During the day we took care of the monster elimination commission, they were boring, to say the least. Maybe only the fight with the Minotaur was interesting.
The Minotaur fight:
We were face to face with the Minotaur, half bull a human hybrid of a creature.
It let out a fierce roar as it charged toward us, we were ready to take it on. Hana with her Katana jumped above the minotaur, she placed herself there to give me time to set up a trap using my shadow magic. Shadow hands stopping its forward charge, my shadow tendrils restraining him.
!I advise you to kill this monster fast, it can break out of the shadow tendrils using sheer strength due to one of its skills! - Sia spoke soon enough. It's killing my hands to maintain the shadow magic for long.
"I will handle him"- Hana dashed at his back making a deep cut.
With the remaining strength that I had, I impaled the Minotaur with my shadow tendrils, repeating a stabbing pattern with swift motions of my hands.
Soon, after enough stabs and slashes from both Hana and I the Minotaur fell. The monster itself isn't that hard to beat, but it has a lot of HP.
"Well, that should be the last request for killing monsters"- Hana yawned gently.
"Yes, we now must wait until nightfall"
Hours later, at midnight
We have the mission to capture or eliminate the bandits from the gang named: The Plundering which is led by an otherworlder. Well, we already know who that otherworlder is, meeting her is more of a formality now. We need her to join us as soon as possible, but there will be a lot to discuss
"Sia, where do you think Ayame can be hiding?"- I need to know where Ayame is. She makes this so difficult, I can't believe it. Maybe she has a very good reason for making it harder for us. Maybe she is testing us until the end to see how smart we are. Or maybe she is just late. I don't know, but I would like to know how her skill works in more details
!The Legendary skill Plunderer allows the user to steal a random skill, common skills are the easiest to steal, while Rare have a 50% chance, Legendary 25% chance, and Primordial 5% chance of stealing them from the user if they possess one. The condition for this skill steal is that the user has to be touched or incapacitated, if the user has enough will or a skill such as mine that can resist the skill plunderer then it will have no effect. You shouldn't worry about this skill, but Hana has to worry about it. In a scenario where a person with this sort of skill will become our enemy, Hana will be the one most vulnerable to the effects of a skill such as Plunderer.!- Sia finished talking to me, I can't seem to feel any response from her at all, strange. Anyway, Hana and I made our way to a nearby mountain, and from there we waited and spied on anyone who would pass there. Waiting for Ayame is tougher than I thought. Man, why is she late now? She always was on time when I needed her help. I waited around a few more minutes and then saw something.
"Hana, take a look there. I can't see clearly but it looks like Ayame, or maybe the ones that we are looking for, her ganag members?"- I pointed toward a crowd of people.
!The figure you see is most likely Ayame, you can wait here for her to approach you two. Hiding or doing anything else will only raise suspicion from her and other group members, You only need to worry about the other members of her group.!
"Ok, you hear Sia, we will just wait for her here. It won't hurt if we wait around a little and kill some time, they look like they still have a bit to go until they reach us"- Well, time to wait.
We waited to see if Ayame would approach us. She did, from afar. She waved her left hand and then threw a knife in front of where we were looking and by magic, she teleported to the knife instantly.
"Hey there. I don't think I had the chance to meet the lady of the group. Hello, I am Ayame, Ayame Hojo. I already know Hikaru and you may know about me from him. If he already filled you in, me living with all of you will be beneficial, plus, you two are good people that I can trust"- Her demeanor is friendly and she looks approachable and is so talkative.
I may not know much about her, but she is a good person as well. She may have gone through her own set of troubles before coming here and even after coming here. Who knows what made her live as an outlaw in the first place, and the whole thing with Goddess Ifrit reviving made her life even harder.
"I am Hana, I am Hikaru's sister. I know about you from him. We are happy to have you, Ayame. But one question"- I can see gang members gather around us. Something seems wrong with them. They don't seem human, not all of them at least. Most of them are monsters like us.
"Is it about Fumiko, or my guards? Well, I will answer each one"- She signaled her gang members to step back. She is perceptive too. She saw us getting uneasy due to the large amount of people gathering around us.
"Why do you care so much about Fumiko? I mean, is there something special about her?"- She thought for a second. Ayame's face had a sour expression, like when you remember a traumatic event.
"Fumiko is an otherworlder like me and you. The real Fumiko died a long time ago. The illness affected her as well, in my past life, the person that Fumiko was right now was named Nanano and she was my girlfriend. I guess you can see why I care so much about her now. I still love her even in this world. It's kinda stupid how we died we, were involved in a car crash and the two of us were the only ones to die. The Nanano in this world, once her illness doesn't act up, will be able to be the person she was in her previous life. Such is life"- Wow, I didn't know she had gone through that. I guess she was here before us, well that was obvious, but why am I saying this?
"Well, sorry for what happened to you and Fumiko. And now the last question, what is your gang about?" - Hana asked the next question.
"I don't care about money or benefits, I care about you 2 helping me build a nation that will accept monsters and demi-humans and not make them slaves, I want to build a place where everyone can be equal and have freedom. Can you help me build this? The Plundering was just a disguise used for me to haul resources to other monsters that I take care of and are hurt, a few humans have joined us as well. Well, you can already see that. I helped you as much as I could, I even made sure you two are the only ones that could get their hands on the Demon Lord Sproutlings."
"Well, you have a deal. I would like a nation like that. You have our full support. And you can visit Fumiko at the mansion any time, and you can even live with us there."- I extended my hand to shake hands with her.
"Well, and about Fumiko, I won't reveal anything to her unless you want that. Look, those things needed to be done, don't beat yourself up over them Hikaru, ok? If there is anything I will take the full blame for it. Plus I need to look through some official documents, the nation needs food and construction materials and craftpeople. We will devise a plan to get them from Welcia and Ikrel, people that aren't brainwahsed yet. 30% of the food and consturction supplies will be ok for the nation at it's current size."- She showed us a map of where she wants to settle a nation of monsters, she looks like she has a good plan going for her
"Ok, will do. I want to talk more with Ayame, you can go ahead and go to the guild and turn the quest in. Ayame, can you give me a ring or something to give as proof for the guild?"- Ayame gave me a ring from her and smiled.
"Well, a good deal I say. We get to start our plan soon and we will have our guild off our back. A 2 in one deal"- Ayame said in a playful tone.
"Well, I will get going now. Take care Hana."- I sat down, and thought about what I did coming over me again.
"We will sneak you into the mansion with Fumiko, but you will have to do at least a quarter of her paperwork"- She smiled and nodded.
I went to the adventurer's guild to turn in Ayame's ring. To make a long story short, it was a success and the guild accepted our proof that Ayame was defeated. I am making my way back but I am thinking about something.
What am I doing in this world? Why do I care so much about it all of a sudden? It doesn't matter now. I need to get back to them.
Hana and Ayame were already at Fumiko's mansion, I wonder how they got here so fast.
"Hey, you two still didn't enter? Did you wait for me to hold the door open for you two?" - I smiled and looked at them, looking all smug.
"Sure, I don't mind if you want to open the door for us, like a proper man. Hana, I bet Hikaru never held a door open for you"
"Hikaru, let's get going! Don't just stand around like an idiot"- Hana pouted and slapped me on the head.
"What happened?"- I looked at her while walking away.
"Nothing. Just walk..... Idiot"- Did she just call me an idiot?
!Answer: Yes, you are an idiot!
"Sia, not you. Fine, but why am I an idiot, what did I do wrong"
!Answer: Because you are a dense idiot. I don't have to explain to you that Hana likes you a lot, do I? She wanted you to hold the door open for her. Ayame's comment stung her a bit.!