The boars charged at them.
Lucian would never forget what happened next.
Glacielle moved like water, smoothly and too quickly. With a sharp crack, she broke open both fans, and ice spikes shot up from the ground in front of the boars.
The lead boar squealed as it hit the spikes, which killed it.
The second boar tried to go around, but Glacielle was already there. She swung her right fan, and an ice blade appeared, cutting right through the creature's front legs.
It fell apart with a loud scream of pain.
The third boar, which seemed smarter than the others, tried to get away. Glacielle tossed her left fan like a Frisbee. The weapon spun through the air, leaving a trail of frost, and hit the boar in the back of the neck.
And it fell hard.
The whole fight lasted about ten seconds.
Glacielle walked over to the fallen fan and picked it up, brushing off some dirt with complete composure. For a moment, the ice bikini armor got brighter, and Lucian saw the system alert pop up.
[Combat Complete!]
[Experience Gained: 450 XP]
[Glacielle has leveled up! Lv. 1 → Lv. 3]
[Bond increased through shared combat! Current Bond: 0.5 Hearts]
Lucian just stood there, trying to make sense of what he had seen. "That... was FUCKING amazing!"
"The enemies were beyond my capabilities," Glacielle exclaimed, returning to his side.
The fans turned into ice particles that went back into her body. "Opponents with the right SSS rank would be harder to beat for me."
"You use fans," Lucian said, still a little shocked. "I've never seen anyone fight with fans before other than in gacha games..."
"Wait... this still counts, though..." Lucian starts to hold his chin. "Oh yeah... it is. I always forget that I'm right now in a fantasy world."
"They let you attack and defend at the same time... It's also easy to hide them because they fold up." Glacielle looked at the three dead boars. "These will give you enough meat."
"Should we get them ready?"
"Ah! Yeah, the food." Lucian woke up from his daze. "Do you know how to field dress an animal?"
"Sure. All warriors should know how to do basic things to stay alive."
Glacielle got to work quickly and efficiently, using ice fans to butcher the boars. Lucian tried to help, but most of the time he just watched her work with interest.
They had wrapped up a lot of big pieces of meat in large leaves in less than twenty minutes.
Glacielle said, "We should cook this away from the main trail."
"The smell of blood might bring in predators."
"Yeah, let's go." They both walked together side by side.
...
They came across a small open area with a stream running through it. While Glacielle cleaned the meat in the stream, Lucian got firewood.
At some point, her traveler's clothes had come back, but there were still signs of frost on her.
Lucian had never camped before, so it was difficult for him to start the fire. After Glacielle had given him flint and steel from her inventory five times and failed, she just pointed at the woodpile.
A small jet of ice shot out of her finger, and for some reason Lucian didn't understand, the wood caught fire.
"How the fuck can ice start a fire?" he asked in disbelief.
"Dry materials catch fire when the temperature changes quickly," Glacielle said. "Basic thermodynamics."
"For a warrior, you're surprisingly smart..."
"SSS-rank warriors must know a lot about many different things, and being smart is just as important as being able to fight."
Lucian put the meat on green sticks and held them over the fire. The smell of cooking boar quickly filled the clearing, and it made his stomach growl.
He remembered that he hadn't eaten since he had come back to life.
Glacielle sat across from him and watched the meat cook without taking her eyes off of it. The light from the fire made her blue eyes look almost otherworldly.
After a while, Lucian said, "Can I ask you a question?"
"You are my master... you can ask anything."
"How was it? Being in the realm of summoning for hundreds of years?"
Glacielle was quiet for a while as she thought about the question. "Like I said earlier, time doesn't move normally there."
"It was like being asleep, aware but not fully..."
"I was there, but I wasn't alive." She looked right at him. "And for me... this is better."
"Is it better to be called by a random guy who doesn't know what he's doing?" Lucian asked.
"Being able to fight, eat, and live with a purpose is better," Glacielle said. "The quality of my summoner doesn't matter to how happy I am to be alive again."
Lucian wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult, so he decided not to bring it up again. He took one of the skewers out of the fire and gave it to her.
"This should be done here."
Glacielle immediately accepted the meat and began to bite into it. Her eyes opened a little bit, which was like someone else jumping for joy because she was so stoic.
"This... this is good enough," she said, which Lucian thought was a lot of praise from her.
The fire crackled and the stream bubbled, making for a peaceful meal. Lucian was able to relax for the first time since he was reborn.
The situation wasn't as bad as he thought because he had a strong warrior, a working system, and real food.
Maybe his second life won't be a total disaster after all.
[Bond increase detected!]
[Shared meal with Glacielle: +0.3 Hearts]
[Positive conversation: +0.2 Hearts]
[Current Bond Level: 1.0 Heart]
[First heart milestone reached! Glacielle's stats have increased by 5%!]
Lucian smiled when he saw the notice. One heart is down, and nine more to go.
And if just eating and talking together could make the bond stronger, maybe the task wouldn't be as difficult as he thought.
"Master," Glacielle said all of a sudden, turning her head to the west. "Do you hear that?"
Lucian strained his ears. At first, he couldn't hear anything, but then he heard faint screams on the wind.
There are people screaming for help out there.
They both got up right away. And then came more screams, explosions, and the roar of something big and angry that broke the peaceful moment.
Lucian's heart started to race as he said, "That's coming from the village."
Glacielle's bikini armor appeared right away, and her frost fans appeared in her hands. "Something is attacking the settlement."
"Based on the sound, it was a big monster."
Another roar filled the air, and this time Lucian knew it from many games and stories about fantasy.
It was a dragon that attacks the village.
Lucian said, "We have to help them," and he was already running toward the sound.
Glacielle effortlessly aligned herself with him, maintaining a calm expression despite their imminent danger.
"Understood, Master. I will get rid of the threat."
As they ran, Lucian's mind raced. He had one SSS-rank warrior, had been alive for less than a day, and was about to fight a dragon.
There was no way his second life would be boring.
As they got closer to the village, the screaming got louder, and smoke started to rise above the trees.
Lucian just hoped that Glacielle was strong enough to deal with whatever was coming.
And that he wouldn't die in the process of being the main character he was.