The hero is now gone, but I’m still here, now what? (Undergoing editing)

“- and this right here-” Lucille- who was now sporting a white T-shirt that’s stained from front to back by mud, tree sap, leaves, and dead insects, - excitedly gestured to a tree with a bottom bark that’s been chipped away, “- is the mark that Quill Birds would make!”

 

I stared at the patch of bark that had gone away and silently complimented my personal work, from here, it really did look like it’s been chipped off by something with thousands upon thousands of needle-like bristles.

 

“Good job,” I turned to the three girls, who stared at me expectantly, which I didn’t really get why.

 

I rubbed the nape of my neck and felt a bit embarrassed by their stares, “uh… do you three want a reward or something?”

 

“Well if you want to… but I think that would be too much?”

 

“Isn’t there supposed to be a spoken lesson after what we did? Explanations about why marks are there maybe?”

 

“I want a shower,”

 

Lucille, Yhaine, and Zyra all spoke at the same time and I scanned all three girls as I tried to parse what they just said, okay, so Lucille maybe wants a reward, Yhaine just wants an explanation, and Zyra wants a shower- got it.

 

I jerked my head at the path we’d cleared through the undergrowth when we waded across the forest, “come on, I’ll take you guys to the shower and then I’ll get you something nice,”

 

The girls nodded and we went on to walk in silence.

 

We made good distance before I was able to say something to them, “uhm… I know you’re all expecting an explanation from me,”

 

“Yeah, we are.” Yhaine’s dry response felt like a knife slicing through my skin and it’s a good thing I bit down my wince just now or else I’d look even more pathetic to these guys.

 

“Well I don’t know how to say this but… this particular thing is more of an experience-only kind of lesson? If you know what I mean?” I responded unconfidently, and it’s not like I was lying since spotting monster marks without thinking about it is a skill that only comes after a boatload of experience from doing so.

 

Now-that-I-think-about-it-maybe-that-wasn’t-such-a-good-thing-to-say-

 

“But- but-” I pointedly did not look at their direction, content on keeping my eyes forward and not seeing disappointed stares getting directed my way, “- how about you three tell me what you did and I’ll see if I can give you tips on what to do better? Start from the top,”

 

“Okay?..” That was Zyra, “we went into the forest expecting this to be easy,”

 

“It wasn’t,” Yhaine said with a sigh.

 

“Yeah, it wasn’t- and we spent the first few minutes trying to uh, search for any marks but got nothing,” Zyra continued, “and then after that, we found a spot we thought was safe and started talking about what we should do, like you said,”

 

“Right, good job on that, and what happened after?” I looked to our right, where a series of thin trees had fallen down; an obvious mark of a Ground Shaker.

 

It is also the first mark that Lucille and her team found.

 

“We talked about what we needed to do, and after a bit of bickering, we just decided to pick a direction and go from there,”

 

I snorted, “so nothing productive happened when you sat down and talked?”

 

“Yeah,” Zyra softly replied, and I was able to hear the tiniest bit of embarrassment within her tone, “but after walking for a while, well, we found the Ground Shaker mark,”

 

“And you got more confident after that, I’m guessing?” I placed my hands behind my back and stared at the sky, man… if these girls were in the wild, there would have been a chance that they were tailing an Omegafauna Calf instead of a Ground Shaker but that’s what practice is for.

 

And I already explained to them the small possibility of being mistaken when hunting a Ground Shaker so I’m sure they’ll be fine when they go and do the real thing. I know that Lucille and the rest will remember that small distinction. I’m sure of it.

 

“Yeah, we ran around- this place-” the aforementioned heroine stuttered.

 

“Like headless chickens,” Zyra added for context.

 

“Or idiots,” Yhaine’s words were followed by another sigh, “look, the first few minutes were hard on us okay? And then there was the- the traps!” She said as if she just remembered encountering those, “why were they there?!”

 

“Pygmies and their evolutions, Jungle Warriors and Amazoness will always be present in any forest that you go to,” I explained simply, “and spotting those traps was meant to be an exercise on how to avoid their territories and hunting grounds,”

 

“How do you even spot them?” Yhaine asked.

 

“That’s simple, don’t look for anything weird,” I answered, “and instead, you either avoid areas that have clear, and easy paths and pick ones full of shrubs or, better yet, you start looking up at the branches, see if something’s amiss,”

 

“Amiss?” Zyra asked.

 

“Hm… how do I say this, Jungle Warriors are the trappers of the group so you need to think like them,” I started, “and this is one of the ‘you need to experience this to get a grasp on it,’ kind of lesson but basically, Jungle Warriors place traps because of other monsters, not Slayers,” I paused, it’s better to get them cautious, “but I guess that’s part of their motivation too, to hunt us down,”

 

“The Slayer thing aside, you’re implying that we need to think about how we would trap monsters right?”

 

“Lucille’s guess is spot on,” I faced them and saw thoughtful expressions all around, “you need to think about how all of you would start trapping monsters, so let me ask you this, if you want to trap a, let’s say, Ground Shaker, how?”

 

“I’d dig a pit and then cover it,” Yhaine’s answer came quickly and I heard an ‘ooh’ from her afterward, her expression twisted into a mix between a frown and realization, “so that’s what it was, you know Zyra had a hard time pulling Lucille out of that pit?”

 

“Yep,” I didn’t dare show them my grin, “so a pit for a Ground Shaker is correct,” I raised an index finger, “but where would you place it?”

 

“In…” Lucille’s voice earned an extra octave, “... wide and open areas!”

 

“Good,” I nodded, “now, let’s move on from that one monster, what about Dire Wolves?”

 

“Dire Wolves, I’d try to use bait? Probably?”

 

I shook my head, “good guess, Zyra, but wrong,” I pointed to a pair of trees to our side, ones that grew close to each other, “you see those trees?” I saw her and her team nod in the corner of my eye, “the area between both of them is small enough that a Dire Wolf wouldn’t think twice of going near it, it’s smart enough to know that it’s risky to go through such a small gap,”

 

“For those kinds of monsters, and I mean the cunning ones, you’re going to have to look at where they hunt, and what do Dire Wolves hunt?” I finished my explanation with a question.

 

“Iron Tusks.”

 

“Iron Tusks.” I nodded at Yhaine, “and Iron Tusks are commonly found in areas with soft, lumpy soil because they love their mushrooms, Dire Wolves hunt by encircling an Iron Tusk, so, to find the trap that a Jungle Warrior would place for a Dire Wolf, you’re gonna have to look around wide clearings and or bodies of water,”

 

“What kind of trap even is it?” Zyra tilted her head, “and I’m starting to believe you when you said learning this kind of thing takes experience,”

 

“Right?” I grinned sheepishly, “and as for what kind of trap? Well, a snare trap works, but more commonly, it’s a net,”

 

“So the net on the uh, area with larger than normal trees, it was for Dire Wolves?”

 

I nodded, at Lucille, “yeah, that particular place is a perfect habitat for Iron Tusks, as the trees provide enough shade for mushrooms to grow and also enough space for their massive frames to move around without getting hindered,”

 

“Huh,” Lucille murmured, she then shot me a smile, “I thought you didn’t know how to explain things?”

 

“Eh, I kinda just went with the flow,” I admitted, “and I can teach stuff, it just takes time,” I shook my head to hide my playful smile, “which I already knew when I started asking you guys questions of course,”

 

“Yeah right!” Yhaine pointed at me accusingly, her smile twitching, “which part of did you “know” about it exactly?!”

 

“Since the start,” I threw my tongue out at them.

 

The impromptu explanation and lesson ended right after that as we started bickering on the way back to the fields, and I didn’t know when I started laughing and giggling alongside the three girls but I did, and realizing that got me to somehow stay silent, and the energy that had been fueling me to keep bickering with Lucille and the rest drained from my body and all that’s left was this…

 

… neutral emptiness that didn’t feel sad.

 

It did nothing else other than make me more aware of my surroundings.

 

I wanted to say that it was me being weird again but also, maybe I’m just… being normal.

 

Is this how people normally feel? Nothing?

 

I gotta say, I’d miss the small pangs of headache constantly assaulting my head but at the same time, I think I prefer this kind of nothingness over the anxious wreck my head normally becomes.

 

The clarity that I felt continued for a while and I was just… aware of myself, I wasn’t laughing alongside Lucille and her friends anymore and I told them that I was thinking about things, and after that, they continued bickering with each other and I listened with more clarity than I ever had in my life.

 

Who knew that if I stopped paying attention to myself, I’d notice that everyone around me was… how do I say this?..

 

There?

 

Yeah, that sounds accurate.

 

Everyone has always been there, around me.

 

I guess.

 

When we got out of the forest, the first thing that I saw was the vast field packed with infantry students, most of whom were being tortured via exercise.

 

I stopped and simply stared at this scene, it felt so new for some reason and I couldn’t say or describe why.

 

“How’d it go?” I jerked my head and almost broke my neck as I turned to Prescine. “Well someone’s distracted,” my peer chuckled before looking at me in concern, “is something wrong?”

 

“Nothing… it’s just… weird you know,” I replied, “I mean- has everyone always been here?”

 

“Uh, yeah?” Her concern shifted into confusion, “what brought this on?”

 

I shook my head, “nothing,”

 

We started walking then and as we neared everyone else, Prescine caught up to me with a jog and mentioned- “let’s talk about this later alright?”

 

“I guess sure, yeah,” I nodded, “let’s talk about this later,”

 

For now, I avoided things by facing Laceresta, “no exercise today right?”

 

“Just a light one,” the Lioness replied.

 

I followed her gaze to Lucille and her friends, I hummed, not knowing what to talk about but after staring at the ground for a few minutes, I managed to utter something out, “you said that you wanted to act as an Amazoness right?”

 

I did not know where I was going with this.

 

“Yeah, why?” Laceresta’s raised eyebrow halted my thoughts.

 

“It’s because…” it’s because?.. “Well I just want to say that I think I want a go at pretending to be a monster too,”

 

“Sure, go for it,” the Lioness nodded, “you probably shouldn’t use the Technique that makes you run fast though, that’ll just be unfair,” I shook my head to convey that I won’t, “maybe you can stick to Techniques that only boosts your strength? That can work.”

 

I blinked, “huh,” I never thought of doing that before, “you’re right.”

 

Maybe I can even get proper combat practice if I do something like that. Why not use Maximum Speed and just sticking with everything else has never crossed my mind before, I didn’t know.

 

“I think I’m not going to use that Technique when I hunt this weekend as well,” I spoke my idea out loud.

 

“Good idea,” Laceresta agreed, she faced the vast plains to our side, lips pursed, “that’ll get you used to fighting high level fights without them being so unfair that you don’t learn anything from them,”

 

I chuckled, “how’d you know that was a problem for me?”

 

“I didn’t,” she answered, “it was that obvious.”

 

“You're saying that everyone would have been able to notice that kind of thing?” I looked at her with an odd gaze.

 

“No, not everyone maybe- they’ll think that you’re a great fighter because you can end fights easily or something like that,” I nodded, agreeing, everyone else does seem to act like that around me, “but other people, more perceptive ones, definitely did, like our combat class teacher.”

 

“I guess that’s why Instructor Quoketh doesn’t want me to use Techniques whenever I spar,” I realized.

 

“Pretty much,” Laceresta nodded.

 

We didn’t talk about anything else and I found myself thinking about what else I can improve for the foreseeable future but I couldn’t think of anything and eventually, I decided that I should just wait things out and focus on all the things I’m doing now, like teaching Lucille and her team, or learning how to fight dangerous monsters without Maximum Speed.

 

“You know…” I started while staring at the orange skies, “I feel like I’m starting to hit a bottleneck,”

 

“You? Bottleneck?” Laceresta lightly laughed, “you’re kidding,”

 

“Not really,” I said, “I know that I can get stronger than this,” power wise, I’m only level 30 in game terms, so there’s still room for improvement. I’m aware of that much, “but there’s nothing I can do to get to that point you know?..”

 

It’s not like I can just level up after all...

 

“Then maybe you should sit back and relax, wait things out, and see if you can figure something out?” Fafnir entered our conversation with her standard aloof confidence, she stood right next to me and stared at something in the distance, “it’s not like we’re in a rush currently, there’s still 3 months before the first quarter exams after all,”

 

“I agree,” Zath followed after Fafnir, “waiting things out isn’t a bad idea, mistress, and you always have us,”

 

“Maybe,” I started tapping my foot, the resulting sound muted thanks to the floor being dirt and grass. I knew that they were telling me this to comfort me, and I didn’t mind, so I answered them honestly, “I don’t feel that way though,”

 

“Then keep pushing yourself, doing something is better than doing nothing, and only one of those makes you grow stronger, and it’s not the one where you sit around like an idiot.” Laceresta’s words were blunt and harsh, and also a tiny bit pushy but her heart was there and I knew that she meant what she said.

 

I smiled, “I’m going to,”

 

Because what else am I supposed to do? Relax?

 

That’s simply not an option.