The 5 days they stayed at the village were spent productively. Both he and Eorna had split the day into several parts. For the majority of it, they had decided they would spend 5-6 hours heading a decent distance into the woods that surrounded the village.

Doing this had several benefits for the two heroes.

The first was that they could freely use skills without the fear of being caught by anyone from the village. The next was that it gave them the chance to use skills that they weren't sure about. For example, the C Shard Burst on Kurose's BoomBurst Bracelet.

The last was the experience gains. They could only get so far by fighting small monsters like Spinlings and AranSilk spiders. They needed to not only level up more but gain new weapon forms. And heading further into the forest was a good solution to both of those issues.

Day One

Kurose had the BoomBurst bracelet equipped. He was still confused about what the C stood for in the special effects section of the weapon, but he supposed he would find out during all of this.

Both he and Eorna had split up slightly. They both remained within shouting distance of each other, but they didn't want anything unexpected to happen whilst they were using skills they didn't know anything about.

It wasn't long after they split up that Kurose found some Spinlings, much like he had on his first proper day in this world. Taking a closer look at them, they still seemed to be made out of wood.

Maybe if I just… took them to a different area and left them there, they would take on the properties of the surroundings, like Eorna said?

That was Kurose's thoughts, even as they slowly began to move towards him. He noticed how they did not seem to rush in as they had on the first day. Was it because he was at a higher level compared to them?

The group of Spinlings slowly began to circle him, as if checking him out, before one brave Spinling moved forwards. Kurose looked down at it, as it bumped into his leg, much like it had during the first day. He felt a small jolt from it, but compared to what it had felt like when he had first been hit, it was certainly more manageable.

What Kurose hadn't expected, however, was for the small hail of rocks to burst out of his bracelet. It launched him back slightly, even as the small chunks seemed to shatter against the trees before disappearing.

Kurose looked at the bracelet, confused. How had the special effect even been activated? The only thing that had happened was that he had been hit by the Spinling slightly, so it didn't make sense.

The Spinlings, having moved away thanks to the sudden hail of rocks, moved closer to Kurose. He simply pointed a finger at one, speaking as he did. "Erst Thread"

Several of the Spinlings rolled away as the green thread lashed out. It missed the initial target, hitting the floor before disappearing, and Kurose sighed. Was the only reason he had managed to successfully capture those Aransilk Spiders because they had been jumping towards him? Or was it just pure luck?

Either way, he noticed that one brave Spinling had stayed behind as if to protect the rest of the group from any of his advances. He noticed how it started to spin faster on the spot, much like it had before.

Kurose lowered his body, crossing his arms, even as the Spinling began to roll at him at a much higher speed than it initially had. He prepared himself mentally for the Spinling to ram against his arms. The feeling of the wooden Spinling ramming into his arms made him stumble slightly, but the burst of rocks was enough to fully push him over, with Kurose now facing the sky.

He fully expected to feel the Spinling continue ramming into his now prone body, but was instead surprised by the notification that popped up.

EXP 3

Kurose pushed himself up, looking towards where he had last seen the Spinling. It was where it originally was before ramming into his arms, the only difference being the small rock-sized chunk through the center of it. Kurose stared at the unmoving body of the Spinling, before looking back at his bracelet.

It only did the rock blast thing whenever he was attacked now that he thought about it. He hadn't seen anything with C before its name before either, so he wouldn't exactly say what it was for, but if he had to hazard a guess, it was probably a counterattack, which would certainly be useful. Especially if he could use his other skills properly.

Then again… He looked at the spinling he had defeated, noticing the small patch of dirt beside it from where one of the chunks had hit the ground. It seemed to be in a spread area, and if he was fighting with people, he didn't exactly want to be hitting them with the counter. Maybe it would be better for close-range combat, or as a last resort now that he thought about it. It wasn't likely that he would be in close-range combat that often anyways.

He shrugged, slowly picking up and absorbing the corpse of the Spinling. There was no point leaving it out here. If anything, it would probably cause more questions about why a Spinling had a hole in the center of its body.

"Eorna?" Kurose shouted out. It took a few moments for her to respond.

"What's up Kurose?" she shouted back.

"Just checking to see if you figured out the skill you got!"

"Yeah! I did, do you want to come see it?"

"Sure!" With that, Kurose slowly made his way over to where Eornas voice was.

Eorna was surrounded by dead Aransilk spiders, each of them seemed to have only a couple of cuts on them.

"You look like you are having fun. Any new monsters?" Kurose asked curiously.

"Nope, it's only been these spiders. It's almost like there's nothing else around here."

"That's true. I've only seen Spinlings over there." He motioned toward where he came from before continuing. "I mean, it could be because we haven't gone deep enough into the forest, but even then… Surely there would have been something new by now, right?"

"Yeah, these things are all getting easy to kill, and they are starting to give almost no experience," she spoke with a frown. "But enough of that for now! Ready to see my skill?"

Kurose nodded his head, and Eorna stepped forward.

"Splitting Dagger!" Kurose watched as her dagger glowed before an image of it moved forward. The original dagger was still in her hands, but once it moved forward a small amount, the image exploded into three separate daggers, each splitting off at 90 degrees from the central dagger.

"See! It's super cool! I can't wait to try it out after I have upgraded it!"

Kurose had to agree. It was a cool skill, and he wondered what her strengthening method would do to make it stronger.

"Can't you already upgrade it?" He asked curiously.

"Nope! I can only upgrade skills that I have unlocked, and I can't upgrade any special effects. Only skills." Eorna explained.

"Alright, that's fair enough I guess. But still, looks like it would be super good when you do upgrade it."

"Yup! I just need to get the points for it, then I'll be able to!" She spoke with a smile. "But what about yours? Did you figure out what it does?"

"Yeah, it seems to be a counter, from what I understand. It only activates whenever something hits me, and it shoots out three chunks. It kind of went straight through a Spinling." He spoke with a nervous smile, scratching the back of his head.

"That's good! You have a way to defend yourself now!" Eorna spoke.

"That's true, but it requires me to get hit first, which doesn't really appeal to me."

"You're right, but you won't be able to avoid getting hit forever, you know that right?" Eorna replied.

"Well…." Kurose paused for a moment. He hadn't considered that he wouldn't be able to dodge everything that was thrown at him. "I'll figure out a way around it." Kurose answered finally.

Maybe he should start exercising or something? When he was distracting that Thread Spitter, he had been close to running out of breath, and that had only been for a short time. So in any sort of extended combat, he would be out of breath before he knew it.

He nodded his head at that. He was definitely going to start exercising… tomorrow. He couldn't be expected to do it now, considering they were currently leveling.

"How much longer are we staying out here again?" Kurose asked.

"Well, we can go back whenever, but didn't you say you wanted to reach level 20, at the very least?"

"That's true, but the experience gain is so low here. I mean, you have killed all of these Aransilk Spiders and I have barely gotten anything from it, and I doubt you have either, considering you are at a much higher level."

"Yeah, you're right… They haven't been giving as much experience as they were before." Eorna thought about it for a moment. "Maybe for the next few days, we should head further into the forest?" Eorna said.

"Considering we are in a village, there probably isn't going to be a ton of high-level monsters nearby, right?" the Dagger hero added quickly

"It makes sense." Kurose finally answered. "Plus, we would have to go deeper into the forest at some point. Just means we might have to leave earlier, or maybe even sleep out in the forest." Kurose hesitantly added the last part about sleeping in the forest.

"Well…" Eorna tapped her foot on the floor. "I know we just bought those sleeping bags and all that to sleep out in the wild, but… we did also buy 5 days at the Inn, so I'd like to at least use it for the 5 days we are here."

Kurose let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding. "Thank god. I really didn't want to sleep in the forest again, not yet. I just want a regular bed for a bit."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. It's nice being outside and all that, but sleeping outside is a different issue entirely. Plus we can't let the money we used on it go to waste."

"That's right! So there's no shame in not staying out in the forest right now!" Kurose spoke with a grin.

It wasn't to make himself feel better about wanting to stay in a comfortable place for the next few days before they started their journey to Palinfa. Nope, not at all.

"Let's go a bit further into the forest!" Kurose spoke, changing the conversation suddenly. "We might as well try to get 1 or 2 levels before the day is over!"

The pair continued for the day, slowing header further and further away from the village.

"Erst Thread!" The skill rocketed towards the boar-like creature they were fighting, but as it had multiple times during the fight, the creature simply dodged the skill.

Kurose found himself dodging out of the way again as the creature dashed at him again, whilst Eorna went in for another slash. Most of her strikes were not doing a major amount of damage, only leaving small scratches that only bled the slightest amount.

"Eorna! Watch out!" Kurose shouted, watching as the boar once again began to shake its body. Several quill-like things flew off from its body, all launched towards Eorna. She managed to dodge around the majority of them, but a few still managed to stab into her arm, causing her to let out a small gasp of pain.

"This… Thing is really… annoying me!" Eorna shouted, glaring at the boar creature.

She stepped back, and Kurose stepped forward. The boar simply stared at the pair cautiously before starting its charge once more. Kurose however, had an idea that he wasn't sure was going to work.

"Eorna, if this works, you need to be ready to jump in immediately, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll probably jump in regardless of if it works." She spoke.

Kurose took a breath, letting the Boar build up its speed before shouting. "Erst Thread!"

His idea was simple. Instead of attempting to wrap it around the boar's entire body, he was going to have the thread try to tangle up its legs. Yes, it was a smaller target, but as far as Kurose could tell, it had no spines there that would destroy the skill, and if it worked, the boar would be stuck in place.

He watched as the boar widened its eyes in realization, and tried to stop its momentum, but it was too late. The skill successfully tripped it up. The boar let out a small squeal as it landed on its snout before landing on its side, its small, stubby legs kicking the air wildly.

"Now Eorna!"

"Got it! Erst Step III!"

She shouted out the skill name, dashing at the now entangled boar. It let out a squeal as the dagger came close to it, struggling on its side as it attempted to get out of the thread, but Eorna was not going to let it escape.

Once she had let her first skill stab into the boar, which struck deeper than it had initially, before she stabbed into it again. The boar let out another squeal of pain before finally falling limp, and Eorna stood back.

Kurose 160 EXP

Eorna 190 EXP

"Wow, okay, that was a lot more difficult than I thought," Eorna spoke with a small grin. She tried to roll her shoulder, before wincing in pain, looking at the quill that was still embedded in it.

Even as she reached to take it out, Kurose grabbed hold of her arm. "Hey! What are you doing?" She asked.

"You don't want to take that out yet!" Kurose answered her. "If you do, it's just going to bleed even more. It's probably better to wait until we get back to the village before doing anything with it."

"Eh? But it's annoying! I can't even lift my arm without it hurting!" Eorna complained.

Kurose shrugged in response. "Well, I would much rather you weren't bleeding on the way back to the village, and I'm sure you would much rather be somewhere more comfortable when the quill is taken out because it's probably going to hurt like hell."

Kurose couldn't tell for sure. His only real experience with anything being stuck into his body like that was needles, but over time, he had gotten used to it and just marched through the pain. However, for the spine that was in Eorna's arm, it would probably be best to leave it to an expert.

Eorna rolled her eyes at that, but relented, moving her hand away from the spine embedded in her arm. She switched her dagger to her other hand before moving closer to the boar.

She chopped off a couple of its quills, absorbing one into her weapon as Kurose moved over.

"Here, absorb this." She spoke, giving him the quill.

Kurose did as she said.

Quill Scarf unlocked

Kurose dismissed it immediately. He would look at it later. As it was, he still had plenty of weapon forms to unlock already.

"Just some more equip bonuses…" Eorna spoke with a sigh. "So, who's going to absorb the boar?" Eorna asked curiously.

"I think you should, considering you got injured because of it. Plus, we will probably be back out here tomorrow or at some point, so I'm not missing out on much. I still also have plenty of accessories I need to unlock."

"If you're sure," Eorna spoke slowly. She let her dagger hover over the boar for a minute before absorbing it.

Once it had been fully absorbed, Eorna put the dagger on her waist again before speaking.

"I think we should head back now," Kurose spoke quickly.

Eorna attempted to speak up, likely to say she could continue, but Kurose spoke again, interrupting her..

"We don't want either of us getting more injured than we have to. Plus, we should get that checked out." He motioned towards her arm. Eorna grumbled for a moment, but reluctantly nodded her head, standing up as the pair began to slowly walk back to the village.

The pair made it back to the village with no more monsters disturbing them, though Kurose did catch sight of a few glowing lights. The thought to follow them always appeared in his head when he did see them, but he shook it away. He had more important stuff to deal with.

Such as getting Eorna seen too. As the pair had walked, Eorna's expression became more pained. It wasn't until they were right outside of the village did Kurose stop her.

"Eorna, what's up?"

"Just this." She spoke, pointing towards the quill. "It's just hurting a lot more than I expected. It feels like it's digging further in."

Kurose looked it over, and sure enough, it did seem to have sunk into her arm a bit more. Was he wrong to have not taken it out earlier?

"It's fine though. I can make it until we find someone to help us out." Eorna spoke, trying to dissuade Kurose from doing anything.

Kurose looked at the Dagger hero, trying to see if she was lying, but he couldn't get a good read on her.

"If you are sure. Come on, we will find someone as soon as we get in."

Eorna nodded and followed behind Kurose.

As it turned out, coming back so late meant there was almost no one available to help treat Eorna. The pair went throughout the village, hoping for somebody to assist them, but they were either met with silence or told that there was nothing that they could do to assist, due to not being well-versed in this sort of thing.

Kurose understood, but it was still annoying. You would think that people who lived in this world would have some sort of understanding about how to help treat injuries, but no, apparently they didn't. Then again, there was the alternative that they were being lied to. And if they were being lied to, what was the point of it? Surely they couldn't know that they were heroes, or were they just trying to get rid of outsiders?

Either way, all that mattered, in the end, was getting Eorna seen, which eventually led them to the Inn. At this time, the Inn was slowly beginning to settle in for the night. Most of the people who were there had either retired to the rooms they had rented for the night or were passed out on the tables, drunk.

Others simply sat enjoying the peace that came with everyone heading off.

That peace however was short-lived as both Kurose and Eorna came through the door, the quill very visible in Eornas shoulder. The Innkeeper immediately moved over to the pair, concern evident on his face.

"What's up with the little miss? It looks like she got into a fight with a Thornspine."

"A Thornspine?" Was that what the boar-looking creature was called? He admittedly hadn't looked at its name.

"Yeah. It certainly looks like one of the quills from a Thornspines back. How long has it been in there for?"

"About an hour, a little more maybe? Why?" Kurose asked. Why did he want to know how long it had been?

"It can be left unattended for long enough." When Kurose looked at him for an explanation, the Innkeeper continued. "These quills, if left alone, tend to dig further into the body. Whilst it isn't particularly dangerous in the shoulder, if it was closer to a vital organ, then it would be a lot worse. As it is, it's going to be difficult to remove."

The Innkeeper forced Eorna to lie down, and she didn't argue with him. "There should be some fabric behind the counter, go get it for me please."

Kurose stood up, quickly moving behind the counter in question. He looked around quickly, even as the Innkeeper spoke again. "It should be next to the glasses if you haven't found it!"

Kurose looked again, noticing the glasses, as well as a big strip of fabric. He grabbed it, quickly running back to Eorna's side as he held out the fabric.

"Right little miss. I'm going to need you to bite into this fabric whilst I pull the quill out. It's going to hurt like hell, but it's the only way to get it out, okay?"

Eorna nodded her head, even as the Innkeeper slowly lowered the fabric into her mouth. Once he was sure Eorna had a good hold of it, he spoke again.

"You are going to help me take this out, got it? Just get a good hold of it, and once I say to pull, start pulling."

He nodded his head at that, looking down at Eorna. He watched as the Innkeeper put a hand on Eorna's arm, and Kurose moved his hand towards the quill. Once his hand held onto the quill, he felt as if he was touching a bunch of toothpick ends with his hand. It made him want to yank away his hand because of how uncomfortable the sensation was, but he continued to hold onto it.

"Pull it out now." Kurose didn't waste a second, gripping it before beginning to pull. He felt Eorna tense up below him. He saw her jaw tighten, and her arm shift slightly, but the Innkeeper simply kept it down.

"Come on, keep pulling!" he encouraged. Kurose didn't stop. It was certainly buried deep, but after a few more moments of struggling, he managed to get it out, gently placing it down on the side, even as Eorna seemed to relax.

"Right, let's get that patched up, shall we?" The innkeeper stood up, moving behind the counter again. "Just keep applying pressure to the wound. I've got something here… I think…"

Kurose continued to apply pressure to the now open wound, even as the Innkeeper rummaged around behind the counter. After a moment longer, he came back with bandages. Kurose stopped applying pressure, and the Innkeeper started to wrap it.

After a minute of wrapping, the Innkeeper stepped back. "That should be fine. Is that tight enough for you?" He asked. Eorna looked over to her shoulder, nodding her head.

"It is, thank you." She spoke quietly.

"It's no problem. I can't let someone stay hurt, after all."

"But still, you didn't have to do so much for us. How much were the bandages?" Kurose asked quickly.

"The bandages? Nothing. It's on the house. Just make sure not to let her strain her arm, and come back down here in the morning so that it can be bandaged again, alright?"

Kurose nodded at that, helping Eorna up. The pair thanked the Innkeeper again before slowly heading to their room, settling in for the night.

Day Two

On the second day, they still managed to go out into the forest. Although, they did have to promise the Innkeeper that they wouldn't go too deep into it, not until they got a set of armor at the very least.

Both Kurose and Eorna had reassured him, telling him that they had a set of armor being sorted out by Bosco and that they would be picking it up tomorrow. Upon hearing that they were getting armor, the Innkeeper seemed to relax more.

"Well, if it's from Bosco, then I'm certain it will be fantastic. But still, no going deeper into the forest, alright?"

Kurose shook his head at that. He had a few ideas he wanted to test out, which he had yet to tell Eorna.

Once they had gone a decent amount of the way into the forest, Kurose paused, spinning to face Eorna.

"Kurose?" She asked, questioning why he had suddenly stopped.

"I don't think we should focus on monsters today," Kurose spoke simply, earning a noise of confusion from Eorna.

"Eh? But we need to level up more! We don't have long before the wave!"

"That's true." Kurose conceded. "But, there are also a few things I want to try out. You said that you thought we could only absorb monsters and ores, right?"

Eorna nodded her head, confirming it. "I did, but where are you going with this?"

"Well, we absorbed the thread from that Thread Spitter before, and that wasn't a monster or an Ore. So what's to say we can't absorb other things?"

"That's true… The gem on your weapon did glow when you put the thread closer to it…" Eorna gasped as she realized what he was trying to say. "Wait, so you want to try out putting stuff close to the gems of our weapon, and seeing if they can unlock stuff?"

"Yep. got it in one!" Kurose spoke with a smile. "What we should probably do is just gather a bunch of things from the surroundings, and put them in piles before seeing what we can absorb! That sound good?" Kurose asked.

"Yup! That sounds fine to me!" She spoke with a grin.

With that, the duo got to work, collecting things from the surroundings, ranging from sticks and leaves to mushrooms and herbs. Once they were done, they stood back, looking at the piles of items.

"Right, time to test out what works."

Kurose leaned down towards the pile of leaves, picking up a handful as he slowly held them before the gem on his scarf. As expected, the gem started to glow, and Eorna, upon seeing this, quickly absorbed some leaves as well.

They repeated this for all the piles, getting several new weapon forms easily.

Leaf Scarf unlocked!

Wood Ring unlocked!

Herb Ring unlocked!

The pair continued to absorb materials from the pile, leaving some to the side as they found out some simply didn't give weapon forms. An example of such was dirt. No matter how much they tried to put it in, it simply never gave them weapons made out of dirt, which meant the weapons had to have some sort of limit on what they would absorb.

A few Aransilk Spiders and Spinlings attempted to distract the duo as they continued to absorb materials from their surroundings, but despite not having gone far into the forest, the duo still felt like they had accomplished something of value, namely unlocking more weapon forms.

Day Three

Kurose was out on his own for the morning. Eorna had been held back by the Innkeeper to check for any lingering injury by the Thornspines quill. Apparently, he had seen people get even more ill from similar injuries due to just how dirty the Thornspines were.

His task for the morning, whilst Eorna was getting checked over by the Innkeeper, was to retrieve the armor that they had bought on the first day. He walked down the path toward Bosco's blacksmith.

Even as he walked into the store, Bosco popped up from behind the counter, smiling as he saw him.

"Ah, yer here lad. I'm assuming you want yer armor?" He spoke with a grin.

"Yeah, but I'm also here for Eorna's armor." He spoke politely.

"The little miss's armor? Why ain't she here to collect it herself?" He asked in confusion.

"Well, we went further into the forest, and she ended up getting hurt by a Thornspine. When we got back to the Inn, well, the person behind the counter wouldn't let her leave until she had checked it over. As it was, it was a struggle even convincing him to let us out of the Inn."

"Ahh, Otto is like that. Always been a worrier, that one. But it's nice to see that he still cares about everyone."

"That's true. He was super helpful when I first bought her in. Helped bandage her up and everything." Kurose spoke with a smile.

"Aye, glad he's still doing everything he can to help," Bosco spoke with a grin. "Anyways, I'll go get the armor, alright? Just give me a moment."

Kurose could hear sounds of movement from the back, and he could only watch as Bosco brought through two separate bags. He laid both of them on the counter, smiling at Kurose.

"Right, both these are for you and the miss. Noticed neither of you had anything to help carry stuff around with you when you came in, so feel free to take these bags as well. Not like they are going to do much around here, other than gather dust." He spoke simply.

"Really?" Kurose asked hesitantly. "We can always pay you back for the ba-"

Kurose was cut off by Bosco. "Boy. I told yer that I didn't need these bags, didn't I? I got everything I need already, and I'm not that hard done by where I can't sacrifice two bags for some kind travelers."

"I… Well still! It doesn't feel right just receiving them for free!" Kurose spoke quickly.

"Look, kid," Bosco spoke, putting his hands on his counter. "You aren't getting them for free, remember? I told yer that when you two get the chance, you will be coming back here to tell me of your journeys didn't I?"

Kurose nodded his head, and Bosco laughed. "Right. But, if you truly feel bad about it, just make sure to take care of your armor for me, got it? I don't want it to be destroyed by you not taking care of it. I want it to get destroyed protecting you from some ferocious creature the pair of you are likely to encounter, you hear?"

Kurose smiled slightly at that. "Well, I won't be aiming for it to get destroyed, but if it does end up destroyed, I'll make sure to tell you the exact way it got destroyed, alright?"

"Hah, that's fine by me. Long as it does its job of protecting you." He replied back cheerfully. "Anyways, make sure to visit me before the pair of you do leave, got it? I want to say my goodbyes to the pair of you, yeah?"

Kurose nodded at that. "Sure, I'll make sure we come by. Don't think Eorna would want to miss saying goodbye either."

With that said, Kurose picked up both bags, breathing heavily as he did. They were much heavier than they looked, but they were filled with armor, so it was to be expected. With a shaky step, he started moving back towards the Inn.

Day of the Wave

Kurose and Eorna both made sure their room was cleared. Everything they had was put into small sacks they had purchased the day before. Looking at the timer in the corner of his vision Kurose sighed.

00:05:23:37

Just 5 hours until the wave… I wonder what it's going to be like. Kurose thought as he and Eorna both stepped out of the room that had been their home for the last 5 days. They quickly made their way downstairs, waving to the Innkeeper.

"Thank you again, for helping us out," Kurose spoke with a smile.

"It's fine! As I said, I dislike people being hurt around here, so it was more for my benefit than yours." Otto replied, shaking off his appreciation.

"Sure it was," Kurose replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Why couldn't he just accept the thank you? "But you still helped us regardless, so I just wanted to say thank you."

"Well, if you insist. But have a good journey. May the stars watch over you. You will always have a palace here." Otto spoke, bowing to them

Kurose simply nodded his head as Eorna waved goodbye to the man.

Their next stop was Bosco's shop, to fulfill the promise that Kurose had given the man on the day he had picked up their armour. Even as the duo entered the shop, the blacksmith smiled at them.

"I take it yer both leaving today then?" He spoke clearly.

"We are. Just wanted to say goodbye, like you asked us to." Kurose spoke.

Bosco nodded his head, looking at the pair in their armor. "Aye, I'm glad it fits you both well. Nothing wrong with it, right? Nothing feeling too tight?" He asked curiously.

"Nope!" Eorna spoke with a smile. "It's perfectly fine. Nothing tight at all, and I can move around perfectly. Though, it does feel weird to just be walking around in armor constantly."

"Aye, it will do for a while. But it's better than being unprotected from all the beasts in the wild."

Eorna nodded in understanding.

"What about you laddie? Anything off with your armor?"

"Nope, nothing wrong with it. Just a bit difficult to put on, but thats probably because it was my first time actually putting on any sort of armor."

"Aye, that would make sense." Bosco spoke, nodding his head. "Anyways, where are you two off to then? Anywhere special in mind?"

"Well…" Kurose spoke slowly. He couldn't exactly say where they were going to go, considering they were going to be transported to the location of the wave in a bit, but he could tell him where they were planning on going.

"We are planning on going to Palinfa, just to see all the sights there and all that, you know?"

"Palinfa huh?" He spoke with a sigh. "Well, that certainly is a distance away, ain't it? But I suppose I can't stop the pair of you. Like I said before, just stay safe, you hear? I want to hear about the tales and all that when you eventually come back here, got it?"

Kurose and Eorna nodded at that. It was nice to hear the confidence he had in them returning to this village at some point.

"Yeah, ill make sure we both come back here, alright?"

"You better, yeah? Take care the both of you. Look out for each other." With that said, Bosco waved them off.

The pair left the village, walking for a few hours in the direction that the map told them to leave in.

Sure, they probably wouldn't be able to stay on course with the map, considering the wave was going to be dragging them to wherever it happened.

If they were lucky, then the wave might happen close to the border with Palinfa, which would make their journey that much quicker, or in the worst case, it could drag them to the Dajeros border, making their trip that much longer.

Either way, they would still be making their way to Palinfa, it's just the journey could be shorter or longer depending on their luck.

They continued to walk for another four hours, killing the few small groups of monsters they came across. They didn't provide much experience, but it was just enough to push Kurose over the brink to reach level 20, which has been his goal. Eorna was at level 25 herself.

Kurose hoped that they would be at a high enough level to fight the wave, but a feeling in his gut told him that it wasn't likely. The monsters near the village just hadn't given much experience.

00:00:55:32

Kurose sighed, moving to sit on the floor. Eorna sat in front of him, speaking up. "Did we do enough?" She asked quietly. "Did we try our best to grow as strong as we could?"

"We did. We had 11 or so days to prepare for the wave. We spent some of that time escaping, and the rest just trying to live. We have to be ready, regardless of what happens."

Eorna nodded again, and silence fell between them. Kurose couldn't keep his eyes off the timer slowly counting down. If he tried hard enough, he could almost hear a clock ticking down toward the calamity that they would soon be facing.

"What do we do if there's a village or anything at the sight of the wave?" Kurose spoke, trying to distract himself.

"Hmm… I guess we probably stay back and defend the village. As I said before, the Jewelry tools hero is going to be there as well, so we can always ask him." Eorna spoke, reminding Kurose.

"That's true, he did fight the wave pretty much alone last time, from what you said."

Eorna nodded at that. "Which gives us even more reason to listen to what he has to say. I'd like to think we are at a high enough level, but… we can't be too sure."

"That's true. But hopefully, our methods help shorten the gap a little. With your strengthening method boosting your skills, whilst mine just helps the general strength of my weapons, it should be fine. It's just annoying they didn't have any Charme shops or anything."

Kurose would have attempted to make his own, but the main issue, however, was that he did not know the magic script to do so, nor did he have the means to make the discs to write on.

"So, we just listen to what the Jewelry tools hero has to say first, and follow his instructions if he gives us any?" Kurose said.

"Yup, that's what I think is the best thing to do."

"Well, if you say so."

After that, the pair sat in silence, both watching as the timer in the corner of their vision continued to count down.

00:00:01:19

Kurose took a deep breath. It was just over a minute until the wave hit. He looked over all his weapon forms. He had unlocked as many of his weapon forms as he could during his short stay. Whilst he still had multiple weapon forms to unlock, he had focused on ones that give him minor bonuses, like the Peron Scarf, as well as ones that gave him skills or equip effects.

Kurose looked over to Eorna, who had begun to stand up. She slowly began stretching for a few seconds, pulling her dagger from her waist, and taking a deep breath.

"Ready Kurose?" Eorna asked.

"I'll be as ready as I'll ever be," Kurose answered.

He stood up slowly, keeping an eye on the timer in his vision. It was getting closer and closer to the dreaded time, and it was making Kurose nervous.

Had he done everything he could to prepare for this wave? Even as the thought crossed his mind, Kurose saw light envelop Eorna, and his vision changed, even as the sound of cracking glass was heard.

Gone was the forest around them. They had been transported onto a small hill. Kurose felt his eyes being dragged up to the sky, and he let out a small gasp. The sky was a crimson red. Cracks filled the sky, the insides swirling ever so slightly, with monsters seeming to fall out of the cracks in question.

What snapped him out of the trance was his shoulder being yanked.

"Kurose! There's a village!"

He looked down the hill, noticing the small village before them. The sounds of shouts, filled with both shock and horror of what was happening above them. He took one shaky step forward, his eyes focusing on the village below them.

Even as he did, he felt another hand grab hold of his shoulder, but he shook it off with a small amount of struggling. He took another step forwards, this one less shaky as he took a blinked, and before he knew it, he was running down the small hill, towards the village.

His initial thoughts was that it was Horteni. That the village they had stayed in for the last 5 days was the place that was under threat by the wave, but he realised the lay out was different. he couldn't see Bosco's shop anywhere, nor could he see the Inn they had stayed at. but regardless of that, he kept running.

It was his duty to protect these people, but why did he feel like something was going to go wrong?

And the wave has started, with both Eorna and Kurose being transported to the site of it. Fortunately for them, it was not in Horteni, but that does lead to the issue of them not knowing where they are ultimately.

As for a small recap, the first day was spent seeing how far they could go comfortably out into the forest, where Eorna got injured.

The second was general gathering, and unlocking basic weapon forms, such as Leaf Scarf, Herb Ring and other stuff like that. If you do want info on what those weapon forms give, just message/leave a review asking, though if you have watched/read Shield Hero, you have probably got a good idea on what the weapon forms gave.

The third/fourth day was essentially just them grinding levels all the way to the fifth, and final day, to which Kurose got to level 20, and Eorna got to level 25. A good level for how long they have been heroes for, but is it enough for them to face the waves comfortably?