His rational side warned him this wasn't the right move.
But he was already in. His blade had cut down four or five Windwasps, and their aggro was shifting toward him. There was no time to hesitate. The only option now was to wipe them out.
Crack!
With system assistance, the orange-red blade moved like that of a seasoned swordsman—smooth, precise, then suddenly vicious as it drove straight for vital points. Satoru plunged into the swarm without hesitation, chaining Sword Skills in rapid succession.
A burst of sharp impact sounds rang out.
At the same time, drawn by the damage and rising aggro, the Windwasps pivoted midair. Their stingers snapped forward as they swarmed him from every direction.
In an instant, his HP dropped noticeably.
The stingers carved red streaks across Yurnero's body. The deepest cuts looked like torn flesh, yet beneath them there was no blood or muscle—only clean, light-red system lines. His face was already lined with over a dozen shallow cuts.
It was like throwing himself straight into a hive.
At this rate, he'd be stung all over.
From a distance, his figure was almost swallowed by the mass of Windwasps. The sharp clashes and tearing impacts made it seem as if he could be torn apart at any moment.
His steadily falling HP was a silent warning.
And yet, he remained in complete control.
Yurnero, a Level 15 one-handed curved sword user, ran a two Strength, one Agility build. His weapon, the +4 Crimson Sickle Fang, carried two bonuses to Sharpness and two to Precision. It wasn't a rare drop, but it easily outclassed the blue weapons sold by NPCs.
With a two-level advantage over the Windwasps, two skill hits from the enhanced blade were enough to kill one. If multiple targets were caught in a single strike, even a pseudo-AOE clear was possible.
Windwasps were classic glass-cannon mobs, high damage and low durability. There was no way they could push Yurnero's HP below one-third before being wiped out.
So despite how dangerous it looked, despite the reckless impression, the fight was completely under control. A calculated, low-risk engagement.
If he hadn't been keeping an eye on the girl behind him, those ten or twenty Windwasps would've gone down even faster.
He still kept a trace of suspicion toward her, a lingering thought that she might stab him in the back. But it turned out he'd been overthinking it. The girl simply watched him with concern, her expression filled with nothing but worry that he might get hurt because of her.
One minute and sixteen seconds.
Satoru flicked the Crimson Sickle Fang and scanned the field of shattered fragments before settling his gaze on her.
Now that he was closer, her beauty stood out even more. Still shaken from being surrounded earlier, she sat on the ground, breathing softly, a little fast. After a moment, she lifted her head again, that same smile appearing on her lips.
Come to think of it… that really is a beautiful smile.
His gaze drifted slightly, but the faint golden hue at the edge of his vision was impossible to ignore.
How long had it been since he'd seen someone this straightforward? It felt… unfamiliar.
Their eyes met, slowly at first, until they finally locked.
"..."
The hero who had rushed in to save her suddenly found himself unsure how to begin, while the girl simply stared straight at him, making no effort to hide it.
An awkward silence settled between them, lingering for a full thirty seconds.
"Ahem." In the end, Satoru spoke first, unable to endure her gaze any longer. It was strange. What was there to look at on his face? "Are… you okay?"
At least he'd managed to say something appropriate.
"I'm… fine. Thank you." The girl paused, a faint smile forming as she nodded. A strand of her light-colored hair slipped across her forehead, and she raised a hand to tuck it behind her ear, turning her face slightly. "Really, thank you so much."
Her voice was soft and easy on the ears, her sincerity unmistakable. For some reason, Satoru felt a faint sense of relief.
"That's good. Recover first. This is still a respawn area."
He opened his inventory, drank a potion himself, then took out a higher-grade one, set it to allow pickup, and handed it to the girl sitting on the ground.
She accepted it without hesitation.
Dressed in a common set of shop gear, she didn't have much in the way of stats. A thin white crew-neck shirt with a light blue leather jacket over it, no arm guards, leaving her forearms bare.
It was a clean, simple outfit, but if there was a reason even standard gear could stand out…
…it was probably her hair, smooth and faintly glowing under the sunlight.
Light gold, light blue, and pure white. The three colors came together in a pleasing balance. More technically speaking, her overall color palette was well put together. If not for the dirt and smudges from earlier, she would have looked even more striking.
A girl's hands really are more delicate.
Satoru's gaze lingered on her forearm.
He was fairly slender, but there was still a quiet firmness to his build—lean, but not weak. Not from training, just the way a man's body naturally developed.
In contrast, her arm was delicate, almost fragile. And yet, someone like her had still picked up a sword and fought. That alone made him admire her courage even more.
That one-handed sword…
Satoru glanced at the weapon lying on the ground.
An "Excellent One-Handed Sword."
That was literally its name. Not because it was actually excellent, but because it was just a standard shop weapon with a hollow, generic label.
"If your level and gear aren't good enough, coming out here like this is dangerous," he said after a brief hesitation.
He had expected some kind of pushback. Anyone who came out here alone probably had a stubborn streak.
But instead—
"Mm… sorry for troubling you." The girl pressed her lips together slightly.
She accepted it without resistance.
Tilting her head back, she drank the potion, exposing the smooth line of her neck. His gaze lingered there for a moment before he looked away.
Satoru scratched his head.
"Let's head back to the village first. You're exhausted, and going back alone is risky. If something happens again, saving you just now would've been pointless."
He had already collected the Windwasp drops, so his main objective for coming out here was done.
"Is that alright? I wouldn't want to trouble you," she asked, tilting her head.
"No need for formal speech." Satoru sent a party request. Two seconds later, the two strangers became teammates.
"She… Sheeta?"
He glanced at the party interface, reading her name.
It was unexpectedly simple, yet seemed to carry a hint of meaning. Her level was 13, two below his.
"Yurnero… Yurnero-san, right?" she asked softly, confirming his name in return.
"No need for 'san.'." As he said that, the echo of Argo's constant "Yu-san this" and "Yu-san that" seemed to ring in his ears again, making him sigh. "I'm getting tired of it."
"I see." She lowered her head in thought, then looked up again, blinking those lively eyes as she spoke frankly. "Then… Nero?"
It was already a nickname, and now she was dropping even the last bit of it for something more familiar. Though come to think of it, could Yurnero even be considered a full name to begin with?
"Call me whatever you want. Can you stand?"
If he were some teenage boy just discovering romance, being called that by a cute girl might've sent his thoughts running wild. Too bad. He was just a lowly otaku in his early twenties, already well aware of how harsh reality could be. No blushing, no awkward fumbling.
"I'm fine."
She got up and brushed herself off.
"Then let's go. Before they respawn." Satoru gave her one last glance, then turned toward the narrow mountain path.
Sheeta watched him walk ahead, smiled faintly, then bent down to pick up her sword and followed after him with light steps.