Seventeen years ago, my family wasn’t huge in any way. However, my father and mother both loved the world of science. And when magic was discovered, they were ecstatic to learn how it worked. But that excitement turned to horror when my father went overboard and almost drove my mother to insanity for an experiment. After that, they figured it was too dangerous to try things out on each other, so that’s where I came along.

From when I was very young, they did experiments and tests on me time and time again to the point I had given up almost all my emotions. My grandmother eventually managed to help me escape from that nightmare, but the damage was already done.

Apparently, my mother was eventually found dealing with illegal chemicals and was sent to prison. What came of my father, however, is still unknown to me.

Even now, I still fear those days. But thanks to all those experiments, I could never show it.

However, since I didn’t want to put my chance at life to waste, I worked hard in my studies and became the student council president at the High School of Magic and Swordsmanship. Using my instinct to help choose my staff, I hope to help those at this school have the best life they can and make the most of their lives.

My name is Haiko Ariyama, and I get the feeling that my life was about to change more then I ever could’ve imagined.

“Don’t just dodge! You’ll never kill it if that's all you do!” I shouted at the MC as he ducked away from a giant crab claw.

“That’s easy for you to say! You have that dumb shield up!”

I watched as the MC fought while a shield of wind floated around me and guarded me against the enemies attacks.

“That’s because I’m here to monitor you guys. Or did you forget what you owe me?”

The MC let out an annoyed growl as he clenched his gloves and turned to face the giant crab in front of him.

From behind, Xara made a black pitchfork with heart tips appear in her hand and she charged at one of the monsters from behind.

“Haaaah!”

Swinging it down, she stuck the trident deep into the crab’s back and pierced through its shell.

Taking this chance, the MC pushed himself forward and smashed into the monster's face.

It let out a screech from its mouth before vanishing into thin air.

Xara and the MC took in several deep breaths.

“Why do we have to do this?” the MC huffed.

“As I mentioned before, it’s your part of the deal for my help in the Hunter Games. In exchange for my help, I wanted you to clear this dungeon. Though I guess you’re still not strong enough to take on such a challenge. Should we come back another day?”

In response to my words, the MC let out a loud growl before giving me a huff.

“This is nothing! Let’s keep going!”

Not bothering to make sure we were following him, he trudged off deeper into the dungeon without a second thought.

“That seemed to put him in a bad mood,” Xara stated.

I shrugged.

“Meh. He just needed a little push. If that means I have to be a bit cruel, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Following the MC, we dove even deeper into the dungeon.

Since this looks like it’ll take a while, I guess I’ll explain what’s going on.

My name is Axel Savoncho. After being brought into the world that was almost an exact replica of the world from the dating sim game I played around six years ago, I was currently living a life within this world as one of its residents.

Over my time here, I’ve gone through a lot of experiences. Some good, and some bad. Nonetheless, I don’t hate my life here.

I mean, not only do I have a group of friends that’s fun to be around, but I was also lucky enough to get a girlfriend. That girlfriend was the one named Xara who I mentioned earlier.

Then there's the MC called Riko Toyazoto. Normally, he acted as the protagonist However, after everything that’s happened, he’s more of a side character in his own story.

I didn’t figure this out until recently, but apparently, the MC is a reincarnate who came from another world like me. Only unlike my experience where I was brought here in my body from my previous world, the MC was a guy who had his memories placed inside the mind of Riko Toyazoto and has basically replaced his role as the protagonist. Although, as mentioned before, he’s become more like a side character in his own story.

I’d go into more detail as to why, but I get the feeling most of you probably already know pretty much the whole story. So for your sake, I’ll just skip over the rest and talk about what we're doing here.

As I stated to the MC, I had found a dungeon that recently appeared and knew it’d be difficult to beat on my own. So in exchange for helping the MC and Xara out with their team's list, they had to help me out with clearing this dungeon.

Things were actually going pretty smoothly for the most part, but there were still a few monsters that were causing problems…at least for Xara and the MC. I wasn’t actually doing anything. Why? Because I fully intended on making these two pay what they owe me...though mostly the MC.

As we dove deeper, the monsters slowly got stronger and stronger. Eventually, I had to step in to ensure the two's safety.

“Get down!”

As Xara and the MC ducked, I sent a slash of wind straight through the giant lizard-like monster in front of me.

It vanished into shards instantly as its body split in two.

Sighing, I glanced down at my grimiore.

It faintly glowed on my belt. For some reason, ever since we entered this dungeon, Nia, the spirit residing within this grimiore, has gone completely silent.

Weirdly enough, this isn’t the first time she’s remained silent while I went into a dungeon. Pretty much every time I went dungeon diving, she’d immediately go silent and not make a peep until I’ve left.

She never did this with the MC when I played through the game, so I was lost on why the heck she was doing this. Thankfully, I can still cast magic so it’s not a huge issue. However, this still bothered me a little bit. Something about it just didn’t feel right.

But moving past that for now, the MC glanced around the room as if looking for something.

“What’s got you being so frisky?” I asked.

“Hm? Well…it just feels like we're being watched.”

“Really?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I didn’t get a feeling like that. Was it some special power the person who was meant to be the MC had?

To be safe, I began pushing forth my expanded thinking.

To briefly explain it, my expanded thinking acts as an enhanced version of my own mind.

I don’t use it that often, but it helps whenever I need to keep my wits about me as well as get a read on the situation.

Looking around the room, I tried to notice any odd disturbances. That’s when I saw a rather suspicious-looking hole.

“What’s this?”

The other two gave me looks of confusion as I moved closer to the hole. I began casting an enhancement spell on my hand and slammed it into the wall. Thankfully, I’d remembered to use my robotic hand. One issue about the enhancement spell is that it still affected my body. So if I tried using my human arm with this spell, I could risk breaking it like the first time I used this spell.

As my hand smashed into the wall, it began to crack before crumbling and someone behind it jumped back in surprise.

“HEEEE!!”

They backed up and tried to run only for me to grab them by their collar.

“A bandit, huh?”

The MC walked up next to me.

“A bandit? What makes you say that?”

“This person’s outfit.”

The one I’d grabbed hold of was a short girl in clothes you’d normally see on an adventurer.

“She just looks like a little girl to me,” said the MC.

“That’s how they get you.”

Grabbing the bag the girl had on her to the side, she struggled in my arms as I handed the bag to the MC.

“Take a look.”

Confused, the MC opened up the bag before screaming and throwing the bag away.

The bag fell to the floor and one of the things inside it fell out.

Xara held up her hand to her mouth to hide a gasp.

The item that had fallen out was the decapitated head that I assumed belonged to an adventurer at one point.

“If I had to guess, this girl uses earth magic to hide from unsuspecting adventures and take their lives so she can steal their items.”

“That’s…disgusting," muttered Xara.

Throwing the girl to the ground, I cast some earth magic to pin down her arms and legs, as well as seal up her mouth so she couldn’t chant anything.

She struggled and tried to free herself, but I knew she wouldn’t be getting out of those restraints any time soon.

Leaving her behind, I began walking deeper into the dungeon.

“W-Where are you going!?”

“She can’t go anywhere, so I figured we could just turn her in after we were done here. You two coming?”

Not even bothering to think about it, Xara immediately followed after me as the MC looked at me, completely dumbfounded.

“Say, how were you so calm during all that?” the MC asked me after catching up to Xara and me.

“When you’ve spent as many years as I have adventuring, you get used to stuff like this.”

As I said that, memories of the different adventures I’ve been through in the past flashed through my mind.

Thankfully, nothing too terrible has happened to me…for the most part. Strange as it is, the most horrible things that have happened all occurred during my first year at the High School of Magic and Swordsmanship. Talk about weird.

But moving past that for now, we continued moving a bit further before coming into a giant room containing loads of light blue crystals that were sticking out all over the place.

“Whoa…” mumbled the Mc as he stared at the glittering shard in amazement.

Xara picked up one of the crystals and looked it over.

“Say, aren’t these Froya crystals?” said the MC.

“Froya crystals?” I said. Titling my head.

That sounded familiar for some reason.

“Yeah. They’re normally quite rare to find. Thanks to that, they not only cost a lot of money, but they’re often used as wedding rings for royalty who wish to propose to their lover.”

“That so?”

Glancing at the stones, an idea came to my mind.

“Let’s start gathering them then!” I shouted

“Really!? What for!?” asked Xara who seemed really excited.

“For the money of course!” I responded.

That seemed to immediately ruin Xara’s mood.

“Er…”

Crap. Was she mad I didn’t want to collect it for a wedding ring?

“And…Maybe for something else.”

Awkwardly, I turned my head away while saying that.

Xara’s mood instantly improved.

“Yeah!”

Dammit! Why did she look so happy when I said that?

Actually, I already knew why, but it was still embarrassing to think about. I mean I loved Xara a lot, but I feel like marriage isn’t something I’m ready for quite yet. I’m not against spending the rest of my life with her, but I wasn’t ready for something as big as marriage. At least not yet.

Having settled that matter, Xara, the MC, and I went about collecting the crystals within the cavern.

“Say, shouldn’t we leave some in case other adventurers come into these dungeons?” the MC asked.

I shook my head.

“Rule four of adventuring: take what you can when it’s given to you. If we tried to be nice and leave some crystals behind, the next adventurer to come in would probably just take the rest without leaving some for anyone else. Because of this, it’s best just to take it all while you can.”

“I…see.”

Quickly fishing out all the crystals and placing them in a bag I’d brought with me, I tossed the bag over my shoulder and turned to Xara and the MC who were checking to see if we missed any.

“Nothing over here.”

“Not here either. I guess we got them all.”

Running a scan over the room with my expanded thinking, it seemed like we had indeed cleared out the whole room.

“Well then, let’s get moving.”

I began making my way deeper into the dungeon when the MC gave me a confused look.

“You mean we're going even deeper? Don’t you think we’ve already gotten enough as is?’

I shook my head.

“If there’s one thing you need to know about dungeons, it’s that the deeper you go, the rarer the treasure that’s lying within.”

Beginning to move again, Xara quickened her pace so that she could move up next to me. Probably lost on my thinking, the MC let out a sigh and followed behind while tossing his bag of crystals over his shoulder.

Passing through a few more levels, we found ourselves standing in front of a set of giant doors that looked like something from one of those treasure hunting movies.

Carefully pushing the doors open, I was met with gleaming lights that I had to put up my arm to block.

Once my eyes adjusted, I found what appeared to be a gem of some kind lying on a pillar in the middle of the room.

It shined a crimson red with a black center that gave me a rather cold vibe.

Not bothering to think much of it, I walked into the room and picked up the item.

“Hey! What’re you doing!”

The MC shouted as he reached out his hand to warn me when the room suddenly burst into flames and both the MC and Xara were blasted away as I was engulfed by the fire.

“Axel!” Xara screamed in fear. Horrified that I'd been burned to death.

“Geez. Talk about a scare,” I said aloud as the wind barrier I surrounded myself with kept the fire from burning me to a crisp.

Getting a look at the fire, I could almost feel the heat resonating from it. From that feeling alone, I could tell that had I not put up this barrier, I would’ve been dead in seconds.

Stepping out of the room, Xara looked at me with relief as the MC gave me an expression of shock.

“If I’m being honest, I’m kinda surprised that’s all the this dungeoncould come up with in terms of traps. I would’ve expected at least a monster or two. Not just some flames,” I muttered.

As I slipped the stone into my bag, I could hear the MC muttering “Well most people can’t activate a spell like that in such a short time” and I guess that made sense. Had it not been for my grimiore, which let me cast magic without needing to chant anything, I’d probably have died there.

“Well now that we got the main treasure from this place, we should get going. Come on you guys.”

“Right!” shouted Xara.

“Er…Yeah," responded the MC.

Thus, Xara followed me with enthusiasm while the MC begrudgingly trailed behind. Ending this small adventure of ours.