Ren would let out a groan as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

He hadn't slept well at all. Between the nightmare of feeling himself being stabbed again and being forced awake by said nightmares, it had led to a lack of sleep.

During those times he was forced awake, yet unable to return to sleep, he had been thinking about his sword, more specifically, why it had become a knife.

Sure, he had a legendary weapon, specifically the sword. Yet, there lay the problem. It was a sword, not a knife. As far as Ren knew, it was specifically only swords that it could copy as a weapon. At least, that's what he had believed until last night.

As he had found out, it could copy a knife, It gave him more questions. Did it stop at just knives? Did it count any other sort of bladed weapon? Or did it specifically have to be something like a sword.

Either way, he'd refuse to use any sort of dagger or knife in the the thought of holding the thing that had ended his life previously was enough to make him shiver.

Ren didn't even want to unlock any of the bonuses for those weapons. The only reason he would do it is if it gave him some sort of skill.

Even then, it would be taken with a difficult, pained breath. Most likely kept to his side whilst he slept so he didn't have to worry about seeing it.

Shaking his head tiredly, he'd move his hand to his sword, looking at the menu that showed all of his swords. Looking over the dinner knife, he sighed once more. Stupid thing, making him panic like that…

Did the others think badly of him now? They saw how panicked he had been, so there was no doubt in his mind they would probably be speaking about it amongst themselves.

He would get to that soon enough, he supposed. He wouldn't be able to avoid his party for the entire day, especially if they stayed here another day.

Again, he shook his head. He needed some fresh air. So, with some reluctance, he moved to open his door. He peeked his head out, making sure no one was around before moving towards the stairs.

He did the same thing on the stairs, looking at the tavern, tilting his head once he realized how empty it seemed. Just how early was it? It didn't matter. He quickly moved to the door, walking out of the Inn and taking a deep breath.

There was the fresh air he needed. If he was going to do his best to avoid his party for the day, then he might as well get some sort of information. He could always look for those merchants they were supposed to meet, but then again, he didn't exactly know where they would be. Or if they would be up this early…

Shrugging his shoulders, he began to walk around the city. He'd have a look and do his best, but right now, he just needed to walk around and relax.

Farrie sighed as she sat down with everyone else, shaking her head tiredly.

"Only person who's seen Ren was the barkeep, but that was an hour ago." She spoke, yawning slightly before laying her head on the table.

Bakta let out a deep breath, shaking his head.

"That is an issue… we know he can handle himself, but I'm still concerned about him. He seemed scared yesterday, when he suddenly went off to his room. He didn't even eat anything…"

"Indeed." Welt agreed. "As much as I don't want to put any pressure on Ren, I think we might have to. If we can't figure out what caused that to happen, and it happens in the middle of battle…"

Welts grimace was enough to tell the rest of the group what he meant, which earned a nod from Tersia.

"Yeah, but Ren wouldn't let that happen! He's too good to freeze up in a fight like that!" Farrie spoke proudly, crossing her arms.

"I mean, he might never freeze up in a fight like that, but still, we don't know how he might react to other things, you know?" Welt spoke up.

Farrie pouted at that, but nodded her head. Even she had to admit he might react to other situations differently.

"Well… he was staring at his sword, though, it did change into a knife… is that somehow related?" Farrie spoke questioningly.

"You're right. It did start after he changed it into a knife. I know he spoke about that weapon… copy thing?" Tersia spoke questioningly. A nod from Welt had her continue her sentence. "...Yesterday, but I didn't really understand it much. I don't think he has copied any knife right?"

"Well, we were given all our cutlery yesterday when we were eating. Could he have copied it from there by accident?" Welt asked questioningly.

Tersia seemed to consider this. "He could have, but since none of us really know how one of the legendary weapons work, we can't exactly say for sure." She spoke.

Farrie nodded at that, even as Welt turned to Bakta

"You okay there man? You haven't spoken much ever since Ren left last night. What's up?"

Bakta nodded his head. "Hm, oh, I'm fine. I've just… I've been thinking. As you know, I'm part of the four heroes' faith."

Welt nodded at this, whilst Farrie and Tersia seemed to wait for him to continue.

"Well, whilst I was in Faubleys four hero's church ranks, we had quite a lot of adventurers come to us with conditions that could not be managed by magic. Fear, trauma and all of that type of stuff."

Tersia narrowed her eyes.

"I see where you're going with this. You think Ren is… scared, or possibly even traumatized by something?" Tersia prodded.

"I do. I'm not sure what, and I doubt he'll tell us of his own accord, so we may need to… coax it out of him at some point. Not immediately though!" He quickly added, staring at Farrie.

"What? I'm not going to force anything out of him! He's a good friend to me, even if I've only known him for a few days…"

Bakta nodded, happy that Farrie at least understood not to force it out of him when they finally saw him.

"So… what's the plan?" Farrie asked after a few moments of silence.

Tersia put a hand on her shoulder, making sure she was sitting down before speaking.

"Well, if Bakta is correct, then it is best that we wait here. It may be likely that Ren is simply getting some fresh air. He knows that we'll be here. He should know we are concerned about him."

Ren sighed as he walked around the village. Ultimately, there really wasn't much to do here. It was understandable. It was a village more focused on farming. They did have a few market stalls, but that was mainly for simple things like trading in monster materials.

Ren had gone to the stands to ask what monster materials they had on hand, and was presented with a variety of them, but much to his disappointment, there was not anything new, at least from what he could tell. He didn't really want to continue the conversation after that, so after politely saying that he didn't want any of them, he walked away, slightly more embarrassed than he should have been.

He really was going to travel the entirety of Melromarc if he wanted to find new monsters for his sword, wasn't he? Ren could only shake his head at that. He wasn't built for long journeys like this. He was more of an indoors person. But then again, he didn't really have a choice. He had been tasked to adventure and grow stronger.

Ren tapped a finger to his chin, leaning against a wall. If he remembered correctly… in the early game of Brave Star Online, there was a country you could go to and get some decent weapons, ranging from spears, bows and swords. Though, the spears and bows would be useless to him, considering his predicament with his weapon.

Though, when he had collected some more funds, going to that country could be a good idea. He himself could get some weapon upgrades, as well as the rest of his party, if they chose to stay with him that was.

Then again, there was nothing to say that this world had to be like his game, right? Sure, a majority of things had been similar, such as the throne room, but others had slight differences, like the small rabbit things being called Usapils instead of Usagi. He also certainly didn't remember that many grouping up…

Shaking his head again, he put his thoughts towards what might be coming up. There was obviously the wave coming up in just over a month if the timer in the corner of his vision was to be believed.. From his game, he remembered it being simple to deal with. Just rush the boss down and the wave would stop. He would have to tell Naofumi about that when they met up. Maybe he had unlocked some sort of skill that could help them block the monster even more.

Ren tried to think about what the boss was for a moment. He felt like he should remember what it was, and yet he just couldn't. It was on the edge of his mind, but no matter what, he just couldn't recall it. He shrugged. If he couldn't remember it, it probably wasn't important.

What Ren really had to look into was two separate things. The first being where the Merchants they were supposed to escort were. He didn't even know where they had to escort them to in the first place. The second was his own bag. Not for any personal items, but just for some monster materials. He doubted Naofumi would be able to run around the country at the moment, considering his current issue of having no party members and no way to attack. He was effectively stuck with basic weapon forms. But if Ren had a say in it, he wouldn't be. Even if they were less than useful, surely at least one would give him a skill he could use.

With that decided, Ren headed towards another stall, hoping to at least find something to hold items.

Ren smiled as he looked at the bag he had bought. It wasn't anything special. In fact, it was more of a pouch than anything, and he had gotten it for a simple price of 15 silver. Admittedly, it had been a bit more than he had wanted to spend, but in the end, it didn't matter. They both got what they wanted. At least, that's how Ren wanted to see it.

And as it was, the pouch was the perfect size to not be a hindrance to him. He could simply wrap it around his waist with… something, and use it to store any monster materials he might find. It was a fantastic idea!

With a satisfied smile, Ren simply wandered around the village. It seemed like more and more people were up and about now, which likely meant that his party was either already awake and looking for him, or they were waiting for him. He didn't really feel like figuring out which one was worse, so he simply pushed it out of his mind.

Occasionally a random stall would catch his eye and Ren would look it over. They were mainly selling small ornaments, each claiming to give some sort of increased luck or stat bonus. Ren found himself interested in it, and when he held one in his hand, he couldn't tell if there was anything wrong with it. He was tempted to buy a couple of them, to see if he could maybe stack the bonuses, but the thought of spending more money made him reject that idea.

"Not going to buy anything sir?" The merchant asked as Ren put the amulet back into its spot.

"Sorry. I can't justify spending any more money." Ren spoke truthfully.

"A shame. For an adventurer like you, I believe they would be a great boon. How long are you staying here for?" The merchant would ask another question, prompting Ren to answer.

"I'm… not sure. Me and my group are planning on leaving once another group of merchants arrive. We were meant to escort them elsewhere."

"Ah, I see. You're some of the adventurers that are looking to take that group of merchants to Kudar village, right?"

Ren nodded hesitantly at that, and the merchant's grin seemed to grow. "My apologies if I wasn't supposed to know that. You see, I have a couple of friends in that merchant group. They recently sent a messenger here that any merchant here should inform any potential adventurers that they were going to be delayed by a week or so.."

"Really?" Ren asked sceptically

"Yes, very much so." The merchant spoke, his grin not seeming to die down. "So if I were you, I would recommend finding something to occupy yourselves with for the next week or so." The merchant spoke.

"I suppose there's not much I can do then…" Ren spoke with a small sigh.

"I'm afraid so. Please, do come back if you ever change your mind about purchasing any of my wares." He spoke, quickly turning to face another customer.

With that, Ren walked off, a sigh on his lips as he thought of what to do.

It was now mid day, and the rest of the group was getting concerned.

"Surely Ren will come back here, right?" Farrie asked nervously, looking at the others.

"He should. He knows we are here," Tersia reaffirmed, nodding her head at Farrie.

"Maybe… he's just gone for an extra long walk?" Bakta suggested, earning a blank stare from Tersia.

"Are you sure we shouldn't just go look for him?" Farrie spoke.

"We are sure Farrie." Bakta spoke up.

"I'm sure Ren will come back eventually. As far as I'm aware, there is no other Inn at this village, so unless he plans on leaving us behind, then we should see him by, at the very latest, tonight."

Farrie simply nodded her head, laying it on the table.

She was frustrated that she couldn't do anything! She just wanted to get back out there and fight monsters alongside everyone! Yet here they were, unaware of where their leader was, and unable to move.

It frustrated her to no end!

Welt seemed to reach into his bag for something, and Tersia narrowed her eyes at him, unsure of what he was going to bring out, until she saw that it was a simple pack of cards.

"So… does anyone want to play? No bets, just for fun." He spoke with a small grin.

Bakta seemed to look at him, unimpressed with the cards.

"Hey!" Welt spoke, raising his hands up. "Just because we are partying with a hero doesn't mean we can't have fun. Just think of it as a luxury I've afforded myself, alright? So, do you want to play?"

Farrie raised her head.

"I've never played, but if it'll help with my boredom, I'll do it."

Farrie watched as Welt seemed to grin at that, and deep inside, she felt like she had made a mistake.

Ren took a deep breath as he stood outside the door to the inn. He wasn't sure if he was prepared to face his party, but at this point, it was probably foolish to hold off on it any longer.

He had information about the request they had taken, so he had to share it. It was only right.

It still didn't stop him from thinking about last night.

With a small sigh, Ren opened the door.

Ren scanned the area, wondering if his party was there. He could make out Tersia and Bakta, both of them seemingly sitting in silence, staring intently at their hands. He could see Welt on the other side of the table, a look of concentration on his face as he stared at the cards in his hand.

Ah, that's what had the other two looking down in silence. They were playing cards.

That was three of them accounted for, but were was Farr-

Ren felt the breath leave his lungs, his world seeming to tilt as he felt his back hit the floor.

The next thing he saw was Farries face above him.

"Ren! Where have you been?" She shouted at him, causing Ren to wince.

Ren looked around, but no one else seemed bothered by the interruption. In fact, if ren had to say, they even seemed a little bit amused.

"I… well, um…" Ren spoke slowly, unsure of how to approach it.

Thankfully, Ren didn't need to say anything as Bakta began to walk up to them.

"Farrie! What did we say about pestering Ren like that?" He spoke, grabbing Farrie by the back of her shirt.

Ren had to hold back from saying anything. Of course they had already spoken about him whilst he was gone. He was surprised it took them this long to say it.

"Hey! Let go of me! I was concerned about him!" Farriei spoke back, struggling in his grasp.

"Yeah, well you can be concerned about him at the table! Come on Ren." Bakta spoke, offering a hand to the hero.

Ren grabbed onto it, with Bakta helping to lift him up they got to the table, were they all going to say they were going to leave him? That he hadn't been acting like a hero should from his panic last night?

Ren would not blame them if they did decide to leave.

Ren took a seat at the table, messing around with his hands as he refused to look at the other members of his party, even as Farrie seemed to stare at him.

After a short amount of time, Bakta would speak up.

"Ren… About last night…" Bakta began.

Was this the moment? When they announced they were going to go their separate ways?

"We won't push you to tell us what it was about."

Ren knew it, they wanted to le-

He had to do a double take at that. This… This wasn't what he had expected. He had expected them to leave him once they found out he wasn't as heroic as they thought he was. They weren't supposed to not question it!

"Just know that… If you need to talk to anyone, well, we are here." Bakta spoke, a small smile on his face. Ren smiled back.

That didn't stop the slap to the back of his head.

Ren let out a small groan at that, rubbing the back of his head as he turned to see Tersia looking at him.

"That's for not leaving any sort of message that you were going out! If you are going to go out on your own, at least do that much. We don't want to have to learn from the innkeeper that you left at a ridiculous time this morning!"

Ren kept rubbing the back of his head, doing his best to respond.

"I'm sorry, alright? It was just a spur of a moment thing, alright?"

Tersia didn't seem satisfied by it, but she reluctantly sat down, slowly picking up her cards once more.

Bakta seemed to stare at Welt for a moment.

"What? Are you expecting me to say something?" Welt asked Bakta.

"Yes. Maybe some words of kindness? A question perhaps?"

"Nah, I got nothing. He can do whatever he wants, so long as he isn't putting his own life or others at risk. But, like Tersia said, just make sure to leave a message or something, alright?"

Ren could only nod his head, prompting another small spike of pain from the slap going through his head.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure to remember that next time."

"Good, that's good. And like Bakta said, if you need anyone to speak to, we are here, alright?"

Ren simply nodded his head in silence at that

"Right, last cards coming out now." Welt spoke, a small grin on his face.

He reached out to the deck of cards beside him, seeming to pull out an ace of spades, putting it on the table, next to the other four revealed cards. A queen of hearts, a king of hearts, a nine of clovers, and a three of spades.

Ren watched as Welt stared at everyone else.

"Ready to lay down your cards?"

Farrie nodded, putting down her cards, revealing that she had only a pair of threes. Tersia did the same, revealing a simple pair of fours from both cards she had.

Bakta would put down two aces that he held in his hand, confident in his victory. He stared at Welt, whose grin seemed to only grow wider as he put down his cards.

A joker and a ten.

Bakta could only lament, his face in his hands as Welt laughed.

With the cards packed away, deep in Welts bag, Ren began to speak.

"So, I found out some information from a merchant. I'm not sure if its reliable, but ill still say it anyways. He said that the merchants we were meant to escort to Kudar have been delayed for a week. They haven't said the reasons why, but it very obviously puts a dent into our plans." Ren spoke simply.

"Yeah. So what I'm hearing is, we have a week of doing nothing?" Welt spoke up, earning a nod from Ren.

"I do have a few ideas on what to do with the week, but if you have any ideas, then feel free to say them."

When no one spoke after a while, Ren simply sighed. "Welt, can you hand me the map you had before?"

"Sure." Welt spoke easily, rummaging in his bag before handing the folded map over to Ren.

Ren would spread it over the table. He knew where they were from last time, he just needed to remember the Brave Star Online map.

"Alright…" Ren spoke under his breath. "Time to see if I can use any of my game knowledge here…" He spoke. In his mind, he had the map of Brave Star Onlines world, born from countless hours of playing the game.

If any new player had asked him where to go for a specific item or material, Ren would have been able to point it out to them immediately, giving them the exact location they would need to go to actually find the monster that dropped the item.

He slowly overlayed it onto the map before him.

Even as he did so, he could already tell a few differences. Villages existed where they shouldn't from the map of Brave Star Online. Ren shrugged it off at that, focusing on the spots closest to them.

Ren pointed towards a spot on the map, south west of the village they were currently in before speaking.

"As far as i'm aware, there is a dungeon here. It doesn't contain anything valuable,"

Except materials for my sword

"but the enemies grant some good experience, which should help boost us into the high twenties, if we stay there long enough. We obviously won't be there the whole week, as that would serve to only tire us the entire time. Is that fine with everyone?"

The group nodded their heads easily. They were glad to see that Ren seemed to be back to normal for now, but they were concerned that he might freak out like he had last night. But like Bakta had said, they wouldn't do anything to force it out of him.

Seeing that they nodded their heads, Ren spoke.

"We should head out then."

The party of five stood before a cave, vines growing from the top of it. Nothing seemed to be out of place with it, in fact, it seemed to perfectly blend into place.

But Ren knew from the moment he had seen it that it was the dungeon from his game. The entrance was the same as his.

"Yeah, this is it. If I remember correctly, it mainly has skeletons and giant rats inside of it. Farrie, i would say for you to avoid fighting the skeletons in case you injure yourself punching something again. Focus on the giant rats instead. Welt, you assist Farrie with the rats."

Both of the mentioned people nodded their heads, whilst Ren turned to Tersia and Bakta. "You two are on skeleton duty."

"That's fine, but what about you?" Tersia spoke, confused on what Ren would be doing.

"I… I will be leading us. I'll just engage with whatever I see first." Ren spoke, earning a small nod from Farrie.

With that, they entered the cave.

Man, it took me so much longer than I thought to get this chapter out.

Just thought it would be a simple in and out, fix up this chapter and then post it.

Turns out I was wrong, I hated what I had written originally, so I did the chapter from the ground up. Still not absolutely satisfied, I don't think I did anything meaningful and it's annoying me, but I just want to get something out.

I think i'm just going to make next chapter focus on Naofumis perspective during the time between when he and Ren separated initially, until the beginning of the wave. Just a few quick glimpses of events that have changed slightly.

At the end of that, there will probably be a small list of things Ren + company have done during the time they were out as I kind of want to get past the Chimera wave to start showing a few more differences.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, hopefully it doesn't take me another two weeks to post another chapter. Hope you all have a good day or night, wherever you are