[ Congratulations! Gate 3 : School of Muramasa

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: Defeat the bandits hurting the School of Muramasa — Complete!

Receive:

10,000 XP

50,000 PP ]

[ Congratulations! Your party is the first to complete the Gate 3 Special Objective! ]

[ Bonus Receive:

25,000 XP

100,000 PP ]

[ You defeated Mini Boss: Kanbei Ado! ]

[ Receive:

25,000 XP

100,000 PP ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

Ronin’s body started to dissipate, his crooked smile the last remaining piece of his existence to leave. Sun-young refused to look at the decay.

Instead, her eyes remained on the levels and points she gathered. The exhilaration from the upgrades soothed her injured shoulder.

[ Congratulations! You have proven yourself worthy in the eyes of Kanbei Ando! ]

[ Bonus Receive:

Seiyoku no Yaiba ]

At the arrival of the new weapon, she blinked and stared at where Ronin once was. He was gone. A smidge of blood on the tree remained.

"This is quite the hefty reward," John commented. "Excellent work, Ms. Sun-young."

She appreciated his praise and was sad she couldn't properly respond. She headed over to William who was sitting on the ground, an elbow on his raised knee.

"Thirty five thousand experience." William gulped. "This is crazy."

"It is," Sun-young agreed. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" William looked up at her and she pointed to his blooded shoulder. "Oh, I'm fine. Levelling up seemed to fix it. If only it got rid of the stains…healing and free laundry, if only." He whistled a sigh. “I want a drink.”

"You're underage."

"But I almost died! A-and we're in the afterlife! Cut me some slack!" William touched his exposed shoulder, groaning. "Ugh, I think it's hurting again."

She wanted to chuckle. Maybe she was feeling ditzy from the battle but she didn’t mind his theatrics. "...don't tell Kazi then."

“Really!? You'll buy it for me!"

"Sure.”

In high school, she heard of students drinking. Idiotic for sure, but in the afterlife she agreed it didn't matter too much. Plus, he almost died because of her lack of ability. ‘I owe him that much.’

"I want vodka!" William exclaimed.

Sun-young side-eyed him. "Don't push it."

"Hey! Is everyone alright!?"

The eager, concerned Kazi arrived and immediately crouched down to join them. He examined the former wound in a single glance. "Woah, William! Took a nasty blow there, huh? Glad you're okay!"

"We should fight mini bosses more often. I feel better than okay," William said.

Sun-young grimaced. "Please no."

"I'm going to check on Noor," Kazi said.

"I'll join you," Sun-young added.

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'If it wasn’t for her timely attacks, we wouldn't have won. I owe her.'

Walking next to Kazi was a trip. Because while Sun-young was mentally fatigued, Kazi was chippery. He didn’t speak yet she could feel it. And as she scanned him a second time, from his ruffled hair to his bright hazel eyes, it dawned on her.

'Unbelievable. Not a single scratch on him. Not a splatter of blood either.'

Perhaps it was the night and the black robes hiding it, or perhaps it was simply Kazi being the unbelievable man he was. Throughout their tenure at the first gate, she didn't see him get hurt once, like he had figured the slimes' attack patterns in every conceivable way. As if he knew what they would do before they did. His spatial awareness and his aptitude for combat was borderline superhuman. During a close encounter with a Slime Jack, she caught him imitating her own movements and thought he did it with better finesse than she did.

“Ms. Sun-young, is she sleeping?”

Underneath the rubble of wood was Noor. Her purple embroidered outfit was cut at the waist. Noor’s face was twisted into annoyance and she groaned.

“I was taking a nap." Noor turned over. Her wooden staff lay next to her.

“You should probably get up—”

Kazi was cut off by another groan. “We won, who cares?”

Kazi turned to Sun-young and they both shrugged.

'I guess she's okay then.' Sun-young was tempted to give her thanks but the young woman lying in the middle of wooden pieces would either let it get to her head or ignore it. So Sun-young settled with a pursed smile and a nod.

The destroyed wall stepped into a part of the school. The screen opened up and Sun-young tensed up.

“I-I don’t believe it. You did it.” Fujiwara emerged from the entrance, shaken to his core. “You did it! You killed the bandits! The ronin!”

“Told you we would.” Kazi winked. He zipped behind Sun-young and lightly pushed her. “And! You can give her all the thanks! She beat the samurai!”

‘Huh—?’

“Thank you!” Fujiwara bowed to her, his head parallel to the floor. Admittedly, she stepped back from how sudden it was. “Thank you, Madame Sun-young!”

“Sure…”

“I—no, we students of Muramasa give you our sincerest thanks!”

“Hm~?” Kazi had that look and smile in his eye. That light in his expression where he knew exactly what was up and why it was happening. “That katana belonged to Muramasa, didn’t it?”

Fujiwara stilled, his bow like a statue. “Yes. It was—is called the Seiyoku no Yaiba. We did not know of its capabilities but, yes, it was crafted from sensei himself.”

“And you didn’t tell us because you didn’t think we’d believe in magic, yes?” Kazi crossed his arms and offered an apologetic smile to Sun-young. “I should have figured this out before, my bad. I hope that katana didn’t cause you too much trouble.”

Sun-young wished she had the energy to be angry. She didn’t.

Fujiwara lifted his head slightly, an eye peeking. “Do you…have it in your possession?”

Sun-young nodded and his expression became elated. “Here it is.”

‘Open inventory.’

She briefly checked its state.

[ Weapon Name: Seiyoku no Yaiba

Rank: B

Attack: +106

Description: A sword crafted from Muramasa with anti-magic properties. ]

The ‘Holy shit!’ in her head crossed her eyes. She almost had second thoughts about giving it, till she remembered she already said it was in her possession. There was no going back.

She double-clicked on the Seiyoku no Yaiba and pressed the [ Drop ] option. It fell into her hands and she reluctantly gave it to Fujiwara. It was as though she was bestowing an item that would forever change his life. He started tearing up and nodded to himself several times.

“Yes…yes…this is sensei’s work. Thank you…” His cheeks were wet with tears. “Thank you for retrieving it.”

“It’s a shame about your old sword,” Kazi suddenly said. “That katana would have been a great replacement, right?”

‘Huh?’ Her brows narrowed in confusion. ‘But my sword isn’t…’

Fujiwara radiated with a new shine of happiness. “A new sword, you say? Perhaps something can be arranged for our hero.”

In the shadows, Yamato, Aiko, and the remaining students of Muramasa stepped in. Small injuries plagued them, yet their eyes burned with an intense fire. David was not too far behind Aiko and he stood there puzzled by what was occurring.

“You have retrieved Muramasa’s katana,” said Yamato, suddenly formal. “For that, we are eternally grateful.”

All of them bowed. All of them rose with a stronger fire in their eyes.

[ HIDDEN OBJECTIVE found! ]

‘What?’

***

David’s eyes kept flickering. “Is there some way for us to fix that?”

The gaping destruction of the wall Noor was sent into. While Noor had finally pulled herself out of it, there seemed to be no way to fix it. That was what Sun-young assumed anyway. The players gathered to recap what had occurred. Sun-young left it to William and John to explain the battle.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have that wall fixed by morning,” Kazi said. “Better question, did you guys get any XP?”

“Y-yeah.” Elena wiped at her brow. “I’m level 12 now.”

“From level 5 to 12 means about a thousand XP.” Kazi smiled brightly. How in the world did he calculate that number that fast? “Good for you guys.”

“We should be thanking you,” Elena said, her lips open in delight. “If not for your efforts, we wouldn’t have been given this blessing!”

“Give it up for Ms. Sun-young, William, John, and Noor. They fought the big baddie.”

“It was my honour.” With a wry smile, his gloved hand directed to Sun-young. “Although Ms. Sun-young was the clear MVP.”

“Yep. I was a close second though,” William joked.

So the Game System did a rough estimate of each party member’s contributions. That sounded fair, if not for the fact that Elena, David, Aisha, and Marta did absolutely nothing, so she wasn’t particularly happy about Kazi’s dismissal of it. Then again, this was Kazi. The man made friends wherever he went with no exceptions, whether it be an old man running a furniture shop from the industrial revolution or an entire cast of people.

“Thank you, Sun-young.” Elena took Sun-young hands and shook them. “Truly! It means a lot to me!”

She really didn’t like being grabbed. However, seeing the genuine appreciation in her blue eyes, Sun-young let it go.

“Say…” Kazi’s voice began and Sun-young immediately didn’t like it. “You guys should join us! All of you! We’d make a great team!”

It wasn’t Sun-young herself, William also casted him an unbelievable look. ‘Have you lost your mind!?’ Sun-young wanted to say.

“Ohh, I would be thrilled!” Elena said. “Thank you, thank you!”

“Wait, does the offer apply to me too?” David asked, a finger pointed at himself. Kazi nodded excitedly. Sun-young’s heart sank. “S-sure, I mean…if you don’t mind.”

“We don’t,” Kazi said, much to her chagrin.

Matra raised a small hand. “Me too?”

“Sure!” Kazi wore a grin as he gestured at Aisha. “Like I said, everyone.”

Aisha slowly nodded her head. “If you’ll have me.”

John stood on top of the destroyed planks, looking into the stars of the night, with Sun-young keenly awaiting his response.

"I'll have to pass," John said.

Sun-young winced and shared a look of concern with William. Without John joining, they were just—no offence—taking on a huge burden.