Star and Lent took cover at the same building where they had a break before.

“DAMMIT!” Star curses while kicking a wall.

“Be quiet. Plus, why are you so angry anyway? You were the one who made the call to run away.”

“Because I'm not stupid. But I don't need to like it. I know, when things turn bad in combat, I'm a savage after all. There is this tingling, when things go bad, which makes me want to turn tail.”

“I see. So that's one of your inherent talents. Quite useful, I have to say.”

“Maybe. But what do we do? Payback? Or do we retreat back to Kami-sama?”

“Hm... I'm not sure, to be honest. We've lost some of our weapons, and look at your armor, it's almost breaking as well.”

“I'll go without weapon and armor if I must. I’ll switch to [Savage] and tear everyone apart with bare hands.”

“Maybe you can. But seeing Laharel, I think there might be even more nasty stuff inside this undead city.”

“We basically have some sort of undead commander out there, who makes his goons stronger and gains more power through them. What else do they need?”

“The one who made these obelisks. While it may be Laharel's doing, I couldn't sense any connection between him and them. So there must also be some sort of spellcaster with a decent amount of skill.”

“So you want to escape entirely?”

“No, I want answers. A real fight is what I want to avoid.”

“I may be able to sneak around using [Masterthief], but what about you?”

“I didn't say that I don't want to kill them. First, we need to find a group of armed undead, using your [Stealth]. We'll overwhelm them before they have a chance to do something, take their weapons, then we continue with assaulting smaller groups.”

“What about this Lala-guy?”

“If we see him again, we'll try to avoid him or run away if he notices us. If we see someone else, who looks different from the rest, we'll also avoid them while observing. We might try to take them on if they look weaker, but right now we need the XP the undead offer, and the best equipment we can find to take on Laharel and whoever made these obelisks.”

“Aha. Fine with me.” Star has no doubt in his capabilities. That's why he's more than ready to go.

So the strategy stands. Finding and taking out the undead squads is easy, their equipment, however, is subpar. None of them has a heavy, two-handed weapon, maybe because they would imbalance the corpses with their weight. So Star uses an old, rusty longsword for starters, not a weapon he wants to use against Laharel as that guy's aura will quickly break it.

However, the XP are welcome, and by using this hunting strategy, they hone their senses, explore the place and find more obelisks. Just what are they here for? If they trust Star's instincts, they have to be creature-like, maybe an egg or a cocoon?

“Shhh!” Star points at a wall. “Behind that building is that Lala-guy. I can hear him. He’s calling out for us.”

“So he knows we're here... maybe he can sense whenever we kill an undead? Or can see through the senses of his army... Well, let's turn and try somewhere else.”

“Right.”

Retreat and attack at another place. This skirmishing tactic worked for a while, but now there aren't any loose groups anymore. Instead, the undead built up many great blockades each with at least thirty lesser undead, eight ghouls, and some unique undead. Like the vile-looking, heavy armored guys, the spectral horrors, or that giant thing that looks like it is made out of skeletons.

“No easy prey left,” Lent sums up their situation.

“I think the third one is the weakest. Attack there?”

“I can deal with the skeletons and zombies with [Incinerate], time also passed, so most of my MP has returned. The real problem, I think, is that attacking one of them would play into Laharel's hands.”

“Traps.”

“For example.”

“Can we try a way over the roofs?”

“We could, but if we fall down, then we might be too busy to climb back and are trapped. Shoving someone from a roof isn't that hard, I can do it easily with [Gust].”

“Come on, we can do it! No matter the trap, we'll break it.”

“We might, but I have a better idea. Let's try breaking one of the obelisks. Either they come to us, or we break their stuff, win-win.”

“I like that!”

They return to the last obelisk they saw. While Star can break one in a matter of seconds as a [Savage], Lent first tries a [Wind Blade], which doesn't seem to harm it. His earth-spells can't reshape it either. “We'll use debris. Might take longer, but they're too hard for our weapons, and we need you calm for whatever comes.”

“Aye.” While stone isn't as hard as metal, Lent is a wizard. He uses his earth magic to compress the stone and make it denser that way, then he shapes it into pickaxes. Each of them is heavy, but as true heroes, they can lift them easily. If one breaks, Lent just reattaches the broken parts.

While the stone-tools aren't ideal, they're still enough to chip the obelisk bit by bit. “Look!” Lent has just broken a larger bit: “There is another layer. This obelisk may be just like an onion, it's the third layer, after all.”

“Then let's see what's inside.” Layer after layer the true heroes pierce, inside is a different kind of crystal, just like a core.

“That's strange,” Lent comments as he looks at it with [Detect Mana], “it's not the part that changes mana... so the layers are collecting and changing mana to feed that thing?” This would be his educated guess here. “For what reason?”

“Silent!” Star's instinct has kicked in: “... … what is this?”

“What's wrong?”

“It feels like we're being watched, but I can't sense anything... Is there magic to spy on someone?”

“Probably. Nothing we can do about it. Well, I'll take the core.” Lent hits the last layer some more times to free the core entirely and puts the thing, that is almost as big as his backpack inside his [Inventory]. “If they want it back, they need to ask.” Only the owner of the backpack can use its [Inventory], the perfect place to make things disappear.

“What happens if you die? Will everything inside will be lost?”

“No, it'll spill. Was inside our manuals, remember?”

“Never read that thing.”

“Ah.” When their former selves, Yoshimura and Hoshibashi, were summoned, they got manuals that explained parts of their powers. This bit of information was also included there, but it's incomplete, as it fails to mention [Class-ups] at all. Lent has a theory: That different heroes will have different manuals and the only way to know everything about the hero-system will be by working together with other heroes.

“So they can just kill you?”

“As if they're capable of doing it, right?”

“Right!”

“Let's tackle the next obelisk. It's that way, I think.”

These obelisks have their reasons to be there, so it's only logical to start tearing them down.

Stolen novel; please report.

At the next obelisk, they repeat the process, at the third one, they have enough practice to hasten their work. However, there is one minor problem: “Lent, we're surrounded!”

“How could that happen?”

“Sorry, I wasn't paying attention.” They're only halfway through that obelisk, even though they were more efficient breaking it, Lent also was too concentrated on the task at hand.

“Don't worry... most of them will be small fry anyway. Where to make a stand?”

“No buildings, they're traps and can be torn down, so this alley. There will be something, but it's wide enough for my weapon and narrow enough to limit the numbers of enemies at once.”

“Alright.” Star and Lent are a good team, as both of them are experts in what they do.

The moment they enter the alley is the moment the undead start streaming in: Twenty zombies and five skeletons for starters. While [Incinerate] would solve this problem instantly, Lent does want to hold back his MP.

Star, on the other hand, swings his sword with ease: “[Rock Smash]!” He strikes the ground to shoot rock pieces against these small fries, a good choice, as fighting them without skills would cost more SP.

Lent is in the [Soldier]-class and on alert. His spear moves ceaselessly, while he tries to find the next enemies. Another group--Laharel is aiming to wear them down first. “[Speedthrust]!” However, trying to save too much energy by holding back could be worse.

The spear stabs a zombie, but suddenly, black flames are leaking from its mouth and eyes, Laharel is close! The lesser undead are moving differently like they're remote-controlled. They start to coordinate, the zombie on Lent's spear grabs it, while three more are jumping him.

Star is at Lent's side and just smashes those zombies aside before they even have a chance to touch the wizard. “Lent, I'll give you a lift.” He points with his sword at a roof.

“Affirmative.” Star holds his sword horizontally, supporting the tip with a hand, while Lent jumps on the broad blade, ready to make the next one the moment Star starts to move. Given the savage's power, it's easy for Lent to jump several meters into the air, getting on the roof.

Time to take a look, before he's noticed here. “About one hundred more skeletons and zombies, twenty ghouls, then we have two skeleton abominations.” That's what he calls those giant undead that are made out of several skeletons. “Careful! Spectral horrors are coming, phasing through walls, and-” Lent jumps from the roof back to his partner, as he had the feeling that magic is about to strike.

Several stone missiles hit the place Lent was standing on before, so some magic support as well, maybe skeleton mages or something like that.

Star is in-midst of destroying the corpses around him: “Any retreat-route?” So his instincts are telling him to pull back again, Lent's intellect can't agree more.

“The roofs are targeted by magic users, I didn't see them though. So I would suggest that you use brute strength.”

“Got it. Here! [Rock Smash]!” The beauty of this skill is that Star is capable of breaking stone walls with it while shooting rock missiles at what's behind them. Creating an escape path, Star leads the way, but there are spectral horrors. They look like ghosts of monsters or something like that. There is nothing human about them, and none of them look identical.

Time for magic to shine: “[Ember Arrows]!” Fire arrows appear around Lent and he shoots them at the spectral horrors. While they pass through, it does some to have some effect, as the ghost-like beings are squirming. “Concentrate on the escape, I'll cover you!”

“Yeah!”

After two more walls, the next obstacle appears, it's a group of two heavily armored figures. “[Incinerate]!” Lent puts a whole bunch of MP in this one, but nothing happens. Looks like they're tougher than he thought. “We'll break through, they're here to buy time.”

“[Rock Smash]!” Using the stone fragments as a distraction, Star charges in. Both enemies block them with their swords, then they start to emit an aura similar to Laharel's, the kind that steals away life force while deteriorating the equipment. With this, Star's replacement weapon breaks, just like before. So they're death knights as well?

Lent runs to their flank: “[Gust]!” Throwing a weak spell with the single purpose of knocking the death knights away, he creates an opening: “Fast!”

“Dammit!” Star throws his sword stub at the death knights, who are coming back to their feet, causing one to fall to the ground again. At least he starts running.

―○●○―

Lent and Star take a break, Lent need to regain his MP, while Star needs to cool his head. “I could have destroyed them.” Even after Lent explains the strategy of the enemy, Star doesn't see the cleverness in their retreat. In the end, he's a [Savage] at heart, he knows about fighting, not about tactics.

“You might have,” Lent agrees with him. “However, fighting death knights is taxing. The two of them were much weaker than Laharel, but taking them out would have cost too much time, and we had the other undead on our heels. Too many factors were against us, but we had a huge success.”

“Huge success?”

“We're using our low numbers but high individual strength to our advantage. Mobility, strong alpha-strikes, whittling down the forces of our enemy. Also, the observation-spell seems to have worn off.” That's the reason why they can effort a break right now.

“What do we do afterward? Another obelisk?”

“I don't think so. They will expect us to do the same again. …”

“What are you thinking about?”

“If it's safe to take an obelisk-core out of my [Inventory]. Maybe the enemy can sense them and cast the observation-spell again.”

“Aha. Why would you need one anyway?”

“To investigate them. Learning what the enemy wants with them, what their purpose is.”

“Why don't we just leave the caves then?”

“...you're right!” If they're outdoors, they should have the advantage if the base of operations of the undead army is the necropolis. Maybe Yoshimura Rentaro's unreliable knowledge about fictive undead is also right, and undead avoid sunlight whenever possible. “You know the way?”

“Leave it to me.”

There are no undead on the way, most likely they just fortified their defenses to protect the obelisks. After a while, Lent recognizes the route Correro used to get to the lady, the first buildings Lent ever saw of the necropolis.

Star is leading them through the maze of tunnels until they see sunlight again. It's so bright that Lent needs to cover his eyes. “Let's move on top of that mountain.” There they will see if the undead will come out.

Close to the mountain, Star gestures Lent to halt: “There are people there...”

“Bandits? Or undead... doesn't matter. I'll greet them.” This should take their momentum if they're trying to ambush them. “HAIL! WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE.”

After some seconds, a single thing came out. It has a face that reminds one of a warthog, the erect ears, sharp tusks, and pig-nose, together with brown and black bristles gives him quite an orcish feeling. The muscles are thick, the creature is at least two meters tall, and it looks more like a monster than someone of the people.

Its voice is grunting, while a heavy cleaver is in its hand: “You're the one with the Traveler, right?”

“The Traveler?”

“The one with the hat.” Ah, he means Correro.

“Yes.” There is no need to hide it.

“You look like you've fought the undead army.” The snarl of the orc shows his amusement.

“We have made a dent here and there.”

This seems to surprise the orc, but Lent remembers that Laharel spoke about orcs before, so maybe they have a war going on or something similar, and it might not look too good for them. “You two? With what army?”

“Me, my partner, my brain, and his muscles.” Star is staring at the orc, showing off his muscles, making him doubtless about who is stronger here.

“Gr... chrchrchr!” This sounds like a laugh, but it's not only coming from the orc in front of them, but also from the others in hiding: “Chrchr, ingenious! Good humor!”

“So you also fight with the Undead Army?”

“Now and then, yeah. So the Traveler introduced you to the Lady Below.” This is most likely Kami-sama. “What are you guys?”

“True heroes.”

“Heroes!?”

“True heroes.”

“What's the difference?”

Star replies instead: “Wanna find out?”

“Wanna fight out?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

In only a few words, the orc and Star have an understanding. “I'm Gar of the Dirt.”

“Star Killer.”

“We'll fight up there. Guys, come out.” Half a dozen other orcs are coming out, all of them are muscular and brutal, but one of them tops them all, an orc who is four meters tall, with muscles like trees.

Star asks an unusual question: “Can't I fight him instead?”

“Wanna fight a bigsmall? What are you!? Poor Sim, you can't do that.”

“What?”

“Ah, true heroes are as clueless as usual heroes. Sim of the Mush is a bigsmall. Big body, small brain. He can't tell the difference between fighting for fun and fighting for real. Also, he's incapable of learning complex things, so neither martial arts nor skills.”

“So he just hits stuff really hard?”

“Yeah.”

“Aha. Then I'll fight you after all.”

“Then so be it. Do you need a weapon?”

“Yeah, that guy's sword.” Star points at one of the orcs who has a weapon that's more of a sharpened metal club than anything else.

“It's a bladeclub,” Gar verifies Lent's silent guess. “Hey, Jas, would you mind.”

“Yes, yes. Here.” The orc tosses his weapon to Star, who catches it, but it seems to be even heavier than it looks, as Star almost let it fall to the ground for a second.

“Nice one! Looks like I can use [Sword]-skills with it as well.”

“Fight goes to first blood.” Gar is taking a battle-stance, one hand on the ground, the other on his cleaver, both cloven hooves ready to propel him forwards. “Ready... go!”

Using the advantage of given the signal himself, Gar dashes right into range, Star tries to attack himself, but he seems to be troubled. Lent knows why, Gar is almost on the ground with his whole body, hard to see. The orc's cleaver aims at Star's ankle: “[Rock Smash]!” So Star uses a skill with a wide attack angle instead.

“Pu!” Gar is using his free hand to push himself back again, as his face was hit cleanly by the rock pieces. Then he throws his weapon: “[Boomeraxe]!” A skill! The cleaver is aimed directly at Star's chest, the easiest target, Star uses the bladeclub to parry it, but Gar is already running forward, the sound of metal against metal echoes, the cleaver comes back to its owner, who catches it and uses his next skill: “[Headsplitter]!” This time, Gar jumps aiming at Star's shoulder. Yet there's a fatal flaw to his plan: “Chrrrruuuuu!”

Star blocks the attack with one hand, the other clenches around Gar's throat: “Too bad.” Then he slams the orc to the ground. “No blood? Well, again!” The next time still no yields more results than a grunt of anguish. “And again.” After the fifth time, the orc finally has a visible cut on its cheek, it's actually impressive that it took so long for a single cut. “I win.” Then Star lets him go.

“Ouch! And my tough skin is one of my strong points... ah, you really are mighty! Let's party!”

“Huh?”

“Hah?” Both Star and Lent are confused by the conclusion Gar just made.

“Jas, you go ahead and tell the others about the party and secure the booze! Bry, you and Sim take care of the lookout. The rest of us will party!”

“““Party!”””

“Louder!”

“““PARTY!!!”””

“LOUDER!”

““““PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTY!!!”””” For some reason, Star seems to be also fired up.

Lent can't help but question the whole situation they're in. How did they get from a fight with the Undead Army to partying orcs? Something doesn't fit here, but on the other hand, these orcs may give him answers of how they may take care of the other problem.

So he decides to join their party.