Shortcoming

Seeing Nari's expression change and hearing her yell something, instantly made Yasuo know that something was wrong.

Yasuo quickly got an anxious feeling and looked back to see the giant golem towering over him starting its next attack. 'It wasn't defeated…THAT didn't kill it?' Yasuo thought to himself in dread.

Not wanting to believe that they couldn't defeat a golem, Yasuo charged in without much thought and jumped at the attacking golem.

"Yasuo, no!" Yelled Nari out.

Having jumped in the air, Yasuo's thoughts finally caught up to his actions. 'Oh no, the golem's attack will hit me first!'

In this dangerous situation Yasuo managed to keep a cool head, knowing that he was in augmented reality, and began to rationally think of his next course of action. 'Okay Yasuo, think. A normal attack with my dagger will not reach the golem, my ice spear will not form in time, and my mana barrier will not be strong enough to stop the golem's attack when it hits me…'

With nothing seeming to work out, an idea suddenly sprung up: 'Wait, I shouldn't let the golem's attack charge up. Now that his arm still doesn't have full momentum, my barrier might be able to withstand it.'

With this plan only working if Yasuo took action immediately, Yasuo didn't hesitate for even second. At this point it was his only option.

Using as much mana as he could, Yasuo poured it into his mana barrier, expanding it as far as possible. With the mana barrier having reached a diameter of over three meters, it collided with the golem's attack, making the whole barrier immensely tremble.

'…It didn't break…' Yasuo thought in amazement, not thinking that it would actually work.

The returning force of the mana barrier was strong enough to put the golem off balance, making it fall backward. Yasuo was all too familiar with this situation, and didn't waste a single second before mounting the golem, who was now on its back, and starting to pelt it with attacks. "[Stab], [Stab]"

The two stabs with Yasuo's full weight behind them shattered the core of the golem, which was already heavily damaged by Nari's attack.

"We did it!" Yasuo screamed out of joy, now being sure that the golem was defeated.

Looking at Nari, he saw a relieved look on her face that also turned into an expression of happiness, before she sat down on the ground.

With this momentum Yasuo thought that maybe they could clear the level. "Nari stand up, let's do that one more time."

Nari smiled back at Yasuo and giggled. "I wish I could, but I haven't got the slightest bit of mana left. Can you still continue?"

Yasuo took a second to answer. "Well, I don't have any more mana left… but I can still fight!" Replied Yasuo with a determined look in his eyes.

Seeing how big of a fighting spirit Yasuo had made Nari happy, but she also thought logically in this situation. "Yasuo, I also really want to defeat this golem, but with the state we are in, we don't stand a chance."

Yasuo acknowledged what Nari was getting at, but he failed to understand one thing. "But if we are going to be defeated in this level anyway, than I would rather be it while fighting." Yasuo said, while looking Nari in the eyes.

Nari looked at Yasuo like he was crazy for a few seconds, and then smiled. "Yasuo, you do know that you can surrender in augmented reality right…? You don't have to die by the monsters to be able to quit the level."

Yasuo's surprised expression confirmed Nari's thoughts, he didn't know that he could surrender. Thinking about the last time he died in the augmented reality and how much it hurt, made shivers go down his spine, so Yasuo immediately said out loud: "System! I surrender."

The instant Yasuo said this, he found himself back in the white room. 'I thought I had to experience death again.' Yasuo thought, after letting out a sigh of relief.

A few seconds later Nari also came back to the white room. Spawning in while being unable to stop laughing.

Seeing this made Yasuo curious as to why she was laughing so hard.

Apparently Nari just found it funny how quickly Yasuo's fighting spirit turned into surrendering.

Yasuo could also see the humour in that situation, and they both laughed for a while before they finally calmed down.

Nari being the first one to have calmed down, she begun talking about a more serious topic: "Yasuo, you could also see where we are lacking, right?"

With the mood having shifted, Yasuo agreed with Nari that they were lacking something and immediately began thinking out loud of a plan to overcome that weakness. "What if we…"

Yasuo drew a blank thinking about ways to overcome the weakness in their group.

The only thing he could come up with was to gain another achievement that would give him another skill, which wasn't really hard to get as Yasuo had written down a long list of new achievements he found in the library, but it was not a reliable solution as he didn't have any control over what kind of skill he would gain.

Hearing that Yasuo didn't have anything to say, Nari began voicing her opinion on how a normal portal clearing group is composed. "A portal clearing group normally consist of one ranged damage dealer like an archer or a mage, one support class like a healer or buffer, two close combat damage dealers and one tank."

Nari took a second to think about what she was going to say next, as she also was just thinking out loud without an end goal.

"Yasuo, you are mainly a close combat fighter with your dagger wielding, but you also have ranged attacks and a shielding ability with your runes. And I am mainly a ranged attacker, and am specialized in single shot attacks, but I also have a skill for a wide area of attack, and on top of that I also have healing capabilities."

As Nari fell silent again to think, Yasuo also stopped for a moment to think about how good of a class Nari had. Not only is she a strong ranged damage dealer, but she also has healing capabilities, which are very rare, and are normally for non-combative awakeners, with the exception of paladins, which there were only a few of in the world.

While Yasuo was thinking about this, Nari continued her out loud thinking. "So, if you compare us to a normal group, Yasuo, you are a mix of a close combatant, ranged attacker and you can even play the role of the tank with your mana barrier. And I play the role of a ranged attacker, who can also support with healing magic. So if we compare the two of us to a normal group composition, we cover the one supporting member, two ranged attackers, one close combatant and one tank… We basically cover all bases with just the two of us."

As Nari began to think again, Yasuo made a remark. "Didn't you say that a normal group has two close combatants?"

Nari looked at Yasuo, and said: "Exactly! We cover every class, but we are slightly lacking in the close combat area."

It didn't even take her a second to come to a conclusion after Yasuo had pointed this out. "So, traditionally we miss a close combatant. And not to take away anything from you, Yasuo, but I think the thing we miss in our group is someone who focuses solely on attack power, someone who can just brute force their way through the defence of a golem!"

Yasuo didn't take this as an offense and agreed with Nari, as his dagger were not really ideal for brute forcing an attack. "How can we make up for that?" Yasuo asked Nari as he couldn't think of a way for him to fill in that position.

"… I do have a suggestion for that. The sixth ranking student is from the Vulcan guild, and I personally know him. I think his class would perfectly suit our group. But I don't know if you would be okay with it…" Said Nari hesitantly, not knowing if Yasuo wanted more people on his team.

"Why do you look so hesitant to bring this up? Does that person have a bad personality or something like that?" Yasuo said seriously, as he didn't know why Nari didn't look more happy making this suggestion.

Nari laughed at the misunderstanding she had created. "Wait, that is not the reason. I just didn't know if you wanted another person on your team. I thought that you wanted to keep your class a secret from other people."

Seeing Nari laugh, made Yasuo's serious expression vanish. "Well today I kind of gave up on hiding my class coincidentally, the only thing I would like to hide is my dagger, but other than that I decided to not really care anymore. So, if you trust that person I would be more than happy to have them in our team, if they also want to."

"Okay, let's go and ask him!" Nari said excitedly. "Meet me outside in a minute."

Yasuo was flustered at the sudden development that took place. "Wait ple-" Yasuo tried to stop Nari, but she disappeared from the white room before he could even finish his sentence.

'Ah, I am not mentally or physically prepared for this!' Yasuo thought frantically.

But as he had no choice, Yasuo quickly took off the augmented reality suit, put on his school uniform and headed outside as quickly as he could, where he could see Nari, who was already standing in front of a bungalow.

'Huh? That isn't Nari's bungalow.' Yasuo thought in confusion.

"Yasuo come quickly!" Nari said excitedly.

Suddenly Yasuo's thoughts reached a conclusion. 'That can't be can it? Is that the bungalow of number six?!'

As if Nari could read Yasuo's mind, she nodded at him, which made Yasuo quick on his feet, running towards Nari.

Having arrived at where Nari was standing, the door immediately opened without Yasuo having been able to mentally prepare even in the slightest.

"Hello Nari and…?" Said the person opening the door with a deep voice.

"Oh, this is my friend, Yasuo." Nari said comfortably.

This was Yasuo's que to introduce himself, but no words came out of his mouth as he was taken by surprise by the person in front of him. It was someone from the academy, so they must be below the age of twenty, but looking at them no one would have guessed that. Standing at over two meters tall, with a muscular frame, the man must have weighed over a hundred kilos at least.

"n-Nice to meet you. I am Yasuo Mun and I am sixteen years old. Yasuo as in Peaceful and Mun as in Writing." Yasuo said as politely as he could, making a deep bow.

"Haha, I like you. A friend of Nari is a friend of me, so you can just talk comfortably." Said the man who opened the door. "O yeah, I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Beom Man, eighteen years old."