Another World Survival: Min-maxing My Support and Summoning Magic - Volume 03

Chapter 55: The Mysterious Characters On the second night in the different world, I wandered through the forest, barely able to stand on my own two feet. Together with my familiar, I had been wandering on my own fighting orcs. I would have been a goner had Tamaki not come running to my aid, saving me at the last moment. Arisu had been searching for me after I’d secretly left without saying a word. "Let’s find out what’s going on. I’m not sure how Arisu feels, so I don’t know what we should do yet," she said, vaguely referring to the relationship between Arisu and my nemesis, Shiba. My heart sank at the thought of the two of them being so close. It was an unbearable ache in my chest. But Tamaki was very insistent that we stay to figure out what was happening. "Kazu-san, come on! Let’s go to the high school and get to the bottom of this!" Tamaki insisted. Her encouragement pulled me to my feet. She smiled sweetly at me. "It’ll be okay, Kazu-san. The Arisu I know is stubborn and headstrong, but she’s loyal—loyal to the very end." ※※※ Tamaki and I left the white chamber and stepped back into the woods. The flashlight in her hand lit up the orcs charging toward us, and the battle resumed. Thankfully, I wasn’t fighting alone this time. Tamaki was here. She was a first-rate swordsman with a swordsmanship rank of 6. The former general’s sword in Tamaki’s hand danced in the darkness, leaving a trail of silver behind it. Tamaki slew an orc with every slash from the silver sword. Normal orcs or elites, they didn’t stand a chance against her. All I had done in the middle of the battle was to cast the Rank 5 Night Sight spell. "Oh, wow! It’s so bright even though it’s nighttime. This is incredible, Kazu-san!" Tamaki was elated, almost bouncing around with joy. Her happiness was infectious, too. The young woman adjusted to the shadowy atmosphere and shut off her illumination device before continuing to attack like a monster. Before long, I had even improved my level by half. We visited the pale chamber; however, there was nothing particular to do there, so we hastily disengaged. Kazuhisa Level: 16 Support Magic 5 Summoning Magic: 5 Skill Points: 3 "By the way, Rank 6 is amazing," I said. "Heh-heh. I’m the first one with rank 6!" We were so strong that we even had the luxury of having a conversation while fighting. Tamaki single-handedly obliterated all of the orcs with an impressive display of power, leaving no chance for any of them to escape alive. After the massacre finished, Tamaki gleefully scooped up all the gems that had been left behind by her foes. These included copious amounts of red gems from earlier in the journey, which she knew were a sign that I had been here before her. "I probably didn’t get them all, but I bet these are spoils from you, right, Kazu? It serves as a good marker," Tamaki said as she tucked away the collected gems. "Yeah, lots of orcs were surrounding the pillar." I glanced at the strange object in front of me. What was it? And why had the orcs gathered around it? "Kazu, did our school have something like this?" "No idea. I only went to the high school. I’m not that familiar with this place." "Hmm, I don’t think we had anything like this." Tamaki twisted her head and shone her light at the pillar again. "Look. I’ve never seen this odd pattern before." She gestured to the red design snaking around the pillar directly in front of our faces. Wait… are those words? "Language Comprehension." I focused on the red pattern and activated the magic I got from the Mia Vendor. "Coordinate Fixation, Space Search, Range Limitation." "Kazu, what are you talking about?" "It’s what’s written here." "I don’t get it." Me neither, I thought, uneasy. All I could think of was some kind of instant travel or teleportation. I wanted to go straight to Shiki’s place and see what her take on it was, but that had to wait. I shook my head and looked at Tamaki. "Let’s leave figuring this out for later. We should go to the high school first." "Got it. Leave the small fry on the way to me!" Tamaki thumped her chest with enthusiasm. She must have underestimated her physical skill rank of 1, as she coughed and spluttered afterwards. My apprehension was thick in my chest, but having her with me eased my worries. With her swordsmanship at Rank 6 and my summoning magic Rank 5 familiar protecting us, we could take on anyone but a General. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw how overjoyed she was. Just being near her gave me energy. It felt like an illusion that only moments ago I had been aimlessly wandering around the darkness in a dismal mood. "Thank you again, Tamaki," I said. "No need to thank me, Kazu-san," she replied, puffing out her chest in faux-innocence, yet it was only a facade. Her seeming naivete was actually a danger. That same anxiety from earlier came rushing back to me. "It’s all right, Kazu-san! Arisu just can’t read the room!" Tamaki said, completely misunderstanding the source of my concern. And Arisu likely wouldn’t want her to be saying this to her. I managed to swallow those words somehow. Glancing down at my watch, I saw it was past 8 PM. Had I been wandering for two hours? No wonder I had levelled up so much. Not just Arisu, but Tamaki must’ve also been worried searching for me before. I felt awful for worrying her. Shiki, Mia, and the others were probably worried, too. But we couldn’t return to the Cultural Arts Center yet. We still needed to do some things, resolve some stuff. "Let’s go, Kazu-san." "Yeah." Tamaki and I headed toward the direction