[System Warning: 6 enemies have been identified. Reading strength levels...]

CLING! CLING! CLING!

Above each of the corrupted heads, HP bars begin to form, along with their levels. There were a level four hyena; a large seven-tailed scorpion, level nine; a two-headed suit troll, level nineteen; a giant level thirty-one centipede, a professor full of books, level forty-three; and a level fifty-four android dinosaur.

I must say, the variety of creatures is huge, both in strength and appearance!

The focused silver-headed girl turns her head to me. “Ryouzen, as you plan to fight alone, focus only on the hyena. Loveta and I will take care of the rest and cover you.”

"No, let me also fight the scorpion" I ask, in excitement. “From my gaming experience, the difference in strength between enemies in the first levels isn't that huge. So, besides the hyena, I could probably face the scorpion.”

“Gya! But the scorpion's aura is much bigger than yours!” Worries the cute wolf girl.

“I agree with her, you still have no experience in battle. That would be an unnecessary risk.”

Shit, if they both are agreeing with each other, then I don't have many options... Damn it! Just because it was starting to get funny! But yeah…maybe I was getting somewhat a little reckless too.

“Okay, I'll focus on the hyena, but are you sure you can handle the rest? That dinosaur is level fifty-four!”

"Are you doubting my skills, Master Kazu? Tch! It seems that I’ll need to prove that I’m worthy of you then.” She points her finger to the strongest corrupted “Get ready, two-legged robot, cause I'm going to rip your head off and give it to my beloved one!”

As soon as Loveta intimidates her enemy, Murakami raises her arms into the sky, creating a two-handed sword.

“I'm also used to fighting, so this battle will be no different!”

Determined, they enter their combat mode and go straight to their enemies, giving them the first hit.

…I can’t deny, this feeling of inferiority before them is not cool, but for now, I’ll have to put up with it — I turn myself to the animal — my goal now is you, hyena!

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ih! Ih!” With its gaze in my direction, it opens its mouth huge and particles of light clump together, creating a medium fireball.

“Gah! Dooooom!”

The attack comes my way, but I quickly dodge it.

That was close!

The flame grazes my arm, burning it slightly.

[HP: 947/1000]

Huh?! I lost fifty-three health points just because of that!?

[Be careful player Kazuki! A direct hit from this attack and you'll take seven times more damage!]

Seven times more!? This is insane! Thank God I’m not fighting the scorpion either!

Lifting the bow I carried to my eyes level, I prepare to fire my first attack.

Right now, I only have one skill, 'Flash Arrow', but it won’t be useful in this battle. It could get in the way of Loveta and Murakami's vision, as well as draw the attention of too many enemies. I can only resort to brutal force and maybe find the weak spot that does more damage…

“Ih! Ih!” The animal starts to recover itself to charge at me, but I soon launch the attack, thus shooting the arrow beautifully towards the enemy, but it does nothing, as the beast dodges it giving a counter-offensive.

Not this time!

I evade the animal and launch my second arrow.

[Hit!]

[Enemy HP: 476/500]

Huh?! It only took that much damage?! This is wrong...! Creatures of this level shouldn’t take long to be killed…! But whatever. The most important part of this is that I’m having fun! I don't think I've ever felt my body this light!

Even though I'd never actually used a bow, it felt like I already knew the basics.

The hyena prepares to launch another flaming attack, but then I take another shot straight to its throat.

[Critical Hit!]

[Enemy HP: 402/500]

“Aha! Come on hyena! Keep opening that damn mouth of yours, there's a lot more where that one came from!”

“Ih! Ih! Ih! Ah! Ah!” As it shows its indignation, I hear an explosion right behind me. It was Loveta and Murakami in their voracious fights. Both scorpion and troll were already defeated.

Murakami was fighting the huge centipede as well as Hercules. Wait, Hercules?? Where did he come from!?

Looking at the horizon, I notice the professor focused on reading one of his books. As he reads, new mythological creatures were appearing like zombies, at the same level of him. Because of that, Murakami was not the only one fighting his minions, but also Loveta, that not only was facing the giant dinosaur that shot lasers out of its eyes but Minotaur itself.

…This teacher is surely dangerous!

“Gah! Dooooom!”

[Look out!]

“Huh? —Argh!!!”

The fireball hits me hard and I'm thrown yards away.

[HP: 735/1000]

“Master!! Gahhhh!”

As Loveta fixates her eyes on me because of worriedness, the Minotaur takes the chance to charge at her using its horns so sending her direct to the ground. The robot’s laser makes the final impact on the crater she was in.

CRACK!

Murakami also deviates her attention, thus letting Hercules break her two-handed sword and injure her leg.

[System Warning: Party HPs just received an abnormal reduction.]

Shit! Just because I distracted myself!

“Don’t worry Ryouzen, continue your battle!” Shouts Murakami as she creates another sword to go straight to her enemy.

Loveta also gets up much more furious than before. “To humiliate me like this in front of my Master… You are sure to die!!!”

ZOOOM!

Their fights continue with all their might.

“Hihihi! Hahaha!”

Now it was the hyena that was mocking me.

“You little piece of shit!”

Although I was worried about them, I could not let another mistake like that one happens again, so, I focus all my attention on the creature before me, always dodging it when possible, and giving it critical hits. In the end, I still received some damage, but emerged victoriously.

“Finally...” I sigh, wiping the sweat out of my face.

The girls next to me also finish off the last enemy. Loveta binds the professor's arms and legs with her chains and Murakami cuts the man's head off. It was only a matter of time before he turns into a beautiful human fountain, gushing blood everywhere.

They come to meet me.

"Ryouzen, are you okay?"

“Gya! Master, look at how hurt you are!”

"Haha, it's no big deal... More importantly, how is your leg, Murakami? Loveta is also badly injured… Sorry, I ended up being a total weight in this battle.” I clench my fist, disappointed by my incompetence. If I had been a little more focused at that moment, the two of them would be in better conditions right now. I ended up getting too carried away at first, and as a result, they ended up getting hurt.

“Yes, it hurts a little, but it's okay, the pain will go away soon.”

Wait, that’s true! The cut on her leg is already healing! But how? …Self-regeneration?

“And there's no reason to feel guilty either. It is only natural for this to happen, especially when you are a beginner.”

“Yep! —Oh! This is for you Master Kazu~!” Loveta stretches out her arms and hands me...—An android dinosaur head?? Isn't that she was really serious at the time?!

[Player Kazuki, don't forget to collect the enemy XP and drops before they disappear.]

Oh, well remembered Phanta!

“Wait here a moment,” I warn them as I approach the animal's body.

As I do it, a bright green fluid comes out of the hyena's eyes and nose, surrounding my body before entering me.

[Level Up! x2]

[Current Level: 3]

Only two levels, huh? Phew, I couldn't hope for more…, that animal was only level four to begin with. But come on, it could have been better due to the intensity it was that fight. Seriously, the time it took me to kill this damn thing was no joke! If it were like in the games, this wouldn’t take longer than thirty seconds!

[New Skill Unlocked: Arrow of Others' Doom.]

Arrow of Others' Doom? Let's see...

“When you hit the arrow on the enemy that is in the state ‘provoked’, you will get 5% stronger. Maximum amount of stack: 5. Only valid for the enemy in question. Mana Cost: 100.”

Um, this will surely be useful, but it costs 100 mana... What is my current status?

[HP: 2000

Mana: 250]

Two hundred and fifty? So that means I would get a total of 10% more strength in the next fight if I were to use this skill, considering of course that mana only regenerates outside of battles. Not bad, not bad. Now let's see what it dropped.

- Hyena tooth x3

- x90 silver coins

- Fragment of corruption x1

- Staff of Mocking x1

…While at times I see a significant difference between this RPG system and other games I've played, other times I see an incredible similarity! Hyena teeth?! I surely wouldn’t expect that!

Oh, interesting that I got a staff—

“Argh!” As soon as I grab it, I get shocked.

[System Warning: This item is not for your class.]

Ah, give me a break! Phanta, tell me, what's the point of my 'awakening' dropping a staff, even though I chose to be an ‘archer’? It's not like there will be another person in this world who is also a player and happened to choose to be a 'mage'!

[Hehe, what can I do? The 'awakening' only follows your imagination.]

Tch, anyway, at least it has a sale price.

“Ryouzen? Where did you get that staff from?”

Since I was taking a while, the two come to meet me and notice the items I was carrying.

“Oh, these are the hyena drops. It is a thing of my 'awakening'.

“Gya! That’s so cool! Then you can craft items out of thin air?!”

"Uh... I think so?"

“Wow, your aura has also increased a lot Master Kazu~!” Loveta is astonished by something I don’t know. Maybe she was referring to the fact that I leveled up twice?

Seeing the doubt on my face, Murakami decides to give me some explanations.

“Aura is the natural inner force a dreamian acquires when he first comes to Aether. It is something immutable. Of course, you can still improve your skills with effort and practice, but that never changes your natural inner force. Not even I, who am a creator like you, can do something like this... My strength has always been the same since I came here, I just happen to learn how to use it over time. It's truly incredible your abilities, if I must say.”

Is this some kind of evolution that only happens to me? Holy shit! Now I feel like a real boss, hehe! No, wait a minute… That means I’ll be the only one evolving and so both girls might get in trouble in the future… Shit, I'll definably have to try a lot harder from now on, after all, I don't want to see them going through any difficulties.

“Okay~! We have six fragments so far! And we need nineteen more!”

“Actually, beyond the nineteen, we're going to need another twenty-five, since we're going to 'spend the night' at the inn again.”

"Hold on, but weren’t we going to leave Elysia to go after the moonstrucks after that?" At least, that was the plan I thought we had.

“But we are going to, just not for now. Considering your current lack of experience, it would be unwise for us to go there now. Spending a few days here for you to become stronger would be the ideal strategy, after all, it is after the borders that things start to get complicated.”

Phew, so it looks like my day here isn't going to end anytime soon, or my night, better saying. Loveta is still full of energy, as well as Murakami. Yeah, I'm going to need to adapt to this routine as soon as possible.