As hard as Dallion tried, he was unable to sleep. The first hour passed with him turning around beneath a blanket in the hopes that he’d get tired enough. When that didn’t work, he just gave up on the whole thing and decided to walk about the town. Nil was strongly opposed, of course, explaining that this was no way to be ready for an actual fight. Only the armadil was supporting, cracking a few jokes in typical fashion.

Other than the material the town was made of, there was nothing particularly strange about it. The buildings were simple—a mix of Roman and medieval architecture. At one point, they must have been standard homes for people, if a little tight on space, but later they were remodified into military structures. No matter where he ventured, Dallion was unable to find anything of significance—nothing but bare walls and dirt remained. And while he was curious to find the building with the ominous message, there didn’t seem to be one.

Think he made that all up? Dallion asked Nil.

He would hardly bother, Nil replied. Knowing March, she probably leveled the entire building. Does it matter so much that you find the message? Vend conveyed the intention it had.

Dallion would have preferred to have seen it. However, he’d have to make do with Vend’s story. Several hours later, Eury returned to the town. Not long after, the party was ordered to pack up and get ready for the trip.

It had taken them three days to reach the Town of Tears. According to Vend, it was another day or so to reach the temple of the level guardian. On the way, Dallion couldn’t help but notice that there were less and less animal sounds. The presence of beasts that had been frequent before, especially at night, had diminished until they had disappeared completely. Only the insects remained, filling the grass and air. There was one other major difference—gradually a road emerged and the further they went, the better its condition got.

Ten temples, ten guardians… four of them had already been defeated, six remained. It was going to be quite the steep learning curve. Dallion was going to do his best to observe and catch the patterns, so that—

COMBAT INITIATED

The moment the red rectangle emerged, everyone dropped everything they were carrying and drew their weapons. Dallion barely had enough time to do the same, when three bearlike creatures emerged.

GUARDIAN MINION

Species: Jackalear

Class: Minion

Statistics: 100%

Skills:

- Charge

- Devour

- Space Tear

Weak Spots: none

Lux, Dallion thought.

The Firebird emerged instantly, granting him wings. Without hesitation, Dallion summoned his shield and harpsisword. Everyone else was already ahead of him.

Elites and monsters clashed. Dallion watched a heavily built man pierce one of the monsters with his spear. To his surprise, that only caused a minor wound. Guardian minions were definitely a lot stronger than ordinary creatures he’d encountered.

Leaving the spear in, the man summoned a second one, sticking it into the enemy. Before he could do the same with a third, the jackalear swiped at him, ripping whole tiles of his armor off. There was no blood, just a series of red rectangles—in the awakened realms they might well have been the same.

Music, Dallion thought, playing a chord on his harpsisword. The melody was aimed at the man, granting vigor to help him in the fight.

Meanwhile, the beasts kept on coming. It was as if they ripped reality itself, teleporting a few steps from the party without approaching. Initially there had been only a few, but now they outnumbered the party two to one, and more kept on appearing.

“Stay down!” Eury shouted, while punching a jackalear in the stomach at lightning speed. Red rectangles stacked one after the other in the dozens. “Don’t stand out!”

Dallion hesitated, wondering whether the bears could jump high enough to reach him. That proved to be a mistake. Reality tore a few feet away in front of him, revealing the antlers of a giant creature charging towards him.

Brace! The armadil shield said, extending around Dallion on its own. Even with that protection, the shock of the hit was strong enough to deal Dallion a minor wound.

Dallion swallowed. If he hadn’t linked the armadil shield, there was no telling how much damage the attack would have dealt. A fatal wound at least, maybe even a one hit kill? That definitely would have been embarrassing.

It’s fine, the armadil shield said. Everyone makes silly mistakes now and again.

Now I see why you’re a companion shield, Dallion thought.

Is there anything bad in ensuring my owner does the best he could? Stress never helped anyone in battle.

Moments later, the shield contracted again, returning to its original state. Lux instantly took over, thrusting Dallion up and forward.

“Keep me closer to the ground,” Dallion said. “And get me near the battle.”

It might be a good idea to get close to March, Nil suggested. That will be your designated position, so you better start getting used to it, and also let her get used to your presence.

That wasn’t a bad idea. Dallion conveyed the order.

Red rectangles filled the area like fireworks, appearing and disappearing all too fast for Dallion to follow. From what he could see, a number of party members had lost between fifteen and thirty percent life. However, there were those that hadn’t received a scratch. Euryale was one of those, as was Vend, and, of course, March. The armored captain remained at the front of the group, casually walking forward as if nothing was happening. Groups of creatures would emerge around her in threes and fours only to be slashed to pieces with such speed that Dallion couldn’t even follow. With his current perception, all he could do was see single strokes, however the rectangles stacked about her enemies were always half a dozen at least.

Half a dozen hits in the blink of the eye? Dallion thought in awe.

She’s just showing off, Nil grumbled. She could easily kill them without all that. The girl thinks she’s still in the imperial army. That’s one of her problems.

Right now, Dallion didn’t see that as a bad thing. On the contrary, he was glad there was someone on the team that could cut through the enemies like snow.

It took Lux several seconds to get Dallion half a dozen feet from March. Upon reaching a relatively safe spot, the firebird let him to the ground, though still remaining on him, gradually healing him in the process.

Slowly Dallion stepped closer, both shield and harpsisword at the ready. He knew that he had to make a better impression so he played another chord to sync with the jackalears, then played melodies of slowness.

“Don’t waste your music on minions,” March said. “Whatever they see, the guardian knows. Also, they aren’t worth it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dallion instantly stopped. That was something he should have figured on his own. Worse, it was something he knew—he had read that when facing a group of enemies, it was better to keep a few of his skills secret so that he would have an ace for when things became really dangerous.

“Are you hurt?” the captain asked.

“Not anymore,” Dallion quickly replied, fighting his desire to step away from the creatures as they appeared in the vicinity of March. “Lux took care of that. Want me to heal anyone?”

“Later. The first two aren’t difficult. Watch, learn, and don’t get hit too much.”

It soon turned out that standing next to March was the safest place to be. As much as she attracted minions, she dispatched them just as fast as they appeared. Meanwhile, Dallion could remain safe and observe. This reminded him of the time he had joined the hunt. Back then, he too was tasked to train during the first part of the journey with the goal of becoming strong enough to act as support for the fight against the chaining.

Everyone had their own styles of combat. Eury preferred close combat in which she would pummel enemies using her spiked gauntlets. Vend, on the other hand, had a more elegant slashing style. Thanks to his training, Dallion was able to see the dozens of instances that Vend deployed, always slashing the creature from its blind spot. Of the other people some stuck to one weapon, others summoned multiple in rapid succession. The only thing everyone had in common was that none of them were using ranged weapons, even those that carried such.

On a few occasions Dallion wondered whether he should join in, but the quick actions of the party members made him decide against it—by getting some personal experience in combat, he was likely to cause more chaos to the group as a whole. Dallion’s experience in the house cleaning job came to mind. There, the lieutenant had let him know when to take part in things and when not to. There was no reason why this should be any different.

The fight continued for over five minutes until suddenly, the minions just stopped appearing. It was as if someone had seen there was no point and flicked a switch, stopping the attack.

“Wait for it,” March ordered.

Everyone remained in place, ready to engage in battle again. Seconds passed. Then, without explanation, March unsummoned her sword.

The rest of the party soon followed, picking up their backpacks and non-combat equipment.

“Check for losses,” Agnii said loudly. ”If it’s major, I want to know.”

“Dal,” March approached Dallion. “Now’s a good time to help out with the healing.”

The order was understood. Not waiting for another word, Dallion told Lux to start taking care of things, while he went to get his own backpack.

A total of nine people had suffered various amounts of damage. Most of them were pretty much alright, but didn’t argue against getting back to a hundred percent. The only ones who were really hurt were those that had ended up in a bad tactical position at the start of the attack. Even so, they had done a lot better than Dallion had seen anyone do in a fight.

You’re not that far off, the armadil shield said. They seem cool because they have a lot of experience and have learned the pattern of fighting in a party. Remove that and some of them are worse off than you.

Because of my lack of limitations? Dallion asked with a smile.

That’s part of it, so are your familiars, but the real reason is that their stats are not that far off. I know that five levels might seem a lot, but it really isn’t. It all depends on what the focus is.

I’m all over the place.

Your reaction is a bit low, but otherwise you’re in pretty good shape. Also, focusing on perception is a good choice. In order to react to something, you need to be able to see it first.

Any other advice you can give?

Nope. I can just comment on things you’ve already done. And just to show you I’m not sparing your feelings, I think it was a huge mistake not learning forging when you had the chance.

I started learning the basics.

I know. But you also could have asked others for help, or even paid. There is such a thing as paid awakened tutors, even in this age. It would have cost you a lot, but it would have been worth it. Now you’re left with basics when you could have used some of that skill.

Dallion felt a dull pain in his stomach. The shield was right. He had no excuse not to learn forging. He had made up a lot of excuses, but they were all made up. If he had shown half as much interest in learning to forge than capturing the copyette, he’d have been level twenty by now, possibly more.

Always let down by my own lack of focus, Dallion thought.

A few minutes later, the party was on the move once more.