Side Story 2: The Partner’s Side
“Let’s see, what can I use here for tomorrow?” I look through several racks of weapons and armor, currently being stored in the armory of [Atalin’s Royal Academy]. How did I get inside? Well first, I disabled the campus cameras by using [Dark Magic], then I head to the back of the building. Using demon magic, I cut a small hole into the wall, and throw a [Spectral Dagger] through it. This way, I can just enter freely and take whatever I need. Obviously, I’m doing this all during the night, because it’s easier that way.
Tomorrow, I’m going to the [Kazaric Ravines] with Aria, and I’m very excited to enter there with her. Albeit slowly, my stats have been going up, and they’re currently an eyesore to look at. I know the cause for this, because it also occurred in my previous life as a Demon. It’ll fix itself eventually, but for now, I have to bear with these terrible numbers. At least I’m finally able to usesome of my [Demon Magic] again, so I believe I’ll be able to handle myself in the dungeon as long as I don’t overuse it.
Right now, I’m trying to find armor and weapons that can help give me an edge in the dungeon. I believe it’s supposed to be a huge ravine of ice monsters, that has around 15 floors to it. So I need armor that’s both light and ice resistant, so I don’t take as much damage from the monsters and I don’t get tired from advancing through the dungeon.
I head into the back of the armory, where the more modern weapons and armor are placed, and search through using my [Eyes of Magic Perception] to appraise them. Although I can’t find any armor that’s specifically ice resistant, I find something that is both light and strong. Modern armor with defensive properties much stronger than the chainmail in my previous life. There were many different sizes for the armor, because it was made for students in the school to use for practice and spars.
I pick one that fits my size, and searched through the armory for a weapon I could use. I find an orange spear that’s been enchanted with fire magic, and decide to use that. A spear is my weapon of preference, so this basically suited me. Light armor, and a spear. I’m now prepared to enter the dungeon with Aria, so I leave the armory through the shadow I created earlier and left the campus.
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“Oh my god! Where did you get that!?” I yell out loud upon seeing Aria. In her hands, was a device that I’ve only heard about and haven’t seen in person. A new weapon developed by modern technology, the [Magic Gun].
“I want one! I want one! Hey, where did you steal that? I’m going to get one too!” I yell in an excited manner. It looked really cool, I seriously wanted one for myself.
“…castle.” She replies as she points towards that direction.
My excitement immediately dies down, and I feel a slight bit of despair. There was no way I’d simply break into a place like that.
“…school?” Aria asks if I can obtain these weapons from school. I shake my head to this.
“Yeah, I can’t do that. Their armory is in their firing range, a place I don’t have access to and can’t sneak into.” The modern weapons in the regular armory only had spears and swords of modern designs and such. No [Magic Guns] for me to use in there.
After our short talk, we began heading towards the direction of the [Kazaric Ravines], which was in the opposite direction of the [Forest of Fire]. As we go there, I ask her about the cloak she was wearing. I noticed it earlier, but I was too curious about the weapon that I forgot about it. There’s no way that can be the armor she’s planning to use against the monsters. It’ll be torn in a matter of seconds.
“By the way, what’s with that cloak?” I ask.
“…surprise.” Is the answer I get. What a cheeky little girl, keeping little secrets and surprises from me. I glare at her for now, but I’ll be patient and wait.
When the entrance of the dungeon came in sight, we stopped immediately. There were guards at the front of the dungeon, and a large group of adventurers just sitting out there for some reason. Just by looking at them, it was obvious that they were high class veterans. Why were there so many of them here, I had no idea. It does give me an omen of something dangerous to come, but I ignore the feeling and decide to just enter anyway.
I explained to Aria about my [Spectral Dagger], and ask her to infiltrate the dungeon to set up the two shadows. She accepts my plan, and uses an invisibility spell of an incredibly high tier. I tried activating my [Eyes of Magic Perception], but I couldn’t even see a trace of her mana after going invisible. I knew she had a large range of magic abilities from our final battle, but it’s still amazing to see and be reminded of that.
After about 15 minutes passed, with the first shadow placed on a rock next to me, a rock suddenly comes through and hits me right between the eyes. After I recover from the surprise of such a random thing happening, I become irritated and throw the rock back through at high speed. I’m pretty sure I asked her to put her hand through for confirmation, but did she forget already?
I step through the shadow and entered through into the other side. The other side, where I fell straight into the icy ground face first.
“…Aria, why is the shadow on the ceiling instead of a wall, like I told you?” I stand up, and look at her with a smile on my face. There was no happy feelings in this smile. After about 5 seconds, she raised her hand to her temple, tilts her head, and says;
“…teehee?” Right after, I’m hanging her off a ledge by the leg, threatening to drop her down the ravine.
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After that scene, I sigh to myself and just decide to forget it. I want to start exploring this dungeon, so the both of us began advancing through the first floor. After a few minutes, we reach an area that has several different tunnels leading to different areas. I’m the cautious type when it comes to things like this, because any of them could be a potential death trap, and I don’t exactly want either of us to die this early in our new lives. I still wanted to do stuff with Aria. After all, I do enjoy spending my time with her.
“Okay, for now, we need to determine which tunnel is safe to take and which isn’t, so I’ll leave a [Spectral Dagger] here and–“ I try to explain a safe plan to Aria, when she suddenly interrupts me.
“Too long.” Immediately after, she walks randomly through one of the tunnels.
“Wait, wait, wait, you can’t just do that! Aria! Get back here, we can’t risk something like this!”
She ignores me completely though and keeps walking through. She’s not listening to me at all, and there’s no way I can convince her, so I just give up on the spot. “Oh geez, fine! Wait up for me!”
I sprint into the tunnel and follow her from behind. The tunnel we enter branches into several more paths, and again, she randomly walks through one. I don’t argue this time, and just follow her. The tunnel leads into an obviously man-made room, that looked way off.
"This room is way too suspicious. Let's just leave before–" My words are cut off again, as the entire room shakes wildly.
The walls of the room begin shifting, and cracks emerge in them. A light fills the room, surrounding us, and I can feel mana shifting all around us. The shaking becomes even more wilder than before, and I can barely stay on my feet. Then, it comes to a sudden stop. When the light around us fades away, the area around us is completely different from the room we were just in.
“I think we just entered a teleportation trap that sent us to a different part of the ravine.” I say out loud. The temperature was much colder than before, but the area still had the cave-like appearance to it. Right after I say that, though, the growls of several monsters sudden resound through the cave.
“Aria, this is all your fault, I’m definitely going to get you back for this when we get out of here!” I yell at her as I raise the spear and take a stance.
“…sorry.” She whispers quietly, but I really didn't need that apology now.
The both of us try to locate where they’re coming from, but the continuous echoes makes that impossible. The lights provided by the crystals in the cave allowed us to see their shadows through the ice walls, so we were able to figure out where they were coming from.
“…eighteen…minimum…” Aria tells me.
“Then we’ll make it a contest to see who slays the most.” I reply. A smile emerges on my face, and I’m ready to fight.
There’s probably more monsters than what Aria stated, but I don’t care. It’s been awhile since I’ve fought a large group like this, so it excited me a bit. I aim my spear at the nearest shadow, and prepare to attack whatever emerges. I hear ice behind me breaking, so it seems like Aria’s being attacked first. This leads to a several of these monsters to do the same, and many of them begin smashing straight through the wall of ice to go get us.
I sprint towards the first one that jumps through, which was a monster with oversized arms, and stab at its chest while it was still in mid air, killing it before it lands. No matter the difference in stats, if I hit the heart of my opponent, they die without an exception. I immediately turn behind me, sensing the presence of a fast monster, and spun my spear around to slice it.
It was some sort of ice feline, which moved at an extremely fast speed. I was slower and weaker in every way, so my original attack missed, and it tried to attack me with that opening. Although I was inferior in stats, with a flick of my wrist, I stop the swing of my spear immediately and pulled it back before it got to me, and stabbed it right through its mouth.
[Reverse Force], a spell that allows me to ‘store’ the momentum of any force and use it after to increase the speed of any movement. In this case, I was able to store the force of swinging the spear, and use it to pull it back to counter the ice feline. The best part of this ability was that it’s a passive, innate ability that does not have any cost to use. Although these monsters were stronger than me in every way, combining my spear prowess with [Reverse Force], I can easily fight back against them and kill them as long as I aim for their weakest points.
After killing the ice feline, a group of large rats tried to swarm me, but I completely decimate them with several high speed swings and thrusts before they even touch me. As the monsters continue throwing their bodies at me one by one, I dance with the spear to tear them apart. Soon enough, the entire horde of monsters falls victim to my spear, and I’m surrounded by a large pile of corpses.
“Battle has ended.
Strongarms x 4 has been defeated. 44,000 experience has been received.
Kazaric’s Felines x 7 has been defeated. 63,000 experience has been received.
Rat of Madness x 5 has been defeated. 80,000 experience has been received.
Winter Bats x 1 has been defeated. 5,000 experience has been received.
Snow Bunnyfly x 2 has been defeated. 14,400 experience has been received.
Level has been increased to 30.
Level has been increased to 31.
Level has been increased to 32.
66,200 experience needed until level 33.”
Wow, my experience just skyrocketed. I immediately obtained three levels from defeating all those monsters, which was a massive increase compared to the monsters in the [Forest of Fire]. I turn to see if Aria’s done yet, and find that her body was completely engulfed in blue fire. It didn’t affect her bandages though, so it was only the cloak that was lit on fire.
“Holy crap, your entire body’s on fire! That’s so damn cool!” I immediately shout in awe, and run up to her. “Why do you have all these cool things? Where did you get this cape!?”
“…[Inferno Bear]…” Immediately after hearing this, again, despair fills me, and I immediately crouch in the closest corner I can find and sulk.
“Why don’t I ever get these things. Why can’t I be this lucky. I want to hunt [Hidden Bosses] and get items too.” I mutter to myself. After a minute or so I recovered and said.
“Whatever. Let’s just try to find a way out now, I don’t want to be stuck here all day.” I regain myself immediately, and stand up, about to search for the way out of this ravine. Suddenly, an announcement from the system came up that immediately raised my mood and got me excited.
“Regional Announcement: Conditions for [Kazaric Ravine Hidden Boss] has been fulfilled. Summoning [Yeti] in the vicinity.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
It seems like my muttering and complaints worked, I’m given a [Hidden Boss] to kill! That means, cool stuff for me too!
As I celebrate in my mind, a loud roar resounds through the cave, and a giant, humanoid monster jumps straight through the wall of ice like those [Strongarms] earlier. It was completely covered in white fur, and looked like it could crush one of the those strong arms like a tin can. Excited to fight the thing, I raised my spear and prepared myself, but then another announcement came up.
“Regional Announcement: Timer for [Dungeon Master Revival] has finished. Summoning [Frozen Viper] in the vicinity.”
A flash of light comes from the center of the area we’re in, and my excitement now turns into regret. A large snake of ice is now in the center of the room, which is apparently the [Dungeon Master]. [System], why are you doing this? I know I asked for a [Hidden Boss], but this is now a death trap. Please, at least let us get out of this alive, and I won’t ask for such a thing again.
Well, now that I think about it, the [Dungeon Master] is probably why all those Adventurers were waiting outside the dungeon. They knew it was going to be a year since the Boss’ death, so they’ve prepared a large group to take the monster down, but unfortunately for us, we’re currently in the same room as the thing with the [Hidden Boss]. The [Frozen Viper] on one side, the [Yeti] on the other.
Well, whatever. At this point, we can’t do anything but just kill these two monsters. I put a smile on my face, feeling my blood getting excited. It’s a situation where the enemy is an existence worthy of fighting with all I got. Something I haven’t felt since the final battle between Aria and I.
“So, [Hero], take your pick. The snake, or the furry?” I ask her.
“…[Yeti].” She tells me.
“Well screw you, you’re taking the viper. You got a flaming cloak anyway. Let me have the prize this time.” I immediately reject her choice. I want cool stuff too, and she’s trying to hog it by killing the big guys. This time, I’m going to destroy the [Hidden Boss] on my own, and get something equally cool to her cloak.
She doesn’t argue to my rejection, and turns towards the direction of the snake. I turn to face the [Yeti], which roars at me loudly, while the snake behind me hisses at Aria. I had no idea how it did that without any vocal chords, but it did it anyway. As if in sync, the [Hero] and I say the same, provoking words to the monsters that starts our own, separate battles.
““…bring it on!””
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Right after saying that, the [Yeti] charges at me with its massive, 4 meter body, and I sprint right at it. It swings its massive left arm at me, and I leap over it, and grab onto the fur of the monster. As it tries to shake me off, I let go when it lifts its arm above its head, and aim my spear straight for the head. I thrust the spear towards it and a lance of darkness emerges from it, hitting the head straight on.
It didn’t pierce through the skull, but it did do some damage to it, which was very fortunate for me. It meant that I was at least able to harm the beast, despite the massive difference in stats between us. I fall behind the [Yeti], and roll on the ground as I land. I turn around as fast as I could to prepare my next move, but it has already recovered from my attack with its hand right above me, about to squash me like a bug.
I leap to the right as fast as I can, barely dodging the hand that smashes the area I was just standing in. It was stuck for a second, and I used that short opening to try and stab the [Yeti]’s elbow with all my might. It pierces through the skin easily, but the bone was too hard to break through, so I pull back immediately, and jump away. The [Yeti] yells out in pain and anger as I move away, and buries its hands into the ground. It lifts a large block of ice from the ground, and throws it right at me. I easily dodge the projectile, but right behind the thrown ice, was the [Yeti] swinging its fist towards me while running to me, using the block of ice as cover to hide itself.
Instantly, I throw two [Spectral Daggers], one below me and at the ground right behind the [Yeti]. The daggers lands just before the fist reaches me, and I fall into the shadow, teleporting to the backside of the monster. I slash my spear along the spinal area of the monster, and I can feel the bone, but I couldn’t cut through it. It roars out in pain again, and I back off.
It turns around and swings its fist at me again, and this time I decide to take it head on with the help of [Demon Magic]. I enchant my body with a spell called [Black Skeleton], which increases my body strength by 10 fold. I slash at the fist with my spear, and the impact of the two forces hitting can be heard. My strength was greater though, the slash causing the [Yeti]’s arm to recoil back.
I swing at the knees of the [Yeti], and try to break them with my strength, but as usual, I can only pierce the skin. I pull away and the [Yeti] raises its arm and swings it down right on top of me. I stab at it with my spear, and the impact of the two forces colliding can be heard again, but the monster’s strength was greater than mine this time due to the momentum it gathered from gravity. I’m forced onto my knees temporarily, but then I was finally able to push back against the hand, and with my great strength, I manage to push away the hand and force the [Yeti] back. As the [Yeti] is forced back by my strength, I try to break the same knee again, but still to no avail.
It seems like no matter what, I can’t break or pierce through its bones, so all I could do at this point is to just cut it apart in several different areas, in an attempt to make it bleed out. I can also try to aim for its stomach and eyes, lethal areas to strike without any bone in the way.
As I try to think about how to take it down, the [Yeti] suddenly grabs the ice pillar next to it, and snaps it off completely. Upon doing so, the entire ravine begins shaking, just like before, causing my balance to become unstable. The [Yeti] wasn’t affected by the shaking, and swung the pillar of ice at me. I use one of my spells on it, [Shadow Ruin], which weakened the pillar’s structure. I slash at it right after, and the entire pillar of ice shatters to pieces.
Because the floor was still shaking as I did that, I fall over onto the ground, and the shards of ice falls onto me. Covering my head with my arms, the ice fails to cut through the armor I’m wearing, and I come out of it unharmed. When the shaking finally stops, I look up to see the [Yeti] about to stomp on me.
This guy just seriously wants me to die by being smashed, it seems. I roll to my right, right into the shadow I created earlier, and return to my previous position. Right now, I’m right behind the [Yeti], and I take a low stance, waiting for it to turn around. When it realizes that I’m not under its foot, I swing my spear at its stomach before it sees me, cutting it open. As the [Yeti] yells out, I take a few steps back, lift the spear above my head, and throw it right at the monster’s face.
The spear pierces deep in its right eye, to the point where you can barely see the blunt end of the spear emerging from its eye socket. It still doesn’t fall, and actually grabs at the spear in its eye and pulls it out. While the [Yeti]’s distracted with something like this, it’s my final chance to kill it because I was going to run out of mana soon from all the spells I’m using.
I decide it’s time to get bloody, and sprint up to the [Yeti]’s earlier cutted up stomach. I thrust my hand right into the wound I made earlier in its stomach, and grab at whatever I could. I pull with all my might, and tear out some of the [Yeti]’s inner organs out of its stomach. The [Yeti] yells out in agony, and falls to its knees, still not dead yet. It doesn’t try to attack me though, probably because it’s in too much pain to move.
I run around to its back, and leap up onto it. The cut I made on its spinal earlier was still there, and like before, I thrust my hand straight into it, and grip at the spinal cord of the monster. I pull at it with my high strength, and the monster begins shaking its body like crazy, and stands up. It tries to reach at me behind its back, but it wasn’t able to. I continue pulling it with all my strength, and I can hear snapping sounds from the body.
Finally, after about 20 seconds of pulling, I forcefully snap off a small part of its spine, but that was enough to cause its lower body to stop working. The spine is a very important part of the body, after all. It connects all the parts to the brain and without it, parts of the body will no longer function properly. After pulling this out, I finally killed the monster, and the voice of the system confirms it.
“Regional Announcement: [Yeti] has been slain. Rewards have been granted to the slayer.”
“Yeti has been defeated. 200,000 experience has been received.
Received [Armlet of Black Ice].
Level has been increased to 33.
Level has been increased to 34.
78,200 experience until level 35.
New title has been received: [Slayer of Hunters].”
I stand victorious atop the corpse of the [Yeti], with blood dripping from my hands and armor. I wipe it off on the fur of the corpse under me, not wanting to have such a mess on me. After wiping off most of the blood, I look over to where Aria was supposed to be, but I don’t see her anywhere. There was a large hole in the wall next to what seems to be a gate leading into this part of the caverns. Anxiety fills my heart for a second, until the [System]’s message appeared.
“Regional Announcement: [Frozen Viper] has been slain. Rewards have been granted to the slayer.”
Immediately after hearing this, a feeling of relief came over me. That should mean that Aria was still alive, and she won the battle. I kind of doubt that group would have arrived all the way down here by now, so there was no other party that was able to take it down. I run to the hole near the gate, and look through it. I see Aria kneeling over a large pile of ice shards, gripping her right arm tightly.
“Wow, you look completely messed up!” I say as I step through the hole in the wall, and run up to her. “I’m surprised you haven’t died yet! Just look at you! There’s blood all over your body, and your right arm isn’t even bending the right way! Are you okay!?” At first, I try to make a joke about her wounds, before I finally realize that they were actually extremely serious.
There was blood soaking through her bandages, her right arm looked completely shattered, and the ice shards she’s kneeling on isn’t making her situation any better. She stands up, and walks to the nearest wall, sitting down with her back against it and lets go of her right arm. She remained like that for a while, I was really starting to get worried.
“…Thoth.” She suddenly says.
“Yeah? What do you need me to do!? You’re going to die if we don’t get you help!” I was panicking, unable to figure out what to do. I have no healing magic, we didn’t bring any potions and such because we thought it was unnecessary. Now I’m really regretting, and I vow to never make such a stupid mistake ever again.
“…bandages.” Immediately, I freeze upon hearing this.
According to what she told me, those things haven’t been removed for two years, and she wasn’t planning on removing them soon. Hearing her say something like this, does she want me to remove it? It was an extremely serious matter, because it would reveal her abilities to the world and cause a lot of complications for her life in the future.
“There aren’t any bandages to seal you again, so you’ll have to return home like that, you know?” I explain. She nods, showing that she understands the consequences of these actions.
“…I can still do it myself, you know? Curse you, that is.” I remind her of this, and she looks at me for a second, before nodding a second time. It was an obvious choice. After all, she doesn’t care about the fact that her appearance is known, but more about that her stats may be revealed.
“…remove them.” She says to me one last time, and this time, I nod and begin the process of uncursing them myself. After two whole years, her appearance will be known by the world again.
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Sorry for delaying Aria's bandage removal, but I'll be uploading chapter 17 shortly after this. It depends on how fast Editor-san works on it, so yeah. Please be patient!