Toumi examined the sword. It seemed better quality than the first one. Sitting down, he continued silently tracing over the weapon with his eyes until a girl's voice suddenly caught his attention.

"How did you defeat my master, sir? His armor class was in the hundreds!" The girl exclaimed. Of course that question didn't have many answers, but she needed to know...

"Oh, maybe I just grinded for levels better than I originally anticipated. It was easy to get caught up in squishing ants~ And don't call me sir. I'm no hero. I'm just a regular guy," said Toumi, smiling. "By the way, what's your name?"

The girl blushed a bit. "My n-name is Tamatsu... my parents were caught by the monsters years ago, and perished. During the raid, they also... took my brother. Could you please help me find him?" Tamatsu looked into Toumi's eyes, with a pleading look.

Toumi inhaled through his teeth. That was a tough question. Did he have time for finding brothers, when he had a home to get back to...

Suddenly, Lynn materialized from a puff of smoke. They flew up to Toumi, visibly angered, which caused Toumi to back up a bit.

"Oh, now you consider going home? Why didn't you consider it when the monster attacked?!" Lynn yelled, starting a small fight. Tamatsu grabbed a blanket and took a nap, hoping conflict would settle later. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard the two continue to argue.

She woke up, gasping, feeling like she had just been grabbed by the heart. Her fear of Toumi had been rising every second since witnissing him fight that monster. Splashing some water onto her face from a small river in the cave, she took a minute to clear her head. She thought back to that moment talking to Toumi the other night. Something wasn't adding up. The monster was an AC 100, meaning it's armor was pretty much maxed out. "Some guy" would have died the moment they tried to even touch such a powerful monster. Yet Toumi did so with ease, and in fact was able to entirely extinguish it's life.

The question was, if he wasn't just some guy, what was he? Did he even know he was that powerful? She should tell him-

"Tamatsu?! You gonna stay out there all night or what?!" Toumi called, tucked neatly into his sleeping bag. They had raided some monsters' lairs and found these luxurious items.

"Y- Yeah! Be right there!" Tamatsu responded. she hesitated, and then poked her head into the tent.

Toumi lay in the bed, cuddling a little stuffed bear he had robbed from a slime nest. Tamatsu almost giggled at the juxtaposition of the boy. He was very dangerous if what she had seen was correct, yet he seemed so childish in behaviour. Yawning, she closed her eyes, ready to rest and later, rescue her brother.

The next morning, she woke up to find Toumi not in his bed. She jolted upright to look for him, only for him to be standing just outside their tent.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You finally woke up?" He looked at her. "So I may have overlooked some stuff... and there's a slight chance that there's maybe 20-50 vengeful slimes here. Since you clearly don't have a weapon, just stay away from the fight.," He explained bluntly.

"Toumi, how did this even happen?" Tamatsu asked. After a few seconds of no response, she sighed. "Ok, I won't intrude. They're dangerous in large groups, so get away from them."

He stabbed a slime, confused. "Dangerous? They die so easy!" He gigglled. "They're literally sentient puddles, I think I'll be ok."

Just as he said that, another slime jumped at him, absolutely decking him. He landed on the ground, getting a few small scratches from the friction of the stone, but being otherwise unharmed. His sword fell neatly beside him, but he ignored it, pissed off.

"C'mon, I was busy talking!" He shouted, ready to fight the slime. It didn't respond, and began to hop away as if it hadn't done anything. Toumi was furious, and began to shout. "And of course now you choose to ignore me!" He ran at the slime, and punched it before it could hop away.

Both Toumi and Tamatsu gasped as the slime began to glow, and a few seconds later melted into a small puddle. Toumi backed away, shocked, as Tamatsu analyzed it.

"Tamatsu, is that normal in this world?" Toumi asked, a hint of concern rising in his voice. "Because I could not do that before."

"No, not at all." Tamatsu replied, astounded.

Before Toumi could fully freak out, a group of about twenty slimes ganged up on them. Toumi jumped up to fight, while Tamatsu grabbed his sword for him. The two made an amazing team while fighting. Tamatsu could make a plan, and Toumi would kill the slimes, making the job quick and efficient. Slime after slime was chopped down, until each was finally resting as a small amount of sludge on the dungeon floor.

Toumi and Tamatsu sat on the cold, stone ground, tired out. They hadn't ever fought so hard, and took a long break, sitting next to eachother, panting, and holding eachothers' hands.

"That was difficult. Why didn't you use your ability? That would have made the fight easier!" inquired Tamatsu, staring into Toumi's eyes.

"Well," Toumi started. "I don't know how to use it. So that wasn't a valid option." Tamatsu agreed with the statement.

"Ok, I forgot that part. I guess we should figure it out?" Suggested Tamatsu. Toumi stepped away.

"No thank you–" He looked shaken. "It's scary. I don't like all the killing." Tamatsu hadn't realized Toumi never meant to kill anything.

"Ok then, no killing anything unless it's directly threatening our lives." Tamatsu affirmed, making Toumi smile.

The two sat down to discuss what they would do. Since Tamatsu was an escaped "pet", she couldn't be seen in the dungeon without raising questions, so Toumi suggested they leave the dungeon.

After packing up what few supplies they had, the two started a journey to a nearby opening in the cave. On the way there, they talked about their goals.

Toumi listened as Tamatsu ranted about her home life, what her brother was like, and her plans on getting him back. When Tamatsu asked Toumi about his goals, he stopped for a second.

"It's complicated. I want to go home, but I don't know how. So I guess I wanna help you out until I can make a better plan?" Toumi sighed, before beginning to walk again.

That seemed reasonable enough to Tamatsu, and she followed him up through the cave, making sure to not slip on some damp rocks, until light began to appear, far ahead of where they were.

"Can we make the journey there in one go, or should we rest soon?" Asked Toumi.

"I'd say if we don't make any stops, we can make it there in a few hours." Tamatsu concluded. It was a reasonable guess, so both decided that was the better choice.