Chapter 2: The White Mage Pomera

Disciple of the Lich Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss!lightnovel — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 2:
The White Mage Pomera

THE TRANSPORTER deposited me in a sun-dappled room where light leaked in through the cracked walls and broken ceiling. I’d made it to the first floor and the exit to the surface.

The ravages of time were much more apparent at the dungeon’s entrance than what I’d seen deep underground. Around the large staircase leading back down into Cocytus were rows of collapsed columns and broken statues. Weeds grew from the floor, having taken root between the fractured white stones.

Slipping through the rusted gate that marked the official entrance to the dungeon, I found myself surrounded by a vast forest.

There’s got to be a town around here…somewhere, I thought.

Two days later, I was still lost in the woods with no idea where a human settlement might be. I tried to keep walking in a straight line beneath the dense forest canopy. It was impossible to get any sense of direction, and I was worried that twists or turns might lead me to walk in a circle.

It wasn’t physically difficult, but my steps still felt heavy with loneliness. I missed Lunaère. I even missed that jerky treasure chest, Noble. After two days of walking, I still didn’t feel like eating, but her memory gnawed at me plenty.

I heard a rustling in the distance.

“Who’s there?!”

Turning toward the sound, I saw a bear standing on its hind legs. It was easily three meters tall and was looking at me with its three eyes as drool leaked from its bared fangs. Something told me this wasn’t an ordinary bear, and a quick Status Check made it official. I was dealing with a Monster Bear.

“Groaaar!” The bear charged at me.

“Sit.”

“Grah…?”

I glared at it and repeated the command. It froze mid-stride, left paw trembling and three eyes gazing at me in disbelief. Maybe it was smarter than your average bear—this monster seemed to be reevaluating its error in judgment.

“I said sit,” I repeated. The monster bear dropped to its butt, sitting on the ground like a dog.

“Whuff whuff whuff,” it grunted apologetically.

I continued on, listening to its sounds fade into the distance. It hadn’t been the first monster to attack me on my journey. Compared to the dungeon, nothing I’d met in the woods was a threat to me so far. Most monsters I encountered were around level 150—one-hit kills that wouldn’t give enough experience to make fighting them worth my time.

I kept walking. Though I saw new trees, the scenery stayed the same. The forest was truly the middle of nowhere.

Then, as I skirted along the base of a ravine, I saw three human figures watching me from the top of the cliff. Finally, other humans! But something about this group was off. Instead of a warm welcome, they had other plans.

I saw the glow of a magic circle, and a clod of dirt the size of my fist came flying at me from above. I didn’t bother to dodge; the robe Lunaère had crafted for me would deflect low-level spells. The dirt clod missed and struck the ground, kicking up a spray of dirt.

Was that a warning shot? Maybe I’m trespassing…

As I pondered, the three figures scrambled down the cliff.

“You missed, Damia,” said a young man with long black hair and dark eyes. “That doesn’t happen often.” He was handsome enough in a black robe and a necklace with a cross pendant, but he radiated hostility.

“Sorry ’bout that, Lovis…” said a chubby man. He was wearing worn leather goggles, and he bobbed his head in apology.

“It’s fine. Can we just get this over with?” asked the third person, a woman wearing a kimono-like garment.

No…that is a kimono, I realized in surprise. She’s got a katana on her hip too.

“What is this? Are you three bandits?” I asked. The one wearing the black robe—possibly Lovis—shrugged dramatically.

“We sometimes engage in banditry, but I prefer a different name—The Black Reapers! Our only masters are freedom and fun. We’re less bandits, more…outlaw mercenaries,” said Lovis as he stroked his chin. “I’d hoped that you were the Evil Priest Notts. At the very least, I assumed that anyone wandering alone in the Enchanted Forest would be a formidable warrior. But it seems like you’ve never heard of us… That’s disappointing. There’s no fun in killing someone like you.”

Lovis gazed to his side in annoyance. I really didn’t like how this situation was shaping up.

“Sooo…can I go?” I asked.

“Well, now, let’s make this more interesting… Ah, here we go. I have a coin,” said Lovis. He flipped it into the air before catching it and slapping it to the back of his wrist. “Heads or tails? Guess right, and I’ll let you live. Guess wrong, and it’s a painful death. You should think very, very carefully. I’m a cruel man, but patient. I’ll give you…ten seconds to answer.”

Lovis smiled after announcing the rules to his dangerous game. Damia raised a gloved hand, ready to cast a spell. The kimono-wearing swordswoman yawned like she didn’t care either way.

I gulped.

It was three against one, and they seem pretty used to fighting other humans. I had to guess correctly, but…what kind of money did they even use here? I wouldn’t know which side was which even if I could see the coin. I didn’t like those odds.

“Could you hurry it up? Running out the clock isn’t fun, and we hate anything that isn’t fun,” said Lovis as his eyes narrowed.

No, this wasn’t a good time to strike up a conversation about the local currency. My only choice was to guess and be ready to run if I got it wrong. I wondered if I could release a few demons from the Cursed Mirror to slow them down.

“Um, heads?” I replied.

Lovis raised his hand to look at the coin and nodded in satisfaction. He slipped it back in his pocket and applauded.

“Congratulations, a god must be smiling upon you…”

“Great! Well, I’ll be going then—” I started.

“…A god of Death! Damia, blow his limbs off,” commanded Lovis, raising an arm to point at me.

Readying my sword, I fell into a combat stance. I might have lost the game, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Legs first!” said Damia with a grin as he made a magic circle. “Earth Magic Level 4: Clod Missile!”

The clod of earth came flying toward me and once again deflected to crash at my feet with a bang. As the dust settled, I saw Damia staring at me with his mouth agape.

…That’s it?

“I-it didn’t hit?” cried Damia.

“No, it’s more than that—look, his clothes aren’t even dirty. That wouldn’t happen if you just missed,” interjected Lovis.

“Are you guys just messing with me? I thought you saw me repel that low-level spell a few minutes ago,” I said.

“Wh-what…?!” Damia lost his nerve.

“Fascinating. He’s got some sort of resistance. Well…he was wandering this deep in the Enchanted Forest by himself. Looks like this might be fun after all.” The corners of Lovis’s mouth curled up in a cruel smile.

“Damia doesn’t seem well suited to this fight,” said the kimono-wearing woman, her eyes narrowing as she placed a hand on her sword’s scabbard and stepped forward. Her boredom was replaced with lethal seriousness. Lovis raised a hand to halt her.

“Damia, Yozakura, stand down. It’s been a long time since I had a true challenge.” Lovis stepped forward with a flourish. “Space-Time Magic Level 8: Dimension Pocket.”

A magic circle appeared, and he reached inside to withdraw a massive scythe, easily as tall as he was.

“I was getting a little complacent, what with people calling me the Outlaw King. I never thought someone would have the gall to stand in front of me and say they’d never heard of me. That’s fine, but surely you’ve heard of the Moonlit Scythe—taker of one thousand heads?”

The crescent edge was razor-keen, with gray vines etched along the blade’s face.

“That’s, uh, a very nice scythe,” I said. I’d never heard of it either.

“It’s been so long since I fought a worthy opponent…I’m giddy! First, a test of your strength. Don’t hold back!” Lovis rushed toward me. “Let’s see what you make of this. Space-Time Magic Level 4: Short Gate.”

He blinked out of existence, reappearing behind me to swing his scythe from my blind spot. I parried with my sword.

Huh…that felt kind of weak.

“Nice catch. You’ve passed stage one. Let’s try another,” said Lovis. “Short Gate!”

Grinning widely, he attacked from another direction. I parried again.

“Ooh, so you can block that too?”

He’s got to be holding back, right?

“Short Gate! Short Gate!” said Lovis, thoroughly enjoying himself. As soon as I saw him disappear, he’d move to my blind spot, swing and disappear again. That seemed to be his only move.

“I see it so rarely, but Lovis’s fighting style is an artform!” said Damia with admiration.

“Something’s weird here,” said Yozakura, her eyes narrowing doubtfully. “I can’t believe this guy has survived this long in the forest or that he’s never heard of us.”

He takes so long to draw his magic circles. Is he so confident that he’s fighting casually? Maybe he’s trying to make me complacent, and then he’ll finish me off. What if I try giving him a little strike…

“I’m not done with you yet! Don’t give in! I’m just—!”

I slashed my sword horizontally and repelled the scythe. It flew from his grasp and sailed through the air before landing tip first in the ground.

“Gaah!”

Lovis was flung back as well, rolling across the ground at an incredible speed, before crashing into the base of a tree with an impact that split the trunk. The tree creaked and leaned before it finally fell on top of him.

H-he can’t even be level 1,000!

Damia and Yozakura looked back and forth between Lovis and me, their faces ashen.

“Wh-what just happened…? I-is this my blood?!” Lovis panicked as he lay on the ground, trying to scoot away as I walked toward him.

“S-stay away! Space-Time Magic Level 7: Gravity!”

A large magic circle appeared, pushing down the ground around me as if it were under the weight of some massive object. I walked across the indentation without breaking my stride.

“Low-level spells won’t work,” I said.

“B-but this is a level 7 spell! N-no way…there’s no item that can protect against that!” Lovis let out a high-pitched squeal as I approached.

I used Status Check…

LOVIS LORDGREY

Race: Human

Lv: 181

HP: 94/796

MP: 427/778

“Y-you’re only level 181.” I stammered.

He never stood a chance. With a name like The Black Reapers, I thought they would be dangerous. Outlaw mercenaries made them sound like hardened sellswords, but at that moment, I was getting more of an office temp vibe.

“D-did you just say ‘o-only level 181’?” said Lovis, staring at me in disbelief. He let out a little shriek and cringed back further. Damia and Yozakura seized the moment to jump in front of him, cutting me off.

“Run, Lovis! We’ll buy time!” shouted Damia.

“Stand down, you two! Don’t do anything foolish!” shouted Lovis, hanging his head in shame. The other two jumped in surprise but stepped aside.

He must have realized that he was no match for me, but I wasn’t about to turn my back on him. Maybe he was too proud to use his comrades as human shields, but then again, he might still have a trick up his sleeve.

Then he dropped to his knees and bowed his head in one smooth motion. “Forgive us, please. I’m begging you! Look, I’m on my knees!”

“I, uh…”

He was really hamming it up. Was this the same guy I’d just fought? I looked at his crew, thinking that one of them might try to pull something while I was distracted, but they looked as dumbfounded as I did. This sort of display might have been reasonable coming from an average person, but for a person who had just displayed such bravado, it was shocking.

“Listen, I am aware that I attacked you first and I said some incredibly arrogant things. If there is anything I—no, anything we can do to make up for it, we will! Please, please just let us live!” Lovis pressed his forehead into the ground, digging a shallow hole.

“B-boss, I thought better of you,” said Damia, “This grovelin’ is just…disgraceful.”

“You once said you longed for death in battle,” Yozakura added. “I don’t blame you for surrendering. Discretion is the better part of valor, but this is just—”

“Silence!” shouted Lovis, spittle flying from his mouth as he struck the ground with his fists. “I said I would be happy if I died in an honorable fight to the death, not get squashed like a bug! Damia, Yozakura, listen to me. There are monsters in the world beyond your comprehension. I met someone like that ten years ago, and it was arrogance to think we were anything alike. When you pray to a god, do you doubt that you are below them? Now bow! Both of you, just like me!”

Damia and Yozakura looked at each other with uncertainty before sinking to their knees to bow to me as well.

Now this getting awkward…

“L-look, it’s no big deal. Just…get out of here already.” I said. I didn’t really feel like killing the first humans I met in Locklore, even if Lunaère had given me the impression that battles to the death weren’t that uncommon. I did sort of want to turn them in as criminals or something, but I had no idea where to find a town. I also didn’t want to get roped into any local drama before I knew what was going on. They might cause trouble if I let them go, but at their level, they’d be more annoying than dangerous.

I glanced over and saw that Yozakura had raised her head slightly. Lovis cleared his throat meaningfully, and she bowed again.

“Actually…there is something you could do for me,” I said, considering the situation I was in before we crossed paths.

“What might that be? Please, ask away!” replied Lovis, mumbling into the ground. I wished he would knock it off; it was weird talking to him like this.

“Could you, uh, show me the way to town?”

I figured that they should know the fastest way, and it would save me from wandering around aimlessly. Right now, they owed me big, and if they tried anything funny, I could make short work of them.

“Of course! A powerful warrior such as yourself must be unfamiliar with the area because you have come from far away! Please leave it to us—we will be your guides!” groveled Lovis.

So I found myself being led through the forest by my would-be attackers.

“If you would like to take a rest, just let me know! We’re at your service,” said Lovis.

“Th-thanks…”

Lovis gave an exaggerated nod with a forced smile plastered on his face. It was creepy.

“And should you desire, I would happily give you a massage,” he continued.

“Thanks, but I’ll take a pass…”

“I could carry you. Walking is so tedious. Why not leave it to me?!”

“I’m fine, really.”

Damia and Yozakura were staying a short distance away from us, muttering between themselves and looking very uncomfortable. Their opinion of their boss was taking a nosedive and I didn’t blame them.

“It makes so much more sense, knowing that you were summoned to this world. People like you are the stuff of legend! I have had the honor of meeting a few otherworldly travelers myself. They all have mighty powers and an amazing sense of generosity,” said Lovis.

“I guess we’re pretty common then?” I asked. That seemed to fit with what Naiarotop had said. I’m sure those people would seem like big shots compared to a guy like Lovis.

“After you defeated me so easily, I knew you must be one of them,” said Lovis, continuing to brownnose. It was useful information, but I wished he would lay off with the toady act.

“But, Boss, didn’t you say they were a bunch of pushovers who didn’t know their place? You even bragged about killing—”

“Silence, Damia! Open your mouth again, and I will sew it shut!” roared Lovis, spraying spit toward the magician.

Maybe I really should turn this rotten guy in…

“Ahem,” Lovis cleared his throat and regained his composure. “We wouldn’t expect a traveler to know anything about this area. Allow me to give you a map of the region,” he said as he handed me a roll of paper. Taking a quick look, it was nice to get a feel for how big the forest really was, but I still had no idea where we were.

“Ah, I’m sorry. We are currently in this area, heading this direction,” said Lovis, leaning uncomfortably close to point at a spot on the map.

It looked like we were near the edge of the forest, but it was still a long hike to the nearest town.

“Please, take this too. It is a magic compass. It will be accurate anywhere, regardless of how chaotic the underground magic veins are. I sincerely hope you will find it useful.” Lovis made a show of handing me what looked like a gold necklace with a compass on it.

“S-sir, isn’t that one of your favorite items?! Now we won’t be able to explore high-level dungeons! It’s not like we can just pick up a new one at the market…” said Yozakura in a panic.

“Haven’t I told you two to shut up?! Why can’t you understand that we need to focus on the now now? We can worry about later later!” Right after shouting at Yozakura, Lovis turned back to me. The creepy smile was plastered back on his face. “Please, Kanata, I would be honored if you accepted this.”

“Uh, sure, thanks…”

Was it really that valuable? Lovis was a real piece of work, but I felt a little bad for Damia and Yozakura.

Taking the Acacia Memoirs from my magic bag, I flipped through the pages.

GOLD MAGNET OF THE ADVENTURING KING

Value Rank: A

A compass with strong magical resistance due to the power of the specialized ore in the needle and the magic formulas carved into the case.

The user will never lose their way, even when exploring deep within high-level dungeons.

“A-rank, hmm…” I murmured. Lunaère had explained that items were divided into nine ranks: F, E, D, C, B, A, and S, followed by Legendary and lastly Godly.

A-rank was sort of powerful, I guessed. Then again, my standards might have been a little skewed, since Godly level items were a dime a dozen in Cocytus.

“It should be fine, if that’s all it is,” I murmured, unimpressed.

Lovis must have heard me, because he cringed. That was probably the wrong thing to say in front of the person who just gave me a gift.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” I hastily added, tossing it into my magic bag.

“It pains me to see it treated so…casually. Ah, but no, think nothing of it.” Lovis stared at my magic bag.

“Well, then,” he continued, “It will be, ah, faster for you to travel to town of your own accord. We would love to accompany you, of course, but…we’re not really welcome in town.”

“Hmm…” He had a point. I could move much more quickly solo than I could dragging them along. Then again…

“Well, I still have more questions about Locklore. Would you mind staying with me a little while longer?”

“Oh,” Lovis sagged visibly but quickly recovered. “Yes. Yes, of course! I would be honored!”

I LEANED UNDER A TREE watching the mercenaries fight a monster. Status Check revealed that the eagle-headed, lion-bodied beast was a level 200 griffon. I had been preparing to kill it myself when Lovis dragged his reluctant subordinates over to fight it.

“Feel free to rest while you wait. We will vanquish it for you,” he shouted as they entered battle. Perhaps he felt bad for attacking me.

Maybe he shouldn’t be randomly attacking travelers if his feelings are that easily hurt, I thought. And he’s still pretty banged up from our battle. Should he really be fighting again?

“Ca-caw!” screeched the griffon. It had been flying nearby and dove to attack Lovis.

“Space-Time Magic Level 4: Short Gate.”

Lovis evaded the attack. The other end of his teleport was directly above the griffon, and he lashed out with his scythe to slice one of its wings cleanly off. The griffon lost control and crashed into the ground, where it quickly righted itself and glared at Lovis.

“Earth Magic Level 4: Clod Missile.”

Damia attacked with a flying clump of earth while the griffon was still distracted. It sailed through the air and exploded in front of the beast, pelting it with stones. It seemed like a good tactic—Lovis kept the monster’s attention, while Damia hit it from range.

While those two fought, Yozakura stood with a hand on her scabbard and her eyes closed.

“Spirit Magic Level 4: Zephyr’s Wing. Spirit Magic Level 5: Ogre’s Strike.”

A light surrounded her body.

Spirit magic borrowed magical power from the local spirits of nature rather than channeling the caster’s own magic energy. By relying on those spirits, it reduced the amount of magic power consumption and a caster could use higher-level spells than their skill level would normally allow.

Lunaère wasn’t a fan, saying that spirit magic was difficult to control and unstable. While she taught me some of the basics, most of her instruction was focused on how to deal with an opponent that used spirit magic rather than using it myself. Spirit magic tended to focus heavily on buffs and other support spells, but it had a few attack spells.

From the look of it, Yozakura had just increased her speed and strength, and she now stood ready. Lovis teleported away from the griffon and fell back to Yozakura’s side.

“I’ll let you finish it off. Short Gate,” he said, holding his hand up to Yozakura. In one instant, she winked out of existence and appeared again behind the griffon. Sliding her katana from its sheath and opening her eyes at the same time, she lopped off the griffon’s head with a single strike. The head fell to the ground, and the body collapsed behind it.

Well, that settled that. I had been a little worried because the griffon was a higher level than the gang, but they managed to successfully finish it off. They also appeared to be no worse for the wear. They worked well as a team, and it looked like they had done this sort of thing before. Seeing them like that, I actually respected them a little.

“Sorry for the wait. Normally, I would handle such things my own, but…I’m not quite at full strength right now, so I required their assistance. Shall we continue on?” said Lovis with his unsettling smile, rubbing his hands together while trying to gauge my mood.

“Sure…”

I take it back—this guy is the worst.

“I can’t take it… This ain’t the Boss I admired, the Boss I followed…” said Damia, hanging his head in dejection.

“I don’t understand why he’s acting so cowardly either. I thought he was more of a free spirit,” said Yozakura, staring at Lovis with disappointment in her eyes.

“W-what’s not to understand? I’m no coward, but I’m also no fool. Some people are just our betters, and we must treat them as such. If you can’t wrap your heads around that fact, then you two are irredeemably ignorant,” said Lovis, desperation creeping into his voice.

“Out of a sense of duty, I’ll stay with the party until we get to town. But when we get there, I’m done with the Reapers,” said Yozakura.

“Well…I won’t stop you. There is something we should be clear about, though. More than anyone, Yozakura, you should know that leaving the Black Reapers is a death sentence. I hope you enjoy a life spent trembling at the sight of our shadows,” replied Lovis.

“I think the whole crew needs to have a chat about your behavior. Damia and I are disappointed in you, but what will they think?”

“Hey, hang on! Calm down!” cried Damia, trying to make peace as Lovis and Yozakura bickered.

“Excuse me, Kanata, but may I have a few moments? I need to talk this over with Yozakura.” said Lovis.

“Whatever…” I replied.

“Truly, you are too gracious!” Lovis bowed multiple times, then quickly turned to face the swordswoman again. “Yozakura, I am reminded of something from six years ago. It was the incident which led you to join the Black Reapers.”

“An appeal to nostalgia won’t work, Sir.”

“Ah…but…Damia. Damia, you explain it to her!”

“M-me? But I…”

Their pointless argument continued for another five minutes. Eventually, Lovis seemed to run out of steam, and Yozakura softened a little.

“Fine, you can continue doubting me, Yozakura. My actions may look pathetic, but I assure I have good reason. I would just ask that we set this aside for now,” said Lovis.

“…Well, if you’ll admit that much, I guess I can we can talk about this later,” she conceded.

It seemed to be the end of their conversation, or at least I hoped. After listening to them talk, it occurred to me that Lovis might be a better con man than a mercenary.

“As long as you continue selling your sword, you will one day understand. I value your companionship, and I don’t want to lose you over a…small misunderstanding like this,” he said diplomatically.

“Fine…but if you keep acting like a sniveling rat, I will leave the Black Reapers—consequences be damned. For now, I will forget this ever happ—” said Yozakura.

“Please forgive us, Kanata!” Lovis interrupted, wheeling back to me with an obsequious smile. “It will only be another moment—just one more moment. We will be finished very soon! Thank you for your unending patience and understanding!”

Lovis bowed many times. I nodded slightly, and he looked relieved. Turning quickly back to Yozakura, he said through clenched teeth, “Sorry, were you trying to say something to me?”

“I am leaving after all.”

“B-but why?!” Lovis punched his own thigh in frustration.

I didn’t see this ending any time soon, so I decided to get comfortable. I yawned and looked around at nothing. Then something in the forest caught my eye…

Hang on, is that…!

It was a goblin. Ugly green skin, about the height of a child, bad teeth—you know, a goblin. It looked incredibly weak, but I remembered a certain creature inside the Cursed Mirror that looked exactly the same. Aforementioned, it might have looked like a weak little goblin, but when its prey let its guard down, it split open and consumed its victim whole.

Impossible. Could it have slipped out of the Cursed Mirror while I was carrying it? Maybe I hadn’t been handling it properly. Releasing a level 3,000 demon into the Enchanted Forest would devastate the local ecosystem.

Can’t fool me twice, demon!

“Lovis! Take these two and use Short Gate to get away! Now!”

Lovis turned around upon hearing my words. Seeing the monster, his face screwed up in confusion.

“Kanata…? I only see a goblin. They’re all over forest. Normally, the more powerful monsters eat them…” he said.

Maybe he was deceived by the demon’s appearance because he didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to flee. That limited my options—I needed a spell that was both powerful enough to kill the demon instantly and accurate enough to limit collateral damage.

“I’ll take care of it!” I shouted, leveling my sword at the demon. “Space-Time Magic Level 19: Gravity Bomb!”

The shimmering darkness appeared, centered on the fake goblin.

“Level 19?! B-but even the highest spells that high elves and dragons can cast is level 15…” whimpered Lovis in shock.

“Gwah?” The fake goblin gasped in surprise. It wriggled its arms and legs desperately as the black light surrounded and lifted it from the ground. A second later, the spreading darkness collapsed, and the spell imploded.

There was a loud boom. Dirt and undergrowth were sucked into the singularity. Trees were uprooted and dragged sideways. Along with the forest debris, the demon was squished to an infinitesimal point.

Then the spell exploded, sending demon blood and flesh showering down on the surrounding bare earth. The mercenaries were knocked off their feet by the blast and sent rolling across the gore-covered ground.

Hmm…

A fake-goblin demon wouldn’t have died that easily, and they didn’t leave such normal-looking gore behind. Apparently, Lovis was right, it was just a local monster.

“Sorry, I went a bit overboard. It looked like a demon I’ve killed before” I said, turning back to Lovis and the others. He was breathing raggedly, his hands on the ground as he tried to get up.

“This is exactly what I was talking about, Yozakura. It is not a matter of cowardice or pride. Trying to fight a beast like this would be like fighting an avalanche. I have no fear of dying with honor, but I’m not interested in a pointless death!” he said.

“I-I am so sorry, Sir. I was wrong,” said Yozakura.

At least they had come to an understanding.

After traveling with the mercenaries for a day, we finally reached the forest’s edge. The levels of the monsters we encountered continued to drop as we walked. Level 150 creatures near the entrance to Cocytus were replaced by level 40 at the edge of the woods, then level 20 in the fields and surrounding countryside.

“There,” said Lovis in a tired voice, “You can finally see it. That’s the city of Arroburg,” I made out a large town, surrounded by a high wall to keep monsters out.

The thought of sleeping in civilized lodgings was a welcome change. I had gotten so used to living in dangerous environments that a real bed sounded decadent.

But then I remembered I didn’t have any money.

“If I sell the Gold Magnet, I might be able to drum up a bit of cash,” I muttered to myself, thinking out loud. Then I saw Lovis was looking at me with dead eyes. “Ah, sorry! It’s just that I don’t have any money. I don’t really know how I’ll manage in town…”

I smiled awkwardly and scratched my head. I thought about returning the Gold Magnet as a peace offering. Lovis seemed to treasure the item, but if I tried to give it back to him, he’d probably just panic and make me keep it. I decided to hold onto it—it would honor his feelings, and it might actually come in handy.

“M-money? Money! Y-you two, do you have any money on you?!” cried Lovis, his face pale as he turned to his underlings.

“Yeah, I got a little, Boss…”

“I don’t walk around with more than I need, but I do have a few coins…”

Damia fumbled through his magic bag and pulled out a slightly smaller pouch.

Lovis’s eyebrows shot up, and he smacked the pouch of out of Damia’s outstretched hand. Coins scattered across the ground.

“Don’t you understand what it means to be asked for money when you’re about to part ways?! It’s the price of your own lives!”

The blood drained from Damia’s face, and he started trembling. Yozakura also looked shocked and dropped her magic bag on the ground at my feet.

“L-look, this isn’t a robbery or anything!” I said, “It’s fine! Besides, there’s got to be a way for me to earn money in town. I’d just like to know if there’s any particular laws or regulations that I need to be aware of.”

“Earn money? Well…would you want an, uh, honest living?” asked Lovis.

I stared at him in silence. His face went pale, and he started waving his hands.

“Pretend I didn’t ask! It’s just that it can be difficult for someone with no proof of identity to legitimately earn money. Official places of employment will only accept people with identification documents. So that only leaves places that offer illicit services—under-the-table jobs—that sort of thing. I don’t know of many other options…”

“Hmm, I’d really prefer something legal.”

“Uh, certainly. Well, then…” Lovis thought for a long time, hand on his chin. Apparently, this was going to be tougher than I expected.

“What about the Adventurers’ Guild?” chimed in Yozakura, and Lovis’s head snapped up.

“What are you thinking?! You can’t expect Kanata to work at such a low-level place. Could you even imagine it?! An absolute beast like this gathering medicinal herbs and running errands for the Guild?!”

I-it’s not like I’m a total monster…

“S-sorry, Sir! You’re absolutely right.” Yozakura bowed to Lovis.

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to! Please excuse her insolence, Kanata. Yozakura isn’t from this country. She doesn’t understand how things really—”

“Uh, it’s fine…” I cut him off. “Actually, tell me more about this Adventurers’ Guild.”

It might be an easy place for me to earn some quick cash. The concept was nearly universal in Japanese RPGs and light novels. If the gods had made Locklore using them as a guide, I might just be in luck.

“The Adventurers’ Guild is an organization established in accordance with the king’s mandate and organized by the head of the town or region. As long as you’re not a registered criminal, you can accept paid job requests submitted by the local lord or magistrate, the Guild itself, or the people. Requests range from thinning out monster populations to carrying luggage. Depending on what you collect, the Guild also serves as a market to sell your items or monster parts,” explained Lovis.

I liked the sound of that. I wasn’t sure how far I could get with monster hunting at my current level. I thought I’d be fine…probably. At the very least, I was stronger than the outlaw mercenaries. I wondered what the catch was.

“The Guild takes a cut of everything,” continued Lovis. “And you can only accept jobs that are basically chores until you build up your reputation with them. The local ruler, Lord Grand, also has a reputation for being cheap and ineffective. I think it would be a waste of your time—”

“I can deal with all that, especially since it’s the only legal option. I’ll join the Guild and try to find some work,” I said. I was actually relieved to hear they had chore-level jobs available. I could probably handle those with no problem at all.

“Uh… At your level?” asked Lovis, a look of confusion on his face. I got the impression he hadn’t checked my stats, but he surely had gotten a feel for them when we fought.

“Is it too low?” I asked, pensively. Aw, dang. And I thought I’d be in a pretty good position…

Lovis looked uncertain of what to say for a moment, but then a smile burst across his face. “No, you’ll be fine! You just need the registration fee, so I will give you some money.” He fished into his magic pouch and counted out a handful of coins. “It’s not a lot, but it should pay for the fee and a few days of room and board.”

He handed me the coins in a small pouch, and Damia very hesitantly touched his shoulder to get his attention.

“Boss, are you sure about this? If he joins the Guild…things will end up, ah, complicated…” he whispered.

“It’s not my problem, and I’ve told him no lies. He shouldn’t get angry at us. Anyway, we need to leave as quickly as possible,” Lovis whispered back.

I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but I was anxious to get into town.

“Lovis?” I asked, and he jumped in surprise.

“Ah, sorry! T-to be honest, Kanata, we’re not very well liked by the lord here, you see. We can’t go near the city gates. I hate to leave you, but if you wouldn’t mind… You understand, right?”

“I do. Thanks for everything. I’ll take care of myself from here on out,” I said.

“Gracious as ever! Then we shall take our leave! Fate willing, we shall meet again.”

Lovis slowly backed away from me, then turned and pushed his underlings’ backs.

“Run, you fools! Run so that we never cross his path again!” he hissed at them as they jogged away.

The three of them seemed on better terms with each other as they disappeared into the countryside.

AS I APPROACHED ARROBURG, I walked past a group of people in black robes. They were carving and embedding magic formulas into the city walls. I wondered if some sort of a magical barrier was built into the masonry, making it difficult for monsters to come near.

I finally came to the main gate, where a man with a cart was arguing with a couple of town guards about putting up a stall without the proper license. I entered and saw that the town was made up of narrow streets, crowded with buildings. It felt even busier than my hometown back in Japan. There were lots of people packed behind the safety of the city walls.

It was hard to walk without bumping into anyone. I wandered the streets searching for the Adventurers’ Guild, but I couldn’t seem to find it.

“…Ah!”

While I was looking another direction, a large man cut sideways across the street on a collision course. I turned to take the hit with my shoulder, bending backward to reduce the impact. He obviously hadn’t been paying attention to the people around him, but I decided that an apology would be the best way to smooth things over and get on with my search.

“Sorry, I was trying to find—” I began to explain with a bow of my head, but he grabbed my shoulder.

“You’ve got some nerve, punk. Think you can run into me and get off with a pathetic bow?”

I lifted my head and looked at the man’s face. He was a burly guy in his late forties, over two meters tall with a huge scar on his rugged face.

Behind him was a short smarmy-looking fellow.

“Wha’d he do, Octavio?” the little man asked.

“This little snot bumped into me and then tried to run off. That hurt, boy.”

We didn’t hit each other that hard…

“That’s a nice robe you got there. And would you look at that magic bag. Daddy buy them for you? Brats like you who’ve never seen a day’s work really piss me off. Makes me mad enough to kill, y’know?” said Octavio with a menacing grin.

I finally got it. This was a shakedown. Octavio ran into me intentionally, and now the other people in the area were walking around us, acting like they didn’t see anything. This wasn’t the way I wanted to start a new life in Locklore. I suddenly started wondering what would happen if it came down to a fight. Octavio was huge and muscular, but there was a chance that he wasn’t much stronger than Lovis.

I quickly put that thought away and decided to try to avoid a fight. I didn’t know anything about this world, let alone this city. If this turned into a big deal, it might ruin my chances to live and work here. Maybe I could just bribe him and avoid any more trouble.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have much on me, but would money buy some forgiveness?” I asked.

“I like a guy who knows what’s what, but…” Octavio said, sizing me up. “Tell you what, give me the magic bag on your hip with everything inside and we’re square. I’ve always wanted one of them.”

I felt my expression stiffen. The truly dangerous items like the Cursed Mirror were in a dimensional pocket, but I kept things like potions and the Acacia Memoirs in the bag for easy access. More importantly, the magic bag contained things I’d received from Lunaère. I wasn’t about to hand over the things she gave me—along with the memories—to this guy.

Maybe I should just run…

I took a step back and was about to use Status Check on Octavio when I heard a girl’s voice shout.

“G-guards! Th-there’s a fight! Somebody’s been stabbed!”

The crowd around us murmured and shuffled when they heard the news.

“What, a stabbing?! Where?! Who’s the attacker?!”

I saw two guards quickly jogging down the street in our direction—the same two who had closed down the stall. Then I realized the girl had been shouting about Octavio and me. The bit about a stabbing was just to put a little hustle in their step.

“O-Octavio,” the small man said nervously, “things’ll get bad if this turns into a scene! Wasn’t they threatening to kick you outta the Guild next time you caused problems?”

“If I find that snitch, I’ll kill ’em!” Octavio ground his teeth and glared at the approaching guards with beady eyes. “You got lucky, brat, but this ain’t over!”

“Don’chu worry, Octavio. I know that voice—it was that white mage, Pomera,” said the small man, grinning as he looked back at the crowd.

Octavio swung his right arm and slugged me in the shoulder, then started running away.

I looked at my shoulder. Did he pull his punch? That didn’t hurt at all. But as he ran, I noticed that Octavio was carrying an incredible-looking axe. He was clearly someone who made a living hunting monsters. Perhaps he was even an adventurer.

He was also prepared to start a fight with me, and surely that meant his level was high enough that he felt comfortable picking fights with strangers. Before he disappeared from sight, I used Status Check to see what I was up against.

OCTAVIO AUGRAIN

Race: Human

Lv: 28

HP: 112/129

MP: 106/106

I blinked.

That can’t be right. Maybe I focused on a random person from the crowd instead.

No, it checked out. It was ridiculous; even Lovis was stronger.

Even Lovis. My assessment of that guy kept changing.

Maybe he was just a lumberjack with a bad attitude, but if I hadn’t done the Status Check myself, I would have never imagined that Octavio was only level 28. I resolved to start secretly checking more people’s statuses to try to get a better grasp of the average level around here.

“Hey, are you the guy who got stabbed? I don’t see any blood on you,” said one of the approaching guards. He seemed annoyed that I wasn’t injured.

“I think maybe there’s been a mistake. But thank you for coming—it really helped,” I said.

“Tsk! We let a person with an illegal stall get away for this!” the other guard complained before they both glared at me and walked away.

Arroburg did not seem to be a city of kind souls. My mind turned to the memory of Lunaère, surrounded by magic books as she gave me a lesson in the fundamentals while Noble watched and added running commentary.

“I miss Cocytus.” I sighed.

I saw a frail girl looking at me anxiously as the crowd thinned. She wore a blue beret pulled low on her head and had somewhat short, wavy blonde hair poking out from below. She hugged a large staff to her side.

She must have been the one who’d helped me. When we made eye contact, she jumped and ran away.

AFTER I’D AVOIDED A FIGHT with Octavio, I still couldn’t find the Adventurers’ Guild. Nobody seemed to be able to give me clear directions.

I did see more of the robed figures while I searched, all busy carving magic formulas into the city walls. The project must have been larger than I’d initially thought. They seemed to be coordinating with the town guard, so I assumed that was no reason for suspicion.

Turning down yet another street in search of the Guild, I felt a timid poke in my back. I turned to find the blonde staff-wielding girl standing right behind me. She gazed at me hesitantly.

“Um… A-are you looking for the Adventurers’ Guild, by any chance?” she asked from beneath her beret. Her shoulders quivered when our eyes met, and she looked away. I was caught off guard by being accosted by such a slight girl, and after a moment of silence, she started backing away while shaking her head.

“I-I’m sorry I poked my nose into your business” she said. She seemed skittish, and I wondered how often she actually talked to strangers.

“I would be grateful if you could show me where the Guild is. You’re the one who called the guards for me. Thank you, Miss…?”

“P-Pomera. I’m sorry, it’s my fault you got roped in with the guards…”

Pomera…those guys mentioned her earlier. “No, no, you really helped. Thank you! Have you…been following me since then?”

I’d been walking mostly at random, wandering around the streets. There was no way we could have just coincidently bumped back into one another.

“A-actually, I was trying to decide if I should talk to you before that too. I-I ended up just following you around…”

Oh, really? Given my experience so far in Arroburg, that seemed a little suspect. She might look sweet, but maybe she was after the robe that Lunaère made for me, or my magic bag, or the Sorcerer King’s Research.

“Okay, but…was there a reason you were following me?” I asked.

“Um, it’s only… Y-you seemed to be lost for so long. I’m sorry, I-I should have said something sooner. I’m just not very good at talking to people.”

Maybe she’s a good person after all, just shy.

I felt a little embarrassed that I’d suspected otherwise. She’d been watching this whole time, waiting for the right time to talk to me. If I were that nervous about talking to strangers, I would probably have given up right away.

Having awkwardly broken the ice, Pomera led the way to the Adventurers’ Guild.

“S-so, you came here alone, Kanata?” she asked.

“Yeah, well…you could say I’m on a journey.”

“I-if that’s the case…the things you can do will be really limited. Lately, a lot of low-level adventurers have been killed, so they’ve made the requirements harsher. It’s not often that a single adventurer can even take an F-rank job here in Arroburg.”

“Oh, really…?”

My shoulders slumped in disappointment. It looked like I’d be taking on menial chores until I could find people to team up with.

“I w-would let you join my group, but…I don’t think that would go very well.” Pomera turned her face away, looking sad. I got the impression she wasn’t a decision maker.

After walking a little while, we came to a large building with a crest over the door bearing one red and one white sword. The people there had a rough sort of look about them, like they were fighters. I’d finally reached the Guild.

We went in together, and Pomera looked around nervously before letting out a sigh of relief.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“N-nothing. Only, well…I was supposed to meet with my party members, and I’m a little late. It looks like I’m the first one here, so I feel a bit relieved.”

“You’re late? Is it my fault because you had to rescue me?”

“No no no! It’s my fault, I-I’m the one who reached out to you anyway! Besides, the others usually meet up somewhere else and then come to the Guild…and they’re usually late.”

It sounded like they were excluding her. Pomera shook her head vigorously, perhaps guessing what I was thinking from my expression.

“I-it’s okay! They’re really nice to me despite everything. They’re good people,” she insisted.

If she said so, but it wasn’t my business anyway. Having an outsider step in rarely helps when there are problems in a group—but her tone left me feeling uncomfortable.

Pomera said she was going to wait for her companions by the entrance, so I turned to walk to the reception desk by myself. She stopped me just before I left.

“K-Kanata…be careful, please. That man you were fighting with, Octavio, he’s a D-rank adventurer. He’s received penalties from the Guild for violent incidents quite a few times,” said Pomera.

So he really is an adventurer…

If the lowest rank was F, then Octavio was three whole ranks up the ladder at only level 28. That didn’t seem like a functional system to me. Then again, I was beginning to doubt Lunaère’s claim that I wouldn’t be safe outside the dungeon unless I was level 4,000.

“Th-there are rumors that he’s lashing out now because he failed to get promoted to C-rank. It’s probably

a good idea to change your clothes and c-cover your face with a cloak,” continued Pomera.

“Huh. Thanks for letting me know…”

It would be a real pain if I ended up in an altercation with him, because I didn’t want to cause any trouble. At the same time, I also had zero desire to take off the robe and jewelry that Lunaère had given me just to hide from a bully like Octavio.

“Pomera-san, thank you for everything.” I said with a bow. “You were a really big help when I needed it. I promise I’ll pay you back someday.” But she stood there blinking in confusion.

“…Pomera?”

“S-orry! Nobody’s ever sincerely thanked me before! I-I don’t really know what to say… Sorry!”

I had a sinking feeling.

“WEIRD…” I muttered while I waited in the line at the reception desk. I had been discretely checking the status of people around me, and the results were puzzling.

Of the twenty people I checked, everyone was between level 5 and 30. It was making me reconsider my

reaction to Lovis for being level 181. Even Octavio’s level 28 seemed above average.

No wonder Lovis was such an arrogant jerk. In most situations, he actually had the power to back up his attitude. Then I started to sweat as another uncomfortable thought struck me. If people here found out I was level 4,122, they’d treat me like some sort of monster. They might even try to drive me away.

Did Lunaère lie to me? Or maybe she’d been closed away in Cocytus for so long that her ideas about reasonable levels were completely skewed. She said there were powerful people in Locklore and that they would definitely notice me—so maybe she was just trying to err on the side of caution.

But seriously, this level gap seemed extreme.

“Huh…?” A poster caught my eye.

On the Guild’s wall was a wanted poster with a familiar face on it. It said, “Lovis of the Black Reapers,” and below that, “Bounty: 80 million gold.” Could there be that much of a difference between one Locklorian gold and one Japanese yen?

That’s absurd. There’s no way that guy has an 80 million yen bounty on his head.

“Scary, huh? He’s been sighted in the area, so there are wanted posters up everywhere,” came a voice from behind. I turned to see a slender young man around my age with a bow and arrows on his back.

“Uh, what kind of person is he?” I asked, feigning ignorance. “I don’t know too much about him…”

“Oh, wow. You’ve never heard of Lovis? He recruits adventurers who get rejected by the guild. They take jobs like assassinations or interfering with trade. That dude’s bad news. There’re even rumors he’s taking deals on the sly from multiple lords. He’s not bad-looking, though. And he takes down a lot of other criminals because he’s just a thug who’s obsessed with fighting. Some people are out there cheering for him like he’s a folk hero. He’s got this dark charisma, y’know?”

“Dark charisma…” I remembered Lovis’s creepy, obsequious smile. Dark…charisma? That didn’t seem right. Maybe the person I met was a fake using Lovis’s name? But there was no mistaking the face on the poster.

I noticed another bright red wanted poster next to it. This poster had a drawing of a narrow-eyed young man in a robe, but oddly, it didn’t have a bounty written on it. All it said was “Evil Priest Notts.” I wondered if its placement by Lovis’s poster meant that there had been sightings of him as well.

“So what’s the deal with that one?” I asked the guy behind me.

“You haven’t heard of humanoid dragons either? Dude. They’re humans that are also like…dragons. They’re basically walking disasters. No bounty because there’s no way a human could do anything about them. If a monster like that was in the city, I’d just run,” he explained.

Okay, now that sounds like some serious danger.

“Anyway, I think the warning about Notts is a hoax,” he continued with a smile. “There were a bunch of posters in other buildings, but yesterday, I saw guards taking them down. It’s just a bunch of gossip. We don’t even know if the guy’s alive or dead.”

Finally, my number was called at the reception desk. I managed to join the guild without a problem using the money I got from Lovis. They gave me a registration book with some basic information in it, but…there were no decent jobs available for me. It was just a bunch of low-paying chores and busywork.

They ranged from finding lost familiars to researching low-level summoning magic. The jobs were so petty that I wondered why the requesters couldn’t just do them. Technically, there were some F-rank jobs that involved gathering medicinal herbs in the forest or hunting goblins, but I wasn’t allowed to take those.

“I was just hoping for something with a bit more fighting,” I said to the receptionist.

“Ah…it’s a formality, but we cannot allow F-rank adventurers to accept any jobs involving monsters unless they are in a party of two or more,” said the receptionist in a tone that implied they said that a lot. It looked like I’d be hauling luggage or helping with summoning research until I found some party members. I was about to take a chore from the list when I heard an angry voice coming from the front door.

“Hey, Pomera! Where the hell have you been? You screwing with us?”

“B-but you just arrived…!”

“Are you stupid? You were a no-show, so we went shopping. I guess that’s what we get for letting a piece of hot garbage like you into the group!”

Pomera cringed as a blue-haired man yelled at her. Another woman standing close by yawned like she was bored with the situation. These must be the party members who Pomera mentioned. She had insisted her companions were good people, but it didn’t look that way to me. In fact, they seemed pretty lousy for berating her for waiting while they’d been off at the store.

“I’ll, uh, go to the back of the line,” I said to the receptionist while bowing. I grabbed my registration booklet and went over to Pomera. It was my fault she was late, and I wasn’t about to leave her hanging.

“Your pathetic white magic isn’t even good for anything. The only thing you have going for you is that you don’t talk back, but if you can’t even be on time, then you’re worthless! Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The blue-haired man leaned in close to Pomera, invading her space. Her mouth opened and closed, but she wasn’t making any sound.

“Come on, use your words! Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I stepped between the two, separating them.

“She’s late because she helped me when I was lost. If that’s why you’re angry, then I’ll apologize. Though you seem too angry for that to be the only problem, so I wonder what else is going on here,” I said.

“K-Kanata?” said Pomera, shocked.

“Huh?” The blue-haired man stared at me in annoyance. He snorted and then looked back at Pomera. “So you went out of your way to help this guy? I guess you half-breeds try to cozy up to any human you can find.”

“Half-breed…?” I asked.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Well, have a look, then.” The man grinned cruelly and grabbed Pomera’s beret.

“No! S-stop, Roy, please!” Pomera cried and tried to resist, but Roy pushed her down as he stole her hat. I quickly moved behind her and stopped her fall.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“…What the? Did you just teleport?” Roy looked at me with narrowed eyes before rubbing them with the back of his hand. “Whatever. Get a look at her ears—half-human and half-forest bogey.”

Pomera’s face was pale as she pressed her hands to her head, trying to hide something. Underneath, I could see pointed ears.

“An elf? No…a half-elf.” I said quietly. Lunaère had told me about them, but this was the first time I’d seen one for myself.

I could probably guess why Roy had called them forest bogeys. Elves were a race of long-eared people who excelled at magic and summoned the power of the spirits to hold off old age and injury. The high elves lived on a floating continent in the sky, but the ones born and raised in the forests on the surface were just called elves. Lunaère said the high elves could live almost a thousand years with the help of the spirits in the sky, while the forest elves lived closer to five hundred. A half-elf in a city might live around two hundred years.

Elves preferred nature and hated expanding cities, so they often clashed with humans. Knowing there was a history of conflict, I wasn’t surprised that there was some lasting bad blood.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mislead you, Kanata, I just…wanted to be friends.” Tears welled in Pomera’s eyes. I thought she was oddly timid, but now I understood why—she wasn’t welcome in either human or elven society.

“You get it, right? You gotta keep these half-breeds on a short leash. I’m a nice guy just for letting her join our party, right?” Roy pushed his face close to mine. This guy really pissed me off. “Unless you’re some kind of moron, you should just go back to minding your own business.”

“Yeah, I understand… I understand that talking to you is pointless,” I said.

This conversation was going nowhere. I didn’t know too much about the details of human-elf diplomacy, but I was so annoyed that I didn’t care.

“Pomera-san, would you form a party with me? I need someone to show me the ropes around here, and I can’t take any decent jobs by myself,” I said. Then I held my hand out to Pomera for a shake.

“H-huh—but I’m a half-elf… Are you sure? And I don’t know if I’ll be of any use…”

Roy glared at me before turning to Pomera. “Hey, you’re not in charge here! I can’t afford to lose any cheap labor!”

“This is Pomera-san’s decision. Your profits don’t matter,” I said.

Pomera looked uncertain at first but eventually made up her mind. Trembling, she reached out and gently shook my hand.

“I-I would be happy to join you, Kanata! I’m not much use, but I’ll do my best!”

As Pomera and I turned to walk back to the reception desk, Roy grabbed my shoulder. He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Listen, Kantata or whatever, you don’t need to pretend to be a nice guy. I get it. I thought a half-breed forest bogey would be good at magic too—but her level is low, she’s clumsy, and she’s good for nothing. Well, maybe good for blowing off a little steam… You should just give her—”

I gave Roy a light shove to get him away from me, and the force sent him tumbling to the ground.

“You’re pathetic,” I said.

Halfway to the reception desk, Pomera stopped and glanced back over her shoulder.

“You shouldn’t waste any more energy on that guy,” I told her gently.

“I-it’s just… He’s acting weird.”

I looked back to see that Roy was writhing on the floor with wide eyes and drooling as he begged for help from his other party member.

“G-gods, it hurts! Help me, Holly! My shoulder’s dislocated!”

It looked like the level gap was going to be a bigger issue than I’d hoped.

WE FILED the necessary paperwork with the Guild to establish that Pomera and I were a party. Now we could take requests that involved fighting monsters, and I wouldn’t have to deal with doing chores or fetch quests.

The first job we took wasn’t the most exciting, but it seemed appropriate for a newly registered party. We were supposed to try to thin out the swarms of level 7 goblins around the outskirts of Arroburg. It wouldn’t even be a challenge, but there was no other way to increase my rank in the guild. And without raising my rank, I wouldn’t have access to higher-level requests. Those were the rules, so we went goblin hunting.

“Um… A-are you really sure you want me in your party?” Pomera asked hesitantly after we accepted the job.

I understood why she was so shy, considering how poorly Roy and his gang had treated her. Still, her lack of confidence was making me uncomfortable.

“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” I said. “You’re the only person in town I know, even if I’ve known you less than a day. I feel I can trust you.”

Pomera’s face turned red as she fidgeted with her beret.

“I-I’m really happy because I wanted to be friends with you too…a-and you don’t treat me any different now that you know I’m a half-elf. Roy and Holly treated me a little bad sometimes, so I’m really grateful you invited me to join your party. I-I just don’t want to be a burden.”

“…A little bad sometimes?” I said without thinking. That seemed like a serious understatement.

“Th-they were really nice in the past! They knew people in the Guild were avoiding me because I’m mixed race. They were the only ones who smiled when they talked to me. I j-just couldn’t live up to their expectations because I’m worthless…” Her shoulders slumped in disappointment. “Maybe if I… If I could just do b-better, then I’d be able to be friends with Roy and Holly…”

I wanted to raise her spirits, but I didn’t know what to say. Even if Pomera had the magic power that Roy was hoping for, I doubt it would have changed their group dynamic. I remembered Roy’s coarse words about Pomera—they were shameful. She should forget about those two jerks. No matter how you looked at it, Roy was a turd. I didn’t think much of Holly either, since she’d just stood there and let Roy abuse Pomera.

“I-I’m low-level compared to Roy, but I can use white magic up to level 3! Mom taught me that much…while she was still alive. So you can let me take care of healing!”

Even though white magic was my weakest area, I could use up to level 4 spells. I kept that to myself. So far, I’d managed healing with Lunaère’s elixirs and the Ouroboros Wheel. As for experience levels, I’d already checked. Roy was level 14 and Pomera was level 7. While to them, Roy might seem twice as strong as Pomera, to me, they were about the same.

“I’m g-going to try my best to make sure I don’t let you down! I promise I’ll be useful!” said Pomera loudly as she squeezed her fists. She realized how loud she was talking when she noticed other people looking in her direction. Again, she turned red and pulled her beret down as if she was trying to hide inside it.

If Pomera found out I was above level 4,000, she’d probably think I only invited her to join me out of pity. In reality, I needed a party member to take better jobs, and having someone around who knew about adventuring and the city was a huge help. But I wondered if she could deal with knowing the truth or if she’d just leave the party thinking that she was a burden. If she left, I had a feeling that things would go poorly for her. Still, I frowned as I considered that roping her into my weird situation might cause her a lot of trouble.

“I’m s-sorry, Kanata! I’m embarrassing you…” Pomera said with a few small bows. She must have seen my hardened expression and assumed it was because she was being loud.

I smiled, which seemed to calm her, but I still worried about what I should do.

We passed by a short man as we left the Guild. Seeing Pomera with me, he grinned widely. It was that D-rank Octavio’s toady, so I hurried Pomera along at a quick pace. As we withdrew, I asked Pomera where we might find a store to pick up a few adventuring essentials.

“I recommend this general store,” she said, pointing to a sign. “They have a wide selection—waterskins, knives, recovery items, and even dry branches for torches. I have a sewing kit, so don’t worry about that. My sewing is… It’s the only thing Holly ever complimented me on.”

When she said she had a sewing kit, it took a moment for me to realize why that would be useful. Then it dawned on me that clothing got damaged while fighting monsters. Being able to repair your gear outside of town must be really helpful.

“I have a few recovery items already. I also have a waterskin, and I’m good with fire magic, so I don’t think we’ll need anything expensive,” I said, lifting my magic bag and patting it.

“Y-you have a magic bag. I did think you looked well dressed… N-now I feel a little silly.” Pomera shrunk, squeezing her shoulders in. “Y-you don’t have to take my word for it, but Roy and Holly come to this shop often. Really, it’s good! If you rely on magic, you might end up running out when you need it most. It’s best to get in the habit of buying extra potions when you can!”

I hated to hear Roy’s name come up, but she didn’t seem to resent him at all. It was strange that she’d suggest this place, since it obviously brought back bad memories. Maybe she cared more about trying to be helpful than about dwelling on how roughly they treated her.

“To be honest, I don’t think we need to be that worried,” I said.

“Is it about money? If so, I can pay… Y-you probably won’t even use it anyway…”

“No, I’ll pay! I got a little money from someone I met while traveling, so I’m okay. Or I think I am, anyway…”

“Y-you don’t have to be that generous!” said Pomera. “It’s okay… When I was in Roy and Holly’s party, they’d have me pay for small stuff all the time.”

Those rats!

“I’ll pay!” I insisted. “You just tell me what we need.”

We kept going back and forth for a while. Pomera was so eager to seem useful that we agreed to split the costs. With our shopping taken care of, we headed toward the city gates to go goblin hunting.

“I don’t think Roy-san and Holly-san are very good people,” I said hesitantly as we walked along. “I’m…sorry if it hurts to talk about it, but aren’t you angry at them at all?”

“I think there are some things that can’t be helped.”

“Can’t be helped…?”

“The elves that lived in the nearby forest used to attack Arroburg a lot,” she said. “My dad was a human from this town, and my mom was an elf. She used to hate humans a long time ago, but…as my mom and dad grew closer, the leader of the elves tried to make the other elves in the village resent her like they resented humans. In the end, they chased her from the forest.”

“Why would the leader do that?”

“Elves lose the protection of the spirits and their power if they live in human settlements for too long. And as cities grow, they destroy the places elves can live. Mom said people think elves and humans shouldn’t coexist because of that.”

That would explain why half-elves weren’t welcome in town. I wouldn’t say that it couldn’t be helped, but it sure seemed like a problem with deep roots.

“And then Dad said that Lord Grand tried to stir up trouble against the elves. He probably didn’t like that another race had a claim on a portion of his lands. Especially in the forest with good hunting grounds. Eventually, the elves moved far away because of the hatred and violence. I was still so young that I don’t really remember it.”

I had suspected that things were bad, but I was shocked to learn that a whole society had been forced to migrate.

“Lord Grand is an extremist, but hostility against elves is growing throughout the kingdom. That’s what drives me—the fact that humans and elves see each other as enemies. If I work really hard and make friends, I could make small changes to people’s attitudes here in the city! If I could find the strength—if I could be useful—then surely Roy would have to treat me fairly. That’s something only a half-elf like me can do!” said Pomera, gripping her staff tightly as she spoke. Her face suddenly went red as she realized she’d gone off on a tangent.

“I-I’m sorry… I haven’t even known you a day, and I’m just talking your ear off about these things. Not many people listen to me. I just…I-I’m really annoying, aren’t I?”

“Not at all. I think it’s an admirable goal.”

I had a new respect for Pomera. It was a really difficult thing to be demonized, but somehow, she managed to only hate the system and not the people in the system. She looked timid, but she was taking the weight onto her own shoulders instead of resenting others. This little half-elf was actually very forward-thinking and had a fundamentally good heart.

“I’d like to help, if there’s anything I can do,” I said.

My only goal since leaving Cocytus was to make lots of memories that I could share with Lunaère when I saw her next, so she could experience the surface vicariously. Helping Pomera with her dream felt like it would be a good story to tell. I’d rather follow a dream than adventure aimlessly, even if it was someone else’s dream.

My own dream wasn’t very realistic. I had a fantasy about renegotiating with Naiarotop so I could see my cat, Kuromaru, again. Fat chance of that. Naiarotop hated my guts, and engaging in a debate with the Lower God probably wouldn’t end well.

Besides, I’d hate to leave Lunaère here alone while I returned to Japan. I worried about Kuromaru, but he was a tough customer. I was sure he was already living off the land or some other stranger’s charity.

Pomera stared at me with wide eyes and fat tears pouring down her cheeks.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m just really, really happy. No one’s ever supported me, and I’m so happy I just started crying…” said Pomera as she wiped the tears away with her sleeve. “B-but I don’t think I’m worth it. I don’t have any way to repay you!”

I wish she’d have a little more self-confidence. It’d make talking to her a whole lot easier…

We finally arrived at the city gate and looked out at our hunting grounds.

So…goblins, huh? I’m going to have to hold back, or else things could go sideways. I’ll need to adjust my tactics to the situation.

THE GUILD PAID 2,000 gold for each dead goblin. Pomera said that two people should aim to kill eight goblins a day. However, we were quickly surrounded by five of them as soon as we came out into a field.

Pomera mostly attacked with her staff, perhaps trying to save her magic for later. I tried to sandbag them by smacking them with the hilt of my sword, since killing them too fast would raise her suspicions.

“There’s more than I’d expected…” I said, dodging a strike from a goblin’s club. I thumped it with the pommel of my sword, and it went flying backward.

“Th-there’s probably a goblin den nearby. We should report it to the Guild so some C-rank adventurers can investigate the area. This will be a difficult fight for just the two of us, so we should reduce their numbers and find a way to escape,” said Pomera, and I nodded.

Easier said than done.

I’d tried striking a goblin gently with my blade when the fight started, but its HP was so low that its body turned to dust and disappeared, which made Pomera instantly suspicious.

HEROIC SWORD OF GILGAMESH

Value Class: Godly

Attack: +3500

Magic: +2500

The favorite sword of a prince born 3,000 years ago, who also happened to be the strongest man alive. Its radiance can directly cut the life force of monsters and demons. Legend speaks of the Golden Strike, an attack that is said to contain one third of the strength of the entire kingdom.

The prince used this sword to defeat the Nightmare Rites, a group of five demon kings. His victory ended their two-hundred-year reign and liberated his people. Afterward, the prince was counted among the Four Heroes of the Dark Ages.

After the prince died from a rare disease, both his body and this sword disappeared. It is said they were both taken to rest with the Gods.

It was a super cool sword that I’d received from Lunaère. It could release bursts of attacking light, and the description was really inspiring. But it was just way too powerful for fighting goblins. If I accidentally used even a fraction of the power I got from training with Lunaère, someone as pathologically kind as Pomera might see that as a reason to leave the party. I couldn’t keep my secret forever, but I decided it was a conversation to have when we weren’t being mobbed by low-level monsters.

The first goblin I killed disappeared in a puff of dust. I’d managed to convince Pomera that there was never a goblin there to begin with, but I couldn’t make that mistake twice. Now I was trying to fight the monsters by parrying their club swings with the hilt of my sword.

I deflected an attack from a goblin and checked on Pomera just in time to see her staff being turned aside by the brute strength of a goblin’s attack.

Damn it, I wasn’t keeping an eye on her. Everything else will be pointless if she gets seriously injured.

I gently pushed the goblin in front of me with my foot, and it hurtled away. Then I turned to the goblin that Pomera was trying to hit with her staff and used the pommel of my sword to bonk it in the forehead. Its head snapped off at the neck and began to quickly roll away.

“Are you all right?!” I shouted.

Meanwhile, the goblin I’d kicked collided with a tree, which tore its body into pieces, and the head of the other one still rolled merrily across the field.

“Y-yes, I’m all right…” said Pomera, her mouth gaping in amazement as she watched the goblin’s head spin off into the distance.

G-goblins are weaker than I thought. I’m going to have to work on some moves to keep up the sham.

The two remaining goblins dropped their clubs and ran.

“G-good, the last two ran. That means we finished three off…” I said as I checked the goblins’ remains.

The Guild told me that they used the goblins’ left ear as proof of a kill, so we needed to make sure we got those. I didn’t think I could talk the guild into believing a handful of sand was an ear, so no luck on the one who’d taken a proper slash from the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh.

“Er…two. We finished off two,” I said, correcting myself. “So we just need to kill six more.” Then I remembered that the ears were still attached to the rolling head.

“K-Kanata…I know it’s rude to pry, but…are you actually high-level?” asked Pomera hesitantly after gazing in the direction of the traveling goblin head.

“Well…maybe I hit it in just the right spot. Or something…”

“In the right spot—?” Pomera started to ask, but we heard the rumble of feet in the distance. I turned and saw a mob of goblins, nearly twenty of them, running straight in our direction.

This group didn’t just have the normal kind of goblins either—three of them had mottled red spots. Earlier, Pomera had said we should run if we saw any goblins with red spots. Apparently, if goblins formed a pack, they dyed the skin of the strongest members red to signify that they were leaders.

“A-a monster stampede! This shouldn’t happen this close to town! Even if we run, they’ll surround us! Goblins are afraid of fire, so use the torches. They’re better than nothing!” cried Pomera.

Whether I had a secret or not, this didn’t seem like a good situation to hold back. I readied my sword and saw to my surprise that a human was running well ahead of the pack of goblins. He was a short man with a hooked nose, hunkered over and playing a strange jade flute. He grinned with spite in his eyes as he dashed toward us.

I knew that guy… We’d passed him when we left the Guild. Now he ran up to us a few moments ahead of the monsters and gloated.

“Hee hee… You shoulda given Octavio yer magic bag when you had the chance! You’d at least still have yer lives,” said the man, putting on a show of covering his mouth and letting out a loud laugh.

It was Octavio’s toady. I wasn’t exactly sure how he was controlling the goblins, but looking at their strange agitation, I guessed that jade flute had some sort of power to stir them into a frenzy. In any case, it was apparent that this wasn’t a coincidental meeting. I might not know how he found us, but it was obvious that this wasn’t his first rodeo.

“I hate cleaning up after a job, y’know. This way, you’ll just be a couple of morons who bit off more goblin than they could chew. Even if somebody squeals, I’ll just play dumb and say we had no beef. Small fry like you shoulda known yer place, but you had to resist. Octavio hates that more than anything,” said the man. He pocketed the flute and pulled out what looked like a yellow gyoza, which he threw in Pomera’s direction. “It’s a Smelly Dumpling…filled with fermented juice and rotten meat. Dontcha love it?”

I’d heard that the smell of rotten meat drew goblins, so the dumpling had to be a lure. He probably hoped that he could slip away when the monsters decided to fight us for the disgusting treat.

“Aaah!” shrieked Pomera.

“Duck!” I shouted as I leaped in front of her and caught the dumpling. I flung it at the goblins to buy us a little time.

Sure enough, Octavio’s sidekick was making a break for it. As he ran, he shouted, “Tsk… So you managed to catch it, eh? Not a problem. I just gotta be faster than you newbies! Here’s a tip: S’not strength or magic that makes levels diff’rent, it’s speed! The goblins will target you, and—”

He faceplanted as I caught up and gently tripped him.

“Agh! No way yer that fast!” He howled as he struck the ground.

“You’re right. Speed is where the difference in levels is most obvious,” I said, locking eyes with the man as he raised his head. The color drained from his face, and he opened his mouth in shock.

“J-just what level are you? 30? 40?!”

He seems to assume I can’t be above level 100.

There was no more time to chat. The pack of goblins finally arrived to attack. I couldn’t let either Pomera or Octavio’s crony see me disintegrate them, so I returned my sword to its sheath.

“D-don’t give up, Kanata! I’ll do my best, and now he has no choice but to help us too! We’ll find a way out of this somehow…”

I doubted that I’d be afraid even if a hundred goblins were attacking us. I would probably just use a spell to finish them all off at once. But in this situation, I stepped forward and caught one of the goblin leader’s clubs with my bare hand before kicking it lightly in the chest.

It exploded. Its ribcage shattered, and its limbs fell to the ground as its torso went flying off to the horizon.

“Wha…?” I saw all the color drain from the little man’s face.

It looked like kicking them to death was off the table. I tried slapping another goblin with the flat of my hand. My strike pierced the monster’s abdomen, and I quickly pulled back before any blood or goblin goo had a chance to get on my hand. That seemed to work. As long as I was quick, I could kill them without getting blood on my robe, and as a bonus, they dropped where we were standing instead of sailing off into the distance.

Less than a minute later, the chaos had ended, and I stood over a pile of goblin corpses.

“Kanata…j-just how strong—” said Pomera, as her jaw dropped. It looked like the cat was out of the bag.

“F-forgive me! O-Octavio put me up to it!” the man said, sweat pouring down his ghost-white face.

I bent down and plucked the jade flute from his pocket before tossing it in the air, where I punched it. It shattered, and the pieces rained down on top of him. His eyes opened wide, and he sucked in air.

“I-I’ll leave town! I swear, you won’t never see me again! J-just please have mercy!”

I closed my eyes and pondered. He’d tried to kill us, and from the way he had bragged, I was pretty sure that he’d done this before. But I couldn’t bring myself to kill someone who was begging for his life.

“Tell Octavio that I won’t let this slide again,” I said.

“N-no doubt! I’ll def’nitely tell him!” The man stood up and started heading back toward the city as fast as he could. He dragged the leg I’d caught to trip him, and he struggled for breath as he hobbled away.

I wish I could believe that this is the end of dealing with Octavio…

AFTER THE LITTLE MAN ran off toward the city, we busied ourselves by cutting the ears off the dead goblins. Since there had been twenty of them, we easily made our quota for the day, even if I’d disintegrated one and sent a few others flying off into the wilderness.

“Kanata… Y-you’re really powerful, aren’t you?” said Pomera sadly. I figured this conversation was bound to happen. Having an overpowered hunting partner obviously made her uncomfortable, but I didn’t think it would make her this unhappy.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to feel like you weren’t good enough,” I said.

“I-it’s okay. I completely understand why you would be concerned.”

“It’s just…I didn’t think I could trust anyone else. And you’ve taught me so much about the city and working as an adventurer. You really have helped me a lot!”

“B-but, I’ll just hold you back from now on…” She hung her head.

Was that really what she thought? If things went wrong and people found out about my level or items, I could end up drawing the wrong kind of attention. It seemed to me that she didn’t truly understand how much I appreciated her trust and the working relationship we were building.

“There’s still so much I don’t know, and most people here don’t seem that nice. I don’t know if I can find anyone else I can trust, and I also want to get to know you better. I’d like you to stay in my party.”

“…”

Pomera gazed silently at the ground, deep in thought. At heart, I knew she was an adventurer. She wanted to work hard while being useful to others and building equal relationships. If she stayed with me, she’d only be assisting outside of battle, which wasn’t in line with her goals. Even if I tried paying her more to make up for that, I didn’t think she’d accept it.

Raising her head, she said, “Kanata…you’re a magic user, aren’t you?”

I looked down at my robes. Even though I hadn’t had many opportunities to use spells since coming to the surface, I was certainly dressed for the job. Even unarmed, I could kill goblins all day long, but spells were my bread and butter if I ever fought anything close to my level.

“Yeah, I’m a magic user.”

Pomera bowed her head to me and said, “Um…if it’s not too much trouble, would you please train me in magic?”

“You want me to train you?”

“I understand it’s asking a lot, but…th-there’s no one else I can ask. I’ve been trying as hard as I can, but I feel like I’ve reached the limit of what I can learn on my own. Unless I get some proper training, I’ll never be more than a burden.”

I knew the feeling. Some aspects of magic were impossible to study on your own. Without Lunaère’s advice, magic books, magic items, and her brutal training program, I’d never have gotten this far in a thousand years.

Pomera was focused on white magic, and being a half-elf meant she was also predisposed to spirit magic. I didn’t know much about those areas, but I did have Lunaère’s magic books and a bag full of elixirs. Training Pomera seemed like something I could do.

“I-if I could just get strong enough, then…I might be able to be real friends with Roy and Holly,” said Pomera.

Ugh… Those two. I wish she could just forget about them.

I might not agree with her reasoning, but when we formed a party, I’d promised that I would do what I could to help Pomera achieve her dreams. At least this way, we’d still stick together as a party.

“Okay. I’m not sure if I’ll be a good teacher, but…I look forward to working with you more,” I said, offering my hand.

Pomera looked around hesitantly and then pointed to herself to confirm that this was really happening. I nodded. She smiled happily and took my hand.

“Th-thank you, Kanata!”

I was happy that our party hadn’t fallen apart, but it felt strange. Almost no time had passed since I was a student, and now I was suddenly the master. My thoughts turned to memories of Lunaère. I desperately wanted to see her again. How long would I have to stay away before she’d let me come visit again?

POMERA AND I returned to the Guild to turn in the goblin ears.

“All these…?” The receptionist’s eyes were wide as she looked back and forth between me and Pomera. “It hasn’t even been half a day since you accepted the request. Y-you two are F-rank adventurers, right…?”

She counted the ears. Partway through, her hands stopped and she jumped. “A goblin leader? No…three goblin leaders?! There’s no way…”

“Are they really that different from regular goblins?” I asked before I could stop myself. Other than their red spots, I hadn’t been able to tell them apart from the other goblins in combat. The receptionist eyed me suspiciously.

“Did you two really fight these goblins, or are you trying to pull something funny? This is…more than I would expect from F-rank adventurers.”

“Uh, well, you see—” I said, fumbling for words, but Pomera rushed up and cut me off.

“Yes! Th-the thing is that Kanata has only just registered, and I think he might be a bit stronger than his rank. Oh! And the reason we returned so quickly was to tell you there is probably a goblin den south of the city.”

Pomera laid out a map and explained the situation to the receptionist.

“Well, there have been some other odd reports from that area,” she admitted. “If that’s the case, I suppose your story makes sense. Thank you for the information.”

I didn’t think the receptionist was entirely convinced, but she did seem like she was ready to put this conversation behind her.

That was close. I’m so glad Pomera knew what to do.

“Kanata, have you worked as a bodyguard or alchemist before?” she asked, changing topics. “You should be able to make it to D-rank, or even C-rank, as long as you prove yourself a little.”

I didn’t really care about the rank system beyond the new jobs it would unlock, but it might be nice to have a goal. C-rank sounded like it could have some side benefits, so I decided to aim for that.

“Him? C-rank?! Give me a break…”

I turned around and saw Octavio glaring at me from across the room, deep furrows carved into his face. His nose twitched in a snarl. I didn’t see his sidekick, so I wondered if the message had been delivered.

I glared back, and Octavio turned to walk off. I hoped that was the end of it.

“This is amazing! Now we can take some E-rank requests too!” said Pomera as she accepted our payment.

Divided in half, it came to 33,000 gold. If we worked twenty days a month, that would be 660,000 gold. Taking our expenses into consideration, that was a decent amount if a gold piece was roughly the same as a yen. I’d expected to live frugally on the surface out of necessity, but now it looked like I might be able to afford a little luxury.

“Here you are, Kanata,” said Pomera as she handed me the entire pouch of gold.

“What about your share? Aren’t we splitting it?”

“N-no way! I didn’t even help. If anything, I made things worse! Besides, I can’t expect you to teach me without paying you!”

“But you’re teaching me things too. How do you expect to make a living if you don’t take some money?”

“I-I’m fine! I’m used to sleeping outside. Mom taught me how to cook goblin worms, so I won’t starve!”

“Y-you eat goblins?!”

“They’re commonly eaten in elven villages. I haven’t heard of many people eating them in Arroburg though…”

I didn’t know what a goblin worm was, but it sounded nauseating. But more to the point, I would be constantly worrying about her if she didn’t at least take enough money to rent a room and feed herself properly.

Pomera and I were still arguing when we heard a crazed voice from the other reception desk. An agitated man was shouting and gesturing wildly at the lady who sat behind it.

“I swear I seen it! It was a huge bat with one eye! It was a summoned spirit!”

“Oh, it’s you again…” The receptionist seemed unfazed, as if this was a common occurrence. “All right, so what happened this time?”

“It’s a crime to summon a spirit and let it loose! Nobody’s going to do that without some kind of plan! It’s got to be that Evil Priest Notts, releasing them spirits for reconnaissance because he knows he can’t walk around outside himself! That’s the only explanation! And yet you people said my Notts sighting was false information and started taking the posters down. What’s the meaning of this?!”

I looked, and sure enough, the wanted posters for the humanoid dragon were gone.

“That was Lord Grand’s decision,” she responded tersely. “Yelling at us won’t do anything. You might have been mistaken. There’s no ruling out a prank either. Or perhaps you have some sort of phobia that causes you to see humanoid dragons everywhere.”

“What did you say?!” It was obvious that this guy couldn’t read the room.

Just then, two guards came into the building and made a beeline for reception. They pinned in the ranting man from either side.

“Wh-what the hell are you doing?!”

“This guy again…” muttered a guard as he wrestled to control the man’s left arm. “Sir? Sir! Please stop resisting. You’re not going to listen, are you? Okay, come with us!”

The guards dragged the man out of the Guild despite his attempts to wriggle free. He still ranted and screamed as they pulled him through the door.

“You’ll regret this! Wake up, sheeple! If Notts is here, the whole city will be destroyed before you know it! Yet that moron, Lord Grand, isn’t doing anything about it! Everyone here will die!”

“Quiet! Didn’t I just tell you to stop resisting?!”

One of the guards hit the man on the head, and he went sprawling. They grabbed his shoulders before he could stand and dragged him outside.

The guild erupted in jeers and concerned shouting. I was a little anxious too. Maybe Notts really was targeting Arroburg.

Pomera hugged her staff to hide her discomfort.

“Is Notts really that bad?” I asked. She blinked at the unexpected question. She must have thought I already knew everything there was to know about Notts.

“It’s not an exaggeration that the whole city could be destroyed if he showed up. He said we should do something about it, but there’s nothing we could do. Humanoid dragons aren’t just a threat to cities; some have destroyed entire countries by themselves. There are stories of humanoid dragons who’ve killed hundreds of thousands of people. ”

So they really were that bad. If level truly was everything, even comparing power differences between fairly normal people could be like comparing a child to a tank.

Maybe I shouldn’t underestimate these humanoid dragons.

AT THE END of my first day in Arroburg, I invited Pomera back to the room I had rented. I wasn’t sure if that was a proper thing to do, but there wasn’t anywhere else secluded enough to teach her magic.

“Th-thank you so much for this, Kanata! I’m not very good at remembering things, but I’m going to try very hard!” said Pomera as she flexed her arms.

“Don’t worry, I’m not a particularly smart person either. I still don’t know a whole lot about white magic…” I said as I made a magic circle in the air. I had only been keeping the essentials in my magic bag since the space was kind of limited. “Space-Time Magic Level 8: Dimension Pocket.”

“S-space-time magic…and y-you can use up to level 8?!” Pomera’s mouth dropped open in shock. I didn’t get what the big deal was. I mean, even Lovis could use Dimension Pocket.

I stuck my hand in the magic circle and pulled out a magic book before handing it to Pomera, who sagged under the weight.

“I-it’s really thick… This book is probably very valuable.” she said.

“It was a gift from my teacher, so I honestly don’t know how much it’s worth. It does have a lot of sentimental value though, so please treat it carefully.”

“O-of course! I’ll only read it after I’ve washed my hands!” she promised, carefully setting the book down on the small table. Then she peered closely at the book and muttered, “This looks really technical…”

I pulled book after book from the Dimension Pocket. “Hmm…we’ll need this one too, and this one, oh and that one.” She needed to study white magic and spirit magic, so I picked books that were immediately relevant to her interests. Teaching her would probably deepen my knowledge of those two schools of magic too. In the end, I chose ten books and thought that should be a good start. Pomera’s expression had tightened with each book I added to the stack.

“Kanata—eh. I’m really happy that you want to do this, but I’m not sure this lesson plan is…realistic,” she said. Then she added softly to herself, “This would take me a few years to understand.”

“I think we should be able to get through this much in two days.”

“Two days?!”

That seemed like a long time to me too. But Pomera’s base level was low and so were her magic skills. Even if she read everything in the magic books, she wouldn’t be able to grasp the full meaning very well. We needed start with the fundamentals and build from there. Then we could handle both magic training and leveling at the same time—just like Lunaère had trained me.

I started to feel a little excited when I wondered if I would be as good a teacher as Lunaère had been. It made me understand how teaching could be fun for her.

“We will definitely be able to do this,” I said to Pomera. “I have elixirs that force you to continue concentrating and temporarily increase your memorization capacity.”

“F-force you to concentrate?!” Her face was turning whiter and whiter. Was it really that daunting?

To be fair, there were moments when the sheer difficulty of my training had me second guessing Lunaère’s methods. At times, I suspected that she was being needlessly rigorous in an attempt to make me give up and stay in Cocytus forever. That theory fell apart when she kicked me out of the dungeon, though.

But hey, now I was getting used to life as a human on the surface. For sure, there were difficult moments, but I found that they soon became fond memories when I looked back on them.

“Come to think of it, I also have elixirs that you can take instead of sleeping. You shouldn’t take them multiple days in a row, so we’ll have to keep tabs on that,” I continued.

“I-instead of sleeping?!”

I took off the Sorcerer King’s Research and handed it to Pomera as I tried to decide what lesson to begin with. The Twin-Minds Method was essential but best saved for last. I continued pondering as I took more potions from the Dimension Pocket and lined them up.

“Uhh…Kanata, it’s just…I know this is awkward because I’m the one who asked in the first place, but I’m not really sure that… I mean, it looks like the difference in our strength is just too great. I’m sorry, it was very rude of me to ask you to teach me.”

“Hmm…?” I turned back to Pomera with an armful of potions.

Our eyes met. Sweat was running down her face.

D-did she just say she wanted to stop?

“Sorry, I was busy organizing potions. Could you say that again?” I asked hesitantly.

“Umm, well…” said Pomera. She fidgeted and broke eye contact. “I-it was nothing… Just, I’m really happy that you’re doing so much preparation. I-I will do my best…at all costs.”

Huh, guess I just heard her wrong.

WE SPENT TWO FULL DAYS on Pomera’s magic training. With some questionable use of the elixirs, she’d managed to learn everything in the magic books. We even practiced casting some high-rank but low-risk spells.

In addition to white and spirit magic, I taught her some fire magic so she’d have some extra ways to attack in a fight. For her purposes, that covered the basics.

While we were at it, Pomera taught me some common knowledge things about Locklore and the city. I had been completely lost and confused when I first came to Arroburg, but at least now I wasn’t wandering aimlessly every time I went walking in town.

Having plowed through the lessons in the books, I decided that we should focus on power-leveling Pomera to increase her magic power pool. We took an F-rank job request from the Guild, which required us to gather medicinal herbs and headed off to a field just outside the city. As a bonus, there was a chance we might encounter monsters whose meat, fur, organs, and teeth could fetch a high price. If we ran across those enemies and brought their valuable bits back to the Guild, we could make a little extra cash—even if the monsters weren’t explicitly targets. Yet another bonus was that turning in monster parts counted toward advancement in the Guild’s rating system. If we kept getting steady work and skimming off the monster-part market on the side, we’d be C-rank in no time.

“A-are you sure it’s safe to come this far out from town?” asked Pomera timidly as she looked around.

“Is it really that far?”

“It’s not the distance per se… Th-this is a dangerous area. Maybe we should go back a little. Even the best adventurers don’t go near the Enchanted Forest. The monsters that live there are really tough.”

Well, I walked through it and I was fine…

In a relative sense, the monsters in the forest were dangerous for someone like Pomera. The entrance to Cocytus was also in there. There was also a chance that truly powerful monsters existed in the forest but I just never ran into them.

“All right. Let’s go back a bit—” I said. Just then, I heard an animal in the distance.

“Awoooo!” A pack of six black wolves came dashing toward us.

“D-dark wolves! They live in the Enchanted Forest!” said Pomera.

We probably should have turned back sooner, I thought. There’s no way that they’re stronger than the monsters in Cocytus, though. I can handle them even if I have to guard Pomera.

I drew the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh and used Status Check on the wolves. None were above level 22, so I returned my sword to its sheath.

They’re not even above a D-rank adventurer in level, I thought to myself. Well, I guess this is the norm for monsters on the outskirts of the forest. I wonder how much they’ll sell for at the Guild.

“B-be careful, Kanata! Dark wolves work in a group, and even you could die if you make a mistake…” said Pomera.

A thought struck me. “They might be the perfect way for you to gain experience, Pomera.”

“What?!” Pomera’s eyes grew wide with fear as she looked at me. “K-Kanata…that’s a joke, right? You’ve taught me a lot of magic, but I’m still only level 7!”

I leapt diagonally behind Pomera. “Earth Magic Level 4: Clay Shield.”

Forming a magic circle, I placed it on my forearm. Earth rose from the ground and gathered in the circle, turning it into a large clay shield.

“A-amazing… You did that so fast!”

“Alchemy Magic Level 15: Adamant Flux.”

I formed another magic circle, and green flames burned across the face of the shield, leaving the material transformed as they died away. Now I had a metal shield that shined with an iridescent green luster.

Adamant was a kind of stone that formed in deep veins of metal ore that were subjected to high levels of magic from ley lines. Normally, it took eons of exposure to create adamant, but the alchemy spell let me recreate the process in just a few moments.

Pomera stood dumbfounded. Looking at my arm, she stammered, “What…? N-no way! How could a clay shield turn into metal like that?”

“Don’t worry about it for now. I’ll defend against their attacks. You just keep casting attack spells.”

True to my word, I used the adamant shield to deflect a dark wolf leaping at us. Even if multiple wolves came at me at once, I was able to turn them away handily.

“Aah, eek!” she cried, cringing.

“It’s okay, Pomera! I’ve got you covered!”

“B-but…but…”

“You won’t gain any levels if you don’t attack!”

I may have handled the defense, but Pomera was able to step forward and attack once her fear began to melt away. It took a long time, but she ended up taking out the entire dark wolf pack, one by one.

Pomera’s staff fell to the ground, and she covered her face with her hands. I’d given her a few elixirs during the battle, but her MP was almost drained.

“Th-that’s all I can handle. I cast so many Fireballs. I think I’m going to throw up…” said Pomera, sinking to the ground with exhaustion. “I’m so sorry. I don’t think I’m cut out to be an adventurer… I don’t even have the energy to apologize—”

Earlier, I’d told her about my Status Check ability, and she gave me permission to use it on her for training purposes. What I saw when I used it after the fight was a fantastic surprise.

“You did great, Pomera-san! You might be tired, but you gained six levels in that fight! Let’s keep going,” I said, patting Pomera on the shoulder. She raised her head and looked at me.

“I-I…really did great?”

“You were amazing! When I first started my training, my master had to make golems and bind them so they couldn’t fight back. Even that wore me out. Seeing you level up makes me proud.”

“Ah, hee hee… Y-you’re making me blush.” She looked away, covering her cheeks which had turned pink.

“Sorry I cut you off earlier. I just got excited. What were you saying?” After I asked, Pomera’s expression hardened. A moment later, she smiled slightly, picked up her dropped staff, and set her mouth in a firm line.

“N-nothing! I want to keep going for as long as I can! I really appreciate your help!” she said as she stood. I gave her a big nod.

“Ah, oh…” She teetered and almost fainted. I quickly moved to scoop her up before she hit the ground.

“Oh…s-sorry!” I pulled my hands away from her.

“I-it’s okay. It looks like I don’t have much strength left…”

To her credit, she was certainly putting on a brave face. I reached into my magic bag and pulled out an elixir. “Here you go, Pomera-san.”

“Thank you, Kanata—”

“Drink that, and we’ll head into the forest. We’ll hunt some higher-level monsters now that you’ve gained a few levels.”

Pomera blinked. She looked at the elixir, and sweat started to pour down her face.

“T-today?”

“Eh?” I didn’t know what to say.

“N-never mind! Let’s go! I’ve already decided I’m following you anyway!” she said and gulped down the elixir.

“Well…if you’re starting to feel some mental fatigue, then we can take a break…” Maybe Lunaère had rubbed off on me, and I couldn’t tell when my student was done for the day.

“I’m fine! I’ll show you I can do this; I won’t betray your kindness!”

A while later, we found ourselves in the forest, fighting bears. They were around level 30, so normally they fell under C-rank adventurers’ jurisdiction. The first one we encountered had white fur, massive limbs, and a single eye. Like with the wolves, I defended while Pomera attacked. But the bear’s roar drew two more of its kind into the battle as we fought, and the two new bears called more reinforcements in turn. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by seven bears.

I jumped around in front of Pomera, blocking bear attacks with my adamant shield while she tried to launch offensive spells toward our enemies.

“S-Spirit Magic Level 3: Sylph Sword!” Pomera cast desperately with tears filling her eyes.

A green light rushed through the air and sliced into one of the bears.

“Spirit magic might reduce the amount of magic you use by channeling it through nature, but it’s difficult to control. You’re not going to do much damage unless you calm down and focus,” I said.

“B-but, but… Eek!”

I moved to deflect a blow from a bear that made a lunge for her. Its large paw bent backward at a sickening angle, and its entire body bounced behind the rest of the pack. I made a mental note to try to be gentler with the bears in the future.

“Please trust me. They can’t get through my defense!”

“O-okay, I understand. But…but…!”

Three bears came at Pomera from different directions as she tried to form a magic circle. I raised my shield and parried them away, trying to buy her space to cast.

The battle lasted until nightfall.

“Pomera-san, you’re level 22 now! You did it!” I said.

She collapsed to the ground, completely limp. “P-Pomera-san, are you all right?”

“Kanata…is today’s training…?”

“We’re done for today. We should head back to town.”

“Oh, really…” Her lifeless expression changed ever so slightly to reveal a small smile. Her color didn’t improve much.

“H-here, drink this elixir!” I said.

“N-no! No more! I don’t want to drink any more elixirs today!” Pomera said, her eyes wide as she reached out to bat the potion away.

“Okay, okay,” I put the elixir back in my magic bag.

Pomera walked unsteadily as we headed back to Arroburg.

“To be honest…your training method is so intense that I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up. But I managed to get through today. I’m starting to feel a bit more confident too,” said Pomera, smiling a little while she hobbled along beside me.

“That’s great! Once you gain a few more levels, we can try out the Cursed Mirror of the Warped Realm,” I said, and Pomera’s expression froze.

“Wh-what is that? It doesn’t sound very good at all.”

“It’s a bit, uh, dangerous and difficult. But it is the most efficient way to grind levels. The Mirror might not be the only reason I’m so powerful, but it made me the man I am today!”

Pomera stopped walking, and her knees buckled.

“Pomera-san?!”

“L-leave me…”

AFTER A WEEK of magic studies and monster hunting, Pomera reached level 38. She’d also become a better white mage than me, so I was secretly planning on having her train me after she learned a bit more.

Even so, I was beginning to doubt my methods. The rate at which she was gaining levels was slowing down. We were still making progress, but the training wasn’t advancing at the pace to which I was accustomed. I never imagined I could be as good of a master as Lunaère, but Pomera was still relying on me, and I wanted to help her achieve her dreams.

One major problem was that our fighting styles were completely different, so combat training never quite worked out as I’d planned. Lunaère mostly just taught me to copy her techniques, but I couldn’t apply that same curriculum to a white mage like Pomera.

On top of that, we’d been burning through elixirs. Though Lunaère taught me how to make more of them, I was struggling to gather all the materials I would need. If I had time to do research, I was fairly sure I could make similar potions out of local monster parts. I didn’t want to slow us down though, so we just kept on studying books and killing monsters.

So, after another morning of adventuring deep into the forest to fill a Guild request, we managed to reach our goal before noon. We picked up our swag and made the long hike back to the Guild.

“I never thought I’d see the day I managed to get close to level 40. Do you think Roy and Holly would be friends with me now?” chatted Pomera happily as we waited in line for reception. I didn’t hear her. I was intent on brooding about the power-leveling situation instead.

“Lunaère raised my level to 100 after a week of training, but we’re not even halfway there. And we’re slowing down…” I mumbled to myself.

“K-Kanata, are you okay…? I thought I heard you say something about level 100 after a week?” asked Pomera timidly.

I forced a smile and brushed it off, but I had decided it was time.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“What have you two been up to this time?” asked the receptionist with a big sigh as we approached her desk.

We’d run across some dark wolves (around level 20), saber-toothed rabbits (also around level 20), and horned hares (level 30-ish) when we were out hunting, so I opened my magic bag to pull out the wolf furs, rabbit fangs, and hare horns.

Pomera had warned me that using a level 8 spell like Dimension Pocket would raise a few eyebrows in town. I was a little skeptical when she told me there were some B-rank adventurers who could only use level 6 spells at the highest. Level 8 spells were considered extremely powerful, and people tried to avoid using them battle since they took such a long time to cast and were usually overkill.

After sorting through our monster parts and filling out the proper forms, the receptionist paused as she looked at our registration papers. “You two moved up to E-rank a few days ago, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right,” I replied.

“I heard a rumor that they might make an exception and promote you two directly to C-rank—you’re both clearly stronger than that already. It would be a great help to the Guild to have a couple more C-rank adventurers around to take important jobs that need doing. It probably won’t happen for a few days…but give it some thought.”

“Really?”

That would be an incredible stroke of luck. We’d be able to accept better requests, and those would be way more efficient for raising our rank than selling random monster parts. Also, I could use the Guild registration as proof of my identity once my rank was high enough. Local lords often gave high-ranking adventurers special perks at government facilities—though those varied on a city-by-city basis. Regardless, an early promotion to C-rank seemed like a real blessing.

“You did it, Kanata! B-but I really feel like I’m just riding your coattails…” said Pomera.

I felt eyes boring into my back. When I turned, I saw Octavio glaring at us.

“How the hell? Those two brats gotta be up to something…” he muttered to himself quietly.

Him again?

Our eyes met, but he just huffed in annoyance and walked away. Our swift climb up the ladder appeared to have stuck in his craw. There was no sign of his crony, so the little man must have been true to his word when he said he was leaving town.

“Hey, Kanata—it’s still early, right? Should we study magic this afternoon?” asked Pomera.

She was stuttering less when she talked to me lately. Perhaps her training had helped her build confidence, or maybe we were spending so much time together that she simply felt more comfortable with me.

“Well…there is something I’d like to try. Let’s give it a go once we get back,” I said.

“S-something you want to try?” Pomera’s eyes narrowed dubiously.

If I give her the Ouroboros Wheel, we can probably avoid the worst. It’ll drain some of her MP and leave her wounded, but I’ll be there to patch her up.

Once we got back to my room, I took the Cursed Mirror of the Warped Realm from my Dimension Pocket. Placing it in the center of the room, I removed the magic cloth that covered the mirror’s surface.

“Wh-what is this? It’s definitely not a good item… I feel an intense evil coming from it,” said Pomera, trembling. Elves were sensitive to the moods of the spirits and the flow of energy, and the mirror must have been overwhelming for her to be around.

“It’s all right. Here, the Ouroboros Wheel has the power to force its wearer to remain alive. You might die a little, but you won’t die completely.”

“W-what do you mean, ‘die a little’?!” shrieked Pomera.

“Pomera-san. I want to help you. Other than my master, you’re the first person who helped me out of the kindness of your heart.”

“K-Kanata…” She smiled a little at that, but then her eyes opened wide as she returned to the situation at hand. “B-but! Can I honestly be ready for this at my level?!”

Evidently, her growing confidence didn’t extend to entering an evil mirror and fighting demonic horrors. I just didn’t see any alternative. Training inside the Cursed Mirror was the best way to grind levels.

“We’ve got to keep going, Pomera. I really believe in your dream of making friends through your adventuring and becoming a bridge between elves and humans. It’s wonderful, and I want to help you get stronger so we can make sure it comes true!”

Pomera’s face turned red. She stared at me, seemingly entranced.

“T-thank you. Nobody’s ever supported me like that except my mom and dad…”

I smiled at her and turned toward the Cursed Mirror.

“All right, let’s go. We’ll pass through the mirror’s surface and get to work.”

“Wh-what…? You mean right now?!”

Despite her fear, she rushed to follow when I slipped through the mirror. The ground and walls shone with the same multicolored light I remembered. Then Pomera appeared from the portal’s dark smudge and ran after me.

“K-Kanata…what is this strange place?”

I drew the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh and made an adamant shield with my other hand.

“You’re going to use your sword? I thought you said it was too powerful.”

“I still have to be careful—you’re the one with the Ouroboros Wheel now,” I said with a smile and a shrug. Pomera turned as white as a sheet.

That’s when I looked up at the ceiling. I noticed ten humanoid candle monsters with crimson eyes fixed on us. Their fiery mouths opened wordlessly, charring the tips of their black hair while their pale white skin melted and dripped to the floor.

“We’ve got company!” I threw down my adamant shield before wrapping my arm around Pomera and leaping backward.

“Eek! Kanata?!”

“Groah!”

A couple of the demons dropped onto the ground where we had been standing. I saw one land on the adamant shield, causing it to buckle. Correcting my stance before lunging at the pair of monsters, I managed to cut both of them cleanly through the middle.

“K-Kanata…Kanata! Wh-what are th-these monsters?!” Pomera was trembling violently.

“They’re demons. I, uh, don’t know much more about them than that.”

“This is crazy! B-but you already killed two of them, right?”

The upper halves that I’d chopped off began to melt and then came together into a blob. Their new shape resembled a large white head.

“Kanata, look!”

“Yeah…they do that sometimes.”

The other candle demons dropped to the ground and raised their arms to point at us. Their fingers stretched out with amazing speed, heading right for us. I managed to dodge most of the attacking appendages while continuing to hold Pomera. The ones I couldn’t dodge were cut short by my sword.

“Pomera, attack them with fire magic! There aren’t any spirits here, so it’s your only option to get some damage in!”

“I c-can’t!” she said, clinging to me.

“It’s okay, just fire off spells! We’re not running out of demons any time soon!”

“I’m so w-worthless! I’m sorry, I can’t live up to your expectations!”

Lunaère was able to hold the demons back with a barrier, but I didn’t have that luxury. I knew this had to be terrifying for Pomera. I had hoped that exposure to her fear would eventually let her build a mental tolerance against the demons—but for a level 38 white mage, these candle demons were apparently too much, too soon.

“Space-Time Magic Level 17: Fracture!”

Black roots spread from the center of the magic circle, destroying the space around them. Even the sturdy ground of the Warped Realm was sundered by the encroaching darkness. As the candle demons dashed toward us, they were caught in the spell and shattered into millions of pieces.

“Calm down! I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt, and the Ouroboros Wheel is extra insurance in case the worst happens. You can even close your eyes and cast spells—there’s so many targets that you’re bound to hit something eventually.”

“K-Kanata…”

The candle-demon shards apparently had a mind of their own—they merged and formed a new monster with dozens of molten wax arms. Like disgusting ropes, they stretched out to attack us from multiple angles.

“Eh, remind me not to use Fracture next time…”

I sliced frantically with the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh, chopping off numerous arms. I got so wrapped up in trying to neutralize the threat that I almost elbowed Pomera in the head. I yanked my arm back just before I cracked her skull.

That hesitation was the opening a demon needed. A white arm burst from Pomera’s chest, having snaked around to attack her from behind.

“Agh! Kana…ta…” Blood dripped from her mouth and the life faded from her eyes.

“Pomera-san!”

It was time to retreat. The Ouroboros Wheel did its job and brought her back from death’s door, but she was still unconscious from the shock.

After exiting the mirror, I laid Pomera on the bed and carefully poured an elixir into her mouth. I was worried for a moment, but she soon awoke with a sputtering cough.

“Am I…am I alive…?” said Pomera, sitting up. “K-Kanata, I just had the worst nightmare… C-could you hold my hand?”

Her expression froze when she saw the Cursed Mirror. She gently pulled back the blanket and looked at the large hole in her clothing. I was glad she still had the Ouroboros Wheel because I think she might have died a little inside.

“I-it’s okay! You’ll get used to it. I-I did! We’ll hold out a bit longer next time. Come on, let’s get back to work!” I said, trying to cheer her up.

Pomera looked out the window, her eyes turning toward the blue sky as she said, “Mom, Dad… I’ll be seeing you soon…”

FOUR DAYS LATER, I carried Pomera as a horde of demons chased me around. It was the usual parade of freaks—there was a child with a bloated head covered with a hundred eyes, a giant skeleton with thirty-two arms, and a demon that looked like a throbbing red tumor in a trench coat. It was absolutely insane, yet Pomera seemed to be getting used to the madness.

The longer we spent inside the mirror, the more demons showed up to harass us. Every now and then, I’d thin the horde with an Inferno Sphere or close in to take a few swipes at them with my sword.

“Fire Magic Level 7: Fireflies!” Pomera clung to me as she slowly formed the magic circle. Hundreds of crimson embers streaked irregularly toward the pursuing monsters and exploded on impact.

The spell had a large area of effect, so the damage was spread to lots of targets. As an added bonus, the low-level spell didn’t really cause them to shift their aggression to her. The demons kept focusing on me, and I kept focusing on defending and running.

“All right, let’s seal the deal…” I said, leveling my sword at the monsters. “Space-Time Magic Level 19: Gravity Bomb.”

Like an old friend, the black light appeared, crushing all the demons in one go. We’d been using this method for two days now, and it had proven highly effective.

“Nice teamwork! I’m feeling good about—oh, crap!” I shouted.

From the twisted horizon, four buddha statues came flying toward us in a line. Each statue was painted a vibrant color that corresponded to a vicious area-of-attack spell. These guys were seriously bad news.

We could probably manage them one at a time, but a group of them could ruin our day if they worked together. To make matters worse, once you saw them, you were already in range. I wished I’d studied more barrier magic, because out in the open, we were toast.

“I’m sorry, Pomera-san. It’s the buddha statues, and they’re different colors. It was a good run while it lasted.”

“Noo…!”

The world around us filled with lightning and flames. Millions of darts filled the air, and then another blast of flame engulfed us. Pomera’s body was left charred and full of holes.

I hugged her tattered remains to me and made three quick hops with Short Gate until I was hovering above the buddhas.

“I’m out of here, but you’re not getting off that easy!” I downed an elixir and dropped the empty vial to the ground. “Space-Time Magic Level 17: Fracture!”

The black roots tore them to pieces. I looked back to see their bodies fading into multicolored light as I dashed through the portal back to my bedroom.

“That was great! We were there for half a day, and you only died five times. Not as bad as it used to be, right?” I asked Pomera, who was lying on the bed after we got back to my room.

“I-it’s still pretty bad…”

I mended her clothing with Space-Time Magic Level 14: Repair.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it eventually.”

“Kanata…I don’t think a-anyone can ever get used to that feeling.”

“I did.”

“…”

Now that I’d healed her and fixed her clothes, it was time to see what kind of progress we’d made. I used Status Check—she’d made it up to level 201.

I let out a sigh of relief. Even though it felt slow compared to my own training, we’d managed to get her to the first target of 200.

She was stronger than Lovis now, which was a major milestone. I still couldn’t believe that guy was a kingpin.

Dark charisma, my ass! I thought to myself.

“Pomera-san, we’ve reached level 201!”

“Level 201? You’re higher than I thou—” said Pomera before she sat up like a bolt, still wrapped in a blanket. “You’re level 201?!”

“Not me—you!” I cheered. If I were level 201, we’d both be taking dirt naps in the Cursed Mirror.

I reached over and picked up the Level Slate we’d purchased. My Status Check would tell me her level and basic stats, but to track the growth of her magic skills, we needed this device. A person could channel a little magic into it, and it would display all their detailed stats just like when I used Status Check on myself.

“If you don’t believe me, check for yourself.” I said, handing her the slate. She boggled at it in disbelief. “I know I’ve told you about your progress every so often, but seeing is believing.”

“Maybe I was in shock and didn’t understand…b-but this is impossible…”

“We’ve been shut up in the Cursed Mirror for a while now. Why don’t we take a walk around town and check how much you’ve grown?”

“You mean I can go outside?!”

“Of course… You don’t need my permission.”

We hadn’t done much adventuring work for the past few days, and the Guild probably wouldn’t give us that special promotion unless we got back to it. So we decided it was time to go monster hunting. Leaving my rented room, it was a quick trip to the Guild, where we accepted a D-rank fighting request to thin out some monsters.

Fighting requests were usually located close to the city. Nobody cared much about monsters in the wilderness, but the Guild tried to ensure that the surrounding areas and roads were kept clear for the benefit of public safety.

For this request, our target was a stray herd of iron cows. They looked kind of like regular cows but had oversized metal masks covering their heads. With a reputation for charging aggressively at people and thick hides that could turn away most sword blows, they were dangerous to anyone under level 25. I wouldn’t have any problem with them, and now Pomera shouldn’t either. We just needed to collect their masks as proof we’d done our jobs.

We walked for about an hour before finding a small group of three iron cows. They looked pretty beefy, but they reminded me of bovine versions of those big heads on Easter Island. We’d been told that under their tough hides were some high-end cooking ingredients, and I was a little curious to find out what beef from an iron cow tasted like.

True to their reputation, they charged the moment they saw us.

“It’s been a while since we’ve fought regular monsters,” I said as I looked at Pomera, gesturing to her that the monsters were all hers. She nodded and stepped forward while gripping her staff. I hoped she’d see just how powerful she’d become.

Pomera closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and I realized that she must be planning to use spirit magic. She was connecting herself to the spirits of the land and preparing to channel their power.

“They’re only iron cows. You could probably just give them a thump with—” I said before her eyes opened wide and she pointed her staff at the charging animals.

“Spirit Magic Level 8: Salamander’s Claw!”

Claws of brilliant flame slashed out, rushing across the ground to tear the iron cows in half with a muffled explosion. Their front halves were flung skyward, growing tinier as they ascended. Their rear halves simply collapsed, burning.

Pomera’s mouth hung open as she looked at the cows and then turned back to me happily.

“I-I really am stronger!”

There was a loud clatter as their masks crashed back to earth. The sound made Pomera jump, and she looked quietly at the carnage.

The masks were completely destroyed.

The heat of the flame had weakened and split them, and the final impact obliterated what was left. The cows’ flesh was black and burnt. I gathered a few pieces to see if anything could be salvaged and then placed them gently back on the ground.

“Welp… Let’s find some different iron cows.”

“S-sorry. I just thought that if I was testing my strength, I should use my most powerful spell…”

We walked on in search of more targets. They were scarce, so around noon, we took a break to rest and eat the rations we’d purchased at the general store.

“Do you think Roy and Holly will treat me fairly now?” murmured Pomera, her waterskin in hand.

“I think you shouldn’t worry about those two…”

Maybe she was right, though. Pomera had a unique outlook on life. She could hate the way things were without hating people. I resolved to be more supportive of her, especially since her new power would let her hold her own in most situations. I’m not sure I’d have felt the same if she were still level 7.

“They can’t possibly still be cold to me now.” said Pomera.

I recalled that Roy was only level 14. “I think the difference in levels could make things awkward.”

“I know, right?”

“They might respect you, but I’m not sure that being their friend is in the cards. Anyway, we should raise your level a little more, so you can be safe while you do your adventuring work.”

“Wait, are you saying level 200 isn’t enough? What exactly do you think could happen?”

“W-well, my master, Lunaère, said that the world can be very dangerous…”

“That seems like a really extreme outlook. I don’t know how to say this…but is it possible that Lunaère wasn’t being totally honest with you?”

I choked on the small bread roll I was eating.

That was impossible—Lunaère gained nothing from lying to me. Besides, I knew how pure and kind she was. Pomera just didn’t know how dangerous things truly were.

I was washing down the bread in my throat with some water when Pomera suddenly stood up.

“Someone’s coming this way. Maybe they took the same request as us?” she said.

I stood and looked down the road. Sure enough, there was a man walking straight toward us. He was burly with a flashy axe. Even at a long distance, I knew who it was by his swagger.

It was Octavio, the permanently D-rank adventurer. Our eyes met as he approached, and he grinned hatefully.

“Oh look, it’s the rich-kid wizard and his pet forest bogey.”

Pomera readied her staff and squared off to Octavio. “Y-you can say bad things about me, but I won’t let you insult Kanata! Take back what you said!”

“Don’t get above yourself, half-breed. You realize that pointing that staff at me means you’re going to die?” Octavio threatened, but Pomera refused to back down. She held her ground, glaring back at him. His face twisted with rage. “Oh? So, you do have a death wish! You think you’re better than me?”

I stepped in front of Pomera. “Come on…this isn’t a very friendly way to greet fellow adventurers.”

“Are you kidding? Or are you really that dumb, fancy lad?” said Octavio, puffing through his nose as he took the axe from his back. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this. When Offe suddenly disappeared, I let it slide. But then you really started to piss me off, so I took the same job, and here we are…together at last.”

Offe must be his sidekick—the guy who set a pack of goblins on us.

“What did we do to piss you off?” I asked.

“Don’t act dumb!” Octavio’s eyes grew wide, and a vein throbbed in his temple. “It’s obvious to everyone. You’re buying monster remains on the black market and turning them in to the Guild for the credit. The Guild does nothing because they make out like bandits.

“Rich wannabes like you, buying your way up the ranks, are the worst. Working adventurers like me end up getting the shaft! You’re just a brat, half-assing your way through life by throwing money at all your problems.”

He sort of had a point. It probably looked suspicious for a random traveling stranger to show up, form a party with a level 7 half-elf, and then do a speed run of the Guild system. But that wasn’t the real issue here. Before Pomera and I even started climbing the ranks, Octavio had tried to have Offe kill us. His excuses sounded plausible, but he had it in for us from the very beginning.

“I asked Offe-san to give you a warning, but it looks like he left town before he delivered it,” I said.

“Oh, that? I know you must have bought him off too. He gave me some lame ‘Oh, no, Octavio, he’s not just a rich boy with a magic bag, he’s really high-level’ story. Pah!”

“So he did tell you—in that case, you’ve come here prepared to face us. Are you sure you want to do that?” I had definitely told Offe to make sure Octavio knew I wasn’t going to let the next offense slide. I’d never killed a person and I didn’t want to kill someone now, but I couldn’t let this guy leave without any consequences.

“Prepared? You’re the ones who should be prepared. I’m not an idiot, and there’s no chance I’ll get caught for killing you two all the way out here. Besides, you morons are useless. Just a piece of trash half-breed and a little wussy rich boy. I’ll gladly kill both the master and his pet.”

Octavio was making me angry now too. His insults toward me were just stupid, but his racist attitude towards Pomera was disgusting. I might have made him mad by not handing over my magic bag, but my guess was that Pomera making C-rank was what really drove him crazy.

She bit her lip in discomfort while listening to Octavio rant, and I got even angrier. Calling her useless was completely out of line. Even Roy wasn’t happy when Pomera left him to join me. For all his slimy talk, he knew that she was useful. Pomera worked hard; she was kind-hearted, driven, and courageous.

Octavio was about to get a big surprise.

“I think you’re mistaken. In fact, we can prove that your accusations aren’t true. I assume you’ll back off after we show you?” I said.

“Huh?” Octavio scowled in confusion.

“You can fight Pomera-san one-on-one. If you lose, you’ll never bother us again. If she loses, you get my magic bag and my life.”

“M-me? Why me?” asked Pomera.

“Aren’t you upset by what he said about you?” I asked in return.

“W-well, yes…”

Pomera turned to Octavio hesitantly. She knew that her level was far higher than his, but she was still nervous. Even though she’d battled monsters and demons, Octavio was the first person she’d ever fought.

“Take him down, Pomera-san. You’ve got this,” I said, patting her shoulder.

“O-okay, I’ll try!” Pomera squeezed her staff and moved closer to Octavio.

“You’re going to have me kill the girl first? Figures. Well, that’s fine—I’m going to kill you both in the end anyway. I’ll cut her apart while you watch!”

Octavio raised his axe and menaced Pomera, and she began to make a magic circle. Much to my horror, I recognized the spell she was about to cast.

“Ha! Useless white magic!” jeered Octavio.

Pomera pointed her staff at him and shouted, “Fire Magic Level 5: Fireflies!” The magic circle spewed out a shower of flying red embers.

I panicked.

“P-Pomera-san, you don’t have to use magic!”

Her level was almost an entire order of magnitude greater than his, and a simple whack from her staff would have done him in. One of her fire spells might effortlessly burn him to ash.

“O-oh, you’re right! I was just nervous…”

Pomera dropped the tip of her staff, and the sparks took a dive toward the ground in front of Octavio’s feet.

“Y-you can use a level 5 spell?! Surprising, but it looks like your aim needs a little work.” Octavio grinned. But he was wrong. The damage from Fireflies didn’t come from the balls of flame themselves—it came from the explosions when they struck a solid object.

Pomera didn’t miss.

“Wha?!”

The ground at Octavio’s feet detonated.

“Aaah! Ow, that’s hot!” Octavio was launched high in the air by the blast, and he fell back to the ground with a thud.

Octavio rolled on the ground hugging his leg. His pant leg had burned away, leaving charred skin underneath and deep gouges in his calf from gravel kicked up by the explosion. A direct hit from the spell would have surely killed him.

“Th-that’s impossible… I-I can’t lose to a half-breed!” he said, groaning in pain.

A good portion of his leg muscle was torn away. He’d need some high-level white magic or a powerful elixir if he hoped to regain the use of the limb.

“Do you understand now?” I asked. “Don’t mess with us again.”

“Y-you pieces of trash!” Octavio tried to raise his axe with shaking arms, but Pomera pointed her staff at him. He dropped them in apparent surrender. “I-I was wrong… Forgive me… I-I’ll change my ways, I promise…”

Yet instead of contrition, there was rage in Octavio’s voice. A demonic look overtook his face.

“Huh?” Pomera pulled back in confusion as his expression changed.

Using his good leg, Octavio leaped into the air and brought his axe down toward Pomera’s head. “I gotcha now, half-breed! You’ll die here!”

Octavio grinned as he swung, but his smile didn’t last long. The moment he jumped, I slipped behind him and plucked the axe from his grasp. His empty hands whiffed through thin air.

“W-what…?!”

I’m not proud of what I did next. I was irate and defending my friend, but I still felt uncomfortable attacking another human. Unfortunately, he hadn’t left me with any other choice. And to make matters worse, now I knew that he couldn’t be trusted to surrender peacefully.

I didn’t know if the city’s lord or the guard would get involved in disputes between adventurers. But I was a drifter and Pomera was a second-class citizen. If Octavio went back to Arroburg now, he’d keep plotting revenge, and the authorities likely wouldn’t do anything to help us. Octavio only understood the language of violence.

“That was a pretty fast move for a guy with a bum leg,” I said, swinging his axe around to chop off his right arm at the shoulder.

“Aaah!” Octavio screamed as he fell to the ground, clutching the wound where his arm once was. “My arm! Wh-what did you do?! I can’t, I can’t be an adventurer with one arm! You’ve ruined me…!”

Octavio started bawling as he cradled his cut-off arm with his other one.

“After that stunt? The arm’s just the beginning.” I said.

I threw the axe on the ground and drew my Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh. Octavio shrieked and abandoned his amputated arm before limping away, dragging his bad leg behind him.

As he disappeared around a bend in the road, I hoped that he finally got the message. I returned my sword to its sheath.

After cleaning up from our encounter with Octavio, Pomera and I got back to hunting iron cows. We managed to take down five without issue before dusk.

We brought the masks to the Guild and sold most of the meat as well. It was enough to bump us up to C-rank; we were now recognized as skilled adventurers. The news caused a stir as it made its way around the Guild. I saw Roy on the other side of the guild hall, his mouth open as he stared blankly at me.

Pomera and I decided to celebrate that evening. She suggested that we should splurge on a dinner at The Hunter’s Kitchen. The inside of the tavern was decorated with monster skins and mounted heads. The atmosphere was nice, but the tavern’s real gimmick was that they would only cook your dinner if you caught it first. We brought an iron cow’s worth of meat with us.

I felt a real sense of accomplishment when the plate arrived. The steak was so large that it hung over the edges.

“Hee hee, Roy and Holly would come here without me. I always wanted to try this place,” said Pomera happily. I silently wished I’d never hear those names again. “I didn’t think the food would come with drinks, though.”

Two beer-filled tankards had been placed on the table. This tavern gave patrons their first beer for free, with the expectation that most people wouldn’t stop drinking after just one round.

I hadn’t been a big fan of alcohol back in Japan. Being drunk just made me feel ill, so it wasn’t particularly pleasant. But I had to admit that I was curious about the things people ate and drank in Locklore, and this was a perfect chance to try out.

“This is the first time I’ve been in a tavern—and my first time drinking alcohol! I’m so excited!” said Pomera. I didn’t think she was twenty yet, but I also didn’t think there was any sort of legal drinking age here. The server certainly didn’t ask for ID.

“Take it slow—it’s okay to leave the rest if you decide you don’t like it,” I said with an awkward smile as she chugged her beer.