Chapter 48. Rank 6 — Part Two

Chapter 48. Rank 6 — Part Two

As I got closer, I saw Rem dodging—and even landing counterattacks—though at first glance they didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect.

Damn… no, there was an effect. Just a small one. But even so, Rem was losing—she had almost no golems left. I needed to help her, and fast.

At that moment, I saw a flash of light—exactly like the one from before the huge explosion.

Damn, it could hit Rem too!

I tried to speed up, but I realized I wouldn’t make it in time.

Damn… the explosion happened.

Not like before—much weaker.

It only disoriented the creature, giving Rem a chance to retreat.

And yes—Sherial was the one firing. Which meant she would never hurt Rem. She was just trying to help her pull back.

And it looked like Rem really was trying to create distance, but the creature kept chasing her. She increased the gap, yet it didn’t fall behind.

More flashes of light. Short explosions—ranged attacks.

But the creature barely reacted, continuing to pursue Rem.

At the same time, Rem wasn’t retreating at full speed. She was backing away while striking back, refusing to turn her back on the monster.

Rem dodged its tentacle strikes—massive tentacles. One had been destroyed earlier, but now a new one was growing beside it—smaller, as if replacing the lost one.

I was close now.

"Rem! I can help! Just give me your hand!" I shouted as I rushed in.

"Retreat! We can’t do anything against this creature! Run!" she replied.

"Just give me your hand. I can teleport us out of here," I said.

"Fine," Rem answered shortly.

She lunged toward me and grabbed my hand.

The next moment, I teleported us into the training room.

Now we were safe.

"Where are we?" Rem asked.

"I told you—I have the Training Room skill. We’re there now," I said.

"I thought you’d gained some new skill that could carry us far away from that monster. That would’ve helped us escape," Rem said.

"No," I replied.

"Alright. We rest a little, then we have to return fast. If I don’t go back, that idiot Sherial might do something risky," Rem said.

"I don’t think you need to worry about time. You can rest as long as you want. Well… not too long," I said.

"What does that mean?" she asked, wary.

"Nothing bad," I said quickly. "It’s just… time moves nine hundred and sixty times faster in this room. Even if you rest here for sixteen hours, only about a minute will pass outside. So you don’t need to rush."

For a while, Rem just stared at me in silence. I stayed silent too—I didn’t know what to say.

"Fine. Then we’ll rest a bit," she finally said.

I looked around and cursed internally—I didn’t even have anywhere decent to offer her to sit and rest.

There was only a bed of dry grass I usually slept on, and a pile of useless stuff in the corner. Magic stones from dungeons, mushrooms, some other finds… basically, junk.

If I’d known a girl would come here, I would’ve cleaned up at least a little.

Though… I couldn’t have imagined that scenario at all. I never thought anyone but me would ever be here.

And now I felt a little awkward in front of her.

Rem simply sat down right on the stone floor, closed her eyes, and went still—like she was meditating.

I didn’t dare disturb her.

I just sat down nearby and… did nothing.

Just sat there and didn’t interfere while she rested.

—

Five or six hours passed.

How could she sit like that—eyes closed, not moving? I didn’t understand it at all.

"Are you okay?" I asked. I was genuinely worried—she’d been sitting completely still for too long.

"I’m fine. I rested well," Rem replied calmly.

"Then… good. I’d offer you something to eat or drink, but… sorry. I don’t have anything here," I said.

"Don’t worry. Now isn’t the time for that," she said evenly. "We need to come up with a strategy to defeat that monster."

She looked at me more closely.

"I want to know more about your skill. Can you teleport us farther away from the monster, or are you forced to return to the exact place you entered this room from?" she asked.

I thought for a second.

"I can teleport to the side, but only up to forty meters," I answered.

"Good. That’s better than nothing," Rem nodded. "Now explain in more detail: how does your skill work? What are its limitations?"

"Well…" I hesitated, not knowing where to start. "I… I think I can explain. You already know about it, like you do about my other skill… but it’s probably better to tell everything from the beginning."

I took a deep breath and started explaining how the skill worked—and how exactly I used it.

It didn’t take that long to explain the Training Room skill in detail.

I had told Rem about it before… but apparently not this thoroughly. And since then, I’d learned a lot more about it myself.

When I finished telling her everything I knew, Rem stayed silent for a while.

"Alright. Then can you teleport us back?" she said. "Farther away from that monster, like you said."

"Okay," I said and headed toward one of the training room walls so I could teleport us farther away.

We walked up to the wall.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Yes. But the moment I say it—we return immediately," Rem said.

"Got it."

She took my hand.

I teleported us into the outside world.

The monster was about fifty meters away from us and wasn’t looking in our direction—like it was searching for us.

In that same instant, around a hundred summoning circles appeared around us.

The moment they did, the monster snapped its head toward us.

"Done. Bring us back," Rem said.

I immediately teleported us back into the training room.

A vial appeared in Rem’s hand, and she drank it. We waited about twenty seconds.

"I’m ready," she said. "Let’s do it again."

I couldn’t teleport us out right away.

We were back in the center of the training room, so we had to walk to the wall again. Only from there could I shift us farther away.

Yeah, from the outside it probably looked like a cool teleportation ability, but it was really just a side effect of the Training Room skill.

This clearly wasn’t the time to think about how impressive it looked.

We reached the wall, and I teleported Rem and myself into the outside world.

Most of the golems she had summoned earlier were still there.

That was expected—barely any time had passed outside.

Rem summoned more golems again.

Right after that, I teleported us back into the training room.

"I think that many golems should be enough to distract the monster for long enough," Rem said.

"Yeah, I think so too," I agreed, though in truth I wasn’t sure.

We walked to the wall again.

I teleported us into the outside world, and just like we’d agreed, we immediately ran toward the forest at maximum speed while the monster was distracted by the golems.

I was fast… but Rem was faster.

Pretty soon, I started falling behind.

But I had an advantage.

I began using the training room: I teleported in, ran forward about thirty-five meters—not forty, so I wouldn’t slam into the wall and lose momentum—and immediately returned.

That let me keep up with Rem.

We reached the forest quickly.

Once we vanished among the trees, we started moving diagonally so the monster wouldn’t memorize our direction and begin chasing us.

After running another four hundred or five hundred meters, we finally stopped.

More precisely, Rem stopped, and I followed her.

The idea of moving diagonally was Rem’s suggestion.

It wouldn’t have even occurred to me.

Honestly, my plan was much simpler—just run straight and as far away as possible.

Given how strong that monster was, I didn’t see even the slightest chance of us defeating it.

But Rem clearly didn’t think that way.

From the look of it, she already had some kind of plan to deal with the beast.

I couldn’t even imagine what it was—especially considering that even she had barely been able to deal any noticeable damage.

The only attack that had seriously wounded it was Sherial’s attack.

Maybe she had some special skill or ability.

Suddenly, the sound I’d heard earlier—crushing stone and the heavy footsteps of something enormous—shifted into the sound of trees snapping.

Rem was right: the monster went in the exact direction we’d run.

Damn it.

The sound of falling trees came from very close, and it genuinely scared me.

And then I saw a small devourer caterpillar.

…No. Not small.

It was about ten meters long.

It only looked almost tiny compared to that monstrous creature.

Damn, I’d completely forgotten about them.

With so many of those caterpillars around, they’d turned into background noise beside that gigantic monster.

I was about to finish it off, but suddenly its head exploded.

I looked at Rem.

No—it didn’t seem like her.

But judging by the fact that she wasn’t even surprised, I think it was Sherial.

She was somewhere nearby.

Yeah—she had to be close.

If she were far away, it would’ve been hard to hit the devourer caterpillar so precisely through the trees.

I heard something shift in the treetops, and then something dropped down right in front of us.

More accurately—someone.

It was, of course, Sherial.