Nierstane—Second Floor of the Mine

"Help!!!" A girl is running for her life.

"Se-, senior, wait for me! Help!" Another girl is following closely behind.

"Roar, roar, roar!" A horde of ghouls are chasing crazily.

......

Three hours earlier.

"Ah, I didn't expect to encounter bandits. I was lucky to have you two, otherwise my caravan would have been in danger." A man dressed lavishly is expressing his gratitude to a girl with black hair donned in a white robe.

"Uh...uh, mm, it's okay, no need to be polite..." The black-haired girl seems a little embarrassed, not knowing what to say.

"Hehe, as for the thanks, no need for that. Since we've encountered this situation, I think the corresponding reward should be increased a bit, right?" Another girl with golden hair seems quite experienced, she teases the chubby guy while hugging the girl's shoulder.

"Haha, yes, of course! I hope you can accept this." While speaking, the chubby man took out a scroll of sheepskin.

"?What's this?"

"This is a treasure map. I went to great lengths to get it. It isn't clear what the treasure is, but it must be something good. Because the location is on the second floor of the mine, which is somewhat dangerous, I haven't gone there. But the two miss'es are so powerful, I'm sure there's no problem. This is my thank-you gift to you."

"Mm~ an unknown map~ well, I'll accept it then. Thanks! You're a wise merchant." The blond girl cheerfully accepted the sheepskin scroll.

"It's nothing. Since we've entered the city, we'll go ahead." The chubby man and his convoy leave.

"Hehe~ Let's go, Shisan," The blond girl raises the sheepskin scroll in her hand, "Treasure hunting here we go~"

"Ah, okay, senior!"

......

"Ah... how boring... why haven't we encountered a single beast~" The blond girl is kicking the stones on the ground bored.

"..." I glanced at her shiny third-order suit and was quite speechless. Could she not understand why no creatures dared to approach her?!

"Hey, Shisan, what do you think the treasure will be?" The blonde girl asked randomly.

"Eh, Juice Princess Senior asking me? Uh ... I don't know, but if someone bothered to make a treasure map, it should be a fairly valuable thing, right?" I replied uncertainly.

At these words, the blonde girl waved her hand: "Stop calling me senior, just call me by my name. I hope it's something good."

"Uh ... okay, Juice Princess... no, I'll just keep calling you senior." My face is a bit red, how can I say such an embarrassing name?!

"As you please... Hmm, we're here. "

We arrived at the endpoint given by the supposed treasure map, but nothing was found.

"... That fatty didn't trick us did he?" Juice Princess looked a bit angry.

"Well..." I looked at the open space in front of me, where there was nothing, and I was a bit lost. Should we start digging?

Suddenly, I smelled a strange odor, like a dead fish that was forgotten and left out of the refrigerator last week - a smell of decay.

"Senior."

"Mm, I smell it too. Looks like something is coming."

We both quickly pulled out our staffs starting to get on our guard.

"Roar..." Out of the darkness, a monster more than two meters tall with blood-red eyes emerged. One of the typical creatures in the mine, a ghoul.

Upon seeing this, Juice Princess sneered, "Heh... so it's a ghoul. I hope the treasure isn't this fella. Well, since it dared to show up, I'll take its life."

Hmm, she looked kind of cool.

"Roar..." Another ghoul stepped out of the darkness.

"Double the pleasure, double the fun... double the money, double the happiness." Juice Princess derided.

"Roar..." Yet another ghoul emerged.

"... Just three. For me, it's just triple the money." Juice Princess continued her cold laugh.

"Roar... " From the darkness, pairs of bloody eyes lit up, roughly estimated, there had to be dozens of ghouls.

"Hehe..."

This doesn't seem quite right. Looking at the still calm expression on Juice Princess, I was reassured."Pledge loyalty to the Goddess of Storms, beseech you to hear my request, lend me the power to vanquish the foes, blessing of the wind!"

As the breeze swirled around, I felt much lighter as Juice Maid took my hand and ran!

"Rawwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" The crowd of ghouls paused for a moment, then roared and chased after the two fleeing figures.

????? I was frantically running in the wind.

While running in shock, I asked, "Wait, senior, why are we running?!"

"There are so many ghouls, should we stay and be bait?!"

"Aren't you a level four fighter, senior?! Fight them!"

"I’m only a pseudo level four...a fake one! Even a true level four would kneel at this amount of monsters! Help!!"

??? I'm doomed!

"Senior, think of a solution! We'll be caught sooner or later!!!"

"I am thinking! We must beat that fatso till his mother can't recognize him once we return! Shisan, do you have any spells to slow them down?!"

"I don't have any!" I was so anxious I almost burst into tears. Was I going to be devoured by these monsters today?! I don't want to, waaaaa…

"Tsk, these things... chasing us till death, really think we're their food?!! Shisan, stall them a bit; I’ll fight them!”

"Eh? Okay!"

The two girls stopped running. Seeing their prey no longer fleeing, the ghouls howled and charged at them like crazy.

Fortunately, this was a mine, so only two ghouls could rush up at a time. I aimed the holy wand at them—"Holy Light Bomb!” A ball of light emerged from the front of the wand, then shot out at high speed towards the ghouls, unleashing dazzling light!

"Rawrr!!!” The two ghouls were hit by the Holy Light Bomb, stopping them and temporarily blocking the ones behind them.

"Senior!”

"May the fireball within the red lottery ticket protect the enemy before you—Detonation Array!"

Boom!!!

A red magic array exploded in the middle of the ghouls, the raging flames engulfing them! I was awed by the power of this move. Truly worthy of my senior!

"Let's go, run now!"

"Ah... Yes, senior!"

The two exhaustedly sprinted for a while before finally stopping when they couldn't hear any more sounds from behind.

"Huff... Huff..." Juice Maid wiped the sweat from her forehead and gasped, "At last... we’ve shaken them off... Ha... once we get out, we must teach that fatso a lesson!"

My legs felt wobbly from the running. I didn't care about whether the ground was dirty or not and sat down to rest.

"Roar..."

A low growl echoed from the darkness once more.

My expression was ghastly. I couldn't bear another chase.

The source of the growl gradually emerged as it approached—it was a ghoul.

I sighed with relief, standing up, "It's only a ghoul, senior, I'll handle this."

Juice Maid halted me, "Hold on, this isn’t an ordinary ghoul."

I took a closer look and indeed, it was different from the ones we encountered earlier. Firstly, it was much larger, its skin a much darker shade. Most significantly...

I shivered involuntarily.

Its eyes... devoid of the usual brutishness of ordinary ghouls; instead, they were calm and sentient.

Like a person.

"It's a Ghoul Leader," Juice Maid spoke solemnly, her eyes gleaming with intense passion.

I gulped nervously. Though the Ghoul Leader was a dangerous foe, it would be highly rewarding if we could defeat it. Most importantly, it had a rare chance of dropping a rare skill—Chosen One.

"Well, Shisan, get ready, we're quite lucky. Let's score big on this one!"

"Right, we're going in, senior!"

"Good, let’s go, Matthew!"

"Yes! ...???" I looked helplessly at the Juice Maid, who was sticking out her tongue and acting cute, "Senior, you...""Hey, hey, the atmosphere is truly uncanny... It's coming!"

I was startled, raising my staff to launch a Holy Light Bomb.

"Roar!!!" The Holy Light Bomb exploded on the head of the Ghoul Leader and seemed to cause no damage. Instead, my attack enraged the Ghoul Leader who roared and charged towards me.

"Ice Blade Spell!"

An ice blade formed swiftly in front of Juice Princess, slashing towards the ghoul leader's foot and made it halt. Then I quickly retreated with Poet Three.

"Keep your distance! First cast all the buff!" While retreating, the Juice Princess was casting with her wand,"Elven Goddess of Elements, praise your power and majesty, descend upon this realm, grant your faithful the power to conquer formidable foes! Weapon Blessing!"

A red glow fell on my scepter, significantly enhancing the damage of my attack spells.

"Weave me into nature, Elves amongst all existence. I vow to protect nature till death, lend me your power, victory shall be mine!"

"Purification Goddess, turn into the eternal luminescence, shield your devout children, disperse pain and tribulations. Divine Protection!"

I cast two protection spells consecutively, two rays of light enveloping two bodies.

The Ghoul Leader, being momentarily halted, was even more outraged, and briskly charged forward.

During my spell-casting, Juice Princess was not idle, raising her hand and firing a pair of ice blades instantly. The Ghoul leader didn't stop its footstep, it directly engaged with its fist, shattering the two ice blades.

"Heh..." Juice Princess showed a complacent smile.

Ice Blade Spell had an extra ability - Freeze!

Frost swiftly spread over the Right Fist of the Ghoul Leader.

"Roar!" Entirely enraged, the Ghoul leader jumped up, its intact left fist aiming at Juice Princess's head for a full-blown smash!

"Ice Shield!"

Thud! Juice Princess swiftly constructed an ice shield above her head, repelling the strike. She then thrust her elemental wand into the Ghoul Leader's abdomen.

"O fiery God within this red lotus, keep our enemies at your mercy -Explosion Array!"

Boom!

A red magical array formed at the tip of the elemental wand and then exploded! The reddish flames swallowed up the Ghoul, while Juice Princess quickly retreated behind an elemental barrier she conjured.

"Phew... Is this all? I thought it would be much harder," Juice Princess signed deeply, looking at the Ghoul Leader consumed by the flames.

I gape from the sideline. As expected from my senior! But wait, something seems off...

"Senior, watch out!"

I widened my eyes in surprise. The ghoul leader isn't dead! I quickly voiced a reminder to Juice Princess, but it was a second too late.

The Ghoul Leader burst out of the flames and delivered a kick to Juice Princess, who didn't react in time, and got kicked into the rock wall behind.

"Senior!!!" I yelled helplessly.

I was of no use at all. If only I reacted faster...

"Cough cough... I'm fine," Juice Princess crawled out of the rock wall, covered in dirt. "Your protection saved me, or that kick would have been very dangerous... This bastard is really enduring, survived an Explosion Array directly in the face"

"Thank goodness…" I sighed with relief.

The Ghoul Leader also suffered heavily. Its left arm was missing, its entire body scorched, and a hole had been ripped open in its abdomen, obviously gravely injured.

Seeing the girl who injured him hadn't been killed by the kick, the Ghoul Leader charged again, ignoring me entirely.

"Tsk." Juice Princess retreated swiftly, conjuring ice blades shooting at the Ghoul Leader.

"Poet Three, do you have a method to restrict this big fellow? The type to hold up internal defenses!” Juice Princess asked while maneuvering around the Ghoul Leader.

Restrict? Perhaps that could...

I quickly replied, “Yes! But I’m not that accurate, we need to make it stop first!”"Sure thing!"

Upon hearing my response, Juice Maiden charged directly towards the ghoul leader.

Seeing the girl rushing at him, the ghoul leader swung a punch at her with great speed.

Juice Maiden quickly pulled out her old tricks and summoned an ice shield. However, the punch was significantly more powerful this time, shattering the ice shield almost instantly. But this merely bought her the second she needed. She leaped up and then -

"Lightning strike! Wand to the head!" She beat on the ghoul leader's head with her wand. The paralysis from the lightning strike caused the ghoul leader to stiffen momentarily. "Poet Third!" Juice Maiden yelled out loud.

Wait, are you a mage or a warrior?

Although I wanted to nitpick, more important things were on hand.

I chanted the spell: "Pure Goddess of Light, hear my prayer, become the eternal radiance, protect upon your faithful children, holy barrier!"

A golden barrier formed around the ghoul, taking the shape of a triangle that has the ghoul securely trapped within it.

"Oh, so we can do it that way... Nice job, Poet Third!"

"Too much praise, senior..." I said, a bit embarrassed, "So, what's next? I can't trap it in there for long."

The ghoul leader had recovered from the paralysis and was now violently attacking the barrier that enclosed it, causing ripples on the barrier surface.

Juice Maiden pulled out an alchemy magic wand and tossed it to the ghoul leader. The ghoul leader grabbed the wand instinctively, appearing quite baffled.

"Ice shield, elemental barrier. Explode!"

Following a loud bang, dazzling light erupted from within the holy barrier. The barrier soon shattered under the enormous pressure, causing a powerful blast towards us which was blocked by Juice Maiden's pre-set defense.

"I engraved three explosion arrays on the alchemy magic wand... Although it's a bit expensive, it's worth it as long as we can defeat the Chosen One."

Is this how rich people fight? I'm so jealous.

I pityingly glanced at the spot where the ghoul leader originally stood. There's no way it could have survived that sort of attack.

As the fire dissipated, a radiance converged at the spot where the ghoul leader perished - a sign of dropped items. My eyes ignited with excitement.

"Chosen One, Chosen One, Chosen One..." Juice Maiden closed her hands, muttering continuously.

"Juice Maiden, Poet Third VS Ghoul Leader

Juice Maiden, Poet Third WIN

Item obtained: Silver Ore"

"Darn it!"

"Darn it!"

Afterword:

Astima, Feb 24, 720, Monday, High Wind

This morning, we received a mysterious map from the caravan we were escorting, so we decided to go treasure hunting together. In the end, we didn't find any treasure but were chased by ghouls instead. At last, we were able to take down a ghoul leader, only to receive a piece of silver ore. I am not happy.

After we exited the mine, both my senior and I decided to vent our frustration on the fat merchant who gave us the map. He deserved it.

However, it is still a joyful day. = ^ ▽ ^ =