"Huh? What are you talking about, Kio?"
"You aren't Luna. You shouldn't even be in this world; I shouldn't be here either…"
"Kio, are you sure you're okay?"
"[Inspect]"
Name: Kio Nakai (Unconscious)
Age: 22
Level: 10
Class: Assassin
Skills: [Inspect Lvl 2], [Universal Language Translation Lvl --], [Minimap Lvl --], [Stealth Walk Lvl 1], [Haste Lvl 5], [Steal Lvl 1], [Shadow Walk Lvl 3], [Threat Detection Lvl 4]
***
"Huh? Why am I unconscious?"
"Kio, what are you talking about?"
Luna's words had broken his concentration, so he proceeded to inspect her. However, nothing showed up, confirming his suspicions. He inspected Kaori as well since she was nearby, but he received the same result.
Since these girls aren't real, he decided to ignore them so he could figure out a way to wake up.
He tried to take out a weapon from his inventory, but nothing happened.
He ran downstairs to the kitchen to look for a knife, then proceeded to stab it through his palm.
"Arghh!"
Aside from the pain in his hand, he also felt a brief pain in his head. He wasn't sure if this method would work, but he wouldn't go as far as killing himself.
This time, he decided to use [Haste] before stabbing both of his thighs. The moment he felt the pain, he stomped with both of his legs and jumped as hard as he could.
A moment later, everything went dark around him as the scene of his house faded away. He also felt something detach itself from his head after a few seconds.
When he opened his eyes, he could only see darkness around him. However, he could feel something coiled around his body even though he was a few meters in the air.
He then took out a light stone, which he experimented with a few days ago, and threw it high above him, illuminating the surroundings.
Without wasting any time, Kio then took out a short sword from his Inventory and sliced away all the vines wrapping his body, before landing on the ground.
Looking around, he saw more vines heading his way, so he used [Shadow Walk] to escape into the shadows before heading towards Miyu, who he had spotted earlier while he was mid-air.
As he reappeared beside her, he noticed a thin needle sticking out of a vine which was inserted into the back of her head.
Kio quickly plucked the needle out of her head and picked her up before diving back into the shadows.
Less than a second after they vanished, multiple vines pierced towards the spot they were just at.
'This must've been the reason why my [Threat Detection] gave me a warning earlier. I don't know what these plants are, but these things must've caused us to become unconscious as soon as we entered.'
While he was in the shadows, he saw the stone door which they used to enter.
In the opposite direction was a narrow passage, and he couldn't see how far it would extend to. However, he had no choice but to head that way since his light stone is about to hit the floor, which would reduce the amount of shadows he could use.
Kio quickly used [Shadow Step] twice to travel 20 meters away from the spot where they were previously at. Once he left the shadows, he dashed as fast as he could towards the passage while carrying Miyu.
While he was running, he was also observing the place. There were decayed skeletons covered in ragged, dusty tunics all around the room. Near the skeletons, there were also some worn out bows and quivers, with their strings either snapped or missing.
Kio assumed that these were elves who had entered this place years before him. He didn't know if they entered voluntarily or if they were forcefully sent here like Miyu.
He could see the vines stretching towards them, yet they were slightly too slow after he used his level 5 [Haste].
"Luckily I increased the level of this skill, otherwise we might've gotten caught again."
However, right before he reached the passage, it got blocked off by a thick wall of ivy, which had stretched upwards from the ground.
"Fuck!"
Looking over his shoulder, he could see the vines from earlier closing in on them.
While carrying Miyu over his shoulder, he took out his short sword again and wielded it with his right hand. Even though he could feel something soft on his shoulder, he ignored it and focused on the vines.
Dashing away from his spot, he circled around and slashed at the vines.
The vines were sliced into multiple pieces, however, more of them kept coming from the direction where Miyu originally was.
Kio charged towards the source of the vines while trying to dodge the attacks. However, his body received a few bruises from being struck on his back and limbs.
Luckily, it was only a few bruises. If he got constricted instead, his dash would've completely stopped.
When he saw a vine about to hit Miyu, he turned his body around and chose to receive the attack on his back instead, causing a long bloody mark to appear on his skin as it tore his leather armor.
"Agh! Shit!"
When he looked closely, he noticed this vine was slightly different from the other ones, as it had a sharp edge on it. He immediately counterattacked with his sword, yet he wasn't able to cut it.
He assumed that the sharp vine was protecting its main body, which was why it didn't use it to attack him from the beginning.
As he was in the middle of his slash, he saw a green bulb a few meters behind the vine. Kio took out another light stone and threw it in the air, before using his last charge of [Shadow Walk] to instantly travel to the bulb.
As he exited the shadow, his sword was already aimed at the bulb, intending to pierce it at the same time as he resurfaced. However, right before his sword reached the bulb, it got blocked by a thin translucent barrier, causing his sword to halt in its path.
As Kio raised his sword to try to slash at the bulb again, the sharp vine from before managed to slice at his arm, causing him to drop his sword. A long, bloody gash appeared on his right arm as blood started to flow down from the wound.
Kio forced himself to pick up his sword again before jumping backwards to dodge the next slash by the sharp vine.
"Fuck, if this doesn't work, we might be screwed." Kio said, as he was mid-jump.
He could see the sharp vine stretching towards his face, as there was only a meter between them.
"[Steal]!"
The green bulb appeared in his hand, and he immediately used his sword to pierce it. This time, there was no barrier around the bulb, allowing his sword to easily split it in two.
The moment the bulb was cut, the sharp vine in front of him froze in place. It started to slowly descend afterwards, as if it had lost all of its energy. The wall of ivy blocking the passage also started to fall onto the ground.
"Whew…"
Kio felt his legs ran out of energy as he sat down on the floor, before checking on Miyu to make sure she was fine.
He then took a deep breath as he knew they would have lost their lives here if any of his skills didn't work. He gambled on using [Steal] on the bulb, and luckily it worked. He was glad he didn't use that skill during the day, otherwise he wouldn't be able to use it until tomorrow.
However, what Kio didn't know was, they were unconscious for more than a day in this room.
As he looked at the sliced bulb, he noticed a few seeds inside of it, causing him to be curious.
Item: Nat Seed
Description: Nat Fruits will grow when the seed is planted and matures.
***
Kio already tested his level 2 [Inspect] skill a few days ago, and he discovered that he was able to see the description of items now, compared to the time when it was level 1.
Since he couldn't figure out what the seed or fruit will do, he decided to just store it into his inventory and ask Dan about it later.
"Mnn…"
"Miyu, are you alright?"
Miyu slowly opened her eyes as she was still in his arms. Her expression looked different from before, but he couldn't figure out exactly what the difference was.
"Mi-"
"Mm…"
Miyu lifted her head and gave him a deep kiss, preventing him from saying anything else. He felt her tongue invading into his mouth, so he instinctively entangled their tongues together. Her arms were wrapped around him the whole time, unwilling to let go.
After a minute, she ended their kiss and moved back a bit. A thin trail of saliva could be seen connecting their lips.
"Kio, I'm so happy that we got married. You made my dream come true, hehe."
"Eh?"
Shock filled his face as he didn't expect to be greeted with such a passionate kiss the moment she woke up. Her words were even more surprising to him, as he never expected that to be her dream.