You know, they really make being a hero seem cool in the comic books. But honestly, the work it takes to build up into one suck. It sucks so much I want to cry. But I’m doing it anyway for reasons I don’t completely understand just yet.

There were more thoughts John had in mind. He could probably fill a dozen pages in a journal with his thoughts on what he was doing right now. Because he couldn’t help but wonder if he was partially crazy or if he had a secret backstory that made him want to fight a monster when he could clearly avoid it.

But he didn’t think he was mentally insane. He had a history with a loving family, good friends, and a few people outside of his immediate circle he could look up to in a sense. In every way, John was just a normal dude with some hobbies and an interest in the opposite sex.

But here he was in an evil misty forest trying to dodge a knife attached to a bootleg rope made out of scraps from a medieval shirt. Behind the weapon was a short girl with steely-gray eyes that could maneuver the roped knife with high precision and speed. She thwarted each of his attempts to avoid the weapon, making him pay for wanting to achieve something greater than what any normal dude should attempt.

Being a hero who could dodge death.

The only reason they would stop was when Noname felt she was getting tired. But that took a while, honestly. Noname said she didn’t have many points dedicated to [Endurance], but she had a lot of stamina coming from the old world. She was used to doing training like this. John being a boxer gave him confidence in his conditioning, and the added points to [Endurance] boosted that. But he didn’t think he was far off from being drained compared to Noname.

Dodging a skillfully thrown knife multiple times was an overwhelming task. It was made worse by the lack of a clear enemy to punch. Thus, John couldn’t help but feel frightened as he anticipated each throw. He got angry when he got cut because he didn’t have any way to return the favor. Getting angry led to him getting cut again and again.

When Noname took a break, John had more than three dozen cuts bleeding openly along his torso, arms, face, and legs. It all stung like hell, but he was more frustrated in his inability to avoid a single attack.

The girl hadn’t missed him once.

Xanhilt was watching from the sidelines, shifting around uncomfortably. John almost wanted to tell him things would be alright, but he couldn’t muster the words to say anything right now. His attention returned to all the bleeding wounds covering his body.

Holy shit.

He was hurt enough that he would need at least two poor vitality stones to heal up. But he didn’t pull out the stones just yet. He was submerging himself in the reality of the training scenario and his bid to fight the knight solo. This was a bloody game that held nothing back. It was as gritty and real as it was fantastically supernatural.

“Let’s sit,” Noname said.

“I can keep going once I heal up,” John said.

The gray-eyed girl walked off, dragging her roped knife behind her. John watched her for a bit before making up his mind to follow after her. When she sat down against the base of a tree, John stared at the trunk for a while before deciding to trust that the tree was normal enough. He sat beside Noname. Then Xanhilt came over and sat beside John.

John pulled out some vitality stones and crushed them between his hands. The fizzling red magic entered his body and sealed his cuts, returning him to good health. He shared stamina stones with Noname, and they both absorbed the stamina recovering magic. Then they fell silent, listening to the evil tree speak of false hope in the distance.

“I’m starting to have my doubts about this,” Xanhilt said softly.

“Yeah?” John responded.

“At the moment, after seeing what the consequence of being led by such a trap could look like, I felt stirred to action just like you, John. But now I’ve cooled and thought over the situation considerably.”

John’s jaw clenched as Xanhilt talked.

“We might be playing into the hands of the trap’s designer. It is obvious, isn’t it? Look at us.”

Xanhilt pointed toward Noname and John.

“We are part of the machinations of a higher order of beings who fancy themselves as gods. And through their manipulations, they have us run from one scenario to another. I imagine it’s all for their entertainment, really. That’s what I theorize when I think of Dolala and whoever else is behind these horrid trials. I’m certain they’re watching us struggle as a form of cruel amusement.”

Xanhilt let out a slight hiss that was similar to a sigh.

“But what I find truly tragic is that it is the powers of these vile watchers that we must use to continue to persist past the dangers of Urmatia. It is through these trials we can acquire more power and ensure our greater safety. And without safety, we can’t dig deeper into the depth of our situation and find means to overcome it all.”

“So, does that mean you approve or disapprove of what I’m doing?” John asked slowly, not sure if he caught on to everything Xanhilt was trying to say.

He got the gist, though. The supposed gods were up to something tricky, but Xanhilt didn’t have enough information to understand it clearly. Neither did John. All they could do was respond to threats as they came.

“It means fighting the knight or following the compass is all part of the game, and I’m both aware of the terrible constraint on our individualities and the necessity of it all. So, perhaps fighting the knight would make us feel great because it is the heroic thing to do, but is it the smartest move? Or is it playing into the hands of the masters, creating opportunities to weed us out⁠—”

“Or grow stronger,” Noname said.

“What does it mean to grow stronger? Isn’t that just another ploy of the manipulative gods?” Xanhilt challenged.

“Mmm,” Noname hummed. “Everyone’s got reasons to control others. That’s how it’s always been. But this is the first time I get to kill, and it’s openly supported.”

“You’re misplacing your priorities, Noname,” Xanhilt said. “The ability to kill freely doesn’t matter if it’s part of a grand scheme by creatures that place themselves above all others.”

“Don’t you have people who do that where you’re from?” Noname asked.

“I can assure you that all saurian officials who rule their station have worked their way there,” Xanhilt said proudly.

“So, there’s nobody who abuses their power?” Noname asked.

“Well, there have been a couple,” Xanhilt said softly.

“Mmm.”

John found the opportunity to talk, hedging in carefully. “I see where you’re coming from, Xanhilt.”

The saurian perked up.

“Where we’re from, people believe in the divine really hard,” John said.

“Yup,” Noname added. “Really, really hard.”

“I also know from games that they tend to have gods and goddess running things in the background,” John said. “From what I know back in my old world, they could be good or bad or anywhere in between. The ones here in Urmatia, well… if all we have is Dolala to base off of, it sounds like they’re insane. But we don’t know if they’ve created everything to play out this way exactly, or if there’s more we’re not seeing.”

“We can never see everything,” Noname said. “Sometimes, it’s best not to see and just live day-by-day.”

“Is that how human assassins live?” Xanhilt asked carefully.

John wondered the same.

Noname shrugged, divulging nothing more.

“Well, I just wanted to speak aloud what was building up inside of me the past couple of days,” Xanhilt said. “I had a lot of time to think while watching over you, John.”

“I’m sorry you had to take care of a lug like me, man,” John said, cracking a smile.

Xanhilt gave him a sidelong look. “I wouldn’t mind watching over you further, but you’ll have to survive this trial against the knight. Though, it makes me wonder if we should depart the area, seek out weaker enemies, and make use of this level-up system to even the odds.”

“We’re bound to lose this place if we do that,” John said.

“I have the magic core [Limited Clairvoyance],” Noname said. “It works on places I’ve seen before. But they can’t be far away. And the monsters of this area are far enough apart for me to lose this place.”

“And it’ll cost us time if we hunt down monsters in the area. Who here wants to stay out when it gets dark?” John asked.

“Don’t wanna sleep in a tree?” Noname asked.

“No,” John said.

Xanhilt shook his head.

“I want to beat that stupid knight up and get us to where the compass is pointing before dark,” John said.

“Isn’t that too ambitious?” Xanhilt asked.

John lifted a fist. “If you want to break through the manipulations of the gods, we gotta play a hard and fast game. And we gotta do it in a way that lets us sleep at night. My dad told me that’s an important way to live your life, going after what you want and being able to sleep at night.”

“Sounds like a dream,” Noname said. “But I like it. I like it so much, I might make this knife my weapon art.”

“You have access to a weapon art, and you haven’t used it yet?” Xanhilt asked.

“It’s a machination of the gods, remember?” Noname said dryly.

John chuckled as Xanhilt lost a bit of his thunder.

Noname remained a stone-cold and expressionless face. “I don’t want a knife as my weapon art. I want something different.”

“Then don’t choose it,” John said.

“It would make the task easier for you,” she said.

“And have you trapped with something you don’t want?” John shook his head. “This is a shitty game to play, but if we’re going to play it, we’re doing it the best way we can for ourselves. And we’ll be damn good at it, too.”

Xanhilt quirked his head to the side.

Noname blinked.

“Don’t half-ass something when you have to put energy into it, y’know? If there’s no clear way out, no clear way to reverse what’s going on, we’ll play the game until we figure something out.”

The words were spilling out of John like lava down the side of a volcano. He hadn’t really understood what Xanhilt was saying at first, but he was starting to feel what had the saurian frustrated.

“We’re going to destroy those asshole monsters. We’re going to collect our rewards. Then we’ll find what the compass leads us to and go from there. You get me?”

“Yes, I think I get you, John,” Xanhilt said slowly.

“I see now,” Noname said. “You are stupidly kind and bold. I find that beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as your eyes,” John said casually.

Noname stood up. She walked around the tree and disappeared from view. “I need a couple minutes alone.”

“Uh, okay.” John wondered if he’d pushed it too far with that flirty line. It was cheesy, but it was also innocent.

Xanhilt gave John a weird look. “Can we focus on defeating the knight instead of what I assume are human mating practices?”

“I am focused. That was just me being me while I’m focused.” John got to his feet, feeling dignified despite Noname’s response and Xanhilt’s judging looks.

Xanhilt flicked his tongue out. He said nothing more of the subject, leaving John to return to training.

While Noname was… preoccupied… John supposed it would be good to familiarize himself with his WA Skills and [Ratel Rookie] in combination together. Honestly, it would be better to have more than a few hours to exercise his powers and understand them more thoroughly, but he was on a self-imposed time crunch.

It may sound impossible, but I’m going to pull it off somehow. By the end of today, I’m going to see all of my promises through to the end.

John felt a flame of determination ignite inside his chest as he faced off against a tree. With a flicker of a thought, [Ratel Rookie] started transforming his body, getting him prepared to dish out some serious, bark-tearing damage as the clock ticked.

***

John Wright, Lvl 16

Race: Outerhuman, Rank 2

Weapon Art: Cestus Art, Lvl 11

Blessing: One Good Punch, Rank 2

Total AP: 231

Resilience: 31 (+5)

Stamina: 31

Strength: 64 (+5)

Agility: 21

Perception: 17

Poise: 19

Intellect: 9

Soul: 29

Unspent: 0

Talents: [Relentless Fighter, Rank 1], [Decisive Spirit, Rank 1], [Identify, Rank 2], [Urmatia Linguistics, Rank 1], [Inner Compass, Rank 1].

Weapon Skills: [Advance Boxing, Rank 3], [Rabid Blows, Rank 2], [Dash Step, Rank 2].

Magic Cores: [Ratel Rookie, MCP 14], [Brightlight Orb, MCP 2].

Available MCP: 0

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