Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, I got preoccupied yesterday.

Perspective

In one of the decrepit classrooms adjacent to the Eastern hallway, Hina and Cielle waited anxiously.

They exchanged few words, mostly about their previous life, some mention of their parents, although that topic had already become taboo (I mean, what’s good about having such a heavy topic in mind when you can’t do anything about it), but mostly, the room was submerged in a miasma of silence and heavy tension.

In Hina’s case, there remained lingering doubt as to whether Hide could accomplish the task he had proposed. Although she knew Hide was credited with saving her life before, she simply found it hard to believe in the youth’s… abilities, especially basing from how he presented himself.

Hina had not known the true value levels had, so when Hide made the passing remark about his level, Hina didn’t quite appreciate it. While she had a vague notion Hide’s feat was amazing in a sense, but it didn’t quite hit home for the still clueless little girl.

The solemn girl looked over at her sister. The usual haggard black hair donned over Cielle’s face, covering much of her expression.

Although her face was well hidden, Hina, having grown up with the eccentric girl, had learned how to discern most of Cielle’s varying emotional states through body language alone.

Right now, she had a feeling that Cielle was… a bit awkward.

Hina couldn’t quite put it, since Cielle’s particular state was something Hina hadn’t previously seen before.

In Cielle’s case, she was idly letting her thoughts wander as her gaze remained fixated on the door in front of her.

The very door that Hide had exited from and left her with a task. A task the young girl was motivated and determined to accomplish.

This task was to wait patiently until Hide came back. He had told her previously not to worry about him, and while Cielle had decided even before hand to wholeheartedly believe in Hide, she couldn’t help but hold in an anxious sort of feeling within her

.

Whether the odds were overwhelmingly in his favor, or astronomically against him, she would throw out any and all logic thinking and trust in Hide Mayo no matter what. But despite this rather twisted viewpoint, Cielle couldn’t help but worry, she couldn’t help but think something bad might happen, she couldn’t help but fear for Hide’s own life.

After all, it was only natural to worry about those you love.

The two sat quietly on some propped up chairs, hardly exchanging a word between each other. The original tenseness from when Hide had left still remained and persisted.

They were nervous after all, this was their first time alone and not within the confines of the art room.

Reminiscing, a lot of first times happened for the two girls throughout the span of yesterday until today. The first life or death experience, the first time Cielle acted so… weird, and the first time they had met such an odd fellow like Hide.

As they waited, a trembling roar vibrated throughout the hallway.

Hina’s head swiveled towards the noise’s direction as Cielle’s eyes widened in surprise under her curtain of matted hair.

Their faces were strained, as if they both made the effort to hear and block out the noise at the same time.

For the next 1 minute and a half, their ears filled with wails. From their distance, it wasn’t clear whether these wails were one of anger, or pain, but at this point, for the two girls, it mattered not.

As abruptly as the screams started, they suddenly stopped and for a while, there was a long silence. A silence that completely complemented the eerie feeling that had befallen the decrepit classroom.

The girls looked between each other, as if the sudden quiet had broken them out of their stupor.

They stared at each other for a moment, not knowing what to say.

They could only begin to ponder as to the origin of that noise, but they had a feeling, no, they were certain that it somehow involved the black haired, panda eyed youth that they had seen off not a mere 20 minutes ago.

“W-what do you think…..” Hina’s voice broke the abrupt silence but suddenly trailed off.

“Hide…” Cielle responded, her voice an eerie hollow to its original soft undertone.

Hina nodded subconsciously to this one name. They didn’’t know how, but Hide had definitely produced that scream, but now the question on both their minds was; was he okay?

They pondered this thought, this frightening question, this unwanted reality. They pondered the possibility that Hide had gone and died back then, but they did not voice it out.

After 3 minutes or so, the screaming once again started. It wasn’t human, rather, it was very much like the first round of screams; a deep, and guttural, animalistic roar(Mooooo!?), one embedded with rage and agony.

Another 2 minutes passed before the screams halted. This time, the girls were more accustomed to it, so they only merely frowned, while Hina covered her ears loosely with a pair of delicate hands.

The noise once again abruptly stopped as it had began.

For what felt like hours, silence was once again prevalent. Merely the accelerated beating of rampant heart beats adorned the classroom. The girl’s developed cold sweats as they unconsciously began to pray for Hide’s safety.

Hina’s thoughts wandered.

For some reason, it was at this time that she started remembering tid bits of random events from her previous life. Although in this case, previous merely meant the life she had lived up until now. The time she forgot to brush her teeth, when she fixed Cielle’s hair, the happy days she spent with her parents.

Weird little snippets of life. Moments she had taken for granted now felt so surreal in the face of the current events. The fact that death and its friends now accompanied what she would consider “daily life” was quite a stupendous change for her. And for Hina, it embittered her that she could do nothing but wait.

So she waited.

Then, from a distance, an audible noise entered her ears. It was faint, but nonetheless, it existed.

Unlike the previous events, this time they heard a faint pitter patter. Soft, rhythmic sounds that seemingly increased every second.

The girls briefly looked at each other before they turned to the door. By now, they could definitely tell that this round of noise were feet running on tiled floors, and what’s more, they were coming closer and closer to their current location.

Their faces masked in concentration and anxiety as they continued to glare. They recalled Hide’s parting words; “Remember, it’s very possible that I could drop dead while fighting, or that another monster might wander through here.”

They shivered at this. The very thought that a person they had talked to mere minutes ago might now be lying dead filled their chilled bones to the icy core.

The girls began to reflexively move to the back of the room. Cielle grabbed a nearby ruler as a pseudo weapon while Hina hastily raised her hand up in front of her, prepared to fire off a magic spell she had no prior experience with.

As they waited anxiously, and as the steps grew louder, the door suddenly bursted open with increased vigor. A sweaty and tired looking Hide greeted them.

In his left hand was the familiar night clad dagger that the two of them had seen on several occasion. What was in his right though, surprised them.

It was a metallic axe with several blood and rust stains that indicated its heavy usage. The axe’s wooden handle was gripped by Hide’s right hand and seemingly dwarfed his small hand. Yet, despite this, he held it just as easily as the small bladed weapon in his other hand.

Hide stared at the two for a moment and frowned.

He entered the room without a word, placed the giant axe propped up to the side of the table while muttering, “This thing is too inconvenient to use,” and directly went to the container filled with dark gemini. He lifted it up, and made his way back to the doorway.

He turned back, and while his frown still persisted, he quickly shifted his expression back to an impassive mask and readily spoke to them.

“Hurry up, and follow me.”

With those simple words, the youth left just as abruptly as he entered, although this time, he had prompted the two girls to follow.

Hina and Cielle looked at each other for a moment, before they followed. Cielle ran up front while Hina followed. As they ran hastily through the halls, going wherever Hide would guide them to, Hina couldn’t help but utter her current confusion.

“H-hey! What’s happening?! What were those screams earlier?”

Hide briefly glanced back before he turned back and continued running while he began explaining.

“Like I said before, I went to go test out the waters. I fought one and defeated it, but another one followed me when I ran away. It was unfortunate that I had to waste time taking care of an extra, but this is a good opportunity too.

A third one right now should be out there, wandering, looking for me, and I expect many more to follow. In a little while, I’m sure these halls will be filled with minotaurs, mostly since I disrupted their spawn pattern.

This is a good opportunity for us though, since we can fight one alone without having to worry about the spawn point.”

As he explained, Cielle nodded earnestly, not exactly understanding, but realizing Hide had done what he had promised to earlier. On the other hand, Hina’s jaw dropped as she tried to comprehend the information.

It felt a bit surreal, talking to a teenager about killing real monsters and the like. It definitely wasn’t the type of situation Hina’s memories had recalled.

Hide didn’t realize the girls’ various reactions, so he blissfully continued to explain as he ran.

“Since we won’t have to worry too much about fighting in the spawn point, we can set up a trap and make our fights easier. Rather than fighting on crunched time, we can take our time and get you two comfortable to the system...”

With those words, Hide came to a dwindling stop in front of another old classroom. This room was just one among the myriad of other random classrooms within the Western building.

He led them into the classroom and positioned them directly against the wall with them facing the door they had just entered.

Once there, the two girls once again uneasily looked at each other, while Hide placed the container of black Gemini on the floor and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Hide then pulled out two of the goblin short swords he always seemed to keep behind his back and gently handed them over, one to each girl.

“Now, I don’t expect you two to use those, but it’s a… precaution.”

He finished freeing the lid open, and turned back to the girls.

“Okay, here’s the plan:

I’ll go lure the minotaur

while you guy’s wait here and set a trap.”

Hide then turns abruptly towards Cielle.

“Cielle, I need you to set up a trap with dark gemini. Make it float above the entrance way, and when you see both me and the minotaur enter the room, force it down as fast as you can.

Considering your level, this won’t do much, but damage isn’t what I’m looking for, rather, I need you to create an opening with your powers.”

He then paused for a second to look at Cielle.

“Do you understand?”

Hide asked, to which Cielle determinedly nodded.

Once he had confirmed this, he nodded in response, and then turned to Hina.

“As for you, get ready to use your spells...do you know anything else besides attack magic?”

Startled for a moment, after some hesitation, Hina nodded and explained,

“I have a few, er, buffs, but I don’t…”

Hide abruptly cut her off with an “Just like I thought…”

Before he resumed explaining, “I’ll hear about the details later, for now, stick to attack magic. Just get ready to use them, DON’T actually use them until I say so.”

Not waiting for a response. Hide’s eyes briefly examined the room, muttering following his frantic eye movement, before he began to make his way to the door.

With a final goodbye, and a last confirmation, of “Be prepared,” he set off to do his part of this rather rushed-plan.

The two girls looked blankly at the now empty doorway. Hide’s instructions had been so precise, and quick, that there wasn’t much room to but in an opinion, leaving the girls to only helplessly sigh.

Cielle immediately set about to levitate the mass of dark gemini residing in the container. It floated helplessly as it drifted above the doorway, exactly where Hide indicated.

Hina, who saw this with a helpless state, could do nothing but raise her arms above her in preparation. Of course, the lingering doubt as to both Hide’s skill, and to her own safety still persisted, but for now she said nothing. After all, Hide had voluntarily helped them in leveling up so that they could survive this new world.

Plus, although Hina’s mind refused to believe, it really does seem as if the minotaurs all fell to Hide’s sword-er, dagger.

With nothing else to do but idly ponder, Hina anxiously waited for the fight to start.

This was going to be her first fight, so of course she was nervous. Rather, right now felt a bit surreal. As if this wasn’t her hands directly in front of her, and it wasn’t her skin perspirating to a huge extent. She felt out of it, loopy, nervous, terribly nervous.

Yet she forged on, ready to take whatever was to come by the horns.

Cielle on the other hand, shared the same nervous anxiousness of her sister.

She had glanced briefly at her sister, and determined that as an older sister, she had to do something to protect her. While of course, she inwardly sighed in relief upon knowing Hide was there, all the same, she had endeavored to risk her life for the ones she loved.

And right now that count was two; Hide and Hina.

[Ah, I hope Hide is safe…] Cielle.

[W-will this really be okay….] Hina worriedly asked herself.

The two girls, whose actions were identical, yet the content was different, continued pondering useless trivialities as they waited.

Suddenly, snapping both girl’s from their thoughts, a lumbering roar shaked the atmosphere.

In an instant Hide bursted through the doorway, dagger in hand. Somehow its orichalum black edge was smeared in a vicious red, which glinted of the sun light.

Hide ran and with one glance at Cielle, indicated for her to activate the trap.

Nervous, excited, scared, very scared, yet devoted nonetheless, Cielle did her part and pushed down the currently levitating Dark gemini directly below the beast that shortly entered the room.

Like Hide had said, Dark gemini hadn’t killed the minotaur, which was obvious considering how low a level Cielle was. But it’s not like it was completely useless.

Despite its level, the blackish substance was capable of exerting out watts of electrifying pain. This pain was so great that upon contact, it left the giant of a bull helplessly screaming out in pain.

Using this opportunity, Cielle saw Hide pivot of from his spot, and directly rush back towards the beast.

His hands seemed to fly forward as it quickly lobbed of a leg… then another.

In no time the beast was a double amputee and was left helpless in a state of constant agony.

Seeing this, Hide stopped for a moment. From Cielle’s perspective he seemed to be looking something while he muttered quietly to himself. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped towards the creature and stabbed down directly into its eye, eliciting a round of agonized screams.

He stepped back, seemingly satisfied, before he turned back towards Hina.

“Hina, I dealt a few major blow towards the thing. It should have at most 2% of its hp left. Use your attack magic in succession with what I call out. Got it?”

“Ah.. um…” Hina hesitated for a moment.

The idea that she was about to kill something that looked vaguely human flashed across her mind. Her subconscious was still a bit receptive upon the new rules of this new world, but before any doubt could trickle its way into her mind, Hide immediately said, “Fire!”

The chill of Hide’s permissive and ice like tone cause shivers to run down Hina’s spine as her body unconsciously began going through the motions of a Basic Fire spell.

Reddish orange flames shot forth out of Hina’s hands and directly spiraled into the Minotaur’s chest. The searing blast caused a round of roars to burst forth from the creature’s orifice.

From the back, Cielle slowly began to lower her still outstretched arms, noticing that her assistance was no longer needed. Rather than looking at her sister, whose face turned frantic upon the impact of the skill onto the monster, she quietly observed Hide, who, to her interest, was sporting a deathly handsome expression as he stared intently at the dying beast.

With keen eyes and even keener ears, she heard the youth, mutter out “1.3% damage….”

In an instant, Hide’s muttering grew louder until he was once again issuing commands. “Hmm... another, ‘Wind.’”

Hina’s body once again moved into motion and in no time, a round of razor sharp gusts rocketed out and impacted the dying minotaur. While the magic that left her hands battered the beast relentlessly, her expression was less forceful. A more frantic, and somewhat unstable facade masked her face as she steadily lost the conscious will to move it as she pleased.

It’s already critical state once lowered once more, as Hide’s indifferent voice, rang out so quietly that Cielle could barely hear the subdued, “.5%...”

“Water.”

Hide called out once more, prompting Hina to attack. A torrent of jet like water blasted at the minotaur. It let out a dying grown before its body went limp and died.

Seeing this, Hina let out a shaky laugh as she attempted to hug herself. Consoling mutters emitted from her now deathly fragile voice.

Things like “I-I killed it..” and “Magic sure is strong…” were constantly heard in the deathly quiet room.

Cielle watched this with fascinated eyes, well, watched Hide mostly, who nodded understandingly.

Hide turned towards Hina, and, as if in an attempt to shake of Hina’s post kill stupor, he spoke, “Hina. I want you to use fire spells this time around. They work more effectively against this type of monster.”

Hide stopped speaking for a moment and looked at the unresponsive Hina. At first, she seemed lost, not paying attention nor showing any indication that she was listening. Then, after a couple of seconds she silently nodded.

“Then, Hina, I want you to check out your stats. See if you leveled up or not.” Hide’s voice advised.

Hina once again silently nodded, as she inwardly thought to herself. [Status…]

She looked briefly at her stats.

She noted that her strength was still as low as ever (4), while the rest remained intact. Her eyes scanned the mana, stamina, and hp section only to widen in surprise as she soon discovered that they had risen by 30 each.

She looked at her current level, and as if to confirm it with herself as well as inform Hide, said “I’m level 3.”

With that simple sentence Hide nodded.

“Distribute your points as you like. They might not seem much, but in the long run, they’ll help. Also….”

Hide’s voice trailed off as he walked over closer to the two girls.

“I also want you to take turns attacking with Cielle.” He continued, and briefly looked out into space. After confirming something, he took out his black dagger before he performed a severe gash on his own arm. The blade seemed to sink into bone as Hide only groaned out an uncomfortable noise.

He then looked back at Cielle. His gaze, which met Cielle’s own seemed to make the fragile young girl’s heart skip a beat. Impervious to the complicated intricacies of a young maiden’s heart, Hide quickly spoke.

“Cielle come heal my wound.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the sparkling blue quickly left Cielle’s palm as it entered Hide’s body. A few seconds later, a rather large mass of Bluish black was freed itself from Hide and floated carelessly in the air. Hide promptly moved over and with the container from earlier, captured much of the liquid.

He gently sat it down next to the black haired girl, as he moved backwards.

“Cielle, use this for attacking. We won’t go with the earlier plan from last time.

I want you two to not do anything until I say so. For the next round, Hina, just stand there. Then after that, it’ll be Hina’s turn to attack while Cielle waits and recovers her mana. This will be the system we will use. You two each taking turns as I continue to draw in the minotaurs.

You two must make sure to get the final blow, otherwise, you won’t get any experience. I’ve already confirmed this. The last fight, although I did the brunt of the work, I didn’t receive anything.

It must have something to do with the no party system in this dungeon. In the future, I think that parties and the like may become available, but for now that’s out of our reach. The system said that….”

Hide noticed that he had unconsciously started rambling so he abruptly stopped himself. With a cough, he regained his composure to look at both Hina and Cielle.

He noticed that upon hearing his consecutive barrage of orders, the two girls nodded. Right now they weren’t in control, they had totally fallen into Hide’s manipulative hand.

Hide nodded as well, before moving back over to the door. With a few parting words, and an affirmation of “I’m going to go draw in the next minotaur, you two stay safe.” He left, leaving the two girls alone, once again in the silence.

And with that Hide and co.’s farming had only just begun.

*****

Author's Note:

Tried a different perspective to emphasize both Cielle's and Hina's train of thought for this chapter.

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