Oh, Deer!

Ever since entering Outset for the first time yesterday, Daichi had been fascinated with the towering walls that encircled the whole city. He'd seen them depicted in stained-glass windows, painted in the backgrounds of paintings, and even heard rumors that there was a roller coaster hidden inside; but he still knew little to nothing else about them. They were enigmatic monoliths that cast even more monolithic shadows during sundown.

But currently, a high sun still loomed overhead as Daichi and Sanae continued their stroll through town. They were pacing along an inner perimeter of Outset's huge walls, hunting for signs of an exit gate.

Still not quite sure where she's taking me. Just as his thought occurred, he spotted several Adventurers gathering ahead on a wooden drawbridge. There were multitudes of people mingling about, ranging from Paladins to Mages to even a rare Fairy. They were all suiting up in armor and brandishing their weapons as they marched outside beyond a colossal, regal gate.

Sanae pointed ahead. “That leads to a popular farming area for new players. It's good practice before taking on the first floors of Domination’s Dungeon.”

“Are the drops any good?” He was hoping to upgrade his equipment since he couldn't afford to with gold.

“They’re good if you’re not expecting much. I just want you to get a feel for the main way you’re gonna be leveling up—so that's where we're headed."

“Oh, well ready when you are!"

Daichi and Sanae trekked across the drawbridge over a flowing stream, making their way outside the towering walls. A sprawling forest with enormous greenery soon presented itself. Trees almost as tall as Outset's walls loomed overhead, while huge leaves further above eclipsed most of the sky, making sunlight difficult to touch down.

Other players roamed the area. They were parkouring over mounds of thick roots or searching for weak creatures to easily slay. But in all, it was a relaxed atmosphere suitable for an outing with friends.

Daichi peered to his left towards Sanae, who hadn't said much since they'd arrived. Gleaming eyes and a look of nostalgia were plastered on her face while she peered around with fervent excitement; though she was quick to hide it when her friend noticed.

"Hmm?" Daichi said.

“I-I’ll bring my staff out if we need it," she stammered, trying a subject change to hide cute blushing, "but you should probably get your tome out before we go in any deeper."

“Yeahhhhh, I kind of accidentally lost track of it in my fight with Domination, haha.”

“No problem! Just open up Gear in your Menu then unequip and re-equip your tome. It should warp back as long as it wasn't destroyed.”

Daichi followed her advice, sticking out an index finger to summon his virtual Menu. After a few taps, bright green light enveloped his hand and the heavy tome reappeared from Domination's Raid, unharmed.

“Woah, that’s super useful!” he cheered. Daichi flipped through a few pages to see if everything was fine, but then a small piece of paper slipped out. “Huh? What’s this?”

He bent over to pick it up. On the other side was a simple message scrawled in black, cursive ink:

'Find your validation.' It read almost like a warning.

Daichi’s face turned comedically nervous. “I t-think Domination left a bit of a threat for me . . ."

“What is it?” Sanae took the slip of paper from his hand. “Huh. Raid Bosses don’t usually take special interest in someone. He can’t leave the Dungeon though, so we're fine.”

But the conspiracy theorist deep inside couldn't help but work overtime. Why did Domination seem so interested in the outside world? Through what twisted coincidence could he have encountered Kyouko in Paradise? And what exactly compelled him and the other Raid bosses to serve Dominion so vehemently?

Internal debates continued swelling within Daichi without restraint. He scratched at his head out of frustration, but managed to calm himself by looking off into the dark forest ahead. Domination . . . Just what kind of entity are you?

The wholesome duo traveled further into their ominous forest, where even less light penetrated through bundles of big branches high above. Low visibility caused Sanae to almost trip over a tree root, making her yell out in cute anger. The noise attracted an enemy.

“Company!” Daichi shouted, readying himself for combat.

A fawn with antlers shaped like a torn rib cage hopped to the high ground on a hill of roots. It looked down on Sanae and Daichi as it tried hard to look as imposing as possible.

“Ooohhh! These guys are so cute!” Sanae gushed with sparkling eyes. She clasped her hands together like she wanted the creature for a pet.

Daichi rolled his own eyes and focused in on their enemy ahead:

[Name: Ohdeer!

Level: 7

Lore: A woodland creature with grotesquely shaped antlers to ward off humans. Its manageable strength makes it ideal for training against.]

“Okay Daichi, show me what you learned in the Raid!” Sanae pumped her fist into the air. "This one is all yours!"

He nodded and invoked out Goblin in front of him. The green creature readied its bludgeon for battle then stared up towards Ohdeer with a hungry, drooling face. Veal was on the menu today.

Hmmm . . . Let’s get a safety net too. Daichi aimed and then summoned Furbolt far up in the branches above Ohdeer. Before the fawn could even react to the perched cat—

“Goblin, get em’!”

The little green man charged upwards, maneuvering over mounds of tree roots as it rushed its target. Ohdeer’s eyes snapped to Goblin’s fast-moving feet, likely waiting for the slightest mistake of an enemy out of their element.

Goblin’s long toes sunk into a root crevice, halting its advance; Ohdeer immediately pounced. Goblin blocked pointed antlers just in time but the impact sent him careening down below. It quickly regained its footing and sprinted back up toward his enemy.

"Lure him to the highest point!" Daichi commanded.

Goblin leapt over Ohdeer, causing the deer to give chase. They both hopped up the hill until cornering each other atop a huge, plateau-like pile of tree roots. Scant light made discerning their surroundings difficult, but they stared each other down before charging full strength—producing a deafening clash of antlers against a wooden bludgeon. The two creatures were evenly matched as their strength kept each other locked in place.

"Marfarfafar!" Goblin's battle cry was confident but seemed like a call for backup.

Daichi could just barely see their altercation from below, and knew it was time. "Now, Furbolt! Do it!"

A black cat dived off branches high above, straight into the heart of action and landed atop a fawn. Ohdeer’s nape was pierced by Furbolt's fangs—no electricity. The sneak attack let Goblin overpower and slam Ohdeer all the way down the root hill.

Now dilapidated on the ground, Ohdeer’s health plummeted bit by bit. The fawn stumbled back to its feet while its cute eyes started glowing bright red. It dramatically raised its snout and unleashed a piercing, demonic cry that echoed throughout the whole forest.

Well that can’t be good.

Within seconds, dozens more Ohdeers arrived at the scene, surrounding Sanae and Daichi. Goblin alongside Furbolt rushed down to form a defensive perimeter around their master.

“W-What do we do?” Daichi asked his Cleric standing a few meters away. Her class specializing in healing meant she couldn't contribute much in combat. "We're encircled!"

But Sanae appeared unconcerned. Instead, there was a huge, excited grin on her face. “Do what you were doing already! Fight!”

After revving its legs up like a bull, the original Ohdeer charged at Sanae from behind.

“Look out!”

It leapt high up at her, aiming for a headshot. But with the quickest of glances, she raised her arm and effortlessly backhanded the creature, obliterating it into particles on contact. A satisfied expression of bliss overtook her.

Two more Ohdeers charged. Sanae shifted a leg forward, raised her knee, and then pivoted herself before roundhouse kicking the charging fawn. The second fawn came from behind but earned an elbow to the face.

She assumed a fighting stance as more Ohdeers charged. Sanae dodged an antler attack then grabbed one by the neck, kneecapping another attacking head on. The hostage Ohdeer was hurled at a rushing group of fawns that knocked them all aside like bowling pins. Sanae used the spare moment to leap up nearly a dozen meters high.

She summoned her staff midair and cast a dome barrier below her, trapping one final Ohdeer. Almost as if in slow motion, Sanae spun herself to gain momentum then brought her heel down like a wheel, slicing through her barrier and flattening Ohdeer's head against the forest floor. Antlers shattered into jarred pieces as a resounding "crunch" sound echoed everywhere.

Ahh! Daichi narrowly dodged an antler fragment that'd flown towards his face. But he was quick to readjust himself and focused back on the action.

Green particles were dancing around Sanae as every Ohdeer body near her dissipated into nothingness. A final, smug glance from her scared away the remaining fawns back into their woods.

"Uhhh . . . ?" Daichi’s mouth was gaped wide open, and so were Goblin and Furbolt’s. The teen didn’t even notice he'd went up a level from EXP sharing. Literally what just happened?

“Oh, come on!” Sanae chided. She dematerialized her staff and patted off her white robe. “Did you get any kills, Daichi? We came out here for you, not me!”

But there was a larger mystery afoot. “Are you sure you’re a Cleric?”

“Last I checked, yeah,” she cutely giggled.

I could barely handle one Ohdeer, but she one-shotted nearly the entire herd! "Remind me to never piss you off, haha . . ."

Sanae put her hands to her hips and started a lecture. "Just because I’m a healer doesn’t mean I can’t fight. There's not many offensive skills at my disposal, but when the level gap is that big, my natural strength and speed is more than enough for these chumps."

Indeed, the feisty Cleric was an impressive level 59 compared to Ohdeer's 7. “But what about all those martial arts things you did?”

“Just stuff I picked up while adventuring," she said. "You don’t need a skill to learn something you could've learned in real life—usually.”

Goblin and Furbolt were hiding behind Daichi, trembling as they glued their eyes to the woman who could annihilate them with ease.

"G-Guess we can all learn a bit more from you, haha." Hopefully not with pain.

"Umu! Well, you did okay too." She began prancing around while admiring the tall, green foliage around her. "You used the same strategy you used against Domination, but he went way easy on you, so don’t assume the same techniques will always work.”

“I mean Domination did almost kill me with his curse afterwards . . .”

“No, Domination almost killed me with his curse. When I saved you last night, I didn’t cleanse or purify you—I literally transferred your curse over to my own body.”

The wild theory he'd been neglecting to humor had been confirmed. “What? You didn’t have to do tha—”

“I had to." A sharpness in her eyes showed her seriousness. "Makoto was hunting us down so I couldn’t stop to give proper purification—just brief spells that slowed the curse's spread. My MP was low by the time we got into town, so transferring your curse to me was the only option left.”

“But what if you died from it? I could never forgive myself!”

She smiled and looked down at the pearl pendant around her neck. “I don’t want to lose anyone I care about again. I knew my body could handle curses better than yours, so I just hoped I could fight off its spread enough for my defenses to kick in.”

In a sudden change of heart, Furbolt strutted over to Sanae then rubbed his head against her leg, as if thanking her for saving Daichi’s life. The kitty was lifted up in her hands and affectionately nudged against the gorgeous woman's forehead.

“Nyaa! Nyaa!” she said with a pristine smile. "Who's a good little kitten?"

"Nyaa! Nyaa! Nyaa!"

Light above shifted at the perfect angle to sneak through the foliage, casting Sanae a heavenly glow. She radiated pure angelic energy, like a mother of the forest cradling a pampered feline. Daichi couldn't help but marvel at her beauty and boundless altruism residing inside her.

Just how much am I indebted to you? he thought. What did I do to deserve someone so selfless by my side?

Sanae's warm, dazzling gaze transfixed on him as she spotted him admiring her from afar. There was a soft tenderness in the air while they both looked towards each other with longful expressions, but Daichi quickly glanced away to hide his blushing face.

“W-W-Well, what are we going to do now?” he stammered. Geez, what's gotten over me?

"Hmmm . . ." She let Furbolt run back to him. "Since Domination didn’t grant an authentic boss experience, let’s give you a proper one today!”

“There’s bosses in this forest?”

“Yeah—me!”

“H–HUH?”

Sanae raised her fists to her chest. A burning but cute fire in her eyes conveyed her eagerness. “Fight me, Daichi! It’ll be good to get a feel for how bosses and other players battle!"

“B-B-But . . .”

“No buts! Come on, follow me! I know a good spot up ahead!” She pranced around the root hill and down a ventured path through their forest. Her radiant, light-purple hair almost glowed within the darkness.

Oh why me?

Furbolt climbed onto Daichi’s shoulder, and Goblin followed the two on foot towards their toughest conflict yet.