Straf and Cycelia enter the Adventurers' Guild, and Straf immediately walks up to the board with papers hanging off of it.

「Herb gathering, herb gathering… Is there anything you do in this town other than gather herbs? Seriously, have you ever heard of a garden?」

Straf looks skims through the papers' titles, then turns to the woman at the long desk.

「We had more things to do, but over the last few days, an adventurer party took nearly everything off the board. We still have a task to investigate the sewers-」

The guild girl explains, apologetically tilting her head with a shrug of her shoulders.

Rrrip.

「It was rats. Giant rats.」

Straf interrupts the woman, and puts the paper requesting sewer disturbance investigation down on her desk.

「Pay me.」

Straf says, standing with his fists on his hips as he looks down at the confused guild girl.

「Um… But… We need proof.」

She looks at the paper with a troubled face.

「It's one silver, come on. Do I seriously have to go all the way down to the sewers to bring a corpse for one fucking coin?」

Straf spreads his arms in exasperation.

「Well… A head, or a few tails would be enough… If they're as big as you claim.」

The guild girl awkwardly shrugs her shoulders again.

「You know what? Fuck it. I have half a mind to get the corpse and just dump it here, but it wouldn't even fit into the room. You can keep your reward, you'll be all the richer for it. If I had a quest journal, I'd be really upset about this one.」

Straf turns around, shaking his head as he walks towards the door.

「…He really did kill a giant rat, though.」

Cycelia adds, before she bows lightly and catches up to Straf.

「Oh! And with the kind of rewards you give out to these chumps compared to the work required and the level of danger, I assume it must be some sort of population control scheme. Good on you, honestly, it weeds out the dumbest and the weakest.」

Straf turns over his shoulder and points at the guild girl staring at him with a tight-lipped grimace. Clearly this isn't in the first time she's dealing with a reward dispute, and presumably not the last.

Crrrack! Thud!

「Hey, watch your fucking mouth and speak for you- Wha-!?」

A man sitting at one of the tables with a tankard turns around and starts talking to Straf in a raised voice, but his jaw drops out of shock when Straf pushes at the door and rips it out with its entire doorframe. It slams down on the ground outside with a thud, almost hitting a passerby outside.

「Oh! Good thing you saved on maintenance, too! That cost cutting really pays for itself! Dock the repairs out of my reward! Let's go, Lia…」

Straf points his palm at the door with frame on the floor, speaking at the guild girl in an exasperated tone as he shouts across the guild. He shakes his head then leaves with his hands in his pockets, stepping over the door.

《Ahh… This is getting old. I have everything I asked for… I just killed the tutorial level boss in one hit. I have enough money to go find some magic store and deck myself out in even more overpowered equipment, but… What's the point?》

Straf sighs, looking idly at the people passing them. His eyes drift to the lamps, the buildings…

《Do I even need more stuff at this point? Aside from the turtle incident, nothing is a threat. Not unless I make it be one. Do I need to start holding back? Make my own fun? Come up with stupid challenges for myself?》

Straf stops in middle of a large plaza, sighing again. Cycelia peers at his face.

《Do I have to? Older games wanted you to break them. They were real sado-maso. The game didn't want the player to win, but the player didn't want to lose, so it was an endless arms race of cheating the bullshit mechanics with no holds barred. The old games could take that.》

Straf sighs again, then glances at Cycelia. She's staring at him with concern in her emerald eyes as she pensively fidgets with her medallion.

《…But this one can't. Am I supposed to just walk into the palace and one-shot the king? It'd be satisfying if there was some sort of build up to that. Yeah, yeah, this is exactly what I wanted… But it fucking sucks.》

「Straf, are you okay? Straf?」

Cycelia asks, tilting her head with furrowed brows.

「Huh?」

Straf's eyes re-focus on Cycelia, as he leaves his mental pause screen.

「You look… Kind of down? I've noticed you've been like this for a while now, but it got worse since the sewer… Are you okay?」

Cycelia blinks, the concern on her face deepens.

「…I don't know…」

Straf shrugs, looking around with a bored frown.

「What's wrong? Maybe I can help somehow-」

「No, you can't… Not unless you can wind back time at will.」

Straf sighs and shrugs his shoulders. Dejected, Cycelia looks down.

「I… I see…」

She responds in a meek, quiet tone as she visibly shrinks and her shoulders slump.

《Was he just putting on a brave face while he was suffering inside, like me? I thought he was getting better… How bad does it have to be if even someone as strong as Straf can barely take it anymore?》

Cycelia blinks rapidly, looking at Straf with compassionate pity. The street lamps blink on, flooding the cobblestone streets with light as Straf is mostly turned away from Cycelia.

《He needs to know… He needs to feel that he's not the only one suffering, that I understand him, so…》

Cycelia nervously spreads her hands apart, slowly reaching for Straf's narrow waist from behind.

Clunk.

「Hm? Did you hear that?」

Straf asks as he asks with his brows furrowed, looking at a nearby sewer manhole beside them. Cycelia pulls her arms back, grinning nervously as she looks in a completely different direction.

「H- Heh? Hear w- What?」

She asks with a quivering tight-lipped grimace, red faced.

「It's almost as if…」

Straf eyes the manhole with suspicion.

Thwunk!

The manhole shoots up into the sky far above the rooftops, spinning around its axis with a sound of metallic impact.

「What the fuck!?」 「Huh?」

Straf exclaims as he watches the manhole reach the top of its trajectory, and start coming down. Cycelia missed it, and is just staring at the open sewer hole.

《What the fuck!? Is this a replay!? A random encounter with the final boss!? A new game plus!?》

Many thoughts rush through Straf's mind as he keeps staring at the spinning manhole like a hawk. Cycelia is still completely clueless.

《Wait, is this bitch trying the same old trick!? Did she do a typo again, or is this an assassination attempt!?》

「Straf, what- Hm?」

Cycelia asks, before looking upward. She notices an odd shape spinning and descending towards them, and furrows her brows.

《Hold on, she'd have to be a super-dyslexiac to be the one behind this. I can also see it coming, so I can dodge it. It can't possibly going for me, then who-》

Straf's eyes snap open in panicked realization.

「Lia!-」 「Hu-? Oof!」

He exclaims, and pushes Cycelia away with one hand. She flies back, rolling onto her back then sideways across the road. Straf leaps the opposite direction onto the ground.

「Ow! Ow ow ow…」

Cycelia groans as she slowly picks herself up off the ground.

Thud. Fwopfwopfwop-CLANG!

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The manhole whops through the air then embeds itself into the cobblestones, cracking them with a heavy impact as it lands on its edge, a considerable distance away from either Straf or Cycelia.

「Huh?… Ah… So it was just a regular manhole flying for some reason… That got my heart rate up. Speaks for itself, if I'm more concerned about a manhole than a monster…」

On the floor, Straf looks at the manhole stuck in the ground in front of him with a relieved grin. Sudden screams of panic start from the crowd all around.

「Straf! Straf, look out!」

Cycelia yells from behind Straf. He looks over his shoulder lazily as he's laying on the ground.

「Ah, it's just a giant slime monster thing. I thought it would be something worse-」

Straf sighs with relief again. He grins at the sludge-green slime, as big as some of the buildings, while it's descending upon him. It engulfs him, pulling him into its center.

《Oh noooooo, a slime ate meeee! Whatever am I going to doooo?》

Bubbles come out of his nose as Straf sighs. Floating in the center with his arms crossed, almost horizontal, he reclines in the slime as if he was laying on a sofa on his side.

《Oh, wait, I can just do this…》

「Statsblblblbl.」

More bubbles form, and he taps his finger a few times through the slime. He takes a disappointed breath.

《There. Now I can breathe in water. All the tension gone, just like that. Again. The most terrifying encounter so far was a fucking manhole. This is sad… There are sure a lot of things in the sewers here.》

Straf thinks, as he serenely floats in the goo. The slime slowly goops around the street trying to catch another bystander, but it is simply far too slow to be a danger to anyone but to small, unattended children and animals.

「S- Straf…」

Cycelia stammers in shock while she gets up from the ground, watching the slime pull Straf in. Though he's turned with his back towards her, her teeth start chattering when she sees bubbles of air inside.

「Where are the guards? Where is Lily?-」

She looks around in panic for guards, but there are none in sight. She looks for Lily, but then realizes with panicked eyes, that she's standing right under one of the lamps. Her frightened eyes return to Straf and the giant slime.

《N-No… I have to do something! Straf is going to die if I don't do something!》

Cycelia despite the weakness in her jittery legs draws her sword and runs up to the slime. She slashes and hacks away at it wildly with all her strength to no effect. The slime's body extends above her, in an attempt to engulf her much like it did Straf, but she hops back and away.

《Nothing! It did nothing! I should have learned magic when Albus told me to, at least a single spell! I'm so worthless! I can't fight, I can't cast, what am I even good for!?》

Cycelia clenches her teeth with tears in her eyes as Straf leisurely floats in the slime. He looks up at the cyan sky, tinted by the slime.

《I'm worthless… But maybe I can still help Straf…》

Cycelia sheathes her sword and drops to her knees.

《I could probably bust out of here by freezing this thing. Or just swim out, really. Hm?》

Straf thinks as he looks at the sky. He takes a quick peek at Cycelia, and finds her kneeling with her hands clasped together and head held low.

《Is she praying or something? I'll ask her later. Oh yeah… Are there even religions in this world? Surely there are some, right? I mean, there have to be some dark cults-》

The wall of a nearby building explodes, disintegrating a chunk of it along with a part of the roof. Straf experiences a literal sinking feeling, and starts descending down.

《What the fuck was that? Gunpowder?-》

Straf furrows his brow at the hole in the wall. A golden band of light speeds past underneath him into the sky.

《Okay, that's not gunpowder. What did this?- What the fuck?》

Straf looks over his shoulder for the source of the disturbance, and Cycelia is there, slashing away at the slime wildly. Her eyes emit a golden glow, her 『Glimmermetal Longsword』 is enveloped in golden light. She swings through the slime, tearing through it viciously, when a band of light like from before escapes from it with the wide slash.

The golden band evaporates a large chunk of the green goop into a jet of steam, and Straf sinks further downward within the slime. The light pierces through the slime with ease and impacts a chimney, blowing it into tiny shattered pieces of brick.

She hacks and chops with very little regard for the destruction in the background. The people behind the slime escape out of the way of potential danger. The slime starts losing its viscosity, and Straf gently drops to the ground with his back, when the slime turns into mostly green water on the cobblestones.

「Straf!」

Cycelia shouts, with relieved joy in her voice. Straf stares at her with his brows raised, completely surprised.

《Wait, it was because of you!? Out of all the people in the world, it was because of you!?》

Athea yells into Straf's head, seething.

「What?」

He looks at the sky, laying on the ground with his back with his arms still crossed. His brows are furrowed, and eyes squinted as Straf is trying to figure out what made Athea upset.

《I've heard such a heartfelt and beautiful prayer, and I just had to grant it! And then it turns out it was just you!》

「Hey, I didn't pray. I'm wondering why Cycelia is glowing-」

Straf shrugs, but Cycelia interrupts him by hugging into his neck while sobbing.

「Straf! Straaaaf! I was so scared!」

「…Why?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands in disbelief.

「I thought you were going to die! Straaf!」

Cycelia squeezes Straf's head into her soft chest. Straf is unfazed by the sensation, as he felt something similar just a moment ago.

《You didn't pray, but she did! She was ready to trade your life for hers! I want my minor blessing back! I feel scammed!》

Athea seethes through her teeth as she yells.

「…But I was perfectly fine. Are you sure I wasn't being sacrificed?」

「Huh?」

Cycelia's head perks up, and she sniffles.

「Hold on, it's kind of hard to keep track of two conversations at once.」

「…What?」

《You bastard! You did this on purpose didn't you!? You knew she had a good heart and would do this!》

「…No?」

Straf squints at the sky, still confused. He pulls away from Cycelia's grasp and stands up from the slime.

「Okay. What happened, Lia?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands.

「Well- Well I… I thought you were going to die, and I prayed to Mercia for help. I wanted the power to save you… And stuff…」

Cycelia sniffles, and taps her fingers together as she explains while looking aside abashed.

「What? And it worked? Heh. Sucker.」

《Krrrkkk! You-》

Athea seethes again, but stops herself short of saying something unbecoming of her.

「So, those beams of light were your doing?」

Straf asks, looking at the hole in the building nearby again.

「Y- Yes…」

Clank clank clank clank clank clank!

Cycelia nods, and an entire group of armored feet clank in from a nearby street. The city guards fan out with halberds, looking around and shouting.

「Where's the monster!?」 「Where did it go!?」

They ask the panicked bystanders, who point to Straf and Cycelia as they speak to the nervous guards. The armored men relax, and take a stance at ease when they realize the slime is now on the ground.

「Uh oh.」

Straf says, as one of the guards approaches them.

「You killed the slime?」

The man asks Cycelia, with his halberd pointing up at the sky as he rests it on the cobblestones.

「I- Um… Well, yes, but-」

Cycelia fidgets with her medallion, looking aside as she stammers. The man nods.

「Thank you, we're ill-prepared to deal with slimes. Are you adventurers or something? We'll take it from here.」

The man flashes a quick salute to his helmet, then nods in approval again.

「I am. We'll be heading out, good luck cleaning all of this up.」

Straf says, and guides Cycelia away with his hand on her back.

「Yeah, it's going to be a pain… Take care!」

The man looks at the spilled watery slime, and waves them off as they hastily leave.

「Straf, aren't we going to explain what happened?-」

「Do you want to explain the property damage, too?」

「Gah! No!」

Cycelia's jaw drops, and they head for the exit gate. Straf glances at the rooftops over his shoulder every now and then…