CHAPTER 15: The will to get stronger

I ran. And ran. And ran. I continued to run until I collapsed to the ground.

“hah….hah…….huah………..Argggghhhhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhh!!!” I screamed as loud as I could till my voice ripped my throat. I placed my hand over my eyes and listened to my own breathing. I ran so far that daytime already ended. Even my screams won’t reach them anymore. I know deep down inside, my scream meant more than frustration as I tried to elevate the throbbing pain in my heart.

“Fucking Luro. Fuck this world.” I whisper as I pant nonstop slowly trying to regain my breathing. I've run as far as I could but, I knew it wasn’t to get away from them. It was to get away from the pain, the suffocating feeling I had. As I lay on my back and look up the dark sky. Stars riddled the dark canvas and it was enough to bring me out of reality. Even though everything about this world is different than earth, the stars are the only thing that didn’t change.

Being outside, or inside…I guess it doesn’t matter huh,my thoughts echoed as I watched the stars through the forest.

I can see the sky. Breathe fresh air. Sleep at night. Wake up in the Morning. Stare at earth. And not worry about my next meal. But…It feels the same. I’m alone.

Knowing that I was discarded was something that left a scar in my heart. Hearing them tried to save me and giving up for the second time is like giving a child a candy he’s been wanting his entire life only to be taken away before he even tastes it.

It’s cruel,I whisper in my mind as I close my eyes.

“Really fucking cruel,” I open my eyes and raise my left-hand reach for the stars. “So if I don’t kill you, you will destroy the earth.”

.

.

.

“Now I can’t have that, my mother is on that planet," I say as I slump down my hand on the ground. "You hear me Luro? I can’t let you destroy my planet. I will fucking kill you if it’s the last thing I do, and I will go home.”

After resting for a bit, I walked around looking for a tree to climb. As soon as I found one big enough and tall enough, I watch the moon as it illuminates through the forest. I watch earth as it stays in the night sky and my eyes felt heavy as my exhausted body is slowly healing. I let exhaustion win over me as I close my eyes and succumb to sleep. I woke up with an annoying sound similar to an alarm. As soon as I open them, I notice a bluebird chirping on a branch above me. Once our eyes met, the bluebird flies away and lands on a different tree from a distance.

I tried to shout at it but my voice feels weakened, “What the fuck, is he watching me? Why do I always see him when I wake up.”

I slowly climb down the forest and as soon as I got to the ground, that’s when I noticed the area covered in thick fog. I walk around the fog looking for any water source I can use. I don’t know how far I ran but I don’t think I’m anywhere close to the area where I woke up from after getting out the dungeon. I kept on walking and walking but nothing. No lake. No puddles. No stream.

“Argh! Fuck this fog.” I curse my frustration away as the density of the fog made it harder to see what’s in front of me. For all I know I could be running into an enemy and we won’t be able to see each other until we’re face to face. I navigate using the trees as I tried to follow a straight path and if I come across a tree, I mark it before I push forwards walking ahead. I take out a few cooked boar’s meats I stored and ate them while I traverse through the thick fog. I ate slowly taking small bites since eating dried meat made me thirstier.

I took a couple of breathers relaxing on a tree root as I try to wait out the fog but it never disappeared. I hoped wasn’t going in circles but I felt somewhat relieved to not run into a tree that I already marked. I walked and walked which probably felt like hours. The fog was still heavy even when the temperature went from cold to hot summer. I can’t even see a few feet away from me. In the beginning, I almost starved to death without food. Now I feel like dying from thirst as I gag due to the dryness of my throat.

Nice luck you got Yasu. You are fucking unlucky bastard. I say in my mind. I walked nonstop and for some reason, I haven’t come across any trees. Most likely they will appear from the fog one after another but this time I haven’t seen any trees as I slowly walked forward.

"Ah shit," I whisper as I step onto something cold. As I look down, my eyes went as I smiled with excitement, “Water!”

Without care, I drank the water on the ground to quench my thirst. Its taste was better than the bottled water back at home and I kept of drinking till my throat felt normal and my stomach felt full.

“Guah! Ha….haha…….hahahahahahahahaha! I’m alive!” I shout as I sit down on the ground. I feel the grass around me and it feels really soft to the touch. I lay down and it felt like I’m laying on a very expensive bedsheet.

“Compared to the cold hard floor of the dungeon, anything is heaven," I whisper as I close my eyes listening to the wind. The comfortable feeling made me doze off and my mind went to asleep. I woke up at night again as the stars on the sky are the first thing I noticed. I sit up and my body felt better than before. I looked around and the fog had disappeared while I was asleep. What I arrived at is an open field in the middle of the forest. Inside the forest, it’s hard to see sometimes at night due to the trees blocking the moonlight. But this place has the moon illuminating the whole area making my eyes easier to adjust.

I decided to look around more and I notice the puddle I drank from is actually a huge lake in the middle of the plains. There’s a giant tree from a distance that’s close to the lake and as I squint, I noticed that there are man-made huts next to it. My curiosity got the best of me and I quickly ran towards the huts. As I got close, I can see tent’s around the area but no people. Leaves were laid down under the tents to act as a form of bedding. A fire pit was created near the lake probably to prevent burning everything.

"I was hoping there are people." I easily get agitated and I tried to calm myself by focusing on other things. My mind slowly trails off as I start to figure out who made the tents.

“Gold district," I whisper as I looked around their base. If people were to live here, the tents wouldn't look so shabby. It seemed like it was made in a rush or without proper knowledge of structure. I’m not eliminating the process that other people that inhabit this world probably made it but, I see someone’s high school jacket inside one of the tents that's probably not from this world since it was made with a mass-producing method. Once I inspected it, I knew it was from my world since it says it’s the property of Rokudou High School.

“I wonder who goes to Rokudou?” I asked myself. “Well, finders’ keepers. Losers weepers.”

I took the Jacket and wore it, as the air gets colder during the night. I found a few swords laying around and I took them putting it inside my dimensional bag. I don't know why they would leave it here since our bag has unlimited space.

“Maybe it’s a trap?” I whisper cautiously looking around me. I walked towards the firepit and kneeled down beside it touching the burnt wood. “The fire seems like it hasn’t been ignited in a while. I guess I’ll make camp here for the night then.”

I decided to look for rocks, but it was harder to create a spark hitting them. So, I decided to use a stick and drill it into another piece of wood hoping amber will appear. But that also gave me a hard time and I cut my palm due to splinters of the sticks.

“Fuck!” I shout in pain as I pull pieces of wood out of my palm. “Ugh, there should be another way to make fire. I wish I had a lighter. Everything would be so damn easy.”

I took out what’s in my bag and I have a couple of stalactites, raw boar meat, raw bear meat, cooked bear, cooked boar, dead torch, a couple of swords and daggers, sticks, and any other things I found in the forest that I thought had a use.

"I wonder if this can be used as a splint?" I say as I grab one of the stalactites and a rock. Using the rock, I tried chipping of the crystal, but the rock chipped off instead. "Well, this suck.”

I grab another stalactite from my bag and decided to use it as light for the night. The are was a quiet and eerie feeling of something creeping up. But this was all in my imagination since not even a single animal entered the plains. I lay down on the ground near the water as I looked at the stalactite in my hand. Getting a closer look, the cyan color made it more beautiful. The whole crystal had white tiny dots that look like crystal salt and it's the one that's emitted a faint glow. I grabbed the other stalactite and having the purple and blue crystal side by side made the glow even stronger as if it reacted to one another. I put them closer and the stalactite would glow brighter while it faintly vibrates. I wonder what happens if they touch. I whisper in my mind and the minute the two stalactites made contact with each other, sparks flew everywhere almost getting into my eyes.

“Woah!” the sudden spark surprised me. The sparks were bright enough to disorientate my vision and I see embers landing on the water. “Damn, wait, maybe I can use this to start a fire?”

I gathered a couple of sticks and placed them together. I piled up on top of the dead fire pit and crumbled dried leaf on it. I placed underneath the remaining dust of the wood I tried to grind earlier. I also place the dried leaves under a pile of wood but left enough space for my hand to go through. I hit the stalactites together a couple of times and spark flew out every time. The wood dust along with dried leaves ignited as soon as embers made contact with it. I quickly placed more dried leaves and made the fire bigger and bigger until it engulfed the piles of wood right above it.

“Me. Yasu. Make. Fire! Ooga Ooga!!” I tried to imitate a caveman as I dance around the fire pit with joy, but I ended up looking like a monkey. I quickly cooked the remaining raw bear meat and hearing it sizzle in the fire made me salivate. I didn’t have any other frying pan, so I used a flat rock I found around the camp and place its other half in the fire while the other half sticks out. The rock was heated enough that I could put thin slices of meat to cook.

“Damn, somehow everything tastes way better now," I say as I bite into the boar meat and its taste was out of this world. Much better than the first time I cooked it. The meat was so tender even where I cooked it over a rock; it was breaking apart easily in my mouth. After eating, I decided to wash as my body reeked of sweat and dirt. It’s been quite some time I actually had a proper bath and I decided to swim to wash as much as I can. Right after I got out the dungeon, I went straight ahead towards Rikimura and, his cave especially didn’t make me feel clean.

"Ugh, disgusting bastard," I whisper as I stood up calling out my dimensional bag. Now that I have time, I wanted to feel clean. I grab two of my dead torches and used the fire pit to light it up. I plunged the bottom of the torch in the ground and illuminated the area near the lake. As I remove my shirt, I can see my whole body is full of scars I sustained inside the dungeon. I noticed scars that weren't there before appeared in my body.

“Whoa…” I say as I look at my body gained more muscle and definition the last I saw it. “I look ripped.”

My abdominal muscles are visible along with the definition of my arms. I quickly removed my pants and I’m completely naked. I can see my thighs also have gotten bigger.

“With the proper training of martial arts, I’ll be deadly without a weapon. Show DPH.” I whisper trying to inspect my damage output.

DPH

13

“Haha, I'll be deadly if my damage without my skills gets bigger," I say to myself dreaming of learning a stronger skill. “I guess my level and damage goes hand by hand since it’s always the same. But then it doesn’t really fully apply as soon as I can deal critical hits.”

I decided to fully study it later after I take a bath in the lake. I slowly wash from all of the dirt and grimes that accumulated through my time in the dungeon. The water was the perfect temperature and it feels cool on my skin but not too cold to have me shivering.

“Ahhhhh this feels good," I say as I lay on the water floating. I'm not worried about any monster because the water was so clear that the light from the moon shined the bottom of the shallow end.

“Haap!" I held my breath as I dive underwater submerging myself to drown all of the noise. All I can hear is the muffled sound of water entering my ear. I emerge out of the water and the night air was enough to make me briefly shiver. Water travel across my body dripping to my elbow as I use my hands to comb my wet hair backward. I stare at my wavy reflection on the water and reminisce my hardships in the dungeon and my fight with Rikimura.

"I went through hell in there," I whisper as I destroy my reflection. “But it seems like I’m one step behind them. If it wasn’t for my mind break skill, I probably would have died fighting Rikimura.”

I knew in my heart I wasn’t strong enough. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly trying to calm myself as I look up the moon.

I need to get stronger. My voice echoed in my mind as I close my eyes and listen to the wind. I let my body fall back into the water as I relaxed my muscles. I kept my eyes closed and the silence underwater was comforting yet, uncomfortable as loneliness sinks in my heart remembering my mother. I got out of the water and dried myself near the fire. I sat and let the wind along with the heat from the fire dry my skin.

“Ah, I forgot, my clothes," I say as I take out all of my clothes stained with blood and dirt. Since I was near the water, I washed all of my clothes in the lake as much as I can. I have no soap but somehow, the lake removed not only the dirt but also the pungent smell of dirty laundry. The only stain that stayed permanently are the blood stains and somehow, it made me happy looking at them as if they were battle scars. I hang my clothes near the fire and let it air dry. I sat around the campfire wearing only the jacket I found. It was clean, so I wore it to cover myself from the wind. I sit on the grass instead of the log and use the log itself as a backrest. I took out the bear meat and cut it into thin slices and cooked it on the hot stone. I decided to spend the night cooking, so I don’t have to worry about creating a fire every time I need to eat. I also decided to cook all of the boar meat I had left. hoping I could gain a level, I cooked all of it non stop but when I called out my status window, everything was still the same.

"Status window," I say, and my status window popped open in front of me.

Status Window

Name

Yasu

Class

BLADE

Level

13

Guild

Diamond

Skills

Skill level

Grill

14

Fry

20

Boil

5

Steam

1

Bake

1

Bartender

1

Sharpen

35

Passive skills

Passive skill description

Chef's Soul

Gives you a chef's natural abilities.

Purify

Whatever you cook is automatically purified making it safe to eat.

Midas Touch

All food and beverages you create taste better.

Mind Break

Upon immediate extreme danger, you will lose all sanity and limits.

Chef's Knife

Gives you the ability to wield blades of all types.

“Same damn level.” I say getting frustrated as I feel stagnant at level 13. “As I checked earlier, my damage per hit is the same as my level even when I hold a sword. But when I use my skills like sharpen, it boosts up my damage to an unbelievable amount but only for a few seconds since the skill can only last that long. Ugh, this system is so confusing.”

I leaned back at the log and stared at the fire flickering. My internal time is still messed up as I felt fully awake even when the moon has risen to its highest point. Minutes became hours and after drying my clothes, I wore them and took out a bedding from one of the tents and set it down near the fire. I didn’t put it too close just in case. The last thing I want is to cook myself alive while sleeping. I laid down and looked at the night sky. Thanks to having no trees around, I got a much clearer view of the sky and earth floating above. I sit back up and call out my status window one more time.

"Ok, so this means that the higher the level the skill sets, the stronger my damage becomes when I use it," I say inspecting all of the numbers. “I wonder if it has a limit. But then again, leveling up is quite useless to me, so why don’t I just level up my skills? But then again, I got these skills when I leveled up so I’m sure there will be more skills I’ll attain when I level up more that’ll come useful down the line. I wish I had a pen and paper to write this shit down.”

I had so many thoughts in my mind as I try to understand more on how this world works. I never gain experience when I kill monsters.

“It's only when I cook them." I talked to myself. "I notice that every time I finish cooking something, a faint white orb comes out of the cooked food and goes into my chest. But the white orb only appears from monsters that have a level. The boar and the rat didn't have a level above its head, yet the bear did. When I cooked the bear, it gave me a small amount of white orb so it's probably due to the level of the monster. The higher the level, the more orbs I get? How come the gatekeeper didn't give me shit? But then again, its level was a question mark, so I guess it’s something unidentifiable? This system is so confusing. I wish it came with a manual.”

I questioned everything in my mind as I kept trying to analyze how the leveling system work. I thought about how mine is a lot different than the rest of the gold or them and if I don't get a full idea, I don't know how to increase my strength.

“To prevent from confusing myself, I’ll just simplify it," I say as I thought of a way to make it easier to understand. "Monsters without level is mainly food resource. Any monsters that have a level are the ones that turn into dust. But then my class is a cook, so I guess anything I can kill doesn't turn into dust so I can cook them and level up. Monsters below my level don't give me much experience points when cooking. Monsters that are higher level than me does to a certain extent. Any boss level monsters with a question mark give me low experience points since they're unknown.”

Even when I come up with my own conclusion, I know in my mind the best way to really understand is to find civilization and collect information. As for now, all I have are speculations. Even my mind break skill I know little to nothing about. "I need to control this. I need to know how to activate it while I'm still conscious. There's no point of killing everything around me and I can't remember a single thing about it afterward."

This skill will be really useful when I get into tight spots and when I decide to fight Luro. As for now, I need to get stronger.I thought to myself.I’m weak.

“Ah…her body was really fine. If the holes were removed.” I thought about Hiroko. “Urgh, what am I thinking! She’s the last person I would touch. But, her skin…would be smooth to touch….”

I’m definitely not dying single. I thought about it, finding a girlfriend in this world won’t be so bad. I can bring her to meet my mother. I bet she would be ecstatic seeing me introduced her someone. I suddenly remember the girl that I last met before I dropped off Hiroko’s body. She was a bit above average yet, I know she can’t talk. I remembered Luro talking about Sawada losing an arm and it made me happy to know he’s going to suffer.

“Ehem, hey Sawada, can you give me a hand?...pfft~” I joked about his pitiful state. I wished I could have seen him.I should have got Rikimura’s arm and gave it to him.

“Need a hand? I got you one…pfft~ hahaha...” I felt like I was going crazy. “heh, I’m already crazy as it is. I wonder where his hand is, If I could find it and preserve it, I wouldn’t mind bitch slapping him with his own hand.”

I thought about different scenarios for when we meet because I know one way or another, we will meet. After a while of imagining different ways to use the frying pan on them, I stood back up to get my dry clothes and wear them as the temperature started to drop. I didn't want to sleep since I might wake up with them surrounding me and if that happens, it's endgame for me. Rather than lazing around thinking about stupid things, I decided to go climb the biggest tree near the lake. This way I can get a better look at what's beyond the forest if I ever find it. As soon as I got on a branch high enough, I could see the forest illuminated by the moonlight and it goes beyond as far as my eyes can see. I see a large rock formation sitting on to the right side which baffles me since I never saw it from inside the forest. But then again, I ran away from where I was, and the trees blocked most of the view over the horizon.

“Well shit, this forest looks like it can go past beyond-” I suddenly stop squinting my eye. Even if it’s faint, I can see a light atop of the huge rock. The rock formation itself was familiar as it looks like it’s something where a baboon can raise a lion cub for everyone to see. Since the forest limits my vision from inside, I didn’t notice it. Even being in the plain, it wasn’t visible by the lake. but looking at it atop the tallest tree near the lake, there’s no doubt about it, it’s light. “I guess that’s where I should start.”

Getting there isn’t a problem but if the rock wall goes directly vertical, I need to go around the other side and start from the part that’s closer to the ground and climb it. If I get on top of that rock, I can have another view of this whole area and find out what the light is. While Luro explained to me the situation of the gold, he also mentioned that there's a different kind of civilization in this world. Apart from your regular day in life boars or other enemies fit for my sword, there also other races like elves, dwarves, humans, and even animal-like humans called the beast tribe. He even cleverly named the other races making it difficult for us to figure out which is which unless we see them face to face.

“I wonder what they taste like….” I say to myself. “I’m a cook after all. I need to expand my scope of edible materials.”

I sat in the tree keeping an eye out on the light just in case it moves or disappeared. But the light went beyond my expectation and remained in one spot even when the sun started rising from the Horizon. I traverse down the tree and decided to depart towards the rock formation. I move much better during nighttime since I feel more energized but, the only way to fix my internal clock is to force myself awake and sleep at night. But then again, I felt more comfortable traveling in the dark since that’s what I’m more used to being in it. After collecting what I need from the camp, I left the campfire lit just in case I decided to go back, it’s easier to find the light of the campfire at night than walking around in circles. I left enough wood for it to keep burning but, I wasn’t quite sure how long it will last. As I travel across the forest, I came across the usual boars and some bears. Wolves was a lot harder to spot since the only wolf I saw was when I reached the stream for the first time. At first, I collected the raw meat but then I stopped since it takes too much time and I had enough food to last me for a while. But I never let them live as I left a wake of corpses on my trail.

Daytime quickly turned into the sunset as the night sky slowly welcomed me. I climbed the largest tree I can find and placed myself atop a branch big enough to carry my weight. Changing my sleeping habits will make it harder to travel at night but, I rather be fully awake at daytime. As soon as morning hits, I pushed forwards towards the rock trying not to forget my sense of direction. I left marks whenever I camp pointing carving an arrow on the trees towards where I should be heading. After walking for a while, I came across a cave entrance covered with vines. As enter it, the place look’s like it was used as a campsite. It was pretty dark except towards the end of a cave where a pool of water sits and under it, a large purple stalactite illuminating the water. There’s a leaf bed made near the water and a section of the cave had dried blood stains on the floor.

“I guess this is where Rikimura tortured that Akane girl. Ha, he must really like caves." my voice trails off as I inspect the dried-up blood. "pffffft~ Hey Sawada, What did the cop say to the criminal when he caught him? ’Hand’ it over! Hahahahahahaha!”

Sigh*

I’m losing it…hehe

I spent the night in the cave and once daytime came, I forced myself up and left the cave while eating my breakfast. I’m starting to get sick of eating boar and bear alternatively. I was itching to kill something else wondering how it will taste. Daytime became night and I would climb a tree resting on a branch. I’d watch earth till I fall asleep and wake up to the birds chirping around me. It took me another extra day to reach the giant rock and once I got close, it looks way bigger than I expected.

"It looked so close yet, this shit is actually pretty damn far," I say as I place my hand on the rock. It was smooth upon touch as if someone scraped it with fine grain sandpaper. “Fucking Luro focusing on the wrong details.

Ok, let’s not make the same mistake again.I whisper in my mind remembering the wall I climbed in the dungeon. I didn’t think it through and climbed at a distance instead of near the ledge. “Find the easiest point to climb first then climb it Yasu.”

“Ok Yasu, I shall do just that," I answered myself.

“Good. Now proceed on.” I reply to myself. Boredom and loneliness have gotten through me that I accepted talking to myself. Sometimes I’ll pretend to act surprised at my own answer. I scaled the giant rock and found a section that's closest to the ground.

“I wonder if I carry the dimensional bag, will it disappear?” I whispered looking up the rock trying to calculate the distance. To test out my idea, I took out my item bag and wore it using the straps. I waited for a bit but it never disappeared. "Well I'll be damned, I learned something new."

“This is such a good idea Yasu! Good thing you found out that by carrying the dimensional bag like a backpack prevents it from disappearing! As long as we're holding it, it won't vanish. What would I do without you Yasu…” I smiled as I took out a sword and stabbed it on the rock.

“I know I know, I am a necessity in your life now. If I were a girl, you would probably marry me. Isn’t that right Yasu?” I asked myself as I stabbed the second sword and using my upper body strength, I pulled up placing my foot on the sword. Rather than wholly relying on my arms, I would create a foothold using the sword and step on it. I'd grab the other sword and stab it as far up as I can. I'd yank it to test the stability and once I think it won't pull out or break, I’d pull out another sword in my bag and repeat the process. It’s a waste of sword but, I was going to go back down anyways using it so it’s not like I’m leaving it here. This still requires upper body strength but not as much as before where I solely relied on my arms. This would be doable in that concept if the rock wall wasn’t so damn tall.

“I’ll see you at the top Yasu!” I tell myself to pump up my own ego. "The last man buys boar meat for lunch!"

I started climbing the rock like I’m racing with somebody. Well, I am. I’m racing with myself.

Let’s see who wins. I say in my mind as I climb the face of the rock. As soon as I got on the top of the rock, I can see it incline more and towards the end but my gaze was towards the source of the light.

“Is that…No way. No fucking way.” My voice trails off as I stared at it. What I see towards the other end is a cave. It’s not a big cave but a small one. It’s so small that I can see what’s inside the cave at plain view. Something that, I looked for.Something that, I found.Something, that’s taken away from me.Something I’ve never got to experience.What’s inside the cave…it’s a portal.

“Ok Yasu, Screw finding civilization, let's focus on getting stronger," I whisper to myself as I walked towards the light. “Are you sure Yasu? We don’t have good memories about dungeons.”

“I’m sure Yasu. I don’t like it myself. But- We have to get stronger.” I answered myself. Even now, I felt like vomiting knowing about going inside another dungeon but my urge to get stronger, my hatred of this world, is overpowering my fear as my legs unconsciously move towards the portal.

“Exactly. Stronger enemies mean a better way to level up.” I smile as I stared at it. "What—you're not saying that we—"

“Yes Yasu, we will go in there—“ I answered myself. “And cook everything that’s moving. I’m also sick and tired of cooking boars. Aren’t you?”

I stopped right in front of the portal and looked my hands before answering my own question, "Yeah Yasu. There’s probably different kind of monsters in there. I hope they’re not skeletons. We can’t cook skeletons.”

"Well then…let's go Yasu.” I tell myself walking towards the light with the biggest smile on my face. “But, we have to murder them first.”

“Yeah~” I sang as I entered the portal leaving only silence behind.