Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
And if any of Seiji's friends suffered anything catastrophic, he would be able to load.
"I'll be protecting all of you, so you can fight as recklessly as you want…" Of course, Seiji would never say something like that out loud. He would only load if the worst happened.
Hisashi's pain was gone after Seiji used a healing spell on him. Hisashi still felt a great amount of trepidation for his newly-gained ability due to the indescribable painful sensation he felt just now. However, he was unwilling to give it up. He vowed to be more careful the next time that he needed to use it.
Compared to Hisashi's half-baked escape ability, Hoshi's spiritual eagle being able to carry him and fly was obviously a lot better.
However, the spiritual eagle was only capable of carrying Hoshi a small distance. It would be impossible to use it for long-distance flight or even a medium amount of time.
"Although your ability is limited, perhaps your summoned creature will become even stronger if it evolves again. Continue working hard."
"Yes, Senpai!"
"In places like these, how about calling me Team Leader instead?" Seiji suddenly had this type of thought.
"Yes, Team Leader!" Hoshi's eyes were sparkling with admiration.
Yep, this sounded quite nice to Seiji. He rather enjoyed it.
After everyone rested for a little while, Seiji continued raising… er, helping their training.
In the second district, the three-person team's effectiveness in dealing with monsters improved even more. Although they met a new type of monkey spiritual creature, they didn't panic at all. They were able to calmly observe, defend, dodge, and counterattack. They had excellent tacit cooperation as they killed the monkey monsters.
As Seiji expected, even the auras about Mika, Hoshi, and Hisashi were different after they successfully defeated a boss monster by themselves. The green-and-black-furred wolf boss monster had been an excellent tutorial boss monster.
The second boss monster resembled a dinosaur… more accurately, it was a giant monster that resembled a velociraptor!
Velociraptors were a famous type of dinosaur. Anyone who'd ever seen a dinosaur movie or played a game with dinosaurs would likely recognize one. Velociraptors were highly agile, had powerful legs, sharp claws, and large fangs. They typically appeared in packs, and resembled dinosaur version wolves.
Seiji already had a premonition when he saw the new monkey spiritual monster that he had never seen before. But now that he witnessed this dinosaur boss monster which wasn't present before, his premonition had come true.
Seiji recalled when he was playing Monster Hunter in his previous life. These types of monsters were common as tutorial boss monsters. Those who were even slightly skilled in hunting techniques would be able to easily defeat such a boss.
However, this was no game! Meeting an unfamiliar giant dinosaur monster for the first time required extra precautions.
"Be care—"
*Roar!!*
Seiji didn't even get to finish his warning when the velociraptor boss monster instantly roared and spewed out a circle of green mist!
The green mist started spreading out in a circle with the dinosaur as the center, just like a shock wave.
Mika raised her shield and stood in front of Hisashi and Hoshi, blocking this large AOE attack for them. Seiji also used his shield to block this attack as he stood in front of Shika.
Immediately after this, large amounts of black mist poured out from everywhere, forming into numerous smaller dinosaur monsters that pounced in their direction!!
Summoning minions was definitely a boss monster ability that Seiji considered the most annoying to deal with.
Hisashi cast his Thunderboom spell to slow down the dinosaur boss monster. However, the numerous smaller dinosaur monsters' attacks made Mika unable to cast her Dimension Shattering Jade spell that required some preparation time.
After coming under attack from so many monsters, Hoshi started panicking and hurriedly tried to fly away by using his spiritual eagle. However, a small dinosaur monster suddenly leaped high up into the air and crashed into him, successfully knocking Hoshi onto the ground!!
Hoshi landed smack dab in the middle of a group of monsters. Along with the pain he felt, his mind went completely blank.
Before he could meet his death, a white flash appeared before him as a tall figure instantly appeared by his side.
Of course, this figure was Seiji.
Hoshi witnessed Seiji attacking the moment that he landed. Seiji swiftly swung his White Lotus spiritual sword in a large arc, wiping out all the monsters in the nearby area!
"Shikchan!"
Shika Kagura took action as well. She instantly appeared next to Hisashi and Mika, and wiped out many small dinosaurs with her own sword!
The giant velociraptor boss monster viciously charged over at a furious pace.
Shika lifted her sword over her head, created a giant blade of ice, and viciously slashed it down against the giant dinosaur monster's head! This knocked the velociraptor boss monster down onto the ground in a single blow!!
This scene truly stunned both Hisashi and Mika.
A petite girl like Shika wielding a giant blade of ice to knock over the giant boss monster in a single blow was truly impactful.
But after this, Shika didn't continue attacking the boss monster at all. She simply glanced at the two stunned individuals before she continued to clear out the smaller monsters.
Mika and Hisashi returned to their senses and hurriedly started fighting the dinosaur boss monster.
Thanks to Seiji and Shika eliminating the smaller monsters' interference, Mika and Hisashi were able to defeat and kill the giant dinosaur monster in just a short while by using the combination of the Thunderboom and the Dimension Shattering Jade.
"Hoshi, how are you feeling?"
"It hurts just a little…"
Although Hoshi crashed into the ground from the sky, the combat uniform he wore mitigated the impact so that he was only minorly injured.
Hoshi was simultaneously a little depressed as well as really happy. That was because he witnessed Senpai— no, Team Leader in action!
Even after entering here, this was the first time that Hoshi had ever witnessed Seiji fighting.
Hoshi wanted to see even more… But he knew that he couldn't overly rely on Seiji. His goal was to be able to fight as an equal by Seiji's side.
'This time, their team met with danger because they lack strong AOE techniques… no, it's purely because they're still not strong enough,' Seiji thought to himself.
If Hisashi and Hoshi had been a bit stronger, they'd then be able to deal with the numerous smaller monsters attacking them all at once. In that case, even if they didn't have strong AOE attacks, they'd be able to agilely move around the battlefield and pick smaller monsters off before finally dealing with the boss monster.
Of course, it would be better if they had some better AOE attacks, or a larger-scale AOE crowd control spell.
"Apart from Hoshi panicking a bit too much, you guys didn't make any other mistakes. It's just that your power is still insufficient."
"I'm sorry…"
"I'm not blaming you at all. This is your first battle ever. It's only normal for you to make mistakes. It's fine as long as you grow and learn from this."
Hoshi felt a warm feeling in his heart from receiving Seiji's encouragement.
After resting for a while, everyone continued onward.
When everyone arrived in the third district, they saw a large tree in full bloom which had bright-red leaves that resembled maple leaves.
Red leaves… Hoshi felt something from this. Suddenly, he heard the faint sound of singing.
This singing sounded rather mystical and ethereal. He recalled the mysterious singing that he heard when he Awakened.
These two singing voices were obviously different. The one he heard right now sounded mystical and ethereal, while the one he'd heard previously in his dream sounded elegant and sad. However, the singing also seemed to somehow resemble each other.
Hoshi reflexively searched around for the singer. He then saw a girl wearing a green dress who sat on one of the branches of the large red-leafed tree!
This girl had a head of brilliant golden hair that shone like it was pure gold. However, her incredibly beautiful hair seemed completely disheveled as it was scattered all over her face. Her bangs were long to the point where half her face was covered, with only her exquisite nose and cute mouth showing.
She had delicate arms and milky-white soft skin. Her soft and beautiful tiny hands and tender feet seemed just like beautiful artwork! Even without being able to see her face clearly, any lolicon would go into a mania at seeing her skin, arms, and legs.
Hoshi wasn't a lolicon. However, he was still attracted to her as he stood still while staring at her without even blinking.
"Hoshi, can you see something?" Seiji spoke up.
Right after arriving in the third district, Seiji sensed that something was off. He looked around him and noticed that his junior was acting strange. Seiji followed Hoshi's line of sight and saw nothing there at all. That was why he spoke up and asked that.
Hoshi didn't respond. He simply stared at the tree with an admiring expression on his face.
"Hoshi!" Seiji increased the volume of his voice. However, his junior still didn't respond.
Everyone else also had slightly confused expressions at seeing this.
"Something's present," Kazuko suddenly spoke up. "I can sense something… but can't see it."
She had an incredibly serious expression.
Seiji slapped Hoshi on the shoulder, but Hoshi didn't react at all. Seiji then forcefully shook Hoshi, but the latter still stood still as if he was glued to the spot.
At this moment, dense black mist appeared from everywhere, creating a large number of small monsters— no, wait, they were all large monsters!?
Gigantic black wolves, black tigers, black bears, and the velociraptor boss monster that they just faced all appeared in droves…
"Kazuko-san, take us out of here immediately!" Seiji immediately made this decision upon seeing the situation.
"I can't… I'm unable to open my portal…" Kazuko's face paled. "The invisible something is blocking me… it blocked my portal!!"
What!?