Shortly after finishing our shopping, Alice and I returned to the guild.
A lot of adventurers were shooting the breeze inside the tavern. It seems that after the cabbage hunt the other day, many of them still had leftover money, which meant they could afford to laze around the bar rather than look for work.
There's bound to be someone here with the Archer class who can teach me some skills.
I scanned the room, thinking I would look around and consider my options, when―
"Excuse me, everyone! My party member is looking to upgrade his class to an Archer and learn archery skills! Is there anyone here who has the Archer class?"
Alice loudly announced my desires to the entire guild, causing everyone to look our way and making my face turn red.
She did not seem bothered by it, but I was uncomfortable having so many people's attention on me.
"Oi! We have an Archer in our party! Isn't that right, Keith!?"
The last person I wanted to see stood up to answer Alice's call, a no-good, blond haired delinquent who I had had run-ins with previously. The guy with long, raven-black hair sitting beside him seemed to slump in his seat.
"Isn't that great, Satou? We found someone with the Archer class so quickly!"
"Um, yeah..."
Alice beamed as she took me by the wrist and led the reluctant me over to their table.
Dust casually thrust his hands in his pockets and leaned back on two chair legs as we made our way over.
"Long time no see, eh, rookie?" he said to me while kicking out a chair, clearly meaning for me to sit next to him.
I didn't know how to respond, so I quietly sat down while Alice pulled up a chair from the next table over.
Hopefully he wasn't about to try to shake me down or pick a fight with me again. I glanced at the people he was sitting with, and was relieved to see that his guardian, the demihuman girl who was proficient with intermediate magic, was munching on a tomato while keeping an eye on us.
Without warning, Dust threw his arm around my shoulder like we were old pals, making me wince.
"Say, your name was Kazuma Satou, right? Just like the Demon King, that's what I heard! Nice look, by the way! Are these clothes new?"
"Please do not compare me to him. I may happen to have the misfortune of owning the same name as him, but the similarities end there." I tried to brush him off, but he wouldn't budge.
"Hey, Kazuma isn't so bad a guy once you get to know him! Back when Axel was his stomping grounds, he and I were actually best buds!"
Why am I not surprised?
"I bet we could get along swimmingly too, ay, Satou?! Let's be friends from now on, 'kay? So, in honor of our newly kindled friendship, would you mind―lending me a little cash? I'll pay you back as soon as my party lets me back in. You see, we got into a recent spat, and they won't let me join them on quests for the rest of the month, so I'm kinda stiff on funds, ya know? Hahaha! So, what do ya say, could you lend a pal a hand?"
He placed his palms together in a pleading motion.
What was this about all of a sudden? Last time we interacted, he tried to bully me around. Now he's acting all buddy-buddy?!
He just wants my money, doesn't he? The goal is the same, even if the methods differ.
As I glanced around the table, all his companions looked pointedly away with unfriendly looks on their faces.
Dust cupped his hand over my ear, making me almost recoil. "I'll even show you to a certain shop this town offers. It's a secret place that makes men's dreams come true!"
I didn't want anything to do with whatever place this man was talking about. It was probably something illegal, anyways.
I shrank away to put some distance between us. "Uh, sorry, but I have this certain party member who literally eats through our entire reward money at the end of every quest, so I couldn't help you even if I wanted to."
Dust nodded like he felt sympathy for me. "Ah, you must be referring to that Crimson Demon girl with a screw loose, right? I understand what that's like. I'm in charge of a girl who is a bottomless pit as well. Life is hard for guys like us, isn't it?"
He motioned to a little girl in a vibrantly colored yet simple dress who sat opposite me to his other side. She was quietly nibbling on a piece of fried toad while watching me with curious eyes.
…Maybe I misjudged this guy a little. If nothing else, he seems to have had his share of problems as well.
Although I'll go out on a limb here and venture a guess that most of them are self-inflicted.
"So, what's this about having an Archer in your party?" I asked. "It is as Alice said. I was hoping someone could teach me some Archer skills."
"Oi, Keith! He's asking for you!" Dust poked at his companion.
"Screw you! I don't want to teach any skills to someone who just started adventuring a few days ago and is already walking around with a party of pretty girls! Especially when someone as cute as this girl leads him by the hand up to our table! I hate guys like him! This guy can go jump in a lake!"
The one named Keith spat this at me before twisting away in his chair to brood moodily.
I knit my brows in righteous fury. This rude, mopey jerk actually thinks I have it made!
A man with broad shoulders and a shield resting near his feet sighed and reached out for his mug. "Sorry about Keith, rookie. He's been in a bad mood lately because he always shoots himself in the foot when it comes to raising his popularity with women. Anyways, my name's Taylor. If there are any crusader skills you would like to learn, I wouldn't mind showing you what I know."
This guy seemed like an honest and straightforward fellow. I thought I would probably get along better with him than the others.
"Nice to meet you. As has already been said, my name is Kazuma Satou. Thanks for the offer, but my stats aren't really built for being a vanguard," I replied.
"That is a shame. Well, if you ever change your mind, let me know."
Alice looked nervously my way. "I am sorry, Satou. I did not expect my presence to be a hindrance to you."
"It isn't your fault, Alice." I said.
"Hey, Alice, I bet if you gave Keith a kiss on the cheek, he'd perk right up! Ah, but now that I think about it, your face and body are just my type too, so just go ahead and kiss me on the mouth instead!"
Said Dust, who apparently had no filter or shame. I knew there was a good reason I disliked this man.
"Eh?" Alice's face flushed red.
"Moron!"
I heard the sound of something smashing under the table, and realized that Rin had kicked Dust in the shin when he leaned over in pain. Thanks, Rin!
"Ah! Rin, that hurt like crap! What's the matter with you?"
"What's the matter with me? What's the matter with you!? Even someone as stupid as you are should know who she is! God! If there was one woman on the face of the earth you shouldn't be sexually harassing, it would be her!" Rin pointed at Alice with her finger. "Do you want to get yourself executed?"
"Oh, Rin is right. I almost forgot," said Dust, as if he was remembering something. "Even if she is a smokin' hottie who has the perfect amount of shape and development in both the chest and ass departments, with her blond hair and blue eyes, Alice is rumored to be a former noble something or other, right? Gah, forget what I said, Alice. I don't wanna get mixed up with nobles no more!"
"Um, well, actually, I am just an adventurer who is nothing more than the granddaughter of a chirimen store owner, and not a former noble or anything, so I generally prefer it when I do not receive special treatment from others… But…" She fidgeted in her seat uncomfortably.
"Alice, not receiving special treatment from ordinary folk and not being harassed by lowlifes like him are two completely different things," Rin said while angrily spearing at her salad with her fork. "You should not let him talk to you that way under any circumstances. In fact, next time he does, feel free to give him a good kick right in the only spot of his that ever thinks. It's the only way he'll learn."
Dust winced and subconsciously placed his hands over his groin. "Hey, don't go giving her any funny ideas now! That's a serious threat, you know!"
"Very well! It seems I still have much to learn about living as an ordinary commoner. Thank you, Miss Rin!" smiled Alice.
Alice was saying things that all but gave away her royal heritage. No wonder it seems like everyone knows her 'secret.'
Luckily Rin was here to teach her some common sense today.
"Well, if you won't teach me any skills," I said to Keith through gritted teeth, "I guess I'll go look elsewhere." I stood up to go.
"Yeah, go back to hiding behind three beauties with advanced classes. Must be nice being you," Keith muttered. "I bet you don't have to do anything in a party with a Crimson Demon, an Archpriest, and her, the highest leveled adventurer in Axel." He puffed at the hair falling down over his face.
I froze. Normally the sensible me would brush off these things and ignore someone who was trying to get under my skin.
Must be nice being me? Ha! I would like to see him try to deal with my party for a day.
"Hey, Keith, that's―" Dust was about to say something, but it never made it out.
"Take that back!"
Pounding her fists on the table, Alice raised herself up to full height and glowered at Keith. "I have been watching Satou with my own two eyes! It is true that he is weak, and that he was not able to slay even a single goblin on our last adventure, but he honestly presses forward doing the best he can with the abilities he has! He never looks for the easy way out, nor does he cower in the face of boss monsters like Mushroom Mutants or Rookie Killers! We may not have been together for very long, yet I can vouch that he has the qualities of fortitude and resilience on par with a captain capable of leading a platoon of royal knights!"
Keith sat looking rattled as Alice reared down at him, unable to react. I felt a mixture of embarrassment and happiness as she condemned and praised both my shortcomings and good points in turn.
Meanwhile, Dust was giving me a strange look that I wasn't sure I liked. Finally, he took Keith by the arm. "Come 'ere with me for a sec, Keith."
The two went off a short distance away, and Keith listened to an animated Dust lecture him.
Alice settled back into her seat, still watching Keith at a distance.
"Thanks for sticking up for me," I said.
Alice gave me a quick smile. "That's what party members are for, isn't it?"
A couple of minutes later, the two men both plodded back this way, with Keith looking depressed and staring at his boots.
"Sorry," he said without looking at me. "I may have taken things too far. Your party probably isn't all sunshine and roses either, I guess. We all know Aqua can be a handful, that's old news. As for the crazy eating girl with a screw loose, she's definitely that person's little sister, so she can't be easy to deal with, either. And taking responsibility for Alice? That has to be tough too. Sorry for judging you earlier. Ah, why can't there be any nice, beautiful women who don't cause problems for a change?"
"But I'm right here," Rin flatly said.
"You don't count. You're Dust's."
"I don't belong to anyone! Hey, take that back, or I'll use Fireball to scar your face so bad you'll never be able to find a girlfriend!"
…I wonder what exactly Dust told him that made him change his tune so quickly.
"Did you remind him of that one time you and Kazuma switched parties for a day, Dust?" Taylor asked.
Dust folded his arms and nodded solemnly. "I may be dumb, but I ain't stupid. Being the only dude in a party with a bunch of chicks is a lot harder than you'd think." Dust winked and flashed a thumbs up at me, showing his pearly whites. "Hang in there, newbie. I at least appreciate the hard work you do, drawing all the crazy ones away like a magnet so the rest of us guys don't have to handle them."
…Gee, thanks. You don't have to make it sound like it's that rough.
Although, yeah, he's pretty much right. It hasn't been easy.
"So you want to upgrade from Adventurer to Archer, is that right?"
"That's right."
Keith was inspecting my adventurer's card. With a curt nod, he handed it back. "Since Archers aren't an advanced class, it's pretty easy to upgrade to. All you need is to learn the Basic Bowmanship skill and reach level six, then you can upgrade at any time. Oh, also, once you upgrade, all the Archer skills will show up, so you won't need to be taught the rest of the set of Archer skills by anyone, you'll be able to learn them as soon as you have enough skill points to unlock them. Archers can learn a few skills from other classes too, like Thieves, Rangers, and Assassins, but if you want to learn any of their skills, you will need to be taught them by someone with that job."
I listened closely as he explained the game mechanics of class upgrades and unlocking skills. Most of it squared up with the things I learned from Wiz a few days ago. "Got it. So, I just need to gain two more levels once you teach me the Basic Bowmanship skill. Sounds easy enough."
"You've got three skill points already, so I could teach you three basic skills right now. That'll give you more tools to help you level up faster."
"Thank you very much!"
At last, I was finally going to get some much needed character upgrades!
"Okay, first off, Basic Bowmanship. All you have to do is watch me and the skill should pop up under your learnable skills column. Okay, here goes! You do this, and then this..."
"Ooh!" "Nice job, Keith!" "Good form! That's excellent technique!"
"Shut it, guys!"
His party members were mocking his serious demonstration as they watched him notch an arrow and draw it back.
I mean, he was basically just showing us what it looked like to use a bow and arrow. Keith seemed to be enjoying himself acting like a teacher, but in reality, this was something practically anybody could do.
"Hey, there it is! Basic Bowmanship!" I exclaimed, pointing at my card. Learning the skill would cost me one point. I would have two left.
"Now then, next is Snipe. This skill is so useful a lot of archers just rely on it rather than learning Intermediate or Advanced Bowmanship, but its effectiveness really comes down to luck. Snipe boosts your accuracy depending on your luck stat, and the damage dealt is determined by your dexterity. Observe. Snipe!"
He released his arrow at a target on the wall he had set up a minute ago, and hit the bullseye dead center. Once he did, the word 'Snipe' appeared just below Basic Bowmanship on my card. That left me one skill left.
"And this last one is a fundamental skill for all archers, because I use it all the time. The Farsight skill lets you see distant objects as if they were up close, which really comes in handy. It also gives you night vision, although things look a bit weird in that case. Anyway, I highly recommend this skill for every beginner. Here goes: Farsight!"
The irises of Keith's eyes enlarged, filling them with a black hue. "Well, inside the guild here, there isn't really much to look at aside from the brick wall, but that's how you would use it."
Farsight showed up next to the others. I stared eagerly at my adventurer's card, feeling really excited. "So I just select them like this? Whoa!"
At my touch, the words lit up in a mystical glow. Now that I saw it in action, this process was actually pretty intuitive for anyone who had ever played RPG's.
"All right, let's do this thing!" Boom!
I felt a gust of wind breeze through my very soul, a glowing light like a lantern shining against the inside of my skin from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. And just like that, it was over, and the odd feeling was gone.
"Did it work?" I said, looking down at my hands.
"Try your new skills out and find out," Alice said.
"Right!" I took my brand new bow from where I set it down and nocked an arrow to it. The movement felt more smooth and natural than I expected it to. I drew back the string and took aim at the target. "Snipe!"
I released the string, and my arrow shot forward, cleanly splitting apart the shaft of Keith's arrow as it drove into the center of the bullseye like it was some movie trick.
"Awesome!" I gleefully shouted. I turned to the others. "Did you see that? That was so cool!"
"Well done, Satou!" Alice cheered.
"Now try Farsight," Keith suggested.
"Oh, right." I lowered my bow and focused my vision across the room. Feeling the skill activate, I let my sight become drawn to nothing in particular. Suddenly, my view was zoomed in on―I wasn't sure what it was, but it had a gentle, light tone, and it was swaying like it was caught in the wind.
But wait. We were indoors. There was no wind inside the guild.
What was this thing I was looking at?
"Say, you have a curious expression there, Satou," Rin said, approaching me. "What are you looking at, exactly?" She squinted in the same direction I was looking.
Suddenly, I realized what it was I was watching.
I squoze my eyelids shut and about faced, in order to hide the heat that was rushing to my face.
"Is that Luna wiping down the tables over there?" Rin muttered.
"Was she? I d-d-didn't notice. All I saw was a brick wall," I sheepishly replied.
The receptionist onee-san was bent over the counter and wiping it down, causing her whole body to wiggle and sway from side to side. It had been an accident, but my zoomed in view gave me a clear, straight-on view of her twin mountain peaks as the front of her shirt collar sagged ever so much.
Rin was looking at me closely, so I was making sure she couldn't see my face by staring in the other direction.
"Ouch!"
She had knuckled the back of my head. "Pervert!"
"Man, Satou, you really are one lucky bastard! Keith, hurry up and teach me how to use Farsight, too! I wanna use it to peep on women in the bath!"
"I dunno why I've never thought of using it like this before, thank you Satou! You have opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me! I'm so glad I taught you this skill! And Dust, even if you say that, isn't your class a Warrior? Without changing classes, it would be impossible for you to learn Farsight."
"I bet even the ever crafty Kazuma never thought about using Farsight like this! Ah, but that's too bad; for someone in my position, changing classes would be a hassle."
"That's right, you do have your reasons for staying in the Warrior class, don't you, Dust? That's too bad. Oh well, you can always peep on the womens' bath the old fashioned way!"
I was sitting at a table in the guild, my face in my hands, while Dust and Keith continued to laugh at my embarrassing first use of Farsight.
I'm nothing like these two delinquents, okay?
As soon as it was discovered that I had inadvertently used Farsight to get a close up view of Luna's nearly exposed chest, every woman in the guild had been giving the stink eye.
Why did this have to happen this way? I'm not a pervert or anything, it was an accident!
Okay, I'll admit that sometimes I used the internet in my old world to satisfy my curiosities about certain things regarding the softer parts of a woman's body, but you can't blame me for that much! When girls post that kind of stuff for the whole world to see, they're taking that responsibility upon themselves! If a girl irl didn't give me consent, I wouldn't willfully try to sneak a peek at something I wasn't intended to see!
And yeah, ha-ha, it's funny when it happens to a fictional character in a manga or light novel, but this isn't fiction! I already have to deal with a bad reputation just because I happen to share the Demon King's name! I don't need this kind of incident smearing my image even further!
"I know you did not intentionally do it, Satou," Alice said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Thanks, Alice," I said through my hands. "You're a sweetheart."
"Um, thanks," she responded.
Ah, crap, did I say that out loud?
"I mean, what I meant to say was, you're a good friend and party member!"
She was looking at me strangely. I put my face back in my hands.
Well, she probably knows by now anyways. I mean, Aqua and Komekko already somehow figured out my feelings and told her in a roundabout way yesterday, so Alice is probably just playing dumb about the whole thing to make me feel better.
Man, I really screwed things up this time. This situation is almost worse than when I got rejected by senpai just before I died.
"Hey Satou, cheer up!" Dust said consolingly. "Just wait a few days and this whole thing will blow over. The guild will forget about it, so don't worry."
"The guild will forget about what?"
Oh, great. Here it comes.
The newcomer's voice belonged to Komekko. I peeked through my fingers to see that she and Aqua had arrived together and were now joining us.
Dust and Keith shared a snicker before they told them the whole story.
...
"What?" x2
They were both looking at me like I was industrial waste.
"Satou, I know you said you wanted to be an Archer, but did you instead level up your class from Adventurer to Pervert?" Komekko drew the first barbs.
"Satou, at every turn, why oh why do you have to go and do something exactly like that man? At every turn?" Aqua shook her head and chided.
"Are you referring to the Demon King? I'm nothing like him, I swear! God damn it!" I placed my head back in my hands.
I say that, but deep down, I know the truth is...