Where is it? I’m sure the sound was coming from this way… I ran into the forest to find out what the explosion I heard was about. I’m pretty sure someone’s in trouble since I heard a shriek coming from the same direction. There’s no time to waste. In reality, I should really be going back to the real world. I made no preparations, and here I am, charging straight into trouble. I want to get stronger, and I can’t just leave if someone’s in trouble, so what can I do? I just hope I don’t run into anything I can’t handle. I’m a little nervous.
“Get away from me! Dumb flower…” A voice? I turn to the side and see a girl on the floor wrestling some kind of flower monster. It has a large body, leaves for arms and roots for legs, and a flower in the place of its head. The flower creature seems to be trying to fly towards the girl while the girl grabs onto it and pushes it away from her. They appear to be in some kind of deadlock.
It’s a bit of a weird sight, but once I realize the girl is being attacked, I pull out my sword and run straight at the monster. I swing my sword, but it pulls back before my attack connects. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. At least the girl is safe for now.
The flower monster flies in place in front of me. The flower on its head starts spinning, and its leaves start flapping. Is it preparing some kind of attack? I brace myself for impact and remember what Katja said about being stuck on defense. I’m making a mistake, aren’t I? Too late, the monster finishes its preparations and hits me with a barrage of leaves and petals. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s threatening to blow me away if I don’t dig my feet into the ground and try to resist.
“Watch out!” I used my arms to cover my face against the stream of leaves and petals. When it passes, I hear the voice of the girl again, and I lower my arms. In that moment, I see the flower monster charging at me.
“Woah!” I was caught off guard, so I had to resort to Agility Burst to get out of the way, and almost ended up falling due to my dodging being so rushed. That was nasty. All it was doing by blowing stuff at my face was keeping me in place so it could charge at me, but now that I’ve seen it once, it’s not gonna work again.
The monster starts preparing again and hits me with hundreds of leaves and petals one more time. Is that move some kind of magic? Leaves aren’t a problem, but there aren’t enough flowers here for it to blow so many petals at me. I think I may have seen this monster in the game, but the attack animations don’t live up to what I’m experiencing. I braced myself again, but this time I made sure I could see the monster the whole time. My eyes were almost closed, but as soon as I saw the monster getting ready to charge, I lowered my arms and prepared myself to dodge. I took a step out of the way, and the charge was a complete whiff. I tried to hit it with my sword as it passed by my previous location, but I wasn’t fast enough, and it was able to swerve out of the way.
Alright, I think I got it. Third time’s the charm! Last chance to run away, little guy. The monster wasn’t scared of me and hit me with its magic for the third time. Any moment now… So predictable. It’s coming straight at me again. I could easily dodge out of the way, but I chose not to. It got closer and closer, and my legs didn’t move.
Slash Flurry! If I’m too slow, all I need is a faster attack. As soon as it got into range, I activated my skill, and all three attacks connected. The end. That’s it. This was the first monster I killed, and honestly, it wasn’t even that hard.
[Level up! All your stats have been increased, and you have received additional skill points.]
Oh! And a level up too! That’s so nice of you, VISS Driver! Getting strong is so easy, I’m gonna reach max level in a week, I’m telling you. But now’s not the time for this. What about the girl? Is she alright? I turned towards the girl, and she was trying to lift herself up. “Are you alright?” I ran in her direction and extended my hand to her.
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The girl looked up at me and grabbed my hand. “I’m alright.” Wow… She’s cute. I don’t think she appears in the game, but she’s really cute. Her eyes have a rich green color, and her hair is brown with some green on the inside. She’s wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt with puffy sleeves and a green skirt over her shirt. There are also lots of belts, she’s wearing multiple brown leather belts and straps holding onto all kinds of stuff, but all in the open and easy to see. I can spot a book, flasks, plants, and a lot of other stuff that I can’t even name. Finally, she has a pair of leather boots with white thigh-highs on the inside. It’s great! The characters in this game were all beautiful, and seems like that extends even to characters that didn’t even exist in the game, or at least it extends to her.
The girl is pulling herself up using my hand, but then she stumbles and leans into me. I immediately support her with my other hand, and then she stands up straight just fine. I sure am glad I didn’t go home. I hadn’t considered it yet, but if I’m able to come and go to this world freely, isn’t it possible that I can get a girl here to fall for me? That would be nice. The unique gameplay system is the reason why the game gathered a cult following, but the girls were half the reason I decided to play it. I might have been getting a little too tunnel vision trying to get close to the girls of the House. It’s a good idea to keep my options open.
“Thanks for the help. That didn’t go like I was hoping.” The girl laughed awkwardly and snapped me out of my dream world. “My name’s Ririna Windfiel, and I’m an alchemist. Again, thanks a lot for your help.” The girl bowed towards me, which made me feel guilty about the fantasies I was just having.
“No, no, no, don’t worry about it. That was nothing.” The girl lifted her head and looked straight at me with a smile. “I’m Iroha Shinohara. Uhmm... Did you say alchemist?” Crap, she seems really into me. Is she in love with me already? This is going way too well! I did just save her life, so what else should I expect?
“Yes, I’m an alchemist. It’s nice to meet you. I don’t think seeing an alchemist is something unusual, is this your time meeting one?” I nodded yes to her. I’m aware of what an alchemist is, and I knew there were alchemists in this game, but it’s still the first time I’ve met one for obvious reasons. “I came here to gather some plants and materials I needed, and I even made some explosives for me to protect myself with.” So that’s what the explosion was. Self-defense explosives, what a wonderful idea! “But it seems I overstayed my welcome. I used my last bomb on a group of monsters, but the last one managed to avoid it and gave me some trouble. The monsters here are pretty territorial, so I should have left right away. I wouldn’t have been able to go back without taking a beating if it wasn’t for you showing up. Thank you, how can I make it up to you?”
How about a kiss, for starters? “That was nothing! Don’t worry about it!” Asking for that would have turned her face into pure disgust faster than I could blink.
“Are you sure?” Ririna pressed me, trying her best to find something she could do for me. “Are you hurt or something? I can get you some healing ointment or any medicine you need.” She could see that I wasn’t visibly injured, but she continued. “What are you doing here? Are you an adventurer? There’s a town beyond this forest. Is that where you were going? I can show you around if you want. I’ve never seen clothes like yours before, so you’re probably not from here, right?”
“I came here to train…” I don’t know how to deal with this. “I want to get strong… I’m also new here… You’re right about that…” I think I get it now. Rather than wanting to repay the favor or being really into me, I think this girl just really likes to help people.
“Oh! Is that so?” Her face showed a beaming smile. “You clearly know how to use a sword, so if you don’t mind, maybe you could escort me back to the town. Then I can give you a tour! I’ll also pay you for escorting me, so don’t worry about that.”
“T- that… would be very helpful, actually…” I ended up agreeing, but I have to admit that part of the reason why is that I didn’t know how to refuse her. It’s true that I also want to go into that town at some point, so having someone show me around would be very helpful. The money is also nice, I don’t know how much I can get done without any money, and I’m pretty sure money from the real world is completely worthless here. I could always peddle goods from my world to this one, but that feels like cheating, and not the good kind. Truth be told, I would rather she just fall in love with me, but… that’s not how it works, is it?
“We’ve got ourselves a deal then. Can you wait a moment, though? I want to gather materials from the defeated monsters first. Gotta pay them back for all the trouble they’ve caused me.” Ririna brought her hands together and touched the fingertips of both hands with a scary smile on her face.
“G- go ahead…” P- pay back?
“Ahahahaha! Don’t get scared. That was a joke. They were just protecting their territory, so it’s not like I’m holding a grudge. If anything, I want to make sure to gather everything useful that I can to make sure their deaths weren’t in vain.” Y- yeah? Is that how it works?
I was still unsure of how to react and how to act around Ririna, so I just watched as she hopped around from monster to monster, gathering useful materials. Ririna seems really kind, and she’s definitely very beautiful. Is she actually not scary? I can’t tell. Either way, we’re going to the town next. That sounds interesting! I can’t wait…