The two gangs now united into one. Lloyd was driving the car cuz no one else knew how. Vroom vroom. Anyway, peep some of this dialog they're having. (It's important, trust me)

"...so this'll be the biggest thing that we will have fought after this quest. How about your group? Did you encounter anything strong on your quest? I heard you've defeated a troll before, Sharlan."

"Yeah, we didn't encounter anything too dangerous. Unless you count the freaking nuke! But yeah, I just beat up some goblins and then we left."

“I hope this Cyclops will be a strong opponent. The nests of goblins that we raided were so easy that I didn’t feel any excitement at all.”

“Huh, you kind of remind me of a shonen protagonist with the way you’re trying to find a strong opponent.”

“Shonen? What’s that?”

“Basically, in fiction from where I lived, Shonen protagonists are super energetic, fighting crazed, and usually think with their hearts instead of their brains. They also have unlimited willpower, and end up becoming the strongest through training and friendship.”

“What the heck? Is that like a super power or something?”

“Well, in works where they show up, these are just their character traits. Usually, they also have actual superpowers to go along with this eccentric personality.”

“So, how do I remind you of one of these Shonen Protagonists?”

“Well, you are looking for a good fight.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but I wouldn’t say that I think with my heart or that I have unlimited energy.”

“Well, obviously not, I was simply trying to make a reference to it, but sadly you don’t know anything about it.”

“I would like to know more about this Shonen. So, you said they have unlimited willpower? Do they never face struggles that they can’t overcome?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Usually it’s shown as their character developing if they come into contact with a big challenge. But, most of the time, this is just a ruse as they never change and just get powerful enough to win everytime.”

“Then what’s the point of the story? Doesn’t that mean that there is no problem?”

“Well, the appeal is a bit different. It’s what’s known as power scaling. Basically, people love watching characters fight and keep getting stronger. It’s one of the most prevalent genres of fiction in my old world.”

“Usually in the books I’ve read, characters have some severe flaws and this usually ends in their demise or other negative plot elements that stem from it.”

“Huh, so kind of like a Greek tragedy.”

“Greek?”

“Oh, it’s a country from my old world. It’s famous for having the most developed society in the ancient world as well as having an extensive mythology.”

“Ooh, I like learning cultures and histories of other countries. Tell me some of the tales if you recall.”

“Well, sure, where should I start? I guess I’ll talk about the gods in their mythology. The most well known ones are Zeus, Poseidon, Hade….”

“Wait what? Zeus? Poseidon? Hold up. Are you sure you ain’t from this world, cuz those are all real gods.”

“Huh? They exist here?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Hmm. It looks like someone’s pretense of being from another world finally wore off.” said Quinci.

“No, wait! Just because we have similar things, doesn’t mean I was lying. In my world, these were all just myths. No one had ever seen the gods or fought with them.”

“So, you’re saying that they were looked at as being fake?”

“Yes exactly!”

“What? But we have historic records of them and what they’ve done. They even still do certain things. For example, last week, there was a major fight between two gods. It was in every newspaper. How did you not see it?”

“Yeah, how do you think people can use magic if the gods didn’t imbue mankind with mana?”

“Wow, just so you know, in my previous world, there was no such thing as magic.”

Everyone looked at Sharlan in silence (other than Lloyd who was kind of busy driving).

“Then how can you use magic if there wasn’t any in your old world?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from when I was transported.”

“Wait, this could explain why your mana was negative!” Lloyd realized.

“What? Negative mana? I’ve never heard that before.” said Jolene.

They kept discussing things such as these on the way. Eventually Lloyd said: “Guys, we’re almost there. I can see the village.”

“Is that fire?”

“Oh no! We might be too late. I think that the cyclops already attacked.”

“We gotta run. Let’s try saving anyone who’s hurt!” said George.

The group entered the village and started looking around for anyone in need of help. Sharlan and Lloyd rushed forward to the front lines to fight the cyclops that they noticed laying waste to the plaza. Sharlan attempted to perform the common practice of having his knuckle become tangent to the epithelial tissue of the monocular beast. However, upon the sundering of the Doors of Death, his abilities lagged.

Huh? What? My ping must be too high!

He reattempted the activation and this time the Cyclops rotated into the ground. Then, Lloyd started casting his spell.

“Пламя ада восстаньте и возвратите в пыль что было создано ладонью Божьей. Красный шар приведи к концу ту несчастную жизнь и создай её вновь. FIREBALL!”

A massive crimson orb descended upon the temporarily incapacitated monster and instantly incinerated every fragment of its being. (But due to the laws of thermodynamics, it’s being is still technically there, technically🤓)

As soon as the “major” threat was dealt with, they rushed back and joined the rest of the party in helping any people that were still injured. Sharlan’s ability was very useful for this task as he could easily remove debris and free people from their plight. However, it seemed to him that it was acting oddly unresponsive.

What is going on? It seems like this area is pretty far from the server room.

Lloyd and the other mages used earth based and wind based spells to help move the rocks and free anyone else who was still stuck. George and Bro used their brute strength as they were not magically predisposed.

“Wow, you guys took care of that quickly” said Quinci.

“Guys, we still need to put out the fire!” said Bro.

“Someone use water magic!” yelled Sharlan.

“What do you mean? There is no water around.” replied Quinci.

“Then how do we put out the fire? I think wind magic would only spread it, would it not? Wait, are those slimes in the distance?” George spoke.

“Ooh, good idea. Slime can absorb fire. Sharlan, go bring those slimes over here!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think that my ability will activate on objects that are only in a semi-solid state. I’m gonna need some help.”

“I’ll come with you.” said both Jolene and Lloyd.

Together, they all hoarded the slimes over to the yet burning house. Lloyd employed wind magic but as the other two could not apply the same force via the movement of the atmosphere, they decided to cut down a small tree and then employ Sharlan’s Doors to bat the slime towards the burning house. However, it took Sharlan 4 attempts to activate his ability before it actually worked. And due to the repeated failures, he overshot the building.

What is going on? Am I getting DDoSed? Is there some kind of radiation in this area? What happened after I got knocked out in the cave?

“Hey, Jolene, do you know what happened to me after I got knocked out in the cave?”

“Huh? Well, when I saw that you weren’t coming up to the surface, I tied the rope to the cliff where I climbed out, and jumped in after you. I then used water magic and the rope to help transport us. Then, I noticed that you had blood gushing out from your forehead, so I pulled the rock from your hand and used it to heal you. Why is that important now?”

Could it be the rock? Huh, maybe Quinci was right about her claim about me losing my powers because it restores me to my original state? I hope that’s not the case! I literally only rely on this power! I don’t even know how to use magic. Hopefully, this is just a latency problem stemming from radiation or something.

“Well, I was just wondering, and we’re basically done here, look.” he pointed at Lloyd who had already extinguished the fire and was casting a spell to kill the slime.

The group gathered back at the car to start preparing to go back. George pulled out the eye of the cyclops and put it in a bag. The group started heading back home. Everyone was already pretty low on mana and they were relaxing while driving back to the guild. Suddenly, the car engine made a shutting down noise and soon after it actually shut down.

“Oh shit! I forgot to refill it before we left. This thing doesn’t have a gauge!”

The group was now stranded multiple leagues away from civilization, with no fuel in the tank.

“What do we do now?”

“Well, it seems to be getting dark so we should probably find some shelter.”

Everyone chooses to do the last suggestion. While gathering wood for a fire, Sharlan was suddenly attacked by an ent. He attempted to use his ability, but nothing happened. The ent swung its branch and Sharlan was knocked to the ground, instead of rotating around it and avoiding injury.

Uhh. What’s going on? I need help! I’m gonna die!

Thankfully Lloyd was just a couple of meters away and managed to take down the monster and save Sharlan from certain death.

“Are you okay? You look like you got hit hard.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. My reflexes are just a little slow due to the expenditure of so much energy during this quest.”

They continued their preparation for sleep and went to bed. However, something precious was removed.