A week had passed since we left for the Chalcen mansion. Marcta and I were quickly accepted into the ranks of the soldiers, but not before demonstrating our strength during a training session. The kind of training sessions these soldiers held were far too simple to grow strength in any real way. At most, they were just a way to pass the time and get in a light warm up. Although I say this, the soldiers took their training sessions really seriously and were often heavily sweating by the time it was over.
While Marcta and I participated, it always just felt like light exercise to the both of us. Perhaps it was Master's level of training that was way beyond that of these soldiers. We often received praise for our endurance and tenacity during these trainings, since we were still young and barely even broke into a sweat while the soldiers were drenched in their sweat. From their perspective, we must seem somewhat superhuman. Although, from Marcta and my perspective, it was Master who was the true superhuman.
While she had been watching over us during our training, she somehow also found time to train on her own. We had noticed this when she appeared in front of us after we had cleared floor 70. The pressure that emanated from her body was far greater than when she had teleported us in. While she could certainly strengthen others at a ridiculous rate, she was probably harder on herself than anyone else, and her strength grew way faster than the people she trained.
We, or at least I, felt like the gap between us had increased yet again, even though we had already gotten stronger. However, she then [Named] us, and through that and our evolution, we became her kin and stronger than we had been. For us who had been stripped of our [Names] from the death of our families, she gave us more than just a [Name]. She gave us her [Name]. It was as if she was telling us that our place was by her side. While we had been calling her "Master" out of a combination of respect, loyalty, and admiration before, now we were calling her "Master" because that's simply who she was. Our master.
And this master of ours had given Marcta and I a mission. She probably could have sent any two of us who were registered at the Mercenary Guild, but she chose us. Therefore, there was a reason. We would have to find out what that reason was and learn what Master intended us to learn by coming here.
Unlike what I had feared, the Viscountess Virina did not desire my service for any reason other than strength. That day, she simply happened to be near me and noticed that I was stronger than her escorts. Even so, she often would drag Marcta and I to a tea session and ask about Master. She seemed to want to know how we saw Master and why we were so loyal to her.
We explained that Master had rescued us from slavery, then tossed us into the [Labyrinth] to ingrain into us the strength and resolve necessary for our own survival. To that, Virina simply held her forehead and muttered, "ah, she's making more copies of herself..."
Even though Master tended to seem cold, she took care of us when it became necessary. She never left anyone behind, and made sure we could all take care of each other, too. On top of that, she got us clothes and gifted us weapons. She even made us her family. It was not a warm love, but all the same it made us feel warm. Even though we remembered the warmth of our previous families, all of that died with our enslavement. The world was cruel, and we had to be strong enough to face it. That was at the core of Master's love for us. We could almost hear her voice saying, "you must live" with every trial we faced and overcame.
In this one week, Marcta and I had slain no fewer than twelve assailants. We checked every part of their bodies and clothing, but found no form of identification that would allow us to track down the origin of the assailants. However, with so many of them dead, those who sent them would either give up sooner or later, or send someone really strong. Marcta and I were looking forward to that. We wanted to test our skills against a real human elite. While we were only B+ rank, each and every one of us had the confidence that we would not lose against an A ranker. Compared to a typical A-ranker, our bloodlust was simply too strong. Of course, it was nowhere near as strong as Master's but no one who was trained aboveground could hope to match it, or so we thought.
It was in the fourth week of protecting Viscountess Virina that it happened. Marcta was on the roof of the mansion next to me, and suddenly snapped her head up, looking into the distance.
"Trouble?"
She nodded.
"How strong?"
"A-rank. A strong one, even."
"Will they be a problem for us?"
She bit her lip before responding, "unfortunately. It seems like their strength is about on par with Rea-sama before evolving.
Rea-sama, too, was another monstrous existence for us. Being the first of Master's kin, she had been by Master's side the longest, and her strength was nothing short of overpowering. While of course weaker than Master, Rea-sama's overall strength when she was still B-rank would place her firmly towards the top of A-rank power wise. In other words, that was what we were facing down right now.
"There's only one, and we're two people. We can make this work," I said.
"Mmm. We can, but I think we'll have to take some risks to win."
"Risks? We literally eat those for breakfast."
Laughing, Marcta got into position. Before long, a figure walked out of the nearby bushes. The mansion was located in a gated area of the capital city, and surrounding the mansion were small trees and bushes. A man stepped confidently through the foliage and looked up at us. Under the moonlight, we could see his mouth turn into a vicious grin.
I jumped down to face him, immediately firing up my [Limit Break]. In the [Labyrinth], we had learned that against a foe of greater strength, immediately using our full strength would be necessary. Sure, we could hold back certain trump cards or tricks that would help us gain an advantage, but if we did not immediately start out at full power, it would be all too easy to die. Behind me, Marcta vanished from view to strike in the openings that I was meant to create.
I immediately went on the offense, swinging my greataxe and toggling my [Berserker] skill to catch him off guard. However, as if expecting my attack, his lips broke into a grin as he sidestepped my attack with a shuffle of his feet, parrying my blow with his dagger. In that moment, he titled his head as Marcta's dagger whistled harmlessly past his face, then leaped up and kicked her away as he pushed against my face for leverage and put distance between us.
"Otto, dangerous, dangerous," he said lightly. Clearly, this was a situation in which he had some leeway. He must have activated some skill or another for sure... there was no way he could have reacted so perfectly to us both without taking even the slightest bit of damage. Even the pre-evolved Rea-sama would have had to leave an opening that we could exploit to parry us like that, yet this guy seemed to have been perfectly covered.
I revised my evaluation of him upwards. Gritting my teeth, I activated [Warcry], a
"How..." he grunted, then retrieved a glass globe and threw it in Marcta's face. Being too close to dodge, she received the impact full-on, causing her to release her dagger and hack and cough. Checking her
"Hey, kid. Just who the hell are you guys, huh?"
I kept silent, focusing on his movements. Just as I thought he didn't seem like he was making a move, I was suddenly hit by a sense of vertigo and my vision shook. A sharp, cold pain bloomed on my neck, and I felt my body run cold. However, it seemed that manoeuvre was costly for him too, as a pained grunt leaked from his throat, having received another strike from Marcta.
My HP was rapidly plummeting, and I had also clearly been hit with a paralytic poison, as well as one that inflicted damage over time. I had messed up. I had miscalculated. The amount of time it would take for me to cast both {Status Cure} and {Heal} would be far too long. By then, the man would have made his move. And that would lead to my death, Marcta's death, Virina-sama's death, and Master's disappointment.
Yet, it was at that moment that Marcta moved again, and I won a small window of time to remove the poison and heal myself enough to stand up again. Still, her using [Dimension Strike] so many times in quick succession really took a toll on her small MP resource. As she had once been a molukin [Rochur], Marcta's stats were naturally skewed towards physicality and movement, rather than magic and MP. After all, [Molu] were a species of deerlike herd animals that biased themselves towards physical offenses and mobility in the wild. Using [Dimension Strike] in the same way as Master was simply not possible. For Marcta, it was a trump card that she could only show under dire circumstances.
Having reached an acceptable threshold for battle, I stood up, and charged the man, catching his now-weakened body with my axe, causing a spray of blood to spew forth from his torso and his eyes to roll back in his head. He was finally unconscious, though definitely not dead.
"Good work," Marcta told me.
"Eh? I barely managed to do anything. You saved me each time."
"If you didn't take his attack, I would not have managed to deal as much damage as I did. Furthermore, it was a bad matchup for you. An [Assassin] can play around with a [Berserker] like a toy because of the range and mobility disparity. Don't be so hard on yourself."
"Mmm...I guess. I think I was just getting a little full of myself after the past week. I thought I could face him head-on and stall him enough for you to deliver the critical blows without getting overwhelmed."
Marcta shook her head, saying, "Vier, we did well enough. We survived and beat our enemy. We just have to learn from our current mistakes."
I nodded, then swung my axe and beheaded the man. We checked his possessions, finding out that his name was Art Delinde. He held a registration card with the same Mercenary Guild that we were registered with. The question was, did he receive a request from the Guild to eliminate Virina, or did he receive one directly from a hostile noble? As far as we knew, assassination requests were generally not accepted by the Guild, except when one of its own went rogue and began causing mayhem. However, we weren't so naive as to believe that the Guild had absolutely no corruption within it.
"Marcta, let's report this to both Virina-sama and Master."
She nodded, and we returned to the mansion.