[Well, I was told in my at home that this kingdom that borders with ours is neutral to beastkins and is also a populated place. So when I started as an adventurer I wanted to come here and form a party. You humans have multiple kingdoms but we only have an Empire under which is the whole land that belongs to us beastkin.
When I got to this city those guys invited me to their party. We were doing great until the fight with the Elder treant. When we were fighting those guys began to lose and only I was holding out. I did my best to deal damage to the boss but I couldn't do much. I could hold out thanks to the fire attribute that I added to the blade but because I’m not a mage my attacks weren’t doing much damage.
When they were about to lose they threw a ball that exploded and killed the boss. After the battle they blamed me for not doing my best and they told me to repay them for that explosion ball. That ball is valuable so all of the money that we defeated were going to them. I didn’t know that it would end up like that.](Lisa)
[In other words, you were deceived from the start. When they first saw you they probably made you their target. They most likely wanted to bait you and force them to use this ball then blame you. After you repaid them more than enough they would sell you as a slave and considering your good looks you would sell for a lot of money.](Satoru)
[I look good? Ehehehe](Lisa)
[Lisa?](Satoru)
[Y-yes that was probably what they were after. Also because you saved my life I want to repay you, I will do anything!](Lisa)
When she said that I could notice her trembling.
(Speaking of which I could make a very perverted request to her but I’m not such a scum. What can she do? Oh, that’s right! The fights in the dungeon are starting to be difficult for me only so if she helps me it will be a great help!)
[You will do anything you say?](Satoru)
[Y-yes anything I can do.](Lisa)
[Hooh? Then I would like you to use your body to repay me.](Satoru)
When I said that her face was red.
[W-we can’t, not so fast.](Lisa)
[I will have you join my party.](Satoru)
When I said that she suddenly looked up and I could see that she was confused.
[What, did you think of something perverted?](Satoru)
She then answered me with an ashamed look on her face.
[N-no I wasn’t thinking about that!](Lisa)
[Okay, okay it was just a joke. I want you to join my party but you will have to agree to some conditions that I put out.](Satoru)
[Alright, the first condition is that you can’t betray me. The second condition is that I will manage the money of our party, I will of course pay for our food and accommodation with that money.](Satoru)
[Okay I accept! Thank you for allowing me to be in your party!](Lisa)
[Lisa has joined your party!]
[You have learned Party blessing!]
I soon heard in my head a familiar voice that I didn’t hear for a while.
(Hey Satoru! This skill is a gift for you for acquiring a first party member. It’s quite useful you know? It allows all of your party members to gain full experience for killing a monster. For example when you defeat a monster you and your party members will gain full experience from it. It’s just like they subjugated it all by themselves, also please have a talk with me if you have time. You just need to think about talking with me before sleeping and then we can have a chat! I want to tell you something.)(Akasha)
For a second I was surprised but I thanked the goddess in my mind. Thanks to her I could grow more powerful and my party members would too. Still for now I only have one party member.
And just like that I gained a party member. She was a type of a magic warrior just like me but her int and mana weren’t high so her combat efficiency was dropped. We decided to meet up in the next morning so she left, she also told me that she have rented a room in this inn too.
On the next day I woke up slightly earlier than we arranged just to do the usual morning routine. When the time was right I left my room and went to eat breakfast. There I already saw Lisa sitting at a table so I took my breakfast and joined her. Her portion was of course smaller than mine but she still had two portions. While eating I wanted to ask her some questions so I began to talk.
[Good morning Lisa.](Satoru)
[Good morning Satoru.](Lisa)
[Lisa I want to ask you some questions, can you answer them seriously?](Satoru)
[Yes, fell free to ask me anything, we are in a party after all!](Lisa)
[Okay, then first I want to ask you if you are willing to follow me. My goal for now is that I want to wander around the world. Well mostly I want to go to the cities where the dungeons are and conquer them. I also want to get stronger by defeating stronger monsters.](Satoru)
[I’m okay with that, I feel that if I’m with you I can also get stronger.](Lisa)
[Yes, I can help you get stronger but you will need to trust me. Of course I will need to trust you as well but I don’t see any problem in that. Next is that I want you to keep quiet about my means.](Satoru)
[I already trust you, if you were a bad guy you would have attacked me when I was unconscious. I can keep quiet about your means but what means are you talking about?](Lisa)
[I will show you when we get to the dungeon, for now let’s eat](Satoru)
[Sure, I can’t wait!](Lisa)
While we were eating I peeked at her status.
[Name] Lisa
[Race] Firewolf
[Age] 16
[Level] 87
[Job] Swordsman
[HP] 1487/1487
[MP] 120/120
[Physical Strength] 1087
[Intelligence] 100
[Agility] 1387
[Stamina] 1087
[Endurance] 787
[Skills]: [Fire magic 2]
[Night vision]
[Sense presence 3], [Smash 3], [Swordsmanship 4], [Archery 1]
(That’s pretty weak but if I level her up she will quickly get stronger. I also need to help her gain the mana manipulation skill too. The first job that she will need to level up is probably apprentice mage. Then next would be mage and then can she level up other jobs.)
We finished eating and while walking to the dungeon we spoke about ourselves, mostly about our combat style though. From our talk I was told that she mostly fights with a sword and sometimes she coats her sword in fire but she doesn’t use that often. She also told me that she practiced archery but she didn’t use the bow since then. I told her my combat style which is using magic along with my swordsmanship.
[You can use magic? So it’s just like me!](Lisa)
[Is it really that rare to use magic? I know that people at the guild told me it will be hard to invite a magician to my party but it shouldn’t be that hard.](Satoru)
[That’s because most of people that are talented in magic are court magicians or work in magic academies. Because of that there aren’t many magicians that choose to be adventurers. Most of the magicians usually belong to high ranking parties.](Lisa)
[Is that so, well that somewhat makes sense.](Satoru)
I remembered the use of magic classes in the RPG’s. They were something along a walking nuke that just spammed their spells and dealth massive amounts of damage. Because of that they had quite weak defenses because they didn’t have any protection skills. But this is a fantasy world in which you can actually defend yourself and that defense should be quite powerful!
I continued to walk to the dungeon and when we got near the dungeon I walked to an area without people.
[Satoru? The dungeon is in that way?](Lisa)
[Come with me for a moment Lisa, I want to test something.](Satoru)
She nodded and after arriving in an unpopulated area I tried to teleporting three meters away. When I did so Lisa was stunned but she still stood where I was a second ago.
[Umm Satoru what was that? Is that by a chance the Blink skill?](Lisa)
[Blink? No this is different, that’s one of the things you need to keep quiet about. This is space magic.](Satoru)
Without waiting for her response I again came to her and this time held her hand. She blushed but I was unaware of it because I was focusing on the idea of both of us teleporting three metres away. When I successfully used the space magic I saw that I was indeed three meters but then I looked at Lisa. She was still standing next to me and I was still grabbing her hand. I then realized that she was blushing so I quickly removed my hand. Her face had a somewhat sad look but as I was facing away I didn’t see her expression.
[Okay, the experiment succeeded. If I want to teleport you with me we need to have direct contact. Can you grab my hand again?](Satoru)
[Yes!](Lisa)
I wondered why was she so happy. In the end I could only think of only one reason, maybe she didn’t mind holding my hand. I’m not delusional so I quickly denied it and asked for the reason why she was happy.
[Why are you so happy? We are teleporting to the dungeon now so you better be careful.](Satoru)
[Hehe, it’s a secret.](Lisa)
[Okay then? Prepare yourself.](Satoru)
This time the point of teleportation was the eleventh floor that I entered yesterday. When we teleported I could feel that the amount of mana I used was more than before. I needed to use something along 30% more mana than when I teleport alone. When we arrived at the eleventh floor I saw Lisa’s amazed expression. Well no wonder, we teleported for quite some distance but it still was nothing compared to my daily teleportation in Lostgate city. Lisa looked amazed for a while and after the amazement faded she looked at me.
[Etto, what floor are we on?](Lisa)
[We are on the eleventh floor right now as this is the highest floor I went to.](Satoru)
[Eleventh floor? But will we be alright?](Lisa)
[Haha don’t worry, I can defeat the boss on the tenth floor alone so defeating small fries like those shouldn’t be a problem.](Satoru)
[Wait you said you defeated the boss by yourself?!](Lisa)
[That’s right, although it was quite hard. Especially dealing with that web.](Satoru)
[I-i see, so you are that strong? I’m beginning to think that I’m not qualified to be in a party with you.](Lisa)
[Aah don’t worry about it, I will make you stronger so you shouldn’t be so much behind. If there will be a time when you fall into a difficult situation I can always help you. Now let’s start the hunting!](Satoru)
I said so and began to walk off into the forest.
[Yes!](Lisa)
