“Haah!”

He swung his right blade, diagonally-downward arc, into the goblin’s thigh, bringing it to its knees, while parrying other goblin’s blow with his other sword.

The third monster, a Ratman, ten meters away, came rushing towards him, with its weapon held over its head. But…

“Let the chains of light bind its path, Snarling Chains!”

Multiple chains appeared from the ground beneath Jayce’s in-coming assailant and began entangling its target, rending it immobile.

After finishing off his first monster, he kicked his other attacker and stabbed it in the chest. He shifted his gaze toward the ensnared monster, and walked toward it and end its life, swiftly.

He swung his weapons to the air around him once, removing any blood stains hung on it, then sheathed them back of his waist. He shifted his eyes to her’s.

“Thanks for the cover.”

“You're welcome. So, what should we do about these?” She asked, pointing with her index finger towards the fallen monsters they had slain moments ago.

Adventurers could only gain loots from monsters and treasure chests from dungeons. However, adventurers were not allowed to steal loots from other adventurers and non-adventurers, if they do so, they will be contemplated as rogues.

“You can take their loot if you want. As long as you can gain something might be useful for you. I will take leftovers… Wait… are you ok with extracting loots from corpses?” He asked, worry expression spread on his face.

Guilt began crawling to the back of her mind. They may have formed a party, but he was the one who did all the work to defeat these monsters. She wasn’t anxious about the smell, but rather, the eyes of the slain monsters. It felt as though they were staring at her, even though she was well aware that they were dead.

“You can obtain their items from them with the magic gloves that I gave you.”

He questioned her about whether she could obtain her loot, with the pungent smells hung around the corpses. She was fine with the smell since she had handled quite a lot of acrid ingredients for alchemy. She was interested to know more about the extra functions of the magic gloves he had mentioned.

“Lift your hand and aim it towards the corpse. Close your eyes and focus on the body. The gloves will react and inspect every possible retrievable item; it will display and appraised those items in your mind. Of course, the details and conditions will be displayed in your mind, depending on your knowledge.”

He gestured her to give it a go.

She aimed her target with her open hand, as if to tell them to stop, closed her eyes and focused. As she relaxed her breathing, items began to display in her mind, along with the details.

“I see them. So, how do I select them…?” She asked for further guidance while maintaining her focus, beads of sweat broke out of her temple.

“… Use your mind to bring those items you need towards you. That way, the selected items will be stored in your magic gloves’ inventory. With enough practice, you can do this without closing your eye. All it takes is your imagination.”

She gave it a try. It was difficult for a little while, she managed to obtain the items she wanted. She made a note in the back of her mind to practice using magic gloves during her free-time. Once she’s done with all three monsters, she let Jayce took his turn to gather anything that attracts his attention.

As expected, it didn’t take long for him to gather everything he needed.

“Shall we move on?” He asked.

They continued their exploration with extreme caution. Jayce, at the front, expanded his senses to detect any nearby monsters on his right, left, above, bottom and ahead of him; while Alice watched his back, watching over his blind spot.

As they journeyed further, they’ve found treasure chests contained weapons, armors, ores, and silver coins.

As Alice approached the next chest, Jayce pulled Alice’s arm back towards him.

“Whoa…!”

“Get back!”

As he pulled Alice back, the treasure chest came to life. Its mouth produced teeth along its metal frame; its legs, thin metal spikes pierced out of its body frame, scrambling on the floor to get up.

“It’s a pretender. Careful with its claws.” He alerted, putting himself in a defensive stance.

“Understood.” She jumped further back, extending the distance between her and pretender.

Since it was agile and lacks defense, Alice casts agility buff and defense spells on Jayce.

“Thanks, Alice.” He cried, dodging and deflecting blows from the pretender.

As the pretender swung one of its legs — acting as a claw — toward Jayce, he found the right moment to parry its strike.

“Resonate!” He shouted, swung his sword as hard as he can, as he parried his attacker.

The pretender staggered, its claw vibrated uncontrollably and fell back by a few steps.

Without a moment of hesitation, he sprinted towards the staggered monsters. He jumped, twisting his body in midair, and sliced the monster in half, delivering the final blow.

Once they finished searching the room, where they had found a pretender lay waiting for them. They went to the next room, and had, finally, reached the final door of the Grimoire’s world. As Jayce had explained earlier before their exploration, there will be a monster guarding the ancient glyphs.

“Check your consumables. Please ensure that you have sufficed mana for this battle.” He said, making sure Alice is prepared.

They sat on the floor of the hallway, before the final door, taking this time to get a breathing room.

Alice took out and drank a few mana potions from her magic bag. The mana potions she had were quite bitter. Nevertheless, she can’t get used to drinking it. She had tried some ways to make it sweet, but she wasn’t able to find the right ingredient to do the job. Shaking her head slightly, as though it removes the lingering bitterness from her palette. She took out a few ailment potions and stored them in her magic gloves so that she can take out the consumables she needed the most for an emergency.

Jayce sat down next to Alice; he unsheathed his weapons and placed them on the floor before him. He inspected their conditions, thinking of which whetstone should he use for this ace-session. After a deep thought process, he snapped his fingers, he withdrew an aqua-colored whetstone from his magic gloves and began sharpening his blades.

Puzzled, she peered at Jayce’s whetstone. “Aren’t whetstones supposed to be gray in color?” She asked while sorting out the potions in her inventory of both magic bag and gloves.

“Oh, this? It was gray in color. The reason why it looks like this was because of alchemy. I’ve changed its property to a specific quality for these scimitars. Normal whetstones don’t work well with them.” He replied, sharpening his blades gracefully.

“Is your mana shield still active?” This time, he’s asking the question.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Although there are some fragments of my shield were lost due to the battles we had.” She said, examined over her body.

Only the bearers of the magic gloves were able to check their mana shield’s condition.

“I see.” Checking his weapon’s condition, as he hung one of them in the air to inspect it clearly. “You can restore your shield with your mana. Use your imagination to patch it up.” Once he’s done sharpening, he sheathed them and stood up to stretch his body, perhaps it was because of sitting on a hard floor, with his legs folded.

“Now, then.” He continued, his hand extended to Alice, offer to lift her up. “Ready to conquer the final obstacle of this world?” He smiled.

Together, they pushed the final door opened.

To her surprise, the size of the room is like an open circular arena, enough grounds for them to distance each other for a long-range combat.

What lies ahead of them was a beast, waiting for its challengers to arrive. But…

“Is that a chimera…?” She asked, quietly.

“Yes. It seems to be…”

…It was asleep. It has a head of a lion, a snake head at the tip of its tail, and a goat head attached to its neck.

Wait, is that mean we can just sneak past the chimera, and read the ancient glyphs, then exit this world? She thought. But then…

“Heeeeeeyyy, Chima!” He shouted, casually walking towards the sleeping beast, with his hands folded in front of his mouth to amplify his voice.

Alice’s face turned pale from this spectacle she had just witnessed. What is he doing?! He’s waving the death flag! She thought.

The lion’s eyes slowly opened, blinked a few times; its eyes gazed upon the source of commotion that disturbed its slumber. It lets out a yawn, before standing up.

“Is that you, Jayce?” It asked.

“It speaks?!” She gasped.

Ignoring Alice, he gave the chimera his reply, bowed deeply. “Sorry for disturbing your nap, Chima.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Chima said, shaking its head — lion head. “I’m just doing my job as a guardian of this world.” It then brought the right topic to their current situation. “How did you end up here anyway? I thought you’ve cleared this world a few years ago. I don’t see any reason for you...”

It abruptly halted his sentence as its gaze met Alice’s.

“…I see.” It sighed.

“Glad you knew the answer. I don’t have to explain the situation” He remarked. “So, ready to fight, Chima?” He asked, twisting his lips into a grin.

“You asked for it, kid. I won’t hold back,” said Chima.

He nodded, jumped backward, away from Chima, brandished his blades. Instead of a defensive stance, he shifted himself into an offensive stance.

Meanwhile, Alice, still bewildered by how they held their conversation, casually, snapped out of it, and clenched her staff. She began her incantation to cast defensive buff spells onto Jayce.

“Raaaaaaaaawwwrrr!” There was the signal given by Chima to begin their battle.

Jayce circled himself around Chima to get its attention, but…

“I will not fall for your tricks again, Jayce!” It growled.

Instead of attacking Jayce, it charged towards Alice.

She didn’t foresee this, but its claws were already upon her, she won’t make it. She held out her hands to shield herself.

—Clang

She didn’t feel anything; she slowly opened her eyes. To her amazement, the claws were about a hair’s breadth away from her eyes. Her eyes widened, sweat broke out from her temple, and her legs almost gave way.

“Phew. I did not expect you to attack my supporter first.” He chuckled. His scimitars, clashed with Chima’s claw, held him back. “Guess I don’t have to hold back anymore.” He declared, his eyes turning silver.

Chima, sensing unpleasant atmosphere formed around Jayce, fell back immediately, only to find an arrow struck into one of its hind legs.

“What?!” gasped Chima.

“Switching magic circuit to mid-range combat: Arcane archer!” He shouted, standing in front of Alice to shield her from Chima, wielding an obsidian bow in his left hand, while holding a magic arrow in his right hand, taking aim.

If Chima didn’t fall back, Jayce would have stabbed one of its eyes with his magic arrow.

"Alice, can you heal my arms with your magic? They are currently numb. Ha-ha.” He requested, calmly.

“S-s-sure.” She nodded, timidly, and began her incantation to heal his arms.

Once she finished her incantation, his arms felt lighter. He gave a few swings with his blades; he nodded in satisfaction, then immediately kicked off the ground, and headed towards Chima, magic arrow nocked to its bowstring.

Its goat head casted thunder spells to obstruct his movement, but he did not give Chima a fraction of a second to keep him at bay, his shots landed to both of its forelegs and its chest. It wasn’t long before he had closed in the distance between him and Chima. The snake—the tail of the chimera—spits out purplish gases from its mouth—miasma.

Miasma was an S class ailment spell; it infects the target with poison and paralysis. Its ailments can’t be removed by normal potions, as it has special properties. Even the ingredients for the cure are extremely rare and costly.

“—Chains!” She shouted, chains appeared from the ground, and entangled the snake’s head, keeping its head still.

“Archer’s skill: Side-step.” He circled around Chima, barely avoiding the miasma, and shot a magic arrow to the snake’s head, and another to the goat’s head, interrupted its incantation.

Strange, does Chima doesn’t feel any pain at all? She thought while keeping her binds in check.

“It’s over.” He announced his victory, before he snapped his fingers.

Sparks came to live from every magic arrow that had met their mark.

“Rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrr!” It agonized.

Its eyes rolled back and fell unconscious.

His shoulder heaved up and down, slowly, clearly exhausted from the battle. He turned his gaze towards Alice. “Alice. I’m really sorry for asking this, but, can you heal Chima? I think I went overboard this time.” He inquired, scratching the back of his head, smiled awkwardly.