How to Overcome Fear

Scuttling claws clicked against wet soil as Giant King Crabs paced restlessly beneath the trunk. Heavy rain drummed against the canopy above, draping our surroundings in a dense curtain of white noise, while the three of us perched high upon the branches in uneasy silence.

Sleep was hardly something that arrived simply because one willed it, leaving far too much room for wandering thoughts.

"Sitting around like this brings back memories~"

Lost in sentimental nostalgia, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠let the remark slip without thinking. Zhuang and Titocoga instantly whipped their heads toward me, staring as if I had completely lost my mind.

"Don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I've been chased up a tree by Giant King Crabs and tried to sleep on a branch before!"

"Then what kind of memory is it?" Titocoga asked, tilting her head.

"I'm actually a little curious myself," Zhuang chimed in. "What kind of past other assassins carry around."

Since both seemed genuinely interested, I decided to share a tiny sliver of my past.

"It wasn't rain, but there was this day when snow was pouring down like crazy. I misplaced my footing and ended up dangling off the side of a cliff."

"Why on earth did you go to such a dangerous place to begin with?"

"To craft the Legendary Snow Flower Shaved Ice."

Zhuang gave me a look that practically screamed, Are you an idiot?

"Hey, a girl can crave dessert! Do you have any idea how insane the codex collection stats are on legendary food?!"

"Stuff like that only exists in children's storybooks."

"The Legendary Snow Flower Shaved Ice is totally real!"

Titocoga gently patted my shoulder with a sympathetic expression. "I understand how you feel. Up until last year, I believed in Santa Claus too."

"Santa Claus is real too!!"

He literally spawns as an event NPC every single Christmas!

My indignant shout, born from firsthand player experience, apparently looked bizarre in the eyes of these academy NPCs. Titocoga looked at me with tender fondness, while Zhuang merely shook her head in deep concern.

"Listen to me, Orknodi. At ten years old, you're already at the age where you should be preparing for adulthood, you know? Village kids your age are already digging potatoes, weeding fields, and hauling firewood. You need to grow up."

"Both the Legendary Snow Flower Shaved Ice and Santa Claus are one hundred percent real, so why do I have to get lectured about being childish?!"

"Because adults don't believe in fairy tales. Do you hear me? For an assassin, gold is everything. The world is crawling with swindlers who'll try to cheat you out of your contract fees by offering sketchy junk like that!"

Somehow, I had ended up on the receiving end of a full scolding.

"Neither of you believe me, do you?"

"Ahaha. I think it's sweet," Titocoga giggled. "Believing in things like that makes a girl look kind of cute, doesn't it?"

"Dummy-nodi. Don't come crying to me when you get scammed for ignoring my advice later, got it?"

"I hate you both, Titocoga and Zhuang!"

They really existed. I had seen them with my own two eyes. Hmph.

"Haha. Sorry, sorry! Don't be mad, okay?" Titocoga coaxed gently. "Later on, I'll project some mood-boosting lighting for you!"

"...Pink light?"

"You like pink?"

"...Yeah. It grants a higher proficiency gain multiplier."

"I love pink too!"

Chatting like that lifted our spirits considerably. Wait, what had we been trying to do again?

"Khehehe. Look at you brats. Proving you're mere fledglings after all—your attention spans are no better than a pack of goblins'!"

"Ugh. Sorry, Instructor. We'll go to sleep right away."

"No, no. Never mind. Even if you fell asleep, you would have been jolted awake in no time anyway."

"Pardon?"

"You see, Giant King Crabs can actually climb trees!"

"Whaaaat?!"

The Skeleton Instructor dumped a bucket of water reeking of pungent shrimp brine directly onto the trunk, and the Giant King Crabs swarmed in a frenzy.

Click-clack-clack-clack!

Not only did they tear off tree bark with their massive pincers and grind it in their mandibles, but they also began violently rocking the trunk back and forth as if convinced this was an enchanted tree that grew fresh shrimp.

"Kyaaah! I-I'm gonna die! I'm gonna fall and die!"

"Don't make such a fuss, Titocoga! As long as you maintain your center of gravity, you won't fall out of the tree!"

Whenever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Titocoga's posture wobbled, Zhuang deftly nudged her shoulder or tapped her leg to keep her firmly anchored to the bough.

"Orknodi, what should we do? You and I have gone through survival training so we're fine, but Titocoga's in real danger at this rate. That instructor clearly has zero intention of lifting a finger."

"I know for a fact that animals and monsters scatter the moment they hear the cry of their natural predator!"

"Predator? Giant King Crabs have natural predators?"

Admittedly, there weren't many. Even ordinary ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠king crabs reproduced so aggressively that they carpeted the ocean floor unchecked, and Giant King Crabs were an order of magnitude worse. Yet they were far from the only apex monsters in the sea.

"Crabs are naturally preyed upon by octopuses!"

"At this size, a regular octopus would just get shredded into calamari. A giant octopus...? Does something like that even exist?"

"It's called a Kraken!"

"Right. A Kraken... Wait, a Kraken?! That insane calamity rumored to swallow entire galleons in one bite?!"

"Yep."

"There's no way anyone on earth knows what that thing sounds like!"

"Should I give it a shot?"

"Have you... actually seen a Kraken before?"

"Of course. I hunted every rare monster out there."

"Hunted?"

Oops. I let my veteran player flex slip again.

"I mean—not me, my master! I watched my master catch one!"

"Whoa. Your master is terrifying, Orknodi. To think an assassin lineage possesses secret techniques to hunt a Kraken..."

"Hing! I don't care about that right now, just hurry up and drive them away-y-y!"

Titocoga was on the verge of breaking into a full hing-ing-ing meltdown. There was no avoiding it. A dependable gamer had to take the initiative for the sake of an under-leveled party member.

"Ahem."

I cleared my throat and rounded my lips into a circle. The critical point was breath support engaged straight from the internal obliques and rectus abdominis!

"Mwoooooooong!"

"Pfft."

"Orknodi, this is no time to goof aro—wait, huh?"

The Giant King Crabs clinging to the trunk recoiled in sheer panic and tumbled straight off the bark.

Click-clack.

One particularly stubborn Giant King Crab crept back toward the base of the tree, its beady eyes glaring with suspicion. How dare you test my aggro radius!

"MWOOOOOOONG!"

Channeling pure predatory dominance, I blasted the Kraken call once more. The brazen crab leaped into the air and scuttled backward five full strides in terror.

"Haha! Orknodi, that sounds completely ridiculous!"

"It sounds absurd, but it's actually working?!"

"Don't just laugh, back me up! We're so small right now that they probably think we're baby Krakens! Even natural predators can get targeted while in their larval stages!"

"Then what should we do?!"

"We mimic the cry together!"

A chaotic chorus erupted across the canopy.

"Mwoooooooong!"

"Mwong! Mwong!"

"Mwoooooong."

We bellowed our best cephalopod impressions from the branches to repel the swarm, while the crabs backed off, hesitated, and cautiously clicked their way forward again. Realizing this psychological tug-of-war would drag on forever, I deployed our ultimate secret technique.

"Everyone raise your arms and squirm like mollusks!"

"What is that supposed to accomplish?!"

"To them, that's an attack telegraph meaning 'I'm about to devour you'!"

"Hahaha! This is so much fun!"

"Ugh. I can never tell a living soul I spent the night doing this. Fresh dark history unlocked."

With Titocoga beaming ear-to-ear and Zhuang groaning in mortification, both flailed their arms in undulating, rubbery waves. Faced with the sight of three squirming juvenile horrors, the Giant King Crabs finally broke formation and scrambled away into the underbrush.

"Confound it! To drive off all the Giant King Crabs I went through the trouble of gathering! You insolent brats!"

"Hmph. The assignment was just to sleep out here. Is there any rule forbidding us from driving away swarming monsters?"

"There is not," the Skeleton Instructor conceded readily.

"What now?"

"Let's just sleep."

Finally relieved, we settled into the crooks of the branches to catch some rest. Roughly ten minutes must have passed. The steady patter of rain against broad leaves and the gentle cascade beyond the canopy blended into a soothing rhythm, lulling us toward sleep.

Click-clack-clack-clack.

"Khehehe. There is also no rule forbidding me from gathering the escaped King Crabs back, is there?!"

"...Orknodi. Is there a cry that drives away skeletons?"

"No such cry exists."

Through blood, sweat, and ridiculous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vocal exercises, we survived the night operations lecture.

"What a shame! To have the class period end right when I finally secured a substitute lecture!"

Terrified that offering a polite "Same here" would prompt him to leave us strung up in the tree all day, I kept my lips firmly sealed.

"Instructor, that was far too cruel! Do you have any idea how terrified I was?"

"Khehehe. Only freshmen who conquer adversity become 2nd-Year Intermediates. Thanks to today's trials, you shall sleep soundly without sleep-talking wherever you lay your heads at night."

"I feel like I'm going to shudder from nightmares instead."

Titocoga clearly had not found the lecture particularly enriching. Zhuang looked equally sour.

"Oh dear. What a pity." The Skeleton Instructor visibly drooped, his bony shoulders sagging. "I did not conduct the class this way out of malice, you know."

"Could it be... Professor Sadako ordered you to...?" Zhuang asked cautiously, still harboring deep suspicion toward the necromancer professor.

"I merely wished to help you young scholars realize how dreadfully inconvenient this frail husk of flesh truly is, and guide you toward joining the magnificent Skeleton race."

"Eeeeeeek!!"

"Y-You psycho! You're completely out of your mind!"

"If you cast off your mortal flesh and embrace the skeletal form, you need never suffer through the useless activity of sleep again—so why worry about sleep-talking? Khehehe."

The sinister Skeleton Instructor finally revealed his true colors.

"Well now, how about it? Do you feel the urge to become skeletons yet? Say the word, and I shall teach you the Skeletonization spell whenever you wish! A glorious enchantment ensuring you never have to return to being human again! Khehehe!"

"Hing-ing-ing!"

"Orknodi, pincer attack!"

The Skeleton Instructor cackled at the top of his lungs, Titocoga dissolved into tears, and Zhuang dropped into a low, predatory combat stance like an enraged, hissing cat. Just as the classroom was five minutes away from complete anarchy, a crimson magic circle flared to life around the instructor's feet.

"Ah, Professor Sadako's summoning circle? Confound it! If I had known, I would have dismissed class ten minutes early and passed on the spell..."

The magic circle folded space around him like crisp origami, swallowing the Skeleton Instructor whole.

"...Did he go?"

"Yeah."

"If that bag of bones shows up in Professor Sadako's place next time, I'm sprinting away on the spot."

Zhuang reiterated several times that she was entirely serious. I figured it was best to keep quiet about the well-known gaming fact that a summon's personality almost always mirrored its master's.