Attacked by Thugs

The heroes awoke in the inn they had stayed at for the night.

“Oh, man, is it good to be back!” Kanie said, hopping out of bed. “I don’t know what the hell I’d have done if I was stuck in that lame-ass virgin body.”

“You’re still a virgin, now, dude,” Eric said with a yawn. He was still in bed.

Kanie slumped his shoulders in defeat.

“… Oh, right,” he muttered.

“Let’s check out those buttons kid-God—I mean, Nyle, told us about,” Eric said, finally getting out of bed.

A ‘ding’ sound echoed through the room. —It had come from the locket inside Kanie’s pocket.

Kanie fished it out and opened it up. His eyes went wide.

There was a message displayed on the inside of the locket, reading, ‘I heard that. I’m not a kid.’

“Woah! What the hell!?” Kanie shouted, nearly dropping it.

Just then, another notification sound came from the locket. It said, ‘Reminder: Enable HUD and look for a quest that says Exterminate Fire Salamanders on Rogus Path.’

“… Fire Salamanders, huh? How original,” said Kanie. “Only seen that about a thousand times before in all those fantasy RPGs I played last lifetime.”

Upon closer examination of the locket, he could see a counter that read, ‘364:06:52:47.’ The counter’s last digit was ticking backwards.

“That must be how long we have left until Zarcothida reforms,” Eric said, now standing next to him.

“You know, a year actually looks super short when it’s spelled out for you like this,” Kanie remarked. “We’d better get going… Now.”

He and Eric proceeded to activate their HUDs as instructed. No sooner than they did so did three colored bars appear in the top left-hand corner of their vision. They were marked, ‘HP,’ ‘MP,’ and “Stamina.’ The spell button and a menu button also became visible.

“Coool,” Kanie exclaimed.

“We can play around with this more later,” Eric butt in. “Let’s go.”

After washing themselves up, the heroes headed to the inn’s reception desk to return their room key.

“You are Eric and Kanie, heroes of Jandariu… Yes?” the man behind the desk asked.

“… Yeah… We are,” Eric said. “Who are you? I thought a lady worked here.”

“You must mean Aurora,” said the man. “She works here part-time, but she’s also an adventurer.”

“Ah, well, that explains it,” laughed Kanie. “Can’t have only one person on permanent staff duty, I guess.”

The man hit him with a playful jab to the chest.

“Actually,” he whispered with a smirk. “Ms. Aurora said she thought you were dashingly handsome. You didn’t hear this from me, though.”

Kanie blushed.

“What are you acting so surprised for?” Eric cut in. “You’re like, six feet tall and hot now. Add the kick-ass black coat and hero status in, and it’s super obvious she’d be into you.”

“Wasn’t obvious to me,” Kanie said with a stupid grin.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Eric warned him. “Remember, we’re here to seduce the dragon queens, not to have you prancing around with random chicks. Save that for later.”

“R-right, the mission! Can’t forget about that.”

Kanie slapped his cheeks with both hands to regain composure.

“Alright, we’re off now. Many thanks for housing us for free,” he said to the man.

“You’re welcome back anytime,” the man replied. “You guys are the heroes of Jandariu, after all.”

Eric waved goodbye as he and Kanie exited the inn.

They started to walk toward the guild, which was a fair distance away.

“… Aurora, huh?” Kanie mused.

“Come on, dude, you’re still on that?” Eric said. His witch voice made Kanie want to start laughing.

“What I want to know is why there’s toothpaste here. This place gives me medieval vibes.”

“Who even knows?” Kanie replied. “Nyle’s a weird guy. Being God must screw with your head.”

The streets of Kentrum, the capital of Narvec, were alive and animated—sounds of laughter, gossip, and construction filled the atmosphere.

Eric looked around.

“This city is still pretty wrecked, huh?” he said.

“Well, yeah. That makes sense,” Kanie said. “When a monster destroys three quarters of the world, a hundred years of rebuilding just isn’t quite enough to undo the damage, you know?”

As they walked through an alleyway, the heroes were stopped by a group of four shady-looking men blocking its exit. Kanie and Eric’s HUDs displayed health bars and ‘??????’ labels over all four of the men’s heads.

The biggest of the bunch walked up with his hands in his pockets.

“Haven’t seen your faces before,” the man said. “You new here or something?”

“You might say that,” Eric said. “We’re just a bunch of adventurers.”

A grin spread across the man’s face.

“… Adventurers, you say? You hear that, boys? I betcha these fellows are loaded in cash.”

He signaled toward his lackeys, who proceeded to surround the heroes.

The man pulled out a pocketknife.

“Give us whatever you’ve got on you, and we’ll let you pass.”

“… Oh, great. The whole ‘ambush the newbies’ scenario right off the bat?” Kanie said wryly. “Eri—ka, what are we going to do here?”

“You’re really afraid of some dude with a switchblade when you’re carrying a giant sword on your back?” Eric said sarcastically. “Pull that shit out and give him a little scare!”

“W-we don’t have any money,” Kanie said, flustered.

“You’re such a pussy, man. I would’ve made a much better swordsman,” Eric sighed.

The man charged toward Kanie.

“I’ll see for myself when I check your dead body!” he shouted.

“D-don’t hurt me!” Kanie squealed, throwing his right arm up in defense. He accidentally struck the man and sent him flying into a wall. The man’s health meter instantly dropped all the way to the red zone.

“Oo~h. That’s going to leave a mark!” Nyle laughed, wincing.

Kanie looked at his hand in disbelief.

“… I did that?”

“H-hey, Moreno!?” the other men said, shocked by how quickly their leader was taken out.

“Get him!”

They drew knives and pounced onto Kanie from all sides, but their blades shattered upon making contact with his body.

“—Geez, what the hell’s your body made of?” Eric said, amused.

The men discarded their weapons.

Then, in a panic, they started throwing kicks and punches.

… I can see everything! Kanie thought, dodging their attacks. It’s almost like their movements are slowed to a crawl!

He grabbed the arm of one of the assailants as it passed his face and flipped the man onto his back. The man made a choking sound as his HP bar nearly hit zero. He lay there completely immobilized.

Kanie caught an incoming punch from another attacker using the palm of his hand. He repelled the attacker with a slight thrust of his arm, meaning to push him back. Instead, the man flew straight into a metal pipe with a loud crash. —One more thug down for the count.

“Oops, sorry about that!” he said, apologizing.

His body performed a high back somersault when the last man tried to grab him from behind. Mid-somersault, Kanie used a nearby wall as a launchpad, kicking it. He ricocheted between the walls of the alleyway like a pinball and rocketed toward the man. He took the man’s head in his outstretched hand and pinned him straight to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Eric whistled, impressed.

Kanie was baffled by his newfound strength.

Yikes! I nearly killed those guys with my bare hands, he thought. Yeah, using the sword would’ve been a terrible idea.

Still, this is totally a different feel from that pathetic body I had just yesterday. Thank you for killing me, Eric!

A familiar voice sounded from near the alleyway’s exit.

“Hey! What’s going on here!?”

It was Albert, the guild master.

He ran toward the heroes.

“Are you two alright?” he asked.

“I think you’re asking the wrong people,” Eric said.

Albert looked at him, then at the four incapacitated thugs littering the premise.

“… Tsk. Moreno. He and his gang are always up to no good,” he said, shaking his head. “Looks like they picked on the wrong people this time, though.”

He laughed and patted the heroes on their shoulders.

“At any rate, I’m glad the two of you are alright,” he said with a grin. “—Well, not that those guys could’ve done much to an A and S-ranked adventurer.”

Eric looked at Albert.

“If it’s okay with you,” he said. “We need your help with something.”