Chapter 13: A Fool's Game

After starting his day in a very unusual way, Mitsuna now finds himself sitting in a room with his allies inside their newly found headquarters. He was mostly quiet while everyone else conversed and planned their next move. He honestly just wanted to go outside and see the new world again. He wondered why he was still there. Was he there just to suffer from boredom? He played with his crossbow for a bit then flipped through the empty pages of his book. He found a fountain pen laying on the table and decided to use it to doodle on his book. He noticed that after writing on it the red ink would fade away. He tried to write on it some more and it continued to fade.

This caught Ashe's attention and she went up to him to see what he was up to. She was amused at his attempts to write in the book.

"You're just wasting ink you know."

"How do you even write in this book?" He scribbled on it some more.

"Give me that." She grabs the Pen from his hand and places it back on the table. "This is an Adventurer's book. You don't write on it unless you're a witch. Luckily for you, I happen to be one."

Mitsuna didn't catch on to what she was saying but just dismissed it and agreed. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Alright."

"Let's see what you have." She flipped the book back to its first page and closed her eyes. She placed her index finger on it and it began to glow with a light blue hue while writing rapidly. Once it was done she opened her eyes and her finger stopped glowing.

[ HP: 75

STR: 65

DEX: 80

MAG: 1

STAM: 85

DEF: 60

Mitsuna Otoko - Adventurer Tier: D

Level: 19

Traits: Determined, Eagle Eyes, Unbelievably Lucky]

Special Ability: Do whatever you are doing, But better and cooler.]

She was quite surprised at the stats she saw expecting them to be a lot higher than it is. Her expression made Mitsuna curious, so he grabbed the book from her hands and took a look at it himself. He was quite surprised when he saw his stats as well.

"Mitsuna, what exactly are you determined to do?"

"Anything. At the moment, I'm very determined to sit in this chair some more."

"Riiight. And what does your power mean? Do whatever you're doing but better and cooler?" She asked some more hoping that there might be a chance he had a better, more detailed explanation of what it does.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. It's exactly what it says. I think." She was a bit disappointed by his response but there wasn't much she could do about it.

There was a short moment of silence as Ashe thought about their next move while Mitsuna sat and examined the book some more until he had a bright idea.

"Hey, Ashe. I have an idea." He gestured to her to come near him as he placed the book onto the table.

"Yeah? What is it?" She raised an eyebrow and approached him curious as to what he had in mind.

"Could you do the thing with the book again? The one where your finger lights up?" The boy had a fantastic idea brewing in his mind. It was so fantastic that he was trying to hold back his laughter.

"Why would I need to do that? I just checked your stats." She seemed quite alarmed as Mitsuna was acting a little suspicious.

"Could you just please do it? Trust me, just put your finger on it and then light it up." He felt confident in his idea.

She didn't like where this was going. She wasn't used to information being kept from her, but this boy seemed like he was onto something. Despite her better judgment she trusted him and did as he asked. So she placed her index finger once again into the book and closed her eyes. It lit up with bright blue color and before it began to move, Mitsuna quickly grabbed her finger and began trying to erase the previous stats that were written.

Ashe was quite surprised by this and tried to regain control of her hand, although Mitsuna reassured her that everything is just fine which for some reason worked and calmed her down. After a few moments of painful finger squishing and dragging it seems that he was able to successfully change his stats.

[ HP: 10

STR: 1

DEX: 177

MAG: 1

STAM: 172

DEF: 5]

Once he had finished Mitsuna let go of her hand to which she quickly retracted and covered with her other hand. The boy quickly felt the effect of his actions as his clothes suddenly felt significantly heavier, but not heavy enough to bring him to the ground. Ashe opened her eyes to see what he had done with his stats. To her surprise, it seems that he had drawn lines over the original numbers and wrote new ones right beside them.

"Mitsuna- What- Is this even possible?" She was at a loss of words and a wave of emotions went through her, but now was not the time to further discuss this as Joe opens the door and calls for Ashe.

"Ashe, our scouts found something, you might want to see this."

She gave a nod and turned to Mitsuna who was placing the book in a small satchel he found.

"Mitsuna, stay here. We don't know if what you did took an effect or not so and we can't risk losing you." She quickly followed Joe who was waiting by the doorframe.

He felt good knowing that he was important to people but infuriated that he had to stay put. There wasn't much that could entertain him so he waited for a few minutes before standing up from his seat and taking a peek out the door. He noticed that he could move significantly faster than before and it was a little hard for him to control. He checks the hallway to see if Ashe or Joe were there and thankfully, they weren't.

He's been in this stronghold for a while now so he's got a good idea of where to go and where they could be. He needs to be quick when running through the hallways to not be seen but thanks to his new stats that shouldn't be a problem. He checked both ends of the hallway then quickly dashed to the left hallway, then to the right, went up the stairs, and before he knew it, he was outside. He was stunned by his new impeccable speed. It wasn't as fast as the flash but it was pretty darn fast.

He checks his surroundings to see if Ashe or Joe are around. Unfortunately, he couldn't find them. A loud sudden thump caught Mitsuna off guard. He quickly jumped behind one of the pack animals that were still there from when they first arrived. When he looked to see what it was it seems that someone just dropped a heavy box on the ground. Relieved that they weren't getting raided, he walks up to him to ask if he's seen the two commanders. The soldier points towards a direction he last saw them and Mitsuna properly thanks him. He then proceeds to run quickly towards the direction that he was being pointed to. He ran so fast that he went past them without knowing.

Ashe and Joe were casually discussing the group of slaves their scouts saw while walking through the forest. Normally a group of low lives wasn't high in their priorities but Joe was trying to convince Ashe that they could use more people. And more importantly, their scouts saw someone of great importance. As he was about to say who it was, a sudden strong force came running past them.

"What the?!" Joe brandishes his claws and readies himself for an attack.

"What was that?" Ashe begins preparing a spell to defend them unsure of who is attacking.

The two back up against each other and scan their surroundings carefully, they hear some rustling in the bushes and focus their attention on it. As it approaches them they prepare for the worse.

Mitsuna was starting to dislike forests. As cool and helpful they may seem, all the wood, leaves, branches, and sticks, not to mention the potentially poisonous things, are being quite a nuisance to him as he was struggling to get through some of the bushes without leaves making him itch every second. As soon as he gets through the bushes he is met with Joe who pounced right in front and was about to chop his head clean off but thankfully stopped in time.

Ash cancels her spell and rushes towards Mitsuna only to hit him at the back of his head.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" I told you to stay back at the stronghold!" His actions have been irritating her ever since she gave her his first task.

"Well, turns out that changing my stats on the book DOES work, now I can run super fast!" He disregarded the fact that he just disobeyed an order and was getting yelled at.

"Yeah, for the cost of your health and defense, as well as your strength!" She rebuked.

Joe was just standing there confused as to what they were arguing about and how Mitsuna got here so fast. But now was not the best time for them to argue so he broke them up and brought attention to the current situation. The three get down on their knees to avoid attention and to be able to talk discreetly.

"Alright Look. I don't know what happened, but he's here now." Joe blurbed out looking at Ashe, a little disappointed with how childish she was acting for a leader.

"Mitsuna." He turned towards the boy. There was something about the way he talked that sent a chill down his spine. "Our scouts found a slaver group ahead. They have someone of great importance to us. Are you capable of freeing and escorting them back to us?"

He had a feeling of uncertainty on him. What if he messed something up? Gets captured? Or worse? But then again, he also wanted to try out his new stats and see what he was capable of. So with little confidence, he nods his head and agrees to the mission.

"Great, they're dead ahead. Our scouts are there as well, they will tell you who's important and who's not." Joe blurted out.

Without any further interruptions, they all get up and Mitsuna runs in a straight line going towards the direction Joe pointed while trying to avoid as many branches and leaves as possible but mostly failing.

"Are you sure about this?" She looked a little concerned

"Hey, Didn't you do this to me as well?" Joe joked.

"Yeah, but this time he only has ten HP..." Her voice got quieter.

"What."

It didn't take long for Mitsuna to arrive at his destination. He saw the slave caravan that Joe was talking about, he stayed low and hid behind the trees as he examined what they were composed of. two wagons being guarded by six horses with two for each wagon and two on the back and front of the caravan. Strangely, he didn't see the scouts. Maybe they were caught and captured? Or perhaps they were just well camouflaged. Either way, there were no signs of the scouts anywhere. The caravan wasn't moving so he had plenty of time to think of what to do, he looked around for openings and blind spots but couldn't find any. They were all well guarded so he knew stealth wasn't exactly going to be an option. Why were they just standing there not doing anything? It's like something was wrong. He pulled out his dagger and crossbow and devised a quick plan, he would come from the back and pick them off one by one. Sounds easy enough right? There aren't that many and his speed should give him a boost.

He slowly creeps up behind the caravan preparing for a strong and quick charge. Once he is close enough he runs at them and aims his crossbow at an unsuspecting bandit. Unfortunately for him, as he was about to fire when he tripped on a rock and fell to the ground. Considering his defense and HP were both extremely low this was enough to knock him unconscious leaving him at 3HP. Before he lost all sense of consciousness he heard the slavers say something.

"Ha! This setup was way easier than we thought!"

After trying to force his eyes open through sheer willpower, it eventually closes and his vision fades to black. Then in a matter of seconds, he opens his eyes and is greeted with the sight of a pure blue sky. He sits up and takes a look at his surroundings. It seems like he was in heaven with the floor beneath him being clouds that go on for miles and miles without end. There was nothing around him and not a sound could be heard. The floor in front of him suddenly began to shake and the clouds tore apart. Slowly a figure began to appear from the hole in the clouds.

It slowly rose with a bright blue aura of light surrounding him, from the moment the clouds tore a choir could be heard singing but could not be seen anywhere, as the figure got higher Mitsuna could see that it resembled a male figure in his prime. He had smooth, silky, combed over hair. It looked like he was dressed in gold plated mercenary armor, with a white vibrant cape on his back. It took him a while to fully appear because it seemed that he was unusually taller than a normal human.

Mitsuna was confused as to what was happening, did he die and is now in heaven? Who is this person? The man placed a finger on Mitsuna's forehead and his vision suddenly became blurry and his eyes felt tired, he tried to keep it open but failed yet again. The last thing he could hear was a loud laugh before falling back to sleep.

He wakes up again but this time he felt the touch of cold hard rocks on his back and not soft and comfy clouds. He got up and rubbed his head wondering if he's truly awake this time. As he looked around it seemed that he was being held captive in a prison cell. Maybe inside a dungeon from the looks of it.

"Gosh dang it! This was not part of the plan." Mitsuna told himself, angry at the fact that he got captured so easily, and to make matters worse, he has no one else but himself to blame for changing his stats. But there was no time for him to sit and regret his questionable life choices, he could hear someone approaching his cell. There wasn’t much he could do and his cell was quite literally empty so he just sat there waiting for the guard. As he sat there he quickly realized that he had been stripped of his clothing except for his underwear.

As the sounds of the footsteps came closer, what looked like a guard came into view. Not a royal guard though, this one wore leather armor, had a short sword sheathed to his side, and a small buckler attached to his wrist. Once the two had made eye contact, he leaned on the cell door and said, “So you’re finally awake.” Mitsuna didn’t give much of a response, not like he even wanted to. The guard then begins to pull something out of the satchel he was carrying, a book then comes into view, not just any book, rather, it was Mitsuna’s book! The guard casually tosses it into the boy’s cell and says, “We read your stats and my oh my, you sure are one heck of a guy! Oh, and we took your little toy as well. Just who exactly are you?” Mitsuna just sat there and stared at him. His staring made the guard infuriated which caused him to move closer to the bars of the cell. “Hey! I’m talking to ya here!” The guard yelled but Mitsuna remained quiet despite what the guard would say. Eventually, he quieted down as he heard another person enter the area.

“Hey. Check this out.” Another guard dressed in leather armor came into view. Holding what seems to be a bottle with some sorts. Strangely enough, Mitsuna recognizes that bottle but can’t seem to exactly remember what that is. He wasn’t paying much attention to what they were saying or doing as he was too busy wondering about the strange dream he just had. After a few moments, the two guards fall unconscious and potentially dead. The boy quickly runs to the front of his cell to see the two. It looks like they drank the contents of the bottle and passed out. “What is this?” He thought as he reached out to grab the bottle. Upon closer examination, it seems that they drank Mitsuna’s bottle of the universal cleaning agent. “Well, that’s a relief.” He says sarcastically. He then looked at their bodies from his cell trying to see if either of them had a key of sorts, and sure enough one of them did. A whole bunch of keys.

It didn’t take long for Mitsuna to reach out and unlock his cell. As he went out he found himself in an L-shaped hallway where his only two options were to go right or forward. Mitsuna did the right thing and went to neither of these pathways because he first needed to arm himself in case he encountered other guards. He picked up the sword and shield the first guard had and headed off to the path on his right and was quickly greeted with a wooden door. He slowly opened it and to his surprise, he found an empty room with what seems to be some sort of slab bed in the center of it with a small table on one side containing a rope and various tools that he didn’t recognize.

He raised his shield and got into a defensive stance while he carefully entered the room making sure to close the door behind him before he goes any further. He noticed on the side of the room there was a table with a satchel on it, and beside that satchel was his equipment! He felt a sense of relief as he quickly rushed to his gear and began gathering his belongings. Although not all of his possessions were there, some of his previous clothing were missing. All that was left there was his shirt, jeans, and blazer. He wasn’t bothered too much by his missing clothes and just thought of it as payment for getting knocked out in one of the silliest ways possible.

As he was dressing up the door he came in suddenly slammed open.

A man in what looks like his late fifties came barging in seeming like he had just lost something of great value. He was dressed in a brown robe with the hood lowered exposing a scarred face with long hair and bushy beard.

“Yo. I’ll be with you in just a minute.” Mitsuna casually responds as he quickly finishes dressing up. The man quickly turned to the boy and showed a face of great relief. “Oh, thank goodness you’re not gone yet.” He says while running up to Mitsuna, who quickly drew his crossbow and aimed it at the man. “Woah easy there. I don’t even know who you are yet.” The man quickly clears his throat and apologizes for his behavior. He then takes a step back and proceeds to introduce himself. “My name is Emanuel Jensen, I am a magic researcher and I would like to know more about your stats and how you achieved them.”

“He seems polite enough.” Mitsuna thought to himself. “Well, alright. What’s your relation to these slavers?”

Emanuel suddenly looked confused. “Eh? Slavers?” He seemed genuinely clueless as to what Mitsuna was talking about.

“Yeah. The guys here, they’re slavers. They go around taking peo- You get the idea stop playing dumb.” He gave a small smile at the thought of how silly it would be for Emanuel to be oblivious to the fact that he’s in a dungeon with slavers.

“Well… That does explain all the prison cells.” He said while rubbing his chin.

“Wha- Don’t tell me you don’t think these people aren’t slavers.” Mitsuna started to look a little annoyed.

“Well, in my defense, they said this was a prison and that all of you were bandits and they’re knights.” He explained.

“And you believed the people who wore leather armor, had no manners and were badly clothed to be knights?! Seriously?!” Mitsuna looked infuriated. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now!” He took a few steps forward and aimed for Emanuel’s head.

“W-W-W-W-Wait! You got this all wrong!” He takes a few steps back then suddenly pulls out what looks like a strange device with a white and pink crystal on it. “Memory transfer!” A stream of magic energy quickly appears and flows from the back of his head to the pink crystal and it proceeds to light up. In a blink of an eye, the two crystals fire out a thin ray of magic that hits Mitsuna right in the eye temporarily blinding him and making him stagger back.

“Agh!” Mitsuna is then suddenly hit with a painful headache. He hunches back and tries to keep a steady aim on Emanuel while placing his free hand on his head. The last thing he heard was “Oops. Maybe that was a little too strong. I’ll be sure to tak-” before getting his view completely changed. He was suddenly outside, he could see Emanuel as well as the slavers talking. His body was stuck and he couldn’t move anything except his eyes. Although he could hear every word they said loud and clear.

It turns out that these slavers were good at making up reasons and excuses, combined that with a good amount of threatening and it seems like that was enough to make Emanuel believe these people. Not like he had that much of a choice. He told them about his profession and they told him about Mitsuna who was tied up unconscious inside the carriage.

“Hey, that’s me!” Mitsuna thought to himself as he watched.

They agreed that if he were to understand and discover who and what Mitsuna is he would’ve been paid a large sum of money.

After the deal is made Mitsuna’s vision suddenly becomes warped and his headache slowly dies down as his view returns to Emanuel who he still has his crossbow aimed at.

“What the heck was?” He asked while standing back up and taking a few steps closer.

“H-Hey! Calm down now! It was j-just a simple memory transfer! That’s all!”

Mitsuna sighs and lowers his crossbow. “Alright. I’m not gonna hurt you, but I’m not gonna let you cut me open or anything either.”

Emmanuel quickly perches up, “Oh I wasn’t planning to anyone! I just wanted to ask a few questions and maybe test a few things but nothing like that!”

The atmosphere between the two quickly changed to a more calm state. “Really? Like wha-”

A scream of a girl was quickly heard echoing from the halls outside to the room he was in. The calm atmosphere that was shortly present turned into an intense one as they both looked at each other and nod indicating that they both wanted to check what it was. The two run out of the room and to the hallways to catch a glimpse of what seemed like a young girl screaming for help while on an orc's shoulder.

“Hey! Unlock all these other prisoners while I go check out what that was!” To which Emannuel gives a hesitant nod. The boy tosses him the cell keys that he had taken earlier and quickly dashes across the hall trying to look for where the girl had gone. It seems like the orc silenced her since he could no longer hear any screams. After walking through a few halls it seems that Mitsuna took the wrong path, but thanks to his increased speed he was able to cover these halls quickly. The problem is, he keeps going in circles and getting lost. After a while of circling he then heard another scream that sounded like it came from the same person.

This gave Mitsuna a good idea of where to go, and this time, the screams turned into cries for help, pleas for something to stop, and screams in pain. This made Mitsuna very uncomfortable and made him run even faster. After running for a bit he is greeted by a messy sight. Inside one room had an open cell that had what seemed like an orc that had clawed Tami with one hand digging into her side and is now trying to devour her. As soon as she catches sight of Mitsuna, he quickly calls out for him begging him for help. He quickly rushed inside the room and the orc was right in front of him. Right before the Orc was about to bite Tami’s neck off Mitsuna quickly fired a clean arrow right into the orc’s head making him scream in pain, to which he followed with a swift stab to the neck which he sliced open. His clothes were covered in a bit of both human and orc blood. Mostly the Orc’s. Strangely enough, a normal human would’ve been scarred by an event such as this, but for Mitsuna, he seemed calm. Like there was magic being used on him to stop his brain from getting any negative emotions from this.

He quickly turned to Tami who was on the ground and in pain. He slowly helped her up and was about to ask her if she’s alright, but judging from how she currently looks with her clothes tattered and blood coming out of her side, a question like that would have been foolish. In a soft and weak voice, she said, “T-Thank you.” Before passing out from the pain. But from Mitsuna’s view, it seemed like those were her last words before dying. A strong wave of unease suddenly went over him like a barrier that stopped him from worrying suddenly broke. He lied her down and quickly ran to a storage room he passed by earlier while looking for her. Inside were weapons and armor of all sorts but what he was looking for were health potions.

“Come on, come on! You can’t just transport me to a medieval fantasy world and NOT have health vials!” Mitsuna said while rummaging through boxes. Eventually, he finds a box that had a large bottle filled with red liquid. It was about the size of an unusually large jug that was pretty much bigger than his head. “Here we are!” For whatever reason, Mitsuna thought he could carry this with only one hand, perhaps magical health liquid was lighter than normal water. But no, he was dead wrong and his attempt failed so horribly that he dropped the bottle on the ground. Thankfully the glass was strong enough for it to only make a large crack on it. The bad news is that it landed right on his foot, and with his low HP, he felt as if he was already on the verge of death simply from having a heavy bottle land on his foot.

After a few moments of whining and screaming in pain, he quickly sucked it up and holstered his mini-crossbow by placing it in his large satchel, and grabbed the bottle with both hands. Due to his extremely low strength, it became quite challenging to carry it. He tried his best to run back to Tami as quickly as he could while being mindful of the potion making sure not to trip on anything this time. As he’s moving through the halls a guard spots him and asks him where he’s taking the potion. He tries to cover his face while making up a reason saying that Emmanuel asked for this potion to help him with his experiments. The guard lets him go and he quickly moves past him, right when he thought he was safe he heard the guard yell from behind, “Hey wait! Who’s Emmanuel?!” He disregarded this and continued moving without turning around to check whether or not the guard is trailing him down.

After a few moments, he arrives back to Tami with two guards checking on her. One stood right in front of her body while the other was inside the cell checking on the dead Orc. “What could have done this…” The guard by the Orc asked. “Not sure.” The other replied. Once they saw Mitsuna they asked him, “Hey, have you seen this?” The boy shook his head and replied, “Maybe, although I got a delivery for you. Here, catch!” He then tosses the large bottle at the guard who had little time to react. He stumbles back confused as to what’s happening while the other one turns and checks what’s going on.

As he places the bottle down, he is greeted with the sight of Mitsuna aiming his crossbow at him. He gives off a sly smile and aims the crossbow at the guard that was further away and fires. The one closer to him quickly tries to pull out his sword but thanks to Mitsuna’s increased dexterity, he was able to draw his dagger ten times faster and quickly follow up with a stab to the throat which he then sliced open. He swung his dagger at the floor afterward to remove the unwanted blood that was on it. When he looked over to the other guard it seems that his leather armor protected him but Mitsuna already had his crossbow aimed at him.

After making quick work of the two guards Mitsuna quickly crouched down to Tami and checked if she was still breathing, he could barely see her stomach move nor feel any wind by her mouth, and he didn’t even know how to check someone’s pulse. He was unsure of what to do now and quickly opened the health potion. He tilted the bottle and poured the fluids all over her wounds which began to rapidly heal.

“Yes! It’s working!” He said. Soon enough, all her wounds had been healed and she’s restored to her former self. Although she still wasn’t awake, Mitsuna gave her a good shaking to wake her up. As her eyes slowly opened, she was greeted with a view of Mitsuna who was calling her name. Her first instincts were to grab him by the throat which she did which the boy’s reflexes responded with a punch to the gut. Her strong grip on him greatly loosened up and Mitsuna began repeatedly apologizing for his actions.

The two sat there momentarily with Tami recovering from all that had just happened and Mitsuna sitting there awkwardly and uneasily waiting for her to say something.

“Say. Kid, where’d you get that bottle?” She looked at the bottle for a bit then turned over to Mitsuna. It was the first time she saw him without a mask or his Ezikel clothing so she didn’t recognize him and thought he was a random stranger.

“I found it. In their storage room.” He answered directly and honestly.

“Huh alright. Well, what’s the plan?” She got up and dusted herself off.

“Well, I think we should be getting out of here.” He got up as well and readied his crossbow.

“Sounds good, I’ll let you lead the wa-” As she saw his crossbow she felt a sense of hostility, deception, and a strong want of revenge for her humiliation. “Hey. Where’d you get that?” She looked visibly alert and worried.

“Oh. Don’t you uh, remember? I shot off some vines with this that made you fa-” She quickly threw a punch at him which luckily missed. “Then I challenge you to a duel! Right here! Right now!” This caught Mitsuna off guard and he quickly dashed backward to give himself some breathing space.

“Woah Woah! I saved you! What’s the big deal?!” He raised his crossbow and went into a defensive stance, but he didn’t want to hurt her even less to fire it at her.

“You humiliated it! Got me caught! Ruined my plans!” As she yelled each phrase, she dashed closer and closer towards Mitsuna trying to land a single punch at him. “If it weren’t for you I could’ve been promoted by now!”

The tight and narrow hallways weren’t giving Mitsuna any other direction to move but back. “Well, I’m sorry I did that alright? I didn’t even mean to shoot those vines off I just missed and pretended I didn’t! Can we talk about this?”

“Oh, you’ll have plenty of time to talk after I win this duel!” She went back and picked up a battle axe from one of the dead guards and began running at Mitsuna while screaming.

“Great! So it’s settled then if I win, we’ll be friends and talk this out!” He said with a cheerful smile as he began running towards her as well. But before he did, he decided to holster his crossbow inside his large satchel as he wanted to deal with her as non-lethal as possible.

Once he was close enough, Tami swung her axe to which Mitsuna easily slid under. She quickly turned around and slashed downwards trying to get a good hit on him but the boy was just a small bit out of reach. He quickly got up and taunted her asking for more which angered her even further. She began blindly hacking slashing in a fit of rage to which Mitsuna managed to easily dodge. Although he can’t keep dodging forever, he needed a plan. He was hesitating on whether or not he should use his crossbow but decided against it. His high dexterity stat can help him dodge her attacks, but he was running out of room to run. He decided to use his emergency plan.

With the small space in between them, he needed a small opening, a way for her to momentarily stop swinging. He pointed to something behind her and said, “Hey! Tami right? Check out that thing behind you!” This was his emergency plan

“Oh please! As if I’d fall for something as-” This short pause of swings was enough for Mitsuna to dash forward and get behind her lightning-fast. “Woah! Guess I’ve been holding back.” He felt a little more confident after seeing what he’s capable of, he then grabbed Tami from the back putting her in a chokehold. It took her little to no effort to get his arms off her thanks to her strength being higher than one. She then turned around while swinging her axe at the same time to which Mitsuna easily dodged as he went behind her again. This time he tried to land a punch to the back of her head which did land, but seemed to be completely ineffective and only angered her further.

Because she’s an archer and not trained to deal with close-quarters combat, Mitsuna would’ve won by now. If he had his old stats on. It seems that he needed a different method of attack, but her axe was starting to get quite annoying so he needed to disarm her first. She tried to hit him with an elbow while he was behind her but a simple sidestep was all that he needed to do. He then got a brilliant idea, he quickly placed his palm on her forehead and based her head against the wall a few times which sure enough knocked her out.

“Glad that’s over with.” He said after sighing in relief. He then remembered about Emanual and how he was supposed to free all the other prisoners. “Wonder if he did it.” He then looked back down to the yet again unconscious Tami. He went back and grabbed the giant health bottle which still had a large amount of liquid in it because there was no way he would be carrying her back. He began to try and awkwardly pour some into her mouth hoping that would fix her possible blunt head trauma. After making her drink a good amount he shook her for a bit hoping that she would wake up and sure enough, she did.

“Wha- What happened?” She slurred while rubbing her head. “You lost the duel. Time to keep your end of the deal.” Hey, eyes then widened. She was in great disbelief. But she knew she had to listen to what Mitsuna requested from her to keep whatever honor she had left. “Th-There’s no way!”

Mitsuna grabbed her arm and pulled her up, “There is a way. There’s always a way. I won, you lost, you’ll get over it.” Tami seemed irritated but a lot less angry than she was earlier thankfully. Mitsuna idly stared at her while waiting for her response. “Alright alright! Fine. What do you want?”

“Be my friend and ally. That’s all I want from you.” He said as he stretched his arm out for her to shake. She didn’t like any of this, but something made her feel like it was something that she should just do. “Fine!” she grabbed his hand with a strong force and shook it. Her grip was so tight Mitsuna feels like he lost a hp point from that alone.

After that whole ordeal, Mitsuna asks Tami to carry the bottle which had around a quarter of liquid left. They went back to where the boy last saw Emanuel, but it seems like he’s long gone, along with all the prisoners there since he saw that all the cells were open. With that in mind, they noticed a few corpses on the ground. These weren’t the ones Mitsuna had killed earlier, and with how they were killed, it didn’t seem like magic was used so it couldn’t have been Emanuel.

“Let’s follow them.” He suggested, to which Tami replied with, “Sure. But be careful. I can’t exactly hit anything with this bottle in my hands.”

So he readies his crossbow yet again and follows the fresh corpses which lead to a staircase to what he could only guess was the exit of the dungeon they are in. They carefully make their way up and open the door only to be greeted with a few scrawny men armed with weapons raised and pointed at him. Behind them were a few more dirty and cuffed people, but one stood out amongst them.

“Ah! Mitsuna! Took you long enough, I was starting to worry you wouldn’t show up. Can you believe it? Turns out a few of these slaves-” One of the people clears their throat and looks at him threateningly. “Er, one of these kind individuals, knows how to fight very well!”

The people surrounding them then proceeded to lower their weapons and one of them approached Mitsuna.

“Hey. You’re part of the rebellion right?”

“Yeah.”

“Count us in.”

“Cool. All of you are free to join! I’ll show you the way. Um actually, where are we first?”

A small child runs up to them carrying a piece of paper.

“We found this map while making our way out. It should come in useful.”

“I sure hope so.” He takes the map from the child and opens it. As he expected, it is a well written and detailed map, unfortunately, he does not know what part of it they are and where the stronghold is.

“Psst. Hey, Tami.” Mitsuna quietly whispered trying to save himself from any embarrassment.

Tami gave the bottle to someone else to free her hands from having to carry it and walked up to him, “Yeah?”

After a quiet exchange of words and a small bit of laughter, Tami expertly shows Mitsuna their current location and the location of the stronghold. It seems like it would take about an hour or two of walking to get back.

Once everyone was ready, they set out on their path back to the base. As they walked, Emanuel asked Mitsuna a few questions like how he acquired such a “skillset”, to which he honestly responded. Tami overheard their conversation and was in awe of Mitsuna’s high dexterity. They managed to easily pass the time with small talks such as these and overall bonded and got closer to one another. As they walked they watched the sun fall but by the time it was dark, they were already back at the entrance of the stronghold.

Mitsuna stood by the door with everyone behind him, a little nervous about whether or not he might get scolded by Ashe for taking too long, or for bringing in more people for them to deal with. He takes a deep breath and knocks on the door. Right as he was about to make contact with it, the door opens and reveals Ashe who looked very different.

“Mitsuna! What took you so long?” She seemed quite surprised and genuinely concerned for him.

“Well, you see-” He begins to go on explaining the events that had happened from how he tripped on a rock to when he managed to get fresh recruits. As he told his story Ashe’s face went from curiosity, to doubt. But after seeing the people behind him, as well as Tami, she stopped doubting him and started believing.

“Come inside, and I mean ALL of you. Especially YOU Mitsuna. We’re gonna talk.” Simply hearing those words placed him in a state of unease and nervousness as they entered the stronghold. The recruits were brought to a barracks room where they were properly equipped, treated, and fed. Emanuel and Tami were told to wait outside the meeting room where Mitsuna along with Joe, Ashe, and Edward is currently in.

Ashe was wearing different clothes, she had a long red coat with yellow and pink details all around it, long red gloves and boots, and a pink padded vest and leggings.

Joe wasn’t wearing his old robe, this time he was wearing a kind of clothing he had never seen before. Almost as if it was transparent. Oh wait, he was just naked. Since he isn’t human, it seemed fine since there wasn’t anything revealing.

Edward was wearing a proper gentleman's outfit. He had a suit and tie, white gloves, all that he was missing was a hat to cover his short greyish hair, maybe a mask to cover his shaved beard since he is a medic, and a cane with a monocle.

Lastly, there was Mitsuna, who looked exactly how he did before just without his armor, mask, or Ezikel clothing.

Joe placed his claws on the table and said, “So. Mitsuna. You accomplished your mission and even got us fresh recruits and converted the spy. Perhaps a reward is in order.”

“Wait, You’re not angry at me?” He seemed a little confused while everyone else laughed at what he said.

“Us? Angry at you? After a splendid job well done?” Edward spoke up.

“I get that we might’ve gotten off to a bad start Mitsuna, but we’re not that bad, we just wanted to see how you’d handle stress and how’d you react to us treating you that way,” Ashe explained.

“Oh. I see. Well, I think I’d like my stats to go back to normal first. Being fast is fun, but it has its disadvantages.”

“See what I mean, this is what I was trying to tell you.”

“Yeah, yeah, spare me the lecture. I thought you said you weren’t that bad.”

“Consider it done.”

“Great! Secondly, what’s with all the new clothes?”

“Today is the last day you’ll get to see the sun shining. Winter starts tomorrow. How about you boy? What happened to the fancy clothing you stole?” Joe blurbed out.

“Well, I sorta lost it.” Mitsuna nervously replied.

“He lost it,” Ashe said, trying to speak for Mitsuna.

“Truly unfortunate, but I’m sure we’ll quickly find you a replacement one in no time,” Edward said.

“Thanks, Edward, I appreciate that.”

“So. Anything else that you’d like?” She asked.

“Yeah. You.” He confidently said with a smirk on his face.

“Eh?” Joe blurted out in a confused manner.

“Eh?” Edward seemed enthusiastic and surprised at the same time.

“EH?” Ashe seemed a little concerned and very, very, concerned.

“I- I mean I wanted you to train me! In magic!” Mitsuna quickly explained.

“Oh. I see.” She quickly became relieved.

“Ah. Alright.” Edward seemed a bit saddened and disappointed.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Joe’s eyes widened a bit making him look a little less threatening.

“Okay, I’ll prepare some basic spells and books for you to use. You’ll begin practicing tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? The day isn’t over yet! Can’t we start today?”

She became a little annoyed at what he said. “Preparing spells and getting books takes time Mitsuna, you’ll have to be patient.”

“But these are BASIC spells Ashe, can’t an amazing mage such as yourself prepare these in an instant?”

“A-amazing- What-” She quietly asked herself. It looks like she’s not used to taking compliments. But she shook her head and snapped out of it and gave in to his request. “You know what, fine! Let’s go. Right, now.” She spoke quickly while walking towards him. She seemed a bit annoyed, but not angry.

“Oh, sweet. Where are we goi-” She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room somewhere else.

While Tami and Emanuel waited outside, they saw Ashe exit the room while pulling Mitsuna to a different part of the base. They stared at them cluelessly before Joe’s head popped out from the door and blurted out, “You can come in now.”

“Hey, where are we going?”

She didn’t say a word and continued to walk while dragging him.

After a few moments of silence and a handful of doors, they find themselves in quite a small room that was being illuminated by two lamps that had what looked like magical white wisps in them. In the room were some potions, a chemistry table, and a LOT of tomes, scrolls, and runes alike. On one side of the room were a blanketed mattress and an empty table and chair. A fine carpet decorated the floor of the room while a small window with metal bars could be found on the top side of one of the walls.

“Woah! Pretty room. I’m guessing this is where we’ll train?” Mitsuna glanced around the room, there wasn’t much to look at so he focused more on the details of the small things.

“You talk too much. Show me your book and sit down.” She took off her coat and threw it onto the mattress while Mitsuna pulled out his Adventurer’s book and sat down on the empty chair.

Ashe grabbed his book and flipped to the page with his stats, afterwards, she placed it on the table and pointed at it with her finger which began to glow blue again. The boy sat there awkwardly while waiting for her to do something, after a few moments of silence she spoke up and said, “Well? What are you waiting for? Go do the thing you did before and revert your stats.”

Unfortunately, the boy couldn’t recall what his original stats were but luckily the old stats he drew over were still there. He tried to make out what they were and once again, replaced his stats with new ones using Ashe’s finger.

[ HP: 75

STR: 70

DEX: 80

MAG: 1

STAM: 85

DEF: 60

Mitsuna Otoko - Adventurer Tier: D

Level: 20

Traits: Determined, Eagle Eyes, Unbelievably Lucky]

Special Ability: Do whatever you are doing, But better and cooler.]

When he finished writing, he tried moving around for a bit to make sure it had work, and sure enough, it did. She then asked him to pick a random tome from the bookcase as she took his place on the chair. Despite it being painfully obvious, Mitsuna was still unsure of what a Tome is and asked her what it was.

Ashe gave him a disappointed look and said in great disbelief, “Really? There is only ONE thing inside that bookshelf. What do you think it is?”

“Ah. Yeah, alright- I got it.” There were various Tomes on the bookcase but it looked like they were all color-coded, on the upper portion contained books whose cover was painted white, in the bottom was black, and in the middle was a mix of blue, red, green, grey, pink, yellow, and purple.

The boy picked the green book. The cover contained the symbol of a leaf. She then instructed him to open it to which he eagerly followed. Inside the Tome contained a set of words and instructions on how to summon and cast spells all related to the environment around them.

As he flipped through the pages, he asked her which spell they would be practicing. If casting a spell with one point in magic was even possible.

“Let’s start with something simple. Magic Missile, every mage knows how to do that so it should be a good start.” Mitsuna gave a nod and flipped to the first page of the book where the instructions on how to cast a magic missile were. It said that for one to cast such a spell, they would first need to harness the energy inside them and draw it out to create a ball of magic in their hand. Once it is ready, the user must release their grasp on it for them to launch the ball and turn it into a missile.

“Looks easy enough.” He raises his left hand while his right holds the tome. Once he was in position, the sudden realization hits him. He has no clue how to draw out his magical energy so he just stands there and suddenly freezes.

“What’s wrong Mitsuna? Changed your mind about training your magic?”

He lowered his hands and responded with, “Well, uh, the book wasn’t exactly clear on how I should draw out my magical energy so, I’m not quite sure what to do.”

“Mhm. As expected.” She got up from her seat and began to instruct Mitsuna. “Okay.” she grabbed his arm and raised it back up. “First, keep your arm up.” she then let go of it and took a step back. “Now, concentrate. The magic inside you feels like your life’s energy, feel it, get a grasp of it, then control it.”

The boy nodded and began to concentrate, he tried to sense the energy that resided inside of him but only felt a small fraction of it, as if there was barely anything. Although for him, it made sense for it to be that way since he had such a low stat. He wasn’t sure how was supposed to take hold of this since it wasn’t exactly a physical object, but somehow he still managed to do so. He just had a feeling of gripping it and with that, he slowly brought it through his arm and onto his hand.

There a sudden green ball appeared he was excited and filled with joy for being able to do actual magic for the first time, but that joy went away once he saw that the ball of magical energy he had made was unusually small. It was smaller than his fingertips. Ashe was already laughing on her sides and making jokes about how small it was but Mitsuna simply shook his head and tried to ignore it. He aimed the missile at her and released his grip on it causing it to launch at her. The ball emits a trail of green light as it flies over to her hitting her in the forehead and dispersing into the air. This however did absolutely nothing to her besides make her laugh even further. Although for Mitsuna, he quickly felt a strong sense of dizziness after casting his first spell. He told Ashe about it and she simply continued to laugh and make fun of his low mana capacity. She joked and told him she had never seen anyone cast such a weak spell while having such a small capacity for mana before, which began to annoy him.

She was supposed to be helping and teaching him, not make fun of him!

It took her a few minutes and a bonk to the head before she could regain her composure and stop laughing. They both agreed that he should attempt to cast it again hoping that it would be stronger and better this time, but to no avail it the results was only the same with the missile being unbelievably weak and Ashe giggling on the side. This time, however, the dizziness he felt earlier became stronger and he began to feel mentally tired forcing him to take a seat on the chair. He asked her if she could explain to him how exactly their training will work and why he feels greatly exhausted after casting the simplest spell twice.

She went on saying that he simply needs to repeatedly cast a few spells enough times for him to gain enough experience to level up his stat in magic, and as for his head, it simply hurt because he was running low on mana. Although according to her he should be able to regain it fairly quickly depending on his connection to the Gods.

“Connection to the Gods? What does that have to do with magic?” He curiously asked.

“Everyone in this world was created by one of the three Gods. Since we came from them, everyone can use magic of sorts. Therefore if you were to praise and worship these Gods they would return the favor by strengthening your magical capabilities. But only to an extent.” She performed hand gestures as she explained.

“Well okay, but who are these Gods?”

“There’s Shynetos, God of most things that are good. Then there’s his brother who is also his polar opposite, Phikmijir. And lastly their mother, Qhizelia.”

“Interesting, and which God do you-” She cut him off before he could finish.

“My family worships Qhizelia but I don’t care.” She spoke a little faster than normal with visible annoyance.

After regaining his lost mana, Mitsuna got up while Ashe took his seat and he got back to work casting magic-missile. After another two attempts, he was already back to sitting on the ground. But something unexpected happened, Ashe simply flicked her wrist at him and said, “Recovery.” in a cool, slick manner, his dizziness and headache immediately went away. “Get back up Mitsuna. We’re barely getting started.”

They began this repetitive cycle of casting and recovering while testing out a few other spells such as “fireball” or “windblow”. By the time an hour has passed Mitsuna’s ball of energy when casting magic-missile had gotten significantly bigger than before. It was now bigger than his finger, but still fairly small. They continued training for an hour more occasionally taking breaks and pauses in the middle of it.

The boy used these breaks to talk and learn more about Ashe. As it turns out, she used to study in a prestigious magic school here in Palvertia. Despite it being a high-class school, she didn’t enjoy her time there since she was being forced to learn support magic because of the God that her family worshipped. So after classes, she would sneak out of school and talk to this stranger that would train her in the magic she wanted to learn. Which happened to be the one that controls and manipulates the elements. When the Great Rebellion occurred there weren’t many support mages around and she happened to excel at it despite not liking it. Since then, she became recognized as one of the best support mages which was how she became one of the leaders.

Once she finished telling her tale, Mitsuna just stared at her in the eyes quietly thinking about all that could have happened in this world while he was comfortably resting in his.

“Hey. Quit your staring and get back to casting.” She raised her hand and released a strong gust of wind that pushed him back.

After a total of three hours of magic, training Mitsuna releases one final missile. It had grown to almost a decent size and as he fired it at Ashe as she was flipping through his book. It did small but decent enough damage for his level.

“You’re getting better. Good job, but that isn’t enough.” She turned the book to him that contained his stats to reveal that he had only leveled up by two to three points.

“What! I spent all that time casting spells only to level up that much?!” The boy exclaimed.

“Quit your whining. It took me a long time to get where I am now so you better be patient if you want to get anywhere near as good as me!” She said as her face was filled with pride.

He let out a groan and simply said “Fine.”

She gave Mitsuna his book back which he returned in his leather satchel. They suddenly heard an audible roar. Although not the roar of a monster, rather it was a roar of a stomach. Mitsuna’s stomach.

“Hey, Ashe? I’m getting hungry.”

“So? Go get yourself some food. I’m not gonna grab it and spoon feed some to you.”

“But the halls are dark.”

“Grab a torch, or try using some light magic.”

“I think I’m out of mana and I don’t think there are any lit torches nearby.”

She raised her hand at him and exclaimed, “Recovery!” Which made the boy quickly feel rejuvenated. “There, now go make a light orb and feed yourself.”

“I don’t know which tome is a light tome.”

She made some gestures with her finger which caused a wind to blow a white tome into her hand which she tossed at Mitsuna who sort-of caught it.

“Okay well, uh- um-”

“I can do this all day Mitsuna. Don’t try me.”

The boy suddenly felt as if a lightbulb had turned on above him. He pointed at her and with a sly grin said, “You still owe me for all the stuff I did today!”

Her eyes widened and she tried to counter him with something but all that came out of her mouth were incomplete words and gibberish. She had no choice but to give in to his wants so she went out of the room and snapped a light orb into existence. As she walked away Mitsuna could hear her angrily mutter something about her being a leader and not some servant.

While waiting for her he laid down in the mattress that was in the room and began to wonder why it was even there in the first place. Could this have been a special prison cell before now converted into a magical training room? All sorts of similar thoughts went through his mind as he waited for Ashe to return.

After a couple of minutes, Ashe returns with a basket of bread in her hand. She doesn’t look too happy but not too angry either. She just seemed a little annoyed by his request. As she entered the boy quickly got up.

“Here. Bread your highness.” She said sarcastically as she dropped the basket onto the table before laying down on the Mattress.

He sat down on the chair and was eager to start eating the bread but he had a better idea. He picked up the other chair in front of the alchemy table and placed it beside his.

“Ashe?”

“What.”

“I got one more request for you.”

“Alright now you’re pushing it. Mitsuna, I’m getting a little tired of-”

“It’s just one last request Ashe, it’s nothing big I swear!”

She sighs before saying, “Alright fine. What is it?”

The boy grabbed a loaf of bread and stretched his arm out to her.

“Eat some bread with me?”

“I-” She looked quite surprised and her cheeks began to get a hint of red. “Jeez, you sure are one of a kind aren’t you?” She says as she got up and grabs the bread that he offered. She sat down beside him and the two began to eat bread. The night was quite cold and it seems that the bread had hardened a bit on the way here, but that wasn’t something simple magic couldn’t fix. As they ate, Ashe began to ask Mitsuna to tell her about himself. How he got here, what his previous world was like, why he was the way he is. All of which he politely and honestly answered. As he explained and told more about himself she listened attentively and was genuinely curious. It didn’t take long before they finished eating. They talked some more after they were done so that the food could be digested properly. Afterward, Ashe said,

“It’s late. You should go get some rest.”

“Indeed I will. Thanks for everything Ashe.” He said as he stood up from his seat.

“It’s no proble- Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” It seems that the boy had stood up only to lie back down and tuck himself in on the mattress there.

“Well, I figured I could sleep here so that I can get back to practicing as soon as I wake up!” The boy looked innocent and sounded honest.

“You can’t sleep here Mitsuna. This is my room!”

“Ohhh. That explains why all this stuff is here.”

There was a short moment of silence.

“Well. Goodnight Ashe!” He said before quickly turning to face the wall and close his eyes.

“Mitsuna!” She yelled. “Don’t make me pull you out of there!”

“But I’m already tucked in all nice and comfy. Can’t this be my last request?” He said in a pleading voice.

“No. And besides, you said eating with you would be your LAST request.”

“Oh. Right.”

The girl pouted her lips and stared down at him from the chair.

“Can’t you just sleep here with me?”

“Wha- No!”

“But I don’t wanna sleep in those barracks with-” He paused for a moment and shook with disgust. “Other people.”

“Well, neither do I. Now get out of there and let me sleep!” She had already walked up to him which let her forcefully pull the blanket off of him.

“But your room is nice!” He said in a whiny voice before pulling the blanket back.

“There’s plenty of other rooms that can be just as nice! Just ask Joe!” She pulled the blanket off of him yet again.

This continued to go on for a short while before Mitsuna grabbed ahold of her arm and pulled her down with him on the bed. He placed his arms around her neck and wrapped his legs around her waist stopping her from moving too much.

“Let go of me!”

“Let me sleep here!”

“Never!”

Ashe struggled to break free of Mitsuna's grip but since his stats were back to normal he was able to keep his grip and eventually tire her out.

“Alright! Alright. Fine. You can sleep here Mitsuna.”

“Yay!” The boy exclaimed, filled with joy. He proceeded to release his grip on her and extend his arms and legs out exposing him completely. Which the angry mage utilized to deliver a powerful elbow to his stomach. He spent a moment in pain on his side facing against the wall while Ashe dusted her hands off before laying down beside him. The mattress was fairly small but since Mitsuna wasn’t a very big person there was enough room so that two of them would fit without it being too cramped.

“Don’t try anything funny now.”

With the flick of her wrist, the wisps disappeared and the light quickly faded and turned into darkness. The only remaining light they had was the moonlight that was barely getting in through the small window. It looked like it began to snow and Mitsuna’s clothing wasn’t appropriate for the season. After a while, he felt his hands turn cold and so did his feet. He tried placing his hands in between his legs or arms but that wasn’t an easy position to sleep in. Soon enough, he started to shiver a little.

With Mitsuna being the only other person in the room, and being right beside him, it was difficult for her not to notice him feeling cold. She hesitated and decided to let him shiver for a while before she sighed a little and turned to him.

“Hey. You cold?”

The boy nodded in response.

She proceeded to wrap one of her arms around his chest and it began to glow a faint red. The boy quickly felt his body heat up and the coldness of the night go away. Although he felt that despite her arm giving him warmth, she was still cold too.

“H-Hey. You probably need warmth too.”

He then turned to her and slowly but awkwardly wrapped one of his arms around her as well. He attempted to give her warmth by using the same magic that she did but instead mixed it up with a different spell. Windblow. Which caused her to get pushed from behind and dig her head into his chest.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t want to-” His voice was tense and nervous. He had no clue what he was doing.

“I-it’s alright. Y-you only wanted to warm me up right? Just try again.”

So, Mitsuna concentrated and began to actually, properly cast the same spell as her and give her warmth.

The two were very comfortable with how they were and slowly, their eyes closed as they went to sleep. Mitsuna was first to fall into slumber but once he did, Ashe felt something wrong happen. He felt his heat up significantly more than he did before even after she removed her arm from him. Not only that but it looks and feels like he turned into stone. The arm he wrapped around her was rock solid and could barely be moved. It didn’t take long for her to quickly realize that he simply had just used a spell called purge. It was a spell that would turn the user into stone while he heated himself to purge any sickness or disease in him. Although it made her wonder just how he did that considering that was a complex spell that she didn’t teach. She simply tried to ignore this and get some rest hugging onto him tightly.

While Mitsuna was peacefully asleep, in his mind he heard a voice say,

“You sure lucked out today Mitsuna.”