I’d been going to those deeper floors lately, but I’d yet to find any Mutable Horses. I avoided areas with lots of monsters, which made it even more unlikely for me to run into one.
“The only monsters I see there are Rugalga Roos,” I said.
“You go all the way down there solo?” asked Eldrid.
“Yeah, but I avoid monsters as much as possible. I go there from time to time looking for pearl beans.”
“Pearl beans? But they’re pretty hard to find in the wild.”
“I know a spot,” I said. “But those Rugalga Roos do get in the way.”
“They’re pretty tough, aren’t they? I’m sure dealing with them is hard for a mage.”
“Not really. They cover their ears and run away whenever I cast a certain spell,” I said.
The “spell” was actually just me reciting mathematical formulas. I suspected saying grammar rules out loud would work too.
“Anyway, twenty gold coins, huh? That’s enough to get four high mana potions—or four White Horn steaks!” I pointed out.
“Ah, I haven’t had a White Horn steak in a while,” said Eldrid.
“They’re so good.”
“Yeah. Delicious.”
We went on talking about our favorite foods for a while, then I asked Eldrid to recommend a good brush. She chose a reasonably priced brush for me, and its bristles felt good in my hand.
“Is there anything you want?” I asked.
“Huh? Me? I wanna try this one,” she said, pointing at a comb made with a Frisbee Turtle shell.
The comb was quite affordable despite its beautiful, elaborate workmanship.
“I’ll get this too then,” I said.
“What? Are you sure?” asked Eldrid.
“Yep. It’s my way of thanking you for helping me today.”
“Oh... Th-Thanks.”
I reached for the comb without realizing Eldrid was doing the same, and our hands touched. Her fingers were soft and slender even though she handled such a huge sword.
“Ah! Aaack?!” she yelled as she pulled her hand back, her tail sticking straight up again. The motion made her lose her balance, and she fell toward me.
“Wai— Mmf!”
“Ow.”
I ended up breaking her fall with my body. It was a good thing she wasn’t wearing her armor today, or it might have hurt. Instead, I could now directly feel the soft and squishy parts of her body.
“S-Sorry!” she said.
“Oh, it’s okay! No problem! No problem at all!”
“I-I’ll get off you now! Uh, um, whoa!”
Eldrid began squirming around on top of me, and the soft feminine bits on her chest smushed up against my chest. I was so nervous I stayed completely still. I felt like I might touch something I shouldn’t if I moved a muscle, so I had to wait for her to get off me.
“Let’s calm down for a sec!” I suggested. “Take a deep breath! Breathe!”
“Okay!”
We both inhaled and exhaled deeply.
What are we doing?
Eldrid then rose and helped me to my feet. It was even more awkward now that we’d calmed down. I quickly purchased the brush and comb, and we hurried out of the store. The employees must’ve seen what had happened earlier, and they smiled warmly at us as we left.
“Guess we should start walking...” I said uncomfortably.
“Y-Yeah,” she agreed.
Awkwardness lingered between us, but it didn’t bother me much.
Suddenly, Eldrid spoke up, her face bright red. “H-Hey!”
“Hmm? What is it?” I asked.
“I was just thinking. You always call me by my name, so maybe you can call me by my nickname instead.”
“Sure. What should I call you?” I asked.
“People close to me call me El.”
“Okay, then I’ll call you El. You can call me Akira.”
“Okay!” she said, wagging her tail.
Seeing her happy about us getting closer made me happy too.
She looked at me shyly and asked, “Also, if you don’t mind, I wanna—”
“There they are!” said someone behind us. That voice was familiar; I’d just heard it earlier today.
I turned around to find the two guys who’d tried to extort money out of me but ended up losing consciousness. Behind them was a whole crew of nefarious-looking dudes, and there had to be twenty or thirty of them. The two of them had mentioned they were part of the what’s-their-name family, so this must’ve been them. They’d come back so quickly.
The mob approached us right away, and once they got close enough, a big man stepped forward.
“That’s them, boss!” said one of the guys from earlier.
“These little brats, huh?” said the big man, cracking his knuckles intimidatingly as he moved his face closer. “I heard you two disrespected my guys. You know who you’re messing with? Huh?”
His dopey-sounding line and his classic knuckle-cracking move seemed rather cliché to me.
One of them from earlier today, who’d become the big guy’s pathetic henchman, chimed in, “Our boss is an undefeated level 15 badass!”
“We’ve got a reputation to uphold. We can’t let little punks like you talk down to us!” said his partner.
“Ha ha ha! You two are done for now!”
We were done for, apparently. Their boss did look scary, but there was nothing impressive about him. I mean, he was only level 15. I didn’t want to be rude, but that wasn’t very strong.
Meanwhile, Eldrid was looking down at the ground, trembling—not from fear, like I often did, but for a different reason. This was the calm before the storm. I wasn’t sure why, but she was furious.
The guys misinterpreted our silence, and they grinned mockingly. “What’s wrong? Scared?”
“Huh? Oh, sure. Very. Maybe the most scared I’ve ever been,” I said dryly.
“Ha! About time you realized what you’ve done. But it’s too late to apologize now.”
They definitely had the wrong idea. I actually was scared—not of them but of Eldrid and the molten fury boiling inside her. I was easily intimidated by scary faces, but they felt like nothing in comparison. After all, there was a ticking time bomb right next to me. But they were right about one thing: it was too late to apologize. The countdown had begun, and there was no avoiding the brutal beatdown that awaited them.
“You bastards...” growled Eldrid in a low voice, still trembling with her barely contained rage.
“Huh? You sayin’ something?” asked one of the guys.
“We were having such a good time before you ruined it,” she said.
“What?”
“Oh, I’m gonna step over there, El,” I said as I moved away, sensing imminent danger.
“Right,” she replied.
I could’ve fought them alongside her, but I’d only get in the way. I instinctively understood that she needed to blow off steam properly. If I impeded her in any way, something else could end up taking collateral damage. Maybe five or six buildings would be burned down. Besides, my lightning could be fatal, so I didn’t want to use it against low-level humans or people without some sort of resistance to magic.
Anyway, Eldrid exploded. It was as if she’d become a super version of a certain race of vegetable-themed aliens or entered a super mode from a certain robot-fighting anime. She unleashed a golden aura tinged with a red hue, which reminded me of a legendary warrior with a gentle heart who was awakened by intense rage. Her visible aura was actually a mixture of dense mana and energy stemming from her otherworldly power, a dangerous combination. It was making this “fwish, fwish” sound, and I could hear familiar dialogues and imagine an anime episode with fifteen to twenty minutes of nothing but tremors on a certain planet named Namek playing in my head. It played at seven o’clock on every Wednesday night, which was the worst time slot possible because that was when the baseball games were on too.
“You’ve done it now,” she said. “Your whatever family is getting wiped out and disbanded today.”
I had a feeling getting disbanded would be the least of their problems. Imagining them being reduced to a bloody pulp by Eldrid wasn’t hard considering she could solo a Storm Raider, the boss of the Floating Garden at depth level 48.
RIP.
“You think you can bluff your way out of this?” asked the big guy.
“You’ll see if I’m bluffing when you eat my Woof Buster,” said Eldrid.
“Wow...” I said, making an awkward expression.
“Woof Buster” was a pretty cute name for an attack. It hardly seemed fitting for how serious the situation was.
Wait, I think I’ve heard of a similar move name before...
Eldrid took in a deep breath, then she unleashed her devastating attack.
“WOOOOOOF!” She projected her voice like a sonic boom.