Chapter 7 - Recruitment

1

He starts the battle with the goblins and the shaman. As soon as he approaches them he says-

"Assassinate!" and moves behind the shaman in the blink of an eye.

He had killed all the goblins and when the shaman starts to disappear he says-

"I've levelled up you know."

Then the hobgoblins come rushing towards him from the shadows just like last time. This time Tatsuya was ready for them. He says-

"Skill: Borrow" and gets a club from one of the hobgoblins.

The two other hobgoblins that were armed come rushing towards Tatsuya thinking he was weak. Tatsuya swings the clubs at their body and their torso separated from their body and they disappear.

The last hobgoblin took a step behind then started to dash towards Tatsuya.

He tosses the club at the hobgoblin and the hobgoblin catches it. In this moment, Tatsuya uses his dagger to stab the hobgoblin in various parts of its body and kills it. When the last remains of the hobgoblin start to disappear he says while looking down on them-

"You fools... shouldn't have faced me."

Then Tatsuya looks behind and sees that everyone was in awe and couldn't say anything at all. Then Tatsuya while walking ahead says-

"Follow me... and cover up Kei's eyes for a while."

"But why?"

"Just do it Sylvie... You'll come to know now anyways."

She covers up Kei's eyes with a cloth and they all follow behind Tatsuya. Then they see the bodies around the chest and Elm says-

"This is too cruel... They don't even think of us as humans."

"Yeah. We're more like playthings to them."

Kirio rushes to the chest and opens it but when he sees the loot inside he looks unhappy and says-

"Hey Elm! Come here."

"What's up?" says Elm and when he sees inside the chest he looks unhappy too.

Tatsuya asks them-

"What's wrong?"

"There's only trash in here... Two small pouches of del, a broad sword and some raw iron ores..."

"First of all... why the hell is there raw iron just sitting in there?"

"Yeah. That's so stupid."

Tatsuya then thinks to himself-

"Could it be that dungeons have the first-time system?" Then he speaks out aloud, "I think I'm at fault here."

"Why so? Tatsuya-san?"

"I had already cleared this floor before and had claimed the items inside the chest. Now I've done it again by myself. Maybe that's the reason why there's trash in there."

"That explains a lot... Did you know about the trash we were going to get?"

"No. This is a first time for me too... Also you can take everything in there of you want to."

When he says this they become a little happier and start to take the pouches of money and the iron ores. Then Elm and Kirio feel glares coming from Sylvie. They turn around and see her look enraged. Then they ask-

"What is it?"

"Give me the money!"

"Why? At least share it... I mean we are a team aren't we? Aren't I right Elm?"

"Yeah, Sylvie this time we won't give in to your threats!"

"Alright! I will go around the town telling everyone how you forced me to come with you both to a dungeon and did this and that to me..."

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait! We'll give you everything. Maybe you can divide it among us..."

"Good choice boys!" and she starts to laugh while the other two sulk.

"The women in this world are not so different from the ones in mine." Says Tatsuya softly.

"Is something wrong Tatsuya-san?"

"No...I was just moving on to the next floor."

"Why?! You did a floor by yourself? Can't you be content with that? Tell him Sylvie. When he turns around he sees that the two of them had already reached the door of the 1st floor and were entering it.

"C'mon Tatsuya-san! We can't stand around here."

"Wait up! I'm coming too." Says Elm and follows them inside.

Tatsuya holds Kei's hand and says-

"Let's go, shall we?"

"Yeah." Says Kei with her blindfold on.

2

Tatsuya takes the lead again with the three protecting Kei behind him. Sylvie removes her blindfold while they walk through the crystal lit cave on the 1st floor. Tatsuya says while walking-

"I have a proposition to make with you."

"What is it Tatsuya-san?"

"If you can protect Kei properly you can take 70% of the loot from whatever we get."

"70%?! Done. We'll protect her with our lives." Says Elm very bravely.

Suddenly Kei while walking with them asks Kirio-

"Kirio-nii... why was I blindfolded?"

Tatsuya suddenly stops while walking and turns around looking enraged and says creepily-

"K-I-R-I-O~"

"Eek... why are you saying it that way?"

"You be*stared! How dare you make Kei call you that."

"What's wrong Ryo-nii? Is it wrong to call Kirio-nii Kirio-nii?

Tatsuya the looks at Kei and says politely-

"It's not that Kei... it's just that..."

"Also Ryo-nii... What you said just now meant something bad, didn't it?"

"Um... No Kei, I called him custard... It doesn't mean bad."

Kei then asks him once again-

"Why shouldn't I call Kirio-nii Kirio-nii, Ryo-nii?"

Tatsuya then glares daggers at Kirio and When Kirio looks at his face all he could see was Tatsuya telling him-

"I'm gonna kill you! I'll definitely kill you later!" and he starts to sweat.

Then Tatsuya looks as if he had some idea and smiles politely at Kirio and then tells Kei-

"Actually he's an uncle... That's why I didn't want you to call him that."

Kirio falls on his knees and says unhappily-

"Uncle..."

"Is it really true Kirio-nii?"

"Yeah..." says Kirio while wiping the tear falling from his eye.

"Ok so Uncle Kirio, please tell me why my yes were covered back there."

"Kei... I'll answer for you. There are some things you can't see no matter what. You would have been too scared to even walk after seeing that." says Tatsuya and continues to walk forward

"Okay..." says Kei while looking down and walking.

"Now's is not the time for fighting Tatsuya-san. Let's keep moving." Says Sylvie.

"Yea~"

They reach a point in the cave where there was lots of space to move around. They saw a bug like creature hovering around something that looked like a chest.

Tatsuya thinks about why there was only one monster there when Kirio walks ahead of Tatsuya while saying-

"There's only one monster. I'll kill it. You rest easy on this one."

Kirio reaches the bug like monster and when the monster attacks him he pierces it with his sword and the bug monster disappears.

"See it was easy." Says Kirio and put back his sword in his scabbard.

Tatsuya then thinks of why there was only one of them and he looks at the ceiling. He then realizes that it was-

"Come back here! Kirio! Stop standing around and come back over here! It's an Ambush!"

By the time Kirio turned out it was too late. The bugs sitting on the ceiling all flew over Kirio and started to eat him alive. Kirio started to scream in pain-

"HELP! PLEASE HELP ME! AAARGH!"

"Tch... No way out of this huh..." says Tatsuya and draws out his magic sword.

He slashes the magic sword at one of the bugs and a void opens pulling one of the bugs inside it. The magic sword's blade turns to dust and he throws away the handle.

This catches the attention of the other bugs and they change target. They follow Tatsuya now and leave Kirio. Tatsuya starts to run further inside the cave and he shouts out while running-

"You guys! Take Kei and Kirio out of here! I'll be back soon so don't worry!" and he continues to run taking all the bugs with him.

Elm runs to Kirio and lifts him up by putting his shoulder around his neck.

"Why the hell do you wear such thick armour? It's difficult to carry you."

"Can't help it... I need... Protection..." says Kirio and faints.

Tatsuya runs forward and sees a split in the road. He turns around to see where the bugs were and sees that they were picking up pace and reaching Tatsuya. He looks forward once again and sees a sign in front of the intersection. It read 'Choose your path wisely'.

"Is it really the time for this?!" he looks behind and sees that the Bugs had increased and it looked like there were 100's of them now.

"Let's see... I usually do this based on my instincts... Hmm.... It's all or nothing!" Says Tatsuya and drifts towards the path on his right.

He continues running and when he turns around once again to see where the bugs were he sees that because of the turn they were slowed down a bit. He hadn't realized yet that the path was ending and that there was a cliff at the end of the path. By the time he had reached the cliff he put one of this foot in front and realized that it was too late. He fell down the cliff while screaming.

The others had already exited the dungeon and Elm made Kirio lay down on his back. Sylvie then looked at him and said-

"You're quite popular among the monsters of not with the ladies."

"Oh shut up..."

"You were awake, Kirio?!"

"Yeah... Thanks for carrying me out Elm."

"I'll heal you Kirio... but you have to pay me money..." and she has an evil smile on her face.

"How greedy are you... Sylvie." And he passes out.

He wakes up after some time and sees that the sun was up in the sky. He gets up and asks to himself-

"Is this heaven?"

"No you numbskull! You're still alive."

He turns around to see the others sitting there waiting for him to wake up. Kei had not spoken a single word. Sylvie was getting worried now so she went to Kei and gave some words of encouragement.

"Your brother is strong. You don't need to worry! He'll be back soon."

Kei lifts up her face and she looks unexpectedly calm. Then she says-

"I know. I mean Ryo-nii is stronger than you all."

She gets a little annoyed on hearing this but then she pays it no mind thinking that Kei was just a child.

"Where's Tatsuya-san?"

"He made an escape path for us and now he's stuck in there."

"Let's go right now and save him!"

"Kirio! Stop. We have a task already." Says Sylvie while pointing at Kei.

Kirio looks annoyed and says with anger-

"Let's at least go back to the cave." And all of them walk toward the cave where they spent the night usually.

3

Tatsuya wakes up after feeling the water drops fall on his face.

"Ow! My head... How come my head isn't bleeding at all after that fall?! Am I really that hard-headed?" then he gets up.

When he gets up and looks at the ground he sees a fang lying there. He picks it up and says-

"This explains it." And puts it in his bag.

"Now, now! Let's see where we are." And he walks around in that dark area.

Suddenly while walking he feels something squishy below his leg. He looks below his feet but couldn't see anything since it was dark. He hears something snore in the darkness. Something moves around his feet and causes him to lose balance and fall down. This makes a lot of noise and suddenly the dark space starts to light up. The crystals that were not active suddenly started to shine and this brightened up the place.

Tatsuya immediately hides behind a big rock after seeing what the squishy thing was and says softly-

"You are joking right now... I had my hands full with those bugs... Now you throw Lycans at me."

There was not one but a pack of Lycans growling and sniffing out Tatsuya.

"This is really bad... Think. I gotta think of something."

A Lycan sniff out Tatsuya and just when it sees Tatsuya it gets stabbed by him and it disappears. This catches the attention of the remaining 6 to 7 Lycans and they dash towards Tatsuya. Tatsuya gets up and runs. After catching all their attention he turns around and says-

"Skill: Assassinate!" and reaches the other end of the Lycans. All of the Lycan's die and disappear and most of them drop items.

Tatsuya then opens his grimoire to check his stats-

"STR: 612, AGL: 803, STA: 602, MAG: 699.... Not bad, I would say.

Tatsuya then calls out-

"Get up! Veilios!"

"What is it...?"

"I was in danger right now and what were you doing."

"I was having such a nice dream... Now that you've woken me up I can't even complete watching that dream..."

"Why are you like this?" and he sighs.

"That's right! Now that I have some time to find the exit why don't you explain to me about magic and skills."

"You want me to explain all that?!!! No way... I'm gonna keep it short and crisp and once I'm done... I'm gonna sleep."

"Ok! ok! I get it, so just explain please!"

While Tatsuya was collecting various items from the Lycans' bodies or whatever was lying around Veilios started to explain.

"First of all everyone posses magic from the age of 16. This is like a universal law in this world. Rarely there are some whose age comes under 16 and they possess magic. Now... magic is categorised into two types.... normal and abnormal magic. Normal magic consists of pure elements like fire, earth, water, wind. And abnormal elements consist of... well, unnatural one can say elements like poison, dark, light, void and so on... But... there is another category that is unlisted.... It consists of only three types of magic... Ancient, origin and time magic!"

"Let me think.... most of the people in this world possess normal type magic. Rarely a handful of people possess abnormal magic and ... this unlisted magic you told about.... is possessed by very few beings and this happens only once in few generations or something."

"Well, you were right on the money....! Now, on to the main topic... skills."

Tatsuya had picked up lots of Lycan meat and few Lycan claws and fangs and stuffed them in his bag. He gets up on his feet after picking all those items and says-

"This food should suffice if I'm gonna be stuck in here! Go on Veilios..."

"Skills in this world are considered exceptional. There are people who can inherit skills from people, people who can make up their own skills and teach it to others... but the people with grimoires have lots of benefit in learning skills... As you grow stronger you'll keep on learning new skills. Also there is a 'skill tree system' that I'm pretty sure you're familiar with in grimoires. Once you learn a skill from the skill tree... you can't unlearn it!"

"Wait, unlearn it?"

"Oh shut up! Well, that's all... Now I'll just crash."

"Thank you... I guess?" says Tatsuya and continues to walk around finding a way to get out of the dungeon.

Thinking he had defeated all the enemies he lets down his guard. While walking suddenly a Lycan pounces on him and makes him lay flat on the ground. Tatsuya had his dagger in his hand so he puts it in the Lycan's mouth so that it couldn't bite him.

He then immediately kicks it off of him and stands up. It was a greater Lycan that stood before him.

"Hm... You evolved didn't you?" says Tatsuya as the Lycan growls at him.

"I take it that you are the alpha of the pack of Lycans?" as soon as Tatsuya says this the alpha tries to scratch him but Tatsuya dodges.

"I'll take that as a yes!" says Tatsuya and engages into the battle.

4

Tatsuya attacks the alpha a couple of times but every single time it would dodge his attack and at least lands a scratch on him.

"This thing is stronger than the rest. Also it's taking advantage of my blind spot right now... Looks like I'll have to end it right now!" says Tatsuya and stands there and opens his arms.

"I'm standing right here. You can just pounce and attack me... C'mon don't be shy."

As soon as it pounces on Tatsuya he grins and says-

"Assassinate!" and reaches behind the alpha and starts to pant.

The alpha survived the attack turned around and landed a strike on Tatsuya's back with its claws. His back started to bleed badly. He was out of magic by this time and while kneeling he thought to himself-

"I can't let it end here! Think... What can I do?!"

The alpha takes one step at a time while growling at Tatsuya and then suddenly Tatsuya remembers the words of his online friend.

"You don't need to fight an enemy to defeat it...! That's it!"

He takes out few pieces of the Lycan meat from his back and tosses it over to the alpha. The alpha takes a step back and then sniffs it and starts to eat it. Tatsuya keeps on throwing those meat pieces and when he had only one of them left he holds the meat piece in one hand and calls the alpha closer.

"C'mon boy! Don't be afraid... I won't hurt you anymore..."

The alpha comes closer to Tatsuya slowly and when he comes very close to his face Tatsuya shows him the meat piece and after sniffing it the alpha starts to eat on it. Tatsuya then slowly touches its head and rubs and pats on it.

"There. There. Good boy!"

After eating the meat piece the alpha stops showing hostility towards him and goes behind Tatsuya. Then it starts licking the wound.

"Ouch! Ow! Ow! It's ok. No need to lick the wound." Says Tatsuya and the alpha come in front of him looking a little depressed.

He then gets up slowly and sits against a wall. The alpha comes and sits next to him. Tatsuya rubs his head and says-

"You're gonna need a name..." and the alpha whimpers.

"Let's see.... How do you feel about Kiro?" asks Tatsuya and the alpha looked like it liked the name a lot.

"Is that so?! I knew it... Not all of your kind is hostile towards us... It is us humans who are at fault."

After a while Tatsuya tries to get up and says-

"Time to find the exit... let's go Kiro."

On hearing this Kiro gets up and stands in front of Tatsuya as if it were telling him to get on.

"You know where the exit is? Alright Kiro then I'll take a short nap and

I'll leave the rest to you." Says Tatsuya as he lays on Kiro's back. When Kiro starts to run he dozes off.

In the cave back outside the dungeon everyone was having their soup. There was silence in that cave and no one was speaking a thing. To lighten up the mood Sylvie tell Kei-

"Kei-chan... if you worry too much about your brother you'll fall sick... He'll be here soon!"

Kei finishes her soup and replies in affirmative then goes of to sleep. After a while, the others finish having their soup as well and then Elm says-

"Hey, umm... You don't think he's..."

"Stop spouting such nonsense! There's no way he's... All we can do is protect her."

"Must've hit her hard. After seeing Tatsuya getting separated like that."

"Yeah you're right. Let's just sleep for now." Says Kirio and they go off to sleep.

Kei hadn't slept yet and she overhears this conversation. She had been calm all this time but then she says to herself before falling asleep-

"Ryo-nii... Please come back home safely! Please... Ryo-nii!" and she falls asleep.

5

Tatsuya wakes up on hearing Kiro whimpering. He looks in front and sees that they had reached the door that led outside the dungeon. He starts to praise Kiro when Kiro falls on the ground Tatsuya falls too. While crawling he goes to Kiro and sees that the place where he had been pierced by Tatsuya was widening up and he was losing too much blood.

"C'mon... don't lose hope! I'll bring help for you... Just stay put!" says Tatsuya while panicking and runs outside the dungeon.

After exiting the dungeon, he looks above and sees that the sun was just rising. He sees no one there, and then notices a clot of blood on the ground. He touches it and smells it.

"It has to be... Kirio's... and it's fresh." Says Tatsuya and starts to run while limping towards the cave.

After limping for a while he reaches the entrance of the cave and saw everyone sleeping peacefully. He rushes inside the cave to Sylvie and shakes her by her shoulders and says-

"Get up you hag!"

Sylvie half in sleep takes her hand and holds Tatsuya's head and tries to crush it. Tatsuya screams and she wakes up completely.

"Oh! Tatsuya-san you're back.... what's wrong."

Tatsuya starts to pant heavily and says-

"Let's hurry! I need your help." Then holds her hand and brings her to the dungeon.

"Wait! Back to the dungeon?! Let me take my gear at least."

"No time for that. Just come already!"

When Tatsuya opens the dungeon door Sylvie realizes that Tatusya had been losing a lot of blood.

"You're hurt... Anymore and you could die! Let me heal you!"

"Before you save me save him." Says Tatsuya after jumping down and pointing towards Kiro.

Tatsuya leaves her hand and runs to Kiro's side.

"That's a greater Lycan..." says Sylvie while looking a bit terrified.

"Just heal him.... You're the only one I can count on!"

"But...It's a monster... We have to kill it."

"SHUT THE HELL UP! He's my friend... so you better heal him right now!" says Tatsuya and coughs up a lot of blood.

Kiro's breathing was getting weaker and weaker by the second. Tatsuya gets frustrated and says-

"All of you are the same in the end..." and lifts his hand towards Sylvie. Then he says-

"Skill: Borrow!" and starts to cough some more blood. He now looked pale. A white light appears on Sylvie's hand which disappears and Tatsuya's hand glowed.

"You look pale..."

"Shut up...! Heal!" says Tatsuya while placing his hand over Kiro.

Kiro's wound closes itself at a very fast rate. After his wound closes Kiro gets up and licks Tatsuya-

"How did you..."

"Kiro... listen!" says Tatsuya and Kiro sits in front of him.

"Protect her until I wake up... got it?" and Kiro whimpers.

Before fainting Tatsuya holds his chest in pain and says with a weak voice-

"I'm pretty sure that you'll get back your spell in a bit... So just wait... and..." and Tatsuya falls on the ground and faints.

Tatsuya opens his eyes to see the stone ceiling and Kei's worrisome face.

"Good morning." Says Tatsuya while getting up slowly.

"Ryo-nii!" says Kei and hugs him tightly.

"Ow!ow! Take it slow Kei..."

"I'm so happy that you're back!"

Tatsuya then embraces her and says-

"Yeah... I know." Then he looks at Kiro and Elm waiting to ask him questions.

"Go on..." says Tatsuya with a sigh.

"How did you manage to do that?!" ask both while pointing at Kiro keeping watch outside like a watchdog.

"That...well, he's my friend now."

"That doesn't explain anything Tatsuya-san!"

"Tatsuya-san I recommend you to not move much... I couldn't heal your wounds completely. Maybe you'll end up with a scar once your completely healed." Says Sylvie looking a bit annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah..." says Tatsuya and stands up. Then he stretches a bit and goes outside to Kiro.

"Hey! Kiro... You did your job properly huh..." says Tatsuya and pats Kiro. Then Kiro starts to lick Tatsuya.

Kei comes outside the cave to see Kiro and her eyes sparkle on seeing Kiro.

"Ryo-nii?! Is that our doggie?"

"Doggie...?" says Tatsuya while looking confused.

Then Tatsuya looks at Kiro and says-

"Alright Kiro! This is Kei... My sister and my only family in this world...Also you will protect her not me... Got it?!"

Kiro looked like he understood and he goes to Kei and sniffs her. Kei was not scared at all. Rather than scared her eyes were shining with amazement. Kiro then starts to lick Kei while Kei laughed. She started to play with him...

"Now then let's head back, shall we?"

"Wait...Hold your horses right there!"

"What is it?"

"You think they will allow you to enter the town with this..."

"His name is Kiro."

"You think everyone will accept him?"

"Hmm... But we can't hide him anyways."

Sylvie then sighs and asks him-

"Why not check that absurd grimoire? It might have something."

"Absurd?"

"What else am I supposed to say?"

"Well, you do have a point." Says Tatsuya and opens his grimoire. Suddenly the pages turn itself to a blank page and the following words start to appear there-

'Magic beast: Greater Lycan [Kiro]'

"You've got to be kidding me!"Says Tatsuya loudly and it echoes through the forest.

Sylvie and the other go to Tatsuya and when they see inside his grimoire their mouths fall.

"This is not fair."

"For the first time I have to agree with you, Kirio."

"Absurd! Told you didn't I..." All of them say this while Kei enjoys playing with Kiro.

6

It had been close to a week since Tatsuya left Wolford to get back Kei. But now he had a bigger problem.

"Umm... let's see... go back!" Says Tatsuya while looking at Kiro.

"No use huh....How about... despawn!" Kiro looks at Tatsuya confused and howls.

"What are you trying to achieve, boy?"

"Oh, you were awake, Veilios?"

"No... You woke me up with all your shouting godammit! Also what the hell are you trying to do?!"

"I'm trying to do what the summoners in RPG used to do."

"You're not a summoner..."

"..."

"Tatsuya-san, whose voice was that just now?" asks Sylvie while Elm and Kirio start to play with Kei and Kiro as well.

"That... How should I put it?"

Then Tatsuya thinks to himself-

"Maybe I shouldn't tell them about Veilios... They might start to feel scared of me."

"Umm... Tatsuya-san?"

"Yeah. It's a spirit!"

"You even have a grimoire with a spirit... I don't even need to be shocked anymore..."

"Oh right! The skill tree!" says Tatsuya ignoring Sylvie and sees a new section on the page above which looked like the dark element. Below the symbol, there was a spell section.

"Hey Veilios..." says Tatsuya while facing the other way.

"Now what?"

"Does using skills deplete your magic?"

"No! Of course not you idiot!"

"But I asked politely..."

"Listen, skills are very rare to get... also skills take practice to perfect them. Otherwise you'll not even get a perfect hit..."

"Hm?" says Tatsuya as he sees one spell already written in there.

The spell written was-

"Weaponize? What? What am I supposed to do with that?"

Then he looks at Kiro and sees that Elm and Kirio were having lots of fun playing with Kiro while Kei was waiting for her turn.

"Kiro!" says Tatsuya and kiro kicks off Elm who was sitting on him and walks over Kirio who was being licked by kiro.

Elm gets up slowly while Kirio still laid on the ground-

"Oye! What the hell! Kirio are you alright?"

"Aa... My body hurts. Without the armour it hurts a lot."

"Good boy Kiro! Now sit!" says Tatsuya and Kiro listens obediently.

"Now let's see what this does!" sys Tatsuya and holds out his hand towards Kiro.

Kiro keeps his paw on Tatsuya's hand and then Tatsuya says-

"Concentrate... make my magic flow through my right hand! Weaponize!"

Suddenly after he says that kiro gets engulfed in a white light and starts to become smaller and smaller. When he turns into a bright ball Tatsuya gets up and holds his hand and keeps concentrating.

"A little more... I feel it!" says Tatsuya and then suddenly the bright ball changes its form and becomes a buster sword. Then the light disappears slowly and everyone sees the huge buster sword in Tatsuya's hand.

The buster sword looked a bit bigger than the normal ones... also it weighed more than one. As soon as kiro turns into the buster sword Tatsuya starts to pant heavily and loses his grip on the sword's handle. The sword was held upside down so when it falls, it creates a hole in the ground with the sword stuck inside that hole.

Tatsuya falls on his backside and sits on the ground panting heavily.

"That... took a lot of my magic!"

"Are you alright Tatsuya-san?"

"Yeah... We'll leave in some time... Is that fine... Sylvie?"

"Yes. Also I can only think of one reason as to why you're feeling tired... your body hasn't healed yet. Like I said earlier, don't strain or you'll probably die."

"Yeah...I know..."

"Woah! Tatsuya-san turned that Lycan into a sword."

"That was sick!"

Kei walks to Tatsuya and asks with teary eyes-

"Ryo-nii... where did the doggie go?"

"Oh! He's become this sword... don't worry... I can turn him back." And he holds her shoulder while sitting on the ground.

After a while Tatsuya drinks some water and feels refreshed. He gets up and then says-

"Now that I've recovered... How do I carry this?"

"Tatsuya-san I have an idea..."

"Hmm..."

Sylvie then raises her staff and says-

"Make all weight seem like a feather, balance!" and the sword starts to float.

"That's a good idea... I don't think though that you'll be able to carry this all the way. Once we reach the tree we'll switch roles... How about that?"

"Seems like a plan..."

Tatsuya straps the buster sword onto his back and they start to walk towards the entrance of the forest. After reaching the entrance if the forest, Sylvie starts to look like she was tired.

"Want to take a break?"

"We're almost there... I can keep going..." and they continue to walk towards the tree on the small hill.

Once they reach the tree Sylvie says—

"Now... I'm at my limit!"

"Borrow!" says Tatsuya and a white light appears and dissipates in Tatsuya's hand. Just when Tatsuya was about to lose his balance because of the sword he says-

"Levitate!" and he regains his balance and wipes the sweat off his forehead.

"Kei... Are you tired?"

"Yeah. A bit."

"Get on." Says Tatsuya and lifts Kei and makes her sit on his shoulders.

"Sylvie... Are you tired?" Kirio imitates Tatsuya.

"The hell I am!" says Sylvie and climbs onto Kirio's back.

"Heavy! Too much..."

"Did you just say something?" says Sylvie with a threatening face.

"No... I was just saying that the armour was heavy. Haha..." and then Kirio looks like he shouldn't have offered her help.

By the time it becomes midday they reach Wolford. Tatsuya takes 20 del from his bag and gives it to the guards. They then walk through the streets like they had a hectic day.

After reaching the 'Silver moon INN' Tatsuya opens the door casually and then the whole place goes silent. He looks at everyone then at Hob and says-

"I'm back..."

"Welcome back! Tatsuya and the little lady.... Looks like you brought some customers in as well!" then everyone continues to eat and drink.

Just before Tatsuya walks up the stairs Hob stops him and says-

"Come with me for a sec..." Then Tatsuya says, "You guys can wait in my room till I come. Kei show them the way."

"Got it. Follow me uncles and aunt."

"Uncles... Aunt." Says the three of them and they follow Kei upstairs.

Tatsuya sits on the chair and Hob starts to speak-

"A man from the palace come here two days ago and he told me to give this to you." And he hands an advertisement like paper to him.

��What the hell is this? Magic Academy?! I was scouted?! HUH?!"