Ch.100100 – How to Overcome Fear

<100 – How to Overcome Fear>

The giant king crabs scuttled beneath the tree while torrential rain created a curtain of sound on the leaves above. We sat in silence on the tree branch.

Sleep doesn’t always come just because you want it to, so my mind began to wander.

“This reminds me of the old days.”

When I absentmindedly muttered this nostalgic thought, Zhang and Titosoga looked at me like I’d gone crazy.

“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean I’ve had experience being chased by giant king crabs and trying to sleep in a tree!”

“Then what kind of experience are you talking about?”

“I am curious. What memories do other assassins carry?”

Since both showed interest, I shared a bit of my past.

“It wasn’t rain but heavy snow. I once made a wrong step and ended up hanging from a cliff.”

“Why were you in such a dangerous area?”

“To make the legendary snow flower shaved ice.”

Zhang looked at me as if to say, “Are you stupid?”

“I can want to eat things! It’s a legendary food with amazing collection effects!”

“That only exists in fairy tales.”

“The legendary snow flower shaved ice is real!”

Titosoga patted my shoulder.

“I understand. I believed in Santa Claus until last year.”

“Santa Claus is real too!!”

He appears as an event NPC during Christmas!

My outburst, stemming from player experiences, must have seemed strange to these NPCs.

Titosoga looked amused while Zhang seemed concerned.

“Listen. At ten years old, you should be preparing to become an adult. Village children your age are digging potatoes, pulling weeds, and carrying firewood. You need to grow up.”

“Why am I being called immature when both the legendary snow flower shaved ice and Santa Claus are real?”

“Adults don’t believe in such things. Listen, Oknodie. For an assassin, money is everything. The world is full of scammers who try to lower their fees by promising suspicious things!”

Somehow I was getting scolded now.

“Neither of you believe me?”

“Hahaha. I think it’s fine. It’s cute when girls believe in such things.”

“Foolish Nodie. You’ll regret not listening to me when you get scammed.”

“I hate both Titosoga and Zhang!”

They’re really real.

I’ve seen them. Hmph.

“Haha. Sorry, sorry. Don’t be mad, okay? I’ll shine a happy light for you later.”

“…Pink colored?”

“You like pink?”

“…Yes. It increases the skill proficiency coefficient.”

“I like pink too!”

After chatting like this, my mood improved considerably.

Now, what were we trying to do again?

“Geh-geh-geh. You brats are no better than goblins with your scattered concentration.”

“Ugh. Sorry. We’ll go to sleep quickly.”

“No, it’s fine. You would have woken up soon anyway even if you had fallen asleep.”

“What?”

“Giant king crabs, you see, can actually climb trees!”

“Whaaaat?!”

When the skeleton instructor splashed water with a strong shrimp smell onto the tree, the giant king crabs swarmed toward us.

Click-clack-click.

They tore at the bark with their pincers, chewed it with their jaws, and even shook the tree back and forth as if it were a shrimp tree.

“Kyaaah! I-I’m going to die. I’m going to die like this!”

“Don’t make such a fuss, Titosoga. You won’t fall from the tree as long as you maintain balance.”

Whenever Titosoga’s posture and balance became precarious, Zhang would gently push her shoulder or poke her leg to keep her from falling.

“Oknodie, what should we do? We’re fine since we’ve had survival training, but Titosoga is in danger. That instructor definitely won’t help us.”

“Animals and monsters run away when they hear the cry of their natural predator!”

“Predator? Do giant king crabs have predators?”

Not many.

Even regular king crabs have few natural predators, which is why they reproduce easily and fill the ocean floor. Giant king crabs are even worse.

But king crabs aren’t the only monsters in the ocean.

“Octopuses are predators of king crabs!”

“With that size, they’d just slice up a normal octopus. Giant octopus…? Is there such a thing?”

“It’s called a kraken!”

“I see. Kraken… Wait, kraken? The crazy octopus that can swallow large ships whole?”

“Yes.”

“How would you know what it sounds like?”

“Should I try making the sound?”

“You… have you seen a kraken too?”

“Of course. I’ve hunted all the rare monsters.”

“Hunted?”

Oops. I accidentally bragged about my player experiences.

“I mean, not me but my master! I watched my master hunt it.”

“Wow. Your master is amazing, Oknodie. I didn’t know assassination schools had secret techniques for catching krakens.”

“Hmph! Whatever, just help me chase them away!”

Titosoga was about to burst into tears.

I had no choice.

I had to take the initiative to help my weaker friend.

“Ahem.”

I cleared my throat and rounded my mouth.

The key is using the internal oblique and rectus abdominis muscles for vocalization!

“Muooooong!”

“Pfft.”

“Oknodie, this isn’t the time for jokes… huh?”

The giant king crabs that had been clinging to the tree suddenly startled and fell off.

Click-clack.

One giant king crab approached the tree again with a suspicious look.

How dare it!

“Muooooong!”

I imitated the kraken’s cry loudly to establish dominance, and the fearless giant king crab jumped back five steps.

“Haha, Oknodie. That’s too funny!”

“It may sound funny, but it’s working!”

“Don’t just laugh, help me! They probably think we’re baby krakens because we’re so small. Even predators in their infant stage can be attacked!”

“What should we do?”

“We need to make the sound together!”

A chaotic battle began.

“Muooooong!”

“Muong! Muong!”

“Muooong.”

We tried our best to drive away the giant king crabs by making kraken sounds from the tree branch, while the crabs retreated momentarily but kept approaching with their click-clack sounds.

After this intense battle of nerves, I decided this wouldn’t end and pulled out my secret weapon.

“Everyone raise your arms and wiggle like cephalopods!”

“What effect will that have?”

“To them, it looks like we’re trying to eat them!”

“Haha! This is so much fun!”

“Ugh. I can never tell anyone I did this at night. This is going in my dark history.”

With Titosoga smiling brightly and Zhang making a sad face, we all stretched our arms and imitated tentacle movements, which finally made the giant king crabs run away.

“How dare you chase away all the giant king crabs I gathered! Impudent brats!”

“Hmph. We just need to sleep, right? Is there a rule against chasing away gathered monsters?”

“No, there isn’t.”

The skeleton instructor admitted it readily.

“What do we do now?”

“Let’s just sleep.”

Finally feeling safe, we closed our eyes to rest on the tree.

After about 10 minutes with our eyes closed, the pitter-patter of rain on the leaves and the swooshing sound of rain pouring beyond the tree made for a pleasant background noise as sleep began to creep in.

Click-clack-click-clack.

“Geh-geh-geh. There’s also no rule against gathering the king crabs that ran away!”

“…Oknodie. Is there a sound that chases away skeletons?”

“There’s no such sound.”

* *

[You have protected your friends and makeshift sleeping place from giant king crab attacks using your wits.]

[Mimicry Experience +7]

[Sound Making Experience +5]

[Hanging Experience +3]

[Climbing Experience +1]

[Good Child Experience +1]

After much hardship, I survived the “Adventurer’s Night Activities” lecture.

“I was only substituting for this lecture, but it’s really a shame that the class time is over!”

We kept our mouths shut instead of saying “us too” even as a polite response, fearing we might end up hanging from trees all night.

“Instructor, that was too much. Do you know how scared we were?”

“Geh-geh-geh. Only freshmen who overcome adversity can become sophomores. Thanks to today’s lecture, you’ll be able to sleep peacefully without sleep-talking no matter where you sleep at night.”

“I think I’ll have nightmares about this.”

Titosoga didn’t seem to find this lecture very useful. Zhang looked equally dissatisfied.

“Oh dear. That’s unfortunate.”

The skeleton instructor suddenly became dejected.

“I didn’t want to teach this kind of lecture.”

“Don’t tell me Professor Sadaco ordered you to…?”

Zhang, still wary of Professor Sadaco, asked cautiously.

“I just wanted to make students realize how inconvenient the weak shell called flesh is, and guide you to become skeletons.”

“Hieeeek!!”

“Y-you psycho!! You’re insane!!”

“If you shed your flesh and become a skeleton, you won’t have to suffer through unnecessary activities like sleep, so why worry about sleep-talking? Geh-geh-geh.”

The evil skeleton instructor revealed his true colors.

“Well? Do you feel like becoming a skeleton now? Just say the word and I’ll teach you the <Skeletonization> spell anytime. It’s a spell that will never let you return to being human! Geh-geh-geh!”

“Hiiing!”

“Oknodie, let’s attack together!”

Between the loudly laughing skeleton instructor, Titosoga who finally burst into tears, and Zhang who was hissing like an angry cat, the lecture hall was about to descend into chaos when suddenly a magic circle appeared around the skeleton instructor.

“Ah, this is Professor Sadaco’s summoning magic circle? How frustrating. If I had known, I would have ended the lecture 10 minutes earlier and passed on the spell…”

The magic circle folded space like origami and swallowed the skeleton instructor.

“…Is he gone?”

“Yes.”

“If I see that skull face instead of Professor Sadaco in the next lecture, I’m running away immediately.”

Zhang emphasized repeatedly that he was serious.

I’ll keep it a secret that a summon’s personality tends to resemble its master.