by Way Woo
“Wait…” Jake said to nobody as he was looking at the tree in the clearing, when he noticed a familiar flash of pink. “Isn’t that a cherry blossom?”
He turned back to the clearing and quickly made his way to the tree to see if that was the tree he was looking for.
Maybe the turtle guarding this tree went somewhere. This could probably be my lucky day! Those luck manuals sure helped a lot. Another victory for the Hero Shop and its bargains!
Upon his return to the clearing, he could easily make out the pink flowers, and he let out a whoop of joy.
“It’s the cherry blossom!”
He reached out for the flower… and the tree roots began to move.
Like tentacles, they flashed towards the interloper who would dare to desecrate the beauty of their work, only to fail as all the roots were turned into shavings, their attack stopped short by a flash of brilliant black.
Well, they say that nothing worthwhile comes easy, I guess, Jake thought as his grip on the Swiftstone tightened, his reflexes allowing him to defend brilliantly against the would-be surprise attack.
It was clear that despite him not gaining any experience for gaining levels from fighting monsters upon his arrival on this island up to this point, he gained something far more valuable: actual fighting experience.
If anyone else was in Jake’s place, they would have become skewered badly by the tree roots.
After deflecting the initial attack of the tree roots, Jake backpedaled in an attempt to widen the gap between the tree and himself.
Okay, time to check if this tree just freaking attacked me.
Unfortunately, the tree wouldn’t give Jake any time to think, as it pressed the attack, bringing in new roots just as fast as Jake slashed them to bits.
Though Jake could easily keep up his sword swings against the onslaught of the tree roots, he was still slowly being overwhelmed as time went by.
I’m going to be weighed down here if I stay here like a sitting duck!
Time to take some calculated risks.
He then took a leap off the crag where the tree was located, the roots stabbing him as he passed them by.
It was after a very undignified landing that Jake got up, and realized that one of the tree roots had bored a hole in his side.
Didn’t expect to get out of there unscathed.
Time to make a tactical retreat.
The pain of the wound was supposed to be unbearable, and the root’s attack had ignored Jake’s physical defense, but this situation was different.
Each time Jake felt his side scream out in pain from the wound, it only made him swing faster as he continued to escape the roots of the cherry tree.
Just need to get to safety, use some consumables, and I’ll be okay.
He decided to think of nothing but fighting and retreat as the roots kept at him constantly.
And with a strange cry, the land where Jake was standing slowly began to rise…
***
People normally think of how appearance matches demeanor.
As bad as that may sound, prejudice is one of those things that helped people survive long ago – long before civilization, written history, and shopping on the Internet.
It exists in more places than people normally expect.
People tend to think a skinny person will be weak.
Likewise, people also tend to think that people who look unfriendly will also have an unfriendly personality.
Furthermore, people also tend to think that the expensive coffee bought from those franchise coffee bars must be more delicious than the usual coffee mix you buy in a sachet.
Which is well and good, because more times than not, they are proven right.
However, this is not that type of world.
And Jake is not the type of person who would think that a ship is something to be used on water.
He took another leap, and in the apex of his jump, summoned the turtle ship from his inventory, and dropped it onto the roots waiting for his descent.
Admiral Yi would definitely like my out-of-the-box thinking! Jake thought, grinning as the roots were crushed before making a more dignified landing on the deck.
The turtle ship was as large as the Cherry-Shell Snapper, and as soon as Jake landed, he wasted no time and entered the ship’s main deck to quickly patch himself up.
With the blood loss beginning to make him dizzy, Jake knew he had to hurry. Ignoring the Cherry-Shell Snapper wailing on his turtle ship, he quickly brought out the shortcut to where the Hero Shop purchased healing items, and began chugging down potions to replenish his blood and heal the nastier-looking wounds on him.
Jake looked up and saw cracks beginning to appear on the deck, and immediately set the turtle ship to retreat.
There goes my hope of this ship moving even if it’s not on water, Jake thought, the ship not responding as the healing potions began to take effect on him, his wounds closing up and his complexion returning to its normal hue.
I have to get away…
Bits and pieces of wood from the pounding his turtle ship was taking began to fall on Jake’s head as he thought about the problem.
How am I going to get away?
The wood began to groan from the assault.
I could just run down to the lower decks and cut open a hole furthest from this thing, then make my escape…
His thoughts turned to how thankful he was that he bought a turtle ship instead of a flimsy sailboat that would probably be just bits of firewood by now, to say nothing about his fate should he have purchased that item…
I’d like to say it’s foresight, but it’s just me wanting to buy the top quality product, even in a world like this.
The potions were almost done healing him, but the sounds of smashing grew more and more intense.
I could just make a break for it and leave my ship behind…
NO.
To Jake, his possessions were sacred.
He would never consider an opinion like that.
Besides, I would make a pretty shitty Admiral if I let my turtle ship get totaled by this dumb monster.
Jake let out a breath as the potions finished their work, and all the while, the monster continued to attack his boat.
Not to mention Admiral Yi would probably not like me sinking one of his treasured turtle ships… on land.
He could feel some of the roots move around the turtle ship, trying to encircle and crush it.
Let’s face it, Jake. You just bought a minute to recover. Sooner or later, though…
But as the smashing grew and grew, Jake’s resignation was beginning to be replaced with raw, unbridled fury.
Fuck me. This is like one of those “chop your own arm off to save your life” decisions!
Another crack, and Jake could see splinters come from the roof of the deck.
And to think that when I get back home, I planned on driving this baby up the river with a crew consisting of nothing but beautiful girls.
He could hear the hardened wood beginning to give way.
Fine! I’m writing off this boat! But I’m going to make you pay for it!
Bits of daylight were beginning to peek out from the roof of the main deck of his turtle ship, and Jake’s anger and frustration began to reach its limit.
“Enough is enough! I swear, I am going to fucking dine on giant turtle soup if you keep fucking with my boat!” Jake yelled, and as soon as he did, something appeared out of the corner of his eye.
What the hell is that tree doing here?
Jake could see the cherry tree proper through a porthole on the ship.
It was closer than Jake thought – the tree itself was touching the ship!
No wonder you mad – my ship landed near your tree! Keep going, you son of a gun, I’m going to give you a real reason to get mad here!
The cherry tree the Cherry-Shell Snapper was named for was very much within reach through the porthole.
Jake stepped back and grinned a
death’s head as he fully understood how his plan would work.
It was the kind of grin he sported when he received something extra whenever ordering something online, usually due to a packaging or delivery error.
And wouldn’t you know it, Jake wasn’t the kind of person who would look a gift horse like that in the mouth and voluntarily return those items.
Episode 18
***
It was only after a few days since Jake’s abrupt departure from Brino when the voice from the skies spoke again, warning about another group of monsters attacking the town.
“Behind you!”
Weapons flashed silver in the morning sun, magical attacks played over the clearing on the outskirts of Brino, and arrows flew straight and true to their monstrous targets.
“Be careful!”
The adventurers trembling from fear during the Werecrocodile battle were no more.
In their stead were teams of adventurers with complementary skills, impressive synergy and impeccable teamwork, coordinating the defense as a skilled maestro would with an orchestra.
The attacking monsters could do very little but get caught on the buzz saw of action and get ripped to pieces.
“Another wave of monsters is incoming. We carry on like we did with these guys and we’re going to be set to finish quickly!” one of the commanders yelled as a group of armored goblins shambled through the meadow. “Let’s hit them hard and hit them fast, and finish in time to go back to Brino before lunch!“
“Roger that!”
Thanks to being exposed to the horror that was the Werecrocodile boss monster, and everyone involved gaining ridiculous amounts of experience due to it, the adventurers didn’t seem to perceive the increased difficulty of this attack.
The increased emphasis on teamwork also served to improve the morale of the adventurers battling at the moment.
Moreover, compared to the second strike, the difficulty level of the monsters did not seem to have gone up significantly.
The fact that awakeners were able to deal with the monsters without much problem was the evidence of it.
It was around the point where the first groups of adventurers were intercepting the monsters without much difficulty that the adventurers in Brino realized that this wasn’t a battle – this was a rout.
And throughout the battle, and as the rout continued, the adventurers were beginning to realize something.
The monsters invading Brino were indeed stronger.
But working together and gaining power together, they were much stronger than anticipated.
Judging by the result, where none of the adventurers in Brino were even moderately injured, the adventurers of the Brino – the eleventh tutorial area – had outgrown the monsters attacking their town.
It was inevitable, since the unexpected defeat of the Werecrocodile resulted in a windfall for every adventurer in Brino, unlike other tutorial areas.
And even the debacle involving the death of their fellow adventurers did not stop them from leaving Brino in groups, to find dungeons from which to hunt monsters from.
Naturally, they ended up much stronger than their counterparts across different tutorial areas and different regions.
***
The third attack on Brino ended with quite a bang, as with a careful application of magic into the final monster, it fell still, and exploded a few moments later as Emmanuel turned its back on it and began to walk away.
It was only after the voice from the heavens announced their successful defense of Brino that the cheers began.
“We made it!”
“All in one piece!”
“We’re getting better at this!”
“Emmanuel really pulled through for us!”
The adventurers were in very high spirits, as this auspicious outcome would mean that they were making great progress in getting stronger.
Naturally, Emmanuel, being the one who led the defense, also led the gathered adventurers to return to Brino.
“It’s all because every one of you guys did well. I didn’t do anything special.”
More cheers.
“Why don’t we go back and eat?“
It was after a triumphant return to town that the adventurers all sat down and ate together, with the otherworldly fruits they obtained right before the battle.
As dinner began, it was only natural that the adventurers gathered began to talk about various things. It didn’t take long for them to start talking about the proverbial elephant in the room.
“He didn’t return for this battle – do you think he’s the killer?”
“Of course,” another adventurer replied, “he is. Why wouldn’t he come back?”
“He probably realized that we were on to him so he fled out of guilt.”
The elephant in the room was, of course, Jake; and they thought Jake hadn’t returned to Brino because he ran away due to his supposed deeds.
“We shouldn’t have easily bought his denial.”
Because he was away for a long time and their relative ease in repelling this latest attack, what had previously been fear of Jake had now become contempt.
“Do you think we should let a murderer get away… just like that?”
“If you think we should get him, do you have any ideas as to how to nab the guy?”
Even before the latest battle, the adventurers in Brino also went out of their way to hunt monsters and gain power and confidence in their ability.
It wasn’t difficult to make the jump to thinking that they could apprehend Jake for what they think he did.
“Even if the guy is pretty strong, how will he deal with all of us at once?”
“Also, we have become stronger since that time.“
“If we want to, we will be able to overcome that guy together… easily.”
But despite their confidence and power, they were still assuming someone to be a murderer with only circumstantial evidence in their hands, and turning Jake’s denial into an implied admission of guilt, and his absence as proof that he had somehow escaped their “justice”.
The mood at the table was quickly turning the organized adventurers into a mob howling for justice.
“Let’s go get him for real!”
“Right! We shouldn’t let a killer like that remain at large!“
Their voices began to rise above what was supposed to be a celebration of their accomplishment.
It was then that Emmanuel, who was only observing quietly, stood up, and raised a hand to silence the adventurers gathered.
“We’re not completely sure whether he is the killer or not,” he began, and Emmanuel could make out one or two adventurers mouthing ‘what’, “But you’re right – him being gone for too long is very suspicious. We should have a talk with him rather than resorting to mindless violence.”
***
The Hero Shop’s back office thought that Jake would spend at least two months in order to purchase the Cherry Blossom Weapon Skill Set when they were preparing the package for the shop.
Their calculations had given them a minimum of two months, and they expected him to purchase the item after around three months, due to the Cherry-Shell Snapper’s sheer size and power.
They took into account the points Jake gained when helping defeat the Werecrocodile, and also considered his purchase of the Swiftstone Sword and his tremendous increase in strength in order to wield it.
After all, this monster would only appear a long time later, after the adventurers’ narrow escape from the Werecrocodile would goad them into fighting enough battles to get much stronger.
But even then, they will not have an easy time of it battling the Cherry-Shell Snapper – at least, that was how powerful it was made to be.
As a matter of fact, since finding the Cherry-Shell Snapper, Jake had a hard time battling it, to the point where for the first time since his summoning, he turned his back on the giant turtle – and ran off like his behind was on fire.
Then ag
ain, what the Hero Shop thought about Jake Smithson was only scratching the surface.
“Would an apology help?” Jake called back facetiously as he was running like his life depended on it. “Guess it’s too late for that! Hey, come on, stop following me!”
”How the heck is that huge thing so fast?“ Jake shouted as he barely cleared a large branch in his path, his face an unusual mix of fear and excitement as his feet flew over the ground in his haste.
Jake could feel the ground rumble beneath him as he leaped over a toppled log and continued running. Behind him, the giant turtle’s roars echoed across the island.
“You may be huge and you may be fast, but you can’t catch me!” Jake taunted the beast while scurrying away.
Nope, I’m not hallucinating or anything. This guy’s trash-can-flipping mad.
“You mad? You mad bro?” he continued asking, a wooden branch with several pink blossoms was clutched in his hand as he evaded the pursuit.
Oh yeah. He mad.
I chopped off one of the branches of the cherry tree on the Snapper.
No wonder he mad.
But one’s not enough for me. I need to get several of them; I may fail the requirement if I content myself with just one piece – oh, who the hell cares, I am never content! Must have all the branches!
Thanks to Jake taking a mental picture of the cherry tree itself, he could remember that there were several cherry blossoms on the branches.
Having just one branch on him was risky, and if Jake tried to cut it into 16 pieces and fail once, then it would be over.
Of course I’ll train until I can confidently say I can divide a cherry blossom into sixteen pieces, but I have to account for failed attempts.
Risk assessment is like that. I mean, what if I throw the blossom in the air and suddenly have to take a bathroom break or something?
“Don’t worry about trying to catch up to me, I’m going to get back to you after a bit! You still owe me a fucking turtle ship!“ he yelled while scrambling to higher ground.
Jake was hauling ass like no tomorrow. Despite the Snapper’s heavy shell, its size caused it to take huge strides, which made it hard for Jake to elude the beast.
“Oh, and I’m not leaving this place until I’m dining on turtle soup!”
