Chapter 8 - Baka

“Thanks for the EXP!”

I said, killing the last bat of the swarm by stabbing it in the chest. To be honest, I just missed the head because of how nimble and fast they are.

“*Screeech!*”

It let out a shriek, and then died.

I killed around 10 Starwing Bats in just a few minutes!

The only problem for me was them flying around and hard to hit, even though the damage they dealt was pretty high if it’s not me overleveling them.

“Still, now that I know I can kill them fast and efficiently, I’m feeling a little bit sorry if I didn’t.”

Lucky too, didn’t die easily because I begged for the vets to save him, even though they said the chance’s very low. I was just a kid who only knew to prioritize my emotions.

“I do wonder what was best for him back then.”

I swung the knife to get rid of the bat blood, then I looked at my EXP gauge. It is now full and has x3 on the right of it.

“These bats sure give me easy EXP. I hope there are still some left for me to carry Yumemi’s level up.”

Come to think of it, I wonder what will happen to the corpses of the monsters with flesh I defeated?

I was dumb for not checking the EXP gauge thoroughly to find EXP history. Maybe looking at the monsters’ corpse will give me some more detailed status?

And so, I tried to look harder on one of the corpses…

[Skill Unlocked: Appraisal Lv 2]

[Starwing Bat Corpse] [Durability: 8.8]

Okay, something popped out. And hey, its durability keeps getting lower by 0.1 per minute.

Does that mean this corpse only has 87 minutes more before something happens?

But it’s weird that it said durability instead of expiration… So I tried stabbing it, and its durability plummeted by 2.0, so I did it three more times and the corpse disappeared like the slimes.

Okay, now I get how that works. Slimes must’ve had 0 durability by standard then.

Wait, I should check on my knife too.

[Stone Knife] [Quality: Poor] [Durability: 18.8]

“Dang, the system is calling out my poor handicraft like that…”

Just for the test, I tried to hit another corpse, then the cave wall.

The durability went down by 0.1 for the corpse, and went down 0.5 for the cave wall.

“If I don’t know this and the durability hits zero when I’m fighting strong monsters…”

Another close call. If the system knows everything, why didn’t they release the full guide instead of explaining one by one!

… though I feel like I will skip reading most of the explanations in the guide.

I guess I’ll head back and have a talk with Yumemi while making another knife.

This time, I slid down the slopes properly to not get hurt.

“Where have you been!?” she immediately snapped at me.

“I properly said that I’m going out and you replied okay.” Though it’s while she’s deep in thought.

“I don’t remember saying that!”

Yeah, I can't do anything about that.

“... sorry.” I think it’s better to yield down.

“But Shindou-kun, you are not the type to lie, so that must be the truth. The fact that you’re giving up and just apologizing when you’re not in the wrong irritates me, you know!?”

What am I supposed to do then!?

“I’m sorry. I’m at fault here.” She bowed at me before I could snap.

“... huh? But… huh?”

I was so shocked since that came out of nowhere.

When she looked at me again, she continued

“I can apologize too, you know? Welcome back, Shindou-kun.”

“Uh… I’m back?”

>x<

I chose two rocks based on their durabilities that reached 300, and started the work.

While making another knife, I explained to Yumemi about the EXP bonus she can get if she’s low leveled.

She told me her EXP history, and it makes sense she didn’t get much when I was killing the slimes.

“I was worried each time you took damage, you know?”

Ah, right. She can see my HP Gauge since we’re in a party.

“Don’t worry, level 1 monsters are no threat to me.”

“That’s not the problem!”

“By the way, are your wounds closed yet?”

“Don’t change the subject! It is closed though!” She still answered though. “I tried washing your T-shirt but the stain in the middle just won’t go away…”

She pointed at my T-shirt she hung on a branch. I can see the bloodstain the size of her palm remains at the center.

“It’s just a plain T-shirt anyway, giving it a pattern might be a good idea. Okay, I finished a new stone knife. Let’s see… all that pounding and it still had a durability of 98.1, not bad.”

“... Hey, Shindou-kun. Why are you always changing the topics?”

“Tch.” I can’t escape huh.

“Why are you clicking your tongue just now!?”

… to be honest, it’s because I’m not good at getting pressured like this. She's just like Mika who keeps pressuring me to play together when I don’t want to.

“Shindou-kun…”

She tugged the sleeve of my jacket.

“I’m just worried that something bad will happen to you, you know…” she said while looking at my eyes, all teary.

Ugh, that’s not fair… It seems like I’m weak to that kind of face, maybe I will remember why I do, later when I regained memories of my little sister started making such faces.

“Got it, thanks for worrying about me.”

“Shindou-kun, you’re patting my head again.”

“It’s your fault for being so cute.”

“... HUH!?”

I found out it was too late to take that back, so ruffled her hair to pay her back because she pressured me. Her face was becoming beet red and not pushing me away, so I continued for around 5 minutes.

“That was refreshing, reminds me of when I pat my little sister.”

She pouted at me when I finished. She immediately looked at the reflection in the river, and found out how messy her hair had become.

“Never heard about the saying, Hair is a woman's life?”

“Never heard of it.” The current me, at least never heard of it.

“... baka.”