This is so tiring… I can’t run anymore! This is the worst! Whose idea was it to force me to run through the woods? That’s right, it was Katja’s idea!

What kind of cruel punishment is this? She said this would be good training for me and that it would make me stronger for when I end up fighting, but like, I never agreed to join your stupid house! It was all just a misunderstanding!

“Wait! I can’t run anymore!” I called out to Kajta, who was running ahead of me. I was panting so hard that it was hard to speak properly.

Why have so many things gone wrong for me recently? I seriously don’t think I did anything wrong. If it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have to go through everything I’ve had. I didn’t do anything, am I being punished for doing nothing? Isn’t there any kind of god that sees how messed up this is? It’s unfair!

“Are you sure you can’t keep going? We’ve just started. Sorry, but just put up with it.” We were going uphill, and there were roots and bumps everywhere. Katja managed to avoid all those obstacles while glancing back at me.

Who does she think I am? Of course, I can’t keep going! You make a complete amateur jog through the woods, and you’re expecting them to last for more than a couple minutes? Sure, I walk a lot, so I have a little stamina, but unless my life’s in danger, don’t expect me to be able to run for much longer than five minutes. And guess what? It’s been five minutes! I think this is good enough considering the terrain we’ve been running on.

“I’m sure! I give up! I need to take a break.” Katja finally stopped running after hearing my pleas.

Me and Katja were looking surprisingly similar. She tied her bright, pink hair into a ponytail after telling me we were going to run, and I ended up doing the same. She changed into a tracksuit while I was already wearing a tracksuit when she dragged me here. The only difference between us is that her legs are completely exposed because she’s wearing bloomers while I’m wearing pants.

Running in a place like this with your legs exposed sounds like a bad idea. There are so many things you could scrape against, but Katja managed to pull it off effortlessly. I can tell she’s used to running through here.

She ran in front of me this entire time, and I must confess that with the short bloomers she was wearing, I got to enjoy seeing her perky butt the whole time. It doesn’t paint me in a very good light, but I’d say that was the sole reason I managed to keep up with her for these five minutes.

“If you seriously can’t force yourself to keep going, I guess we can stop here.” Katja’s ponytail swung to the side as she turned around and walked towards me. “Let’s head back.”

“T- thanks” Katja started walking back from where we came from, and I followed closely behind her. I don’t want to get lost here. I’d rather sit down, but I’m fine with walking as well. The sooner we get out of the woods, the sooner I’ll be able to rest, so I’ll take it.

The House of Imaginary Boundaries was built on the outskirts of the city, and they apparently have a huge chunk of land near the two main buildings that they use to train. Katja told me that there are a couple open places that they’ve cleared out, but it’s mostly just forests and hills.

“Sorry to say, but I was hoping you’d do a little better. I was expecting better from someone who said they’d be willing to fight.”

Excuse me? I did very well considering I am a normal girl! Does she understand that? How high were her expectations of me? Was she expecting I’d be able to run a marathon through the woods on my first day? It’s her own fault for having such high expectations. I’m a normal girl, besides Agility Burst, but even Agility Burst wouldn’t have helped. Yeah, I could have gone a little faster for a little bit, but where that skill really shines is in stunts. It gives power to the whole body, so using it just to run is a waste.

I can’t believe she really said that to my face… I was actually trying, you know? At least a little bit. She’s so cold.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Don’t worry though, Shinji asked me to train you, so I’ll see it through to the end.” Her voice didn’t sound particularly excited. “It is gonna take a lot longer than expected. I’ll have to rethink the plan.”

What plan? For starters, this is all a misunderstanding! I never agreed to join your little group! “W- what is that plan you’re talking about?” I’m not interested in joining them, but if I were, whatever is in that plan is what would decide which skills would become available to me, so I’m at least a little bit curious about it.

“You said you wanted to fight, so the first thing I’m gonna teach you is how to use a sword. I’m not sure it’s the best weapon for you, but it’s the only weapon I can teach you, so at least I’ll have you learn the basics. The problem is, I can’t exactly just hand you a sword right off the bat, so the very first part of your training is gonna involve running and other exercises to develop your base strength.” Katja’s voice gained a subtle hint of enthusiasm when she started talking about training.

I’m not a big fan of the idea of running and training my base strength, but learning how to fight with a sword sounds really cool. Swords are such common weapons in the game that there are a lot of cool skills in the sword skill tree. It’s a nice plan. Too bad it’s not gonna be followed. As soon as I clear up the misunderstanding with Shinji, I’m out of here. I have to hurry though, it’s getting harder and harder to escape as time goes on. What if it’s too late, even if I tell them it was a misunderstanding?

“After you learn how to use a sword, or another weapon if the sword doesn’t suit you, we’ll probably teach you how to shoot a gun.”

Wait! A gun too? Cool. Scary, but cool. I didn’t think I’d ever get to fire a real gun. I’m definitely looking forward to it… or I would be if I was crazy enough to accept the invitation. Which I’m not!

There aren’t as many skills for guns as there were for swords in the game, but there were still plenty of cool ones. I didn’t use a lot of guns when I played the game, so I’m not very familiar with the skill tree. I did find it a little strange to see Katja using a sword instead of a gun, but I guess they do use them. I know they’re fighting fantasy monsters, but that doesn’t mean they have to play by their rules and fight them with swords.

“Teaching you how to use a gun will be easier, since that’s what’s common nowadays. It will come in handy, even if you can’t rely on it.”

Can’t rely on guns? “Aren’t guns reliable?” I was looking at Katja with an absolutely confused look on my face.

“There are two main reasons why we don’t use firearms as our primary means of engaging monsters. One of them is that they frequently infiltrate populated areas, and we can’t just start opening fire in the middle of a city. It’s too noisy, and it would spread chaos around.” Katja looked back at me while walking. “The other reason is that, depending on the monster, it takes multiple magazines to defeat a single one of them. At that point, a couple well-placed slashes from a sword get the same result much quicker.”

Wait, what?! How can that be? Is it stats? Do the monsters’ stats carry over when they come to this world? That would explain it. In the game, without stats or skill, hitting an enemy with a sword or with a gun dealt around the same damage.

“That reminds me, don’t come here by yourself until we start practicing with a sword, and when you do, make sure you bring a weapon.” Katja’s sudden warning caught me by surprise. “There are some monsters roaming around in these woods.”

There are monsters here? But we’re in the real world. I shouldn’t really be surprised. They told me this happens and that dealing with it is their job. It was just a little hard to believe. Have I been in danger this whole time? This is good news, though. Maybe I can find another way to get more skills even if I don’t join their House. If I can find another place like this, I’ll be able to grind as I please… Ahh! I forgot about the surveillance thing.

“What kinds of monsters are here?” The idea of monsters in this place had caught my attention, and I couldn’t help but ask. Katja replied, and the monsters she described were slimes, beetles the size of basketballs, some kind of plant monster, and goblins.

“Out of those four, goblins are the most dangerous, and also the rarest, we’ve only seen them twice. All of them are very weak when compared to the monsters we find in other places.” When Katja finished her explanation, the dorm building came into view. It won’t be long now before I can finally sit down.

I was glad to hear that the monsters they hunt down are actual monsters and not NPCs like the people I saw in the demon city. They may also target those too, but at least they’re not the only ones they fight.

“H- hey, if there are monsters here, does that mean there’s a portal nearby?”

“There is. We don’t know where it is since this land is too vast, but we know there’s one here for sure. The only monsters that appear here have all been pretty weak, and they haven’t caused anyone trouble, so we’ve just let the portal be thus far.” Me and Katja were finally able to walk more calmly since the ground got better as we started getting close to the buildings.

“What if it was causing problems? What do you do to the portal?” Do they just close the portal? Something tells me it can’t possibly be that easy. Otherwise, this whole problem with the portals and the other world wouldn’t exist in the first place.

“We don’t do anything. Our job is to handle threats from the other world. After we’re done with the monsters, another team comes in, and they’re the ones who clean up. I don’t think even Shinji knows exactly what they do, but the solution is apparently not that great.” Katja shrugged as she explained.

There is something that has been bothering me for a while. The way everyone here talks about the monsters and the other world sounds as if they’ve never actually gone there. They don’t even seem to know that it’s the world from a game. I asked Katja why they don’t just go to the other world and defeat all the monsters to see how much she knows.

“That’s impossible.” She looked at me with a serious face. “The portals are dangerous. Just being near one is enough to put your life in danger. If you got close enough to enter one, it would already be too late.”

But that is a lie. The portals themselves are harmless. At least the one I fell into was. She said she’d never tried it herself, so what she’s telling me is just what she’s been told. Either someone lied to her or there’s some kind of reason why I was able to get close and even enter and be fine after it all.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me. Whether or not she knows the truth about the other world and the portals is none of my business.