"What?" It wasn't really a direct question, more of a general statement of confusion.

Were the two people that came down Maria's parents? They were nobles?

Presumably her mother spoke in response to my question.

"Oh you poor boy. She just ran away from home and needed someone to travel with. You don't have to concern yourself with her anymore. Shadows! Bring Maria back to us."

The four people around her parents that were dressed like ninjas suddenly leapt at us. They moved very quickly, one of them coming towards me, and the other three flying towards Maria. The one that leapt at me tried to tackle me, but I managed to catch them and shove them back, then land a clean uppercut on their jaw. They staggered back a bit.

"Tzhat waz a good hit, you zeem quite zkilled for zomeone zo young" They didn't sound very hurt, and also had a very distinct accent.

The shadows that leapt at Maria had her restrained, and were trying to get her into a fireman's carry. I tried to dash at them, but the shadow that was focused on me landed their own punch to my face. It hurt quite a bit. I didn't taste blood in my mouth, but one more of those and I might. I resigned myself to the fact I'd have to fight this shadow before I could get to Maria.

Now both of us were ready for a fight, and we engaged in close combat. I went for a jab/reverse combo, but the shadow predicted my attacks and deflected them both and got a quick strike on my stomach. I managed to hit his leg with a low kick, then he planted that leg and brought the other one up, hitting me with a front kick. We're about going blow for blow, and I think I'm a bit behind. Maria's father then speaks in a booming voice.

"Enough. Shadow, come back. You've put on enough of a performance."

The shadow I was fighting leapt back at the first opportunity, then before I could pursue they leapt back up to the viewer area, where the other three shadows were holding Maria. Seeing as how I was struggling against one of them, I definitely couldn't take all four. On top of that, I have no idea how strong Maria's parents are. If I over or underestimate them either they'd die, or I'd die. Time to try bargaining.

"Why are you doing this?"

Maria's father is clearly looking down on me. "My daughter misbehaved, so I'm teaching her a lesson. I apologize if she gave you the wrong idea about anything."

Well that didn't help much. If I say something pointless like 'give her back', they'll probably just leave. I need to think. Maybe I can work something out.

I met Maria just a few weeks ago, where she said she had only been an adventurer for a couple days. However, wouldn't it make more sense for someone who wanted to be an adventurer to have a higher level? Especially if her parents were nobles, they could have paid someone to power level her. Maria said her parents didn't approve of her wanting to become an adventurer, but even so wouldn't it make sense to raise her level so some random bandit wouldn't be able to kill her? It's like they wanted to raise her to be completely harmless… A sickening thought occurred. In my world, political marriages were something done in the past, and probably still done somewhere in the world. I'm not sure if 18 is the age of marriage in this world, but Maria is probably close to that age, if not that age already. Did Maria's parents just want her to be a political bargaining chip? I'm trying to think of another reason why everything would play out as they did, but I can't think of anything. Maria had always dreamed of being an adventurer, but her parents disallowed it. Once Maria found out she was going to be married off, that was the breaking point that led to her running away and trying to be an adventurer, even at level one. I believe this is the correct solution. Elzabell would be proud to see me like this! Assuming I came to the correct conclusion of course. I'll word my next statement so even if I'm off I'll still have some wiggle room.

"Will I have to prove my worth then? Prove that it's worth it for you to let Maria stay with me?"

Her father raised his eyebrow, while her mother just scoffed.

"And what value do you have? You're a pretty skilled fighter for your age, but if you can't even beat one of our shadows, then you don't have a single leg to stand on."

He had a point, but I have a better one! I'm not sure what the consequences of this will be, but if it could prevent Maria from going back to being a prisoner to her family, then it's worth it.

"I may not be strong yet. But I'll become the strongest in the world."

I change to the Chimera Viper Gauntlets.

"Because I am the Gauntlet Hero!"

The coliseum erupted in an uproar. Some people cheering, some booing at a legendary hero entering an event made for normal people, but mostly sounds of excitement! As well as a few people bowing? Maria's parents looked at each other, and discussed between themselves. I couldn't hear what they were saying over the uproar. Finally when the uproar had died down enough, Maria's father spoke to me in a booming voice capable of being heard by half the coliseum, despite the noise.

"If you truly are the Gauntlet Hero, then surely a simple slime is no problem for you right? Defeat this monster, and you will have proved your worth!"

Was that it? No way it's an ordinary slime. It's probably a trap, but what other choice do I have? He's probably underestimating me, because he hasn't seen me use any skills yet.

"I accept this challenge. If I win, you'll let Maria do as she pleases!"

Maria's father had a sinister smile on his face now.

"And if you lose, you die."

I needed to wait about an hour for the monster to be transported over here. While in the waiting area, many of the people I'd seen before -those that survived their matches at least- were all trying to talk to me. Some of the female adventurers were even trying to offer to take the place of Maria, much to the dismay of their parties. Of course I declined. I didn't expect this kind of treatment. The king treated me like a resource -admittedly a very valuable resource- and everyone else I met responded with something along the lines of 'oh that's cool. Anyway…' I know there's only three of these weapons in the world, I'm pretty sure at least, but to me this kind of response just came out of nowhere. According to the adventurers guild, I was allowed to bring one other person with me into the arena due to the threat of this monster. So no way it's a 'normal slime'. Since I did want someone else to travel with, someone who could deal a lot of damage, I was looking for a swordsman who isn't in a group, and who also looks fast, because between me and Maria, our speed wasn't the best. I ended up finding someone who fit these criteria. He wielded dual falchions. I had to push past a bunch of people all trying to talk to me, some even begging me to let them join my party. Not just women, some men too. I guess being associated with a hero gives a possibility of fame and riches? I can't think of many other good reasons why so many people were throwing themselves on me. Honestly that behaviour disgusts me. I finally pushed my way over to him.

"Hello. I'm Ash, what's your name?"

The man I was talking to looked to be about 20 years old, with a musculature that suggests he's been training with swords for a while. He's got blonde hair, chainmail, and sharp-ish silver eyes. I guess less sharp and more wary? Understandable considering the events unfolding around me. He hesitantly responds to me.

"My name is Elias. Can I help you?"

He was asking in a way that was more like a customer service worker, rather than like the people around me begging to join my party. He's trying to stay distant.

"Could you please join me in the upcoming fight?" I bowed a little when asking, and after not receiving a response for a second, I looked up. His face was equal parts surprise, hesitation, and conflicted. He closed his eyes for a second and then looked to me.

"I'll join you."

Now isn't the time to waste brainpower dissecting all the emotions he displayed just now. Right now I need to learn Elias' capabilities and come up with a strategy.

Elias lvl 30 has joined the party

Well that's a good sign. If he ended up being lower level than me he likely wouldn't be able to help. My strength is probably close to that of someone at level 30, so I can expect him to be reliable help.

"Can you do any magic?"

"My affinities are Earth and Light. I'm reasonably good with both."

His answers were short and to the point. I'm not sure if that's his personality, or because he doesn't trust me. Either way, I can come up with a few strategies from this.

"I can try to hold it back while you deal damage to it."

"Fair strategy, but what if it's something you can't hold back, or something I can't damage?"

"Then I'll have to get creative" I say with a smile. I'll admit I am feeling nervous, but I think I'm doing a pretty good job of hiding it. I guess because this world is a lot like a game I don't feel much fear for my life. Unless there's fire involved… I can still feel the burning from that fire breath… So just no fire breathing slime's and we'll be fine.

While me and Elias were strategizing, and trying to ignore the people around us, an hour flew by. By the halfway point most of them got tired of trying to get close to me, but the few that didn't stop were incredibly annoying and making it hard to concentrate on preparing. Although finally not being bombarded by people did help quell my nervousness a bit when me and Elias were stepping into the arena. In the middle of the arena was indeed a slime-like creature. It was about the size of a bean-bag chair, and metallic. Me Elias dashed for it.

"Quick Rush!"

"Erste Earth Slash!"

I quickly closed the distance on the slime, running to it on a curve just in case it had ranged attacks. When I got about within 15 feet of it, parts of its body started lashing out at me. It looked like it internally launched a part of itself forward, which pulled some of the rest of it along forming a spike. I managed to narrowly avoid it, and landed a punch on its main body. The main body was as hard as steel. If I didn't have the mini-bucklers I might have broken my hand. Elias managed to make it to its other side, and a sharp piece of earth came out of the ground, travelling with his sword. His attack had a similar result to mine. Both of us leapt back from it. Currently it's staying still, but that doesn't matter if we can't scratch it anyway.

"Let's try hitting it as hard as we can, if we can't deal damage we can't win." Elias shouted. I nodded.

"I am the source of great power. Rupture my foe from below with a skewer of rock and stone. Zweite Quakespike!"

A giant spike erupted from the ground, right where the slime was. The spike was about 10 feet tall. At first it looked like the slime was stuck to the spike somehow. When I looked up, it looked like the spike was actually partway through the slime. However, after a few seconds the slime became more liquidy and fell down from the spike. As it was falling, the slime launched several more smaller spikes at me. I managed to block a couple of them, but several more smaller spikes stabbed into me. It would have been more if I hadn't bought the armor. I tried grabbing one of the spikes. It felt like steel, but again after a few seconds it became more liquidy and melted out of my grasp. Just what was this slime? If it's harder than the ground then the spike shouldn't have been able to get partway through it. It's moving like a liquid, but when we attack it, or it attacks us, it acts like a solid…

"Elias, try attacking it slowly." He looked a little confused, but complied. The slime's focus was on me, so he should be able to attack it. Elias tried slowly stabbing the slime, and his sword managed to go into it. Once he did, the slime's focus shifted over to him. Once it started bombarding him with needles, he had to take a few steps back. I think I figured out what this is. It's a freaking non-newtonian slime. If we hit it hard, it becomes hard. Due to its nature we can't produce an attack strong enough to hurt it, or it will become too durable for us to hurt. I'll have to try the best I can anyway.

"Flarefist!"

Ignoring the wounds I'm receiving, I hit the slime with Flarefist. This skill generates a fireball around my hand, and releases it when I make contact with my target in a fiery burst of force. I don't get hurt by this explosion. Surprisingly, when I hit the slime with this skill, the half of it closest to me gets blown away. The half of it further away from me stays solid though. Can enough force prevent it from becoming hard? Was it the speed of the explosion? Maybe the heat? We can test heat right now.

"Elias, what can you do to heat it up?"

Elias catches on.

"I am the source of great power. Melt my target with a beam of divine radiance. Zweite Sunbeam!"

It almost appeared as though the sun began shining harder on specifically the slime. The slime's body was rippling, as if struggling to keep its shape. Heat must be it!

"Heat keeps it soft! Let's attack it now!"

Both me and Elias leapt on it, slashing and punching it as much as we could. Our blows were landing, displacing a lot of its body. It tried to launch more spikes at us, but it was unable to harden itself, however, due to its body being heated up, it was still burning us with these attacks. After a minute, Elias and I stepped back out of breath, covered in burns and cuts. The slime simply reformed after all of our attacks. It was as if we didn't do any damage. I can see why Maria's dad was so confident I couldn't beat this monster. Even if we soften it, normal attacks won't do any lasting damage. I have one idea though.

"Elias. The next time it attacks, could you try cutting some of it off?"

"Sure. Not like sticking with what we're doing will work."

Elias dashed towards the slime, attempting to bait an attack. The slime launched some of its body at him, and with a quick slash he took it off. It landed on the ground and attempted to crawl back to its body. I couldn't have that. I ran forward.

"Elias! Get back! Flarefist!"

Elias leapt back, as I used Flarefist between the cut off part and the slime, managing to knock both back a bit. With haste, I grabbed the cut off part as best I could and attempted to absorb it into my Gauntlets.

Meld Blob Gauntlets, Unlock Bonus: Air Strike Guard
Equip Bonus: Physical Resist (Lar), +20 DEF, -5 MDEF, -5 SPE

I switched to the Meld Blob Gauntlets. It only used physical attacks, so having as much defence as possible is what matters. Even if I can't use the skill yet, I have another plan.

"Elias, can you buy me some time?"

"Want me to cut off some more parts while I'm at it?"

"Just focus on keeping yourself alive and the slime occupied."

I go back about 30 feet. I get quite a few jeers from the audience from people who think I'm running away, or trying to get my teammate killed, but I have to drown them out. My plan is to strike the slime with so much force it will be blown all over the arena, then I'll absorb it as it's trying to reform. I don't know if there are any limits to my absorption, but it's the only thing that has kept part of the slime out of the fight for good. To produce the strongest strike I can, I need to use magic. Right before arriving to Sellbull I felt like I was right on the cusp of being able to do it. Maria's method got me better at feeling and understanding magic, but what I think I need to do loops back around to what Elzabell tried teaching me. I need to do it. More specifically, without thinking. Just feel the magic, and let my mouth move as needed.

"I, the Gauntlet Hero, am the source of all power. Hear my plea and grant it! Weave together a spell that may make me the mightiest in the world! Zweite Power!"

Suddenly I felt a rush of strength. Checking my status, my attack stat had gone up by about 50%. This was great! But I can do better. I double check my skills, and allocate points as needed.

"Roar II!" Roar is the skill that I got from the Chimera Lion Gauntlets, it's a skill that buffs my attack, and slightly debuffs my opponents attack as well. With these buffs I dash towards the slime again.

"ELIAS, GET AS FAR AS YOU CAN!" I shout while running towards it. Elias didn't need to be told twice. He immediately ran towards me, and past me. I locked my gaze onto the slime. It was very slow, so I didn't have to worry about it getting out of the way.

"Quick Rush I!" This skill buffs the strength of my first strike after using it as well. Hopefully that stacks with skills. I Jab my fist inside the slime, ignoring the burning the slime's heated body is causing, and the burning of the slime's attacks, I put all my remaining points into my most effective skill so far.

"FLAREFIST V!"

An enormous explosion came from my fist inside the slime. Amplified by both my buffed attack stat, Quick Rush, and the Skill Rank power up method, the softened slime had no chance of staying together. The slime exploded, its body splattering all over the floor of the arena. My ears were ringing, and after all that, my mind tuned out for a while. I vaguely remember what happened after that. I went all around the ring absorbing every part of the slime that tried to reform itself. Elias couldn't do much. He just went around separating any parts of the slime that looked like it was getting too big. After about five minutes I had absorbed every part of the slime.

Level up! You are now level 25
Level up! Maria is now level 25
Level up! Elias is now level 32

Right, Maria was still in my party. Well it's good she won't fall behind on experience because of this. Five levels at once? I guess this was a pretty strong monster, though I was expecting less.

"What? I got two levels at once."

Elias too? Maria also received more experience when she joined my party.

"How much more experience did you get when monster levels were buffed?"

"Only strong monsters gave a noticeable increase of experience, and it's not nearly this much."

"My best guess right now is that being in the same party as me gives more experience. I got ten experience from a rabbit Maria told me normally gives two experience."

"That's quite convenient. I suppose that's one reason why legendary heroes can get strong so fast."

If it's five times more experience does that mean a cardboard snake normally gives 0.2 experience? From what I've noticed, the system doesn't use decimals, so it would probably round down, giving people no experience for killing it. Whatever, time to focus on why I'm here.

I looked up towards where Maria's father was sitting and saw him walking back down the stairs. Maria's mother and Maria herself were with him, and I couldn't see any Shadows with them.

"Congratulations Gauntlet Hero. You beat the monster I didn't believe anybody here could beat, and have proved your worth. I give you permission to marry my daughter."

So I was right! Wait, that's not important right now.

"Marry? I just wanted her to be free."

"Right, of course. I give her my permission and blessings to 'keep travelling with you' as she pleases" I didn't like the sly look on his face, and the tone he said that. It sounds like he's hoping we'll eventually get married. Either way, I'm not ready for that, both mentally, and as respect to my duties as a hero. Maria was blushing pretty hard. I think she was mumbling something like "it's not like that". This is reminding me of when Jule said 'I don't make rings'... Do we really look like a couple? Ah right, there was one more question I had.

"How did you recognize Maria when she had a mask on?"

"Come now, what kind of father would I be if I couldn't recognize my daughter just because of some mask?"

Evidence suggests still a pretty bad one, but I didn't say that. I guess he isn't as bad as I thought. Don't get me wrong, he's still terrible for disregarding her feelings, but it came out of a place of care? Ugh this is complicated. I still don't like him, but my respect for him went up a little upon hearing that sentence. Up from zero.

"I wanted my daughter to have a comfortable and safe life living in a mansion, not a dirty dangerous life camping in the wilds. Now I know you can keep her safe."

Maria hopped down from the seating area and joined me and Elias.

"Sorry dad, that isn't the life I wanted."

Maria's dad looked equal parts worried and excited somehow.

"Gauntlet Hero, if Maria dies, I'll find some way to end your life too. Also, make sure you and Maria get married."

"Enough of that already!" Me and Maria shouted at the same time.

Maria, Elias, and I all left the coliseum.

"So Elias, would you like to join us?" I asked while we were walking. Elias was walking with us, so I was assuming the answer would be yes.

"Sure. One request however, don't make me feel like a third wheel."

"Stop joking about that!" Maria exclaimed.

"Don't worry, if Elzabell rejoins there will be a fourth wheel to join you."

Elias cracks a grin at that.

"Don't continue the joke!" Maria exclaims again.

With me and Elias laughing together, we went to our inn for the night. I was exhausted from all my injuries and the stress of today.