The next morning I had Freinil and Rani out at the training ground again, a little before the sun came up.
We ran the usual work for raising physical ability, and Rani seemed quite taken with the notion that body skills could be raised efficiently at all.
From what she told me, low-rank adventurers at least have no habit of picking out physical skills and raising them one at a time. Nor is there any body of technique for training that does it.
Which made me wonder whether the method was worth spreading through the Guild, until Rani said, “Spread that around and nobody’ll do it. Everyone’s only thinking about the living right in front of them.”
Rani, for her part, is good at strikes that land accurately on a vital spot, so she appears to have a fine ability to control her body precisely. We took that for a skill as well, trained with it in mind, and came away with a new ‘Body Control’ skill.
“First time I’ve trained like this, but my body’s definitely moving a step better than it did yesterday. You’re something, Soshi.”
Training done, Rani was swinging her longsword to check how her body felt. When a skill goes up the sense of your own movement can slip out of true, so settling into it matters.
“Thanks to Soshi-sama I have become able to fight as an adventurer myself. Though this really is special training, is it not.”
Freinil said it while holding the staff up in the pose she takes to gather her focus.
“Right? Raising your abilities this way has to be rare at E-rank. There’s nobody else in this training ground, for a start.”
“Yes. I must be grateful to Soshi-sama.”
“Still, that rod you swing around, Soshi. How do you even hold the thing? How much training does it take before you can do that?”
“Seems the skills that raise strength come up easily for me. I’ve got ‘Brute Strength’ as well.”
“Hmm. Being plain strong like that is a good thing in a leader, though. Everyone I’ve partied with up to now was weaker than me.”
“Is that right? That may be a little pathetic, as men go.”
Beastfolk are supposed to have the better of it physically, but even so Rani looks like a slight young girl. A man who loses to her on strength has nowhere to stand. I could believe that had something to do with her being thrown out.
It was getting on for the hour the receptionist comes in, and we were about to finish up when Zeal arrived.
“Oh, hard at it. Hm, new member? I’m Zeal. Good to meet you.”
“I’m Rani. Zeal, as in the leader of ‘Fortuner’?”
“That’s the one. Well, well. I’ve gone and got famous.”
“I don’t think there’s an adventurer in this town who doesn’t know ‘Fortuner.’”
“Heh. That’s nice to hear.”
He said it and then turned his face to me, with a bit of a laugh in his eyes, wanting, at a guess, to say something on the order of “So you like them young, do you?”
There was no denying it, given how it looked, so I shook my head and left it there. The harder you argue with a thing like that the deeper you dig, and letting it pass is the only way.
First thing in the day I had the receptionist Mariane process our acceptance of the subjugation request, and we set straight off on it.
Out through Euron’s north gate and onto the highway, then north on foot to a farming village a day away. Or we meant to go on foot, until Rani’s “Why not run it, while we’re at it?” turned the day into a marathon. Freinil started to flag partway and rode on my back for a while, and it made decent training out of the day.
Which is how we came to reach the village around midday, so we went straight to the village chief to hear what he had on our target, the ‘Terror Knight.’
They turn up regardless of the hour, he said, and the confirmed number was two, but they only ever move two to a group, so the real number might be higher.
“What makes you think so?”
It mattered, so I asked, and the answer from the elderly chief was this.
“The weapons they carry look different every time we see them. Sword, spear and axe. We worked out lately that there are at least three sorts.”
Weapons changing put me in mind of the goblin pack I put down a while back. Perhaps undead also change their armament as their numbers grow. Well, I’d have a look, and if the numbers ran high we could pull back and ask the Guild for support. Either way, finding the things came first.
We got permission to use the lodging hut, and then went out to the area where the Terror Knights had been seen.
It was grassland well clear of the fields, with the forest showing in the distance. The wind running over it felt good, and under that there was a prickle of something thoroughly unpleasant. Freinil narrowed her eyes and looked around, and Rani worked her ears and her nose, trying to catch hold of it.
“I feel an unpleasant presence over that way.”
“Yeah, there’s a nasty smell coming from over there.”
The two of them pointed the same way, toward the forest beyond. My ‘Presence Sense’ had nothing on it, but if they both said so there was something.
“Right, we go and look. I’m on point, Rani takes the rear.”
“Yes, Soshi-sama.”
“Got it.”
We went toward the forest with our guard up, and the prickling at the back of my neck grew stronger as we did. It was a new sensation to me, and there had to be a ‘something’ of considerable size behind it.
I was easing forward when ‘Presence Sense’ caught something ahead of us, all at once. Behind me I could tell Rani was setting her sword.
“Here they come. Freinil, ‘Holy Light.’”
“Yes.”
I was glaring at the spot where the presence sat when two warriors in black armor appeared. Warriors, though the armor should be empty inside. A Terror Knight is one of the kind people call a ‘living armor.’
The problem was that they had, to my eye, appeared out of empty air. Even in a world built like a game, monsters that turn up with no warning at all make no sense. There had to be some machinery further in.
We stood ready, and the two Terror Knights came on at us with a clatter, a sword and a shield in their hands.
“Soshi, let me have one of them.”
Rani came up beside me. Wanting to show me what she can do, presumably. Though she might simply like fighting.
“All right. Freinil and I take the other. Can you draw yours off?”
“Leave it with me.”
She was gone from my side the instant she said it. By the time I caught up with it she had put one blow into a Terror Knight, drawn it onto herself and slid away sideways. That would be ‘Sprint,’ but at that range even ‘Kinetic Vision’ couldn’t keep my eyes on her.
“Magic is ready.”
“Let it go.”
Freinil came up level with me and loosed ‘Holy Light.’
The laser light went through the shield and the armor behind it, and from that hole outward the Terror Knight melted away to nothing. ‘Holy Attribute Magic’ really does bite on undead.
Rani had hers running, hit and away, and was making a fool of it.
She threw a glance my way and held the longsword out in front of her. The edge glowed red, and with it she opened the Terror Knight’s shield.
The shield had gone as though it had melted, so that would be a fire-attribute magic sword. Her blade flashed twice, three times, and the Terror Knight came apart and fell.
Rani picked up the magic stone and ran back over to me.
“Well? That’s the magic sword. Looks useful, doesn’t it?”
“It does. Cutting through a shield and armor looks quite powerful. And you move fast. My eyes couldn’t follow you.”
“I’m confident about speed. That’s my basic style, so keep it in mind.”
“Understood.”
I was nodding along when ‘Presence Sense’ picked up something new. Two more Terror Knights, carrying spears.
So the chief had it right. Which meant two more still to come after these.
“I’ll take those two. Rani, stay with Freinil. More will turn up once these are down, so Freinil, get ‘Holy Light’ ready.”
Better for the leader to show what he has, and Rani looks like the type who weighs that sort of thing.
I walked in from the front and let myself inside the reach of their spears. They thrust, of course, and my mace broke both spears with a single swing. Then it was a matter of closing and beating them flat. Plate armor has nothing to offer against the violence of mass and speed either; it crushes like liquid.
“Whaaat, what is that, is he just crushing them with strength? That looks like an absurd amount of power. Nice. That’s a man, that is.”
“Soshi-sama’s strength does not stop at that.”
I could hear the pair of them behind me.
The last two Terror Knights turned up after that, as expected, and Freinil and Rani put them down between them, which finished the fighting for the moment.
We collected the magic stones and the Terror Knights’ weapons and armor, and the three of us went on further in. The bad feeling hadn’t lifted, and Freinil and Rani said with one voice that there was still something there.
As we came level with the place where the Terror Knights had appeared out of nothing, my sight blurred without warning. Freinil and Rani showed no reaction at all. I blinked two or three times and looked at the forest, and where at first it wouldn’t come into focus, the view gradually settled into something solid.
What I could see was still forest. That much hadn’t changed. But—
“What in the world is that… a castle?”
Deep among the trees stood a large building with several spires on it. Only the upper part showed, and it looked like a castle out of Europe.
“Soshi-sama, is something the matter?”
“There’s a thing like a castle back in the forest, isn’t there?”
“No. I do not see anything of the sort.”
“I can’t see any castle.”
“What…?”
I could see it plainly enough. Was I looking at a hallucination?
…No. Not mine—theirs. I carry ‘Hallucination Resistance’ and the two of them don’t.
Which meant that my seeing it and their not seeing it added up to one thing: a hallucination working was laid over this whole stretch of ground to keep that castle out of sight.
“Right. We go back, for now. This place isn’t safe.”
“Eh? But it looks like there’s more of it further in.”
“We talk later. First we get back to the village.”
An eerie castle deep in a forest, and a working spread wide enough to hide it. However you looked at it, that wasn’t something an E-rank party takes on by itself.
I hurried Rani along, and she kept turning around to look, and I had the distinct feeling another mass subjugation mission was on its way.
Back at the village we told the chief that the Terror Knights were dealt with and that nobody was to go anywhere near the forest, and then we returned to Euron.
I gave Mariane the details, and, as I had expected, she asked me to report to the Guild Master in person.
We were shown into his office and invited to sit at the receiving set, the three of us together. The Guild Master took the seat opposite, with Mariane at his side.
“Hmm. A castle, seen in the forest. Pulling out at that point was the right call, I’d say.”
Euron’s Guild Master was blond, parted crisply to one side, with the air of an elite businessman about him. The suit sat well on him, and the body under it looked thoroughly trained. Judging by the feel of him he might be a former adventurer, or something along those lines.
“I have the report. We will treat this subjugation mission as completed and add something to the payment. In exchange, if something comes up there may be more I want to hear from you later. Do you plan to work out of Euron for a while?”
“That was the intention, though if it can be managed I’d like to go around the nearby towns with E- and F-class dungeons.”
“Keen, aren’t you. That is no trouble, provided you tell Mariane where you are going before you leave.”
“Understood. I’ll do that.”
So the report went off without any trouble, though the Guild Master too let something meaningful show on his face when he looked at Freinil. That Freinil has a story behind her is as good as settled by now, and the most I can do is have myself braced not to be too surprised when the day comes that she tells it.
Beyond that, I need to be as strong as I can get before this ‘something’ of the Guild Master’s arrives. My ‘Bad Luck’ skill is certain to pull something disastrous, the way it did with the goblin King.
“Soshi-sama, do you think that matter will bring something bad down on us later?”
We were eating dinner in the inn’s dining room when Freinil asked it, with a slightly worried look.
“I think it might. There was a mass subjugation mission for the goblins when I was in Tolson, and this may go the same way.”
“So a mass subjugation mission is coming?”
Rani’s face was all expectation. “Likely enough,” I told her.
A castle put up inside the domain without leave isn’t a thing the lord, Viscount Barius, can be expected to sit on. Still less when it turns out to be a castle full of undead.
Before any of that, the fact that a castle appeared without anyone noticing is a frightening story in itself. Some fantasy element or other may make a castle raised overnight possible here.
“If the mission comes, we shall be fighting in it too, shall we not?”
“We’re all E-rank now, so of course we will.”
“Then we must become stronger still.”
Rani’s ears gave a twitch at that.
“Right. You become an adventurer, you get strong. It matters for staying alive, too. You’ve got all sorts of thinking behind this, haven’t you, Soshi?”
“Nothing worth the name. Train, go into dungeons, pick up as many skills as we can. That’s all of it. After that I’d like to work through subjugation missions and get the experience in.”
“That’s the part that matters. Oh, but we need the equipment sorted too.”
“True enough. Is your sword getting close to wanting replaced, Rani?”
“Mmm, I wonder. I’d rather use it a while longer and swap when it stops being enough.”
“Freinil… the staff is fine, obviously, but is the armor all right?”
“Yes, there is no problem. Though it may be as well to buy in more potions.”
“That’s a fair point. Your style means you take your share of injuries, doesn’t it, Rani.”
“It does. There’s no getting through it without a scratch. Part of why I got thrown out of that party was using too many potions.”
Rani’s face fell a little at that. She was looking up at me from under her brows, worried, I suppose, about being thrown out again.
“Then we lay in plenty. The payment came with something extra on it, after all. A small injury can turn into a serious one, so this party doesn’t pinch pennies on that.”
I said it partly to cover for her, and Rani said “Mm” and looked easier.
“Tomorrow we’ll take the E-class dungeon near Euron. After that we go around every F- and E-class in reach. Not that there are many.”
“I am in favor of taking every skill there is to take.”
“Me too. It only makes the fighting easier.”
The two girls in my party have no shortage of drive, which I can only be grateful for. The least a man my age can do is make himself a decent shield for them.
The next day I told the receptionist Mariane at the Guild where we were going, and we set out for the E-class dungeon at Euron.
As it happened Rani had also cleared the river E-class dungeon and not the other one. Small pieces of luck like that are worth having.
The other E-class, then, sat at the foot of a rocky hill, and it looked from outside like a cave opened in a cliff.
We went in with me at the front, then Freinil, then Rani. From this run on I put Freinil in charge of the map. Ambushes are rare in a low-class dungeon, but dividing the work is one of the advantages of having a party at all.
We were making our way down a passage that was nothing but rock cave when ‘Presence Sense’ caught something. Seven of them, and a crowd like that on the first floor already.
What came out were Hard Rock Lizards, the higher form of the Rock Lizard. Simply an outsized lizard with a harder hide, though apparently a real threat to a party without the attack power to break it.
“Magic, going out.”
Freinil had ‘Holy Light’ prepared, and it went through one of them and put it down.
“Rani, can you take two?”
“Leave it to me!”
I started forward and Rani went past me on ‘Sprint,’ put a blow into each of two and drew them onto herself.
I went into the remaining four and crushed their heads with the mace one at a time. The violence that ‘Strength,’ ‘Stability,’ ‘Brute Strength’ and ‘Heavy Blast’ make between them blew each head apart, rock hide and all. Overkill and then some.
Rani, when I looked, was finishing one of hers by running a fire-attribute magic sword into its open mouth. The other was still up behind it.
“Magic is ready!”
“Rani, back off!”
She took a back step out at my shout, and ‘Holy Light’ went through the last one to finish the job. Not a bad piece of teamwork at all.
Rani came back and stuck her tongue out.
“Hard ones really aren’t my thing. Soshi aside, Freinil’s magic is powerful too. So there’s magic that goes straight through a hide like that.”
“It is ‘Holy Attribute Magic.’ It is the skill I gained from my first joint work with Soshi-sama.”
Something about Freinil’s phrasing snagged on me, though there’s no deeper meaning in it. Probably.
“Covering what the others aren’t good at matters as much as anything. The fast monsters will be Rani’s to handle.”
“Mm, that part I’m good at. It helps when the leader understands it.”
Rani slapped me on the shoulder, tail going. Freinil watched her do it and looked about to put a hand on me herself, then caught herself, colored, and gave it up.
Starved of that kind of contact, perhaps. Not that I can be the one to reach out.
We ran into Hard Rock Lizards several times after that, and every time there were rather a lot of them. That, it seems, is what earns Rani her ‘jinx.’ Honestly it means more materials and good practice at working together, and there’s nothing bad in it. But that’s because we’re strong for E-rank. An ordinary party that met seven Hard Rock Lizards at once would be in serious trouble.
On the second underground floor the numbers went higher still, up to ten at a time, and there I put my back into it and flattened them. Against anything physical attacks work on I’m close to unbeatable. Freinil produced “That is Soshi-sama for you” over and over, and I get the feeling Rani’s eyes on me have picked up a shine as well. Showing the party something worth seeing is part of leading it.
“That reminds me, Freinil’s ‘Divine Halo’ weakens monsters, doesn’t it. It worked on the Lich, but does it work on ordinary ones?”
I said it as it occurred to me, while gathering the magic stones and lumps of metal the Hard Rock Lizards had left. ‘Divine Attribute Magic’ costs her a great deal of stamina as things stand, so I hadn’t had her use it much.
“Let us try it the next time monsters appear.”
“Is your stamina up to it?”
“Yes. I believe I am stronger than I was then, and I have the ‘Reduced Consumption’ skill. And I have this staff as well.”
So when we met eight Hard Rock Lizards in front of the stairs to the third floor, I had her use ‘Divine Halo.’
The dungeon filled with light for an instant, and the lizards visibly slowed.
I hit one to see, and the strange part was that the rock-covered hide felt softer under the mace. By what mechanism, I have no idea—and asking is missing the point.
“Rani’s attacks should get through as well.”
“Really?”
Rani cut at a Hard Rock Lizard, and the red-hot edge went through the hide without any trouble at all and took the head off.
“Wha—!? What is this, it’s amazing!”
She sprang in the air, delighted, and then ran the rest of them down on ‘Sprint’ and reaped every head.
“Both of Freinil’s magics are seriously powerful. If word gets out we might have scouts coming at us in a queue.”
I meant it as praise, but Freinil came back at me with those puppy eyes again and clung to me.
“I will be with Soshi-sama always. I will not go to any other party.”
“Eh? Ah… of course, I’d rather have it that way myself. It’s fine. We’ll be together until you say you’ve had enough of it.”
“I will never say it as long as I live. So we are together always.”
She said that and stayed holding onto my arm for a while afterward.
Rani watched her do it and turned a look on me with something in it, and all I could do in reply was shake my head.
Down on the third floor a new one turned up: a human-shaped monster made of earth, about two meters tall, called a Mud Golem.
It’s wholly physical, though, so it’s no threat to me whatever. Blow the punching arm apart with the mace, land one on the body, and it’s so much powder.
Its defense is on the low side and it isn’t especially quick either, so they suited Rani too. She would run one ragged on light feet and then take it apart limb by limb with a longsword carrying wind magic.
‘Holy Light,’ on the other hand, didn’t seem to do them much damage, so I had Freinil use ‘Divine Halo’ only when the numbers were high.
Mud Golems rarely drop a gemstone as well as a magic stone, by all accounts, and thanks to Rani’s ‘jinx’ they came out in such numbers that we were lucky enough to pick one up.
“That one goes down to Rani,” I said, and her tail went back and forth, so she must have been pleased. Having the part of you that had been taken for a defect turn out to be useful is bound to feel good.
We spent the fourth floor knocking Mud Golems apart as well and pressed on. Skill levels and adventurer levels were both coming up nicely, though five or more at once does get tiresome. Not that we ever struggled, with Freinil’s magic behind us.
The fifth floor produced a rat-shaped monster called an Iron Eater. They came in numbers and were said to eat weapons and armor, but killing them before they got that far settled the matter. When the other side’s defense is low, the sheer number of strikes Rani puts out is a considerable comfort.
Which is how we arrived in front of the boss room without much trouble at all.
“Reaching the boss this easily is a first for me. Isn’t this party amazing?”
Rani’s tail was twitching as she looked at the boss room door.
“Getting to the boss on the first run may be a first for me too. Having Rani in is a large part of it, and so is how strong Freinil’s magic is.”
“I think Soshi-sama’s instructions being exact is also part of it. And Soshi-sama is strong himself.”
“He is. At trading blows it’s almost hard on the monsters. Reassuring in a leader, though.”
Good members, the sort who make a man want to lead.
“Right, let’s go and meet the boss. Are we ready?”
“Ready.”
“I am ready.”
We opened the door and went in. The black mist came up as it always does, and there was a great deal of it.
“There may be two bosses. Keep your guard up.”
“Eh, does that happen?”
“It does. It happened to me once.”
While I was answering her the black mist took the shape of the boss.
A human-shaped monster about two and a half meters tall, made of rock from head to foot: a Rock Golem. Two of them, as expected.
“Freinil, ‘Divine Halo.’ Rani, keep one of them on you. Until the magic lands, keep it to running.”
“Yes, Soshi-sama.”
“Right, leave it to me!”
Rani put in her one blow as usual and slipped out, drawing one of them off. A golem isn’t fast, so she was in no danger of being caught.
The other came for me, and its eye was on Freinil rather than me. Which meant meeting it head on.
I stepped in front of it and the Rock Golem swung a punch. It was a wide punch and easy to slip. I put the mace into its belly on the counter, and one blow was never going to break it, but it did throw off fragments, and the golem gave two or three steps.
Rani had hers pinned with hit and away, though she was landing almost nothing that told. Wind is supposed to be the answer to earth, but with defense that high even a blade of wind doesn’t go through easily.
Mine got itself set and came on again, both arms up, bringing them down like a hammer. I gave ground to avoid it, and the golem raised its arms again and came further in.
Giving any more ground would put Freinil in danger. I stepped in before the golem had its arms fully up and drove the mace into its chest with everything I had. With its arms above its head it lost its balance and went down on its backside.
“Magic, going out!”
Freinil’s voice, and the boss room filled with light. I saw the golem slow and put the mace into the shoulder of the one trying to get back up.
Half its upper body came apart, which it hadn’t done a moment earlier. It went over and stopped moving. The weakening off ‘Divine Attribute Magic’ may be a shade too effective.
Rani’s wind magic sword had started to bite as well, and she was working combinations into hers, scraping the surface away and telling on it. When both arms had gone and the head with them, the golem came down.
“Phew. Done. Me, killing a golem that hard. Freinil’s magic is too much.”
“That I can use this magic at all is thanks to Soshi-sama.”
“Honestly, it’s always that with you. I know you like Soshi, but that sort of thing works better when you say it now and then.”
“I—liking him has nothing to do with it. I am simply grateful!”
For once Freinil had gone red and flustered. She is a girl of that age, and being teased on that particular front was never going to be her strong suit.
I was thinking the sort of thing a man my age thinks when the skills arrived. Two bosses, so two of them.
‘Paralysis Resistance’ and ‘Grasp.’ The first does what it says; ‘Grasp’ appears to put a strong correction on taking hold of things. Even without gripping it properly, it seems, you can have hold of a thing and not let go of it. Depending on how it’s used it could be an interesting skill, and not dropping a weapon may be the larger part of it.
“Mine were ‘Life Attribute Magic’ and ‘Poison Resistance.’ With two bosses one gets two skills, then, Soshi-sama.”
“So it seems. We were in luck again.”
Rani was hopping up and down beside us while I talked with Freinil.
“Amazing, amazing, two at once is too lucky, isn’t it? So this does happen. Mine were ‘Vital Strike’ and ‘Brute Strength.’ Both skills I wanted, so my attack power might come up too far.”
My ‘Bad Luck’ and Rani’s ‘jinx’ might produce a good synergy. With Freinil along we look able to take monsters somewhat above us, so this may be exactly the party for getting stronger.