No Need To Be Stressed Out

The sound of blades clashing could be heard as Rina and Kaito trained in the open fields. Kaito needed to be much stronger so they could start their relic hunting.

“All I need to do is hit her once,” Kaito thought.

In their training session, Kaito had to strike Rina at least once for a victory. He chased after Rina, but she was always able to dodge his attack. After a while, Kaito got into a suitable range for a solid hit.

“HAAAA!!!” Kaito yelled as he attacked with strength, but Rina still dodged him. Kaito wasn’t done with his attack sequence, though.

From Rina’s blind spot appeared another Kaito who tried to take Rina by surprise! By utilizing his new skill, Clone, Kaito can create a duplicate of himself.

Rina was drawn to the second, and Kaito took his chance to strike. He activated his Pinpoint skill to make sure his pincer attack would land. Kaito thought he surely had Rina pinned, as she was still mid-air from dodging the clone’s attack.

Unfortunately for Kaito, Rina activated her Air Step skill, which allows her to jump in mid-air. She successfully dodged both of the Kaito’s attacks, causing them to crash into each other.

Rina graciously landed from the scrimmage and announced, “Good attempt. That should be enough training for now.”

Kaito, still in pain from having crashed into his clone, complained in unison with his clone, “Couldn’t you just have let me get a hit in there!? When were you allowed to use skills?”

Rina, refusing to let Kaito know she accidentally used her skill impulsively, answers, “I never said I wasn’t going to use a skill.”

Not believing this was the case, Kaito was about to retaliate, but he suddenly fell over as his clone disappeared.

THUD!!

“Huh, why am I suddenly so out of energy?” Kaito wondered in a slight panic.

Crouching down in front of Kaito, Rina answered, “Using the amount of skills you did to try and hit me will drain all your energy. You’re gonna have a hard time moving for a while.”

Barely managing to turn his head towards Rina, Kaito jokingly says, “Will you carry me?”

Rina didn’t even answer him, let alone humour him. She just walked back to the capital, a short walk from where they were training.

“Wait, Rina!? Where are you going!?” Kaito yelled in panic. “What if a monster attacks me out here!?”

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Of the three locations listed on the scroll Kaito and Rina received from the underground study, one of which was a dungeon near the capital, Nakamura. The two were training in preparation for taking on the dungeon there. After all the training Kaito received at and on the way to Nakamura, Kaito was now level 25, a much more suitable level for the dungeon.

Upon arriving at the alleged dungeon, Rina and Kaito were greeted by a large abandoned castle standing by a large river. Rina and Kaito looked up towards the castle, with Kaito more surprised at how large the dungeon looked.

“So, are we supposed to explore this whole place? How long is this going to take?” Kaito complained.

“If you want, we can split up to cover more ground,” Rina suggested. “The scroll said we’re supposed to be looking for a key within the dungeon to access its lower levels.”

“Nope,” Kaito said immediately. “We work better as a team!”

Rina was unimpressed by his attempt to stay together but ultimately allowed his desire. Deciding to venture together, the two entered the large front gate of the abandoned castle. When they entered the dungeon, the doors swiftly shut behind them, much faster than large doors like that could move.

Kaito slightly jumped as Rina analyzed the situation.

“So it’s an inescapable dungeon,” Rina deduced.

“Wait, so we can’t leave until we finish the dungeon,” Kaito said in a slight panic.

“Correct, though we should be fine with the resources stored in our inventory,” Rina responded confidently.

“R-right…” Kaito hesitantly spurted out.

Silence filled the room as Rina slowly turned towards Kaito, who looked incredibly nervous.

Rina, reading Kaito like a book, questioned, “You did restock on what I told you to keep on you, right?”

Kaito, incapable of looking Rina in the face, didn’t even try to lie. “I was kinda expecting us to quickly get through the dungeon again with you leading the way…”

Pinching the bridge of her nose in disappointment, Rina sighed. With only Rina having items like food and water in her Inventory skill, the two were on a much tighter time limit.

They would have to take breaks more sparingly to enable them to get through the large castle dungeon more effectively. Holding back the urge to smack Kaito, Rina proceeded forward instead as they needed to get through the dungeon quickly.

The castle dungeon was filled with many aetherial-type monsters, including ghosts, poltergeists, spirits, and armor husks. The latter was the first enemy the duo encountered. By focusing on crushing the helm, Kaito and Rina easily defeated them.

While Kaito focused on picking up the extra armor parts, Rina ordered, “Come on, we don’t have time for that. Plus, I’d be bad if another head came to occupy the armor.”

Rina clearly felt stressed about Kaito’s mess-up, which made him feel bad. She was speed walking and frantically looking for the key to the lower floors. Kaito decided to suggest something to make her feel better.

“Hey Rina, I can go without food for a while, so we can afford to slow down a bit,” said Kaito, slightly looking away from Rina in embarrassment.

As Kaito looked up towards Rina to hear her thoughts on his suggestion, he was greeted by a huge, ghastly face in front of him. Kaito couldn’t hide it anymore; he was terrified of the dungeon’s atmosphere. Without thinking, he activated his Phase skill and ran in the opposite direction of Rina and the scary face, which he didn’t know only he could see.

Rina turned around to address his suggestion, but only saw Kaito activating his skill and running away from her.

“I’m going to kill him,” Rina softly said in great annoyance.

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Following Kaito’s excellent display of bravery, Kaito and Rina are now separated within the abandoned castle dungeon, traversing its halls, hoping to reunite.

Kaito is found timidly calling out Rina’s name. He wants to find her so he won’t be alone, and not find her so he doesn't have to feel her wrath. As he waits to find out how he has to suffer, he continues searching for Rina and the key to the lower floors.

Amid his search, Kaito hears a voice.

“Kaaaiiiitoooo…”

Kaito swiftly looked around to see if he could find what had made that call.

“Rina!? Is that you!?”

“Kaito, over here,” the voice responded to Kaito, now more closely resembling Rina.

Kaito turned toward the direction of the voice and witnessed a door opening slightly. Assuming that was where Rina was, Kaito ran to the room and opened the door.

“Rina!?” Kaito shouts in the hope of reuniting.

To Kaito’s surprise, Rina was in the room, sitting on a bed within it. Kaito’s heart was finally put at ease.

“Rina, I’m sorry I ran away… and forgot to restock on items,” said Kaito, barely able to keep his tears of joy from flowing out.

Rina responds in an eerily comforting voice, “You don’t have to worry about that… I think it’s about time we take a break...”

Kaito was expecting Rina to take something out of her inventory, but instead, she grabbed Kaito’s head and placed it on her lap. Kaito was very surprised, but was fully prepared to welcome Rina’s newfound affection.

“R-Rina?” Kaito questioned Rina’s actions.

“Shhh…” Rina entranced Kaito, gently brushing her hand over his eyes. “Take some time to rest. We can eat later.”

Kaito was fully immersed in the situation and fell asleep in the warmth of Rina’s thighs. Rina, continuing to comfort Kaito, started to lean in towards his face. As Rina’s face grew as close as it could be before making contact with Kaito’s, her mouth horrifically widened to an inhuman size in the attempt to devour Kaito’s whole head.

What seemed to be Rina was about to devour Kaito, but the real Rina barged down the room’s door, immediately waking up Kaito.

“Kaito, get away from that thing!” yelled Rina urgently.

Turning to whom he thought was Rina, Kaito now saw a ghastly-looking woman towering above him. Having to step in because Kaito looked like he was about to faint from fear, Rina activated her Air Cutter skill, allowing her to create air slashes. The blades of air hit the monster a nd caused it to dissipate, freeing Kaito from danger.

“Kaito, are you alright?” Rina asked while she rushed to check if he was okay.

“I-I’m fine,” Kaito replied, semi-disappointed in himself for having to be saved by Rina again.

Rina could tell that Kaito felt responsible for many of their troubles, so she made her own suggestion. “I think it’d be best to take a break, don’t you think?”

Kaito was partially scarred from going through the same thing with the imposter Rina, but still decided to take Rina up on her offer.