Chapter 9
We then went and spent some time in the forest. The original intention was to see just how powerful I became, but...
“Lightning Cut!”
“Cursed Vortex!”
“This is bad...”
We were standing in the middle of the forest.
Remember the part where I skipped low-level magic? Yeah, I regretted that. My spell pierced through the trees, hitting the unfortunate group of goblins. I instantly killed all five goblins, but there was a problem.
There’s like a row of dead trees now laying on the ground.
“William is useless, and Nia is useless... Well, we’re doomed.”
“Hey! I don’t want to hear that from you.”
Emma said, teasingly. Of course, I would shot back.
I thought this was a normal game where upgrading your spells meant you were more powerful. That isn’t wrong, but it’s nowtoopowerful. I have almost no control over my magic, other than the general direction I pointed it at.
My lightning would spread uncontrollably toward the direction I aim. While it isn’t particularly bad when I’m in an open field against a very large enemy or a large group of small ones, it would be an issue if I had limited space.
Another problem came from my energy usage. While I have high energy, I can’t control how much energy my magic uses. In most cases, my magic would be far too powerful, consuming too much energy. I could only fire a limited amount of magic before running out of energy.
“Twelve trees cut down, for five goblins...”
Nia stated exactly what happened, her voice shaking. While it’s not as terrible as what Emma describes, it’s still pretty bad. I create more damage to the environment compared to my enemies.
I bet those environmentalists are shaking right now, looking at this horrifying sight. I put my hands together, apologizing to the trees that became my victims
Nia on the other hand, can’t deal any significant damage.
“You were really cool back then... keyword back then...”
“Please stop...”
Nia muttered as she kneeled close to the ground, covering her ears from Emma’s teasing. I could understand how she felt. A high-ranking member of the demon’s army, now struggles against the lowest of monsters, while at the same time being made fun of by her sworn enemy.
“Finally showing your true colors, eh?”
Hearing that, Emma turned toward me with a smirk on her face.
“Now you know how it feels to be me, right?”
This girl is really enjoying it. I can’t help but feel that Nia is far more angel-like compared to Emma.
I think she’s trying to take revenge on me for how she’s been excluded from fights. I feel bad for Nia, though, the last couple of days have probably been terrible for her, and now I realize I can’t guarantee our team will be any better.
“Oh, cut it out.”
I said as I pulled Emma’s hair.
“Ow, ow, ow! I’m sorry, please let go of me!”
I let go of Emma’s hair, surprised her self-defense powers didn’t kick in, and turned toward Nia.
“Couldn’t you just be a polearm user though?”
Nia looked at me and shook her head.
“No, that staff also buffs my strengths as well. Without it, I’m nearly as weak as this foul-mouthed loli.”
“How dare you!”
The two girls started squabbling. Emma isn’t that short though, although she’s definitely the shortest of us. Based on what I’ve seen, while Nia is pretty weak, she is nowhere near Emma’s level, so she’s still far better compared to her.
On a side note, this automatic language learning feature is really cool. I could immediately understand this world’s version of the word loli.
I then looked at my adventurer card. I definitely made a mistake. In the excitement of this ‘immense’ power, I upgraded all of my medium-level magic. I’m now forced to learn low-level magic.
That itself isn’t bad, the only problem is low-level magic isn’t really great in terms of damage.
Most mages tend to have a backup physical weapon when they just started, but I don’t have any.
“What about other Amnesia Clansmen? How do they control their power?”
I asked Emma. Emma paused and looked at me, her hand still holding Nia’s,
“They use their weapons or skills to channel their powers...”
Hearing that, I put my hands on her head. She tilted her head, confused.
“... What are you doing?”
“I’m going to channel my powers. Now go on and breathe fire.”
I said as I slowly tilted her head back straight.
“Fuwaah... it didn’t work.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Maybe I should have taken a pet dragon instead?
“Your control over magic will increase with your level... but it will take far too long before you reach that level...”
Nia looked at me with her own ‘we’re screwed’ expression on her face. It’s kinda my fault for destroying her staff. We checked the weapons shop earlier, and there’s no staff that is even close in power to her original staff.
Even if there is a decent weapon, it’s far too expensive for us now.
“If Emma used that staff, what would happen?”
“It wouldn’t work on her.”
She said, examining Emma.
“My stats are still far better than Emma’s. To be frank, I think I’ve never seen anyone with stats worse than her.”
So now we have an exploding trash can, a trash can, and a trash cannot.
“So... now what?”
I asked as I looked around. We’re standing in the middle of the forest, so it’s probably not a good idea to keep being here.
“Say... how did we end up here again?”
Emma’s words bring me back from my thoughts. I didn’t remember going in this deep.
“Are we lost?”
“No, we just need to follow the trees...”
Nia’s words trail off. She probably thought we could follow the path of the trees that I cut down, but there’s another problem.
“... There are no trees.”
Nia continued.
“Well, there’s this single one.”
Emma pointed to a single tree standing in the middle, but a single tree isn’t enough to guide us home, though
“That’s not enough.“.
This is all because of my inability to control my powers. The area is so messed up that there’s really no clear path.
“Well, if that’s the case, guess we all will just die here.”
Emma said as she dropped down on the grass, her hand spread on the ground.
“We’re in trouble and she’s t-posing.”
“What’s t-posing?”
“It’s a pose where you spread your hands like this idiot here, it’s usually used to design clothes.”
I answered vaguely. This world language has differences from English, and thus the letter ‘t’ doesn’t look like a ‘t’ here.
Emma ignored my words and looked up to the sky.
“It’s peaceful, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think it would continue like this if some monster appeared.”
I said as I sat down beside her.
Nia, who was still standing, looks around. She then started moving toward our right side. She stopped, her eyes fixed in a certain direction.
“... Where are you going?”
“You two should prepare to run.”
She said as she looked to the distance.
...
Again?
I don’t know what kind of sin I committed in my past life that led me here, but this is just too much.
“Why wouldn’t they give up!? Stop sending us impossible monsters, damn it!”
I voiced my complaints.
“This isn’t the demon’s army! The blue tiger indeed has high magic resistance!”
Emma, who was running beside me, explained.
“She’s right, contrary to a normal king salamander though, it had low physical resistance.”
Nia continued Emma’s explanation.
But we don’t have any physical attackers in our team.
And no, we’re not punching it to death.
“Woah!”
The tiger leaps forward, nearly hitting Emma. Emma, with her ‘awesome’ luck, stumbled on a branch and fell down. The tiger missed her and landed right in front of us.
“Are you sure you have high luck?”
“Well, it did save me this time.”
I helped Emma up. The tiger turned around and stared at us, ready to attack at any time. Its eyes were shining red. Scratching the ground with its large paws, it slowly moved toward us.
“What do we do now?”
Emma puts herself in front of us, her shield at the ready.
The tiger growls at us. It stood there, menacingly.
...
“... Isn’t it going to strike?”
After Emma took up position, the tiger stopped moving.
Does it know about Emma’s shield, and is trying to catch her off guard?
Or does it register Emma as a threat?
I glanced at my feet, and a branch caught my eyes. It’s the same branch that Emma tripped over. It’s quite pointy, and its surface is rough. I’m surprised Emma isn’t hurt by it.
Maybe it would work?
I grabbed the branch and pointed at the tiger.
“You’re not going to poke him to death, right?”
“Of course not! I’m not that stupid! Just focus on the tiger!”
Emma looked back at the tiger.
I pulled my hand back, and with all my strength...
“Hup!”
“Roar!”
I threw the branch high above the tiger.
Looking at the branch, the tiger turned back and chased after it.
“Now!”
Pulling the two girls, I ran to the other side.
“Really!? That’s your plan?”
“Stop complaining! That’s better than what you could do!”
Emma really does let out the worst words sometimes. Sprinting at full power, we manage to leave the forest.
“I kind of feel bad for the tiger. Imagine if it returned for us.”
“I’m not taking my chances. If you want to go back, go back alone.”
I coldly said to Emma. Hopefully, she won’t do anything weird again. After escaping the tiger, we got lost even deeper in the forest. It’s through pure luck that we stumbled into a group of adventurers. We managed to return safely to town.
It’s already late now. The bright stars glow in the night sky, and the city lights shone through the empty streets. After that comment, I walked in silence. Emma and Nia were walking in front of me, talking about stuff.
“You’ve been silent, is everything alright?”
Realizing I haven’t said anything, Emma asked me. The two stopped and turned around.
“Nah, I’m just thinking about some things.”
It’s them that I’m thinking about. Emma isn’t able to do anything other than defense, and Nia is a bit useless without her staff.
I myself have very limited use. I can’t do anything against enemies with high magic resistance and nimble movements like the blue tiger, and I struggle in closed spaces. The only situation I’ll be useful in is against a large number of weak enemies or one large enemy in a big open space.
Also, there’s the issue with money. With Nia now on the team, we need money for all three of us. If this continues, we’ll be forced to do part-time jobs, not that I would mind though. At this point, I’ll just do whatever I can.
When we entered the guild, a group of adventurers was standing in front of the request board, but we ignored them and headed to our room.
The next day, a different group of adventurers is standing in front of the board.
Curious, we approached the board.
“Blue tiger bounty hunt...”