The Wrong Hero

Chapter 51 - Downward Spiral

The heavy wind that had been blowing around him stopped. The smell of salt filled the air.

"Little Dante?" Sadeena called.

"What? Oh..." It hadn't really connected for Dante that they made it to the coast. While Korokan wasn't a coastal village, it wasn't too far away. Less than 20 minutes riding Dio or JoJo.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

"It's nothing." Dante got off of JoJo.

After learning about that woman in Siltvelt, they all came back to the village. Dante figured Werner didn't really need him there, so he told him to handle the prisoners. After that, they needed to start earning XP.

"We need to start leveling again." He said. "I'll lower some of your levels back to one and—"

"You already said that." Keel told him.

"Oh...right." He'd forgotten he explained the plan to all of them in the village.

Dante used the Whip method to lower Dio, Raphtalia, and Sadeena. With him, JoJo, and Keel still high level, they shouldn't have any problems with the monsters in the ocean.

"You three, wear these." Dante pulled three Penguin Kigurumis from his shield and handed them to Dio, Raphtalia, and Keel.

"Do we have to?" Raphtalia asked, looking at the oversized suit.

"They give good stats and will let you stay underwater longer." Dante explained. "It's just in case you get separated from me while we're down there."

He had his Bubble Shield skill to provide air for everyone, but it was safer this way. The three of them put on the kigurumis. It was strange watching them shrink down to fit Keel and Dio better, who were in their therianthrope and human forms, respectively.

"It feels heavy." Keel commented. There must have been a level requirement for the equipment.

"Once you get enough levels, you'll be able to move around fine. The stats you got from all those sacrificed levels should help for now. Afterwards, you'll be able to do this safely without me."

"Little Dante, are you sure you're okay?" Sadeena asked, losing a bit of her joking tone. "You're repeating yourself again."

"...Yeah, it's nothing." Dante slowly nodded.

He didn't tell anyone what he heard in Siltvelt. The others agreed not to mention anything, though they were reluctant. Dante told them he wanted to get his thoughts sorted before talking about it.

"We'll level as much as we can before I need to head out." Dante had to get to the first towns tonight and save the locations for tomorrow's parade. He'd add a couple points to his portal skill so he wouldn't need to overwrite any saved locations. Even before that, he had to return to Faubrey for a bit.

"Boo! Then Mama will ride on a dragon!" Dio pouted, puffing up her cheeks.

"I don't want Mom to smell like a dragon!" JoJo shared her expression, though as a filolial king.

Dante smiled softly at the pair. "That's adorable."

"Boo!" It wasn't often that they were upset about something like this, and he couldn't recall if they ever made those sorts of faces. They might have at Gaelion's mountain before.

"It won't be so bad." Dante patted Dio on her head.

"But Mom, you're gonna hatch a dragon too!" JoJo protested.

"It's just something I have to do." Dante reasoned, scratching around JoJo's neck. Truthfully, he was going to hatch it anyway, but the public display was expected.