“Hey, will you help me if we get out of here? I can’t do anything with my power. I’m not trying to force you or anything, but it would help me if you did…”
“Guo.”
“Ooh, really!? Thanks Kotaro! Things might work out then!”
“Gyu.”
What are you doing?
After training, I started preparing food, and Nanashi and Totaro are talking about something.
He was facing Totaro in mock battles, but it looks like they became friendly before I knew it.
Wait, didn’t he not understand it?
“It’s okay, we understand each other through passion”
What passion?
“Hey, help too John Doe, once we’re back on the surface.”
What are you on about?”
“Ah, I had some trouble with people that like to abuse their power.”
Power? You’re fighting with people that?
“You get it, don’t you John Doe? When you’re a seeker, there are always people starting something with you.”
Yeah, I get it. Them. People who use their power to extort seekers.
“Yes. I want to do something about them. This incident really made me feel that way, but I can’t do anything alone. So help me out, John Doe!”
Fine, I’ll help you crush them. Call me when it’s time to go at it, I’ll go scorched earth.
“No one said to go that far.”
So there are people unhappy with the current system.
The Seeker Association. A crafty organization that uses all seekers by skimming off the top of what they get from the dungeon.
I’ve had a lot of money taken by them too. I’ve put up with it to make ends meet, but no more.
If Nanashi is willing to become a symbol, I’ll get on board too. On behalf of seekers, we’ll do more than breathe new life into it, we’ll return it to nothing.
“Hey are you okay? You’re making a really bad face.”
Don’t worry about it. Why did you invite Kotaro anyway? It’d be more than a panic if it went up to the surface.
By Kotaro he means Totaro. The only dinosaur with a name and nickname that are practically the same.
The difference is whether you think its head looks like a dinosaur or a lizard.
“Hn, that’s true, but I figured Kotaro would help.”
So what, hn?
Are you done watering? Then harvest the ones that are ready.
As I’m about to complain that what he’s thinking would plunge the surface into the depths of terror, a report comes from the fields that they’re done being watered.
“Kyui!”
Hinata is holding the flower vase that generates water, after watering the fields on Fuuma’s back.
That flower vase is Hinata’s now. It wanted it, so I had it tend the fields in return.
Hinata responds to me, and uses magic to cut down fruit. That magic is a fine light that comes from its finger, which Hinata uses to mow down the fruits and vegetables like a light saber.
So most of it is ruined.
What are you doing!!?
You’re ruining food!
Fuuma and Hinata see I’m angry and run away.
I chase them, not forgiving them for ruining food.
Nanashi laughs, and Totaro also sounds amused as it groans.
Things go on like this, but this peaceful time in The Abyss can’t last forever.
◇ ◇ ◇
Hinata and Nanashi train, and slowly get stronger.
After twenty attempts against a monkey monster, Nanashi finally took down one. He couldn’t even graze them at first, but now he can hit them, and the attacks he couldn’t dodge are now dodged to a degree where they’re no longer fatal attacks.
He studied their moves, noticed their quirks, used them to counter, and his sword ended a monster.
You finally did it, I say, but he’s breathing heavily while he nods, like it took all he has.
Later, the world turns monochrome for the first time in a while.
“What is this? Isn’t it bad?”
Nanashi is baffled by the change, but I tell him it happens from time to time.
I also tell him it happened when he came to the forest, which he’s surprised to hear.
I get up from a chair, grab the longsword, and I’m about to leave the mansion, when Nanashi calls me.
“Hey, where are you going? Shouldn’t we stick together?”
I’m going to put down a monster, wait there.
“It doesn’t have to be now, right? It’s clearly dangerous.”
I’m going to eliminate the danger. You’ll be fine with either Fuuma or Totaro. I’ll be right back.
“Hey!”
I ignore Nanashi as I leave.
“Kyui!”
Hinata raises a hand and stands by the entrance like it wants to come too, but I call it an idiot and leave it with Fuuma.
Totaro has its long neck out of the lake, sprawled out. It opens its eyes a little, and tells me to be careful.
Couldn’t you just fight, I think, but it never leaves the lake.
If Totaro fought a powerful monster, the nearby mansion might get caught in it.
It has a long neck like a brachiosaurus, and a muscular body close to a human’s. It looks imbalanced, but I’m sure it’s stronger than what I’m about to fight.
No doubt about it. I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, but I can’t see the bottom of the power in its body. It might be stronger than me.
So I can move away and not worry.
With Totaro around, even if the mansion isn’t safe, the others will be.
I tell it to mind the others, and enter the forest.
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