"Air strike blast!" the wind spell flung from my hand and struck my opponent, a five foot tall hawk simply called a giant hawk, it's hp fell by 10% and the hawk squalled in rage, and flew towards me.

Hawk's were fast, but I thanks to my high agility I was able to roll out of the way, giving me an opening for another attack, I searched through my unlocked skills and smiled. "Take this, Ice blade blast!" a burst of ice in the shape of a sword's blade spiraled towards the monster, searing it's wing as it tried to dodge. It began to fall towards plummet back towards the earth.

I looked to the teenager with a sword running after it, he raised his sword and swung, electricity chasing and striking the hawk on it's way down, that was Ren, the sword hero's skill called thunderbolt slash, gaining the ability after he reached level twenty. I picked myself off the ground and ran forward to Ren's side, who had finished off the monster as it finally landed.

600 Experience gained. Congratulations, you have reached: Level 30. You've unlocked: Light blast, Shadow blast.

I smiled and carved off a piece of the Giant Hawk and let the ring absorb it giving me the option of unlocking a ring or turning it into crafting components, I chose the ring this time.

You have met the conditions for: The Giant hawk Ring, this weapon has no series.

Huh… that's a first, usually everything has a series. Well whatever, it gave me a new skill called Eagle blast Ring, and increased my physical defense by 3 and magical defense by 17, it simply looked like an eagle head on my finger. I reached down and plucked off a claw piece as Ren walked away, going to test out his new weapon and skill on a tree probably as I dropped the piece into my ring.

You have gained a crafting component for ? potion, 2/3. Quality: Ultimate, as this potion cannot be found in this world unless the Legendary Ring makes it.

"So… you still won't show me what you are huh…" I whispered to myself, I was growing quite frustrated with this particular potion, I had gained the first material and unlocked the recipe after killing and absorbing the tail of a rabid Filolial. I thought I would get a ring from it, but this damn thing appeared instead.

As a matter of fact, I'd learned that unless it was a 'boss type' monster like the hawk me and Ren had just killed, it was seemingly impossible for me to get new rings. This was quite frustrating, as after a week and a half of partying up with Ren I had only gained one other ring besides this new one: the Demon spider Ring. Which I refused to use because it caused the ring to transform into a spider with it's legs wrapped around my finger.

I shivered just thinking about it, I hated spiders. I had almost had a real panic attack when me and Ren encountered the damn thing in a cave while working a guild quest. It was so unfortunate too, considering the Ring was pretty damn good. It gave me the ability to make spider silk apparently, I say apparently because the skill was literally called Silk creation, which I could only use if I had the ring equipped.

"A weapon with no series, good thing the skill is good." Ren came back over, his Mp bar a few points lower… speaking of…

"Hmm, that's strange. Is it a combo skill for you too?"

Ren looked confused. "Nah, the skill for me is called Eagle strike sword, what's yours?"

I looked back to my status where the skill was present: Eagle's Dark Light, attacks enemies with light and dark magic in a combo skill, must use both hands for skill to activate.

"Didn't you say that your Ring's affinity was chaos magic? A mix of light and dark, maybe that's why you don't have a form of my Crimson sword and thunderbolt slash." Ren suggested, I pondered this for a moment before shaking my head.

"I can unlock and use Ice based skills though, something you don't have access to. I can also Use an air strike skill. But… according to the help that's an attack that everyone can use like the later unlocks Meteor ring blast and shooting star ring blast."

"True, but I also had to pick up the Meteor sword and Shooting star sword to unlock them, you just have to level up… Do you think your Ring is accommodating the lack of weapon type Rings in this world by giving you access to skills without 'weapon copying' them?"

I shrugged, that certainly seemed to be the case. But that meant the Ring had more sentience than what would be led to believe. I changed the Ring back to the Onyx colored ring I got back from when I fought the black balloon. It was my favorite ring just because of it's color, and it wasn't a detriment to my skill or stats (Other than Silk creation).

"So, to the capital next?" I asked, looking around. I wasn't exactly sure where we were to be honest, somewhere between Lute village and the mountain plains leading to the hot spring village, me and Ren were traveling from the hot spring village when we got attacked by the Giant hawk, surprising us and causing us to fall down the mountain into a hundred acre grasslands wedged between the mountains, with a small six acre forest inside it.

Once again, I was oddly struck by how beautiful this world was. Over time I grew to deeply enjoy this world and find beauty everywhere, I felt the odd bit of guilt that I was living what some people desired. A true fantasy existence.

"Yes, but first we gotta get out of here." Ren began to walk in the opposite direction of the forest. He seemed to know where he was going so I followed him, A week and a half of partying together and he was still rather quiet, it didn't help that his old party had confronted and basically implied they were gonna try and kill us for abandoning them.

It also didn't help that I scared Ren by killing the one that implied that. I didn't even mean to, I just felt suddenly enraged to a degree I didn't think possible, and before I realized it he was dead, his body charred from my Chaos Lightning and the survivors backing away in fear. Ren's horrified face is still buried in my mind.

"Hey, Ren?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

He paused at this, gripping the handle of his sword a little tighter. He knew what I was apologizing for, and he knew why I did it… that didn't exactly make it any better though, even if this was a game to him watching someone die is trauma inducing.

Suddenly he turned on me, his eyes were hard and cold. "Stop apologizing, what you did can't be fixed by saying I'm sorry man… I know they threatened us… I know… but there had to have been a better way than that. Damnit… there had to."

He drew his sword and swung, I dodged out of the way, panicking, but realized that he wasn't targeting me, he was parrying an attack from a sword that would have killed me. "You guys… here to get revenge for Welt? Since you came from the other side of the clearing I assume the way out is there."

It was Ren's original party! The three of them had a mixture of anguish and rage on their faces. Ren leaped back to stand in front of me, he sword out in front of him. "You do realize attacking a hero Is a serious crime? Let alone killing one? Don't do this guys. Please."

"Shut up!" The one with the sword stepped forward again, he was a young man with midnight black short hair. Bakta, I think his name was. "We were loyal to you! Then you just threw it all away for this murdering devil! He killed church members and Welt."

"You already know why he did what he did, I'm not excusing Lucatiel. I acknowledge what happened shouldn't have happened and that it should have been handled differently, but Welt threatened us."

I stepped to the side and readied myself, I wasn't sure Ren could convince them to back down after what I did and I needed to be ready to defend us. I got the combo skill I learned ready, but didn't give any sign I was going to strike.

"Tersia, Ferrie! Are you really okay with this?" Ren appealed to the women that was formerly in his group. "Welt, wouldn't want this."

That was the wrong thing to say. Any sympathy Ren was gaining quickly fell to pieces after that, their faces hardened and they got ready to fight. "You… bastard hero." Bakta snarled. "What do you know about something Welt would want, he wanted to be with the sword hero on his journey, instead… his blood is on the Ring 'hero's' hands."

Suddenly Bakta rushed forward and I sighed. I couldn't hesitate now. "Eagle's dark light!" out of both my hands Dark magic and Light magic in the shape of an eagle flashed forward and spiraled into the chest of Bakta, who screamed in pain as he was flung back, skidding across the grass as his sword flew off to the side, his hp dropping immediately to the red.

I stepped forward, that rage was once again powering through my body. I raised my hand to the sky. "You made me do this, Bakta. Just remember that in the next world." he struggled to stand as the girls stumbled back in terror.

A dark aura in a five meter diameter spread around me, it was time for a new skill, one I'd learned three levels ago. "I call to the heart of chaos with which that resided in darkness! I am the Ring hero Lucatiel Niazaki."

"Lucatiel stop!"

"Cast your abyss on my enemies, and end this drama with their demise!"

"Thunderbollllt…."

"Eternal Req-"

"SLASH!" A bolt of lightning pierced my body and I screamed in agony as my skill abruptly stopped, I fell onto my side, seizing and convulsing. Ren was breathing heavily as he sat down beside me. "Lucatiel, there's always another way… I'm sorry for that… I didn't know what else to do."

My vision was beginning to waver, getting hit in the middle of a skill by another skill is almost always a guarantee to put you into an unconscious state, I saw Bakta stumble to his feet and run off screaming, the girls not far behind. Then my vision went dark as I fell to oblivion.

Line break, several hours later.

I regained consciousness due to a nice smell, at first I thought it was a dream. But then the aches and pains of being struck by lightning came and I quickly realized that a dream wouldn't hurt this much. I sat up slowly, not wanting to aggravate any injuries I may have had internally, and saw Ren sleeping against a tree his sword in his lap, a few feet away asleep by a fire was what looked to be a teenage girl… with tanuki ears and a tail… a demi-human? The moonlight lit the clearing they were in beautifully, and providing just enough light to see decently.

"Your awake finally? Bout damn time." A voice behind me said startling me, immediately causing me to groan in pain. I managed to turn enough to see the source of the voice and my eyes widened.

Sitting about five feet away, partially covered by shadow was Naofumi Iwatani, the shield hero. His face was still hard and eyes still cold, but he didn't seem to be angry at me, just in general. He rolled his eyes at my surprise and stood up to stoke the fire, I noticed there was a pot inside the flame which was the source of the nice smell, he must have been cooking something.

"What… happened? Where am I?" I asked, the shield hero gave me the side eye but stayed silent for a few moments longer, stirring the contents of the pot, eventually he sighed irritably and explained.

"About two miles outside of Lute village, Ren apparently carried you after knocking your dumb-ass out. That's when that chocolate named girl found you both and had Raphtalia help bring you here."

So far! Ren had carried me that far!? I would have to thank him later, he could have abandoned me. Had every right to after what I tried to do… wait… chocolate named girl?

"Eclair? Where is she? Is she okay?" I asked, I didn't see her anywhere nearby and that worried me.

"That annoyance is in the woods swinging her sword, she was worried about you and decided that killing everything that exists here would protect you." Naofumi suddenly scrunched his face up even more. "Not that they could really hurt you anymore, since your level 30."

How… how did he know that? I looked at my party screen and saw to my surprise that he was in the party with us, Naofumi saw the question on my face and explained, albeit with a bored look. "My created medicines are more effective on party members thanks to my leaf shield, figured you'd wake up faster with it."

Well that explains that, I also noticed with some surprise that Naofumi was just barely half our level at level 16. "Why are you level 16? Shouldn't you be higher than this?"

Naofumi suddenly look pissed, and he refused to answer anymore questions. Eventually, the tanuki woke up with a yawn and looked at the Shield hero. "I'm hungry Master Naofumi."

Naofumi's face softened which surprised me, but I didn't miss how she called him 'master'. "You just woke up Raphtalia."

"Yes, and now I'm hungry." Naofumi sighed, then stopped messing with the pot and walked over to Ren, kicking his side and startling him awake.

"Huh!? What!?"

"Wake up solo player, foods done. I'm going to go get Eclair." with that Naofumi walked off into the woods, his green cloak flowing behind him. Ren stared at him blandly for a few moments before trudging over to the pot and sniffing it's contents, I could swear Ren started drooling right then and there.

I struggled off the grass, pain splitting through every nerve in my body as I staggered to the food. I wasn't exactly hungry, but I was cold. So I just collapsed back by the fire, Ren and Raphtalia sitting down across from me.

"Ouch…" I muttered, laying down on my side again facing the fire. "Holy shiiiit this hurts."

"Sorry, Lucatiel. But I didn't know what else to do." Ren said. "I… didn't want them to die, they're just Npc's. But it still rubs me the wrong way."

"It'll be fine later, when I'm not in constant pain." I looked to the tanuki and attempted a friendly smile. "hi there Raphtalia. I'm Lucatiel."

Raphtalia's tail swished. "Hello Ring hero-sama. I'm Naofumi's sword and slave."

My jaw dropped and Ren grimaced in such a way that told me that while he already learned this, he still wasn't comfortable in hearing it. "S-slave? He… doesn't abuse you does he?"

"What the hell are you saying?" A boot thumped against my back, it didn't hurt me directly, but it jarred my body roughly enough that I groaned in pain anyway. "I have never intentionally hurt her. I thought you of all people would realize that immediately."

"It's true! Master Naofumi has always been perfectly kind to me. He only hurt me when I was too scared to fight!"

"Well that I can't deny… yeah that's true."

"Did you have to kick me though?" That was the only thing I cared about, honestly I didn't believe Naofumi would hurt her, not with Eclair around anyway. Speaking of…

I struggled back to a sitting position. "Where's Eclair?"

Naofumi shook his head in disdain at the question. "Said she couldn't face you right now or something I don't know, didn't pry because I don't care. And before you ask I haven't hurt her either, it was stupid of you to send her to me. Trash isn't happy about it but he hasn't tried to have her arrested again, Bitch is another story."

"Trash? Bitch?" It was Ren who repeated those names, Naofumi pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"The shit King and his whore daughter Myne, Malty. Whatever the hell her name is." he spat the names out as if just saying them physically hurt, Ren sat forward with his hands crossed in front of his face.

"What has the second princess done?" The sword hero pried, I didn't know if it was curiosity or if he was just making conversation, but I wanted to know too.

"Bitch tried to falsify more crimes on her head, shit she didn't do of course. If it wasn't for what little reputation I had left thanks to Lucatiel's interference she would have succeeded, instead the market vendors just pelted her and Simpoyasu with fruit until they left…" Naofumi grinned maniacally at this, clearly it was a funny story to him. "I tore up the warrant after and left town, that was two days ago."

"I really don't like that girl. I don't know why Motoyasu hasn't left her yet." I muttered, Naofumi snorted.

"Nobody could hate that slut more than I do, and Motoyasu probably hasn't left because she keeps him 'supplied' if you get my meaning."

The image that appeared in my head made any appetite that was building evaporate from my body, and I immediately hated my brain for doing it. Stupid brain. "So he really is a simp…"

"The ultimate simp."

"Master Naofumi what's a simp?" Raphtalia asked, we all just looked at her as she her tail swished back and forth. Naofumi just grimaced, not sure how to answer the question.

"This food is fantastic Naofumi." Ren said awkwardly, it was a true statement but a poor attempt at changing the subject. Naofumi seemed to have a natural talent at cooking, I was pretty decent myself but… I kind of hated doing it.

"Yeah thanks. Where are you guys headed one you leave here?" Naofumi asked, Raphtalia pouting as she realized her question wouldn't be answered. "I doubt you guys are planning on living the hermit's life."

"Were heading back to the capital, Lucatiel never registered for the incoming wave." Ren explained, I felt my face heat up a little from Naofumi giving me an 'are you kidding me?' look.

"Well watch out for your party, I heard from Chocolate Name that she saw them passing through Lute severely pissed off, a few hours later you showed up with Lucatiel." Naofumi's piercing gaze shifted back towards me. "I assume that was your fault? Ren neglected to tell me why he attacked you."

"It's… complicated." I said hoarsely. "Ren hit me to stop me from killing his old party with one of my Ring's unique skills."

"What skill?"

"A new one I hadn't been able to use yet, it's called Eternal Requiem… according to the description, it binds my enemies with shadow chains. Then a black portal opens up beneath them and drags them into it."

Ren shuddered, and even Naofumi looked somewhat put off. His hand was on his chin as he stared off into the darkness thoughtfully. "How many Chaos skills have you unlocked from the ring?"

"Uh… In order, Chaos lightning, Revolution Light, Eternal Requiem." I listed off. "But at level 31 I unlock what I guess is the Light version of Eternal Requiem, called Lunar light cycle."

"Your forgetting Eagle's dark light. That combo skill you unlocked." Ren mentioned.

"Combo skill?"

Oh right, Naofumi wouldn't know about those skills, which was fair since there wasn't any information about them for me until I unlocked one. "According to my help, combo skills are skills you use in tandem with your party members to create and utilize a different skill. Though in my case since my Ring's entire affinity is Chaos: A combined light and dark affinity, I can use combo skills on my own."

"That Ring is very interesting… to be able to attack with Unique magic is strong, unlike being able to only defend." Naofumi glared at his shield at this, but got no response. "Anyway, I already know about the Spear idiot. But have you heard anything about Itsuki?"

"We were hoping you'd have an inkling." I muttered sheepishly. Itsuki about four days ago apparently had completely disappeared off the map, last seen in some in in the middle of nowhere.

"Why would I know? I didn't even know if you idiots were alive."

"Can you stop insulting us?" I snapped, I didn't want to but I couldn't help my frustration. "We aren't idiots."

Naofumi gave me a glare, but said nothing. Ren cleared his throat awkwardly and offered up a tense smile. "You could join us in the capital tomorrow? Do you have any business there? We could help you out."

Naofumi gave the side eye to Ren, distrust plain to see In his eyes. "…I have to pick up some new armor from nice guy tomorrow, that's it."

"Are you sure? Like I said we could-"

"I SAID….*sigh*" Naofumi took a deep breath, seemingly trying to find a semblance of calm. "Look, I'll stay partied up with you until I get my armor. After that me and Raphtalia are leaving again, and Eclair."

I didn't miss that he called her by her name this time. I suppose he trusted her a bit more than us, I didn't blame him for his paranoia but it still kind of upset me, I tried to help as best as I could… but clearly it wasn't enough.

"Also, I shouldn't have to say this but I'm going to. From what you've told me Ren you need to deal with your old party soon, I don't care how you do it but if you get killed by them while fighting a wave I'll have more work to do." Naofumi crossed his arms and glared at the ground.

Ren looked annoyed at this topic being brought up again, as he abruptly stood and dusted some stray dirt off him. "I'm going for a walk. See ya." he walked away, leaving me with Naofumi and Raphtalia.

Suddenly though Naofumi turned to face me. "Why are you still using that black balloon ring? I'm sure you have gained other rings by now."

So you spotted that as well huh? "It's my favorite ring, I've only gained t-…. one other Ring, the Giant Hawk ring, I can only seem to gain new Rings when I fight boss type enemies like the black balloon and the Giant Hawk, the rest just turn into crafting components."

Naofumi just stared at me until it made me uncomfortable, eventually I buckled. "What is it? Why are you staring at me?"

Naofumi shook his head. "Just didn't take you for a liar, that's all. I'm disappointed."

This pissed me off, I hated shit like that to an undying level. "Well it's not your goddamn business why I don't use all my rings is it? Fine, I lied. I have two new rings! And one of them I cant use!" I was shouting loud enough to attract monsters, and I felt bad that I seemed to be scaring Raphtalia, but I just couldn't help myself.

"Why can't you use it?"

"Because of this!" I thrust my ring hand forward and glared at Naofumi. "C-Change Ring!"

The ring I hated appeared on my finger, and I immediately began to shake in fear, I could freaking swear that the red eyes of the spider were glaring at me with killing intent and I despised how the legs wrapped around my finger like a straight jacket, I was suddenly struggling to breath.

"I-I-I-I'm t-terrified o-of spiders." I managed to say, switching back to my Onyx ring before I passed out. "I-I don't get any stat boosts for it… but It has a skill called Silk creation that can only be used when the ring is equipped. But I can't make myself do it. So it doesn't exist, I've only gained one new ring."

Naofumi's eyes held no sympathy for me, but they also didn't have any disdain. Eventually though he nodded and sighed. "Get over it somehow, that skill seems useful and useful stuff like that is required for survival here. Let me make this clear Lucatiel."

Naofumi stood up and pierced me with his gaze. "This world is not a game. It may seem like one, it may have mechanics like one and sometimes feel like one. But this is not a game, tell me you understand."

I didn't know where all this was coming from, but I knew one thing: Naofumi was dead serious. How could he not be after what happened to him? I wasn't sure if what he was saying was true. But… it didn't make sense for it not to be. So I was happy that my response was the complete truth.

I decided to believe in the possibility. "I understand."

The shield hero relaxed a fraction, suddenly however: "Master Naofumi, what's a simp?"

Me and Naofumi sighed, we probably shouldn't have said that.

A/N: That's another chapter finished, I decided I'm gonna start taking longer to write chapters so they can be of higher quality. So basically an update every 1 or 2 weeks, sometimes more if procrastination bites me like it constantly does. (On my life that's a habit of mine that will never die).

Shout out to Dharshan, Did not expect you to even find this, then again you did read Undying, glad to see your alive and stuff. Hope you enjoy this lmao.

Another shout out to Rogue-El for giving me what would have been a solid suggestion if I hadn't rushed the previous chapter.

I won't be answering reviews often, but just know that I read and appreciate all of them.

Anyway that's it, see ya till the next chapter.