Chapter 1: Meeting the Crew
I lie down in the bushes along with my companion. My companion is a dog by the name of Grimstridder. That's what his former master called him before I killed him. We've been tracking this group of four adventurers for a while now. There's really only one reason why I'm tracking them. One of them looks like the goddess, Aqua. She's the one who sent me to this world and a few others as well. I've died a fair amount of times and I've seen worlds that should only exist in fiction. I'm not too sure if it's actually Aqua but I can't just ignore this. Right now, the four are currently fighting a decent size pack of Dire Wolves which is about thirty or so. I gaze through the scope of my Kar98k, an item I was allowed to have when I entered a parallel world that only used WWII weapons. The four are having a hard time defeating these puny wolves. Their crusader can't hit shit and the one that kind of looks like Aqua is running around. The smallest of the four adventurers is starting to prepare a spell.
"Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson. The time of awakening cometh. Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion. Explosion!"
As she said this, the spell runes appeared and cast down the biggest explosion I've ever seen. I'm nearly blasted away from my hiding spot. As the dust settles, she has killed ten of the Dire Wolves. She's an archwizard, no doubt. Unfortunately, the girl has seemed to collapse and some of the wolves seem to surround her. Her other comrades won't be able to help her in time. I guess it's time to make my presence known to all. I take aim at the biggest of the five. I hover over his head and squeeze the trigger. The shot rings out, the wolf slumps to the ground and everyone stops moving. I aim at another wolf and fire. I repeat the pattern three more times until the wolves surround the girl are dead. I reload my gun and notice the fifteen remaining wolves seem to slowly come towards my position. I guess I can't hide anymore.
"Let's show them our power, Grim," I said as I pet him.
We come out of our hiding spot and I unsheath my sword, Dawnbreaker, which can augment magic spells if they are cast on it. The three other adventurers check on the down girl while the wolves approach us. The some of the wolves charge me. I only laugh as I cut them down without taking a breath. For some odd reason, I want to get a bit fancy with my attacks.
"Blizzard!"
A storm of snow and ice form, killing some of the wolves.
"Lightning!"
Blots come from the sky killing more wolves, leaving six wolves left. I put on hand on Dawnbreaker.
"Tinder!"
Dawnbreaker's blade is soon covered in flames. I charge at the remaining wolves while Grim attacks as well. I slice through four of them. Grim deals with the remaining two by crushing their skulls with his power bite. I start to approach the adventurers at a decent pace. Once I get close enough, the only male of the group comes forth to me.
"Uh, Thanks for the help."
"I'm not done helping yet," I replied.
I walk over to the collapsed archwizard and kneel down next to her. She struggles to sit up. I had to help her sit up next to a rock nearby. I reach into my rucksack and pull out a potion bottle. I offer it to the girl.
"Here, drink this. It should get you back up on your feet. It's a mana potion."
"Thank you…" she says tiredly.
She drinks the potion and she's renewed with energy. It's good to know that my skill in alchemy hasn't decayed yet.
"Who's the party leader here?" I asked.
As soon as I said that, The Aqua look alike rushes over to me.
"It is I, Aqua, the Goddess of Water that is beloved by the Axis Sect and the archpriest of this group!"
"So, I was right then. I actually can't believe that it's you!"
Aqua only tilts her head.
"I highly doubt you remember my real name but you'll most likely remember the nickname you gave me: The one who doesn't stop dying."
Aqua thinks for a second before her eye light up.
"I remember! I sent you to a parallel world only for you to come back within less than a minute," She says as she stifles her laughter.
"Well, I did get put in a war zone which makes sense and if you're going to laugh, just do it already, damn it."
Aqua soon bursts into full-blown laughter. The male adventurer approaches me once more.
"You're a reincarnate as well?" he asked
"Yes, I've been reincarnated many times," I replied
"So, hero that helped us out, what is your name?"
The crusader was the one who had said this. I turn to face her.
"My name is Bartiand, The one who wields Dawnbreaker."
"Dawnbreaker… Dawnbreaker… Dawnbreaker…"
Aqua taps her head as if the name was familiar to her. Suddenly, another light bulb goes off in her head.
"Dawnbreaker is a rapier sword that can hold any magic spell if it's cast on it," Aqua said as if she's was giving an important answer.
"Well, you're right Aqua. you should know since you're the one who gave it to me before I came here. I guess since you know who I am, it's only fair that I know who you guys are."
"My name is Megumin the archwizard.
"I am Darkness the crusader.
"My name is Kazuma Satō, the actual leader of this party."
"Really? It seems more fitting for Aqua to lead this group since she's a goddess and such."
"Trust me in the fact that she's extremely useless."
I only scoff. I noticed that Grim has taken a liking to Megumin.
"And that right there is my trusted ally, Grimstridder. He's called Grim for short. I find it odd that he's so this much affection for someone that isn't his master."
"Could the fact that I'm a Crimson Demon play a part in this?"
"Most likely. Grim is a Lich dog. He's fond of friendly lich, demons, and other creatures."
"Then I shall purify him!" Aqua suddenly shouted.
"You'll do no such thing to Grim. He helped save your lives today. Also, who's the highest level here?"
"I'm the highest at level thirty-five," Aqua said.
"Then do you mind telling me you thought it was okay to go kill level sixty Dire Wolves?"
"Level sixty?!" The other three shouted in unison.
"Yes. You're lucky that the explosion spell was able to kill a third of them. I suggest check what level you're at now, Megumin."
She pulls out her adventurer card and her eyes are open wider than a stab wound.
"I leveled up fifteen times! I'm now level forty!"
"Congrats. Invest those skill points into your mana pool. You're also only thirty-five levels short of where I'm at."
"That means you're level seventy-five?" Darkness asked.
"Yes. I know advance magic and weapons training as well as skills that help people such as alchemy."
"The other weapon you have. What is it? I've never seen something like this," Megumin said as she tried to grab the gun.
"Don't touch it!"
I take out the gun and show it to them.
"It's called a gun. It's a highly upgraded version of bows and crossbows. This is the only known gun in this world as for I brought it with me when I came here. And this is only one type of the many guns that exist from other worlds."
For some reason, I feel the presence of an enemy. Without looking, I flipped the gun over my shoulder and fired it. I hear a whine soon after. I turn to see that I've shot a lurking Dire Wolf dead straight in the head. It came really close to attacking me without me noticing. I sling the gun over my shoulder.
"He never stood a chance and from what I've seen, you need me. Most adventuring parties have 5 members."
They form a circle and start discussing my offer. I can't hear what they're saying sadly. Soon, Kazuma turns to me.
"Before you can join, Aqua wants to see your adventurer card."
"Sure but I got a cool trick with it."
I pull out my card and press the part that says skills. The card reveals all of the skill trees of this world. It's now about the size of a map. I hand it over to Aqua. Once again they start talking among themselves. They soon all nod in agreement.
"You can join our party," Aqua said.
"You'll be a valuable asset," Darkness added.
"And since you don't know explosion magic, I can teach you," Megumin chimed in.
Kuzuma hands back my card.
"So, where are we heading next?" I asked.
"We'll be heading back to the town of Axel," said Aqua.
"Axel? Never been there. Let's get a move on."
We all start walking towards the direction of Axel. I walking next to Aqua for a fair bit before something comes to my mind.
"How did you end up here?"
"That shut-in NEET brought me along. They said it was within the rules,"
"That's kind of fucking stupid."
"It is."
After that, the air is filled with our footsteps. About what I think is halfway to Axel, a yell catches us off guard. Soon several masked people are charging us.
"Bandits!" I shouted as I unsheath Dawnbreaker.
Kazuma and Darkness defend Aqua and Megumin. They can hold their own. Grim and I are surrounded by many more. About eight total. Grim is able to take two away from me, leaving me with six to deal with. I'm able to block their attacks for a good while. I counter attack one of them and kill him. I follow up by finishing off three more before my next attack is blocked. I forced to block more attacks Soon, one of them guard breaks me and I feel two swords penetrate me. I hear the screams of my new party members. My attackers can't remove their swords from my body. I only chuckle. I can't feel the pain of their swords. In a swift manner, I break their swords and pull the remaining pieces from my body. The two are unarmed now and try to run away. I only pity them.
"Ensnare!" I shout.
The two fleeing bandits are caught by the roots.
I see my party members are still dealing with their bandits, they only had four to deal with. I hover my hand over Dawnbreaker.
"Lightning!"
A bolt comes from the sky, striking Dawnbreaker and give it electric powers. I charge at the four bandits, pricing one through his entire chest and shocking him to death. The other three turn their focus towards me, leaving my allies an opportunity to attack. Kazuma kills one and Darkness tags another through their stomach while I slice the last one down the middle. While electricity flows through him I turn around to check on Grim. He's already dealt with his bandits and is guarding the ones that are trapped by the ensnare spell.
"Loot the dead and Aqua, guide their souls to the afterlife," I said looking back at her.
She only nods, clearly traumatized by the events that just unfolded. I walk towards the two masked bandits that are trapped. They're clearly struggling, wanting to avoid possible death.
"Stop squirming. You're making harder on yourselves," I told them.
The bandits stopped squirming and once they did I ripped off their masks. Two females, no doubt. One's blonde and the other has black hair.
"You two mind telling me you thought it was a good idea to attack us?"
Silence. Not what I want to hear. I step on the blonde one's hand. She screams in pain.
"Stop!" she shouted as applied more pressure.
"Then talk! I don't want to spill more blood but Grimstridder over there looks pretty hungry."
They both glance over that the lich dog before them and quivered in fear.
"Okay! We'll talk! We thought you guys were low levels so we decided to take the risk plus we outnumbered you!" The black haired one shouted.
"While you had higher numbers, I'm the highest of the party of at level 75 with Grimstridder over there being level 60. Now, what to do with you two? So many possibilities but which one shall I chose?"
"Please let us go!" the blonde one
"We won't bother you again!" The black
"Sadly, I can't let that happen. I'm turning you two in."
I reach into my rucksack and pull out some rope to bind their hands together. Now, I'm not the best with the whole rope business so the binding isn't the best. I cut the roots from them and help the stand up.
"Now, if you decide to run, Grimstridder with eat your fucking asses. Do you understand?" I whispered in their ears.
They both nod in understanding. I take the two back to my group. They've done loot the bodies and Aqua is saying some holy words. Almost nearly forgetting about my stab wounds from earlier, I grab a vitality potion from my rucksack and drink it. The wound starts to seal up, allow me to ignore it for a while. I remove my helmet and wipe my forehead. I also clear the blood off the helmet as well. The plate helm is now clean once more and put it back on.
"You guys find any cool loot?"
"No, but we did find a lot of money. About half million Eris," Aqua said.
"Not bad. Divide that amongst yourselves. I don't need any," I replied.
"But why? You did most of the work," Megumin replied back.
"I don't need any currently. Besides, I'll most likely get a reward for turning in these two," I said as I gestured to the two bandits.
"We should continue before more bandits show up," Kazuma said.
I find it odd that no one asked about how I survived getting stabbed. We walk in silence for most of the time. I then feel a tug on my sleeve. It was Darkness.
"Ah, what is it?"
"How did you survive the stabs? Did it feel good?" she asked as her breathing started to get heavier.
"I have extremely high vitality," I said.
That's not the whole truth but it's best not to reveal everything right now.
"And for if it felt good, I'm not sure. I hardly felt any pain from it."
The second question was odd. The way she asked makes it seem like she was a masochist or something of that matter. No more questions are asked of me and we reach Axel in peace. The bandits hang their head low when we arrive at the gates. I'll have to take these to a jail or something before I head to the Adventurer Guild if I can even find it.
"Do any of you know where the jail is?" I ask
"I'll take you there," Megumin responded almost immediately.
"Well, I guess we'll see you three in a bit," I said to the other three.
I notice that Grim can't decide if he wants to stay next to Megumin or if he should guard the bandits. After a bit, we make it to the building that I assume that is the jail. We walk in and the jail guard greets us.
"Oh, hello there. What can I do for you today?" He said as he fixed his glasses.
"These are the surviving bandits of a group that attacked us on our way here," I said.
"Ah, We've been having trouble with bandits in the area. I trust that this was a decent size group that attacked you?" The man asked.
About twelve of them, the other ten are dead," I replied.
Megumin nods in agreement. The man pulls out a notepad and does some calculations.
"I believe that for these two prisoners, you get a total of five hundred thousand Eris and for the ten bandits that were killed, two million Eris. In total, two million and five hundred thousand Eris."
The man tosses me a sack. The sack has a decent weight to it. The guard stands up and walks to the prisoners. He takes them to the cells and left us to our own thing.
"Hey, Megumin?"
"Yes?"
"Where's the Adventurer Guild?" I'm not familiar with this town one bit."
She chuckles. She motions for me to follow her. I obey. It takes us about five minutes to reach the Adventurer Guild. It's located somewhere in the middle of town. We walk in and I see the rest of our party already sitting at a table. We go over to them and take a seat.
"How much money do you guys get?" Aqua asked.
"Two million and five hundred thousand Eris," I cooly replied.
I pour the money out and divide it evenly among us.
"Each of us should have five hundred thousand Eris," I said.
Everyone nodded in agreement. I take a glance around the room and I recoil in fear as if I had seen a ghost. An old colleague of mine. Wiz.