"Klausss! Wait up!" Taula shouted out however that was the last thing that he was going to do.
The wind blew against his face rapidly as he held onto the hilt of his sword with white-knuckled grip and soared through the air, leaving Taula behind him.
As much as he wanted to shout back at her, his voice would be completely lost in the howling wind by the sheer amount of speed Klaus was going.
'However all of this… is her faul—'
HISSSSSS!!!!
Another massive tree fell to the ground with a thunderous crash, and the oversized snake wrapped its muscular tail around the trunk, dragging it along effortlessly like it weighed nothing.
'It's her fault!'
Sure, it had been big back when it was in the pond… maybe ten feet long and even the reason it had been first brought out was because Taula threw a rock at that bird but that wasn't the issue… after that, she decided to poke the emerging snake with a stick! A DAMN STICK!
And it grew until it was taller than both of them combined and became an absolute behemoth of a monster, easily thirty feet long with scales the size of dinner plates.
'All of this could have been avoided if she just kept her hands to herself.' Klaus thought, and honestly he was perfectly fine with leaving her behind to die at this point.
Sure she was strong, but Taula was genuinely the polar opposite of him in every way. It would be impossible for them to get along or work together long-term.
"HISSSSS!"
The sickening sound of the tail muscles crunching and splintering the tree trunk could be heard from behind him, growing louder.
At that moment, Klaus decided to turn his head to face backward so he could see what was going on.
Apparently the monster was clutching the tree more tightly in its coiled tail and was winding up to throw it at him like a javelin.
'The hell did I do?!' Klaus shouted inwardly.
Hell, he was the voice of reason between himself and Taula, so why was he the one being aimed at?! 'Fuck…'
He channeled more mana into the sword he was riding, feeling the drain on his reserves, and made it dive sharply to the right.
He reached a part of the forest that was covered with tall thick trees packed closely together which was better for evasion.
'As long as I don't stay in a singular spot, I won't turn into an easy target.' Klaus thought as he began zig-zagging desperately between the trees while holding onto the sword to the best of his abilities and his arms screaming in protest. 'Come on… Come on…'
His hands felt like they were burning from the strain and it was incredibly hard to keep his balance like this while moving at high speed but he continued weaving left, then right, then left again through the gaps.
He tried to angle upward toward a higher branch to gain altitude, only to spin uncontrollably mid-air, desperately trying to correct his trajectory…
"Klaus, look out!" Taula yelled out from somewhere behind him.
At the same time, Klaus made a split-second decision and let go of the sword completely, falling straight down toward the ground.
It seemed like everything had turned slow-motion. He heard a violent whooshing sound and a gust of wind hit his face hard enough to make his eyes water.
Klaus blinked.
The top parts of all the trees around him were cleaved apart in a single horizontal slash, branches and leaves raining down everywhere. Dozens of trees were cut clean through.
'H-huh?'
The monster had channeled its mana into that tree it grabbed earlier and thrown it with enough force to demolish everything in its path including destroying his sword completely. The blade shattered mid-air into metallic fragments.
'What tier is that thing? It's clearly not a Tier 2 monster.' Klaus thought as he fell. 'But it's not like I'll have to worry about that anymore.'
He was free-falling toward the ground from twenty feet up, and once he landed at this speed, he would turn into a puddle of broken bones and pulped organs.
It was nice being in this world for a while, but Klaus was ready to let it go. There was no use in being born if he wasn't a noble anyway.
All these life-and-death experiences just for a little boost in mana that wouldn't even help him breakthrough to Second-Class? Yeah right, Fuck this world!
Just then he was caught again in a princess carry by Taula, who looked down at him as she landed on a thick branch and immediately took off running again, leaping between trees.
"Hey Klaus… been a while, huh?" She said with a strained smile. "Just make sure to hold on tight. I'm going to take us directly to the exit portal."
"All of this is your fault." Klaus told her bluntly, though he wrapped his arms around her neck properly as he didn't want to fall off and die. "If you didn't anger this monster then we wouldn't be in this situation at all."
"No, it's actually your fault." Taula chimed in without missing a beat. "You should have stopped me from poking it…"
"..."
He slowly took a deep breath and decided not to speak again, lest she decided to drop him directly on the ground and leave him to his death out of spite.
"But hold on to me now." Taula said, her voice turning serious.
Just like before, the woman suddenly sped up dramatically, her legs pumping at inhuman speed.
She put significant distance between herself and the Snake Monster instantly with her feet barely touching the ground but Klaus looked back over her shoulder and managed to see that the oversized snake was not going to let them off the hook that easily.
It was pursuing them relentlessly, its body coiling and uncoiling in rapid succession to propel itself forward.
The snake slammed its massive tail down on one of the fallen trees and grabbed hold of a long, thick piece of wood in its coiled grip.
"Watch out!" Klaus yelled out just as the snake hurled the wooden projectile forward with visible mana coating it in a green aura.
The wood shot through the air like a ballista bolt, spinning end over end.
It nearly impaled Taula's head directly however, at the very last possible second, she tilted her head sharply to the right and dodged the attack by mere inches.
The wood projectile shot past her ear close enough that Klaus felt the wind displacement, and it impacted the ground ahead of them with tremendous force.
The impact caused the earth to tremble violently as a crater spread outward with dirt and rocks exploding upward.
But Taula didn't stop, she leaped over the crater without breaking stride and landed on the ground.
Klaus looked forward desperately and in the distance he could finally see the round exit portal again, its swirling light visible through the trees.
'Monsters within a dungeon can't escape until a Dungeon Break happens.' Klaus thought. But would that even matter if they couldn't reach the portal in time?
Taula suddenly stopped running and bent her knees low to the ground, coiling her leg muscles then she jumped as high as she possibly could, launching both of them into the air.
Klaus glanced back at the snake and his blood ran cold. It was holding an entire massive tree on its oversized tail now with the roots and all.
The monster looked directly at them with its reptilian eyes, and its lips were angled upward like it was grinning then it hurled the entire tree at them with a violent motion. A gust of wind hit Klaus's face from the sheer force.
"Uhh, Taula?" Klaus said weakly.
They were mid-air, thirty feet up, so it was very hard to dodge anything. Why would she reveal them to all this danger when she could have just kept running on the ground?!
The tree shot in their direction, spinning through the air like a massive spear aimed directly at them.
She suddenly back-flipped mid-air while still holding Klaus and somehow landed perfectly on top of the spinning tree then she began surfing on it, riding it forward toward the portal like it was a log flume ride.
'How the hell?!'
She was certainly not a normal Aura user. If that wasn't obvious before, it was more than crystal clear now. Taula rode the tree projectile like it was nothing, maintaining perfect balance then she hopped off at the last second, entering the portal that they'd used to come here.
…
"Yeh reckon... hic... tha' boy ain't... splattered?" One of the Drunk Twins mumbled, nearly falling off his seat.
"Nahhh, Taula's there... she don't let 'em die much..." The second one hiccupped while chugging his bottle.
The gate suddenly glowed brightly, making both of them look over with mild interest.
Taula shot out immediately from the portal at tremendous speed, digging both of her feet into the ground as she skidded across the dirt while holding Klaus securely in her arms.
She left two long trenches in the earth.
"Wooh! Finally!" She let out a huge sigh of relief, dropping Klaus down somewhat unceremoniously to the ground and jogging over to meet the Drunk Twins. "Did you see that entrance? Now you have to give me a drink as payment!"
Klaus sat up slowly and looked at Taula, who was perfectly conversing with the two guards that only spoke incomprehensible gibberish.
She understood them clearly and even accepted one bottle of alcohol they offered.
'I never want to do this again in my life.' Klaus thought while standing up slowly as his legs shook.
Whether it was going somewhere with Taula specifically… or even coming out to hunt for more herbs in general, he didn't want to do either ever again. 'Next time, I'll just order expensive herbs from the Capital.'
He'd rather wait weeks for a package to arrive than go into another mini-dungeon and get chased by different oversized monsters.
He walked past the gate entrance, and Taula, who was seated casually with the Drunk Twins sharing drinks, looked up.
"Klaus, want some?" She held the bottle up cheerfully. "It's a good drink that makes my tummy feel all warm and jumpy!"
"Not interested." Klaus said flatly.
Taula raised an eyebrow. Was Klaus the kind of person that didn't like liquor? She wanted to know her friend better and understand his preferences.
"Well, should I take you back to the tow—"
"I can go by myself." Klaus walked past her and summoned one of his remaining swords from his storage ring.
One of his four good polished swords was destroyed by that snake, so he needed to buy more replacements soon.
Klaus also wasn't worried about getting lost on the way back since he remembered the general direction that they came from, and he had a mode of transportation that made getting there much easier.
'Besides, I'll use Magnetic Field's range for metal sensing again.' He thought, activating the spell and feeling for the metal gates of Galen Town in the distance.
Now he felt more like an actual mage, though this whole search for herbs proved definitively that he was really weak physically and needed to improve much more.
'Tomorrow, I'll head back into Galen Dungeon for proper grinding.'
Taula was just a regular commoner girl and if she was this strong naturally, then there was no hope for him honestly so he needed to become a being capable of defying the laws of reality through magic.
"Time to boil some herbs." Klaus muttered under his breath.
He activated Magnetic Field fully, feeling the connection form between his magic and his weapon.
Without wasting any time and ignoring how his hands hurt from all the strain, he positioned himself and shot off the ground, the sword pulling him rapidly in the direction of Galen Town.
Taula looked at his disappearing back and suddenly felt guilty about everything.
'Klaus is mad at me…' She thought sadly. Though she didn't exactly know why he was upset… He was her friend so they needed to talk more and spend time together and if he didn't want to talk with her anymore, that meant they weren't friends. 'No…'
She turned to the Drunk Twins with a desperate expression.
"Uh… how do I make Klaus not be mad at me anymore?" Taula asked earnestly.
The two adventurers looked at each other before smiling knowingly.
…
'Maybe it isn't entirely her fault.' Klaus thought as he stood in the kitchen of his private apartment about an hour later.
He had been held up at the town gates for a bit since the guards were suspicious of someone flying on a sword, but eventually the city guards let him pass after checking his ID.
'She's the reason I got these herbs after all.'
After having a hot bath and making absolutely sure he got rid of the disgusting sweaty smell gotten from running around Yerefall Grove all day, he was feeling more reasonable and less angry.
"The reason I got all of these herbs so easily was because Taula helped out." Klaus muttered to himself. If it was only him that had entered Yerefall Grove alone, there was a very high percentage that he would have died.
He didn't even have a proper map or anything, and he didn't have the strength to fight off an entire swarm of Razorwing Hornets. Taula had been genuinely helpful despite her flaws. "I should at least thank her properly."
She liked liquor, right? From the way she was drinking the bottle they gave her enthusiastically… Maybe he would buy her a whole crate of good alcohol or something as an apology gift.
"It's time to focus." Klaus muttered and called up the System screen mentally.
A glowing interface appeared in front of him.
「Status」
「Spin!」
「Merge」
This was the first time he was going to be using the Merge feature since he reincarnated in the body of this commoner mob character.
Klaus selected「Merge」and new text appeared.
「Welcome to Merge. With Merging, it is possible to combine three items together at maximum. There are certain rules that follow merging: You can only merge items of the same type, for example Herbs can only be merged with herbs, Potions can only be merged with potions, Swords can only be merged with swords and Skills / Spells can only be merged with themselves.」
Klaus read carefully, nodding along. That made sense, it wouldn't be sensible to try and merge a sword with a shield.
The text continued.
「Merging similar to spinning the wheel is based more on chance. The Chance calculation begins blinking at random and if your item has 70% chance or above, you will be allowed to merge the items or skills together but if it's below that then the items will be discarded and can't be used again. Please note that percentages are decided at random so good luck!」
"What the hell? Chances?" Klaus blinked in disbelief. Why wasn't it 100% success? What did it mean by "discarded" too?!
Only the gacha wheel was supposed to be about luck… why was the system turning this next feature into a luck-based gamble too?!
"Is this some kind of gambling system?" Klaus said aloud.
That was most definitely what it looked like. The whole thing was designed like a mobile gacha game.
"Just get it over with." He muttered. He couldn't be surprised about the world fucking with him anymore at this point.
Several glowing gold circles appeared on the kitchen counter in front of him, shimmering with magical energy.
「Place the three items that you want to merge on the designated spots. You can either place one kind of item in a slot or multiple kinds of that one item there」
Klaus carefully placed exactly 15 units of each of the herbs that he had gathered into three of these glowing circles.
「Circle 1: Azure Lotus Roots (15)」
「Circle 2: Crimson Starflowers (15)」
「Circle 3: Silverleaf Moss (15)」
A confirmation tab appeared floating in front of his face.
「Would you like to merge?」
「Y / N」
Klaus hesitated for just a moment, then tapped Y with his finger.
Another tab immediately formed in front of his face.
「Merge Bar: 0.00%」
And then it began blinking rapidly, cycling through different percentage values at random.
2.33%
99.9%
0.0000%
45.67%
Each time the number dropped below 70%, Klaus felt like he wanted to cry. All of this would be for nothing?! Sure Taula had packed some herbs on her side as backup, but still…
Would all the disgusting worm experiences and near-death chases mean absolutely nothing?!
The percentage kept blinking…
15.2%
88.5%
3.01%
92.7%
Klaus's heart was pounding. After a full minute of near heart-attacks watching the numbers flash, the blinking finally stopped.
The value showed.
「Merge Bar: 70.00%」
Exactly the minimum threshold!
「Congratulations, your Items will be merged now!」
Klaus let out a massive sigh of relief, his legs nearly giving out.
A blinding golden light covered his whole line of sight, forcing him to squint. It lasted for several seconds before stopping abruptly.
When the light faded, it revealed… a singular herb that looked like an intricate root system, but it was glowing with three different colors swirling inside it that were blue, red, and silver.
「Congratulations! You have received: Tri-Essence Spirit Root」
「Tri-Essence Spirit Root: A legendary herb created through the fusion of Azure Lotus Root, Crimson Starflower, and Silverleaf Moss. This root embodies the unified essence of all three components and can only be used once in a lifetime. Upon consumption, it provides a dramatic boost to all aspects of an aspiring wizard including Mana Reserves, Spell Potency, Mana Recovery Rate, and even Resonance quality. Must be consumed by eating the entire root.」
"What the hell…" Klaus picked up the root carefully and looked at the description again, then examined the root itself.
Dramatically increase all stats of a mage? Did that mean he would stop being a useless mob character and at least be decent enough not to be carried by Taula constantly?
He lifted it up to examine it closely. He couldn't sense any mana emanating from it directly, but the three-colored glow was mesmerizing.
However, he trusted the System tabs completely.
Klaus washed the root quickly under water, then put it in his mouth and began chewing. It tasted strange… it was sweet, spicy, and cool all at once.
He swallowed.
"Nothing happened…" Klaus looked down at his hands, turning them over. He was supposed to at least feel a bit weird or different, but that wasn't it at all.
He felt completely normal.
"Was this a sca…"
He felt something wet dribble out of his nose. He used his hand to wipe it away and looked down.
It was black blood.
"What the…"
The black blood began seeping out faster… from his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and even from the pores meant for removing sweat from his skin. It was pouring out of him.
'What is happening to me…' Klaus's vision swam. He collapsed sideways, completely without energy in his body. His limbs wouldn't respond.
Was the root poisonous because he was a commoner?! What the hell was going on?!
「Congratulations, you are currently ranking up to Second Class Wizard Apprentice!」
"Second… class?" Klaus didn't even have time to be surprised or process what that meant.
His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed completely unconscious for probably the second time since he had reincarnated in this world.