Chapter 34: WereBears

After a few hours of rest, Ariel was the first to wake up.

"Mn..." She let out as she opened her small eyes.

She looked around and noticed that she had fallen asleep.

"John?" She muttered.

"Yes?" John asked.

"Nothing... Can I stay like this until Serena wakes up..?" She asked.

"Isn't it uncomfortable?" John questioned.

"No... John is soft, like a pillow." She said.

"I don't know how to feel about that." He replied.

She kept her head on his shoulder as she continued to talk.

"John... There's a lot I don't know about you and since you've always helped me, I thought it would be better not to ask. But if you ever want to talk about it, you can tell me." She said.

"Hm... Thanks. But don't worry, everything I told you and Serena is pretty much everything I know. I lost all my memories, and then I met you." John said.

"John... What would you do if... Your memories returned..." Ariel asked.

"Hmm... I don't know. But I'm sure nothing would change. I'd keep travelling with you guys around the world. If I had a master, then I'd probably stop by any kingdom he'd be at and say hi. But I wouldn't leave the party if that's what you're wondering," John replied.

"Mn... do you remember your promise..? When we were at the inn?" She muttered.

'Promise... The one I made when we were at the inn. Where I said I wouldn't leave her?' John remembered.

"How I promised to never leave you?" He asked.

"Yeah. About that... John has always been helping me. You taught me how to use magic. You helped me when I lost everything and even now you continue to take care of me. I want to stay with John but it feels like I'm being selfish and forcing you to stay with me." Said Ariel as tears streamed down her eyes.

'So she's felt this way…' John realized.

"D-Don't be stupid, I'm staying with you because I want to. Don't ever put it in your mind, that you're forcing me. I made that promise because I wanted to stay with you. Did you forget about all the help you've given me so far? We're a party, we're supposed to help each other!" John said.

'This girl, she can be so ignorant to the number of things she does, even recently she protected me from the spider's attack... What is she, an idiot?' John wondered.

"John..." She muttered.

"And you can be more selfish, we're a party so we're supposed to tolerate each other. If there are any selfish demands you want to make, let them out. Sure, we might argue or I might not like them. But I want you to be yourself and we're a party so..." John said.

'Just get to the point!' he inwardly said.

"In other words! Just be as selfish as you want! That won't change the fact that you're my precious partner!" John added on.

Seeing as how John was desperately trying to cheer her up, Ariel let out a giggle.

"Did I sound that stupid..?" John muttered.

"No, it's not that, it's just that it made me really happy. You said that I could be more selfish. Then, I'd like to stay with John forever..." Said Ariel as she placed her hands on his face.

As her thin slender fingers held on to John's cheeks, her deep dark eyes looked directly at him. He could feel his heartbeat getting faster and faster.

"Yeah, we're a party, after all, we'll get to go on many adventures together and experience many new things. So... Basically... Don't ever leave me..." John said with slightly red cheeks.

"I won't! I promise!" Said Ariel with reddened cheeks and a bright smile on her face.

Ariel's mood had completely changed. She looked relieved and happy thanks to their conversation.

"Mnn," Said Serena as she stretched out her arms.

Thanks to all the noise we made from talking, Serena finally woke up.

"This is... Someone's shoulder... Did I fall asleep?!" Said Serena as she looked up at John's face.

'This girl is always so full of energy' John thought.

"Good morning. Or night, I'm not sure what it is." He said.

"I-I'm sorry I fell asleep." Said Serena as she got up.

"It's fine. You both used up quite a lot of mana after all." John said.

"Ariel, fell asleep too?" She asked.

"Yeah," Ariel replied as she also got up.

"How come you're full of energy? Wait... You didn't do anything to us when we were asleep, did you!?" Asked Serena with a worried expression.

"Huh!? Who do you take me for!? Is that really what you're supposed to be assumed to the guy who kept watch for you?!" John asked.

"But it's precisely because you're a guy that I'm assuming that!" She replied.

"I didn't do anything to you in the inn before, so why would I do it now!?" John added.

"Y-You have a point... And you're a kid too... Sorry, I was getting worried for nothing." She said.

"I'm 3 years younger than you..." John replied.

His body was 12 after all. Although since John was 14, he guessed spiritually that made him one year younger.

"A kid is still a kid." She replied.

"That's quite a lot of talk coming from someone who even adults mistake for a kid," John replied.

"Y-You! You did not just go there!" She said with an embarrassed expression.

"I wanna join too!" Said, Ariel.

The two of them were taken aback at the sudden comment of Ariel.

"Wha- What do you mean by that Ariel?" John asked.

"I said, I want to join too. You guys always look like you're having fun whenever you're arguing so..." She replied.

"I-Is that so..." John muttered.

Thanks to Ariel's sudden comment, John no longer felt like arguing. He looked over to Serena and even she looked surprised.

"M-Maybe next time. I-If you want to join in an argument you need to find a reason... It doesn't just happen naturally." John replied.

"O-Okay..." Said Ariel with a saddened expression.

"More importantly, are you sure you don't need any rest? You were awake all this time, weren't you?" Ariel questioned.

"Not really, I got to sleep too. Look." John said as he pointed towards the Ice.

"We're inside your Ice sphere move?" Ariel asked.

"Yeah, didn't you notice earlier?" John asked.

"No, because it didn't get cold at all... And I was only looking at John." She said.

'How can she admit that so easily… ?' John wondered.

"Y-Yeah. I was converting magic to the thermal energy store in the air me so we wouldn't feel as cold." John said.

"There goes John with his complicated logic." Serena added.

"Well, in other words, we've all gotten enough rest. Let's start moving to the next floor," John said as he got up and undid the ice.

They nodded, and then they moved on.

***

The 8th floor had monsters called Werebears. Their body were full of fur and they were around 8 feet tall. Their face looked a lot like a goblin's and they would carry around Iron weapons and armour.

Rose was the one who told John their names. She also told him that they were related to goblins and hobgoblins, like some sort of superior race.

They could easily fight them off, but decided to save their energy and use furtim to head straight to the boss' room. They didn't need their magic stones, and the bosses were worth a lot more.

However, as they moved on. They decided to kill a few. They were easy to kill and dropped medium size stones.

After 30 minutes of rushing, they finally reached the boss' room.

"Hey don't you two find it weird? These monsters are weaker than Minotaurs yet their magic stones are bigger and they're part of the 8th floor..." John said.

"It might have something to do with individual magic power, for example, Minotaurs are strong physically and they're magical resistance is slightly high but they can't use magic themselves. And they have a low amount of magical power." Serena said.

'That's accurate.' John inferred.

"Meanwhile, Werebears contain a lot more magical power within them, we can tell thanks to the magic stones that they dropped whenever we killed them." Serena explained.

"That makes a lot more sense than my previous theory. Thanks." John replied.

"What was your theory?" Serena asked as she opened the door.

"It was that the boss was simply a lot stronger than the Minotaur boss, and this strong boss might prefer Werebears as its minions," John said as they walked in.

In the middle of the boss room stood a big creature which resembled a Minotaur, it appeared to be 20 feet tall. It didn't have any armour, but it carried a big long curved sword. Fur seemed to cover it's whole muscular body.

Intimidating was the perfect word to describe it.

"Do you know what that is?" John asked.

"Not really... But doesn't it sound like that monster Rose talked about when we were on the 9th floor?" Serena asked.

"That's right! The Minoboar, right? It's the 8th-floor boss and has high magical resistance, so we should be careful if we ever fought it." John said.

"It's Goristo! And yeah, It's fur is highly resistant against magic. So we should focus on physical attacks from your blade." Said Serena.

"Understood," John said as he lept at it.

Serena and Ariel followed behind and got into their positions, waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Ventus!" Said Serena.

The wind blade flew past John and hit the Goristo. A cut appeared on the location the Goristo was hit and it let out a roar.

"Oi, if you focus on singing, you won't be able to fight back," John said as he slashed at its right arm with his right blade.

The dagger seeped into the hand, causing him to let out a scream. It hadn't noticed John earlier since he had activated Furtim before his attack.

"Cancel. Is that the best a surprise attack can do? Darn... I knew I should have added more mana into my blade." John said as he transferred more magic into his left blade and arm and swung at it.

The momentum and force were enough to fully cut off his arm. It let out another scream and moved to grab John with its remaining arm. John easily dodged it by stepping back.

"Is that all, it's weaker tha-"

Before John could finish, the boss jumped at him and tried grabbing him again with his remaining arm. From tilting his body to jumping around, John continued to dodge his grab attempts as he persisted in trying to grab him.

"This... How persistent." John said.

"John, move!" Shouted Ariel.

"Huh?" John said as he lept away from it.

In that moment Ariel, who had been gathering the air in front of her, cast a spell. The wind which was being gathered gained a form of a spear and went straight at the Goristo.

Despite being overly resistant to magic, it was pierced by the spear in seconds. It tried dodging, but the spear was too fast, almost as if it was the wind itself.

It let out a scream and turned into a magic stone. The entrance to the 9th floor was opened shortly after.

"U-Um... Ariel... What was that? John asked.

Both John and Serena were surprised at Ariel's recent spell.

"Um... I've been practising creating a new wind spell for the past 2 weeks, and this was the spell I managed to come up with." She said.

"I-I see..." John muttered.

He looked over at the magic stone formed from the death of the boss.

"I better make sure I don't get on her bad side." John muttered to myself.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Serena asked.

"You must've imagined it, anyway, let's head to the 9th Floor. Also, I'd like it if you could tell me how that spell works if you don't mind," John replied.

"Sure!" Said Ariel.

"Hey, Ariel..." Said Serena.

"Yes?" Ariel asked.

"Can you teach me that later? I can use wind spells, but they're not as strong as yours." Said Serena.

"Sure, but you'll have to teach me your new fire one too." Said Ariel.

"Of course." Said Serena.

'These two girls... Has learning concept magic made them stronger than I expected? I wonder how many spells they didn't use against me in our fight. Moreover, that wind spear... I'll tell Ariel to call it Ventus Framea later.' John thought.