Quest for Hikari - Episode 6: Level UP! Time to mess with the Mysterious Ninja!

[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]

Afternoon, 2:01:21 PM, May 15

That's what my wristwatch is telling me.

Walking through the crowds of people, I searched for a level shop. After all, people don't level up naturally, they have to visit a Level Shop or have a personal Level God that would allow them to Level Up.

If you level up naturally, it means you're training hard unlike me who SOMEHOW just doesn't level up by training. How is that possible?!

I didn't really have much to do as I forgot how to use/utilize my strongest techniques or my best spells just by having my Level reset to 1.

Tch.... Shitty level-draining monsters... I was just unlucky to encounter a hundred of them at the same time.... I just escaped in time using magic before they could also drain more of my EXP, too.

Whatever, I have just arrived at the Level Shop, "Fujisaki Levels" and it seems like nobody is here yet, so I sat on one of the chairs in front of a table that has a crystal

I took off my backpack and decided to take out three of the Smoke Grenades I have created, and juggled the three of them to spend some time. Don't worry about them being wasted, I have a lot of them at the basement of my home, aka. the place where I don't want Sill Plain to discover.

After a while, I sensed a person approaching this shop as I put the smoke grenades inside my backpack just before that person opened the door and entered the shop.

With a long and smooth red hair and a slim figure, she's an attractive and alluring woman that would make her popular. She dresses in a nearly divine fashion, boasting a long dark-purple dress, and a a long necklace around her neck. Obviously, she wore earmuffs that looked really out of place.

"Have you been waiting here for a while now? I had to take a short break before I came back, so I am deeply sorry for your inconvenience." The woman said as she approached the seat opposite of mine and sat down.

"That doesn't really matter now. After all, I need to get my levels back up as some monsters driven them down back to 1."

Once I said that, the woman looked at me with concern, not to me, but to my levels.

"You must be unlucky to have encountered such monsters. Anyway, I am Willis Fujisaki, a Level God and owner of this shop."

After a while of explanation, she began her own Level Up ceremony.

.... Leveling up felt refreshing, though I had to ask her to do the ceremony again for around 30 times, meaning that I spend a few minutes asking her to increase my level, despite her curious looks towards me.

After that, I left the shop.

[ Rance has Levelled Up to: Level 31! ]

[ Rance's Lifeforce and Mana Pool increased! ]

[ His overall stats have greatly increased! ]

[ Elemental Affinity Increased! ]

[ Rance has lost 12,530 EXP ]

Hmmm...

"Now where to go...?"

I decided to go to the Bistro. Unless I meet that violet haired girl again-

Oh, there she is, waiting for someone while I was going north.

Once she noticed me, the girl waved at me.

"Hm.... now what does she want?" I asked, approaching her.

"Uh.... erm.... will you go for a date with me?" She suddenly asked, as I stared at her blankly and turned around. She's acting amateurish for a kunoichi.

"Be more seductive." I bluntly replied towards her direction.

"..... Wait! I'm not experienced enough, Mr. Adventurer! B-But can we meet at the park a-at night?"

... Well that's a red flag.

Still taking the flag because I wanted to mess with that ninja real good. Maybe I could use the thousand years of pain technique to her.

".... Fine, fine...." After this, she walked away.

... she's better than an amateur.

[ Later.... ]

[ PoV Change ]

At middle of the Leazas Central Park at night, Rance was observing his surroundings while he tapped his foot on the ground. There was practically nobody here other than him. The redheaded vagrant was gone, and the sound of water from a nearby fountain can be heard.

While he waited, he took out a flashbang from his backpack, before letting his guard down by doing absolutely nothing.

In the foliage near him, one Mysterious Ninja observed Rance.

"Although he's waiting for someone, why is he holding a strange thing on his hand?" This Mysterious Ninja said as she skeptically glared at him.

She has two options: Threaten him to stop trying to look for Hikari mi Blanc, or Warn him directly. Either way, she expects him to take her threats seriously.

Having no other choice, she decided to jump from the foliage that she had hid herself from eyesight and towards Rance, only for him to toss his flashbang towards her.

Reacting quickly, she tried to cut the flashbang, only for it to explode with a loud bang and a blinding light that disorients her entirely.

..... And then her face met the grassy ground and made her eat grass and dirt which she quickly spat out.

'... What was that?!' She thought, shaking her head as when she began gaining her bearings, Rance suddenly was behind her with a creepy grin.

His two hands were clasped together, forming a tiger handseal pointed directly towards her ass. Also, it seems like she could barely move the moment she saw him grinning. What is he even going to do with that?

"Hey, amateur. Why the heck are you even stalking me, anyways? Is it about me investigating the disappearance of Hikari mi Blanc? It seems like you need a lot of training before you meet me again, Kentou-chan...." He said with a low chuckle at the end, gaining a reaction of shock from the Mysterious Ninja.

The Mysterious Ninja, no, Kentou immediately leaped out of Rance before he could use a close range paralysis magic on her.

She had finished gaining her bearings as she glared at Rance with her tanto unsheathed and ready to kill.

'This is bad, he's already pointing me out as one of the suspects. I really have no other choice but to kill him!' Kentou thought before immediately unhesitatingly charged towards Rance, who she thought has no time to use his weapons.

[ Cue BGM: They Come, They're Dead (R 01) ]

Until he displaced his knife from his backpack, and clashed weapons with the kunoichi.

He was unnaturally calm, as he waved his hand that has his knife around to parry each and every strike Kentou threw around.

Although to be honest, she's almost as fast as him even if he's a few levels higher than her.

However.... Kentou was slowly becoming more annoyed by him due to the fact that he wasn't even taking her seriously of all places.

She cannot fail this, she needs to be faster, she has to push herself.

Therefore, she has to focus.

Suddenly leaping faster than she normally could, Rance was suddenly cut on his side, forcing him to be a little more serious as he saw the afterimage of Kentou behind him before swiftly grasping her arm when she passed by to strike and then used her momentum to flip her upwards.

He then kicked her like a soccer ball with just enough force to probably break a rib or two as she skidded to the grassy ground.

Kentou groaned as she stood up, holding the part where she was kicked, aka. her lower left rib.

And yet he remained still in that position with a grin, tracing his finger on his wound and healing it completely without much problem using magic.

"What? You think I'd just stand here? Scram, weakling. As I said, come back when you are stronger." Rance said, as he began approaching Kentou.

Having no other choice, the kunoichi used a smoke bomb and escaped wordlessly.

[ BGM End ]

Once the smoke cleared, Rance nodded.

"That was just a part of my plan. Giving her a motivation to get me harder should work, hopefully."

And then, he made way towards Rock Candy to sleep.

[ ~ Chapter • End ~ ]

Any thoughts to share? It might help me get this fanfiction's quality up a little.

Also,

Kentou (Mysterious Ninja) -