Chapter 7: The middle of the end part 2

As I open my eyes, my vision slowly adjusted at the dim light of the room. The light itself hurts staring at it like I was staring at the sun directly. Right when I had a clearer view, a notification appeared right in front of me.

“Urgh, where am I?” I groan as I force myself up. I feel around the ground and it’s hard as a rock and cold as ice. “This isn’t my room.”

Good Morning! Please follow the light!

A notification suddenly appeared making me lean back, but it followed me keeping the same distance.

“The heck is this?” I whisper trying to touch it, but my hand just goes through. As fast as it appeared, as fast as it disappeared in front of me. I slowly stand up and it feels like I’ve been sleeping on the floor at a wrong position. My body ache at certain position as I rub my neck from stiffness. I look around some more but as my eyes adjust to the dark, I notice the walls, floor, and ceiling was made out of giant bricks. My heart beats a bit faster as I try to process my last memory. I remember falling down the stairs and my brother calling out to me before I passed out.

“Was I kidnapped? A prank?” I whisper as I rub my arms trying to keep warm from the cold. I approach the light to try and feel at ease because it feels like something will jump out of the dark at any moment. As I got close, I noticed a door with a sign in front of it.

“Welcome to the new world?” I read the words out loud and somehow, it activated something as the words disappeared along with the sign and the door slowly opened into darkness. The light source which looks like a ghost orb floats towards the dark illuminating a hallway. Not wanting to be left in the dark, I followed the light as it slowly advanced through the hallway that’s wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

“This must be a dream; do I keep following it until I wake up?” I whisper to myself and being surrounded by darkness makes me feel really uncomfortable. As I walk following the light orb, so many different thought came rushing in my mind. I didn’t know what to think of the situation. I tried assessing my position and how I got here. I don’t think I’m dead since I feel way too alive.

“Ouch!” I wince in pain as I pinch my arm feeling the throbbing pain. “I am alive.”

Well, now that’s the problem. I have no idea where I’m at, and my brother is not here with me and I have no idea how I got here. I say in my mind. Ok try to recall the last thing I remember. The last thing I remember is being pushed down the stairs. I just got out the classroom and was heading to meet my brother in front of the school.

It was all too surreal. My memory didn’t add up with the current situation. The last thing I remember doing is looking out the window to watch the sunset being engulfed by the horizon from a distance.

I remember I quickly rush back down and as I was making my way down the staircase, a force pushed me of that made me lose my balance. I stumble down the stairs while my bag proceeded to vomit all of its contents onto the stairs. For some reason I was going really fast and I couldn’t stop myself from hitting the ground, face first.

I remember my vision turned black, but I didn’t lose consciousness. I could hear students rushing towards me because some of them called my name over and over again. I remember hearing a teacher, but I couldn’t make out who it was. I felt a warm liquid trickling down my face and I’m starting to get sleepy.

“The last thing I know, I hear my brother calling my name before passing out.” I whisper as I walked with the orb. “Maybe this is all a dream? Maybe I’m in a coma and for me to wake up I have to see what at the end of the tunnel.”

The orb of light finally reached its destination stopping right in front of another wooden door. I pushed the door open wide open with ease and was introduced to a circular room with multiple closed doors on the side. The middle of the room was a half angle half demon statue. As I walk in, I notice another door opens and a girl with hazel brown hair emerges from the inside. She was quite the looker. I noticed she also wearing a high school uniform making me look at my clothes which is my school’s uniform.

“Ah shit, this is probably not a dream.” I whisper as I inspect my clothes. I look back up to see where she is, and I can see her staring right at me making me lose my train of thoughts. I’m not really quite sure which school it is from, but her uniform looked familiar and it looks really nice on her. She seems like she’s also confused on what is going and because I can see her looking around the room. After a few seconds, she approached me, and I started walking towards her meeting at a halfway point.

“Um, do you know where this is?” She asked me. But I couldn’t answer because as soon as she got closer, I can see her hazel brown eyes, which is something that is very hard to look away from. She waves her hand in front my face, and it brought me back to reality.

“Uh—I-I-I don’t really know. I woke up just a couple of minutes ago. Some message told me to follow a light and here I am.”

“ Same here. Where the hell are we?” She says then she looks around the room. We’re both interrupted from our moment when four doors started opening all at the same time. First is an older guy who seems like he just came from a party. He still had his suit on but it looks a bit disheveled. Next was a person who’s wearing a full baseball outfit. After that is another guy who is wearing an A-Chan shirt then the last one is just a normal high school student. All of them approached us two as soon as they saw us.

“Um, do you know where this is?” The older guy asked.

“W-we don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” I reply back to him. I just explained to them how I woke up and followed some light orb. We started talking to each other to the point that I suggested to introduce ourselves. The girl’s name is Hiroko, the guy who’s now sitting by the statue is Rikimura-san, the guy with an A-CHAN shirt is Riki, the baseball player is Sawada, and the normal looking kid is Tobi. Including me, there are six of us in total.

Since there are two more doors left, I guess there are two more people coming. After we finished out introduction, we hear Sawada ask someone who he or she is. We all looked and we see a guy standing with us who looks like he’s a movie star’s kid. He is wearing a familiar uniform. I know I have seen it before but I can’t remember. He introduced himself as Yasu. When we asked him about his last memory, what he came up with is utterly ridiculous attempt to either impress us or scare us. As I was about to ask him about his real memory, the whole place started shaking making us take cover. I put myself on top Hiroko not really thinking how she would react, but she never pushed me aside, so I remained there till the shaking stopped. It all happen so fast after that, we ended up picking classes and I felt bad for telling Yasu to pick a blade class. It turned out it was a non-combatant class and he almost had a meltdown.

Fast forward, Yasu ended up picking a non-combat class.

“What the fuck?! No, this must be mistake! How can this be?! A cook?!” Yasu screamed out loud. Some of us tried to hold our laughter for his misery. But we probably think of the same thing with this guy. How unlucky. After a while, the statue told us he gave us a gift and a notification appeared in front of me.

I hear Yasu started laughing like a maniac and screamed at the top of his lungs right after. He started shouting curse words towards the statue. After using up all of his energy, he cried silent tears. I would to if I was in his position. In front of him is the weapon and armor designated for his class, which are, a spatula, a frying pan, and an apron.

That’s when it hit me, he reminds me of my brother. How the world is unfair to him. I decided to help him and as I get closer, I see him look up to me. There are tears in his eyes, and quietly sobbing.

He's like my brother. I say in my mind.

“Hey Yasu, was it? Don’t worry about it. Just stick close to me and I’ll guard you with this shield. The only way for us to survive this is if we all work together. Isn’t that right everyone?” I tried reassuring him. I instructed to everyone to use their status window command and see the stats. I look at Yasu and I can see worries plastering across his face.

I need to protect this guy. I say in my mind. Right now, there’s nothing I can do or say to remove the worries on his face. Maybe, once we all get to know each other more, the mood will lighten up. We tried to figure out a way out the dungeon and manage to open a door that leads us to a hallway leading to another room with a marble door. After opening the door slightly, Hiroko, Riki, Sawada, and me were welcomed by darkness. Complete darkness.

We move forward and when Hiroko shines her torch, a skull then surprised her. She screamed, and she tries to hit it with the torch, which somehow magically flew out of her hand and into the rest of the skeletons we didn’t know exist until the torch illuminated them. On top of their head displayed their name and level like it was a game.

Undead Skeleton Lv1

HP 800/800

While we ran back to the group, Riki then charged the undead skeleton. But it wasn’t enough to kill it. I decided to help him and started attacking the undead skeleton with my sword. The whole ordeal was out of this world. We ended up back in the safe room afterwards with no injuries except Rikimura-san shield. For the first time, Yasu talked a lot. He actually guided me the right decision. I guess he’s not weak like my brother after all.

There are a lot of things we figure out. First, Yasu couldn’t hold any weapon at all except the spatula and the frying pan. Everything else, weights like a ton for him. I decided for Hiroko and Tobi to use the swords for now. We then headed out the safe room and tried our luck one more time. Before we left the safe room, I told Yasu to stay for now until we’re strong enough to protect him. Depending on how he looks like your typical rich boy, I though he would protest as much when he fought with Luro earlier. But he just agreed. He even said he is useless out there since he can’t fight so he agreed to stay in the safe room and wait for us to come back.

How can he trust us? We can easily leave him here and not come back. I say in my mind as we walk back towards the undead skeleton room.

We decided to attack them one by one all together until we leveled up to two. Then once we are higher levels later on, we can take them on by ourselves. Thirty minutes have passed and we have killed over thirty skeletons. All of us have reached level two and I told them to view their skill window just incase if there are any changes to their status or if they got a new skill.

“Guys I got a new skill! Its called flame arrow!” Hiroko screams

“Same here” Tobi added on.

“Seems like everyone got a new skill.” I say with energy. “Guys don’t use it before we figure out what it does. Got it?” They reply with a nod. Except Sawada, who is looking at the horde of undead skeleton.

“Guys…” Sawada voice trails off. “T-There—there it is. Guys, there’s a door on the other side.”

“What?! Are you sure?!” I asked him in surprise.

“I am sure. I don’t know but I guess leveling up makes me see in the dark better. But now I can see a door shape down there. Its faint I can see its outline!” He replies to me while squinting trying to get a clearer picture of what’s in the darkness.

“Tobi Hiroko! Can you guys use your flame arrow to briefly illuminate the other side?” I asked them and both Tobi and Hiroko nods yes. Both of them still don’t know how to use it. First they say flaming arrow while their palms are open to see if one would materialize. It didn’t.

Then they both equipped their bow and arrow. “Flame arrow!” Both of them say it and the tip of the arrow ignited and fire covered the metal head.

“Whoa.” Riki says looking at the flames.

“Ok Sawada, where do we aim it at?” Tobi asked and Sawada points to a direction and both Hiroko and Tobi launches the arrows with flaming heads over the horde of undead. Even with the velocity of the arrow, the fire never went out. As the arrow hit the wall at far side of the room its flame them went out. But for a brief moment we all saw it.

“A door! Did you guys see it! There’s a door!” Riki is going crazy. Everyone else is excited. Our hope of escaping this place still stands tall.

“Let’s start exterminating them!” Riki says as he holds his two handed hammer ready for battle. He then decided to use his new skill rush.

“Rush!” As soon as he scream his skill, a faint glow erupted from the bottom of his feet, the minute he took his first step he was lunched a couple of feet above the ground. He then falls down and his hammer landed a couple of inches to where his head is.

“Riki!” I screamed as I rushed to his side.

“Ughhh, what the hell.” He says as I help him stand up.

“I told you not to use the skill until we know how to properly use it!” I scold him.

“My bad, but somehow, I know how to use it. It just that.” His voice trails off.

“Just what?” I asked him.

“When I used the skill, somehow my thoughts just blanked out and I was confused for a minute. Then I suddenly felt tired, hungry and sluggish. Next thing I know I’m flying in the air.” Now that he mentions it, I feel the same and it brought me to my knees.

“What the-” I say confused how my knees just gave out.

“Junpei!” I hear everyone screaming my name and I see them rushing towards Riki and me.

“Junpei, you ok?” I hear Riki say as he helps me up to my feet this time.

“Yeah, my knees suddenly gave out.” I reply to him.

“I had a feeling its going to be like that.” Riki replies.

“What? What is it?” Hiroko started going crazy with questions. “Are we infected by a virus?! OMG no---no—no, I-c-can’t b-b-e---“

“Relax. Were not sick.” Riki replied calmly.

“Then what is it?!” She asks him while grabbing his shoulders.

“U-u-um, I think it’s because of our stamina draining?” Riki says flustered as Hiroko’s face is near his.

We went back in the hallway and decided to rest. We sat and leaned on the wall as we talked about plans on how to eliminate the skeletons. We all didn’t feel like walking back to the safe room since we seem to be out of energy. Somehow, none of us is thinking straight and we’re throwing a bunch of absurd ideas. I even proposed to talk to the skeleton.

What the hell was I thinking?

“Ok, I think we rested enough, let try one more time.” I tell everyone and the minute I stood up, my knees gave out and I almost fell back down. Good thing the wall was there.

“W-wh-what the-“ Sawada says and I notice everyone is struggling to stand up. We all slump back down.

“There’s no doubt about, I think our stamina is depleted.” Riki says and he started saying random commands to view the stamina but it’s to no avail.

“How do we refill our stamina?” I asked Riki.

“I don’t know. A stamina potion probably but we don’t have one. I checked my bag.” Riki replied. We all stayed silent for a minute and like an orchestra, everyone’s stomach started growling really loud. We all look at each other.

“Wait, don’t you guys think it’s because we’re hungry the reason why we’re like this?” Sawada says.

“That’s also a possibility.” Riki replies. “Some games back on earth, hunger affect stamina also. So it might be because we’re hungry. We haven’t eaten anything ever since we got here.”

“Aren’t we glad we have a cook on our team?” Sawada say trying to laugh at his own joke. We all stay silent for a minute but we’re all been thinking of the same thing. Yasu is part of our team and now I feel bad just casting him aside like that because we thought he’s useless.

“Let’s go back. We need to talk to Yasu and figure out how are we going eat.” I tell them and they all nod. It took as a while to stand up properly. As we’re walking down the dark hallway. Hiroko then spoke what everyone was thinking earlier when we saw Yasu for the first time.

“When he first came up upon us, seeing how he is, I though he was going to be an asshole.” Hiroko says.

“Who?” I asked just to validate she was talking about the person in my mind.

“Yasu.” She replies.

“Yea same here.” Riki agreed. “When I saw him, I initially thought I wont get along with him. He looks like he’s from a rich family where his parent gives him everything. I bet he never worked his entire life.” everyone nods in agreement except Rikimura-san.

“Guys don’t think like that.” I tell them. “We don’t even know his background. Besides, I don’t know if you guys notice, not once he ever complained to us about having the weakest class. Even earlier he asked me if he could have the sword to try and fight along side us. And when I told him to stay, he didn’t even put up a fight and just agreed even though I know I hurt his pride he still didn’t retaliate.”

I don’t know why I’m defending him. I guess its because he similar to my brother, so I feel compelled to protect him. We all then quietly slowly walked towards the safe zone. Not one word was said after my speech. Once we got inside, we couldn’t find Yasu anywhere. Everyone became frantic because he is the only one who can cook for us. I became frantic because I though he might have been killed by a monster somewhere. We all scream his name over and over again but no response. One of the doors suddenly opens up and we see him emerges from the inside.

“Yasu! Where did you go?! I thought something happened to you---and---…is that a dead rat?!” I jump back, and I can hear Hiroko scream.

What the hell! Why is he holding a dead rat?!

He tells us to relax and proceeded to taunt us holding the dead rat in front of our face. We all jump back except Tobi, who then asked the question we’re all thinking.

“Say, what are you going to do with that?” Tobi asked Yasu who’s still holding the rat carcass. Yasu then explained to us how a new command could show you the skill description. We all tried it out.

“Sword Slash Skill Description” I say looking at my skills.

Skill Name:

Skill Level:

Skill Type:

Skill Experience:

Sword Slash

2

Combat

15%

This skill will let you cut your enemies of the same level or lower like they're made of butter. The stronger the skill level, the more damage it deals.

“Shield Smash Skill Description”

Skill Name:

SKill Level:

Skill Type:

Skill Experience:

Shield Smash

2

Defense/Offense

5%

This skill uses a shield to smash things into pieces. Tihs can be used as a defensive skill to deflect or parry attacks.

“Warcry Skill Description”

Skill Name:

Skill Level:

Skill Type:

Skill Experience:

Warcry

1

Defense

0%

This skill will get the focus of all of the enemies around you. Use it wisely, it can lead to your death if it's used the wrong way.

So that’s what war cry does. I say in my mind.

I talked to Yasu and told him how we are all level two and that we found a door on the other side. He seems really excited about it. I talked to him about the possibility of being hungry and causing our stamina to plummet. He just smiled. That’s the moment we knew he was going to feed us rats. Hiroko tried to protest but she has no choice and just slumped down towards the statue’s pedestal. Hiroko looks at Yasu with a mad expression but we can’t really blame him. That’s the only thing here to eat. We can’t really eat bones. look at Yasu who seems to be looking at his own Status Window.

I wonder what his status window shows. I whisper in my mind intrigued what a non-combatant status looks like.

He proceeded to explain about our water problem. I wonder which high school he goes to, he’s really smart for a guy who looks like he gets everything he asks. Hiroko mention about a water source in her room and I volunteered to go with her.

Finally! This gives me a chance to be alone with her and get close to her. I say in my mind.

As Yasu and the rest of them leave to get some more rats, I go with Hiroko to collect water.

“So, what’s your plan on collecting water?” Hiroko asked me.

Crap, I was so focused on her I forgot to think about that. I say in my mind.

“Uhh, were going to use my shield to collect the water.” I replied.

“Uh, ok, how are we going to boil it?” She keeps asking difficult questions.

“Um, we can use the shield to boil it since its’ made of metal. As for the firepit, uhhh…” I tried to come up with a solution and she cuts me off.

“You haven’t thought that far, ahead have you?” Hiroko asked

“Um, no. sorry.” I tell her.

“We can use the shield as a container to boil the water. As for the fire pit I have an idea.” She says as we head over to her starting room. As we enter inside, the place looks exactly like ours but the only difference is there is a small pond like section in the corner. Water is then coming out of the cracks on the bricks. I didn’t know what to say to her or start a conversation so we just collected the water and went back to the statue room. As soon as we set down my shield near the statue, Hiroko then went out the hallway that goes towards the undead skeleton room.

“W—w- wait for me! “ I say as I rush to collect my sword leaning against the pedestal of the statue. On my way out the hallway, she then comes back hugging a few torches.

“Uh.” I say confused.

“What, you think I’m going to fight alone in there? That is crazy.” She then smiled and walked pass me and headed towards the statue. She took out two swords from a bag.

When did she collect those? I whisper in my mind putting my sword in my dimensional bag.

Without much effort, she plunged the sword straight to the ground and pierced the hard cement bricks right through. The sword is now almost halfway through.

Damn, she strong. I say in my mind as I watch he do the same to the other sword and then looked at me.

“You don’t happen to have a stick, do you?” She asked me.

“Um, no.” I replied. Then I just remembered I did pick up something similar.

“Ah, Wait! I think I do, give me a minute.” I called out my dimensional bag and took out a staff I managed to pick up from one of the undead skeletons we killed earlier.

“Is that a staff?” She asked me while looking at the wooden stick that is curved a little bit.

“Uh yeah. It’s the only valuable thing I can think of in there. So, I picked it up when I killed a skeleton earlier.” I explain to her. I hope she doesn’t find me greedy for not telling. Without caring about the value of the item I just took out from my bag, Hiroko grabbed the stick and placed it at the hilt of the swords. She then took out a string from her dimensional bag and started tying the stick on both sides.

Where the hell did she get those? I asked in my mind.

I watched her work swiftly building a makeshift stand for the fire pit. She grabbed the torches and clustered it together. Using a lit torch on the wall, she ignited all of the torches under the makeshift stand.

“Now let’s see if this mage staff is worth anything at all.” She says as she studies the staff watching it if it will burn or not. A couple of minutes later, the staff is still intact and all.

My staff. I say in my mind as I see the only valuable weapon I found being used as a stick. After a few minutes, she took out the torches and separated it.

“Junpei, grab the shield with water and come hold it up here so I can tie it down to the stick.” She tells me and I have to impress her so I had to make sure this looks like nothing when I lift it up. That shit was really heavy. She made me hold it under the stick as she quickly tied the strings onto the handle of the shield and the holes on the side of it.

“Ok you can let go now.” She told me. I did and the shield first swayed sideway bit by bit until it came to a full stop.

Whoa, she’s amazing! I say in my mind.

We waited for the water to boil, which took longer than expected. This is a great time for me to start up a conversation to find out more about her.

“Say, Hiroko is there anyone you really want to go back to after this?” I asked her.

What?! What kind of question did I just asked?! I say in my mind.

She keeps looking at the blue fire and she simply answer with two words. “My Family.”

“Ah, ok.” I pause for a minute. “Is there anyone else? Like friend or boyfriend?”

Oh my god, I’m asking for it. Dammit! Favorite color! Favorite color! I’m going crazy in my mind. She stays silent and I thought I fucked up already.

“There is one.” She says as she still looks at the fire.

“Oh, who?” I asked her, and my heart is beating so fast.

Am I about to get dumped without asking her out? How is this even possible?! I say in my mind.

“He’s not a friend. Basically I don’t even know his name. He’s a person I admire who helped me when I needed help. I just want to go back and meet him once.” Hiroko explained.

Oh ok, good if she doesn’t know him that’s a better chance for me. Without noticing my curiosity of the subject, I just opened my mouth.

“What happened to him?” I blurted out.

“Well, I go to Chirin High School. As you know, that’s the second best private high school in the country. They only admit 500 new students every year. If you take the entrance exam within the 500 rankings, you’re in. First top 10 student get’s a full scholarship program. The problem with that is, everyone is smart, too smart. So, it’s very hard to beat people unless you get close to a perfect score or get a perfect score.” She paused and took out one of the torches to decrease the fire.

“I took the exam and hoped I would be within the 500. Going to this school gives a better chance to go to an Ivy League college under a scholarship program. Unless you go to the only high school more exclusive that Chirin which is near impossible to get in. My family is middle class. My parents worked almost 24/7 in the same company almost doing overtime everyday. Then one day, a loan shark came and took all of my parent’s savings for some debt they owed. This put us in a very tough position. And their last resort was, me. They paid for the entrance exam of the school with the last remaining money they had. They kept saying they did it because I’m their last resort but I know they did it because it’s my dream to go to an Ivy League college. Without concerns for their well being, they gave up every last bit of penny they have to help me fulfill my dream.”

The water started boiling as bubbles started rising within the water. She took out most of the torches and only left one to keep the water simmering.

“So, I had to get in no matter what it takes.” She continued on. “Even if I don’t get in the top ten, I can work to pay for school fees. After taking the entrance exam I waited for my results.”

She paused again and took out the last torch to prevent the water from evaporating.

“Then what? What happened?” I asked her.

“I didn’t make it. I was ranked 501.” She replied.

“What?! That must be a mistake? You’re smart! They should be begging you to get in!” I tell her. She just looked at me and gave me a smile that melts my heart even more.

“That’s what I though also.” She continued on. “I went to the admissions office and complained. But all they told me was ‘there is always someone smarter than you’ excuse. I begged them over and over and over again to let me in. I even explained to them my family situation. But they wouldn’t budge at all.” She paused and tried to dip her finger in to see if the water chilled down a bit. Probably not, she quickly took out her finger.

“What did you do?” I asked her.

“Nothing. There was nothing I could do.” Hiroko paused for a moment. “That’s when he came in. He must’ve heard me from the beginning because he walked it and asked the admissions office if he could give his scholarship to me. Everyone was dumbfounded at that moment. Nobody knew what to think. Even I looked at him like he’s crazy.”

“Wait, you looked at him? That means you know what he looks like?” I asked her.

“I was crying the whole time, so my vision was blurry. And when I looked up, I only saw him from his back since he stood right in front of me. He explained to them that he is willing to give me his scholarship if they permit it. He got on his knees and bowed his head on the floor and begged them one more time to give his scholarship to me.” Hiroko tried to test the water temperature again with her finger.

“Did they agree?” I asked her.

“Yeah, that’s how I got in Chirin High School with a scholarship.” She replied to me.

“Wow. That’s amazing. In the current situation you were in at that time, even I would do that for you.” I told her, and she smiled at me.

“I doubt it.” She replied back.

“I would!” I tried to tell her. I really would do it.

“Even if you we’re on a much worse situation than me?” She asked me.

“What do you mean?” I was confused.

“After school year started, I saw the same instructor who agreed to switch the scholarship. Based on what she told me, he is the only child of a single parent because his dad passed away in an accident. They weren’t rich but are actually poor, more badly situation than me. To escape that type of lifestyle, his mother worked more than one job to make ends meet. At least my parent had stable job at a company. They didn’t. It was his last ticket to a better life and he gave it all away to me. That’s why I need to find him and thank him and help him anyway I can.” Hiroko says and takes a gulp of the warm water.

I couldn’t say anything. I don’t think I can top that in this situation.

“Do you love him?” I blurted out without thinking. Sometimes I feel like I should glue my mouth shut.

“That’s why I want to find him. So, I can find out.” She tells me.

“Oh, do you have any lead now?” I replied

“Yeah, he became a top ranker on another high school.” She says.

“Why didn’t you visit him there?”

“I tried. But they didn’t let me in. They wouldn't even give me his name because of school policy. Even when I asked the students who go there, they wouldn't give me his name because of that policy.”

“Oh wow, must be a rich high school to have a policy that even students uphold. Which school is it?” I asked her. It took her a while to answer. She kept on looking at the last torch she took out underneath the shield. Then She spoke of a name we're all familiar with.

“Seito Private High School.” She then lit the fire on the torches and placed them again under the shield. Then everyone came back including Yasu.

After Yasu was able to cook the rat, we ate it. Even when we had doubt’s the rat probably is on my top five best food in the world. We got around the makeshift campfire near the statue and started talking to each other about our lives while we gnaw on rat meat. At first it sounded disgusting, but now, after eating a couple of them, it doesn’t really seems so bad. But it turns out these rats have some laughing drug in them because we can’t stop laughing every now and then after eating. We passed around stories of our time back at earth and that’s when Riki and Sawada informed us that Yasu is from Seito Private High School, the most prestigious high school in the country, the same high school Hiroko one-sided love resides, we both we’re speechless. This high school is so hard to get in that the most stupid student in that school will be the smartest student in all of our school combined. Seito Private High School is where the truly gifted goes to.

After Hiroko hears the news about Yasu’s current school, she couldn’t stop staring at him. It's likes she wanted to ask about her savior but she couldn’t do it directly. She started talking to him more trying to get information of the whereabouts of her rescuer bombarding him with useless questions. I can see that Yasu feel uncomfortable on the sudden change.

Good. That means he doesn't have feelings for her. I say in my mind as I see him finding reason to leave the room to get away from Hiroko. Everyone seems to get sleepy at the same time and we all decided its night when it happens.

All of us sleep in Hiroko’s room. The sound of water stream coming out of the crack helps us all sleep. We cycle on keeping watch. Even though it’s a safe room, we still don’t feel safe. Probably because of the giant statue that has the ability to move or the fact that we’re still in an unfamiliar place. But, it’s mostly Yasu staying awake through the night. He says he’ll just sleep while we go hunting. Exhaustion get’s the best of us and we all fall asleep really fast. Something shakes me awake and the minute I open my eyes, I see Hiroko looking at me.

“Yasu disappeared.” Hiroko says and when I look around, I see everyone is mostly sleeping except Yasu since he’s nowhere to be found. I quickly wake myself up and look around outside to see if he exited the door to the Undead Room. But the door is closed. We close most all doors before we sleep to prevent anything from coming at us while we sleep. But there’s one door open and that’s door to his room where they collected all the rats.

“Is he catching more rat?” I say as I grab a dead torch and lit it. I head into the dark hallway and Hiroko followed behind me. As we get close to the door that is partially open, we can hear grunts and moans.

"Is he masturbating?! I say in my mind.

Like a bunch of curious kids, we both peeked through the opening to see if he’s really masturbating or not. He was inside the room trying to pick up something. It very hard to see because the opening of the door is very small, so we decided to push it open slowly. Enough for us to see properly. Once we got a better view, we see Yasu trying to pick up a sword. The same sword Sawada and Riki used to catch rats. He grunted and cursed as he kept trying to pick up the sword over and over and over again.

“C’mon you fucking sword!” He shouted out of frustration. He tried and tried but the sword never moved an inch. He then sat back down in from of the sword and lay down with his left arm over his head covering his eyes as he started crying.

“Fuck. Why the fuck am I here.” He said between sobs. “Stupid fucking Luro. Stupid fucking class.” he just sobbed quietly trying not to let out a sound that might echo back to the statue room. He held out his hand in the air like he was trying to grab something. “Mom. I’m sorry. I was on my way to buy you food and I never came back. I’m sorry.”

His words created knots in my throat making it harder to swallow. He rests his hands again into his face covering his eyes.

“I promise you when I get back, I’ll buy you anything you want. So please don’t breakdown. Don’t go wasting your energy looking for me. Don’t go wasting your energy working at that convenience store. I promise you I’ll beat this world and come back. So wait for me mom!” He started sobbing like crazy.

We both wanted to comfort him and tell him we also miss our family. But we hear him cry some more and we decided to give him space. We headed back to the Hiroko’s room and waited for Yasu to come back. Once we hear the door slowly creak open, Hiroko and me pretended to sleep. I was laying down on the right side of Hiroko while Yasu’s spot was on the left. I heard him shuffle and set himself down the wall. I slowly turned around hoping Hiroko was facing me.

She wasn’t.

She was facing Yasu who’s have his head on resting on his knees. Then out of nowhere, I see Hiroko’s hand slowly move towards Yasu like she’s trying to reach him. But she quickly pulled her hand back to herself. I couldn’t sleep very well that night.

It has been a couple of days now since we’ve been going in and out the undead skeleton room. Yasu cooked the rat for us and we didn’t have a problem with food anymore.

“Hey guys, did you notice it?” Tobi asked.

“Notice what?” I asked back.

“Yasu, he-” Tobi replied but paused midway. The minute we mention Yasu’s name, it’s like an alarm now for everyone and it gets everyone’s attention in a heartbeat. Especially Hiroko.

“He what?!” She screamed which surprised all of us. Pain in my chest started happening and it feels like its harder to breathe but I kept my composure and listened on.

“Our food.” Tobi says.

“Don’t tell me, He poisoned it?!” Riki jokes around but Tobi have a serious expression.

“No you idiot, what I’m saying is we’re eating more than him.” Tobi replied. “Even though we’re suppose to divide it evenly among seven of us, it wasn’t. I saw him take half of his and added it to our portion. He was trying to hide it but I saw him. He’s giving half of his food to us.”

After Tobi says it, we notice that we hardly see him eat. Even when we eat dinner together, he will just take a few bites of his food and store it saying he already ate before.

“He’s even running back and forth the dark hallway to fill up our water container every now and then.” Sawada added to the conversation. “To think of it, how can he sleep if he’s running back and forth colleting water? He even does night watch.”

We all have sad expression on our faces. We all feel the same way, gratitude, guilt, and over all the will to protect. We wanted to protect him like a lost lamb. And the only way to do that is to clear everything here so we all can get out. Outside, Yasu will have a better chance of surviving. There are probably a lot more things he can cook. If we find a town, it would be better. He can stay and level up while we go hunt for Luro. But for now, we need to focus on getting out of here.

An hour later in the dungeon, we get to the point that we can eliminate the undead skeletons with ease. We did notice something off as we kill them one by one. All of the skeletons were not spawning anymore. Before, when we kill one, another one will appear. But this time, when we kill one, nothing appears anymore. So, we decided to walk back to the safe zone and rest for the day.

If my hunch is correct, this is the last batch. I say in my mind as we walked down the dark hallway towards the safe zone.

The next day, we’re all excited to kill the last remaining enemy. Everyone is in good spirit even Yasu. After joking around eand eating breakfast, we all head back out towards the undead skeleton room. The amount of skeletons here didn’t change. This proved my theory and this is the last batch. We’re brimming with energy and we got to work right away eliminating the last remaining skeleton.

“YES! FINALLY! WE’RE DONE!” Riki scream in excitement and slumps down the ground.

“Finally! I’m sick and tired of killing those things.” Sawada says as he sits on the ground.

“Now, there’s only one left thing to do. It’s to get out of here.” I say and I look towards the door we’ve worked hard to reach. After we rested for a few minutes, we decided to go through the door to see if there are any monsters in the other side. If we deem it safe, we’ll call Yasu to come with us.

“Ok guys, Push!” I scream and I put all of my force pushing the double wooden door open. It creaked as the hinges lacks oil maintenance. Once we’re able to open it completely, we’re all out of breath on what’s at the other side. We’re introduced to a cave that has blue crystals hanging down from ceiling. We continued on, but we advance with caution just incase a monster jumps us from the dark.

Once we got to the end of the cave, there is a huge white marble door blocking our path. We tried to push it open but it wont budge. That when we notice there are fourteen handprints on the door. Us six all together is in total of twelve hands. Were missing a pair.

“We need Yasu.” I say subconsciously, and we head back to the safe zone. I see Yasu leaning no the statue’s pedestal with an expression that I can’t quite explain but somehow, I can feel his frustration.

Isn’t he scared? That thing might come alive and kill him. I say in my mind.

I call out to him and I explained him everything. I can see his eyes gleam with energy and we’re all really excited to leave this dark dungeon.

I can’t wait for some sunlight! I say in my mind.

Once we all have the energy, we left the safe zone. None of us looked back. We have no attachment to this place. I think they all feel the same way, they can’t wait to get the hell out of here. We walked all the way to the white marble door. On the way, I can see Hiroko talking to Yasu then ends up hugging him jumping up and down. Again, the pain in my chest appeared.

We reached the marble door that we got to earlier. We all placed our hands on the prints and the doors starting lighting up splitting in the middle. It opened sideways and what awaited us inside is our worst nightmare. There were all types of monster you can think off in one room. Goblins, trolls, wolves, and even undead skeletons are there!

One of the wolves howled and a goblin stepped in front and blew his horn. It was so loud I felt like my eardrums will burst. After a while, I hear someone scream to run to the safe room and we all scampered to get up. It all happened in a blur. One moment we’re happy leaving now we’re all running for our lives back to where we came from. We rush out the marble door and rushed towards the skeleton room.

No. No this can’t be, no! I scream in my mind as I enter a state of panic looking at the door completely shut. We tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. It probably needs to be pulled from this side, but it is missing a door handle. I tried punching the door over and over, but it wouldn’t break. Riki tried his hammer but it wouldn’t even get a dent.

I have to save everyone. I say in my mind as I tried to calm myself and gathered my resolve. As a leader I have no choice. I need to save everyone. They all have been following me and it might have been me that lead them to this moment. I need to save everyone. I need to save Hiroko.

Inhale*

Exhale*

“Guys, it’s has been a pleasure to lead all of you. But this is where I separate with all of you.” I say and I walked towards the other door facing away from them. “I’m going to activate my warcry skill, while all of them are busy attacking me, I want you all to run out the room and find an exit.”

I hear Hiroko and Yasu protesting along with everyone else.

It’s ok, I think this is my fate. This is why I was brought here. Why I became leader. I need to make sure all of you come out of here alive. I say in my mind.

Tears come out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks as I watch the enemies exit the dark cave one by one. I looked back to my friends one more time and gave them a smile, my last smile. I tried my best not to choke and told them my last words.

“Guys, I’m sorry. Stay alive for me? Okay?” I say. I turned and sprinted towards the incoming horde. “WAR CRY!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I ran for them. A red light enveloped me and all of the monsters came rushing towards my direction. I hear them scream my name, but I was surrounded with so many monsters trying to get a piece of me. Every monster was attacking me from all sides. I hear barks, growls, and screams all around me as I was trapped in the middle of the horde. All of my friends have probably left the room since I don’t hear my name anymore. After a while, they decided to give up. The horde left the way they came in leaving me battered and bruised on the ground. It felt like a hundred foot stomped on me every part of my body.

“H-Huh?” I say as the room became so quiet. I tried to stand but that’s when the pain caught of with my brain. My leg was dislocated from its joint.

“Ah fuck!” I shout in pain as it echoed through my whole core. I have no choice but to try and force my leg back to it’s joint. If I don’t, I won’t be able to move at all.

gasp.

SNAP!

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” My throat ripped, and I tasted my own blood. The pain shot up and traveled through my spine up to my head. It felt like someone is using a dull knife and stabbing an open wound. It took all the air out of me and I was gasping for air. I pant trying to catch my breath. After I managed to stabilize my breathing. I knew I had to quickly get up. All of the monster that was attacking me are now after everyone else. I need to save them.

“Get up! Get up Junpei!” I scream as I forced my body up. Pain is the last of my concern. For all I know, those things are chasing after them. When I manage to get myself up, I moved toward everyone else. I had no time to feel pain so I run as fast as I can. I ignored the pain shooting through my whole entire body and ran hoping I can catch up to them. I hear the wolf howl and I run towards it. But no matter how fast I run, I can’t seem to catch up and the noise seems to be always ahead of me. I pass the marble doors and enter another dark hallway. I kept running and running until I see a light towards the end of the hallway.

BOOM!

"Huh?" I asked confused.

I look down and there are huge fingers wrapped around my body as smoke surrounded me. I could hear breathing behind me and I could also feel its breath. I turn my head and I see what they we're running from. It brought me to its eyes and all I could do is stare at its large pupils. I look above its head and I could see its name.

Gate Keeper Lv???

I felt its grip tighten and felt like I was about to burst from my head and I black out.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Huh? I just want to sleep. I whisper in my mind. I feel like someone shaking me and calling out my name over and over. Is that my brother? No it can’t be. It’s a female’s voice.

“Junpei! Wake up!” The female voice seemed familiar. I follow the instruction of the voice and when opened my eyes, I was in a white room. I see Hiroko’s face looking straight down at me crying. I slowly sit, and I can see everyone except Yasu in the white room with me.

“Where are we?” I asked them, and Hiroko quickly gave me a tight hug.

“Junpei!” she screams and sobbed. I felt warm and relieved I get to see her and everyone else. I hug her right back until she calmed down.

“Guys where are we?” I asked everyone.

“We all died.” Rikimura-san replied.

“Wait…Where’s Yasu?” I asked.

“We don’t know. He was the last person to stay alive. Since like he isn’t here, we all think he made it to the portal.” Sawada says. That’s when my feelings caught up to me and I started crying.

“Guys, I’m so sorry.” I apologized to them. “If I was a better leader, none of this could have happened.” I started crying and now everyone started doing the same thing.

We all know we’re not going to ever meet our family back on earth. We failed; this is the end for us. We all cried not stop. I’ll never see my brother again. The same goes for everyone else. They’ll never see their family ever again.

I kept on crying until I notice a door. “Is that a door?”

I walk towards it and everyone follows me behind me. When I got close to it, it automatically opened itself. Inside the door is another white room with a chair and a table in the middle. Right in the center of the room, a person is sitting on the chair reading a newspaper.

“What is this? Front desk to heaven?” Riki whispers and we’re all huddled together walking as a group towards the person. We can’t see his face because of the newspaper he’s holding up. As we got close, he brought down his news paper and looked at us.

“Luro…” I say, and he gives me a smile.

Luro removes his glasses and place it down the table. “Heya Little babies! How’s Life?”

“You asshole!” Hiroko charges at Luro. She flew over the table and tried to punch him but her fist just went through a holograph and she went stumbling towards the other side.

“Tsk Tsk Tsk. Always hot headed are you little missy.” Luro says looking at her. Hiroko then went running back at our side.

“W-Where are we? Are we dead?” Riki asked.

“You’re in a white room as you guys can see and yes, you’re all dead. Good job on dying before even leaving the dungeon. What a bunch of useless rats.” Luro responded. “Well, for now. I’m going to give you guys a chance to be spawned back outside the dungeon. But this is only a ‘one time’ offer I’m proposing.”

“Really?” Riki says happily.

“But, nothing is for free. Not in this world, and not in yours.” He tells us, and I somehow have a bad feeling.

“What is it?” I asked without hesitation.

“Well, as you know. All of you have died. When I say all of you, I mean all of you.” Luro says as he stood up and walk around the table to lean on it.

Yasu also died? I asked in my mind confused as I dont see him with us. But, where is he? Did he get the special offer? Was he spawned back? He....he didn't even-w-

As I was trying to finish my thoughts, Luro interrupted it.

“Well here’s the deal little babies. I can revive people who died. But, on one teeny itty-bitty condition.” He paused for a minute waiting for our reply but no one said anything. “Everyone or Yasu?”

“Wh-what?” I say confused.

Luro sighs really loud for all of us to hear. “Don’t worry, everyone will be revived. But, If I revive everyone outside, I can only do it with the current people in this room. You see, Yasu is still alive and for some reason, that bastard hasn’t died yet because he thinks he’s shooting a drama crying his hearts out.”

“Can’t we wait for him?” Hiroko asked.

“By my calculations, when his soul gets here, your soul will pass the time limit and will vanish so if you wait for him, you’re waiting for your deaths.” Luro says.

“What do you mean everyone or Yasu?” I asked him as what’s he’s saying doesn’t add up.

“Well, as you can see, I’m still an evil god. I can spawn you all outside with the same class and abilities. But I will only spawn only you guys outside since he decided to not die the same time as all of you. Isn’t that a selfish act? He doesn’t deserve to be outside for being selfish. But, if you choose, I can spawn you all inside the dungeon with him, so you can try to have a go again. But when I do, I will reset the whole dungeon and also reset your levels and class. Basically, you will start from scratch. Oh, and it’s not like I’m that evil. If you decide to spawn outside, I will spawn him in the dungeon with his current class and level. If you decided to spawn inside the dungeon, I will change his class to a fighter one, so he can fight alongside you. Hurry up and pick, your time is running out.”

Holy shit, this guy is a maniac. I say in my mind. We’re left with a choice that will leave a scar in our hearts. Out of nowhere, one of us made their choice already.

“I choose to go outside.” Rikimura-san says.

“Good! Now four more and we have our winner! Clock is ticking little babies~” Luro replies with a mocking tone.

“How can you choose so fast?!” I asked him.

“I also choose outside.” Riki says and I glare at him.

“Three to go.” Luro says without breaking is gaze on the newspaper.

“Do you really think we can go through all of that again? We don’t have a healer.” Rikimura-san said what Riki was thinking.

“We can go back to him once we are out. It’s better to do it that way in my opinion.” Riki continued.

“Are you guys listening to yourselves? He will spawn in the dungeon alone with a non-combatant class!” I tell them, and they didn’t say anything.

“I also pick outside.” Hiroko whispers and it caught me off guard.

“What? Hiroko?” I asked her, and she didn’t look at me in the eye.

“I feel sorry to Yasu but, I want to survive and go home. I don’t want to die again. I don’t think he will spawn us again if we die a second time.” She tells me, and she suddenly got on her knees as she covers her face with her hands as she cried. “I’m sorry Yasu, I’m sorry.”

“I will pick outside.” Tobi says and even he feels the guilt of his choice.

“M-me too.” Sawada says, and I look at them like they’re crazy.

“Well dear leader-kun? What do you choose?” Luro asked me.

“I-“ I tried speaking but, what good will it do if I pick inside? They all picked to go out. “Can you tell him something?”

“Sure.” Luro replies as he looks at me.

“Tell him, we’re coming back for him. So, stay alive. We will rescue him.” I tell him, and I felt the guilt in my stomach.

“Okay now that’s six in total. Outside ya go little babies.” Luro says and with one snap of a finger, our bodies glowed as orbs float around us. Luro the snap his fingers again and everyone started disappearing.

What have we done. I say in my mind before I lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes, I can see leaves falling and I feel a cool breeze gently blowing through my skin. Birds are chirping and flying from one branch to another. The trees are blocking partial of the sunlight and some of it that passes through hitting my skin gives a nostalgic feeling of warmth. I slowly rose and saw that everyone on the ground waking up one by one.

“The outside? We’re outside!” Riki screams. The outside world is a lot more colorful than I imagined. The grass, the sky, everything is a lot brighter.

“Oh my god, what have we done. Yasu…” Hiroko says as she has her hand over her face as she cries.

When I tried to comfort her, a voice came ringing out behind me. “Yo!”

I look back a guy, who has the same shirt as Riki coming towards us. We both stared at each other for a while until I see a couple more people walking behind him. There are six people in total walking towards us and he stops right before me and held out his hand to help me up. I grab his hand and he pulled me straight up.

The minute we’re at eye level, he smiled at me. “The name is Balo, I’m the leader of the Gold District. Nice to meet you.”