Chapter 13: Welcome to "Gehenna"

"Hey Jen, wake up." (Pierrot)

As she opened her eyes, she slowly risen up from lying down in the patch of green grass.

"Umm what happened?" (Jen)

"You lost conscious while we are heading to this place." (Pierrot)

"Huh... What place?" (Jen)

As Jen regain her sight because of the blurriness, she saw a dense forest with large root full of thorns, large man eating flowers, and eyes of some deadly beasts and monsters.

Jen screamed at the top of her lungs after getting a clear view of the forest.

"W-where the hell are we?!" (Jen)

Jen looked at Pierrot as he smiled and answered.

"Just what you said, one of the ranked "U" place in this world where The Child of Unknown spread their powers. Gehenna Forest." (Pierrot)

"Wait... Why is Hell and Gehenna are similar?" (Jen)

"(Oh wait.... I remember that they haven't explored this place yet because of the dangers in this forest and I just named It Gehenna because it means Hell in the Latin word which this world don't even know...) Just a small knowledge I learned while adventuring." (Pierrot)

"Oh..." (Jen)

"Well then, Shall we start?" (Pierrot)

Pierrot opened his storage and showed Jen a 1 small pouch.

"Before we start... Here." (Pierrot)

Pierrot handed the small pouch.

Jen asked,

"What's this?" (Jen)

"Just opened it and see." (Pierrot)

Jen opened it and saw 1 Silver Ring with a green Jade in it with a magic symbols on it. Jen blushed and asked

"Umm, Is this... What I think it is?" (Jen)

"If your thinking I want to marry you then no. It's an early gift from me." (Pierrot)

Jen put it in her fingers but with a bit of hesitation, and as she put it in her finger, the ring suddenly got stucked like it was cursed. Jen tried to remove it but it won't budge.

"PIERROT! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" (Jen)

"A Handmade Ring I created." (Pierrot)

"What does it do???" (Jen)

"Well... It triples the "Level Up" so that you can get stronger faster and learn alot of spells..." (Pierrot)

"Oh... WAIT! THIS RING GIVES YOU WHAT NOW!" (Jen)

Jen can't believe at what she equipped right now...

A ring that can triple your Level Up and makes you stronger...

It even maybe a "Transcendent" Item in the whole world. But Jen realized something. If this item is too good to be true, then why did the ring won't remove as it was stuck.

"Umm, Pierrot?" (Jen)

"Hm?" (Pierrot)

"If this ring can give you triple Level Ups... Then why can't I remove it?" (Jen)

Jen stared at Pierrot as Pierrot did to her like a long time then Pierrot slowly showed her an evil grin that made Jen's spine shivers.

"Pierrot?" (Jen)

"Yeah?" (Pierrot)

"A-are there other effects on this ring?" (Jen)

Pierrot paused and quickly smiled and said;

"Yeah!" (Pierrot)

Jen hears a loud growls inside the forest, As if someone or something is coming towards her.

"Pierrot! What are the other effects!" (Jen)

"Just... An effect that makes you emit pheromones that makes strong monsters come towards you..." (Pierrot)

"WHAT!!!!" (Jen)

Suddenly a stomping noise can be heard towards the North of the forest as if it was running towards to their location. Then a monster jumped at the sea of trees showing itself to the two.

"A bulk body... With a Greatsword on his back... and three horns??? T-THAT'S AN S RANKED MONSTER!!!" (Jen)

He slowly descended towards Jen, Unsheathing his blade and tried to hit Jen. Jen closed her eyes as she didn't know what to do.

TWANG!

Jen heard a sound like someone hitting a pipe to a metal wall. Jen slowly opened her eyes and saw the monster stopped midway, shaking as his weapon hit something invisible. Jen saw a large barrier surrounding her.

The monster backed away and quickly rushed towards Jen and used a barrage of attacks trying to hit Jen but alas, the monster kept hitting the barrier thinking it could break at any moment.

"W-what? What's happening?" (Jen)

"That's my magic, Barrier." (Pierrot)

Jen was shocked as she heard Pierrot's voice in her head. She thought she was turning crazy after hearing Pierrot's Voice.

"Dumbass. Your not turning crazy." (Pierrot)

"Ehhhh?! Then, Wait. How?" (Jen)

"*Sigh... Do I have to answer it? I'm using a spell called "Com". It makes me talk with the person I want to talk via mind." (Pierrot)

"Then you can hear my thoughts?" (Jen)

"More or less..." (Pierrot)

"That's kinda scary... And perverted spell." (Jen)

"WHY!" (Pierrot)

"Because you can literally hear what the girls are thinking right!" (Jen)

"THAT'S NOT- You know what? Nevermind. Just looked at what your seeing right now." (Pierrot)

"... Sus..." (Jen)

"Kuh! A-anyways! See that monster."

"Yeah."

"That monster is one of the monsters that fought at the Zen War in the past. A monster created by Uris, The Child of Unknown. The "Three-Horned Minotaur Hero"." (Pierrot)

"Eh? That's one of the monster in the story?" (Jen)

"Yes." (Pierrot)

"If that's the monster from the story, then what are you doing making this monster come towards me?!" (Jen)

"That will be your sparring partner for your training." (Pierrot)

"... WHAT!!!!" (Jen)

As Jen looked for Pierrot anywhere, somewhere at the top of the trees, Pierrot watched Jen looking left to right, finding out where the hell is Pierrot as the man himself, kept himself from laughing.

"Where the hell are you Pierrot! What do you mean by "Sparring Partner?"." (Jen)

"You have to defeat the Minotaur to level up." (Pierrot)

"I CAN'T DEFEAT IT!" (Jen)

"Why?" (Pierrot)

"You said it before! This monster fought the war! I can't defeat it as it is!" (Jen)

"Then, are you giving up? Without defeating the people who killed your friend?" (Pierrot)

Jen snapped.

"What did you say?" (Jen)

Pierrot grinned as he saw Jen looked towards his direction.

"(This girl... Did she sensed me here? No way, right?) If you won't defeat that Minotaur, then there's no way you can take revenge for your friend." (Pierrot)

"T-THAT'S!" (Jen)

"(Alright. The final touch.) Then, your gonna give up the promise you did?" (Pierrot)

Jen quickly flashbacked to the day when they first tell their promise to the path of being the number one in the school and showing the world that even peasant like them can rise up and become the strongest magicians and maybe they can become a "Sage" like the people from the past.

Jen slowly risen from kneeling down; while Pierrot, who was watching from above the tree smiled.

"I-I'll do it... I'LL DEFEAT ANYONE WHO GETS IN MY WAY OF GETTING REVENGE FOR KATH!" (Jen)

"Good." (Pierrot)

Pierrot temporarily disable his barried and quickly Jen ran behind to give herself a time and space for chanting her spell. The Minotaur saw Jen running and chased her.

"Whoops! Your too fast!" (Pierrot)

Pierrot then quickly used a spell to lower the Minotaur's speed but not that too much so that Jen can have a good challenge.

" ...Burn! "!tsalB eriF" (Fire Blast)" (Jen)

A large fire quickly flown towards the Minotaur and got hit. But the Minotaur didn't care and ran towards Jen. Unsheathing his weapon, the Minotaur attempted to hit Jen and got a clean hit that made Jen flown towards the tree.

Jen quickly coughed blood as she was clearly hit by the blade that the Minotaur had. Jen casted a Healing spell to herself. The Minotaur ran towards Jen.

But as Jen is in the middle of casting her healing spell, Pierrot readied his spell to stop the Minotaur but as the Minotaur got closer to Jen, Suddenly, Chains of Fire suddenly rose from the ground where the humps of the Minotaur step on.

The Minotaur got binded by the chains which Pierrot was shocked. Jen finished her healing spell and casted a stronger fire spell that made the Minotaur hurriedly tried to remove the chains but the spell cast is already done.

"Your dead! GO!!!!" (Jen)

The spell that Jen casted flew straight to the Minotaur, the Minotaur struggled but it was too late...

BOOM!

A huge explosion in the middle of the forest made some other monster ran as far as they can but some stayed and even checked to see what's happening.

The smoke slowly dissapeared, Jen, on her knees, panting as she catch her breath of withstanding the explosion. She saw the Minotaur slowly walked towards Jen, still holding the Blade he has.

"Y-your still... Not dead?" (Jen)

As she slowly stand, she used her remaining mana and strength to cast multiple fire wisps spell.

"!eriF psiW (Fire Wisp)" (Jen)

A wisp like flames goes straight to the Minotaur and got hit but the Minotaur kept going. Jen continued firing her spell until she got a massive headache due to low mana.

The Minotaur raised his blade attempting to hit Jen and Jen on the other hand pointed her wand towards the Minotaur knowing that she's out of Mana. The Minotaur smiled as he thought that both of them will die but...

A magic circle suddenly showed at Jen's Wand and released a Fire Wisp that ended the Minotaur.

"D-did I..." (Jen)

Jen slowly falls down and in the nick of time, Pierrot grabbed her from falling.

"Hm... You did it... As expected." (Pierrot)

Pierrot smiled and used a spell to heal her.

[Gehenna: It's a Latin Word for "Hell"]