When I woke up my body felt heavy. It felt as if a python was wrapped around me and was squeezing my life out of me. As I had just woken up and rays of sun were falling directly on my face from the window, I couldn’t see clearly what was squeezing the shit out of me. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the light and I could see what was going on.

Jesse was hugging me tightly with both her arms and legs. I couldn’t easily escape her grip. You know the feeling when you have just woke up and you are super weak, I was having the exact experience. On top of that it is difficult to breathe. Any tighter grip and my ribs will break.

“Jesse! Wake up!” I manage to say. It takes six more times to wake her up. When she woke up it took her a while to realize what was going on. She quickly pushed me away. I nearly hit my head on the bed. Where does she get all this strength right after waking up from??

“Would you like to explain what you were doing down on the floor?”

”I’m really sorry. I had no such intentions but the situation forced me to do it.” She was beet red.

“Start talking.” I was really annoyed.

“I had a terrible nightmare and I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to wake you up but you forbid me from doing so. And then suddenly there was a scary noise outside the window. I was so scared that I entered into your blanket. I’m sorry! I really am.” She seemed very apologetic and embarrassed.

“But why the hell were you squeezing the life out of me? I nearly died again.”

“Again? Did you die before?”

Crap! I said something I shouldn’t have.

“I nearly died once before. How would I be here if I died you idiot!” Phew I managed to think of an excuse. Hope she buys it.

“Haha silly me. Of course you are alive. And why I squeezed you must because I used to sleep with my teddy. I probably mistook you for him.”

“I suddenly feel sorry for your teddy. Get ready. Or we’ll be late for our quest. We have to be back before sunset.” I say as I start packing my bag.

“Why are you on such a hurry? There isn’t a close time limit on the quest though?” She asks as she prepares her stuff.

“I want to increase my guild rank soon. And I have other reasons too.” I leave the room and go visit the employee of the inn.

“Excuse me, is the room you said will be free today available?”

“I’m very sorry sir it was booked early morning by another customer.” He replied after checking the records.

“But I said that I will book it yesterday, didn’t I?”

“I’m really sorry sir. If you had paid in advance then we could reserve the room for you. The customer who booked it today was a frequent customer so we couldn’t deny them. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.” He apologized while bowing.

“What should I do Jesse?”

“Why don’t you reserve the next room that becomes free. Until then we can share my room. I don’t mind.” She seems to forget that I nearly met a GOD again.

“Ok then I’ll pay half the rent of your room. But I’ll leave immediately if you repeat what happened today.” I can’t tolerate that trauma again.

“Don’t worry it was an accident. And you don’t have to worry about the rent. Consider it an apology from me for today’s incident.”

“Ok if you say so.” I turn towards the employee, “I would like to reserve the next room that gets free for 10 days.”

“Ok sir. That will be 6 silver. Your room will be available in 3 days. ”

So they charge extra for the early reservation? I guess it’s fine. I hand over the 6 silver coins. So now my problem of acquiring a place of accommodation is solved.

We have breakfast at the inn itself. The food were all new to me but still they were delicious. We also buy some extra food for our lunch since we will not have time to prepare food during the quest. If we were having a long journey in the wild then we might have to hunt for some meat and cook it in the fire but now is different.

We leave for our quest. We are going to the highway that leads to the dungeon town Dormia. There have been sightings of goblins along the highways before the entrance to the tunnels through the Great hills. They have even killed some travelers apparently.

Since it is a highway leading to a dungeon town, there should be many adventurers using it. There normally wouldn’t be problems like this there but due to decrease in the flow of adventurers to the town not many people go there as they used to. Jesse sure is knowledgeable.

Then I remembered something. I don’t know how to use a sword!! If it is blindly stabbing with a knife, even a kid can do that and that’s what I did in my last quest. But this is different. I can die if I’m not careful.

“Hey Jesse, can you teach me the basics of using a sword?” As Jesse also uses a sword, she should be able to teach me something.

“Wait for a moment. I’ll teach you the basics when we reach outside the city gates.”

Once we were outside in the open fields she taught me some basics like how to hold a sword, how to swing it and how to parry basic attacks. She also taught basic footwork that goes along with sword fighting. Since I have the Weapon Skill it is easy for me to grasp all the concepts.

[Acquired: Sword Skill (1)]

This text was visible in my field of vision. I could see text like this whenever I leveled up. But it didn’t obstruct anything in my vision. It’s as if it is not there at all, but it is there. I can’t explain it in proper words. Also I could subconsciously choose to ignore it as well as read all the previous texts that have appeared.

“I think I have learned enough for now. Thank you. We should move on now.” I can’t waste anymore time.

“Ok. Let’s find a merchant who is willing to let us ride on their wagon.”

After searching a while, we finally found a merchant kind enough to give us a ride to our destination. It took about 2 hours to reach the location were the goblins were last seen. It’s already 10:37 AM.

Of course the goblins are nowhere to be seen. The quest wouldn’t be that easy. Jesse starts to find and track footprints around. I don’t know how the footprints of goblins look like so I can’t do anything so I wait for her to track them.

“It looks like the goblins have moved deeper into the woods. It might get dangerous so stay sharp.” She is really taking this quest seriously. At other times she acts like an idiot but she is really reliable at times like this huh!

We quietly walk deeper into the woods while observing the surroundings. These woods are not as dense as the Forest of Mander but still there are plenty of spots for an ambush. Goblins aren’t intelligent enough for such a sneak attack but still we need to stay sharp.

Even though I am already at a higher level than Jesse, the difference in experience can be clearly seen. I’m nervous about what might be lurking behind that bush but she is boldly leading the way. I don’t understand how she got scared at night. It must have been one hell of a sound to scare her.

Up ahead in a small clearing, there were 7 goblins chewing some bones. These must be the unfortunate travelers who got killed.

“You take the 3 on the left, and I’ll take the remaining 4 on the right. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask for it.” The goblins hadn’t still noticed us so she whispered.

She suddenly charged forward with her sword drawn. That was the signal to attack so I charged too.

With one swing of the sword, one goblin perished. They were weak in small numbers against someone who knew how to fight. With the death of their comrade, the others realized our presence. They dropped the bones and picked up their weapons.

One had a small sword and the other had a spear. Goblins can’t make weapons so they probably stole it from other travelers.

The one with the sword wildly swung its sword at me but it’s attack was easy to block. I killed it with a backhand swing.

[Level up: 32 (+1)]

[Sword skill (2)]

I think my level up frequency is decreasing. I could level up with just one fly in the beginning but now it takes two goblins. I guess that is to be expected as the amount of experience required to level up also increases.

The goblin with the spear was the main problem. It’s weapon had a longer range than mine so it had an advantage. It also seemed to have a better understanding of how to use its weapon and was making precise strikes. Of course I was blocking all of them. It would be an embarrassment if I got hit by a goblin.

I charge at it suddenly with my high speed and stab it in it’s chest. It was not expecting me to get closer so it was surprised and couldn’t do anything. It quickly died.

I had cleared all of my enemies. Jesse still had one remaining. It was trying to run away.

“Wind cutter” She slashed at the empty space in front of her and a blade of wind escaped from her sword that slashed the back of the fleeing goblin. It stumbled on its track and didn’t get back up. It was dead.

“What was that you used just now?” I was shocked seeing such a spectacle.

“It was my wind magic, Wind Cutter. It is the type that can be used in Sword fights. Is it your first time seeing wind magic?”

“Yeah. It was so cool. I want to learn it too. Teach me.” I was excited to learn.

“Not everyone can use wind magic so easily, you have to have the affinity for it. You have to unlock your ability by leveling up even if you have the affinity. Do you have it?” It seems like leveling up system is for everyone and not just me. That’ll make talking about skills and leveling easier.

“Yeah I have it so just teach it to me quickly.” I sounded like a kid asking for chocolate from their parents but that doesn’t matter right now.

“I’ll just explain the basic principle once so listen carefully as we don’t have spare time. Concentrate your wind energy on your sword. The shortened chant for this spell is ‘Wind Cutter’. While saying that chant, swing your sword in the direction you want to attack. The attack has a range and damage according to the amount of wind energy you concentrate.”

While her explanation was still going on, I started to concentrate wind energy on my sword. Due to my blessing everything was easier. I was born with a diamond spoon in my mouth in this world.

“Wind Cutter”

I slash at a tree about 10 meters away from me, a range almost twice that Jesse used. I focused more on the range than the damage. The slash left a mark on the bark of the tree. I could get a grasp on the feel of the attack. If I focused more on the damage than on the range then I think it is possible to cut down a whole tree.

“Whatttt?? It’s unfair. It took me 2 weeks to learn that spell. How can you do it in your first try?” She got jealous of my achievement.

“Maybe because I have a better teacher than you had.” She was blushing with just this. I didn’t want to fool her but I have no other choice.

We went searching around the woods for more goblins. They were in smaller groups than before so they were easily dealt with. Unfortunately I got no chance to show off my brand new skill as I still couldn’t one hit K.O. from a larger distance. I leveled up another 3 levels with one more goblin required than before for every next level.

“Oooouuuuuuuuuuuuu”.

Suddenly there was a large roar coming from somewhere in the woods. It wasn’t a sound by any goblin. When I turned towards the source of the sound, I saw a dead tree flying towards us.

Jesse was busy collecting the proof of killing the goblin, their pointed nose that we would submit to the guild to claim our reward. By the time she could react to that tree, she would be squished to death. I had to do something.

I could cut apart the tree with Wind Cutter at full power but for that the range would be too short. Meaning I had to attack the tree when it was just outside the range of my sword. The timing was delicate, even a moment early or late would end up in our death.

I focused all the wind energy I could collect in my sword. With my full power,

“Wind Cutter”

I used my attack.

The tree was sliced in half, both halves crashed on each of my sides. I probably won’t be able to use this attack for a while now. But what caused the tree to suddenly fly with such velocity??

Then my question was answered. About a 100 meters ahead of me was the owner of the roar, the culprit behind the assault, an Ogre.