"What do you think our odds against the waves of calamity are?"
"Well, I can't really say since this is the first one, well, the first one I know of, of course," Conrad sheepishly replied while cleaning his cooking tools.
"Fair, I was just curious, well, less curious and more worried, if anything, but still," I sighed as I looked up at the night sky.
The night was fairly calm today compared to others, with the stars in the sky glimmering in the skyward view.
"I don't blame you; I mean, at your age, I was also horrified at the prospect of going to war," Conrad chuckled as he set aside the cooking knife he was cleaning and began on the next item.
Conrad has been getting more and more comfortable with me, enough for him to call me Sir Rodgers, as I asked him to, luckily. He also has begun to warm up as he brings up endeavors of his life in the military, in which he served a large part of his life.
"Are you horrified about what's coming tomorrow then?" I questionably asked him.
"Well, not really horrified, scared though? Yes, I am scared. I mean, especially with how you described these waves of calamity, who wouldn't be?" Conrad remarked as he continued to clean.
"Well, you have that right. I mean, with the little information we have, it was bound to sound ominous. Not sure if the statement on how uncertainty breeds fear, or maybe it's the other way around, I forgot," I pondered to myself.
"Well, whatever comes tomorrow, at least we can't say we spent the time not preparing. I mean, I will admit your hand-to-hand combat is still lacking, but other than that, we prepared as much as we could with the little time we had," Conrad reassured me.
If I recall correctly, it was 20 or so days of us being in this world, probably more than that. Not enough to be a month for sure, but for me, that is not really short.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call almost a month a short period of time," I commented as I laid back on the grass.
"Well, considering how you fellas were on the run before this, it's not like we had the full time to practice and get more levels. I mean, even with you staying up late into the night and waking up early to get more levels and practice, there wasn't a whole lot we could do with what we had and our current circumstances," Conrad elaborated.
He is right; we spent the first few days just running from place to place, mostly trying to not die, and then trying to consistently level up. Most of our levels were from us traveling from place to place and encountering monsters or them attacking us at night when we were trying to rest.
"True, I guess you are right in that regard," I conceded.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping? We really have to be as ready as possible for tomorrow. Not getting proper sleep is already bad, especially with you basically doing it the whole time we have traveled back to around where this dragon hourglass is," Conrad pointed out.
"Well, it's not like I haven't been trying; it's just that grass isn't exactly the comfiest thing to rest on," I sighed as I adjusted my Legendary Weapon to lay on my stomach.
The weight of the weapon hasn't changed along with its special properties of being attached to me at all times. I asked Conrad a while back if the Mythic Heroes had to deal with something like that; he didn't know the specifics, but he does know that they can wield other weapons. It also turns out they also can take the weapon off their body; they just prefer to keep it on their person in most public appearances.
"Better than rock and stone. Back during the war, I had to-"
"Let me guess, sleep on the cold stone in the pitch black," I interjected sarcastically.
"Well, yeah, but still, back then, sleep was the one thing that brought a little peace to my mind, even in the middle of war. I was okay then since I was young and fit, now not so much," Conrad slightly chuckled at his last statement.
"Shouldn't you be asleep then, if anything you need it more than me," I jokingly responded.
If I recall correctly, I remember seeing somewhere on the internet on how older people tend to sleep more, Though Conrad isn't exactly super old, he definitely isn't young. If I had to guesstimate his age, I would have to say somewhere around 60's, maybe early 70's, but that's a stretch.
"Well, old habits die hard; staying up to man the shop for customers has been a habit of mine for the past few years. It's sort of a natural thing for me to do now," Conrad stated as he started to clean the next tool.
"See, you and I are not so different then," I countered as I got up and began to stretch.
"Well, I could sleep if I wanted. You, on the other hand, seem to either not want to sleep or just can't either. I wonder why you don't find a way to remedy it," Conrad refuted.
Easier said than done, and I have reasons.
"Well, I have my reasons. This is a new world with new rules, and most of them I barely know anything about. We already went over this. Like how In my world that lacks this game-like system, sleep is the most important thing for people at my age, for-"
"But you also said some stuff carried over, like that cell phone? I forgot the name of it, but the glass device you have in your pocket all the time, so it should still apply to an extent here as well," Conrad interrupted.
The cell phone has nothing to do with stuff carrying over; that's items, not the actual system carrying over. Well, I guess there was no game-like system in my world, so I suppose it just got overtaken by this world's sort of like an empty slot, I guess. I'm not exactly sure how this whole other-world stuff works exactly as well.
I gave a sigh, "Yeah, true, but didn't you say how with levels people can sort of age up, per se? With how during the war, they had camps full of people which they quickly leveled up to send to the front lines. Not sure how that exactly correlates with this. I mean, that might apply to me as well, who knows?" I speculated.
Conrad gave a sigh, "Well, true, but it only aged them up to an adolescent age, and I don't exactly know the specifics of the level age thing, but I do know that it is rather complicated and not in my field of expertise. Still, though, in case it doesn't, you should still sleep. You are still growing after all. Lack of sleep is bad in that regard, as well as in combat with reaction time and power. Trust me, I know," Conrad urged.
My lack of expertise, knowledge, or know-how in this world is what keeps me up. Fear of the unknown or stuff you don't understand has been dreading me since I've gotten here, though it only has gotten worse with the time until the waves of calamity approaching closer and closer.
"Still, I don't know enough about this world to take my chances with either one. Also, it's not like I can calm myself down to properly sleep, as I sort of just out of nowhere take a nap instead. I guess I can say that the dread of the incoming wave is having its weight go down on me, but it's not like it's affecting me in combat and other stuff, as you said," I restated.
"Your pupil color is naturally red, so it's harder to notice, but I can see the red in your eye that blatantly points out the need for sleep. Whether you deny it or not, you need sleep," Conrad stressed.
Like my parents, people usually have a hard time spotting whenever I have barely gotten any sleep due to me staying up gaming because of my eye color. It's kind of hard to tell from a distance without seeing up close, due to me having red eyes. However it does come with other social issues, like highly religious people thinking I'm a walking Satan or something like that.
"I never denied that I need sleep; I'm just saying we could be using our time better instead of, you know, cleaning cooking tools," I pointed out.
"You know fully well why I'm doing this instead of going with you out to level up," Conrad stated as he refocused on cleaning.
"You know I can always just go out without you and level up, Conrad," I responded bluntly.
"I know, but you don't. You know that there are more benefits to learning from experience, and also, you are far from leveling up, so it's not like you will get another level before the wave," Conrad chuckled.
Well, he wasn't wrong in that; he and I spent a lot of time leveling up, and I'm pretty far from my next level. Well, the same with him, but he is already way past us in that regard. Those other two, on the other hand, are way behind.
Alex Rodgers: LV 38
Faith: LV 34
Nickoli: LV 33
Conrad: LV 69
Well, being way behind is an understatement, but compared to me, they are definitely behind. I think the EXP sharing with the party stops working after being far enough apart. Initially, the sharing still worked, but that was because we stayed relatively close. Now, since we had to search longer and farther for mobs, we ended up being too far apart, I suppose. Though that's only a theory as I haven't had the time to measure it or anything.
"Well, I guess you are right, but still, we should use all the time we have as efficiently as possible. We still don't know the extent and danger of the wave of calamity. It's better to be safe than sorry," I huffed.
"Yeah, you're right. We should use the time accordingly, and in most cultures and people I've come across, nighttime is time to sleep. So, therefore, sleep, please, even Faith has come to the conclusion that it's best not to stay awake," Conrad advised as he pointed to Faith sleeping a distance away against a tree.
"But-"
"There are no 'buts.' I'm going to keep watch for the rest of the night as well as do some nightly chores. There is nothing to be done now that won't disturb the others or that would further prepare you for the waves," Conrad stated as he finished cleaning and putting up all the tools.
We could be doing so many things; I could at least get more practice in close-quarters combat as even he said I wasn't exactly the best at it. I need more preparation, even if I can't level up, I could at least practice my aim at the bare minimum or my handling. But this is just reaching a dead end; I might as well sleep now, then wake up early to get some practice in.
It's fairly late into the night, or early? I forget with the AM, and PM stuff. Do they even have that here now, thinking about it?
"Alright, but you better wake me up the second that dawn comes, alright?" I told Conrad as I moved closer to the fire to warm up.
"Will do, just please rest, Alex," Conrad said.
"If I don't fall asleep in a minute or two after sleeping, then I'll just stay up," I grumbled as I grabbed a blanket from one of Conrad's bags to sleep on.
"What did you say?" Conrad called out.
"Nothing," I quickly responded as I tried to make myself comfortable.
I wasn't sure what the blanket was made of, but it was rather rough and rigid. I mean it makes sense as this isn't exactly the twenty-first century, but still, even during the Egyptian canal crisis with global trade being deadlocked for over a month, did it not seem like it slowed down by much.
I shouldn't be complaining though, I suppose, as with me getting these cuts on my school uniform, which has only seemed to get dirtier with each day, it brings new challenges. While normally I'm okay in somewhat temperate weather, due to the holes in my clothing, a sudden wind or gust at night usually chills me down and makes me uncomfortable. Probably another reason why I couldn't sleep that well a few days after the first Dire Wolf attack.
If only I had a sewing machine or something to use, not that I knew how to operate it, but I would rather trust that than whatever cloth Conrad had. Not that I'm not grateful for him offering to sew it back; it's just that it's rather rough and bland and brown-colored compared to my navy uniform with khaki pants. If only I brought along a change of clothes whenever I got transported.
I mean the best I can do is clean, well, less of clean and more of just rub it with water whenever we get near a river. Which we have only passed by two, which we had to take detours to get to. They got rid of the non-absorbed parts on the outer cloth, but there were still multiple stains on sections.
Not like that matters, as the next day, I got body slammed by Faith due to me taking her meat shares after she left for an extended period of time, which left me covered in mud as it rained the day before. How was I supposed to know she was doing her business? I'm not a genie! Or a psychic or whatever; I forgot what those people are called.
I closed my eyes to try to sleep. Maybe I'm just too spoiled or used to modern conveniences. Probably; I mean it's not every day you get transported to another world. I wonder how this will affect science and religion with the proof that other universes exist. Well, I'm not really sure, but I do know it would probably shake society's foundation to its very core.
Though knowing the world powers, they would probably try to find a way to access this world, not for diplomacy but probably the possibility of rare resources or something. It's going to be straight out of a movie with a modern invasion of this fantasy land. Would that make me part of the first wave or sort of in the middle ground due to my weapon and status? I don't even know at this point.
Right as I finished that last thought, I think I heard what sounded like a very, very faint train whistle, like one that used to pass near my house often and wake me up. Or maybe the lack of sleep is finally getting to me, and it's starting to mess with my head. I think I should just take Conrad's advice and actually try to sleep… Yeah… sleep….
…
I awoke to the sound of the fire still crackling next to me, for some reason. I rubbed away the crusty sediments that were in the corner of my eyes before opening them. I was rather groggy, but something felt off, which awoke me faster. The first indication that something was off was that instead of me seeing the still mostly dark sky, I saw the sun right up in the sky, beating down on me.
This would mean that it's about noon. One thing I know for sure is that I overslept! Actually… no… I told Conrad to wake up early. Where is he? I scanned the perimeter around me and got up and did a quick stretch. Wait, even more urgently, how much time do I have until the waves? I know it's today, but I don't know when exactly.
[Willowing Fields 0:3:27:90]
"Less than 4 hours?! Shit."
I grabbed the blanket I was sleeping with and quickly shoved it back into the bag as I began to look around for the others. The worst-case scenario is that they are in trouble, but a quick look at the statuses of everyone else shows them all to be normal.
Did they leave without me? They would have taken their stuff, but it's all here still. Did they get lost? No, the fire is still crackling, so someone must have tended to it not too long ago. Maybe they just forgot to wake me up? No, if Conrad did not wake me up, then there must have been a reason, right? Or if he did, something came up right after I slept that made him forget to wake me.
I began to look around to see if I could find any clues about their whereabouts. The cooking tools that Conrad was cleaning were laid out, so he or someone else took them out. There was a fresh pile of logs sitting near the fire, so someone cut a few down while I was out, probably Conrad.
Tank track trails from Nickolis Tank; he seems to have changed from the tankette to tank form after he woke up. Judging from the size, it was probably one of his World War One-esque forms which he has recently started unlocking. Better than tankettes for sure, though!
Some distinct boot marks from a certain make a path away from camp.
"Yeah, I have no idea," I grumbled to myself as I sat back down.
Well, now I have two options on what to do, either move out and try to look for them or hope they eventually come back. The latter is the safer option for myself, with the former having risks but might lead to me finding them faster. Still, though, patrols of lizard men have started to be spotted around the area. I just hope I don't stumble into one or vice versa.
Even with my higher levels and more weapon forms, I don't trust myself. I even learned how to sort of "feel" mana. Not sure how to explain it, but it's one of the preliminary steps in learning how to cast magic. However that was through the assistance of Conrad, who said how he wouldn't truly feel it unless I control it myself.
I tried to pressure him to show me more, but he said with the rudimentary tools he has, it would be nigh impossible or just really hard to do so. Well, I don't exactly want to learn how to cast magic the wrong way as well. I mean I have seen a couple of movies where if they mess up a magic spell, it might explode in their face. I don't want to be exploded. Well, nobody does, well, I hope nobody does, at least.
"Look who decided to wake up finally," I heard a familiar voice jeer behind me.
I turned to see it was none other than Faith, who surprisingly wasn't accompanied by Nickoli, so he must have gone with Conrad then.
"Well, my bad that someone decided not to wake me up," I responded with an annoyed tone.
"I can see why," she snickered mockingly.
"Whatever, you know what today is as well as I do. We will have a lot of stuff to do, so I expect you to at least listen to the plan me and Conrad formulated a while ago," I said as I got up from the ground with my arms crossed.
"Yeah, I know, don't think I have a death wish, I plan on not dying," she sighed.
"Good, one less problem to deal with, though let's hope it holds up in actual combat," I bluntly responded.
"Like anything before this has been fake, after all, the massive cuts and holes in your uniform show it all to be real," Faith taunted.
Okay, she was really starting to get on my nerves now.
"Listen, I will just let you know that you better follow through with this plan that I will lay out once Conrad gets back. While we don't exactly know what the waves of calamity will bring, we do know that messing up will probably lead to our deaths," I declared.
"Yeah, I know, but just note that if anything goes bad, then I plan on saving my own skin," Faith mumbled under her breath.
I swear this girl is the most unreliable person ever. She is a complete solo person, not bothering to try to organize and strategize mid-fight whenever we get overwhelmed by enemies. Running into a fight unplanned is always a possibility, but not wanting or not bothering to try to come together to form a plan will lead to defeat.
I already reminded her multiple times, whenever she isn't practicing trying to fly that plane of hers, about how important this plan I made is to our survival. Which I will admit she can now properly take off but rather slowly and the landings need a lot of work still. She eventually conceded, well she said she will, but I still have my lingering doubts if it will just come in one ear and out the other.
"Now now, let's save the fighting energy for the monsters, not each other, alright?" I heard Conrad call out from a distance away.
I turned to see him along with
Nickoli carrying a sack of sorts, probably food so that we could eat, hopefully not just tac fruits.
"So now that you are here, would you mind explaining why you did not wake me up when I told you to?" I questioned Conrad.
"Well, to put it simply, I wanted you to rest, as you clearly needed it," Conrad stated.
"So you didn't wake me because you wanted me to get a good long rest?" I asked.
"Yes," Conrad responded.
"But why-"
"I just answered that question, Alex," Conrad interrupted.
"Well yeah, but-"
"Listen, just know it was for something else as well, don't get any wrong ideas, it was all in goodwill, I promise," Conrad vowed.
I was skeptical, but I will admit me and Conrad have gotten closer over the last few weeks. Compared to Faith who berates me every chance she gets, and also Nickoli who either seems too shy or just breaking down. I have tried to talk to him more, only for him to dry up the conversation really fast.
That sort of is what Brandon does whenever I text him about something other than gaming, that guy really had to get a job, I swear.
"Fine, you can tell me later, more importantly we should talk about the plan you and me prepared for later today," I pointed out.
"Right, but first we should get something to eat, after all, it is hard to think on an empty stomach," Conrad heartily said as he came over and set the sack on the ground to reveal some meat.
"Whatever," Faith scoffed as she went up to talk with Nickoli.
"You better come back to eat, then talk later," I scowled.
Faith just waved her hand as she walked off with Nickoli.
"I swear she just keeps getting on my nerves more and more each day, one of these days I'm going to snap on her," I seethed.
"I wouldn't try to get mad now, having angry thoughts won't help trying to convince them to listen in on the plan we laid out," Conrad advised.
"Still, though, she has been nothing but a pain ever since she got here, to me, and not just to me but also to you to an extent," I grumbled.
Conrad has also had his fair share of bad experiences with Faith. While stuff like not saying thank you or offering to help out in cooking may just be bad etiquette, she has gone out of her way to criticize Conrad in anything she finds an issue with. Like this one instance where she said how the food tasted weird after he prepared something for us to eat.
Or another with how Conrad was sparing with me to try to improve my hand-to-hand combat skills, only for her to insult both of our forms. Well, we won't talk about how she got knocked out by him in their first encounter, so I can safely assure Conrad knows his stuff.
"True, though it's not the first time I have dealt with aggressive and prideful people, my time in the army helped me in that regard as well," Conrad.
"Is that so? Well, probably not to the extent of Faith, at least," I chimed.
"Well, actually, more than that, now thinking about it, this one person in my group kept bragging about how he was the most skilled with a spear in combat," Conrad recalled.
"Let me guess, you beat them at their own game by sparring with them using a spear and winning," I guessed.
"No, it turns out that spears are only good at a medium distance, once they close that gap it's pretty much over," Conrad gloomed.
Well… That got dark really fast…
"Oh…" I murmured.
"Yeah… Anyways, let's eat quick, we don't have much time, so we might as well start doing the final preparations," Conrad chimed as he handed me a cooking knife and the cutting board.
At least he is considerate enough to try to change the mood to not lower our spirits before the upcoming calamity.
"Alright, I'll get to cutting. Looks like you have the fire already lit beforehand," I noted as I glanced at the crackling fire a small distance away.
"Yeah, I decided it was better to get it set up so then we wasted no time eating. I was also planning on waking you if you were still asleep, but it looks like I didn't need to," Conrad chuckled as he set the sack of meat next to me.
"Well, the food isn't going to make itself, so it's time to get cutting," I sighed as I set some down on the slab.
"Thats the spirit!" Conrad grinned.
The preparation time for the food has been greatly reduced now that me and Conrad have got a system to make it as efficient as possible as quickly as possible. Honestly, we could probably make a fast food chain with the speed we were having, though I was really only cutting meat so I can't really say if that counts as cooking, but whatever.
Faith actually returned once the food was nearly finished and ate with us along with Nickoli. Those two seem to be spending more and more time together, though that's probably since Faith needs someone to shoot out the branches she gets stuck in when she tries to land or takeoff. Either way, it takes him off my hands, though it would be better if he came with me and Conrad instead.
After we finished eating the tidbits of meat, which were surprisingly still tasting good even after two weeks of eating just that or variations, we began our discussion of what me and Conrad has planned.
"So due to the uncertainty of what is coming, I don't think we can formulate a very concise plan on what to do, but we can take precautions," I explained.
"Right, all we do know for a fact is that there is going to be a monster called a Wave Boss, which we will need to defeat in order to end the wave," Conrad elaborated further.
"Continuing on with what he said, we will be transported to the location near where the wave is, but as you probably already know, we have gotten to a closer distance to the hourglass in case that for some reason that does not happen," I continued.
"Is there any other way to end the wave? Like could we just wait it out or something?" Faith asked.
"No idea, this is all the info I was given when I read through the help menu on the waves, unless yours says more," I answered.
"No idea, probably not though as I also skimmed it over before and I think I heard nothing new," Faith shrugged.
She couldn't even bother to double-check or actually read it? Whatever, it wouldn't make sense to omit information from the help menu, so I hopefully will assume that, that is all.
"Alright, now for the plan, our top priority is to take down this wave boss, which will most likely be a super tough monster. What monster? I'm not sure either," I clarified.
"Don't expect help from the locals. Well, we are not exactly sure when nor where the wave will be, but if it's near a village or town, they will most likely prioritize saving the locals or saving their own lives rather than supporting us," Conrad stated.
"Right, if the situation comes where a soldier, patrol, guard, or whatever comes and tries to stop us, immobilize them or take them out of commission. I don't want the public to see us as murderers on top of being possible enemy agents," I added.
"Due to this, I have devised a battle formation that would amplify our strengths and small numbers to the greatest extent. I have some examples and stories in which I will use to really hammer this down into you," Conrad stated.
Faith furrowed her brow for a second after Conrad said the last statement. I wonder why…
Either way, he spent the rest of the time explaining what our roles were in a fight and how to properly support each other. I already went over with him my role of being a backliner giving support to a wide area. Faith, on the other hand, was to be the main attacker, with Nickoli being the sponge to soak up damage. Conrad will act as an all-rounder; he is planning on using his Axe and a shield he has in order to support all of us if needed.
By the time we finished, it was around evening with little time left. We made one more meal quickly in between to make sure we were sufficiently nourished for the fight, one thing that is universal with sports or in this case combat.
[Willowing Fields 00:00:01:42]
"Looks like we are out of time," I sighed as I checked the amount of time until the wave.
"Indeed, I hope you all remembered what we went over, as I don't have time to recite it mid-battle," Conrad chuckled nervously.
"Yeah, yeah, just try not to get us killed," Faith grumbled.
[Willowing Fields 00:00:01:05]
"I'll do my best to protect everyone!" Nickoli suddenly exclaimed as he changed into his supposed best tank weapon form.
"Well, let's hope we don't get badly injured, as Conrad is the only one with actual armor," I said while glancing at Conrad's metal armor.
"It's not my fault none of my extra sets fit any of you all," Conrad grinned.
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:42]
"Well, maybe if they were all not built for an old man, then they might have fit us," Faith whispered not quietly enough for me to not hear.
"What was that?" Conrad asked Faith questionably as he eyed her.
"Nothing," Faith mumbled.
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:25]
"Everyone, focus up, it's time," I announced as I stiffened my stance and changed into the Ore Viper Core Revolver weapon form.
The others followed suit and also seemed to be steeled for battle. Hopefully they wont waver mid-battle.
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:05]
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:04]
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:03]
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:02]
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:01]
"Let's do this guys!"
[Willowing Fields 00:00:00:00]
End of Chapter 15
[Other World Index]
[Defense Piercing Rounds]
Defense Piercing Rounds, as the name implies allow the damage transferred from the weapon "Pierce" defense. It works in the sense that it allows the user to completely ignore a certain percentage of the target's defense dependings on its strength. An example would be if an enemy with extremely high defense took the attack, but since the weapon had defense piercing, 5% of the attack's damage would still translate as if the user had 0 defense.
Authors Notes:
Hello everyone I hope you enjoyed this sadly late chapter. It was planned to be a .5 chapter but after some deliberation, I did some unplanned expandings and writing which delayed the chapter. But this meant that it would be a full chapter to give more context for the upcoming wave chapter! Be sure to come back next week to see how Alex and Co will fare against it!
MWP Server: