Chapter 21: Encountering the Heroes

“We’re leaving the horse here.”

Aleris jumped out of the horse and tied it to a tree at the very edge of the [Dorville Forest].

I followed suit and asked.

“Are there monsters here?”

“Yes. Also, the horse would only have trouble keeping up with the landscape here.”

Guessed so. The forest didn’t exactly have any straight paths.

The ground had interweaving roots which are as thick as an arm at least and as thick as a grown man’s waist at most.

A horse would only be dead weight in these parts.

“What kind of monsters are here?”

“Goblins, Kobolds, sometimes more. But the most out of them are the Dorvilles.”

Dorvilles, why did I not think of that…

“What’s a Dorville anyway?”

“Well, no hurry. You’ll see plenty of it later.”

Aleris just laughed and shrugged as she walked forward.

I sighed and also followed. Watching my step so as to not slip up. That would’ve been embarrassing…

We continued on quietly and was beginning to get awkward but I didn’t know what to talk about so I simply stayed quiet.

After a while, there were still no monsters and Aleris seemed to start being fidgety.

“Your world...it’s called [Earth], right? As in the element earth?”

“Hm? Ah, yes...”

Eh? Isn’t this the same conversation when El and I first met? No doubt, she’s going to ask...

“Was it taken from the element? Are there no waters or fires in your world? No wind?”

“...There are plenty of waters in our world. Rather, there is more water than earth really. It is also called the Blue Planet by some. And yes, there is fire and wind...”

“That doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Right, it really doesn’t.”

El! You still haven’t given up!?

“How about you? Why is this world called [Sennerth]?”

“Well, they say the god that created our world is named Sennerth. I’m not really sure myself.”

What a straightforward god that is...What is he? A kid placing his name on all of his stuff so he doesn’t lose it!?

...You know what, I don’t even want to know whether I was right or wrong…

“Other than humans, are there any other race in your world?”

Aleris asked again.

“Well, there’s animals? And insects? Plants?”

“Ugh, not that. I meant any other race that can think.”

“Not really? Though, the people from our world categorizes the humans based on the continent that they were born. That’s pretty much the closest we can get regarding different races.”

“You're all humans, yet you still categorize yourselves? That doesn’t make sense at all. Rather, that would just prevent you from being united.”

“Right? This girl totally gets it! I told you your world is weird Lucas.”

I don’t want to hear that from someone who comes from a flat world!

“Sigh, there’s no use uniting our world to begin with. Unlike other worlds, we don’t have any demons or evil threatening our extinction. All there is to our world are...conspiracies, schemes, corruption...you see, without any common enemy like in your world, humans tend to feed off each other instead.”

“...What an unpleasant world that is.”

Aleris frowned in disgust.

Seeing this, I can only sigh as I was powerless to do anything about it.

“Well, there are other good things as well. Like umm...ice cream?”

“Really Lucas? Ice cream? That’s all you can think right now?”

“I can’t help it! When it’s hot, it’s normal to crave ice cream!”

I can feel El’s eyes rolling as she stopped talking.

On the other hand, Aleris’ interest was piqued.

“Ice cream?”

“H-heh, right. It’s a delicacy one eats during a hot weather...speaking of which, why is it so hot here?”

I thought we’re in a forest? Wouldn’t the trees cover the sun? But it’s still so hot…

“Oh, it’s always hot here in the [Dorville Forest].”

“Always? Why?”

“The trees emit heat.”

“...Hah?”

Since when do trees emit heat!?

Wait, this is a completely different world...I guess it’s the common sense here?

But still...what sort of logic is this?

“Is it not the same in your world? The trees in here absorb the heat from the sun.”

Yeah yeah, that’s called photosynthesis.

“Then it refines a portion of it inside the tree in order to grow, then releases the excess heat. The neighboring trees then absorb these heat as well and the process repeats all over again and again. This is the reason why dense forests like the [Dorville Forest] has such huge trees.”

...Somehow, what she said seemed to make sense, yet at the same time, it doesn’t…

Forget it, this is the common sense in this world, I have no power to change it at all.

Besides, it seems to be true since when I tried touching a tree trunk just now, I felt the heat reaching my palm.

Not to mention, even with the thermal vision of [World Eyes], I saw the heat the trees are emitting…It almost felt as if...

...As if the trees are alive?

N-no way...right?

...Let’s just hurry and find the dungeon!

“Aleris, are we close to the dungeon yet?”

“Yeah, it seems the hero group had killed all the monsters around here so we didn’t get to meet any mo- Watch out!”

I was already a step earlier than her and had already noticed the incoming enemy.

I turned my head and dodged the attack on my head with ease as I focused on the enemy.

In front of us, there stood a huge and ferocious monster!...Is what I want to say but…

*Vii!*

...This...a white rabbit with a horn? Rather, doesn’t it look quite cute?

Ah, it seemed to be injured though.

The horned rabbit glared at us cautiously and was looking around, seemingly trying to see if there’s a chance to escape.

“This a Dorville. They usually travel in groups though. I wonder why this little one is on her own?”

“How do you know it’s a ‘her’?”

“The color of its fur is slightly blue. The male kind has a tint of red.”

Isn’t it usually the other way around?...Forget it, this world has a different common sense. This world has a different common sense. This world has a different common sense…

I chanted in my mind so as to stay sane.

“Is it a hostile monster?”

“Only when provoked. People usually keep them as pets.”

Hmm...then there’s no harm in healing it.

I used [Heal] magic and my hand glowed with a light green color.

Manipulating the holy element, I created a transparent green bubble on my hand and let it float towards the Dorville.

“What a pretty magic!”

Well, I deliberately made it look harmless and pretty so the Dorville wouldn't try to dodge it.

It’s the holy element anyway so it...she shouldn’t feel harmed at all.

As expected, the Dorville didn’t evade the [Heal] bubble and even curiously stretched her paw towards it.

As soon as the bubble wrapped itself around the Dorville, it began to heal her wounds.

The Dorville jumped around excitedly and began to hop towards me.

Not feeling any malice, I crouched down and pet the Dorville on her head.

“Heh, it seems to like you. Are you going to keep it?”

“No way. It’s too dangerous where we’re going.”

After the Dorville was satisfied with all the petting, I stood up and continued to follow Aleris to the dungeon.

“She’s following you.”

I turned around and sure enough, the little thing is really following.

She even tried to hide when she saw me turn around…

“Lucas, can’t we keep her!?”

“...El? You...”

“W-what!? Such a cute little thing, why are you abandoning it here!? There are monsters that lurk here, what will you do if Vil gets killed!?”

“No...isn’t she also a monster? Actually, you already named her!?”

“This and that are different!”

I sighed. Guess it can’t be helped if milady queen orders it.

I walked towards the Dorville...rather, Vil, and carried her in my arms.

“You’re going to keep her after all?”

“Ah...guess I’ll consider it a gift to my bossy girlfriend...”

“...You have a girlfriend?”

“Well..maybe? I don’t really know our...relationship anymore...probably?”

“W-w-whose bossy!? This queen is a queen! It’s natural for this queen to be bossy!”

“...That was the part where you have a problem?”

“W-what do you mean!? I only heard bossy! I didn’t hear what you said after that!”

...That’s too unreasonable oi…

I sighed again. Really, just what sort of relationship is this?

“I see...well, we should get going.”

“Ou.”

Aleris turned around and continued walking as if nothing happened...well, nothing really happened right?

I’m still considering if I should let Vil enter my [World Home] now or later…hmm, it should be fine to keep her with me for now.

Vil had already gotten out of my arms and was climbing on top of my head.

*Vii~*

There, it snuggled on my hair and started to sleep...what the, is my head a nest or what?

Also, I can see you trying not to laugh Aleris!

“Hahahahahaha!”

And you didn’t even bother to hide it El!

It didn’t take long before we finally saw some ruined buildings scattered around the forest.

Aleris pointed towards a collapsed building’s entrance.

“That’s the entrance to the dungeon. We should enter now.”

“Wait, I know this is late to ask but is it alright for you, a princess, to be entering as well?”

“Heh, no worries. I’m actually pretty strong myself.”

Aleris grinned and her ring glowed.

Suddenly, a golden longsword appeared in front of her.

...Eh? Wait...this...isn’t this a storage ring!? Isn’t this supposed to be from a xianxia genre!? Why is it in a fantasy world!?

Ah, the common sense here is different. The common sense here is different. The common sense here is different…

Okay...this world is really weird…

“This dungeon is on the low-level side so it shouldn’t be too dangerous. You ready?”

“Ou...”

Let’s just hurry and be done with this so I can leave this weird world already…

I took out my iron sword and entered the dungeon with Aleris behind me and Vil on top of my head.

Using the different visions in my [World Eyes], I looked through the walls to find where the students are.

“There, I found them.”

“Huh?”

Aleris let out a confused sound when she saw me looking down on the ground.

“It takes too much time to clear the dungeon level by level. We’re going to use a cheat engine. Haha.”

Laughing lightly, I manipulated the earth beneath us and opened up a path downwards while creating stairs.

As my [Earth] element points are still too low, I can only change a small amount of earth around me but that’s still enough for me to construct stairs as we go down.

“T-this...this is too much cheating!”

“Hehe, who says we need to follow the rules?”

*Kikikikikiki*

Upon reaching the third level, a flock of bats rushed towards us but they didn’t do much damage as I controlled the wind to slice them up.

On the fourth level, a lion-sized monster pounced on us but all it took was a qi filled palm and it imploded immediately.

I also created a light ball to hover around us as it had started to get dark.

On the fifth floor, there was an army of golems but none of them managed to get near us at all with my earth manipulation. Though I was only able to hold them back for a period of time, it was enough to kill them immediately with a single slash of the iron sword.

“You only use your sword now!? And it’s even starting to chip off!”

“Ah, it’s really not a good idea to use swords on earth golems huh? Well, guess this sword’s useless now.”

Shrugging, I threw the sword away and continued to head down.

“You...this is too ridiculous...why am I even here?”

“That’s what I kept telling you.”

*Vii!*

“See, even Vil thinks so.”

“You named her Vil? Actually, when did you name her!? Also, isn’t she the one who isn’t doing anything at all!?”

“Ah, Lucas. It seems you’re no longer the one retorting this time.”

“Yeah, feels nice for a change...”

I laughed and continued walking downwards.

Now then, the students are on the seventh floor. Just a floor below us.

We are currently standing on the sixth floor and I had just shooed away the monsters on this floor.

I didn’t continue to go down as I observed the students from here.

“What’s wrong?”

“Seems like they’re facing a huge monster. Yosh, let’s make a nice entrance!”

My [Earth] element points had really increased a lot. It should be fine to make something that large now.

Changing back to my Mr. Knight attire, I walked towards the area where the monster below was and smashed my fist downwards!

“Eii-!”

+ + +

On the seventh floor of the dungeon, 34 students and a teacher were battling a huge monster.

On the way to the seventh floor, it had been nice and easy for them.

But upon entering the seventh floor, the loner student who had disappeared earlier on suddenly showed himself and summoned a huge monster!

It seems he got the skill [Monster Gacha] and could summon randomized monsters.

He had left earlier to experiment with this skill and finally managed to find a way to summon large monsters through the help of a stranger.

That stranger had mysteriously changed his skill into [Hell Summoning] and now, he was able to summon being from Hell at his will.

This time, he summoned a three-headed large wolf. A Cerberus!

Now that he’s returned, he swore to kill those that made his life painful. Revenge to those that bullied him and even take away the girl he had a crush on.

“Hahahahahaha! How do you like me now you pathetic excuse of a human!? Die! Die! Die! Die!”

“Gh- Ren! Do something!”

“I can’t! This damn dog is too powerful!”

Facing the Cerberus, Ren Mizushi and the rest paled and panicked as they ran away from it.

“Ren! Hurry up and kill it!”

“Ren! Stop running and do something about this!”

“Aah! Bitch! Why don’t you go distract it then!?”

Annoyed with everyone who suddenly kept pushing him to do something, he grabbed the nearest girl and threw her to the Cerberus as he ran away.

“Ren you bastard!”

“Damn! And I thought you were a hero!?”

“You’re just a damn perverted trash!”

Seeing as Ren didn’t hesitate to use his classmate to sacrifice and had even run away, the rest hurled insults at him but there was nothing they could do.

None of them were faster than Ren and they could only lag behind him and wait to be dog food.

As for the girl who was thrown away earlier, one of the Cerberus’ heads opened its mouth and was about to eat the girl when…

*BOOM*

Suddenly, a huge earth fist descended from the ceiling and smashed the Cerberus.

The girl only hit the fist and descended soon after, having only light injuries.

From the wrist of the earthen fist, two figures descended.

One was a man wearing a familiar black suit and a modernized knight’s helmet with a light blue bunny on top of it while the other was a familiar beauty which everyone had known, princess Aleris!

The black suited knight who originally had a fist on his right hand opened his palm. At the same time, the earthen fist below him opened up and held the whining Cerberus in its grasp.

Afterward, the earthen hand melted and merged with the surrounding earth, completely trapping the Cerberus within.

“Ooh, finally leveled up. Leveling up really takes a long time...”

The black suited knight uttered, seemingly satisfied.

He got down from the hand and approached the girl who was thrown out earlier. His hands glowed with a light green aura and the girl’s injuries started to recover.

“One two three...thirty-five. Good, you’re all still alive. I’ll be taking you all back to [Earth].”

“W-who...”

“Haha, the knight in a business suit, Mr. Knight.”

+ + +

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! God that was so embarrassing!!!

“Hahahahahaha! K-knight in a business suit! Hahaha! Mr. Knight! Hahahahaha!”

“Uuuu...”

“Hahaha! Y-you-! Hahaha! I can’t believe you introduced yourself this way! Hahaha!”

“...Alright, alright. Stop laughing already!”

“Do it again! This time, I better record it!”

“Not happening!”

While trying my hardest to ignore El’s laughing in my head, I thanked the gods that I chose to wear the helmet so no one can see my red face at the moment.

At the side, Aleris is looking at me strangely.

“It’s...what people call me back in [Earth]. No one knows my identity.”

“Oh...no one except me then?”

“...And a few more people...”

What the...Aleris looked strangely happy...is it because she now has a way to blackmail me!? What’s with that devilish grin!?

...She’s unexpectedly an S huh?

Now then...what to do with this situation?

On one side, a loner-looking kind of guy is glaring at me in malice.

On the other side, a handsome-looking-riajuu kind of guy is also glaring at me with hate and jealousy.

...What am I supposed to do now?

Status

Name

Lucas

Level

13

Race

Human - Dragon

Gender

Male

Class

Wanderer

7

Stamina

9525

Mana

9575

Qi

100000000000

Spirit

1840

Cultivation

Peak Martial Emperor

STR

125

INT

123

SPD

124

DEX

122

VIT

121

LUK

209

Fire

56

Earth

36

Water

234

Wind

21

Light

272

Dark

66

Ice

12

Lightning

12

Holy

70

Space

16

Fame

24000

Rage

0

Charm

100

Titles

Light Hero of Darkness

Playboy King

Sealed

Elena Shenxue

Skills

Concoct

3.54%

Dragon’s Wrath

10.18%

Elemental Manipulation

Passive

Star Convergence

Passive

Spirit Formation

3.94%

Implosion Palm

8.02%

World Eyes

Passive

Smith

32.54%

Blink

9.11%

Stealth

8.29%

Heal

8.20%

Cure

1.12%

Triple Stab

3.25%

Successive Shots

2.45%

Hunter’s Mark

Passive