Ascension: Online

In the end, Hina-nee was the final winner of our six-way battle.

She received the reward - 37,500 gold from each of the other five contestants, myself included, for a total of 187,500 gold. She was now officially richer than I was, despite having played for a little less time. Right now, I had a little less than 150,000 gold - still quite a lot.

As an aside, Horiya logged back on after we finished our fight to pay his portion of the reward. Ichigo gave him a good beating, but it was better than getting one from Hina-nee.

In any case, with this six-way fight settled, the next step was to head out of Tianyin City and descend Mount Valgan.

"Hina-nee and I are planning to head down Mount Valgan today," I said. "What about the rest of you guys?"

"Well. I wouldn't mind taggin' along," Jim shrugged. "You're a pretty amusin' kid."

"Yeah, me too. There's not much left to do in these parts," Horiya added.

"If Horiya's coming with you, then so am I," Ichigo said nonchalantly.

There was just one person yet to answer. We all shifted our gazes to her.

"… I'll head down the mountain myself," Furuwa said at last, not meeting our eyes. With these brisk words as her answer, she left to head back into Tianyin.

"What's with her…?" Ichigo muttered.

"Love problems? Heh-"

"Idiot!" Ichigo smacked Horiya on the head, much to his dismay.

"O-Ow! The hell was that for?! Don't tell me… you like h-"

And another smack. Horiya was really getting it today.

Turning away from this shameful display, I sighed and shook my head.

"Let's go, Hina-nee…" I muttered before taking off in the direction of Tianyin as well. Hina-nee followed closely behind, looking around in curiosity.

"Oi, might as well eat lunch first before heading out, ay?" Jim suggested.

I pursed my lips. "Hm… yeah, sure, why not."

Jim then turned around to Ichigo and Horiya, who were still bickering. "Oi! Brats! You'll get bloody left behind if ya don't get your arses o'er here!"

Stopping their argument, the pair of boys hurried over to us and acted as if nothing had happened.

*****

We browsed Tianyin for a while, since there was still time left to kill before lunch. I, for one, had hoped there was a library here in this city, but according to the minimap in my System, there wasn't. Ming Ye from Xiyang Village had told me I could find out more about the world of Ascentia here, but so far, I haven't learned much.

Lunchtime soon rolled around as we browsed through the various buildings of Tianyin City door-to-door. After eating at the same restaurant, we headed for the eastern gates.

"Damn, the food here ain't half bad!" Ichigo chuckled as we walked. He had eaten the curry chiken.

"Wait until you try lissard steak," Horiya muttered in disgust. He had, unfortunately, eaten the same thing Hina-nee and I did this morning.

"Well, it ain't sushi, but it ain't that bad either," Jim shrugged.

Neither Hina-nee nor I participated in the conversation, mainly because our relationship with the three of them was still unclear. Jim was fine, I guess, but Ichigo and Horiya were definitely not my 'friends'. At best, we were temporary companions who had a common goal. The two of them seemed to want to befriend me, but… for that to happen, they would first need to make up for all the suffering they put me through in the past. And doing that would not be easy.

You know what they say - 'trust is easy to lose, but hard to gain back'. Friendship was of the same nature.

As we neared the eastern gates of Tianyin, we spotted a figure leaning against the stone wall. It was someone we recognized. We approached.

"Change your mind?" Ichigo laughed upon seeing her.

The girl, Furuwa, glanced at him with bored eyes. "No. I just feel worried about Sakura-senpai, that's all. She's traveling with four hardly-trustworthy men, after all."

"Are you kidding? You saw her fight earlier today. Even if all four of us teamed up on her together, there was no guarantee we would win," Horiya muttered.

"Oh, so you have thought about such things, huh?" Furuwa wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"You idiot, Horiya…" Ichigo facepalmed and shook his head at his friend's stupidity.

"Hah! I'm into older women, myself," Jim laughed. "If anythin', I see you all as my children."

"The hell? That's creepy," Ichigo sent Jim a look of skepticism.

"Heehee, it's okay~ no matter what happens, Kaze-kun will protect me," Hina-nee said with a warm smile as she hugged me tightly. "Isn't that right?"

I nodded. "Uh, yeah. But that said, it's not like you'll need my protection. I'll do it anyway though."

"Hehe, that's my Kaze-kun~" she rubbed her face against mine lovingly. I tried pushing her away, but to no avail. The guards at the gates nearby averted their gazes uncomfortably as they tried to ignore our existence.

"In any case, in order to balance the ratio of good people to perverts better, I have decided to join you," Furuwa declared, pushing herself off the wall and looking at me. "Kaze-kun, you can't reject me. You already invited me to join this morning, no?"

I sighed. "Yeah, yeah… fine, whatever."

"Hold on a minute," Hina-nee interjected with a stern look on her face as she stared into Furuwa's eyes.

"Y-Yes, Sakura-senpai?"

"… What did you just call Kaze-kun?"

"Huh? Uh… just 'Kaze-kun'. Why?"

"That's my nickname for him! No one else is allowed to call him that!" Hina-nee announced defensively, pulling me tighter to her as she pouted angrily.

"O-Oh, I see… in that case, just 'Kaze' will do then, yes?" Furuwa asked for confirmation.

Hina-nee's expression immediately turned bright and happy again. "Sure!"

The other three males of the group watched this exchange with a bewildered look on their faces.

"Geez, Igarashi… chick magnet much?" Ichigo muttered in disdain.

"Bloody straight… never knew ya had it in ya, kid," Jim chuckled softly.

"Damn, how am I losing to him with a LUC stat of 120?!" Horiya complained.

120? Heavens… he really spent nearly all of his SP into LUC, huh? He's currently the same level as me, so that means… he had 140 SP in total to spend across six stats, and he decided to use 120 all for LUC. I respect the dedication.

In any case, the six of us set out after that. Luckily, there was a path to head down - all we had to do was follow it. It wasn't too steep, and on either sides of the path were plains that felt out of place for on top of a mountain. Strangely, we were the only ones on this path. No one else, be it locals of this reality plane or other players, were on it. All the other players from last night's public event should also be leaving Tianyin sooner or later, and yet…

… Could the path ahead foster some kind of unknown danger we have yet to find out about?

I shook my head. As we walked, Ichigo, Horiya, and Jim livened things up by making small talk. Occasionally, they would pull Hina-nee into the conversation one way or another, despite her not wanting to interact with Ichigo and Horiya since they used to bully me.

Furuwa and I, on the other hand, walked behind the rest of the group in silence.

As we walked, however, I observed that we were beginning to descend into a forest. The path to follow was still here, but the trees blocked a lot of the sunlight, suddenly making it a bit dark. I noticed that no Magic Beasts were roaming about, unlike the forest between Xiyang Village and Tianyin City.

Curious, I took a look at the minimap via my System. It seemed that this forest, about 5 kilometers away from Tianyin City, didn't exactly have a name. I tried panning the map around to see where this forest led to and how much longer we had to go before reaching the base of the mountain, but it didn't show me that. Apparently, the map only updated as I reached certain locations.

Well, that was fine. I wasn't dying to know or anything anyway.

"…" Furuwa scanned our surroundings, eyes darting to every shadow as she looked for any sign of movement.

"… You feel it too, huh?" I asked under my breath so only she could hear.

"Yeah… this place… it feels unnatural."

Despite this place being a forest, it felt oddly… dead. An area that was supposed to be teeming with life, from normal animals to Magic Beasts, was completely silent and eerie despite the broad daylight.

I sighed and looked around.

"I have a bad feeling about this…"