Ganersam Volume 1

We arrived at the marked location. The snake is living somewhere near the southern road. It’s sand as far as the eye can see, with no signs of giant snakes whatsoever.

The guild lent us a below-ground tracking device that could detect large monsters. It looked like a normal metal detector.

“You see anything?”

“Nope.”

Nia continued swinging the metal detector around. The metal detector could detect up to 250 meters away and could detect as deep as 50 meters. However, it only detects large monsters, so we still need to be wary of smaller monsters.

We were told the snake was half the size of a king salamander, but it was twice as long. Its head was the most dangerous part, as it was so large it could eat you whole. The snake’s tail is also strong, and a swing from it could slice you into two.

There was an accident near here three days ago when a merchant carriage was eaten whole by the snake. Luckily, everyone manages to escape unharmed.

“So... how do you find this thing again?”

There are no instructions from the guild. Maybe we’ll need a merchant carriage as bait?

“Is there any information regarding what that merchant carriage is carrying?”

Emma took a look at the request and shook her head.

“No info about that.”

The desert in front of us is far too wide for us to scan manually. If we can’t find this snake before dark, we might as well cancel it and return to the inn.

And of course, something’s going to happen right after I thought about that.

“Projectile moving in fast from the northwest!”

Nia warned us. She then pointed in the direction of the incoming snake. A cloud of sand is moving fast from the place she is pointing towards.

Projectile is an interesting choice of word, but seeing how fast it’s coming towards us, that description is appropriate. A dark-gray long rock-like shape is heading straight toward us, slicing through the sand like a torpedo in the water.

Emma moved back and grabbed her sniper. She started firing bolts of paralyze toward the snake. Paralyze moves faster compared to sleep, and is a better choice in these kinds of situations.

However, the snake is far faster than the bolt. Sensing danger, it drifted away from the bolt, changing directions in an instant.

“What is that? A missile?”

Emma complained. The snake is so fast and maneuverable it put air-to-air missiles to shame.

“What’s a missile?”

Of course, Nia didn’t know, but we don’t have time to explain it.

I grabbed LIAR and pulled the trigger. Bolts of paralyze rained on the snake. Recognizing the threat, the snake dove below the sand. We could still see a faint trail mark that it created, but the sand covers up the snake, blocking our bolts.

This is bad.

This is really bad. If the snake continues being underground, we won’t be able to kill it.

“Watch out!”

I screamed as I jumped back. The snake jumped from the sand, revealing its entire body. Its body had a dark gray color, and the surface was rough. I dodged its mouth which was heading straight to me.

I managed to just barely evade that attack and fall back to the sand.

“Willy, are you alright?”

Emma, who was watching from a distance, shouted to me.

“I’m fine!”

The snake dived back into the sand, sending a shock wave as it disappeared beneath the surface.

“Cough cough... This is not good!”

Nia shouted, her vision stuck on the detector’s screen.

“It’s coming back, this time from the west!”

Seeing how fast it previously was, I decided to abandon the idea of hitting it with paralyze.

I holstered LIAR on my back and raised my hand. I could feel the shake as the snake started approaching me.

I closed my eyes and felt the ground shake beneath me. I stood there, doing a mental countdown on when the snake would reappear. I felt the shaking sand and heard the sound of them being pushed around.

“Now...”

I muttered, and as expected, the snake appeared before me. It jumped high above and pointed its head to me.

So I still have some gamer sense left, huh.

Letting out all my energy, I screamed,

“Lightning Cut!”

A bolt of lightning appeared on my hand. I could feel its immense uncontrollable power. I released it towards the snake. I could only point to the general direction of where it should be going, but that’s the point.

A wise man once said,

Your enemies can’t predict your actions if you yourself don’t know what you’re doing.

With that, I released the bolt of lightning toward the sky. The lighting spreads, and while most of it missed, thanks to the snake’s low defense, the few bolts of lightning that hit were enough to slice it into pieces.

I ran toward the side, dodging the falling remains. The body of the snake crashes onto the sand, sending a storm towards us.

“Cough cough... Is it done?”

The two girls approached me. In front of us, the body of the snake lay motionless.

“Quest complete!”

We made our way back to the guild. We were welcomed with awe and amazement.

We just proved our worth as a party.

The reward is pretty great, although since Riko is paying for most of our expenses, money isn’t an issue right now.

We’re still grateful for it though.

It was already dark when we returned, so after eating dinner, we went back to the inn.

“That was nice...”

I said as I sat on the sofa. I spread my hands on the sofa’s top and let out a sigh as I slump into its soft surface.

“I’ve divided the money equally, you could check your adventurer cards.”

“Thanks, Emma.”

I checked my card, and it showed the amount of money I currently have. I could also view the transaction history if I want to. The payment system in the guild encountered some issues, so instead of dividing it directly to the party members, they gave it all to Emma.

“By the way, I’ve been curious about this for a while, but how is there advanced technology like starships and lasers yet no games?”

“I think it’s one of the people another angel sent here that created those things. It’s a long while ago, but he said the person asked for the ability to create anything. There are some limitations to it, but it seems he’s able to create starships, but has no interest in games.”

Depending on when the person died, there’s a chance science fiction has become popular but video games weren’t mainstream yet.

Or maybe he just didn’t like games?

Who knows?

Nia, who was sitting on the other sofa, silently listened to us.

“Do you understand anything we’re talking about?”

Nia shook her head.

“No, and unless you want to tell me, I won’t ask. I understand if you still didn’t trust me.”

“No, that’s not what I meant-”

Nia cut me off with a chuckle. I couldn’t help but return a wry smile to her.

“Anyway, I’m going to bed before this gets awkward again. Just wake me up if anything happens.”

“Alright, good night.”

Nia waved at us and entered her room.

“Now what?”

“I don’t know, I’m tired too.”

“I see, goodnight.”

With that, I headed to bed.

I woke up in the middle of the night.

No, I didn’t have a bad dream or anything, I just, well, woke up. Feeling I would trigger an event, I went out of my room. No one is in the living room, as expected. They’re probably still sleeping at this point.

I headed toward the lift.

“I wonder what the rooftop looks like.”

I muttered to myself. I knew the existence of the rooftop before, as it’s written on the lift, but I didn’t bother checking it out, since I thought it was like a normal roof.

But since it was midnight, the stars were probably beautiful at this time, so I decided to head upstairs anyway.

I was wrong, I mean about the roof, not the stars. Turns out there’s a beautiful small garden on the rooftop, decorated with four palm trees on each edge and a couple of small bushes. On the other side of the roof, a girl stands alone.

I knew I had triggered an event.

I approached the girl and leaned on the railing next to her.

“Can’t sleep?”

“Yes, bad dreams.”

The girl replied.

“How about you?”

“I just woke up for no reason. No bad dreams.”

“I see...”

The girl muttered silently.

I went silent for a while. It would be awkward if we just stood there, silently, so I try to muster up a conversation.

“Say, how’s life back in the demon’s army?”

...

Maybe I really should’ve played more dating sims.

“I’m a cademon, and I served a purpose, so my life is significantly better compared to those around me.”

Well, at least she answered. I should just play along from this point.

“Does the way the demon’s army treats its army vary?”

“Yes, the low-class monsters like goblins are considered cannon fodder. Low-level demons are a level above them, and often command groups of goblins. Not all goblins are part of the demon’s army though. Then there are medium-level demons who command the low-level demons. Cademons and humans are usually a part of the third class, and above them are the high-level demons, and finally commanding them all is the beast-class demons.”

“Humans?”

“Some humans who defected to the dark side, and also humans who came from hell and joined the fight.”

“I see, I thought all humans would side with us.”

“Those people are usually pure evil, their hearts consumed by darkness. I would argue that us cademons are even more human when compared to them.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, our brains and hearts are humans. It’s more accurate to call us humans with demonic powers compared to demons with human powers, although not all of us actually had demonic powers. Like mine, for example, you can’t exactly categorize fast learning as a demonic power.”

“I guess that’s true. Do you know anything about Miss Julia?”

“You mean the doctor’s wife? No, I don’t. It’s normal for the demon’s army to abandon failed cademons. They were expected to survive alone, and if they could prove their worth, there’s a chance they’ll be reaccepted.”

“Is there a note or some kind that tracks these failed cademons?”

“I don’t think so... we’re expandable, individually we’re not important.”

Then how did Amel track all of this then?

Also, the demon’s army is a lot more demonic compared to what I originally thought. I guess that’s to be expected.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“I don’t have a reason to hide it. I’m no longer a part of the demon’s army, and I’m not turning back.”

She said as she looked at the distance.

“Don’t you have any friends back there?”

“We’re encouraged against having friends. The demon’s army worked differently compared to human armies. We’re all expendable. If you’re a demon or a human that came from hell, once you die you’ll just return to hell. It would take a while before your body reconstructs, though...”

Nia stopped. She looked up, her gaze fixed on the distant stars.

“But for us cademons, we’ll die once we got killed. We’re never coming back. I don’t know where we’ll go after death.”

Every 60 seconds in Africa a minute passes.

...

I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.

To be clear, I didn’t actually say that.

“Did you lose someone?”

She nodded.

“Did you remember the knight I told you about before?”

“Yes.”

“That knight rescued me. But long before that, I have a friend. We were encouraged against getting close to others, but as half-humans, connections will happen. I grew close to a cademon, who helped a human mother with her baby escape a battle. She was executed for treason... That was also the day another friend, who I was less close with, disappeared. She’s still my friend, though. So I lost two friends in that one day”

Nia fell silent, before letting out another laugh.

“I made things even awkward, huh? I’m sorry.”

“No, no...”

Nia looked at me and gave me a genuine smile.

“Thank you for hearing me out. I understand if it sounds weird.”

I don’t know how to reply, I wasn’t expecting this kind of development. I expected something more fun and cheerful.

We looked up at the peaceful skies together and enjoyed the spectacular views.

“Thank you for accepting me.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

A soft angel-like voice suddenly came from my left.

Emma leaned on the railing, her gaze also fixed on the stars above.

“You can’t sleep too?”

Emma nodded.

For some reason, all three of us can’t sleep. I wonder if Riko and Amel are sleeping right now.

“I was hungry, so I headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. I saw you headed upward, so I followed.”

“So you’ve been spying on us since the start?”

“Technically, yeah. There’s nothing that I’m not supposed to hear, though.”

“That’s not for you to decide, although you’re right, there’s nothing secretive about the conversation.”

Emma then looked toward Nia and approached her.

“Can I touch your ears?”

“Feel free to.”

Emma then started stroking Nia’s ear.

“It’s so soft...”

“Let me try.”

Don’t ask how we got to this, but the both of us ended up stroking Nia’s ears.

It really is soft.

“How do cademons even get cat ears in the first place?”

“I don’t know, it’s been a part of every cademon since we were born. The demon’s army is looking for a way to remove them, but they keep failing.”

“I prefer the cat ears though.”

“The cat ears become an obstacle for us cademons looking to infiltrate the humans, so of course, you’ll prefer the cat ears.”

“That’s not the reason. I just thought they looked cute.”

Hearing that, Emma shot me a cold glare.

“So you want more catgirls?”

“Yes.”

"Sigh... men are always like this.”

We enjoyed the night together, under the bright shining stars.