The Courtyard after 2 Months

“W-we can finally leave now…”

Amidst the silence, Cher’s quivering voice echoed throughout the room, snapping me out of moment reverie. I tilted my head towards her direction, only to see Cher slowly walking towards the window with trepid foot steps. A dull metal clang rang out as she suddenly dropped her shield and clasped onto her severed arm. She squeezed tightly to the point where her knuckles turned white.

With a somewhat vague and hazy expression, she stared listlessly at the window.

This classroom was located on the first floor of the East building. This window was practically the sole obstacle between us and the outside world. One step was all it took. Just one step forward and this building, all the people who died, all of it would turn into nothing but distant memory.

Cher continued to walk forward, each step taking her closer and closer towards the source of the humid summer heat. As she reached out, ready to grab hold onto the window sill, her breathing grew shallow and ragged. Her face flushed with excitement.

“We can finally,” With eyes shining with fervent anticipation, Cher mumbled under her breath. “Beyond this window... we can… we can finally… ”

“Wait!”

Before she could take that inevitable step outside, I suddenly raised my voice and stopped her.

Cher’s shoulders momentarily jerked as she froze in mid step. Her arm hung rigidly in the air as she turned towards me, a puzzled expression on her face.

“Why?” She asked simply, her voice unusually hollow. “Hide, we’re so close to leaving… All this time, after all this time, we can finally… so why?”

Her eyes watered as her face scrunched up in dismay. Her expression morphed into genuine fear, as if the possibility of leaving was slowly slipping away from her hands. My sudden interruption had caused doubt and worry to sprout in her heart.

I sighed in response.

I leisurely walked towards the windows, and began lifting them open, letting in even more waves of hot, summer air. As I aired out the classroom, I spoke, “Although we finally managed to kill the Boss and clear the Dungeon, that doesn’t mean we’re out of the danger zone just yet.”

While my head was turned to face Cher, my voice was loud enough to where the others could hear me. “You guys aren’t as naive as you used to be. You realize it too, right? You might not want to accept it, but the outside… the outside is just as bad as in here.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see everyone’s expressions darken. They knew that the Window panel from the first day, that thing wasn’t just addressing us, but rather, it was speaking to the whole world. What we’ve gone through in this dungeon, that was nothing more than just the tip of the bloody iceberg.

Thinking about all the future dangers ahead, I could not help but frown. “Out there, the world outside will undoubtedly be hell. That’s an issue for the future though, and something that we can push back for the time being. Right now, we have more pressing concerns. Something that’s far more concrete than future troubles to come.”

A fleeting memory from the first day flashed through my mind.

The image of a single lumbering beast. A monster covered in scales and fur, towering at half the height of the entire school. It was only for a moment, but in that short amount of time, I knew that that beast wasn’t something we should mess with. It was a monster that exuded ferocity, and incited fear. It was a monster that had the right to look at humans as nothing more than ants.

It was this sort of monster that awaited us outside of this building.

“The monster from the first day is out there… you all should know what I’m talking about.”

I turned back, only to see everyone exchanged worried glances. After a moment, almost in sync, they all nodded.

“That thing… I saw it from the main building during the first few weeks. It was sleeping in front of the entrance to the school, in between all three buildings.” The President commented flatly, as a look of contemplation flashed through his face.

“Mmm.” From the side, I saw Hina solemnly nod her head. She lowered her head, and thought for a while, before she said, “ We’ve been locked in the East building for two weeks. All that time, we’ve been single mindedly focused on training. Considering the situation, we haven’t really gone near the front of the main building at all these past few weeks. We’ve been so focused on training, that we haven’t really had the time or initiative to worry about the outside.

Even now, this classroom is facing away from the courtyard. We don’t have a single clue as to the situation outside.”

I nodded in response. “That’s why I don’t want us to recklessly go out while that thing might still be out there. Although the Dungeon is no more, at the very least, this school serves as some form of protection against it. Before we leave, I want to verify the situation.

Whether that monster outside really is as big of a threat as we’re making it out to be… there’s only one way to find out.”

****

Everyone was eager to investigate.

They weren’t really interested about the Monster, but rather, it felt more like the whole group was overcome by a pressing sense of urgency. The desire to leave this building was practically overflowing, and drove everyone to the state of near madness. Even I was affected by this sort of fervor.

But before we left to go inspect the courtyard, I forcibly made everyone wait, and rest. Our current strength was still greatly depleted from the Boss fight. Even after two hours passed, the mental, physical, and emotional fatigue still lingered. We were so depleted that our current strength could not even match up to a tenth of what we had when we fought the Dungeon Boss.

Although we couldn’t possibly recover all of our strength, I wanted us to at least possess the ability to run away in case something happens.

In fact, if the issue with the Courtyard wasn’t so important, I would have liked for everyone to rest for at least a day and a half. That way, we could increase our chances of survival.

After everyone begrudgingly agreed, I thought for a while, and after some deliberation, I decided to hand out the two remaining skill books that had dropped from the Dungeon Boss.

For [Nether Flare], I decided to give that to the President. This decision was brought on by two reasons. One, I wanted to give the Prez this skill book as a sort of compensation for his loss. After all, during the fight, everyone from his whole team had died.

Even after giving him the dropped equipment, I still felt that it wasn’t enough to compensate. His situation was something I could relate with. If it was the me from the start of the apocalypse, then I would not have been so generous, but between the current me and the me from back then, there was a tremendous difference.

That difference came in the form of three individuals.

Cielle, Hina, and Cher.

After fighting tooth and nail with the three of them, after we’ve shared countless life and death situations, after spending two months with these three, I come to realize just how important their existences had become to me.

They were my partners in battle. They were my fellow survivors. They were the members of my party. They were my friends. They were people I could rely and depend on. They were… they were something I wanted to protect.

That’s why I did not want to see any of them die. That was also why I understood part of the pain the President was going through. It was a bit sentimental, even naive but I could not help it. After all, I was still human.

The other, more practical reason was because I wanted to conduct an experiment.

[Nether Flare] was a fire element type magic skill. I wanted to find out whether or not Hina, who possessed [Full Element] could learn the skill without using the skill book. If the President can teach Hina the skill, or if Hina can directly gain some sort of insight or comprehension after seeing him use the skill a few times, then that would be for the best.

Not only would it show just how powerful [Full Element] was as a unique skill, but also, in the future, if Hina was capable of learning elemental type skills from others, then that would be like receiving twice the reward from just one skill.

Even more so, I wanted to see whether or not it was possible for people to pass on or teach their skills to others in general. We haven’t had the chance to test this theory out, considering how tight for time we were back then, but it was certainly something worth looking into.

At the very least, directly or maybe indirectly teaching someone a skill might be some form of requirement in gaining a title or maybe a skill. Considering how the system has worked up until now, this possibility certainly existed.

After I gave the skill books away, while the others rested, I cleared out the corpses from the classroom and stuffed them into an adjacent room next door.

Away from everybody else, in the room adjacent to the others, I did something I hadn’t done in a while. I knelt down besides a nearby corpse- the dead body that belonged to Mr. Tai, and took out my dagger. After setting Mr. Tai’s body flat onto the floor with his face and chest facing up, I began the morbid operation of dissecting the corpse

This was something that I had deemed necessary after considering the current situation. In the future, there was a high probability that we would run into other survivors, and not everyone we meet outside will be friendly.

Scraping together any advantages I could acquire before the inevitable battle was important, and [Dissect] could help me do this.

When I upgraded [Dissect] during the mimic incident, the skill underwent a transformation, increasing its utility. One of the new effects it gained was something called [Anatomize]. [Anatomize] was a sort of automatic indicator that pointed out the enemy’s weak points or vulnerable spots during the midsts of battle.

With my prior knowledge, something like an automatic indicator wasn’t really all that beneficial, what made [Anatomize] valuable, was that it increased the chances of a critical hit or fatal blow occurring.

This sort of automatic indicator only activated on enemies I’ve previously dissected, and as of now, I haven’t dissected a human body. Whether that be out of some sort of unspoken principle or because I was simply afraid, still I hesitated, but today, that would change.

As the others rested, I busily dissected. I cut up and opened every single cafeteria survivor that had died at Kido’s hands. I then compared what I saw with the things I already knew of, and with the information I found in a human anatomy textbook I had snagged in the library a while back.

While the insides were generally what I expected, my eyes were still vigilant and locked onto every nook and cranny of each body I dissected.

Actually, I was also looking for something. While the primary reason for my dissection was due to future preparation, there was also one other reason. I wanted to find out if there were any changes that had occurred. How the system affected the body physically, and its effects on our anatomy.

There was a stark difference between us and the monsters. The biggest difference was that they were brought in along with the system to our world, while we were introduced to the system. Dissecting the monsters from the other world wouldn’t give me any evidence as to how the system affected organisms, mainly because I have no reference as to what they looked like prior to the system.

In the first place, I don’t even know if the monsters ever existed without the system.

Dissecting human bodies, or in general, organisms that originated on earth would allow me to better understand how the system affected us. Whether increasing intelligence or wisdom, increased the size of the human brain, increased the amount of neurons it had, made the brain denser, or increased the amount of folds it had… How speed and strength affected the muscles, and the primary difference between these two stats… there were many things one could gleam from simply poking and prodding.

Unfortunately though, these current corpses weren’t that useful in gaining insight towards how the system affected our bodies. Primarily, the cafeteria survivors were people who did not fully benefit from the system. They were merely level one, and their bodies prior to their deaths were no different from what it was before the apocalypse. If I wanted real information, I needed to dissect the bodies of higher level survivors.

Well, this issue could be remedied in the future. Even if I don’t go actively looking for new corpses, I’m sure one way or another, bodies will start piling up one after another.

As these thoughts and ideas floated in my mind, I quietly continued dissecting. The sound of flesh being torn apart, and of metal hitting bone filled the room. The heat of the day brought forth a foul stench from the corpses, but I did not pay particular attention to the smell.

My eyes were locked solely on the vivid red insides, while my hands continually worked, showcasing the effects of my over 100 dexterity.

Without me noticing three hours passed.

****

“W-what is all this…?”

We were on the west side of the East building, facing the rows of windows that overlooked the courtyard/entrance of the school. Currently, the scene before us was beyond any of our expectations.

Prior to the apocalypse, the courtyard of the school was an open plot of concrete and cement. It was surrounded on three side by the old, main and east building, while a small, sparsely decorated flower garden laid at the center. Normally, it would be a barren space of packed dirt and concrete, but right now, the image before us was something that vastly deviated from the norm.

In short, the courtyard was a mess. A thin layer of white completely covered the concrete surface. If one looked closely enough, then they’d discover that that thin layer of white, was in fact morbid foundation of bones. The bones ranged in both size and shape, showing that they came from both monster and human.

What was particularly worrying was the fact that some of these bones were as large, or even larger than the a vending machine. Just imagining the thing that had managed to kill the owner of those bones sent a shiver down my spine.

In addition to these bones, interspersed around the courtyard, were various crushed, partially destroyed, and sometimes overturned vehicles. These lumps of metal numbered in the hundreds, and sloppy stacks of them were spaced out around the flower garden as the center.

A little further out of the courtyard was a giant blockade of cars in front of the courtyard. It formed a sort of fourth wall, enclosing the entrance of the school into a neat little square.

The situation was definitely a bit overwhelming, and knowing all this was so close by only further served to increase the amount of cold sweat that poured freely from my back.

The only solace out of the whole situation was the sole fact that that monster that had built this sort of enclosure wasn’t here right now.

As I stared out at the scene before me, my face unconsciously scrunched up into a frown. Doubts and questions began to form in my mind, and as if verbalizing these questions, Cher asked from beside me, “W-why did it build something like this? And why so close to the school?”

I did not answer, but from a little ways down, Hina responded. Her face was masked in a look of deep contemplation, and her hands were pressed against the windows. “... It’s a base… something like a lair or maybe a nest. The cars stacked up over there, it's sort of formed the same way a bird stacks up sticks and twigs to form a nest.”

“A nest…” Cher murmured in awe as she stared wide eyed at the courtyard.

Upon hearing Hina’s explanation, I subconsciously nodded my head. I also reached the same conclusion. Although the overall shape turned out like a square, the resemblance was still there.

“But why so close to the school?” the President’s voice suddenly spoke up as he asked Hina a barrage of questions. “Why set up camp her? Where did the monster that lived here go? In the first place, how can you be so sure it's a nest?”

Hina turned and looked at the President for a good while before she turned away and lowered her head. After a few seconds of silence, she responded, “...It’s because the school used to be a dungeon.

Since there were special restrictions set on leaving the school, there might be similar restrictions regarding entering the school. If that same system that kept us from prematurely entering the school protected the building, then making a base with the dungeon as the basis is actually a pretty smart thing to do.

The walls of the buildings… well, at least the outer walls of the building are probably enforced by the system, so as to prevent improper entry or exit. If so, then the school is practically indestructible under normal circumstances. Building a nest inside the school’s courtyard is practically the same as having an three impenetrable iron walls around you.

Although, since the school’s no longer a dungeon, I’d imagine that advantage has gone and passed...

As for where the Monster went… I have no idea. I think either it left permanently and moved on to a newer location, or it went hunting somewhere. If it’s the latter, then we’re lucky. It was away when we cleared the dungeon. If it had been present, and realized that we cleared the dungeon, there’s a chance it could have attacked us.

If that had happened, we would have all likely died…”

As Hina’s dark words echoed throughout the room, everyone’s expression darkened. Just imagining fighting two Boss ranked monsters back to back was enough to sprout a shadow of dread deep in my heart.

After a slight pause, Hina coughed and continued, “ And as for why I’m certain this is a nest… look…”

Hina’s words faded out as she pointed towards the small flower garden in the center of the courtyard.

Almost instinctively, everyone’s eyes turned to stare at the garden, or more precisely, at what was inside the garden. A series of shocked gasps rang out in the hall. Everyone had the same reaction of surprise, although there was one person in particular who displayed a more exaggerated response. After seeing the object in the flower garden, her eyes reddenned in fanatical fervor.

“That’s an egg…” Cher’s voice was barely audible as she stared wide eyed.

The object in the center of the flower garden was an egg. An oval sized, pasty yellow colored egg, whose size was a little bit bigger than a basket ball. Half its body was hidden by the overgrown flowers in the garden, but it's pasty yellow shell stuck out vividly from the purple orchids that bloomed.

“Egg, egg, egg, it's an egg….” The one with the most over exaggerated reaction, and whose eyes had turned red from excitement was without a doubt, Narise. She adjusted the frames of her glasses as a weird smile floated to her expression.

“Boss, Boss, that egg, we definitely have to get it! Weiss needs a friend, plus, we can’t just leave it there all by itself. For all we know, the mother of that egg probably left forever, or maybe she died somewhere near a gutter. It definitely needs us, it definitely needs me! That egg, we’re getting it, right Boss? We’re definitely getting it…” Even before I could respond, Narise was already opening the window. Her eyes stayed glued to the egg, while the white Gila in her arms squirmed uncomfortably.

“Wait, don’t be so hasty.” I hurriedly moved to stop her. “Just because the monster isn’t here right now, doesn’t mean it won’t notice if we take the egg. We can’t just-”

“No, I agree with her.” Unexpectedly Cielle stepped up and interrupted. While her hands moved to open the window, her eyes stayed locked onto the egg, a different sort of anticipation glowed in her dark brown irises. “I… I haven’t had omelet in a while…”

Her stomach grumbled as those words left her mouth, but she was seemingly indifferent towards it as she continued to struggle against the window. Her eyes were spinning in delusion, as a trace of saliva unknowingly flowed out from the corner of her lip.

Seeing Cielle’s out of character response, everyone’s expression turned awkward. Hina, who knew about Cielle’s sometimes, overly gluttonous self, mildly blushed, as she tried to stop her. “S-sis, I know you’re hungry, but not right now.”

While everyone else in the group displayed a trace of awkwardness at Cielle’s current state, there was one person who showed a completely different response. Narise’s brow scrunched up while her lips formed a frown. For a moment, she stopped trying to open the window and turned towards Cielle.

“Oi! Boss’s woman! You can’t just eat something so precious! What are you!? An idiot?” She grumbled unhappily as she reprimanded.

Cielle was rather indifferent towards her, as her eyes continued to stare at the glistening egg in the flower garden. All the while, her stomach was grumbling and making weird noises none stop.

“My stomach is hollow, and my energy is low…” She quietly muttered under her breath. “Eggs are a good source of nutrients…”

“Nooo! That egg isn’t for eating!” Narise’s expression twisted into fear after hearing Cielle’s curse like ramblings. “I won’t let I definitely- DEFINITELY won’t let you!”

As the hallway turned increasingly chaotic, I could only look on with a hollow expression. Cielle and Narise were both coveting that egg for two entirely different reasons, and right now, despite the urgency of the situation, seeing these two bicker like this practically drained what little energy I had in my entire body.

With a sigh, I stomped my foot on the ground, and yelled for them to stop. After the room quieted down, I sighed once more as I looked up at the ceiling and began to think.

Pushing aside Cielle’s desire to eat the egg, giving Narise the egg to raise wasn’t an entirely bad idea. If she somehow managed to gain the Monster Tamer skill, and somehow managed to tame the monster that hatched from that egg, then our fighting strength and chances of survival will definitely increase… Of course, there’s also the option of me raising the egg myself…

The only problem here was the Owner of this “nest” and the mother of that egg. While it wasn’t here right now, and we were extremely lucky to have this type of opportunity, there was still risk involved. Primarily, there was a chance that the Mother had a some sort of connection with this egg… something like being able to sniff the egg out from 2 miles away or something similarly outrageous…

The rewards were good, but the risks were even higher.

Seeing my troubled expression, Cher moved towards me, and inputted her own opinion. “I don’t think we should take it. It’s too dangerous, and the mother will definitely, definitely come chasing after us… While under different circumstances, I don’t particularly mind that sort of c-chase play, right now, I don’t want to die after just getting out of the dungeon.”

Seeing Cher’s worried expression, I smiled wearily at her. Before I could respond, the President, interjected and spoke.

“I agree with her. Taking the egg has too many risks involved, not to mention, in our current condition, we’ll have trouble escaping.”

From afar, Cielle and Narise’s heads turned as they stared over at us. Their faces twitched as they exchanged a quick glance between themselves before turning back around. Seeing everyone’s opinion leaning towards leaving the egg alone, they grew dismayed.

“Hide…”

“Boss!”

They pleaded with their eyes, as they inched closer and closer towards me.

Seeing this situation, and seeing how her sister was currently acting, Hina could only sigh in resignation. Meanwhile, Minakawa and her friend watched from afar, not putting any input or suggestion towards the issue.

At the center of it all, my face scrunched up as I turned back around to look at the egg. With the decision weighing me down, I could only sigh in frustration.

The temptations were great, but the risk was even greater. As I continued to think, my eyes gazed over the courtyard. Unexpectedly, I saw something from underneath a piece of giant bone that caught my attention.

Seeing this object, my eyes widened in surprise.

I pressed my hand against the window sill, and without hesitation, I immediately uttered, “I’ve decided. That egg… we’ll take it!”

****

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, look forward for more.