Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“THANKS A LOT for the food. It was delicious.”

“Really? I’m glad you liked it.”

Mora and I were sitting at a table on the first floor of the tower. The sun had set, but a fire in the hearth kept us warm, bathing the chamber in its light. The fact that there were several tables and benches in the main room suggested the bandits had used it as both a mess hall and general gathering place.

After coming to the tower, we both realized we were hungry, and quickly decided that food was the first priority. Fortunately, we found the bandits’ stores of food fully stocked, so we borrowed a little to make dinner. That said, it was Mora who grilled the dried meat and cheese, cut our slices of bread, and stewed the bean soup. I would have helped, but she went to work so quickly that I felt like I’d just get in the way.

I was so hungry that I scarfed it all down in a hurry, but it was definitely delicious.

“Well then, shall we talk?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

The first thing I did was broadly explain my circumstances. While there was a lot I wanted to ask Mora about Sedia, I thought it was important to first build up some trust. Still, that doesn’t mean I can tell her everything, I thought. What’s the best way to explain things…?

“I come from a far-away country…probably across the sea—maybe two seas—called Getaeus.”

“Okay…”

Getaeus was the name of one of the countries my friends and I had made up for our D&B campaigns, and it was Geo’s home country, according to his backstory. So, I wasn’t technically lying, but Mora certainly didn’t seem convinced.

“To be honest, I don’t exactly know why I’m here. I don’t remember. What seems most likely is that I was caught up in some accident involving wizardry—which is quite similar to what you call sorcery. I was probably transported to this area because of the accident, and lost consciousness. Then I can only assume the bandits found me and brought me here.”

“I see.”

Mora listened through to the end but looked as if she had some doubts. I don’t blame her, I thought. Even I think my story sounds ridiculous, but it’s still probably better than saying I hail from the country of Japan on planet Earth.

“Because of that, I may do or say some things that seem odd compared to what you’re used to in this region—or even this whole country—but I promise you I’m not like that evil sorcerer Jargle. If you’re going to believe anything I say, please believe me when I say I mean no harm to anyone.”

I was a little forceful at the end, but now all my cards were on the table. All I could do was hope Mora believed in my story, or at least in my character. When I finished, I bowed my head toward her.

“All right. I’ll believe you.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“To be honest, I don’t know what to think of the first half of your story, but I think it’s safe for me to assume you aren’t an evil sorcerer.”

“That is all I can ask of you for now. Thank you again.”

Internally, I let out a huge sigh of relief. To think earning someone’s trust would be this difficult…or this rewarding… Anyway, I had better stick to the explanation I gave her from here on out, for consistency’s sake.

“You really are a strange one, though, Mister Geo. Not only are you a sorcerer, but you even have a last name, and you’re still treating me this kindly.”

“Where I’m from, treating women with kindness and respect is a given, and having a last name doesn’t mean you’re anyone special…”

“At least around the city I’m from, Relis, only nobility have last names, and usually the only people who can become sorcerers are either from the nobility or a wealthy family.”

The Watcher did say this was a “sword-and-sorcery” world, after all, I thought. It’s probably similar to conditions in medieval Europe, with a strong class system.

“It appears this place is very different from my country… Oh, this is really good,” I said, taking a sip of a drink Mora had poured for me called sil tea. It had a refreshing, bitter taste to it.

“Well then. Mora, could you tell me how it is you came to be caught by the bandits here?”

Mora frowned and nodded gravely.

***

Mora’s father, Ild, was a merchant based in the city of Relis.

Relis belonged to a confederation of city-states established on the shores of the giant Lake Ryuse, together comprising the aptly named Ryuse Alliance. Ild had managed to shore up a considerable amount of wealth, but he still often traveled in person with his caravan along the trade routes he serviced, and Mora usually traveled alongside him as his assistant.

It was on one of these caravan trips, Mora and Ild traveling together as father and daughter, that they were attacked by bandits. It happened early in the morning, the day before I arrived in Sedia.

It wasn’t the first time Mora and Ild had had to deal with bandits. According to Mora, they encountered them regularly, about one out of every three trips. Usually, the bandits would only demand a third of their goods and cash on hand as a fee for traveling on the road in their territory. I thought one third sounded like an exorbitant amount, but according to Mora, it was comparable to the tolls charged by local lords on roads that were well-guarded. Either way, the expense was something that was already factored into the rates they charged for their goods.

However, this last time, the bandits had demanded everything they had. Ild had hired mercenaries to guard their caravan against general threats, but these mercenaries were never meant to fend off an entire band of bandits, so they gave up without a fight. But the bandits didn’t stop there. Not satisfied with taking everything Ild had with him, they also decided to kidnap Mora and demanded a ransom of five thousand gold coins for her safe return.

“So, after that, the bandits brought you here?” I asked.

“Yes… This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to us. I can only guess the bandits must have changed their behavior after that sorcerer became their new leader.”

It seemed that in Sedia, not only were sorcerers a rare breed, they were so powerful and feared that the mere presence of one was enough to embolden (relatively) peaceful bandits into outright marauders.

According to Mora, I’d been brought in only a few hours after she was. You could say it was good timing, because it gave me the chance to save her.

“My father should have reached Yulei Village by now. There, he might submit a request to the local order of knights for my rescue, or try and gather the funds for my ransom…”

“I see… In that case, we should make plans to leave first thing tomorrow, to make it to that village as soon as possible.”

“All right, let’s! I can’t thank you enough!”

***

“What a day…” I sighed to myself.

We decided that Mora would sleep in the room on the third floor of the tower, while I took the second.

I peered out the window at the moon. It was no different from the one I was used to. I finally had time to relax, but there was so much to think about. Not to mention that after a whirlwind of events that had put me out of my element and out of my comfort zone—a huge understatement—I was exhausted through and through.

What will I do if the bandits come back? I thought. How am I going to get Mora safely back home? How am I going to build a life for myself here?

Fortunately, I had time. The night was still young. As I sipped my sil tea, I prepared myself for a long night, lost in thought…

***

“Hey! How long are you going to sleep?!”

“What?!”

In the blink of an eye, the night was gone. Morning had come.

Mora was shaking me, and I realized groggily that I had fallen asleep at the desk in the second-floor office. In other words, I was completely defenseless. What would have happened if the bandits came back? I thought. This is what I get for living in a peaceful country so long… I’ve got to be more careful next time.

“I’ve already packed us lunch, so let’s get going!”

After we ate breakfast, Mora was all ready to go, which was fine and all, but there was something I had to address first.

“What is that bag?” I asked.

Mora, still in her one-piece dress, had a giant hemp bag slung over her shoulder. She looked like a cartoon thief, or maybe someone fleeing a natural disaster with everything they owned.

“These are all goods the bandits stole from my father. I can’t take all of it with me, but I thought I should at least take some…”

I froze.

This is the bandits’ fort, after all, I thought. It’s no surprise she was able to find her father’s stolen goods, and there were probably others’ as well. I remembered finding a lot of things piled in the basement of the tower when I searched the place. If this was really a TTRPG, I probably would have taken everything I found on the spot, including Mora’s father’s goods… If I did and Mora found out, I probably would have lost all of the trust she’d put in me… Yeah, dodged a bullet there.

“Um… Could you wait just a minute? Let me take care of something first,” I said.

“Take care of what?”

Mora looked ready to sprint out the front gate, but I called her back and began casting a spell.

“Huh? Wh-where did that horse come from?!”

Once I finished casting Phantom Horse, a Rank 3 spell, a black-haired courser materialized in the courtyard. Mora was shocked.

“I figured it would be difficult for us to walk the steep mountain trail, and the quicker we get to Yulei Village, the better, so I thought we’d take a horse. Also, there’s some other luggage we have to take with us…”

The phantom steed glowed with a faint, bluish-white aura. This was no simple horse, but something much greater, able to transcend all the limits of a normal mount. The kind of terrain it could overcome depended on the level of the spellcaster. For instance, if the caster met a certain level requirement, the phantom horse could walk on water. As I was the highest level possible in D&B, that meant this horse could not only walk on water, but gallop into the sky. It could even walk through walls and take its rider along with it.

After the first spell, I looked over at the statue of Jargle, the “other luggage” I was referring to, and began casting the next.

“I-It’s floating!” Mora exclaimed.

The spell I cast was Sprite Porter, which conjured up an invisible servant to carry luggage. As it was a Rank 1 spell, all this porter could do was lift objects and follow the caster, but the spell could handle a lot of weight. First, the invisible porter took Mora’s bag, and then it hoisted up the statue of Jargle with ease. As the porter was invisible, it seemed as if both objects were floating on their own. It certainly was a little surreal.

“There were a few other spells I wanted to cast, but let’s go ahead and get going,” I said, mounting the phantom horse and reaching my hand out to Mora.

“O-okay!” she replied, and I took her hand and pulled her up.

Mora’s hand wasn’t like the dainty damsels’ and maidens’ hands described in fantasy novels. It was hard and calloused, presumably from housework and helping her father, but it was warm.

“I guess this would be the time to yell, ‘Hi-yo, Silver!’ huh?”

Mora looked up at me, puzzled.

The last time I’d ridden a horse was decades ago at a ranch in Hokkaido, but I was still able to get on the phantom horse and get a good hold on the reins. According to D&B’s Basic rules, every character is equipped with the basic skills required to ride a horse. So, assuming the Watcher faithfully reproduced that rule, my ability to do so probably had more to do with that than my own experiences. Then again, as the phantom horse was a monster I created with a spell, rather than an actual horse, it would do its best to listen to my commands regardless of my talents as a rider.

Mora rode sidesaddle behind me. She looked nervous. Being careful not to do anything that would cause her to fall, I took the phantom horse into a canter. When I looked back at Jargle and Mora’s bag floating along behind us, I was once again struck by the thought that it looked eerily unnatural, but at least we were on our way. We passed under the arch of the gate and out of the fortress.

The gate opened to the south, with very little level footing. Beyond, the ground sloped down into one narrow path winding its way to the base of the mountain. The west side of the fortress was up against a cliff, and there were steep drops in the other two directions. Anyone wanting to storm this fortress with an army would have a hell of a time trying, I thought. Honestly, I’m impressed anyone was able to build one in a place like this to begin with…

“We need to hurry and get to town to let my father know I’m all right, and then we should hurry back… I’m worried about leaving all of our goods here,” said Mora, a serious look on her face.

“You’re right. There’s no telling when those bandits might come back. Let’s take some proper precautions.”

“Precautions? Like what?”

I looked up at the high defensive walls of the fortress and began to cast my next spell.

“Structural Renovation!”

“Wh-what is it this time?!”

The earth—or more specifically, the earth directly under the fortress—began to shake and rumble.

“The f-fort! It’s rising?!”

Structural Renovation is a spell that allows the caster to move and remake the structure of a plot of ground or earth at will. With a great rumble, the ground the fortress stood on stretched out vertically. The whole thing was lifted upward. Once the building had risen about twenty meters, I fixed it in place.

After I was finished, all we could see of the fortress was the face of the cliff it now stood on.

“That should keep anyone from breaking in, at least until we get back,” I said.

Mora was quiet. When I looked, she was staring up at the fortress, eyes and mouth opened wide. While she was occupied, I went ahead and cast a few spells on myself, just to be safe. There was no telling who or what might attack us on the road.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s get going, then, shall we?” I said, finally.

“Um… O-okay!”

I lightly kicked my heels, but that was mostly for show. The phantom horse was already obeying my commands telepathically, and it galloped off…into the sky.

“Wow!” I opened my mouth, unable to speak for a moment. “We’re really flying!”

Mora screamed.

A few minutes later, the phantom horse was calmly trotting along the mountain path, both of us on its back.

I held my hand to my mouth, gagging as I tried to keep from vomiting.

“Please, won’t you stop and think the next time you get the idea to do something like that? Remember, I don’t know what to expect from your sorcery—or your wizardry? Is that what you called your magic? Anyway, what were you going to do if we fell off?”

“Point taken… I’m sorry… Ugh…”

The experience of riding a horse into the sky, a bundle of firsts all in one, was absolutely fantastic…for the first few seconds, anyway.

But then came the problems. First, Mora immediately fell into a panic. Second, it didn’t take long for me to grow sick to my stomach. While it might not be immediately obvious, flying on horseback involves a lot of sudden ups and downs. Third, if Mora’s father was already on his way back to the fortress with ransom in hand, we might miss each other. The mountain path wound its way through a forest, and it wasn’t easy to see from the air above. For all of these reasons, we decided to return to the road, even if it meant taking more time to get to Yulei Village.

Fortunately, I found that as long as the phantom horse’s hooves were on the ground, it was a relatively smooth ride. That was impressive, given that the winding path through the forest didn’t exactly provide ideal footing.

That aside, according to Mora, we would reach the main thoroughfare in a half-day’s journey. From there, if we headed west, the road would take us to Relis City; if we headed east, it would take us to Yulei Village.

After riding together for about two hours, I was just about to suggest we take a lunch break when Mora suddenly spoke up.

“You really aren’t like normal sorcerers, are you, Mister Geo?”

“You think so?” I asked. “Have you met other sorcerers and seen them perform sorcery before?”

“Well, there is a sorcerer’s guild in Relis, and while working with my father, I once traveled with a sorceress who’d been part of an adventuring party. She’s a good person, but very different from you…”

So, there is a sorcerers’ guild, huh? I thought. And adventurers, too…what else will I find in Sedia?

***

As Mora and I rode the phantom horse away from the fortress and down the mountain path, we agreed that we might not be the only ones on the mountain.

We weren’t wrong.

Halfway up the mountain, dark happenings were afoot. Unbeknownst to us, in between the fortress and the main road, swarms of black creatures screeched and screamed, clambering on all fours up the tree-dotted slope.

“Gree! Gi-gree!”

The creatures—humanoid, if barely—had twisted arms and legs, pitch-black skin, and golden eyes that gleamed with evil intent. They had short horns, large ears, and cries that sounded like metal claws scraping into metal skin. Mixed in with those cries was the clicking and clacking of their many teeth, knives that struck against one other every time they opened their mouths. The creatures held simple axes and spears and clubs in their hands, and though they were not very large—one and a half meters if they stood on their hind legs—they seethed with hatred and loathing. And most of all, they loathed their mortal enemy: humans.

These were what the people of Sedia called daemons.

Ahead of the swarms of daemons ran their prey. A group of six men and women—a party of adventurers.

“I never thought we’d run into a swarm this big!” shouted Sedam, the leader of the group.

Sedam was a ranger who belonged to the Relis Adventurers’ Guild. At thirty-two years old, he was a veteran of the guild, and the party he led was known as one of the finest in Relis. He was tall and slender, bedecked with leather armor and long boots clearly designed with mobility in mind. From his belt hung a dagger, short sword, and satchel of herbs; slung over his shoulder was a bow, quiver of arrows, and backpack. His utilitarian style, typical of veterans, was complemented by facial features that bespoke keen intelligence.

On their way back from another adventure, Sedam and his party ran into the merchant Ild in Yulei Village. As one who dealt with weapons and armor forged by dwarves, Ild was well acquainted with adventurers, and he and Sedam knew each other well.

In Yulei, Ild had approached Sedam’s party about rescuing his daughter from the bandits who had kidnapped her. After some discussion, Sedam’s party accepted Ild’s request. While Sedam had information that suggested the bandits’ leader had recently been replaced by a sorcerer, Sedam decided Ild’s offer of three thousand gold coins for his daughter’s return was well worth the risk. The decision had been made the previous night.

The next morning, before daybreak, Sedam’s party left Yulei and headed toward the bandits’ fortress in the mountains. In order to keep themselves hidden, they’d decided to stay off the main path and go through the woods.

It would have been a good idea, if it were not for an unfortunate, unexpected encounter.

“Gree! Gi-gree!”

Being chased by daemons is a completely different experience from being assaulted by an army or simple bandits. Groups of humans are always influenced by several factors: a plan of action, a leader’s directions, and surges of anger, fear, anxiety, excitement, and other human emotions. But a swarm of daemons are not influenced by any of these things. They are driven only by a pure and overwhelmingly evil desire:

To slay humans and revel in their death.

The adventurers might as well have been running from a black tide of murder.

The swarm of daemons was mostly comprised of the smallest of their ilk—monsters known as imps, generally slower on their feet than humans. Yet all the same, every imp scrambled after the adventurers, rushing madly…and slowly, inevitably, they were beginning to catch up.

“Three-second counter! Now!” Sedam yelled. The nearest imps had gotten so close he could see their tongues hanging from their mouths.

“Understood!”

“Got it!”

“Yessir!”

The first to stop and turn around were two warrior-class fighters in the rear. They both wore armor reinforced with chain mail, and were equipped with round shields and one-handed swords. Of the two, the bearded, middle-aged man was named Djirk; the younger fellow, still green, was named Ted. Not a second later, a warrior-priest named Torrad joined them to form a defensive line.

“Take that!” Ted yelled.

“Gi-grah?! Gree!”

One of the imps raised its ax to strike, but Ted’s boot crunched hard against its jaw. The creature went flying. Yet not a moment after it landed, it spun around on all fours and sprung back toward him.

“Damn it, Ted! Kill ’em in one blow! Or else it’s us you’re gonna get killed!”

“S-sorry!”

The imp clutched at Ted’s leg, spreading its broken jaw wide open. Before it could bite down, Djirk plunged his sword down into its neck.

“Gree?!” a second imp screeched in confusion as a dagger sunk into its chest.

Fijika, the scout who’d lobbed the dagger, looked on wordlessly at the advancing horde. She narrowed her eyes and readied a second dagger for her next target. The redheaded young woman was lightly equipped, wearing little more than her traveling clothes for armor.

“Clara, prepare to slow their advance,” Sedam said to the sorceress standing beside him, as he shot arrow after arrow into the swarm.

In the time he spent directing Clara, Sedam shot one imp through the skull and another in the neck—the two closest daemons of the greater swarm, still weaving through the trees after the adventurers. Sedam’s speed and accuracy with the bow were exceptional.

“Griiihk!”

“Geeeya!”

But even when the imps fell with mortal wounds, they still struggled on, undaunted in their lust for mortal flesh and blood. One blindly attacked the trunk of a tree, thinking it human. Their abnormal resilience and single-minded determination were two of the reasons the daemons were despised and feared by all mankind.

In those few seconds of counterattack, Djirk had killed one, Fijika two, and Sedam four of the attacking imps.

With the closest of the imps repelled, the overall swarm’s advance slowed, if only a little.

“That’s enough! Run!” Sedam yelled.

“Got it!” the rest of the party responded in unison.

Djirk, Ted, and Torrad—the three forming the defensive line—were the first to turn their backs on the daemons and run. Fijika and Sedam both held ranged weapons, and they continued to strike for a precious second longer before they turned to follow their three compatriots.

In that order—first the three slowest on their feet due to their heavy equipment, then the two with lighter gear—they all ran past the final member of the party, who had taken a position above the others on the slope.

“Vile daemons!” she shouted at the horde.

The sorceress, Clara, was a beautiful young woman with wavy golden hair and clear blue eyes. She wore a cloak over clothes designed with mobility in mind.

One second passed. Then two. The daemons fixated on her, standing seemingly defenseless, all alone.

They rushed toward her in a mindless frenzy.

“Falbolza: Chain!”

Clara’s voice, the catalyst for her sorcery, cut through the swarm like a knife. She focused her mana into the tip of her upraised staff, until that mana burst outward into eight fragments, transforming into arrows of fire in the air.

“Gree?!”

“Gheee!”

Eight fiery arrows sped ferociously into eight daemons. None missed their mark. They encased black bodies in shimmering flame. Even the daemons’ tenacity was no match for sorcerous fire. They thrashed and screamed as they rolled on the ground, making it difficult for the daemons behind them to proceed.

“How do you like that? Ha!”

After taking the time to taunt the flailing daemons (not at all the kind of attitude one would expect from a woman so refined in appearance and behavior), Clara ran after the rest of her party. As her equipment was the lightest of the group, it took no time at all for her to catch up.

With their combined counterattack, the adventurers had put some distance between themselves and the daemons. With only a few directions from Sedam, each member of the party had fulfilled their different roles and complemented each other in their actions. This was the advantage humans with experience had over daemons, which functioned only according to their bloodlust.

In this way, humans and daemons were irreconcilably different.

“Incoming,” warned Fijika.

Seconds later, the characteristic screech of daemons could be heard not only from behind, but from the side.

“Gree!”

“Giyah! Grrr!”

Black shadows came springing out of the undergrowth at the party’s flank, joining the swarms from behind in their pursuit of the adventurers.

Sedam clicked his tongue in frustration and signaled the others with hand signs. They were changing course. It was worth risking running into the bandits if they could make it to the path that wound up the mountain. If they could make it to the road, they’d have a better chance to counterattack, and could maybe avoid being surrounded.

“I’ve got some bad news!” Djirk shouted, his face contorting. “There’s a fiend!”

The other party members gulped as a giant shadow came bursting through the undergrowth alongside them.

The fiend, another form of daemon, was roughly twice the size of an imp. Standing three meters tall, with thick twisted horns on its head, it made Sedam look like a child in comparison. Though the fiend shared the same pitch-black hide as the imps, it was almost comically muscular, wielding a tree it had yanked out of the ground as a giant club.

“Gruuooo!” it roared—and it felt like the whole mountain shook.

“Damn, it’s fast!”

With its giant body, the fiend could cover several times more ground than an imp with every step. Driven by a bottomless well of energy and madness, it hurtled toward the adventurers, instantly closing the distance they’d put between themselves and the horde.

The fiend first aimed its giant club at Djirk, who was guarding the rear. Djirk barely managed to raise his shield in time, but the shield itself couldn’t withstand the kinetic energy of the swing. Djirk was thrown off his feet.

“Djirk!” Ted exclaimed, running to Djirk’s aid and grabbing him by the arm.

Torrad turned as well, interposing himself between Ted and Djirk and the fiend. Even with three men, against the fiend and that giant club, the odds did not look good. If this had been an average party of adventurers, they might have given up right there.

“Clara, keep going. Secure your position. Fijika, guard her. Everyone else, get away from that thing!”

Sedam gave his orders as he nocked his bow and loosed an arrow into the fiend’s shoulder. Clara and Fijika went on ahead. Sedam’s arrow didn’t seem to deal any damage, but it did distract the fiend long enough for Ted and Torrad to lift Djirk to his feet.

“Grrruuu… Grrahh?!”

But the fiend wasn’t about to allow the three humans in front of it to escape. It lifted its club and swung, but before it could make contact, Sedam’s second arrow pierced its right eye.

“Gi-gaahhh?!”

“You never know ’til you try!” said Sedam, a smirk papering over his nervous sigh of relief.

The fiend, roaring in pain, had missed its mark. Against all odds, Sedam had made his. The fiend’s club tore a chunk out of the ground at Djirk’s feet just as Ted and Torrad pulled him away.

“Now, hurry up!” Sedam added, as the other three hobbled from behind.

“We’re going as fast as we can!” replied Ted.

But the danger was far from gone. The one-eyed fiend showed no sign of giving up on its prey.

“Falga Wilm!”

Once again, the sorceress’s voice struck the swarms of daemons, and a whip of fiery tendrils extended from her staff. Unbound by the laws of gravity, the whip shot through the air and tangled itself around the fiend.

“Gi-graah?!”

The crimson whip tightened; the fiend’s body burned and sizzled. The tendrils wound around it with such unstoppable force that it couldn’t take a single step forward. Within moments, the beast had become a flaming torch.

“Gree?!”

“Grrruu!”

With the fiend still tightly bound, the outermost tendrils of the whip extended farther, wrapping around two large trees and forming a fence in the path of the daemons. Undaunted by the flames, the imps tried to break through—but the whip would not allow it. Every creature that touched it burned in unnatural fire.

“Huff… Huff…”

“Clara, you’re amazing!”

Panting, drenched in sweat from both running and fighting non-stop, the others finally caught up with Clara. Though they were all exhausted, seeing the daemons stopped, if only temporarily, gave them hope—and a chance to regain their strength.

“This is only…a temporary reprieve,” said Clara.

While Clara’s mana reserves were undetectable by the others, as a trained sorceress, she had a clear grasp of how much remained. The amount available to her had fallen considerably from its maximum to a mere twenty-five units. Two more castings of Falbolza, and her power would run dry.

“You said it,” remarked Sedam. “But if we just make it a little farther…”

“Grruo!”

A hint of panic flashed across Sedam’s face. Two more fiends leaped out of the same undergrowth as the first.

“Are you serious? Three fiends? Three?!” yelled Ted.

The other, more experienced adventurers were at a loss for words.

“Well, I suggest we run,” said Sedam, a touch dry.

“This isn’t the end, not for me!” said Clara.

At the very least, Sedam and Clara hadn’t given up yet.

They both knew the fire whip barricade would only last another few seconds before either the fiends burst through it or the other daemons found a way around. Every second it held was an opportunity to put a few more steps between them and the daemons. They did their best to rally the rest of the party.

“I refuse to die here,” Clara whispered, a glint in her blue eyes, when suddenly a giant explosion enveloped the daemons.

***

“Eee…”

“Gree…ee…”

“What is that sound?” I wondered aloud.

As Mora and I rode on the phantom horse down the mountain path at a gentle pace, I heard what sounded like the call of some strange animal. Is that a screeching monkey? I thought. It sounds…somehow evil, though, and not like it’s coming from just one or two animals, but a whole pack of them…

It seemed to be coming from farther down the path.

“Mora, do you know what that is?” I said, turning to ask Mora’s opinion.

But instead of responding, Mora only stifled a scream. Her face was pale, and she was shivering, clutching at my robes.

“What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

“M-Mister Geo…” said Mora, with a look of horror on her face. “Th-those are daemon cries.”

“Daemons?”

“L-Long ago, daemons attacked Relis…and…my mother…she…” Mora’s voice trailed off.

Daemons… Daemons, I thought, jogging my memory. The bandits mentioned them, too. And they’re maybe something similar to ogres?

Mora wasn’t acting normal, so I decided we should stop and dismount.

“But what…what if they’re attacking my father?! I must go to him!”

“Wait! Wait just a minute!”

No sooner had we dismounted than Mora made to run. I was able to reach out and grab her shoulders before she raced down the path, and I pulled her back.

“Let me go! My father might be down there!” she yelled, tears streaming down her face.

I tried to process what was going on. Mora’s father Ild might be traveling on the path toward us with her ransom. If he is, and those cries are daemons’ cries…her father might be in trouble. If daemons are anything like ogres, an ordinary human wouldn’t stand a chance against one. But, on the other hand, such a monster shouldn’t stand a chance against a max-level magic user like me…

As I listened, shrill screeches reached my ears, one after another. Technically, I was now supposed to be overwhelmingly strong, but that didn’t change the fact that I was a normal person on the inside. Those ominous cries unsettled me.

“Let me go! If my father dies, too… I… I…” Mora stopped struggling and began to sob.

Life…and death. In Japan, I’d never had to face the line between them.

But did I not, just yesterday, decide I would make sure this girl made it safely home? What good is that if I take her back to a home her father will never return to?

“O-open, Gate of Magic…”

With my throat dry from nervousness, I began casting a spell.

“As a consequence of this spell, for one hour, one target will be protected by a shield of mana. Mana Shield.”

“M-Mister Geo?”

Even though I still had my arms around Mora, I was able to cast a Rank 1 spell. I could sense the chaotic energy forming an invisible shield around her. I didn’t have time to cast dozens of spells, but I at least had to take the most basic precautions.

If things took a turn for the worse, Mora and I could always escape on the phantom horse.

“Let’s go. If your father is in danger…I will rescue him.”

Mora and I got back on the phantom horse and set it racing down the mountain path. Mora was holding on tight, her arms around my waist. To the left off the path was a cliff face, and to the right was a steep drop. All in all, the path was only about three meters wide at any given time.

Because the phantom horse took direction from my thoughts, rather than a secondary pathway like the reins, it was able to respond quickly to changes in the narrow path. Despite our overall speed, I felt I could trust the horse not to throw us off or stumble. So the thrill of the ride wasn’t the reason my face was stricken with anxiety. I was worried about the daemons. Not only would this be my first real battle, it would be against an enemy I knew little to nothing about.

“Greee!”

“Grrruu…”

At that point, the growls and screeches had become a constant background noise, and I knew we would soon be upon them.

But the exact moment came long before I thought it would.

“Look! Over there!” Mora shouted, pointing to the right, down the slope.

“Greee!”

“Gigigigi!”

I ordered the phantom horse to an emergency stop and stared down below. There was a handful of men and women scrambling up the slope, and behind them were countless twisted shadows.

“So, those are the daemons…” I thought aloud.

The armored group of men and women was about twenty meters ahead of the shadows.

The shadows looked like the silhouettes of twisted, starved children. They were still a considerable distance away, but they looked very much like goblins, that low-level monster so common in fantasy role-playing games.

However, when I saw how their golden eyes flashed with hate and listened to their bloodcurdling screams as they pursued the humans, I couldn’t think of them just as low-level monsters. Instead, an instinctual fear began to grip me. The sight of them reminded me of a swarm of army ants enveloping their prey.

“It’s not my father… It’s Sedam…and Clara!” said Mora, leaning forward and pointing at the group.

Are these people she knows?

“There are even fiends!” gasped Mora, horrified.

Fiends, I thought. They must be those giant daemons—what Mora and the bandits mistook the ogres for…

“Mister Geo… Please! Save those people! Slay the daemons!”

If I’d continued to live my previous life in modern Japanese society, would I have ever heard someone make such a desperate plea? I thought. I was shaken. It felt as if her plea came not only from her, but from every human in the world.

This wasn’t the time to make excuses.

“Mora, call them here.” I paused. “I’ll take care of the daemons.”

“Mister Geo… Thank you! I will,” Mora said, before calling out to Sedam and Clara at the top of her lungs.

With my hands still on the reins, I concentrated, and called forth my inner world.

“Open, Gate of Magic. Reveal your form to me.”

My imagined self walked through the Gate of Magic and down three floors to the third level: The Practitioner’s Spellbook Archive. It was a much shallower dive compared to the depths of the ninth level archive, but that didn’t mean it would take less time than the mandatory ten seconds to cast the spell.

“As a consequence of this spell, a fiery arrow will be launched into a target within a distance of 140 meters, creating a fireball with a radius of 8 meters. The damage dealt by the fireball will be determined by a 20d6 roll.”

When I pointed to the spellbook labeled Fireball, the chaotic energy of the spellbook transformed into a multitude of dice in my hand. When the effect of a spell has an element of randomness, D&B holds that the resolution must be decided by a dice roll. And in this case, 20d6 was shorthand for twenty six-sided dice.

“All right… Come on!” I said, shaking then throwing the dice. I couldn’t help but put my back into it. If I’d been handling real dice, some of them would probably have tumbled off the flat bookrest, but not these.

As the splash of dice settled, I read: 6, 3, 1, 1, 6, 2, 4… Not bad at first glance. Once I confirmed the total, 63, the fireball’s damage was set, and the dice became a shining flow of energy that soared out into the outside world.

“Fireball!” my physical self proclaimed, completing the casting of the spell.

A bright, blazing red arrow shot out, whistling like a bottle rocket as it soared over the heads of the group of men and women. It struck one of the giant daemons like a guided missile.

And there, it exploded.

Some in the group below screamed or cried out in confusion.

Fireball is a simple spell, with effects that are self-explanatory, and it’s the go-to spell for magic users who reach the level bracket required for the D&B Expert rules. As it was such a commonly used spell, I didn’t think much of casting it. But when I saw its effect with my own eyes for the first time, the spell’s power and intensity blew right past my expectations.

The fiend in the center of the explosion vaporized. Not a speck of it remained. All the imps within the fireball’s eight-meter radius likewise turned to dust and ash.

If this were only a game, that would have been the extent of the spell’s reach. Anything even one centimeter outside the fireball’s radius would be completely unaffected by the spell.

Reality was a little messier. Due to the intense heat at the center of the explosion (I think), the surrounding air rapidly expanded, creating a shock wave with enough force to bend or break the nearby trees. That shock wave carried fragments of wood, dirt, and stone, and they shot into the daemons like shrapnel. In other words, it had the same effect as a conventional missile or bomb.

All in all, that single casting of Fireball dealt severe damage to at least half of that black wave of daemons.

The minimum level required for a magic user to cast Fireball is Level 5, and the damage a magic user can hope to deal with the spell at that level is about 20 damage points. Even at that low level, 20 damage points is enough to take down a warrior in one hit.

So, this is what an explosion worth 63 damage points looks like… I stood in a daze as the rush of hot air from the residual shock wave blew against Mora and me, all the way over at our perch on the phantom horse.

“S-Sedam,” Mora muttered, flustered. “Clara…” She came out of her reverie before I did.

Her words jerked me back to reality and into a panic. Even if that group of people was twenty meters away from the center of the explosion, they were close enough to the blast to be damaged by the shock wave.

But fortunately, my fears were unfounded. It appeared that as soon as the fireball had exploded, the group had immediately hit the ground. They were covered in mud, but no one seemed harmed.

“Hey, you…”

“Are you a sorcerer? Could you help us?”

“Mora?! Is that you?”

As they came closer, I counted six people in total. From the look of their weapons and equipment, it was obvious they were adventurers.

But even as we met up, the screeches and swarming black shadows of the daemons not far below made clear that the remainder would soon be upon us.

“Sedam! Clara!”

“Mora?!” The man paused. “We’ll save catching up for later.”

It was a chaotic situation, but the adventurers wasted no time at all.

“Turn!” the same tall man with blond hair, Sedam, shouted. “We need to buy ourselves time.”

“Understood!” replied three men without delay. All of them looked like warrior-class characters.

“You, can you use that same spell again?” Sedam called out to me, fitting an arrow to his bow.

“I-I can use Fireball one more time,” I replied, reflexively. I had prepared two Fireball charges that morning.

“Good. There’s still one fiend remaining. When it shows up, I want you to take it out, and wipe out as many imps as you can with it.”

“O-okay.”

Sedam spoke softly, but his voice was powerful and persuasive. As he appeared as though he was still in his thirties, I was surprised. Is that gravitas of his something that comes with combat experience? I wondered.

As someone with no real combat experience, I was grateful for his directions.

“Mora, come this way.”

“Fijika!” Mora cried out in reply, as the woman Fijika took her into her arms, right off the back of the phantom horse.

This Fijika woman also seemed to be someone Mora knew. From the look of it, it seemed safe to leave Mora in her care.

“To think we’d run into such a great sorcerer at a time like this. I can’t believe our luck.”

“Thanks be to our lady, Ashginea! The goddess has not forsaken us!”

The men in front seemed very happy to have me. On the other hand…the woman with the cloak, who looked like a sorceress, was glaring at me. Could she be mistaking me for Jargle? I thought.

“Greeooaaaar!”

“Now!” Sedam yelled.

“Huh?!”

The remaining fiend had almost reached the top of the slope.

If I were able to cast my magic immediately on Sedam’s signal, it probably would have been very effective. In so much as that, Sedam’s timing was perfect. But I needed ten seconds, and those ten seconds were not factored into Sedam’s signal.

Frantic, I immediately began to cast a spell, but not Fireball.

“Open, Gate of Magic…”

Sedam turned to look at me, confused.

“What are you doing?!” the sorceress shouted.

While I was casting my spell, the fiend made it onto the mountain path in front of us, with several imps following in its wake. Fortunately, it was still more than ten meters away, but only just.

In any case, the fact that I did not attack on cue was unexpected, and the group eyed me with suspicion before turning their attention back to the fiend.

Sedam was the first to act, with an arrow shot from his bow.

“Falbolza!” The sorceress was not a second behind, unleashing her own fiery arrow into the fiend.

“Greeaa!”

Both arrows struck the fiend in the face, and it shrieked in pain, but that was not enough to take it down. Blindly swinging its club, the fiend charged at us.

“Lightning!” I cried out, finally finishing the casting of my spell.

Fireball’s area of effect was too large. If I had cast it at that moment, we would have been caught in the blast. So instead, I decided to cast a spell whose effect followed a linear path, rather than one that encompassed a circular area. The spell took the direction I pointed with my finger and shot bolts of lightning that extended thirty meters forward and one meter to each side. The lightning was bright and blinding. It tore through all the daemons coming up the path.

“Gugyaah?!”

Thunder roared as the superheated air exploded with a shock wave that rocked our party. Several of the men cried out, and I heard a scream that was probably Mora.

The sorceress was pulled back by the wind in her cloak. She stumbled as the shock wave hit, so I reached out and caught her.

Once I saw she was right on her feet again, I let out a sigh of relief and looked up at what had happened. The upper half of the fiend’s body was gone, and the rest of it, covered in the ash of what it once was, collapsed to the ground. The state of the imps was even worse. Mangled black body fragments littered the path.

My ears were still ringing from the thunder, and the smell of burnt flesh filled my nose. The only reason I was able to keep from throwing up was that the scene seemed so displaced from reality. My brain had trouble accepting what I saw.

“Let go of me.” The sorceress turned to me and frowned.

“Oh, uh… Sorry about that.” As soon as I snapped out of it, I released her quickly.

The battle was won. My first true battle as the great wizard Geo Margilus.