Alice Tale in Phantasmagoria

Under Shion-san"s guidance, we arrived at the boss room, so to speak.

In front of the ma.s.sive door, anxiety made my heart beat harder.

"As expected, this makes my heart race."

"You"re flat, so I bet one can hear your heartbeat really well."

Eh?

Does having large b.r.e.a.s.t.s make it difficult to hear the heartbeat?

"... hm? You"re not getting angry?"

"Eh? A-ahh! No, no, my b.r.e.a.s.t.s are still going to grow from now on!"

So this was a point to get angry, I see.

For me, large or small doesn"t matter at all though.

And actually, my b.r.e.a.s.t.s won"t grow anymore.

Because G.o.d decided so.

"... hey, why did you suddenly bring that up anyway?"

"Well, I thought you were nervous and wanted to calm you down."

"Please stop. That"s old man humor, Onee-chan."

That must"ve hit her hard because Shion-san let her head hang.

E-eh?

Did I just discourage the frontliner before the boss fight?

"Old man..."

"Wai, you"re too hung up over that, I"m sorry! I should"ve said it differently!"

"It"s fine, I don"t mind it..."

Then look at me!?

"Now now, let"s go, Onee-chan! Let"s kick some monster a.s.s to feel better!"

I grabbed Shion-sans arm and pushed the door open.

"Old man..."

I"m begging you here!?

Shion-san!

The room"s illumination from magic crystals was particularly strong for the ruin, like we had come out into daylight.

Inside the light room, I could see no enemy that might suddenly attack us.

I pulled Shion-san by the arm and completely entered the room for the moment.

Surveying the room, the roots spread all around caught my eyes.

And in the center of the room grew a splendid tree that almost reached the ceiling.

Did the roots grow from that tree?

While I was observing the tree, the door behind us suddenly slammed shut.

By itself.

"That surprised me..."

I thought someone was attacking us from behind.

I"d even turned around and taken a long, long look.

"It"s coming."

Ah, she"s back.

Shion-san got away from my hand and stepped forward, drew her sword and brandished it.

Eh, is something there?

"......... Hii!"

As I was looking at the room, suddenly an eye opened in the tree"s trunk.

...now that was a surprise.

Level 14 Elder Tree

I"ve identified it!

"Don"t get close! Alice!"

"Yes! Good luck!"

Shion-san ran towards the big tree.

As expected, it attacked with several of its roots acting like whips.

There are so many of them!

The slime"s whips don"t even compare!

Making the charging Shion-san its target, the big tree threw attacks at her from all directions.

Hey, isn"t this bad after all!?

I was a bit worried, but then she dodged the tree"s whips with dancing steps.

After gradually getting closer like that, once she was in range she attacked the tree with rapid strikes.

She chopped the wood, with her sword.

From the looks of it it"s bone-hard labor.

Apparently Uncle came here with her when Shion-san was an Apprentice Swordsman.

Then, the two could switch up the frontline work, but now Shion-san is alone.

If she gets tired before this is over...

And Shion-san"s Endurance is the same as mine!

Well, her level"s different though.

But... Uncle"s been dispatching monsters on request of the guild.

So he wasn"t just a sloth.

I"m glad, he actually has a job.

(Isn"t it about time now?)

Just when I thought that, my eyes met Shion-san"s.

She nodded.

I finally activated my magic.

No, there"s a reason why I didn"t attack straight away.

In short, if Shion-san doesn"t attack for a bit and build up aggro beforehand, the aggro will switch from her to me.

My magic is just that strong.

And once I have aggro, I can"t deal with it.

Uhm, wasn"t there a good term in relation to this?

——Leroy Jenkins![1]

I don"t want people to call me that!

Oops, play time over.

“Split the heavens and become a ray of light, to strike my enemies——— Thunder!”

The target"s so big there"s no way for me to miss.

Direct hit!

The tree"s movements stopped for a moment.

But that"s not enough to defeat it.

I noticed the tree begin to move once more.

All within predictions.

I steadied my breath.

10s cooldown.

With Shion-san here, there"s no———

"ALICE! It"s coming for you!"

"EHH!?"

I got aggro with just one attack!?

Like tentacles, the tree"s whips closed in on me.

Some of them were still attacking Shion-san so it"s not like I can"t dodge them at all though.

"CRAAAP!"

I desperately dodged.

I looked well and hit the ones I couldn"t dodge with the Lightning Rod.

I can shoot the next one soon——— I thought and got negligent.

"Wai! HYAAAA!!"

At some point, a tentacle had grabbed my ankle and suspended me midair.

Wait, wait!

From the belt down, my Leather Robe is like a skirt, so this posture is bad!

I reflexively pinned down my skirt.

"Is this the time to be embarra.s.sed!? You"re such a sheltered girl!"

Shion-san was shouting to me while showing off the divine display of both dodging the attacks against her and and warding off the whips that came to finish me off.

Nono, if anything I"m a man, you know!?

But what"s with this embarra.s.sment!?

All the while, the tentacle grabbing my leg creeped closer towards my body.

"Heyheyhey! Are you after me!? Are you after me!? You perverted tree!!"

I trash talked the monster.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I think I saw the tree"s eye smile.

No... that was my imagination, right?

"Wa, really, give... ugh"

From my leg, the tentacle coiled its way to my belly and b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Its only compa.s.sion was that it did it from above my clothes. But why does this peculiar pressure make me moan!?

"... ah, u"

"Woah.... that"s so hot, Alice...."

Don"t be impressed!

Ey, I"m not someone a monster like you can do with as you please!!

“Split the heavens and become a ray of light, to strike, AHH... my enemies! Thunder!!!”

I properly activated the magic and once more, it scored a direct hit on the perverted tree.

This time it seems the big tree couldn"t bear it and withered, dissolved and disappeared.

"Wahhh!"

I fell from where it had held me midair...

"Oops."

... but Shion-san caught me in a princess carry.

Ahhh, I"m getting princess-carried~~.

"You"re crying!?"

Shion-san looked a bit troubled.

"It"s still pure..."

"No, no, I know that."

"My heart isn"t tainted yet..."

"What!?"

Shion-san could only tilt her head in confusion at the mixed feelings a.s.saulting my male heart.

I sulked for a while, but then we finally opened the door in the middle of the room and arrived at the Wellspring of Blessings.

"Woah, is this the place?"

"Yeah. Pretty, right?"

Like Shion-san had said, the water seemingly welling up from below shone deep blue, maybe due to the magic crystals around it, maybe by itself.

Does it taste like a Blue Hawaiian[2], too?

"Can I just drink it?"

"Of course."

I got Shion-san"s okay, crouched down right there, scooped up water with both hands and drank it.

Okay, it"s water.

But drinking it gave me this nice and warm feeling throughout.

Also, my body faintly glowed like when I"m activating magic.

Impressed, I watched it all, but before long the light disappeared.

"Have a look at your Status?"

Prompted by Shion-san, I checked my Status.

Name: Alice
Race: Halfelf
Gender: Female
Age: 15
Cla.s.s: Mage
Level: 1

"Oh? ...o-oh?"

Mage... level 1!?

My level was reset?

"Well, I guess this is the starting line."

I see, putting it like this, I have thought I was catching up to Shion-san awfully quickly, considering I had only started adventuring the day before yesterday.

"But with this, you can also register at the guild."

"Right, the guild!"

Which reminds me, Aunty said I need to pay 1000 Rook, but not having an Apprentice Cla.s.s was the other condition.

"If you register at the guild, you can take all kinds of requests, sell drop items and so on. It"s the foundation of working as an adventurer."

"Adventurer, huh..."

"Although in all honesty, I don"t want you to force yourself too much, it is dangerous after all."

Shion-san embarra.s.sedly scratched her cheek.

"But for the moment..."

As always, Shion-san"s friendly smile felt good.

She smiled at me with it and...

"Congratulations on becoming an adventurer, Alice!"

"... thanks!"

I strongly grasped the hand Shion-san held out to me.