We finally hear from the other four heroes!

And that’s all for chapter 2! Enjoy ~

The next day, the village chief was waiting in front of the inn to say his thanks to Hiiro again, when the innkeeper came rus.h.i.+ng outside.

Brye: "Wh-what"s the matter?"

Innkeeper: "Yo-you see…"

The village chief received an explanation from the innkeeper who had checked Hiiro"s room.

Brye: "Say what?! He"s gone?!"

Hiiro had left the village early in the morning before the sun had risen. The reason he had left so early was because he had predicted the village chief"s visit. He also thought that it would get troublesome when the army arrived.

Brye: "Oh G.o.d, he left without knowing how thankful we are to him…"

"That"s so like him ~." Nies said while laughing. Panis and Coco were also nodding their head in agreement.

Nies: "I wonder if I"ll ever see Hero again."

The village chief patted Nies"s and Coco"s heads, then answered, "You will. He"s our saviour after all."

Everyone nodded in agreement with the village chief"s words.

"Aacchoo!" Hiiro made his way towards 【Surge】, a city near the country border while sneezing loudly.

His 《Status》had increased drastically so he mowed down the monsters that had appeared as if they were weeds.

He also tried out his new 『Piercer』and it was easy to handle. He was able to kill monsters in one strike since the katana"s attack power was high.

"Okay, I have to pa.s.s 【Torchu Mountain Range】, then go through 【Marrington Highway】to get to 【Surge】." He confirmed his route on the spread out map.

"At any rate, it"s still a long way away."

The scorching sun above him made him scowl his face as he fazed upon 【Torchu Mountain Range】in the distance.

While walking towards it, he reviewed the possibilities of his 《Word Magic》. He had tried various things and got to know that 《Word Magic》had characters with temporary and permanent effects.

For example, if he made things float with his magic, the effects would be gone within a minute and it would return to its original state. Whereas, writing『Extend (伸) 』on his sword blade or『Soft (柔) 』were permanent effects. On the other hand, 『Fire (炎) 』and『Heat (熱) 』, which he used on the Chubby & Beanpole combo, only lasted for around a minute.

(Guess it goes like this? Changing the target"s nature or shape is permanent, but everything else lasts for a minute?)

Hiiro needed to do more experiments and test out his hypothesis. Using his magic recklessly could result in 《Rebound》. His power was outstanding. If he couldn"t control it, he could easily see himself receiving considerable damage from 《Rebound》.

For that reason, he decided to refrain from using characters that directly affected the life and death of living creatures as much as possible. If something was to go wrong, a 《Rebound》from that would surely be lethal.

Magic was imagination. Without a clear image the magic won"t activate and even if it did activate insufficient control could cause it to 《Rebound》.

Hiiro fully understood why the old woman in 【Victorias】had told him that knowledge was important.

Along the way he tried out various 《Word Magic》. Since he carried plenty of MP restoration pills with him, he could experiment to his heart"s content.

He discovered some advantages and disadvantages to his magic. First, was that he now knew the special characteristics of his magic. He concluded that it was an important thing to know in this world. [TN: He doesn"t explain the other advantages or disadvantages lol]

"Phew ~ I"ve got stiff shoulders ~."

The person who was rubbing their shoulders tiredly was one of the heroes who was summoned by the 【Human Country・Victorias】, Tais.h.i.+ Aoyama. Next to him stood the other three heroes, looking just as tired. Lilith, the first princess stood in front of them. While watching them she said, "Good work, everyone. I just heard from Vale that you acquired many wonderful things from the quest this time as well".

The person currently training Tais.h.i.+ and the others was Vale, the captain of the second division of the army.

The quest that they had received this time was the subjugation of a monster called Stinger Bat which inhabited【Droke Cave】. Recently a considerable number of them were inhabiting the cave and they would go out and cause trouble in town so a subjugation request was put up.

The request rank was quite high at C rank because it was a dark place with horrible footing and poisonous monsters also inhabited【Droke Cave】.

Since the four had greatly increased their levels and had superb teamwork, they had managed to hunt over a hundred Stringer Bats.

The group concluded that the monsters must have hid themselves and returned to the castle.

"The EXP from all the monsters sure was worth it." Tais.h.i.+ said and everyone nodded in response.

"Yes, we also discovered some flaws in our teamwork, so we can work on that now."

Chika Suzumiya wiped her sweat with a towel.

"Okay, let"s take a look at your 《Status》now." Everyone checked their status like Lilith told them to.

Lv 20HP:      120/379

EXP:   4200

DEF:  177 (210)

HIT:  144 (158)
INT: 101 (122)《 Magic Attribute》Fire・Wind・Lightning・Light

《 Magic》Fireball (Fire・Attack)

Flame Lance (Fire・Attack)

Wind Cutter (Wind・Attack)

Cyclone (Wind・Attack)

Thunder Shock (Lightning・Attack)

Thunder Break (Lightning・Attack)

Lighting (Light・Effect)

Light Arrow (Light・Attack)

《 t.i.tles》Hero・Otherworlder・Harem Creator・Awakened OneChika Suzumiya

Lv 20HP:      134/355

EXP:   4200

DEF:  185 (210)

HIT:  127 (148)
INT: 108 (128)《 Magic Attribute》Fire・Earth・Ice・Light

《 Magic》Fireball (Fire・Attack)

Flame Lance (Fire・Attack)

Grave (Earth・Attack)

Earthquake (Earth・Attack)

Ice Needle (Ice・Attack)

Ice Tornado (Ice・Attack)

Lighting (Light・Effect)

Light Arrow (Light・Attack)

《 t.i.tles》Hero・Otherworlder・Sports Queen・Awakened OneShuri Minamoto

Lv 20HP:      200/290

EXP:   4200

DEF:  99 (121)

HIT:  110 (120)
INT: 190 (215)《 Magic Attribute》Wind・Water・Light

《 Magic》Wind Cutter (Wind・Attack)

Green Bind (Wind・Support)

Water Wall (Water・Support)

Bubble Shot (Water・Attack)

Heal (Light・Recovery)

Antidote (Light・Recovery)

Charge (Light・Support)

《 t.i.tles》Hero・Otherworlder・Yamato Nades.h.i.+ko・Awakened Ones.h.i.+n.o.bu Akamori

Lv 20HP:      90/295

EXP:   4200

DEF:  97 (124)

HIT:  109 (122)
INT: 196 (222)《 Magic Attribute》Water・Lightning・Light

《 Magic》Mist (Water・Support)

Aqua Spiral (Water・Attack)

Paralyze (Lightning・Effect)

Acceleration (Lightning・Support)

Heal (Light・Recovery)

Cleaning (Light・Recovery/Support)

Ray (Light・Attack)

《 t.i.tles》Hero・Otherworlder・Curious One・Awakened One

(Everything looks good, but I could do without the Harem Creator t.i.tle.)

Tais.h.i.+ wasn"t satisfied with his own t.i.tle. He didn"t have a single memory of creating a harem.

"What"re you s.p.a.cing out for, Tais.h.i.+?"

"Eh? Ah, nope ~ nothing! Ahahaha!"

He was surprised when Chika suddenly called out to him because there was no way he could tell her about his t.i.tle. He couldn"t just come out and say, "Hey, you guys are a part of my harem!"

Chika: "You weirdo, Tais.h.i.+. Anway, we"ve become rather strong."

"Yeah, our hard work paid off." Just like her t.i.tle stated, Shuri Minamoto let out a Yamato Nades.h.i.+ko smile.

"Yeah, Shuri-cchi is right. We should keep this up ~." The girl with the cat eyes, Akamori s.h.i.+n.o.bu said enthusiastically while making a victory pose.

"Yes, you are all correct." Lilith who was also happy, made a cute smile.

"But I"m really worn out today ~."

"Gees, Tais.h.i.+, you"re so sloppy!" Chika cautioned Tais.h.i.+, who was lying on the ground.

Tais.h.i.+: "Isn"t it fine, just for today ~. Ah, that reminds me, Lilith, did anything weird happen lately?"

"Weird? Mm ~ that"s right…" Lilith cutely t.i.tled her head and looked pensive.

Lilith: "Now that you mention it, the soldiers who returned from border patrol were talking about this earlier. Apparently some wanted men have been captured in a village called 【Ames】the other day."

"【Ames】is a village to the west of here, right?" Lilith responded to s.h.i.+n.o.bu"s question by nodding her head.

Lilith: "Yes."

s.h.i.+n.o.bu: "Were they famous? The men who were caught?"

Lilith: "Yes, the 《Harios Brothers》are notorious adventurers that commit crimes such as burglary and murder. Of course, when their crimes were exposed, they were stripped off their adventurer qualifications. So it would be more correct to call them former adventurers."

s.h.i.+n.o.bu: "Mhm, those guys were caught?"

Lilith: "Yes and the testimonies from the villagers just can"t be accurate."

"What do you mean?" Everyone curiously paid attention to Lilith, not just s.h.i.+n.o.bu.

Lilith: "The villagers have been saying that a hero clad in a red robe came to their rescue when the 《Harios Brothers》preyed on them."

s.h.i.+n.o.bu: "Red robe? Hero? What the?"

Lilith: "All I know is that he had black hair, used magic that extended his sword and had the power to make his opponent faint just by touching them."

s.h.i.+n.o.bu: "Black hair… It couldn"t be?"

Lilith: "Th-the report also mentioned… That he had a very arrogant att.i.tude."

"Black hair and arrogant?" s.h.i.+n.o.bu looked at everyone"s faces and apparently they were all thinking of the same person. But they all believed it had to be some kind of mistake.

s.h.i.+n.o.bu: "It can"t be… Him right? He said it himself that he was just an ordinary person after all."

"He would never help anyone with that twisted personality of his." Chika"s opinion of Hiiro was still the same and like always, Shuri scolded her.

"Fufu, that"s going too far, Chika-chan."

"Hm ~ you got a point, but I wonder what really happened. Heck, where"s he now anyway?" s.h.i.+n.o.bu asked but no one knew the answer to that. Lilith also shook her head.

"Well, thinking won"t get us anywhere. We"ll just do what we can!" Chika declared encouragingly to everyone. Everyone responded with a nod.