DAY 8

DAY 8

If we rescue them, do you think they’ll let us touch them?

THE CAVE

 

THE NEXT MORNING, they continued their story over breakfast. Swallowing a story this dour in between mouthfuls of mushrooms threatened to give me indigestion. After I complained, swore, and criticized their storytelling, they got the hint and told me the short version. They seemed disappointed, like they enjoyed recounting their own misery in all its gory details.

We were summoned to another world and forced to fight for survival, but the story still sounded like high school gossip about my classmates’ infighting and petty drama. It was like we never left.

Insults over breakfast. Those were more appetizing than mushrooms, I’d say. Anyway, they continued their story…

“And once we talked about needing to level up and accumulate SP to use powerful skills…”

“Some of the guys suddenly decided to start leveling up.”

“Yeah, they started grinding the weak goblins nearby.”

“They never went far from the base.”

So, the wannabe delinquents, I’m guessing? They obviously ignored the old geezer, too.

“If that was the guys I’m guessing, they were obviously up to something, right?” I asked.

Thank god I had concealed my presence and hid from them earlier. If I didn’t love sneaking around so much, I’d be dead meat.

The nerds had eavesdropped on the wannabe delinquents and found out that they wanted to brainwash the girls into becoming their servants, the vile perverts. I couldn’t believe they announced their plans out loud in the middle of camp like a bunch of crappy movie villains. A forced harem, huh? I’m surprised the nerds didn’t predict this, given how much those guys bullied them. Real badass delinquents wouldn’t have gone for something as cowardly as mind control. Those guys really were a bunch of posers. I guess the nerds weren’t expecting them to try something that scummy. So, what happened next?

The inevitable, of course: the nerds took countermeasures. They told the Class Rep everything, including their worries about the Puppetry and Mesmerize user, and their plan to seal him as soon as they figured out who he was. Soon after, the Class Rep started to level up, too. She was overpowered even before she ended up in a fantasy world.

They came up with a plan and made preparations, leveling up all the while.

Five days had passed since the summoning. Once the wannabe delinquents got to level 15—after killing practically hundreds of level 1 and 2 goblins for the experience—they unlocked Puppetry. You had to give it to them for being so focused on killing level 1 goblins. They kept going until they gained Mesmerize, too.

They came back to the camp intending to start their harem and inaugurate it with an orgy. They weren’t wannabes anymore—they had leveled up into full-on delinquents.

By a pure stroke of luck, they ran into the Class Rep, who was also the most beautiful girl in our class. Hideous grins broke out on their faces, like poisonous flowers suddenly coming into bloom. They smirked at one another and leered at her as they drew closer…

In a flash, they convulsed and stopped moving. Holy hell! Your Imperial Class Rep-ness, what are you?! And why wouldn’t they describe what exactly she did? Did they swear to protect her privacy or something?

After the delinquents collapsed, someone sealed the Puppetry and Mesmerize users. They didn’t tell the Class Rep which of them had used Seal to keep the delinquents from trying to get it out of her.

So, they bound the delinquents with rope, dragged them back to the base, and exposed their Puppetry-Mesmerize-Slave-Harem-Orgy plan for all to hear. The female students were furious. Terrified, the delinquents threatened the nerds and screamed at them to lift the seal—or else. Obviously, everyone responded with a chorus of jeers. The easily forgotten normies, who the delinquents had also planned to enslave, were also incensed. The class was baying for the blood of the delinquents, who were now completely overcome with terror. In a raucous brawl, the classmates expelled the delinquents from the camp and banished them to the woods. Even as they were driven out, the delinquents kept threatening the nerds in particular.

That should have been the end.

Later that night, the four nerds were relaxing and chatting in their tent. The Ninja was the first to notice that the tent was surrounded by a group of six, still some distance away. If they were monsters, they would have tripped the Sorcerer’s detection sphere, so they knew that the mysterious group was human. Someone had infiltrated the camp, somehow getting past the moat, sentries, fences, and traps.

“Get out here, you goddamn nerds! Don’t even think about bringing your weapons! Now!”

As they heard the voice, their tent burst into flames. The four piled outside. The Guardian attempted to tighten his defensive barrier, but a huge wave of magic blasted him. The Saint used his Light Magic to strengthen the barrier and bore the brunt of the attacks, while the Ninja used flash bombs to blind the enemy and the Sorcerer overwhelmed them with rapid-fire air strikes.

They’d planned that strategy ahead of time and acted on it without a hitch, but the surprise attack still put them at a huge disadvantage.

And while the nerds could only respond with weak whips of Air and Water magic, the enemy bombarded their tent with rounds of Fire Magic and explosions. The enemy fully intended to kill them. The nerds were backed into a corner with no one to help them. They knew they wouldn’t last much longer, but they still weren’t prepared to go all out trying to kill other human beings.

At that moment, the Class Rep and some others finally got back from one of their patrols in the woods and provided some cover fire for the nerds. When the nerds escaped from their tent, the delinquents didn’t even try to stop them.

“Next time we see you, you’re all dead!” one roared.

The nerds ran off. As the dust settled, the Class Rep could see that the camp was razed to the ground. Many other classmates were hurt in the crossfire. Worse, all the surplus food was incinerated.

Apparently the guys who were supposed to stand guard let the delinquents past after the delinquents threatened them. “We’re just here to talk,” the delinquents had said. “And if you get in our way, we’ll have a little chat with you, too.”

Since the delinquents were eager to exact their revenge, the nerds couldn’t afford to leave camp entirely. There was safety in numbers. They had no choice but to rebuild the camp and defenses, forage for more food, and do what they could to protect themselves. They needed to stay vigilant day and night.

Despite their injuries, the nerds helped put out fires and treated their classmates’ wounds. They collected all the tents that could still be used from the wrecked camp and set them back up. As they did all this, they were berated by the entire class.

“It’s all your fault!”

“You shouldn’t have pissed them off!”

“Take responsibility!”

The other students escalated from name-calling to spitting at them, and then to throwing rocks at them.

They had no allies. They were down to two choices: run away or kill the delinquents.

Four nerds by themselves couldn’t possibly stay vigilant day and night. If they split up the responsibilities like they had been doing, anyone who did a job alone would have a target on his back.

 

The Class Rep tried her best to convince the rest of the class that they would regret exiling the nerds. She wanted them to protect the nerds and acquire food in groups. Without them, the class would have to fight off both delinquents and monsters, so everyone needed to start leveling up as well. They’d relied on the nerds for their survival—she begged the class to think about what would happen if they died.

But her arguments fell on deaf ears. No one wanted to fight the delinquents. Most of all, no one wanted to get killed or wounded. Besides, some students argued, if the nerds were so strong, they should be able to defend themselves. It was just like in school, when people would mooch off the nerds for group assignments one minute and then lash out at them the next.

When the nerds asked everyone for a compromise, no one was even willing to think it through. And the nerds couldn’t bring themselves to beg for forgiveness from their classmates. So they decided to take their pride with them and survive on their own. Just like that, the four nerds were off running, pursued by delinquents, abandoned by their peers.

Their depressing story had reached its conclusion, so we took a break to eat a late lunch. Any guesses what we ate? You got it—mushrooms! Then we discussed what we’d learned since the white room. With a simple bribe of juice, they gladly taught me Hiding. When I told them my only weapon skill was Cane Mastery, they went into a classic nerd spiel about a famous martial arts technique called Shinto-Muso Cane Style. That cheered me up so immensely that I rewarded them with more juice.

We ended up chatting until the sun rose. This may be the last time I talk this much, I thought. It was possibly enough conversation to last me for a couple months. I was Loner Lv2 now, after all.

We had a late dinner. Afterwards, we hastily prepared for bed. They joked that I was fattening them up like a fairy tale witch. I wasn’t sure anyone could get fat eating only mushrooms, but I did have more than enough mushrooms to find out.

The nerds took baths and finished their preparations for a journey the next day. They lay down to sleep.

“We were going to head over to the nearest town,” one of the nerds said. “Want to come with us?”

Huh? An invitation? A chance at…companionship? Isn’t this how people got recruited into cults and multi-level marketing schemes? I don’t want to sell knives door-to-door.

“Sorry,” I replied, looking away. “I’m unaffiliated.” The perfect answer.

“Affiliation? We’re not talking about affiliations!”

Goddamn it, don’t be persistent about this.

“I’m not interested in subscribing to any magazines or anything,” I responded. How about that? My final answer!

“Magazines? What are you even talking about? Kind of freaky that you’re thinking of magazines in a fantasy world!”

Even that didn’t dissuade them?! They’re being so earnest that it would be rude to keep joking about their cult.

“Seriously, I have no interest in adventuring. With the skills I have, my best bet for survival is to live as a cave-dwelling hermit. Thanks for the offer, though.”

My cursed skill list would probably just get in everyone’s way. I couldn’t make the nerds stay here either. They looked like they were itching to go into town. Had they forgotten that the delinquents were trying to kill them? Truthfully, I did consider going into town to become an adventurer. That’s the classic way to play a game like this. But I would’ve needed to pay for food and lodging there. To get that kind of money, I’d need to fight powerful monsters. Here in this cave, I could live rent-free with unlimited food from the forest and no real threats or dangers. I might have lacked some material comforts, but the forest was safe. I didn’t want to go to a scary, dangerous town that was probably unwelcoming to strangers.

“You don’t want to be an adventurer? This is a fantasy world, dummy!” Who are you calling a dummy?

“Just come along with us! Strength in numbers, bro!”

“If we say we’re adventurers, we could get all sorts of powerful weapons!”

“And it’s a town, so there’ll surely be pure-hearted young maidens looking for heroic adventurers!”

I considered it, but I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t have an awesome title or overpowered skills. And what was so wrong with being a shut-in, a loner, and a NEET? Well, besides the obvious.

And what were they saying about “young” maidens? You some pervy old man? Just how young did he mean by that?! Maybe I should call the police…

“No,” I said. “I have terrible skills, and my titles would probably prevent me from going with you in the first place. I only know some basic Earth Magic.” I kept quiet about knowing Fire Magic.

Their objections assailed me so quickly that I couldn’t counter them.

“What are you talking about?” one of the nerds responded. “You easily wrecked some strong monsters when we met.”

“And you can become even stronger by leveling up! Even with your weird skills!”

“Between your Earth Magic and knowledge of the modern world, you could develop technology for a local lord!”

“This stone furniture would sell really well in this world!”

“You have Cane Mastery, so if you got your hands on an extra-long one…”

“Yeah, maybe he could use a three-section staff!”

“You could make a wall with your Earth Magic and shoot at enemies from cover.”

“And you never get sick! Health is essential in a world without modern medicine.”

I couldn’t help it; I was impressed by all their ideas and suggestions.

If not for these guys, all forty-two of my classmates would probably have been wiped out by monsters already. They were the ones who acquired enough food to feed everyone and taught my classmates how to use their skills. They were good guys.

The nerds kept talking, their voices overflowing with enthusiasm.

“Towns are usually built near rivers, so if we just head downstream, we should find one.”

“What about deep in the forest? Elf villages are always in forests!”

“It could be a town of beastmen in the forest!”

“If we find some high ground, we could make a map…”

Just listening to them, I felt like I was learning too much.

“There must be slaves who need to be rescued somewhere in this world. Beautiful girls trapped in harems!”

“Princesses captured by pirates are waiting for us even as we speak!”

“But even if we rescue them, do you think they’ll let us touch them?”

“And think of the barmaids in town! They’re the real reason people flock to taverns in fantasy worlds!”

“I can hardly wait!” they all shouted.

Hm… Maybe they aren’t good guys.

“Maybe they’ll have dog ears! Think of the fluff…”

“I know that sexy elves are under attack somewhere! We need to save them! From demon lords with tentacles!”

“Think of how petite the dwarf girls will be!”

“And the cursed female knights who’ll die if they don’t find a mate!”

“That would be too good to be true!” they all screamed.

Yep, they’re garbage. Time to throw them out.