Still caught in a daze, Hajime picked up on several voices echoing around him. The sheer act of opening his eyes made it seem like they weighed more than bowling balls. On the other hand, his back was lucky enough to rest on a wool mattress of the utmost comfort.
Where the hell am I? His gaze shifted up and down and even sideways, hoping he didn’t end up in a sex dungeon run by some perverted “hero.” He could only discern damp stone walls, a few torches, and a table with what appeared to be sliced bread with noticeable dryness on top.
Thankfully, Hajime reunited with his rum, ready to chug it down for the mother of drunken stupors. But alas, the voices began to ring closer to where he stood, culminating in the words of a supposed young woman expressing her relief at his current state. It didn’t take long for his assumption to become true, albeit not in an outfit he expected.
“Feeling better now?” said the woman, holding a torch that emitted enough light to reveal some of her features. Sporting a crown of short black hair, she had a full suit of armor with a green color scheme, and it wasn’t a design fit for a sex dungeon. If anything, the scratches on her plates told of years of experience.
Hajime couldn’t find the right words for his gratitude. Or rather, he was still skeptical about the situation to say even the littlest of thank yous. Drugging people with the age-old chloroform method wouldn’t exactly make them grateful. His mind agreed these folks had no class whatsoever.
Still, it didn’t hurt to respond with a raised eyebrow. “Very funny, kid,” he began. “What’s next: will I have my guts rearranged when I doze off again? If your buddies crave to do the deed that much, why not ask? I’ve got some experience.”
“I’m so sorry for what we did, and I swear I’ll make it up to you,” the woman performed a familiar bow that Hajime hadn’t witnessed since his previous life. “My name is Maki. I’m a warrior of light just like you, meaning we used to live a different life than we do now.”
“Yeah, I’m aware. I suppose we Shibuyans are predisposed to become heroes in another world, huh?” He chuckled, shining his first pearly white grin in Swordland, even if his joke sounded vague and boring.
“Actually, I’m from Nagoya. Anyway, this is my guild, the Green Wolves. Feel free to make friends with us because we’ve been trapped here for quite some time, but at least we saved you at the last moment.”
“Saved me from what? A nice juicy mammoth coming my way?”
Maki stopped short of answering his question as the tremors returned with a vengeance, rattling the room several times with dust and debris falling from the ceiling. Hajime tried reaching a hand before she stormed out of the door as fast as a criminal escaping the authorities.
Not being the type to be bedridden, he followed Maki through a winding stair to a higher level. Admittedly, he underestimated the sheer steps he had to take, resulting in a few sweat drops across his forehead. But perhaps he should also sweat for a different reason as they climbed and climbed.
Hajime witnessed several unhappy faces curled up in fetal positions on nearly every corner. Many, including several emaciated children, only wore the bare minimum of what anyone would consider peasant clothing, black and tattered with a fair amount of mold from head to toe.
The scene had surpassed even his worst fever dreams. Unfortunately, It wouldn’t make their unhappiness fade for his conscience to reflect on that, so he followed Maki with no further glances. It was probably heartless of him, but it made knowing about the situation at stake more urgent.
The two finally arrived at the upper level of the underground base. Once again, it had a design not too far from a catacomb of despair as Hajime walked amongst torn mattresses occupied by patients with rusted armor and swords. Any one of them festered with wounds that would make a surgeon pass out.
Maki walked toward a pair of double doors at the end of the room, guarded by a bald man with a dark complexion whom Hajime believed would give Paulie a run for his money. She held the hilt of her blade tightly before commanding, “Take us to the surface!” in a tone no less significant than the ongoing tremors.
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“Now?” asked the man. “Maki, we’re still planning how to kill the rest of them. For your sake, please give us more time before—”
“Just do it!” Maki interjected, eyes filled with the telltale signs of a burning desire to protect.
The man sighed in defeat before conjuring rune-like symbols in his hands. “Please forgive us for her unruly behavior. She’s not always like this,” he said, turning to Hajime with a regretful gaze.
Without further questions, Hajime got whisked away in a cloud of pixels, but it wasn’t the distinct “pixie dust” he knew back in Agrima, but rather a blue circle of mana beneath his feet. The only similarity was that it glowed in intensity before teleportation. Perhaps both games were more alike than he thought.
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The Green Wolves, now in a field surrounded by trees that towered over them like skyscrapers, went on the move with light feet. Although Hajime never dared to utter a word as they crept through the woods, the adamant Maki kept shushing his presence. Still, the enthusiasm in his heart kept pumping no matter what enemy awaited them. He craved battle, and battle craved him.
Maki raised a finger, and the rustling of leaves and breaking of twigs in their wake ceased altogether. She gestured for her guild to hide in whatever shrub and nook they could find nearby. He tried doing the same out of respect for the ongoing mystery, but instead, he stood in place for a while, suddenly met with a jolt on his chin.
It didn’t stop there as nearly all the follicles on Hajime’s face began to experience a sensation not unlike the static electricity stored in a balloon. As the one human bug zapper, he would know of such sensory abilities. Oh, no. Those bastards are already here, aren’t they? What a time to be alive.
As he crouched under the boulder, waiting for a familiar showdown on the horizon, Maki’s faint voice beckoned, “Psst… what are you doing? Get over here.”
On the subject of familiarity, Hajime predicted Maki would choose one of the boulders in the area as a hiding spot. Sitting beside her quietly as a church mouse, he chuckled at the inevitable absurdity they had to face looming over the ongoing tremors.
Maki squinted at him, still holding her sword with extra prepared intent. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing,” he replied, caring less about lowering his tone lest there was a fart in the wind. “This is where I would ask, ‘Would it hurt to tell me what’s going on?’ but not today. My eyelashes have a gut feeling about what we’re dealing with, and it’s not the average slime you guys have grown accustomed to.”
“…how do you know?” Maki loosened her grip ever-so-slightly.
“Just intuition, really, because the fun is about to get real interesting.”
Numerous trees began to tumble like dominos as the earth-shattering vibrations grew. Before they knew it, Hajime’s familiar enemy emerged from every bush, hill, and stream. He could say they now had to fight a horde of slimes foreign to Swordland, not that he wished to elaborate for the sake of the mission.
Only when the dust and debris settled did the Green Wolves plunge into the fray on Maki’s command. Interestingly, none of them tried going full melee against the gooey bastards, opting for a different play style he would describe as a “sword beam frenzy.” Some conjured a stream of ice and flame from their blades, while others performed crescent slashes of conventional energy.
One slash, two slashes, and three slashes more, Hajime had already seen all there was to see. Unfortunately, their sign of victory began to ebb away in less than a minute of their assault. For such a low-tier foe back in his new home, a mere one of these bastards managed to uproot a lush acre of the [Starting Forest] into a wasteland of doom and despair in a single bound.
Suddenly, the “half-assed jump” he chided the slimes for spelled the defeat of the woefully unprepared Green Wolves. Half the team already had their tails tucked between their legs, retreating in full sprint coupled with screams drenched in the hopelessness of their short-lived vigor.
Maki, however, gained more than just deeper scratches on her plates, her breath labored, and her eye swollen like a tomato. “Go without me. You know I can hold them off for days.” As though it were a miracle, the gushing wounds across her back and even her dislocated shoulder reverted into a state of complete recovery.
“But Maki… your MP meter. It’s dangerously low!” said her unnaturally tall guild mate, pointing at the blue status bar below her full red one.
“That doesn’t matter now, Hagel! Tend to the others and let the rookie and I handle the rest!”
With a hearty chuckle, Hajime was more than delighted to display something within his mouth that was pearly and white—among other usual sensibilities. He hoped Maki wouldn’t mind stealing her thunder with his own real version, witnessing three slimes leaping high into the air directly at their heads.
Just a bit more shock and awe from his decisive uppercut, and the slimes burst into pale white slush, leaving dewdrops upon the leaves and branches above. “You’ve got spunk, kid. I like that, but don’t go hogging all the fun, you hear? This bad boy is just getting started.” He pulled out his trusty [Exterminator] for the dramatic flair he always wanted to show.
Maki returned his undying joy with a subtle smirk on the side of her lip. Without a second thought, she readied her longsword engraved with its most cherished name that went by [Gleaming Shine]. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, rookie.”