Chapter 3: I Can’t Accept This

“Finally you decided to show up.” Sarah was still upset with me when I caught up to her. But of course, it didn’t stop her from eating breakfast.

The inn where we lived also served meals at the tavern on the first floor. Sarah was sitting at one of the tables, having bread with a cup of milk.

“I didn’t take too much time to get downstairs, you know?” I asked her with a grumpy expression.

“I’m adding the time spent trying to get you all to bed.” The red-haired girl was still irritated. Just like in the story, Sarah was the type of character who took her obligations and agreements seriously.

During the time that I was in my room, a sea of information flooded my mind. The memories resting in my body fused with all my past experiences. All Rick’s memories, even things which weren’t in the original book, were carved into my brain.

Thanks to it, I understood her reaction towards me. Last night, the three party members had agreed to wake up early for dungeon exploration. Even though the other Rick was the one who made a promise with them, I was there listening to her complain. ’Well, from anyone’s perspective I am the same guy from yesterday.’

Sarah sighed like I was a nuisance. “Geez, and on top of that, you woke up weird. Are you sure that you’ll be fine going inside the dungeon today?”

The woman before me could look like someone demanding and annoying, but this was just the surface. She was genuinely worried about me. However, if I asked, she would turn red and yell at me. A typical tsundere behavior. I knew that, so I couldn’t help myself. Like I was driven by instinct, I had to tease her.

“Are you worried about me, Sarah?” I asked with a playful tone.

“Eh?” Sarah left a surprised sound escape, and her face was completely red over my question. “Of course I do. You don’t have any combat powers, so you have to be more careful than others. If I didn’t keep an eye on you, you would be dead by now.”

Her big mouth tried to be rude, but she wasn’t capable of masking her good intentions. She blushed with embarrassment, and I smiled seeing her this way.

She was strict, that’s for sure. In fact, she was stricter with herself than with others. But the truth was that she was a sweet and kind girl who really cared about the ones around her. I always thought that this tough facade of hers combined with her shyness to express her own feelings was something pretty cute.

“I’m glad that you are concerned about my well-being, but don’t worry. I’m fine. I feel like I was reborn.” I said with a big smile on my face. Well, this second part was more literal than what normally would be.

I had a countdown and there were some things that I needed to do in order to survive, but I didn’t want to live with sadness and sorrow all the way. I would enjoy the journey until the last moment and create my own story in this fantasy world. And of course, I wanted Sarah to be part of this.

“Ehhh, looks like someone woke up in a good mood.” she said, her eyes analyzing me. She didn’t know about the transmigration. From her point of view, my way of being was different from the Rick she knew. But I wouldn’t play a character. This was my life now, so I would act as I pleased.

The old Rick had a more introverted personality, even by my standards. Being like that would be pretty boring in my opinion, so I would just be myself. My priority was to ensure the main events of the story happen with some adjustments, but I didn’t think that changing Rick’s personality would make the storyline go out of control, so I guessed it was fine.

I needed our party to follow some paths to unlock the wanted scenario, and after that I would just change it up a bit for my convenience. Event A followed by Event B would result in Event C, like a chain reaction. My theory was that I could change the main events. What I had to do was replace Event C with Event D, resulting in Event E.

If I could just change the events a bit I would get MC’s power. If I did this repeatedly I could avoid death. It was pretty easy, actually, considering that the knowledge was in my favor.

But for now, the most important thing to know to change the storyline is to know which part of the tale I was in.

“Now that I think of it, I don’t remember what we should do today in the dungeon.” I needed her to confirm something for me.

“Well, we still needed to plan before leaving the city, but let me think…” the lady said with her index finger on her cheek. “Recently, I believe that we still needed to finish cleaning the second floor. After that we could explore the third floor for a bit, or check if we let any room pass unchecked.”

“And that would be our first time on the third floor, right?” I asked the red-haired girl.

“I know, right? It seems that we are making progress as real adventurers.” She was really excited about her mission.

“Y-Yeah…” The moment that she remembered the mission, she started to smile and her eyes shone like stars. She really liked being an adventurer. But I couldn’t have the courage to say that they weren’t making any significant progress.

The dungeon that they were cleaning was a low-rank one. The ranks of this world range from F to A, with S-Rank given to very special dungeons with an abnormal difficulty. Only the strongest of the strongest, S-Rank adventurers, are allowed to go inside such dangerous places.

At this point in the book, Leo would be level 5, while Rick and Sarah would be level 4. Leo was one level above the other two, because sometimes he would explore the first floor of this F-Rank dungeon alone to gain some experience, and to prevent the small fries from getting outside the building.

He didn’t try to fight against more powerful creatures to level up. His sense of obligation kept him bound to Valleria City, the city we were in, and also our hometown. He kept fighting mindlessly in this weakest area, so it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t grow stronger.

They knew that the dungeon near the city was a low tier one, and they also knew that they were weak. Their only priority was to keep everything as it was. To solve the problem, it was necessary to finish the dungeon. After that, the underground structure would disappear as if it didn’t exist in the first place.

It’s not like they didn’t want to get stronger. Leo knew that his abilities were stagnating at the very bottom of ranks, but he didn’t have a method to measure their progress with precision.

After the second floor’s boss, Leo will yearn to become stronger, and as if someone were listening to his wish, he will discover an ancestral power inside this F-Rank dungeon. He will find the statue of a goddess that granted him a system along with a new power. Thanks to that, he will finally escape this low-rank eternal grind.

’But for today’s challenge this is more than enough. It’s not like one of us will die against that damned monster, but it’ll be a pretty annoying fight.’ I thought inwardly. I didn’t have a reason to fear, but I felt uneasy. Something was telling me that I shouldn’t get my guard down.

“And that’s why I’m concerned about you. Today we’ll fight a boss to get to the next floor.” I brought my attention back to Sarah’s words.

I stared at the heroine before me. It’s impressive to know how much she would grow throughout the journey. After Rick’s death, she would become more determined to become stronger. And after a painful training arc, she’d become a badass Swordsman, and one of the strongest companions of the MC.

’But I won’t die because of that. Find another way to become overpowered without being motivated by my corpse!’ I thought to myself, but I only said, “Don’t worry, Sarah. I’m not some child. You should just focus on the battle. I’ll support you and Leo, and we will return safe and sound as always, okay?”

“Okay…” she nodded, but still looked a bit sad, fixated on her half-eaten bread. I didn’t like to see her like that. So I decided to tease her to cheer her up.

I sighed, trying to imitate her gesture from earlier. “Geez, why do you have to overthink so much?”

“Eh?” She was surprised by my tone. My unexpected words made her raise her head.

“It’s like having a wife who worries herself to death, but without the good part.” I said, trying to look serious. “I can’t accept this!”

“What?” She was sipping her cup of milk.

“I can’t accept a woman being worried about me if she isn’t married to me.” I said bluntly.

Sarah choked on the gulp of milk, coughing the white liquid out of her throat. I hadn’t expected this scene. It didn’t happen in the book, so I almost laughed at her.

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