Zesty Zooming Zenith

Morning light filtered through my window, not quite landing on my face. I was woken by the sound of clanging pots. My heart leapt to my throat. Could it be?

Sure enough, Robolina was in my kitchen, cooking breakfast. She was a few centimeters taller, and her proportions a little fuller, but otherwise she looked exactly as I remembered her.

“Robolina!” Without thinking, I threw my arms around her and pulled her into a hug from behind. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

She put down the utensils she was holding and gently but firmly pried my hands off her. “Sei, good to see you again too.” She turned to face me. “I got permission to come back so I could cheer you on today, but unless the gods restore my mana capacity, I won’t be able to stay.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Well, the gods punished me because they thought I attacked you. So maybe if I did something to show them that we’re friends again…”

I nodded. “Makes sense. Have anything in mind?”

“There’s an old Earth saying, ‘Kiss and make up.’” She puckered her lips and took one step closer to me.

Wait. Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. This was going too fast. Was this really how I wanted my first kiss to happen? Then again, she was a golem, so maybe it didn’t count. Who was I kidding? Flesh or metal, she was still a cute girl. It definitely counted. My heart wasn’t ready.

But if it was for Robolina’s sake, I really couldn’t refuse. Yeah, that’s it. It’s not like I wanted to kiss her for my own sake. I closed my eyes and puckered up as she leaned in.

And planted her warm, metal lips on my cheek.

Just a friendly kiss. Of course. Why would I expect anything else? Actually, I was relieved. This might make me seem like a baby, since I was already in high school, but girls still scared me a little bit. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be kissing them.

My eyes flitted open just in time to see a golden glow envelop Robolina.

“Guess it worked,” I said. “Uh, thanks, by the way.”

She was still so close that her eyes filled my vision as she tilted her head in confusion. “Thanks for what?”

“Uh, for breakfast. I’m really hungry.” Nice save, me.

“You should hurry and eat then. There’s not much time before you need to leave.” She seemed totally unbothered about the kiss. But I swear, as I sat down at the table, I caught an embarrassed smile out of the corner of my eye.

⁂

Felt strange walking to school in my PE uniform, but if I wanted to finish my run before class, I needed to hit the track as soon as we got to school. Still, I couldn’t help but feel conscious of the fact that I was underdressed compared to Robolina for once.

Nearly half the school was waiting near the track when we arrived. Most of them probably thought I was going to beef it. They had their smartphones ready to record the whole thing.

Talk about pressure.

Of course, Yuumondou was among them. He stepped forward to block my path. “You can still back out. Better to suffer the embarrassment than lose an eye to a lava hawk.” From the expression on his face, I could tell he was genuinely concerned for me.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t get hurt, and even if I do, it’s not your fault. I’m the one who agreed to this.”

Giving me one last look, he shuffled to the side to allow me to pass.

After doing a few stretches, I stepped up to the starting line. Thirty meters ahead, a fluffletail stared me down.

“You ready, Yamaguchi?” the coach asked. She raised her finger into the air and shot a jet of fire. “Start!”

“Enhance.” After sprinting from the starting line, my first action was to enhance my leg muscles. It drained a lot of mana, but it would be worth it.

Unlike the Dungeon Relay, there was just me. With no need to ensure that the entire party was ready, the barriers automatically dropped when I made it within five meters.

The fluffletail bounced toward me. With a well-placed kick, I sent it sailing into the sky. A good start, but that was just table stakes. Things would get more difficult from here.

Next up, an evil fungus. The trick was to cast Fireball as soon as the barrier was down. If I was half a second too late, I’d lose time running around the burning cinders before it disappeared. I also needed to be careful not to breathe in the spores.

“Fireball.” I held my breath as soon as I finished calling out the spell. Too slow by a hair. I was going to have to go around. On an impulse, I decided to use my enhanced muscles to jump over the flaming fungus. In retrospect, it was a stupid risk that didn’t save much time, but I cleared it with room to spare.

Trying not to think about the scolding I was going to get for that one, I continued to the water elemental. Since it was still early in the race, I didn’t have much to fear. A simple Lightning took it out, but it left a sizable puddle behind. The track could be slippery, and if I wiped out, I’d be disqualified.

“Shield.” A magical circle appeared over the puddle as I stepped on it.

Using Shield to place a small platform of light over the puddle was unorthodox. There were more advanced spells like Aqua Grip that could prevent me from slipping, but I hadn’t been able to master those.

The foreshadowed lava hawk awaited me next. With a hissing cry, it dove at me, aiming for my eyes.

“Waterball.” I lobbed an orb of water at the bird. Although it looked impressive, the hawk couldn’t change trajectory mid-dive, which made it quite easy. I had practiced this over and over to ensure I got it right. I ducked under the extinguished bird as it fell and continued running.

To this day, I’m still not sure why dragons dream of cursed dolls, but the fifth dungeon monster of the event was a Western-style doll with a knife. Thankfully, they moved very slowly. A well-placed kick took off its head, and I was on to my next challenge.

Actually, to call it a challenge would be an overstatement. Even though it had completely wrecked me just a month prior, the purple slime was no match for my Lightning spell.

And just like that, I was halfway through the event. I wished I could see the look on Yuumondou’s face. I was making good time.

Things would only get harder from here. A clockwork knight blocked my path next. These things could take a lot of heat. Casting low-level fire spells on them would only power them up. Luckily, their mechanisms were quite fragile.

“Shield.” You probably guessed it, but I delivered a kick to the clockwork knight’s abdomen with my foot encased in a magic shield. The strategy of using just a few spells to defeat the monsters was paying off. I had to stop to deliver the kick, but the force reverberated through its body, shaking loose all its gears. Stepping around it, I was on my way once more.

Next up was a small rock elemental. Definitely couldn’t kick these guys, even with a shielded leg. Once again, there were a lot of more advanced spells that could make short work of it, but I hadn’t been able to pull any of them off yet.

“Summon.” I didn’t even stop as I summoned a sledgehammer to my hands. The elemental tried to flee, but I brought the hammer down on it before it got too far, cracking it down the middle.

The jeweled serpent was next, and I missed the first Lightning spell I cast at it. By some stroke of luck, the snake also missed me. Maybe the gods were looking out for me on that one. At any rate, I didn’t miss a second time, and I was able to continue with only a slight time loss.

Three more to go. A shadow panther paced back and forth within the barrier just ahead. If I let it touch my shadow, there would be nothing I could do to get it out. I’d need to call for help, effectively ending the sprint.

“Solar Flare.” I’d only barely been able to learn the combined spell Robolina had tried to teach me in time, but it was worth the effort. With nowhere to run, the poor creature didn’t stand a chance. Blinding light shone from the palm of my hand, completely dissolving it.

In my opinion, the shadow panther should have been placed earlier in the event. It wasn’t nearly as tough as the previous two. But most people lacked the ability to cast light magic, including Yuumondou. If there was one monster I could beat faster than him, this was it.

The next monster was the opposite. Iron Beetles resisted all elements to varying degrees. They were also the size of a large dog, with a long rhinoceros horn.

My only option was to wear it down, little by little. Of all the spells I knew, Fireball would do the most damage. But it would also heat the beetle up, making it more dangerous.

“Lightning. Lightning. Lightning.” I cast spells while slowly backing away. When the beetle charged, I had to jump out of the way. “Lightning.” Turning in midair, the beetle charged again. The process repeated a few more times, until I could tell it was beginning to flag. “Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball!” Just as the beetle got near enough that I could feel heat radiating from it, it crashed to the ground.

That had been too close.

It had also taken too much mana. Was I going to fail at the very end?

Nothing to do but try.

An abyssal jellyfish floated in midair just before the finish line. Its body was the size of a bus, and its large tentacles were tipped with poison spikes. Luckily, it wasn’t very smart.

But I’d never run an entire 400 meter before. I’d never faced it with so little mana left.

“Solar Flare.” The light pierced its transparent body, interfering with its nervous system. It dropped out of the sky and flopped onto the ground.

The core was so close, but I didn’t feel like I had enough mana left to neutralize the poison, chop off the tentacles, and summon a spear to pierce the core.

Then it hit me. Jellyfish were mostly water. If I could use Shield to step over the puddle without getting wet, maybe I could use it to pass through the jellyfish.

Taking careful aim at the core, I ran forward and used my enhanced muscles to jump over the tentacles. “Shield.” I cast a bullet-shaped shield around myself right before I landed feet-first on the jellyfish. Water rushed past me, slowing me slightly, but not enough to prevent me from stomping on the core.

With a sickening pop, the jellyfish disappeared, and I stumbled as I hit the ground, but I somehow managed to stay upright and cross the finish line.

Stunned silence greeted me at first. No one had ever thought to jump on an abyssal jellyfish like that before. Then whoops and hollers went up from the crowd.

⁂

I wish I could say everything changed after that.

Akemi Anmori still bullied me when her sister wasn’t looking. But now that I had friends, I no longer worried about the popular girls ruining my social life.

Yuumondou warmed up to me for a bit. But after he learned I was at the manga cafe with his sister, he returned to antagonizing me every chance he got.

Speaking of, Blooming Flame Blossom and I hung out on the weekends. Our friendship was based on having fun and keeping things simple. That dynamic prevented us from becoming closer, but at least we knew we had each other’s backs.

On the other hand, Robolina and I became very close. Now that I’d begun to learn magic on my own, I no longer needed her to tutor me. I could finally be the equal friend she always wanted. She never kissed me again, but we were perhaps as close as a human and a golem could be.

And I wasn’t the only one who got closer to her. The other students opened up to her more now. And the coach, well, she and Robolina stopped bickering completely and started collaborating on new spells to take down monsters. If they kept going, maybe someday they’d find a way to defeat a dragon.

Still, we were breaking new ground in terms of friendship between golems and other people. The other students warmed up to her, and to everyone’s surprise, she and the coach dropped their rivalry and started cooperating more.

As for me, I was still running track, but now I wasn’t running in circles. For the first time in my life, I had a goal to run toward. And I was going to run straight ahead until I became a professional adventurer.