My spear collided with the bear's palm and pierced through it. The bear tried lifting me with my spear while I was still holding it. It wanted to slap me with its other hand, but I already skillfully removed the spear as the sound of skin tearing could be heard, then dodged it. I summoned my shield as its punch came down on me, then used my shield to block it, but the impact almost broke my hand as the shield barely withstood the attack. I swallowed a curse.
'I should have just dodged it.'
Feeling the pain, I tried inflicting damage to it by thrusting my spear, but it didn't manage to reach it. I jumped backward, then dismissed the shield to inspect my arm.
'It is not broken yet. Its strength is greater than mine, but my speed is superior. Great durability too. The spear has reached the limit of getting sharper; the shield is yet to reach its limit. I shouldn't try tanking its hits. I should use my superior speed to do hit-and-run attacks. That will take time due to its durability. I shouldn't try attacking its chest; it should be harder than a normal bear's. I just need to cut its head off. But it's taller than me, and I can't jump that high. I have to make it lose balance.'
I analyzed the situation within seconds.
The bear king came running towards me. I jumped back to evade its attack but toppled over a monster corpse. I instantly recovered as the bear king hit the monster, completely crushing it with its attack. I took a stance as I looked at the monster. I could hear myself breathing heavily. I was covered in blood—at least my armor was. It ran down my head, and I tasted it. The smell of blood and burning flesh was stronger now. I was bleeding in some parts of my body, and I had almost broken a bone. The heat was becoming unbearable as the battle dragged on. Sweat mixed with blood rolled down, and I tasted it.
'I do not enjoy this.'
The bear king attacked again. This time, I immediately activated my ability, Aegis. The bear king collided with Aegis, but it didn't break it.
'It should hold.'
As I thought that, cracks started appearing on Aegis.
'Seriously?'
The bear then pulled its hand back, trying to use its full force to break through Aegis. But just as it was about to collide with it, I released Aegis and jumped back, making it lose balance. I immediately jumped back in to cut its head before it could recover. I brought my spear down towards its neck, trying to slice it off immediately, but I couldn't cut through easily because of the thick hair around its neck.
As I was almost reaching its flesh, the bear king began recovering and tried to stand up, but I kicked it in the chest with all my strength, sending it flying. It collided with another monster. I immediately followed up before it could recover and thrust my spear towards its eye. The sound of its angry growl echoed across the battlefield.
The bear tried using its long arm to hit me. I summoned Aegis to protect myself. Its hand collided with Aegis, but this time the force wasn't much, so it held. During this time, I thrust my spear six times consecutively into its head. Then the bear kicked Aegis, and the sound of something shattering could be heard. It raised its hand again. I blocked it with my hand this time, and my hand broke too. I jumped back to take respite.
'It is gravely wounded. It won't be able to fight well now.'
As I was about to move in to finish it, a lightning bolt struck it. It was Kairi. The bear king, already at death's door, convulsed and died immediately.
I spread my hands and looked at Kairi with a bit of annoyance.
"Brother? I was going to finish it off," I said with annoyance.
"I thought you needed help. Sorry," he said in an apologetic tone.
"It is alright. It'll save some stress. What's the situation?" I asked as I got closer to him and heard him breathing heavily. He was covered in blood. He wasn't wearing his armor. He only had his katana unsheathed. His blue hair was almost red.
"You have overworked yourself. You need to take a break. Why aren't you in your armor?" I told him.
"I'll be okay. I'm not comfortable wearing armor. It sure looks cool, though. We're almost done anyway. Seraphina and Chara defeated a D-rank monster already. Me and you defeated one each. Mira has killed one of the ones she was holding; she'll kill the second one soon. What remains are a few E-ranks," he explained.
"You defeated a D-rank on your own?" I asked.
"Yes, so did you. I'm sorry I stole your kill, though," he said again apologetically.
"Well, it's alright. Let's clean the battlefield."
I thought for a while.
"Actually, you take a rest. I'll do the rest. You have clearly overworked yourself. You're almost out of ether energy, and this place lacks ether energy, so you can't recover it fast. You'll have to recover naturally, which will take much longer. We don't know what the future holds, so you have to be resourceful."
"Well, I'm really tired, so I'll take your advice. I'll try to learn resourcefulness in fighting," Kairi said as he collapsed onto the ground.
I left him and moved on to kill the remaining E-ranks. They weren't really hard to kill, but the fight I had with the bear king took quite a lot out of me. By the time I was done, I was very tired. I dismissed my spear, shield, and armor. My clothes were drenched in sweat and some blood.
'I don't have another set of clothes. I'm reeking badly.' I thought as I looked at my dirty state. I was still sweating a lot.
I looked around. The battle was over. Mira had already slain the other D-rank.
'She sure is strong. She doesn't look as tired as I do.'
It wasn't a long battle, but it was arduous. I was thirsty and hungry. I walked back to Kairi. As I was moving, I met Eira on the way. Her white hair was almost red. She was also covered in blood, but surprisingly, she wasn't sweating. It was like the heat around the battlefield had no effect on her.
'I should try talking to her.'
I waved at her.
"Hey, Eira. Are you okay?" I asked, trying to be polite.
She looked at me with a tired look in her eyes.
"Yes, I am. Are you?" she asked in return.
"At least I'm not dead yet. Where are you going?" I asked, acting as if I didn't know where she was going.
"Looking for somewhere to clean up. I hate how I look and smell," she said while inspecting her body. "You look worse than me," she commented.
"I know. You're not sweating at all, and here I look like a guy who just finished swimming."
She chuckled, then asked, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to meet up with Kairi over there," I replied as I pointed in Kairi's direction.
"Let's go together. It's not like a bath will suddenly appear here," she said jokingly.
'She is fun to talk to. I need to make her feel comfortable with me so I can ask about the name.'
We moved slowly towards Kairi's location. After a few moments, we saw Kairi sleeping in a pool of blood.
'This guy is completely oblivious to hygiene. How the hell is he so comfortable lying there? Do I have to teach this guy hygiene too?' I sighed.
"Are we going to wake him up?" Eira asked.
"No. He probably did the most in this battle. He's really tired. He needs to rest," I explained.
"Then are you going to leave him there or carry him?" Eira asked again.
As I was about to carry him, I heard a voice coming from in front of us.
"I will carry him," Kofi said.
The moment I saw him, I moved towards him and grabbed his shirt by the collar with my bloodied hand.
"You bastard. Why didn't you join us? If you had, we'd have taken care of this swiftly," I complained.
"It seems you are not so familiar with my title, imperial failure. What could a failure like me, who was forced to graduate, do in the presence of real graduates?" he said.
"Aren't you supposed to try and prove them wrong? That you're not a failure? That you're worthy of graduating?" I suggested.
"Why should I do that? I don't really care what they think of me. It's even beneficial for me. I don't need to try hard to live up to people's expectations because their expectations of me are really low. I get to do things how I want without trying to hold back, and nobody can really do anything about it," he said with that annoying smug on his face.
"Do you think that mentality will save you here? We can just leave you to die and tell the outside world you were killed by monsters. People wouldn't even really care about you, and we wouldn't be punished," I tried to threaten him.
"That's right. You can do all that and get away with it, but are you sure that's the right call?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.
"We don't know what we'll find in this place. We don't know how to get out. All we know is that we might be connected to this place. But what if, to get out of here, all of us need to be alive? I'm sure none of us wants to die here. So until we're out, you can't really discard me. Don't worry, I won't be a burden. I'll help if things get really perilous. This was just a welcome. The real danger is yet to come. You don't think the monsters are just here to test our strength, do you? You need a wildcard, which I will portray. I might not be as strong as you guys, but I'm not weak either. Now, can you allow me to carry the MVP of this battle?" he said.
I left him alone after finding some sense in his words.
"Why did you offer to carry Kairi?" I asked as I watched him lift Kairi onto his shoulder.
"I said I'll help. You guys are too tired. You don't need to stress yourselves anymore," he replied.
"This isn't so helpful anyway," I said.
"I know. Let's group up with the others," Kofi suggested. "Oh, by the way, I found something."
"What did you find?" I asked.
"I'll show you when we're all together," he said as he moved ahead.
We soon found everyone, and we were all together.
"You look like shit," Chara said to me. She looked cleaner than anyone else. There wasn't much blood on her like the rest of us, but she was visibly tired.
"You didn't fight a D-rank alone," I tried bragging.
"Well, I can't because I'm not nascent yet, but even if I did, I wouldn't look like shit," Chara mocked me.
"How are you even this clean?" I asked. She wasn't really clean, but she was much better than the rest of us.
"Because I'm better than you," she said.
"What's the situation?" Seraphina asked. She was also covered in her fair share of blood, but her red dress and hair made it less visible. Mira was also not very dirty. But Chara was the cleanest among us.
"Everything has been taken care of. Every last monster is dead. But Kofi said he found something. He wanted to regroup with you guys before showing us," Eira replied.
Seraphina shifted her gaze to Kofi, who was carrying Kairi.
"What did you find?" Seraphina asked.
"It's better if I show you guys," Kofi replied.
"Then lead the way," Seraphina urged him.
We started moving as we followed Kofi.
After a while, our source of light, which was the fire from the battlefield, didn't shine enough, telling us that we were getting far away from the location. Eira summoned her lamp as we kept moving through the darkness.
We soon arrived at a ruined house. The stones and walls of the house were littered around.
"What are we doing here?" I asked Kofi.
"Shhh. Listen carefully," Kofi said.
We all kept silent and focused on our sense of hearing. After some time, we could hear noise. It was indiscernible, but it was familiar. It was the type of noise you'd hear in a bustling area. The type of noise you'd hear in a place filled with humans.
"There are still humans here? In this city?" Eira asked, confused.
"They never did evacuate everyone, so it's plausible," Seraphina said. She paused, then added, "But how are we sure they're not monsters disguising themselves as humans? We'll have to be careful going in."
"I don't think it's a good idea to go in now," Chara suggested.
"Why?" I asked.
"We're not sure if they're humans. If we go in and they turn out to be monsters, we won't survive. We're already too battered to fight another battle. I think we should find a place near here to rest and keep an eye on them before checking in," Chara explained.
"I don't sense any monsters among them," Mira said.
"Well yeah, I can't sense your ether either, but you're stronger than all of us. What if it's a monster able to hide its presence? We'd just be entering the lion's den. It's better to be safe than sorry," Chara replied.
"I knew you guys might say that, so I also found a place," Kofi said.
"You're not so useless after all. I guess I'll forgive you for what you pulled before. But you're going to fight the next one. That was just a welcome," Seraphina said bluntly.
Kofi sighed, then explained the theory he explained to me to everyone as we moved toward the spot he found.
"That's interesting. You're just thinking of ways that mostly benefit you, right?" Chara said.
"Of course, but this time it benefits all of us," Kofi replied.
"Hope your failure won't make us fail?" Chara said jokingly.
"That would actually be bad, but we should make sure to enjoy our stay here if we might die soon," Kofi said.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Eira asked.
"I don't know. Live in the moment. We should just enjoy the little things we find here. Even hell can be enjoyable," he said.
"True. We'll find something fun to do," I said.
"We're not here to have fun," Seraphina said.
"Then are we meant to drown in pain until we leave here? That would be detrimental to our mental health," Kofi advised.
"Now you're a doctor?" I asked.
"I can be," Kofi replied while looking at me.
"I hate that smug. You're not such a bad guy," I complimented.
"I quite like his smug," Chara said.
"I love my smug too," Kofi replied.
At that moment, Kairi stirred awake. Kofi dropped him. Kairi glanced at everyone. A bright smile appeared on his face.
"Everyone's alive. That's great. What are we doing next? I'm really hungry," Kairi said.
"That's true. We didn't bring any food," I said.
"Well, we don't know if we can find food here, so I procured some monster corpses to cook. I have some seasonings with me, so it should be good enough," Eira said.
"You're awfully prepared," I said.
"Well, I was able to go home, unlike you guys, so I had some time to take things we might need just in case, and some of them came in handy," Eira replied.
"Is it alright to eat monster meat? I heard it was corrupted," Kofi asked.
"It's totally okay. I eat it most of the time," Kairi said.
Everyone looked at him.
"How exactly do you eat it? Do you cook it before eating?" I asked.
"No. I eat it raw," Kairi replied.
"Of course," I said as I moved forward.
"I think you've been corrupted in the head," Kofi said.
"Don't worry. When a monster dies, their corruption dies too, so you won't get corrupted," Seraphina said, then looked at Kairi. "I still wouldn't advise eating it raw. I wonder what kind of life you lived."
Everyone moved on, leaving Kairi confused.
"Why is everyone acting like eating it raw is weird?" he asked before running after us.
We all answered in sync:
"BECAUSE IT IS!"
After walking for a while, we finally reached a waterfall. Water rushed from a cliff on both sides, split by a rock. On the left side, the water was clean. On the right, the water was dirty.
"Well, there's drinking water," Kofi pointed to the left, "and bathing water," he pointed to the right. "It might not be extravagant, but it's good enough. At least we won't die of thirst for a while."
"How did you find this?" I asked, clearly satisfied.
"I lived in the wild for a long time," he replied vaguely.
Kairi was about to jump in, and I dragged him back.
"That's not for your use. Eira, you don't possibly have a bucket or pot with you?" I asked.
Eira summoned both.
"I came prepared," she said as she lifted them.
"How much can your dimensional thing take?" I asked.
"Two tons maybe. It was given to me by Grandma. I never asked," she replied.
"Well, we'll take turns bathing. The girls can go first. We'll go next. We'll stay behind the cliff and wait for you," I said.
"Why can't we do it together?" Kairi asked.
"Privacy. Unless you want them to kill you," Kofi said.
"Is bathing with a girl really that serious a crime? I used to do that with my mom a lot before she died," Kairi said, surprised.
"Because she's your mom, and you were young," I replied, shaking my head.
'He really is clueless.'