Playing as a Tank

It was a fascinating sight in many ways.

A low-level monster with barely any intelligence harming itself.

Normally, I would have taken a screenshot and posted it on the community.

With a clickbait title like “Found an EXP Duplication Bug” or something.

But since I could no longer access places like the community.

No, because I didn’t have even a grain of sand’s worth of leisure to spectate anything.

“Meeting you was terrible, let’s never meet again!!”

I ran as fast as I could before the wolf, which had suddenly transformed into a headbutting dinosaur, returned to its senses.

The aggro had cleared, and if I just stood there instead of running, that would be like asking to be killed.

Whether one of my overpowered skills had activated automatically without me realizing.

Or whether the monster that attacked me was affected by the skill, it didn’t matter—I needed to escape to a safe place first.

After running for a long time, I finally emerged from the dense forest, and at that moment.

More precisely, just as I reached the downhill path leading to the village.

-Thud.

“…Eh.”

Distracted by the presence of others that somehow felt like I hadn’t experienced for a very long time, I tripped over a rock I hadn’t noticed.

The problem was that the downhill slope was rather steep.

To make matters worse, I was still in a running state.

So what’s the conclusion?

“Uwah, ah, aaaahhh!!!”

I literally rolled and tumbled from the start to the end of the downhill path.

I had already been through enough turmoil mentally, and now to physically roll as well—it was indescribably miserable.

[A total of 11 damage has been accumulated.]

[Cumulative damage: 13 ▶ 24]

[Available damage: 24]

“…Shut up…”

The system window that insisted on informing me of my pain in exact figures added the final touch.

I deliberately swept away the monochrome numbers that irritated me just by looking at them.

It was right after that when I first heard a voice other than my own.

“Oh my, Lua. Why are you such a mess?”

Feeling a moment of dissonance at someone naturally using a name I had never provided, I slowly raised my head.

What I met was a harmless gaze that seemed to be the embodiment of the word “warmth.”

Wearing a neat formal suit with a short cloak bearing a crescent moon emblem on the shoulder.

I immediately recognized the familiar figure I had encountered most frequently in my first playthrough of .

“Asha…?”

“That’s ‘Big Sister’ Asha to you.”

The hand that briefly stroked my disheveled hair didn’t make it any easier to say “big sister.”

Well, I had never had occasion to say the word “big sister” up until now.

Being patted while making eye contact with someone felt more awkward than embarrassing.

Especially since that someone was [Asha], which made it hard for me to speak.

The reason being that in the first playthrough, Asha was both the player’s childhood friend and the guild master of a large guild who continuously provided significant help in various ways.

Among those who could be called the player’s allies, she was the most prominent.

It felt rather awkward to suddenly attach the title “big sister” to such a grateful and familiar person—albeit only as a childhood friend.

However, since Asha would be second to none among excessively kind people, she didn’t dwell too much on such titles.

-Rustle.

“It’s good to play energetically outside, but don’t go rolling around on the ground. What if you get hurt?”

Thanks to the cleaning magic she used without asking for anything in return, my dust-covered body returned to its original state.

In other words, back to that youthful appearance reflected in the small lake.

Shortly after, those fine hands without a single callus gently came down to my waist.

Before I could ask what she was doing, I was lifted up and cradled in her arms.

In a “princess carry” pose, no less.

“Come now, let’s stop playing and go home~.”

It happened so suddenly that I could only blink stupidly, then silently screamed with belated embarrassment.

I understood that my appearance made it not strange to be held in someone’s arms, and I also understood it was pure kindness with no ulterior motives, but…!

Being calmly held in an adult woman’s arms while fully aware of my current state was too much to bear…

But regardless of how my face burned as if about to explode, my body was honest.

My consciousness, which had already exceeded its limit of psychological fatigue, soon forcibly shut itself down.

And so, I was semi-forcibly admitted to dreamland. After sleeping soundly until my eyes opened naturally, I somehow managed to lift my eyelids to see an unfamiliar ceiling.

The sight that should have been my “starting location.”

The cozy small hut on the outskirts of the village made me realize once again that I had entered the game.

“Starting out rough, really rough…”

After rustling around in the soft blankets for quite a while, I carefully shifted my gaze toward another presence I felt for some reason.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

For some reason, I found myself facing Asha, who was making something in the kitchen.

Question marks naturally escaped my lips.

“Why are you… here?”

“Hmm, well… the guild members kept nagging, so I ran away. Hide me for a bit.”

The story that followed was similar to what I heard in the first playthrough tutorial.

Basically, the guild members were trying to overwork her as guild master.

This was followed by complaints about the inflexible vice guild master.

“Really, as long as no one got hurt in the end, it’s fine. Why does Tana insist on scolding me so much…”

If there was one difference from the first playthrough, it was the relationship between Asha and me.

Perhaps due to my appearance, which couldn’t be called adult even as a white lie, our relationship seemed to have been forcibly changed from [childhood friends] to [close sisters].

…Wait. Then how am I supposed to progress through the early story?

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… It’s nothing.”

Despite outwardly quietly accepting and eating the potato soup Asha had made, my mind was in complete chaos.

In the first playthrough, I joined Asha’s guild, [Lunatic], as a “childhood friend parachute” and proceeded with various quests and events.

The main content of the early part of was continuing guild life, building various connections, going to dungeons with guild members, and gradually growing.

No, from the beginning, you can’t “grow” without joining a guild.

It’s nearly impossible for someone not affiliated with a guild to enter a dungeon.

Come to think of it, looking at my current stats and skills, I didn’t really need to grow, but…

[Rescue guild members at risk of being eaten alive by entity: Blue Orc]

[23/30]

[Neutralize the poisonous sting of entity: Corrupted Tarantula]

[16/20]

[Offset the chains of entity: Fallen Diver]

[3/10]

[Crush the roots of entity: Wood Golem]

[11/15]

[Clear dungeon without casualties]

[0/1]

[Clear dungeon with less than 1000 accumulated damage]

[0/1]

[Clear dungeon with less than 500 accumulated damage]

[0/1]

[Clear dungeon without damage]

[0/1]

So how am I supposed to clear all these achievements?

I was already feeling overwhelmed even before seeing the achievements related to the Hero Party, which was the most crucial part of the overall story.

It was fortunate that the progress made on achievements I had partially completed in the first playthrough carried over to the second playthrough, but…

This valuable progress would become meaningless if I couldn’t join a guild.

The biggest problem was Asha’s personality.

She was already too kind for a guild master of one of the three major guilds and had been pushed around. Recalling my memories from the first playthrough, she was destined to struggle quite a bit in the future.

Moreover, she has a particular weakness for cute kids like me—it wasn’t an expression I’d use for myself, but it wasn’t a lie either.

“Actually, I saw a wolf in the forest yesterday…”

“W-what?!”

See? I didn’t say I was attacked by a wolf, just that I saw one, but she’s extremely alarmed and belatedly checking if I’m injured anywhere.

Within seconds of finally confirming there wasn’t a single small scratch, her slender fingers gradually approached my face.

And, squeeze.

“I told you not to go deep into the forest!”

“It-it’s self-harm, self-harm!”

She scolded my recklessness while pinching and pulling my cheeks like rice cakes.

If this is her reaction to hearing I almost encountered a wolf, how would she react to me saying I want to enter that dangerous dungeon?

No, would she even let someone as small as me join her guild?

Come to think of it, I didn’t necessarily have to join Asha’s guild.

But what kind of reputation would a guild that accepts such a young child as a combatant gain?

It was obvious they would face all kinds of social criticism.

And I would probably be expelled from the guild before long.

So the fastest way would be to somehow persuade Asha.

But right now, I had no idea what to do.

Despite already knowing what would happen to this world I had unintentionally invaded through my first playthrough experience.

Above all, my biggest concern was about the monsters I would face in the future.

Just recalling the memory of being chased by the wolf earlier made me shudder involuntarily.

Honestly, it was much scarier than I had expected.

But to progress through ’s story, I would have to face monsters even more ferocious and frightening than that wolf…

…Can I do it?