My sight returns when the light disperses. I look at my status screen.

Hmmm. I couldn’t avoid it, but it didn’t deal that much damage. Still, I can’t keep receiving attacks for free. But why can’t I move? For how long am I going to remain paralyzed?

I resign myself and watch the turtle open its mouth again, shooting another light beam in my direction.

“...fuck! For how long am I– huh?” I can talk again. And move too? “Finally! Hahaha! I’m going to take revenge now for the humiliation. Do you like fire?”

I don’t know what caused the paralysis, but I’ll deal with the turtle first. Imitating the turtle’s actions, I also open my mouth wide and use my Dragon’s Breath, sending the flames in its direction.

Dragon’s Breath - Fire (Activated skill) Cost: 300 EP, 300 MP Deal (50 + 2 * SPI) fire damage to every unit in a 5-meter cone in front of you.

Simple but powerful, the flames scorch the giant turtle. If we weren’t inside a game, I would hear the sizzling sound of the burning flesh and smell the smoke filling the air.

I check the turtle’s HP bar, confident to have dealt a big blow, but… “Resilient, ain’t ya? I’ll do it the slow way, then.” I unsheathe my precious katana and rush at it. “Die, you motherfucker!”

*Clink!*

The sword makes a metallic sound when it hits the shell. I swear, I never expected a shell to make this kind of noise, regardless of its thickness. Another look at the turtle’s HP reveals it did take damage, just not as much as I expected.

This is going to take longer than I wanted…

“Matta, Berta, come help me with this!” I shout. “Quickly!”

I can and would defeat it alone, but I’ve seen a few more turtles roaming around. It’d be troublesome if they clumped together and attacked with their beams from different positions. Or those laughing and annoying Goblin and Imp monsters. They could show up unexpectedly at any moment.

The turtle tries to bite me, but I’m faster and smaller. It’s easy to avoid the attacks as long as I’m not distracted or paralyzed.

Matta and Berta arrive when the turtle’s HP falls under half.

“Is this one of those turtles? I thought they would be smaller.” Comments Matta, raising its stick and getting ready for combat.

“Ahaha, so pathetic! To need our help against a single monster…” Berta laughs at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll save you, blockhead.”

She uses her staff to cast a fire arrow. But, contrary to everyone’s expectations, the turtle’s shell flashes, and the spell is fired back at her. Surprised, she can’t avoid it on time and takes it right in the middle of her face.

I burst out laughing. “Hey, is this how you’re supposed to save anyone? Also, I can defeat it by myself. I just didn’t want to waste tim– Whooooaa!”

Right when I step to the right to avoid the turtle’s bite, another light beam crosses the space I was occupying an instant ago. It passes right next to my head.

I didn’t avoid it on purpose, I was lucky to move out of its path without knowing.

Another turtle? I turn around, and sure enough, another turtle points its open mouth in our direction. “We didn’t kill the first one, but there’s a second one attacking us, what bad luck.”

Until now, the turtles were roaming around without purpose or logic, but as soon as I started fighting against one, a second one attacked us.

I can’t understand why, but I feel bad about this…

Instead of focusing on the fight, I open my wings and move up. My field of view opens up and soon I can see most of our surroundings.

“What!? Why is this happening?”

The turtles, who until now were roaming the area randomly, are all coming in our direction. They’re slow, and the terrain isn’t easy, but given their long range it won’t take long for them to surround us. Some humanoid monsters are hiding in the shadows too, waiting for a chance to strike us. Did they get attracted to the light beams or is it a coincidence?

Below me, Matta and Berta are still fighting against the turtle.

Since receiving the spell back, Berta has been too scared to use her magic to attack, so she’s using her staff instead. The problem is her Strenght sucks. Although any damage is better than nothing, she can barely put a dent in it.

I fly back.

“This is bad. We must run away.” As soon as I land, I use a second Dragon’s Breath to finish the turtle once and for all.

“Why? Are you scared of a single turtle?” Taunts Berta. She imitates my voice. “Oh, I’m so stupid that I must run from a single enemy… Ahahaha!”

“Is it serious?”

Matta first hides behind the closest rock to prevent the second turtle from attacking him. Only then does he try to engage in conversation. He always does this. He must have learned to act this way the hard way, after being killed a lot of times for using such a weak Champion.

I nod “I think so. When I scanned the area, all the surrounding monsters were coming our way… Aah, dangerous!”

Light accumulates near the second turtle’s mouth, warning of an incoming light beam.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I quickly move to hide next to Matta, but then I notice that Berta is still laughing, oblivious to her surroundings. So I grab her leg and pull her with me.

“–W-wha? Release me!” She shouts. “What do you think you’re do–” The bright light blinds her and she shuts up. “...um… ah… thank you, Carles…” She stutters.

“You’re welcome.” I release her and turn to Matta. “I know it’s tempting to kill the second turtle since it’s standing alone, but… by the time we come close and defeat it, we’ll be surrounded. We should stay hidden for now.”

“Hmm… All right.”

Matta thinks for a while before nodding. He’s the one who knows the best that great explorers don’t need to defeat every single monster they encounter.

It’s fine to enjoy a battle or plan how to defeat an enemy, but facing every obstacle head-on is foolish. Why should you risk dying when you can ignore the danger and move undetected?

“I think so too,” Says Berta. “I’ll be the best shadow, completely undetected by our enemies! If they detect us, I’m sure it’ll be your fault, blockhead.”

How unusual. She must have gained some humility after almost being hit by that last light beam.

She’s right. With her Champion, it’s easy to be extremely stealthy. Being able to fly without making noise, having the innate skill to turn temporarily invisible, and with such a small size, she can be very hard to detect.

But…

I'm not going to let that insult go.

“I’m sure we can rely on you, Berta. You’ll be our invisible, child-like chopping board, slicing any unsuspecting monster into tiny bits! Hahaha!”

“What did you say!?”

She tries to grab my horns once again, but I’m ready this time and avoid her hands by turning my head on time.

“You won’t catch me by surprise anymore.” I taunt her.

“We’ll see! Bring it on!” She rushes at me, clenching and unclenching her fingers in a weirdly disgusting way.

Observing us, Matta starts laughing. “Hihihi! Love is in the air…”

“No! Who’d like this blockhead!?” “You’re wrong, I don’t like children.”

We say at the same time.

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

*Thump, thump*

The turtle moves past our hiding place, slow but steady. This is the third one we encountered since we started hiding ourselves.

Berta whispers right next to my ear, afraid to make too much noise and alert the surrounding monsters.

“You were right, Carles. They all came after us. How many do you think there are?”

I wait until the turtle is a few meters away before answering. “I saw five but there might be more.” It’s five without including the first one we killed.

She gulps.

After the first encounter, we tested their AI by starting a fight against one of them. They never move close to each other, but as soon as they see a light beam, they start walking to that position. We’re now hiding after our little test.

“To think they’ll be so hard to play against…” Mutters Matta. “They counter us, don’t they? The only one who can fight properly against them is you.” He points at me.

I send him a dubious gaze.

He knows, right? He knows that half the reason we can’t kill them fast enough is that he’s so stubborn he won’t use a stronger Champion, right? The other half is Berta, who’s too afraid of having the spells reflected and also sucks at melee range.

“I-it’s not my fault, ok?” He covers his face with one hand. “I never expected to face monsters who reduce damage by a flat amount. I didn’t know that skill existed! I love the challenge of slowly chipping at the monster’s HP while avoiding all attacks, it’s the best way to show your skills. It’s not my fault the turtles counter me!”

I spin my eyes around. “I didn’t say anything, did I? In fact, I’m surprised you can usually keep up with us with your Goblin…”

“...you’re right. I’m amazing, hihihihi!”

He returns to his usual smile and starts laughing. His fat gut trembles and shakes around as he does so.

“If anything… I’m more worried about our other teammate…” I take a glance at Berta. “...who’s too scared to face them.”

“D-don’t lie! I’m not scared at all!”

“Is that so? Then why are your legs trembling?”

“They aren’t! Hmph!” She crosses her arms and turns around. “Now that the turtle is gone, I’ll scout the area and find a safe path. You’ll see! I’m more useful than you!”

“Yes. Go and be useful.” I answer, waving my hand to tell her to go away.

“Wait! Before you go…” Matta takes out the map. “We’re around here, and we want to go in that direction, towards the lake. Try to find a path in that direction.”

I watch him move his finger over the paper.

We came from the entrance, which is situated on the southwestern edge of this cave system. The multiple caves connect with each other, creating a single wide-open area and the lake roughly splits everything in two halves.

We chose the left path because we wanted to see the rock formations on top of the cliff. We had to climb up a steep slope to reach it. Then, we fought the first turtles and retreated further north, to the edge of the cave. From here, we moved east and are now close to the lake’s cliff.

Now we want to see if there’s something on the small island and then use the bridge to cross to the right side.

“Alright!”

She enthusiastically nods. Then, she stays in the same place, completely immobile. Not even her wings are moving. She’s floating there, motionless.

“I’ll never get used to this…”

My hand passes through her and appears on the other side. This is the effect of her Trickster skill. She turns invisible and leaves an illusion of herself in the spot where she activated the skill.

Matta sticks his face right next to mine and starts laughing. He hides his face with a hand and whispers.

“Hihihi! What are you doing, moving your hand like that while inside her? Are you thinking of something perverted?”

“What!? No!”

I quickly take my hand back. Matta continues laughing.

“Hihihi! You didn’t need to deny it so hard. You know what they say, that the more you deny it, the truer it is…”

“Why are you always saying this kind of stuff?” I grab his belly and start moving it around. “Are you envious because nobody likes you? It’s too much ‘you’ for anyone…”

He strikes back by grabbing my horns and twisting them around, making my head follow his movements. “Hey, at least I’m not using the game to make myself look stupidly handsome. Do you have a complex in real life? Is this why you made your champion so handsome?”

We don’t realize Berta is back until we hear her voice.

“...uh, guys? What the hell are you doing…?” She stares at us with a furrow.

Shit… I should have noticed she was going back when her illusion disappeared.

We freeze before turning around to look at her. ““Nothing!”” We say at the same time, hiding our hands behind our backs.

“Yeah, and I’m stupid so I’ll believe you.” She shrugs. “Not like I care. There’s no more enemies ahead, we can safely go.”

“Then, let’s go! To adventure!” Says Matta after making a fake cough.

“To adventure!” I repeat.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

“It’s possible to get your perfect counter when you enter another dungeon. In those cases, I recommend you run away instead of fighting. This is a perfectly normal course of action, and you shouldn’t be ashamed.

What if it happens in Dungeon Battles? When you prepare for a Dungeon Battle you should take your possible counters into account. So if you didn’t prepare anything to deal with them, it’s your fault. This is why I always have several options to choose from, depending on the Champion I want to use, and the faction I’m playing against.”

- Excerpt of an interview with a high-ranking DMA player.