"Fuck...! What is this thing?! His skin is so fucking harddd!!!" [Shun/ Berserker]

Shun had been attempting to cleave the undead-looking person in front of him with a scimitar for a while now, but he could not cut through entirely. The creature was bare-handed, so he thought it would be fine to overpower it with his own raw stats as well.

But he couldn't even make it flinch. The creature was attempting to clutch the blade of his scimitar every time he went for a swing without hesitation. Its skin was extremely thick so it did not damage the creature very much. Instead, he felt a little helpless from this exchange.

He was supposed to have stats befitting of someone in the hero's party, someone who stood beside Kains whom he admired as his ideal role model. He could potentially end it with his berserker skills, but his pride stopped him from using his actual abilities to fight. He wanted to show that he could keep up with Kains.

This was entirely the reason why he had turned up for training every single day. If he could beat the knights effortlessly, then why couldn't he scratch this creature?

The creature did not wait for Shun to think. 

It quickly dashed past him and headed towards the group of students behind him.

Tch! Not good!!!

"AaAaArRrRrRrrrrrRRRRRR!!!"

The undead let out a garbled voice.

"...Fuuu..." [Kains / Hero]

Kains stepped up and exhaled once.

"Perfect Guard!"

The creature's bare-handed fist was deflected with a shove.

"Light Speed!"

Within a split second, Kains drew the silver sword from the sheath on his waist and cut the creature in half.

Purple blood splattered everywhere, inducing the shrieks of the girls behind. It echoed for a while in this cave.

----------------------------------------

"Shun..."

"I-I'm sorry...!!! I should have known better. That this wasn't training anymore. I should have taken this more seriously...!"

Kains smiled faintly at Shun and patted his left shoulder.

"...Yes, that is exactly the case. Those with power, should lead by example. You shouldn't be too reserved with your skills. We are gifted with them solely for the sake of using them after all."

"A-as expected of Kains... It was foolish of me to even attempt to show off... ...Did you hear that guys? I hope you guys take this as a lesson too!"

Shun immediately turned a little more energetic and began to lecture the others.

"Tch... Give me a break." [Mai / War Maiden]

"...Huhhh...? ...What... did you say?" 

"I said, give me a break already. Don't make me repeat myself, you stupid hoodlum."

"You called me a-"

"-Stop fighting. ...

You too, Shun. Now isn't the time, I thought you'd just understood that."

"Ah... ...I-I'm sorry..."

"See, at least Kains knows when to stop. Right, Kains~?"

"...Slut." [Inaho / Summoner]

"Agreed." [Sachi / Swordsman]

"I am of the same opinion." [Yanagi / Cleric]

The trio of girls chimed in, when it became very apparent to them that Mai was up to her usual flirting antics again.

"HUUUHHH?!!!"

"Guys, stop. We're in a very perilous situation right now. If you guys hadn't taken the elixirs like I'd reminded when we fell down here, do you think you would still be bantering healthily like this?

...If you still want to fight, I am going to go on ahead."

Kains was the first to remind everyone to drink the health potions they were allocated with. Incidentally, Takeo had not brought along any, as he was forcefully brought along without listening to the briefing of the mission. They had been given 5 High-grade Elixirs during that time by Bartley, the Advisor of the Emperor.

Bartley did not tag along for this mission however, much to Mai's displeasure. Adding on the fact that she did not get well with her other classmates who had already formed their own cliques, and the situation they had gotten into unwillingly, she was in a very bad mood.

"Wait up, Kains. I'll come with you."

"...Ah geeezzz!!! I get it, I'll apologize! I'm sorry...? Whatever."

"...We're sorry too..."

"...Aahhh, aahhh... this is the worst. First we got stuck in the middle of the forest by some weird mist, then we lose our means of navigation, then we fall into this pithole that we can't climb out of... this sucks...

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...What, what are you looking at? Creepy nerd, go and die already."

She noticed that Ichiyo was looking at her for awhile now, which further ticked her off.

"Annoying... the only hunk here is also this straight-laced... I want to get out of here already..." (mumble)

Mai grumbled under her breath.

Seeing that everyone was still unsettled, Kains immediately called for everyone's attention with a clap. When he saw that everyone had refocused again, he nodded and said.

"As you guys might have realized earlier, we've fallen into a steep trap and got separated from the other knights." 

Everyone moved their eyes to where Kains was looking at.

The two carriages they were in had been destroyed from the fall.

When they fell, they ended up in a bad state of health as well.

Taking in the reminder from Kains's shout in the midst, they had consumed an elixir each to restore their health. Their original broken bones and external wounds had been miraculously healed from drinking them.

That was why they were more willing to cooperate with Kains, since he was the only one capable of uniting the group of students for survival.

"...Okay, if we're now on the same page, I'm going to re-evaluate our current situation. We should take a look at this thing first."

"Kains, that is..."

"Yeah, I heard it too... Just to be sure though, I think we can still target dead matter. Status Check.

...As I thought, this is Matou Takeo."

"Th-that was... Matou...? That Matou...?" 

"There's no mistake... it's definitely him..."

"No wonder I couldn't cut his body up... He had an ability that raised his stats a lot, which also influenced his defense..."

"...I told you to go after him at that time... you fucking murderer..." [Ichiyo / Flame Wizard]

Ichiyo was the only one who bore conflicted and negative feelings towards Kains, as he continued to glare at him. Ultimately, Ichiyo did not act on his emotions; He would probably be stopped by the group of students now that they had elected for Kains as the leader unanimously.

"...It had been a painful decision for me, but I still believe I was correct at that time. We can go on lengths with this topic, but now is not the time for that.

What is more important now, is the fact that he had turned into something akin to a zombie since the last time we've seen him. His Status Window is littered with text that contains the word 'necromancy'. 

...His name... is also 'Necromancer's Lesser Skeleton Corpse (Matou Takeo)'. So it's pretty obvious at this point...

...That there is a monster that is capable of raising the undead around."

"...That isn't all. We can't be sure if it's just one of them, or more than what we're capable of dealing with right now. Do you guys understand what I'm saying? Can you comprehend the gravity of the situation we're in right now?"

Everyone fell silent to Kains's deduction.

"This brings me to the next topic. Do you guys still have your elixirs?"

Everyone except Mai and Ichiyo nodded, but they seemingly checked their Item Bags to double check.

The Item Bag was a very valuable commodity in this world which used Space Magic to create a large storage within itself and had the advantage of being weightless. The students within the hero's party all received one to hold on to their weapons of choice and recovery items. However, it could not store living organisms.

"So what I'm suggesting, is that you guys should leave them to me for safeguarding-"

"Huhhh?! No way in hell, you fucking sham!"

"I'm not forcing anyone to make this decision. I am just trying to help. Entrusting them to me should be the safest option since I have the three hero skills. In the case that some of you are unable to fight, I can step up and protect everyone. But my abilities cost quite abit of mana to use, so I burn through my elixirs very quickly.

I'm going to say again, I'm not forcing anyone. But if you pool the elixirs with me, we will be able to fend against potential enemies more effectively. I have been practising my abilities for the month, so I have at least a solid grasp of mastery over them. What do you guys think...?"

"Needless to say, I'm in."

Shun was the first to break the silence, followed by Yanagi.

"I agree with Kains as well. As a cleric, I cannot do much combat maneuvers alone. I will hand them over, please take care of me."

"I-I whi-ll... I be-rhieve... ouch... I-I believe in Amagiri..."

Inaho stumbled on her words, but she got the point across too as she took out the remaining 4 elixirs as well.

"I believe Kains is the only capable leader now. We should settle these matters quickly. Here."

Sachi, who was used to following Yaiba, took the sheep mentality as well.

"...Here."

Mai handed over the elixirs obediently as well.

Everyone had passed their elixirs to Kains, except for Ichiyo.

"...I don't trust you so I'll hold on to them myself. I can fight on my own plenty well."

He drew two swords from his Item Bag and lit them ablaze with his Unlimited Flames Conjuring to prove his point, even though he knew it would melt in a minute. He still had spares in the bag.

But Kains quickly shouted.

"YOU FOOL, DOUSE THE FIRE QUICKLY!"

"H-huh?"

Ichiyo panicked as well and quickly undid his skill. He quickly realized why Kains had stopped him.

It got a little harder to breathe in the cave all of a sudden.

"*Cough cough*, wh-what happened to the air..." Mai complained.

"Your fire is created with magic, but it is sustained by the oxygen in the surroundings if you don't expend your own mana to control it...! You didn't even know that?!"

"I-I..."

"Don't touch that ability anymore in this place until you've figured out how to control it."

"Alright..."

"Tch... can you like, stop being stupid for once?! You trying to kill us?! Aaahhh, annoying... so annoying..."

"..."

Collating all of the elixirs he had received from 6 out of 7 people including himself, Kains had 25 elixirs for safekeeping.

He had not used any of his 5 when they fallen as he had immediately used Light Speed and Perfect Guard to fall without hurting himself.

Kains then told everyone of their next move.

"...Alright. Everyone stay close. We're going to head further in. Caves should have an exit somewhere. Since the hole we've fallen from isn't necessarily the entrance, maybe there are more routes out than we think.

We should give up on climbing out from here as well, since I've investigated the surface of the wall earlier. It is coated with a slippery substance, so even if we can physically climb the few hundred meters up to the surface, the walls don't have ideal places to hold on to continue climbing."

Everyone agreed, after moving to the walls for a touch.

"Okay, I'm going to make a torch now. It's going to get darker and harder to continue without the light from the surface in this place."

Kains picked up a few thin pieces of branches on the ground and bundled them together. It had fallen from the top as the mechanism for the trapdoor that dropped the carriages down into this cave.

Then he tore off a portion of the clothing of Takeo's corpse and wrapped the cloth around the edge of the stick until it formed a bulge. 

"Shun, your cigarette lighter please. We need the lighter fluid."

"O-okay. Here."

Kains soaked the cloth with it, and left a little for the lighter itself.

When he had finally lit it and an orange and steady flame appeared, everyone became amazed. Kains was more capable than they had thought.

"-Also a friendly reminder, Ichiyo. Do not use your ability in here. It consumes even more oxygen than this torch here. We'll die of suffocation very quickly if you do it, please remember this."

"Tch... I got it already..."

"Alright, then let's head out. Single file, I'll take the lead. The torch won't last any longer than an hour, and we should keep going lest the lack of oxygen from the burning flame gets to us in this enclosed cave.

Ichiyo, you should probably have some kind of fire resistance with your profession as a Flame Wizard. You're the only who can curb the fire if it gets wild randomly. Stay at the back and hold the torch forward and upwards, if you would please."

Ichiyo nodded unwillingly. He had caused a fair bit of trouble already so he could not refuse under the watchful gazes of the others.

The single file, from front to the end, went like this:

Kains, Mai, Shun, Yanagi, Sachi, Inaho, Ichiyo

Once everything was settled, they set off and ventured even deeper into the cave in search of another way out.

----------------------------------------

I sensed voices, and footsteps.

Eh...? Presences?

...Hello...?

Is anyone there?

There's someone there isn't it?

Are you here to accompany me...?

I began to consciously use Slime's Sense to a higher level to understand who they were.

...These presences... Those are undoubtedly...

My classmates...?!

It's been so long...!!!

They've come to save me?! I've got to meet up with them again!

I quickly followed after the familiar presences before I lost their trail.