I found out about something real quickly about this pink-haired thing….. She doesn’t shut up! I haven’t even said a word to her, and she has been holding a conversation with herself this entire time! “And so when I first made my character, I was like, I want to look different from how I normally look. But look, I am not fat, okay? I am actually quite good-looking in real life, too. I just didn’t want others to keep coming up to me and bothering me, so I changed my looks. But seriously, this game allows you to do pretty much anything, right? Like if I wanted to, I could start a business, right? By the way, did I say thank you for helping me? I really wanted this staff. It was just I could not get very far into the forest.”

She just kept going on and on. I could only do my best to tune her out, or else my ears were going to bleed. Luckily, we reached the forest quickly, and I turned and raised my hand to make her stop speaking. I then used the stick in my hand to write in the dirt. “I am unable to fully protect you, so make sure you stay alert. I will do what I can to protect you, but if you die too many times, we will not be able to finish the quest.”

“Understood! It is already enough to know you are willing to help me. If I die, it will be on me. I won’t blame you.” Luckily, it seemed the pink-haired thing was not as bad as I thought. She at least knew how to be in a team.

I nodded and drew my sword. The pink-haired thing also got ready for battle. We walked into the forest, and surprisingly, the pink-haired thing actually stopped talking. Her vigilance went through the roof. I had to admit while it was annoying how she kept blabbing nonstop earlier, this version of her was not too bad. 

As we walked further and further, I could see a monster around level 5, not too far off. I stretched my arm out to signal for the pink-haired thing to stop and motioned with my head for her to look ahead of me. I then wrote on the ground: “You are a magic user, right?”

The pink-haired thing nodded to my question, which was good since I did not want her to talk at this time. I slowly wrote on the ground once more. “Use your best attack spell to attack the monster ahead of us. Put yourself against the tree behind us before attacking. This way, you can defend your back, at the very least. Just keep your eyes on the sides. If the monster does not die, I will kill it when it gets here.”

Now, if the pink-haired thing was still noisy even after entering the forest, I would not be going this far, but since she was being good, I decided that there was no harm in teaching her a few things to keep herself safe in a party in a place like this. Plus, maybe in the future, she will be fighting alongside me. It would be good to have some people I know who are able to work well in a party.

The pink-haired thing did as I said and braced herself up against a tree before focusing on the monster ahead of us and letting an ice bolt fire straight at it. I also got ready just in case there were any ads. The reason I was being so careful was because the monster to the front was a wood wolf. They were known for traveling in packs and usually used one as bait while the others in its pack surrounded the unaware prey. 

It seemed I was right to be on guard because as soon as the ice bolt reached the wood wolf, it easily dodged it and charged toward us. Two more wood wolves came out from the sides, which I quickly turned and struck out to my right while yelling: “Your left!”

“Got it!” The pink-haired thing quickly reacted much faster than I had expected. She swiftly attacked the on-come wolf with an ice bolt while I dispatched the other two wolves and made my way over to the third. All three wolves now lay dead on the ground. I picked up a stick and wrote on the ground: “Good job.”

“Hehe!” The pink-haired thing giggled and blushed before saying: “You spoke just now.”

I frowned slightly and quickly wrote: “You are hearing things.” While I know I did shout an order, I felt like I was back in my dream when I used to speak to people like that during a fight. While I do wish to return to how I was in my dream, I was still having an issue getting used to it. Well, not that I have even tried yet, but I do not know if I really want to start with this pink-haired thing.

“No, I didn’t. I heard you loud and clear! Your left! You yelled! So heroic!” This pink-haired thing wants me to punch her, right? Should I do it now? 

I narrowed my eyes and wrote once more on the ground. “Shut up, or I will go back to town.”

The pink-haired thing quickly went quiet and made a motion as if she were zipping her mouth. Feeling much better, I turned and walked further into the forest.