‘Sometimes, I wish people could feel the same obnoxious feeling I get every time I get teleported. Damn it! I hate being so sensitive to mana!’, I complained whilst holding onto my stomach.

“We did it Shiro! We’re together in a team again!”, Gray had tears running down his eyes, the alleviation of seeing me present must’ve been a life saver for him.

As you can guess, this was the highest stroke of luck Gray could’ve gotten this evening, considering everything that happened.

“Ho, this might be fun.”, our third member of our team muttered in a low voice, his mouth was curved slightly upwards indicating his anticipation for this challenge.

And our fourth member… “I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”, he kept on muttering those words as if he had been scarred for death.

“I guess we should start moving, Gray could you stop burying your face into my stomach, though the feeling isn’t unpleasant, it annoys me.”, I glued him off of me and stood up.

I felt my instincts suddenly alarming me, I sent a glance towards our third member, his sword was glowing in a holy light that could be on par with the suns light.

‘Just my luck, a ‘Light Attribute’ sword near me. It feels like I’m next to death itself.’, I kept my distance to a short minimum.

“You got a problem with me?”, he noticed me keeping my distance, he suddenly caught me off guard and I stumbled on my words. “N-no, none at all.”

‘That was close’, I felt like he was about to kill me with his gaze alone.

“Im going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”, the same person kept on muttering the same words over and over, his eyes were clouded by despair and his body trembled.

“Are you alright?”, I asked him, his body trembled in reaction to my question. “No! I’m not alright! Do I look ‘alright’ to you?!”

He lashed out on me, he was holding onto my shoulders, like a man who hadn’t seen daylight in years. “If you’re so scared why did you even come in the first place?”

He unhanded me, and curled up in a small ball. “My friends told me that it would be fun, they convinced me to come here, and they didn’t even join!”

“Now I’m here alone, I don’t wanna die, but I KNOW I’M GOING TO!”, he screamed so loud that even my pointy ears trembled. “You’re not alone you have us… well temporarily.”

“R-really?”, he looked up to me like a child. “Yes, I promise I’ll make sure you won’t die. However, I would appreciate your cooperation.”

He nodded and wiped the tears on his eyes, I extended my hand to help him get up. “You two finished, we need to get moving… I don’t want to lose all the fun.”

I couldn’t hear his last words, they sounded more like a whisper barely audible.

“Yes, let’s go.”

 

 

 

“So, what’s the plan?”, asked the third member, his glowing sword gave me a feeling of uneasiness, so I had to keep my distance and make it seem as natural as possible.

“We should first get an overview of the whole place, and find the most ‘treasure bearing’ location.”, I gave him my opinion, and he nodded. Everyone else seemed to be in agreement.

“Okay, I have an idea come over here.”, he looked at me, I came closer to him, something was telling me that it was a bad idea. “Eh, what are you—“

He grabbed me by my waist and threw me into the sky as if he was throwing a rock aiming to figure out how high it would go.

‘I’m quite impressed by how unimpressed I am, or rather that I’m not as scared as I could be.’, I looked below me, I had around two minutes before I reached the ground again.

I used this opportunity (quite forced) to analyze our surroundings, as far as I could see. There were wide green plains, it gave me the illusion that it could go on forever.

I used ‘Flight’ for a little bit and turned around to inspect the other side.

I saw the same dosage as before, the difference could be the castle in the middle of a hill surrounded by a small forest.

As I was about to land on the floor, one hand caught me by the waist again, and placed me back on the floor.

“Couldn’t you have warned me first?”, was the first thing I told him. “So you weren’t against the idea of me throwing you up in the air?”

“I wasn’t against it because it was efficient, though I  could’ve simply climbed a tree and try to overview stuff from above.”, I answered him.

“Shiro, you okay?”, Gray saw me getting thrown in the air, and got concerned by my missing presence. “Yes, I’m fine.”

I pointed towards the forest in the distance and said. “There is a fortress looking castle in that direction, my hunch is that there is one of the treasures is in there.”

The man with the glowing sword smiled. “Well done, let’s get going or else we might lose all the fun.”, he already started making way to the castle.

‘’’fun?’’’, the three of us thought in confusion.

“Who is he?”, Gray asked, like he had read my mind. “You don’t know who he is?!”, the fourth member, the one who had been muttering death spells in utter despair.

“He’s a top class adventurer, he’s ‘A’ class among adventurers, though his actions have been known for being quite questionable.”

According to his explanation, he’s a ‘A’ class adventurer who has made a name for himself quite sometime. Approximately sixty percent of the population of Zeltram know his name.

However, that adventurer is not well known for a good reason. Except for his excellent abilities as an adventurer, his actions completely contradict his class.

He invites strong adventurers for a one-on-one fights, and sometimes he even fights when outnumbered, but in the end he comes out victorious and many adventurers are sent to either retirement or to their graves in the worst case scenario.

“He gained the title of ‘Berserker’ recently, people have been saying that it has been inducing an effect on his actions.”, he finished his explanation as we followed behind him, whispering to make sure he wouldn’t hear.

‘He reminds of the king, I hope he’s not as overpowered as he seems to be…’, I thought.

“We have arrived.”, he announced our arrival at our destination, before us stood a castle, with broken walls and debris all over the place. The gate was cut in half revealing the presence of another party.

“It seems that we might have some unwanted guests.”, the adventurer known as the ‘Berserker’ warned us, that we are in the presence of another party.

“He’s right, I can sense some of them in the distance.”, I was using my spell ‘sense’ and caught four life signatures inside the stronghold.

“Well, what are we waiting for, they won’t kill themselves by themselves!”, he charged into the stronghold without a shred of fear nor holdback.

“What the hell are you thinking?! What if they set up a trap especially for us?!”, I tried speaking sense to him while catching up to him.

“What’s the fun of they’re not used?”, like a madman he wondered into enemy territory without a single thought.

“Damn it! Stop being stubborn, we need to plan something!”, I tried stopping him by grabbing onto his hand, but that backfired and now I’m being dragged along.

“One way or the other, we are still going to be fighting. What difference is it going to make, if you spend time strategizing, when you could be owning the enemy!”

In a way he was right, in the end I believed we would end up fighting, whether we made a strategy or not. The strategizing part is used so that our siege over the castle would run smoothly.

“Can you at the very least try to let the others catch up, they are still far behi—, where are they?!”, I didn’t see Gray not the other guy whose name I didn’t care to ask.

“It seems like we got separated, not like it’s a problem.”, he sprinted full speed ahead, while I was fighting for my life trying to keep a grip onto his arm.

‘This is not how you’re supposed to pay the game!’, he suddenly stopped and I fell to the ground.

“What’s the problem?”, I slowly raised my face off the cold and hard floor. He was gazing at the castles entrance that lead towards the innards of the castle, that was probably where the ‘Treasure’ would be located.

“Why’d you stop?”, I asked him in wonder to what was possibly going through his mind. “The castles probably been rigged with traps and the sort, they’re going through the traps to reach the treasure.”

For once he told me with a feasible answer. “We can wait for the other two to reach u—, and you’re going to leave again.”, I saw him running into the castle.

‘I could go back and regroup, I’m sure he’ll be alright. But…’, what I was more worried about was what he would do, his actions are rash and reckless. And what’s worse, is that his reasons for going in are the worse kind.

‘At this rate he’ll make us lose, I’ll have to go after him.’, I set foot inside the castle and sprinted at full speed. I was faster than the average human, maybe even faster than a professional athlete.

I didn’t find any traps in the way, everything looked as clear as day to me due to the skill ‘Dark Vision’. Every corner seemed like it was illuminated by moonlight.

I conjured the spell ‘Sense’ once more, the life signatures were still in the same place as before, though there was a fifth one that was moving at a horrifying speed.

‘Our enemies aren’t one floor below me, that means they must’ve found stairs leading downward.’, I didn’t stop the flow of mana that courses through the magic circle below my feet.

That magic circle was the spell ‘Sense’, it showed that the spell was in effect.

‘There’s a weird object underground, it’s probably the treasure.’, and I suddenly got a idea that would lead me to victory.

 

 

 

“What is that thing?!”, a adventurer heard a pair of footsteps approaching from the distance. “It’s a rival team approaching, he’s probably alone.”

The four member team was underground trying to figure out the trial that was being presented before them.

“Damn it! What are supposed to do, the ‘Shield’ is right ahead!”, said the adventurer who was spinning a wheel trying to activate some sort of mechanism that would create a bridge for them to reach their objective.

“Why did I have to be teamed up with ‘Magicless’ idiots!”, he complained, droplets I’d swear was forming on his forehead, and concern was written on his whole being.

“Hey! Don’t call us idiots, we may not be able to do magic, but we have useful skills!”, the elven adventurer said. “Are one of those skills ‘Bridge Creation’?”

“N-no.”

“Thought so!”, he kept his hands on work, and suddenly. A bridge extended to the other side. “I did it!”

The whole team suddenly got their hopes up, and they ran desperately towards the golden shield on top of the pedestal.

“You really think you can escape me!”, the footsteps grew closer to the point where the shape of a person could be seen.

“Is— is that the ‘Berserker’!?”, the party of randomized adventurer recognized the spoken name, and they hurried up to the other side of the bridge.

Below them, was a sea of lava. Had they set as little as a single foot inside, they would disintegrate and turn to nothing but ashes.

“We’re here!”, they finally arrived at their destination, hope has shown on their tired expressions.

However, their hopes had been betrayed, when suddenly a white figure appeared behind the shield.

“I apologize in advance, but unfortunately I can’t let you have this.”

Shiro, joined the fight!