Chapter 8

On the way to the east gate to leave town for my secret gathering spot, I had gotten to know the names of the other members of Alex’s party.

Their party is made up of 2 swordsman, 1 archer, 1 mage, and 1 alchemist

Maria is the alchemist of the party but is kind of a klutz, I already saw her trip on herself more than once. I genuinely wonder if she is going to make it as an adventurer.

Chelsie on the other hand is the archer, who seems to be the calm and reliable type.

Wendy the beastkin is the other swordsmen other than Alex and apparently she is a massive glutton.

Finally, there is Lucia, who is a mage that uses fire magic, which kinda fits her fiery personality.

Apparently they all met Alex in a similar way, him helping out each of them who were in a tough spot and them deciding to join his party, except for Chelsie who was already with him when Alex decided to become an adventurer since she is his close childhood friend.

Geezes, they’re a loud bunch.

Sighing, I wonder if letting them follow me is a good idea. I mean they are attracting a lot of attention. I heard from most of the men in this town we passed by saying lucky bastard with a large amount of resentment in their voices. Most of the women called him either an enemy to all women or began looking at him with a blush.

On Alex’s right, Maria and Lucia are arguing over who gets to hold his right arm. To his left, Chelsie is quietly holding Alex’s left arm while Wendy is trying to offer Alex some jerky. And all this is happening while he is all too oblivious to them fawning over him.

Wait… their fawning over him.

I stared at Alex like he was some sort of mythical creature. I didn't think they actually existed in real life.

Does it mean he's a main protagonist like from the video games in my past life?

A shiver ran up my spine. Thinking about it since he is a main protagonist, there is a non-zero chance of something on the line of him falling or tripping over me and resulting in him finding out that I am a girl.

As I thought about that potential scenario, it happened. Alex fell after Maria, Lucia, Chelsie, and Wendy were fawning over him a bit too much, it led to a chain reaction to them all falling on the ground.

Alex had his face planted on Wendy’s breasts, while Chelsie was sitting on top of his head. His right hand was groping Lucia, while his left hand was groping Maria.

Taking several steps back, I distance myself from them to make sure something like that doesn’t happen to me.

Once we reached the east gate, Lucia and Wendy said goodbye because they were doing a different quest than us.

Still keeping my distance, I led Alex, Maria, and Chelsie to my secret gathering spot.

Once they saw my secret gathering spot, they were shocked by how much Bittercress grass there was in the clearing.

“Just take what you need but don’t take all of them, I want some of them to grow back”

“Thank you for showing us this spot and sorry for causing you so much trouble”

Alex thanked me and went straight to work with Maria and Chelsie gathering the Bittercress grass.

As for me, I keep my distance from them, specifically so that potential scenario in my head doesn’t happen.

After a short while they finish gathering what they need.

“Thank you again, and we won't tell anyone. We’ll keep this place a secret”

Alex bowed his head and thanked me again.

“It's no problem. I want to be alone here so could you leave now.”

Showing some concern on his face, he ask “Are you sure, it's dangerous to be alone in a forest”

“I’ll be fine, not like the first time I’ve done it”

“Okay then”

With a bit of reluctance, he left with Maria and Chelsie back to town.

I’d wait till they left and gather my own bundles of Bittercress grass, then began my training.

Alex’s perspective

Alex was roaming around town looking at shops with Maria and Chelsie by his side.

They had finished their gathering quest for today so they have a lot of free time for today, so they decided to go shopping

Concern was still on his face when Nyx asked them to leave him alone even though Nyx looked really young, even more so being alone in a forest.

“Hey Alex, what's wrong, you’ve been having that look for a while”

Chelsie, on his left, asks Alex if he was alright.

“Oh, it's about Nyx. I’m just worry that we left Nyx alone in the forest”

“I see”

“You know what”

Alex started running off.

“Hey wait, where are you going?” shouted by Maria on his right, surprised by Alex suddenly running off.

Alex shouted back to Maria and Chelsie while he was running, telling them to not worry and that he is going to check up on Nyx so it won’t take too long.

“Okay then, be safe”

Alex ran back to the clearing Nyx led them earlier to check up on him

Once he reached the clearing, he suddenly became entranced by what he saw.

Nyx’s perspective

I was swinging my sword in the air, doing some basic sword techniques. Sweating from my training, I decided to take a small breather.

For the last few days now I have been training my body but for today I’m starting to practice some basic swordsmanship.

I have been adjusting my fighting style since it specializes in fighting against kaijus. In addition to me being a kid, I can't really use that style properly.

Because I am going to be physically weaker to whatever I might go against in the future, I'm changing it so I prioritize dodging instead of blocking or parrying an attack.

After I was done with my small break, I held my sword again and this time I imagined a kaiju in front of me because it's what I'm most familiar with.

I imagined it charging directly at me, so I swung my sword down at it. Then I took a step back to get some distance to dodge instead of blocking or parrying from its claws that are going to swipe at me.

As I was dodging, I saw an opening. I began attacking the kaiju with a flurry of cuts and slashes to make sure each attack didn't give it the opportunity to fight back.

Finally I ended it by thrusting my sword right through its neck, severing its spine. Then I began imagining a different kaiju coming toward me.

As I was thinking of what kaiju I should imagine next, I heard some leaves rustling. I pointed my sword in the direction of the noise and yelled “who’s there”

To my surprise, I saw it was Alex who was fervently staring at me.

Why is he looking at me like that? Is he coming on to me or something?

After a short while he finally spoke

“That was so cool, can you teach me?”

Stars were sparkling in his eyes.

Not knowing what to do, I stood still for a good while.

“What…”

Alex put his hands together and bowed like one of those scenes where a potential student asked to be taught from a master swordsman.

“Can you teach me, please”

“No, I’m not the person to talk to teach someone on how to use a sword”

I have been told that I wouldn’t be a good teacher in my past life and they were right since the last time I’d tried teaching someone how to fight. Plus I wouldn’t get much out of it if I did teach him.

“Could you at least give me some pointers?” Hope was still in his eyes.

Thinking about it, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, plus this is a good opportunity to see how well I can do with a real opponent.

“Fine then”

I walk a couple paces away from Alex and I sheath my sword so I wouldn’t hurt him that much, then I point it at Alex.

“We’re going to spar a little bit”

“You really mean it?”

“Yes, just take out your sword”

Both of us ready our stances.

“Begin”

Alex began by raising his sword up in the air and swinging it down but it was too predictable, so I stepped to the side to dodge it.

Then I point my sword right at Alex’s throat, stopping just before hitting him. Alex lost his balance and fell on his but.

“Your swing is too big and predictable, it makes you open for a attack”

“I see”

Alex had a slightly stun yet still excited face as he sat on the ground.

Walking a few paces back, I said “Again”

We continued and repeatedly sparred together for a while.

I grin thinking that this might be more interesting than I thought.

Alex’s Perspective

As Alex continues to spar with Nyx. Nyx has been giving advice and improvements to Alex.

Gradually Alex has been improving with each comment given from Nyx, getting better and better.

However as they continued sparring, Alex noticed what started as a small grin, grew to a big smile, which he found odd since he didn’t expect it from Nyx because from first impression he thought Nyx to be the type of person who doesn’t express a lot of emotions.

An ominous premonition sets in Alex’s mind and once Nyx started laughing, Alex knew something was very wrong.

Nyx’s perspective

“Hahahaha! Get over here, you won’t improve if you don’t fight back!”

I swung my sword at Alex as he was trying to run away.

“Ahaaaa, please stop!”

“No, this is really fun”

Unbeknownst to me as I was swinging my sword at Alex, I was laughing.

“Your not going to win if you don’t fight back”

I swung my sword at Alex again to give some more motivation for him to move. He managed to dodge my swing while he was still on the ground by crawling on all fours.

Alex had really gotten good at running away from my attacks, to which I found it even more fun.

Each time Alex started to improve, the more fun it became.

For some reason his face slowly changed from admiration to fear after I wouldn’t let him have a break.

“I’m begging you, please stop”

Honestly why stop, I mean you don’t get someone as durable as Alex.

I’m more skilled and experienced but he's physically stronger. This is the first time I had this amount of fun in this life.

“Hahahaha. Why should I? You don’t find somebody this durable”

“Please stop laughing and what do you mean durable?!”

I continue chasing and swinging my sword at him, occasionally getting a hit in.

Alex began to fight back again and swung his sword back at me. I move out of the way and counter attack, causing him to fall to the ground.

Then I mounted him, raising my sword in the air and brought it down next to his face.

“Please stop”

Alex was gasping really hard from exhaustion and put his hand up in surrender, looking like he was about to cry.

“Please go back to normal”

“Normal?”

“Your smile is really scaring me”

I placed a hand on my face and I realized I was smiling.

“Oh, Sorry. I got carried away again.”

Well… it happened again. I knew I should have remembered what Fred and Emily always said to me and Norn. They always tell us not to get carried away whenever we spar with someone.

Getting off of him, I sat next to him because I suddenly felt the exhaustion that I had been ignoring as we were sparring.

“Please don’t tell anyone about what happen”

I said it in a threatening manner for him to not tell anyone. Afterall I don’t want anyone to know that I could fight.

“Sure, you're too scary for me to tell”

Alex had a terrified look saying it.

“Okay then”

I look at the sky, it appears that time flew by and I didn’t realize the sun was about to set.

“Let's go back, I think your party members are going to be worry about you”

It got dark once we went back to town to see Alex’s party waiting for him by the gate entrance.

Maria ran toward us with concern, however as expected she tripped.

Alex ran toward Maria, helping her instead.

“You okay?”

“Ya but you're all rough up, what happened?”

“We were sparring, he’s surprisingly durable”

“Heh? What do you mean durable?! Alex are you okay”

“I’m fine, it’s just some bruises and scratches”

“Here”

Maria pulled out a potion that had green liquid in it and started to rub it on Alex’s injuries.

“Is that a low-grade healing potion, did you make it?”

“Ya, Maria is great at making potions”

“But I’m really not that good at it though”

Maria cheeks started blushing at Alex’s complement.

“You shouldn’t be that modest, your amazing”

Alex patted her head with a big smile.

Hmm, interesting. Someone that could make potions is really valuable. When I was reading a book about medicine, a low-grade potion cost at least a large bronze coin.

“So that’s why you were gathering bittercress grass”

“We sell some for our quest and keep the rest for her to make health potions to sell them”

“Hey Alex, how long are you going to lay there, it’s already dark?” Lucia shouted by the gate.

“Ya, I’m starving”

Wendy also told Alex to hurry up as her stomach was growling.

“I guess we’ll have to go our separate ways. I still have to turn in my bittercress grass at the counter. By the way are you going to spar with me tomorrow”

I subconsciously grin, getting excited that I have a sparring partner now but Alex for some reason looks frightened.

“Umm… maybe not, I’m going to rest tomorrow”

“Okay then, maybe another day”

Disappointed, I went to the adventurer's guild and completed my quest.

I should go to see Mable, I wonder if she is worried that I didn’t show up?

I’d gone downstairs to the library to find Mable reading a book.

“Sorry I couldn’t come today. I was doing some training and forgot about the time”

“I see”

Surprisingly I noticed from her slight facial expression that she was a bit relieved seeing me.

“Well then I’m off”

After saying that, I went back to my inn, ate some dinner, prepared for bed, and went to sleep.