Chapter 11 - We meet again

Kenji arrived late at the guild, and there weren't many people around. He headed straight to his room.

Once inside, he checked his inventory to see what level he had reached after Ren defeated the monster—and to look at the new spell he had obtained from it.

Level 18? Wow... I wonder what should I tell Akarui after he sees this. Should I say I defeated the monster or tell him the truth of what happened yesterday?"

Kenji wasn't sure what to do, so he decided to ask Ren whether it was okay to tell Akarui the truth.

"Hey Ren, about you... that you can control bodies and turn into a human—should I keep it a secret or tell someone?" Kenji asked, curious.

He wasn't sure it was okay to tell Akarui the truth, since it was pretty unusual for a sword to have powers like that.

"No, don't tell anyone for now," Ren replied, a bit nervous. "I don't want anyone to know. You're lucky I told you."

Ren didn't want to share his secret with anyone unless he truly trusted them because it was risky.

"Yeah, sure. I won't tell anyone, then," Kenji replied softly.

He continued looking through his inventory, still wondering how to explain the situation to Akarui.

"Wind slash? Thats an interesting spell I got. I wonder how much damige it can actually do."

Kenji wanted to test the spell, but he didn't have much time. He decided to try it later.

He had no plans to take on a quest today—he was still exhausted from what had happened yesterday at the dark forest.

Because Ren defeated the monster that was level 30 he got 1,800 dollars, so he didn't need to rush into another job any time soon.

"Hey Ren, I forgot to ask—didn't you say you can turn into a human for four hours a day? Can you transform now?"

"Yeah, sure," Ren replied. "But I have to be careful. Once the time runs out, I'll need to hide somewhere and change back into a sword."

A moment later, Ren transformed. The sword vanished, replaced by his human form.

Ren's real body had white hair and deep red eyes.

Kenji was kinda surprised after seeing him transform into a human. He didn't believe it was that easy for him to transform.

"It's kind of hard for me when I'm human," Ren said. "I can never fully relax since I'm on a time limit."

"I see... So you just have to be careful, right? Do we stay here or leave the room?" Kenji asked.

"No need to stay here. We can leave," Ren replied. He didn't want to stay in one place too long.

Kenji decided to head to the guild hall to find Akarui and finally repay him, now that he had the money he needed.

They walked into the hall and spotted Akarui looking at the quest board and headed to talk to him.

"Hi, Akarui," Kenji called as he approached.

"Oh, hey Kenji! Is this a friend of yours?" Akarui asked, turning around and glancing at Ren curiously.

"Yeah, this is Ren. I just met him recently—he's a good guy," Kenji said quickly.

Akarui smiled, he was happy to see that Kenji was making new friends and fitting in with the guild.

"I'm Akarui. Nice to meet you, Ren. I hope we can be friends," he said warmly.

"Nice to meet you too, Akarui," Ren replied.

Kenji didn't want to delay. He came to repay Akarui as soon as possible, so he wouldn't have it on his mind.

"I came to repay you for helping me the other day. I earned a lot of money from a quest yesterday," he said.

"Oh, okay! And Kenji, how did you get to level 18? You were only level 5 last time I checked. How did you level up so fast?" Akarui asked, clearly shocked.

Kenji froze. He hadn't thought about what to say. After a moment of silence, he made up a story.

"I went on a quest with some people I met yesterday. They wanted to fight a level 30 monster, and I helped. They did most of the work, but I landed the final blow, so I got the credit…"

He wasn't sure if Akarui would believe the story he made but it was the best he could come up with on the spot.

"Oh, is that so? Okay then," Akarui replied with a smile.

Kenji couldn't tell whether Akarui believed him or not, but after handing over the repayment,

"I'll be going to my room, bye!" Kenji said while walking away.

"Yea, bye Kenji and Ren see you later!" Akarui said with a smile.

Akarui left the guild with a quest he had taken from the board.

Kenji glanced back at the board—and saw someone he didn't expect.

Elize.

Wait... Isn't she the girl I meet at the forest? What's she doing here at the guild?

Kenji walked up to her.

"Hi, Elize. Do you remember me? We met in the forest once," Kenji said.

"Oh, hi Kenji! Yeah, I remember. So you're in this guild?" Elize responded.

"Yeah. By the way I wanted to ask—did you ever find what you were looking for that day in the forest?"

"No, I still haven't. I joined this guild hoping I'd find it after doing some quests in the forest…"

Kenji was curious what she could possibly be searching for all this time, but since she didn't tell him, he decided not to ask again.

"Alright then, see you later. Bye!" Kenji said, turning away.

"Bye, Kenji," Elize replied, waving.

Kenji returned to his room. He didn't have anything planned, so he decided to finally test the new spell.

He headed to the forest with Ren where he usually trained and tried out new abilities.

Ren sat nearby, watching him.

"Wind Slash!"

A powerful blast of wind shot forward, cutting down all the trees in its path. Dozens of them crashed to the ground.

Wow... So many trees… I thought it'd cut only one. Kenji stood there, stunned.

After testing the spell, he headed back to the guild with Ren and when to him room.

Tomorrow, he planned to get even stronger.