Chapter 49. Rank 6 — Part Three

  Sherial’s gaze was fixed on Rem. A few moments later, she looked at me as well. No words. No greeting. It got awkward.

  "Hi," I said—mostly out of discomfort. What was I even supposed to say? I didn’t know myself.

  She didn’t answer. I remembered her differently—smiling, friendly. Why was she looking at me so coldly now?

  And then she stepped forward. Straight toward Rem. She came up and simply hugged her.

  "Thank God you’re okay. For a moment I thought you were gone…"

  At the end of the sentence, her voice trembled and broke, turning into almost a sob.

  "Alright, alright, that’s enough," Rem said, gently pulling away. "You know, we’re not alone here."

  "I don’t care," Sherial replied, and hugged her again.

  A couple minutes later, it looked like she’d composed herself.

  "Alisar, move us to that space you use," she said.

  I took Rem and Sherial by the hands and teleported us into the training room.

  As soon as we were there, Rem began explaining the strategy she’d come up with. A plan to destroy that giant monster and all the devouring caterpillars.

  To my surprise, her plan seemed very realistic. Damn—why hadn’t I thought of it myself?

  Yeah… it looked like Rem understood the situation far better than I did—and knew how to use even my skill better than I did.

  Her plan was very simple. Too simple.

  And that was exactly why it was obvious it would work.

  Rem has the "Golem Summon" skill, which she’d already used countless times. But her mana is limited. Yes, she drank mana potions, but those have a limit too. Today she couldn’t use any more—apparently she’d already downed nine mana potions, and that was the cap.

  Sherial also has a skill that deals colossal damage. It was the one I saw back then—when the explosion tore off a third of that giant monster’s head.

  But that skill also had serious drawbacks. The most obvious one was mana consumption. That single attack had cost Sherial almost 90% of her mana. If it were only about mana, she could’ve drunk potions and attacked again and again—at least seven or eight times.

  But apparently, that skill could only be used once every three hours. Meaning even if she fully restored her mana with a potion, she’d still have to wait three hours before using that attack again.

  And in that time, the monster would have long since recovered—considering how fast its head had started regenerating, in just a few minutes.

  And that’s where my special skill came in—the training room. First, we were safe here. Second, time flowed 960 times faster.

  I could periodically bring Rem into the outside world so she could summon golems, and then we’d immediately retreat back into the training room. From time to time, Sherial would teleport with us too, striking the giant monster.

  In the end, it would become a continuous assault: an endless stream of stone golems against the enormous monster, and Sherial’s strikes at intervals of only five or six seconds. At that pace, the monster simply wouldn’t have time to regenerate between her attacks.

  After Rem explained the plan, we decided to rest a little and eat. But what happened next caught me off guard. I thought we’d just have a quick snack. Instead, Rem pulled out a large pot, ingredients, an impressive amount of meat, and firewood. Sherial did the cooking.

  The food turned out unbelievably delicious. I ate three full bowls of that soup and five loaves of bread. Meaning—I ate more than both girls combined. And I still wasn’t completely full. Simply because it was insanely good.

  I don’t even remember ever eating food that delicious in my life. Or bread like that.

  We saved some of the soup for breakfast, so we decided to go to sleep. Yeah—sleep was really necessary right now. I didn’t dare ask for more, no matter how much I wanted to. It’s fine. I’ll endure it—tomorrow for breakfast we’ll have that same unbelievably delicious soup.

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  Then Rem took out a tent and sleeping bags. She offered me a spare sleeping bag, but I refused. It felt awkward.

  Now I’m lying on a bedding made of dry grass. I used to have a sleeping bag too, but over time it tore and got too dirty. I was too lazy to wash it, so I just threw it away. Since then, I’ve been gathering grass and making a simple bed out of it.

  I think I’ll manage. The grass is already too dry, but whatever—it won’t scratch my skin.

  Tomorrow we’ll start putting Rem’s plan into action.

  Breakfast was delicious, and we got to work right away. I teleported Rem into the forest—to the place where we met Sherial. There she activated her skill. Summoning circles appeared.

  I thought the trees would get in the way, but it turned out the circles simply formed in the open spaces between them. Even the low grass didn’t interfere.

  After that, we immediately returned to the training room.

  Right after we came back, she drank a mana potion, and I teleported us forty meters in another direction. But there were golems there already, so we had to walk a bit farther on foot, and then she summoned golems again.

  We repeated that eight times. No—nine times. She drank a mana potion eight times and said that if she drank the ninth, she’d just pass out. So she stopped on the eighth. After that, we returned to the training room.

  Nineteen hours later, she summoned golems again—one more time. And tomorrow she’ll repeat the entire cycle we did today. I think by then we’ll have roughly around two thousand Rank 5 golems.

  And according to the plan, the day after tomorrow we’ll begin a full-scale assault. Right now we’re just preparing our forces—forming troops, so to speak. There’s truly no need to rush, because in all that time, at most four or five minutes will pass in the outside world. Nothing should go wrong.

  Well… at least, it shouldn’t have. Because I had a different problem.

  I was going to spend all that time with two girls in one enclosed space. Rem and Sherial didn’t seem to see any problem with it at all. But I did. More than one.

  What am I supposed to do all that time?

  Rem calmly trained, swinging her sword. Her movements were precise, measured, professional—far better than mine. I could watch that beauty and deadly grace forever.

  Though, if I’m being honest, calling this place an "enclosed space" was stupid of me. The room was huge—roughly eighty by eighty meters, with a ceiling about twenty-five meters high. The walls had large open openings—like windows, but without glass or bars. Just empty openings that let air flow freely. If the place were fully sealed, we would’ve had problems when we cooked.

  Damn… my thoughts are stupid right now. I’m nervous like a teenager who’s been left alone with girls for the first time.

  Alright. Enough.

  I have something to do too. I can train. Yeah—swinging a sword will work. It would be weird if I started doing squats or something. Swinging a sword is normal. Especially since Rem is doing the same.

  I was about to start training when Sherial approached me.

  "What are you doing, Alisar? Am I bothering you?" Sherial asked.

  "No, I’m not doing anything. I’m just bored. I don’t know what to do with myself," I replied.

  "I wanted to say this yesterday, but there wasn’t a good moment," she began, then fell silent for an instant. "Thank you. I’m very grateful to you for saving Rem. We owe you our lives."

  Damn, this is awkward. What do I even say to that?

  "No, no…" I hurried. "You could say I was just repaying a debt. You saved my life once, after all."

  I remembered the time I almost got eaten by some weak rabbit monsters. Thinking back on it now, it even felt a little funny.

  "Yeah, I can’t believe it. Back then you were so weak. It was only about half a year ago," Sherial said.

  Half a year…

  Yes. Only half a year had passed in the outside world.

  But for me—it felt like I’d been living in this world for many years. Though, if I think about it, for me a lot of time really did pass. I just spent most of it here, in the training room.

  "Is something wrong?" Sherial asked, noticing I’d gone quiet.

  "No, everything’s fine. I just got lost in thought… Ah, never mind," I said.

  "Then I have a question for you," she said after a short pause.

  "What is it?"

  "Where did you get this?" she asked, pointing at a mushroom. A Source Mushroom.

  I’d forgotten about them a long time ago. Yeah, I had a lot of them. And apparently they hadn’t spoiled over all this time.

  "After I registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, I went to the city you told me about back then," I began. "And I went into the lowest-rank dungeons near the city. That’s where I got them—after defeating a dungeon boss. That’s all."

  She frowned slightly.

  "But as far as I know, the chance of getting a Source Mushroom after defeating that dungeon’s boss is less than one percent. I don’t believe for a second that you managed to clear that dungeon more than a million times in half a year," she said, looking at me with obvious doubt.

  "I think you’re mistaken," I replied. "I cleared that dungeon more than a hundred times, but each time I only received one Source Mushroom as a reward."

  She looked at me in a way that made it clear—she didn’t believe a single word.

  "Alright," she said calmly. "If you don’t want to answer, you can just say so. You don’t need to make things up."

  "No, I’m telling the truth," I said, already irritated. "Why don’t you believe me?"

  "Even if you cleared that dungeon more than a hundred times and got a Source Mushroom every time, I won’t believe you got them in batches of a hundred," she said, clearly skeptical. "According to the Guild’s information, only one Source Mushroom can be obtained as a reward after defeating the final boss—and even that with a chance under one percent. Only the luckiest parties get it at all."

  "No, I didn’t get a hundred mushrooms from one boss kill. I only got one each time too," I replied. "But… the last time I defeated the dungeon’s final boss, a—let’s call it—a secret door opened. And behind it, I got most of the mushrooms from a huge treasure chest."

  "A secret door?" excitement was obvious in Sherial’s voice.

  A smile appeared on her face—genuine interest.

  Looks like that secret corridor really caught her attention. But before that, I decided to ask a different question.

  "Sherial, why are you so interested in the Source Mushroom?" I asked. "I don’t think it’s valuable enough for high-rank adventurers like you to care about it."

  "Well, you know, each Source Mushroom costs at least two hundred gold coins," she replied.