Vol 3 Chapter 1 (1/1)

“““TILL!””” The three of theradually while Rick runs up to Till’s fallen body “Don’t roup of vipers hiss coldly at Kun Signaling with his eyes, Bell dashes off to join Rick as he acts as the rearguard “Till? Are you okay?” The girl is unresponsive even though Rick is giving her a light shake “Um… Umm… what do I do?! The party screen says she’s paralyzed and poisoned!” Rick is panicking as he looks Till up and down Her eyes are htly, tre useless, the felinoid roughly shoves his “daht, Bell leans down and starts sucking on the bite wound on Till’s right ankle [ED:This treatment method has been proven to be outmoded by recent modern medical science, suction applied to a snakebite wound just a few seconds after it occurs ithdraw only a negligible a a hazard for the person giving h the mucous membranes of theto necrosis/infection of the wound site if they survive the venom (most snake bites are not lethally toxic, just really shi+tty to experience (snakes dislike wasting venom) - those snakes that are lethal, and choose to inject venom, cause a medical situation that can only be rectified with immediate hospitalization The only currently accepted es to seal off the bitten lians, and antivenoirl moans a bit, after a few round behind the strip with a piri and tightly wraps it above the ankle Hesitating for a just moment, she sucks the wound a second time “Rick! Get over here and check their body for antidotes, one of theles as he faces off against the vipers alone, without the support of Till and Rick, he has to be extra cautious to avoid being bitten “«Flaers fro them ablaze In the blink of an eye, he covers the distance between hi the t intense sources of heat, back off warily, giving Kun the chance to take a breather “shi+t, how the hell are we gonna get to the bodies? The snakes are all over the the i h he’s trying to dance to an odd rhyth and slashi+ng low to the ground, keeping the vipers at bay Whenever the vipers get too close, a short jet of fire will burst forth froht Fireflies!»!” Thrusting out his right hand toward the burning rag on his staff, he uses the fla it with mana Similar to how he accidentally create the Fire Devil in the [Field of Ashes], he drains bits of fire froht In addition, he’s fueling the flame with some mana since the makeshi+ft tallow-covered torch would not be able to provide enough power alone As a result, a few faint, winking specks of red light start drifting up froh a daht are followed by a strea fire fro sphere above [T/N: 星明かりのほたる - shouldn’t it be written as 星光のほたる? So now, Kun?!” Rick is panting slightly as he focuses on the vipers in front of him Unlike either Bell or Kun, he doesn’t have the staged breathing and the sweat drenching his face and clothing, giving hiuys off…” Kun’s eyes glaze over slightly, a drip of blood slowly rolls down frole red trail to his lips “Go!” The globe of light scatters in a sele in a warh it’s been set ablaze Each speck of light drifts towards the nearby vipers slowly, like a shi+p seeking harbour returning fro a viper, the red sparks gives off a sht and heat sii ssiiiiiii The vipers, confused by the dazzling sources of light and heat that threaten to engulf theht becooso Without a moment’s delay, Rick dashes out toward the users’ corpses, rurabs every single vial off of the bodies and shoves the is filled, hoping that one of the vials is the antidote haa haa haa Kun is slu onto the ht hand covered in blood as he tries to block the steady flow of blood dripping from his nose Rick stopshis right hand, Kun gestures to Rick to take care of Till first Giving a curt nod, the youth runs with an audible doa doa as the vials collide softly in his bag “Here, I don’t knohat is what though” Rick drops his bag gently next to Bell, who i all the known [Health Potions] and [Mana Potions], she arranges the various vials quickly on the ground Since those men must have planned ahead of time to lure the monsters, it is only reasonable that they prepared antidotes ahead of tiht green vial, gently lifts Till off the floor and feeds it to her [ED:REMEMBER, STILL A VIDEO GAME SETTING - ANTIVENOM POTS] [T/N: RELEASE THE NURSES WITH THE OVERSIZE SYRINGES!] koho koho The girl coughs weakly in her are, the screen is still showing the sa a different type of vial, Bell feeds it to her onceout all the vials, the [Status] reed on the [Party] screen In her haste, Bell nearly fed Till poison if Rick hadn’t stopped her in time “How is she?” Kun appears silently fro theht “damn it! Make some noise when you walk!” Rick juitation seeping into his voice “We tried alht be better just to kill her and have her respawn” Bell says with resignation “Where’s the wound?” A pale looking Kun leans down, getting on one knee, with dried blood and filth caked all over “Right here” The felinoid turns over the ankle with two obvious red dots, showing the all the while “Rick, can you grab me one of the viper’s corpses with its head on please?” sha sha With a rustle, Rick runs off and quickly returns with a dead snake, head intact, in hand; a disgusted look on his face “What do you need this for?” He hands the carcass to the kneeling Kun “Justa nearby stick, Kun opens the viper’swas strange” “Wait, what? What’s going on?” The blond youth leans over and tries to peek at the snake “Let s as well “Gah!” She looks to the side with a guilt-ridden expression “What do we do now?” “We need to bring her to Lilyhei… Or we can just kill her off here and have her login later and join us” “damn it, that was a careless h, so good job either way” “U on here?” Rick looks at the tith confusion, not understanding what just happened The two turn toward the youth, looking up from their position They turn back to look at each other, then back at Rick again, giving hi, but not a viper The width between the fangs and the shape is too different” Kun is the one that speaks up while Bell turns to the side with a tch, still being angry with herself “What the… there were other venomous mobs here?” “Doesn’t matter noe need to decide on a course of action” Kun scratches his hair helplessly “Although dying is never fun” He recalls the painful burning sensation from when he ed up by the Fire Devil, he shudders when he begins to think what it would be like if the syste ht as well I’ll leave you guys to clean this place up, PM s with you guys” Bell gets up and starts adjusting her gears All of the sudden, she stops “Right, Kun, can I borrow that rope of yours?” “Ah! Got it! Give me a few ive et up, putting his right hand to his ear “Gui, stop whatever you are doing and head back to caht posture, he heads toward the tree where he had hidden his packs “Eh? I guess…” Rick follows Kun with a clueless expression as the youngin a snap With practiced hands, Kun cuts up a low quality piece of leather into four large squares, a long rectangular strip and nu knife With the rough shape co even, careful cuts about 10 ces of the squares Afterward, he grabs the long piece of rope that he always keeps with hi out, on one end He then hands a square of leather to Rick, “Hold here and here, Rick Keep the leather taunt” “damn…” The blond youth curses in admiration at the speed in which the materials are quickly converted into whatever it is that Kun isWithin minutes, a crudely round, a piece of rope with a U shape, the botto piece of leather, that’s about twoparallel on both sides is set about half a meter apart Four pieces of leather are woven into place in two sections near the bottom half, two pieces of leather stacked on top of each otherone section, held in place by knots in the rope The two quickly bring the contraption over, causing Bell to raise an eyebroith a small smirk Rick tilts his head at her reaction “You never cease to a” “You should meet Uncle Hank, apparently he’s aat Bell’s feet “Step into the loop, bring it to your waist and then squat down” Turning his head around, “Rick, can you bring Till over?” “Got’cha” Rick’s expression softens, revealing lights in his eyes, finally understanding what it is that Kun hadher over toward the squatting Bell and then gently easing her onto the felinoid’s back “Guess Bell is getting so a mo his head Bell on the other hand was giving Rick an evil glare, her neck rotating to its li her body “Alright, stand up, I’ll strap you in” Bell stands up with Till on her back, the pieces of leather supporting Till’s buttocks and back The two ends of the rope are over her shoulder, held by Kun After fastening the long ropes underneath the leather-covered loop resting snugly on the felinoid’s waist, Kun inserts the thin strips of leather into the loops near the leather section supporting Till 6 pieces of leather wrap across Bell’s torso, firyback “daive us a e when you reach Lilyhelm, ill head back to ca nearby before tying one of his waistsacks filled with [Mana Potion]s fro it on the left of her waist “Got it, see you guys in a bit! NYYAAAAAA!” Bell’s leg muscles swell in size, as she dashes off at an unbelievable speed With halberd in one hand, [Mana Potion] in the other, it was a strange sight to behold To racefulness and sturdiness in those powerful strides that leap over puddles and other obstacles, barely rocking Till an inch with her explosive h to do it like that?” The two look at her in a daze before Rick finallyto be a pain” Kun turns back towards the jungle where corpses of the users and snakes are, with a coht drift up fro, as the bodies from the first of the users to die start to disappear haa haa haa Rick is panting painfully at the ca a 大 on the cleared ground A partially filled pitcher of water lays nearby as well as an e about changing 大 into spreadeagle, but further research shows that they are different Once again I’inal as I couldn’t find an appropriate equivalent in english, sorry :P] kan kan pyu pyu The sounds of battle can be heard in the background as the students proceed to finish off the horde of le Let’s rewind back in ti the equipment off of the users’ corpses that had yet to to disappear, there were simply too many items for them to carry In addition, they had to carry Bell’s and Till’s baggage In the s that the users were carrying Curious, Rick opened up the sacks, releasing a torrent of small vipers which fled in every direction A few of the snakes squirt soh the leaf litter The non-squirreen speckles, which are added onto the loot pile as a food ite the best equipment, leather, meat, and other loot, they slowly and carefully made their way back to ca equiple will appear in the future, but that’s a tale for another tih their trek back to ca treatuerous by themselves, but their venom is known to be extremely potent Fortunately the spider is well known and antidotes are readily available Of course, users have no clue about the spider since it isn’t in any bestiaries [T/N: シカニグモ drove ana, I’ a spider cause of “gu, there’s the crab spider that’s “カニグモ”, but “shi+ka (シカ)”“shi+ka Niku (シカニク)” deer meat There’s also “shi+ = 死” which can e that the kanji isn’t used though) There’s so much possible word play that I’m not sure which one it is or simply made up (or worse, it was intended to all of the above andit as shi+kaniguet a reply, I spent aaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too s xP] Gui linked up with them about three quarters of the way to the ca hi near the caht then, disaster struck, several groups of - start chasing theazes were on Rick - likely due to whatever substance the snakes have squirted on hiet, Kun and Gui decided to stall theet help Dropping the bags in the jungle, he makes a beeline toward the savannah where the cao even if Kun and Gui can stop a few of the hi sideways until he can see a straight path outside the jungle Once located, he ran straight toward the bright light of the sun Halfway through, he started silently dropping his caltrops behind hiers to the left and right, hoping to set the side-paths ablaze and force the for his dear life for what felt like 10kooses-like monsters hot on his tail Fortunately, the students were battle-ready with the duels happening at the campfire Rick collapsed on the spot as soon as he reached the site while e in battle as he’s taken care of by the younger students, leading to now… “Rick, are you still alive?” The youth takes a fewhe had undertaken, otherwise he’s sure he would’ve died there and then With his breathing stabilized, he puts his hand on his right ear, answering the PM “Yeah, just caught my breath How is the situation?” “You…” A short silence follows as the sounds of battle fills the air, “ets up fro out before hi the creatures’ information screen, he realized that these are level 80 Spiked-tail Mongooses [釘尾マングース] The ooses that should outnumber and outlevel the students are herded like cattle in a circle The students, on the otherhand, are in constantUnexpectedly, they are extres when they are far away, rushi+ng in in waves as soon as one oose tries to step forward to break the encircle around - like whales rounding up a school of fish, except for the strange reversal in size Their attacks are like wind, the different de their close-range attacks with hit and run tactics before switching into slingshots while the previous ranged attackers switch roles seaive the kids while ere gone? They can probably give the Feian guard a run for their a the results are cos Of course, none of them realize the power of boredom In a society where life is mainly work, sleep, and eat, with scarce entertainht after luxury, perhaps even ems and treasures This was abundantly clear in their previous duels, be it with Rick and the Feian Captain or the friendly le native that was present paid sharp attention It’s fair to say that, aside from Gui, they are slaves to boredom as well None of them can claim that boredom wasn’t a factor in their decision to join Second Phantasia in the first place “This is just like how the Feian guards deal with uards The Tactics class is gonna have a field day about this… But these guys were just playing gaue seeps into Kun’s voice If Rick wasn’t so focused on the one-sided battle, he would notice the odd, sinister smirk on Kun’s face One has to re facility, the shrewdhuiven him an idea “Yeah, you should try it some time It’s quite a famous sport here in the Atlantic Union” The two chat idly as they watch their pupils deciooses in no time; there are only a few scratches and a broken spear froer student Uncereh it’s second nature The others went to gather the carcasses and loot, including what they can find of the caltrops, the few still usable daggers on the trees and the packs that Rick abandoned in his bid for safety The two look on waro, sharing si better, Till” Rick and the rest are sa served at the reco dark, with stars winking into existence in the clear sky “Thanks, Rick-ni~” The little girl is viciously tearing into a roasted python fillet with her teeth and hands, a look of satisfaction on her face “What did it feel like being poisoned like that?” “Hmht it came back…” A distant, dark expression fills her face before she shakes her head, resu her attack on the fillet “OOoooohhh~! Was this what you were talking about, Bell-ne~?” “NYAHAHAHAHAA, you are feeling it right?!” The felinoid is enjoying a bowl of viper stew, etables and so where I came from, it seems it’s the same here! NYANYANYANYAH!” “But you didn’t have to drink the snake blood like that…” The youth rab another piece of the roasted python “Ha! It shouldn’t be the first ti this a little too much? Isn’t that your fifth piece?” Bell reveals a happy s another bowl of stew “Don’t worry, we’ve got so much meat, I think ill probably have to sell some… we can’t finish the the students ant to learn how to cook as well after sa fro like striking while the iron is hot, Kun i the students As a result, a constant influx of food fills the cahtly hidden away is Gui who hid hi his food, away fro to feed hiroup chatted, Bell and Till being surprised at the students’ prohile praising theathered about the 1st Princess within Lilyheim; it seedo the air with liveliness The other students are bragging about their fights a the food they haven’t had before “We shall try and uess ill stay around here in theout with Gui to eat dinner Soon after, everyone parted ways, their bodies hidden within the makeshi+ft shelters within the caets up from the bed with a satisfied expression “Huh…?” He reaches up to his face and touches the part between his nose and lip “Blood?” Srains of crusty, dark red, dried blood cruers