Chapter 2 – His own path

A month has passed by.

After everyone had received their classes, the class and ranking system was explained. In addition, how this world works – the basics of mana and magic, skills, leveling and such.

The daily activities consisted of some lectures about the world – geography, politics etc – and training their skills.

Using skills gave proficiency, which made it easier to use and increased its effect. As a rank-up was difficult to obtain, most time was used on practicing and leveling the skills. During the whole time most only gained one, a few two levels of rank.

The only exception was Kai, whose tablet still showed rank 0.

Soon after the second day when Kai had shown no progress, small amounts of ridicule began. It was mostly by some students around his age. They were probably getting arrogant. It was probably somewhat of their nature perhaps, to look down on others who're doing worse than themselves, to make themselves feel better in return.

"Hey, Kai, if you're lazying around you won't gain any levels, you know," a guy mocked him as Kai was staring into empty space.

By the way, the people who had been summoned weren't all Japanese, there were people from other nations also. Actually, Kai, Miyako and one other guy were the only three Japanese people. As for how they understood each other, magic was probably involved, which also enabled them to understand this world's spoken language.

Now, as it happens, a supporter class is basically one that gives buffs, however, the problem with Kai is that his rank is 0, not even beginner 1, but 0.

Now, though a class shows what affinities you have, it's just that. It doesn't mean that you can't learn any other skills. And from this comes the problem – beginner level buffs can be learned by almost everybody, buffing yourself is even innate to experienced fighters. In addition, buffing oneself has a stronger effect than buffing someone else, it's due to distance. Thus, having such a low rank Kai's buffs would effectively be useless.

The ending of the first month represented that it was time for their first exploration of a labyrinth. Since it will happen the next day, everyone was given a day off for resting.

Kai was just in the garden relaxing.

He looked for a spot and laid down on the grass, staring at the sky quietly. Like that he laid there for hours.

"Oh, Kai-kun, here you are!"

'Miyako again... She just happens to be capable of running into me everywhere...' Kai thought.

"Yeah, what's up?" managing a kind smile, Kai turned to her.

"Oh, don't give me that. So often you just disappear and go missing for hours. One time it might cause problems, you know..."

"Yeah, but thankfully I have a capable lookout, right," with an innocent smile Kai looked at her.

"What?..." Miyako's face slightly blushed red for just a short moment, "Anyway, come on, it's time for dinner."

"Yes, mom..."

"Hey!"

Seeing Kai and Miyako together again was not a pretty sight for a certain someone. For that person it actually caused something more than annoyance, specifically anger, directed towards Kai.

'How dare that lowlife chat happily with Miyako. He should know his place!...'

In a month's time, when people spend time together, do group activities, in this case training, together, it's completely natural that bonds would be formed. So, in this case also, it wouldn't be surprising if someone got well acquinted, even became friends with Miyako. However, as it is, jealousy, no matter how ugly, is also a natural feeling.

Some time later in the evening.

There was a knock on the door. Opening the door, a familiar friendly face greeted Kai.

"Hello, Kai-kun, I hope I'm not bothering you."

Kai returned a polite smile, "Not at all, what is it this late in the evening, Tsukimoto-san?"

"Well, nothing much... I just wanted to talk about tomorrow a little. You know, tomorrow we'll finally be leaving the city to go adventuring..."

"Yeah, I can talk, but maybe you'd like to come inside? Standing here at the doorway might get a little uncomfortable."

"Ah, sure," but as Miyako entered, she realised what she just did.

'Oohh, I just entered a boy's room alone this late. What are these clothes! I'm wearing such light clothes! How could I be so careless... I hope...' she thought. Unconciously she had already also sat down on his bed, while Kai took a chair for himself.

It was, after all, his private room in the palace.

"So, what was it? Going adventuring... Are you nervous?" Kai tilted his head as he leaned on the backrest..

"It's not that... well, maybe a little bit, but actually I'm more worried... about you..."

She was somewhat of a mother figure, looking out for other's safety in a caring manner. This was certainly a quality which had a strong impact on her ability to form friendly relationships with other people.

"Me!? Heh, what's there to worry about, I'll be okay," with an exaggererated shrug, Kai waved his hand as if to say 'what are you on about?'.

"But! Your rank is still 0. You listened to the lectures and have seen the abilities of others, not even mentioning those of the instructors, they are all much higher level than you."

"Yes, yes. But that is just that, a level, real combat skills are something else. Still, we'll also be accompanied by the knights anyway, the trip is just to get combat experience against monsters, right?"

"Yes, I know... But somehow still I can't quite calm down..." her voice was low, but she wasn't exactly afraid, she was thinking.

"Then, what to do?"

Miyako looked down for a moment, then raised her face and with a resolute expression she declared, "I'll protect you!"

First wide-eyed, then pondering in silence as he stared into Miyako's unswerving eyes, finally a faint smirk ran across Kai's face, before he responded,

"Oh, a girl protecting a man?" he stood up from the chair and started taking slow steps towards her, "It's an interesting proposition, however, there's something else that's necessary for it, you know."

Kai sat down next to Miyako, leaned towards her, and gently said,

"It's trust."

Her heart was racing from Kai coming so close to her, and also by his sudden change of behaviour, and his soft voice next to her ears.

Kai was slowly leaning closer and closer, almost kissing her. She nudged herself from the shock and fell a little backwards, but thankfully managing to support herself with her arms before being completely laid down. However, still it was almost as if she was accepting him. Kai didn't stop.

But everything stopped when Kai's hand touched her inner thigh. *Slap* That touch had shocked Miyako awake from the daze and she slapped him.

"This was not what I came here for, I was just... You idiot!" Miyako ran out of the room teary-eyed.

'My, my... Did my teasing go too far?'

And thus morning arrived.

Most preparations for the trip were done by the accompanying knights the day before, thus there wasn't much for the 'heroes' to prepare.

Breakfast was eaten, and then everyone gathered in the courtyard.

"I will now explain what kind of labyrinth we'll be exploring this time," the captain of the knights started speaking, "First, it's just a common labyrinth found most often and thus has already been mostly mapped. However, as you know, because monsters tend to reappear after being killed, the insides of the labyrinth are never totally safe. Still, as this one is relatively low-level, it's a good starting place to get your first experience fighting monsters and perhaps even a demon. Now, any questions?"

There were none. Actually, what the captain explained had already been taught during lectures, but just for safety he reminded them the basics of what a labyrinth is.

"Now then, we'll head to the stables where the carriages have been prepared. They will take us to the outpost just outside the labyrinth."

Thus they set out.

It was a relatively long and tiresome trip. Although the labyrinth wasn't that far, but since the carriages weren't as fast as cars, it took around half a day. It meant sitting quietly in a carriage for hours. Well, it wasn't that quiet as chatting between the passngers naturally occurred. Luckily there were stone roads and they were well maintained, so the ride was smooth.

The outpost was next to the entrance of the underground labyrinth. They left most supplies there, since they'll be coming back later and stay the night there.

"Now, for today we'll only explore the first floor and take it easy, tomorrow we can delve deeper and see more," the captain stated.

Aboveground was something like a mound with an entrance going into it, a cave. There was nothing there.

Further into it a crypt appeared.

"That's the entrance to the lower first level. From there on it'll be the real deal, stay on guard."

They set up a battle formation they had practiced many times.

In the vanguard were melee fighters, i.e. those whose class was close combat oriented, also accompanied by a few knights and their captain.

The middle guard consisted mostly of ranged damage dealers, basically archers and magic users, and also a few knights if some monster got through the front.

Finally, in the rear guard were those specialized in support. In addition there were a few ranged attackers, and a summoner. And to mention a few knights also.

Kai was in the last group, and even there furthest in the back.

The first clash was with some hideous bugs. However, they were neutralized very quickly.

"Good, you managed to stay calm and deal with them efficiently. Continue like we've practiced, and everything will go well."

And so they went on. It wasn't actually a maze, but the corridors still split up multiple times. Going one way they would reach a room. The rooms usually had the highest amount and density of monsters, but since they were also fairly large, everyone could partake in the fights and fulfill their role.

Well, everyone except Kai. The others doubted his abilities, saying he's a low rank and that he'd just get in the way, they didn't let him away from his spot. He was basically leeching off others.

There's another thing in the system besides class and rank. It was something similar to traditional levels. While it couldn't be displayed, if one killed a monster, they gained "experience points" that were different from skill proficiency.

It was something like this – every living being has innate vitality and mana, when one kills another, those essences are scattered into the surroundings and can be absorbed by whoever's present.

Absorbing condensed vitality and mana can enhance ones body, their vitality and physical abilities. It increases health, mana, and stats, so to say. Actually, mana is always everywhere in the air but in too low of concentration to have an effect normally, when one ran out of their own mana by casting spells for example, they'd slowly replenish it from the air.

So, while Kai couldn't really use his skills, he gained slight amounts of "experience" from the monsters killed. He was in a party of sorts with shared experience, to put into game terms.

Still, since the group was quite large and the monsters relatively weak, the increase in stats wasn't actually noticeable. Only at the end of the day did some notice that they felt somewhat stronger.

Today's campaign ended uneventfully. Not that it was bad, it's just that everything went just according to plan – getting their first experience battling monsters, seeing what a labyrinth actually is, and so on.

Some time in the outpost, evening.

"Haha, you did well today, Hoshino."

"Pft, yeah, continue being useless tomorrow too, yeah."

Two kids, as Kai saw them at least, they were actually around his age and a year younger, mocked him for his performance during the day, but as usual, he just ignored them.

"What are you doing, always letting them ridicule you like that?"

"Tsukimoto-san... Those insults are not worth troubling myself for."

"It's not about that, if you keep letting others make fun of you like that, it'll escalate and some day it'll come back at you. You'll miss something that you otherwise would have wanted."

"Hmm, well, if you say so. I guess I'll try to be more aggressive from, say, tomorrow on..."

"Aggressive... is not necessary. Just respond in a way that they'd lose interest."

"Yeah, sure..."

The next day.

After morning practices they set out once again towards the labyrinth. Only, this day they'd venture deeper into the ground.

It was a relatively small labyrinth, only going 25 floors underground. The whole trip was supposed to last a week. On the first day they only got into the first level, today they'd planned to go until the 5th, and so on the next days they'd try to go even deeper. The final destination would be the deepest level, however, it all depended on how well they do.

So, during the course of the day they slowly battled their way to the 5th floor.

Taking breaks as needed, checking their equipment, eating when hungry, they finally achieved their objective, now it was only left to finish the last one of the day.

By the way, they had almost cleared the first floor the day before, so because of that there weren't any mobs there today. The spawn rate of monsters varies, but for a relatively easy dungeon as this the respawn rate was usually around a week.

As for the kinds of monsters they met, they were mostly different crawlers, that is, bugs again. On the 4th floor they met their first humanoid monsters. It was a lizard-like monster, however, it was dealt with fairly quickly as it barely had any armor, only some cloth covering it, and barely any scales. It was something more like an amphibian, a disgusting human frog.

Now, after reaching the 5th floor.

"Seems you're doing quite well. We might increase the pace tomorrow and actually completely finish the labyrinth on time," the knight captain addressed the group.

Fighting their way through rooms with monster, they cleared the floor with a steady pace.

It was time for a break. Few started to eat, some just sat down to rest, and some, those whose role was support, were relatively okay, which also included the knights.

"Hm? What are these carvings?" A woman, who once had been awfully shaken by being thrown into an unknown world, now calmly said while walking along the wall of the room. She was a cook by the way.

"What are you talking about?" the captain was curious, "There shouldn't be any markings here..."

Then again, though the labyrinth has been cleared multiple times and mapped, the previous visitors were mostly careless and only cared about clearing the place, so they rarely were interested in inspecting some walls.

Then, as she touched a marking, the wall began to dimly glow, but soon the glow disappeared.

"Hm? This might be some magical wall... Seems safe, try flowing mana into it," the captain said.

As she did, the wall glowed brighter. Then, some creaking could be heard, and after a moment the wall started to move. It was actually a thick stone door that opened a way to some unknown place.

"A hidden room? Should we explore it?"

"Sure, why not, we can take it." The group discussed.

So they went on.

It was a long hallway, winding and probably going over and under the other corridors.

Finally they arrived at a room. However, it was empty, there were no monsters there.

The only notable thing was a pedestal in the middle, and again some mysterious carvings on the wall and the pedestal.

"Can anyone understand what these mean?"

Noone could.

Then, might as well try touching it.

However, it was something that they shouldn't have done. As it was touched, it started violently flashing in different colors, lighting over everyone multiple times. They backed away, but it didn't stop.

"Leave now!" the captain shouted.

Everyone started panickedly exiting into the hallway. There was pushing, and in the commotion a person tripped. As the few last got out, they looked back and saw Kai on the ground.

"Kai!"

Just as he was getting up, the orb shined brightly and a blue sphere started to expand out of it. In just a moment it filled the whole room, trapping Kai inside. A second later everything besides the pedestal was dissolved into particles and disappeared.

"NOOO!"

And such was the group's and Miyako's last sight of Kai for a long time. At some point, that is, when they had returned to the castle, he was announced dead by, presumably, disintegration.

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