"It's a surprise that this place has remained standing."
"It's because there's a protection spell embedded in all the walls."
While Freytan wandered around the room like a child, picking up a few pages and quickly returning them to the bookshelf, I was trying to find a specific set of books.
'I miss pressing a button and receiving all the items at once,' I thought as I picked up a gray book with some red-painted details on the edge: "How to Master the Hundred Steps." With a disappointed expression, I returned the book to its place.
"Dantalian, to be honest, how could you live in this place?" Freytan asked.
"What do you mean?" I paused my search for a moment and looked at Freytan.
"You know, like, your adventurers..."
Realizing the meaning behind Freytan's words, I started to consider doing something, but they were useless anyway, so I simply ignored it and continued the conversation.
"What about them? Are they too weak?"
Freytan looked at the sheets of paper in her hand, showing the profiles of the five strongest members of the guild.
"Weak? That would be a compliment for them. As they are now, they would die to a mere striped boar."
A few seconds ago, I would have already returned to searching for the set of books.
"They knew the risks, and in the end, they died in the last attack."
'So he doesn't care about anyone?' Freytan thought, letting the sheets fall onto the table and looking around, remembering the protective magic.
Freytan approached me, looking at the books in front of me.
"What's so important about these books?"
"I just need to have something prepared for the near future," I said, returning a book to the shelf.
"Based on our conversation earlier, it doesn't seem like he needs this kind of information source," Freytan thought, curiously looking at the books and placing her finger on one of them with the intention of removing it from the shelf.
However, due to an involuntary movement - let's say it's a habit of mine - my left eye quickly focused on her, causing her to push the book forward instinctively.
'What was that?' I thought, touching my eye.
[Don't worry, it's just a habit of your body, or have you forgotten that this body was never yours?]
'So he's some kind of perfectionist or something?'
[No, he just doesn't like people touching his things.]
While this small conversation between me and the entity took place, Freytan returned to the guildmaster's table, which strangely didn't affect me at all.
'That look, I've felt it before... But this time, it wasn't anger or disdain that I felt,' Freytan reflected, looking at her trembling hand.
'What is this man hiding from me?'
After a few minutes, I finally found the collection of books about all the currently known creatures, written and illustrated by a young elven adventurer who disappeared after distributing the tenth volume.
"Alright, we can go now."
Freytan was now sitting on top of the table, holding a red leather bag.
"I think it's better to use this, and I know it anyway."
"You really snooped around everything here."
Freytan yawned.
"Yes, but I didn't find anything interesting. By the way, why do you want these outdated books? I thought they must be important."
Putting the books inside the bag, I pointed my finger at Freytan, gesturing a negation.
"This is a gift for a future friend of yours."
"So, you're that kind of guy? Try anything, and you'll have a dull blade in your mouth."
I smiled, patting her head and walking ahead, towards the door.
"There's a storage room downstairs with several swords. Grab one."
Freytan jumped off the table.
"What an arrogant guy."
Freytan looked around and, seeing that there was no one, went to the bookshelf, taking a completely blank parchment with a single gray line from inside one of the books and quickly descended after that.
"Now, where are we going?"
"To a small cave nearby."
"Just so you know, even without a sword, I can turn you inside out."
Freytan passed by me, walking ahead.
'Just like in the game, except she would never say that to the protagonist.'
"So, this is the right way."
I pointed to the left towards a huge tower in a deplorable state.
"If you want your weapon, you better come this way."
"You should have told me which cave it was from the beginning."
Freytan stared at me intently, trying to intimidate me.
"Does that work on anyone?" I asked, walking towards the huge tower.
After about forty to fifty minutes, we arrived in front of the cave, which was six hundred meters behind the enormous tower.
"Dantalian."
Freytan stood still, with a dark expression, giving off the feeling that she would kill the first person she saw.
"Yes?"
"You do know that this cave has already been thoroughly explored, right?"
"I know, and that's precisely why everyone else is idiots, including you."
Without saying anything more, I jumped into the cave, running straight ahead.
When I reached the end of the cave, there was a circular area with various stones of different sizes scattered around, and Freytan was sitting on the largest stone in the center of the room, looking at me with a smile.
"You truly are a fraud."
"I ended up being the last because I was taking care of a small guild, while you were humiliating people out there. We're not on the same level of agility."
I crouched down, picked up a small stone from the ground, and activated the Divine Hand, causing the stone to disappear.
"So, are you superior to me in other areas?"
The stone I had picked up was now embedded in the wall behind Freytan, emanating golden energy.
"You need to improve your reflexes."
Freytan tried to process what she had just witnessed.
'He just threw the stone, but how did he achieve that speed?'
"What's wrong? Do you want to know the secret behind it?"
I said, standing in front of Freytan with both hands in my pockets, rubbing the index finger of my right hand against the middle finger.
"Anyway, get up. We need to continue, or do you need more time?"
Freytan sighed.
"So, where are we going now?"
Leaning on a stone that was half my size, I started pushing it.
"This is a puzzle, so you're going to push those two stones diagonally."
I pointed to two stones attached to each other, each one about half the size of the one I was pushing.
"Come on, you want the sword, right?"
'A puzzle? This guy really has problems,' Freytan thought, walking completely disheartened in the direction I indicated.
"There are five stones, three diagonally, one pulling towards the center of the room, and one pushing it back."
I looked at Freytan grumbling as she completed the task I gave her.
"And now? Nothing happened, what now?"
Without answering, she walked around the room, looking at the stones. If she moved the wrong stone, it could cause a lot of trouble, and I'm not in the mood to deal with knights.
"I found it."
I looked at a
stone with only twenty centimeters between two large stones that were probably fifty times larger than it.
"Now that I found it, the most complicated one, the damn one that keeps changing places, and if it's here, the last one can only be..."
I pointed in the direction of the entrance to the room.
"Push that stone out of the room."
Freytan was looking at me with an apathetic face. It seemed like she had died inside.
"What's happening to you, woman? Just do what I told you."
"Can I kick you in the groin if this leads to nowhere again?"
"You can do whatever you want, just do it already, okay?"
After picking up the tiny stone from the ground, I walked to the center of the room and threw the stone onto the huge stone in the center.
A thunderous noise occurred, and the enormous stone in front of me began to crack. Jumping back, I saw the exact moment when the stone disintegrated, along with the ground beneath it, opening a path to another room.
"So, do you believe me now?"