Chapter 49. Rank 6 — Part Three

Sherial’s gaze was fixed on Rem. A few moments later, she looked at me too. No words. No greeting. It got awkward.

—Hi,—I said, mostly out of awkwardness. What was I even supposed to say? I didn’t know myself.

She didn’t answer. I remembered her differently—smiling, friendly. Why was she looking at me so coldly now?

And then she moved forward. Straight to Rem. Walked up and simply hugged her.

—Thank God you’re okay. For a moment I thought you were gone…

At the end of the sentence, her voice trembled and broke, almost turning into a sob.

—Alright, alright. That’s enough,—Rem said, gently pulling back. —You know, we’re not alone here.

—I don’t care,—Sherial replied and hugged her again.

A couple minutes later, she seemed to come to her senses.

—Alisar, move us to that space you use,—she said.

I took Rem and Sherial by the hands and teleported us into the training room.

As soon as we were inside, Rem began explaining the strategy she had come up with—a plan to destroy that giant monster and all the devourer caterpillars.

Surprisingly, her plan sounded very realistic. Damn it, why didn’t I think of this myself?

Yeah… it looks like Rem understands this situation much better than I do, and she knows how to use even my skill better than I do.

Her plan was very simple. Too simple.

But that was exactly why it was obvious it would work.

Rem has the “Golem Summoning” skill, which she had already used many times. But her mana is limited. Yes, she drank mana potions, but those have a limit too. Today she can’t use any more—apparently she drank nine vials, and that’s the cap.

Sherial also has a skill that deals colossal damage. It was the one I saw when the explosion destroyed a third of the giant monster’s head.

But that skill also has serious drawbacks. The most obvious one is the mana cost. In the attack she used, Sherial spent almost 90% of her mana. If it were only about mana, she could drink potions and attack again and again—at least seven or eight times.

But apparently that skill can only be used once every three hours. Meaning even if she fully restores her mana with a potion, she still has to wait three hours before she can use that attack again.

And in that time, the monster would have long since recovered, considering how fast its head started regenerating—in just a few minutes.

And that was where my special skill—the training room—came in. First, we were safe here. Second, time flowed 960 times faster here.

I could periodically move Rem into the outside world so she could summon golems, then we would immediately retreat back into the training room. From time to time, Sherial would teleport with us as well, striking the giant monster.

In the end, it would become a continuous assault: an endless stream of stone golems against the huge monster, and Sherial’s strikes with an interval of only five or six seconds. At that pace, the monster simply wouldn’t have time to regenerate between her attacks.

After Rem explained the plan, we decided to rest a little and eat. But what happened next surprised me. I thought we were just going to have a light snack. Instead, Rem pulled out a large pot, ingredients, an impressive amount of meat, and firewood. Sherial did the cooking.

The food turned out unbelievably delicious. I ate three full bowls of that soup and five loaves of bread. Meaning I ate more than both girls combined. And I still wasn’t completely full. Simply because it was insanely good.

I don’t even remember if I’ve ever eaten food that delicious in my life. Or bread like that.

We saved some of the soup for breakfast, so we decided to go to sleep. Yeah, sleep was really needed right now. I just didn’t dare ask for seconds, no matter how much I wanted to. It’s fine—I’ll hold out. Tomorrow for breakfast there’ll be the same unbelievably delicious soup.

Then Rem pulled out a tent and sleeping bags. She offered me a spare sleeping bag, but I refused. It felt awkward.

Now I’m lying on a bedding of dry grass. I used to have a sleeping bag too, but over time it tore and got too dirty. I was too lazy to wash it, so I just threw it away. Since then, I’ve been gathering grass and making a simple bed out of it.

I think I’ll be fine. The grass is already too dry, but whatever—it won’t scratch my skin.

Tomorrow we’ll start putting Rem’s plan into action.

Breakfast was tasty, and we got to work immediately. I teleported Rem into the forest—to where we met Sherial. There, she activated her skill. Summoning circles appeared.

I thought the trees would get in the way, but it turned out the circles simply formed in the open spaces between them. Even low grass didn’t interfere.

After that, we immediately returned to the training room.

Right after we got back, she drank a mana potion, and I teleported us forty meters to the side. But there were golems there already too, so we had to walk a bit farther on foot, and then she summoned golems again.

We repeated this eight times. No—nine times. She drank the mana potion eight times and said that if she drank a ninth, she would just pass out. So she stopped on the eighth. After that, we returned to the training room.

Nineteen hours later, she summoned golems again—one more time. And tomorrow she’ll repeat the whole cycle we did today. I think by then we’ll have around two thousand rank-five golems.

And according to the plan, the day after tomorrow we’ll begin the full-scale attack. For now we’re just stockpiling forces—forming an army, so to speak. There really is no need to rush, because in all that time, at most four or five minutes will pass in the outside world. Nothing should go wrong.

Well… at least, it shouldn’t have. Because I had another problem.

I was going to have to spend all this time with two girls in one confined space. Apparently Rem and Sherial didn’t see any problem with it at all. But I did. And not just one.

What was I supposed to do all that time?

Rem calmly trained, swinging her sword. The movements were sharp, precise, professional—far better than mine. I could watch that beauty and deadly grace forever.

Though to be honest, calling this place a “confined space” was stupid of me. The room was huge: about eighty by eighty meters, with a ceiling around twenty-five meters high. The walls had large open gaps like windows, but without glass or bars. Just empty openings that let air flow freely. If the space were fully sealed, we would have had problems when we cooked.

Damn… my thoughts are stupid right now. I’m nervous like a teenager who’s alone with girls for the first time.

Alright. Enough.

I have things to do too. I can train. Yeah, swinging a sword will work. It would be weird if I started doing squats or something. Swinging a sword is fine. Especially since Rem is doing the same.

I was about to start training when Sherial came up to me.

—What are you up to, Alisar? Am I bothering you?—Sherial asked.

—No, I’m not doing anything. Just bored. I don’t know what to do with myself,—I answered.

—I wanted to say it yesterday, but there wasn’t a good moment,—she began and fell silent for a second. —Thank you. I’m very grateful that you saved Rem. We owe you our lives.

Damn, this is awkward. What am I supposed to say to that?

—No-no…—I said quickly. —You could say I just repaid a debt. You saved my life once.

I remembered the time I almost got eaten by some weak rabbit monsters. Thinking about it now, it even made me laugh a little.

—Yeah, I can’t believe it. Back then you were so weak. Just half a year ago,—Sherial said.

Half a year…

Yeah, only half a year had passed in the outside world.

But for me—it felt like I’d been living in this world for many years. Though if you think about it, a lot of time really had passed for me. I just spent most of it here, in the training room.

—Is something wrong?—Sherial asked, noticing I’d gone quiet.

—No, I’m fine. I just got lost in thought… Ah, never mind,—I said.

—Then I have a question for you,—she said after a short pause.

—What is it?

—Where did you get this?—she asked, pointing at a mushroom. A source mushroom.

I’d forgotten about them a long time ago. Yeah, I had a lot. And it looked like they hadn’t spoiled over all that time.

—After I registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, I went to the city you told me about back then,—I began. —And I went into the lowest-rank dungeons near the city. That’s where I got them, after defeating the dungeon boss. That’s all.

She frowned slightly.

—But as far as I know, the chance to obtain a source mushroom after defeating that dungeon’s boss is less than one percent. I won’t believe that in half a year you managed to clear that dungeon more than a million times,—she said, looking at me with obvious doubt.

—I think you’re mistaken,—I replied. —I cleared that dungeon more than a hundred times, but each time I only got one source mushroom as a reward.

She looked at me in a way that made it obvious she didn’t believe a single word.

—Alright,—she said calmly. —If you don’t want to answer, you can just say so. You don’t need to make things up.

—No, I’m telling the truth,—I said, already irritated. —Why don’t you believe me?

—Even if you cleared that dungeon over a hundred times and got a source mushroom every time, I won’t believe you got a hundred mushrooms at once. According to the Guild, after defeating the final boss, the reward can only be a single source mushroom, and even then with less than a one percent chance. Only the luckiest parties get it at all.

—No, I didn’t get a hundred mushrooms from one boss kill. I only got one each time too,—I said. —But… the last time I defeated the dungeon’s final boss, a—let’s call it a secret door—opened. And beyond it, I got most of the mushrooms from a huge treasure chest.

—A secret door?—Sherial’s voice clearly carried excitement.

A smile appeared on her face, along with genuine interest.

Looks like that secret corridor really caught her attention. But first, I decided to ask something else.

—Sherial, why are you so interested in the source mushroom?—I asked. —I don’t think it’s valuable enough for high-rank adventurers like you to care.

—Well, you know… each source mushroom costs at least two hundred gold coins,—she replied.