“Nervous, Tatsuya?” While walking with me, my best friend Kyouya tried to strike up a conversation.
“Why are you asking me that now?” I glared at Kyouya for his redundant question. “We promised Aiko so there’s nothing to be nervous about. Besides, shouldn’t you be asking her?”
I pointed to the girl whoe was walking beside us, visibly shrinking her body while she stayed in the middle of our three-man group. This girl was Haruka Sakamoto, the youngest girl in our class. She was, like Kyouya, a member of the party which I will soon belong to.
“Haha, I guess that’s true,” Kyouya laughed it off before directing his eyes down to Sakamoto, reassuring her with a friendly smile. “Call for us if you need help, Sakamoto-san.”
“Mhmm, thank you very much. Please, take care of me.” With a nod, she gave him a reserved smile.
Charismatic fucker…
It has been four months now since we were summoned into this world called Peolynca. Using the calendar from this world, the date should be the fourth of SpringSun in the year 2678.
As I was told about a month ago, the church had organized for us to enter a dungeon so we could finally start leveling up after learning how to use weapons and cast spells. We would form parties with our classmates and then fight together.
Today would be the day where our party would be introduced to the knight who would supervise our party for the trip. In essence, he was our church watchdog, probably to make sure we didn’t embrasse them or flee, or whatever.
Admittedly, I might have said party, but… to be honest, we haven’t actually met yet. Besides Kyouya and Sakamoto, the two other members of our group didn’t want to meet up at all.
One simply said, “I have better things to do than to talk with you guys! Like training under a powerful mage!" and the other said, "What do we even have to talk about anyway? Go fuck off and leave me alone."
We barely talked when we were on Earth, but I knew them long enough where I shouldn’t have been surprised by their responses. I still held on to some hope, though. I thought, maybe the fact we had to work together to make it back to Earth, away from this place, would motivate them to cooperate, but that seemed to have been too optimistic.
Haaa, this will be such a nightmare. I bet it on my thermos… not like I have it with me anymore, though.
As we promised Aiko and Tsuji, Kyouya and I were currently walking with Sakamoto to the meeting spot. We were introduced to her by the girls after we had that talk in the dining hall.
Sakamoto was not only short, but she was also pretty shy. Our relationship on Earth was merely limited to classmates, so it couldn’t be called a proper friendship. She had always been reserved around boys, so I barely knew anything about her outside of her being really good with math and that our fathers sometimes did business together.
She seemed to have gotten a bit closer with Kyouya, though, but nothing to send home about. He had been trying to open Sakamoto up to us, always finding some excuse for us to spend more time together to build some rapport.
Standing next to her, we really looked like two bodyguards. It also didn’t help that she was 154 cm tall (5’1 feet) and we were 173(5’7) and 186(6’1), respectively. Kyouya had always been taller than me, but ever since he began working out a ton, he just exploded in growth. It certainly made him reliable.
“We should hurry up,” I opened my mouth without turning my head. “Everybody is looking at us.”
I pointed out the fact every priest and shrine maiden who we walked past was looking at us. They were giving us a quick prayer and acting pretty polite, so we had to reciprocate, but I found it a bit too suffocating. Some of them I recognize speaking behind our backs, and sometimes they didn’t talk in a very church-like manner. They acted more like power-hungry politicians.
Our trip to the meeting spot was relatively uneventful and silent. Winter season was over now and the temperature had gone back up to an acceptable degree. Thankfully, as the meeting spot was outside the church knight’s garrison.
Once we were outside the main cathedral, we went to the knight order’s training field, located behind the order’s headquarters around a block away from the main church area. The whole church ground was designed in a campus-like manner, and from my frequent walks, I believed it was probably large enough to probably rival even the largest universities.
You had a whole section reserved for the grey priests and their lodging, while there was an area to separate the common-born and noble-born white-robes.
It was huge, in other words.
As we arrived at the training field, there we saw the silhouette of somebody waving his staff around like a freaking idiot.
“Ha! Too slow!” The moment he saw us, the piece of god knows smirked and began shouting in a boastful manner. “I can’t believe I have to party with four slowpokes. Come earlier, or don’t!”
I want to slap him.
Donning a robe fitting for a mage, the spectacled guy continued speaking, “At least, I got [Ardent Defender] from this deal. Be my shield and I’ll power level you up, Ishigami-kun.”
“Can’t you shut up for once, Mikami?” I said, disdain slipping through my lips.
The guy leering at me now was Daichi Mikami… my classmate and, now, a party member. He was your typical anti-social gamer who was so driven by his competitive nature to the point his toxic behavior leaked out to the real world.
Kyouya and I knew this as we met him quite often at PC bangs. Sure, he was only mildly infuriating when he was on our team and we won together, but anything but that meant he would just start cursing everything. Gaming was an outlet, and gaming inside a PC bang, instead of at home, was so we could go ham without our parents listening to us, but Mikami just took it too far.
I was competitive myself, but I knew where to draw the line and not let it affect me at school or at home. This guy, however, was a sore loser and bad winner. So unsportsmanlike that playing with him would drain me mentally.
“… Hope you’re good with using that shield of yours, Nagata,” he said, reproachfully now that any pretense was shoved out of the window. “The party bracelet might share experience, but I want the lion share, alright? As a fire mage and our main DPS, you need to get me leveled up with our tank and healer.”
My eyes started to twitch uncontrollably from hearing those words. “… Be the only source of damage, then. Be my guest and kill yourself with arcane corruption. Tsk, reality to Mikami, we aren’t in a game, you idiot. Learn to cooperate. Even with your [Kamikaze] skill, you still need to rely on others, otherwise, you'll end up meeting your maker earlier than expected."
“Nervous, Tatsuya?” While walking with me, my best friend Kyouya tried to strike up a conversation.
“Why are you asking me that now?” I glared at Kyouya for his redundant question. “We promised Aiko so there’s nothing to be nervous about. Besides, shouldn’t you be asking her?”
I pointed to the girl whoe was walking beside us, visibly shrinking her body while she stayed in the middle of our three-man group. This girl was Haruka Sakamoto, the youngest girl in our class. She was, like Kyouya, a member of the party which I will soon belong to.
“Haha, I guess that’s true,” Kyouya laughed it off before directing his eyes down to Sakamoto, reassuring her with a friendly smile. “Call for us if you need help, Sakamoto-san.”
“Mhmm, thank you very much. Please, take care of me.” With a nod, she gave him a reserved smile.
Charismatic fucker…
It has been four months now since we were summoned into this world called Peolynca. Using the calendar from this world, the date should be the fourth of SpringSun in the year 2678.
As I was told about a month ago, the church had organized for us to enter a dungeon so we could finally start leveling up after learning how to use weapons and cast spells. We would form parties with our classmates and then fight together.
Today would be the day where our party would be introduced to the knight who would supervise our party for the trip. In essence, he was our church watchdog, probably to make sure we didn’t embrasse them or flee, or whatever.
Admittedly, I might have said party, but… to be honest, we haven’t actually met yet. Besides Kyouya and Sakamoto, the two other members of our group didn’t want to meet up at all.
One simply said, “I have better things to do than to talk with you guys! Like training under a powerful mage!" and the other said, "What do we even have to talk about anyway? Go fuck off and leave me alone."
We barely talked when we were on Earth, but I knew them long enough where I shouldn’t have been surprised by their responses. I still held on to some hope, though. I thought, maybe the fact we had to work together to make it back to Earth, away from this place, would motivate them to cooperate, but that seemed to have been too optimistic.
Haaa, this will be such a nightmare. I bet it on my thermos… not like I have it with me anymore, though.
As we promised Aiko and Tsuji, Kyouya and I were currently walking with Sakamoto to the meeting spot. We were introduced to her by the girls after we had that talk in the dining hall.
Sakamoto was not only short, but she was also pretty shy. Our relationship on Earth was merely limited to classmates, so it couldn’t be called a proper friendship. She had always been reserved around boys, so I barely knew anything about her outside of her being really good with math and that our fathers sometimes did business together.
She seemed to have gotten a bit closer with Kyouya, though, but nothing to send home about. He had been trying to open Sakamoto up to us, always finding some excuse for us to spend more time together to build some rapport.
Standing next to her, we really looked like two bodyguards. It also didn’t help that she was 154 cm tall (5’1 feet) and we were 173(5’7) and 186(6’1), respectively. Kyouya had always been taller than me, but ever since he began working out a ton, he just exploded in growth. It certainly made him reliable.
“We should hurry up,” I opened my mouth without turning my head. “Everybody is looking at us.”
I pointed out the fact every priest and shrine maiden who we walked past was looking at us. They were giving us a quick prayer and acting pretty polite, so we had to reciprocate, but I found it a bit too suffocating. Some of them I recognize speaking behind our backs, and sometimes they didn’t talk in a very church-like manner. They acted more like power-hungry politicians.
Our trip to the meeting spot was relatively uneventful and silent. Winter season was over now and the temperature had gone back up to an acceptable degree. Thankfully, as the meeting spot was outside the church knight’s garrison.
Once we were outside the main cathedral, we went to the knight order’s training field, located behind the order’s headquarters around a block away from the main church area. The whole church ground was designed in a campus-like manner, and from my frequent walks, I believed it was probably large enough to probably rival even the largest universities.
You had a whole section reserved for the grey priests and their lodging, while there was an area to separate the common-born and noble-born white-robes.
It was huge, in other words.
As we arrived at the training field, there we saw the silhouette of somebody waving his staff around like a freaking idiot.
“Ha! Too slow!” The moment he saw us, the piece of god knows smirked and began shouting in a boastful manner. “I can’t believe I have to party with four slowpokes. Come earlier, or don’t!”
I want to slap him.
Donning a robe fitting for a mage, the spectacled guy continued speaking, “At least, I got [Ardent Defender] from this deal. Be my shield and I’ll power level you up, Ishigami-kun.”
“Can’t you shut up for once, Mikami?” I said, disdain slipping through my lips.
The guy leering at me now was Daichi Mikami… my classmate and, now, a party member. He was your typical anti-social gamer who was so driven by his competitive nature to the point his toxic behavior leaked out to the real world.
Kyouya and I knew this as we met him quite often at PC bangs. Sure, he was only mildly infuriating when he was on our team and we won together, but anything but that meant he would just start cursing everything. Gaming was an outlet, and gaming inside a PC bang, instead of at home, was so we could go ham without our parents listening to us, but Mikami just took it too far.
I was competitive myself, but I knew where to draw the line and not let it affect me at school or at home. This guy, however, was a sore loser and bad winner. So unsportsmanlike that playing with him would drain me mentally.
“… Hope you’re good with using that shield of yours, Nagata,” he said, reproachfully now that any pretense was shoved out of the window. “The party bracelet might share experience, but I want the lion share, alright? As a fire mage and our main DPS, you need to get me leveled up with our tank and healer.”
My eyes started to twitch uncontrollably from hearing those words. “… Be the only source of damage, then. Be my guest and kill yourself with arcane corruption. Tsk, reality to Mikami, we aren’t in a game, you idiot. Learn to cooperate. Even with your [Kamikaze] skill, you still need to rely on others, otherwise, you'll end up meeting your maker earlier than expected."
