Chapter 7
Adventurer In the Making
It's been about half an hour and Haruka still hasn't put me down. The hug is nice, but this is definitely excessive. Is this how plush dolls feel?
"Uh, Haruka?"
"O-oh, sorry. I couldn't help myself. You're just so cute!" she says as she forgets the part where she puts me down. A little embarrassing, but I guess this is fine.
Normally on an introductory quest, an adventurer is dispatched with the newbie to guide them as well as make sure they stay safe, but apparently, it looks like I'm taking that slot. Am I really expected to protect Haruka? If anything, I'm the one who needs protection! Well, I suppose she has her fan club to help, the dozens of dozens of people who decided among themselves to tag along on this quest who are giving me various looks from being held so close by her. Some jealous, others just amazed. I think one fainted a while back. What a weird bunch.
"Oh, looks like we're here." I say pointing to the quest site. The quest is simple. Haruka just has to collect and deliver 3 Dopelshrooms to complete it. They are found all over, and has a habit of overpopulating areas really quickly, so adventurers are sent to harvest them to prevent that. There was an outbreak in a forest in Susururu, west of Northi. The area we were assigned is pretty safe, with very few monsters, so Haruka can search without worry. She finally puts me down and puts her hands on her hips.
"Ok, so, what do these dopelshrooms look like?" It's clear Haruka's excited.
"Well, the thing is..." I look away. "they disguise themselves as other mushrooms, so the only wat to tell is if they are pink under the cap."
She looks around. "So I'm have to check all of these?". In that instance, her fans immediately dispursed.
"Yeah, but you only need 3, so I'm sure you'll find them in no time." And no time indeed. As I was finishing that sentence, her fans had already presented a huge pile of them to her! I stand there in shock.
Haruka gives them a cool, proud look. "I thank you so much for the help. You guys are so sweet, but I cannot accept these. I can't rely on you guys forever. If I am to truly become an adventurer, there I things I need to do myself, with my own abilities!" The speech brings them to tears, going on about how cool she is, and I'm with them. She now not only looks like a queen, but also a hero!
The fans did a really good job in that split second. We searched around and had a hard time finding any more. Azureshrooms, polkashrooms, turboshrooms, but no dopelshrooms. It's a good thing Haruka is such a nice person. I bet she could take down entire countries with her fans if she really wanted to. These guys are super efficient! As we search, we head deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Hey, I found one!" Haruka takes the dopelshroom off the tree and puts it in her bag as me and her fans cheer. It wasn't too long before she found her next one. Despite how we started, this is going smoothly. Eventually we come across a large boulder with a dopelshroom on top. Haruka climbs the boulder to get the shroom as we continue cheering her on. She finally reaches top, but as she does, the ground starts shaking. We start questioning what is happening. Then, the boulder starts rising a bit. Before our eyes, Haruka stood atop of a giant golem! She quickly jumps of the golem before she ended up falling off. I was frozen in fear. My last encounter with a golem was one of the worst experiences I've ever had, and now I'm looking at one so big, the first one would be but a pebble in comparison. But Haruka wasn't afraid.
"Stand back everyone, I got this!" she says heroically. The fan club starts cheering again, but I drop to my knees, still in shock. There's no way we can beat that thing. Haruka is a rookie after all, and I can't fight at all. No amount of hype and cheering is going to change that. This is it. We die here.
Haruka holds her right hand over her left shoulder, and it begins glowing a soft green light. I was confused about it, but that light calmed me down a bit. Is this...magic? Haruka knows magic?
"Take this! Brute Root Attack!" Haruka waves her hand and from under her, roots begin growing rapidly in and out of the ground towards the golem. It tangles at the golem's feet causing it to trip over. "Tree Tomb!" Haruka does a spin and the roots grow all over the golem, completely covering it. "And finally, Dryad's Drain!" Light begins flowing through the roots away from the golem towards Haruka, and after a few moments, some crumpling can be heard. The roots return to the ground leaving nothing but a pile of rubble and the dopelshroom. A small vine picks up the dopelshroom and brings it to Haruka. She takes it and shows it to us. "I got it!" The fan club erupts in cheers as they celebrate the overwhelming victory.
I get up from my knees as tears begins filling my eyes. "Haruka!" I run to Haruka and give her a big hug.