Chapter 1.1, Grimoire's World

He swung his right blade, in a diagonally-downward arc, into the goblin’s thigh, bringing it down to its knees, while parrying another goblin’s blow with his other sword.

The third monster, a ratman, ten meters away, came rushing towards him, with its weapon held over its head. But…

“Let the chains of light bind its path, Snarling Chains!”

Multiple chains appeared from the ground beneath Jayce’s assailant and entangled its target, rending it immobile.

After finishing off the first monster, he kicked his other attacker’s lower leg and stabbed it in the back. He shifted his gaze toward the ensnared monster and walked toward it to end its life swiftly.

When he confirmed the monsters’ death, he swung his weapons to the air, removing any bloodstains hung on it, then sheathed them back of his waist.

“Thanks for the cover.”

“You're welcome. So, what should we do about these?” She asked, pointing with her index finger towards the fallen monsters they had slain moments ago.

Adventurers could gain loots from monsters and treasure chests from dungeons. However, adventurers were not allowed to steal loots from other adventurers and non-adventurers, if they do so, they will be deemed as Rogues.

“You can take their loot if you want. I will take leftovers… Wait… are you ok with extracting loots from corpses?” He asked, worry expression spread across his face. He questioned her about whether she could obtain her loot, with the pungent smells hung around the corpses.

Guilt began to sprout at the back of her mind. They may have formed a party, but he was the one who did all the work to defeat these monsters. She wasn’t anxious about the smell, but rather, the eyes of the slain monsters. It felt as though they were staring at her soul, even though she was aware they were dead.

“You can obtain their items with the magic gloves that I gave you earlier. Lift your hand and aim it towards the corpse. Close your eyes and focus on the body. The gloves will react and inspect every possible retrievable item; it will display and appraised those items in your mind. Of course, the number of details and conditions will be displayed in your mind, depending on your knowledge.”

He gestured her to give it a go.

She aimed her target with her open hand, as if to tell them to stop, closed her eyes and focused. As she relaxed her breathing, items began to display in her mind, along with the details.

“I see them. So, how do I select them…?” She asked for further guidance while maintaining her focus, beads of sweat broke out of her temple.

“…Use your mind to bring those items you need towards you. That way, the selected items will be stored in your magic gloves’ inventory. With enough practice, you can do this without closing your eyes. All it takes is your imagination.”

She gave it a try. It was difficult for a little while, she managed to obtain the items she wanted. She made a mental note to practice using magic gloves during her free time. Once she was done with all three monsters, she let Jayce took his turn to gather anything that attracted his attention.

As expected, it didn’t take long for him to gather everything he needed.

“Shall we move on?” He asked.

They continued their exploration with extreme caution. Jayce, at the front, expanded his senses to detect any nearby monsters on his right, left, above, bottom and ahead of him; while Alice watched his back, watching over his blind spot.

As they journeyed further, they’ve found treasure chests containing weapons, armours, ores, and silver coins.

“Whoa…!”

As Alice approached the next chest, Jayce pulled Alice’s arm back towards him.

“Get back!”

Wondering why he had made such sudden move; the treasure chest came to life. Its mouth produced teeth along its metal frame; its legs, thin metal spikes pierced out of its body frame, scrambling on the floor to get up.

“It’s a pretender. Careful with its claws.” He alerted, putting himself in a defensive stance.

“Understood.” She jumped further back, extending the distance between her and the pretender.

Since it was agile and lacks defence, Alice cast an agility and defence spells on Jayce.

“Thanks, Alice.” He cried while dodging and deflecting blows from the pretender.

As the pretender swung one of its legs — acting like a claw — towards Jayce, he found the right moment to parry its strike.

“Resonate!” He shouted, swinging his sword as hard as he can, as he parried his attacker.

The pretender staggered, its claw vibrated uncontrollably and pushed back by five metres. Without a moment of hesitation, he sprinted towards the staggering monster. He jumped, twisting his body in midair, and sliced the monster in half, delivering the final blow.

Once they finished searching the room, where they had found a pretender earlier. They went to the next room, and finally, reached the final door of the Grimoire’s world. As Jayce had explained earlier before their exploration, there will be a monster guarding the ancient glyphs.

“Check your consumables. Please ensure that you have sufficed mana for this battle.”

They sat on the floor of the hallway, just beside the final door, taking this time to get a breathing room. Alice took out and drank a few mana potions from her magic bag. The mana potions she had were quite bitter. Nevertheless, she can’t get used to drinking it. She had tried some ways to make it sweet, but she wasn’t able to find the right ingredient to do the job while maintaining their potency.

Shaking her head slightly, as though it removes the lingering bitterness from her palette. She took out a few ailment potions and stored them in her magic gloves so that she can take out the consumables she needed the most for an emergency.

Jayce sat down next to Alice; he unsheathed his weapons and placed them on the floor before him to inspect them. After a deep thought process, he snapped his fingers, he withdrew an aqua-coloured whetstone from his magic gloves and began sharpening his blades.

Puzzled, she peered at his whetstone.

“Aren’t whetstones supposed to be grey in colour?” She asked while sorting out the potions in her inventory between her magic bag and gloves.

“Oh, this? It was grey in colour. The reason why it looks like this was because of alchemy. I’ve changed its property to a specific quality for these scimitars. Normal whetstones don’t work well with them.”

“Is your mana shield still active?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Although there are some fragments of my shield were lost due to the battles we had.” She said, examined over her body.

Only the bearers of the magic gloves were able to check their mana shield’s condition.

“I see.” Checking his weapon’s condition, as he raised one of them in the air to inspect it clearly. “You can restore your shield with your mana. Use your imagination to patch it up.”

Once he was done sharpening, he sheathed them and stood up to stretch his body, perhaps it was because of sitting on a hard floor with his legs folded.

“Now, then.” He continued, his hand extended to Alice, offer to lift her up. “Ready to conquer the final obstacle of this world?”

                                                           ____________________

Together, they pushed the final door opened.

To her surprise, the size of the room was like an open circular arena, enough grounds for them to distance each other for long-range combat.

What lies ahead of them was a beast, waiting for its challengers to arrive. But…

“Is that a chimaera…?” She asked, quietly.

“Yes,” he answered curtly.

…It was asleep. It had a head of a lion, a snakehead at the tip of its tail, and a goat head attached to its neck.

Wait, is that mean we can just sneak past the chimaera, and read the ancient glyphs, then exit this world? She thought. But then…

“Heeeeeeyyy, Chima!” He shouted, casually walking towards the sleeping beast, with his hands folded in front of his mouth to amplify his voice.

Alice’s face turned pale from this spectacle she had just witnessed.

What is he doing?! He’s raising the death flag!

The lion’s eyes slowly opened, blinked a few times; its eyes gazed upon the source of commotion that disturbed its slumber. It lets out a yawn, before standing up.

“Is that you, Jayce?”

“It speaks?!”

Ignoring Alice, he gave the chimaera his reply, bowed deeply. “Sorry for disturbing your nap, Chima.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” said Chima, shaking its lion head. “I’m just doing my job as a guardian of this world.” It then brought the right topic to their current situation. “How did you end up here anyway? I thought you cleared this world a few years ago. I don’t see any reason for you...”

It abruptly halted his sentence as its gaze met Alice’s.

“…I see.”

“Glad you knew the answer. I don’t have to explain the situation” He remarked. “So, ready to fight, Chima?”

“You asked for it, kid. I won’t hold back.”

He nodded then jumped backwards, away from Chima, and brandished his blades. He shifted himself into an offensive stance.

Meanwhile, Alice was still bewildered by how they held their conversation casually before the start of the battle. She snapped out of it and clenched her staff. She began her incantation to cast defensive buff spells onto Jayce.

“Raaaaaaaaawwwrrr!” That was the signal given by Chima to begin their battle.

Jayce circled himself around Chima to get its attention, but…

“Not this time, Jayce!” It growled.

Instead of attacking Jayce, it charged towards Alice.

She didn’t foresee this, but its claws were already upon her, she won’t make it. She held out her hands to shield herself.

Clank

She didn’t feel anything; she slowly opened her eyes. To her amazement, the claws were about a hair’s breadth away from her eyes. Her eyes widened, sweat broke out from her temple, and her legs almost gave way.

“Phew. I didn’t expect you to attack my supporter first.” Jayce stood between Alice and Chima. His scimitars were in contact with Chima’s claw; sparks appeared at every minute movement. “Guess I don’t have to hold back anymore.”

Chima, sensing an unpleasant atmosphere formed around Jayce, fell back immediately.

“Switching magic circuit to mid-range combat: Arcane archer!”

He brought both of his swords’ pommel together and a dark magic circle formed around them, combining his weapons into a bow. Wielding an obsidian bow in his left hand, while a magic arrow appeared in his right hand.

“Alice, could you heal my arms with your magic? They are currently numb.” He requested, calmly.

“S-sure.” She nodded timidly and began her incantation to heal his arms.

Once she finished her healing magic, his arms felt lighter. He gave a few swings of his arms, nodded in satisfaction, then immediately kicked off the ground, and headed towards Chima, magic arrow nocked to its bowstring.

Even if the goat head cast thunder spells to obstruct his movement, but he didn’t give Chima the slightest chance to land a hit on him. He fired his magic arrows in rapid successions, landing at both of its forelegs and chest. It wasn’t long before he had closed the distance between him and Chima. The snake—the tail of the chimaera—spat out purplish gases from its mouth—Miasma.

Miasma was an S-class ailment spell; it infects the target with poison and paralysis. Its ailments can’t be removed by normal potions as it had special properties. Even the ingredients for the cure are extremely rare and costly.

“—Chains!” shouted Alice, chains appeared from the ground and entangled the snake’s head, keeping its head still.

“Archer’s skill: Side-step.” He dodged the oncoming Miasma and fired a magic arrow to the snake’s head, and another to the goat’s head to interrupt its incantation.

Strange. Does Chima feel any pain at all? She thought while keeping her binds in check.

“It’s over.”

As if he read her mind, he announced his victory before he snapped his fingers. Sparks came to live from every magic arrow that had met their mark and electrocuted the beast.

“Rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

The beast howled in pain. When the sparks died down, its eyes rolled back and it fell unconscious.

His shoulders heaved slowly, clearly exhausted from the battle. He turned his gaze towards Alice.

“Alice. I’m really sorry for asking this, but, could you heal Chima? I think I went overboard this time.” He inquired, scratching the back of his head.