Chapter 58. I'll Need a Shovel

Sherial just invited me to join their team?

I don’t even know how to answer.

Yes, I want to say "yes." I really do.

But for some reason, I can’t answer right away.

I don’t want to agree instantly—especially after Sherial was making fun of me not that long ago. It looks… strange. Like I’m just happy for any opportunity and grabbing at it without thinking.

But I don’t want to refuse either.

It’s just… before I answer, I need to clarify something.

"I just wanted to ask… is it only you two in your team?" I asked Sherial.

I remembered that before, their group consisted of only the two of them, but now I wasn’t completely sure.

Maybe someone had joined them during the time we hadn’t seen each other.

Or maybe one of their teammates was simply absent right now.

I didn’t want to jump to conclusions based only on old memories.

"Yes, it’s only me and Rem in our team," Sherial said.

So… I’ll be in a team with two beautiful girls?

I found myself thinking about it.

Pros? Cons?

No—enough with this stupid thinking. What downsides could there even be?

Only upsides.

Well… if you don’t count one thing.

What if they end up hating me once they get to know me better?

No, I’ll be careful. Very careful.

Although… yeah, I’ll have to clean up the trash in the Training Room.

Damn.

What am I even thinking about?

"Well then, Alisar," Sherial suddenly said. "I’ll count to ten. And after I finish counting, my offer won’t be valid anymore."

And she immediately started counting:

"Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five…"

"Yes," I answered in a rush, afraid Sherial would reach zero and I wouldn’t make it in time.

"What? I didn’t hear you," Sherial said.

Is she laughing at me? Fine, let her laugh a little. I’m not going to miss this chance.

"I want to join your team," I said quietly.

"What are you mumbling there? Can you say it louder?" Sherial smirked.

"I want to join your team," I repeated, louder this time.

And then Sherial laughed.

Damn it. She did that on purpose so I’d rush my answer, and I fell for it.

Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. The important thing is that—even if I said it with embarrassment—I still managed to say I want to join their team.

And now… now I’ll be in the same group as two beautiful girls.

"Alright. We’re done here. Time to go. We’re heading back to the city," Rem suddenly said.

Just like that?

"Hey, maybe we should rest a little more?" Sherial objected.

"No," Rem answered calmly. "We already barely did anything and we’ve wasted too much time. Besides, the road through the forest will take almost ten days."

I panicked a little. Yeah—if I’m in the same team as them now, then I have to travel with them. That makes sense.

But there was one small problem.

My sword.

I had to find it.

Yes, I could buy a new sword in the city. But I didn’t want to. I liked my sword. I was used to it.

Rem had already stood up and started gathering her things. Though she didn’t have that many.

Damn. I had to say something—fast.

"Excuse me… could you wait a little?" I said, completely unsure of myself.

I said "a little," but I didn’t even know what that meant. Maybe I’d need a few hours. Or maybe several days to find my sword.

And there was also a chance my sword had been destroyed by that dragon’s attack.

But I couldn’t just leave and abandon it if there was still a chance to search.

"Do you have something to do here?" Rem asked.

"Well… not exactly. I just lost my sword during the fight," I answered. "I’d like to find it."

"Oh, then good. We’ll help you," Rem said unexpectedly.

"Help me?" I repeated, not believing my ears.

"Yes, of course. Your sword was high quality. And it’s rare. Swords like that are hard to get," Rem said. "You got it in a dungeon, right?"

"Yes. I got that sword when I cleared the Rabbit Dungeon you found back then," I said. "Well, when it changed and a stronger boss appeared. When I beat it the first time, that sword was my reward. After that I didn’t get anything truly valuable," I continued. "So that sword is very precious to me."

Of course, I didn’t say the main reason why that sword was so precious to me. It doesn’t need any care at all—you don’t have to sharpen it or clean it. It doesn’t rust and it doesn’t go dull, even if you hit a rock with it or something like that. It’s incredibly durable. You can leave it in the Training Room as long as you want, and nothing will happen to it—it won’t rust even there.

"Good. Then I’ll test my new skill in practice too," Sherial said.

"Your new skill?" I asked.

"Yes. This new skill of mine should work great even for searching for lost magical items," Sherial said.

From the way she spoke, I understood that searching for lost magical items was only part of what the skill could do. Apparently, she deliberately didn’t explain how it worked or what else it was capable of.

Yeah—she’s not an idiot like me, who just went and blurted everything about his new special skill.

"So do you remember roughly where you dropped your sword?" Rem asked.

That was exactly the question I was afraid of. That question.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

"No," I admitted honestly. "I don’t remember at all where I fell or where exactly I dropped my sword."

"That was when the tentacle of the giant monster hit you and you flew about half a kilometer," Sherial said.

"Yeah. That," I nodded.

"Then you’re lucky. I remember where you fell," Sherial said.

So she saw where I landed.

I remember everything being covered in fog back then. Yeah, the movement of the giant monster dispersed a lot of it, but the visibility was still bad.

Ah… damn, I completely forgot.

She said fog wasn’t a problem for her at all. And even then, she was hitting the monster from a huge distance.

Looks like she has skills that let her see even through fog.

"Alright, let’s go there," Sherial said.

We quickly headed in the direction she led us. About fifteen minutes later, we were there.

"You fell somewhere around here," Sherial said.

I looked around.

There should have been traces of blood somewhere. I lost a lot of it back then. But it was unlikely we could find anything now, considering what this place had turned into after the dragon’s attack.

I took a deep breath.

My sword should be somewhere here.

But if I think about it… when I fell, the sword was no longer in my hand. That means it could have fallen a little farther away.

I looked around again, trying to examine everything around me.

Carefully scanning the ground, I noticed that a little farther ahead, there was a clear line—the path of the dragon’s direct attack. I walked closer.

Damn…

Here the depth was several dozen meters, and the width was—four hundred meters at least. Of course, this was already a wider section. Where the attack had first started, the depth had been much greater, but the width had been significantly narrower.

The farther it went, the more the depth gradually decreased, while the width, on the contrary, became wider and wider, until the ground finally leveled out. Apparently, at that point, the power of the attack had weakened so much that it stopped destroying the soil.

And farther ahead was the forest.

Or rather, what was left of it: fallen trees stretching several kilometers forward.

I hope my sword didn’t end up in that area. If it did, it would almost certainly have been destroyed.

"Hey, what are you doing over there?" a voice called out.

I turned around. It was Sherial.

"I’m looking for my sword," I answered.

"I told you my new ability would help find your sword," she said.

"I already found it."

I quickly went over to her. But when I got closer, I didn’t see my sword—neither in her hands nor on the ground nearby. I looked around again.

Nothing.

And considering my sword wasn’t small enough to miss that easily, there was no way I could have overlooked it. I looked at Sherial, confused.

She said she found it.

"Your sword is here," Sherial said, and pointed straight in front of her—at the ground.

I looked there.

Of course my sword wasn’t there. There was only soil.

If it really were here, I would have noticed it long ago.

I slowly raised my gaze to Sherial.

Is she joking again?

Is she messing with me?

I thought she was seriously trying to help me.

And she…

"And why are you looking at me like I offended you?" Sherial said in a serious voice now. "I’m telling you—your sword is here. Underground."

How could my sword be underground… Is she joking again?

But no—right now she was speaking seriously.

And if I think logically—after everything that happened here, and considering how close the dragon’s attack line passed from here, my sword really could have ended up underground. The soil had blasted into the air and then rained back down, completely burying everything around.

Yeah. That’s completely possible.

So now I need a shovel to dig my sword out.