I hate being wed in a fantasy world!

Masahiko and Daichi have bought something for the research facility, a local specialty of very dubious looking dumplings, but when they looked for a gift for the girls, they had no success. Therefore they decided to visit one of them during her training.

There was a problem though. “She's in there since morning!?” Daichi is shocked about Ophwizz' statement, Masahiko steps between them to make sure he can act as a barrier.

“'Course she is.” The dar woman is also a hero, and she's the girlfriend of Braxas. Her hair looks like brass, she's as hairy as a male dar, but a bit more muscular and taller, while her nose is shiny red.

“But that's... I don't even know how many hours.”

“Only five.”

“Five hours!” Of course, Daichi is upset, Masahiko doesn't exactly know how this is translated into Earth's time, but he knows that an hour in this world is more than 1.5 hours in his own. So his childhood-friend, Akiyama Eri, is about eight hours in this hole, cut off from light, fresh air, and people.

Ophwizz shrugs her shoulder while making a face. “Gah, humans and their pussywussy. I trained her, she's ready. Thinks a lot with her head, but needs to learn how to feel. It's a sense, she's lacking. How you control what ya don't sense, huh?”

“What's that with all that 'feel it, it's a sense you don't know,' it gets on my nerves.”

“Calm down, Daichi.” Masahiko tries his best to make his voice sound serene, though he thinks he's not good at it. “I think I know what she means.”

“Beh, so Braxas spilled, huh!? I'll wipe the floor with'im.” So this is the nature of their relationship? “Keep it quiet, kay? Those who know too much will persuade themselves to feel it while they don't. Bad habit.”

This could become problematic for Masahiko's training... though maybe it's enough to come to a conclusion by himself? Perhaps he has started to use small amounts of [Metalmancy], and that's why he had that idea? “Yeah, I won't tell anyone.”

“Good.”

“What about Eri-san?” Daichi looks even more upset than before.

“Don't worry, Daichi. She's strong.”

Masahiko and Eri are childhood friends. They went to the same nursery school, and they were together up to high school, even in the fantasy world they're still in a party. Therefore, Masahiko knows her well, and he also knows that she's really strong.

“She's still a girl.”

“Wanna get something?”

“Wait, Ophwizz! Daichi is just worried, and in our world, men look after women! Please put that morningstar away!”

“...sorry!” Out of the blue, Daichi apologized. “I'm still not used to things around here, I was impolite!”

“...fine. Just scram, still training here!”

“Ossu!” With a bow, Daichi turns around and leaves the cave, Masahiko is following him. “Sorry, Masa.”

“Huh?”

“I was about to trouble you.”

“Hey, don't mind. I'm just glad that you have that much control over yourself.” That must be Daichi's roots in the martial arts, an iron discipline.

“It's because I have so little self-control I'm trying so hard! I mean, you know, I really feel how I want to jump at that challenge, but if I do, then everything will turn bad. I'm not that smart, that's why I need to be especially careful.”

“'Not that smart?' So you're still smart?”

“Ahahaha!” Daichi laughs at Masahiko's joke, he also grins. “But seriously, the thing with Eri-san is still crawling under my skin.”

“Eri is strong, I can guarantee that. She's stubborn, easy to anger, and isn't afraid to say if something is bothering her. I was often enough on the wrong end, so I know: Behind her girlishness, it's concrete.”

“If you say that to her face, she'll hit you.”

“Hah, probably! *chuckle*” Slowly, Masahiko's grinning face turns more serious. “Don't worry about her. She's fine.”

“Right.”

“Just what do we do now? Wanna train?”

“You've enough for today, no?”

“I still have some skin that's not black and blue.”

“If you insist... Against each other, or do you like to hunt monsters?”

“Monsters, if possible. We couldn't raise our level much, shishou didn't let me out at all, saying that I should be ashamed to even think about fighting with my sloppy form.”

“Before or after he dislocated both of your arms?”

“During...” Masahiko is very thankful that shishou took his time to teach him from the ground up again, but it was a process which is only fond in his memory. If given a choice, he never would repeat this experience...

“Man, that's heavy.”

“Anyways, let's go outside.” Outside refers to 'outside the city' as it'd take much more time and effort to get outdoors from here.

After packing some supplies and equipping their gear, Daichi and Masahiko head to the thick closed metal eastern city gate. After explaining their intentions to the guards, they opened the gate for them.

Only the western tunnels are really safe, as these are the only ones which are used for trade. The other ones were just shut tight so that the monsters can't attack the city. While the northern tunnel is regularly patrolled by the warriors and deepstalkers, as the mining spots are in that area, the southern and eastern tunnels are seldom traveled--unless you're a hero.

For heroes, these tunnels are sweet training spots, which are used by all the dar heroes that need to raise their level. The farther you go into the tunnels, the stronger the monsters become, it's like a dungeon crawler game.

“Let's stick to the close ones. It's just the both of us after all.”

“Ossu.”

Following Masahiko's suggestion, Daichi begins by readying his battleaxe. He's in the [Knight]-class now, as this is his toughest combat class. [Knight] is a human [Class-up] and specializes in using several different kinds of weapons and combat styles to overcome the enemy. For someone like Daichi, who is able to craft his own arms, this class is a good fit, especially as he started out as a [Warrior] before and therefore could bring the [Axe]-ability into the mix. Teru's [Knight] which came from the [Soldier] is different from his and lacks that [Ability].

“Deeeeeya!” Swinging his axe, Daichi decapitates a tunnel-crawler, a centipede with scorpion-like legs and a two-pronged, poisonous tail. He stands amid three others. “[Wheelheave]! His new skill allows him to spin around once and knock everyone who he hits upwards. This allows him to cut the legs off the tunnel-crawlers while their bodies are aloft.

“[Needlerush]!” Masahiko's skill cuts the air with his two blades, small airblades dismember the remains in the air. The skill is rather inaccurate therefore Daichi's assists make it possible to move the enemy to a place that prevents friendly fire. After confirming that all monsters are dead, Masahiko taps Daichi's shoulder:“Great work!”

“We did it!” Even though Daichi and Masahiko fought alongside for a while, they always try to improve their teamwork and work on new combo attacks whenever possible.

This sort of hunting is good, as tunnel-crawlers aren't especially dangerous at their level. It also serves as a vent for their stress and discontent.

“Another group?”

“Sure.”

The difference for Masahiko and Daichi without Teru is clear; she usually uses her [Track]-skill to find the monsters, so both of them are just wandering the tunnels blindly while looking for new fights. It's not very efficient, especially as they limit themselves by staying close to the entrance, but being together alone makes this a rather enjoyable experience.

The XP doesn't hurt either.

Still, after fighting some battles, they're feeling exhausted, and they also got some blows here and there, so they decided to stop after an hour before any severe injuries occured.

Returning back to Kraggwas, both of them are let through the gate, Masahiko notices a dari girl. He recognizes her, she's the one from the wagon before, the one who was agape looking at him. What is she doing here?

She is talking to another dar; considering the number of wrinkles he's probably old. Maybe a trading partner? Perhaps the girl is older than Masahiko thought, but as dar women are usually taller than men...

Suddenly, the old man pushes the girl, who lands on her behind. Without thinking Masahiko finds himself between the both of them, reaching out to the girl: “Everything alright?” He's upset about how the male dar treated this child, but he's neither scorning nor accusing. Foremost, he wants to help the girl.

“Yes...” The girl looks at Masahiko's hand carefully, before taking it. He pulls her back on her feet, which takes almost no effort given her body size.

The man grunts, turns away, and leaves. Masahiko gives him only a glance, Daichi stares at him: “Not even apologizing. That bastard.”

“Don't mind him.” Masahiko turns his attention back to the girl: “Are you hurt?”

“No. Thank you?”

“You really don't need to phrase it as a question. I hope I haven't disturbed you.” Masahiko might have been here for a while, but he still doesn't know what the dari consider 'normal.' 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' might have been better here, but he couldn't overlook it. Therefore he acted like he felt would would have.

“Nevermind.” The girl turns around and leaves.

“Kinda rude,” Daichi murmurs.

“Well, maybe they were negotiating a deal, and we busted it.” From what Masahiko learned about the dari, they're very ardent about business. Also, they're a lot rougher than humans in how they interact with each other, so maybe Masahiko is at fault.

“Still... Argh!” Daichi tries to get rid of his irritation by scratching his head: “Doesn't matter! Let's just go.”

The two youths return to the house their party was lent.

―○●○―

Teruko must pee. She feels ashamed of herself. Still, the pressure from her bladder made it hard to concentrate, her legs are trembling, her lower body is subjected to waves of heat and cold, it's like everything else is fading out. Fighting that urge takes about everything she has.

It started the moment she used her [Stealth]-skills to [Sneak] into this cavern, some hours away from the point they fought the rocktopi. She's using [Camouflage] and [Trackless] as well, her body has changed colors to match the rocky walls of the tunnels.

'Please, don't let them find me!' is echoing inside her head. When Teruko sneaked into the cavern, she did her best to pull herself together, because it's infested with monsters that look even more terrifying than usual: Demon-infested monsters.

Tunnel-crawlers with several horns growing out of their chitin plates, mushroom-like monsters with fangs and horns instead of spots on their hoods. A giant bear with barbed claws as long as its forearms... well, this might be natural for this monster, but maybe some of these fangs and bones poking out of its pelt are because of the infestation.

In the midst of everything is a demon. Its body is about twice the size of Masahiko, it has large bat-like wings on its back, thick hide overall, and the head of a saber-toothed panther. Its muscular arms have small claws. However, the great cleaver at its waist makes Teruko imagine many bad things.

“I know you're here! Come out and fight me! Just you and me and all my beasts!” The demon strides around the room, turning its head with every movement.

At first, it didn't notice her, then suddenly, her [Danger Sense]-skill activated and she wanted to pull back, but the demon had already noticed her presence, though it still doesn't know her exact location. Why did she just volunteer to scout ahead?

“Hey, Dekahep!” No, not another one! A snake-like demon slithers from another tunnel into this cavern. Its slender body has eight arms and around its upper shoulders is a belt which holds as many blades. “The dwarves know we're here. Did you sent some of your monsters out?”

“...No?”

“Stop lying, pumpkin-head! We had something, you know. That, what you have, when you think about what to do beforehand and then make it happen!”

“Erm... a dream?”

“No, that other word!”

“Are you talking about an intention?”

“No, not that word!”

Teruko hadn’t conversed much with demons before, but maybe they're all plain stupid? She really wanted to yell 'You mean 'plan,' you idiots!' It would give her away, but listening to those trying to figure out the word is physically painful. Her desire to relieve her bladder also multiplies tenfold, as she had to hold something else back now.

This would be an excellent opportunity to sneak away, but if those morons are able to get past the 'finding the word'-part, she might find something out.

“Ah, right! We have a 'concept'! Well, if the boss finds out that you're endangering the concept, then how do we want to kill the dwarves, raze their city, tear down their buildings, smash their bones, throw their corpses! Don't be a party pooper, Dekahep!”

“Ah, sorry! I was just bored, so I thought that I'd kill some dwarves and took my new pets with me, I got distracted by the fun.”

“You already killed dwarves!” The snake-demon throws himself onto the panther-demon and start pummeling it with eights hands. So there may be miners who are already dead somewhere? Teruko feels sadness welling within her. The snake-demon, on the other hand, isn't infuriated because of how this deed of Dekahep risked their plan, but instead: “WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME AND LET ME JOIN!? YOU TRAITOR! I THOUGHT WE WERE BUDDIES!” Now the eight-armed snake draws its weapons.

This has been enough, right? She might take a look further into the cavern, but she really learned much from this short exchange. So now she can retreat, yes, retreat is definitely the better option here. She has to go to the bathroom as well, scouting with a full bladder can only bring harm.

Giving herself several excuses, Teruko begins to slip away, while the two demons use lethal force against each other. After she's out of sight, she starts to run, after running for five minutes, Teruko takes a short break to relieve herself... a long break, as nothing would come out right now, even though it feels like she's always on the verge.

After moments of embarrassment and self-incrimination, she finally heads back to her companions. She's the first of the scouts to arrive. “Kurosawa Teruko, back to report.” The military-style of the dari makes her that formal.

She sums up what she saw and heard that in that particular tunnel are some demons, who are gathering and infesting monsters with a plan to attack the dari with a full army. Also, there was a slip-up, and some of the monsters escaped, while the one herding them has ambushed a group of miners, possibly annihilating all of them.

Urgrik grins grimly: “Well done. 'tecting a threat before it becomes a danger is a deepstalker's duty. How many in total?”

“I... I couldn't advance much. I don't know.” Teruki feels how her ears are reddening.

“Don't worry, lass. Between coming back with little to report and dying trying to get a lot more to report, former is better.” He turns to a female dar: “Nawozz, you take command. Wait for our other returnees. Takad, Ithnok, and I will go where Teruko was and try to get more intel. If we're not back in an hour, return to Kraggwas without us.”

In a sense, Teruko's shame is only growing, as Urgrik is now attempting what she wasn't brave enough to do. Katsu, who was waiting with the main-force, silently nods to her. Is this his way to say “'Don't mind, you did your best?' or 'Learn from that.'?

Actually, she isn't that sissy! She's a bold girl, but right now, she lacks... that.

After Urgrik and his two deepstalkers departed, Teruko sits down next to Katsu. She wants to talk about this with him, but she's not sure how to start that conversation. Therefore she tries to make it as obvious as possible to tell him to do it by looking hopefully at him, trying to move her lips a bit, looking concerned, all the signs that are easy to read.

Why isn't he starting? He just looks at his bow, feeling its weight, sometimes he looks at her direction, which gives Teruko the anticipation that they're finally going to talk, only to switch to another task, like checking his arrows or looking at seemingly nothing, which is most likely his status screen.

Can't he just take a hint? It's always so difficult to initiate a conversation with him.

Unable to deal with this any longer, Teruko decided to take a look at her status instead, but she's sick of all these numbers and terms, so she quickly changes to drawing in the dirt with her spear. Not how it's supposed to be used, but still better than the alternatives.

With Masahiko this wouldn't happen, he always notices when she wants to say something. Kyou-chan is also good at reading the mood, she was the first friend Teruko made at middle school. Back then, she was the only one to stand up for Teruko when she was made fun of by the boys because of her height before she toughened up.

Kyou-chan is overbearing at times, but she's also kind. Teruko wants to believe that this kindness is the core of her personality, instead of the self-centered girl she sometimes can be. At least she always cared about Teruko.

Teruko feels guilty. The reason Kyou-chan is with Katsuragi-san is that Teruko and her friends left her in Esse. Teruko often thinks about this, as she feels like that wouldn't have happened if Teruko had spoken up for her like Kyou-chan did for Teruko.

It's like a betrayal. Still, Eri-chan had some sound arguments, and sometimes Teruko isn't sure how honest Kyou-chan really is, so a part of her wanted to get rid of Kyou-chan, as she had Teruko under her thumb. Teruko wanted to be free, but now she's under the pressure of guilt, which is ten times more grating than Kyou-chan at her worst.

Also, she wanted to agree with Masahiko back then, who was genuinely worried. Teruko wants to hide in a hole right now, but she already knows that she has really special feelings about Masahiko-kun, feelings she will never tell him. He will never notice what she wishes him to do, as he's already Eri-chan's, though neither of them will admit it. Even if Teruko's guess here is wrong, it's still a snowball's chance in hell that Masahiko-kun will ever go into that kind of relationship.

Now the girl looks at the ground and realizes that she was drawing Masahiko with her spear while she was thinking, but she's not even good at drawing, so his face is hideous, she feels so sorry for him and herself. She also started to draw a partner for him, though it's too rough to be even recognized as a person.

This is stupid, she shouldn't flee into her delusions. Teruko feels even tinier than usual, given how huge her complexes, insecurities, and fears are. She's not even capable of having a conversation with Katsu right now, which wasn't hard before. Well, at least she would talk, and he would listen.

Stupid, she's acting so dumb right now.

The only hero worse than her is Katsuragi-san, who is, in fact, a villain. She's only in the way here, she might act tough in front of her friends, but in the end, she's just a timid girl like she was in middle-school.

No, don't think like that, girl! Starting a conversation is easy, she just needs to harden up mentally. After a moment of pulling herself together, Teruko speaks her mind: “Do you think, I should’ve pushed further?”

“...” Again this silence before he speaks: “I wasn't there, so I don't know. Still... I think it's good you're back.”

“I can't help but think, that I've misread the situation.”

“Then gain more experience.” Without even realizing it, Katsu made Teruko feel better. Instead of comforting her, he just told her what she already knew, but wasn't aware of.

Yes, she's still inexperienced, so she can't help but feel doubt whether she has made the right call. While the hero-system may give her the capabilities, she still lacks the experience. Based on that, she might have done the better call in the cave.

Now, with that out of the way, she feels relieved. She really needs to get these uninvited inferiority complexes under control. When Kyou-chan was recognizing her worth she felt confident, but now she has to keep that confidence standing on her own. She's a hero, and though she had developed guts before with Kyou-chan’s support, soon she will become powerful as well, despite her size!

“Anything bothering you?” So she can openly ask Katsu, if he has something he wants to talk about, maybe he's also stuck like she was a second ago.

“...” His eyes are narrowing, maybe it's something he's not comfortable with? “...” He looks at her, holding his head a bit tilted, almost unnoticeable. “We're wasting time.”

“Huh?” Teruko doesn't think that they're wasting time here, they're just waiting for the rest of the troupe to get back. “You want to hunt monsters?”

“No, not that. Katsuragi.”

Ah. “Haven't we talked about it thoroughly?” Of course, Teruko wants to rescue Kyou-chan, but they have no idea where she is, and the only way to prepare for the moment they learn her location is to get as strong as possible.

They tried an oracle to use some sort of divination, but it's not as simple as it sounds, as only the best oracles can find a person without an object linked to them. Naturally, Teruko used to have gifts Kyou-chan gave her, but they were all lost due to the summoning, same goes for the rest. The presents she received from her in this world have an insufficient connection.

So they could only get a reading regarding their own futures and learned, that their path will cross Kyou-chan's soon.

To get to an oracle with the power to find people with only their description is difficult, as such oracles are either living in seclusion or demand vast sums for their services. Which means, they need either the strength to reach these secluded places, or convince Feuerberg to pay for one of the expensive oracles. However, this is again tied to their usefulness as heroes, to their power. There is also another benefit of becoming stronger in this dilemma: If they're strong enough, they also can hunt more powerful monsters with rare drops and pay the oracle themselves.

Everything is pointing them to train now. Even if Kyou-chan appears suddenly, they'll be better prepared if something bad is following her.

Well, for someone who's in love, this may be tedious and unnerving. Teruko can relate to that, as she has read dozens of romantic novels. Still, at this point of such a story, Katsu has to become worthy of Kyou-chan’s affection.

Doesn't matter, as real life never turns out like the books lead to believe.

“I know, I know.” Katsu’s long pause makes it hard for Teruko to find the thread of the conversation, she was too lost in her own thoughts. “Still... Like, no progress at all.”

“Erm, yes?” Teruko is really not sure how to answer that. “Some things just need time...” If she were Dai-kun, she could make a jab here... ah, get your act together, girl! “Look at me. I also take my time growing taller!” ...this joke sounded funnier in her head. Teruko knows that she's small, so she wanted to act tough by making fun of it, but now she's feeling self-pity for the one thing she can't change about herself.

“...hrr.” Some strange noise escapes Katsu's body, is this some kind of laugh? “Thanks.”

A small step. Teruko takes only tiny steps toward being the hero she wants to be, but acting like one may be enough for her personality to follow one day. Hopefully, it helps her to get out of her slump at least.