My back hurt, I was tired after ten days passed traveling I was craving some time alone, and on top of that, I still didn't manage to make up for my defeat.

I sighed.

I was feeling very irritated right now.

I tried to focus on the landscape around me, the view from horseback was nice but after some time you get used to it.

I sighed again.

Suddenly a horse came beside mine and a certain idiot started to talk.

“Aw come on mate, stop sighing, soon we'll enter a fricking dungeon. Aren't you excited as well?”

Well, I was.

“Of course, I just hate riding horses.”

Actually, I was just tired of waiting for an occasion to demonstrate I was better than Mark. We hunted some monsters while traveling but none o them was strong enough to push us to use our whole strength. But at least I had the chance to observe Mark's and Erian's combat styles, or actually, to understand Erian's style and how much of an idiot Mark was.

He listened to the orders at the beginning, but at some point, he always ended up acting on a whim and spouting random orders, confusing everyone; The party leader was still me goddammit.

He replied.

“Come on how can you hate it? We always wanted to do it, you remember? By the way, look at them, they're so cool. Right Lightning?”

He started petting his white horse.

“Them being cool doesn't cure backache. By the way, did you really call your horse Lightning? Couldn't you choose something more original?”

I said.

“Simplicity is class man. You should think about your taste for names, I mean, Direshadow? Really? Couldn't you think of something more normal?”

I looked at the jet-black stallion under me.

'How dare he offend my Direshadow!?'

He continued.

“Man are you sure you didn't catch the sixth-grade syndrome while being here? Man you're lucky I'm here, otherwise, no one would have stopped you from naming him Lord Direshadow.”

I was starting to lose my patience. But suddenly I saw a bridge crossing the Sen river on our left. We've been traveling along the Sen river since we departed from Hoss and seeing this bridge meant that we were almost there.

Mark looked at me with a smirk on his face.

“Man, wanna see who's faster?”

I smiled and prepared myself to push Direshadow to gallop but then I heard a voice from the back.

“Please refrain from it. From now we'll meet stronger monsters and, on top of that, we are near the frontier. If we are unlucky we might even encounter Hollows.”

It seemed our lovely guardian was very concerned for us.

“Aw, well, it'll be for the return trip.”

“You bet.”

I then went near Oliver and talked with him until we arrived at the dungeon.

The dungeon's name was Shoxon and it was built by the Shovos, the original inhabitants of the planet. The Shovos were sentient spirits that managed to create a civilization. We still didn't know exactly how they came to be, but it seemed that they had some ties with the elementals, non-sentient spirits tied to one of the four elements. In fact, the Shovos' specialty was elemental magic, only a few of them used existential magic and none of them used divine magic.

What we called dungeon was a place where magic energy gathered, created spirits, and, with time, made its organic inhabitants stronger. The Shovos were deeply tied to magic energy since they were entirely made of it, they consumed it to feed themselves, so they used to build in that places. In fact, many dungeons were also Shovos ruins.

The dungeon we were going to challenge, in particular, was a system of caverns brimming with earth attribute mana and it was once a Shovos city. Now it belonged to Hoss, that used it as a hunting ground for its adventurers and heroes.

In front of it, a little town was built, both for the guild's employees to live, for the adventurers, for the merchants, and for the artisans that worked here.

We stocked up on food, bought a small magic lantern for every one of us to hang on our belts, and, at last, an earth-devouring lantern. It was a magic device that consumed the earth mana in the area around it, making all the monsters of the earth attribute less likely to come around it.

We then found an inn and decided to rest for the day so we could be at our top the following day.

After we had dinner I immediately went to my room. We all got a single room so I wanted to enjoy some solitude until I could.

First, I did some exercises with the demonic attribute, then I tried to unlock again the Hellflame attribute. It was an attribute formed for 2/3 by fire and 1/3 by demonic attribute and its core concept was “Suffering”. It was a pretty straightforward attribute that allowed you to use flames that consumed the target over time for the price of pain and, in some cases, some damage. I decided to aim for it because, since it was mostly composed of an elemental attribute, it was easier to obtain compared to the Charm and Necromancy attributes.

I meditated about sufferance while manipulating fire and demonic mana at the same time but I couldn't grasp its essence, so, after a while, I gave up.

I let myself fall on the bed and tried again to think of some way to convince Oliver to help me but with scarce results.

I needed to convince him that I had the cleverness to formulate a good plan, the strength to carry it out, and the ability to keep our team united while doing it, so I needed to use this dungeon subjugation to show him what I got. And it would be much easier if a certain idiot would stick to the plans and not didn't have the habit of randomly ordering people around.

I also thought about trying to recruit Mark but I wasn't sure about it. Talking to him I understood he never doubted what the empire told to him, he genuinely believed the empire was the good guy and I had no real proof to prove him wrong, but I knew he would never denounce me to our guardians. My greatest fear was actually that he would try to convince Oliver and Jane to not go through with my project, erasing every possibility for me to convince Oliver and jeopardizing my influence on Jane.

That was also another reason why I couldn't afford to lose to him during the subjugation.

I already used my blessing on Mark, but I didn't know how to use what I saw.

In Mark's scene, there was a big dog surrounded by a golden aura leading a huge pack of dogs. The leading dog advanced ahead of everyone and had a confident and determined bearing and protected the pack from dogs with a dark aura coming from outside the scene. The golden dog was the only one fighting and even if it was wounded it didn't ask for help and just continued ahead.

It also had another great problem: it constantly kept its eyes closed, it didn't open them for all the scene but it moved his head like it was thinking it could see, sometimes it looked at the pack and it pointed his head towards the dark dogs before attacking them. In fact, inside the pack, there were both dark dogs and wounded dogs but it did nothing about both of those. I also zoomed towards the direction the dog was moving to and saw a dark dog advancing alone ahead, it had many wounds that seemed to be rotting but it didn't pay attention to them and advanced.

It was quite easy for me to understand that the golden dog was Mark, and I could also guess that its eyes closed represented its naivety but I couldn't understand exactly what the pack and the dark dog in the distance represented. I could try to guess that the pack was the empire or society in general, but I couldn't be certain, and for the dark dog I had no clue.

There was also Erian that I could try to convince since Mark told me she didn't appreciate Horus' regime, but it was a great risk. She was born and raised in the Esha Empire, I didn't know her well enough to try to predict what she would do and she also had been titled saintess by the church so I guessed she had some ties to it, it was too risky.

I passed some time trying to scheme things out but my plotting ability was still not good enough to get me out of this stall, I still had a long way to go.

I sighed then decided to sleep, I needed to be well-rested for the next day.

Good night.

The next day we ventured into the dungeon right away. The dungeon's entrance was a cave on the side of a hill.

The adventurers' guild built their local headquarter around it so that they could regulate the adventurer's influx and also prevent anything dangerous from getting out from the dungeon. We registered our entrance and then ventured inside the cave. The entrance wasn't too big, it was just five meters broad, but this was just a secondary entrance, the main one was destroyed and buried underground during the great war against the Shovos.

We advanced through the first part of the dungeon without encountering any monsters, then we entered a wider tunnel.

On both sides of this tunnel, there were pillars with empty slots for small objects dug on them. Those pillars were Shovos roads. They were spirits so the ground didn't change anything for them, instead, they built these pillars as support for magic devices that gathered mana and pure magic energy between the two rows of pillars, allowing them to use the magic energy to speed up more without risking to starve.

They could absorb both the pure magic energy and any attribute mana present in the area and this made them able to colonize every kind of place, but they also needed big quantities of it to survive, so they needed these kinds of roads to travel in places with little mana without dying. In this case, they built it just as a commodity though.

We traveled along the road for a few hours without encountering any threat, we just met another party of adventurers chasing an earth elemental that was rolling away in the shape of a ball of dirt.

Earth elementals were stupid and attacked everything they didn't perceive as an elemental around them, but still were intelligent enough to flee if they saw themselves at a disadvantage so they had to be killed right away.

We were carefully advancing in formation with Oliver scouting ahead, Mark in the front, acting as our tank, Erian, and Jane behind him ready to support him, Ron, Alua, and Lae behind them carrying our luggage and watching over us, and then me guarding the rear.

I saw Oliver coming toward us, we regrouped and listened to him.

“There is an earth elemental sleeping ahead, I didn't wake it.”

Spirits used to enter in a sleeping state from time to time, in the case of earth elementals they buried themselves underground. That could be quite dangerous, since if someone walked upon them and woke them up while being in range they could use their magic from underground and impale you.

I decided to use the standard tactic Alua taught me, there was no need to be extravagant against a single elemental.

“We'll bait him out. We'll get a bit closer, then I'll create a path of bait runes that will lead to Mark then take position upon one of those pillars. Oliver will then climb up another one of those and shoot an infused arrow to wake him up. The elemental will attack Mark, who will tank the attack with Jane's and Erian's support. Oliver will then start shooting at him while I'll jump down from the pillar and get behind it to attack him with magic and cut his retreat. You Mark will focus on avoiding damage, don't try to fight back, I and Oliver are more than enough for that.

All clear?”

The others nodded affirmatively.

I positioned the runes, then we took position and then waited for Oliver to start the fight.

Soon an arrow was launched from one of the pillars and hit the ground.

A few seconds passed and then a ball of dirt emerged from the rock floor like it was emerging from a pool.

The ball then started rolling following the runes, soon it detected Mark and started rolling faster towards him.

“Water Armour.”

“Holy Armour.”

“Holy martial art enhancement technique.”

'Martial art techniques don't need chanting, you idiot.'

The elemental arrived in front of Mark and then a spike seemingly made of stone emerged from the ball of dirt aiming at Mark.

He blocked the spell easily thanks to his martial art, his shield infused with earth mana, and the two magic protection spells.

Since those elementals weren't strong enough to manipulate the solid rock underneath us, the elemental's spell was purely made of magic, just like the ball of dirt, so magic protection spells were very efficient against it.

As arrows started to pour against our enemy, I jumped off the pillar and ran behind the elemental.

I started launching Dark Bullets at it while keeping my distance.

Spirits always had a small physical core similar to a crystal inside them, it was their weak spot and also their real body, destroying it wasn't the only way to kill a spirit though. When they used magic to create a bigger body, just like this one was doing, they expanded their spiritual body to match it; so if we chipped away enough of it, the elemental would either have to expose its core or bleed out all its mana and die.

While I and Oliver slowly killed the elemental, mark blocked every attack, everything was going without an itch.

The elemental suddenly decided to escape. It stopped attacking and started rolling in my direction.

The elemental was already quite damaged so I decided to go for the finisher.

I used fire enhancement on my eyes and legs to dodge possible attacks, infused my sabre with dark mana, and then launched myself towards the elemental.

But suddenly I heard:

“Light martial art Flash Leap technique.”

Mark's legs shined for an instant, he then leaped meters ahead to intercept the elemental, he didn't consider me though.

“You idiot!”

Thanks to my enhancements, I managed not to crash into him, but I had to leap away at the last second and roll on the ground.

“Holy slash!”

'That's just a normal slash with an infused sword, you stupid bastard.'

The elemental was cut deeply, now it was too wounded to survive but it still had some mana remaining.

A spike departed from the half-destroyed ball of dirt, aiming at Mark's head.

Mark just attacked, he couldn't do anything to evade the spell.

“Holy shield.”

A golden barrier large half a meter appeared in front of him and blocked completely the spell before vanishing.

The elemental then died and everything except the core disappeared.

Mark opened his eyes wide and looked to his right.

A girl was looking at him with her hand on her waist.

He made the expression of a kid caught stealing candy and said:

“Sorry, Eri.”

“Aw, why do you have to risk your life every time?”

“My blessing didn't-”

“We don't know if your blessing works on you too.”

“Sorry.”

“You should apologize to David, not to me, he had to dodge you at the last moment and fell.”

He looked at me.

“Fuck, sorry man, I didn't see you there.”

I said:

“What's the problem with you? Are you deaf? I told you NOT TO ATTACK, is it so difficult for you to follow a plan?”

“I-I thought it was a chance to end-”

“I don't care what you had thought, you don't have to think, I am the one thinking about the plan, you have to just follow the orders.”

“Wait, I know you're the party leader, but we are part of the party too. I mean, I know you're the smartest but you always do all the planning without even consulting us, if-”

“It would create only confusion, my plan would have worked perfectly if it wasn't for you. Next time follow the plan.

“David, You....... never mind.”

Our exchange ended like this.

During that day we encountered three more elementals. Mark didn't do any strange moves and all worked out perfectly.

We then camped for the night. We positioned the mana-eating lantern and then we started munching on our preserved food.

Mark then came to sit next to me.

“Hey, still angry?”

I sighed.

“I'm too busy thinking how not to get killed the next time you decide to do everything on your own to be angry.”

“Hahaha yeah, good luck with that.”

I sighed again.

He then continued.

“Anyway, I have seen you managed to make a couple of friends here. Are you better than before?”

I smiled.

“Never been better.”

“Man, I'm happy about that. Honestly, I was starting to get a little worried about you back on earth, but now we're here, in a world like the ones we always dreamed about, here we can obtain everything we always dreamed.” He put his arm around my neck. “ And I'm happy we're here together.”

I sighed again.

I hated the way he always ruined my plans but, honestly, having him here made me more comfortable. I knew him all my life, he did a lot for me, he always went out of his way to help me. He was the only person in the world whom I didn't feel scared about relying on.

He didn't need to know that though.

“Are you trying to kill me by making me diabetic now? Just keep hugs for your future girlfriend.......ah no you are too dense to get one”

“ I'm not dense, I'm just a gentleman, I take my time. By the way, it's not like you ever had more luck.”

“It's because I never used my full power, if I put myself into it and created a plan I would have conquered anyone, now think more about being less dense and pray I don't decide to steal her away from you.”

'This idiot.'

Ron has been flirting with him for this whole time and if that is the case there is only one explanation: He showed so little reaction to his original female guardian that they thought he was gay.

Of course, he wasn't getting Ron's intentions either.

If things continued like this they would start to think he was asexual, and I knew he wasn't. That wasn't a bad thing actually, like this they would lose a possible way to manipulate him.

He then got a little closer, hit me with his elbow a few times, and asked:

“By the way, do you like Eri?”

'Where the hell does this even come from!?'

“What the hell?”

“Man I saw how you was looking at her when you met each other.”

“That was not that.”

“And what was it then?”

“.........”

He smiled mischievously.

“Umu umu, I see how it is then let this humble love connoisseur give you a few tips.”

He then started rumbling infinitely on what Erian liked and disliked.

It seemed I fucked up again.

--Mark's point of view.--

After I finished giving my advice to David I talked a little with Oliver and Jane and then went to bed.

During the last ten days, I bonded a little with them, I hoped we could soon get along. Lae stood all the time beside David and was very deferent towards us heroes so it was difficult to talk to her. I also noticed that, when Lae was around him, Eri often looked at David very intensely, I guessed she missed having maids taking care of her.

Erian was reading a book alone in a corner so I decided to talk a little with her too.

After that, I went to bed and started to think about David. I was still worried about him, it was nice to see him so motivated, but there was something that bugged me.

He seemed different, he never tried to be a leader or to do better than others, but now he seemed obsessed with it. He ordered our group around and wanted everyone to obey blindly, he also often took the most dangerous tasks for himself, I was worried one day he would take on a foe too strong for him. I tried to help him more, during the battle, but I always ended up making things worse.

' Man I would like to have the same head he has.'

If you looked at us before coming here it would have seemed that he was following me around and doing what I said but it wasn't like that.

He was the one that always ended up solving the tasks I undertook, I just took on people's problems and then relied on David's help.

I always relied on him, for that, I couldn't stand not being able to help him.

I always tried to repay him, both for gratitude and because I admired him, or envied him, in a sense.

I always tried to do everything I could when he needed me, except one time.

When he went to middle school he was bullied. I came to know it through a friend. I was different at the time, I wasn't as confident as now, and even though I wanted to do something I just pretended nothing ever happened.

I never forgave myself for that.

I was still trying to make up for it, I always believed that this was a world where good intentions always prevailed over malice, but that experience taught me that you also needed the courage to go through with it.

For that I want to become the strongest, I want to become strong enough to protect everyone I love, especially David, for that I need to surpass him too.

Before I fell asleep I trained my Holy and light attributes until, as always, I consumed most of my mana and ki, then I fell asleep.

--extra--

Excerpt from Ren The Timebender's essay: "On Earth's diseases." Heian Kingdom, Eastern League, 897 a.t.

The Chuunibyou or Sixth Grade Syndrom is a magic disease present on earth. It apparently was contracted by watching anime or reading manga, light novels, or web novels, it seems our founder contracted it too but survived and became stronger after that. The way it infects people is still very mysterious but we know the symptoms: Pain in one of the two eyes due to a curse, usually relieved by covering it with a bend; pain in one of the arms, also due to a curse; and headache, supposedly due to revelations from the Heart Of The World. This curse is very painful but it seems it also gives special powers to the people who can resist it. People that survived to it usually dressed up as warriors and trained in magic even in times of peace, probably conscious of their special powers, truly an admirable conduct.