After listening to the woman, the man's attitude suddenly changed and with embarrassment and shyness, he replied, "I just do, what anyone would do."
While Hito dined on the food that had been offered to him, the woman came up with a wonderful idea. She proposed to introduce all her teammates.
First, she introduced herself as Nina and exclaimed, "I am the mind of the team, you can ask me anything you want." Then she introduced the three men, "Klein, the adventurer who always tries to protect us."
At that point, Klein replied, "I already said, that's what anyone would do."
He then continued with Leo. "The one who always keeps the team cheerful with his bad jokes."
"Hey! Don't say they're bad." Leo replied.
Then, she mentioned Sebas: "He's the guy who always talks sarcastically and ends up getting us involved in funny and chaotic situations."
"Don't be so direct." Sebas replied while making a sad gesture.
Finally, he approached the last girl. When she made eye contact with Hito, she quickly avoided his gaze.
At that instant, Nina's laughter interrupted that awkward moment the girl was going through.
"Why are you laughing?" asked Hito.
Nina instructed Hito to look at the girl's hand. Once he looked at it closely, he realized that it was hurt.
"Are you hurt?" Hito asked the girl. In the absence of an answer, Nina laughed again for a few seconds and introduced her: "This is Emily, she always tries to stay out of trouble. She's kind of goofy but she always avoids unnecessary conflicts and that's something I'd like these three fools to imitate."
At that instant, Hito observed her in detail and realized that she was still young.
Then, Nina continued speaking, "Even though, she always avoids trouble, she was the one who ended up punching you in the face."
"I didn't know you hit hard Emily." Leo whispered excitedly.
At that moment, Hito realized that the reason why Emily's hand was hurt was because she had hit him.
At once, Hito apologized in front of her. Emily's eyes widened slightly after seeing his attitude.
"Dude, remember she knocked you out with a punch, get mad at her." Sebas whispered.
"Is this what they used to call simp?" Leo whispered.
After a few seconds, Emily quickly replied, "Don't apologize, it was my fault, I should have been more alert."
Unexpectedly, Klein joined the conversation, "Actually, this was my fault. I'm sorry Emely, I shouldn't have let you be alone. Something worse could have happened."
Nina raised both hands in surrender and said, "It's okay, I got caught. It was my fault, I had the idea to go back for the necklace."
Klein quickly asked Nina not to apologize, they knew how important that necklace meant to her. The others nodded with their faces, showing their agreement with the risk involved.
After Hito heard so many things about the necklace, he finally asked about it.
The atmosphere quickly changed and everyone remained silent, Hito realized that he had asked something that could be sensitive.
So, he quickly apologized and suggested ignoring the question if they wished.
Suddenly, Nina replied with a sad gesture, "I'm sorry, but right now, I don't want to talk about it." Then, after a short pause, she continued, "I'm sorry if it seems selfish, but tell us something about yourself now."
Hito nodded his face and began to talk about everything that had happened, avoiding revealing the direct contact he had had with the beings and their mysterious power.
-
-
"It's amazing that they survived so long in the forest." Nina expressed after hearing the story.
"You did well to teach your sister survival techniques. Now I understand why you still have hope in finding her." Klein replied.
Actually, Hito's sister had not learned survival techniques. But, Hito knew perfectly well that an ordinary girl would not survive a day in a forest. Therefore, telling them another story might cause them to distrust him.
"What do you plan to do now?" asked Emily.
Hito could not answer that his real goal was to become stronger, let alone mention that he had to eliminate 500 spiders. So he decided to answer that his goal was to scour all the nearby areas.
"Why don't you come with us?" asked Emily again.
"Since when does Emily call the shots?" sebas whispered.
"I guess you're not the mind of the team anymore, Nina." Leo whispered.
Hearing the whispers, Emily quickly tried to justify herself, but shyness got the better of her and she did nothing but choke on her own words.
Nina's laughter got everyone's attention again. Then, she calmed down and said, "If that's what Emily wants, there's no problem."
Klein quickly spoke up, "But-. " However, before he could finish, Nina interrupted him, "It's okay, Klein. If anything happens I'll take care of him."
Sebas approached Hito and whispered loudly, "They're saying they're going to kill you, tell them something."
Emily tried to calm everyone down when clearly they were all joking.
Suddenly, Nina caught everyone's attention and asked Hito, "So, do you accept Emily's request?"
Hito nodded with his face, and Emily's eyes lit up slightly with joy. However, in the midst of the happy atmosphere, Nina gently suggested that everyone go to bed due to the fatigue that was overtaking her.
"I'll take first watch before Hito has to call for it and murder us in our sleep." Leo said with a wry tone.
Sebas started to laugh, but then, realizing that everyone was watching Leo seriously, he decided to keep quiet.
-
-
When everyone was lying down, Hito remembered his system and decided to open it. He selected «Statistics».
< Level 1 >
< Hp 28/100 >
< Mana 20/20 >
< Exp 100/100 >
«Next level»
At that moment, Hito understood that the reason he had quickly leveled up was because of the spiders he had previously killed.
Then, he quickly selected «Next level».
Suddenly, the system displayed another alert.
«Level 1 completed»
«You have gained one skill enhancement point»
«You have received two points of stat enhancement»
«Accept»