Hardcore Fantasy – Chapter 3: Vanguard in the war against hell

After a long and exhausting first day, Akihiko and the group were allowed to return to their rooms for 2 hours of free time.

Opening the door, Akihiko entered his room and went to take a bath.

Earlier he managed to exchange the orc shaman's collar for a decent sum of money after conversing with Evelyn.

After a quick bath, he exited the bathroom and went to the kitchen to make some snacks.

Putting his armor on a hanger, he let the cleanse magic on the suit do its work and put his mask on the bed.

Now without his armor, and only wearing casual clothes, it was possible to spot tattoos on almost all exposed parts of his body, ranging from animals to sceneries, to words in an ancient language. However, more eye-catching than the countless tattoos was the scar on his neck.

The scar covered from one side to another of his neck, almost as if his head had been cut off, and it had a strange black color to it. It gave off a strange feeling to whoever looked at it.

As he was cooking, his bio-system suddenly beeped once, signaling a notification.

Tapping on the bracelet, a blue screen appeared floating above his wrist.

Using his magic to read the contents, he kept cooking.

[Elizabeth: Hey, Aki, you there?]

Noticing who was messaging him, he finished cooking before tapping the window and making a keyboard appear.

[Akihiko: Yes.]

He sat down on the small table in the kitchen and started to eat.

[Elizabeth: How was your first day in the base?]

[Akihiko: Normal, I guess. We trained and had lessons, nothing much. How about you?]

For Akihiko, today wasn't much different from any other day since he did practically the same as always.

[Elizabeth: Mine was pretty calm. Most of the work in the rearguard is focused on construction and establishing defensive lines.]

That's one of the reasons why many students wish to be placed in the rearguard. However, Akihiko as someone who played the game knew that Elizabeth wasn't having it easier because she was in the rearguard but for another reason.

[Elizabeth: Also, there are girls here that are looking at me with a weird gaze. What do I do?]

Reading her message, Akihiko's expressionless face twitched slightly but the reaction was so minuscule that it was almost impossible to notice.

[Akihiko: Do you remember what I told you?]

"Rose Garden at the End of the World" was a famous eroge RPG in Akihiko's previous life and is also the world he is in now.

The game was highly acclaimed for its perfect mechanics, beautiful art, romance, interesting storyline, and the obviously popular smut scenes.

However, there were two points that were slightly different from other games in the same genre.

It was that the eroge was a yuri-themed one with some hentai logic involved, a beautiful female protagonist, and the fact that this very same protagonist aside from being highly talented had two different modes to play as.

The first was a free mode, one where the player could practically make any decision on their own, without any influence from the character or plot. Which was also what made the game so famous.

The second mode was a story mode where the main character had a set personality and the range of choices was limited to what she would normally do, this mode was rather cliché and the players didn't like it that much.

And this is the second problem and what irked so many players, Elizabeth, the protagonist, is dense.

[Elizabeth: I do. But how would they even like me? I mean, it hasn't even been a day since we arrived, there's no way that is true.]

'Dense as always…' – Her words make sense from a bystander's point of view, but Elizabeth had a main character's aura that practically made people fall for her left and right, like in a generic plot. Akihiko was already used to her dense behavior, so he wasn't surprised by her lack of awareness, even though this same thing had happened several times in the past.

[Akihiko: That's what I think. If you don't believe, don't ask.]

His words were rather harsh for a casual chat and could be seen as salty or aggressive but those who spent time with Akihiko knew that he was just straightforward, honest, and lacked any delicacy with words in general.

[Elizabeth: …]

[Elizabeth: Sorry, I will observe them for now, thanks as always.]

[Akihiko: No problem. If you need anything, just message me.]

After a few minutes of casual chat, they eventually went offline as they had their own things to do.

Washing the dishes, Akihiko then brushed his teeth before sitting down on the bed in a lotus position and meditating.

He liked to do this in his free time.

Soon, the minutes passed and the lights went out, their two hours were up and it was time to sleep.

They didn't need to sleep exactly at this time and could do so later, however, considering the training they experienced today, no one would try their luck in going to sleep later.

Akihiko remained in the same position and calmed his breathing, eventually sleeping while meditating.

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A deep shade of crimson.

Bright as light, terrifying as darkness.

As the fire consumed the village and people died left and right, a roar echoed before a giant red eye opened in the sky and looked at him.

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*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

With his bio-system beeping, Akihiko woke up.

'That again…' – The normal brief moment of confusion after waking up didn't come to him, and his expressionless face seemed to lose the few degrees of warmth it had as he thought about the dream he had.

Tapping the bracelet, the alarm stopped beeping and he started to prepare himself for the day.

As the clock hit 06 AM, Akihiko got a message in his bio-system containing today's schedule.

Reading through it, he noticed a few changes compared to yesterday but also saw the observation that this schedule was in test phase and could change.

Not thinking much about it, he opened the door and this time without Evelyn, he along with the others went to the training grounds from yesterday.

When they arrived there, they saw Evelyn already there and waiting for them.

She didn't say anything and just smiled.

And raised a small army of golems.

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"Let's go over the basics again." – A middle-aged man spoke while the wide floating screen behind him started to display the topics of his lesson – "Why are we fighting?" – His eyes passed through all the members in the group who were now sitting in his class.

"To get back our planet." – Lathz answered and received a nod.

"That's correct, although it's not the whole answer but let's leave it at that." – He then wrote something on the screen that was working as a blackboard and asked another question – "And what is stopping us from it?" 

"The monsters." – Melissa replied, her blue eyes tinged with anger and disdain.

"Correct." – The professor turned back to the group – "And why is it?"

"Because of their numbers." – Darlan grimaced at his own answer.

"Indeed." – The professor went on to write on the screen again.

It's not like the races are lacking in power as a whole, however, this fight for their planet has been ongoing for at least a century now, and their situation only worsened as time went on. The Gardens have more and more troubles with population and food, and the troops on Pandora struggle to make any progress, and this is due to the sheer number of monsters.

A small city that in the old days had 50.000 inhabitants, now hosted at least 1.000.000 monsters inside it, and this was in the best of the cases.

Of course, such things happened more on the frontlines since the rearguard only worked when the vanguard cleaned an area.

"And what are the other problems?" – The professor questioned without facing them.

After some hesitation, Beatrix spoke up – "T-The irregularities and t-the p-portals…" 

"That's also correct." – The professor finished writing on the screen.

The irregularities were ridiculously strong monsters with a specific characteristic that made them cost the lives of several squadrons and sometimes, even whole bases, to deal with.

As for the portals, they were the source of the problem.

The screen changed and displayed a single picture in it.

The picture was a city in ruins with destroyed houses, rusty and decaying vehicles on the streets, strange-looking flora, and the portal.

A giant hole on the ground with more than 10 kilometers in diameter and with thousands of monsters crawling out of it.

"This is the portal that Urzkhron is to take down until next year." – The picture followed by his words shocked the students.

They had never seen what a portal looked like since this information is only shared when they come to Pandora, to prevent panic, so this was their first time seeing one, albeit through a picture.

Akihiko tried to use his magic to try to see the image but wasn't able to since it only worked to read. However, he could vaguely imagine how it was, given everyone's shock.

The minutes passed with questions being asked and in the end, the lesson that was supposed to be a simple repetition of what they already knew developed into effective means of combat against certain types of enemies, tactics, and ideas for new magitech.

The lesson came to an end after 2 hours and the group was allowed another pause of half an hour before going back to sparring with Evelyn and her golems.

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The days passed with the group training day and night in a methodic and stressful manner.

There were some adjustments to their schedules, especially to their personal training but overall, they were doing better than what they expected. The week soon passed and the group was finally adjusting themselves to this new life.

So much, so that they were acting more casual with each other now.

"Ahn~"

"Lathz~"

Darlan and Lathz were having sex with the door open.

The others in the corridor, however, didn't mind them and only glanced curiously from time to time. It looked like something normal to them.

The only one who completely ignored them was Akihiko, who wasn't interested in it and was currently sharpening his kunais and shurikens.

Instead of them preparing themselves to sleep or do their own things in their rooms, the whole group was either in their rooms with the door open, like Darlan and Lathz, or in the corridor talking with each other.

The reason for this was that Evelyn informed them of a practical exercise that they would be doing.

They would depart that night, so they were freed from their training earlier that day and were instructed to prepare their things.

"I see that you all are ready." – Evelyn's sudden voice got the attention of the ones in the corridor – "And that you're very relaxed." – She commented while glancing at Darlan and Lathz – "You two have 5 minutes." – She spoke and ignored them the next instant.

The duo didn't respond and continued doing their own thing.

"Ms. Evelyn, might I ask what kind of exercise will we be doing?" – Melissa inquired with a curious gaze.

The others were also curious as to what it was since it didn't seem like it was planned beforehand.

"We call it "exercise" but it's just a simple mission." – Evelyn's words gave the group an idea of what it was – "We recently got the news that our rearguard found a small nest that was still up and running. So, instead of just getting rid of it, we thought it could be a good experience for you, rookies. You'll, of course, be accompanied by senior combatants that will help in case of emergency but I don't think you'll need it." – She looked at the group before glancing at Akihiko's room. Her meaning was clear: they were strong enough to at least do this.

The group was surprised by the news but didn't seem averse to the idea. They wanted to see how they would fare in a real fight, something normal among the examinees on the frontlines, after all, they all wanted to know how much their extreme training was actually helping them.

After five minutes passed, both Darlan and Lathz finished their intimate session and Beatrix used water magic to quickly wash them before they dressed themselves and took their bags.

Akihiko also got out of his room but he wasn't carrying any bag and was just wearing his usual getup.

"Now that we're all here, let's get going. We will take a helicopter to get there." – Evelyn saw that no one had anything else to take and started to lead the way.

They passed by the corridors making several detours that made almost everyone lose track of where they were.

After some minutes of walking through the empty corridors, they arrived at a set of stairs that ended in a dead end.

Evelyn went up the stairs and when she was close to the end, her eye flashed and the wall at the end of the stairs opened like a hole.

As soon as the group walked out, they were welcomed by the night view of a desolate city in ruins.

All around them were destroyed buildings with the same strange-looking flora they saw in the pictures in their classes.

And right in front of them was a pitch-black helicopter with two turbines.

"Get on board." – Evelyn said as the door opened.

When everyone got on board and took their seats, Evelyn got in and the door closed.

They fasted their belts and the helicopter took off right after, without making a single noise.

The lights inside the helicopter lit up and the magic circles activated.

Right after, with an explosion of air, the helicopter turned into a blur and vanished in the night sky.

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