Under a pile of rubble that seemed to be shaking....
CRUMBLE....
BAM-!
"Whew!!! That was harder than I thought!" A cheery voice of slightly confident sounding cow-woman was heard.
She was none other than Fleta, who had pushed off the pile of rubble that had fallen on them. Fleta glanced back at the one who had brought her there to safety and smiled friendlily.
"Are you alright, Hertha?" She asked Hertha, who was looking at a tired older woman covered in rags, checking if she was hurt anywhere.
"Ma, are you alright?" Hertha asked anxiously while gently slapping her mother's cheeks to wake her up after noticing that she had lost consciousness in fear of the horrifying roar from before.
"..... She seems to be tired, noticing how haggard her breathing is...." Fleta said in a mumble while Hertha continued to slap her cheeks lightly.
".....Ah!! I'm so sorry I lost consciousness!!! You can put it in again!!!" The woman, whom Hertha called Ma, exclaimed as soon as she woke up from her unconscious state and opened her legs without even gazing at who was in front of her.
"Ma, ma, MA!! It's me!! Ma!!!" Hertha roared and snapped her mother out of her daze as she closed the opened legs.
"Huh!? Oh....." Hertha's mother's near-lifeless eyes gazed in front of her and teared up upon finding her daughter.
As her gaze lingered on Hertha, the shame of her words just now crept up to her and she avoided making eye contact with her own daughter, but her irises widened and her body stiffened at the sight in front of her.
Noticing the reaction, both Hertha and Fleta also focused on their surroundings only to be dumbfounded, because they were just a few feet away from being caught up in the destruction caused by something catastrophic which was most likely to be the one behind the previous fear enticing roar.
And above them was nothing, except for the night sky and bright stars which wasn't really something to be surprised about if they were outside, but
They knew that they were still in an underground settlement just until a few minutes ago, which was now nowhere to be found. Gazing at the surroundings, Hertha was dumbfounded even more because the "city" which she would pass through every time on her way out or her way in to the underground settlement was nowhere to be found.
From her approximation, she had estimated that the underground city as they called was at least two and half kilometres long, and her estimation was from the arena that was in the middle of the city.
WHOOOOMMMMH-!
Spiralling sounds of heavily concentrated mana sounded above them, but before the teleportation spell was activated entirely, a horizontal thread of blackish purple mana shot out and cut off the mana being supplied to the spell.
STEP-!
Sounds of footsteps sounded from a distance where all three of them gazed at fearfully and cautiously, before Hertha sighed in relief audibly after noticing who it was, while Fleta's eyes lit up because she found her blind friend who was said to have come here to rescue her, from what she learned from her new friend, Hertha.
"Mark!!" Fleta exclaimed loudly and jumped on the rubbles to get down, towards Marken, who was carefully walking towards them, watching his steps not-so-carefully.
"Fleta...." Ken lightly called after hearing and reading her mana signature before the mana got extremely close as he heard her hooves thumping on the rubbles.
'... Her mana is a bit too excited, the warmth on her cheeks is also strange, and wasn't she conserved just this afternoon? Why is she so active and excited?' Ken pondered inwardly, and while he was doing that, Fleta reached him and stunned him.
FHUMP-!
Fleta arrived in front of him and immediately pounced on for a hug when he had just thought that maybe she would simply stand in front of him.
BA-THUMP-!
Of course, Ken could have reacted and avoid her, but thinking it would be simply weird to avoid her when she had no hostile intent, he stood still and hoped for a conversation, not a hug.
BA-THUMP-!
'..... Her heartbeat is....' Ken muttered in his mind as he heard her loudly thumping heartbeat which could have been heard even if he didn't have his sensitive hearing.
"Hmph!" Suddenly, just when he thought a neutral non sexual hug was alright from time to time, an annoyed snort trickled his ears.
"Fleta, return to the academy first, I'll have a short conversation and return soon after." Ken said as he gently yet rudely pushed Fleta back.
".....Mhm..." Fleta dejectedly hummed in affirmation and began to walk away as her hooves clicked on the ground covered in boulder sized rubbles.
Sensing Hertha's mana, Ken carefully walked up the rubble which, unfortunately for his senses, was manaless and within a matter of a few minutes, he was standing in front of her and another being with very small amount of mana cruising through his/her body.
"Who is that?" Ken asked as he glanced down at the blob of mana, which he could tell was Hertha's.
"..... My mother...." Hertha replied in a dejected tone and noticed Ken nod his head in understanding.
"So? I'm done right? I have completed your wish, correct?" Ken asked lightly, to which Hertha nodded her head without speaking.
"....."
"Answer." Ken said in a commanding tone that made both Hertha and her mother shudder for different reasons. Her mother had unpleasant memories of many commanding her while doing her and making her do things she didn't like, while Hertha was strangely reminded of the new and pleasurable sensations she felt in the afternoon she spent with him. They both were reminded of the similar yet extremely different kinds of memories; one found the memory pleasant and pleasurable, the other found the similar, yet so different, kind of memory fearful and disgusting.
"Y-yes." Hertha replied to his question while she was once again reminded of the fact that the beast she met in the afternoon was blind.
At her answer,
DING-!
A chiming sound sounded in Ken's mind.
[Cleared Quest: Avoid getting kidnapped]
[Rewards: Bronze crate (1x), Silver crate (1x), Skill acquisition ticket (1x) have been transferred to the inventory]
[First quest has been completed]
[Chances of getting better ranked rewards in the rewarded crates have been increased by 5%]
'Open bronze crate.' Ken commanded.
The system's interface carrying a Bronze crate popped up in his consciousness and trembled as the sounds of things scrambling sounded before the crate trembled even violently and jumped open, spitting out the luck dependent reward.
[Acquired 2,500 Gold]
'Open silver crate' Ken commanded since he didn't really have any expectations of a bronze crate, but still got a better reward than expected.
[Acquired Vampire's crimson scarf [C-]]
"..... Is it because these are the rewards of the first quest?" Ken muttered under his breath because he remembered the game's first quest particularly well because it was the only quest that forced the players to clear it with the lowest given initial stats of the created character.
As soon as the introduction video ends, the scenario of the created character entering the academy is shown mere minutes before the character is kidnapped and is forced to fight against its first boss monster, the Hornless.
An [E-] ranked monster with its horns cut off, it was a strangely hard yet the easiest quest given to the players. It was hard because the created character starts from the stats of an [F] rank, thanks to which defeating an [E-] ranked monster is simply impossible, but still is the easiest because if the player managed to merely run around the arena by avoiding getting killed instantly, the boss monster would bleed out thanks to the cut off horns and die.
'..... Why does it feel strange....' Ken wondered and his mind abruptly blanked when he remembered the boss monster's blood marred face and blood shot eyes.
"..... That was a woman...." He muttered and connected dots with Fleta, who was kidnapped before he was.
He remembered the first quest because he had taken up the challenge to defeating the first quest's boss monster with the freshly created character instead of running around in the arena like all the other players who played the same game, yet so differently from him.
"What's wrong?" Hertha asked, snapping him out of his stupor.
"Nothing." Ken simply shrugged his shoulders and took out a sword from his spatial ring and,
SHING.....
THUD-!
SPURT-!
Hertha, who felt a breeze blow past her right cheek, turned to gaze in the direction where she heard of something falling on the ground with a thud and a subtle sounds of rolling sounded before sounded of spurting trickled her ears and something wet also landed on her hair and the right side of her face.
Her entire body froze and her pupils dilated extremely noticing the tired woman's headless body swaying next to her, spurting blood everywhere.
THUD-!
Gazing at her mother's body slump on the ground, without life and without a head,
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"