Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Groveling

With the Arena business over, I retrieved my bag from the classroom and headed home. Most of my classmates were still sulking at the Arena grounds. I hoped they’d manage to pull themselves together and keep going because there was much worse in store for us.

As I passed through the school gate, brooding over the miserable state of my class, a voice called out to me.

“Huh! It’s you!”

The voice belonged to a casually dressed young man sporting a cast on his arm. I wondered who he was.

“You’re the adventurer that saved me the other day,” he remarked. “I wanted to thank you.”

The man, who introduced himself as Kiku, was the adventurer I’d found getting attacked inside the orc lord room while I was power leveling with my sister. He was injured but had made it out, which was what mattered.

Kiku explained that he wanted to express his gratitude after he’d escaped, but he didn’t know who I was. He had been waiting by the school entrance, gambling on the hope that an adventurer of my age and strength would have to be a student at Adventurers’ High.

“Thank you!” said Kiku, bowing his head low while tears welled in his eyes. “Two of my friends didn’t make it, but you guaranteed me and three others did. Thank you so much!”

Losing his two companions must’ve been tough to endure.

“Don’t mention it,” I replied. “How’s your arm?”

He was probably the tank with the beaten-up shield. The countless blows dealt by the orcs had broken his arm, which he now wore inside a plaster cast. Because he wasn’t a student here, accessing medical care from a Priest would cost a lot of money. Most people preferred to save on expenses and let their fractures heal naturally.

“This? It’s nothing,” he said with a forced smile. “My companions will be right as rain soon enough, nothing permanent.” Faking cheerfulness was all that kept him from breaking down.

While he was here, I wanted to know something. During our conversation, I casually asked why they’d gone to the orc lord room despite the danger. He told me someone had tricked them.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We were told there was a treasure chest in the room. But had no idea it was the orc lord room,” he said.

When Kiku went to his party’s meeting spot on the fifth floor, he saw one of his companions getting hit on by another party that wouldn’t take no for an answer. He had intervened and calmed things down. A member of the other party then told Kiku about a treasure chest as a way of apologizing. Kiku and his party accepted the gesture, going to the location provided without checking their map, not knowing it was the orc lord room.

Though the Adventurers’ Guild posted warnings about the orc lord, few adventurers had seen the monster, and his party hadn’t recognized it.

A member of Kiku’s party went down instantly. They gave one of their party members time to escape and get help, but orc soldiers blocked the passageway and locked the rest inside.

Treasure chests didn’t even appear on the fifth floor. Sending Kiku’s party to the orc lord room under the guise of an apology gave this the stink of an intentional act of evil on behalf of the flirting party.

Suddenly, Kiku gasped and said, “It was them!”

I turned to follow his line of sight, finding a group of Class D students walking our way. Among them was one of Kariya’s cronies.

“H-Hey!” shouted Kiku. “Some trick you played yesterday! Two of my friends are dead because of you!!!”

“Hmm?” one hummed. “Ah, it’s the guy from that party of losers. So, did you enjoy the orc lord?”

“Y-You bastard!” responded Kiku, growling and enraged by the student’s callousness. He took a jab at the student, who dodged effortlessly and punched back, sending Kiku sprawling on the floor. We were still inside the magic field, so the difference between their physical enhancements was on display.

“That’ll teach your girl not to turn down strong guys like us.”

Holy shit, I thought. These students sent this party to the orc lord room because they were salty about getting rejected? These are people’s lives they’re throwing away! 

The Class D students laughed with one another as they walked away.

“Ain’t no treasure chests on the fifth floor, dumbass,” said a student mockingly.

“What more can you expect from an average Joe?” scoffed another, shrugging his shoulders. “Ignorance kills.”

“And he’s buddies with a Class E kid?” one of them asked. “Losers have to stick together, right?”

Kiku crumpled to his knees and sobbed, releasing his sense of loss.

Did kids sell their souls when they enrolled at this school? Their disdainful attitude toward Class E was one thing, but to scorn ordinary people and have no qualms about MPKing* them over a stupid argument was unforgivable. They laughed among themselves with no remorse for the lives they’d taken away, and I knew they’d gone too far. What future awaited a country that let assholes like them roam free?

*TIPS: MPK is short for Monster Player Kill and refers to intentionally luring monsters or otherwise provoking an encounter with monsters to cause the death of another player.

“Come on, Mr. Kiku. You’ll get dirty,” I said, helping Kiku stand up and pat the dirt away.

“Thanks,” said Kiku as he sniveled.

When Kariya had beaten up Akagi, I felt little desire to retaliate against Class D. Part of me accepted that this was how they managed things here. But Kiku’s story had lit a flickering flame inside me, one that was enough that I’d get a little payback if I ever had the chance.

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll make them pay for what they did one day. Go home for today,” I said.

“By yourself?” asked Kiku, still sniveling. “No, they’re too strong... And I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

Taking them down now would end badly, and I understood Kiku’s doubts about my ability based on my obesity. But I had a simple solution: train hard and get in shape. I just had to level up, change jobs, and learn new skills.

“I’m gonna train to get a lot stronger. And just so you know, I’m no pushover,” I said.

Kiku’s lips trembled as he expressed his gratitude. “Thank you... Thank you so much...”

I could tell he was a good person. After all, he’d come all the way to find a kid whose name he didn’t even know to say thanks.

The laughter and delighted voices of the class D students continued echoing. Two people had died, and all those assholes could do was joke about it. I wanted to teach them a lesson about right and wrong as a person, not an adventurer. Weakness was not a sin, strength was no virtue, so the strong had no right to treat the weak like their playthings.

***

To punish Kariya and the rest of Class D, I had to reach level 10 and visit Granny’s Goods to change jobs. Remembering that Kariya had a backer in Class B, it’d be better to get a couple more levels in.

I wanted to speed up my leveling, but things had slowed down recently. At level 8, bridge-dropping once an hour wasn’t efficient, so I started skipping dungeon raids some days to exercise to accompany my diet.

There was only one thing to do about it.

***

“So, bro, where are we going today?” asked Kano. She’d equipped her demon wolf armor and performed a well-timed shadowboxing routine. Beneath her demon wolf leather jacket and gloves was a white blouse with a culotte, and she wore knee-high demon wolf boots. “Don’t I look just like a veteran adventurer?”

Not quite. In DEC, veteran adventurers of the Assault Clans found near the ninetieth floor dressed in full sets of artifact-class dark god armor, dragon king armor, and others. I would’ve loved to get my hands on a single piece, but I was too low-level to use them properly and would find them heavy, so I’d have to live without them.

“First, we’re gonna go to the fifth floor and get you to level 7, then climb down to the seventh floor and raise you up to level 9. Finally, we’ll tackle the tenth floor.”

“The tenth floor?!” said Kano, gasping. “We can go that far down?”

Apparently, the tenth floor was deeper than most ordinary adventurers ever traveled.

Raiders needed a level within the double digits and fighting strength exceeding that of regular people from their physical enhancements. If you could make it to this floor, clan scouts would take notice of you.

“We can. But first, I’ve got two knives for you. I thought you’d have an easier time wielding two small weapons at once,” I said.

“Oh my god. Thank you so much!” exclaimed Kano, beaming as she took the knives. She began elegantly slashing through the air.

“Right, let’s be off to the gate room.”

“’Kay!”

I remembered how Kiku groveled at my feet, with regret that would eat away at him for the rest of his life. Who was to say I wouldn’t suffer the same fate? Plenty of people had power go to their heads, like those Class D students, in the dungeon and at school. You could preach to them about morality and righteousness, but they’d carry on polluting the world with evil. I’d need more power to stand up against them and keep my family safe or do anything in this world.

If I took things slowly and felt content with my game knowledge, I might fall prey to cruel adventurers and could not save myself. Other players were out there, and I didn’t know who they were or when they might turn hostile, so I’d need to be quick about my strategy.

Let’s ramp things up a notch, I thought. I had to do it for my sake, and the adorable girl humming an out-of-tune melody behind me.