Two days had passed.
Nero and his group travelled.
They all had goals of their own, and the most similar was to find their families.
Alive or dead, none matters.
And so, Nero decided to accompany the trio of teenagers.
Not like he had any family to find.
But he would feel bad if the three were to die.
He wouldn't be burdened eternally to the point that he would blame himself for the rest of his life, of course.
However, it would leave his mouth feeling bitter.
They're all holed up in the abandoned warehouse right now.
The smell of rust and broken dreams filled the air.
… and whatever questionable ingredients Kaito had cooked up for tonight's dinner.
"Seriously, what did you put in that soup?"
Haru asked.
The hoodie man pinched his nose while stirring the questionable concoction over the makeshift campfire.
"It's called 'resourcefulness,'" Kaito held up a can proudly with a label so faded it could've been either dog food or a premium beef stew.
"Found it behind a vending machine. Expiration dates are just suggestions anyway."
In this survival world, it is.
"That's not resourcefulness," Haru shot back, "that's biological warfare with extra steps."
Yui looked up.
She organized their medical supplies.
Her gentle smile carried just a hint of wry amusement.
"Should I... should I try cooking instead? Since I'm the one who gathered most of these ingredients anyway?"
Both Kaito and Haru immediately dropped to their knees in synchronized bows.
"We apologize!"
"Please forgive our incompetence!"
"Your resource-gathering skills are legendary!"
"We are unworthy!"
Nero chuckled from his spot against the concrete pillar.
He watched the impromptu apology theater.
But his gaze went forward.
Level 13.
He'd managed to grind out two more levels over the past couple days.
The progress was painfully slow.
The experience required kept increasing… although he couldn't see the parameters.
But the fact that despite killing a lot of monsters with the shared EXP from Aurelia, it still only gave him that little amount of levels.
That being said, the monster encounters were slowly becoming more routine than challenging.
"Man, I'm still stuck at level 7," Kaito complained, apparently checking his own status screen.
"This leveling system is brutal. It's like the developers want us to suffer."
Haru muttered, "At least you're level 7…"
"I'm level 4. Apparently hiding behind cover doesn't give as much experience as actually fighting." He gazed at an unseen object in front of him with his eye twitching.
"I'm... I'm level 3," Yui said softly, looking slightly embarrassed.
"T-Though most of my experience came from healing you guys, not from combat."
While the trio went aboard with Nero and Aurelia's monster slaying, they made sure to contribute and grow their own status and skills.
Needless to say, leveling up was a lot tougher than they expected.
It wasn't like those in anime or novels they read, where a single strong monster could level them to a hundred in an instant.
Nonetheless, it was fun. Like they're in a video game… just the hardcore edition.
"This whole thing is so weird," Kaito continued; he waved his hand through the air like he was manipulating an invisible interface.
"I mean, we literally have status screens now. With stats and skills and everything. It's like we're living in one of those generic isekai manga."
"Don't forget the level-up notifications… complete with that satisfying 'ding' sound, of course."
Haru added with a dry tone.
"At least we don't have to defeat the Demon Lord to get home," Yui said with a gentle smile, then paused.
"W-We... we don't have to do that, right?"
The three of them looked at Nero as if he got the answers.
"..."
Of course, Nero just gave them the deadpan look.
Meanwhile, Aurelia sat perfectly upright near the warehouse's entrance.
She's completely unaffected by their talk about video game mechanics.
Rather… she can't relate.
Not that she needed levels anyway.
The woman was already on a power scale that made video game bosses look like tutorial enemies.
Nero's been thinking about it for the past two days.
Ever since they'd started this routine of scavenging, surviving… and trying not to die from Kaito's cooking.
The problem was becoming clearer with each passing hour.
He was weak.
Painfully so.
Sure, his stats had improved.
He'd gotten decent at creative monster disposal.
But that was like bringing a butter knife to a nuclear war.
Where's the OP MC he was supposed to be?
He needed to get stronger. Even faster than the current rate.
"Yo, Mr. Nero," Kaito called out, having recovered from his bow of shame and now waving his broken bat in the air.
"You've been staring at nothing for, like, twenty minutes. Did the apocalypse finally break your brain?"
"My brain was broken long before the apocalypse," Nero replied, glancing over at the two idiots.
"I'm just verifying if the warranty expired for my brain surgery."
"Wow, that's... surprisingly philosophical," Haru said as if he heard something profound.
"... Are you having an existential crisis? Because if so, can you schedule it for after dinner? This soup isn't going to eat itself."
"Trust me, nobody's going to eat that soup willingly; even the trash can would vomit it out." Nero gave an uppercut of truth with his words.
Yui giggled softly behind her hand.
Nero glanced over at Aurelia.
As the saint of blender maintained her guard, her sword sat across her lap.
She's currently gazing at the dark sky with unknown thoughts.
Her golden eyes seemed to glow faintly.
Even while on guard, she looked like she could cut through bosses with just her pinky finger.
Meanwhile, he was over here celebrating the fact that he could crush tutorial monsters with moderate efficiency.
The gap was... substantial.
No, fuck it. It was a wide gap in the ass. Dimension-sized.
"Hey, Aurelia," he called out, making his decision.
She turned toward him with that trademark expression.
Her glowing gaze shifted from the sky to focus on him completely.
"Yes, Lord Nero?"
The others stopped their soup-related debate to listen.
Nero took a deep breath. He was feeling oddly nervous for some reason.
"Could you... teach me how to use a sword?... Well, not just swing it around?"
The warehouse went dead silent.
Even the crackling of their campfire seemed to pause in surprise.
Kaito's jaw dropped so far it nearly hit his broken bat.
"... Dude, did he just ask the scary angel lady to teach him how to use a sword?"
He whispered to Haru.
"She's not scary," Haru immediately responded, but then he paused.
"... Well, okay, she's A BIT terrifying, but in a 'terminator under the guise of a beautiful angel' kind of way."
Yui overheard the exchange with gentle amusement.
Aurelia blinked once.
Twice even.
Like she was processing a request that had never been made before.
"You... wish to learn swordsmanship from me, Lord Nero?"
She felt like she'd been blessed with a miraculous opportunity.
"If you're willing to teach, of course," Nero said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
"I mean… you're probably overqualified to teach 'Sword Fighting for Dummies,' but—"
"I would be honored to instruct you, Lord Nero."
Aurelia interrupted with a grateful bow.
For the first time, her expression changed from serious to something that might have been pleased from what she heard.
"Wait, really?" Nero asked. He was surprised by how quickly she'd agreed.
"Of course. It is my duty to serve and protect my Lord… Guiding you to better defend yourself serves both purposes."
She stood gracefully, her armor catching the firelight.
"However, I must warn you—my training methods are... thorough."
The way she said 'thorough' made it sound like a polite word for 'potentially fatal.'
"Uh oh," Kaito whispered to Yui and Haru beside him. "I know that tone. That's the 'you're about to suffer' tone."
"... I can handle it." Nero had a stoned soldier look.
Though, he was already starting to second-guess his decision.
Aurelia then nodded once. Her gaze was sharp and decisive.
"Very well. We shall begin now, Lord Nero."
***
STATUS UPDATE
---
Name: Nero Walker (Jobless Degenerate)
Race: Human
Level: 11 → 13
Stats:
STR: 1.3/10 → 1.35/10
DEX: 1.1/10
INT: 1.25/10
VIT: 1.3/10 → 1.35/10
LUCK: 1.005/10
CHA: 0.8/10 (oof.)
Active Skills:
– [Empty]
Passive Skills:
– [Greater Instinct (C), Lv: 1]
Unique Abilities:
– [Waifu Summoner (SSR)]
– [Copycat (A) (Flawed)]
---
***
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