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“It’s probably a bug.”
I answered their question about how I was able to use a female avatar when you can’t play as the opposite gender with the same answer I gave my sister.

“A bug huh…”
“A bug eh…”
I certainly can’t casually answer, “You know there have been a few people getting sex changed in Japan right? I’m now one of them! Cool, right?”
Besides, isn’t there any likelihood that I will return to normal during the summer vacation?

“Nn, it’s a bug.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Besides, the reason Clan Clan doesn’t allow gender discrepancy is to prevent a negative influence on the body.”
They both looked at me with concern, as if saying, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I will send a bug report later.”

“I… see.”
“Well, it is fine in that case?”
Yuuki and Kouya looked at me up and down for a while.

And then, Yuuki coughed, “that aside, Jintarou-kun. You sure have landed a cute avatar.”
Continuing Yuuki, a nasty smirk showed up from beyond the glasses.

“I wonder if this avatar is your type?”

Both of them started grinning at and teasing me.
“Shut up. It isn’t my type or anything.”
To land a finishing blow, Kouya’s glasses glinted, “you like loli, don’t you?” and deliver a painful blow.

“…I told you that you’re wrong.”

“Besides, if your avatar is too different from your real life body, the sense of discrepancy will be extraordinary.”
“Ahaha,” a dry laugh from Yuuki.

“Speaking of which, you guys just copied your real life body for your avatar.”
“It’s bothersome,” said both of them.

“Geez, you guys are fine because you are already handsome in real life.”

Haa….
I wonder if I should make my male avatar handsome when I get my old body back.
If I make myself handsome, I will get teased by them, won’t I…

“But, you are really cute. I feel like it would be a shame if you report this bug and you return to being a male.”
“True, if you did that… the people that have gathered around you for your cuteness would be dejected when you return to being a male.”

“Good point… there are male players offering items and equipment as tributes to female players to appeal to them too. If you revealed that you are actually a boy to them… you would gather quite the resentment.”

“Lately, the number of that kind of people has increased.”
“Ah, the people with pampering syndrome,” said Kouya as if he is squashing disgusting bugs.
“The proportion between male and female players are 7 to 3, of course the girls will be lionized.”
“Not to mention those that play as a princess. Well, they would be my type.”
“Oi, I won’t allow you to say that I’m playing as a princess or anything else.”
I see, so there are few female players.

However, if these men loaded with ulterior motives approaches those who they think is a girl, and give them items and equipment, and then it turns out that she is actually a boy, it would hurt their feelings. If I’m a boy, I would certainly feel cheated¹.

“…In that case, I might be better off if I close myself off from other people.”
This is the conclusion I come up with.

“But wouldn’t that be boring?”
“He’s right. There are also people who don’t care, so if you think someone is a good person, you should actively associate with them.”

My conclusion were argued with by the two.

However, I also don’t want to be resented and feel guilty.
In that case, maybe it would be okay if I disclose that I’m a man inside and should be treated as such.
“Then, how about I explain to them in advance that the person you are looking at is a man inside to some extent?”
“Then maybe there would be less resentment and fewer people feeling hurt if you get your man avatar back… maybe.”
“In the first place, I don’t think they would believe what you say. You don’t get to play as an opposite gender in this game.”
“That’s right. However, it’s still better than not saying anything at all, so I would suggest that he tell them.”
Mmm, it’s better if I don’t carelessly get in contact with other people.
I should primarily play solo for now.

“Ah, let’s form a party before we reach the forest.”
Solo play pause.
Upon forming the party, I learnt that Kouya is level 9, while Yuuki is at level 8. I’m at level 2.

With nothing in particular happening after that, we reached “Misora’s Forest”².
I feel like the trees are too sparse to be called a forest, and it would be more fitting to call it woodlands though.
The clear blue sky above and the smell of the trees are soothing.

“See, isn’t it a normal forest?”
“I agree.”
I agree with Kouya’s opinion.
However, this may be a treasure trove for materials.
There are gathering spots scattered everywhere.

“Hey hey, Taro. Even if you gather those materials there, you can’t even sell it for 1 Eso, you know?”
“Is that so. But, I’m gathering these for my Alchemy skill.”
“Eh? Taro, did you take the Alchemy skill?”

Those two became speechless.
“…Ah, nn.”
As expected, anyone would react like this, huh.

“G-good luck…”
“I won’t say badmouth it. Although. there are other skills that are more exciting than the Alchemy skill, you know.”
“Nn, well, I will play with this skill for now. I will replace it when I get tired of it.”
“O, okay…”

“Ah, new material get!”

This is a harvest festival.
The two men look appalled when they see me holding a caterpillar up to the sky, but I pay them no heed.

“Hahahaha…”
“…Well then, pull yourself together. Let’s start the quest now,” said Yuuki.

“Quest?”
“Yeah, it’s an enticing quest to hunt 5 Fluffy Rabbit for 50 Eso as the reward.
Fluffy Bunny…
“Yeah, I was lucky to be able to get a quest this easy from the Wanted Dead ⁴ I feel like I just heard a phrase that is simple yet incomprehensible.
Let’s also ask about the mechanism accepting quest while I’m at it.

“What is a “Wanted Dead”?”
“Mm, it is a bulletin board that is located in every city, where quests are issued. It is also a place where a player can buy or sell items and equipment to and from other player.”
“In conclusion, it is a crucial facility for finding quest, items, and equipment.”
“I see, thanks,” I expressed my thanks once.
On another note, is 50 Eso that big of a reward?

“Then, let’s stop gathering materials and look for Fluffy Bunny.”
“What do Fluffy Bunny looks like?”
“Ah, it looks like that.”
Speaking of the devil, the monster revealed itself upon being mentioned.
There are two white fluffy living beings where Yuuki pointed.
Those two beings are round and tufty blob with long ears like a bunny’s on top of it.
They have eyes as glimmering in red like a gemstone.
They are small monsters, no bigger than 50 cm.
They… look like cotton candy with bunny ears.

They are cute, I thought for an instant.

The white cotton candies are making “Pyon, pyon!” noise.
And then, in front of the Fluffy Bunny, appear a flaring flames, scorching the ground.
What just happened?
Amidst my confusion, a fist-size fireball came flying at me.
“Uwaa!”
Startled, I reflexively cross my hands in front of my face to take the blow.
After that, there was an impact, and the smell of something burning.

“Are you okay?”
I put down my crossed hands, and right there was Yuuki, who had dashingly shielded me from the fireball with his shield.

“Taro, are you okay?”
He patted his own head to put out some amber on his hair, carefreely smiled and turned his head halfway towards me in worry.
That figure who is protecting the weak behind him, he looked just like a knight.
Yuuki, you are really handsome.

“Taro, now isn’t the time to be absent-minded. It is using magic,” Kouya walked up from rear line and explained, while checking out his equipped gauntlet by holding his hand into fist.
That was magic…
It was small, but it got incredible firepower⁵.

“Let’s go, Yuu!”
“OK”
Kouya started moving towards the Fluffy Bunny, and on that cue, Yuuki swung his sword at the Fluffy Bunny with his shield up.

However, the bunny proved to be of an unexpectedly agile creature, and it dodged Yuuki’s sword.
It jumped away.
Kouya quickly intercepted it at its landing point and punched the bunny with his gauntlets.

The Fluffy Rabbit died with a single hit.

“That’s one down,”Kouya pushed up his glasses and assumed a fighter stance.
He looked just like a fiendish glasses wearer.

“『Appeal!』”
Yuuki shouted and activated his ability against the remaining bunny. He drummed his own sword against his shield, and a small dazzling light gleamed up for an instant.
The moment the ability was activated, the remaining bunny switched its target from Kouya to Yuuki and unleashed its fireball immediately.
And Yuuki blocked the fireball with his shield again.
It looked like an ability that attract attention to self.

Is the monster focus squarely on only Yuuki?

Anyway, I can’t just stand back and do nothing.

I unsheathed the short sword, “Evening of Remonstrance”.

“Taro, that thing is quick. It would be hard for my initial strike to hit it with my speed. I’m going to do a feint, so please intercept it on its landing point and hit it there.
“Alright.”
Yuuki approached the Fluffy Bunny, and swung his sword again.
It jumped, and at its landing point, I hold up “Evening or Remonstrance” and swung down.

I can do it!
I hit right on the mark, and my sword sunk into it and injuring it. It felt like flesh.
The shallow wound was only three centimeter deep though.

“jump jump”
“!”

The Fluffy Bunny that I couldn’t finish off jumped to midair and unleashed its fireball in counterattack.

In front of me, a ball of fire rage on, expanding on.
“Taro!”
Just in time, Kouya moved in to the bunny’s back and punched it once that made it fly to the ground.

Kouya’s attack canceled the bunny’s magic, and the fireball smoked out, saving me from my predicament.

“Are you okay, Taro?”
“Nice follow up, Yuu.”
“Nn, thanks for the help, Kouya.”

I was in crisis just now, but getting a new ingredient put up a smile on my face.

“Long story short, what makes a monster troublesome is their fast chanting speed that is far faster than players’.”
“In case of Fluffy Bunny, it is just “pyon pyon”.”
“On the contrary, a player’s magic is stronger.”
“Hee~”
“Anyway, we just need to hunt three more for the quest.”
Yuuki, while putting away his weapon, also wore his dazzling handsome face.
He also lost his HP from 380 to 350.
In other words, he took 30 damage from the flame spell, despite having blocked them.

If I were the one to received the flame spell, me who is wearing the beginner equipment, my HP would undoubtedly be wiped out in an instant.
I understand that I needed the protection of those two while doing the quest.

“What’s wrong, Taro? We are going to hunt more of the bunnies,” said Kouya who went ahead of me, who was standing still.
“Ah, okay.”
“By the way, Taro, if you keep using that equipment, can you even take a hit from the rabbit?⁷”
“You’re right. I missed that fact.”

Bewildered by the sudden equipment transfer from them, I fumbled my gratitude.
“T-thanks.”
All the equipment that they gave me were equippable by me despite my low status.
Let’s put them on right away.
“Oh, don’t you look appropriate now?”
“Now, you might be able to take one hit from the bunny, I guess?”
“You guys…”
For some reason, I feel bad for being indebted to them.

“I also have something I want to give you guys.”
“Ooh, you don’t have to, you know?”
“He’s right. You just started anyway, you can depend on us.”
They have a point, but still, as equal friends, I want to make it even between us.
And the best I can do right now is.

“Please take this.” I gave them one “Emerald Tear” to each of them.
I only have one bottle left, but it is better to give them to Yuuki and Kouya in case something happen.

Unmistakably, if either of them died, then this party would crumble.

“Hold on, what is this item?”
“Eh, is this… a potion?”
“It is a handmade potion. the color is a little weird since I used some unorthodox materials than normal potion materials, but the effect should be the same.”

“Hey hey.”
“Can a potion even be made by a day one player?”
“No, I heard that it is harder than that,” Kouya pushed his glasses and observed the “Emerald Tear”, “In the first place, if potion is this easy to make, then it would cheaper to buy player-made potion from “Bounty and Auction Board” than to buy NPC’s potion from second-hand shop.”

“You’re right… the potion we bought from NPC was 30 Eso a piece after all…”
“In a nutshell, we would make more by selling this on the “Bounty and Auction Board” than by completing this quest.”

“We can’t accept this. We have never seen a green potion before. There’s this ＋ modifier too, and then its potency compared to NPC-sold potion… Eh!? Normal potion restore 120 HP in the span of 1 minute, right?”
“This one cure 2 times as much HP in 1 second. In a nutshell, this is a fast-acting curative item that is unheard of!? This will an upheaval to the conventional wisdom of PvP!?”

It’s just one potion. What’s with this exaggerated reaction.
I can make more later anyway, I want you to take this here.
I can’t allow you to refuse this, it would be unlike me. We are even friends after all.

“No, it is also symbol of gratitude for things you have taught me.”
I told them that again and again, until finally they sigh.
“Taro, if you insist.”
Yuuki and Kouya looked at each other, “we will accept it”, and so, both of them let go of their pent up laugh.

They told me immediately curtly so that I who have argued vehemently won’t feel awkward, but it had the opposite effect and I felt embarrassed.

After that, we uneventfully completed the Fluffy Bunny hunt.

There was no dangerous moment to use the “Emerald Tear”, it was a smooth sailing.

There was a little more time, so we hunted 15 more bunnies, my level went up to 3, and we got 10 of the Fluffy Bunnies’ drop, “Stone of Red Eye”.
Furthermore, there was a small stream in Misora’s Forest, and I could gather “Water” from there.
It was a fruitful adventure.

There’s just one problem. It is really difficult to hunt Fluffy Bunny alone.

It is impossible to keep up with Fluffy Bunny’s speed. Then there’s its firepower too.

Even though I could hit it, the damage isn’t enough.
I can injure it, but the wound would be shallow. Just now, when I was the only one taking down a bunny, it took me 25 hits to take down only one of them while being protected by Yuuki and Kouya. I might be able to just barely win on one to one, but if I encounter a few at once, it would be a tricky situation.

“It’s about time to go home.”
Kouya said while looking up the sky.
Orange light penetrate through the leaves of the tree, the day is ending. The cloudless sky is painted with sunset orange.

In the end, my wish to meet with Misora, the sage, didn’t come true.

“”When dusk fall on the Misora’s Forest, the mercenaries quietly end their adventure, unbeknownst to the others,” that’s what the NPC of Michelangelo said.”
While listening to the song about Misora’s Forest from Yuuki, I looked up the sky.

Misora, Misora, beautiful sky, sky, how pretty are you.
From one edge to the opposite edge, the forest is clear.
Never a rain, or a storm ever spotted the sky, the sky is clear as always.

So Misora, do you have anything to do with the beautiful sky?⁸ So while I was pondering through the song⁹.

A small ripple appear in the sky, and a small winged person sprouted out of it.

“!?”

And then it grinned this way, and entered the sky again.
It is a sudden event.

“Yuu! Kou! Did you see that!”
“What is it?”

“Just now! At the sky, no, that thing was rather like a fish that jumped out of the water. It was as if the sky is an upside down pond, and it was jumping out of it.”
“I don’t understand what you are saying.”
“A-anyway, a fairy-like creature came out of the sky.”
“You might saw it wrong?”

I pointed at a spot that is higher than the trees of the Misora’s Forest.
Eyeballing it, it was about 10 meter.

“Even if there was something there, there’s no way to reach that height in the first place.”

I didn’t see it wrong though.

“How about climbing the trees and jump?”

There’s something in this forest.
Convinced of that, I want to look for a way to reach the place the little person.

“To be honest, our level is too low right now.”

Muu~.
“Can we try that another time?”

Yuuki persuaded me a little impatiently.
Is there something urgent that needs doing, I wonder.

“Nnnn…”

But we are just at the point of discovery. From Yuuki and Kouya’s replies, the information that a little person sighted on the sky is still possibly “unknown”.

“Actually, the monsters that appear in this forest at night is going to be stronger,” Kouya reluctantly warned me, “if it is just us, it would progress from being a fight of attrition to annihilation. In other words, anyone who visited Misora’s forest in the curtain of night have a death wish.”
I see. In that case, it would be a better idea to return.
In Clan Clan, the penalty for dying against monsters is severe.
It has a brutal penalty of losing 1% of total accumulated experience point up until that point.
A low level player like me would be able to regain the lost EXP almost immediately, but it would be a painful penalty for a high level player.

“O-oh. In that case, let’s go back.”

In the end, neither of them touched upon the event of the poopfession.
I’m grateful for their thoughtfulness.
In the near future, there will come a day when it becomes a funny story.
Yeah. As I silently thought that, bright orange light penetrated through the leaves between the trees.

And with that, the three of them return to the beginning city of Michelangelo.

1. If any of you thinks that this is a sign of shifting perception, it isn’t. Should be. There usually is more signs if that’s the case.
2. Misora (ミソラ) has the same pronunciation as 美空 (Misora), meaning beautiful sky. This will be important, so keep that in mind.
3. The hairless one, the original word implied.
4. The Japanese is “Bounty and Auction.”, but the reading guide says “Wanted Dead”. I personally think “Wanted Dead” is a silly alternative pronunciation for “Bounty and Auction” though, so it will be referred to as “Bounty and Auction Board” from next time after next time on.. I add a the word “board” because it is a giant board, although it’s humongous that it is more like a wall.
5. It is talking about the fireball, not the rabbit.
6. The reading assistance in the original says “Red Eyes”, but eyes are no stone, so I literaltranslate the name.
7. Richie: I mean, the slime in the grass field almost killed him, after 4 hits IIRC?
8. The original is much more vague. I decide to just clarify it.
9. About the song, it is a novel, so it is obvious that they are talking about Misora and beautiful sky, but when you say it orally… well, let’s hope Misora and Misora has different emphasized syllable.