Clean up

As the horde of pufípers flew towards Tamashi and Uyumi, their see-through insect-like wings flapping so fast that they became blurry, Tamashi stretched his neck, swinging his weapon at the air a few times.

“It’s still so weird not having an arm,” Tamashi mumbled to himself. “I’ll buy a prosthetic as soon as I have enough coins.”

Uyumi was already chanting an incantation again, ready to throw out another fireball at the oncoming flying snakes.

There were at least a hundred pufípers, all ready to sink their venomous fangs into human flesh, to get rid of the people who harmed their forest.

“Fireball!” Uyumi shouted, and a small fireball flew out of her wand, successfully hitting two pufípers, since they were packed so close to each other. Still, with the pufípers’ numbers, it was like a drop in the ocean.

“I don’t think this is working,” Uyumi hinted to Tamashi.

“Don’t talk—chant.”

Tamashi just shut her up ruthlessly, not even sparing her a glance.

By that point, the pufípers were already upon them, so it was time for Tamashi to finally join the fight.

“Awayuki, cover me!”

Tamashi dashed forward, and with a precise slash, he cut down three pufípers at once. Immediately, the snakes started to surround him, but he had already jumped back, getting to a safe distance. He attacked again, when his polearm suddenly extended mid-strike, allowing him to successfully reach his adversaries, this time slaying four at the same time.

With this strategy, Tamashi always evaded and poked into the horde, gradually reducing the pufípers’ numbers. Whenever he found himself in a tough spot, Awayuki would step in, either blowing the enemies away, or freezing the air around them just enough to make their delicate wings crumble.

As Uyumi continuously fired fireballs one after another, she couldn’t help but marvel over Tamashi’s technique, skill, and experience. While it was true that Tamashi had basically been training nonstop for the past year, clearing dungeon after dungeon while being a beta tester, it was still impressive just how well he could fight, with only one arm no less.

Just like that, the pufípers kept dying, until there were none left. The three of them had killed all the flying snake monsters, while managing to avoid getting hit once.

Uyumi helplessly slumped to her knees, feeling weak.

“That’s mana exhaustion. It happens when one is nearing the limit of their mana pool.”

Lifting her head, Uyumi saw Tamashi staring at her expressionlessly, as if studying her.

“Tell me something. Did you ever feel different from other people? And I don’t mean being blind. I mean something more... profound. As if you were somehow... superior.”

“Huh? What kind of question is that?” Uyumi asked dubiously.

“Just answer. Did you ever feel something similar to what I’ve just described? Even the most ridiculous thing that you can think of will do.”

“I... I don’t think so. After losing my vision, my life has been rather bland. I just studied and avoided almost every human interaction,” Uyumi answered honestly, as she really couldn’t think of anything.

Tamashi’s gaze suddenly became even deeper, his azure eye frowning. After a while, he just turned around and started walking away.

“Rest for now. You can’t do anything until you recover your mana anyway. Awayuki, keep an eye on her, just to be safe. I’m going to check up on the others.”

With that, he jogged away, leaving Uyumi alone with Awayuki, who looked at her blankly with his pitch-black eyes.

“...Hi.” Uyumi tried engaging in conversation, uncomfortable with being stared at by a cute and fluffy bird who could freeze her body and end her life in a matter of seconds.

“Cheep!”

Although Awayuki answered, Uyumi couldn’t understand him, so she just laughed awkwardly, laying on the ground and gazing up at the blue sky with an almost unnoticeable tint of red and purple.

She still couldn’t get used to having her sight back, so every time she really looked at the world around her, she couldn’t help but feel a little sentimental.

Suddenly, Uyumi felt something hop onto her stomach. It was Awayuki, who sat on her stomach, making himself comfortable.

Um, okay I guess?

Uyumi was quite perplexed and didn’t really know what to do, so she just let him be, laying her head down on the warm beach sand.

***

Feeling something small and hard poking her cheek, Uyumi slowly opened her eye, waking up. What met her gaze was a clear blue sky with a red tint, the sun almost in the exact same position as when they had arrived in this dungeon.

On her face, Awayuki was gently pecking at her cheek, waking Uyumi up from her nap.

“I must have dozed off...” Uyumi mumbled sleepily.

“Cheep!”

Awayuki chirped and flew away. Following his movements, Uyumi turned her head, spotting Tamashi and the rest. None of them were injured, but it was clear that all of them were beyond exhausted—besides Tamashi, that is. He hadn’t joined the fight, since he deemed it unnecessary.

Upon seeing Uyumi half-lying half-sitting on the ground, Takemi’s lips curled up slightly. She trotted over and plopped down on the sand beside her younger sister, letting out a deep and loud sigh.

“Hey, sis. How you holdin’ up?”

“Much better compared to you, it seems,” Uyumi yawned. “Although I must admit that fighting close-range must be worse than simply chanting the same lines over and over again.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. That mana exhaustion thing sounds like a real pain, as well.”

The rest approached, and Tamashi stated: “We’ll take a short break, then clean up the rest of the island. All the orcs are dead, the pufípers’ number has been reduced to approximately one-fifth, and the slimes are also mostly dealt with. We’ll set out again after we eat.”

When everyone heard the word “eat,” they all perked up, since they were starving after all the fighting.

And so, they quickly set up camp, ate a few simple meals purchased from the System store, and began preparing for battle once more.

Since the party regained most of its strength, while the monsters’ numbers were greatly diminished, it was pretty much a walk in the park from there.

Uyumi and Mika—who had purchased the Fireball level 1 spell—burned down more of the palm forest, forcing the remaining pufípers to come out from their dens and attack. Himawari and Tamashi then finished these flying snakes off, while Kengo and Takemi fought with the last of the water slimes. Awayuki acted as backup for both groups, but only had to step in once to prevent Kengo from getting dragged into the sea, since he recklessly threw himself in front of Takemi to block a slime’s attack.

Tamashi was about to dash forward to slice a dark green pufíper in two, but Himawari’s well-aimed arrow had been faster. The sharp arrowhead pierced the monster’s head accurately, practically blowing it up, then continued on its trajectory before disappearing into the forest.

Tamashi looked at his mother in surprise, then grinned.

“Nice shot, Mom! That was really something. Seems like you haven’t been slacking off,” Tamashi genuinely complimented her.

“Thank you, sweetie. I can’t let you do all the work, now can I?” Himawari replied, a warm smile beautifying her gentle face.

The dungeon has been cleared. Please proceed to claim your prize.

A robotic female voice resounded in Tamashi’s head, notifying him that they had successfully killed the last monster in this dungeon, thus beating it. When Tamashi and his family were in their first dungeon, Tamashi hadn’t heard the notification, since a bug had occurred. At the time, he simply thought it had been because he fainted, so he didn’t realize something went wrong. But now, hearing the all-too familiar voice of the System in his head, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“Thank God...” Tamashi exclaimed.

“Is something the matter?” Himawari inquired.

Tamashi shook his head.

“No, everything’s fine. In fact, I just got notified that we cleared the dungeon. I didn’t hear it last time since I had been unconscious. Well, and because the dungeon was glitched.”

“Oh. Does that mean that there are no issues this time?” Himawari asked, still a bit worried.

“That’s right,” Tamashi answered, dismissing the Mjorehir Blade. “Let’s go get the others. We have some loot to distribute.”