24 - Seconds

The Goddess, who I had finally learned was named Alku, had crashed our party and demanded I fight -and defeat- the demon lord of this world.

With the threat of losing Toast looming over me, we spent a few days making a plan for how to go about doing this, being that none of us were adventurers, and only half of us even had battle related skills.

Maja at this point was a level 64 healer. Casting healing magic every single day for a year helped her level skyrocket from 40 when I had first met her. She was definitely going to be an asset if we managed to make it anywhere near a demon, let alone the lord of demons. 

I was briefed that demons were rare, and more specifically they were monsters that had leveled up enough to evolve into a new form, which was predominantly humanoid. They weren't something you'd run into anywhere near a major city, especially not since the new demon lord had taken over. To be quite frank, this world had entered an age of near peaceful tranquility since the new demon lord had taken power, and none of us were quite sure why Alku had asked me/Toast to defeat them, but everyone generally agreed that if a Goddess tells you to do something you do it. Doubly so if she threatens to take your dog.

The dog was out of the bag with everyone now too, as far as hiding our isekai secret. Pinnea and Tamon were the only ones who didn't know the full story anyways, and I always wondered if Pinnea knew more than she was letting on, but regardless they both still accepted me as me despite my other worlder status. Tamon being obsessed with cute things, had great fun learning about "daugs" and other pets from my world. It would be nice if this world had animals instead of just monsters and whatever they have on farms.

Tamon would also surprisingly be an asset to our demon hunting party. Despite how he looked, he was actually level 45. When he was in school he was so desperate to impress his father he went into the woods most days to grind low level monsters like Toast and I had done, since he was frightened of anything larger than a Sagi. How did he level up so much and I'm still level 1? Shouldn't I at least be getting shared party exp or something?!

Kana had increased her level too, simply by using her skills and existing. I learned that people from this world gain exp naturally just by living their lives, and most people end up at level 15 or so by the time they hit old age. Using skills increases exp too, little by little, so tradesmen with job titles and related skills end up in the 40 range by retirement. 

Kana and I were the ones lacking battle related skills. While she was proudly at level 24, her stats were nearly the same as mine, and neither of us would be safe if a real fight happened. 

I needed to go to direct Toast, but we all agreed Kana would stay and run the shop with Pinnea's help. She protested as best she could, but gave in after Maja hugged her and asked her to stay safe at home.

We prepared to set out north of Great City Linna in the morning. Demon Lord castles are always in the north in my books, and while there were opposing rumours going around about where it was, there was definitely a majority vote towards it being 'north'. 

We would pass through Metsa forest, where we had found the girl, and continue through it to Vuori mountain, a place that 'no one ever came back from'. Seemed like a safe bet for a demon hideout. There were small villages dotting the path to Vuori mountain once we escaped the vastness of the forest, so I banked on stopping in some of them to gather information.

It was a crappy plan, but it was all we had to go off of, and I was banking on a faint memory and hoping Alku was telling the truth when she'd said that she "Level 99 always gets the job done" and that she wanted to get things over with quickly.

We said our goodnights and rested before our long and arduous journey.

~~~~~~~~

Toast, Maja, Tamon and I were packed up and ready to head out the door. Kana was teary eyed but kept assuring us she was fine. We were stopped by Pinnea as we passed and she nearly strangled Tamon with her goodbye hug. When we'd gotten almost out of sight of the shop, I heard panting coming from behind us, even though Toast was in front.

~Mami!~

I turned to see Kana running after us. She stopped about 2 meters away, clutched her dress and tensed up.

"Y-y-y-you....."

She stammered and her face turned the same shade of pink as her curly hair.

"You have to come back safe because I love you! Okay?!"

WHAT.

She turned on her heel, ran back down the road and dashed into our shop.

WHAT.

I was frozen in time. Maja and Tamon sighed in unison and Tamon started dragging my lifeless body in the direction we were heading.

~~~~~~~~~

Once I had come back to reality and questioned a tight-lipped Maja about anything and everything I could think to ask, only to be answered with "You'll have to ask Kana", we found ourselves deep in the dense forest of Metsa.

We'd come upon some Sagi, a 'goblin', and even an Iwagenbu, a rare monster resembling a tortoise and snake fused together, but made of stone. More japanese naming schemes, and this one is literally just a yokai?! 

I was starting to wonder if Alku was the one who designed this world, because whoever did was clearly a Japanophile.

Fighting the Iwagenbu was challenging. Monsters that had stone attributes already had high defense, but this thing also had a barrier skill. Toast used Barrier Breaker while trying to headbutt it, but walked away from the battle with a big lump on his head. Tamon was able to take it down after a few good hits from his shortblade that had been boosted by Maja. For the first time I noticed her tail swished when she cast magic.

After about 2 hours of walking and the occasional monster encounter, we were chatting about strategies when a familiar rumble started in the distance. Within moments the rumble was deafening and the trees shook all around us. We spun in all directions trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, but just like last time it appeared before we had time to process it.

The black shaggy wolf-ish creature from last time stepped before us. It towered over our party, and lowered its snout to just in front of our faces, inhaling deeply enough to pull at our hair while it sniffed us. Its long bat ears twitched, and its three pupils narrowed.

Its monstrous eyes locked onto ours, one for each of us, and I found myself unable to move like before. 

Tamon whimpered and somehow managed to draw his blade. He yelled at the top of his lungs, a move he'd told us before boosts his courage, and began to swing wildly in front of him.

I begged for him to stop being an idiot and the creature took a step back. It began to curl its lips and show us its mangled but sharp fangs. Another rumble began, but this time coming from deep in the monster's chest. Quietly at first, but growing in volume, our fear grew as well.

I saw a flash of white zoom past me, and Toast landed on the titan's nose using Boost Jump, just like in their first meeting. He sniffed its fur and politely sat. The monster focused its eyes on him, sitting in return, and we were released from our prison. I immediately restrained Tamon and berated him with every curse I could think of.

Toast and the beast both sat quietly for some time, while we watched on cautiously. Toast turned around and leapt down from the great height, and trotted over to us casually.

~Frend!~

We collectively responded to him.

"Huh?"

Toast started panting with his usual smile, and we were dumbfounded as the creature did the same. It copied his every move. He sneezed, it sneezed, blowing us back on our behinds. We continued to stare.

Toast scratched his ear, it tried to scratch its ear but failed to reach with its stubby fat leg. We looked to Toast for his next action, unsure of what else to do but watch and shakily stand up.

~Frend come!~

Toast spun in a circle, and it spun in a circle, destroying trees and shaking the earth, causing Tamon to stumble a bit while he was still trying to stand. Maja looked at me with wide eyes expectantly.

"Whoa whoa whoa buddy, hang on. Your.....friend can't come."

~Frend come!~

Toast huffed, and it huffed. He stomped his front paws the way he did when he disagreed, and the creature did the same, shaking us back onto the dirt. I was completely bewildered at this turn of events. I was also hesitant to trust a monster just because Toast called it a friend, and unsure how to proceed with arguing with my dog. My best bet was to use basic logic, simple words, and bribes.

"Toast, your friend can't come. It's too big, and we need to stop in the next town for food. You want food right?"

~Oh yes, I wan food. Yes peas~

Toast had gotten better with Telepathy and no longer transmitted his thoughts to the whole room, so he waltzed right back up to the monster, and in my head I imagined a friendly goodbye scene to close out one of the scariest and strangest things that had ever happened to me. 

But then the most improbable thing happened.

The monster started to pixelate. From the tips of its long ears, across its coarse dense fur, down to its stocky legs. The pixels started to dissipate into the air and after a moment I couldn't believe what stood before us.