I Am Afraid from Being Alone

"I'm sorry, but I'm taking this quest," I said.

"No! My hand reached it first," it was a girl's voice. I couldn't say I expected that. 

When I turned my head towards the girl only one world came to my mind.

'Kawai (cute)'

She had short dark blue hair and brown eyes, and she was wearing a kind of isekai-type dress.

"What are you looking at? I said my hand reached the quest poster first so I am taking it," she said.

No, wait; it is not the time for simping. I can't lose to her just because she is a cute girl, I have to fight back.

"No, I am not giving this to you! I saw this poster first," I rebelled.

"No, I did," she said.

"Nope, I am taking it."

"No."

"No."

"Hey, please calm down a bit; you guys are fighting like kids," A man who was standing behind her said.

When we heard him then we both realized the situation, I looked around and saw that other people were laughing at us.

I am a shameless guy so it didn't affect me but that girl's face was red and she was embarrassed.

"Hey bro, you are alone right?" Hey, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

Even if you know that I am a loner, then also you have no right to say it. The man who told us to stop fighting said that.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked in a low voice, yeah after hearing those words my heart was broken.

"I mean you are not in a party are you?" My broken heart reassembled itself as soon as I realized the meaning of his words.

"Yeah, I am not in a party," I replied.

"Then you can join our party, this way we both can do this quest," he suggested.

"I have no reason to join your party when I can easily do it on my own, and the losses of joining your party are more than the profit. I mean yeah that way we both can do the quest but we will have to split the reward," I said, there's no way I'll do that.

"Yeah, you are not wrong about that but we are talking about a black spider! I haven't seen any person who can defeat it on his own," he tried to convince me.

"That *person*is standing right in front of you!" I said proudly.

"Stop it, Carl! You don't need to force him to join our party, he will join by himself," That girl said while stopping that guy, and yeah I discovered that guy's name is Carl.

But wait a minute, why would I join their party? This doesn't make any sense.

Then she showed me the quest poster while pointing her finger at a specific sentence. Something in very small was written there, but it was still readable.

[Note – This quest is only available for parties, individual adventurers are not allowed to take this quest.]

Huh, Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

What is the meaning of this? Why individuals are not allowed to take this quest?

"So, what will you do now?" She asked me with a smile of victory on her face.

Ah, she got me!

Is there any way by which I can avoid this situation?

I can't think of anything now, the only way to avoid this situation is to take another quest but I've already checked all other quests and most of them are useless or above my adventurer rank.

I think I don't have any options left; I have to join their party.

I looked into her eyes but there were no signs of mercy in them.

"Guess I don't have any choice do I," I said.

"No, you don't," she said in her merciless voice.

"Alright I will join your party," I said in the lowest voice possible.

"Thank you," The expression on her face was the same as a queen who just won a war.

"Let me introduce you to everyone," As she said that, two more people came from behind and stopped beside her.

One was a boy whose age was around 15, and the other one was a boy the same as my age and he had a sword so most probably he is a swordsman.

"I am Carl, the leader of this party and a mage," said the guy who first suggested the idea of me joining their party.

"Nice to meet you, I am Haruto and I am a..." Wait for a second what am I? A mage, a magician, or a sage. I think mage will be better.

"I am also a mage," I replied.

Then the 15 years old said.

"My name is Shiro and I am a healer in this party."

Then the sword boy said.

"My name is James and I am a swordsman," that's obvious you're a swordsman, you have a freakin sword.

Then finally that girl introduced herself.

"My name is Carol, I am a water sage," Hmm, water sage? That's new.

(Here's a quick description of everyone's appearance, Carl has blonde hair and green eyes, Shiro has the same dark blue colored hair as Carol and has brown eyes, and James has White hair and brown eyes.)

Then we accepted the quest and went hunting the black spider, when we reached the location which was mentioned in the quest poster we saw nothing but an abandoned village.

In the poster, it was written that people live in this village but I think they live in the spider's stomach now.

"This place is very quiet," said Carol.

"Everyone, don't let your guard down," Carl said, alerting everyone.

Carl and James are walking in the front and both are ready to attack anytime, Shiro and Carol are walking in the middle for support. As for me, I am on the back for both attack and defense.

I think I will not interfere in the fight until it's very important, also I have to keep in mind that I don't use high-level spells.

When we reached the center of the village we saw the corpses of people which were covered in the spider web. Some were lying on the ground and some were hanging on the trees or on the walls of houses.

I was detecting a dark aura so I used search magic to check if the spider was nearby or not; I don't know if others are able to sense its aura or not.

Found it! Wait, it's close, very very close and it's coming towards us. It's coming from the left and most probably targeting Shiro.

Suddenly a net of spider web targeted towards Shiro came at very high speed, I created a fireball in my right hand to burn it but when I was about to throw it the net got slashed into two pieces and it fall down.

James noticed the attack, suddenly the whole party switched into fight mode.

Everyone was on their guard and was keeping an eye on the surroundings. The spider was still on the left but probably they aren't able to sense it.

I didn't say anything because I wanted to see how strong they are on their own.

It's coming and it's very fast, its current position is... above us!

The spider attacked and landed between us breaking the formation, James charged his attack and launched himself towards the spider to slash it.

Meanwhile, Carol gave cover to Shiro so he can keep the healing magic ready.

"Sword skill [Steel Slash]" James activated his skill and attacked the spider while he was in mid-air, he slashed one of its front legs by moving his sword from upper-right to lower-left.

Its leg fall apart and James landed beside the spider; To give him support and time to charge his next attack Carol prepared an attack.

"O lord of water, grant me your power to defeat evil. Droplets of water gather between my hands and take a higher shape, [Piercing water stream]," he chanted an incantation.

A water ball formed between her hands and then she blasted water from it towards the spider; the tip of the water launched towards the spider took a pointed shape.

The attack hit the spider with full force and tried to pierce through him. (does calling the spider 'him' right? I mean I don't know if it's a female spider or a male one)

The spider moved back a bit but the attack failed.

You are doing wrong Carol; it's a spider-type monster. Only physical and fire-type attacks will work against it.

Suddenly a beam of fire hit the spider on the left and burned its skin; the attack was launched by Carl.

"Carol, don't waste your mana! Only fire-type magic will work against this monster," He said as he prepared himself to launch another attack.

He created six fireballs around and launched them towards the spider; they hit the spider one by one and burnt two more of his legs.

James attacked the spider from above aiming for its head, He held his sword in a way to pierce through its head. The sword hit its head but...

The sword broke, so finally that spider is getting serious.

I don't know if it works the same way in this world but in my game when a spider-type monster loses half of its HP then it gains a certain power up.

Its skin becomes much harder and its regeneration kicks in, and when this happens the spider will go berserk.

James didn't expect that his sword will break, he misbalanced and fell to the ground right in front of the spider.

Its legs are regenerating, but wait what the hell! This regeneration is way faster than I expected. It regenerated its legs and healed the burnt skin.

Carl again launched a fire attack on it; the attack hit him but got reflected by its skin and burnt the surroundings.

Wait why James is not getting up? He will die if he will stay there any longer. Hey, don't tell me his bones are broken by the fall. Shiro hasn't noticed it yet.

"Shiro, Heal James! I think his bones are broken," I said in a very loud voice.

Shiro heard me and—

Wait he has to chant before casting, and the chanting of healing magic takes time. He will die!

"Ahhhhhh!"

Suddenly a scream was heard. It was James; the spider has stabbed him in the stomach with its claws. Blood was coming out and he was screaming badly.

"Help me!"

"It hurts! It hurts...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Everyone was stunned at their places; I think they have never seen a comrade like this. But this is bad at this rate he will definitely die; I think I should enter the battle now and they performed better than I expected.

Carol also had a pale face full of fear.

"Don't worry Carol, it's fine. I'll handle this." She looked at me with a confused expression. (I mean who will believe that I can take this monster on my own)

Okay, time for action; first analyze the situation­—

Wait, I was already finished making a strategy; first, take James and take him to Shiro and then kill the spider. I will use dimensional magic for this.

"[Dimensional Step]" By using this magic I vanished and reached where James was lying in less than a second. I held him and again used [Dimensional Step] and appeared where Shiro was.

Then I put James on the ground; Shiro was shocked because I appeared there out of nowhere so I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Take it easy, heal James and I will handle the spider," I said.

He nodded meant he understands.

Then I again used [Dimensional Step] and appeared in front of the spider.

"Now, it's your turn!"

I then used fire-type magic to fight him.

"Fifth-tier magic: [Fire control]" By using [Fire control] I can create flames and control them by will.

I used [Fire control] and created two swords made of fire in both of my hands.

Combining [Dimensional Step] and [Fire control] to create a custom sword attack.

"[Burning blades of hell]"

I dashed towards the spider and in a flash, I went through him and stopped behind him.

After a second, all the legs of the spider got separated from its body and disintegrated. I turned behind and converted the swords into a fireball and blasted a beam of fire toward the spider.

The beam hit the spider and went through him, creating a big hole in its body.

"Sixth-tier magic: [Flame tornado]"(This attack is inspired by the fire tornado attack Iris used against me).

A magic circle appeared under the spider and it—

Wait it exploded? I think I still haven't mastered this attack, anyway.

An explosion occurred and the spider turned into ashes.

Ahhh, finally it ended.

I vanished and appeared in front of everyone using [Dimensional Step] to check the situation.

"Is James alright?" I asked.

"Yes, he is alright," Shiro replied.

"Seriously what are you?" asked Carol as walked toward me.

"A mage, I guess," I replied. I wasn't telling a lie was I?

"No, the way you were fighting. It doesn't look like you were a normal mage," she continued.

"Nah it's nothing, just train hard and you will also become like me," I lied again.

Then we took a leg of the spider I separated as proof that we killed the spider and went back to the city.

***

After giving the proof to the guild we got our reward, and everyone got 5 silver coins. I didn't get the full 20 but it's fine, I had fun.

We decided to eat together before separating because I was a part of this party only for this mission and now I will leave. At least this was the statement.

We reached the restaurant and placed our orders, everyone was quiet.

I had decided something; I will ask them to permanently be a part of this party. Why? Well, the reason is simple. They are good people and I don't want to be alone. Also, they are strong enough to handle normal monsters by themselves.

Actually, I am afraid, of being alone.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself to say it.

"Actually I wanted to say something," I said.

"Yeah go ahead," said Carl.

"Can I join this party permanently?"

"Will you join the party permanently?" (Carol)

Carol also said it.

We stared at each other and started laughing.

***

It's been a week since I joined their party; I also learned Shiro and Carol are brother and sister. We completed many quests together and now we are returning home after completing a quest.

Suddenly my eyes caught an unusual sight!