CHAPTER 1 – CLASS-UP!

Proofreader: ramna27, Orion Dye

Let's rewind time a bit. Twenty days earlier.

I saw Ara-san, the white-haired alfr girl, who looked at me in wonder and unease. “I'm wet.”

No, not to that particular moment!

And not the moment, Kyou-san charged in -her face distorted in fury- and yelled at me for reasons, I couldn't understand since her voice was too shrill.

Or Rine, who followed only a bit after, only to ask a few questions. I couldn't even discern if she was angry, happy or confused.

Let's take the moment when we all calmed down, returned to our respective jobs in doing after-care of the just attacked village of Aroahenn, and afterward returned to Ara-san's house.

We exchanged every information we had. In the end, we knew the gist of what happened behind the scenes. Much of the info came from the elder, who talked to the people involved, even the heavily wounded ones.

To sum it up: After we, Kyou-san, Rine and me, spent some days in Aroahenn to get some intel about curses, heroes, and a particular class-deleting relic, two other people appeared at the border of the forest, our former classmates Yoshimura and Hoshibashi.

We kept the alfr-guard in the dark about their identity, as we thought that they were aiming at us and especially the 'kidnapped' princess of Feuerberg: Rine. We lied to the alfar and let them repel those two several times.

Then the alfr-guard Jazzman found out, that the intruders are in fact heroes like us. This made our former statement doubtful and to get the better of us. He decided to bring Hoshibashi and Yoshimura to the village so that they could speak to the elder.

He should've called for an escort, but he thought it'd be enough to rely on the alfar in the village.

The other heroes had a map, which led them to the forest of Aroahenn in the first place. From this map, about a hundred demons appeared, who attacked the village. Even though most alfr were capable of fighting, there were only about twenty real warriors among the whole settlement, so they were overpowered in quantity.

Jazzman didn't hesitate and fought with the strongest of the summoned demons, the red oni. He was no match for her, so Oro'hekk jumped into the battle, while our party were still fighting with some demons.

The red oni also defeated Oro'hekk, as he tried to deflect an attack from the oni, which would've hit the beaten Jazzman. That happened around the time when we first confronted Hoshibashi and Yoshimura. When those two retreated, we followed them, same as the oni, and she cut our way to the treasury of the village, the place Yoshimura and Hoshibashi were aiming for.

So we split the party, Rine and Kyou-san took care of the oni, while Ara-san and I passed her and followed the two heroes into the treasury.

Rine and the oni had a brutal match; the ever-regenerating oni could deal with the murder-machine princess for a while. But due to Kyou-san's healing and buffs, Rine slowly won the upper hand, while our useless nagger also attained a new spell for damaging the oni.

At the same time, Ara-san and I confronted Yoshimura and Hoshibashi, and even though the initial comeback from them was great, Ara-san was vastly buffed by that place. It was right under the Aeolferelda-tree, which is basically a source of magic. Especially the [Spirit Magic] the alfar used.

After Ara-san finally decided to use lethal force, even the buffs Yoshimura and Hoshibashi had were only enough to avoid death.

Then the oni came in, she could flee from her battle after a bunch of demons attacked Kyou-san and Rine from the sidelines. The oni melted part of the Aeolferelda-tree, took some stuff and fled with our beaten opponents.

Among the stolen stuff was also the relic I mentioned earlier: A quill, which had the ability to let you deselect one of your classes. Yoshimura and Hoshibashi used it to delete their [Student]-class, which clearly was a big power-up.

To be honest, if we hadn't beaten them up in the first encounter before they deleted [Student], they would've wiped us.

After the oni had carried away those two, we returned to the alfar, which were busy fighting demons and healing Aeolferelda. We supported them and did some stuff to help them out after the battle. Like Kyou-san and Rine treated the wounded or how Ara-san and I were investigating the treasury to see, what exactly was stolen.

There Ara-san became stupid. If you put it positively, she was overcome by curiosity, as all the prerequisites were met to participate in our 'curse.'

She just believed, it wasn't an actual curse and now we had this mess: A 'marriage' with four people!

“So let me summarize it:” Kyou-san began in an annoyed tone: “Arako figured out how she can be involved in this ring-thing, right?”

Ara-san added in an accusing tone. “You held back information. I thought the curse part of the ring was something like a feedback since Kenta used a party-system without a party. I was interested, for it was a significant interference with the power of heroes, a relic like no other. Even though the other heroes use the hero-system, they don't change it. If I'd have known about marriage... and all of you already shared it, what about the divine...” She blinked and tapped her ears. “Yes, what about the divine law in such a case? Since it's usually applied within a single species, does it count for the alfar that I'm part of a polygamy with humans?”

Yes, the divine laws. One of them was about polygamy. If there were too many people married to multiple spouses within a single species, it means genocide.

I'm dead serious. It's as stupid as that.

“This law is exactly the reason why we didn't talk about it before, Ara-san. And I don't have an idea about if and how you're counted?”

“If?”

“Technically, the messages says that you're all, blergh, 'married' to me. So if we go by the letter, we still count as one.” Since I was the only one with more than one spouse. “But seriously, there is no legal claim. I don't know why the curse chose to declare it as 'marriage,' but I'm only going to marry once, and I'm sure that it'll be none of you!” I pointed at the three of them: “This one is a bitch, this one gets on my nerves, and the only acceptable one of you is from another species!”

“And you're a dork!” Kyou-san rolled her eyes. “But thank you for not being interested in me.” Her eye-rolling changed to a happy smile. … That was dangerous! And totally inappropriate!

“Kenta!” Rine was about to break in tears. “What did I ever do to get on your nerves?” How about the fact, that you're trying to use your almost-crying just now to coerce me into saying what you want me to say?

“Kenta-kun, I'm acceptable?” Ara-san's ears blushed. Hold it! For some reason, I was strangely conscious of Ara-san since she got curse-infected. It's just like as if she was a human girl.

We're different species, so please don't make her attractive to me, curse! Are you trying to direct me into bestiality?

“From now on, Ara-san will be part of our team.” To be honest, she adds up nicely to us with her [Druid]-class. And she's still acceptable in her [Acrobat]-class, so we got another member that's more useful than Kyou-san. “That means, Ara-san, that it's in your interest to find a way to remove this curse!”

“Actually, if I weigh up the upsides and downsides, it's not that bad.” No, don't do that, Ara-san, we're a team now!

“I know, right?” Don't support her, Rine! “But... we're sinners...” Ah, she got negative again, so while she's for some reason OK to refer herself as my wife, she's down whenever she is reminded of the fact, that we're breaking the divine law.

I had to remember that so that I could silence her, if she's too annoying.

“Arako, are there any upsides for you?” Good work, Kyou-san!

“Several. But the most interesting one is that I get a good look into how the hero-system works. Did you know, that I can see your statuses and they're written in Alfr Speech? Does that mean, that the hero-system use our understanding of language, instead of relying on the god's influence?” I could see where that was going. Basically, she was just curious.

“What about the marriage-thing?”

“A small price to pay, if I have to say so. Marriage isn't something alfar do often, so while I know about it, it's not like I really understand its importance. Even if I did, it's not like there are much chances to meet a man within my standards. At least Kenta's fun.”

“Ara-san...” I wrecked my brain to find a way to persuade her to actually help us. She was really an asset, intelligent and knowledgeable. Wait, there was a way. “You want to analyze the curse, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then learning how to break it, is also part of this research. Additionally, if you're helping us finding a way to get rid of it, you may keep the ring. Deal?” I held out my hand.

“Deal!” She took it.

Both of us retracted our hands in less than a second. There was some sort of electricity, or more like, it felt strangely... pink. I could only describe that feeling with a color.

“What was that? Arako? Ken?”

“Well, Momo. You know that Kenta-kun and I are different species. So there would normally no physical attraction to each other.” Don't say it. “The curse did something and now whenever I see Kenta-kun, I'm almost as horny as a human.”

What she actually said is even worse than what I've imagined!

Rine blushed: “Horny...”

Kyou-san's eyes were wide open, looking between Ara-san and me and then flashed a smile. “Dirty.”

Why are you acting all sweet?

After this, we went to the planning phase. There were a lot to discuss, so I won't get into details, but a certain comment from Kyou-san was very important.

“Too bad that the quill got away.”

“Yes. You were very interested in it, is there a class, you wanted to exchange, Momo?”

“[Healer]. I don't have any attack potential.”

“If I remember, you have [Student], [Healer], [Priest], and [Cook], right? Then why don't you class-up one of those?”

A discovery that blew our minds.

There was a way to strengthen one of your current classes, called 'class-up.' And the worst of it: The option of classing up was mentioned in the manual Ara-san got, when she was transported to this world, but not the one Kyou-san and I had.

So the content of the manuals differ from hero-batch to hero-batch!

While ours went deeper about the essential functions of the hero-system and specific items like those XP-crystals I had yet to see, Ara-san's was mostly about everything regarding classes. Class-up was one of the topics.

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If you got enough AP in several skills and also learned a variety of things, you might have a chance to class-up. But to do that you needed to mentally operate the status-menu in a certain way, which was everything but intuitive.

Even after opening the class-up-window right after learning it, I couldn't class-up anything at that moment. Because there was an additional condition: A trigger.

There were only limited sources to class-up around the world, but it seems that every species had at least five different class-up options, and the usual trigger to attain a class-up was to have a mentor of the specific class-up teaching you.

For the alfar of Aroahenn there were the following options: [Druid], [Herbalist], [Ranger], [Spiritcaller], and [Woodwarrior]. Ara-san started out as a [Shaman] and classed up to [Druid].

So far, it was easy enough, have experience in your class and have someone teach you. But there were some issues along the way.

First, your class had to match with the class-up you want to do, so I wouldn't be able to class-up [Student] to [Woodwarrior] for example.

Second, you couldn't class-up twice using the same source. So if I class-up with the help of the alfar of Aroahenn, I couldn't do so again. Another alfr country would be OK, but those are far apart.

Third, you had to be at least level 100 before you can class-up a second time in the same class-tree. There were higher level requirements to level up even further, and you can class-up three times in total.

Fourth, there was no real order in class-up, so I could class-up [Pikeman] to [Woodwarrior] by the alfar and for example [Knight] in Feuerberg afterward. Then I would end up being a [Knight] with the [Abilities] of [Pikeman] and [Woodwarrior] and individual stat-bonuses, reflecting these three classes. It was a vast realm of customization here.

Fifth, if you class-up your initial class, like my [Student]-class, there was a great chance that it will mess with your mind, wiping out every memory from before becoming a hero, while the rest was remembered like a book you read. You only retained the knowledge, but neither emotional nor sensory memory. It was the same as what happened to Hoshibashi and Yoshimura when they deleted their [Student]-classes.

Sixth, the class you like to class-up didn't only need some experience, during the training you need to use the class you want to class-up. So even though you might learn faster the stuff you're supposed to learn using the [Student]'s [Fast Learner]-skill, it won't bring you closer to the class-up, if you wanted to class-up another class-up.

Knowing that, we changed our entire schedule since Kyou-san wanted to class up. Me as well, there was no way I would miss that chance!

By the way, Rine's [Princess Knight] is already the second stage of a class-up, so she couldn't class-up anymore with it before she was at least level 170. Additionally, this was her initial class, so even though she was an irregular, there were certain conditions to be met to class-up safely. But explaining what she can't do at this point would be a pain.

Instead, she decided to learn a new base class. Or more like, she really insisted on it.  She wanted to learn a crafting class, and asked me if she could. I like crafting classes, so I allowed her to do as she wishes. Even if she wasted that slot, she got two more and would at least be happy with her single choice she did.

While the three of us were busy learning classes and class-ups, Ara-san investigated the books and writings about how to break curses.

I decided to class-up my favorite class, [Scout]. I could class-up to [Woodwarrior] and [Ranger], I decided to choose the latter, since it enhanced what I like about the [Scout]-class while still being considerably good at fighting.

It appeared that about a third of the alfr-guards were actually rangers, even though only Oro'hekk was considered a master ranger. So I learned under him with the help of the other guards.

Meanwhile the elder allowed us to freely enter the village and I found some craftsman, who made me custom equipment to thank me for fighting these demons and my fellow heroes. Even the leatherworker was fine with making me a hide armor made out of the pelt of the crimson bear I killed back in the chasm, including an armguard with an implemented archery glove for the left side.

Following my example, Kyou-san also started organizing new gear.

You know the rest, I could class-up yesterday, and Oro'hekk wanted to put my new powers to a test.

[Ranger] is a great class. I don't only have all of my [Scout]-class [Abilities], which got some new skills during the training, I also got [Spirit Magic] and three spells, one to hold, one to detect, and one to hide. I can finally use my MP for a change!

And most importantly: I can finally use [Spear]-skills in my exploration class! No [Pikeman]-dependence anymore for moderate battles.

The stat-bonuses of [Ranger] are higher than [Pikeman]’s in general, [Pikeman] only trumps in [Strength] and [Vitality] by a mediocre margin. So basically, I can ignore that class for a while, unless I need more power and defense.

I definitely should find a way to class-up that one too.

But [Ranger] is something like my ideal class. If I would not have the title 'Red Ranger', I'd be perfectly happy with it.

Dammit, alfar!

―○●○―

Back to today, right after the test of Oro'hekk and the others. “...” I enter Ara-san's house.

“Welcome back.” Ara-san greets me from behind the front door? Was she waiting for me? “We have to talk.”

“About what?”

“About my sexual frustrations.”

I totally don't like the direction this is going. “Let's skip the topic.”

“No. Momo and Katarine-san won't talk to me about their masturbation habits, and I need the relief! But I don't know how to. So do your duty as the husband and help your wife!” The way she's rubbing her legs against each other and the way her ears are red-hot is arousing.

Wait, stop it. Go down, little me! “I'm not here to talk about ma- about that!” I almost spoke out the word.

“But aren't you the one, who regularly sneaks out from the house for some you-time?”

“... When and how.”

“It's my house, of course, it tells me if there is someone entering and exiting it. Also, after you came back one time, I checked on you after you fell asleep and it was apparent, that you washed yourself.”

“Phew... did you used [Spirit Magic] to check up on me?”

“Indirectly. It's my house, so I can sense through it whenever I want.”

“What a cheat.”

“I'm more shocked that you used to live in a culture, where magic doesn't even exist.” Ara-san's home world is a place, where the wildlife and the Ljosalfar live in harmony, more or less using magic to control life itself.

There are supposed to be other alfar, the Dökkalfar, underground. They used the magic of rocks, minerals, and stones, importing most food from the Ljos. An entirely different world than the one I'm from.

“We had games, so it beats yours.” Yes, Ara-san's may have been better at health care, education, literacy, employment, survival rate for mothers and infants during childbirth, not mentioning the fact, that there were no wars since three millennia, my world still beats it, since the alfar never invented electricity and so there are neither PC, nor console games!

Only games you could play in dreams, theatrical plays which will conjure their special effects right into your mind, and other forms of entertainment, which might be more fun than everything I know from my world.

But no RPGs! Hah! … Unless it's TTRPG, of course.

“So now we established this fact, is Kyou-san back?” She's the one responsible for the meals.

“Do you try to change the topic from my physical problems to something else, no matter how pointless it is?”

“Yes?”

“Kenta-kun, it's really taking a toll on me, it's so unnatural, that I can hardly think straight, so either you tell me how to masturbate, or I'll fulfill my needs otherwise, and you're right in front of me.” Why is she licking her lips? And why am I about to say 'Get over here!'?.

Dangerous!

“Did you try-” I just spit out every ounce of knowledge about how females relieve themselves I had. It takes a few minutes, but Ara-san carefully listens to every single word.

“As expected from a human male. You truly know a lot about how women masturbate.”

“Could you please never mention this word anymore and never tell anyone that we had this talk?”

“Yes. I will go right back to my room, and put it into practice.”

“Please! No details!” I rub my nose bridge between my thumb and fingers. “What about Kyou-san?”

“She's still not back. Katarine-san is. Anything else?” Ara-san really seems eager to go, and even though the thought of seeing one off to relieve herself is disturbing, it's hard to say no, if she's that desperate.

“Not for now.” And without a moment of hesitation, Ara-san turns around and runs to her room.

Following her example, I return to the room I'm currently using, since I plan to remove my armor. It's not like I wear it all the time, it's hot and uncomfortable. Plus, I have to do maintenance, and I can't do so while wearing it. So checking for holes and loose straps, removing dirt and brushing the hide, it's something I have to do every single day.

This armor keeps me alive, so I won't complain.

Same goes for my weapons, sharpening, cleaning, probing. I got a new spear in this village, so I'll most likely train a bit after maintenance, to get used to its weight and form. The bone blade is longer than the metal tip of my old spear, plus it's slightly curved, made to dissect my enemies easier. Training will help, but if I truly want to get used to that, I'll have to use it in actual combat.

But I barely farmed the last twenty days, since I was occupied with my [Ranger]-class-up. Well, still more than what I did before and now that I'm finished, I may make up for it.

Nonetheless, first things first. Back to the room, maintenance. I'm about to open the door the normal way but remember that I have [Spirit Magic] since yesterday. Ara-san taught me how to use it to operate the house like an alfr would and since it still doesn't come easy, I can practice it now. If I use a skill, it just happens, but if I use the ability itself, I need to do it consciously.

Concentrate at the own forehead, without looking at it, until you feel a ball of energy within. Then stretch that ball out to the door. Ah, I failed. Again, concentrating, stretching. And again, concentrating and stretching.

Finally.

Then try to send your wish through the canal, that just opened up between yourself and the spirit you're talking to. This is actually the easiest part, the door opens by itself.

“...” I see what's inside.

Concentrate, stretch, and send the wish.

The door closes again.

…

… …

I knock. “Is somebody in there?”

“Dea- Kenta? Yes, it's me, Rine.” I know. “Are you about to enter?”

“I have the feeling, that I'd see something I want to forget if I do.”

I can practically see Rine tilting her head behind the door. “I don't mind.”

“I do. You have one minute, so make most of it.”

“OK?” At least I can hear the rustling. Good thing that she didn't notice the opening door. Otherwise it would have ended in a very uncomfortable conversation I don't want to be part of. “I think it's ready.”

I open the door manually and see Rine standing in the center of the room in common clothes. These were made by the alfar, especially for Rine. Her face was deep red the day she returned after giving the order to the tailor, who also teaches her. I guess it has something to do with breasts since she's an alfr.

And not only because human girls have breasts, while alfr ones have none. Alfar love to rub stuff like breast-talk into a human's face.

Rine's new set of clothes consist of a milky white blouse and dark green trousers, it's simple, but for some reason, the tailor decided to make it in a way, which emphasize her womanly figure. I guess as a prank, to show off her curves to the whole village.

And man, what kind of curves they are.

So while the alfar snickers about her get-up, since it shows off the sensual nature of humans, I can't look at it at all without losing my focus. So I just concentrate on her face. And be not embarrassed about what I just witnessed!

Her eyes are sparkling with their usual innocence, how can she have eyes like this, when she just did 'that'? “Are you alright, Kenta?”

“I'm thinking about human nature. But I originally wanted to fetch some things.”

“Do you need help?”

“...could you help me donning off the armor?” Armor is supposed to be hard to remove since it'd be dangerous if it comes off in the midst of battle. So even if one or two straps are cut, it should still be held in place.

This basically means, there are always a lot of things to do, when you don on or off the armor. There are belts, hooks, and removable parts, which make it annoying to do it alone. Therefore having someone's help is really appreciated.

At least unless you don't like being touched by others. “Rine, could you stop fondle my sides?”

“I'm trying to open that belt.”

“Let me do it!”

In the end, we get it off. I start looking for faults and damage while removing dirt, leaves and two bugs. Then I clean the pelt parts with a brush, even though the armor is rather new, you can already smell the sweat ingrained to it.

Rine cleans her sword next to me. She doesn't need to sharpen it, since it's a magic blade, which packs so much power, that my new spear can't even compare. The more endangered Rine is, the stronger the weapon becomes, a real cheat-item. So the never dulling trait is somewhat granted.

Both of us are silent, it's actually quite pleasant. If Rine shut up forever, I wouldn't complain, or at least if she would stop her nonsense talks. As long as Rine is quiet, she's a fine companion.

The door opens, and our other companion comes in, Momokawa Kyou-san in a simple dress, who has dark rings under her eyes while wobbling in with several heavy looking books under her arm. “I'm back.”

“Welcome back. You look like shit.”

“That's still better than you...” Despite that comment, I smile at her. It's my usual smile, which is more like an ill-meant smirk, but looking at Kyou-san in this condition is the highlight of my day.

Kyou-san also wants to class-up, she tries to upgrade her [Healer]-class to [Herbalist], since it would allow her to create herbal weapons and use skills to broaden her possibilities with them. So it's more or less a controller-class, which works with debuffs.

Her other classes couldn't be classed-up here, so she just tries to get what's possible. It's still a far cry from what she really likes to get, but it's better than nothing.

In the beginning, Kyou-san was motivated as hell. Now she obviously forces herself through this.

Learning all the theory without the help of [Student]'s [Fast Learner] is a tedious task, but if she didn't learn it as a [Healer], she would need much more practical skills to compensate. Class-up is unfair in this regard.

“What is this? An encyclopedia? Shall I help you learn?” I want to ask her knowledge about the different herbs to see, how bad she will be. Just like asking vocabularies.

“...I'm too tired to waste my time with you. Rine-chan, please wake me up in an hour.” With this, Kyou-san falls on our bed. Yes, due to circumstances we share this one.

“OK.” Rine is more or less used to this by now. So she just takes a worried glance at Kyou-san but doesn't say anything anymore.

You gain 1 WP. You taught your wife an important lesson, which bore fruit. Even though it would be better to do things like that together, you were still able to help her through a stressful phase.

Isn't this about Ara-san? Dammit, curse-messages!

“Kenta, what did you taught Ara?”

“This interests me as well, Ken.”

“... It's a secret?” Hey, I can at least try it.

How was I supposed to know, that I need an excuse for a message-window, popping up right after Ara-san done the deed!?

In the end, I beat around the bush so much, that Rine is entirely confused and Kyou-san too tired to bother anymore. Bullet dodged.

Unless they plan to ask Ara-san later.

[https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/kentaranger49.png?w=676]