Chapter IV

That day I had woken up suddenly without understanding why. I looked around the room and remembered that I was at the inn in the village we had come to yesterday. I could see out the window that it seemed to be noon already, I slept more than I expected again. I wondered if Jeanne had managed to get the supposed information.

That made me remember what happened last night and I felt frustrated. I wanted to deny it but I knew I couldn't, despite understanding my own weakness having just arrived in this world I couldn't bear to be like this.

Jeanne had also gained levels yesterday and, if she did end up joining me, I couldn't let myself be overcome so easily so I would take advantage of this mission against bandits to get all kinds of new weapons with whatever they had in their camp. With that determination I got ready to leave the room and... look for food after hearing my stomach growl.

On my way down I could see the inn a bit empty but I guessed that was normal, although I didn't get a good look at the town when I arrived yesterday. While I was eating the innkeeper informed me that Jeanne was talking to the person who placed the ad to deal with the bandits. According to him they had not yet been attacked but it could happen at any time when they thought they had a chance, he had asked me to make sure such a tragedy did not happen.

Paying for the food I left the inn to go and look for Jeanne. On my way I saw that the town seemed to be quite quiet, many working on something and others just hanging out, it didn't seem to be a town being threatened by bandits. I quickly got to the place, asking directions along the way, and found the supposed gentleman who would give us the information chopping wood with Jeanne nowhere in sight. I caught his attention as I approached.

"Ah, you're the girl's partner, aren't you?" he said "She went out to look for those damn bandits after I told her where their base was, she asked me to tell you to wait for her. And she's right, you could get lost without knowing the place."

"Great," I sighed "and I wouldn't have much to do. Can you tell me what you know so I know what's going on?"

"Sure, but take that axe over there and help me chop wood."

I felt my face twitch at that, "don't get angry" I said to myself, so I took the axe nearby, lying on a log, and started chopping the wood nearby. I found it curious that he didn't ask me to use my axe, I had it on my back as usual after all, but I wouldn't complain about that.

"To begin with it was a merchant with a group of adventurers who warned us," he said, summing up his work "they had been attacked, nothing serious as they fled before they got a good look at them apparently, but their warning was enough for us to be alert."

"Ah, that reminds me, we saw a carriage that was attacked on the road, did Jeanne tell you about that?"

"Yes, he stopped by to buy some things, unfortunate what happened to him." He shook his head before continuing "Moving on, it was one of our hunters who found what appeared to be a camping spot for them quite close to town. It was after that that we decided to put the mission to the guild. Your partner said she would go there after asking the hunter."

After helping him for a while longer, while he told me about the town, I went in the general direction Jeanne had gone. I decided to put some points I gained from yesterday's levels to improve my magic, both for attack and defense, I had a feeling that my magic was much weaker than it should be, and it wasn't until we got on the road last night that I realized my magic power was almost depleted even with how little I used it.

I also checked out the new weapon, which of course I copied as I cut the wood, along with its color variations. Although its variations didn't give much more than an improvement its base form gave me something truly unexpected.

[Lumberjack axe.

Abilities locked: equipment bonus: carpentry 2, skill "Air Strike Cleaver".]

I had received my first skill from a simple lumberjack axe, though with the levels I had raised the day before... did it mean I got the skill for reaching this level? Be that as it may, it was a weapon I had to master as soon as possible, plus I should practice with such a skill when I had the opportunity. The opportunity presented itself when I saw Jeanne's arrival.

After a quick catch up conversation she told me that she found the supposed campsite, now with nothing there obviously, but that she thinks she found a clue to their camp that we could investigate. So, after joining her for lunch and some rest, we were on our way. When we were already far away from the village I decided to try the skill.

"'Skill'? What is that?" Jeanne asked. I didn't blame her, no one besides heroes could use skills after all.

"Take a good look." I said switching the weapon to Lumberjack Axe "Air Strike Cleaver!"

The gem on the weapon glowed, activating the skill. I swung the axe towards some trees and out of it came what appeared to be an energy slash, which left considerable damage on the tree once it had impacted.

"That looked like the wind blade I showed you yesterday but there was no magic involved." Jeanne was very serious about trying to understand the skill "It didn't even look like wind to begin with, how does that work?"

"Think of it as a power that the weapon lets you use, one of the ways to know who is a hero, although I suppose if someone as knowledgeable as you didn't know the common people might mistake it as magic."

"Yeah but," she changed from that serious attitude to her usual attitude almost in an instant "with that you have something to help you against the bandits, good for you dude."

This last she said, patting me on the shoulder. The comment made me get a little irritated, why should I care about some simple bandits? With or without skills it wouldn't make a difference. But I couldn't be thinking about it when we had work to do, so I ignored it and followed Jeanne to the camp.

When we arrived I realized that we were dealing with some pretty idiotic bandits, the place was in a deplorable state, they didn't bother to fix anything to cover their tracks. Even without being an expert at finding clues I could guess where they had gone. Even Jeanne seemed disappointed.

We had followed the tracks for a while, marking our way a bit, and returned when it looked like it would start to get dark. Aside from a couple of monsters we encountered no problems fortunately, arriving in town before dark.

"Jeanne," I caught her attention as we were finishing dinner at the inn "in the morning we can discuss whatever plans you have, you'd better go to bed."

"Yes, right." She yawned after answering, stretching at the same time. "I'll see you tomorrow."

With that she got up and went to her room. I stayed up drinking some more, I had woken up pretty late today after all. I looked around for something to entertain myself with when I saw what appeared to be a guard drinking at the counter, so I decided to approach him and have some conversation.

"Finally resting from a hard day?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

"Yeah, I'm still not used to being out in the sun for so long."

That guy was really stressed out, he immediately started complaining about his work. But it was quite entertaining to listen to him complain, mostly because, after drinking even more beer, he also complained about how his love interest wasn't paying attention to him these days. I found it curious that he didn't mention the waves but I wouldn't ruin his night with more trouble by mentioning it.

"And not only that! With those bandits coming out of nowhere we have to be watching even more, I'm even starting to want to become an adventurer."

"And what do you know about the bandits?" I asked to get some information.

"Well, not much but…" he turned to look around before bending down a bit towards me whispering the rest "I heard that the leader is quite powerful, wearing big armor and all that."

It wasn't unexpected information but I still thanked him, it was something to keep in mind for tomorrow. Saying goodbye to him I went up to my room, I was already starting to feel the effects of the beer, and got ready to sleep.

****

It was just dawn when I woke up the next morning allowing me to take my time to get ready and eat while waiting for Jeanne. Unfortunately there was nowhere for me to get cleaned up properly at this inn so I had to wait until I got back to town or found a river on the way. When Jeanne came down we started to make a plan to deal with the bandits.

"We already have a route to follow but how do we make sure we don't waste time looking for the bandits? I must admit that I am not good at doing such a thing." I asked while we were eating.

"Don't worry, I already have an idea of where we can keep looking. At best we'll find them in the afternoon and we'll have to get back here, but I doubt it."

"Well," I said, getting up when we finished eating "we better hurry up, we'll deal with those bandits easily."

Jeanne got up to lead the way, although I couldn't help seeing the strange look she gave me. We got some supplies that I would keep in the inventory when we were far from town and we were on our way.

The search didn't have much to note except for a couple of monsters that showed up, but we dealt with them easily. In the meantime I was checking my weapons.

[Lumberjack axe.

Abilities unlocked: equipment bonus: carpentry 2, skill "Air Strike Cleaver"]

I had left this weapon overnight and it paid off, and to make sure, I switched to one of the color variations of the Steel Axe, to master it on the road, and tried the skill I got from the Lumberjack Axe. Another weapon I checked out was the Great Steel Axe. As I would expect from such an axe, it sacrificed mobility for attack, I focused so much yesterday on the new skill that I didn't master it and now it would be too much of a hindrance to do so.

After making sure what weapons I would use we continued the search. It wasn't until after noon that we found the camp.

"Motherfuckers."

"What?" I asked at her sudden anger.

"I know a way we could have found them faster, we circled around a lot." She exhaled a tired sigh. "Well, no use complaining now."

We approached and Jeanne explained to me that this used to be a guard tower here, for some reason, but since its abandonment it had been uninhabited.

"It's not a good place to use to begin with, you need a good group to deal with any approaching monsters and it's relatively far from water sources. It's strange in that sense, as if they built it without having those problems in mind."

There were fences around it, though they were old, and there was what looked like a shack next to the tower with some of the said bandits outside of it pulling stuff out of a cart.

"Surely they just got back from stealing that, if we had found them earlier they'd catch us by surprise when they saw us rampaging through their camp." I commented.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jeanne shifted her attention to the pair of bandits posted at the fence gate, a bit away from the others. "We have four with the wagon, one at the entrance to the tower and those two, let's say inside the shack there are two others just like in the tower, we would be dealing with nine, not counting the leader.

I was not an expert but I thought that in that situation the best thing to do was to deal with them quickly, starting with those at the gate. And it seemed that Jeanne agreed with me.

"Here's what we'll do, I'll use a spell to hide and go around those two, you'll get their attention and separate them. Agreed?"

"Sure. And here," I said, taking out the knife of the bandit from the other time "it can be useful for you."

"And you?"

"The weapon will get jealous, it won't let me use other weapons."

Snorting at that she took the knife and began to move, me following her. Taking cover as we approached Jeanne recited her spell.

"I am the source of all power, listen to my words and understand them! Hide me from my enemies! Winds of mirage First!"

With that Jeanne hid herself, if she hadn't warned me that she would start moving I wouldn't have noticed. I waited a moment looking for something to call their attention, I decided to use some magic and make a noise loud enough so that only they would hear it.

"Huh? What was that?"

"Surely some Usapil is around, go catch it to eat something, I couldn't fill myself with what they gave us."

From their words they seemed to be at the bottom of the group, but that didn't matter, the important thing is that it worked and one of them was coming. I made sure to switch the weapon to the Tomahawk, I was going to need the agility boost. This felt like those video games I used to play.

Glancing around I watched as Jeanne appeared behind the remaining bandit, covered his mouth and stabbed him with the knife I had given her. Of course that wasn't enough to not draw the attention of the first bandit, who turned around in surprise. I had already started to move so, before he could scream to alert those inside, I covered his mouth and cut his neck with the axe. I ignored the experience notifications, it wouldn't do me much good now.

"Okay," said Jeanne, approaching "we'll take care of the bodies later, just hide them for now."

I nodded and absorbed the bandits. Doing it already with the semi-humans yesterday this solution seemed the most sensible, beside that with both bodies I unlocked a series of weapons that served just like the semi-humans, but they were details for later.

Once done we quietly entered the camp and looked for a position to keep watching, finding one near the hut. The bandits were checking whatever they had found in the wagons with one of them moving the filolial to another location. We saw a bandit coming out of the shack just as the one at the entrance to the tower simply walked in closing the door.

"Do you think you can kill a couple of them with your magic?" I asked

"We would draw too much attention, we have to be careful with the leader."

"That's the point, we have to kill them as quickly as possible."

"Yes, but we have to do it carefully, we don't have to hurry." She almost sounded exasperated.

"We can't stay here all afternoon."

"Yes, we can and we must if we want to end up alive."

I couldn't understand why she wanted to waste so much time, they were just bandits, we could deal with them easily. I was starting to feel a little angry at her stubbornness that I started to use my magic in the area where the bandits were without them noticing.

"Just look at them, they're vulnerable enough not to take advantage of it." With that I moved to get closer to them.

"Wait! - said Jeanne following me."

Making sure I was hidden I positioned myself so that I could attack them by surprise. Taking position I activated my magic making a couple of stalagmites come out of the ground, just below the pair of bandits that seemed weaker managing to pierce only one of them just throwing the other, although he seems to got damage. With that I ran towards the group.

"You idiot!" I heard Jeanne scream, but from the footsteps it seemed she was following me.

"What the fuck!" exclaimed one of the bandits, which I attacked with the steel axe I switched to earlier, doing serious damage to his shoulder.

I pulled out the guy's axe and intercepted the other one who after recovering from the shock came straight at me. I deflected his sword and kicked him in the chest knocking him to the ground. I rushed to stand next to him to attack him and hit him in the skull, killing him instantly. But my satisfaction for a "good plan" did not last long because I felt someone behind me and, although I managed to jump forward, I felt a cut on my back that went through my armor.

I did not understand why I had received such damage, they were simple bandits I was dealing with. It was a whimper that brought me out of my short trance. I could see as I turned around that it was Jeanne killing the bandit that had attacked me, and she didn't look happy at all.

"Imbecile!!!" She shouted coming closer "What got into your head?! You didn't even think about how to deal with the one that got away! You almost got yourself killed!"

"That's why I told you the plan!"

"What plan?! You just ran like an idiot!"

I was getting angry at that moment, we could deal with this scum easily, why didn't she understand? As I was thinking that we heard the door to the tower burst open with three men coming out, two with the same equipment as the others while the third had on a metal armor that although it didn't seem to be of good quality it did seem to protect him well.

"Bastards!" roared the leader "How dare you come here!"

He sent his two men after us, I didn't ignore their names, they were not important. The important thing was to deal with them quickly.

"Wind blade Zweite!! shouted Jeanne, firing her magic, so I decided to attack as well.

"Air Strike Cleaver!" Both attacks hit the bandits' chests, and although it didn't seem to have killed them they were on the ground screaming from the pain.

"Aaahhh!" shouted the leader as he lunged at us, pulling out a greatsword he had on his back.

Jeanne leapt backward to avoid the swinging sword, me joining in as well. I ran to turn him around and get his attention but he ignored me, he decided to go straight for Jeanne. That had made me quite angry and in that anger I attacked again.

"Air Strike Cleaver!" The attack managed to make a cut in the armor but not hurt him, but fortunately I made him lose his balance for a moment and when he regained it he turned to me angrily. I was the angry one!

I saw Jeanne recite a spell aiming at the tip of her spear. I didn't know what she was up to but the best thing to do was to distract the leader, so casting a quick spell I fired a couple of stone stakes at him as I ran towards him. But there was a problem, the guy ignored both stakes hitting his armor and pulled out a knife which he immediately threw at me!

Due to my surprise, and the fact that the knife was coming faster than my stakes, I could only dart to the side hoping to dodge it, failing in the attempt. The knife buried itself in my left shoulder causing me to stop for a moment in pain. Fortunately I could still use my arm but it was very limited.

When I saw the leader attack me from above with his sword I put all my effort into ducking to the side to avoid him, that attack would surely kill me. I took advantage of the opening in his attack to throw mine, the adrenaline of the moment helped me deal with the pain in my shoulder.

"Air Strike Cleaver!" The skill impacted his chest damaging his armor in the process and letting Jeanne get close to attack him as she finished her spell.

"Haa!" She attacked the unprotected parts on his legs with great speed, due to the spell she had used, causing the leader to fall to the ground.

Approaching again I pushed the bandit, doing the same with his weapon. I switched my weapon to the Great steel axe and, using my remaining strength, attacked the bandit. My intention was to kill him quickly by hitting his head but I ended up deflecting by hitting him in the part of armor I had damaged earlier. I did clear damage from the groans of pain the guy let out, but to make sure I attacked again this time hitting him in the head, and he still seemed to be alive. It wasn't until Jeanne pierced an uncovered part of his neck that the bandit finally died.

I allowed myself to relax at that point, it had been short lived this whole fight but it had left me exhausted anyway. But when I was about to remove the knife from my shoulder I received a blow to the head that knocked me to the ground and left me disoriented for a second.

"Are you out of your mind, you idiot?"

"What? What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked angrily.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?! Do you have any idea how many times you almost died?!"

"Don't exaggerate!" I answered getting up "They were just bandits, the trouble was only the leader."

"Oh yeah? You're still denying it?"

I was lucky to react in time because I blocked the blow Jeanne tried to give me. I switched to the magic steel axe, what was wrong with her, why was she so angry? I tried to ask her but she answered me before I even did.

"I'm going to fix whatever problem you have in there. And if you still don't understand I'll make sure another hero shows up."

"Air Strike Cleaver!" I shouted my attack jumping back but Jeanne easily dodged it by throwing her magic at me instead. I just realized I was running out of SP.

"Wind Blade First!"

I couldn't dodge it so I received it with my axe, but Jeanne took advantage of that to get closer and start throwing thrusts, which I had to put quite a bit of effort into dodging.

"Seriously, stop it already!"

"Not until I'm sure you're fixed! I know a problem when I see one."

At that point I had figured out what the problem was with me, but I refused to accept it. I guess it was my stupid pride as usual. Of course that irritated me so I took an opportunity to launch an attack that she narrowly dodged, making a wound on her face, but which I followed up with a kick to push her away.

I took advantage of the moment to take the knife from my shoulder but without realizing it I intended to use it as a weapon, causing it to receive an electric shock and throwing the knife. Jeanne recovered quickly and took advantage of my situation to give me a couple of blows and throw me to the ground, making sure to put me face down and restrain me as if I were a child.

"Okay, now tell me, what the fuck is your problem?"

"What problem?" I responded with a question after my attempt to free myself was futile.

"It already seemed strange to me that you were so calm on your first day here, if not with your behavior today contradicting all your behavior these days is more than enough to know that you have a problem."

It was there that I could no longer deny it inside me, my pride was coming out in strange moments and it was causing me problems, I shoul have admitted that my supposed "plan" to finish with the bandits was stupid. And it all came down to one thing.

"I don't want to fail again…" I replied "I know I'm weak right now, even if my weapon gives me an advantage over those of higher level, but I can't handle this feeling of weakness. If I already failed once by being strong, how could I manage to accomplish my goals if I don't demand more from myself?"

"And what is that goal?" she asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Right now? To prevent this world from being destroyed by the waves. I already tried once, I don't want to waste this second chance."

In retrospect it was strange what I was doing, telling my fears to someone I had only known for days, but, whether it was fate or coincidence, I felt I could trust her.

"I see... I think I understand the problem." Saying that she stood up while reciting a spell "Healing Breeze Zweite."

"Huh?" I could feel my body recovering as I turned around to see her. "What do you mean?"

"Your problem is that your doubts are in conflict with something else, but knowing what else doesn't interest me, what interests me is that you stand firm." She crossed her arms showing confidence. "I won't say something as corny as you need the power of friendship but you do need a partner, and as your partner I'll be sure to fix you with blows if you get twisted this way again even if you come to hate it. You won't get rid of me that easily."

I was stunned by what she said, out of nowhere she pulled out a speech that for some reason had made me feel relieved. But I still couldn't help but burst out laughing with Jeanne joining in immediately.

"Is this some kind of trashy novel? We haven't even known each other that long." I said with a chuckle.

"Right? I never imagined I'd be in this position."

I got up from the floor when I had laughed enough. I extended my fist towards her when we were face to face.

"Well, I'm counting on you from now on, partner."

"Ha! Of course you are," she replied fist-bumping me "who better than me for that?"

Shaking my head I turned my attention to everything around, we made our scene in a rather questionable place after all.

"And now to work on this."

"Yes. You get the bodies, along with the ones you stored, and go dump them in one place. Once we get enough valuables we're going to burn the bodies, luckily we have a few to bring back for the villagers. This way they confirm the mission while we're at it."

"Sure, sure, I'm coming boss." I saw that she had not healed herself and at that moment I remembered that Jeanne could be empty of magical power, so I passed her the potion I had found the other night in the bandit.

"Oh thank you, now get to work!"

Laughing a little, I went to do it. My life in this world would be more enjoyable from that day on.