Meanwhile during the battle of the
"GAAAHHH!!!!"
A young knight in armor screams as he found himself being flung into the field. As he tries to get up, a young teenage [Elf] in a black robe stares at him with his eyes narrowed, frowning at the sight of his friend being thrown away. He turns to see several large slimes slither towards his direction and sighed in dismay over his friend's sudden fall.
"Seriously, Zac?" he groaned as he slowly backs away from the monsters. "I thought you said you could handle a few slimes."
"Y-Yeah I did! I-It's just that... I've been out of shape after days of studying offline, okay?!" Zac muttered as he got to his feet and raises his sword. "And I told you,
"I know. But I admit, it's still kind of oxymoronic to call you that, even in this virtual reality game."
Arthur frowns in response to his friend's teasing. However, he quickly turns his attention to the slimes as they blast a large water ball towards Razul, which he quickly dodges with a sidestep before he drew his gun-like weapon from his robe.
"Okay, enough bickering. Do you even know how to beat those things?!"
Razul quickly aims his weapon at one of the slimes and fires off several energy bullets towards it, which causes it to explode in a blast of blue liquid. However, it quickly regenerates itself as it split into two more slimes, albeit a bit smaller than the others, much to his dismay.
"I don't know! Wind’s usually the one who identifies monsters with his [Hunting] skills and of all days, he had to ditch both of us just so he can explore that crazy forest with his brother alone!" Arthur complained as he charges in at a group of slimes attacking Razul. But when he tries to stab one of them, his long sword just went through its serious body, trapping its blade in the process. "W-What the hell?!"
He tries to pull his sword out of the slime, but to no avail. In response, it quickly stretches several parts of its body and formed a long whip, and lashed out at the young knight.
"Idiot! Try paying attention to your surroundings!"
Shifting his aim towards the slime stuck onto the panicking knight, the gears on the side of Razul’s weapon starts to turn as blue energy began to form inside the barrel.
"Energy waving throughout the elements around me. Gather to me and create a force to use against my enemies."
He then pulls the trigger, which releases the gathered energy from the weapon's barrel.
"[Mana Blast]."
The energy shifts into a large energy bullet as it pierces through the slime, causing it to explode into the liquid as it released Arthur's blade. However, it also causes him to be covered by the slime's remains in the process.
"Dude! Warn a guy next time!"
Razul sighs in response and said, "If you hadn't moved in time, you would’ve ended up as a victim of friendly-fire. And even if I hadn't tried to shoot it, you’d have ended up as part of that slime's diet anyway."
"Still, try to warn me next time!"
Just as they continue, the remaining slimes began to advance on the boys.
"Forget that, Osborne. How about we focus on what's in front of us first? Like trying to disable their division abilities?"
"How should I know how to do that? And I told you, call me Arthur in here!" The young knight shouted in annoyance.
"Whatever! You said yourself that the Palmer boys aren't here, so you're the only one who knows how this game works."
Arthur quickly takes one step back away from Razul in shock. "W-Well... Do you remember those monster-collecting games? Maybe you can use some sort of [Thunder] spell to eliminate them."
"And what makes you so sure that plan will work?" The young [Elf] asked as he takes a few steps away from the advancing slimes.
"Hey, you told me to come up with a way to stop their ability to divide! I'm a knight who rushes headfirst into battle, not a miracle strategist!"
"I had to ask..." Razul sighed before turning his attention back to the monsters. "But still, it might be our only shot to stop these monstrous gelatin creatures."
Without any hesitation, he aims his gun at the slimes and started to chant once more as the barrel began gathering yellow energy around him.
“Spirits of thunder, hear my call. Help me gather your power and mold them into bolts which I can smite my foes! Target the ones who will oppose my path and scatter them all to dust."
As he continues his incantation, Arthur begins to back away and prepares a fighting stance as his sword begins to glow.
"[Lightning Scatter]."
With one pull of a trigger, the gun releases a large bolt of electricity, which flew towards the sky above the monsters, and before they can act, scatters into several small bolts of electricity, which rained down on the horde of slimes. This electrocutes them before making them explode in blasts of blue liquid. But unlike last time, the remains disappear in bright white light and left behind several items and [Lapi] gem coins on the ground. The sight of this causes the young knight to drop his sword as his jaw dropped in shock.
"Huh. What do you know? Your silly suggestion did work after all."
However, his shocked expression turns into frustration as Arthur pouts at this outcome.
"Seriously?! I didn't even get to kill one measly slime!"
----------------------------------------
After the battle, the boys picked up the dropped items before they head back to
"Man, it would be a lot easier if Wind was around to join us in killing monsters for more [EXP]," Arthur muttered. "My [Swordsmanship Mastery] is almost at Level 20 and he's usually the one who makes up some crazy plan to get us out of any sticky situation."
"You know him. He's never the type to abandon his little brother for his plans, and even if we ask him, I doubt he’d like being treated as a bloodhound. Besides, he's not the same Hayate we knew from middle school."
The words made Arthur frowns as he stops walking. "Tell me about it. Before we had the guts to talk to him, he was always the lone wolf-type back then and whenever someone asked about his goals or his favorites, he’d just ignore them and leave. It's like some kind of a tragic event caused his whole persona to go 180."
It’s true, Zac and Damon had known Hayate before high school, but never had the chance to interact with him at that time. Damon was wary of his attitude while Zac was reluctant to even get involved with him; as such, they didn't have any chance to talk to him most of the time.
"Please. The last time I check, the only "tragedy" about his past is when we accidentally broke his favorite mug and he went ballistic on you. I still remember you frantically trying to glue it all together before Hayate found you with the broken pieces," Razul mentioned as he gave a small smirk to his friend.
"Hardy-har-har. It was an accident and I never expected him to keep it in his Dad's desk all the time," Arthur complained. "I'm just glad he didn't force me to buy a new mug after that."
Razul snickers at the memory his friend mentioned but quickly stops when Arthur starts to give him a death glare. But as he averts his gaze, he begins to stare at the sky with a melancholic expression on his face.
"What? Is there something in my teeth?"
"Not exactly," Razul sighs. "It's only been several years since the three of us became friends. And it happened all because of his little brother..."
As he and Arthur look up to a bright blue sky, Razul begins to reminisce about their time in middle school.
----------------------------------------
"Hey, Jake. Jake? Jacobs, are you listening?"
A 14-year old black-haired boy's eyes widened as he heard his name being called. This caused him to frown in response to his friend's insistence.
"Yes. I can hear you. What is this plan you're trying to make here?" He asked in annoyance. "And more importantly, what makes you so sure that you will able to get her attention tomorrow?"
As he turns around, he stared at a young brunette-haired girl grinning at his friend as he stopped walking.
"Because, my dear Damon Jacobs, her Dad is the coach for the school's football team. So all I have to do is to try out for the team and that way, both he and his daughter will notice me as an all-star player and the latter will fall over heels in love with me over my dope football skills! What do you think?"
Damon frowned in response as he placed his right hand over his face. "I can name over a hundred reasons that this plan can and will go wrong?
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"For starters, do you even know the first thing about football?"
"Well, yeah! Is that where you are supposed to kick the ball towards your opponent's goal or just say "Hut" before you charge in with a full-on tackle."
Damon quickly slaps his head once more in response to his friend's naiveté towards sports like American football and baseball. "Look. As your friend, I say that you should abandon this plan for your safety and sanity. Even if you join a football team, there is a chance you might end up being bombarded by several bigger stronger players anyway."
"Oh, come on, Damien! Lighten up a bit. That's what training and practice are all about. Besides, she would like me more if she tries to heal...”
Before the energetic kid can finish, he stopped walking and froze for a few seconds.
"Huh, what's the matter?"
Zac didn't say anything else. Rather, he just pointed somewhere in front of him and Damon before saying, "That kid..."
As Damon turned to see where he was pointing, his eyes widened as he noticed someone sitting on the stairway near the entrance of a light blue house. Upon taking a closer look, it revealed to be a young boy with short brunette hair, green eyes, and wearing a simple blue shirt and shorts, and was reading a book with several swords drawn on the front page of it.
"Strange. We’ve passed this neighborhood plenty of times and yet, I have never seen that kid before," Damon wondered.
"What's even stranger is that house." Zac quickly pointed to the house behind the young boy. "Last time I check, that house is where that loner, Hayate Palmer lives. And judging by some similarities from the boy's hair and face, I'm guessing that he might be related to the loner somehow."
"From a logical standpoint, I'm also guessing that he's either Hayate's brother or another cousin of his. In any case, we should try to stay away from him for a while lest we want to see his parents' faces plastered on some monster around here if something bad happens to me...”
Yet as he took another look at the boy, Zac's eyes perked up as he saw what was in front of the front cover. "Hold that thought, Mr. Logic. That boy seems to read something cool. Let's meet him!"
Without any hesitation, Zac quickly rushed over to the young child and took a sneak peek at the novel itself for a few seconds. However, as that happened, the boy took notice of a shadow enveloping him. At first, he was confused since there were no grey skies, but once he looked up, his eyes widened in horror to see Zac giving him a big grin.
"U-Uh... Can I... help you?" The boy sheepishly asked the two new strangers.
"Oh. Don't mind us. We were just curious about that book you're reading over this."
"A book?" The boy repeated, confused at who these strangers were. However, when he looked at the said object in his hands, his confused expression turned into a small smile. "Oh, you mean the "King of Blades" novel? Yeah, it's actually the second book of the series and I'm in the middle of the 12th chapter right now."
Zac's face perked as he took the book from the boy's hands.
"Seriously?! They already got the second book out right now! Man, I really need to get to my favorite book store to get this right now! It's one of the few books I love, besides comic books and game guides!" Zac exclaimed as he beamed towards the front cover of the novel. However, Damon quickly snatched it from his hands and gave it back to the young boy, much to Zac’s dismay.
"Um... Sorry about my friend there," he said to him. "He tends to be a bit too passionate about fictional stories revolving more on the action and mindless violence."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Hey! Blast Man and Explode Trio can do more than those! They have intricate storylines and character development with the main characters!"
Before Damon could respond to this, the young boy quickly runs in between them and shouts, "Plus, "King of Blades" doesn't have those kinds of things in their books! The story focuses on the main heroes' journey to travel the world and gather a collection of lost swords with the power to potentially create or destroy the universe! There's world-building, the monsters and creatures living there, and the locations and ruins that they have to travel to achieve their goals! Not only that, there are side stories about the characters themselves and how they often deal with the pressure of potential failure in their missions!"
Damon and Zac were speechless at what they had just heard in the young boy's rant. They had only known him for a few seconds and yet, they were surprised that a 7-to 8-year old had managed to dissect most of the elements of a children's novel like any other teenage book nerd would do.
"W-Wow... After hearing that, I guess I don't need to explain everything about that book," Zac spoke up.
"I agree. And I just finished the first one just yesterday," Damon commented. "How long did it take you to finish "King of Blades" anyway?"
Damon then gave his book back to the young boy who answered, "Just two months."
Zac's eyes widened when he heard the boy's answer. "Two months? I barely finished my textbook in a week, but two months is a bit of a stretch for someone your age, don't you think?"
"Well, I just finished the first novel a week ago and I didn't hesitate to ask my parents to buy the next one.,” the boy said. “Besides, it's the only replacement I have right now after I finished reading the “The World of Seraph" series a month ago. And I wish I could read it a bit faster, but I have school and homework and my folks said I have to keep up with those if I want to keep reading “King of Blades” in the future."
The boys became speechless again, shocked at what they had just heard right now.
"Okay... Back up. I don’t believe a word you're saying right now. That series has about six side novels and it's a bit advanced for you to understand at your age. How the heck did you manage to finish reading all of them?" Damon questioned the young boy.
"Well... I admit that they’re very hard to read, but my brother helped me out with understanding some of the more difficult words. I'm planning to reread the entire series once I get to middle school so I can learn more about the series' lore!"
At that point, the two could only respond with complete silence. Not only was this boy was somehow knowledgeable about Zac's favorite novel, but he had managed to read all of the novels from their favorite fantasy novel series of all time. Damon even wondered how he could even afford to buy all of the main story's novels. Despite this, Zac quickly shook off his initial disbelief and patted the boy's back with a grin.
"Man, talk about a huge book nerd! I never expect a kid like you know much about those types of books. By the way, which character in KoB is your favorite? Mine is the big guy of the group, Blazu!” He declared. "Not only does he have a cool name, but he can clobber any enemy in his path with his hammer, and managed to win the love of his life by enduring three years of torture by one of the bad guys! I have to admit, I never cried over his choice to endure suffering just to protect his love and friends."
Damon then sighs in response as he approached the two. "Your opinion of him does make a lot of sense in your eyes, but not in mine. If I had to choose one character that I favor the most, it would have to be Eric. Unlike Blazu, he has had decent character development and his poor relationships with the heroes were brilliantly justified throughout the novel. Comparing to your favorite, I think Blazu is more of an idiot rather than a reckless ally of the heroes."
Zac's smile dropped as he heard Damon's critique and turned around with his eyes narrowed towards his friend. "Reckless?! Did Eric ever try to risk himself just to protect Azial for him to get to the first novel's bad guy?! I think not! Besides, other than a few internal fight scenes, most of Eric's interactions at the party were bland and boring, just like your boring lectures on my dating life!"
Damon frowned at this and grabbed Zac's collar towards him. "Are you saying most of my opinions are boring as well? Without me, you’d have ended up face-first in a toilet thanks to the pissed off boyfriend of that girl you were eyeing several days ago! And yet, you keep ignoring me because you don't want to give up your stupid "quest" to get a girlfriend while in middle school!"
As the two began to quarrel, the boy became a bit frightened by this as he slowly backed away from them with his book in hand. But as he did, he suddenly bumped someone behind him.
"Hey! All I want in life is to get myself a girl, live my life traveling the world, and start up a famous YouTube channel just to show off our travels! Have you ever heard of achieving the impossible? You could get wealth, fame, and glory if you risked everything and achieved a crazy goal just like me and my best character on KOB!"
"At least I'm more focused on a realistic goal such as trying to graduate and getting into a good college! It's much easier than joining you on getting a girl through all your failed schemes! No wonder some characters in that book often call Blazu an idiot! If you ask me, he somehow earned that title for at least several reasons!"
"You know. I'm just about to reach my limit over your stupid opinions about Blazu!"
"And I'm just about to reach mine over your petty quarrel!"
The two boys froze in place upon hearing a familiar voice behind them. When they turn around, they saw...
"H-Hayate Palmer!"
Just the sight of the 14-years old brunette-haired boy standing behind them scared the two, as he glared at the unfamiliar faces, at whom he wasn't all that happy with over this shameful sight. While the boys didn't know much about Hayate, they already knew of his reputation for being a loner and a habit to drive others away with his glare. Even worse, they were standing right in front of his house.
"You know, I'm not the type to beat up on people who intrude my home. But if you don't take one step away from my little brother, then there's going to be hell to pay!"
Zac gulped upon hearing the loner's threats. He knew that Palmer kid was bad news, but just facing him in person made him want to run away from this house as fast as possible. As for Damon, he quickly got in front of his friend and stretched his arms wide to block him away from Hayate.
"Hold on, we can explain!" He shouted. "We're just passing through your neighborhood because our houses are right nearby! This is just a misunderstanding!"
"Oh yeah? Then how about you explain why you’re here pestering my brother?!"
Usually, Damon was calm with any situation. But for the first time in his life, he could feel a sense of dread crawling within him as he stared at the young man's menacing eyes glaring back at them.
"W-W-Wait! I was getting to that! Just please, try to hold off your anger before you do something that you may regret!"
But just before they could do anything, the young boy quickly got between the sides and looked at Hayate with a sorrowful expression.
"Hang on, Hayate! Don't hurt them! They're just arguing because we were talking about our favorite characters in one of the fantasy novels series I'm reading right now! They didn't mean for their discussion to get all heated like this!"
As the boy stepped in front of the young loner, he quickly stepped back as his brother stared at the boys for a few seconds. "Is that true?"
"Y-Yeah! So, why don't you just calm down, and maybe we can talk about this?" Zac spoke up sheepishly, still scared at the loner's appearance.
Like before, he stared at the three kids with a suspicious expression. After that, he took a big sigh and put his fists into his pockets, much to Zac and Damon's relief.
"Alright. I'll listen. But only if you two give me clear details about what happened."
Seeing that the boy calmed down, they sighed in relief as Zac spoke up once more. "Man, for a second there, I thought I might become the school's next punching bag."
Damon just frowned in annoyance before he explained everything about what happened.
----------------------------------------
"I see. So you just encountered my little brother reading his novel and you just talked to him because of it, correct?"
As the boys were all now sitting at the chairs in Hayate's backyard, Zac and Damon nodded yes as Hayate's brother enjoyed a plate of cookies, while the young loner listened to their explanation very clearly.
"Well, "King of Blades" is currently one of the best-selling children's fantasy novels as of late. So when we saw him reading the second novel of that series, all we did was make a light conversation with him about it along with favorite characters and such," Zac explained to Hayate. "We never intended to do anything bad."
"Yeah. And yet, you're still cooking up some crazy scheme to go out with the football coach's daughter. How's does that any different?"
"Shut it, Jacobs."
Hayate groaned in response before he turned to his younger brother. "Is this true, Kaz?"
The boy nodded and answered, "They just asked me about the novel and when they asked what my favorite character is, they just ended up fighting each other over their own."
"I see," he sighed before he focused his attention back on the boys. "I understand that you meant no harm, but I suggest you keep your arguments to yourselves. Some of the neighbors here don't take kindly to loudmouths like you two."
At first, the two started to say something to defend themselves, but slowly realized that he might be right after looking around and seeing some of the said neighbors staring at them from their fences and sidewalks, apparently disturbed by their heated argument earlier. Instead, Damon and Zac just hung their heads in shame at what they had done.
"Man, I really hate this," Zac groaned. "First, summer camp. Now, this? Now I feel awful."
"Same here. I can't believe I got all heated up over a children's fantasy novel," Damon added.
"Yeah. The only thing I hate more than this is that I've been scolded by a 14-year-old loner."
"Excuse me?" Hayate quickly glared at Zac when he heard this, causing him to startle at the sight of it.
"N-Nothing!"
Hayate sighed again before he crossed his arms.
"Anyways, don’t I know you from somewhere?"
The boys quickly turned their attention back to the young teen, surprised that he even asked that question to them.
"You seemed to know my name from a get-go. Are you in the same school as mine?"
Both boys began to sweat as they tried to explain to this mysterious boy. However, Damon managed to take a deep breath before stepped forward and said, "Y-Yeah... I'm Damon Jacobs and this is my friend, Zac Osbourne. We're in the same class as you, but you don't know that since we’ve only spoken to you a few times."
While his explanation about their lack of communication was true, he deliberately left out the part about Hayate's reputation as a lone wolf, since he didn't want to anger the loner any further.
"Oh, I see. It makes sense," Hayate answered, which calmed the two boys down a bit. "But still, aren't you two supposed to be home by now? It's almost curfew and we need to go back inside to help out our mother with dinner."
Zac's eyes widened when the young teenager reminded him about curfew. "Oh, right! Mom will be so mad if I get home late again! Come on!"
As he quickly left the brothers' side, Damon sighed at this and said to Hayate, "We're sorry again for intruding, Palmer. I promise we will make it up to you for disturbing you."
Damon then left the brothers and joined up with his panicked friend. While he was a bit relieved that they were able to survive their encounter with Hayate, he was also a bit surprised with the supposed lone wolf of the school. Rather than acting cold towards them during their first meeting, he was surprisingly approachable and sociable, despite the circumstances of their first meeting. Not only that, he seemed to calm down after his brother explained what really happened with them. In his mind, he felt that this guy was not as dangerous as the rumors said he was.
But as he started to focus on going home, he felt a tug on his shirt, at which he and Zac stopped and turned around to see the young boy smiling at them with a book in hand. "Hey, hey! I didn't tell you what my name and favorite character, right?"
The two were aghast at the sight of Hayate's brother suddenly approaching them. But now that Damon thought about it, they hadn’t even tried to ask his name or have a chance to listen to his answer to Zac's question before the quarrel.
"U-Uh, yeah... Sorry about that. Zac and I have some differing opinions on certain things, so we tend to bicker a lot more often, especially when it comes to Zac's schemes," Damon apologized, which Zac frowned a bit at how his friend referred him.
"No, no, I understand. I’ve just never met someone from Hayate's school before and I'm happy that you got along with him well."
"Getting along might be a bit of exaggeration there, buddy," Zac muttered. "But yeah, we're just surprised that he's not as scary as we thought he would."
"Well, about that... Can I ask you two a favor?"
"Favor?" Damon and Zac repeated in confusion.
"Since Hayate mostly focuses on me all the time, can you two be friends with him?"
"Huh?"
Being asked to become friends with his older brother was one thing, but asked to befriend a loner like him? Sure, they now knew that he wasn't all bad, but they also knew how scary he could be during their first meeting.
"Why do you think we want to do that?" Zac asked in a skeptical tone. "No offense, but he's kind of a bit of a Negative Nelly. I don't even know if he's even the type to be friends with."
The boy's smile disappeared as he hung his head. "W-Well, to be honest... I love my brother, but ever since he changed last year, he’s become a bit overprotective of me, and I'm a bit worried about what could happen if he isn’t able to make new friends. Besides, I really want to have friends who have the same interests as me."
"And you think that befriending Hayate would help both of you, correct?" Damon guessed.
"Yep. If you don't want to, then that's okay. I'm just happy you two get to meet him, at least. So thank you very much for that."
They couldn't say much of anything else after that. The more they interacted with this kid, the more they grew to understand his situation with his brother. They even wondered if it was the same for Hayate if they chatted with him more.
"U-Um, yeah... We'll try to befriend him if we can," Zac answered. "If you just give us your name that would be very nice."
He knew he wanted to know his favorite character as well, but they knew they had no time to know who it was. But before they knew it, the young slowly showed a small smile on his face.
"Kazuki."
The boys raised their eyebrows when they heard his answer in a low tone.
"What?" They asked.
"My name is Kazuki Palmer and my favorite character in "King of Blades" is Tsugiro!" He declared. "As for the reason why I chose him... Well, I just like underdog heroes, that's all."
----------------------------------------
"So in the end, we ended up meeting with Hayate again at school the next day and we've been together ever since that day," Arthur declared as he stops staring at the sky and turns his attention towards Razul. "I’m still surprised that Kazuki was the one who gathered us all to become friends to this day."
Razul responds with a small “humph” as he gives a small smirk to his friend. "I'm just surprised he accepted us so easily, despite our poor first impression on Kaz. To be honest, if we hadn't met them, then we wouldn’t be able to have such compelling RPG campaigns with him and his brother. His storytelling skills are on par with almost any other fantasy novel."
"Yeah. When I said before that Kazuki would be a book nerd someday, I just thought of it as a joke. Now he ends up being the biggest fantasy nerd that we’ve ever met in our lives. I guess Hayate’s little brother is a bit of a smarty-pants when it comes to fantasy-related stuff."
Razul sighs again. "Well, I hope we can team up with them someday. Truthfully, I want to know them even more, and I feel like we might if we get another grinding session soon. I have a feeling there's something special about both of them and maybe it's more than just their bond as siblings."
"True, but..." Arthur yawns as he stretches his arms wide before he continues, "We're talking about a guy who is skeptical about the game being a death game and a kid who might unknowingly traumatize himself by the crazy events here. Even if we help them out here in this game, they’d have faced more than just monsters and [Quests] out there by then."
"Such as?"
Just as he describes one detail, a light green pop-up window shaped like an envelope suddenly appears right in front of him. "Huh? A [World Notice] at this time?"
"[World Notice]? Is that what this window called?"
"Yep. It does usually announces the events happening in the game, and also declares which party conquered a dungeon for the first time or so. Although so far, I haven't seen any such notices lately. It's been a month since they last read the producer's letter and there’s been a lack of completed dungeons in
"Well, I can guess the reason behind it. The game was released just a month ago, and it makes sense that there are no announcements about it so far." With that said, he tapped on the window to open its contents. As he did, he smiled at first, and then slowly frowned and gasped at what he saw. "W-What the? Is this right?"
"Huh? ”Right"? What do you mean, Raz?"
Curious at what his friend saw, he activates his window, and there, Arthur's eyes widen as he reads the notice.
[WORLD NOTICE]
[The true target of the
Congratulations on your heroic actions, adventurers. More details will be shared in the coming days.]
"N-No way..." Arthur muttered. "They manage to beat the
Razul narrows his eyes as takes a closer look at them.
"Yeah. [Wind] and [Kazu]. Hayate and Kazuki." He frowned upon seeing his friends' names etched onto the notice itself. "And it looks like they are going to be in the wildlife of their lives in here and in real life."
[The fantasy continues...]