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It was… satisfying.

Yeah, that was the right word.

While at first, Aly had been hesitant to try sparring, and he was much weaker than me so I had to tone down my strength tremendously, it was a surprising amount of fun overall.

It was just the two of us, dancing around the fire with wooden blades.

His defenses were full of holes, and even with my full strength restrained to balance his, I was easily able to break his guard and strike him.

...And don't even get me started on his offense.

He was just way too reckless! He would always strike as soon as he could, without thinking about what could go wrong. It would almost be cute, if it wasn't so aggravating.

However, I always made sure to point out exactly where the boy slipped up, and he earnestly tried to watch out for that mistake again.

As the sparring match went on, I was surprised to see just how quickly he was improving- I tried feeling my instincts for exactly how common it was to see somebody getting better this fast, but they were no help. Link had probably never tried teaching somebody how to fight.

After a while, though, it seemed to be too much.

Aly collapsed onto the ground, bruises on all limbs, as he let go of the blade and simply panted for breath.

...I may have gone a little overboard.

"...Thanks… for the lesson…"

The kid managed to get out a few words, before promptly passing out.

I smiled down at him, before doing the same.

…

The following day, we traveled through the forest rather aimlessly.

Neither of us knew which way civilization was- however, Aly did tell me we were probably in someplace called the 'Great Forest of Tob,' since that was where he wandered into before getting lost.

That information didn't help too much either, though, since it was apparently the largest forest in the entire kingdom and stretched around the bottom of the 'Azerlisia' mountain range.

Since neither of us knew any local landmarks except that the mountains were north, we decided to travel south. Luckily, there was a compass function on the Sheikah Slate, which had been very useful.

Aly filled the silence with constant chatter, and while it was a little depressing I couldn't appreciate the general silence of nature, he turned out to be a stream of useful information.

I learned more about the general geography and politics of the kingdom, and how people like adventurers existed, how they were categorized into many different ranks, with Adamantine at the top.

I heard about the history of the land, about the 'Six Gods' that descended hundreds of years ago to grant knowledge, and the 'Greed Kings' who arrived soon after to destroy countless civilizations.

It all sounded like a very general, fantasy world.

Which wasn't a bad thing- it meant I could probably infer quite a bit about how things worked thanks to my… extensive knowledge of video games.

However, soon after reassuring myself with that thought, I shot it down.

Instincts honed from countless life-threatening battles warned me about getting complacent, and how I should always keep my guard up.

Link had survived by always being vigilant, and I wasn't planning on breaking from that habit.

Reminding myself of that fact, I took the Sheikah Slate off my hip and looked at it closely while continuing to walk behind Aly.

At the moment, I was wearing the Champion's Tunic along with Hylian Trousers.

Those items were things that you could easily obtain early in the game, but after upgrading them to the max level they were both pretty good options in combat. -The Champion's Tunic more useful since it had better defense and could show the general strength of enemies.

It helped that they looked good, too.

But Aly had told me a little bit about this forest.

Apparently, the monsters here were in a three-way truce, controlled by three very strong entities.

I doubted we would encounter one of those three, but I needed caution.

I had noted earlier how it was impossible to just pause time and access the menu, meaning I had to physically pick up the Sheikah Slate and select the items I wanted to use, which would be much too slow during combat.

That meant I had to be prepared at all times, even before a fight would break out.

So going into the armor tab, I selected the 'Amber Earrings.'

These items were probably my favorite headwear in the game. They were pretty damn stylish, but also had very high defensive ratings, and while they didn't have any other bonuses besides defense, they were generally useful in normal situations.

With a shower of blue light, they materialized, already hanging from my long ears.

I also equipped a Knight's Shield- which was a relatively normal pentagonal shield made of metal, the Hyrule symbol painted on the front, and a Phrenic Bow.

The Phrenic Bow was made of gentle and smooth wood painted red and black, but it's simple design was perfectly made. Although it didn't do much damage in the game, it was almost unique in the way you could 'zoom in' while using it to hit far targets.

Although I wasn't yet sure how all the effects of my weapons would translate to the real world, and how a pair of earrings could actually have a high defense rating, my newfound instincts assured me it would go well.

After securing all the new equipment to myself and making sure everything was properly carried, I quickened my pace to match Aly's. The boy had been walking ahead of me slightly.

I patted him on the shoulder.

He turned to look at me, his eyes flashing towards the new equipment I had, and cocked his head.

"Yeah?"

I handed him a Traveler's Shortsword.

The blade was very small and somewhat dull- being one of the weakest one-handed swords in the game, but it was made for an inexperienced wielder, and it was short enough for him to hold.

In case we were ever separated, I wanted to make sure he could protect himself.

It was too weak a weapon for him to actually kill something strong, but with it, he could maybe hold off the enemy long enough for me to arrive.

...Obviously, it wasn't a perfect plan, but I honestly didn't trust him to not hurt himself with a bigger weapon.

That said, it seemed like he was still impressed with the small blade in his hands, turning to me in gratitude.

"Thanks-"

I stiffened.

My hand lashed out and slammed over Aly's mouth, cutting off his words, as my other arm quickly drew the Knight's Broadsword from its sheath.

I slowly let my arm drop from his mouth and he held onto his new sword tightly, breathing erratically.

My gaze cut into the nearby forest, peering into the shadows.

Something was coming towards us.

My sharpened ears picked up on it clearly- a couple hundred feet away, something very large, maybe eight or nine feet tall, was rushing through the underbrush.

And it was directly heading for our location.

As it closed the distance, I realized it wasn't just a single creature, there were at least three or four.

I grabbed Aly hard by the shoulder and dragged him behind me, my eyes not leaving the direction the unknown creatures would be coming from.

"What's going on?!"

Aly whispered harshly from behind my back, but I simply swatted at him without looking.

I had no idea how strong these creatures were, but it was clear they somehow could sense where we stood.

...After a few more seconds they burst into the clearing.

Massive, hulking brutes with tanned brown skin and burly frames. Their bone structures looked like they were made of iron and their jaws protruded outwards. The light in their eyes was dull, as though each one was barely aware of the world around them.

I heard a gasp from behind me, but I paid the kid no mind.

Lvl 11, Lvl 13, Lvl 11, Lvl 12

My eyes narrowed as I glanced at their levels and I put my right foot forward, bending my knees and holding up my shield and sword.

Nobody moved in the clearing for a single moment, but the monsters soon lost their patience.

Letting out roars of anger, the four of them charged me.

Something I could easily feel about fighting larger monsters was that I always needed to let them make the first move. Afterwards, I could use my smaller body's agility to my advantage.

However…. These things were moving far too slowly.

In my heightened state of awareness, it almost seemed like they were running in slow motion.

And as the first ogre reached me, I jumped forward, almost behind him, aiming for the spot in the center of their group.

Touching down between all of the monsters, I readied myself.

Instinctually focusing my willpower into the Knight's Broadsword in my hand, it seemed to glow brightly…

"Hyaaah!"

I spun in a full circle, energy flashing outwards from the sword.

In a single moment, each monster had been cut to pieces.

"..."

The clearing was silent, as I stood motionless in the center, blood leaking from the hulking bodies and staining the forest floor.

...That had ended extremely quickly.

It seemed like those monsters were much weaker than they looked. In fact, the goblins I had fought earlier were also pretty pathetic.

I wasn't going to let down my guard because of it, since that would just be stupid, but the quality of the monsters I had met so far was a little sub-par, I had to admit.

"How did you do that?!"

The nice silence of the clearing was destroyed.

"Was that some kind of Martial Art?! You… You just killed four ogres in a single slash! That can't even be possible! That's insane! -Look at them, they're completely bisected! The impact of that attack blew off their top halves! How?!"

Aly began to rant.

I sighed in self pity, as he continued the tirade.

It seemed like the next few minutes were going to be hard on my ears.

….

"I mean, I knew you were strong when you killed all those goblins so easily… but I thought you would maybe be around the strength of a Platinum Adventurer, or something, but what you just did… I don't think normal humans can do that… You must be, like, Orichalcum, or maybe, maybe even Adamantite! ...Well, I doubt I'd be that lucky..."

I looked at the kid blankly.

He had been going on like this for the past thirty minutes, ever since those 'Ogres' had attacked.

I personally didn't think it was that big of a deal- if those monsters could all be killed in a single barely-charged Spin Attack, that didn't show my strength, it showed their weakness.

But that didn't seem to get across to him. He was looking at me in blatant admiration now, and it was a little unsettling.

I sighed for a second time.

...How far away was the nearest town, again?

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*Author's Note*

Haha! Four days, four updates- actually, since I wrote most of this last night, it's more like three days, four updates!

The reason for a quick new chapter is because I'll be on a trip for the next week, meaning no new chapters until then. Yes, I made sure to get this out fast for the benefit of you all. You're welcome.

Besides that, some difficulties with this chapter. I didn't really know what level to make the Ogres since it's never stated in Overlord. They had to be pretty weak since they seemed like common monsters, but they were still considered threatening to people, so I went with around level 12.