by Yuu Tanaka
I’m glad you’re alright, Fran.
“Thanks.”
Fran hugged my cracked and chipped blade.
Careful, Fran. You’ll cut yourself.
“I’ll be fine.”
She hugged me tighter. She leaned her forehead against my hilt and let out a sigh of relief. She was just as worried as I was.
Alright, fine.
“Hm.”
It was the touching reunion with my beloved student. It would be nice if there were no one else here but us.
“D-did that sword just… move? I’m pretty sure I heard it talk, too. And it used magic…”
I had completely forgotten about Amanda! I was trying to tiptoe around her before… But I had lost my head in the heat of things.
In a state of panic, I had neglected to set my Telepathy frequency to private. I had broadcast my frantic shouting to all the souls in earshot, and that included Amanda.
I had cast spells, used Telekinesis, and had flown over to Fran.
“Um…”
“No, wait. You don’t have to explain it to me. It’s okay.”
“Huh?”
“I just happened to hear it, that’s all. Everyone’s bound to have a secret or two.”
She might as well have said that she knew about Fran’s talking, flying sword. There wasn’t much point in dancing around the issue, was there?
Teacher, can I talk to her?
Do you want to tell Amanda?
Yeah…
That was awfully nice of Fran, considering Amanda was the person who had half-killed her during a friendly match… but, if Fran wanted to tell Amanda about me I wasn’t going to question her. Amanda seemed like a good person, anyway.
“Amanda.”
“What’s up?”
“There’s something I want to tell you.”
Three minutes later, Amanda’s eyes were shining with excitement.
“An Intelligent Weapon?! So you have a mind of your own? I thought those only existed in fairy tales! I can’t believe I’m talking to one right now!”
Intelligent Weapons were indeed rare; even Amanda had never come across one in all her travels. What really pleased her though, was the fact that Fran would entrust this great secret to her. This wasn’t information you would share with just about anyone, after all.
“Thank you for telling me, Fran. And… Teacher, was it?”
That’s right.
“Wow… You can really talk!”
Amanda admired me, her eyes all a-sparkle. She was like a little girl who was meeting Santa Claus in person after being told he was a myth all her life.
Nice to meet you.
“The pleasure’s all mine! Don’t you worry, your secret’s safe with me. I’ll keep it with me to my grave! Come talk to me if you need help with anything, okay? I’ll always be on your side, Fran.”
“Sure.”
“I’m the Protector of Children, after all. Come to me anytime you want.”
“Thanks.”
“Ooooh! You’re so cute I’ll do anything for you, Fran!”
I was glad we came to her for help. I was initially apprehensive of Amanda and used Essence of Lies on her just to be safe, but she was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She was willing to do anything if Fran came to her for help.
Isn’t that nice of her, Fran?
“Yeah.”
“I wish you could’ve seen your teacher when those spiders got you, Fran. The sword started screaming your name at the top of its lungs, and I thought I was going crazy!”
“Did I scare you, Teacher?”
A-a little bit.
“Your wolf had rushed ahead too, so I couldn’t help you with my spells. I was freaking out, too!”
“Aroo…”
I couldn’t believe I did all that! I panicked, and freaked, and piled one mistake on top of the other. There were easier ways to solve the encounter we just had. I could’ve asked Amanda for help from the start or hitched a ride during Jet’s Shadow Walk! If we’d had Amanda’s magic and her whip, we would’ve been able to get to Fran sooner.
Fran had a lot to learn, but so did I…
“What’s with the dog?”
Dog…
Jet whined. I understood where Fran was coming from, but I’d feel sorry for Jet if she started treating it like a dog.
Fran, meet Jet. It’s a Darkness Wolf I summoned to look for you.
“Jet suddenly coming out of nowhere scared me half to death!”
“Jet?”
Fran stared at Jet and it stared back innocently at her.
“Aww…”
She pet it on its head, which produced a joyful whine from the canine.
“Good wolf.”
“Arf.”
Is it really a Direwolf? It acts more like a dog than anything else.
“Woof, woof.”
“Hm.”
Jet squinted its eyes as Fran proceeded to fluff its neck, snout, and muzzle. It began licking her face in gratitude, covering her head with slobber. This thing had just been munching on spiders, hadn’t it? Go wash your face later, Fran.
We would need to regroup with the rest of the adventurers. There was no need to rush, of course, but this dungeon was particularly dangerous for Krad’s and Furion’s parties.
We should get going.
“You’re right. Wake up, you two.”
“Bwuh…?”
Amanda kicked the two unconscious adventurers awake.
“Where am I?”
“You idiots freaked out and ran straight into a Teleport Trap.”
“Right… What happened to the girl?!”
“I-Is she okay?”
The two were knocked out of the fight before it even began. They were poisoned and bleeding, and were barely conscious. They still managed to see that Fran had covered for them despite their Stunned state.
“Thanks.”
“We owe you big time.”
What’s this? I wasn’t expecting Krad’s crew to bow their heads to Fran to thank her. Well, if they had turned out to be ungrateful scumbags who refused to acknowledge their petite savior, I would’ve given them a few free lessons in showing respect!
Judging by how Amanda was glaring at the two, she seemed to share my sentiments.
“Bark.”
“Wha—Oh my god, what is that?!”
“B-b-big wolf! Direwolf!”
That was the appropriate reaction to seeing a Darkness Wolf. Their legs turned to jelly and—Oh no. Were they going to faint again? Were we going to have to drag their unconscious asses out of here?
“M-ma’am, please! Save us!”
“Arf?”
“Oh god, it’s going to eat me!”
“Jet, no. Stop licking him.”
“Aroo…”
Amanda explained how Jet was Fran’s summon and the two finally calmed down.
“How did you get such a high-rank monster to be your summon?!”
“I’ve never seen someone use a summon in combat before!”
Their eyes glowed with respect towards Fran. They were converts, for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started calling her “Ma’am.”
“As I was saying…”
“Where are the others?”
“Out looking for you.”
How should we look for them? Running around blindly in this dark cave wasn’t going to help.
“Jet, can you sniff them out, doggie?”
“Woof!”
Jet barked in assent. I had summoned it as part of a mad gambit but it was proving to be more than worth the mana cost. Jet knelt down, then cast a glance at Fran.
“You want me to ride you?”
“Bark!”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“What a smart dog he is.”
Jet still towered over her, despite kneeling down, but Fran managed to climb onto its back.
“Fluffy.”
“Arf!”
Fran grabbed it
s collar and cuddled against its neck. I held Fran in place with Telekinesis just to make sure she wouldn’t fall off during the great wolf’s dash.
But what about Krad’s friends? They weren’t fast enough to keep up, and it would be dangerous to leave them here by themselves. Maybe Amanda could cast some buffs on them.
“Jet, do you mind?”
“Aroo!”
Jet turned to Fran and answered with a bark. She nodded.
“You like dogs?”
“Little Lady? I-I don’t mind them I guess, but why do you ask…?”
“You’re good.”
“Good for wha—aaaah!”
Jet grabbed the adventurer from behind by the straps of his leather armor. It looked like a cat that was carrying its kittens by the back of the neck.
You could just let him ride you, you know?
Arf!
Ah. I guess Jet didn’t want anyone other than Fran to ride it. It recognized her as its master.
“I guess you’re with me.”
“Ma’am? What do you mean by that?”
“Try not to struggle too much.”
“Whoa!”
Amanda picked up the other adventurer and carried him under her arm. It was an odd sight to behold. The man was clearly bigger than her, but her A-Rank Strength was more than enough to carry him.
“Move out.”
“Bark!”
Jet started running on Fran’s signal. As it happened, I was back in my sheath, slung over Fran’s back. I was feeling cold from all the cracks in my blade but I was going to have to suck it up and deal with it until we left the dungeon. I had put enough of myself together to fight, but total repairs were going to have to wait.
“Wow, Jet. You’re running on thin air.”
It does have Air Hike 8, after all.
Our Air Hike 1 was only enough for a double jump. Compared to that, it felt like Jet was running on an invisible track. Fran seemed to be enjoying all this.
“Spiders ahead.”
Five Trick Spiders came to greet us.
“Go for it, Jet.”
“Awooo!”
Jet accelerated instead of slowing down. The adventurer in its mouth cried out in terror but Jet ignored him.
“Grrrr!”
Jet roared and jet-black lances shot out from around it to pierce the spiders all at once. Spiders at its sides were sliced open as it dashed forward. It had clawed at them, its fierce paws too fast for the naked eye to see.
Flare Blast!
“Fire Arrow.”
“Wind Cutter!”
We carved a path through the nest-ridden passageway with consecutive blasts of magic. We carried out our spider extermination mission as we rushed through the caves.
“They’re not putting up much of a fight.”
“Aiee…”
“Huff, huff…”
This was all a cakewalk to Amanda, but the two adventurers looked scared out of their minds.
We finally came to an anteroom covered with spider nests. A huge swarm of spiders covered the room as more and more crawled out of their hidey-holes. I felt some human presence further down, though. It must be Cruise and the rest of the adventurers. How did they end up all the way back there? There must have been another passageway.
We mowed down the spider swarm in front of us and made it to the anteroom. It was a huge space, its high ceilings decorated with spider nests. What would have been a welcome break from the claustrophobic cave atmosphere just looked creepy instead.
Countless spiders swarmed throughout the cave interior. They were on the floor, the walls, and the ceilings—a grotesque carpet and wallpaper of critters.
Cruise and the rest of the adventurers were in the thick of it. They were in trouble, by the looks of it. They didn’t have enough firepower to kill the critters fast enough and some of them had already fallen to abnormal status effects.
“Dammit! There’s no end to them!”
“If we could just get to the exit…!”
They had retreated too far back and were now boxed in.
One of the spiders was bigger than the rest of the horde. Its body was covered in venomous purple fur. Just the sight of it was enough to give me goosebumps. This must have been the Trickster Spider I had been hearing about. Its stats were a class above the rest of the arachnids.
This was the Big Spider Daddy who hurt Fran!
Time for a little payback!
“Yeah!”
As we charged into the heart of the swarm, I heard a desperate cry.
“Aaargh! I-I need help!”
“Boss!”
“Krad!”
What’s this? Krad was wrapped up in webbing and was being dragged into one of the spider nests. He wasn’t Poisoned, but he was Paralyzed. It didn’t look good for him.
We need to help him. Jet, you help the other adventurers.
“Woof.”
“Hm. Fire Arrow!”
The bolt of flame pierced through the horde of Trick Spiders and burned away the webbing that was wrapped around Krad.
“Ow! Ow! Hot!”
The flames got to Krad a little bit, but he’d be alright. The tips of his hair was slightly singed but at least he wasn’t spider food.
“Awooo!”
Jet unleashed a barrage of shadow spears that pierced through the arachnids’ carapaces. I didn’t know the spiders could feel fear, but they felt Jet’s power and scattered.
The humans, on the other hand, were more articulate in voicing their opinions.
“Whoa!”
“What the hell is that?!”
“Yikes! So much magical energy…”
“An Onyx Wolf…?”
“No, you idiot! It’s worse than that!”
“What the hell is it doing here?!”
“Everyone stay calm!”
They were already having enough trouble with the E-Rank monsters. The sight of a Direwolf almost sent the party into hysterics.
“Wait, look! It’s Lady Amanda!”
“And… the little lady! She’s riding that thing!”
“What?”
They calmed down after noticing Fran on top of Jet. We wouldn’t have to worry about being on the receiving end of friendly fire, now.
Alright, let’s start with the Big Daddy of ’em all. The Trickster Spi—
“Die!”
With a crack of her whip, Amanda tore the Trickster Spider into pieces. Crystals burst out of its abdomen.
“I’ll show you what happens when you hurt Fran!”
Well, that was fast. Despite the Trickster Spider’s C-Rank Threat classification, its stats were closer to a D-Rank monster. If not for its Create Trap, it was closer to a D-Rank in strength.
All well and good, but to see it get torn to shreds in an instant…
Um, Amanda?
“Huh?”
I sent Amanda a telepathic message.
“Crap!”
She turned to me and smacked her forehead. I had explained to her earlier that I got stronger by absorbing crystals. No, I didn’t ask her if I could have the Trickster Spider’s crystal. But she didn’t look like she was opposed to it, either, so I took her silence as a yes.
I guess this one was on me for not actually asking her for the crystal…
“A-all right, let’s kill the rest of these bugs!”
Don’t just change the subject!
“Come on, Fran!”
Oh well… Arachnid extermination was going to have to come first.
“Okay.”
“Grrr.”
Let’s kill ’em all!
We rained down a barrage of spells on the arachnid swarm. Amanda used her Wind Magic to slice open the spider nests on the ceiling, Jet’s Shadow Magic pierced the spiders on the walls, and our Fire Magic burned the spiders on the ground. Furion had joined in to entangle the bugs with ivy.
We were dominating, especially Amanda with her Wind Magic. She had managed to annihilate all the spiders on the ce
iling with a few shots of her spells. In all the chaos she had also managed to avoid friendly fire. Her control was impeccable. This was Amanda when she got serious. We had a long ways to go with our Flame Magic. We would need to put additional time into training our magic along with our sword.
“That was amazing, Amanda.”
“Aww, thanks Fran!”
She didn’t look very fierce when she was blushing from Fran’s compliment, though.
The floor was littered with burnt spider remains. Most looked too damaged to be of any use, but we might still be able to salvage some materials out of them. There might be some crystals among the corpse pile, too.
Jet, see if you can’t sniff out some crystals.
“Woof.”
We could get some Trick Spider crystals at least. Jet’s sense of smell allowed it to sniff whatever remained with little trouble. What’s more, it had stowed the crystal away in the shadows, another application of Shadow Walk. Very useful.
“Excuse me… What’s with the Direwolf?”
Cruise cautiously approached us. He had somehow made it out of the scuffle safely, but some of the others weren’t as lucky. The spider’s toxin was beginning to get to them.
Fran.
“Right. Antidote. Cure Paralyze.”
“You saved me!”
“Thank you!”
“I-I thought I was a goner!”
We sat down, Furion’s crew fully healed. One of them was in tears with gratitude. Good thing there were no casualties.
“So, this wolf. Is it an Onyx Wolf?”
“No. It’s a Darkness Wolf.”
“What?”
“I’ve never seen one before!”
The party was in an uproar over seeing such a rare beast. Even Amanda had never seen one before.
“Is it your summon, Fran?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of Summon Magic could a D-Rank have…”
“This is weird…”
Furion observed Jet with wide eyes. He couldn’t beat his natural curiosity as a researcher. Cruise shook his head after being reminded of Fran’s capabilities.
Jet really stood out, didn’t it? I could imagine getting looks from the people in town once we returned to Alessa. And where was it going to stay? We might have to look for lodging that was okay with pets.
I had tried to unsummon it earlier, but it didn’t work. It looked like once you summoned something in this world, it was here for good. Fortunately, it didn’t consume any extra mana by existing.