Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu

The once peaceful jungle was now echoing with the sounds of multiple battles.

There were more players here now, and one of them was Pain.

“Hah!”

Pain blocked an attack with his shield and cut the monster open with his sword.

It didn’t take Pain too long to kill all of the monsters that were surrounding him.

“Good. Now, what do we have here?”

Pain looked through the dropped items but didn’t find anything special.

Pain had already discovered several moss-covered ruins, but none of them led to him acquiring anything in particular.

“I have to move carefully.”

Pain’s HP was already down by 30%.

He hadn’t taken any strong hits, but the sheer number of enemies had very slowly chipped away at him.

And since he could not heal here, he wanted to avoid getting damaged as much as possible.

Pain began to walk again, in order to find something new.

As Pain walked, the faint sounds of a battle reached his ears. He had been in this jungle for a while now but had only heard others fighting a few times.

He was struggling with his exploration, even though he was using all of the information he had gotten.

“There may be something. I should just go and check.”

Pain reached the place where the sounds were coming from. But there were dense and tall bushes, and he could not see what was happening inside.

However, Pain had a feeling that whatever was happening, was not normal.

It wasn’t surprising, since this suspicious bush was thicker than any Pain had ever seen before.

“...I should look inside.”

Pain spread the bushes apart and was just about to go inside when the sounds of fighting stopped.

Instead, the bush started to shake, and he could hear the sound of something coming closer to him.

Pain raised his shield and pulled out his sword in preparation to fight. He would fight whatever it was that was coming out of the bushed. The sound became louder, and the tip of something shot out of the bushes.

“Here it comes!”

The face that popped out in front of Pain was familiar. No, it was the face of an unforgettable monster.

“Hahh...I’m tired... Oh, you’re...Pain, right?”

It was the head of a monster with no pupils.

And the voice that came from it was also familiar.

It was without a doubt, Maple’s voice.

After meeting, the two walked together for a short while, and then sat down in a small clearing.

Maple was still in her monster form.

Since there were limits on healing, she could not discard this valuable outer layer.

Pain sat down by the root of a tree, and Maple lay her long body next to it.

“So, you’re going to stay like that?”

“...? Yes, I guess.”

“I see...”

Pain felt a little uncomfortable deep down, but if she said she was going to stay like that, then there was nothing he could say.

The reason that they were together now was simple. They had decided to explore together.

It was hard to meet others in this wide field. And this chance encounter between two strong players was an opportunity that neither Maple or Pain was going to ignore.

Pain suggested this to Maple, and Maple had no reason to refuse him.

And Maple did not think very deeply about it.

The only thing that she considered was that having someone with her during an attack like the last one, would make it easier to escape.

And so this elite corps was born.