[Hurgh…!]

[Ah, finally woke up, blockhead?]

Rud was finally waked up from his slumber from the neverland.

[Ah… GAAAAAAAAAH!!!]

Suddenly Rud stands up and take a stance against a red-haired woman right in front of him. And before he realized it, he bumped into someone behind him.

[Eh?]

*PLAAKKKK!

And suddenly his head was being thrown away into his right. His left cheek was beet red, not from being embarrassed or anything the likes. He was slapped by a green-haired woman whom he bumped just now.

[This man… he’s really a trash, or even worse, totally different than Vram.]

[Well that can’t be helped, there’s a difference in how they lived their own life.]

Hilda and Yohana somehow were able to agree on one thing, that is which to refer Rud as nothing else than a lowlife form, that even lower than a trash. As Rud was struggling to stand up again, he rubbed off his left cheek, trying to ease the pain.

[Wait, what’s with this difference in treatment…!] [Ugh… and your slap hurts… though Hilda’s punch was more deadly.]

[WHA…?!?!]

[Eh?] [I hit you with a magic wind though?] [You think we witches are barbaric enough to use physical strength to deal against someone like you?!]

[Eh…?] [But Hilda’s….]

[Ah, Senior Hilda’s a special case.]

[… Chih….] Hilda somehow disliked the way Yohana mentioned about her, and that confused Rud even more.

[By the way, where are we?]

As Rud starting to aware of his surrounding, he realized that he wasn’t in empty grassland again, but in the middle of a forest where it’s almost hard to find a spot with a lot of light.

[Took you long enough to realize, eh?] [We’re in a hunting field.] [We usually used this place either to train our familiar in battle here, or to hunt some material needed.]

[Wait; don’t tell me I’m going to be thrown in here?] Rud’s suddenly having a cold sweat imagining him being thrown off

[Not now, at the very least.] [Well, for now, you can see it for yourself there.]

Rud was trying to focus himself on and tried to take a look at where Hilda was pointing at. It was a familiar figure, of a black knight wielding his shield and sword, in a face-off against a monster, a feline-type monster, but with a giant fang on its teeth, a claw on the back of its palm just like a avian-type’s claw, and somehow it also had a long ears, just like a rabbit.

[What the heck is that of an abomination monster?] Rud unnecessarily commented on how the monster shaped.

[It’s not about the monster you should care about.] [He’s going to start again, so make sure you watch him carefully.]

[Huh?]

*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

As the beast jumped out and starts closing its distance toward Vram, he quickly lowered his posture and dashed into the monster’s lower body. He quickly stomped hard onto the floor and rotating his body as he swings his sword on the left side of the beast.

*BHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!

The beast was thrown off far from where he was. There was some kind of sparkly marks on its body, but somehow it quickly dispersed. And yet, the monster somehow standing quickly, like it hadn’t received some kind of damage.

[What… what kind of monster is that!?!?] [It was able to withstand such deadly blow from that black monster?!?!]

[No, it’s not about the monster.] [It was thanks to that sword….]

[Huh?!?!]

After Hilda pointing out the sword, Rud finally realized something’s off with that sword. The sword was totally different from what Vram usually uses, it has weird ornament on the blade and it was so sparkly, a complete opposite of what Vram wear.

[That sword… Vram said that it couldn’t cut anything, even though it took him such a long time to make.] [We thought it wasn’t supposed to be a weapon, but Vram and Josephine think differently.]

[And now they were testing it against that kind of abomination?!] [Does he not fear death, that black monster?!?!?]

[Well I’d say he’ll be fine against it even if he’s not using any weapon at all….] [But even I had no clue regarding that sword’s ability.] [Maybe you know something about it, blockhead?]

[Whatever are you talking about?] Rud can only put on a blank, confused face, which somehow Hilda’s already expected, yet still feeling conflicted.

[*sigh*….]

When she finally gets tired of converse with the red blockhead, Hilda turned her head, looking back at Vram’s desperate struggle.

[This is it!] [Now I finally understand this weapon’s true worth, master!!!]

[Huh??]

***

[What is it, Vram?!?!] [Did you finally find it?!?!]

[Not exactly, but I think I finally have a clue regarding this weapon’s special ability!]

After Vram had said that, he fixed his battle posture, as if he’s finally ready to end the battle itself.

[COME!!!]

Vram dashed toward the beast. Responding to it, the beast also instinctively jumped toward Vram. The beast somehow sensed that the last changes of strike shall decide the moment.

*KRAAAAAKKKKK!!!

But little did the beast know that the enemy in front of it was someone that the beast could never hope to defeat. As the beast thrust its claw onto Vram’s torso and its deadly fang aimed toward Vram’s head, they somehow just keep scratching against his armor.

[Vram!!!!]

[What’s that black monster doing!?!]

[No, he’s doing it voluntarily….] [What is he….]

As the monster struggled to pierce through Vram’s armor, his left hand was already placed in the back hilt of the sword as he aimed toward the monster’s chest, or to be exact, its heart.

[PIERCE THROUGH!]

*JRUAAAAAAAAAKKKK!!

The sword, with great force, had pierced through its chest. But strangely, the beast doesn’t felt any pain or even reacting at all. The beast just brushed it off as if Vram’s already failed its attack. But in truth, the sword “did” pierced the beast’s chest, yet no blood was shed from it. The others were somehow either amazed with it, or even confused.

[Now this is the real deal!] [UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!]

As it was in his first time against the Queen Vasp, Vram’s body was covered in red lines again. His over-powered strength pushed the sword even deeper into the beast’s body.

*GRAOOOOOWR!!!!

The beast finally realized what was wrong with its body and struggled to get away from Vram. But it was too late, Vram had already plunged all of the blades inside of its body that the beast somehow were unable to move.

*CRAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!

Something just exploded. Though there are no external wounds nor any kinds of magic were deployed, certainly there are something exploded, or destroyed. The beast, though somehow still breathing, somehow looked so lifeless that it barely moved. Vram slowly pulled the sword from its body, the shining parts that covering the parts where its body pierced suddenly disappeared. After Vram released his sword from the beast’s body, the beast just dropped, lying there, unmoving.

[H… hey… it’s still alive, you know.] Rud, started to walk closer toward the beast, realized that it’s still breathing. Yet somehow the beast’s eyes, though opened, doesn’t even reacted at all.

[Vram….] [Does that weapon….] Hilda looked panicked, as if she finally realized the true worth of the weapon itself.

[Yeah, it’s a weapon that directly harms a creature’s soul.] [I realize it the moment its movement were become even more sluggish than usual, as I deduced that this sword maybe had cut its strengths bit by bit when I slashed it.]

[Wait, does this means that you could defeat the monster without having to wreck the body itself?!?!?] Josephine somehow grasped the idea of the weapon’s capability.

[Correct, Master.] [But at that time, I used too much force into it, that its soul were somehow being dispersed and exploded like before.] [I think I still need to control my own strength before mastering this.]

[Eh? You’re still planning to use it?] Yohn asked Vram with confused looks.

[Why wouldn’t I?] [This is a perfect weapon that I needed right now.]

[Why?]

[Because….]

[BECAUSE WE COULD EASILY MAKE ANOTHER BLACKHEMIST WEAPON WITHOUT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ITS QUALITY SINCE WE WERE ABLE TO CAUGHT A MONSTER ALIVE NOW!!] [THIS IS BRILLIANT, VRAM!] [IT’S A HUGE SUCCESS!!!!]

Josephine jumped out here and there and started to hug Vram tightly after seeing that their newly made sword was actually worth of something. Hilda and Yohana just sighed seeing the excited Josephine jumped out here and there.

[So you’re still planning to do this, Naked Idiot?]

[Of course I am, Senior Hilda!!]

[Completely forgetting about him?] As Hilda pointed her thumbs toward Rud.

[Ah…!]

Rud somehow looked in a bit of despair. He was afraid, afraid that he will be abandoned anymore by his only savior.

[That’s… I….]

Josephine somehow was at a loss for words. He doesn’t know how to answer Hilda’s question. Even if she says that she will recover him, in fact, she hadn’t progressed much far that she doubts herself. At that moment, Vram was getting closer toward Rud.

[We will recover him.] [My master had already said so, and I plan to stick to it until the very end.]

[Eh?]

[What… Mister Vram, I thought you hate him…?] Yohn somehow asked something that should’ve been obvious to other people, yet such answer was unexpected coming from him.

[Because I hate him, in which I can easily say that I will make sure that Master and I find a way to recover you.] [The only thing I asked of you is to not rush her too far.] [We need time, and for that reason also, we need to improve ourselves.] [Still having doubts of it, you red monkey?]

Rud was silent, yet he shivers. Vram doesn’t even look back at him, but the others could be seen empathizing with him. He was about to cry, unknown of reasons.

[S… shut up, you black monster!] [What are you even talking about at this time?!] [I’ve been waiting and walking for many years, I’m fine with waiting for more years!]

[Good then.]

Josephine smiled. She jumped cheerfully and started to grab Vram’s arm as both of them walked out of the forest.

[Oh.] Vram stopped midway as he suddenly reminded of something. [Should we change our training regiment to hunt a monster together, red monkey?] [I think it’ll be a good improvement for your survival training.]

[ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!?!?]

***

[FINISHED!!]

Josephine shouted. As she sits down in front of the pedestal, she relaxed her own shoulder as it went slump, while Vram was in the middle of cleaning up the mess after using the pedestal. They’ve just finished doing a Blackhemist again to create another weapon.

[Damn, its endurance is worrying.] [Somehow I can’t really bring myself to test it out, afraid of it’ll break in the middle….]

After finished cleaning and wiping the newly made weapon, Vram double-checked the sword once again to ensure its ability. It was a two-handed long sword, while it had a thick blade; the core of the blade was somehow so thin and empty. But Vram could easily tell that there’s something hidden beneath such fragile things.

[So… which weapon was it again? The 10th?]

[We’ve already made more than 20th months ago.] [This is the 23rd ones.]

[Whoa, we’ve already comes a long way, then~?]

[And our stock of Mana Cocoon had already dried out just now.] [Since it’s come to this, I think it’s about time we’re going out to hunt again.] [As a formal Frontier Unit, of course.]

In actuality, though Josephine had been long appointed as a Frontier Unit, she had almost never been going out of the village, mainly thanks for her keeping a lot of Mana Cocoon to fill the quota. Though the truth enrages Yohana so, somehow Hilda just brushed it off.

[But hunting the Vasp becomes a lot more dangerous now.] [If we took our time for too long, we’ll end up going to have a face-off against that Vasp Queen.] [And if that’s not enough, there are more than a few handles of those Vasp Queens.]

[Weren’t hunting normally is enough?]

[I don’t really want to go out that long if I could help it, you know.] [Even with everything I’ve done, I still hadn’t had a clue of how to restore Rud’s body.] [I feel like there’s something lacked in our knowledge, but I don’t know what it is….]

Josephine and Vram started to sit down and leaning their forehead toward each others. Somehow it has become a normal thing for them to sit down together, discussing things while having their forehead touched each other, though one was wearing helmet.

[Then….] [Aside of the lack of knowledge regarding what had happened to Rud….] [Should we try to hunt a stronger monster on the outside?] As Vram tried to suggest something to his Master.

[Hmm?] [I have no objection regarding us having to improve more of ourselves, but….] [Why?]

[Well there are two reasons.] [First, for a monster strong enough to destroy a whole village, they usually stayed in places that contain a massive amount of mana, right?]

[OH?!] [So you’re saying, that by having us to defeat the monster, we’ll be able to obtain a fortune for many years later?!]

[That, and the second part is….] [We need to move your rank into something higher, Master.]

[Eh?] [I’ve already ascended into the 4th tier long ago, though?]

[I get a feeling that there are some information that could only be reached once we reach a 5th tier and more.] [I mean, Lady Hilda does know a lot about those kind of magic here and there since she’s a 5th tier, but that doesn’t mean that she had researched everything that we need.]

[Umm… you do have a point there.] [I actually never considered of having to ascend into the upper tier….]

[So we have an agreement, then?]

[Eheheh~] [It sure is weird to have a discussion against a familiar.]

[What are you saying at this point, Master?] [It’s already more than half a year since we’ve last met.]

[*giggle* true~!]

***

[Luminous Cave?] Rud had this confused look as he’s in the middle of cleaning a magic tool that was given by Hilda.

[Yes.] [I had asked Yohana regarding a nearest place that had a wave of mana surging at one location, and it was there.]

[And you both have to go there in order to procure the Mana necessary for the village….] [I’d say good luck then.]

[You’re coming too, red monkey.]

[WHAT?!] [WHY!?!] [I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO RELAX A BIT SINCE HILDA SUDDENLY SAYING SHE HAD SOMETHING TO DO!!] [WHY DO I HAVE TO FOLLOW YOU TO FIGHT SOMETHING SO DANGEROUS LIKE THAT?!?!?]

[Shut up, you red monkey.] [You’re our slave, so you’d best do as what we say.]

[IT’S THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU RECONFIRMED MY STATUS HERE, THOUGH!?!?!]

[Wa… wait, let’s calm down for a bit, okay Vram?] [Well, it’s just that we really need some kind of reinforcement, so I was thinking of bringing you along as well.] Josephine was trying to convince Rud that she needed some help regarding her current quest.

[But weren’t Vram’s ability are more than enough?] [I mean, you already able to create a weapon strong enough to destroy a whole village.] [I don’t think I’ll be of much use….]

[Another helping hand would be useful, even if their only purpose is only as a meat shield.]

[ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!?]

[We wouldn’t, red monkey.] [I’ll grant you some of my best equipment, and I want you to protect Master Josephine in my stead while I’m fighting.]

[Eh?]

[Umm… though I don’t really demand it, it is reassuring if we had more people to fight.] [At least, that’s what Vram was trying to say, Rud.] [Will you?]

[Ugh….] After contemplating himself for a bit, Rud’s expression finally shows that he had decided on something. [Alright, I’ll do it.] [Just make sure that you give me your REAL best equipment, black monster!!]

[Considering whether you’ll be able to use it or not, though.]

***

A three figure. All of them were walking along the coastline, strolling around the forest on the island, trying to reach what was seemed to lies at the end of the coast. One was equipping his usual full-clad black armor with some kind of white hair plunging out of the back of its helmet. The other man was also wearing almost the same black, robed light armor with jet-black metal covering his torso, shoulder, hands, and feet. The other figure was a woman, though had wearing a thick, white robes on her shoulder, her clothes itself were only consists of a black lingerie and a corset.

[Hey… just what kind of enemies are we going to fought?]

[I don’t know….]

Vram was just nonchalantly answering Rud’s question that Rud ended up making a weird face caused of confusion.

[HEH?!?]

[Well actually the place we’re going to went ahead to is a forbidden spot that which somehow showing a sign of mana surging in one places, but most of our girls who went there never be able to return.]

[Hey, isn’t that supposed to be dangerous?]

[That’s why I need you to keep an eye of your master.] [Makes sure to stay vigilant, we’re almost there.]

[*gulp*… I shouldn’t have agreed….]

[I intend to drag you out still if you were going to refuse, though.]

[*groan*… But still, this is quite equipment you gave me.] [It’s light, but also hard.] [Wonder if this armor actually is really inferior to yours.]

[What are you talking about?] [It also has the same attribute with my armor.] [It’s just that, that equipment you wore was mostly used for either a cavalry battle or when charging against an opponent with lance.]

The moment Vram explained the true worth of the armor itself, Rud double-checked his equipment. Though it was mostly consisted of robe, he was wielding a shield with length about 1 to 1.5 meters. It was enough to cover his whole body inside the shield. And Rud was seeing his weapon, the black trident, that can be used either for slashing when charging against opponent, or to thrust it while defending against enemy attack.

[This… is really one of your best equipment then?!]

[I did tell you, right?] [It’s just a matter of preferences, as I prefer to use this armor in order to gain versatility when using many weapons at once.] [That’s why I want you to make sure that you fulfill your role.]

[Alright!]

[But Rud….] [I haven’t seen Yohn for a long time, where he is??] Josephine was looking elsewhere as if she was trying to find a mouse.

[I don’t know, somehow it’s also been a while since the last time we talked together.] [He maybe still enjoys playing around with the girls….]

[*giggle* You’re right.]

As the three of them keeps on walking, they somehow reached a crevice where a hole, or to be exact, a cave, huge enough to even fit a whole village inside.

[Is it inside this cave?] [They did say that the reaction came from here….]

[Uh… Josephine, Vram….] Rud was observing the cave while looked frightened. [This place… it looked like a bad news… we shouldn’t have entered this place….]

[What are you saying Rud?] [We still have Vram here, so everything will be alright!] [Besides, we’ve already come this far, returning would be kind of stupid, aren’t we, Vram…?]

Vram was silent. It’s not that he couldn’t hear Josephine’s word, but he was too fixated onto something. He was observing, though what he observed wasn’t the cave or something inside, but he was fixated onto a rock that’s quite far from their own position.

[Vram…?]

[Master, we should get away from this place at once.]

[EH!? WHY?!?!]

[Ugh… are you seeing something that we shouldn’t have…?]

[I hope that thing was just my imagination….] [But if it’s something that I feared to be, our location would be too disadvantageous….]

[Alright, then we should move away from… eh?]

As Josephine turned her back trying to retreat from that place, she sensed something amiss. Or to be exact, she did saw something weird.

[Was this stone wall was always here?] [Or more like… where’s the way to return??]

[DAMN! WE WERE TOO LATE!!!]

Vram quickly pulled out his great bow and its spear as he quickly aimed toward a far away rock where he felt something weird.

*BVVWAAAASHHH!!!!

The spear was flying fast toward a stone right in the middle of the shallow water that’s somehow unnaturally sitting there.

*JRAAAAKKKK!!!!

The Spear hit. It hit the rocks, but the sound it makes when it hit was somehow weird. The sound of the impact wasn’t as hard as what they expected, and the spear were also repelled in a weird way.

[The… the rock… it’s moving…?!?!?]

As the rock somehow looked like it’s squirming, the earth begins to rumble. A tremor was happened right inside the crevice where there’s no way out.

[WHAT IS THIS! WHAT IS HAPPENING, VRAM?!?!] Rud went panicked after seeing things that happened right in front of his eyes.

[Rud! You and Josephine need to distance yourself from me! I will deliver the first strike!!]

As Vram quickly ordering Rud, he runs toward the giant rock is and pulled out a lance and a big shield right from his storage.

*BLAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

At the same time, an explosion was happening right at the center of the crevice, at the center of the shallow water that’s covering the whole crevice entrance, and right in the middle of the giant rock itself. After the water had cleared up, something was standing right in the middle of it.

[Wha… A….]

Rud was too surprised that he had lost his ability to talk. Josephine was also in awe after seeing such a scene right before her eyes. She knew about it, or to be exact, the general knowledge of such things. But what’s appearing before her was something no one could’ve predicted.

A monster.

A monster was hidden inside the ground, a bit lower than the shallow water. It hid itself as a normal rock in order to fool its prey as they gets closer and started to rise up when it realized the timing to hunt was perfect. But right now, it was different, the monster’s ambush were found by Vram, that’s why it’s quickly arise from its place as if it was indicating itself that it was ready to battle.

[A… a Wyvern?!!?!]

*GROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!

[UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!]