling bowel movements when I got out the dungeon the first time.


    ¡°What the fuck did they do? burn their shit?" I whisper as I push open the door. I walk slowly trying not to step on feces just in case they took a shit in the dark hallway.


    BAM!


    ¡°Fuck!!¡± I shout getting startled at the door behind me suddenly closing putting out the fire on my torch. The light from outside was cut off in an instant encasing me in darkness. ¡°Anybody there?!¡±


    Nothing. I whispered my item bag just in case something is in here with me. I quickly took out a stalactite illuminating my surroundings and no matter how long I stood there, there was no sound except for my breathing.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± I whisper as I turn around and continue advancing forward. I walked until I reached the other door which is closed shut. This time, the door was actually locked from the outside. A sword was lodge between the doors handles that would prevent anyone from opening it from the inside.


    ¡°What the hell¡­are they keeping something from getting out?¡± I whisper as I grab the sword and remove it. I put the sword in my bag but still prepared myself from any monsters coming out to attack me. I waited a few minutes thinking something will burst through but nothing. Even when I knocked on the door, I heard nothing. No scuffles, no voices, no trace of anything alive on the other side.


    ¡°Ugh...Even with this bullshit door closed, it still smells fucking bad.¡± I whisper on my palm as I cover my mouth. I placed my other hand on the handle of the door and slowly pushed it open. The other side was completely dark. The stalactite on my hand was too small to even illuminate a few inches an away from me. I took out more stalactite out of my bag and threw them around inside until I saw it.


    ¡°What the fuck is that¡­¡± I whisper as I walked towards it. It wasn¡¯t a stick. It wasn''t a rock, and definitely, it didn''t look like a big pile of shit. It was something only I could see. It was a dead body. I use the stalactite over the corpse, and I see it¡¯s badly burned to a point that it¡¯s unrecognizable.


    "Well, you got burned to crisp¡­" I say to the corpse hoping it would respond. But it didn''t move. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s another cook in your team?¡±


    Even when seeing a human corpse, I didn¡¯t feel anything. I looked around the room some more and I see a piece of ripped clothing near its head its hands was the only thing that wasn''t burned like a piece of cloth bound its hands. I picked up the one above its head and I spread it open to see what it was. It looked like a one-piece dress that girls usually use at home, but it was ripped open. Putting the pieces together, it was easy to understand what happened to her.


    ¡°Damn, I should have never gone in here," I say as I throw the dress to the side.


    Fucking animals.I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°Ah, I''ll bring your corpse with me and show it to everyone. The look on their faces should be a sight to see.¡± I whisper as I looked at the corpse from head to toe. ¡°Can I even restore you?¡±


    I paused as I inspect the corpse one more time. I wanted to find out who this is. To make sure it isn¡¯t anyone I know. ¡°Wait¡­will the potion work?¡±


    I decide to take out a potion out the bag that I found earlier when I got out the hidden dungeon. I tested out if it will restore her body and poured a bit of the potion in her mouth. Or what looks like her mouth. It was too badly burned that I can see some of her teeth was gone and all of them were scorched black. As I was about to give up, I hear what sounds like something sizzling on hot oil. I looked at her body and part of her arms and legs began regenerating to only stop after a few seconds.


    "Oh, it works!¡± I shout with joy as I see her body restore partially. I emptied the whole bottle jamming it on her mouth and her body slowly regenerated up until she looked good as new.


    ¡°Sorry to say this but, I''m glad it''s no one I know," I whisper as I see she looks younger than me. ¡°Well, that was a waste of potion. Ugh, this room is giving me a headache.¡±


    I stood up and clapped my hands together to offer prayer. But that didn¡¯t last long. As I couldn¡¯t stop smelling the shit around the area. I quickly made my way towards the room with the only water source to try and wash. I smiled as I thought about the enjoyment of everyone seeing the corpse as I carry her out.


    ¡°Those fuckers. Should I sharpen a stick and jam it in their eyes? No, no no no I should cut their dicks off in front everyone and jam it up their ass¡­e-ehem¡­.¡¯hey, stop fucking yourself.!¡± I let out a small laugh, but I¡¯ve been having a heaving feeling ever since I saw the corpse. As if something wasn¡¯t right. She was already dead but why would they block the door. I tried to clear my mind as I focused on cleaning my fingernails which was covered in dirt.


    "It''s surprising how no one has visited me yet from the outside," I whisper as I wash my hands. ¡°But that girl, why did they burn her?¡±


    Someone actually burned her probably right after they had their way. Just thinking about stuff like this is making me furious. I say in my mind.I might have lost the feeling of remorse in regard to human life, but I feel the depression as my pride of being the man of the house back in the earth made it uneasy. I remembered my mother and knowing that people did that to a girl, they could easily do it to anyone.


    ¡°I¡¯m really glad that wasn¡¯t my mother.¡± Whisper to myself as I sat near the puddle of water staring at my reflection. ¡°Should I burn all of them Yasu?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you should. And do it while they¡¯re alive Yasu.¡± I answered myself. ¡°The guy that stopped us, he knew she was going to be in there. That¡¯s why he was probably trying to stop me¡­ Those fucking animals. We should make them eat other Yasu.¡±


    ¡°How about we cook them alive and make them eat each other?¡± I asked myself.


    "Hahaha Brilliant!" I tell myself opening my arms into the air.


    ¡°But still, why did they lock a corpse in?¡± I asked myself. ¡°Was it to prevent anyone from finding her? No that¡¯s impossible.¡±


    I sat there thinking about different scenarios but all that came in my mind is, she was probably still alive when they left her.


    "A fight for power or conflict of interest I guess," I whisper as I dry off my clean hands on my shirt. ¡°Wait. Wait a minute. Wait a fucking minute. Why did the potion work if she¡¯s dead?¡±


    How come her body is still intact? Did another blade kill her? Impossible, All the newcomers had leather armor or metal and were holding a sword or a staff.I say in my mind trying to remember the situation I saw outside. Even the Korean guy was wearing some metallic armor.


    Unless one of the newcomers outside is a blade. I was able to wield a sword after I hit a certain level. Is it the Korean guy?


    Or is it¡­¡­Probably¡­


    ¡°Is she¡¯s still alive?¡± I whisper to myself and thinking about it, I didn¡¯t check if she had a pulse. ¡°Nah, with that type of damage she can¡¯t be alive. Maybe I should go and check."


    I stood up and the minute I turn around, I froze in place as I see someone standing at the doorway. Her hair was over her face and she¡¯s hunched down slightly. It looks like she just came out of a televisions white noise, just to kill me.


    ¡°Uh¡­Hello?¡± I say to the figure of the girl but she started walking slowly towards me. She¡¯s holding a rock she probably picked up from the pile of debris of the statue.


    ¡°You¡­¡± the figure says in a very low rough voice as she slowly walked towards me.


    "Um...Do you need some water? You sound really fucking thirsty." I tell her and she stopped on her tracks.


    Yea bitch you better stop. I whisper in my mind as I stood my ground. She probably didn¡¯t feel any fear from my voice, but I didn¡¯t have any fear either. Facing a lot scarier things makes a skinny person with a rock less daunting.


    ¡°Look skinny thing. Why don¡¯t you turn around and leave-¡° I suddenly stopped talking as she goes on a full sprint tackling me down. She quickly got above me and using her legs, hugged my waist.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you! You¡¯re with them! I¡¯m going to kill you!¡± She kept shouting and shouting as she struggled to even hit me with the rock on her hand.


    "Uh¡­uh, I can see everything you know." I tell her and she tried to bash my face with the rock which I easily caught with one hand. She struggled to even get the rock out of my grasp and we started a tug of war for the rock.


    ¡°L-let go!¡± She shouted at me trying to punch me in the face. I moved my head side to side and she kept hitting the ground till I see her knuckles bleed.


    ¡°Uh no? If I let go you¡¯ll hit me with it!¡± I shouted back at her. ¡°Now, get the fuck off me!¡±


    I pushed her with my other hand, and it felt like I was pushing a feather as she went flying to the side landed on her ass and her leg was spread open exposing everything.


    I stare at it for a moment and accidentally whispered, ¡°So that¡¯s what it looks like..¡±


    She looked up to me and I quickly averted my gaze and looked her in the eyes. She tried to attack me again and I quickly dodge pushing her to the small puddle.


    ¡°Ah!¡± she winced in pain as she hits the wall, hard.


    ¡°Urghhh, you''re covered in shit!" shout at her while smelling my hands. She looks up to me and I can see the fury in her eyes. Those eyes, they seem too familiar. She screamed again as she charged right at me. With the reflex I got from constantly fighting nonstop, I subconsciously punched her in the jaw as a reaction and her body became a ragdoll as she fell unconscious to the ground.


    ¡°The hell is wrong with you," I whisper walking up to her to check her pulse and to my dismay, she still alive. She¡¯s so skinny that one small punch seems like it will break her neck. I picked her up and brought her outside and set her on top of the pedestal.


    ¡°Argh!!! You bitch!¡± I cursed at her taking out all my frustrations. After I calmed down, I took out a leather chest plate from my bag and placed it on top of her so she not completely naked. I walk back towards Hiroko¡¯s room and filled a glass bottle with water before heading back out.


    SPLASH!


    I threw the water in her face and she woke up gasping for air.


    ¡°Relax dumbass. It¡¯s water.¡± I tell her but she kept gasping like she can¡¯t breathe.


    ¡°Hey, are you ok? What the fuck.¡± I just stood there watching her as if a ghost is choking her to death. ¡°Wait a minute¡­.you can¡¯t be¡­¡±


    I slowly removed the armor off her and she started coughing catching her breath.


    ¡°Y-you¡­you¡¯re a non-combatant class?¡± I asked her in surprise and she just glared at me as if it was my fault. I can see she want to pounce on me again and I just raised an eyebrow towards her. She tried to swing at me and I jump back dodging her fist. She quickly stood up and ran towards my room and disappeared into the darkness.


    ¡°Hey! You fucking dumbass! The exit is that way!¡± I pointed at the exit but she probably didn''t hear me since the sound of her footsteps was becoming faint in my ears.


    Sigh*


    ¡°There goes my master plan of bringing out a corpse. What the fuck. She was alive? How? She looked deader to me than being alive.¡± I was a bit baffled at what just happened. ¡°But then again, this isn''t earth. People can get skinned alive, lose limbs, eyes, bleed, and still not die. Well, whatever. Rot in there for all I care."


    I started walking towards the skeleton room but stopped right before I entered the door. ¡°What the fuck am I doing?!¡± I hit myself in the head thinking about it. I was about to leave that girl in that dungeon alone like how I was left alone.


    Just get her outside and that it. Be on your way. Bring her out, and then go.I whisper in my mind as I looked down the ground walking back towards the safe zone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be like them. Don¡¯t be like them. Don¡¯t be like them.¡± I kept muttering to myself as I entered the safe zone quickly turning towards where she ran off to. ¡°Fuck. Stupid fucking stick. Fucking stupid shitty stick.¡±


    I cursed over and over again walking in the dark hallway towards my old room. I slowly stepped into the room as I got close to the door and I can hear crying in the dark. It reminded me of a horror game.


    Fucking creepy bitch, I say in my mind as I listen to the sound similar to a crying witch. It sounded too creepy and gave me goosebumps.


    ¡°I have no time for this,¡± I whisper as I call out my item bag taking out a stalactite. ¡°Hey!!¡±


    I ran in there shouting and the crying stopped but I couldn¡¯t see where she. Was as my stalactite wasn¡¯t big enough to illuminate the whole room.


    Why the fuck I keep taking out the small stalactite. I cursed in my mind as I looked around the room. Now what? Do I put food out to make her come out?


    My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness and I saw a figure towards one corner, and it looks like she¡¯s hunched over hugging her legs, but It was too dark to see properly.


    ¡°Item bag.¡± I took out a piece of meat and slowly approached her like she¡¯s a wild animal. ¡°Here. Want to eat something?¡±


    She didn¡¯t even move as I slowly approached her. The minute I shine the stalactite at the darkness I paused at what I¡¯m staring at.


    ¡°A fucking rock. I¡¯m talking to a fucking rock!¡± I shout out of frustration and the next thing I know, I felt a sharp pain from my side as she kicks me with all her might.


    ¡°Argh! That hurt you fucker!!¡± I shouted as I see her run out of the room. ¡°You¡¯re going to pay for that! Seismic Step!!¡±


    I run out of the room and in no time, I caught up to her as she exits the dark hallway. Using my whole-body weight, I slammed into her and we both went stumbling down the ground. She looks back up at me and she gives me the same look. That familiar look I always gave my enemies. It¡¯s like looking at a mirror and seeing A female version of myself.


    ¡°So, are you going to come quietly or am I going to drag you out by your foot?¡± I tell her and she stills glared at me but didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°What? Did you bite your tongue? You were talking earlier and even cried like a damn bitch.¡±


    She kept glaring and looking around looking for a place to run off to.


    ¡°Go ahead, run. I have a skill that makes me run really fast. I¡¯ll catch you before you even reach any door you fucking witch stick.¡± I tell her giving her a mocking smile. What I said probably pissed her more off as she stood up and ran towards the rubble to pick up a rock. Rather than coming at me with it, she started throwing it at me but her strength wasn¡¯t enough as the rocks slowly flew towards me making it easy to dodge them.


    ¡°Pfft~ you missed me~ Come on! Do better!¡± I egged her and she kept throwing as many rocks as she can pick up at me. She tried to pick up a piece that probably weighs more than her I can see she already struggling but she managed to get the rock over her head.


    What the fuck she¡¯s strong.I say in my mind. But the weight got the best of her and the rock fell on her head and she came stumbling down the ground. The rock landed on her foot and I can see blood coming out as she winces in pain grabbing it.


    ¡°Mnnnnhhhh!!¡± She made a muffled scream trying to not let out a sound. I see her face scrunch up as if she just ate a sour patch, but she bit her lip together keeping her mouth shut. Tears came out of her eyes as she closes them out of the pain of her foot.


    ¡°Hey, you okay? Dumbass.¡± I say to her as I approach her, and she quickly stood up and started limping towards another room. ¡°I am sick and tired of this!!¡±


    I walked towards her and I see her trying to speed limp towards another room. I quickly moved to close the gap between us. Without notice, I grabbed her wounded foot causing her to fall forward. I tighten my grip on her ankles and started dragging her out of the dungeon. I see her scratching on the ground but there is nothing she can hold on to. Even after all of this, she didn¡¯t let out a sound and sobbed silently as she struggled to get out of my grasp.


    ¡°I know you went through a lot but I don''t have time to stay here and baby you or get your fucking trust," I whisper as I drag her out the safe zone and I guess she heard me since she stopped fighting and just let me drag her out.


    I decided to glance back and she''s still crying silently but her hand stopped moving as she gave up scratching the ground. Some of her nails chipped off and blood was coming out of it.


    ¡°I know if I let go, your dumbass will try to waddle away from me. Why? I don''t fucking know. But no matter what, I will take you out of here whether you like it or not you fucking witch stick.¡± I tell her and she didn¡¯t respond.


    I¡¯m not turning into one of them. I will never turn into one of them.I say in my mind as I remember the old diamond members choosing to leave me behind.


    I passed the skeleton room and the white marble door. I¡¯m on the hallway towards the cave where the portal is. It felt like I was dragging a corpse. She just laid flat on her stomach as I drag her by her injured leg.


    ¡°Hey, you still alive?¡± I asked stopping for a brief moment but no response. She¡¯s not even moving. ¡°What the hell¡­¡±


    I decided to lightly poke the wound on her foot and she suddenly let out the same muffled scream she did earlier as she clenches her fist from the pain.


    ¡°Fucking respond next time or else, I¡¯ll keeping poking this shit," I say and I decided to poke the wound a couple more times. I see her knuckles becoming white as she clenches her fist too hard, so I stopped before she passes out from the pain.


    ¡°Do you want to walk out now, or you just want to lay there like a fucking dead body," I asked her but she never turned around. She''s still completely naked and I can see everything.


    Doesn¡¯t she care that I can see?I say in my mind but she never turned around to even try to cover her private part.


    "Whatever, drag you out or walk, either way, I''m bringing you out of this dungeon," I whisper as I pick up a torch on a wall and continue walking forward pulling her by her leg. As soon as we both exit the dark hallway, I felt a sense of accomplishment as I was coming closer to the portal. I sang as I happily walked towards it but in reality, I¡¯m trying to drown the silence that makes me remember everything that happened to me in this dungeon. As get I closer to the portal, I glance back, and I can see her letting herself get dragged. We passed a few weapons, but she never grabbed one of them. But, if she¡¯s like me, she probably wouldn¡¯t be able to since the weapons I left on the ground are the owns I couldn¡¯t pick up.


    ¡°I''m finally leaving this dungeon. I wish I could have renamed it to Yasu and Mole¡¯s adventure land 3.¡± I say in a loud voice as I glance at her head. Hearing my name made her head go up but she never turned around.


    Wait a minute.I say in my mind as I stop walking as soon as I caught my own sentence.


    ¡°This dungeon. How come it didn¡¯t give me a notification¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I walked towards the portal. ¡°Thinking about it, every dungeon I conquered made me name it. Even the hidden dungeon after killing the overlord, It asked me to name it.¡±


    But this dungeon, I never saw a notification come up. Did they skip the naming process? They probably did.I say in my mind. I was too busy thinking about it that I didn¡¯t notice her grab something off the ground.


    ¡°H-hey.¡± I hear her whisper and the minute a turnaround, a cloud of dust hits me right in the eye making me drop her leg.


    ¡°Argh! The fuck you did that for?!" I shout trying to clear my eyes from the dust. ¡°Arggghh!!!!!¡±


    I scream in pain as the dust started feeling like it¡¯s burning my eyes. It feels like grains of hot sand all over my eyes and it¡¯s making it harder for me to keep them open. I slowly open one eye but tears made my vision blurry.


    ¡°You fucking bitch!!¡± I shout in pain as I tried to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry all around. I noticed something blurry liming away from me and it made me more furious than ever. ¡°You dumbass!! The portal is behind me!!!¡±


    Even though I shouted at her, she never stopped and continued limping away slowly. But I couldn¡¯t keep my eyes open for very long due to the dust irritating it. After rubbing a couple of times and the pain slowly subsided, a notification suddenly appeared.


    Ding!


    <table width="916">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="910">


    You are blinded by the ''ashes of a gatekeeper.'' You must rinse your eyes with a healing potion to regain your vision.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh, fucking hell. Your ungrateful prick!!!!¡± I shout rubbing my eyes trying to get my vision back but nothing. Even with my eyes open, all I see is the notification and the minute it disappeared, my vision turned completely black.


    ¡°Oh fuck! No! Item bag!¡± I shout in frustration and I hear my bag drop beside me. I got on all fours, but I couldn¡¯t find it.¡°Item bag!!¡±


    Thud.


    I looked around again but nothing, I hear where it drops but when I go to it, it¡¯s not there. I kept shouting my bag over and over again trying to find it but nothing.


    ¡°Arghh!!! Item bag!!¡± I shout one more time and this time, my bag sounded like it landed far away from me. ¡°Arghhh!!! Fucking cunt!! When I get my vision back, I¡¯m going to fucking murder you!!


    I tried to control my breathing sitting on the ground as I took deep breaths slowly exhaling. ¡°Relax Yasu. Fucking Relax. Once you find your bag, grab a handful of that gatekeepers ashes and shove it into the fucking witch stick''s eyeballs."


    Inhale*


    Exhale*


    ¡°Ok, one more time. Item. Bag-¡±


    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!


    ¡°Agrh!!!!!¡± A huge shockwave of hot wind making me fly a few inches away as I rolled on my back. The air was so hot, it felt like someone just turned on a giant hairdryer. I quickly touch atop my head and my hair is still there.


    ¡°Oh thank god." I whisper to myself and I tried finding where my bag landed. "w-what the¡­did it lands on a mine? What the fu-¡°


    ¡°Who dares wake me up from my slumber!!!¡± A sudden voice shouted so loud I had to cover my ears since it felt like it was going to burst.


    You got to be fucking kidding me. I whisper in my mind.


    ¡°Human, did you wake me up?¡± I hear it whisper in my ear as I slowly removed my hand and all of a sudden, I felt my body was picked up from my shirt and was flung towards the air.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s coat!¡± I shouted out as I flew fast and all of a sudden, I felt my body hitting the wall as I hear rock erupting around me. My body dropped to the ground and thanks to my skill, I didn¡¯t feel anything from the impact.


    Fuck. This is not good.I say in my mind as I slowly stand up.


    ¡®This. Is. Not. Fucking. Good.¡± I whisper to myself as I completely stand up. ¡°If the other dungeon had the ogre king, that means that this one is-¡°


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m the queen.¡± It whispered in my ear again and I felt a droplet of sweat traveling down my temple as I clenched my fist.


    But even with the odds against me, I couldn¡¯t help it. I smiled as wide as I can as I whispered, ¡°knockout.¡±

 CHAPTER 28: Yasu Vs. The Ogre Queen

    <hr>


    CHPATER 28: Yasu Vs. The Ogre Queen


    <hr>


    I clench my fist as I tried to control my breathing. I can feel her pacing in front of me as I keep my back leaning near the wall I flew towards earlier.


    Probably waiting for me to make a move. Fuck.I say in my mind.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="683">


    The ¡®ashes of a gatekeeper'' blinded you. You must rinse your eyes with a healing potion to regain your vision.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The same notification keeps appearing every time I open my eyes yet the black background never disappeared. No matter how hard I rub them, nothing.


    "Chef''s Coat," I whispered and I can hear my own skill vibrating as it activates. Facing an enemy blind, I can''t carelessly attack unless I''m sure I''ll hit her. Just in case she comes after me; I''ll have something to absorb some of the impacts.


    .


    .


    .


    Come on where are yo-


    The wall behind me erupted in place sending me flying forward. ¡°Shit!¡±


    I brace myself for impact as I place my hand in front my face hoping that I don''t get impaled into something.


    ¡°Ack!!! Argh!!¡± I wince in pain as I skip around the ground like a flat stone on water. I finally stopped on my back with my arms over my head protecting it. I feel my back got burned off a bit. It¡¯s completely exposed as I feel the ground touching my bare skin. ¡°What hell-¡°


    ¡°Hello, human.¡± The Ogre Queens voice was right above my head.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I quickly stand up and I sprint towards one direction away from where I was. I can¡¯t see where I¡¯m going but if I can get a good amount of distance away from her, it would be impossible for her to not make a sound if she ever comes close. I kept running till my body actually crashed into a wall at full speed.


    ¡°Argh!!!¡± I shout in pain as I fell back from the impact. Luckily my chef¡¯s coat reduced the damage by half preventing me from knocking myself out or breaking any bones.


    Ok, this should be far eno-


    ¡°Why do you run into a wall, human?¡± A voice whispered into my ear disrupting my thoughts. I felt her pick me up throwing me in midair and in a couple of seconds, I came crashing down the ground. ¡°Human, you are blind yet you enter my dungeon. You have some guts.¡±


    ¡°Hah, I was on my way out, Ogre Queen.¡± I snarl back at her as I feel her voice behind me.


    ¡°Feisty human. But how sure are you that I¡¯m the queen of ogres?¡± I can hear her voice circling around me as I sat still trying to detect her movements.


    I can¡¯t hear her movements at all. Is she a ghost?I say in my mind.


    ¡°Let''s just say that I have my sources," I reply to her while remembering the other dungeon. If in there is the ogre king, then definitively Luro put the Ogre Queen in this one.


    I need to find a way to get out of this. Think Yasu! Think!I say in my mind.


    ¡°Oho, and who told you such information?¡± She asked me and I hear her voice right behind me. I quickly jump forward turning around and suddenly I felt something in my back like a soft wall. I feel her hand on top of my shoulder as she leans in to whisper in my ear, "Look at your companion, limping towards the hallway after falling down. Hmm, let''s see. Arukaran debaluka!¡±


    ¡°Ahhhh!!!¡± I hear a scream from a distance, and it got louder and louder up until I hear a thud right beside me.


    ¡°Now, you both should be together.¡± I can feel the Ogre Queens breathing right beside me and it¡¯s getting me frustrated not being able to see.


    Fuck, this is not good. This is fucking bad.I say in my mind.


    I¡¯m completely blind, the new girl beside me is probably useless, and we¡¯re both right in front of the dungeon boss. I don¡¯t know where the exit is let alone where the portal is. I¡¯m going crazy thinking of a solution out of this mess. But nothing, nothing is coming up in my head.


    ¡°Now, why are you both frozen? Scared?¡± The Ogre Queens voice is circling me again and I can feel the new girl placing herself close to me. "This isn''t what I expected. I was thinking of a strong adventurer trying to face me but this is unexpected. A blind one and a naked one, what a nice combination."


    Fuck! If only I could see!I shout in my mind and I started feeling agitated.


    ¡°Come humans. I don¡¯t have all day~¡± The ogre queen says and didn¡¯t even give us a window to reply before she starts talking. ¡°I¡¯ll give you two time to be alone since your partner here is looking at you with such intensity. Once you¡¯re ready, call out to me. Try not to run away humans, it will be just a pointless task.¡±


    I hear the ogre queen''s voice fades away as she says the last line. ¡°Shit. Fucking hell. You stupid stick. Why did you fucking blind me?¡±


    I can feel her breathe right beside me as she whimpers to herself like a puppy.


    ¡°Fuck Fuck Fuck this is the worst situation I¡¯ve been since getting out. Hey, you there?!¡± I shouted and I can hear her scuffle a bit away from me.


    Is she a fucking mute? No, it can''t be. I heard her scream.I say in my mind.


    ¡°You, don¡¯t you want to survive?¡± I ask in a low voice but I¡¯m starting to get frustrated at the lack of her response. ¡°Fucking hell!!! Say something!!¡±


    I waited for her to respond but nothing, ¡°Fuck. Don¡¯t you know how to fucking talk? You¡¯ve got to be fucking kidding me. Don¡¯t tell me that bitch ran off to-¡°


    ¡°I¡¯m not a bitch. I¡¯m¡­not¡­¡± she replied interrupting me. Her voice was so close almost catching me off guard.


    ¡°Whoa! I thought you were a mute! Oh my goodness!¡± I mocked her and yet, I clenched my fist wanting to punch her straight in the mouth.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m not mute." She replied to me and I can hear her voice getting louder as what I said is probably getting into her nerves.


    ¡°Pwahaha, whatever you say, witch stick.¡± I snarl back and after that nothing. I listened around and kept activating my chef¡¯s coat skill bracing myself just in case the Ogre Queen comes back.


    ¡°Su-yeon.¡± She says in a low voice.


    ¡°What? What did you say?¡± I asked as I tried to look for the source of her voice.


    ¡°My name is Su-Yeon. Not witch stick.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Ohhhhh!!! You got a name also! My goodness!! Ok then Su-Yeon, tell me, why the fuck did you blind me?¡± I whispered at her yet she didn¡¯t give me a response frustrating me even more. ¡°Turning into a mute again huh. I should have left you burnt you fucking ungrateful prick. Answer this dumbass, what does the ogre queen look like?¡±


    ¡°B-big.¡± She replied.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know how to form a proper sentence?¡± I asked getting pissed off at her one-word answers. ¡°Do you see the portal?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± she replied back.


    Ah. Fuck. The explosion earlier. I was standing near it. She must have aimed for the portal.I say in my mind.


    ¡°What¡¯s the ogre queen doing?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Nothing.¡± She replied again before going back to silent mode.


    ¡°Fucking one-word replies," I whisper to myself. "Item bag. Do you see where it dropped? Grab my hand and guide me to it."


    She didn''t respond but just grabbed my hand roughly and placed it on top of my bag.


    Finally.I say in my mind, as I blindly grab a bottle out.


    "Keep track on what she''s doing," I say to her but she didn''t respond. "What color is this?" I asked holding out a bottle. I had to make sure it¡¯s a potion. Luckily I found some in the hidden chest in the Sky King¡¯s dungeon.


    ¡°Red.¡± She replied. I quickly open the bottle and slowly tilted it above my face. But instead of one drop, the contents gushed into my face as I coughed from feeling it go into my nose. I tried not to scream out of frustration, but the potion started to sting my eyes. and it felt like I squeezed a full lemon with hot sauce into my eyeballs. I quickly blink trying to subdue the pain but it never went away so I kept my eyes closed.


    ¡°Here! Drink this! Heal your fucking foot!¡± I shout as I held out the leftover potion in the air. She roughly grabbed the bottle out my hand and I hear her gulp it like she hasn''t had a drink for days. After she finished, I hear bottle went clattering to the ground.


    Not even a thank you. She¡¯s really testing my patience.I say in my mind. After a couple more seconds, I feel the stinging sensation slowly dissipates and I slowly open my eyes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="683">


    Eyesight is currently being restored. Restoration time: 2hrs 45minutes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ! You¡¯ve got to be kidding me!!I shout in my mind and I can feel my heart beating faster. I have a phobia with losing my vision since a year ago and being completely blind in front of a dungeon boss doesn¡¯t help.


    Ok. Ok. Calm down Yasu. Think, thi- wait, the safe zone! Monsters can¡¯t get in the safe zone!I whisper in my mind but my happiness quickly disappeared.But how do I get back?


    ¡°Hey you, witch stick you there?¡± I whispered and she didn¡¯t respond. "Goddammit. Did that fucking cunt leave?¡±


    ¡°Su-Yeon. My fucking name is Su-Yeon.¡± She finally replied making me want to shove a handful of gatekeepers ash into her eyes and mouth.


    "Well, who gives a fuck what your name is. I''m sure that fucking ogre queen won''t give a fuck." I tell her getting irritated. "Now answer me this, do you see the entrance to the hallway?"


    ¡°Yes.¡± She replied back


    ¡°Ok, now, is she bigger than the entrance?¡± I whispered trying to keep my voice low so the ogre queen doesn¡¯t hear.


    ¡°Yes, she is." She replied back to me.


    ¡°Ok, ok, we have to make a run for it. Once we get in the hallway, she won¡¯t chase us through since she won¡¯t fit. You have to guide me.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°Why?¡± Her question just wants me to go explode with rage.


    ¡°Did this fucking bitch just asked me why?" I accidentally said what''s in my mind out loud. ¡°Look. You might want to die and all but I sure as hell don¡¯t.¡±


    .


    .


    .


    "Dammit! Do you see that ogre queen? She won''t kill you. They don''t kill people. They kidnap them and torture you until you grow old." I say to her. I don¡¯t really know what they but I need to scare this girl or else she¡¯s going to get me killed along with her. I know I¡¯m strong enough to handle the ogre queen since I killed the king but being blind while fighting a dungeon boss is suicide even for the strongest person alive. I can¡¯t hit what I can¡¯t see. I can¡¯t damage what I can¡¯t hit.


    ¡°Wh-¡° She tried talking and I decided to interrupt her with more bullshit.


    "Yes, they do. I remember passing a town to get out this dungeon, they told me they kidnapped a girl from their town and even torturing her up to now." I tell her.


    Come on. Believe this shit. I don¡¯t have all day.I say in my mind. The way I put it, she hasn''t been outside this dungeon so she can practically believe anything I say. When I found her, she probably has been tortured so the idea of being tortured again would definitely terrify her.


    ¡°Y-you came from the outside? I-I-¡­¡­don¡¯t want to go through that again. No more brother.¡± I can hear her voice tremble with fear and becomes muffled towards the last line.


    Did she just call me brother?I asked in my mind confused. I don¡¯t remember having a sister back at home.


    ¡°Look, the only way you won¡¯t go through that is back at the safe zone. The only way you can go back there is if you help me. Got it?¡± I tell her.


    ¡°W-What do I need to do?¡± She finally spoke.


    ¡°Simple. You¡¯re going to guide me towards the hallway. I want you to stand in there and shout. I¡¯ll use your voice to guide myself.¡± I tell her. ¡°Y-you have to wait for me to enter the hallway or else she will chase you first and catch you.¡±


    It feels like I¡¯m talking to a damn kid. If she was any other people, they might not believe me but from seeing her reactions she seems to believe anything anyone says to her.


    ¡°O-Ok, give me a minute.¡± She replied.


    ¡°Not now! Wait for me to immobilize the ogre queen.¡± I tell her worried she already ran off. But I feel her presence come closer to me as I hear her footsteps.


    "Stand behind me," I tell her and I can hear her scuffle towards my back. ¡°Ok, you ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She replied.


    ¡°Ogre Queen!¡± I shouted as loud as I can. ¡°Is she coming close?¡±


    ¡°Yea. She¡¯s floating towards us.¡± She tells me and I understood why I couldn¡¯t hear her footsteps.


    ¡°Seismic step. Suyeon Get ready to run.¡± I whisper to her but she didn¡¯t respond. I can feel the vibration on my feet as my skill activates.


    ¡°Humans, are you ready?¡± The ogre queen asked as she reaches us.


    ¡°Y-yes. B-but before we fight, may I r-request something?¡± I tried sounding weak and helpless.


    ¡°Hmmm. This is the first a human have requested a demon something, Very well. What is it?¡± Her voice was right above me.


    ¡°It¡¯s uh¡­. kind of embarrassing to say it out loud¡­¡± I tell the ogre queen trying to fidget around. I just need to get close to get ahold of her. These demons don''t have the thinking capacity of a human as I''ve noticed the overlord, the ogre king, and this queen probably thinks alike. The overlord didn¡¯t make sure I was dead. The ogre king was too much on his high horse. This queen seems to be underestimating me. And even left us to talk to each other. She probably saw me taking out a potion earlier but she didn¡¯t do anything. For all she knows, she thinks we¡¯re weak and pose no threat.


    ¡°Hahahahaha! Whisper it into my ear human.¡± She says.


    Bingo.I say in my mind and I can feel her presence get close and I can feel her breath near my neck. In a split second, I swung my arms out and grabbed her neck to have her in a chokehold. But her neck was so big that I couldn¡¯t grab it all around.


    ¡°Oho~ You want to hug me human?¡± The Ogre Queen whispered, and I can feel her standing up as my body was lifted off the ground.


    ¡°Now Suyeon! Run!¡± I shouted as I placed my fist on her skin. ¡°Knockout!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t see where my fist landed but I know it affected her as I hear her groan in pain and felt my body drop back the ground as she got on her knees. I quickly let go falling on my ass and I can hear her struggle.


    ¡°What is this?! Damn you human!!" The ogre queen''s voice is right beside my ear and it felt like a loudspeaker was in full blast. It felt like my eardrum was about to rupture. Given the opportunity, I quickly bolt into a direction I heard the footsteps fade away earlier.


    ¡°Hey! Suyeon! Where are you?!!!¡± I shouted out but no response as I ran blindly. ¡°You fucking piece of shi-¡°


    ¡°Over here!!!¡± I hear her scream from a distance. Using her voice, I navigated myself towards the hallway as she kept shouting, Run faster! She¡¯s starting to move!!¡±


    ¡°You fucking vermins!!!¡± The ogre queen shouted and I kept running as fast as I can without stopping.


    ¡°Watch out!!¡± Suyeon shouted out and I jumped to the side. The ground exploded right when I jumped, and I can feel hot sparks burn my skin as the impact sent me flying.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Agrh!!!!¡± I shout as I tried to control my flip midair to land on my feet. ¡°Suyeon! Don¡¯t just stay quiet!!!¡±


    ¡°Run! She looks hurt from your attack earlier! Run now! Here! Here! Here!¡± Suyeon shouted out over and over again. I was worried she would just run back and leave me here but I guess wrong. I kept running towards the voice and I can hear it get louder and louder up until I crashed right into her.


    ¡°Fuck! Get out of the fucking way!¡± I shouted as I stood back up.


    ¡°I tried and you ran into me!¡± She shouted back and I hear her voice right behind me. ¡°N-no..No!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± I asked confused.


    ¡°She¡¯s shrinking down! She¡¯s coming towards us really fast!!¡± She says and I feel her hand tug my arm like a kid.


    ¡°Fuck! Get on my back!¡± I say to her and she quickly hopped on my back. I used my hand to hold her up and I forgot she¡¯s naked as my palm feels her bottom. I can feel her whole chest hug my back, Skin to skin.


    ¡°G-Guide us out of here! I can¡¯t see!¡± I shouted as I stood up.


    ¡°Turn around and run!!¡± She instructed and I quickly turn and sprinted as fast as I can. ¡°Move a bit to the right! You¡¯re going to collide with the wall!¡±


    I followed her instructions since I have no choice. ¡°Where is she?!¡± I asked and I can feel her weight shift as she turns around.


    ¡°She¡¯s flying towards us! Run faster! She¡¯s catching up!¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Huuuuuuummaaaaaaans!!!!!!!¡± I hear the Ogre Queen from a distance yet her voice get¡¯s louder and louder.


    ¡°Fuck! Overdrive!!¡± I shouted my skill and the sudden change of speed made Suyeon grab on my neck to prevent her from falling backward. I started choking and I had to slow down a bit for her to fix herself on my back before speeding up again. ¡°Is she still behind us?!¡± I scream.


    I feel her head turn as her weight shifts. ¡°R-run! Run faster! Run!¡± She kept shouting in my ear.


    ¡°W-what?! She caught up already?!¡± I shout.


    ¡°No! There¡¯s fire! It¡¯s chasing us!!!¡± She shouted and I kept running as fast as possible. I feel her weight shift as she turns back around to face the front. ¡°Watch out!!¡±


    I suddenly stop and I can feel something near my face. ¡°Direct me properly!!!!!¡± I screamed. I probably almost collided with the wall at full speed.


    ¡°S-step to the right and run! Hurry! The fire is close!!¡± She instructed and I step towards the right and sprint as fast as I can. I feel the heat coming from behind us as the floor felt warm even with shoes on.


    ¡°I¡¯m running as fast as I can!!!¡± I yell back at her.


    "Move a bit to the left! You''re too close to the wall!" The minute she told me that, I felt my right arm graze the wall and a burning sensation of my skin making contact with the rough surface of the wall made me want to drop her. It felt like my skin was rubbing sandpaper at full speed.


    ¡°Arghhh!!!¡± I scream in pain, but I didn¡¯t stop nor let go Suyeon. I felt blood trickling down my right aoff,rm but I ignored it and ran as fast as I can since I feel an intense hot air creeping behind us.


    ¡°Run!¡± she shouted back pushing herself closer to me. She probably feels the heat more than me.


    ¡°I will not die here! I will not die here! I will not die here! I will not die here!!!¡± I shouted out. I don¡¯t know how far I am from the safe zone and Suyeon stopped screaming and just hugged me tightly. I feel her body shaking.


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="683">


    You have entered a ''Safe Zone.''


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Finally! Damn about time-¡± All the air was taken out of me as I felt something jamming into my stomach and legs. My body was propelled to front flip in midair and I felt Suyeon fly out of my back. My legs went numb and my body flipped in midair before crashing back to the ground bouncing around like a flat stone on water. I couldn¡¯t move my body due to the aftermath of my overdrive skill as I helplessly bounced around at high speed. All of a sudden I felt my head hitting something hard and the impact shocked my brain knocking me unconscious.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly open my eyes into a blurry mess. It looked like I was wearing foggy glasses and no matter many times I blink, it never went away.


    ¡°Ugh, my head," I mutter as I slowly sit up holding my head.


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="683">


    Eyesight is currently being restored. Restoration time: 1hr 29minutes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Ugh, I was out for a bit huh.¡± I groan in pain as I tried standing up. My body felt like it was hit with a truck, multiple times. Every motion I make wakes up the pain from my joints. My muscles feel worn out as if I exercised non-stop till I couldn''t move anymore. My throat feels dry but it¡¯s always like this every time I use overdrive. If I use it again, my body will shut down and I will sleep for days. I look around the room but it¡¯s hard to make out shapes since my vision is too blurry.


    "Item bag," I whisper and I see something drop to my left. I slowly feel around it until my hand is near the opening. I take out a water container and slowly drank it. I know its water because I can hear it slushing but there''s no color.


    ¡°Ah. Damn fucking eyes.¡± I whisper as my voice felt dry. I started walking around the room slowly feeling my steps since I couldn¡¯t clearly see where I¡¯m going. I feel like an old man walking without crutches as I take small steps trying not to trip. Since the room is circular, as long as I hug the wall, I can reach every door but I wasn¡¯t looking for the hidden exit, I was looking where Suyeon flew.


    Why am I looking for her?I whisper in my mind as I looked around trying to spot something unnatural. I didn¡¯t make it far when I found her and it''s hard to see if she''s alive or not. Heck, I can''t even properly see her outline but I know it''s her.


    ¡°Hey, you alive?¡± I say trying to shake her but no response. I reached out towards her blurred outline and moved my hand towards her neck trying to find a pulse. Yet, another part of my conscious wrapped my hand around her neck and slowly squeezed it.


    ¡°I should kill you right here. I almost died because of you.¡± I whisper as I have both my hand slowly squeezing her neck. AS I tighten and tighten my grip, I couldn''t help but bring out a smile.


    ¡°B-b-brother¡­.don¡¯t leave me¡­¡­don¡¯t leave me here¡­.with them¡­..¡± She whispered and hearing it made my grip loosen. It reminded me of my first experience, how I was left alone and I felt agitated she didn¡¯t die.


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you live for now. But, this isn¡¯t over.¡± I say as I whisper towards her. I sat near her and leaned my back towards the wall and waited. I waited for my vision to get back and when it does, I''ll settle my score with the ogre queen. Cooking her might bring me to level up and Suyeon will know what it feels to be blind. My body ached everywhere and there wasn¡¯t much I could do but watch the timer slowly decreases. Watching the numbers slowly decrease by one hypnotized me to sleep.


    I woke up to the light of the dungeon. My body feels the same. I look to my side and she¡¯s still unconscious. ¡°Ugh¡­my head¡­.¡±


    I suddenly stop as I looked at her laying on her side sleeping soundly. ¡°My vision. It¡¯s back. It¡¯s fucking back! Finally!!¡± I shout with joy as I can see everything clearly again but my moment of happiness quickly as I tried to get up and my body felt worse than before. I see my elbow contains dried blood around a wound I got from scraping it to the wall. I called out my bag and quickly ate a piece of meat reserving the remaining potions I have left for emergencies.


    ¡°Fuck," I whisper as I see holes on my clothes. ¡°That fucking ogre queen. She seems a lot stronger than the king.¡±


    I see my wound is slowly restoring and I kept eating until my stomach started filling up. I was tempted to go out and have a look at what that thing really looks like but I know my body isn¡¯t in top shape due to overdrive. If I got out there and fight her now, it¡¯s going to be like the overlord all over again where I fought him with an ¡®all or nothing¡¯ mindset.


    "I can''t be fighting and always in the verge of death," I whisper as took out a glass container filled with water out of my bag. I drank my fill and sat resting my back at the wall near Suyeon. I looked at the safe zone and more memories flooded in my mind making me remember my condition before.


    ¡°Tch¡­this situation is too close to comfort," I whisper to myself as it feels likeim relieving my nightmare. The dungeon boss destroyed the portal and now, I probably need to use the stream again to get out of here. The only difference is I¡¯m not alone. I looked to my side and watched her breathe.


    ¡°Suyeon," I say her name out loud but she never woke up and just slept her fill. ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you taking it easy¡­¡±


    Her body is a mess. Bruises and cuts everywhere. I see a gash towards her side, which probably happened when she flew out of my back earlier.


    ¡°Item bag.¡± I caught my bag as it dropped in front of me. I took out a potion and poured a little bit in her wound trying to see if it can heal it without consumption. I see her wince in pain but she never woke up. Proving my theory was correct, the wound sizzled as it regenerated back the missing skin closing the wound like it never happened.


    ¡°Be in your best shape. I¡¯ll come back and continue where we left off.¡± I say as I slowly stand looking down at her. I sat near the pedestal and decided to relax a bit.


    Once I get my energy back, I¡¯ll come for you Ogre Queen.I say in my mind.


    "She might drop something valuable if I kill her," I whisper to myself. "I also have some question I need to ask her.¡±


    I need to start investigating where Luro is hiding.I say in my mind.


    Once I felt rested well enough, I left to face the ogre queen. Before I left, I walked towards Suyeon kneeled on one knee beside her and placed a few items near her head. A cloth shirt and pants I got in the hidden dungeon, a couple of cooked meat, a water container, and the bottle of potion that''s half empty. I didn''t bother changing my clothes since I¡¯m going to be fighting anyways.


    ¡°Don¡¯t die on me now till I get back okay~¡± I say smiling as I tilt my head sideways. I slowly stand up and walk towards the dark hallway.


    I still need to show you the wonderful experience of being blind.I say in my mind as I got closer to the exit.


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="683">


    You have exited a ''Safe Zone.''


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Alright! Ogre Queen! Let''s fight properly as you wanted!!!" I screamed into the dark. I started smiling as my body slowly skipped towards the dark singing. I continued to sing and whistle as I skipped in darkness until I reached the other side of the hallway. I nonchalantly exit out towards the undead skeleton room. I see the flame she threw at us earlier is similar to the sky kings flames because it left a black mark right in the middle. The whole room feels hot as the ground, ceiling, and roof steamed. I made my way towards the other hallway passing the white marble door. I walked thinking she can come out of any corner and ambush me but, nothing.


    ¡°Oh well, no point of hiding. I got my vision back. She shouldn¡¯t pose a problem even if she¡¯s stronger than the overlord.¡± I whisper as I walk towards the other hallway. I picked up the pace as excitement overcomes me. I decided to take out the sword I got from the overlord and hugged the wall near the entrance.


    ¡°First, observe your enemy Yasu," I whisper as I slowly crept out peeking towards the side trying to see where she is.


    Whistle.


    "Well, aren''t you looking less like an ogre," I say as I see what looks like a giant floating near the portal¡¯s rubble. She looks half the size of the ogre king yet she¡¯s still big enough to be considered a giant. Her face looks like it was made out of lizard¡¯s skin but with a smooth texture giving her that glossy look. She has two teeth sticking out her mouth upwards and a tiny horn on her forehead. Her face and body give the empress vibe as her clothes consist of skintight leather yet, she wearing metal gauntlets and boots along with a cape. I see her hands are placed over the rubble of the portal and circular runes are going up and down.


    ¡°Is she restoring it?¡± I whisper to myself. In a blink of an eye, the remaining rubble of the portal vanished and turned into dust.


    Ah, so you¡¯re destroying it completely. Asshole.I say in my mind. I¡¯m not scared about losing the portal since I know of another way out of here. I see her turn around and start floating towards one direction when she suddenly stopped and turned her head toward my direction as I stepped out to greet her.


    "Greetings you bitch!¡± I shouted as I walked till she¡¯s right in front of me looking down. On her right hand, she¡¯s holding a fireball illuminating the whole room.


    [ogre queen image goes here.]


    ¡°Well well well, if it isn¡¯t the blind human.¡± She says.


    "I''m not blind anymore you giant bitch," I tell her with a smirk in my face. I can see she''s not amused at what I called her but I couldn¡¯t care less of her feelings.


    How do they even know what that means in this world? That¡¯s weird. I say in my mind.


    ¡°Well, look at this. The blind human who regained his vision is now trying to eat more than what he can chew.¡± She tells me without removing her gaze.


    ¡°Wow! How did you know I was a cook?!¡± I mocked her and I can see wrinkles between her eyes.


    ¡°You will die here human. Any last words?¡± She says as she places her hand in air materializing a giant club.


    ¡°Want to come close again? Let me whisper in your ear~¡± I say mocking her and her expression say she wants to rip me to shreds. ¡°By the way, do all you dumb ogres only have clubs? Even the ogre king had a club. Get a fucking sword at least.¡±


    ¡°You, how do you know the ogre king?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯m the guy the gave your husband a C-section.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°C-c-what?¡± She asked me with confusion.


    ¡°Well, to save some girl, I basically cut open his stomach while he¡¯s alive. Ah~ I remember, the sizzling sound of his burning flesh was quite something.¡± I tell her as I gave her the biggest smile I can muster. This probably triggered her and she screams with fury.


    ¡°You lie! Die human!¡± She quickly threw the fireball at me.


    ¡°Seismic Step!¡± I shouted and using my skill, I quickly jumped to the side dodging the fireball. The explosion from the fireball shook the whole dungeon.


    ¡°Item bag!!¡± I caught my bag and quickly took out a sword. The ogre queen brought her club down towards me and using my blade I swung upwards.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!!¡± The skill went through the club like butter cutting it in half. I aimed the skill carefully towards the stalactite above it and it caused the entire stalactite to fall down on both of us.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s Coat!¡± I dodge most of the stalactite that¡¯s dropping and as I look at the ogre queen, she cast a shield above her preventing the stalactites from piercing her head. ¡°Eh, worth a try.¡±


    ¡°You damn human!!¡± She shouted and more fireballs materialized in mid-air. It quickly flew at me and yet, I find it all lacking to even give me an exhilarating feeling as I dodge all the fireballs slicing some of them.


    ¡°Keep em¡¯ coming! Hahaha!!!¡± I taunt her as I slice all the fireballs one by one.


    ¡°You cocky bastard! Arukabura-Rakmadar!!¡± She chanted some words and a huge purple rune emerged above her. ¡°Drago! Come forth! Taste this human and devour his flesh with your flames!!¡±


    After saying her lines, a dragon came out of the rune with head out first. It flew out at high speed landing on the ground fast enough to make the cave shake in place. The impact of its descend created a huge explosion sending loose rubble and stalactite towards the walls.


    ¡°Another dragon? Ha! This isn¡¯t the first time I fought one!! Item bag!¡± I shouted and I caught my bag before it fell to the ground. I took off on a sprint towards the right. I ran so fast that even the ogre queen lost track of me. I quickly jumped above the dragon and as I reach the peak of my jump, I took out my dragon slayer. I let go of the bag and gripped the handle with both hands with the blade pointing down.


    "Dice," I whispered my new skill as I land on top the dragon stabbing my sword on its neck. The dragon roared as it tried flying up. White light emitted from where I stabbed him as we both flew up towards the ceiling of the cave.


    ¡°You¡¯re quite small compared to the sky king. Ha, hahahahaha!!!¡± I run towards its tail dragging my sword in its flesh creating a trail of white light on its back. The dragon roared as it felt my sword slice it¡¯s back open. The minute I reached the tip of its tail, I jump off before he reached the ceiling trying to squish me. I land at the ground and I look back up the dragon with the white light still emitting on its back as it remained floating in mid-air.


    ¡°Human!¡± I hear the Ogre Queens shout and as I look to my right and I see her flying towards me. All of a sudden the light on the dragons back got brighter and brighter until it shined the whole room like a flashbang. She stopped on her tracks and looked up at the dragon.


    ¡°Watch out~¡± I sang towards her as I walked gripping my sword. The white light I left on the dragons back spread everywhere on its body forming a grid.


    ¡°What have you-¡° The Ogre Queen suddenly stopped talking as the dragon erupted in place sending body parts shape of a cube everywhere falling down on the ogre queen and me. The dragon¡¯s blood flew everywhere and for a brief moment, it rained blood inside the cave.


    ¡°Ah~ Covered in blood again," I whisper to myself as I twirl around and I can see the Ogre Queen looking at the remaining parts of the dragon, raining everywhere.


    ¡°No-no!!¡± She shouted and I can see her sclera turned black while her pupil glowed purple. She grew in size as her clothes started ripping from the seams and her metal gauntlet snapped as her hand outgrew its size. ¡°Human! You shall die!!!¡±


    ¡°W-w-what? Why are you getting mad? All I did is kill your husband and that weak looking thing you call a dragon.¡± I say smiling at her. ¡°Pfft~ Taste my flesh¡­ that thing tasted my sword in it¡¯s back.¡±


    ¡°You! You have done enough!! Know your place!!¡± She suddenly sends a ball of molten lava my way. And rather than dodging, I swung down my sword slicing it in half passing me as it splits into two erupting on a wall behind me.


    ¡°Don''t tell me that¡¯s your strongest attack?¡± I taunt her as she clenches her fist staring me down as her hands glowed. "Let¡¯s fight! Seismic-step!!¡±


    I re-activated my skill and I ran past the fireballs she sent my way. I quickly close the gap between us and right when I was about to slice her legs off, she flew upwards making me miss my swing.


    She brought both her hands up towards the air and started forming a giant lava ball. ¡°Die!¡± She shouted as she brought down her hands and the lava ball slowly dropped towards me.


    ¡°Item bag!¡± I reach inside my bag and took out a two-handed hammer. "Tenderize!¡±


    I jump up and as the giant lava descends towards my direction, I swing my hammer upwards making contact at its surface. The giant lava ball erupted causing it to rain fire and the shockwave was enough to send me soaring back down. I land on my feet causing a crater on the ground.


    ¡°Sky kings wind!¡± I swung towards the Ogre Queen and a tornado formed out of my blade as it engulfed all the flames and lava. ¡°Oh damn, a lava tornado. Lava-nado?¡±


    The tornado soared towards the Ogre Queen who readied her fist to meet it. It one quick motion, she swung forward at the tornado and it exploded covering the whole cave with steam. I couldn''t see anything and as I readied my sword to swing away from the smoke, it all suddenly disappeared and I can see her fist outward from the sky. I was about to thank her for clearing the area but I stopped as I catch her glare towards me. Her fury was more than what she showed and somehow, it''s pissing me off that she''s looking down at me.


    ¡°Seismic Step!¡± I shouted clenching the handle of the dragon slayer. I jump towards her leaving a crater in the ground and I can see her silently chant something. In a split second, her body was encased with a purple light similar to a body shield.


    Challenging me I see.I say in my mind as I smile flying towards the Ogre Queen.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted my skill before I brought my fist towards her stomach. The minute I made contact, it broke her magic armor as it shattered the purple light surrounding her like its made out of glass. I can see her face in pain as my punch sends her flying upwards hitting the ceiling of the cave erupting it in place. Stalactites fell to the ground as the cave shook from her impact. I land back down the ground and as I look up, I notice she¡¯s unconscious as her giant body fell to the ground. I jumped back up the sky reaching the ceiling and without waiting for her to land; I jumped towards her using the ceiling of the cave to launch myself towards her at high speed. She finally opened her eyes but it was too late as my left hand was swinging towards her face.


    ¡°Good morning Ogre Queen~¡± I smile at her as we both fall down towards the ground. ¡°Clench your jaw bitch, Tenderize~¡±


    ¡°Human you dare-¡° My fist exploded as it made contact with her jaw interrupting her speech. It felt like I punched metal leaving my fist stinging. The impact of my attack shot her body towards the ground like a bullet exploding beneath me. The air coming from her body destroying the ground slowing down my descend helping me land on my feet.


    "Item bag," I whispered my bag catching it in front of me. I slowly take out the dragon slayer swinging it towards her. ¡°Sky king¡¯s wind!¡±


    The smoke was sucked up by the tornado I created and I see her struggling to get up. Half her face is blown apart from her nose down to her jaw and even with that, she glared at me with her remaining eye.


    "I''d give it to you, having half your face blown apart and still able to stand is something to be commended about," I tell her as I walked towards her clapping my hands. "Well, I wanted to ask you about some information but, whatever. I''ll just cook you~"


    Her body suddenly glowed bright red making me cover my eyes for a bit. ¡°Don''t tell me-¡°


    Her body suddenly lurched forwards and with her remaining arm, she grabbed around my waist hugging me tightly. I tried to break away punching her face but she just laughed and laughed not even caring that I¡¯m punching her open wound.


    ¡°Let me go!¡± I shouted over and over, as her body got brighter and brighter it felt like I was staring at the sun. ¡°Chef¡¯s coat!¡±


    Without warning, her body exploded and thanks to my skill, I wasn''t blown apart but I took a decent amount of damage around my abdomen. I flew towards a wall hitting my back on it.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    I was in all fours trying to catch my breath. I felt my stomach burn and I quickly took out my dimensional bag. I grabbed some food and quickly ate trying to fix the damages I sustained. After eating my fill, I sat leaning my back on the wall as I watch the smoke cover everything. The burnt mark around my abdomen slowly healed as I try to calm myself.


    ¡°What the fuck. She committed suicide..¡± I whisper to myself as I stare into the smoke spreading everywhere. ¡°Fucking hell, I would have died if it wasn''t for chef¡¯s coat.¡±


    I look down and I see parts of my clothes were gone and I had a few burn marks in my skin that slowly healing as it sizzled my skin back in place.


    "Fuck," I whisper as I study the rest of my body for any more damages. "Ugh...there goes my new set of clothes.¡±


    The garb I got from the overlord has completely torn apart. The shirt became rags as it was ripped and burned exposing my top torso and my left shoe and left the side of my pants is completely gone. I lean my head towards the wall closing my eyes as I tried to control my breathing.


    ¡°Ugh, I think I fractured some of my ribs. That damn bitch-¡° I stopped talking as I open my eyes and see two purple dots within the smoke. Then slowly, I started seeing a shadow around it outlining a figure.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be shitting me-¡°


    ¡°Human. Congratulations.¡± Her voiced ranged out interrupting me. ¡°You made me show my final form. Now, where were we?¡±


    [other ogre queen image goes here.]

 CHAPTER 29: The overlords and the dark

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 29: The overlords and the dark


    <hr>


    She¡¯s taking her sweet time walking towards me. A small jolt of purple electricity emitted around her and every step creates steam as if the soles of her boots are made out of lava.


    ¡°Final form? Huh, well what do you know. You¡¯re not a weakling after all.¡± I whisper to myself as I sat up. A little bit of my energy regenerated, and I feel less pain towards my abdomen. I started walking towards her as a big smile plaster across my face. The adrenaline is rushing through my body and having to fight an ogre queen¡¯s final form is making me excited.


    I¡¯m turning into a fighting maniac. I whisper in my mind as I watch her take one step after another. I kept my glare towards her and I see she¡¯s in full set of armor. She shrunk down in size, but I think her strength probably tripled.


    Ah, My swords.I say in my mind remembering that I lost my dragon slayer from the explosion earlier. ¡°Item bag~¡±


    I quickly take out the black sword I got from the other overlord and without waiting for her to make the first move, I ran for her and the minute she sees me sprint she did the same. I swung my sword sideways trying to cut her head off and she blocked it with her arm guards. The strength from my attack caused her to slide sideways and even in her final form, she seems to struggle a bit from my first attack. In an instant, she appeared right in front of me and I swing my sword upwards trying to meet her chin. Sparks flew in all direction as she blocked with her hand while flipping backward.


    ¡°Impatient aren¡¯t you.¡± She tells me as she lands on her feet. In an instant, she materialized a fireball and the heat coming from it was too much as I tilt my head sideways barely evading it.


    ¡°I¡¯m not the type of guy to wait~ Chefs coat!¡± I jump back on time as she tried to grab me from the back with her hand. She quickly sprinted towards me and her movement is faster than before, but it wasn¡¯t something I couldn¡¯t keep up with. I swung my fist towards her face clenching my hand as tightly as I can before shouting my skill, "Pound!"


    She evaded jumping to the side and I can see her with a confused expression.


    ¡°Chef? You-" She looks at me and I can see her purple iris glow in contrast to her black sclera. "You''re a blade?"


    ¡°Ah, you know about my legendary class.¡± I snarl back at her and she smiles at me like she just found out something interesting.


    ¡°It is you. The one who killed Rakh. No wonder that sword looked familiar.¡± She says as she brings her hand in midair.


    Rakh? Who the fuck is Rakh? Her husband? The giant ogre?I say in my mind.


    This time, she didn¡¯t even chant anything. A rune just appeared and slowly two axes emerged out of it and landed into her palms.


    ¡°You¡¯re a dangerous one. I can¡¯t be careless around you like before.¡± She says and as she brings both axes down the ground. The swing of her axe exploded the ground and the whole place was filled with smoke. In a split second, the smoke was blown away as she disappeared in place. In an instant, she appeared before me like magic as she swung both her axe down trying to cut my arms.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I shout my skill and with a quick shift in weight, I flew to the side evading her attack as it erupted the ground covering everything with smoke. Like before, the smoke was blown away as she disappeared in place only to appear back where she started.


    ¡°You really are a dangerous one to be able to react to that.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯m quite harmless.¡± I mock her but she pays no attention to it as she looks around trying to find something. I see her looking around and with one move of her finger; the dragon slayers emerged from the rubble and landed in front of me. ¡°Let us fight fair, human.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? Dumbass¡­It was fair with one sword¡­¡± I muttered to myself as I picked up the dragon slayer. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s skips the conversation, shall we?¡±


    She got on a stance ready to attack me and I also do the same. I took a step towards the right and she did the same till we both ended up doing a full circle. She suddenly jumped lurching forward and I see her swinging her other axe towards my side. I quickly deflected it and using a bit of my strength while carefully shifting my weight, I push the other axe away getting ready to parry the other one that¡¯s coming from another direction. We swung at each other non-stop deflecting each and every attack as sparks flew everywhere.


    ¡°Tenderize!¡± I shouted my skill as I clench my hand on the hilt of the sword while swinging towards her face. She dodged my punch and using her right leg, she shifted her weight back into position as she continued swinging at me. We got into a heated battle sending spark flying everywhere with the contact of our weapons while I send punches her way and she reciprocated with fireballs.


    ¡°Hahahahahahaha! This is the fight! human!" She shouted in ecstasy as she bombards me with attacks. But somehow, I can see she¡¯s having a hard time underneath her crazed expression.


    This¡­.is¡­. I say in my mind. If it was in the very beginning, I wouldn¡¯t be able to follow through her attacks and probably would have gotten slashed when she teleported earlier. But ever since I fought some humanoid looking cheetahs in the hidden dungeon, her movements are slow compared to them. I can see her attacks clearly and easily predict her next move. And somehow, it made it boring to fight her.


    I timed every attack and directed the weight of her swing slightly away from me.


    ¡°Urgh!!!¡± She let out a sound and I notice she is getting faster and faster.


    KICK!


    ¡°Guak!¡± She shouts in pain as I land a hit in her abdomen with my foot. Her body flew out towards the direction of my kick as she went straight for the wall exploding it.


    Well, I didn¡¯t expect her to go flying¡­I say in my mind as I watch her crash into some rubble.


    ¡°Hey Ogre Queen, your husband seems stronger than you. You¡¯re¡­.kind of¡­.weak.¡± I taunt her and I can see her face contorts in anger.


    Good, get mad. If you¡¯re mad, you won¡¯t be able to think properly. I say in my mind as I get myself ready just in case she teleports again. Like reading her mind, she disappeared again, and I quickly jump to the side expecting her to appear in front of me. Having my theory about her teleportation skill, she appeared where I was and was surprised, I reacted before she appeared. She quickly shifts the weight of her axe and swings sideways. Using the overlord¡¯s sword, I swung down as hard as I can and her axe went straight to the ground lodging in place.


    ¡°Well, hello there~¡± I whisper right close to her face and she quickly disappeared. She appeared in her original position and I can see her face starting to show weakness.


    ¡°You¡¯re not human. No human has ever deflected my teleportation attack before. What are you?¡± She asked me as she started stepping towards her right. I step towards my right matching hers and we both are circling each other again.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯m a new breed. Actually, I¡¯m not even a fighter. Unless you forgot, but I¡¯m a cook~¡± I tell her with a smile.


    ¡°Hahahaha, you are a jokester. Well then human, how about you join me?¡± She says.


    ¡°Bingo~," I say stopping in pace and she does the same.


    ¡°Bingo?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Hahahaha its nothing~ Join you? How about a no?¡± I tell her raising an eyebrow.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be cocky human. I can easily eliminate your puny exista-¡±


    ¡°haha sure~ seismic step!¡± I shout while rushing towards her. I swung straight down with all my strength on the dragon slayer and this time, rather than dodging, she tried to deflect it only to be brought to her knees. I quickly jump up above and prepared the next attack. ¡°Heavens Slice!¡±


    ¡°Rakuban Tarakbira!¡± She shouted as she swung up to me trying to deflect my attack. I notice both of her axes glowed purple and see her struggle to even swing her axe upwards. Our attacks exploded on impact. And blew everything away. It sent me flying back up towards the ceiling and I can see her jump out of the way as I send another one her way. I pointed the tip of my sword towards her while planting my legs on the ceiling of the cave.


    ¡°Pierce~¡± I whisper my new skill and the tip of my sword glowed. Using my legs, I blasted off the ceiling and came rushing down towards her with speed leaving a trail of light. She instantly disappeared as my sword went straight into the ground as I stabbed it like butter. In an instant, the area around me exploded creating a crater with a hole on the center.


    What a dumb skill.I whisper in my mind as I see her appear in a distance.She¡¯ll teleport back here any minute.


    "Pound~" I whisper my skill and I swung where I last have seen her. She disappeared and suddenly appeared in front of me as my fist lodge in her abdomen.


    ¡°Ack!¡± She groans in pain as my punch sends her flying to a wall. It erupted crumbling down exposing the hollow inside where if I remember, the gatekeeper used to be. But this time, the place was riddled with stalactites properly illuminating everything.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°You, how did you-¡°


    ¡°How did I what? Predict your position? Seriously? Are you retarded? It clearly shows me you keep teleporting back in place.¡± I mock her while walking towards her. ¡°You know, you¡¯re really weak. I expected this fight to be epic.¡±


    ¡°You damn human. How dare you-¡°


    "Blah blah blah blah, you fuckers like to run your mouth when you''re about to lose huh," I tell her and I stop right in front of her. She jumps back trying to gain distance but I didn¡¯t let her.


    ¡°Tenderize~¡± I whisper and my hand glowed red. I swung towards her as she jumped and my attack only sends her flying towards another wall.


    BOOOOOOOOOM!


    Once the smoke subsided, I see her body lodged in the wall and she slowly came off falling to the ground.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    She sees me approach her as I left my sword stabbed on the ground. I see her look up glaring at me with hatred but I can see a bit of fear masked within her expression. This time she didn''t get up as she coughed out blood and one of her hands is covering the wound on her chest. I actually blew off her armor and shredded her clothes to pieces.


    ¡°You damn human!!¡± She shouted and I can see her spitting blood everywhere. She removed her hands off her chest exposing herself and I can see her fist glow purple.


    "Huh, you got the same attack as me? Well, this should be fun~" I whisper as I kept advancing towards her. She swung a fist my way and a purple light came out turning into a fireball. "Well shit, that was anticlimactic. Chef''s coat~"


    Using the back of my left hand, I swat her fireball away like it was nothing. She kept sending one after the other and it was so weak I didn¡¯t even feel it burn my skin. Using my skill, I quickly dodge everything while closing the distance between us. I grab her by the wrist pulling it up. Using little force, I punched her elbow joint and I can see it snap the wrong way.


    ¡°Aghrrrh!!!¡± She screamed in pain as I let go of her broken arm.


    ¡°Oh? You are a bit strong after all. That attack didn¡¯t sever your arm off.¡± I tell her as I look into her eyes. I can see black tears coming out briefly as her face is mixed with hatred and pain. ¡°Hmmm, what if I bend this?¡±


    I say as I put pressure on her arm forcing it to bend more the opposite way.


    ¡°ArghhhhhhhaaahhhH!!! Stop it-¡°


    I grabbed her by her mouth muffling her voice and using all my strength, I smashed her head to the ground.


    "Oh what, you like it ogre queen? It would be my pleasure!!"I shouted as I picked up her hand and slammed it down the ground over and over again until I saw some of her teeth break off her mouth.


    She tried to swing at me with her left hand and I quickly grab it and held it in place with my right.


    "You are a boring enemy," I whisper on her ear. Then I pulled her head back and using a decent amount of force, I bashed her head one more time against the ground creating a bigger crater as her head lodge inside. I pulled her up and her face looks like a warzone. A lot of her teeth are missing and her nose is broken bending the wrong way. Thinking she¡¯ll start begging for her life, she opened her eyes and looked at mine while smiling.


    ¡°Just¡­..you¡­ wait. The other overlords will kill you.¡± She muffles to me and I gave her a smile sinister enough to make her complexion pale. I let go of her head and walked towards the sword I lodged in the ground earlier. I slowly pulled making sure she hearts the blade unsheathing from the ground.


    ¡°The other overlords you say?¡± I ask her but I can see her gaze towards the sword. She quickly lit up another fireball on her remaining hand and tried throwing it at me. Using seismic step, I close the distance between us while dodging her attack and in one clean swing; I cut her hand off from her wrist. She screamed as I see her bleed everywhere.


    ¡°You damn human! You damn human-" I grab her by her hair interrupting her from screaming.


    ¡°Since you like to fly so much, let me do it deliberately this time. Fly ogre queen, fly!~¡± I sang as I yanked her hair. Using all my strength, I pulled on her hair and swung her around.


    ¡°A-ah! S-stop! sto-" She tried begging but suddenly stopped as her hair rips off her head. I hear her scream in pain as she flies out of my grasp out towards the main cave.


    "Well, she''s going to be mad being bald," I whisper as I walk out the cave dropping her hair on the ground. As soon as I got out, I see her on the ground bleeding. Both her arms are immobilized and I can see her trying to stand with just her legs.


    ¡°Ogre queen~ what¡¯re you up to?¡± I shout out as I approach her. She quickly looks at me and I can see her struggle more trying to stand up.


    ¡°Y-you! You¡¯re not human!¡± She screams at me.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯m human. I¡¯m really a human~¡± I tell her as I slowly get closer where she¡¯s at. I see her on her knees and when she¡¯s about to stand up, I whispered in her ear.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t stand if I were you. That would make me want to cut your legs off~¡±


    She froze in place and didn¡¯t even bother looking at me, as I got right in front of her.


    ¡°I-I- b-beg-¡°


    ¡°Please don¡¯t beg ogre queen~ the ogre king begged and I ended up skinning him alive." I interrupted her. "Let''s skip these sappy moments, I need information. Maybe you can help me out."Stolen story; please report.


    ¡°W-what do you want to know?¡± She asked me without looking at my face.


    ¡°Hm, just a minute ago you were throwing fireballs at me. Now, you look like a puppy waiting to be pet." I tell her as I pet her head. I can see she¡¯s bleeding all over the place and her breathing is getting heavy. ¡°Ok give me a minute, I need to stop the bleeding~ Sky King''s Breath~," I whisper before blowing hot air into my sword. I kicked her to the ground and using the hot part of the dragon slayer, I touched the severed section of her hand burning it shut.


    ¡°Arghhhh!!!!!! Stop!!!¡± She shouted in pain and tried to squirm but couldn¡¯t do anything as I sat on top of her.


    ¡°Rakubrua-¡°


    ¡°Attack me and that¡¯s when you head flies off. Bear it ogre queen, I¡¯m making sure you don¡¯t die~¡± I tell her as I look at her in the eye and I feel her body shaking but she stopped chanting and even tried to muffle her own voice. After burning her open wound, the bleeding has stopped but I can see she looks out of energy already.


    ¡°Hey~ You alive?¡± I ask her lightly slapping her cheeks and she nods in agreement while breathing. ¡°About the other overlords. What the fuck is that?¡±


    ¡°huah* hah*¡­cough¡­.cough*¡­.There is a-an overlord¡­.cough* ¡­council made by a group of strong demons¡­.each overlord control an area and was made...cough* cough*¡­ as the sole purpose of joining Luro on the beyond.¡± She tells me.


    Join luro? Why the hell does everyone wants to join him?I say in my mind.


    ¡°Where is Luro?¡± I asked her getting right to the point.


    ¡°I-I have no knowledge of his whereabouts.¡± She tells me weakly as she pants in place.


    ¡°You¡¯re not lying to me are you?¡± I whisper in her ears.


    ¡°N-no I¡¯m not. T-the only one who knows where Luro is probably the one who created the overlord council. Rank 1 overlord, Unum.¡±


    ¡°Other overlords? You mean there are more overlords?¡± I ask her. ¡°Where¡¯s Unum?¡±


    ¡°N-no one ¡­knows. We only see him on council meets.¡± She tells me and I can see her struggling to stay awake. I can notice her breathing slowly returning to normal which probably means she''s slowly healing or gaining her strength. Even if she''s without arms, I need to be careful around her. One careless mistake can lead to my death. She is still my enemy.


    "You don''t know anything do you..." I tell her and she didn''t respond. "Us? So you''re an overlord? Hahaha, no use of hiding you bitch. Answer my question or I''ll kill you right here."


    ¡°Y-Yes. I¡¯m an overlord. But don¡¯t rejoice you reduced me to this state. I¡¯m also one of the weakest.¡± She tells me as she looks towards my way locking her eyes with mine.


    ¡°Reduced you to this state? What? This is all you got?¡± I asked her while raising an eyebrow. ¡°I only kicked you and punched you. Didn¡¯t you power up or something earlier? What was it? Ah~ ehem¡­* Human, congratulations. You made me show my final form...pfft~ look at you know~ ¡±


    I guess she¡¯s too focused on regenerating and she shows no sign of care to my mockery.


    ¡°I used all my strength behind every swing but you deflected them like it¡¯s child play.¡± She tells me.


    I thought those were normal swings¡­I say in my mind.


    ¡°Hmm, I guess I''m far stronger than I think," I say to myself looking at my palms. ¡°Hmmm, maybe I¡¯m overpowered now in this world.¡±


    "That is why we should join forces. With your strength, we can slowly raise the ranks and beat all the overlords." She tells me.


    ¡°Pfft! Now, why would I go and do that?!" I asked her and she didn''t respond.


    This bitch stopped breathing hard. Be careful Yasu. I tell myself in my mind.


    "Ogre queen, why do you think you keep asking me to join you? You know you can''t beat me. You knew from the beginning. Also, I did, the minute you asked me that question."


    ¡°Wh-what?¡± She asked looking confused.


    "You see, it''s the nature of living things with an intellect such as you and me to try and survive. If you can''t beat them, either get them to join you or join them. That''s why you keep asking me to join you. Because you know that you will never beat me. Bingo~¡±


    I laughed but she just lay there doing nothing. ¡°You, what rank are you from the overlords?¡±


    .


    .


    .


    "I''m waiting," I tell her gripping my sword tightly and showing it to her.


    ¡°I-I- I¡¯m the last rank. Rank eight of the overlord council.¡± She tells me without looking me in the eye.


    ¡°Last rank?! Hahaha, that means you''re weaker than the one inside the hidden dungeon! Wait, don¡¯t tell me the giant husband of yours is also an overlord?¡±


    ¡°He is not an overlord. Only I¡¯m given the title of an overlord.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Who¡¯s Rakh you mentioned earlier? And how do you get the title?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Rakh is overlord rank 7. The one you fought in the hidden dungeon. And to get the title of an overlord, Unum has to bestow it upon you.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Hmm, so I got to find out where Unum is to find Luro," I mutter to myself thinking.


    Now I got a lead and can continue. The faster I kill Luro, the faster I get home.Since she can¡¯t give me any more information, now is the time to decide what to do with her. I say in my mind.


    ¡°I-If you don¡¯t want to join forces. T-then let me join you.¡± She said suddenly.


    ¡°Join me?¡± I asked. This is the first an actual enemy wanted to join me instead. ¡°Hmmm, that¡¯s not a bad idea.¡±


    I whisper and I see her eyes lit up with hope. But in reality, I either will leave her to bleed to death or kill her after this. An enemy is always an enemy.


    "Hey, how do we do that council meets?" I asked her but she didn''t respond. ¡°hey~¡±


    She looked like time stopped for her. She didn¡¯t blink. She didn¡¯t move. She didn¡¯t breathe.


    ¡°Oh shit. Hey, did you just fucking pass out?¡± I shout slapping her face but nothing. Yet, the way she stares into nothing makes me feel like there is something off. She looks like she just froze in place and stared at the ceiling. I moved to the side but her gaze didn''t follow me and just stared in mid-air.


    ¡°What the-¡°


    "You who are eliminating my council members." She started speaking but her voice got deep as if she was possessed by a demon.


    Ah, I see how it is. I whisper in my mind.


    "Ha, a demon possessing a demon," I whisper and her head suddenly turned my way but the expression on her face never changed. "Let me guess, you must be Unum."


    The minute I mention his name, the ogre queen¡¯s face put on a smile that¡¯s not physically possible. I hear her jaw cracking as it dislocates in place. Then it hanged down her face completely leaving her mouth wide open that big enough for both my fist to fit in.


    ¡°Yes, I know who you are. Yasu.¡± Even though I don¡¯t see her mouth move, I hear a voice coming out.


    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you well informed? Say, where are you? Where¡¯s luro?¡± I asked but no response.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°In due time we will meet, Yasu." The voice came out and out of nowhere, the ogre queen started convulsing and screaming. She exploded into pieces splattering me with blood and flesh.


    ¡°Fucking hell¡­¡± I shout as I try to wipe the blood off my face. ¡°Bastard exploded her.¡±


    I sat around to see if the ogre queen would return back to normal just in case she has regenerative abilities like the ogre king but nothing. Her flesh is still scattered around everywhere.


    Well, let me collect whatever I can cook.I say in my mind.


    I started walking around and picking up the flesh of the ogre queen. She really erupted into tiny pieces and I only managed to grab a few handfuls of chunks of meat before I decided to give up.


    ¡°Fuck, it¡¯s like I¡¯m collecting minced meat. This shit will take forever if I try to get everything.¡± I say as I store in my bag whatever chunks I got. I started looking around the room to see where my dragon slayer dropped and I found the ogre queen¡¯s two axes in the process.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    Ogre Queen''s twin axe


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    One-hand


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Durability:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    2000/2000


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Quality:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Mystic


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">


    A prized possession of the Ogre Queen.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm, seems weaker than the dragon slayer. Might be still useful or maybe has some value.I say in my mind. I put the axe away in my bag along with my dragon slayer. Since the portal is broken, there¡¯s no way I can go out from this side. I check the whole area and there is no hidden chest or whatsoever so I decided to walk towards the safe zone.


    I wonder if she woke up.I say in my mind as I walk back.


    "Wait, I need to get gatekeeper ashes," I say rushing back.


    But there¡¯s too much dust and rubble that it was to know which is the gatekeeper and which is dust. Inspect doesn¡¯t work so I decided to just head back.


    ¡°You¡¯re so lucky you damn witch stick," I whisper to myself as I walk back empty handed.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have entered a safe zone.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I quickly approached where she was knocked out and I see the food, potion, and the clothes were all gone along with her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± I whisper to myself as I approach the room where the hidden entrance is. ¡°Huh, nothing. Where the hell did she go?¡±


    I went back out towards the circular room and that''s when I noticed light coming from the door where my old room used to be. As I enter, I see some torches scattered around illuminating the dark path. I walked further until I reached the other door and the minute I got in, I see her sleeping near a few torches.


    ¡°What the fuck, how can you sleep so soundly. Still baffles me how these torches never go out unless you put it out." I mutter to myself as I walked towards her. I squat next to her and I can see her breathing normally. ¡°Wakey wakey~¡±


    I slapped her awake and her eyes went wide in shock while looking around the room disoriented from being woken up abruptly. Her gaze slowly focused on me and I can see her eyes get a bit teary.


    "Good morning~," I say trying to smile and wave at her. But she looks at my hand and see¡¯s bloodstains which I got from picking up the ogre queen flesh. This probably scared her as she quickly bolts towards the dark corner of the room.


    ¡°Not this again," I say as I walk towards where she ran off.


    I don¡¯t have time for this.I say in my mind.


    "Hey, witch stick. Listen, I don''t have time to babysit you. I got better things to do that force you to come out of here. If you want to stay here, be my guest. I''m leaving. But know the fact that I did try to get you out and didn¡¯t abandon you. I¡¯m not like them.¡± I tell her before turning around heading towards the hallway.


    I¡¯m not like them. I¡¯m not leaving her, she chose to stay.But something in my mind keeps repeating over and over again and my heart is tightening.


    You''re leaving her?


    You''re leaving her?


    You''re leaving her?


    You''re leaving her?


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shouted as I turned around and I feel something bump into me.


    ¡°Ah!¡± she yelps faintly as she fell on her ass.


    Was she following me this whole time?!I shout in my mind surprised I didn¡¯t even notice her.For all I know, she could have easily stabbed me.


    ¡°Fucking say something next time!!¡± I screamed at her and she flinched with her eyes closed like she¡¯s waiting for me to hit her.


    What the fuck. I say in my mind.


    "You''re the one who made me fall," she mumbled saying something but I quickly turned around and started walking. Since I know she¡¯s behind me following, I¡¯m more aware of her existence and it¡¯s making uncomfortable.


    ¡°Dammit. You come here.¡± I say turning around startling her. ¡°Must you become surprised every damn time?¡±


    ¡°W-what?¡± She stutters.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like people walking behind me. Walk in front of me towards that room and I¡¯ll follow behind you.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°B-but..I-I¡¯m-¡° She tells me stuttering.


    ¡°You¡¯re what? Just go.¡± I tell her and she slowly walked towards the roomwhere the tiny pond is located. As she walked, she slowly steals glances at me every now and then, which I paid no attention to. Once we got to the room, she started looking around and somehow her face expression changed. It reminds me like I''m staring at a dead fish. I pay no attention to her and started inspecting the waterfall.


    "So if I just break this¡­ok, stand back-" The minute I turn around I see her standing there without her clothes looking at me with her dead fish expression. "What the fu-¡°


    ¡°Just get it over with!¡± She screamed at me closing her eyes. I can see her body shaking. We both stood in place for a minute and not once she opened her eyes to look at me.


    ¡°What in the actual fuck are you doing?¡± I tell her and she quickly looked at me with tears in her eyes.


    ¡°Y-you. You brought me here knowing there is no exit. They bring me to rooms when there is no exit because of¡­o-of that.¡± She points down towards my private part. Then I remembered how I found her. She must have had a tough time.


    Sigh*


    "Look. I''m not here to do any of that shit. Put your clothes back on. All I was going to say is stand back unless you want me to punch you with the wall?" I tell her raising an eyebrow and she quickly dressed up with fear in her expression.


    ¡°W-what are you going to-¡°


    "Pound," I say my skill interrupting her. I swung towards the wall as hard as I can and it created a crater enough to form large cracks on it. I look at the water gushing through a lot stronger and as I was about to punch it again, the wall started crumbling exposing the other side.


    ¡°I really got strong huh¡­¡± I whisper to myself remembering how I struggled to even destroy it a year ago. ¡°What the hell is this?¡±


    The other side of the wall looks completely different. The stream of water was actually coming from a canal on the ground and the whole area is a long dark hallway rather than a dark cave.


    ¡°So Luro changed this also?¡± I whisper to myself as I walk out.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have exited a safe zone.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Item bag.¡± I took out a stalactite to use as my light source since the area is as dark as I remember. ¡°Well then, time to go see sunlight, sick and tired of this darkness.¡±


    I started walking through the darkness. And I hear her scamper to get behind me. I abruptly stop and she bumps in my back.


    ¡°Ah!¡± She yelped as she rubs her forehead.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you look where you¡¯re going?¡± I snarl at her and she just glared at me.


    What? She¡¯s mad? She¡¯s the one who bumped into me!I scream in my mind.


    "You, witch stick, walk in front," I order her and I can see her expression is getting worse. But at least it''s not the same as the dead fish one she had.


    ¡°My name is Suyeon, you fuck.¡± I hear her mumble and it¡¯s making me want to leave her in the dark.


    But instead, I had a conversation in my mind.If you do that, you¡¯re no better than them. After she¡¯s out, bring her to a town and leave her ass there.


    But she deserves to be left in the dark. Remember she made you blind.


    Yes, I know but I rather bite my tongue and not say anything than leave her like what they did to me.


    True.


    But, she''s really ungrateful, isn''t she?


    Yea, fucking ungrateful skinny piece of shit. After I save her, she gave me an attitude!


    She blinded me, almost got me killed, and what do I get? A fucking attitude!


    I wish I had the gatekeepers ashes.


    I wish I had the gatekeepers ashes.


    I wish I had the gatekeepers ashes.


    .


    .


    .


    We walked through the hallway non- stop. It seems like she''s tired or thirsty but never said anything so I didn''t act on it. I don''t know how long have we been walking but she suddenly collapses.


    "Hey," I say as I walked towards her side. ¡°Dead fish, You alive? What the fuck is wro-¡°


    I suddenly stop as touch her forehead and it felt like a hot stone. Fever. This chick has a fever.


    ¡°Great. Just goddamn great.¡± I say as I see her breathing hard.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m s-sorry.¡± She whispers as she tries to stand but somehow she having a hard time. ¡°Huh? I-I can¡¯t move.¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, I had fever back on earth before, stop playing around," I tell her as I stand up.


    ¡°N-no. I-I really can¡¯t move!¡± She screamed at me and I can see worry and fear in her eyes. I decided to test her and started walking away to see if she would stand up and follow me. But All she did was muffled cries and I see her struggle trying to just lift up her upper body from the ground.


    She¡¯s not joking.I whisper in my mind while letting out a sigh.Why is this girl so much trouble to just get outside? What is she? The origin of bad luck?


    I walked back towards where she is and as I got close, she looked up to me with tears on her eyes.


    ¡°P-please, don¡¯t leave me.¡± She stutters as she tried to hold back her tears but I can see her eyes already full of water ready to run down her cheeks.


    I picked her up throwing her ragdoll body over my shoulder.


    ¡°W-what are you-" she tried to say something.


    ¡°Would you shut up?¡± I say over my shoulder. She really can¡¯t move, her arms swayed around like a ragdoll. ¡°Fucking hell. This is the most I have done to help someone. Fucking hell.¡±


    I carried her on my shoulder but I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because of her body but I started feeling hot also.


    I don¡¯t know how long I was walking in that dark hallway but I finally made it out. After reaching the end of it, we arrived at a cave. There was a giant pond in the center that glowed blue the minute we approached it. I see the bottom is filled with blue crystal stalactites making the water crystal cyan color. I set her down near the water and let her rest while I inspected around the cave to see if there¡¯s another path since it seems like a dead end. I glance back towards her and I see her breathing is starting to stabilize.


    ¡°Is she sleeping?¡± I whisper as I observe her from a distance. ¡°This girl is fucking sleeping. Wow. How can you sleep at a time like this?¡±


    Since it¡¯s useless to have her awake, I let her sleep and approached a wall towards the far right. I notice something was carved within the rocks. A man is holding a sword fighting a crab with a rat¡¯s upper body.


    Wait, is that me?I say in my mind as I remember I fought a crab rat in here. I look more into the design and I see the same man with the sword drowning and a hand is pulling him out of the water.


    "So someone pulled me out of the water," I whisper. "Luro. He¡¯s the first one I saw when I woke up. Well what do you know, that demon has a conscience after all.¡±


    I kept on observing the design until I got towards the end and words are carved into a box.


    ¡°Perdere Omnia?" I whisper reading the inscription. Once I read it, the words lit up the same color as the crystal under the water. Then the whole place started shaking violently as the wall with the inscription crumbled exposing a dark beyond. But the shaking never stopped. And I think I know why.


    If I remember correctly, I used to take Latin classes when I had the time and, Perdere Omnia are Latin words that translate to, destroy everything. I stood around looking at torches light up one after another exposing another hallway on the other end.


    ¡°Destroy everything huh. I wonder how-¡° My body went rigid as I see the hallway where we came from slowly being eaten by a black hole.

 CHAPTER 30: Left puzzled

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 30: Left puzzled


    <hr>


    ¡°H-holy shit!¡± I see the black hole slowly moving towards us slowly absorbing everything leaving only pure darkness behind it. I look where I left Suyeon and I can see her body slowly being pulled towards the black hole.


    ¡°Shit! Seismic Step!!¡± I shouted my skill and I ran for her. As soon as I got close, I grab her by the waist. Even though I was quite a distance away, the pull from the black hole was too strong I started sliding towards the black ripple that¡¯s the size of a basketball. ¡°Argh!!¡±


    Using all my strength, I slowly moved away from the black hole fighting its gravity pull. I kept inching towards the crumbled wall and once I got far enough where I can move freely, I threw Suyeon in my shoulder and looked back as it erased any trace of the hidden dungeon existence.


    ¡°W-what the fuck...¡± I watched it absorbed everything like a vacuum. Without any second thoughts, I ran towards the hallway that probably leads to another dead end. ¡°Fuck.¡±


    There¡¯s a new path that might lead to a dead end. I whisper in my mind as I ran as fast as I can. I need to figure it out quick before this black hole reaches us.


    ¡°Seismic Step!¡± I sprinted towards the new path trying to get as far away as I can. Every time I glance back, I see nothing but darkness as the torches turn off after I pass them. But yet, I can shake off the nervousness as I hear it chip away everything from a distance bit by bit. The path itself was another dark tunnel. I would turn left, turn right, go up, go down, but it seems endless as I don¡¯t see any source of light from a distance. I kept running up until I ran into a body of water.


    ¡°Ah damn," I mutter to myself as I run into a puddle that started to get waist deep. I hear a stream, most likely a waterfall somewhere but the place is so dark, I can only see what my tiny stalactite illuminate.


    ¡°Item bag.¡± I took out a couple more stalactites and threw them around. As I get a better vision, I was introduced to a familiar place. I remember scaling the wall to get above the waterfall. Hoping that this changed also, I looked around for any staircase that can lead up but nothing. It¡¯s as if this place was untouched to the point that I even see the marks on the wall I made a year ago. Since my seismic step is still activated, I quickly jumped up and easily got above the waterfall without breaking a sweat.


    "Well, this one is different," I whisper looking at a rotating lever above a grate, which probably stops the waterfall if I turn it. ¡°No point on trying to turn off the water, it¡¯s not going to stop that fucking thing


    Without wasting any more time, I sprint down towards where I think the crab rat would be. As I got closer, the cave turned into a gigantic hallway and torches on the wall ignited as I pass them illuminating everything.


    "So this one changed also," I whisper as I run through with ease. As soon as I see the end of the hallway, I see a giant double door closed shut. I didn''t bother knocking to see if anyone''s there and decided to just burst through using my pound skill, I punched the door blasting it off the hinges as it fell forward. I quickly ran in, seeing the place empty with no sign of the crab rat. I quickly turned around to look at the hallway I just came from and all I see is darkness, which doesn¡¯t help ease, my nervousness. I tried to control my breathing and set Suyeon down. Running by myself would have been easy but carrying her, even though she looks like a stick, she still had a decent weight that took out my stamina faster than before.


    ¡°I don''t hear the black hole anymore, but that doesn''t mean it stopped coming my way," I say as I slowly turn back around and that''s when I saw it from a distance above some steps. "Well, this is also new."


    I walked towards the portal in the far end dragging Suyeon with me and placing her near the steps. The place looks like a giant hall where a king should be but the throne is replaced with the portal and stalactites hang off the ceiling like chandeliers to light the area. The surrounding walls have small holes where water is coming out off and onto a canal on the ground. There are bookshelves, tables, and chairs scattered around the area along with overgrowth of weed and vines running along the wall making it look like an old ruin.


    "I need to find a way to turn this on," I whisper looking at the portal that looked like it hasn¡¯t been used in ages. ¡°No point on going crazy, think Yasu think.¡±


    If I think about it, the crab rat might be a hidden boss and if I kill it, the portal will activate. Like the way the sky king dungeon works. I whisper in my mind as I look around hoping it will come out of the dark parts of the room. But nothing, all I was left with is with the eerie quietness of the place along with the sound of water hitting the ground. I walked around the portal hoping there''s a switch and that''s when I notice a stone slap on top a pedestal near the portal. As I approach it, the carved words lit up making it easier for me to read.


    To open the portal, one must find the pillars of truth. Let the great truth enter the belly of your destiny. The crab and the rat will point the way to follow the stream for it will lead you to civilization.


    "Fuck, another riddle," I whisper to myself. "This is the last thing I want."


    Solving this might take hours and I don¡¯t even know where the black hole is at or how far is it away from me. But I have no choice. I don¡¯t want to wait around for a black hole to eat me alive.


    ¡°Ok, ok, calm down. Look for pillars. Find the pillars of truth." I say as I look around the room and there are no pillars what so ever. "Shit."


    As I walk back down the steps, I notice the ground below has five holes with different shapes in the middle of the room. I see a square, triangle, thin rectangle, pentagon, and hexagon holes. The holes are in the middle of a circles slab that needs to be rotated to match the outer picture.


    ¡°This must be it!¡± I shout in excitement. "If I turn all these circles to match the design in the ground, this might open the portal!"


    I started looking around the area and found one stick that has a square in the bottom. The handle looks like a fasces pillar, which is mainly used to describe a couple of things like strength, power, and authority back at earth. I quickly ran back to the middle and placed it down the correct shape. I turned it clockwise and the stone underneath turned with it making me rotate with the slab, as I stand right on top of it. I turned until it matched with the image on its frame and it clicked in place. The stick was ripped from my grasp as it got sucked into the hole and stone emerge from the hole closing it. Completing one section, I quickly looked around the room for more sticks. I found one located on the door itself and quickly turned the image.


    ¡°Two down! Three more to go!¡± I say to myself as I frantically look around the room. I might have gained enough distance from that black hole but, if that thing goes faster as it eats more of the dungeon, I might not have enough time as I think. I found another stick located in one of the holes where the water was coming out. I noticed one of them had a weaker stream and looking inside the hole, the stick was blocking the water flow. I quickly took it and placed it on the corresponding shape on the floor. After turning it, the stick disappeared from my grasp as soon as the image matched and it clicked in place.


    ¡°Ok, making good progress. Three down, two more to go!¡± I study the holes and the last two-piece I need is the thin rectangle and a hexagon. ¡°Ok, where are you.¡±


    I rummage through the shelves, rubble, tipping tables, but nothing.


    ¡°Fuck! Where is it!¡± I screamed getting frustrated. ¡°Calm down. Calm down Yasu. If you''re not calm, you don''t think properly."


    I looked in every corner of the room but nothing. I feel a fever creeping into me. It seems like whatever she caught I also got. It¡¯s making it really difficult to move as my joints become sensitive. I decided to take a seat into one of the chairs and catching a breather while eating meat to regain my strength.


    If I overwork myself now and really render my movement, I¡¯m good as dead.I say and I look up where Suyeon is and she¡¯s still sleeping.


    "Useless," I mutter as I munch on meat. But I know for the fact that, if I caught the same fever she has, I won''t be able to move later on. I quickly eat trying to regain a bit of energy but it wasn¡¯t enough as I started coughing phlegm. My vision is getting blurry at times and I feel that if I sit any longer, I might not be able to stand up.


    ¡°Fuck, Where can be those two pieces be-¡° My voice stops as I notice one of the legs of the chair is the shape of a hexagon. ¡°Found one!¡±


    I broke the chair and the stick broke free. I quickly ran towards the hexagon hole and placed the stick in it. Using my remaining strength, I turned the stone slab until it clicked in place and the stick was pulled off my grasp disappearing into the hole.


    ¡°Ok! One more to go." I say as I look around for something flat enough to fit the thin rectangle. But nothing decided to go up where the portal is just in case it''s within the frame but nothing. I decided to look down to get a bigger picture of what the image is.


    ¡°Hah, I was right. It¡¯s the damn crab rat.¡± I whisper to myself. I see it¡¯s almost complete. The only last one is right in the center where its belly supposes to be.


    Once I turn it that last circle, which will complete the picture.I say in my mind.


    I ran back down and looked around some more for something that would fit the remaining pillar but nothing. There is nothing in this room that is the same shape like that. I tried the boards on the shelves, the chairs, I even cut wood using my sword to fit the thin rectangle but it wouldn''t budge. It has to be a lever like the rest of them.


    ¡°Where the fuck is it!?¡± I shouted getting agitated and anxious as I think about how far the black hole has traveled. I flipped the whole place upside down. Broke every chair and table, ripped the doors apart, but nothing fits the remaining hole.


    ¡°Calm down. Calm down. Maybe we¡¯re missing something.¡± I say as I ran back to the riddle and reread the sentence one more time.


    ¡°Ok, I know I need to find the pillar of truth. The pillars of truth are basically the fucking levers. And I¡¯m missing one.¡±


    I start to feel a headache as I start to overthink things.


    Maybe it¡¯s in the safe room? Or is it somewhere in the back there in the dark? Does the crab rat have it? Fuck!So many thoughts entered my mind and it''s making my head feel like it is going to burst.


    ¡°Ugh!!¡± I groan tapping my head to subside the pain.


    I tried carving more wood the same size but it won¡¯t work. I tried forcing it to turn with my hands but even with my strength, it won¡¯t turn.


    "Shit shit shit shit," I whisper as I feel that the fever is getting worse along with the pounding on my head. ¡°It should be here. The last lever should be here.¡±


    I looked at the picture to see if I can find a clue but nothing. I ran back to the riddle and re-read it again. "Let the great truth enter the belly of your destiny. ¡°Fuck!!"


    I suddenly felt vomiting as I try my best to stand upright. I tried to control my self by closing my eyes breathing slowly to slow down the pace of my heart. As soon as I felt a bit calm, I opened my eyes and looked at the riddle one more time.


    ¡°Calm down. This is all Luro''s trick. Fucking testing my patience." I whisper as I look at the riddle over and over again. "Ok, maybe I found all the pillars. Let the great truth enter the belly of your destiny? What the fuck does this mean...¡±


    I have been out of school for a year without studying or any academic activities, I feel like I¡¯ve become stupid. I have turned stupid.


    ¡°Ugh!! I feel fucking useless! Dammit!¡± I shouted at myself getting frustrated coming across something I should have figured out or solved easily. ¡°Enter the belly of your destiny? Great truth? Come on come on come on. Think god damn fucking think!¡±


    I ran towards the steps going down and when I looked at the image one more time, that when I noticed it.


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± My voice trails as I approach the remaining circle. The last one I haven¡¯t turned is basically the belly of the crab rat in the picture. ¡°Let the great truth enter the belly of your destiny¡­like a great sword? But I don¡¯t have a- wait¡­. how about my dragon slayer?¡±


    I took out my dragon slayer out my dimensional bag.


    ¡°Let the great truth enter the belly of your destiny¡­¡± My voice trails off as I position myself properly. Then using my brute strength, I pushed down my dragon slayer in the ground within the thin rectangle hole. I went through up until it stopped and I felt something click underneath.


    ¡°Aha!¡± I say as I feel my sword click in place as I stab it all the way in the ground. I slowly turn my sword and the slab turns with it. ¡°It works!¡±


    I quickly turned the circle until it matched the bigger picture and in a quick motion, my dragon slayer was sucked into the ground disappearing from my grasp.


    ¡°Holy shit! No! Fuck!!¡± I was caught off guard and now I lost one of my good weapons to the ground. ¡°Fuck! It¡¯s just a sword. It¡¯s just a fucking sword! Dammit!¡±


    I stomped on the ground but it never spits back out my dragon slayer. I mostly lose sight of my weapons during a fight but I know for the fact that I''ll find it after. But this time, I''m not sure if I''m getting it back and I feel empty losing something that has been with me for a while.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ¡°Dammit! Relax Yasu, relax." I say to myself. "It''s just a sword. At least you can get out of he-" I suddenly stop when I look up where the portal is and it looks exactly the same. Nothing has changed. I matched the entire picture, the ground took my sword, but the portal is still the same.


    ¡°Argh! What else does this shit need to open?!¡± I shout running up the steps. I have been here for a while trying to solve this riddle and the black hole is probably getting closer any minute. I was just thinking of using my skill to destroy the wall until I get outside but I don''t know how far I am from the surface or if there''s actually a surface. For all I know, I''m in a different dimension.


    ¡°Fuck! Fuck! Fu- hah, relax Yasu. Fucking relax.¡± I tried to calm myself by taking in deep breaths.


    Ok, Yasu maybe you¡¯re missing something.I started talking to myself to help elevate the stress a bit. What is it Yasu?


    "Your fucking brain," I replied to my own question and all of a sudden, the whole place started shaking like there¡¯s an earthquake and the chandeliers on top started breaking off the roof shattering into pieces as soon as it hits the ground. I froze in place looking at the hallway thinking the black hole will come out any minute but it didn¡¯t. The place just shook violently. The water coming out of the walls suddenly burst out and the water level overlapped the canals causing it to spread everywhere. I run back at the pedestal to read the riddle one more time.


    ¡°O-ok r-r-relax. You''re still alive. You still have time. you got this. Relax and solve the fucking thing. T-the next one is the crab and the r-rat will point the way?¡± My whole body is shaking and the fever isn¡¯t helping my condition. I look back down at the pic and there¡¯s only one direction the crab rat¡¯s claws are aiming at and that''s out the hallway where I came from.


    ¡°Lead the way? That thing is pointing back out the fucking hallway!¡± I shouted at the stupid pedestal. ¡°Does it want me to go back- Wait! Don''t tell me¡­The lever!!¡±


    I run back out towards the waterfall and the place shook so muchthe torches came off the walls and I see the ceiling and the floor forming cracks like it''ll crumble any minute.


    ¡°Fuck! Seismic step!¡± I quickly bolt down but if I¡¯m not careful, I might run into the black hole by accident ending my life in an instant. The minute I got towards where the lever was, the water was practically bursting out a strong stream towards the edge. I slowly approach the edge to see if the black hole is anywhere close but instead, I see a familiar face. The crab rat was wandering on the floor below and the minute it noticed me, it let out a high screeching sound ending with a squeak.


    ¡°Oho, fucking ugly vermin. We meet agai-¡° I suddenly stopped talking the minute I saw it ripped to shreds in an instant. Its arms flew off its body as something invisible ripped it off and I see more of its parts starting from its back being ripped off piece by piece.


    "Oh fuck, it''s here!" I screamed as I see the black hole emerge as it ate the cave itself and it slowly ripping the crab rat to shreds erasing its existence in an instant. I quickly grab the lever and pushed it clockwise. I push the lever rotating it but it never clicked and I turned and turned continuously. If I let go, the level will slowly turn the opposite direction. ¡°Fuck! Come on!¡±


    I feel the gravitational pull of the tiny black hole getting stronger and it¡¯s making it harder for me to move and turn the lever. After going around one more time, it clicked in place and like the pillars, the lever was pulled to the ground. Rather than the hole filling up, it got bigger and a blue crystal sword came out of the ground. The waterfall magically reversed its direction as the water traveled up heading towards the portal room. I quickly took the sword out and the place shook violently more than ever causing parts of the ceiling and walls to collapse. I suddenly fell on my knees as the fever got worse and I feel my body becoming stiff.


    ¡°Oh fuck! Not now!!¡± I shout in frustration as I hit my knees but I feel like my arms are also becoming stiff and numb. It felt like the black hole is right next to me even though it¡¯s still at the bottom of the waterfall absorbing everything. Rubble, dirt, everything was flying past me and next thing I know, I was sliding off the ground slowly elevating. Using my last bit of strength, I stabbed the crystal sword onto the ground as far as I can and hold on to stop myself from sliding.


    ¡°Agrhh!!¡± I tried holding on as my life depends on it. It feels like something is pulling on my legs so much it feels like it¡¯s going to rip me in half. ¡°Chef¡¯s Coat! Overdrive!¡±


    I feel like I¡¯m slowly losing the grip on the sword. The minute my skill encased my body, I managed to pull myself closer to the ground and regaining the movement of my legs, I lodge my foot on the floor and used all the muscle on my legs to jump forward like a frog trying to gain distance away from the black hole. The ground below me erupted and I managed to gain an enough of a distance to be able to freely move my body. I quickly got up and sprinted towards the portal without hesitation. I still feel something pulling me and as soon as I looked back, I see the black hole from the distance as it absorbs all of the torches that were lit up when as I passed them. It¡¯s moving at a faster rate than before slowly gaining up to me turning everything behind it into pure darkness.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I shouted as I ran towards the portal room as fast as I can. This time, I see a light towards the end of the hall and as soon as I got into the portal room, I see it turned on brightly lighting up the whole area. I ran towards Suyeon and when I was about to grab her, something hits me from the side taking all the air out of me as my body flew towards a wall.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I hit the wall in the far end and came crashing down on the ground that has a foot of water. As I look up, I see another crab rat slowly getting up the steps towards Suyeon.


    ¡°Get the fuck out of my way! Tenderize!¡± I shouted my skill as I swung towards the crab rat from a distance. My attack sent the crab rat flying to the other wall and using this opportunity, I ran towards the portal and the rising water didn¡¯t help as it made it difficult to even lift up my legs. As I got closer towards the steps, I see the black hole absorb the hallway and its also heading for the portal absorbing everything.


    ¡°Fucking hell!!¡± I shouted as I ran as fast as I can trying to beat the black hole. I felt its gravity pull as if a group of people is pulling me back. I see the crab rat also running towards me, and in a split second; he flew towards the portal disappearing in less than a second.


    Fuck, even I won''t stand a chance if I get caught on that!! I shouted in my mind as I prepared to jump towards the portal.Using all of my leg strength, I jumped up towards the portal causing the floor behind me to erupt in place. Luckily I wasn¡¯t thrown off course as I landed on top the portal near Suyeon. I grabbed her and without wasting any time, I jumped into the portal and I knew if I was a second late, I would have died as I felt the back of my shirt rip away and the skin on my back felt like someone pinched it. A white bright light covered my vision and I felt my overdrive skill wearing off. As soon as it did, everything turned black as I passed out of exhaustion.


    .


    .


    .


    I slowly woke up to a figure. My vision is taking time to adjust but as it clears, I see Suyeon looking down at me with a blank expression. But as soon as she sees me wake up, her gaze went crazy everywhere as she tries to avert mine.


    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I mutter as I force myself to sit up and I felt a sting on my back as I pry myself away from the ground. ¡°Argh! Shit!¡±


    It seems like the skin off my back was ripped off with the shirt and blood dried up gluing me to the ground. The pain was enough to jolt all my senses awake as I clench my fist waiting for the pain to subside. I noticed I was still gripping the crystal sword and getting a better look at it, it looks like it was carved out of a big diamond. Not wanting to lose it, I called out my dimensional bag to store it and while I took out a couple of pieces of meat to munch on and help me regenerate faster. I¡¯m so used to doing it routinely by myself I forgot that Suyeon is staring me andas I devour the meat in my hand.


    ¡°What? You want?¡± I say as I hold out the cooked meat in front of her and she slowly grabs it off my hand.


    ¡°T-thank you.¡± She says as she slowly started eating.


    Wow, she acts as nothing happened. I say in my mind as I took out another one and slowly munched on it trying to regain my strength.


    ¡°Fuck, we almost died you know that? Fucking hell, you slept the whole time!¡± I tell her but she just looks at me.


    ¡°Where are we? A-A-are we dead?¡± She asked me.


    What the fu-, I Just told you her we almost died didn''t I?I say in my mind looking at her confused. I decided to ignore her as I looked around the area and I notice I¡¯m in another cave. I quickly finished my food and took out a container full of water and drank half of it. The remaining half I gave her and she gladly accepted it and nodding towards me to express her gratitude. The whole cave is greatly illuminated by blue stalactites protruding from the walls. Yet, it wasn¡¯t big enough for even a gatekeeper to fit in.


    Should I look around for a bit while she finishes eating? She eats so fucking slow.I say in my mind as I slowly stood up.


    Thud!


    ¡°Ack! what the?" I mutter as I was brought to my knees when I tried to stand up. It felt like I have a hangover and it''s making me want to vomit what I just ate as the whole room spun around me wildly.


    ¡°Y-you shouldn¡¯t try to stand. I tried also but it makes me sick.¡± She tells me. ¡°I-it¡¯s called flame sickness.¡±


    ¡°Flame what?¡± I tell her as I tried to regain my breathing.


    Now it feels like I ran a marathon. What the fuck is going on.I whisper in my mind while trying to catch some air.


    "F-flame sickness. I think I-its like a fever. Say the command, health status." She tells me and I was caught off guard that she knows something I don''t.


    ¡°Health status.¡± I quickly whisper and another notification came up in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Health:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Recovering


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Poisoned:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sickness:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Flame Sickness


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Flame sickness description?¡± I whisper but nothing. ¡°If this is like a fever, then it means it will go away on its own.¡±


    Then I felt a slight tap on my arm and when I look, I see Suyeon handing me the empty container. I grab it off her and quickly place it in my bag.


    Fuck, I¡¯ve been through worse!! I shout in my mind as I forced myself up. I managed to get on my feet but I had to close my eyes and slowly breathe to keep what I just ate from coming out. Even with my eyes closed, I feel like the whole room is spinning wildly. I waited for it to calm down before opening my eyes and I didn''t move, trying to keep my balance.


    ¡°Ok, slowly but surely," I whisper to myself slowly walked towards a path where I feel a slight breeze is coming from. I hear something scramble behind me and I see she¡¯s also on her feet almost stumbling down as she tried following me.


    ¡°You witch stic- I mean Suyeon. Walk in front of me." I tell her and she just looks at me but without saying anything, she slowly walked in front and we both slow-walked through the cave trying to look for a way out.


    Never trust anyone. I say as I walk cautiously behind her. An hour probably passed and we have gotten used to our body a bit. I still feel feverish and it''s still no good to do any extreme movements like running or even turning around really quick since it brings back the feeling as if the whole world is spinning make me want to vomit. But at least I can walk normally. We rest standing since the minute we sat down the ground earlier, we had trouble getting up like before.


    ¡°Here," I say as I hand her one of the very few pieces of boiled karkinos. The minute she sees the crab meat, her eyes went wide with shock. "Hurry up and fucking take it.¡±


    She quickly wiped her hands on her clothes and happily accepted it.


    "Hurry up and eat it so we can get out of here," I tell her and she looked at me as if she didn''t know what to do.


    The fuck is wrong with her?I say in my mind. I paid no attention to her and just silently ate my food slowly trying not to make too much of a movement. The juice coming from the meat quickly filled my mouth and the meat itself melted like butter.


    ¡°Fuck, this is good," I say minding my own business. That''s when I hear her make some weird sounds. She kept stuffing her face and food build up inside her cheeks making her look like a squirrel collecting nuts.


    What the hell¡­ I whisper in my mind looking at her eat like a hamster. I quickly focus my attention on my food and we both devoured the karkinos meat as if we''re each on our own world. Another hour has passed and I managed to find a rock to sit on letting the food digest before I start walking again. I¡¯m sitting on top of the big boulder looking at the map the dungeon safe keeper gave me. Suyeon is sitting on the on the ground leaning her back against the boulder with her eyes closed.


    Just get her out of here Yasu and leave her ass in town. Stop complaining. I whisper in my mind glancing at her. But Yasu, she, so far, has become a giant headache.


    I know right? She seems off on the head also.


    Ha, it''s not like you''re any different.


    Haha, fuck you. We¡¯re the same so if I''m off on the head, you''re off in the head also.


    Ah, you''re right.


    Now, Doesn¡¯t she talk at all? We¡¯ve been for a while and she hasn¡¯t said anything or do anything except fiddle with those damn rocks.


    Say something.


    ¡°So, how the did you end up looking like an overcooked barbecue?¡± I asked her and her body went rigid as I see her froze in place.


    Smooth. I whisper in my mind as I watch her frantically look around. She didn¡¯t turn around but she just slowly placed her head on her knees and hugged her legs tight. I decided to change the question this time. "So, how did the others die? They were killed off weren''t they."


    She still didn¡¯t move or say anything.Tch. It¡¯s better if I talk to this fucking rock I¡¯m sitting on than her.


    "Hello, you magnificent rock. How was your rocky day?" I asked the rock I¡¯m sitting on. "Oh, greetings and good day to you ol¡¯ chap. My day was fantabulous!¡±


    Hoping it would have gotten her attention; she didn¡¯t say anything as she continued to hug her legs slowly rocking back and forth.


    Tch. Who cares about the other adventurers. It¡¯s not like I know any of them. But, was Luro talking about my school nurse? Ha! Stupid ass, I hardly have any strong bond with her. She can go kick rocks with the gold.I say in my mind as I lay down on the rock.


    After we digested our food, we continued walking through the cave in silence. I have her walk in front of me while I follow behind. I feel safer this way but I notice her fidgeting as if anything can just pop out of thin air and grab her.


    "Health status," I say studying if the flame sickness had disappeared. "Tch, still there. Hey you, how did you know this command?¡±


    She didn¡¯t turn around and kept walking. ¡°I-I figured it out.¡±


    ¡°Oh so you¡¯re not stupid and you actually talk. Wow.¡± I replied and she quickly turns around glaring at me. She forgot about our condition and she instantly got on her knees covering her mouth as the world around her is probably spinning. ¡°Pfft, that¡¯s what you get for turning too fast.¡±


    I see her look up still glaring at me. Making me curse her in my mind.Fuck you.


    ¡°Tch, well let¡¯s find a way to get out of here shall we? The faster we find a town, the faster we can separate ways.¡± I tell her holding out a hand to help her up. She grabs it but quickly let go as soon as she stood up. "Fucking peasant," I mutter as she started walking towards a small entrance.


    As we got close to it, we both felt the wind get stronger. I noticed that''s she started walking a bit faster than usual probably due to the excitement. We reached a dead end where a tiny bright light is coming out of a hole.


    "Stand back," I tell her. "Pound."


    BOOM!


    My punch blasted the wall and a strong gust of wind entered the room along with the smell of fresh air as I suddenly feel my knees become weak and my vision started spinning almost making me throw up inside my mouth.


    "Ugh fuck," I whisper as I look up. The wind already cleared the smoke and as I slowly stand up and look out, I see a beautiful sunset at the horizon yet, it didn''t make me as happy as Suyeon who looked out the hole with such joy.¡°Just perfect. Right when the sun is about to set.¡±


    I noticed we¡¯re located at a much higher ground as the wall I blasted goes horizontally down. The sky has been replaced with an orange hue as the sun halfway sinks from a distance. The wind is a lot stronger since we''re high up but the cool breeze feels good as it grazes my skin calming my nerves. Suyeon is looking outside probably what she sees is a brand new world to her. Her smile is bigger than before showing that¡¯s she really excited to set foot onto a new section of her life.


    You''re lucky you have a similar circumstance like me or else. I say in my mind, as I feel a little bit furious remembering that she''s the reason I got into this mess. She happily looked at the forest not noticing another problem.


    ¡°How the hell do I get down from here? I don¡¯t have any skill that would save me from that height. Chef¡¯s coat wouldn¡¯t even work. I¡¯ll die in an instant upon impact.¡±I whisper to myself as I look down at a height I would probably die if I jump out.

 CHAPTER 31: The only way down is unpleasant

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 31: The only way down is unpleasant


    <hr>


    The sun fully sets and was replaced by the moon illuminating the dark forest. Earlier, I saw a section near the horizon of what probably the remnant lights of a village during the night.


    I wonder if there¡¯s electricity here. I say in my mind. I sat near a rock beside the hole I made. Suyeon¡¯s looking out with such passion and a smile on her face while she stares at the night sky plastered with stars alongside our home planet. While she¡¯s too busy stargazing, I tried to find a way down for both of us. I already risked my life twice to just save her skinny ass and it wouldn¡¯t be practical to just leave her here after exerting so much effort to just get her out.


    ¡°What level are you?¡± I asked her and it seems like she¡¯s in her own world since what I asked didn¡¯t register in her ears. ¡°Hey!¡±


    My voice startled her and she quickly scrambles away from the hole stumbling to get to the wall towards my left. Her happy expression was replaced with worry as she nervously looks at the ground and me but it quickly changed as she tried to hold her vomit back.


    ¡°Pwahaha stupid ass. You forgot you got the fame sickness bullshit?¡± I taunt her as I get a bit agitated with her extreme reaction to everything.


    What the hell is wrong with her? So many different thoughts enter my mind along with different scenarios to why she¡¯s like this.But bottom line, I¡¯m guessing she¡¯s been abused to the point that she thinks she¡¯s going to get hit any given minute.


    Sigh*


    ¡°Ok let me ask one more time. What level are you?¡± I say looking at her.


    "I am l-level 1." She nervously replies as she kept her gaze towards the ground.


    ¡°Seriously? The hell¡­what¡¯s your class again?¡± I asked remembering she has a non-combatant class like mine when she couldn¡¯t lift up the armor I put on top of her before, but I wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was. I see her fidgeting her fingers and then she finally looks towards my way.


    ¡°I-it¡¯s c-called f-footwork.¡± She tells me as if she was embarrassed about it.


    "Footwork? That sound''s like a combat class." I tell her and she just kept glancing up and down going back and forth from my eye to the ground. "Are you sure that''s a non-combat class?"


    ¡°Y-yes. I only h-have one skill.¡± She replied to me and her stuttering is starting to annoy me since it¡¯s not because of a speech defect, she¡¯s just afraid.


    ¡°What¡¯s the skill?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I have one s-skill c-called jump.¡± She tells me as I wait for her to continue talking but she didn¡¯t say anything after that and just continued to stare at me.


    ¡°And? The hell does it do? Let¡¯s you jump?¡± I asked her and she nods. ¡°What level is it?


    ¡°Level 1.¡± She whispers and the more I find out about her, the more useless she becomes.


    Sigh*


    ¡°You¡¯re more useless than what I was when I started. What the hell, that is one of the most idiotic skills I have heard so far.¡± I whisper and she didn''t say anything. She just looked down on the ground as if she was being scolded.


    And I thought my skills were weirdly named. I continued in my mind. All of a sudden, I hear her stomach growl and she suddenly looks up to me with an embarrassed expression and the minute our eyes met, she quickly looked down as she tried to hold herself back from vomiting.


    That damn look, again. I whisper in my mind thinking about what type of life she had to always be scared of people''s reaction.


    Sigh*


    Hearing her stomach cry for food, it made my stomach do the same and the cave got an acapella performance. There isn¡¯t a point to starve her or me so I decided to cook for both of us since my class is a damn cook after all.


    ¡°Item bag,¡± I called out and my dimensional bag to materialize and quickly took out a knife, two plates, frying pan, a couple of torches, raw meat of the ogre queen, a couple of spices, and cooking oil. I arranged the torches on the ground bringing all the heads together. Grabbing a rock and one of the stalactites within my bag, I ignited the torches and watch the fire spread into one another forming a bigger flame bright enough to illuminate the area and provide us heat.


    Getting all of these items was quite useful when I entered the sky king¡¯s dungeon. I even found some in the hidden dungeon like most of my water container. I put a bit of oil on the pan so that the meat won¡¯t attach itself. Leaving black leftovers that are very hard to remove will be a pain to clean if I have no scrub and source of water. I took out a water container and wash the meat first, removing the grime covering it. After cleaning, I placed the meat onto the pan and using the dull end of my knife, I start tenderizing it.


    Even though I have skills that are supposed to do it for me, it¡¯s too strong and I¡¯ll end up obliterating the whole thing. After tenderizing, I place a few spices on the meat to add a bit of flavor and rolled it around the pan to coat it with the cooking oil. I place the pan on top of the fire and held it up there and as heat accumulates under the pan, the meat started sizzling and a nice aroma started feeling up the cave that made my stomach grumble a lot more. The smell of the meat was similar to a barbecue chicken.


    ¡°I wonder if it tastes like chicken,¡± I whisper as I wait for the meat to turn golden brown on one side before I flip it. I figured out its one of my natural ability to know the perfect time when the meat cooks. I¡¯ll get the sudden urge to flip the meat as excitement fills my core, this what tells me that it¡¯s ready. After getting the urge, I flipped the meat and it started sizzling once the raw side touches the pan. The smell is enough to make my stomach grumble and my mouth salivates. The meat has turned to a golden brown that makes anyone water from the mouth upon looking at it. I notice Suyeon¡¯s intense gaze at the meat as it sizzles on the frying pan. I let the meat cook until I know it¡¯s done. The meat sizzled as small droplets of the oil bounced around and some of them hitting my hand. I¡¯ve gotten used to the sensation of being slightly burned by the oil so it didn¡¯t bother me at all.


    "Ok, this should be done," I say as I grab the knife and using it as a fork, I stab the steak and place it on one of the plates I got from the hidden dungeon. These plates look like their antiques but they work and are very durable. I have a little fascination with antique items anyways so I use it as normal plates without any regards to the design and its value. After placing the meat, using the same knife in my hand, I slowly cut it in two splitting it in half. The center has a hint of marble pink mixed with golden brown indicating it¡¯s on the borderline of being well done.


    "Ah, that smells heavenly. Here try it." I pass the plate to Suyeon who looks at me with surprise.


    I need to see if that ogre queen is edible. I rather use her as a test subject for it. I say in my mind as I give her a fake smile. I noticed on some meat, even when I purify it, it only works for poison. It doesn''t really purify the taste. It makes sense because if it does, I practically can cook my own shit and it still would taste good.


    "Hurry up and take it, my arms are getting tired holding the fucking plate," I tell her and she slowly grabs the plate and looks at it like it''s some type of artwork.


    Just fucking eats it already. I hope it tastes bad so you can throw up. Ah, I forgot to give a knife and a fork.I say in my mind. I called out my dimensional back and rummage through to take out another knife and a fork and different thought enter my mind. I wonder if she can hold a knife? This thing isn¡¯t categorized as a weapon but more like an item for cooking.


    When I look back at her, I see her picking up half of the meat using her bare hands not even caring if it''s hot or not. I just looked at her amazed how much of a caveman or I should say cavewoman she is. The way she reacts and even talks show her lack of common sense.


    Did she go to school? She looks like she was sheltered or locked in the basement her whole life. I say in my mind as she bites into the meat. I¡¯m waiting for a reaction but she just happily ate it while blowing between chew.I started cutting my portion so it¡¯s easier for me to eat. She paid no attention and continued to devour her portion like a cannibal. I poked one of the cut pieces with my fork and placed the juicy steak in my mouth.


    ¡°What the fuck is this?!¡± I shouted spitting the food out. It tasted rotten. The juice tasted or what I think taste like the liquid you¡¯ll find in the bottom of the garbage can. Due to my sudden movement, the whole area started spinning as if I was put inside a wheel. I felt the sudden urge to gag and along with the taste of the food, I couldn¡¯t hold it back. I was on all fours as the acidic liquid comes out of my mouth onto the floor below me. I smelled my own vomit as a small portion of it didn¡¯t exit my mouth but went out my nose instead. ¡°ugh, fuck.¡±


    I quickly took out a water container and tried to gargle the taste out of my mouth but it won¡¯t leave at all. The worst part is that the meat smells good but the taste was horrendous. I look at Suyeon and she just looked at me slowly devouring the ogre queen steak I gave her.


    ¡°H-how can you eat that fucking thing? It tastes like old rotting garbage!!¡± I tell her and she looked at me confused. Here I am using her as a guinea pig without her knowing and I end up getting fucked in the mouth by something I would say, the most disgusting shit I have ever tasted my entire life. I took whatever¡¯s left of the water container I used to gargle and gave it to her.


    ¡°Fucking here. Go finish the rest.¡± I tell her as she grabs the container from me with her dirty hands stained by the ogre queen¡¯s steak juice. ¡°Ughh, keep the container also.¡±


    She looks at me with a happy expression. Then she looked at my leftover ogre queen cut up steak and back at me.


    What? Does she want to eat the rest of that nasty shit? I say in my mind wanting to gag thinking about how she could eat it like nothing.


    "Uh, go ahead. You can eat that too." I tell her and she quietly went over to my plate and picked it up. She looked back at me wanting to ask another thing.


    "What?" I asked getting confused about what the hell is going on.


    ¡°U-um. Can I eat it over there?¡± She asked me pointing at the hole I made at the wall exposing the outside forest.


    Why is she asking me?Tilting my head trying to see if she¡¯s joking but she¡¯s dead serious.


    ¡°Uh go?¡± I tell her. She gave me a quick smile and happily sat down near the hole looking up the stars while she slowly eats the ogre queen steak.


    "What the hell," I mutter as I took out another water container to wash my hand. "Fuck. I only have a couple of water container left. I should have filled up some of the empty ones before I left that dungeon."


    I don¡¯t see any water here so by tomorrow we need to get down.I voiced my thoughts in my head.But how, this height is at the highest I¡¯ve been at. I don¡¯t think using my skills to stop me from falling is a good idea.


    After washing, I decided to lean near the wall on the right. I¡¯m not sleeping tonight. I just can¡¯t, knowing that someone¡¯s here with me. It¡¯s halfway through the night and I decided to sit near the campfire since the air has gotten really cold.


    "Health status," I whispered trying not to wake up Suyeon. By now, I just gave up trying to understand how she could sleep so soundly after everything.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Health:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Recovered


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Poisoned:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sickness:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Flame Sickness


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Fuck, it''s still there," I whisper as I notice the flame sickness never disappeared. This limits my movement as I can''t make any sudden moves or I''ll end up wanting to gag. "Maybe they have a potion in this world for this."


    I slowly stood up and approached the hole. I look out towards the horizon and the bright yellow lights I see from the distance have become weaker.


    ¡°We need to reach that village tomorrow. So I can leave this dumbass also in there. I¡¯m not here to babysit a cavewoman who has little to no knowledge of common sense.¡± I whisper to myself. I walk back towards the campfire and I walk near her.


    ¡°She looks a bit different. It hasn¡¯t been that long but she amassed this much body weight already.¡±


    From the first time I¡¯ve seen her up to now, she gained some weight and she¡¯s slowly becoming less like a stick to a fit high school student. By the look of it, its either she¡¯s the same age as me or younger.


    ¡°Well, I remember I gained all the body weight I lost in just one night. She should be the same.¡± I whisper as I study her up and down. The clothes I gave her were just a regular cloth shirt big enough that it reaches up to her knee. ¡°Wait, does this mean she was starved within the safe room?¡±


    I think of the new adventurers that I sawbefore I entered the portal. Now it makes me regret a little I didn¡¯t bash all their heads in.


    ¡°Tch, Luro brought some troublesome people," I whisper to myself. "Oh well~ Not my problem.¡±


    I slowly stood up and walked to where I was sitting and sat in front of the campfire all night wondering about what I should do next.


    .


    .


    .


    Morning came as the moon quickly disappeared into the horizon. I started gathering the torch and all my belongings. I gave Suyeon all of the stuff I used to cook the meat except the frying pan and the knife. She happily accepted it and stored it in her bag. I asked her what else is in her bag and she told me only the stuff I gave her.I wondered if I should give her a knife but, I also thought about getting stabbed out of nowhere by her so I didn¡¯t.I see her sitting looking out of the hole.


    ¡°Can you use your skill?¡± I asked her as I approached her. She quickly turned towards me with a nervous expression. ¡°Well? Can you?¡± She shook her head indicating a no.


    "Well aren''t you a useless witch stick," I mutter.


    ¡°Su-Yeon. My fucking name is Suyeon.¡± She says getting mad at me.


    "Well excuse me princess bitch," I say mocking her but she didn''t retaliate and just brought her head down as if she did something wrong, again.


    Sigh*


    ¡°What else do you know? Like commands or any other thing.¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Um, I-I can use item bag, status window, health status, weapon description, show DPH.¡± She says using her fingers to count how many she knows.I saw her bag dropped and probably every notification came up in front of her, as she started frantically looking everywhere.


    What the fuck, is she a kid? I say in my mind watching her frantically look everywhere.


    ¡°And a-and I can use skill description and location information.¡± She continued on.


    ¡°Location information?¡± the minute I asked a notification appeared in front of me.


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Location information


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    current location:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Cave inside the horizontal mountainIf you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Conquered:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Cannot be conquered


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Conquerer''s name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    N/A


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Description:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    A normal cave.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°What the...¡± I whisper looking at the notification and waited for it to disappear. ¡°Ok, now what passive class do you have?¡±


    ¡°Uh, I have Dancer¡¯s soul, o-s-si-sium, s-s-sixth sense.¡± She tells me counting with her fingers again.


    "Tell me the description of each class," I asked her trying to figure out if there''s something she can use to help her descend down. I can easily lodge my sword or use my skills to help me descend. Even if I vomit on my way down, I''ll do it to just survive but I can''t do it if I''m carrying someone.


    ¡°Status window.¡± She says and I see her reading something from space. ¡°U-um, dancers soul gives me a dancer n-n-natural a-abuileties. A-and o-os-s-siu-¡°


    ¡°Wait a minute. What the fuck. you can''tread?¡± I say as I see her struggling reading the description on her status window.


    ¡°I can. But not the big words.¡± She tells me.


    No fucking way.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Did you go to school at all?¡± I asked her and she shook her head sideways. ¡°What the hell¡­¡±


    ¡°I-am sorry.¡± She apologized at me regressing back to her puppy type attitude.


    ¡°Why are you a fucking weakling?¡± I said automatically what on my head out loud.


    ¡°I-it¡¯s because I¡¯m a non-combat class and-¡°


    "I''m not talking about your fucking strength but your attitude. It seems like you tucked your tail so deep between your legs it went up your fucking ass." I tell her as I start to get irritated as for how she keeps apologizing.


    ¡°W-what?¡± She asked while looking at her to see if she had a tail.


    Sigh*


    ¡°Nothing, never mind. It¡¯s a damn metaphor. Shit, go look around the cave to see if you find any hidden entrance.¡± I order her and she nods and quietly walked around testing the walls. I decided to go back to see if there¡¯s anything around where we woke up in.


    Before I left, I decided to boil ogre queen flesh. Even though I only have a few water containers left, I decided to boil it anyway since I can let it sit there and simmer without me attending to it. Rather than throwing it, I¡¯ll cook it and give it to her. This way, she can take food out of her bag rather than wait for me to keep giving her food. It¡¯s starting to get annoying how everything I do now is required for two people.


    "Hey, watch this," I tell her pointing at the pot. I used a couple of daggers and stabbed it into the ground. Using its hilt. I formed a square where I can place the pot on top. Underneath, I left one torch lit and let the pot simmer.


    ¡°Don¡¯t eat it. Just check it every now and then. Got it? Whatever''s cooking in there is your portion of food.¡± I tell her and she nods happily.


    I started walking back towards where we came from. I check the walks, rock formations, but nothing.


    "Pound," I whispered and braced myself from the after effect of the sickness as I swung towards a wall. It erupted as soon as my fist reached the wall but my efforts were for nothing.


    ¡°mppf!¡± I tried to stop myself from vomiting but I ended up emptying my stomach. ¡°Ugh, I need to find a way to cure this sickness.¡±


    Since there¡¯s nothing here, I decided to walk back towards where we camped. I took a couple of loose stalactites that dropped on the ground and stored it in my bag.


    Might as well collect as much as I can. I wonder how much these go fo-


    ¡°Ahhhhhh!!!¡± I hear Suyeon scream and I automatically ran forgetting about my sickness. The cave spun wildly in my vision make me lose balance as I fall to my side. I felt like vomiting but I luckily this time, I was able to hold it.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°F-fuck! Cough* dammit!¡± I screamed as I slowly tried to stand. This time I walked back but at the fastest rate I can without being hit by the sickness. As soon as I got a better view, I see Suyeon on the ground and giant mosquito is on top of her. It¡¯s needle nose an inch away from her chest and her palms are wrapped around it preventing the mosquito from puncturing her as she pushes forward with all her might. But I see she¡¯s slowly losing the fight as the mosquito¡¯s needle slowly comes closer to her skin.


    ¡°Seismic Step! Sharpen!¡± I shouted my skill as I took out a sword from my dimensional bag. My sword was encased with a bright light and I felt the vibrations from the bottom of my foot. I slowly got into a crouching position and using force, I pushed off the ground and I felt the ground shatter under me as I flew towards the giant mosquito. Using the momentum of my direction, I swung my sword forward horizontally and I feel the blade goes through as it slices its head in half exposing its brains and a critical hit appeared above its head. My body flew past as the mosquito falls to its side. I tense my left arm¡¯s muscle as I brace for impact. I felt my arm smack onto the ground and I slid towards the hole I made in the wall. It felt like the world is spinning non-stop making me gag and I vomit what I ate for breakfast.


    ¡°Ughh, and I tried so hard not to-¡° My voice suddenly stop as I looked up towards the hole that¡¯s gotten bigger. Outside is a whole group of mosquitos flying around as if it was hovering a large body of water to lay their eggs on. I felt like I¡¯m in a movie that I shrank in size. ¡°What the fu-¡°


    A mosquito flew by really quick making me duck behind the wall causing my world to spin again with my sudden movement. I was thinking they would enter but they just flew around outside creating a loud buzzing noise like a bee. I look back to where the dead mosquito lay and I see Suyeon pinned down underneath having a hard time escaping.


    "Oh for fuck sakes," I whisper as I slowly got up and moved to help her. I place my sword down on the ground stabbing it downwards and I grabbed her by her arms.


    ¡°W-w-wa-¡°


    ¡°What do you think? I¡¯m trying to fucking pull you out.¡± I tell her getting irritated. Using my right foot, I placed it on the dead mosquito and pulled her while I was pressing down with my foot. ¡°NGggggnnhhh!!¡±


    I finally managed to break her free from under the dead mosquito. Her sudden release made me fall on my ass and her on top of me. I felt like throwing up due o the sudden movement and I see she feels the same as her expression shows she¡¯s trying really hard not to gag. In a quick motion, I threw her to the side and she landed on her elbow yelping in pain while vomiting.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry I d-didn¡¯t mean-¡°


    ¡°Shh!¡± I shushed her as I crouch down trying not to make any more noise and attract more mosquitos. I noticed earlier as she fell on top of me, something flew into the hole in the wall. I kept my gaze towards the hole as I slowly unhinge my sword from the ground. ¡°Fucking giant mosquito.¡±


    I see it jumping around like a grasshopper until it reached the dead body of the other mosquito. By this time, we¡¯re both quite a distance from the corpse as we were slowly back away from it. The mosquito lifted up its head and it a quick motion; it brought it down stabbing the dead carcass with its proboscis. We both slowly watch its abdomen swell and turn red as the dead mosquito slowly deflated. After finishing its meal, it slowly releases its needle and hopped towards the hole in the wall.


    ¡°What the fuck. Did it just eat its own kind?¡± I whisper looking at the mosquito slowly hopping away. Then it jumped out and is see it plummet to the ground. ¡°Stupid ass, it ate too much.¡±


    Thinking it probably hit the ground at high-speed splattering, I started slowly walking towards the dried-up mosquito. But right when I got close, I saw the fat mosquito slowly ascend facing the hole. My whole body went rigid, in any other time, I could easily kill all of them but, with this sickness that makes me vomit at any sudden move, it¡¯s going to be a lot harder to even stay focus. I grip my sword ready if it comes to attack me but in back of my mind, I need to kill it in one go. But rather than coming at me, I see it slowly fly up flapping its wings with intense speed and the giant mosquito along with its group disappeared above the clouds.


    ¡°Well, what do you know? That fat thing still flies.¡± I whisper as I kept a distance from the whole while keeping myself vigilant of any surprise attack. We waited if any more of them will come back but they didn¡¯t. We sat around where we backed up into probably for an hour.


    ¡°So you¡¯re telling me that thing flew out of nowhere and started smelling the food?¡± I asked and Suyeon slowly nodded as she looks at the tipped over a pot with its contents spread onto the floor. I see a hint of sadness in her eyes as looked onto the boiled ogre queen meat.


    Sigh*


    Nothing goes right with this girl.I slowly stand startling her. I walked towards the dried up mosquito while taking glances at the big hole in the wall. As I reach it, I see it really looks like an inflated parade balloon. I went to touch it and the skin feels like rubber.


    ¡°Jeez, did that thing sucked up its bones also?¡± I whisper as I lift up a part of the mosquito skin and I hear something cluttering inside of it. ¡°I guess not. But for it to suck up everything up to the bone, impossible.¡± I called out my dimensional bag to materialize and I took out a dagger from inside. I made a cut on the skin from one end to the other. I lift up one flap and I felt the heat coming out of it.


    ¡°What the, did it melt it? Why is it hot inside?¡± I whisper as I reach in and take out one bone. As I inspect the bone, it¡¯s been cleaned as if something scrubbed it. One theory is that thing inject liquid that turns everything liquid except the bones.


    ¡°Would have been nice to ride one of them down,¡± Suyeon whispers as she walks around the mosquito skin and that¡¯s when an idea hit me.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we?¡± I say as I give her a smile. She looked at me confused but what¡¯s in front of us is what¡¯s going to help us get down from here. ¡°We¡¯re going to create a hot air balloon.¡±


    ¡°Hot air balloon?¡± She says looking at me confused.


    ¡°It¡¯s a balloon with a flame inside. The fire will make the air inside the balloon less dense as it gets heated up. This mosquito won¡¯t be big enough to make us float above the clouds but it should slow down our desce-¡°


    I see her looking at me more confused than ever.


    Sigh*


    ¡°It. will .bring us. Down. Balloon. Big. Hot air. Slow fall." I started talking in a broken sentence as if she doesn¡¯t know the language. ¡°Me. You. Us go down. To forest. We go. Village. Capisce?¡±


    I see her face contorts with anger. ¡°I-I¡¯m not stupid. I just don¡¯t know what a hot air balloon is.¡±


    Yasu, is this girl bipolar?I asked myself.I don¡¯t know. Probably.She¡¯s scared of me one minute the next she¡¯s mad. What the fuck.


    I decided to shout really loud trying to see what her reaction was. and She almost fell back and her face was replaced with fear and she quickly averted my gaze.


    ¡°Bwahahaha you are bipolar. Well then bi-polar, come help me out.¡± I tell her and she just nods. ¡°Collect all the bones inside and put it in your bag.¡±


    She quickly did what I say and happily collected the bones storing them in her bag. While she did that, I used my dagger to cut the mosquito¡¯s big abdomen. It¡¯s where the other mosquito stored all the blood so I know this one is stretchable. It looks like it¡¯s large enough to make one person float.


    ¡°This feels like a rubber band. Damn, rubber shrinks with heat. I hope this one doesn¡¯t.¡± I whisper as I cut a small piece to test out.


    I called my bag to materialize and I took out a torch, frying pan, and a stalactite. Using rock and the stalactite, I ignited the torch and set it down the ground. I placed the pan on top of the flame and placed the piece of mosquito abdomen on top of the frying pan. If it''s made of rubber, it should shrink in size. I made sure the torch''s flame isn''t touching the frying pan but is close enough to keep it heated at very low temperature.


    A couple of minutes have passed and the mosquito abdomen is still the same size. I brought the pan closer and it remained the same. I brought it closer where the fire is hitting the bottom of the pan and the skin started shrinking as it gets cooked on top the pan.


    ¡°Oh ok so if it touches then it will shrink-¡° I suddenly stop as the aroma of burning the skin makes me salivate. It smells like chicken.


    Why does everything smell like chicken?I say in my mind.


    Remembering what Suyeon said, these mosquitos were attracted probably due to the smell of food. Which doesn¡¯t make sense but I quickly dumped the skin on the ground and stomped on it. Knowing that the skin of the mosquito abdomen doesn¡¯t shrink, I can use it as the balloon. As for fire, I can use the sky king¡¯s flames using my swords.


    "Damn, it would have been better with the dragon slayer," I say to myself feeling a bit down. "Wait, I did get a new sword.¡±


    I quickly called my dimensional bag and took out the sword I got earlier. ¡°Weapon description!¡±


    Even when calling the command, nothing happened as I held the sword in front of me. ¡°What the hell, inspect?¡±


    <table width="515">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    Diamond Key


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Key


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Key


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Key


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3">


    A gift to you. You''ll know what''s it''s used for soon enough.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°The hell, it¡¯s not a sword but a key?¡± I say confused at the sword or I should say key. The description seems like it was directed towards me. "Fucking Luro.¡±


    I decided to store it back in my bag. For now, it¡¯s useless but I think I have a general idea what¡¯s it¡¯s for. I walk back towards the carcass and I see Suyeon collecting the last bits of the bones. I needed something to attach me to the mosquito balloon and remembering that I collected a few vines I found in the hidden dungeon, I quickly take it out.


    ¡°You, go over the hole. I need to build this. Be on the lookout for those things just in case they come back.¡± I tell her as I point towards the opening leading outside.


    She nods and speeds walk towards the hole.


    ¡°Ok, the entrance it¡¯s going to need a ring to keep it open. But what the hell can I use?¡± I mutter looking around. I spot its legs and the ones near the back is thin enough to be a stick. The only problem is it¡¯s riddled with spikes.


    I cut one from its joints and started cutting away the spikes with one motion. I activated my skill making it a lot easier to just peel off a layer of the mosquito legs. Once I took out the spikes, I was exposed to its bone or more like cartilage. And it bends any way I bend it while giving enough pressure to force it back to its original position.


    ¡°Ok, seems durable enough, I just need something to tie this together.¡± I decided to use the skin near the mosquitos head since that¡¯s the one that stretches less making it a nice material to tie thing with as it won¡¯t come loose. After tying the mosquito leg to a circle, I place it near the entrance of the abdomen sack. Using the spikes from the leg, I attached a thin cut skin and sew the frame onto the sack using it. It took me a while but I finally built the section where I¡¯ll put my sword in and use my skill to produce heat and inflate the balloon. My idea was to place my hand in the balloon to use my sword as the burner when I activate the sky king''s flames with the wind skill.


    ¡°This should be enough to help us descend slowly. Now how do I attach myself?¡± I wondered. ¡°Ah, my bag. No matter how rough I am with it, it never breaks.¡±


    I cut more thin strips of the mosquito¡¯s skin. Once I had enough, I braided them together to help strengthen in preventing it from breaking. I decided to use my dimensional bag since I can wear it on my back. All I have to really do is use the braided skin of the mosquito to build myself a harness and attach it to the dimensional bag then attached the bag to the balloon. I took out a sword and left it out before I attached myself since I won''t be able to grab anything from the bag once I wear it. It took a while to complete and the harness was uncomfortable as it felt like a rubber band around me. I placed the sword inside the balloon holding it straight out


    ¡°Ok, time to test it out. Sky king wind!¡± I inflated the balloon and once I got enough air inside, I activated Sky King¡¯s breath and blew hot air into the sword turning it red. With the sky king¡¯s flames activated, it ignited my sword encasing it with fire. The cave ceiling was tall enough for the whole balloon to stand and some more space for me to test out if it can elevate one person. My sword is constantly feeding hot air inside the balloon and I slowly lifted off the ground.


    ¡°W-whoa. It works!¡± I say as I see myself slowly coming up. I waited for the skill to deactivate and the minute the hot air stopped feeding into the balloon, I slowly descend back down the ground.


    ¡°Ok, Suyeon! Come here. I want to test something!" I shout at her and she speeds walk towards me. "Ok, put your arms around my neck and hold on."


    She did what I say and placed her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I activated my skill again and it started feeding the balloon hot air slowly inflating it. We both started lifting up the ground but would hover a little bit and then go back down once the skill deactivated.


    ¡°Perfect!¡± I say knowing that this will slow our descent down towards the forest and us. She lets go of me and I see her eyes everywhere averting my gaze.


    Now what? She looks like she needs to piss or shit.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Do you need to take a piss or shit? Go ahead.¡± I tell her and she quickly looks at me.


    ¡°N-no I don¡¯t. I-I just-¡°


    "Well if you don''t let''s hurry up and get out of here," I tell her. I waited for the balloon to be completely deflated and carried it over near the hole on the wall. I slowly peek out and the height would make anyone afraid of heights weak from their knees. I turn my body looking up the side of the mountain and it goes horizontally as the mountain disappears into the clouds.


    "Up there is where those fucking mosquitos live," I whisper trying to see what''s through the clouds but it''s so thick I can¡¯t see what¡¯s on the other side. ¡°Now that I notice, it looks like it''s going to rain. Fuck we need to do this quick.¡±


    I quickly hanged the balloon at the side of the mountain while holding the ring in front of me. I strapped myself into the bag and tied myself tightly onto it.


    ¡°Suyeon!¡± I shouted out and she was quickly by my side. ¡°Come here, I need to tie your waist to mine so you don¡¯t fall off. Hug me like last time.¡±


    I told her and I see she¡¯s breathing quite hard and is turning red. But my focus is on getting down and I didn¡¯t pay attention to any other reaction she has. Using the remaining handmade rope, I wrapped it around both her legs and her waist forming a harness for her. I didn¡¯t have enough so it¡¯s only good up to her waist.


    ¡°Ok, I only have enough to tie your waist. Make sure you hug me tightly so you won''t fall back.¡± I tell her and she just nodded as she hugged me tightly. I can feel her body shaking as I walk closer to the edge. I see her glance down and I hear her breathing gets harder and harder as the grip she had around my neck is getting tighter.


    ¡°H-h-hey don¡¯t choke me! The fuck!¡± I shouted at her and she gripped loosen a bit.


    ¡°I-I-I''m sorry.¡± She whispered but her shaking never stopped.


    ¡°Tch. Sky king¡¯s wind.¡± I activated my skill to inflate the balloon before I started feeding it fire. The last thing I want is for the flames to touch the walls of the balloon and create a hole. Once it got enough space for the sword to not touch anything, I activated my other skill and fed fire into the balloon. As soon as it heated up, it started ascending towards the sky. The wind from the outside wasn¡¯t as strong as yesterday which is perfect but I¡¯m worried about the clouds as it¡¯s getting darker and darker indicating it might rain any minute. Rain might just make us descend at a faster pace. Once the balloon was inflated and was standing upright brushing against the wall of the mountain above us, I slowly look down the ground and even I''m getting a bit of butterfly in my stomach as I place one foot over the ledge.


    ¡°O-ok let¡¯s do this.¡± I slowly pushed myself and slightly jump up. If we do descent I don¡¯t want it to be too close to the wall. As I jump forwards, I felt the shift of gravity as I was pulled down towards the ground. I was thinking about the feeling of a roller coaster and even briefly closed my eyes but it never happened. The harness I had along with my bag tightens as it supports my body weight. But not only that, but I also felt Suyeon tightens her grip as she shakes and whimpers. I slowly open my eyes and I can still see we¡¯re at the same height but I notice we¡¯re slowly but surely descending onto the forest below.


    "Ha-ha hahaha! We''re floating! Fuck yes! Wait.. is it rain-" I say as I feel a liquid trickle down my leg.


    Don¡¯t tell me¡­no¡­


    ¡°Did you just fucking pee?!¡± I shouted at her while feeling a warm liquid soak my pants and I can briefly smell it. ¡°Fuck!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry!¡± She kept apologizing as she hugs me tight.


    Yasu, cut her off. Make this bitch free fall into oblivion. I whisper in my mind as I get the urge to let her free fall to her death.She peed on me. She fucking peed on me!


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shouted in frustrated as I smell the acidic ammonia warm liquid on me.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡± She whispers again.


    Fucking hell.I curse in my mind as I started to hear her whimper. I want to get to the ground more than ever.

 CHAPTER 32: The forest boar town

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 32: The forest boar town


    <hr>


    As the skill deactivate, I would wait a couple of minutes and reactivate it again. Within those minutes, the balloon will lose the heat from the air inside and we will descend faster. I reactivate my skills again to help slow us descend so we don''t go crashing straight to the ground. I tried to make a little movement as possible to prevent the after-effects of the sickness to happen.


    ¡°I-I''m sorry.¡± She apologized again and again as we descend, and I just continued to ignore her.


    Once we get down, I¡¯m leaving your ass in the forest. Find your way to the town you shit.I say in my mind as I tried my best to hold back my anger. Doing something stupid as fighting with her in this position can cause us to fall down. I rather not die just to get even with her. I already have done enough to get her out and down towards the forest. She can fend for herself.


    I notice we¡¯re getting closer to the ground as the trees become bigger and bigger until they look quite large in size. It looks like a safe distance for me to just jump down but I just waited for the skill to disappear and the balloon to slowly go down the forest making us descent onto the trees. My foot started grazing the top of the trees and I feel leaves being ripped off its branch. Somehow, we¡¯re moving forward as if we¡¯re in a jet traveling just right above the trees making everything into a blur. I took out the diamond sword I¡¯ve been using the whole time and prepared myself for impact.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s slice!¡± I shouted my skill and my sword glowed a bright white color while it vibrated on my hand. Using my sword, I brought it down towards the forest in front of us and a white crescent light went through the trees cutting its branches. The ground below erupted and a strong gust of the wind flowed upwards bringing along dust and leaves. My vision started spinning and I close my eyes to prevent myself from seeing the world rotate vigorously. The balloon picked up some height but we slowed down a bit as we started to descend again. We finally entering the forest as I feel branches scraping against my clothes up until I have leaves going against my face.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I braced myself as I cover my face from being slapped by the branches. I hear twigs snap as we descend more into the forest and now my whole body is being slapped around as I go through trees. All of a sudden, my body was suddenly pulled back making me lose air for a brief moment as my lungs get pressed against the harness and Suyeon. like a bungee cord, we went flying back where we came from and started free falling down towards the ground again. The balloon was caught in the branches above and we both hanged from it swaying side to side. I feel Suyeon still grabbing me tight and I tried to hold myself from vomiting as the flame sickness effect is acting up again. Once it subsided, I look down and we¡¯re in a height that I can survive but I don¡¯t know if she can without breaking a bone.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s Coat. H-hey. Let go for a fucking minute.¡± I whisper and I see my skin glows brightly. I feel the arms around my neck loosening their grip as she leaned back to look what¡¯s below us. Without warning, I use the sword on my hand and I swung right above me cutting us away from the balloon. Even with the abrupt movement of my arms, the world spun as I fall making me close my eyes. We both started falling with my back towards the ground and I can feel her lodging her head on my chest with her hands gripping my shirt as she braces for impact. I felt my back hit the ground as leaves around me was blown away and the sound echoed throughout the whole forest ringing my ears. I was protected by my skill, so I took little to no damage at all. As quickly as the sound erupted from the impact, as quickly as it disappeared getting replaced by the ambient noise of trees moving with the wind as it whistles past me. I hear rustling noises as animals run through bushes probably trying to get away from us and the sounds mixed with a water stream that is faintly echoing from a distance.


    ¡°Ha, haha finally. I¡¯m outside.¡± I whisper as I slowly open my eyes and look up. I see the sun shining through the trees at certain spots. Birds flew around everywhere, and I feel the cool breeze of the wind flow through my hair swaying it. But this all soon became a nightmare as soon as the wind changed its direction making me smell the pungent odor of her urine slowly drying up on my clothes.


    ¡°Dammit, this fucking stinks!¡± I say slowly sitting up with her. We¡¯re still both tied together, and I wasted no time cutting us loose with the sword.


    I don¡¯t care if my world spin, I rather have it spin that be locked in with someone covered in piss!I cursed her in my mind as I worked on the mosquito skin typing us together. As soon as I got her loose, I placed my hand on her front shoulders and pushed her off me with such force that she fell backward on the ground.


    ¡°Ack!¡± I hear her yelp in pain as she lands on her elbow and we¡¯re both quiet again as our world spins one more time.


    ¡°Fucking sickness! Fuck!¡± I cursed as I get frustrated that every move, I do is making my vision spin. As soon as I¡¯m back to normal, I inspect myself and the front of my pants reeked of piss. If I was wearing white, it¡¯ll probably look like I peed on myself.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I shouted not even wanting to touch anything.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m s-s-orr-¡°


    "Don''t fucking touch me," I say as I see her come close trying to do god knows what. I see her face is plastered with worry and she''s on the verge of tears. The clothes I gave her aren''t dark color so the piss stain showed completely. I slowly stood up and I closed my eyes trying to pinpoint where the stream of water is.


    I remember I saw a small body of water towards our right so that¡¯s the way I should go.I slowly open my eyes and I see her slowly standing up.Still agitated about everything that has happened since I met her, I bumped her back down making her world spin as the flame sickness got the best of her. Since I didn¡¯t make any sudden movement when I bumped into her, my vision didn¡¯t spin around as I watched her cover her mouth trying not to gag.


    "Now we''re even," I mutter as I slowly regain my composure and stored the diamond sword in my bag. I didn¡¯t want to waste any more time so I started walking towards where I think a stream should be. I hear her scramble up and speed walking trying to follow me. I started speed walking but no matter how fast I go, she¡¯s always a few ways to me. I couldn¡¯t run since the sickness would just activate so I gave up trying to lose her as she followed me through the forest.


    "Get in front of me." I snarl at her and she quickly did as I still feel uncomfortable with someone walking behind me. It wasn¡¯t long till we reached the stream of water and I quickly submerge myself up to my waist. The water felt cool and I just stood there as water flows through me and my clothes. I quickly took off everything I¡¯m wearing except my underwear. It¡¯s not really underwear but one of the cloths pants I found in the hidden dungeon and just turned it into a boxer short by cutting its legs. I slowly move towards where there¡¯s sunlight shines down on. The stream wasn¡¯t that strong since the water was shallow enough and I can sit down, and the water level goes up to my neck.


    ¡°I wish I had a damn soap," I mutter as I sat down to scoop up water placing it over my head. Then I submerged my head as I held my breath. I loved the silence the water brings, and I stayed down for as long as my breath can hold. I quickly stood up as I felt a strain in my lungs gasping for air.


    "Hah, that feels good," I whisper as I use my fingers combing my hair backward. I look towards my left and see Suyeon testing the waters like a curious little kid.


    Yasu, what is she doing? I asked myself as I watch her dip her foot in and out of the water. I know, I got better things to do. We need to find an overlord.


    I slowly stood up and started walking towards her. She notices my approach and she froze in place as she used her eyes to trace my body from my chest down towards my waist.


    ¡°What the fuck are you doing?¡± I asked her and she somehow broke off of her gaze and looked nervous averting my gaze. ¡°What? Are you going to fucking walk around reeking like piss?¡±


    I tell her and she somehow understood that when she looked down, she probably smelled it and slowly walked into the water.


    I wish I can drag her to the middle of the stream and let the water flow her away.I say in my mind as I held myself back thinking about my flame sickness. I was sick and tired of gagging nonstop so I waited till she slowly walked towards the deeper end but she stopped when the water was around her knees.


    ¡°Move further, it¡¯s warmer over there by the sun. The last thing I want is for you to catch another fever making me carry you.¡± I tell her with an irritated voice, but she didn¡¯t move and looked at me. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I-I- I don¡¯t know how to swim.¡± She replied making me raise an eyebrow.


    Kick!


    I kicked her in her hips making her fall sideways on the water. The world spun and I closed my eyes to lessen the effect. As I slowly open my eyes, I see her flailing around in the shallow water as she vomits everywhere.


    ¡°Pffft! Bwahahahahaha!¡± I laughed at the scene as it was the funniest thing I saw. It was the first time I¡®ve seen someone drown and vomit at the same time. And on shallow water nonetheless.


    ¡°Bleargh! H-Help-bleeeeerghh!¡± She tried saying she flails around. I walked slowly towards her and grabbed the back of her shirt and help her up. I saw her keep her eyes closed as she coughed water and vomit out of her mouth. Her body went still for a moment probably waiting for the sickness to subside. Once she calmed down, she opened her eyes and looked at me with such hatred. But not the same hatred she had in the beginning. This look didn¡¯t remind me of myself. I let go of her shirt and she fell on her ass in the water. Her world probably is spinning again as she closed her eyes and covered her mouth as she sat in the water without moving an inch. I slowly started walking towards the sunlight away from her as the water around her is full of vomit that¡¯s slowly moving down the stream. I found a large rock near the center and I sat on it. I see her from the distance as she slowly walked towards my way focused on the water below her probably trying not to slip.


    ¡°Holy hell¡­¡± I whisper as I see the outline of her chest through her wet t-shirt. Somehow, it got bigger than before when I saw her naked. Her body has gained enough mass that she lost her skeletal structure. Her arms are still thin but now that I noticed, her hips got bigger giving her an hourglass figure. I see her look up and I quickly look ahead averting her gaze and started talking in my mind.


    One thing my mother taught me, don¡¯t be a pervert. Treat girls with respect. So don¡¯t go there Yasu.I talked to myself in my brain.Respect? You just kicked her twice in one day. Ha. You got a point.She¡¯s a witch. A fucking witch.A witch that should never be trusted.


    And.


    And¡­


    ¡­Remember, Yasu. Never trust anyone. Not even me.


    I felt all my urges float away with the water as I look at the stream with a cold gaze.


    "Yea I won''t," I whisper to myself as I lay on my back and stare at the sky. The night quickly covered the sky and I decided to camp near the stream to be close to our only source of water. I lent her a blanket as we both hung our clothes near the fire to let it dry up. It was good I collected the blankets and bed covers in the safe room from the sky kings dungeon a year ago. I took out Mole¡¯s fur and used it as a blanket to cover myself. I took great care of his fur and take it out when I really need it. I placed a couple of meat on a stick and let it barbecue over the fire. After it cooked, I told her to take her portion while I took mine and ate in silence. She did the same showing to the little sign of interest in talking. After eating, she fell asleep as I sat around awake. No matter how tired my body is, I can¡¯t seem to sleep due to her presence. I wanted to leave her but, my past keeps haunting me as I remembered how I was left behind. To break my mind of it, I started going over the items in my bag.


    ¡°A bag full of diamonds, a couple of weapons, and a couple of book including a black book with nothing on it, a couple of utensils, and other crap," I whisper laying it out in front of me. I notice the boots and the gloves that I can probably give to Suyeon since she''s a dancer class. But the last thing I want is giving her the strength to murder me.


    "She can go kick rocks," I say as I store all of the items in my bag. "Wait, how about this?"


    I held the book I got from the hidden chest that can only be opened by a dancer class.


    If I give this to her, it will keep her busy until we reach the village and won''t pester me with her fucking apologizing rants.I say in my mind. I slowly stood and placed the book near her head and I slowly go back towards where I sat and fiddled with the fire all night. Morning came and when she woke up, she thanked me nonstop for the book. I had her lead the way as we both follow the stream. She managed to open the book like nothing and have been reading its contents ever since. I have noticed some animals like bear, boars, even some wolves around the area but none of them attacked us but just glared at Suyeon ignoring me completely. She ignored them in return. Or I should say, she didn¡¯t even notice as she was too caught up with the book, I gave her. As we walk near the stream, I notice a beaten down path that leads into the middle of the forest.


    ¡°Wait!¡± I shouted at her but she¡¯s too focused on reading and kept walking ahead. ¡°Tch.¡±


    I grab a small rock and I threw it with little to no force since I didn¡¯t want to gag again. The rock flew and tapped her head. She quickly looked around and was frantic when she couldn¡¯t find me. Then she quickly grabbed her mouth trying not to gag.


    ¡°Fucking idiot! Over here!¡± I shouted at her and she looks at me with worry. ¡°Hurry up!¡±


    She nods in apology as she speeds walk in towards me. We both slowly follow the path until the gravel turned into bricks.


    ¡°Fucking, Finally!¡± I shout in victory as I see a village, or I would say a small town. There¡¯s a sign on top the path and written in it was forest boar town. As we enter the town, a man standing near the entrance stopped us.


    ¡°Halt! Welcome to forest boar town. Can I ask why do you co-¡± The man froze the minute his gaze turned to Suyeon. ¡°W-w-w-welcome.¡±


    His face lit up a happy smile as he held his hand out towards her. She held it out her hand and them both shakes hands for a long time. I see he likes it while she just looks at his hands confused.


    He likes her.I say in my mind. This is good. Let me slowly leave these two alone. Finally! We part ways! Bye bye~


    I sneak past the guard who''s too busy staring at Suyeon with an unbeatable smile. Suyeon notice me leaving and she quickly let go of the man¡¯s hand and speed walk to get in front of me.


    ¡°what are you doing?¡± I say glaring at her.


    ¡°H-hey miss. I didn¡¯t catch your name!¡± The guard behind me happily says as he approaches us.


    "Give me your hand," I say holding out mine towards her. The minute she grabbed my hands, I yanked her towards me with a bit of force and her body went forward as her head went slightly back and forth like a bobblehead. Then she quickly dropped on her knees and held mouth with both hands trying not to vomit. Since I didn''t move my arms much, I didn''t get sick. I turn to the guard behind me who are now sprinting towards my way.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°M-mister! This lady has a flame sickness! I-I was paid to bring her here. W-w-would you be so kind and escort her?¡± I asked him and he gave me a stance as if he¡¯s someone with authority.


    ¡°Worry not, young man. I shall escort this maiden to get her flame sickness cured. Your task is completed. If you have accepted your payment. You may go.¡± He tells me and I see Suyeon look at me with worry as the guard help her up.


    ¡°T-thank you, sir!¡± I tell the guard then I look back at Suyeon and gave her a smirk.


    Maiden? Dude has a few screws loose.I say in my mind as I turn around to explore the town.


    ¡°Finally. Freedom.¡± I whisper to myself as I walk towards the town¡¯s center. ¡°She can fend for herself. Sooner or later, those pricks would probably find her.¡±


    I walked further following the brick road until I see there¡¯s a statue taking a piss right in the middle of the fountain. A bunch of copper circles is scattered around probably what people used to make a wish onto the pissing kid in the middle.


    Are these the currency in this world? I asked in my mind inspecting one of them then throwing it back in the fountain. I looked around the center and there are signs pointing to different direction to another street.


    "Forest boar inn, Forest boar item shop, forest boar library, forest boar hall, Forest boar street market, Forest boar health center, what the fuck everything is named forest boar," I mutter as I followed the sign that points towards the street where the item shop is. I can start there since, in most games, those places have the most information next to the guild hall, but I don¡¯t see any guild hall on the signs. Might not have a guildhall at all in this town or maybe this world. Once I got close to it, I see a lady sweeping leaves outside of the store. The minute we met our eyes, she froze in place looking at me while I approached her.


    ¡°Uh, do you manage this shop?¡± I asked her and she just nods. ¡°Uh, are you open?¡±


    She nods again but just stood there looking at me.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I say waving my hand in front of her eyes and she breaks off her gaze.


    ¡°O-oh I¡¯m sorry! I just never seen a person look like you. U-um c-come in.¡± She says as she quickly goes to the door and opens it for me. As I enter, I see weapons armors, empty bottles, and even books organized everywhere.


    ¡°S-so, how can I help you?¡± She asked me as she quickly goes behind a counter.


    ¡°Do you have any potion to cure something called flame sickness?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I certainly do! Give me a minute!¡± She said and she quickly runs towards the open door behind her and came out holding a box. When she opened it, there were tiny bottles with black liquid inside.


    I grab one out of the box and inspect it. ¡°This cure flame sickness?¡±


    ¡°Yea, one bottle will be enough to cure the sickness. Is a party member of yours sick?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m sick. How much is one?¡± I asked her and she looked at me surprised.


    ¡°W-w-wait. You have flame sickness?¡± She asked surprised. ¡°H-how are you able to walk?!¡±


    ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t know. I only get the sickness when I move to fast. So how much?¡± I asked again.


    If I have to ask one more time how much, I¡¯m going to vomit on her face. I say in my mind as I started to get irritated.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. That would be 2 silver chip.¡± She tells me.


    Shit. I don¡¯t have any. I whisper in my mind thinking of a way to pay her.


    ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t have any money on me right now but, is it possible to trade a weapon for it?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Sure! As long as the value of the weapon is the same or more than 2 silver.¡± She said happily.


    ¡°Ok give me a minute. Item bag.¡± I say and my bag materializes in front of me and I managed to catch it.


    ¡°D-d-did you just call out a dimensional bag?!¡± She says as her eyes go wide looking at my bag.


    "Uh, yeah," I tell her.


    ¡°Where did you get it?! How much do you want for it?! Would you sell it?!¡± She started bombarding me with questions.


    ¡°I just have it. It¡¯s not for sale. And no, I won¡¯t sell it.¡± I tell her.


    This girl is seriously irritating me. Why do they all act so damn surprised? I say in my mind as my patience is starting to run short.


    ¡°Can we get on with business? I need the potion really bad.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°O-o sure! Sorry about that. Please show me what you have.¡± She tells me as she stared on my bag. I took out one of the swords I got in the hidden dungeon since it might give me at least a couple of silver for it. The minute I place the sword down on the counter, her eyes went wide in shock, again.


    This fucking clerk. Her eyes go wide more frequent that she probably sells stuff. I say in my mind.


    ¡°W-w-where did you-¡°


    ¡°Where did I get it? A hidden dungeon. Yes, it¡¯s for sale.¡± I tell her answering her questions before she even asked them.


    She picked up the sword and studied it thoroughly. ¡°120 gold.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked getting caught off guard.


    ¡°Ok ok, 200 gold. Take it or leave it.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°W-wait you¡¯re saying this cost 200 gold?¡± I asked her getting confused. I thought the sword itself is cheap and was only trading it for one bottle.


    ¡°Alright, the best offer I can give you is 230 gold plus a box of the flame sickness potion.¡± She tells me as she gives me a pleading look.


    ¡°Uh¡­um deal?¡± I say not knowing what¡¯s going on. But if I¡¯m getting a lot of money along with this potion, I¡¯ll take it.


    ¡°Yay! Ok, give me a minute.¡± She ran back in with the sword in hand and a couple of minutes, she came out with three big pouches.


    ¡°Ok, here is one hundred and twenty-nine gold chips, ten thousand silver chips, and ten thousand copper chips. I apologize but I don¡¯t have enough gold to give you so I broke it down also for your own convenience.¡±


    ¡°No problem. But, can I ask about the currency system? I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m not from these lands.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°Hahaha, you sound exactly like the lords of the gold city.¡± She tells me smiling.


    Lords? Gold city? Those bastards came by here? I see they¡¯re too busy play pretending.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Ok, this is a copper chip. This is the lowest currency here in this continent. This is a silver chip. You can obtain these by collecting 100 copper chips and exchanging them for one silver chip or finding them inside dungeons. This is a gold chip, you can obtain these by collecting 100 silver chips or also finding them inside a dungeon. The highest currency that is made only for wealthy individuals are diamond rocks. One diamond rock is equivalent to 1,000,000 gold chips. But the diamond rocks can only be found inside the dungeon or when you mine deep within the ground. The bigger the rock, the higher the value is.¡± She explained.


    Holy shit. I have a couple of diamonds different shapes in my big that cost like millions of golds chips!I whisper in my mind thinking about the bag of diamonds and the diamond sword I have. No,we made a promise. We will bring that home to our mother.I know and I will never break that promise. But, we¡¯re walking millionaire. Now that you put it that way¡­


    ¡°Ha!¡± I say in excitement making a sudden movement. The whole place started spinning and it¡¯s making me gag.


    ¡°C-customer are you all right?!¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Ughh, I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s this stupid sickness.¡± I whisper as I slowly stand up. I opened one of the bottles and decided to chug it. I almost gag, as the taste is equivalent to a liquid form of a pure coffee bean. It was so bitter that the aftertaste didn¡¯t come off my mouth.


    ¡°Ugh, the hell is this?¡± I say as I finish one tiny bottle.


    ¡°Ah ha ha, yeah it¡¯s bitter. Wait. Here.¡± She hands me a bag of mints. ¡°It¡¯s in the house. The flame sickness should be gone but you might want to rest in this town for a few days to recuperate.¡± She explained to me and I just nod. I accepted the free candy and stored it in my bag along with the bag of coins and box of flame sickness potion.


    ¡°Oh, since I¡¯m here. Do you have any health potion?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. Those are too expensive for me to obtain and definitely too expensive for the travelers who pass here. Those can only be found within the cities.¡± She replied to me.


    "How about any other potion for a different type of sickness and poison," I asked her.


    ¡°Oh, I do have. Which one do you want to buy?¡± She asked me.


    "All of them," I tell her and she gave me a big smile and quickly ran in the back coming out of 7 boxes stacked on top of one another. She placed the boxes top of the counter and laid them out one by one.


    ¡°Ok here is all of them. Each box has a paper explaining each potion.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°How much?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°U-um. Rather than cash. Do you perhaps¡­have another weapon you want to sell?¡± She tells me. I gave her a fake smile and her face went red. Then I took out another sword in my bag and handed it to her. She happily accepted and I took all the boxes and placed them in my dimensional bag one by one.


    ¡°Any place around here that has good food?¡± I asked her.


    "The best place to grab a bite is the forest boar inn! They have a restaurant in the entrance and an inn on the second floor and above. They even built rooms with their own private bath! Just walk in and go to the bar. The bar is also the front desk for the inn above.¡± She explains to me and I just nod and turned without saying a word.As I was about to leave the shop, she stopped me by the entrance. ¡°Wait! If you¡¯re staying at the inn, do you want to buy some personal hygiene materials like soap or shampoo? They don¡¯t have those in there.¡±


    This chick is a saleswoman for sure. But then again, I¡¯ll need stuff. I¡¯ll be here for a couple of days until my flame sickness disappear.


    "Ok, show me what you have," I say as I turn back around. After an hour or so in the item shop, I came out with everything from a pen, paper, rope, every fucking material I can think off.


    "I feel like I got forced into buying things," I mumble as I ponder that I just lost a sword form the dungeon just for some toothbrush which is in my hand. The toothbrush handle was made out of wood the bristles have a tan color in them.


    Oh well, a toothbrush is a toothbrush.I say in my mind as I blew into my hand trying to smell my breath.


    ¡°I definitely need to brush my teeth¡­¡± I muttered as I follow the sign to get to the boar''s inn. Once it¡¯s in my sight, it looks like a hotel from the outside, but with only three floors. The entrance is the same as those swinging doors from cowboy movies. I push the swinging doors and the loud creak it made brought everyone¡¯s attention to me. They all stopped talking and doing whatever they¡¯re doing and stared at me as I walked towards the bar.


    ¡°Uh, how much is a room?¡± I asked a big burly man standing on the other side of the counter cleaning a beer mug.


    ¡°Ye not from around here are ye?¡± He asked me.


    ¡°Um, no shit Davey Jones," I tell him getting irritated.


    Why can¡¯t people in this place just give me the answers without fucking asking me questions first!I scream in my mind.


    ¡°Ya a feisty one hahaha one thing ye adventurers need to survive.¡± He tells me and when I was about to say something again, he continued talking. ¡°I got rooms to spare. A days¡¯ worth of stay cost bout¡¯ one silver. If ye is going to stay a few sunsets, a week will be Seven silver chips. If ye want to get them private rooms. Those will cost ye 1 gold per day. Seven gold for the whole seven sunrises. Which one ya want?¡±


    "Let me get the private room," I tell him trying to understand what he just said.


    ¡°Yous a rich feller aren¡¯t ye.¡± He tells me as I hand him seven gold coins. I didn¡¯t respond and quickly took my key. They told me to wait until they get the room ready. In the meantime, I sat at one of the empty tables near the corner where I know no one would bother me. One of the waitresses gave me a menu and the first thing that caught my attention was braised fish platter combination.


    "I''ll have this one," I tell the waitress right away and she took the menu away from me and walked away smiling. A couple of minutes, she comes back with a glass of water and a couple of minutes after that, she came out with my meal. The dish was a whole fish along with a bowl of rice and some side dishes.


    "Mom," I whisper to myself. I know there were other better choices on the menu but that one had a special meaning to me. The braised fish platter combination was the last thing my mother ordered before I was taken to this planet. I know it might not be the same but the name itself makes it harder for me to swallow.


    If everything went right that day, I would have gone to the restaurant, got it for her, and we would have eaten dinner normally together. But now, I¡¯m eating by myself and she¡¯s probably doing the same.I whisper in my mind looking at my food without taking a bite.


    I quickly took a bite and it was heavenly. All I have been eating is food with hardly any seasoning. But this, I can taste every ingredient they put in it. onions, garlic, soy sauce, the way the cooked the fish by lightly frying it then stew is slowly right after.Everything was the first for me. Meeting actual people, eating properly cooked food, I finally made it out those hell holes. For the first time, I felt alive.


    I¡¯m alive. I survived.These words repeated in my mind as I continued to eat in silence. After finishing my plate, the same waitress came and took the empty plate and came back with a tiny plate with peeled apples. Since my meals are part of the private room, I ate it without hesitation and after finishing it, the same waitress approached me.


    ¡°U-um s-sir. H-Have you finished eating? Is it there anything else you want?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m done. Is my room ready?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Y-yes. Come follow me.¡± She says nervously as she averts my gaze. I see her face is turning red and she quickly turns around walking towards the steps on the left. I silently followed her as we went up the second and then the third floor. We walked down the corridor until we reach a room towards the end. ¡°H-here is your room. If you need anything please don¡¯t hesitate to let me know. Just look for me. Only me.¡± She quickly speeds walk back where we came from.


    ¡°What the hell is wrong with these people?¡± I whisper as I slide my key into the hole and turn it hearing a couple of clicks until the door opened slightly. I slowly push and once the door opened completely, I was exposed to what looks like a five-star hotel suite. There is a large bed toward one side and a couch right next to a small coffee table right in front of it. Towards the other end, there''s a table pushed against near the window and a notebook on top of it. A sticky note was on top of the notebook and within the note had a word written on it.


    ¡°Complimentary.¡± I read it out loud. ¡°Haha, reminds of hotels back at home¡­¡±


    I remember painful memories with good and bitter ones of me and my mother. This is one of those moments where I felt I¡¯m one step closer to getting home. This inn lets me taste a little bit of my home planet and somehow, I felt so many emotions surging through me. I decided to inspect the room more and I spot another door. As I open it, I see an onsen. There¡¯s water coming out of the wall onto a miniature hot spring. The water on the hot spring itself is a crystal green color and smoke was coming out of it. I dip my hand into it and the temperature is perfect.


    "Maybe I should take a bath," I say to myself since most of the time I''ve been bathing on lakes or streams without soap or shampoo. I decided to go back into the main room and called out my dimensional bag. I took out a toothbrush, something called dentifricium which I would say the toothpaste of this world. I also took out a towel, an actual razor, soap, shampoo, and facial scrub. It won''t hurt to have proper hygiene in this world. I quickly undress and went towards my own private onsen. For the first time, in a year, I had a proper bath. And I brushed my teeth.


    After cleaning myself completely, I wore the new clothes I bought in the item shop. A regular T-shirt and some bottoms that look like sweatpants but more prehistoric. I lay down in bed but I made sure I locked the door before I fall asleep. The sun already set through the horizon and the moon illuminates the whole town as the moonlight reflected onto people¡¯s roof. I decided to open the window to let the cool breeze in. I placed a chair near the window and I sat on it leaning my arms and chest against the window frame looking outside at the night sky. I felt my eyes become heavy, so I decided to close the window and go back to bed. As I was slowly dozing off to a night of deep sleep, I heard someone suddenly bang on my door bringing me back to reality at the worst mood possible. Every impact of whoever¡¯s fist resonated in my mind.


    ¡°Fuck! Who the hell¡­¡± I shout roughly standing up and walking towards the door. Since there is no peephole, I need to open the door slightly to know who it is but my anger got the best of me as I pulled the door swinging it wide open. She was probably holding onto the handle as she came tumbling down towards the ground.


    ¡°You, what the hell do you want now?¡± I say as I see Suyeon slowly standing up dusting off her knees.


    ¡°Y-you left me.¡± She tells me. I see she changed her clothes and it seems like a dress from a wealthy family.


    ¡°Yea I know. Now go away.¡± I say as I close the door. Right before it closed shut, a hand stopped it and forced it open.


    ¡°Stand down peasant. How dare you treat milady after she paid you big money to be able to rent this room.¡± The guard from earlier said.


    Huh?! Is this fucker crazy?! I cursed in my mind as my face contorts in anger. Milady? Since when did she become royalty?


    ¡°Peasant? Want some diamonds shoved down in your throat you little bitch?¡± I snarl back at him.


    ¡°W-what did you call me?!¡± He shouted back almost spitting at me.


    ¡°Look you fucks. What the fuck do you want from me? You, Suyeon. I got you out the dungeon, brought you down here, now go on an adventure by yourself and stop pestering me.¡± I tell her before turning towards the guard standing right beside her.


    ¡°And you, you overgrown baboon, watch your mouth before I rip it off.¡± I stepped forward him and his face started getting red with fury.


    "First of all, Milady is unfit to be an adventurer. Second of all, I bet you''re just a lowly rank adventurer. Be careful, I have a certain power in this town that will make your life miserable." He taunts me.


    ¡°Huh? Me? Be careful? You are fucking be careful around me. I can wipe this town off the face of this planet.¡± I tell him glaring him down and I can see he¡¯s getting more furious.


    ¡°That¡¯s it! Pay for your crimes here and now!¡± The guard shouts as he draws his sword.


    ¡°Why are you so clich¨¦?¡± I asked him and he didn¡¯t respond as he continued to unsheathe his sword. ¡°Go kick rocks, your noisy shithead. Better yet, want to lose a few limbs?"

 CHAPTER 33: The story of the little piggy

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    CHAPTER 33: The story of the little piggy


    <hr>


    Without waiting for him to even reply, I kicked him on the abdomen sending him flying through a room. I thought that would have knocked him out, but it didn¡¯t as he came jumping out of the hole on the wall. His armor was completely damaged, and he probably lost his sword as he came charging at me barehanded.


    ¡°How dare you kick the son of the governor! Die-¡°


    Using my left fist, I punched him right in the face near his nose interrupting his speech. I feel something crunching under my fist as he flew back where he came out of. I see him going wild on the floor inside the room across mine.


    ¡°M-my nose! A-a-ahh! You bastar-¡°


    Using my foot, I stomped on his face making him hug his head with his arms to protect it.


    ¡°S-stop I c-concede!¡± He begged and I suddenly stopped and crouched down towards him.


    ¡°Concede? Weren''t we fighting to the death?¡± I whisper as I gave him a smile.


    ¡°w-what-¡° He suddenly stopped talking as my fist met his mouth. I repeatedly punched him in the mouth until a few of his teeth flew out and blood was coming out of my fist from being cut. "S-stop. P-please no more."


    I grabbed his wrist with both of my hands while placing my knee in his chest as I bring is arm straight upwards putting my arms around with a deadlock.


    ¡°How does it go again? Ah~ This little piggy went to market.¡± I say as I forced his pinky back further than what it''s supposed to until his bone snapped from the joints.


    ¡°Ahhhh!!!!! Stop! Someone! Help me! Get him off me!" He kept screaming but no one came. Even when the other customers who were probably woken up by the sound, peeked out their doors and the minute they noticed what was going on, they bolted towards the staircase.


    ¡°This little piggy ate too many shits.¡± I grab the ring finger and forced it back until it snapped. He kept screaming trying to wriggle away from my grasp. It¡¯s surprising he hasn¡¯t activated any skill making me doubt he¡¯s an adventurer.


    ¡°Stop!!! Spare me please!!!¡± He shouted between his crying and I can see his complexion becoming pale. I grab the middle finger this time and I see him trying to clench whatever remaining fingers he had while he uses his other hand trying to force my grip off but it feels like his strength is slowly diminishing or, maybe he was really weak from the beginning.


    ¡°Now this little piggy is so fucking ugly," I say bending back his middle finger as slowly as possible making him feel all the pain that¡¯s coming. I kept forcing it until it finally snapped.


    ¡°Ahhhh!!!!! Mmppppffff!!¡± I hear his voice was suddenly muffled and when I look I see Suyeon covering his mouth while she¡¯s looking down at him in the eyes. I can see a smirk on her face as he stares at her with fear and confusion.


    I was about to talk when she opened her mouth. ¡°Shhhhh. There¡¯s are people sleeping~¡±


    Haha, this bitch is crazy. I say in my mind.


    ¡°W-what are you guys doing?!¡± I hear a shout towards my right and as I look up, I see someone dressed in a flashy armor from a distance standing in front of the staircase. Right behind him is the bartender and the waitress that lead me to my room and they¡¯re both in shock the minute they see the scene.


    ¡°And who the fuck are you?¡± I say as I let go of the guard¡¯s hand turning around to face him. In a split second, he closed the distance between us and I can see his right hand coming towards my face.


    ¡°hmpf~ you''re slow," I whisper as I easily blocked his attack. But the force of his punch sent me flying towards the room.


    ¡°I am the governor of this town! Son are you alright?!¡± He shouted running towards him. He swiftly pushed Suyeon out of the way as she still held onto his mouth preventing him from screaming.


    Governor? Of a town? Isn¡¯t supposed to be mayor?I whisper in my mind as I slowly stood up.


    ¡°Well~ then~ governor~ why is one of your men disturbing me right before I sleep?¡± I say walking out of the hole on the wall unscathed while I¡¯m dusting off my shoulders from debris. I see him picking up his son and the bartender quickly took him and ran for the stairs. Suyeon is slowly getting up walking my way.


    The governor paid no attention to me and glared at Suyeon. ¡°After curing your sickness, you impudent bitc-¡°


    ¡°Uh, you didn¡¯t answer my question. Who the fuck are you?" I interrupt him mid-sentence.


    ¡°Silence you vermin!¡± He shouted at me and the last word he said made me want to pop a vein out of anger.


    ¡°Vermin? Your guard banged on my door, called me a peasant, tried to kill me for no fucking reason. Governor, maybe I should destroy this whole town off the face of this fucking planet! Item bag!¡±


    My bag materializes in mid-air and I quickly took out one of the ogre queen''s axe. The minute the governor sees it, his eyes went wide. I brought my axe upwards as I rushed in and the governor jumps back barely dodging. I see him land and skids backward as he has his sword fully drawn while a trickle of blood drips down from his chin.


    ¡°G-governor!! We heard from the owner there¡¯s an enemy!¡± A young guard coming up the steps screamed and the minute he sees¡¯ me, he drew his sword and glared my way. ¡°Governor! We can handle this!¡±


    He runs past him towards me and I see the governor tried to stop him.


    ¡°S-stop!¡± The governor shouts at the guard rushing my way. More guard exit the stairway unsheathing their weapon one by one as they come out. The hallway wasn¡¯t that big so only two people can fit side by side but nonetheless, they still ran towards me creating a parade.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted as I charged at one of the guards holding a shield. He raised his shield and stopped right in front of me as I close the distance. Using my weight, I placed my right foot forward while turning my hips followed by my shoulder and my fist went straight towards the shield. The minute my fist made contact, the shield broke into pieces like it¡¯s made of glass and the guard holding it flew back onto the other guards running behind. Another guard beside him swung his sword sideways like a baseball bat towards my ribcage. Using my left foot, I jumped up dodging his swing and as I descend, I shouted another skill preparing to obliterate him on the spot.


    "Tenderize!" In a quick motion, I punched the air and my skill snapped out my hand like a bullet hitting him square in the face creating a cloud of smoke. I sent another punch towards the smoke and my skill pushed the guard through the ground as part of the floor collapse and I descend down towards the floor below.


    Thud!


    ¡°Ohp! Almost tripped there~¡± I say as I land on some rubble almost spraining my ankle. The place was a mess. Full of debris that came from the floor above. I look up and I see the guards looking down at me and they all disappeared probably to run towards the stairs to get to the second floor. I look at Suyeon and she¡¯s located on the other side also looking down at me with a worried look and then slowly started climbing down hanging her feet first.


    ¡°What the fuck is she doing?¡± I mutter as I see her struggle trying to get down. She suddenly lost her grip on the edge of the second floor and came crashing down on the rubble. She quickly stood up dusting herself and ran towards me while at the same time I hear footsteps coming from behind me. As I turn, I see the guards exit the stairway and a couple of people also came out of their rooms. The minute they see the destruction I made, they quickly ran towards the stairway as the guards run towards me.


    ¡°Hahaha, I see you didn¡¯t have enough. Well then, Item bag!¡± I quickly placed my axe in the bag. In such tight space, it¡¯s better to fight the bastards barehanded.


    ¡°Die!¡± One of the guards shouted at me as he held his sword over his head.


    What the fuck, is he really a guard? He¡¯s full of openings.I whisper in my mind seeing him up close made it easier. Right when he swung his sword down, I catch his wrist with my right hand. He quickly looks at me with worry as I gave him a quick smile. ¡°Pound~¡±


    My fist glowed and I felt a vibration from the tip of my knuckles. Using my right hand on his wrist, I pulled him closer while I drove my fist towards his abdomen. Right, when my fist made contact, I let go of his wrist and using my hips, I turned sideways and I forced him to fly towards the ceiling as I uppercut him in the abdomen. The guard eyes went white before flying up and disappearing at the floor above.


    ¡°M-m-my inn!¡± The bartender shouted as he exits from the steps seeing the destruction I made. ¡°Y-ye damn d-d-demon!¡±


    ¡°See? You fucktards call what you can¡¯t comprehend, a demon. Let¡¯s stop talking shall we?¡± In a quick motion and thanks to my seismic step skill, I closed the distance between me and another guard. I brought my fist towards his face hitting him right in the jaw. I see his head shook sideways as he fell to the ground like a rag doll.


    ¡°Ah fuck, I forgot to activate my skill. Pound~¡± I say at the guard who¡¯s seemed disoriented on the ground in all fours. I put my hand right in his neck forcing his air pipe to close and he started choking and trashing around. Using a bit of force, I lodged his head on the floor I brought my fist down towards the back of his head. His head sank into the ground and cracks started forming from the floor traveling to the walls as the floor forms a dent.


    ¡°Shit, not again.¡± I waited for the place to collapse to the first floor but it didn¡¯t. Everyone notices the cracks and they all froze in place not making any sudden moves. I slowly stood up and stepped on the guards face pushing it more into the ground as the crack spread to the walls.


    I see the bartender about to cry as he quickly turned around and ran downstairs shouting, ¡°Evacuate! Evacuate! Ye adventures and everyone! Evacuate!¡±


    I hear screams from down below and footsteps, as they all scamper, probably trying to get out of the building.


    ¡°Ok then~ you fucking peasant guards. Are we done? No? Do you want more? Gotcha!¡± I quickly stomped on the guard''s face causing his head to really sink and the whole place started crumbling as we both fell towards the bottom floor.


    The guard''s lifeless body fell right on top of the table and I land on my feet on top of him. As I look around, I noticed I¡¯m in the middle of the kitchen. I look up and I see the hole I made going all the way up to the third floor. More guards came in through the kitchen door as I hear their metal armor clanking at every move.


    "Ah, so you want more," I whisper. I hear a rustling behind me and when I turn, I see Suyeon hanging off the ledge and her feet flail around as she tried to get a footing. I see her grip on the ledge slip and she came crashing down onto another table back fist.


    Thud!


    Ouch. That must have hurt.I wince seeing her bounce off the table landing on the ground. She quickly stood up dusting off her dress as nothing happened.


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°What are you? Made out of steel?¡± I ask her but she just looked at the ground without responding.


    ¡°Let¡¯s stop this now.¡± I hear a voice behind me and as I turn around and I see the governor coming in as the guard¡¯s part ways for him to walk through.


    ¡°Well hello, bitch. Governor is it?" I asked him and he just nods still trying to exert his authority figure. ¡°Wait, your name is governor? Must be. You can¡¯t be a governor of a town.¡±


    ¡°What? No my name Dullar. I govern this town which makes me the governor.¡± He tells me.


    ¡°Huh? Who told you that? You fucking idiot, a governor governs a state. A mayor is in charge of the town so that makes you the mayor.¡± I tell him.


    ¡°What? No, I gover-¡°


    ¡°And who gives a fuck?¡± I interrupt him as I clenched my fist tight. ¡°Let¡¯s dance, shall we?¡±


    ¡°There is no way of stopping you unless we fight. Very well.¡± He says as he gives his sword to one of his men and started taking off his metal armor. ¡°We fight fair.¡±


    Heh,¡­it was fair with your armor and sword.He suddenly charged at me trying to grapple me in place.


    ¡°Oho~¡± I quickly sidestep backward avoiding his grasp and in a quick motion, I step forward quickly closing the distance between us. I swung my right towards him and he wasn¡¯t fast enough to react as I made contact with his sides probably breaking a few ribs.


    ¡°Urggh!¡± I hear him groan in pain as my punch sent him skidding across the floor and crashing into one of the kitchen tables. Without waiting for him to recover, I close the gap between us again and all he did was block as I bombard him with punches one after another.


    ¡°Pound~¡± I whisper in a low voice and using my left hand, I brought it towards his chest. I see him bring down his arms trying to protect it and my fist met with his forearm snapping both his bones and right when I saw him move a bit due to the impact, I activated another skill under my breath, ¡°Tenderize~¡±


    My fist glowed red right before I hit his chest and it exploded upon impact. My punch sent him flying towards the wall where the knives hang in place. The minute his back hit the wall, it erupted, and he kept flying through towards the outside. Smoke filled the place for a brief moment and as soon as it cleared, I see him on the ground outside as the moon shines down on him.


    ¡°Governor!¡± Everyone shouted while some guards ran out of the hole. The walls started forming cracks and traveled across the ceiling as the whole building crumbled under the pressure.


    ¡°R-run! It¡¯s going to collapse!!¡± One of the guards shouted and some of the scampered out the door while some ran out the hole towards the governor. I heard weird noises and a loud bang erupted from the side. I see that the corner where the walls and the ceiling meet erupted in place and the second floor along with the third floor started collapsing on top of me.


    Whoeverbuilt this place sucked. The foundation is too weak.Since my tenderize skill is still activated, I started punching wildly above me and my attack erupted everything as the whole place completely collapses. I didn¡¯t stop and kept punching wildly until my attacks started escaping and flew into the night sky like a firework waiting to explode from a distance.


    Oh fuck, the witch stick.I remember about Suyeon and as I quickly turn around, I see nothing but rubble around me.


    "Ah shit," I whisper and when I was about to flip some debris, she suddenly emerged out of the rubble and started dusting off her clothes before ran by my side.


    ¡°A-are you ok?¡± She asked me to while frantically looking around to see if I¡¯m wounded but I just stared at her like she a new species.


    This girl is not human. Not human.I say in my mind as she looks at me confused.


    ¡°Kid! Are you alive! Kid!¡± I hear the governor shout.


    ¡°Tsk, he¡¯s still alive?¡± I say looking towards where I heard his voice. Debris and rubble of the building surround me and Suyeon. Creating somewhat of a circular wall. ¡°Pound.¡±


    I felt the vibration in my fist and I approach a part of the wall where the governor''s voice is coming from.


    ¡°Guards! Hurry and remove the rubble! Get them out of there!¡± He order and I hear rocks being picked up and thrown to the side. A perfect opportunity to blow them all off as I swung towards the wall with a lot more force behind it.


    BOOOOOOOOM!


    The wall and debris erupted in place as it flew everywhere leaving only a cloud of smoke. I started walking towards the opening through the smoke and I hear Suyeon quickly follow behind me. As I slowly exit, I see the governor being held up by two of his guards. His arms are turning purple where I punched him. His chest also looks to be in a bad shape. They''re a couple of guards on the ground unconscious near where I came out from making me want to laugh at how they¡¯re all pathetic.


    "There you are~," I said approaching him. All the remaining guards surrounded me ready to attack but I can sense fear in their stance. I even notice one of them shaking from fear.


    ¡°Stop!¡± the governor shouted, and his loud voice resonated throughout the area and everyone froze in place. ¡°I give up. You win.¡±


    ¡°Really? I win? But I wasn¡¯t trying to win.¡± I say as I walk towards him tilting my head. I see some of them look terrified and even the governor himself is losing color on his face.


    ¡°I-I have no quarrel with you. That axe you have is a proof.¡± He tells me. ¡°It¡¯s a proof I won¡¯t win.¡±


    ¡°What axe? Oh, you mean that?¡± I tell him and I quickly called out my dimensional bag and pulled out the ogre queens¡¯ axe. ¡°This one?¡±


    The minute some of the guards saw it, they lost color as their complexion turn pale while a bunch of the younger ones looked at each other confused.


    ¡°G-g-governor t-that¡¯s t-t-he ogre queen¡¯s axe!¡± One of the older guards shouted from the crowd surrounding us and it surprised me they know what it looks like.


    ¡°Oh? You mean that weak purple cunt?¡± I asked.


    ¡°O-of course! She terrorized these lands as soon as she became an overlord! Y-you how do you have her axe?!¡± The soldier shouted at me making me want to just slice all their heads off.


    ¡°Huh? In what sense I have to answer to you?¡± I tell him and no one said anything after that. They all just watched me as I started walking towards the governor. ¡°Ok, now where were we, ah, as I said, I¡¯m not here to win this fight old man~¡±


    All of them backed away as I walked closer and closer towards the governor. Even the ones holding him fell on their ass as their legs gave out from fear. But the Governor stood his ground as I approach him.


    ¡°Very well. If this is fate. Then I cannot stop it.¡± The governor says as he drops on his knees waiting for me to strike him.


    "Oh, how noble of you," I whisper as I get in front of him looking down right into his eyes.


    If he knows the overlord, he might have information about the rest of them and Unum.I whisper in my mind trying to calm myself, but I couldn¡¯t hold back as I kicked him in the head forcing him to fall on his back. I crouch down to level our eyes and gave him a smile.


    "Tell these peasants, to stand down," I tell him. "Or else, they won''t have legs to stand."


    ¡°M-Men! Sheathe your weapons!!¡± He shouted and all the soldiers just started looking at each other confused. ¡°Do it now!¡±


    After hearing his voice the second time, they all quickly sheathe their weapon as the Governor look back up to me. I gave him a smile that probably made his body feel cold.


    ¡°Now, let¡¯s have a nice talk. What do you know about the overlords?¡± I crouch down towards him and gave him the biggest smile I can muster.


    ¡°I-I will answer all your question b-but not here. I-I¡¯m on the verge of fainting from pain." He tells me.


    "Talk," I say not giving a damn of his condition.


    ¡°A-all of the recorded documents is in m-my home.¡± He tells me. ¡°G-guard!¡±


    A guard approached him and stood behind the governor looking at me warily.


    ¡°G-get the head maid t-to get an f-folder on my desk. Tell her to also call the healer.¡° He says and the guard when running towards the town center disappearing. No one made a move. Everyone stood on the same spot. I sat in-front the governor as I watch him cough blood as his breathing is becoming more irregular. Suyeon sat right beside me and hugged her legs like it¡¯s gym class. A couple of minutes later, the same guard came back with a maid and a guy wearing a white robe and glasses.


    ¡°Governor!¡± The maid screamed as she ran towards his side. Then she quickly turned to me. ¡°You! How dare you-¡°Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    I quickly jumped up and tackled her down to the ground. Then in a quick motion, whispered my skill while bringing down my fist towards her.


    BOOOOOOOM!


    The governor''s body flew to the side and the ground erupted. As the smoke subsides, I see the maid''s eyes towards me as tears flew out of it.


    "Watch what you say, I''m sleep deprived and not in a good mood," I whisper to her and all I heard is her whimpering cries yet it didn¡¯t feel genuine. As if she wanted to die and cried because I let her live. I slowly look up and all of the guards who are still standing is grabbing the handle of their sword and is ready to attack me.


    ¡°Stop! No one move!!¡± The governor shouted and I see him on his side with one elbow towards the ground trying to get up. The guy with glasses and white robe rush towards him. He chanted a few things and a green circular rune appeared under the governor and I see his chest and arms slowly healing. I look back down and I notice the maid fainted from fear. I started walking towards the governor and everyone follow but keeping a far distance.


    ¡°So, where¡¯s the information?¡± I asked him crouching down right next to the healer and I can see his hand shaking from fear.


    ¡°W-where is the documents?¡± He tells the healer.


    ¡°T-t-the h-head maid h-have it.¡± He stutters and I quickly stood up and walked back towards the unconscious maid. I see some of the soldiers are checking if she¡¯s still alive and as I approach they held their weapon and stand their ground but never acted on their desires to cut me down. I started feeling the maid for any folder and I put my hand down a big pocket on the apron she had in front of her crotch. I feel a hard material and when I took it out, I see a black folder without any label on it. As soon as I opened it, it¡¯s in a language I can¡¯t read bringing my frustration up.


    Shit.I curse in my mind. Since I didn¡¯t want them knowing I can¡¯t read their language. I placed the folder inside my dimensional bag and approached the governor once again. This whole time I¡¯m going back and forth, Suyeon is following behind me like a dog.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m freezing. What are you going to do about my position?¡± I say as I point towards the rubble of the inn where I was supposed to sleep for the night.


    "I-I can provide you a room in my home." The governor said as I see him sit up. Then he clenched his fist as he got the movement of his arms again. His chest is in better condition but bruises here and there are still on his forearm and chest. I was thinking of camping outside of the town but I know for the fact that they will send more people my way.


    Keep your friends close but your enemies closer Yasu.I tell myself as I stood up looking down towards him.


    ¡°You got guts to invite an enemy to your place. Well then, lead the way.¡± I say and the governor nods.


    ¡°V-v-very well. Everyone! Collect the injured and bring them around my villa!¡± He shouted and all the soldiers started scrambling everywhere.


    ¡°Oh and try not to get funny ideas. I still haven¡¯t changed my mind about destroying this town. You do one wrong move, you won¡¯t have tomorrow.¡± I say to him and he just nods in silence as the healer helps him up to his feet. As I look up, I see some of them started carrying those who are injured and walked towards the town center while a couple of them gave me death stare before retreating. I turn back around and I see the bartender kneeling down the remnants of his inn with his waitresses surrounding him.


    Arethey crying?I asked in my mind.


    ¡°Do not worry, we will take care of him and rebuild his inn. P-please, come follow us to my home.¡± The governor says as two guards help him and they start walking towards the town¡¯s center. I walked barefoot following a parade of injured soldiers out towards the center of the town and towards another street.


    ¡°Ughh.¡± I mutter as I tap on my forehead. My daily episodes of pain in my head came in the wrong time and it feels like it¡¯s going to burst. After a few hits, it started subsiding and my breathing went back to normal. I slowly walked following a soldier who''s also carrying an adventurer that was injured during the fight. As I look around, I notice every house either has someone looking out his or her window or have their door slightly open trying to see what''s going on. All of them are in their nightwear since the whole commotion happened in the middle of the night. They all probably woke up to the sound of the town''s Inn crumbling.


    ¡°Hey, you. How did you find me?¡± I whispered to Suyeon who¡¯s silently walking beside me.


    ¡°I-I asked the guard I was with where you were. Then they approved and escorted me here.¡± She tells me also in a whispered voice.


    Huh? Approved?I whispered in my mind as I kept feeling something is off.


    ¡°And how the fuck did you become a milady? You¡¯re far from being an English noblewoman.¡± I asked her.


    ¡°T-they just started calling me that. Actually that guy, the guard did. His father even told him to stop calling me since it¡¯s not fitting to what I will look like.¡± She tells me.


    Will look like? Something¡¯s off the way she talks.


    ¡°But why did you muffle his mouth? I thought he¡¯s your guard?¡± I whispered to her wondering why she did that.


    ¡°I¡­I was trying to help you.¡± She whispered as she looks towards the ground.


    Help me? She looks like she was about to torture him herself. I say in my mind pondering if I should really keep her alive.She poses a threat, but then again, she might be a valuable asset.


    We reached a gate that¡¯s wide open and on the other side seems like a hill where the mansion is located on top of it. As we walk following a path, I see some of the injured soldiers slumped down the grassy field being treated by a couple of maids. The minute some of the maids see the governor, they rushed to him helping him walk towards the mansion but their expressions are dull with the lack of worry at all. Some of the other maids that¡¯s free, rushed towards us and stopped in front of Suyeon.


    ¡°Milady!¡± They all shouted in unison and they¡¯re move lively in front of her.


    ¡°Pffft!¡± I tried to hold in a laugh. I see her glaring at me.


    ¡°S-stop calling me that.¡± She says and they all just bowed in unison.


    ¡°Please come follow us, the governor orders us to escort you both inside.¡± Another maid with a different colored outfit approached us. She seemed like the assistant to the head maid of the place and I can already notice she doesn¡¯t like me. As we follow the maid, I sense some unwanted glances that make me want to rip their eyes out of their heads. I held myself back since I¡¯m too exhausted and it¡¯s not worth my time and energy. But tomorrow will be a different story.


    As we enter the mansion, I felt the cold marble floor on the bottom of my foot. There¡¯s a giant stairway on the end of the room that split as it goes up and the steps are covered with a red carpet. The maid didn¡¯t go up but walked towards a double door near the steps. As she opens it, I was introduced to probably the living room. It¡¯s quite spacious with giant windows that are bigger than the door overlooking the garden in the back. There are a fireplace and a couch that encircle a coffee table. I see the governor sitting on the couch and the healer healing the bruises on his hands.


    The Same healer I saw earlier but this time he took off his robe and placed it on the couch. His hands are hovering over the governor''s arms emitting green light. The healer notices us approach him and nod my way as a form of greeting. The governor then turns around and welcome us as we get closer.


    ¡°Please have a sit.¡± He tells us. I decided to sit on the couch across of him and brought my feet up to dust it off staining the couch in the process. Suyeon sits beside me and brought her feet up placing her skirt over it and resting her head on her knees. At first glance from someone else view; she probably looks like she doesn¡¯t have any legs.


    "Well, this is a nice change of pace. Now tell me, where''s Unum." I asked him, getting straight to the point.


    ¡°I apologize on behalf of my son.¡± The governor says as he bows my way.


    ¡°Governor! You shouldn¡¯t bow in the likes of him!¡± The healer that was healing his hands shouted while glaring at me.


    Likes of me?That last line made me see red as I jumped from the couch towards him. I pushed him down and swung towards the ground near his head. ¡°Pound!¡±


    My fist hit the ground beside her head and it causes the whole ground to form a circular dent turning the marble floor into a crater.


    ¡°Likes of me?¡± I say staring him down and his complexion turned white.


    ¡°Governor!¡± A shout came from the door and the minute it swung open, I notice the Governor waving his hand telling the guard to go away.


    ¡°P-please spare him. He meant no harm.¡± The governor begs me and I relax my body as I slowly stand over him keeping my glare.


    ¡°Tch.¡± I slowly moved back towards the couch and I saw it got tipped over due to the ground changing. I see Suyeon fell back along with the couch and is struggling to get up as her legs are stuck inside the upper part of her dress.


    "Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you," I say as I look at her on the ground.


    I notice the healer shaking in fear as he gets up and quickly leaves the place exiting the living room weeping. The governor¡¯s hands seem to be partially healed as he closes and opens his hand. He then nods towards the maid who just watched the healer almost got his face punched in. She quickly bolts towards the door exiting the room per instructions of the governor.


    ¡°So, what do you know about the leader of the overlord Unum?¡± I asked the governor and his eyes went wide in shock.


    ¡°Y-you know their leader''s name?!¡± He asked as he suddenly standing up.


    Tch. Shit, he¡¯s useless the document he gave me is probably useless also. I say in my mind, as I know he doesn¡¯t have the information I need. If he doesn¡¯t even know his name, the chances of him knowing where Unum is, it¡¯s slim.


    ¡°Guard!¡± The governor shouted and one of them ran in holding his sword ready to attack. ¡°Tell a messenger to send a telegram! The leader of the overlord''s name is Unum! Send it to the Viltair city and the Gold City!¡±


    The guard quickly nods and ran back out where he came from. The governor sat back down and finally noticed me staring at him.


    ¡°M-my apologies. It is important news. This is the first I heard of their leader''s name. Can you tell me more about what you know?¡± The governor asked.


    ¡°No, why would I? You have nothing to give back to me.¡± I tell him.


    ¡°Maid!¡± He called out and the same head maid I almost punched came in with her head down.


    ¡°Y-yes governor.¡± She asked.


    ¡°Get the best room ready for our guest Mr.- um what is your name?¡± He asked me.


    ¡°My name is Rikimura," I say lying to him. The last thing I want is giving him my real identity.


    ¡°Ah yes. Get the best room for Mr. Rikimura. As a form of our apology, you will service him tonight." He says and the maid suddenly looked up and the color of her face disappeared.


    Service?


    ¡°Y-yes governor.¡± She stuttered.


    ¡°Don¡¯t make me say it twice. This is punishment for aggravating our friend here. Now go!¡± He shouted and the maid bowed her head as she cried leaving the place.


    What the fuck is wrong with these people.I asked myself slowly figuring out everything.


    ¡°I hope this will gain your trust.¡± He says to me smirking. And his face makes me grip my hand.


    ¡°Well whatever, but since you didn¡¯t know the name of their leader that means you also have no idea where he is. Do you even know where the other overlords are?¡± I asked trying to use the moment to get information out since I can''t read a damn thing on that paper.


    ¡°I know the seventh overlord''s location, he is in the southern-¡°


    ¡°Rakh? The dude is dead. Who else you know?¡± I interrupt him and he froze for a minute.


    ¡°W-what? H-he¡¯s dead?¡± He asked me.


    ¡°Yes, he''s dead. Don¡¯t get any bright ideas to send another guard to send some bullshit telegram. I have no time for this, tell me what you know.¡± I snarl at him.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know his exact location like most the overlord. They don¡¯t really stay in one spot and constantly moving around terrorizing people. Only Rakh we¡¯re able to pinpoint.¡±


    "Tsk, then you''re useless," I mutter.


    ¡°How long will you stay here Mr. Rikimura?¡± He asked me.


    "I was going to stay for three days until your son barged into my dreams and woke me up," I tell him I can see him clenching his fist. He probably remembers what I did to his son but he kept his composure and just smiled.


    ¡°Are you interested perhaps on staying longer? I can make you first lieutenant. With your skills and strength, you can easily go up the ranks.¡± He tells me as he takes out a cigar from the drawer of the coffee table.


    ¡°Why should I take the ranks when I can easily kill you right here and take over the town," I say getting irritated. ¡°And no, I don¡¯t want to be some damn soldier. I got better shit to do.¡±


    "There are benefits working as an authority figure. You can get assigned to any city such as the gold city. I''m sure it''s every adventurer''s dream now of days to be part of the gold guild."


    He continued on his rambling and the headache that disappeared earlier came back. I stood and started walking towards the door. There¡¯s no point of me staying here and this guy is giving me a headache. I¡¯ll leave this town and go on my journey to find Luro.


    ¡°W-wait! Where are you going?¡± He asked.


    "I''m leaving," I tell him without looking back.


    "Well, I know I won''t be able to stop you from leaving. I-is she, your companion?" He asked me while looking at Suyeon who reverted back to the same position as she was earlier and slowly woke up rubbing her eyes looking at me.


    Wait¡­was she sleeping this whole time?I say in my mind.


    ¡°Her? No.¡± I tell him looking her in the eye and she suddenly looked worried.


    ¡°T-then I will take care of her.¡± The governor says smiling.


    Yasu, something feels off¡­Who cares. Leave this witch stick here. Or else she will pee in your mouth while you sleep. I whisper in my mind.


    "Let her stay here," I say turning to the governor and she looked surprised when I said it.


    You¡¯rebetter off here so stop pestering me.I say in my mind. My main goal in the dungeon is to get her out, not babysit her.


    I turn and walked towards the exit and I hear Suyeon scrambling to follow me out. The governor stopped her from going and held her back as I continued to walk towards the door.


    ¡°W-wait! Don¡¯t leave me here! P-Please, take me with you! I want to go on adventures!¡± She shouted crying trying to break off the governor¡¯s grasp.


    ¡°Relax young lady. Let the young man go. We will help you go on an adventure.¡± The governor says and he quickly turns to me. ¡°We¡¯ll take care of her. I apologize for tonight.¡±


    I open the door and close it shut behind me. No one is outside the door, as the guard who went to leave a message hasn¡¯t come back. As I left the place, most of the guards have disappeared probably went back to their local post or home since it¡¯s in the middle of the night. Some of the maids are cleaning up bandages and other medical equipment they used to treat the wounded. As I walk out, some of them notice my presence and gently bowed as I pass them. I reached the town center where there¡¯s a fountain and used its water to wash my hands and face.


    "Tsk, this fucking town is full of weirdo''s, Item bag," I whisper as I take out a towel in my item back to try my face and hands. I remember I still had a few swords that I haven''t sold since I didn''t need to. It might come handy just in case I need to use it for a fight. I placed the towel back in my bag when I remembered the gauntlets and decided to take it out.


    ¡°Hmm, maybe I can give her this. It¡¯s quite useless to me.¡± I whisper to myself while I sat near the edge of the fountain. I look up and the moon is in full view. It hasn¡¯t been long and I already made enemies.


    ¡°I need to learn how to control my temper or else, I¡¯ll be making enemies everywhere I go," I whispered to myself as I stared at the planet on the sky. ¡°Ok Yasu, go back and give her the weapon then leave."


    I placed the gauntlet in my bag and started walking back towards the mansion. As I got close, the entire maid from the front yard is gone and the gate is closed. I tried opening it but it¡¯s locked tight.


    ¡°Tsk, should I go back tomorrow? I don¡¯t really want to go back to this town.¡± I decided to climb the fence and look for a guard. I walked around the estate but nothing.


    I notice a stable from the distance where they kept the horse have a light emitting from the inside. I decided to approach it and ask whomever inside to bring Suyeon out. As I got close, I hear what seems to be a couple of people talking or I should say laughing.


    ¡°Bwahahaha bitch do it right!¡± One guy shouted out as I hug the wall from the outside.


    ¡°Hurry up man, I¡¯m backed up. The governor gave her to us but don¡¯t use her up all by yourself.¡± Another voice says.


    "Well, since I have her mouth, why don''t you lift her ass up and do her from the back." One guard says and that''s when I decided to peek in.


    What the fuck¡­I see the head maid and the other one who''s suppose to perform night service for me on her knees. Their clothes are completely ripped and they''re covered in scratches and bruises indicating a power struggle. The head maid is on the ground on her knees like a dog. One of the guards is behind her with his hand on top her head forcing her head down as he humps her wildly from the back. I see her muffling her own mouth trying not to let out a sound but I can¡¯t shake the noiseof her cries in rhythm with every thrust of the guard behind her.


    ¡°Oh Oh Oh! Shit, this is good!" The guard who has the other maid''s head is thrusting is junk in her mouth so wildly that she ends up vomiting. But the guard never stopped and continued to thrust not giving a care about the girl''s throat. One of the guards lifts her ass violently bringing her hole closer before ramming his junk in with such force that the girl left a muffled shriek of pain.


    ¡°Oh shit, I put it in the wrong hole.¡± The guard says looking down. ¡°Ahaha this bitch is a virgin in the ass.¡±


    They all laughed like it¡¯s some sick play they¡¯re going through but in reality, these girls are being forced. I decided to retreat to the back of the shed to crawl in the dark corner of the stable. They¡¯re too busy and didn¡¯t notice me crawl in the window. I sat in the dark inside the stable before deciding to move behind the horses, I decided to peek out and the head maid who¡¯s on the floor was looking at me the whole time while keeping her mouth muffled with her hands. Tears are coming down her eyes as her body get thrust back and forth non-stop. I can see one of her eyes is bloodshot red as years poured out of it. I thought the guy behind her has spotted me also but he was too busy to pay attention to his surroundings. I gesture to her not expose me and she gave me a weak nod. I crawl through the side until I¡¯m at a distance I can easily jump out and surprise them.


    ¡°Knockout~ Seismic step~¡± I whisper in the dark and in a split second, I jump out aiming a finger towards the guards. The minute I touch them one by one, a small rune appeared in their skin and they all fell on the ground like a ragdoll. I knew how to play around with my skill and using it for a slight touch would disable movement but it won¡¯t remove the senses. Which means, they can still feel, hear, see, and smell, everything.


    ¡°W-what is this?!" One of the guards screamed as he becomes a ragdoll. I decided to muffle his mouth to prevent anyone from hearing. The two maids did the same and muffled the mouth of the other two.


    ¡°Wow~ You guys are animals~" I whisper looking down at one of the guards and the minute he sees my face, his complexion turned pale.


    ¡°Look at you go~ What were you aiming for? World Olympic for thrusting?" I whispertoward him. I hear the two maid sob uncontrollably making it hard for me to focus.¡°You two, be quiet.¡±


    Their sobbing turned into silent cries as they kept their hands on top of the guard¡¯s mouth. I turn back towards the guard in front of me keeping a smile on my face wide enough to show my teeth.


    "Ok, I think you guys need to be taught a lesson~" I called out my item bag and took out three daggers while keeping one hand muffled on the guard''s mouth. I grabbed one dagger and ran the tip of the dagger towards his nipples. I feel him breathing heavily under my palm.


    "No matter how loud you scream, no one will hear your cries," I whisper to him smiling and in one quick swing, I sliced one of his nipples off and I see he closes his eyes due to the pain. "Oh, by the way, want to know how to rip paper apart properly? Here like this."


    Without hesitation, I stabbed the guard''s arms creating a dashed line around it. And when I got to bone, I made sure I dig in a little bit extra wiggling the dagger back and forth to cut his tendons. I can see the guard in intense pain as I stab his arm slowly creating a dashed line.


    ¡°Ok then after creating the dash, you just pull one part off and it comes right off!¡± I say grabbing near where I stabbed him and pulled it away from his body. I easily ripped his arms off and blood started spurting everywhere. The guard passed out due to the intense pain of having his arm ripped off without anesthesia. I let go of his hand and I notice he bit off his tongue as my pal is covered in blood. I stood up and looked at the two maids who was sobbing earlier but now has fear in their eyes as they looked back and forth between me and the severed arm I¡¯m holding.


    ¡°I hit them with a skill that would paralyze them but they would be awake. I could have knocked them out completely but, wheres the fun in that~¡± I say as I drop the hand in front of the guards. I picked up the other two daggers I took out and threw it at the girls. "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. It''s up to you two what you want to do, kill yourself or them, that''s your choice."


    Both of them slowly picked up the dagger with one hand while keeping the remaining hand on the guard''s mouth muffling their cries.


    ¡°I do have one question. Where is Suyeon?¡± I asked.


    "S-she''s in the governor''s quarters. U-up the stairs, the door with a gold frame." The head nurse says.


    "Well then, have fun~," I say as I turn around. Right before I get out the door, I hear a gurgling sound coming from the guards as the two maids stabbed them continuously even after they died. I reached the front door of the mansion and as I suspected, It''s locked. Right, when I was about to punch the door open, I hear a voice from a distance and I see the head maid along with the other girl running towards me. They¡¯re completely naked and their hands are covered in blood.


    ¡°W-wait!¡± She screams in a low whisper. ¡°H-here.¡±


    She hands me a key and I smile at her. I quickly took it and told them to keep the daggers since they can sell it for a lot of gold. They bowed and thanked me for saving them. The two then ran towards the gate and disappeared into the night. I unlock the front door and I slowly creep in. The whole place was dark as the light was turned off everywhere. I slowly creep up the steps and walked towards the left. I didn''t find any door with a gold frame so I reversed back and went towards the right.


    "Bingo," I whisper as I see the door on the end of the corridor has a gold frame on it. I placed my ear near the door and listened to the sound inside.


    SLAP!


    ¡°Ah!¡± I hear Suyeon shout followed by a loud thud right after.


    ¡°You stupid wench. You almost got all of us killed.¡± I hear the governor whispering on the other side.


    I slowly pull my head away from the door as I grit my fist and teeth out of frustration. I hear scuffles inside and out of nowhere a loud thud on the door making me back up. I didn¡¯t needto put my ear near the door since they¡¯re right next to it and I can hear their voices clearly.


    ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going? My son brings you here to cure you, feed you, dress you and what do you do, almost got him killed and framed an adventurer strong enough to kill an overlord. Where did you find him anyway?¡± He asked.


    ¡°H-he found me and saved me!¡± Suyeon says between sobs and her voice is right on the door.


    ¡°You fucking lying wench, you probably gave him night favors. I kept you clean since my son likes you. But now that I see, you¡¯re a goldmine. It hasn¡¯t been long since I was assigned here and well what do you know, I hit a jackpot like you.¡± The governor says.


    ¡°I-i-I¡¯m sorry! Please forgive me!¡± She begged.


    ¡°Ha! My son is severely injured because of you. Only if you didn¡¯t have this rare legendary class, I would have thrown you to my guards. But, that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t have a taste. This wench needs to be taught a lesson. You will be a useful tool after I break you.¡± The governor says and it made me regret leaving him alive.


    ¡°P-p-please l-let me go.¡± I hear her plead and that¡¯s when I burst through the door kicking it with all the force I can muster. Both Suyeon and the Governor stumbled to the ground and as I got a better look, Suyeon is completely naked while the governor doesn¡¯t have a shirt on.


    ¡°Y-you. What are you doin-mmmfffhhhhm!!!¡± I put my hand over his mouth muffling his voice. He probably tastes the blood of his guards since my hands are completely covered with it.


    "Hi~," I say smiling. "Knockout~"


    I flicked his forehead and a small rune appeared and both his arms went dead. But I know he¡¯s awake since his gaze never left mine.


    ¡°Suyeon. Close the door and get over here." I tell her and she quietly follows my order. "Put these on and sit near the top of his head, muffle him when I tell you."


    I tell him as I took out a pair of clothes in my bag and hand it to her. I slowly let go of his mouth and he started screaming prompting me to bring it back down.


    ¡°Come on now governor, just answer a few questions and I promise, I¡¯ll let you go. I swear under for my name is Rikimura.¡± I tell him lying about my name then I slowly lifted up my hand.


    ¡°W-what do you want?¡± He says.


    "Good, cooperation is the key. Ok, what were you planning on doing with this one?" I asked pointing towards Suyeon.


    ¡°I-I swears I haven¡¯t touched her!¡± He says.


    "Really? You found out she has a legendary class, what were you planning on doing with that?" I asked.


    ¡°S-she can be a valuable asset for the army.¡± He tells me.


    ¡°Ohhhh~, you know what class she has right?¡± I asked.


    "Y-yes. She told us herself it''s a class called a dancer." He replied.


    "Oh, you should look for the one who has the other legendary class. What was it, ah it was called blade? I heard it''s a lot stronger than that dancing one." I tell him and I continued interrupting his reply. "I heard whoever have that class is not quite right in the head. I heard they like to tell stories about little piggy."


    ¡°L-little piggy? What? What''s that?¡± The governor asked me.


    ¡°Governor, before we commence explaining about little piggy, let me tell you my real name.¡± He then looks at me as I stare in his eyes. ¡°Hello, my real name is Yasu.¡±


    The minute he heard my name, his eyes went wide with shock. ¡°Y-you are the one they¡¯re looking for!?¡±


    ¡°Suyeon muffle him," I order her and I see Suyeon place her hands over his mouth causing him to panic and scream. But she held it in firmly that his sound and cries for help are nothing but incomprehensible noises.


    "Make sure he doesn''t bite you," I tell her and she nods. Then she looks down and gave the governor a smirk that made him lose color.


    There''sthat look again, this girl is crazy.I say in my mind. I sat on the governor''s stomach and picked up one of his unmoving hands. ¡°Listen to me you stupid son of a bitch. I went through some serious shit just to save her and what the fuck were you going to do? Break her?¡±


    I see he shake his head but Suyeon held his head down so firm he couldn''t turn it any further.


    "Well then, let''s get the storytelling started," I say as I grab his pinky. "This little piggy went to the market~"

 CHAPTER 34: An end means a new beginning

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 34: An end means a new beginning


    <hr>


    I moved towards the forest swiftly as the sunrise in the horizon leaving a hint of light as it replaces the darkness. Suyeon is running right behind me and we both try to get as far away as we can from the forest boar town.


    When morning hits, they will find his body and by the time they do, we¡¯ll be quite a distance away from that place.I voiced in my mind remembering what we did.I ended up breaking all of his fingers and doing other inhumane things to him that would make one shiver or even sick by just watching.But I didn¡¯t get sick. I didn¡¯t shiver. It¡¯s not like I enjoyed it. But it¡¯s not like I hated it either.I felt nothing.I have killed monsters that I categorized as my enemy. In my mind, I see them as an obstacle towards what I need in this world. They need to die for me to survive. But this is the first I took an initiative to end someone who I have nothing to gain from let alone that being another human. He lost already from the moment I used my skill. But I continued until he stopped breathing. And I didn¡¯t feel anything doing it.


    I suddenly stop as I try to catch my breath. I ran non-stop while Suyeon kept up behind me and when I look back; I see her leaning on a tree also panting. Now I know why she pisses me off so much. It¡¯s not because she¡¯s weak and useless. It¡¯s because she chooses to remain weak and useless. It pisses me off. I quickly approach her and with a swift swing, I punched towards her head.


    BAM!


    I deliberately missed her face and hit the tree she was leaning on destroying a piece of it in the process while scraping my skin off my knuckles. Her knees gave and she fell on her ass looking at me with fear.


    There we go, that same look again.I say in my mind.


    "Why didn''t you fight back? Why didn''t you punch him, scratch him? Why?" I asked her and she just looked around averting my gaze. "Always doing as you''re told. You, do you just let things happen to you thinking someone will come to save you?"


    She never gave me an answer and just hugged her legs.


    ¡°Talk!¡± I shouted so loud it felt like I scratched my throat. Yet I got frustrated even more at her lack of replies.


    ¡°I-I-¡° She tried saying something but stopped.


    ¡° What?!¡± I screamed and I see her flinch as my voice resonates through the forest.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t want to get hit anymore.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Huh?! You don¡¯t fight back because you don¡¯t want to get hit?! Are you fucking stupid?! He was hitting you!!¡± I shout at her and I see tears coming out of her eyes. She just sat there and cried. Just fucking cried.


    This is useless. No matter what I say, she won¡¯t say anything.I whisper as I clenched my fist. I have been angry before or I could say, I''m always angry. But this is the first time I was this furious that my body is shaking.


    ¡°Tsk.¡± I let out a mutter as I started running away from her. She quickly stood up and followed me faintly sobbing as we both ran through the forest in silence. We gained quite a distance. The sun has risen up high in the sky indicated it''s probably midday. We reached another stream of water and I decided to rest and wash my bloody hands. After dealing with the governor, I didn¡¯t have time to clean myself and I¡¯m covered in blood making my hands turn crimson red as it dries up on my skin. I dip my hands in the water and I see the blood mix with the stream as it flows with the current. I washed my face and as I look down my clothes, I started to feel irritated.


    "Tsk, and I just got these yesterday," I whisper to myself. "In just one night. Just one fucking night, everything went to shits."


    I look at the source of the issue and she¡¯s a distance away kneeling near the edge of the stream also washing her hands that¡¯s covered in blood. As far as I know, she¡¯s an accomplice to the murder of the governor. As for the death of the three guards in the stable that raped the two maids, they will probably blame us for that also.


    "Shit, I thought I had enough problem on my plate. Now I''m going to become a fugitive." I say removing my shirt and pants that are covered in blood. I took out a new pair of clothes from my bag. Good thing I stockpiled a bunch of shirt and pants thinking that it might be a while till I find the next town or village. I look back at Suyeon and I see she slowly cleaning the blood that got on her hair. I took out another pair of clothes and approached her. The minute she sees me come close, her body went rigid as she started looking everywhere.


    Tsk. Always looking so scared.I say in my mind. I dropped the clothes near her and she looked at it and back to me.


    ¡°Wear this. The last thing I want is someone seeing me with clean clothes while you¡¯re covered in blood.¡± I tell her as I inspect the clothes she¡¯s wearing. She was naked when I found her and the new clothes I gave her earlier was covered with bloodstains due to the governor bleeding profusely as I ripped his limbs one by one.


    She slowly gave me a nod and I turn away walking towards where I was washing my hands. After cleaning and dumping our bloody clothes, we started following the stream to see if it will lead us to another civilization. Based on my general knowledge, most town or any villages are near a body of water. But then again, that''s common sense for the earth. Here, where people can magically call water out of thin air, it might not follow that same common sense. But we kept following it anyways just in case we come across another beaten path that leads to another village. Another village means another source of information. For now, the most important task at hand is to gather information to find out where Luro is.


    Speaking of Luro, I haven¡¯t seen that bastard pop up.I say in my mind as I walk following Suyeon after I instructed her to lead the way. We walked non-stop resting for a bit here and there. I was hoping I¡¯ll find another village really quick, but nothing. It seems like the forest is getting thicker and thicker as the trees got taller up to the point that I felt small walking along the stream. We walked until we come across what seems to be a lake where the stream ends up.


    "The sun is probably going to go down soon," I say as I look up the sky. The trees tower over the lake surrounding it making it hard to see the horizon. I see Suyeon sit on a log as she stares down at a mushroom. The mushroom looks like death itself. It¡¯s completely black with bright red spots. I see Suyeon¡¯s hand reaching to touch it makes me really want to slap some common sense into her.


    ¡°Don''t touch it! What the fuck is wrong with you?!¡± I shouted at her and she quickly pulls back her hand that she fell on the other side of the log as she lost her balance.


    She quickly stood up dusting off her ass and looks at me. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°What if that shit is poisonous?¡± I tell her and she just looks down the ground. ¡°Tsk, go be useful and walk around collecting sticks. We¡¯ll need it for the fire.¡±


    She nods and started pickup up a stick and hugging them. I also picked up a stick and started sharpening it into a spear using a dagger I took out from my bag. After eating the braised platter yesterday, I¡¯m craving some fish.


    "Dammit, I should have bought raw ingredients when I was still there," I say to myself remembering that there is a section on the forest boar town that has a street market that probably sold raw edible materials. I was supposed to go the next day to walk around the town and my plan went to hell the minute she knocked on my door.


    "There was also a library," I whisper to myself.


    Sigh.


    It¡¯snot like I can waltz back in there and say ¡®hey~? I killed your governor but can I buy some dead fish?I whispered in my mind while studying the sharpened stick. It made me remember about Hiroko, which made me chuckle a bit.


    "Ah, whatever," I mutter as I walk in the lake. As usual, in this world, everything looks picture perfect. The lake has crystal blue water that¡¯s so clean I can see all the fish swimming in it like an aquarium. I tried spearing some fish but they all managed to get away before the spear stabbed them. ¡°Tsk. These fuckers are fast. I wish I can knock them out the water.¡±


    Wait, will my skill work on fishes?I say in my mind.I quickly threw the spear to the side and swam in the middle of the lake.


    ¡°Ok, knockout~¡± I whisper to myself and I dove down in the water. The lake wasn¡¯t that deep so I reached the bottom floor in no time. I slowly brought my clenched fist onto the bottom floor and a big purple rune appeared at the bed of the lake. I felt the limit of my lungs and ascend back to the surface as fast as I can to catch my breath.


    ¡°Puah! Hah! Did it work?¡± I looked around to see if any fish around me and like a dream come true, they started floating up the surface one by one. ¡°Bwahaha! It works!¡±


    I swim towards the unconscious fishes and collected them. I didn¡¯t need a lot so I let some of them float around until they wake up and sink back down the water to swim away. I took out a cutting board I got from the forest boar item shop and swiftly chopping off their heads instantly killing them.


    "Good thing I bought everything I needed," I whisper to myself. I held a cooking knife and started descaling the fish with the knife¡¯s dull end. Once all the scales were removed, I dig around the opening near the side for its gills and yanked it out. I cut an opening near its belly and took out all of the guts. I grabbed a stick from the pile Suyeon have been building up. Using my knife, I scraped off the stick outer layer and dipped it into the lake water to clean it fully. Once it¡¯s cleaned, I stab the fish from one end to the next. I plunge the stick into the ground keeping the fish afloat from the dirt while I build the campfire.


    I place stones I collected around into a circular pattern. I grabbed a couple more sticks from the pile and dumped it in the middle and used dried leaves that I crumbled up to help me ignite a fire. Once the fire started and got going, I moved the fish and stabbed it near the fire leaning the fish towards the flame close enough to cook it but not scorch it in an instant.


    "Ok, this is going to take a while," I say as I look up the sky and I see the sun is halfway past nearing the tip of the trees. But it wasn''t glaring down at us as dark clouds loom over the sky blocking some sunlight. I decided to build an A-frame hut as a shelter just in case it rains but I decided to take it down and started building a box frame instead to make it bigger so both of us don¡¯t have to stay so close inside of it. I used branches with leaves as roofing and scooped up water from the lake to test it out. The water dripped from one leaf to another until it reached the edge of the roof. I see the roof sagging from the middle so I grabbed another stick and placed it as the pillar of the whole frame.


    "Perfect," I whisper as I sit inside of it. I built a border of stones around it and using mud from the ground; I plastered it onto the stonewall hoping it would dry quickly. Once it dries up, it should act as a somewhat protection but I got tired halfway through stopped to take a rest.


    "I''ll just leave it like this. It''s only for the night anyway." I whisper to myself. If this was back at earth, this would have been a lot more hassle, but in this world, everything is quite easy to do when you have an enormous strength categorized as something that should be abnormal back home. I sat around under shelter and as I look over the lake, I see Suyeon walking around picking up sticks. I look at the pile she¡¯s been throwing the sticks down at and it¡¯s bigger than the before.


    ¡°What the fuck, is she going to collect the whole forest?¡± I whisper looking at the enormous amount of sticks. I see her walk around the lake and I watched her as she slowly approaches the mound she¡¯s been cultivating. Then in my mind, something tells me to flip the fish to the other side so I did to cook the other end. Once I finish cooking the fish, I called Suyeon over and we both ate in silence. After finishing her food, she stood up to wash her hands in the lake. Then she started walking alongside the lake.


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± I asked and she looked back towards me.


    ¡°T-to collect more sticks.¡± She nervously replied.


    ¡°What the fuck, you want to deforest this place? That¡¯s a lot of stick you collected already.¡± I tell her pointing at the mound.


    ¡°O-oh.¡± She says as she sat back down the log that I moved near the fire pit I made. Then, like an unwanted guest, rain started pouring out of the sky and we both quickly retreat under the shelter I made.


    ¡°Ah shit. I should have moved the fire pit in here.¡± I say looking at the fire as it slowly gets put out by the rain. We sat around under the shelter and waited for the rain to subside without talking to each other. She just sat there and used a stick to play with the mud on the ground.


    Arghh! This silence is killing me!I say in my mind as none of us talked.


    ¡°You, tell me everything you know about the dungeon. What the hell did you go through in there?¡± I asked her and I see her flinch.


    Tch, she¡¯s really not talking.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m not going to make fun of you or anything but there might be information for me to understand the situation bette-¡°


    ¡°I-I-I was beaten.¡± She suddenly spoke hugging her knees.


    No shit Sherlock. You looked like beef jerky when I found you.I say in my mind but I remained quiet and let her continue talking.


    ¡°I-in the beginning, w-when me and my brother woke up. We met a couple of people. T-then the door opened and that when everything turns for the worst.¡± She tells me and I just listened while she explained her whole ordeal. She continued to talk about how she and her brother was killed by Luro and how he brought them here. She told me she woke up in the room that she kept running in the beginning when I met her. Which is my room originally when I started. Her brother almost killed her to be saved by a couple of people that woke up in the same dungeon.


    ¡°When the door opened, a lot of monsters came rushing at us. But luckily, they couldn¡¯t go inside the safe area.¡± She explained.


    ¡°So what did you guys do?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well, there wasn¡¯t really much of a choice but to fight them.¡± She explained. ¡°I was useless so I had to stay in the safe room every time they go out towards the dark hallway. They leveled up while I stayed level one.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    She put her head down on her knees and I can see her body is trembling as she clenches her fist that is wrapped around her legs.


    ¡°One of us got injured badly. Even when we had a healer, it wasn¡¯t enough so I was put in charge of taking care of him as he slowly heals. That when-¡°


    She suddenly stopped talking.


    ¡°What? When what?¡± I curiously asked.


    ¡°That¡¯ when¡­that¡¯s when it happened.¡± She says. ¡°That¡¯s when they used me. That¡¯s when my brother used me. We got split into two groups and we were talking one night¡­.¡±


    =Start of Suyeon¡¯s Memory=


    ¡°So, you¡¯re saying you have a skill that can make a brief portal?¡± Amaguchi asked a person from our group. We¡¯re all in one room huddle together. Mr. Goro sensei is outside as a lookout.


    ¡°Y-yeah. It¡¯s on my skill list. But I can only activate the portal for a brief moment and I don¡¯t know where it will lead.¡± Mamoru says.Ever since the door opened, we were divided into two groups. My brother led one group and Daikichi led the other group. I am part of Daikichi group along with Ms. Miki-sensei, Mr. Goro-sensei, Amaguchi, Lisa, and Kana. The rest of the people joined my brother¡¯s group. Even when our group started out more, one by one they switch to the other room leaving only us and one guy named Mamoru who¡®s a warlock and chose to stay with us.


    ¡°Then we can get out of here? Daikichi needs treatment quick. His fever is not going down.¡± Kana says.


    ¡°Yeah, it has a cooldown of five hours but the last time I used it was yesterday so I can activate it now if you want." He says.


    ¡°Wait, you used it? Where did it bring you?¡± Lisa whispers.


    ¡°I saw on the other side was crazy. It was a ruin. There was a giant tree in the middle from a distance. I saw someone lying down but it was too far to make out whom it was. I didn¡¯t want to scream and wake everyone up so I didn¡¯t call out to him. I did glimpse a blue bird flying around.¡± He says.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you enter it?¡± Lisa asked.


    ¡°I wanted to but the portal closed soon after. If I entered it, I would have been stuck there and there¡¯s no guarantee that it will lead me back here if I activated it again. I didn¡¯t want to leave you guys. Especially with that other group.¡± Mamoru says.


    "Thank you," Kana says smiling at him. "We''ll figure it out tomorrow. We''ll talk to them and probably use the portal to get us all out at once."


    ¡°Wait, you want them to come with us?¡± Lisa asked.


    ¡°As much as I hate him for what he did to Suyeon, I wouldn''t be able to sleep at night knowing I left a bunch of people here because of that one person," Kana says and even though they don''t like my brother, I don''t hate them for that. I''m still afraid of him and every time I see him, I keep remembering how he wanted to kill me.


    ¡°True. Ah, we¡¯ll figure it out tomorrow. You guys sleep. I¡¯ll be on the lookout with Mr. Goro sensei outside.¡± Amaguchi says as he slowly stood up and walks off towards the hallway that leads to the statue room outside. Mr. Goro-sensei and Amaguchi have been on a lookout ever since my brother''s group stopped communicating with us. They go out when we sleep, while we do the same when they sleep. We hardly meet each other anymore and with Daikichi injured, Ms. Miki-sensei and Mr. Goro-sensei decided it¡¯s safer to have someone guard the entrance.


    Everyone was fast asleep due to exhaustion and I started dosing off after an hour or so. Right when I was about to sleep, I hear someone walk in. Thinking it¡¯s Amaguchi, I paid no attention to it.


    ¡°Stun~¡± The voice whispered.


    Huh, who¡¯s that?I say in my mind as I open my eyes.I tried to sit up to look but my body somehow became hard to control. All of a sudden I felt something pulling my hair making me scream in pain.


    ¡°Ah- mmffhhh!!!¡± They have muffled my mouth and when I look up, I see some of the boys from the other group surround me.


    ¡°H-huh? What. Y-you bastards! Let me go!¡± Lisa screamed as she was held down by one of the guys and I can see the skill is also affecting her.


    ¡°Get off him!¡± Kana screams as one of the guys is on top Daikichi who is still unconscious and injured from the fight yesterday.


    ¡°G-goro sensei! Help!¡± Ms. Miki-sensei screamed as she¡¯s also pinned down by another student.


    ¡°Hahaha! He won''t come! He¡¯s currently having nice dreams right beside Amaguchi~¡± A voice came out of the dark of the hallways and as soon as he steps in, my body froze in place and I couldn¡¯t help shaking in fear. My brother looks at me and started slowly approaching me. The guys part ways like he has become their new leader.


    ¡°Y-you bastard!¡± Lisa screamed and I see the fury in her eyes.


    ¡°B-b-brother. P-pleas-¡°


    SLAP!


    My head was suddenly forced to the right as he slaps me with force. I felt my ears ring as my cheeks sting everywhere while my eyes become watery.


    ¡°Starting today, I¡¯m your leader! I shall lead everyone to form a kingdom!!¡± My brother shouts as he looks around the room.


    ¡°You, you¡¯ve gone crazy!¡± Lisa shouts towards my brother as she struggles to break free away from the guys on top of her.


    ¡°Well then, my question is, will your tiny little group join me? Or will you bear the consequence?¡± He says looking at Kana.


    ¡°W-what the fuck do you want from us?¡± Kana says as tears pour down her eyes looking at Daikichi who is unconscious on the ground while someone is sitting on top of him. Right on top of his wound.


    ¡°I just want a better future where we are one.¡± He says and the guys who are holding them down started laughing.


    ¡°Fuck you! You assholes! Get off me!!¡± Lisa shouted and all the guys started laughing more.


    ¡°Fuck us?! You heard her boys!!¡± My brother shouted and all of a sudden, the guys picked her up and dragged her out of the hallway closing the door behind them.


    ¡°Let me go! Get your hands off me! Let me go!¡± we can hear Lisa scream non-stop as we hear her struggle in the dark hallway from the other side of the door.


    ¡°Stop struggling bitch!¡± One of the boys shout and I hear a noise similar to a slap within the laughter of the guys. Then I hear fabric being ripped and the boys started whistling.


    ¡°Get off me-Mmmfffff!!¡± Lisa¡¯s voice was muffled preventing her from making any noise. I hear her scream as loud as she can while they kept her mouth muffled.


    ¡°Lisa! Lisa!¡± Ms. Miki-sensei shouts her name non-stop as tears pour out of her eyes. One of the guys is sitting on top of her pinning her head down on the ground.


    ¡°Hahaha! Look at him go!¡± One of the guys from the other side of the door says while laughing and their laughter is getting mixed with Lisa¡¯s muffled cries and screams.


    ¡°You fucking animals!!¡± Kana shouted and my brother slowly approached her.


    ¡°Animals? Who said this place has a law? As far as we know, we¡¯re considered gods in here.¡± My brother whispers as he crouched down towards her.Then he grabbed her by her jaw forcing Kana to look towards him. He slowly brought his face closer to hers until their lips touched. I see Kana try to force herself away but the two guys held her head in place as my brother lickers her around.


    ¡°Nghhhh!!¡± I tried screaming but the guys that¡¯s grabbing my hair is preventing sound from coming out of my mouth.


    ¡°Ah~ I have been wanting to do that. Let this be a warning if you all defy me." My brother says as he lets go of her and he slowly stood up while Kana is crying spitting out the saliva he probably imprinted on her. Then all of a sudden, the door opens and one of the guys walks in. I had a glimpse of the hallway and I see the boys surrounding Lisa. Her clothes were ripped apart and one guy held her hand up while another guy held her mouth. A guy is on top and his hips move back and forth.


    ¡°Boss, can we do one of these? We can¡¯t wait anymore.¡± He asked and I can see a bulge in his pants.


    ¡°Ha, not these two since they are healers. But that thing you can play around with.¡± My brother says pointing at me.


    No. No. Please no!I shouted in my mind since it¡¯s the only thing I can do. Then the guys who''re grabbing my hair drags me towards the hallway and it felt like my scalp will come off. He let go of my mouth to get a better grip and I screamed trying to trash around but my body is still paralyzed from the skill.


    ¡°Ahh! Please stop! It hurts!!¡± I shouted as my body gets dragged towards the dark of the hallway while the guy started closing the door behind him.


    ¡°Let her go!¡± Ms. Miki sensei screamed and I stare her in the eyes as horror filled her expression as the door closed shut.


    ¡°Help - Ack!¡± I shout in pain as I felt a fist in my abdomen making me lose air. Then I was thrown next to Lisa who cried and cried non-stop as the guy on top of her kept going.


    ¡°L-lis-mmfhh!¡± Someone muffles my mouth and one of the guys was quickly on top of my fondling my chest. I closed my eyes thinking that this is all a bad dream that I will wake up, but I didn¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t a dream. It was a reality and a nightmare. I felt a hand grab my only dress and ripped it off my body. I felt more hands fondle my chest while another hand started touching me below the waist. I tried breaking free but I couldn¡¯t move as I feel an enormous weight on top of me.


    I was powerless.


    ¡°Oho- looks at this one. She¡¯s might be a virgin~¡± The guy on top of me say and next thing I know I feel something rubbing up and down between my legs. It felt dull and it left liquid as it kept rubbing the section where I release my pee. I felt the skill wear off but my body is too weak to fight against the weight on top of me.


    ¡°Ok bitch~ I¡¯m putting it in~¡± He whispered into my ear and next thing I know, I hear noises coming from where Lisa is.


    Amaguchi!I scream in my mind as I see him struggling with one of the guys who were on top of Lisa. Lisa then kicks another person making him stumble to the ground.The guy on top of me stood up and right when he was about to activate his skill, I kicked him between his legs like how Kana and Lisa instructed me to do.He quickly went down grabbing his balls as he let out a gasping sound of pain. I see Mr. Goro-sensei approach Amaguchi and help him deal with the guys on the hallway.


    ¡°What the fuck is going on?!¡± my brother screams as he opens the door. He sees some of the guys on the ground as Mr. Goro sensei quickly overpower them. "Ah, shit! Guys help!" He screams as the remaining guys inside the room quickly exit and ran towards Mr. Goro sensei.


    ¡°You damn brats!¡± Mr. Goro sensei screams as he takes out his shield and ran towards the group. ¡°Shield bash!¡±His shield glowed and he rammed into the group of boys and they all flew to the wall or back into the room.


    ¡°Guys! Go in the room!¡± he screamed and Amaguchi helps Lisa up and I ran behind them.Mr. Goro-sensei came into the room and grabbed the remaining boys and tossed them out to the hallway.


    ¡°Shield wall!¡± he screamed as he threw the shield near the entrance and his shield emitted a bright light creating a wall blocking the entrance. ¡°Kid, Amaguchi told me could create a portal. I think now¡¯s the best time to activate it.¡±


    "R-right gives me a minute!" Mamoru then took out his book and started chanting words out of it. Then the book lit up as a bright white orb comes out of the pages and expanded showing a picture. But it isn''t a picture; it''s what on the other side of the portal. It''s outside.


    ¡°Yes! A forest this time!¡± Come on! The portal won¡¯t stay long!¡± Mamoru says as he jumps in.


    ¡°Everyone go! The shield wall won¡¯t last long! Kana give me Daikichi! I¡¯ll carry him!¡± Mr. Goro shouts as he picked him up. I can see the guys on the other side still damaged from Mr. Goro-sensei attack except for my brother who took out his sword getting ready to attack the shield wall. Amaguchi jumped in the portal carrying Lisa and Mr. Goro-sensei jumped in with Daikichi on his shoulder followed by Miki-sensei.


    ¡°Hurry up! It¡¯s going to close soon!¡± Mamoru screams from the other side of the portal. I¡¯m next while Kana is right behind me when all of a sudden the shield wall broke as my brother rams into it with his shield.


    ¡°Kana!¡± My brother shouted her name as he ran closing the distance between them grabbing her from the back muffling her voice.


    I see Amaguchi trying to go back in but a force field stopped him.¡± Fuck it¡¯s one way! Fucker let her go! Le-!¡±


    ¡°Let her go!¡± I shouted as I felt angry for the first time. I ran towards them ramming my body and all three of us went tumbling down. Kana quickly stood up and kicked my brother between his legs making him cringe in pain.


    ¡°Suyeon lets go!¡± Kana screams and I scramble up and ran. As I was about to go in the portal, I felt something grab my leg causing me to almost trip. I look back and I see my brother on the ground and his hand¡¯s on my ankle.


    ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going, sister!!¡± He shouted at me with a crazed look on his face.


    ¡°Let her go!¡± Kana kept stomping on my brother¡¯s face but he never let go and all he did was a laugh.


    ¡°Hahahahaha!More! More!¡± My brother screamed as blood comes out of his nose.When I look up, I see one of the boys is getting up and slowly approaching behind him. I turn back around towards the portal I notice the portal behind her started blinking rapidly.For some reason at that moment, everything was muffled and all I can hear is my own breathing.


    Hah*


    Huah*


    Hah*


    "Kana. Thank you for taking care of me." I whispered to her and at that moment, I used my remaining strength and pushed her towards the portal and she came tumbling down the other side.


    ¡°Suyeon!¡± Kana shouts as I feel a weight from behind slamming me into the ground causing me to lose air for a brief moment.


    ¡°Let her go! You bastards! Let her go! Suyeon! Suyeon!¡± Kana shouted my name nonstop making me feel happy she wasn¡¯t here with me. I see my brother stand up and walk towards the portal. Right, when he stepped over me, I grabbed his ankle and pulled it as hard as I can, making him lose balance.


    ¡°Ack! Let go, bitch!" He shouted as he kicks on my face. Every kick is making me want to sleep but I know if I let go, he will enter the portal where they are so I tried my best to stay awake as long as I can.


    ¡°Let her go! Suyeon! Let her go-¡° Kana¡¯s voice was suddenly cut off as the portal disappeared and the room was replaced with darkness.


    ¡°Fuck! You damn bitch!!¡± My brother shouted as he lifted up his leg over my arm.


    SNAP!


    I screamed in pain as before completely blacking out.


    =End of Suyeon¡¯s memory=


    She suddenly stopped talking and trembled as she cried on her knees. But something she said made me skip a few heartbeats and my breathing became irregular.


    ¡°Daikichi, Kana. They¡¯re in this world?¡± I ask towards myself and I quickly turned towards Suyeon. "H-hey. Did you make a mistake, right? You didn''t say Daikichi and Kana right?¡±


    "T-they''re the ones t-that saved m-me." She tells me between her sobs.


    ¡°Fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck!¡± I shout as frustration mixed with grief mixed with every single emotion making me just want to destroy this whole planet altogether.


    The reason Luro told me about the newcomer isn¡¯t because of my school nurse. It¡¯s because of them!


    ¡°Luro! Come out!¡± I shouted but nothing happened. I clenched my fist so hard that I feel my nails dig into my palm causing it to bleed.


    That Korean guy. That¡¯s him! Did he try to touch Kana!?I say in my mind as fury fills my core.


    ¡°One of the only friend I have. Like a sister. Nobody fucks with my family! You fucking shits!!!!¡± I shout in frustration as I felt powerless again. I vowed to not feel powerless but again, here I am, not able to do a thing. I want to go look for them but I have no idea where they are or even if we¡¯re in the same area. I punched the mud non-stop till I relieved some of the anger I felt, otherwise, I would go crazy and burn the whole forest to the ground just to look for them.


    ¡°Relax Yasu, Relax. They''ll survive. I know it. They won''t die that easily." I whisper to myself while I slump back down and stare into the lake.


    Daikichi, Kana...don''t die. I''ll come to find both of you so don''t die.I say in my mind and we just sat in silence as the sound of the rain drowns Suyeon¡¯s crying.


    .


    .


    After a while, it stopped raining and the rain left a lingering earthy scent even though it''s not earth. Suyeon regressed back as a mute and never said a word after. Even I never said a word. Yet, I started to feel remorse for her.


    Fucking hell.I curse myself in my mind. So many different things are going on at the same time and I can''t think straight.


    ¡°Fuck it!!¡± I shouted as I stood up abruptly. I walked in front of Suyeon who stayed hugging her legs as she looks up to me with fear. I called out my item bag and took out the gauntlets along with the boots and placed it in front of her.


    "Hurry up and put these on," I tell her as I stood in front of her.


    ¡°W-what are these?¡± She asked me as she looks up. I can see her eyes have become puffy from all the crying she did.


    ¡°These? They¡¯ll help you reach level two.¡± I say as I held out my hand towards her. "Let¡¯s go."

 CHAPTER 35: The training begins

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 35: The Training Begins


    <hr>


    Suyeon quickly wore the gauntlets and boots I gave her as she thanked me non-stop before leading the way around the forest.


    ¡°Thank me once we figure out how to level you up. For now, let¡¯s try killing a boar to see if you gain experience like the rest of those fuckers in the Gold.¡± I tell her as we walk around the forest looking for animals.


    ¡°The Gold?¡± She asked me as she followed my instruction on where to go.


    ¡°I''ll explain next time. Let''s go kill something. Go left.¡± I say as I crouch around looking for a boar.


    ¡°Oh okay.¡± She says as she turns left towards a shrub.


    "The fuck, now that we need a boar, there isn''t one in sight," I whisper as I see no enemies at all. I look up the sky and I see it''s becoming orange as the sun sets on the horizon. ¡°Tsk, it¡¯s getting dark. Let¡¯s go back to camp and resume in the morning. It¡¯s going to be harder to do all these in the dark.¡±


    I stood up and told her to lead the way. She nods happily as she kept on glancing at her gauntlets while walking through the forest.


    As far as I remember, those aren¡¯t armor but weapons. That¡¯s why I can use them. But then again, I don¡¯t have the skill to use gauntlets or boots. Tsk, this is getting confusing. I say in my mind as I walk back to camp.


    I took out two more fish in my item bag and cooked it onto the campfire. It took a lot longer to light the fire since the sticks were wet. I had to use my skill to help dry the wood. After the fish cooked, I gave her one and I took one for myself. I see her take out the plate I gave her in the beginning when I cooked the ogre queen and washed it in the lake. She used her clothes to dry it and placed the fish on top.


    "Wait," I tell her before she ripped it apart with her bare hands. I called out my dimensional bag and took out a spoon and a fork and hand it to her. "Here, keep these. Later, I''m going to divide the items in my bag. You''re going to need a couple of things so you don''t have to keep relying on me."


    She happily took the utensils and started eating with it. But I saw her have a hard time and regressed back using her hands. After dinner, I sat around the fire as she slept in the shelter. I notice her hugging herself as the cold wind probably making her shiver. I took out the blanket I lent her before and placed it over her slowly preventing her from waking up.


    "She''s like a fucking kid," I whisper as I study her. "She''s definitely around my age. But she acts like a kid. But in the beginning, when I found her she was about to rip me to shreds.¡±


    I walked back towards the campfire and fed the fire every now and then with the wet sticks Suyeon have piled up earlier.


    ¡°Damn. How the fuck am I going to find Daikichi and Kana?¡± I whisper to myself. So far she told me what she knows. After they disappeared in the portal, they could have popped up anywhere around this world.


    Fucking shit.I curse in my mind. I wish I had more controls in this world like adding friends and being able to communicate through telepathy. I said a couple of commands but nothing. So far, I can only use what I have been using and what Suyeon told me.


    Yaaawn~


    "Ugh, I''m getting sleepy," I whisper as I remember I have been awake for a while now. The only time I almost got a proper rest is when I almost doze off in my room at the inn. But besides that, I haven''t slept at all. I decided to back to the shelter and rest my eyes closing them briefly. But that brief moment turned into a deep slumber in an instant. I felt something shake me and when I briefly open my eyes, it''s morning already. I look to my left and I see Suyeon sitting up looking at me.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her as I see her face with a worried look.


    ¡°T-there¡¯s people.¡± She tells me. As I got a better look, I see a thick fog surrounding us. Then I heard a voice screaming from a distance but I¡¯m not quite sure where.


    ¡°Hey! Where are you! Shout if you hear us!¡± A male voice shouted and I feel like it¡¯s getting closer and closer.


    ¡°Yeah! Where are you!¡± A female voice echoed around us.


    ¡°Fuck, they caught up to us already?¡± I whisper as I crouch down looking around to see where they coming from. Suyeon crouch behind me and she also look around. I notice a shadow figure forming from a distance near the lake and gestured to Suyeon to be quiet. We started hearing splashing around as they probably ran into the water.


    "Ah, shit! There''s water here watch out! Dammit, I just got these boots.¡± I can hear one of them curse as they splashed around the water.


    Who are these people?I say in my mind as I study the figure. But then I thought about it if I can see their figure, they probably can see ours if we stood up.


    ¡°Suyeon, don''t make a sound and don''t move," I whisper to her and I feel her nod beside me.


    ¡°Hello?¡± The female voice ringed out again.


    ¡°They¡¯re probably not here.¡± The male voice replied.


    ¡°They have to be, the guards from the town said they most likely followed a stream since that¡¯s what the girl told them before.¡± She says.


    Fuck. Are they tracking us already? I say in my mind.


    ¡°Yeah but that was like two days ago. They probably quite a distance by now.¡± The male voice replied.


    "Would you stop being so damn negative? We''re given a task to find them. And I don''t think they''ll welcome us back if we came empty-handed." The female voice replied.


    Did they hire goons now to look for us? Haha, dumbasses.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Suyeon, slowly back up. But watch where you¡¯re stepping.¡± I tell her and she nods. As usual, everything goes wrong with her. The minute she took the first step, she stepped on a twig snapping it in half. I glare at Suyeon who¡¯s now on the verge of tears due to her mistake.


    Sigh*


    ¡°Fucking stupid," I whisper as I turn back around to watch the figure within the thick fog.


    ¡°Hey, I heard a noise over here.¡± The female voice says and I hear her walk towards me as her steps splash on the water.


    "Ack! Shit!" She trips on the fire pit I made and I see her body stumble forward landing in front of us with her chest on the ground. As she looks straight, she sees my foot and traces it up until she sees me glaring at her.


    ¡°Hey! Are you ok?!¡± the male voice says as I see his figure slowly comes close. The girl never left her gaze towards me. She looks like an adventurer rather than a guard. She''s wearing what seems to be leather armor and I can see her chest is quite large as it hugs the ground. She''s wearing headgear but it only covers her forehead and sideburns. Her hair was in a ponytail that turns purple towards the ends. Her eyes are hazel color and she looks like someone who came from the west.


    A foreigner?I say in my mind.


    "H-hey there~," She says giving me a smile.


    Shit. I can take on these two easily but¡­


    ¡°Suyeon run!¡± I shouted and we both bolt away from her with Suyeon leading the way. I can probably take care of these two easily but I rather not have them send me more people my and making it an endless massacre on my end. If only these two chase me, it''s a lot more tolerable than having a whole army after us.


    ¡°H-hey! W-Wait! Don¡¯t run Shit! Chase them! They ran that way!¡± I hear the voice shouted as it slowly fades while we gain a distance. As I look back, I see a figure coming towards us and it¡¯s getting closer and closer as the figure gets bigger and bigger within the fog.


    ¡°Tsk. Seismic step!¡± I shouted my skill and with a quick motion, I picked up Suyeon like a shoulder bag and sprinted as fast as I can until the figure disappeared within the fog. But I didn¡¯t stop. I kept running and even when my skill disappeared, I reactivate it again and ran through the forest covered in thick fog. I suddenly stop and look behind me but nothing formed this time. I look around and the fog was so thick it made it difficult to know where I am. I let Suyeon down and called out my item bag taking out a sword.


    "Stand back or else you''ll be caught within the skill," I tell her and she nods. "Sky king''s wind!"


    With one swing, a strong gust of wind erupted where we are and it blew the fog away briefly exposing our location.


    ¡°What the fuck?¡± I whisper as I see a flat land without any trees. Not even the ground has grass. But I couldn¡¯t see what¡¯s beyond since the fog surrounded us and it quickly traveled covering us in the fog again. I swung my sword one more time and again; we are in the middle of the dried up land. Looks like the soil hit a drought.


    ¡°Are we safe?¡± Suyeon asks me as she looks around.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. How long have you heard their voice?¡± I asked her trying to figure out how long they have been there.


    ¡°That was the first time.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°What? You woke me up saying there were people.¡± I tell her.


    ¡°Yes. Black.¡± She says.


    ¡°Black? Black what?¡± I asked but she didn¡¯t respond and stare towards one direction.


    ¡°There.¡± She says pointing towards behind me like a robot.


    ¡°Where?¡± I say as I look behind me staring at the fog but nothing was there. When I turned back around, she was quite a distance away from me crouching on the ground with her arms on her legs rocking back and forth. ¡°What the fuck..¡±


    I slowly approach her and as I grab her shoulder to turn her around, I noticed she wouldn¡¯t budge.


    When did she get this strong? What the hel-In a quick motion, her hand grabbed me by my wrist and it traveled up my arm like a spider. I hear her bones crunching as her arms dislocate from her body and I see her head started turning around. I see the skin on her neck rips as her head turns around fully while her body stayed the same position.


    ¡°Coming for you. Come. Co-coming for you Yasu.¡± She started speaking as her jaws open and a black liquid dripped out of it. Her eyes turned completely black and she started crying blood, as the smile on her face got bigger. Her body leaped backward while her mouth aimed at my throat biting me in the neck. I feel air enter my throat as blood spurt out and I gargle it trying to breathe. I lost all movement of my body and I fall back onto the ground looking at the sky. I see her walk back to get on top of me. Her arms raised like a robot and yanked out her head off her body pulling out her spine and her lower half become jelly dropping on top of me. But her head stopped right before it hit my face and now I''m really close as I feel the heat of her breath. She began vomiting the black liquid into my mouth and I felt it go in my lungs as I start to choke to death. I feel a finger go over my eyes and she slowly pressed the nail of her thumb digging her fingers into my iris causing me to go blind. I tried screaming but all that came out is gargled noise as the black liquid overflowed out my mouth entering into my nose. In an instant, everything stopped like a switch was turned it off. I couldn¡¯t see anything, feel anything. Nothing but pure blackness. I hear something pant in my ear, but I couldn¡¯t move any body parts nor talk.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Let this be a warning. I soon will come for you. Yasu.¡± The voice says and I suddenly woke up from my sleep.


    ¡°Guah!¡± I screamed awake gasping for air.


    Pant*


    Pant*


    "What the fuck," I say to myself as I just had one of the worst nightmares I''ve had in a while. I quickly look beside me and I see Suyeon still sleeping. Her back is facing me, as she never moved an inch from what I last remember of her position.


    ¡°That fucking voice," I whisper as I grab my throat and rub it. "Fucking Unum."


    The voice in my dream was exactly the same voice the ogre queen made when he possessed her. I call out my item back and quickly drink water since my throat felt dry more than usual. I went to the lake to wash my face and the water is cool enough to be refreshing in contact with my face waking me up fully.


    "You fucking shit bag. This makes me want to come and rip your throat out." I whisper as I taunt Unum as if he''s able to hear what I was saying from wherever he''s at. I quickly go over to Suyeon and woke her up. After we both ate breakfast, I told her we should keep walking through the forest until we start finding things to hunt and test out how to level her up. I gave her three of my water container that''s filled with the fresh water from the lake. I also gave her some of the items like spare clothes, a towel, something I stocked up with quantities. She happily accepted all of it quickly storing the items in her bag. We walked through the forest but no boar in sight. Not one wolf, no bear, nothing. I stopped to look at the map the dungeon safe keeper gave me when I got out of the sky king dungeon. It¡¯s quite hard to pinpoint where we are since we ran away from the forest boar town in the middle of the night not thinking about the direction or what so ever.


    ¡°Shit, should I climb a tree? Fuck, I¡¯m going to have to.¡± I whisper as I look up the enormous trees towering us. Suyeon, stay on a lookout. Shout when you see something." I tell her and she nods. I took out two daggers from my bag and started climbing a tree using it. As soon as I reached the top, I took out the map to try and pinpoint our location based on the landmark.


    "Ok, I think we''re probably around here," I whisper as I try to pinpoint our surrounding. We ran out of the forest boar town so fast, we didn''t monitor our direction. I see the forest stretch for miles and the horizontal mountain we descended from is so far that it''s barely visible.


    "Shit, they could be anywhere in this forest," I whisper as I stand up atop the tree overlooking the vast forest spread across all directions. Daikichi and Kana can be anywhere and, the forest is so damn large it would take me a while to even explore every corner of it. From the first day to now, I probably only explored at least a small percentage of the forest. I look at the map again and try to trace the outline of the horizontal mountain trying to figure out which side I''m staring at. Then I noticed on the map that there''s a number up at the top left corner that''s barely visible unless you shine it down towards sunlight.


    ¡°Huh 1-20?¡± I say inspecting the number. ¡°Wait, does this represent the level of the monsters?¡±


    I quickly climb down the tree and we both started walking one direction. I chose to walk away from the horizontal mountain. The further away, the better since I¡¯ll know we¡¯ll be inching away from the forest boar inn. We kept walking while taking small to little breaks as possible. I want to use my seismic step skill so bad to just blaze through the forest but I know Suyeon won¡¯t be able to keep up since she doesn¡¯t have any skill that boosts her movement. The sun started setting into the horizon and the forest was enveloped in darkness again. I created fire but I didn''t bother building a shelter this time.


    "Not once, we found a boar. What the fuck, I think they were only near the town." I say as I ate a cooked fish. Suyeon took out her plate and started eating her portion also. Ever since she told me her story, she talked less and looked a bit more distant. After eating, she quickly went to sleep while I tend to the fire. Ever since the nightmare of Unum possessing Suyeon, I decided not to sleep and stay up. Morning quickly came and we both continued walking through the forest. We looked around for any monster in sight but nothing. This area is completely empty as if adventurers cleaned it to the brim. We kept walking until I notice the trees are getting smaller and smaller.


    "Ok, wait here," I say as I climb another tree. As soon as I got up, I notice an area from a distance where the trees don''t exist. As if the middle of the forest has an empty spot. "What the hell is that?"


    I quickly got down and we walked towards the empty land with caution. As soon as we got to it, a smile was plastered across my face.


    "A meadow," I whisper as I see boars, wolfs, rabbits, the empty plot of land was teeming with animals. Right in the center is a small pond which the reason why they have all gathered here.


    "Ok, let''s go kill one of them and see if you level up," I whisper to her and we both started walking near the trees towards one boar that is closer to the forest. "Ok wait here, let me grab that thing. I''ll hold it and you kill it."


    I slowly crouch down the bush trying to get a bit closer towards the boar. ¡°Seismic Step!¡± I screamed my skill as soon as I jump out and quickly close the distance between us. I grapple the boar placing my arm around its neck squeezing it tight. The boar thrashed around while letting out a sound similar to pigs that starting to irritate me.


    ¡°Suyeon now!¡± I shout at her and she burst out the forest running towards the boar and me.


    ¡°W-what do I have to do?" She asked me looking confused.


    ¡°What else?! Hit it!¡± I tell her and she lightly punched the boar on its snout.


    You got to be fucking kidding me.I say in my mind.


    "Harder! Punch it harder!! The fuck!" I shout and I see her try again with a slightly stronger force. I see a negative number appear. As usual, like most boars I encounter, it doesn¡¯t have any indicator above its head showing how much HP it has or its name.


    ¡°Item bag!¡± I screamed my bag and it dropped right next to Suyeon. ¡°Grab it and open the bag!¡± I tell her and she did. I jumped on top the boar placing my weight on it as I kept one arm in a headlock but the boar broke free and ran towards the forest. ¡°Shit!¡±


    I grab the bag out of her hands and took out a dagger. I quickly caught up with the boar and with one quick slice, I cut one of its legs off and it came stumbling down the ground. It kept screaming letting out a sound that shows it¡¯s in pain. But it can¡¯t stand up as one of its legs was cleanly cut off its body.


    ¡°Suyeon get over here!" I shouted at her and she quickly ran towards me and looked at the boar. "Ok, now kill it."


    I instructed her what to do but in the back of my mind, I''m thinking that she would hesitate to kill the animal. Suddenly, her expression changed as she smiled while punching the boar from its side. More negative numbers appeared on top the boar but it wasn¡¯t enough, as she never dealt any critical hit.


    "Ah shit, this will take too long," I whisper to myself as I watch her mercilessly beat the poor boar. Right when she¡¯s about to punch again, I caught her wrist abruptly stopping her. Her facial expression regressed back to normalas she looked up to me.


    ¡°D-did I do it wrong?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°No, it just takes too long with your method. Go for critical strike.¡± I tell her but she just stared at me looking confused. ¡°Must I do everything for you? Come here.¡±


    I kept my grip on her wrist and dragged her towards the boar''s face. I see blood coming out of its nose and mouth as it stopped screaming and just continued to breathe heavily.


    ¡°You see, our class is fucking retarded. Why? Because our damage output is similar to our level. If your level one, your damage output is fucking one. This boar might have one hundred HP which means you need to hit it a hundred times to kill it. Would be fine if this is the only thing you have to kill but, it would take you forever to kill everything in this area.¡± I explained to her as I kept my hand on her wrist. Then I brought it down towards the boar¡¯s face and placed her hand near its eyes. I see her hand move side to side as if she was petting a dog.


    ¡°What the hell- don¡¯t pet it!¡± I shouted at her and I feel her arms go tense.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡± She apologized.


    Sigh.


    ¡°Listen, when I was in a hidden dungeon, I noticed one thing that doesn''t apply with our damage per hit. But it only happens in random. Use your fingers to pull its eyes out.¡± I tell her and she looked at me with surprise.


    ¡°W-what?¡± She asked.


    "Use your fingers, place it in its eye socket and rip its eyes out of its head," I tell her as I let go of her wrist. She looks at me with a worried look. "Don''t tell me you have a conscience. Do it, that''s the only way to survive."


    She looked back towards the boar that¡¯s barely clinging on and she slowly placed her finger inside the boar¡¯s eyes. The minute the boar felt something touch its eyeball; the head started thrashing while letting out a shriek.


    ¡°Hold it¡¯s head down!¡± I shouted out loud as the boar''s noise is overlapping mine. I see she''s still startled by the boar''s sudden movement that she froze in place. "Hey! Place your knee on its head and put all your body weight on it! Then yank its fucking eyeball out!"


    Suyeon snaps back to reality and did as I instructed. She placed her knee on the boar''s head pinning it down towards the ground then she digs into the boar''s eye socket and slowly yanked out its eyes until it completely came off. The boar let out a loud so loud, the other animals in the area turned their attention on us. ¡°Ah shit.¡±


    The wolves started barking while the other boar did nothing and turn back around smelling the ground. But that¡¯s all they did. Not one of the wolves or any other animals approached us even with so much noise this boar is making.


    ¡°Hmpf! You better stand back. Hey, Suyeon you saw that number above?.¡± I asked without looking at her keeping my glare towards the mobs at a distance.


    ¡°Oh, The red line with one?¡± She told me.


    ¡°Yea, there should be something else besides it but it didn¡¯t appear this time so let''s do another eye." I say as I turn back around and inspect if the boar is still alive. "It''s still alive and breathing."


    I slowly placed my hand under the boar and tipped him over trying not to damage him or accidentally killing him. Once he¡¯s on the other side, I stood up and pointed towards its other eye.


    "Ok, try the other one," I tell her and she happily yanked out its eye without any remorse.


    This girl¡­


    ¡°O-Oh! I saw something new! Cr-cr-ticu-cua-¡° She tried reading the words like a kid.


    ¡°Critical strike.¡± I corrected her before she even finished.


    ¡°Y-yeah! That!¡± She happily said as she looks at me holding the two eyeballs in her hand.


    ¡°Ok, you see that damage? The number that went up.¡± I asked her.


    ¡°The red line with number ten.¡± She tells me.


    ¡°Negative ten," I tell her as she kept saying a red line.


    ¡°Negative?¡± She asked me.


    "Negative is the red line. It means ten points were taken out of its health. The critical strike happens randomly and mostly when you either rip a body part off. When I started, I didn''t see it much until I got a weapon which is why I gave you the gauntlets." I explained to her and she just nods.


    "Ok, let''s see..." My voice fades out as I get a closer look at the boar stomach slowly going up and down. "Jeez, it''s still breathing. Ok, let''s go for the jaw this time."


    ¡°T-the jaw?¡± She asked me as she looks towards its head. ¡°Won¡¯t it bite me?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wearing a metal gauntlet and it¡¯s probably weak enough to not be able to bite hard. Just place your foot on its snout and use both hands to grab its jaw and yank it.¡± I tell her.


    "Ok." She says and did what I instructed. She placed her foot on top the boar''s nose and place some of her fingers inside the mouth. The boar looks like it gave up on life as it stopped struggling and just continued to breathe hard.


    AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!


    I hear one of the wolves¡¯ howl starting a chain reaction to all the wolves around the area.


    ¡°Tsk, fucking loud shits. Hurry up and yank it out so we can deal with everything else.¡± I tell her.


    "O-ok. U-um M-Mr. Boar, If you don''t mind, I need to yank it out~" She says talking to the boar. I see her pull as hard as she can with both hands, and I notice the boar started trashing again as it felt its jaw being ripped off its head slowly. I quickly got on top the body preventing it from moving so Suyeon can yank out its jaw. I see parts of its skin around the mouth rips as Suyeon opens its way more than it can handle. I hear it¡¯s jaw dislocate and in an instant, she suddenly flew back as the jaw comes off the boar and its body stopped thrashing as blood gushed out of its opened mouth.


    "Is it dead?" I say to myself.


    "I-I got another critical strike! It has abigger number this time!" Suyeon says holding up the jaw of the boar.


    ¡°It''s health probably isn''t that much to die this quick," I whisper to myself.


    Huh, it didn''t disappear.I wonder if leveled monsters turn into dust if she kills it. I say in my mind as I look towards the wolves. Even from a distance, I can see their name and level above their head. Only the boar doesn''t have it.


    ¡°O-oh! I leveled up!¡± She says as she read something in front of her. ¡°Y-Yasu! I leveled up!¡±She says looking up at me smiling.


    So she''s like the rest. What makes her class legendary then?I say in my mind as I notice her class to be nothing special except the name. Well, her damage per hit is the same as her level, like mine. Maybe that¡¯s what makes it special?


    ¡°Well then, Let¡¯s see how much you can level up with them," I say as I turn around towards the monsters in the area. I gripped the dagger that''s still in my hand and using my seismic step skill, I sprinted towards a wolf.


    ¡°Ah wolves~ this brings back memories~¡± I whisper as I smile at Suyeon¡¯s next victim.

 CHAPTER 36: Hey, whos the boss around here?

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 36: Hey, who''s the boss around here?


    <hr>


    I quickly caught up to the wolf that started running away. Actually, the minute I moved towards them, they all started running away. I grab the wolf by its neck, and it tried to bite my face off. "You fucking mutt! Come here!"


    I pulled its tail and used it to lift up its body. I swung it around letting it go towards Suyeon and the wolf went flying for a brief moment but quickly descended down towards the ground.


    Thud!


    YELP!


    The wolf yelped in pain as it bounced around until it stopped quite a distance from Suyeon. The wolf slowly tried to get up but I see it''s a bit disoriented causing it to stumble back down. Suyeon is still in the spot I left her doing absolutely nothing.


    "What the hell is she doi-Hey! It¡¯s not a tv show! Go fucking kill it!" I shouted at her who just watch the wolf struggle to get up. I quickly bolt towards them as Suyeon approaches the wolf. Using her foot, she kicked it back down and the wolf yelped some more tumbling to its side.


    "Break its legs!" I shouted towards her and she replied with a nod. She quickly lifted up her left foot over the leg of the wolf and stomped on it.


    YELP!


    The bone snapped under her boots and I hear the wolf yelp in pain as one of its legs bends the wrong way from the shin. I finally caught up to them and I see Suyeon''s about to put her knee on the wolf''s neck to probably try to gauge its eye out.


    "Wait!" I place my hand between her and the wolf she pulled back just in time as soon as the wolf turned its head trying to bite her leg. She fell on her ass terrified that she almost got her leg chomped off.


    "A-ah I-m sorry." She whispers as she looked at the wolf who yelped non-stop and every sound it makes increased my irritation.


    "Tsk, it''s really fucking loud and annoying," I whisper as I approach the wolf''s head. Using my dagger, I stabbed the wolf mouth shut like a kebab muffling its voice and the wolf started thrashing around trying to get up.


    "Break another leg," I tell her and she nods. With one swift motion, she snapped the front left leg and the wolf yelped some more as it probably felt it''s bone snapping ripping its flesh as the broken end come out of its skin.


    She looks up to me and asked, "S-should I break all of them?"


    "Go ahead," I replied back and she gave me a quick smile before turning back down towards the wolf''s remaining leg. She continued to break the other two legs and I kept my foot on the wolf''s neck preventing it from moving too much.


    "Ok, now is the time to kill it. We''re not doing critical strike this time." I tell her and she looked a bit sad.


    Did she want to pull its eyes out?I asked in my mind.


    "Ah, I have an idea~," I say, and I quickly call out my dimensional bag. I took out the frying pan I used to cook the ogre queens¡¯ meat and held it out to her. "Try to see if you can hold this. You can hold the plate and utensils; you can probably hold this also."


    "But why not critical strike? W-wouldn''t be faster?" She tells me.


    I grabbed her hand and placed the handle of the frying pan on her palm. "Yes, but I want you to build up stamina. This way you won''t tire out if you fight something that will take a while to kill."


    I remember when I first fought, I get tired quickly and only after my body got used to the constant pressure of fighting non-stop, that''s when I was enabled to fight without tiring myself out too fast. I wanted to test if she will get tired fast if she constantly beat the wolf non-stop.


    "Ok, hurry up and beat him," I tell her and she nods while grips the frying pan. My theory is right, she can hold it normally without plummeting to the ground due to the sudden change in weight. "Ok, now use the pan and bash its head till it dies."


    "W-wont it be better to use my gloves. I-I don''t want to break your frying pan." She tells me.


    "Don''t worry, I bought new ones from the item boar shop when I was there. Use it till it breaks. Do you see those gloves of yours? That has durability also. If we keep using it on these low-level fucks, your gloves will break. I don''t have any other weapon you can use."


    "O-oh. Okay." She says as she walks towards the head of the wolf who stopped yelping but, as soon as it sees Suyeon it resumed while thrashing around. I kept its neck pressed down the ground preventing it from thrashing too wildly. What came next somehow brought memories I didn¡¯t want to return. I watch her expression change as she started swinging at the wolf¡¯s head. Her swings are getting stronger and stronger since the sound the pan makes is getting louder and louder.


    Jeez, look at her go. She¡¯s taking all her anger out on that thing. It doesn''t look like she''s getting tired.I say in my mind as I see her expression change multiple times in a couple of minutes.


    She went from smiling to contorting her face due to anger. Then sad pity looks towards the wolf and back to having a smile plastered across her face. She displayed so many different emotions and it just made me stare at her wondering what expression will come next. I see the wolf stopped yelping and its health is getting lower and lower.


    "Ok, stop," I tell her but she didn''t and kept hitting the wolf. "Hey!"


    My voice startled her causing her to step back. Her face was quickly replaced with a worried look as she stares at me. "I-i-I''m sorr-"


    "Stop fucking apologizing every time. You didn''t do anything wrong. I just want you to try something out before you kill it." I say and she nods while looking dejected.


    Tsk, this girl needs to get force fed some confidence.I say in my mind. I look at the wolf and I see it''s remaining health. One more hit and she would have killed it.


    Lvl 5 Dire Wolf


    2/300


    "Do you know how to use your skill?" I asked her.


    "T-the jump?" She replied to me.


    "Duh, what else. That''s the only skill you have." I say and I feel more irritated than before.


    "I''m sorr-" She stopped mid-way as she sees me glaring at her for trying to apologize again. "I-I never used it."


    "Ok, stand on top of the wolf and jump." Pointing at the wolf¡¯s stomach.


    "W-what-" She started having a crazy worried look that makes me want to smack her back to normal.


    "I know it may sound stupid. But in this world, common sense is stupid. Now do it." She obediently followed and got on top of the wolf. She went jumped up but there was nothing abnormal about it. "Go check your skill window and tell me if you gained some experience points on it."


    "O-ok. Jump skill description." She whispers and I see her reading something I can''t see. "It''s still at zero."


    "Hmm. Maybe you need to say it out loud. Try screaming it while jumping." I tell her.


    "O-ok." She went on a crouching position getting ready to jump one more time. As she pushed up straightening her legs, she shouted her skill. "J-jump!"


    BOOM!


    The wolf exploded beneath her and the ground formed a circular dent. I dazed for a moment at the remnants of the wolf scattered around and its blood splattered everywhere including on me.


    Shhhhhkkkk!


    The wolf started turning into dust leaving only the blood stains as the proof it was once alive.


    "Hey, you fucking obliterated it! Hahaha! The damn thing is dea-" I suddenly stopped talking as I look up noticing where she was. Her skill launched her all the way to the sky at a distance no normal person can do. "Well, what do you know..."


    "Ahhhhh!!!!! H-help me!" I hear her shout as she flails above me. I see her start descending down and she just kept screaming nonstop.


    "Hey! Relax! Activate your skill before you hit the ground!" I shout up towards her thinking that it might be the same as my skills.


    Wait; what if it doesn''t break her fall, she might break both legs at that height.I say in my mind as I stare at her falling towards me.


    "Tsk, Seismic step!" I shouted my skill and I jumped catching her midway. We both descend back down, and I decided to activate the chef''s coat to protect my body. "Chef''s coat!"


    I lay on my back mid-air and hugged her towards my chest using myself as a cushion to break her fall. My skill will protect my body from this height, so I''m not worried about breaking anything.


    Thud!


    I felt my back hit the ground and the leaves with loose grass flew up as my impact blew everything away. I let go of her and she continued to plant her face on my chest as she cried. "Uwaaaaaa!!!"


    Sigh.


    "Stop crying, that fall wasn''t that high in the beginning," I say as I stand up pushing her to the side and she went on all fours on the ground.


    She sat on the grass and started wiping her eyes. "I-I thought I was going to die."


    "You would have likely broken a bone, but die? No. You need to fall off somewhere higher. Like that time, we got stuck in the cave up that mountain. That height would kill anyone." I tell her and she just nods as she wipes the tears off her face. Thinking about the cave where we came from, I automatically look at my clothes just in case she peed again.


    Whew. Safe. I say in my mind.


    "Ok, get up. We don''t have all day." I tell her as I turn towards where the pond is. "Tsk, they all ran away when they saw me come close."


    The whole area that was once teeming with wildlife is now a dead empty meadow. I walk towards the pond to see if I can spot any wolf or boar, but they all ran towards the forest earlier and never came back.


    "Well, whatever. Let''s just practice your skill and level it up." I say as I turn to her.


    "A-again?" she tells me. I can see she doesn''t want to use it again.


    "Yes again. Go check if you leveled up from killing the wolf. Check also if the skill gained some experience." I tell her and she nods. She whispered some commands and I see her studying what''s probably her status window.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Y-yeah! I leveled up to three! A-and my skill''s experience went up to fifty!" She says happily.


    "Look at you, Just a minute ago you were crying," I whisper as I see her happily inspect her skill. "Did you get any new skills?"


    "N-no. I only have jump still." She replied looking dejected.


    "Figures. When I reached level 10 that''s when I was able to use swords. Ok, let''s make camp and come back here tomorrow." I tell her as I walk away from the pond.


    "W-wait. Would it be better to camp near this pond?" She asked me to dust off her pants.


    "It would but if we''re here, those mobs might not come back in this area. Let''s camp somewhere further and come back tomorrow." I explained to her as I started walking towards the dead boar and she quietly followed behind me. I picked a spot in the forest near the meadow. I see the sun is starting to set, and soon enough, the horizon will engulf it. I quickly build a campfire while I told Suyeon to practice her skill. I lean at a tree and relaxed while I watch her jump over and over again.


    "J-jump!" She shouted her skill and the minute she jumped, she went soaring up the sky. Even when I''m inside the forest, I can feel the gust of the wind she creates every time she jumps. She didn''t put a lot of force in her jump this time not wanting to go above and beyond towards space.


    "A-ah!" She screams as I see her descend while flailing her legs.


    Thud!


    She fell on her ass as she lost balance midair.


    "Ouch," I whisper to myself watching her. She quickly stood up and dusted off her clothes and jumped again. She did this non-stop until the sun completely set into the horizon and darkness surrounds us. I decided to make some fire while I instructed her to collect broken wood and sticks. After I got the fire going, I took out the last remaining fishes in my bag and started cooking them.


    "So, you''re telling me that they didn¡¯t try to help you level up?" I asked her as I put a cooked fish on her plate.


    "Mhm. W-when the door opened." She says before stuffing her face. I hand her another fish and gestured her to slow down eating. She took out water contained I gave her and took a huge gulp before continuing her story. "Kana and everyone tried helped me kill a monster. But, my brother and some people said I would just get in the way so I was left in the safe zone with Kana. I tried jumping normally but I didn''t know it would activate using my voice."


    "Uh-huh, didn''t you see them shout their skills?" I tell her. "Clearly that would have made you think to do the same."


    I see her look sad as if she did something wrong, again. "I-I-m sorry."


    "Again and again one apology after the next.¡± I snarl at her as she started to irritate me. ¡°Why do you keep apologizing? What happens to the girl at the beginning full of energy that made me fucking blind? You apologize so much."


    "I-I-m so-" She suddenly stopped covering her mouth.


    "Jeez, don''t you know any other vocabulary than to apologize?" I asked her. She stayed quiet and I can see tears accumulating.


    Tsk. Again with the tears. Give me a fucking break. I talked in my mind keeping my thoughts to prevent her from crying by my harsh words.


    "So, why didn''t you kept trying to level up?" I asked her.


    "Well, they decided that it''s dangerous for me to go with them in the skeleton room." She explains and stopped to take a bite of the fish.


    "I wonder why you''re getting experience points now..." I whispered before taking a bite of the fish on my plate.


    "H-how about you? How do you level up?" She asked me.


    "I need to cook. Cooking gives me experience orbs." I tell her. "Wait, where are your starting weapons?"


    She didn''t say anything and looked dejected. I was about to say never mind but she suddenly opened her mouth. "M-my brother took my hat a-and the shoes I got, one of the girls took it when¡­"


    She suddenly stopped talking and I see her eyes getting teary.


    "Ah, never mind. Don''t explain." I tell her.


    ¡°I did kill a monster in the dungeon, but I didn¡¯t level up.¡± She suddenly blurted out.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked getting confused.


    "Yeah, Lisa went with me and helped me lower a wandering skeletons health. I punched it till it turned into dust, but I didn¡¯t get level up.¡± She explained making me think.


    "When you killed that monster in the dungeon, you were bare handed right?" She looks up and wipes her tears away and nods.


    Hmm, I think I have a general idea of why she gains experience points now.I say in my mind as I gesture her to just continue eating. The moon has reached its halfway point and the forest was replaced with silence and the occasional rustling of animals passing through the bushes. I only took a quick nap but the thought of having another nightmare because of Unum prevented me from having a deep sleep. Having another person beside me adds on to my anxiety but it''s not as bad when I first saw her since now I''m able to take small naps and even have her walk behind me occasionally. Morning hits and after eating breakfast, we continued her training. The wolves and boars are back gathering around the pond. I decided to sneak in and once I got close, I pounced on another boar that wandered off away from its group. I quickly dragged him near our camp and placed him in front of Suyeon. The boar thrashed but I broke one of its legs preventing it from running away.


    "Ok, let me explain something to you," I tell her and she just stood there listening.


    "This boar is what I categorized as food. As you notice, anything I kill doesn''t turn to dust. But for you, most monsters that show their level and health will most likely turn into dust. Same goes when you die. But, these types of monsters where they don''t show any level or even their name won''t evaporate. Which means, after killing this thing, it won''t turn to dust, but it still will give you an experience orb until your level surpasses it to the point it will stop giving you experience. Probably this world¡¯s system giving us a source of food. And also, you''ll have to kill higher level monsters to get more experience orbs. Understand?"


    She nods and she diligently paid attention as I continued explaining, "It kind of works the same for me. When my level gets too high above the monster I cook, it makes it impossible to gain experience orbs. Ok, as for the theory I have, I think I know why you gained experience orbs this time around. Take off your gauntlets."


    She quickly took it off and placed it in her bag.


    "Ok, do the same thing to this boar as you did yesterday," I instructed her and she swiftly gauges the boar''s eyes out of its head, and she kept trying to rip it piece by piece until the boar stopped moving. As my theory, no experience orb came out. To test it out, I decided to bring another boar.


    "Ok take out your gauntlets and wear it and wait for me," I say as I sneak into the meadows. I see another boar that drifted off its pack and I quickly pounce on it immobilizing it. Then I drag the boar as it kept shrieking in pain due to its legs being snapped in half.


    "Ok, now kill this one," I tell her and she happily ripped the boar apart until it died. This time, an experience orb came out of the corpse and it flew into Suyeon''s chest. "I knew it. You only gain experience if you use your designated weapon."


    "O-ohh." I see her look at her bloody gloves with admiration.


    "So this means that if your boots and gloves break, you''re useless. Tsk, you''re in a much worst position than I am." I tell her.


    "W-why?" She asked.


    "Well, your class is legendary like mine. As of what I heard a year ago, no one has our class. Probably only us in this forsaken planet have this class. Which means it won''t be necessary for people to make our weapons. When I went to the item boar shop before, they only sold swords, shield, and metal armors along with other shit but no gloves or boots for a dancer. This means the only way for you to survive is to go on dungeons hoping we find a weapon suitable for you or make your own damn weapon."


    "Oh¡­" I see her expression become depressed.


    "This is why keep track of the durability of your gloves and boots," I tell her and she nods. We trained for the whole day. I would wait for a boar to wander off and sometimes using cooked meat to bait some wolf. Once I get ahold of them, I''ll drag them near our camp for Suyeon to kill. Then I''ll go back out and drag some more while she would jump over and over again to level up her skills. I told her to do it barefoot so that she won''t damage her boots. The day ended as quickly as it started. We killed boars up until they stopped giving her experience orbs. Then we moved to the wolves and use them to train Suyeon. After killing the wolves, she reached level 7 and the wolves stopped giving her experience orbs altogether. The night quickly came and we both retreated back at our small camp.


    "Shit. This means we have to leave this place and look for an area that has a stronger monster." I say to myself. "Can you tell me more about Kana and Daikichi? How did he get wounded?"


    "H-he was caught off guard by a creeping skeleton and was stabbed from the back. Kana tried to heal him but all she could do was stop the bleeding and couldn''t close the wound." She explains to me as she eats the wolf meat.


    "Tsk, fuck. We need to find them quickly." I tell her and somehow, she looked worried. "What?"


    "N-no nothing." She tells me as she took a bite of the wolf meat. Then before I bit into my food, I hear her speak again. "W-will you l-leave me again if we find a town?"


    I look up to her and I see her eyes plastered with worry.


    Sigh


    "I won''t know until we reach another village," I tell her and I continued eating. She didn''t say anything after that. The moon is back up halfway the dark sky and I sat around the campfire fiddling with it. Suyeon slept on the other side covered by a blanket that I gave her to use.


    "Status Window," I whisper to see my status. "Damn, this is getting big. I have so many skills this shit is making my status window like a giant grocery list. I wonder if I have a friends window..."


    I took out a pen and paper I got from the item boar shop and I wrote down all of the commands I can remember on top of my head.


    "Ok, let''s see, friends list?" I say trying to see if there''s a command where I can add people. ¡°Nothing. Show friends list? Add friend? Add people? Show companion? Add companion? Show add companion. Fuck!"


    It seems like there isn''t a way for me to add people. If I''m able to add Daikichi or Kana, I might be able to contact them. But it seems like there aren''t any commands at all.


    Sigh


    "Dammit. Status window." I whisper as I call out my status window to inspect my level. "Damn, am I op with this level? Show dph."


    I see my damage per hit still abnormally low when I have no skill activated. It''s no wonder why I couldn''t one hit kill the level five monsters here since my attack isn''t higher than their health.


    "Tsk, how can a fucking level five wolf have more health than my attack? Fucking class." I whisper as I lean back onto a log and took a quick nap. Morning quickly hits and I told Suyeon we need to look for another area. I took out the map I got from the safe keeper and inspected it. I notice that the meadow isn''t listed on the map making it harder to pinpoint where we are. I climbed a tree and I notice that the trees grew in one direction while shrank at another.


    Thud!


    I land on my foot as I jump down from the tree. "Ok, we''re going that way. Since the forest seems to be disappearing towards that area." I tell Suyeon who just nods as she stuffs herself with food. She''s been eating so much but her weight never changed. She lost all her skeletal structure and was replaced with a body most girls would envy.


    Where does she store all that food? The fuck.I say in my mind, as I wonder how come she isn''t gaining any weight. But then again, this world has no common sense. Even I don''t gain weight.


    I decided to fill our entire water container on the pond before we left. "Hmm, maybe we should kill everything in this area. We can store the meat since you eat so damn much."


    As soon as I got a view of the pond from a distance, I see only a few wolf and boar left wandering around.


    "Wait here, I''ll kill them and after that, we''ll debone their carcass and store the raw meat in your bag," I tell her and she nods smiling.


    I started sneaking towards the wolf and the boar with a sword in my hand, "Seismic step. Sharpen."


    I quickly pushed off the ground and my body was propelled forwards towards the remaining wolves and boar. In a quick motion, I sliced the first wolf I came across killing it in an instant. Then I quickly ran towards the next wolf killing it. I moved so quick that the animals couldn''t react and most of them died without being able to retaliate. One wolf decided to save himself and went running towards the forest. As I was about to run for him, I see Suyeon suddenly kicking the wolf in the side.


    "J-jump!" She shouted her skill as soon as she made contact with the wolf and it went flying into the forest crashing towards the trees.


    "Damn," I whisper as I see her mercilessly sent the wolf to oblivion.


    What the fuck, when did she learn that?I whisper to myself.


    "Y-Yasu! I did it! Did you see that? I sent it flying!" She screams as she happily runs towards me. It seems like I stopped moving after I saw her kick that thing.


    "Uh huh. Good job. Isn¡¯t that your normal jump skill?¡± I asked her surprised.


    "W-well. I thought about it. S-since the floor gets destroyed when I jump, maybe I can use it to kick an enemy." She says. "I was just thinking about it, but this is the first time I tried it out. And it works!"


    "Uh-huh." my voice trails off towards where the wolf went towards the forest. I see some of the trees were destroyed as the wolf''s body probably went through it.


    Isn''t that too overpowered? She''s only level 7.I say in my mind.


    "Ok let''s collect whatever we can and get out of here," I say as I swing my sword towards the ground to remove the blood stains on it. I turn around and see everything dead.


    Damn, this will take us at least half a day chopping these corpses. Right when I took the first step, the whole place started shaking almost making me lost balance.


    "An earthquake?" I whisper as I stood my ground. Everything was rumbling as the whole forest shook in place.


    BOOOOOOM!!!


    The pond exploded as smoke covered its surroundings and I can feel the pond water rain down on both of us. As soon as the explosion happened, the earthquake stopped, as if a switch turned it off in an instant. I look at the smoke and I see a large shadow figure inside of it. As it clears, a smile slowly crept up on me as I stared at its glowing blue eyes.


    "Bwahahaha! Well, what do you know? It''s like a game. Kill everything and the boss appears." I say as I watch it growl at me. Its black fur stood up and jolts of electricity sparked around it. I look at its head and I see its name along with its health right above it.


    (BOSS) Level 14 Elite GIANT Supreme Boar wolf


    10,000 / 10,000


    "Well, what do you know, that thing is a weakling," I say to myself. "Even if it''s a boss, I probably can one hit kill that thing."


    "W-w-what is that?!" Suyeon ask me as she looks over that''s probably something frightening for her standard.


    I have an idea.I say in my mind.


    "That? That Suyeon is a boss monster." I say as I look at her with a smile on my face. "Well then, what are you waiting for, go kill it."

 CHAPTER 37: Lets dance

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 37: Let''s Dance


    <hr>


    "W-what? M-Me? kill it?" She asked me and I can see she''s worried. She knows I''m not joking.


    "Yes, kill the boss. It''s only level fourteen. Don''t worry, I''m here, worst come for worst, I''ll one shot it before it kills you." I tell her as I point towards the overgrown mutt that''s non-stop growling at us.


    "B-but I''m only l-level s-seven!" She says trying to argue her way out the situation.


    "And? I killed the gatekeeper when I was around level 10 and I killed a dragon when I was level¡­ah shit. What was my level then?" I say trying to remember but it''s been a year ago and I raised enough level for me to lose track. "Ah, who cares. Look, that thing is not something grand. Of course, it''s bigger than anything you have dealt with let alone the most dangerous excluding the ogre queen. But, no doubt about it, you can kill it."


    I see her stare at the ground, and she looks towards the Boss that still hasn''t made his move. It''s basically a combination of a wolf and a boar. Its body is a wolf as it''s covered with black fur, but the face has a snout of a boar. Its legs also have hooves instead of claws and a small jolt of electricity covers its body.


    "What''s up with all these bastard and electricity? First the ogre queen now this mutt." I whisper looking at it. ¡°It would have been damn cool if they just made it look like a giant wolf-¡°


    ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARR!!!!!!


    The wolf roared and it caused Suyeon to tremble as the shockwave of its screams pass through us.


    "You would have thought it''s supposed to bark...¡± I whisper looking at the abomination from a distance. I turned back to Suyeon who looked at the giant boss with fear. ¡°Look, it''s calling for you. Just listen to what I have to say, and you can kill it. Besides, if you want to travel with me, you need to be able to kill something as simple as that."


    "O-okay. I-I can do this. If Yasu says I can do it. Then I-I can do it." She says trying to pump herself up with adrenaline and confidence. Seems like what I said caught her attention so I kept trying to push her.


    "There we go~ Ok, first you need to go for its legs. Remember about critical strikes. When it charges at us, go use your skill to ki-"


    BOOOOOOOM!


    The giant boar-wolf created an explosion as it launched towards us running at full speed. Every step it took shook the ground and I can see Suyeons legs trembling.


    "Look, it''s coming. Go for its legs. Once it isn''t able to move, go for its eyes or something. I''ll be over there. Good luck~" I say and I sprint away from her.


    "W-w-wait!" She screamed as she turns around, but I was already at a distance that she won''t be able to catch up to me. The giant boar-wolf jumped up above and started descending towards Suyeon.


    "J-j-jump!" I hear her shout barely jumping out of the way.


    <hr>


    Suyeon''s POV


    <hr>


    I jumped out just in time but the wind the giant boar-wolf made stomping the ground was too strong and I felt my body fly faster.


    "Ah!" I was flung across the sky not being able to stop myself. In a brief moment, I saw a glimpse of where he is. He stood with his arms crossed watching me from a distance.


    He''s watching me. I need to do good to stay with him.I say in my mind.


    "Ngggnhhh!" I forced myself to move while flying across the sky. Somehow, I knew how to move my body, so I won''t be hurt too much. It''s been like this ever since I got my class and I would get random d¨¦j¨¤ vu at certain times. Suddenly getting the feeling that I have done something before but with very clear memory how to do it. I moved one of my legs slightly and the shift of my weight caused me to turn before I land on the ground.


    Thud!


    "Ahh!" I felt my sides hit the ground and I bounced back up.


    Here it is again.I say in my mind. I knew which way to move my body to control myself as I bounced around. I moved my hips towards an angle and my body felt light at every bounce. I knew when to stomp the ground causing me to flip and land on my foot as I slid backward.


    "A-ah. That hurt." I say as I feel my body around for the new bruises. "W-whew. O-ok I can do this."


    I tried to ignore the fear I felt as I look towards where he is. He still stood far away looking at me with one of his eyebrows raised having a surprised look. "Y-you can do it Suyeon. Or else, he''ll leave you behind. You can do it. You can kill that giant animal."


    The boar-wolf was so tall it towers over me even from a distance. The thought of fighting it is making my legs tremble in fear. I didn''t know where to start attacking so I looked around everywhere.


    "Attack its legs!" I hear him shout from a distance making me focus only on its legs.


    "I-its legs. Like before. Critical strike i-is when I do mean things to it. Critical strike. I have to go for a critical strike." I whisper to myself and I quickly run towards the boss monster. I was looking at its legs I didn''t pay attention to its head. When I got closer, I notice the sun was suddenly blocked and when I look up, I see a lot of sharp teeth coming straight to me.


    "J-jump!" I shouted my skill and I jumped towards the side dodging its bite.


    BOOOOOM!


    The giant boar-wolf face went directly to the ground causing smoke to erupt as I jumped sideways landing on my feet. The grass from the field isn''t helping and I couldn''t stop myself from sliding across the meadow. I tripped on a rock and I came stumbling down the ground


    "M-my clothes," I whisper as the clothes Yasu gave me is now full of dirt and grass stains. "I-is it dead? I-I think it''s dea-"


    "Hey! Don¡¯t just there like a statue! Go fucking kill it!" I hear a voice erupt behind me and when I look back, I see him glaring at me making me want to apologize.


    "I-I''m so-" I see him suddenly move to make me stop.


    "Watch out!" He shouts and the minute I turn around, I see a huge snout coming towards me like a wrecking ball. I felt my body lifted up from the ground as the air from my lungs was abruptly taken out.


    "Ack!" I wince in pain as I felt the weight shift up and I was sent flying towards the sky as the boar flung me upwards. I felt blood come out of my mouth and my nose as the metallic taste that I''m too familiar with made me remember such unwanted memories of my experiences inside the dungeon. I see the giant boar-wolf open its mouth waiting for me to drop right in.


    I, I have to defeat it.I say in my mind as I feel my lungs slowly collect air as I''m able to breathe again. I felt my body descend back down and I prepared to attack it with my skill.


    "J-j-Jump!" I shouted right before my foot lands on the snout and within that moment, I was sent flying back up. I see my attack didn''t do that much damage but it made the wolf look disoriented.


    "A-ah-AH!" I flail around as I descend down at a height I''m terrified at. "H-help me!"


    I''m gonna die. I''m gonna die. I''m gonna die.I kept repeating in my mind closing my eyes as I see the ground getting closer.


    "Your skill! Use your fucking skill for fucksakes!!" I hear Yasu shout and I readied myself as I slowly open my eyes.


    Like before, I knew how to move my body to have my legs aimed at the ground. Right when my foot touches the floor, I shouted my skill as I stomped as hard as I can. "J-jump!"


    BOOOOOOOMM!!


    The ground erupted as I land on it safely. "W-whoa. It worked! Yasu it worked!"


    I turn happily towards him and I see him pointing at me with an irritated look.


    M-me? Oh, wait. He''s pointing behind me.


    "A-ah kill it. I got to kill it." I say as I turn around to face the wolf that''s still moving its head around. I quickly run towards its front left leg and as I got close, I extended my leg forward and right when the soles of my boot''s meets with its shin, I shouted my skill one more time, J-jump!"


    The giant boss'' leg was sent flying towards its chest as a critical strike appeared above its head shedding quite a chunk of its health. It screamed in pain as it lost its balance and came crashing down on top of me.


    "A-ahhh!" I run away trying not to get flattened and I suddenly felt an impact behind me sending me tumbling down the ground. The giant boss let out a sound-causing me to cover my ears since it felt like it''s going to pop. As soon as the sound disappeared, I look towards the boss who''s struggling to get up since my kick actually broke the leg.


    "I-I broke it¡­W-wha-" My voice was suddenly stopped as I feel something hit me from the side and I came crashing down the ground. "Guack!!"


    I feel like I broke some ribs since my sides are starting to hurt really bad. I look up to see what crashed into me and I see a black boar with blue eyes getting ready to charge again. As I look around, I see multiple black boars and black wolves are spawning and all their blue eyes are set on me.


    "W-wha-" All the wolves and boar that spawn started barking and shrieking at the same time and the sound they all make is starting to make me feel confused. "W-wha-"


    BOOOOOOOOOOOM!


    All of a sudden, something exploded in front of me causing the whole area to be covered with smoke. The smoke was suddenly blown away by a swing of his sword. Then in a split second, he got close to the boar that rammed into me earlier and cleanly sliced its head off with one swing killing it in an instant.


    "Would you all shut the fuck up you damn mutts." He says as he jumps to stands in front of me facing the spawned enemies.


    "I-I-" I started stuttering from fear as my knees felt weak preventing me from standing up.


    "And you, stop being so damn scared. Look, don''t hold back and just go wild." He tells me without turning around.


    "O-ok. I-I''ll try." I tell him as I slowly stood up.


    "First, take care of these tiny pests. Then go for the giant mutt and break another leg. We both don''t have and magic points crap so, I don¡¯t think there''s a limit on how many times you can use your skill."


    "Y-you mean MP? Mana?" I asked him as I know what the term means.


    "Yes, as you know, I have been using my skills without any issues and limits. The same thing for you probably. Go jump kick that thing to oblivion." He tells me as he points his black sword towards the giant wolf who laid from a distance while the tiny wolves and boars surround it.


    "O-ok," I reply back and he took a quick glance at me before he started walking back to the position, he was at leaving me alone to face multiple enemies at once. "T-tiny wolves and boar first then the big one."


    As soon as Yasu got quite a distance, I see one of the wolves started sprinting towards me and soon the whole enemy behind it followed.


    "J-jump!" I shout my skill as I brought my foot towards the open mouth of the wolf. My skill broke its jaw and the wolf was launched back so fast that the other wolves and boar it hit along the way were sent flying with it. One of the boars ran towards my right and quickly turned running at me at full speed.


    "J-jump!" I shout my skill again as I brought my foot towards the incoming boar.


    "T-there it is!" I say as I see the critical hit appear above its head as the boar lifeless body plop to the ground. My attack completely destroyed its head as if something exploded it from the inside.


    Suddenly, I see a wolf leap trying to bite me. "J-jump!" I shout my skill trying to evade it but as I jump back, another wolf was right behind it and all I could do was block with my hands as it bit my gauntlets. I notice another movement to my right and this time I didn''t have time to react.


    Bite!


    "AH!!!!" I feel something sharp lodged in my thigh and it started pulling my leg away from me. I can feel its teeth slowly rip my skin making me want to faint. "H-help! Help me! It hurt! Help-" The minute I look at Yasu, I can see he has his arms crossed while looking at me. His gaze sent a shiver down my spine.


    I-if I don''t kill them, he will leave me!I scream in my mind.


    "J-Jump!" I scream my skill as I brought my remaining leg on the ground and I was sent flying up breaking free from the wolves¡¯ clutches except for the one on my thigh. It kept its bite and I feel the teeth ripping my flesh as I flew up.


    "Agrhhh!!! Let me go!" I say as I grab its eyes while we descend back down towards the ground. Using all my might, I pulled it¡¯s eyeball out and the wolf lets go of my leg as it yelped in pain. Using this opportunity, I decided to send it crashing down below.


    "Jump!" I shouted my skill as I place my foot towards the wolf and its body shot towards the ground like a bullet. The whole area shook, and I see the wolf splatter onto the ground as it created a crater the promptly turning into dust. I safely land on my feet but the pain in my leg brought me to my knees. Tears started welling up, but I stop myself from fully crying since I know he''s watching me. I force myself up and ran towards the next wolf who got caught on the blast and slowly standing up.


    "J-Jump!" I say as I kick it on its side and the wolf went flying towards the forest.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have leveled up!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I see a notification come up as I read it happily when all of a sudden, a wolf pounced on me trying to bite my face. We both came stumbling to the ground and I fought its bite by placing my hands on its jaws forcing it to open while pushing its head back away from my face.


    "L-let go!" I shout as I force the jaw of the wolf open to the point that it broke cause it to yelp while its blood came pouring down on my face.


    There it is again. I say in my mind as I go through another deja vu. I kicked my leg up as I remember it and the wolf went over my head stumbling to the ground. I quickly stood up and ran towards it getting ready to stomp its head flat.


    "J-jump!" I stomp on the wolf and the minute my foot met its head, it erupted causing its brains to explode in all direction.


    Hah.


    Huah.


    I kept feeling the throbbing pain on my leg and on my sides, but I can''t stop now. I glance towards where he is and he''s sitting down on the ground watching me.


    I-I have to kill it. Suyeon. Kill it.I say in my mind as I look towards the giant boar-wolf.


    "S-stop being scared and just go wild," I whisper to myself. I ignored the pain on my leg and sides as I ran towards the giant boar-wolf that''s laying on the ground. Another wolf tried to bite my leg and as my d¨¦j¨¤ vu activates, I somehow knew how to move my body and it seems like I was dancing through as I dodge them one by one.


    "Jump!" I shout my skill as soon as I got close to the giant boss. I kick it on its side and the impact sent the giant wolf stumbling to the ground a few feet away. I quickly ran to it and prepared to kick it one more time, "A-again! Jump!"A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The giant boar-wolf roared as it felt my kick probably breaking some of its ribs. I notice all the tiny boar and wolf came running towards me. I quickly jump up the giant boar-wolf and using my skill, I flew to the sky higher than I''m used to.


    "A-ahhh!" I shout as my fear of heights kick in. I started descending onto the ground and I feel my legs numb due to the fear and the pain. I see all the tiny wolves and boars are gathered under me waiting for me to land. "Jump!"


    I brought down both my foot towards the ground it landed on a wolf''s head. The whole ground erupted as I sink through destroying the wolf in the process. Each and every mob that was gathered around me flew out in all direction while some of them started disappearing turning into dust.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have leveled up!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    All of the boar and wolves that were gathered are now struggling to get up while the giant boar-wolf is at a distance also struggling.


    Did I do this? I say in my mind.


    "I-I can do it. I can kill it!!" I say happily as I approach another wolf. I quickly used my skill stomping on its head and it quickly turned into dust as another critical strike appeared. I wasted no time and killed the tiny boar''s and wolves as they tried to get up. I saw a couple of them run towards the forest and that''s when I saw him move. He quickly dealt with the runaways mercilessly punching them. I turn back around, and I see the giant boss growling at me standing with only three legs as the front left leg I kicked earlier swung around like a rag doll.


    "Y-you. You have to die!" I shouted as I ran towards it.


    Don''t think. Just fight. Break its legs and then rip its eyes out.I say in my mind as I ran past its head dodging its bite. I quickly got close to its hind legs. "J-Jump!"


    BOOM!


    I quickly ran around behind it and as it falls towards its side, I decided to break its other leg.


    "Jump!" I kicked outwards towards its leg and it flung the wrong way as it snapped from the joint. Somehow, I felt the skill was a lot stronger this time and I''m beginning to see a faint light emit around my feet. I shouted my skill again as I jumped up towards the flailing leg. I activated my skill one more time as I flew to its leg with my foot outward. It erupted the leg completely as the hind leg flew off its body.


    ROOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!


    It roared as it fell to the side. The impact of its body caused the whole place to shake. Using my hands, I grabbed its fur and climbed it on its side. The minute I got on the top; I ran towards its face until I''m right next to its eyes.


    "Jump!" I shouted and the adrenaline flowing through me numbed the pain in my legs as I felt excited watching its eyes explode covering me with slime and blood. Its eye completely turned into mush from my skill. I slipped at the edge due to the slime and I fell right in its eye socket.


    No time to think! Just go wild!I say in my mind as I stand up inside its ruptured eyeball.


    "Kyaaaa~ Mr. Wolfie is looking at me~ Hahaha-Hahahaha Jump!" I shouted my skill as I grab on the walls of its eye socket and brought my foot down below me.


    I felt my body wanted to fly off like gravity was reversed but I held onto a flesh as my life depended on it.


    "Jump!" I kept shouting while stomping over and over again. I didn¡¯t see any critical strike, but I didn¡¯t care as I felt angry. I stomped inside its eyes socket mercilessly and blood mixed with its mashed eye is splattering everywhere. I feel the wolf would try to tilt its head but every time I stomp, it goes back down the ground. I felt happy, but then I suddenly remembered the dungeon. I remembered how they stepped on me, how they stomped on me, how they treated me like a floor matt, it brought more anger out the surface. I tighten my grip on the flesh I''ve been holding on and lifted up both my foot.


    "Jump!" I shouted as I brought both my feet down towards the eye socket and my skill exploded below me as the skull of the giant boar-wolf was destroyed from the inside. "Jump!"


    I did it again and again even when the giant boar-wolf turned into dust, I kept kicking into the ground as I release all my anger.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations! You have leveled up! You learned a new skill!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ignored the notification and kept using my skill to elevate my anger as I keep remembering the dungeon.I tried to kick again, there was nothing below me as I was launched up above the sky.


    "Wh- AH!!!!!" My body suddenly froze from fear and I flail around as I started to fall towards the ground. I close my eyes bracing for impact when I suddenly felt a pressure that brought me flying back up. As I slowly open my eyes, I see the ground below me and I see the destruction I made. The meadow that used to look beautiful is now a mess full of craters and dust.


    "Look what you did," Yasutells me. I look to the side and he''s carrying me into his shoulder like a messenger bag as he looks up.


    T-thank you.I thanked him in my mind as tears started clouding my vision.


    ¡°Do you see what you did below? That ruins below us, it''s because of your strength." He tells me and I look back down. We started descending back down and he turned around and hugged me towards his chest.


    "Chef''s coat." I hear him whisper and I closed my eyes bracing for impact.


    BOOOOOOM!!!


    I hear a loud explosion as we land back down. If he didn''t use his body as a cushion, I would have died. I slowly open my eyes as I feel his hand loosen and plop to the side.


    "Congratulations you witch stick. You killed your first boss." He whispers and I couldn''t help but cry. I cried and cried on his chest until I calmed down.


    "I-I''m sorry. T-the clothes you gave me got dirty." I tell him as I stand up looking at myself covered in blood and slime from the wolf''s eyes. I noticed his clothes were also covered with blood, probably coming from me when I hugged him. "I-I''m sorry!"


    I tried to scramble wiping the blood off his clothes, but my hands were covered with blood that I just smudge more blood onto him. My body is shaking, and my breathing becomes abnormal as my eyes accumulate tears making it harder to see properly.


    D-damn it! What did Ido!I scream at myself in my mind as I made more of a mess on his clothes trying to fix it. "I-I''m-"


    "Stop apologizing. It''s only clothes. Now get off me." He tells me and I notice I was sitting on top of him.


    "I-I''m sorry!" I say scrambling to stand up but when I put pressure on the leg where I was bitten, pain shot up through my spine and I went back down on top of him. "I''m sorry-"


    He suddenly pushes me to the side, and I landed on my injured leg causing me to clench my fist as more pain traveled through my body.


    "Tsk, wait here. Let me check something." He tells me and I see him walk towards the large dust pile where I killed the giant boar-wolf. He mutters something from a distance and swung his sword vertically towards the pile of dust. In a split second, the dust was blown away clearing the area in an instant. He bent down and grabbed something off the ground and walked back towards me.


    "Here. Drink it. After that, go collect everything from there." He says as he hands me a bottle with red liquid inside. "You''re lucky it dropped a health potion."


    I slowly grab the potion off his hand, and he walked towards the forest. "W-wait! D-don''t leave me! Please!" I tell him and he turned around towards me looking annoyed.


    "I''m not going anywhere. I''m just going to collect the meat off those fucking mutts I killed earlier. Now hurry up and drink that shit and collect whatever you can from that pile." He says pointing towards where he was before. I nod and he turns around to walk over the corpses of the wolves he sliced up.


    I drank the potion emptying the bottle quickly. It tastes like water even though the color is red. I see my leg started healing slowly closing the wound and my ribs starting to feel better. Once I''m able to move fully again, I stand up and walked towards where I killed the giant boar-wolf while glancing at Yasu who''s chopping up the corpse of the tiny black wolves he killed earlier. As I got close, I see a couple of things scattered around. There were two more bottles of healing potion along with what looks like a leather skin. I picked up the leather and I notice under it was a ring along with a bracelet.


    "A ring and bracelet?" I whisper as I pick it up. "he-hehe I killed it. I killed it!" I felt like dancing but I quickly grab everything and place it in my bag so I can join Yasu.I see he already deboned one wolf and is already onto the next one. Once I got close, he notices me and stood up and walked my way.


    "Item bag." I see him call out his dimensional bag and took out a lot of raw meat and held it out towards me. "Here, keep these."


    He places the raw meat on top of my hands and I place it in my bag. After collecting most of the meat, we decided to camp for the night before heading out in the morning. We filled out our container and washed ourselves of what''s remaining of the pond which is very little water. We walked our way back towards our little camp and Yasu cooked the meat of the wolf and boar while I looked at the ring and bracelet.


    He~ hehehe~ I killed it~I kept singing in my mind as I keep remembering my fight. I killed it~


    I couldn¡¯t help but smile as happiness overwhelms me while I look at the ring and the bracelet.


    "Did you get that from the boss?" He asked me and I nod. He hands me a plate with cooked meat, and I took out my bag to store the ring and bracelet. Right when I was about to put it in the bag, he stopped me by grabbing my wrist. "Wait. Give it to me."


    I place the ring and bracelets on his palm and I grab the plate off his hand.


    "Inspect." I hear him say and he started reading off something I can''t see.


    "I-inspect?" I asked him.


    "It''s a skill I have. Let¡¯s me see the information of any item and monsters." He explained to me


    "O-oh."


    "Ok, this ring and bracelet give you a boost in damage per hit." He says as he hands back the items to me. "Try wearing it and look at your dph."


    I place my plate down and wore the ring and bracelet. "Show dph."


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    110


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "O-oh! It¡¯s 110 now!" I say happily.


    "Oh? So, there is a piece of equipment that increases our damage output." He says. "Remove it and tell me what it shows."


    I removed the bracelet and the ring while I called out a command. "Show DPH. U-um it went back down to 10."


    "Hm keep wearing the ring and bracelet. It doesn''t have durability since it''s not a weapon or an armor but an accessory. But I don''t think it''s indestructible so wear it on your non-dominant hand, so you don''t go punching enemies with the ring."


    "O-ok," I say and I wear the ring on my right middle finger along with the bracelet.


    "110 huh, just add 120 on top and our damage is the same." He says as he takes a bite of his food.


    "O-oh, what''s your DPH?" I asked him.


    "two hundred and thirty, without any skill activated." He says as he chews his food.


    "Oh, 230," I whisper as I took a bite of my food. "Are you wearing any rings or accessory?"


    "No." He replied as he continued eating and my eyes went wide. I remember him telling me earlier that our DPH is the same as our level.


    If he as 230 that means, he''s level 230!I scream in my mind as I stare at him.


    "What?" He says as he notices me staring.


    "N-nothing," I reply and we continued to eat in silence.


    "You said your DPH is at 10 without the ring and bracelet, that means you level up. Did you gain any skill?" He asked me.


    "Oh yeah! I did! Status Window!" I happily called out my status window.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Park Su-Yeon


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    FOOTWORK


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    none


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skill level:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Jump


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    20


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    3 step combo


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive Skills:


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Dancer''s Soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a dancer''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Ossium


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Your bones are far stronger than the average.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sixth Sense


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    You can detect the slightest movement around you.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "O-oh! I got a skill called 3-step combo!" I read the name of the skill and at that moment, I saw three yellow holograms of myself in different poses. "Ah!"


    I was startled making me almost dropping my plate as I look at the hologram line up one after another.


    "What?" He asked and I can see one of the holograms is over him.


    "I-I see me!" I say and the skill slowly disappeared. "I saw three of myself!"


    "You saw yourself?" He asked me looking around confused. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything.¡±


    "Y-yeah! There was three of me and each one did different poses." I tell him as the hologram slowly disappeared.


    "Oh, must be your new skill. Try saying it again." He instructs me.


    "O-ok. 3-step combo!" Again, the hologram materializes in front of me. And as I look side to side, it moves towards the direction where I''m looking while the poses stayed the same. "O-oh! It moves!"


    "What do you see?" He asked me.


    "I-I see the same. Three of myself as a yellow hologram. And they are lined up one after another!"


    "Oh, while it''s activated, check your DPH," Yasu says and I nod as the hologram disappears again.


    "3 step combo! Show DPH!" I called out a command and my damage per hit window appeared along with the hologram at a distance.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    DPH


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    110


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Oh, it''s still 110," I say as I read it and I felt a bit down.


    "Hm, it''s definitely an attack but then again, the naming sense of these skills are quite stupid. We''ll stay one more day and figure out your skill. Go finish your food and go to sleep." He tells me and I nod happily. I quickly finished my food and I fell asleep as soon as I laid down. I woke up to sunlight hitting my face. As I rub the crust off my eyes, I looked around and saw I was all alone.


    "Y-Yasu?" I whisper looking around and my heart started beating and I panicked running out towards the meadow. "Y-Yasu!"


    I see he stand up near the rubble of what used to be the pond. He doesn''t have a shirt on, and I stopped as I felt relieved to see him.


    "What?" He asked me as water drips down from his neck towards his chest.


    "I-I-I-" I started stuttering and I see him walk out of the water and walked towards me passing me as he dries his hair with a towel.


    "Chill out witch stick, I won''t leave you. Now hurry up and wash so we can start practicing your skills." He kept walking towards our camp without looking back and I felt happy he gave me a choice to follow him.


    "O-ok!" I say happily as I quickly walked towards the pond to wash. After breakfast, we walked back out towards the meadow.


    "Ok, try activating your skill again." He tells me.


    "3 step combo!" I quickly say and I see the tree hologram of myself appear.


    "Ok, quickly tell me what position or poses the holograms are doing?"


    "U-um. T-the one in front of me is just standing but she has her hands up towards a certain position. T-the second on is turned around while she''s bent forward and the third one behind it is in the same position as the second one but its legs are out like it''s kicking something."


    "Oh, And it moves anywhere you look?"


    "Y-yeah."


    "Hm, try copying the poses." He tells me as he steps back.


    "3 step combo," I whisper to re-active the skill and I started making poses the same as the hologram.


    "Did anything happen?" He asked me and as I look back, I see the three holograms are still there.


    "N-no. The hologram of myself is still there." I tell him.


    "huh, hmm. Footwork class that specializes in dancing. Wait, what if you copy the poses as you go through them?" He asked me.


    "Oh! Like those DDR games?" I asked him and he gave me a nod. "O-ok. 3 step combo."


    I approach the first pose. It moves side to side when I turn my head, but I guess it doesn''t move forward or backward since the hologram stayed in place. I place my hand through it and it felt cool. "O-ok let me try."


    I jumped through the first hologram while copying the same pose and it disappeared while my body glowed faintly.


    "O-oh it works! The first hologram disappeared!" I say looking back towards Yasu.


    "Ok, try the other two poses and let''s see what happens." He instructs me and I happily gave him a nod.


    "O-ok," I say as I turn around. I prepared myself to go through the second pose and I jumped through while I turned around bending forward.


    Here it is again!I say in my mind as another d¨¦j¨¤ vu hits me and I knew how to move my body to get to the next pose. I placed my foot on the ground and swung my other foot towards behind me. I used the shift of weight and stepped back to reach the other pose. The minute I got through it, my body glowed brighter and in a split second, the light collected on to the foot I have kicking outwards.


    Zssssssstttp!


    BOOOOOOOOOOM!!


    The ground erupted as my kick created a shockwave that traveled down the meadows destroying everything in its path.


    "Ack!" I fell forward as the shockwave of my attack created the wind strong enough to catch me off balance. "U-ugh. That was-"


    My voice suddenly stopped as I see the damage, it went all the way down towards the trees and the ground itself was reshaped by my attack as if someone sent a blast at high speed.


    "W-w-whahaha! I did Yasu! Look!" I say as I point while looking back towards him and I see his mouth is slightly open staring down at the destruction I made.


    "What the fuck." He whispers as he approaches me without removing his gaze towards the aftermath of my skill. " This is too overpowered. And You''re only level ten..."


    He says as he looks at me and held out a hand to help me up. I grab it and I felt the pressure of his pull as I was yanked off the ground. I suddenly felt my legs weak and I felt towards him pushing him down.


    "I-I''m sorry! M-my legs f-feels weird and I-I-" I say as I can''t stop it from shaking.


    "Pfft~ Bwahahahahaha! Who cares about your legs! Look what you did! If you learned this earlier, you could have sent the giant wolf flying across the forest!"


    He quickly stood up and held out his hand towards me again. "Well, then let''s go practice until you''re able to use it without losing the feeling of your legs."


    I grabbed his hand and he slowly helped me up to my feet. It didn''t take long to get the feeling of my legs, and we practiced my skill the whole day until to the point I reshaped the landscape of the meadows before the sun sets into the horizon. Morning came quickly and I woke up without Yasu around again. I ran out towards the meadow and I see him washing at the pond which we tried to save due to it being the only water source. He sees me approach him and he started walking my way.


    "Hurry up and wash. We''re leaving." He tells me as he stops in front of me.


    "W-were not practicing my skills anymore?" I asked him.


    "No, if we keep practicing, you might reshape this forest but that''s not my main concern. If people from the boar town sent people to come after us, we need to get a move on to be one step ahead of them." He explained to me and I suddenly remembered the governor, making my stomach turn.


    "O-ok. Give me a minute I''ll be done." I tell him he walked past me to go to our camp. I quickly wash and run back. He sees me and hands me a slice of cooked meat to eat.


    "Eat as we walk through the forest." He tells me and started walking towards a direction.


    "Where are we going?" I asked him as I followed behind munching on the cooked meat, he gave me.


    "We''re going to look for Daikichi and Kana. We need to try and find them." He tells me without looking back. Before he always tells me to walk in front of him but this time, he kept walking in front of him as I silently followed behind.


    "H-how are we going to find them?" I asked.


    "Well, first thing first, we need to go back towards that horizontal mountain and start from there." He tells me and all I could do is nod happily as we both disappear into the forest.


    <hr>


    End of Suyeon''s POV


    <hr>

 CHAPTER 38: The other camp

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 38: The other camp


    <hr>


    Balo''s POV


    <hr>


    "What happened?! Why did it break?!" My voice resonated as the captain of the guards bowed in front of me.


    "S-sir Balo, we don''t know. The portal just crumbled. I already dispatched a couple of mages that''s capable of fixing it and they began right away."


    "What the hell¡­" I whisper as I stand up to walk towards the outside. The group of students that we have taken out of both dungeons are sitting around outside the dungeon''s entrance. We decided to step out to get some fresh air and a change of scenery for them while we wait for Yasu to finish collecting what he wanted.


    Damn, Him trapped in there is the last thing I want.I say in my mind.


    "How long will the carriage take to get here?" I asked the captain as I walked towards the outside.


    "U-um. I have already dispatched a group along with the other lords, they should be back here in a couple of hours sir Balo." The captain says as he walked beside me.


    I sent a couple of my members along with the guards to get a carriage since we weren''t expecting the group to be this big. I say in my mind and the thought of how busy I am getting them all settled is making me depressed. I reached the outside and I see everyone sitting around a pot filled with stew. The chef made more as there¡¯s a couple of pot scattered around with different groups of people surrounding it.


    "We should have gone with him. At least one of us." Kumiko-sensei says as she tends to Akane who''s still unconscious. She decided to stay and since we didn''t have a carriage, I decided to keep Akane with us and keep an eye on her. I slump down the log next to them watching Akane sleep.


    "Yea, damn I should have gone with him," I say looking towards the fire that slowly boiling food for us to eat. "How long will it take to fix the portal?"


    "It will take approximately 4 hours sir." The captain replied and I waved my hand for him to go back to his group and relax. He gave me a bow and walked towards the group of soldiers. I look towards Takumi who''s relaxing around as he cleans his swords. "Takumi, can you get one of the students that came out of the other dungeon? I want to ask them a few questions on what really happened."


    "Sure." He stood up and walked towards a group of students circling another fire pit. His attitude completely changed a couple of months back and it seems like everything he''s doing is a hassle, which is something that''s been worrying me. I see him talk to the group and one of them stands up and follows Takumi back towards us.


    "He said he could explain to us." Takumi points towards the guy behind him.


    "Hey, your name is? I''m sorry I haven''t remembered everybody''s name fully." I stood and held out my hand towards him.


    "That''s no problem. My name is Park Jung-gi. Just call me Jung-gi." He grabs my hand and shakes it.


    "Oh, Korean?" I asked him and he nods. "Cool, have a seat I just need to know what actually happened in your dungeon. How come there are no adults in your group?" I sit back down leaning my back on the log and he sits across the fire pit.


    "W-well, I''m one of the adults. There were teachers with us but they decided to leave us behind."


    Adult? He looks really young.I say in my mind.


    "Leave you guys?¡± I asked him confused. It would have been impossible getting to the portal without going through the gatekeeper. ¡°Are these the guys who disappeared?"


    "Yea, they really didn''t disappear, they left us. They used us as bait so they can run for the portal. We all had no choice but to run back into the safe zone. That''s when..." he suddenly stopped talking as his expression turn as if he''s about to cry. "T-that''s when my little sister died."


    He started breaking down crying really loud that the other groups along with the guard turn our way.


    "I-I''m sorry to hear that." I felt bad but I need to know what''s going on. "One thing is you survived. Your little sister would have wanted that." I tell him as I walk towards him and place my hands on his shoulders trying to comfort him.


    "I-I know. But she''s the only family I had. And I miss her." He tells me and I couldn''t say anything but just let him cry. After he calmed down, he explained to me in great detail what happened. How a person named Kana and Daikichi plot the entire thing and only picked a handful of people to leave with them while using the rest as bait so they can escape out the portal. After the people who left them got out, they were chased back into the safe zone by monsters and was stuck there for a couple of days until they tried again to run out and Junpei group and the guards manage to save them.


    "They''re villains!" Kumiko-sensei voice was sharp and I can see she''s really mad. "They''re adults! Even if a student is bad, it''s a teacher''s responsibility to correct them! Not follow them!! How dare they leave students to die!!!"


    "Calm down sensei. For now, we know they''re not our ally. If we ever see them, we have Jung-gi with us to help verify their identity. Just be prepared, everyone. I don''t want another Rikimura." I tell everyone and that made Kumiko-sensei calm down.


    "Rikimura?" Jung-gi asked me.


    "He''s one of the people that was brought to this world with us. A sicko almost raped one of our teammates and tortured three of our member." I explain to him.


    "O-oh he sounds dangerous. W-where is he now?" He asked looking nervous.


    "Dead," Takumi replied without batting an eye.


    "Y-you guys killed him?" Jung-gi seems oddly interested.


    "No not us. Do you know the guy that brought you here? Luro? He killed him. Ripped his heart out in front of us." I explained to him and I can see his face contorts in disgust. One of the students from his group called out to his name and he turns around to wave and turns back at us.


    "I should be getting back to my group, let me know if there''s anything else you need to know." He tells me and I nod back at him. He quickly stood and walked over his group.


    "Sir Balo! Sir Balo!" A guard ran out the dungeon entrance almost tripping. "T-the portal! It disappeared!"


    "What?!" I suddenly stood up and somehow I felt dizzy at my sudden movement. It hasn''t been long since I was cured of the poison the ogre king hit us with so my body isn''t fully healed.


    "S-sir Balo! Are you ok?!" The captain of the guards came rushing my side along with the whole platoon standing up to rush towards me.


    "I-I''m fine. Continue. What happened? What do you mean the portal disappeared?" I asked him.


    "S-sir, We were rebuilding the portal when suddenly it turned into dust and disappeared!" The mage explained making me more worried.


    "How did that happened?! Did you guys mess up?!" I was on a verge of screaming up until Kumiko-sensei places her hand on my arm to calm me down.


    "N-no, sir! We got a portion of the portal already built when I told my guard to take a break and eat. We were on our way out when it suddenly turned into dust." He explained making me slump down the log.


    "Damn it!" I felt frustrated at the sudden turn of events in a short amount of time. The last thing I want is someone as strong as Yasu thinking we locked him in the portal on purpose. This already happened to him before now it happened again and he might turn his sword towards us this time.


    "Balo, calm down, remember what Stella told us. If one side of the portal is destroyed, the other is also destroyed the same way. Like a mirror effect. It might have been destroyed from the other side." Kumiko sensei says.


    "Shit, this is bad. He''s in there and we need to get him out quick! Captain! Send all the mages in there and see if they can figure out a way to bring it back!"


    The captain gave me a military salute and turned around to the soldiers. "Mages! Come follow me to the portal room!" He walks towards the portal room with the mages following behind him. Takumi talked to the rest of the guards to give them orders on what to do before coming back to our campfire.


    "What did you tell them?" I asked him as he approaches our camp.


    "I told them to also be on a lookout for any adventurers like the ones we just saved. I don''t want them to be caught off guard." He explained to me and I''m grateful for having him by my side since he always keeps a cool head while I lose mine.


    "Ah, cool. What was their name again?" I asked him.


    "Kana, Daikichi, Miki, Goro, Amaguchi, Lisa, and a warlock kid but they forgot his name," Takumi replied.


    "Ok, let''s all try to remember their names. For now, our main priority is to get Yasu out." I tell everyone and Akane started waking up as she moans as she slowly opens her eyes.


    "Akane. Thank god." Kumiko-sensei looks down towards her since she used her lap as a pillow for Akane.


    "S-sensei." She mutters as she slowly stood up. Thanks to Stella, we managed to revive Akane''s missing body parts and she managed to talk again. We also revived Sawada''s missing eye.


    "S-sensei, Balo what happened?" She asked as she touches her head. Akane let her hair grow and now it reaches down to her waist. Her body has become more defined which is mostly hidden under her mage robe.


    "Akane!" Kumiko-sensei started crying as she hugged her. "You almost died!"


    "Don''t you remember what happened?" I asked her and she shakes her head.


    "The only thing I remember is after we were hit by some mist and our body stopped moving, I lost consciousness and woke up here." She says.


    "Damn Akane, good thing you don''t remember. You got eaten alive by the Ogre king." Takumi says trying to hold in a laugh.


    "W-what?" She looked surprised.


    "Yea, that thing swallowed you whole~ Pfft! You were covered with slime when we saved you. Nasty!" Takumi says and thanks to him the heavy situation has lightened up a bit.


    She looks at her clothes which are probably stuck to her skin due to the slime drying up. "Oh my god, ew!!! My clothes are glued to my skin!"


    We all chuckled as we see her squirm as she gets her clothes separated from her body without removing it.


    "This. Is. Nasty!" She takes out a water container out of her bag and started to wash what she can.


    "Hahaha, it''s ok Akane. You won''t die from that but let''s not forget that you almost died." All of a sudden the atmosphere got heavy when I said it. "I thought we were strong enough to finish the dungeon but what the hell was that. An ogre king? We managed to kill the gatekeeper flawlessly but then that damn ogre king appeared out of nowhere and caught us off guard. That wasn''t there when we started a year ago."


    I grab the ladle and stir the food. The chef sees me and I gesture for him to stay as he started scrambling to go up to run and stir it for me.


    "Wasn''t that thing too strong? We could have easily handled it if it wasn''t for that damn poison gas he hit us with." Takumi grabs a bowl and hands it out towards me.


    I poured some of the stew that''s been boiling and he handed the bowl to Akane who stopped cleaning herself and took the bowl. Then Takumi grabbed another bowl and I filled up as he passed it along the people around our campfire, which is mainly me, Takumi, Kumiko-sensei, and Akane. Everyone formed their own campfire and grouped up. As I look up around, they all started eating while talking and laughing.


    "Damn these guys have it easy. Remember when we first got out? We didn''t even know how to make a campfire." Takumi says as he also notices everyone''s mood starting to get better.


    "Yea, well I guess we have to protect them since we''re a higher level and we know more about this world than them. Since we somehow built a city, it would be easy to blend them in with this world''s society." I say as I scoop a spoon full of the stew and meat and blew on it to cool it down. Then I took a bite and the taste of the stew is heavenly, as the meat broke apart inside my mouth like butter.


    "Man, this is good~," Takumi says as he gobbles down his food so fast he started scooping up seconds.


    "E-everyone," Akane says as she puts her bowl down on her lap and we all look at her. "Thanks for saving me. I know I''m a burden at times, and thank you for not abandoning me."


    "At times?! Akane, stop lying. You''re so troublesome you ended up almost destroying the dragon that sent us all flying away. You''re so troublesome you got the final hit on the gatekeeper killing it." Takumi says joking around but we all know its true. Akane is a valuable teammate.


    "Akane, you''re strong. You probably can one hit me." I say to her and she started smiling.


    "Guys~ Stop it~," She says squirming around. Ever since she got her tongue back, her usual happy attitude got happier.


    "Hahaha, but Akane. It''s not us you need to give thanks to." I tell her and she looks up to me.


    "Who? Wait, is it Hiroko? Hiroko always has my back." She says and I shook my head.


    "It''s not Hiroko or anyone from our group. It''s him. You need to thank the new leader of the diamond district guild, Yasu." The minute I say his name, her eyes went wide as she looked at all of us frantically.


    "Y-you guys met him?! When?!" She got too excited almost spilling her food.


    "When he decided to perform a live C-section on an Ogre king," Takumi says as he finishes his bowl. "If you could have seen it, man~ it was brutal."


    "He what?" She asked looking confused.


    "Well to give you a better explanation, he immobilizes the ogre king, skinned it alive, and then ripped a hole in its stomach to pull you out. And he did all of this while the ogre king was alive. He''s a fucking psychopath man." Takumi says as he slumps back on the log.


    "I have never seen anything like it. The way he looks at us. The way he talked to us, it''s scary." Kumiko-sensei says.


    "Oh, yea. Kumiko-sensei managed to piss him off too. She got called an old lady." Takumi says.


    "I-I-I did not piss him off! I just wanted to heal him since he looked hurt but, I didn''t expect for him to react like that." She replied.


    "But damn, just how strong is he. It seemed like he was playing around with the Ogre King. And did you hear what the Ogre King said? Yasu killed an overlord." I say as I place my empty bowl near the pot to scoop up a second serving.


    "He what?" Akane asked surprised since everything we''re saying is new to her ears.


    "Yea, we heard he killed an overlord. You know, those things we have been looking for? I guess he managed to find one and kill it." Takumi says as he grabs a small stick and started sharpening it into a toothpick. "Man~ that was the first time I have seen an enemy get on his knees and beg for forgiveness."


    "D-did t-they meet?" Akane asked and I shook my head as I already know who''s she''s talking about.


    "By the time he got here, it seems like Junpei and the rest left to go back to the sky king''s dungeon to meet him. It seems like they missed each other." I reply.


    "W-was he mad?" Akane asked.


    "No, but it''s hard to describe. As if, he doesn''t care about anything but he doesn''t want anyone getting in his way. But the way he acts towards us make me know one thing for sure if they do meet, it''s not going to be pleasant."


    "W-where is he now?" Akane asked looking around.


    "He''s not here," I reply to her. "He went into the portal to collect some stuff but the portal somehow broke and turned into dust."


    "Wait, you mean he''s stuck in there?" Akane asked.


    "Yea, speaking of that, maybe I should check the portal to see if they managed to revive it." I stood up and started walking towards the portal entrance. All of the soldiers saw me all of them started speed eating to follow me but I just told them to relax and eat and they all nod as I pass them.


    "W-wait!" I hear Akane behind me along with Kumiko-sensei and one lady which Yasu knew.


    "Balo, she wants to ask about Yasu. She''s worried about him." Kumiko-sensei says and I greeted her by bowing since she''s older than me.


    "Where is Yasu? Is he okay?" She asked me.


    "That we don''t know ma''am. He went inside the portal but the portal turned into dust." I tell her and somehow, I felt stiff as she gave an adult aura. I felt like I was going to be scolded any minute.


    "Oh no." I see that she''s genuinely worried about him. "He''s strong and smart, I know he won''t get in any trouble."


    Strong yes, smart¡­I don''t know if he''s right on the head.I say in my mind.


    "By the way, call me Sam." She says and I nod.


    "Well, I''m going to check the portal anyway. Ms. Sam do you want to tag along?" I asked her and she nods as we all walked towards the portal room. Once we got there, I see the captain and the rest circling an ash pile and the minute he sees me, he came running my way bowing.


    "So did you guys managed to fix it?" I asked him and he looks distraught.


    "N-no, sir. Our mages aren''t capable of doing it. The only way is to ask miss Stella." The captain explained looking dejected.


    "Damn, I was hoping you give me a good answer. Ok, never mind. Captain, tell your men to go and take a rest and go eat. I know you haven''t eaten also since we got out to go take a break with them." I tell him and he bowed and ran towards the guards and they all walk towards me bowed before walking out the cave. I walked near a table they have set up and sat at one of the chairs. Everyone followed me and sat around the table.


    "T-these men keep bowing to you. Are you perhaps royalty?" Ms. Sam asked.


    "N-no I''m not Ms. Sam. I came from the earth like you guys." I explained to her.


    "Balo here is the leader of our guild which is probably close to being a king of the Gold city," Akane says and miss Sam''s face had a surprised look.


    "Wow¡­" She mutters and what Akane said made me blush from embarrassment.


    "Miss Sam, what guild did Luro put you guys in?" I asked her.


    "Guild? He never mentioned a guild to us. He just said that we need to kill him and he left." She tells me.


    "Oh? Can you call out your stats and tell me what guild it says?" I asked her.


    "Oh, sure~ Status window! Hehe, I never get used to this but it seems like a fun thing to see this stuff that only happens in games. Ok, let me see¡­on the guild section, it says none." She tells me as she looked at her status window.


    "None? This means you have an option to join any guild. Akane, can you go out and tell Takumi to start inviting these new people to the guild if they''re not in any guild." Akane raised her eyebrow the minute I said that as she crossed her arms.


    "Are you sure?" She asked me.


    "It''s better for them to be part of our guild than some of the other guild to invite them and use them for their strength," I tell her and she quickly left the portal room.


    "Miss Sam, if you don''t mind, can you tell me your full name?" I asked her.


    "Samantha Collins." She replied to me.


    "Ok, miss Sam, give me a minute, I''ll invite you to my guild. Gold district Status Window."


    The minute I said the command, another window formed showing me a list of all the members in the guild. From this window, it also gives me an option to invite and kick members out. So far, the only people with these commands are the ones who was an original gold that means Junpei and the rest can''t use it and invite people in which they didn¡¯t mind.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Invite member," I whisper and a new notification came out.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Please say the name of the person you want to invite.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Samantha Collins," I whispered again feeling embarrassed saying her full name.


    "Whoa!" She''s screamed probably seeing the invitation.


    "Just say the word ''accept'' Ms. Sam," I tell her.


    "O-oh ok. Accept."


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    ''Samantha Collins'' has been added to your guild.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Oh! I got another message. It says ¡®congratulations you have been added to the Gold District guild. If you want to leave, use the guild commands.'' Hahaha, this is awesome~" She says surprised about the notification.


    "This way no one can try to use you for your class. Even though we don''t have a legendary class, our effects and strength are still above what''s normal here." I tell her and also warned her that others might take advantage of her since she came from another world.


    "What class did you pick Sam?" Kumiko-sensei asked.


    "Oh, since I am a doctor, I picked the healer class." She replies and Kumiko-sensei face lit up. She finally has someone her age and let alone the same class as her so I knew she was excited when she saw miss Sam. They started talking non-stop and I slowly move away from them walking towards the pile of dust on what''s used to be the portal.


    Damn, I hope he doesn''t think we did this.I say in my mind as I crouch down studying the dust when all of a sudden I heard a scream erupt behind me.


    "Yasu!" Hiroko came running in the portal room looking around. She cut her hair short barely meeting her shoulders. Her armor consists of leather with a mix of metal plates as shin guards and forearm protector. Her top armor also has a hoodie but the arms are cut like a T-shirt. Her figure is a flawless hourglass with the face of a model. She spots me looking at her and she went running my way. "Balo! Where is he?!"


    I slowly stood up and pointed towards the dust pile. Her face lost color in an instant as she dropped to her knees.


    "Ah- Oh shit no. Wait I meant he''s in the portal." I say trying to calm her since I started seeing tears accumulate in her eyes. "M-my bad, I was pointing at the portal that Yasu entered in."


    "H-he''s alive?" She asked me as I help her up. I see Junpei along with Riki, Sawada, and Tobi came running in. Junpei body got big due to constant training but it''s enough to say he would be agile enough to move fast. His armor consists of a dark plate with gold pauldrons and gold boots. His chest plates have a hand-carved design that can only be seen on royalty set of armors. Riki has a similar armor but his pauldrons are bigger making him look massive. Sawada has a full set of black leather hooded armor and Tobi has similar armor to Hiroko but in a different color.


    "Yasu!" They all shout in unison as they enter the cave and the minute they see me, they went running my way.


    "Balo, where''s Yasu? I heard he was here." Junpei asked and it seems like no one hasn''t told them anything yet.


    "Um, why don''t we all sit around the table and I''ll explain it to you guys," I tell them and we walked towards the table. Kumiko-sensei left us alone and took Ms. Sam with her and they both happily left the portal room talking to each other.


    "W-who''s that. She looks like a foreigner." Riki asked looking back.


    "That is Miss Sam. One of the adults we found in the dungeon along with the students outside. And about Yasu. He-" I was suddenly cut off as I see Stella coming towards us.


    "Hey, did you guys find him?" Stella came walking in saying with a loud voice. Her armor is a full gold plate knight¡¯s armor that is slim enough to show her figure. Her hair is tied up in a loose bun and I waved at her to come to sit down with everyone else.


    "Ok, to explain, yes we found Yasu. Or I should say, he found us. We were fighting the ogre king and was having trouble due to poison and that''s when he came in and saved Akane.¡± I tell them.


    "H-he''s alive? Junpei he''s alive!" Hiroko started tearing and that long wait she''s been doing has finally come to an end.


    "So, where is he?" Junpei asked and I point towards the dust pile.


    "oh no¡­" Stella whispers covering her mouth.


    "Wait, no I don''t mean that.¡± I waved at her. ¡°What I''m trying to say is that he went into the other portal where you guys came from and all of a sudden, the portal turned into dust. Stella, is there any way you can fix it?"


    "I don''t know. I can try but I can''t guarantee it." She says as she stands up and walks towards the dust pile. Everyone else slumps down the table. It looks like they came back rushing as I see some of them out of breath.


    "Oh, we found our soldiers on the way here with the carriage outside. They told me that it''s for the adventurers to bring them to the gold city so I told the captain to start transporting them." Junpei says and I thank him. Even though I''m the leader, I find it annoying to deal with leadership stuff and thanks to these guys; we''re able to manage a city.


    "Did you guys eat?" I asked them and they shook their head.


    "After hearing that Yasu got out of the dungeon, we went rushing back to only see havoc. A lot of the guards that were stationed at the entrance below the mountain were severely hurt by a dungeon robber and he stole the only skeletal remains of a giant chicken. I don''t know why he would steal that but I guess people are weird." Tobi says.


    "Oh, well since we will be here for a while, why don''t we eat first. Hiroko, can you get food for us?" Junpei asked her since he can see her zoning out staring at the remnants of the portal. He taps her on the shoulder causing her to flinch in surprise.


    "W-what?" She asked getting out of her daze.


    "Can you get us food? I think there was a pot outside with stew in it." Junpei clasps his hands and thanked her in advance.


    "Oh- uh sure. Give me a minute." She stood and left the room with Stella behind her following but I can see she''s not herself as she kept glancing back at the portal before she completely disappeared out the cave. She''s not as frantic as she was a year ago when all she could think about is Yasu but she never forgot about him and just drowned herself in her training.


    "Ok guys, while Hiroko is not here, let me tell you something about Yasu." Everyone''s attention turns towards me and I can feel the atmosphere gets serious.


    "What happened? Is he alright?" Junpei asked.


    "He''s fine. Actually, he''s more than fine. After we killed the gatekeeper, we were surprised by a giant ogre. The king of all ogres."


    "Another gatekeeper?" Takumi asked as we all sat down around the table.


    "No. He was or as he said he was, the king of all ogres.¡± I explained to them. ¡°He hit us with poison making us unable to move and use our skills properly. He ate Akane whole and we fought with our life on the line defending the new adventurers while trying to save Akane."


    "Then what? How come we didn''t see anything come up after we killed the gatekeeper." Junpei replies.


    "That''s when he came into the picture. There''s no doubt about it, he''s strong. He quickly took care of the ogre king and not in a humane way. He tortured it alive until he decided to kill it." I explained to them.


    "Yasu?" Sawada asked.


    "Yeah. He''s really damn strong." I tell them as I look at my palm remembering when I shook his bloody hand.


    "What the¡­. like the video of him we saw a year ago?" Riki asked and I shook my head.


    "Worse, this time he''s actually strong enough to play around with the ogre king. While he tortured him, Yasu kept a conversation. I knew he wanted for us to hear it since he was practically shouting. He mentioned something and, I know it¡¯s about you guys.¡±


    "Dammit, I was hoping everything would blow over after a year," Junpei says looking at the table.


    "The way I see it, he hasn''t let go of the grudge he had against you guys. Actually, his grudge probably evolved and who knows what he might do when he meets all of you. He met us and out of fear, some of us were about to draw our swords when he came close.¡± I explained to them. ¡°Luckily, I stopped them and we were able to make contact. But it''s like dealing with a wild animal. One wrong move and he could have turned his blade towards us."


    Everyone stayed quiet with a worried look. I know they all prepared for the worst but during this year, I saw a bit of hope from them as they planned to do a lot of thing with Yasu if he ever comes back to them. They even planned to rebuild the diamond guild and asked me if it was cool for them to do when they get the chance. It might seem like I''m crushing their plans but this is the reality. Yasu is a threat and they need to know. Hiroko along with Stella, Takumi, Akane, Kumiko-sensei, miss Sam, and even Jung-gi came entering the room while holding a pot of the stew he probably got from the chef.


    "Guys, go eat. We''ll figure it out later." I tell them and they started setting up the table while I walk back out. As soon as I exit the cave, I hear footsteps behind me.


    "O-oh wait up!" Jun-gi says. "H-hey, I just want to thank you for saving us. Who knows how long we would have been in there if you guys didn''t come along. Thank you."


    "Hey, no problem. Good thing we arrived on time. And don''t worry about those people who left you there to die, we will deal with them later on." I tell him and he bowed and ran towards his group that''s in a carriage that''s probably waiting for him.


    Most of the new adventurers rode the carriage and I told the captain to help them get settled. Some of the Soldier told me that Masato and the rest of them who went to get the carriage decided to stay in the city and rest, which made me feel relieved that they''re safe. He looked a bit sad going back to the city but he had no choice since Stella is going to be staying along with a few guards to try and fix the portal. Most all the students left except for Ms. Sam. She wanted to wait for Yasu just in case we manage to get him out. Kumiko-sensei also felt happy as she has someone to talk about her age.


    "Huh, if Stella is here, who''s in charge of the city?" I whisper to myself as I walk back in the cave. I know for the fact that Masato and the rest of them don''t want anything to do with the city''s upkeep.


    Who did she leave in charge?I asked myself in my mind. I see them eating while Stella is the pile of dust near our portal.


    "Huh, where''s Takumi?" I asked.


    "He went into the portal to collect some of the swords," Riki says pointing at our portal. I was a bit worried just in case the portal decided to disappears and the last thing I want is for him to get trapped in there. I enter the portal and I walk towards the skeleton room. I see Takumi going through the swords on the ground as he stores them in his bag.


    "Yo. Find anything good?" I waved to him as I got close.


    "Nah, same low attack power swords. But this will sell for a lot of money." He says.


    "Sell? Come on dude, we got like all the money in the world the city generates us." I tell him and I see something is bothering him. "Takumi, what''s going on, you''ve been distant for a while."


    I remember his attitude change a couple of months ago. He''s like a right-hand man to me and we trained together a lot in the beginning since we have the same class. I see him as a brother. He just stared at me and he let out a deep sigh.


    "To be honest man, a part of me was excited to be in this world. I always wanted to go on adventures. But ever since people came in and the city was built, it''s becoming more of a task and less of the adventure I hope it would be."


    "But we''re not here to go on adventures," I tell him.


    "I know that but we''re also not here to build a city and take care of people. I don''t plan on living on this planet forever." He tells me and I know what he means. We used to go out, hunt for food, go to explore the forest to try and figure out the area or where Luro is but as soon as the city started getting more people, our daily task switch from exploring to maintenance and handling legal issues of the city like political figures.


    "Hey, man. Don''t worry about it. We can go on and figure out where Luro is once we get things fixed." I tell him trying to change his point of view. He stayed silent for a minute and I waited for him to talk again.


    Sigh*


    "I saw it, how Yasu is. I kind of envy him. He''s probably going on an adventure without a care in the world trying to figure out how to get home while here I am stuck dealing with people I don''t even know while play pretending to be a government official." Takumi said and it irked me a little bit.


    "Hey, don''t think like that. Look, as soon as we get the new people Luro brought here settled, we can leave the gold city to Stella and focus on looking for Luro." I tell him and he looks towards my way.


    "You sure?" Takumi raised an eyebrow while looking at me.


    "Yea man, I promise. That''s our main goal anyway." I tell him as I tap him in the arm.


    I see his expression change for the better and turns around to start collecting the swords scattered on the ground. "Well, let me go collect these stuff since it might help some adventurers."


    "Alright let me help you," I tell him and I felt relieved he¡¯s starting to come around. We both began collecting the weapons scattered on the ground until we emptied the area. I gestured to Takumi we should start heading back and he nods. We made our way towards the portal and before we entered, He grabs me on my shoulder.


    "One more thing, you know that guy Jung-gi? I have a bad feeling about him. Be careful. When I went to ask earlier, no one said anything until he moved. It''s like he''s their leader and they''re all puppets. I tried inviting them to the guild and they all declined. I also feel like he''s not telling the whole truth." He explained to me.


    "Come on man, relax. He just lost his sister. Besides, I think we should be more careful of the people that left them." I say and somehow I can see he didn''t like my answer.


    "I''m just saying be careful but, do as you wish." He told me as he enters the portal.


    Damn, did I give him the right answer?I say in my mind as I enter the portal. As soon as I get to the other side, Hiroko quickly ran to my side.


    "Please tell me it isn''t true. Please tell me Yasu isn''t still mad at us." I can see her eyes are puffy probably from crying.


    Damn, I hoped they wouldn''t tell her.I say in my mind.


    "I don''t know what to say but, He seems like he still hates you guys," Takumi says as he walked passed her.


    "How can we get him out?" Junpei asked stroking Hiroko''s back trying to calm her down. So many things are happening in just a day and it''s overwhelming to take it all in. I decided to sit down on a chair as I feel my body still not fully healed and probably won''t be unless I get a good night sleep.


    "Everyone listen. There are two ways Yasu can get out. One is if we manage to revive the portal. Stella, what do you think?" I asked her as she comes close to a couple of guards.


    "Sorry Balo but it¡¯s impossible to do it in that condition. If it was large pieces, I can revive it within today but if it''s a small grain like that, it would take too long for my skill to piece every single dust bit by bit until it''s whole again. We''re looking to a couple of months to even revive that."


    Everyone looks defeated the minute she says that and even Stella seems down.


    "But what baffles me is the condition of the portal. For it to turn into dust is unheard of. The only ones that are probably strong enough to do this to a portal are you guys." Stella explained. "What if, and it''s just a theory. What if he destroyed the portal?"


    "But that wouldn¡¯t make sense, he''s basically trapping himself in there," Riki says.


    "Do you guys remember when Luro came to us a year ago and showed Yasu''s memories? Do you guys remember the hidden passage?" I asked them.


    "Wait, you mean the one in Hiroko''s room? The stream of water?" Junpei says as I nod to him in agreement.


    "Yea exactly that. When I told one of the guards to give him a map of the dungeon, he quickly scribbled some stuff and also he drew the hidden passage." I explained to him taking out a similar map from my bag to show them. "If he knows about that, he''s probably going to use that hidden passage to get out. So even if the portal is destroyed with big chunks and we piece it back together, by the time we reactivate it, he will be long gone following the hidden passage. I don''t think he would wait for anyone to rebuild the portal."


    "Oh, I remember that. That''s when Luro pulled him out of the water." Riki says.


    "W-wait. What? Yasu was all alone in a dungeon a year ago? What?" Ms. Sam asked and I can see Hiroko looks irritated.


    "Excuse me, who the hell are you?" Hiroko says towards her which made Ms. Sam eyes go wide.


    "Excuse me, young lady, that''s not a proper way to speak to someone older than you. And who am I? I''m the head medical doctor of the school Yasu goes to. I know his mother and his two best friends as I secretly watched over him every day within the school grounds. His mother personally asked me so I see him as a family member.¡± Ms. Sam explained making us all go tense. ¡°I was planning on asking him to respect his privacy about what in the world is going on but I can''t wait anymore. Someone explain to me why Yasu is like that and what in the world happened to him a year ago since he didn''t seem like the Yasu I know."


    Everyone stayed quiet including Hiroko who started the fight but now can''t say anything to finish it. But this feeling, this is something we all forgot. The feeling of being scolded. Ms. Sam right now is the embodiment of an adult we lost contact with. Everyone in this world reveres us like we''re in a higher position than them even the old people but in reality, we''re still young. This is the first time we came across someone like her. Somehow it made me feel a bit happy inside but even I couldn''t answer or look her in the eye due to fear of being scolded.


    "Speak!" She screams and we all flinched a bit.


    "W-well h-h-he-" Kumiko-sensei started stuttering as she concentrates on the table.


    "Sensei! Not you! I want one of the kids to give me an explanation!" Ms. Sam shouts and her voice pierces my ear.


    "S-sorry." Kumiko-sensei says as she bows her head in shame.


    "W-well-" Junpei began speaking and our entire gaze went towards him. He started explaining everything in detail from the beginning about what happened to alter the story a bit. Then he went on and explain the ordeal Hiroko went through with Rikimura.


    Sigh*


    "So, you''re telling me Yasu mentality got pushed way past its limits due to the experiences he went through and now, he somehow also formed an alternate identity?" Ms. Sam asked and we all just nod. I felt bad she didn¡¯t know the full story but, I rather have her calm down than scream at all of us. "He sounds like he''s suffering from PTSD and identity crisis. Damn, I wish he''s here so I can run a couple of tests."


    "P-PTSD?" Riki asked.


    "PTSD is post-traumatic stress disorder." Ms. Sam says and I can see her thinking really hard about the situation. "When I was doing a residency for the military, I had to treat a lot of patients who suffered from PTSD and the main cause are the soldier''s traumatic experiences of terrifying events. It seems like Yasu went through something similar. Do you guys know what he went through in the dungeon?"


    Even though I didn¡¯t have anything to do with Yasu, I still felt guilty not telling her how he was eaten alive inside the dungeon. It still amazed me how he survived and yet, it scares me of the outcome if we tell her. I kept my mouth shut and it seems like everyone had the same idea.


    "N-no, Ms. Sam. Luro just showed us the aftermath of everything.¡± Junpei lied and it made me feel more guilty than ever.


    "Damn, if I had known earlier, I would have tried talking to him to figure out how he can suppress his anxiety and stress." She continued to talk. We all didn''t say anything or in reality, we couldn''t say anything since we didn''t want to get scolded. "Do you have anything to say to me, young lady?"


    Ms. Sam suddenly turned towards Hiroko and we all did the same. Hiroko looked up towards us and I can see she hesitates a bit. But she knows she won''t win this fight so she gave in.


    "I-I''m sorry." Hiroko apologized and I can see her eyes starting to get teary. Ms. Sam suddenly stood up and we all froze as she slowly walked towards Hiroko. She stretches her arms out and brought Hiroko''s face towards her chest and hugged her tight.


    "Apology accepted. It''s ok to cry, as I''ve heard, you also went through something horrifying and I can see how strong you are to be able to recover from it. Good job." She says and Hiroko started crying loudly while burying her face in Ms. Sam''s chest. While Hiroko continued to cry, Ms. Sam turned towards us. "All of you did a good job also. You all have survived and have managed to defeat all the odds against you and even created a city where actual living people can reside in to feel safe under your protection. It''s something not everyone can accomplish especially as young as you guys."


    This made our heart flutter. Even though we heard the word of gratitude, this is somehow different. It''s probably because she''s from the earth and knowing her opinion is different than the people here, hearing a compliment from her who is also an adult made all of us feel proud of what we have done.


    "But I also don''t want anyone of you to forget that you are still considered too young to go under this much stress and responsibilities. Don''t forget the fact of your age and that relying on an adult for guidance is something you all are entitled to have. Me and Kumiko-sensei are here to listen to any one of your problems anytime. Remember, we will always have your back and will try to understand you. Everyone, don''t lose your humanity." She says and everyone started tearing a bit as she somehow gave us a feeling, we longed so far that even Kumiko-sensei herself started crying.


    After everyone has calmed down, I explained everybody my theory and that it''s better to guess where Yasu will end up at and wait for him there rather than chasing him from behind. They all agreed, and we all set out to search the area if there are any lakes similar to the one in Yasu''s memory. We split into groups of three and I told everyone to be careful just in case the other group of students that left Jung-gi to die is in the surrounding area.


    "Ok, everyone, if you find the lake, come immediately back into this cave and wait for everyone else to regroup back." They all nod and we all walked towards a different direction in the forest. Junpei, Hiroko, Akane, and Takumi are in one group. My group consists of Me, Tobi, Kumiko-sensei, and Ms. Sam since they decided it''s better for her to stay with me due to her being a low level and me the strongest out of the group. The third group is Stella, Riki, Sawada, and a couple of the guards while some of the guards stayed around the cave just in case any random adventurers come across it. We walked through the forest but kept track of our direction and close proximity from the cave entrance. Kumiko-sensei is explaining to Ms. Sam in detail about the healer class and I see Tobi placed himself on the back of the group just in case anything surprises us from behind.


    "So, how long have you known Yasu?" Kumiko-sensei asked and I keep my ears peeled to listen to their conversation while we walked through the forest.


    "Well, I have known him since he entered high school.¡± Ms. Sam started explaining and we all kept quiet listening as we walked through the forest. ¡°I met his mother during the opening ceremony, and we became friends. I hardly see Yasu but I do visit his mother from time to time and talk about him. She asked me to keep an eye out for her son which wasn''t difficult to do since Yasu is a good kid who never got into trouble."


    "Oh, I have heard he had somewhat history with Hiroko. They met before long ago but never really knew each other''s name." Kumiko-sensei whispers to her.


    "That young lady. She is nice but she needs to control her anger. Maybe I should work with her with some stress relieving exercise." Ms. Sam says and now it''s making me wonder how her body is.


    Ah, crap. Calm down. Calm down. I say in my mind. Ms. Sam is undeniably pretty with her blond her tied into a ponytail. She looks like she''s in her thirty¡¯s, but I see she kept good care of her skin.


    "One thing that worried me before he disappeared was when he suddenly went blind during class and fainted.¡± Ms. Sam continued on. ¡°They rushed him to the infirmary and I was frantic at that time and lost my marbles. But when he woke up, he made it seem like it''s not a big deal but I can see he was a bit worried about his vision. If only I paid more attention, I probably could have saved him from being brought to this planet."


    I felt sadness in her voice and we all quietly walked through the forest trying to find a lake.


    "But I''m glad I was transported here. Now I know he''s alive." She whispered and we all kept walking in silence. We walked non-stop while Tobi kept making marks on the trees to trace back. I see the sky is becoming orange as the sun sets into the horizon. I decided for us to go back to the cave and retry again in the morning since walking in the dark might become dangerous for Ms. Sam. As soon as we got back, I can see everyone''s gathered in front of the cave circling a campfire. One carriage came back and I see the chef also is back stirring the pot.


    "Yo! Balo. We found it!" Riki says as we approached them.


    "The lake?"


    "Yea, it was a bit far. We know it''s the Lake since we see an old campfire near the lake. Grass started growing through it though so it was hard to spot. But no doubt about it, it''s the lake where Luro pulled him out off. Takumi says it''s exactly the same as the one from Yasu''s memory." Junpei says and I can see most of them have a positive attitude.


    "Ok, good. How about we camp here for the night and tomorrow, we can move near the lake." I tell them and we all ate. For the first time, we ate outside. It''s been a while since we actually ate this close to each other. Most of the time we eat on a giant dining table that made it hard to have a proper conversation.


    Ah, I missed this.I say in my mind as everyone tells stories to each other. A couple of days have passed, and we waited around the lake to see if Yasu will resurface.


    "Dammit! Where is he? How come he hasn''t come out of the water yet?!" Hiroko says as she paces around the edge of the lake. She''s been on the edge these past few days as we wait for Yasu to come out. So far, we don¡¯t know how he will make it but, given his strength, he probably can burst out of the lake without a scratch on him.


    "Relax, Hiroko. He will come let''s believe in him." Junpei says as he guides her back to a log around the campfire to sit down.


    "I know but, I can''t help worry. You remember when Luro showed us his memory. The place was really dark. What if something attacked him and he''s in there hurt?" She tells him as she sat down on the log.


    "I think right now, nothing can surprise Yasu." Junpei reply to her.


    It might be the other way around, Yasu surprising the monsters in that place.I say in my mind as I visualize him torturing everything he comes across.


    "Oh, I completely forgot to ask, Stella, who''s in charge of the city?" I say remembering a piece of important information.


    "My father." She tells me and my eyes went wide.


    "T-the king of Viltair city?!" Riki says abruptly and we all look at Stella with a surprised look.


    "Yes. He went to visit me while all of you were gone so I told him to watch the city while I was out." She says as if it''s a normal occurrence.


    "What did he say?" I asked her.


    "He said he owes you guys a lot for protecting and bringing profit and protection onto our city so he''s happy to take care of it while you''re gone." She continued as threw a couple of sticks into the fire.


    "oh ok. Cool." I say as I remember seeing her father and kept asking me if I''m getting married anytime soon. Her father is a nice guy so it should be fine. Nighttime quickly passed and I suddenly woke up to someone shouting from a distance.


    "Sir Balo!" One of the guards that I sent to go to boar town came back rushing with a frightened look on his face. "Sir! Something bad happened! The new government that was appointed to the boar town has been murdered and the town itself is in bad shape! The inn is completely destroyed!"


    "What?!" I suddenly stood where I was laying down.


    Out of all the time, now I''m getting issues one after another. I say in my mind getting more frustrated and stressed out. Since the formation of the gold city, we took boar town under our care so it''s practically an extension of the city.


    "S-sir. The report they gave me is unbelievable. One man destroyed the inn completely, murdered the governor and kidnapped a girl the governor''s son is taking care of." He explained to me and it completely woke me up.


    "Who? Did they get the name of the person?!" I asked him and he seemed like he was hesitant to say.


    "S-sir his name is¡­" The guard says and everyone woke up listening waiting for him to finish what he wanted to say.


    "Tell me?! Who is it?!" I raised my voice at him trying to get the guard to say his name.


    If someone out there is killing people and kidnapping them, they need to be dealt quick. I say in my mind. I don¡¯t condone killing people but if it¡¯s another Rikimura, I would do it in a blink of an eye.


    "S-sir. I-i-its-" the guard hesitated again. "T-the name they told me i-is¡­ the same name you told us in your stories. Rikimura, sir. His name was Rikimura and he killed the governor."

 CHAPTER 39: You just lit a flame Part 1

    Chapter 39: You just lit a flame Part 1


    <hr>


    Balo''s POV


    <hr>


    ¡°Sir Balo, The men you have asked to be dispatched are on their way. Are you ready to leave sir?¡± He asked me standing rigid in front of me.


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go check what¡¯s going on boar town. Everyone! Let''s go! Let''s go in pairs but keep a distance." I tell them. It''s better to stay far apart since the paralyze skill has an area of limit as Junpei told me. Even when his level increase, the area it affects stay the same. Only the duration of being paralyzed increases. If Rikimura is still around the area, it¡¯s better for all of us to be at a distance. We can easily aid those who become frozen due to his skill. But if we¡¯re all paralyzed at the same time, it will be too dangerous especially if Rikimura is alive and kicking. I ordered most of the boys to stay in the rear. Junpei and I stay in the front and the girls placed themselves in the middle as we walk towards boar town.


    We walked through the forest in silence thinking that Rikimura can be watching us at any moment. I told everyone to be wary of their surroundings and call out any movement they see. We decided to not wait around for Yasu and even when Hiroko protested, my orders were absolute. She ended up coming with us probably recalling her unwanted memories of her fated encounter with Rikimura that happened a year ago. As much as we wanted to wait for Yasu, it¡¯s too dangerous if Rikimura is alive and kicking. And it''s not far from reality that Luro revived him for some sick plot twist within his game.


    "Ah, there it is," I whisper as I see the sign of the boar town entrance came in plain view. As soon as we enter, we see people out and about as they run towards us as if we¡¯re some kind of god to them.


    "Oh! Lords! Please save us from this peril!" one man says as he kneels in front of me.


    I kneeled in front of him and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Don''t worry sir. You''re all safe now."


    I stood up and started walking towards the central plaza as he continues to bow towards us. As soon as I got close to some of the soldiers, their body went rigid as they salute me passing them. I gave them a slight nod and turned towards the captain who''s walking beside me.


    "Tell me, Captain, how bad is it?" I asked him.


    "A couple of guards were seriously injured from the fight that turned the inn into rubble. Some of them succumb to their injuries since the town didn''t have a healer strong enough to heal everyone on time. Especially the severely injured. Currently, there are five guards dead. Two from the battle of the inn while three were found stabbed to death in the stable at the governor''s mansion. And the last casualty recorded was the governor himself. He was found dead in his room severely mutilated as if something¡­" The captain paused for a minute before continuing. "As if someone tortured him alive until he died. Blood was everywhere. The governor''s son was in critical condition and has just woken up today. Also, there are some girls that went missing. The two maids from the governor''s mansion and the girl that the governor''s son was protecting which was last seen with the governor and the adventurer. We believe he took the girl and fled the town."


    Tsk. Fuck.I whisper in my mind.


    "Captain, can you bring me to the Inn," I asked him and he nods. He guided us towards a path and from a distance; we can see a pile of rubble with a couple of people working to pick up the debris to clear the area. The minute the innkeeper see me, he quickly walked our way and I greeted him with a slight nod.


    ¡°Hello. Sorry for the Inn.¡± I tell him and he waves to me indicating not to worry about it.


    "Did ye find him? That chap needs to pay for his crimes." The innkeeper tells me and the way he talks brings back memories of the first time we met him when we stayed in this town a year ago.


    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. You probably had a better image of what he looked like. Can you describe to me his appearance?¡± I asked him and I see he¡¯s trying his best to recall his memories.


    ¡°Hmm. Well, the young lad isn¡¯t a walk in the park. Demonic aura with a face that would make a girls heart melt. Youngin¡¯ arrived in my inn, got a room, ate some fish and stayed in his room the whole time till he decided to destroy the inn. Dangerous fellar I tell ye. Didn¡¯t even last for more than a night and my inn becomes rubble."


    ¡°Young fellow? He¡¯s not old?¡± I asked him confused. As far as I remember, Rikimura should look way older than all of us.


    ¡°Ye, He ain¡¯t much older than any of you young lads.¡± He replies bringing me back to square one.


    ¡°How can that be, I was sure he was way older than us¡­¡± I whisper as I look back at everyone.


    ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s Rikimura they¡¯re talking about?¡± Takumi asked.


    ¡°Maybe it is Rikimura but a different Rikimura. Like this world Rikimura.¡± Riki says and I turn back towards the innkeeper.


    ¡°Do you know anything else about him?¡± I asked and he shook his head.


    ¡°I told ye all I know. You should try askin¡¯ the young miss from the boar shop. She dealt with him longer than me.¡± He says and I tell the captain to lead us to the boar shop, which wasn¡¯t that far away. As soon as we got there, the shop was closed as the light from the inside where turned off.


    ¡°Closing at a time like this is only logical. Excuse me! Is anyone home?!¡± I shout at the window above us. In a couple of minutes, a girl opens the window and pops her head out to stare at us.


    ¡°Oh! It¡¯s you guys! I mean lords. Hehehe~ you''re lords now. Give me a minute." She suddenly disappeared and I can hear her coming down the steps from inside the store. The knob clicked a few times and the door swung open. ¡°Come in, come in.¡±


    We stepped right in the shop and it got bigger than what we remembered.


    ¡°Hello, can I ask you a few questions. Do you remember the last guy that was here? The one that created havoc in this town. Can you tell us what you know or remember about him?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Hmm, well he was really good looking and came here to get a flame sickness potion. Didn¡¯t have cash so he decided to give me a sword instead. That reminds me, it¡¯s like the time you guys traded me a weapon for some money a year ago.¡± She says and we recalled the memory of finding out how valuable the swords was inside the dungeon we came from in the beginning.


    ¡°Do you remember what he looked like?¡± I asked her.


    "Hmm, well as I said before, he was quite good looking. No older than any of you guys. Oh! He did have the same dimensional bag as all of you have!" She says with an excited expression.


    "Dimensional bag." I caught my bag that materialized in mid-air and showed it to her. "Like this one?"


    ¡°Yea! He took out the swords from it.¡± She says eyeing my bag.


    ¡°Can we see the swords he gave you?¡±


    ¡°Well, I dematerialized most of them already but I do have one left I was planning to keep to replace my family heirloom. Give me a minute.¡± She went running inside a door behind the counter and we all waited around for her to come out.


    ¡°Guys, good looking, selling swords, our age, demonic aura, don¡¯t that sound like Yasu?¡± Takumi asked and even I had my suspicions. The way they described him is far from Rikimura¡¯s image in our mind.


    Right before I said something, the clerk came back out holding a sword. ¡°Here it is~¡±


    ¡°Whoa, is that a scimitar? Look at the curve of that thing.¡± Takumi says as he grabs the sword and started looking at it. ¡°Holy shit, this is a legendary item! He just gave you this?¡±


    ¡°Y-yea. I tried to pay him more but I didn¡¯t have enough funds.¡± The clerk says looking wary at the sword as Takumi swing it around. ¡°P-please d-don¡¯t break it.¡±


    Takumi bowed in apology and handed the sword back to her.


    ¡°Damn, this just doesn¡¯t make sense. I would hope it looked like one of the swords from the dungeon but, I don''t remember seeing a sword like this in there." I whisper as I try to study the situation. If it were Yasu, it would have been proven if the sword she has is the one from the starting dungeon.


    ¡°Can you tell me the clothes he was wearing, the type of hairstyle?¡± I asked her even if I barely remember due to the whole situation when we met him.


    "Hmm, well his clothes were worn out and actually have holes in them. He did buy new clothes almost buying everything I have in stock. His hair was a mess like he had never had a proper haircut."


    ¡°It can¡¯t be Yasu. It might be the people that left the other adventurers you told us about.¡± Hiroko says and I see a worried look on her face. No matter how much she wants to deny it, everything seems to fit perfectly into his image except his name.


    Rikimura? Why would these villagers know his name though? We never told them or anyone about him to all except Stella and some guards. And we specifically told them to never spread his name.Did Yasu use his name as a fake identity?I thought about so many different scenarios in my mind. I turned towards the captain and he gave me a salute the minute we lock eyes. ¡°Captain, where the governor''s body?"


    "We are preparing him for burial. Come follow me my lord and I will show you." He says and I nod. We exit the item shop and bid farewell to the clerk who quickly locked the door. We went back towards the fountain and walked on a road that led uphill. We met at the gate of a mansion that was slowly opened by two guards who gave us a salute as we pass them. I can see a couple of guards gathered in one area towards a distance.


    ¡°What''s over there?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That is where the corpses three guards lay. We will also prepare them for burial after the governor.¡± The guard standing around the area says as he saluted all of us.


    "The ones that were stabbed to death?" I asked him and he gave me a nod in response. Without waiting for the captain to lead me, I started walking towards it and the minute the soldiers saw me, they all part way and gave me a salute. The minute I got inside the stable, the smell of fresh blood lingers around. I see three bodies on the ground as the color of their skin have disappeared long ago. Two men have multiple stab wounds in their chest while one has his nipple sliced off and an arm ripped off.


    "Oh my god!" Ms. Sam screamed and ran past me as she checks them for a pulse. ¡°W-who did this?!"


    I see her face contorts with fury and it¡¯s quite amazing how unfazed she is seeing the dead bodies. The captain looks at me and I nod for him to speak.


    "There was a man that stayed in the town and within one night, he destroyed the Inn and killed a couple of soldiers including the governor while severely injuring others." He explained to Ms. Sam as she checks the corpses in front of her.


    ¡°Where are the wounded? Bring me to them.¡± Ms. Sam stood up and the captain looked at me again and I gave him a nod.


    ¡°Captain, she is someone who is above us as our guardian," I tell him making sure that they treat her with respect. "Anything she needs, please do take care of it.¡±


    His eyes suddenly went wide and they all went on their knees. ¡°Pardon my rudeness!¡±


    Ms. Sam looks at me confused so I decided to go near her and whisper in her ear. "Ms. Sam, it''s better this way. They will do anything you asked without hesitation."


    I step back and she gave me a nod. She turns towards the captain, ¡°Bring me to the wounded.¡±


    The captain quickly stood up and saluted her. "Yes, your highness!" His body went rigid and turned towards a soldier behind him. "Soldier, Guide her towards the barracks where the injured soldier lay!"


    "Kumiko-sensei, please go with her and heal the injured. Tobi, go with them." I tell him and he nods. Even if they revere her like royalty, her level is still too low and Kumiko-sensei has very little fighting capabilities.


    They all left the stable and I turned back towards the dead bodies. Junpei also approaches one of them and inspect the man with a severed arm.


    ¡°Holy hell, this is brutal¡­.¡± I see Junpei stops and stared at the severed arm. ¡°Somehow, this part of his arm looks like it was cleanly cut.¡±


    I take a closer look and I see the flesh was cut with a knife while parts of it seem like it was forced apart showing the ripped muscle.


    ¡°Maid clothes?¡± Akane whispers as she picks up what seems to be a maid outfit filled with dirt and blood.


    Wait, don''t tell me, ¡­these guys¡­ I started to get a hunch about what happened here.


    "Captain, tell me what happened here," I asked him and he took a step forward while keeping his posture rigid.


    ¡°When one of the soldiers came to the stable in the morning to feed the horses, he found the bodies.¡± He explained to me. ¡°We don¡¯t know who killed them but we assume it¡¯s the same person that killed the governor.¡±


    ¡°And these maid clothes?¡± Hiroko asked him and I can see she¡¯s starting to get irritated.


    ¡°The head maid and her assistant are missing so we assume that those are theirs.¡± He said trying to avert her glare. ¡°W-we assume they are taken by the same person that killed them.¡±


    ¡°Assume? Captain, I clearly see what happened here. These three soldiers either forced their way at the maids and were killed by them or were saved by someone killing them in the process. Otherwise, there¡¯s no explanation why they are all butt naked.¡± I tell him and he looks at the situation again before speaking.


    ¡°Men! Round up all the soldiers that¡¯s unharmed! We will question all of them!¡± He shouted and some of the guards ran out. ¡°I will get this sorted out my Lord.¡±


    Fuck. The last thing I want is this shit. I have enough to deal with already. I felt irritated as everything seems to slowly fall apart. We tried our best to give them protection and fix their way of life but somehow, I felt betrayed knowing that people we put to protect the village did this to the villagers.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    "Captain, lead us to the governor''s body," I tell him as I turn around and step out of the stable. ¡°If these guys did something to the guards, do not bury them. Burn them or feed them to the wolves.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, sir." He says and I can feel the nervousness in his voice. We all walked out of the stable and followed the captain towards the mansion. He led us towards the basement and the smell of blood lingered around the whole place. The minute we got close towards a door, I can hear screams from the inside.


    "Pa! Pa! I promise Pa! I will avenge you!" The minute the captain opens the door, I see a man not much older than any of us crying towards a table where a white cloth covers something underneath. I would guess it''s the governor¡¯s body since blood has stained the white cloth. The minute he see''s me, he ran toward me grabbing me by the arm.


    ¡°He must die! That Rikimura bastard must die! H-he did this! He killed my father! He must die!" He shouted over and over while crying and all I could do is a nod.


    "My condolences. Do not worry, we will find him and make sure he pays for his crimes." I tell him but that wasn¡¯t enough to calm him down.


    ¡°No! He must die!!¡± He shouted again and I can feel his grip is getting tighter. The captain notices and he pries off his hands off my arms.


    "Relax, these are the lords that are in front of you. Behave yourself." The captain tells the governor''s son.


    "Captain, can you bring him to Ms. Sam and Kumiko-sensei and have him healed of all his wounds. If I need anything, I ask the maids here to fetch you." I tell the captain and he gave me a salute before leading the governor¡¯s son who cried non-stop as they left the basement.


    I approached the cloth and the maid standing around bowed, as I got closer to them. ¡°Can anyone explain to me what happened?¡±


    ¡°When we went to wake the governor up, we saw his corpse in his room.¡± One maid answers me without showing any emotions or grief.


    ¡°Did you see anyone leave the room?¡± I asked her and she shook her head.


    ¡°We just saw his dead body.¡± She says as looks towards the cloth. Somehow, I felt like her eyes are telling me she¡¯s happy. I decided to see for myself how severe the governor¡¯s condition is so I placed my hand on the cloth to remove it. That''s when the maid placed her hand on top of mine preventing me from opening it.


    ¡°My apologies, I just want to make sure you can handle the situation. His body, it''s not in it''s best shape.¡± She tells me and I can see she really means it.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok. I¡¯ve seen worse.¡± I reply remembering seeing Rikimura and seeing Yasu torture the ogre king in front of us. The maid slowly lifts her hand and I slowly lift off the cloth.


    ¡°urrrgghhh.¡± I hear everyone groan as they see what¡¯s under the white cloth.


    ¡°My fucking god. What the fuck.¡± I hear Takumi says and I see Akane run out with Hiroko in the hallway to prevent from vomiting. Even I was disgusted and caught off guard by the condition of the body.


    The governor¡¯s body was severely mutilated. Basically, his legs and arms were gone as if it was ripped off his body. The maid has placed him back together as much as they can but it''s still not enough as some parts are missing. His fingers and toes all bent the wrong way and his eyelids look like it was ripped apart by sheer force. Parts of his body have no skin as if someone peeled him like an apple. His nipples were gone and his dick was also missing. His hair seems like it was pulled off, as part of his scalp was ripped open.


    ¡°This reminds me of when Yasu ripped a goblins eyelids. Remember when Luro showed us a video?¡± Junpei asked.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s something not easy to forget. But why would he do this?¡± I reply.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We aren¡¯t even sure if it¡¯s him. If it is, how did he get out under our noses?¡± Junpei whispers as he looks at me and I know


    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m also wondering. Fuck this is weird.¡± Right when I was about to cover him back up, I notice his head was three times the original size. It looked like it will explode any minute. His throat is also bulging out as if something is stuck inside of it.


    Wait, don¡¯t tell me¡­I slowly opened his mouth and I noticed something was stuck in the back near his throat. I place my hand in and grab it. It felt disgusting upon touch and the squishing sound it makes doesn¡¯t help. As I slowly pull it out, I notice his throat decrease in size but not by much. I kept pulling and when I finally got it out of his mouth, I quickly dropped it and it plopped into the ground.


    ¡°Ugghhhhhhhh! Fuck!" I tried wiping my hands clean but the feeling won''t leave it. I don''t know what came into me to pull it out but I regret pulling out his dick from his throat. "Fuck, if I had known, I would have never touched it."


    "This is inhumane," Stella says as she comes into the basement peeking from the door. I sent her to get some soldier to place around town. I guess she just arrived. "Is that his¡­"


    ¡°Yea, I pulled it out of his throat. As you can see, his junk is missing off his body. It was probably cut off and then whoever killed him shoved it in the governor¡¯s throat so deep it probably blocked his breathing. And I bet that¡¯s not the only thing shoved in there.¡± I say as I look at the throat that still bulging a bit.


    "Oh, my saints, who in the world have done this?" Stella says as she clamps her hand together to offer a prayer.


    "I don''t know but we need to figure it out," I whisper as I cover the body back up. We all made our way back towards the entrance and one of the maids escorted us to what seems to be the living room of the place. It looked like a fight broke out and the floor was destroyed as if someone dropped a heavy object on it. We sat around and told one of the maids to fetch the captain. I was given a container with water, soap, and a dry towel to wash my hands, which I did vigorously. The maids brought out drinks for us and they all left towards the basement to prepare the governor while one stayed behind just in case we need anything else.


    "Seriously, what the hell is going on," Riki says as he takes a drink and snack on a sandwich.


    ¡°How can you even eat after seeing that?¡± Sawada says and Riki just shrugs. Even I didn¡¯t have an appetite to eat after seeing the governor.


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s be real here, the one they¡¯re talking about sound like Yasu," Takumi says and we all stayed quiet.


    ¡°No, it can¡¯t be.¡± Hiroko protested as I see her staring at the table. ¡°It can¡¯t be him. Why would he kill innocent people? That¡¯s a mistake.¡±


    ¡°But remember the video Luro showed us. And even we saw it ourselves. He fucking tortured a boss who begged nonstop to spare him." Takumi replies.


    ¡°But that¡¯s an enemy.¡± She replies defending Yasu''s actions.


    ¡°If he¡¯s heartless enough to keep torturing an enemy that already lost the will to fight, he can easily do that to a human being.¡± Junpei but in their conversation and I sensed a tension arising between both of them and right when I decided to speak, Stella beat me to the punch.


    "I don''t mean to interrupt but we can''t rule out the possibility it''s him and we can''t rule out the possibility it''s not him. Overall, we need to find him and confirm. I hope it isn''t him. But then again, if it isn''t him, that''s a bigger issue since now we have a crazy psychopath who strong enough to probably destroy the town running around in the forest." She says calming everyone down for a brief moment.


    ¡°Should we send guards around the area to search?¡± I asked them.


    "I already did and station a few of around the town," Stella replied making me feel grateful to her.


    "Thank you, and as for the people here. I don''t think they''re as innocent as we think Hiroko." I tell her and she looks up to me confused.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Hiroko, think about it. Most of the soldiers are injured badly where if it was Yasu, he could have just killed them all. Then, there are the naked guards in the stable. Why were they naked in the first place in a stable where we also found ripped maid outfits." I stopped and brought my head closer to them and whispered, "If you noticed, the maids who''re around the governor''s body, they show no signs of sad emotions. They looked like they didn''t care that the governor was murdered. Frankly speaking, they looked happy.¡±


    "Yea that does sound weird¡­" Sawada whispers back. "I''m not taking the side of whoever did this but what if whoever did it, had a reason?"


    ¡°Ughhh, I thought we would just pick up new people, go meet Yasu, then go back to the gold city together. But now, everything is way off on what we planned.¡± I whisper as I take a glass and drink it in one go.


    The captain walks in the living room bowing at all of us. "Sir, You were looking for me?"


    ¡°Yes captain, I will appoint you the temporary mayor of this town. If you¡¯re able to bring everything back to normal and handle the town properly without issues, I¡¯ll appoint you as the permanent mayor for boar town.¡± The minute I said it, his eyes went wide and he bowed and thanked me non-stop.


    ¡°Now, your first task is, brief us what actually happened here. Did you question the soldiers? Why did the intruder attack them all?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes. After questioning them, I have heard some disturbing news from those who decided to come clean. The governor did some pretty nasty stuff in this town the minute he got here. He handpicked the girls to work in his mansion and, most of the guards here used to be bandits. I have heard from the wounded soldiers that the governor used to be a bandit.¡± He explained to me and what he said even made me shout in surprise.


    ¡°Who appointed him?!¡± I screamed and the captain hesitated to say. ¡°Tell me!!!¡±


    ¡°U-um s-sir Balo. You did.¡± At that moment, everything went silent.


    Did I? I-I-I don''t remember. I say in my mind as sat back down.


    ¡°W-when? I don¡¯t remember doing that.¡± I whisper trying to remember when I appointed him. I just thought the town itself elected him.


    ¡°U-um that is when a list of documents was presented to you to choose the person that will govern this area. Y-you were busy so you just pulled one out without looking and told us to appoint whoever name is inside the document." The captain said and it all started coming back to me.


    Ah, I remember.I say in my mind. There was a moment where I had so much to do that they asked me to look over candidates for something and rather than looking, I just picked one in random to get it over with.


    "It can''t be. I did this?" I whisper to myself as I slump back in the chair. I place my hands on my forehead as I used my knees to hold them up.


    I did this¡­I felt a strong wave of emotions suddenly surging through me and the heaviness feels like I¡¯m choking. I feel someone¡¯s hand started stroking my back and as I look over, I see Kumiko-sensei trying to comfort me.


    ¡°Balo, this is a mistake you can¡¯t undo but we all make mistakes. We have to learn how to live with them.¡± Hiroko says trying to comfort me.


    ¡°Guys. I¡¯m sorry. Shit, this is all my fault.¡± I say as I sat back down looking at the ground.


    ¡°Balo, I think our apology should go somewhere else," Takumi says and somehow, I know he¡¯s right but the way he said it somehow made me feel a little bit irritated.


    ¡°I-I know. Captain. Please bring all the maids from this place, here.¡± I tell him and he gave me a bow and left to talk to the maids outside.


    After a couple of minutes, all of them came into the living room and I told everyone to leave the room and let the maids sit down. I asked them to tell me everything that has happened and they hesitated at first. When I showed my expression towards the governor''s wrongdoings, they all lightened up one by one and shared their experience under his rule. I don¡¯t know how long it took to go through all their stores but after the second maid, it was hard to stomach everything in. Now I know why they seemed happy he died.


    "What the fuck¡­" I whisper as I have my hands over my mouth. I can''t believe I appointed someone like that to govern a town. I quickly stood up and faced the group of maids who are sitting around with a solemn look. Some of them have cried as they told me their stories. I dropped to my knees and bowed my head close to the ground.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± I held my head to the ground bowing at them as I apologize for my wrongdoings. Because of me, they all went through a lot. Because of my stupid action, this town has suffered.


    "P-please l-Lord Balo. I-its, not your fault." One of the maids stood up and came towards me. "P-please raises your head."


    I-it''s my fault. I caused all of this. Who am I kidding? I¡¯m not a lord. I¡¯m just a fucking kid pretending to be an adult. I say in my mind as I slowly stood up.


    ¡°Captain!¡± I called out and he quickly came in the living room saluting me. ¡°Captain, get all the soldier who the governor hired here. The ones who conspired with the governor to do this. Rip them off their ranks and throw all of them in jail!¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡± He quickly left and I faced towards the maids.


    ¡°You are all free to go. You do not have to work here. For those seeking work to provide for their family, pack your bags; I shall personally hire you to work in the gold district castle. And for those who don¡¯t want to stay in this town, then come with me and I¡¯ll help you all get settled in the gold city.¡±


    I see all of them smile and I bowed towards them again one more time.


    "I''m sorry, I know this won''t be enough to help you all forget the hardships you all went through, but this is as much as I can do. If you seek money, I will provide. I will try my best to help you all." I slowly stood back up and I see their faces filled with tears and most of them cried their lungs out.


    After hearing what the governor did to the maids in the shadows, they all left to go home and pack their things. They all decided to come back with us to the gold city while some of them decided to work in the castle while the rest decided to start anew. I ordered to jail everyone who conspired with the governor and the guards who didn''t conspire needs to be re-evaluated. The captain gave me a salute and he left with all of the prisoners.


    "Fuck, what the hell. Why are people so fucking messed up in this world?" Riki says as he slumps back towards the couch.


    ¡°It was my mistake. Because of one dumb choice, it affected the lives of a lot of people in a short amount of time.¡± I say with my gaze down the ground.


    ¡°Imagine, if, the governor wasn¡¯t killed. Shit, he would have been much worse than Rikimura.¡± Takumi says and deep down inside, I know I owe thanks to whoever put an end to the governor¡¯s reign.


    ¡°But, do you really think Yasu did all of this?¡± Hiroko asked and I just shook my head. I didn¡¯t know what else to think. There was too much going on making a mess in my mind.


    ¡°Even if it is unbelievable, it actually happened. The only way to verify is to ask him directly. But that¡¯s impossible for now, we don¡¯t know where he is.¡± I say and silence filled the room once more.


    ¡°We got to look for him. We all can search in all direction. He couldn¡¯t have gone far.¡± Hiroko says to us and no one said anything. I know what they''re all feeling, going on a wild goose chase might lead us to chase something worse than a demon.


    ¡°That would be fine if we actually know its Yasu we¡¯re looking for. What if it¡¯s actually Rikimura? That¡¯s really dangerous to face him alone. No matter how strong we are, if we¡¯re paralyzed, we¡¯re good as dead.¡± I tell her and I see her with a sad expression dejected at the possibilities.


    ¡°So what do we do now?¡± Junpei asked as he looks at me and I can feel everyone¡¯s gaze turn towards me.


    ¡°For now, we need to fix the issue in this town. I appointed the captain to govern this area. Also, we need to re-evaluate things everywhere. If this is happening under our noses, imagine other places. I need to make sure I didn''t make the same mistake everywhere." I tell them and they all nod except for one person who, all this time, has an uninterested expression.


    ¡°So, what are you saying?¡± Takumi asked.


    ¡°We need to go back into the gold city. After that, we will travel to each and every town that¡¯s under our rule and check if it¡¯s being run properly. This way, we can strengthen the relationship of the people towards us and also our system.¡± I tell him and it seems like he didn¡¯t like what I said.


    ¡°Tsk, I knew you were going to say that." I hear him mumble as he leans back onto the couch. The last thing I want is to see his attitude and it made me furious.


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± I asked him to raise my voice a little bit.


    "It¡¯s exactly what I mean." He replies back at the most condescending tone making me stand up on from my seat.


    ¡°Look, I understand you don¡¯t want to be part of this, but this is something we need to fix. We are a team.¡± I tried to calmly tell him trying not to escalate the situations since I started feeling everyone get tense.


    ¡°Yeah sure, a team.¡± He replied again with an uninterested tone and I decided not to reply trying to calm myself. Trying to change the topic, I decided to ask him what he wants to do but he suddenly spoke words before I even got the first word out, ¡°And as a team, our goal was different. Our goal was to find Luro, kill him, and go home. Not establish a fucking paradise and live here forever play pretending to be a royal figure.¡±


    ¡°Pretending? Open your fucking eyes. This is real life. We¡¯re not playing a game here!¡± I shout at him as I abruptly stand up from my seat getting riled up at what he said.


    ¡°My eyes are fucking open!¡± He stood up as he faces me. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen him this angry as he glared me down. ¡°And the way I see it, you''ve been looking at the wrong fucking picture! If you want to be a king of the world? then that¡¯s on you. Be the king all you fucking want, leave me out of this fucking bullshit.¡±


    "Come on guys, relax," Sawada says and I sat back down trying to calm myself. Takumi cursed under his breath and rather than sitting back down, he started walking towards the door.


    ¡°Takumi, bro, don¡¯t go. Let''s have a rational talk about this." Junpei says trying to stop him from leaving.


    "Rational? All the choices we''ve been making gets further and further away from out the main goal.¡± Takumi says as he swats Junpei¡¯s hand away. ¡°I told him before, this isn''t something I wanted or planned. As much as ¡®fun'' this world is, I don''t want to fucking stay here forever. This planet isn¡¯t my home."


    ¡°Just fucking let him go. He doesn¡¯t want to be part of this? Fine. Let him go.¡± I say without looking at him.


    "Come on guy''s, let''s not break apart," Sawada says trying to calm the situation, but my head is too hot to even calm down.


    ¡°You heard your so-called king, get the fuck out of the way.¡± Takumi snarls at Junpei who just brushed it off and stepped to the side. Takumi walked out the door uttering some words under his breath before slamming the door shut behind him.

 CHAPTER 40: You just lit a flame Part 2

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 40: You just lit a flame Part 2


    <hr>


    ¡°Sawada go after him. Make sure he doesn¡¯t do anything crazy.¡± Junpei says and Sawada walked out the living room to go after Takumi.


    "You know what you all need, to relax for a bit. It''s getting late out, let''s figure out where we are going to sleep." Tobi says and I can see he seems uncomfortable in the mansion. I can''t blame him, this is where the governor did all of his wrongdoings, and even I feel uncomfortable at the thought of sleeping here during the night. As I look out the window, I see the sun had set and the time I spent here went by so fast that''s it''s already night time.


    "Let''s go outside and form a camp somewhere. I feel safer in the open air than this place." I say and we all stood up and walked out of the mansion. All the maids have left to their homes as we argued and the minute we stepped out; the mansion left an eerie silence lingering around. Having the governor''s mutilated body in the basement doesn''t help either. I also heard from the captain that they moved the three dead soldiers also in the basement and have decided to bury them all tomorrow morning. The day went by so fast that we all didn''t eat anything making us hungrier than ever.


    ¡°Ugh, is there any other place we can eat around here?¡± Riki says as we walk.


    "Yeah same here, I''m also starving," Tobi says as he looks around to see if there''s any stalls or any restaurant, we can eat in.


    ¡°Sir Balo!" I hear a shout from a distance, and I see the captain running towards me. "After gathering the soldiers that worked with the governor, I removed them of their ranks and sent most of them to jail. They are all in the cell. A couple of my men are on watch duty. A small light was spotted by one of my soldiers, so I have sent a couple of them towards it to investigate."


    "A light?" I asked him.


    "Yes, sir. Might be a campfire. One of my scouts has spotted it from a distance." He replied back pointing towards one direction out to the forest.


    I hope they find Yasu. Rikimura will be a pain in the neck to deal with. At least we can try to convince Yasu to join us.I say in my mind.


    "Good Job Captain. By the way, is there any place for us to get something to eat?¡± I asked him as I feel my stomach grumble.


    "Ah yes! I saw Sir Takumi earlier with Sir Sawada. I lead them also to a restaurant nearby. It''s not as grand as the Inn restaurant as they say but they do have good food.¡± He explained pointing towards one direction.


    ¡°Did you eat Captain?" I asked him.


    ¡°I have not sir.¡± He replied while shaking his head.


    "Ok, come take a break with us and let''s go eat," I tell him. He¡¯s been a great help to us as he kept going back and forth trying to fix things as I ordered, and I felt bad I didn¡¯t even make sure he ate.


    ¡°I-it would be an honor!¡± The captain says happily as he led us towards another path. Most of the stalls are closed and only a few lights exit people houses. From a distance, we spot a place that''s more illuminated than the rest of the building. As soon as we got right in front of it, I noticed the sign on top the entrance.


    "Grub a boar," I whisper and the minute the Captain opened the door, I can smell the aroma of barbecue making my stomach grumble and my mouth salivate.


    We all slowly walked in and automatically we spot Takumi sitting at a table with Sawada. It looks like they finished eating as the waitress is picking up plates with leftover bones on them. He spotted us and rather than saying hello, he ignored us and continued talking to Sawada. I sat down towards another table far away from him. I should have never gotten mad at him, so I decided to give him space until he cools down a bit. Everyone sees me sit and everyone helped to grab another table to combine it with mine so were all in one group. We ordered quickly and stuck to small chats with one another.


    Kumiko-sensei and Ms. Sam enter the restaurant with a guard leading them and the minute they saw us, they approached our table. I notice Kumiko-sensei looking at Takumi and Sawada confused to why they''re seating so far away. Ms. Sam whispered something to her ear and she lightly nods as they sat with us. The waitress came out and got their orders quickly to be able to bring them all out at the same time as ours. After a few minutes, the waitress comes out with our food and I notice Takumi stands up and started walking towards the door. Sawada quickly took out coins from his bag placing them onto the table before following Takumi as he passes our table.


    "Hey, Takumi, come sit with us," Kumiko-sensei says as Takumi pass her. I guess trying to break the uncomfortable atmosphere as she probably figured out what was going on or maybe Ms. Sam figured it out and told her.


    "No thanks, sensei. I''m done eating. I need to get some fresh air. Somehow, the air here feels stuffy." He tells her and he walks out the door followed by Sawada.


    "Wow, he''s really mad," Riki whispers.


    ¡°You should make up with him. You both shouldn¡¯t fight.¡± Kumiko-sensei says, and I just nod at her.


    ¡°Yea, I¡¯ll apologize to him tomorrow. I just want to give him space.¡± I tell her.


    Everything has been going out of the plan and it¡¯s harder to focus even if it¡¯s something as simple as listening to people talk. We ate in silence and even the waitress felt uncomfortable as they all retreated out of our vision in the middle of the feast. After eating, they suddenly came out of a door and collected our dirty plates while another one comes out with a cart full of dessert.


    ¡°Umm¡­we didn¡¯t order this?¡± Kumiko-sensei says and the waitress nod and smiled at her.


    ¡°It¡¯s on the house. Orders from the owner. Enjoy~¡± She bows and hands out the plate with a slice of cake to each and everyone one of us. Then, she slowly retreated with the other waitress with the dirty plates. I took a fork they gave us along with the plate and sliced off a piece of the cake and quickly took a bite. It melted in my mouth as the cold feeling hit the top of my mouth and spread through my tongue.


    ¡°Mh~! It¡¯s ice cream!¡± I hear Akane blurt out of joy and everyone quickly tasted the ice cream cake in front of them. Somehow the mood lifted up a bit as I see the girls talk to each other and laugh while the guys start conversing with one another. I felt a bit better but still felt a bit depressed. After eating, the waitresses came out again and collected our plates. Right when we decided to pay, the waitress refused it as she gently pushed my hand away as I tried to hand her a few gold coins to pay for our meals.


    ¡°P-please. It¡¯s on the house. The only thing the owner wants is to meet you our lords.¡± She says as she bows.


    "It will be our pleasure," I tell her as I stop her from bowing all the way. In my mind for once, I wanted them to stop bowing towards us every single sentence.


    ¡°T-thank you! Please give me a moment.¡± She quickly ran in the back and after a minute, an old man dressed as a chef came out followed by the waitress. He quickly came towards us and I stood to shake his hand.


    ¡°Our lo-¡°


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to call me lord. Call me Balo.¡± I say interrupting him as I stop him from bowing. He smiled and gave me a nod.


    ¡°Sir Balo, everyone, it is nice to meet all of you. I hope the food was to your liking.¡±


    ¡°It was delicious. Thank you. Please let us pay for the food to help out.¡± I tell him as I try to hand him the coins, but he stopped me by grabbing my hands firmly.


    ¡°Please, it¡¯s a gift. But there is one thing I ask for all of you.¡± He whispered to me with a worried look.


    ¡°Sure, what is it?¡± I say staring him in the eye. I can feel his grip tighten and then loosens as he nods at the waitress behind him. She proceeded towards the staircase in the back that probably leads to the room upstairs.


    ¡°I want you all to listen to a story.¡± He tells me as he calmly gave me a smile.


    "Sure, I wouldn''t mind listening," I say as I sit down, and he grabs a chair near us and sits in front of me. He nods towards a waitress and she slowly made her way towards the door towards outside. In a couple of minutes, she walks back in holding the open sign that was hung outside. Then the waitress closed the door behind her, and I hear her lock it.


    "Please do not worry. The story you''re about to hear doesn''t belong to me but it belongs to two girls I have recently given shelter." He tells me and somehow, my hearts started pounding remembering about what the captain said earlier in regard to some missing girls.


    Right the moment he finished talking, the waitress comes back down, and I see two girls wearing a hooded robe behind her looking down making it hard to see their faces. The owner then gestures to every waitress to sit and everyone grabs a chair and huddled around us. We decided to move the table so now we''re circling each other like we''re in front of a campfire ready to tell scary stories. The two girls who kept their head down this whole time didn''t bother looking but I can see them playing with their nails, probably from being nervous.


    ¡°May I ask for one more condition? To not let anyone, know about these girls being here.¡± The owner bows towards all of us with genuine sincerity.


    "Do not worry, we promise to take this to our graves," I tell him and I look at everyone including the captain who''s been with us this whole time. They all nod and I turn back towards the owner who slowly lifting his head up.


    "Girls, it''s ok. They will understand once you tell them." He says and the girls slowly lifted off the hood covering their faces and it left me speechless. Both of them are covered with bruises and one of them has one eye swollen shut.


    ¡°Oh my god! Who did this to you?!¡± Ms. Sam suddenly stands up startling the girls.


    ¡°Ms. Sam, Kumiko-sensei, please heal them," I ask them, and they nod. Ms. Sam worked on the girl that doesn''t have a bruised eye while Kumiko-sensei worked on the girl that had severe bruises. Not only that, when they removed their robe, we saw bruises on their arms and scratches like they were in a scuffle. From then I knew, these are the two missing maids.


    I see one of them started crying as Ms. Sam heals her bruises. Ms. Sam is still low level, so she healed her slower than Kumiko-sensei. But the warmth the two adults gave them as they healed their bruises made the girls cry and repeatedly say thank you over and over again. It took a while for them to calm down and we waited for them to be ready to talk.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry. I-I didn¡¯t mean to give you such a disturbing view.¡± One of the girls says as she bows towards us. ¡°My name is Melinda, I¡¯m the head maid from the governor¡¯s castle.¡±


    ¡°M-my name is Rola, I¡¯m the assistant head maid. T-thank you for healing us.¡± The other girl bowed, and I can hear her voice shaking. Deep down in my gut, I felt like it tied itself as guilt returns to my core. They were in that condition because of my carelessness. I quickly stood up startling them and I dropped on my knees and bowed towards them.


    "I¡¯m sorry!" I felt guilty as I apologized from the bottom of my heart. "The reason the governor was appointed here was that of my careless mistake!" I kept my head down the ground and I can hear them baffled.


    ¡°W-wh-p-please raise your head. It''s not your fault." One of them dropped on her knees as she placed her hand on top of my shoulders. I slowly stood up and I can see they''re both crying again.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry. No one should be put in such a situation.¡± I tell them and they cried again. It took a couple of minutes to calm them down and we all went back to our chairs.


    "I-if you know about the¡­sniff*¡­governor, that means you know what he has done to this town." The head maid says as she wipes the tears from her eyes. I nod to her and I wanted to apologize again but the best thing is to not interrupt and listen to what they have to say.


    ¡°Girls, you should tell them your story.¡± The owner calmly said as he smiled at them making the two maids relax a bit.


    The owner stood up and retreated to the kitchen giving the girls a private time with us as they tried to tell their story with their shaking voice.


    "W-we¡­we were promised to be able to work in the gold city''s mansion by the governor if we worked with him for a few months. He told us he had connections directly to you lords that he can put a good recommendation. We were happy and quickly accepted. That''s how he mostly recruited the maids in the mansion. All of us wanted to have better-paying jobs since we didn''t choose to be an adventurer. But the minute we got into the mansion, things changed and we began to be frightened that any wrong move will lead to losing our chance to go work in the main city. The governor has seen this and decided to use it to control all of us. A-anything he wanted, we need to give him without a word even if, if it¡¯s something during the night.¡±


    The owner who had left a minute ago came back with two glass of water and gave it to them to drink. After drinking, she continued on with her story and we all silently listened.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    "This went on every day as the governor rotated between all of us. So frankly speaking, some of the girls didn''t mind. If it gets them out of the town and in the city, they will do what they can.¡± The head maid suddenly paused as she hugged herself. ¡°I-it had gotten worse when he started replacing all of the guards. He started giving them rewards for doing excellent work. Rewards like money, position, and¡­and¡­¡­us.¡±


    What she said made me sick to my stomach as I felt solely responsible for their situation. I couldn''t help but feel useless as I kept thinking I caused all of this mess. I didn''t say anything and let the girls continue with their story.


    ¡°The governor would order us to sleep with the guards. One of the maids tried to retaliate and she ended up disappearing the next day.¡± Rola says as she started tearing up again. One of the waitresses hands her a tissue and I can see even she had tears accumulating on her eyes.


    ¡°W-we were scared," Melinda says and she tried her best to continue with their story. "We were mad. Some of us have gone mad and killed themselves. I tried talking to the governor and ended up being hit."


    She suddenly stopped as she grabbed her arms together. I had my hands in my pocket the whole time and I clenched my fist so hard that I felt my nails dig into my skin. I heard in bits and pieces from the other maid of their stories, but this is the first time I''m hearing it in details, and it is making me sick to my stomach.


    How can someone do such a thing? How?I questioned in my mind over and over as she explained her day-to-day life in the governor''s mansion.


    ¡°Inside, I felt like I was rotting.¡± She continued on and I can see her trying her best to tell us. Ms. Sam who sitting beside her started stroking her back slowly calming down Melinda. After she took a couple of deep breaths, she continued telling her story, "But outside, I had to show good faith into the governor doesn''t punish me or the other maids. We all had to show we cared about him and worship him. We were powerless. We didn''t aim to be an adventurer, so we don''t know our classes and our capabilities. Being caught practicing magic as a maid in the mansion means we either get put on night service every day until our mind breaks. This made us fear anything that we do. So, the other girls, we''re scared to the point that we became obedient dogs.¡±


    ¡°How come none of you contacted your family about it or ran away?¡± Junpei asked. I also see he¡¯s clenching his fist as he crosses his arms on his chest.


    "Some of us tried. There was an instance that a family went straight to the governor. The next day, they all disappeared. We don''t know where they were bringing them or whether they were killing them so the maid who had a family didn''t tell anyone to protect those around them." She replied.


    ¡°What the hell...¡± I hear Riki whisper and even him, with his goofy character, had a serious expression.


    "Can you tell me, what happened here?¡± I asked her reluctantly. I know they¡¯re still hurting from all their experience but I need to try to figure out what really happened here.


    "One day, I overheard a guard telling the governor that two adventurers came into the village. A man no older than any of you, and also a girl probably the same age as any of you. Then, the governor''s son went home with the girl saying that he wants to marry her. We all saw that the girl was quite confused and also a bit terrified of the situation. But that''s when we saw an opportunity. She''s an adventurer. She can save us." Melinda says as she looks down on her hands.


    ¡°Did she?¡± Tobi asked and the head maid shakes her head as she looks down towards her hands.


    ¡°We made a mistake. Due to our selfishness, we got her involved in this mess.¡± She replied and both of them had a sad look. ¡°She couldn¡¯t fight. She had a non-combatant class that is only heard in the stories the librarian would tell us.¡±


    The minute she tells us this, I notice Junpei and Hiroko had a grim expression as if they just found someone close to them died. They¡¯re probably thinking about Yasu and his class. Even I got another twist on my gut as I remember my best friend that died a year ago.


    ¡°So what happened to the girl?¡± Sawada asked and we all waited for them to speak.


    "E-even though it''s a legendary class when they asked her about her skill they found out she only had one skill that is basically useless in combat. From then we knew our chances of escaping is slim, but we decided to save her. She didn''t need to be in this position, so we made sure she stayed close to the governor''s son. If he were with her, the governor wouldn''t dare do anything. But, after finding out about her class, the governor had a change of heart and wanted to keep her for himself. To cultivate her to become a fighting machine."


    Before, we didn¡¯t know about the full extent of the special class. Not until the habitants of this world told us. If the girl had a non-combatant class, it¡¯s only natural for corrupted people to want her.


    ¡°What about the guy?¡± Hiroko asked.


    "Well, we didn''t know anything about him. From what the governor''s son told us, the young Miss hired him to be her bodyguard, but he left her as soon as they arrived in the town. The governor wanted to send someone to investigate since the young miss kept looking for him. The governor found an opportunity to send his son to investigate him so he permitted her to go and brought along his personal guards with him. When they arrived at the Inn, that when chaos erupted. New broke fast around the town that''s there''s someone strong enough to land a blow on the governor. We wanted to check but we''re afraid of being caught outside the mansion, so we all remained where we were. Then we heard a loud rumble and could see the smoke from the distance. After an hour, a guard came rushing back at the mansion and told me to collect some papers in the governor¡¯s quarters. We both rushed out towards the Inn and that¡¯s when I saw him.¡±


    ¡°What did he look like?¡± Hiroko asked.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t give us details about him when he arrived in town except, that he¡¯s a young adventurer. As far as looking at him, he¡¯s probably around the same age as you guys as I said before. He wore a white shirt and sleeping pants and stood in the middle of the havoc with his arms crossed.¡± She says and I can see a smile on her face.


    ¡°What else?¡± Junpei asked next and I can see the girls somehow relax when they started talking about him.


    "W-well, He almost killed me. When we went back to the governor, we grabbed the governor''s personal healer on the way. As soon as we got there, I saw the governor''s condition. It made me happy a bit on the inside of the governor caught me smiling so I had no choice but try to attack the intruder making it seem I''m on the governor''s side. The intruder suddenly pounced on me and I saw his fist raised above my head. He brought it down barely missing me and destroying the ground in the process. It clearly shows in his eyes that there is something going on his mind far from what we can comprehend. But one thing I can say, he was far more dangerous than the governor." Melinda says and I can see she¡¯s serious.


    ¡°He was barehanded?¡± I asked trying to figure out the missing puzzle to the mysterious identity of the adventurer.


    ¡°When I saw him. He didn¡¯t have any weapon, but the guards have told me he actually used a black sword and used the axe of the eightoverlords." She said making my heart drop.


    ¡°The eigthoverlord?!¡± I say suddenly standing up.


    ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t that the new overlord that we constantly hear about?¡± Junpei asked.


    "Some of the guards that we trust have told us that the intruder was strong enough to kill an overlord," Rola told us and I sat back down. "He easily could have eradicated the whole town and killed the guards with ease. To which is why I believe wasn¡¯t his purpose. After all, he saved us.¡±


    I can see her smile a bit and even the assistant made has a happy expression.


    "We owe him our lives. Did you find him?" Melinda asked me looking up with a hopeful expression.


    ¡°Well, he disappeared after killing the governor. He abducted a woman I believe." I told her and she shook her head.


    "No, he didn¡¯t abduct her." She tells me right away without a moment''s hesitation. ¡°We saw how she looks for him every minute. We sense that she''s been relying on him this whole time. Since I saw him near the inn up to the point we went towards the governor''s mansion, she followed him everywhere. It came to our surprise when he left without her."


    ¡°He left? You saw him leave after killing the governor?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No. He left during the night after talking with the governor. I didn¡¯t see him but some of the maids saw him leave and they told me about it. That also when¡­when the governor ordered me and Rola to please some men as punishment. I-I tried begging him, but he just laughed and one of the guards grabbed me by the hair and dragged me toward the stable. They had their way with us, and it felt like an eternity.¡± I see her body shake as she hugs herself. ¡°I wanted to just die.¡±


    I see the other maid also clenching her fist as they both recall the horrific incident; they both went through in the stable. Right when I was about to try and say some comforting words, the head main interrupted me.


    "That''s when I saw him again. He was there, sitting in the dark, slowly moving. He gestured to me to be quiet as he walked around the dark. I couldn''t do anything but just endure until he jumped out and hit them all with a skill that paralyzes the three guards.¡±


    ¡°Paralyzed?¡± I asked thinking about Rikimura¡¯s skill.


    Shit, don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s really Rikimura. I prayed in my mind.


    ¡°He jumped out the dark so quick that the guards didn¡¯t notice. Even I didn¡¯t notice until I felt the guard stop moving while his body dropped on top of me. I quickly scramble away and that¡¯s when I saw him standing in the center. He muffled one of the guard¡¯s mouth to prevent them from screaming and we both did the same to the other two guards. He quickly dealt with one of the guards proceeding to cut off his arms and even that scene made me shake in fear. After the guard passed out, he picked up two daggers he got out of his bag and threw it in front of us.¡± She suddenly pauses as she looks at her palm.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­you two ki-¡° Ms. Sam asked but she was suddenly interrupted as the two girls cried.


    ¡°Yeah, we killed the remaining two guards. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That¡¯s what he told me before he left us with a choice either to kill ourselves or kill them and survive. We chose to survive, and we¡¯ve been lucky that the owner of this shop took us in.¡± Melinda told us as she looks up looking at our eyes. ¡°Now, I know what we did is wrong that¡¯s why I¡¯m telling you about it but please don¡¯t blame the owner of this shop for harboring fugitives. We will go to jail for our wrongdoings, but the owner of this shop had nothing to do with what we¡¯ve done. Please spare everyone here in this place.¡±


    She bows and most of the waitress who had been crying listening to her story quickly came to their side.


    ¡°P-p-please. B-be lenient with them.¡± One of the waitresses begs as she hugs the head maid who still has her head down. I look at everyone and everybody else look back at me.


    "Please raise your head," I tell them. "No matter how justifiable it might have been, a murder is a murder. And I order you both to keep your head up and live for as long as you can. The punishment I will give is for you to live knowing you have killed someone. But be at ease, no one is going to jail.¡±


    The head maid suddenly looks up and I can see the happiness on her face as tears streak down her cheeks. "T-thank you! Thank you!"


    "But, I should also apologize," I say as I bow my head. "If I looked at the candidates carefully, in the beginning, all of his would have been prevented. For that, I apologize. I will grant you two anything you wish for. It''s as much as I can do to at least help mend your spirits. If you want to live a life without worries, I can provide that. If you want to go to the gold city and start anew? I can help, if you both want to open your own shop, I can provide you money and supplies.¡±


    It''s the least I can do knowing the fact what they went through because of me. I hear the head maid cry more as she just nods while she cried her hearts out.


    ¡°Thank you. But, we both decided long ago what we both want to do.¡± The head maid says as she looks at the assistant maid. ¡°We both want to be an adventurer. We want to serve under him.¡±


    ¡°Under who?¡± I asked curiously trying to see if they¡¯re still talking about the same person that killed the governor.


    ¡°I know it seems wrong but, he helped us. And as I said earlier. I don¡¯t think he meant to destroy the inn. From what the guard told me; the governor¡¯s son was the one who started the fight that leads to the destruction of the inn. We just want to repay our debt to him.¡± She replied and somehow, it makes me less stressful that the person isn''t much of a psychopath.


    ¡°Are you both sure? Being an adventurer means no one can protect you but yourselves.¡± I tell them.


    ¡°We¡¯re sure.¡± She tells me with determination.


    "Ok, captain. Please help these ladies and give them any equipment they need. You can get them from the item shop tomorrow morning. Get the armor, weapon, and help them figure out their class."


    "Yes, sir!" The captain replied and right when I was about to tell the two maids to rest, she stood up and bowed towards us.


    ¡°Thank you! And as for weapons and armor, we have them already. One of the daggers he gave us has sold for a lot in the boar shop and it¡¯s enough for us to get everything we need. As for our class, we want to travel towards the gold city and register in the adventurer¡¯s guild.¡± Melinda says and I gave her a nod.


    ¡°If I may ask, do you know what his name is?¡± Hiroko asked and she shook her head. ¡°The girl he was with when he entered the town never spoke of his name and just referred to him as ¡®him¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Do you know her name?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yes. I believe she was called Suyeon.¡±


    Suyeon? Isn¡¯t that Korean? Don¡¯t tell me, she¡¯s from earth? I have to ask him if it''s her. he''ll be really happy to know she''s alive.I say in my mind.


    "Um, if I may ask. Are you traveling back to the gold city anytime soon?" Rola asked me breaking me off from my thoughts.


    ¡°Ah, yes. As a matter of fact, you two can travel with us. I plan to go back to the gold city first to talk to the rest of my team before heading out towards the other towns. You both should get some sleep; we will head out as soon as the sun rises.¡± I tell them and they both bowed and retreated back up towards the second floor.


    Before everyone left, I talked to the owner and gave him some gold coins enough to rebuild his restaurant. We were planning to the camp outside but the owner of the restaurant offered to house all of us for the night. We all agreed and helped to move the chairs and tables to place our sleeping bags down. Good thing is that most of us have a dimensional bag that has all of our necessities including sleeping bags. I sent out Tobi to get Takumi and Sawada, but he came back along saying that they will camp outside, and Sawada is still keeping an eye on Takumi. The waitresses have also retreated on the floor above and based on what the restaurant owner said, it seems like all of them were orphans that he housed when he found them wandering around looking for food. This has opened my eyes, even under our rule, poverty exists where our eyes can''t reach.


    "Stella," I called out to her. "You''ve been a great help. Ever since we found you, you and your father have been helping us with everything we need. That is why, I think, for the best of both our interest, I leave the city to you and your father''s care. After checking all the town and making sure the people I appointed isn''t like the governor, I will go on a journey to look for Luro.¡±


    I see her sit up with a surprised look but she couldn¡¯t say anything.


    "I know it''s a lot to take in but, I think Takumi is right. The main reason we are on this planet is that of one thing. That''s Luro. If we wait around, I don¡¯t know what he might do. It seems like he has the power to send this planet crashing with mine and if that happens, it will be the end for all of us. And frankly speaking, I think you and your father can do a better job than I can.¡± I tell her.


    "That''s true. Back in our world, we won''t even be as close as governing our own lives." Riki interrupts and everyone chuckles a bit. I feel her lay back down and probably a lot of thoughts are going on her mind. It has been a year, but that year has formed a bond between us all and the thought of separate after this is all done have made it more depressing.


    If only Takumi is here. I say in my mind as I lament about the situation between us. It feels like a family member; a brother is mad at me and it¡¯s making me feel more depressed. But my body seems like it¡¯s more tired than usual and I fall fast asleep.


    .


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    ¡°My lord! Wake up! Sir Balo! Wake up!!¡± I hear shouting that abruptly woke me up. I notice the door open as the afternoon light enters the darkness of the restaurant.


    "Oh shit. It''s already afternoon?! Guys wake up! We overslept!¡± I say as I noticed them slowly sitting up with a drowsy look.


    ¡°Captain, why didn¡¯t you wake me up earlier?¡± I asked with a hoarse voice as I squint my eyes towards him trying to steady my vision.


    ¡°S-s-sir! It¡¯s morning time! S-sir hurry! There¡¯s fire!¡± He shouted pulling me up trying to force me to stand.


    ¡°H-huh? Say that again?¡± I asked him while rubbing the crust off my eyes.


    ¡°S-sir! The whole fore-¡°


    ¡°Balo! Balo!¡± I see Sawada shouting my name as he enters the restaurant. ¡°Takumi is missing! I-I woke up to a blazing inferno and I can¡¯t find Takumi anywhere!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± I shout as I run out of the restaurant to see what''s going on. The minute I got outside I froze in place as I look at the sky covered by an orange hue and black smoke filled the air. "What the fuck¡­" my voice trails off as I feel the heat from the wind as I look all around at the forest that surrounds the town, is on fire.

 CHAPTER 41: Dont take whats mine

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 41: Don¡¯t take what''s mine


    <hr>


    YASU''S POV


    <hr>


    We follow the stream as we walked back towards the horizontal mountain. I kept climbing the trees to prevent us from running back into the boar town. We moved around during the night but then I thought about it, it would be much safer to do travel while the whole world is sleeping. Not because of the monsters around the area but because of anyone that might be looking for us. If they walked in on us while we¡¯re sleeping, we¡¯re good as dead.


    ¡°Let make camp here, by tomorrow we should reach the wall of the mountain," I say as I get down from the tree. Suyeon nods and she started collecting sticks without me giving her an order. She¡¯s becoming more useful as time moves along and it¡¯s making it easier for me. She also kills any wolves we come across but I told her not to use her skills since its impact is too powerful and might give our position away if anyone¡¯s near us.


    Once darkness hits the forest, I put out the campfire to prevent people from seeing it from a distance. We ate in the dark using the moon as our only source of light. After eating, she fell asleep in an instant at the base of the tree while I climb it. Right when I got atop a branch, I noticed lights coming from a far off distance.


    ¡°What the hell is th-¡± I squint my eyes and I see yellow orbs slowly separating in all direction and a few of them are approaching us.


    That''s not a campfire, ah shit.I quickly got down and woke up Suyeon. She tried to speak and I quickly muffled her mouth. ¡°Shhh. Someone is coming. Hurry up and get on my back.¡±


    She quickly nods and hops on my back hugging me tightly as I started climbing a tree. Right, when I got on top a large branch I told her to get off and crouch to try and blend in with the shape of the tree.


    ¡°A search party¡­¡± I whisper as I see them walk towards the campfire I put out which was quite a distance from us. They¡¯re wearing knight¡¯s armor that doesn¡¯t seem too fancy but it¡¯s similar to the design the soldiers from the gold¡¯s group. One soldier waves his hands and the other people surrounding him spread out in all direction in pairs. One group walks directly under our tree and I hug the branch pressing my chest tightly as I lay flat trying to blend in the darkness. The tree was high enough that their light barely reached us and has so many leaves to block off the moonlight on our location. I controlled my breathing as I try to listen to their faint conversation.


    "Man, they said he¡¯s a dangerous individual. To be careful if we spot him.¡± One of the soldiers says as he looked around with a wary look.


    ¡°Did you hear? Sir Balo and the rest of the Lords are here. I want to see them so badly~¡± The other guard replied with a different topic.


    They¡¯re still here? I asked in my mind, it¡¯s been a while since I left them and it¡¯s surprising they¡¯re still sticking around. Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re looking for us?


    ¡°Right? But I would never think I get the chance of seeing all of them in one place. My god, imagine Princess Stella and princess Hiroko? They are by far the gorgeous people I have seen on this planet." One of the guards says almost making me laugh as I heard the word princess.


    Princess Hiroko? I asked in my mind confused at their titles.


    ¡°Right? I wonder if it''s the same where Princess Hiroko comes from. Imagine a land full of girls that look that good. Jee-¡°


    ¡°Hey! You two stop talking and keep searching!!¡± One of the guards that looked like the leader shouts from a distance as he approached them.


    One guard that gave an order to everyone walked under us following the two guards and I can hear him muttering. "Damn, someone reported a smoke here earlier. The campfire is still hot. We should have checked faster it might have been him.¡±


    ¡°But sir, what are we looking for exactly?¡± One of the soldiers asked.


    "A fucking psychopath. The one who killed the Governor." The leader replied and I can hear him taking deep breaths.


    ¡°I hear he¡¯s really dangerous and can paralyze people.¡± Another soldier reply with a worried tone.


    The captain looked around as he talked to the guards. " I feel he''s still in the area. The smell of bloodthirst is strong here." He suddenly looks up I duck more into the branch trying to blend in.


    ¡°Sir, somehow, this area is giving me an ominous feeling." One soldier says as he rubs his arms.


    ¡°Me too, I¡¯m getting Goosebumps.¡±The other soldier says as he ducks looking side to side.


    "Huh, so it''s not only me. Let''s hurry up and search, I don''t want to be attacked by demons in the middle of the night. Keep a lookout also on the other possibility.¡± The captain voice rang out before walking away from our tree. Their footsteps slowly fade away and as I slowly peek to the side, I see them walking towards one direction.


    Shit. If I kill them all here, they would probably send more troops. That guy just called me a rapist. Me? Rapist? Fucking hell, I¡¯m still a damn virgin.I say in my mind as I watch them disappear from a distance.


    ¡°Wait, here and don¡¯t move, don¡¯t make a sound," I tell Suyeon who kept her eyes closed and hugged the tree tight. She nods and I slowly stood up. I can see them walk off until the lights on their torches are barely visible and they kept walking towards the direction where we came from and kept going until they completely disappeared and the forest was replaced with darkness again.


    If they keep walking, they¡¯ll reach the area where Suyeon fought the giant Boar-wolf. That place is a mess; it should keep them busy for a while. I say to myself as I look down.


    ¡°Fuck, I think we should move. Being this close is uncomfortable.¡± I whisper to myself and I turn towards Suyeon. ¡°Climb my back, we¡¯re going down. We need to move and get far away as possible.¡±


    She quickly hugged me from behind and I proceeded to climb down with her. As soon as we reached the ground, we started walking towards the direction of the horizontal mountain. We walked in the dark but the light from the moon helped me see my way through the forest. I guided this time since I know where the direction of the horizontal mountain lies and Suyeon just silently followed me. I look back and Suyeon has her eyes closed as she walks following me like a zombie.


    ¡°What the- Hey!¡± I shouted and she abruptly opens her eyes crouching thinking there''s an enemy around her. "Stop sleepwalking and pay attention."


    She quickly nods and rubs her eyes as she followed me in the dark. We walked non-stop until daylight hits. We ate breakfast but I can see it¡¯s affecting her as she slowly nods off with food in her mouth. I¡¯m used to staying up back to back but it seems like she isn¡¯t.


    ¡°Suyeon, hurry up and eat. After that, go sleep for a bit. I¡¯ll wake you up when we need to go.¡± I tell her. She weakly nods as she chews her food. After eating she quickly fell asleep as soon as she lies down and I climbed a tree to see how close we are from the horizontal mountain.


    ¡°A couple more hours tops and we should reach it.¡± I look up and still unable to see the top of the mountain as it disappears in the clouds. I took out my map as I drew a route I think we¡¯ve taken. ¡°Ok, we explored this side, but the other side we haven¡¯t.¡±


    On the other side of the horizontal mountain is probably where I can find clues where Daikichi and Kana have gone. If I¡¯m lucky, I might find them there.I say in my mind.


    A couple of hours have passed and I kept my eyes peeled looking around us to see if any guard shows up, but nothing. The forest is as silent as it can be with only the noise of the wind rustling the leaves lingering around.


    I shake Suyeon to wake her up and her eyes slowly opened. "Hey, wake up. Let''s go."


    She removes the crust of her eyes while she squints at me trying to get a clear vision. She quickly took out a water container and washed her face and taking a sip right after. We both walked towards the horizontal mountain until we¡¯re face to face with it.


    ¡°Stay close to the wall of the mountain and let me know if you spot something," I whisper as I walk towards my left.


    ¡°A-aren¡¯t we going to climb it?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°No. We can only go so far and I don¡¯t know how far it is beyond the clouds.¡± I tell her as I trace the wall towards the left.


    ¡°Oh ok~¡± She replies happily. I guess she¡¯s happy we¡¯re not climbing since she¡¯s afraid of heights. We walked near the walls and it feels like it¡¯s never ending. We walked quite a distance until the mountain blocks the sun that was behind us.


    ¡°Hold up, let me climb a tree to see where we are," I tell her and she nods leaning on the wall. I climb one tree that looks a bit taller and as soon as I got on top, a smile formed on my face. I quickly climb down and Suyeon approached me as I touch the ground.


    ¡°Did you see anything?¡± She asked me.


    "Yeah, didn''t you tell me a few days ago that the trees we came across with are different than the trees you saw on the other side of the portal? Well, the trees towards that area are getting smaller and also looks a bit different from a distance. Let''s head that way.¡±I tell her as I started walking away from the wall. We both walked through the forest towards the direction of the trees. But somehow, every time I climb to see if we have gotten close, it never did.


    What the hell¡­don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s a damn illusion?I say in my mind. We both walked through the forest non-stop. Daytime quickly turned to night and we both camped to rest for the night. Suyeon slept under the tree while I climbed up top to be a lookout just in case more guard comes in. I would have brought her up with me but she refused and slept at the base of the tree.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Fucking hell, all I¡¯ve been doing since I got out the dungeon is climbing," I whisper as I lean on a tree while sitting at a branch big enough to carry my weight. I felt the tiredness creep into me as I stare into the moon making my eyes feel heavy. "Maybe I should close my eyes for a bit,"


    I slowly closed my eyes to listen to the wind as it rustles the leaves around me.


    Where are you guys¡­I say in my mind as my consciousness slowly fades away and I accidentally fell asleep.


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    Pick


    Pick


    Pick


    I felt something picking at my neck and when I opened my eyes, I thought I woke up at a different location. But as I get my bearings, I notice I''m still in the same spot except the moon moved way over my head changing the lighting inside the forest.


    "Ah shit I fell asleep," I whisper as I rub my eyes. I look to my left and I see the damn bluebird sitting on my shoulder looking at me. "The fuck, why did you pick on my neck? I''m not food you fucking bird!"


    I tried to grab it but it flew away. I stretched my arms out yawning in place. I felt energized getting only a few moments of rest. I look up the moon and it was as bright as ever illumination the leaves above me. I look down to see if Suyeon is all right but I wasn¡¯t worried since if something happened, she would have screamed waking me up.


    ¡°Oh shit. What the fuck.¡± I whisper as I see no one at the base of the tree.


    W-what the fuck, where is she?! I shout in my mind frantically looking around.


    ¡°Wait, ah fuck, don¡¯t tell me its one of those stupid fucking dream. Damn, Unum.¡± I relaxed since I remembered the dream I had before. It was too realistic and this time, I won¡¯t be caught off guard if I see her twisting the wrong way again. ¡°She vomited black shit in my mouth last time. Not this time Unum you bastard. I''ll piss in your mouth when I see you."


    I start to climb down and on my way down the tree, I started hearing rustling noise making me climb back up.


    "Hey, you found her here?" A scruffy looking man says as he inspects the bottom of the tree. Then another guy came close and I can see a cloth covering his mouth.


    An assassin?I whisper in my mind as I study them.


    ¡°How is she?¡± the scruffy man asked.


    ¡°Sleeping, we hit her with the sleeping spell so she¡¯s knocked out.¡± Another voice answered and I couldn¡¯t see who it was.


    ¡°She might sell well. Her face is quite a high quality. Make sure the men don¡¯t touch her.¡± The scruffy man said and his voice sound''s like he smoked too many cigarettes.


    "Yes, sir." The assassin disappeared into one direction and I see the scruffy man looking around.


    ¡°I can feel you out here. Come on out you demon.¡± He says looking around and I tried to blend in as much as I can with the tree. ¡°Hm, well if you don¡¯t want to come out, you probably know I can eliminate you in one go. That girl is mine, I found her first."


    This seems too realistic¡­I whisper in my mind. As I was about to come out of hiding, the scruffy man started walking away towards the direction where the assassin went.


    "Hahaha, fucking Unum testing me I see. Last time he made me follow Suyeon to only have her vomit in my mouth, now he doing the damsel in distress. Ha, let''s play along shall we Yasu.¡± I tell myself as I get down from the tree.


    I crouched hiding in the bushes as I walk towards the direction where the scruffy man went. Once I got close, I see a couple of people with facemask around a carriage with torches in their hand. I see the scruffy looking man climb inside the carriage while everyone started putting out the fire from the torches and jumped in.


    ¡°Men! Let''s go!¡± I hear him shout and the carriage started moving through the forest slowly as the driver guides the horse dodging the trees.


    This is why this is a dream. To bring a carriage in the middle of the forest is stupid and near impossible.I say in my mind as I following from a distance. It was a weird spectacle as I see the horses turn left and right non-stop trying to dodge trees as it slowly pulled the carriage.


    "Is this really a dream?" I whisper as I hide behind trees and crawl through bushes following them. Everything felt real but remembering the dream I had of Unum, everything also felt real up until Suyeon twisted her head and vomited black stuff into my mouth. After a while, the horses in front stopped as the driver pulled the reins.


    "Whoa!" I see him pull the reins on the horse to stop them and for a brief moment, everything went silent.


    Don¡¯t tell me they noticed me following...I whisper in my mind as I tried my best to hide in the dark. Within a split second, the space in front of the horses ripped like the atmosphere was torn apart revealing another dimension with trees differs than the one in the forest.


    ¡°Holy shit. What the hell.¡± I whisper and all of a sudden, the driver snapped the reins whipping the horses and the carriage bolted down towards the ripple entering it and in an instant, the ripple disappeared reverting the forest back to normal. ¡°H-hey! Fuck!¡±


    I ran out of the dark towards where the carriage used to be but I just kept walking through the forest. I was hoping I would enter some sort of invisible dome but nothing.


    "Shit," I whisper to myself. "Dammit, I should have just beaten the shit out of all of them before I was woken up. Fuck, now how do I wake up?"


    I walked around trying to come across someone, but nothing. I decided to lie on the ground and close my eyes.


    "Ok, if this is a dream, if I sleep, I should wake up in the real world.Yawn~I am sleepy anyways..." I lay on the ground where it¡¯s most comfortable and slowly dozed off to sleep.


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    I felt my skin warm as the sun shines down on my location.


    ¡°Ugh.." I whisper as my eyes slowly open. "Ugh finally-¡°


    I suddenly stopped talking as I noticed I¡¯m in the same spot I slept in. I quickly stood up and looked around but nothing. Nothing changed.


    No. Don¡¯t tell me¡­my heart started racing as I frantically looked around me.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t a dream?!¡± I suddenly felt my heart rate beat faster than normal. ¡°Fuck. Fuck. Dammit! You¡¯ve got to be kidding me!!! Ok, ok Yasu relax. First, we need to find a way. Shit.¡±


    I started walking through the forest to test a theory I have. If there¡¯s an illusion here, it might be the same as the hidden dungeon of the sky king. If I reach the illusion, it should bring me to the other side. I walked for a minute after passing the area where they created the ripple. Then I climbed a tree to see my current location.


    ¡°Bingo~ Fucking bitches. Think you¡¯re smarter than me? Ha!¡± I say as I noticed my location jumped far ahead as if I walked for miles within the forest.


    "Ok, if that''s the case, there''s an illusion here that''s preventing me from entering that section of the forest. " I climbed down and walked back towards where I was. I made marks on the trees as I walked around to keep track of where I initially began. I started looking for anything out of the ordinary but I couldn''t find anything and it''s making me more frustrated.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I shout as I clench my fist due to anger. After spending time training her, I feel like someone took a puppy away from me that I was taking care of. ¡°Dammit!¡±


    I used a tree to elevate my anger and my fist went through it destroying the tree from its base. It started tipping sideways landing on another tree, destroying its branches.


    Zing!


    Suddenly the other tree it landed on was covered with a yellow hue that deflected the falling tree as I watched it bounce off the force field.


    ¡°What the¡­¡± I whisper as I slowly approach it. I place my hand on the tree and I didn¡¯t see the yellow hue and the tree felt normal under my palm. I tried slapping the tree around but nothing, ¡°Ok, maybe strong force might make it appear. Pound.¡±


    I brought my fist towards the tree and the yellow hue suddenly appeared trying to block my punch. The yellow hue shattered like it¡¯s made of glass and disappeared floating in the sky while my fist went towards the tree, destroying it in the process. I look back where I was and I notice the atmosphere distorted a little bit before reverting back to normal.


    "Don''t tell me¡­" I whisper as I punch another tree but nothing. I kept punching one tree after another destroying them until I came across another one with the yellow hue. After destroying it, the same thing happened. The yellow hue that covered the tree shattered like glass and the atmosphere in the area distort for a little bit.


    ¡°Well shit! Haha, this is fucking cool.¡± I started going crazy destroying trees everywhere but I never found another with the yellow hue. ¡°It must mean there¡¯s more than one. Shit, this is a forest, it¡¯ll take months to deforest this shit.¡±


    If I went and look for trees with a yellow hue, I might be here forever to find it.I whisper in my mind as I look at the forest around me. I destroyed a good amount of trees but so far, I have only found two with the yellow hue.


    ¡°Fuck. This will take forever.¡± I whisper as I stand at the center of the destruction I created. I felt the sun hitting me as the shade disappeared due to the trees tipping over as I destroyed them from the base.


    "Fuck, It''s hot," I say fanning my chest with my shirt. I ran towards a shade as I feel the burn of the sun on my skin.


    Wait¡­.that¡¯s it! I shout in my mind as a smile crept on my face.


    ¡°I found the solution~¡± I sang to myself as I skip around underneath the shade. ¡°The best way to destroy everything is, to burn it~¡±


    ¡°Burn it? You mean create a forest fire?¡± I asked myself. ¡°Yea Yasu, Let¡¯s do this quickly~ Yeah, this sound fun. Let us burn this fucking forest~¡±


    ¡°Mkaaay~ Item bag~" I took out a two-handed hammer out my bag.


    "Scorch~" I whispered my skill and my hammer was encased with a pulsating flame. ¡°One forest fire, coming right up!¡±


    Using all my strength, I brought the hammer down the ground and the flames from my hammer spread out in four directions creating an X.I jumped out of the way and ran as far as I can while the flames slowly burned the ground. I felt the air started getting sucked in the center of the X along with the flames forming a bright ball. The bright ball let out a vibrating sound as it quickly expands in all direction engulfing everything with it. Inside of the ball is a mix of flame and plasma. Anything weak it touches is covered with fire in all directions and if there were enemies like the giant boar-wolf, it would have slowly burned it alive leading to a very painful death.


    ¡°Bwahahahahaha! Burn baby burn~!" I sang as I see the whole forest covered with fire and it started spreading to the neighboring trees. The sky was filled with smoke and the heat from the forest fire made me sweat. I noticed something within the fire that made me squint my eyes to get a clearer vision. The tree that has the yellow hue is still standing being protected by it.


    ¡°You got to be kidding me." I put away the two-handed hammer and took out the black sword. "Sky king''s wind~"


    I positioned myself right next to the blazing inferno and the heat is making me sweat even inside my clothes. I gripped the handle of my sword and swung it towards the flames as if I was trying to hit a baseball. A strong gust of wind blew off the flames in front of me like a tornado formed in the center of the forest fire.


    ¡°Ah shit.¡± I was thinking the tornado would wipe the fire but it actually made it worse. Now in the center is a spiraling flame tornado that¡¯s erupting from the top sending embers due to the wood of the trees being heated. The embers itself are covered with fire and as it lands on the ground, the flames spread on the dried leaves creating more fire that now spread across everywhere. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this! Chefs Coat!¡±


    I ran through the fire. My skill protected my whole body from burning including my hair. The last thing I want is to go bald again. My sky king''s flames skill doesn''t burn me but this skill does and if I don''t have the chef''s coat activated, I suffer from burn marks if touch it. "Sharpen!"


    I quickly cut one tree that¡¯s being protected by the yellow hue. The minute I sliced it, the yellow hue shatters and the tree quickly engulfed in the flame. I ran and sliced one tree after another. Right, when I was about to break the last one, the atmosphere near the tornado distorted and a ripple appeared. I see a bandit that I noticed from last night jumped out.


    It¡¯s the carriage driver.I whisper in my mind. As soon as he got out, he quickly started screaming as he was engulfed in flames from head to toe. Soon after, he stopped screaming as his body flopped to the ground motionless as the flames tore through his skin slowly eating him away.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I screamed as I sprint towards the ripple that¡¯s about to disappear. Within a split second, I jumped right in landing on a brick road. The same road the carriage went through last night. As soon as I got through, the ripple behind me disappeared cutting off the flame that¡¯s leaking from the other side.


    I smile as I slowly stood up. ¡°Well then, these fuckers better be prepared. Suyeon, I¡¯m coming for you~¡±

 CHAPTER 42: The bandits and another fake name

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 42: The bandits and another fake name


    <hr>


    "Holy hell¡­" I whisper as I slowly stood up looking behind me. As my hunches were right, this area is in an illusion barrier or another dimension because I don''t see the fire anymore as it disappeared with the ripple. The sky is clear blue as if there was never a fire.


    I turn back around and I stop moving as soon I see the area didn¡¯t look like the one in my memory. Some of the people who had a cover in their face are scattered on the ground. A couple of them are ripped in half while some of them twist the wrong way. Trees on the area are either missing twigs or snapped in half or off the ground as if someone picked it up and threw it back down.


    I notice the one that I remembered from last night and I see him leaning on the wheel of the carriage holding his intestines from coming out of his ripped stomach. His hand is glowing green as he slowly heals himself. I approached him and as I got close, I notice he had his eyes closed and it looked like he was crying blood.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°W-who¡¯s there?¡± He says in a weak voice.


    This guy, he can¡¯t see. Seems like he¡¯s going to die anytime.I whisper in my mind as I slowly walked to him.


    ¡°R-Radik. I-is that you? W-w-why did you come back h-here.¡± He asked and I didn¡¯t respond. ¡°R-Radik. You-¡°


    ¡°That dude is dead. Kind of got himself cooked alive. Now, where¡¯s the girl?¡± I tell him as I lean down closer to his face.


    ¡°W-who are-¡° He started asking me before coughing up blood.


    ¡°Let''s say, I¡¯m the help Radik sought. Now, where is the girl?"


    ¡°H-help?¡± He stutters and I can see him breathing heavily as he held onto his stomach.


    "Yes," I tell him. If he trusts me, the more information I can get out of him.


    ¡°T-t-thank god.¡± He whispers and I can hear his breathing relax a bit. Maybe he¡¯s dying, or maybe he trusts me. Either way, he doesn''t have long to live and I¡¯ll make sure of it after I get the information out of it.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°S-she is a demon.¡± He tells me and I can see his body is shaking.


    ¡°A demon? Who?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°T-the girl we f-found.¡±


    Must be Suyeon. Did she do this?I say in my mind.


    ¡°B-be careful. Our leader is dealing with her right cough* cough* now. But he is also h-having a hard time.¡± He tells me and he kept coughing blood as it almost hit my face.


    ¡°Tell me what happened? The more information I know, the better for me to handle the situation.¡± I asked him and he gave me a weak nod. Luckily he didn''t open his eyes or else I would have to kill him before I get the information out.


    ¡°W-when we took her. S-she slept cough* cough*- soundly. We waited for daytime here b-before going back to the base s-since we-we¡¯re a-all tired. I-it¡¯s when a-after she woke up i-in the morning. She- cough* cough* vomits* Huah* huah* S-she started screaming someone¡¯s name. And everything happened so fast a-after that.¡±


    Damn, she went crazy. I crouch down towards him and I grabbed his intestine that hanging from the side. He felt me tug that made him wince in pain.


    ¡°Cough* Cough* W-w-what are you doing?! Stop that!¡± He shouted and I can feel his body shake more.


    Why is this guy not dead yet, I¡¯m holding his intestine for fucks sakes.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Hey, why are you not dead? Your insides are out.¡± I asked him as I firmly held onto his intestines.


    ¡°I-I-I was originally a healer. So I-I has the ability to slowly regenerate. E-even severe wounds.¡± He explains to me and I can hear the nervousness within his tone of voice.


    "Oh, cool," I tell him as I pull on his intestine and I see him spit blood.


    ¡°S-stop! Stop! W-what are you doing?!¡± He held onto the hole on his side trying to prevent me from fully pulling out his intestines.


    ¡°Oh me? Nothing. I just want to see how long your intestines are.¡± I nonchalantly tell him as I tug on his intestines playfully. In slow motion, I pulled his intestines out his body and he screamed in pain as blood spurt out of his open wound.


    "S-stop! P-please! S-spare me!" He screamed in pain as he grabs his intestines with his both hands trying to prevent me from pulling it out more as he falls to the ground.


    "Come on~ I just want to see how long it is!" I yanked out his intestines as hard as I can and it slipped off his hands. I see that the intestines also pulled out some of his other crap inside his body. He started vomiting blood as it probably filled his lungs. His hands went to his throat as if he couldn''t breathe and he let out a painful gasp for air. I see him claw his throat to the point he''s scratching his skin and blood trickled down but it soon stopped as his hands went limp and he flopped to the ground like a rag doll.


    I came close to him and poked him in the cheeks. ¡°That¡¯s what you get for disturbing my peace.¡±


    BOOOOOOM!


    I felt the ground shake violently after the explosion. I slowly stood up and looked around. I noticed the brick road goes on till I can''t see it anymore. Before following it, I decided to get a better view of my surroundings to see what the hell is creating the tremors.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I jump up towards the sky and as I reach the peak of my jump, I see the forest look entirely different. The trees are different from what we have encountered and it feels like I entered another dimension like the hidden dungeon.


    BOOOOOOOM!!


    A large explosion happened from a distance and trees flew to the sky along with dust and dirt as if a giant is going on a rampage in the area.


    That¡¯s where I need to go.I whisper in my mind.


    "I need to hurry," I whisper as I descend down the ground. As soon as I touch the surface, I sprinted towards the direction of the explosion speeding through the forest with ease. It wasn''t long till I reached the source of the explosion and the whole area was covered with dust making it harder for me to see what''s in it.


    "Fucking dust. Item bag." I took out a sword and used my skill to encase the blade with the wind. I swung towards the dust and a tornado formed like before sucking up everything.


    ¡°Ah! Ahhhhhh!!!!¡± I hear a female¡¯s voice scream and I see her get sucked up in the tornado as it twirled her around spitting her at the top.


    ¡°Oh shit. Haha.¡± I jumped up towards her catching her in midair.


    ¡°Y-Yasu? Yasu!¡± She suddenly hugged me that that made me choke a little bit. I can feel her body tremble as we descend back down the ground. ¡°I-I thought you left me! Uwaaaaaa!¡±


    She started crying and I activated my chef¡¯s coat skill to protect us from the fall.


    BOOM!


    I felt the impact as we land on the ground on my back. I feel her slowly loosening her grip and she sat up wiping her tears while her breathing spasm as the aftermath of her wails.


    ¡°I-hic*- though you-hic*- l-left me.¡± She says as she kept wiping her tears while she sat on top of me. I didn¡¯t say anything and just stared at her crying when I suddenly notice a shadowing moving behind her.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I pushed her to the side placing myself on top of her and I felt a sharp pain on my back right around the top right near my shoulder blades. I see her looking up to me with a worried look. I slowly turn to see a dagger lodged in my back as the guy from last night held it in place also looking at me surprised. I glared at him making him back up and I slowly stood up facing him. I see he''s a complete mess as his right-hand limp to the side. His clothes are riddled with rips and twigs stuck in between. ¡°That fucking hurt you piece of shit.¡±


    ¡°Y-you. Y-you¡¯re the one I-I felt last night.¡± He stutters and I can see he¡¯s badly wounded.


    ¡°Felt? You faggot. You felt me last night while I was sleeping?¡± I asked getting irritated.


    ¡°W-what? n-no your demonic aura-¡° He tried to explain but I wasn¡¯t listening as I clench my fist.


    "Pound!" I sunk my fist in his abdomen while I shift the weight of my punch to launch him upward. I can see his eyes go wide as he loses air before he went soaring up the sky like a bird. ¡°Suyeon! Get up!¡±


    I felt a quick wave of pain as my muscle tense where the knife is lodged in causing me to go on both knees.


    ¡°I-I-im sorr-¡° She tried to touch the knife to pull it out but she looked confused on how to go about it.


    ¡°Forget about the knife! This fucker needs to know whom he¡¯s dealing with! Time it and kick him!¡± I tell her as I point up the sky watching descending towards us.


    ¡°O-ok.¡± I see her stand in front of me looking up waiting for the guy to come back down. She suddenly ran towards a spot a distance away from me.


    What is she doing?I say in my mind and I¡¯m starting to feel the aftermath of the dagger lodged in my back.


    ¡°Fuck, this hurts-¡°


    ¡°Three-step combo!" I hear her suddenly shout and she started moving to do different positions like last time while she looks up.


    Did she gain a new skill? Her movement is different.I whisper as I see her jump up as the guy descends down towards her. The last step she did was in an upwards-kicking position as she jumps up the sky at an unbelievable speed. Her foot met the abdomen of the bandit and the shockwave of the explosion caused him to soar so far up in the sky he became a faint dot. The trees around us swayed away from us while the ground below her erupted causing a huge crater.


    "What the fuck," I whisper as I see her land safely down the ground as if she was doing the finish on a gymnastic routine. She quickly ran towards me still with a worried look as she inspects the dagger lodged in my back and I can feel my arm going numb.


    ¡°W-wh-wh h-h-how. I-I¡¯m sorry. I-its because of-¡° She stuttered looking frantically at the knife lodged on my back.


    ¡°Relax, I¡¯m not going to die from this tiny shit. I¡¯ve been through worse.¡± I say remembering how I have been eaten alive a year ago. I see her on a verge of tears hovering her hand on the daggers handle. "Grab the handle and pull it out. I can''t reach it."Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    She did as I told and the minute she touches the handle, it sent pain all over my body causing me to drop to my knees. "Agrhhhh!!!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± She screamed as she drops on her knees about to cry.


    ¡°Stop fucking crying! Just grab it and pull it out!¡± I tell her getting frustrated she can¡¯t do a simple task. She grabbed the handle again and I winced in pain. She started pulling the dagger out but at the slowest pace imaginable making me feel the dagger at every inch.


    ¡°Ahrhhh!!!! Yank it out quick! Why the fuck you¡¯re pulling it out so slow!¡± I shouted at her and I can see tears coming out of her eyes.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry!¡± She apologized as she closed her eyes and quickly yanked out the dagger.


    ¡°Nnggghhhh!!!!¡± I muffled my voice as I clench my fist waiting for the pain to subside.


    Hah*


    Huah*


    ¡°Fuck, that hurts. Item bag.¡± I took out a piece of meat and started eating to help me regenerate faster.


    Swooooosh!


    BOOOOOOOM!


    Something erupted behind me and when I look back, I see the person she kicked upwards into the sky, on the ground. Blood splatter on all direction like someone slammed a tomato on the floor. His body was completely mangled as the impact of the crush denied him of a humane figure.


    ¡°Hah..¡± I whisper as I slowly stand up walking near him. ¡°Well, that¡¯s just overkill.¡±


    I notice something shines on his finger making me crouch down to get a better look.


    Whistle*


    ¡°A diamond ring. Hmm, this will look good on my mother.¡± I decided to remove the ring off his finger and placed it in my dimensional bag. I hear Suyeon scuffle behind me as she follows me to get a better look.


    ¡°I-is he dead?¡± She asked.


    "Do you think he looks alive?" I asked her and she shakes her head. "Where did you learn that skill? Is that new?"


    ¡°N-no. It¡¯s the same it just changes position when I look up the sky.¡± She tells me as she points up with her blood covered hands.


    "Oh, so the poses depend on whether you''re looking up or straight," I tell her and she nods.


    ¡°Y-yeah. I used it on a couple of them earlier.¡± She tells me making me remember the guy who had his intestines out.


    ¡°You did all of that?¡± I asked her and she nods happily.


    ¡°Y-yeah. T-they tried to tie me up a-and told me I should be happy I would be sold. T-then¡­t-this guy, tried to u-use his thing to me s-so I kicked him and managed to get away. T-they caught me so I did what you taught me to do." She explained and it always baffles me how she gets caught up in all trouble without doing anything.


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t tell me you. Ripped them apart with your bare hands?¡± I say studying her blood covered hands. She nods happily to me and I just stare at her at awe.


    "Well, what do you know? I didn''t need to come and save your ass." I tell her and her eyes lit up.


    ¡°S-save me? You c-came to save me? I-I thought you left me¡­¡± She felt happy as she fixes her hair removing it away from her face.


    ¡°Leave you, when you could do shit like this? There is no way I would leave you.¡± I tell her smiling at the carcass of the bandit.


    ¡°S-so are you going to cut them up?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°T-to eat. You always cut up everything we kill.¡± She told me and I know she isn''t joking.


    ¡°FYI, the only thing I don¡¯t eat is human flesh. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t cut up the governor to eat. That¡¯s taboo.¡± I tell her and she just nods.


    ¡°What do we do with them?¡± She asked me while looking at the corpse.


    ¡°Nothing. Leave them there for the birds to eat or for their own people to find. They don¡¯t even deserve a humane burial.¡± I tell her as I started walking back where the carriage was and she quietly followed. We both followed the trail but then I decided to walk off a bit to not run into anyone. As I sat down on the ground, I noticed Suyeon started collecting sticks.


    ¡°Hey, stop that. We¡¯re not camping here. I just need to let this wound heal then we¡¯ll be on our way.¡± I tell her and she nods dropping the bundle of sticks she was hugging. She slowly walked towards me and sat near me as she takes out a water container to wash the blood off her hands.


    "How about this area, do the trees look similar?" I asked her and she looked around.


    "Oh! They''re the same!" She suddenly was full of energy. Even I was excited. We''re getting closer to finding out clues on where they went. Now the next thing is to find an adventurer or anyone and ask them if they spot any odd-looking people. But I don''t think we''ll find any adventurers here. It seems like this illusion barrier is made to keep people out.


    The best thing to do now is to keep following the trail. It might lead somewhere. After I felt my wound healed fully, I told her to change clothes. I did the same since we¡¯re both covered with blood. If we managed to come across a bandit, the last thing we want is to attack us on sight.


    ¡°Ok, you ready?¡± I asked her as she ties her hair to a ponytail using a string I gave her. The front of her hair covers her face making her look ridiculous. ¡°Wait a minute. I stop her as I took out a dagger from my bag. I gently grabbed the hair hanging down her face and using my dagger, I cut it just right above where her eyebrow is giving her bangs. Ever since we got out of the boar town, she¡¯s been looking like the grudge following me around. But after cutting her hair into bangs, I paused as she looks at me in the eyes making my face feel hot.


    Cough*


    ¡°E-ehem. This is better, now you can see better.¡± I tell her and she nods happily. But at that moment I knew, she looked way better than Hiroko if she got one of them girly hairdo. We scavenged what we can from the broken up carriage and all of the bandits, emptying their pockets. It might be messed up to scavenge a dead body but it¡¯s survival of the fittest. After collecting what we can, we started following the brick road that continued non-stop. It felt like we were walking forever. We kept walking until we saw the carriage again.


    ¡°What the¡­fuck, we¡¯re going in circles?¡± I whisper as I stand in front of the broken down the carriage. This trail, now that I noticed. This trail was built probably just in case someone gets in the illusion barrier without knowing. A person can follow this trail forever not knowing they¡¯re going in circles over and over again.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± I whisper walking the opposite way. I walked back looking around to see if there¡¯s any beaten path that breaks off the brick trail but nothing. I kept track in my mind by counting and it approximately took us at least two hours walking from one edge of the illusion barrier to the next.


    I decided to try and figure out the center of the illusion. If it took us two hours to reach from one side to the other, if we walked for an hour, it should bring us to the center. From there, we can look for anything that may be hiding another path. There might be more of those guys and by the looks of it, they might be slave trader or bandits. Which means, there are people here or maybe a base hidden somewhere. If we find that it, I might find more clues where Daikichi and Kana are or even better, I might find them in there. We walked following the trail one last time. I was too busy counting in my head as I look to the ground that I didn¡¯t notice a person until I almost bumped into him.


    Well, don¡¯t you look like you belong to a museum? I say in my mind as I see the old man stand in front of us.


    ¡°H-hello. I-I needs help. P-please, my granddaughter is hurt. Help me.¡± The old man says looking at me.


    This old man, probably one of them. Must be a trap.I say in my mind as I notice the ring on his finger is similar to the one I took from the dead body.


    ¡°Sure~ bring me to her,¡± I tell him while smiling and he looked like he was about to cry thanking me.


    Nice acting you old fuck bag.


    ¡°S-she¡¯s just up ahead in the forest. We were gathering herbs w-when she hurt herself.¡± He tells me. ¡°Thank goodness I found you.¡±


    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you lucky. I was actually heading somewhere after dealing with an issue near the illusion barrier entrance.¡± The minute I said it, he stopped walking. He didn¡¯t bother turning around but I can see his breathing is getting out of pace. ¡°Now why did you stop old man~ Come on. Bring me to your granddaughter~ I somehow want to meet her~¡±


    ¡°Y-you. Who are you?¡± He asked me slowly turning around. Rather than showing fear, he¡¯s glaring at me.


    ¡°Why you looking so mad old man~ Come on, we don¡¯t have enough time to chit chat, bring me to your granddaughter~,¡± I tell him and he suddenly took out a sword from the cane he¡¯s holding.


    ¡°Oho~ Want to fight now. Well then~¡± I say as I clench my fist waiting for him to make the first move. Suyeon stayed behind me looking around wary of her surroundings.


    ¡°Who are you, or you will die here.¡± He says trying to scare me.


    ¡°Pfft~ I have known you¡¯re a bandit the minute I saw you. My name is irrelevant at this point. Say, mind pointing me where your hideout is?¡± I asked him trying to validate if they are bandits or not.


    ¡°Everyone!¡± He shouts and suddenly, bandits came out the bushes and behind the trees. There were so many of them that they surrounded us both side. Suyeon turned around and now we¡¯re back to back looking around us.


    ¡°Now now, relaaaaax~,¡± I say raising my arms as if I was going for a hug. ¡° I came here because I was asked to help a carriage carrying valuable merch.¡±


    ¡°Carriage? Who asked you?¡± I see him still wary of my presence.


    ¡°Radik, the carriage driver¡­.¡± I would fight them but it¡¯s better to get on their good side and infiltrate their base rather than being brought in as a prisoner. ¡°He asked me to help some bandits that were being attacked by a demon.¡±


    ¡°Y-y-you. You can¡¯t be Olin right?¡± One of the bandits who had his face covered asked happily.


    ¡°Ah~ Yes that Olin,¡± I say smiling at him not knowing who the hell this Olin guy is. I see the old man relax is stance along with everyone else but he didn¡¯t make a move.


    ¡°Is that so. The mighty Olin, finally grace us with your presence. Came here to relax after doing an unimaginable thing right?¡± He asked me and I just nodded not knowing what the hell is he talking about.


    ¡°Holy hell, Olin. In the flesh. What the hell this is the best day of my life.¡± The same bandit who shouted Olin¡¯s name earlier in surprise approach me and held out his hand for me to shake it but I ignored him and turn towards the old man.


    "Sorry kiddo, had to be sure. We are actually going to the edge of the barrier to check why the carriage hasn''t arrived yet. Did you say you helped them? Where are they?" The old man asks me.


    ¡°That¡¯s why I was looking for your base to let someone know they¡¯re dead. I got there too late and the demon murdered them all.¡± I tell him hoping he¡¯d buy the story.


    ¡°What?!¡± The old man shouts and I see him stare at nothing for a good minute. ¡°I told them not to travel at night since there¡¯s been a commotion outside the illusion. Fuck. Did you happen to see what the demon look like?¡±


    "Well, it was a female demon that had pale skin and fangs. Bright red hair that matches her iris. Injured her but she fled before I did the finishing blow." I tell him a lie I made up on the spot thinking about the ogre queen and the overlord on the hidden dungeon.


    ¡°Shit, how did a demon get in here? I just talked to them a couple of hours ago now they''re all dead." The old man whispered to himself.


    ¡°Shit, what do well tell the boss?¡± One bandit says towards the old man.


    ¡°Nothing. We¡¯ll say the carriage never came and clean up the mess ourselves. If he finds out no one stopped them from leaving at night, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll get blamed for it since we¡¯re on guard duty last night.¡± The old man tells him and I can see they all look worried.


    Who the hell is this big boss?I asked in my mind.


    ¡°Wait, how did you get through the illusion barrier?¡± He asked me and I got confused.


    Ah shit. Fuck, what do I say?I say in my mind while trying to keep a calm look.


    ¡°The only way to get in here is using these rings.¡± He says as he raises his hand showing me a diamond ring. The same ring I picked up earlier on the dead body.


    ¡°Can we see the ring?¡± One of the bandits asks and I¡¯m starting to feel irritated.


    ¡°Tsk, so many fucking questions. Maybe I should kill all of you here so I can get on my way.¡± I whisper and I see most of them touch their weapon including the old man.


    ¡°Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! C-come on now guys. R-relax.¡± The Bandit says.


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re Olin?¡± The old man says and I can see his expression change.


    ¡°Dimensional bag,¡± I whispered and the bag dropped in front of me. Everyone was startled but they couldn¡¯t take their eyes off the dimensional bag as I pick it up from the ground.


    ¡°A dimensional bag, now that is something I¡¯ve never seen.¡± He says as I place my hand inside the bag to take out the ring and show it to him.


    ¡°Seeeee~ Jiji, he¡¯s the real deal. N-now guys let not draw our weapons okay?¡± The bandit says and I see the old man and everyone relax.


    ¡°Sorry kiddo, had to be sure ya know. No one has ever seen Olin¡¯s face except our leader and he¡¯s quite busy right now in the town with new livestock that¡¯s running amok. Damn new adventurers from a far-off land.¡± He tells me and that caught my attention.


    ¡°New adventurers? Who? What do they look like? Do you know their name?¡± I bombarded him with questions thinking about Daikichi.


    ¡°Whoa, whoa. Relax. Some new adventurers appeared out of nowhere. They had weird clothing and gave us issues when they were brought in.¡± He tells me and it''s making me clench my fist inside my pocket.


    ¡°Tell me, how far is the town from here?¡± I asked him and I can see his eyebrow twitch.


    ¡°It¡¯s about an hour away walking from this checkpoint.¡± He tells me and he turns to the Bandit that seems to idolize me. ¡°You, lead them to the town and give him and his- I¡¯m sorry sir Olin. But who¡¯s she?¡±


    The old man points at Suyeon who¡¯s behind me hiding as the boys hover around her like bees.


    ¡°She is my disciple. A Bandit in training.¡± I tell him and he raises his eyebrow.


    ¡°A beautiful bandit? Well, that¡¯s something you don¡¯t see daily.¡± He whispers. ¡°Well then, we¡¯ll be on our way. Men! Move out!¡±


    All of them started walking towards the direction we came from.


    ¡°Please keep this between us.¡± The old man says and they all walked off towards the brick path.


    Fucking cunts. Gullible shit bags. They believe anything anyone will say. How in the world are they bandits?I say in my mind as I started following the bandit who led us through the forest. He talked non-stop about what he wants to do and what he wants to become and how he idolized me. It seems like Olin is some legendary bandit.


    ¡°Ok, we¡¯re here.¡± He says as he stops right in the middle of the forest. I look around and I see nothing but trees.


    Here? The fuck.I say in my mind as I prepare myself just in case he led us to another ambush.


    ¡°Here? where?¡± I asked him as he looks at me happily.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. It¡¯s your first time here. Give me a minute.¡± I see him bend down touching something on the ground.


    A string?As soon as he got ahold of the string, he pulled it and the ground started sliding sideways opening a staircase leading below the surface. No wonder I don¡¯t see any buildings. Their hideout, It¡¯s underground.

 CHAPTER 43: The Bandit Town

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 43:The Bandit Town


    <hr>


    ¡°Whoa, the hell," I whisper as I see a spiral staircase delving deeper in the ground.


    "Awesome right? Come on let''s go." The bandit says as he walks down the stairs.


    "What do these adventurers looks like? The one the old man was talking about earlier?" I asked him as I follow down the stairs with Suyeon tagging behind me.


    "Well, I never saw them so I wouldn''t be able to tell you. But maybe the auctioneer can about the livestock." He tells me without turning around.


    ¡°Livestock?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°Yea, slaves and such. Easier to call them livestock. You guys are the first people to actually come in the area without an escort. Otherwise, adventurers wouldn¡¯t be able to find this place.¡± He says and I hope it isn''t them that they''re calling livestock. Or else, no one will survive to live for the next day.


    "Why, no adventurers allowed?" I asked him and he stops scratching his head.


    "You kidding right? This place is full of bandits. It''s a bandit¡¯s paradise and adventurers worst nightmare. " He tells me.


    "Oh, and these certain Livestock''s that causing issues, are they still alive?" I asked him but my heart was beating irregularly as I finish my sentence and wait for his response.


    "Yeah, the big boss doesn''t really kill anyone unless it is severe. Most likely, they put them in conditions that worse than death if they misbehave. Frankly speaking, between you and me, I don''t like those conditions. I rather get killed on the spot." He tells me making me more impatient as we walked down the spiral steps.


    I need to know if Daikichi and Kana are any of them. I say in my mind.How come no one has ever noticed this fucking place existed? Someone should have at least noticed the illusion barrier from outside.


    ¡°Can you take me to see the livestock? I need to purchase one for myself.¡± I tell him since it¡¯s the best way for me to see if Daikichi or Kana is here.


    ¡°Sure~ there¡¯s actually an auction happening later on as the big leagues are stopping by. Come, let¡¯s get something to eat first and we¡¯ll go to the auction when it opens up.¡± He tells me as he picked up the pace and I stay close behind him. I had the urge to lodge a knife on the back of his neck as I followed him silently. The bandit happily led us as he continued to talk non-stop irritating me more, but I held myself back from telling him to shut up as he¡¯s the only way I can get into the auction.


    We got to another door after walking down for a couple of minutes and when he opens it, it leads to a prehistoric looking elevator. A mechanism which what looks like a pirate ship wheel is at the center of the platform that¡¯s probably used to move the elevator up and down.


    "Lucky~ the platform is up here. It''s a hassle if someone leaves it on the bottom floor. Come help me." He says as he grabs one end of the wheel ready to turn it. I grab the other side and he began to turn the wheel clockwise and I did the same speeding up the process. The platform shook for a bit but then it started descending slowly as we kept turning the wheel. It took a couple of minutes to reach the bottom floor, which introduced us to a dimly lit hallway.


    How far are we on the ground?I say in my mind.


    ¡°We¡¯re almost there, the end of this hallway will introduce you to the best bandit underground town this planet has ever seen~¡±


    Bandit town. I¡¯m in a bandit town. I say in my mind as I follow the bandit.


    ¡°I forgot to ask, what¡¯s your name?¡±I asked him as he led us through the hallway.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I forgot to tell you due to all this excitement. My name is Dorang.¡± He held out his hand for me to shake but I gave him a nod instead. We walked until we reached a double door and Dorang proceeded to push it open.


    As soon as I got a glimpse, the place looks ridiculous. A giant cave with buildings built on the wall of the cave and at the center of it, a giant statue of some guy. Lights are attached nonchalantly everywhere to illuminate the cave, but I guess they ran out of bulbs as the whole cave is still too dim to even see properly. It looks gritty and there are a lot of rough looking people walking about from one place to another while some are bartering with stall owners. Drunkards walk around holding an open bottle singing as they spill their drink everywhere. Some females are dressed in skimpy clothes trying to pick up their customer for the day giving it a full lawless nature.


    ¡°Great isn¡¯t?~¡± Dorang asked me as he looks and I just nod. He gestures to me to follow him and we walked through the crowd. I can''t help their gazed fixated on me while most of the guys are eyeing Suyeon licking their lips and whistling as we pass them. Makes me want to rip their tongue out but I held myself back trying not to cause a scene and lose the only way I can find clues of my friends whereabouts. If I create a commotion now, it will be harder to get information.


    ¡°Stay close to me and don¡¯t kick anyone," I whisper to Suyeon who nods looking terrified as she tries to distance herself from the whistling and sexual taunts happening around her.


    ¡°Ok we¡¯re here~¡± Dorang stopped in front of a door with a badly written print on it indicating what it is.


    ¡°Bandits Inn?¡± I read it out loud and Dorang pushed the door open introducing a loud crowd that doesn''t have any common decency. Food is flying out their mouths as they laugh and talk to each other while some are doing a full make-out session with girls lucky enough to get a client. It has a similar setup as the boar''s inn but its grittier and darker. As soon as we walk in, some of the people turn their heads towards us as they try to study the new fresh faces in their habitat.


    "Hey, guys~ Look~ It''s Olin~" The whole place suddenly got quiet the minute Dorang said my fake name and in an instant, it got loud again as they all scream greeting me shaking my hand with their grease filled palm. After shaking everyone¡¯s hands, Dorang brought us to a table and we both sat down while a couple of the bandits bring their chair circling us. I didn¡¯t even order food but the waiter, which is a fat old man wearing an apron that smell like sweat, place a couple of plates with pigs¡¯ feet in them. He looks like an overweight butcher and it seems like these pig¡¯s feet it¡¯s the only thing they serve in this place.


    ¡°So, Olin, how was the demon continent. Didn¡¯t you go overseas to another land?¡± Dorang asked me grabbing food without even wiping his hands. ¡°How was the food there?¡±


    ¡°Did you find better livestock?¡± Another bandit asked me before I even answered Dorang with a lie.


    "How many women did you sleep with?" Another bandit asked me without looking at me fixating his gaze at Suyeon who stayed close to me.


    ¡°Olin show us your skills.¡± Another voice and it started to get overwhelming as one question happened after the other. ¡°Olin show me your skills in bed."


    So many questions ringed out around me as I grab a pig''s feet and bite into it. The last thing I want it to not seem like a bandit by being picky with food. Suyeon follows what I¡¯m doing and grabs one of the pig¡¯s feet. We both munch on the feet picking bits and pieces of fat and meat. The food wasn''t bad but it wasn''t good. All I tasted was the oil and there was too much fat that''s it''s making me feel like I''ll have a heart attack any minute. I tried to answer all their questions with short replies and tried to finish a pig¡¯s feet as fast as I can. The fat butcher comes back with two big mugs of alcohol and placed it in front of us. Now that I remember, not once I have had alcohol in this world. Back at Earth, I only drink alcohol on a special occasion like my birthday or my mom''s birthday and it''s only when I''m at home with my mom present. But it seems like this world has no age limit or maybe it¡¯s only this place has no age limit. Since I see some of the bandits here are far younger than me.


    ¡°Drink up. I know the food here is not the best quality, but the alcohol is top notch.¡± Dorang whisper to me and I see Suyeon already drinking hers. She probably thought it was juice since she stops midway and forced herself to swallow the liquid in her mouth.I grab it and took a sip and even in this world, alcohol tastes the same. I was careful not to drink too much since I¡¯m surrounded by bandits who would probably cut my throat in my sleep the minute, they figure out I¡¯m not Olin. It¡¯s going to be quite a hassle to deal with all of them if I¡¯m drunk.


    I need to find Daikichi and Kana quick. If they''re here, I need to get them out. If not, we need to leave asap. I say in my mind as I place the bones of the pig¡¯s feet down the plate. I gesture to all of them to eat the rest and all of the bandits around us emptied the plate-like dogs and walked to their own table drunkenly singing out of tune. I turned to Dorang who¡¯ also happily eating his own pig¡¯s feet not minding the dirt under his fingernails.


    ¡°When does this auction start?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Mgfhh- in an hourmfogh~" He tried to speak with food in his mouth and I pass my alcohol to him which he happily took and gulped down half of it in one go. ¡°Ahhhh~ that hits the spot. Sorry about that. The auction starts in probably an hour or so. Anything you want to do before then?¡±


    Since we¡¯re here. Might as well check the market out for anything useful. I say in my mind looking around to see what type of gear they¡¯re all wearing.


    ¡°Is there any place I can buy items?¡± I asked him.


    "Ah, the bandit''s item store is the best place.¡± He tells me as he finally grabs a towel that was placed by the fat butcher and cleaned his hands with it. ¡°They sell everything from swords, to armors, to basically everything. If you guys are done eating, I can bring you there also.¡±


    I look at Suyeon who''s also trying to wipe her hands clean. She probably also didn''t like the pig''s feet. ¡°Yea I think we¡¯re done here.¡±


    ¡°Ok, give me a minute and let me ask how much. My treat~¡± He says as he stood up to walk towards the fat butcher.After eating, we headed out again walking through a sea of people. I noticed some homeless individuals sitting around in a dark alleyway and some of them are drooling in place as if they''re experiencing the aftermath of using a strong drug leading to an overdose. What¡¯s abnormal outside seems normal here as if it¡¯s part of their lifestyle.


    "A truly lawless land," I whisper as I pass them.


    We got to another door and when Dorang opened it, an old man with a big nose greeted us, "Welcome to the bandit''s item cove. How may I serve you today? Oho~ what is this. A new face. Definitely, this new face needs an armor that will show your strength. If we walk over he-"


    "I don''t need armor. Do you have health potions?" I interrupted him and he gave me a smile big enough it probably could reach his earlobes.


    ¡°Oho~ Only the rich can afford those. I do have in limited numbers, so they are quite expensive.¡± He tells me rubbing his hand while giving me a smile that exposed his dental problems.


    ¡°How much?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°130gold per bottle.¡± He replies without hesitation.


    130gold per bottle? This toucan is trying to rip us off.


    "How many bottles you have," I asked him and he started counting using his fingers which were full of dirt under his nails.


    ¡°I have 6 left.¡± He replied as he rubbed his hands again.


    "How about I give you 300 gold and something equivalent for the remaining balance," I called out my dimensional bag, which made his eyes go wide with shock. I took out two swords I collected from the dungeon and he started inspecting it.


    ¡°Marvelous~ Ohh! This is marvelous!!~" He says as he inspects the blade.


    ¡°So, do we have a deal?¡± I asked him and he was too fixated on the sword studying every inch of it.


    ¡°Why yes of course! As an added bonus, I can give you a piece of armor as a thank you for these marvelous swords.¡±


    I asked him if there is any cloth armor for females and I told Suyeon to pick what she wants. She happily obliged and started looking over the clothes on the rack with the shopkeeper.


    ¡°S-say Mr. Olin. Where did you find her?¡± Dorang asked me nodding at Suyeon. ¡°I have never seen such beauty as her.¡±


    Are all guys deprived of female contact in this world? What the hell.I say in my mind.


    "Under some circumstances, we ended up teaming up together," I tell him and he knew I didn¡¯t want to talk about it so he didn¡¯t pry. After Suyeon picked her clothes, the shop owner offered me another service of adding magic onto the clothes Suyeon bought.


    He said he can add a buff that will increase any attributes she wants, and I told him to add something to increase her damage output and something that can help with her weapon¡¯s durability. Even though it cost me another sword, it¡¯s better if she deals a good amount of damage since she doesn¡¯t have any skill similar to sharpen or pound that I have. Most of her skill needs some form of body movement and the effect of the skill is too much.


    ¡°Dorang, pick out anything you like. I¡¯ll pay for it in return for the lunch you paid for.¡± I tell him and his eyes went wide with excitement as he looks over the section where they sell gauntlets. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m being nice. I don¡¯t like the feeling of owing anyone money. I checked some out silently whispering my inspect skill to see if there are any weapons for the dancer class but to my dismay, I didn''t find one. Even the gauntlets Dorang was looking at was for a class called a fighter.


    After Suyeon new cloth armor was added with the bonus attack damage and weapon durability attribute, we left the item boar shop and headed towards the auction hall where we can buy slaves. I see Suyeon is happily inspecting her new set of armor which makes her look like an assassin. The belly button area is open and the back itself gone showing her bare back and the clothes are skintight showing her hourglass figure. The armor came with the mask that makes her look like an assassin if she wears it but she kept in down making it seem like she''s wearing a turtle neck. The side of her pants is open showing her thighs while the inner section has skintight leggings that cover everything starting from her knees. Her black hair along with the bangs I cut for her makes her look innocent as she smiles non-stop looking at her clothes.


    ¡°Thank you again!¡± Dorang says as he looks at his new gauntlets. He chose one that cost me another sword but it¡¯s better to keep him happy. The more information I can get out of him, the better. We all walked towards an alleyway as Dorang leads us in what seems to be like a maze. We reached what looks like a platform where they probably kill people for everyone to watch. The reason I know this is because of a guillotine right in the center of the platform that''s covered with blood.


    Dorang must have noticed my gaze as he started speaking without looking at the guillotine. ¡°That, don''t worry about that. They only use it in severe crimes. Otherwise, they force people into labor depending on their crimes. That''s not really blood, that¡¯s paint."


    ¡°And what¡¯s severe?¡± I asked him.


    "Hmm, helping a livestock escape lead to a death penalty. Exposing the location of the hideout to adventurers leads to the death penalty, trying to kill or overthrow the boss leads to a death penalty. Everything else pretty much leads to labor. Most likely, we use the head machine on the livestock who try to escape or harm one of us." He explained and I didn¡¯t say anything. My mind was filled with Daikichi and Kana hoping they¡¯re still alive. I hoped they weren¡¯t brought here. I know Daikichi can control his temper, but I know Kana won¡¯t be able to at certain situations.


    ¡°Tch. Shit." I whisper as I followed him toward a big door.


    ¡°Give me a minute. Let me pay the entrance fee. That''s one gold coin each. Which seating do you want?" He says as he held out his hands waiting for me to give him money. I placed three gold coins in his palm.


    "The place where we can see the livestock first," I tell him, and he quickly ran towards a bandit that¡¯s standing guard near the door. After a couple of minutes, he came running back towards us holding three masks.


    ¡°Most likely, they don''t give VIP tickets unless it''s someone really important and well, you''re important. They gave us a seat near the front row. Come, you have to wear this. This is mainly for status reasons. The VIP''s wears a mask in auctions. This is my first time wearing one. I''m so excited~¡± He hands me a mask and I nod to him as I grab two masks and gave one to Suyeon who¡¯s keeping close behind me. So far, every male we pass by either whistle or give her a sexual remark. Even the bandit near the entrance is eyeing her from a distance.


    "Wear this, and remember, stay close to me," I tell her and she nods as she grabs the mask and wears it. The mask they gave us doesn''t have any color. There are holes where the eyes are supposed to be and a tiny hole near the mouth to make breathing easier under the mask. It looks like a traditional Japanese Noh mask.


    "Ok, if anyone asks, your name is Nilo, the guard in front knows who you are but he told me it''s safer to go with a different name if anyone asks who you are," Dorang asked me and I nod at him.


    "Alright," I tell him, and we walked towards the door which the guard opened upon getting close to it. As soon as we''re on the other side, the guard slowly closed the door and darkness quickly surrounded us. Not only that, the whole area feels like a sauna.


    "Don''t worry, its procedure. Makes it harder to find the exit just in case livestock gets away." Dorang says but I feel helpless without knowing what¡¯s around me. I feel Suyeon grabbing my arm, as she probably feels petrified as if something will jump out and grab her from behind. After a couple of minutes, we heard footsteps approaching us and I readied myself just in case we''re being ambushed.


    ¡°Sir Olin and the guest member of two?¡± Someone suddenly spokes.


    ¡°Uh, yeah," I replied back and the area was so quiet I can hear them breathing.


    ¡°Ok. Give me a minute sir, please don¡¯t move.¡±I suddenly feel something being put on my head and it made me flinch.


    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m putting night vision lens on you guys so you can see.¡± I hear a voice near me and it¡¯s too close for comfort. I slightly nod thinking that they can see me in the dark. I feel something clamp on the back of my head as the lens of the night vision gets pushed on the masks eye sockets. The minute the night vision lens is in place, I was able to see everything as heat signatures.


    These aren¡¯t night vision lens, these are a thermal lens.I say in my mind as I see two people around us putting the lens on Dorang¡¯s mask and Suyeon¡¯s mask.


    ¡°Ok, can you guys see us?¡± A lady asked us and I gave her a nod.


    ¡°Yeah," Dorang replied and I see him waving at me. ¡°This is sooo cool~¡±


    "Right? Ok well, you only need these to get through the pathway towards the auction room. Come follow us, we''ll lead you guys there."The female says as she turns around and started walking towards a path along with her companion. The two then walked out towards a door pushing it with cloth on their hands. The reason the whole area feels hot is that the walls and the ceiling are heated up so we can see them with the thermal lens. The girl and her companion led us towards another door and they both stopped right in front of it.


    ¡°Ok, the other side of this door is the auction room. We need to remove your night vision lens or else the brightness on the other side might cause you guys to go blind.¡± She says as she came close to me to remove the lens. I nod and she quickly worked on removing it, enveloping us back into the darkness. I hear the door suddenly creaking and light entered the area. I hover my hands to cover my eyes from the light source as it''s making me squint. As soon as my vision starts to adjust, I noticed the auction room is full of people and the whole place looks like an auditorium.


    "Come, I''ll lead you to your seats. I would recommend not telling anyone your real name, sir." One of the bandits says as he looks at me. "We heard from the guard outside and have informed the auctioneer. He is happy to have you here and the only thing he asks is to hide your identity so that the auction can go smoothly as possible. Of course, if there is anything in your interest, you will be put in first priority."


    "Alright. Lead us to our seats." I tell him and he started walking towards the side near the front where three chairs are placed in a round table rather than the auditorium style seating everyone else has.


    This must be VIP seats.I say in my mind as I see a couple more round tables separating from the group of people. As we walk past them, they all stared us down as if we¡¯re celebrities. The girls would whisper amongst themselves while the guys would whistle as Suyeon pass them. She kept close behind me almost hiding her face on my back as she grabs my shirt.


    We reached our table and I noticed there¡¯s another round table adjacent to ours. It¡¯s still empty. The other VIP who occupies them hasn''t arrived yet but I do hope no one sits there. It''s already uncomfortable enough that a lot of the people on the vipregular section are giving us looks that make me want to send a skill flying towards the crowd. We quickly sat down, and our table is closest to the stage where they probably will show off the people they kidnapped to be sold like livestock. Good thing we have masks or else, it will be harder to move around later on if my image gets imprinted into people mind.


    ¡°Hello everyone! Welcome to the auction house! A place where we auction the best quality merchandise to all of you! Thank you all for patiently waiting but please do wait a bit more as some of our important guests has not arrived yet. For the time being, please let us treat all of you to cold refreshing beer!" After the announcer on stage finished speaking seven girls came out from the doors surrounding the area pushing carts filled with alcohol bottles. The girls took the bottles and handed them out to the crowd as they all eagerly wait for their drink. The announcer grabbed a few bottles and approached us. The minute he got close, he bowed as he placed three bottles of alcohol on our table.


    ¡°If you need more, please don¡¯t hesitate to let me know. My name is Ragi, I am the owner and auctioneer of their establishment. It''s very nice to finally meet you, sir." The auctioneer says as he held out his hand. I grab it and we briefly shook hands as we nod at each other.


    ¡°How long till the rest of the guest gets here?¡± I asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re all on their way, they will be here any moment. As you know, the way of getting in here is quite a task and I only have two people handling with leading people in the dark since I''m short staffed. Some of my staff decided to get more livestock but they haven''t come back, and it''s been a day."


    Of course, they won''t come back, they¡¯re all dead.I say in my mind thinking that it¡¯s the same people Suyeon murdered near the illusion barrier. I see Dorang stiffens and he knows what''s happened to them.


    ¡°Ok.¡± I nod towards him indicating our conversation is done and he nods back at me and turns around to walk back up the stage.


    Before he started walking, he stopped again as if he remembered something as he turned around again to face me. ¡°I completely forgot, the reason I went here is to let you know that if you need anything or want anyone that is up for auction, tap the table twice and I will reserve them for you. I will look at your table first before saying the price and if I see you tap, I will not sell the livestock to anyone but you.¡±


    "Ok," I tell him and he nods again before heading onto the stage. I¡¯m a bit surprised how popular this Olin person is.


    This Olin guy is like celebrities amongst celebrities. How come no one knows his face?I whisper in my mind as I study the difference between how people view popularity in this world. In this world, they all just seem to go with the flow and don¡¯t even attempt to figure out this Olin true identity. And by the looks of it, no one has ever tried to pretend to be Olin let alone, even protect his identity.


    ¡°Whew, that was close. I was sweating bullets there." Dorang says as the auctioneer goes in a door behind the stage.


    "Just relax, no one knows what happened except us," I tell him. The last thing I want is for him to mess this all up.


    "That scared me when he approached us. To get even a special treatment from the auctioneer is rare. But then again, it¡¯s you, Mr. Olin~" Dorang says as he drinks his beer.


    I give him my bottle as Suyeon gives him hers. I guess she doesn¡¯t like the taste of beer. Even better, the last thing I want is for her to be addicted to alcohol and become a drunkard. Dorang happily accepted the beer bottles as he drank them one by one. After a couple of minutes, a couple more people entered filling up most of the VIP tables. As usual, like the rest of the crowd, they would turn their head trying to catch a glimpse of my group.


    "Tsk, these special guests are so fucking slow," I whisper as I ignore them. The last table that''s missing is the one across ours and I keep hoping no one sits there but by the looks of it, someone does. There are six chairs circling the table which means, there are six people left to arrive so the auction can get started.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Fucking hurry up. The hell are these dumb guests doing that¡¯s taking them so long to arrive? Sure, like hell it can''t be fucking traffic." I whisper as I started getting agitated and my legs vibrate up and down.


    Then the door suddenly opens up and six figures came walking in. They all have leather armor, or I would say overcoat and somehow, they give a different vibe than everyone. Everyone who''s seated in the VIP section is given a white mask to wear as Dorang said earlier. But these group, they have a different type of mask with a design carved in them. And by the looks of it, their masks are made of metal.


    ¡°What''s with their mask?¡± I whisper to Dorang and he looks nonchalantly at the group walking towards the table near us. He lifts up his mask to get a better look and I can see it¡¯s probably his first time seeing them also.


    ¡°Hmm, I have never those before. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s from the auctioneer. Maybe it¡¯s their own personal mask?¡± He says as he looks back towards me giving me a shrug.


    I watched the group walk towards their table and that''s when I noticed, they''re all looking this way. No, to better describe it, they''re all looking at me. I stared into them and I can''t even see their eyes as their mask has a small slant towards where the eyes are. When I was about to say something, they all turned around and sat on their respective chairs like robots.


    ¡°Alright! The entire guest has arrived. I apologize for the delay but now, we can get this auction started!¡± The auctioneer cheers up the crowd and they all scream in unison.


    I look around the room and notice most of the people are cheering except for two groups. Mine, excluding Dorang who''s screaming his lungs out and the group of six that recently arrived. One of them is staring at me as his life depends on it. And the more I study them, I can see four guys and two girls in their group. The guy who keeps glancing my way noticed I turned my chair to face them and he did the same.


    Fucking bastard. I whisper in my mind.


    "Ok! Let''s get this Auction started! Bring out Livestock number one!" The auctioneer shouts making me turn his way to see whom they''re bringing out. I see a girl walk out with her hands and feet chained up only enabling her to make small steps. The chains are connected to her neck and extend out the back where a big burly dude who''s also wearing a mask holds it like he''s walking his pet human.


    ¡°Ok! This one is young!¡± The auctioneer glances my way and I shake my head slightly indicating I¡¯m not interested, and I see him slightly nod as he faces the crowd. "At a ripe age for you, young lads. She has the energy to do all kind of work. Shall we start the bidding at 50 gold?"


    ¡°Fifty-one!¡± A voice from the audience erupted as the bidding started.


    ¡°Fifty-two!¡± Another person screamed and one after another they kept screaming increasing their bids trying to outdo one another until the final price was one hundred thirty gold.


    "Going once, going twice, sold! Please approach the cashier in the back to make the payment. All livestock will be delivered after the auction is complete." I see the person who bought her order one of her henchmen run to the back of the room where a bandit sits around a table. ¡°Ok! Let''s bring out the next livestock!¡±


    Again, another person walks out and stands on the stage. The auctioneer glances my way, but I have my arms crossed nowhere near the table and he knew I wasn''t interested so he started bidding her to the crowd.


    Fuck, hurry up with this damn shit.I whisper in my mind, as I get impatient.


    I should have asked him earlier to see all of the livestock he''s going to auction off at once before the auction began. It would have saved us the time.After finishing one auction, another one came out that¡¯s not in my interest. They come and go and the more he brings out, the better looking they get and the higher the starting bid becomes. He brings out young females that probably right around our age and young males also where the female cougar in the crowd have bid to an extravagant amount.


    But, one pair of slaves made my stomach turn. A young mother and her son came out and I can see they both look petrified. I notice the mother is looking around as they watch the crowd scream sexual taunts at her. I wouldn''t blame them; she looks like a mixture of western and Asian heritage. Slant eyes with blue iris and dark red hair. Her son has the same dark red hair, but his eyes are dark brown closer to black.


    ¡°This one is a special one. Cannot separate them. So, we will sell them at a price for one!" The Auctioneer looks at me and I wanted to tap my hand but hesitated. I can hardly survive in this world, taking care of a mother and son who probably don¡¯t have any fighting capabilities will only hinder my goal. As much as they remind me of me and my mother, I can''t do things on a whim.


    The auctioneer nods towards me and looks at the crowd. "Ok, let''s start the bidding at two hundred and fifty gold!"


    250 gold? A price for one?I say in my mind as that¡¯s the highest starting bid I have heard so far.


    "Five hundred!" An overweight slob shouted out from the VIP section. His table is close to the table near the group of people with a custom mask and I can clearly see he''s riddled with jewelry from head to toe. His fingers are covered with gold rings and I can see him breathing really hard for no apparent reason as his bulging stomach goes up and down. He didn''t wear his mask exposing is an ugly face.


    ¡°Five twenty!¡± One of the female guests sitting in the VIP section shouted out. Even with a mask, I see she looks old and surrounded by other girls that are dressed as they work in a brothel.


    ¡°Wow!¡± The auctioneer exclaimed surprised by the bid. ¡°Five hundred and twenty gold! Going once, going twice, so-¡°


    ¡°Six hundred!¡± The fat man screams interrupting the auctioneer.


    ¡°Wow~ Ok six hundred gold! going once, going tw-¡°


    "One thousand!¡± The old hag shouts interrupting the auctioneer once more time in which he didn¡¯t care as the two VIP guest battle it out.


    ¡°Holy cow. Ok. Going once, going tw-¡°


    ¡°Two thousand gold!¡± The fat man shouts and I can see he¡¯s starting turn red from fury.


    How badly does he want these two? He already has a couple of girls surrounding him.I whisper in my mind as I see girls sitting around him in skimpy maid clothing.


    I look back at the two who are being auctioned off and I see them on the ground hugging each other and their body shivers in fear. The mother hugged her son as tight as she can, waiting for everything to be over. In the end, their fate isn¡¯t good with either one. If the old hag buys her, she''s probably will be having sex with clients till she becomes an old hag herself. If she goes to the fat man, it will probably be the same but worse, she won''t get paid to do it with a fat sweaty crap.


    Tch, this is getting annoying. I whisper in my mind as I get more impatient.


    ¡°Pwahahahaha! Do you think that scares me? Three thousand!¡± The old hag shouts as she looks at the fat man who''s glaring right back at her


    ¡°You damn tramp. Using your tramp money to buy more tramp. At least with me, she¡¯ll only be forced to fuck me. Now take your tramp money and go buy yourself a sex toy somewhere else! Five thousand gold!¡± The fat man shouted out as he looked at the auctioneer who had a big smile the whole time.


    ¡°You-¡° The old had tried to say something only to be interrupted as the kid standups even when her mother protested.


    "Leave my mommy alone!" The kid shouts as he stands in front of her mother who''s trying her best to protect him by hugging him. I can see she doesn''t have much strength which was weird given the fact that she looks healthy. She can''t seem to make him move away in front of her.


    ¡°Shut him up!¡± The auctioneer shouts at the burly bandit who moved in and grabs the kid by the mouth muffling his voice while picking him up. I can see the kid was afraid past beyond his limit as he started pissing his pants staining it.


    The whole crowd let out a sound of disgust at the same time as they see the piss trickle downs his leg towards the stage floor creating a small puddle. The mother started going crazy on the burly man as he holds her son''s mouth shut to prevent him from talking and the whole scene is making me turn my stomach as it reminded me of when I stood in front of my mother and a disgruntled customer who wanted to take her home.


    SLAP!


    The auctioneer slaps the mother and she let out a shriek of pain as her cheeks started becoming red. The whole crowd cheered on like they''re watching a comedy show and they all went wild as the auctioneer rips her clothes off and threw it in the puddle of piss.


    ¡°You damn livestock, be lucky I¡¯m not killing you. If nobody wanted you, I would have sent you to the head machine you fucking bitch. Now clean your sons piss with your own clothes your filthy vermin.¡± The auctioneer said making me want to send him to the guillotine.


    The mother cried as she grabs her clothes and started wiping the piss. The whole crowd goes crazy again and it seems like the auctioneer has some sort of power over the VIP since they didn¡¯t care if he hurt whatever they¡¯re trying to buy. The whole scene is making me want to erupt the whole auction house in flames and burning every living this in this room to crisp.


    "I apologize for this inconvenience. Please don''t worry. They will be cleaned and healed before they get delivered to make sure you get the highest quality product. Now let''s continue, five thousand gold! Going once, going twice s-"


    "Ten thousand gold!!" the old hag shouts and I can see she really wants her now after seeing her naked. But not only that, even the fat guy is starting to have a bulge in his pants. He points to the maid beside him and she quickly got on her knees as she unzips his pants and put his tiny junk in her mouth. She slowly moved her head back and forth and the whole thing was being done in front of the crowd as if it was a normal thing. Even the crowd and the auctioneer don¡¯t seem fazed as the fat man gets a blowjob from one of his maids.


    ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± I whisper as I see the fat man started shaking as he held the maid''s head down his crotch forcing her to drink whatever came out of his junk.


    ¡°Ahhhhhh~ whew. Ok, thirteen thousand!¡± He shouts as the maid zips up his pants and sit back down wiping her mouth.


    What the fuck is up with this world and maids being used for sex?I whisper as I noticed she wasn''t quite happy with what she did, but she probably doesn¡¯t have a choice. What¡¯s more surprising is how the crowd didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°Wow! if we keep this up, we¡¯ll soon break the record of the highest bid made~ Ok, going once, going twice, so-¡°


    "Fifteen thousand!" The old hag shouts removing her mask showing me a face full of cake makeup.


    ¡°One hundred thousand!! For the girl. You can keep the kid." The fat man says smirking at the old hag. The whole crowd cheered as the bid just became extremely high. The old hag clenched her fist but then she relaxed her body without saying anything.


    She lost.I say in my mind as she gestures to one of the girls behind her to bring her a bottle of beer.


    ¡°Going once! going twice and so-¡°


    ¡°P-please! D-don¡¯t separate us!¡± The mother begged as she hugs her son after the bandit let him go.


    ¡°How dare you interrupt me? You, if this fine gentleman wasn''t buying you, I would give you something to remember you, stupid whore.¡± The auctioneer says bringing the mother¡¯s face next to his.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± The fat man says. ¡°As long as you don¡¯t break her bones and bruise her face. Everything can be healed with a potion I want to see also a good show.¡±


    The auctioneer then the nods and points at the bandit. He calls out and two more bandits came out of the back and forced her down the ground with her chest towards the floor. The forced her to wear a metal contraption that made her ass lift up and she couldn''t fight out of the position.


    ¡°No! Please don-¡° A bandit put something in her mouth muffling her voice and her son was doing the best he can to fight one of the bandits that held him. But at that age, there isn¡¯t much you can do to an adult. The whole scene is making me sick from my stomach and I feel my fist clenching. I feel something in my back and Suyeon moved closer to me to bury her face so that she doesn''t watch what''s about to happen. She''s probably remembering what happened to her inside the dungeon.


    The whole crowd around us cheered and laughed at the mother and son who¡¯s completely petrified. One bandit moves behind her removing his pants and the crowd cheered some more as if it''s a wrestling match. I see the mother clenching her fist to brace for whatever is coming to her when it that split moment, she looks my way and somehow, stares into my eyes.


    If this was my mother¡­I said in my mind staring into her eyes and switching my vision towards her son who¡¯s doing nothing but kicking air as the bandit held him up covering his mouth. If this was my mother¡­


    The same thought keeps repeating in my mind over and over again. I feel Suyeon tighten her grip as the crowd cheers louder as the bandit moves closer towards the mother.


    "One diamond!" I suddenly blurted out and it was loud enough for everyone to hear causing them to suddenly stop cheering and the whole auction room went silent. Everyone¡¯s eyes turned towards my table and at me with their mouth wide open. I wouldn¡¯t blame them, as far as I remember; one diamond is equivalent to one million gold coins. The auctioneer looks at me and even though his mask, he probably has his mouth open hearing by bid.


    "You! How dare you!¡± The fat man shouts at me making me grab an empty bottle on my table. ¡°Stop lying you fucking peasan-¡°


    I didn''t even wait for him to finish when I threw the bottle at him with such force, he didn''t have time to react as it shatters on his face into pieces.


    "My face! My handsome face!!!" The fat man shouted as the broken shards cut his face everywhere and the impact of hitting his nose caused blood to pour out. I quickly grabbed another bottle and using my seismic step skill, I closed the distance between us so quickly that he didn''t time to react. I kicked his chair down making him fall back and I stepped over him placing a foot on his chest as I look down at him.


    "Shut your mouth you fuckbag. Wanna die? I don''t have a problem killing you and everyone in this auction room." I say it as I stand above him. The whole auction was silent as if they know they can''t go against me. I see him nod and I suddenly smell something acidic. When I step back and look at his pants starting to stain.


    "You sluts! Help me up!" He shouted at the maids who zoned out what¡¯s going on and they all scramble to help him up.


    "If any of you help him get up, I will slit your throat making you choke on your own blood," I tell them at a low tone, and they all froze in place. The auctioneer probably knows I''m serious and he tried to break the fight by continuing with the auction.


    "G-g-going one. G-g-going twice. S-s-s-Sold!" The auctioneer shouts and the whole crowd stayed silent. I turn around and stare at him through my mask and I can see him remove his mask exposing a worried expression.


    "I just bought her. She''s my property. If you damage more of my property, be prepared to pay with your lives." I said in calmly making bandit to slowly move away from her and the auctioneer quickly waved at them to fix her. He whispers to a bandit and he quickly ran towards where they came out. Then after a few minutes, he came out with a wet towel, clothes and a bottle of potion. He told the bandits to quickly clean her as he gives her the potion to drink. After fixing her, they brought her and her son towards the back probably to prepare her.


    "If they disappear from my sight, so will your lives," I tell them and they stopped moving them. The auctioneer hastily waved at them to bring her right to my table. "You, how much is for all these maids? I asked the fat man below my foot and it took him a while to register what I asked.


    "O-o-one h-hundred t-thousand g-g-gold." Even when he''s at a disadvantage, He''s still trying to make a profit.


    " I see your life cost that much. Alright, let me just cut one of your balls." I say as I grab his pants and try to force it down. He started screaming and going wild with both hands in his pants trying to prevent me from pulling it down.


    "Free! Free! Take them! They''re yours!" He says and I stopped trying to pull his pants.


    "Well, how generous of you~," I tell him and he just nods as he laid on the ground still holding his pants."All of you, stand by my table,"


    Without hesitation, they all ran towards my table standing next to the mother and son. I walked back towards my table and sat down. I nod towards the auctioneer and the auction continued but with another person as the host while the auctioneer approached our table. Even after all that commotion, the auction continued as if nothing happened and the auctioneer ordered a couple of bandits to try and help him up.


    "Touch him and you will lose your hand," I tell them and they stopped before they were able to pick him up. I see the VIP tried his best to get up but his weight just made it impossible. I watched him struggle for a bit before retreating back to my table which is now surrounded by skimpily clothed maids along with the mother and son.


    ¡°Y-you sir have broken our record bid. I understand you don¡¯t live here so they will be given to you now. As for the payment, it is safer to collect now.¡± He says as he bows and is probably waiting for me to give him a diamond.


    "Item bag," I whisper and my dimensional bag dropped in front of me surprising the auctioneer and some of the eyes that have been set on me as soon as I made the bid. I notice the old hag continuously glance my way probably sizing me up.


    "Wow~ A dimensional bag. Only a handful of people has these kinds of stuff." The auctioneer says trying to strike up a conversation, but I was too busy removing the tiny bag filled with a lot of diamonds that I got from the sky king''s dungeon.


    This is something I¡¯m supposed to give to my mother when I find a way back and now I¡¯m using it to buy a fucking slave family. Great, this is just great.I whisper in my mind. I quickly took one diamond. And placed it in the auctioneer''s hands.


    ¡°Wow~ this is a high-quality diamond! Thank you for your purchase. If you want some more, please let me know. I will be near your table to act as a private mediator on anything you wish to purchase from here on out." The auctioneer says as he sits on a chair that was placed on our table. Now we¡¯re surrounded by bandits and the owner of the auction is sitting with us making it look like I¡¯m more of an important person. The fat man managed to get on his belly, and it took him a while to get up. Once he did, he quickly retreated towards the exit.


    Three more male slaves came out after the mother and son and after that, artifacts that range from rare to common came out one by one. But nothing interests me. No daikichi, no Kana. All the livestock have been sold already and not one of them seemed familiar to Suyeon also.


    Everyone who sits on the VIP section mostly likely bought something including myself buying these mother and son along with the other maids. I plan to release as soon as I get out of this bandit town but for now, I needed to act the part. Everything went back to normal except the group of six with their custom mask have never said anything throughout the whole ordeal or even bid on anything. They just sat there and watch the stage while the guy who was staring at me, in the beginning, is still staring at me now.


    ¡°Hey, auctioneer, who the hell are those VIP?¡± I asked him and he turns around not caring if they notice or not.


    ¡°Oh them, they¡¯re new VIP that was recommended by the big boss. He told us to just sit them here and help them if they want to buy anything but as you can see, they never placed a bid. I¡¯m not quite sure what they want.¡± The auctioneer then stood up and approached them to try and talk to them but nothing. None of them responded as if they¡¯re a statue.


    Something is off.I whisper in my mind as I stare at the one whose non-stop staring at me.


    Without luck of making them talk, the auctioneer left their table to go back to ours only to bow saying he has to go back to the stage to read the last item and close the auction. After the last item was bought off, everyone lined up by the exit where we came from. VIP entered first with their thermal lens and the guards along with other staff that was on stage helped with guiding them out group by group. The auctioneer told us to remain seated and also the VIP with the weird masked remained seated for some reason.


    ¡°I apologize, the original way out is the same way you got back in but since you have your slaves here with you, we can''t really put you and them in the dark and having the chance for them to hurt you. Your group will be exiting out a different way so please come follow us.¡± The auctioneer explained and I stood up gesturing to him to lead the way. ¡°Also we will be going with the masked VIP¡¯s since they somehow want to exit with us than everyone else. I wouldn''t blame them, some VIP like these can''t stand the sight of filth. Please come follow us.¡±


    The minute I made a move, the masked group did the same as if I was watching a mirror. I kept my mask on just in case.


    "Item bag," I whispered and took out a black sword out of my bag and held it as I follow the auctioneer who also looked confused staring at me armed.


    ¡°Why did you take out the sword?¡± Dorang whispered beside me.


    "Just in case. Now let''s get out of here, they didn''t have what I wanted to find." I whisper to him and he looked confused as he looked at the slaves following behind us. I''m not stupid, they just saw me pull out a diamond, for all I know, this auctioneer is leading me to a trap to try and rob me. If that happens, I¡¯m going to murder all of them and get out of here.


    We followed the Auctioneer as we walked up the stage towards where the slaves and the bandits came out. I passed all of the slaves who cried silently inside their cage as if they were animals trying to not make eye contact with us. We walked silently as the masked people walked in front of us since I didn''t feel comfortable for them to walk behind me. We approached a door that''s made of metal meaning to keep people in and or out. The auctioneer took out a key from his pocket and entered it on the door. All of the big locks unhinge itself and the door started sliding sideways. The auctioneer happily guided us towards a dark hallway with the auctioneer leading with a torch in his hand.


    ¡°Suyeon, stay close," I whisper to her and she nods. The slaves also walked behind us along with Dorang who kept looking at the mother¡¯s face. We kept walking the dark hallway that became small enough that only two people are able to walk side by side. I don¡¯t know how it happened and I didn¡¯t notice him move but somehow, I ended up walking side by side with the one who kept staring at me earlier while Suyeon walked with Dorang behind us and the slaves I bought were in front of us. It was a stupid move since the rest of his team is in front of the mother and son following behind the auctioneer and his bandits. I gripped my sword handle and kept observing him beside me for any sudden moves he makes.


    "Well aren''t you a rich fellow." He says as we walked. I didn''t say anything but he tried again to strike up a conversation. ¡°Buying two worthless humans for one diamond. That is a waste of resources.¡±


    "What''s it to you what I do with my money?" I snarl at him.


    "Hmmm, nothing. You can waste money all you want." He tells me as he walks with his hands behind his back as if he was a scholar of some sort.


    His voice sounds familiar¡­I see we¡¯re nearing the exit as the pair ahead of us opens a door that brightens up the hallway. As soon as we got out, the auctioneer along with a few bandits stands around. I see the area has a wall all around and there is no ceiling as it looks like we''re inside a giant chimney. Sunlight is actually passing though indicating that there''s a hole leading to the world outside the bandit town. There is a gate on the other side that probably leads to the town.


    ¡°Alright, boys open the gate, Mr. Olin, once you exit here, it will bring you to the center where you entered before. I have guards on the other end standing near so when they see you, they should know I sent you out through here. Otherwise, they kill everything that goes near the door. It¡¯s for my protection. Well, then it was a pleasure doing business with yo-¡°


    STAB!


    I suddenly see a hand passes through the auctioneer¡¯s abdomen and I can see him confused for a minute what just happened as he looks down to see what¡¯s going on. Suddenly another hand passed through his chest ripping his heart out.


    "Sir!" The bandit draws their sword but they were too slow and the other masked people decapitated them in an instant. Their heads dropped in the group with a loud thud and I watched them roll to the side.


    The auctioneer in front of me vomited blood onto me and died as the hands slowly exit out where it came from. As the body falls, I see the one who¡¯s was talking to me a minute ago standing in front of me with a bloody hand.


    ¡°Chefs coat! Sharpen!¡± I got into position as I jump backward and Suyeon along with Dorang and everyone ran towards me. But the masked group didn''t do anything and just stood there. The one who stabbed the auctioneer wiped his hands from the corpse clothes and went through his pocket looking for something. After finding it, I see him take out his hand holding the diamond I gave the auctioneer.


    ¡°You, you killed them for the diamond?!¡± Dorang asked but I can see he¡¯s scared as his body trembles in fear along with the slaves and maids. The marked man throws the diamonds my way and it landed in front of me as it bounced around towards my feet.


    ¡°Well then, it was nice meeting you. We shall meet again sometime in the future. Keep those weapons safe, it is dear to us. We will get them back from you in the future. Don¡¯t die till then, Yasu.¡± Hearing my name from him suddenly made me realize who these people are.


    No, they¡¯re not people. Six. Now I know why there are six of them. I eliminated two of them already.I say in my mind as I figured out who they are, the remaining overlords. The person who¡¯s been staring at me is their leader.


    "Unum," I say, and he bowed as if he was greeting me in a noble way. Then, they suddenly turned into leaves as it exploded everywhere causing the whole area to be covered with it.


    "Wait!" I shouted but in an instant, they were gone. "Fucking bastard."


    I just missed my chance to get him to talk what''s Luro''s location.Bastard. Fucking bastard.I cursed myself in my mind as I look around but nothing. The place is covered with leaves and the three dead corpses.


    ¡°Holy shit, fuck fuck fuck. We¡¯re definitely going to be blamed for this. Damiit!¡± Dorang screamed as he frantically goes around everywhere.


    "Hey, help me open this gate," I tell him as the gate won¡¯t budge unless both wheels are turned


    ¡°Fuck the gate! ¡° Dorang shouts as he gets near me. The minute we get out there and they find out the auctioneer is dead, you have blood on your clothes, they will blame us and put us in the head machine! I don''t want to die. I don''t want to die, man, I don''t want to die!"


    I slapped him hard bringing him back to his senses. ¡°Look you shit bag, you got two choices, help me open this get so I can get the fuck out of this town and outside this illusion barrier, or stay here and cry yourself to sleep.¡±


    He quickly stood up and ran towards the gate trying to open it. I ran towards the other wheel and turned it as he turned his and the gate started rising. The slaves helped Dorang while Suyeon helped me to open the gate faster. I could have easily destroyed it but I''m planning ahead just in case they chase us from the inside. If this gate is intact, it will buy us some time to get away when they see the auctioneer¡¯s corpse. The only ones we have to deal with are the two bandits stationed on the other side.


    "All of you go, I¡¯ll go last. Since I think I¡¯m the only one who can hold this gate up." I tell them, and they all nod my way as they get out one by one.


    "O-okay," Dorang says and the girls walked out towards the other side along with the kid while Dorang ran the opposite way towards where we came from. The gate almost closed as the mechanism almost slipped out of my hands.


    ¡°Hey! What the hell are you doing!¡± I shout to him as I see him crouch down the ground picking something up. He then ran back towards me and smile showing me the blood-covered diamond.


    "I need capital to start a new life outside." He tells me as he exits the gate. I activated my seismic step skill and quickly got through the gate as it closed on me.


    ¡°Auctioneer! Where are you, sir! The big boss is looking for you!" We heard voices coming from the hallway we got out and we all looked at each other.


    ¡°Fuck, we have to go, once they find his body, they¡¯ll send the whole town after us. Dorang, you got a choice, come with us to the outside or stay here and die. You¡¯re a bandit after all.¡± I tell him as I held my sword.


    No one can be trusted. Even this guy.I say in my mind ready to strike him if he chose to stay.


    ¡°Well, as much as I like being a bandit, I don¡¯t want to die so I¡¯ll go with you. Besides, you¡¯re a bandit also. Following the great Olin around is better than staying here.¡± He tells me and I nod towards him.


    "Ok you lead the way, Let''s run straight towards the elevator," I order him, and he nods but in reality, I don''t want him behind me where he can surprise attack me. I turned towards the Mother and son along with the maids and they flinch the minute they see me look at them.


    "All of you, follow him. Suyeon, stay behind them and I¡¯ll watch our backs. Now run!¡±


    We ran through the corridor and we soon met with a double door made up of metal slapped together.


    ¡°Dorang wait," I whisper to him as I approach the door to knock on it.


    "Hey guys, the auctioneer has sent us out this way. Can you please open up.¡±


    ¡°Mr. Olin?¡± A voice ranged out from the other side of the door.


    ¡°Yes. Please hurry, I need to use the toilet.¡± I tell him from the other side of the door.


    ¡°Apologies sir! We¡¯ll open it right away.¡±


    The door started opening inwards towards us. At it opens, I told everyone to hide behind it and to not make a sound.


    ¡°Mr. Olin? What the, where they go-¡°


    SLICE!


    With one clean swing, I sliced the bandits head off his body and he dropped to the ground like a rag doll. Without waiting for the other bandit to react, I jumped towards him slicing his head off his body. Clean swift kill.


    ¡°O-o-omg you killed them!¡± Dorang says as he walks around the corpses.


    "Pick up the heads and hide it somewhere. I''ll get the bodies and hide it also." I told him and he nods as he nervously picked up severed heads. After hiding the bodies as best as we can, I noticed we are quite a way from the stage of the guillotine.


    ¡°What in the world is going on over there?¡± I whisper as I hear shouts and screams as if there¡¯s a party. I quickly took out my item bag and removed my shirt, which is covered by blood. I wiped my face clean and changed into clean clothes. I gave some to the slaves and told them to don¡¯t act like a slave to not arouse suspicion. I gave them my mask since people might identify them at a glance, which they nervously accepted. I guess they don¡¯t trust me yet, but I don¡¯t care. As soon as we get out of here, we will separate ways.


    ¡°Ok, Dorang, where to?¡± I asked him and he quickly looks around.


    "W-we can go through the alleyways that lead to the elevator. It''s a longer route but it''s safer than going through the market plaza where we were earlier. But we have to pass the head machine stage to reach the alleyways." He tells me.


    "Ok, lead the way," I told him and he quickly started moving towards a street. It wasn''t long before we reached the guillotine area, which was jam-packed with people as if there''s another auction happening.


    ¡° Oh fuck. Fuck we got to get out of here now.¡± Dorang says as he looks towards the stage where a person is standing. ¡°That¡¯s the big boss. We need to go now. While they¡¯re busy watching someone die, it¡¯s easier for us to sneak through.¡±


    It looks like he hasn¡¯t found out about the auctioneer, so we started sneaking behind the crowd and I noticed them bring someone out that has a cloth over his head.


    ¡°This man! He will meet with the head machine today! This man conspired against us. A slave tried to shake our nation. Once he was found out, he and his group tried to escape only to be caught by our elites! We threw his group into the auction but today, we will show them what happens to those who defy us!¡± The big boss voice resonated throughout the whole place as if he had installed speakers everywhere. The whole crowd goes wild as screams filled the area making me stop in my tracks for a brief moment until I felt a tug on my shirt.


    I see Dorang pulling me so we can go and the moment I turned my head around, I hear the big boss speak again.¡°Now! We are civilized people are we not? So, I shall let these vermin say his last words before he meets the mouth of this head machine. Remove the cloth and reveal the slave ugly face!¡±


    The moment he shouts, the two big bandits holding the person grabbed the cloth over his head and yanked it off. The moment it came off his head, my body suddenly froze in place. I looked into his eyes as he found mine from the crowd. And we both stared at each other not saying anything.


    ¡°Daikichi. I finally found you.¡± I whisper as my body moved on its own pushing people away to get closer to him.


    I found him.


    I found my friend.

 CHAPTER 44: Escape the bandit town Part 1

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 44: Escape the bandit town Part 1


    <hr>


    ¡°Daikichi!!!¡± I shouted as I pushed through the crowd. ¡°get the fuck out of the way! Seismic step!!¡±


    I jumped up towards the guillotine platform and the sound of the ground erupting brought all the attention towards me. The minute I land on stage, I was face to face with the so-called big boss who didn¡¯t even flinch as my landing brought a strong gust of wind. ¡°And who might you be?¡± He asked raising an eyebrow. Scars in his face, well built and his knuckles are twice the size of mine.


    "Me? I''m the guy that will turn you into a superhero~ Pound!" I stepped in bringing my fist towards his abdomen and the minute it made contact, I clenched my fist tighter and using all my force to dig my punch deeper. He was too cocky not blocking and it was too late to react as he went flying out the stage as the impact of my skill sent him soaring towards a building.


    ¡°Big boss!¡± The two burly bandits holding Daikichi let him go as they ran for me while trying to draw their weapons. I stepped in using my seismic step skill and forced one bandit to sheathe his sword. I kicked him in the shin, and he stumbled to the ground. As the same moment, I quickly turned towards the other bandit and punched him in the throat causing him to choke and gasp for air. The other bandit tried to unsheathe his sword again as he jumps back and all of a sudden I hear a loud bang coming from the crowd.


    ¡°3-step combo!¡± I hear Suyeon voice and the bandit¡¯s body suddenly became a blur as he flew out the stage like a bullet. I rush towards Daikichi who looks abnormally skinny and his face is full of bruises. But all he did was stare at me as tears accumulate in his eyes.


    ¡°Y-y-Yasu!¡± He weakly shouted my name and I could hear his voice was hoarse. He tried to stand up but his legs gave out on him as he fell back to the ground.


    I have no choice but to carry him.I say in my mind.


    ¡°Suyeon! Get ready! We need to make a run for it!¡± I shout as I see the whole crowd go wild. Some running away from the commotion while others are drawing their weapon ready to charge at us.


    ¡°Item bag!¡± I take out a sword and swung at the crowd while shouting, ¡°Sky king¡¯s wind!¡±


    A tornado formed right at the center of the onlookers and everyone that was close to it got sucked in forming a human tornado. Some tried to run away and disperse as the tornado started launching them up the ceiling of the cave.


    I picked up Daikichi and ran towards where we came from. ¡°SUYEON! Follow me!! Daikichi! Where¡¯s Kana?!"


    I carry him on my shoulder with his head in the front while Suyeon runs to catch up with me.


    ¡°S-she¡¯s in the auction house!¡± He shouts trying to tower the voices erupting everywhere and the havoc makes it hard for us to hear each other even though we¡¯re this close. I look around to try and spot Dorang location but he¡¯s nowhere to be seen along with the Mother and son I bought. They probably made a run for it the minute they saw me punch the so-called big boss of this place.


    ¡°Suyeon! We¡¯re running back towards the way we came from! Keep close to me!¡± I tell her as I ran back towards auction house another exit.


    ¡°O-okay!¡± She answers back as she runs behind me. Daikichi didn¡¯t say anything, as he¡¯s probably too exhausted to even make a sentence.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Daikichi! Once we¡¯re in a safe place, I¡¯ll give you a healing potion! Just hang on!¡± I feel him nod and I ran as fast as I can towards the other exit we came from where the Auctioneer died. Once we arrived, we wasted no time and ran down the corridor again. I hear footsteps in front of us. With no time to think, I gently placed Daikichi down the ground as I grip both hands on my sword.


    ¡°W-what are you d-doing?¡± Daikichi asked as he leans on the wall. Right before I answer him, I see two bandits coming towards our way. The minute they see us, they paused for a few seconds before drawing their weapons while they charged at me.


    "Suyeon, stay with him," I say as I rush towards the group.


    ¡°Yasu! Wait!¡± I hear Daikichi shout behind me and I can hear a worried tone in his voice. I didn¡¯t have time to reply to him as I see one sword aim for my neck trying to decapitate me. I quickly step back and using the momentum his continuous swing and unable to stop due to probably the lack of experience and knowledge how to use his weapon, I brought my sword towards his forehead stabbing him through killing him in an instant. The other bandit froze in place as he sees his companion arms limp dropping his weapons at it clatters to the ground. I grab the dead bandit in front of me, pulled out my sword from his forehead before running towards the other one.


    I didn''t give him a chance to regain his composure as I stepped in swinging my sword towards his neck causing his head to fly off killing him in an instant. I ran towards Daikichi who just watched with his mouth open. ¡°Y-yasu..y-you kill-¡°


    "No time to explain. Soon we''ll be surrounded. We got to go now and find Kana. Let''s go!" I picked him up like a messenger bag as I started to bolt towards the inside. ¡°Suyeon. Stay close to me. If anyone attacks us, kick them to oblivion!¡±


    ¡°O-ok!¡± I hear her shout and it¡¯s quite surprising she was able to keep up with me.


    I ran through the corridor until we met with the gate that needed two people from the inside to rise. ¡°Suyeon. Kick the door down!"


    ¡°3-step combo!¡± She suddenly jumped forward creating the poses of her skill and the last pose are in an outward position towards the door. The minute her foot made contact, the door erupted as the whole place shook and the ceiling of the corridor we came from collapse as dirt came crashing down closing the exit. I stopped towards where the auctioneer died and as I look around, I don¡¯t see any of the corpses that we left here.


    I set Daikichi down and called out my dimensional bag. I pulled out a healing potion and gave it to him to drink. It seems like he hasn¡¯t drink any water as I see him gulp down the potion as if it was the first thing he drank in weeks emptying the bottle up to the last drop.


    ¡°Are you feeling better?¡± I asked him and he nods.


    ¡°Y-yeah. Y-Yasu? Is it really you? You''re alive! You''re alive!" He suddenly hugged me and I felt a warm feeling as I hear his sob after a minute, he slowly pulled away from me and looked at me in the eyes. "I thought we''re all going to die here."


    ¡°You die? I¡¯ll kill everything in this world before I let you die. I¡¯ll hear what happened to you guys later. But for now, we need to find Kana and get out of here.¡± I tell him and he nods wiping while wiping his own tears away.


    "Not only Kana but also a couple of people.¡± He tells me while he tried to stand using the wall as his support. ¡°We were a group of people that came to this world. And¡­Suyeon!¡± He suddenly hugged her, and I can see Suyeon crying out from the joy of seeing him.


    I heard voices coming from the corridor that leads to the stage where the auction happened.


    ¡°Daikichi, can you walk?¡± I asked him as he lets go of Suyeon to look towards the hallway watching the darkness.


    ¡°Y-yeah. I feel really hungry but at least my body is not hurting.¡± He replied to me and I gave him a nod as I checked around to see if he has any severe wounds. Luckily it looked like he only starved.


    ¡°Good, what class are you?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°I picked a class called Dual.¡± He replies to me as he leans on the wall to support himself.


    ¡°What level are you?¡± I asked him without taking my eyes off the dark hallway.


    ¡°I¡¯m level fourteen.¡± He replies weakly as I slowly walked towards the darkness.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you don¡¯t have any weapons on you right?¡± I asked him as I looked into the dark. The footsteps are getting louder and louder making me grip the handle of my sword.


    ¡°N-no. They forced us to empty our dimensional bag. The only thing they couldn¡¯t take from us was our dimensional bag.¡± He tells me and I can see he¡¯s still having a hard time keeping himself straight up.


    ¡°Can you use axes?¡± I asked him and he nods. I took out the ogre queen¡¯s pair of axe and gave it to him. I was worried he won¡¯t be able to hold it but my worries disappeared as his eyes went wide while grabbing the weapons off my hands.


    ¡°Holy hell, where did you get this?¡± He asked me and I turn back around as I hear the footsteps getting louder and louder.


    ¡°No time to explain. Get ready, they¡¯re coming. Suyeon, just use your jump skill. Your 3-step combo might cause this whole place to collapse on us.¡± I whisper to her as we both looked towards the dark corridor.


    ¡°Okay.¡± I see her stand beside me as we wait for the bandits to pop out any minute. The minute I see one bandit, I rushed toward him catching him off guard as I swing down my sword at his left shoulder forcing my blade to travel down towards his right foot. He died in an instant as his body was sliced in two. One bandit tried to draw his sword but Suyeon came and kicked him causing him to go flying back towards the darkness. Daikichi stopped the third bandit and they battle it out with Daikichi winning in the end by cutting an arm.


    ¡°I-I give up! P-please don¡¯t kill me!¡± He says as he gets on his knees due to the pain of having his arms cut off. Daikichi then stops attacking him and he started walking our way. Right the minute he had his back turned toward the bandit, the bandit lurched towards him with a dagger in hand trying to stab Daikichi in the back. I quickly jumped between them pulling Daikichi by his shirt and tossing him behind me while I catch the bandit¡¯s wrist. Suyeon suddenly came and kicked the bandit from the knee causing his leg to snap the wrong way. He screamed as he dropped to the ground letting go of the dagger at but she muffled his mouth smiling at him.


    ¡°Shhhh they will hear us if your too loud~," She says as she slowly moves her thumb near his eyes and as soon as she''s right on top of it, she dug her nail into his iris causing him to scream in agony. I quickly came to his side using my strength; I broke his remaining leg as I forced it to fold the wrong way. Using the dagger he dropped, I stabbed him on the belly button and he screamed some more before passing out from the pain. Suyeon got up and we both started walking towards Daikichi who on the ground speechless as he watched us deal with the bandit.


    ¡°Y-y-you-¡°


    "Let''s go, they will send more people. Can you stand?" I asked him as I offered a hand and he took it but all he did is stare at the dying bandit with his mouth wide open.


    ¡°Y-Yasu thank you. But¡­holy hell you kill-" He says still can''t get his eyes off the bandit.


    ¡°Daikichi, you got to be careful, never turn your back on an enemy. This world is full of backstabbing people.¡± I tell him as I pull him up to his feet.


    "Y-yeah. Thank you." He says as he picks up the axes he dropped earlier.


    "Ok, let¡¯s go. I''ll explain everything that''s going on but once we''re in a safe place. Come on, the backstage of the auction is this way." I tell him as I run towards a direction and they both followed behind me.


    We pass the bandit Suyeon kicked earlier. He probably will die soon as I see his head bent the wrong way. We continued sprinting until we arrived where the slaves are and they¡¯re still there crying inside their cages. Daikichi started cutting the locks on their cages one by one and they were baffled on what''s going on in front of them.


    ¡°Everyone! Run now! Go!¡± Daikichi shouts and all of the slaves ran out of their cages going towards where we came from. "Wait! That''s a dead end!"


    They didn¡¯t listen and just kept running into the darkness.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about them, the minute they find it¡¯s a dead end, they¡¯ll run back the opposite way. For now, we need to find Kana and the group you came with. Where are they?¡± I asked him while I looked around but I don¡¯t see any more slaves.


    ¡°This way, there¡¯s a hidden door here that leads to a bigger room where all the slaves are. Kana and the rest are there.¡± Daikichi says as he ran towards one wall. It baffles me how they were right under our noses and if I didn¡¯t spot Daikichi outside, I would have never found them.


    Daikichi moved a box that slid in a weird way. I hear it click in place and all of a sudden, a wall was pulled in and it slid sideways exposing another hidden section. The inside reeked of feces and piss as the aroma slowly escapes the hidden room. The floor, the ceiling, the walls were painted white and a lot of bright lights were installed on the wall making it impossible to see any dark part of the room. The minute I step in and get a better view, I can see cages on top one another that filled up to the ceiling. There were so many cages of slaves that it looked like a prison. None of them made a sound even when they saw us while some probably have died of starvation.


    ¡°Holy hell, this is a shit load of people," I whisper as I follow Daikichi through the maze of cages with Suyeon following behind me. Then all of a sudden, I hear voices from a distance calling out Daikichi¡¯s name over and over again.


    ¡°Daikichi!¡±


    ¡°Daikichi-san!¡±


    ¡°Kid! You¡¯re alive!¡±


    ¡°Daikichi!¡±


    The minute I saw them, I noticed Kana staring at me with tears streaking down her cheeks.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± She shouted so loud that a lot of the slaves looked her way. When I got a closer look, I see she lost a lot of weight. Most of them lost a lot of weight. It seems like they can¡¯t stand unless they hold the cage to help them up. One of them seems unconscious as an older female is using her scrawny legs as a pillow for him.


    ¡°Yasu!!¡± Kana cried non-stop behind the bars of the cage as she tried to reach out for me. Her voice was hoarse as if she swallowed a handful of sand destroying her voice box. Her thin body is shaking and I see bruises and cuts all over her body and face. Her hair is a mess and the clothes she¡¯s wearing looks like a blanket barely covering anything.


    "Hey Kana, you look like you went through hell," I tell her as I go near the cage to let her touch my face. She cried non-stop as she traces my face non-stop and pulling me towards the cage to give me a hug. "Haha, stop crying Kana, you guys are safe now. Let me get this cage opened. Hey Suyeo-¡°


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but, who¡¯s that behind you?¡± One girl inside the cage asked. She looked like a foreigner. Her voice is also hoarse and she looked like she was roughed up from top to bottom. If she had more weight, she probably would look gorgeous but as for now, they¡¯re all skin and bones and it¡¯s making me wonder if they¡¯re actually ghouls.


    Behind me?I say in my mind. I suddenly I feel a grip tighten as she buries her face in my back.


    ¡°Come on. Didn¡¯t you want to meet them again also? Stop hiding behind me Suyeon.¡± The moment I said her name, they all looked at me with surprise.


    ¡°S-Suyeon?! Suyeon is that you?!¡± The foreigner says and I can feel Suyeon nodding in my back.


    "If you nod behind me they won''t see it," I say suddenly stepping sideways exposing her. I can see her face is wet from crying.


    Sniff*


    ¡°L-l-lisaaaaa!¡± Suyeon cried as she hugs her with the cage bars between them.


    ¡°Suyeon! Suyeon! I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alive!¡± Lisa started crying as one guy came close to help her sit down as she overexerted herself. I see Kana grabbing Suyeon¡¯s hands as she also cries with a smile on her face. Her skinny arms extended out and hugged Suyeon and I just let them have their reunion as I look for Daikichi. Suddenly I hear noises coming from outside making me grip my sword waiting if any bandit will come charging right in but nothing. Tsk, we took too much time.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡°Daikichi let''s open the door and get out of here," I say as I was about to strike the bars.


    ¡°Wait! Don¡¯t!¡± Kana shouted making me suddenly stop right before I hit the cage bars with my sword. ¡°I-if you destroy it without using the key, the runes under the cage will explode and kill all of us. It¡¯s to prevent us from destroying it ourselves. You need to find the key.¡±


    ¡°Who has the key?¡± I asked and they all brought their head down.


    "T-the auctioneer." One guy says. He looks like a teacher but he''s as skinny as everyone.


    ¡°Shit. That fucker is dead. Dammit, we need to find his body.¡± I look at Suyeon who¡¯s wiping her tears as she nods at me.


    ¡°W-wait, dead?¡± Daikichi asked me and I can see a worried look on his face. ¡°Did you-¡°


    "No, a demon killed him in front of my eyes. Fucking bastard. Either way, he¡¯s better off dead knowing what he did to all of you guys.¡± I say remembering Unum and the other overlords. ¡°Daikichi stay here with everyone. Suyeon let''s go.¡±


    ¡°Wait, where are you going?¡± Kana says towards me with a worried look.


    "I''m going to look for the auctioneer''s corpse and see if I can find a key," I tell her as I turn around.


    ¡°Wait! Take Daikichi with you!¡± Kana says and I look back at Daikchi who also looks thin.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Kana bu, Dakichi will just get in my way if he goes with me. Sorry man, if I go with Suyeon instead, I can move swiftly.¡± I tell him and he looked a bit down but gave me a nod.


    "B-be careful," Kana says towards me and I nod.


    I called out my item bag and took out all the potions and food along with some clothes and water for them. ¡°Daikichi, help them drink this and eat. You all will need energy for us to get out of here. It''s quite a way towards the elevator."


    ¡°Ok, I''m on it.¡± He says as he grabs the bottle and opens it. He needs to help them drink since the bottle doesn¡¯t fit through the spaces in the bars of their cage and their barely hanging on so holding one of the bottles will be a task for them.


    ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll get you all out of here one way or another. Just hang on a bit longer.¡± I tell them and they all nod. I quickly turned around and ran back towards the stage. I moved the box back to where it was and the hidden door closed back up. If I keep them hidden in there, they won¡¯t look as long as they know we¡¯re running around outside. This will at least keep them safe until I find a key.


    ¡°Let''s go check all the doors around the auction room. If you see any bandit, kick him but don''t use your 3-step combo skill. We don''t want this place crashing on top of us.¡± I tell Suyeon and she gave me a nod. I quickly ran out the stage and to my surprise, there were no people or any bandit at all. I expected for Bandits to flood the area but nothing.


    "Huh, I thought there would be people," I whisper as I sneak around towards the first door with Suyeon following behind me. The minute I open it, I was introduced to a kitchen. I ran back out towards another door but nothing, just a storage room. I checked another room but nothing. Each end every room is either storage or another kitchen.


    ¡°Shit, where can they have stored his body?¡± I whisper as I stand near the entrance of the last door.


    ¡°Find him quick!¡± I hear a voice shout and the bandits entered the auction room through the dark entrance. Right behind them is the man I sent flying earlier with my punch. It seems like he survived flying into the distance.


    He might not be a pushover like the rest of the bandits around here. I say in my mind as I get behind the wall trying not to be seen.


    ¡°He killed the auctioneer! He needs to die! Whoever brings me his head will be rewarded handsomely!¡± He shouted again and everyone cheered as they all scatter in all direction.


    "Maybe, I can ask him," I whisper as I ran out towards the bandits. "Heaven¡¯s Slice!"


    I swung my swords towards the bandits and my skill went through them like butter while some who actually are adventurers dodge my attack. I plowed through their cut corpses and I feel blood rain on me. Without waiting to get ganged up on, I activated my seismic step skill and closed the distance between me and the bandit eliminating them one by one. Seeing that there¡¯s an endless wave of bandits, I jumped up towards the ceiling and looked at where Suyeon is at.


    ¡°Hey! Suyeon! Run away!" I shout at her as I ready to activate my knockout skill. I see her kick one of the bandits that are going for her and he came flying across the room taking out some bandits on the way. She ran towards one of the doors and I punch the ground as I descend creating a giant rune. In an instant, all the bandits standing inside it fell to the ground unconscious while the big boss got on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. I approach him and stepped on his hand making him wince in pain.


    ¡°You bastard. Who are you? Why are you destroying our place.¡± He says as he stayed kneeling in front of me.


    ¡°Me, I¡¯m nobody. I¡¯m just a passerby. Would have left if you didn¡¯t try to behead my friend you ugly fuck bag. How''s does it feel to be a superhero? You flew to a building so fast~¡± I taunt him but he couldn''t do anything as my skill took effect on his body.


    ¡°You impudent bastard. Friend? That slave? Your friend? Fine take him and go. But be warned, we will meet again and when we do, I will make sure to lodge a sword in your throat.¡± He tells me smiling and it made me twist my foot on top his hand crushing his bones. He shouted in pain but he couldn''t move as my skill paralyzed his whole body.


    ¡°You sure you in a position to threaten me?¡± I say as stomp on his hand breaking it apart. He screams as loud as he can but Suyeon caught up to me and muffled his mouth. "Say, tell me, where did you put the auctioneer body? You see, I need to free some of my buddies you trapped in here."


    Suyeon slowly releaser her hand from his mouth for him to speak. ¡°H-he should be in the basement of this place. So, you killed him you fucking bastard? Who are you?¡±


    "Basement huh, thanks," I say letting go of his hand and in a quick motion, I slashed his face from one he towards his lips and he fell forward screaming. He couldn''t move as he bled out on the ground. I picked him up from his throat and I can see the fear in his eyes as I stared into his. "Say, let''s go for round two, Mr. superhero~"


    I punched him in the gut causing his body to fly up. As soon as he descends, His body hit the ground hard like a ragdoll. He¡¯s stopped moving as the impact of him landing probably jogged his brain knocking him out.


    "Ha, leader of this place and yet you''re weak as a fucking boar. Well, hope you die a slow painful death. Suyeon. Let''s go back towards the stage." I tell her and she nods. We ran back up the stage and looked for another hidden door in the back. We moved all the boxes until one moved another wall. It leads to stairs going down probably to the basement of the whole place. We quickly ran down and there he was. The auctioneer was laid on a table with a white cloth over his corpse.


    ¡°Suyeon quick, help me find a key," I tell her and we started searching the auctioneer. We checked each and every pocket but nothing. "Tsk, let''s remove all his clothes, he might be hiding it somewhere."


    Using a dagger, I found lying around, I used it to rip open his shirt and pants but nothing. Suyeon worked on removing his shoe and the minute she got the left shoe out, something fell to the floor making a clanking sound.


    ¡°Oh, I found it!¡± Suyeon says as she picks up the key and shows it to me.


    "Obvious place to put it. Great, let¡¯s go." We both ran back up towards the hidden room where all the slaves are. After opening the hidden door, we were greeted by Daikichi who had a surprised look the minute he saw us.


    ¡°B-b-blood?¡± He says and when I look down, I was covered in blood due to me slicing up the bandits around me earlier and Suyeon had bloodstains on her clothes and her hands are covered with blood from searching the auctioneer''s body.


    ¡°Relax, it¡¯s not ours. We found the key." I tell him as I ran back towards where Kana and the rest of them are. I see they drank the potion and are able to move around except for one guy who stayed unconscious. They changed their clothes to the one I gave them, which is similar to what I¡¯m wearing making all of us look uniform.


    ¡°Yasu! You¡¯re bleeding!¡± Kana shouts grabbing the bars of the cage. Her face was plastered with a worried look. I tried to tell her it''s not me but she points towards my left arm, and I felt blood trickling down towards my wrist. I look and I see a deep cut on my deltoid area.


    "Oh, what the hell," I say as I finally feel the sting. "Forget about that. Do you guys know where we can use the key?¡± I say looking at the cage and there¡¯s no place for me to insert the key.


    ¡°Oh, we¡¯ve seen the auctioneer go up that side and use a control to open certain doors.¡± A guy inside the cage says and I nod towards him. I see they finished eating the food I gave them but I¡¯m wondering if they will gain the amount of body weight they lost in a short amount of time. It was the same for Suyeon and me but for these guys might be different. Based on what I remember from what Suyeon told me, they didn¡¯t pick any of the legendary class like the ones we have.


    I told Suyeon to stay with them since the Lisa girl grabbed Suyeon from the other side of the cage when she got close and hugged her with the bars in-between them. I went towards where they told me the Auctioneer usual goes even when kana protested that I should get my arm healed first. I quickly climbed the ladder and as soon as I got on the top, I spot what seems to be a controller for the cages. Now that I get a good look over all the cages at a high viewpoint, I notice wires coming out of the controller and it runs along the ceiling to only drop down towards the cages.


    "This probably controls all the doors," I say inspecting the controller where I can insert a key but nothing. I notice a cover near the edge of the controller and upon playing with it, it came right off exposing the keyhole. "Bingo."


    I placed the key inside, and I turned it clockwise until it clicked in place. Two pins came out of a controller and in a few seconds, it projected what seems to be a menu. I see red boxes in the hologram and when I tried to touch one of them, it turned green. I look back down and I see one of the cage doors on the far side opened up. The people inside looked confused but the minute they gained their senses, they bolted out the cage towards the exit.


    ¡°Huh, what if I do this¡­¡± I whisper as I ran my hand through the hologram turning every box green and next thing I know, each and every cage door opened. All the captured or kidnapped people were still disoriented but when they see the first group to run out, they all followed scampering towards the exit pushing each other out of the way. Since the controller is near the exit, I notice most of them turn my way before leaving their jail cell. I see Kana and the others got out of their cage and the Lisa girl kept hugging Suyeon jumping up and down while Kana hugs Daikichi.


    About time those two get that close.I say in my mind and I can¡¯t help myself from smiling.


    One guy who looks to be older than all of us carried the unconscious kid and everyone started making their way towards me. I started climbing down and the minute I got at the bottom, I feel a weight suddenly on me. When I turned around, I see Kana hugging me tightly. She is so skinny that I practically can move around while she hugs me. But I didn''t, I just stood there and let her cry as she says ¡®thank you¡¯ over and over again. I see all of them crying and I somehow know the feeling. Freedom.


    Something I felt when I got out of the first dungeon. The minute she calmed down, most of the slaves are gone while I see some stayed in their cage not moving. I look at the group that¡¯s with Kana and Daikichi and inspect all of them.


    Two adults, the rest seems to be high school kids.I say in my mind as I see one male adult, one female adult, one guy, a girl, and another guy that¡¯s unconscious, and then there¡¯s Kana and Daikichi. In total, eight people.


    "Ok, everyone. Let''s skip introduction until we get out of here. I knocked out most of the bandits that were outside including the so-called big boss. Let''s head for the exit while they''re sleeping." I tell them and they all gave me a weak nod.


    ¡°Y-you knocked them out?¡± Lisa asked surprised.


    "Yes. Now let''s move. We can''t stay here any longer. This whole town probably wants to kill me after punching their great leader in front of a crowd. Outside the auction house is full of bandits so be on your toes. Are you all good to run?¡± I¡¯m still worried about their condition since they¡¯re really skinny but I see them all nod and give me a look of determination. "Alright, those who can fight, raise your hand?"


    I see most of them raised a hand except the old man that¡¯s carrying the unconscious kid.


    ¡°Goro-sensei, give me Mamoru-kun. Please help these children fight. Me and Lisa will carry him.¡± The only adult female in the group says as she takes him off his hands.


    So this guy¡¯s name is Goro and that unconscious kid is Mamoru¡­somehow, that face seems familiar.I say in my mind as I stare at the face of the unconscious kid.


    "Item bag," I whisper for my bag and the noise it made hitting the metal floor startled all of them. I took out swords and handed them to the people that can actually fight.


    ¡°Ok, guys, the only thing I can give you is swords. The reason is that¡¯s the only weapon I''m limited to carrying including axe and hammers. The sword is the lightest weapon so it''s easier to swing it around without losing stamina. I know Daikichi is dual so he has skills that can be used with his weapon but reserve your skills until we really get into deep trouble. All we need to focus is running towards the elevator that leads outside. The problem is the trek to go there since it''s on the other side of this bandit town. Everyone ready?" I asked them and they all nod gripping their weapon.


    ¡°How about them?¡± Kana points at the dead bodies inside the cages and I can see her face full of sadness.


    "I''m sorry Kana but it''s too late for them. There''s nothing we can do." I tell her and she turns around to follow me. She sees my arm still bleeding and she tried to heal it. I grabbed her hand startling her and I can see any sudden movement scares them. I felt something prick my heart as I see similar experience I got while I was being tortured a year ago.


    ¡°W-what?¡± She says looking at me with a worried look.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok Kana, just reserve your energy. I have ways to heal myself. You¡¯re going to need your energy.¡± I tell her as I give her a smile and she nods.


    Her body looks really skinny and weak. I¡¯m afraid if they use their skill, they¡¯ll pass out. I know for a fact that using our skills uses some magic power but it seems to me and Suyeon are gifted with unlimited magic power, as we¡¯re able to use our skills over and over again. I''ll need to ask them later on if they get tired using their skills over and over again to make sure.


    ¡°Ok, everyone, let''s go! It''s a sprint from here! Try to keep up!" I shout over and they all seem determined to get out of here as we get out towards the stage. Thinking I¡¯ll see all the bandits I knocked out earlier, my eyes are set automatically towards where I left them. But to my surprise, they¡¯re nowhere to be seen. Even the big boss is gone.


    ¡°Fuck, they disappeared. Everyone! Keep your eyes peeled! These fuckers like to surprise attack!¡± I shout over and my voice resonated throughout the auditorium. Due to my haste, I forgot to eat something to heal the wound in my left deltoid and it¡¯s now stinging so much it feels like someone shoves an opened lemon inside the wound and squeezed it.


    I winced in pain every time I move my arm, but I couldn''t stop now since we''re so close to getting out of here. Finding them has lifted the heaviness I felt throughout this whole time. We ran towards the dark entrance and using a stalactite I have in my bag, I lead the way while illuminating our path. I thought of bandits hiding in the dark but we went through that area easily and soon enough, we were outside the auction house. I readied myself due to the crowd that I thought was going to be waiting for us but the minute I got out, the whole area is empty. Not one bandit in sight.


    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± I whisper as I look around, but I don''t see anyone. "Well, whatever. Guys! Keep your eyes peeled! They might be hiding waiting to ambush us!" I shout out loud as I kept running not waiting for a response. I started walking back trying to retrace my steps and since Dorang¡¯s not here, it¡¯s going to be easier for us to get lost in the alleyways.


    We slowly walked towards the market plaza but like the guillotine area, this whole place is empty. The stalls, the houses, everything. The only sound I hear is from the distance which is probably the kidnapped people that I released. Their voices sound like it''s coming from the elevator and somehow, I feel nervous making me want to get there quick.


    "Guys, we have to run. Let''s go!" I started running and everyone followed behind me. I didn''t activate my skill and slowed down my pace since I see them having a hard time keeping up except Suyeon who matched my pace perfectly.


    We got through the market quickly without any worries. I was thinking about arrows flying out of the windows but nothing. Everything feels empty and it''s not making me feel any better.


    Something feels off. Every bandit suddenly disappeared. Are they attacking the escapees? Or did they flee?I say in my mind.


    I wanted to run faster, but I¡¯ll end up leaving them behind. It took a while but we finally reached the elevator entrance and it¡¯s teeming with people around it. There are people blocking the entrance of the hallway that leads to the elevator and it¡¯s making it harder for us to even squeeze in.


    ¡°Shit, the fuc-¡°


    ¡°Heeeeeey!¡± I hear a voice suddenly shout from a distance and when I look towards the left, I see Dorang waving at me. The mother and son that I paid one diamond arise standing beside him and they bow the minute they see me approach.


    ¡°What are you still doing here? Didn¡¯t you escape?¡± I asked him.


    "Well, after you went fist blazing on the big boss, I ran for the elevator thinking you''ll get your friend and run there. It will be better to get the elevator on the bottom floor when you get there so we don''t get stuck waiting for it. Well, you never came and I didn''t think you had these many friends¡­" He says as he points towards the group of people waiting around trying to escape.


    ¡°Uh, no. They came from the auction house. The people behind me are my group. What¡¯s going on? Why is no one moving and standing around here?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°Well, after a while, the bandits were going crazy looking for you and me. I had to hide somewhere along with these two and luckily, they didn''t find me. But when I got out of my hiding spot, suddenly all of the bandits or I should say every single person in this place is gone except these guys you freed and us. Which comes to no surprise. There are people in the task of creating a portal just in case the town get overrun or we all need to flee. The big boss created what we call, abort protocol. It''s when those who specialize in making portals create one big portal for the whole town to escape and that''s what they did probably. Well better for us, no need to worry about anyone trying to chop our heads off."


    He sat on a box with a worried look as he continued talking, ¡°But, I think they did something to the elevator while I was hiding and it¡¯s not working. Even turning the wheel in the middle doesn¡¯t bring it up. It just turns. Some of the slaves who worked with maintaining this elevator is repairing it as we speak.¡±


    "Shit," I whisper looking around just in case the bandits are herding us to get a clear shot.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Is everything alright?¡± Daikichi walks up to me and I shake my head as he got close.


    ¡°No. The elevator that can bring us back up the surface is not working.¡± I reply to him.


    ¡°Wait, we¡¯re underground?¡± He asked me and I gave him a confused look.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t know? This place is underground. We got here by going through a hidden entrance way from the surface in the middle of the forest.¡±


    ¡°Oh." He says and I watch his face as different emotions run through it. I see tears well up his eyes as he slumps down the ground. ¡°Finally¡­. we¡¯re getting out.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help it but just let him cry as today is the day he probably felt really safe. Kana approached us as he sees Daikichi crying on the ground and they all have tears running down their cheeks with a smile on their face.


    ¡°Kana¡­we¡¯re safe. We, we can get out of here.¡± Daikichi whispers to Kana as he hugs her crying on her thin arms.


    "It''s fixed! Everyone! Let''s go!" A man shouts covered in oil as he tries to squeeze back in the hallway. Everyone followed behind him and slowly but surely, the packed people in the hallway started moving until we were able to be in it. I don''t know how fast they moving the wheel to bring the elevator up but with that many people inside the elevator, it means they have a lot of hands to turn the wheel.


    We got halfway when all of a sudden, the whole place started shaking. Everyone held onto each other while some hugged the walls and all of our eyes are fixed on the ceiling that looks like it can collapse anytime. As soon as the earthquake stopped, we waited for it to happen again just in case it will come back but all that replaced the tremors are everyone''s breathing in the dark cramped hallway. Then I suddenly hear something that sounds like a toilet flushing. I look back and walk out the exit since I decided to be behind everyone just in case bandits come and try to stop us. The minute I got out; I froze in place as I see something worse than a bandit. Runes appeared out of nowhere in the far right and it''s big enough to reach the top of the cave up to the bottom floor. But what came out of the circular rune is what made me freeze in place.


    ¡°Yasu, what''s wrong?¡± Daikichi asked me as he walks by my side and stopped as he stares what I¡¯m staring at. ¡°E-e-everyone! Move quick!¡±


    We forced people to move faster than usual trying to get a distance from the door. I can sense the fear in his movement, but I couldn¡¯t blame him. What I¡¯m staring at is water. Not just water but a giant wave.


    "So they planned this all along," I whisper to myself as the giant wave was swallowing everything in its path, and it¡¯s headed straight for us.

 CHAPTER 45: Escape the bandit town Part 2

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 45: Escape the bandit town part 2


    <hr>


    "Tenderize," I whisper my skill as I jump towards the incoming wave. I hear shouts behind me as everyone call out my name but I didn¡¯t have any time to think. The waves are moving at such a speed, it¡¯ll reach us within less than a minute. Right when I got close, I starting punching towards the wave but my attack just went through the water without making any impact at the speed of the wave.I jump back towards the entrance and I notice Daikichi runs towards me.


    "Item bag." I grabbed my back and quickly took out two swords. "Heaven''s slice!"


    Both my sword glowed and gave a vibrating hum. Using both swords, I swung down towards the wave and my attack went soaring straight at it. The impact cut the wave in half but the water joined back as if it was alive.


    "Everyone! Get inside!" I shout and we all ran in towards the hallway. I see one run out and grab a shield near the entrance of the hallway. Once we''re all in, I quickly close the door and darkness quickly engulfed the hallway as all the torches were taken out earlier. I braced for impact as I listen to the gush of water coming our way from the other side.


    "Yasu! We need light!" Daikichi says and I quickly called out my item back to take out a stalactite.


    "Kid, Stand back!" I hear someone shout behind me. I move away from the door and he throws his shield at the door while chanting something. Light escaped the corners of the shield as it floated vertically.


    "Everyone push!" Daikichi shouts as he pushes the shield towards the door and we all followed through. Good thing it opens inwards or else we wouldn''t be able to push it from our end.


    "Brace for Impact!" I shout as I tightened all my muscles to make my body rigid and leaned myself forty-five degrees towards the shield. In reality, I''m probably the only one that has enough strength to hold out so I push as hard as I can.


    BOOM!!!!


    The door shook and it felt like a bull ran full speed toward the doors almost making me fly back. Some of the people behind us fell back from the impact but I pushed as hard as I can and felt like I would pop a vein from exerting myself. The pressure of the water was strong enough to start damaging the door as I hear it crack and water started leaking from it covering the ground with quickly. But the pressure slowly pulled back and was gone in an instant. We still kept pushing until the force field disappeared and we came crashing into the door breaking it into pieces. As soon as I look up, I see the whole town and each and every building was either in pieces or completely destroyed due to the wave. The lights have turned red and it dimly lit the area. I hear a siren going off from a distance that resonated through the whole base. The walls erupted in multiple spots as water blasted through slowly filling up the town drowning each and everything in its path. As I stood up, I feel the water was around my ankle slowly rising reaching up to my angle. It''s freezing cold as if someone placed a bunch of ice around dropping the temperature.


    "Guys! Hurry! Go now!" I shout towards everyone and they all started screaming pushing each other inside the dark cramp hallway that leads to our only exit. Even though they''re moving as fast as they can, the water is gaining on us at a much faster rate. I can see everyone from our group regret being in the back since we''ll be the last to leave. Even when we tried to force our way through, we couldn''t. There were too many people and it''s making me want to kill all of them to just get through. I held myself back as I''m with Kana and Daikichi. I see everyone from the back look worried as we wait for people ahead to leave.


    "T-t-there won''t b-be another w-wave right?" Lisa asked as we slowly approach the exit. The water was so cold it''s making us shiver even if it''s only submerging our legs. It felt like ice.


    "I-I hope not," Kana says as she gets close to Daikichi trying to warm each other. "Y-y-Yasu. Y-your arm."


    I look at my arm that''s soaked with blood as the wound gushed out more blood after pushing the door. With the entire hectic event¡¯s, I completely forgot to eat a piece of meat to heal myself.


    "It''s fine," I tell her and even though she just nodded, she still looked worried along with Daikichi who''s staring at the wound. "G-guys f-focus on walking. W-were almost there."


    I felt my body shake and I started shivering. I took out my dimensional bag and grabbed a dagger and a piece of meat out of it. I took a bite out of the food quickly devouring it before calling out my skill. The dagger glowed red before bursting into flame. I took out a few torches I stored in my bag. The heat coming from the torch helped warm me up for a bit but my shivering never stopped. I lit a few more torches and handed them out trying to keep them from having hypothermia. It took a few minutes but once we finally got close enough to see the lift, I saw it go up bringing people above ground. Then it''ll go back down as two guys frantically spin the wheel in the middle of the elevator as fast as they can. Not everyone can get on due to the lift needing space in the middle to able to turn the wheel. The elevator would go up, then back down. They would collect more people and rush back up top again with the help of the new passenger to turn the wheel.


    After a couple of minutes, the water has finally reached our waist and it feels worse. Now it feels like we''re treading in shallow waters of the Arctic Ocean. It was so cold I could see my breath like I''m in a freezer. Everyone is shivering and a couple of people hugged each other to prevent themselves from freezing to death while I try to keep the flame on my torch lit. I feel my wound slowly healing but the stinging sensation never got better.


    "Y-y-Yasu. Y-y-your wound-." Daikichi says as he looks at my arm.


    "I-I-I-I n-n-n-need t-t-o h-heal it," Kana says as I hear her voice vibrates due to her lower jaws rapidly shaking.


    "I-Its fine. It¡¯s s-slowly heal-l-ling.¡± I tell her as I stop her from coming close and I tried to give her a smile. She gave me a nod but I can see her staring at my wound for a good minute before turning around.


    After a couple more minutes, it was finally our turn. As we approach the closed gate of the elevator, I can see a hole in the left side of the wall. Peeking in, I see the mechanism of the elevator as cogs hugging each other and three wires that probably functions the levers. The wire in the middle was tied together making it look like a mountain climber''s knot. Whoever did it know a good amount about it since it looks stable enough to carry people up the lift without it coming undone or snapping. The wire they used to tie it together was actually longer than what they needed and they looped the extra wire out the hole and didn''t bother cutting it. The hole is halfway filled with water and good thing the mechanism of the elevator doesn''t run on electricity or else it would short circuit preventing it from moving at all.


    "W-w-will that hold?" Daikichi asked and I just gave him a nod.


    "If they are able to bring people up and down, it should hold out," I reply to him but I can''t help feeling worried also.


    It has to hold out.I say in my mind as I see the elevator slowly descend approaching us.


    As soon as it reached towards us, I can see the two guys that have been going up and down is completely exhausted. Why they didn''t switch with anyone on top beats me. We quickly got on the lift but there were too many people as there are other people with us beside Daikichi and his group, Dorang and the two I bought earlier.


    "Fuck, shit." One of the guys who tried to turn the wheel couldn''t. There was no room for the lever to turn.


    "S-somebody got to step out." The other guy said and no one said anything or did anything. Since I was near the entrance, I stepped out and I felt someone grabbing on my shirt. I see Kana holding on to it looking at me.


    "It''s ok, once they bring you all up, I''ll come after," I tell them as I tried to close the gate but Daikichi stopped me as he quickly got out also.


    "D-d-don''t worry, I-I-I-I''ll b-be with him a-a-and m-m-make s-s-sure he d-d-doesn''t get in trouble," Daikichi says joking around and I smile a little.


    "S-Suit yourself," I say as I close the gate.


    "Y-y-y-you two b-b-be c-c-caref-f-ful!" Kana says as her shivers and we both just nod towards her.


    The elevator started moving up slowly as the two guys inside turn the lever with the help of Dorang and the others. We watched them go up and somehow I felt relieved knowing they''ll be safe in a few minutes.


    "S-s-so, when did it start?" I asked as I watch the lift go up and up until its barely visible due to the darkness above us.


    "S-s-start w-w-w-what?" I hear Daikichi stutter due to the cold water.


    "Y-you and K-kana. I-I-I p-p-prayed e-e-everyd-d-day f-for it to h-h-happen when I-I-I was b-b-back at e-earth." I tell him trying to complete my sentence. I look at him and smiled. He looked at me and he started chuckling, which made me chuckle and next thing we know we''re both laughing.


    "Hahahaha, I-It h-h-happen w-wh-"


    SNAP!


    I hear a loud snap and the water near the hole erupted. I hear screams from above us and as I look at the hole, the wire was unraveling itself as the elevator pull the spool upwards that''s underwater. The wire didn''t snap but the metal where it was tied to came off the ground.


    "Shit! I sprung forward quickly grabbing the wire. I didn''t have time to think but to try and stop it myself. I feel Daikichi pull also but the wire tore through my palm as it burned my skin.


    "Ah! Fuck!!" I wince gripping the wire more and I feel it tearing my flesh. "Chef''s coat! Daikichi! Grab the end of the wire and loop it around my waist before it completely disappears!"


    Due to the adrenaline, my shivering has stopped. I had no choice but to use myself to try and stop it from descending. There''s no area for me to tie the rope and it''s going down too fast that the spool of wire will be gone in a couple of seconds. Daikichi quickly got underwater and grabbed the end of the wire and tied it around my waist as fast as he can. I see him tie it into his waist and we both brace for impact. As I look up, I see the elevator quickly coming down as screams got louder and louder.


    "Daikichi! Brace for impact!" I shout as I readied to grip the wire with everything I got. I left everything to luck. I''m hoping that my skill will help me along with my superhuman strength but there''s a chance that this might rip Daikchi and me in half killing us. But if they die here without me doing everything I can, then I¡¯m no good as those who left me behind to die.


    I, I will not be like them! I shout in my mind as I gripped the wire as hard as I can and pulled on it. I felt my body propel forward but I used my foot to stop myself on the wall as my hands go through the hole. The wire slipped some more but I felt it slowing down as I gripped harder. It feels like my arms would dislocate and rip from my body for a brief moment but the pressure eased as the elevator came to a slow stop. Using my strength I gripped the wire more as I held it in place. Somehow it doesn''t feel as heavy as I thought it would be but my palm stings so much that it''s making me sweat as the pain is unbearable. I look up towards the elevator and I see it a couple of feet above us. I slowly ease it down the ground and the minute I let go of the wire, I fell towards Daikichi who''s been pulling me trying to help. I notice how much wire I had left and if I didn¡¯t stop the elevator, they would have kept going down till they crash on the bottom.


    I felt like all the energy was briefly taken out. The water in front of me was slowly turning red as blood leak out of my hands. I feel like passing out but if I do, I''ll end up drowning.


    "Pwuah!!" Daikichi emerges from the water coughing and I can notice the water level reached up to our chest. "Is everyone alright?! Kana?!"


    Daikichi runs towards the gate forgetting to un-tie us and we both came tumbling down. He probably forgot he was tied to me as he dragged me back underwater. We both emerged out coughing and I can feel him frantically untying himself before running towards the gate.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "Well gee thanks, my hands seems fine. Thank you for asking." I mutter as I see him trying to raise the gate but he was too weak to even lift it off the ground. I walked towards him and using one hand, I lifted up the gate which only came up halfway as the broken hinges prevented it from going all the way up. Daikichi runs in to check on everyone.


    "W-w-were alright. I-I thought w-we was g-going to die. H-h-how did you guys stop it?" Kana asked as she looks at us and her eyes went wide as she sees the water around me that turned blood red. Blood trickly from my palm towards my elbow as I held the gate up. I emerge my other hand from the water and I hear a gasp as the condition of my palm would make people faint. The skin and flesh were completely ripped apart as the wire burned through it showing my bones.


    "Y-Yasu! Your hands!" Kana shouts as she frantically tried to get near me. I felt pain but the adrenaline that''s still pumping through my veins somehow acted as anesthesia.


    "It''s alright," I tell her smiling at her and she somehow got mad at me.


    "All right?! How can this be alright?!" She shouts at me before submerging herself in the water, as the water level is higher than what the gate can go through. I see her submerge on my right as she wipes the water off her face, which I felt bad because the area around us is full of my blood. She quickly placed her hands over my hand trying not to touch it.


    "Heal!" She shouts and a faint glow appeared around her hand. I felt a warm sensation but I guess her skill was too weak, as it had no effect on my wound. "Come on! Heal!"


    "K-kana, I-Its fine. I can heal myself." I tell her as she grabs my wrist when I pulled away.


    "Heal yourself? This is not s-s-something you c-can p-put a-a b-bandaid on! Y-your s-severely w-wounded!" She shouted at me and I guess it would look severe for someone who doesn''t know my abilities. I felt happy she¡¯s getting mad but if I don''t fix myself right away, I might pass out due to blood loss.


    "Item bag," I whisper and my bag appeared dropping onto the water. "C-c-can you grab my bag?" I say to Daikichi who emerged out of the water next to her. He quickly grabs my bag underwater and lifted it up towards me. I told him to open it and I slid my hand inside grabbing a piece of cooked meat.


    "Y-Y-Yasu! Now is n-not the t-t-time to eat!" Kana shouted at me but I kept on munching at it until I felt something hit my stomach.


    "I-I-Its t-t-the w-w-way I-I-I heal," I tell her as I show her and she noticed my hand slowly heal until it stopped still leaving me with a big open wound on my palm. "I-i-it wi-will t-take time."


    I placed my hand again to take out a piece of shirt. My whole body is shivering making me stutter while I speak. I took out a sword and told Kana to use one to cut the shirt so I can bandage my hand. I felt the sting of the wet cloth as it touches my open wound but the coldness of the water is helping me numb my hand as I submerge it.


    "Fuck. The lever is broken!" Dorang says as he tries to fix it together but the wheel that brings the elevator up and down have been completely smashed to pieces as the elevator descended earlier.


    "W-w-what now? I-I-I-I don''t want to die here!" One of the escapees that came up with them shouted non-stop as he frantically tried to climb to only fall back down into the water.


    "Help! Somebody help us!!" Another one shouted and they all followed as if someone would just rappel down to save them.


    Think! Yasu! Think!I say to myself as I look around to see if there''s any other way we can bring the elevator up. I notice the water have risen to the point it''s submerging our jaw and I don''t think it''s going to stop anytime soon.


    "F-f-fuck, I have no cc-choice. K-K-kana. D-Daikichi. Go b-back in t-t-the elevat-t-tor. I-i-I g-got a-a p-plan." I tell them and they nod as we walked near the gate. Kana swam underneath first to emerge on the other side while Daikichi came after her.


    "O-Ok y-Yasu. Y-your t-turn." Daikichi tells me and I just smiled at them. I suddenly grab the gate and slammed it down the ground as hard as I can.


    "H-h-hey!! What are you doing!" One of the escaped slaves says as he sees me trap them all inside a broken elevator. "Y-y-your trying to kills us!"


    "S-s-shut the fuck up. G-Guys! W-we''ll meet outside!" I tell them and I grabbed the wire near the hole and using my strength, I pull it. "Agrhh!"


    The elevator started moving up as I pulled the wire. I picked up heavier things than this and it''s a good thing they''re anorexic or else I would have a harder time to pull due to the extra weight. But since most of them are stick and bones except Dorang, I managed to move the elevator up with only a little bit of difficulty.


    "Yasu! Stop! What are you doing?!" Daikichi shouted out but I kept pulling until I couldn''t see them anymore. I had a hard time stopping it since they descended down so quickly but now that I notice, I can easily pull them towards the surface. I feel the water rising near my nose so using all my strength; I pulled the rope as fast as I can before I get completely submerged.


    "Ugh!!! Come on!" I shouted as I pulled and pulled what seems like forever. I felt my palm sting and I can see the cloth over them is turning red as I pulled on the elevator until I felt it was blocked by something.


    I guess they''re in the top. Now, how do I stop this thing from going back down?I say in my mind as the water completely covered my mouth making me taste my own blood.


    I noticed a large piece of metal debris from the elevator and using my foot, I pulled it towards me. I tied the rope on it and jammed it near the hole. It held it in place as the metal was thick enough to not bend.


    "Shit!" I almost drank some of the water, as I was completely submerged with only a little bit of room to only emerge my mouth to get air. I took in as much air as I can and dived back down. I pushed myself towards the other way to exit out of the hallway back into the bandit town. The minute I see red hue above me, I quickly emerge to catch my breath.


    "Pwuah!" I coughed out little bit of water that got into my lungs. I swam towards floating debris and held on to relax as my arms felt tired from pulling the elevator. "Fuck, how do I get out of here?"


    I looked around and saw nothing but debris floating towards the surface of the water. I look back where I came from and the hallway is completely submerged.


    "Dammit!! I didn''t think. I should have cut up the top of the elevator and used the water to bring us to the surface. Fucking hell, I''m becoming really stupid." I hit myself in the head as I noticed a better plan than trying to be a fucking hero and pull the elevator up with my bloody hands. My head started hurting and I hit it more to subside the pain. After my headache calmed down, I swam towards bigger floating debris to rest my legs.


    "Only one way out of this shit," I whisper remember the section where the auctioneer brought us where light entered from the top. "If a light is coming in from there, it means there''s a hole that leads outside.


    I quickly swam towards it dodging debris of buildings. I was so high up that below me seemed too dark to see. I took out my dimensional bag and grabbed a couple of stalactites to illuminate what''s below me. I watched the stalactite fall towards something and when I got a better look, it was the guillotine. I swam my way towards where I think the entrance to the back door of the auction house. Dropping a couple of stalactites below me, I managed to find the back entrance towards the auction house. The red light that''s above the ceiling has gone out and the siren has died as water probably submerged the control panels for it. The only light source I have now is the stalactite I left near the guillotine and the one I dropped below me. The whole place left an eerie feeling as silence enveloped the submerged bandit town. The water is pitch black that would make people imagine the worst monsters lurking below the surface of the water.


    "I-I-It''s a-a-al or n-n-nothing," I whisper to myself, as I can''t stop shivering due to the water feeling like it''s ice. I took a deep breath filling my lungs with as much air as I can and I dove down towards the stalactite grabbing one as I reach the ground. As soon as I got near the entrance, I swam towards the dark hallway using the stalactite to illuminate my way. The whole place was so dark that the only light source I have is the stalactite in my hand, which is making me worried. If there is light coming from another side, I should have been able to spot it from a distance but all I''m staring at is the dark. I swam as fast as I can since my breath is starting to run out as I slowly release air bubbles giving my lungs some movement. I came across the corpse of the bandits I killed earlier and seeing them in the dark water floating around doesn''t make it feel safer. I quickly swam past them and as soon as I hit the wall, I quickly swam upwards.


    "Pwuah!" I took a breath and hugged the wall as I tried to relax my breathing. "Fuck, is it night outside? Why is it so fucking dark above?" I whisper as I look up. All I see is darkness. I threw a stalactite upwards but nothing. The stalactite came back down and landed on the water. I watch is slowly submerged toward the bottom.


    "What the hell, well whatever, let me just wait for this to fill up. It should bring me back up top." I whisper as I wait around for the water to rise.


    I''ve waited and waited. It felt like an eternity and I decided to take out another stalactite and throw it up above. Still, the stalactite went up but descended back down landing in the water.


    What the fuck, I should have been closer to the surface now.I whisper in my mind as my shivering got worse is making it harder to even form a proper sentence. I watched the stalactite slowly submerge itself only to land next to the one I threw earlier.


    "W-w-wait a-a-a min-min-minute," I whisper as I look at the two stalactites. The one I threw earlier never moved. If this area filled up with water, I would have been at a much higher place by now but the stalactite seems to still be at the same distance. "I-i-item b-b-bag."


    I quickly caught my bag and took out a dagger. I marked the wall where the water line is and waited for a couple of minutes but nothing. The waterline never moved past beyond my mark.


    "y-y-y-you''ve go-g-g-got t-t-to be k-k-kidding m-me!" I quickly took out two swords from my bag and aimed down towards the water. "Sky kings wind!"


    I brought down the sword under me and it erupted sending me flying only for a brief moment. As I got closer beyond where my stalactite reached earlier, I saw a glimpse of it. A lid. They covered the hole with a lid trapping all the air inside. That''s why the water never raised. There''s no way for the air to exit out of this place and an air bubble formed here preventing the water from rising.


    "Assholes!!" I cursed out the bandits as they thought of every scenario. I fell back into the water and I was sent straight down the bottom and using the momentum, I lodged my sword on the ground and held on to it preventing me from resurfacing. I held my breath for a minute to position myself and I prepared to set off another skill.


    "Dragon¡¯s breath!" I shouted my skill and talking underwater made me swallow a bit of water. My sword glowed and started heating up the water creating bubbles that escaped up the surface. Thanks to chef''s coat, I can''t be boiled alive and I kept screaming over and over again to keep my sword glowing as it created more bubbles releasing steam into the air. If I create more steam, the hot water will become condensed under the cold layer of water above. If my theory is correct, the lid will be blown off due to the collected steam and the minutes it comes off, this whole area will explode upwards like a geyser.


    I held onto my sword as bubbles covered the area trying to escape to the surface. I heard a loud muffled bang above me and I tensed my body as I slowly lift up with the water. My body was propelled upwards flying at a speed I can''t even control. I went soaring up towards the sky as the sunset gave me a warm feeling after being trapped swimming in ice freezing water.


    "Hahaha! I¡¯m out!!" I shout as I start descending down towards the forest below. "Chef¡¯s coat!"


    I activated my skill right before I landed on the ground and I could feel the impact as I fell from a height most likely people would die from. The impact shook my brain and I was knocked out cold.


    .


    .


    .


    I was woken up with my body being rocked back and forth as if somebody is shaking me violently. I hear a faint voice but I could hardly make out what it is or who it is.


    "Yasu! Wake up!" I suddenly opened my eyes and I see Kana crying as she held my hands. Another person tries to heal my bruises and scratches and I recognize her as one of the adults that came with Kana. The minute Suyeon sees me wake up; she hugged me tight making me lose air. I tapped for her to let go but she just cried and cried. I just lay there relaxing my body as it felt like I was used as a punching bag. After Suyeon has calmed down, she slowly sits back up and I can see people surrounding me. Most of the ones I know like Kana, Suyeon, Daikichi are all in tears.


    "Ugh...my head," I say as I feel like my head is splitting open. I slowly sit up and Daikichi helped me balance myself, as I feel much weaker than usual.


    Ugh, ¡­what¡¯s going on. I never felt like this before.I say to myself as my arms feel like it takes too much energy to even move.


    "Yasu! Don''t ever do that again!" I see Kana cried more and the one girl named Lisa as I remember goes to stroke her back comforting her.


    "Yeah man, what were you thinking. We thought you died. We tried going back down but the elevator won''t budge. We thought of destroying it and right before we do, a geyser exploded from a distance and we saw something come out of it. We searched for you all this time and good thing we found you before it really got dark. You damn bastard don''t scare us like that again." Even though he''s mad, he still held me up as I struggle to remain seated.


    "Me? die? I came back from death twice. Dying isn''t really my thing." I tried speaking some more but my throat was so dry it''s making me want to gag. "Item bag."


    I indicated to get my bag and Suyeon ran for it opening it in front of me. I place my hand inside and took out a water container and gulped it down to ease my dry throat. After calming down and regaining a bit of my energy, they helped me up and we walked towards a safe looking area where we can see around us. Bandits might have disappeared but, it¡¯s never too safe to be sure.


    "Where''s everyone?" I asked as the only people surrounding me is the group of people Daikichi came with the dungeon. Even Dorang and the mother and son are gone.


    "After we got out, the Dorang guy said he was leaving the illusion barrier and everyone else followed him. Ungrateful bastards. After you save them, they didn''t even try to save you or help us look for you." Daikichi says as he sets me down towards a log.


    I lean back and rest as I feel like an old man. Reminds me of when I almost starved to death in the first dungeon making it hard to move. I called out my item bag again and took out the remaining food I had and handed it out to everyone. Some of them used a stick and stabbed the meat through to heat it up while the person who named Goro just ate it as it is. I ate my portion and as my theory, my body is damaged since I don''t feel the food entering my stomach. I kept eating until I felt it.


    "It''s fine. Leave them be. It''s not like I wanted to lead them." I tell him.


    "I know, but it''s still not right," Daikichi tells me.


    "Daikichi, in this world¡­. nothing is ever right." I tell him as I take a breath relaxing my body.


    "Yeah, I''m learning. We''re lucky it was you that came out of the geyser." He says and he paused for a good minute before talking. "Finally, we''re outside. Thank you, Yasu. Thank you."


    I can see his eyes accumulating tears as he tries to hold it back.


    "Thank me once we get back on earth," I tell him and he nods as he wipes his eyes I didn''t wait for him to reply so I continued talking. "I didn''t get to say this but, its good to see a friendly face again. What''s up punk."


    I held out my fist towards him like old times.

 CHAPTER 46: Outside the illusion

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 46: Outside the illusion


    <hr>


    We bumped fist like it''s the good old days and Kana jumped on both of us as they laughed and cried. I can''t blame them; they were cooped up in that cage probably for a long time. They told me since they entered the bandit town, they''ve never seen daylight. Something I can relate to. Their skinny body reminds me when I was starving in the first dungeon making me look like a skeleton. Seeing the outline of my bones as I slowly deteriorate was something that brought down hope and they probably felt the same every single day.


    I''m glad I was able to save them before its too late.I say in my mind as I smile in my own world.


    After calming down, Kana and Daikichi bombarded me with questions about what happened to me. I told them everything they need to know while leaving out parts about the first dungeon. I told them bits and pieces. How I was inside the dungeon and mistakenly picked the wrong class. I left out the part where I was eaten alive, tortured by trolls and goblins. I feel like it''s a burden that I have to carry alone. I told everything to them including up to the point I met Suyeon. I left a couple of parts out such as how I killed the governor since I''m afraid they''ll think of me differently.


    Why can''t I come clean? Why can''t I tell them everything?I whisper in my mind over and over.


    "Oh Yasu, I-I ¨CI don''t know what to say," Kana says as she tries to wipe her tears while Daikichi strokes her back trying to calm her.


    After telling each other stories, they asked Suyeon what else happened to her and what happened to everyone inside their dungeon. She told them what she told me and what she went through trying to hold back her tears and I can see the girl named Lisa is on the verge of tears as she jumps and hugs Suyeon.


    "I''m sorry! I''m sorry!" She said over and over again as she cried on Suyeons shoulders with her frail body. "E-even now I-I has nightmares about that time. It must have been worse for you."


    "It''s ok now Lisa. And it''s all thanks to Yasu. He saved me from that dark place. He saved me not only once but three times." She tells them and I tried counting in my head how many times I saved her.


    "Three times? When''s the third one?" I asked her.


    "U-um when you c-came here and found me." She replied to me but I don''t remember saving her. I remember coming here and seeing her kick the bandit to the sky like a bird.


    "Oh." I whisper as I didn''t'' want to go on details what we did or what she did to those guys in front of Daikichi and Kana.


    ¡°Good thing you found her Yasu. Thank you.¡± Kana hugs Suyeon and they both started getting teary.


    "Well, it''s fate," I tell them as I look up the sky. "I don''t know if you know but, the dungeon you guys woke up in, is the same dungeon I woke up in a year ago."


    ¡°Seriously?¡± Daikichi was surprised and I gave him a nod.


    ¡°That''s the same place. The place Suyeon kept running into is the room I woke up in.¡± I tell them and even Suyeon was surprised.


    ¡°O-oh! I remember seeing your name when I inspected the dungeon!¡± Suyeon says in surprise and everyone looked at her making her revert to her passive self.


    ¡°You did? When?¡± Kana asked and Suyeon tried hard to remember.


    ¡°I-it was when before w-we opened t-the door," Suyeon explains and I can see she¡¯s having a hard time talking again as if something in her memory triggered her stuttering.


    "Did you, did you ever meet him?" Lisa asked Suyeon and the atmosphere got heavy. Somehow I know whom she''s talking about.


    "N-no. I never saw him after that." Suyeon says looking down.


    "That fucking bastard. Wait till I find him, I''m going to wrangle his neck." Lisa says and I can see the real fury in her eyes.


    "How about you Yasu, did you ever meet them?" Kana asked me and all eyes went on me.


    "Meet who?" I suddenly asked thinking that they know about Junpei and them but I suddenly realized they''re asking about Suyeon''s brother and his group.


    "Oh, well, after Luro told me he''s bringing a new group to this world, I rushed to get to the dungeon. I did meet Suyeon''s brother. Stopping me like he knows me preventing me from going in the dungeon. I should have cut his fucking head off." I told them and somehow, they seem surprised at what I said.


    "Yasu! You shouldn''t talk like that." Kana tells me. "Killing is not the answer. Besides, I don''t want you to be a murderer."


    Somehow I felt something turn in my gut and I just blurted it out. "Too late."


    "What?" She says confused and I can see Daikichi knows what I''m talking about since he has seen me kill a few bandits after saving him and he probably remembers what Suyeon and I did to one bandit.


    Shit, stupid stupid stupid.I curse myself in my mind.


    "Yasu, tell me what you mean?" She says and knowing her personality, She will never let this go.


    "Since that hell hole of a dungeon, I killed everything that came my way from then on. Whether it''s monsters," I paused for a minute and I slowly stood up as I feel my body strong enough to move around. I turned away from them and before walking off to take a piss somewhere in the forest, I spoke again. "Whether its monsters or humans, I will kill them if they get in my way. You guys eat, I''m going to piss."


    Somehow, no one stopped me, as the camp got silent. I walked off and disappeared into the woods.


    <hr>


    Suyeon''s POV


    <hr>


    I watched him walk towards the dark forest and no one stopped him. Somehow, his back looked sadder than ever. It was the first time I saw him with such a sad atmosphere since he¡¯s usually angry.


    "K-killed humans?" Amaguchi asked and I can see Daikichi-san and Kana-san in a daze. "H-h-he''s safe to be around right?"


    "He''s not a bad guy!" I suddenly blurted out and they all looked at me. I can see Kana and Daikichi snap out of their trance and life went back into their expression. ¡°He really isn¡¯t.¡±


    I was on the verge of tears remembering what Yasu told me about his experience in the dungeon. The one he left out when he talked to Kana and Daikichi earlier.


    "Yea, I believe in him. No matter what he becomes, I will continue to be his friend." Daikichi says and I can see him and Kana having the same expression. Warmth, love, caring, they all genuinely mean what they say.


    "Yea, I just feel like he''s hiding something from us," Kana says with a bit of a sad expression. She suddenly slapped her cheeks. "Get yourself together, that''s Yasu. Yeah, you''re right Daikichi, no matter what, we need to stick with family."


    Then she looks up to me and my heart suddenly started beating fast. "Suyeon, you''ve been with him all this time, is there anything else you know about him?"


    I wanted to tell them what he told me. What he went through in the dungeon with his teammates. But I held my tongue and shake my head. "N-no I don''t."


    It''s better if they hear it from him.I say in my mind.


    "Well, who cares? He saved all of us and that''s what matters. I owe him my life. If he didn''t come, we all probably would have died. I mean look at us, compared to Suyeon, we''re skin and bones." Mr. Goro-sensei says as he looks at smiles and me. "I''m really glad your alive kiddo."


    "Me too! I''m so happy I get to see you again~" Miki-sensei says as she hugs me along with Lisa and the warmth and affection they''re giving me is making my eyes tear up again as I couldn''t hold back.


    "I-I''m glad we found you guys," I say and I started crying. Then Kana approached me and hugged me as tight as she can.


    "Suyeon. Thank you for saving me at that time. Thank you." She says and I can feel her body tremble as she cries and I just nod as more emotions take over my speech making me cry non-stop.


    "Ugh, let''s stop crying. Sniff* I''m afraid I''ll cry to death." Kana says and we all started chuckling a bit. "Daikichi, can you check on Yasu? He''s been gone awfully long."


    "Sure, I need to take a piss anyway," Daikichi says as he stands up dusting off his worn out pants.


    "I''ll go with you, I also need to go." Mr. Goro-sensei says.


    "Me too! This is the first time I drank that much water~" Amaguchi stood up and all three of them walked towards where Yasu went.


    "Sensei, how is he?" Kana asked when Miki-sensei approached Mamoru who remained unconscious.


    "He''s fine now since we got a healing potion," Miki-sensei says as he checked on Mamoru''s temperature, placing her and over his forehead. ¡°He doesn''t have a fever so all we have to do is wait for him to wake up. I wished I were strong enough to heal something like this without relying on a potion. If it wasn''t for your friend finding us and giving us potion, I don''t know how we would have survived another day."


    "I know, I thought we would lose Mamoru. We owe Yasu a lot." Kana says and she turns back to me and looks me up and down making me blush.


    "Suyeon, your hair, you cut it. I can see your beautiful face so clear now." She says as she places her hands on my cheeks. She stares at me and it¡¯s making me blush.


    "Hair? Forget about the hair holy hell Suyeon you''re hot! Look at your clothes and your body. Ugggggghhhh, you must have worked out a lot to get this flat stomach. Well, I have a flat stomach also but it''s not the flat I want." Lisa says as she lifts up her shirt halfway showing her stomach that also has the outline of her ribcage.


    "I-I was that skinny before. Then Yasu fed me good food." I tell them smiling and I took out the boar and wolf meat he cooked and stored in my bag.


    "Want some?" held it out to them and they happily took it.


    "MMMmmmmmm, this is so good~" Lisa say as she munch on the boar meat and while they''re busy eating, I gave some to Miki-sensei who happily took it and ate beside Mamoru.


    "I-it doesn''t take long to gain your body weight," I tell them as I remember me gaining mine in a short amount of time.


    "I hope so, I don''t want to look like this forever," Lisa tells me as she looks at herself.


    ¡°You¡¯re kidding?!" I hear Amaguchi walks back with Daikichi, Mr. Goro-sensei, and Yasu. Daikichi arm is around Yasu shoulders and I can see Yasu smiling which is making me feel hot and smile at the same time.


    "Kana, your friend, he''s fucking hot." Lisa whispers and Kana looks at Lisa.


    "Off limits." She tells her and Lisa gave Kana puppy eyes. Kana then look at me and smiled. "That''s Suyeons~"


    I felt happy when she said that but I still feared guys in general. After what I went through the dungeon, it even makes me feel uncomfortable to be in the bandit town full of men. Only Yasu I feel a bit comfortable with.


    <hr>


    End of Suyeon POV


    <hr>


    Yasu POV


    <hr>


    We walked back towards the camp after taking a piss. I''m glad Daikichi doesn''t seem too different towards me and even the two guys he came with name Goro and Amaguchi treated me like they knew me for years.


    "So, have you seen any elves?" Amaguchi asked me as we slowly walk back towards camp.


    "I don''t remember. All I''ve seen are humans so far." I tell him and somehow, with his skinny body, this guy looks like he''s full of energy.


    "Awww, dang. We never really got to explore since we got out. I wonder what types of monsters are here~" He replied to me as he started daydreaming. Even after going through hell and becoming slaves, he seems unfazed.


    "Well, around this forest, outside of the illusion barrier," I tell him and they all listened as we walked through the forest. "There''s boars, wolves, and bears. Only in the dungeons, you see those undead skeletons. Oh, I did fight a dragon."


    "A dragon?!" Amaguchi suddenly stepped back with his mouth open. "A Dragon?! How was it?! Did you tame it?! Ride it?! Dang, I want to ride a dragon!"


    Is this guy right in the head?I asked myself in my mind.


    "Well, It was big. Bigger than the gatekeeper. And it tried to kill me. I managed to kill and gain a few skills from it." I tell him remembering the Sky King.


    "Oh?! Show us show us!" He says like an excited kid. I called out my dimensional back and took out a sword.


    "Dragon¡¯s breath," I whisper my skill and my sword was encased with fire.


    "Ohhh that is so cool!" Amaguchi stared at the sword as if it was a circus play.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Is this guy really fine in the head?I say in my mind as I disperse the flame and store the blade back in my bag. We kept walking back to camp and they all bombarded me with more question about the class system and how to survive in this world.


    After arriving, we see the girls together while one of them is with the unconscious kid. It''s nice to see Suyeon found her group since her attitude has become a bit different ever since finding Kana and that girl named Lisa who keeps glancing my way.


    I sat back down where I was before and rested my back on the log. "So, can you tell me your classes?"


    The minute I asked them, they all told me their class one by one. Kana and the older female name Miki picked the healer class. Lisa is a mage while Daikichi is a class called dual. Something I wanted in the beginning. The older guy named Goro is a guardian while the Amaguchi is a berserker. The unconscious kid named Mamoru chose a class called warlock and he''s the one that can create portals that lead to random places. Ever since the bandits kidnapped them, they forced Mamoru to work in a different section and when they tried to break him out, that''s when they found him unconscious. That''s also when they got caught where Daikichi was sentenced to the guillotine.


    "Hmmm, what level are you guys?" I asked them and they all called out their status window.


    "I think all of us here don''t exceed level 20. They didn''t give us any chance to level up." Daikichi says as he looks into his palm.


    "Hmm, well after we get out of this illusion barrier, I''ll train you guys like what I did to Suyeon. The more you level up, the more skills you obtain. You guys have it easy since I have to cook what I kill to get experience orbs." I tell them.


    "So, what now?" Goro asked me as he sat around the campfire putting more sticks in to keep the fire going. I never really thought that far ahead. All I was the focus is finding them. I never really thought about what to do after I found them.


    Ah, I know. I say in my mind.


    "Well, we need to establish a place we can rest. Camping in the forest is a pain in the neck every time. Daikichi, call out your status window." I tell him and he nods at me.


    "Status window. Ok, now what?" He says as he reads something I can''t see.


    "Tell me what you see in a section that says, guild," I asked him.


    "It¡¯s nothing. It''s blank." He tells me.


    "So you guys are not in a guild. Shit, if only I know how to invite you in." I say trying to see if there''s any command to invite people in the guild.


    "Guild?! There are guilds?!" Amaguchi says surprised.


    "Yes. I''m actually part of one. You can say I''m the leader, I guess." I tell him and it looks like he''s about to pass out due to the excitement.


    "What?! What guild?!" He asked me with a big smile on his face.


    "A guild called Diamond District. There are actually two guilds as of now that I know. One is the Gold District, which consists of the other people that were transported here. Then there''s the Diamond District, which consists of only me. I would invite all of you if I know how but I tried all commands but nothing." I explained to him.


    "Oh damn, diamond district sound fancy~ I wanna be on that one," Lisa says and they all nod.


    "As of now, there are two members of diamond officially. One is Suyeon, the other is me." I tell them and I see Suyeon looked up to be with a surprised expression.


    "Me?" She asked me surprised.


    "Uh yeah? You didn''t think I helped you out because I wanted to right?" I tell her and she shakes her head.


    "N-no I didn''t know I was part of the guild." She says to me feeling happy. Somehow, in front of everyone, my conversation with Suyeon now feels embarrassing.


    "Well, until I figure out how this guild stuff works, just stick close to me and I''ll help all of you level up. I actually need to find something."


    "Find what?" Kana asked me and I fed the fire with more sticks.


    "My castle. Or I should say, Diamond District''s castle." I tell them remembering what Luro said to me while I was in the hidden dungeon. He visited me one time and told me about how each guild has its own home base.


    "C-castle?!" Amaguchi says and it seems like he''s really enjoying all this information.


    "When Luro brought us here, he put us into two teams. One Gold, one diamond, and each team or I should say, guild, have their own castle. As you all know, our main goal is to kill Luro so we can go home. If we can''t do it, he will crash this planet with earth killing everyone in both planets. I recently found a way to find him but I missed my chance earlier when I let that damn demon run away." I told them while clenching my fist.


    "Demon?" Lisa asked me with a worried look. I understand why all of these are new to them. Since they got out of the dungeon, all they know was the information they learned inside, which is probably not much.


    "Well, to sum it up, there are eight overlords that terrorize this planet. Their leader is called Unum. He''s the one we need to find since he knows where Luro''s located. If we find the overlords and find Unum, we might have a chance of finding Luro." I explained to them.


    ¡°How do we find him?" Miki asked.


    "I guess I best bet is to locate the other overlords and get information out of them," I tell her and she looked worried. ¡°Seems like its even rare for them to see Unum."


    "Oh." She replies looking a bit down as she stroke Mamoru''s hair.


    I wonder what happened to him? I say in my mind getting a bit distracted.


    "But, we need a safe place to stay and think of a way to find him and kill him otherwise, we''ll be camping nonstop exposing ourselves to the risk of being abducted by another bandit group," I tell them and they all nod in unison. "It won''t be a problem for Suyeon and me but for you guys that are low level, it''s too dangerous. It was pure luck I came across this bandit town."


    I can''t protect all of them at the same time. I say in my mind as I looked at them.Protect? All of them? Why?They survived this far, they can protect themselves.


    I started pressing my temple as my own voice in my mind echoed giving me a headache. Here it is again.Wait, why am I like this? I should be happy they''re safe and with me.


    "Tch," I mutter as I tap my head.


    "Are you okay?" Miki says as she comes close worried about me.


    "Oh, oh yeah. Sorry. Force of habit." I lied to her about my headache. She placed her hand on my forehead and I just sat there while she mutters her skill.


    "Heal." Her hand felt cool and somehow, it calmed my mind as my headache slowly disappeared. ¡°Feel better?¡±


    "Yeah. Thank you." I tell her averting her gaze.


    ¡°Good, we¡¯re here. Let us know if you feel anything.¡± She tells me as she sat back down smiling and I gave her a nod.


    "Y-you all should sleep. I have insomnia so I can stay up and stay watch.¡± I tell them as the moon illuminated the forest around us. ¡°We''ll leave tomorrow morning as soon as the sun rises."


    "No, we''ll take turns," Daikichi says but I can see they all are exhausted also.


    "No, it''s fine. You all sleep. I and Suyeon will take turns.¡± I tell them regretting leaving them earlier. If a bandit came while I was taking a piss, it would have been bad but, somehow I trusted Suyeon to protect all of them. ¡°It''s safer this way since we both have the strength to deter anyone coming by."


    "Well, we''ll go sleep but wake us up if you need us to take over alright dude?" Daikichi says as he held out a fist towards me and I pound it nodding towards him. They all started sleeping huddling next to each other near the campfire. The air at night is a lot colder during the day and I''m worried about them since they have no layer of fat to protect them from the wind. I took out a couple of blankets and placed it over them while they slept. I told Suyeon to sleep first and I''ll wake her up when I feel tired and she nods sleeping near me so it''s easier for me to shake her awake.


    What is wrong with me? Why am I acting like this?I whisper in my mind as I feed the fire more twigs. No matter how I look at it, I felt it, for a brief moment I suddenly felt they''re a burden.


    "Calm down Yasu. You found them. No need to be worried. They won''t betray you. These are your friends Yasu. They won''t leave you alone." I whisper as I rest my head on top of my knee. I suddenly felt someone touch my back lightly making me jolt up and my scalp ended up hitting something.


    "Ah!" I see him fall back as he grabs his chin and rubs it from the pain.


    "Daikichi, what the hell dude," I whisper to him as I rub my scalp.


    "Sorry man, I couldn''t sleep. I was going to tell you to sleep but you suddenly looked up. Ah, damn man, what''s your head made out of? Metal?" He joked around rubbing his chin.


    "Haha very funny. Go sleep." I tell him and he sat beside me.


    "I told you I cant and¡­what do you mean they betrayed you?" The minute he asked I felt my body go rigid. I didn''t know how to respond and I didn''t want to tell him since it''s not his problem.


    "It''s nothing man. Just go sleep." I brush it off as I feed the fire more twigs.


    "Come on bro, we''ve been friends for a long time. What''s buggin'' you? I promise I won''t judge you for it." He tells me and somehow, I felt like I wanted to tell him. I paused for a good minute and deep inside, I felt scared. I don''t know why I¡¯m scared to tell him but I should be able to tell him and Kana what''s going on since I know them more than anyone.


    "It''s going to take a long time to explain. Go sleep." I tell him and he placed the blanket over him and fed the fire some twigs.


    "I got all night." He tells me as he smiles my way.


    "Alright," I tell him and I explained to him everything in detail from the first day up now. I told him about Junpei, Hiroko, and the rest of the ex-diamonds and how they made a choice for me. I told him how I was tortured alive, eaten alive, how I wished to die so many times while they ate me. How I begged the monsters for mercy and end my life. Explaining him everything made my voice shake and my heart was beating so fast but all he did was stare at the fire and listened to everything I told him. After finishing, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders but somehow it was hard to swallow as I wait for him to give me an answer.


    "Damn. Bro, you went through some shit." He tells me joking around and it''s a typical Daikichi reply that made me relax a bit. "I can''t even process that¡­holy hell¡­"


    "It''s a memory I wished I forgot but even now, I can steep feel my skin being peeled off and my flesh being ripped apart," I tell him and he was silent for a brief moment.


    ¡°Those guys¡­did you ever meet them again?¡± He asked me and my fear became anger being reminded by them.


    "No. And I don''t want to. But a part of me wants to meet them and beat the living shit out of them with frying. I swore to myself I would. Item bag." I called out my bag and took out the beat up pan I used in the very beginning. " I even took good care of this to do it."


    He grabs the frying pan and inspects it. "Jeez, what did you do to this? Is this the weapon you used to beat the wolves up?"


    "Yeah," I tell him and he hands the frying pan back to me.


    "So, what is your real goal dude? Revenge?" He asked me and I paused for a good minute before giving him the answer.


    "No. I want to go home." I tell him as I place my head back down my knees. "I want to see my mother."


    He didn''t say anything and just kept feeding the fire for a minute. "Yasu, no matter what you have become or what you do, I will support you as long as you think about your mother. Just don''t stop being Yasu."


    I look up to him and he gave me a smile as he put his fist out towards me.


    "Yeah," I say as I give him a pound. That whole night, we talked and talked about everything we missed back home. He told me about my mother that brought a warm feeling to my chest. Hearing how she''s doing well is music to my ears. He told me their experiences inside the bandit''s town. Lisa and Kana were almost sold to the old lady that runs the brothel. They made up a lie that Lisa and Kana were pregnant with Daikichi and Amaguchi baby. At that time, Lisa had a fear of men due to what she went through in the dungeon and it took them a while to help boost her confidence. Even now, they tell me she''s still afraid that, can talk normally as long as she''s not completely making a lot of body contact with guys she''s not familiar with and she¡¯s not alone with them.


    And since they liked about being pregnant, no one wanted to take responsibility of taking care of a kid so no one bought them and they remained in the cage while the guys were sold off to other parts of the town. Daikichi was sold towards some old lady that only wanted a male companion and he was lucky enough she didn''t want sex. Goro who used to be big was actually recruited to be a bandit along with Amaguchi and that''s how he was able to check up on Kana and Lisa from time to time who was forced to work digging. I guess they wanted them to have a miscarriage but since their pregnancy was a fake, they never did and worked in the mines digging.


    Miki was sold off towards a restaurant and she worked there as a waitress at the owner took a liking of her and took good care of her. The only one that got the short end of the stick was that Mamoru kid who was forced to work with other warlock and create portals. But after they found out he was being mistreated, they tried to break him out and that''s how they put them all together in jail. The bandits only fed them a small amount of food starving them. I guess this is the condition Dorang was talking about. They told me they would starve people and when they are on the brink of death, they would feed them a little bit and use a potion to keep them alive but would starve them all over again. Some would go insane and kill themselves but they didn''t lose hope and kept trying to survive to hope that one day they would escape. When they found a chance, they tried to escape to be only stopped by some bandits and that''s how Daikichi was forced up the stage to get his head chopped off.


    "And that''s when you found me. Seriously, when I saw you in the crowd staring at me, I thought I was hallucinating but then you suddenly jumped up the stage and sent the leader flying." He tells me.


    "I almost missed you guys," I reply to him thinking about how they were right under us. "I was in the auction room looking at who they auction off just in case I find you guys there being sold off."


    "How did you know we were in there?" He asked.


    "Suyeon remembered the trees around you when that unconscious kid made the portal to escape the dungeon," I explained to him. "We used that as a clue. Events happen and we ended up finding this illusion barrier created by these bandits that took you guys."


    ¡°How did you know where the town was?¡± He asked me as he fed the fire with more sticks. ¡°When we got out of the elevator, it looks like it was in the middle of the forest."


    "I pretended to be a bandit," I tell him as I took out a water container from my bag and handing it to him to drink. Daikichi took the container and slowly drank the water to quench his thirst. ¡°When I talked to a bunch of bandits outside, they told me they found some weird adventurers from a far off land and led me right to you guys."


    "Oh, haha that''s us.¡± He says as he hands the container back to me. ¡°We didn''t really say we''re from Earth. Yasu, be careful of Suyeon''s brother. He did some pretty nasty things to her and probably everyone in there."


    "Yeah," I reply remembering about him. "I felt something was wrong with him in the beginning. And when I saw her in the dungeon, I knew she didn''t do that to herself. Fucking animals I should have ripped his throat out with my bare hands."


    "haha¡­.knowing the story about the governor, I think you''re serious." He tells me and I give him a nervous smile.


    "Well, I''ll go sleep. Wake me up when you feel like sleeping." He tells me and I gave him a nod.


    "I¡¯ll wake you up when it¡¯s morning. Don¡¯t worry, with me here, no one will touch you guys while you sleep." I reply to him and he went and placed himself near Kana and slept through the night.


    I didn''t bother waking up Suyeon since I didn''t feel fatigue so I let her sleep also. Once daytime hits, I woke everyone up and Kana lectured me about sleeping. We walked towards where I think the carriage was and after getting there, it was gone as if it was never there.


    "Huh, so those fuckers do clean up good," I whisper as I look around and saw all the broken down trees missing but there''s still stains of blood where the dead bodies were. "Well, not too good."


    "Blood? Did someone fight here?" Miki asked and I looked at Suyeon who looked at me nervously.


    "Uh, I don''t know. Never seen this before." I say lying so they don''t find out what she did all of this havoc. "Let''s get out of here. Do any of you guys know how to use the ring to open the illusion barrier?"


    "Yeah. We saw the auctioneer explain it to one of his men before. He said to hold the ring next to your mouth and whisper the words ¡®illusion, let the path appear towards our goal'' and the barrier should open up."


    "Oh, ok, give me a minute," I say as I turn around and walk near where I think the border is. "Illusion let the path appear towards o-"


    ZIIIING!


    "Oh, Yasu, it worked!" Kana says happily as she watches the illusion barrier start disappearing from the top. Once we see the blue sky outside, happiness filled everyone as they jump with joy. But their happiness slowly disappears along with the illusion as it exposed the trees around us. I see the trees in the surrounding area without leaves, as the trees themselves are scorched black.


    "What the fu- are we in hell?" Amaguchi asked as he looks around the forest that once stood to be lush and full of life that''s downgraded to nothing but ashes, coal, and embers still hot from burned wood. Everyone looks around but I set my eyes on one area.


    "The last tree," I whisper to myself as I see the last tree that had the yellow hue. I remember not destroying it since one of the bandits opened the portal for me. But now, that same tree is destroyed from its base. But, the tree is the least of my concerns. What''s right next to the tree is what''s making me feel agitated.


    "Yasu, there''s-," Suyeon says hiding behind me.


    "I know. Would you shut the fuck up for a minute." I whisper as I clench my fist. "Well, well, well, didn''t think I''d meet you here. Or I should say, all of you here. Item bag~"


    I caught my bag before it dropped to the ground. I placed my hand inside gripping the handle of the beat up frying pan as I watch her run towards me leaving her group. Tears streak down her face and I see her almost tripping. Her teammate shouted her name telling her to stop but she didn''t listen as she ran towards me while shouting my name over and over again. Hearing her voice was like listening to a broken record. A record I never ever want to hear again yet, it''s in front of me, playing over and over as she gets closer and closer.


    "Yasu!" She shouted my name as I walk towards her with my hand inside my bag.


    "It''s nice to meet you again, Hiroko," I whisper as I hold the frying pan I have hidden inside the bag. "It''s nice to meet you again.¡±

 CHAPTER 47: Gold Vs. Diamond

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 47: Gold Vs. Diamond


    <hr>


    ¡°Yasu!¡± She kept shouting my name while tears come out of her eyes. I kept walking towards her hoping to meet her before her buddies catch up.


    ¡°Hiroko! Come give me a big fat hug!¡± I fake my happiness as she blindly ran towards me. Every muscle on my body is itching to just swing at her but I held myself, as I want her to get closer in the range of my swing.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± her voice is causing me to get a headache but I kept a smile going trying not to alert her of anything weird yet, it makes me want to laugh that she¡¯s not noticing my walk with my hand inside my bag.


    ¡°Hiroko~¡± I whisper as I see her get closer and closer.


    Come closer, you bitch.I whisper in my mind as I grip the handle of the frying pan trying my best not to show it. I see Junpei probably notice I¡¯m up to something as he goes on a full sprint towards Hiroko shouting at her to stop. Everyone follows right beside him as Hiroko runs towards me oblivious of her team warning her what¡¯s about to happen.


    ¡°Too late,¡± I whisper to myself as I can see Junpei and the rest of them are too far away to even catch up to her. ¡°Now come closer~¡±


    ¡°Yas-¡°


    I swung full force towards her face and the impact made a loud metallic bang. I see her hands go limp and she flew a few feet to the side due to the impact of my swing caused her brain to shake in place as my attack knocked her unconscious. She landed on the ground with a loud thud and I see blood coming out of her nose as it¡¯s bent the wrong way. Her hair goes over her eyes and she isn¡¯t moving at all.


    ¡°Hiroko!!!¡± Junpei shouts as he runs towards her. As soon as he got close, he checked her pulse quickly. He was too busy that he didn¡¯t notice me step behind him until his team calls out his name.


    ¡°Junpei! Behind you!!¡± I hear Sawada shout as I swung my frying pan at full force. The minute he turns around to face me, my frying pan was close to the side of his head going at full force as I use both my hands to boost up the impact. Junpei grabbed the hilt of his sheathed sword and I kick it back down sheathing it in place as I stop my swing and stared him down.


    "Now now~ Drawing your sword is dangerous~," I tell him as he looks up to me with fury in his eyes. ¡°Oh, Hiroko is awake. Tenderize~¡±


    He quickly turns the minute he hears her name and using this moment, I clenched my fist and brought it to the back of his head. My attack erupted and I see both of them tumbling towards a distance before hitting a tree and black dust covered the area as the ashes of the burnt wood spread through the air.


    ¡°That felt damn good!¡± I yelled out as I jump back. As soon as the smoke dissipated, I see him kneeling on the ground with blood trickling down his face. He was panting like he just ran a marathon.


    ¡°Yasu!! You fuck-¡° He says as he turns towards me. I launched another attack towards his face and again, it exploded in place. The one I met before, the leader of their group who carries two swords got between us deflecting my next attack with his swords.


    ¡°Dude relax!¡± He shouted at me as he stepped between me and Junpei.


    ¡°Balo right? Fuck off. This is between them and me. Seismic step!¡± I rushed towards Junpei passing Balo in an instant and the minute I got close, I swung towards Junpei face with the frying pan. The impact caused a loud bang that echoed throughout the burnt forest. The force was too strong that the pan broke from its neck and the pan flew out of my hand leaving me with only the handle. I see Junpei still on his knees disoriented. He seems sturdier than that dumb bitch that got knocked out with one attack. He looked a bit lost as he tries to regain his composure but I didn¡¯t wait for him to stand.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I swung towards his face in an uppercut position and it hit him in the nose as I hear it crunch under my fist. Using all my strength, I push upwards my swing and I send him flipping up in the air. I hear a noise on my left and I see Stella swinging her big sword towards me as she instantly closes the distance between us.


    ¡°Well, hello. You survived princess stupid~ Tnderiz-¡° I suddenly stop as I see a shadow coming towards us.


    ¡°3-step combo!¡± Suyeon kicked Stella in the abdomen causing her armor to shatter in pieces like a piece of glass. She lost all air as Suyeon¡¯s attack still sent her flying into the horizon.


    Whistle~


    "Wow, she flew faster than a jet," I whisper looking at her flying through the sky only to land back down destroying part of the forest from a distance.


    ¡°Yasu! How could you!¡± Riki yells at meas he¡¯s rushed towards me with a two-handed hammer.


    ¡°How could I?! SHouldn¡¯t I be asking you all that question?! Huh?!¡± I shout back as he swings downward and I sidestep to dodge it. The hammer went down and created a crater on the ground as it made contact. I rushed right in and stepped on the hammer right before he lifted it, causing him to stumble down. He looks up to me and I gave him a cold smile that removed all the color on his face.


    "I like this hammer you got~," I tell him as he looked up to me.


    ¡°W-wha-¡°


    I slugged at him without any skill activated and his body fell sideways. I stepped in and punching him again forcing him down as he tried to get back up. I kept punching him without any skill as I wanted him to feel the pain I felt. The pain of being brought back down and losing hope, I wanted them all to feel it. Even without a skill, they''re not able to take a hit as my punch cause him to go on full defense trying to prevent my fist from doing any damage.


    ¡°You! Fucking! Shitbag!¡± I bombarded him with punches and all he did was cover trying to prevent me from reaching his face. It seems like these idiots haven¡¯t been fighting or else punches like this would be nothing if they get used to it. He went in a fetal position on the ground and I kept hammering him with punches left and right without signs of stopping anytime soon. I feel something tackle me and I see Tobi on top of me as he tries to hold me down.


    ¡°Yasu! Relax! Stop! We¡¯re not your enemy!¡± He yellsas I struggle to break free. I suddenly stopped moving and just lay there on the ground.


    ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry. I-I didn¡¯t mean to.¡± I tell him and he relaxes slowly letting me go. He stood and held out a hand offering to help me up. I grabbed his hand but instead of getting myself pulled up, I pulled him down as I lodge my foot on his stomach sending him flipping over me. The minute he landed on the ground, I quickly got on top of him and I bombarded him with punches over and over again until I see his nose started to bleed.


    ¡°You¡¯re right! You¡¯re so fucking right! We aren¡¯t enemies! But we sure as hell aren¡¯t friends!!¡± I kept punching and he stopped blocking his face. All of a sudden, I felt something hit me from the side causing me to get launched up in the air to land a few feet away from my group who just watch the whole ordeal. I felt my side hurt as if someone kicked it and I felt my whole shirt is soaked wet.


    ¡°Water?¡± I whisper to myself inspecting my sides from any blood but nothing. As I look up, I see the girl that I remember taking out of the ogre kings stomach looking at me furiously. She¡¯s floating a couple of water balls around her as she points her palm towards me.


    ¡°Oho~ So the gold want a piece of this action too huh,¡± I whisper as I slowly stood up and all of a sudden, small water balls flew towards the girl causing her to jump to the side dispersing her water balls at the same time. I look where the attack came from and I see Lisa in the same position with the same water ball but a lot smaller than the girl that just hit me on the side. I fell to the ground landing on my feet and I see Daikichi help me up as he glared down everyone who¡¯s helping Tobi up.


    ¡°Yasu, we¡¯re with you. These are enemies right?¡± He asks me, as he didn¡¯t take off his eyes from them. All of a sudden, Balo printed towards us and Daikichi¡¯s body tensed up as he takes out the Ogre Queens axe I gave him.


    ¡°I got this,¡± Daikichi says as sprint towards Balo and they start attacking each other.


    ¡°Daikichi! Wait!!¡± I shout trying to stop him knowing he won¡¯t win. He¡¯s still too weak to fight them. As I move, I notice Sawada somehow appeared in thin air.


    ¡°Aahhhh!!!!¡± Someone ran past erupted behind me and Sawada was tackled down by someone.


    ¡°I got this one!¡± Amaguchi shouts as he struggles to pin him down. An explosion erupted from a distance grabbing my attention and as the smoke disappeared, I see the Stella running at me at full speed.


    "Item bag!" I took out two swords and ready to fight her. "Let''s do this!"


    I sprint towards her and we started exchanging blows. She swung down towards me with full force and I jump to the side barely dodging it.


    ¡°Seismic step!¡± I threw one sword at her and she jumped up way up in the sky preparing another attack. Using this moment, I closed the distance between us and clenched my fist as I soared towards her. ¡°Knockout!¡±


    I brought my fist into her abdomen and a purple rune covered her body in an instant. I put my face close to her startling her a bit and she just stared me in the eye as we descend down the ground.


    "Nighty night~ Stupid princess~" I whisper as I gave her a smile and she suddenly fainted. I quickly brought her under me and placed my foot on top of her face. Using my seismic step skill, I sent her falling down the ground so fast, the impact caused another crater and I land a distance away from her as the wind sends me flying a bit.


    ¡°Huh, she¡¯s not as strong as I thought if she fainted. The big boss is stronger than her.¡± I whisper to myself as I look at the big dust cloud she created. As soon as it dissipates, I see everyone else condition.


    Daikichi was on the ground holding his arm. His arm was still intact but it seems like he got a wound big enough to immobilize him as I watch him in pain. Sawada overpowered Amaguchi and now he¡¯s being held down as Sawada pushes his head to the ground. Goro tried to help Amaguchi but roots came out of the ground and pinned him down. Lisa that¡¯s beside him is in the same position as they both struggle to try and break free. Suyeon also has roots covering her entire body preventing her from any movement as she lays flat on the floor.


    ¡°Daikichi!!! Let go of him!!¡± Kana ran towards Daikichi and Balo looks at her as she goes on a full sprint.


    ¡°Kana! Stop!¡± I yelled at herbut she didn¡¯t hear me and kept running towards Daikichi crying. Then all of a sudden, Junpei got in front of her and slapped her so hard Kana fell to the ground and her body stopped moving and bounced around like a rag doll. I was left speechless as I saw her not moving at all.


    ¡°K-ka-kan-¡° I suddenly stopped talking as Junpei looks at me and gave me a smile.


    ¡°Yasu!! An eye for an eye! A tooth for a tooth!!¡± That¡¯s when I lost it. Using my skills, I launched towards him and swung directly into his neck trying to decapitate him. I guess he didn¡¯t notice me as he was still staring at the place where I was standing.


    ¡°Fucking die!!¡± I swung at full force intending to kill him on the spot.


    Balo blocked my attack as he pushed Junpei to the side.


    ¡°Yasu! Relax! Let¡¯s not fight!!¡± He yells as I jump back and clenched my fist as I let go both my swords.


    ¡°Tenderize!¡± I swung on his side exploding him right beside me. His body flew a few feet away only to land on his feet while grabbing his side. All of a sudden, something tackles me to the ground making me lose a bit of air.


    ¡°You bastard!!!¡± Junpei''s yelling while trying to pin me down. I felt his fist hit my face, but my mind is all on Kana¡¯s lifeless body. I swung towards Junpeithat¡¯s above me making him block my attack and the explosion sent him flying up the sky a few feet above me.I send another attack and he evaded this time using a skill to push himself to the side in mid-air. I quickly stood up and as I look around, all of them are surrounds me. Roots came out of the ground and looped at my arms and legs preventing me from moving a step. A bigger root came out of the ground and looped around my whole body tightening until it hugged me completely.


    ¡°Agrhhh!!!!¡± I shout as I struggle but the only thing I can move is my head. It felt like the root is absorbing my consciousness as it felt like slowly draining my energy away. ¡°chef¡¯s coat! Tenderize! Pound!!¡±


    Even when shouting all of my skills, I still couldn¡¯t move. ¡°Overdrive!¡±


    I started thrashing around as the overdrive skill helped me break the roots, but more roots came out the ground as the girl who hit me with a waterfall earlier struggled to keep up. Even with overdrive, it wasn¡¯t enough as Daikichi shouts something causing my whole body to go numb.


    ¡°Fucking let me go!!¡± I yelled trying to keep my conscious and they all shouted something as more weird attacks held me in place. ¡°Overdrive!!!!¡±


    The roots around me started breaking again as I trashed some more. I didn''t care what happens to my body afterward. The only thing that I thought about is getting to Kana and checking up on her. I trashed and thrashed around trying to get an arm free of the roots but they kept coming out of the ground as fast as I break them. I still felt like it¡¯s draining my energy as it touches my skin even with the overdrive skill.


    ¡°G-guys! I can¡¯t go any faster! He¡¯s breaking the roots too fast!¡± The girl shouted and I glared at her as I tried to break free.


    ¡°All of you stop! Let him go!!¡± Ms. Sam says as she runs towards us from a distance coming from one direction with another girl behind her. She stops right in front of me and I see tears coming out of her eyes. ¡°Let him go!¡±


    She screamed but nothing, the girl who seems to be a mage is still pinning me down with her roots the best as she can. I felt my body suddenly weaken as the overdrive skill run out of juice and my head bobs forward.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I hear Ms. Sam shouts and I tried my best to keep my conscious awake.


    Junpei approached me swinging at my face. I literally didn¡¯t feel anything even if my head was forced to the side by the impact of his punch. He tried to swing again only to be pulled back by Balo.


    ¡°Junpei! Fucking stop it!!¡± Balo shouted as he pushed him back.


    ¡°Why?! He fucking hurt Hiroko! She¡¯s been looking for him all this time and this is how he repays her??!¡± He shouted back and I feel Ms. Sam tried her best to break off the roots as she cried in front of me. I felt my consciousness fades away as I tried to look at her.


    repay? I asked in my mind as I felt a little bit of energy.


    ¡°Ha-ha Hahahahahaha!!!¡± I stopped struggling as I lift my head looking at all of them maniacally.


    ¡°What''s so funny huh!? you fucking piece of shit?!¡± Junpei snarlsat me as Balo tries to hold him back. ¡°You deserve to die what you did to Hiroko!!! You fucking ass-¡°


    SLAP!


    Ms. Sam slapped him so hard he dazed out for a moment and the sound of her palm hitting his face kept me awake.


    ¡°All of you! Fucking let him go!!!¡± Ms. Sam shouted so loud it helped wake me up a bit. It was the first time I heard her curse, and everyone seemed startled for a moment. She turns towards me and tears streak down her eyes as she comes close. ¡°Yasu, promise you won''t go crazy. Please, stop trying to hurt each other.¡±


    I don¡¯t know why, but my head nods towards her even though it¡¯s not my answer. I notice her smile towards me, and she turns to Akane who looks at Balo. Balo shouted something and all the sound around me was muffled. I see him pick up DaikichiFind this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Let him go! I shouted in my mind as I didn¡¯t even have the power to shout at them. One of their healers is by her healing her face. I remember her, I saw her in the dungeon when I fought the ogre king!


    ¡°Sam... That¡¯s¡­.Daikichi and Kana¡­¡­over there. P-please¡­g-get that girl¡­..to help them.¡± I tell her as I feel my consciousness slowly fading away and she quickly turns around to look at Balo who¡¯s carrying Daikichi like a prisoner. She sees Kana on the ground not moving and Ms. Sam went on a sprint towards her.


    ¡°Kana!!" Sam yells her name over and over but Kana wasn''t responding. Everyone looked confused as Sam cries hugging kana''s lifeless body. They probably didn''t know we knew these people. "Kana! Wake up! Kana!¡±


    Ms. Sam criedas she held her hands towards Kana and started healing her. But Kana isn''t moving and hasn¡¯t moved at all since Junpei hit her in the face. Balo, let go of Daikichi, who runs to Kana and drops to his knees as he cries begging Sam to heal her over and over again.


    No¡­.NO!!!!I yellin my mind but that¡¯s all I can do.


    I feel drunk and any moment now, I feel like I''ll pass out but I¡¯m holding on for as long as I can. I see them all slowly approach Ms. Sam and the one healing Hiroko ran towards her. I look at everyone from our side and they¡¯re all rooted to the ground except that one kid that¡¯s unconscious who has his back turned towards us so they probably didn¡¯t get to see who he is. Miki ran where Kana is and all three healers are healing her trying their best. She¡¯s too far away and I can¡¯t see her condition. Junpei stands a few feet in back of them frozen and I can see in his expression he looked scared. I notice Hiroko slowly sitting up as the mage help her up. The same damn mage that bound all of us. Stella also is slowly sitting up after my skill wore out and she¡¯s still trying to get a better understanding of her surroundings.


    It¡¯s their fault¡­I whisper in my mind as I slowly close my eyes. It¡¯s their entire fucking fault¡­


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    Want me to fix it?Suddenly a voice came in my head.


    ¡°Can you?¡± I whisper to myself replying to the voice.


    Duh, who do you think I am? The voice replied in my mind


    ¡°Then I leave everything in your hands.¡±


    Roger that. Wait, how do you want me to take care of them?My own voice asked me in my mind as I fully close my eyes.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Help my friends and¡­..Kill the rest. Kill them all.¡± I whisper to myself as I black out.


    <hr>


    Suyeon¡¯s POV


    <hr>


    My body was rooted to the ground and I couldn¡¯t move.


    ¡°Yasu! Yasu!¡± I kept shouting over and over but I see him slowly moving his head in a circular motion trying to stay awake. Everyone was rooted by that mage and its strong enough that even Yasu couldn¡¯t break out of fast enough.


    I look towards where Lisa is and I see her pinned down by the same roots. ¡°Lisa!¡± I shout towards her and I see her try to turn her head my way. ¡°Lisa! Are you okay?!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m okay! But Kana is not moving after that bastard hit her!! Please let us go!¡± Lisa begged but no one is hearing our voice. All we can do is watch them huddle around Kana as two healers with Miki-sensei tried to help her. All of a sudden, I see Yasu¡¯s head drops as he lost consciousness.


    ¡°Yasu!!¡± I yelled his name as I look towards him as my eyes become watery.


    Why?! Why did this happen!!!I shout in my mind as I watch everything fall apart. I felt helpless. I couldn¡¯t do anything at all.


    ¡°Yasu!!! Wake up! Please!!!¡± I shouttowards him but his head is not moving at all. The girl he hit earlier with the frying pan is slowly standing up as she holds her head. She quickly looks where he is and ran towards him.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± She runs but she suddenly trips as if her legs gave out the minute she took the first step. The guy who hit Kana caught her and helped her to her feet. Fury filled my core and I want to kick them over and over again with my skill leaving nothing but their remains.


    ¡°Argh!!!! Let me go!!!!¡± I shout at the top of my lungs and felt my throat scratching while Itry to struggle but all I could do is move my head. A root grabbed my leg earlier and as I fell to the ground more roots came out pinning me down. It felt like the roots took all my energy and it was her to even move an arm. I¡¯m on my chest and the roots are tight enough to leave no room for any movement at all.


    ¡°Yasu!!!¡± I shout his name trying to wake him upbut, he hasn¡¯t shown any form of movement.


    Yasu! Please¡­ wake up. I started crying feeling helpless. He helped me all this time and yet, I couldn¡¯t return the favor.


    "Please wake up," I whisper as I cry bringing my head down. I felt my tears escape towards the dirt below me as I sobbed in silence. ¡°please. Don¡¯t die-¡°


    ¡°Heeeeeeey!!! Santa fucking clause is here and it ain¡¯t even Christmas!!!¡± I hear someone shout in a happy toneand as I look up, I see Yasu¡¯s head moving in a circular motion like was doing exercise. Everyone looked towards him and I see the girl is trying her best to get away from the guy who hit Kana. But he held her in place preventing her from reaching Yasu.


    ¡°Yasu!!!!!¡± I yell his nameand he looks my way giving me a smile. Yet, his smile is not the one I see him give to Kana or Daikichi, something feels different from the way he looks at me.


    ¡°Wowowee! Are we like trees or something? Why are we rooted?¡± He says looking down at himself. All of a sudden, the roots that are binding him ripped as he forces himself out of it. The mage that rooted us tried to root him again as he breaks the roots binding his foot with his bare hands.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I shout and in an instant, he disappeared right before the root got ahold of him. Huh? Where did he g-


    ¡°Holy hell, you look like a plant~ Ah, not a plant but a beautiful flower~¡± I hear a voice behind me and suddenly I feel the roots come loose from my body as more air entered my lungs. The moment I¡¯m free, I jumped on him hugging him and he stroke my back trying to comfort me which he had never done before.


    ¡°There there, it''s ok now~ Mmm, you smell like sweat.¡± He says as I continued to hug him and cry. I let go of him and I notice his gaze is on the group that circling around Kana. Yasu¡¯s eyes turned blue and he has a smile on his face I have never seen before. He looks at me and gave me a bigger smile. ¡°Well, honey buns~ Give me a moment while I save everyone okay~¡±


    I let go of him and he started walking towards Goro-sensei and Lisa. The mage tried to root him again but is as if it didn¡¯t affect him as the roots broke while he moved normally. As soon as he got close to them, he began ripping the roots apart as if it was made of paper.


    The mage seems like she ran out of power as she goes on her knees panting. Yasu looked at me and waved telling me to come over while keeping a happy expression. I ran and soon joined Lisa and Goro-sensei as we watch him move towards the group. The mage suddenly stood up and activated her skill again as more roots started appearing trying to bind all of us. Yasu quickly disappears only appearing right next to her. His hand moves swiftly grabbing her in the face and in an instant, he slammed her head into the ground.


    Dust covered the area and it happened so fast no one had time to react. As I wait for the dust to disappear, I see two blue light swaying side to side. As it got close to the edge of the smoke, Yasu emerges out of the dust carrying Kana in his shoulder and dragging Daikichi towards us. Yasu dropped Kana a few feet in front of me and we all went to her. Goro-sensei quickly checked her pulse but it seems like he couldn¡¯t find it. His hands started shaking as he looks around her neck and wrist going back and forth.


    ¡°Kana!¡± I yelled her nameas I shake her body but she¡¯s not moving. As the dust cloud disappears. Everyone looks around to be surprised we have Kana and Daikichi here. They all ran towards the mage whose body is halfway in the ground. Right at this moment, Miki-sensei and the girl called Sam ran towards us. I thought Yasu would attack them, but he just stood there looked down at Kana while yawning.


    ¡°Kana!!¡± Miki-sensei kneels down trying to heal her along with the other healer.


    ¡°Kana! Wake up! Kana don¡¯t die on us!¡± Miki-sensei says and I see Yasu push them both aside to check for her pulse.


    ¡°Tsk. Her neck is broken. How hard did he slap you?¡± Yasu asked Kana while tapping on her cheeks. In a quick motion, he hit her neck and we all hear something snap in place. He lifted up his hand pointed his fingers down like a blade and in an instant, he stabbed her in the chest with his bare hands. Everything happened so fast we didn¡¯t have time to react.


    ¡°No!!¡± Daikichi shouts as he charged at Yasu who in return, kicked him in the groin. Daikichi went to the ground out of breath and Yasu looked at us while Yawning.


    "Hold him down," Yasu says as looks at me and I jump on top Daikichi preventing him from moving. Yasu brought his face closer to Daikichi while keeping his hand inside Kana. ¡°Fucking relax~ She not dead yet but soon she will die. I need to massage her heart to prevent it from stopping or else, she¡¯ll turn into a dusk goddess.¡±


    The minute Yasu says that I felt Daikichi relax his body as he stops struggling and nods towards him. ¡°C-can you heal her?¡±


    "Yea, I need to jump-start her heart to have it beat again normally. And I just got the skill for it~ But please~ tell her not to do this again~ I can''t be doing this so many times~ it takes out years off my lifespan~¡± Yasu replies as he sat down. ¡°While I do this, might holding them off for a bit?~ I kinda have my hands full ya know~¡±


    He points behind him and as we all look, I see the other group coming at us.


    ¡°I got this,¡± I tell him as I let go of Daikichi and walk towards the group. ¡°3-step combo!¡± I shouted my skill and the three poses appeared in front of me. In a quick motion, I followed all the steps and kicked the one in front of them. He didn''t have time to react as the skill propels me forward at high speed compared to when I first learned the skill. I guess the higher level it is, the better the reaction it gives. I hear him wince in pain as my foot lands on his abdomen and he went soaring hitting a couple of people on the way. One guy tried to swing at me with his fist and I easily dodge his swing as I sensed where he was coming from.


    ¡°Jump,¡± I whispered as I kicked him, and he went flying to another direction destroying the burnt trees from a distance. Suddenly, I notice something from my right and it¡¯s the girl Yasu hit earlier with a frying pan. She¡¯s holding a dagger trying to stab me on my sides.


    ¡°You evil bitch! Give him back to us!¡± She shouts at meand somehow, I can predict her movements. This has been happening since I got kidnapped by the bandits. Using my foot on the ground, I turned towards her while grabbing her wrist and pulling her closer to me as I rotate. She lost balance and with the momentum of my turn, I used my left elbow and aimed it towards her jaw.


    ¡°Ack!¡± She winced in pain as she fell to the ground. My elbow started stinging as it hit her in the tooth breaking it off her mouth. I felt liquid streak down towards my arm towards my wrist but I didn¡¯t pay attention as I noticed another movement from my right.


    Without looking, I kicked towards where I think he would appear and shouted my skill at the same time. ¡°Jump!¡±


    ¡°Ack!¡± I hear him shout as he went soaring away from me.


    I can predict their movements!I say in my mind happily as I look over where Yasu is. His arms are glowing green as white orbs come out of his chest and into Kana¡¯s chest. All of a sudden, my vision became a blur as I was tackled to the ground. ¡°Ah!¡±


    ¡°You fucking bitch! My tooth!¡± The girl I elbowed goes crazyas she slapped and tried to pull on my hair. She started swinging wildly but her punches felt nothing.


    This is nothing compared to how my brother hit me.I say in my mind. I brought up my leg behind her and I slammed it towards the ground.


    ¡°Jump!¡± I shout my skillbefore hitting the floor and we both went soaring up the sky. My skill flipped us over and she was quickly under me flailing around as she fell towards the floor.


    ¡°Hey~¡± I call towards her and she looked at me as we fell towards the floor below. ¡°You¡¯re quite ugly with a tooth missing. Jump!¡±


    I kicked her towards the ground, and she went soaring down the floor. Right before she hits the ground, the guy I kicked earlier came back and jumped catching her and they both went soaring down the floor.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± I flail my arms and legs around. But even that didn¡¯t help as it only flipped me making me turn towards the sky. I closed my eyes and braced for impact but it never happened. I slowly opened my eyes and I see Yasu looking at me with his blue iris.


    ¡°Well, You¡¯re kind of weak. Look at them, they went flying but they look unhurt~¡± He says as he looks at the people, I sent flying running towards the girl I kicked. We¡¯re quite a few feet away from them and Yasu Jumped back towards where he left Kana. ¡°Well, you did buy me time~ Good job honey buns!¡±


    We somehow landed safely and the minute he sets me down, I quickly ran to Kana¡¯s side. Miki-sensei and the other healer called Sam is focusing on healing the wound on her chest which has slowly closed up except the skin.


    ¡°Kana¡­¡± I whisper as I kneel beside her and I see her chest move up and down. ¡°She¡¯s breathing!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all thanks to Yasu. Thank God he woke up.¡± Daikichi says crying beside me and we all surround her waiting for her to heal up.


    I look back towards where Yasu is and I see him happily skipped around towards the other group. Their healer is focused on the girl I elbowed as her and the guy who caught her, we¡¯re barely conscious. Remembering the wound, I got from hitting her mouth made my elbow sting, but I didn¡¯t focus on it since I didn¡¯t want them to notice. I want them to focus on healing Kana since she needs it the most.


    ¡°Yasu, where are you-¡° Ms. Sam noticed him move and she suddenly stopped as Miki-sensei prevented her from going near them.


    ¡°Hey, you! The little bitch who got his heart broken! Come here!!¡± Yasu taunts him andhe takes out his item bag to pull out a couple of two-handed hammers and held it in each hand.


    Daikichi stood up and tried walking towards him, ¡°Yasu let me help-¡°


    I grabbed his hand shaking my head. For some reason, I felt like they shouldn¡¯t get it his way.


    ¡°Let me ask you something! What makes you think this shit is a tooth for a tooth?! You fucking killed her!¡± Yasu shouted and the guy who slapped Kana didn¡¯t say anything back this time. ¡°Huh?! No answer?! Let me show you what it means an eye for an eye, a tooth for a fucking tooth! Let¡¯s get this party started!¡±


    Yasu jumps up towards the sky. In a split second, he descended down towards the group and they all jump to the side evading his attack. The ground erupted with just his swing sending debris flying everywhere. The wind from his attack was so strong it is making me cover my eyes with my arm. As soon as I got a better look, I see Yasu closed the distance between him and one of them in an instant. It was the same guy that slapped Kana. Yasu swung one of his hammers towards him and he didn¡¯t have enough time to react. The hammer hit him in the stomach and Yasu kept going till he bashed him to the ground. The guy named Balo rushed at Yasu with both his swords only to be deflected like it¡¯s child''s play. Yasu brought both his hammer at full force towards him breaking his swords in pieces. He didn¡¯t stop and kept going until the hammer hit him on the side and I notice Balo¡¯s arm bends the wrong way before he was sent flying off to a distance.


    ¡°Two down! All of you to go!!!!¡± Yasu yelledas he runs towards one guy who started running towards the woods. He tripped him with his hammer and slammed down on his back bashing him on the ground.


    ¡°Y-Yasu! S-stop!!¡± The girl I bashed with my elbow runs towards him and Yasu dropped both his hammer and held out his hands towards him.


    ¡°Hahaha, you got no chance! You''re ugly with a tooth missing!!!¡± He happily yells at herand she ran towards him. The next thing I know, he evaded her and grabbed her by the hair. She winced in pain as she got on her knees but Yasu didn¡¯t care. He pulled on her hair dragging her across the floor towards the guy that slapped Kana. He threw her towards his side and she didn¡¯t have time to react when he lodged his foot in her abdomen sending them both flying towards the trees with his kick.


    ¡°Since he wants you, there you go! Enjoy each other¡¯s company!¡± Yasu laughed like a maniac and he turned his sight towards the last two remaining guys from the gold group. ¡°Hi~ I remember you from Yasu¡¯s memories~ Tobi was it? Sawada? Let¡¯s fight like a man, with our fist!¡±


    Both of them got a fighting position as Yasu hopped around with his hands near his chest like a boxer. In a split second, he stepped in front of the two and they tried their best swinging at him. Yasu dodged all of their attacks weaving side to side like a professional. He turns his hips as he extends his arms and his fist went through deflecting their punch making contact with one of them. His body suddenly flopped as Yasu jogged his head.


    ¡°One more to go! Come on Sawada~¡± He says and he circles him. Sawada tries his best to land a punch but Yasu evaded everything and countered him in the gut. Sawada grabbed his stomach as he got on his knees and I see him vomit on the ground. He kicked him down forcing his head towards the puddle of his own vomit.


    ¡°Yeeeees~ Eat your vomit~ Yasu did it once in his dreams~ Well it¡¯s not his though~¡± Yasu sings as he looks at me and smiles. Then he lifted up his foot and stomped on his head while staring at me smiling. After that, he turned towards the healer that¡¯s shaking on the ground as she watches her whole entire team annihilated by Yasu in an instant.


    ¡°Hey~ they¡¯re not dead. But, you should get a move on or they will die from those injuries~¡± He tells her and she quickly looks around running towards the first person she sees as she cries and cries nonstop healing them. Yasu turned around and walked towards us. He turned a team upside down in an instant that we didn¡¯t even have time to react to what was going on. He got close to us and somehow, I didn¡¯t feel happy. I felt scared. We all didn¡¯t move and everyone else with me probably felt the same thing.


    ¡°What happened everyone? Cat got your tongue?¡± Yasu asked us as he tilts his head sideways. His blue eyes went from one person to the next only to finish directly to me.


    ¡°Hey, I know you~ Let me tell you a secret~ Yasu is fond of you~,¡± He tells me as if he¡¯s not Yasu which is making me confused. ¡°Well, he just hasn''t realized it yet.¡±


    ¡°W-w-who-¡° Daikichi tried to ask but he stopped as soon as Yasu diverted his blue eyes towards him.


    ¡°Me? I¡¯m¡­hmmm¡­.I don¡¯t know~¡± He tells him as he laughs and laughs. But the way he laughs is making me feel uncomfortable that I couldn¡¯t help myself from breathing faster due to fear.


    ¡°Ah, times up. Would like to chat some more but, gotta go~ Oh, when I wake up, tell me I didn¡¯t kill anyone causes its more fun that way~ Okay, byeee~¡± Yasu tells us as he waves happily. All of a sudden, his eyes closed as his body became lifeless falling to the ground.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I yelltowards him as I ran to his side and I tried shaking him awake but he didn¡¯t wake up. I checked his breathing and placed my ear towards his chest. ¡°H-he¡¯s alive!¡±


    Daikichi got near me and checked his pulse. I noticed his expression changed from fear to relief.


    ¡°Ughh¡­¡± I hear a voice behind me and as I turn, I see Kana slowly opening her eyes and the wound on her chest have completely healed.


    ¡°Kana!¡± Everyone shouted one after another and Daikichi helped her to sit up.


    ¡°What happened? Ah! Daikichi!¡± She suddenly remembered what happened and once she sees him, she hugs him and they both cried in each other¡¯s arms.


    ¡°Ughhh¡± I hear another voice and when we look, we see Mamoru slowly waking up touching his head.


    ¡°Mamoru!¡± Amaguchi calls his name as he ran towards him and help him up.


    ¡°Guys, where are we?¡± He says as he looks around only to see destruction. ¡°What is this place? Did we die?¡±


    ¡°No! We¡¯re alive. We got out. While they¡¯re knocked out, let¡¯s get out of here!¡± Amaguchi shouts and everyone scampered to get up. I tried picking up Yasu but he was quite heavy. The girl named Sam tried helping me but I can see she¡¯s quite shaken up since her legs gave out probably from shock to what just happened around her.


    ¡°Suyeon! Watch out!¡± Daikichi shouts as he ran for me looks directly at something behind me. The minute I turn around, I see a guy standing there. I was about to kick him when he picked up Yasu and threw him on his shoulder.


    ¡°Everyone! Let¡¯s go! Follow me!¡± He saysas he ran towards one direction and we all didn¡¯t have a choice but to follow him. We¡¯re all weakened and he¡¯s running off with Yasu on his shoulder. I kept close behind him just in case he tries something funny as I see two swords on each side of his hips. We got further and further away from the havoc as we ran back towards where we came from passing to the other side. But as we left, I hear the healer from their group screaming over and over as she watches us all run away from her.


    I couldn¡¯t make out properly what she was saying but I think it¡¯s a name. She kept screaming the name ¡®Takumi¡¯ over and over again until her voice disappeared altogether.

 CHAPTER 48: Tangerines

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 48: Tangerines


    <hr>


    Suyeon¡¯s POV


    <hr>


    POV


    "We''re almost there!" He shouted out loud as we follow him through the forest. We enter back into the section where the bandit''s hideout entrance is located and ran past it only to go beyond the other side of the forest exiting to another section of burnt trees. Even though we see the dead trees again, nobody stopped as everyone ran past the burnt trees into a section that the fire didn''t spread to. It still baffles me why the forest turned into this state. The forest was full of life in my memories. But now, it looks like a section from a horror movie.


    I run as fast as I can trying to keep up with the person in front of me, but I can see the people behind me is running out of stamina as I noticed them slowing down. They''re probably not used to running this much. Since I traveled with Yasu, I can run for hours without stopping to get a drink. But I guess everybody knows now is not the time to actually take a breather. If the gold team survived Yasu attacks, they probably will come right after us. But somehow, I don''t feel like we won that fight. Deep down inside my heart, I know that we lost that fight and I feel frustrated I couldn''t do anything to help Yasu.


    After running for so long, we came across a cave that''s well hidden with leaves, twigs, and grass. I almost missed it if the guy in front of me didn''t run through a bush head on. We all ran in the cave and everyone flopped to the ground as soon as they arrived inside. Torches dimly lit the cave itself and the far end had a small waterfall dropping down towards a puddle. I see the guy that picked up Yasu stop near the puddle and place him on what seems like a makeshift bed made from leaves and grass.


    "Guys, wait here, I''ll be back." He says as he runs out of the cave and disappears into the forest. I sat down near Yasu''s unconscious body and looked for any wounds he sustained.


    "I-Is he alright?" Kana asks as she approaches me from behind. Her shirt was ripped open near the chest where Yasu stabbed her and she probably doesn''t notice her chest is showing.


    "Item bag," I called out my bag and quickly grab a shirt Yasu gave me from before. I hand it to her pointing at her chest and the minute she looks down, she quickly covered herself, her face turns red from embarrassment as she quickly wore the shirt on top of her clothes.


    "Holypant* pant*Shit," Amaguchi says as he approaches the puddle and started drinking from it.


    "Amaguchi! Wait! What if that''s contaminated?!" Miki-sensei tries to stop him, but he just kept drinking trying to quench his thirst. I wouldn''t blame him; we''ve run away from the scene to here without any breaks. And this place was quite far off from where we originally were.


    "I-its ok Miki-sensei. We''ve been drinking from puddles and streams, we never got sick." I tell her and after hearing me say it, they all ran towards the tiny waterfall and started drinking like it''s the first time they had water for years. After a couple of minutes, I hear something scuffling outside and I see the light from the exit being blocked off by something. I was about to run out thinking he''s trapping us in when he walks in and finished the makeshift door from inside. He turns around and approaches us slowly making all of us huddled close together. We''re all on our guard as we don''t know who he is. As of now, we followed a complete stranger and have no idea what he wants from us.


    "Takumi." The lady named Sam blurts out making us turn towards her.


    "Who is he?" Kana says standing beside her and if this lady knows who Yasu is, she might be someone trustworthy.


    "He''s part of the Gold District guild." She tells us and the minute she says it, everything went silent as our gazes went towards him. Everyone grabbed whatever weapon they had inside their dimensional bag. Most likely, the same weapon Yasu gave them before we left the Auction house.


    "Whoa whoa. Relax. I''m not here to fight. If I was, I would have attacked you along with them." He tells us as he held out two hands trying to calm us down.


    "Then what the hell do you want from us? Do you know what your fucking team did to Yasu and Kana?" Daikichi snarls at him standing in front of us. I can see him quite furious, but I know he doesn''t have the strength to overpower him if, Takumi is as strong as one of them. Daikichi seems like he lost the axes Yasu gave him due to the chaos. I stand beside Daikichi to help him just in case.


    "Look, I left their team not too long ago. Our views are different. I want nothing but to help you guys since my views are kind of the same with that person behind you." He says as he points towards Yasu who remains unconscious near the puddle.


    "And how the hell would we know what you''re saying is true?" Daikichi snarls at him back and Takumi grabbed both his swords making us step back a little bit. But instead of unsheathing it, he removed it from his waist and threw it at us.


    "Here, I''m unarmed. If you want, I can empty my dimensional bag also." He tells us as he raises his hands up in the sky like the ones I see on TV when a policeman catches a criminal.


    "Guys relax. Please, no more bloodshed or fighting. I''ve had enough." Ms. Sam drops down to her knees as she cries and breaks down. It seems like all of this has taken a toll on her as she just cried and cried non-stop. Everyone relaxes their body, as they probably felt tired also. They just got out of the bandit and it isn¡¯t even long till they tasted freedom and now, they went straight into a big fight. Kana and Daikichi went to comfort her while Takumi slowly walked towards the small waterfall and drank from it washing his face at the same time. After that, he took a seat near the wall of the cave and started playing with his status window as I see him look at something in midair. I walk back towards Yasu and sat beside him waiting for him to wake up while keeping guard just in case this Takumi guy tries something.


    Yasu¡­I whisper in my mind as I watch him breathe in his sleep.


    End of Suyeon POV


    YASU POV


    "Hey Yasu, how was school?" My mom asked me as soon as I entered the apartment.


    Huh, when did she get home?I asked in my mind as I remove my shoes near the entrance.


    "School was fine. Had a lot of things to study for the upcoming test but it should be fine." I say as I watch her sit around the floor table peeling a tangerine.


    "Want some?" She asked me to hold out a peeled tangerine and I nod walking towards the table and sat across from her.


    "Anything new?" She asks me again as she grabs another tangerine to peel for herself.


    "Well, this smartest student in school business is getting annoying. Everyone thinks I''m a genius when in reality I''m not. I just studied harder than everyone else." I tell her slumping down the table as I eat a piece of the tangerine one by one.


    "Don''t you like being the smartest?" She asked me again and I shook my head.


    "It''s like everyone thinks I can analyze everything including real life, but, I''m just good at the subject in school. It''s not my fault I actually took my time to study compared to the gifted people around me that can ace a test without even studying. Those guys are smart. Me? I just worked harder than all of them." I tell her as I finish the tangerine and my mother places another peeled one on my open palm.


    "Oh, thank you," I tell her as I give her a smile and she gave one back to me. "And you know mom, it''s not like I''m a genius at everything. But, like one freaking mistake I do, everyone is going crazy and tell me that I should have never made that wrong choice because I''m smart and only need to make smart choices. That doesn''t make sense to me. I''m human and I know for a fact that if I don''t study or slack for the next year or so, I''ll be the last place in the school."


    "It''s an ok son. I know you, and I want you to live a life you want to live. You shouldn''t go thinking about what they say and just pursue what you want to pursue." She tells me as she peels another tangerine.


    I hope she doesn''t give that to me; I''ll just eat this one slowly.I say in my mind as I slowly eat the second tangerine she gave me.


    "I know," I tell her. But somehow today, even when my mom tries to comfort me, I feel depressed. "I just want them to get the fact that being the smartest student in school is just a title and doesn''t really mean I''m a genius. As I keep telling them, I just worked really hard."


    "hmmm¡­" My mother''s response wasn''t something I expected making me look up to her. I see her looking down at the tangerine in her hand as she peels another one.


    There are already two tangerines peeled beside her. How many does she want?I say in my mind looking confused as she grabbed another tangerine after peeling the third one.


    "So, Yasu, how''s revenge?" She suddenly asks me, this made me confused.


    "Revenge?" I asked her and she never averted her gaze towards the fourth tangerine she''s peeling.


    "Yes. Revenge. Did you accomplish it?" She asks me and suddenly, I felt like I''m missing something. That I forgot something really important. All of a sudden, a throbbing pain happened near my temple and I grab my head dropping to the ground as the pain feels like someone is jamming a long needle in my brain. I Scream in pain as I trash around the ground but I couldn''t stop the pain even when I bash my head onto the floor. Images suddenly flashed before me making me stop as I watch all of them, remembering everything. The dungeon, the other world, Luro, I remembered everything like it happened yesterday.


    The images flashing one after another and it happened too fast that it''s making me nauseous and I ended up vomiting on the floor. All of a sudden, it stopped as I flip to my back making me stare at the ceiling and tears flow out of my eyes. I watched the fan goes around until I notice my mom enter my vision from the side looking down at me. She''s holding all the tangerines she peeled and gave me a smile as she bends down to give me a closer look.


    "W-w-who are you?" I asked her and she didn''t reply but just smiled at me. ¡°You¡¯re not my mother!"


    Even my yelling didn''t make her answer, all of a sudden; I felt a heavy weight on my arms and legs forcing it to the floor preventing me from moving.


    "If life gives you lemons, you make a lemon cake~ What if I give you tangerines?" She suddenly shoved a whole tangerine in my mouth forcing it down my throat making me gag. She kept shoving one after another not giving a damn on the limit of tangerines I can fit in my mouth.


    "You see, this is just the beginning." She says as she keeps forcing tangerines and the juice coming out of the pulp oozed out the side of my mouth as she pushes more in. I can feel it stuck in my throat cutting off my oxygen and I started choking from the tangerines. More tears came out of my eyes making my vision blurry, but I notice her come close to whisper something in my ear.


    "This time, I didn''t make you eat black vomit. Enjoy the tangerines~ we''ll meet soon enough." And I blacked out as her hand goes over my eyes gauging it out.


    GASP!!!


    cough*


    Cough*


    I held my throat thinking I''m still choking on tangerines. My breathing is back to normal and I blink my eyes as my vision is a bit blurry. Once it clears up, I look around and see everyone sleeping huddled around me. One guy that seems like he''s supposed to be a lookout is sleeping as he leans on a log.


    A cave?I whisper in my mind as I try to slowly sit up, but I felt something looped around my waist preventing my weak body from even moving properly.


    "Fuck, another dream. Fucking Unum." I whisper to myself as I laid on my back with my arms over my eyes trying to relax. I look down to see an arm around my waist and as I follow it to see whose arms it is, I see Suyeon is right beside me and tears coming down her cheeks as she probably fell asleep crying.


    What the fuck was that. How does he know what my mother looks like?I whisper in my mind as I try my best to remove Suyeon''s arms looped around me.


    As soon as I free myself, I stood up and walked towards a small waterfall to wash my face. "Ugh, what the fuck happened?"


    "You almost killed them all." I hear a voice behind me and once I turn around, I see the guy that''s leaning on the log has woken up and is staring at me.


    "You¡­.I remember you." I tell him and he shushes me pointing towards the exit which is blocked by leaves and twigs. He stood up leaving his swords leaning on the log and started walking towards the exit. I followed behind him trying to figure out what''s he''s doing with us.


    He removed the barricade completely letting the moonlight in and as soon as we got out, I grabbed his collar and pushed him against the wall of the cave outside while glaring at him. He has his hands up like he was a criminal.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "Speak, why are you here? And where the fuck are we? What happened to everyone?" I glared at him still remembering what Junpei did.


    "Chill, I''m here because I carried you here when you were unconscious and as for the gold members, I don''t know. We ran away after you passed out, so I didn''t get to see if they survived or not.¡± He replied and I remembered I didn¡¯t see him during the battle.


    "And?" I asked him as I loosen my grip on his neck.


    "Look, I''m not here to fight, I have no quarrel with you.¡± He tells me as he kept his hands raised. I slowly let him go and he started fixing his shirt. ¡°Matter of fact, I wanna join you guys."


    "Join us?" I raised an eyebrow as I stared at him.


    "Yea, the diamond district guild. Didn''t you say to us, in the beginning, you''re its leader?" He asked me to make me reminisce our first interaction.


    "And why do you want to join us?" I asked him as I see him dusting off his shoulders from the dirt that got on it.


    "Well, your aim and mine are the same. Unless I''m wrong." He tells me.


    "Ha, and what do you think my aim is?" I asked him before walking towards the log to sit down as I felt it takes all my energy to even stand. He followed me as he sat down across me and worked on lighting the firepit in front of us. I stopped him thinking that it would only bring attention to anyone in the forest if they see a light from a distance. He probably noticed as he puts away his tools.


    "Don''t you want to go home back to earth? Same for me. I don''t want to live here. I want to go back home. I miss my family, my girlfriend, I miss earth. This place is no home for me." He tells me without hesitation, and I paused for a moment trying to understand the situation and he sees me confused.


    "Look, I know you hate those guys but I''m not one of them. I left the gold district team not too long ago and I happen to run across your team after seeing some random forest appearing out of nowhere. And besides, I got nothing to go on right now. I would have gone and tried to find Luro myself, but it seems like you have more information about where he is that those idiots in gold." He tells me making me scoff.


    "And why do you think I would share this information with you? What makes you think I can trust you? You might be a spy trying to get information out so you can run back to your little fucking kingdom telling everyone everything." I tell him.


    "And? We all gotta kill Euro one way or another. Besides, I''m never going back there. If I do, they''ll probably put me in jail since Kumiko-sensei saw me save you and your group."


    "Kumiko-sensei?" I asked him.


    "The Healer. Look, I can tell you all their names. There''s Akane, who''s a mage. The one you saved from the ogre king. Then there''s Balo, the leader. There are Masato and Naoki. They''re like sheep, following Balo around without saying anything. And then, there''s your group. Oh, I should say ex-group members." He says and luckily, he didn¡¯t mention their name. He started talking about their city and how they came across their castle. He told me how to kill Luro and how he showed them my past experiences. He went on to talk about how the gold district team appointed a bandit, which turns out to be the governor that I killed.


    "And that''s all I know. Look, you don''t have to tell me what you know. Let me just help you find Luro. Two heads are better than one. At least, I know your aim is better than them who wants to play around becoming royalty." He continued on.


    "And what would my aim be?" I asked him.


    "You said it before, you''re on a path to do something and no one will get in your way. I doubt it''s getting revenge on those guys." He tells me and I smirk a little.


    "Revenge? I hate them to the core. But, to waste my time to actually pursuing them? Ha, not a chance. I got better things to do. It just happened that they got in my way when I got out of the Bandit town. To find closure, I wanted to fulfill what I promised myself that I would do when I come across them again. Otherwise, I wouldn''t take my time off looking for them. Well, they''re all dead now probably so who cares. This way I can focus more on finding Luro." I tell him as I look up the night sky. I must have been asleep for a couple of hours as last I remember; it was daytime.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been asleep for three days.¡± He said and I gave him a surprised look. But then again, it¡¯s usually the time I sleep after activating overdrive a second time. "Bandit town? Wait, don''t tell me. I don''t wanna know. So, what''s the next step?"


    Another annoying tick.I whisper in my mind.But then again, He might be useful.


    "Well, I want to train those guys on the inside. You, you''ve probably increased your level, right?" I asked him and he nods.


    "I trained the most out of all of them. In reality, I''m a higher level than Balo." He tells me.


    "Well, can you train Daikichi? He''s a dual like you." I tell him testing to see what his reply will be. If he doesn''t want to pass on his knowledge about his class, then that means he has an ulterior motive.


    "Sure, no problem. I''ll help the others also since I''ve seen how Kumiko-sensei and Akane train themselves. We can start tomorrow if you want." He tells me without hesitation and from there I have a feeling this guy is serious about following me around. His eyes are full of honesty as I can hear his voice doesn''t waver one bit.


    "I''ll see if I can trust you. Do anything funny, to them and I will focus my goal of killing you. Understand?" I tell him as I get closer and he just nods. "Good."


    "Hey, can I ask, why do you want to train them? You''re practically strong enough to take care of two overlords." He tells me.


    "I am but Luro might be on another level and I might need help," I tell him and continued talking without waiting for him to reply back. It''s also to prevent them from dying. If you were watching that fight, you probably notice, we fucking lost that one big time."


    I look down at my hand clench my palm to make a fist. Not being able to break free from those roots and watching everyone dear to me get hurt is pissing me off. Relying on my mind break skill was also the last thing I wanted to do.


    I can''t protect them forever.I say in my mind the real answer to his questions, but he just let it go and yawned.


    "I can start tomorrow but holy hell, why is their body like that?" He asked me while looking inside the cave.


    "They were captured by bandits and was put up for slavery. They made them like that so they couldn''t retaliate." I tell him and his mouth forms a circle nodding his head letting out a sound as he exhales.


    "Ok well, go get some rest, I''ll stay up and watch." He tells me and now that I''m thinking about it, they''re all asleep while he was the only one awake. If he wanted to kill all of us or even me, I wouldn''t have woken up. This made me feel a bit reassured.


    "No, I have insomnia. After waking up, I won''t be able to sleep." I tell him as I look up the night sky.


    "Ok, well then I''ll go sleep since I''m tired." He says as he walks back inside the cave yawning.


    If he had a motive, he wouldn''t be sleeping with his enemy¡­I whisper as I watch him lay down near the fireplace that was built inside the cave. Even with the door open, the leaves hanging over the entrance trapped the light from the inside. I turn around and look up at the moon shining down towards me.


    "Another day, another problem," I whisper as I sat near the exit and stared at the moon the whole night. Morning came so fast as I watch the moon sink into the horizon. I watched the dark sky get brighter and brighter as the sun rises slowly behind me.


    "Yasu!" I hear a shout coming from the inside of the cave and when I peeked in, I see Suyeon frantically looking around. Her voice woke everyone up and the minute they didn''t see me, they quickly jolted up looking around. I hide a bit more behind some leaves hanging down at the entrance preventing them from seeing me unless they took a closer look.


    "Ugh, she so loud early in the morning¡­I liked it better when she was like a puppy." I tell myself as I watch her go crazy not finding me. Somehow it made me laugh a bit as I watch all of them frantic. One even flipped the leaf bed to see if I''m underneath.


    "Seriously? How the hell can I fit in there?" I say to myself as I watch them go crazy. Daikichi suddenly grabs Takumi''s collar and shakes him awake.


    "Where is he?! What did you do to him?!" He yelled at him and Takumi didn''t say anything as he yawned not giving a damn that they''re all surrounding him. He looked around and when he finally found me in the exit peeking in, he points towards me and their gaze followed his hand as it points directly at my face.


    "Yasu!" Kana shouted out as they all ran towards me and somehow, I feel out of energy watching them so active early in the morning. The minute they got close; Kana jumped on me hugging me tightly as she cries from happiness.


    "You¡¯re alive! I''m glad you''re alive!! I thought you would never wake up!!" She says and I notice everyone approach the exit while Takumi goes to wash his face before coming our way passing me.


    "Just gonna go piss, don''t leave me." He says joking around and I nod towards him.


    "Wait, you know him?" Daikichi asked me.


    "Well, not completely but I guess he can come with us," I tell him.


    "Are you sure we can trust him?" Kana asked.


    "Well, it''s not like he did me any wrong," I tell her as she gently pushes herself away from me. "Besides, he gave me good information last night."


    "You made us so worried!" I hear a voice shout behind them and as they all part, I see Ms. Sam standing there with tears in her eyes.


    "Hey, you''re with us now?" I asked her and she just ran to me and gave me a hug.


    "You idiot!! I''m Always with you no matter what!!" She yelled out and somehow, I felt safe in her embrace. "Please, don''t do anything crazy anymore."


    "Haha, I can''t promise that," I tell her, and she pulls herself away giving me a look.


    "Please promise me one thing, don''t die." She says and I can feel her sincerity with every word I couldn''t say anything but a nod towards her. "Ok, good. We''re getting somewhere. You also need to work on your temper. Stop shouting every minute."


    "Yea dude. You have anger management issues." Daikichi says lightly punching my arms and somehow, I feel at home with them around. I couldn''t say anything but smile.


    After Takumi got back, we all went back in the cave eating boar and wolf meat Suyeon handed out. I ran out of food in my bag, so we had to use her portion since no one stored anything in their bag. Even Takumi had limited stuff from camping gear and other necessities, but no food since he left them abruptly in the middle of the night. Ms. Sam asked me everything in detail and I explained to everyone what actually happened. But it turned out they all know since Daikichi explained to them what I told him during my sleep.


    "I don¡¯t know what to say..." Amaguchi says after hearing my story.


    "Oh god¡­Yasu¡­I¡¯m sorry." Kana says as she looks at me almost crying. It probably was too much for them to hear my experience inside the dungeon and how they all chose to leave me behind to save themselves.


    "I¡¯m not going to lie and say I''m over it now, even from time to time I have nightmares," I tell them and they didn''t say anything. "And I don''t have to be nice to them or be friends with them. But next time we meet, I''m going to make sure they understand what happens when they mess with my family.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know what happened?¡± Daikichi asked me confused and I shake my head.


    ¡°Ah.¡± I suddenly blurted out remembering about talking to my alternate self before passing out. ¡°Now I remember or have an idea.¡±


    ¡°Yasu, there¡¯s something else you¡¯re not telling us are you¡­who was that?¡± Kana asked me as she wiped her tears.


    ¡°If you saw me act different, it¡¯s probably not me. Let¡¯s just say I have another personality.¡± I tell them.


    ¡°I remember them telling me that. But I never knew what really happened until you told me¡­¡± Ms. Sam says looking dejected. "And whatever happened to you in the dungeon¡­Yasu, I''m glad you¡¯re alive but I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    Ms. Sam started crying as she couldn¡¯t hold back her tears. Everyone is already tearing up and I just sat that telling her that it¡¯s ok.


    "If they didn''t attack you, what would you have done?" Takumi asked me as he feeds the fire some twigs.


    "If they let me hit them until I feel satisfied, I would have left them unconscious. But after seeing what Junpei did to Kana, it¡¯s a different story now." I tell him. ¡°Right now, I don¡¯t see them no different than a demon.¡±


    "To be honest, that dude has been shady," Takumi says towards us. "I remember, he''s the one that told everybody to go to the dungeon rather than splitting into two groups. Originally, we intend for some people to stay and wait for you while the rest take care of the dungeon to pick up the new people that spawn. But he came along saying that it''s faster to take care of the dungeon first then come back here. I found it stupid but, just went along with it. But now that I think about, that choice doesn''t even make a damn sense."


    He tells us making me think that Junpei never intends me to meet Hiroko. And I hope it''s because he knew I was going to smack the shit out of her face with my frying pan.


    "So what now? What do we do with them? They¡¯re still alive probably. Your alternate told us to tell you it was more fun to keep them alive." Kana says worriedly.


    "Nothing. If they died, that means they''re weak. If they survived, then let them come after us. By the time they find us, we''ll be strong enough to deal with them. As for now, I want to focus on trying to find one thing and that''s the castle. Luro made that so it might hold some clues about where he is. And besides, it¡¯s easier to train you all when we have an actual base." I told them trying to distract myself otherwise, my irritation will skyrocket up.


    "We''re not training them here?" Takumi asked and I shook my head.


    "No, it''s too dangerous. If they survived and decided to come after us, you guys will be far too weak to handle them, and history will repeat itself. I really don''t want to rely on my mind break skill." I tell them and they all nod.


    "Mindbreak huh, I heard it from them. It really does look like a disorder." Ms. Sam said as she tried to analyze the situation.


    "Why can''t we just go straight to the overlords and kill them one by one like you did?" Takumi asked as he feeds the fire more stick.


    "You all will die," I tell him without faltering. I see them worried about what I said but I know it''s true.


    "The two overlord I killed was amongst the weakest. They''re the bottom rank. I took care of the 8th overlord easily but the 7th I had a hard time. If I didn''t have a potion, I would have died from overusing a skill. As for the rest of the overlords, once I saw all of them in the bandit town, they showed no fear and that guy Unum is probably on another level." I explained to them.


    "Fuck, if only we weren''t captured. We would have been stronger by now." Daikichi says as he slumps down near the fire pit beaten by the fact that he''s weak. They''re all weak. And they need to get stronger.


    "Item bag," I called out my dimensional bag and took out the blue sword I got after saving Suyeon. "You guys see this?"


    "Ohh, sword. That looks nice." Ms. Sam says, and I shake my head.


    "No Sam, this isn''t a sword. After solving the puzzle in the hidden passage at the dungeon you all came from, it gave me this in the end. I know it''s not a weapon since the weapon description voice command is not working. "You guys want to guess what this is?"


    "What is it?" Takumi asked holding the crystal sword in his hand as he whispers a command. "Whoa, you''re right. It''s not showing anything."


    "That''s a key. That''s the key to the diamond castle." I tell them and they all look at the sword while Takumi hands it back to me carefully as if it will break any minute.


    "So how do we find the castle?" Goro says and we all looked at Takumi.


    "Uh, well I don''t know. For the Gold Castle, Luro actually told us the direction and how to obtain the key which is killing a dragon. So, I''m guessing, we need to kill a dragon to get to yours. As for the location of the diamond''s castle, I have no idea where it is." Takumi explained as he hands the sword back to me.


    "Damn, well let''s worry about that later on. First, we need to be on a move and get further away from here. Since I found you guys, I have no business here at all. You all also need to focus on eating, once your body weight goes to normal, then it will be easier for you to defend yourselves." I say looking at everyone, but I noticed one of them in a Daze throughout the whole time. "Hey, you okay?"


    I asked Mamoru who just looked at the fire not hearing what I said.


    "Mamoru, are you okay?" Miki-sensei asked again, and he snapped out of his daze as he looks at me directly.


    "Can you tell me again one of the guy¡¯s name?" He asked me as his voice shakes.


    "What guy?" I asked him confused who he''s talking about.


    "The one that...hit Kana." He replied hesitantly.


    "Oh, Junpei? What about him?" Takumi replied. The minute he hears his name, his complexion became pale as he stares at the fire pit in a daze.

 CHAPTER 49: A need to change

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 49:A need to change


    <hr>


    Mamoru stayed silent the whole time. Even when they tried to talk to him, he''s just given a weak smile and walked outside telling us he needs some fresh air. He¡¯s been like this since he heard Junpei¡¯s name. I¡¯m guessing he knows him so everyone gave him time to be by himself while Miki who keeps telling me to call her sensei or Miki-sensei is keeping tabs on him every now and then. After daytime ended, everyone decided to rest for another day before heading out tomorrow morning. They¡¯re fast asleep and I decided to walk out and stay near the exit outside. Daikichi saw me make my way towards the exit and since he couldn''t sleep, he tagged along following me outside. The area we¡¯re in is really cold at night so I had no choice but to build a small campfire near the exit to keep Daikichi and myself warm. We''re leaving tomorrow anyway and I''ll be awake so just in case something or someone comes up while they''re sleeping, I''ll be able to handle it.


    How the hell am I going to lead all of them?I whisper in my mind as I stare at the moon.


    ¡°Tomorrow morning, we¡¯ll leave,¡± I tell Daikichi whose throwing sticks into the fire.


    ¡°Do you know where we¡¯re going?¡± He asked me as he places the blanket over himself.


    "Not really, I''m guessing to keep walking towards one direction till we come across something. Takumi knows a couple of towns quite a way from here. I don''t want to run into one of them but we might have to. They might have the information we need." I explain to him as I study my status window.


    ¡°Do you think we can trust him?¡± He asks me as he stares at the fire.


    ¡°Trust no one. But it doesn¡¯t mean he won¡¯t be useful. He needs to earn our trust.¡± I tell Daikichi as I throw more sticks into the fire.


    ¡°True. Hey, sorry. I lost the weapon you gave me.¡± He tells me as he looks down losing the ogre queen¡¯s axes.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok, it¡¯s just a weapon. We can always find a new one if we ever come across another dungeon.¡± I tell him trying to keep his spirits up. With all that recently happened, it can be traumatizing for them.


    ¡°Yeah, I wonder if you can make weapons yourself.¡± He tells me as he goes through his status window trying to see if there¡¯s a weapon maker skill. I hear a noise coming from the inside and the leaf and vines that hang down to cover the entrance parted from the middle as Takumi exit out.


    ¡°Yo.¡± He waved at us as he sat down across of me. He quickly took out his bag and pulled out a blanket.


    ¡°Hey. Do you know any skills that would help us make weapons?¡± Daikichi asked and Takumi nods making me curious also.


    ¡°The big cities like the Gold city or Viltair actually have a guild hall where you can learn a class and your passive class.¡± He says wrapping himself.


    ¡°Passive class?¡± Daikichi asked and I just stayed quiet as Takumi sit near the campfire and the two started talking.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a skill that¡¯s not meant for combat. You basically can¡¯t fight with it. They have different classes like blacksmith, tailor, cook, entertainment, craftsman, and a lot more. There¡¯s too many I can¡¯t remember.¡± Takumi replied and I wondered if I can pick a cooking passive class on top of my cooking class.


    ¡°Oh, did you pick any passive class?¡± Daikichi asked and the two got into their own world as I sat silently listening to their conversation.


    "Yeah, I picked crafter," Takumi replied while throwing a few sticks into the fire. "It let me craft stuff such as this door or other useful things that we can use. The only thing it doesn¡¯t let me craft are, weapons and armor.¡±


    ¡°Oh, how does it work?¡±


    ¡°Well, if you get the passive class, you say the command ¡®show passive class¡¯ and it will bring you another window with a list of stuff you can make. The higher the level, the more thing pops up on the list.¡± Takumi fiddled with something in the air probably looking at his passive class window.


    ¡°And what do you do? Just make it?¡± I asked him and he gave me a nod.


    ¡°For me, some items like this door, don¡¯t require anything except getting materials. Of course, you can make it yourself but when I activate the class, I get experience points towards the passive class leveling it up. Here let me show you.¡± He stood up and started collecting sticks and rock at the ground.


    ¡°Show passive class, activate wood ax blueprint.¡± He says as he holds the stick and the rock. I was waiting for it to form itself but he started working chipping the rock with another rock forming its blade. Then he did some weird loop lodging the rock in place in the stick. He did it so fast he was finished in a short amount of time.


    ¡°Done.¡± He showed us the ax he made, and it was sturdy upon holding it. ¡°When I activate the skill, somehow, a blueprint and instruction form in my mind and I know how to make it by following that. After I fulfill the requirements and build it, the blueprint disappears and I remember bits and pieces of it.¡±


    "Whoa, that sound complicated," Daikichi says as he swings the ax around.


    ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s useful especially if we¡¯re living out here, I can even create stuff like the foundation for buildings as long as I can get the materials. If I level this skill up more, it evolves into master crafter where I can craft much more sophisticated things that only master crafter can make.¡± Takumi continued explaining and somehow, I felt excited learning about new skills I can obtain.


    ¡°So, if I get blacksmith and level it up, I can become a master blacksmith?¡± I asked him thinking about having the ability to make weapons will come in handy.


    ¡°Yeah, and you¡¯ll be able to craft legendary items and even godly items I think.¡± He replied before having a long pause trying to remember about the passive classes. ¡°But it¡¯s harder for a blacksmith to level it up since you need an anvil to create weapons. You also need to make metal ingots by using a forge. That¡¯s more game like since I see adventurers make swords by hitting the metal ingots over and over again until the ingot disappear and the base shape of the sword appears before them. They have to keep hitting it to form the blade. What¡¯s cool about blacksmith is they can customize the weapons based on what they want and even enchant it.¡±


    "Man, now I want to be a blacksmith," Daikichi replies as he hands Takumi the ax back and he just told him to keep it in which, Daikichi happily obliged. ¡°Do you think those small towns you said have a guild hall?¡±


    "Nope, they only exist in big cities," Takumi says and the thought about waltzing in the so-called Gold City made me clench my fist. The image of Junpei slapping Kana kept repeating in my mind and somehow, I want to get into their city and create havoc. Takumi kept talking and I just listened as I throw more sticks into the fire.


    ¡°But, when we found our castle, it came with a guild hall as a section of the castle. If the Diamond district has a hall, all you need is to hire people for it. Once you do, the guild hall activates enabling adventurers to come and pick a class and passive class. This passive class is only useful if you make it useful. It doesn¡¯t help a person level up but it sure as hell makes it easier to level up if you can create your own legendary weapon.¡±


    ¡°Dang, we got to find our castle quick. Right Yasu?¡± Daikichi turns to me and I just gave him a nod. ¡°Yasu, you alright bro?¡±


    I break away from my gaze towards the darkness as I look at him. ¡°Uh, yeah. Sorry, just have a lot in my mind.¡±


    ¡°Just don¡¯t keep it all in.¡± He tells me with a worried look and I just gave him a smile. ¡°Let us know what¡¯s going on. It¡¯s better to share than bottle everything inside.¡±


    Hearing Daikichi says that made me blurt out a sentence I wasn¡¯t planning on mentioning. ¡°I can¡¯t lead this many¡­ Ah, never mind.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what you mean never mind? Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re here to help you out ok?¡± Daikichi says smiling at me and I just nod towards him.


    ¡°You should sleep, I can keep watch,¡± I tell him as I see him yawn.


    ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good. I¡¯ll stay up. Since we got out of the Bandit town, you¡¯ve been keeping watch. You should get some sleep.¡± He tells me smiling.


    ¡°Well, I slept really well, so you guys can go sleep,¡± Takumi says and in the end, it was me and Takumi that stayed awake while Daikichi fell asleep on the log.


    ¡°Hey, I heard about the Jun-gi person. Those people are messed up in the head.¡± Takumi whispers as he didn¡¯t want to wake up Daikichi.


    ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t you see him?¡± I whisper back to him.


    ¡°I did. But from the time I was talking to him, I felt something was off with the dude.¡± He replies to me and his last words had me worried.


    ¡°Like what?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°He has an ulterior motive.¡± He tells me and in my mind, I thought about how bad it would have been if Kana and Daikichi stayed with them. How bad if, Suyeon was still with them. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is. But the dude seems like he wants to do something and everyone that left the dungeon with him seems like they know.¡±


    ¡°Tsk, another headache,¡± I whisper thinking about Suyeon when I met her.


    Maybe I should ask her if she wants to get even with him.I say in my mind. All she¡¯s been doing is following me along and I don¡¯t know what she wants to do.


    ¡°Oh, by the way, do you know how to invite people to the guild? You should invite me.¡± Takumi says and I shake my head towards him. ¡°Oh, say the command-¡°


    All of a sudden, he stopped talking and froze in place. I waited for him to move just in case he¡¯s playing around but it would out of his character to do so. He¡¯s not the type to do dumb stuff like pretending to be frozen.


    ¡°Hey, What the hell is wrong with yo-¡­¡± I suddenly stopped as I noticed not only him froze but everything else. The swaying of the fire has completely come to halt and even the leaves that came from branches have frozen in midair.


    What the fuck.I whisper in my mind as I slowly stood and walked towards a floating leaf. Right when I was about to touch it, I noticed a dark figure from a distance slowly walking towards my way.


    ¡°Item bag,¡± I whisper my skill but nothing. ¡°Pound.¡±


    Not one skill activated so I tried to ready myself from whoever is coming my way the best I can. I feel like I was normal again.


    ¡°Well, well, well, we meet again ol¡¯ chap~¡± The shadow talked as he gets closer towards my way. ¡°So how¡¯s it goin¡¯ bud?¡±


    ¡°Luro,¡± I whisper as I watch him walk towards the fire pit near Daikichi and sat on him like a log. ¡°Bastard! Get off him!¡±


    I tried swinging at him but my fist went through his head followed by my body and I came tumbling down the other side.


    "Hahaha~ Feisty, as usual," Luro says without turning around.


    ¡°You fucking hologram,¡± I tell him as I stood up to dust off my clothes. I walked towards him and sat near the fire and feed it with sticks. ¡°What the fuck do you want?¡±


    ¡°Well~ it quite amazing! You are living up to my expectati- no better yet, you are going beyond my expectations~¡± He tells me and I looked at him glaring him down.


    ¡°Tell me where you are~,¡± I tell him as I gave him a smile and he just laughed. His voice was loud enough that it would have woken up everyone if he didn¡¯t freeze time.


    ¡°Now, that wouldn¡¯t be fun now would it?¡± He tells me as he gave me the creepiest smile I have seen him do.


    ¡°You know what¡¯s not fun? Those fucking followers you have. Keeps on giving me nightmares.¡± I taunt him remembering about Unum.


    ¡°Oh, the overlords? I didn¡¯t create that group. They created it themselves. I did meet their leader a few times~¡± He tells me as he crosses his legs.


    ¡°Oh, so he knows where you are huh,¡± I tell him trying to figure out if chasing Unum will lead me to him.


    ¡°Yup, that guy knows where I am and he visits me every now and then giving me offerings. Can you believe it? They gave me a human child. Bunch of weirdos~¡± He says while pretending to shudder.


    ¡°Look who¡¯s talking. Are you a bigger weirdo than them?¡± I taunt him trying to see if he¡¯ll get angry but as like before, he never showed any emotions except his happy stupid expression.


    ¡°Hahaha that I am.¡± He tells me snickering to himself.


    I didn¡¯t want to prolong our chat so I got straight to the chase. ¡°So, what the fuck do you want? You only come out to tell me something important in regards to your sick fucking games.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, the people your alternate side beat to a pulp is still alive. Aren¡¯t you happy?¡± He asked me and it makes me just want to dig my fingers into his eyes.


    Scoff*


    ¡°Me happy? Who gives a shit about them?¡± I tell him and he just gave me a shrug.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°All I wanted was to get even. Now I did, they can play pretend to be royalty for all I care. My main aim now is to kill you.¡±


    ¡°Oho~ and do you know how?¡± He asked me and I can see he¡¯s hiding something behind his smirk.


    "Yeah, I do. Got a piece of very valuable information ~ two hearts huh¡­I''ll do you a favor and rip both them out with my bare hands." I say as I walked towards him and place my hand through his chest pretending I''m ripping his heart out. "Soon, you''ll know how it feels to die."If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Oho,~ Scary~ Well, congratulations on surviving. Oh and let me tell you a bit about the future. My biggest secret. Come closer, let me whisper it. I don¡¯t want the other gods to hear.¡± He tells me as he waves.


    Other gods?I say in my mind as I lean near him and he started to whisper something that made my heart sink into the deepest part of hell.


    ¡°¡­and that is the future~ Bwahahahahahahahaha!!! Now, it just became more fun~¡± Luro says as I stare at nothing.


    ¡°W-wha-¡° I didn¡¯t know what to say as I fell back down.


    ¡°Oho~ you¡¯re speechless~ Well, I¡¯ll leave you be. Buhbye~¡± Luro says as his hologram disappeared into thin air.


    ¡°W-wait! What the fuck do you mean-¡°All of a sudden, everything resumed back to normal as I see the leaves that have been stuck in midair slowly fell towards the ground and I hear Takumi spoke.


    ¡°- show guild and that should show- wait, what the fuck,¡± Takumi says as the sudden change of my position surprised him. ¡°Holy fucking hell, did you just teleport?¡±


    I sat there and looked at the ground. Luro¡¯s voice repeated itself in my head over and over again. I couldn¡¯t remove from my mind what he said and it¡¯s making my heart beat faster than usual.


    ¡°Fuck!!! Luro!!! Come out!!! You son of a bitch!!!¡±I shouted out trying to make him come back. My yelling was so loud, Daikichi suddenly woke up.


    ¡°what enemy! Where?!¡± He stood up still groggy being woken up abruptly and I hear noises coming inside the cave as everyone woke up from my scream.


    ¡°Yasu! Are you oka-¡° Kana tried asking but I didn¡¯t hear her as I shouted as loud as I can.


    ¡°Luro! Come out you sick fuck!!¡±I shouted out again not giving a damn if I woke everyone up. I need to verify if what he said is true. ¡°Luro!¡±


    ¡°Yasu! What happened?!¡± Kana tries to shout over my yelling but I didn¡¯t pay attention to any of them as I kept shouting till I felt my throat ripping from all the yelling and I tasted a bit of blood. Anger, fear, and all of my emotions felt like it was choking me as I screamed as loud as I can to let out all the frustration and anger he just made me feel in one night. I felt hands on my shoulders as Suyeon hugs me and she got on her knees as I sat there in a daze.


    ¡°Yasu! It¡¯s ok! It¡¯s ok!¡± Ms. Sam says as she also hugs me and I just stayed there as tears came out of my eyes.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s¡­.can¡¯t be, it can¡¯t be true. Ha- ha ha-hahaha haha ha ha!¡± I laughed and cried at the same time while everyone circled around me not saying anything.


    Morning hits and I remained leaning on the wall of the cave outside near the exit. I just stared up at the sky as I watch earth float along with the sun. After waking them all up with my screaming, everyone decided to stay awake the whole night trying to comfort me without knowing what¡¯s even going on. They all walked back inside getting ready washing themselves before we head out. Takumi said he can lead us to the next town to get everyone geared up and I just nod towards him.


    ¡°Hey, Yasu, come on man. Tell us, what happened?¡± Daikichi says nudging me and I look at him.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s nothing,¡± I tell him as I try to smile and I know he wants to keep prying what happened but he didn¡¯t. He just gave me a smile and placed his hand on my shoulder.


    ¡°Alright, if you say so. But if you need someone, I¡¯m here. I¡¯ll listen to anything.¡± He says and I can see a worried expression plastered all over his face.


    ¡°Alright.¡± I weakly say to him and he stood up and walked towards the waterfall inside the cave to wash up.


    ¡°Hey, did Luro come out?¡± Takumi comes close and whispers to me.


    ¡°Yeah. He-¡± I tell him. I don¡¯t know why I feel like I can tell him but I stopped myself. He probably notices I didn¡¯t want to talk about it so he didn¡¯t pry.


    ¡°He¡¯s always a bastard. Don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯ll kill him soon enough.¡± He tells me trying to reassure me and I just gave him a weak nod as I stare back up the sky.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I whisper as I watched earth trying to remember how it feels like to be back home.


    We left the cave and started following Takumi who lead us through the forest. Goro, Amaguchi, and Mamoru stayed behind him while the girls are behind them. All the way in the back is me and Daikichi who watched our rear. Since Takumi is in front, it¡¯s better to have another person strong enough to protect the back while I left Suyeon with the girls as their guard. They¡¯re all pretty low level and Takumi said the path to the next town is treacherous since we will soon come across monsters that are level forty and higher. These guys are below level twenty and it¡¯s only Takumi and me that exceed one hundred.


    ¡°Damn, it¡¯s still hard to believe we¡¯re out. I thought we¡¯re going to be there forever.¡± Daikichi whispers towards me as we walk behind everyone.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I reply, but with my mind still on what Luro said.


    ¡°Thank you, Yasu.¡± He tells me.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I reply back and I guess he noticed I didn¡¯t want to talk so we both walked in silence. Something suddenly started moving around the bushes and everyone stopped moving hearing something.


    ¡°G-guys. W-what is that?¡± Lisa whispers as she huddles behind Suyeon who looks calm as she looks around. Suddenly a boar came out charging at us and my body moved on its own out of instinct.


    I grabbed the boar by its ear and using all my strength, I threw it to the side. The ear ripped off its head as the boar lands on its side squealing in pain. It tried to scamper up but I kicked it back down with my left foot so hard, I hear its ribs break. Using one hand, I stabbed its chest as I looked at its heart. The boar screamed in pain as it felt my hand go through its chest as I push it in further.


    Fucking Luro. You fucking fuck.I say in my mind as I stayed quiet watching the boar struggle as much as it can under me. I finally found its heart and using all my strength, I pulled it out of its chest and blood spurts out of its veins into my face and clothes. The heart continued beating in my palm and I watched it die slowly.


    I swear I will rip your heart out of your body. You fucking piece of shit.I say in my mind.


    ¡°U-uhm.¡± I hear a voice to my right and as I look, everyone just stood in one spot watching me.


    ¡°D-damn,¡± Amaguchi says as he watched the heart on my hand slowly stop beating and blood traveled to my elbow and dripping towards the ground.


    I suddenly dropped the heart on the ground and smiled at them. ¡°Well, I need to butcher him for us to eat later on. If you guys need to piss, go now.¡± I tell them, all of them nod in unison.


    I immediately worked on the boar¡¯s corpse with Takumi helping me. It seems like Tobi has taught him how to skin and debone carcass as he knew what he was doing making us quickly get what we need. After deboning the boar carcass, we kept moving until the sun has set and the moon rises up to illuminate the night sky.


    Suyeon quickly collected twigs with the help of Lisa while the guys tried to make a fire pit. I sat around watching everyone work together and it somehow reminded me when I did everything myself. Collecting woods, making my own fire, I did everything alone and I didn¡¯t really feel the loneliness until now. How pitiful my life was trying to do everything on my own. Somehow, I felt good watching them work together. I felt good not being alone. Then, my mood changes as I remember what Luro whispered to my ear.


    Sigh*


    Fuck.I say in my mind as I watch them all happily help each other.


    ¡°Heey~ Yasu! The fire is ready!¡± Kana happily waved at me and I smile at her. I slowly stood up from where I am and walked towards them.


    ¡°Item bag.¡± I caught it as it appeared in midair. I took out a frying pan and a spatula, some spices along with cooking oil and placed them all on the ground. I took out the boar meat I got earlier and started cutting it into thin pieces. I cover it in oil with a couple of spices and placed it in the pan. I hover the pan on top the fire where it¡¯s barely hitting the bottom and I hear it slowly sizzle as the heat from pan cooks the pork chop to perfection. Everyone sat around the campfire as they all watched me cook. The smell of the pork chop made someone stomach grumble and they all look at the source.


    ¡°Oh, uh, my bad. I¡¯m really hungry and the smell is heavenly.¡± Amaguchi says as he taps his stomach. They all started laughing and even I chuckled a bit as I cooked more pork chops for everyone. I cooked enough so that everyone had three pieces of pork chop on their plate. Good thing I bought more plates and utensils otherwise, they¡¯ll be eating like how Suyeon did before. With their bare hands.


    ¡°Ok guys, dig in,¡± I tell them and they all quickly took their first bite.


    ¡°Mmm~!!!!!!¡± Kana happily ate her food as she moves her body side to side that made it like she was doing a small victory dance. ¡°Oh, my god this is soo good!¡±


    Everyone didn¡¯t bother talking as they all ate happily with a simple dish I made for them. I could have made something better but the pork chop is the easiest to make and the fastest.


    I wonder, what if I choose a cook passive class? Will it show me new recipes?I say in my mind as I eat in silence trying to distract myself but what Luro said kept repeating in my head slowly making me lose my appetite.


    Buuuuurp!


    ¡°Ugh, that was the best! Sorry, I couldn¡¯t hold back.¡± Amaguchi says as he slumps back on the log after he finished eating. He ate his portion so fast that it looks like he inhaled it. ¡°Ughh, my hands are a mess.¡±


    ¡°Jeez, why did you eat like a caveman?¡± Miki asked him and he just smiled at her.


    ¡°Hehe, it was too good. Item bag.¡± He quickly took out a water container and a towel I gave him. He soaked the towel with water and cleaned his hands and face. He took a sip of his water and stored it back in the bag with the dirty towel.


    ¡°Ugghhh, that¡¯s so gross,¡± Lisa says who ate with a knife and fork. She looked like she came from a rich family as she kept her back straight while eating and she gave an aura of elegance. Even though, she so skinny looking.


    ¡°Oh, come on, Lisa. We lived together for a while in the same cage. We watched each other poop.¡± Amaguchi says without holding back and care about the world.


    ¡°Ugghhhh gross!¡± Everyone says at the same time and they all laughed. I smile a little as they make jokes about what happened to them.


    Sniff*


    Sniff*


    I hear someone crying and I see Miki or I should start saying Miki-sensei crying.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Ms. Sam approaches her and strokes her in the back.


    ¡°It¡¯s just, I can¡¯t believe we survived that. I prayed every day for them to release the kids but even I was starting to lose hope.¡± Miki-sensei says and everyone started getting teary as they approach her. ¡°Yasu¡­Thank you. You have no idea how indebted I am to you. Thank you for giving me hope to live on. Thank you.¡±


    She started bawling out as she keeps wiping the tears that are coming out of her eyes. I couldn¡¯t do anything but a nod to her yet, deep down in my heart, the feeling of guilt, the feeling of someone squeezing my heart lingers as I keep remembering what Luro told me his big secret. I quickly eat my food and drank water from my container to hide my depression.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to piss. I¡¯ll be back.¡± I say quickly standing up and walking off to a distance without hearing their replies.


    I walked far enough that I see the light from a distance and sat on the ground leaning on a tree. I see something fly down and it landed on my shoulder.


    ¡°Ah, you blue fucking bird. Why do you keep following me?¡± I say as I try to pet it. Every time I get my hand close to it, it would fly away but this time, it bowed its head as I pet it with my two fingers.


    Chirp*


    Chirp*


    It started chirping as I pet it and it made me smile a bit. Ever since I found them, my attitude changed. I stopped petting him and I just leaned on the tree looking up the sky.


    ¡°Hey, bird, why can¡¯t anything go right? Why?¡± I ask him but he just stood on my shoulder picking at my clothes. ¡°Heh, you can¡¯t understand me huh.¡±


    Sigh*


    ¡°Should I tell them?¡± I asked him and he did nothing but picked on my shirt. He suddenly opening his wings and flapped it quickly flying away. ¡°Hmm, I guess that¡¯s a no.¡±


    I sat there for a couple of minutes until I started feeling cold due to the temperature dropping at night time. I stood up and started walking back towards the light. As I got close, I was hoping to hear laughing but nothing. As I got close, I see all of them surrounded the campfire with a serious expression. As I was about to step out of the dark, I hear Daikichi talk that made me hide behind a tree.


    ¡°What the fuck was that?¡± He says and no one said anything. After a couple of minutes, Amaguchi continued their conversation.


    ¡°Holy hell, did you guys noticed, he stopped time. That¡¯s what Luro looks like?¡± He asked and I notice Takumi nods his head.


    Did they saw Luro?I say in my mind as I tried my best not to be seen while listening to their conversation. I don¡¯t know why but, I stayed hidden in the dark.


    ¡°He looked a bit different since I saw a year ago. But, that¡¯s definitely him.¡± Takumi replies to everyone.


    ¡°Is that the reason Yasu has been acting strange? Did he offer the same choices to him?¡± Kana says looking at everyone and I can see tears in her eyes.


    Offer? Offer what?I asked in my mind keeping silent trying not to let them know I came back.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, what I do know is that he met him last night,¡± Takumi says as he slumps back to look at the sky.


    Sigh*


    "We had our chance to go home. But eh, it''s better this way. I don''t feel good going home that way." He whispers and I wanted to jump out of the dark and ask them but Daikichi suddenly spoke answering the questions in my head.


    ¡°Fucking sicko, making me choose between my friend or going home, of course, I¡¯ll choose Yasu. I won¡¯t leave him behind.¡± He says and suddenly my body froze in place from shock.


    Huh? Choice? Leave me behind? So many questions entered my mind.


    ¡°Yeah, me too. What does that Luro person think he is.¡± Ms. Sam says as she throws a stick in the fire.


    Did Luro give them a choice to go home? Why didn¡¯t they take it!I shout in my mind and I felt sick to my stomach.


    ¡°But, you know, we could have taken it,¡± Amaguchi says and Lisa punched him so hard in the gut he started coughing.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°It¡¯s a joke, a joke.¡± He says as he grabs his abdomen.


    ¡°Don¡¯t joke like that. You know he put up his life on the line on save all of us. It¡¯s only natural to choose him over going home. We owe him our lives.¡± Lisa says and everyone looks down at the fire.


    Wait, choose me over going home?I say in my mind as I kept listening in the dark.


    ¡°But, what if, Luro gave him the same option. And he chose us rather than going home?¡± Kana says as tears roll out of her eyes down her cheeks. I see Daikichi punch the ground with an angry expression on his face.


    ¡°That fucking idiot! He should have chosen to go home! We can take care of ourselves! He¡¯s been here long enough!¡± I see Daikichi started crying and Kana went to hug him and they both cried in place.


    ¡°I thought he changed, and I was ready to accept it but, He¡¯s still the same. I¡¯m glad.¡± Ms. Sam says as she wipes tears out of her eyes as she smiles and sniffs at the same time.


    ¡°The same old Yasu. Shoot, he''s still the same as I remember, he keeps peeing every five minutes." Daikichi joked around and they all started laughing as they wiped their tears.


    ¡°He should have gone home,¡± Kana says. ¡°He went through what we went through all by himself. All of this time, for a year, he was alone. He didn¡¯t have anyone to turn to. He deserves to go home. He deserves to be with his mother.¡±


    Silence fell to the group as I sat in the dark staring at nothing trying to process what they said.


    ¡°S-should we tell him?¡± Suyeon asked and everyone looked at Daikichi.


    ¡°No. He has enough burden on his own. Knowing him, if he heard what we did, he wouldn¡¯t let it go. Let¡¯s all keep this a secret from him okay?¡± Kana says and everyone nods and they all started conversing with one another as I slowly walk off towards a distance. As soon as I got far away, I dropped to my knees and got on all fours.


    They chose to stay. They¡­.they didn¡¯t leave me alone.I say in my mind as more tears come out and I couldn¡¯t stop it. They didn¡¯t leave me alone.


    I cry in silence as I felt all emotionsmaking my tear un-controllable.


    ¡°They...¡± I covered my mouth to muffle the sounds of my wails as an overwhelming feeling went through my body. I cried and cried until I couldn¡¯t cry anymore.After crying, I started hearing voices and it getting closer and closer as the shouts got louder and louder.


    ¡°Yasu! Where are you!¡± Daikichi shouts from a distance and I quickly wiped my face from my tears.


    ¡°H-h-here!¡± I shout out loud and I hear them running towards my voice. Daikichi suddenly emerges out of the dark with Takumi and Suyeon behind him.


    ¡°What the hell man. What are you doing? Number two?¡± He asked me as he held out his hand to help me up.


    ¡°Uh, s-something got in my eyes and I tripped unable to see,¡± I tell him as he started noticing my eyes which probably looked red from crying.


    ¡°Haha, you sure? You sure you not doing¡­ehem¡­.the man business?¡± Daikichi asked as he crossed his arms.


    ¡°Man business?¡± I asked him and he formed his hand into a circle and started gesturing masturbation.


    ¡°It''s ok man, we won''t tell anyoneyou hit your eye by accident,¡± Daikichi says laughing.


    ¡°What the- no I didn''t do it! The hell man, clean your mind.¡± I tell him, making me chuckle.


    ¡°Hahaha, it is clean. Come on, everyone is worried sick that you haven¡¯t come back yet.¡± Daikichi says and we all started walking towards the camp with Suyeon in my side. Takumi and Daikichi talk to eachanother about their class as Takumi explains to him his skills and how to use them.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Suyeon whisper to me and I see her with a worried look.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine,¡± I tell her as I gave her a smile and she was caught off guard. She suddenly averted my gaze fixing her hair tucking it behind her ear.


    ¡°O-Okay.¡± She says without looking at me but I see her face turning red.


    I leaned towards her and placed my mouth near her ear, ¡°Thank you.¡± I whispered and she froze in place as I walked towards everyone.


    I looked everyone in the face, and I see Kana notice me walk out the dark with everyone behind me and I gave her a smile as she waves at me. I stood there and gave her a smile, the warmest smile I can give. Today, I felt happy. Even with what Luro told me, I felt genuinely happy.


    Luro, I¡¯ll save everyone.I say in my mind as I smile at them. I¡¯ll bring everyone home. No one will die on my watch, just wait and see¡­I''ll bring everybody home.

 CHAPTER 50: The bond of the three

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 50:The bond of the three


    <hr>


    I''m going to save everyone.I repeated in my mind to keep my resolve strong. I know it''s going to be difficult, but they did the same for me. After meeting up with them, they talked to me normally and not one person said anything about meeting Luro. I didn''t mention anything also. I''ll carry everything and get them all home. Even now, I feel like the whole world is against me but, with them, I feel like I can keep going.


    "No matter what, I''m not letting anyone die," I whisper as I stare at the moon hovering above us. They begged me and pestered me to sleep so I lay down on a leaf bed Takumi built for everyone. His passive skill is really useful outside. I can build the same leaf bed if I tried but it won''t be as comfortable as this one. Goro and Amaguchi are on guard duty and they''ll alternate during the middle of the night.


    I feel someone breathing beside me and as I look, I see Suyeon sleeping using her hands as pillows. She''s huddled near me sleeping comfortably. Daikichi is on my right with Kana by his side as the two spoons together trying to keep themselves warm. I look back at Suyeon and I see some of her hair strands over her face. I slowly move my hand to tuck it behind her ear at the same time, trying to not wake her up. She suddenly moved closer to me and I thought I have woken her up as I froze in place. But her breathing is still relaxed as she sleeps talks saying something I can''t really understand. Probably Korean or maybe it''s random mumbling.


    I see her eyes move under her eyelids and from what I learned, those have a dream or even a nightmare, and their eyes remain active even if they have it closed. It doesn''t look like a nightmare since she''s not screaming or going crazy, so I didn''t bother waking her up. I relax on my back and I stare at the moon and earth hovering above the trees. At least earth never disappears. Whether it''s day or night, it remains floating in the sky. It''s much more relaxing to stare at night as different light from the city leave a star like texture that most people dream of seeing if they ever traveled to space.


    What''s weird is if this planet existed way before I was brought here, how come we can''t see it from that side?I say in my mind. I just relaxed my body as I try to let my worries go. It''s a weird phenomenon but it isn''t something I want to question too much. Looking at earth, it keeps me calm because I know there''s hope. Even if it''s slim. There''s hope. I stared at it until I completely fall asleep. Morning came and we all woke up feeling refreshed. After eating breakfast, we started walking through the forest following Takumi while I stayed in the back with Daikichi. The same formation we had since we left the cave.


    "Heeeeey~ Are we close?" Lisa asked as she drags her feet around. "Please tell me we''re close."


    "We''re not even halfway. We usually use a carriage following a path but since we''re going through the forest, it takes longer to get there. But we should reach a river by sundown which we can use to move faster." Takumi says as he looks back at us smiling at Lisa.


    "Urghhh." Lisa groans as she reluctantly followed. "Suyeooon~ I need energy~"


    Lisa suddenly grabbed Suyeon''s arm like they''re a couple. Both of them giggled and talked as we walked through the forest.


    "So, Yasu. Why were you crying in the middle of the dark?" Daikichi whispers towards me without looking my way.


    "I wasn''t crying. I told you. Something got in my eye." I tell him. I know it''s not something he''s just going to ignore but at least, I know he didn''t tell everyone. The only people who saw me in that state was him, Suyeon, and Takumi who kept it silent also. I feel bad keeping it to myself what Luro told me but it''s better this way. If I tell them, it will be much more difficult for me and everyone else.


    "Alright man. But remember, I''ll keep anything you tell me a secret." He says as he placed his arm on top my shoulder and I gave him a smile. "So, what''s going on between you and Suyeon?"


    "What?" His question caught me off guard and for some reason, my mind went blank.


    "Oh come on, I see her really close to you," Daikichi says and somehow I feel embarrassed. "She even sleeps beside you."


    "Ha, didn''t you sleep beside me also? What''s going on between you and Kana? I never got the full story. How did it happen?" I asked him.


    "Oho~ Changing the topic I see. Well, it all happened when you disappeared." He says as we both walked the same pace and talked to each other without looking at each other.


    "Oho~ so you waited for me to disappear~ I see how you are." I joke around with him and he started laughing making me chuckle also.


    "No no no, that came out wrong. Let''s see, after you disappeared, me and Kana went crazy trying to look for you. Every night, she would cry not knowing where you are. She sees you as a family more than anyone." He tells me and it made me feel warm on the inside.


    "Back in the days, we only saw each other in school. But after you disappeared, we met up a lot outside of school to ask around if they have seen you. We even handed out fliers with your image." He tells me and I pictured both of them wandering about handing out paper with my picture in it.


    "And?" I asked him intrigued by their story.


    "We kept meeting up and meeting up to the point we became a thing." He tells me and I gave him a weird look.


    "Ewww I''m getting the goosebumps," I tell him as I hug myself pretending I heard something yucky.


    "Ha ha. But, I was glad I''m there. She was starting to go crazy you know. She even wanted to fly around the world to look for you." He tells me almost making me laugh.


    "Seriously? Knowing her family background, she probably can do it, I bet her family is turning the world upside down right now." I tell him remembering Kana is from a wealthy aristocrat family lineage that has a very heavy reputation even in school.


    "I had to talk her out of it. And that''s when we both suddenly woke up here." Daikichi tells me and as I glance at him, I see his hands in his pockets as he walked matching my pace while looking at the ground. I have always felt alone and there was a moment in the hidden dungeon that I felt everyone back home moved on. Hearing his story have brought me happiness yet guilt that I didn''t trust them enough and gave up on the hope they''re looking for me.


    Daikichi, thank you.I say in my mind and I see him look up to me. He smiles towards me and at the same time, gave me a middle finger.


    "You''re probably so touched you want to hug me. Not gonna happen Yasu. Not gonna happen." Daikichi jokes around and I let out a small laugh.


    "Hahaha, very funny douchebag. Well, At least my disappearance leads to something positive." I tell him joking around and he just smiled placing his hand back in his pocket as he looks forwards at the group in front of us.


    "I''m glad we found you." He held out his fist towards me without looking and I fist pumped him back.


    "Haha, correction, I found you guys," I tell him and we both laughed and he told me more stories about the earth. I heard it from Ms. Sam about my mother and hearing the story again from Daikichi, I''m glad the school decided to keep a close eye on her. At least this way, I feel safer but, knowing Luro, he can easily take people from their sleep. Which is something I always worry about. After walking for hours and only taking a couple of minutes break here and there, we reached the river Takumi was talking about. We came across a couple of wild wolves and boars but that''s it. We got there while the sun is still up and picked the best spot to camp. They relaxed a bit while Takumi started building something near the water.


    "What is this?" I asked as I approach him.


    "Oh, this? It''s the base of a raft.¡± He tells me looking at the river calmly floating along. ¡°We''re going to use the river to reach the next town. It''ll be faster that way."


    "Oh, need help?" I asked him and he nods as he started explaining to me the design he''s trying to make. I helped him place a couple of logs and somehow, he''s surprised about my abnormal strength.


    "How the hell did you get so strong?" He asked me with one eyebrow raised.


    "Worked out. Solo a hidden dungeon. Picking up heavy rocks until I could pick up a boulder. Aren''t you guys the same?" I asked him and he shook his head.


    "Uhh, we can pick up heavy things easily but not like you. You probably can lift all of us like a superhero. Wait, can you fly?" He asked me seriously almost made me laugh as I shake my head.


    "No, that would be awesome if we all can fly," I tell him.


    "If we''re all a mage, yeah, we can." He replied back.


    "Mages can fly?" I asked him as easily picked up a log with one hand and dragged it near the water.


    "Fucking superhuman¡­" I hear him whisper as he stares at me easily moving the log. "Yeah, they can fly for a brief moment since they can control all forms of elements. Well, the mage class Luro gave us can. The one they give to the inhabitants of this world can only specialize in one class since trying to master all will take them forever."


    "Why for a short time?" I asked him to try to understand more about everyone''s class.


    "Well, I don''t know about you but, mages use mana.¡± He tells me as he started working on the log. ¡°There''s no mana bar that they can see but when they run out of mana, their magic becomes really weak. Mages are good when they''re full of mana since they can use their skills are at the strongest. She can use the wind to float but as her mana depletes, the wind she makes is only strong enough to move a pebble. When she''s full of Mana, her strength is crazy abnormal to the point she can fight a dragon. She was the one that subdued the dragon that we needed to kill to get to our castle."


    "How about you, don''t you guys use mana?" I asked him as I held the log in place while he cut it in half.


    "Not really but, I would say it''s our stamina. If I use the same skill over and over, I''ll get tired making me feel groggy. It goes for everyone but the higher the level we get, our stamina increases since I''m able to use skills pass beyond my limit. Isn''t it the same for you?" He asked me as he looks up and I shook my head.


    "I don¡¯t think so," I tell him.


    He looked at me like I¡¯m a weird animal, "It isn''t?"


    "I can use my skills over and over without feeling tired," I tell him watching him get back to cutting the log in half with his sword.


    "That''s just fucked up. You''re like an overpowered game character. You sound like the final boss." He tells me.


    "Haha imagine I am," I tell him as I picked up another log he needed to be lifted so he can run vines under it to tie it to another piece.


    "Wait, won''t this raft sink?" I ask him after placing down the log and seeing the design. "Won''t this log be too heavy?"


    "Not really, the good thing about my passive skill is it lets me know which trees in the area that I can use to make it float. This raft should be able to hold all of us without sinking." He explained and his passive class is really useful outdoors.


    "Oh." I helped him as he cut trees and slice it in half from the middle. He placed the split log on top of the two giant logs keeping the flat side facing up. He went to cut more trees and as he says, he hand-picked trees that he needed. After resting, Daikichi and the other guys helped us build it while the girls followed Suyeon picking up sticks and twigs around the area to build a campfire.


    "Yasu, please tell me you''ve seen an elf," Amaguchi says to me and I shook my head.


    "The only things I have seen are monsters from the dungeons and you guys. Also, the bandits who are humans."


    I wonder what happened to Dorang¡­That bastard didn''t even say goodbye. Took my slaves and my diamond. I say in my mind.


    "Tch, oh well. One diamond gone won''t hurt me." I whisper to myself.


    "Takumi, please tell me there are beautiful elves here," Amaguchi says hopeful and Takumi smiled at him nodding. "Yes!"


    "There are very conservative and is practically closed to outside race. If you''re an elf, they''ll welcome you but if you''re any other race, you can forget about finding them." He explains and Amaguchi looked dejected as fast as he looked happy.


    "Aww, whyyy?!" Amaguchi asks slumping his arms and everyone started laughing at his reaction.


    "Well, they don''t like any other race and think they''re above everything. No other race has ever set foot on their land. We don''t even know where their land is and, we never really see elves also in the human section. The only time we saw them is when they made a sudden visit to the gold city." He explains making the elves sound luck a stuck up brats.


    "Ohhh, girls?" Amaguchi asked and Takumi shakes his head.


    "An old elf that looks like a mage and another one that looks like the king of elves. They have a different name for it but I forgot what they called them. It''s easier to remember elves anyway. But yeah, when they made a sudden appearance in front of the castle gates, everyone made a big deal out of it. I guess the sighting of elves is a rare occurrence." He explained and it even got me curious about what they looked like.


    "What did they want from you guys?" Daikichi asked and I just remained quiet listening to them.


    "Well, they didn''t want us." Takumi stopped looking and suddenly looked at me. "They wanted him."


    "What?" I say surprised.


    "What did you do to them?" Daikichi asks me in a sarcastic tone and I gave him an ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯ gesture.


    "Well, we don¡¯t know what they wanted with Yasu. After we told him he''s not there, they just left without explaining anything. We didn''t trust them also, so we didn''t mention that you were in the hidden dungeon." Takumi says looking at me. "Did you do anything to them?"


    "I don''t remember I did. The only thing I remember is the shitty starting dungeon, leaving it through a hidden passage, dealing with the psychopath Rikimura, going to another dungeon, the fucking dragon, then the hidden dungeon. I don''t remember seeing any elves or murdering any of them." I say and everyone went quiet as they look at something behind me. As I turn around, I see Ms. Sam with a furious look as she crossed her arms. I see her finger slowly tapping and her eyebrow raised she sees me look at her.


    "How many times I have to tell you, stop using words like murder, killing, or any negative words. And stop cursing." She says as she comes close to me. Ever since she came with us, she''s been keeping me in check and every time she hears me curse, she''ll come my way and scold me.


    "Ah, s-sorry," I say as I feel embarrassed being scolded by her yet, it''s refreshing. A feeling I never had before. I guess I do have anger management issues.


    "Good. Now boys, please. If you see him curse and act crazy, tell me." Ms. Sam says as she turns to everyone and they all silently nod while Daikichi tries to hide his laugh. "Alright then, play nice you guys."


    She turned around and went to the girls who started building the campfire. Daikichi burst out laughing and somehow, I wanted to lightly punch him in the face. "Oh man, you are done for. You got Ms. Sam homing missile directed at you."


    "Haha very funny," I tell him chuckling a bit. Even though it sometimes irks me, it feels refreshing for someone to keep me in check. Daikichi suddenly came close and put his arms around my neck while he tried to whisper something in my ear.


    "It''s alright. At least, you got a beautiful girlfriend." He whispers as he points at Suyeon making my face feel hot. They all came back after picking up sticks and I see her sitting on a log while the other girls try to get a campfire going. When she sees both of us staring at her, her body went rigid while her face slowly turned a bit red. I averted my gaze and shook of Daikichi''s arm.


    "D-don''t be stupid dude. Sigh. I would throw you in the stream if the current wasn''t that strong." I tell him and he started laughing and while everyone else looked confused.


    After the sun has fully set, we stopped building the raft and decided to continue tomorrow. Takumi quickly built a table for us to eat on and we used logs as our chairs. The girls with the help of Lisa have managed to build a campfire since he had a skill that can light things on fire. I cooked for everyone since and they all waited patiently as I finished while Goro-sensei along with Miki-sensei is washing everyone''s plates in the river. Takumi told them not to go too far since the current is too strong and if they get swept away, it will be difficult to retrieve them. After washing the plates, they came back and handed them to Daikichi and Kana who used a clean towel I gave them to dry it up.


    "Ok, everyone. Dig in." I tell them as I place my plate on the table and sat down at the available space. Daikichi probably had something to do with where I''m sitting since its right next to Suyeon and he keeps smiling my way while Suyeon happily stared at her food not noticing anything around her.


    I want to punch him in the face.I whisper in my mind as I give Daikichi the middle finger. Ms. Sam saw it and glared me down make me avert her glare.


    Everyone ate so fast they finished their food in an instant and good thing I made a lot since they wanted more. They''re all still skinny but not as bad as before. It''s good since it shows me that in a couple of days, they all should be back to normal. After eating, Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei took on dishwashing duty in the river and we talked more about what we''re going to do after we arrive in town.


    "For you guys, it''s fine, but for me and probably for Yasu, we need a way to conceal our identity. Otherwise, the soldier''s station there will definitely identify me on the spot. It''s been a while since we left them, so they probably sent a message on all towns to keep an eye out for us." Takumi explained and bursting in there threatening people to give up information won¡¯t work so I nod in agreement.


    "We can cover our faces when we get there," I tell him, and he shakes his head.


    "After what you did to the governor, they probably tighten the security on all the towns the gold district control. They will definitely find it suspicious if two guys walk in town with their face covered. They''ll most likely tell us to remove our masks." He tells me and I felt beaten. Somehow, my way of thinking has become dull and what once the smartest guy in school is now the stupidest one in here.


    "Well, what do we need to go in the town for anyways?" Kana asked.


    "We need to restock and get you guys equipment. We also need information about the overlords or anything about where the diamond castle might be." I tell her and she looks down at her clothes.


    "Oh, can we buy new clothes also?" She asked me and I nod.


    "That''s one of the reasons we''re going there. I can''t have you guys walking through the forest with this gear. It''s far too dangerous. The next town is surrounded by monsters ranging from level twenty through level sixty." Takumi says.


    I see Ms. Sam with Ms. Miki come back with everyone''s dishes and they all handed it out to everyone to store in their bag.


    "So what are you guys talking about?" Miki-sensei asked as they both sit down.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "How we''re going to approach the next town. It seems like Takumi won''t be able to come with us. Probably Yasu also since they might identify them on the spot. Given what we did to the gold members, they''ll probably throw us in jail and ask questions later." Daikichi replies.


    "Well, they''ll definitely identify me," Takumi says and everyone looks at him. "But, there''s a probability that Yasu won''t be recognized if he somehow changed the way he dresses and, I guess his hairstyle also."


    "Well, we''re all kinda dressed the same you know," Amaguchi says as they all wear the same type of clothing like me except for Ms. Sam. "Wait, I still have my slave clothes, maybe he can use that."


    "You kept your clothes? Why?" Lisa asked him and he just shrugs.


    "Let me see," I tell him and he took out his dimensional bag and hand me his clothes. The minute I got it close to my face, the smell almost made me vomit my dinner.


    "Ah, hehe I didn''t wash it," Amaguchi says.


    "It''s fine, I can just keep using what I''m wearing," I say and I hand it back to him. "Since I kinda know how the currency system works around here, I''ll go but I think its best for only two of us to go. Suyeon, come with me."


    She suddenly looked up and stared right into my eyes as she nods and smiles happily.


    "Awwww I wanted to see a town," Amaguchi says and he started pouting.


    "Ok, you can come with us. Before we go to the town, we''ll take everyone''s measurement and buy you clothes and armor according to that." I tell them and they all nod. This is much better since we can go in and then out of town within a day. The last thing I want is sleeping in a town those bastards¡¯ control and waking up inside a jail cell. Our main motive now is to gear everyone up with what they need before training.


    I can''t protect them. They need to get stronger.I say in my mind as they all started talking about what they want to get and what they need. Takumi has swords he got from the first dungeon while I have also weapons I can sell. I gave Goro-sensei a sword and everyone who specializes in using swords but, Lisa, Ms. Sam, Miki-sensei and Kana needs a staff and robes for their class specification. Goro-sensei also needs a shield. We can just look for a dungeon, but, I doubt they''ll do any damage killing monsters and it''s not a guarantee these monster will drop what they need. I was so deep in my thoughts I didn''t hear them call my name.


    "Yasu."


    "Yasu."


    "Yasu!" Kana shouted out made me suddenly glare at her out of habit. She suddenly felt scared as my expression probably is terrifying, and I suddenly realized they''re all staring at me.


    "O-oh. F-force of habit. I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to glare at you." I say to her. When I was in the hidden dungeon, every small noise means an enemy is coming making me on the edge. It''s what caused me to have insomnia.


    "I-it''s okay. Jeez, that was scary. We''re talking about the guild. Takumi told us how to invite people in. Can you invite all of us?" She says smiling at me, and I felt relieved she didn''t hate me for glaring at her.


    "O-oh sure. How do I do it?" I asked Takumi as I look towards him.


    "Say the command ¡®Diamond District Status Window'' and it should show you something," Takumi tells me and I nod at him.


    "Diamond district status window." The minute I say those words, a new window came up showing my name on top with a parenthesis right next to it. Inside the parenthesis is the word, leader. I tried everything but who knew it¡¯s as simple as saying status window right after the guild name.


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    Diamond District Guild


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    Yasu Kurosawa (Leader)


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    So I was actually the leader.I say in my mind as I look at the empty window with only my name.


    "Do you see something?" Takumi asked me and I nod towards him.


    "Yeah, a window with my name," I replied as I tried to touch it but my hand just went through the hologram.


    "Good, so now say the command ¡®invite member'' and another window should come up telling you to say the name out loud to the person you want to invite.


    "Invite member," I say and a notification came up.


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    Please say the name of the person you want to invite.


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    Hmmm, since Suyeon was the first member, I should invite her first.I say in my mind.


    "Suyeon," I say, and she suddenly looked at me. I waited but nothing, the notification still remained in form of me. "It''s not working."


    "Oh, you have to say the full name. I guess its mechanism to prevent mixing up who you invite since names are quite unique here. I have never seen or heard people with a similar name." Takumi explained and I turned to Suyeon who stared at me.


    "Suyeon, what''s your last name?" I asked her and I see some of the girl''s eyes went wide while everyone looked surprised.


    "You don''t know her last name?!" Kana suddenly stood up and it made me feel embarrassed.


    "Well, it''s not like I needed to know¡­" I say and I see Suyeon looking a bit gloomy after I said it and now, they''re all glaring at me. "W-w-what? J-just tell me so I can invite you."


    "Park. Park Su-yeon. Su-yeon is my first name, Park is my last name." She says as she kept looking down on the table and I felt glares my way from the girls while Daikichi is trying to not laugh.


    I really want to punch him in the face.I say in my mind.


    "Park Suyeon," I say her name like how she told me but still nothing.


    Oh, wait. It might be backward since her last name is Park. I say in my mind.


    "Suyeon Park." The minute I said her name, the notification disappeared. "Oh, it disappeared. How come I don''t see her name on the list?"


    "She has to accept it. Suyeon, do you see a notification?" Takumi asked her and she nods looking at something in midair. "Okay, say the word, accept."


    "Okay. Accept." Suyeon says and suddenly, I see her name on the list right below mine with the parenthesis and a word ¡®sub-leader'' is inside the parenthesis.


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    Sub-leader?I whisper in my mind as I study the list.


    "Do you see her name?" Takumi asked and I nod towards him. "Good, it should say her name with the word member right beside it."


    "I do see her name but, rather than member, it says sub-leader," I tell him and even Takumi looked confused.


    "Oh, then I guess the first member you pick becomes sub-leader. You can kick her out again and re-invite someone for the sub-leader position." He tells me as I stare at the list.


    "This is fine as it is. She is the first member of the guild anyway, so she earns the title sub-leader." I say as I look at her and she looks at me with her face turning into a tomato.


    "I want to be part of the guild also! Invite me!" Amaguchi says excitedly and I invite him to the guild. His full name was Amaguchi Akiyama. After he accepted the invite, his name appeared on the list with the member role on the side. I invited Daikichi next and Kana since I already knew their last name. Daikichi last name is Furuya and Kana''s last name is Koinishita. I invited Goro-sensei next since his last name is quite simple, Goro Endo. I invited Miki-sensei next by saying, Miki Fujino. Saying the adult''s names fully is embarrassing but then again, I have been calling them by their first name, which is something only done to close friends or family back where I came from. Since they didn''t mind, I kept thinking it was their last name this whole time. I invited Mamoru next who remained quiet this whole trip but did talk to tell me his last name, Fujiwara. Lisa was next and American names roll off my tongue quite easily.


    "Lisa Miller," I say and she waited for a notification to come up.


    "Oh! There it is! Accept!" She shouted happily and I see her name appear on the list with a member role.


    "Alright, next is Ms. Sam," I say, as I didn''t need to ask for her last name since I know it. "Diamond District status window. Invite member, Samantha Collins."


    "Oh." She says reading something in mid-air.


    "Did it work?" Takumi asked looking curious.


    "Y-yeah but it showed me something different from before. It says the same but there''s extra." She says reading the notification in front of her.


    "Oh, what does it say? I wasn''t quite sure it would work since we''re both members of the gold District guild." Takumi replied and we all looked at Ms. Sam who silently read the notification.


    "Well it says, you will automatically leave the previous one if you proceed. Ok, let me try, accept!" She shouts happily and I see her name under Lisa with a member role. "oh it worked!"


    "Oh shit," Takumi says as he read something.


    "What happened?" Amaguchi asked curiously on what''s Takumi''s reading.


    "I didn''t know this would happen; it gave me a notification Ms. Sam left the guild. It also shows the reason. Holy shit, they''ll know we joined up with you guys." He says and I can notice he''s a bit worried. "Ah, fuck it. Invite me."


    "You sure?" I asked him and gave me a nod.


    "Wait." He says right when I was about to ask for his name.


    "Gold District status window." He says and I see him reading something we can''t see. "Ok, go ahead. My last name is Tanedaya."


    "Diamond District status window. Invite member. Takumi Tanedaya."


    "Accept." I hear him say and I see his name appear on the list.


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    Su-Yeon Park(Sub-Leader)


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    Goro Endo(Member)


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    "Just wanted to see who''s alive before I left. All of them are." He says after accepting the invite.


    "Oh, how do you know?" Daikichi says after drinking from his water container.


    "In the guild member list, once a person dies, it will say deceased right next to its name." He tells me making me feel reassured I have a way to keep track of them.


    "Oh, Diamond District Status Window." Daikichi tries the commands only to end up with a confused look. "Hey, it''s not working."


    "Yeah, only the Leader and the Sub-leader can see the guild member list. As for members, we only see it on our status window."


    This guy¡­he must have been the sub-leader. Hahaha, the Gold sub-leader joining us.I say in my mind as I heard him say the command earlier.


    "Status window," Daikichi says and he reads his status window while letting out a sigh. "Damn, I need new skills."


    "Once you level up to twenty, you get a new skill," Takumi tells him and Daikichi¡¯s expression lit up.


    "Nice! I can¡¯t wait!" Daikichi replies and he started asking more question to Takumi who told him everything he knows about their class. Ms. Sam along and Miki-sensei seems to get along quite well as they both talk about their time on earth and about work, they did in the past. Everyone''s conversing with each other and somehow, it''s making me feel happy seeing such a scene yet, deep down in my heart I feel a sense of guilt.


    Hiding this secret to them, I don''t know how will they react if they found out.I say in my mind as I observe all of them. Takumi knows they''re all alive, Luro did tell me they survived. I wonder what type of expression they have seen these two leave their guild to join ours.


    "Wait. Takumi, won''t they be able to invite you back since they know your full name? Won''t they have the ability to spam you?" I asked him.


    "Nope, you can only invite a member that''s close to you. Which means, to invite me back in, they need to be in front of me." He replies and I felt a sense of relief.


    "Whew, imagine you wake up seeing an invitation notification appearing non-stop," Amaguchi says and somehow, his attitude reminds me of someone. "I would go crazy."


    "Well, at least they won''t be able to do it. Can they track us?" Kana asked and Takumi shook his head.


    "If it was easy to track a person through the forest, we would have found Yasu long ago. But there are mercenaries that specialize in finding people." Takumi says making me remember the first nightmare Unum gave me where I saw two mercenaries.


    "Well, let''s go sleep. We have a long day tomorrow. Even using the river, it will take a while to get to the next town." Takumi says and everyone started clearing the table and started setting up beds near the campfire. This night was really cold, so everyone huddled together while I was forced again to sleep while Daikichi and Kana volunteered to be on guard duty. But since I couldn''t sleep, I sat near the lag that''s around the campfire and watched the flame eat its way through the stick I throw in.


    "Ughhh, fuck it''s cold," Daikichi says and even the blanket I gave them is not helping. Even I felt a bit chilly.


    "Man up Daikichi, look at Yasu he''s not even shivering," Kana says as she huddles near Daikichi.


    "You know what will make us warm?" He tells her as he looks at her moving his eyebrows up and down.


    "Daikichi! You''re so nasty." She says as she tries to glance at me, and I pretend I''m not seeing them.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    I let out a fake cough and at this moment, I regret not sleeping.


    "Look what you did, you made Yasu cough," Kana says joking around and I chuckle a bit. "So, how''s it going with you and Suyeon?"


    Dang, Daikichi is rubbing off Kana. I say in my mind glaring at Daikichi.


    "Umm, nothing. What''s going on between us?" I ask her and they both raised their eyebrow. "What?"


    "Oh come on. Everyone see that she''s especially close to you. Even with Daikichi or the rest of the guys, she still has issues talking to them. Sometimes she would get scared when one of the guys accidentally touch her. I wouldn''t blame her. She probably went through hell in that dungeon.¡± I see kana look down on the ground with a sad expression that her eyes are starting to tear up. "Dammit, if only I dragged her out with me."


    I see her place her head on her knees probably trying to hide the tears falling out of her eyes.


    "It''s my fault. If only I didn''t get hurt¡­" Daikichi says as she hugs Kana. After she calmed down a bit, she looks up to me and I can see her eyes are red from crying.


    "Yasu, can you tell me in detail how you found her? She just keeps telling us you found her but doesn''t want to go with details. I need to know to help her." She says and even though I want to not tell them, I think it''s best someone knows to be able to help her recover.


    Sigh*


    "Ok, but, don''t tell anyone and keep it to yourselves. Don''t even mention anything to her and wait for her to tell you guys. Understand? I''m only saying it since someone needs to know what she actually went through. Or I should say, what I summed up she went through."


    They both nod and I can feel my body shivering from the cold.


    "Fuck, it is getting colder. Give me a minute. Item bag." I took out Mole''s fur out of my bag and used it as a blanket. "Ahhhh, thank you, Mole."


    "What is that?" Kana says curiously as she moves closer to me eyeing mole fur. The minute she touched it, she crawled underneath to sit beside me. "Ahhh, so warm. What is this? It''s so fluffy~"


    "What? That''s not fair! Me too~" Daikichi says as he crawls under and sat on my other side. Now both of them are huddled around me with me in the middle, as Mole''s fur was big enough to cover all three of us.


    .


    .


    .


    "Ok, now it''s too hot," I say as I lower moles fur to cover us from the waist down since our body heat was making it too hot, I''m starting to build a sweat.


    "Ah, this is life~ This fur is soo fluffy. Where did you get this? I want one." Kana says as she lay her body on moles fur.


    "This is my precious friend''s fur. He died a year ago." I tell them.


    "Wait, what? A human?" Daikichi says as he looks at the fur baffled.


    "No, a giant baby chicken. His name was Mole." I say remembering about Mole.


    "Ohh, I was about to say, this human must have been hairy." Daikichi jokes around almost making chuckle picturing mole as a furry person.


    "Thank you Mole~ For keeping us warm~," Kana says as she kept hugging the fur. "Ok, Yasu, tell us. I promise I won''t mention anything. I just really want to know."


    "Ok, well, when I found her. I thought she was dead." I tell her.


    "Dead?" Kana asked surprise.


    "I found her in a room full of shit. Literally, that place was a waste dump. Good thing it was dark. I was looking around and tripped on her body." I tell them remembering about the shit-filled room.


    "She was sleeping here?" Daikichi asked me.


    "Uh no, as I said, I thought she was dead because I couldn''t recognize her. Her body was completely burned. It''s like someone poured gasoline and lit her on fire." I say and they didn''t say anything but I could sense their anger as their expression tightens. Rather than waiting for them to reply, I continued talking.


    "I wanted to test out if a portion would work on corpses. I wanted to see if it can restore a dead body to its original condition. I also wanted to find out who''s burnt belonged to, Luro came to me saying he brought new people in and I thought my mother would be here."


    "If he brought her here¡­" I see Daikichi clench his fist and I know the anger he feels since I felt the same when I went looking for my mother.


    "I was glad she wasn''t one of them but then I found out from Suyeon you guys were here. Good thing she told me or else I would never look for you guys."I grab a couple of sticks and threw it in the fire to increase the flame before continuing.


    "So, as I said before, I thought she was dead. But when I poured a healing potion in her mouth, her body slowly restored. What really irked me was the condition of her body. She was naked when I found her."


    I can see Kana bring down her head towards Mole''s fur. Probably to hide her tears again.


    I hope Mole can bring her comfort.I say in my mind as I tried to stroke her back but I stopped since It felt embarrassing touching someone.


    "Are you guys sure you want to continue?" I asked them and I can see Kana''s head move up and down while she kept her face buried in Mole''s fur.


    "Well, I saw a piece of clothing near her body that was ripped to shreds. I had an idea what happened to her, but I didn''t want to dwell on it since I thought she was dead. But, she was most likely raped. Not once but probably multiple times until they burned her alive. After healing her, I went back towards the room where there''s a stream of water to wash my hands since it smelled like shit. Well, after washing, I figured out that she might have been alive so as I turned to walk back, I see her standing near the door with her hair over her face that made me shiver. I thought I was looking at the ghost. Remember that movie where there''s this girl who keeps coming out of the TV? It looked like that."


    "Then what?" I hear Kana and as I look, I see her wiping her face.


    "She tried to kill me and I had to¡­um¡­.push her away," I tell them not remembering if I did or punched her in the face.


    "Well, it looked like she was afraid of people. Shit, she was a hell of a task to deal with in the beginning. I don''t know if she told you, but I was blind at one point because of her. She kept struggling trying to stay in that dark room while I tried my best to get her out of the dungeon. Right where we''re near the exit, she grabbed the Gatekeeper''s ashes and threw it in my face causing me to go blind."


    "She didn''t want to leave?" Kana asked me and I nod.


    "It''s like she was so broken in her mind that she just wanted to curl up in that dark corner. There''s only one reason why she would be so broken and it''s the people that are with her. After she told me the story of how you guys got out, I got a much clearer idea. Ever since then up until I found her was probably a month or maybe more. In that time, every day, she probably suffered in the hands of not only her brother but also everyone else in the dungeon she was left alone with. And they were all alive when I found them. There were more guys than girls so imagine what she had to go through every day."


    "Suyeon¡­" Kana says as she brings her head down towards her knees, which is covered with mole''s fur.


    "But, even going through all of that, she still trusted me and followed me around," I tell them feeling guilty about leaving her in the governor''s mansion.


    Sigh*


    "There is one thing I regret," I tell them before they even had a chance to reply, I continued talking. "It¡¯s when I left her."


    "Left her?" Kana asked me as she looks up with tears coming down her cheeks.


    "Yeah. When we got out of the Dungeon and down the mountain, we came across the boar town. You probably heard the story about the governor." I tell them as I look at my hands remembering when it was covered in his blood. "When I got there, I quickly handed her to the guards. She visited me and that''s when I destroyed the inn. Once I met with the governor, the minute I saw a chance to leave her there, I did."


    I paused for a minute while I close and open my hand.


    "I saw the look she gave me as I walked out. And when I went back to her, she was naked while getting slapped around by the governor. What pissed me off is she didn''t fight and just kept apologizing. Took every hit from the governor like it''s something normal people would do to her." I clench my fist really tight as I close my eyes. I tried to calm myself and I felt a hand on top of mine and as I slowly open it, I see Kana and Daikichi holding it looking at me.


    "Somehow, at that moment, I felt like I did a grave mistake. I did the same thing they did to me. I didn¡¯t give her a choice. From then on, I vowed to train her. To make her strong enough so no one would do that to her. Even I don''t know why. I hated her in the beginning how she''s always crying and apologizing but at that point, I hated myself for putting someone in that position. Heh, maybe I''m a hypocrite. I''d kill anything that gets in my way yet here I am, saying some nonsense."


    "No Yasu, it''s not nonsense. You didn''t leave her, you came back and saved her." Kana says as she tried to stop the tears that are coming out of her eyes.


    "So that''s the when you saved her twice. When the third time?" Daikichi asked me and I froze in place thinking about what she did to the Bandits.


    "Uh, when she was captured by a bandit. That''s how I found you guys." I tell him lying about what she did.


    "So that''s how you''ve come to kill the so-called governor," Kana says as she stopped her tears as she placed her hand on top of mine. "Yasu, no matter what, we''re on your side and Suyeon''s side. We both won''t leave you two alone. But, when we heard what you did, it made me question you in my mind and I''m sorry. I''m really sorry."


    She went and hugged me tightly. I can feel her body shaking as she silently cried.


    "Kana," I whisper her name and she slowly pulled herself away from me. "You don''t have to apologize. None of this is your fault or Daikichi¡¯s. All of this is one person''s fault."


    "Luro," Daikichi mentions his name and it''s making me want to cry in the dark corner. Remembering what he said makes me feel like there''s no hope, but I held myself since now is not the time to look weak. It''s making me depressed and the only source of my strength in them.


    "Well, that''s about everything. How about you guy''s what are your plans after all of this?" I asked them to try to change the topic and they happily answered, and we talked all night until both of them fell asleep by my side. I hear them breathing next to me as Kana and Daikichi''s body leaned on me while both of them sleep. I pull Mole''s fur to cover them fully.


    .


    .


    "Guys. Thank you. Thank you for saving me." I whisper as I leaned on the log and stared at earth above the sky.For the first time in my life, I felt happy and relaxed yet, I couldn''t stop the tears coming out of my eyes.


    I''m sorry.I whispered again over and over in my mind as I silently cried through the night.

 CHAPTER 51: Meeting history

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 51: Meeting History


    <hr>


    "Fuck," I whisper as I started feeling raindrops on my face as the sun rose from the horizon. I was hoping it''s just a light rain but in a split second, it came pouring down on all of us and each and every raindrop felt heavy upon impact. Everyone was waking up by the rain and we quickly ran towards a tree trying to take shelter from underneath of it.


    "Ah! What is this?!" Lisa wipes the rain off her body as. I watch as the slight rain becomes heavier and heavier to the point it''s blurring my vision preventing me from seeing the sun over the horizon. Dark clouds loomed above us and it looks like it¡¯s getting worse and worse.


    "We should''ve built a roof," Takumi whispers as he looks at the gray sky. I''m not drenched but the floor below us is slowly becoming moist as the rain slowly turned dirt into the mud. I noticed Daikichi stands up and cup his hand under the rain catching water into his palm.


    "Well, good morning everyone." He says as he uses the rainwater to wash his face. I don''t know how safe it is to use the water but, on a planet where there''s hardly pollution, I think it''s safe to even drink it.


    "What a great alarm." I hear Lisa whisper as she combs her hair with her fingers.


    "Look on the bright side everyone, we can use the rain to take a shower!" Amaguchi quickly ran into the open with his arms out embracing every raindrop. He started taking off his shirt as he twirls around and soon after, I watch everyone run out and away from the safety of the trees as they shower under the heavy downpour.


    "Hey, guys! Be careful! The rain might get you all sick!" Ms. Sam shouted as she stayed under the tree sitting beside me. Miki-sensei also stayed behind and I guess they''re more worried about what the rain can bring in this unknown lands.


    "It''s ok Ms. Sam, I have an antidote for a lot of sicknesses. Actually, I''ll give it all to you." I say before calling out my dimensional bag. Like a kid getting a gift, her eyes sparkled at the new medicine I handed her one by one.


    ¡°This one is called flame sickness antidote. Flame sickness is basically the same as a fever but, the only difference is any sudden movement will get you vomiting everything.¡± I tell her as I place the box of antidote on her hand and she nods trying while inspecting it.


    ¡°Oh, they even come with instructions.¡± She says as she opens the box one by one before placing it in her dimensional bag. I watch her smile as she inspects the antidotes, reading the piece of paper hidden on each and every box. I turned back to everyone and watched everyone happily play around under the rain. I wish everything would stay as it is. The happiness I''m feeling might not be forever but, I wish it can last a bit longer.


    If only he didn''t tell me,I whisper in my mind.


    I see the water under their feet turn to small puddles that quickly covered the ground with a thin layer of water blanket. I look at the river and at my surprise; it didn''t look the same way I remembered. Rather than a calm shallow river, it became a raging rapid that looks strong enough to drag a bear around.


    Normally, it would take a while for any river to get at that state, but in this world, everything seems to happen in an instant. As I watch the current, I notice the raft started inching slowly towards the water as the dirt underneath turned to mud sliding the raft closer to the current as it pulls it. No one noticed since they''re all busy playing under the rain and if I didn''t look, the raft we worked hard to build would have been swept away and in an instant, all of our hard work will be long gone before we could even reach it. Not wanting to spend another day or so building a raft, I quickly stood up and ran towards it. I noticed Daikichi and Takumi also sees the raft inching and they ran after me.


    The minute I grabbed a vine that was tied into it, I slipped and fell on my ass since the mud under my feet made it impossible to get a footing. I felt the raft go towards the river and the minute it made contact with the current; I was launched towards the river with it like a rag doll. It propelled me so fast it felt like I was holding a jet engine and the minute I touched the river, I felt it pull me underwater as if someone grabbed me and yanked me straight down far enough to touch the bottom. The mud underneath me didn''t help as it acted as a lubricant keeping me in that wan can easily turn into my tomb.


    "Tenderize!" I shouted underwater as I swung forward. I felt an impact erupting as my body was forced up due to the recoil of my attack. My back emerges out of the water and I quickly turn around to catch some air into my lungs. I tried to breathe some air in but, the water in my lungs made me cough uncontrollably. It was difficult to even move around as the current kept trying to pull me towards one direction so I tried my best to keep myself afloat.


    "Fuck!" I cursed in frustration how helpless I feel in an instant. I went through more grueling things but when I''m against the force of nature, it feels like it''s a lot more difficult to deal with than the overlords.


    "Yasu!" I heard a voice and I see all of them running alongside the river.


    "Yasu! Hold on! We''ll get you out!" Kana shouted as they all frantically ran after me.


    I hear them shout from a distance as my body moved along with the river. I felt helpless as the current prevented me from swimming towards shore and it started making me feel irritated. I clench my fist as hard as I can and aim it toward the water beneath me.


    "Tenderize!" I swung wildly towards the bottom of the river sending my attack exploding underneath the water. The impact caused me to fly up a few feet above the water and I didn''t stop as I punched wildly below me until my skill ran out and I''m a few feet up in the air hovering over the river. I kept punching the water and the shockwave of my attacks have disrupted the flow of the current for a brief moment. I quickly look towards where the raft and the impact of my punch have sent it drifting towards Daikichi. I see the rest of them started pulling it as much as they can towards land. I felt my body starts descending towards back into the water. I prepared to punch it again when I suddenly hear a loud pop from a distance. My vision turned into a blur as I flew sideways. Whatever hit me tool the air out of my lungs and it felt like I was hit by a boulder sending me flying to the other side of the river at an incomprehensible speed.


    Thud!


    "Ack!" I grimace in pain as I felt my sides land on a rock coughing.


    "Y-you okay?" Suyeon asked me and I nod as I cough uncontrollably. It was surprising that she would do something so dangerous.


    "Hey! You guys alright?!" I hear Takumi shout and as I look, I see them stand on the other side waving at us. I see Mr. Goro-sensei and some of the guys tying the raft onto a tree.


    "We''re fine!" Suyeon shouted back waving at them smiling.


    "Can you jump back towards the other side?" I asked Suyeon with a raspy voice and she looked at the distance for a good minute.


    "Y-yeah. I think I can." She replied to me looking at the ground and then studying the distance between here and the other side.


    "Ok, go first. I''ll go right after." I tell her as I slowly stood up.


    "O-ok." She says nodding before walking back to get some distance. I see her sprint and before she got near the water, she shouted her skills and her body became a blur as she flew towards the other side. She landed on the ground but lost her footing and ended up rolling around the mud as she tried to stop. I see some of the girls ran her way to help her up.


    "Ok, my turn," I whisper as I turn around to get some distance so I can sprint. "Wha-"


    I see someone stand near a tree in the forest watching me that caused me to freeze in place. We both lock eyes and I see her expression seems lifeless while fear runs through my body along with confusion and anxiety.


    "M-mom!" I shouted running towards her but she turned around and went on a full sprint deeper into the forest. "Wait!"


    I ran after her but my shoes weren''t made for muddy terrain and I ended up falling and slipping a couple of times.


    "Fuck! Seismic step!" I sprinted towards the forest only stepping on the tree roots that are protruding out the ground to lessen the times I slip and fall. I manage to gain some distance but she started running at a speed no normal person can do.


    If she can match my speed while using my skill, this person is not my mother!I say in my mind as my face contorts in anger. I clench my fist so hard I felt my nails dig into my palm.


    "You¡¯re fucking dead! You impostor!" I shouted out as I bring my fist back ready to punch towards her. "Tender-"


    I suddenly stopped running and hesitated for a moment as I got a sudden flash of her images smiling at me. I thought to myself, if it were my mother, it would kill her. I stared at her back and suddenly she stopped running and stood there. Right when I took the first step, her body turned into leaves floating away as the gust of wind shatters her figure and each petal float away in one direction disappearing into the forest.


    "Item bag," I whispered to myself and catch my bag as it drops from thin air. The way she disappeared made me remember about the overlords. I hear a noise from my left and all of a sudden, they surround me. I turned around looking at each and every one of them while keeping a watch behind me trying to prevent one from attacking my blind spot.


    "Oho~ so we meet again. So who wants to die first?" I asked as I grip the sword handle hidden in my bag turning around non-stop.


    "Oh come on. You really think you can take on all of us?" He asked as he walked towards me.


    "So, you want to die first?" I say smiling as I walk towards him and the rest of the overlords stepped between us blocking my path. I looked at each and every one of them trying to imprint in my mind their faces.


    "Not wearing your bitch masks this time I see. Wow, some of you look really ugly." I taunt them and I see some eyebrow twitch but they never made a move as Unum walk a bit closer towards me.


    "Come on Yasu, relax. We''re not here to fight." He says and they all place themselves behind him. He opens his arms stopping only a few feet away from me while keeping his hands open. His demeanor reminds me of Luro that''s pissing me off really bad. "Let''s be friends."


    "Sure~ You can be friends with my shit. You''re here to die along with these little bitches you have working under you. Hello, there little bitch~" I say looking at the biggest demon out of the group. He''s probably a new overlord since I didn''t see him last time. A giant Minotaur. He grits his teeth as he walks towards me only to be stopped by Unum. "Ohh~ little bitch got stopped by his pimp. Make sure you use a condom up your ass when he fucks you."


    "A what?" The minotaur snarls back at me showing me his teeth.


    "And a toothbrush, jeez, your teeth''s looks like acorns," I tell him and I can see steam coming out of his nose as he slowly reaches for the giant ax in his back.


    Come on, get mad. The madder you get, the less you use your brain.I say in my mind waiting for an opportunity to strike.If he''s new, he''s probably the weakest out of all of them.


    "Hahahaha Yasu, you have good jokes.¡± Unum stops the minotaur from going further as he places his hand in front of him. ¡°I find it amusing. The inhabitants here, on the other hand, they don''t know these terms."


    As I get a good look at him, he looks a bit more human than all of them. Getting a clear view of what they look like without their masks gives me a better knowledge of what they really look like. Unum is similar to a human, a little bit taller than me. Only his ears and eyes are what tells him apart from actual humans from this world.


    "So, what do you want? You clearly dragged me out here to kill you." I snarl at him without taking a step. As much as I want to go wild, I need to hold myself back and watch my surroundings.


    "That is not true.¡± He tells me as he taps on his forehead. ¡°I brought you out using your mother for one purpose, is to give you an offer. Join m-"


    "Not a chance you fuck bag," I say taunting him and the Minotaur suddenly let out steam from his nose.


    "Sir! Let me kill this impudent tiny being! How dare you-" The minotaur shouts and I can see he¡¯s too hotheaded making it easier for me.


    "Shut up you overgrown cow. Why don''t you finger bang your asshole and get out of my way." I snarl back at him and I see veins forming on his forehead.


    "Hahaha, relax, relax." Unum interrupts as he steps in front of the Minotaur giving him a glare. The minotaur retreated his head like a puppy and slowly stepped back. Unum turned around to face me and help out his hand for me to shake. "Why don''t you hear me out first? Our goal might be the same after all."


    "Well, if it is, why don''t you tell me Luro''s location?" I asked him ignoring his hand as I grip the sword inside the bag.


    "It won''t be that easy. Forget about his hideout, come join us and soon I''ll let you meet him.¡± He tells me making me raise an eyebrow.


    "Huh? Did I hear that right? Let me meet him? Who gave you the authority over me?" I gripped my sword as I started getting into position.


    "Ah, those words didn''t come out ri-"


    "Tenderize!" I shouted while swinging at him and my first exploded in his face snapping my arm back as the recoil was a lot intense at close quarters. His body flew a few feet back only to crash on the ground. At the same moment, I gripped my sword with the other hand getting ready to meet all of them. The one who made a move first is the humanoid Minotaur raising his giant ax getting ready to swing at me at full force. I see veins coming back out of his forehead as anger probably surges through his body along with the other overlord. Seeing their dear leader getting smacked probably rattled their core and I see some of them ready to jump me anytime.


    "You impudent human!!" The humanoid minitour shouted more words and his battle ax glowed purple as he brought down towards me using both hands. In a split second, something stopped him halfway his swing.


    "Hahaha, I deserve that," Unum says as he was already in front of the Minotaur with a finger on the ax stopping it.


    When did he-I suddenly jump back surprised from not noticing him move between us. As I look around, everyone looked relaxed except the Minotaur who slowly retreated back as Unum glared at him one more time. He said some words I couldn¡¯t understand before turning to me and resuming his annoying smile.


    "Think about it Yasu. The offer is the best choice. Well then, we''ll meet again~" He tells me and in a split second, they all turned into leaves as the wind got stronger blowing the leaves my way. I covered my eyes and right at that moment, I hear a whisper in my ear, "They are getting closer to you. You better run."


    I quickly turn around and the leaves have scattered in all direction.


    "Yasu!" I hear a shout from a distance and as I look at the direction, I can see Suyeon looking round through the forest. The minute she saw me, we made eye contact for a brief moment before she started sprinting my way. She stopped right in front of me and I can see her out of breath as she probably ran around the forest non-stop.


    "I-I saw you run away chasing someone." She says as she tries to catch her breath. "W-who was it?"This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "No one. Let''s go back." She nodded in silence as she tries to breathe some air in. I waited for her to calm down a bit and we both started walking through the forest heading back where I think I came from. I ran so far that, I''m starting to get lost, as all the trees look the same in all direction. Suyeon probably noticed that I was getting irritated, so she stopped me from walking further. The rain wasn¡¯t helping and the wind was still strong enough to keep blowing leaves and broken twigs everywhere.


    "Give me a minute." I hear her say and she ran a bit of a distance. "Jump!"


    I see her body was flung upwards above the trees and as she drops down, I was anticipating for her to make a scene getting myself ready to catch her, but she remained silent while extending one leg towards the floor. Right when she hits the ground, I hear her shout her skill again erupting the ground below her stopping her for a brief moment before landing on the ground safely. She quickly dusts off the mud on her legs before running right to me.


    "It''s over there. The river is that way." She says pointing at one direction and I nod towards her amazed she started to become comfortable with heights.


    "Well, what do you know, you''re not a fool forever," I whisper as I pass her walking towards the direction she pointed at. Thinking about the last thing Unum said, my slow walk became faster and faster until I was sprinting towards the river. I know he wasn''t talking about Suyeon when he said ¡®them''. That means it''s more than one person.


    Those assholes, they''re getting close.I whisper in my mind as I run through the forest using the roots as my foothold to prevent myself from slipping on mud. Suyeon managed to keep up and run behind me until we reached the river. The raging rapids have turned into monstrous currents dragging trees as I see some float by in an instant. As I squint my eyes to get a better look through the rain, I see them near the boat struggling to keep it ashore as the water from the river rose so much it''s dragging the boat back in the river.


    "Suyeon! Jump! Seismic step!" I shout and I felt the vibration under my foot as I prepared to jump to the other side. I bent my knees and quickly extended them out jumping forward. The ground erupted behind me and a few seconds after, I heard another pop as Suyeon jumps across the river right behind me. We both land over the raft and I quickly ran towards it grabbing on a vine that''s tying the logs together. Using my strength, I pulled it as much as I can towards the forests and I see Takumi quickly tying a vine on a tree and tying the other end onto the raft. He made a few loops from the tree and back to the raft creating a much stronger rope that looks like it''ll hold the raft in place during the storm. That is if the tree doesn''t come off.


    "Holy shit, what the fuck is this?! A hurricane?!" I look around and the wind has gotten way stronger making it difficult to even open my eyes. I probably didn''t notice since I was so focused on running but the rain earlier has turned into a raging storm swaying the trees in all direction. The water has risen so much and so fast that it''s starting to touch the raft and it covered our toes.


    "Yasu! What do we do?!" Daikichi asked as they all held onto a tree. I look around and I can see water filling up in all direction as the forest is starting to look like a swamp. I have never experienced something like this and I don''t think Takumi has also as I see him with a confused expression as we all watch the water rise in the forest covering the ground. It seems as if the water is escaping directly under us slowly filling up the world.


    "Get further in the forest and climb a tree!!" I shouted as I run towards the forest and everyone did the same. Everyone climbed the biggest tree as fast as they can. The water rose so fast that it seemed like the land is sinking. If we tried to run towards higher ground, we won''t make it and end up swimming. With this wind and the strength of the current, our best bet is to hold onto a large tree hoping it won''t fly away.


    I notice the water suddenly got faster as it increased slowly sinking everything. The wind has doubled in strength causing some of the smaller trees to topple over ripping from its roots. I quickly took out a dagger and lodged it in and held on as strong as I can. I glance at everyone and most of them are hugging the branches trying not to fly away. I hear a loud splash from a distance and everyone screamed in unison.


    "Kana!" Daikichi shouts as Kana fell to the water below. She quickly emerges out the water but her body was quickly drifting towards the river. I see her pass my tree as she desperately grabs onto broken barks.


    "Kana!" I shouted as I pulled out the dagger from the tree and nose-dived into the water. As soon as I emerge, I was right next to her and I grabbed her by the waist as I lodge a dagger on another tree we both came up upon. The current going towards the river was so strong it felt like my arm will rip from my body as I held onto her. It feels like there''s a hole somewhere flushing the whole forest yet, the water seemed infinite. I tried my best to hold on for both of us but I felt the dagger slowly inching out of the tree.


    "Yasu! Kana!" Daikichi shouts our names and I see him starting to climb down his tree.


    "Don¡¯t!!" I can''t save both of you at the same time!" I shouted towards him and this made him climb back up. I looked at Kana and shouted in her ear as the winds made it impossible to hear each other. "Kana, climb first!"


    She nods as I used all my strength to put us between the tree and the current right before the dagger came loose. Placing us between the tree and the current makes it easier since the current is pushing us against the tree. I handed her both daggers and she started climbing with it. I spot her from the bottom just in case she slips. If she falls, I can grab her and stop her from drifting away. As soon as she got on top of a branch, I called out my bag and to take out two more daggers. I used my teeth to hold the bag while I struggled with one hand trying to take out a dagger while the other hand hugged the tree.


    "Yasu! Watch out!" I hear Kana¡¯s voice above me and when I look back, I see boar coming right at me as it struggled to keep itself afloat.


    "Shi-" It crashed onto me and I lose my grip on the tree as both of us went under water for a minute. As soon as I emerge out, I was already a few feet away from the tree and I hear everyone shouting my name over and over again. I looked around but I wasn''t in any reach of anything.


    "Tenderize!" I shouted my skill as I punch below me but this time, even my attack couldn''t break the flow of the current. "What the fuck!"


    I tried every skill but nothing was helping me at all. The current kept dragging me until my back hit something as I felt a sharp object digging into my skin. I almost went underwater but whatever''s behind me is stopping me from sinking any deeper.


    "The raft!" I shout while hastily grabbing on trying to climb up. As soon as I got up, I got on all four preventing myself from flying off as the raft sways in all direction.


    "Item bag!" I caught my bag with one hand as I kept the other hand on the raft. I quickly took out a vine I stored in there long ago and used it to tie myself onto the raft. I don''t know how long this hurricane will last and I don''t want to take my chances and rely on my endurance. I thought about jumping to a tree using my skill but the wind that blows everywhere is so strong it can easily prevent me from jumping straight.


    I used the vine and tied it on my waist creating a few loops. I tied the other end on the side of the raft where the other rope is tied to that connects to the tree. I lay on my stomach and held on the raft with one dagger on my hand. Just in case the raft topples over; I need something to cut the vine. I don''t to be dragged underwater with it. I rather take the change of drifting away using the raft. I might reach another tree that I''ll be able to grab ahold of. I thought about using the rope that connects the raft to a tree but, it looks like it''s going to break any minute so I limited my movement and just hoped the wind gets weaker for a bit to be able to jump off towards the forest.


    I''m not going to die. I''m not going to die. Dammit!I shouted so many curse words in my mind as I get frustrated at the situation. I can beat any enemies that come my way but when it comes to nature, even I can''t win. I tried calming myself by controlling my breathing but the swaying of the raft makes it harder to even get a calm mind. I have to shift my weight constantly to try and stabilize myself and prevent the raft from toppling over.


    The wind, the rain, the sound of the current was so loud I couldn''t hear anything. I tried looking up towards them but the wind and the rain make it hard to open my eyes and get a better vision of where they are. As I spot Kana, she''s hugging the branch as the wind started swaying some of the trees and in that split second, I felt something hit the bottom of the raft as it flew a few feet up in the air along with me. My grip slipped on the side and I started free falling along with the raft. As I look up, I saw a gray blur in an instant right next to my face and I lose consciousness.


    Yas-


    Yasu-


    Yasu¡­


    "Yasu!" I come to my senses as I slowly open my eyes. I feel someone tries to shake me awake and I tried to speak but my voice won''t come out as I wanted.


    "Yasu! Guys, he''s awake! Yasu we''re safe. The storm stopped suddenly and everything went calm." I hear Kana''s voice and I tried looking at her but my vision is still too blurry to make out which face I''m looking at. I tried to speak again but I felt weak to even utter a word.


    "R-ru-" I tried speaking but it felt like something is stopping me.


    "It''s ok Yasu. We''ll get you somewhere safe." I hear Daikichi voice but like Kana, I could only see a blurred outline.


    "R-ru-run. T-the. E-eye." I forced out as many words as I can but that''s the only thing I could say. I could breathe but it felt like I forgot how to talk making me mumble like a kid.


    "The eye?" Kana asked and all of a sudden she stood up and I felt my body sway. ¡°The eye of the storm! It''s not over yet!"


    Most hurricanes have an eye, which is the center of the storm. The calmest part of the storm. It will seem like the storm is over but then, the wind comes from the reverse direction twice as strong.


    "Help me cut him loose!" I hear Daikichi shouts as I feel a tug on my waist. I feel it come loose and someone picks up my body. I know I''m not badly hurt but for some reason, I feel my body paralyze and my speech impaired as if someone using a magic spell on me. I want to tell them to be careful but all I could do is breathe.


    "Forget swimming! Let''s use the raft to get deeper into the forest! The further we are from this river, the weaker the current should be!" Kana explained as I feel someone set me down right before I lost consciousness again.


    .


    .


    .


    I suddenly woke up and it took a while to understand I''m inside a classroom. Rather than waking up on a bed, I woke up sitting straight on a chair staring at a board that was recently cleaned.


    "Huh, what the, where am I?" I whisper as I look around and the sun outside has begun to set into the horizon turning the sky to an orange hue. I walked toward the window and I saw a couple of students with familiar uniforms walking home.


    "Tokyo? I''m back?" I whisper as I pinch myself and felt the sharp pain of having my skin squeezed tight. Everything didn''t make sense in my head. The last memory I had was the hurricane in the forest. "Everyone! Where''s everyone?!"


    The minute I turn around, I stopped in my tracks as I see someone by the door leaning on its frame looking at me.


    "Hey, Kiddo." He says and I didn''t say anything. "Surprise. Hahaha, have a sit. I only have a few minutes to talk to you."


    "D-dad?" I whisper as I see him walk towards me with a smile on his face. He hugged me so tightly I felt like he''s choking me but I didn''t move and just stood there.


    "I wanted to do this for so long but as you know, I was taken away from you guys." He whispers to me as he hugged me tightly.


    "What do you want? Who is it this time? Luro? Unum?" I snarl at him and pushed him back causing him to crash into some table but he was strong enough to not topple over. As he got himself steady, he gave me a look while raising an eyebrow.


    "After so long and I don''t even get a hug?" He tells me as I tried to figure out a way to wake up from my dream.


    "Ha, get real. Who are you?" I snarl back and that''s when I notice someone standing at the door with her arms crossed.


    "Hurry up, I don''t have all day." She says and my Dad waves her to go away.


    "I know I know, give me a few minutes. I haven''t seen little Ya in a while." He replies as he looks to me and gives me a warm smile. The same smile I remember in my memories he gave my mom and me. But what made me think he''s real is the words he uttered out.


    Little Ya, only my dad calls me that!All of a sudden, I hugged him as tears went out my eyes. "Y-you''re real? Please tell me you''re real."


    "Hahaha don''t cry, son. Have a seat, we only have a few minutes to talk." He tells me and I let go of him as we both sit on two chairs facing each other. The girl standing in the doorway gave out a low scoff before walked out.


    "Hahaha forgive her, she''s your age. She arrived here when she was really young so she hates these parents and kids moments." My dad tells me as I watch the girl¡¯s silhouette walk off a distance.


    "W-who is she? H-how? Are you still alive?" I asked him and yet, so many more question filled my mind.


    "Well, I did die. This is the afterlife. That girl, her name is Leyla and she''s an angelus. She used to be human and recently turned into an angelus." He tells me and I felt a sharp pain in my heart.


    ¡°If I¡¯m seeing you here¡­I guess I died.¡± I say solemnly and he started laughing.


    ¡°No no no. You didn¡¯t. I just pulled your soul here for a bit to talk to you.¡± He tells me and I felt relieved for a bit.


    "Angelus?" I asked him remembering what he said.


    "Yeah. It''s a close similarity to angels." He tells me as he looks at the door where the girl was. "They just don''t have wings. You''ll get used to it. Now, the reason I am here is that your mind has crossed the other side of the river."


    "Dad, I-I-" I tell him feeling guilty about what Luro said. I felt scared to even mention it.


    "I know. I know everything that''s happening." He says as he places his hands on my shoulder and I felt confused.


    "You do?" I asked him thinking he might not know but all he did was nod his head as he gave me the warmest smile he can.


    "That''s one of the reason also why I came to you. The gods on this side are going crazy because of him. Luro is making a mess." He tells me.


    "Gods? Do they exist? Luro is actually a god?" I asked him and he nods.


    "Son, listen. I will tell you a bit of information about Luro since I know he won''t be able to hear us talk. He used to be a son of a god from this side. Until he decided to go down and create his own planet." He explained and it felt like I was hit with a wave of sudden information. He kept explaining and it was hard to even comprehend his first sentence.


    "Wait wait wait, so he''s really a god?" I asked him again and he let out a chuckle nodding at me.


    "Well he is, and he isn¡¯t. He''s the son of a god so he was in line to be the next god of death. Even if he''s not a god, he''s a very dangerous one. He''s the son of Keres." He tells me.


    "Keres?"


    "I know this is all new to you but, you probably have read it before, Greek mythology. It exists and so are all the gods and demons written with it. Keres is a demon, A spirit that specialized in violent deaths. She was made the new god of death after Hades disappeared and well, she gave birth to a son. And that son is Luro."


    I didn''t say anything and just sat there in a Daze.


    "And-" My dad suddenly stopped talking as he looked on the table with a sad expression. "And we know everything he''s been doing up to know. Son, I know the very crucial information he told you."


    I felt like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder as my dad holds my hand and stare into my eyes.


    "They sent me to you to tell you that you''re the only one that can do this but, in the end, I''m going to say-"


    "Hey! Stop! Don''t say any more!" The girl walked back in the door and came charging towards us. "Don''t you know what might happen if you disobey orders?"


    "I don''t care! He''s my son!" My dad shouted without looking at her as I see my dad¡¯s expression turn from anger to sadness.


    "And he''s the only one that can do it!" The girl shouted again getting near us and I can see her really worried.


    "Wow, you¡¯re so damn loud. Don''t worry, I made my resolve long ago," I say to her and her expression just gotten worse.


    Right before she talked, my dad grabbed my hand bringing my attention towards him. "But son. If -"


    "It''s ok dad. I have a plan. It won''t happen." I smile at him and I can see he has doubts. "So, do you also watch over mom?"


    "Yeah, I''m making sure she''s safe and sound. She''s quite worried that you and you''re friends disappeared but I made sure that the gods here give her protection." Dad replies and I sigh with relief.


    "Made sure? Has it''s more like you''ve become a slave for these bastards." The girl replied and she''s starting to irritate me.


    "Well, if that guy is a god, why didn''t the gods from this side send you useless angelus to go after him?" I snarl at her and her cyan blue eyes went wide with anger.


    "What did you say?" She snarls at me as she approached me and I stood up from where I am.


    "You heard me, you wingless bitch. Don''t make me repeat myself." I tell her and I can see her getting more angrier.


    "You two relax. Two people who have a short fuse in one room is really dangerous. You guys are made for each other." My dads say jokingly and the angelus gave me a cold glare before walking out the room.


    "I rather play with my hands than that thing." She says as she walks off. Before she completely exits the door, she looked back to my dad, "You have roughly ten minutes left. Say your goodbyes."


    "Ok ok, I got it." My dad says and she walked out of the classroom.


    "Your hands don''t even want you, you wingless bitch," I whisper as I sat back down. "What the hell is wrong with her?"


    "Don''t mind her. Leyla is a good kid. Reminds me of you, the female version." My dad tells me.


    So her name is Leyla.I say in my mind hoping she doesn''t burst in the room shouting again. It¡¯s annoying.


    "I am not like her. But, as I said earlier, these damn gods know Luro is there, why couldn''t they come down and get him?" I asked him and he looked down on the table for a few seconds before looking up to me.


    "Well, that''s a big issue since there''s a stronger force than the gods called reflectius. It''s not a being but a force. Every time a god goes down with the mortals, it activates and causes havoc in the universe. Not just humans but all living things in space. Luro''s presence is already creating so many changes in history that the gods need to get rid of him to make sure they can keep everything under control. But if one of them goes down there, reflectius will just double in effect and it might just destroy the whole galaxy. They can''t do anything from this side since they''re already having a hard time dealing with Keres here." He explained to me and somehow, I felt furious at the gods who can''t control their own problems.


    "But why can''t they send these Angelius after him," I ask him still confused why I have to do it for him.


    "They are strong here but going down in the mortal world, they''re far weaker. Probably weaker than you." He tells me adding more issues to my problems.


    "Tch, so they''re useless," I whisper knowing the fact that the Angelius outside is probably hearing everything we''re saying.


    "Two minutes!" She shouted from outside the room and my dad started laughing a bit.


    "Oh, and I know you might have your doubts when you wake up. When you see Luro again tell him this, Luro, gios tou Keres. He should know this language and when he hears it, watch his expression change. This is proof that this conversation we had is real. Well, I guess this is goodbye for now. But please, don''t hurt yourself too much. Going to this side isn''t really good." He tells me and I gave him a smile.


    "I''ll try," I say and I can see his expression turn a bit sad. I stood up and walked towards him and gave him a hug.


    "Son, No matter what happens, I''ll always be your dad." He whispers into my ear as he hugs me back.


    "And I''ll always be your son. Goodbye, dad. Watch over mom for me." And everything suddenly went black.


    But before I lost consciousness, deep down inside, I felt guilty lying to him. I had no plan, I''ll have to go through with it whether he likes it or not.

 CHAPTER 52: Status

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 52: Status


    <hr>


    I woke up to the sun hitting my face. I felt a weight on me and I see Daikichi over me like a dead fish.


    ¡°Ugh.¡± I tried to wiggle out but it was impossible to do unless I wake him up. He¡¯s right on top of me horizontally as if he was lying on a yoga ball. I wriggle some more and I see him abruptly open his eyes.


    ¡°Yo,¡± I whisper to him the minute we lock eyes.


    ¡°Yasu is awake.¡± He whispers and I feel my body sways as he gets up. I feel something shuffles right above me and all of a sudden I felt a cold embrace in my forehead and feel someone breathing on top of me.


    ¡°Phew. No fever. How do you feel?¡± I hear Ms. Sam¡¯s voice right above my head.


    ¡°Just sore. How long was I knocked out?¡± I whisper while slowly sitting up. Daikichi helped support my back as I felt tired up to the core of my bones. I see everyone slowly wake up and once I got a good look at our surrounding, we were tied to a tree floating about with water everyone that goes further than what my eyes can see.


    ¡°Only for a day. As you can see, the hurricane has ended but now the whole forest turned into a swimming pool.¡± Amaguchi says as he sits near the edge of the raft cupping water in his hand to wash his face.


    I see the raft survived the ordeal but have taken considerable damage. Some logs are missing and the vines are barely holding anything together. Everyone is huddled close together as the space we occupy is really small compared to the original size we had before. They all slowly sat up trying not to sway the raft too much. I look up and block the sun with my hands to adjust my vision to the sunlight.


    The sky has turned bright blue and the heat from the sun. The trees, on the other hand, have lost most of its leaves and some are snapped in half. What was once a lush forest full of life has become a watery grave. The whole area was covered by water and rose up covering the tree''s halfway.


    ¡°This place becomes a lake forest,¡± Lisa says as I see her sit on the other side of the raft to wash her face.


    ¡°You should have seen yourself, dude, your nose was broken when the rock hit you,¡± Daikichi says as he places his hands on my shoulder.


    ¡°My nose? Rock?¡± I trying to remember everything.


    ¡°Ah you probably don¡¯t remember, but, when the raft suddenly flew up, I noticed a rock came flying out of the forest and hit you square on the face. It¡¯s like someone pitched it. We couldn¡¯t do anything up until the eyes of the storm came.¡± Daikichi explains.


    ¡°Yeah, if you didn¡¯t warn us, we all probably would have never remembered. Thank you.¡± Kana tells me and I gave her a smile.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± I whisper at her while chuckling a bit. They all look my way with a weird expression that made me confused. ¡°W-what?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve never heard you laugh out loud, genuinely. It seems like you¡¯re super happy you got punched by a rock. You sure you don¡¯t have a fever still?¡± Daikichi says jokingly and I laugh a bit more.


    ¡°I¡¯m just in a good mood that¡¯s all, I had a fever?¡± I asked them and in the back of my head, I remembered my conversation with my dad. Even if it¡¯s a dream, at least was able to talk to him and hug him.


    ¡°Yeah, luckily you gave me those antidote or else, it would have been difficult to treat you here where everything is wet around us." Ms. Sam says as she places her hand over my forehead, checking my temperature. She gave me a quick nod and I silently thank her.


    ¡°Well, at least I know you¡¯re not dead,¡± Daikichi says lightly punching me in the arm.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s our plan now?¡± Lisa asked as she turns around after washing her face.


    ¡°How about we all just go to the next town. Right now, I¡¯m worried that the town itself. If the water rose this much, it might be submerged completely.¡± Takumi says as he washes his dagger.


    ¡°True, and I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll care now if they see Takumi or Yasu,¡± Lisa says as she tried washing her hair.


    ¡°What if they¡¯re all dead?¡± Mamoru asked and it''s weird seeing him talk rather than staying quiet like what he¡¯s been doing.


    ¡°Damn, I hope not. Mamoru, can you create a portal to go there?¡±


    ¡°No, I can only create portals on places I have visited but there¡¯s also a range on how far I can create the portal. I remember in the bandit town, to create the giant portal, they brought me to a location not that far away. So if I know where it is and it¡¯s too far away, we need to get closer first.¡± Mamoru replies to Daikichi.


    ¡°How about we paddle there.¡± Mr. Goro-sensei suggests as he gestures the motion of paddling.


    ¡°We can paddle from here to there but let¡¯s use the river the rest of the way as we originally planned. I think the current is still flowing since we had to tie the boat to a tree to prevent from moving.¡± Takumi says as he tugs the vine testing its durability.


    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Daikichi says as he looks around. ¡°How about we fix the raft first?¡±


    ¡°I can fix it, I just need materials. We need more wood and I¡¯m going to need more vines to tie the raft together again, this looks like it will break apart any minute.¡± Takumi says as he inspects the knots tying the logs together that¡¯s keeping us afloat.


    Everyone agreed to not swim in the water because we don¡¯t know what type of monster the hurricane brought here. It was nice that they didn''t dwell on everything that¡¯s going wrong and kept pushing forward to find a solution. I was worried they¡¯d wait for me to make decisions and I¡¯m glad they didn¡¯t. Since everyone is tired and Takumi needed to fix the raft, we all decided to stay one night where we¡¯re at while some of the guys swim around collecting logs and sticks that would float and pass by our raft.


    We couldn¡¯t see the bottom of the water since the mud underneath is probably going to take a while to settle. After running out of wood in the area, Takumi quickly got to repairing the raft before we use it to float around the forest. They told me to just rest so everyone got to work swimming around looking for vines. As soon as they come across one, they would quickly collect it and to tie the raft together. But this whole ordeal has left a lingering feeling in my gut. I don¡¯t know but it¡¯s might be what Unum told me before.


    They¡¯re getting closer.I whisper in my mind as I daze out looking at the flow of water.


    ¡°Ok, I think this is enough. Let''s try to make some paddles.¡± Takumi says snapping me out of my daze and I see him look around for any stick flat enough to be used as paddles.


    ¡°I can help, bring the raft closer to a tree,¡± I tell him and they paddled towards the closest one.


    ¡°Sharpen,¡± I whisper as I jam my sword into a tree and my skill made it feel like I was cutting butter. I carefully carved a plank off and they all watched amazed that I can cut things so easily.


    "That''s a really useful skill. I wish I picked to be a cook." Amaguchi whispers as he watches me carve another one.


    ¡°Trust me, I died because of this class. It¡¯s only good later on. Like Suyeon¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°Oh speaking of class, Suyeon, holy shit, you¡¯re like Yasu. Flying everywhere.¡± Lisa says as she grabs Suyeons arms and they both started giggling. I would never understand girls. They always end up giggling every time they embrace each other.


    After cutting off the second plank, I told them to paddle to the next tree since I didn¡¯t feel safe near something that can topple over us and break our raft. I cut a couple more planks on different trees until everyone has a plank on their hand.


    ¡°Ok guys, give me a minute,¡± I tell them as I climb the last tree I cut up. As soon as I got up the branch, I told them to go back a bit since my skill causes anything beneath me to erupt.


    "Seismic step," I whispered and I felt the vibration appear under my foot. I jumped up towards the sky saw the water rippled causing a wave to extended outwards in all direction. The tree snapped but good thing it toppled over the opposite direction of everybody. As soon as I gained some height, I see the whole forest at a better picture.


    ¡°Holy shit,¡± I whisper as I look at the forest is submerged by water. A lot of the trees have lost its leaves but some areas are still too thick to see through. Our section looks like a dead forest and with the lake combined, it all looked like a giant swamp. I felt my body descent and I braced for impact as I headed straight for the water. I quickly emerge as fast as I can and swam towards everyone while they paddle to meet me halfway. I grab on the edge of the raft and I see Mr. Goro-sensei holding his hand out to help me up.


    ¡°What did you see?¡± Goro-sensei asked as he pulls me out of the water.


    ¡°The whole forest is covered in water. And the water extends as far my eyes can see. I couldn¡¯t see any dry land except probably the mountains from a distance.¡±


    ¡°Damn. Did you see where the river is at?¡± Daikichi asked and I nod towards him pointing at a direction.


    ¡°It''s right there. I see a bit of open space and I notice the water is flowing to one direction." I explain to them as I wipe my face. We all started paddling towards the river and whenever we get lost or unsure, I place a leaf on top of the water and used the leaf as a guide.


    ¡°We¡¯re getting close I think. Ms. Sam whispers as she paddles in harmony with everyone else. I also feel the raft is moving a bit faster than usual which means we¡¯re getting closer to the river.


    ¡°Everyone, stop paddling,¡± Takumi says as he sits back and stretches his arms. ¡°We¡¯ll just use the river to guide us.¡±


    We all sat in the raft as it slowly moved in one direction. Everyone rested while I remained alert. I had enough sleep and they probably healed me through the night that my body feels better than ever. If the river has a current, it means there¡¯s a section where the water is being pulled from.


    Most likely, a waterfall or an exit out of the ocean.I say in my mind. I hope it¡¯s not a waterfall.


    I wouldn¡¯t want to fall asleep with everyone and end up free falling into our deaths. The girls ended up taking a nap while Goro-sensei and Mamoru used a stick they picked up as it floated along towards us. Using a vine, they tied it into a stick and a rock on the other end of the vine. They used leftover boar meat we collected before the storm and attached a small amount near the rock as bait. Which I know will fail because they forgot to put a hook. I sat on the edge at the front of the raft guarding it against colliding with any debris. The water below us was murky since the mud from the forest has traveled everywhere making it cloudy and impossible to see the bottom. If there were anything lurking beneath us, we would never know.


    I sat there thinking about all that had just happened. If I went through it alone and they weren¡¯t there to protect my unconscious body during the storm, I would have died. So many thoughts in my mind and it kept tightening the knot I feel in my throat. But in the end, I see how valuable it is to have a couple of healers. If they weren¡¯t here, it would probably take some time to wake up. Healing my body while I¡¯m asleep has sped up my recovery.


    If it weren¡¯t for them, I would have died drowning in my sleep.I whisper in my mind.


    .


    .


    But if they weren¡¯t them, I would have never dove in the water the first place.My own thoughts suddenly surprised me as I start tapping on my head.


    ¡°Ugh, what am I thinking?¡± I whisper as I close my eyes and try to listen to the wind to relax my mind. ¡°I¡¯m far too weak,¡±


    I reminisce meeting Unum. I know that if I fight him, I¡¯ll have a hard time. Earlier he showed me probably a portion of his strength and I wonder how strong he is if he goes at us at full power.


    .


    .


    I smiled remembering my dad.


    At least. I got to hold him.I whisper in my mind as I feel the wind brush through my skin. At least, I got to talk to him.


    .


    .


    .


    The day quickly turned into nighttime and everyone is fast asleep. Using the torches I have in my bag, I handed it out to Takumi, Goro-sensei, and Daikichi. I lit them up using the stalactite and rock and they helped me illuminate the raft during the night. I placed a couple of stalactite in the raft illuminating it more but we used the torches as a heat source since the temperature started dropping as soon as the sun started to set. I kept my gaze in front as the raft slowly moved with the river. The moon also helped illuminate the river as the light reflected on the surface of the water.


    ¡°Damn,¡± I whisper as we sat around the raft. I stayed in front while Takumi stayed in the back and Goro-sensei along with Daikichi is watching each side.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Diakichi whispers back.


    ¡°Whose bright idea to do night watch? It''s really scary when the water becomes pitch black.¡± Takumi says what I was about to say.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok kids. The worst that can happen is something big topple the raft making us swim in the dark cold water.¡± Goro-sensei says jokingly.


    ¡°Sensei¡­¡± Daikichi groans and we chuckle a bit as we see him pull his legs up and out the water. I look back towards in front and I suddenly stop laughing as I see something floating from a distance.


    ¡°What the-¡± I whisper as I squint my eyes trying to get a better look. It seems to be a rock but I felt nervous as I noticed we never got close to it.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Daikichi whispers over my shoulder as we both stare at it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe a log.¡± I whisper to him as I watched it float along ahead of us.


    ¡°Guys, what is it?¡± Takumi asked as he looks back at us.


    ¡°We see something floating ahead but we don¡¯t know what it is.¡± Daikichi whispers and I can see him squint trying to get a better look. ¡°We can¡¯t catch up since it¡¯s floating along the current.¡±


    I started contemplating whether I should grab a paddle and speed up the raft or I should wait it out.


    ¡°Damn, try throwing something to it. See if it moves.¡± Goro-sensei says and I grab a plate inside my bag. I threw it as a frisbee and I hit it directly bouncing off it.


    "Oh, shit, bullseye," Daikichi whispers right beside me.


    "Nice shot kiddo," Goro-sensei says as he slowly gets closer to us.


    ¡°Did it move?¡± Takumi whispered and we both shake our heads.


    ¡°The plate didn¡¯t shatter or make a noise. I got a bad feeling. Guys, let¡¯s slowly paddle to it.¡± I whisper back as I look at it float along in a distance. We went to each side of the raft and slowly paddled increasing our speed. Moving was a bit difficult since everyone was sleeping in the middle and any movement sways the raft too much. Once we got to the side, we paddled twice to speed up the movement and I went back in front along with Daikichi, Takumi, and Goro-sensei. We waited for the raft to be a few feet away from it and I was tempted to jump in and check it out.


    ¡°I wonder what that is. Who volunteers to swim?¡± Goro-sensei asked and we all pointed at Daikichi.


    ¡°What? I am not swimming in the dark towards that thing.¡± He protests and we all started laughing. I decided to lean a bit closer and grab on it. As soon as I got a better look, it''s red cloth.


    "Holy shit, it''s heavy," I whisper as I pick it up and the minute I submerge a part of it out the water and soon enough, I was face to face with a corpse. Daikichi backed away tripping on Amaguchi and the raft swayed so much we thought we were going to capsize. I ended up letting go of the corpse to grab onto the raft since I almost fell forward into the dark water at the sudden movement.


    ¡°Holy fuck. Shit, what the fuck as that?!¡± Takumi shouts and I see him also on his ass. They all back away a bit as the body was stuck in front of the raft being pushed forward.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Kana groaned as everyone slowly woke up due to the raft swaying and Takumi screaming. Even Goro-sensei was at the far back while I remain kneeling at the front next to the body.


    ¡°Fuck, you guys scared me instead of him,¡± I whisper as I look at the red cloth floating in front the raft.


    ¡°What¡¯s scary? What¡¯s going on?¡± Ms. Sam says and she looks at the red cloth attached to the raft being slowly pushed. ¡°What is that?¡±


    ¡°Uh..¡± I hesitated to say since I didn¡¯t want anyone to freak out so I told Ms. Sam to come closer so I can whisper in her ear. ¡°It¡¯s a dead body.¡±


    She looked at me and her eyes went wide as she looks back at the red cloth floating with the raft. She slowly inched her way towards it and inspected its neck if it has a pulse. Good thing she¡¯s used to seeing dead bodies when she was traveling around the world as a doctor so something like this won''t faze her.


    ¡°Help me push him off.¡± She whispers and I slowly push the corpse away unhinging its shirt from the raft and pushed it down the water. It sank and I looked back at the raft to see if it¡¯s going to float back up but it didn¡¯t.


    ¡°It won¡¯t float back up.¡± Ms. Sam whispers as she wipes her hand on her clothes. ¡°Sinking it will fill its lungs with water replacing the air so It¡¯ll continue to sink until a couple of days or weeks when its insides like the guts get filled with gas. It¡¯s the best I can do since we can¡¯t take it with us and do a proper burial.¡±


    I see her clap a few times before offering a prayer. I did the same and once I opened my eyes, everyone looked confused.


    ¡°What? What''s going on?¡± Lisa asked as she looks around to see what we were looking at. ¡°What was it?¡±


    ¡°It was a corpse.¡± Ms. Sam says after saying the prayer and that woke them up fully.


    ¡°We thought it was a log but when Yasu pulled it up, he was face to face with it. How the hell did that not scare you? Never mind, don¡¯t answer that.¡± Daikichi says as he slowly sits up.


    ¡°Guys keep your eyes peeled. I think we''re getting close to the next town. I remember it was near the river." I hear Takumi whisper as he walks in front of the raft. "Is anybody out there?!¡±


    ¡°Hello! Anybody out there?!¡± Ms. Sam shouted also and everyone started shouting trying to look for any survivors.


    Help!


    ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone is out the-¡°


    ¡°Everyone quiet!¡± I shout as I thought I heard something from a distance. ¡°You guys hear that?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Amaguchi whispers as he places himself behind me. ¡°It can¡¯t be a ghost right?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know but it might be a person stuck somewhere. If anyone is out there! Make some noise!!¡± Daikichi shouts and we waited for a bit.


    Help!


    ¡°There it is!!! We¡¯re coming! Keep shouting so we can find you!!!¡± Ms. Sam shouts and we waited for the voice to come back.


    Help!


    Help!


    It got clearer and clearer as we moved along the river. It was a lot harder to see in the darkness and with the leaves on the trees, it made it even harder to spot anything from a distance. If it was like the area we came from, we would be able to see if there weren¡¯t any leaves left.


    ¡°Guys, it seems like it¡¯s coming from inside the forest,¡± I whisper, and everyone started paddling until we were off the river and floating along the dead forest. This place was as creepy as it can get. The trees blocked the light from the moon and only bits of pieces in the area were illuminated while the rest was shrouded in darkness.


    ¡°Keep shooting!¡± Ms. Sam shouts out loud and the voice kept saying help over and over until we¡¯re able to hear it clearly.


    ¡°Is that a little girl?¡± Kana whispers as we see a girl on top a tree-hugging it.


    ¡°What where-¡° Amaguchi stops as soon as he sees her. ¡°Please don¡¯t be a demon baby. Please don¡¯t be a demon baby.¡±


    ¡°Hold on! We¡¯re coming to you!¡± Lisa shouts towards the little girl and Amaguchi quickly covered her mouth.


    ¡°Stop! What if that this is not¡­a little girl. What if that demonic kid who eat you heart- Ah! Why¡¯d you bite me?!¡± Amaguchi quickly pulled his hand back and I can see the bite mark on his middle finger.


    ¡°And what if it¡¯s a little girl stuck up on a tree? Stop being a pussy.¡± Lisa says and I can hear Amaguchi groan as he moves behind me again.


    ¡°I rather am a living pussy that a dead one.¡± He whispers as he stays behind me peeking bit by bit over my shoulder.


    ¡°Help me! Please! I don¡¯t want to die!¡± The little girl shouted out and they paddled as fast as we can towards her while I ready myself just in case Amaguchi is right. We got under the branch she was standing in and Ms. Sam extended her hand out towards her.


    ¡°Come jump! We¡¯ll catch you!¡± Ms. Sam told the little girl but I can see she petrified of the height. For her, everything probably seems too big.


    ¡°P-please don¡¯t kill me!¡± She started crying as she looked away from us.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry! We¡¯re not the bad guys! Come jump so we can heal your wounds!¡± Ms. Sam says as she moves a bit closer to the tree putting herself right underneath her. As we got a closer look, I can see her body was full of scratches and her clothes were full of dried blood. It looks like she was in a fight as her clothes were torn at certain parts. Probably due to being caught in twigs since we see broken twigs still in her clothes. She turned towards us and snot was coming out of her nose as tears traveled down her cheeks. Dried blood traveled down towards her chin coming from her head.


    She hesitated to jump at first, but Ms. Sam kept trying to reassure her we¡¯re not here to harm her. Then all of a sudden, the little girl fainted and her body fell towards the other side onto the water.


    ¡°No!¡± Ms. Sam screamed as she jumps into the water and dove into the dark.


    She quickly emerges out of the water and swam towards us. We pulled her out along with the little girl and Takumi tied the raft onto the tree while Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei along with Kana focused on healing her. She had bags under her eyes and it looks like she¡¯s been here ever since the hurricane destroyed everything. Her hair was all knotted up and her feet were full of cuts and splinters from the tree.


    ¡°Holy shit. She must have been here all by herself. It¡¯s insane she survived that crazy storm.¡± Amaguchi says looking around the forest to see if he can spot anymore survivor but we didn¡¯t want to scream abruptly waking up the little girl so we stayed quiet while they healed her. We tried shaking her awake but she slept and Ms. Sam told us it wasn¡¯t a good idea to force her to wake up so we let her sleep while we paddled back towards the river. After a while of floating along, the little girl woke up before we reached the river and she almost jumped off. She was so scared of our presence I can see her body shaking from fear as she hyperventilates.


    ¡°Relax Relax. You¡¯re safe now.¡± Ms. Sam hugs her and the little girl finally broke down and hugged her wailing like crazy. After a while, we gave her something to eat and she ate her food as if she was breathing it in. Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei took care of her while we slowly paddled into the river until the slow current moved us along. We kept shouting just in case there¡¯s anybody else stuck up on any tree but we didn¡¯t get any response.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Is anyone out there?! Please make some noise!¡± Takumi shouted out and we didn¡¯t hear anything but silence.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Kana. What¡¯s your name?¡± I hear Kana ask the little girl. She sat near Miki-sensei who¡¯s now letting the little girl sitting on her lap while she ate slowly this time.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m n-Nala.¡± She says and all the girls made a noise as if they¡¯re all looking at a cute teddy bear.


    ¡°Nala, how long were you out there?¡± Kana asked and she was hesitant to answer at first.


    ¡°I-I has been out there s-since t-the giant rain. I was out there with m-my big brother. W-We was playing in the woods when it started raining. The water came out of the ground so me and my brother climbed a tree.¡± She explained and somehow, not finding her brother is giving me mixed feelings.


    ¡°Where is your brother?¡± Ms. Miki-sensei asked but we all had an idea where he is. He probably drowned. I say in my mind as I kept my sight in front the raft just incases I spot another dead body.


    ¡°He-he was taken away.¡± She replied and it caught us all off guard.


    ¡°Who took him away?¡± Miki-sensei asked and I could see she had a furious expression. Nala didn¡¯t reply and just brought her head down probably recalling the horrifying moment her brother was taken away from her. ¡°Ok, I¡¯m sorry. Take your time okay? you don¡¯t have to answer if you don¡¯t want to.¡±


    Miki-sensei stroke her head and hugged her as the little girl cried and cried nonstop.


    ¡°Damn, poor kid,¡± Daikichi whispers beside me.


    ¡°Well, what¡¯s done is done. Let¡¯s keep our eyes peeled. Whoever took her brother might still be around.¡± I whisper to him and he nods my way.


    Miki-sensei, Ms. Sam, Kana, Mamoru, and Amaguchi sat in the middle of the raft while the rest of us spread out in all side looking at all direction. The moon is almost reaching its peak, which means it¡¯ll be only a couple of hours left before the sun starts rising.


    ¡°Daikichi, can you ask Kana if they can ask her how far we are from the town,¡± I whisper to him and he nodded slowly standing up.


    After a couple of minutes, I hear Kana talk to Nala stroking her head. ¡°Little Nala, how far is the town from where you were?¡±


    ¡°I-i- don¡¯t know. W-we usually plays until the sun sets and we run back home before dark.¡± The little girl explained and not having the concept of time made it difficult to even guess.


    ¡°Do you know how many minutes it takes you to get home?¡± Kana asked and the little girl stayed silent for a few seconds before answering her.


    ¡°M-muinuties? What is that?¡± I hear Nala asked as I kept my attention at the front of the raft.


    ¡°Ah, in this world they don¡¯t know minutes or hour since there¡¯s no clock. They usually use bells to indicate that the sun is setting. Only in the big city, they started using a clock when we introduced them the sundial.¡± Takumi explained and I didn¡¯t know how old school the setting of this world is.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Daikichi whispers and I thought about different scenarios in my mind.


    If they can run home from here, that means the town is not that far away. If the water rose this much, there¡¯s a chance that the town is submerged.


    ¡°Guy¡¯s. Keep your eyes peeled. I think we¡¯re closer than we think.¡± I whisper to them as I try to look in the water to see if I can spot any rooftop. I don¡¯t know how tall they built the houses but, these trees are quite tall from its base and the water has reached up to its halfway point. For all we know, we¡¯re going over a sunken town.


    Shit, it¡¯s too dark.I say in my mind as I suddenly remembered the bandit town where I swam through the dark water and used a stalactite to light the place.


    ¡°Item bag," I whisper to myself while catching the bag that materialized in front of me. Right, when I was about to take out a stalactite to drop it in the dark waters below when I suddenly heard a sound that sent a shiver down my spine.


    Ahhhhhhhhh!


    ¡°What the-¡° Daikichi suddenly turns towards his right and we all look at what seems to be the direction of the high pitch scream.


    ¡°Another survivor! Guys paddle!¡± Daikichi shouted out grabbing a paddle. ¡°Hey! Are you ok?! Keep making a noise so we can find you!!¡±


    We all paddled towards the voice as it kept screaming. Thinking of the worse, we paddled as fast as we can.


    ¡°We''re coming to save you!!¡± Amaguchi shouts and they all started shouting not knowing where she is or whom she¡¯s with. We kept paddling until we see a white figure from a distance on top of a tree. The minute me were able to get closer to get a better look, she stopped screaming and just cried.


    ¡°Miss! We¡¯re coming!! Hang on!!¡± Ms. Sam shouts out to her as we frantically paddled towards her. As soon as we got closer I noticed her hunched down hugging her knee as she faces the tree showing her back at us. Her white one-piece dress was soaked with water showing her back through the cloth. It looks like she¡¯s been starved as her spine shows through her skin. Getting a better look with, she reminded me of Suyeon when I first met her. She¡¯s practically skin and bones.


    ¡°Hey! Are you okay?!?¡± Lisa shouts at her but all we hear is her sobbing as her body rocks back and forth.


    ¡°It¡¯s ok! We¡¯re coming! Jump and I¡¯ll catch you!¡± Amaguchi says placing himself in the front of the raft while it slowly drifts towards her.


    ¡°N-n-No! No!¡± Nala suddenly burst out screaming while trying to run at the back of the raft. The minute she got close to Kana, she hugged her burying her face on her side as she shakes her head while screaming over and over again.


    ¡°Nala! It¡¯s ok! It¡¯s ok! What¡¯s going on?!¡± Kana tries to pry her away to hug her properly but Nala hanged on so tight while crying. I tried approaching them to see what¡¯s going on and all of a sudden; I see her pants start soaking as she peed herself.


    ¡°Nala! It¡¯s ok! We-re here!¡± Miki-sensei says hugging her from behind and at that moment, that¡¯s when it hit me. I quickly turn around and looking at Amaguchi who looked at me and we both lock eyes for a minute.


    ¡°W-what?¡± He whispers to me confused and I slowly brought my vision towards the girl up the tree silently sobbing.


    ¡°Amaguchi, slowly walk this way. Everyone, get away from her.¡± I whisper and they all look confused but followed what I said and got near the back of the raft. I thought it would tip over due to the weight being all in the back end but I¡¯m glad it didn¡¯t. I slowly walk towards the front clenching my fist.


    ¡°Yasu, what¡¯s going on?¡± Kana whisper and the only noise we hear is Nala silently whimpering and the eerie sobbing of the girl up in the tree.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know but slowly paddle away from her,¡± I tell them as I took out a dagger out my bag instead of a stalactite.


    ¡°Yasu, what are you doing?!¡± Ms. Sam shouts as she put her hand on my wrist. ¡°That is not an enemy! That¡¯s a person!!¡±


    ¡°No Ms. Sam,¡± I whisper to her without looking away from the girl in white. ¡°That is probably not a person.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? That looks like a person to me!¡± Ms. Sam says adamant for me to put my weapon away but the raft was getting closer and closer that I finally saw what I was looking for.


    A name and a level.


    Weeping Siren Lvl 67


    ¡°Holy shi- paddle away!¡± I shout as I see its level. I have no issue dealing with it but, for these guys, it¡¯s dangerous to be even around that thing. ¡°Now!¡±


    Everyone grabbed their paddle and when they¡¯re about to dip it into the water to steer away, the girl above a tree slowly stood up and we held our breath and paused as it started clicking its head. Even her movement is unnatural. She stopped crying and just stood there facing the tree showing us her back. I didn¡¯t notice since she was hunched down but, this thing is abnormally tall.


    ¡°H-Hey are you-Mffhm!¡± I muffled Ms. Sam¡¯s mouth while looking at the girl to see if she¡¯s going to move but she didn¡¯t. She just kept staring at the tree.


    ¡°Guys, that¡¯s not a human. Look above its head.¡± I whisper and when they all look, I can feel they want to start panicking but kept calm trying not to alert it.


    ¡°W-what do we do?¡± Daikichi whispers and I slowly let go of Ms. Sam¡¯s mouth while gesturing her to be quiet. She gave me a weak nod and slowly retreated behind me.


    ¡°I can take her on but, if there¡¯s more than one of them, I can¡¯t protect everyone,¡± I whisper back and her current condition of it being drenched with water gave me an idea where she came from.


    ¡°Slowly paddle away,¡± I whisper as I clench my weapon. In a swift motion, the weeping siren dropped down into the water disappearing in an instant. We looked around as everyone moved to the center of the raft with our backs against each other. I kept my gaze at where she dropped and, in a few seconds, I saw the siren¡¯s head slowly peak out and anyone who¡¯s weak-hearted would probably cry at the sight of its face. I saw it as the moonlight illuminated its facial feature. Her eyes were crystal red and on her face, a smile more sinister than anything I have seen. Her smile traveled from the bottom of her ear to the other. She smiles so much I saw a glimpse of its multiple teeth similar to a shark.


    ¡°Everyone! Paddle!¡± I shout and they all scamper to get to the edge to paddle us out of this area.


    Shriiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!


    The sound brought me to my knees as it numbed my legs. I covered my ears with my hands but the sound it made still got through and I felt like my eardrum will burst. It suddenly stopped and when I looked, it swam towards at a speed anyone won¡¯t be able to react to.


    BOOM!


    It jumped out of the water speeding its way towards Kana who¡¯s hugging Nala as they try to regain their hearing. I didn¡¯t have time to think and I jumped out in between them.


    ¡°Argh!¡± I yelp in pain as I felt its teeth lodge in my sides. I didn¡¯t have time to activate my chef¡¯s coat and we both came tumbling down towards the water and it didn¡¯t stop as I felt my body get dragged deeper and deeper.


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted underwater and almost choked as the water enters my lungs. I swung my fist towards the weeping siren clamped in my sides and the water made it harder to even get a proper impact. The impact of my attack managed to hurt her as I felt her jaw let go and I started swimming to the surface as fast as I can.


    ¡°Puah!¡±


    Cough*


    Cough*


    I felt the water rise up my throat as I cough making the next one much more uncontrollable. I look around and find the raft slowly drifting towards me as they paddled as fast as they can.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± Ms. Sam shouted my name over and over again. I felt my sides burning as if someone poured alcohol on an open wound. I tried to ignore it and began to swim towards them when all of a sudden; something bites my leg as I felt a sharp pain towards my shin.


    ¡°Agrh!-¡° I shout in pain but quickly closed my mouth as it dragged me back into the darkness below.


    ¡°Tenderize!¡± I shouted underwater and saw both my hands glowed red. The water was so blurry that I couldn¡¯t see clearly in all directions. But one thing that I did notice is the two red lights on my leg. The eyes of the weeping Siren as it swam backward keeping its eyes on me. It kept dragging me further and further towards the bottom and that¡¯s when I noticed more red lights right underneath us that made my heart sank faster than me.


    Fuck!I screamed in my mind as I punch wildly below me. The first attack hit the siren that on my leg as I feel it let go. I didn¡¯t stop punching and kept going until I felt my body fly out of the water.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    ¡°F-fuck," I whisper as I free fall towards the water again.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I hear a shout from a distance and I see the raft drifting further away as the waves from my attack pushed them. I see Suyeon jumps into the water and right before she lands, she shouted her skill causing her to fly towards my way. I feel her body tackles me as she wraps her hands around my waist and we both went flying away from the raft. Right before we land in the water, I hear her shout her skill and I felt both out bodies fly up for a brief moment before we started descending again.


    ¡°Jump!¡± She shouted one more time and I felt my body go the opposite direction towards the raft like a ragdoll. I couldn¡¯t move, my whole body felt like it was on fire and it¡¯s spreading towards my neck.


    ¡°Jump!" She kept on shouting hopping around the water using her skills until we reached everyone.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I hear Kana shouts as she grabs me while Suyeon sets me down. I felt my consciousness fading and feel the world spin so much it¡¯s making me want to puke.


    ¡°Watch out! Another one!¡± I hear a voice, but I couldn¡¯t focus as I hear them struggle to deflect a siren attacking the raft. I vomited as I turned sideways, and I felt sick making me gag over and over again. As I look up, I see a siren from far away staring at me. It gave me the widest smile before I succumb to the dark.


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Wake up.¡±


    Huh¡­


    ¡°Wake up!¡± I hear the voice right in my ear and I suddenly jolt up. I felt like I was choking, and it took me a while to adjust to my surroundings. I see everyone from a distance surrounding me like I¡¯m a dangerous wild animal they have encountered for the first time. Most of them are injured but everyone is alive. At first, I thought I was dreaming again until I felt Ms. Sam¡¯s hand cover my forehead.


    ¡°W-what happened?¡± I asked and the minute I spoke, I felt a jolt of pain in my sides. ¡°Agrh!¡±


    ¡°Yasu!¡± Kana cried loudly as she hugs me tightly not helping with the pain I¡¯m feeling. I see everyone on a verge of tears as they all slump down the ground. The sun has already risen, and I notice we¡¯re on top of what seems to be a rooftop.


    ¡°Fucking hell. Finally.¡± I hear Daikichi whisper lays down. He seemed exhausted and everyone wasn¡¯t any better.


    ¡°How¡¯re you feeling?¡± Ms. Sam asked as she removes her hand from my forehead after checking my temperature. Even I noticed she¡¯s injured, and sleep deprived. Her face was full of signs from lack of sleep.


    ¡°Good that the fever has died down.¡± She whispers as she gives a sigh of relief.


    ¡°Fever?¡± I asked confused.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember?¡± She asked me, making me more confused.


    ¡°No, what happened to the Sirens?¡± I asked her while remembering about the Siren''s attacking us before I passed out.


    ¡°After you passed out, we hauled our asses out of the forest, but they followed us even to the river. Luckily the sun started rising and they all retreated to the dark parts of the water.¡± Amaguchi explained which probably explained their condition. Some of them looked roughed up with bags under their eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been passed out all night?¡± I asked and I see them look at me. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You really don¡¯t remember?¡± Lisa asked as I shake my head.


    ¡°After Suyeon got you, you vomited and passed out. Once we got to the river and morning rose, that¡¯s when hell broke loose.¡± Amaguchi explained.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably due to the bite of the weeping Siren but, Yasu, you turned into a maniac when you woke up,¡± Lisa explained as she sat down.


    ¡°A maniac?¡± I asked confused.


    ¡°Haha, yeah. The first time you woke up, you wanted to eat all of us alive like a cannibal. The second time you woke up, you wanted to drown us in the water. The third time you woke up, that was the creepiest, you woke up in the middle of the night and got into a corner of the roof facing the water and started crying.¡± Daikichi explained.


    ¡°What?¡± I was confused as I looked around. Seeing them all worn out and remembering they surrounded me when I woke up slowly made me understand what was going on.


    ¡°Yeah dude, none of us bit by the siren so we assumed it was the cause of that,¡± Amaguchi says.


    ¡°Yeah, when you woke up a few minutes ago, we thought you would go on a rampage again,¡± Kana says as she lets go of me and she wipes her tears.


    No wonder they were all surrounding me like I¡¯m a wild animal.I say in my mind hearing their story.


    ¡°T-thank you,¡± I whisper to them, but I felt guilty knowing the fact that I was the one who injured them. I looked around and that¡¯s when I noticed that Ms. Miki and Goro sensei is missing along with Suyeon and the little girl we saved.


    ¡°Where is Suyeon?¡± I asked worried that I accidentally killed her.


    ¡°Well, before you went crazy, she went on a rescue mission to save some villagers not far from here. We found someone on top this rooftop and she was the one who told us of where the others were.¡± Takumi explains and I just sat there listening. It felt like I exercised nonstop as every part of my body felt sore. ¡°I would have gone with them but, it would have been better for me to stay here since Suyeon insisted to go.¡±


    "Ah, makes sense," I say grabbing my sides that still throbbing. If bot of the strongest in the group left while I was out, that would have left the team vulnerable to anything and anyone.


    ¡°How are you feeling Yasu? I couldn¡¯t heal you properly since my level is too weak, but I closed most of the wounds on your leg and body.¡± Ms. Sam says as I notice my pants ripped open and my leg has a red mark where the Siren¡¯s sank its teeth.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t hurt anyone of you, badly right?¡± I asked her while looking around.


    ¡°No dude, it was a nice pace that you wanted to eat all of us. I thought you turned into a zombie dude, what the fuck.¡± Amaguchi says jokingly as he lay on his back.


    After a while, they told me to lie down and rest. Kana along with a couple of people decided to sleep while Daikichi stayed awake to explain everything to me since I couldn¡¯t sleep. He told me after we got out of the river, it wasn¡¯t long before they found the roof where they placed me to rest. When I woke up, I tried to kill them all without saying anything. Luckily, he told me I didn¡¯t use my skill while I was going crazy or else it would have been a different outcome.


    ¡°Dude, it¡¯s like you''re a different person," Daikichi whispers as he kept the fire going with the wood Suyeon gave them. It seems like she stored so much in her bag that we don''t need to go around collecting branches.


    ¡°We have to be careful of the monsters. How many days ago they left?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°They left around the same time we got here. There was a person here and begged us to save everyone. I might be wrong but, I think I saw him as one of the slaves in the bandit hideout.¡± Daikichi says making me remember the one diamond I lost trying to save a mother and son.


    ¡°I wonder what¡¯s Dorang up to," I whisper as I watch the flame flicker. "We have to be careful not to get bitten. Being out in the open water like this is making my hair stand up."


    ¡°I heard this place was an outpost and the village is a couple of miles away. I don¡¯t know how fast that little girl ran but the village is definitely isn¡¯t walking distance from where we found her.¡± Daikichi explains as I look around us. The moon shone down the water and I was tempted to send fire everywhere to burn the trees around us as I kept thinking about the sirens.


    ¡°Do you think she¡¯s not human?¡± Daikichi asks me.


    ¡°The sirens? I doubt it. It also seems like they only prey on children. That¡¯s why-¡°


    ¡°They took her brother.¡± Daikichi blurted out.


    ¡°The little girl?¡± I looked at him and he just kept feeding the fire with a grim look.


    ¡°Ugh, thinking about those MMORPG games, this place is like hell. Bandits, monsters that eat children, this is nothing like the games we played back home." He says as he looks up the sky staring at earth right above us. ¡°Well, get some rest. I¡¯ll stay up and switch with Amaguchi. The weeping siren never made it this far, so I think we¡¯re safe. If anything, I¡¯ll wake you up right away.¡±


    Feeling weak still even after eating, I decided to agree and lay down. Even when I tried, I couldn¡¯t sleep knowing that I might wake up and kill them all in their sleep. I watched Earth as it rotated and after a while, I noticed Daikichi fall asleep, so I decided to stay up and guard them. It¡¯s the least I can do given the fact that they went through a lot to keep me alive.


    ¡°Damn Yasu, it¡¯s hard when there are people around. Protecting people is hard.¡± I whisper to myself thinking that it was way easier by myself. Fighting, eating, sleeping, rinse and repeat, I didn¡¯t have any responsibilities of taking care of people. So far, I¡¯ve been getting hurt easily due to using my body as a shield or helping them stay alive.


    If they don¡¯t get stronger, we won''t last against Unum.I whisper in my mind thinking that each and every overlord could probably have murdered them while I was sleeping.


    ¡°Shit,¡± I whisper thinking of the possibilities. Morning hits and Kana scolded Daikichi for falling asleep making me stay up and do guard duty. I just laughed at him looking like a sad puppy as Kana lectures him. It made me remember when we¡¯re in our club room but that soon faded as I had more important things that have been circulating through all night.


    ¡°Guys, huddle up. I need to tell you something.¡± I tell them and they all surrounded me like I¡¯m about to tell a campfire story.


    ¡°Ok, to start. Thank you for saving me multiple times. But I think we need to focus on getting you all stronger. This way, you can protect yourself easily.¡± I tell them and some of them looked a bit down probably blaming themselves for the fact that I got hurt multiple times due to saving them which wasn¡¯t my intention of portraying.


    ¡°Listen, when I ran towards the forest before the storm, I met Unum again,¡± I say and most of their eyes went wide.


    ¡°What? What did he say?¡± Kana asked.


    "Well, he used the image of my mother to lure me out and when I got to a certain distance, all of the overlords surrounded me in an instant," I tell them and they all diligently listened. "Basically, he gave me an offer to join them which I refused and punched him in the face.¡±


    ¡°You what?!¡± Ms. Sam eyes went wide giving me a better look at her blue iris.


    ¡°I thought I would do at least a bit of damage but, even when my punch was packed with my skill, I didn¡¯t even leave a dent. There is no doubt about it that if any of the overlords attacked you guys while I was unconscious, you all would have easily died. Which is why you guys need to get stronger.¡± I explain to them but even in this situation, we won¡¯t be able to train if we¡¯re surrounded by water.


    ¡°So, what do we need to do?¡± Amaguchi asked.


    ¡°When they come back, we need to leave at dawn, so we don¡¯t come across those sirens. We¡¯ll head for the mountains and look for a dungeon.¡± I explain to them.


    ¡°Back to a dungeon?¡± Lisa asked worried and I know they all had bad experience inside a dungeon making it harder for them to probably agree to the idea.


    ¡°Want to know how I got so strong? It wasn¡¯t because I trained like a madman out here, it was because of a hidden dungeon I got stuck inside for a year. If we can find a dungeon, it¡¯s surely teeming with monsters. One, it definitely will drop equipment¡¯s for you all to use and two can help you all level up.¡± I explained to them my experiences inside the hidden dungeon and not once they protested which came in a bit surprised thinking that they''ll start to disagree right away the minute I said dungeon.


    "True, I feel like we''re not progressing and always coming across issues that lead to near-death experiences," Daikichi says.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know about you guys but, I¡¯m down. I just want to get out of this area.¡± Lisa says and they all nod in agreement. After waiting for a while, we notice them coming back which surprised us all as they waved happily seeing us.


    ¡°Holy shit,¡± Lisa whispers as we all stare at the army of people behind them. The whole village is on their makeshift raft and they all are floating towards us.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± Suyeon shouts my name as she got close to the roof and ran towards my way hugging me tightly. Little Nala also ran towards Ms. Sam and Kana.


    ¡°Took us a while but we finally found them How you are feeling kiddo?¡± Goro-sensei says as he approached me.


    ¡°Well, I would say they found us.¡± Ms. Miki-sensei whispers as she stretches out her arms yawning. As I look at the people that came with them, I see someone they look my way trying to remember a familiar face they see.


    ¡°You, you¡¯re Yasu are you not?¡± An old man approaches me, and I look at him warily while having his hand out. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    I grabbed his hands as he kneels in front of me like I¡¯m some kind of king.


    ¡°Uhh, ¡­what¡¯s going on?¡± I whisper at Suyeon who still hugging me.


    ¡°Oh, they all know you. They said they owe their lives to you.¡± Goro-sensei whisper and it made me remember what Daikichi said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± I tried to look at all of the people they brought as they started pulling their rafts towards the rooftop.


    ¡°Come on bro, don¡¯t tell me you forgot all of us?¡± A voice ranged from the group and a familiar face emerges out stepping into the roof.


    ¡°Fucking hell, you¡¯re still alive Dorang,¡± I say lightly punching him as he got close to me.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m a bandit after all. Dying is not my forte~¡± Seeing a familiar face was refreshing but somehow, deep down inside I felt agitated. More people mean more thing I have to worry about protecting.


    ¡°Huh, I thought you¡¯d be far away by now. The hell you are doing living in this town?¡± I looked at him while raising an eyebrow.


    ¡°Well, that was the plan.¡± He tells me looking at all the people. ¡°When I left, they all followed me, and we all ended up in the town around this area. Since there were too many of us, they let us build our own village.¡±


    ¡°Wow, who¡¯s the village chief? You?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha no. I leave that to these old folks who moved in with us.¡± He tells me as he points towards the old man that kneeled before me.


    ¡°Are these all the villagers?¡±


    ¡°Well, these are the people you saved. For some odd reason, once the storm came, the other villagers disappeared before it even happened. I remember visiting the village and the whole place was empty as if they knew it was coming. Fucking bastards not even warning us.¡± The minute he tells me, I paused trying to think of the whole situation. ¡°Shit, so what now? Where are you guys headed? We were heading towards the mountain to get to dry land. There''s one from a distance at that area.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well we¡¯re both going the same way,¡± I tell him.


    ¡°Wait, we are?¡± Takumi asked and I nod.


    ¡°I¡¯ll explain later once we set out. Since its daylight still, we all should go now.¡± I tell them and Suyeon along with Goro-sensei who seems to be confused at the sudden change of direction.


    I approached Suyeon who stopped hugging me a while ago and moved towards Lisa, ¡°Hey, uh. Thanks for saving me.¡±


    I felt icky saying thank you and she just happily nods and smiled at me. I noticed Daikichi whispering with Kana while looking at us. He had an expression making me want to punch his face as he giggled with Kana without removing their gaze at us. After we all got acquainted, we quickly got on the raft as fast as possible and headed for the mountains. Dorang along with Little Nala got on our raft and they slowly pushed off to float away towards the mountain.


    I hear them all talk together about a plan after getting to the mountain, but my mind is something else different. As a team, we need to get stronger. I¡¯m going to beat some level into these guys.I need to get stronger. And fulfill my resolve.


    ¡°Status window,¡± I whisper to myself as we floated along slowly. Everyone was huddled at the middle of the raft and the rest of the group followed us behind with their rafts.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Status Window


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Name


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yasu


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Class


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    BLADE


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Level


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    297


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Guild


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    skill level


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Grill


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    200


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Fry


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    220


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boil


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    140


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Steam


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bake


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Bartender


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Sharpen


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    400


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Inspect


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    270


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Overdrive


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    90


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Heaven''s Slice


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    380


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Seismic Step


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    610


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Pound


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    530


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Skill list page 2, to view say(Page 2)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skills


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Passive skill description


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chef''s soul


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you a chef''s natural abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Purify


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Midas touch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    All food and beverages you create taste better


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Mind break


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Upon immediate extreme danger mentally and physically, you will lose all sanity and limits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chefs knife


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Leather


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wear leather equipment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Ham


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Gives you the ability to wield hammers of all types.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Wolverine


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Boost your healing abilities by 7% when eating.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Page two,¡± I whisper to open another page and look at my new set of skills.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2" width="787">


    Skill list Page 2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Knockout


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    97


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Tenderize


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    317


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Scorch


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    107


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Freeze


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    170


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Pierce


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    87


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Dark


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Master Blade


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    Hell¡¯s Blood


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="393">


    7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I sat on the raft looking at the last three skill. The most dangerous skills I have. These skills are even worse than overdrive. I almost died using them, so I vowed to only activate the skills when I¡¯m fighting Luro. I smiled to myself as the skill window disappears and I look at the morning sky. Right on the horizon in front of us, is our destination. I¡¯m not going to lie; I miss fighting strong enemies. I''m sick and tired of running away from things that don''t matter. Now, I only have one focus, one goal I need to achieve to end all of this.


    Oh, Yasu. I whisper in my mind before blurting out, ¡°You will never change. Kekekekeke.¡±

 CHAPTER 53: The base of the mountain

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 53: The base of the mountain


    <hr>


    We floated along the river heading towards the mountain. The plan is, to use the river and move faster covering as much distance as we can before nightfall. We¡¯ll use the river to travel and once it starts turning away from the mountain, we¡¯ll need to get off it and enter the watery forest. I explained to Takumi what I have planned earlier, and he was all for it. I guess he¡¯s also feeling the stagnant situation we¡¯re currently in. Everyone else agrees, wanting to become stronger but I felt bad because they might think their weakness is causing me trouble.


    But as much as reality hurts, it¡¯s true.


    ¡°What happened after you met Unum?¡± Takumi asked as we paddle the raft increasing our speed. There are more rafts steadily following us from Dorang¡¯s group. A Lot of them I guess are the slaves from the bandit town while a few elders and a handful of people are from the town itself that stayed with them. Even they didn¡¯t know why the whole town disappeared without a trace before the storm.


    ¡°Nothing. After they left, Suyeon found me.¡± I say skipping out the part that the gold team is hot on our trail. It¡¯s best to keep them focus so we can keep pushing forward and reach the mountain as soon as possible.


    ¡°Damn. So they inaugurated a new overlord huh. We need to deal with them all at once or else they¡¯ll keep multiplying.¡± Daikichi says and I nod my head.


    ¡°Yasu, how are other dungeons like? We have never been in another dungeon except for the first one we woke up on." Kana asked and memories from my past experience of the Sky Kings dungeon resurfaces making me feel a bit sad remembering Mole.


    "Yeah, even I''m curious, we also never went to a dungeon after we found our castle since we never really had good memories in them. We focused on training ourselves leveling up by exploring the forest or killing area bosses.¡± Takumi says which surprised me a bit. They¡¯ve been out here for a year and by now, they should have at least gone to a couple of dungeons. To hear that they have never gone back to another dungeon and focused on bosses made me remember Suyeon¡¯s battle with the wolf-boar hybrid boss.


    ¡°You guys saw the Sky Kings Dungeon right?¡± I asked Takumi and he nods in agreement.


    ¡°We also saw a bit of your memory when you fought the dragon. Damn that was straight out of an action movie.¡± He says making me uncomfortable that Luro is running about showing my memories as he pleases. Trying to distract myself, I decided to explain to them what I think is the difference.


    ¡°From what I know based on the two dungeons, it¡¯s the same from one dungeon to the next. If you guys remember, the first dungeon was backward. We started deep in the dungeon and reversing our way out. The closer you get to the exit the stronger the enemy gets. For the sky king¡¯s dungeon, it''s kind of similar but the other way around. How it should be. Once you enter a dungeon, the portal you entered shuts down. To escape, you need to finish the dungeon or exit through the portal that¡¯s probably in the boss room. When I did the sky kings dungeon, there was a portal in the dragon¡¯s room which broke amid from our battle. Since the only exit I had broken into pieces, I probably had no choice but to kill him to activate initial portal I used to get into the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Damn.¡± I hear Amaguchi whispers.


    ¡°But there¡¯s a bright side, I believe that each and every dungeon has a safe zone. Remember the first dungeon you woke up in?" I asked everyone and they all nodded. ¡°That statue room was the safe zone. For the Sky King¡¯s dungeon, the safe zone was before the boss room.¡±


    I hear some of them sigh with relief and I know the feeling of having a safe area to be able to sleep soundly at night.


    "Oh, yeah, I remember we placed the dungeon keeper in there to watch over the dungeon," Takumi says making me remember the one that stayed in the safe zone.


    ¡°Yea I saw him. He¡¯s the one who gave me a map.¡± I tell him leaving the part I made his daughter run away.


    "I wonder why he didn''t tell us you met him," Takumi says but his expression tells me he suddenly realized the answer as he looks at me. ¡°Never mind, I think I know.¡±


    I laugh nervously as he probably figured out that I threatened the dungeon keeper. To steer him away from his thoughts, I continued talking explaining my theory of the dungeons in this world. ¡°The good thing was, that safe zone had everything you need to replenish. The problem is, it was so small, it probably was meant for only for one person. Which was perfect for me at that time.¡±


    ¡°Ohhh, I''m getting excited," Amaguchi says and they all started chuckling as he started doing a weird body shake.


    "So how do we find a dungeon?" Goro-sensei asked, and I paused for a minute thinking of a way.


    "I wanted to ask the locals if there are any unclaimed dungeons around the area but, as I heard from Dorang, everyone got up and left before the storm. I don''t think anyone from this new group would know anything about this area.¡± I whisper thinking about where they all really came from before being abducted by the bandits.


    ¡°You got anything out of the chest? No one was able to solve it.¡± Takumi asked.


    "Item bag," I whisper, and I catch my bag mid-fall. "Hmm, let me see. I got some potions inside but that¡¯s all gone now. I also got this empty black book.¡±


    I took out the black book and handed to him. He flipped through the empty pages before handing it back to me.


    "I wonder who put those in there," Takumi whispers as I tried to remember something. "From what I know, these hidden chests aren''t made by Luro but adventurers or demons who places them there. Did you find anything else?¡±


    ¡°I did get some weapons and another book for Suyeon. Suyeon, does that book say anything?¡± I look at her and she quickly calls out her item bag catching it with a bear hug. She quickly took out the book and opened it flipping through pages.


    ¡°What does the book say?¡± I say getting close to her trying to read the contents but it¡¯s a blank page.


    ¡°I-it says how to use my skills like Jump and other things I don¡¯t have yet since my level is too low.¡± She says flipping through the blank pages with her face turning red. She hands me the book and as I flipped through it, it was like the black book. The pages were empty.


    ¡°Uhh, you do know these pages are blank right?¡± I tell her and she looked at me confused.


    ¡°But there''s a word written right here. L-like this one. It says how to use the skill Jump." She tells me pointing at a blank page. Lisa peeked over her shoulder and even she''s seeing a blank white page.


    ¡°Uhh, Suyeon, that''s a blank page," I say as I watch her finger pointing towards nothing.


    "Wait, maybe only you read it?¡± Takumi tells her and what he said made me realize the black book in my hand.


    ¡°Maybe one of us can read this?¡± I handed the book to Suyeon to see if she can read anything, but she shook her head. We passed around the book but nothing. None of us can read anything in the book.


    "Maybe this book is just a normal diary," Daikichi says flipping through the blank pages of the black book. ¡°Like something you should write on.¡±


    ¡°Maybe-¡°


    ¡°Heeeeey! Sir Yasu!¡± I hear someone shout and as I look back, I see him waving at us while his companions paddle to catch up to us. ¡°Sir, can we tie our rafts together? I think it would be better.¡±


    Thinking about it, if there¡¯s more raft, there would be more room to move around so I asked everyone, and they all agreed to let everyone tie their raft with ours. Once they got close, they grabbed onto to their raft and used a vine to tie it together.


    ¡°Dorang, what happened to the slaves I bought with one diamond? The mother and son.¡± I asked him while I looked around.


    ¡°Oh them? Well, when we left you guys, they disappeared on us also. I guess they went back home to wherever they came from.¡± He says looking sad but his expression quickly turned into a big smile as he got close to me whispering, ¡°I still have the diamond.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    I laugh a bit watching his eyebrow goes up and down. He quickly turned around and shouted orders at people telling them what to do to make the raft stronger and more stable. What was once our tiny vessel has become a huge floating contraption big enough to carry Dorang¡¯s group. Their gazes somehow are making me feel uncomfortable. Some of them would glance and look away the minute I turn to them.


    Admiration, spiritual, celebrity, these are the different things came into my mind as I try to analyze their glances towards us. I ignored it but somehow, I feel like creating a hole in the center of the raft letting everything gets sucked under. Being for more than a year, I got so used to being alone that this type of attention is making me feel uncomfortable. I tried not thinking about it but, as soon as we see land, we need to separate away from them.


    After doing some repairs on the raft, everyone got their bag and stockpiled it in the center. Having a dimensional bag is really useful since it looks like a hassle to carry heavy bags most of the time. As day progress, hunger quickly came as the rumbling of everyone¡¯s stomach echoed louder than their conversations. Good thing the new people had food stored in their bag and they happily shared it with us since our stock is running low. I didn¡¯t feel like being in debt to random strangers so after eating the food they provided and shared with us, I gave them gold which they happily accepted. I reheated the food using a frying pan and a torch before eating them. Just in case it has poison. I still don''t know any of these people and eating the food coming from them without purifying it is dangerous in my opinion. I already took the chance in the bandit town but that''s when they didn''t know who I was. I believe people in this raft have a pretty good idea of my identity.


    Nightfall quickly came and with so many people on night watch, it¡¯s practically impossible to be caught off guard. What¡¯s also impossible is sleeping. With so many unfamiliar presences, I couldn¡¯t fall asleep at the uncomfortable feeling of being surrounded by people I don''t usually associate with have limited my speech making me just nod and stick to small talks.


    "Sir, the back and the sides are being watched carefully, sir.¡± One guy suddenly came up saluting me like I¡¯m a general.


    "Uh, ok," I tell him and he quickly turned around placing himself on the rear of the raft watching our back. Daikichi also didn¡¯t sleep as I see him slowly walking towards my way with a torch in hand.


    ¡°Well hello, mister president." He jokingly says and I lightly punch him in the shoulder.


    ¡°Haha, very funny. What the hell is wrong with these people?¡± I Whisper trying not to be heard by anyone near us.


    ¡°Well, you did save them. Believe it or not, you gave everyone a second chance at life.¡± He slowly sits up and I hand him a cup with hot water inside. I didn¡¯t have any tea but the hot water was enough to warm us during the cold nights.


    "And they should live it not follow one random dude," I tell him before sipping on the hot water.


    "Well, it''s a good thing, this way, we won''t have to be burdened doing night watch," Daikichi says before blowing onto the cup I gave him.


    "I rather do night watch than risk getting my throat cut open in my sleep," I tell him and we both laughed a bit as we stayed one section of the raft. No one approached us as we talk through the night reminiscing our past and thought about what we will do when we get back. If, we ever get back. Daytime quickly rose and I feel like we''re getting closer to the mountain. Once everyone woke up, I took a quick power nap closing my eyes for a brief moment while keeping my other senses sharp just in case anyone tried to do something. I trust my team and I know they''ll protect me if I ended up in deep sleep.


    ¡°Guys! Let¡¯s get out of here! This is where the river turns away from the mountain!¡± Dorang shouts making me open my eyes. I see everyone in position getting ready to paddle away from the river.


    "Well, what do you know, Daikichi is right," I whisper to myself as I rub my eyes while everyone else paddled away from the river heading into the forest. ¡°These guys are useful.¡±


    The minute we got into a dead part of the forest, I noticed the area was a complete wasteland. Trees have lost all its leaves while some were destroyed by the hurricane. Logs floated around and some of them started growing moss as the water continuously soaked it. The water quickly turned swamp green and it emitted a smell similar to decaying wet leaves. It wasn¡¯t disgusting but a strong earthly smell has lingered our noses as we paddled through the forest. As soon as we enter the swamp area, it suddenly got quiet as everyone stopped talking at the same time.


    ¡°Damn, this place smells relaxing yet, it¡¯s so creepy.¡± Ms. Sam says as she pulls little Nala towards her. Nala has been glued to her ever since she found her. It made me picture them to be mother and daughter. It¡¯s surprising no one has said anything. I guess the adults she was with earlier isn''t her parents and it still surprises me she isn''t looking for them. I didn''t want to ask since it might make her cry, so I just let it go.


    ¡°Seriously, it¡¯s so quiet. It¡¯s like there¡¯s something around us.¡± Lisa whispers as she hugs Suyeon who nonchalantly reading her book. I still wonder what¡¯s in her book but I guess it¡¯s better for only her to read it so no one can know how she¡¯s getting stronger and stronger.


    ¡°Dang it.¡± Dorang cursed out as he cleans his paddle from green vegetation as it got stuck around it. Everyone else kept paddling towards the mountain without saying a word. Even I can feel they¡¯re nervous as if something can pop out the water any minute. I took out a sword and kept it near me just in case something does. But we just floated along until the water cleared up a bit as if we just exited the swamp section.


    "Whew, good thing we''re out of that section," Dorang says as I see him sigh with relief.


    ¡°Why? What¡¯s in that section?¡± I asked him as I notice everyone¡¯s energy come back and they all started talking again while some sigh with relief.


    ¡°Nothing, we just didn¡¯t want to piss off Potamides.¡± He says while cleaning his paddle full of


    ¡°Potamides?¡± I asked and Dorang looked at me weirdly.


    ¡°You sure you were born in this era? How do you not know Potamides?¡± I can see him raising an eyebrow and I forgot he¡¯s from this world.


    ¡°What the hell is Potamides?¡± I asked him again and he placed his paddle down beside him as he faces me fully.


    ¡°They are nymphs of the water. Legend says if you come across a green part of any body of water, there might be Potamides lurking underneath. If you piss one off, I heard they take your soul away while turning you into a swamp tree.¡±


    ¡°Was that why you all were quiet?¡± I asked and he nods in return.


    ¡°They like peace and tranquility.¡± He whispers to me while looking around. ¡°They hate loud noises. Any loud noises can irritate them. Every time we see green water, we always keep it as quiet as possible. It¡¯s been like that from generation to the next.¡±


    ¡°Have you seen what potamides look like?¡± I asked him and she shook his head.


    ¡°No one has lived to tell the tale.¡± He tells me before returning to the front to help guide through the forest. After a while, we had to cut the rafts apart to be able to travel through the forest since it was too big to fit between trees. Dorang stayed on my raft while the others got on their own and followed behind us.


    "Let''s hurry, I don''t want to be here stuck at night. Last time we went into the forest in the middle of the night, we got attacked by the weeping sirens." I whisper to Dorang as we paddled towards the mountain.


    ¡°Ohh those, yeah, a couple of us almost died because of them. They like to eat kids and anyone bitten by them goes lunatic for three days. We literally had to tie up the people and untie them after the third day.¡± Dorang says and now I know why the Weeping Siren kept jumping towards Nala. They wanted to eat her.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably why she¡¯s scared of them. They probably took her brother. Damn.¡± I overheard Ms. Miki-sensei talk to Goro-sensei and they quietly kept to themselves thinking of how to take care of her. It still makes me feel a bit safe knowing there are actually real adults with us rather than another Rikimura.


    It¡¯s been a while since we''re paddling and the sun started to set on the horizon. Once nighttime falls, I told Takumi and Suyeon to remain awake through the night since they''re the only one I know strong enough to handle a couple of weeping sirens just in case they''re around the area. Dorang also stayed awake with a couple of people he thinks can handle their own.


    The problem is, every one from his group isn''t adventurers and even Dorang himself isn''t an adventurer so they have no skills and can''t see the levels on top the monsters head. It''s one information he explained to me earlier when I asked how many adventurers are in his group. I never really understood the adventurer system but the way I see it as he explained to me, if you don''t sign up to be an adventurer, you''re just a normal person. No powers, no skills, and can''t see the level and names of the monsters that have them. When they die, they die normally and don''t turn into dust like us. He told me most bandits who have a low rank aren''t adventurers. The only ones are the top guys like the big boss and the ones who make the portal for them to escape in a tight situation. He was going to sign up to be an adventurer once he got back to the big city but the big storm happened to destroy his plans.


    "And that''s why it''s a good thing we found you guys." Dealing with the weeping sirens, we got lucky. But I don''t think it will be the same the next time they attack us." He tells me and I guess that''s why I see them be much more relaxed around us. We''re their only hope of survival at the moment until they all get to the big city.


    We decided to camp for the night tying our rafts together again creating a platform that spans from trees to trees. We placed Nala and most of the regular people in the middle and placed ourselves surrounding the area ready to deflect any weeping siren that might come out of nowhere. But as night quickly came, it quickly disappeared once the sun started rising.


    ¡°That was the longest night. Ever.¡± Amaguchi says as he yawns stretching his arms upward. Once everyone woke up, we cut the raft back up and those who stayed up all night went to sleep as we traveled through the forest. I closed my eyes but tried to keep my conscious alert. As I was about to fall asleep, I heard gasp and noises as if they see something horrifying.


    ¡°Ugh, what happened?¡± I asked as I slowly open my eyes and see everyone at the edge of the raft staring at one direction. ¡°What ha-¡°


    I suddenly stop talking as I stood up and see what Kana and the rest of them are looking at.


    "Holy shit, so this is where they all got dragged to," Lisa whispers as she tries to count them but they were too many. All the animals that once traverse the forest have been piled up into one location. Boars, bears, wolves, even giant scorpions and among other things are attacking each other. They must have swum to the mountain seeking dry land.


    ¡°What do we do?¡± Kana asked as she looks at me and I gave her a smile.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one thing to do," I tell her and she looks back towards the mountain full of monsters. "Kill them all."

 CHAPTER 54: Life comes from the earth

    <hr>


    Chapter 54: Life comes from the earth


    <hr>


    ¡°All of them?¡± Lisa whispers as she still tries to count but there are so many monsters it looked like a war zone from animal planet. The mountain itself is disappearing into the clouds. It wasn¡¯t completely vertical as the area where the water rose up to is still flat enough for us to dock.


    That is if they let us dock on it.


    There are so many mobs in the area that it makes my skin itch wanting to jump over them and descend with a skill obliterating everything. Every strand of hair on my arms rose up giving me goosebumps as I watch them all move everywhere creating havoc.


    "Ok, stop the raft," I whisper and they tried their best to paddle the opposite way until the raft came to a slow halt. We quickly tied it to a tree and everyone else behind us did the same tying his or her rafts to ours.


    "Holy shit, uh, that''s a death trap," Dorang whispers looks at the mountain with a worried expression. As far as my eyes can see, there is no section they can enter safely.


    "Okay everyone, huddle up," I tell them and they came surrounding me. ¡°Those who aren¡¯t adventurers, please stay on the raft until we clear the area. Everyone else, we¡¯re going to clear the whole mountain. Don''t wander off fighting a monster on your own. Some of the monsters there are probably at a higher level than you guys so don''t attack those. Leave those to me, Takumi, and Suyeon.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t we go solo do?¡± Amaguchi asked.


    ¡°You can probably kill one weaker than you by yourselves but, if they gang up on you, that¡¯s an automatic death wish. We need to know and train ourselves to work as a team. We need to be able to flow together and easily take care of a monster. If we ever find a dungeon, we need to be able to deal with the boss smoothly.¡± I explained to them while remembering our encounter with the gold team.


    "True," Kana says.


    "Last time we fought as a team, we lost," I tell them trying to make them remember our ordeal with the gold.


    ¡°And, we shouldn¡¯t rely on your alternate.¡± Ms. Sam says and I nod.


    "Every time I use him, I don''t know if he''s slowly eating away my conscious but, I don''t want to use him to the point he replaces me altogether," I tell them but in the end, I know I would use him even if he eats my consciousness away.


    ¡°Ok, we got this. This seems¡­¡± Lisa¡¯s voice trails as she looks back at the horde of mixed monsters attacking each other. ¡°Seems easy enough¡­probably.¡±


    "Don''t worry, if you guys get into a sticky situation, we''ll come and help out," I tell them as I look at Takumi and Suyeon and they both nod my way. I look back at Dorang and he was too busy staring at the horde from a distance.


    ¡°Ok, even if I was an adventurer, I am not going to do what ya¡¯ll are thinking.¡± I can see his expression turns from fear to disgust.


    ¡°Even better. Just stay here. Once it¡¯s clear, I¡¯ll wave to you guys and you can cut the raft apart and paddle towards us.¡± I tell him and he nod.


    "Ok, before we go, let''s make a plan. Anyone got any ideas on how to approach them?" Daikichi asked.


    ¡°How about, we dock on that area where the wolves and boars are. We¡¯ll go kill them and work our way from there.¡± Takumi points towards the left side where the boars and wolves seemed to have teamed up to defend themselves against bears and other monsters coming their way. "The main goal is to boost up your levels. The higher level you guys get, the stronger the skills you can obtain."


    ¡°Ok, item bag.¡± I caught my bag and took out my remaining swords and gave it to them. Even Ms. Sam held a sword. They¡¯re healers, but want them to fight and be able to defend themselves.


    ¡°Kiddo, you got a shield?¡± Goro sensei asked Takumi who called out his bag to take out a small shield.


    ¡°Sorry, not really a shield person and this is one of the weapons I collected in the first dungeon.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s ok. This will do.¡± Goro-sensei says as he wore the shield on his left forearm.


    ¡°Daikichi, here," I say to Daikichi holding up my last two swords to him.


    ¡°What about you?¡± He asked looking worried.


    ¡°Won¡¯t need a sword. Those things are weak enough that I can handle them bare hands. You¡¯ll need this more than I do. Take it.¡± I say and he slowly nods grabbing the sword out of my hands.


    ¡°Ok, everyone ready?¡± I asked and they all nod. We cut the vines holding us to the tree and slowly paddled towards the boars leaving Dorang and his group behind. They started getting ready scampering around rearranging the rafts so they can easily paddle at a moment¡¯s notice. As we paddled towards shore, the closer we get, the louder their roars become and it feels like we''re about to enter an untamed zoo.


    ¡°I got this. I can do this. I got this.¡± I hear Lisa whisper over and over again, as we get closer and closer. I see some of the wolves have spotted us approaching and they turned our way barking at the edge of the water.


    "Once, we''re close, go for the wolves first. They attack in packs so stick close together." I tell them and they all nod. "We''ve dealt with wolves before so this should be easy. Just stick together. After that, study their levels and work your way up from there. Don¡¯t be a hero.¡±


    They all nod watching the wolves as they continuously barked at us. Once we got closer, I got down and pulled the raft while keeping the wolves at bay. I guess my presence is keeping them at bay.


    ¡°Now!¡± I shouted and they all jumped out of the raft charging at the wolves. Amaguchi almost tripped but he quickly regained is composure as everyone ran towards the wolves while the wolves met them halfway. I focused my vision on what¡¯s beyond them and I see a bunch of black bears running towards us.


    Shit, if they attacked everyone, it might become too dangerous.I whisper in my mind as I see the level on top of their head.


    I ran towards the black bears and without giving out orders, Takumi and Suyeon quickly followed behind me. Suyeon launched herself in front and kicked the bear that was leading the pack. The impact was so strong the bear flew across dragging almost every black bear with it before its body exploded on the mountain from a distance. I look back towards everyone and they have managed to deal with the wolves and started working their way up towards us dealing with giant snapping turtles.


    ¡°Go for its legs!¡± I hear Daikichi shouts as they had a hard time cracking the shell on its head. In a quick motion, Goro-sensei rushed swinging at the turtle''s legs. Amaguchi ran next to him and used the hammer to flip the turtle on its back. Lisa quickly formed an icicle on top and it punctured the belly of the turtle halfway. In one swift motion, Amaguchi used the hammer and struck the icicle piercing in more prompting the turtle to turn into dust. In a corner of my eye, I see Ms. Sam, Kana, Miki-sensei and Mamoru staying back as they watched them deal with the turtle. Their hands are green while Mamoru stands around in a ready position. They were so focused on what in front of them they didn''t notice a wolf coming from the back.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I shout right before the wolf jumped to bite Mamoru¡¯s neck. In an instant, a portal appeared in between them and the wolf ended up jumping into it. Another portal appeared way above them and I see the same wolf come out falling at a height it will probably die from an impact. Daikichi jumped and he swung both swords decapitating the wolf prompting it to turn into dust midair.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± I hear Takumi whisper behind me. As I turn around, red bears with foam coming out of their mouth are running towards us. ¡°Those things contain a high potent of toxins. Don¡¯t let any blood or the foam in their mouth get into yours.¡±


    ¡°Toxins? I might be immune to any poison.¡± I whisper as I remember the poison spitters I dealt in the hidden dungeon. I walked towards the horde clenching my fist as excitement travels through my whole body. ¡°Pound~¡±


    My skill enchased my fist as I felt it vibrate. I stood my ground and waited for the first bear to launch itself at me. The moment it got closed, it jumped like a wolf with its claws ready to cut me to pieces.


    "Seismic step," I whisper and in an instant, I close the gap between us aiming my fist right in the center of its chest. Using my body weight, I swung towards the bear with all my might. I felt its bones crack as my fist dug in before launching him into a distance. The bear flew a few feet away only to bounce around the ground like a lifeless rag doll. The rest of the bear jumped trying to bite me all at once and I brought my fist towards the ground.


    ¡°Knockout!¡± I felt a vibration on my fist as a rune formed under me and in an instant, each and every red bear fell to the ground unconscious. I slowly stood up and looked at Takumi. ¡°Call everyone.¡±


    He nods towards me and he ran towards Daikichi who was too busy dealing with another turtle. Takumi quickly dealt with the turtle as I see his points towards me after turning the turtle into dust. The difference in their power is so big that, they probably noticed it as they look at awe towards Takumi who killed the turtle with one swing.


    ¡°What happened here?¡± Dakichi says trying to avoid the red bear sleeping around the area.


    ¡°They¡¯re sleeping. Do you see their level?¡± I asked him and he nods.


    Poison Red Bear LVL 67


    12,720/15,000


    "Kill them," I tell him pointing at the red bears. "They won¡¯t wake up even when you stab them so this should be easy.¡±


    ¡°O-ok.¡± He says as he aimed his sword towards the bear. Daikichi waited a few minutes wary of the sleeping bear just in case it wakes up but, even when it got stabbed right in the neck, it slept soundly as blood poured out of its mouth.


    ¡°It won¡¯t wake up. Aim for its heart, any vital organs. That usually will give a critical hit." I explain to him as I point at the bear¡¯s chest. He nods taking out his sword and stabbing the bear where I was pointing. He did it repeatedly until the bear¡¯s life reached zero and it turned into dust. He started working on the next one and everyone else followed after him killing one after another.


    Soon, the area was being covered with dust and I started walking towards the water as one monster caught my interest. I passed by Daikichi who¡¯s too busy killing a sleeping bear to even notice me.


    ¡°Hey Daikichi, can I borrow one sword. I¡¯ll give it back really quick.¡± I tell him keeping my eyes on the monster.


    "Oh, sure. Here you go." He says looking at what I''m looking at. "Are you going to kill those?"


    "Yeah, I want to cook them," I whisper as I walked towards the giant crabs. ¡°Seismic step. Sharpen.¡±


    I quickly close the gap between me and the first crab stabbing it in the eyes and the damage I death quickly killed it in an instant. I waited for a few more minutes and to my surprise, a horde of crab came out of the water and slowly walked my way snapping its claws. I went from one crab to the next stabbing it until I managed to kill all of them. I waited some more but no other crabs emerged. I walked back towards Daikichi who was watching me from a distance. Everyone behind him was working on the last bear as it suddenly turned into dust.


    ¡°How can you kill them so damn fast?¡± Daikichi asked me as he looked around as I handed the sword back to him.


    ¡°My skill is so high it boosts up my damage at a tremendous amount," I tell him and he looks at me like I¡¯m a cheater.


    "Ok, now time to chop these things up and- where is Suyeon?¡± I asked looking around and I notice explosion erupting everything towards the sky from a distance. It looked like geysers sending monsters flying to only plummet down the ground towards their death.


    ¡°There she is. Seriously. Yasu, what the hell did you do to her?¡± Daikichi asked as we all watch her happily running around kicking everything. A gust of wind erupts around her sending monsters and debris in all direction. She kept kicking so much that it¡¯s the first time I saw it rain monsters. Somehow, everything slowed down as she walks casually towards us flipping her hair as monster rain down behind her.


    ¡°I only taught her the basics¡­" I whisper watching everything go back to normal as she jumps sideways evading an attack to what seems like a giant scorpion. In an instant, she quickly closed the gap kicking the scorpion so hard it didn''t fly off but erupted in place.


    "Umm can you like¡­train me too?" Lisa says and I noticed everyone is in awe seeing her dodge enemies without looking at them. "Did you perhaps install an eye behind her back? How is she doing that?¡±


    "I don''t know, I never saw her like this," I whisper as I see her finally blossoming into what her class should actually be.


    ¡°I think her class can predict movements ahead of time," I whisper as I see her dodge attacks from the scorpion aiming at the back of her head without looking at it.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Damn, now this is getting me fired up! Let''s do this! Come on, guys! Let''s kill those things next!" Amaguchi shouts as he points towards giant rats.


    Ratatouille Level 25


    10,000 / 10,000


    ¡°That name¡­¡± I say wanting to chuckle as they all ran towards giant rats riddled with what looks like armor fitted right for them. I notice Takumi started mass killing his targets and I turned around to start collecting the crabs. Just thinking about eating it is making me excited since there are too many crabs everywhere.


    ¡°Crab stew, fried crab, boiled crab, grilled crab, crab crab crab~¡± I sang as I walked towards the mass pile of dead crabs around the area. I noticed Dorang waving at me and I scanned the area, which has cleared up a bit towards one section where the wolves used to be. I waved back at them pointing towards the area and they all started paddling. I focused on the crabs as I ripped its claws and legs piling it up on one section.


    After collecting all of it, I look back to see where there are and have finally moved halfway and started fighting giant snakes. Their movement has become more fluid with one another as they attacked in succession killing one snake after another. I guess they gained more skills as Daikichi and Amaguchi stood around probably looking at their skill window. Suyeon is still sending enemies into oblivion but she moved on to bigger targets that are four times her size.


    "What the hell are those? One-eyed ogres?" I whisper trying to see her enemy''s names but it was too far away to see. Takumi moved towards leopards and I see him have a bit of a hard time attacking them since they''re moving around him too much. But, my worries completely faded when he sliced on leopard that jumped behind him killing it in an instant. Rather than fighting, I left them to fight while I started setting up near the water where the boars and Wolves were located. Dorang has just reached the shore as they started pulling their raft into the land to prevent it from drifting away.


    ¡°Holy shit, what in the actual fuck are you guys? Gods?¡± Dorang says as he got closer to me. ¡°I have never seen shit fly up the sky like that.¡±


    BOOOM!


    An explosion happened from a distance and I felt the gust of wind on my back.


    "You''ll get used to it," I tell him as I gesture him to come closer. "Have everyone collect the crab legs I piled up. Don¡¯t worry about any enemies, I¡¯ll deflect anything that comes our way but I think we have enough land to create the camp.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Everyone! Listen! Let¡¯s collect food!¡± Dorang shouts towards the people who are one by one getting off their raft onto dry land. After he shouts a couple of orders, I see everyone move in action as the guys run towards the pile of crab legs and claws picking it up one by one and placing it towards a section far away from the monsters. While everyone scamper around, some of the younger people started collecting sticks and rocks around the area to make campfires.


    ¡°Umm, w-what should I do?¡± I hear a voice below me and I see little Nala looking up waiting for me to say something.


    ¡°Uh, how about, you help guard our raft?¡± I tell her and I grabbed our raft and dragged it towards land. I see her struggle climbing up the side of the raft but managed to do it after a few tries.


    "Okay! I won''t let anyone touch the raft!" She shouts doing a fighting position making me chuckle a bit.


    I grab a stick nearby and handed it to her. ¡°That is your weapon, only use it if necessary.¡±


    ¡°Roger!¡± She tells me saluting before placing herself in the middle of the raft holding the stick like a sword. I smiled at her but quickly changed my expression as the sudden change I¡¯m going through made me feel awkward. I turned around and walked towards the water to clean my hands.


    ¡°Ugh, when did I become so soft¡­¡± I whisper as I walked back towards the body of the giant crabs and started dragging a couple where little Nala is. Using my strength, I ripped it apart and all of its guts looked exactly the same as the crabs we have back on earth. The only difference is this one is at least a hundred times bigger. I dragged the shell back in the water while Dorang ran after me looking at awe as I easily dragged something a group would have a hard time with. After washing it, He helped me drag it back towards camp. I borrowed one of Dorang''s daggers and lit up a torch using the Dragon¡¯s breath.


    ¡°Hey, Dorang, can you guys build a fire around this shell, I''ll cook in here," I tell him handing the torch to him and he gave me a salute receiving it.


    "Sir yes sir!" He shouts laughing right afterward before barking orders at the people behind him. Even if he seems a bit off, people listen to him like a general. Once the order was out, they were quick on their feet and started setting up rocks and sticks around the shell while Dorang lit up the stick with the torch I gave him. A couple of the guys were tasked with keeping the flames lit so they kept feeding it sticks until the flames were big enough to almost go over the shell. Everyone started relaxing while I sat down on the raft that Little Nala was guarding and watched everyone fight from a distance.


    "They work really fast," Dorang says as he sits beside me. ¡°Seriously, your partner in crime is probably the strongest out of everyone. Look at her go.¡±


    ¡°Yeah," I say trying to analyze their movement but, I see that they''re handling themselves pretty well. Even when they started fighting the remaining one eye ogres, they were able to hold their own while Takumi and Suyeon eliminated the small enemies around them.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you help?¡± Dorang asked me and I shook my head.


    "They''ll never get strong if I do it for them," I whisper looking at their movements.


    ¡°Oh, that true- There we go! Yes!¡± Dorang suddenly stood in excitement as we see them deal the killing blow turning the ogre into dust. ¡°Damn! This is some experience. Fighting is nice, but watching you guys beat the shit out of everything is even better.¡±


    ¡°Sir, the water is steaming.¡± A person behind gave me a salute the minute I turn around and I still feel awkward watching them do it. I walked over towards the water and I see small bubbles coming out of the bottom as the water starts to slowly boil.


    ¡°Wait for a few until large bubbles come up. After that, let it cool down and collect the clean water for everyone to drink. Don¡¯t collect everything, leave half of the water, I¡¯m going to use it to boil some of the crab legs.¡± I tell him and he saluted me again before I walked back towards the raft.


    ¡°Ohhh, crabs. It¡¯s been a while since I ate something decent!¡± Dorang says and I can hear his stomach grumbling.


    BOOM!


    An explosion erupted again from a distance and I see ogres flying up into the sky.


    Whistles*


    ¡°Look at her go. Imagine if you piss her off.¡± Dorang says as we watch Suyeon sends monster up the sky. The minute the ogres land, everyone quickly pounced on them and soon, the whole place was covered with dust as they killed one ogre after another. Most of the monsters that watched the massacre of the ogres ran away the minute they got a chance. Some ran towards the water swimming away from us. I guess they know they¡¯ll never win. But I felt something weird as I see almost every monster run away from everyone. Rather than chasing, I see everyone sit down and I hear them all scream in joy clearing the last remaining ogre.


    ¡°Yeah!¡± Dorang shouts in excitement as he started clapping and everyone else followed cheering as at Daikichi and the rest of the group as they walked back towards us.


    Great, now we have a whole bunch of hypeman.I whisper in my mind. I scanned the area that was once teeming with monsters have become an empty wasteland.


    ¡°Yasu! Yasu! Did you see that?! We owned them!¡± Kana says getting close and I stepped back as I see them covered in purple and red blood. I didn¡¯t expect it to be cleared so fast but I guess, having more people attack one monster really speed up the process. But, in my mind, I was thinking it would take the whole day to just clear the area but it took them no more than a couple of hours due to the fact that half the monsters ran away while the rest was being made to rain down by Suyeon.


    ¡°Uhhh, wash yourselves. I¡¯ll go prepare food.¡± I whisper as I looked at them covered in red and purple stains.


    ¡°Oh, hahaha we do kinda look like a mess." She replied looking at herself and they all started walking towards a clean part of the river. The minute they entered, the river turned purple and red as the blood comes from their clothes and skin.


    "Oh! We have a soap!" Dorang says as he runs to his bag to take out a couple of bars of soap and ran towards them removing his shirt at the same time. Soon after, a lot of people followed, and they all cleaned themselves asking one question after another to Daikichi and the rest of them. A lot of girls have circled Suyeon and bombarded her with attention as they made her seems like a goddess in their eyes.


    While they clean themselves, I started throwing the crab legs and in the boiling water. Some of the guys who stayed helped me and the process became much faster than what I¡¯m used to.


    ¡°Hey, Can I collect those shiny things?¡± I hear a voice below me and as I look, I see Nala grabbing on my pants looking up and pointing towards a section.


    ¡°Are those crystals?¡± I whisper looking at something shinning on the ground.


    "Yeah, me and my brother used to collect them." She says and I see the sadness in her eyes as she probably remembered her brother. Not wanting to deny her, I nod towards her as I place my hand on her head.


    ¡°Sure, give me a minute," I tell her as I pat her head and she smiled at me nodding. I quickly jumped towards the area and brought my fist down the ground. ¡°knockout!¡±


    If there¡¯s any insects or any monsters that might be under the ground to sleep, the runes that appeared will make it safe for her to roam around. I walked back towards her and she met me halfway running happily.


    "Don''t go too far, just stay around this area," I tell her.


    "I won''t!" She says as she runs towards the crystal happily skipping with her tiny legs. I walked my way back towards the boiling crab shell and flipped the legs to boil the other side.


    ¡°So what''s for lunch?¡± Ms. Sam says as s the walks towards my way and her wet clothes skin tight into her figure isn¡¯t making it easy to not look at her body.


    "U-uh I''m boiling crabs. I don''t have many ingredients but the crab in this world is to die for." I whisper averting my gaze as she looks around.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Nala going?¡± she asked me.


    ¡°To collect some of those crystals.¡± I tell her and she kept staring at Nala who happily picked up her first crystal. ¡°don¡¯t worry, I used a skill that should have knocked out monsters in the area. Even under the ground.¡±


    ¡°Nala! Don¡¯t go too far!¡± Ms. Sam shouts and we see her look at us smiling and waving innocently then went back to collect one crystal after another. She stood up after picking up one last crystal and she started jogging towards us struggling to keep the crystals in her arms as she bears hugs them.


    ¡°Aww, isn¡¯t she cute?¡± Ms. Sam says, and I chuckle a bit.


    ¡°Yea she is-¡° I suddenly stop as I see the rocks vibrate towards one direction. I felt the ground shake a bit but Ms. Sam didn¡¯t notice as she kept smiling waiving towards Nala. All of a sudden, the floor started shaking violently like an earthquake is happening and I see Nala trip dropping all of the crystals on the ground as it clatters in front of her. The tiny earthquake suddenly stopped, and we see her started collecting her crystals happily off the ground as some of them rolled away from her.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go help her Ms. Sam. I don¡¯t feel comfortable for some reason-" I suddenly stopped as I see a weird silhouette behind her.


    ¡°Nala! Come back!¡± I shouted towards her running and all of a sudden, something appeared behind her showing its figure. ¡°Nala!¡±


    In one swing, the giant creature made from dirt itself swung at Nala hitting her in the back sending her flying like a bullet towards one direction.


    ¡°Seismic step!!¡± I rushed towards her catching her in mid-air. The impact of her body sent both of us flying into a distance and I hugged her as tight as I can use my body as a cushion.


    BOOOM!


    ¡°Ack!¡± I wince in pain as I felt my backslide onto the ground. It was like I was sliding on sandpaper.


    Groaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!


    The sound it let out was so loud, I felt like my ears will erupt. Rather than covering myself, I placed my hand on Nala¡¯s ears that remained unconscious on top of me. It didn¡¯t last long for it to stop and I felt something trickle down my ears as I quickly stand up and ran towards Ms. Sam who¡¯s slowly getting up. Her expression went pale as she sees Nala¡¯s lifeless body on my arms.


    " No! No! No! Heal!" Ms. Sam shouts as she places her hands on Nala while I quickly set her down the ground. Her arms were broken but I¡¯m more worried about internal damages.


    ¡°Suyeon! Takumi! Keep that thing busy! Kana! Miki-sensei! We need your help!!¡± I shouted out and Takumi suddenly charged towards the giant earth creature along with Suyeon who launched herself towards its face. I got a good glimpse at it before catching Nala and it looked like a golem.


    BOOM!


    Suyeons kick erupted its head but it quickly rebuilt itself back as fast as it was destroyed. Takumi went and tried to slice its arms but like its head, it rebuilt itself a new arm before the severed one fell to the ground.


    ¡°Shit! Daikichi! Everyone! Help them!¡± I shout and they all ran towards the giant golem. Kana and Miki-sensei finally reached us and I can see the complexion on their face as they tried to heal Nala who remained unconscious.


    ¡°Everyone, keep healing her," I say to them in a calm tone and I knew if I don¡¯t do something, she won¡¯t make it. I place my hand near Little Nala¡¯s chest who started spitting out blood. I hear everyone¡¯s muffled voice and I tried to control my breathing as I close my eyes.


    "Hidden trait, activate," I whisper and a window appeared in front of me.


    <table width="687">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Activate life transfer?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Yes or No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Yes.¡± My hand glowed and I felt energy slowly exiting my body as the light coming out of my chest traveled into Little Nala¡¯s.


    ¡°Y-Yasu?" Kana muffled voice echoed in my ear and I gave her a smile as she looks up at me worried.


    "It''s fine. Keep healing." I tell her and she gave me a nod as I focused on healing her. Based on what they told me, this is the second time I activated this skill. I did something similar to Kana when she was on the verge of death.


    ¡°Argh.¡± I wince in pain as my chest felt like it was on fire. The light orbs coming out of my chest felt like it was made out of magma. My arms become heavy and it was getting harder to hold it in position.


    cough!


    Cough!


    ¡°Nala!¡± Ms. Sam shouts as Nala started breathing normally again after coughing up the remaining blood that probably entered her lungs. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes slowly and the first person she looked was me. I gave her a smile and I felt like my consciousness will disappear at any moment.


    ¡°Life transfer deactivate!¡± I shout and the light suddenly stopped, and I fell on my back as all the energy was pulled out of my body.


    ¡°Yasu!" Kana and Ms. Miki sensei shout in unison as they rushed towards me. I waved them to stop as I slowly forced myself up.


    ¡°I¡¯m ok. I just need to rest a bit.¡± I whisper and I couldn¡¯t look them in the eye.


    ¡°But Yasu, you-¡°


    "Kana, if I didn''t, she would have died," I whispered looking back at Little Nala who was hugging Ms. Sam. The picture of them embracing each other reminded me and my mother.


    "If I didn''t do it, Ms. Sam will be sad," I whisper as I slowly stood up. ¡°Now, let¡¯s go deal with that thing.¡±


    "E-earth g-god?" Ms. Miki sensei says as she read the name of the giant earth monster who is constantly bombarded with attacks. But even how much they attack it, it''s health rarely went down and it kept rebuilding itself.


    Earth God (AREA BOSS)


    99,676,100 / 100,000,000


    "Fucking hell, its health is outrageous," I whisper as I slowly walked towards it.


    ¡°Yasu wai-" Kana suddenly stopped as she caught up with me and saw my expression.


    I was smiling.


    ¡°That is really outrageous~¡± I sang as I walked towards it like a zombie.


    But today is its unlucky day. He''s about to meet someone more outrageous. I say in my mind as I couldn¡¯t contain my smile. My vision started to become blurry and it felt like the world is spinning in all directions.


    Cough*


    Cough*


    I feel like I¡¯m ready to sleep at any moment and I tried my best to hold onto my conscience.


    ¡°Overdrive," I whisper my skill and felt my body regain all of its energy. ¡°Seismic step.¡±


    I kept walking slowly and as I got closer, I got into a position ready to jump directly into it. I closed my eyes and listened to all the muffled sounds around me. I inhaled as much as I can before slowly exhaling to calm my mind. I slowly opened my eyes and I felt all the energy surge through my body as my smile got wider and wider.


    "Hell''s blood," I felt my body burn as blood red flames encased my hands and shoulders. Veins appeared from my neck traveling across my face surrounding my eyes while it turned black and red enabling me to see heat signatures. I feel like my body is burning from the inside as I turned into a demon.

 CHAPTER 55: The guild leader and sub-leader

    <hr>


    Chapter 55: The guild leader and sub-leader


    <hr>


    I felt my insides burn as if hell itself wants to get out of me. I stared at the golem and without even looking around, I sense the slightest movement up to the drop of somebody¡¯s sweat. I see everyone''s body heat yet, looking at the golem was the same as looking at a corpse. No body heat, no internal organs, he¡¯s just full of dirt and rocks.


    "Well, this is going to be a difficult one," I muttered to myself as I try to look for a vulnerable spot of the Earth God but nothing. No weak points on any part of its body. It closely resembles a rock golem you can find in picture books. Its foot is planted into the ground and the head lacks any facial features. Even in a short amount of time, it turned into a giant as it towered over me blocking the sun.


    Without wasting any more time, I clench my fist as I tighten the muscles in my legs. Heat formed at the end of my knuckles as flames started collecting encasing my whole hand. I jet towards the Earth God and every step I took left a fiery footprint that slowly turned the ground into magma. I felt the soil beneath me as the flame slowly melted my shoes and burned my pants halfway up to my knees. I prepared myself yet, the smile never left my face as the adrenaline rushed all over my body.


    I propelled forward as the ground below me became a blur. Within seconds, I was in front of the Earth God as everyone ran away from it. Or maybe from me. Using all my weight, I swung towards its chest and the recoil of my attack sent my arms flinging backward as a crater appeared and his whole body was lifted a couple of feet into the air, ripping its feet off the ground. Even without a mouth, it let out a loud sound similar to crane machines mixed with a dinosaur¡¯s roar. It fell on its back and the shockwave was enough to blow everyone away. Without waiting for it to recover, I landed on top the dent I made and jammed my fist inside its rocky core.


    ¡°heh~¡± I smiled as I open my hand into a palm strike. I don¡¯t know how thick the rocks around its body and even when my arm is elbow deep, I feel sharp edges and pebbles trying to puncture my skin. Its hand tried to hit me as I notice it block the sun.


    ¡°Palm Shock!!¡± I held my arm as I felt the skill travel from my shoulder and shooting out towards my palm. The sleeves of my shirt ripped apart and I held my arm from the elbow as firmly as I can. Everything around me exploded outwards sending rocks and dirt flying across the sky. The explosion was strong enough to push my hand out and I was sent flying back up. Even when this skill is strong enough to one shot a boss, the damage I dealt wasn¡¯t enough to even dent its health.


    ¡°Fucking zombie!¡± I felt frustrated that even when in this state, it¡¯s not enough. It still tried to grab me mid-air and I clench my fist as I flew directly to its palm. ¡°Pound!¡±


    I swung my fist forward and my attack left a flaming trail midair. The explosion sent scalding pieces of rocks and dirt like a meteor shower. I know I don''t have enough time to keep punching it until he reached zero health, so I looked around for everyone. I noticed everyone back towards the camp deflecting the flaming rocks. The minute I land, I jumped towards Takumi who tried his best dodging the flaming debris while protecting everyone behind him. I land near him and the explosion of my impact caused him to trip forward landing into a push-up position as he caught himself from face planting. Even when he can¡¯t see me through the smoke, I can see him perfectly through my heat vision.


    ¡°Lend me your swords.¡± Steam came out of my mouth as I talked. I emerge from the smoke and I can see his heart beat at an irregular pace.


    ¡°Holy shit. You look like- how did you-¡° He was speechless as he looked at me up and down.


    ¡°No time to talk. Lend me your sword.¡± I interrupt him and he carefully placed the weapons on my palm. Trying not to touch the flame covering my hands, he dropped the swords into my hands. As soon as I touch the handle, everything started melting except the blade itself that glowed red instantly.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get you a new one later. Sharpen.¡± I whisper as I looked back towards the earth god who¡¯s slowly stood up from its position. The hand I blew away has already regenerated and I can see rocks already covering his chest as if nothing happened.


    ¡°H-how do we kill that thing?¡± I hear Daikichi as I feel his presence come near me. He tried to step a bit closer but the heat from the flames around my shoulder made him step back a bit. Sweat has built up around his forehead probably both from fear and heat.


    ¡°I don''t know yet," I say to him. "But if I shed some of the rocks around its body, I might see where we can deal the final blow.¡±


    I glance at him and I can see his face is full of worries as he stared at the Earth God. I didn¡¯t want to tell him that even with my heat vision, I can¡¯t see any vulnerable spots.


    ¡°Like a core or something?¡± He asked me and I nod turning my attention back at the earth god.


    ¡°Tell everyone to be ready.¡± I clench the sword as I started walking towards it. ¡°I¡¯ll see if it has a core. If I find one, we need to attack it together and destroy it. It might instantly kill that thing.¡±


    I charged towards the earth god and in an instant, I was right below it as it stood its ground. Using both blades I swung towards its knees trying to amputate the legs. If it can¡¯t move around, it¡¯ll be easier for everyone to attack it. ¡°Heaven¡¯s slice!¡± My swing created a flaming crescent shooting out and cutting both of its legs, but it quickly regenerates as if nothing happened. The damage I dealt was a lot more but it still wasn¡¯t enough.


    ¡°Bloody hell. Fucking earth bender.¡± I whisper as I see its legs rebuild in an instant. Its hand went over my head as it slowly came down on trying to squish me like an ant. I jump back and the impact of its attack on the ground created a wind strong enough to lift me up. Suddenly a rock as big as my body flew at my direction dragging me towards the water. My body felt like a rag doll as I bounce around the surface sizzling at every impact. The minute I stopped, I felt my body submerge and bubbles started forming everywhere.


    ¡°Chef¡¯s coat!¡± I shouted underwater as I brace for impact. My body right now is similar to sodium metal. For some reason, touching water causes it to explode and the more of my body touch the water, the bigger the explosion gets. It¡¯s one of the things I learned the hard way trying to put out the flames on my shoulders before. It almost severed my arm from the joint.


    The sizzling suddenly stopped and all the bubbles got sucked towards me like a vacuum.Within seconds, an unknown force pushed everything out as I felt my body vibrate. Everything turned into a white blur as I was launched up towards the sky by the explosion. The special flame I created encased the water causing it to rain fire. The water below me was steaming and small bubbles popped up as they escape to the surface.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡± I shouted my skill and felt both swords vibrate. I swung behind me aiming at the water. The impact creating another shockwave strong enough to fly me back into battle. I felt my body fly up higher as I fly over the Earth God. I clench the swords in my hand as I waited to descend.


    ¡°Heaven¡¯s slice!¡± I shouted my skill one more time as I swung below making my attacks soar down. Rather than going through, it exploded its head sending rock debris flying in all directions. ¡°Heaven¡¯s Slice! Heaven¡¯s Slice! Heaven¡¯s Slice!¡±


    I kept attacking over and over again until I completely obliterated it the ground. I used the skill again to direct my body to land towards where everyone is. I felt the strain on my body for having to activate overdrive and hell¡¯s blood at the same time. I look up at the smoke I created and seeing through with my heat vision made me smile. The rocks and mud around its body must have somehow concealed it due to its size. Looking at it directly, it¡¯s like I¡¯m looking at a piece of the sun. I ran towards its core while letting go of Takumi¡¯s sword that melted beyond use.


    ¡°Pound!!!" I shouted for my skill jumping up. Rocks started forming around the small crystal as I brought my fist down. ¡°Argh!¡±


    It felt like I was punching metal. The crystal, which is the size of my fist, didn''t break as it crashed towards the ground. The minute I landed; I grabbed the crystal preventing it from sinking as rocks slowly formed around it. At the same moment, the area around us started cracking in certain spots. I thought he¡¯ll bury us both in the ground but, as the cracks get bigger and bigger, mini version of the earth god started coming out of it.


    ¡°Huh, why form cracks if you can just erect them?" I whisper as I see another one pops up from a distance. Two have become four, four have become five and they kept coming out non-stop.


    ¡°Arghhhh!¡± I hear Dorang scream and I could sense some mini golems spawned near them. They started running away while some tried to hold the golems back, only to be critically injured.


    ¡°Suyeon!¡± I shouted and I feel her look my way. ¡°Protect them!¡±


    I sense her jump towards Dorang and the first attack she made sent a golem flying to a distance as it shatters at the point of impact. She kicked one after another like a pinball, but the golems kept spawning at the same rate she¡¯s destroying them. I felt something cover my arms and as I look down, rocks have formed encasing the crystal with my whole arm slowly moving towards my shoulder.


    ¡°Trying to become one? Haha~ I don''t swing that way~¡± I sang as I smiled. ¡°Maybe, this crystal might fetch at a high price. Palm Shock!¡±


    I felt the vibration exit out my palm. The attack destroyed the rocks covering my hand and the crystal but the pain of activating the skill with my hand closed around the crystal was unbearable as it snapped some of my fingers the wrong way. If it weren¡¯t for the chef''s coat, my hand would have exploded to smithereens. Still, it was strong enough as I felt my hand was being hammered repeatedly. I kept activating my skills and I felt my hand go numb from the pain. I notice it get a crack and I placed my other hand placing the crystal between my palms like a Buddha.


    ¡°Palm shock!¡± I shouted and the vibrations both started at each of my shoulders and shot out my palm toward the crystal. The shockwave of my attack was so strong it shattered the crystal into pieces and sending my arms swinging back as I was blown away. I tried to form a fist, but I lost the feeling of both my arms as I bounce around the ground unable to stop. I hear a scream behind me, and I felt like I hit someone as I flew across the area.


    ¡°Arghh!! I won¡¯t let you die kid!¡± Goro-sensei shouts as he caught me hugging me with one hand while the other holds a shield making us like a bullet bulldozer as we flew to the mountain destroying everything in our path. We hit the base of the mountain but kept going until we came to a slow halt. After the impact, I sense him move around but my eyes became cloudy as my throat felt dry. The fire on my shoulders disappeared and my body felt like lead. I notice rocks and dirt began to fall on top of us as he frantically tried to pick me up and run. His voice began to muffle as I slowly lost consciousness and succumb to the dark.


    <hr>


    Suyeon¡¯s POV


    <hr>


    He was too strong. We watched him get covered with fire. We watched him make it rain fire. We watched him expose the heart of the monster. Struggle to destroy the crystal and even after his victory and everyone else cheered for him, I didn¡¯t. The time I have been with him, every time he brings out new power, I know there¡¯s a chance that it¡¯ll hurt him in the end. I couldn¡¯t cheer for his pain.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I hear Kana shouts as we watch Goro-sensei catch him in mid-air and use his shield to deflect anything on their way. They flew so quickly across the land that nothing could have stopped them except the mountain. Even when Lisa tried to use water to help them slow down, then we''re too fast and she couldn''t keep up with their speed. They came crashing into the base of the mountain and the explosion cause a cloud of smoke to appear preventing us from seeing what happened to them. We all ran after them but after a couple of seconds, Goro-sensei emerged from the smoke carrying Yasu over his shoulder. We met them halfway as Goro-sensei falls to his knees. His injuries were also severe as one of his hand was covered in blood.


    ¡°Sensei!¡± Miki-sensei began healing Goro-sensei¡¯s arm as he put down Yasu in front of us. If it wasn¡¯t for him, Yasu might have become more seriously injured.


    "S-sensei, t-thank you," I tell him as I watch Yasu on the ground motionless.


    "No need to thank me kiddo." He tells me placing a hand on top my heat patting it. ¡°I only did what an adult would do. I won¡¯t let anyone of you die. Not on my watch.¡±


    ¡°Yasu! Wake up!¡± Kana shouts as she heals his entire body. His shirt was blown off and his body was full of burns and cuts. What¡¯s worse is his arms that''s starting to turn dark. I feared for the worst as all of our voices aren¡¯t getting through him. I want to help him with his burdens but I¡¯m too weak. I hate that I¡¯m too weak. I can¡¯t protect him like he protects all of us. I hate that I have a class that doesn¡¯t let me heal him.


    ¡°Daikichi, help me carry him towards everyone else. Amaguchi, help Goro-sensei move and Kana, can you heal Yasu¡¯s hands as we move?¡± Takumi asked her and she gave him a nod. Daikichi and Takumi carried Yasu¡¯s body by picking him up in each arm as Kana and Ms. Sam kept their skill activated as they move with them. Amaguchi helped Goro-sensei up as Miki-sensei kept her skill activated over his arm that was flailing side to side. I look at my hands and tears are starting to form blurring my vision. I feel useless. I wanted to get stronger, so he doesn''t use his dangerous powers anymore but, in the end, the results are the same.


    ¡°Suyeon, you ok?¡± Lisa asked as she put her hand on my back stroking it and I just looked at her trying to hold my tears in. ¡°It¡¯s ok. He¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°Y-yeah.¡± I weakly say and she hugs me tightly. After calming down, we walked back to camp and I see they made a makeshift bed made out of leaves and placed Yasu down on top. Sweat has appeared on his forehead and his breathing became uncontrollable. The whole area was a mess, there were too many injured people that Miki-sensei started tending to. Goro-sensei was laid down next to Yasu as Kana and Ms. Sam worked at the best of their ability to heal them.


    I looked around the area and the mini golems that were spawning simultaneously crumbled as soon as Yasu destroyed the crystal. Leaving mounds of debris scattered everywhere. The landscape was completely destroyed and the water where Yasu came out earlier is still on fire.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°He has a fever. Suyeon, you¡¯ve been with him longer than any of us. What else happens after he uses that skill?¡± Ms. Sam asks me as she wipes the sweat off his forehead.


    ¡°I-I don''t know. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen him use that skill.¡± I tell her feeling guilty that I know nothing about Yasu. Nothing at all.


    "He''s too reckless," Kana says and no one replied. Everyone probably feels the same way I do. It''s partially our fault.


    ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t blame yourselves.¡± Ms. Sam says and we all calmed down a bit. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t be able to predict the appearance of that monster. For now, let¡¯s focus on stabilizing him-¡°


    All of a sudden, a bright white light flashed covering everything. It was so bright it felt like someone threw the sun at us.


    ¡°Argh! My eyes!¡± I hear Lisa shouts beside me but as fast as the light came, as fast as it weakened. As my vision slowly adjust, I noticed that the light hasn¡¯t completely disappeared. I squint trying to get a better vision, but I couldn''t find the source of the bright light. It let out a hissingsound like a gas leak and in a split second; the light exploded causing a big mushroom cloud to arise. The explosion created a loud snap and it muted the world for a few seconds. The floor shook and we all had trouble even keeping ourselves from standing as the shockwave of the explosion came rushing through us. I felt like I was going to fly away. Roots came out of the ground and wrapped around my foot. Lisa must have activated her skill trying to hold us to the ground. She shouted something and a huge rock wall came out of the ground deflecting the hot gust wind. She erected a couple more wall after that and we all tried out best not to get blown apart. A few minutes passed and the shockwave slowly subsided, dust covered the land and the heat from the explosion made it feel like we¡¯re in hell. Opening my mouth trying to breathe only made me choke as dust along with the heat dried up my throat.


    ¡°Is everyone ok!¡± I hear a shout at my left and I see everyone on the ground slowly standing up. If it wasn¡¯t for Lisa rock wall and roots, we would have been blown away. I know we can survive the impact but as for everyone who¡¯s not an adventurer, they probably could have died.


    ¡°Ugh, what was that?¡± Lisa whispers as she deactivates the roots but kept the wall up just in case.


    I see Dorang and his group coming closer to us just in case another explosion happens. I slowly walk to the wall peeking out and all I could see was dust.


    "I can''t see anything," I whisper to Lisa who slowly moved behind me.


    ¡°Hold up, let me try to remove the dust. Tornado!¡± She shouted her skill pointing her sword towards one section and a small tornado formed and got bigger and bigger as it sucked up all the dust in the area. I see her struggling to keep it alive while she guided the tornado towards the water.


    ¡°Ugh! Dispel!¡± The tornado suddenly disappeared and everything it took with it dropped turning the water muddy brown. ¡°Whew, I got to get used to this. Hey, you oka-¡±


    She suddenly stopped as she sees what I¡¯m looking at. My heart beats not from excitement but from nervousness and fear. The explosion created a crater big enough as if a meteor landed on the planet. The middle of the crater is a figure. Just standing there.


    Earth God (AREA BOSS)


    2,000,007 / 7,000,000


    ¡°I-is that¡­¡± Lisa¡¯s voice trails off and I could feel her breathing at an irregular pace. ¡°O-oh my god. It¡¯s still alive!¡±


    The earth god probably heard her as its head turned our way. My heart almost stopped from fear as we both lock eyes. Its sclera was black with blue iris. It still didn''t have ears and a mouth, but it has gotten a much more human-like figure. In the middle of its chest is a crystal ball with a blue light emitting from inside. All of a sudden, it disappeared, and I push Lisa to the side as I sense it right in front of her even when I don''t see it. I brought my leg towards where I think it will appear and in a split second, my leg was aimed towards its face.


    ¡°Jump!¡± I shouted my skill right before I made contact, but it leaned a bit back and used its arms to cover its face from my kick. The impact caused it to crash back where he came from and it felt like I kicked something really hard as my legs went numb for a few seconds.


    ¡°What''s going on?!¡± Daikichi says as they come near me. But I was too busy looking at it.


    ¡°It still alive! And it transformed!!¡± Lisa tells them as I wait for the smoke to disappear.


    ¡°What? You mean that. Thing?¡± Daikichi asked looking at the smoke.


    ¡°Oh no, w-what do we do?¡± Miki-sensei says nervously as she looks at us.


    ¡°Everyone, stay here. Kana focus on healing Yasu. Goro-sensei and Lisa, can you use these rock walls and the shield trick to protect everyone?¡± Takumi asked and she nods at him.


    "I''ll attack it with everyone else," I tell them looking at Takumi, Daikichi, and Amaguchi.


    ¡°Did you see what it look like?¡± Takumi asked me and I nod.


    ¡°I-it has a crystal in its chest. It¡¯s very fast but luckily, my class can p-predict attacks a-and movements.¡± I tell them as I look back at the smoke that slowly dissipated.


    The earth god hasn''t moved and remained down on the spot. I was hoping I killed it but looking at his health, I hardly dealt with any damage.


    Earth God (AREA BOSS)


    1,947,000 / 7,000,000


    ¡°W-we can kill it right?¡± Lisa asked as she looks at Yasu unconscious body.


    ¡°We have to. Or else, we¡¯re all dead.¡± Daikichi says and we all nod towards him. ¡°Ok let¡¯s go-¡°


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I shouted as I sense it behind Daikichi. I pull him towards me and brought my leg out where the earth god is supposed to appear and shouted, ¡°Jump!¡±


    My kick made contact with its chest the minute it appeared, and I made it fly towards a distance. I jump right up above the sky and aimed towards where it landed. Before I would be terrified of heights but now, I have gotten used to it.


    "Three-step combo!" I shouted my skill as I came descending down towards it. I see yellow hologram appear in mid-air. Using the weight of my body, I followed the poses up until I ended up with my left leg pointed downwards and I came speeding down as the sole of my shoe emitted a yellow glow. Right, when I was about to stomp its crystal, the ground absorbed the Earth God and my kick created a crater upon impact.


    I sense it coming from behind me and using my body weight, I brought my leg towards the back and I felt something grab my ankle. Its grip feels like it¡¯s trying to crush my bones into dust. It picked me up like a piece of rag and smacked me back down the ground. I used my arms to cover my face, but the impact made it feel like I just jumped off the second floor. The air was taken out of my body as I gasp for air. I glance up and I notice it¡¯s hand forming into a spear as it brought it down my back trying to impale me in place. A black blur suddenly passes through and I somehow appeared a few feet away from it. As I look up, I notice Mamoru standing beside me. Takumi suddenly appeared swinging towards the neck of the Earth God but it jumped back trying to dodge Takumi''s attack.


    ¡°Shield bash!¡± I hear Goro-sensei shout as he ran for the Earth god using his shield like a football player. His whole body glowed, and he suddenly moved at a faster rate giving the Earth God no time to react. They tried to destroy the crystal ball but it quickly submerged into the ground disappearing below.


    ¡°Kid! You okay?!¡± Goro-sensei asked as he runs towards me. I see his arms still flailing and I¡¯m starting to lose focus for a bit as I uncontrollably cough my lungs out. The fear of fighting something stronger began to creep in as my heart beat at a faster rate. It feels like it¡¯s going to jump out of my chest.


    "Y-yeah," I tell him as he helps me on my feet. Suddenly a loud explosion erupted behind us and the smoke quickly dissipated as Takumi¡¯s attack get deflected one by one. The earth god¡¯s hands formed into swords and he started swinging at Takumi, parrying his every attack. Their pace was too fast to follow with my eyes and the dust wasn¡¯t helping to keep them open.


    I have to help. I whisper in my mind as I sluggishly walked towards them. I felt and a hand grabs my arm and when I looked, I see Kana staring at me.


    ¡°Suyeon! Stop moving!¡± She tells me as her hand and eyes glowed green. She placed it in my sides and I felt my breathing slowly become normal. ¡°Your ribs are broken along with the bone in your arm. Stand still while I heal you.¡±


    Before I got a chance to ask how she knew, another explosion happened behind us and I sense Takumi flying towards a distance. Fearing that it might come after us, I ran towards the earth god screaming my skill.


    ¡°Three-step combo!¡± I saw the holograms of myself in different positions. I quickly followed them, and my body was propelled forward as my kick aimed towards its head. Rather than facing me head on, it leaned to the side dodging my attack. It brought its fist towards my gut and I felt it take the air out of my lungs as my body flew from the impact. It was too strong. I felt like passing out, puking, and just curling in a corner wanting everything to end. All of a sudden, I hit a wall made out of the water and I came into a slow halt as I exited the other side.


    Cough* Cough*


    ¡°T-t-thank you, Lisa," I whisper under my breath as I watch a wall of water disappear. "Quickstep."


    It''s one of the new skill that I learned after leveling up. A skill that lets me keep up with Yasu if he runs using his skill. It¡¯s the same as his seismic step as it lets me move faster. I quickly ran towards the earth god while Daikichi and Amaguchi attack it.


    ¡°G-guys watch out! Thunder Slide!¡± I slid down the ground and my body slid across the floor as if it was oiled up. My left foot pointing outwards was encased with electricity as I slid towards the feet of the earth god tripping him. The minute the electricity touched it; it encased his body preventing it from moving as he fell to the ground. I jammed my foot on the ground to stop myself from sliding and I quickly shifted my weight upwards.


    ¡°Jump!¡± I shouted as I extend my legs jumping to the sky. ¡°Four step combo!¡±


    I saw four holograms this time and I quickly followed it through copying each and every pose as I pass them. After hitting the last pose, my body shot down below as my foot aimed towards the immobilized Earth God.


    BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!


    My kick destroyed the ground a lot more than usual. Debris flew in all directions as if I was a giant stomping on the floor. The higher the level of my skill, the more combos I can add on to it. The more combos I do, the stronger the attacks get. But more combos I do the faster I exhaust myself as it takes a lot more energy. The three-step combo is the only skill I can use over and over again without feeling exhausted. Hoping that I cracked the crystal with that attack, I lifted up my foot, but the crystal was nowhere to be seen. I sense it emerged behind me and I jumped forward keeping a space between us. It slowly emerged from the ground headfirst and its eyes locked onto mine. I look at its health and we barely dealt with any damage.


    Earth God (AREA BOSS)


    1,566,307 / 7,000,000


    "Dammit, it still has so much health," Daikichi says as he stands beside me. I didn¡¯t notice but everyone has regrouped around me as we all face the Earth God who stopped moving and just stared at us.


    ¡°I-is it dead?¡± Amaguchi asked gripping his two-handed hammer.


    ¡°I hope so. Damn thing is harder than the Gatekeeper-¡° Takumi says but I quickly pulled him as I sense the Earth God in front of him about to strike his face. I brought my foot towards where I think it would appear and in an instant, the Earth God from a distance crumbled as quickly as one appeared in front of me.


    ¡°Jump!¡± I shouted and my foot met with its face. Its body flew towards the water and it skids around the surface of the water before stopping and submerging. I kept my senses heightened trying to predict the next location but nothing.


    ¡°Fuck! Guys can we really kill that thing!¡± Amaguchi shouts as he watches the Earth God slowly emerge from the water walking towards us.


    ¡°Dammit! Everyone get ready!¡± Takumi shouted and I can feel everyone is on the edge.


    ¡°Kids, don¡¯t panic. There¡¯s a lot of us, and only one of him.¡± Goro-sensei calmly says and I can''t help feeling anxious and scared.


    ¡°Daikichi.¡± Kana whispers and I see her smiling. All of a sudden, Daikichi smiled and step forward.


    "Lisa, do you have the skill to freeze water?" Daikichi asked her and she nods.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Amaguchi asked as we watch the Earth God, which stood in place again.


    ¡°Suyeon, predict where it will appear and kick it to the lake. Lisa, use your skill to control the water and grab its whole body and freeze the water around him. Then, everyone, attack afterward." Daikichi says and we all nod.


    I waited for it to appear somewhere else and as soon as I sense it¡¯s going to appear in front of Daikichi, I told him to move as I kicked towards where it will appear. Just like before, its old body crumbled as quickly as the new one appeared and this time, it blocked my attack with its hands, but my kick was still strong enough to send it flying back towards the water. It skids around again before stopping at a distance.


    ¡°Lisa now!¡± Daikichi shouts as he ran towards the water while Lisa chanted a few words and the water turned into ice trapping the earth god from its waist down. It tried to destroy the ice around it, but more ice formed as it grabbed its hands preventing it from moving.


    The core.I say in my mind as I watch everyone struggle running on Ice towards it.


    ¡°Lisa, can you make it lay flat? Mamoru I-I need your help!¡± I shouted to him who stayed behind Lisa.


    "Ok, I got it!" Lisa tells me as I see her hand moves and the ice moved around the Earth God Laying it flat.


    ¡°Daikichi! Stab its Core! Mamoru Follow me!¡± I shouted as I started running with Mamoru following behind. ¡°I¡¯m going to jump up the sky, once I reached the highest jump I-I can do, use a portal to send me up higher!¡±


    ¡°Ok!¡± Mamoru shouts back as we ran. The ice was a lot easier to run on once Lisa added snow on top preventing us from slipping.


    ¡°Quick pierce!¡± I heard Daikichi shout trying to stab the crystal, but it was too strong and he had a hard time.


    ¡°Hold it in place!¡± Amaguchi shouts as he brought his hammer down towards the back end of the sword. ¡°Smash!¡±


    His hammer glowed dark red and the speed of his swing increased. The sword finally pierced the crystal ball thanks to Amaguchi but his attack also hurt Daikichi who help the sword in place. It wasn¡¯t severe but I see him take a knee as the sword lodge into the crystal.


    ¡°Everyone! Step back!¡± I shouted as I look up the sky. ¡°Jump!¡±


    Using all of my strength, I jumped as high as I can. Right, when I started descending, a black portal appeared below me and suddenly, I was at a higher spot making everyone look like dots. The sun has begun to set from a distance and the quietness of the sky helped me calm down. As I felt my body descend, I opened my eyes and look straight down the sword lodged in the earth god which is barely visible. Everyone¡¯s moving around and I can see rocks forming from the shore trying to get to the earth god. Amaguchi and everyone else tried their best to prevent it from reaching it.


    ¡°You¡¯re about to die.¡± I whisper as I look down, I close my eyes and took a deep breath before whispering to myself, ¡°I-I hope this works. Fifteen-step combo.¡±


    Fifteen poses appeared in front of me and each hologram had a bright red color. This is the first time I¡¯m using this skill, but I hope this is enough to destroy that thing. Like a natural, I dance in mid-air following each and every pose. I was able to follow each and every hologram except the last one which is a few feet below the fourteenth. Right when I was about to reach the last pose, I smiled as the excitement fills me up.


    I guess this is what Yasu feels every time he fights. I positioned my body the same pose as the last one. My left leg extends towards the bottom and my right leg bents up. Both my arms hug my waist as my head looks up the sky.


    ¡°Ah, it''s so orange," I whisper looking at the sky and after going through the last hologram, red light with a liquid form appeared below me and I came speeding down towards the sword. I looked by down making sure I¡¯m right on top of it and somehow, I can predict where I will land. Right upon impact, I felt my body become heavy as if I was carrying the world.


    ¡°Arghh!!!!¡± I shouted out of pain as I felt blood trickle all over my body. But I kept my position as I came crashing down the bed of the lake destroying the ice. I see everything crumble but the smile never left my face as I see the crystal was destroyed into pieces and the form of the earth god started to crumble. Multiple negative numbers appeared one after another until I saw its health that brought me joy.


    Earth God (AREA BOSS)


    0 / 7,000,000


    The shattered crystal started lighting up and when I tried to move, I couldn¡¯t even lift up a finger as my whole body went numb. I''m all the way at the bottom of the lake and ice started crumbling on top of me. I watched the crystal light up as bright as it can and I close my eyes picturing Yasu in my mind.


    I¡¯m sorry- I whisper in my mind and all of a sudden, sensed someone on top of me.


    ¡°I got you!¡± I hear Mamoru voice as he shouted something and I felt my body drop. I opened my eyes and I see us passing through a portal and landing right next to everyone.


    "Ok, you''re out! Ice tomb!!!¡± Lisa struggles as she builds the ice back up trapping the broken crystal within. ¡°Everyone runs! It¡¯s going to explode any minute!¡±


    I felt my body was carried over someone¡¯s shoulder as my vision started to become blurry. The pain on my body throbbed but it slowly became bearable as I fade into black.

 CHAPTER 56: Meeting at the worst time

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 56: Meeting at the worst time


    <hr>


    Daikichi POV


    <hr>


    Mamoru used a portal to get to Suyeon back to us. Thinking it¡¯s all over; the broken crystal suddenly vacuumed up all of the ice around it and formed a giant ice ball. The light emitted from the inside was so bright it made it hard to stare right into it.


    ¡°It¡¯s getting bigger! Run!¡± Takumi shouts and I noticed it kept sucking up the ice in the surrounding area making the ice ball bigger and bigger. Trees, dirt, rock, frozen fishes, our rafts, everything was getting sucked into it and if we don''t get away, soon, we¡¯ll be pulled into it also. We all started sprinting away in panic as I look around me frantically.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I shouted looking around and I couldn¡¯t see him where we left him. ¡°Yasu!!¡±


    ¡°I got him!¡± Dorang shouts as I see him carrying Yasu on his back with the help of Ms. Sam.


    Miki-sensei carried Nala while the rest of the group carried those who are injured and couldn¡¯t fully run. Takumi handed an injured person he was carrying and ran off towards Dorang who struggled to piggyback Yasu. Takumi took Yasu off him and ran as fast as he can while Ms. Sam and Dorang followed right behind him. With Kana''s help, I carried Suyeon and we all ran towards the mountain hoping that we¡¯ll get to the other side before the blast happens.


    ¡°Guys a cave! Get in! I have a plan!¡± Lisa shouted as she went on a full sprint towards a cave on a distance. As much of a bad idea to go inside when there¡¯s a giant nuke behind us, Lisa seemed confident as she ran in first. The light got brighter and brighter to the point that it hurts looking in any direction.


    ¡°Everyone in?!¡± Lisa asked and everyone shouted in agreement. Using her sword as a staff, she stabbed it onto the ground and shouted another skill that caused a blue light to appear covering the floor, ceiling, and walls for a few seconds before it slowly faded away. She ran towards the entrance and chanted another skill that made rocks and dirt come together blocking the entrance. The light completely disappeared as soon as Lisa closed the entrance and darkness surrounded us.


    ¡°Light orb!¡± I hear Lisa¡¯s voice and a white orb appeared illuminating everything. She chanted something again and the same as before, the wall in front of her where the entrance used to be was covered with a blue light that slowly faded away. I remembered the torches Yasu gave us and I took mine out the bag and gave it to Lisa to light it. Everyone else who had a torch took it out and we scattered them around while Lisa hanged some on the walls using her skills.


    "I think we''re far enough," I whisper trying to listen as the floor and walls continued to rumble. "I hope we don''t get caved in."


    "It won''t, I put strengthening magic on the walls turning a solid material similar to metal," Lisa says and I nod to her. She deactivated her light orb and we were shrouded in dim lighting. I look towards everyone and most of Dorang¡¯s group is out of breath sitting around trying to catch some air into their lungs. I notice Ms. Sam instructed those who were able to walk to place the injured at one location as Kana and Miki-sensei worked on healing Suyeon. Her clothes were full of bloodstains and she lay unconscious next to Yasu who still has a fever.


    ¡°How is she?¡± I asked Kana as I approached her.


    "She''s out of harm''s way." She whispers with a solemn look as she stroke Suyeons hair. ¡°Luckily, my healing abilities are high level or else, I wouldn''t be able to recover her broken bones. She broke her leg into tiny pieces and fractured most of her ribs. Some of it punctured her insides but luckily, I learned a new skill after we killed those one-eye things. Reading the description, it lets me heal anything. But, I can only use it once a day.¡±


    Kana never felt excited about learning new healing skills. I know she''s not hoping to use them all soon enough but, with Yasu and now Suyeon, it''s not long before their abilities skyrocket due to being overused.


    ¡°Damn this girl, she started picking up Yasu¡¯s habits of putting herself in danger," Kana whispers as she helped Miki-sensei close most of Suyeon¡¯s open wounds.


    "But, if it wasn''t for her, we probably would have still been fighting that Earth god," Miki-sensei whispers as she looks at Suyeon with a pained expression. She probably remembered what Suyeon had to go through to save all of us.


    ¡°Dammit.¡± I couldn''t help feeling hopeless as a bitter knot form in my throat.


    ¡°How¡¯s Yasu¡¯s condition-¡° Ms. Sam tried asking us but suddenly, the whole place rumbled and everything shook violently causing her to fall over.


    Small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling and we all couldn''t do anything but protect our head as we lay on the ground and wait it out. I used myself to cover Yasu¡¯s body while Ms. Sam used herself to cover little Nala. Kana protected Suyeon and everyone else did the same, covering for the injured or themselves. The rumbling got louder and louder and I thought the cave would crumble above us. It was too violent that we couldn''t stand up without falling back down. After waiting it out for a couple of minutes, the rumbling stopped and thanks to Lisa, the cave managed to keep itself from crumbling as she tried her best to rebuild rocks over and over again.


    ¡°I-is it over?¡± I hear a voice and I see Amaguchi slowly sitting up looking around. Some of the torches Lisa placed have fallen down the ground and cracks have formed on the walls that traveled up to the ceiling. The explosion was big enough to probably reach the side of the mountain. If we would have kept running, we might have been caught in its blast with no cover and nowhere else to hide.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s over. Should we check outside?¡± Lisa says as she rebuilds the walls and ceiling. The cracks slowly disappeared as she chanted something. It seems like she finally ran out of juice as she slumps to the ground breathing hard.


    ¡°You okay?¡± Amaguchi asked her and she nods as she sat down the ground.


    ¡°Y-yeah. I feel like I ran out of magic power. I hope there¡¯s no more explosion, I feel like I won¡¯t be able to rebuild anything for a while.¡± Lisa says and everyone remained prone for a while. After a few more minutes or maybe an hour passing by, we slowly got up still wary for any follow up explosion or anything that can form out of the ground. I notice Lisa walked towards the entrance and I grabbed her hand before she went any further.


    ¡°Don''t. We don''t know how hot it is out there. It might be hot enough to burn as alive. It¡¯s better to not open it for a while.¡± I tell her and she nods as she sits back down.


    After adjusting to the darkness of the cave, I''m able to get a proper view of everyone''s expression. Some were in tears while some are hugging their loved ones out of joy. I felt butterflies in my stomach as excitement and the sense of accomplishment fills my core. We sat around for a while and luckily; there wasn''t any other explosion as everything became quiet.


    ¡°Agh, my throat is dry.¡± I hear Lisa says with a raspy voice. ¡°I feel like my magic is back, let me try something with these new skills I learned.¡±


    She quickly stands up and walks towards the empty part of the cave. Using her sword, she stabbed the ground while chanting a command and a cyan blue light emerged from the ground so bright I went blind for a minute. Once it disappeared and I was able to adjust to the darkness again and I notice she made a pool of water. A perfect rectangle shape making it looks like a swimming pool.


    I see her takes some crystals off her bag and throw it in to illuminate the bottom. She started drinking from the pool she created by cupping her hands into the water and taking big gulps. After a while, she activated her magic again as a water ball emerges from the water instantly freezing and turn into a ball of ice. She dropped it and the ice sank a bit before it floated back up the surface.


    "Guys, this is drinkable water," Lisa says pointing at the pool of water behind her. "If you need to wash, I''m going to create another one on the other side."


    She walks towards the other end of the cave and everyone came rushing towards the pool to get a drink.


    "Stay here, I''ll get us some water," I told Kana who remained at Suyeon¡¯s and Yasu¡¯s side. She gave me a weak nod and I can see she exhausted from healing them non-stop. I took out the water container I got from Yasu and walked to the pool of water to fill it up. I took a couple of gulp before heading back to Kana. I hand her the water container and she didn''t notice until I put it on her cheek.


    "Ah, that''s cold." She tells me as she grabs the container. I see that she was falling asleep probably due to overusing her healing skills.


    ¡°Go rest. We¡¯ll stay in here and wait it out for a couple of hours before heading out to check.¡± I tell her and she gave me a nod.


    ¡°Can we really relax now? What if that thing is still alive and transformed again?¡± Lisa asks me as she sits down near us after creating the other pool of water.


    ¡°It died. I saw the orb when I got Suyeon out. Its health was zero.¡± Mamoru replies to her.


    "Thank you," I tell him remembering he''s the reason why Suyeon is alive.


    "You don''t have to thank me, we''re a team," He looks at Suyeon with regret. ¡°I felt bad leaving her in the dungeon by herself. I didn''t want to do that again.¡±


    It''s nice to see that he had broken out of his depression and started talking to us again.


    "Still, you did help her destroy that thing and even saved her," I tell him and he gave me a nod in agreement.


    ¡°By the way, why did you tell me to freeze that thing in the water?¡± Lisa¡¯s words made everyone look at me for answers.


    ¡°Yeah kiddo. Did you figure something out?¡± Goro-sensei asked as he sat beside us. It seems like everyone is starting to relax a bit as they start forming a group and using some of the torches, created their own campfire huddling around it. Since Mamoru verified that it died, we can relax a bit, as no one will be able to find us in here.


    ¡°Well, I was carefully observing it trying to figure out its weakness. Once Suyeon kicked that thing into the water, I noticed something was off.¡± Kana says what was on my mind.


    ¡°Like what?¡± Lisa asked.


    "When we were fighting it before, it usually would disappear and emerge somewhere else," Kana replied and I nod in agreement knowing what she was talking about. She checked Yasu¡¯s and Suyeons temperature but kept talking about what we figured out.


    ¡°But, when it was in the water, rather than emerging somewhere else, it actually swam back to shore. So I put the pieces together and in the end, it needs to be close to land to be able to use its skills.¡±


    ¡°Hmm now that you talk about it, it did keep using the rocks around the area to rebuild itself," Goro-sensei says with his hand on his chin thinking about it. ¡°Even when we got it trapped in the ice, it tried to pull rocks from the shore.¡±


    What he said made me remember once Suyeon flew up the sky, rocks suddenly started to form like tentacles trying to free the Earth God. We had to deflect them and give enough time for Suyeon to descend into my sword.


    ¡°Can¡¯t believe you thought of that so quick in that situation.¡± Lisa looks at Kana at awe. I couldn¡¯t blame her, even I wasn¡¯t thinking of it till Kana pointed it out.


    ¡°What I can¡¯t believe is, how strong she is. I think she might be stronger than Yasu.¡± Kana whispers as she checks on Suyeon.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°Yeah, that was some crazy stuff. Holy shit she descended it into oblivion.¡± Amaguchi says and we all couldn''t forget the image of Suyeon descending from the sky like a superhero.


    "Damn, I thought we were all going to die." Dorang blurted out as he slumps back.


    ¡°All I was thinking was trying to survive," Amaguchi says as he huddles closer to the torch. ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie, I even thought about telling everyone to just run away.¡±


    ¡°Same here. I was starting to think it was impossible without Yasu around.¡± Lisa says as she lay¡¯s on her back. I felt my throat lock as if I was choking on a fish bone.


    "We need to get our priorities straight," I tell everyone and they all look at me.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Lisa asked me sitting back up.


    "Don''t you guys feel frustrated?" Amaguchi says and I see him holding his hand out towards the ceiling while lying down. For the first time, he wasn''t joking around. He was showing a serious expression that he rarely express. ¡°I feel like a fish inside a fishbowl.¡±


    No one said anything as we all probably felt the same. Our weakness is limiting us so much we have no choice but to rely on Yasu and now, Suyeon at difficult situations like these.


    ¡°Urgh! I don''t know what I¡¯m saying. I¡¯m going to rest.¡± Amaguchi says as he turns to the side without saying anything after.


    Everyone didn¡¯t do much after that. The food that was supposed to be eaten was probably obliterated outside. We decided to just keep using the torch since creating a campfire inside the cave without ventilation can cause us to suffocate. I felt hungry as time went by but luckily, some of the people have a few stale slices of bread in their bags. Some were stupid enough to grab their belongings during the whole ordeal but now, I''m kind of glad they did since they were able to share their food with us. It''s not enough to survive by tomorrow. But by then, the outside should be a lot safer to venture out. We have to leave as soon as we get a chance.


    We¡¯re completely in the dark but, most of the people in the cave began to yawn and some fell asleep with their group. Kana woke up not long ago and switched with Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei to tend the wounded. They barely had energy left and some of their skills wasn''t as strong as Kana''s who was able to heal much more severe wounds. Yasu and Suyeon have completely healed but remained unconscious.


    Yasu still has a fever and we told everyone to help him sweat by huddling around his body. Takumi lent Yasu some clean clothes he had stored in his dimensional bag but he only had enough for a couple of people in which we gave to the girls and washed our shirt in the pool of water instead.


    ¡°Go get some rest. I¡¯ll keep watch of these two. It''s not like there¡¯s any monster in this cave.¡± Kana whispers to me as I started to doze off. Even I wanted to stay up and help her, my body is telling me otherwise.


    ¡°Thanks. Wake me up if anything.¡± I tell her and I placed myself near Goro-sensei who snored loudly. I was so tired I went to sleep in an instant the minute I closed my eyes. I was woken up with a gentle shake and I see Kana looking right at me.


    ¡°Wake up Daikichi.¡± I hear her say and I rub my eyes trying to remove the crust off them.


    ¡°Ugh, its time to switch?¡± I asked her and she shook her head.


    "Everyone woke up so we¡¯re thinking of leaving this cave. We have no food left." She tells me and I look around spotting everyone near the water. Either washing their face or on the other pool drinking their fill to subside the hunger. I stretch out my arms yawning and I felt refreshed in a short amount of time.


    ¡°How long was I asleep?¡± I look at Kana with one-eye closes as the crust started stinging it.


    ¡°Probably like six to seven hours. I counted in my head the minutes the best I can but, we don''t have a watch in this place.¡± She tells me.


    "Wow, It feels like fell asleep an hour ago," I tell her slowly standing up. I gave her a peck on her cheek before walking towards the pool of water where everyone is washing their face.


    "Morning sunshine. How''s beauty sleep?" Amaguchi asked me as he walks past me handing me his face towel.


    "Thanks, I didn''t know I slept that much," I tell him. Sleeping in the dark and waking up in the dark skews up my perception of time.


    ¡°Same here. Probably because we woke up in the dark.¡± He told me reading what¡¯s on my mind.


    ¡°You should be an oracle, you keep reading my mind," I tell him.


    ¡°What?¡± He looked confused making me chuckle at his expressions.


    I placed my hand on top of his shoulder and gave him a pitying look. "It''s ok, you don''t have to hide it. I read your mind to. You keep telling yourself you''re pretty."


    ¡°Very funny. I don''t need to tell myself that. I already know it." He replies back, flipping a non-existent long hair. I laugh a bit more before we part ways as I walk towards the water to wash my face while he walks to the other pool to take a sip. Lisa kept refilling the water with Ice keeping it cold. But the ice was large enough to cool down the whole cave also as I felt the hair strands stand up around my arms.


    After washing my face, everyone started getting ready to go outside. We discussed that only me, Lisa, and Amaguchi will go outside to see if it¡¯s safe. We need Takumi with everyone else since he¡¯s the only one that might be able to give proper protection to everyone.


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll go look for some food and maybe another place to camp," I tell them as I grab the water container Kana handed to me. ¡°But what I¡¯m more worried about is the condition outside.¡±


    ¡°If anything, I can close it really quick so Goro-sensei, get your shield ready to block any heat just in case," Lisa says and Goro-sensei gave Lisa a nod of agreement.


    "Ok Lisa, open it," I tell her as I ready myself. I was thinking about the monsters coming back so we needed to prepare to deal with them. She chanted a few words and the rubble in front of the cave entrance started crumbling. I was expecting a hot gust of wind to come in but nothing. Not even sunlight.


    After opening the cave entrance all the way, the moon is as high as it can get hovering over us illuminating the surrounding area with ease. The cold breeze relaxed our minds but, the trees that surrounded the mountain is now a wasteland. Some were scorched black while some were completely gone from the roots as it slowly burned away.


    I step out and I notice how completely different it was compared before. I walk to the side tracing the mountain and I didn¡¯t need to walk any further to see how far the damage has reached. The whole area was unrecognizable and if it was any bigger, it might have reached our cave.


    "Holy shit," I whisper looking at an evened out area that is slowly coming towards the center.


    ¡°Hey, do you think that thing dropped something?¡± Amaguchi asked looking out as far as he can but we can''t even see the location of the source of the explosion as water started feeling up the crater.


    "Only one way to find out, let''s go to the center of the crater and see. Also, we need to catch a fish so Lisa, are you able to freeze something that big?" I asked her pointing at a distance where all of the water has started to fill up on.


    ¡°Probably, don''t know really how far I can freeze things.¡± She replied. We started walking towards the center of the crater and having the ground below us evened out due to the explosion made it easier to get there. As we reached the edge of the water, Lisa activated her skill and froze the lake in place.


    ¡°Well, I''ll be damned. You are the ice queen. You are so cold. Wait, why do my feet feel cold." Amaguchi looked down and noticed he got his foot frozen with the lake. ¡°Mind unfreezing me?¡±


    ¡°You idiot. Who told you to step on the water while I¡¯m freezing it.¡± She tells Amaguchi who just gave a shrug that he didn¡¯t know. After freeing him, Lisa created snow above the water to make it easier for us to walk to the center.


    ¡°Wow, this place looks so different. Look how deep we are.¡± I say as I look at the rim of the crater from a distance, which goes up a higher than the three of us standing on top each other.


    "We''re like a couple of yards down. Or is it meters? Meh, I don''t know I don''t wanna do the math." Amaguchi says as he looks down below trying to see if there''s anything below the layer of ice. "Damn, below us look scary. It''s pitch black."


    ¡°Go down there and swim. It should be good for you.¡± Lisa says that made me chuckle a bit.


    ¡°Hurrr you¡¯re very funny I forgot to laugh. We are in the center, right? What if that thing dropped an item and it went down there." He tells us and even when I''m tempted to check, I opt out to wait in the morning where it''s safer. We saw some fish fall from the outside like and we managed to get a few of them. We walked back towards the entrance of the cave and Lisa has made the entrance bigger and transformed it into a doorway. Takumi left as soon as we got back and after a while, he came back with logs stored in his bag. He quickly got to work building a door and bed, and other things that would make it easier for us while we stayed in the cave.


    ¡°We¡¯ll walk around the other side tomorrow to look for food. We¡¯ll go look for any village or something.¡± I tell them and then nod as we sat around a fire pit Takumi build near the entrance.


    We left the door he made wide open letting some ventilation get into the cave while cooking the fishes. We handed out the fish making sure everyone got an even portion and even I felt it wasn¡¯t enough. Once everyone ate, some went back to sleep while others helped around keeping their mind off the situation. Even when we¡¯re safer now, some can¡¯t help fear the future. As of now, we are lost on what to do. So far, we¡¯ve been following Yasu and with him unconscious, it feels like we can¡¯t move forward. After a while, the sun started rising exposing a light blue sky as if the storm never happened. Lisa, me, and Amaguchi set out to look for food while everyone else stayed behind.


    ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Amaguchi asked as we walked back towards the center of the crater.


    "Well first, let''s see if there''s anything at the center of that. Do you think those rock walls would hold the water above?" I asked Lisa and she gave me a nod. I asked her to make a wall around blocking more water from getting to the center of the crater. This way it''s a lot easier to dive in and dive out when the water in the middle isn''t too deep.


    "I reinforced it making it the same material as the cave walls. Even a small explosion won''t destroy it." She tells me as she points above us.


    "Ok cool, well, let''s see what''s under that. But damn, why is the water black still." Amaguchi says as he runs towards the water and ran back out. ¡°Don''t want my foot frozen again by the ice queen.¡±


    ¡°Ha-ha, very funny you idiot. I don''t need to freeze it, I¡¯ll just pick up all the water and dump it in your head.¡± Lisa says and I know she¡¯s not joking while Amaguchi laughs nonchalantly.


    As Lisa said, she used her magic to turn the body of water into a water giant ball. I see her struggling but somehow, she managed to separate another water ball away from the big one. She dropped some fishes on the ground before dumping the water back in place.


    ¡°Is there something in it?¡± I asked her while quickly picking up the fishes while she struggles to float the water ball towards us.


    ¡°Ugh..Y-yeah, usually when there¡¯s something inside the water ball, I feel the weight in my hand. This one seems heavy. Watch out while I drop it.¡± She says and she dropped the water ball right next to Amaguchi. It left a loud thud as if there was a bowling ball inside.


    ¡°Oh shit!¡± Amaguchi suddenly jumped when he saw the crystal. Even we got into battle position thinking it''s the Earth God. ¡°Wait, I think that''s loot.¡±


    ¡°Hey! Don''t approach it!¡± I tell him as he slowly goes near it.


    "Oh shit, it is loot. I think it¡¯s loot. I don''t see any name or anything on it.¡± Amaguchi says as the clouds above us moved away from the sun and it shone down on the crystal revealing its inside.


    ¡°That''s so pretty~," Lisa says as she tries to pick it up but she couldn''t. "Holy shit, it''s also really damn heavy. No wonder I was struggling earlier."


    ¡°Haha, weakling. Let me show you how to do it." Amaguchi says rolling up his invisible sleeves and when he tried to pick it up he stopped halfway.


    ¡°Hey, what happened?¡± I asked as he just stayed bending down.


    "I uh, pulled a muscle, it hurts when I move," Amaguchi says and Lisa started laughing. We tried to slowly help him up and Lisa suddenly kicked him straight. Amaguchi cried in pain jumping around while Lisa laughed and even I chuckled a bit seeing him move weirdly.


    "What happened mister strong? You pulled an itty bitty muscle?" Lisa jokes around as Amaguchi tries to catch his breath.


    "Ugh, you ass. That hurt. Let''s just get that thing in our bag and get back in camp, grandpa wants to lay down." Amaguchi says slowly limping towards the camp as he grabs his lower back. Lisa still laughing activated her skill and encased the diamond ball with water. She struggles to pick it up but she managed to elevate it a few feet before dropping it in her bag.


    ¡°So what does the bag feel like? Did it make it heavier?¡± I asked her as we walked back to camp.


    ¡°Nope, it feels like it¡¯s not there. What do we do with it?¡± She asked me as I help Amaguchi walk putting his arm around my shoulders.


    ¡°I don''t know, maybe sell it?¡± I say not really caring about the value of the diamond.


    ¡°We¡¯re definitely we''re not selling that thing," Amaguchi says as he limps beside me.


    After a while, we reached back to camp and as soon as Miki-sensei sees us, she helped Amaguchi lay down and helped heal his back. Lisa made another room for the injured while we got busy descaling more fish we caught and cooking them for everyone. Her class is really usefull as she was able to control all four elements. We stayed for a while and talked about what we found and everyone was intrigued when Lisa showed them the diamond ball.


    Mamoru catered to Yasu and Suyeon along with the other injured while Ms. Sam, Miki-sensei, and Kana came out of the other room to eat the fishes we had left for them. We told them what we found outside and they seem excited to see the giant diamond ball. After resting for a while, we told Kana along with Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam to rest while we take over tending to the wounded. Kana protest until Ms. Sam persuaded her saying they needed to be in tiptop shape just in case anything happens.


    "Ok guys, let''s go," Takumi says and he started walking towards the door along with Lisa and Amaguchi following behind him. I decided to stay while Takumi went with Lisa and Amaguchi to explore the other side of the forest and look for food. The minute Takumi open the door, they stopped on their tracks as if they came face to face with something. None of them said anything as they started in each other¡¯s eyes slowly inching towards the weapons on their side.


    ¡°Guys, everything good-¡° I suddenly stopped as Takumi quickly draw his weapon. As he stepped to the side a bit, I finally got a glimpse of what they¡¯re staring at.


    ¡°Hello there, traitor. Finally found you.¡± One of the guys says and I recognize him as the one who slapped Kana.


    ¡°Wow, didn''t think you have the balls to do anything let alone call people names," Takumi says as he steps forward. ¡°Nice to see you again Junpei¡­and everyone else.¡±


    I step back slowly inching my way towards the door where Yasu and Suyeon lie unconscious on the other side. I kept backing up hoping that I¡¯ll be able to get to the other side undetected while Takumi kept them busy. All I need to do is inform Mamoru. Out of all of the people in this cave, he¡¯s the only one that can get us out in an instant.

 CHAPTER 57: Gratitude comes a long way

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 57: Gratitude comes a long way


    <hr>


    Daikichi POV


    <hr>


    I notice Kana wake up slowly and the minute she see¡¯s me, I shook my head while slowly inching to the door behind me. She noticed me and the minute she turned around, she got the idea as she turned back to me with a worried look.


    Don¡¯t make any sudden moves. I whisper in my mind as I look at her while shaking my head slowly. I see her shake Ms. Sam awake and whispered in her ear. They both slowly woke up Miki-sensei and tried to move bit by bit my way.


    ¡°Come on Takumi, let¡¯s not do this.¡± A voice came from outside and I can see Takumi already unsheathe his weapons. Lisa and Amaguchi also are ready to fight at any given moment.


    ¡°Do what? Why can¡¯t you guys just do your own thing? Why chase us around like cops.¡± Takumi said and I can see he¡¯s not backing down. ¡°This is the problem Balo, you¡¯re all so goddamn caught up chasing Yasu, and it should be Luro you¡¯re chasing around.¡±


    ¡°Yasu we understand, but we can¡¯t just let them all go. Remember what the other group said as they left them behind." The same voice rang out as I tried to listen while slowly stepping backward.


    ¡°Look, even if they did that, that''s not the point and I heard the story from them. So far, you fucking idiots are siding with the bad guys.¡± Takumi said and I started getting a picture of what they¡¯re talking about.


    "Bad guys? What did we do? The fuck did we do?¡± Amaguchi asked.


    ¡°These dumbasses thought you all left those guys behind to save yourselves. Used them as bait.¡± Takumi said without turning to Amaguchi.


    ¡°You mean Suyeon¡¯s brother? That fucker is still alive? After what he did to us, he deserves to die." Lisa says and I can see her body shaking from remembering her ordeal.


    ¡°You see Balo, those fuckers you decided to leave by themselves in the city did some pretty nasty things to these guys. I rather sleep with dead boars that with those people.¡± Takumi says and I can feel the door behind me.


    ¡°Look, I know we all made a mistake and that''s why we¡¯re here. Where¡¯s Yasu?¡± I hear a girl''s voice and I know it''s the girl Yasu slapped with his frying pan.


    ¡°He¡¯s sleeping.¡± Lisa snarls at them. ¡°If you¡¯re protecting those guys, then you¡¯re no better than an enemy.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s hand suddenly glows and everything suddenly got tense. Roots started appearing from under them but it suddenly froze before shattering to pieces.


    ¡°Nice try you won¡¯t catch us the second time bitch.¡± Lisa snarls and I can see she¡¯s furious.


    "Everyone stop! Sheathe your weapons and let''s talk this out!" Ms. Sam ran out towards them but no one is listening at the moment, Kana ran for the door behind me as I open it slightly for her to get in with Miki-sensei.


    "Tell Mamoru, get them out of there." I whisper to her and she nods before entring the door.


    Lisa looks at me and I pointed the door behind me. She understood and gave me a weak nod before stepping to the side to let Ms. Sam through. She kept one hand behind her back as she tried to get her attention. Her hand glowed faintly and all of sudden, rocks came off the ground behind me covering the door making it seem like it was never there. Right at that moment, the wall in front of them came off exposing everyone on the other side. The mage that rooted everyone before stands right across Lisa and I can see her hand along with her staff glowing a brighter color.


    "Ms. Sam, I don''t think we can talk this through. I still won''t forget what he did to Hiroko." One of the guys says and from what I remember to what Yasu told me, his name was Junpei. I felt angry just seeing him and not wanting to draw attention to the wall behind me, I walked towards them as I call out my dimensional bag. I took out the two swords Yasu gave me as I stand beside everyone. Goro-sensei did the same along with everyone else.


    ¡°And I¡¯ll never forget what you did to my girlfriend you prick.¡± I snarl at him and I can see his face contorts of anger. ¡°What? Want to slap me also you bitch?¡±


    ¡°And who the fuck-¡°


    ¡°Who cares who the fuck I am, sure Yasu slapped the shit out of your girlfriend but you almost killed mine. I don''t know if you have a brain or not but, it should be us chasing you all down for attempted murder you motherfuckers.¡± I can see him ready to attack but one guy who¡¯s the only one not unsheathing his weapon got in front of him.


    ¡°Junpei relax.¡± He says and I can see he¡¯s starting to get irritated towards his teammate. ¡°Look, come with us so we can get this all sorted out. We don¡¯t have to fight. I swear under my name you all aren''t in trouble.¡±


    "Or, you can just go on your way and do whatever you want to do and we''ll go on our way and do what we really need to do," Takumi says beside me and everyone is still tense at the situation.


    ¡°All of you! Stop!¡± Ms. Sam shouted one more time and I flinch a bit since she¡¯s right beside me.


    ¡°Everyone put your weapons away.¡± The same guy who stopped Junpei looked at his team and no one budged. ¡°Now!¡±


    They all started sheathing their weapons except Junpei who kept a fighting stance.


    ¡°Junpei put your weapon away.¡± The guy between us said glaring at him.


    ¡°I will if he puts his weapon away.¡± Junpei snarls at me making me laugh. I put my sword inside my bag and gave him the middle finger.


    ¡°Daikichi!¡± Ms. Sam shouts as she glares at me and I gave her a shrug.


    Junpei finally sheathes his sword and I can see him fuming as he crosses his arms.


    ¡°Ok, good. Now, let¡¯s talk. I haven''t properly introduced myself to you all but my name is Balo.¡± He says as he held his hand out to me but I never shook it.


    ¡°Talk, the hell do you want with us?¡± I snarl at him still remembering what happened before.


    ¡°I just want everything to be sorted out. The other team said you left them to die, Takumi said the opposite just now. Can you all tell me what really happened?¡± He asked and I shook my head.


    "As much as I want to have a storytelling scene around a campfire, the scars on peoples hearts on this side is too much. For me to even utter a word, I need to get all their permission.¡± I say looking at Lisa and I can see her on the verge of tears. She couldn''t hold herself as she silently cried.


    ¡°There goes your answer. We don''t want to talk or say anything to a bunch of strangers.¡± Amaguchi says as he ushered Lisa to stay inside and sit on one of the chairs Takumi built before.


    "One thing I can tell you, we didn''t do whatever the fuck they say we did," I tell him and I can see Balo in deep thought.


    ¡°Who cares what you did, I need answers to why Yasu did that.¡± Junpei steps forward and his face makes me want to repeatedly punch him.


    "You fuckers know damn well why he did that!" I shout at him getting infuriated. I was thinking they would all fly into a rage but no one said anything as guilt caught up to them. "Do you even have any fucking idea what he went through in there by himself?"


    ¡°Daikichi relax-¡°


    "No Ms. Sam, I won''t. These guys think they can just waltz in here as nothing happened but, what do you think Yasu would do the minute he finds out they¡¯re all out here?¡± I asked her and she didn''t reply. ¡°They¡¯re fucking lucky he¡¯s unconscious.¡±


    ¡°Unconscious?¡± The girl standing beside Junpei says as she started approaching me. I got into a defensive stance making her stop on her tracks. ¡°T-tell me, is he ok?¡±


    "Ok? Ha, get real. He''s far from okay now that you''re all here. Why the fuck does you all want to keep meeting him? Doesn''t it click in your mind that he doesn''t want anything to do with any of you guys?" I feel hot and my face is probably turning red from anger. Everyone just averted my gaze without saying a word except Junpei who kept glaring at me.


    ¡°Would you all just leave him alone?¡± Ms. Sam said and it caught me off guard. I thought she would mediate between us but I can see she cares more about Yasu than them.


    ¡°Ms. Sam, we cant-¡° The girl to only be interrupted by Ms. Sam¡¯s look.


    ¡°Why is that you can¡¯t leave him alone? He went through hell because of you guys. As much as I want everyone to be all right with each other, my main priority is Yasu and will always be. From what I can see, he¡¯s better off if he doesn''t meet any of you at all at the moment.¡± Ms. Sam explained in a calm tone.


    The girl suddenly burst out in tears and Junpei stepped in consoling her. ¡°It¡¯s ok Hiroko.¡±


    ¡°Now that we got this sorted out, leave. We don¡¯t want to go with you or do anything with any of you.¡± I tell them not wanting to prolong our meeting.


    ¡°Look just come with us and-¡°


    ¡°Didn''t you just hear what we said? Going with you is not possible. Especially when you¡¯re harboring criminals.¡± I snarl at him. ¡°What the point of going with you anyways? So we can relive our nightmares?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve had it.¡± Junpei suddenly stepped forward placing his hand on my neck. ¡°Paralyze!¡±


    My body went numb and I couldn''t move anything.


    ¡°Daikichi!¡± Lisa shouts as she ran to me but Junpei was quickly on her doing the same thing as he paralyzes her and Amaguchi who went into a rage. Takumi tried to swing at him to be only stopped by Balo.


    ¡°Dude relax! Daikichi stop it!¡± Balo shouted out as Goro-sensei rushed him with his shield.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Junpei was quick to dodge while placing his hand on Goro-sensei¡¯s back paralyzing him also.


    ¡°Junpei! What are you doing!¡± One of their team ran for him and my body felt like lead. I couldn''t move anything.


    ¡°Look, we don¡¯t have time for this. You said it, they need to be held accountable for their actions. I don¡¯t want another Rikimura running around.¡± Junpei says towards Balo who stopped Ms. Sam from approaching us.


    ¡°Are you fucking crazy!¡± Takumi shouted checking on all of us and everyone is on the ground unable to move. Takumi kept his guard down as I saw Junpei slowly move behind him.


    ¡°Watch out!¡± I was too late as Junpei had his hand over Takumi¡¯s neck and his body slumped down on top of mine. ¡°You fucking asshole! Release us!¡±


    "Not so tough now huh, look, I have nothing against all of you but I can''t take any more chances. Now, where''s Yasu?¡± He asked me leaning towards me.


    "He''s not here," I tell him hoping he didn''t notice the wall Lisa made earlier.


    ¡°Oh yeah? What about that wall over there?¡± Junpei says as he stands up and walks towards where Kana and all the injured are resting. Dorang was already on the ground along with his group trying not to attract attention or agitate everyone. ¡°Akane, destroy that wall.¡±


    ¡°No!¡± I shout but no one did anything. Not even Balo who tried to calm down Ms. Sam as she started crying trying to break free from his grasp. I see the mage from their group walk pass me and she chanted some words making her hand and staff glow. In a few seconds, the rock wall Lisa created crumbled exposing everyone inside.


    "Kana! Mamoru! Go!" I shout as I notice them looking at me with fear as the wall crumble in front of them.


    ¡°Daikichi!¡± Kana shouted as she ran for me and like D¨¦j¨¤ vu, everything repeated in my head as she ran blindly not wary of her surroundings.


    ¡°Kana stop!¡± I shout at her as she passes Junpei who got his hand out ready to paralyze her.


    In a quick blur, he suddenly disappeared as the ground beneath him erupted while he flew out the cave. Suyeon sluggishly lands beside Kana as I hear her breathing hard.


    "Don''t you dare touch her," Suyeon says as she slowly stands up. Kana got right next to me and in a split second, roots appeared under Suyeon forcing her to the ground. I look at Yasu who¡¯s still unconscious on his bed as roots appeared out of the ground to hold Kana down.


    ¡°That fucking hurt.¡± Junpei came back with his armor almost gone and blood coming out of his mouth. He dropped down the ground and the healer from their team ran for him.


    ¡°Junpei!¡± Everyone ran towards him but I can see his expression change as his complexion turn pale.


    ¡°Now!¡± Yasu suddenly shouted as he got up his bed and in a quick motion, he was right next to us as he freed Suyeon and Kana from the roots before launching himself towards their mage. She was caught off guard as he grabs her by the head slamming her face down the ground.


    Mamoru quickly got a portal up and I felt my body was picked up as I watch Yasu handle me with ease. I saw everything as a blur as I see my body fly across the room into the portal making me bounce around on the other side. One by one, all of us that were paralyzed came flying into the portal and I see Dorang along with his group pick up all the unconscious as they jump right in. Mamoru tried his best to hold the portal open as it started blinking fast.


    Suyeon came jumping in with Kana on her shoulders and they both stumbled to the other side. Ms. Sam along with Miki-sensei ran through the portal carrying Nala. The last one was Yasu who stood his ground fighting all of them preventing them from reaching the portal. Even when he just came back from being at the verge of death, he managed to hold his own as he sent some of them flying while some were knocked unconscious. I see him run at one side and in a split second; Takumi came flying into the portal with him jumping right in.


    ¡°Mamoru!¡± Junpei shouted and I can see Mamoru look struggles to keep the portal open.


    "Brother," Mamoru whispered and Junpei tried his best to run towards the portal.


    ¡°What are you doing?! Why are you here?!¡± Junpei asked and I can see his expression going wild.


    "I''m sorry, brother," Mamoru says as he deactivates the portal right before Junpei got through it. He drops to his knees and as soon as the portal closed, I regained the feeling on my body. Everyone was on the ground while some started placing the unconscious near a tree surrounded by green grass. I tried my best to stand up yet my body felt weak as if I just did some extreme exercise.


    ¡°You ok?¡± I asked him and he nods as he moved towards a tree slumping down at the base of it.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± Kana shouted and as soon as I turn around, I see him on the ground convulsing.


    He screams brough everyones attention was to him. He kept scratching the ground over and over again before turning on his back as he started clawing his neck. Suyeon quickly got on top of him restraining his hands to prevent him from scratching his throat open. I ran to them as I tried to help her hold him down but he was too strong as he continued to scream trying to break free. Everyone helped hold him down as Kana and Ms. Sam shouted his name healing him. Not knowing what''s happening, I felt scared as I see blood coming out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. He kept screaming as if his insides were burning before completely passing out.


    .


    .


    .


    Darkness quickly came as we all huddled around a campfire. Ms. Sam handed out some of her potions to those who have a fever and luckily, it had an instant reaction as most of the unconscious woke up and was able to move around right away. The only one that wasn¡¯t healed was Yasu. Even when Ms. Sam almost used a whole bottle, it seemed like his fever never went down and the potion never had any effect.


    ¡°He¡¯s going to be fine right?¡± Kana asked Ms. Sam as she wipes Yasu¡¯s forehead. He¡¯s been sweating once his fever came and there was nothing we could do to bring it down.


    ¡°I hope so but he¡¯s burning up I wish I had all my medical equipment into this world.¡± Ms. Sam replied and I can see her expression full of worry. They¡¯ve been working non-stop taking care of him and I can see they¡¯re at their limit.


    ¡°Ms. Sam, you should rest. Me and Kana can handle from here.¡± I tell her grabbing the cloth of her hand.


    ¡°Ok, wake me up if his condition get¡¯s worse.¡± She tells us as she slumps down beside him. She didn''t even bother washing at the puddle Lisa made. In an instant, Ms. Sam fell asleep and I couldn''t blame her. Just a minute ago, we were taking it easy and now, we''re always on the edge looking over our shoulders. I stayed awake with Kana as she took care of Yasu wiping the sweat off his forehead. Suyeon stayed up with us as she sat beside him reading her book.


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re ok Suyeon?¡± Kana asked worried about her since she hasn''t slept since we got out of the cave.


    ¡°Y-yeah. My body feels sore a-a bit but I¡¯m fine.¡± Suyeon says before going back to her own world getting lost in her book.


    Daytime quickly came and we switched shift with Miki-sensei and Goro-sensei. I quickly fell asleep beside Kana who slept next to Suyeon. I didn¡¯t have any dream as I was woken up with a gentle shake and I can see the sun slowly sink into the horizon, covering the sky with an orange blanket.


    ¡°Daikichi, wake up. Wash your face and let¡¯s eat dinner.¡± Kana whispers as I rub my eyes. ¡°Amaguchi and Takumi managed to catch a boar, they¡¯re preparing it now.¡±


    I look up and everyone was busy doing something. Dorang along with the group he came with is butchering the boar while some started building shelters. I was probably in deep sleep and didn''t notice that they built a roof over us. Yasu is still unconscious beside us while Suyeon sat beside him leaning on a log reading her book. She saw me looking at her and gave me a quick smile.


    I gave her a nod of hello before groggily walking towards the puddle.


    ¡°What the¡­¡± I whisper as I see they build a sink table made out of wood.


    ¡°Like my creation? I just learned it after I leveled up my skill.¡± Takumi whispers and I can see he¡¯s busy building something right next to it.


    ¡°Yeah, and hey, how you¡¯re feeling?¡± I asked him. Even when it seemed alright, the fact that he left his team on a bad note at both times. It must be getting to him as I see he¡¯s keeping himself busy more than ever.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Kind of pissed off at their stupidity but, someone has it worse.¡± He says looking at Mamoru who isolated himself. I see him sitting by himself at one of the campfire just staring at it. ¡°Who would have known, he¡¯s Junpei¡¯s brother.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± I whisper looking at Yasu. I''m worried about how he will react towards him once he wakes up.


    ¡°Guys! Let¡¯s eat!¡± Dorang shouted as he pointed towards the pile of food on top of a table. Getting a better look, I see a lot of tables around the area.


    "Wow, you really got busy huh," I whisper towards Takumi and he just gave a small laugh as he washed his hands on the sink table.


    Since there¡¯s no plumbing, there¡¯s a giant looking tub right next to it and a pail is used to collect water. I waited for him to finish as I watch him dump the water onto the sink, which collects all the dirty water to empty it towards the ground below. When he was done, he handed me a towel from his bag before walking off towards the table. I quickly washed my face and walked towards our group, which gathered at a table near Yasu. Mamoru came also and sat next to Amaguchi. I¡¯m glad everyone doesn''t feel any different with him and I hoped Yasu would be the same.


    ¡°Ok guy¡¯s dig in. We tried our best to cook it.¡± Amaguchi says as we all grabbed pieces of meat with our bare hands. It was hot to the touch but not too hot that it burned our skins. I took a bite and the juice that came out of the meat flowed into my mouth. Yet, it wasn¡¯t satisfying as the taste was bland. Since I was too hungry, I didn¡¯t say anything as I kept eating.


    "Damn, this taste like nothing," Amaguchi says as he bites into what seems like a rib bone. "Sorry guys, we tried out best to cook it."


    ¡°It¡¯s ok. But I wonder how Yasu makes his food taste so good even when just put salt on it.¡± Kana asked as she placed a bone down in front of her. She grabbed another one and ate without making much facial expression.


    ¡°I bet it''s his skill," Amaguchi says and even I wonder at what limit he can cook.


    "I have never tasted anything bad he made," Lisa says making us remember the first time he fed us. "I don''t think he can make anything taste bad."


    "There is one time he vomited what he made," Suyeon says as she places a bone down to grab another one.


    ¡°What? When? What did he make?¡± Amaguchi asked like a kid.


    ¡°It was when we got out of the dungeon. We were stuck up the mountain.¡± She says as she looks around trying to remember. ¡°Ah, it was the ogre queen.¡±


    We all stayed silent for a moment looking at her.


    ¡°Ogre queen?!¡± Ms. Sam¡¯s mouth was wide open. Even we didn''t expect him to eat actual demons.


    ¡°Thank god we didn''t come across any demons. I don''t think I can stomach Yasu cooking one.¡± Lisa says as she puts her food down losing her appetite.


    ¡°It didn''t taste that bad¡­¡± Suyeon whispered making us all look her way again.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± Kana stopped talking and her mouth is wide open from shock.


    ¡°He fed you the ogre queen?!¡± Lisa says standing up and we all look at Yasu who still lays unconscious.


    ¡°W-well y-yeah. And it d-didn¡¯t taste bad.¡± Suyeon stutters making us wonder what else he fed her.


    ¡°I need to have a talk with him when he wakes up.¡± Ms. Sam whispers as Lisa sits back down.


    ¡°How is he?¡± Mamoru asked.


    ¡°He¡¯s burning up but today, his temperature started dropping.¡± Ms. Sam explained but in my mind, I wanted to ask something else. I wanted to find out if Mamoru is fine.


    ¡°He won¡¯t kill me¡­right?¡± Mamoru suddenly asked and we all stayed quiet for a bit.


    "He won''t. Don''t worry, I know him more than anyone here and I know he won''t." I tell him and he gave me a nod. I guess he''s worried if he will ever fit in here now that we know he''s Junpei brother. ¡°Don''t worry man, nothing will change between us. Also, Yasu might be an asshole but trust me he- what?¡±


    I see all of them looking at me as their eyes trail towards something above me. I look back thinking it¡¯s Luro yet all my worries are gone when I see Yasu standing behind me.


    ¡°Yasu!" Kana shouted as she stands but Ms. Sam beat her to him moving like lightning placing her the back of her hand on top his forehead.


    ¡°You¡¯re still burning up. Go rest.¡± Ms. Sam says and Yasu waved to her weakly smiling.


    "You ok bro? Here have a seat." I tell him as I stand up but he just told me to sit back down as he walked near the table grabbing one of the meat. In an instant, he devoured it and I can see the color come back into his face. He grabbed another meat and kept eating until he ate everything that''s on the table.


    ¡°Ugh, my bad. Didn¡¯t mean to eat everything.¡± He whispers as he walked towards the forest and in an instant, he disappeared into the dark. We all didn''t know what to do as we started scampering up chasing after him but he quickly came back holding a dead wolf. Its fur was as black as night and its eyes are as red as its blood. He quickly set it down near the fire and started butchering it.


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re ok?¡± Ms. Sam approaches him and he nods to her as he butchers the wolf into pieces.


    ¡°Yeah, I heal by eating. I ate enough so I should regain some energy.¡± We hear him whisper as he started cooking the wolf over the fire and the smell started making me salivate. It wasn¡¯t long till he cooked enough pile of wolf meat as he places them down the table. He quickly washes his hands and I can see Mamoru just sitting by the table not moving an inch.


    "Guys eat, we''re moving tomorrow," Yasu tells us and we all sat down on the table where Mamoru is. Yasu just passed him as he went back down towards the bed laying down on it. He quickly called out his bag and took out the fur blanket he used before and placing it over himself.


    "Oh my god, this is good," Amaguchi says as he started eating and the smell of the meat is enough to make me feel hungry again.


    ¡°Thanks for the portal.¡± I hear Yasu whisper right before I grab a piece of meat out of the pile. I notice everyone is full of smiles as Mamoru tears came out silently crying.

 CHAPTER 58: The journey to the castle begins

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 58: The journey to the castle begins


    <hr>


    Yasu POV


    <hr>


    I woke up again and I felt my body refreshed. Everyone seems to walk around keeping busy except for Suyeon who stayed beside me. It¡¯s still nighttime but, it seems like I slept through the day. I notice Suyeon is still sleeping beside me curled up due to the cold breeze as the blanket over her wasn''t enough to keep her warm. I gently placed Mole¡¯s fur over her and she stopped shivering as she slept soundly.


    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Kana asked me as I sat up.


    "Like a million bucks," I tell her stretching out my arms.


    ¡°Are you sure? You were really in a bad state after we got through the portal.¡± She tells me making me remember waking up inside the cave with her and Mamoru.


    She briefly told me what was going on and luckily, Suyeon woke up on time for me to hatch up a plan. Catching them off guard managed to work and I got everyone through the portal without having any casualties. It came to my surprise that Mamoru is Junpei¡¯s little brother yet; I didn''t let it bother me even after waking up. I noticed him wary when I walked around him earlier after cooking the wolf. In my mind, it¡¯s his brother that did me wrong so I have no feelings of ill will towards Mamoru. Everyone noticed me awake and Daikichi came jogging towards my way.


    ¡°Yo, finally awake? I thought you went into hibernation nation again.¡± He says lightly punching me in the arm.


    "Yeah, I should be fine now," I tell him moving around side to side to stretch out the muscle around my waist.


    ¡°Seriously Yasu, what happened?¡± Ms. Sam asked as she came close to me placing her hand on my forehead. ¡°No more fever, good. Now young man, tell me what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a long story so let me wash up first and I¡¯ll tell you while we''re eating. I¡¯m hungry.¡± I tell her while standing up and they all walked towards the table. The same table they were sitting around last night when I woke up to briefly to eat.


    After washing my face, I walked to them and I notice Suyeon woke up also as she neatly folds Mole''s fur to hand it to me. I grab it handing her a towel as she walked towards the water to wash her face. As soon as I reached the table, they handed me what seemed to be cooked wolf meat. I ate it and like the boar meat yesterday, it tasted stale compared to what I made. I explained to them what happens after I use one of the new skill that the side effects have me convulsing as my inside burn before getting a really high fever.


    "I learned the hard way testing out the skill," I tell them as I finish my food. Suyeon handed me a glass of water and I nod to her as she smiled at me.


    ¡°Yasu, don''t use that skill, ever.¡± Ms. Sam ordered and I gave her a smile to ease her worries.


    "I won''t," I tell her but in the back of my mind, I know I''ll have to use it if another time comes.


    ¡°Anything else we need to know?¡± Kana asked and I hesitated to tell her about the other skills. But in the end, I owe it to them that I''m still alive so I explained to them each and every effect of all the new skills I got while being inside the hidden dungeon for a year.


    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± I hear Daikichi whisper and they all have the same sad expression.


    "I don''t know why my skills have so many negative effects but I guess it''s because of how overpowering my new skill is, it''s the price I pay for using them," I tell them while looking up the sky towards earth. "By the way, where the hell are we?"


    Trying to change the topic and snap them out of their gloomy expression, I decided to look around and the trees seemed unfamiliar. Using my seismic step skill, I jumped up towards the sky and I see the forest goes as far as my eyes can reach. Yet, the tall mountain, the water that engulfed everything was completely gone. I land on the ground confused as I walked towards them.


    ¡°Did you see anything?¡± Daikichi asked and I shook my head.


    ¡°It looks like we entered a new continent. Everything looks unfamiliar to me.¡± I tell him before looking at Takumi. ¡°You recognize any of these trees?¡±


    He shook his head as he approaches one of them. "I have never seen these, it''s the first I''ve seen these markings."


    I see the trees have some sort of curls on certain spots. Getting an actually good look, the leaves are bright purple that even at night, it emitted a faint glow. It dimly illuminated the forest but not enough to safely venture out without any form of light.


    "This looks very creepy at night," I whisper looking at the eerie scene that surrounds all of us.


    ¡°Yeah, but daytime it¡¯s gorgeous. The leaves turn pink like Sakura trees.¡± Kana says making me imagine it.


    ¡°How long was I out?¡± I asked them and Kana started counting in her head.


    ¡°Well including the time we were in the cave up to now, I would say seven days?¡± She says making me more confused.


    ¡°Didn''t I just cook you guys wolf last night?¡± I asked her pointing at the dead wolf but getting a good look at it, it looked different from what I butchered. ¡°Or not.¡±


    ¡°That was three days ago. After you fell asleep, you briefly wake up at night to eat something then you¡¯d go back to sleep.¡± Daikichi says making me more confused since I don''t remember waking up.


    "Yeah, you were like a zombie," Lisa says and I stopped trying to remember as I started feeling a small headache forming. "Oh by the way, after we killed the earth god-well to rephrase that after Suyeon killed the Earth God, it dropped something.¡±


    Lisa called out her dimensional bag and struggled to take out something. As soon as she was able to bring it at the full view, she struggled to place it on top the table.


    ¡°Holy hell, is that a diamond ball?!¡± Dorang says bringing everyone¡¯s attention as they all gathered around.


    "Well we don''t know but it sure is really damn heavy," Lisa whispers as she rubs her arms.


    ¡°Didn''t you guys inspect it?¡± I asked and they all looked at me confused.


    ¡°Inspect?¡± Takumi asked and I nod at him. ¡°There¡¯s a skill like that?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I have an inspect skill after I reached level nineteen. Lets me figure out what everything is. Here let me try it.¡± I say picking up the crystal ball looking diamond with one hand. I looked around it switching from one hand with ease and they all looked at me like I¡¯m a weird animal. ¡°What?¡±


    "Isn''t it heavy?" Lisa asked with a confused expression and I gave her a shrug. I gave the crystal to Daikichi who wanted to see it and it almost dragged him to the ground.


    ¡°Holy crap!¡± He shouted as he struggled to bring the crystal ball away from the ground. ¡°This weights a ton!¡±


    ¡°See? I told you so!¡± Amaguchi says as he rubs his back. ¡°I still remember the feeling of my back hurting.¡±


    I grab the crystal ball out of his hand as I looked at it and just looking at the center somehow calms my mind.


    "Inspect," I whisper while looking at it and a notification appeared before me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    Legendary Blue Keystone Crystal


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Item


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Key


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="197">


    Keystone Crystals


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="590">


    One of the four keystones to open the gate of the diamond. Chanting ¡®show the way¡¯ while holding it will lead you to the next closest keystone. Bring all four together to find the way.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "One of the tree keystone- holy shit," I say reading the description happily. "Don''t tell me this is¡­"


    ¡°What? What is what?¡± Amaguchi looked at me like a curious dog. ¡°Come on tells us, I¡¯m dying to know!¡±


    "I think this is a key to our castle," I tell them and they all looked at each other happily.


    "Finally! No more camping outside! I am in dire need of a bath or shower." Lisa says smelling herself and they all started laughing. But as I read further, I couldn''t help feeling restless.


    "This is actually bad," I whisper re-reading the description.


    "What? Please don''t crush my dream of a proper bath." Lisa says clapping her hands together.


    "It says it''s one of the four keystones we need to find. Which means, there are three more like this.¡± I tell them and all of their expression turned from happiness to sadness.


    ¡°Don''t tell me, we need to fight three more Earth Gods?!¡± Lisa says and even I¡¯m not quite sure. ¡°Ughhhh we almost died fighting one.¡±


    She slumps down her chair as I read the description again, ¡°It will glow when we¡¯re near another one. It says bring all four together to find the way. Damn this reminds me of the puzzle I had to solve to get out of the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Puzzle?¡± Daikichi asked.


    ¡°Yeah, after I saved Suyeon, we took the hidden path to get out of the dungeon only to meet a dead end. I needed to solve a puzzle to open the portal and I managed to do it at a nick of time. Almost died." I tell him and it piqued is interest making me remember he loved solving things.


    ¡°Lisa, mind if I keep this in my bag? It¡¯s better for me to take it out every now and then to check our direction, it says here we can use it to bring us to the next one.¡± I tell her and she nods to me.


    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d want to carry around an Earth God magnet device.¡± She says making me chuckle a bit.


    "If another Earth God appears, we''ll be ready for him," I tell her as I look at the diamond ball. ¡°Show the way.¡±


    The ball faintly glowed and I can see it being pulled from one side as the light looked like it was being sucked towards one direction.


    ¡°Whoa.¡± I hear someone whisper as I watch the light slowly fades away.


    ¡°So what now?¡± Dorang asked and I didn''t even notice everyone around me.


    "We need to follow the light to the next one," I say storing the crystal ball into my bag. "But first, we need to find a town or a village to re-stock on supplies. We don''t want to go unprepared like last time."


    "True, and I really need a bath," Lisa says as she kept smelling herself.


    ¡°Say Yasu, can we like, live with you guys in your castle?" Dorang¡¯s face looked serious.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "Do what you want," I tell him and they all started cheering.


    ¡°Yes!! Hear that everyone?! All hail the new king!¡± Dorang shout and they all shouted in unison.


    ¡°Nope, no king. We¡¯re just using it as a base. You guys can use it to whatever you like after we¡¯re done.¡± I tell him making sure they know we¡¯re not staying here for long but it seems like Dorang doesn''t even care or notice as he shouts.


    ¡°All hail the new temporary king!¡± He commanded and everyone shouted and laughed as they chanted his words.


    Daytime quickly came as I stayed up while everyone slept. I¡¯ve had enough sleep that I feel energetic even when daytime came. Like what they said, the trees turned from bright purple to light pink like a sakura tree. It brought a new calmness as the wind sways the leaves causing some to float onto the sky. The leaves landed on the ground covering the green grass with a pink carpet. It didn''t take long till everyone woke up and we all started getting ready to head out.


    "The first task is to find a stream of water. If we find one, it might lead us to a small village." I tell everyone.


    I started assigning them a task and placing the vulnerable next to those who can protect them. I told Ms. Sam to stick with me along with Nala and Miki-sensei while Kana stayed close with Suyeon along with Lisa. Daikichi and Goro-sensei stayed in the back while Takumi led us through the forest scouting ahead. Mamoru also stayed in front just in case Takumi needed a quick exit, he can activate his portal to transport him to us.


    It was easy in the beginning but now, with so many people going through the forest, it is a lot more difficult to keep track of everyone. Every now and then we will do a roll call but I hope we find a river soon or clearing to be able to camp. Yet, it felt relaxing as we walked through the sakura forest. We took a quick break every now and then as others needed to pee while the older folks needed to take a breather.


    We continued to push through the forest creating marks on the trees to make sure we don''t go on circles. So far, we made a good amount of distance from where we started but I¡¯m starting to feel restless, as we can¡¯t find anything that can lead us to civilization. As far as I know, this forest can go on for miles and miles until we reach a dead end without finding anything.


    "Ok change of plans, we don''t know how far a village is, if anyone sees anything unnatural like a cave or an entrance to any dungeon, let me know," I tell them and they all nod. ¡°If we find a dungeon, we¡¯ll enter it and use the safe zone to rest while we can also use it to boost up everyone¡¯s level.¡±


    We kept walking till the sun started to set over the horizon and the leaves on the trees turned back into purple. It gave an eerie feeling within the forest as the leaves on the ground emitted a faint glow. Rather than trying to find a clearing, I decided to cut some trees with the help of Takumi. We cleared a small area for everyone to set camp for the night. Using the cut trees, I created logs and Takumi made them into walls as he built it around us.


    "Can you cut here, and here, and there?" he asked me and I gave him a nod cutting holes off the wall to act as a window for us to be able to look out.


    My strength and Takumi''s passive skill made it a lot easier to set camp as he''s able to build everything fast and I was able to carry heavy materials. Lisa used her magic to reinforce the walls onto the ground. I told her don''t use her magic too much since we don''t know how much magic power she has. Takumi told us that one of the main problems is that the mages run out of magic power and without a magic potion, it takes too long to even replenish it. Lisa just helped with the reinforcement and our water source as she created a small pool for us to use.


    ¡°Ok guys, get a fire going, I¡¯ll be right back. I¡¯ll go look for food.¡± I tell them and I felt someone hold me back before I jumped over the wall.


    ¡°At least take one of us with you.¡± Ms. Sam sam with a worried look and I shook my head.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Ms. Sam, I won¡¯t go far. As long as you guys keep the fire going, I can find my way back.¡± I tell her and she slowly let go of my hand.


    ¡°Ok, but be careful. Come back quick.¡± She tells me and I nod before jumping over the fence and running into the dark forest.


    I moved swiftly even with low visibility. I was so used to the darkness that, being in the dark felt more reassuring that at daylight. Using my seismic step skill, I ran through the forest clearing a great distance before climbing up a tree trying to get to the top of it to get a better look.


    "Ok I made it far, I can still see the camp''s light from here," I whisper when I suddenly hear a rustling sound beneath me. As I look, I see a wolf pack stealthy traveling through the forest and by the look of it, the direction they¡¯re heading towards is our camp. Trying not to make to much noise, I dropped down while clenching my fist as I swung towards the ground.


    "Knockout!" I shouted out and a purple rune appeared underneath us. They tried to run only drop to the ground before they even reach their third step. Without wasting time, I quickly killed them and stored carcasses in my bag. As I started walking through the forest to look for more, I found a black boar that tried to charge at me to only bail halfway. I quickly caught up to it as I knocked it out with one strike.


    "Oh, before I forgot, let me see how close we are," I whisper while taking out the diamond ball. "Show the way."


    The diamond ball glowed a bright blue as it points towards one direction. I followed it towards where the glow was being sucked into and I started hearing it buzz, as the air around the ball got stronger and stronger. Thinking that I would come across another earth got at any minute, the glow suddenly became faint as it started pointing at another direction.


    ¡°Oh what the hell?¡± I whisper tracing back my steps but it never changed as it kept pointing towards the new direction. ¡°Weird.¡±


    I placed the diamond ball inside my bag and ran towards our camp. It didn''t take long as I reached the walls. I noticed a doorframe as I run right through it to be greeted by a group of people. I handed the wolves to them along with the boar and they quickly got started on deboning the carcass with Takumi¡¯s help.


    I didn''t bother telling them what happened to the diamond ball as I sat down on the table emptying all the contents in my bag on top the table. I placed a couple of utensils, spices, cooking oil, Mole¡¯s fur, and a few more items like the black book. I started doing an inventory check writing notes down on a piece of paper I got from the bandit town and everyone did the same as they emptied their bags keeping track of their inventory.


    ¡°Yasu, what''s this?" I hear someone ask and when I look, I see Mamoru holding''s Mole''s bones I got from the Sky King''s dungeon.


    I guess he¡¯s trying to strike up a conversation and I didn''t mind but I notice everyone¡¯s glances coming our way.


    ¡°His name is Mole, a giant baby chick. That¡¯s his bones. He protected me inside the dungeon but lost his life in the process.¡± I tell him and he placed the bones down carefully on top the table.


    "Aw, that''s so sad," Lisa says as she approaches us looking at Mole''s fur. "Can I touch it?"


    "Go ahead," I tell her and she happily took the fur and rubbed it on her cheeks.


    ¡°Oh my god, this is so soft. Hello Mole.¡± She whispers and all the other girls came in and started feeling his fur. I didn''t mind as I kept storing everything back in my bag.


    ¡°Um, I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t tell you Junpei is my brother.¡± He tells me as I started putting the items back in my bag.


    I felt the atmosphere change as everyone got quiet and I hated that they¡¯re becoming passive around me. As if, they¡¯re wary of anything I do or say which made me feel a bit sad.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. You did nothing wrong so I don¡¯t know why everyone acts like I¡¯m going to chop your head off.¡± I say as I walk towards the fire leaving my bag on the table so it can disappear. I didn''t say anything after that as I focused on cooking the wolf meat for everyone to eat.


    Yasu, get yourself together. I whisper in my mind as I watch the meat sizzle on top of the pan. I don''t know why they don''t trust me at all. I guess it¡¯s my fault.


    I cooked the meat without much interaction with everyone and I can notice Kana restless talking to everyone around the table before walking towards to me. ¡°Yasu got a minute?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what¡¯s up?¡± I asked her without looking at her as I focused on cooking the meat.


    "You ok?" She asked me as she sat down across me on a log. I wanted to tell her I''m fine but I need to communicate better with them.


    ¡°It''s nothing," I tell her but somehow I wanted to let her know. "Do you guys think I''m a killer?"


    ¡°No, we do-¡°


    ¡°You think I¡¯m going to go into a fit of rage once I found out he¡¯s Junpei¡¯s brother," I tell her and she remained quiet. "If I wanted to kill him, I would have done it long ago."


    "I''m sorry, it''s just we don''t want to make it any worse for you. You''ve been through a lot." She tells me and it didn''t make me feel any better.


    "The worse thing you guys can do is pity me," I tell her and she didn''t say anything after that as she remained quiet watching me cook.


    Dinner was one of the most uncomfortable atmospheres I experienced. No one said anything even when they wanted to and I didn''t say anything back. It¡¯s not that I was agitated; I just couldn''t say anything thinking that I might say something else to make the situation worse.


    Shit Yasu, wrong time to throw a tantrum. I whisper in my mind as I feed the fire with sticks. I look up the sky and watched earth float above the sky trying to see which country I¡¯m staring at. I need to think of what to do next.


    I look at everyone sleeping soundly and I see Mamoru still awake as he approaches the fire. "Mind if I sit here?"


    "Go ahead," I tell him and he grabs a couple of sticks as he fed the fire. "So how did you get here?"


    I decided to talk to him first to try and break the ice since I still notice he feels uncomfortable around me.


    "When I got home and fell asleep, I woke up in the dungeon." He tells me as he snaps some sticks and feeds the fire with it.


    ¡°So what do you want to do now?¡± I decided to not beat around the bush and get everything straightened out.


    ¡°I¡­¡± He hesitated to talk before mustering up the courage. ¡°I want to stay here, with everyone.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked him and it caught him off guard. He probably thinks I don¡¯t want him here but I just want to know why he doesn''t want to find his own brother.


    "B-because I owe it to everyone and-" He suddenly stopped as he catches me staring at him with a serious look. "I want to make my own choices."


    Even if he said it in a low voice, I heard it clearly. I didn''t say anything since I have a general idea of what¡¯s going on. It¡¯s either he feels suffocated with his brother who makes all the decisions or he wants to prove to him that he can survive without him. But in the end, these different scenarios left my mind as I focused on one thing and one thing only. That is, finding and killing Luro.


    ¡°Do you have a skill that can teleport you anywhere you choose?¡± I asked him and he nods to me.


    "As long as it''s somewhere I have been and can clearly picture it, I can teleport back into that place but, the further the location, the more energy it takes out of me and I won''t be able to do any more portals if my energy runs out too fast." He explained to me as I sat looking at the fire thinking of a new idea.


    ¡°If you wanted, you can teleport back into the cave we were in?¡± I asked him and he nods to me, which made it his decision, more solid. If he really wanted to leave, he would have left long ago when he got the chance.


    ¡°Wait, can''t you create a portal back to earth?¡± I asked him and he shook his head.


    ¡°I tried but no matter how hard I envisioned it, the portal never activated.¡± He explained to me.


    ¡°Hm, come with me," I tell him and I walked towards the door that leads outside the walls they build around the camp. They made it so high it was impossible to see over unless you peek out using one of the makeshift windows. Mamoru followed me as far as he can until I stopped and looked back at camp, which was a dot at a distance.


    ¡°What are we doing out here?¡± Mamoru asked out of breath.


    ¡°I want to see how far you can make the portal. Can you make one here to connect towards the camp?¡± I pointed towards the faint don''t at a distance and he gave me a nod. He took out his dimensional bag and took out a stave. He chanted a few words and I see a portal appear in front of us.


    ¡°I made it outside the camp so we don''t wake anyone or accidentally teleport them here.¡± He tells me and I nod walking into the portal. It was like a door, I can see the other side and the minute I stepped in, I was already back at camp.


    "Damn that''s useful," I whisper as I see him walk in the portal before deactivating it. "How many more you can make before you run out of magic?"


    "Probably, around eight more times." He tells me which is a downside to his class. He can make portals but he can''t make an infinite amount of it.


    ¡°Ok, that¡¯s more than enough. Go rest. Tomorrow you¡¯ll leave with me.¡± I tell him as we walk back in camp and I can see everyone still sleeping with a few people from Dorang¡¯s group are wide awake to keep watch. They gave us a nod the minute they saw us and I nod at them back before sitting back on the campfire. The morning quickly came and I started getting ready while they all started waking up. Mamoru woke up earlier than usual and I decided to help him sort out his inventory.


    "This is the only weapon you got?" I asked him about looking at a stave.


    "Y-yeah." He says and I place it back down on top the table. "Ok, I have a few utensils, a water container, and my old clothes."


    "Ok, have this, and this. And this." I say handing him a few things I had in my bag and a few of the blue potion I didn''t need. I forgot I had them stored in my bag for a long time. Since I never really need to replenish my magic power, I forgot all about it.


    ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± Lisa asked with everyone behind tagging along. I see they just finished washing their faces as they started surrounding the table looking at us.


    "We''re going to follow the diamond crystal to find what''s at the end of it," I tell her.


    "I guess it''s time to go," Daikichi says while Yawning and I can see him starting to walk towards Dorang. ¡°I¡¯ll go tell everyone-¡°


    ¡°No don¡¯t. No one is coming with us. You all are staying here.¡± I tell him and he looked back at me with a confused look. ¡°Here¡¯s my plan, we need to figure out what we''re up against so I''m going to try and find what that is. I''m only taking Mamoru with me because he has the ability to create a portal as long as he''s been there and remembers the path from one location to the next."


    ¡°But Yasu, it¡¯s dangerous to fight it alone.¡± Ms. Sam says and I shook my head.


    "I''m not fighting it. I just want to find it, inspect it and it will tell me it''s a weakness. This is how I beat the sky king; I knew it¡¯s weakness and used it against the dragon.¡± I tell her.


    "But you should take at least one or two of us with you guys," Takumi says and I shook my head.


    ¡°We can¡¯t take any chances. I won¡¯t be here with you guys and it will be a lot easier to go through the forest with fewer people. I would take Suyeon with me but, I want her to be here just in case anything happens, she can protect you guys." I tell them and they all nod.


    "Even I will admit, she is stronger than us," Takumi says as he looks at Suyeon who just woke up and decided to wash her face before running to us.


    "Ok, I''m ready," Mamoru says as he placed the last items in his bag.


    ¡°Ok guy¡¯s we¡¯re leaving now. Take care of everything here while I¡¯m away. Suyeon, you''re in charge of protection." I tell her and she nods looking confused as we started walking away.


    "Guys wait!" Ms. Sam ran to us and handed us each a potion. "Just in case you get sick, you can use these."


    ¡°Thanks.¡± I grab the potion off her hand and gave some to Mamoru before storing it in my bag.


    We both turned and walked towards the forest without looking back. I took out the diamond crystal ball and chanted the command. Even if it¡¯s day time, I can see it faintly glow on top my hand. I kept walking towards where I remembered it glowed brightly even when it''s faint, I can notice it shining.


    "Let''s go find that damn castle," I say to Mamoru and we both walked towards the forest ready to find whatever is our next target.

 CHAPTER 59: The tomato guy

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 59: The tomato guy


    <hr>


    Even with the forest giving us proper shade, the heat was comparable to the summertime at Earth. We took little breaks here and there trying to cover as much land as we can. During the nighttime, I¡¯d have Mamoru activate his portal to check if he¡¯s still able to make it connect from our location and back to our camp. We surprised them a couple of times and used the portal to talk to each other for a few minutes.


    "Ok, guys, we''ll go rest now," I tell them across the portal and Mamoru closed it the minute we said our goodbyes.


    "It''s surprising I can make it this far," Mamoru whispered as sat down at a log I set up near the campfire. "Are we getting any closer?"


    "Let me check," I tell him while taking out the keystone crystal out of my bag. ¡°Show the way.¡±


    The crystal glowed a cyan blue color and I can see it being pulled towards one way. The light is a lot brighter compared before which probably indicates that we''re slowly getting closer to the destination.


    "It''s a lot brighter now," Mamoru says and spending a few days with him in the forest, he''s started becoming comfortable. Before he hardly talked or made conversation but I guess he started getting comfortable at my presence.


    "Probably we need a couple more days to reach it," I tell him putting the keystone back inside my bag. "Get some rest, I''ll keep watch."


    He nods to me as he lies down on the other side of the fire. The night quickly ended as the sun started rising to change the forest. During the night, the leaves would turn purple giving it an eerie feeling while during daytime; it would turn bright pink like a Sakura tree. The rustle of the leaves along with the birds chirping made it a relaxing morning every time. We quickly ate breakfast and started walking through the forest following the keystone ball as our GPS. I tested it out and whatever we''re following seems to be stationary since the light never moved as it kept pointing towards one direction.


    We traveled through a never-ending forest up until we got to a clearing. It looked like a ruin. Houses made out of wood have long since decayed while nature ate it away slowly. We looked around to see if anyone is here but it seems like it was abandoned centuries ago.


    "Mamoru, activate the portal," I tell him and he nods stepped away from me. He chanted something under his breath and both his hands glowed as he pointing at one section. The portal appeared outside the camp where he always made it appear. "Guys!"


    The door suddenly opened and I can see Daikichi run towards us along with everyone tagging behind.


    ¡°Did you guys find it?¡± He asked and I shook my head.


    "Tell everyone to pack up, you guys are moving here. It''s a lot better than in the middle of the forest." I tell him and he quickly peeked in looking around us.


    "Did you guys find a ruin?" He whispered and I nod to him. "Guys get ready! We''re moving!"


    It didn''t take long for them to get through the portal and it seemed like they were always ready to move at any given moment. Mamoru kept the portal open while they jumped in one by one.


    ¡°Everyone through?¡± Mamoru asked as the portal started blinking on and off.


    "Yeah," Takumi says and he closed the portal leaving our old camp behind. "This place is better, it''s easier to see around us since there''s a flat land around the ruins."


    "Ok guys, let''s start setting up," Dorang ordered everyone around and in no time, they managed to fix a few of the cabins for people to sleep in. Takumi got busy building a few types of furniture here and there while everyone else helped reinforce security by creating towers to station a few people.


    "Mamoru, let''s rest for today here and then we continue tomorrow," I tell him and he nods walking towards one of the chairs Takumi created. I walked towards the fire since it started getting cold and I see Suyeon started following me around. She didn¡¯t say anything but read her book as she sat right beside me. I didn¡¯t say anything as I fed the fire with sticks and for some reason, it was a relaxing night.


    At dawn, we headed out while everyone is asleep. Only a few people greeted us who was in charge of the overnight watch. Everyone is starting to become fluid with their task, and I can leave them at peace as I know they''ll be able to protect one another.


    "Show the way," I whispered holding the keystone crystal and it lit up a lot brighter than usual as it pointed towards one direction. We kept following where the light leads us and soon it became dark as the forest around us turned into purple death. Fog covered the ground making it impossible to see where we''re stepping.


    "Let''s make camp and push forwards during the daytime," I tell Mamoru and he nods quickly getting his bag out to take out the sticks he collected earlier. We ate dinner quickly and I told him to rest as I stay up watching the fire. Even when he hasn¡¯t done anything, I still don¡¯t feel comfortable with him around.


    He didn''t really show any animosity towards me as he slept soundly beside the fire. We could create a portal back to camp to sleep but I told him it''s better to just keep going. But to be honest, I just want to clear my mind and not hear anyone millions of question or Ms. Sam keeping a check on me non-stop. I''ve been used to traveling alone or with Suyeon that, being surrounded by people is starting to suffocate me. Yet, in my mind, I kept telling myself that need to learn how to fend for themselves to mask the uncertainty in my heart.


    The morning quickly came and we kept pushing forwards towards were the keystone crystal was showing. Days pass by quickly and no matter how far we got, Mamoru was still able to make the portal but the duration on how long he can keep it open is getting shorter and shorter.


    "Whoa, look at that," Mamoru whispers as we see another clearing. "Damn those are big."


    Giant snakes were roaming around near the puddle in the middle which reminded me of the clearing me and Suyeon first encountered.


    "Let''s skip around them. We''ll come back for them later on." I tell him and he nods as we kept walking through the forest. We encountered another clearing but this time, it looks like humanoid rats walking around making me remember the MMORPG games I used to play. Without wanting to waste any more time, we kept walking ignoring the urge I had to send the rats into hell and collect all their weapons.


    We never saw another clearing again but as we push on further, the surrounding area gots darker and darker. The ground, the trees, everything around us slowly turned black as the trees blocked most of the light from the sun letting only a few faint dots shine at certain areas.


    "Keep close to me," I whisper to Mamoru as he walked in front of me. I noticed a faint purple fog slowly covering the ground and the silence of the forest makes it easier to hear my heartbeat.


    The trees started becoming less and less yet the sky slowly turned black. It wasn¡¯t until Mamoru stopped that I noticed what¡¯s ahead of us.


    ¡°Is that¡­¡± Mamoru whispers as his voice trails off looking at a distance.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me...¡± I whisper back as I stare at a metal gate and on the other side was riddled with gravestones. ¡°A cemetery?¡±


    "There''s something on the middle," Mamoru whispered and as I squint my eyes to get a further look, I noticed what''s he''s looking at. "I hope that''s not our castle."


    "I hope not also," I whisper taking out the keystone crystal. ¡°Show the way.¡±


    The crystal shone brightly as it pointed towards the castle making me smile.


    ¡°Should I activate the portal so we can tell everyone?¡± Mamoru asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s figure out what we¡¯re up against then we can tell them to prepare for it.¡± Getting ready to jump to the other side. Thanks to my skill, I was able to do it on one leap as Mamoru started climbing the fence as quickly as he can. Once he got to the other side, we carefully walked through the cemetery passing all of the gravestones. I was thinking skeletons would pop out of the graves and attack us but nothing. The silence of the cemetery made it easier to hear our footsteps. His footsteps were so loud that I can hear the twigs snapping as it echoes through the forest.


    ¡°Watch where you step. We don¡¯t want to startle what¡¯s ever inside that place.¡± I whisper to him as we both stop but the snapping never did.


    "I don''t think that was me," Mamoru whispered and as we look back, we see nothing behind us but the fog and gravestones. I looked at the ground and I notice the twig snapping as if someone was stepping on it.


    "Get ready to run," I whisper to him. I can fight most enemies but if it''s something I can''t see; it would be difficult with him here. I can¡¯t have Mamoru dying since he¡¯s the only one who can make portals. ¡°Inspect.¡±


    I looked at the space where the twigs are snapping on their own and a notification appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="443">


    Invisible Zombies


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Type


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Uses


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Family


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Area mob


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    none


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="148">


    Undead


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="3" width="443">


    The undead walks, but what¡¯s worse, are invisible rotting maggot infested marching band. Ew!They don''t like the light though.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Pound!¡± I shouted out loud as I swung to the ground and in a brief moment, it showed itself as it flew away from us. Its whole body was decomposing and maggots were coming out of its eyes. It gave out an eerie sound as it flew across the graveyard and one by one, they all started appearing out of thin air. "Run!"


    We ran for the castle as they surrounded the area from all sides. The zombies started disappearing one by one and I hoped none of them know how to run. Without care, I punched the door open exposing a staircase with red carpet covering it. We both ran up the stairs that led to a bigger door. Hearing the footsteps inside the castle, I punched a hole on the door sending debris flying across the other side. We quickly ran in and it wasn¡¯t far till we found the where the keystone was leading us to.


    ¡°Mamoru! Activate the portal now! Jump on the other side and keep it open!¡± I shout to him before taking out my bag and placing the keystone inside. He quickly created a portal following my instructions as I ran towards the giant skeleton sitting on a throne. In his chest is a crystal ball as his bones hold it in place. His eyes glowed purple and the minute I got close, he stood up from his throne.


    ¡°Hurry up! I can¡¯t keep the portal open for long!¡± Mamoru shouted out.


    ¡°Inspect!¡± As the notification came up, I saw its name along with other information I needed.


    The minute it brought its sword up, I activated my tenderize skill and sent an attack towards its face. It exploded upon impact, but it never moved from the spot. Thinking that my attack would at least do a bit of damage, I was surprised I only took out one point off its tremendous health. The smoke slowly faded away that was around its face and I can see it looking right at me. I jumped back as it swung its sword downwards towards me and the impact of its attack wasn''t strong but black smoke emerged out of the ground as a tiny version of him started coming out of it. I quickly turn around and ran for the portal jumping right through.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Close it!¡± I shout as Mamoru quickly deactivate his portal preventing any of its minions from entering as it towards us.


    ¡°Yasu!¡± I hear someone shout my name and I noticed we were quite a distance from the camp as they all ran to us.


    ¡°Holy shit, what the fuck was that?¡± Mamoru pants as he sat on the ground probably losing the feeling on his knees from fear.


    "Skeleton King," I say slowly standing up and dusting off my pants.


    "Guys, what happened? You alright?" Takumi asked and I nod towards him.


    "We found the crystal," I tell him as I walked to Mamoru holding out a hand to help him up. ¡°It¡¯s a damn skeleton boss.¡±


    ¡°Did you see anything after inspecting it?¡± Mamoru asked as he grabs my hand and I pull him up.


    ¡°Yeah, its health is not as much as the earth god but, it''s strong against everything except holy light," I tell him trying to remember what I saw on the notification. "Even my attack didn''t do any damage at all. I was only managed to shave off one point of its health.¡±


    ¡°Damn, what do we do?¡± Daikichi asked and I didn¡¯t know what to do.


    "Ah, wait," Takumi says as he turns towards Kana and Ms. Sam. "I remember one of our healers, Kumiko-sensei managed to get a skill that deals with the undead. I forgot the name of it but I do know it was like a flashbang. You guys need to level up."


    "But how? I haven''t seen any monster around here except for boars and wolves that don''t even have a level." Kana replies to him.


    ¡°Ah! Yasu how about those two places we passed by?" Mamoru turns to me making me remember the two clearings teeming with monsters.


    "Yeah, we can use those. One of them had large snakes and the other one has humanoid rats, what were they called again? Kobolds? We can collect armor and weapons from them.¡± I tell everyone and their expression got a bit better. I guess they¡¯re still a bit shaken up dealing with the earth god but at least this time, we have information that could help us defeat the giant skeleton.


    ¡°So what¡¯s the plan?¡± Takumi asked me.


    "Takumi, take everyone and fight the kobolds. Make sure they get the last hit so they can level up and maybe get new skills. Kana, Ms. Sam, and Miki-sensei come with Suyeon and me. We¡¯ll deal with the large snakes. I¡¯ll help you all level up.¡± I explained to them the plan and they all seem to agree.


    Since it was getting late, we called it a day and everyone went to bed early to rest for tomorrow. Mamoru will use his portal to get us to our destination before going with everyone else towards the kobold. Night-time quickly came and I sat in front of the fire leaning my back against a log. Suyeon sat right beside me as she decided to stay up as she read the footwork book without blinking.


    ¡°What else does that book say?¡± I asked her and she looked up to me smiling. I don''t know what but, I feel like something changed as she got more beautiful making my face feel hot as she stares into my eyes.


    "It has about all of the skills footwork has. Well, the ones that were recorded in the book. I think there''s more since the book suddenly ends without any conclusion." She says and she took me by surprise. I remember her struggling to talk and even not understanding big words. She used to stutter a lot and have managed to control it but now, her speech has gotten a lot more fluid.


    I guess reading the book over and over again helped her. I say in my mind as I stare at her and she stares back at me. Catching myself for staring too long, I fake cough my way out of the situation as I turn towards the fire. I guess she noticed she was also staring and she started a fake cough while turning towards her book. Even the silence after our staring contest didn''t feel comfortable as we sat around the campfire enjoying the night¡¯s company.


    Suyeon fell asleep as I felt her head lean onto my shoulder. My body suddenly felt rigid, I didn''t want to move and wake her up. Her breathing was calming me bit by bit and I lean in a bit closer affixing her head onto my shoulder to make her more comfortable. I called out my bag and carefully took out Mole''s fur. Using one hand, I place the fur over her as the night breeze started getting cold. I turn my gaze towards the fire as I slowly fed it more sticks. I look up the night sky to watch earth¡¯s night lights scattered across its surface. I hoped that everything would end the way I want, to bring everyone home without any more casualties. I daydreamed about what I''ll go back at earth if I ever get home. Visit movies, eat fast food, go to places I once took for granted since they were always at arms reach. I closed my eyes to rest my mind and I ended up sleeping the night away.


    I was slowly shaken awake by Daikichi who had a smug look on his face. It seems like I got myself comfortable next to Suyeon as we both lean at each other. She¡¯ still asleep next to me and I see Daikichi trying to hold back his laugh.


    I really want to punch him in the face. I whisper in my mind as I gently shake Suyeon waking her up. She slowly got up rubbing her eyes and I stood up stretching my arms. I felt well rested as I walked towards the water source they created. Daikichi kept close to me and I can feel he wants to say something.


    "Don''t even say anything," I tell him and he started laughing.


    "I won''t but, man, I wish I had my phone. I could have blackmailed you so good." He says as we both walked towards the water source, which is similar to the table Takumi created to collect water. This time, there was proper plumbing using carved wood that directs the dirty water towards the outside of the camp.


    I quickly wash my face and we all sat around the table to eat breakfast. I felt a lot more comfortable now since the bad air has managed to disappear. I guess they don''t worry about me attacking Mamoru since he''s Junpei¡¯s brother. Everyone talked about what they planned to do and I talked to Kana, Miki-sensei, and Ms. Sam about what we¡¯ll do to get them to level up.


    "So, the plan is, I''ll knock out the snakes and you all will attack it till it dies. It''s better to kill your won snake so that way, you''ll get more experience rather than attacking one and the orbs separate between the three of you. Suyeon will be on standby following close to you all. She''ll watch your back just in case any snake or anything tries to creep up behind you."


    "So all we have to do is level up to get the skill Takumi was talking about," Kana asked and I nod to her.


    "I would let you fight the kobolds but, I think it''s safer to fight the giant snakes since they don''t have any weapons or armor," I tell her. "Takumi told me that the healer from his old team got the skill at an early stage so I don''t think we need to spend months trying to level you up."


    ¡°Once we got it, what do we do?¡± Miki-sensei asked me.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take one of you along with me and we¡¯ll visit the giant skeleton king. Use your skill to attack it to see how much damage it inflicts. This way, we know how many time we need to hit it to kill it.¡± I tell her.


    "I''ll go," Kana says and I nod towards her.


    "Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam, once you get the skill, you two will stay here and level it up while I take Kana with me," I tell them and they nod looking at Kana with a worried expression. "Don''t worry, I''ll have Takumi, Suyeon, and Mamoru with us just in case."


    ¡°How do we get to the snakes?¡± Miki-sensei asked and I point towards Mamoru.


    "He''ll use his portal to get us there but it''s a one-way trip till he comes to pick us up or we walk back to camp in which, would probably take a few days," I tell her and she gave me a nod. "Ah, I almost forgot, there''s a chance that a boss appears after we kill all the snakes. So be prepared. If it does, I and Suyeon will weaken it while the three of you deal the final blow.¡±


    "Ugh, I hate snakes and a super large snake is going to be so creepy," Kana says and I chuckle a bit as I watch her hug Suyeon arm. ¡°Please protect me.¡±


    ¡°I will,¡± Suyeon says with confidence and it''s a refreshing sight that her mentality isn''t as weak as it was before. I guess something happened to her after killing the Earth God. They did tell me the insane skill she used that broke all her bones and it felt like I was staring at a female version of myself. Taking all the risk just to kill an enemy.


    ¡°Yasu. Yasu!¡± Kana¡¯s voice brought me back to reality and I suddenly noticed I was staring at Suyeon for far too long as Kana waves her hand in front of me. ¡°Hellooo earth to Yasu.¡±


    ¡°W-what?¡± I asked averting my gaze away from Suyeon who started turning red probably getting caught off guard at me staring.


    ¡°When are we leaving?¡± Kana asked as I look up the sky.


    "Now, we should go while we still have daylight," I tell her as I stand up and walked towards Mamoru''s table. "Get ready, we need to get started. Once you guys get armor and weapon for three people, Mamoru, use the portal to bring it to us. They will need it.¡±


    I point towards Kana and our table. He nods and everyone quickly washed their plates and got ready to travel. Once everyone is ready, I told Dorang to keep watch while we¡¯re gone and he already started setting up people to do a watch rotation. Mamoru activated the portal for us first and I jumped in with Kana, Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei behind me while Suyeon jumped in last watching our backs. The portal disappeared behind us cutting off the only connection we have with the other group.


    "Ok, I think the Snake field is around these areas. Mamoru''s portal isn''t really accurate as it shows up near the area but not to an exact position he wants." I tell them as we started going through the forest. It was difficult for them except Suyeon who was used to traversing the forest without any beaten path. It didn''t take long till we found a clearing that leads to the group of giant snakes.


    ¡°Oh my god, are those Anacondas?¡± Kana whispers as she looked terrified at the large snakes slithering around. ¡°They¡¯re green. Like lime green. They look kind of cute.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t drop your guard. We never got near them so I don''t know what type of attacks they have. Everyone stay here and Suyeon, watch their backs. I¡¯ll go check out how they attack their enemies.¡± I say as I walked towards the large snakes. Everyone stayed near the trees hiding behind it peeking out.


    As I walked, one of the snakes noticed my presence and started slithering towards me. To my luck, none of the other snakes was alerted. Like a normal snake, it pounced towards my head trying to bite it. With its sheer size, it won¡¯t just leave a mark but would probably bite my head off if I were not careful. I dodge to the side and it was already coming for me. Using my knockout skill, I punched it right on its nose and the snake dropped to the ground as it slept soundly. I see its name above the head making me a bit wary.


    Poisonous Giant Snakes (Elite)


    37,938/40,000


    "Inspect," I whisper looking at the sleeping snake and another notification appeared showing me its weakness. ¡°Weak against all elements except poison. This elite symbol is worrying me.¡±


    I drag the sleeping Snake toward everyone and I can see Kana already against the idea. She stayed behind Suyeon while they all walked forward to meet me halfway. I looked around but luckily; the other snakes are far away, making it easier for them to move around without alerting them.


    ¡°Ok, let''s wait for them to bring you all weapons and armor," I say as I drop the large snake in front of them.


    "I''m terrified but its face is so cute," Kana says as she slowly approaches the large snake. She suddenly punched it and I can see a negative number appear on top the snake¡¯s head while it slept. ¡°Ugh, I really hate snakes.¡±


    She punched it again and this time, Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam joined in slowly shaving the snake''s life as it slept soundly. It would have been faster to kill it if we had weapons but we all came empty-handed. If we didn''t come across the kobold, it would have been more difficult to level up everyone. It dawned to me that, without weapons or any gear, surviving in this world could be very hard if you don''t have any strong assistance or skills.


    "Ugh, my arms are tired," Kana says as she backs away from the snake. I see they managed to bring down its health but it still has more than half left over. I notice it¡¯s tail twitch a bit and I walked towards its head.


    ¡°Knockout.¡± My fist lightly tapping onto the nose of the snake. A small rune appeared as I made sure it remained unconscious or at least, immobilized.


    "You know, without your skills, this would be impossible," Kana says as I walked towards her. She took out a water container and drank from it while we both watch Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam still punching the snake while talking to each other. "If an animal activist sees us now, they would explode out of anger and laugh at the same time."


    The scene of two adults talking to each other and laughing at certain points while beating an unconscious giant snake looked odd and humorous. ¡°This does look funny.¡± I tried to hold my laugh.


    Suddenly a portal appeared a few feet away from us and Daikichi came through the portal carrying his bag.¡°Yo,¡± He called out as he walked towards us as Kana waved at him smiling happily.


    ¡°What took you guys so long?¡± I asked him.


    "Sorry, those damn rats are actually a pain to kill. They have one hell of teamwork. We have to stay close since they keep trying to separate us.¡± Daikichi explained as he kneeled down in front of us. He set his bag down he¡¯s been carrying on his back and started taking out a bunch of swords, dagger, and even armor. ¡°we also had to wait till some of them dropped these,¡± Daikichi says as he takes out three staves. Look like a miniature staff with a giant crystal ball at the end of it.


    ¡°Whoa, what are these?¡± Kana asked grabbing one and the crystal ball turned bright green. ¡°Whoa, so cool.¡±


    ¡°That is staves. Takumi said these are more suited for healers compared to the mage. There are bigger ones you can buy in any city but he said these are good for beginners. It''s supposed to amplify your healing magic and multiply its radius by two." Daikichi explained as he hands one to Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei who stepped away from the snake to have a look at the loot he came with.


    He looked wary of the giant sleeping snake right next to us making me suddenly shout to scare him. Daikichi jerked as he clenched his chest and gave me a glare.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, it¡¯s sleeping peacefully.¡± I joked around as he started breathing a bit heavily.


    "You fucking ass. Well, I''m off, good luck to you all," He waved at us and approached Kana giving her a quick kiss before running off to the portal.


    Since Kana, Miki-sensei, and Ms. Sam are able to use any weapon and armor, I told them to take a dagger and wear the leather armors. They quickly got ready while I and Suyeon stood near the giant snake.


    "This brings back memories when I first trained you," I say as we both waited for them to finish wearing the armor.


    "Yeah, that was fun," Suyeon replied with the brightest smile on her face.


    I started at her for far too long and not noticing I blurted out what I was thinking on my mind, ¡°Pretty.¡±


    I see her face froze as she started turning red making my mind fly back into reality. I felt hot and didn''t want her to see me turn into a tomato so I decided to walk towards Ms. Sam who was struggling to wear her armor.


    ¡°Yasu, can you help-What wrong? Do you have a fever? Your face is all red.¡± Ms. Sam says touching my forehead.


    ¡°N-nothing. It¡¯s just hot in this forest.¡± I mutter as I help her attach the armor pulling on a belt through a buckle that''s on the back. I kept cursing in my mind feeling embarrassed as I kept pulling on the belt.


    ¡°Yasu that''s too tight." Said Ms. Sam and I didn''t notice as my mind was still trying to forget the embarrassing situation. "Yasu. Yasu. Ow. Ow ow Yasu! I feel like a sausage!¡± Ms. Sam kept shouting but the only thing in my mind is Suyeon¡¯s smile and it¡¯s making me feel like my face is on fire.

 CHAPTER 60: The new information

    <hr>


    CHAPTER 60: The new information


    <hr>


    I trained everyone showing them how to hit the snakes based on critical strikes. But even with the normal attacks, they managed to deal a decent amount of damage killing the snake in a shorter amount of time. While everyone kept busy with the snakes along with the help of Suyeon, I decided to prepare dinner. I approached one of the giant snakes quickly beheading it. I glance back towards where they are and the girls seem to get a system going where Suyeon would attract one of the snakes towards an area they can ambush. I was going to put the snakes to sleep for them to kill but this is a lot better as they get trained on increasing their reflexes. As long as Suyeon is with them, she can prevent any critical damage.


    I dragged the headless snake away from the group. Using dried leaves and twigs, I quickly got a fire going thanks to the stalactites I have in my bag. I sat down near the fire and inspected the stalactite in my hand. Reminiscing about my time in the dungeon has brought up the sadness I couldn''t shake away. The fear of being eaten alive still lingers and even after a year, I can still experience it in my mind as if it happened yesterday.


    ¡°I¡¯m normal now. Yeah.¡± I whisper to myself as I store the stalactite in my bag.


    I felt calmer compared to before when I wanted to destroy everything in my path. But one thing never went back is the thrill I get fighting. Even when killing the snake, I felt excited beheading it. Is as if killing my enemies became a drug that I can be easily addicted to. I look back towards where they are and I see they just finished on another snake as its body turns into dust.


    I quickly got up and started working on the giant headless snake in front of me. Skinning it was easy as the skin peeled off like a banana. With one pull, I got the skin off exposing light pink meat. The amount of meat it had is probably enough to feed us for a couple of weeks. Without waiting, I used one of the daggers Daikichi gave us and cut an opening from one end all the way to its tail. I pulled it apart from the opening and it''s inside come out spilling onto the ground. I carefully carved it and threw it to the side. Luckily, these are like anacondas and I didn''t have to worry about any venomous sack. Yet, I try to find anything that seemed abnormal.


    Using a sword encased with my sharpen skill; I decided to cut it into smaller pieces throwing it in my bag as I go along. It doesn¡¯t have any bones making it easier but the sheer size of the snake would probably take me a while to finish storing it in my bag. I worked non-stop only taking a break to cook a few snake meat using a frying pan. It sizzled and the small was similar to chicken. I added a few spices and I wished I had the ingredients to make some snake teriyaki. The sun started setting and I noticed everyone walking towards my way. They were all out of breath except Suyeon who followed behind them.


    ¡°What¡¯s for dinner?¡± Kana asked as she slumps down near the fire. ¡°Ugh, I got snake blood on me. I wish Lisa was here.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re eating the snake. I have never tasted snake from this world so I don¡¯t know how they will taste like.¡± I tell her as I flip the snake meat exposing the golden brown surface of the other side.


    ¡°That smells so good.¡± Ms. Sam inhaled the aroma and even I¡¯m starting to get hungry.


    I told everyone to take out the plate as I felt the snake was good enough to eat. As they got busy going through their bag, a portal appeared close to the snake carcass near our campfire. Daikichi appeared only to come face to face with the skinless, headless, half cut up snake.


    ¡°Oh, snake for dinner. Nice.¡± He says as he walked towards us sitting beside Kana as she gets her plate out her bag. I placed the cooked snake on top the plate and Daikichi quickly got his out as everyone else come out of the portal.


    "Oh, Lisa!" Kana stands up handing her plate to Daikichi who started eating without caring if it''s burning his mouth. "Please, can you create a pool of water here?"


    "I was about to, I wondered if you guys had any," Lisa says as she walked towards the other side of the campfire. She took out staff from her bag and chanted something. A blue light appeared from the bottom of her staff and it traveled on the ground forming a rectangle. In an instant, the dirt turned into water. This was a lot different than before where she would dig out the ground and then create ice.


    It seems like they got stronger, I say in my mind as I see her drop a couple of ice on the water. I walked towards her and called out my bag. I took out the biggest stalactites I had in my bag and threw it down the pool of water. Everyone was quick to place torches around illuminating our area while Takumi quickly started creating a table and few chairs using the trees around the area. I walked back the fire and since everyone is here, I started cooking more snake meat. As soon as the sun set into the horizon, the snakes started curling up around one area and have stopped moving altogether.


    ¡°Should we attack them while they¡¯re sleeping?¡± Kana asked me as she ate her dinner glancing at the group of sleeping snakes.


    "It''s better when its morning. When it''s night, it'' harder to spot things. Any tiny mistakes can get you guys killed." I explain to her as I place more snake meat on the table. Everyone sat around it quickly eating. "Besides, it''s better to fight them head-on. It gives you guys the experience of actual battle."


    ¡°How about you guys? How those rat things you¡¯re talking about?¡± Miki-sensei asked as she looks at Takumi and the others who seemed like they were starved as they gobble up one snake meat after another.


    "They''re easy if they''re alone but their teamwork is making it hard to deal with," Lisa replied as she cut up the snake meat with a knife. I noticed Suyeon sitting next to her as she shows her what to do. Looking at her act feminine doesn¡¯t seem bad at all.


    ¡°Yeah, they almost cornered us.¡± Amaguchi continued on as he grabs another meat with his bare hands. ¡°Ah, hot hot hot.¡±


    Everyone shared their experience and it seems like they got a few new skills while our group only kept leveling up the healing skills. I asked Takumi when did the healer from his old team got her holy attack, but he wasn¡¯t sure as she just came up one day using it on a group of ghouls they encountered. I had no choice but to keep leveling them using the snakes, but I hope they get the skill before they completely annihilate everything.


    Everyone decided to stay with us since the kobolds are quite smart. Setting up a night raid can be easily done by them which makes it dangerous for Daikichi and the rest of them. Daytime quickly came and everyone continued with their task as I helped my group level up with the help of Suyeon. I cut up the rest of the snake during night watch and gave half of the cooked portion to Daikichi and the rest of the group while I told Kana that we¡¯ll kill everything from now on since we have enough food to last for a few days. I can''t take the chance of running out of monsters before they unlock the skill. I rather run out of food and rely on wandering boars that lose the way for them to gain experience.


    I can see Kana is starting to become comfortable dealing with the snakes while Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam movements are becoming more fluid. Having three healers heal each other made me worry less but I still told Suyeon to keep a close eye on them and prevent anything from attacking their backs. To be honest, if I told her to kill everything, she probably could do it on a couple of kicks obliterating all of the giant snakes in the area. I wondered if her strength has a limit. If she keeps leveling up and increasing the strength of her kicks, she probably can change landscapes or erase mountains within a couple of years from now.


    Night-time quickly came and they¡¯re still fighting and the rest on the other side still hasn¡¯t come back. Not fighting or doing anything bored me. It seems like they¡¯re going to be done soon so I decided to figure out what to do with the raw snake meat I have left in my bag. I looked at my skill list and it still irks me, for a legendary cooking class, I have no skill that shows recipes. "This is just stupid," I whisper while browsing through my skills.


    ¡°What¡¯s stupid?¡± Daikichi asked as he approached me.


    ¡°Welcome back.¡± I nod to him as he sat on a log near the fire. ¡°I¡¯m a cook yet, I have never seen a skill that shows me a recipe.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that''s a passive class. Hiroko took that class and it showed her recipes. Ah, sorry didn''t mean to mention the name.¡± Takumi says as he quickly stopped himself. I didn''t mind and to be honest, I wanted to find out more about the recipe skill.


    "It''s fine, tell me what you know about that passive skill?" I asked him as he sat down at the log.


    "Well, in the beginning, it only will show you basic recipes I think like boiling water and stuff. But after you level the skill up, more recipes will appear and the higher the skill level gets, the more difficult recipe will appear." He explains to me and somehow I felt excited thinking about it.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m a cook, why not go full on out and be as useless as ever.¡± I joke around but deep down inside I¡¯m serious on just going blindly gung ho on cooking.


    ¡°Say Yasu I''m still confused on how you can kill these things. From what I heard, your regular attack power is similar to your level." Takumi asked as he throws some sticks into the fire. "I know your skill is overpowered but there should be a limit. All of us have a limit because I can''t level up my skill to a certain point until I level up myself.


    Now that he mentioned it, it looks like my skill can endlessly level up without myself leveling up. But then again, I cooked everything I killed making it easier to keep my level increasing right behind my skills.


    "I don''t know but I guess, I have a bigger window," I tell him and I can see him in deep thought.


    "How do you get critical hits so fast? It''s hard for me to get it even when I attack them at critical points as you do." Daikichi asked and I was confused.


    ¡°His critical attack percentage must be higher than ours," Takumi says. My eyes went wide as I look at him. He looked back confused and in a few seconds he figured out that I didn''t even know there was a percentage. "Wow, that''s amazing. Say the command, crit percent.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°Crit percent.¡± Dakichi and I said in unison and another window appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="221">


    Critical-Hit %


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" width="221">


    80%


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Aw no wonder, mine is thirty percent. How about you Yasu?¡± Daikichi asked me.


    ¡°It¡¯s eighty percent," I tell him and I noticed Takumi looked at me with surprise.


    ¡°You serious?¡± He asked and I nod at him. ¡°Jesus that overpowered.¡±


    ¡°Damn, no wonder you get so much critical hit. How do I increase mine?¡± Daikichi asked.


    "You can''t. Critical hit is based on class and almost all adventurers with the dual class have a critical-hit percentage of thirty percent." Takumi asked and I notice everyone started walking towards us after finishing a snake. Everyone from the other side has gathered around the water to wash. The girls made their own area to wash and Takumi built walls around it last night so that they can clean themselves in private.


    "That''s sucks," Daikichi says looking defeated.


    ¡°Well I did say almost everyone, there are those who managed to increase the percentage by wearing accessories and armor enchanted with critical-hit buff. But I don''t think anyone has ever gone past beyond sixty percent. This is the first I hear about eighty percent and without accessories.¡± Takumi says looking amazed as I gave him a shrug.


    "I always thought that if I hit them in certain spots, it would appear. Who knew there was an actual mechanism behind it." I say and remembering Suyeon made me curious what¡¯s her critical hit. So far, every time I watch her fight, her critical hit appears more often than mine.


    "Well, based on what I read and heard, the critical hit is based on the class," Takumi explained. "If you have a class that specializes less on fighting the front line, the higher the critical hit for them. Ms. Sam and the rest probably have a higher critical hit than me."


    ¡°Well that''s just unfair, Yasu¡¯s class is super overpowered, how does he such a high critical hit percentage?¡± Daikichi asked.


    ¡°Well, his class is probably meant literally for cooking.¡± Takumi says as he takes out a water container and started drinking from it before continuing to explain, ¡°His abilities are probably meant for something else rather than fighting. The less fighting abilities a class has, the higher their critical-hit becomes due to the fact that if they need to protect themselves against an incoming enemy at close quarters, they have a chance to do so.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s true, still, it would be hard to deal with an enemy close combat if you have no skills for it. Is that¡¯s why you guys went with them so you can immobilize the snakes while they attack it?¡± Daikichi asked and I shook my head.


    "I didn''t even know about the critical hit up until now," I tell him. "In my mind, they need our help more than you guys need ours."


    ¡°Well that¡¯s true, no wonder they can kill those things so easily. We¡¯re having a hard time with the kobolds as it is.¡± Daikichi looked sullen again.


    "What happened?" I asked him and he explained to me that the less the number kobold are left alive, the more cunning they become as they started setting up traps mid-fight. Daikichi almost fell into a spike pit as two of the kobolds was able to cast magic on the ground while the other created spikes under the hole. Luckily Lisa was there to destroyed the spikes before he reached it.


    They told me stories on how the enemies would actually fool them as they tried to isolate the weakest out of the group. They would gang up on Takumi keeping him busy while some would try to attack Mamoru forcing him to retreat away from everyone. Luckily he was able to create portals directing the attack to his enemies but he didn''t get any experience points unless he killed them in close quarters with his weapons. Dinner quickly finished and everyone went to sleep while I stayed awake as the vanguard. As usual, the remaining snakes would curl up on one area like a millipede. I didn¡¯t notice it in the first night but I saw a faint blue aura covering their bodies probably for protection from any attacks as they slept.


    Suyeon stayed up with me and we sat near the fire looking at the stars above us. It was quite a scene every time I look at it. I remembered earth how polluted the planet has become making it impossible to see starts unless you¡¯re dab smack in the middle of the forest. Suyeon quickly fell asleep beside me and I cover her with Mole''s blanket as it gets chilly during the night.


    Tomorrow¡¯s the day, I hope they get the skill or else, we¡¯ll need to keep looking for more enemies to kill. I whisper in my mind as I fed the fire with more sticks.


    Everyone was fast asleep and the night somehow felt slower than before. The moon never moved a spot and everything seems to move slower even the flicker of the fire.


    "Item bag," I whispered and slowly took out a sword from my bag that Daikichi gave me earlier. I tried to control my breathing to listen to any abnormalities around the forest.


    ¡°You¡¯re always ready to fight.¡± I hear a voice in my head making it hard to even find where it¡¯s coming from as I look around our camp. ¡°I¡¯m not there, come here.¡±


    The voice somehow echoed throughout the forest helping me pinpoint where it''s coming from. "You fucker," I whisper as I watch him sit on top one of the sleeping snakes. The moon shone down on him illuminating him briefly.


    ¡°Hiyo~¡± Luro sang as he waved at me like we were friends. ¡°Making any progress? I see that you¡¯re still alive and kicking.¡±


    Luro jumps down the snake and walked towards us. Everything is still in slow motion and only us two are moving at normal speed. I didn''t move out of my spot since it will be a lot easier to protect anyone if they¡¯re at arms reach. He stopped near the fire and flicked his finger. The campfire flickered normally while everything else around us seems to pause. He sat on one of the chairs near the campfire and flicked his finger again making a basket full of fish appear. I sat back down but never let go of my sword keeping myself alert.


    "Relax~ I''m not here to attack you," Luro says as he grabs one of the sticks on the ground and in an instant without him doing anything, it turned into a skewer. Like before, he grabbed one of the fishes and flicked his finger gutting it in an instant. "I''m just here to eat some nice fish, my friend."


    ¡°Friends? You talking about your shadow?¡± I say grabbing the fish he handed to me and I placed it over the fire.


    "Oh come on now, we''ve known each other for a year, we are best of friends now," Luro says as he stabs another fish on a stick and places it over the fire.


    ¡°So what do you really want huh?¡± I asked him and he snaps his fingers materializing a rolled up paper. He hands it to me and I hesitated to take it. ¡°What the fuck is that?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll see. Just take it. It¡¯s a gift from me.¡± He replied and I grab the paper out of his hand and unrolled it.


    ¡°What the hell you want me to do with this?¡± I asked him while I look at its contents.


    ¡°It¡¯s a gift, it''s useless to me.¡± He says as he bites onto his fish and I did the same after I got a notification in my mind that the fish is ready.


    ¡°What the hell do I get following that?¡± I asked him after I ate the fish and he hands me the basket. I stab another fish and placed it over the fire.


    ¡°You get, meat.¡± I can see a smirk on his face making me want to punch it.


    "Fucking weirdo," I tell him and suddenly I remembered what my dad told me to tell Luro. ¡°Hey fuckface, guess what?¡±


    ¡°What ass wipe?¡± He says keeping a smile on his face.


    I kept a smile on mine before stopping myself from uttering the words. If I anger him now, it might put everyone in danger and in my mind, a picture of my mom appeared.


    I can¡¯t be careless now. I¡¯m not alone anymore. I whisper in my mind before uttering the words, ¡°You have a tiny dick.¡±


    I still remember ¡®gio tou keres¡¯, the words my dad told me to tell him. I still yet to know the capacity of his powers and angering him without any clue is suicide.


    ¡°Ha, at least I''m not the one waking up naked," Luro says as he stands up and walked towards the dark side of the forest. ¡°Well, good luck. Again, do what you want with that information.¡±


    He waved off and disappeared in the dark. I turn towards the rolled up paper beside me and I notice the surrounding area went back to normal as the wind swayed the trees at a regular pace. I looked at the paper one more time and its contents trying to figure it out. I didn''t want to wake anyone up, so I decided to store it in my bag along with the raw fish that filled up the basket to the brim. ¡°At least I got fish.¡±


    Morning came and I didn''t tell them about Luro. I kept quiet about the paper also since I wanted them to focus on the present. Everyone left and I watched Suyeon helped Ms. Sam, Kana, and Miki-sensei kill the remaining snakes. It didn''t take them long till they finished the last one. I hoped for a giant snake to appear as the final boss but nothing happened after the last snake turned into dust. Yet, I see smiles on their faces and I hoped it¡¯s the news I wanted to hear as they approached me.


    ¡°Yasu guess what," Kana says as she stopped in front of me.


    "Please tell me you got it?" I asked her and she nodded happily. I felt relieved that we didn''t have to waste any more time looking for more monsters to kill.


    "So, now what? We all got it the minute we leveled up after killing the last snake. The skill is called Holy light." Kana says and all of a sudden, her staff started materializing white orbs around it as it slowly sucked it up on the giant gem on top the stave. "W-w-wwha- oh my god!¡±


    ¡°Oh shit, you activated it!¡± I laughed seeing her frantically look at her stave. As she was about to let go, I help her hand shaking my head. ¡°Don''t worry, we aren¡¯t undead, go see what it does. Everyone get away from her!¡±


    We all ran towards a distance and waited for something to happen but nothing. It kept collecting orbs making her weapon glow brighter and brighter at the passing minute. It practically took thirty minutes in my mind when a white light similar to a flashbang erupted from her staff and it traveled throughout the forest extending as far as I noticed before it got to me and I had to close my eyes due to the brightness it emitted. It felt a bit cool and somehow I felt more energizing than ever.


    ¡°Guys I¡¯m ok! You guys alright?!¡± I hear Kana¡¯s voice and as I open my eyes, everything around us seems to be glowing and it slowly subsided until the forest went back to normal.


    "Holy shit that was bright," I whisper rubbing my eyes and I notice her running towards us.


    ¡°You guys alright? I didn''t think it would reach you. You¡¯re not hurt are you?¡± Kana asked me and I gave her a friendly glare.


    ¡°Do I look like an undead to you?¡± I asked her and she chuckled a bit. ¡°Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei, do both of you have the skill also?¡±


    They both nodded and I tried to create the next plan in my mind. I didn¡¯t want to rush in blindly especially when the skill has a roughly thirty-minute casting time. I wanted to know how much damage it can make but there aren¡¯t any undead for us to test it on.


    "Do you think this will be effective? It looks more like a protection skill than an attack one." Kana asked as she studies her stave.


    ¡°For the undead, it should kill them, but I don¡¯t know what damage it deals. What does the skill say?¡± I asked her and she called out her skill window.


    ¡°Well, it says here it revitalize the surrounding area and heal minor cuts and wound along with revitalizing a bit of stamina. It is lethal to the undead, but it doesn¡¯t show anything about the damage output. It also cast a holy buff that lasts for five minutes. The holy buff increase stamina regeneration by five percent.¡± Kana explained.


    ¡°Lethal, it might mean it can kill them in an instant.¡± I whisper and we all walked back to camp sitting around the table. ¡°let¡¯s wait for everyone first and see if they finished. Kana, go with me and Mamoru after they come back so we can test it out.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± She nods to me and I looked at where her skill reached. The surrounding grass got a bit greener and flowers on the ground somehow bloomed.


    "Can you activate the skill again? I want to properly time it. We need to know it''s cast time." I tell her since she never mentioned about the cast time of her skill. I don''t think she knows either since she tried calling out her skill window and looked confused for a few seconds.


    ¡°Ok, give me a minute, let me go a bit further out.¡± She says walking towards a distance. ¡°Holy light!¡±


    Even when she shouted nothing happened and she ran back to us. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Well this is bad; I can only cast it every twelve hours. There¡¯s a cooldown on it.¡± Kana explained.


    ¡°Oh damn,¡± I whisper trying to calculate it in my head. ¡°Shit, this means we need the skill to be strong enough to kill the skeleton king with one hit.¡±


    I looked at Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei and they can''t help giving me a worried look. I can''t blame them. After all, we have no choice but to rely on the three to kill the skeleton king or else, we''ll never get the second crystal ball.