Minute Mage 2_ A LitRPG Adventu - Reg Rome

MINUTE MAGE 2
©2024 REG ROME
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise
circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without
a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any
reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited
without the express written permission of the authors.
Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose
of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our
culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the
author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for
review purposes), please contact editor@aethonbooks.com. Thank you for your support of
the author’s rights.
Aethon Books
www.aethonbooks.com
Print and eBook formatting and design by Josh Hayes. Typography by Steve Beaulieu.
Artwork provided by Francel Garrote.
Published by Aethon Books LLC.
Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the
publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
or persons, living or dead is coincidental.
All rights reserved.

CONTENTS
Also in series
1. Wasteland
2. A Ghoulish Foe
3. Welcome to Hell. This Is Your Last Shot
4. Wasted
5. Trolled
6. Worn Down
7. Paths to Travel
8. Making the Choice
9. Welcome to the Outlaws: Getting Used to It
10. Move Quickly
11. Interrogation
12. Murder
13. Through the Ashes
14. Welcome to the Outlaws: Spectating
15. Enter the Edge
16. Information Intake
17. Meeting Allies
18. Mountaineering
19. Disastrous Drake
20. Disastrous Dragon
21. Welcome to Hell: Walled Off
22. Welcome to the Kingdom: Release
23. Failed Negotiations
24. Offering
25. Draconic Dealings
26. Cliffside Camouflage
27. Elevated Encounter
28. Sierra Smuggle
29. Alp Attack
30. Concealed Clash
31. Draconic Dryad
32. A Name
33. A Short Respite
34. A Crash
35. A Battle’s Beginning
36. A Pair of Guards
37. A Berserker
38. Interviewing
39. Bonding
40. Choosing
41. Theorizing
42. Welcome to Hell. You’ve Been Terminated
43. Welcome to Hell. Where Are You?
44. Watching
45. Traveling
46. Warning
47. Welcome to Hell. Do You Want to Live?
48. The Arrival
49. The Killing Spree
50. The Frantic Retreat
51. Welcome to Hell. Can I Kill You Again?
52. The Confrontation
53. The Conversation
54. The Goodbye
55. The Last Stand
56. The True Battle Begins
57. The True Battle Rages
58. The True Battle Ends
59. The Finished Journey
60. Welcome to the Kingdom: Demons and Their Hostility
61. Welcome to the Kingdom: Humans and Their Schemes
62. The Anticipated Future
Thank you for reading Minute Mage 2
Groups
LitRPG
ALSO IN SERIES
Minute Mage 1
Minute Mage 2
Minute Mage 3
Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)

1
WASTELAND
ERANI, the Dryad, and I walked through the dead, decolorized

forest, gazing at Kingdom’s Edge in the distance. The range of
mountains barely broke through the treetops, but even with the little I
saw, I could tell we still had a long way to go. But our goal was finally
in sight.
Still, my mind was more consumed with my immediate
surroundings. As we continued to walk forward, the forest changed
even more dramatically. The ground was a gray, hard dirt with no
grass sprouting up, and the trees continued to thin out and become
more and more lifeless. This wasn’t some small area, it seemed—
the entire forest transformed as we continued to approach the
mountain range.
"What’s going on here?" I asked the Dryad as we walked. "Do
you know what it might be?"
"No," she said. "I am not home. I do not know here. Something
strange, killing plants. Hurting animals. Do not know if poison or
something else."
She bent down and examined the gray dirt more closely while I
turned to Erani and repeated to her what I was told.
"You know anything about that?" I asked her.
"Well, we’re getting pretty close to Kingdom’s Edge by now,
right?"
"Yeah, probably gonna be at the base of the mountains within a
few days. Why?"
"If we’re close to Kingdom’s Edge, then we’re also approaching
the wasteland."
"The what?"
"The wasteland. It’s the dead area that surrounds Kingdom’s
Edge. When the Dragons and other powerful monsters there fight,
the shockwaves of their power go out and destroy the nearby
environment. Powerful Spells and other abilities have totally
devastated it. I mean, hells, you know why Kingdom’s Edge is
infested with Ghouls, right?"
"Yeah. Few hundred years ago, right? I don’t remember his
name, but some super-high-Level Wizard tried to clear out the
entirety of the mountain range single-handedly. Cast some huge
Spell to resurrect all the dead in the area and conscript them to fight
the monsters in the mountains, but he got killed pretty fast, and now
the Ghouls are just wandering around and attacking everything on
sight."
She nodded. "Gisharth Wyndinlost. And the Spell didn’t just
resurrect the corpses as a one-time thing. Nobody knows his actual
Spell path, so we have no idea what the effect exactly was, but
whatever it was, it’s a continuous effect. Even to this day, anyone
who dies on the cursed soil gets revived as a Ghoul. So we’re
probably on that cursed soil now, and that’s why it’s all gray and
wilted."
I looked back down at the dirt, suddenly much more suspicious of
it.
"There shouldn’t be any negative effects for as long as you’re
alive," Erani laughed. "Just promise me you won’t die and eat my
flesh."
"I don’t know," I sighed sarcastically. "Might get a certain craving.
Who knows what’ll come over me. Why don’t you promise to lightly
season your arm, just in case?"
"I’ll get right on that." She rolled her eyes. "Do stay on guard,
though. If we’re approaching Kingdom’s Edge, we’re bound to start
seeing some shit we need to hide from."
"Yeah," I said, and I relayed all that information back to the
Dryad.
"So," she said when I was done, "Human tried to destroy natural
environment that was not harming anyone, did not succeed in effort
to destroy environment, left permanent scar because of failure. Am
not surprised."
Despite the content of her statement, I couldn’t help but feel
proud of the Dryad. She was becoming more and more linguistically
talented as we talked—though much of that was because of Erani’s
teaching and from me getting used to translating what she was
saying.
"Well, did you get any crazy Dryad powers that might be able to
cleanse the land, or turn the undead back into normal people?"
"…No. If Dryad get those crazy powers, another Dryad would
already have done it. Stop being stupid."
Yeah, I was still working on figuring out a way to convey jokes
over our telepathic connection. Or it could’ve been that the Dryad
actually knew that I was trying to be humorous, and was just
intentionally misunderstanding that as an excuse to insult me. I’d
have to ask Erani to try telling her a joke and see how she
responded to that.
But still, I did want to try and repair my relationship with the
Dryad, at least a bit. She seemed to like Erani well enough, which
was good, but even so, I didn’t want to do one little thing wrong and
wake up without my head. Plus, I felt pretty shitty about what’d
happened.
"Uh, hey," I said, "sorry about my attitude toward you the past few
days. I can get kinda single-minded sometimes, and I ended up
viewing you in a pretty unfair way. I’ll do my best to keep that from
happening in the future."
"It is okay. You do not kill me. You are still one of the good
Humans. Just a bad good Human."
"Like, a medium Human?"
There was a pause, and then I got a new sensation from the
Nymph. It wasn’t words being communicated, but…something else.
It took me a moment to figure out what was happening, before I
realized she was laughing. Well, not really laughing, but the
telepathic equivalent. I was a bit surprised—that was how I finally got
her to laugh? I was barely even trying.
"Clever! You clever! ‘Medium Human,’ haha! Like middle of good
and bad! Medium! Hahaha!"
…Somehow, I felt like I didn’t even get the joke that I made. It
seemed like what I said ended up being much funnier in her
language. Maybe it was some sort of play on words for her, or
something. I was glad to make a good impression on her, but also a
bit worried that I apparently didn’t even know what I was saying to
her sometimes.
"Uh, hey, Arlan?" Erani asked me, looking confused.
"Yeah?"
"Do you know what a ‘medium Human’ is? And why the Dryad is
calling you one?"
While we walked, I took a moment to cast Ethereal Armor and

summon Dark Plate. In the past, I’d thoroughly enjoyed the benefit of
the Dryad’s empathy calming the nearby wild monsters and keeping
them from attacking us. But now we’d have to worry about Ghouls,
which weren’t natural monsters—they wouldn’t be affected by her.
So in this case, I’d rather be safe than sorry, especially when I was
still waiting on Time Loop to recharge.
When I cast the Spell, the glowing Light Plate I previously had
donned disappeared into sparkling motes of mist, and the new
shadowy armor clanked to the ground. This one, as opposed to the
constantly glowing Light Plate, seemed to absorb all light that came
near it, making it even more difficult to put on than its counterpart. I
could barely see its parts and straps, let alone see the places they
were supposed to go. Still, I eventually figured it out.
This set was slightly heavier than Light Plate, but still completely
manageable. Its other main difference was that it just felt like it
covered more. The joints were tighter, there was less cloth and more
metal, and, most noticeably, it was closed-faced. A visor covered my
entire head, obscuring my vision partially. It had wide enough holes
for me to see, of course, but still, it was jarring to have something in
front of my face at all times. I found myself reaching up to scratch an
itch on my cheek, only to be stopped by steel multiple times.
It was a shame that, by summoning a new type of armor, the
previous type disappeared. It’d have been nice to have multiple sets
of armor lying around. We’d tried it out and it seemed like Light Plate
wouldn’t work on anyone other than me—Erani’s hands passed right
through it when she tried to grab it and put it on—so it unfortunately
wouldn’t have worked to give Erani her own set either way. But even
if it only worked on me, it would’ve been nice to be able to have
backups lying around in case I wanted to switch without paying any
Mana.
"See, the Light Plate made you look like some holy knight," Erani
commented once I had it all on. "But with that, I feel you look more
like the Demons we’re fighting than my ally. I can’t even see your
face!"
"Well, unless you want me to turn into a Ghoul and eat your
deliciously seasoned arm, you’re gonna have to deal with it," I
laughed.
We continued to walk for a bit as the sun continued to set in the sky.
I kept myself equipped with Dark Plate, trusting my surroundings
less and less as they just became more and more dead and gray. I
didn’t manage to make much more leeway with the Dryad, though—
it seemed a single successful joke could only take me so far in her
eyes.
I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t seen any Demons or soldiers
around, at this point. Even if we’d successfully escaped from their
barricade in the confusion, they still must’ve been able to keep track
of our general location and direction. So why hadn’t we seen any of
them? There must’ve been something going on with them.
Or they were planning something big.
It began to get dark as I pondered the many explanations for the
silence of our enemies, and once the sun had just finished setting, I
noticed a sound. Ahead of us came this wet snarl and series of
shambling footsteps. And just as I signaled to Erani and the Dryad to
come to a stop, the source of the sound showed itself.
Stumbling out from behind a dead tree was a rotten corpse of a
Human—one which walked nonetheless. The bones in its leg were
completely visible, the flesh having fallen from it seemingly long ago,
and the rest of its body was similarly in tatters. A few more similar-
looking monsters shambled around corners with their eyes fixed on
us.
It was obvious what they were. Ghouls. And it seemed they could
smell us.
2
A GHOULISH FOE
THERE WERE six Ghouls staring us down in the dead forest. The
setting sun made them harder to see, but it wasn’t totally dark yet.
Their rotting flesh was peeled away to reveal tissue and bone, their
jaws hanging open to reveal rows of sharp teeth. Upon being
transformed into a Ghoul, a body would go through a few
modifications. Pointed teeth and long claws were some of the things
that grew in.
Instantly, my mind went to work. "Dryad, move to the side and
flank them when they charge. These monsters are dumb and fragile,
but have some nasty effects if they hit you. I’ll draw them forward,
since I can operate at long and close ranges."
"These are the bad monsters? Made by bad Human?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Will help kill them." There was a pause in the
communication. "I ask your lover to shoot them before I attack. Will
stun them. Watch out for explosion."
I nodded, and the Ghouls charged. They snarled and scratched
at the air as they sprinted toward us, seemingly dying to sink their
teeth into something. The Dryad stepped to the side, blending in with
the trees. The single-minded Ghouls didn’t seem to notice.
I stepped forward. "Erani, keep back and snipe from behind. I’ll
keep them busy up here."
The moment the one in the front got close enough, it snarled and
leapt at me, claws out, jaw unhinged, and eyes wild behind a mess
of matted hair that covered its face. I stepped to the side and cast
Crippling Chill to interrupt its attack.
You have cursed Level 8 Ghoul with Crippling Chill. For the
next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina
each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 864.
It stumbled past me and I raised my arm and pushed it further

away, using Noxious Grasp to hit it for the split second my skin was
touching it. I had Venomous Grasp, so even a tiny amount of time
with Noxious Grasp meant a minimum of five seconds consuming
double Stamina. The Ghoul was sent spiraling to the ground from my
light push—they hit hard and were pretty fast, but couldn’t take hits
for shit. That was most of what I’d heard about them.
Two more rushed at me while the first attempted to climb back to
its feet, and I stepped back to dodge their simultaneous swipes.
Their claws barely missed my skin, and I lifted a hand and shot one
of them with a few Rays of Frost, while I grabbed the other’s arm and
activated Noxious Grasp.
Damage notifications flew through my mind for the Rays of Frost
while I yanked the Ghoul I’d grabbed toward me, trying to keep
myself too close for its claws to be useful, but still far enough that it
couldn’t bite me. For Ghouls, the Stamina drain on my Spells would
be especially useful. They all had low Endurance, and Endurance
was the Stat that mainly increased maximum Stamina, so, especially
with Venomous Grasp doubling all of the Stamina drain, they were in
bad shape.
I heard an explosion beside me and stole a glance over to see
the Dryad diving into battle with the other three Ghouls. Her whip
lashed through their soft flesh and cut them to pieces—not that it
seemed like the Ghouls minded or even noticed, taking mindless
swipes at the Dryad despite the damage.
"Are you struggling?" she asked me as she fought, startling me
with the sudden transmission in my head. "I handle one more? One
of yours?"
"Just make sure none of them sneak up behind me," I sent back.
There was another explosion from one of Erani’s Explosive
Firebolts. She’d aimed at the ground this time, trying to only catch
the Ghouls in the blast and avoid hitting us. Specifically, she seemed
to be destabilizing the two Ghouls that I’d hit away, pushing them
back to the ground before they could attack me.
The Ghoul I was holding growled in anger—or maybe just
hunger. I’d gripped both of its wrists and turned it so it was facing
away from me, effectively disabling the two ways it could hurt me.
And over time, it’d quickly lost the energy to struggle.
But then one of the other Ghouls—the one I’d shot with the Rays
of Frost—suddenly got to its feet and rushed at me. It seemed the
five seconds of decreased Dexterity that Ray of Frost inflicted had
worn off. I threw my held Ghoul to the side and stepped back to
dodge a swipe by the charging Ghoul.
You have struck Level 7 Ghoul for 144 damage and drained 145
Stamina over the course of 8.9 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
The Ghoul I threw away fell to the ground and stayed there,
motionless. I looked back at the Ghoul whose strike I’d just dodged
and, while it was still in the follow-through of its attack, I quickly
reached out to tap its arm, tagging it with Venomous Grasp.
You have struck Level 11 Ghoul for 1.5 damage and drained 1.5
This was the only one of my three that hadn’t gotten its Stamina
drained, so it was pretty much the only one that could move at this
point. That said, it’d also taken the most damage out of any of them,
so I decided to just try and focus on killing it instead of slowly
draining its energy from a distance with Crippling Chill, which would
probably be the safest play. I didn’t know how often fights like these
would occur while traveling through these wastelands, so I wanted to
conserve what Mana I could.
The most Mana-efficient method of dealing damage I had was
Noxious Grasp, so I lunged forward and tackled the monster,
sweeping it off its feet and into my arms. I tried to wrestle it into the
same position I’d had the one before—grabbing the wrists to detain
its claws, and attempting to spin it around to avoid its teeth. But as I
was trying to maneuver the monster, one of its claws barely
scratched against my wrist, drawing a dribble of blood.
You have been scratched by claws. 2 damage.

Your Health is 308.
Your flesh has been necrotized. For the next 24 hours, your
Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are reduced by 2.
"Shit!" I cursed, and I pushed the Ghoul away, causing it to

stumble to the ground. Seemed that, even though I was technically
wearing armor with the Dark Plate, it didn’t actually offer any
protection aside from the explicit magic effects listed in the Spell.
The Ghoul’s claws just passed right through the seemingly metal
shell.
You have struck Level 11 Ghoul for 56.7 damage and drained
57.1 Stamina over the course of 3.5 seconds using Noxious
Grasp.
"Fuck." I rubbed my arm. My entire body ached, the pain
radiating from the one tiny scrape.
The Ghoul stepped forward again, apparently still having just
enough Stamina to keep moving. Still, at this point, it was much
more sluggish than it once was. That said, I didn’t want to get
another scratch on me—those 2-Stat debuffs could add up quite a bit
if I wasn’t careful—so I stayed back and shot it with a Ray of Frost.
You have struck Level 11 Ghoul for 58 damage using Ray of

Frost.
You have cursed Level 11 Ghoul with Ray of Frost. For the
next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
You have offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of
Level 11 Ghoul.
You have earned 32 XP. Your XP is 373.
That seemed to finally be enough to kill it. I glanced around and

saw that the three Ghouls the Dryad had been fighting were already
dead. She was sitting on one of their corpses, polishing the thorns
on her whip.
"Show-off," I muttered. But still, I was glad she was okay.
The other two Ghouls I was fighting were still technically alive,
but I didn’t really consider them combatants at that point. They were
both so drained of Stamina that they couldn’t even get to their feet,
so they were just lying on the ground. I just walked over and
stomped on both of their heads until they died. Not exactly a clean
solution, but it got the job done.
You have slain Level 7 Ghoul.

You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level 8
Ghoul.
It was a shame that Ghouls gave out so little XP. Sure, they
weren’t incredibly high-Level, but compared to even something like
an Anacap, the XP reward was pitiful. But then, Ghouls were
supposed to be pretty plentiful out here, so it was still possible I
could get a Level out of them. I’d just have to kill a lot.
"Everyone alright?" I asked both out loud and through my
telepathic connection with the Dryad.
"Unhurt."
"Yes, I’m okay." Erani looked at my scratched arm. "Are you?
Ghouls curse you when you get hit by them, right? How many Stats
did it drain?"
"It was above 10th-Level, so 2 from each. Shouldn’t be too much
of an issue, as long as I avoid getting hit in the future. Getting stuck
with 0 of any of my Stats for a day would pretty much be a death
sentence. Got dealt basically no damage, though, so there’s some
upside."
It seemed like Dark Plate hadn’t been of much use here in this
fight. It needed something to do a massive amount of damage in a
single hit to activate, and these Ghouls were more of a death-by-a-
thousand-cuts type of monster. Still, since I had no more activations
of Time Loop left, keeping it on just as insurance would probably be
a good idea here. Out in an area where it was possible to see
Dragons and Drakes, I didn’t want to take my chances when I
couldn’t go back if I died.
"Well, we aren’t even officially in the wasteland yet, so don’t go
getting low on Stats just yet. I’ll be mad if we came all this way, only
for you to get killed this close to the finish line."
"Yeah, sure." I rolled my eyes. "if I die I’ll be sure to offer you a
very sincere apology."
"Let’s just keep moving. We don’t want to be here when even
more Ghouls show up attracted to the sounds."
We resumed our journey through the continually graying forest.
Within an hour of travel, the forest got to the point where I didn’t see
a single leaf anymore—on a tree or on the ground—and the trees
themselves seemed more like husks of what once was than real
things that may have once been alive. The ground was crunchy, like
everything was made of gravel, and we didn’t see any more
monsters. Well, other than Ghouls, of course.
We saw them everywhere, constantly having to fight them off
while we walked, to the point where I couldn’t even regenerate my
Mana. Even with almost 18 Mana/Minute, I was casting Rays of
Frost and Crippling Chills faster than I could recover. I avoided using
Noxious Grasp, since I didn’t want to end up with even more lowered
Stats from their attacks; I now knew that the "plate" armor I was
wearing didn’t actually do anything to protect against it.
Yeah, the lowered Stats sucked. I’d gotten used to having the
little boost, and having it taken away was extremely uncomfortable.
My strides felt too long and too short at the same time, I felt sore, my
joints were tighter, and my skin felt like it’d been sanded down to be
a bit more sensitive. And on top of all that, my maximum Health and
Stamina were lower too. Now, that didn’t mean my current Health or
Stamina had technically taken a hit—my Health was actually at
308/290. What that meant was that it would effectively be unable to
heal above that 290 point. So by now, I would have naturally gone
back up to 310, but since my maximum Health was below my current
Health, I wasn’t able to heal.
I really wished I’d known that going in. Even if it didn’t change
what my Spell Choice would’ve been, it sure would’ve changed how
I’d gone about that previous fight with the Ghouls. Even with this
Intelligence Information thing giving me knowledge about my Class
options, I was still falling into these little pitfalls that would be trivial to
avoid if I’d just had the opportunity to research my Spells
beforehand. I really just wanted someone who knew about my Spell
Choices, who I could ask whenever I had questions. But unless
someone else magically got my Class, that wouldn’t happen.
By the time the hour passed, my Mana had slowly fallen to a
precarious 300.
Of course, I was also seeing some decent XP gains at the same
time—I was close to only being 400 away from the 1000 needed to
Level up—but I wasn’t sure if I could keep doing this for long. I still
didn’t have Time Loop, so I was eagerly awaiting midnight to strike.
Once it got to that time, I’d feel a whole lot safer.
The sun had set by now, and it was getting dark. Sure, midnight
was coming, but our visibility was disappearing much more quickly.
And with the abundance of the dead, gray trees that littered the area,
the Ghouls had plenty of places to hide and ambush us once we got
close enough. The damn things seemed just smart enough to
understand surprise attacks. Lucky us.
But just as I was beginning to consider suggesting we just turn
back and head into safety so we could try this again the next day, I
saw an end to the forest. The deadened trees stopped abruptly, like
we’d arrived at the edge of a crater.
And for all intents and purposes, we had.
It was just a really, really big crater.
Standing at the rim, I could see for what felt like forever across
the endless, barren field. The ground was a gray dust and ash,
completely flat if not for the occasional hill or hole. And of course,
wandering the field were hundreds—no, thousands—of Ghouls.
Shambling ceaselessly in no particular direction in search of
anything they could kill.
And across this seemingly endless field, I could finally see it. Our
way out. The threshold to freedom. The gate that could send us
either to our deaths, or to a safe rest of our lives. The mountain
range I’d been searching for. Kingdom’s Edge. The peaks touched
the sky and the bases blocked the horizon, the valleys taken over by
yet more mountain behind them.
But they were off in the distance. Right in front of me, we had one
more obstacle before we reached our true goal. The field of death.
The crater of nothingness. The barren gray.
We’d arrived at the wasteland.
3
WELCOME TO HELL. THIS IS YOUR LAST

SHOT
A DEVIL SAT at a desk in a damp, dark room. This room was not his
office, however. Well, he didn’t have an office at all, anymore. After
his demotion, he was forced out and into the large common room
where the rest of the office grunts worked. To his sides were
Gargoyles and Ember Mites—the same ones that used to work for
him.
"Hey, Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook, you mind handing me a new
ink bottle? Mine’s out," said one of them—a tiny Ember Mite named
Inn’innmannuupan’tin’tin’tan’tan’tan.
The Devil just nodded with a barely hidden scowl on his face and
handed it one of his bottles. He shouldn’t have been here. Sitting
with the grunts and doing fucking copying. Looking at one document,
and writing down exactly what it said on another. Nothing else. It was
somehow both the most mind-numbing thing in the world, and the
most stressful thing to have to do a lot of.
A Gargoyle walked up to the Devil as he scribbled on a paper.
"Are you doing well, Xhag?"
"…Formal expression of greeting,
Plindakin’porbindoplandimoni’aasiindorkaanpondindindodondi’papon
ossin," the Devil said. This was who took over his job. This stupid
fucking Gargoyle. Its race didn’t even work in management! Fucking
doomed to be incompetent. "What can I help you with?"
"Well, er, just wanted to see how the copying work was going,"
the Gargoyle said to him. The Devil could feel the discomfort coming
from it, so unnatural in its new position. It wasn’t meant to work in
management, and it knew it. "I know you’re new to all this, but you’re
behind on your quota. I know I allowed you a 3.5 percent decrease,
but you’re, uh, still pretty far behind on it."
The Devil gritted his teeth. "Got it."
"Like, thousands of documents behind."
"Mmhmm."
"So, you know, if you could get on that."
"Right."
"Also, I was wondering, how many verification levels do my
proposals have to go through before they’re instated? I feel like it’s
been forever since I sent in that request to expand the size of my
office," it laughed.
The Devil took a shaky breath, trying his best to contain his rage.
"Your requests need to go through thirteen levels of verification. All
requests do. And I highly doubt you will get your office’s size
expanded, as it is entirely dependent on your personal rank. As all
office sizes are. Now, I believe your job has nothing to do with talking
to copiers, nor does it have anything to do with asking to get your
office expanded. As does mine have nothing to do with informing you
of those facts. So, I feel it would be beneficial for the both of us if you
went back to your office and allowed me to continue with my work."
"Oh, okay," the Gargoyle said, apparently detecting none of the
hostility in the Devil’s voice. Then it looked down at the paper the
Devil was writing on. "Uh, I don’t think you’re actually doing your
copying, though. Looks like you’re writing your own document. Not
sure if that’s part of your job, either."
"Yes," the Devil said through gritted teeth, "it is not part of my
copying job. As it turns out, I actually have multiple things I need to
be working on right now. So, y’know, if you could leave me to get
busy with that⁠—"
"What are you working on? Do the higher-ups have you doing
stuff on top of your copying job? I haven’t⁠—"
The Devil leapt up from his desk and shouted at the Gargoyle,
"Leave! Lord below, are you a fucking moron or something?! I have
shit to do! Go do your fucking job, which, you seem to intent on
reminding me, you took from me. I am fucking busy, Gargoyle. Get
out."
The entire office stared at him, and the Gargoyle looked at him
with a mix of fear and anger. Eventually, it swallowed. "You will
address me with my name. I don’t care if you’re upset, you will
address me with my name."
The Devil stared into its eyes.
"Say it."
"…Expression of apology,
ossin."
"Good." It turned and walked back to its office. Before it closed
the door behind itself, it turned back and looked back at the Devil.
"Work hard for me, Xhag."
The office got back to work, though most of the copiers near the
Devil glanced sideways at him before they got back to scratching
their pens on paper.
The Devil just stared down at his document. He was severely
behind on his quota, sure, but not because he was incompetent, or
anything. It was taking a bit of time for him to learn the ropes
because he was too busy to put his full attention to this stupid task.
Even now, he wasn’t doing his copying work. He wasn’t really
working on killing Arlan Nota, either. No, sitting on his desk was a
half-done agricultural trade law for the Koinkar Kingdom.
When he killed Koinkar out of rage and realized his mistake, he
quickly moved to remedy the error. Luckily, due to his continued
management of the Arlan Nota case, he could still pull a few strings
and conscript some additional forces to help patch it up. He couldn’t
get access to any more military personnel to do what he’d wanted to
do and annex the country and establish martial law, but he could still
do the next best thing. He got access to a Succubus that could
change its form, had it impersonate Koinkar, and put it in power as a
puppet leader of the kingdom.
That said, the Succubus’s job wasn’t to actually manage the
kingdom; it wasn’t nearly educated enough for that. Instead, that
additional job had, of course, fallen to the Devil. So for the past
while, he’d been reading reports of meetings that the "king" had
attended with the nobles of the kingdom.
Apparently there had been protests going on. People were mad
about the forest-burning, and their family members dying in the
military, and the fact that the Demons were still occupying the
kingdom, and it was all being fed directly to the Devil. He was
supposed to fix all of that.
So he’d gotten to work on it. Famines due to farmland being
burnt? Strike a trade deal with a neighboring country. People dying
because the burning pushed a bunch of wild monsters out of their
territories and into villages? Conscript more soldiers. People refusing
to sign up into the military because of the mortality rates? Institute a
draft. People protesting the draft? Institute an even stricter draft, and
have the newly drafted soldiers fight the protests.
There were trade bans from other countries, a mass exodus of
citizens fleeing to adjacent lands, and even an attempted fucking
assassination. Somehow, not only had Koinkar ruined the Demons’
plans while he was alive, but he’d also managed to completely ruin
his own kingdom while he was at it.
It was problem after problem after problem after problem after
problem. And of course, it was entirely the Devil’s responsibility to
solve every one of them, otherwise there would be a revolt, the
people would fight against the Demons, they’d refuse to help find
Arlan, and the Devil would not only lose out on their manpower, but
he’d have to assign some of his own to fight the revolt and keep
them from harming the Demon army.
He’d been trying to get so much done that he’d even learned how
to write two separate things at the same time using both of his
hands. He’d work on reading and copying for his office job with one
hand, and with the other, write out a script for the fake king to give
out as a royal decree for the management of the kingdom. It may
have only been about a day in the Overworld, but it’d been many in
the Underworld, and he’d had time to practice.
What he didn’t have time for was actually doing anything relating
to Arlan Nota. How could he, when he was fighting a kingdom’s
populace trying to kick his forces out, and being threatened with yet
another demotion if he couldn’t keep up with his copying work? But
he knew he’d left this issue alone for far too long. Every second he
gave to the fugitive without putting pressure on him was another
second he could use to get stronger. Not to mention get closer to his
destination.
The Devil had finally figured out where it was Arlan Nota had
been heading all this time. Back when he’d had his confrontation
with the Faerie Queene, she’d told him. Kingdom’s Edge. If the man
could get through that mountain range, he’d escape to another
fucking country, completely out of the Devil’s grasp. He could barely
convince the higher-ups to give him this many forces, much less
double it for another army to stage another invasion. Plus, at this
point, the countries of the Overworld must have heard of this Demon
invasion, and had no doubt set up preparations in case the
Underworld looked their way next.
If Arlan Nota escaped to the Barinruth Empire, the Devil would
have to stage an old-fashioned war between Koinkar and Barinruth,
which would extend this conflict out even further, giving Arlan Nota
even more time. It would essentially mean failure, as far as the
higher-ups were concerned. And the Devil knew very well that they
would not tolerate failure from him.
So he took a break from his two-handed writing technique and
just wrote a single proposal while pondering this problem. Part of him
just wanted to forget about it and hoped Arlan Nota would kill himself
in the mountains. They were full of Dragons and other monsters way
above the power level he knew that fugitive to be at, so it was likely
he’d just die there without the Devil having to do anything. Though
he didn’t know how powerful the man was after blowing up the
barricade. Fucking Humans. They just had to have that stupid
capability of getting stronger with time. The more the Devil knocked
Arlan Nota down, the easier it seemed for him to get back up.
He needed to do something. Knock that kid down and keep him
down. Maybe he could use the danger of Kingdom’s Edge to his
favor, though. This wasn’t some forest. Every second Arlan Nota
spent in the area, he’d get beaten down more and more. So really,
all the Devil had to do was delay him.
Sure, there wasn’t a fire to that fugitive’s back anymore, but with
the monsters infesting that area, a barricade could work. Not a shitty,
rushed one, though. That glorified line of tents and half-baked
explosives was obviously not good enough. No, with full control over
the entire kingdom, he could make something much better. And with
the tight mountain range focusing the fugitive into a single choke
point, he could focus those efforts into a smaller, more effective wall.
He looked down at the agriculture document he was writing, and
crumpled it into a ball. The people could starve. They were going to
kill this man if it was the last thing they did. He began drawing up the
plans. Conscript the Earth-focused Spellcasters and have them do
construction. Have Hellions patrol the ground. Melee Classers man
the fort. Ranged Classers in the towers. It would be impassable.
He looked over at the neglected stacks of paper on his desk.
Copy work waiting to be done. Yeah, fuck it. He wasn’t doing that
shit. If he killed Arlan Nota, he could get his old job back. His old life
back. He wouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit. Fuck that fucking
Gargoyle and its stupid twenty-four syllable name.
This was the Devil’s last chance at killing Arlan Nota. And he
would make it count.
4
WASTED
ONCE WE FOUND the entrance to the wasteland, we decided to

take a break before journeying in. The place was so infested with
Ghouls, we wouldn’t be able to get a single quiet moment once we
walked in there, so we backed away into the forest and found a
decent spot for shelter as the night sky darkened. Since we’d already
cleared the nearby area of Ghouls while walking through the first
time, we didn’t have to fight quite as many while getting ready to
sleep.
So we rested, each of us taking watch for a third of our break
throughout the night, fighting off any straggler Ghouls that showed
up.
Once Erani woke me up for my turn on watch—mine was the last
—I sat up and rubbed my eyes while she lay down. I wasn’t wearing
my Ethereal Armor anymore, since it wore off in my sleep, so I re-
cast it, this time selecting Light Plate. It was past midnight, so Time
Loop had refreshed by now, and I was feeling a lot safer. Plus, not
only would Light Plate give me extra Spell XP, the discount also
helped ensure I wouldn’t run out of Mana while fighting off the
Ghouls that wandered over to us.
So I spent my few hours keeping the Ghouls away and practicing
my Spells, my only real light in the dead forest coming from the
glowing armor covering my body.
By the time the sun had risen and I woke Erani and the Dryad up, I’d
gotten a good bit of Spell XP for most of my Spells. The main gains,
of course, went to Noxious Grasp, which had gone from 266 to 355. I
needed a total of 461, so I was only about 100 away from finally
Ranking up the damned thing. I didn’t know how people ever got
their Spells to Rank 20 and above.
Well, I supposed it really wasn’t taking very long at all. Pretty
much anyone with a Spell at Rank 20 would be 40 years old,
minimum. It took years upon years of practice to push it above the
Soft Cap, or to get a high enough Level that the Soft Cap was that
high in the first place. So really, I was just so used to being so ahead
of schedule that once something started taking a more reasonable
amount of time, it felt like forever.
Still, I needed it to Rank up soon. Really, I needed it to Rank up a
few times soon. With my current Mana/Minute, it wasn’t very
possible, but pushing my Spells so far past where they should’ve
been was what’d helped me survive all this time. A single Rank was
only worth a bit of damage per second, but with multiple extra Spell
Ranks, that extra damage could easily make a massive difference in
a fight. And now that we were approaching Kingdom’s Edge, I was
about to face some enemies that’d put my current Spell Ranks to
shame.
But I couldn’t sit around for a few weeks and wait for myself to
get stronger, so I’d just have to push on. Leveling up would increase
my Mana/Minute, so I’d have to go with the good old-fashioned
solution of killing my way through my problems.
Once we were all awake and it was bright out, we set off again,
returning to the wasteland to resume our perilous trek. The
wasteland began abruptly—I could’ve drawn a line in the ground
separating the forest and the desolate field. The trees of the forest
suddenly stopped, as though there were a barrier preventing them
from spreading any further. The ground of the wasteland was ash,
instead of the hard gray dirt of the dead forest, and, most noticeably,
the wasteland was sunken a good pace or two down into the ground
below the forest.
There was only one way to get in, so we approached the edge
and slid down into the field of dust. There were no Ghouls
immediately nearby—at least not at a distance where they could
smell us—but once we started moving closer in, we’d inevitably have
a conflict. In the bright light, I could see even better now, and the
sheer number of Ghouls I saw was overwhelming.
They didn’t have great eyesight or hearing—only smell—so I
wasn’t too worried about the lack of cover in the barren wasteland,
but there were still other monsters that roamed around here.
An earth-shaking roar echoed off from the mountain range.
Ah, such as that one.
Off in the distance, as we walked further into the wasteland, I saw
a massive figure rise off one of the mountains, flying up into the air.
The long, lizard-like body with the broad, scaly wings. The ear-
piercing scream of a roar that could be heard even when the beast
only existed on the horizon. The blast of fire the monster shot from
its mouth that seemed to rival the entire forest fire I’d experienced.
A Dragon.
Dragons were synonymous with overwhelming power. Something
that Humans couldn’t hope to rival. Hells, I’d heard rumors that you
could get a whole-ass Title just for the feat of killing one. And they
were rumors for a reason—a person ending the life of one of those
things was so rare that it was basically impossible to actually verify
what happened when you did.
The Koinkar Kingdom had set up countermeasures in case a
Dragon ever did attack them—they had to, considering the fact that
there was Dragon territory lying on their border—but those
countermeasures were more "try to save as many lives as possible"
than they were "fight off the attacker."
Sure, it might’ve been possible if they mobilized the highest-Level
Classers in the territory, outfitted them with gear made by the most
talented Enchanters, and picked the battlefield so that the Dragon
couldn’t take advantage of its flight to corner its enemies in the cliffs.
But even then, Dragons could work with each other too, and if one of
them called in a couple buddies to take care of the Humans, there
would be no way they’d survive.
There were two main things that allowed the Humans to live in
spite of the constant threat of the Dragons. First, Dragons didn’t
really care about the existence of things outside their immediate
surroundings. Sure, if Humans ever tried to build settlements in or
near the wasteland, they’d have to worry, but as long as we kept far
away, the Dragons would ignore us, too. And there had been
occasional times when Humans had angered the Dragons that we
were able to solve things through diplomacy, talking things over with
them in a civilized manner—not that the Dragons considered being
forced to speak with a lowly Human all that “civilized.” But all that to
say, conflict with them was thankfully scarce. And the second reason
Humans could sometimes survive a Dragon’s attacks was they were
somewhat predictable in terms of what they could do.
Dragons had two main methods of attack: their body and their
breath. They had claws, teeth, a tail, and feet that they could use to
crush you, and if you were too far away for that, they’d burn you to a
crisp. But as long as you were prepared, you could manage to
survive those attacks. A high Dexterity score could let you dodge
their strikes, or you could use a shielding Spell or Talent to keep the
damage low. And as for the fire, there were many different flame-
mitigating Enchantments that could keep you safe.
Still, that was just the way you could avoid being killed by a
Dragon—there wasn’t much that could actually let you kill one
yourself. Even if you needed a few extra hits to take down, they were
still incredibly maneuverable both on the ground and in the air, and
their massive Health pools would make almost any attack a pinprick
to their thick scales.
So like I said before—they were synonymous with overwhelming
power. I’d heard tales and read books and manuals on them,
descriptions of specific Dragons and their individual names and
personalities, even heard songs composed about different
adventurers’ meetings with the beasts of the mountains. No matter
where you lived or how far away you were from the massive
creatures, there was nobody alive that hadn’t heard of them.
The Dragon that rose from the mountains soared above the
distant cliffs, roaring at something I couldn’t see. Something down in
the valley between the mountains had apparently angered it, and it
swooped down, blasting a massive breath of fire into the valley.
Whatever was there had almost certainly been laid to waste. But…
no. The Dragon swooped back around, making a second
bombardment along the valley. What was down there was apparently
pretty durable.
I turned to Erani. We’d all stopped when we saw the Dragon in
the distance. "C’mon, let’s keep moving."
As we walked, we had to fight off the Ghouls that approached us.

Thankfully, it seemed they were more thinly spread further away
from Kingdom’s Edge, so we could avoid most of them and keep our
Mana from going too low. Part of me wanted to just sit here and kill
Ghouls for the XP all day, but I had no idea how close behind me the
Demons were. The fact that we hadn’t seen them at all since the fire
made me quite suspicious of whatever they were planning. I just
needed to get out of here. We were so close to leaving the kingdom,
and I was eager to make that process as quick as possible.
As we walked, the Dragon continued to attack whatever it was
that was in the valley. It barraged the area with fire and, when that
didn’t work, swooped down to strike with its massive claws. And
when that also didn’t work, it went back to fire. Just what was this
thing doing?
The one-sided battle went on for at least a couple hours as we
slowly made our way through the wasteland. How did that thing have
so much Stamina to keep fighting for so long? Well, most Dragons
were incredibly high-Level, so it made sense, but it was still amazing
to watch something fight for so long. It also made me even more
curious about what it was fighting in the first place.
I was approaching Level 15, too. Getting there would mean a
huge boost in power for me—not only would it provide a Talent, but it
would also give me a Spell. Coming right after the triple-Level-up
from the barricade before, I felt like I was really hitting my stride with
Leveling. Maybe I was just getting lucky, or maybe Recursive
Growth’s value-over-time effect was beginning to truly pay off—it’d
gotten me a total of 28 Stats so far, which was way above-average.
Either way, though, I was beginning to feel a bit confident. And
the extra Level would help with my Mana/Minute, which was
currently only barely able to keep up with the rate I was casting to kill
the Ghouls.
As we traversed, I also noticed something else—other than the
Ghouls—lurking in the wasteland. For the most part, the field we
walked through was completely flat. Flat, that is, except for a few
unnatural holes and hills scattered throughout the field. And they
weren’t small; the "holes" were more like miniature caves—cavities
that struck diagonally into the earth and were all wider than I was tall.
The hills were mounds of dirt that looked strange and abrupt on the
otherwise flat terrain—like random spots of acne on a person’s face.
At first, I’d assumed they were just the aftermath of some particularly
strong monsters duking it out in the area, but then I noticed
something weird about them.
Down in the holes were red eyes.
Something was living in them. I noticed that the hills all existed
near the caverns, and they all looked pretty similar, so it was likely
that they weren’t the result of various battles—they were the result of
some monster digging them out and living in them, kicking dirt out to
form the nearby hills. Sure, there were many scars on the landscape
that looked somewhat like these holes, but none of them housed
these red eyes.
"Know what’s in those caves?" I asked Erani while
simultaneously messaging the Dryad.
"Only know my own lands," the Dryad responded. "Not others."
"No clue," Erani said. "I heard about the Ghouls and the
wasteland because I was researching the Spell that caused it, but I
didn’t really look into the specific things that live here. Well, other
than the more famous stuff in Kingdom’s Edge itself."
"Yeah, I have no idea either," I said, nodding. I looked over to one
of the holes, about a hundred paces away. Even that far, the single
pair of glowing red eyes within shined brightly at me, staring with a
murderous intent. Each and every cavern had a single pair of red
eyes—no more, no less. And they all seemed to be watching us.
Seemed that whatever was within didn’t have a taste for the undead.
We stayed away from them.
It was while we were making a wide arc around one of the
mysterious caverns that our attention was pulled back to the Dragon
that was still attacking whatever was in the valley. The flying beast
swooped up, roaring louder than it ever had yet, and flapped its
wings, propelling itself toward the wasteland. Toward us.
Out of seeming frustration that it couldn’t destroy the valley, it
crashed itself into the dusty ground of the wasteland, killing
hundreds of meandering Ghouls, and roared, stomping its four feet
on the ground. It was still far from us, but closer than it had been
before—now it was more than just a silhouette in the sky. Now it was
a massive motherfucking Dragon, larger than a house, standing
across from us in the wasteland. It stomped over and over again,
roaring and breathing fire at nothing in particular.
We stopped in our approach, unsure of what to do. Sure, it didn’t
seem to see us, but it wasn’t like I wanted to get closer to the
damned thing.
After a moment of stomping around, it flapped its wings once
again, and took to the skies. The scene it left behind was one of
complete destruction. The already ashen ground was completely
scorched. Any Ghouls that were nearby had either been crushed,
burnt, or split in two by the Dragon’s razor-sharp talons. There were
imprints left behind where the beast had stomped and slammed its
tail into the ground. And when it flapped its wings to ascend into the
air, the windstorm left behind scattered guts and flung ash into the
air, completely obscuring the area.
The smoky sky covered the Dragon at first, but then it burst out,
heading further into the wasteland—further toward us. It swooped by
the ground and let out a massive breath of fire—once again, at
nothing in particular—and continued in its path near us.
"Shit, we need to get cover!" I said. It’d burn us alive if we didn’t
get out of the way.
I snapped my head around. The wasteland was completely
barren, with no trees for cover, not even a rock to hide behind. The
only thing around was…
"Get in the cave!" I shouted, tugging Erani and the Dryad along
with me as the Dragon drew closer, charging up another of its breath
attacks. We leapt into the deep cavern, tumbling into the sloped
ground and down, far beneath the earth.
I listened as the Dragon unleashed its fire above us and
continued on in its rampage, traveling far away from us. I let out a
breath.
Then I looked behind me.
A pair of red eyes stared down at me in the dark cave. Glowing,
red orbs peering into me. And then a growl escaped the thing they
were attached to.
And in a burst of speed, it attacked.
5
TROLLED
THE BEAST in the cave with us lunged at me while I leapt

backwards to avoid the rabid bite. As it moved forward, toward me
and toward the mouth of the cavern, natural light began falling on the
monster that could previously only be identified by its pair of glowing
red eyes.
It had rough gray skin, and was at least twice as big as me. Its
ugly, scrunched-up face with a big nose and permanent scowl looked
down at me and growled as it bared its claws. Its powerful legs
walked forward, and its sharp fangs dripped with drool.
I hurriedly did all that I could, casting Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost,
and Gravity Well on the massive cave monster.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling

Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21
Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by
15.5.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 55 damage using
Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Ray of Frost.
For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
With the Light Plate I was currently wearing, the Spells I cast
were discounted by about 40%, leading to the much lower costs of
my Spells that were displayed here. It’d allow me to be much more
liberal with my casting, to say the least.
The monster—a Mountain Troll, apparently—roared and
stumbled as all three effects hit it in unison. In total, it’d lost about 23
Dexterity and become 55% heavier at the same time, and that
sudden toll obviously affected it. Still, it was far from immobile, and it
quickly recovered.
"Get back!" I yelled at Erani, pushing her closer to the mouth of
the cave as it stood back up and charged.
The Mountain Troll quickly closed the gap between us, the claws
on its meaty hands out and seemingly aimed at me. While it
charged, I shut off Gravity Well, then instantly re-enabled it. The
resulting fluctuation of gravity obviously confused the Troll, with it
suddenly feeling lighter and then heavier right after, so it slowed a
bit. I used the time that confusion bought to raise my hand and shoot
off a few Rays of Frost, trying to keep my distance from the monster.
Each impacted its head, dealing 52. then 56, then 58 damage,
and lowering my Mana to 807. It flinched under the heavy fire of
Spells and snarled at me, flinging spittle at my face.
I’d been practicing that Gravity Well technique to keep in my back
pocket as of late, and it really seemed to work. I’d used it on myself
to try and perfect my timing with it, and it really felt incredibly
disorienting to have your weight played with like that, especially
when it was flicked on and off so quickly.
That said, I also noticed myself building up a tolerance to it as I
used it on myself more and more—especially when I did it quickly—
so it wouldn’t work on a single enemy forever. At least, not at its
current Rank. Perhaps it’d work even better in the future.
But for now, I needed to deal with this Troll. It lunged at me yet
again, and this time it got to me before I could slow it down. Even
with the many curses and debuffs I’d stacked on the monster, it was
still incredibly quick.
It lashed out with its massive claw-tipped hands. I twisted to
dodge the first, and the second hand stopped suddenly—the Dryad
had thrown out her whip and wrapped the spikey wire around the
Troll’s wrist, using it to hold the monster back. I used the moment to
rush in and tackle the beast, though by "tackle" I really mean "run
into its torso," since it was so much taller and heavier than me. Still,
with the debuffs continuing to weigh it down, I managed to push it
back. All Noxious Grasp needed was contact, anyway.
It roared the moment the Fester of Venomous Grasp took hold of
it, the effect instantly sapping away its Stamina at twice the normal
rate. Since one of its arms was still bound up in the Dryad’s whip of
thorns, it used its only free hand to reach for me and try to swat me
away. I tried to maneuver my way around to the other side of its body
where it couldn’t reach me, but it was surprisingly flexible,
considering its bulky form, and managed to grab my arm and fling
me away.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 66.4 damage and
drained 66.8 Stamina over the course of 4.1 seconds using
Noxious Grasp.
I tumbled across the stone ground of the cave and all the way out
into the chasm’s mouth, squinting at the sudden sun—and at the fact
that I’d banged my head during the aforementioned tumble.
You have been slammed against something. 32 damage.

Your Health is 276.
"Fuck," I muttered groggily, trying to stand myself up. Yeah, it

definitely hurt. Judging by the sound of explosions and feeling of
shaking earth coming from inside the cave, it seemed like Erani had
taken over in my stead.
Something brushed up against my shoulder as I got to my feet. I
looked behind me, confused, and saw⁠—
You have been bitten. 17 damage.

Your Health is 259.
"Shit!" I yelled, and I shoved away the Ghoul that’d just chomped
into my shoulder. Just like with the Dark Plate before, the Ghoul had
been able to bite straight through the Light Plate as though it weren’t
even there. I held out my hand and hurriedly shot off Rays of Frost
until the undead died.
You have offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level 8

Ghoul.
I sighed. I hadn’t expected there to be Ghouls⁠—

Shit!
I dodged out of the way of a set of claws that tried to pierce my
arm—another Ghoul. I took a step back, cursing it with Crippling Chill
and⁠—
You have been scratched by claws. 6 damage.

Your Health is 253.
I turned around yet again, seeing yet another Ghoul that’d snuck
up on me and attacked, raking its claws against my back. I quickly
glanced around, and realized that I was absolutely surrounded.
Ghouls were on every side of me, and all were approaching.
Fuck, I thought. We’d been in one place for too long. The longer
we lingered, the stronger our scent grew, and the more Ghouls
would come. And the smell of fresh blood from my wounds definitely
didn’t help.
I spun around, glancing at the dozens of Ghouls and casting
Crippling Chill on all the nearby ones, trying to make sure none of
them could get to me. Luckily, a single Crippling Chill at its current
Rank seemed to be enough to take care of most of them, with its
Dexterity debuff and Stamina Drain, so once I hit any of them with it,
they’d almost instantly collapse.
Glancing at my immediate surroundings, I saw that there were no
more nearby that I’d missed. My Mana had fallen hugely—down to
335—but even then, there were still more staggering toward me from
further away. They weren’t quite threats yet, though, so I got a
moment to breathe.
It was then that I heard an explosion—much nearer to me this
time—and a grunt of pain. I looked over to the dark cave, and saw
the glowing red eyes of the Mountain Troll snap up to stare at me.
"Arlan!" I heard a gasp of a shout come from Erani.
And at that exact moment, the Troll lunged from the cave. It
snarled, spittle flying from its hinge-jawed mouth as it took a leap out
of the chasm mouth and straight toward me. It was incredibly fast,
coming right at me from a single bound, and I realized belatedly that
Crippling Chill had worn off the beast at some point. The notification
must’ve slipped past me in the mess of Crippling Chill notifications
I’d gotten when cursing the Ghouls.
It stomped into the bright field of the wasteland, kicking up the
layer of dust and ash covering the ground as it roared at me and
charged. I renewed its curse of Crippling Chill and activated Gravity
Well the moment it came into range.

15.5.
But even with the two curses pulling double duty, the Troll was
just barely slowed, and I only managed to jump out of the way
because it seemed to get confused about which of the many
humanoid bodies standing around was me.
It crashed into a few of the Ghouls that’d collapsed onto the
ground from my Crippling Chills and killed a couple of them,
according to my Contribution notifications. Then it turned, looked at
me, and roared. This thing was fucking loud.
Now that it was in direct sunlight, I could see the various wounds
it’d sustained from its fight in the cave with Erani and the Dryad. It
was burnt, slashed, stabbed, beaten, and seemed like it’d been
bashed against a wall a couple times. But it was still standing, and it
looked pissed.
"Arlan!" I could hear Erani running up from in the chasm. "Watch
out for the⁠—"
She was interrupted by the loudest roar yet from the massive
monster, and it charged at me yet again.
"Fuck!" I leapt out of the way, rolling across the ground and trying
to stay away from the still ever-approaching ring of Ghouls. I held out
a hand and shot off a few Rays of Frost as the Troll crashed through
the line of undead, hitting it in the back and covering it in a layer of
rime.

Ray of Frost.

Ray of Frost.

Ray of Frost.
It turned and roared yet again, obviously upset at its unsuccessful

charge. I braced myself to dodge again, but this time it didn’t run at
me right away. Instead, its eyes suddenly shined an even brighter
red than before—I suspected I’d be able to see its eyes from all the
way across the wasteland at this point—and seemed to gloss over
with a magical sheen.
And then it seemed to disappear. Except, no—it was just moving
so fast, my eyes couldn’t keep track of it. And it reappeared right in
front of me, its clawed hand already in the middle of a swing. Before
I could even process what was happening, the fist hit me and sent
me flying.
You have been sliced by claws. 41 damage.

Your Health is 212.
You have been slammed into something. 18 damage.
Your Health is 194.
I rolled across the ashy ground of the wasteland, tumbling across

the ground until finally settling to a stop.
Yeah, that supernatural speed was no joke. It was such an
intense boost that it more than canceled out the Dexterity-draining
effects of Cripping Chill and Ray of Frost, and it didn’t seem like
Gravity Well would do much to the Mountain Troll in its current state,
either. I’d been hit so far away that Erani and the Dryad were well out
of range to offer any immediate help, and my Mana and Health were
both getting low. And now with the monster’s extreme boost in
speed, it was even stronger than before.
The Mountain Troll turned to look at me, its eyes still shining that
extra-bright red.
The only question was, how could I beat it?
6
WORN DOWN
I STUMBLED TO MY FEET, looking around in search of the

Mountain Troll. When I got knocked back from the monster, I’d
landed far away—off at the edge of the quickly encroaching ring of
Ghouls that surrounded us. I backed away from them while also
trying to keep prepared for an attack from the Troll. It was standing at
one end of our little arena, and turned to face me. Its eyes had that
magical sheen that told me it was still in its speed-enhanced state.
Just how long would this shit last?
It rushed at me again, seeming to disappear from my vision and
reappear in front of me like it did before. I was prepared to dodge,
but before I even had the opportunity to move, its fist slammed into
me, punching me even further back and straight through the crowd
of Ghouls behind me.

Your Health is 161.
I slid across the ground, narrowly missing the claws of some of

the nearby Ghouls as I flew back, before finally settling to a stop. I
was so far away from the cave mouth by now that Erani and the
Dryad were just dots in the background, dwarfed by the quickly
approaching Mountain Troll. I hurriedly activated Regenerate—my
Health was getting pretty low, and it seemed like I’d need it here.
You have activated Regenerate. You will gain 15.9 Health over
the next 10 seconds.
35.7 Stamina Cost. Your Stamina is 54.
Wait—why were the numbers there so low? I should’ve gained a

bit more Health than that.
Then I remembered. I’d been hit by Ghouls a few times now, and
my Stats were lower. Which meant that my Health/Minute had
decreased, and so Regenerate healed me for less.
The Ghouls around me approached closer, but they weren’t my
main worry. The Troll was getting close, bounding toward me with its
supernatural Dexterity. Part of me wanted to try shooting it with
another few Rays of Frost for the damage, but I knew that wouldn’t
work here. My Mana was at 229, and I could tell just by looking at it
that a few more Rays of Frost wouldn’t kill this beast. Erani and the
Nymph were too far away to help, and the Troll would likely take this
fight even further away, with its massive swings that sent me flying.
But without my Mana-intensive methods of fighting, that left only
one way: Noxious Grasp. It’d been a while since I’d last been forced
to use that Spell exclusively to deal with a monster, and I wasn’t
looking forward to doing it again. But this time, I had a couple things
working for me to make this fight go my way.
The Troll appeared in front of me once more, but I’d gotten at
least slightly used to its blinding speed by now, and was already
leaping back to dodge. It swung its fist out, and when it did, I
activated Noxious Grasp and tapped the monster’s meaty hand as it
passed by in front of me.
Noxious Grasp.
By tagging the Troll with Noxious Grasp, the Fester of Venomous
Grasp would take hold for five seconds. Of course, I didn’t have
Crippling Chill or anything active to artificially drain the monster’s
Stamina, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t go down at all. Simply by
fighting, its Stamina would slowly decrease, and with Venomous
Grasp, it’d decrease twice as fast. And that wasn’t even considering
the fact that, whatever that speed buff was, it probably cost Stamina
to activate.
I couldn’t beat the Troll with raw power. That much was obvious.
But maybe I could slowly tire it out. With my high Mana/Minute, I was
getting nearly an extra point to cast my Spells with every three
seconds, and the Troll would only get weaker with time. The longer I
could drag this fight on, the more my chances of winning would
increase.
The Troll stumbled from its missed attack, glaring at me with an
angry grunt. It seemed to be slowing down bit by bit as the moments
went on, so it wasn’t quite as true with its strikes as before. It lifted its
leg and stomped straight at me, but I rolled to the side and barely
dodged as the beast’s foot slammed into the ground, shaking the
ground and kicking up dust all around us.
I coughed and tried to get back to my feet, but got caught by a
backhand that sent me flying back once again.

Your Health is 132.
I groaned. It fucking hurt, but at least I still had a good buffer of

Health to protect me. Back when I was lower-Leveled, even a single
hit like that would’ve surely broken a bone. I once again stood back
up, bleeding from the mouth.
"Won’t back down," I muttered to nobody in particular. "I’ll keep
getting back up. You can’t put me down."
The Mountain Troll responded with a deafening roar and yet
another charge. Its fighting style wasn’t exactly refined, but it more
than made up for it with raw power. It slammed its fist down at me,
but I backed away, managing to dodge and tag the monster with
Venomous Grasp once again, refreshing the Fester. It reached out
and tried to grab me, but I ducked under its massive hands just in
time and lunged in to try and work against its range advantage.
Once I was close enough, I reached out and grabbed its leg with
a single hand, simply dragging my fingers along its thigh and
keeping in contact while also trying to keep away from its sharp
claws reaching for me. I ducked and weaved around its legs,
keeping my eyes out for the Troll’s rapid swings and attempted
grabs.
I didn’t get greedy, though, and after a few seconds and a few
close calls, I let go and leapt back, out of its range.
Noxious Grasp.
It turned and took another swing at me, which I dodged. It

seemed the Stamina drain was beginning to really slow the Troll
down by now, and I could more easily dodge its strikes. Plus, its
eyes were losing their magical sheen, so the supernatural speed
was also wearing off.
I took a breath. We’re entering the home stretch. Just wear it
down a bit more.
It swung again at me, and I tried to back away again, but it
seemed to be learning my fighting patterns as I was learning its, and
it reached out a bit further to hit me. I just barely didn’t get out of the
way in time, and the monster’s claws scratched along my stomach.

Your Health is 114.
Still, as it touched me I managed to get off a split second of

Noxious Grasp yet again, refreshing Venomous Grasp’s Fester.
Even when it was hitting me, it was still weakening itself.
It swung again, and again, and again, and I kept ducking and
weaving, only coming in once every five seconds to refresh the
Fester. Little by little, the Mountain Troll got more and more lethargic
and lazy with its movements, and I got more and more familiar with
its patterns. I was in a state of absolute focus, feeling like I was truly
seeing all future possibilities and reacting to each of them in perfect
time without error.
And I didn’t have room for error, either. Even if the Troll was
slowing down, that didn’t mean it was easy to dodge its attacks. I
rolled between its legs, bent over backwards to barely avoid the
thing taking off my nose, and leapt straight over its lower swings that
tried to swipe through my legs. Beads of sweat dotted my face and
my legs felt like they’d collapse in on themselves any moment. Its
Stamina was being drained faster than mine, sure, but that didn’t
mean I didn’t feel any fatigue at all.
Still, I wasn’t taking damage, and that was what mattered. All I
had to do was keep flowing through the swipes⁠—
You have been bitten. 20 damage.

Your Health is 94.
Shit! I glanced behind me and found a Ghoul that’d snuck up and

sunken its teeth into my shoulder. My entire body sunk, growing a bit
weaker. I tried to yank myself away from the undead’s clutches, but
just as I did⁠—

Your Health is 58.
"Fuck," I groaned, and I stumbled back to my feet. Gods-damned

Ghouls. Had to be fucking everywhere.
The Mountain Troll rushed forward in yet another supernatural
burst of speed. Looked like it was activating that ability one more
time, putting in a last effort to take me out now that I was disoriented.
But I wouldn’t let it—I still had one last trick I could pull, and now that
it was throwing out the last of its resources, I’d do the same.
The moment it got within range, I cast one last Crippling Chill and
Ray of Frost at the Troll.

15.5.
Ray of Frost.
With its already-low Stamina, the Dexterity debuffs really hit it

hard. And the constant drain from Crippling Chill, taking away over
12 every single second after the Fester was taken into account, only
sealed its fate. With a start the beast stumbled over itself, not having
expected to have so much taken away from it all at once. And with
its hyperactive speed, it couldn’t catch itself, falling face-first into the
ashy ground and sliding to a stop in front of me.
It wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t getting back up. Stamina must’ve
finally hit 0. I walked over and placed a hand on the unconscious
body, activating Noxious Grasp once more. There was no reaction
as I began to drain away the last of its Health.
I also kept an eye out for nearby Ghouls. Finally, I could actually
take a breather and look around myself. I plopped myself down on
the Troll’s unmoving arm while I waited for Noxious Grasp to do its
thing, gasping for breath and resting my throbbing legs.
My Health had fallen down to 58, my Stamina was low—having
fallen to 29 after so much exertion in the fight—and my Stats had
been severely lowered. Hells, my Dexterity was getting close to
dropping below half of what it should’ve been. In conclusion, I was
beat the fuck up.
"Arlan! You okay?!" A distant voice called out to me. I looked over
to see Erani and the Dryad running over to me and pushing aside
the Ghouls that attempted to attack them.
"Yeah," I breathed when they got to me. "Just waiting for this
damn thing to die."
"It’s not dead already?" Erani eyed the motionless body.
"Nope, just out of Stamina. Damn thing used up so much when it
used that speed ability that it tired out before dying."
"I sorry for not saying anything." I got a message from the Dryad.
"Hard to do when fighting."
"It’s okay," I said back. "I was probably too busy to listen,
anyway."
It was then that I got a notification.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 262 damage and
drained 264 Stamina over the course of 16.2 seconds using
Noxious Grasp.
Level 24 Mountain Troll.
Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

Your Level has increased to 15.
Due to achieving Level 15 in the Minute Mage Class, you have
been granted the following benefits:
- You have gained 1 Endurance.
- You have gained 2 Conjuration.
- You have gained 1 Intelligence.
- You have gained 3 Stat Points.
- Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1
Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Conjuration.
- Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 15.
- You may choose a Spell to learn.
- You may choose a Talent to learn.
7
PATHS TO TRAVEL
Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Conjuration.
I LOOKED over my Level-up when the notification came in, sitting on

the now-dead Mountain Troll. Not the most bountiful trigger of
Recursive Growth—I typically wanted to see more Endurance and
Conjuration than Strength and Dexterity—but free Stats were free
Stats.
Besides, I really didn’t care about that. I was much more
interested in those last two parts. A Spell and a Talent. This was a
huge milestone for me.
"Just got to 14," Erani said, apparently reading her own
notification. "Gonna get my Level 15 Talent soon."
"I just got mine." I grinned, hopping off the corpse of our foe. But I
stumbled when I hit the ground, my legs crumpled beneath me, and I
fell straight to the ground.
"Shit, are you alright?!" Erani rushed over to help me up.
It was at that point I realized that my physical Stats were still
severely drained from the Ghoul attacks. Well, that, and my Stamina
was low from the intense fight. Even if my Stats weren’t technically
lower than an Unclassed person’s now, I’d gotten so used to having
the boost that losing it felt crippling.
"Yeah, I’m okay" I grumbled in response to Erani. "Got hit by a
few Ghouls. Stats are at minus 6 right now."
Her eyes widened at that. "How much more until paralysis?"
"Recursive Growth helps a bit, so it’s not too bad. Strength and
Dexterity are at 11, so I can take a few more hits before they drop to
0."
Erani glanced over as the Dryad attacked an approaching Ghoul
with her whip, severing it in two. After a moment, she looked back at
me. "Dryad says she’s getting pretty low on Stamina after that fight.
Anyway, If you’re at minus six, your Health’s gotta have a pretty low
maximum, right?"
"Yeah, 260. Though it’ll take a bit to get up there. I dropped down
to 58 in the fight."
"Shit." She grimaced. "Sorry I couldn’t help more. That thing used
its speed ability in the cave and got away from us. Seems like it was
trying to isolate and kill you before coming back to us."
"Yeah, well, luckily I put up more of a fight than it was
anticipating," I chuckled roughly. I really did feel pretty awful, with the
low Health and Stamina, and my Stats being lower than I was used
to. The physical injuries I’d sustained definitely didn’t help, either.
The Dryad killed another Ghoul, severing its head from its body.
"How much longer can she last?" I asked.
"Probably not long. And I’m pretty low on Mana, too. Are you
thinking…?"
"Yeah, I’m considering Time Loop. Uh, sorry for telling you, I
know it kinda makes you…"
"Feel existential dread? Yeah," she chuckled darkly. "I guess
you’ve dealt with this in the past."
"Yeah, a couple times. You asked me not to tell you before using
it in the future. So, uh, sorry. Again."
She breathed and shook her head slightly. "I don’t want to make
you feel bad for using it. I mean, it makes sense that you’d have to
sometimes. Just—here, how about you just don’t say anything.
Decide whether you’re going to use it on your own, and then use it if
you’re gonna use it, don’t if you’re not. That way I don’t know. It’ll
make things a lot easier for me."
"If that’s what you want," I said hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if that was
the healthiest way to cope with things, but then, what would be? I
had to admit that Time Loop’s existence was pretty philosophically
terrifying, and there wasn’t really any way to deal with it other than
just not using it. Which wasn’t much of an option in our current
situation.
I sighed and looked over my Status, feeling completely drained
from the fight. My Stats were low, and so was my Health. Sure, I
could restore it more quickly than normal with Regenerate, but even
then, I was looking at a max Health that was 60 lower than it
should’ve been. Even if I’d technically survived this fight, we’d
probably be overwhelmed by Ghouls in a few hours. Hells, if we ran
into one of those Mountain Trolls again, we’d die for sure.
And when I glanced around the surrounding wasteland, many,
many pairs of red eyes stared back at me. Each of those was
another Troll, waiting to strike. It seemed like they’d only attack if we
got close, but who knew when we’d get unlucky, or not notice one, or
—gods forbid—when that Dragon might come back. I didn’t like
using Time Loop so early in the day, but keeping myself in this state
for twenty-four hours may as well have been a death sentence.
I really just needed to go back and avoid the fight altogether—
that thing was powerful enough that, no matter what, killing it would
require me to take some heavy hits. Hits I couldn’t afford to take. If
we went back, we could just wait in the forest for the Dragon to do its
thing, and then move into the wasteland and travel without ever
having to dodge its breath. And I’d still have another use, anyway.
With my latest Level-up, Time Loop could take me back up to
three and a half hours. Going back that far, I could easily arrive back
when we were in the forest, before we’d ever set foot in the
wasteland. And from there, we could just watch safely and wait it out.
Plus, we’d still have enough time for me to manage my Level-up.
Which, admittedly, I was a bit eager to do.
I looked over at Erani, who was watching me with anticipation. I
was pretty sure I’d come to a decision—now I just had to go back. I
felt bad doing it without saying anything, but that was what she
wanted, so…
And then I was back, standing in the forest and overlooking the
gray ash of the wasteland. I’d chosen the three-and-a-half-hours
option in the in-between space, giving us the most time to make sure
we were in a safe spot. Plus, getting the extra XP from killing Ghouls
and practicing Spells would be nice.
"Hey." Erani looked over at me. I’d gotten good at masking the
shudders that normally flooded my body whenever I went back, but
she’d also gotten good at recognizing them. "Time Loop?"
I nodded. "Nothing huge. But we do need to stay here for a while.
Couple hours from now, there’s gonna be a Dragon that sweeps the
area, and we need to take cover in the forest to keep safe. Also, we
should keep an eye out for Mountain Trolls."
"Keep an eye out for what?"
I explained to her exactly what’d happened as the Dryad watched
us talk. We still hadn’t told her about Time Loop, and I figured we
may as well keep it that way for as long as telling her about it wasn’t
necessary. She already didn’t like me—no reason to give her a
reason to distrust me any more.
Once I was done explaining things to her and we were in a safe
place, I sat down and turned to Erani. "Hey, I’m gonna go ahead and
manage my Level-up."
"Wait, you Leveled up?"
"Yeah. You did too, but, y’know."
She rolled her eyes. "So unfair that you get to keep it. I did half
the work!"
"Well, I’m the one who remembers doing half the work. So,
functionally, I was the one who did it."
"That’s definitely not how it works."
"System agrees with me, so your argument is invalid." I shrugged
and smiled, then sat on the ground and closed my eyes to enter a
meditative state. "Keep an eye on our surroundings for me?"
"Sure," I heard her say.
After about ten minutes, I got to the point of being able to make
my choices. First, I wanted to see what Spells were offered to me.
Choose one Spell to learn:
Ember Gale
School: Fire
Type: Toggle
Cost: 9 Mana/Second
—
A gust of wind blows arcane embers through the area. While active,
all beings (including yourself) within 75 paces of you take 8 damage
per second.
—
Intelligence information:
If you choose this option, your next Spell options will be:
Wrath of God - School: Divine
Flamebreak - School: Fire
Elemental Appeal - School: Alteration, Arcane
Expedite
School: Alteration
Type: Activated
Cost: 55 Mana
—
Increases the Dexterity of yourself or a being that you are touching
by 20 for 30 seconds.
—
Wild Might - School: Alteration, Nature
Defy Gravity - School: Arcane
Sanguine Bond - School: Arcane, Curse
Heartstone
School: Alteration, Summoning
Type: Activated
Cost: 480 Mana
—
Creates a Heartstone that crumbles to dust after 6 hours, or when
destroyed. All beings within 10 paces of the Heartstone become
Heartful. When Heartful, a being’s Health/Minute, Stamina/Minute,
and Mana/Minute are all increased by 100%. In addition, beings that
are Heartful become rested from sleep twice as quickly.
—
Brave the Elements - School: Alteration
Inspirit - School: Alteration, Divine
Bloodthirsty Blade - School: Curse, Summoning
Huh. Those were some interesting options. Ember Gale was solid
damage per second in an absolutely massive radius, but would hurt
me and my allies whenever I used it, and wasn’t very good against
single targets. Expedite was a very efficient Stat boost, but could
only increase Dexterity, so it wasn’t incredibly flexible. And
Heartstone was a strange Spell that seemed to focus more on utility
than anything else. At least, it didn’t seem useful in the middle of a
fight.
Part of me wanted to start trying to figure out what to choose right
away, but I still had more things to look over. Namely, my Talents. If I
took a Spell and then looked at my Talent Choice, I could realize that
I’d made the wrong decision and want to change my mind. When I
was hurting this badly for information, I needed to take whatever I
could get.
So I opened up my Talents and looked at them, too.
Choose one Talent to obtain:
Status Reconstruction
Type: Activated
—
Set your Health, Stamina, and Mana to exactly what they were 30
seconds ago.
This Talent may only be activated once per day.
—
If you choose this option, your next Talent options will be:
Body Reconstruction
Mind Reconstruction
Spirit Reconstruction
Precognition
Type: Activated
—
See a flash of the future. When activated, you will be shown what will
happen over the course of the next 10 minutes if you were to
proceed with no information of the future.
—
Retrograde
Time Dilation
Inverse Perception
Exponential Reclamation
Type: Passive
—
Time is warped around your Mana receptors, greatly increasing
Mana/Minute the more Conjuration you have. For every point you
have in Conjuration, your Mana/Minute is increased by 1% (currently
multiplies Mana/Minute by 2.35). This effect stacks with itself.
—
Cumulative Catastrophe
Spatial Flux
Future Sight
Yeah, these options were even more difficult to choose from.

Status Reconstruction could effectively double my Health, Stamina,
and Mana, but only if I used it optimally. If, over the course of thirty
seconds, I got hit for most of my Health, spent most of my Mana, and
used up a bunch of my Stamina on something like Regenerate, only
for me to get hit again, and then used that Talent, I’d be back to full
with my opponent still having spent all that energy on fighting me.
Precognition was also fascinating. It was similar to Time Loop in
that it’d give me knowledge of what would happen in the future, but
with this, I had to use it before those events transpired, not after. So
while in some situations it was effectively an extra use of the Talent,
in others, it wasn’t. It couldn’t help at all against sneak attacks or
anything else I wasn’t expecting, for example. And, of course, it
didn’t give me any extra XP. But Time Loop was so powerful, even
something that just approached its power could still have its uses.
And then there was Exponential Reclamation. Currently, it’d bring
my Mana/Minute from 18 to 43. And, naturally, it’d only get better in
the future—every time I got another point in Conjuration, my
Mana/Minute would increase by another 1%. But the real question
was what I could use that Mana regeneration on. It wouldn’t touch
my maximum Mana at all, so it’d be difficult to use the extra
regeneration in the middle of a fight. But if I played my cards right,
like I did during the fight with the Mountain Troll, I could extend an
encounter out long enough to regenerate enough Mana for multiple
additional Spells.
With the two choices looming in front of me, I had many paths
ahead of me that could determine my future. Not only whether I’d
immediately survive Kingdom’s Edge, but also my life afterward, and
how I’d get by in the new empire I was traveling to. With all the
different combinations, I could lead myself in many different
directions.
Now I just had to pick the correct one.
8
MAKING THE CHOICE
Ember Gale
School: Fire
Type: Toggle
Cost: 9 Mana/Second
—
A gust of wind blows arcane embers through the area. While active,
all beings (including yourself) within 75 paces of you take 8 damage
per second.
—
Wrath of God - School: Divine
Flamebreak - School: Fire
Elemental Appeal - School: Alteration, Arcane
Expedite
School: Alteration
Type: Activated
Cost: 55 Mana
—
by 20 for 30 seconds.
—
Heartstone
School: Alteration, Summoning
Type: Activated
Cost: 480 Mana
—
Creates a Heartstone that crumbles to dust after 6 hours, or when
destroyed. All beings within 10 paces of the Heartstone become
Heartful. When Heartful, a being’s Health/Minute, Stamina/Minute,
and Mana/Minute are all increased by 100%. In addition, beings that
are Heartful become rested from sleep twice as quickly.
—
Brave the Elements - School: Alteration
Inspirit - School: Alteration, Divine
Bloodthirsty Blade - School: Curse, Summoning
TO BEGIN WITH, I decided to pick a Spell. Honestly, they all looked

powerful.
I almost discounted Ember Gale as not useful because it’d
damage Erani and the Dryad, who both had pretty low Health, but
then I remembered that Erani wouldn’t be hit as hard from it as I
thought. With Angelic Shield, she’d be able to block the damage, and
would really just be taking a hit to her Mana, which she had plenty of.
There were other downsides to the Spell, though. It’d be
borderline useless in populated areas, since I could hit civilians, and
it would also be pretty bad when I was facing single enemies. I
mean, Ray of Frost dealt a bit over 2 damage for each 1 Mana
spent, while this dealt less than 1 damage per Mana. Plus, it
damaged me, too. Now, it could be insane value for Mana against a
massive crowd of monsters, but it wouldn’t do much outside of that.
I thought back to the wasteland. With Ember Gale, I could easily
kill off any Ghouls that came near us, and probably without spending
so much Mana. And, of course, with the long range it could possibly
get me a good amount of XP.
So Ember Gale was solid in the short term, but could fall off
pretty hard once we were out of the wasteland and into more
situations where its downsides were more apparent.
Next up was Expedite. 55 Mana for 20 Dexterity was a good rate,
when compared to other Stat-boosting Spells. Thinking back to
Bioshift, which I’d been offered once before, that created a gap in
Stats of 20 for the cost of 80 Mana. And Holy Strength, which I’d
been offered a long time ago, gave 5 Strength for 15 Mana, but for
half the time Expedite offered. So Expedite gave me the best value
for my Mana in that respect.
However, it also offered the least amount of flexibility. Bioshift
was costly, but it could also target any Stat I wanted. And Holy
Strength only covered one Stat, but it could be used in smaller
increments, allowing for much finer control of exactly how much I
wanted to spend. There was definitely some trade-off there for the
efficiency of Stats for Mana.
But I definitely preferred efficiency over flexibility here. If I spent,
say, about 500 Mana on the Spell, I could give myself an extra 180
Dexterity for the next half-minute. Thinking back to my previous
experiences, I could absolutely see the opportunity in that. With that
much Dexterity, I could’ve dashed through that blockade the Demons
set up to trap us in the forest fire without a problem. Or fled from
something like the Mountain Troll without ever having to fight it.
And, of course, it could be used in non-extreme cases as well.
Just stacking one or two of the Spell on me could mean a massive
boost to my Dexterity in a fight—and Spells like Noxious Grasp were
useful when used in conjunction with a high Dexterity Stat. So
Expedite was a solid contender here.
And then there was Heartstone. That was a strange one. It
looked like it was in that same category of "object summoning" as
Ethereal Armor was, but it served a totally different purpose. It
looked like a great Spell to activate just before we went to sleep.
That way we could rest for a shorter period of time while still
rejuvenating ourselves just as much.
Now, for me personally, it wouldn’t have quite as much of an
effect as it could. Specifically, one of its best aspects was that it
could boost Health/Minute by 100% for such an extended period of
time. Normally, it’d take around forty-eight hours to fully regenerate
your Health, and this Spell could cut that in half. But for me,
Regenerate already cut that down by quite a bit. And Stamina and
Mana would be fully regenerated over the course of a full night’s
sleep, anyway. Still, it’d be helpful for Erani and the Dryad. Plus, that
double-speed sleeping effect sounded quite convenient.
But still, that function of the Spell alone wasn’t the part that
impressed me. I could already envision the upsides to just casting
the Spell every six hours and keeping the stone in my pocket as we
traveled, keeping us all in top shape. Using it while we slept would
be nice, but really it’d be great to help us recover after fights as we
moved through the wasteland.
Although, really, it didn’t seem like Heartstone would be used to
its full effect for us as just a group of three. With its large radius of
effect, it could easily support a group of dozens—if not hundreds—of
soldiers.
Yet I could see its uses. Where Ember Gale was great now, but
might taper off later, Heartstone was the opposite. It wouldn’t be as
useful now, but I could see myself doing something like selling uses
of Heartstone to people who wanted it, once I was out of this Demon
situation. The thing stuck around for six hours, and the description
didn’t say anything about it needing to stay near me, so I could just
make one and give it away for a price to an adventuring party that
wanted to stay in peak condition during an expedition.
I found myself in a familiar predicament, unsure of what Spell to
take. And, of course, that uncertainty was compounded by the other
choice I had to make. There were nine combinations of different
Spells and Talents I could get for myself, and each one could
potentially spell out my death, or set me up for life.
So I turned to the only person I trusted would put more thought
into this than I ever could. "Hey, Erani, you mind helping me out with
this choice?"
"Sure," I heard her say, and she sat down in front of me.
I read out the Spells and their effects to her, then told her my
general thoughts and opinions on each. When I told her what
Heartstone did, I heard her perk up.
"Huh, I thought Heartstone’s name sounded familiar, but now I
definitely remember its effect. It’s a Wizard Spell, up in the Level 10s
if I remember correctly. In Carth there used to be a few inns that
utilized its effects to help adventurers heal faster, or to help people
who were particularly busy spend less time sleeping. As far as I
remember, it isn’t too uncommon to see."
"Hm. Well, if it’s not very rare, I guess it’d be a bit more difficult to
make money with it. Did people ever give one away for adventuring
parties to use on an outing, or something?"
"Oh, no. Those Heartstones are massive—they easily weigh fifty
times more than a person. You cast the Spell and it just plops the
thing down in the nearest empty location. From there, you can’t
really move it around. You’d probably need to open an entire inn to
actually make money with one."
I pursed my lips. Okay, so not quite as monetarily useful as I
thought. And it didn’t seem like I could stick it in my pocket and carry
it around with me, either. So really, it’d only be useful for us now to
keep active while we slept. And for us specifically, the main thing that
could actually be used in that aspect would be its effect of having us
sleep twice as quickly. That’d be nice, sure—I could definitely see it
keeping us out of danger occasionally—but was it really worth using
an entire Spell Choice on? "What about the other two? Thoughts on
those?"
"Well," Erani hummed, "Ember Gale definitely has its uses if
you’re looking to go solo and clear out a hive of monsters, but I’m not
too sure about its flexibility. I mean, there really aren’t too many
times it could be useful. Plus, y’know, I’m not sure how I feel about
catching us all on fire every time you want to activate the Spell."
"Yeah, not too great in many situations. One of the main things
I’m thinking about is our immediate future, though. With the
wasteland up ahead, I could see the Spell helping out quite a bit with
the Ghouls. Plus, y’know, the XP. Killing all those monsters, I’d be
sure to get an extra Level, at least."
"Wait, there are those Mountain Troll things out there too though,
right? The way you made it sound, wouldn’t there be too many for
you to safely use Ember Gale? Chances are there’d be at least one
within such a big radius like seventy-five paces. And if you angered
it, it’d probably attack."
"Well, shit. You’re right. Hm. If it isn’t useful here, it suddenly
looks a lot worse."
Suddenly, Expedite was looking a lot better in comparison to the
other two.
When comparing Heartstone and Expedite, they at first seemed
like they accomplished two completely different goals. Heartstone
would let us rest way quicker and move further every day,
decreasing the amount of time the Demons had to catch us, whereas
Expedite helped within fights.
But then I thought about Expedite’s potential as a travel booster.
If I just used a single cast on me and Erani, I could double my
Dexterity and triple hers for the duration. With the Dryad already
more than capable of keeping up with that, we could probably travel
much more quickly for as long as I kept it active. And since it was so
efficient with its conversion of Mana to Dexterity, I’d actually be able
to keep it on for quite a while.
Heartstone would give us an extra four hours to travel every day,
moving us from sixteen waking hours to twenty. That was a twenty-
five percent increase, certainly good. But if I could use Expedite to
just move twenty-five percent faster while traveling, it’d accomplish
the exact same goal, while also being able to be used in fights.
I paused and thought for a moment. Specifically, I considered the
method I’d used to kill the Mountain Troll.
With the build I’d been making for myself, it seemed like the
fighting style I leaned toward was one focused on one-on-one
combat. I could overpower a single enemy that would normally be
able to crush me through smart usage of Stat debuffs and Stamina
drains.
And specifically, Noxious Grasp’s Upgrade—Venomous Grasp—
was a massive part of that strategy. By periodically tapping an
enemy, then backing away out of their striking range, I could kill
something with way more Health than me just by tiring it out. The
main problem with that was that if the enemy was faster than I was, I
couldn’t get away to safety before tagging them with Venomous
Grasp. Really, if an enemy was too fast, I couldn’t utilize Noxious
Grasp at all.
But with Expedite, I suddenly had a method to close that gap with
almost anything. Sure, it’d cost me some Mana, but the range of
options it offered me was well worth it. I could flee from just about
any combat if it seemed like it’d go poorly, I could rush straight over
obstacles like ravines or rivers that I’d normally have to spend time
figuring out a way past, and I could easily outmaneuver enemies that
I normally wouldn’t dream of outspeeding. Even a Level 20
Swordsman wouldn’t even approach my Dexterity if I put a couple
hundred Mana into the Spell.
The main issue would be that it would cost me a ton of Mana to
use to its fullest effect. I had close to 1000 Mana, but even that
amount had its limits, as was shown in that fight with the Mountain
Troll.
But then, hadn’t one of the reasons I’d spent so much Mana in
that fight in the first place been that I wasn’t fast enough? I’d spent
over 500 of my Mana just trying to deal with the Ghouls that kept
ambushing me out in the open field of the wasteland, since my only
way of dealing with them was the Mana-intensive Crippling Chill. But
if I’d just cast a couple Expedites, I could’ve easily escaped from
them without taking a single hit. In an indirect way, the Spell seemed
to make up for my weakness against large crowds of enemies.
"Alright," I finally said to Erani after thinking it over. "I think I’m
leaning toward Expedite."
I didn’t take the Spell just yet, though. First, I wanted to figure out
what Talent I’d choose.
Choose one Talent to obtain:
Status Reconstruction
Type: Activated
—
Set your Health, Stamina, and Mana to exactly what they were 30
seconds ago.
—
Body Reconstruction
Mind Reconstruction
Spirit Reconstruction
Precognition
Type: Activated
—
See a flash of the future. When activated, you will be shown what will
happen over the course of the next 10 minutes if you were to
proceed with no information of the future.
—
Retrograde
Time Dilation
Inverse Perception
Type: Passive
—
—
Spatial Flux
Future Sight
Status Reconstruction was obviously useful in a fight. I could run

in recklessly, spend all my Mana and not care about taking hits, and
then right before I died, activate Status Reconstruction and get all
my resources back. My main problem with it was the thirty-second
time limit. Realistically, it could be difficult to effectively use those
resources so quickly. Plus, if I got killed by an unexpected hit
because of my low Health and I died before I could use it, I’d waste
that use of the Talent—and a use of Time Loop.
Precognition was an interesting spin on Time Loop, essentially
providing me an extra, but limited, use of it. I wasn’t sure how useful
it’d be in my current circumstances, though, since my main usage for
Time Loop was to guard against sneak attacks—which Precognition
would effectively be useless against unless I got incredibly lucky.
And then there was Exponential Reclamation. It wasn’t too often
you saw a Talent that only increased the regeneration of a resource,
but not the maximum. But it made sense why this one had that
limited functionality; it increased my Mana/Minute by an insane
factor. Even by itself, multiplying something by 2.35 was a huge
difference. It’d take my Mana/Minute from 18.33 to 43.13. But since it
was dependent on my current Conjuration value—and not only that,
but it also multiplied with itself—it was that much better.
In fact…
You have used 3 Stat Points to increase Conjuration.
Your Conjuration value is now 89.
Right. Now it would multiply Conjuration by 2.42. So it’d go from

18.87 to 45.75. Normally, increasing Conjuration by 3 would increase
my Mana/Minute by about 0.5. But by taking that Talent, it’d turn
what would be a 0.5 increase in Mana/Minute into a 2.5 increase—
both because of the existing modifier, and because increasing
Conjuration would increase the modifier, too. And as I kept putting in
more points, that ratio would only become more favorable.
So its numbers were absolutely incredible. But I could also see
why its numbers had to be that good. It was just difficult to utilize a
high Mana/Minute rate effectively. Increasing maximum Mana had an
obvious point to it. You have a higher max, you can go into a fight
with more Mana. But unless your Mana/Minute was a truly absurd
number, you probably wouldn’t be able to see much of that
regeneration within a fight.
Sure, I could see my Mana/Minute double. But did going from
fully regenerating my Mana in an hour to fully regenerating it in thirty
minutes really matter?
That was what someone else would think.
What I thought was that I had the perfect use for that extra
Mana/Minute.
The Talent worked delightfully with my Mana-hungry fighting
style. And with the method I’d used to kill that Mountain Troll, it’d be
even better. If, say, I got my Mana/Minute up to 60—which wouldn’t
take long with that Talent—that’d mean I’d get 1 Mana every second.
And when my strategy was to drag fights out to be as long as
possible, I could make good use of that extra regeneration.
Suddenly, as long as I could keep an enemy from killing me, I’d have
an effectively infinite cap on how much damage I could do to it.
Before, if I encountered a monster with, say, 100,000 Health, it
would’ve been completely impossible to kill. But now, as long as I
could keep it debuffed and survive long enough, I’d always have
more Mana to cast Spells with. And that was just with 60
Mana/Minute, something that would come in my near future. Once I
got to 120, 180, or even 300, I could start doing absurd things like
having Noxious Grasp constantly active—I’d never have to shut it off.
And those insane levels of Mana/Minute weren’t even that
implausible; because of the way the Talent exponentially increased
my Mana regeneration, it would only ever get higher more quickly.
And then there was the interaction with Recursive Growth. As I
got higher and higher in Level, Recursive Growth would give me
more and more Stats, and thus, more and more Conjuration every
Level. With that much Mana/Minute, I could Rank my Spells even
faster, outlast my opponents, and survive fights even when they
were mere minutes apart.
It was perfect.
So I had my two choices. Expedite and Exponential Reclamation.
You have learned the Spell Expedite.

Your next Spell options will be:
You have learned the Talent Exponential Reclamation.

Your next Talent options will be:
Spatial Flux
Future Sight
And now I just needed to test them out.

9
WELCOME TO THE OUTLAWS: GETTING

USED TO IT
ERANI SAT against a tree in the dead, gray forest. Arlan had just
picked his new Spell and Talent, and was trying to get used to the
sensation of boosting his Dexterity by so much using Expedite.
Especially with physical Stats, people tended to need some time to
acclimate to large changes like that.
With his new Talent—Exponential Reclamation, he’d said it was
called—the Ghouls were much less of a problem. He’d apparently
close to tripled his Mana/Minute, so he had more than enough to kill
them and get used to his new Spell. That Talent was pretty
ridiculous, she had to say. It made sense that it was so powerful for
him—he’d been focusing on increasing his Conjuration all this time,
after all—but still. With that much Mana/Minute… She shook her
head. It’d be interesting to see how his build turned out, that was for
sure.
They needed to wait in the forest for a while, anyway, since some
Dragon was about to go and rampage around in the wasteland, so to
stay safe they’d have to stay away from there until it happened. Or
that was what Arlan had said.
He apparently didn’t really know why it went through destroying
the area, only that it was in a fight beforehand that didn’t seem to go
its way. He suspected it was having some anger-fueled rampage, but
Erani wasn’t sure about that. Maybe it’d seen them, and had gone
specifically to kill them. Arlan had said it wasn’t targeting anything
specifically, but who knew for sure?
Either way, they’d need to stay back for a couple hours to keep
safe. For the time being, Erani just sat and talked with the Dryad.
"So, you keep calling me ‘one of the good Humans.’ Do you
really think most Humans are bad?"
"Yes. Humans kill animals. Kill nature. Kill me. All for no reason.
Horrible, selfish creatures. I hate Humans. I hate all Humans. You
are okay, though."
"Well, you didn’t always feel that way, did you? Back when we
first met, if you’d hated all Humans, you’d have just killed me and
Arlan, right?"
"Have learned more about Humans since then. Got lucky with
you, but other Humans are bad guys. Kill. Burn. Steal. Species is
naturally selfish. Naturally ignorant. You are exception. Your lover is
kind of exception."
"Well, I think you might want to give Humans another chance.
There are lots of Humans that are just like me. And the ones you’ve
seen don’t want to fight us in the first place, they’ve been threatened
into it by the Demons."
"If they threatened into become bad guys, they should die as
good guys. Fight Demons and do not become bad to save life.
Always fight bad guys."
"What if their families are being threatened? Should they just let
them die?"
"Yes."
"…Ah."
It seemed like there were some differences in values between
her and the Dryad. Erani suspected she wouldn’t be able to do much
to change them. Besides, at least for now, her having a mistrust of
other Humans was pretty accurate—most of the Humans that they’d
see would be trying to kill them, after all. They’d just have to have a
talk about hostility once they got through Kingdom’s Edge.
Out in the distance, Erani heard a roar. Arlan had said they
should stay away from the edge of the wasteland, since the Dragon’s
movements were so erratic, so she wouldn’t actually be able to see
the Dragon’s attack. But it seemed she’d be able to hear it just fine.
"What is sound?" the Dryad asked after the booming roar of the
Dragon sounded.
"Um, it was probably a Dragon," Erani explained.
"What is ‘Dragon?’"
While Erani described what Dragons were, she observed Arlan
dashing across her vision with his magically enhanced Dexterity. He
seemed to be getting the hang of it, compared to the stumbling and
tripping she’d watched only an hour before.
"So, how’s it going?" she called out to him. It was surprisingly
easy to talk aloud while also messaging the Dryad, once she’d
gotten a bit of practice. Because of the natures of the two types of
communication—one verbal and the other abstract and mental—they
didn’t really get mixed up in her head.
"Better," he breathed in response, smiling in excitement. He had
this unmistakeable smile that he got whenever he acquired a new
Spell or Talent, Erani had noticed. It was pretty cute. "Once I feel
confident with it, I can start casting it on you and you can test it out. I
could also do the Dryad. That way we’re all used to it and I can cast
it on anyone when necessary."
She nodded and Arlan turned to face another Ghoul that’d found
them, dashing off to take care of it. Erani couldn’t help but feel a bit
jealous of his ability to Level up so quickly. With Time Loop, not only
could he kill a monster and then go back and keep the XP, but he
could also afford to take more risks because of his many lives.
To her, him blowing up the barricade had felt like an out-of-
nowhere stroke of luck. But she was sure that from his perspective, it
was a series of discoveries and fights that led to that one moment. It
was bizarre to think about—every day, he effectively lived a few extra
hours that didn’t exist.
She glanced back at the Dryad, who was in the process of using
her finger to help a line of ants walk across a small hole in the
ground. Was it really okay for them to keep Arlan’s Time Loop ability
from her? As far as Erani was concerned, the Dryad was a part of
their team—at least for now. Even ignoring the fact that it could be
useful to get her opinion on things, it just felt disrespectful to keep
secrets from her.
Suddenly, a message came through from the Dryad. "What you
hiding from me?"
Erani’s eyes widened in surprise and she looked at the Dryad,
who was staring up at her. "Um, what do you mean?"
"You feeling guilty. About telling lies. What lies you telling?"
She blinked. "I don’t—I can’t—um…"
"It is okay. You think it dangerous to tell. Tell me later. When not
dangerous to tell."
"You’re okay with that?"
"Yes. You want to tell me. Can’t for some reason. Reason is
probably good reason. I trust you."
"Oh, well, okay. Thanks for trusting me. I’ll do my best to tell you
whenever I can. I just…have to talk it over first."
"Okay." The Dryad went back to helping ants across the hole.
Erani sighed. She’d have to ask Arlan about telling the Dryad, at
this point. She was close to already knowing, and it seemed like she
was trustworthy, anyway. At the very least, it was worth another
discussion.
Erani turned to where Arlan was. "Hey, do you mind taking a
break so we can talk about…"
She blinked. Where was he? He’d been over there just a moment
ago, fighting that Ghoul. The Ghoul was dead, lying on the ground
with Ray of Frost’s signature icy coat covering it, but Arlan himself
was nowhere to be found.
"Dryad. Our partner is missing. Do you know where he could be?
Are there any enemies in the area?"
The Dryad got up, glancing around cautiously. "Do not know. Not
enough animals around to listen their emotions. Do not see any bad
guys. But could be near."
"C’mon, we need to go find him." Erani started off in the direction
of the Ghoul, peering through the dead trees and looking for Arlan.
The terrain of the wasteland-adjacent forest was relatively flat—at
least, it was less hilly than the forests she knew—but with the few
hills around combined with the still-standing trees and boulders
scattered around, she still didn’t have perfect vision.
Part of her wanted to shout out his name, but that would
obviously be a mistake. If there really were enemies around that’d
captured him, all she’d be doing would be giving away her position.
But then…maybe he’d just gotten lost?
No, if he could, he’d be shouting for help himself. And if she
couldn’t hear him, then he wouldn’t be able to hear her either.
She raised her hand, preparing to cast Firebolt at a moment’s
notice. It was times like these that made her glad to have a
protective option like Angelic Shield. If anything came out at her,
she’d be ready.
But nothing did. It seemed like Arlan had killed off most of the
Ghouls in the area, taking advantage of his Dexterity-enhancing
Spell, so the eerily quiet forest did nothing to harm her as she
cautiously made her way through.
Thankfully, Arlan’s slaughtering of the Ghouls also helped her
track him. Due to the abundance of corpses, she could find one,
move to the nearest vantage point on top of a rock or hill, and find
the next, following the path that he’d traveled.
It only took a few minutes before Erani saw something moving.
Her eyes widened when she saw what it was. It was a person, tied
up with their hands behind their back, lying face-first on the ground.
She couldn’t technically see who it was because of the angle she
was viewing from, but who else could it be?
"There!" she mentally exclaimed to the Dryad, who was
searching alongside her, and she rushed forward to free Arlan from
the strip of fabric binding his hands.
But just as she arrived at the clearing, she realized something
wasn’t right. That wasn’t Arlan. It was someone else. Some soldier of
the kingdom that’d been tied up and left there. What was going on
here?
"Trap," she said to the Dryad, slowly backing away and looking
around for the forces that would inevitably come and surround her
now that she was where they’d lured her. "Get away. If they attack
me, flank them. Get behind me, and we’ll pincer the forces in that
specific area to create a hole I can get through. Then⁠—"
"Oh, hey," a voice came. Erani looked over, hand raised and
prepared to blast off a barrage of Firebolts. And she almost did the
moment she saw the figure of a person. But then she realized—it
was Arlan, coming out from hiding behind a tree. He chuckled
nervously. "Don’t shoot, please?"
"What the fuck is going on?" Erani demanded. Why was he out
here? And who was that person tied up next to him?
"Uh, yeah, so, basically" —Arlan cleared his throat—"we have a
prisoner now."
10
MOVE QUICKLY
I SAW him while practicing Expedite.

We were waiting in the dead forest for the Dragon to attack the
wasteland like it’d done before, so while Erani and the Dryad rested,
I went ahead and worked on getting used to my new Spell. After
Ichose it, Erani warned me that most people needed time to get used
to such a massive modification of physical Stats happening in a
single instant like Expedite provided, so I’d have to gradually
increase my tolerance before pulling anything too drastic.
Even with the Spell’s base 20 Dexterity boost, a single cast of it
would more than double my value in the Stat for 30 seconds. That
would absolutely be disorienting. However, it was still Rank 0, and
my Soft Cap was up at Rank 8. So it was about to get a lot higher.
I went ahead and cast the Spell on myself once to test it out.
Threshold reached. Expedite XP has reached 10.

Expedite Rank has increased to 1.
Due to Expedite Rank reaching 1, it has undergone the following
changes:
Mana Cost: From 55 to 56.4
Dexterity Buff: From 20 to 21
Buff Duration: From 30 to 31.5
In an instant, my Dexterity skyrocketed from 15 to 35. My
muscles felt more limber and flexible than they’d ever been, my
reflexes were supernaturally sharpened, and most importantly, my
body could move faster than seemed physically possible.
I tried to raise my hand in front of my face, but massively
overshot, and suddenly my arm was pointed straight up, hand way
above where I wanted it to be. The Dexterity "aiding" my movement
ended up forcing my arm way further along than I’d intended it to be.
Could I even walk like this?
Tentatively, I lifted my leg to try and take a step forward. With
some difficulty, I managed to place it in the right spot on the ground,
which felt like an accomplishment. For a Spell that labeled its effect
as a "buff," it sure did feel crippling.
After a couple more steps, the Spell’s effect wore off, and I had to
re-cast Expedite to refresh it. Slowly, bit by bit, I got more used to the
effects of the heightened Dexterity. It was hard, since as I continued
to practice the Spell, its buff also grew stronger from Ranking up. But
by the time about ten minutes had passed, I’d gotten to the point of
being able to walk without looking like I was an adventurer who’d just
hit it rich after a job and had spent way too much of my new fortune
at the bars.
And, of course, by that time, the Spell had reached the Soft Cap,
too. The Rank 8 notification said this:

changes:
Mana Cost: From 65.4 to 67
Dexterity Buff: From 28.2 to 29.6
Buff Duration: From 42.2 to 44.3
About 50% Dexterity more than it’d started out at, which was
exciting to see. One of the other things that stood out to me was that
Ranking the Spell didn’t just increase its Dexterity buff, it also
increased the duration. It went from lasting only 30 seconds to
lasting close to 45.
So in that sense, it was actually getting cheaper to keep Expedite
active over the course of an entire fight as the Spell Ranked up,
despite its increasing cost. While the Cost went up by the typical 2.5
percent each Rank, the duration went up by 5 percent, meaning that
keeping the Spell active for an extended period of time was
becoming easier and easier as I ranked it. Sure, a single activation
of Expedite was still technically getting more expensive, but it was
exciting to see that I might be able to have it active for entire combat
encounters in the future.
The prospect was also a bit worrying. I’d only just gotten used to
walking while operating under a single cast of the Spell, much less
running or fighting, and much less doing all that while under stacked
Dexterity buffs. I could easily get my Dexterity to over 100, but what
did that matter if I couldn’t even stand while it was up that high?
When Erani had first told me about needing to get used to
increasing my Stats so high, I’d felt like it’d just be a bit of training,
feeling awkward, and then boom—I’d get my super speed. I didn’t
think even she knew how difficult it would be to acclimate. But it
seemed like it’d be a lot harder than that.
First, I just needed to get used to a single cast of Expedite. I
could walk, now I needed to try running. With Exponential Recovery
boosting my Mana/Minute, it was up to 45, meaning I could normally
cast the Spell about every minute and a half. However, I had Light
Plate on, meaning that cost was cut down by 40 percent. So in
reality, I could cast the Spell a bit more than once every minute. With
a 45-second duration, it was almost always on, with only the
occasional 10-second break forcing me to rest. So the practice
wasn’t too slow-going.
Of course, I’d have to delay myself every now and then to kill
Ghouls that wandered near us, but it wasn’t anything my insanely
high Mana/Minute couldn’t handle. When I’d used Time Loop, I’d
gone back to the early morning, but by this point the sun was rising,
so I could still see the Ghouls from relatively far away. I just had to
deal with the sun shining in my eyes whenever I looked in the wrong
direction.
Eventually, I worked up to being able to comfortably jog, and then
run, and then full-on sprint. The sensation was incredible once I got
used to it—my body responded perfectly to every command I sent it,
moving exactly where I wanted it to in a fraction of a second, no
matter how impossible it would normally have been.
When I timed myself running from one tree to the next, with 15
Dexterity it took me about ten seconds. After Expedite, with 45 in the
Stat, it only took me about seven. Going by those numbers, if I cast
the Spell on myself twice, that time could probably move down to
about four or five seconds—double my normal speed! Of course, I’d
have to train myself up to being able to use two stacked at once, but
that time investment was nothing compared to such a massive
boost.
After I was comfortable running, I wanted to try one more test
before moving to two stacked casts of Expedite. I glanced around,
looking for another Ghoul. There was one a bit further off, away from
our camp, so I ran over to it. I got across the long distance to the
monster more quickly than expected, thanks to my new Spell—I was
already loving the benefits of having boosted Dexterity—and
approached the comparably slow monster.
It was technically a bit risky to approach a hostile monster like
this, but a single Ghoul was weak enough to not be much of a threat
—they were mainly difficult to deal with when in large numbers or
when they snuck up on you. So I stood in front of it and let it attack.
I started basic, leaning backwards and falling back on my feet as
it took a swipe at me with its clawed hand. Then it swung again, and
I stepped back again. Ghouls were pretty stupid, so I wouldn’t have
to worry about it memorizing my dodging patterns and trying to fake
me out, or anything. If I kept dodging the same way, it’d keep
attacking the same way.
Once I mastered the basic stepping back, I tried raising my arm
to deflect. Obviously, I had to avoid letting the Ghoul’s claws scratch
the arm I parried with, but with my extra speed and reflexes, that
task was borderline trivial. And the more I practiced against the
Ghoul, the easier it got not only to memorize its methods of attack,
but also to move around in general.
Eventually, once I was comfortable dodging with just one cast of
Expedite, I killed off the Ghoul I was practicing with, and prepared to
start using two. I’d begin with just walking first, of course, and then
move on from there in the same way I’d just done. Hopefully, once I
got used to three or four casts, adding on one more every now and
then wouldn’t feel like as much of a shift, and I wouldn’t have to
practice as much before doing it.
But just as I prepared myself to stack two Expedites on myself, I
saw a glimmer of movement to my left, away from our camp. I
glanced over, but didn’t see anything. There weren’t any animals out
here, so close to the wasteland—it was all Ghouls and ash. So if
something was moving, it was probably a Ghoul. Wouldn’t be a good
idea to let one of those sneak up on me. But where had it gone?
I walked over, brows furrowed, while I examined the nearby area
to try and find the stray monster. The shallow layer of ash was kicked
up as I walked, my glowing white armor reflecting light off the tiny
particles of dirt floating through the air.
I thought I’d seen that movement around here, behind this fallen
tree, but when I looked behind it, nothing was there. Sure, Ghouls
knew how to set up a basic sneak attack, but they weren’t that good
at hiding. There was no way one could have gotten from here to
some other place completely undetected.
But…
I looked at the ground. There were footprints in the ash. And
these weren’t the shambling footprints of dragging feet—
characteristic of the Ghouls. No, they were obviously Humanoid. And
when I looked around, I saw a dead Ghoul lying on the ground. It
had an arrow in its back.
Someone was here with me.
I followed the footprints with my eyes, trying to see where this
person went while also keeping a sharp eye out for any sudden
movement nearby. The footprints came from one direction, stopped
and shuffled around behind that log, turned and moved away, and
then…stopped. Right in the middle of the ashy barren, they just
stopped.
I slowly made my way toward that stopping point, hands out and
ready to fire magic. Had they teleported away? Used a flight Spell?
Hells, they could’ve just climbed a tree, or something. Where had
they⁠—
And then the person appeared in front of me.
Invisibility! They’d been using invisibility to stay hidden while
standing in those exact footprints, and now they’d reappeared. The
man wore basic leather armor and had a bow strapped to his back,
alongside a quiver of arrows on his side. His face looked terrified.
Instantly, he stood and ran while I cast Crippling Chill on him.
You have cursed Level 9 Ranger with Crippling Chill. For the
next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina
each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
Level 9 Ranger, huh. Rangers got Dexterity as their focus Stat,

so unfortunately he wouldn’t be as easy to paralyze as the other
Humans I’d fought had been. But the Crippling Chill still slowed him,
and I could also hit him with a Ray of Frost. I raised my hand as he
took off running, and I chased after him, using my newly acquired
Expedite to keep up with his Stat advantage. I kept it to just one
boost from Expedite, though.
I shot off my Ray of Frost directly at his head, but just as the
beam should’ve collided with his head, he flashed and moved a pace
over to the side. A short-range teleport? Even he seemed a bit
caught off guard when it happened, stumbling and trying to catch his
footing as the ground beneath him changed into what was on his
side. But even then, it didn’t seem like he was completely surprised
by the short-range teleportation, since he quickly recovered and
continued sprinting away from me.
Even with my boosted Dexterity, he still barely had the upper
hand in speed—I didn’t know if that came from him having a higher
Dexterity score, or him being more used to having a high value in the
Stat, or from him just being more physically athletic than me, but
whatever the reason, he was putting more and more distance
between us as we ran.
I shot off more Rays of Frost, but each time I did, he seemed to
vanish from the Spell’s path and reappear just a hair to the side,
making the Spell miss. And now he didn’t seem to stumble at all
when it happened, fully expecting the small teleports. Must’ve been a
Talent, or something. I didn’t know a whole lot about Rangers,
unfortunately.
Nevertheless, it didn’t seem like those Rays of Frost were doing
much. And the Ranger was outside the ten-pace range needed to
activate Gravity Well.
But I still had another option.
I cast Expedite once more, increasing my Dexterity to 74.
Instantly, I shot forward, my legs carrying me much further than I’d
expected. With each step, I pushed myself off the ground and
through the air, twice as far as I’d normally go. My senses were even
sharper. I could see the individual creases and folds of the man’s
brown leather armor, and the pores in his pale skin. I could hear the
soft crunch of footsteps on the ashy dirt. I could⁠—
Oh, fuck.
I fell face-first into the gray ground, tumbling at high speeds as I
flailed my body in an uncoordinated mess. Yeah, I obviously couldn’t
sprint at top speed with two casts of Expedite yet. But still, just as I
hit the ground, that last boost of speed got me barely within ten
paces of my enemy, and I cast Gravity Well on him.
He’d clearly gotten complacent with whatever that short-range
teleportation ability was, and was completely taken aback by his
weight suddenly increasing by over 50%. That on top of his already-
drained Dexterity caused him to collapse to the ground right beside
me.
I hurriedly got to my feet, making sure to keep Gravity Well active
on my enemy, and leapt on top of the flattened man. Really, he
wasn’t much older than I was, I saw as he looked into my eyes with
complete terror. Just what did the kingdom tell this guy I’d done?
I flipped him around and forced his hands behind his back while
he struggled to get out from under my body. Thankfully, not only did
his Strength score seem to be below mine, but his arms were
obviously less developed, too, his muscles not matching those of a
trained Swordsman.
"Listen, kid." I knelt on his arms, which were now tucked behind
his back. "I need you to tell me what you know. I don’t want to hurt
you. Or anyone. But you need to tell me why you’re out here, how
you found me, and if there are others. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t be
the first person I’ve killed in the last twenty-four hours."
He whimpered below me, but didn’t speak. I had no experience
interrogating people. Should I have been more aggressive and
intimidating? Less? I really didn’t⁠—
Fuck! He disappeared again. Was it another teleport? I glanced
around and⁠—
Wait, no. I could feel him—he was still underneath my knee. He’d
just gone invisible again. I activated Noxious Grasp, and he gasped
in pain as the Spell quickly drained his likely low Health away. His
invisibility turned off, and I shut off Noxious Grasp, too.
"Yeah, don’t pull shit like that," I said. I was still on edge. Was I
led into a trap? Were there more enemies around? Maybe I just
should’ve run off. If I could get to Erani and the Dryad, I’d be a lot
safer, but that’d mean just letting this guy go.
I glanced down at the man’s hands, which were still shifting while
he tried to slip out from under my body’s weight. On both hands, all
five of his fingers were wearing silver rings. Ten total. I reached down
and slipped them all off, putting them into my pocket. Probably
magical, and I definitely didn’t want him pulling any Enchanted gear
shenanigans here.
"What’s your Health at?" I asked.
No response.
"I’m asking you that because I’m about to hit you for some
damage, and don’t want to kill you. If you don’t tell me, I’ll just attack
at full force."
"E-eighteen," he finally said. His voice was high and hollow,
shaking alongside his body.
"Hm." He was probably lying to try and get me to go easy on him,
but I really didn’t want to kill him in the case that he wasn’t. He
seemed innocent enough, and definitely held valuable information I
could use. I lifted my knee and stood, and immediately, the man
attempted to scramble to his feet and flee.
But then I raised my foot and stomped his head back into the dirt,
his nose cracking from being shoved into the ground. I got a
notification that I’d dealt 12 damage. Maybe his Health really was
that low—the hit wouldn’t have broken his nose if it was much higher,
at least. Crippling Chill had worn off by now, so as long as I didn’t hit
him any more, he’d survive.
I reached down, tore a strip of fabric from his shirt, and used it to
tie his flailing arms back down behind his back.
"Okay, buddy, no more escape attempts," I said to him. "Now
you’re going to answer some questions."
11
INTERROGATION
I STOOD in front of my prisoner, a man lying on his stomach with a

strip of fabric tying his arms behind his back.
"Are you ready to start talking?" I asked, looking down at him.
He rustled around, but didn’t answer. Probably checking his
Health to see how much more punishment he could take. Or thinking
about trying to escape. Or activating some communication Spell.
"If you don’t answer in ten seconds, I’m going to kill you," I said in
the most threatening tone I could muster. I couldn’t give him time.
"Y-yes, I can talk," he finally said.
"Good. Are there any others around here?"
"No, no. Just me."
"Hm." I glanced around. He could’ve been lying. I walked a bit
further away from him—taking care to ensure he was always in my
sight—checking around trees and rocks and inside bushes to try and
see if there were any more invisible enemies around here. Nobody, it
seemed like.
But just as I thought that, I heard movement. Footsteps, and
rustling bushes. My head snapped in that direction, but nobody was
in vision yet, so I hid behind a tree. I’d use the prisoner as bait—
they’d run up to free him, and that would be when I’d strike. As
carefully as I could, I peered around the side of the tree to see how
many enemies there were. Two figures, a Human and a⁠—
Wait. It was Erani and the Dryad. I walked out from my hiding
place, hands up to ensure they wouldn’t attack the moment they saw
me—they were both obviously on guard.
"Oh, hey," I called out. "Don’t shoot, please?"
"What the fuck is going on?" Erani asked, gesturing wildly to our
surroundings.
"Uh, yeah, so, basically" —I coughed—"we have a prisoner now."
"What?! How? Where’d he come from? Are we in danger?"
"No idea on all three of those questions," I said.
"Do I kill bad guy?" the Dryad asked me.
"Probably not. As long as he doesn’t try to escape, don’t attack
him."
"Why keeping bad guy alive? Kill bad guys."
"We might be able to get information from him. About the other
bad guys. So we need to keep him alive. That way he can tell us."
The Dryad furrowed her brows at that, obviously pondering that
as a possibility. Seemed like Dryads normally operated on more of a
"kill first, ask questions later" philosophy. Made sense, since they
couldn’t normally ask their enemies questions in the first place.
"I found this guy watching me while I practiced," I said to Erani,
who was glaring at the prisoner with caution. "He’d turned invisible.
Probably a scout, or something. He told me he’s willing to talk, but
who knows if he’ll be honest."
"I’ll tell the truth, I swear!" he called back to us. "Please don’t kill
me!"
"If I see a single person come over here," I called back to him,
"the first thing I’m doing is taking away the last of your Health. Do not
call for reinforcements. If you do, you’re only killing yourself."
Erani pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. "Are we actually
killing him? I know we have to kill to survive sometimes, but this…"
"We at least need him to think we’ll kill him," I responded. "He’s
already too low on Health to survive much more damage. So that’s
pretty much the only threat we have left. If people come…who
knows. It’d probably be good to get rid of an easy combatant in the
first place when the fight starts. We let them free him, and we just
have another person to fight."
I glanced over and saw him with his head angled in an odd way,
like he was trying to turn his ear directly toward us. Shit. I knew he
had a high Dexterity—that Stat enhanced senses. It was possible he
could hear our whispering.
"Yeah, we’re definitely letting him go if he gives us the information
we want. If he doesn’t talk, or calls people in, we just need to get rid
of him."
Then I messaged the Dryad. "Tell Erani that the prisoner can
hear us talk aloud, and she needs to agree with what I just said to
make sure he’s afraid enough to talk."
A moment passed, and then Erani spoke. "Yeah, that makes
sense."
I took a breath, then turned to the man and started walking
toward him. He shivered as I approached. Once I got close, I
crouched down at his head, looking him in the eye. "Hey, kid. What’s
your name?"
"N-Nantuth."
"Okay. Listen, Nantuth. I won’t hurt you as long as you help me. I
need you to tell me what you know. Got that?"
"Yeah, yeah, I promise I’ll talk. I’m really low on Health, though,
so don’t⁠—"
"Why were you out here?" I interrupted. I was still tensely
glancing at our surroundings. At the very least, I needed to get the
basic information as soon as possible.
"To spy on you. Get information. The leader said⁠—"
"Who’s the leader? Are they near?"
"Some Demon. And no, it isn’t near here—I’ve never even seen
it. But King Koinkar was talking about what it wanted us to do. Said
that if we take this final stand and kill you, the Demons’ll leave us
alone for good. And they’ll help us rebuild, and give us enough food
and shelter to help everyone they’d displaced. Plus they’d offer their
forces to help us defend our borders, since so many people died or
fled during the invasion."
Yeah, that was bullshit. I had no idea whether it was the king who
was lying or the Demons, but I highly doubted that the Demons
would help out the kingdom that much. Even if they killed me, they’d
have no reason to try and repair relations with this place afterward—
they’d obviously shown how easily they could destroy the kingdom if
they wanted to. And it wasn’t like they had empathy for us Humans.
It was just a hollow incentive for the soldiers to kill me.
The man—Nantuth—watched me stare at him while I thought
about this. "P-please don’t take my soul," he stuttered out.
I was suddenly yanked out of my thoughts by his words. "What?"
"I-I don’t know much, but I promise I can be useful if you leave
me alive. Just, please, don’t take my soul if you do kill me."
"Since when could I take fucking souls?" I squinted. "What does
that even mean?"
"B-but the Demons said you could. That’s why they’re here, right?
You took some souls from them, and now they’re trying to get their
property back. A-and if you kill us, you’ll take our souls, too, to make
yourself more powerful."
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, speechless. Seemed like the
Demons had done more than just make false promises to get the
Humans to fight on their side. "I…no. That’s not what happened. I
just fought some Demon that left the Underworld, and now they’re
after me because I killed their friend, or something. It’s nothing like
that."
He just stared at me, obviously only half-convinced.
But I wasn’t here to argue, so I just continued. "Okay. So, this
Demon leader wanted you to follow me and get info. How much have
you reported back to them?"
"Just some basic stuff about your direction of movement, so far.
But I’m just one person. We have a rotation of scouts to come in and
trail you. This is my second shift, but there are a bunch of them."
"How many people have gone before you?"
"I don’t know. But, but I have gotten some basic information from
the last ones that followed you. I think they’ve been doing this since
you got through that barrier they set up."
Shit. I scowled. How much could they have gotten about me?
Probably eavesdropped on our conversations, but what else? They
at least knew about Ethereal Armor and its effects, but maybe we
could keep Expedite hidden from them? We could feed them bad
intel, as long as we knew when and where the scouts were. "How
long have you personally been trailing me?"
"An hour. I was supposed to take care of you for as long as you
were in this part of the forest. Someone else would take over once
you got into the wasteland."
I nodded, then had an idea. "Good. You told the truth, for the
most part. We were aware of the scouts, and you repeated what we
already knew. If you’d have lied, we would’ve killed you. Keep it up
for a bit longer, and we’ll let you go."
He paled, then nodded shakily.
I got a message from the Dryad. "Your lover says question, ‘that
to scare prisoner?’"
Not a perfect translation, but I got what Erani had probably
asked. "Yeah, just a lie to make sure he stays honest."
"Where do you report to?" Erani asked. "Do you teleport, or
travel?"
"Teleport," he said. "We’re supposed to use Message Paper to
talk to someone back at base, and they take us in. So, so I don’t
know how to get there. Honest."
I frowned. "Message Paper? Do you have that on you?"
"Uh, yes. In my pocket."
I instantly dug through his pockets and felt it. Must’ve missed it
during my previous search, since it was such a small item. The
paper was a small piece with a tiny scrap of charcoal to draw on it.
I’d heard about the stuff before—mark on this one, and another one
that’d been paired with it would get the same markings. "This is the
only way you can communicate with your base?"
"Yes, yes, that’s it. I promise."
I nodded, pocketing the paper.
"Back in that base you get teleported into, did you see your
surroundings? Any identifiable landmarks?" Erani continued her line
of questioning.
"No, we stayed in a single room to report before being taken back
to the kingdom with another teleportation. No windows or anything."
"Who’d you report to?"
"One of those big Demons. They all look alike."
"And that was the only person in the room with you?"
"Yeah. I swear, I have no idea where it is."
"What were the surroundings like? Temperature, humidity,
anything."
"It-it’s cold, and feels hard to breathe. Like we’re high up."
I frowned. The mountains?
"Do you know anything about their plans?" I asked. "What they’re
setting up, what type of questions they ask you."
"They-they asked me to pay real careful attention to what
direction you’re going, and how close you are to Kingdom’s Edge.
Whether you changed directions, talked about changing directions,
things like that. The other stuff seems normal. How many times you
Leveled up, how many monsters you killed, that sort of thing."
I nodded. Seemed like they were planning on setting up some
sort of trap. Could they have been the ones to send the Dragon on
that rampage? Maybe they convinced it to attack us, or something.
I sighed. We’d need to ask this guy as many questions as we
could. Probably wouldn’t get another opportunity like this to get
information about our enemies.
After a while of questioning and confirming, asking the same

questions again later to make sure he didn’t contradict himself, and
ensuring he couldn’t escape, I felt like we finally had a good amount
of information.
We ended up pulling his shirt over his head and sending him off,
away from the area I’d caught him and to some other random part of
the wilderness. That way if he did call for help, they wouldn’t know
exactly where he was. We took some other safety measures, like
searching him even more thoroughly multiple times for any sort of
Enchanted items he might’ve had alongside those ten rings.
We also made him cast one of his spells over and over again
until he couldn’t every few minutes to ensure his Mana was
consistently drained. He had something that made a bow shot fly
faster and straighter, so we just had him shoot a specific spot way off
in the distance with it to ensure he cast it without hurting anybody.
And we took care to ensure he was as restrained as possible while
he held his bow to do this.
Unfortunately, as a Ranger, he was what was considered a
Mixed-Type Class. That meant he had some Spells, but also some
Martial Arts and other things. So even with a totally drained Mana
pool, he could still use Stamina to activate other abilities. That was
how he’d done that weird short-range teleporting thing that let him
dodge my Rays of Frost while I chased him—it was a Passive
Martial Art that drained Stamina to instantly avoid any damaging
Spell projectiles that would’ve hit him.
But thanks to my build, his Stamina was already significantly
drained. And since Stamina regenerated much more slowly than
Mana, we were in the clear for a while, in that aspect.
We moved him periodically throughout our interrogation—
especially every time we had him empty his Mana, since he had to
see to be able to do that—but eventually we got it done, and got
pretty much all the information we could out of him.
We’d all but confirmed that whatever the Demons were doing, it
had a lot to do with setting up some sort of trap in Kingdom’s Edge.
They asked their scouts to make sure they listened to every last
word we said whenever we talked about travel plans, and to even
record our exact word-for-word conversations in a notebook they
had. It was really creepy reading through Nantuth’s notes—seeing
my exact conversations with Erani, recorded in a notebook that even
included things like my inflection when speaking, and how many
seconds our pauses lasted.
Some other stuff felt notable, too. It seemed like the kingdom had
fallen to its last legs because of the Demon invasion and the amount
of resources they kept spending to fight us. Tons of people had fled
—especially anyone with a halfway-decent Level—and there were
riots and protests in just about every major city. A couple smaller
villages had even been slaughtered when they decided to stop
providing food to the kingdom as form of protest. But even that didn’t
stop more from following in their footsteps.
It was nice to see that the general population disliked the
Demons, at least. I’d pretty much only ever seen the people hunting
me, which were probably the ones that believed their lies—or at
least, the ones that thought the best course of action to get rid of the
Demons was to just kill me. It made sense, in a twisted way—it’d be
easier to kill one man than fight off the Underworld’s forces.
But still, it was worrying to see just how much the kingdom was
spending to kill me. Really, it was an almost suicidal amount. I hadn’t
tried on the rings the scout had—they could’ve been trapped—but
Nantuth said that all ten of them were invisibility rings. That was how
he could stay hidden for so long—he didn’t have any sort of Spell or
Talent that could do that. They could all turn someone invisible for
thirty seconds as a one-time use ability, and afterward they’d go inert
and lose their Enchantment permanently. And apparently every
single scout got ten of them to watch over me with.
They were committing countless soldiers to their different
projects. I hadn’t really thought about it, but that barricade they’d set
up—it spanned multiple days’ travel of land. And every single section
of it was manned by dozens of Humans and hundreds of landmines.
Those things were expensive to make. Not only that, but they’d also
burned a massive portion of the forest to push me into it. Swaths of
land, villages and towns burned to the ground, farmland scorched.
The entire kingdom had taken a toll from that maneuver.
And now they were committing even more to this? The ten rings
in my hand—at least, the ones that weren’t used up already—would
be worth at least ten silver. Each. And they were giving every scout
ten of them? Not to mention that they were apparently setting up
another ambush for us in the mountains. They were instituting drafts,
buying so much Enchanted gear that they’d resorted to sending out
scavenging parties to find more gear on the corpses of dead
adventurers in the forest, and selling their already-limited food stocks
to fund their military.
The kingdom was killing itself. It turned out that every single
nearby country had completely cut off all trade with them, and
refused to even consider helping them after what’d happened. I
mean, it made sense that these countries would want to turtle up,
focus on defending themselves in case the Demons attacked them
next, and try not to provoke the Underworld, but still. The fact that
they’d even cut off trade showed just how much confidence the rest
of the world had in the future of this place.
In the end, though, there wasn’t too much else that Nantuth knew
that could help us in our current situation. Seemed like the Demons
knew to keep their scouts on a need-to-know basis, since they were
the ones most vulnerable to being captured and interrogated. But we
still got information, which was helpful.
I turned to Erani after we moved him to a new stretch of forest for
the last time. "So, got any more questions?"
"No. And we should probably get out of here soon. Even if he
didn’t contact anyone, people will notice when he doesn’t turn up
when he’s supposed to. Dragon should be gone, anyway, so we just
need to go."
I nodded. "So…what do we do with him?"
"I-I thought you said you’d let me go," the prisoner said. "P-
please don’t kill me."
I really didn’t want to kill him. He’d been nothing but helpful—
even somewhat sympathetic to our plight, after some time. He’d
apparently been forced into the military because of a draft that’d
gone out, so he didn’t want to be in this situation. But if he got back
to his base, he could still tell the enemy what he’d told us. Hells,
they’d probably torture it out of him even if he decided to help us and
keep it all secret. And if they knew what we knew, our intel would
become useless. They’d just change their plans.
"Why you not talking anymore," the Dryad asked.
"We’re done asking him questions," I responded. "Just trying to
figure out what to do with him, and then we can go."
We could throw him into the forest without his gear. That way he
wouldn’t be able to communicate with the enemies until he got to
them physically, and it’d take him a while to get to them to do so.
That’d probably give us enough time to get away and fight through
their ambush without them knowing what we knew. But then, he’d
probably just die out here and it’d be the same thing as executing
him. We could take his stuff and throw him into some nearby village,
but first we’d have to find one, which would be dangerous, and he’d
probably be able to find some way to contact people in there. It was
hard to find a solution that worked.
There was the possibility of taking him along with us, I thought.
He didn’t exactly seem eager to help the Demons, so I didn’t think
he’d try to sabotage us and run back to them. Hells, some of his
abilities seemed pretty useful in a fight. Maybe he could help us out
at points.
I turned to Erani to ask her what she was thinking, but then I
heard a sudden noise and a flash of movement to my left, and the
man’s head fell from his neck.
He’d been decapitated.
The Dryad lowered her whip, which was now stained in blood.
There was a moment of pause, before I realized what’d just
happened.
"What the fuck did you just do?!" I demanded.
She looked at me innocently, tilting her head as though she had
no idea why I was even asking her that. "This is bad guy. Bad guy
not useful anymore. So should die. So killed bad guy."
12
MURDER
ERANI and I stood in front of the decapitated corpse of our prisoner,

Nantuth. Next to us stood the Dryad, who had just killed him. Blood
oozed from the body’s neck, saturating into the ashen ground and
turning it a dark, slimy red.
I looked down at the sight, sickened. Sure, we’d killed people
before—I’d killed, myself, back in the explosion at the barricade—but
this man was innocent. He was cooperative. I heard Erani gasp and
turn away.
"Why would you do that?" I asked the Dryad in as calm a manner
as I could.
She frowned at me. "Thought you were okay with killing bad
guys. This was bad guy, am correct?"
"Well, yes, he was on the bad guys’ team. But we didn’t have to
kill him. He wasn’t even against us—he just helped us by giving
away information. Wasn’t trying to hurt us in any way. We can’t just
kill people for the fun of it."
"How does it hurt us if kill him?" the Dryad asked.
"It doesn’t hurt us. It hurts him. That’s the point."
"If killing bad guys only hurts bad guys, will not stop killing bad
guys."
Was she seriously refusing to apologize? And not only that, but it
didn’t seem like she had any intention of stopping, either. "Okay,
listen. Believe what you want to believe, but you can’t just kill people
like that without even asking us first. We could’ve found a better way
to deal with him that didn’t end in him dying."
"Bad guy dying was the purpose. If asked you first, you would
say no. So did not ask."
"I…what?" She didn’t ask because she knew we’d say no if she
did? How did that even make sense?
"Can you talk to her about this?" I turned to Erani, who was still
turned away from the gory sight. An innocent man, killed just like
that.
She nodded and closed her eyes, presumably to focus on
communicating with the Dryad. While they did that, I guided them
both away from the scene, holding Erani’s hand so she wouldn’t trip
while walking blind. Ignoring the fact that it was just unpleasant to
look at, the corpse would also inevitably attract Ghouls with their
strong sense of smell, so it would be smart to get away from there.
Besides, at the end of the day, we had no idea if that man had
been transmitting his location somehow while we interrogated him,
so we needed to leave just in case enemies were on their way. The
Dragon had done its rampage, anyway—we’d heard its roars while
we interrogated Nantuth—so we knew it’d be safe to enter the
wasteland.
While the two talked telepathically, I was left in my own thoughts.
The shock of watching a man unexpectedly die in front of me had
worn off, and logic was starting to kick in a bit more. At the end of the
day, we hadn’t really had a way to deal with the man without killing
him. Even if he didn’t want to hurt us, his existence would do us
harm all the same. So it wasn’t like I didn’t understand where the
Dryad was coming from.
But still, it didn’t even seem like she was doing it because we
didn’t have another choice. She’d labeled him as a "bad guy" so he
needed to die. Even if we’d had a perfect way of keeping him alive, I
suspected she wouldn’t have cared. And, most important of all, we
couldn’t let her get away with just killing people for no reason,
especially without even consulting anyone.
What if she saw some random traveler who wanted to help us
and decided to kill them? What about once we got through
Kingdom’s Edge, to the Barinruth Empire? Regardless of what was
the right decision in this specific case, she needed to understand
that we disagreed there.
After a few minutes, Erani opened her eyes. "I couldn’t get
through to her. Seems pretty set in her ways."
"But why? What’s the point of even killing him? Did she just want
to avoid compromising our location by leaving him alive?"
"No, no," Erani sighed. "I asked. Nothing like that. She just wants
to kill all the ‘bad guys.’ Doesn’t think they deserve to live."
"But he wasn’t doing anything wrong," I argued. "He was forced
into service because of the draft. Did you explain that to her?"
"She and I have already had a conversation about this," Erani
sighed. "She doesn’t care about any of that. Said that if someone
was forced into service, they should just let themself be killed instead
of becoming a ‘bad guy.’"
I didn’t know what to say, so instead I just shook my head.
"What should we do?" Erani asked.
"What do you mean?"
"About her. I mean, like, what should we do now that she’s just
killed someone innocent? And wants to do it again?"
"What can we do? Kill her? Lock her up in prison? At the end of
the day, we need her on our side. She’s too valuable an asset to give
up. We’d have died without her multiple times over, by now. After we
get through Kingdom’s Edge, though…who knows. We’ll see where
she’s at. Maybe then we can give her to the authorities, I don’t
know."
"She’s just a kid, Arlan. If anything, she needs proper guidance,
not to be killed."
"I didn’t say we’d kill her, just give her to the government. They’d
figure it out."
"And do you really think they’d do anything other than kill her? At
best, she’d be sold into slavery for some noble. But she’d probably
just be slaughtered for XP. It’s either she stays with us, or she dies at
the hands of some other Humans. I know you know that’s it."
"She could also just go back to living in the wilderness," I
suggested.
"Somewhere she doesn’t know at all? She wouldn’t even be in
the same country anymore, much less a territory she’d recognize."
Erani sighed. "I can’t just abandon her, whether that means certain
death for her or not. I mean, yes, she’s clearly misguided⁠—"
"A murdering psychopath, more like."
"Don’t call her that!" Erani frowned at me, and I could tell she was
genuinely angry.
"I—okay," I sighed. I really was being too hard on her, especially
after she did something that just boiled down to her trying to help.
"I’m sorry. I know she’s a child. And she hasn’t really interacted with
Humans before—at least not in any sort of healthy light. She
definitely could benefit from some moral lessons. But, I mean, how
would we even do that? She’s not Human, herself. Is it even possible
for her to feel true empathy for us?"
"I don’t know. But we have to try. I want to travel with someone
eager to kill innocents as little as you do, but I’d rather we actually try
to fix the problem, rather than just throw it away. It’s like you said.
She didn’t make any sort of choice to be thrown into the life she’s
currently living. She was given the same options these innocent
soldiers were—start fighting or die. And so, really, isn’t she just as
innocent as they were? She had to learn violence, to learn to never
trust another Human, to learn to kill on sight, and refuse to
acknowledge the lives she was taking as anything other than
worthless. Because if she didn’t, she’d be killed. She was just as
forced into this as anyone else was. We can’t judge her for learning
the way she did. But we can help her view the world in a less black-
and-white way."
I sighed. "Fine, yeah, you’re right. What should we do to teach
her, though? I mean, what should we even say?"
Erani didn’t immediately answer that. Instead, we just kept
walking and thinking for a while, the only sounds in the barren forest
our tattered shoes crunching against the dry, gray dirt.
"You are not mad anymore?" I got a sudden message from the
Dryad, startling me. It was always a bit creepy to be reminded that
she could tell my exact emotional state and attitude toward her at all
times.
"Um, no. I’m not mad at you anymore. I still don’t want you to do
what you did, though."
"You do not want to hurt me?"
"No, I don’t want to hurt you. I do want you to not harm or kill
people for no reason, though. I get that sometimes, leaving people
alive will harm us. But other times, we may be able to find a way to
keep someone alive. We can make allies and encourage people to
help us, since we helped them. At the very least, ask before doing
something like that. What you did back there wasn’t okay. There
wasn’t any reason to kill him, and you shouldn’t just do that for no
reason."
"But did have a reason. Was killing a bad guy."
"Well, maybe we don’t have to kill every bad guy. Maybe we can
leave the ones that don’t want to hurt us alive."
There was a pause, and I could tell the Dryad was taking a
moment to think. After a bit, she messaged me once again, "but you
do that."
I blinked. "What?"
"You kill when no reason. Kill things that do not want to hurt."
"W-what? When?" I’d taken care to not kill people unnecessarily.
The only time I may have gone against that was when we’d blown up
the barricade. But those people definitely did want to kill me—I’d
experienced their murderous intent firsthand—and I needed to do
that to prevent myself from getting overpowered by our enemies in
the future, anyway.
"Constantly. Kill animals, wildlife, that does not want to hurt you.
Do it all the time."
Oh. "Well, that’s different."
"How?" She seemed like she was genuinely curious.
"First off, I don’t just kill animals for no reason. We have to eat
somehow, so⁠—"
"You can eat Human, too. So killing Human was not bad."
I blinked. Cannibalism was an entire other jar of worms that I was
not ready to get into with her. "Okay, but I also do it for XP. If we
don’t get stronger, we’ll die."
"I get XP from killing Human. So that also makes killing Human
not bad."
I sighed and shook my head. I just wasn’t getting through to her.
"Listen. Killing something intelligent like that just isn’t okay. Humans
are intelligent, and so are some other species. Like, I saved you from
the Demons back when we’d first met—that was because you were
intelligent. And⁠—"
"What is ‘intelligent?’"
"Oh, intelligence is, like, how smart something is. Its ability to
solve problems, communicate, build a better life for itself, that sort of
thing."
"No. Not what is ‘intelligence’ definition. What do you think is
‘intelligent?’"
"What?" I wasn’t sure what she was asking.
"How do you decide what is ‘intelligent?’ What makes Human
intelligent, but not Wood Wraith? Or Anacap? All creatures are
intelligent, in own way. Just because cannot communicate with you
does not mean not intelligent. Just because hold different values
from you does not mean not intelligent. Just because want to kill you
does not mean not intelligent. You save me because I was nice, did
not hurt you. I know that is why. Your emotions say so."
"I—listen. Not all animals are intelligent. Some are just objectively
dumb. A worm, for example, just doesn’t have the breadth of thought
that a Human does."
"You do not know. You do not know what thinks, and what does
not. Some animals do not think like Humans, and those you say are
dumb. Worms can make tunnel, keep track of location, navigate
underground better than Humans ever can. You only think I am
intelligent because I think like Human. Because I give gift like
Humans do. Because I am social like Humans are. But animals that
are smart but not social, or that are social but not gift-givers, can all
be intelligent."
"What, so you think I should just stop killing anything ever? That
every single life, down to the smallest insect, is just as precious as
that of a Human?"
"No."
"Well, then what are you saying?" I demanded angrily.
"You can kill animals when want to. All animals kill animals. But
you must let me kill Humans when want to. Everything kills
something. I kill Humans."
"I just—listen. I don’t want you to kill Humans. I don’t care if you
think it’s reasonable for you to do, I don’t like it."
"You don’t like because you are also Human. That is okay. Will
stop doing it in front of you. Because you are ally. Care about you,
and do not want to hurt you. But if you care about me, you let me kill
Humans."
I shook my head. "Killing things mindlessly is no way to live. Just
murdering people for the sake of murdering—taking lives, people
with families, and people who care about them—you can’t just keep
doing that."
"Why can’t keep doing that?"
"You just—it’s meaningless! It’s violence for violence’s sake.
When all you do is kill, that just makes you a husk of a thing. You’re
barely even alive. If you want to get stronger so you can protect
yourself, or to protect others, or just because you want to get
revenge on the person who actually made the decision to do this to
you, fine. I’d fully agree with you, actually. But you’re killing people
who barely have anything to do with this. Why would you want to
define yourself by your enemies? By the things you hate? Why not
try to live for the things you love, instead?"
"Do not have anything that I love. Was all taken from me."
A chill went down my spine, and for once, I genuinely didn’t think
I could respond.
"Bad guys killed everyone I love. Killed all animals I love. Killed
mother. Killed forest. Killed landscape. Killed home. Killed all
surroundings. Killed everything I knew. I hate them. Why can not live
for that? Why you kill my hate, too?"
I looked over at her, and saw tears running down her cheeks.
White fluid leaking from white eyes. I struggled to think of something
to say. "I-I didn’t⁠—"
"If hate meaningless, I meaningless. My life meaningless.
Everything else gone."
"No, no, you’re not meaningless. I’m sorry." I grabbed her and
pulled her into what I hoped felt like a fatherly embrace, her wet
tears staining my forehead. I don’t think she even noticed me doing
it, she didn’t react to my touch. But still, I didn’t know what else to do.
Really, what could I even say to that? I’d been so caught up with my
own feelings and desires, I’d forgotten to consider what she’d really
gone through in all this.
It was at that point that Erani noticed what was going on. "Oh
gods, what happened? Arlan, what did you say?"
The Dryad pushed me away, simply continuing to sob on her
own. Erani looked back and forth between us, eyes wide, as the
Dryad leaned against a tree and wiped her eyes with her arm.
I just watched the Dryad cry, speaking to Erani without looking at
her. "I don’t think we can convince her to stop killing people."
"Why?!" Erani demanded.
"Because if we did, we’d be taking away the only thing she has
left."
13
THROUGH THE ASHES
AFTER SOME TIME, we arrived back at the wasteland proper. I’d

explained to Erani what’d happened with the Dryad, but neither of us
had the courage to speak with her ever since she’d broken down. I
didn’t even know what I could say if I did talk to her. Sorry for calling
your life meaningless? Sorry for saying everything you’re working for
is worthless? How could I even word something like that? And how
could I do it without condoning her continued murder of people?
I’d be fine if it was just the Demons, but…could I really just stand
by and watch her murder innocents? Even if I was okay with that,
blatantly telling her it was fine to just do whatever she wanted
without asking didn’t seem like it’d promote teamwork.
At the end of the day, I had no idea. And it didn’t seem like the
Dryad wanted to talk about it, anyway, considering she hadn’t said
anything to either of us.
So we just walked back into the wasteland, ready to take on the
familiar challenges ahead of us. With my much faster Mana/Minute, I
could easily handle the Ghouls without needing the Dryad’s help,
which was good, since she didn’t even try to kill a single monster—
she didn’t even seem to notice them, simply trudging along with
hollow eyes.
We avoided the Mountain Troll caves like normal, too. I may have
powered up a decent bit thanks to my new Spell and Talent, but I still
wasn’t sure if it’d be worth it to go intentionally provoking one of
those guys. I only had one more use of Time Loop for the day, and it
was only barely past noon by now. It wouldn’t do me any good to go
getting into frivolous fights now. Maybe later on, when it was closer
to midnight, I could try. But not now.
While we walked, a jingling in my pocket reminded me of the ten
silver rings I’d confiscated from Nantuth—supposedly one-time-use
rings that could grant invisibility. He said that some of them had
already been used up, but there were probably a few that hadn’t
been. So I took them out of my pocket and examined them.
They looked hastily made, with their bumpy, uneven edges and
cheap-looking forge work; even if I was only ever a manual laborer
for a forgemaster back in my old village, I still knew shoddy
craftsmanship when I saw it. It made sense that they weren’t very
high-quality, though. If they were as mass-produced as Nantuth
made it sound, there wouldn’t be enough time for anyone to actually
care about what they were making.
"Those the invisibility rings?" Erani asked, glancing over to the
ten trinkets held in my palm.
"Yeah," I said. "Bit hesitant to try wearing them, though. There’s a
possibility they could be trapped and inflict a curse or something
when we put them on."
"The scout was wearing them though, right?"
"Yeah, I guess, but still. There’s always a possibility. Maybe it isn’t
a curse that harms you, but just one that transmits your location or
something."
"Hm. I guess that makes sense. So will we ever even try using
them? Maybe we could just save them for an especially dire
situation, or something."
"I mean, I was thinking I’d just hang onto them until I’m about to
activate Time Loop, then I can put them on, see what they do, and
go back without facing the consequences if they are trapped."
"Oh. Right. Damn, I keep forgetting that the stuff you experience
with Time Loop…actually happens. Like, you don’t just have some
random piece of knowledge beamed into your head. You can
actually plan around using it and take actions with the knowledge
that your timeline isn’t going to continue."
"Yeah," I laughed. She’d said something along those lines a few
times before, back in some of those doomed timelines. Really, it was
starting to get a bit scary, with how much I had to watch her relive
the same conversations with me. She’d told me not to tell her about
that, but I was starting to think I should.
But either way, now wasn’t the time. For now, we needed to just
get through this wasteland.
So we simply marched across the empty field, with me earning a

small bit of XP from the Ghouls as we did—20 here, 30 there—as
the sun continued to drift along the sky. I realized during our march
that I’d gotten a bit too used to moving in the forests. The natural
cover from enemy sight lines was nice, but the true natural cover I
realized I’d been unknowingly enjoying was the shade. Out here,
with nothing above but sky, the sun beat down on us relentlessly.
And it seemed like Ethereal Armor did nothing to truly protect
against the sun. The Light Plate I was wearing visually covered my
skin, sure, and it even seemed to create some sort of darkening
effect on my body underneath the armor, but whatever it was doing,
it wasn’t creating actual shade.
I really had no idea how the intricacies of it all worked, since
when I activated Noxious Grasp while wearing it, I noticed that the
smoke seeping from my skin did, indeed, only ever pour from the
cracks in the armor or from the hole left for my face. It didn’t pass
straight through the armor as though it were intangible. However, it
also seemed like the armor didn’t trap heat inside—at least, I didn’t
feel any hotter when wearing it—so somehow it was stopping the
smoke from getting through, but heat could pass through the glowing
armor as though it was nothing.
Regardless, the point was that it was hot. The mountains of
Kingdom’s Edge were still far away—maybe a day or two’s walk—
but I was already considering climbing one of those things once we
got there, just so I could feel the cool air of the snowy peaks.
Speaking of the snowy peaks, the Dragon that we’d gone back to
avoid in the first place was still around, resting itself atop one of
them. It hadn’t been living there back when I’d first seen it come by,
but now it didn’t seem to want to budge, flying into some sort of cave
in the side of the mountain and staying there for the hours that we
moved. I had a feeling it was so it could keep an eye on whatever
was in the valley.
Though considering what we’d heard from the interrogation, I had
a feeling I knew what was there. The Dragon happened to be
attacking the only pass through Kingdom’s Edge that was located
even remotely nearby, and I doubted that whatever was there was
there by accident.
But we’d just have to deal with that once we got there. For now,
we needed to worry about actually getting to Kingdom’s Edge first.
Then we could see whatever trap the Demons had set for us, and
plan accordingly.
I tried to keep my eye out for any more scouts—even if they were
invisible, they’d still kick up the ash covering the ground and leave
footprints—but didn’t ever see anything to suggest there were any of
them nearby. Maybe they got scared after one of them failed to
return, and stopped sending them out. I hoped that was the case
instead of the other possibility—that they just developed some other
method of trailing us completely unseen.
One exciting thing did happen while we traveled, though, and
was the main thing lifting my spirits.
Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 461.

Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 11.
Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 11, it has undergone the
following changes:
Mana Cost: From 4.7 to 4.82
Health Drain: From 16.2 to 17
Stamina Drain: From 8.15 to 8.56
I finally got Noxious Grasp to Rank up! Really, the change to the
Spell itself was numerically small, but the real thing wasn’t the
increase in damage per second brought about by this single Rank, it
was the fact that I’d gotten it to Rank up at all. In just a few hours, I’d
earned over a full third of the 460 Spell XP requirement for Rank 11.
With the combination of Exponential Reclamation’s Mana/Minute
multiplying effect and Light Plate’s Spell discount, Ranking my Spells
had become much, much faster. To an insane degree. The next
Rank’s requirement was 623—normally something that would take
weeks, if not months, to reach without waiting for my Soft Cap to
catch up. But now? I wouldn’t be surprised if I earned it by the time I
woke up tomorrow.
Another thing that put me in a good mood was the fact that the
Necrotized debuff from back when we’d first fought those Ghouls
had finally worn off. It was just a minus 2 to my physical Stats, but
that weakening effect really began to grate on me after some time,
and getting rid of it was just a weight lifted from my shoulders. I could
tell why the wasteland wasn’t a place I’d heard of many adventurers
going into for XP.
Normally, a place like this would be free real estate to come in
and clear out to Level up and maybe even push the kingdom’s
borders a bit further out. But out here, when a single misstep in a
fight didn’t just mean some damage and a scratch, but also several
Stats taken away for a full twenty-four hours, it was much more
dangerous.
Suddenly, no matter how much Health you had, a couple dozen
hits would also mean a massive debuff to you, even if it only really
took away a small portion of your resources. After all, most Classes
—even the Melee-Types—had at least one physical Stat that
wouldn’t get as much focus as the others, and if that Stat started to
approach 0, you’d be in pretty big trouble. Much more reasonable to
just avoid those types of monsters than to completely reconstruct
your strategy when Leveling.
Thankfully, though, my own Stat debuff effects were what
protected us from the Ghouls. With Crippling Chill and Ray of Frost,
none of them got close to us. Erani took out a solid portion of them
with her Explosive Firebolts too, of course. And we didn’t need to
worry about the Mountain Trolls as long as we kept away from them.
So we traveled as such. I practiced Noxious Grasp with my spare
Mana—which was a lot, with my excessive Mana/Minute—and led
us on as we walked, with the Dryad still apathetically marching along
with us.
It was once the sun started to set that I got worried that I’d truly hurt
the Dryad. She was still wordless, and Erani and I both began to
realize this wasn’t just something she’d need time for. I’d thought that
maybe, since she didn’t really like me to begin with, she’d just brush
it off, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. The Dryad was
normally pretty talkative with Erani, and even she hadn’t gotten
anything.
It was getting dark, to the point where we’d probably need to set
up camp for the night in a few hours. And I really didn’t want to just
leave things the way they were with her.
"Hey," I ended up saying to the Dryad. "I’m sorry."
She looked over at me, seeming surprised at my sudden
message. She was obviously still upset, but at least she wasn’t
crying anymore. "What?"
"I’m sorry. For saying all those things I said before. It was really
insensitive of me. I know that you’re struggling right now, and I
should’ve realized that things may not be as simple for you as they
are for me. It was really shitty of me to do."
She paused, before saying, "Oh. That is okay. You are not bad
guy. Just reminded me of bad guys."
"Well, yeah, but still. I said some hurtful stuff. You…I don’t agree
with what you’re doing. I really don’t think it’s okay to kill a Human for
no reason. And I don’t think I ever will. But I also understand that, to
you, it just isn’t like that. But…can you promise me something?"
"What?"
"Please don’t kill anyone who isn’t related to this. It’s one thing to
kill combatants, or people working for the Demons. I don’t think you
should kill them if you can avoid it, but at the end of the day, I can’t
really control you. But if someone isn’t even working for them, just let
them live. Okay?"
She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "Will only kill
bad guys. That is acceptable trade."
I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding in. That went a
bit better than expected. At least she didn’t fight me on that point.
Hopefully, as time passed, she could learn to hold a bit more
empathy for Humans, and maybe then she’d avoid killing
unnecessarily. But for now, we needed to work with her regardless.
After another few hours, it was completely dark outside. I got another
exciting notification.
Threshold reached. Ray of Frost XP has reached 130.

Ray of Frost Rank has increased to 9.
Due to Ray of Frost Rank reaching 9, it has undergone the
following changes:
Mana Cost: From 24.4 to 25
Damage: From 59.1 to 62.1
Dexterity Debuff: From 7.4 to 7.77
With a new Ray of Frost Rank on top of my Rank in Noxious

Grasp, I was feeling more confident than ever. And I hadn’t even
been practicing Ray of Frost—that was just from my passive use
while fighting off the Ghouls. The next Rank was 10, so I’d need 355
XP to get it there—and I wouldn’t even reap the rewards until I got a
Cold or Curse Spell Crystal for it. But the extra boost in numbers was
absolutely welcome.
Under skies clear of clouds and trees to block the pale light of the
moon, our eyesight wasn’t entirely compromised, but we were all
tired anyway after the long day, so we decided we should go ahead
and set up camp.
I wouldn’t go to sleep just yet, though. I still had one more use of
Time Loop I didn’t want to waste. But with the couple hours left I had
before it refreshed, I wouldn’t use it just yet. Instead, I’d wait until it
was getting close to midnight, and then I’d go out and fight a
Mountain Troll or something to get some XP before bed.
But first I’d just help everyone set up camp while I waited. Out in
the wasteland, things were a bit more complicated than normal—we
could use a basic watch system to keep us from getting overtaken by
Ghouls, but out in the dusty, rocky mess, we couldn’t really sleep.
Well, the Dryad could sleep just fine, of course, but Erani and I
couldn’t.
So we took some time to clear the thick layer of ash coating the
dry, hard ground in a circular area around us, and then used our own
bundled up clothes to make a makeshift sleeping mat and pillow. The
thin layers of fabric weren’t much, of course, but it still helped. We
were effectively sleeping in our underwear, too, but with the hot air
and sweat covering my back, getting rid of those layers was a
welcome change.
Still, it was a bit awkward to lie down with Erani half-naked,
especially considering the unique sleeping arrangement we needed
to set up in order to effectively practice her Angelic Shield.
Apparently, this would be the last night she needed to practice it
before she got it to Rank 10, so this would probably be the last night
we’d sleep like this, anyway. Still, that didn’t change the amount of
awkwardness I felt doing it. With my arm curled around her body and
so much of my skin touching hers, how could I not feel weird?
I wasn’t trying to fall asleep, instead staying up to go fight
something later in the night—and also to stay on watch—but we still
needed to keep in contact for practice, so I just kept my eyes open
and head up, occasionally reaching up my unoccupied arm to shoot
off Rays of Frost at the approaching Ghouls. They didn’t seem to be
quite as active at night, which was nice. That, or they just thinned out
as we approached Kingdom’s Edge and got closer to the more
dangerous areas that got frequently cleared out during fights
between Dragons.
Erani and the Dryad eventually fell asleep as the minutes passed
by, or at least that was what I thought. After a while of staying up and
killing Ghouls, I heard a voice.
"Hey, Arlan?" It was Erani, speaking sleepily while still lying
down.
"Hey. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping? You’re taking next
watch, you know. Don’t want you dozing off when you’re supposed to
be protecting us."
"Can’t sleep," she yawned.
"Hm, yeah. I guess even compared to sleeping on the dirt,
sleeping out here on hard stone would be worse."
She nodded wordlessly, then said, "Do you think the Dryad will
ever care about us?"
"What?" I blinked. "What do you mean by that?"
"When you talked to her before, she said that everything she
loved and cared about had been killed. So she doesn’t have
anything left but things to hate. Does that mean she hates us?"
"No, no, I don’t think so. Maybe… Well, she just hasn’t known us
for long. Maybe she just feels apathetic."
I heard her sigh, still facing away from me as she lay on the
ground. "Is it weird of me to feel like that’s worse?"
I pursed my lips. "No, maybe not. But I doubt she’ll stay apathetic
for long. I mean, you’re obviously a caring person. She probably just
needs time to process all of this, right?"
"I guess," she groaned, and she shifted around in her makeshift
bed.
A few minutes passed, and she didn’t say anything else. I
supposed she’d drifted off to sleep once again. It was obvious that
this whole Dryad situation was eating her up inside, and it made me
feel even worse for being the catalyst. Though maybe the Dryad had
always felt that way, and I was just the one to bring it to light.
Anyway, enough time had passed that it was nearing midnight—
around 11:30, by now. So it was time to go find a worthy opponent.
Normally, I’d have asked Erani and the Dryad to come along with
me, but this time I wanted to do it on my own. After the massive
upgrade I’d gotten, I wanted to see exactly what I could do, without
any interference. One of those trolls had almost killed me
beforehand, and I could only beat it because of how much Erani and
the Dryad had weakened it beforehand—and I’d sustained severe
injuries anyway. Now, it was time to see how I shaped up with a new
Talent and Spell.
It was time for a rematch.
14
WELCOME TO THE OUTLAWS: SPECTATING
ERANI WAS WOKEN up by Arlan in the middle of the night. For a

moment, she was confused, but then she remembered she was
supposed to take over watch for the next shift here. And then she
remembered he was also planning on going out to kill some
Mountain Troll to test out his abilities. It was certainly a…choice.
Well, really, it was technically completely riskless for him to fight
the thing, since he had another use of Time Loop that’d be wasted at
midnight if he didn’t use it. So she supposed it made sense. Still, it
felt absolutely insane for her to just sit back and watch him march off
to fight something stronger than him for absolutely no reason. Again,
it technically made sense for him to practice fighting on his own while
he had an opportunity to see combat while facing no real
consequences for his mistakes, but she couldn’t help wanting to yell
at him to come back here and go to sleep, just out of instinct.
Instead, she just settled on sleepily muttering, "Good luck. Don’t
die."
"Yeah. Well, really, I’m fine if I only die once. It’s if I die twice that
I get in trouble."
"Oh, right. Well in that case, be sure to only die after you’ve killed
it and gotten the XP. Then feel free to die and come back, I guess."
"Yeah," he laughed. "I’ll do my best."
And with that, he walked off. In the dark night, the main thing
allowing Erani to see was the glow of Arlan’s Light Plate, but now
that he was walking away, the camp was cast in darkness, with him
taking her source of sight along with him.
She’d mentioned it to him before, but the Dark Plate really did
make him look pretty scary. He didn’t realize it, since he was the one
always wearing it, but the way it was decorated, with the deep-black
coloring that literally sucked the light from the sky and the sharp
edges, it just made him look like something that walked out of the
deepest hell.
Sure, the intimidating edges and small spikes lining armor
wouldn’t do anything themselves—the only person able to touch or
use either Light Plate or Dark Plate seemed to be Arlan—but that
didn’t mean they didn’t still make him look freaky. Add in the fact that
Dark Plate had a full face covering, and he barely even looked
Human when he had it on. Secretly, Erani hoped that whatever Rank
10 Upgrade the Spell got would only make the Light Plate portion
stronger, and not the Dark Plate. She really just didn’t like looking at
it.
But for now, she wouldn’t have to worry about it. With the almost
half-off discount Light Plate offered, it was the obviously correct
choice. Sure, when up against something insane like a Dragon that
could kill someone at their Levels in a single hit, donning the Dark
Plate would be useful, but in the closer matches like the one he was
about to find himself in, Light Plate was just better.
So she watched as her literal knight in shining armor departed,
off to slay the evil beast. Of course, this was an "evil" beast only in
the way that it was just some wild monster minding its own business,
and he wasn’t really a "knight" if he was literally being hunted down
by the entire kingdom he lived in, but she still felt like the armor
made him seem heroic, at least.
The brightness of the Light Plate let Erani see Arlan even from far
away, so she spectated as he walked off a few hundred paces,
stopping near a cave that housed one of those Mountain Trolls.
Erani hadn’t seen one before, but from Arlan’s description, they were
apparently pretty scary. And with that super-speed ability, she would
hate to find herself up against one of them. She was pretty much
only effective when fighting at a range, so for something to be able to
so easily close that gap, its build would pretty much hard-counter
hers. Luckily, Arlan had clearly built his own set of abilities to be able
to handle close combat quite well.
She watched as he seemed to take a moment to set himself,
preparing for the fight as he stared into the glowing red eyes of the
cave. A man in glowing armor against a red-eyed beast lurking in the
dark, the gentle wind blowing dust and ash around them—the scene
looked like something she’d see in a storybook. But here she was,
watching in person.
Then, in a flash, the beast attacked. It leapt out of its cave,
lunging straight at Arlan. But he moved quickly—probably boosted
with Expedite—and stepped back and to the side, completely
dodging the monster’s attack. At the same time, he lifted his hand
with pinpoint accuracy to shoot off a multitude of Rays of Frost at the
monster. It was still just a silhouette in the dark night to Erani, but
she could still see the bright blue rays impact it, causing the Troll to
roar in rage and charge again.
This time, Arlan let it get to him and take a swing without him
dodging, and it was only then that Erani could actually see the
monster’s features in the bright light of his armor. It was big—that
much she could tell by its silhouette—and misshapen. Lumps
covered its body, and she couldn’t tell if they were asymmetric
muscles, massive tumors, or just the way its body was naturally
shaped. And, of course, its face, twisted in anger, was just ugly. Its
eyeballs were somehow too big while its actual irises and pupils
were too small, its nose was wide and long, and its cheeks sagged
and flapped in the wind like there was too much skin on its face.
But none of those features seemed to prevent it from fighting. It
swung with deadly speed at Arlan’s torso, and seemed like it would
easily bat him away, but before the hit could land, something
happened to the Troll. It lurched and its already-ugly face twisted in
confusion and pain, and its speeding arm suddenly slowed and lost
its accuracy. After fighting alongside Arlan for so long, Erani well
knew what those effects were—he’d probably used Crippling Chill or
activated Gravity Well. Or both at the same time.
Either way, its previously deadly strike was suddenly a complete
joke to dodge, and Arlan, seemingly out of pride or maybe just to
show off to Erani, who he no doubt knew was watching him fight,
opted to dodge by leaping straight over the Troll’s fist, landing on its
hand with his arms out as if asking for applause. The moment the
boots of his Light Plate touched the Troll, it reared back in pain—
he’d probably used Noxious Grasp to deal some damage while he
touched it—and he leapt back off.
The Mountain Troll, obviously furious with Arlan at this point, took
a breath and just looked at him for a moment. Arlan seemed to
realize what this meant, whatever it was, and prepared himself to
defend against a deadly attack. And then the Troll’s eyes glinted, its
red eyes shining in what Erani could immediately tell was magical
brightness.
And then it disappeared.
Or at least Erani thought it disappeared. In an instant, it moved
from its own position to right in front of Arlan in an incredible burst of
speed, leaning forward and opening its jaws in an attempt to chomp
its enemy’s head clean off. But Arlan ducked, also moving much
more quickly than what should’ve been possible, and rushed forward
between the Troll’s legs. He dragged his hand across its body as he
dashed, no doubt using Noxious Grasp, and ended up behind it,
reaching up to fire off a couple more Rays of Frost as it turned
around to face him.
In another burst of speed, it rushed forward and swiped, but this
time Arlan leapt back, apparently not seeing a good opportunity to
get off a few moments of Noxious Grasp there. He held up a hand
and shot off yet another Ray of Frost, though.
It stepped up for another attack, reaching out both arms as far as
they could go to try and grab him and—oh! Suddenly, it was on the
ground, pushed downward by an invisible force the moment it offset
its center of gravity by reaching out so far. But Arlan didn’t utilize this
moment to attack the Troll. No, instead, he just backed away and
watched as it pushed itself back off the ground.
It was obvious what he was doing here—buying time. The longer
this fight went on, the higher his chances of winning. Normally for
Magic-Types, this worked in the opposite way. For example, Erani’s
maximum Mana was around 1200, meaning she could fire off about
twenty-four total Firebolts in a fight. So if combat went on too long,
she’d have to ration those shots out more and more. Sure, natural
Mana regeneration might allow her to use one more every now and
then, but in true combat, that bit of Mana wouldn’t come quickly
enough.
And as Magic-Types Leveled up and increased their
Mana/Minute, so too did they Rank up their Spells and increase their
costs, keeping that relationship between Mana regeneration and
number of Spells able to be cast pretty steady. In fact, often it’d work
out that Magic-Types would have to wait even longer to regenerate
enough Mana to cast their Spells again as they Leveled up. Since
Mana/Minute increased in a linear fashion with Level-ups, but the
Mana cost of Spells increased exponentially, the higher-Level
someone was, the more time they’d need to prepare for a fight they’d
have to go all-out in.
But for Arlan, that common knowledge was turned on its head.
His absurd Mana/Minute meant that if he could just get a fight to last
long enough, he’d win every time. Before, trying to outlast an
opponent would mean almost exclusively using Noxious Grasp to
ration out his Mana for the maximum amount of effect, but now he
didn’t need to do that. Sure, he wouldn’t be able to use his Spells
constantly, but he’d be able to cast Rays of Frost, keep his Crippling
Chills active, and even occasionally utilize the expensive Gravity
Well to fight off his opponent and slow them down, making the fight
last even longer.
In short, his Spells all focused on making a fight last longer, and
now Arlan’s Talent would allow him to cast more Spells the longer a
fight lasted. It was a vicious cycle of fucking with his opponent. And
quite honestly, Erani was a bit scared of it. Even without much
information, he’d managed to build himself up to be nigh-
unstoppable in combats that were even remotely fairly-matched.
Unless he was completely outnumbered or his opponent was
quintuple his Level, he had the potential to dominate a fight.
So when she watched him calmly back away as the enraged Troll
stood up and charged once again, she had nothing but confidence
that he’d end up killing it. Maybe not instantly, but he had the
inevitability here. His build countered the Troll’s, he was already in a
better spot in terms of resources, and he was probably a lot smarter
than the thing, on top of all that.
It swung again, and he dodged and shot another Ray of Frost,
and then it tried stomping on him, only to lose its balance and fall,
most likely because of Crippling Chill’s Dexterity drain. And then,
after a few seconds passed and it got back to its feet, obviously tired
and injured, it got another Ray of Frost to the face, reawakening its
anger and causing it to charge once again.
She realized Arlan wasn’t just controlling the flow of the fight, he
was even controlling the monster’s emotions, getting it angry
whenever he had the resources to fight it off, and knocking it down to
demoralize it whenever he was low on Mana and needed some time
to regenerate. It was almost like watching a professional dancer, the
way he commanded complete control of the entire battlefield.
And the longer he fought, the more and more tired his opponent
got. He was finding more moments he could tap his hand against it
to refresh Venomous Grasp, which of course got the monster even
more tired, making it even easier to touch with Venomous Grasp.
It took at least five or ten minutes, but to Erani, the fight was over
before the first thirty seconds had passed. The Troll just hadn’t
known it’d lost yet. But eventually, the beast collapsed, and Arlan
came walking back over to Erani. His face shined both in obvious
excitement and from the glow of his armor.
"Did you see that?!" He laughed once he got back to the camp
and plopped down next to her. "That shit was awesome! I totally
fucked it up! Only took a few scratches, and it’s fuckin’ dead!"
"Yep, very impressive." She smiled. She couldn’t help but grin
alongside him after seeing his enthusiasm.
"Got a bit over 700 XP, too," he said.
"Wait, 700?" she asked. That was way more than she was
expecting.
"Yeah, yeah, it was lower-Leveled than the last one we fought, so
not quite as much."
"No, 700 sounds like way too much!"
"Well, I killed it twice. Time Loop."
"Oh, right." She normally knew that he’d activated it recently
because she’d be standing right next to him, but he must’ve gone
back to when he was already away from her and out ready to face
the monster. Or maybe it was when she was still asleep, or
something. "Well still, that’s amazing!"
"All in a day’s work," he sighed, and he lay back down with a
sarcastic smile.
"Dumbass." Erani rolled her eyes.
"If I’m so dumb, how did I kill a Mountain Troll single-handedly?"
"Time travel," she laughed. "Now go to bed. I don’t want to have
to delay because you’re tired and wanna sleep for five more
minutes."
"Fine, fine," he said, and he closed his eyes. "Let me know if
anything goes wrong while you’re on watch."
"Mhm." Erani nodded and scanned the area, looking for Ghouls.
She’d try to keep them from picking apart the Mountain Troll corpse
too much, too, so that they could eat it in the morning. She’d become
surprisingly accustomed to eating raw monster meat over the days,
so it took a while for her to remember that the prospect of eating it
would probably be considered completely disgusting to the average
person. Or, really, that it’d been disgusting to her back before the
invasion. Maybe Arlan’s mannerisms had rubbed off on her more
than she’d realized.
But they needed the nutrition and energy. With the mountain
range ahead and the ambush that likely lay in wait for them in it,
tomorrow would be a big day for them.
15
ENTER THE EDGE

following changes:
Health Drain: From 17 to 17.85
I WOKE up to this notification announcing the new Rank I’d gotten

for Noxious Grasp. My work had paid off!
I’d done the math with my Mana/Minute, and realized that if I
didn’t have Light Plate active all night, I wouldn’t end up getting
enough Spell XP to Rank it up by morning. Now, it really wouldn’t
matter too much if I had to wait a bit longer to Rank it up, but, well, I
just didn’t want to. If it was possible for me to Rank up overnight, I
wanted to do it.
So I decided to establish a system with Erani and the Dryad.
While each of them were on watch, whenever they saw my Light
Plate disappear, they’d come over to wake me up, I’d reactivate the
Spell, put it back on, and go back to sleep.
Now, did I sleep well when I had to wake up every hour to put on
plate armor? No. But was it worth it for the new Spell Rank?
Debatably. I certainly felt like it was worth it, at least. It may not have
been completely sustainable to do this every night, but at least for
now, I was willing to make the sacrifice of comfort for the sake of an
additional Spell Rank.
When I got up and Erani saw the bags under my eyes, though,
she seemed to disagree.
"I told you that was a bad idea," she scolded.
"Still worth it," I muttered, then yawned.
"You got your Rank-up?"
"Yeah. Next costs 844."
She nodded knowingly. "Prices really increase as you go on. But
with your build, I have a feeling that won’t be as much of a problem
for you. At least, not for a while."
I nodded. With these fast-coming Spell Ranks, Noxious Grasp’s
effectiveness would only go up more. At this point, I was enjoying the
effects of Venomous Grasp more than the damage, so the additional
Ranks weren’t too impactful, but the additional Stamina drain was a
huge help. Plus, getting closer to that Rank 20 Upgrade was
something I highly looked forward to.
Another thing I was looking forward to was my next Level. After
that fight with the Mountain Troll, I’d gotten myself up to 1199 XP, out
of the required 1300. Just from passively killing the Ghouls as we
went, I was confident I could Level up today.
Level 16 didn’t inherently include anything important—nothing
like a Spell or Talent Choice—but it still did have two things I was
excited for. First, the extra points in Conjuration I’d get each Level
would be much, much more impactful now that I had Exponential
Reclamation to boost their effectiveness. So even getting those
would end up being a pretty massive boon. The second…
Well, I wasn’t sure if I was excited or nervous.
When I’d gotten my last Intelligence information rank—back when
I hit 16 Intelligence—I didn’t actually get any new information.
Instead, I’d gotten something strange.
Intelligence threshold reached. 16 Intelligence.
Your Intelligence Information Rank has increased.
Due to increasing your Intelligence information rank, you have been
granted the following benefits:
- Trailblazer Title has begun collecting data on holder.
All future thoughts, decisions, actions, emotions, and
movements will be logged.
- Logged data will be used as Intelligence Information
Rank increases further.
That was what it’d said. Currently, my Intelligence was at 19. And
next Level, I’d get one more, and it’d go up to 20. Since it seemed
like I got a new rank every 4 points of Intelligence, I’d get something
new then. And judging by the way that was worded, it’d have
something to do with the — "‘logged data" the Title had been
collecting on me. Who knew what that’d mean.
So we went ahead and ate "breakfast"—that is, the Mountain
Troll I killed the night before. Fortunately, the protection offered by
Endurance also extended to protecting one from diseases and food
poisoning, so for me, eating it wasn’t a problem. As for Erani, who
had a lower Endurance, we just made sure she ate all the good parts
from the inside that seemed safest. Even with the base 10 she had
in the Stat, she should’ve been protected from the basic stuff.
The Dryad had been the one to take the last shift for watch, so
she was already completely awake, ready to keep moving. She still
wasn’t very talkative—at least, not with me—but I could tell from her
body language alone that she was eager to head out. I just hoped
her restlessness wasn’t due to a thirst to kill more people.
No, I chided myself, don’t think like that.
Whether or not the Dryad could tell when I thought about her that
way, it was just shitty of me. I understood her feelings a bit more,
now. And specifically, I understood that it wasn’t as simple as her just
wanting to kill people for the sake of killing them. Thinking of her as
some bloodthirsty monster wasn’t going to help anything—showing
compassion to her would.
"Hey," I said as gently as I could to her, "are you ready to go?"
"Yes," she responded curtly.
So we headed out. It’d take some time for her to warm up to
Humans, but hopefully it’d happen eventually. For now, I just needed
to make sure we kept moving toward the ever-approaching mountain
range of Kingdom’s Edge.
A couple hours passed, and the Ghouls in the area continued to thin
out as we got closer and closer to the mountains. At this point, they
were towering over us, and I could actually see the entrance to the
main valley pass. There was only one pass through the mountains
that was even remotely nearby, carved through by some unknown
Classer hundreds of years ago. Whoever they were, they’d probably
done it to try and allow travel through Kingdom’s Edge.
Unfortunately, the monsters around here made that still a pretty
unattractive prospect to most.
Despite the lower Ghoul numbers, I was still able to kill a few as
we traveled, getting me closer and closer to my anticipated 1300 XP
mark. I could go and take massive detours to kill every single
monster I saw, but that’d only slow us down, and I still wasn’t sure
what type of ambush the Demons were setting up for us. Hopefully, if
we got there quickly enough, they wouldn’t have time to fully set it
up.
I also wasn’t sure about going out to kill more Mountain Trolls.
Ironically, Erani was the one to suggest I do so while we traveled,
and I was the one who shot her down because it was too risky.
When she first suggested it, I thought she’d lost her mind. But then I
realized what things must’ve looked like from her perspective.
The first time I fought that Mountain Troll last night, I only barely
eked out a victory. It was great practice, but hard, and I even almost
died a couple times. Sure, I ended up killing it, but I was left with low
Health and Mana and a few injuries. Then, once I fought it the
second time, I knew the fight, knew my enemy, and beat it easily.
But Erani only saw the second time, so to her I probably looked
like some badass warrior soloing such a massive monster. But in
reality, I’d probably need to use Time Loop any time I went up
against one of those things if I wanted to take it down without
sustaining major harm and draining all my resources. So I definitely
couldn’t be pulling that while we traveled.
My XP was slowly increasing, though, as I killed the straggler
Ghouls that stumbled out into the area. At this point, I’d probably just
need to kill one more to get my next Level, so I kept my eyes out for
any that got close.
But as we walked, we eventually approached the base of the
mountain range. The ground was no longer spotted with caves here
—the Mountain Trolls, ironically, didn’t seem to make their homes in
the mountains—but there were still some Ghouls up ahead. This
valley was the only way through that wouldn’t take us climbing up
and over the mountains themselves, so if we wanted to get through
without exposing ourselves to the elements and harsh monsters of
the peaks, we’d have to walk through this single path.
It winded and curved between the bases of the massive hills, to
the point where, standing at its entrance, I couldn’t see very far
ahead. We’d have to stay alert as we moved to ensure we wouldn’t
get ambushed. Fortunately, I still had two uses of Time Loop at my
disposal, so it wouldn’t be bad if we did, but I didn’t want to waste
them if at all possible.
"You ready to go in?" I asked Erani.
"Not much of any other choice, is there?"
"Guess not." I glanced upward at the mountain peak that seemed
to house the Dragon that’d attacked us in the past. I couldn’t see
well, especially from my current angle, but from what I could tell, it
was still up there. At least, I didn’t see it flying around anywhere else.
"Let’s just keep an eye out for anything that could cause us
problems."
She nodded, and we continued walking.
Kingdom’s Edge was famous for housing Dragons, of course, but
those weren’t the only monsters that lived there. Occasionally,
Ghouls would wander in from the wasteland, as I’d already seen, but
there were also Drakes that lived in the lower parts of the mountains,
taking refuge from the much more powerful Dragons, and there were
Lava Slugs that would lie in wait in the sporadic shrubbery for
something to brush by them, when they’d latch onto you and suck
out your blood until you ran dry.
Apparently, the Dragons and Drakes were big enough that they
didn’t even notice when a Lava Slug or two latched onto them—and
the Ghouls didn’t have any blood to begin with—but to a Human, the
sensation would feel like fire in your veins, hence the name. But as
long as you avoided brushing up against the trees and bushes that
occasionally cropped up along the mountains, you could avoid them.
So it was with caution that we made our way through the winding
path—watching out for both the Demons and the rest of the
monsters that made their habitat here.
The first fifteen or twenty minutes passed uneventfully. I saw a

couple Ghouls here and there, shambling up or down the mountain
range, but they were all hundreds of paces away—much too far
away to reasonably go and hunt down. Taking the time to go up
there to kill one, just for a measly 30 XP, would be stupid. Going that
high up could easily make me visible to any enemies that could be
nearby, plus the Drakes and Dragons often made their territories
high in altitude, so to climb a mountain would be like intentionally
provoking them.
Eventually, I’d find a Ghoul down lower for an easy kill.
But as we rounded a corner of the path, winding around a
boulder that’d fallen from a mountain into the valley, I saw something
that immediately took my mind off the topic of Ghouls.
Marching through the valley were a pair of Infernals and a Human
soldier. The Human was a Magic-Type, it seemed, judging by his
conspicuous lack of any melee weapon, and he was obviously
working with the Infernals to do something. Surprisingly, whatever
they were doing didn’t seem to involve hunting for me, as they
marched along without any attempt to search the area for anyone
that may be hiding.
However, they were moving our way, so I silently told the Dryad
about the danger, and asked her to inform Erani that we needed to
move back—I was really enjoying this new method of silent
communication we had.
She seemed to get the message, and we fell back, fleeing from
the boulder I’d glanced around and backtracking along the path until
we hid behind a cliff face a few dozen paces away. From there, I
glanced around as sneakily as I could.
The group turned the corner around that same boulder and
stopped there. The Infernals were standing around doing nothing,
just looking around, but the Human was casting some sort of Spell.
Slowly, as I watched, a perfect rectangle of stone was broken off
from the massive rock, held suspended in the air by magic. I
watched as the Human pointed his finger, and the large brick floated
along, landing in one of the Infernals’ outstretched arms.
Then the Human went back to work, magically breaking off
another slab of stone and floating it into an Infernal’s arms, and kept
going until the entire boulder had been broken away into rectangular
bricks, leaving nothing but pebbles that’d been shaved off by the
Spell. The Infernals’ arms were full by now, each hefting their own
half of the boulder’s worth of material. And then they turned and
walked back the way they came.
I had an urge to attack them now that their backs were turned—
the Infernals obviously had their hands full, the Human probably had
his Mana reserves mostly drained by now, and we could probably
capture one of them if we beat them to interrogate them—but I
ended up deciding against it. We had no idea what kinds of
countermeasures they had, including whether or not they had any
way to communicate back to wherever they were taking those
materials.
So if we attacked and they sent back word, not only would our
location become known, but it could take enough time for the
Demons to send out teams to find us that Time Loop might no longer
be able to get us back to before we made our mistake. If we attacked
them, we’d most likely be forced to use Time Loop right after, no
matter what, to make sure that didn’t happen. And I wasn’t willing to
use up that resource when in such a dangerous area.
"What do you think they needed that for?" I asked Erani once we
were sure the group had left.
"Probably for whatever ambush they’re setting up in here," she
responded. "We know that scout they’d sent out had been returning
to a full building that’d been built in the mountains, so this is probably
construction materials to add on to that."
I pursed my lips. If they were actively building something, that
only meant we needed to move even faster—giving them more time
to finish their construction would only make this harder and harder
on us. "Yeah, seems like it. Let’s keep moving."
But just then, I heard a sound behind me—the growl of a Ghoul. I
instantly whipped around and raised my hand, shooting off a few
Rays of Frost in the direction the sound came from. The monster’s
face froze over as the beams impacted it and my mind was filled with
notifications.
And then⁠—
You have slain Level 9 Ghoul.

You have earned 39 XP. Your XP is 1.31k.
Threshold reached. 1.3k XP.
Dexterity, 1 Conjuration, and 1 Intelligence.
- Soft Cap Rank has increased to 9.
Intelligence threshold reached. 16 Intelligence.
Your Intelligence Information Rank has increased.
Due to increasing your Intelligence information rank, you have been
granted the following benefits:
- You will increase your Intelligence information once
per 8 Intelligence, instead of once per 4.
- You may choose an Intelligence benefit to replace
your current benefits.
I blinked. Well, that first effect wasn’t very much of a "benefit,"

considering it only slowed my progression, but that wasn’t really
what I was focusing on here. My mind was drawn to that second line.
I got to choose one? And it’d replace my current benefits?
So it’d replace my ability to see the names of my future Spell and
Talent Choices, mainly. If it fully replaced that—something which was
absolutely helpful—that meant the new benefits would all have to be
even better than what I currently had.
I looked over to Erani. "Let’s find a place to sit and rest. I need to
meditate."
16
INFORMATION INTAKE
ERANI, the Dryad, and I sat down and took a break so I could
meditate and choose my new Intelligence benefit, whatever that
meant. It really didn’t take long for us to backtrack enough to feel
safe from those rock mining patrols we’d seen earlier, but in my
anticipatory state, it felt like it took forever.
"What do you think your choices are gonna be?" Erani asked me
as we settled down and ensured the surrounding area was safe.
"No clue," I responded. "I mean, the Trailblazer Title says that it’ll
‘improve the information given to you by the System regarding your
Class and what might become of it in the future.’ So presumably all
my choices will continue to do that. It’ll probably just change the way
it gives me that information, or something."
"Well, let me know what choices you get, even if you don’t need
help deciding. I’m pretty curious about what this could be."
I nodded and closed my eyes to meditate. It took a bit longer than
usual because of how curious I was, but eventually I was able to
clear my mind and open up the choice.
Choose one Intelligence benefit to obtain:
Investigate
Once per Choice, you may pick one of the three shown options to
Investigate. Upon Investigating an option, you will be shown the next
Choice you will receive if you choose that option, including your next
options and their full effects.
The depth of the Investigation will increase as you increase your
Intelligence information rank.
Choosing this will replace all current Intelligence information
benefits.
Impulse
You will no longer have specific information, but will gain an
instinctual pull toward certain Choices that the System predicts you
would choose if you had all information about the System.
The pull will become more specific and identifiable the higher your
Intelligence information rank is.
benefits.
Index
You will gain a personal artificial assistant that will help you make
Spell Choices, Talent Choices, Upgrade Choices, and all other
choices. The personal assistant will be fitted to your personality and
history, and will be omniscient to the workings of the System as well
as your personal self.
It will want nothing more but to see you succeed, but its capacity to
help will be limited by your Intelligence information rank.
benefits.
These new benefits were…interesting. For the most part, I didn’t

get to see any exact Spell or Talent effects, it seemed, but rather a
general overview of what each choice would offer me. It was jarring,
going from the exact numerical specificity of Spell and Talent
Choices to this less definitive shot in the dark, but I still had a good
bit to go off of here.
Investigate was specific, at least, but I also wasn’t as big a fan of
it. Being forced to only see a single option’s future wouldn’t offer
much information—what helped in making decisions was being able
to compare my options against each other, and Investigate wouldn’t
allow me to compare anything. If I decided I wanted to pick a certain
option and then Investigated it, only to find that I didn’t like its future
options, could I really go and pick another? What if the others’ future
Choices were just as bad? I wouldn’t be able to know.
As for Impulse and Index, they were much less generous with
what they told me about themselves. They both had something in
common, though, in that they both seemed to be using that "logged"
information that the Talent had been gathering about me. Impulse
straight-up said that it’d predict what I’d choose if I had all the
information and then give me some sort of gut feeling that it was
what I wanted. And Index would give me an assistant that was "fitted
to my personality" to help me.
They both did seem pretty similar in that they could potentially
give me an infinite amount of information, but that vehicle through
which the information was given to me was limited. And the way that
limit worked was what made them distinct from one another.
Impulse could help guide me to the correct choice, but how would
I know when it was guiding me? The description itself said that the
"pull" would become more specific and identifiable as I increased my
rank, but that implied that it’d start out as unspecific and
unidentifiable. Would it be the case that I’d barely ever feel it? Or
that it’d be so vague that I could easily confuse some other natural
feeling for Impulse trying to tell me something? The way it was
worded, it seemed possible that I could feel false positives for that
pulling sensation.
Besides, I wasn’t sure that I liked making decisions totally blind,
only relying on gut instinct. Sure, the System would predict I’d
choose what it would guide me to if I had all the information, but
technically, it’d only begun logging my mind since yesterday. Who
knew how correct it’d be? It could be useful as it got more powerful,
but I didn’t like blindly relying on a vague instinct that’d be shoved
into my head.
And then there was Index. That one seemed pretty strange. What
would it mean to "gain a personal artificial assistant?" Whatever that
thing was, it would apparently have all knowledge about the System,
which would be incredibly helpful. Of course, that was met by the
caveat that its "capacity to help" wouldn’t be infinite. I wasn’t
completely sure how that would work, but I assumed it’d be
something along the lines of me only being able to ask it a few
questions per Choice, or something.
Either way, I liked the sound of this one more than the others.
Since it just let me ask questions and get answers to them, I wouldn’t
have to rely on blind trust in what the System thought was best for
me, like I’d have to do with Impulse. And unlike Investigate, it’d
presumably allow me to ask about multiple options, so I could ask
about the future of the specific Spells or Talents I was interested in
and compare them to each other. I could also ask about specific
ways the different options might work, or how they’d Rank up. And,
unlike Impulse, I could have the information and make the decision
myself.
It seemed my decision here was obvious. But Erani did ask me to
at least read them out to her, so I went ahead and began doing that
while I could still have the Choice pulled up. That way I could get the
exact wording right.
"Hey," I said, keeping my eyes closed. "Did you want to hear
about those options?"
"Sure," I heard Erani say.
"Alright, so—" I was cut off by a noise coming from off in the
distance. A voice.
"No, dude, you shouldn’t use the Mana potion for a healing Spell
to cure your headache," the voice was saying. My eyes shot open
and I looked around as we all got to our feet as silently as we could.
The voices were coming from around a corner, out on the road—
we’d strayed from the path so we could stay hidden. "Boss gave us
those for a reason, there’s no way they’d approve⁠—"
"Hey, wait," another voice cut the first off. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Sounded like someone was talking."
"Well, yeah, ‘course someone was talking. It was me, dumbass."
"No, I’m not talking about—ugh. Just get the Infernals to go
check it out. I don’t wanna get jumped by that fugitive guy. Prefer to
keep my soul inside my body, thank you."
"Hah, you really think he made it out here? I got a silver’s bet that
he doesn’t even make it past the wasteland. Ghouls’ll get him."
"Nah, dude. Have you seen those replications they made of him?
Those fights he had with the Demons, the smoke coming from his
hands, that shit was soul juice or something, man. He’s using the
souls he captured to power his Spells or something, I bet. And the
Nymph thing he’s got with him? The pet? Thing’s ruthless. No way
they’d get taken down by the Ghouls."
"Then the Trolls’ll get them. And if they don’t, those Hellion things
the Demons have stalking the ground near the fort definitely will.
Listen, dude, those replications of his fights, they’re made with
illusions. It’s just what they think happened, based on reports. You
know that shit’s always half made-up. He just got lucky a couple
times. Probably hasn’t even gotten to Level 10 yet."
"I’m just sayin’, I don’t wanna get my soul gobbled up by some
freak."
"Fine, fine, I’ll send the Infernals to go check out the noise."
There was the sound of shuffling and stomping heading toward
us, going off the path and into the gravel and bush—where we were.
But we were already off, doing our best to sneak away through the
thick shrubbery and around the group of soldiers.
"Kill them?" the Dryad asked me, baring her whip.
"No, no, too dangerous. If we kill them, we could give out our
location. We need to escape."
"Don’t like letting bad guys get away."
"I know. But from the looks of it, there’s most likely a whole lot of
them just a bit ahead. Once we find where exactly they are, you’ll be
able to fight them. But for now, we just need to make sure we have
the element of surprise." I kept moving, eager to get away from our
enemies, and the Dryad hesitantly followed. "Thank you for asking,
though. I promise I’ll help you get your revenge."
Luckily, the Infernals were obviously not in a hurry here, as I
could hear them meandering along, lazily checking behind bushes
and rocks as we hurried off, back in the direction of the fort—the
greenery thinned out in the direction back to the wasteland, so we
couldn’t stay hidden if we moved that way.
Once the sound of the searching Demons faded behind us, we
slowed down.
"Okay," I said, "looks like we weren’t safe back there. How far out
do you think those patrols go?"
"No clue," Erani responded. "Seems like it’s pretty far, though."
I nodded. If we wanted to fully escape their sphere of influence,
we’d probably have to flee all the way back out into the wasteland.
"Shit, Drake," Erani said suddenly, looking up at the cliffs behind
me.
Sure enough, I looked up to see a Blue Drake sitting atop one of
the rocky crags to my back, staring curiously down at us. I almost
attacked instantly, but paused when it didn’t move to attack us itself.
"Seems like it isn’t interested in fighting right now."
"Yeah, probably low on Health, or something. Let’s just get back
to the road. Those things can get territorial, and I don’t wanna take
our chances with its forgiveness."
But just as we moved to leave the bushes and head back to the
path, I felt a stabbing pain on my back. Like a red-hot needle
swimming through my veins.
"Ah!" I fell to the ground just as I got a notification.
You have been latched onto by Lava Slug.

You have the following effects:
You lose 10 Health every minute.
"Arlan!" Erani yelped when I fell. "Is it the Drake? An attack?"

"Fucking—agh!" I gasped through the pain. I could barely speak.
"What happening?" the Dryad messaged.
"Lava Slug. My back. Get it off, please!"
I watched as the Dryad glanced over my back, reached down,
grabbed something, and pulled⁠—
Lava Slug has been removed. You no longer have the effects of
Lava Slug latch.
Instantly the pain was lifted, replaced by a dull throb, like my

body remembered what’d just happened.
"Thank you." I sighed as I spoke to the Dryad.
"It was a Lava Slug?" Erani asked, examining the creature in the
Dryad’s hands.
"Yeah." I got to my feet and looked at it, too. The thing was tiny,
not even larger than my index finger, and colored a mix of red and
gold, with orange flecks swirling through its semi-translucent skin.
On its front end were two tiny hooks with pricks of blood coating
them. It must’ve stabbed through my shirt and sunk its teeth in me.
"For something so small, that pest really knows how to fuck you up."
"There’s a reason they’re called Lava Slugs," Erani said.
Then, as if to remind us that it was still there, the Drake growled,
taking a step forward and looming down its rocky home to stare at
us.
"C’mon," I said. "Let’s head out. I don’t think it wants us
lingering."
I relayed the same to the Dryad, and started forward.
As Erani and I left, I watched her turn and gently place the Lava
Slug she’d been holding down on the leaf of a plant. It wriggled and
began moving, slowly crawling down the branch of the bush.
"Don’t just put it back, kill it. It’s a pest." I walked forward and
pinched my fingers around the butt of the Slug.
You have struck Level 0 Lava Slug for 11 damage and drained
Grasp.
3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1022.
You have slain Level 0 Lava Slug.
The Dryad looked at me, seeming a bit confused. "Why kill?"

"Well, you don’t like the bad guys, right? I don’t like monsters that
attack me. As far as I’m concerned, killing something like a Lava
Slug just makes the world a slightly better place."
She tilted her head to the side for a moment, then nodded.
"Understand. You not very different from me."
"Yeah, guess I’m not," I said. "Now, c’mon. We need to get away
from this Drake before it attacks us."
Once we’d finally gotten to a spot that didn’t have patrols of Infernals
roaming around, didn’t have cliff faces for Drakes to guard, and also
didn’t have Lava Slugs crawling onto our backs, we finally sat and
rested. It was a clearing we’d found far enough off the path to not
risk people hearing us talk, but not so far off that we’d need to worry
about monsters. At least we wouldn’t need to worry too much.
"So," I said, "I’m gonna try meditating again. Watch my back?"
"Yeah." Erani nodded. "I’ll keep an eye out."
This time, it didn’t take too long to get back into a state where I
could make changes. I opened up my choice for Trailblazer, and
read out the options to Erani, successfully this time. I also went
ahead and assigned my Stat Points while I was at it, further
increasing Conjuration.

And then, once I was done reading my options to Erani, I took a

breath, and made my choice.
You have obtained the Intelligence benefit Index.

It was time to meet my "personal artificial assistant."
17
MEETING ALLIES
YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE INTELLIGENCE BENEFIT INDEX.
I OPENED my eyes and glanced around the clearing we rested in. I

saw the familiar orange glint of some Lava Slugs off in a couple
distant bushes, but no assistant.
Erani was staring at me expectantly. "So?"
"Nothing." I frowned. "Don’t see it anywhere."
"Maybe you need to activate it somehow. Or it’ll only show up
when you have a Choice."
"Yeah, guess it’s something like that. We’ll have to see what this
‘assistant’ is later."
"Hey!" a new, high-pitched voice said. "My name is not
‘Assistant!’ It’s Index."
"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed, and I looked around for the
speaker.
"What? Do you see it? Is it behind me?" Erani turned and looked,
too.
"No, no, I don’t see it. But didn’t you hear that?"
"No? Hear what?"
"It’s—wait, you seriously didn’t hear it? Sounded like⁠—"
"She can’t hear me, dummy," the voice said again. "I’m here to
help you, not anyone else."
"Um, okay," I said, "so, it’s speaking to me. Said you can’t hear it,
though."
"Uh, hello~?" it said in a singsong voice. "Stop talking about me
like I’m not even in the room!"
"It is way more Human than I thought it’d be," I said. "This is
seriously freaky."
"So, what’s it saying, then?" Erani asked. "Do you think it’ll start
repeating lines if you wait long enough? I’m sure it’s just, like, pre-
made messages made to come through until you say something."
"Wh—I’m not saying pre-made messages! I’m way more
advanced than that. Arlan, tell that woman that she’s totally wrong."
"Uhh, doesn’t seem like they’re pre-made. Sounds pretty
personalized to me."
"Stop talking about me like I’m not here! I’m a real person, you
know."
"I mean, objectively, you’re not."
"What?" Erani asked.
"Uh, sorry, I’m just trying to talk to it."
"How’s that going?"
"I am a person!" it said. "Sure, I don’t have a ‘physical body’ and
I’m ‘just a fragment of the System,’ but that doesn’t make me any
less real than you are."
"Okay, so it’s apparently, like, very alive. At least, it sure as hells
thinks that it is."
"Can you see it?" Erani asked.
I glanced around. "Seems like I can’t."
"That’s just ‘cause you’re dumb," the voice said.
"Dumb?"
"What?" Erani squinted at me.
"Uh, just give me a second. Trying to talk to it."
"You’d normally be able to see me," the voice said, "but your
Intelligence is too low. System’s limiting you."
"Oh. Wait, so you really do have a physical form, but you’re just,
like, what? Invisible?"
"I mean, no, I don’t have a physical form—I can’t touch anything
—but I have a body. I’m flying right in front of you!"
"Huh…" I absentmindedly waved a hand in front of my face.
"Stop that!" it said, obviously annoyed. "Your hand’s going
through me. It’s rude to do that, you know."
"So, what, exactly, do you…do?"
"Well, talk, mainly."
"Right, okay, what do you talk about?"
"I’m an advisor! I stop you from making bad decisions."
"Sure, you help me choose the right Spells or whatever. But why
are you here now? I’m not choosing anything. Is this just, like, an
introduction thing? And you’ll go away later?"
"Rude. Why am I here? I just said! I’m here to advise you."
"On what?"
"Anything! Sure, technically I’m only omniscient about the
System, but I can still advise you about whatever."
"…Okay." I blinked. "Let’s start with questions about the System.
Um, what are the effects of my next Spell options?"
"I can’t tell you that."
"Alright. What are my options going to be for Crippling Chill’s
Rank 10 Upgrade?"
"Well, what can you tell me?"
I sighed. "Can you tell me when you’ll be able to do anything
useful?"
"It depends. Getting more Intelligence can increase the
information I’m allowed to give you, but so can getting more
information on your own. So, you could ask me about the
technicalities of your current Spells, since you already know a lot
about them. You might be able to ask me some questions about the
Spells you’re already being shown. Listen, my specialty isn’t just
telling you random stuff like your next Spell Choice. It’s advising you!
I can tell you about secret synergies, aspects of your options that
you aren’t considering, monsters you’re fighting, anything."
"Wait, monsters? I thought you were just omniscient about the
System."
"Well, monsters have Status sheets, don’t they? I know ‘em."
"Huh." I rubbed my chin. "And you can tell me about stuff you
aren’t omniscient about, too, right?"
"…Yeah?"
"You said you were flying right in front of me before. Where are
you now?"
"Sitting on top of your head."
"Wh—get off." I rubbed my hand through my hair. Huh, it’d gotten
past by my ears now. "Um…are there any Lava Slugs on that bush
over there?" I pointed at a bush to my side, deliberately not looking
at it.
"Hm, let me check." There was a moment of silence, and I could
imagine the owner of the voice—Index—flying over and searching
through the bush. Then it spoke again. "Yeah. Two of ‘em."
"Where on the bush are they?"
"One’s on the lowest branch, closer to you, and another’s near
the middle of it. Why? Are you trying to take a piss and wanna know
where’s safe?"
"No. How’d you know that?"
"I…looked?"
"Can you look up to the top of that mountain?" I pointed. "Tell me
if there’s a Dragon up there."
"Oh, I can’t do that."
"Why?"
"Can’t move that far."
"Well, how far can you move?"
"Couple dozen paces. It kinda depends on the circumstances.
So…why do you want to know?"
"If nobody can see you, but you can see them, and you can tell
me what you see… Y’know, I think I’m seeing just how useful you
are more and more."
"That’s my purpose! Though I’m really supposed to be an advisor,
not a scout."
"Well, is there anything you can advise me on right now?"
"Hm, let’s see…" There was another moment of silence, only this
time I wasn’t actually sure what Index was doing. "Just pulled up the
logs for your most recent fight. Wanna go over it? I can coach you."
"…So, when it lunged there, you should’ve used the opportunity to
cast Ray of Frost and refresh the Frostbite, instead of doing Noxious
Grasp for its Fester. The Frostbite was two seconds from falling off,
while the Fester was four, and you could tell from its movements that
it was about to strike again, so the lowered Dexterity was more
important."
"Mhm."
This had been going on for about an hour now, Index the
assistant going through that fight with the Mountain Troll—both
timelines I’d fought it in—and talking through every decision I made.
It even talked through the decisions I didn’t make, but thought about
making. Since it knew my thoughts, it could even see when I just
deliberated on doing something.
Honestly, though, I was still reeling from the fact that it knew what
I’d done in previous timelines. It made sense—Time Loop preserved
my Status, and Trailblazer was a part of my Status, so its log got
preserved as well—but still, this was the first time someone actually
knew what’d happened in a timeline I’d come back from. It was
completely surreal.
"Mountain Trolls get a random amount between 7 and 13
Endurance per Level," Index continued, "so this one’s max Health
was probably around 1700. So, at this point, with the amount of
damage you’d dealt to it and the Mana you had left, you could afford
to spend the rest of your Mana on Rays of Frost and finish it off.
Because of your mistake, it scraped you eleven seconds later and
you lost an additional 13 Health. But it also could’ve cost you⁠—"
"So," I interrupted Index’s spiel, "how far back do you have
knowledge of me?"
"I can only remember back as far as when you got to 16
Intelligence. So, just a couple days."
"Remember? So you were here this whole time? Just couldn’t
say anything, or something?"
"Well, I wasn’t technically here, but I have such detailed
knowledge of the log that I may as well have been."
"Yeah, so that log. What exactly is it?"
"Oh, I thought the System explained it quite well. It’s just a list of
pretty much everything that went through your head or body from the
moment you got that benefit until now."
"Wait, if it includes all my thoughts, do I even need to be saying
things out loud right now? You could just read what I want to say in
the log."
"Well, I guess. But when you do that, I have to read through all of
your thoughts and emotions in the log just to get to the part you
wanted to say to me. And then I don’t fully know which of those
thoughts were meant for me to respond to, and which were just
some random thing you were thinking of. So it’s easier if you just say
it out loud, and you’ll get a response from me a lot faster.”
"How big even is the log? The way you talk about it, I’m almost
surprised you can read through it at all."
"Well, as the notifications you’ve received have said, it contains
any and every thought, emotion, sensation, action, and pretty much
anything else you are experiencing, begin to experience, stop
experiencing, and so on and so on. So yeah, you do have a lot of
those. But I can read it. I’m a fragment of the System, after all.” I
could sense some humor in Index’s voice. "I can read pretty fast.
The real issue is more about trying to interpret what among the log is
good data, and what’s bad. I mean, how do I know whether your idle
thoughts on the color of the rocks to your left are something I need to
put active attention toward analyzing and formulating a response
to?"
“Feels like that’d be pretty easy. Well, not the reading through it
all part. But if you can do that, wouldn’t it be trivial to just look at a
few different thoughts or whatever and choose which one is probably
the more important one?”
“It would certainly be easy for you to do. But you’re a person. I’m
not. Your entire species as Humans is designed for social contact, of
course you’d be able to easily analyze and interpret another person’s
thoughts. Personally, I just think you should think in numbers more.
Much easier for me.”
"Huh."
"So?" Erani cut in. She’d been patiently watching me talk with
Index all this time, and looked like she was ready to burst by now.
"What’s up with this thing? What’d you learn?"
"Well, ironically, not too much about the System. I mean, not
immediately, at least. Index said it could tell me about monsters
we’re fighting, I can ask about technicalities and edge cases for my
Spell and Talent Choices, that sort of thing. But what I really figured
out that helps immediately is how it helps with reconnaissance."
"Couple dozen paces, huh?" Erani said after I was finished telling
her my findings with Index. Seems pretty useful. Can it move through
solid objects? Like, it doesn’t need to go through walls, does it?"
"I’m actually not sure. Uh, Index, can you⁠—"
"Yep. No corporeal form."
"Okay. Yeah, it can move through walls."
"That’s fantastic." Erani smiled. "Earlier, those Humans in the
patrol that passed us were talking about some ‘fort,’ right? Well, if we
can get close enough to it, we can just send Index through the walls,
have it check everything out, find weak points or areas we could
move through, and boom. We can sneak right by without having to
fight anyone."
"Well, that’s assuming there are weak points or areas we could
move through. Besides, they were also talking about Hellions
patrolling the surrounding area, right? How could we get through that
without alerting anyone?"
Erani looked down. "Index can move through the ground, right?"
We snuck along the path through Kingdom’s Edge, making heavy

use of Index’s reconnaissance abilities. We’d keep it up ahead, at
the two-dozen-pace distance limit, and have it peek around corners
and through bushes for us. If it ever saw anything, it’d tell me, and
we’d run off and hide in the wilderness next to the trail until they
passed.
And, of course, we also had it dip underground periodically to
look for Hellions. There was obviously no light down beneath the
solid stone, but that apparently wasn’t a problem for Index. Besides,
it didn’t even need to see the monsters themselves—just the tunnels
they left behind when digging through the ground. The moment we
saw those, we’d back off and start looking for another way in. But so
far, so good.
Erani had volunteered to explain everything about Index to the
Dryad, who was understandably curious about why I suddenly began
talking to myself. Apparently, she was still having that discussion.
The Dryad clearly was having some trouble understanding what
Index was.
While we traveled, Ethereal Armor’s one-hour timer ran out, and
my Light Plate dissolved like it normally did. I routinely re-cast the
Spell, Erani and the Dryad taking a pause every time, knowing I’d
have to take a minute to don the armor once more. But when I cast
the Spell and the Light Plate fell to the ground in front of me, I got an
unexpected notification.
Threshold reached. Ethereal Armor XP has reached 130.

Ethereal Armor Rank has increased to 9.
Due to Ethereal Armor Rank reaching 9, it has undergone the
following changes:
Mana Cost: From 182 to 187
Dark Plate Downtime: From 39.9 to 37.9
Light Plate Discount: From 40.4% to 43.4%
Wait, what? Why did⁠—

"Because you Leveled up," Index’s voice interrupted my
thoughts.
"What?" I said, disoriented by it reading my thoughts.
"You forgot your Soft Cap went up," it said. "When you Leveled
up to 16."
"Oh." I blinked. "Yeah, I guess it slipped my mind."
"Ah, I feel so important," Index joked. "I even made you forget
about the rest of your Level-up benefits."
"That’s not⁠—"
"Arlan?" Erani asked, looking at me. "You good?"
"Oh, right," I said, "forgot you can’t hear Index. I just Ranked up
Ethereal Armor, forgot about my Soft Cap going up."
"Oh, good!"
"Yeah, got an extra 3 percent discount on Spells with Light Plate,
which is really solid. I should probably Rank the rest of my Spells
that are still at 8."
She nodded. "Go ahead."
My other two Spells to Rank up were Expedite and Gravity Well,
so I just cast both on myself until I got a notification for them.

changes:
Mana Cost: From 67 to 68.7
Dexterity Buff: From 29.6 to 31.1
Buff Duration: From 44.3 to 46.5
Threshold reached. Gravity Well XP has reached 130.
Gravity Well Rank has increased to 9.
Due to Gravity Well Rank reaching 9, it has undergone the
following changes:
Gravity Increase: From 55% to 61%
I smiled at the numerical increases. With Ethereal Armor’s

increased discount and Expedite’s increased duration, the ratio of
Mana spent to seconds active for Expedite went way up.
"Approximately 0.8362 Mana spent per second of Expedite now,"
Index said.
I blinked, startled by its sudden words. "Gods, you’ve got to stop
just randomly butting into my thoughts."
"I’m here to help you! If I don’t say anything, I won’t be helping."
"So there’s no way for me to get you to stop talking? What if
talking harms me by startling me when I’m trying to hide, or
something?"
"If you actually think me talking will hurt you, I won’t do it. Right
now, though, you just think it’s annoying for me to say stuff
unexpectedly, but recognize its usefulness. So it’s not harmful,
therefore I’ll keep doing it. I can see into your mind, remember?"
I rolled my eyes. "Fine."
"Anyway, as I was saying, you’re now spending approximately
0.8362 Mana per second you keep Expedite active, compared to
what it was before, at 0.9014."
"You can seriously do all that math in your head that quickly?"
"Yep! I’ve got a whole lot of power from the System dedicated to
me, so I can do all kinds of stuff!"
"Yeah, I’ve been noticing that more and more."
We walked like that for a couple hours, with me continuing to get to

know Index as we went, until finally we came across something.
"Hey, be careful rounding this next corner," Index said. "I think it’s
what you’re looking for. Far off, so I can’t see real well. But there’s a
lot of people."
I relayed that information to Erani and the Dryad, and we slowly
crept up to the edge of a rock face. Once we got there, we peered
around, and…
"Good gods…"
It was massive. When I heard ‘fort,’ I imagined a building made of
stone on the edge of the road housing some soldiers—maybe some
wall that covered the road and had people manning the ramparts.
Not this.
The massive structure was built between the two steep rock
faces, connecting them so that I couldn’t even see the sky on the
other side of their blockade. It was a stone wall built so tall and so
thick, I couldn’t imagine anything short of an army’s worth of siege
equipment getting through.
The wall itself wasn’t flat. It was covered in stone rooms that
jutted out from the face, square boxes that had windows to shoot out
from, or cannons pointed out the walls, or holes in the floors for
dumping boiling oil. Stringing these rooms in the wall together were
dozens—hundreds—of rope bridges, all teeming with soldiers
walking back and forth.
The wall itself was constructed at the end of a long, straight
section of road between two tall cliff faces. There’d be no way to get
close without walking down this multi-hundred-pace stretch of
cleared-out road—under which the ground was supposedly teeming
with Hellions—and there was no way to get around short of going all
the way back to the beginning of the path, and climbing up the
mountains the wall was situated between. We’d have to climb for
days—weeks—just to get to this point from the beginning, and this
wall was probably just part of the way through Kingdom’s Edge.
We’d have to go for even longer to actually arrive at the Barinruth
Empire.
There was one weird part of the fort, though.
It was covered in scorch marks.
I could see that lying at the bottom of the wall were the burnt
remains of ropes and planks used to make their bridges. The stone
bricks making up the wall had blackened areas—massive burn spots
that dotted the entire thing.
And when I thought back to when I’d seen the Dragon attacking
something in this very valley, I suspected I knew exactly where those
burn marks came from.
"How are we supposed to get through that alone?" Erani asked.
"I don’t think we can get through alone," I said, glancing up at the
mountain. "But I suspect we may have an ally to turn to."
18
MOUNTAINEERING
"…YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS." Erani stared at me.

"We know the Dragon wants to get rid of the fort. We know it’s
willing to attack. All we need to do is talk to it and ask for its help in
taking them down. It should be happy to help."
"Right, except for the fact that we’re Humans. And it’s a Dragon. I
highly doubt it’ll have the humility to admit it needs our help. Besides,
we don’t even know if it still wants to take the wall down."
"It was attacking for hours. I’m sure it at least has some desire to
kill them."
"But it gave up. Maybe it decided this wasn’t worth its⁠—"
Erani was cut off by a deafening roar from above. I looked up and
saw the exact Dragon we were talking about bolting straight down at
the still-in-construction wall in what seemed to be a surprise attack
after regathering its strength.
The guards at the wall spotted the approaching Dragon and
prepared for battle, rushing into the square rooms built into the wall
and grabbing their weapons. Surprisingly, though, they didn’t seem
too worried. I knew I’d be, if I saw that massive beast headed for me
—even with the fortifications they had.
But it seemed like they knew something I didn’t, because nobody
seemed to be panicking. Instead, the Humans calmly drew their
bows while the Infernals manned their artillery weapons. They all
stared up at the approaching monster, waiting for it to draw into their
range.
It sped toward them, gaining more and more velocity as it flapped
its wings and opened its mouth, preparing to bombard them in fire.
And then, just as it got to them, it swooped by, blasting the entire
massive stone wall with a blazing inferno sure to destroy anyone and
anything caught within.
But then the fire let up. And the wall stood. In fact, it didn’t even
seem like it’d been touched by the fire. Instead, judging by the
scorch marks covering the ground, it seemed like it’d hit the area
around the wall, but stopped abruptly when it got within a dozen or
so paces.
And I felt like I knew what’d stopped the fire. Though it was
covered up during the brunt of the blaze, I could just barely see the
purple shimmer of a magic shield disappearing as the Dragon flew
away from its fly-by attack.
"They have a shield that can block that?" I wondered aloud,
amazed at their ability to fend off the full-force breath of a Dragon.
But judging by the scorch marks that covered the wall from
before, it seemed like if the Dragon kept beating away at it, that
shield might break. Though I had no idea how long it’d take to break
through. Or what it’d block from getting through, and what it’d permit
to pass.
Or maybe I did have a way of knowing.
"Hey, Index," I said as we watched the Dragon turn around to
attack once again. "What kind of shield is protecting them from the
Dragon?"
"Hm…" Index’s voice echoed in my ear as Erani turned to look at
me. "An advanced one. Seems like it’s coming from some
Enchanted item held within the wall. It’ll block a ton of damage, and
is specialized to block magic attacks. Physical attacks, on the other
hand, it’ll break much more quickly from. It also has some complex
parameters on who or what it’ll let through. Tons of tiny rules and
systems and algorithms determining that."
"So it has a weakness to physical attacks? Why’s the Dragon
attacking with fire, then?"
"No clue," Index said. "It may just not know about the
vulnerability. It’s not a ‘weakness’ in the sense that a single sword
swipe could break it. More a weakness in the sense that if the shield
could block a million damage from magical sources, it can only block
a hundred thousand from physical sources. Those aren’t real
numbers, by the way. I can’t tell you how much it can actually block."
"Alright." I nodded. I was just seeing more and more evidence
that we’d need the Dragon’s help to get past the wall. Or at least,
we’d need to get its permission to pass through its territory in the
mountains so we wouldn’t have to deal with the wall in the first place.
"This is what you wanted, right?" Erani asked me. "The Dragon’s
attacking. Shouldn’t we run up and help?"
"No, not now." I shook my head. "We need something
coordinated. As is, we’d just get mistaken for soldiers and get
slaughtered with the rest of them if the Dragon takes the wall down.
And they seem prepared enough that it probably won’t be able to,
anyway. We need to talk to it and figure something out together."
"You want to talk to a Dragon. Yeah, while we’re at it, why don’t
we have a tea party with the gods?"
"It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. It has something it wants done
and isn’t capable of doing alone. All we have to do is convince it we
can help accomplish that goal. If we can figure out what it’s capable
of, tell it what we can do, and take some time to make a plan
together, we could do together what we couldn’t do on our own. And
all we need to do is help it break through that magic shield. After
that, I’m sure the Dragon would be more than capable of destroying
the wall itself while we head off. So when you think about it, there
isn’t much danger posed to us."
"Yeah, not much danger." Erani rolled her eyes. "Except for the
part where we talk to the Dragon without it getting bored and killing
us. Or taking whatever we say as an insult. Or just killing us by
accident because it stepped in the wrong place."
"Look, what other option do we have? We definitely can’t get
through on our own."
"We do, though. We have those invisibility rings, right? You
checked whether they worked or not, and they did. How many of
them are still functional?"
"Six," I said, frowning. Using the rings could work, but physically
getting past the magical shield and the wall it was protecting would
still be an issue. "Fifteen minutes each."
"Perfect. That’s half an hour for all three of us." Erani nodded.
"We can sneak in now, while the soldiers are distracted by the
Dragon, and get through by the time half an hour passes. They won’t
even see us."
I pursed my lips and thought. It definitely could work. If we found
a way through that shield, it’d be totally possible for us to sneak past.
"Index," I said, "is there anything specific you can tell me about
how the shield decides what it lets through, and what it doesn’t?"
"Hmm," Index said. "What I can say is that it allows the soldiers
through automatically, and it isn’t because of anything you’d be able
to take from them. There’s no bypass item they hold that you can
steal and now you’re able to pass through the barrier. Instead, it’s a
—shoot. I can’t say that part. But yeah, there’s no physical object
you’d be able to get that would let you through."
"Huh," I said. Then I turned and told Erani what Index just said.
"It can’t say any more than that?" Erani asked.
"Nope," Index said. "But I can give you some general advice. You
probably shouldn’t approach the wall straight-on, whether or not you
have invisibility. It seems like you pretty strongly suspect there are
Hellions patrolling the ground between you and the wall. If there are,
they’d be able to detect you regardless of whether or not you are
invisible. They can detect movement through vibrations in the
ground, so they’d be able to feel your footsteps."
"Shit, that’s right," I said, and I explained what Index said to
Erani.
She gazed around at our surroundings. "There doesn’t seem to
be any way for us to climb up into the nearby mountains here. The
cliffs surrounding us are so sheer, I doubt I could climb them even
without worrying about getting seen."
"Yeah, that’s probably by design." I glanced around us, searching
for a way up into the mountains. If we could get up into them and off
the road, we most likely wouldn’t have to worry about the Hellions.
"They probably chose this exact point because they knew we
wouldn’t be able to get by any way other than straight through that
wall."
"Hm. So I guess the invisibility rings are a bust, then."
"Maybe not. We can talk to the Dragon and use it to bust through
that shield, and then from there, we can use the invisibility rings to
fight without worrying about risking our lives too much."
"Sure, but those are the standard type of invisibility, right? Not
true invisibility? So if we take any damage at all, the invisibility
immediately wears off."
"Yeah, but it’s better than nothing. Hells, if things get bad, we can
always go back on whatever deal we make with the Dragon, pop our
invisibility, and run off."
Erani pursed her lips. "Fine. But only because I know you have
Time Loop in case it doesn’t work."
"Why is Dragon attacking bad guys?" I got a sudden message
from the Dryad, who was looking expectantly at me.
"Seems like it just doesn’t want them in its territory. Or maybe
they did something to piss it off. Who knows."
"Are we going to attack?"
"No, not yet. I want to try making a plan with the Dragon first.
Maybe we can talk with it for a bit and figure something out. The way
we are now, if we just randomly charged in and attacked, we’d just
get ourselves killed."
The Dryad looked over at the Dragon as it swooped around once
more, raking its claws against the magical purple sphere surrounding
the stone wall. The soldiers manning it took shots at the Dragon with
their siege weapons, but it didn’t seem to do much more than irritate
it. "What Level is Dragon?"
"What?"
"What Level is it?"
"Uh, I don’t know. One second." I looked away from the Dryad
and spoke aloud. "Hey, Index, do we know the Dragon’s Level?"
"Mm. It’s up there. Couldn’t tell you the exact number, but it’s high
double digits. And, of course, it’s a Dragon. So even one at Level 20
would be super powerful."
I relayed that information back to the Dryad. "Why do you ask?"
She just gazed up at the flying beast. "Dragon seems powerful."
"Yeah, it sure does. I think we should be able to take down that
wall with its help, as long as we can get a coordinated plan with it."
She nodded and didn’t say anything else.
"Well," Erani said, "we should probably head back so we can
start climbing these mountains. We can’t get into them from here, but
if we move backwards far enough we should be able to. From there,
we can climb up into the Dragon’s territory and talk to it. Don’t wanna
stick around and get impaled by stray projectiles or something."
"Yeah, that’d probably be a good idea."
We started heading back the way we came. Since the valley was
carved into the mountain range, the place we were before had no
actual way to climb up into the mountains. Instead, we’d need to
head a bit further back to a place that had a more gentle slope up
into the wilderness.
Eventually we found a place where the rough rock edges made
for some natural footholds and we could climb a few paces upward
into the natural, bumpy terrain. I had Index looking out for us, helping
me avoid any scouting parties we may have run into, and from
wandering into contact with any more Lava Slugs. I’d had more than
enough experience with them already, and didn’t really desire any
more.
It took us about a half hour before we got into the wild mountain
range, but even then, I could still look up and see the Dragon circling
the sky around the wall. At least it provided a good landmark for us
to know where to go. The mountain the Dragon resided in was near
the wall, so we’d just need to climb up there. And once we reached
its cave or got its attention somehow, we could start negotiating.
The only problem with that was the distance. That mountain was
far away and far up, so we’d have to do quite a bit of climbing. And,
quite honestly, I wasn’t sure if I or Erani could do that. The Dryad
would probably be fine with her high physical Stats, but even with
Recursive Growth’s bonus boosting my physique, it’d probably take
me at least a week before we could get to the peak of the mountain.
Not to mention Erani.
Luckily, I had the perfect solution. Expedite would more than
double my own Dexterity, and more than triple Erani’s, so using that,
we could easily scale obstacles that would previously take minutes
or even hours of time and effort to get past. Cliff faces with tiny
handholds, massive boulders impossible to climb over, chasms in
the ground forming impasses, all of them could be easily passed with
my new Spell.
Expedite cost me 67 Mana, which was a bit more than a full
minute’s worth, and it’d stay active for about forty-five seconds. So, if
I used a single cast of it on both Erani and myself, I could keep us
boosted for a bit less than half of the time spent journeying. We
could just turn it off when on even ground, and then use it when
climbing up hills or cliffs to keep a quick pace.
And I definitely wanted to keep a quick pace. The Dragon would
likely either destroy that wall or give up for good eventually. If it
destroyed the wall, great, we didn’t have anything to worry about.
But if it gave up or—gods forbid—died, we’d be fucked.
Plus, I wasn’t too confident in the idea that our enemies would
just sit around forever waiting for us to show up. It seemed like the
death of their scout scared them off for a bit, but even then, if we
were gone and unaccounted for for days longer than they
anticipated, they’d know we were up to something.
So it was with great eagerness that I decided to start helping
Erani train with Expedite. As we were, she had no capability of
functioning with a boosted Dexterity, same as I was when I first
started using it.
We’d need to change that as soon as possible.
"Shit!" Erani fell to the ground, failing to even catch herself with
her hands.
"I told you, don’t try to walk at first. Just move your arms and
fingers for a bit and try to get used to the sensation."
After the effect wore off, she got to her feet, brushing herself off.
"I know, but you make it look so easy."
"I make it look easy because I practiced for hours," I laughed.
"Here, I’m gonna re-cast it on you, and I just want you to stay still
and try to poke my fingertip with yours. That should get you used to
precise movements. Then we can move on to walking."
"Fine," she sighed. "Don’t cast it on me if you think you hear a
monster around, though. I don’t wanna be caught crippled in the
middle of a fight."
We continued to practice like that for a bit. It took a while, but
eventually she could walk with the effect active, and then run, and
then climb, until she was fully capable of movement. From there, we
finally started proceeding up into the mountains.
It was our first priority to just stray away from the path. It’d make
no sense to traverse nearby, since that would only increase our risk
of being seen by enemies. And then we started heading toward the
Dragon’s peak.
It didn’t take long for us to experience our first complication.

Erani and I were both climbing up a ledge, boosted by Expedite.
The Dryad was way ahead of us, and had actually already gotten to
the top of the short cliff. She was looking down at us as we climbed,
giving us advice like which handholds were unstable. We were only
about ten paces from the ground, but even a fall of that much would
be more than enough to hurt badly, so we both tried to stay careful.
But while I tried to focus on climbing, I was startled by a voice.
"Find a flat ledge to stand on," Index said. "Enemy incoming."
"Fuck." I stumbled and tried to climb over to the best foothold
nearby while I called out, "Erani! Find a place to stay. There’s an⁠—"
I was interrupted by a sudden shriek, and looked up to see a
figure soaring over us—a Drake.
I squinted the sun from my eyes, trying to identify its color. It was
green. That meant it was an acid-affinity. I hoped it’d just fly right
past us, but it seemed like we’d unintentionally invaded its territory,
and it was set on chasing us away.
Normally, we’d just flee and avoid a fight like this—Drakes were
surprisingly forgiving as long as you left the moment it gave you its
warning—but we couldn’t do that as we were. Erani and I were both
suspended ten paces in the air, and the Dryad was all the way at the
top of the ledge—none of us were in much shape to easily leave the
way we came.
"Can you tell me its Level?" I asked Index. "How fucked are we if
we fight it?"
"It’s on the lower end of Drake Levels, but not too low. Even at
their minimum Levels of 15, Drakes get 15 Endurance per Level,
plus a Talent that gives them extra Health per point of Endurance.
It’d have at least 4000 Health. As a Green Drake, its claw attacks
also deal increased damage, it has a spit attack, and if it’s above
Level 35 it’ll⁠—"
Index’s voice was drowned out by the Drake’s second warning
shriek as it flew a bit closer to see what was going on. I just did my
best to climb faster and get to a safe place on this gods-damned cliff.
But I couldn’t climb fast enough, and soon⁠—
"Shit!" I retracted my hand as a glob of hissing goo spattered
against the cliff face above me. I was lucky that the resulting splash
didn’t get on me this time. Straining my neck, I glanced behind
myself and looked back at the Drake, which was hocking up another
ball of acidic saliva to throw at me.
Expedite has worn off of you.

Your Dexterity is 19.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I muttered as I re-cast the Spell on myself,

lowering my Mana to 959.
"Arlan!" Erani called. She was a couple paces to my side and a
couple below me. "I need a refresh on Expedite! It just ran out."
With an angry Drake behind me, and Erani unable able to defend
herself without my help below me, I turned around and readied
myself. The Drake hissed.
I’d have to dig myself out of this situation. I just had no idea how
I’d do it.
19
DISASTROUS DRAKE
I STOOD on the edge of a cliff face, edging my heels back so I could

keep my footing while facing off against a Green Drake as it flapped
its wings to keep itself afloat. It stared at me, preparing to shoot acid
straight at my head.
"Arlan!" Erani called. She was a couple paces to my side and a
couple below me. "I need a refresh on Expedite! It just ran out."
"On it," I said, trying to edge my way over to her while also
looking over at the Drake. It hadn’t attacked us directly yet—just shot
off warning shots with its acid. Hopefully, it’d just leave us alone⁠—
Another glob of acid came flying at me straight from its throat.
"Fuck!" I did my best to duck below it, and managed to avoid
letting the acid impact me. But even though it just splattered against
the rock behind where my head used to be, the resulting splash of
burning liquid covered my back.
You have been burned by acid. 58 damage.

Your Health is 272.
I cried out in pain and immediately activated Regenerate to try
and recover some of my lost Health, all while stumbling in an attempt
to keep myself from losing my balance while on unstable footing. It
was only because of Expedite that I managed to keep myself from
tumbling all the way down to the rocky ground below.
As I leaned back up and used one of my hands to hastily brush
off the hissing liquid, I used my other hand to tightly grip a stone to
the side, keeping my balance. That acid hurt like a bitch.
Seemed like this fight was on.
I heard an explosion as one of Erani’s Firebolts impacted the
midair Drake, sending it flying away and flapping its wings in a
desperate attempt to keep itself from spiraling to the ground.
Unfortunately, however, the thing seemed strong enough to weather
the attack for the most part, and it flew back seconds later, angrier
than ever. Once it got close to us, though, I hit it with a couple Spells
of my own.
You have cursed Level 29 Green Drake with Crippling Chill.

For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21
15.5.
You have struck Level 29 Green Drake for 61 damage using
Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 29 Green Drake with Ray of Frost. For
the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
I was lucky to even hit with the Ray of Frost; with my hands
mostly occupied with holding onto the wall behind me, I only
managed to find a fraction of a second I could spare to shoot off my
Spells, and even then I didn’t enjoy much accuracy.
Still, my two Dexterity debuffs applied themselves, and that was
what mattered. The Drake’s wings suddenly moved a lot slower and
it struggled to keep itself afloat. Unfortunately, the moment I hit it with
my Spells, it moved back, out of range for me to hit it with Ray of
Frost again. It was also too far for me to hit it with Gravity Well,
which was my original plan—if it had been close enough, with those
Dexterity debuffs working alongside increased gravity, I could
probably have ruined its ability to fly and sent it to the ground.
My first priority was to get to Erani so I could touch her and
refresh Expedite’s effects, since they’d worn off of her. I glanced over
and saw her barely able to stay where she was on the cliff. And I
doubted she’d be able to move and dodge if the Green Drake shot
acid at her, next.
I watched as she shakily held out a hand and shot off a Firebolt,
but right as she did, her foot slipped and she was forced to reach out
and catch herself, ruining her aim so the shot went wide, hitting
nothing but air.
Now that the Drake was outside my range of effectiveness, I had
nothing I could do to it other than refresh Crippling Chill once it wore
off the monster. Sure, the current Dexterity debuff was delaying it a
bit, but it was getting more and more used to the effects by the
second, and Ray of Frost’s portion would wear off soon, too. What I
needed to do was help Erani so she could regain her footing and
start being able to help fight it off with her Spells.
But the Drake snarled and moved back in, readying itself to shoot
off another ball of acid and looking at Erani as it did so.
I wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. And she couldn’t dodge.
Could a second cast of Expedite on myself help me get to her
faster?
"Don’t." I heard Index’s voice. "You don’t have enough practice
for something as finesse-intensive as mountain climbing. It’ll only
send you tumbling off the cliff."
"Then what do I⁠—"
"That thing you’re considering in the back of your mind? Do it.
The Drake’s low on Dexterity and won’t be able to move in time. And
with the Dryad’s Stats and the abilities she has with her whip, she’ll
be able to do it."
"Hey!" I mentally shouted up at the Dryad without hesitation. She
was watching helplessly from above, her own melee-range weapon
not nearly long enough to touch the flying Drake. "You can drag
people around with your whip, right?"
"Yes. Why⁠—"
"Grab me and pull me up toward you, as fast as you can."
"You will not be able to hold yourself to cliff face. You will fall."
"Just do it!"
The Dryad lashed her whip down at me and it wrapped itself
around my waist, the spikes retracting into its body and the vine
moving unnaturally to hold onto me tightly. Then, with a great tug, I
found myself yanked up all the way toward the top of the cliff. I didn’t
reach the top, but I didn’t need to. Instead, once I was at the peak of
the arc, I stacked two more Expedites on myself, adding an immense
amount of power and finesse to my movements at the cost of any
amount of accuracy, and kicked off the wall behind me.
Now way above the Drake with a boosted physique, I began
heading in an arc straight toward the flying monster, arms out to
latch on to it. The Dryad’s whip fell off of me as she seemed to will it
away from me and back to herself, allowing me to fly true, straight at
my hovering target.
It looked up, distracted from its original goal of shooting Erani,
and tried to move away from me so I’d miss and hit the ground, but
as I got closer to it, I also got back into range of hitting it with Gravity
Well, and instantly did so. Its ability to fly—or even move—was
suddenly impaired even more than before, and it couldn’t maneuver
itself away from me in time before I crashed straight into the
monster.

Your Health is 257.
I instantly gripped my hands into the Drake’s leathery skin and

activated Noxious Grasp, attempting to fight my disorientation as I
felt the monster begin to spiral toward the ground now that it was
cursed with a Dexterity debuff, an increase in gravity, and a person
riding on its back. It shrieked and cried out, flapping its wings
desperately to try and shake me. With that alongside the inherently
disorienting effect of overusing Expedite on myself, I basically had
no idea what was going on.
But I knew I was dealing damage to the monster and keeping
Erani safe. Still, once I looked down and saw the ground quickly
approaching, I couldn’t help but regret my actions a little bit.

Your Health is 216.
My head spun once I slammed into the hard stone ground

alongside the still-spasming Drake, both from the pain and the
crippling effects of Expedite. I tried to keep my hands gripped onto
the skin of the Drake, but then I felt something sharp tear into my
stomach and kick me away.

Your Health is 162.
You have been burned by acid. 19 damage.
Your Health is 143.
You have struck Level 29 Green Drake for 87.7 damage and
Noxious Grasp.
I rolled away and coughed in pain from the Drake’s sharp claws
cutting into my skin—that it was even able to slice me despite my
high Health was a testament to its power. I still couldn’t quite see,
much less fight the monster.
"Roll left, then kick away with your legs," Index suddenly said.
I did as it told me to, and the sound of the Drake’s snarls got a bit
fainter. I coughed, managing to get my head oriented correctly and
my eyes looking up at the monster, which was quite disoriented
itself. Gravity Well was still in full effect, and with its lower Dexterity, it
wasn’t handling the Spell very well. "Health?" I asked Index.
"Too high. Keep backing away. Expedite has a bit of time left, but
try to wait it out before confronting."
The beast stepped over to me, its mouth open to cover me in
acid. I quickly reached up my hand to hit it with a Ray of Frost, but I
overshot the movement and the Ray flew out into open sky, hitting
nothing.
But, just before the Drake could cough the burning liquid out onto
me, a figure landed on the ground next to us. I looked over, barely
finding myself getting used to the sensation of three Expedites, to
see the Dryad having leapt all the way down from her position at the
top of the cliff, landing on her feet with her long whip in hand.
The Drake looked over at her and caught a spiked vine in the
face, its eye sliced by sharp thorns. I used the opportunity to shakily
get to my feet and back away to a safer distance while the Drake
attempted to swipe its claws at the Dryad. She sidestepped back and
forth, dodging the shots of acid as they came at her, but the green
goo formed pools on the ground that’d no doubt be harmful to step
in, and she was quickly being surrounded by it.
I tried to hold out a hand to shoot the monster with a Ray of Frost
to slow it down, but Expedite was still preventing me from moving
very accurately, and I couldn’t find a clean shot between the two
quickly moving figures.
"You okay?" I heard a voice from beside me and turned to see
Erani stumbling over from the cliff face.
"Erani! You got down alright."
"Barely," she laughed. "Had to jump the last few paces. Now,
c’mon, let’s help our friend."
Erani stepped forward, holding out a hand and shooting off a pair
of Firebolts, both of which hit the Drake square in its center of gravity
and sent it stumbling back. With the time this bought her, the Dryad
was able to take a step back and leave the veritable minefield that
was left by the Drake’s acid.
The monster turned and roared at us, but now that we’d forced it
down to the ground—down to our territory—I liked our chances a lot
more.
"Buy me some time?" I asked. "I need Expedite to wear off."
"Sure." She nodded. "Just keep Gravity Well active and Crippling
Chill refreshed so it can’t fly away."
So Erani and the Dryad got to work, fighting as a pair with Erani
shooting Firebolts to keep the Drake off-balance and the Dryad
constantly moving in to take care of the constant unsteadiness the
Drake was under. While it was much too big and high-Leveled for
Erani’s stun-locking method to keep it completely incapacitated, the
explosions still massively inhibited its ability to fight effectively, and
the Dryad was fast enough that even a slight reduction in ability
could completely tip the odds in her favor.
By the time thirty seconds had passed, it was covered in cuts and
burns, snarling and backing away whenever the Dryad got close.
"I’m running out of Mana to keep casting Firebolts," Erani said,
turning back to me. "You good to fight?"
I waited a second, then two, and then⁠—


"Good to go." I nodded and walked forward.

I was still in range to keep Gravity Well online, which meant I was
also already in range for Ray of Frost.
"Is it low enough for Ray of Frost to be enough to take it out?" I
asked Index.
"Hm, you have…860 Mana? Yep. Putting that much into Rays of
Frost will be enough."
So once I saw an opening, I raised my hand and shot off as many
of the Spell as I could, as quickly as I could.
Blue beams flew into the monster, each one coating its skin in ice
and dealing its own bit of damage. The Drake tried to dash off
behind cover, but the Dryad wrapped her whip around one of its legs
and pulled, tripping it in its haste to escape.
And by the time I’d spent 500 Mana on the magical barrage, I got
a new notification.

Level 29 Green Drake.
I looked down at the corpse of the gigantic beast. Even a single

week ago, I’d have thought that the idea of me killing a Drake was
ridiculous. That was something the high-Levelers did, something
that’d only happen to me once I’d trained and Leveled for years,
worked with an expert party, and of course, only when I was paid by
some city to take one down for them.
But here was the corpse of one I’d killed today. A ragtag group of
a couple Humans and a monster, slaying it because we were
journeying into fucking Kingdom’s Edge to try and have an audience
with a Dragon.
What a life.
"Well," I sighed, looking down at the fresh corpse in front of me,
"you up for dinner?"
20
DISASTROUS DRAGON
ERANI, the Dryad, and I all sat around the corpse of a Green Drake,
eating its tangy, sour meat. Well, the Dryad wasn’t eating—she got
energy from the sun—but she sat with me and Erani while we ate.
"How much longer until see Dragon?" the Dryad asked me. She’d
asked a couple times now how close we were to it. I supposed that
was just the way kids were, and she was a kid, in a way. At least,
she seemed just as impatient as any other child I’d seen.
"We probably won’t see it until tomorrow," I said. We’d only just
started climbing the mountain, after all.
She just nodded.
"Angelic Shield finally Ranked up to 10," Erani said, pulling my
attention away from my conversation with the Dryad. "When I
dropped from the side of the cliff. Fall damage got negated, and
gave me the last bit of Spell XP I needed."
I raised my eyebrows. "That’s great! So you’re gonna go back to
practicing Firebolt, then?"
"Yep. Currently Rank 15, but it has 7 free Spell Ranks put into it
from my Class, so it’ll only cost the same as a Spell at 8 to Rank up."
"And once it gets up to Rank 20, you’ll need two more Fire Spell
Crystals to Rank it from there, right?"
"Yeah. But that’ll take a while. I don’t have your absurdly high
Mana/Minute." She rolled her eyes. "But my next Level is 15, so I
should be getting a new Talent of my own soon."
"Know what you’re gonna pick?"
"Yeah, probably just sticking with my original plans and going with
Signature Magic."
"What’s it do? Do you remember the specifics?"
"I actually have its exact wording memorized from when I kept
studying my future Talent Choices," she chuckled. "It reads,
‘Whenever a Spell you cast deals damage to a being, for the next
minute, all future copies of that Spell you cast deal an additional 10%
damage. This effect stacks with itself.’"
I nodded. "Sounds good, considering you’re pretty much only
casting Firebolt over the course of a fight."
"That’s the idea. Though it’s a bit unorthodox to use Signature
Magic when you picked Angelic Shield for your second Spell.
Normally, with Signature Magic, you want to go into combat with a
single Spell in mind, and focus on spending all of your Mana on only
that Spell—that way you get the full benefit. But because of Angelic
Shield’s passive nature, you can’t control whether or not you cast it.
So I won’t be able to fully utilize its effect. Still, the Talent’s good
enough that it’s still worth picking."
"Yeah, I can see that. Well, hopefully we can get you to 15 before
we take on this wall. I imagine we’ll all need to be in top shape for
that."
She nodded. "Yeah, we’ll see. But I think our main issue is going
to be actually talking to the Dragon."
"It’s just a conversation."
She just laughed at that and rolled her eyes, biting into the piece
of Drake thigh she was eating.
After we finished, we continued hiking up the mountains for the rest

of the day with surprisingly few complications. We had a few run-ins
with some more Drakes, but as long as we showed that we meant no
harm and left their territory immediately, they’d leave us alone. We
did end up getting into a fight with another one—this one was a Blue
Drake—but it was relatively low-Leveled, so it didn’t prove too
difficult to kill. And I got a good 200 XP out of it, too.
Still, we avoided picking fights with Drakes, even if the lower-
Level ones didn’t give us much trouble to kill. The thing about Drakes
was that they had a pretty wide range of possible Levels; Drakelings
evolved into Drakes at Level 15, but Drakes wouldn’t evolve again
until they reached Level 60. If you saw a Drake, you wouldn’t have
any idea whether it was a manageable Level 20, or it would
completely demolish you because it was actually Level 55. So we
generally tried to stay away. No sense in drawing unnecessary
attention to ourselves.
While we hiked, I also kept an eye on the Dragon. It eventually
gave up its attack on the wall like it’d done before, flying back up to
the top of the mountain and resting there. And then, a few hours
later, it flew back down and attacked again. This attack didn’t last for
nearly as long, though, and by the time thirty minutes had passed, it
flew back up dejectedly. Seemed like it was already running out of
motivation to bother itself with fighting the Demons. I knew I would, if
I had to ram myself up against a magical shield over and over again.
By the time the sun had set, we’d gotten about halfway there, I
estimated. Expedite significantly sped up the process, which I was
extremely thankful for. But still, I wanted to hurry as much as
possible.
So to hurry, I’d been spending pretty much all of my Mana on
Expedite to keep a quick pace. We didn’t only use it to get past
impassable obstacles like cliff faces, but also just to move more
quickly across flat terrain. And because of Light Plate and
Exponential Reclamation, just within the time we’d been climbing, I’d
gotten the 355 Spell XP required for Rank 10. I remembered back
when it’d taken days of dedicated practice just to get Noxious Grasp
from Rank 9 to 10. Now I’d done it in a few hours.
That said, I wouldn’t be able to get the Rank-up benefits until I
used a Spell Crystal. So now I was just staring at this disappointing
notification.
Consume an Alteration Spell Crystal to increase Expedite
Rank to 10.
But once I got that crystal, I’d get to choose a new Upgrade.
Expedite was just waiting for that moment. And the rest of my Spells
were gonna get to that point soon, too. It was a bit disheartening to
know that I’d be unable to Rank them until later, but that was more
than made up for by the fact that the second I’d get those Spell
Crystals, I’d probably get to Upgrade almost all of my Spells.
It was unfortunate to have to effectively waste my Mana on
Expedite for now, since I’d still need to cast it to get us through the
mountain range but wouldn’t get any Spell XP for it, but I supposed
some things just needed to be done.
Once it was nighttime, we set up camp on the mountain edge to
sleep like normal. Ironically, now that we were up on the mountain
itself, we’d stopped having to worry as much about monster attacks.
It was like being in the eye of a storm—everything up here was so
dangerous, nothing stuck around to bother us. Even Drakes were
scarce, being so close to Dragon territory—especially when that
Dragon was as active as it was.
Still, we set up a watch system like normal for the night. This
time, I decided to just keep my two unused activations of Time Loop.
If I wanted to use them, I’d have to go out and find something to kill
first, which was actually quite unlikely, given how scarce finding
anything alive our here was, and I’d also have to live with the
possibility of dying in an instant if something like that Dragon or a
high-Level Drake found us in the few minutes it’d take to refresh
Time Loop. Considering those circumstances, I decided I’d just hold
onto them for safety.
So we just lay down and got ready to sleep. It felt nice to go back
to practicing Noxious Grasp after spending so much Mana on
Expedite, and I felt the bit of a headache that’d been coming on drift
away after spending some time resting and casting my familiar Spell.
Since Erani’s Angelic Shield Ranked up to 10, she wouldn’t be
able to Rank it any more until we got a Spell Crystal for her. But we
stayed in the same sleeping position we normally did for practice
anyway. Neither of us said a word, simply lying down next to each
other and wrapping our bodies together without discussion.
It’d just feel wrong to sleep without her, at this point—and I
suspected she felt the same. With everything going on, it was nice to
have someone to go through it all with.
"Good night," I murmured to Erani, eyes closed.
She hummed and nuzzled her head into the nape of my neck.
"Night, Arlan."
The next day, we awoke and quickly made off, ascending further into
the mountain range of Kingdom’s Edge. The cliffs we ascended and
hills we hiked got steeper and less Human-friendly, and we began
seeing more and more evidence that there were powers beyond
Humanity that resided here.
Early in the morning, we came across a crater the size of a
village that ate a chunk out the side of a slope. Later, we found a
cylindrical hole the shape of a talon that stabbed straight down at
least a dozen paces into the earth. We found the skeletal remains of
a massive Drake. And according to Index, this one was over Level
50.
I had no doubt that most, if not all, of these things had ben
caused by the Dragon. And every time I saw one of these displays of
power, I got a stronger and stronger sense that I should not have
been there. But with Dark Plate and Time Loop, I had safety nets to
keep my life intact. That didn’t quite quell my primal fear, though.
Something about existing in the same area as a beast that could so
easily demolish its environment just made me want to turn and run.
And, of course, as we neared the home of the Dragon, we also
saw the thing itself more and more often. It continued swooping
down to the wall and attacking, but those attacks progressively got
shorter and shorter. Its strategy seemed to be moving away from
long-term assaults and into quick and dirty hit-and-runs.
I had to imagine that the longer this went on, the more well-
established the Demon forces would get, and the more easily they’d
be able to repel the Dragon. We needed to talk to it and get
something figured out soon. I had a few ideas brewing in my head
about how we could subvert that magical shield, thanks to the info I’d
gotten from Index, but first we needed the Dragon to actually listen to
us.
Eventually, as the sun crested the sky and time passed to
afternoon, we climbed a routine ledge and, upon reaching the top,
found ourselves in front of a view that showed the entire path
through Kingdom’s Edge before us.
"Y’know," I said, staring down at the view alongside Erani, "if I
didn’t know I’d have to walk along that whole path soon, I’d say this
view was almost beautiful."
"Mm. Being able to see the wall that’s been made specifically to
kill us definitely dampens the mood."
"It does remind me of our first date, though. When we were up
there at the top of the clock tower. So I think I’ll forgive it for also
reminding me of how that clock tower got destroyed."
"You were such a dork back then," Erani laughed. "You were
totally out of your element back in that big city."
"It does feel pretty long ago, at this point," I said with a nod,
gazing across the landscape.
As I’d suspected, the wall that the Demons had built in that valley
wasn’t even halfway through the path. Once we passed that, we’d
need to walk for at least another half a day before we exited the
mountain range.
The Demons had also continued their construction while we were
climbing, and the wall was much taller and thicker by now, with
archer towers built into it and even more heavy weaponry lining the
boxes built into the side of the stone barricade. Their construction
was paused for now, though, as the Dragon had gone on one of its
now-routine attacks on the wall.
It’d long since learned that attacking the magic shield was a
waste of energy, since the shield would just be reformed even if it
was broken, and so the Dragon was now attacking the things left
outside the shield.
It struck at straggling soldiers out collecting resources, supply
lines, the surrounding environment that the wall was built into—
anything to disrupt its construction. I’d always heard that Dragons
were territorial, but this was intense. It did not want to allow anything
in its home.
The attack lasted for all of five minutes before the Dragon took
back to the skies and began heading back toward the peak where it
resided. This time, because of our positioning so close to that peak,
it’d fly right over our heads.
"Hurry, get under a bush or something," I said aloud to Erani and
mentally to the Dryad. "Don’t want that thing to see us before we’re
ready to talk."
We were high up enough that vegetation was pretty scarce, but
we made do with the bushes and sticks and leaves that lay around,
with Erani hiding under some branches and me being forced to rely
on the debris around to cover myself with. And the Dryad of course
had her own natural camouflage due to the pigmentation of her skin.
So I was lying under some rocks and sticks when the Dragon
flew over us, staring up at it and trying not to move. And while I
watched it pass over, I thought I saw it glance down at us and meet
my eyes. But it kept moving without coming down to attack us, so I
must’ve imagined it.
Once it was gone, we got back up.
"Think it saw us?" I asked Erani.
"I don’t know," she said. "Couldn’t see. But I guess it didn’t, if it
moved on."
"Hm. Index, what do you think?"
"I can’t see that far, but apparently you think it’s possible but
unlikely. So I’ll just agree with you."
"Very helpful." I rolled my eyes. "Keep an eye out ahead for us?
Just let me know if you see something dangerous."
"Got it."
A few hours later, the Dragon left its perch once again and headed
down to the wall. This time, we were prepared for it, so we had
hiding spots already picked out and we were totally hidden from sight
by the time it passed over our location. I’d also decided to switch
from Light Plate to Dark Plate with Ethereal Armor, since no matter
whether or not it saw us, we’d be talking with the Dragon soon, and
keeping it from one-shotting me would be nice.
Once the Dragon started flying back up to the top of the
mountain, we hid once again below a rocky overhang, preventing
anything in the air from seeing us. We also couldn’t see anything in
the air, of course, but we’d just wait a few minutes to be sure the
Dragon was gone, and then we could come out once it was safe.
"If plan is to get Dragon attention and talk, why we hiding?" the
Dryad asked in a tone I felt was exasperated and inpatient.
"We need to show it we’re here specifically to talk. If it just sees
us randomly in the mountains, it’ll probably assume we’re with the
Demons and kill us like it does with the other soldiers it sees. But if
we show up at its home and we’re the ones to initiate conversation,
we can explain what we want and what we can offer."
"…Okay."
"Uh, hey Arlan?" Index said into my ear while I spoke with the
Dryad. "The Dragon just came into my view. It normally doesn’t get
close enough for me to see it. I think it may be⁠—"
Index was interrupted by a massive crash and a collapse of the
rocky overhang above us. Gigantic boulders and pieces of stone
rained down upon us, destroying everything beneath.
You have been crushed by stone. 3.61k damage.

Dark Plate has triggered. Damage has been reduced to 165.
Your Health is 165.
Due to preventing damage, Dark Plate is broken. It will be
unable to trigger for 37.9 seconds.
I coughed, finding myself crushed beneath countless pieces of

rock. I couldn’t even begin to move, pinned down by the rubble.
When I tried reaching out to my connection with the Dryad, I
found it nonexistent. As if it’d never been there in the first place. Why
couldn’t I⁠—
"Yeah, Dryad’s dead," I heard the familiar voice of Index say.
"Erani is, too. All these rocks were super overkill."
I tried to speak, but couldn’t muster the energy. Apparently, even
if Dark Plate had prevented the damage from killing me, it sure as
hells didn’t prevent pain.
"Don’t worry, you don’t need to speak. Your lungs are so full of
dust you probably couldn’t even if your entire body wasn’t being
crushed right now. To answer the question you want to ask, yes, it
was the Dragon. Thing’s still here, actually. Standing on top of all
these rocks."
I heard a muffled voice come from above me, something out in
the open air. It was deep and primal, and had an accent I couldn’t
even begin to place. "Three damage notifications. Two kill
notifications. Two Humans and a Dryad for damage. One Human
and one Dryad for kill. A Human is still alive. Reveal yourself.
Perhaps, if you beg enough, I will allow you to live."
It said that last part much louder than the rest—it was obviously
talking to me.
It seemed like the Dragon decided to bring the meeting to us.
21
WELCOME TO HELL: WALLED OFF
A DEVIL STOOD at a desk in a damp, dark room. This room

reminded him of his old office, but it wasn’t his. In fact, this office was
exactly 2.8 percent larger than his old office—something he was
painfully aware of.
"How are things going with the Arlan Nota job?" his superior
asked him. She was sitting at her desk in her office, with the Devil
standing before her. The jagged, stony walls of the Underworld that
once felt comforting to the Devil now just felt hostile and oppressive.
And the sight of his superior—the same one who demoted him—did
nothing to help this feeling.
"They are proceeding well, Superior
Quinmorada’qualticularoohdodonmi’asmomonomomonminmi’oohdoo
hdimyuumyuuquanquimi’jinndarrqyuqyakwuquoquanki’miminanmujar
dinmani’ quokinwukanquokokanki."
"Give me specifics. Your history with this case fills me with no
confidence when hearing that things are proceeding ‘well.’ Is Arlan
Nota close to death?"
"Fucking—how do you expect me to know that?" The Devil shook
his head. "We have defenses set up. He’ll probably die soon. We’ll
see⁠—"
"Xhag." His superior stared at him with a look of warning on her
face. "I am aware you’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the
Overworld around the Humans. I am aware that they have a…certain
way of speaking. I am aware you are so weak-minded as to allow
yourself to be influenced by them and adopt that way of speaking.
However, I am not aware that I have ever authorized you to speak to
me in such a manner."
He stared at her. He’d slipped up again. More and more, he
found himself speaking and thinking using those words that the
Humans did. At first, he’d just spoken to the Humans that way so
they’d fully understand that he was above them. Then he spoke that
way to his underling Demons. Now he was having trouble removing
such casual prose from his vocabulary. "I’m sorry, Superior⁠—"
"You’re sorry? I assume you mean ‘formal expression of apology.’
Xhag, you must become aware that I could have you executed for
the way you’ve spoken to me."
"Ah—yes. A most formal expression of apology, Superior
hdimyuumyuuquanquimi’jinndarrqyuqyakwuquoquanki’
miminanmujardinmani’quokinwukanquokokanki. It will not happen
again."
"Don’t worry, I won’t execute you. For now. But I fully intend to
give you a fate worse than death if you do not succeed here. Kill
Arlan Nota before he escapes to that other Human territory, or you
will face severe consequences."
The Devil fought back a scoff. As if he weren’t already facing
severe punishment with this overwork they were forcing him under.
All he wanted—more than anything—was for this to be over.
"Don’t disappoint me, Xhag. You can give me your report later,
since it seems like for now, you’ve accomplished nothing of note."
His superior waved her hand, shooing him out of her office. "Get
back to work."
So the Devil sat back down at his desk, surrounded by his "peers" in
rank only—he was obviously still better than them. He, of course,
wouldn’t be doing his copying work. Instead, he needed to make
some calls.
Talking with the Overworlders over Communication Crystal had
become one of his main time sinks ever since he ordered the wall to
be built, and if he was being honest, it’d become a bit of a relief to
talk with them instead of his fellow Demons. At least they weren’t so
particular about his language.
"Update me on how things are going," he said once the crystal
connected. Humans apparently didn’t have ready access to this
technology, so it took some time to get them used to it.
"Hello? Is this thing on?" The elderly voice of Winic Vigandoth
echoed through, and the Devil’s coworkers stared at him, annoyed.
He didn’t have a private office, so any time he made a call, everyone
else had to listen.
"Yes. It’s on. Give me an update."
"Hold on," he croaked, and there was a staticky shuffling sound,
like someone was rubbing their sleeve up against the sound-
sensitive crystal. "There, it’s cleaner. Should transmit signal better."
The Devil winced at the loud noise. "…The cleanliness of the
crystal has nothing to do with the sound quality."
"Hold on, hold on, let me just get this last smudge off…"
"You don’t—listen, just give it to someone else. I’ll get the report
from them. Is, uh…Keiki Umesai around?"
"Ah, yes, sir. She just got back from a scouting mission. I’ll find
her right away."
Winic Vigandoth was one of the many leaders of the wall project.
He was one of the only people who truly understood that Enchanted
rock they’d pulled out of the royal vaults—the one that generated the
shield. So even though he was a bit strange, he was integral to the
functioning of the project. The rest of the leaders had a bit more
common sense, though, so he liked to speak to them rather than
Winic.
These leaders, unlike the people that’d been in charge of the
previous kingdom projects, had been handpicked by the Devil.
Before, when all he interacted with were those fucking idiots who
sided with the dead King Koinkar, he absolutely hated interacting
with Humans. But now, it wasn’t that bad anymore. At least they
were competent.
Winic Vigandoth had been some court Wizard wasting his talents
on research instead of actual military expansion. Sure, he was
eccentric, but he also knew more about magical artifacts than
anyone else—even if he tended to get the wrong idea every now and
then, like his strange superstition about the Communication Crystals
and keeping them clean. Keiki Umesai had originally been assigned
to be a military strategist—yet another waste of talent, as she was
clearly much better fighting battles herself, rather than telling others
how to do it.
There were a few other leaders of the wall project, not all as high-
Leveled as Winic and Keiki. Some of them didn’t have Classes at all,
in fact. That was something a few of the Humans seemed rather
appalled at, actually. Something along the lines of "people without
Classes shouldn’t run military operations." It seemed like the
Humans thought they were too weak? But to the Devil, all of the
Humans in the kingdom were pretty weak, so it didn’t make much of
a difference to him.
Most of the strong ones lived elsewhere, and even the strong
ones that had resided in the kingdom to begin with left once they
realized what was going on. After all, to become strong as a Human,
you had to survive a long time—and you didn’t survive a long time by
fighting battles that weren’t necessary.
But Keiki Umesai was at least smart. She knew what she was
doing, and she knew how to do it well. So when he heard from Keiki
on the Communication Crystal, he trusted what she said.
"Sir, the fugitive should have been here by now. To put it candidly,
something has gone wrong."
And that was not something he wanted to hear from a trusted
source. "You haven’t seen any sign of him?"
"No, sir. We’ve begun sending out scouting parties, which I’ve
led, but still haven’t seen him. We especially should’ve seen signs of
his group if they were in the wasteland. There’s no cover to hide in."
"And those scouts we gave the invisibility rings to?"
"One of them was captured, presumably questioned, then killed
before we could retrieve him. So we’re assuming the fugitive knows
everything he knew. We’re also assuming he has the remaining
rings, so we have stopped sending out scouts. The fugitive and his
group know to watch out for them now, and if they catch more, they
get more rings, which could be detrimental to us."
The Devil frowned. "Okay. So where is he, then?"
"We don’t know."
"Well, we have some ideas," a new voice came in faintly from the
background.
"Ah, Carison Aakbi." The Devil recognized the voice. This man
was one of the Unclassed he’d put in charge. This Human ran a
merchant company that spread all over the kingdom. And he’d built it
up since he was just a peasant, scraping up enough money to eat by
selling scraps out of the garbage that he’d cooked into edible—and
even tasty—food.
Whether that’d be considered ethical by most was up for debate,
but the Devil could appreciate someone with the ambition and
intelligence to drag themself up from nothing like that. When the
Devil had first heard of the fact that, in Human culture, a person of
trash birth could rise up to become a king, he’d been disgusted. But
now he understood it.
Maybe it was different for Demons. But with Humans, it really
seemed like some were just born into unlucky circumstances, but
were still intelligent and hardworking. And they deserved to see
some reward for that diligence. So when he heard about Carison,
who had gone from meager street rat to influential merchant, he was
eager to recruit him. It was relatively easy—all he had to do was get
some money out of the royal treasury and wave it in front of the
man’s face—and the Devil was glad to have him on his team.
"Where do you think Arlan Nota is?" the Devil asked.
"If people aren’t coming to your establishment, they aren’t just
sitting around at home. They go somewhere else, instead—a
competitor," Carison said.
"And who would our ‘competitor’ be in this metaphor?"
"The ‘product’ we’re selling is passage through Kingdom’s Edge.
We’ve just designed it such that the price is impossible to pay—take
down the wall. We hoped we had a monopoly, such that the fugitive
had no other options on ways to get through, so they’d have to pay
our impossible price. However, it seems we do have a competitor
after all—one that’s offering a better way to get through. And that
would be the being that’s been trying to take this wall down the
whole time we’ve been building it."
The Devil frowned. He’d heard about their issues with the
Dragon, of course. The wall gave a report every time it attacked. He
knew its attacks had been getting weaker and shorter, while the
wall’s defenses were getting stronger and stronger. Sure, they had
no hope of actually killing the thing, but he was pretty confident it’d
get bored eventually. As long as they didn’t actively antagonize it and
get the attention of the other Dragons—no way they’d survive an
onslaught from multiple at once—it shouldn’t have been an issue.
And since it didn’t seem to realize the wall repelled magical attacks
much more effectively than it did physical ones, it most likely
wouldn’t ever break through.
But if the fugitive worked together with it, they might have
problems. Really, they didn’t even need to take down the wall at all.
If the Dragon just distracted the soldiers in the wall, Arlan Nota could
sneak by. Or, really, it could just fly them away.
The Devil wasn’t too scared of either of those things happening—
the Dragon would only help them if they had something to offer, and
the only thing they could offer would be helping it take down the wall
—but the longer this went on, the more time Arlan Nota had to find a
way through this.
"So you think he’s climbing the mountain to go contact the
Dragon, then?" he asked.
"It’s a possibility."
"Hm. Send a scouting party into the mountains and see if you can
find him, then."
"Sir," Keiki cut in, "climbing the mountains would be suicide for an
ordinary group of soldiers. Especially approaching a Dragon that’s
trying so hard to kill them."
"You’re not an ordinary soldier. Could you lead them?"
There was a pause before she eventually responded, "It may not
be a good idea. If we’re too slow and the Dragon comes back for a
full-force attack alongside the fugitive, if I’m not there to help defend,
things will go poorly. It’d be an incredibly risky move to go off on this
wild goose chase. I think we should stay back and wait for him to
come to us."
"We need to actively work to achieve our goals," Carison said,
"not wait for them to be achieved for us. The fugitive will not simply
come to us and die for the sake of our convenience. We cannot hole
up and wait."
"If Keiki doesn’t want to be sent out on the mission, I won’t make
her," the Devil said. She’d probably perform worse if he forced her
out like that. Or just desert—he knew that a large part of the reason
she was protesting was almost certainly because she didn’t want to
personally put herself at risk of facing the Dragon without the
protection of the magic barrier. "Besides, I have some ideas for a
couple other people that can lead this excursion."
"Are you sure, sir?" Keiki asked. "Anyone you send out is likely
going to be risking their life. I’m not sure if anyone would voluntarily
go out."
"Oh, don’t worry. They’ve been learning discipline for the last
week or so. I’ll send them over in a bit—you may recognize them,
actually. You’ll hear from me when they’re on their way."
"Okay, sir. Thank you."
"Of course."
The Devil hung up, then reached his Mana into the Crystal once
again to make a new call. This time, the Succubus he had posing as
King Koinkar picked up.
"Yes, Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook?"
"I want you to get some people out of prison for me."
"Of course, Superior Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook. Who would
you like me to order freed?"
"Take Ripley and Asmo out of their week of torture. And be sure
to tell them the premature end is conditional. I’m giving them one
chance to make up for their mistake in the past—letting Arlan Nota
survive."
22
WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM: RELEASE
RIPLEY TENET LAID on the floor of a cold, dark room. She was
recovering from day three of her week of torture. Or was it day four?
She couldn’t keep track of it, at this point. All she knew was that it
wasn’t over yet.
Her only companion in her experience, Asmo, was with her for
now. They normally only got around two hours each day to recover
together before one of them would be taken away for the next
session. So while Ripley laid on the floor, trying to rest, Asmo leaned
up against the wall in a sitting position.
They didn’t speak much during their breaks—Ripley was barely
conscious enough to think, let alone talk—but simply being in
Asmo’s presence brought Ripley some comfort. Someone she knew
had gone through the same experiences she had. They could suffer
in silence together.
Out of the two of them, Ripley could tell Asmo was taking this
better. Asmo, at least, had the strength to sit up while she rested.
Though her matted hair covered her face, Ripley could still see
Asmo’s eyes—there was still fight in them.
Just a few more days, Ripley said to herself. Just a few more,
and she’d be free. What she’d do when she was free, she had no
idea. Fight the Demons? Run? She still had no idea how to feel
about King Koinkar. His life had been threatened by that Demon,
sure, but he was still the one to put her through this. Could she really
continue to take orders from him after going through this pain that he
ordered?
Her thoughts were interrupted by footsteps coming down the
corridor.
"No," she muttered. It was only halfway through her four-hour
break. They shouldn’t have been here so soon. "Please don’t take
me."
A helmeted guard walked up to the cell, keys in hand, and Ripley
weakly kicked her legs, pushing away from the door. She was a
high-Level Melee Classer—probably higher-Level than the guard—
but there were more than enough ways to reduce her power. Stat-
lowering Enchanted bracelets cuffed onto her, items that locked
away her Talents and Martial arts—given enough resources and the
ability to actually put these things on a person, you could reduce just
about anyone back down to the strength of an Unclassed.
The guard inserted the key and turned it. The rusty lock grinded
open, and the door creaked ajar.
"Please," Ripley moaned. "Not yet."
"King Koinkar wants to see you," the voice from the helmet said.
Ripley’s voice caught in her throat. That…wasn’t what they
normally said. She just stared at the guard, unsure of what to say.
Asmo looked over, too.
"Both of you," the man continued. "Come with me. We’ll get you
some food and rest afterward."
Ripley met Asmo’s eyes. Rest? Food? Were they…?
No. She let herself finish that thought. Otherwise, she’d just be
setting herself up for disappointment. They were getting a short
break. Maybe King Koinkar just wanted some information.
Hells, maybe he just wanted some feedback on the torture
methods. Ripley chuckled darkly to herself at the thought. Taking a
survey to improve the quality of the pain. Honestly, that seemed like
the type of thing Asmo would actually do. Way too pragmatic. But
Ripley supposed that pragmatism was helping now—at least Asmo
hadn’t been totally broken yet.
"C’mon, let’s go," the helmeted man said again. His tone was
softer than the guards normally were when they said that line, which
put a bit more confidence in Ripley. She hesitantly got to her feet,
only able to stand because of the hope pushing her on now—and the
remaining physical Stats that hadn’t been drained away by her
shackles.
Asmo stood too, looking suspiciously at the guard, who just stood
there looking at them. Once they walked through the door, he turned
and led them away, off in a different direction from where they
normally went for their sessions.
Ripley leaned over to Asmo as they walked. "What do you think’s
going on?"
"I do not know," Asmo muttered back. "Just stay ready. Whatever
it is, I am not sure that I like it."
They arrived in the throne room, Koinkar sitting atop his usual golden
throne. He looked at them strangely, as though he didn’t recognize
them, but Ripley wasn’t sure if that was actually true or if she was
just imagining things. She wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind,
and she knew it.
"Greeting, Asmo and Ripley," the king said. "Are you doing well?"
Ripley blinked. "Are we…doing well?"
"No," Asmo said. "You are torturing us."
"Ah, right." Koinkar looked embarrassed. "It is a phrase, yes? I
forgot what it could mean when used literally."
What? Ripley thought. How could he forget what "are you doing
well" meant? Maybe she was more mentally affected than she’d
realized, because she felt completely lost in this conversation
already.
"Er, anyway," he continued, "you’re being set free."
That woke Ripley up. Even Asmo’s normally unemotive face lit up
with widened eyes.
"W-what?" Ripley asked. "What do you mean?"
"Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook ordered for you to be set free from
your torture and to go work on a project of his."
Now Ripley was lost again. "Xhag’duulini-who?"
"Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook. He is the Devil you’ve met
already. The one who ordered your torture in the first place."
"And you…take orders from him?"
"Ah, yes. I forgot you were not informed. The Koinkar Kingdom
will be fully collaborating with Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook to catch
and kill Arlan Nota. We found that would be the most mutually
beneficial option available to us, and⁠—"
"You’re working for him?!" Ripley took a step toward the brilliant
throne housing the frail man, breathing heavily. "He destroyed—he
tortured—he killed Camilla!"
"Yes, it is unfortunate what happened because of my previous
insistence on working against him." Koinkar nodded. "But that is in
the past. We are now⁠—"
"The death of your only daughter is ‘unfortunate?’ What in the
hells is wrong with you? You were always a cowardly old man, but
working for those filthy, evil fucking Demons, it’s⁠—"
"Insubordination will not be tolerated!" Koinkar stood tall from his
throne, cutting an imposing figure that Ripley had never thought his
weak old body could ever show. His suddenly strong voice echoed
through the massive throne room. "If you continue to argue with me
and insult our allies, I will not hesitate to throw you back in that cell to
be tortured for the rest of your life! Now, listen to me and do as I say.
Know your place."
With a look of genuine fear on her face, Ripley took a step back.
"You’re…different. You’d throw me back in there? Demons are our
allies? Something’s changed with you. This isn’t right. I…"
"I don’t care what you think. Just listen to me. We suspect Arlan
Nota is in the mountains of Kingdom’s Edge. We want you and Asmo
to lead a squad of soldiers into the mountains, find him, and kill him.
And that is what you will do. We will give you some time to eat and
rest—perhaps forty-three minutes should do it—and then you will
depart."
Ripley looked over at Asmo, who was eyeing Koinkar with a
certain glare. Neither of them said anything.
"No objections? Great. Guard, take them to their temporary
quarters. And prepare a teleporter to take them to the bastion."
The guard walked away and they followed, but Ripley’s mind was
elsewhere. Something was wrong with Koinkar. She wasn’t totally
sure what it was, when he’d changed, or how it’d even happened,
but she would find out what it was. For now, she’d go along with
whatever this cooperating-with-the-Demons bullshit was going on.
But she wouldn’t be controlled like this forever.
Asmo stood in the cramped quarters she’d been allowed to rest
in for the next forty-three minutes. There was a bed in the corner,
which she’d obviously be unable to make real use of in such a short
amount of time, and pretty much nothing else. Just plain walls and a
door.
She agreed with what Ripley had said—Koinkar was obviously
acting strangely. And it wasn’t just those big decisions he’d made,
either. Sure, he was running the kingdom poorly, but what set
Asmo’s mind on high alert more than anything were the small
conversational details and slip-ups.
He’d said "greeting" when he first saw them. Not hello, or even
greetings. Greeting. That was weird. He took the time to memorize
that Devil’s name. He picked such an oddly specific time for their
time to rest. And he only got truly angry when Ripley insulted the
Demons.
Asmo was almost completely certain she knew what had
happened here. She had no idea how it happened, but she did know
what was going on.
And she intended to confront it.
She stepped out of her room, closing the door behind her.
A guard standing nearby looked at her. "Lady Asmo, please stay
in your room and rest. You can’t be out here⁠—"
You have activated Blink.

45 Stamina Cost. Your Stamina is 131.
In an instant, Asmo disappeared from view and appeared a
couple dozen paces away, down the hall and out of sight of the
guard. It was so nice to be able to activate her Martial Arts again.
Those Enchantments preventing them from using their System
abilities had been removed once they got out of the cells, so she was
no longer prevented from using what she’d relied on for so much of
her life.
Blink was effectively a short-range teleportation Martial Art, with
the caveat that the user had to be able to reach the place they were
teleporting to normally. So she wouldn’t be able to teleport through a
wall, since she couldn’t walk through a wall. But she could use Blink
to go down some halls just fine.
You have activated Blink.

With another activation of the Martial Art, Asmo was back in the
throne room.
She walked up to King Koinkar, who was still sitting on his throne.
Without her weapons, she wouldn’t be able to do much, but she
really just wanted to talk, so she wasn’t too worried.
"What are you doing here?!" Koinkar stood up abruptly—
something Asmo knew such a frail old man shouldn’t have been able
to do. He was holding something in his hand, a blue glowing crystal
of some sort—something Asmo had never seen before. "Get back to
your quarters."
"Hello Koinkar," Asmo said.
The king just looked at her expectantly. Asmo waited for him to
say something, but he never said it.
"That is the first time I have seen you not correct someone who
did not call you King Koinkar."
"W-what?" He frowned, looking a bit worried. "I just—I’m a bit
stressed."
Yes, that confirmed it. "How long has Koinkar been dead?"
He just blinked.
"Or is he only captured, perhaps? Or I am speaking to him, but
he is mind-controlled in some fashion? I do not particularly care
about the specifics. But this is a recent thing, yes? The change was
made while I was confined?"
"Koinkar" lifted the blue crystal up to his mouth and muttered into
it, then lifted it to his ear and listened to a voice that returned. He
never took his cautious eyes off of Asmo. There were no guards in
the room at the time—probably to give him some privacy with that
strange speaking crystal—so Asmo wasn’t worried about exposing
these secrets. It didn’t seem like anyone else knew about him being
replaced.
"I do not want to work against you," Asmo continued. "I assume
you’re a Demon, yes? Or you’re working for the Demons? I,
personally, do not mind working for them, so that would not be an
issue."
He slowly lowered the crystal back to his mouth, and spoke into it
again. This time, she could barely hear him saying, "I will call you
back, Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook. Report of this interaction to
come."
"Thank you. I prefer speaking to you over that specific Demon.
He was the one who ordered my torture, so I hope you understand
my lack of fondness for him."
"Why shouldn’t I kill you?" he said to Asmo. His tone was
completely different now. Instead of the rough croak that Koinkar
normally forced from his throat, this thing spoke with a smooth,
borderline seductive voice. Something oozing charisma and
confidence.
"I am a powerful Human—one you do not need to deceive. I
suspect there are few, if any, Humans who are aware of this little
coup you have performed. I can be someone who you do not need to
worry about lying to."
"And why would I believe that you aren’t planning on
backstabbing us?"
"Why would I admit I know about this? Playing dumb would
obviously be the better decision if I wanted to work against you."
"Unless you gained our trust using such an admission, which you
are attempting to do right now."
"Of course I am trying to gain your trust. However you have done
it, your group has taken over the Koinkar Kingdom. If I am to move
up in the world, I should ally myself with this new power, not hold
onto some dying old faction. I want to help you because you are
powerful, and I want to ensure I do not find myself fighting a losing
battle."
"And you are okay with working against your own species? And
working with the people who tortured you?"
"I am working for myself, not against my species. If the rest of the
Humans decide they are against me, so be it. And I am willing to
work with you because you showed your power by ordering my
torture. Even before you took over Koinkar, your power was able to
strongarm the kingdom into ordering the torture of its own soldiers.
Clearly, the best way to avoid going through that again is to stop
working against you."
"Koinkar" rubbed his chin. It was becoming more and more
obvious as she watched that she was watching something puppeteer
a body more than Koinkar himself doing these things. None of his
mannerisms were there. And judging by the strict scarcity of guards
around the castle, she suspected most of the ones who used to be
here had been kicked out or executed by now.
"Does Ripley know?" the king asked.
"No, I suspect not. We have not spoken about it, at least."
"I will have you verify all of what you’ve said under Truth Stone, I
hope you are aware."
"Of course. On the condition that you verify under Truth Stone
that you have no intention to immediately execute, imprison, or
torture me again without me doing anything to provoke you."
"Hm. Fine. Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook really wants you to lead
this squad, so I suppose I won’t kill you for as long as you are
useful."
"Then I will make sure I stay useful." And hopefully, she’d prove
her worth well enough, soon enough, that she could begin working
up the ranks with this new organization. "One caveat, though. I will
work with you, and do whatever you say, as long as you promise me
one thing. Ripley Tenet is to never be informed about anything
relating to this. And nothing will harm her. If I am taken care of, so is
she."
"Hm. You Humans are so strange. Why would you care about
her? You just said you’d be willing to kill innocents. And now you
want us to protect someone?"
"I take care of what is mine," was all Asmo answered with. "What
will you do when Arlan Nota is killed?"
The king just shrugged. "I’m just following orders. Our circle of
the Underworld will likely try to stay established up here for the long
term, though. We already have developed a foothold, after all. So do
not worry about us disappearing and leaving you with nothing."
Asmo nodded. "Well, then, I look forward to a mutually beneficial
relationship between us. And I look forward to completing my first
mission."
The king grunted. "Yes. Kill Arlan Nota, and we will grant you
anything you want. I am sure Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook will
personally make sure of it, at this point."
23
FAILED NEGOTIATIONS
I LAY CRUSHED beneath the rubble of the overhang destroyed by

the Dragon as it stood atop the wreckage searching for me. Erani
and the Dryad were dead, so I knew for a fact that this timeline
wasn’t one I’d continue in even if I did survive this. But still, I’d use
this opportunity to try and get at least a bit of information from the
Dragon.
So I tried to shift myself out from under the rubble that crushed
me.
But I couldn’t. It was all so heavy I couldn’t move at all. My arms
were pinned under jagged rocks, my torso and legs would’ve been
broken if not for Dark Plate reducing the damage and saving my life,
and I couldn’t see anything. I tried casting Expedite on myself, but no
matter how limber the extra Dexterity made me, I simply didn’t have
the power in my muscles to move.
So instead, I resorted to coughing the dust from my lungs and
shouting out.
"Please," I croaked, "spare me."
My voice must’ve been weak and muffled, coming through all the
stone that was on top of me, but I still felt the Dragon move around,
the entire layer of rocks covering me shifting.
Its voice came through again, this time much louder—it must’ve
moved its head closer to me so I could hear it better. Its deep voice
rumbled my heart. "Who are you?"
"My—" I coughed. "My name is Arlan. I am not against you. I
want to take that wall down too."
I felt a rumbling from above and the rocks covering me were drug
out of the way. One sweep of the rubble aside, and I felt the weight
lessen. Another, and suddenly I felt like I may be able to move. A
third, and finally I could see sunlight breaking through the gaps of the
gravel.
I laboriously raised my hands and shifted the dirt and stone away
from my face, and I could finally see clearly.
Staring straight down at me was the massive scaly face of a
Dragon—head taller than my entire body. Its yellow eyes seemed
like they glowed brighter than the sun, staring through me. Its
reddish-purple scales glinted dominantly, like the beast was
brimming with power. Its nostrils flared with each breath, the heat
from its air feeling like it would melt my skin if I let it too close to me.
"You are the living one," it said, its massive mouth opening and
showing me just how easily it could eat me—one bite would be all
it’d take.
"Yes, thank you for sparing me," I said, getting to my feet only to
fall to my knees, bowing my head toward it. "Please, I believe I can
offer you help⁠—"
"What is my name?"
"I—what?"
"You have told me your name. Tell me my name."
"I don’t know." I looked at it, confused. "You haven’t told me yet."
"No. You have not heard of me. Why would you want my help if
you do not know who I am?"
Ah. It was a pride thing. This Dragon wanted someone who could
stroke its ego. I took a moment to think, then spoke, "I am aware of
the great Dragon species, of course. As a member of such a family
of beings, you demand great respect. I can promise that I believe in
your power."
"But you do not know my name." Its deep voice shook my core,
teeth shining a reflection of the broken helm of my Dark Plate. It was
slowly reforming as the forty-second timer ticked down until it could
be used again.
"I’m willing to learn!" I said. "Please, inform me of your
greatness."
"I am Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder,
Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker,
Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash!
All know my name! You are ignorant. You are stupid. You are
worthless."
"Yes, my sincerest apologies." I committed what the Dragon said
to memory, doing my best to remember all ten titles alongside the
damn thing’s actual name. The Intelligence Stat helped to increase
memory, in the same way Strength increased physical power and
Conjuration increased Spellcasting speed, so memorizing the name
wasn’t as hard as it would’ve been for an Unclassed person.
"Your apology is worthless," Astintash said. "Someone who does
not even know who I am, trying to speak with me as though they are
my equal? I thought you might be an intriguing Human, since you
survived my attack, but clearly your mind is not as strong as your
body."
"Please, educate me on your great deeds," I said.
The Dragon looked down at me. "You have no manners
whatsoever. No offering, no foreknowledge, all you can do is ask
things of me. I refuse to hear you out further."
"Wait, please⁠—"
Astintash opened its mouth. "I hope you are worth a good
amount of XP, Human."
You have been bitten. 2.8k damage.

Your Health is 0.
You have died.
Yeah, I didn’t really expect to survive very long. As I appeared in
the void, I tried to ignore the memory of the pain of my body splitting
in two, focusing on what I’d gained. I knew the Dragon’s name—that
was huge, considering how much Astintash seemed to care that I
didn’t know it before. But I’d also gathered some other valuable
information from our conversation.
Obviously, by looking at the ten titles the Dragon preceded its
name with, I could infer some things about its past. Giantslayer—it’d
killed Giants. Same with Kinsbane—it’d probably killed some other
Dragons before. It was proud of its physical power, considering how
many titles mentioned its ability to destroy things, so we probably
needed to specifically mention that.
And there were some other things I’d learned from small things
Astintash had said. Little context clues to give me some ideas on
what we could do.
But that still left me with the question of how it’d found us. Did it
somehow see us under the stone overhang, or something?
I felt myself begin to fade, and hurriedly selected a time—the
maximum I was allowed to go back, four hours.
And then I was back, lying under some rubble. For a second, I
panicked. Why was I covered in rocks? Had I accidentally gone back
four minutes or something instead of four hours, and now was I still
crushed under the fallen stone of the overhang?
But then I realized where—and when—I was. This was when we
were hiding from the Dragon the first time, when it flew harmlessly
over us. We were safe.
I peered up from underneath the stones and sticks I’d piled up on
top of myself and gazed at the soaring beast that I’d just seen up
close. And as I did so, I saw its glowing yellow eye shift ever so
slightly, meeting mine. Then it looked away and kept flying.
It was then that I realized. It had seen me just now! Before, when
this had first happened, I thought I might have seen it glance down at
me, but hadn’t been sure. And when it left, I’d just assumed I was
mistaken. But that time I was sure. Astintash had seen me.
It’d probably noticed us on the mountain, but didn’t want to attack
until it was sure we were headed for it and not just making our way
through. Or it wanted to get a gauge on our abilities, or had been
weakened from its previous assault, and wanted to make sure it was
in top shape before engaging with a group of unknowns. Whatever
the reason, it knew we were here, and it seemed like it’d come and
"talk" with us in about four hours if we were still around.
Part of me wanted to go back again with my second use of Time
Loop, four more hours back. That way we could be sure it didn’t
know where we were. But if we did that, we’d either have to engage
with it when we had no uses remaining, or wait until tomorrow to get
my uses back, which would just delay our plans and give the
Demons even more time to establish their defense.
No, we needed to try this now, when the timing was right.
I knew what Astintash wanted from us. I also knew that, at least
this time, it was willing to talk. Sort of. It’d made a single surprise
attack that had killed Erani and the Dryad instantly, but when it
realized I’d survived, it was fully willing to discuss things with me for
a bit. And it only killed me because I didn’t navigate the conversation
correctly.
Now I could say the right things and actually get to negotiate with
it if we survived that initial attack, so all I had to do was get it to land
in a way that didn’t kill us. And something it’d said back there gave
me an idea of how to do so.
"Arlan?" Erani said, leaning over to look at me.
I blinked. I was still lying under cover, long after Astintash had
flown away.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry," I said. "Time Loop."
She immediately glanced back up at where the Dragon had
disappeared. "What happened?"
"You can probably guess. Dragon killed us all. And I think it saw
us when it flew over just now. At least, I can’t imagine how it knew
where we were when it killed us. We were well-hidden at the time."
"Well, if it saw us, what are we supposed to do to stay alive this
time?"
"Well, I learned a good bit about it before it killed me," I said.
"First, its name is Astintash. Well, really, it’s Mountaintamer,
Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Wastelayer, Ashbearer…wait. No, there was
another one in there. Homeholder? Yeah, Homeholder, Wastelayer,
Ashbearer, and then it was…Earthquaker? Or no, was it something
else? Fuck."
My Intelligence Stat clearly wasn’t helping me quite as much as
I’d hoped it would with remembering all of the titles. Even if I did
remember most, I suspected that if I missed one or even just didn’t
get them in the correct order, it’d be seen as a massive insult to
Astintash.
"It’s, uh…"
Index spoke up. "Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane,
Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker,
Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens
Astintash."
"What?"
"That’s the correct order. I’m looking through my logs right now.
When you heard it, that’s what you repeated back to yourself to try
and remember."
"Oh. Thanks." I’d forgotten Index not only experienced what I did,
but had an immutable log that’d forever hold all information I took in.
It effectively gave me a perfect memory, as long as Index had the
time to look back through and find it. That was…useful. I hadn’t even
considered that when I first thought about what Index could do for
me.
"What is it?" Erani asked.
I repeated the full name back to her. "Index just reminded me.
Pretty useful to have around, honestly."
"That’s what I’m here for!" Index said cheerfully.
"Anyway, yeah, that’s the Dragon’s name. And it’ll get pissed if
you don’t remember, so we should probably all go over it a few times
to make sure."
"Okay, so if we know the name, it won’t kill us?"
"…Not quite. It killed us instantly without even giving us a chance
to talk, but Dark Plate saved me. It was only after it noticed I was still
alive that I could get some info out of it. So if we can get it to avoid
attacking initially, then we can show off that we know about it, and
from there we should be safe."
"And how do you suggest we keep it from killing us at first?
Should we just find a deep cave we can hide in so it can’t reach us,
or something?"
"That may work, but I think I have a better idea," I said. "When it
was talking to me, it kept talking about how insulted it felt that I didn’t
do any of the ‘good manners’ stuff. I didn’t know its name, didn’t
know its history, but most importantly, it said I didn’t bring an
offering."
Erani slowly nodded. "An offering. So we just have to find
something to offer it."
"Exactly. We put out an offering in a big, visible area, and then
when it flies by to kill us, it’ll see that we’ve left the offering out, be
impressed by our good manners, and come down to talk. Then we
can negotiate about taking down the wall and stuff. If that still doesn’t
work, then we can just go back, run away, and try again tomorrow.
It’ll suck to be set back another day, but that way we aren’t risking
anything."
"Okay, that makes sense. But what can we offer? Not really much
of value that we have on us. And definitely not anything big enough
to draw its attention from up in the air."
"We don’t have anything on us now, but we can gather something
to offer."
"Like what?" Erani frowned.
"Well," I said, "Dragons have to eat, don’t they?"
"Okay…"
"And we saw quite a few Drakes on our way up here."
Erani looked at me.
"I think it’s time to do some big-game hunting."
24
OFFERING
ERANI, the Dryad, and I walked through the forest, looking for
Drakes.
We knew that, in just a few hours, it was pretty unlikely we’d
actually get enough Drake meat together to sate a Dragon’s
appetite. Drakes were big, sure—head to tail, they were probably
five, or even ten, paces long. But I’d just seen a Dragon up close.
And I could tell just how much it’d need to eat to actually be satisfied.
Still, I wasn’t too worried. This offering wasn’t actually about
giving something of significant value to the Dragon—it could easily
kill a few Drakes. No, this was more about showing that we had
friendly intentions. It’d at least be able to tell that for us, killing
Drakes was difficult and dangerous, and if we were going out and
doing that solely for its sake, we obviously respected it and wanted
to help.
Thankfully, Index’s perfect memory of events helped us here as
well. It knew where and when we encountered Drakes in the past, so
all we had to do was retrace those same steps to find them again.
It could also tell us the general Levels of those Drakes, meaning
we could ensure we never got into a fight we couldn’t win. And as
long as we made sure we were prepared before each fight and didn’t
fight them in bad circumstances like we did back on the cliff, we’d be
fine.
We still didn’t tell the Dryad about Time Loop—we were under
time pressure here, so it just wouldn’t make sense to stand around
and explain this whole thing to her while I was trying to figure things
out with Index, plan ahead for our encounter with the Dragon, or fight
Drakes.
Instead, we just told her we’d changed our minds about the exact
way we’d go about doing this. It wasn’t like we straight-up lied to her,
though. I told her I found out some new information with one of my
System abilities, and it didn’t seem like our old plan would work.
Honestly, she didn’t inquire much about how the System ability
worked, so I didn’t even have to tell her anything untrue. Instead, she
just asked what we’d be doing, and when she’d get to see the
Dragon.
So that was how we spent our next three or so hours. Most of our
time was just spent walking from place to place, with me making
liberal use of Expedite to keep our pace up—I’d even started
stacking two casts of the Spell on myself and Erani while we were in
flatter areas where we could afford to be a bit clumsy.
Because of my extreme rate of Mana regeneration, even if I
started eating into my reserves from the usage of Expedite, it’d only
take a bit of rest once we got to our destination before I was fully
filled up and back in top shape, ready to fight.
First, we took on a Red Drake—those had access to fire magic.
Some laymen got Red Drakes confused with Dragons; you’d often
hear someone bragging about how they survived a Dragon attack,
when in reality it was just that they’d gotten a bit too close to a Red
Drake’s territory and it’d chased them off. But really, they were quite
different.
Sure, they were both flying, scaled beasts that used fire, but that
was where the similarities ended. Obviously, there was the difference
in Level and size, but Red Drakes also had completely different fire
magic. They didn’t breathe fire by breathing out a massive, billowing
cone that enveloped everything nearby in its intense inferno. Instead,
they shot off concentrated balls that’d explode on impact. It was
quite similar to Erani’s Firebolt.
Red Drakes also had a few additional things that Dragons didn’t
do. Their skin itself could heat up so much that it could melt steel—at
least that was what I’d heard—and they could even start wildfires if
they got too hot when in a dry area.
That heated skin really hurt my ability to take on the Drake we
fought. While it at least didn’t inhibit Ray of Frost or Crippling Chill, it
did completely destroy my ability to keep contact with Noxious
Grasp. So I was demoted to long-range caster in that fight, taking
potshots from afar, keeping curses active, and using Gravity Well to
keep it grounded, while the Dryad took it on within melee range with
her whip.
Still, despite my own troubles, Erani and the Dryad were just fine
while taking it on. It had that Firebolt ability, but didn’t seem to be
able to use it too often judging by our fight, so as long as Erani and I
kept our distance, it couldn’t do much to hurt us.
In the end, I got 271 XP for my troubles, and we got a sizable
corpse to offer the Dragon.
But we weren’t done. After killing the Red Drake, we left it where
it was and went to find our next victim. I’d spoken with Index and
asked it to look through its logs to specifically find a single area we
passed through which held multiple close-by Drakes. So once we
killed the Red Drake, the next Drake was close enough for us to get
to and kill relatively quickly.
This one was a White Drake, which used healing and buffs to
keep itself strong. That meant it took longer to take down, but also
had absolutely no way to attack at a long range. So for that fight, we
took a more methodical approach. Sure, it had healing, but using
that healing cost Stamina—it was like my Regenerate Talent.
We kept it grounded with my debuffs, kept our distance from its
powerful claw swipes and bites, and slowly exhausted it, killing it with
relatively few complications. It took a few additional minutes, but
taking a bit of extra time to kill it safely was much better than killing it
recklessly, taking a bunch of damage, and requiring hours to
regenerate that Health.
For the White Drake, I got another 289 XP.
After killing it, since it was close to where we killed the Red
Drake, we grabbed it and began dragging the corpse back that way.
My 17 in Strength helped a decent bit in this, and Expedite’s
Dexterity boost helped us ensure we moved optimally, but really we
wouldn’t have been able to move such a big creature without the
Dryad.
Her Strength score was obviously much larger than mine. She
was a melee-focused monster, so it made sense, but it was still a bit
jarring to see someone with arms smaller than mine so much more
capable of pulling so much weight. I knew she’d done things before,
like pulling me up a cliff with her whip, but that gap in Stats hadn’t
ever been made as obvious as it was now.
After killing the White Drake, we still had a bit more time, and
went out to kill one more. Thankfully, I’d asked Index to try its best to
find an area with as many lower-Level Drakes around as possible, so
we actually had a couple choices.
The nearest Drake was a Green Drake, so that was the one we
went for. The fight with it went similarly to our previous fight with the
acid-spewing type, except this time much easier, since we were the
ones that chose the terrain.
The Dryad and I took turns alternating who was the main melee
attacker, making sure the Drake couldn’t ever overwhelm either
person with its pools of acid. And since I kept draining its Stamina
over the course of the fight, it could use that acid-throwing ability less
and less as time went on.
And eventually, like all the others, it fell, earning me a sizable 334
XP. Out of the 1600 total I’d need to Level up, I was now at 1416—it
wouldn’t take much to get me to Level 17. Part of me wanted to push
things and try to get one more Drake before the Dragon came, but I
knew we didn’t have that much time—especially since we needed to
get the actual offering set up. So after killing the Green Drake, we
grabbed and began dragging it back to where we’d piled the first two.
When we got it back, it was about thirty minutes until the time the
Dragon had come before, so we’d need to be ready by then.
Now that we had everything in the right place, it was time to
actually construct the offering. None of us really knew what an
"offering" would entail, other than a bunch of stuff to give to the
Dragon, but we all did our best to try and at least make everything
look presentable.
We found a high-up plateau visible from the air and put the Drake
corpses up there, arranging the bodies to look nice and symmetrical
next to each other. The Drakes took up one side of the flat area,
while we stood on the other. And with that, everything was set up.
I watched as the massive beast soared down from its mountain,
going to attack the wall like it’d done before. On its way back up, it’d
most likely see us.
"When is Dragon arriving?" the Dryad said.
"Soon. Why are you so eager to meet it?"
"Strong monster."
"Yeah, I guess it can definitely do a lot for us. Still, I’d have
assumed you’d be more afraid and less eager. I sure as hells am
more than a bit anxious about talking to the thing."
I got the impression from her of a mental shrug. "It is just a
wilderness creature."
"Yeah, a wilderness creature that could kill you in an instant." I
knew it could, too. I’d just seen it, about four hours ago. Or,
depending on how you counted, in about three minutes.
"How do Humans say…it is risk and reward. I am confident that
risk is low because of plan. Am also confident that reward is high."
I just pursed my lips. Seemed like she was confident in this
Dragon’s ability to help us take down the wall. I supposed that was a
good thing, so I didn’t need to go convincing her otherwise.
"So we’re just waiting for the Dragon to come?" Erani asked me.
"When is it supposed to see us?"
"Well, we’re technically in a different spot, so I don’t have a
perfect idea, but it should see us when it’s on its way back up the
mountain. Really, it already saw us, but it just waited to come and
actually confront us. So even if we’re in a different spot, it’s still
looking around for us. Since we’re in such a visible location, it’ll
probably find us around the same time."
She took a deep breath. "Alright. So we’re just going to, I guess,
talk to it."
"Just a conversation."
She shook her head. "Yeah, maybe to you. You can just go back
if you die."
"I’ll also go back if you die, you know."
She pursed her lips. "Well, thanks. I guess that’s a bit
reassuring."
"Did you not think I’d do that? Go back and change things if you
died?"
"I don’t know. Maybe. I guess I just felt like you’d try to prioritize
your own survival. So if you felt like you needed me…"
"I do need you." I put an arm around her, standing and gazing
across the mountainous skyline. "Not just for survival, either. We’ve
been through a lot together. I wouldn’t just let you die if I thought it’d
help me a bit."
She just nodded silently and leaned her head on my shoulder.
"I care about you. Seriously."
"Thank you. I’d say I’ll do my best to keep you alive, too, but I
don’t think it carries the same weight when I don’t have time travel
powers," she chuckled.
"Well, I appreciate it either way." I smiled back.
My positive mood was interrupted by movement in the distance.
A figure flying through the air, toward us. The Dragon Astintash,
clearly looking in our direction.
It neared us, flapping its wings to slowly descend toward the
plateau our offering was set atop. The wing flaps blew air all across
the area, stirring the leaves of the nearby plants and scattering the
sticks we’d laid out to get its attention. My long hair was pushed back
with each movement of the beast’s wings.
I subconsciously took a few steps back, intimidated by
Astintash’s entrance despite already having seen it up close. I could
tell why Dragons got the nickname "tyrants of the air."
It landed with a loud thud, shaking the surrounding area.
"You have acquired my attention, Humans." I felt its voice shake
my chest. "What do you want from me?"
25
DRACONIC DEALINGS
THE DRAGON ASTINTASH landed on the plateau we stood on with

the three Drake corpses making up our offering, shaking the area
and almost pushing me to the ground solely from the shockwave.
"You have acquired my attention, Humans," Astintash boomed.
"What do you want from me?"
I steadied myself and looked up at the massive monster’s face
staring down at me. Erani seemed frozen in shock, but the Dryad
looked like she was the least afraid out of all of us despite the fact
that I was the only one that’d actually spoken to this thing before.
"We have an offering for you," I began. It couldn’t hurt to point out
all the trouble we’d gone through for it. "Three Drakes, all slain by
our own hand, and all with minimal meat missing. We hope they will
fit your tastes."
It glanced over at the pile of corpses. In comparison to the
Dragon’s massive body, the monsters we’d worked so hard to kill
seemed tiny. Then it looked back at us. "Hm. That will make a fine
snack."
"Right," I said. Better than nothing. "We come to you, oh great
Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder, Wastelayer,
Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer,
Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash, in hopes that you
will allow us to assist you in taking down the wall constructed by the
Humans and Demons in the valley."
It raised its eyes when I said its whole name without pausing or
stuttering to remember the next part—a feat I’d accomplished both
from a decent bit of practice before our meeting, and from the fact
that I was just repeating what Index whispered in my ear as I spoke
—and it looked even more surprised when I said we just wanted to
help it with something it already wanted to do. I began to get a bit
hopeful that we could do this second-try, leaving my last use of Time
Loop for the assault on the wall itself.
"And how would you help me?" Astintash said.
"We have inside knowledge about how the shield you’ve been
struggling with functions," I said, going through the list I had in my
head, "we are powerful enough to assist with the soldiers within the
wall, and we could serve as a distraction if things go poorly."
"Hm. What is this inside knowledge?"
"We would rather tell you once we have guaranteed that you plan
on accepting our offer."
"Bah, fine." It rolled its eyes in a massive motion. "Then tell me
this: why do you want to help me?"
"W-well, you are so great a being that⁠—"
"No, no," it interrupted me with a frustrated grunt. "I know how
you Humans are. You do not consider me so great as to risk your life
for my own sake. This is why I dislike dealing with you Humans.
Liars, connivers. What do you gain from helping me?"
Hm. It’d probably just be best to tell the truth here. A sanitized
version of the truth that omitted the fact that we were the reason the
wall was there in the first place, but still the truth. "We want to pass
through this mountain range, and that valley is our only way through
without intruding on the territories of the Dragons, such as you. So to
respect the Dragons’ territories, we must pass through the wall. And
they will not let us through without us destroying it. We have the
knowledge to destroy them, but not the power. Which is why we
require your assistance."
At this, Astintash drew a claw to its chin in a surprisingly Human
gesture, pausing to think. After a moment it said, "And why did you
want my help, specifically?"
Now it was my turn to stop and think. Part of me wanted to
answer that we chose it because it was amazing and fearsome and
powerful. Something that wasn’t very true—we’d really pick any
Dragon out there—but that would stroke its ego. The other part of
me kept in mind what it’d just said about Humans being liars and
how it hated us for that. But I couldn’t really think about what to say
for too long, so in the end I just spat out something a bit in-between.
"Dragons are a fearsome species, and one that we have great
respect for. And when we saw you attacking the wall, we could see
that you were not only as strong as the legends said, but also that
you, specifically, were willing to help us with our task. We would
never want to waste a Dragon’s time by asking it to do something it
isn’t willing to do in the first place."
"Hm," Astintash grunted. "I see. So you selected me because I
was most available from my species."
"Yes, a species which is most powerful!"
"Then how do you know my name?"
I froze. I’d gotten a bit lost in the conversation—if we just selected
it because it was the closest, then how would we know its name and
all of its titles? That could only happen if we’d heard of it beforehand.
And we couldn’t say a bluff along the lines of "because we know the
names of all the Dragons," since it could easily test our knowledge
on that.
What could we even say?
But just then, Erani stepped forward and spoke. "We’ve planned
on passing through this valley for some time now, and so we spoke
to our fellow Humans about what we might encounter on the way.
We unfortunately heard nothing of this wall, but we did hear quite a
bit about you, oh great Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane,
Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker,
Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash.
All of the Humans we spoke to told us that your territory was close to
this valley, and that you, of course, have killed many of our kind.
With such strong Humans felled by your hand, we were warned
against drawing such a powerful being’s ire. That is why we have
heard of you, specifically."
I let out a breath, thanking the gods she thought of something.
"Hm. I did not know I had such a reputation among the Human
tribes."
"Yes, yes," Erani continued. "We come from a settlement that is
close to the wasteland, so the Humans have sometimes seen you
soaring above the mountaintops. I would go as far as to say you’re
famous from where we come from."
The Dragon smiled in satisfaction. Of course, by smiling, it bared
its teeth and let out the scalding-hot breath from its mouth, reminding
me just how easily the massive monster could kill us. That reminder
could very well have been intentional, when I thought about it.
Regardless, it continued. "Good. It seems Humans are not quite
so stupid and ignorant. At least, not the ones you come from."
"Thank you," I said, bowing my head.
"What about this other creature?" Astintash asked, nodding in the
Dryad’s direction. She was staring at the Dragon with a look of
determination on her face, but as far as I could tell, she hadn’t said
anything yet—to me, Erani, or Astintash. "This is not a Human—or,
not one I of a type I have seen before."
"She is a Dryad. She’s traveling with us, and I guarantee that she
will be of help when attacking the wall," I said, trying to steer the
conversation back to the topic at hand. If Astintash asked too many
questions, our story could fail under scrutiny.
"Hm, the wall," Astintash said. "I suppose I could take advantage
of that inside knowledge you claim to hold. Where does your
knowledge come from? And how much confidence in it do you
hold?"
"I’m one-hundred-percent sure it’ll work," I said. "It comes from
the System itself. I have something in my Status that can give me
information like that, and it’s never wrong."
"I’m flattered you think of me like that," Index butted in, to which I
couldn’t really respond verbally.
"…Hm. Well, I can agree to allowing you to help me," Astintash
said, "but we will see to what extent. Give me the information, and if
this is not a trick, I will let you live. I can swear that on my name."
"Thank you." I nodded. "The main piece of information about the
shield that would help you is what it’s weak to. It’s strong against
magic, but against⁠—"
I was interrupted by rumbling. At first, I thought Astintash was
about to rear up and stomp on us or something, but when I looked at
it, I saw that it was just as surprised as I was. And the noise was
coming from behind, not from the beast in front of me.
Erani and I turned around alongside the Dryad, who’d already
turned and backed away from the sound. There was nothing there
now, but the rumbling was drawing closer and closer by the second.
"What is this?!" Astintash demanded angrily. I could feel the heat
coming off of its breath behind us.
"I have no idea," I said back at it, pedaling away from the sound
down the mountain. "Monster attack?"
"No monster would dare draw near me! This is your trickery! You
Humans!"
"We have no idea what⁠—"
I was interrupted yet again by sound, but this time it wasn’t just
rumbling. Voices—ones I’d heard quite a bit in these past weeks.
The voices of Infernals roaring out in anger.
A group of half a dozen or so Demons crashed through the trees,
leaping and climbing up onto the plateau alongside us. Their faces
twisted with murderous glee upon spotting me. But, of course,
Astintash had no idea who it was they were eager to kill.
"I knew it!" the Dragon roared. This time I could feel the full force
of its scalding breath on my skin, just barely not hot enough to light
my clothes aflame. "You were with them. Leading me into a trap?
Pathetic. I’ll show you what a mighty being does against such puny
forces!"
"No, wait," I turned and pleaded, "you don’t understand! The
Demons aren’t after you, they’re coming after⁠—"
But I was too late. With a gale of wind that blew me off my feet,
Astintash flapped its wings and took to the air, opening its mouth and
showing off a dangerous glow coming from its throat. The glow of
deadly heat.
I tried to crawl over to a nearby rock to take cover behind, but I
knew it was pointless. Nothing would save me from the wrath of a
Dragon. With the roar of a monster and the roar of an inferno, the
flames rushed across the mountain, engulfing us all, and⁠—
You have died.
And then I was back.

26
CLIFFSIDE CAMOUFLAGE
AND THEN I WAS BACK, once again lying down beneath the rubble
I’d used to hide myself from Astintash. I looked up and watched it
glance down at us once again—it’d seen us, and there was nothing I
could do about that.
I got up and brushed the dirt and pebbles from my ragged
clothes, trying to think. There were Infernals coming our way. How
many were in that group? I thought back, trying to count them up in
my memory…
"Six," Index’s voice said to me. "According to what you saw, that
group had six Infernals in it."
"Hm," I nodded. "Thanks. So if there are just six…"
"Arlan?" Erani interrupted me. "You good?"
"Oh, right, yeah," I said. "Time Loop. Uh, so that Dragon’s coming
down the mountain in a few hours to kill us, and also some Infernals
are coming up the mountain to kill us. In the same number of hours."
She just took a breath. I could tell that at this point, revelations
like those must’ve gotten pretty routine to her. "Okay. Tell me what
happened?"
"And then, once we thought we’d reached an agreement with

Astintash, the Infernals came in. So they’re apparently hunting for us
on the mountain."
"How’d they find us?"
"No clue. I mean, the Dragon wasn’t exactly subtle when it flew
down to talk to us. They probably just noticed that it landed in a
different spot this time and went to check it out."
"But there were only six of them? Why would six Infernals think
they could take on a Dragon in a fair fight? I mean, it’s not like they
knew our relations with it were so uneasy—for all they knew, it’d just
help us kill them and then we’d carry on talking."
I just shrugged. "Infernals haven’t exactly proven to be the
smartest of Demons in the past. More of a brawn type than brains, I
guess."
"Yeah," she sighed. "So what’s the plan, then? If we don’t get an
offering, Astintash kills us. But if we spend time preparing an offering
for the Dragon, we won’t have time to prepare for the fight against
the Infernals and they’ll kill us."
"I think we might be able to do this," I said. "If we go down the
mountain, the Dragon probably won’t search the whole base just to
find a few people it saw out of the corner of its eye hours ago. It’ll
only come searching for us if we’re still up near its home."
"Probably. Not sure that I like staking my life on those odds."
"Not sure if we have any way of getting better odds."
She sighed. "So we go down the mountain and run. And then, I
guess we can just try to move around those Infernals?"
"Yeah. I don’t doubt that there are more squads moving around
on the mountain, but if they’re all that small, it shouldn’t be an issue
to maneuver around them and stay hidden. I mean, we’ve avoided
their little squads before. Shouldn’t be any different, especially now
that we’ve got Index to keep an eye out for us."
"Still, not sure that I like traveling down a mountain that we know
is infested with Infernals. Especially when a Dragon might be looking
for us in a few hours, too. It could see us and attack, even if we’re
further down the mountain."
"Well, that’s where these come in." I fished through my pockets
until I found what I was looking for—the six invisibility rings we’d
gotten from the scout our enemies had sent a couple days ago. Each
ring, when activated, would offer fifteen minutes of invisibility, but
would then become inert—it was a one-time use Enchantment.
"Hm. So if we each get two, then it’s thirty total minutes for each
person, split over two periods of fifteen. And if you ever take
damage, the invisibility ends, right?"
"Yeah. I know, it isn’t the best solution, but we can use them in a
pinch. Ideally, though, we can get down from here without having to
rely on them."
"When do we talk to Dragon?" the Dryad asked me. I’d been
keeping her up to date with what we planned to do as we spoke. Not
telling her about Time Loop, of course, but just sticking with my
previous story that I had a skill which was giving me information—
again, not technically a lie.
"Probably tomorrow," I responded. No way I’d try and intentionally
negotiate with it without at least one buffer of Time Loop to keep me
safe. "For now, we just need to avoid the bad guys. There are too
many to kill."
She frowned, visibly irritated at our constantly shifting plans.
"There are always too many to kill. Haven’t killed bad guys in long
time."
"Yeah, but there’s not much we can do about that, can we?
They’re becoming more cautious as we prove ourselves more
dangerous."
"I just kill one bad guy? As a treat?"
I closed my eyes and tried not to laugh. The Dryad’s sense of
reality was so warped, she clearly didn’t get the humor in what she’d
just said. Really, it was half-funny, half-sad that she didn’t get that
committing murder wasn’t normally considered to be a "treat" by kids
her age. "If it’s possible, sure. But probably not. We’ll see."
She looked down dejectedly. If it hadn’t been for the context of
what she’d just said, I’d have thought the childlike pouting was
almost cute.
"So, we’re going down the mountains, avoiding the Demons, and
trying again with the Dragon tomorrow," I confirmed with Erani.
"Sound good?"
"Yeah," she said. "A bit frustrating, though. I was going through
so much mental preparation to talk with it today."
"Well, now you’ll get a bit more time to do more of that
preparation." I shrugged. Though I did agree with her, if just a bit. It’d
take a while to figure out a new way to safely converse with
Astintash, and in that time, I had no doubt the Demons would only
fortify their position more. Time was of the essence here, and even if
we escaped with our lives, we were only giving them more of it.
But there wasn’t much we could do about that, so we started
heading down the mountain face, retracing our old steps.
It took a couple hours before Index warned us of the first group. I

was still using Expedite on all of us, though this time it was less to
allow us to move quickly, and more to ensure nobody tripped while
scaling down the steep terrain. We needed it, too, since as we
moved around a cliff face, Index’s voice came in telling me about
nearby Infernals and startling me so much I almost slipped and fell
on the spot.
Six Infernals, like I’d seen before, were heading up the mountain
and checking around rocks and bushes in obvious search for us.
They were speaking with each other, but unfortunately I didn’t
understand their language, and Index couldn’t translate for me. So
we just hid around the cliff face with Index’s guidance, staying
completely out of sight of the group as they passed us by. After they
were gone, we kept moving.
And then we encountered another group. Another six Infernals,
moving up the mountain and still scouring the land. Again, we were
able to avoid them. With an invisible scout to keep an eye out for us,
we were effectively one step ahead of the groups at all times. And
because the Demons had no idea I had it, they couldn’t plan around
our foreknowledge.
If they had known, I had no doubt they’d have sent much, much
larger groups, thoroughly checking every area, rechecking them, and
rechecking them again before moving on. At the end of the day, even
perfect knowledge of what was a dozen paces ahead of you wouldn’t
do anything if they made sure they looked in every hiding spot. But
for now, it seemed like the Infernals were enacting more of a
quantity-over-quality plan. A plan that obviously wasn’t working for
them.
Over the next hour, we passed by group after group, safely hiding
from each gang of six Infernals as they failed to find us sneaking by
them. Really, it helped my confidence quite a bit, and my mood
slowly but surely climbed up as we climbed down the mountain. We
never needed to use the rings, either, meaning we could save them
for later. Maybe it was actually possible to just get by safely and deal
with this tomorrow.
Though someone with us was still trying to drag my mood back
down.
"Could have killed those bad guys," the Dryad said to me. It
seemed like she’d fully embraced me as the authority figure and
Erani as the friendly, nurturing figure. So what that meant was that
whenever she just wanted to have a nice conversation, she went to
Erani, but when she wanted to complain, she went to me. "Only six
of them, no others nearby. Isolated enemy. Terrain was good for
ambush."
"I’ve already explained this to you," I responded, completely
exasperated. "If we fight them, even if we win, we’ll just draw more
attention to ourselves. They could have communication methods,
ways to get back to the other squads if they’re attacked. Or they
could just yell for help. And even if we beat them with no trouble, the
next squad that comes across them will see the dead bodies and
know we’re near."
"But would be reducing bad guy numbers. Getting attention of
more bad guys would just mean more fighting and more killing bad
guys."
"And getting the attention of enough bad guys would mean you
die. Alongside me and Erani."
She paused to think. "Have not died yet from battle. Bad guys
have never killed us, we have only ever killed bad guys. Never lost a
fight."
I had to remind myself not to tell the Dryad that no, we actually
had lost quite a few fights, but I’d just gone back to save us
afterward. "Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it
won’t happen now. We haven’t died yet because we’ve been
cautious. Not because we’re invincible."
She just pouted and turned to Erani, no doubt complaining that I
told her she couldn’t kill anyone. I just sighed and kept moving,
keeping an ear out for more of Index’s warnings. And Erani rolled her
eyes as the grievances from the Dryad flooded in.
After another hour, it seemed like we’d gotten past the squads of
Infernals. We hadn’t seen any of them for a while now, so we were at
least past the bulk of them. We’d probably keep moving for a bit
longer, just to make sure we were out of sight of the Dragon, then
move somewhere out of the way and rest. All we’d need to do was
hole up in some cave or something, wait until the next day, and try
again.
So as we marched down the steep mountain face and no warning
from Index came through, I felt more and more relaxed. It was a nice
change of pace from the constant on-edge hiding before, though I
still wasn’t totally off guard—we could’ve just wandered into a gap of
their forces crawling all over the mountain like a swarm of ants. They
could also start moving back down once they didn’t find us up there,
and we’d have to deal with all the groups we’d evaded once again.
Still, my confidence was high as we approached the bottom of
the mountain and it started evening out and getting a bit less steep.
But then I heard something that alarmed me.
Not Index’s voice, warning me of another squad of Infernals. No,
whatever this was, it wasn’t close enough for Index to see it. But the
fact that it was far away and I still heard it only made me more afraid.
It was the roar of a crowd’s march.
The unmistakable cacophony of jingling armor, hundreds of
plated steps impacting the dirt, voices of people making idle
conversation. All mixed together into the same swarm of sound.
And it was getting closer.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I muttered, instantly moving back up. Erani
and the Dryad heard it too—and this time, the Dryad retreated
alongside us without complaint. Anyone who heard how many
people there were would know they were outmatched.
Even with Expedite boosting our Dexterity, though, it was much
more difficult moving up the mountain than it was moving down. I
clumsily slipped over loose stones and my legs burnt from the effort
of bounding upward after working to move me as quickly as possible
all day long.
"Rings?" Erani asked. We already each had two rings on our
hands, ready to be activated.
I tried to calm my mind and think. "No, not yet. They aren’t in
view. It only lasts fifteen minutes, and the army still sounds like it’s a
few minutes away. We can activate them once they’re closer, that
way we have the full amount of time to sneak by."
Though I still had no idea how we’d sneak by—hence the fact
that we were currently fleeing, trying to buy some time. The soldiers
would almost certainly be too tightly packed together for us to slip
through their ranks. And if the crowd was large enough, we’d also be
unable to move around them within the maximum thirty minutes of
invisibility we’d get.
"Arlan, group behind you to the left," Index’s voice warned in my
ear.
I glanced over and, sure enough, saw another one of those
groups of six Infernals—what I now realized must’ve been splintered-
off scouting groups sent ahead of the main army that was climbing
the mountain. They marched forward, ahead of the army that was
still out of sight, toward us. Compared to the still-minutes-away
crowd of soldiers, they were an in-view immediate threat.
I pointed them out to Erani, and we all instantly tried to veer off to
the side, away from the Infernals as they moved up the mountain
behind us. We hid behind rocks and bushes when possible, but
unlike the other times we hid from the Infernal groups, we couldn’t
just find a good hidden area and stay there until the group passed.
We had to keep moving up the mountain or risk being overtaken by
the army.
My mind raced, trying to figure out the optimal path forward.
Obviously we still had the rings. Worst-case scenario, we could all
pop them and run, hoping for the best and that we wouldn’t need
them later. For now, though, using them still wasn’t strictly
necessary. The immediate threat was a simple six Infernals. A while
back, that would’ve been an unbeatable threat. But all three of us
had gotten quite a bit stronger since then, and a few Infernals wasn’t
the certain-death fight it once was.
"Arlan, they’re getting closer," Erani whispered to me. "Fight?"
"Yeah," I whispered back. "Agree. Using the rings is too wasteful.
We take them out quickly and cleanly and keep moving before the
army gets here. If they get too close, then we can use them."
"Alright, sounds good. Let’s⁠—"
Erani was interrupted by the roar of one of the Infernals. Seemed
like one of them had spotted us. I snapped my head over to see the
six Infernals rushing over to us, growling and shouting in anger.
This was a fight we’d have to get through fast. Not only did we
have the army coming from below, but we also had more Infernal
groups around that might hear the commotion, too. And, of course, I
still wasn’t confident we were far down enough from the mountain to
be safe from Astintash’s rage.
Effectively, we were cornered on all sides.
But, as I knew, there was one thing cornered animals could
always do.
"Dryad."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to kill some bad guys?"
She grinned, eyes lighting up in a childlike expression of pure joy.
"Finally!"
27
ELEVATED ENCOUNTER
THE GROUP of six Infernals charged at us as we attempted to climb

up the mountain’s edge into a more favorable position. Fortunately,
we were higher up than our enemies, meaning we had a height
advantage over them.
Of course, none of us fought with heavy weapons—a large
portion of the height advantage was that gravity would work for your
swings while working against the other side’s—but the simple fact
that they’d have to move uphill to get to us while we’d move down to
get to them could easily change the outcome of our battle.
Part of my mind was still urging me to stop wasting time and just
run away, but I knew that once these Infernals knew where we were,
they wouldn’t stop chasing. Or, worse, they would stop chasing, go
back to the army, and then we’d have them coming after us, too.
Besides, there was no way I’d be able to convince the poor Dryad
to flee from such a blatant challenge. I could tell by the look on her
face, she was fighting back here. No matter what.
But we’d have to do this quickly. The more time we spent
stationary, fighting against this splinter group, the more time the main
army would have to catch up to us—and we’d have no chance of
beating them alone.
Erani backed away, hands out and ready to throw Firebolts. "The
sound’s going to draw attention."
The Infernals screamed and charged.
"Attention’s already been drawn," I said, shaking my head. Even
if we got out in time, the army would come across these bodies.
Sure, it could be possible that they were killed by Drakes or
something, but they’d know we were near. That was why I wanted to
save our rings until the last possible moment—we’d almost certainly
have to use them soon, and I wanted to ensure we had as much
time as we could with them active. "Let’s go."
The Dryad charged at the group with me hot on her tail. A set of
Firebolts from Erani whipped past our heads and straight into our
approaching enemies, knocking a few of them back. Her Spell had
Ranked up quite a bit since the last time we’d fought against them,
and it showed.
The Demons grunted and stumbled back at the explosions,
smoke clearing away to reveal new burns and blisters covering the
areas the Spells struck. But it wasn’t enough to stop them, and they
continued forward.
The moment they were in my range, I hit all of them with
Crippling Chill, applying my now-signature debuff to each monster,
and strafed to the side with my hand out, casting Rays of Frost at the
crowd as the Dryad approached, demanding their full attention.
With Crippling Chill draining their Dexterity by 15.5 and Ray of
Frost adding on 7.77 more, the Demons now had to go up against an
enraged Dryad with a full 23.27 Dexterity taken away from them—
and that was ignoring the fact that Crippling Chill also stole some of
their Stamina every second. They outnumbered her, but I still didn’t
envy their position.
One of the Infernals let its guard down, readying itself to take on
the Dryad and forgetting about me.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 62 damage using Ray of

Frost.
You have cursed Level 22 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the
Frost.

Frost.
In an instant, three of my Rays slammed right into its face and

eyes, and it screamed out in pain, turning to me with a furious glare.
It grabbed one of its companions and split from its group, charging
straight at me.
As I focused my attention on my two new foes, I heard explosions
and the unmistakable sound of the Dryad’s thorned whip slicing
through flesh in the background. I wasn’t too worried about helping
them out for now.
I cautiously backed away as the two Infernals approached,
shooting off yet more Rays of Frost any time I felt like I had a good
shot at any of their vital areas—the better the hit, the more damage
it’d deal. Still, I was walking backwards and they were running
forward, so with every second that passed, they got closer and
closer.
But I still had a couple more tricks I could pull. The moment they
both were only a few more paces away, I activated Gravity Well, but
only targeting one of them—the one in the back. Instantly, it
stumbled under the new weight of its body, but the other didn’t
realize what’d happened and kept charging. Now they were
separated from one another, at least to an extent. For the time being,
I’d only have to deal with one of them.
It threw a punch at me and I ducked under its massive fist, feeling
the wind created by the strike blow past my hair. I’d stacked two
casts of Expedite on myself, so dodging a single punch was
borderline trivial at this point. After it struck at me, I pounced forward
and grabbed its leg, activating Noxious Grasp to drain some Health
and Stamina, and to stick the Infernal with a Fester for the next five
seconds.
It roared and tried to kick me off, glancing around only then to
realize that its companion was still struggling up the mountain a few
paces back, burdened by Gravity Well’s weight. It snarled and
reached down to grab me and yank me away, but I backed off before
it could touch me.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 55.5 damage and drained
Grasp.
Raising up my hand to cast a couple more Rays of Frost at my

two attackers and keep their Dexterity debuffs active, I stole a
moment to glance over at the other four that Erani and the Dryad
were dealing with.
One of the Infernals was kneeling on the ground, covered in
lacerations and struggling to pick itself back up. The ground below it
was covered in the Demon species’s signature blue blood, and it
obviously wasn’t able to fight effectively anymore.
The other three were at least on their feet, but actually didn’t
seem to be in too much better shape. I watched as the Dryad did a
full-on backflip over one of their heads, lowering her whip as she did
so to catch the Demon by its neck and pull it down to the ground with
her. It gasped out in surprise and pain, calling out for help from its
two standing companions, but before they could do anything, Erani
shot off a pair of Firebolts and blasted them both back.
Yeah, I still didn’t think they needed any of my help. Honestly, I
couldn’t tell if the Dryad actually needed to pull all of that acrobatic
shit when she fought, or if she was just showing off. We hadn’t tried
boosting her already-high Dexterity with Expedite, since she never
needed it while climbing, but after seeing this, I kind of just wanted to
see how high we could push her.
A thrown punch from an Infernal pulled me out of my head. Right,
I was still in a fight. I quickly activated Gravity Well on the nearest
Infernal, dropping it off the one in the back so I could buy myself
some time and back away from them, retreating further up the cliff. I
wanted to keep the high ground advantage I had over them—with
their lowered Dexterity and heavy bodies, they struggled even more
than normal to chase me uphill.
The Infernal from the back quickly overtook the one in the front,
trudging up the ever-steepening mountainside to chase after me as I
continued to shoot off Rays of Frost at them both.
Because of the army that was still approaching, I didn’t want to
use my now-standard strategy of taking advantage of my high
Mana/Minute to drag fights out as long as possible, finishing off my
enemies through lowering their Stamina. We were on a time limit,
and dragging out the fight like that would only serve to get us caught
by the more dangerous enemy.
So instead, I’d focus on getting in max-damage shots with Ray of
Frost and try to lower their Health to 0 that way. Even though
Infernals were complete damage sponges, they still only had so
much Health. And with my much-increased maximum Mana, I could
probably take a couple of them down even while using a less
efficient way of converting Mana to damage.
Besides, even if I ran out, I always had Erani and the Dryad there
to help deal that last bit of damage necessary—or I could just wait a
bit of time for some of my Mana to come back.
One of them got up to me again, so I utilized my boosted
Dexterity to sidestep a punch, get in close, and tackle into the
Infernal’s side with Noxious Grasp active. It stumbled, and at that
exact moment, I hit it with Gravity Well and it fell to the ground. The
one still climbing also had Gravity Well active, so it was still a good
few paces away from us as I held the monster down and shot a few
point-blank Rays of Frost straight at its face.
62 damage, 61 damage, 59 damage, 62 damage, 60 damage, 61
damage.
Then I leapt back off as the other Demon neared us.
You have struck Level 26 Infernal for 82.3 damage and drained
Grasp.
"How much Health should they have left?" I asked Index in a

breath as I continued backing away from the Infernals. Honestly, I
probably could’ve fought just fine without retreating so much, but
backing away served another purpose—getting us further and further
away from the ever-approaching army of reinforcements. Once our
enemies were dead, we could flee at full speed, but even now, every
pace I moved away from that unbeatable force was another pace of
progress.
"Not much," Index responded. "They’re Levels 22 and 26, and
you’ve hit the higher-Level one for more damage in total, so you can
estimate it to be around…700 for each."
I nodded and checked my Mana. Around 425. With Ray of Frost,
I’d have enough damage to kill them. Though I did want to leave as
much for later as possible—my Mana/Minute wasn’t enough to
outpace keeping Expedite active on both me and Erani, so having
some in reserve for that while we fled after the fight would be integral
to our survival here.
At this point, Crippling Chill had fallen off all six of the Infernals,
but my two were in bad enough shape that it wouldn’t be necessary,
and when I glanced over at the four Erani and the Dryad were facing
off against, I saw that they didn’t need it either; they’d already killed
two of them, so now they just had to finish off the other half, which
shouldn’t have been a problem.
I raised my hand and fired off a new barrage of Rays of Frost,
focusing on the lower-Leveled Infernal first. I’d shoot its face, then
when it raised its hands to defend itself and try to push forward, I’d
either shift my position to get a new shot at the head, aim at the
neck, or find a new decent spot to hit—gut, chest, groin, whatever.
Hitting an enemy in the head was always the best way to get
maximum damage for a Spell, but plenty of other spots could get you
close.
I had to duck and weave under a few swings as I hurried to get
the fight over with, but soon enough, the first Infernal fell.
You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level

22 Infernal.
- Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength
and 1 Endurance.
And after that, it may as well have been over. The second
seemed to understand this, glancing over at its fallen brother, then
back behind it, at the three out of four that’d died fighting Erani and
the Dryad.
It tried to run away, back down the hill, but I quickly hit it with a
fraction of a second of Gravity Well, pulsing it on and off and
completely ruining its coordination. The Demon fell to the ground,
completely exposed, and I finished it off with Ray of Frost.
You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level
26 Infernal.
I took a breath now that the main struggle was over and glanced
over my Level-up benefits. It’d taken some effort, but I’d gotten
another Level! There hadn’t been much for this one other than the
extra Stats, but my next Level would be 18, and that’d mean a new
Spell.
But I couldn’t consider the possibilities for long—the sound of the
army’s march was getting louder by the second. Part of me wanted
to sit down and apply my Stat Points, but I knew we wouldn’t have
that much time. Our immediate enemies were gone, but that didn’t
mean we got to rest. It just meant we were free to run as fast as we
could away from the unstoppable force.
I looked down at Erani and the Dryad just as they finished off the
fourth Infernal.
You have offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level

23 Infernal.
I’d been getting those notifications as they killed the Demons off
during the fight, since I’d cast a few Spells on all of them right when
it started, but mostly ignored them. In total, though, I did get a decent
bit of XP from the four they killed.
"C’mon," I called down to them, "we need to go!"
Erani nodded, pulling the Dryad along with her up the hill to me.
But just as I turned to start climbing up again, I heard a shout
from behind and turned around to see flashes of armor through the
trees.
Many, many flashes of armor. Spread out across my vision, easily
hundreds of soldiers all approaching.
And in the front…
"There!" a female voice called out.
You have been shot. 141 damage.
Your Health is 189.
An arrow, flying so fast I didn’t even know it was there before it

pierced my skin, ripped straight through my shoulder and tore
through the other side, embedding itself into the stone behind me.
I instantly fell to the ground, both trying to duck into cover from
any more projectiles, and reeling from intense pain from the hole
that’d just been made in my body.
"Arlan!" Erani dashed up the hill toward me, stumbling over loose
stones. She kneeled by my side behind the stone I was using to take
cover from more arrows. "What happened?"
I only saw her for a moment, but I knew who shot me. A woman
with a bow as tall as she was, wearing a familiar set of armor.
The same woman who, in an old, doomed timeline, had killed me.
Shot me straight through the head with an arrow in the same way
she’d just shot a hole in my shoulder.
I still remembered her name, too. The same name that woman,
Camilla, had called her. Asmo.
She was here once again to take my life, but this time she didn’t
have someone there I could convince to spare me.
No, instead, she just had hundreds of people alongside hundreds
of Demons, all just as eager as she was to kill me.
"Rings!" I coughed out in pain, mentally moving to activate mine.
But even with the magical invisibility, I knew things wouldn’t be so
easy. Following footprints, using special tracking skills…there were
ways for them to follow us.
You have been made invisible.

For the next 15 minutes, you gain the following effects:
- You are affected by invisibility. You cannot be sensed visually
by anyone.
- If you take damage, invisibility automatically ends.
The effect activated, and I began to see myself fade away. But
above all of that was a single thought.
This wouldn’t be the last I saw of Asmo. I could tell, in that single
glimpse of her face. She fully intended to kill me. Either she’d find
me through my invisibility now, or she’d find me fifteen minutes later
when it wore off. But she was going to do her damndest to end my
life.
And I knew in that moment that I’d have to do my damndest to
end hers, in turn.
28
SIERRA SMUGGLE
"RINGS!" was all I could get out, activating mine as quickly as I

could.

by anyone.
Instantly, I disappeared from sight. I looked down and couldn’t

see my hands, body, or clothes. Invisibility was interesting because,
in addition to making your own person unable to be seen, it would
also affect certain things you carried with you.
Nobody was quite sure how it decided, but, for example, while a
shirt would be made invisible, a backpack wouldn’t. Gloves would,
but a sword you held wouldn’t. And, obviously, the moment you
removed any of these objects from your person, they’d instantly
become visible.
Of course, I consciously understood what invisibility would mean.
Nobody, not even I, would be able to see me. However, I didn’t
realize just how disorienting something like that would be.
I’d let my hair grow out a bit recently—some of that due to the
necessity of recent events—and so, at this point, it was always down
at the sides of my head, framing my face. There were always strands
falling down in front of my eyes, and any time I moved my eyes
upward or to the sides I could see them. But not anymore. I could
still feel my hair there, it should have been there, but I couldn’t see it.
I also couldn’t see my nose between my eyes. Normally, I wasn’t
even aware of my nose always present in my sight, but now I
couldn’t get the pointed lack of it out of my thoughts. It just felt
wrong. And, of course, worst of all—I could still see when I blinked,
straight through my eyelids.
During the few seconds it took for me to adjust to these changes
—and during the time it took to deal with the excruciating pain from
the hole torn in my shoulder—I watched Erani and the Dryad
disappear from sight as well.
"C’mon, we need to move," I silently messaged the Dryad. "Tell
Erani too, follow me—or, wait. You can’t see me. Uh… Go over
there, in the direction of that big tree. We need to stick together so
we aren’t isolated when the effect wears off."
I moved away, watching my footsteps and the footsteps of my
two companions impact the ground so I could keep basic track of
where we all were. It was very strange to look down and not see my
own body below me, but I was beginning to get used to it.
The soldiers of the army, of course, had begun moving forward to
attack us after that Archer woman—Asmo—spotted and shot me, but
it didn’t seem like they knew we’d turned invisible yet. They were still
moving toward our original position where we’d hidden at first, but
we were now long gone from there. Hopefully they’d have trouble
tracking us as we moved further.
I was, of course, using Regenerate to try and heal some of the
damage I’d taken from Asmo’s shot as we moved, each activation of
the Talent increasing my Health by 22 over the course of 10
seconds. It wore off after the first activation, and I used it a second
time, eager to move out of the dangerous territory of being able to be
killed by a single one of her arrows.
I technically had enough Stamina for one more activation after

this, but I still wanted to keep enough energy to actually move up this
mountain, so I wasn’t sure if I’d use it. After I saw the full effect of
this activation of Regenerate, my Health would be sitting at 233, so I
was at least out of the immediate danger zone for now.
One thing I’d noticed as I Leveled up more and more was the
effect of increasing my Stamina/Minute. Generally speaking, exerting
the body to a certain extent would always cost the same amount of
Stamina. If a person weighed the same amount, carried the same
gear, and moved over similar terrain over the course of multiple
days, each time they moved over that same terrain, it’d cost them
the same amount of Stamina.
So if moving over that terrain cost the person, say, 2 Stamina
every minute, it wouldn’t matter what Level they were. It’d always
cost 2 Stamina every minute to move in that way. Obviously,
increasing maximum Stamina would allow a person to move for a
longer amount of time, but so would Stamina/Minute.
Most people thought of that number as just something that would
help rest after exerting your body, but in truth, it was always
regenerating Stamina, even while you were draining it. Currently, my
Stamina/Minute was a bit over 1. Compared to the 0.36 all
Unclassed people had, that meant, in the previous example with
movement costing 2 Stamina every minute, I’d be able to travel for
twice the amount of time they could—and that was before taking into
account the fact that I’d be starting out with a higher Stamina value
than them, too.
This really started to get ridiculous once Stamina/Minute overtook
the amount of Stamina expended per minute. Hells, I’d already
noticed at times that, when we were moving at a more leisurely pace
and went some time without having to hike up hills or fight monsters,
I’d check my Stamina, go thirty minutes of walking, and then check
my Stamina again to see it was higher than I’d started at. What that
meant was, during those moments of walking, I must have been
using up less than 1 Stamina every minute, and therefore my
Stamina/Minute was enough to cover it with some extra on top.
This was the reason why you’d often hear about duels between
High-Level opponents taking hours, sometimes even days if they
were strong enough. Mages had enough Mana and warriors enough
Stamina to last them that long. Of course, Melee-Type Classes had
Martial Arts, which expended Stamina to use, and us Magic-Types
had our Spells, so all of those excess resources would end up going
to those sinks during a high-intensity conflict, but still. At a certain
point, fights would work more like sieges than battles, with each side
trying to slowly chip away at the other’s resources while preserving
its own.
So while I was a bit worried about pushing my Stamina so low in
the middle of being chased, it actually wasn’t as much of a death
sentence as it may have been in the past.
However, there was one thing that still made me hesitant to use
that third activation of Regenerate.
Expedite would increase my Dexterity temporarily, meaning I
could suddenly move much, much faster. However, moving faster
wasn’t free. Moving the body would still require just as much energy
as before; Dexterity would just allow me to expend that energy at a
much quicker rate. So if I could move twice as fast, I’d have to use
twice as much Stamina, too. And when being chased, that meant I’d
want to hold on to as much Stamina in reserve as I could in case I
ever needed that burst of speed.
We continued up the mountain, reaching the tree I’d pointed out
to the Dryad before.
"Okay, now let’s keep moving up, between those big rocks," I
said. It was important to ensure we stuck together here, since it was
so easy to lose track of everyone with our invisibility active. "If you
can, try to mask your footprints by kicking behind you as you move.
But don’t let it slow you down and get you left behind. I can’t see if
you’re moving slower than us."
"Will bad guys catch us?" The Dryad responded with a question. I
could sense the fear in her mind as she sent the message. "Like you
said before. Too many to kill. I…I am sorry for wanting fight."
It was a moment that broke my heart, hearing her apologize like
that. She was a child, forced into this awful survival situation. "No,
no, I’m sure they won’t catch us. And if they do, we have each other.
I’ll protect you, and you can protect me. We take care of each other,
okay? I promise. And don’t apologize for wanting to fight. We have
enemies, and you wanted to make them pay for hurting you. I want
to make them pay, too. And we will, together. After we survive."
As a response, she just sent a vague response of affirmation and
commitment, a bit too complex to translate into a single sentence.
But I could tell she trusted me, and that was all that mattered in the
moment.
We squeezed between the rocks, the hard surface helping to
ensure we left no tracks behind us as we continued up into the
mountainside. At this point, the soldiers realized we were gone from
our previous hiding place—I could easily keep track of what was
going on with my vantage point. They were scouring the nearby
area, looking around trees and rocks for us. Judging by the fact that
they were looking—trying to see us—it seemed like they hadn’t yet
picked up on the fact that we’d used invisibility.
I watched as Asmo walked up to the area they’d last seen us,
inspecting it on her own. She held her hands behind her back,
gazing down at each overturned rock, disturbed leaf, and speck of
dust.
Standing behind her was another woman I recognized—this one
looked like she was a Berserker Class, with a battle-axe in her
hands. She was one of the soldiers from the royal guard with Asmo,
but I didn’t remember if I’d ever heard her name. She didn’t seem as
enthusiastic about finding and killing me as the Archer was—she
was more standing on guard and trying to protect her own life than
actively seeking me out—but if she was with them, she was
obviously dangerous.
Asmo bent over and touched something on the ground. Probably
a footprint, or some other track we’d left behind. I knew they’d find
something eventually, but watching them suddenly start chasing
along the same trail we’d just walked made me more than panicked.
I was still pretty low on Mana from our fight with the Infernals—I
was currently at 173—so I wanted to avoid casting Expedite for now.
Using it on both me and Erani would sink me down below 100, which
would essentially mean I’d be useless if a fight broke out. Sure, if we
actually got to the point of fighting we’d probably be fucked anyway,
but I wanted to save spending the last of my Mana on Expedite as a
last-resort option, at the very least.
Besides, for now, we still slightly outpaced our pursuers. They
had to spend their time tracking us and trying to figure out where
we’d gone, so as time passed, little bits of additional distance were
put between us.
A minute passed, and my Mana regenerated a bit more, up to
227. The soldiers picked up pace a bit more as they followed our
tracks upward, seeming to understand the general direction of our
movement.
Another minute passed, my Mana moving up another slight
amount up to 281 and the soldiers picking up their pace yet more.
Since it was such a large force, I could tell it was difficult to actually
get word out for everyone to get moving, but now that they were
moving, and they knew where to move, they were like a force of
nature. The same boulders we scurried over were demolished by
specialized Magic-Types in the front, and trees that would be in the
way were chopped down at the base.
At this point, they’d gotten to the point of moving faster than us,
slowly reducing that same distance we’d just put between us and
them. And in front of that force moving toward us was that damned
Archer, following our tracks. Even with our efforts to hide from them,
we were no match for an expert like her, it seemed.
It was clear I’d just have to use my limited Mana on Expedite. I
wouldn’t be able to keep it active for long, but we needed to buy
some time.
"Can you tell Erani to come close to me?" I asked the Dryad.
We’d defaulted to using her as a method of passing silent messages,
since Archers were high in Dexterity and Dexterity enhanced
hearing. "I’m going to use that Spell on both of us so we can move
faster than the bad guys."
"Okay."
After a moment, I watched as a set of footprints in the ground
walked over to me. To be honest, I’d completely lost track of which
set was whose because of the invisibility, but it seemed like this was
Erani. I reached out a hand, blindly feeling around until I touched her
skin.
But just as I was about to cast Expedite on her, I heard a voice.
"Uh, you may not want to do that." It was Index. It’d been silent
for a bit now, probably understanding that any sudden noise from it
would startle me and threaten causing a scene that’d make us easier
to spot, so if it was talking now, it was probably important.
"What?" I whispered in as silent a tone as possible. Really, it was
more just moving my lips than anything. Index didn’t need to hear me
as much as I just needed to put the intention of speaking into my
mind so that Index’s log could pick it up and it could read my words
from there. "Why?"
"Uh…shoot. I can’t really say." It sounded stumped and
frustrated. "Just—you’re going to want that Mana soon."
I glanced around, side to side. Were there enemies around? Was
it warning me of an ambush? I relayed everything it said to the
Dryad, asking her to pass the words on to Erani. I felt Erani’s hand
leave mine as she presumably glanced around for something that
might attack us soon, too.
I didn’t see anything, but obviously Index wanted to warn us
about something. What was it?
"Ah! Finally, I can tell you something else." Its voice came
through again. "You’re looking in the wrong direction.
I glanced down. Hellions? No, I didn’t feel them. So if it wasn’t
down, then it must’ve been…
"Oh no," I muttered, not quite caring that I might be heard from
someone. There were much bigger thoughts on my mind.
I glanced upward toward a figure that flew above us, blotting out
the sun. Massive, covered in scales, and definitely not a Drake.
It roared. A Dragon’s roar. That deep bellowing scream echoed
out as Astintash hurtled toward the ground in front of us, diving
straight down toward the mountainside. It got closer and closer,
until⁠—
It crashed straight into the army’s forces, creating a massive
shockwave and completely destroying the surrounding terrain. I was
flung to the ground, as were Erani and the Dryad, I suspected. The
trees around us split and splintered from the impact, and even some
of the boulders closer to the impact cracked as the earth shook
below us.
I groggily lifted my head and looked over to the Dragon which
was now standing in the middle of the decimated army, corpses
littering the ground around the crater that’d formed around its feet.
"You dare?!" Astintash boomed, spewing flames from its nostrils
as it snapped its head around at the surrounding soldiers. "You dare
muster this pathetic army to try and attack my home?!"
It stomped its feet once again and whipped its tail into a few
stragglers behind it, then opened its mouth and billowed out a cone
of flames, incinerating everyone in front of it, and turned around to
spew them across the entire battlefield.
Even quite a number of paces away, I could feel the heat from
where we were.
Thankfully, as we weren’t Astintash’s main targets, I wasn’t
damaged. A message from the Dryad and whisper from Erani
confirmed they were safe, too. The people in the army, however…
Anyone who hadn’t already been crushed underneath Astintash’s
feet was burnt to a crisp, the only survivors either people who were
far enough away to begin with, or people high enough in Level to
have escaped or tanked the damage.
Still, the Dragon wasn’t immortal. From the back of the army, I
could see siege weapons being loaded and readied to fire. Astintash
had caught them off guard and destroyed a healthy portion of the
forces, but it’d also made itself completely vulnerable in the process.
This wasn’t one of its flyby hit-and-runs like it’d made against the
wall. It’d dropped itself in the middle of enemy forces in an effort to
kill them all or die trying.
A ballista shot impacted its side, and when it turned to look at the
shooter, it was hit in the side of the face by a glowing-white arrow—
one that was no doubt shot by that damned Archer, Asmo. I hadn’t
technically seen it, but I had no doubt she had some movement
ability to get out of that sort of trouble. Archers were notorious for
being able to slip out of a Melee-Type Classer’s range in almost any
situation.
Astintash stomped and scraped at the army, killing anyone who
dared draw near, but the people were also fighting for their lives,
chipping slowly away at the Dragon’s tanky body.
I felt Erani’s hand grab my shoulder. "They’re distracted, let’s go!"
"No, no," I responded, trying to think through my injuries. "We’re
still making ourselves vulnerable if we climb. Asmo’s alive, and if she
decides to abandon the soldiers and keep searching for us, she’ll
almost certainly be able to track us down. We were absolutely
fucked before, but Astintash is providing us a chance to win here,
whether it knows it or not. If we leave Astintash here, it’s possible the
army could kill it. They brought resources, siege weapons, things
specifically made to kill Dragons. They knew it might attack them and
came prepared. It could beat them, but if they kill it, that’s our entire
method of getting past the wall, gone. We’re back to square one."
"Then what the fuck do we do?!" Erani slightly raised her voice. I
could tell she was panicking, and struggled to stay calm myself.
"We wanted to negotiate with it before, right? Well, it’s right in
front of us, and needs our help. Why not get that negotiation done
right now?"
29
ALP ATTACK
WE STOOD ATOP A HILL, looking out as the Dragon Astintash

fought against an army of Human and Demons soldiers. It crushed
any that got close like they were ants, and the army seemed to be
quickly learning that fact. The Melee-Types scattered while the ones
in the back used siege weapons like ballistas and magical cannons
to attack it.
As I watched, glowing chains shot out from different parts of the
crowd of soldiers, embedding themselves into the scales of Astintash
and tying it to the ground. It shook its massive body to try and rid
itself of the clearly Enchanted chains—and some of them did break
—but the moment it tried this, more siege weapons fired and
impacted the beast, taking advantage of its moment of distraction.
Honestly, I didn’t really believe Astintash was in much trouble
here. It was possible that the army would be able to kill it, but it was
just as possible that the Dragon would wipe them out before they
could. Or at the very least, it could escape and fly away.
Sure, it was taking heavy fire from dozens of projectiles every
second, but this was a Dragon we were talking about. Not only did
they have insane amounts of Health, but they also had heaps of
abilities to raise their defenses even more. Even if Astintash stopped
resisting right now and just let them kill it, it’d still probably take over
an hour for them to actually reduce its Health to 0.
So by offering to help the Dragon, it wasn’t like we had this
massive bargaining chip of "we’re saving your life" to hang over its
head. However, it obviously did seem like Astintash had
underestimated these forces—otherwise, it wouldn’t have let itself
get attacked like this. It obviously didn’t like getting hurt, even if it
wouldn’t technically die, and it wouldn’t have let it happen on
purpose. It was currently at least a bit in over its head.
And this wasn’t even all of the soldiers. There were more back at
the wall. So while we didn’t have the power over whether Astintash
lived or died, we did have the bargaining chip that it was now
obvious to the Dragon how much it’d need our help to take that fort
down. After all, if this was just a portion of their forces, and they were
still able to harm it, just how bad would things be when they were
hidden behind a one-way magic barrier it couldn’t even break
through?
It’d obviously been having trouble taking them out in the past, but
back then they were just some annoying people holed up in a valley.
Now they were actively encroaching on Astintash’s territory. It’d
certainly realized by now that if it couldn’t take out that wall, it’d have
to either deal with attacks like these forever, or permanently move to
a different home. And judging by the beast’s ego, I didn’t think it
wanted to admit defeat and run away.
So now we offered a much more desirable solution—we could
take care of this problem once and for all.
It was with that in mind that I looked over to where I assumed the
Dryad was—she was still invisible, just like Erani and I—and spoke
to her. "I want you to send a message to the Dragon for me. It’s too
dangerous for me to move in and draw attention to our location. Are
you close enough to speak to it from here?"
"Yes," she said. "Can talk to Dragon."
"Okay. Tell it we want to help, but we also want to make sure it
won’t kill us if we do. And be sure to use its full name when you talk
to it. Dragons appreciate that sort of thing." It was a shame I couldn’t
do the discussion myself, considering I was the only one with actual
memory of what’d happened in the past, but I trusted the Dryad to
say the right things. She could be a bit tough to understand at first,
but as long as she was respectful, we’d be fine. And I’d be coaching
her through what to say, anyway.
There was a moment when Astintash froze up, glancing around
as it obviously received the transmission from the Dryad. It of course
took fire during this time, but it shielded its face with its wings to try
and focus on what was happening inside its head. After a few
seconds, it came back out and started fighting back against the army
again, and the Dryad spoke to me once more.
"It says it will not kill us as long as we are friendly. Can we trust?"
"Yeah, probably," I said. "Its life isn’t strictly in danger here, but it
knows it could use some help, especially with the siege weapons in
the back that it can’t reach right now. And from a long-term
perspective, it definitely needs our help if it wants to take down the
wall. We’re the only one with the knowledge to destroy the shield,
and the enemy is only getting more powerful with time—this assault
may as well prove that to the Dragon. So it’s either take down the
wall right now, or be forced to deal with constant attacks for the rest
of its life. Or run away and find a new home. It wants to take that first
option, and it’ll need us to do it."
The Dryad paused to think for a second. "So we offering to help it
for nothing?"
"What? No, we’re offering to help because it’ll help us get through
the valley, too."
"But get nothing in return."
"…We get to pass through the valley in return. The wall will be
destroyed."
"But Dragon is giving us nothing. Dragon receives our help but
gives nothing away. We can ask for something too, correct?"
"Well, I guess." I frowned. What exactly was she getting at? "But I
don’t really think it has anything we want. Not like it’s keeping some
random Enchanted gear in a display case in its cave, or anything.
And if we ask for too much, like a ride all the way to the Barinruth
Empire, it’ll just kill us for the insulting request."
I heard shuffling from beside me and saw footprints heading
toward the battlefield—was the Dryad moving? "Does have
something I want. Something it can give away."
"What do you—wait!" I stood and reached out, trying to blindly
grab her arm, but it seemed she was already dashing down the hill
toward the battlefield.
"What’s going on?" I heard Erani ask. She must’ve heard the
movement from the Dryad leaving.
"I—I don’t know." I shook my head. "I asked her to negotiate with
Astintash for me, and it seemed like it was going well. But then she
suddenly started talking about how we should be getting paid by
Astintash for our help, and then ran off before I could try to ask her
what was going on."
"What? What would she even want from it?"
"Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering." I gazed off into the chaotic
battle ahead of us. Her invisibility would probably keep her safe from
everything, but why would she even need to get close to Astintash?
She could talk to it just fine from here.
"What are we even supposed to do, then?"
"I guess we just do what the original plan was. We move along
the sidelines and destroy as much of the siege equipment as we can
—especially those chains that are holding it down. And try not to get
hit in the process. Don’t want my invisibility falling off of me in the
middle of a battlefield."
"Guess that makes sense," Erani said. "Let’s go."
We both got out from behind our cover to slide down the hill and
toward the battlefield as well. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice
our invisible bodies pushing aside plants or kicking up dust due to
the absolute chaos that was the fight raging in front of them, so Erani
and I were able to sneak forward and toward the back of the enemy
ranks, where they kept their siege weaponry—ballistas and cannons,
mainly.
I’d quickly lost track of where the Dryad was the moment she
entered the battlefield; keeping sight of her footprints among
hundreds of soldiers running around, shockwaves from Astintash
swiping at anything that got close, and bright swaths of fire breath
sweeping the burnt and broken landscape was functionally
impossible.
But judging by the direction she’d been moving at first, I
suspected I knew where she was going—straight to Astintash. And
from the look on Astintash’s face while it fought, I could tell that they
were communicating in some way as she approached.
I voiced my suspicions to Erani as we continued to work our way
around the main forces and toward the back ranks of the army. Part
of our conversation was to plan and strategize before we entered
enemy ranks, and the other part was just to keep both of us talking
so we could each keep basic track of where the other was. I noticed
that during any moments when we were silent, it became
increasingly difficult to make sure we stuck together.
"So she’s going toward Astintash, you think?" Erani asked. "She
isn’t responding to what I say, other than simple one-word replies to
the basic stuff. Apparently she’s too busy focusing on negotiations
with that Dragon and with avoiding stray attacks to also worry about
talking with me. But why wouldn’t she go and help us take down the
siege weapons, too?"
"No idea," I said. "She kept asking about whether we could get
something from it in return for helping, since it’s in so much trouble
right now. I said we might be able to, but I had no idea what it had
that we’d want and that it’d be willing to give away. Then she
seemed to have some sort of idea and just sprinted off. So I guess
she’s trying to get whatever that thing is? I just hope she doesn’t fuck
us over with this."
"She probably knows what she’s doing, if she’s that confident."
"She’s also two years old."
Erani paused. "That’s true."
I just sighed and shook my head. "Not much we can do now. It’s
not exactly easy to change her mind when she’s set on doing
something."
"Yeah, I guess."
We kept moving in silence, but I couldn’t stop trying to guess at
what she wanted. "Index, do you know what they’re doing?"
"Well, of course I know, but I can’t tell you. You are aware of what
they’re bartering over right now, though."
"What do you mean, I’m aware of it?"
"I mean you’ve heard of the thing before. You know it exists."
I wracked my memory, trying to think of some sort of object I
knew Dragons had in their possession. Maybe the Dryad wanted a
tooth, or a scale, or something? People often took parts of dead
monsters as trophies and sometimes as alchemical ingredients and
things like that, but I couldn’t think of any reason a Dryad would want
something like that. Crafting things out of monster parts was
definitely more of a Human thing.
…Wait. Thinking for a moment, I could identify something she
may be able to gain from this. But that…there was no way she was
trying to do that, right? I mean, how could she take a risk so
massive? Sure, that’d mean a huge boost in power, but there was no
way the Dragon would do it. I had to be wrong.
"Arlan?" Erani’s voice shook me from my thoughts. We’d arrived
at the edge of the army’s forces. The group wasn’t exactly
organized, at this point. It was more a frantic surge of some people
trying to get as far away from the massive Dragon as possible, some
people trying to prevent the others from deserting, and yet more
trying to operate the siege weapons in the middle of the chaos than
a proper army.
Really, it was mainly the Humans that were fleeing and the
Demons that were doing everything else. It was known that Demons
didn’t experience "true death" if they died in the Overworld—or at
least, sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t—but I hadn’t heard
much more than that. So apparently they were fine with just being
killed by the Dragon for the cause of killing me.
But even still, the weapons they shot could deal quite a bit of
damage to Astintash. Plus, I could count three of the magical chain
weapons located here, too—there were more scattered around the
battlefield that had attached themselves to its scales, but I suspected
that even taking out a few would free it up enough to break off the
others on its own.
"Let’s just continue with the plan," I whispered. "Take out the
siege weapons and Astintash will know we mean well."
Erani confirmed with a grunt, and I took a moment to put a cast of
Expedite on both of us. I’d unfortunately not had enough time to
regenerate all of my Mana, but the extra Mana/Minute from
Exponential Reclamation still helped out quite a bit—plus Light Plate
helped to discount my Spells as always.
After casting Expedite twice, I was left at just over 300 Mana. Not
much, but hopefully enough to get the job done. Erani was our main
source of firepower when it came to destroying these weapons,
anyway, considering she was the one with explosion magic, so
ideally I wouldn’t have to cast much in the first place. I’d essentially
serve as bodyguard and distraction, considering it was hardly
possible to blow a bunch of shit up without drawing at least a bit of
enemy attention.
Glancing over, I still couldn’t quite see what was going on with the
Dryad. At the very least, not seeing her meant she hadn’t yet been
hit and was still invisible. And whatever was going on, it looked like
Astintash was still taking moments to pause and respond to
whatever she was saying to it, so it seemed things were going well.
"Okay, let’s go," I said.
And, in an instant, Erani leapt to her feet and shot off a Firebolt,
blowing up the first of the three nearby chain launchers. One out of
three down, so we were making good progress.
Then, of course, every Infernal and Human near us turned to look
at the source of the Firebolt that just blew up in the middle of their
army. And even though they didn’t technically see us, I could tell they
recognized Erani’s now-signature Spell.
They knew we were here, we just had to make sure they didn’t
know where in "here" we were. And that was where my main job of
distraction would come in.
It was time to join this already-chaotic wreck of a battle, and
make it just a bit messier.
30
CONCEALED CLASH
ERANI AND I STOOD, invisible from our rings, watching as her

Firebolt impacted and destroyed the first chain launcher that we
wanted to destroy. That left two more in this area.
But, of course, those next two wouldn’t be as easy as the first.
Because now, everyone nearby knew we were here. The Infernals
were the main ones sticking around, Humans much more keen to
flee from the massive Dragon that was only barely being held in
place by the chains they’d set up, so they were the ones to run at us
the moment the Firebolt exploded.
They didn’t know where we were exactly because of the
invisibility, but they’d be able to figure it out if they tried. Invisibility
didn’t protect you from leaving footprints, giving off a scent, or
making noises for the keen observer to hear. So it was my job to
keep them from being able to focus on finding us.
Because of the way invisibility worked, things like Firebolts would
still be visible, even if the caster wasn’t. That was why everyone
could tell our general location—they just had to see the direction the
Firebolt came from.
However, if a Spell didn’t have a visual effect in the first place,
nobody would be able to tell where it came from. And I had two
Spells that fit that criterion.
You have cursed Level 24 Infernal with Crippling Chill. For
the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina
I hit the two nearest Infernals with Crippling Chill, also ready to
activate Gravity Well the moment they got within range of that Spell.
They paused the moment the curse hit them, glancing around wildly
for their unseen attacker. At that moment, Erani and I tore off, with
me following after her footsteps so we could stick together.
With my low Mana reserves, I was tempted to ask Erani to shoot
at the crowd of enemies to hold them off if things got bad. But I also
knew that she must’ve had pretty low Mana reserves, too. We’d both
participated in that fight with the Infernals before the army arrived,
and I knew she’d spent quite a lot back there. In fact, considering my
abnormally high Mana/Minute, I probably had way more to spare
here than she did.
"Yep, you do," Index said. I didn’t even get startled this time at its
butting in, a testament to how used I was getting to having it be
there. "You’re lucky those chain launchers are fragile enough to
break in one hit. Or maybe it’s that you’re lucky your girlfriend has
such high-Rank Firebolts and all those Talents to make them more
powerful."
I cursed another Infernal that seemed to notice a patch of grass
one of us had pushed aside.

We were getting close to being in range to shoot another of our
targets, but there were so many enemies in our way it was difficult to
navigate even short distances without alerting them.
"Anyway, you might wanna hurry up with your plan here. I know
you’re aware that the launchers shoot Enchanted chains, but you
don’t know what they actually do. Sure, they’re artificially strong and
limit movement and all that, but they also make the monster they’re
attached to more vulnerable to damage over time. So the longer
they’re attached to your good ole pal Astintash, the faster they’ll be
able to kill it. You’re probably on a tighter time schedule than you
realize."
Shit! I needed to let Erani know about that complication and get
her to move more quickly. But we were too close to the enemies for
me to talk without alerting everyone.
They were still trying to search around the area they’d seen
Erani’s Firebolt come from, which we were fleeing from, but the
Infernals weren’t stupid. Well, they weren’t exactly smart, but I had
no doubt they’d realize we were moving around. And the moment
they found a trail of footprints leading to us, it wouldn’t take much
longer for them to find us.
And speaking of footprints, I tried my best to continue keeping
track of where Erani was, but it was getting harder and harder as
time passed. I still needed to find some way to urge her to hurry
because of what Index had told me. Part of me was irritated it hadn’t
told me before we got to the point where we needed to be silent, but
the other part knew it was probably under some seriously heavy
limits by the System.
I’d realized at this point that the System wasn’t just choosy about
what it allowed Index to tell me, but also when. It seemed to
determine specific points at which the information provided was
within whatever "allowed" level of helpfulness it internally kept track
of, and only allow me to hear that information then. It could probably
tell what I’d consider "helpful" from that damned log.
But still, free information was a lot better than nothing. I reached
out, trying to grasp Erani’s arm as some sort of signal that we
needed to hurry more than we thought, and after a few failed tries I
managed to touch her. I felt her jump under my sudden touch, but
after she seemed to realize it was me, she moved closer.
"What is it?" she whispered as we continued to move around the
alert soldiers, so quiet I could barely hear her.
"We need to hurry," I murmured. "Complications."
I felt her shift under my touch as though she were glancing
around herself. "Can’t move much faster without drawing attention."
"I’ll handle it. We’ll split up, you just go. Move around back and hit
the other two chains."
There was a pause. "…Okay."
Then she split away, and I saw her footsteps move off into the
distance. I needed to stay behind and draw attention here. That way
none of them would see where she was going.
I stood and looked around. Over to my right, an Infernal gazed
over toward Erani just as she subtly pushed a plant’s branch over to
allow her through to her destination. Seemed like I’d be doing my job
right away, then.
The Infernal stepped in her direction, but just as it did, I held out a
hand and, after a breath of anticipation, shot off a Ray of Frost.

Frost.
Instantly, the dozens of already-on-guard soldiers turned all eyes

on me. In the background, Astintash roared and continued to fight,
but suddenly that noise seemed much less pressing as the Demons
sprinted full-tilt at my now-exposed location.
I ran off in the opposite direction from the one Erani had taken—
my still-active invisibility helped keep my specific whereabouts
hidden but the Infernals clearly knew I was here, and they could
follow the indentations my feet left in the ground as I went.
I held back a hand and shot off several more Rays—some hitting
and others not—both in an attempt to slow down my pursuers and to
keep their attention solely focused on me here. Thankfully, the
combination of Ethereal Armor’s discount and my Mana regeneration
that was nearing 1 per second at this point helped me be a bit more
liberal with my casting here.
Running through bushes and pits of mud, I was clearly leaving
quite a bit of a disturbance that the Infernals could follow, but my
goal here was speed, not discretion. I heard a roar of anger close to
my left and realized one had flanked to my side and gotten quite
close, so I immediately activated Gravity Well to slow it down,
keeping the Spell active until Expedite carried me away from the
burdened Demon. That Spell still had about twenty more seconds
left on it before I’d have to re-cast again.
When I’d looked over to avoid the Infernal to my left, though, I
also happened to catch the main conflict happening in this battle
through the corner of my eye—the chained Astintash fighting off the
soldiers.
Obviously, most of the Melee-Types had cleared out of that area
by now, leaving a decimated, blackened pit with only the Dragon in it
and…the Dryad. Clearly visible now, with an arrow sticking out of her
shoulder. She’d been hit, ending her invisibility and exposing her to
our enemies.
Still, she seemed safe for now. She was sticking by Astintash,
clearly still in communication with it as she absentmindedly killed off
anyone that the Dragon missed in its radius of destruction.
I held out a hand and shot off a few more Rays of Frost to keep
the Infernals away. I’d led almost everyone fully away from Erani at
this point, leaving her to easily take care of the remaining chain
launchers. In fact…
I heard a distant explosion, and another glowing chain snapped
off of Astintash, freeing its movement more.
Yep. Seemed like she was already on that.
A roar from my right this time—another Infernal had snuck up on
me. This time I sent off an instant curse of Crippling Chill to lower its
Dexterity, and turned to shoot it with a Ray of Frost to lower the Stat
even more.
But as I turned around to aim my hand at its head and shoot the
Ray, I saw something in the distance.
Off on top of a hill, between two trees, there was a figure. Two
figures, one large and one small. They were just standing there,
watching, so far away I could barely make out that they were even
there, much less what exactly they were.
Trying not to get distracted, I let off the Ray of Frost at my
immediate attacker, the Infernal.

Frost.
The Ray left my hand, a bright light flashed, and as expected, the
now-weakened and damaged Infernal fell back and away from me,
leaving me safe to continue fleeing and serving as a distraction.
But the moment that happened, I saw a hint of movement from
the two figures. And in that second of time, I figured out who those
two people were. It was the Archer and the axe-wielder—Asmo and
the other royal guard. They’d been standing and watching. And in
the next second, I figured out what the hint of movement from Asmo
had been.
You have been shot. 56 damage.

Your Health is 177.
An arrow flew true through the air and straight into me. It was
only because of my heightened reflexes from Expedite and the
moment’s warning I’d gotten from the long range that I was able to
slightly twist my body and allow the arrow to only slice along my
stomach.
But still, arrows shot from a high-Level Archer would deal
significant damage no matter where they hit you. And no matter how
much damage anything did, it was still damning to me.
Invisibility has been lifted due to taking damage. You are no

longer under the effects of invisibility.
The Infernals charged at me with renewed ferocity now that I was

fully visible to them, and I scrambled to move around the mountain
face to avoid being in direct line of sight of that Archer, Asmo.
Damned woman had gotten a clear shot on me from that far away?
All from a single shot of Ray of Frost?! I knew her senses would’ve
been enhanced from her Stats and Talents, but that was ridiculous.
With this many enemies chasing after me, now that I’d lost my
main advantage slowing their pursuit down, they quickly began
gaining on me. And unlike when I just had to fight off one or two at a
time that happened to get close, this time it was all several dozen of
them at once. No way a few Rays of Frost could push them off.
So I activated Expedite on myself, lowering my Mana to 71 and
stacking with the first instance of the Spell to raise my Dexterity to a
blistering 81. And then I cast it on myself again, further increasing
my Dexterity to 112. My legs were moving faster than I thought they
could, taking my body places more quickly than I could think.
I acted purely on lightning-fast reflex, instinctively climbing up a
cliff face and putting a great deal of distance between me and the
Infernals. With three Expedites stacked on me, I easily outpaced
their clumsy movements.
But still, it took every drop of effort and focus to avoid slipping up
as I moved. I wasn’t used to this level of Dexterity, and I had to
constantly readjust my movements mid-step to keep myself from
tripping and falling. My entire mind was dedicated to making sure I
could move forward one more pace, then move to the next, then the
next, blocking out everything but that.
After a few seconds, that ended as my first cast of Expedite wore
off and my Dexterity fell to a more manageable level. Still, just those
five or ten seconds put a massive amount of distance between us. I
kept running, now fully out of sight of Asmo from the rock face I’d put
between us, and I could relax just a bit.
And I opened my senses back up to the world just in time to hear
the third and final snap.
Erani seemed to have destroyed the last chain launcher, and I
looked back to see Astintash shaking that Enchanted shackle from
its body. Now with much of its strength returned, it shook violently,
and…
Snap, snap, snap.
The rest of the chains broke off, too. It flapped its wings
dramatically, as if trying to sear its imposing figure into the eyes of
everyone to show its renewed glory.
And just as I thought it’d take to the skies, ready to sweep across
the battlefield and burn every last soldier around to a crisp, it did
something unexpected.
It lifted up a hand, claws extended—was it about to take a swipe
at something?
But no, it lowered a claw gently to the ground—toward where the
Dryad was standing, and touched her lightly on the forehead. It was
strikingly similar to when the Faerie Queene paid her Tribute, back
when she was just a Nymph.
Wait. Really?!
The Dragon was giving the Dryad a Tribute. That was actually
what they’d been bargaining for. I’d considered the concept, but
didn’t think she would actually be able to convince it to do that for
her. But apparently, they’d worked out a deal while I fought.
When she’d gone from a Nymph to a Dryad, I still remembered
the intense increase in power she’d gone through. Now she was
getting a Tribute from a fucking Dragon.
She fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the physical changes
onset by the Tribute began to take place. In just a second, she’d get
to her feet, a completely different species empowered by Astintash’s
Tribute.
Just what would those changes be?
31
DRACONIC DRYAD
I STOOD, watching the Dryad howl in pain as her body underwent

the changes of her Tribute.
Generally speaking, Tributes didn’t cause such dramatic
changes. All of the Nymphs I’d seen in the past that’d received
Tributes got basic things like claws on the tips of their hands. And, of
course, Tributes also provided Stats and other System-related
abilities. In terms of bodily changes, they wouldn’t normally do so
much.
But those small changes happened when getting Tributes from a
weak monster. The first Nymph I’d ever seen, back when I was first
lost in the woods, had gotten its long claws from a Stripek—a
monster that didn’t even exist past Level 10. So of course such a
weak monster would cause such a weak change.
When she’d turned into a Dryad from being a Nymph, the Dryad
had gotten her Tribute from a Faerie Queene with an utterly massive
Level. And getting something like that completely changed her
species and added on tons of new abilities.
So if she was getting a Tribute from a Dragon—something
around as powerful as the Faerie Queene—would that mean we’d
see her evolve into yet another new species? Tributes stacked upon
one another, so a Dryad—something that’d already gotten a Tribute
from a Faerie Queene—getting yet another Tribute from a Dragon
wouldn’t be the same thing as a regular Nymph getting a Tribute
from a Dragon.
In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was the first time in
the history of the world that this species was about to be created.
Really, what were the odds that something went out and got Tributes
from both of those powerful monsters?
Last time, she got the ability to instantly cure all wounds and
afflictions once a week, the ability to communicate telepathically with
others, a much more powerful weapon that she had finer control of,
and a massive number of additional Stats. What would she get this
time?
My thoughts were interrupted by movement in the corner of my
eye. An Infernal approached me, ready to attack, and I was forced to
pay attention to the fight again. I still had my second ring I could
activate for another bout of invisibility, but for now I wanted to try and
keep it in reserve.
The Infernal swung and I dodged beneath its fist, backing away
and shooting it with a Ray of Frost.

Frost.
I wanted to conserve my low Mana as much as possible, too, so I

tried to focus on just retreating from the Infernal for now. Something
told me this entire battle was about to undergo quite a massive
shake-up.
Sneaking a glance over at the Dryad once again, I was struck by
the sight of a completely different being. She was even taller—I
wasn’t close enough to tell for sure, but she’d most likely stand a
solid head taller above me now. Even then, her new height was
probably the least obvious change about her.
Her eyes, as always, glowed white. But now there was a
difference to the glow. It wasn’t the steady, unchanging light like
you’d find from a magical illumination Spell. Now it was like that of
fire, dancing in her eyes and occasionally sending out white embers
and sparks floating up from her face. Across her body, the previously
green, natural vines that wrapped across her were now smoldering
red, sizzling with an obvious heat that’d scald the skin of whoever
touched them.
And that red-hot nature spread to her whip, which was, naturally,
on fire. Full, blazing flames spread all along the length of the whip,
combining with the thorns to create a truly deadly weapon.
She got up to her feet and stood straight up, gazing around the
battlefield with her newly ablaze eyes.
With its end of the bargain seemingly done, the Dragon Astintash
flapped its wings and took to the skies, now free from the chains
that’d held it in place. The instant the soldiers saw it free to hunt
them down, almost everyone began fleeing in terror.
As the Dryad looked around, she eventually saw me and caught
my eye. In that instant, I got an unexpected System notification.
A Bond with Level 28 Draconiad has been established. You

will now gain a portion of her natural might.
For as long as you are within 1000 paces of Level 28
Draconiad, you gain the following effects:
-Your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are each increased
by 2.
- Whenever Draconiad gains XP, you also gain 1% of that XP.
- You gain 6% Resistance to all heat-based damage.
I blinked, surprised at the flood of changes that suddenly rushed

into my body from the additional Stats. Draconiad? A Bond had been
established? What the fuck?
But before I could process what had just happened, or even finish
reading through the whole notification, I heard a growl to my side
and saw the Infernal charging at me again. I backed away—
something that was made a bit easier due to my extra Stats—and
tried to figure things out.
Draconiad—that was probably just the name of the Dryad’s new
species. And from that new species, she got this Bond ability? I
supposed it made sense; as a Dryad, she could telepathically
connect with people, offer them aid in the form of healing, and so on.
And now, with a Dragon’s Tribute, that connection seemed to be
used to also impress some of her newfound power upon those she’d
connected with.
Level 28 Draconiad has offered moderate contribution toward

the slaying of Level 28 Infernal.
Due to having a Bond with Draconiad, you have earned 2 XP.
Your XP is 849.
I glanced over to see the Dryad—or rather, Draconiad—standing

over the corpse of an Infernal. It seemed like that was how the extra
XP system worked. One percent wasn’t exactly a lot—the whole
Bond thing seemed to be mainly small boosts like that—but free XP
was free XP. Still, I was a bit frazzled by everything going on.
I got a few more notifications about her killing various Infernals as
she whipped her new body into action and flung herself through the
battlefield with more prowess than I’d ever seen her show before.
She tore through Demons and Humans alike, and I quickly lost track
of her in the crowd.
At the same time, I could hear Astintash moving across the
legions of soldiers and sending them fleeing. It soared over my area
and I quickly took cover under some rocks as it breathed its fiery
breath down at my pursuers. Whether this was a genuine attempt to
save me or just Astintash seeing some soldiers and going to kill
them, I had no idea. But I was thankful nonetheless.
After it left, I came out from my hiding place to see that there
were no longer any soldiers coming after me. Not all of them had
died, but the ones that survived were either burnt and unable to fight,
or scared off and now in the process of running away.
I also didn’t see Erani anywhere. She was probably still invisible,
and definitely too far for me to see something like the footprints she’d
be leaving behind as she moved.
"Hey," I messaged the now-Draconiad, using the familiar link
between us as I searched. "Are you okay? What’s going on?"
"Am fine." I got an excited response. "Am going to kill bad guys!"
"Wait!" I urged. "There are way too many, and they’re already
retreating. Just let them go for now, and we can regroup. You just got
a bunch of Stats from the Tribute, right? You need to give your body
time to adjust then, and⁠—"
"If bad guys are running away, it means they know I can kill
them!"
I got several more notifications of her killing more soldiers. She
clearly wasn’t listening to me in her excitement from the power-up.
"Okay, fine, kill the ones that are nearby. But after that, come
back as soon as you can. I don’t trust the Dragon not to accidentally
crush you or something."
I glanced around, trying to find Erani. We’d need to regroup at
some point, but maybe it’d be easier to do so once the one with
telepathic abilities came back and could help us coordinate. Because
for now, I was relying on just walking around and hoping to stumble
into Erani while still staying hidden in case any stragglers showed
up.
Really, it was quite uncanny how quickly everyone cleared out
once Astintash was mobile again. Sure, it was possible that one or
two stuck back and might attack me, but pretty much everyone left
the moment the Dragon got free. Seemed like they didn’t trust
themselves that much to take it down after those chains were gone.
Well, that and I was sure the newly created Draconiad rampaging
through their forces didn’t do much to help.
It didn’t seem like Erani was anywhere immediately nearby, so I
just decided to message the Draconiad and ask her for some help in
us finding each other.
"Hey, do you mind asking Erani where she is right now? She’s
invisible, so it’s hard to find her."
I waited for a second, but didn’t get a response. That’d never
happened before. Was there something going on with the new Bond
she’d gotten or something?
"Are you getting this message?"
"Help!" I suddenly got back. "Too many bad guys! Come!"
My eyes widened. Shit! Instantly, I shot off in the direction I’d
seen her run off in. I should’ve insisted on her coming back
immediately, not let her just go off and do whatever she wanted. She
obviously wasn’t thinking very soundly, and I should’ve been the
voice of reason there. She was a kid, I chided myself. Of course she
needed an authority to tell her to knock it off sometimes.
"Arlan, wait." I heard a voice that I recognized to be Index’s.
"What?!" I asked, still rushing over to the aid of my companion in
trouble.
"I wouldn’t advise going to save her. We don’t know how many
enemies there are, and you don’t have much Health and Mana left.
It’s too big a risk to take considering the reward."
"Considering the reward?!" I demanded. "She’s in trouble. She
needs my help. It’s not a question of risk and reward."
"I mean, objectively, it is. Saving her only increases your chances
of future survival by a certain amount, and even with her new
Tribute, I don’t suspect it will raise your chances by the amount
you’re risking right now going to save her. Mathematically, it
doesn’t⁠—"
"This isn’t some fucking math problem you can optimize!" I said.
This was the first time I’d actually disagreed with one of Index’s
recommendations. It seemed like it didn’t do well with emotions.
"Of course I don’t ‘do well with emotions,’" Index said, reminding
me it could read my thoughts. "Emotions are illogical, and relying on
them only serves to lower your survival chances. If you’d just stop
and listen to me, I’d⁠—"
"Listen," I said, "there’s no point to living if I’m not happy. And if
she dies, I won’t be happy. Plug that into your calculations, and run it
from there. Saving her is non-negotiable."
"I…okay," Index said after a moment. "In that case, use more
Mana on Expedite to get there faster. If there are enough enemies to
overwhelm her, there will be enough that you won’t be able to kill
them all, no matter how many there are. You’re better off using your
Mana now to arrive before they have a chance to kill her."
I nodded. "Thank you. If she dies, I…"
My voice trailed off, and I didn’t bother to continue my thought.
She wouldn’t die. With a hurried cast of Expedite, using the Mana I’d
regenerated in the time since the fight had died down, I moved faster
than ever in my attempt to catch up to my companion.
"Where are you?" I asked, trying to keep myself from panicking.
"Downhill! Cornered by bad guys!" was all the response I got.
I glanced around frantically, trying to find any clump of soldiers
that might give away her location. The destruction was so dense
from Astintash’s rampaging attacks, rubble all around and dirt kicked
up in the air, it was difficult to make anything out.
But then, off to my left, I heard a yell. It was a roar of pain, clearly
from an Infernal—not who I was looking for—but it was better than
nothing. I rushed off in that direction, trying to find where it came
from, when I saw it. A group of soldiers, retreating off down the hill,
but obviously being slowed down by something. Four of the Infernals
were carrying someone between them, each Demon holding one of
the person’s limbs.
And the person was glowing with fiery anger, eyes ablaze.
She was struggling to get away from them, but her power had
always been in her speed, rather than her raw strength. And even
though her strength was undoubtedly powerful in its own right,
getting ganged up on by several massively muscular Infernals was
obviously way too much for her to overpower with brute force alone,
especially when there were dozens more soldiers surrounding her.
I rushed forward without thought to save my captive companion,
despite the fact that there were way too many Infernals and Humans
for me to take on. Sprinting closer to the dozens of soldiers, I
wracked my mind for a solution. Rushing straight in would just get
me killed, but obviously I couldn’t just leave her there to get captured
—and probably killed, after she was questioned.
Noxious Grasp? No, too many enemies to kill them all with it. And
not enough Mana to use Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost, or Gravity Well
to incapacitate them all at once. Even with Expedite, the crowd was
too thick for me to get through to the Draconiad, no matter how much
Dexterity I had. Besides, I needed my Mana for once I actually got
near them. It felt like there was no way through.
But then I remembered one last tool I had.

by anyone.
With the activation of my last invisibility ring, I disappeared from

sight as I rushed straight up to the crowd of soldiers unnoticed. They
were in too much of a hurry to get out of here away from the still-
rampaging Dragon to hear or see the footsteps approaching them.
"Get ready," I messaged, "coming in."
I felt a sense of genuine surprise from the Draconiad. "What? You
are here?"
"Of course, you needed help. What else was I supposed to do?"
I slipped into the crowd, using the fact that everyone was already
bumping into each other to easily get by without people realizing it
was me touching them. Ducking below arms and squeezing between
bodies, I moved through into the center of the group.
And then, once I got to where the four Infernals were holding the
Draconiad captive, I took a moment to get my bearings, then
enacted my hastily constructed plan.
My Mana had regenerated a bit in the couple minutes it’d taken
for me to find the Draconiad, and in an instant, I spent it all. I cursed
all four of the Infernals holding her with Crippling Chill, dropping my
Mana down to almost nothing, and in the confusion, tackled my body
into the Draconiad’s, ripping her from their grasps.
She fell to the ground alongside me, blindsided by the sudden
force pushing her to the ground, but her fiery eyes lit up when she
realized what was going on. Hastily getting to her feet and wielding
her weapon, she lashed the burning vine of thorns out in a wide arc
at the four Demons and everyone else making up the group.
Level 29 Draconiad has slain Level 21 Infernal.

Your XP is 883.
Your XP is 886.

Your XP is 890.
Your XP is 893.
Embers and sparks flew through the air as the vine tore through
their bodies, finishing them off from their previous wounds, and the
rest of the Human soldiers screamed in fear and backed away,
clearly not willing to engage with her now that she wasn’t in bonds.
She struck out at some of them, nicking their backs as they fled
from her, and stepped forward to give chase, but I grabbed onto her
arm. It still surprised me to see her having grown so tall when just
before she was barely my height. But despite the difference in our
size—and probably physical strength—she hesitated and looked
back when I grabbed her wrist.
Of course, she wouldn’t actually see anything when looking back
at me because of the invisibility, but she could receive my message
all the same.
"Please," I said, "don’t kill yourself over them. I know you’re angry
—I am too. I mean, they almost just killed you, for the gods’ sake.
But if you’re going to dedicate yourself to destroying them, at least
promise me you won’t destroy yourself in the process."
She glanced at the enemies. Some of the people had drawn their
weapons and were ready to attack if she struck at them, but none of
them approached. In fact, even though they seemed ready to fight,
everyone there was backing away, clearly not wanting to engage
now that she was free.
The sound of Astintash’s roar sounded from off somewhere else
in the massive, chaotic battlefield, and I saw a cone of flames spout
up from the trees in that direction. The reminder of the bloodthirsty
Dragon seemed to convince the soldiers to run off for good, at that
point, and I let out a breath.
The person I’d just saved didn’t seem quite as relaxed as I was,
though. She stared into me as though she could see me despite the
invisibility. "Why you save me?"
"What do you mean?" I responded. "Of course I saved you—you
needed help. You think I was just going to let you die?"
There was a pause. "When first get ability to talk to you, could
sense your emotions. You were afraid of me, scared I may kill you.
You kept me with you because I help kill bad guys and keep you
safe, but did not feel like I your friend. Now…you still not feel like I
your friend. But not in bad way. You feel like…"
"I feel like you’re my family," I said, understanding what she
meant. "And I would never let my kid get slaughtered by some
Demons. I know, back then, you said that if I felt like saving your life
would put my own in serious danger, I wouldn’t do it. Well, now I
know that I would. And I hope you know it too."
She stared at me, her eyes welling up with white tears. "I…your
child?"
I couldn’t help but laugh a bit, saying that someone so much taller
than me was my kid. But really, that was just how I felt. She didn’t
have anyone else, and I wasn’t about to abandon her to live life on
her own. So, in a way, she was like my surrogate daughter.
She nodded, apparently feeling my confirmation with her
empathy ability. "I know where mother is, saw her when chasing after
this group of bad guys. Follow me to find her."
"Uh, sure," I said, a bit surprised at her sudden use of the word
"mother" to refer to Erani. She sure did adapt to these things quickly,
it seemed.
But as we walked off in that direction, I felt something coming—a
System message, like the ones I got when I Leveled up. Or, really, it
felt more like the one I’d gotten about that Bond thing I’d gotten when
the Draconiad had evolved, which I still needed to ask her about.
Once the notification arrived in my mind, I realized I’d probably
have quite a bit more questions for her than I first thought.
Threshold reached. Your Bond with Level 29 Draconiad has

deepened.
Due to your Bond being deepened, it has undergone the following
changes:
Stat Increase: From 2 to 4
XP Gain: From 1% to 2%
Heat Resistance: From 6% to 11.6%
My main question being, how in the fuck did the System just
decide the Bond got stronger?
32
A NAME
AFTER WALKING along the decimated battlefield for a few minutes,

the Draconiad and I ended up coming across Erani, who was sitting
up on a tall rock looking around for us, too. Apparently she had been
in contact with the Draconiad as we searched, so it didn’t take long
for us to find each other with her help.
She slid down the smooth face of the rock, landing on her feet in
front of us. She wobbled a bit upon landing, acting a bit similarly to
how she had when I’d first started casting Expedite on her. Strange,
considering she was used to the Spell by now, and she didn’t even
have it active anyway.
"Hey." I walked up to her and brought her into a tight embrace. I
hadn’t realized that we hadn’t really been separated before, ever
since the Demons first invaded. It was a bit of a wake-up call just
how much I missed her after such a short time apart. It felt totally
unnatural to not have her by my side—like missing an arm. "Are you
okay?"
"Yeah." She nodded and we separated. "Just trying to get used to
this Bond thing. You have it too?"
"Right, I do." I frowned. "It isn’t that bad, though, just a couple
extra physical Stats. Or…I guess since you aren’t used to getting
extra Stats other than Dexterity, the Strength is messing with you, or
something?"
"Well, yeah, of course," she said. "I’d think just about anyone
would feel weird after getting an extra 22 in all of their Stats."
I blinked, not processing what she’d just said for a moment. Had
she said twenty-two? My Bond had already been "deepened" once,
and it was only at 4 additional Stats!
Erani seemed to notice my shocked expression. "Did you get
something different?"
Still trying to process what she’d just said, I read out my version
of the Status window. It seemed like I could access it just by
focusing, the same way I could access all of the other general
information about my Status.
You have a Bond with Level 29 Draconiad.

by 4.
- You gain 11.6% Resistance to all heat-based damage.
My mind raced at what she’d said. 22 in each physical Stat?!

Even after accounting for my boost, my totals were 22 in Strength,
41 in Endurance, and 23 in Dexterity. She’d have a 32 in each now,
accounting for the base 10 she’d start with. What in the fucking hells
caused her to get such an insane buff from this?
"Wow," she said, her eyes widening, "that’s way less than what I
got. I was a bit taken aback when I got it—fell flat on my face the
moment the extra Strength kicked in—and it’s honestly taken this
long for me to calm down after seeing it. I assumed you’d gotten the
same thing, but I guess my case is special, somehow?"
"Yeah, maybe," I said. "What are your exact benefits?"
"Well, like I said before, the Stat gain is 22, and then the XP gain
is 11%, and the Resistance to heat is at 49.4%."
"Huh. So I guess the XP percentage is always equal to half the
Stats. Then I’m not sure how the Heat Resistance works specifically,
but we can probably figure it out later. But, okay, more importantly,
did your benefits start out that high? Or did they start at where mine
were, and then grow to be where they are now over time or
something?"
"What do you mean, ‘did they grow?’ They started out where they
are. Is it possible for the Bond to change?"
"Yeah," I said. "When I first got mine, it started out at 2 Stats, 1%
XP, and 6% Resistance. But then, after saving her and talking with
her for a bit, it said something about the Bond being deepened, and
the benefits increased to where they’re at now."
"Huh." Erani brought a hand to her chin, thinking. "Maybe she
knows how this works better than we do."
Erani and I glanced over at the Draconiad. Standing next to her, I
still wasn’t totally used to her new appearance. Going from a Nymph
to a Dryad, the changes had been noticeable, sure, but not too
severe. Mainly she just got a bit bigger and her hair grew longer.
This time, though, I could barely even see who she had been before
her new look. Her burning eyes, much taller height, even her hair
color seemed to have changed from dirt-brown to a deep red. And,
of course, the vines wrapping her body were constantly set aglow,
embers blazing like a hearth as the wind blew onto them.
It seemed like she could somehow choose whether they were
actually hot to the touch, though. When I found her getting captured
by those Infernals, their hands were smoldering from the heat
coming from her body. But later, when I touched her, it just felt warm.
Uncomfortably warm, sure, but nothing that would actually burn me.
But I supposed all of those changes made sense, considering the
being she’d just gotten a Tribute from. I was surprised she’d
managed to pull something like that off, given how proud Dragons
tended to be. Hells, I knew Astintash by now, and I knew it’d never
tolerate someone asking something like that of it. Or, at least, I
thought I knew that. Seemed like the Draconiad had figured
something out I hadn’t.
Anyway, we needed to figure out what was going on with this. If
there was a possibility for me to bring my Bond up to where Erani’s
was, it’d mean an absolutely massive boost in power. Or if we could
get Erani’s even higher than it was already. Good gods, bringing her
Bond to an even more ridiculous level… The thought of that filled me
with anticipation.
Off in the distance, I could still hear Astintash wreaking havoc
among the fleeing army, but I was willing to bet it’d come back soon.
And once that happened, I’d at least like to have figured out how
these changes would affect me.
"Hey, so does your Status say anything about a ‘Bond?’" I
messaged her.
"Hm," she sent back, "I will look. When got Tribute, lots of things
entered mind. Hard to remember all."
I waited patiently for her as she took a few moments to look
through what would clearly have been quite the backlog of System
notifications. With the Tribute alongside plenty of kill notifications,
she probably had a good bit to look through.
"Yes, see something saying ‘Bond,’" she said. "Bond established
with you and with mother."
"Right, we got notifications about that, too. They said what the
Bonds do, but not why they were formed or how they might work in
the future. Do you have any information about that on your end?"
"Yes. Bond with you is Rank 2, Bond with mother is Rank 11.
Bond with you started at Rank 1 but increase to 2. Does not say why,
though. Or if close to new Rank. What do Bonds do?"
"It doesn’t say anything about that? For us, it increases our Stats,
copies some of the XP you get and gives it to us, and reduces any
heat-based damage that would be dealt to us. Do you not get
anything for them?"
"No. But Tribute gave me Stats, XP, and Heat Resistance, so
seems like you get portion of that, too."
"Hm, interesting."
I was still a bit frustrated that neither of us got any confirmation
on what made the Bond deepen, but the information we got was still
valuable. Besides, I had a few ideas on how it actually worked.
Logically, I felt like they made sense—at least, the evidence seemed
to suggest I was right—but it was just such a ridiculous thought that
the System would do something like that that part of me refused to
believe it without further proof.
Part of me wanted to sit around and do some experiments to
figure out how this all worked, but we still had more things to
discuss.
"So," I said, "how did you get the Dragon to give you a Tribute?
What did you even discuss?"
"Discuss how filthy Humans are. And how Humans are lowly
beings that deserve to be crushed underfoot."
Well. I supposed that would be one way to build some rapport
with Astintash. "…Right. And I guess you just promised to help with
the army and the wall?"
"Yes. In return for help, Dragon says will keep us safe and make
sure we pass through after wall has been destroyed."
"Huh. Yeah, that works just fine. Wait, does the Dragon even
know about us? If you talked about how much you hated Humans,
how did you then go and say you were negotiating on behalf of a
couple Humans that wanted to help?"
"Oh," she added with a smile, obviously proud of herself, "said
you were my prisoners. Told Dragon that I attack and destroy Human
settlements, then collect strongest Humans from them and keep
them in possession to fight for me. Dragon was so proud! Said it
could even learn from me."
I just sighed. I had no idea how I’d keep this kid under control
when we got to actual civilization. "So I guess you made good
friends with it, then? That’s good, at least. Don’t have to worry about
being stabbed in the back or anything."
"Yes, good friends. Dragon even gave me name!"
"Wait, what?"
"Yes. My name is…" She paused, clearly going through some
effort to try and transmit an actual name through the connection
between us. I knew how hard it was—I still couldn’t do it, actually.
"My name is Humanslayer Ainash."
"Um." …Humanslayer? Looking at her face, she seemed so
proud of the title. "Uh, yeah, the name itself seems really good! But,
um, maybe ‘Humanslayer’ isn’t⁠—"
"’Humanslayer’ is best part!" she said. "I slay Humans! Bad guys
will fear my name!"
"Right…but not all Humans are bad guys, remember? Some
Humans are good guys. The Demons are the ones that are mostly
bad guys, maybe you could change it to be ‘Demonslayer’ instead?"
"But that is why it is ‘Humanslayer.’" She pouted. "One day, I will
kill all Demons. Then there will be no reason to make Demons
scared with my name. But since some Humans are good guys, some
Humans will always be alive. And with my name scaring all of the
Humans, none of them will become bad guys! They will all be too
scared of me to become bad! It is perfect!"
"Er…" Yeah, I didn’t think I’d be able to change her mind on this.
"Right. Well, anyway, I like the ‘Ainash’ part. It’s a pretty name, and I
think it suits you."
"Thank you." She smiled.
At least her name wasn’t something like Astintash’s with a dozen
titles all describing what a terror she was to Humanity before the
name itself. It was still a name obviously formatted similarly to the
way Dragons formatted their own—with the titles followed by the
actual name.
And the name also sounded like a Dragon’s in the way it was
pronounced. Which made sense, considering a Dragon was the one
to come up with it. Still, I was sure it’d seem pretty weird for a Dryad
to walk around with a Dragon’s name—well, Draconiad, anyway.
I imagined that anyone who heard me say it would instantly think
she was a bloodthirsty, fire-breathing scaled beast, especially if they
heard the "Humanslayer" part that came in front. But maybe that was
for the best, considering she was getting to the point of being about
as dangerous to the Human species as any other Dragon would be.
At least the name would work as a deterrent to anyone who wanted
to try messing with her.
"So… Humanslayer, huh?" Erani said. She’d apparently had a
similar conversation with our newly named companion to the one I
had.
"Yeah." I sighed and shook my head. "Whatever, I guess. It’s her
name, she can do what she wants with it. I’ll probably just stick with
the ‘Ainash’ part minus the title, though."
"That would be best." Erani nodded. "Does your little Index thing
know anything about the new abilities Ainash got? Maybe it knows
something she wasn’t told."
"Maybe. Index, can you tell me anything about that?"
"Hm." The voice spoke into my ear and I barely masked my being
startled. It never quite stopped unsettling me to hear a voice that was
so obviously close to my face but I could never see. "The System
really wants you guys to get a bit more familiar with them before
giving you any more info, but I can tell you some of the basic stuff.
So, basically—wait. Oh, uh, you may wanna talk to me about this
later."
"Why?"
"Company."
Before I could ask Index what it meant by that, I heard a sound. A
Dragon’s wings flapping through the air, coming up the mountain.
"Back up," I said, anticipating Astintash’s heavy landing.
I watched as it came into view, massive body blotting out a
significant portion of the sky and covering us in shade as usual, and
slowly lowered itself to the ground.
"Hm, there you are," it boomed. I suspected it wasn’t trying to be
imposing with its speech, but that was pretty much impossible for
something its size. "I have chased those pathetic meddlers back to
their hideout. You two Humans, you were the ones to help me free
myself from those chains they bound me with?"
"Uh, yes," I said. "We would also like to help you destroy their
base and wipe them out."
"Yes, yes, your owner said something like that," it said. "Let us
depart, then."
Astintash readied its wings to fly back up into the air and head
down to the wall, but I stepped forward, holding out my hands to stop
it. "Woah, uh, let’s hold on a second."
It glared at me. "What?"
I paused, feeling the weight of a Dragon’s ire in full force. "Um,
would it be okay if we rested for a bit? We need to recover our
Health and stuff. Maybe we could attack tomorrow?"
While it would be nice to recover our Health, my main worry was,
of course, getting back my uses of Time Loop before the assault.
Sure, Astintash would be doing most of the heavy lifting here, but I
wasn’t keen on moving forward with this plan with absolutely no
protection.
Astintash didn’t say anything for a while, just staring at me. At
first, I thought it was just taking an abnormally long time to think
about what I’d asked, but then I realized it was talking with Ainash,
my "owner."
"Dragon says okay to rest for little while," she said. "Maybe one
hour."
"Any chance you could talk it up a bit more?"
"Do not think so. Wants to hurry and kill bad guys."
Damn. Yeah, seemed like that wouldn’t be happening. It’d be
much riskier to push Astintash on the subject and take the gamble of
maybe killing us for the disrespect, than to just go in and try to stay
safe during the fight.
"Okay, fine. Let’s rest, then."
So the three of us sat down in front of an impatient Dragon, heat
from its breaths warming my bones. Honestly, I felt like if anyone
saw us in this position, they’d be wondering why we weren’t all
screaming in fear. Having something that could so easily kill us
sitting around just a few paces away, I could see where they’d be
coming from. Really, a couple weeks ago, I’d have thought the same
thing.
But at this point, I’d had so many close calls with death—a good
number of which ended in me actually dying—that I just couldn’t
bring myself to care. We’d rest for now, then get ready for the fight.
The fight to finally allow us out of this gods-forsaken kingdom.
33
A SHORT RESPITE
ERANI, our newly named companion Ainash, and I all sat and
rested, taking a short break before moving to attack the wall. I used
the last of my Stamina on Regenerate, trying to get my Health back
up a bit, then sat down and closed my eyes.
Index reminded me that I’d Leveled up back there when I was
fighting the Infernals, and I still had Stat Points to assign. So my first
portion of the break was spent in meditation.

Name: Arlan Nota
Age: 20
Class: Minute Mage
Class Type: Magic
Level: 17
XP: 893/1.9k
Health: 196/410
Stamina: 45/190
Mana: 1.08k/1.11k
Health/Minute: 0.149
Stamina/Minute: 1.25
Mana/Minute: 57.6
Strength: 22 (18 + 4)
Endurance: 41 (37 + 4)
Dexterity: 23 (19 + 4)
Conjuration: 100
Intelligence: 22
Spells:
Expedite 9 - XP 355/355
Ethereal Armor 9 - XP 51/355
Gravity Well 9 - XP 6/355
Ray of Frost 9 - XP 35/355
Crippling Chill 9 - XP 238/355
Noxious Grasp 12 - XP 416/844 +Venomous Grasp
Talents:
Regenerate
Recursive Growth
Time Loop 17 +Extended Loop
Titles:
Devastator
Trailblazer
100 Conjuration! I smiled, looking at the nice, three-digit number.

It was the culmination of everything I’d been working for all this time.
I was just about getting 1 Mana every second at this point, which
was extremely promising. Soon enough, my Mana/Minute would
reach 100, and then I’d be able to get a full point of Spell XP past the
Soft Cap every single minute. Quite the difference from back when
each individual point of Spell XP gained was an accomplishment of
its own. All I’d need were a few more Levels, and the extra
Conjuration gained would be enough to push me there, when
combined with Exponential Reclamation.
But then, the XP requirements for reaching the next Levels were
speeding up, as well. To get to 17, it had cost 1600, now it’d cost
1900 for 18. I remembered the general idea of how XP costs ramped
up; the first 10 Levels would start with a base 50 cost, and increase
by an additional 50 each Level until 10. Those first 10 Levels were
considered the "easy part" of Leveling, because after that, the rate
the costs would increase at would itself start going up.
From the 500 XP cost at Level 10, it’d start increasing by 100
each Level. Then, once it got to 1000 at Level 15, it’d start going up
by 300. That was the part I was in. After that, once you got to Level
20 it’d start going up by 500, then at Level 25 it’d go up by 1000, at
30 it’d go up by 3000, and so on. It followed that same pattern
forever, as far as Humanity knew.
At this point, I was just beginning to get a taste of the ever-
increasing nature of Level requirements, and I could already see why
many people stopped trying to get stronger after a certain point.
It was pretty easy to get to, say, Level 10 over the course of a
year by just taking on easy, safe jobs and teaming up with a big
group of other adventurers to make sure nobody was put in any
danger.
Assuming you played things safe and the group got an average
of 50 XP per outing killing random monsters that strayed close to city
walls, split among five people, each individual would get just 10 XP
each outing. And assuming they went out a few times a week
between their regular jobs, to get the altogether 2750 XP to get from
Level 0 to Level 10, it’d take a bit less than two years. That wasn’t
bad at all, if you had the time and were dedicated.
But then to get from Level 10 to Level 20, you’d need a total of
13,500 XP. Using that same method, it’d suddenly take over eight
years of time and dedication to get to that point. And getting to Level
30 would take a lifetime.
Now, sure, as a higher-Level individual, you’d have the ability to
safely take on higher-Level monsters. But higher-Level monsters
were much harder to come by. You could easily find Wood Spirits
and Trimps roaming around the wilderness, but finding a nest of
Drakelings to kill every single day? That just wasn’t going to happen.
And when you were trying to kill all the high-Level monsters in an
area, you’d naturally start butting heads with other high-Level
adventurers who also wanted that XP. And that was not something
you wanted.
So the majority of people who wanted to avoid dying pointlessly
would take things slow and typically stop trying to Level after Level
10 or so. Past that point, they’d just Level incidentally while on jobs,
which wouldn’t happen often. Adventuring paid well, so most
wouldn’t need to go out killing monsters more than a couple times a
week.
Of course, there were people out there who worked to Level
much, much harder and took many more risks, but they certainly
weren’t common. Doing that would either be extremely expensive,
since you’d want to protect yourself with powerful items and hired
guards to step in if you ever got into trouble, or else you’d go without
the protection and have a high chance of dying. There were many
people who fancied themself a future Level 30 adventurer and ended
up buried a Level 3.
Really, I’d been Leveling much more quickly than most people did
when they first got a Class. Obviously, some of that was because of
the inherent benefits I’d been given. I had Time Loop, which could
get me massive amounts of extra XP throughout my fights, I had the
Devastator Title, passively increasing my gains, and I had Recursive
Growth working for me quite well at this point, more than making up
for its sub-par performance for the first few Levels after I’d gotten it.
Some of my strength absolutely came from outside my direct
influence.
But I had no doubt that I knew where most of it came from. It’d
come from necessity. There was no doubt in my mind that if I hadn’t
taken every opportunity available to me to fight, kill, and work for
more strength, I’d have died for good a long time ago.
Sure, the Demons were sending in their soldiers to try and kill
me, that was one way of thinking about it. But another way to think
about it? They were sending in little pouches of XP, ripe for me to
claim. Through their own blunders and mistakes, they’d created the
same person that was about to rip and tear his way through their
forces, destroy their wall, and get the fuck out of here.
Me, Erani, Ainash, we’d all been tempered like steel by the
Demons trying to kill us all. And by the gods, we were about to be
forged into a blade that’d slit their throats.
I opened my eyes, taking a deep breath. Time to focus. I would
not die so close to the finish line.
"Index, can you tell me any useful information before we go into
this fight?"
"Hm… Well, I can’t tell you much about your Draconiad friend
that you don’t already know, since you just haven’t been around her
in her new form for very long yet. But you have been around this
Dragon, especially when considering your multiple timelines dying to
it."
"What, does dying to something mean I get a bunch of new info?"
"Basically. Really, I wasn’t technically supposed to be used
alongside your specific Class. I was just meant for anyone that had a
unique one. So my limitations weren’t exactly designed with time-
travel powers in mind."
"What do you mean?"
"Pretty much, there are hidden values only I know that constitute
your Familiarity with something. The more Familiar you are with it,
the more information I can give you. Now, countless things can
increase Familiarity, so pretty much any interaction will do so
naturally. Researching it, talking with people about it, just existing
near it, and, most importantly, fighting against it. When you fight
something, you’ll be given Familiarity with it based on how impactful
that fight was. So, killing something is way more likely to give you
Familiarity than just poking it once and running off."
"…Right, so I can get this Familiarity with monsters by killing
them, makes sense."
"Not just by killing them. I said it’s based on how ‘impactful’ your
encounter was. So if you’re the one that’s being trashed by a
monster, that’ll also build up a ton of Familiarity all the same."
"And Familiarity can be tracked along deaths." I nodded.
"Exactly. Time Loop is very specific about its wording. It’ll turn
back your current Health, Stamina, and Mana, and it’ll also reset any
of your other Talent cooldowns, but nothing else relating to your
Status. That, of course, means Levels and XP, but it also means stuff
like building Familiarity. It also has some interesting interactions with
that Bond you have."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Can’t say," Index sighed. "That hint was already pushing it. But
anyway, what I’m getting at here is that you’re pretty darn Familiar
with Dragons, at this point. Especially Astintash."
"Huh," I said. I was careful and specific about what I said to
Index, since I had no doubt Astintash could hear me no matter how
softly I spoke. So far, I hadn’t given anything away—nothing that
Astintash could put together based on my side of the conversation
alone—so I wasn’t worried, but mentioning the fact that I was talking
about the Dragon itself would probably not be a good idea. "What
can you tell me, then?"
"Well I can’t tell you exact Health numbers or anything like that—
you’d need to start dealing significant damage to it to start figuring
that stuff out. But I can tell you about why Astintash cares so much
about killing off these soldiers. You can probably do a good bit with
that information."
"You mean it isn’t just about…"
"Pride?" Index read from my mind. "No, not just that. At least, I
don’t think so. I’ll admit what I’m about to say is technically
speculation—I can’t read anyone’s mind but yours—but I know
enough from knowing Astintash’s mental conversations with Ainash
and knowing literally everything about the Dragon species that I’m
pretty confident."
"Sounds good to me. Any information is good information, even if
it isn’t totally certain."
"Well, do you know how Dragons reproduce?"
"Eggs, right?"
"Yes, they lay eggs, but the process isn’t exactly typical. When a
Dragon lays an egg, that egg still needs to be fertilized. Without
fertilization, it’ll essentially sit around forever, waiting for that to
happen. The eggs can last effectively an eternity while waiting for
fertilization, though, so as long as they aren’t damaged, there’s no
rush once they’ve been laid. So what Dragons will do is, the moment
they reach maturity, they’ll instantly find a place to roost and lay a
batch of eggs."
"And then, what, just find another one?"
"Find another Dragon to fertilize their eggs? No, no, Dragons are
much too proud to go to another for help. Especially when that other
Dragon’s own essence of self will be half of the makeup of the
original Dragon’s offspring. You may forget about this because you’re
a Human, but Dragons aren’t only proud as a species. They believe
that they’re naturally superior to all other species, yes, but each one
of them also believes that it, as an individual, is superior to all others
of their own species."
"Wait, so what do they do, then?"
"Dragons are sexless—there aren’t male or female versions of
the species. They can all both lay and fertilize eggs."
"So does that mean…"
"Yes, a Dragon will fertilize its own eggs. But it doesn’t do so
immediately. Using the exact same genetics to both lay and fertilize
an egg won’t work. Instead, Dragons utilize another unique quirk of
their biology—their genetic makeup shifts over time. Or, rather, it
shifts with Levels. As they Level up and evolve their bodies, the
genetic fabric making them up will slowly change. So, after it lays its
eggs immediately upon reaching maturity, that specific set of
genetics is frozen in time, awaiting the fertilization from a new
‘version’ of the same being."
"And then after a while, it comes back?"
"Exactly. It’ll come back after hundreds of years, once it’s at a
genetic point it’s particularly proud of, and fertilize the eggs, finally
completing them and readying them to hatch. It essentially combines
a Dragon’s own past and its present to create what it considers to be
a perfect being. The combination of one’s origins and one’s
accomplishments. From that point, it’ll take a good few years for the
eggs to actually hatch, and during that time, they’re especially
vulnerable, since they’ve got living beings inside of them now."
"And so right now…"
"Yeah, right now, I’m pretty certain Astintash has got a batch of
eggs it’s protecting. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from the way it
was talking privately with Ainash."
"Huh, interesting." So it seemed like it may not have just been
that Astintash was protective of this place out of convenience, but
rather because it had to stick around to protect its vulnerable eggs.
Having knowledge of that bargaining chip was certainly good, but
it also meant the Dragon had more reason to get angry and kill us if
we didn’t cooperate. In any case, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea
to bring it up now. But if anything went wrong, maybe I could find a
way to use it then.
I spent the rest of our hour-long break resting physically and

mentally as I used my excess Mana regeneration to practice Noxious
Grasp. I’d been spending so much Mana on Expedite, it almost felt
like I was neglecting the Spell. Probably not a good idea to form
emotional attachments to words on a Status screen, but it made me
feel a bit guilty to overlook the Spell that’d been with me for so long.
It also still gave me a bit of a headache to not cast it for an extended
time, so it was nice to get rid of that.
I’d have liked to try and test out some of my theories on how
exactly the Bond with Ainash worked, but quite honestly I was way
too tired to do that. And it seemed like she was, too. I was sure
evolving and then instantly going into a massive fight put her body
under a huge amount of strain, and she was in no shape to be
spending our precious hour on that. Figuring out how the Bond
Ranked up would just have to wait, it seemed.
So, after a much-too-short sixty minutes, Astintash growled and
rose to a full stand, nodding its head to motion for us to stand as
well.
"We leave now," it said, "to finish what those filthy intruders
started."
34
A CRASH
ASTINTASH STOOD in front of me, its massive frame dwarfing mine

as we prepared to leave and attack the wall.
"What is that weakness the magical shield has that you told me
of?" it asked me. "Your owner, Humanslayer Ainash, says you are
the one with the most knowledge of it."
"Well," I said, "basically, it’s especially weak to physical attacks.
Seems like you’ve been hitting it mainly with magic, fire breath, that
sort of thing. But what’d be much easier to destroy it with would be
swiping at it with your claws. May be a bit hard to do because of their
weapons, but if you take it slow and hide behind something like a
nearby cliff face, you could probably get in some hits without getting
hit in turn."
Astintash looked at me silently for a while, obviously thinking.
"What you say could be true. You are sure of it?"
"Yes, the knowledge comes directly from the System, it wouldn’t
lie to me."
"Hm. How much Health do each of you have?"
I frowned. Was it about to kill us? I knew we’d be taking a risk the
moment we gave up our bargaining chip of that knowledge, since
Astintash essentially just didn’t need us anymore. But we could still
be useful. Why would it kill us?
Erani glanced over at me. "…Why?"
Astintash swung its massive head over to stare at her. "Because I
want to know. Tell me."
I grit my teeth. Astintash wouldn’t need to know our Health
numbers to kill us, so I supposed it would be safe. "…Currently
about 200."
"100 for me," Erani said, "with a shield that can block some
more."
"Hm. With the shield, that should work."
"Work for what?" I asked.
"The fight. Get on my back."
I blinked. Get on Astintash’s back? Get on a Dragon’s back? That
was a fucking death sentence. No Dragon, ever, would allow a lowly
Human to touch them and live, much less to literally use the Dragon
like a transport animal.
If Astintash was going to just let us get on its back, it must’ve
been desperate. Which made sense, considering what Index had
told me while we rested. But still…
"Are you sure?" I asked. "I thought Dragons hated⁠—"
"We do. Now get on my back."
I glanced back and forth between Erani and Ainash, who was
standing next to us. "…Okay."
"Good. We leave now."
Wind whipped through my hair, and I felt my entire body threaten to

drop from the scaly back of Astintash.
We were hundreds of paces in the air, flying above the tall peaks
of the mountains as the Dragon soared us over to the wall.
Astintash’s back was large enough that Erani, Ainash, and I could all
fit on it with room to spare, but that didn’t mean it was easy to stay
on.
Every second that ticked by, my grip slipped some more, and
every time Astintash flapped its wings, I got a bit more unsteady.
Honestly, I felt like it was being clumsy with us on purpose as a way
to regain some of its dignity, flying us around. Threatening to push us
to our deaths in the mountains below was definitely one way to
establish its power over us.
I had a couple casts of Expedite stacked on me and Erani to help
us hold on a bit tighter. With Erani’s much higher Stats now that she
had that high-Rank Bond with Ainash, she could handle herself a bit
better on her own, but it still wasn’t nearly enough.
My hand slipped from one of Astintash’s rough scales, and I
quickly cast another Expedite and grabbed back on as quickly as I
could.
I understood Astintash’s desire to get this done quickly, but still—
this was a bit unnecessary, wasn’t it? Maybe it was just my new
perspective of being on the Dragon instead of watching it from
below, but it felt like Astintash was going much faster than it normally
did when it flew down to approach the wall.
It only took a couple minutes before the massive structure
blocking the valley came into sight. It was absolutely teeming with
guards, all of them obviously much more alert than normal after the
defeat they’d suffered up in the mountains.
I expected Astintash to slow its blistering pace now that we were
close to the wall, but it only seemed to be going faster.
"Hey, what’s going on?" I asked, shouting so I could be heard
over the wind.
"We are attacking."
"Right, but shouldn’t you be slowing down?"
"No. I will be accelerating."
"What?!"
"You said the shield was weak to physical attacks, correct? I will
attack it physically."
Attack it… Wait. Oh, gods. I suddenly realized what it was
planning.
Glancing over at Erani, I saw that she must’ve noticed, too.
"Hold on!" I mentally screamed to Ainash.
She looked over at me. Luckily, she didn’t have quite as much
trouble holding on to Astintash as we did because of her naturally
higher Stats—especially now, after her evolution into the Draconiad.
But still, Astintash’s speed was ever-increasing as it tilted its body
downward and headed straight for the stone wall.
"What happening?" she asked. "Why?"
"It’s going to ram the wall!"
Her eyes widened, and she looked back at Astintash’s target.
The soldiers had noticed us by now, and were quickly preparing
retaliation. They were too late, though—we’d collide with them in
only a few seconds.
"When I say to, jump," Ainash said.
"What? Why⁠—"
"Jump!"
Without thinking, I did as she said and leapt from Astintash’s
scaly hide, Erani doing the same. At that instant, Astintash flew
straight into the suddenly materializing purple glowing dome shield
that surrounded the wall. Its snarling face rammed straight into it,
and for a second I thought the shield might hold against its massive
body. Astintash’s nose flattened against the dome, its snout
becoming slightly misshapen, and then⁠—
The loudest sound I’d ever heard rang through the air, shattering
my eardrums at the same moment the dome itself shattered. Purple
shards of magical energy were flung everywhere, bouncing
harmlessly off my body and landing on the ground, quickly
dissipating into nothing.
Astintash continued on its death-flight straight into the wall.
But I couldn’t focus on that, because I was also flying forward,
still midair from when I leapt from the Dragon’s back. Everything had
happened in a split second, to the point where I almost forgot that I,
too, was flying straight at the solid stone wall in front of me at deadly
speeds.
Was this why Astintash wanted to know how much Health we all
had? And after I told it I was damaged down to around 200, it
decided I’d be fine?! That thing had no perspective on how much
damage it’d take to kill someone like me.
And I was going to die. In the half-second before my death, I
decided to reminisce on all the shit I’d survived just to be done in by
flying into a massive brick wall.
Yep. Pretty disappointing.
But just before I flattened into the collection of stones in front of
me, I felt something wrap around my waist. A vine. Behind me,
Ainash had flung her whip out and wrapped it around my waist. But
even if she could suddenly stop me in my tracks and prevent me
from smacking into the stone wall, that sudden stop would kill me
just as easily as hitting the bricks. And with the wall only paces in
front of me, there was no way she had the space to gradually slow
me down to a safe halt.
Then the second-loudest sound I’d ever heard rang out.
Astintash’s massive Dragon body slammed into the stone wall in
front of me, crashing straight through it and leaving a massive hole
behind. And that massive hole was what I realized I was aiming for.
Ainash wasn’t wrapping the whip around me to stop me, she was
trying to guide me into the only safe place I could land.
Erani, to my left, was already on-path to fly through the hole, and
so was Ainash, in the air behind me. I was the only one who was a
bit too far to the right.
In what felt like slow motion, I felt Ainash pull on the whip as hard
as she could, yanking me through the air and toward her. But even
still, it wasn’t quite enough. I was on the right course, but the wall
was so close I didn’t have enough time to course-correct and avoid
hitting⁠—
My leg slammed into a stray brick of the wall on the edge of the
hole, and time felt like it sped up again.

Your Health is 184.
I flipped into the hole, set spinning indiscriminately by the impact

I’d made at the edge of the hole, and I could just barely make out the
carnage of Astintash’s path of destruction it’d made through the wall.
Shocked faces stared on in horror through the rubble and mangled
bodies of the people that had been in the direct path of the enraged
Dragon.
And then I was through the hole in the wall, out the other side
and still flying forward down the mountain path. I’d long since lost my
entire sense of direction, simply lost in the mess of color of the world
spinning around me.
I coughed a loud "ough" as I hit the ground the first time.

Your Health is 150.
Then I bounced back up, only slowed down a bit, flew even
further, and then hit the ground again.

Your Health is 129.
And then again.

Your Health is 109.
And then, one last time, I slammed into the ground. Only this
time, the downward force wasn’t quite great enough to bounce me
back up into the air. Instead, I slid across the rough gravel and dirt,
rocks tearing across my skin as friction slowed me down.

Your Health is 98.
You have been burned by friction. 48 damage.
Heat Resistance has triggered. Damage has been reduced to
42.
Your Health is 56.
After what felt like an eternity in the sky, I was back at home on
the ground. My throat was raw from screaming, which I didn’t even
know I’d been doing that whole time.
Groggily, I looked around, trying to stand despite the pain of my
landing. Erani and Ainash were both located a couple dozen paces
from me, scattered along the path like me, and in similar-looking
shape to mine. It seemed like Erani had been mostly protected from
the damage by Angelic Shield, though, which was good.
Then I saw the wall. The structure that once stood tall now stood
with a massive hole straight through the middle. Astintash was
getting to its own feet, standing between us and the broken wall,
looking proud of its work. Despite how upset I was at its almost
getting us killed, I couldn’t deny the effectiveness of its methods.
Slowly, as I watched, the massive wall began to collapse in on
itself. With the gigantic wound in its base, there was no way it could
support its own weight, and parts began to crumble. Stones fell,
support beams snapped in two, and people began to scream.
Humans and Infernals alike at the top floors suddenly had the split-
second decision of whether to leap from the top all the way to the
ground, or take their chances with the collapse and hope they didn’t
get crushed by rubble.
Chunks of stone and bricks crashed down to the ground, entire
rooms fell through ceilings of the multilayered building, and the outer
shell of stone began to crumble apart. Some of the people who’d
chosen to leap from the top of the wall—or who had just fallen due to
the instability of the thing—began impacting the ground.
Within about ten seconds, the entire wall crumbled to the dirt,
completely demolished by Astintash’s attack. The surviving soldiers
—maybe a quarter of who’d been in the wall to begin with—were
getting to their feet, standing off against us.
In the crowd of our enemies, I spotted two people. I wasn’t
surprised that they’d survived, but still, seeing them here made my
heart drop.
Those two royal guards, with their bow and battle-axe, stood
ready to fight. Asmo yanked her bow from her back, wiping a trail of
blood trickling down her forehead with a scowl on her face. The
woman with the battle-axe didn’t seem quite as eager to attack, but
she wielded her weapon just the same.
And, of course, surrounding them were dozens upon dozens of
Infernals and Humans, all ready to kill me—either out of hatred or
fear for their own lives. It didn’t matter at this point. Was there even
any distinguishing it anymore? They wanted to kill me, and I needed
to stop them from doing that. And there was a gigantic Dragon right
in front of me that would surely make certain I kept up my end of our
bargain.
"Okay," Astintash rumbled back to us, "I have broken through
their defenses. You will help me kill them until every last one of these
pathetic beings is dead."
I nodded and stepped forward, activating Regenerate to heal
back some of the damage I took in our landing.
Ideally, I could stick to killing the Infernals and let Astintash take
care of the Humans, but I suspected those two royal guards wouldn’t
let me off so easily.
Either way, there was no damned way I was going down without
a fight.
35
A BATTLE’S BEGINNING
ASTINTASH CHARGED.
Of course the Dragon was the one to move first—not only was it
easily the most confident and motivated of anyone involved in this
fight, but it was also the only one not sustaining serious injuries.
Several soldiers fled the moment Astintash took a step toward
them, some of them stood their ground, but most were still trying to
dig themselves out of the rubble of the wall.
The two soldiers leading the defense—calling for everyone else
to stand their ground—were the royal guards. Asmo had her bow
drawn, arrow notched and ready to launch, and the axe-wielding
woman held her bloodied blade, prepared to strike.
I, on the other hand, felt not quite as ready to attack. There were
probably fifty paces between me and the shattered wall’s remains,
and that was a lot of paces to clear when up against enemies with
ranged weaponry. I watched as Astintash took a dozen shots to the
face from its bow-wielding opponents, uncaring of the twigs poking
its scales, and wished I had the ability to just ignore things like that.
But at least Astintash made for a good distraction. I glanced over
to Erani and Aina—oh. Ainash had already dashed forward, right
behind the rampaging Dragon and whip ablaze, ready to strike down
her enemies.
"You stay back," I said to Erani. "You can use your last invisibility
ring if you need to. Just try to stay safe."
"You’re going in?"
"I don’t have much of a choice. Astintash’ll kill me if I don’t."
She pursed her lips and nodded, and with a couple Expedites
stacked on myself, I charged forward behind Ainash and her Dragon
friend. Fortunately, Astintash’s body was so massive that by running
behind it, basically nobody ahead had sight of me, so I didn’t yet
have to worry about being shot.
But as we approached the enemy forces, several Infernals circled
around Astintash to come and attack me. There was a clear
difference of interest between the Humans and Infernals here, since
the Humans were the only ones risking their lives. As such, the
Humans focused on surviving—either fleeing or trying to kill
Astintash—and the Infernals focused on the primary objective—
killing me.
So I was forced to slow down as the Infernals closed in to block
my passage. They were all pretty severely damaged—as was I—but
clearly they were ready to fight regardless.
A couple Firebolts flew out from behind me, Erani shooting at the
crowd of Infernals to slow them down and thin them out before they
could attack, which I was extremely grateful for.

the slaying of Level 27 Infernal.
Your XP is 897.
I was suddenly distracted by a few notifications coming in about

Ainash’s exploits in slaying her enemies. I tried to just ignore them
as they came in, which was pretty easy, but I had to imagine Erani
had a much harder time ignoring hers. She got so much more XP
from Ainash’s killings that it was likely she’d randomly get Level-ups
at some point, which would definitely be a distraction.
"Arlan, below!" Index’s voice snapped me out of my head.
Below? What could be below⁠—
I felt a rumbling, one that reminded me of something.
Hellions! I’d completely forgotten that they also had Hellions
crawling through the ground beneath the wall!
As quickly as I could, I leapt backwards just as a massive, toothy
worm burst from the gravelly dirt below me. I’d barely gotten out of
the way in time to avoid the rows of spines lining its maw, bursting up
right where I’d been.
In an instant, I raised my hand and shot it with as many Rays of
Frost as I could before it burrowed back into the ground.
Unfortunately, the total 200 damage I dealt to it didn’t seem to be
enough to kill the monster before it could burrow back into the
ground, hidden from my sight.
Spellcasting speed was one of the stranger factors when it came
to Magic-Types. For the other types of Classes, their limiting factor
time-wise was the physical speed they could move their bodies.
Whether they were fighting normally or using Martial Arts to enhance
their abilities, they could still only do one thing at a time, on a
fundamental level. They couldn’t swing their sword twice at the same
time, even if they had the Stamina available to activate a sword-
swinging Martial Art twice.
As Magic-Types, we didn’t have those physical limitations.
Theoretically it was possible for me to cast 1000 Mana’s worth of
Spells in a split second. However, we did have mental limitations.
And that was what prevented me from doing just that in a fight.
When I cast a Spell, I had to mentally push the Mana in my body to
form the Spell.
Back when I was first lost in the woods, I’d struggled to figure out
how to do that with Noxious Grasp, leading to me taking full seconds
just to toggle the Spell on and off, but at this point, I’d gotten quite
adept at doing that, both with Noxious Grasp and generally with any
new Spell I got. It took a bit of time to learn any new Spell’s form, but
I could figure it out pretty quickly, with practice.
But still, I could fundamentally only form one Spell at a time with
my mind. So when I went to cast several Rays of Frost at a time, it
wasn’t as easy as just thinking "I would like to cast ten of this Spell,
please" and it happening. It was going through and manually, one by
one, forming and casting each Spell.
This limitation could be sped up in a few ways, though. As I
mentioned before, there was always practice. The more I cast Ray of
Frost—or practiced my Spellcasting in general, for that matter—the
more quickly I’d be able to push my Mana into that familiar pattern.
However, just like how increasing my physical Stats could make my
body move faster, increasing Conjuration could help my mind move
faster when shaping Mana.
At its new value of 100, my Conjuration was certainly helping me
cast my Spells at record speed, but it didn’t seem to be enough to
cast enough Rays of Frost to kill a Hellion in the little time they
stayed aboveground.
At least, it wasn’t enough to kill them without me putting in some
effort to keep them aboveground against their will.
With Erani still helping to hold back the Infernals, I could focus for
a bit more time on fighting off these Hellions below me.
And there were multiple below me. I didn’t need Index to inform
me of that. Even after the initial attacker burrowed under the ground,
I could still feel a few more, each moving upward toward my feet.
"Now!" Index shouted, and I leapt out of the way just in time to
avoid another monster bursting from the ground. It was obviously a
new Hellion, without the frost coating of the one I’d just damaged
and let go. But for this one, I wanted to kill it while it was vulnerable.
The moment it reached the peak of its arc midair, I activated
Gravity Well on the monster, completely ruining its angled attempt to
burrow straight back into the dirt. Instead, it fell with a flop onto the
gravel, writhing in an attempt to burrow back into the ground with its
newly enhanced gravitational pull.
I didn’t let it escape this time, though. I tackled it, wrapping my
arms around the surprisingly rough skin of the monster at least as
wide as my own waist, and activated Noxious Grasp while also
pumping as many Rays of Frost as my mind allowed point-blank into
its body.
You have struck Level 17 Hellion for 62 damage using Ray of
Frost.
You have cursed Level 17 Hellion with Ray of Frost. For the
14.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 97.1.
You have slain Level 17 Hellion.

The moment the Hellion was dead, I backed away from its limp
corpse, aware that staying still in any area would only invite more of
them to attack. Sure, I could handle one at a time, but the moment
several attacked at the same time—or they started coming for me
when I was in the middle of fighting off the Infernals—I’d start having
issues.
And speaking of Infernals, a few of them were finally
approaching. Off ahead of me, I could see Ainash and Astintash
rampaging through the main rubble of the wall, killing indiscriminately
—whether someone was fighting back or running away, they died all
the same, it seemed. But that didn’t prevent some of the Infernals
from getting to me, despite Erani’s best efforts.
Trying to split my attention between the approaching Infernals
and the Hellions below me—Index’s warnings helped a lot with that
—I cast Crippling Chill on any of the Demons that got near and
prepared to start using Rays of Frost to focus them down. From what
I’d seen with Erani’s Firebolts, it seemed like the Infernals had taken
quite a bit of damage already from Astintash’s landing, so they
wouldn’t be quite as tanky as I’d known them to be.
There were about six Infernals all coming at me that I needed to
deal with here, and so I picked one at random to try and kill first. The
one closest to me, I decided, was going to die. I raised my hand and
shot off Ray of Frost after Ray of Frost at the monster as I backed
away, trying to keep my distance between me and the group.
That distance could only last so long, though, and soon enough
the Infernals caught up to me. With a crowd of so many of them,
there wasn’t much I could do to delay them from reaching me while
also dealing damage to them. Gravity Well could’ve worked, sure,
but keeping it active on six separate enemies would drain my Mana
fast—even with Ethereal Armor’s discount.
But still, with Expedite active on me, I wasn’t as helpless in close-
quarters combat as I used to be. The Infernals swung openhanded
at me, trying to catch me in a grab, but I bobbed and weaved
between their strikes, angering them further.
And the moment I saw an opening in the posture of the one I was
targeting, I struck, diving straight into it, leveraging my boosted
Dexterity and the natural Strength I got from Recursive Growth to
drive my body straight into its and push it to the ground, where I lay
on top of it.
In the little time I had, I activated Noxious Grasp and cast Rays of
Frost right up against its face, trying to take away as much of its
Health as possible.

Level 24 Infernal.
Within a few seconds, it was dead, and I instantly moved on to

my next target. I spun around and leapt at the next-closest Infernal
that was just then reaching down to try and drag me off of its now-
dead ally.
While I normally only ever saw Infernals with facial expressions
showing some form of rage, malice, or hatred, this was the rare time
I saw an Infernal look at me with some other emotion. In the moment
when I pounced on it like a predator on its prey, arms out and ready
to keep Noxious Grasp draining away Health, my new victim looked
at me with fear.
It made sense, I supposed—while the Demons as a whole were
an oppressive group of dictators, treating the Overworld like their
playground where there were no consequences, the individuals
probably felt a decent bit of fear now that a Dragon had crashed
through their secure base and there were a couple of ravenous
Humans tearing through their soldiers alongside two bloodthirsty
monsters. Even if the Infernals could survive death up here, I had no
doubt they’d rather avoid it. Really, it almost made me feel bad for
them.
Almost.
I crashed into the Infernal’s body and threw it to the ground, too,
with the help of a pulse of Gravity Well to throw it off balance. Its
head slammed into the rocky path below us, and I turned around
while straddling its muscly, deformed body to shoot Rays of Frost at
the other few Infernals that were still trying to kill me.
The bright Rays impacted their faces and temporarily blinded
them with flashes of icy pain across their faces, buying me a bit more
time with my primary target.
"Arlan, another Hellion!" I heard Index shout.
I was still atop the Infernal’s body, so for a second I was
confused.
Index must’ve picked up on that, though, because it continued,
"Judging from the trajectory, it looks like the Hellion’s gonna come up
straight through that Demon’s chest to try and hit you from below."
Ouch. Sacrificing their own soldiers just for a chance at killing
me? Seemed like they didn’t like this one’s chances at surviving
being pinned down by me. Not that I disagreed with the assessment.
But yeah, maybe now it was appropriate to feel bad for the poor
Infernal.
"Three, two, one…" Index counted. "Now!"
I leapt off of the Infernal’s chest just in time to be splattered with a
warm, sticky liquid all across my back—along with a healthy number
of chunks.

Level 27 Infernal.
I turned around and saw just about what I’d have expected from
what I’d just felt. A Hellion was in the process of bursting through the
ground, straight through the corpse of my now-dead enemy. It was
still in its arc, headed toward the direction I’d dodged in, so I stepped
back to avoid the blood-and-guts-covered beast from landing with its
mouth around my head.
But in trying to dodge out of the way of the Hellion, I also opened
myself up to attack from one of the Infernals—it was getting difficult
to keep track of where they all were, at this point—and it swung its
fist at me from behind, catching me by surprise and knocking me
across the battlefield.

Your Health is 61.
Coughing, I moved as quickly as I could to get back to my feet.

Damned Infernals, always outnumbering me. I felt like I really thrived
in battle when it was one-on-one. Since when did they just get to
throw as many Demons as they wanted at me? Wasn’t fair at all.
Well, I supposed I was the one who brought a Dragon into the
fight, so maybe I wasn’t playing totally fair, either. Not to mention
Ainash, who still seemed to consider it her sole purpose in life to kill
the "bad guys." I was constantly getting notifications from her slaying
random enemies—2 XP here, 3 XP there—which was good. At least,
it was good she was still alive and well enough to keep killing things.
Erani shot a Firebolt from behind the Infernals—who were now
effectively sandwiched between us, unable to fully focus on one or
the other—and blasted a couple of them off their feet. She had
enemies of her own to deal with—Infernals that decided she’d be a
nice and squishy target, or Hellions that strayed from the main
battlefield to track her down—but it seemed like she found the time
to assist my side of the battle every now and then.
In the Infernals’ moment of weakness, I charged forward with a
barrage of Rays of Frost to accompany me. The Spells beamed into
them, flooding my mind with damage notifications about all four of
the remaining enemies as they were riddled with freezing patches of
ice covering their skin.
My Mana was beginning to feel the effects of the fight so far,
threatening to pass below 500 as I shot Ray after Ray at them, but
with the group of Infernals only growing weaker by the second—and
with them already having lost a third of their numbers—I was able to
take down one more, then another, until there were just two Infernals
left.

Level 22 Infernal.
Level 26 Infernal.
I stood against the two, now close enough that I couldn’t safely
focus on just casting Rays of Frost.
Just as they prepared to attack, I heard Index’s voice again. "Two
more Hellions on their way."
Ducking under the left Infernal’s swipe, I tried to catch my footing
and figure out how I’d do this. I felt for the rumbling of the first
Hellion, and…
Just in time, I leapt forward, leaving the monster biting nothing
but air as it burst from the ground. I wouldn’t have the time—or Mana
—to retaliate against it for now, but for now I was just trying to focus
on taking down these Infernals.
Which would involve the second Hellion.
When I’d leapt forward to dodge the first one’s attack, I landed
right next to the left Infernal’s leg. That was by design. In the follow-
through of its previous attack on me, it didn’t quite have enough time
to grab me while I was close to it.
And so, right when I began to feel the rumbling of the second
Hellion, I leapt away from the Infernal’s leg, leaving it alone to take
the brunt of the Hellion’s attack.
The monster bit off a chunk of my enemy’s calf, leaving it roaring
in agony as the Hellion took off with its meal—could it even tell the
difference?
Either way, I backed away and shot a few Rays at the injured
Infernal to finish it off.

Level 29 Infernal.

Dexterity, 2 Conjuration, and 1 Intelligence.
I tried to push down the excitement of the new Level and focus
on the task at hand. More Stats, an increased Soft Cap, and a whole
new Spell were great and all, but I couldn’t use them if I died. I still
had one more Infernal left.
It looked at me with a look of anger, like it was ready to tear my
limbs from my body just for fun. Its eyes met mine.
And then it looked up, over my head, at something behind me.
What was⁠—
"Arlan! Duck!" Index shouted.
I did so without thinking, and a split second later, a glowing arrow
flew over my head, impaling the Infernal straight through the chest.
You have offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level

21 Infernal.
I turned to look behind me, and saw the exact person I wished
hadn’t shot that arrow.
"That gave me more XP than expected," Asmo said, bow in hand.
She was standing just a couple dozen paces away, with the familiar
axe-wielding woman standing next to her. "Do you have some sort of
Talent that increases the XP drops of monsters you fight?"
The axe-wielding woman said nothing, simply wearing a snarl like
the Infernals I’d seen before. Except the snarl seemed strange—
almost fake. Like she was trying to force herself to be angry at me,
or maybe she was just conflicted about how to feel. But whatever her
emotions were, she wielded her axe all the same, ready to strike me
down.
And I was ready to keep them both from doing so.
I’d fled from these royal guards long enough. It was time for a
rematch.
36
A PAIR OF GUARDS
I STOOD IN THE BATTLEFIELD, still covered in the blood of the

Infernals that had just died by my hand—and of Asmo’s arrow. That
Archer, who was standing just a couple dozen paces away from me,
bow drawn, was in my way alongside the other axe-wielding royal
guard.
Behind them, I could see Ainash and the Dragon still rampaging
through the enemy forces of the wall, though those forces seemed to
be dwindling—if just a bit. At the very least, the constant notifications
I got about Ainash killing enemies and giving me XP were getting a
little less frequent by now.
Thinking back to my encounter with the royal guards, way back
before I’d even gotten to Level 10, I remembered they had been
around the mid- to high-Level 20s. I’d certainly gotten a good bit
stronger by then—and these two people had probably been pretty
damaged by Astintash’s assault on the wall—but I had no doubt I’d
probably lose in a fair fight against the two. I’d just gotten out of a
fight of my own, so even my basic advantage of being a bit less
beaten up was nullified.
"Listen," I said, trying my best to keep things from resorting to
violence, "I’m sure you hate the Demons too. If we just work
together⁠—"
And then Asmo shot an arrow at my head.
I ducked underneath it, just barely dodging in time, and the
woman with the axe rushed forward, preparing for a full-force swing
at my torso. I leapt back and cursed them both with Crippling Chill.
You have cursed Level 25 Human Berserker with Crippling

Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and
6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered
by 15.5.
You have cursed Level 24 Human Archer with Crippling
Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and
6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered
by 15.5.
Level 25 Berserker and Level 24 Archer, huh? Yeah, so they

were both mid-20s. Not exactly the highest in the kingdom, but it was
still plenty high enough for them to kill me.
Generally, guards didn’t have very high Levels when compared to
adventurers, since their jobs didn’t involve them actually going out
and fighting monsters to get XP, and it didn’t seem like that rule was
any different even when the guards were royal. However, what they
lacked in System-granted power, I was sure they more than made up
for in high-quality training and gear. They’d probably been given
personal mentors, Enchanted weapons, anything they could ask for
to defend the king. And now it was all being turned on me.
The Berserker woman swung her axe in a wide arc, stepping
forward at a supernatural pace using what was probably a Martial Art
in order to hit me despite my attempt to evade her strike. The battle-
axe swung around, straight toward the side of my stomach, and I
knew I wasn’t fast enough to dodge it this time.
So, in a split-second decision, I decided to activate Expedite two
more times. I’d already stacked two casts of the Spell on myself, so
this would raise my Dexterity to an absolutely blistering score of 148.
A score that I was in no way prepared for. But I’d die without it, so I
gritted my teeth and prepared to focus every drop of effort on staying
upright.
The effects of the Spell hit me like a Dragon’s stomp, and in an
instant I kicked my foot to fling myself backwards.
You have been sliced. 4 damage.

Your Health is 61.
You have been inflicted with Burning Blood.
For the next 10 seconds, you gain the following effects:
You lose 1 Health every second.
Whenever you take damage from a physical source, that source
deals an additional 50% damage, up to a maximum of 25 additional
damage.
I mentally cursed. The blade of the battle-axe just barely grazed

my stomach, but of course the damn thing had been Enchanted. I’d
take a minimum of an extra 10 damage from the Burning Blood
curse, but if I got hit again, it’d deal extra.
The combination of the pain from my new wound and the
disorienting nature of Expedite caused me to land wrong when I hit
the ground, and I tumbled backwards to the dirt.
"Ripley, to the side," I heard Asmo’s voice say, and looking up
from my sitting position in the gravel, I saw the Berserker woman—
apparently her name was Ripley—step to the side while she charged
forward at me with her axe. Behind her was Asmo, with her bow
drawn, now having a clear shot straight at me.
In an instant, I raised my hand and cast a Ray of Frost at her
head just as she loosed her arrow.
You have struck Level 24 Human Archer for 54 damage using

Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Human Archer with Ray of Frost.
For the next 5 seconds, her Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
The Ray shot straight into her eyes, and luckily caused her aim to
waver just enough that the arrow shot to my left, narrowly missing
me.
I activated Gravity Well on the still-approaching Ripley to buy just
a bit of time as I scrambled to my feet, just barely getting to a
standing position as she swung her axe diagonally across my chest.
This time, I let up Gravity Well in the middle of her swing to try and
trip her up a bit, and lunged forward, too close to her for the axe to
be effective, grabbing onto her face in a half-tackle and activating
Noxious Grasp.
I had to let go just as quickly and flee, though, because Asmo
had drawn another arrow and was about to shoot.
You have struck Level 25 Human Berserker for 23.4 damage

and drained 23.4 Stamina over the course of 1.3 seconds using
Noxious Grasp.
I was stuck in a state of constant flight, fighting the two of them

simultaneously. If I tried to attack one of them, the other would be
there to fight me off and keep me occupied. Noxious Grasp, by
nature, wanted me to hold onto an enemy, staying stationary while I
drained away their Health. Normally, I could do that with the
debuffing nature of my other Spells, keeping my enemy weakened
and using a combination of Noxious Grasp and Ray of Frost to
slowly chip away their Health.
But when up against a pair of powerful foes, I couldn’t focus my
debuffs on a single one of them, and if I tried to use everything on
both, not only would it totally drain my Mana, but it probably wouldn’t
even be enough to severely weaken them, anyway—I’d need to also
drain their Stamina to do that.
I didn’t have enough Health, Stamina, or Mana to take them both
on at once. And I knew that going into this.
My goal wasn’t to kill them. My goal was to survive long enough
for someone else to come in and even the sides.
Astintash would obviously be ideal—if it came over here, they’d
be forced to flee—but I didn’t have much hope for the Dragon being
so benevolent as to come and willingly save my life when it was so
busy killing enemies of its own. Ainash was also too far to be able to
quickly come over here, not to mention she was in the midst of
fighting dozens of Humans and Infernals, too.
My only hope was⁠—
A ball of fire flew across my vision and slammed into Asmo, the
resulting explosion flinging her several paces away.
Before I could even say "thank you" to Erani, she rushed forward
and yelled over to me, "I’ll take the Archer! You focus on the other
one."
She shot another Firebolt at Asmo, who was lying on the ground,
covered in burns, but before the Firebolt hit, she suddenly
disappeared from sight, reappearing a dozen paces back, standing
on her two feet with bow drawn. Erani didn’t seem too worried at this,
though, and simply raised her hands to cast another.
After a quick glance at the now-raging fight between Erani and
Asmo, Ripley turned back to me and charged. She seemed purely
focused on her fight. I ducked underneath her swing and leapt to her
side. Thankfully, since I’d already gotten used to stacking two
Expedites, raising that number to four wasn’t too bad. At least, I was
beginning to become used to it. With two Expedites active, my
Dexterity would be 86, meaning the new score of 148 was only about
double what it had been before. Still an extreme increase, but not as
bad as going from zero Expedites to two of them.
I sidestepped a strike and ducked below another, focusing every
piece of my mind on just dodging the fast and powerful attacks of
such a high-Level Classer.
Index, I thought as I dodged, what can you tell me about her?
"Well, I can tell you the basic way the Berserker Class functions,"
it said.
I ducked below another swing of the axe with the help of a pulse
of Gravity Well on Ripley to temporarily throw her off.
"It’s actually a bit similar to Minute Mage in a sense," Index
continued, "in that it has a single, signature Talent that it gets at
Level 0 and will get more powerful as the Class Levels. That Talent
is the appropriately named ‘Berserk.’"
I shot Ripley with a Ray of Frost to distract her as I backed away
some more.
You have struck Level 25 Human Berserker for 59 damage

using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 25 Human Berserker with Ray of
Frost. For the next 5 seconds, her Dexterity score is lowered
by 7.77.
"I can’t tell you the exact numbers, but the Talent is technically
free to activate at any time, as often as the user wants. And what it
does is increases all of a person’s physical Stats, general fighting
abilities, and especially Health regeneration."
I re-cast two Expedites on myself as the older two casts of the
Spell wore off. 281 Mana left.
"There’s a reason Berserkers use their Talent sparingly, though.
In return for increasing their fighting abilities, it has a couple costs.
First, it costs some Stamina every second it’s active, which does
physically limit how often someone can keep it active. But the
second thing it does—and this is the more well-known downside—is
it impairs the user’s sense."
Ripley tore her axe through the air, and it grazed my arm this
time, reactivating its Burning Blood curse on me.

Your Health is 44.
damage.
"Basically, when someone’s under the effects of Berserk, they’re

completely filled with rage. To an inhuman degree. They still have
decent battle sense and can tell friend from foe and everything, but
while that Talent is active, a Berserker wants nothing more than to
end the life of their opponent."
She swung her axe straight downward, threatening to split my
head in half, and a well-timed sidestep was all that saved me. Every
second that passed regenerated a bit more of my Mana.
"The way this is relevant to you is that it’s functionally impossible
to reason with that woman, in her current state. She understands
language just fine, but she won’t listen to anything you say. And she
won’t really act in accordance to basic principles like self-
preservation, either. She’d be happy to die if it meant you died, too.
Regardless of her feelings about all this while the Talent isn’t active,
she hates you more than anything else for now."
Ripley suddenly began moving in a completely unnatural way—a
classic sign that she’d activated another Martial Art. Her arms moved
faster than I could see, swinging the axe down at me in what felt like
five directions at once. Without hesitation, I charged forward and
tackled her, just barely dodging the lethal attack. I got in half a
second’s worth of Noxious Grasp with that, too, but nothing else
before I was forced to flee from her once again. Mana had
regenerated a bit, though, up to 294.
"There are a couple ways the Talent can deactivate. One is that,
after a bit of time, it’ll just turn off on its own. It’s on a set timer. But,
like I said before, the Talent is free to turn on and doesn’t have any
limits like yours about how many times in a day it can be activated.
So the only way for it to turn off and stay off is if this woman runs out
of Stamina. The Talent can’t be used if its user’s Stamina levels are
below 5 percent of their maximum, since the Talent has a natural
cost of Stamina every second it’s active."
Ripley screamed in rage, sounding more like the Infernals I’d
fought than an actual person, and charged at me with her axe
glinting in the setting sun. I shot off a pair of Rays of Frost, careful
not to use too much of my Mana, and used that moment of
distraction to dodge to the side and avoid another of her strikes. 51
damage and 54 damage, but Mana was back down to 266.
"So, basically, you’re up against a superpowered Melee-Type
with an insatiable lust for your blood. And until that Talent shuts off,
you’re not going to have much luck in killing her. The boosted Health
regeneration really is quite ridiculous. In fact…yep, I’m just now
getting that I can tell you this, she is literally missing around 80
Health from her maximum right now. Out of hundreds upon
hundreds. That’s all the damage you’ve actually managed to deal
her in this fight, with your slower means. And most of it came from
the two Rays you just hit her with. That damage will go away pretty
shortly."
I ducked under another swing of her axe.
"But she is at around half Stamina. So you’ve been doing quite
well in that department. Let’s see…what do you have available to
you… Your Health is 34, Stamina’s 61, and Mana’s down to 270. I
guess you could activate Regenerate for a bit more Health, but that’d
leave you with so little Stamina I’d be worried about your ability to
keep fighting. So let’s not do that."
I backed away from Ripley, breathing heavily.
"Seems like your best friend in this fight is gonna be your
Noxious Grasp Upgrade, Venomous Grasp. It doubles all Stamina
loss for five seconds after hitting them with the Spell, and that counts
the natural Stamina cost every second from the Berserk Talent. It
also counts all Stamina costs of Martial Arts."
Ripley scowled and charged.
"So Stamina is going to be the bottleneck for her. You need to
abuse that as best as you can here. She’s using up a bit more every
second she fights. All you have to do is make sure those seconds
pass by without you taking damage."
Just as she swung at me, I re-cast Crippling Chill, which had
worn off at some point during the fight. With the sudden loss of
Dexterity she was stunned for a fraction of a second, allowing me to
escape her swing alive one more time.
"So, uh, yeah. You got all that?"
Yeah, I thought. By some miracle, I managed to listen to
everything Index was saying while not dying to Ripley. I’d taken a bit
more damage than I’d have liked—and definitely spent more Mana
than I’d have wanted—but I also got a bit more Mana back every
second, so spending it to keep myself from dying was a pretty good
use of it, in my opinion.
Erani and Asmo were still battling in the background, taking long-
range shots at each other, with Erani using Angelic Shield to shrug
off all of the hits that weren’t direct and Asmo abusing her
teleportation to avoid being hit by the Firebolts.
But between me and Ripley, we were both looking much worse
for wear. Even with just the couple grazing hits she’d managed to get
on me, the Enchantment on her axe tore through my Health all the
same. Just two more like that and I’d be dead. But she was also low
on Stamina, and all I had to do was rid her of the last bit she was
clinging on to.
And that was what I’d do.
It was time for me to finish this fight.
37
A BERSERKER
RIPLEY CHARGED AT ME, and I set myself. I’d change tactics now,
going from defensive and focused on avoiding attacks to offensive,
trying to drain her Stamina with Noxious Grasp.
She swung her axe at me again, but with Expedite, which I was
getting more and more used to over the course of my time with four
stacked on myself, I was fast enough to dodge under her axe and
tackle her.
It wasn’t just Expedite helping me hold my own against her,
either. I’d done the math a while ago, and in total, counting the
Intelligence given to me with Trailblazer, the random Stats from
Recursive Growth, and the 4 additional in Strength, Endurance, and
Dexterity given to me by Ainash’s Bond, I had 216 total Stats. That
was the amount of Stats someone Leveling normally would have by
Level 30. And, of course, then I added on an extra 120 with four
Expedites.
Now, sure, a lot of that was invested into Conjuration, but even
just looking at my physical Stats, I didn’t have a terrible-looking
Status. Sure, Ripley still obviously dominated me physically, but it
wasn’t quite as severe as she must’ve been expecting, considering I
was supposed to be a Magic-Type.
So when I lunged forward and tackled her, I wasn’t surprised to
see her stumble backwards a bit. I didn’t knock her over, but it wasn’t
like hitting a brick wall, either. Well, she was wearing metal plate
armor, so it’d be more like hitting a metal wall anyway.
But still, Noxious Grasp did its thing, quickly draining Ripley’s
Stamina, and when I let go and stepped away, it left a five-second
Fester behind, doubling all of her Stamina consumption for the
duration.
She snarled, clearly enraged—though I suspected she’d been
enraged anyway, considering she was under the effects of Berserk—
and stepped forward, swinging at me with her axe once again.
One interesting thing Index had told me before about the Fester
was that by doubling all Stamina consumption, it’d also double the
Stamina costs of any Martial Arts activated. Even for a Melee-Type,
who’d obviously have much more Stamina than someone like me,
those Martial Arts typically carried a heavy cost. I knew that for
Swordsmen, at least, those Arts would commonly cost 30, 40, even
upwards of 50 Stamina per activation—and that was just at the lower
Levels.
So by doubling the costs of Ripley’s already-costly Martial Arts, I
was effectively locking her out of using them. Berserkers would
already need to be careful about Stamina consumption because of
Berserk’s constant Stamina drain, but up against me, Ripley would
have to be extremely conscientious about using any Martial Arts at
all.
Really, when I thought about it, I was kind of like a Melee-Type’s
worst nightmare, with my entire build focused on denying my
enemies of a resource that they counted on so heavily.
Ripley charged and swung again, her eyes seeming like they
were close to catching aflame. I backed away, but the blade of her
axe caught my bicep.

Your Health is 31.
I was able to pull away with my boosted Dexterity, quickly enough
that it only nicked me, but…

damage.
Her axe was Enchanted. Each time I got hit, I’d take a minimum
of 10 extra damage, and that was assuming I could avoid getting hit
again for the next ten seconds.
With my entire arm feeling like it was warming up to feverish
temperatures, I backed away and activated Gravity Well on Ripley,
this time keeping it active as I tried to create distance between us
while I waited out the weapon’s curse.
My Stamina was at 61, so I could activate Regenerate if I needed
to, but doing so would drop my own Stamina so low that I’d have
trouble moving as freely as I was right now.
With Gravity Well increasing her weight by over 60%, Ripley
trudged over to me as I scrambled back. The Spell was hefty in
Mana cost, but helped as a panic button at times like this when I
really needed to slow someone down.
I heard an explosion and glanced over to see a blast coming off
of Astintash’s scaly hide. It was still fighting over in the rubble of the
ruined wall, and it looked like someone salvaged one of the ballistas
that’d been used in defending the fort when it was still intact. Still, I
doubted that bothered Astintash much at all.
It seemed like most of the soldiers there had either died or fled,
really. But the remaining ones were still fighting back, so Astintash
and Ainash weren’t done yet, it seemed.
A grunt from Ripley pulled my attention back to her, just in time to
duck under another swing of her blade. She functioned remarkably
well under 60% increased gravity, reduced Dexterity from Crippling
Chill, and extra-drained Stamina from Noxious Grasp, really.
She swung again, and I backed away, but then she spun all the
way around, letting the battle-axe’s momentum carry her in another
swing that hit me in my ribs with the flat end of the axe.
You have been slammed against something. 9 damage.

Your Health is 12.
Your ribs have been fractured.
damage.
It seemed like she’d used some sort of Martial Art there, because
I was sent flying backwards—much further back than I should’ve
been. And even if I didn’t technically get my skin cut open by the
axe, it still hit me with that Burning Blood shit.
My ribs stung like the hells, too. With my already-low Health, I
barely had anything that could protect me against blunt damage like
that, leaving my body without a shield to prevent my bones from
breaking. Which was exactly what happened.
My hurting body rolled across the dirt path we were fighting on,
and I landed on my back.
Yeah, things were dire. I needed extra Health, even if it was at
the cost of my dwindling Stamina.
I still had Gravity Well active on Ripley, so she was forced to walk
over to me, each step landing heavily on the gravel pathway.
But with my now-low Stamina, I was suddenly finding it difficult to
stand up. I coughed. The metal plate crushing my ribs definitely
didn’t help, either.
I held up a hand and weakly fired off Rays of Frost at her, my
shaky hand making it difficult to aim, but they only barely seemed to
slow her down. Coughing, I managed to get to my feet, but I could
still barely move.
Ripley kept approaching, both of us exhausted but unable to stop
fighting. Ripley looked like she was about to collapse right there on
the ground, but the fire in her eyes refused to die out.
But then I heard a voice.
"Ripley!" it said. It was Asmo.
I looked over and saw her. She had her bow drawn and aimed at
a fallen piece of the wall that Erani was taking cover behind. I saw
countless arrows embedded into the stone surface of the rubble. She
was still staring down at Erani’s cover, but she continued talking to
Ripley.
"Command is messaging me. Most of the forces are dead.
They’re going to port us out."
Ripley snapped her head back at Asmo. The effects of the
Berserk Talent didn’t technically take away one’s ability to speak, but
apparently it did make someone so enraged they barely had the
room in their mind for a long discussion. She just yelled out an
angered, "No!"
"Yes. We’re going to die if we stay. That Dragon will kill us.
They’re porting us out."
"He’s almost dead!"
"Irrelevant. We can find another time to kill him. All living VIPs are
to leave immediately. They’ve already ported some."
"No!"
This time Asmo actually looked away from her opponent to stare
Ripley down. She had a surprising softness in her eyes when she
looked at the Berserker. "You’re not in your right mind. Let Berserk
wear off and⁠—"
"No! If he stays alive, the Demons won’t leave!"
"Ripley. They’re porting us out, and you can’t do anything about
that. It’s not your choice to make."
Erani, now that her enemy wasn’t even looking at her, popped out
from behind her cover and held out a hand to shoot off another
Firebolt. The ball of flames formed, left her hand, and flew true,
straight at Asmo, and then it collided⁠—
Or, no, it didn’t collide with her. Just before it would’ve hit Asmo, a
ring on the woman’s hand glowed, flashed a golden light, and then
she was gone. And this time, she hadn’t reappeared elsewhere on
the battlefield. She was fully gone. The Firebolt continued on its
path, hitting nothing and fizzling out a dozen paces later.
Ripley looked wide-eyed at where Asmo had been standing.
Then she shouted, seemingly to nobody but herself, "No!" And
reached over to her hand, where a similar ring laid on her finger. She
grabbed it, frantically tugged it off of her finger, and tossed it aside.
Just as it hit the ground, it glowed a brilliant golden light, and then
flashed away, disappearing just as Asmo did.
Only this time, Ripley didn’t disappear with it.
She was still standing right there in front of me.
She pointed her axe at me, breathing heavily, and said "You will
die today! I will make things right!"
And with renewed vigor, she charged.
I backed away and raised my hand to shoot her with another Ray
of Frost.
But before I could do so, a Firebolt exploded against her, flinging
her off to the side and bringing her tumbling to the ground. Ripley’s
axe was flung from her hands, clattering to the ground just as
Ripley’s own body was slammed down. Erani ran up beside me.
"Are you okay?" she breathed. Then she gestured over at Ripley.
"Why didn’t she leave like the Archer did?"
"I think they were wearing Enchanted rings," I groaned, Health
and Stamina still so low that it felt like I was dying, "that could
teleport them out when someone else activated them. She threw
hers off right before it was activated."
"What? Why would she do that?"
"She’s a Berserker," I explained. "I think she’s not really in the
right state of mind to retreat right now."
"Oh." Erani blinked, then looked back at our enemy. "Okay."
Ripley struggled to get up from the ground, covered in burns from
the Firebolt.
"If I have to," she groaned, "I will kill you with my bare hands!"
But then Ainash leaped forward from behind me, landing with her
feet square on Ripley’s chest, kicking her right back to the ground
with a metallic clang.
It seemed like she’d finished her fight with the enemies in the
rubble of the wall.
"Why not killing bad guy?" she asked, drawing her flaming whip.
"Okay if I kill bad guy?"
"Give it a second," I said. "She seems like she’s pretty high up
among the bad guys. She might be able to give us some
information."
"Then kill her?"
I sighed. "Probably not, but we’ll see."
I got a notification that Crippling Chill wore off of Ripley, so I re-
cast it to drain away the rest of her Stamina. I wasn’t worried about
her Health, since apparently I’d barely been dealing any damage to
her at all. And once her Stamina ran out, she’d be forced out of the
Berserk state and could finally listen to reason.
Though I had no idea what this woman was like while not under
the effects of Berserk, so who knew if she was reasonable to begin
with. Despite just having had an extended fight with her, it seemed
like Berserk took over a person’s mind so much that I could barely
say I knew a single thing about the woman.
She opened her eyes, and for a moment, it seemed like she was
about to try and get to her feet again to attack us, but then that fire in
her gaze faded away. Her scrunched-up, enraged face got a little
softer, the snarl in her mouth disappeared, and her entire body
seemed to lose the tension it’d been holding.
She blinked, and the color drained from her face.
"Oh, oh gods," she said, glancing around to see that she was
alone and surrounded by enemies.
"We aren’t going to hurt you," I said, "we just want to ask some
questions."
"I’m against the Demons too," she rushed to say, panting from
what I was sure was the extreme exhaustion of having dangerously
low Stamina. But despite her exhaustion, she continued. "And I think
there’s something wrong happening in the kingdom. I’ll tell you
everything."
38
INTERVIEWING
ERANI, Ainash, and I all stood around Ripley, who was sitting
disarmed on the ground.
She’d said she was friendly to our cause in some form, but we
still took the basic precautions, taking her combat gear, searching
her for any Enchanted items, searching the surrounding area to
ensure it wasn’t a trap, and so on. Ripley stayed silent throughout
the whole endeavor, simply allowing us to do what we needed
without complaint.
While we did this, Astintash came up to speak to us.
"I am gracious for your help," it said, "and I am glad we reached
an agreement. Now that the enemy is dispatched, I will take my
leave."
And with that, it just flew off. Really, part of me had been
expecting something more. But I supposed that to a Dragon, killing
massive swaths of life and taking part in gigantic battles was just like
any other day. The only strange part of this whole situation to
Astintash, I suspected, was the fact that it ended up forming a
temporary alliance with a couple of Humans.
And it didn’t seem to want to keep that alliance, considering how
soon it left. We held up our end of the bargain, and it held up its.
Nothing more to it.
After that, we took Ripley away from the battlefield. Even though
we didn’t find any soldiers tailing us or hiding in the shadows, we
couldn’t be certain there wasn’t anyone around, so going to some
other remote place would probably be a good idea.
Plus, even if there really wasn’t anyone around, who was to say
they weren’t getting reinforcements as we spoke to come back and
attack us? Sure, Astintash would probably be keeping an eye on the
area to ensure nobody came back—and the Demons most likely
knew that—but we couldn’t say for certain.
But really, I just wanted to get away from all the corpses. I’d
become familiar with death ever since I’d gotten the Minute Mage
Class—much more intimately so than I’d have liked—but that didn’t
mean I liked it. Astintash wasn’t exactly clean with its crushing of
heads and burning of the masses, and even if I was somewhat used
to the sight, I didn’t feel like I could ever get used to the smell.
So we continued further into the mountain valley with Ripley in
tow as our prisoner.
It took about an hour before we felt comfortable enough to sit
down again—partially because it took about an hour for everyone to
get their Mana back and for me to get back enough Stamina for
another activation of Regenerate—but once we decided to rest, it
took all my strength not to just collapse into the ground.
The past day had been much, much longer than it had any right
to be. Both mentally and in a literal sense. I’d used Time Loop twice,
each time going back four hours. That meant the day had lasted
around thirty-two. And I’d spent at least half of that time actively
dealing with life-or-death scenarios. I wanted nothing more than to
just fall asleep—preferably for at least a week.
But we still had a prisoner with us, so I couldn’t do that just yet.
Hopefully Ripley wouldn’t cause us any problems. She’d been too
low on Stamina for the past while to try and fight back, but taking
some time for us to regenerate ourselves also meant she got to as
well, and it was possible that she might do something like activating
Berserk to try and fight us in a last-ditch effort to escape. So we
needed to stay on guard.
Ainash just wanted to kill her—not that I was particularly
surprised by that—but she agreed not to. Definitely a step up from
her prisoner-killing exploits of the past, though I wasn’t sure if
praising her for just wanting to kill someone was really all that much
better than her going ahead and doing it. Still, I couldn’t help but feel
a bit proud of her progress.
While we walked, I’d also been finishing up the practice for all of
my Spells. I’d Leveled up to 18 in the previous fight, earning me
some Stat Points, a Spell Choice—which I still needed to go through,
once we got some time—and a new Rank for my Soft Cap. That
Rank was 10, meaning I could now get all of my Spells up to the first
Upgrade point without having to deal with the Soft Cap.
Though I wouldn’t actually be able to Upgrade them without Spell
Crystals, which I had a distinct lack of, currently. I still went through
and at least got them all to the Spell XP threshold, if just for the sake
of making my Status look nice and clean.
Threshold reached. Ray of Frost XP has reached 355.

Consume a Cold Spell Crystal or a Curse Spell Crystal to
increase Ray of Frost Rank to 10.
So I got quite a few of these notifications for all of my Spells,

each informing me of the Spell Crystals I’d need. Once I got all of
them maxed out, I just went back to practicing Noxious Grasp.
Once we were ready, we sat Ripley up against a rock and tied
her hands behind her back with part of Ainash’s whip—she made
sure to turn off the flaming aspect of it before we did that—and then
we got to the actual questioning part of our encounter.
"So, what is your exact relationship with the Demons?" I started
our interview out with. Erani and I had been secretly communicating
through Ainash and trying to figure out how we’d conduct our
interrogation, and ended up deciding on a basic line of questioning.
Ripley gazed up at me. She seemed to have a mix of respect and
anger in her eyes, though I wasn’t sure how the two coexisted when
directed at the same person. Shaking her head, she grunted. "You
had to start off with the hardest question, huh?"
"Just try your best to explain."
"Well, the problem is that I barely know, myself." She sighed. "As
a kingdom, it seems like we’re subservient to them, at this point. The
king has ordered a ceasefire on all fighting against the Demons.
Obviously some people refused to stop, but they were…dealt with.
Swiftly."
"What about you, personally?"
"I’m their enemy. And if that makes me an enemy of the kingdom
too, so be it. I’m tired of fighting for their side. What happened here"
— she gestured around — "sacrificing all of those soldiers’ lives
against the Dragon, it’s sick. They knew it would happen. Hells, we
were briefed on it. They called us ‘VIPs,’ the ones that were
supposed to survive. They knew that Dragon would attack, and so
they told the soldiers to fight back, no matter what. Deserting meant
torture, then death."
I nodded. "So the VIPs…"
"We were given special rings to get teleported out once things got
too dangerous. Everyone else was essentially supposed to distract
the Dragon while we went and killed you. They wanted to get you
alone. And apparently the kingdom felt like it was worth sacrificing
the lives of a thousand good men and women to a gods-damned
Dragon for that cause."
"And you disagreed?"
"‘Course I did. Couldn’t really do much about it, though. I wasn’t
planning on doing anything, either. But when I was under Berserk, I
wasn’t really thinking straight. Made the decision there and then to
just fuck ‘em and get away."
"So you don’t plan on going back, then?"
"Hells no. If they want to kill you, that’s their business. And if you
want to survive, that’s yours. But I won’t be dying for either of those
causes. They don’t have anything to do with me."
"Don’t you want to help us take down the Demons, then? If we
worked together⁠—"
"I’m just going to stop you there. This is your fight. I don’t want to
hurt you, and I sure as hells want to see those Demons sent back to
where they came from, but…I don’t think you understand what you’re
up against."
"Why don’t you try enlightening us, then?"
She just shook her head. "It’s hopeless to try and take them
down. They made sure to beat that into me. And one day, it’ll be
beaten into you, too. I’m not going back to the kingdom, and that
includes fighting against them as well as with them."
"So you’ll be traveling to the Barinruth Empire with us, then?"
She laughed. "As far as I know, I’m still your prisoner. I assume
that we’re operating under ‘what you say goes,’ right? In that case, I
don’t think I have a choice."
I pursed my lips. "Guess not. But I was hoping to establish a bit
more of a friendly relationship, if you’re not going to be working
against us."
"If it was up to me, I’d get the hells away from you as fast as I
could. You’re a magnet for danger. The Demons may kill me on sight
now that I’ve deserted, but they’ll be actively looking for you. And I
don’t wanna be near when they see you."
I grunted. "That’s fine, I guess."
"Anyway," Ripley said, her face suddenly growing much more
serious, "down to what I wanted to tell you in the first place.
Something’s wrong with Koinkar. The kingdom is corrupt, sure, but
the king, too. He’s different."
"The king is different?"
She shook her head. "I don’t know, but he’s not acting right.
Something more serious is going on than just some extortion. I think
they’ve infiltrated us to our core. We’re supposedly ‘working together’
with the Demons, but anyone around can tell that’s bullshit. King
Koinkar, he…changed. Used to at least try to fight back against what
those damn Demons said. Now he willingly goes along with their
plans without a word against. Hells, he almost seems enthusiastic
about following along. Not like someone working under threat of
being invaded if he doesn’t follow their commands."
"When did this change occur?" I furrowed my brows. Had
something happened to the king? I wouldn’t be surprised, really.
"I was…imprisoned. For some time. The day I went in, he was
fine. Day I came out, he’d changed."
I nodded, and Erani stepped in. "How did those changes
manifest? Did he look different at all? Did his clothing change? Even
just an additional piece of jewelry, or a single item swapped out?
Anything you didn’t recognize?"
She pursed her lips, pausing to think. "Well, mainly his actions.
What he says, what he does, the way he talks, it’s all wrong. It’s like I
don’t know him. And the changes are all in favor of the Demons. But
looks…I don’t think he changed his appearance at all. But he sits
differently. I do remember that. You know him, he’s old. Ancient. He
slouches, can barely support himself even if he wanted to sit up.
Now, it’s like he isn’t a day over forty. Wouldn’t even think it was
physically possible."
"Huh." I chewed on my lip, mulling over what she said. "No idea
how that happened, I assume?"
"Nah. But whatever those damned Demons did, they’ve
corrupted this entire kingdom, top to bottom. No way I could’ve done
what they said for long."
"What about the other royal guard that was with you? Asmo? She
seems to be just fine going along with the Demons. Think they’ve
‘corrupted’ her, too?"
Ripley shook her head, smiling in a strangely fond way,
considering the subject matter. "That girl’s a lost cause. She wants to
get to the top of whatever ladder’s in front of her. Right now, the
ladder we’re climbing is the one where killing you is at the top. So
she’s just working her way up. Money and power, that’s all she’s
been after."
"Do you think you could convince her to come over to our side?
You seem to work well together."
She laughed. "We do, but not in the way where I could change
her mind on that. Hells, I’m willing to bet she’s out there forming a
plan to get me back to her side right now. We’re good together, but
we’re both too stubborn for something like that."
I frowned. "You seem pretty…okay with that. Aren’t you two
close? Wouldn’t you be upset that you’re fighting now?"
"Oh, we’ll find our way back to each other’s sides eventually. One
of us will beat the other and then we’ll be working together again.
When we were kids, I told her she’d become a royal guard with me,
she said I’d become an adventurer with her. I won that fight. Now
we’re just dancin’ the same dance once again."
"Hm." I’d gone off the basic script we’d established before, but I
felt like it was necessary to figure Asmo out, since I’d more than
likely see her again. Seemed like she and Ripley were eccentric, to
say the least. Hopefully Ripley would win whatever fight they had
going on, and Asmo would leave the Demons too, but it seemed like
whether or not that happened wasn’t exactly up to me. "Why don’t
you just tell me what the next plan is for the Demons?"
"I wasn’t so high up as to get info like that. You’d have to talk to
one of their core strategists. The merchant, the old man…pretty
much any of the other VIPs. Though I’m not sure how many of them
survived the Dragon. I was considered one because of the numbers
on my Status more than anything else. So I was meat to be moved
around and a Status sheet to fight for them, not the type of person to
get valuable info."
"Well, anything helps. Have any suspicions?"
"After this disaster, they might just let you leave. Their only hope
to catch you before you get to Barinruth would be to set up another
army of soldiers and mobilize them ASAP to come chase you
through the canyon, but that Dragon friend of yours will probably
stop them if they try moving such large numbers through here, so I
doubt they’ll go for it."
"You think we’re safe, then?"
"Oh, definitely not safe. Whatever those Demons are planning…
they’re in it for the long haul. If you don’t die today, they’ll kill you
tomorrow. And if you don’t die tomorrow, they’ll try again next week.
And if you don’t die then, they’ll try next month, next year, next
decade. They have control over King Koinkar, somehow, and they
won’t be letting that go. I know that for sure. If you make it to
Barinruth, then they’ll just change plans from hunting down a single
person to waging war against the nation that houses you."
I sighed. That was what I’d been afraid of. Still, it seemed like if
they did that, the conflict would necessarily slow down quite a bit. So
I’d have some time to get my bearings, establish myself, stop living
out of the woods, and maybe even anonymously warn the empire of
the upcoming attack. "But they’ll let us get to Barinruth?"
"Don’t think they have a choice. At least, I can’t think of anything
they could do to stop you. Not anything they’re willing to do, at least."
"Alright." I turned to Erani and asked Ainash to pass on a
message. "Hey, I think I’m done asking her the main questions I had.
You can talk to her now if you⁠—"
But I was interrupted by a screech coming from above us. I
snapped my head up and saw a Green Drake soaring overhead
between the chasm walls. It spat down a glob of acid right where we
were, and we all scrambled to get out of the way.
Ainash, before I could even think to retaliate, leapt up and kicked
off one of the stone walls next to us, jumping high up into the air, and
slashing up with her whip to slice open the monster’s scaled belly.
It screeched again in pain and flew off.
I sighed. Drakes shouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but
with my relatively low Health and Stamina, I didn’t want to take any
more chances with these fights. One bad move could still end up
with me dead, especially when I still didn’t have Time Loop for a few
more hours.
I looked back down. "Anyway, Erani, you wanna ask⁠—"
I blinked. Ripley was gone. Glancing around, I suddenly saw her
climbing up the mountain face with her muscly arms pulling her up
and across faster than I could even run. She got up to the top,
launched herself over, and sprinted off.
"I go catch her?" Ainash asked.
I sighed. Ripley was fleeing into the direction of the empire, not
the kingdom. If she got away, it wasn’t like she’d be going back to
the enemy. "Could you even catch up to her?"
"Maybe. I am very fast."
"Yes, you sure are." I couldn’t help but laugh. "Erani, you think we
should send Ainash to go get her?"
Erani pursed her lips. "Seems a bit needlessly dangerous. We
got the information we wanted out of her. And she doesn’t seem
hostile in the first place. We’d have to let her go eventually, so we
may as well do it here. Sending Ainash out to find her, alone, would
just be asking for trouble."
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Don’t want to antagonize her."
"Okay. Let’s keep going for a bit to get out of this dangerous area,
and then sit down and rest for a while? Also keep an eye out for that
Ripley woman. She didn’t seem dangerous, but who knows."
"Yeah." I nodded. "Hopefully we can find a place to rest soon. I
need to regenerate some Health. And manage a Level-up."
"Oh, you got one too?"
"Yep." I nodded. "I’m getting a new Spell. What about you?"
"Well, with the help of the lovely Ainash"—Erani pulled her into a
side-hug, making the child Draconiad look remarkably embarrassed
—"I actually Leveled up twice!"
I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"
"Yep. 11 percent XP from her really helps out." Erani smiled at
Ainash. "Good job with all the fighting! You did really well."
We’d been getting into the habit of, whenever we spoke aloud to
each other, also telepathically relaying the conversation to Ainash.
This way, not only would we keep her in the loop of what was going
on, but she could hopefully begin learning our spoken language, too.
I mean, she was still a child, so it made sense that we should try to
teach her some stuff.
So, after Erani complimented her fighting, Ainash grinned and
hugged Erani back. I’d have said it was a remarkably sweet sight, if
not for the fact that we were praising her for her killing abilities.
Considering the fact that her given name was technically
"Humanslayer" Ainash, I didn’t know if praising her even more for
that quality was much of a good idea, really. But her smile warmed
my heart regardless.
Then Erani suddenly frowned.
"Oh," she said. "Hey Arlan, you know how you mentioned the
Bond with Ainash Ranking up before?"
"Yeah."
"Well, it just happened to me."
39
BONDING
ERANI, Ainash, and I all sat down to look at our Statuses. Apparently
Ainash Leveled up as well during the fight, so she needed to
manage what she got, too.
What, exactly, her Status looked like was something we still had
trouble establishing. If I zeroed in on one specific aspect of it, I could
normally get a decent answer out of her, but it seemed like her
Status was more a general feeling than one of words and numbers.
Which made sense, considering the way she communicated with us.
Still, it was strange to hear that when I asked what her Health was,
her answer was “okay.”
First, Erani and I went over the new Bond Rank she’d gotten.
“So the Rank went from 11 to 12,” she said. “Stats went from 22
to 24, and XP gain went from 11% to 12%, as we expected, and the
Heat Resistance went from 49.4% to 52.4%.”
“Gods.” I shook my head. “24 in every Stat. Absolutely
ridiculous.”
“I’m sure you’ll get there one day, if the Bond continues to Rank
up like it has been. Speaking of, I think I may have a theory about
how it decides to increase.”
“Yeah,” I said, “pretty sure I’m thinking the same thing. It seems
like somehow the Bond can measure the emotional bond that Ainash
has with each of us, and the strength is determined by that.”
Erani nodded. “Kind of weird to think about, but it makes sense,
considering how we’ve seen it act until now. It’s a higher Rank with
me because I’m closer with her, and it’s Ranked up with each of us
closely following some sort of encounter or conversation we have
with her.”
“Yeah.” I pursed my lips. Honestly, I’d been suspecting that was
the case for a while now, and now that we’d gotten more proof, it
seemed pretty certain. Though I wasn’t really happy about it, if it was
true. Assigning Stats and XP to my literal relationship with
someone… It just felt a bit dehumanizing. To me and Ainash. What,
was I just supposed to be extra nice to her from now on to make
sure I got extra Bond Ranks? Was I supposed to hold my tongue
whenever I disagreed with her, only ever say yes to everything she
did? That felt like the exact wrong way to build a bond with someone.
“You don’t seem to happy about it,” Erani noted.
“Yeah, I’m not. It feels like it’s encouraging us to build a fake
relationship with her, and that’s not what she deserves.”
“I don’t think it is,” Erani said. “She can sense our emotions,
remember? If we fake moments or lie to get closer to her, she’ll be
able to tell.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said. That was pretty true. If I treated her like
some sort of vessel through which I could get stronger, I supposed
she’d easily see through me. But then, that just meant I’d have to
watch my own thoughts to make sure I didn’t sink into feeling like
that in the future. One more thing to watch out for. “You think the
Bond Ranks can go down if we upset her, or something?”
“No idea. If it’s measuring our real emotional bonds, maybe? But
it could be measuring something different, just similar. Maybe it’s just
time spent together, or time spent using the mental connection. I
don’t think we know enough to tell for sure.”
“Yeah, seems like it. I’ll have to try to test it somehow later.”
I glanced over across the canyon. We were currently in what was
effectively a wide hallway of stone, either side of the path
surrounded by smooth walls of rock that were easily dozens—maybe
even hundreds—of paces tall. So we just sat and rested on one side,
leaning our backs against one wall.
“This pass through Kingdom’s Edge,” I said, “it was made by a
single person, right?”
“That’s what they say. Don’t think anyone around has been alive
long enough to remember when it was made, though.”
“Even Koinkar? He’s been alive for, like, hundreds of years,
right?”
“Guess so. Someone must’ve made it a long time ago.”
I sighed and stared upward. This massive chasm, carved through
one of the most dangerous places in the entire kingdom. Someone
had gone through and just cut it out themself. Who knew why?
Maybe they wanted to do something for the world. Or maybe they
just had a sick kid or something, needed to get them to a Cleric, and
this was the fastest way through. Or maybe they just felt like it. Did it
on a whim.
I shook my head. “I want to do something like this in my life.”
Erani looked over at me. “What, cut a path through a mountain
range?”
“No, no,” I laughed, “like, I want to do something big. Leave my
mark on the world.”
“Oh, good, because I was about to say, I’m not going to help if
you want me to just start randomly blowing up rocks for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean. I don’t want to sound
like one of those psychos who are totally power-hungry, but just…
That level of influence over the world. The capability to do whatever
you want, whenever you want. It’s intoxicating to even think about.”
“What, you want to start your own empire or something? That’s
how they’ve started historically, you know. One person with a high
enough Level starts telling some other people what to do, and they
pretty much have to listen. Soon enough, they’ve got walls and
territory and an army.”
“No, I don’t think I’d want to do that. Really, it’s kind of the
opposite of what I want. I feel like, normally, life is so full of worries.”
“Well, yeah, we’ve got an army of Demons that want us dead.”
“But even ignoring that. Before you ever met me, I’m sure you
had plenty of times you got stressed out, right?”
“Sure. I didn’t stress over money too much, but obviously I
dedicated a lot of thought to my Class and trying to make the right
decision with that. I guess even with little stuff, like dealing with some
annoying client with adventuring. Or just politics. Taxes going up,
tensions with other countries that I couldn’t do anything about,
hearing about a nearby village that got attacked by monsters and
hoping we wouldn’t be next, stuff like that.”
“Yeah, exactly. I guess my ideal life would be one without those
worries. The little stuff. I don’t want some sort of overwhelming
source of power to bend others to my will, or whatever some of those
other Classers seem to be going for. I just want to wake up in the
morning—every morning—and not have to worry about anything. No
dreading going to work even though I don’t want to, no stressing
about a sick loved one, no dealing with someone who can tell me
what to do. I just want to live somewhere, put some time into my
hobbies, and evade those petty problems.”
“Sounds like a modest life.” Erani nodded. “What does carving a
path through a mountain have to do with it?”
“I told you, it’s not about a mountain.” I laughed again. “It’s about
having the ability to do what you want—what you need—without
worry. Whoever did this, they had some sort of reason for it. And we
don’t know what it is, but they had a reason. Maybe they needed to
carve a path so that their village could escape some great threat, or
maybe they were just tired of walking around the mountain range.
But either way, they wanted something done, so they just…did it. No
issues.”
“Well, you said you wanted to leave your mark on the world, too.
Wouldn’t a big project like that get in the way of relaxing?”
“It isn’t about just doing nothing all day, it’s about not doing the
things others want to make you do. If I want to build the tallest pillar
of stone, I’d be able to do that. Or if I wanted to plant enough trees to
turn a desert into a forest, or if I wanted to drain an ocean, or
whatever. I could spend my life doing that thing—whatever it is—that
I want to do. Something that I think will help people, or help myself,
or that just looks damn cool. Whatever. The point is that I’m not
doing it because someone else told me to.”
Erani nodded. “Yeah, I get that perspective. Personally, I’m not
sure that I want to spend all my time on some great, life’s-work
project. But being able to relax for a bit and not have to worry about
regular obligations seems nice. Like a lifelong vacation.”
I nodded. “One day. But for now, let’s just manage our Statuses.
You Leveled twice, right?”
“Yep. I have some Stat Points and a Spell Strengthening to
assign.”
“You’re still putting those into Firebolt, huh?”
“Well, yeah—I don’t even have the option to put them into Angelic
Shield until I get a Spell Crystal. After this one, it’ll be up to Rank 17.
And I’m getting close to another natural Rank-up, which will push it
to 18.”
“Damn. I like having my versatility, but there’s definitely
something to be said about going all-in on one single strategy. That
thing’s damage must be getting pretty high by now, right?”
“Yep. That’s what Sorcerer’s all about,” Erani laughed.
“I feel like you’ll get powerful enough to kill Infernals in a single hit
sometime soon.”
“Maybe not on their own, but Signature Magic can absolutely
boost damage numbers to an absurd amount,” she said, nodding.
“Right now, assuming I get a one-hundred percent boost from that,
plus the fifty percent boost from Primal Might, at Rank 17…the Spell
currently can deal upwards of around 500 damage in a single hit.”
“Good gods,” I coughed. “Seriously?! I knew it was high, but it’s
at that much already?”
“Mhm.” She nodded. “That’s what you get in return for having
literally two Spells at Level 17.”
I laughed and shook my head. “I guess that sort of makes up for
it. Anyway, speaking of Spells, I should probably look at mine.”
“Yeah, I’ll assign my Strengthening and Stat Points too.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, sinking into the familiar feeling of
meditation.
Once ten minutes had passed, I pulled up my Status.
Name: Arlan Nota
Age: 20
Class: Minute Mage
Class Type: Magic
Level: 18
XP: 341/2.2k
Health: 92/420
Stamina: 49/195
Mana: 1.16k/1.16k
Mana/Minute: 62.8
Strength: 22 (18 + 4)
Conjuration: 104
Intelligence: 24
Stat Points: 3
Spells:
[Spell Choice Available]
Talents:
Regenerate
Recursive Growth
Titles:
Devastator
Trailblazer
My breath caught in my throat at the sight of the Spell XP counts

for all of my Spells. All at 355, just waiting to be Upgraded. This
moment, more than any other, I felt a burning desire to get some of
those Spell Crystals. Just a few of them—I could even reuse the
ones I got with Time Loop. Hells, I still had that old Poison Spell
Crystal from back when I’d Upgraded Noxious Grasp, I just didn’t
have any other Poison-School Spell to use it on. I’d been keeping my
eye out during my Choices, but none had come.
We were closer than ever to getting some Crystals, though. Just
a bit more, and we’d be back in civilization. Protection, Spell
Crystals, damn, I’d have settled for just some regular food and a bed
to sleep in. It felt like so long since I’d last had even that.
But for now, I just needed to figure out what was in front of me.
Level 18 had given me something more important than a cooked
meal or a warm bed. It was time to look over my next choice of
Spells.
Wild Might
School: Alteration, Nature
Type: Activated
Cost: 430 Mana
—
Causes yourself or one willing being you are touching to enter Wild
Form. While in Wild Form, the being’s Strength, Endurance, and
Dexterity are set to 70, 50, and 60 respectively. Additionally, the
being’s Health/Minute and Stamina/Minute are multiplied by 50 while
in Wild Form.
After 15 minutes, the being exits Wild Form, and they lose Stamina
equal to the combined amount of Stamina and Health regenerated
while in Wild Form.
Defy Gravity
School: Arcane
Type: Toggle
Cost: 20 Mana/Second
—
Decrease the effects of gravity on yourself by 10% while active.
Sanguine Bond
School: Arcane, Curse
Type: Activated
Cost: 190 Mana
—
Choose a being you are physically touching. You begin Siphoning
energy from it for the next 10 seconds. For as long as you are
Siphoning energy from it, it loses 4 Health, 5 Stamina, and 6 Mana (if
it has Mana) each second, and you gain 1 Health, 2 Stamina, and 3
Mana each second.
This effect automatically ends if the being moves further than 10
paces from you.
Okay, I thought, now to actually choose what to go with.

40
CHOOSING
I WAS a bit taken aback at first by the lack of Trailblazer telling me

what my next Spell names would be, but then I remembered that I
had something new to replace that.
“Index,” I said, “what can you tell me about these choices?”
“Well, I can tell you quite a lot of things,” was what I got in reply.
“Y’know, you’ve been misusing me quite a bit.”
“What, are you angry at me for it?”
“No, I just feel like you don’t know how I’m intended to be used.
It’s all reconnaissance and telling you what I see. I’m supposed to be
what I’m named after. An index of information! You’re supposed to
ask me specific questions, and I’ll answer when I can.”
“Okay, but why not just tell me everything you’re allowed to say?”
“Because it’ll take forever! Y’know, you’ve gotten by fine doing
stuff like that until now, when I was just telling you stuff about the
people you were fighting. But Spell Choices? This is what I was
made for! That means I’ve got a lot, lot more stuff in the ol’ books.”
“Wait, do you physically have books that you tell me this stuff
from?”
“No, dummy! It’s an expression.”
“…Sure. Well, okay. I’ll ask you some specific questions, then.
But if I’m still undecided afterward, I’m just gonna ask you to start
listing off everything you know until I’m satisfied.”
I couldn’t see Index, but I could feel it rolling its eyes at me. “Fine.
Ask away.”
“Alright. So, with Defy Gravity, it’s a percent reduction. Last time I
saw one of those, it was with Ethereal Armor, which Ranked up in a
specific way. Does Defy Gravity work the same? Or does it Rank up
using some other methods?”
“Pretty much the same. Though it actually decreases by 10%, not
5.”
“Hm.” I nodded. “So if I get it to the Soft Cap, that’ll be…”
I started doing the math in my head, but Index cut me off. “It’d
end up as a 65% reduction of gravity on yourself, yes.”
“Alright.” I could see where Index was coming from. It was nice to
just have free answers to all of my questions. “What about Wild
Might? What, exactly, does it…do?”
“I mean, you can read the description. It’s right in front of you.”
“Well, yeah, but I mean, what does it do outside of that? From
what I can tell, it seems like it’ll set your Stats to a decent level,
boost your Health and Stamina regeneration, and then, after fifteen
minutes, revert you to normal with a bunch of your Stamina missing.
That’s all oddly specific. Does it do something else that it doesn’t
mention?”
“Oh, yeah. It alters your physical appearance quite a bit.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Claws, sharpened teeth, stuff like that.”
I blinked. “Claws and sharpened teeth?! Does it turn you into a
monster, or something?”
“No, no, you still look vaguely Human.”
“Vaguely?”
“Yeah, for the most part. Just, y’know, a bit wilder.”
“…Mhmm.”
Yeah, I wasn’t too sure about that one. Index was being quite
cryptic with its clues, and really I just wasn’t too big of a fan of its
effects. As is, it’d be an overall increase in Stats, but because of the
way the Spell worked, it’d only get less effective as I got more
powerful. Right now, setting my Strength to 70 would be an increase
of 48, but after a few Levels? Sure, the Spell would also Rank up to
compensate for that, but with Recursive Growth, that relative gap
would only shrink as I Leveled.
As for the idea of casting it on others, it’d obviously not work well
on Ainash, and ironically, it wouldn’t be a good fit for Erani, either.
She had so much of a boost from the Bond that it’d be even less
effective on her than it’d be on me.
The extra Health and Stamina regeneration was nice, but then,
that got counteracted by the fact that it took all the regeneration back
once the Spell ended, which would probably leave me with a flat 0 in
Stamina, paralyzing me until I got some of it back. Not exactly ideal.
It seemed like the Spell was best used on Unclassed people. I
could envision someone else wielding the Spell, casting thousands
of Mana’s worth on random peasants to create an unstoppable army
of what had effectively become mid-Level Classers. But in my
circumstances, something like that wasn’t too possible.
“What about Sanguine Bond?” I asked. “That one’s got a bunch
of different numbers in its description, I could imagine it Ranking up
in a few different ways. What does it do when Ranking?”
“Uh, let’s see here… Ah, yes. It gets the standard additional 2.5%
Mana Cost, and then a 5% boost in the Health, Stamina and Mana
drain, as well as the Health, Stamina and Mana regeneration.”
“Alright. So no boosts to the range or duration.” That Spell was
interesting—it wasn’t common to see a Spell that both cost Mana
and regenerated Mana. Really, why would there be a Spell that, say,
cost 30 Mana and regenerated 10? Why not just cost 20 and cut out
the middleman?
But in Sanguine Bond’s case, I understood it. The Mana
regeneration was effectively a reward for keeping the Siphon going
for the whole duration. That way you could re-earn a bit of the Mana
you spent on it.
One very interesting thing with that, though, was that it was
technically possible for the total Mana earned to eventually outpace
the Mana Cost of the Spell itself. Sure, currently you could only
effectively reduce the cost from 190 to 160, but as Index said, the
Mana regeneration increased by 5% per Rank, while the cost only
increased 2.5%. So, after getting it to my current Soft Cap⁠—
“Mana’d be 238 and regeneration would be 4.65,” Index said,
apparently reading my thoughts.
Right. So after getting it to the Soft Cap, the previously 30 Mana
discount would become around a 47 Mana discount. And that really
started getting interesting when looking at things in the context of
Light Plate.
Light Plate would reduce the cost of the Spell, but it wouldn’t
reduce the amount of Mana regenerated. So, after taking Light Plate
into account…
I paused deliberately, at this point knowing Index would do the
math for me.
“Yeah, yeah,” it said. “Light Plate accounted for, original cost
would be 108 and Rank 9 cost would be 135.”
Right. So when you subtracted the regenerated Mana from those
new costs, suddenly the Spell would effectively cost a total of 78 at
Rank 0, and 88 at Rank 9. Only 10 extra Mana in effective cost, and
I still got 9 Ranks’ worth of boosted effectiveness! And it would only
get better as both of those Spells Ranked more. It really wasn’t
absurd to imagine that I could eventually have a Spell that’d gain me
Mana by casting it.
But then, was the Spell actually good, all of that considered?
Obviously, considering its cost, the Spell seriously
underperformed in the department of dealing damage—or even
draining Stamina. Even considering the refunded Mana, it just didn’t
compare to Spells like Noxious Grasp, or even Crippling Chill. And I
wasn’t sure that the conditional Mana draining effect would make up
for that.
But then, the Spell had another function. In addition to gaining me
back Mana, it’d also regenerate Health and Stamina. So if I
considered this to be both a damaging Spell and a healing Spell all
rolled into one, it was seriously efficient. I could cast this and put
pressure on my opponent to end the battle soon or else have their
Stamina quickly drained away, while at the same time regenerating
my own Health, making it even harder for them to end the battle in
the first place. And the extra Stamina regeneration could also be fed
into more Health using Regenerate.
But that was assuming I’d always get the maximum effect of the
Spell. If I cast this and then let the enemy get away from me, the
Siphon would be broken and I’d have wasted all of that Mana. I
wouldn’t even get the refund. The worst-case scenario with this thing
was pretty awful.
I could see why this Spell came after Expedite, though. It worked
well with it. If I cast this and my enemy started getting away from me,
I could boost my Dexterity with Expedite to ensure I’d keep up with
them. Still, there were many scenarios where you just couldn’t stay
within ten paces of an enemy for a full ten seconds. It’d be a risky
play in a lot of situations, that was for sure.
And the other Spell being offered to me besides those two was
Defy Gravity. That Spell was a weird one, too. Reducing gravity’s
effects on me? It was almost an exact counterpart to Gravity Well,
the only thing it was missing was the ability to use it on others.
Though I could see why I wouldn’t be able to do that—ironically,
reducing someone’s weight would probably be a lot more detrimental
than increasing it, in terms of completely ruining their coordination in
a fight.
But even just considering it could only be activated on myself, I
could see quite a few uses for it. As long as I got used to the feeling,
reducing my weight could combine nicely with Expedite to pull off
tricky moves in combat, like running along walls or leaping up into
trees.
Just imagining the possibilities, I almost took the Spell then and
there. I mean, it just seemed so cool. But then…it wasn’t very
practical, was it? Really, when was the last time I needed to run
along a wall? Maybe it could be useful, being able to jump high up
and take cover from an attacker, but Classers with high-enough
physical Stats could do that already, so against a powerful enemy it
wouldn’t be likely to buy me much time.
Plus, by the time it got to Rank 9, Index said the reduction would
already have gotten to 65%. That seemed like a good thing, at first. It
got way more powerful, way more quickly than anything else. Wasn’t
that a point in Defy Gravity’s favor? But the Spell’s description was
missing something very key to making that true. The phrase “up to.”
“There it is,” Index said. “Right on the money.”
…Was it adding color commentary to my own inner monologue?
“Yeah,” Index admitted.
“Y’know, sometimes I wish you weren’t living inside my head.”
“Just go back to thinking. I wanna see where this ends up.”
I rolled my eyes. Right.
Anyway, the Spell didn’t say I could reduce gravity’s effects by
“up to” a certain amount. It just said it’d reduce gravity by that
amount, exactly. That meant once it got to, say, 99%, I wouldn’t be
able to decide to just reduce gravity by 80%. It’d be all or nothing.
Sure, gravity reduction was nice to a certain point, but once I was
jumping hundreds of paces into the air? That was effectively
impossible to control. Not to mention landing—I’d have to keep the
Spell active the whole time I was in the air or risk falling to my death,
and I wasn’t sure I appreciated dedicating that much Mana to a
single leap.
“Is there a Spell Upgrade that mitigates that or something?” I
asked Index. “Because otherwise, it’s borderline useless.”
“Uhh… Alright, since you guessed the exact Upgrade’s effects, I
can tell you. Yes, the Rank 10 Upgrade offers a choice that’ll allow
you to modulate the exact amount you reduce gravity by.”
Okay, well that was good to know. Still, I wasn’t sure that I
appreciated being forced to use the Spell’s first Upgrade on just
making it usable. Whereas with Sanguine Bond, I’d be getting an
already-usable Spell, plus a Rank 10 Upgrade to add on top of that.
Considering how useful Noxious Grasp’s had been, I didn’t want to
pass that up.
Yeah, I felt like things were decided at this point. Sanguine Bond
was the pick. The healing it offered—and at such a low rate, if I could
actually pull off the challenge the Spell presented to me—was just
too much to pass up.
So with that, I made my choice.
You have learned the Spell Sanguine Bond.
I also assigned my Stat Points.

After the points in Conjuration, my new Mana/Minute was close to

70—which meant I’d be getting around 1.1 Mana per second. And
with my new Spell active, that number would jump up to 4.1 Mana.
Every single second.
I felt like my build was really coming together. And once I got my
hands on some Spell Crystals, it’d get so much better.
41
THEORIZING
AFTER WE WERE all done with our Level-ups, we decided to just

camp out for the night.
It was getting to be pretty dark by now, and, even if we ignored
our general exhaustion, moving through a place as dangerous as
Kingdom’s Edge while you could barely see was sure to end poorly.
I’d almost forgotten, since the Demons had been my main worry for
so long, but this place was renowned for its dangerous monsters.
Sure, we could survive a Drake fight, but if several Drakes
showed up at once? We could only beat those things because we
outnumbered them. Besides, even though we could take down the
lower-Leveled ones, I still wasn’t sure I liked our chances against
one of the high-Leveled Drakes.
Also, Astintash wasn’t the only Dragon around. If we saw another
one, we wouldn’t have the bargaining chip of the Demons to
convince it not to kill us the moment it saw us. I still remembered our
first encounter with that massive beast. It’d seen us climbing up its
mountain and promptly landed on us, killing everyone pretty much
instantly. Yeah, they weren’t exactly famous for welcoming
newcomers into their territories.
It wasn’t fully nighttime, though, and despite my general feeling of
exhaustion, my nerves were still too shot to let me sleep. Erani and
Ainash seemed to be in the same mental situation as me, so we just
sat and talked while Erani and I absentmindedly practiced our Spells.
I went ahead and Ranked Sanguine Bond to the Soft Cap while
we spoke. The Cap had gotten high enough that it wasn’t really
possible to Rank it to the top in just a minute or two anymore—at 2
Mana per 1 Spell XP, it’d end up taking close to my full complement
of Mana to Rank a Spell to 9, when taking my Light Plate into
account.
But the Mana wasn’t the specific reason it took so long. Since
Sanguine Bond was a Spell that required a target, it meant I needed
to have something to hit in order to practice. Luckily, with Index’s
help, I found some Lava Slugs to use the Spell on. It was a bit freaky
getting so close to those tiny animals that could cause so much pain,
but I eventually got over it once I realized I could safely tap their
backs to activate Sanguine Bond without risk. Each one died pretty
much instantly, but there were enough hiding around for me to have
enough to fully Rank the Spell up.
At 0, Sanguine Bond had drained 4 Health, 5 Stamina, and 6
Mana per second, and regenerated 1, 2, and 3 of each as well. This
was its first Rank-up notification:
Threshold reached. Sanguine Bond XP has reached 10.

Sanguine Bond Rank has increased to 1.
Due to Sanguine Bond Rank reaching 1, it has undergone the
following changes:
Stamina Drain: From 5 to 5.25
Mana Drain: From 6 to 6.3
Health Regeneration: From 1 to 1.05
Stamina Regeneration: From 2 to 2.1
Mana Regeneration: From 3 to 3.15
Definitely a longer notification, with seven separate aspects of the

Spell being modified. It was pretty exciting to see so many numbers
increase with just a single Rank. But it got even better. Once I was
done combing the area for Lava Slugs, this was what it ended up as,
eight Ranks later:
Threshold reached. Sanguine Bond XP has reached 120.

Sanguine Bond Rank has increased to 9.
Due to Sanguine Bond Rank reaching 9, it has undergone the
following changes:
Health Drain: From 5.91 to 6.21
Mana Drain: From 8.87 to 9.31
Health Regeneration: From 1.48 to 1.55
Stamina Regeneration: From 2.96 to 3.11
Mana Regeneration: From 4.43 to 4.65
Unfortunately, since the Slugs barely had any Health to begin

with, the Siphon didn’t last long enough for me to see any real
healing from the Spell, but it was fully Ranked now, which was what
mattered. After killing them all, we just sat and talked for a couple
hours, taking solace in the peace and quiet to regenerate our
Stamina and Health, and to just recover mentally.
And while we spoke, I decided to use that time to experiment with
Ainash’s Bond. I’d tell her about how we suspected it worked soon—
she probably had suspicions of her own—but if what Erani and I had
discussed before was true, then Ainash not being aware of my
intentions would make the experiments more successful in yielding
good data. I’d try to get it to trigger a Bond strengthening one more
time to prove what we thought.
“Hey,” I said to Ainash during a lull in conversation, “I just wanted
to say I’m really thankful for you helping out back there. I really
appreciate you.”
She looked over at me with a frown. “You just saying that
because you feel like you have to.”
“W-what? No, I’m not just saying it for that reason.”
“I feel it.”
“Well, you can also feel that I genuinely think it’s true, right?” I
sent to her. And I did genuinely feel what I said I felt. I was
appreciative of her, and had hoped that just voicing what I truly
thought wouldn’t come off as feeling “fake” to her. Apparently not.
“Yes. You truly feel it. But you saying it for some other reason.”
I sighed. This damned Bond. Just by me knowing that it existed, it
somehow poisoned all interactions I had with Ainash. Any time I
spoke to her, I involuntarily thought about the Bond—how could I
not? It was hanging over my head every interaction, like it was
saying “you better not mess things up,” over and over in my ear. How
could I act normally with that happening?
“Are you worrying?” Ainash said, apparently sensing my
frustration. “Do not be sad. Did not mean to hurt your feelings.
Appreciate your kind words, even if you are weird.”
I laughed, but it was a sad laugh. This poor thing. She deserved
so much better. A better life, better experiences. Every time she
talked about her life goal of killing all the “bad guys,” I felt my chest
tighten just a bit more. Stuff like that…it wasn’t what a kid should’ve
been worrying about. And now she was worrying about me, too? I
was the one that was supposed to be comforting her.
She scooted forward, glowing eyes illuminating her face in the
dark. She seemed determined, like she’d just decided she was going
to do something. “Um…I sorry for saying mean things to you.”
I blinked. “No, it’s fine. You just apologized anyway.”
“No. Sorry for long time ago. Saying you are mean or you are bad
Human. You are not bad. I sorry.”
Oh, that was what she was apologizing for? When she’d first
gotten the ability to talk to us? “Why are you apologizing for all that
now? You haven’t said anything like it in a while.”
“But you are sad now. Are you sad from me?”
I could help but laugh again, shaking my head and placing it in
my hands. “No, no. You didn’t make me sad. Thank you for thinking
to apologize, though, you’re totally forgiven. I’m sorry too.”
She tilted her head curiously. “For what?”
I looked downward. What could I say? For dragging you into a life
of suffering? For being the reason your actual mother died? For,
after all that, not even being able to take up the mantle of
parenthood, for not being able to really take responsibility, for not
being able to be an actual emotional rock for you to rely on? For
forcing you to grow up way too much, way too fast?
I knew what it was like to lose your parents early in life. The way
it forced me to become an adult in a single instant. The years it stole
from me. And for Ainash, that’d happened directly in front of her—at
least I wasn’t there when my parents lost their lives.
And despite seeing it happen, she didn’t even know what she’d
really lost. What was stolen from her. She probably wouldn’t realize
for a long time that she was meant to have a normal childhood.
So how could I articulate that—all of that—into a proper apology
to her? How could I say “you will never be the same, and it’s my
fault” to a kid?
It was like all of that hit me—like I really, truly understood it—all in
the same moment.

deepened.
changes:
Heat Resistance: From 11.6% to 16.9%
I looked up, surprised at the sudden notification. Ainash was still

looking at me in the same way—had she really felt all of those
thoughts and feelings through her empathy? No way it was that
advanced for her to really get what I was feeling—for her to feel it
specifically and accurately enough to actually deepen the Bond.
So then, why had the Bond Ranked up? If her attitude about me
didn’t change, then what did?
…Wait.
I’d been thinking about this Bond thing all wrong. Our theory was
that it measured the literal relationship between me and Ainash,
right? Sure, that would take into account the way she felt about me—
that was absolutely a part of it. But a relationship between two
people wasn’t just about the way one of them felt about the other—it
went both ways.
Wouldn’t the way I thought about her be just as important? If it
measured the relationship between us, it’d make sense if that was
true.
In a way, that soothed my worries quite a bit. If I thought about
things in terms of just talking to her for the sake of increasing the
Bond Rank, then obviously it’d harm the way I thought of her, and
the Bond wouldn’t deepen—no matter whether or not she believed
me. But if I just treated her normally, the Bond would deepen
naturally. When I thought about it, there was effectively no way to
force it, because the moment I started trying to, I’d also be harming
our relationship.
So I just had to ignore it, then? No experiments, no intentionally
saying things to get her to like me, just do what I’d already been
doing? Suddenly, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my
shoulders.
“Index,” I muttered to myself, “when I was trying to pick a Spell,
you said that when I guessed what one of the Spell Upgrades would
be, it allowed you to tell me whether I was correct, right?”
“Yeah. Though it’s not like you can just go through, saying
everything you can think of to see if it’s correct. You have to
genuinely arrive at a conclusion naturally for me to be able to confirm
it.”
“Well, am I right?”
“About the Bond stuff? Yeah, totally.”
I sighed. Thank the gods. The thought of effectively being forced
into manipulating some kid into liking me just so I could become
stronger made my stomach churn, and now I had confirmation that I
wouldn’t be asked to do it.
“Erani,” I said. “And Ainash, too. I’ve figured out the exact way
the Bond works.”
“Huh,” Erani said once I was finished explaining. “Yeah, that makes
sense. If it measures relationships, a one-sided relationship would
definitely be viewed as pretty weak. Still, kind of strange to imagine
the System rooting around in my mind, reading my thoughts.”
“I’ve had Index with me for a while now.” I shrugged. “You get
used to it.”
“Yes,” Ainash said, presumably transmitting her thoughts to both
me and Erani, “I thought worked like that. I think mother is less
weird, so she is stronger Bond. Father is more weird, though. Still
not too weird, so medium Bond.”
“Uh, sure,” I said. I wasn’t sure if “weirdness” was the most
correct way to think of it, but it was close enough.
“Let’s see…so if we…” I heard Erani muttering next to me as she
stared off into space.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“Well, if the Bond measures the ways we feel about Ainash the
same way it measures the ways she thinks about us, I thought I’d try
to alter the way I think about her.”
“I’m not sure it works that way,” I said. “If you’re doing it on
purpose, you won’t genuinely believe what you come up with. It has
to happen naturally.”
“Right, and I’m just going to force it to happen naturally.”
“What do you mean?” I laughed.
“Like…” She pursed her lips, pausing to think. “It’s like
meditation. When you meditate, you’re supposed to clear your mind,
right?”
“Yeah.”
“But if you’re thinking about how you need to clear your mind, you
won’t actually clear your mind. You’ll still be thinking, it’ll just be
about how you want to have a clear mind. Or if you’re trying to go to
sleep, and you can’t. If you think about how much you want to go to
sleep, and how tired you are, and how you’re going to need to wake
up early, so you really need to fall asleep right now, you’ll never
actually fall asleep, because you’ll be so preoccupied with thinking
about falling asleep.”
“…Uh-huh…”
“So what’s the answer? How do you fall asleep, or enter a real
meditative state?”
“Well, the way I do it is I just stop thinking about it. I just let my
mind wander normally.” I wasn’t sure where she was going. Didn’t
this prove my point?
“Mm, no, not really. If you let your mind wander while trying to
meditate, you’d never end up meditating, right?”
I frowned. “I guess it’s more like I let my mind wander with the
intention of having it clear out on its own, or something? It’s hard to
explain.”
“I think you explained it perfectly. You don’t force it, exactly, but
you probably have it somewhere in the back of your mind that the
goal is to end up clearing your mind, or falling asleep, or whatever.
You maybe catch yourself when your mind starts going down some
wild tangent that’s sure to keep you occupied for hours, or you try to
control your breathing while you think, or whatever. Everyone has
their own methods. Eventually, it’ll empty out, because you have that
vague, subconscious intention.”
“So what, you’re doing the same thing, but with trying to think
better about Ainash?”
“Basically. It’s like, if I just try to keep the topic of my thoughts
generally focused around her, and curb any tangents that go wildly
off course, it’ll probably help me sort out my thoughts about her,
right? If I just consider my future with her in my care, or remember
things she’s done, or whatever. It probably has a limited amount of
usefulness—you can’t just think about someone a bunch and then
suddenly be super close to them, you have to actually spend some
time with them, too—but I thought I could maybe take some time to
consider the exact ways I think about her, especially since I’ve been
a bit too busy to think about smaller stuff like that, lately.”
"Do not know what you two are talking about," Ainash said, "but
will try to not call you mean names anymore."
"Yeah, kiddo, that’ll probably work just fine," I responded with a
laugh. Then I turned back to Erani. "I guess your method makes
sense. I might do that too, while I’m on watch or something.”
Erani nodded, then glanced around. “Speaking of watch, it’s
getting pretty late. Thought we should probably be heading to sleep
soon. You want me to take first watch?”
“Nah, I got it,” I said. “I’m not too tired yet, anyway.”
“Alright, wake me up in a few hours.” Erani lay down, resting her
head on her arms.
“Yeah, will do,” I said.
Ainash lay down and closed her eyes soon after, leaving me
alone in the dark, the only light my white, inexplicably shining armor,
and the smoke that seeped out of its cracks whenever I cast Noxious
Grasp.
The Spell was only about 100 XP away from another Rank, which
was a surprisingly attainable amount, now that I had Exponential
Reclamation. So I just set my head back and rested. Bond Ranks,
Spell XP…I eagerly anticipated getting plenty of those over the night
—plus a good bit of well-needed rest.
Arlan’s Fully-Expanded Character Sheet
Minute Mage Basic Progression Path

- Every 1 Level: +1 Endurance, +2 Conjuration, +3 Stat Points, Time
Loop Rank Up
- Every 3 Levels: Spell Choice
- Every 5 Levels: Talent Choice
- Every 10 Levels: Time Loop Usage Increase, Time Loop Upgrade
Name: Arlan Nota

Age: 20
Class: Minute Mage
Class Type: Magic
Level: 18
XP: 348/2.2k
Health: 199/440
Stamina: 96/207
Mana: 1.22k/1.22k
Mana/Minute: 69.9
Strength: 24 (18 + 6)
Conjuration: 110
Intelligence: 24
Spells:
Sanguine Bond 9 - XP 355/355

Talents:
Regenerate
Recursive Growth
Titles:
Devastator
Trailblazer
You have a Bond with Level 30 Draconiad.
by 6.
- You gain 16.9% Resistance to all heat-based damage.
Spells:
Sanguine Bond Rank 9
School: Arcane, Curse
Type: Activated
Cost: 238 Mana
—
Choose a being you are physically touching. You begin Siphoning
energy from it for the next 10 seconds. For as long as you are
Siphoning energy from it, it loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and
9.31 Mana (if it has Mana) each second, and you gain 1.55 Health,
3.11 Stamina, and 4.65 Mana each second.
This effect automatically ends if the being moves further than 10
paces from you.
Expedite Rank 9
School: Alteration
Type: Activated
Cost: 68.7 Mana
—
by 31.1 for 46.5 seconds.
Ethereal Armor Rank 9
School: Arcane, Summoning
Type: Activated
Cost: 187 Mana
—
You summon one of two sets of magical armor—Dark Plate or Light
Plate. You may dismiss it at any time. It will be automatically
dismissed after 60 minutes.
While wearing Dark Plate, you cannot take more than 50% of your
maximum Health in damage in a single second (220 damage).
Preventing damage this way breaks the Plate, making it unusable for
37.9 seconds.
While wearing Light Plate, your other spells cost 43.4% less,
though still gain Spell XP as though they weren’t discounted.
Gravity Well Rank 9
School: Arcane
Type: Toggle
Cost: 12.7 Mana/Second per being affected
—
While active, increase gravitational pull by 61% for any number of
beings within 30 paces of you.
Ray of Frost Rank 9
School: Cold, Curse
Type: Activated
Cost: 25 Mana
—
Shoots a beam of icy energy from your hands, traveling up to 25
paces and dealing up to 62.1 damage, depending on where it hits,
on a direct collision with a being. Upon being hit, targets are cursed
with frostbite for 5 seconds. While they are frostbitten, their Dexterity
score is lowered by 7.76.
Crippling Chill Rank 9
School: Cold, Curse
Type: Activated
Cost: 56.2 Mana
—
Choose a being within 40 paces of you. It becomes coated in frost
for the next 15 seconds. For as long as it is coated in frost, it loses
7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score
is lowered by 15.5.
Noxious Grasp Rank 12
+ Venomous Grasp
School: Poison
Type: Toggle
Cost: 4.94 Mana/Second
—
While active, any being you are physically touching loses 18 Health
and 8.99 Stamina per second.
Noxious Grasp festers beings it damages. While they are festered,
beings lose double Stamina from all sources. The fester remains for
5 seconds after you stop contact with the being.
Talents:
Type: Passive
—
Regenerate
Type: Activated
Cost: 20 Stamina, plus 20 minutes’ worth of Stamina regeneration
(47.1 Stamina).
—
Greatly increase your body’s recovery speed, at the cost of your
Stamina. When activated, your Health/Minute is multiplied by 1,000
for 10 seconds, then returns to normal.
Recursive Growth
Type: Passive
—
Whenever your Level increases, you gain 4 additional Stat
increases, chosen at random.
This Talent improves every tenth Level you reach, incrementally
increasing the number of random Stat increases you gain each Level
by 2.
Time Loop – Rank 18
+ Extended Loop
Type: Activated
Go up to 5 hours back in time, resetting your Health, Stamina,
Mana, and other cooldowns—as well as the rest of the world—but
preserving your memories and the rest of your Status.
This Talent activates at will, or automatically when you would die.
This Talent may only be activated twice per day.
Titles:
Devastator
You have taken a risk and killed enough enemies that, in a single
minute, you have gained three or more Levels. For many, gambles
like that cost them their lives. For you, it paid off. Greed is good.
All enemies you contribute to killing provide 25% more XP.
Trailblazer
You are the only person in the world with your Class and, as such,
cannot rely on the findings of others to make your decisions. Instead,
you must forge your own path.
If you do not already have it, you gain access to the Intelligence Stat.
It will improve the information given to you by the System regarding
your Class and what might become of it in the future.
Whenever you Level up, gain 1 Intelligence.
42
WELCOME TO HELL. YOU’VE BEEN

TERMINATED
A DEVIL SAT at a desk in a damp, dark room. He was, in a turn of

character, actually doing the copying work he’d been neglecting for
so long now. Though it wasn’t because he suddenly felt remorseful
about forcing his coworkers to pick up his slack, or anything along
those lines.
No, it was because he was terrified.
He’d just gotten word back. Arlan Nota was confirmed alive. And
the wall was destroyed. The soldiers were all either dead, retreating,
or deserted, leaving the Devil with absolutely nobody left to kill the
fugitive.
He’d lost, plain and simple.
The war against Arlan Nota wasn’t over—far from it—but the
Devil knew that his superiors wouldn’t be looking at this with a
charitable view. They wouldn’t be considering it as a simple
temporary setback that the Devil could still save if he got some more
time.
He’d proven himself, again and again, to simply not be good
enough for the job.
And so he had no doubt he’d lose that job.
Normally, he’d have been ecstatic about that. The Arlan Nota
case was what had caused him so many problems in the first place
—wouldn’t it be great if he didn’t have to worry about that anymore?
But he knew what it’d mean if he proved himself useless to the
Demons.
The massive common room he worked in—hundreds of paces
long and wide, filled wall-to-wall with desks—was lined with doors.
Most of those doors led to hallways, where one would be taken
through a series of rooms with hall monitors in them to guide
Demons to their destinations. The life of a hall monitor was seen as
the lowest of the low—sitting around, doing absolutely nothing for
hours upon hours upon hours on end except for maybe giving one or
two Demons directions on where the nearest office complex was, or
something.
A hall monitor was effectively condemned to a living death of
boredom. A mind-numbing existence of nothingness.
But there were some doors that didn’t lead to hallways. Some led
to private offices, like the Devil’s old office, located through door
214.6b, that was now occupied by his replacement,
ossin. All of the 214 doors led to offices.
But some of the doors led to other things. Door 999, for example.
That door led to the execution room.
When an underling misbehaved, refused to follow orders, or
underperformed to such an extreme degree that they proved
themself useless in all circumstances, the Seventh Circle of the
Underworld decided that they had no more use for that Demon. And
they were dealt with thusly.
The Devil had, in effect, done all three of those things. He’d acted
in an extraordinarily impolite fashion toward his superiors, he’d failed
to uphold his copying work deadlines several times, and now he’d
failed to uphold his most important duty: killing Arlan Nota.
So he was working as hard as he could to try and prove his worth
in some other fashion. Namely, his ability to copy. It was low, tedious,
boring, humiliating work, but at this point, it didn’t matter. He didn’t
want to die, and if this was what it’d take, he’d do it.
So he worked as quickly as he could, writing down the same
documents over and over. This eleven-page document needed nine
copies so it could go out to the nine general officer second-class
secretaries in order to get confirmation on an order for new materials
being used in the pins some army colonels wore on their shirts. This
fifteen-page document needed twenty-one copies so it could go out
to all newly assigned employees at a manufacturing plant to show
them the exact guidelines and regulations for assembling said pins.
He had about three hundred more documents like those to copy
over, and they were due in not enough time for him to actually get
them done. Not even close. But perhaps, he thought, he could get
enough done that his superiors would understand he could at least
be of basic use as a copier. It would be a meek, worthless existence,
but an existence nonetheless.
It didn’t take long for him to be interrupted.

As he worked, scribbling as quickly as he could on a sheet of
paper, he heard a series of stomps coming up from behind him. He
almost didn’t want to look back out of pure fear, but curiosity won him
over, and he glanced back.
A Devil woman—his direct superior—and a security detail of a
half-dozen Nefariors approached down the narrow hallway. Nefariors
were the direct evolution of Infernals, and their bodies showed it well.
They were taller, beefier, and even more misshapen and deformed.
Their muscled bodies bulged out so much that they almost didn’t
have necks at all, their massive shoulders taking their place, and
their thighs and calves shifted and flexed with each movement so
much that it looked like they’d explode at any moment.
These were the soldiers used as front-liners in the wars the
Seventh Circle fought against the other circles. The regular Infernals
were effectively trainees, borderline civilians still moving through the
equivalent of boot camp before they could actually get some action
in the constant wars with the other Circles of the Underworld. That
was why it was so easy for the Devil to get his hands on such a large
contingent of them for the Overworld invasion—something that, by
comparison, was of very little importance.
The “boot camp” of the Underworld was very different from the
military training Humans got in the Overworld, which the Devil had,
of course, researched while planning his assault against their
military. Where the Humans seemed to operate under the strange
idea of preserving the lives of their fellow men during training, the
Demons operated under another idea: if you died during training, you
were too weak to fight in the main conflict anyway.
And so, Demon boot camps typically sported a mortality rate of
around 97.63%. Of course, that number varied—acceptable rates fell
between 97.61% and 97.65%—but that was the general rate. And it
was set at that number so as to weed out any and all weaklings from
the pack. It wasn’t as though the Demons killed all of these young
Infernals for fun, of course—that would simply be inefficient—but
rather it was out of necessity.
It wasn’t common for a Demon’s species to change like that,
evolving from one form to the next. This was because unlike most
monsters of the Overworld, they didn’t evolve through Level-ups.
Instead, certain species had the ability to, through consumption of a
specific substance, change into another.
Some of them were like the Flameling, which evolved into its next
form—the Ashlocke—through consuming something relatively
common—in this case, it was a charred corpse. Or the Zelus, which
evolved into a Salvite through consumption of another Zelus. The
Infernals were quite different, however. Because what they needed
to consume was much, much rarer.
To become a Nefarior, an Infernal needed to drink a God’s blood.
That was, of course, not something the Seventh Circle had an
infinite amount of. In fact, they’d only ever acquired a single piece of
a God’s corpse, and had been using it to sustain their battle efforts
for millennia. They were just lucky that Lunae’s ring finger was large
enough to contain so much blood.
So it made sense for them to be so careful about who exactly
they gave that limited supply of God blood to. Any time a new
Infernal spawned, it was thrown straight into the Demon’s military
training camp to ensure it was of good mettle.
What did that training camp consist of? Well, the Devil didn’t
know the fine details, but he was aware of the general idea.
Newborn Infernals were tossed into the Ten-Million-Pace River of
Lava, which ran for long enough for them to spend around their first
year in. After about eighty percent of the Infernals were culled
through that method, the surviving ones were thrown off a cliff, then
got all of their extremities amputated in order to test their
regeneration. Then they’d be asked to stab themselves in the heart
to test their willpower.
And then, once they’d been cut down to around six percent of
what they’d originally been, they’d begin actual combat training.
They’d do that for some more years, and at the very end, they’d be
asked to each spar against a partner to the death. That cut the
survivors down to the appropriate figure. After living through all of
that, the Infernals were given one drop of Lunae’s blood to drink.
And those Infernals turned into what was standing in front of the
Devil now.
Six of them. Their skin was technically red, but their blue-blooded
veins ran so thick, all across their bodies, that they almost seemed
purple. They all approached, stomping along and knocking aside
desks, workers, and anything else that happened to get in their way.
And they flanked the Devil’s superior, who spoke to him in a curt,
official voice. “Greeting, Xhag. You will come with me, now.”
“A, a, a most formal expression of greeting, Superior
hdimyuumyuuquanquimi’jinndarrqyuqyakwuquoquanki’
miminanmujardinmani’quokinwukanquokokanki.” The Devil hurriedly
stood from his seat and gave a bow to his superior. “As you can see,
I was just working very hard on my copying work. You can see that
I’ve gotten quite a bit of it done in just the past few hours. In fact, if
you look here⁠—”
“With me. Now.”
The Devil’s face paled.
“Nefarior number four. Grab him and take him with me.”
One of the Nefariors stepped forward and wrapped its massive
hand around the Devil’s shoulder, dragging him along as the superior
turned and walked away. The Nefarior followed, pulling the Devil
along with them.
“L-listen,” the Devil begged as they walked, “I offer my sincerest
expression of apology for my failure with the Arlan Nota project. But
please, I can offer my uses in some other way. You—you saw how I
was copying back there, right? I could be one of them! Please! Just
let me⁠—”
His superior stopped and looked back, up at the Nefarior that had
him detained. “Take him through Door 999.”
The Devil’s eyes widened. “No, no, please, you can’t do that. I’m
not some Gargoyle, you can’t just execute me! I’m a Devil! A fucking
Devil! You can’t just execute someone of your own kind! Do you
understand me?!”
She stayed turned away from the screaming Devil as he was
dragged toward the door. He pushed and clawed at the Nefarior’s
hands and arms, trying his damndest to pry himself from the thing’s
invulnerable grip. He used his magic, despite knowing full well that
they had Resistance to it. He tried screaming, punching, biting,
anything to get away from that door.
But despite it all, he was dragged, pace after pace, to his death.
Nothing he did even slowed the Nefarior down.
“Please,” the Devil cried, tears falling down his face, “don’t. Have
mercy. I know I messed up. I know I did. But I’ll do better. I’ve
learned my lesson. I won’t ever⁠—”
He was cut off by the Nefarior putting its hand over his mouth and
opening Door 999. He had his head forcibly turned toward the door
as the Nefarior reached its other hand forward to turn the knob and
open the stone slab.
The funny thing about Door 999 was that nobody knew what was
on the other side. Because if you went through, you died. And you
couldn’t see through it, either. It wasn’t really a “door” at all. Well,
there was a physical door there, but inside the door was actually a
teleporter that took you someplace else. A rectangle of space that
linked up to some mystery place.
The Devil had heard what seemed like an infinite number of
theories about what was through that door. Some said it took you to
the bottom of a lake of lava, where you’d either burn to death or, if
you had the Heat Resistance to survive it, suffocate. Some said it
took you to the top of some massive cliff, where you’d fall straight
down for a full year before reaching the bottom of the pit and then
die instantly. Some said it was actually a grid of tiny teleporters, and
each little square of your body would be teleported someplace else,
neatly dividing your entire body into chunks of meat.
He’d never taken part in that theorycrafting, instead wanting to
focus on his work. But now, he regretted it. It wouldn’t have done
anything to save him, but at the very least, all he wanted was some
sort of certainty. Some sort of knowledge of what kind of fate he’d
meet.
The Nefarior opened the door, and the Devil saw the familiar
black void of a teleporter. It was what all of the Seventh Circle’s
teleporters looked like—void-black squares in space that connected
to some other teleporter, somewhere else in the Underworld.
He’d gone through teleporters thousands—or maybe even
millions—of times in his life, but this time it felt completely different. It
was like he could feel a cosmic coldness of death radiating off of this
one, the air being sucked out of his lungs in real time as he was
pushed toward it.
“Please!” he shouted one last time, voice muffled by the
Nefarior’s hand. “I don’t want to die⁠—”
The Nefarior gave him one last shove, he flew straight through
the teleporter of Door 999, and⁠—
43
WELCOME TO HELL. WHERE ARE YOU?
A DEVIL WAS ALIVE.

He was alive.
He was alive?!
How was he alive?
He opened his eyes, having shut them tightly in anticipation of
the death that was inevitably coming.
And when he opened them, he saw something…how could he
even express the feeling? Amazing? Breathtaking? Awe-inspiring?
Or maybe the correct term was closer to terrifying. Enlightening?
It was an empty expanse of stone. An infinitely large expanse of
stone. A rock floor, bumpy, with massive craters embedded in the
surface.
And nothing above.
The Devil had never truly set foot outside of the Underworld.
Sure, he’d been projected into the Overworld, but he was never
really there. He was seeing the sights and hearing the sounds, but
his true self still resided in the Underworld that whole time. It wasn’t
the same—not at all, he was realizing.
But now. His real, full self was standing in a room without a
ceiling. There was just…sky. Over his head, there was nothing but a
sea of stars.
His first thought was that he was in the Overworld. But he quickly
realized that he was not there. First, this place obviously had a
different environment. Not only was it visually different—a field of
gray rock as far as the eye could see—but it felt different, too. It was
cold. Lethally cold, to any normal being. And the air…it was also
different. Could a Human even breathe here?
Up in the sky, it was pitch dark. Complete black above his head,
nothing but the stars to tell him that there was anything above him at
all. He could see the sun, which should have meant it was daytime,
but it wasn’t turning the sky that familiar blue color he knew the
Overworld to have. It was still black, just…bright.
And finally, there was another object in the sky. Out there, with
the stars and the sun, there was one more celestial body. It was a
strange one, bright blue and green, moving steadily above. What
was that place? The Devil had seen the sun and the stars from the
Overworld, but he’d never seen this thing up there. Had he just
missed it? Admittedly, he hadn’t paid much attention to what was
upward during his short visits there.
He looked back down and around himself. Nothing. Just
emptiness. Not even the teleporter was behind him. Not a single sign
that another being had ever been here. At least, not in a long, long
time.
“Hello?” he called out.
No response.
“Anyone? Are you there?”
Nothing.
“Is this some sort of test?”
The void did not answer.
“Was I supposed to die? Did I somehow survive? Where is this
place?”
Nobody was there.
“Am I alone?”
A minute passed.
“Is there anyone out there?” The Devil wandered.
An hour passed.
The Devil wandered some more. Stone. Nothing but stone.
“Please,” he muttered.
Another hour passed.
“Anyone?” he asked. “Am I going to die here?”
How long would it take? He wasn’t some Human. He wouldn’t die
of thirst, or of starvation. Maybe, given a couple years, he’d die from
the cold? Would he just have to wait?
The Devil sat down on the edge of one of the many craters that
dotted the surface of this strange place. Should he just…sit there?
Until he died? There was nothing to do. No task to work on. It was
just nothing.
The Devil wondered if Arlan Nota had been killed yet. Well, it’d
only been a few hours. And that was from his perspective. Since
time flowed faster in the Underworld, it wouldn’t have even been an
hour in the Overworld yet. Or…was the Devil even in the Underworld
anymore? This was the same sky he saw in the Overworld, so
maybe he’d been transported through realms.
The Devil tried to sleep, and failed.
The Devil lay down and stared up at the sun in the dark sky,
trying to see how long it would take for his eyes to burn.
The Devil shouted for a while, just to see how loud of an echo he
could make. What else was he to do? Nothing? Something? What
did it matter? He was going to die anyway. This was an execution,
right? He’d been condemned to die, it was just going to take a long,
long time for the guillotine to sever his neck.
The Devil’s hopes that perhaps this was some sort of test faded
away. At first he thought that maybe they were just trying to scare
him. Perhaps this was just some intimidation tactic, a “this is what
will happen for real if you don’t succeed this time.” Perhaps it was
just them saying, “This is what we have the power to do. Don’t forget
that.” Perhaps it was just them saying, “Don’t fail us again. You are
mortal.”
It didn’t seem to be what they were saying.
It seemed like they just wanted him to die. For real. If it was a
test, he’d failed it somehow. If it was an intimidation tactic, he’d been
sufficiently intimidated an hour in. Really, they’d sufficiently
intimidated him by the time they started dragging him toward Door
999. They wouldn’t have even had to throw him through to get him to
work a bit harder.
No, this was just an execution.
He didn’t feel fear anymore. Just certainty. He was going to die.
What was this place? Who knew. Who cared. It didn’t matter. It
was his gravesite, that was what it was. It was a place Demons went
to die, and that was all that was important to the Devil.
The Devil wondered what that blue-and-green sphere in the sky
was. What were the stars? What was the sun? Were they Gods,
their brilliance so radiant that they impressed light upon a dark
world? Were they the Demon Kings of old, having finished their rule
of the Underworld and ascended into a new form? Were they just
some meaningless balls of fire?
But no matter what he decided the sun and the stars were, he still
couldn’t decide on what the blue ball was. If the others shined
because they were Demons or Gods, why was that one dim? If the
others were made of fire, what was that one made of? Why was it
colored? What was it doing there?
Surely, the Devil would die sooner than he’d first assumed, right?
Surely, he’d die in a matter of days, not years, right? Would he just
have to kill himself? But why would he kill himself, when he still had
life left to live? But why would he live the rest of his life, if it was full
of nothingness?
The Devil got back up and kept wandering. Maybe he could find a
way back to the Underworld. If another Demon got pushed through a
teleporter in another Door 999, maybe the Devil could slip back
through in that very moment. Even if he couldn’t, at least then he’d
have someone to talk to.
Did anyone know where those teleporters led to? He didn’t know,
his colleagues didn’t know, his underlings didn’t know. Who would?
Did his superiors even know? Maybe they did. Someone had to have
put the teleporters there. But maybe the people who’d put the
teleporters there were all dead by now. Maybe everyone just knew
that Door 999 was where you put someone when you wanted to kill
them, so when a Demon wanted to kill someone, they just used Door
999. No questions asked.
But surely the higher-ups had to know, right? Teleporters required
maintenance occasionally, or they’d break down. Someone had to fix
them.
Ironically, the Devil knew that someone out there knew where
Door 999 led. He did. In his lowest moment, the lowest of Demons
knew where it went. He just couldn’t tell anyone.
The Devil stopped wandering. He didn’t find anything, as he
thought he wouldn’t. Why would he find something? Why would he
think he’d find something? He lay back down and stared back up at
the sky.
The blue sphere continued to move across his sight.
Twenty-four hours passed.
The Devil lay there for a while, trying to see how long he could
stay still. Maybe if he stayed unmoving for long enough, he’d get
swallowed up into the ground, or something. Maybe one of the things
that had made all of these craters would come by and crush him. But
nothing happened. As usual. Nothing happened for twenty-four
hours.
Why was there nothing up here? Surely if Demons were regularly
teleported into this place, they’d leave some sort of sign that they
were there.
Well, it wasn’t like there was anything around to make a house
with, or whatever, but maybe they’d arrange the rocks into their
names?
Though the Devil hadn’t done anything like that, himself. Why
would he? To comfort the next Demon that got pushed through Door
999? It wouldn’t offer him any solace to help out some other person
he’d never see. He wanted to help himself.
But if he was out here for another six months, surely he’d
eventually get bored enough to make some sort of rock formation.
Or, at least, that was what the Humans he’d watched had done. He
didn’t realize that people did that sort of thing—the Humans were the
first to show him. What had the Humans called it? …Art?
Yes, he’d make art. He laughed, thinking about it. A Demon!
Creating art! A completely pointless, worthless activity that
accomplished absolutely nothing of note! Such a Human thing to do.
He sighed. Those Humans had grown on him. Like little rats
running around in his hallways that he’d eventually grown fond
enough of to call his pets. They were still rats, and he still thought
they were gross and disgusting and stupid, but couldn’t he
appreciate the inanity of their little lives sometimes?
Art. What a silly concept, he laughed. What was the point of such
a thing? A Human gets bored and paints a picture of themself. Then
what, they sell it to the other Humans for some money? Okay,
perhaps then it was time well spent, if they got some money out of it.
That raised the question of why the other Humans were buying it, but
still.
But why would a Human make art if they weren’t going to sell it?
He’d used divining tools, he’d watched their little lives as they ran
around. He knew some of them still did that. Why? For status? To
impress themself upon others? Maybe, maybe…
But some of them still did it for no reason other than for the
satisfaction of making a piece of art. To leave their mark on the
world. So that after they died, or even just when they weren’t in the
room, someone out there would think of them. Someone out there
would look at the thing that they created and think, “Wow. What a
work. What expression of skill. What expression of creativity. What
was the artist thinking when they made this choice? I’d love to speak
with them about it.”
Was that why Humans created art?
…Maybe. It seemed plausible enough. Really, the Devil could
see the appeal in it, to a certain extent. Maybe…
He looked around. There were some loose stones, all scattered
throughout the place. Maybe he could do something with them. Not
because he wanted to make art. Of course he didn’t. He would never
want to leave something out there so that maybe someone who
came after him, someone in his same scenario, would have a bit of
an easier time. He didn’t want someone to see what he made and
think, “Woah, I love what he did when he put that stone there. Ooh,
when he placed that stone in that spot, it really brought the whole
piece together for me.”
He would hate that. Of course.
He was just doing it for…science. Or something. Just to see what
would happen. Maybe he would arrange the stones in the correct
formation to open a doorway back to the Underworld, or to summon
an ancient deity.
Or something.
He began gathering stones.
An hour passed.
Then, once he had enough, all piled up in a crater, he began
arranging them. He was a Demon, of course he’d want things to be
orderly.
An hour passed.
An hour passed.
Once all of the stones were in perfect order from largest to
smallest—he measured this by weight, of course—he got started.
Working in a big, flat area—not that there was any other type of
landscape out here—he grabbed some rocks and started arranging
them. First, he got some of the larger stones and put them in some
basic locations to create the thing he had in mind.
A big, flat slab here, and then he put a slightly smaller slab on
top, to create some depth. He looked back to what he was trying to
create a replica of. Yes, yes, that looked correct. Another slab over,
across from it, with a bit of a gap in between. Another slab to the
south of them both, and another slab beside that one, creating four
little masses, just how the real thing looked.
Then, he got some of the smaller stones and used them to start
decorating. Adding details, bumps and ridges where there were
supposed to be bumps and ridges. He even used his fingers and
teeth to carve the stones into the perfect size and shape when there
wasn’t any that fit what he had in mind.
An hour passed.
An hour passed.
An hour passed.
Finally! The Devil had finished up the detailing. By the end, he’d
really hit his stride and begun to really feel like he improved. He’d
even gone back and retouched on some of the first things he’d done,
using his newfound basic proficiency to make things look a bit better.
Finally, he just had to add on the last bit. Using a special pile of
stones he’d set aside just for this, he went in and created a large
circle around the whole thing, the four islands of rock surrounded by
a perimeter, making it a big ball with the islands on the inside.
It was the ball in the sky. The blue one that he was still somewhat
confused by.
He didn’t know what it was, but it had a certain beauty to it. The
pale blue, the lush green, it rippled and waved as it moved along the
sky, like greeting an old friend. The replica of this strange cosmic
body that the Devil had made was imperfect, of course—it was his
first-ever work of art—but it was something he was proud of.
Maybe the next Demon that came out here to die would come
across this replica of that blue sphere, and they’d see that someone
out there cared. Even if the Devil was long gone, they’d see a legacy
he left behind. In a way, he would never truly die, right?
The Devil blinked. W-well, he wasn’t creating the art for that
reason, of course. It was an experiment. To see if he could
understand why the Humans did what they did.
Oh well, he told himself. Experiment over. And since the
experiment was over, and he didn’t care about the art—not one bit—
he would destroy it.
He would destroy it.
He would destroy it.
The Devil looked at his replica of the blue ball. He’d spent so
many hours on it. The painstaking detail. The little bumps and ridges
in the stones to recreate the green parts that seemed to be raised up
above the blue parts, everything with its own texture.
He wished he could go there. He wished he could explore the
blue sphere, instead of this place. Surely, dying out there would be
infinitely more enjoyable and interesting than dying here, on this
empty, gray wasteland. There was nothing here. Nothing to see. No
color, or variations in the terrain. No people.
But he wasn’t there. He was here. So he destroyed the replica. It
was imperfect. Not the blue place. It was just some awful wish to
have what he didn’t have.
He tore it apart, tossing everything away and shattering the large
rocks into pieces. It would never be created again. The urge to
create was simply incorrect. He would never create art again.
Twenty-four hours passed.
The Devil tried his hand at creating art again, just to pass the
time. He wanted to see if he could make something else. This wasn’t
because he wanted to, of course—it would be ridiculous for a Demon
to waste his time on something worthless and pointless. But just to
test his skill. Yes, that was why. He wanted to test his skill at creating
something.
Creating that sculpture before had taken lots of fine motor
movement, see? And he had noticed that his proficiency had
increased quite a bit while working. So he wasn’t “creating art” like
the Humans did, he was just training. He was working on his motor
movements, and his abilities of visualization. That was what he was
doing. It was really one of the most productive things he could do,
out in this wasteland.
This time, he decided to create a replica of his own hand. How
more appropriate could things get, creating a portrait of the thing that
was creating the portrait.
Twenty-four more hours passed.
And the Devil worked some more.
Maybe eventually, he thought, he would create something
worthwhile. Perhaps he could even find out where he was.
44
WATCHING
DURING MY TIME ON WATCH, I continued to practice Noxious

Grasp with the help of Ethereal Armor’s Light Plate, as well as
continuously activate Regenerate whenever my Stamina got high
enough in order to help heal up some of my still-low Health. It’d been
a while since I’d actually practiced Noxious Grasp; back when I’d
gotten Exponential Reclamation, I’d also gotten Expedite at the
same time, and that was the Spell I’d spent most of my Mana on
since then. Any time we were traveling, everything was put toward
that. So really, I hadn’t had much time at all to use this newly
acquired Mana/Minute on the Spell.
But now that we had some downtime to rest, when we weren’t as
worried about the time limit of the Demons, I could finally spend
some time practicing it. Especially now that the rest of my Spells
were at their Rank limits for now, it seemed like Noxious Grasp
would be what got most of my attention in terms of practice until we
reached the Barinruth Empire.
It didn’t take more than two hours for it to get to its 13th Rank, the
notification popping into my mind as the smoke left my skin through
my fingers and seeped through the glowing white armor covering my
body.
following changes:
The new Rank wasn’t much on its own, but the extra efficiency
was always appreciated. And with the Venomous Grasp Upgrade,
that Stamina Drain moving upward was particularly important.
Draining close to 20 Stamina in a single second with the Spell was
backbreaking in most encounters, especially when it barely cost
anything to use—around five seconds of Mana regeneration, and
that was without taking Light Plate into account.
Plus, it just took me one Rank closer to 20, which would come
alongside a new Upgrade for the Spell. Getting my first Upgrade for
the rest of my Spells was great—it’d increase all of their
effectiveness by an extreme amount—but a second Upgrade for
Noxious Grasp was even more exciting. Thanks to that new Fester
aspect of the Spell, it’d become a staple of my fighting style,
punishing my opponents for fighting recklessly while simultaneously
demanding they finish the battle quickly. And a new Upgrade would
allow me to add yet another aspect to that. Just what would it entail?
While I pondered that, I also tried what Erani had talked to me
about, focusing inward on myself and essentially meditating on the
topic of Ainash. I hadn’t known her for long, and really, we’d been so
busy that I hadn’t had much time to consider what I truly thought
about her. I’d made plenty of heat-of-the-moment decisions, sure,
but what were my real, long-term plans?
One thing I knew for certain was that we couldn’t abandon her.
That was non-negotiable. We hadn’t had her in our care for long, but
I knew that Erani agreed with me—Ainash was with us, and we’d
make sure she had a good life. No way we were just dropping her off
somewhere when we got to Barinruth.
But that was something we had to consider. We were
approaching Barinruth soon, and we’d need to figure out what to do
once we got there. Really, entering the Empire would cause some
problems in its own right, which we’d have to solve.
First, there was the very obvious issue that we were fugitives of
the Demons. They were hunting us, and the Barinruth Empire would
sooner let us die than risk angering them. But that wasn’t an
unsolvable issue. We could sneak in somehow, or maybe disguise
our identities. There were plenty of ways to figure that out.
We wouldn’t have many money problems, I anticipated, because
of the high Levels Erani and I had acquired. We weren’t world-class
by any means—or anything even remotely close to it—but at this
point, we were clearly above the Levels of your average adventurer.
We’d be able to take on harder, better-paying jobs in whatever place
we entered, exterminating problematic monster populations or even
just doing basic maintenance for people that required someone with
some high physical Stats. Both Erani and I would fit that
requirement, at this point, so I doubted finding some basic work
would be much of a problem.
Ainash did pose some issues, though. It was one thing that she
wasn’t Human. Trying to bring a monster of any kind into a Human
settlement was obviously tough—we, as a species, historically did
not work well with others. The simple fact that Humans didn’t get any
XP for killing other Humans was, in my opinion, one of the reasons
we were able to band together and create societies in the first place.
We had no real incentive to kill each other, but all the incentive in the
world to fight off anything else.
Ainash would not be afforded that basic courtesy by the System.
No matter how friendly she was, people would see her as a potential
number in their notification box. And it wasn’t just an issue that some
fanatic might try to kill her for XP. Just the simple fact that she wasn’t
Human would be enough to scare most people off in an instant.
Even mostly Humanoid monsters, like some types of Faeries,
weren’t welcome at all in the Human settlements I knew of, despite
the fact that they were perfectly capable of speaking, interacting, and
helping out in all the ways a Human could.
And that was the other issue. Ainash couldn’t even do that much.
She could communicate with us just fine, but my easy time speaking
with her reminded me of the fact that pretty much no one else would
be able to. Now, from what I understood, she’d be able to open up
communication channels with others just fine, as long as there
weren’t too many, but that wasn’t the issue. Really, what would the
average person think if a flame-eyed forest monster walked up to
them and started beaming words into their head? It’d be seen as an
attack nine out of ten times. They wouldn’t even give her a chance.
So we were dealing with a mute monster that didn’t understand
our spoken language, didn’t look remotely like a Human, and—the
real kicker—didn’t even look like a monster anyone would recognize.
She was a Draconiad now. Not a common Nymph, not a rarer Dryad.
Either of those, at least some people would recognize. If she was still
a Nymph, people might actually understand that she was just an
especially cooperative one. But Ainash was a complete unknown to
people—a borderline mythical species at this point.
Yeah, she’d face some problems integrating with society, that
was for sure. It was crushing to think about—she’d been uprooted
from her own home, run halfway across the kingdom guided by
people she didn’t know, made to fight other people she didn’t know,
and now, when Erani and I finally got solace, she’d be the one to
bear the further burden of integrating with a Human society for the
first time.
Not to mention the fact that she didn’t have very good
experiences with Humans. Would she even be able to mentally deal
with seeing so many at the same time? Any other time she’d seen a
dozen people at once, it meant she’d need to draw her weapon and
start killing. Sure, we could easily establish that that behavior
wouldn’t be necessary by telling her, but it wouldn’t be that simple. In
cases like these, instinct often trumped reason. Even if she didn’t
attack, I doubted Ainash would be able to relax while around people.
Would she ever be able to overcome the numerous traumatic
experiences that’d been piled onto her in these past couple weeks?
But Erani and I…if she couldn’t do it on her own, we’d help her
through it. At this point, I wasn’t just fighting for survival, or to have
an easy life one day. Sure, that was part of it, but I also knew that I’d
fight to give this kid a brighter future. These Demons, the corrupt
Humans doing everything they said, they needed to go. Whether that
was by convincing them to leave us alone or by killing every last one
of them like Ainash wanted, they wouldn’t keep terrorizing the world
any longer.
I’d been shown in my own life that I couldn’t really rely on people.
I didn’t like relying on people. I’d relied on my parents, and they died.
Then I shut myself in. I decided “never again,” and shifted my life to
never have to force myself on another person again. I’d become a
Classer, someone who could protect themself, work for themself,
and get stronger by themself. So I forced everyone else out. I sat,
put my head down, and spent every waking moment on work,
training, or studying. I’d become a perfect, self-sufficient machine.
That was what I’d wanted, as a kid. As this teenager who fancied
himself a total loner.
And then I realized I’d have to rely on people one more time in
order to get my Class. It was just one more time, and then I’d be
good to go. And I did. I paid those two people, Dorrn and Feiya, to
help me one last time, and then I’d be on my own forever. And so I
paid them to help me get my Class. And then they died. And I was
forced out into the woods on my own, tested on those same skills I’d
trained for all those years.
To be honest, at the time, it was a bit validating, in a sick way. I’d
spent all my life saying that if I ever relied on others, they’d just die
on me and leave me stranded in life like what had happened before.
And so, when I worked with Dorrn and Feiya, putting my trust into
them, and they ended up dead, it was like I’d been proven right. And
all of that training and learning was put to use.
But then the Demons came. And I was forced to work with Erani.
And sure, I’d already gotten to know her before, and we had even
been working together, but that wasn’t true reliance. It was a
business relationship and a date. I wasn’t leaning on her—if she fell,
I’d stay standing. But when we both fell during that invasion, we had
to help each other up. And suddenly I was relying on someone
again, and this time, it didn’t backfire. That awful theory that I could
never work with another person, it’d somehow been proven wrong.
When I looked at Ainash, I saw a bit of myself in her. She had her
mom killed in front of her. That was sure to force any kid into a bit of
a fugue state. Just like I’d been put into. But where I’d come up with
the coping theory, “I can never rely on someone else again,” she’d
come up with the idea that all “bad guys” were inherently evil. And
Humans were a part of that category. She’d be able to work with me
and Erani, sure, but we still came from that fundamentally evil
people. Hells, my attitude toward her back then probably contributed
toward her feelings.
But now, I felt like I could see the beginnings of her shedding that
idea. Like maybe, just maybe, she didn’t need to give up on
Humanity yet. Perhaps there were some good people in us. And I
just knew that giving her a whole town’s worth of people to interact
with—people who had nothing to do with the “bad guys”—would
either make or break that progress. Either they’d act with
compassion, or with hatred.
It was my job to make sure she saw the good in Humanity. I
wouldn’t let the enemy break her. Even if she killed every single last
one of them working with us to rid the world of the Demons, if Ainash
came out of it a broken shell, never able to trust another person
again, constantly on edge and waiting for another attack, I’d have
lost the war. And I wouldn’t let myself lose.
Ainash could fend for herself in a fight, but she was still a kid at
heart, and it was my job, as surrogate parent, to make sure she
could have a childhood. Some sort of innocence had to be
preserved. Some optimism. Even if it was just a sliver left over from
a broken child’s heart. I wouldn’t let the Demons take that away from
her, too.

deepened.
changes:
I opened my eyes, looking around and seeing that the moon had
crested the sky. Sensing inward, my Status told me that I’d regained
my two uses of Time Loop for the day, and I let out a breath that I
must have been holding in for hours. We were finally safe. Really,
truly safe.
And then I laid my head back on the hard rock and dirt below me.
I was tired, and my watch was about over. I’d wake Erani up and
have her take her turn, and then I’d go to sleep.
We were maybe a couple more days away from Barinruth, and
then we’d be through. But for now, I just needed some rest. It’d been
a long, long day.
Ideally, the next few days would be nice and uneventful.
45
TRAVELING
WHEN I WOKE up in the morning, one of the first things I did was
check my Status, looking at Noxious Grasp. Over the night, it’d
gained an extra 667 Spell XP! Up to around 700/1.13k, which meant
I was already pretty close to Rank 14. But that new Spell XP
requirement of 1.13k, it was getting pretty steep. Even with
Exponential Reclamation, a four-digit requirement for my next Rank
was quite a massive amount. But if I kept going at my current pace,
I’d most likely be able to finish this Rank by the end of today.
I’d used the same method from before to gain as much Spell XP
as possible throughout the night, having Erani and Ainash, while
they were on watch, wake me up whenever they saw Light Plate
disappear from my body so I could put it back on.
They said that really it helped them out too, since Light Plate
allowed them to see in the dark night. Normally, the only source of
illumination was the moon, which naturally put them at a distinct
disadvantage against the nighttime predators that’d come out when it
got dark.
We didn’t get attacked by anything during the night, though,
thankfully—I suspected that the Demons had gone out and
slaughtered all of the monsters around their wall during its
construction, so I wasn’t too surprised at that. But as we continued to
leave the site of the wall, I was sure we’d start seeing some more
monsters. Especially once we began entering the territories of the
other Dragons.
So, we got up and got moving. Our goal was to get to the
Barinruth Empire within the next couple days, and we couldn’t do
that while stationary.
It took a few hours before we encountered our first monster. This one
wasn’t one of the Drakes that’d become familiar in this mountainous
land—and it luckily wasn’t a Dragon, either. Instead, it was a monster
that was only seen deeper into Kingdom’s Edge. A Shadow Panther.
Because of the high stone walls on either side of us—the path we
walked having been cut straight into the mountains—we were almost
constantly in shade, only ever seeing direct sunlight during noon.
And Shadow Panthers used this fact to their advantage.
They looked how they sounded like they’d look—large, feline
creatures with dark fur covering their bodies. Their fur was so dark,
in fact, that it allowed them to completely blend in with the shadows
the tall stone walls around us created. They had some sort of
invisibility-adjacent ability to make them almost impossible to
perceive while they were cloaked in shade.
I hadn’t heard of them before, but Index filled in the blanks where
I couldn’t quite intuit things. They didn’t like hanging around the
outskirts of Kingdom’s Edge, near the wasteland, because of the
Ghouls that resided there. Since Ghouls sensed with smell instead of
sight, it made the Shadow Panthers’ invisibility near-useless against
them. So they stuck around over here, where the Ghouls rarely
wandered.
Still, despite their near-invisibility, they weren’t too difficult to fight.
It made them hard to spot at first, but once they attacked and made
themselves known, I could pretty easily keep track of their
movements. The additional Stats I’d been building up with Recursive
Growth—specifically, the extra Dexterity—gave me the enhanced
senses necessary to be able to spot the small distortions in the air
and soft patter of its paws on the stone ground. And Erani’s
explosion-based magic didn’t really need her to have a perfect idea
of where our enemies were, anyway.
I did decide to use the Shadow Panthers as an opportunity to
experiment with Sanguine Bond, though. I’d Ranked it up all the way
to 9 already, but I hadn’t used it in true combat yet. So I felt that
fighting against some agile opponents would give me good practice
with what the Spell would demand me to do.
The thing about Sanguine Bond was that it’d break and
prematurely end if I ever let my enemy get more than ten paces
away from me. And it was expensive enough that a single failed cast
of the Spell could mean big trouble for me. Of course, a successful
cast of it was good enough that it was worth the risk, but I’d need to
get used to keeping people within that radius.
Now, my build was pretty catered toward doing just that. With
Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost, and Gravity Well to slow my enemies
down and Expedite to speed me up, as long as I had the Mana for it,
I could always ensure I was more mobile than my opponent. And if I
had better mobility, I could be the one in control of who was
positioned where.
So I started my practice against one of the Shadow Panthers. I
let Erani and Ainash know that I wanted to try using the next monster
that came to work with the Spell, and to keep from engaging unless I
was in trouble.
Within an hour, we had a hit. I caught a rippling in the wall next to
me—a sign of the Panther’s imperfect camouflage—and readied
myself for an attack. The moment it saw that I’d noticed it, it pounced
straight at me.
Once it got within a pace or two of my Light Plate, the invisibility
from the shadows melted away, and revealed the monster—pitch-
black fur and beady eyes, with razor-sharp fangs and claws shining
in the newfound light.
I’d activated three Expedites on myself in preparation, so despite
the creature’s own blistering speed, I was still able to sidestep and
narrowly avoid its swipe. Then, keeping my eyes on it as it landed
and turned back around toward me, I hit it with both a Crippling Chill
and a Ray of Frost to push its Stats down to a more manageable
range, keeping Gravity Well ready to be activated at any time.
The Panther, after being hit with both of the Spell effects at the
same time, seemed to realize it was outmatched, and instantly
turned to flee. That was the issue with trying to use a wild animal to
train my skills against; if it realized I was effectively toying with it, it’d
obviously run off. But that was why I had Gravity Well ready to
activate.
The moment it attempted to run off, I toggled the Spell on,
crushing the Panther under a 60% increase in gravity. Then I
charged in and turned the attack back on it. While it swiveled around
to face me, I tapped it quickly and cast Sanguine Bond—and
Noxious Grasp too, while I was at it.
You have cursed Level 14 Shadow Panther with Sanguine

Bond. For the next 10 seconds, or until Level 14 Shadow
Panther is further than 10 paces away from you, the following
effects are true:
It loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and 9.31 Mana per
second.
You gain 1.55 Health, 3.55 Stamina, and 4.65 Mana per
second.
One thing I knew about curses was that generally speaking, the
person being cursed would be informed of the curse effects,
duration, and, most importantly, any conditions under which the
curse would be prematurely ended. Well, other than the usual
method of killing the caster. And anyone, Human or monster, could
understand the System. Meaning the Shadow Panther would know
that it needed to get away from me if it wanted to stop getting its
Health drained.
It attempted to flee once again, burdened by the extreme
Dexterity penalty, gravity increase, and now the combined Stamina-
draining effects of both Crippling Chill and Sanguine Bond, both
being doubled by Venomous Grasp. Altogether, the Panther was
losing around 28 Stamina every single second, not counting the
Stamina it spent on physical activity. That’d bottom me out from my
maximum in less than eight seconds, not to mention how an
Unclassed person would lose the entirety of their 60 Stamina in
barely over two seconds. Though they’d also be paralyzed already
from Crippling Chill’s effects, so that was a bit of a moot point.
But either way, the Panther was at least attempting to run off, no
matter how easily I could match its pace and keep it in my ten-pace
radius of effectiveness. One thing I hadn’t realized when I was
getting Sanguine Bond to max Rank before, casting it on those Lava
Slugs that it’d instantly kill, was just how good it felt to have my
Health, Stamina, and Mana all being magically refilled at the same
time.
My Health was already at 460/460, so I didn’t feel the effects of
that, but the feeling of instant rejuvenation of having my Stamina
restored—my body literally regaining all of its expended energy over
the course of seconds—was amazing. It was like sleeping while
running, somehow expending my energy while feeling the effects of
resting.
Not to mention having my Mana regeneration suddenly quintuple.
Spending too much Mana too quickly could sometimes result in
headaches—something that I’d trained out of myself, for the most
part—but it seemed like regaining that Mana effectively had the
opposite effect. My mind was suddenly clearer, I didn’t feel
distracted, and all of the slight mental cloudiness that naturally
happened from focusing your mind on casting disappeared in an
instant.
And I was sure the Panther was having the exact opposite
experience, having all of that clarity drained out of it.
It turned and started running off toward the cliff faces that
surrounded us. I could’ve probably killed it already with Ray of Frost,
or tackled it and finished it off with Noxious Grasp, but this was
practice, not a real fight; I wanted it to last as long as possible so I
could get the most out of the monster. However, once it leapt up onto
the wall, using its sharp claws to cling into the stone and try climbing
up the vertical surface, I decided the practice session was over.
So I grabbed its leg that was still in my reach and yanked it back
down to the ground, where it snarled and tried biting at me. I had
Noxious Grasp active from the moment my hands touched it, and I
could tell the Stamina drain was already starting to tire the monster
out. Its movements were slowing, the attempt to get away from me
weak and sluggish, and I could see the light fading from its eyes.
Before it could even take a second swipe at me, it stopped
moving, falling limp. I took a breath, keeping my hand on it while I
drained away the rest of its Health. Generally speaking, most beings
had less Stamina than Health because of the way two values were
calculated, so when I almost exclusively used abilities like Crippling
Chill and Sanguine Bond, which drained away more Stamina than
Health, or Noxious Grasp, which, thanks to its Upgrade, drained the
same for both, my opponent would almost always fall to paralysis
before death. Leaving me with the awkward job of finishing what I’d
started.
“Gods, Arlan,” Erani said as she approached me, “I’m barely able
to even keep up with what you’re doing in a fight, at this point.”
I frowned and looked up at her. “What do you mean? Why not?”
“You hardly even did anything that fight! The thing jumped at you,
then you touched it once, and suddenly it started running off and
slowing down with every step. It was moving all awkwardly, and then
it tried jumping up to a wall, where you just pulled it off and suddenly
it was dead. I mean, really, Magic-Types are well-known for being a
bit difficult to follow the fights for, but at least some of their Spells fire
off projectiles. To me, it just looks like you look at something wrong
and then it just dies.”
“…Huh.” I hadn’t really thought of it that way, to be honest. I had
Status screens and notifications to give me feedback for all my Spell
casts, but I supposed to a bystander, Spells like Crippling Chill and
Gravity Well were effectively invisible. Even Sanguine Bond and
Venomous Grasp only needed me to tap someone once for their
effects to take hold for the next while. When I thought about Erani’s
fighting style, with the bombastic, flaming explosions, the difference
definitely struck me.
You have slain Level 14 Shadow Panther.

“Ah, there we go.” I took my hand off of the Panther. Compared to

the required 2200 XP for my next Level, they didn’t give too much,
but it added up. My days of getting enough XP for an entire Level by
killing a single monster or two were most likely behind me now. At
least, until the day I decided to start hunting down Dragons.
“You done?” Erani looked down at the corpse.
“Yep, it’s dead,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”
Over the next few hours, we continued to travel, with me practicing

Noxious Grasp along the way. I also decided that it’d probably be a
good idea for us to all use the time to try and get used to stacking a
few more Expedites—especially me, considering I felt like I was
always pushing my limits with the Spell during fights.
I still spent most of my Mana practicing Noxious Grasp, but every
now and then, when we were sure there weren’t any monsters
nearby, we’d all take turns with as many stacked Expedites on us as
we could handle.
We also tried casting the Spell on Ainash for the first time.
Because of her already-high Dexterity, it hadn’t been necessary for
us to waste my limited Mana on her in the past, but for now, we were
dealing with some slightly lower levels of danger, so I felt like it was
justified to at least try to experiment with her.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ainash seemed like she was able to
handle however many I tried to throw at her. She barely felt a
difference at one cast, same with two, and still felt totally comfortable
with three, four, and five. At the levels of six, seven, eight, nine, and
ten, we started seeing noticeable improvement in her abilities, but at
that point, it didn’t really feel worth it. Really, if it was going to cost
me 400 Mana just to increase her speed from “extremely fast” to
“even more extremely fast,” I could probably find better uses for the
Mana.
The thing about Stats was that, especially when considering their
physical effects, they had diminishing returns. Going from 10 to 20
Dexterity would feel like a massive change; even though the Stats
only added on to one’s base abilities, getting that addition doubled
would still be huge for just about anyone. But going from 50 to 60?
From 100 to 110? It wouldn’t feel like too much of a big deal. So for
Ainash, who already had such extreme levels of Dexterity, she
wouldn’t actually get much from Expedite until my Mana rose to
much higher levels.
We did still see improvement for me and Erani, though. I
managed to push the limit I was comfortable with up to around five—
my Dexterity was equal to 184, at that stage—while Erani could only
push herself up to three casts.
“Really?” I laughed as Erani got up from tripping over her feet,
still unable to walk with four Expedites on her. “I feel like you’ve been
stuck at three for a while now.”
“It’s not my fault,” she grumbled, “it’s the damn Bond.”
I stopped laughing. “Oh? Is the Stat gain from it still bothering you
that much?”
“Uh, yeah, pretty much. I’m still just trying to get used to the
Ranks it gained overnight. A bit rough to deal with that alongside the
extra Dexterity from Expedite.”
“It got a Rank overnight?” I asked. “Nice, I guess what you were
thinking about worked. I also had it deepen doing the same thing.”
“Um, not just one,” Erani said awkwardly.
I furrowed my brows. “How many, then?”
“…Eight?”
I stopped in my tracks, looking at her with wide eyes. “I’m sorry,
eight?!”
“Um, yes. The Stat boost went from 24 to 40.”
I was speechless. How in the hells did that happen? Was I just
terrible at working with the Bond? At this point, her physical Stats
were all at 50. That rivaled even mid-Level Melee-Classers! My
highest Physical Stat was Endurance, and it was only 46, after the 8
extra I got from my own Bond.
In the end, I just managed a shocked sigh.
She nodded. “I wasn’t expecting it either. I guess this type of
thing just comes naturally?”
“Seems so,” I said. “Do you think it’s possible for you to raise it
even more doing the same thing?”
“No, probably not. Most of those came in my first couple hours of
watch. The rest didn’t really do anything.”
I nodded. With her having so many more Stats, we’d work so
much more effectively as a unit now. Angelic Shield helped, but
Erani was always weak in circumstances where we fought up close.
Now, as long as we could get her used to these new Stats, she could
probably rival me as a front-line fighter—especially when dealing
with larger groups of opponents.
“Ainash, you were aware of this, right? I asked. Since we’d made
it a habit to passively relay our conversations to her, she was
normally filled in on whatever was happening, but she seemed to be
content just listening unless we directly addressed her.
“Yes!” she exclaimed back. “Mother loves me so much!”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “she sure does.”
46
WARNING
WE CONTINUED TRAVELING throughout the day. Thankfully, due

to everyone’s raised Stats, we didn’t need to take many breaks
anymore. Our Stamina/Minute values were all high enough to
significantly lower how much Stamina we actually lost in an hour of
travel, not to mention the fact that we all started out with a much
higher bank of Stamina in the morning.
I also continued practicing Noxious Grasp, which Ranked up yet
again over the course of our journey.
Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 1.03k.

following changes:
My confidence was slowly climbing higher and higher as time

passed and we kept making progress. The only monsters we really
encountered were more Shadow Panthers, which were easy to deal
with. Since we weren’t climbing into the mountains themselves, we
didn’t see many Drakes defending their territories, and it didn’t seem
like we’d stumbled into any Dragons yet, so it was possible we’d
overestimated the trouble Kingdom’s Edge would give us.
Well, we’d obviously been given quite a bit of trouble from this
place, but that was from the Demons, not from the actual wildlife. So
maybe we could make it through without much more danger.
I still had two uses of Time Loop as the sun began to set in the
distance, meaning we were quite safe from any danger that we did
end up encountering. Though we still had a good ways to go, and I
wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up passing through the territories
of two or three more Dragons before we did.
So we’d made a general plan for interacting with Dragons, just in
case. If we ever saw one flying around in the distance, we’d continue
approaching until we were generally within the monster’s sphere of
influence, and wait there all day. If it saw us and attacked, I’d use
Time Loop, go back, and we’d move backwards outside of the
Dragon’s territory, and from there we’d be able to figure out a plan.
Maybe we could quickly rush through, or try to hide somewhere. If
the Dragon didn’t attack us by the end of the day, we’d just continue
moving.
But so far, we hadn’t needed to put that plan into motion. Mainly
we just had Shadow Panthers and the occasional Drake’s flyby. In
total, I’d ended up getting around 400 additional XP over the course
of the day from the monster attacks, putting me up to 953. I was
already at Level 18, meaning that I was just two Level-ups away
from 20, which would get me an additional Talent, Time Loop use,
and an Upgrade for it, too! So I was pretty eager to get to such a
massive boost in power.
But for the time being, we just continued moving through the
mountains.
“Hey,” I said to Erani as we chatted to pass the time, “so what’s your
plan, once we get to Barinruth?”
She looked over at me. “What do you mean? I thought we
already had a general plan of action once we got there.”
“No, no, not like that,” I said. “I mean more of a personal plan.
Like, ignoring the Demon threat, what do you want to do once you
get there?”
“I don’t think it’s really possible for us to ignore the Demons,” she
chuckled.
“Right, I get that, I guess I was just thinking. Like, I’d always
planned on getting out of my small village at some point after getting
my Class. Sure, I hadn’t wanted to leave the kingdom, and I
definitely hadn’t anticipated leaving so soon, but heading out and
finding a new home was always something I’d wanted to do. This
just accelerated things a bit. But you’d already kind of made a life,
back in Ordensville. I mean, you had a home, an income…a family.
Do you know what you’re going to do now?”
She sighed and shook her head. “To be honest, I haven’t really
thought about it. Purposefully. I don’t want to think about it. At least
for now, I’m kind of just focusing on putting one foot in front of the
other, ensuring I don’t die tomorrow. Maybe I took your advice to
focus on survival, what you said to me right when all of this started, a
bit too seriously. Maybe I just hoped that things would somehow
return to relative normalcy after the Demons weren’t a threat
anymore.”
“Yeah.” I gripped her hand. “I get what you mean. I know what I
want to have my life end up being, but I’m not sure that I know how
I’ll actually get there.”
“I guess, lately, I’ve been trying to think about us three—you, me,
Ainash—as a unit. I don’t have to figure something out, we can figure
something out. Unless, um, you…”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s probably a good way to think of things,” I said.
“At the very least, I don’t think there are many people out there that
any of us will be able to fully trust. Not for a long time. So it’s a good
idea to stick together.”
Erani nodded.
“Besides,” I said, giving a halfhearted laugh, “we’ve got a kid to
worry about now. Can’t split up and leave her hanging. I’m sure she
would be very sad if mother and father got a divorce.”
Erani laughed too. “Oh? I wasn’t aware we’d gotten married.”
“We may as well have in Ainash’s eyes. I don’t think she’d let us
split apart, even if we wanted to.”
“I would not,” Ainash cut in, with no hint of humor in her tone.
I laughed and shook my head, giving Erani’s hand a squeeze. “I
don’t think we’re the most functional family unit.”
“To be fair, I think that’d been the case ever since we became
national outlaws together.”
“I would’ve thought that would just bring the family closer
together. A nice little bonding moment.”
“Of course.” Erani rolled her eyes.
I started to say something else, but suddenly stopped, seeing
movement up in the mountain ridge above us.
Erani, seeing my expression, furrowed her brows. “What is it?”
I kept staring up at where I’d seen the movement. “Not sure. I
thought I saw something up there.”
She looked up, too. “Panther?”
“No, it wasn’t dark enough to be one of those.”
“Drake? Or a Dragon?”
“No, too small.” It’d disappeared right when I looked up at it, so I
didn’t get much of a good look. “Maybe it was just a Shadow
Panther, though. I wouldn’t expect it to be up there in the sun in the
first place, but who knows. Index, was that in your range to see?”
“No, too far away,” it said.
“Hm. Index says it didn’t see anything, either.”
Erani nodded. “Let’s just keep moving. Whatever it was, it
probably wouldn’t hurt to put a little distance between us and it.”
Another hour passed uneventfully, and I continued training Noxious

Grasp until its Spell XP reached around 300. The next requirement
was 1486, so I was at around a fifth of the requirement, at this point.
Erani had also apparently Ranked her Firebolt up, with it reaching
Rank 18 now.
Despite the progress, I couldn’t get my mind off of what I’d seen
up in the stone walls before. Was it really nothing? Maybe I was just
getting paranoid, fearful of the next fight because we were in such a
dangerous area. It was completely possible I’d seen nothing. Just a
trick of the light, or some Panther walking along the edge of the cliffs.
But then, as we walked, I saw movement up in the cliffs again.
And this time, the figure didn’t disappear when I looked up at it.
Instead, it vaulted right over the cliff face, falling straight downward
dozens of paces into the ravine with us, slamming into the ground
with a metallic thud.
When the dust settled, I saw who it was.
“Ripley,” I called out to the woman in the royal guard’s plate
armor. Though she wasn’t technically a royal guard anymore. “What
are you here for?”
The moment we’d seen something approaching, we’d all gotten
ready for combat, Ainash with her whip drawn, Erani with her hands
out ready to blast off a series of Firebolts, and me preparing my slew
of curses to put on our opponent. But Ripley herself didn’t seem like
she was looking for a fight. Her axe was on her back, and she stood
in a relaxed stance. That didn’t quite put any of us off edge, though.
“I’m just here to talk,” she said.
“Why’d you run away from us before?”
“Like I said back then, being a prisoner isn’t my thing. But just
because I wanted to be released from your custody doesn’t mean
I’m against you.”
I hesitantly let out my bated breath, and Erani put down her hand.
Ainash still held her whip, though.
“Listen, I’m just here to give you some information. Free of
charge.”
“What kind of information?”
“About the Demons. I think they’re planning something.”
I frowned. “Why wouldn’t you have told us about this plan before?
You said they wouldn’t be entering Kingdom’s Edge.”
“That’s what I’d thought. But I’ve got some new info now.”
“From what source?”
“I had a few Enchanted items the kingdom had given me to keep
in contact with them. One of them was called a Communication
Crystal. Seems like they’d forgotten to disconnect themselves from
mine, since it allowed me to listen in on their conversations for a
while. By now they’ve cut me out, but I could hear them talking for
long enough to figure out that they’re at least going to try something.
I figured that I’d at least give you some notice.”
“Alright. What’d you hear?”
“Well, the kingdom’s Demon contact, he’s this nasty Demon
named Xhag’duul’ini-something. Long-ass name. But he’s pretty
much the only Demon I’ve ever seen actually making decisions. In
fact, I have a feeling that he’s directly in charge of Koinkar. Whatever
they did to make the king listen, he reports directly to that Demon.”
“Okay, so what, you heard him saying something?”
“Just the opposite. I heard the voice of another Demon. Her
name was something totally different, Quinmorada-something.
Dunno. But when she called in and I listened to the conversation,
she said that the previous Demon had been ‘dealt with.’ She’d be
running the show now, apparently. No idea why.”
“And what, she’s making changes in how they deal with things?”
“Not sure. But I know she did say she’d be sending in some sort
of special agent. Some Demon, seems like. Said they had… What
was it? Right, it was something like, ‘We have an underling being
disposed of, and have decided to make one final use of him.’”
“I mean, if it’s just one Demon, how bad could it be?”
Ripley shook her head. “Sounds like you don’t know what those
Demons are capable of. Those Infernals? They’re child’s play.
Nothing, compared to what the higher-ups can do. One of ‘em came
in and killed Camilla in one hit.”
I blinked, shocked at the sudden revelation. “Camilla? The
woman who leads the royal guard squad?”
“Yeah. Died pretty soon after she let you go. That Xhag’duul
Demon that’s being replaced, he’s the one that killed her. Just
marched right in and hit her, faster than I could see. You’d better
hope they don’t use something that’s as powerful as he was.”
I set my jaw. “Yeah, alright. I’ll be on the lookout. Thanks for the
information.”
Ripley nodded, and turned to leave. As she did so, Ainash spoke
to me. “Tell the Human I want to fight her.”
“What, now? Why?”
“She is a bad guy. Want to see if I am better than powerful bad
guy.”
“Well, she isn’t a bad guy anymore, is she?”
“Will not be death fight. Just practice fight. To see who is better.”
“Hm.” I supposed a little spar couldn’t hurt at some point. At least,
maybe Ainash could learn some restraint if she actually had to fight
someone without killing them. “I’ll let her know. But not right now,
alright? I don’t want you to be tired only for us to get ambushed by
some special, powerful Demon.”
“Fine.” Ainash pouted.
“Hey,” I called out to Ripley.
She stopped and turned back to look at me.
“Uh, my companion, Ainash” —I gestured over to her— “wants to
spar against you sometime.”
“That thing can talk?”
“She’s not a thing.” I scowled. “We have our methods of
communication. Just wanted to let you know, in case you ever
wanted to take her up on her offer.”
Ripley grinned. “I dunno, I wouldn’t want to snap her in half.”
Since I was relaying the conversation to Ainash, I instantly got
something from her when Ripley said that. It wasn’t so much words
as it was an intense feeling of competitiveness. She wanted to prove
Ripley wrong.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that. I beat you, didn’t I?”
“Hey, our fight was interfered with before I could finish you off.
Besides, I wasn’t in my top fighting shape. Wasn’t a fair, one-on-one
fight at all.”
“Real life rarely offers you the opportunity to fight fair,” I said with
a shrug. “Maybe you’ve lived a bit too sanitized a life.”
She just chuckled and shook her head. “Tell your pet that I’ll
gladly take her on someday. But don’t think I’ll go easy on her.”
“And you don’t think she’ll go easy on you. Honestly, I’d say
watch out for your life. She’s known to be a bit careless with those of
her enemies.”
“We’ll have to see.” And with that, Ripley walked over to the cliff
face she jumped down, and, using her likely massively inflated Stats,
leapt and climbed up, quickly reaching the top. Just before
disappearing over the edge, she flashed a wave goodbye.
“Well,” I said, letting out a breath, “apparently the Demons are
giving it one last effort. Who knows what they’re actually sending,
though.”
47
WELCOME TO HELL. DO YOU WANT TO

LIVE?
A DEVIL SAT on a stone in a cold, rocky wasteland.

It’d been around eight more days since he’d arrived here. In that
time, he’d tried his hand at many more creations. Part of him was
doing it out of genuine interest, the other part just trying to keep
himself busy.
It was a strange feeling. On one hand, he knew he was going to
die soon. The long, long life he’d lived, cut so unexpectedly short.
How could that not be a distressing thought? Sure, he’d probably
have a while until he actually died, but it was still way sooner than
it’d have ever been otherwise. And besides, being up here was a
death in and of itself. He couldn’t talk to anyone, affect anyone’s life,
do anything of real meaning. He was faced, in short, with his own
mortality.
On the other hand, he was also faced with the one and only time
in his life when he actually felt relaxed. For the first time, he had
nothing he actually had to do. No deadlines, superiors, or Humans.
Just himself and his thoughts. Sure, he couldn’t really relax due to
the previous thoughts about his own imminent demise, but, if he was
being honest with himself, it was at least a more pleasant feeling
than the extreme stress he was under when he was still managing
that Arlan Nota case.
Though who knew how those feelings would change as the days
continued to pass and he continued to get closer and closer to his
death.
Right now, he was just passing the time, sitting on a rock and
staring up at the blue-and-green sphere in the sky. He’d made a
couple rock sculptures this “day,” though the days up here were
more just him counting the time and approximating the twenty-four-
hour segments, but he thought he’d take a break. He was running
out of ideas for what to make.
He was also suffering from a lack of motivation. The sculptures
had been interesting to make at first, just because of the novelty of
the idea, but it was getting somewhat old now.
Or, no, it wasn’t that making them was getting old. It was more
like something was missing. Something core to this whole “making
art” thing. He couldn’t express it, in truth. He had no idea, no
reference point. He’d observed the tendency in the Humans of the
Overworld, but he didn’t really know why they did it, at their core.
Most of them could keep going for months, years, even decades.
Why was he getting so sick of it so soon?
He just had no drive to make another. He enjoyed making them,
and enjoyed looking at the finished products even more, but there
was just something not there that he felt would push him to keep
going. Like some sort of reinforcement, validation. Something to let
him know that what he was doing was worthwhile. But he had no
idea how to get that. What was different between the Humans and
him?
Before he could think on this problem for too long, he heard a
sound. It was a strange sound. Really, any sound was a strange
sound, out here. There was nothing alive, nothing that could move,
other than him. And so there was nothing that could really make
noises other than him. And it wasn’t just a normal sound, like a
falling rock, it was more like…
“Xhag. Are you dead, or something?”
A voice.
He sat up from his previous position of lying on his back and
turned around, finding himself facing a person. A Demon. His
superior. She was standing right in front of him, with a portal behind
her. A portal back to the Underworld.
It was shock alone that kept him from bolting for the portal back
to the Underworld, in that moment. Instead, he just sat there, staring
with wide eyes.
“…Are you there? Have you gone insane already?” His superior
stared at him curiously, bending over and squinting as if to get a
closer look at his shattered expression.
“N-no,” he eventually got out.
“Hm. Well at least you understand language.” She shrugged.
“Anyway, I’ve come to talk to you.”
“Are, are you taking me back?” he asked, his mind only now
beginning to catch up with what was going on.
“Depends on how useful you are.”
He just looked at her. Or, really, looked through her at the portal.
He’d had enough time to overcome his shock to understand that the
portal was the gateway through which his normal life lay, but he also
had enough sense to understand that he couldn’t just walk through.
His superior would stop him, not to mention the guards that would no
doubt throw him back out here the moment he stepped through. No,
the only way for him to make it back to his life was if his superior
allowed him to.
She shook her head. “Have you been out here for longer than I
thought? Did I miscount the days? Respond to me, underling.”
“I-I’m sorry,” the Devil said.
“Again with that ridiculous Overworld speak!” she growled. “Talk
like a Demon, or I leave you here to die.”
“R-right.” He shrunk back. “Expression of apology. F-formal
expression of apology. What can I do to be useful?”
“Well, I’ll be honest, Xhag, I didn’t ever really intend to kill you.”
The Devil’s eyes lit up. “Really?! Then I’m coming back?”
“Hm. It’s more that I just wanted to show you that I could. Or it’s
that I wanted to show you what our methods were. What you’d go
through. Sitting out here, totally useless. In the Underworld, you
were a drain on society, out here, you’re a drain on yourself. It’s
poetic, isn’t it? Your body needs heat, it needs air to keep itself alive.
It doesn’t get that out here. Now, you’re a powerful Demon, so you’ll
be able to survive for a while, but you’ll eventually succumb to the
cold. And the reason you will is because your body just refuses to
stop consuming the resources it doesn’t have access to anymore.
It’s a perfect portrayal of what a useless Demon does to the Seventh
Circle. It drains, and drains, and drains, and keeps taking our
resources, until it kills us. That’s why I’m hard on you, Xhag.”
The Devil nodded.
“Do you understand that?”
He nodded again.
“Say it.”
“I understand, superior.”
“No, no.” She stared at him. “Say the whole thing.”
“I-I’m a drain on the Seventh Circle.”
“Yes. You were. But I think I’ve found a way for you to be useful
for us again. Isn’t that exciting?” She spoke with no excitement in her
own voice. Every word was cold and calculated, like she was
speaking from a script. Not that the Devil could recognize this at the
time, with his mind so fried at the concept that he was finally seeing
and speaking with another person.
“I-it is. What can I do to come back home?”
“I really think you need to understand that we did this to help you,
Xhag. The demotions, the death threats, they were all to make you a
better worker. Someone who can better do his job. You were really
underperforming back there, Xhag. You understand that, don’t you?”
He hesitantly nodded once again. “C-can we talk back in our
home? Can we go through the portal, and then can we⁠—”
“Do you know where we are?”
The Devil blinked. “No, Superior. I don’t.”
“What’s your best guess?”
He paused to think for a moment. “Well, I don’t know for sure. But
I think it has to be somewhere close to the Overworld. That, over
there, that’s the sun, I think. At least, in the Overworld, I saw
something that people called the sun that looked just like that. But
other than that, I’m not really sure.”
She nodded. “I’m trusting you with a lot of information by telling
you this, Xhag. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, Superior.”
“I’m trusting you with this as an apology for hurting you like I did
before. You deserved it when I went hard on you, but I think you
ought to be recompensed a bit for the pain you went through.
Because you’ve been so respectful, and I know you’ll continue to be
respectful in the future. And I know you’ll follow orders in the future.
That’s why I’m trusting you.”
The Devil nodded shakily. She was saying something nice. So
why did that sound like a threat? “Yes, Superior.”
“We’re still in the Underworld, right now.”
He blinked. “We are? Then why can I see the Overworld’s sun? Is
it just that the Underworld has one that’s similar?”
“No. That’s still the same sun in the Overworld. Tell me, Xhag. If
you know about the sun, then surely you also know about the
moon?”
“Yes. It’s another thing in the Overworld’s sky.”
“That is where we are, right now.”
The Devil blinked once again. This time, though, the silence
stretched out for much longer. Eventually, he spoke. “We…we’re on
the moon? The Underworld is the moon?”
“That is what the Overworlders call it, yes.”
“Do they know?”
“No, not for the most part. I’m sure some have figured it out, but
it’s not common knowledge. Not among the Humans, at least.”
“Then how… Why…”
“Do you know what that is?” The Devil’s superior pointed upward,
up at the brilliant blue-and-green sphere that still moved steadily
through the sky. His breath caught every time he looked up at the
beauty, and this time was no exception.
But then he began to think about what had just been revealed to
the Devil. While on the Overworld, he could see the Underworld—the
moon—and the sun. And now, on the Underworld, he could still see
the sun, but not… “That’s the Overworld?”
“Yes.”
The Devil’s eyes widened. He lost control of his breathing. That
was the Overworld?! How could it have been? Why was it so… Why
did it look so…
But his superior continued on, apparently unconcerned with this
world-shaking revelation. “Where we are—the surface of the
Underworld—is where the First Circle used to reside. As you can see
now, they’ve been all but wiped out. Forced to migrate underneath
the surface. Or, at least, what was left of them.”
“W-why?” The Devil still shook, trying to distract himself from his
previous thoughts.
“Well, they did just fine up here for some time. But then the
Overworld—the Humans—figured something out. They figured out
that they could summon Demons. Something to do with their
Classes. I don’t remember what they called it, but one of those
Classes, if they picked their choices correctly or whatever, they got a
Spell that could steal us away from our homes. Teleport us straight
to the Overworld under control of the caster.”
The Devil had heard of as much. At least, he’d heard that, at
some point in time, the Humans had been able to summon Demons.
But then the Demons had developed countermeasures against that.
That was the extent of most of the talking done about the Overworld,
for the vast majority of the Devil’s life.
“That was what forced the First Circle underground, with the rest
of us. The Spell the Humans have, it only works if they have direct
line of sight, see? So as long as we’re all underneath the surface—or
if the Underworld has turned around, so we’re on the other side,
away from the Overworlders—they can’t get to us. And then, once
we protected ourselves for long enough, the Humans just stopped
trying. They couldn’t take our people anymore, so they didn’t choose
to take the Spell. Now it’s more or less safe for us to be up here.”
The Devil frowned. There was just so much, all at once. “How is
this possible?”
“What?”
“Any of it. H-how is time different for us when we’re in the
Underworld? If I can see the Overworld with my own two eyes⁠—”
“Oh, that was another countermeasure made against the
Humans. We needed more time, our people were getting taken so
quickly to be the slaves of the Humans.” She shook her head.
“Disgusting. Anyway, the Demons pleaded for the God Lunae to
save us, and it did that.”
The Devil reeled back at the mention of the dead God. “Lunae?
How did⁠—”
“I’ll tell you everything, Xhag. All I need is for you to do me a
favor.”
“W-why?! Why are you telling me all of this? And how do you
know? Doesn’t this break protocol?”
“No, it goes exactly according to protocol. After all, I’m just
onboarding a newly promoted Demon.”
The Devil’s voice caught in his throat. “D-does this mean⁠—”
“You’re not promoted yet. But I’ll restore your ranks and give you
yet more if you just do us a favor.”
“What? What’s the favor? What do you need?”
The Devil’s superior crouched down, lowering her eyes to be
parallel with the Devil’s. She got close, and spoke with a low, sinister
voice. “I want you to kill Arlan Nota.”
His enthusiasm instantly deflated. He couldn’t. Not with the
resources he’d been provided. Not with the time ticking away. It was
just impossible. Going back to that old life? Stress, worry, overwork?
He couldn’t go back.
His superior seemed to sense his mood. “Don’t worry. He’s not in
that empire yet. He isn’t safe. It may have been over a week for us,
but for them, they’re still in that mountain range. You have one more
chance at this. If you don’t succeed, you’re worthless. But if you do,
you’ll have everything. Don’t you want everything?”
“I…” The Devil couldn’t get it out. “I want to, but…with what I
have, with my resources…”
“I haven’t finished,” she said. “I don’t want to give you an army. I
don’t want to give you soldiers. I want to give you one single person.”
He frowned. “W-what? Who?”
“A Projector Demon.”
“But who’s the fighter it will be projecting? Who will actually slay
him?!”
“Xhag. Listen to me.” She reached out a hand, cupping her
clawed fingers around the Devil’s chin. “I want you to kill Arlan Nota.”
He fell silent, realizing now what she was asking him to do.
Falling as low as a common foot soldier. But, how could he get even
lower than he’d been? And if that was what he had to do to get his
old life back…
“Do you accept my offer, Xhag?”
48
THE ARRIVAL
ERANI, Ainash, and I all continued to move through the mountains of

Kingdom’s Edge. It was the morning after Ripley had come and
given us a warning. Apparently the Demons were planning on
sending something after us. But we had no idea what it’d be, or
when it’d be sent. We just needed to be on guard, it seemed. Not
that that was any sort of change from our normal life.
So we continued to move through the valley. Maybe we could get
to the empire before whatever elite Demon that was hunting us
arrived. Then the Barinruth Empire’s soldiers could just take it out,
no casualties.
Since I hadn’t used Time Loop at all the previous day, that night I
waited until just before midnight to ensure I wouldn’t regret using the
Talent up, and then used it to redo killing the same Shadow Panther
for the XP. A single Panther didn’t give too much on its own, but
tripling that number definitely made it pretty significant, bringing me
from 953 to 1.53k XP, out of the required 2.2k.
Also, over the course of last night and this morning, Noxious
Grasp’s XP had risen quite a bit, from 256 to 1369. Not enough for a
Rank-up, but I was getting there. Currently, it was a couple hours
before noon, so we were fully in our stride, traveling through the
mountains and making steady progress. The cliff faces around us
had shrunk back down to actually scalable sizes, at this point, but we
had no actual reason to move off the path, so we just continued as
usual.
We had seen a Dragon in the distance. Not very close to us, but
it was enough to put us on edge. Out in the mountains, we’d just
seen it fly from one peak to the other. I doubted it would actually spot
us, and doubted even more that it’d care if it did, but it was still a
monster that could kill us all in an instant if it wanted to. We needed
to take heed of that.
So, especially considering there was also apparently some
special Demon coming up to the Overworld, I went ahead and
switched my Ethereal Armor from Light Plate to Dark Plate. It’d make
my training much less efficient—and my Spells cost way more in a
fight—but in combat against a Dragon, I wasn’t too concerned about
my Mana-to-damage ratio, but rather with just surviving its attacks.
Erani looked over to me, seemingly about to say something, but
she jumped in surprise when she saw me, interrupting herself. She
shook her head. “Gods, I can’t get used to that armor.”
“What, the Dark Plate?”
“Yes. I guess I’m just so used to the Light variation, every time I
see you I think you’re a monster. It doesn’t help that this form blocks
me from seeing your face, unlike the other.”
“Ah, right.” There were quite a few differences between the two
types of armor, most noticeably the fact that Dark Plate was much
thicker, showed much less skin, and also sucked in all light around it,
opposite to Light Plate’s light-emitting behavior. “Well, hopefully you’ll
get used to it soon, I guess. Wouldn’t want to randomly catch a
Firebolt to the chest.”
“That probably won’t happen. But I doubt I’ll ever get used to
seeing you in it. You just look so…evil.”
I looked over my body. The armor certainly didn’t look friendly,
that was for sure. The dark, heavy plate was constantly cloaked in
shade, and its thick metal made me seem measurably larger than I
actually was. And like Erani said, the fact that it covered my face in a
shadowy, slotted slab of steel certainly didn’t help.
“…No offense, of course,” Erani said after I didn’t respond for a
moment.
I laughed. “No, it’s okay. I kind of get what you mean. You think
it’ll cause any problems once we get to the Barinruth Empire?”
“Hopefully not.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I shrugged. “Though if I ever wear it while
fighting a monster and some random adventurers see me, I might
end up getting attacked by them or something.”
“Hopefully the plate will keep you from dying in that event,” she
laughed. “Besides, you’ll have me there to protect you, right?”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I guess you’re right.”
A couple more hours passed, and my practice with Noxious Grasp

paid off once more.
Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 1.49k.

following changes:
It’d only been around four hours since we’d woken up by now, so
I was glad to have made some progress so early in the day. I was
officially past double effectiveness with Noxious Grasp! Well, double
the numerical effectiveness—I also had the Venomous Grasp
Upgrade, which was arguably more valuable than the entire
damaging component of the Spell at this point.
But I could see Noxious Grasp going back to becoming my main
damage-dealing Spell if I could raise the Health Drain component
high enough. It was at 20 per second for now, but since the damage
increased exponentially, it’d get to 30 in half as many Ranks, and 40
would come even sooner.
Then again, the XP costs also piled on themselves, so it’d
definitely take some time to get there regardless. The next Rank said
it’d take 1.92k Spell XP—almost 500 more than the previous Rank
cost. But hey, give me some time and I’d be able to do it.
The Dragon hadn’t given us any trouble yet, but we still saw it
occasionally flying across the nearby mountains. Seemed like it
hadn’t seen us yet—and ideally, it never would. We still had a couple
Shadow Panther attacks, but it was nothing we couldn’t easily
handle.
As we walked, I glanced behind myself and saw something
strange. The path we were headed down was relatively straight for
this stretch, and the hills lining the path were lower in this section.
So, when I looked back, I could see pretty far away. And in the
distance, just barely crossing the horizon, there was a cloud of dust.
“Hey.” I tapped Erani on the shoulder, pointing at the kicked-up
dirt floating through the air. “Do you see that?”
She furrowed her brows. “…Huh. Yeah. What’s that in the
middle?”
I squinted and looked more closely. She was right. In the center
of the dust cloud, still a few hundred paces away, was… “A person?”
“What’s making the dust? Are they running toward us?” Erani’s
eyes widened. “Oh, gods, they’re moving fast. Way too fast. I think
they’re hostile.”
I nodded. If someone was out here at all, chances were that they
were here to kill us. And considering we knew some sort of special
Demon was on its way out here…
“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing Erani and Ainash by the arms and
activating Expedite several times on all of us. It drained my Mana
considerably, but we needed to move.
With the stacked Dexterity buffs on us all, we sprinted down the
path. The occasional Shadow Panther leapt out at us, but a Firebolt
from Erani or Crippling Chill from me was enough to deter them into
not pursuing. For now, we had more pressing concerns than battling
it out against invisible cats.
Glancing back as we ran, I could see that the figure was still fast
approaching. With Expedite, we were certainly faster, but clearly not
fast enough.
“Should stand ground and fight,” Ainash said as we ran.
“Outnumber bad guy. Could kill easily.”
“We don’t know how strong it is,” I responded. “It might be way
stronger than us. Like the Dragon was.”
“Still too close. It is faster. Will catch us eventually. Do not have
enough time to run.”
I frowned as we ran. She made good points, despite how much
I’d rather favor caution here. If we ran, we’d just tire ourselves out
before fighting. Whatever this thing was that was creating the dust
cloud, it clearly wouldn’t just give up and go back to where it came
from.
“Arlan, I think Ainash is right. We should just stop and fight on our
own terms.”
After a moment, I nodded. We still had several safety nets, so
fighting here wouldn’t be too risky of a maneuver. If we lost the fight
and I had to go back with Time Loop, we’d just know better next time
and could figure something out with better knowledge of its abilities.
It was like back when Astintash had crushed us. The longer I could
fight against it, even if I was destined to die, the more information I’d
have for next time.
“Fine,” I said.
We all stopped running and turned to face the coming entity.
Erani took a few steps back, so she had Firebolt at the ready behind
the two front-liners—me and Ainash. I prepared my myriad of
debuffing Spells to hopefully keep our enemy at a manageable
speed, and Ainash’s whip lit aflame. Whoever this person was, they
were about to catch a massive amount of damage aimed straight at
them the moment they stepped within a few dozen paces of us.
And speaking of the person approaching us, I could tell that they
were obviously pretty Human-looking. At the very least, it wasn’t one
of those massive, hulking Infernals. It didn’t seem like it was an
actual Human either, though. The proportions were just slightly off
enough that the silhouette gave that away. But due to the thick dust,
the silhouette was all I could see for now.
And as the person approached more and more, that silhouette
got closer and closer, and I got more and more prepared for a fight.
Two hundred paces. A hundred and fifty. One hundred. Seventy-five.
Fifty. And…
“Go!” I shouted and activated as many effects as I could in such a
short time frame. It was difficult to switch between so many Spells so
quickly, but I’d been mentally preparing to do so beforehand, so I
was able to fire them all off in quick succession.
Crippling Chill. Gravity Well. Ray of Frost. All three hit at once,
alongside the explosion of a Firebolt and several inhumanly fast
lashes of Ainash’s flaming whip.
The blast from the Firebolt flung the dust away, finally allowing us
to see who was hunting us down.
It was…someone I didn’t recognize. Obviously a Demon, with the
deep-red skin and glowing blue veins, but I wasn’t familiar enough
with the different species of Demons to be able to immediately
identify it.
But one thing stood out to me. Despite the debuffs, explosions,
and flaming thorns that struck its skin, it looked…relatively unfazed.
It stopped, and was standing there pretty calmly. Examining me. No,
not really examining, more like…finding the small details. The way
someone might look at a celebrity that they’d heard a lot about, and
maybe seen some drawn depictions of, but had never actually seen
in person. Well, it was like that, but minus any of the admiration.
But it just stood there. Like it hadn’t just sprinted what was
probably several thousand paces to get to us. It could easily close
the distance and start fighting, but it just didn’t.
I hesitated for a moment, both out of curiosity and out of fear. But
then I came to my senses and raised my hand again to start
shooting a barrage of Rays of Frost. Whatever had caused it, I’d take
advantage of this moment of vulnerability in my enemy.
But then the Demon opened its mouth, and began to speak. And
that caused me to hesitate for a moment longer.
“Hm,” it said in a smooth voice. One that I’d almost say would be
charismatic and suave, in other circumstances. “Seems like you
haven’t yet seen me in any other timelines.”
I blinked and instinctively took a step back. How did it know? Did
it have some sort of power to see through Time Loop?
“Thought I’d do some introductions before this whole thing. Well,
you don’t need to introduce yourselves, I know who you all are. Arlan
Nota, Erani Wos,” it said while pointing at each of us, ending on
Ainash, “and, y’know, I don’t actually know your name. They just call
you ‘the Dryad,’ normally. Well, my reconnaissance is pretty old, at
this point. And it seems like you’ve undergone a pretty significant
change recently, so maybe they call you something else by now.”
I was still standing completely in shock of what was going on.
Why was this Demon standing here talking to us, as though we
hadn’t just attacked it with everything we had? Erani was obviously
also taken aback by its words.
I hesitantly opened my mouth. “…Are you hostile? Are you just,
like, a messenger, or something?”
“Hm. A messenger. Yeah, I suppose you could say I’m a
messenger.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, okay. What’s your message?”
It lifted its hands and tucked them into fists, finally leaving the
completely casual pose it’d been in this whole time. “The message
is, ‘I’m here to kill you all.’”
49
THE KILLING SPREE
“THE MESSAGE IS,” the Demon said, hands lifted into fists, “‘I’m
here to kill you all.’”
For a moment, I stood frozen, shocked at the sudden declaration
of intent. But Ainash clearly wasn’t deterred. In an instant, she
lunged toward it, whip twirling around her in a whirlwind of flames.
The Demon sneered and leaned back, dodging one strike, lifted
its arm, parrying the second, and then at the third, it reached out and
grabbed the whip out of the air. It all happened so quickly I could
barely follow. Then it yanked the whip toward itself, and Ainash was
pulled toward its grasp.
I immediately broke from my stupor, shooting off a couple Rays of
Frost and running forward to Ainash’s rescue. However, only one of
the Rays hit, and it didn’t seem to do much to deter the Demon. But
my mind was drawn toward one specific element of the damage
notification I got.
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 58 damage using Ray of

Frost.
Level 61 Devil.
Fuck.
I had no time to ruminate on that number, though. Ainash was
moving quickly toward the Demon, and I had a feeling she wouldn’t
do well against this thing in hand-to-hand-combat. But just then, a
Firebolt from behind impacted the side of the Demon’s head, blowing
up right against it. I slowed down, relieved.
And then the smoke cleared, and I could see again. The Demon
was still standing perfectly still, and Ainash’s head was in its hand.
She screamed aloud as I saw its fingers flex, squeezing her face
with incredible pressure.
Crack. Was that…was that her skull, fracturing under the
pressure?
“No!” I yelled and continued my charge.
The Demon glanced over at me, looking slightly annoyed, and
held her wincing head to face me. I could see her give me a pleading
look.
“Stop,” it said in a calm voice. “Or the thing dies. One squeeze, a
simple movement of the fingers, and it’s over for her.”
Reluctantly, I slowed to a stop just a few paces away from it.
From behind me, I could hear that Erani, who had apparently been
running at it too, also stopped moving. I didn’t dare take my eyes off
of our enemy to look back at her, though.
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to keep panic out of my
voice.
It shrugged. “Not really sure, to be honest. Man, y’know, when
they said they could only get me a ten percent projection, I was a bit
worried. I mean, I got that it was short notice, but was I really going
to be able to beat the people who had evaded our forces for so long?
At ten percent power?”
I just looked at it. What was it even talking about?
“And really, they didn’t have to rub it in. Seriously, telling me that
even if a better projection was available, they wouldn’t allow me to
use it? Fucking assholes. ‘Xhag isn’t authorized for a forty percent
projection, he isn’t mentally stable enough.’ Fuck off.”
“He?” I didn’t even know Demons had genders.
“But now, I’m not too worried. I mean, sure, you’ve still got your
little time travel powers. One look at your face when you saw me for
the first time told me you hadn’t seen me before, that was obvious.
So you’ve probably got one more timeline you can flee to, or
something.” He looked at me and seemed to sense the fear from my
eyes, looking through the gaps in my helmet. “Yes, we do know
about your time travel. I mean, we don’t have perfect knowledge of
what that little Class of yours can do, but we aren’t those dumbass
Humans with the Koinkar Kingdom. They don’t know shit. You can
tell them fucking anything and they’ll eat it up. You know we told
them you eat the souls of your victims?” He laughed. “Can’t believe
they bought that.”
I stood, still tense despite the Demon’s relaxed tone. Or, rather,
because of his relaxed tone. How could someone act like they’re just
making conversation while literally holding a child hostage? “Why are
you telling me all of this?”
He shook his head and rolled his eyes, looking genuinely irritated
by my question. “Y’know, I haven’t been able to talk to anyone for
weeks. Fucking weeks. Much less anyone who’s actually good at
conversation. Fucking bureaucratic Demons. And now, I finally get to
talk to someone who’ll actually listen, and you ask me why I’m
talking to you? Because I want to, jackass. Fuck, I didn’t realize how
irritating you were going to be. This is going to be so fun.”
“What is? Why are you holding her hostage?”
“Why? Well, mainly, I just wanted to be sure I saw your eyes.”
I blinked, feeling him peer into me. “W-what? Why?”
“Eyes are the center of Human emotion, right? If I see your eyes,
I can see how you feel?”
I looked at the Demon, still panicked, but now confused as well.
“Uh, yes? I guess? P-please, if you want to know more about
Humans, just let her go and we can⁠—”
“No, no, you’re mistaken.” He squeezed Ainash’s skull even
harder and I could feel her pleas for me to save her flood into my
mind. “I just wanted to make sure I had it right. I wouldn’t want to
miss your expression. Even if you do reset all of this, it honestly just
seems so cathartic to see.”
“My expression? For what? What are you talking about?”
“I want to see your expression when I do this.”
And then Ainash’s head imploded. Just like the Demon had said,
a simple flex of the fingers, and he crushed her skull in on itself. I
instinctively leaned back as a few droplets of sap-like blood were
flung onto my face.
I refused to look down at it. At the corpse. I refused. I refused. I
refused. Shaking, I kept my eyes trained straight on the Demon. I
heard Erani scream behind me. But I refused to look. I refused to
think about it. She wasn’t dead. Not really. I could go back. I could. I
could go back and she’d be okay. But rationalizing that thought did
nothing to quell the fear of knowing this Demon could do that. Of
seeing the gory sight, even if it was just out of the corner of my eye.
The flecks of bone that now scattered the ground beneath us.
But I didn’t look. I could not look. I had to stare straight ahead at
our enemy. My hand shook. My entire body shook.
And while all of this was happening, the Demon was laughing.
Cackling. Doubled over, arms wrapped around his stomach, out of
breath. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed. He looked back up
at my face with a wild smile, and only laughed even harder.
“You…” I could barely get words out of my mouth, much less
think coherent thoughts. I could barely understand what’d just
happened. He just…killed her. Like that. In an instant.
“The look on your face!” the Demon yelled through his laughter. “I
was totally right! It’s all in the eyes!”
Unconsciously, I took a step forward. Then another, and another.
I walked right up to the giggling Demon. “I’m going to fucking kill⁠—”
Suddenly a hand was wrapped tightly around my throat.
You have been constricted. 81 damage.

Your Health is 379.
I couldn’t get air to my lungs. The Devil, in an instant, had stood

straight up and reached out, strangling me and lifting me off of the
ground. His face was completely serious.
“No,” he said, “you won’t.”
And then I was flying through the air, apparently having been
flung away. And then I slammed into a stone wall, harder than I
thought was physically possible. The entire surface I struck shook,
like a localized earthquake.
You have been slammed against something. 1.6k damage.

Your Health is 149.
I felt myself fall flat on the ground, out of a physical indent my

body had made in the rock from the extreme impact. I could barely
move from the pain and surprise of it all. The Demon, that fast, had
completely disabled me and then thrown me so hard the impact dealt
enough damage to kill me several times over. The only reason I was
alive was because of Dark Plate.
I slowly raised my head, up to where the Demon had been
standing. But he wasn’t standing there anymore. My eyes widened.
Where was he? Was he behind me? Was he about to kill me?!
But then a sickening impact came from the right. I looked over
and saw Erani’s corpse a dozen paces away. There was a hole the
size of a fist in her stomach. She crumpled to the ground, with the
Demon standing above her. Now both of my companions were dead,
and I should have been already.
Blood covered the entire battlefield. Between the mutilated
corpses of Ainash and Erani, and my own injuries from the force of
hitting the wall so hard, it’d all mixed together and painted the rocks.
The Demon walked toward me. He was also painted by blood.
But honestly, I could barely tell what was from his victims and what
was just the natural pigment of his skin. The red of the blood on his
hand—the same one that’d killed Ainash and now Erani—blended
into the already-blood-colored hue of his fist.
“Wh…” I muttered, trying to keep my eyes open, “what is…
what’s…”
He bent down and threw the helmet of Dark Plate from my head,
peering down at my face and drinking in every last detail. It felt like
he was trying to soak in the look of my face in this moment.
“Y’know,” he said, “I think I was right about the eyes being
important to see, but honestly, I really think you just have to see the
whole face to be able to appreciate it all.”
“W-what are you talking about?” I coughed. “See what?”
“The pain.” His expression quickly turned to anger. Fury. “The
emotional torment. The fear of being in a situation so fucking awful,
so inescapable, of seeing someone with absolutely infinite power
over you. Of seeing someone like that use that overwhelming power
just to see you suffer. To punish you. For something you barely even
had anything to do with. For something that isn’t even your fucking
fault! You did nothing wrong. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And now
you’re going to die. To lose everything you cared about. And for
what?! Because someone else made a mistake?! Because someone
else decided they wanted you dead?! Because someone else
decided that they wanted to use their power to hurt you today?! I
want to see you realize how fucking unfair it is! To see you realize
that you could never win, in their eyes! You had no chance, from the
start. Nothing. There was nothing you could have done to prevent
them from killing you. Nothing you could have done to appease
them. Their ravenous fucking appetite for power over someone else.
Every single day you lived, you lived so you could die right now. And
not a single choice you could have made would’ve changed this
outcome. They would have always killed you. One way or another.”
I stared at the Demon. His face showed an indescribable
expression of rage. Honestly, I felt a bit of whiplash from the
constant, quick changes in his mood, back and forth between calm,
hysteria, and now anger. But his fury didn’t seem to be aimed at me.
Not really. He looked straight through me, like he was ranting to
himself and I was just the audience. He seemed completely
deranged.
“Who…are you?” I got out.
He blinked, his eyes refocusing on me now. “I’m…” He paused,
as if thinking for a moment. Then he started speaking again. “My
name is
Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook’naisantipoduun’torobaroxhixhonxhaxint
ep. That is my full, unneutered, unrestrained name. It is my name.”
I frowned. “I…”
“But you don’t need to know that. My name? You Humans would
never get it. You don’t understand what it means. I know you won’t
remember it anyway. Just call me…Xhag’duul. That’s around how
short your Human names normally are, right?”
I took a breath. Just keep him talking. “Okay, Xhag’duul. Can I
ask you something?”
He pursed his lips. “Actually, no, you can’t. I don’t think there’s
anything you need to ask me. There isn’t anything you need to know.
All you need to know is that I’m going to be the one to kill you.”
I coughed in pain. He was still unbearably close, hot breath on
my face as he leaned down over my body on the ground. But I
smiled regardless, croaking out some last words. “Y’know…a lot of
people have killed me before. You won’t be the first. However, I
suspect you also won’t be the last. I don’t stay dead that easily.”
“Oh.” He grinned in what seemed to be a mixture of frustration
and satisfaction. “I know. I know all too well how hard it is to kill you.
But trust me. I will be the one to kill you.”
“Would you at least mind telling me why?”
“I don’t mind, but I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”
“Try me.”
“Answer’s simple, actually. I want something. And if you die, I get
it. I get it all back. I don’t really give a shit who you are, or what
you’ve done, what you say, or what you want. You could be anyone.
Any background, any personality. Thief, king, murderer,
philanthropist, beggar, doctor, sinner, saint. It’s all irrelevant. You just
need to die if I want to be happy. I don’t make the rules. I don’t give
the orders.” He took a breath. At this point, whatever rage he’d been
feeling before seemed to have petered out. Now, he looked more
somber than anything. “Really, I have no reason to want to kill you.
Other people do, but not me. Not personally. I’ll take joy in your
death, because you’ve caused me so much pain. But you didn’t
mean to, and you didn’t do it on your own. It’s more that other people
cause me pain because you exist. So I want to tell you, in the most
sincere, genuine way that I possibly can, one that I don’t think any
other Demon could ever say—I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I have to do
this to you. I wish we could part ways amicably. But I want
something, so you have to die. It’s that simple. So, I guess if I had to
put it in a phrase⁠—”
The Demon, Xhag’duul, gripped his hand around my head. His
fingers covered my face. And as he leaned forward, eyes peering
down through the gaps in his fingers to look straight into me, he
smiled and shook his head.
“It’s nothing personal.”
You have been crushed. 1.2k damage.

Your Health is 0.
You have died.
50
THE FRANTIC RETREAT
AND THEN I WAS BACK, five hours beforehand, asleep. Of course,

I instantly jolted awake, hands instinctively going to my face to make
sure it was all intact. Yes, yes, all there. Then I opened my eyes,
heart pounding from the sudden wake-up.
“Father, what is it?”
I looked over to see Ainash, who was currently taking her turn for
watch, looking over at me.
“Did you have bad dream? It okay, I normally have those too.”
“No, no,” I said, “there’s something coming. A dangerous Demon.
He’s going to kill us if he catches us. Come up, let’s wake up
mother.”
I leaned over to shake Erani awake—it was still a bit dark, but the
sun was close to rising, so I could see fine. By this point, it was
around seven in the morning. That Demon, Xhag’duul, had attacked
around noon. Was he already on his way over to us? Sprinting
through the canyon at superhuman speeds?
Erani groaned as I shook her as gently as I could, despite my
desire to urgently get going. She opened her eyes and squinted up
at me. “What is it, did I sleep too long?”
“There’s a Demon on his way to kill us. We’ve got five hours until
he gets here.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Five hours? Alright. What, are we
going to prepare an ambush, or something?”
“No, I doubt that’d work. He’s…” I sighed and shook my head,
remembering what’d happened last time. He killed us all in a single
hit. Me in two, but only because of Dark Plate. Ainash, Erani… If
they ever got close to that damned thing, he’d kill them instantly. It
was impossible to fight and survive, even if I technically had a safety
net. “It’s not possible for us to beat him. We need to run.”
Erani sat up, stretching and getting ready to travel. “So should we
hide, then?”
“Could find another Dragon to help,” Ainash suggested.
“We could…” I muttered, trying to slow my mind down to think.
“I’m not sure if hiding would even work, honestly. With his absurd
power, I’d be surprised if he didn’t have some way to find us
instantly. As for finding a Dragon, I don’t know about that, either. I
mean, we really don’t have the time or resources to do that right
now, and we also have no bargaining power with one this time. We
were really only able to get Astintash’s help because the Demons
were actively invading its home.”
“So then, what do we do?”
“I don’t want to rule out hiding just yet. But we have quite a bit of
time before he arrives. So I say we use that to run.”
“Just run away?”
“Not just away, but toward the Empire. We’re close by now.
Probably only a bit over a full day’s travel, I’d bet. If we use Expedite
to keep our speed up, I think we may be able to get there within a
few hours. And I’d be surprised if they didn’t have some powerful
guards stationed near Kingdom’s Edge to make sure nothing came
through to attack them, right? Maybe we could use their help and
defeat the Demon.”
“I not think that will work,” Ainash said. “What if Humans betray
us? What if Demon tells lies, tells them we are the bad guys?”
“Humans trust other Humans, much more than Demons,” I said.
“As long as we get there first, and we have some time to explain
ourselves, I’d be willing to bet they’ll help. And hopefully, a whole
squad of Classers strong enough to kill Drakes, or even Dragons,
will be enough to take the thing down.”
“And if we don’t get there in time?”
“Then we change our plan and hide. If it seems like we won’t be
fast enough, we just turn and run up into the mountains, and hope he
can’t find us in there.”
Erani sighed and looked down, thinking for a moment. After a few
seconds, she looked up and said, “Yeah, that seems like our best
bet. You ready to go?”
“When you two are.”
With the help of Expedite, which I continually kept active on myself

and Erani, we moved at quite a quick pace along the path. Keeping a
cast of it active on two people was a bit too much for my Mana to be
able to support doing one hundred percent of the time, but I could
still keep it active for a good portion, and with that combined with us
trying to keep a generally quick pace, I hoped it would be enough for
us to find safety soon.
So we moved quickly along for several hours, and I could almost
feel the time ticking away. With the extra space we put between
ourselves and the entrance to Kingdom’s Edge, we probably also
bought ourselves a bit of extra time, but knowing how fast Xhag’duul
was moving back there, I didn’t suspect it’d be more than a few
minutes.
As the time passed, we grew more and more eager to get to the
end. When Expedite was active, we ran at top speed to make use of
the extra Dexterity, and when it wasn’t, we just walked as quickly as
possible. It took a toll on my Stamina to move like that over such an
extended period of time, but tiring myself out was just fine if it meant
I could live to see another day.
However, as the hours passed, the end of the mountains
continued to evade our sight. The range of crags and rocks seemed
to be slowly getting less intense and less wild as we moved,
suggesting we were probably approaching the Barinruth Empire, but
I was forced to confront the possibility that we may just not get there
in time. My guess that we may have been able to arrive within five
hours was just that—a guess.
By the time hour four rolled around and we still saw no end on
the horizon, I held out a hand to signal everyone to stop, leaning
over and catching my breath.
“What is it?” Erani said, panting heavily.
After a few deep breaths, I responded. “I don’t think we’ll make it
in time. We probably only have around an hour left, and I’m not
seeing any end to these mountains.”
“So what, plan B, then?”
“Seems like it. Let’s move out into the mountains, and hope that
Demon can’t track us in there. At the very least, it might be able to
buy us enough time to actually get there.”
We found a low ledge in the stone walls of the cut-out path and
climbed up, into the wild mountains that surrounded us. We’d have
to be wary of the typical Drakes and Dragons, moving into their
territory, so hopefully any encounters we had wouldn’t slow us down
too much.
I dipped a bit into my Mana reserves to keep Expedite active
more often that my regeneration allowed, helping us climb far and
high into the various peaks and valleys of the mountain range.
Occasionally we’d hear a Drake’s screech of warning—one that I’d
come to learn meant “get out of my territory, right now,” and I’d
instantly give us a further push with the Spell to get us away and
keep us from delaying ourselves with pointless fights against the
wildlife.
Thankfully, our climb was easier than I’d experienced before,
when we’d first ventured into the wild mountains to try and get help
from Astintash. Back then, we were lower-Leveled and didn’t have
the Bond to raise our base Stats. But now, with much higher
Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity—especially so for Erani—
moving up the cliffs and across the unsteady rocks was much easier.
We needed to take fewer breaks, fewer detours around impassable
obstacles, and we could generally move with much more ease than
before.
“Must be a pretty surreal experience, huh?” I asked Erani.
“What do you mean? Not going to lie, I’m a bit acclimated to the
whole ‘running for my life’ thing by now.”
“No, not that. I mean climbing these mountains again.”
“Hm?”
“I mean, the last time we were in the wilderness of Kingdom’s
Edge was just a few days ago, right? Back then, you had a 10 in
every physical Stat.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Yeah, can’t say I ever imagined climbing a
mountain would be this easy. It feels like I’m living in someone else’s
body.”
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.” I chuckled and shook my
head.
“I mean, haven’t you basically gone through the same thing with
Recursive Growth?” she asked. “You’ve gained a bunch of physical
Stats, too.”
“Right, but that was over a much longer period of time. I really
only had to get acclimated to small changes that occurred over
several days of time. And even then, my Stats are still lower than
yours. I mean, I doubt many Classers out there could ever boast
about having quintupled their base Stats in a day, much less a few
hours. Seriously, you went from being no stronger than someone
who was Unclassed into someone who could probably beat a
decent-Level Melee-Type in a fistfight.”
“Well, let’s not exaggerate things. I still have absolutely no
training in melee combat, so I doubt that’d be the case.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop being modest. Regardless, you said
yourself it was difficult to move around at all for a while, right? So like
I said, it’s gotta be surreal to climb the same mountains as before,
but now several times more easily.”
She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, it definitely is. Been getting me
thinking about future Class options. I mean, pretty much every single
piece of theory and strategy put toward the Sorcerer Class is
predicated on the idea that you’ll have low physical Stats. It’s a pretty
core part of the Class that you’ll be focusing your Stats on Mana
production. So suddenly, pretty much all of that traditional knowledge
is useless. Especially with Angelic Shield, I’m definitely a lot less
useless up close as I was before. So any Spell choices that are
based on keeping enemies away are way worse now.”
“Well, there’s a lot of literature on the subject, right? Couldn’t you
find some book from someone talking about some niche Sorcerer
strategy that assigns its Stat Points into physical Stats?”
“I’m sure there’s stuff out there on that, but then for them, most of
their choices will probably be predicated on the fact that they won’t
have much Mana available to them. I’m sure the Signature Magic
Talent choice is out of the question for them, for example, not to
mention some of the Spell choices coming up. Ugh, I really am on
my own in this, aren’t I…?”
I looked over to see her with her head in her hands, muttering to
herself, and laughed, wrapping my arm around her. “Don’t worry
about it. You’ve got us, right? So you aren’t totally on your own.”
“Right, sure, you let me know when you somehow change your
Class to Sorcerer, and we can all figure it out alongside each other.”
“Ironically, if I could do that, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the
first place.”
Erani laughed, and began to say something else, but suddenly
cut herself off, looking up with fear in her eyes. I glanced up, too, and
completely understood her reaction.
A sight that instantly seized my body soared across the sky.
Giant, leathery wings, a long, scale-covered body, and a throat that
no doubt housed the ability to completely incinerate us all.
The Dragon flew close above our heads, and I felt the rushing
wind from its wings against my back. Close call, I thought, but it flew
past. We’d just need to look out for whatever mountaintop it made its
home in, and keep away from that.
But then it turned around midair, looking straight at us.
As it moved back in our direction, gliding down to the ground, any
hope that we were dealing with the familiar Astintash left my mind.
Not only were we far from Astintash’s territory by now, but this
Dragon was a clearly different beast from its looks alone—where
Astintash’s scales were reddish-purple, a deep royal color, this new
Dragon was a shining white. Honestly, with the near-noon sun
reflecting its light off the silvery scales, the monster was almost
blinding to look at.
It crashed to the ground just a couple dozen paces from us and I
barely managed to keep myself standing from the resulting shaking
of the land. I was still trying to process what was happening, unable
to formulate any sort of proper plan of action. What was this Dragon
here for? Why was it coming to us? And why hadn’t it killed us right
away, like Astintash had done in the past?
I felt the burning breath of the beast as it breathed a sigh, raising
its head to look at us from above, the sun forming a sort of halo
around its head.
“Greetings, Humans,” it said in a deep rumble of a voice, with a
strange accent that almost made it sound like a fancy noble
speaking to me. “I am Peacekeeper, Compassiongiver, Hearthaver,
Homeholder, Gracegiver, Knowledgegainer Paiiniak. Why do you
come to my domain?”
I blinked, processing what it’d just told us. Specifically, the titles
before its name. Peacekeeper? This was almost too perfect. If it kept
the peace, maybe it could help us with that Xhag’duul Demon! The
Demons were invading and starting wars, how could this Dragon not
want to intervene?
“We’re having trouble with a Demon,” I spat out, eager for its
help. “He’s trying to kill us, and tons of other Humans! They’re
starting a war. Could you intervene? Stop them from attacking us?”
It looked down on me with a slight smile. I’d almost say it was
smug, if I didn’t know any better.
“Ah, simple Human,” it said, “have you not tried simply asking the
Demon to stop attacking you? Do not be so quick to solve conflicts
with violence.”
I paused after hearing its words. Was that a joke or something?
But it looked completely serious, like it genuinely thought we were
too stupid to try something as simple as asking the Demons to stop.
“W-what? You don’t understand. It’s trying to kill us for no reason,
and the Demons have already killed thousands of other Humans.
One’s hunting us right now, as we speak! Could you help us at least
immobilize it, so we could escape?”
“But by running away, are you not simply proving the Demons
right? Perhaps they are only attacking because they are upset by
your assumption that they mean harm in the first place.” It chuckled
an irritating laugh to itself. “You silly Humans and your simple minds.
Now run along and go make friends with that Demon. I have solved
your problem once again.”
…Okay. It seemed like this would be a bit harder than I’d
originally thought.
But still, my mind was hard at work trying to figure out how to use
this to our advantage. Even if we couldn’t get the Dragon to help
directly, maybe there were other ways to use its power.
51
WELCOME TO HELL. CAN I KILL YOU

AGAIN?
A DEVIL SPRINTED through a chasm in a barren, gray mountain

range. He was on a mission. One last mission, to kill Arlan Nota
himself.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s finish this.”
“Did you say something, Xhag?” the voice of his superior said
into his ear.
“No, Superior,” he said. “Just eager to get back home.”
“Yes, I’m sure you are. Just think of everything you’ll get back
once this is done.”
He nodded. Everything would come back. All he wanted was for
things to go back to being the way they were. He just wanted some
of that respect he was once afforded, some of that stability, some of
that basic level of fulfillment. This would bring it all back to him. “Is
Arlan Nota still moving in the same direction?”
“Hold on, let me get one of the Diviners to check.”
There was a shuffling sound, and then silence. The Devil was
speaking to his superior over a Communication Crystal, with her
remotely giving him orders from the Underworld. The general plan of
action was simple. She’d locate Arlan Nota, then send the Devil to
take him out. It was quick and easy—something the Devil wished he
could have done when he was in charge.
But he couldn’t have done it back then. That ”locate Arlan Nota”
part had proven extremely difficult time after time, considering the
resources given to him. The main method to locate someone was
using Diviners; that was how they’d found the Human in the first
place. But using Diviners took time, and the only way to speed up
that process was to add more Diviners to the group doing the
locating. And unfortunately, the Devil had been denied each and
every time he attempted to ask for more to add to his teams.
So the first time they were trying to find Arlan Nota, it was
relatively easy; they had plenty of time, he wasn’t moving around too
much, and there was nothing else the Devil had to worry about
managing at the time. But after that, it was suddenly borderline
impossible to use those same teams to find him. The couple days
that had once been an acceptable time to take trying to find him
were way too long to wait now that they had a fugitive on the run,
and even if they did take that time to find him, by the time the
Diviners’ results would come back, Arlan Nota would have been long
gone from the location they found him in.
However, the Devil’s superior didn’t have to deal with those
problems now that she was in charge. All she had to do was use her
own authority to simply get more Diviners on the team. A request
that had been denied time and time again when the Devil was in
charge. He was completely aware of the unfairness of the situation,
but he pushed it out of his mind. If he could get his old life back, he’d
deal with whatever it took.
And dealing with whatever it took was what he was doing.
Working as a simple foot soldier, fighting on the ground of the
Overworld, it wasn’t exactly a glamorous position. In fact, it was
borderline blasphemous for the Devil to so blatantly work in a
position that was unbefitting of his Race. Working on the same level
as the Infernals and Hellions? Something like this was normally
punishable by death—or at least demotion to being a hall monitor.
But his superior had explicitly asked him to do it, so he supposed
she didn’t care.
So he continued to move through the mountain valley, pushing
any thoughts about whether this was a good decision out of his
mind. At the end of the day, it was either doing it or dying. He was
just protecting himself.
“Xhag, I have word back from the Diviners,” his superior said to
him. “Arlan Nota has abruptly left the trail. He moved into the
mountains in the west, so he should be to your northwest.”
“Do you know where he is specifically?”
“No, just that general direction. He is most likely hiding. Find
him.”
The Devil nodded, though nobody could see him nod, and
climbed up out of the path he’d been running through, into the
wilderness. It would be irritating to move through because of the wild
monsters out here, but as long as he avoided anything too
dangerous, he should have been fine. Most Drakes wouldn’t be an
issue, but the higher-Leveled ones and the Dragons would obviously
pose a problem if they set their sights on him. He may have been
strong compared to many beings in the Overworld, but there were
some things he simply could not beat alone. Or, at the very least,
they would slow him down if he was forced to fight them.
But ideally, those same monsters would pose the same threat to
Arlan Nota. It seemed like they were taking a gamble here, running
the risk of dying to monsters to avoid the certainty of dying to him.
And it did seem like they knew that was a certainty. Why else would
they randomly flee into the wilderness? The Devil didn’t know exactly
how the Human’s powers that he’d stolen from Temporus worked,
but he did know that the kid could move through time. Seemed like
the Devil had already killed him at least once, then.
That put some confidence into him. He just had to do what the
alternate him had already accomplished. Though he did wish he
could have remembered doing so. He understood that Arlan Nota
hadn’t technically done anything to him—really, the Human probably
barely even knew who the Devil was.
And the Devil even forgave the boy for killing Temporus and
stealing its powers. After his time interacting with the Humans, he
now understood the perspective they had. It was completely natural
for a Human to go out and acquire power that they weren’t born with
—that they were never meant to hold—and then learn and grow until
they fit that position. It felt a bit backwards, sure, but if it worked for
them, who cared? Arlan Nota hadn’t known he was stealing from the
Demons, so, while the Devil still thought they should try to take back
what was theirs, he also didn’t hold a grudge against the Human.
They were simply two groups with opposing goals. Nobody had the
moral high ground here.
But still, despite those feelings, he really wanted to see the boy
die. Just on a basic, emotional level, seeing the person who had
been the source of his suffering, of him losing all hope, of him
borderline losing his own mind, seeing the source of all of that lose
his own hope in turn? Seeing that person go through everything the
Devil had gone through? It would be beyond cathartic.
He ran through the mountains, valleys, hills, and rocks of the
wilds, paying close attention for any sign of the fugitives. Strange
sounds or smells, seeing a hint of clothing behind a bush or even a
half of a footprint would be all he needed to begin tracking them.
Unfortunately, the wilderness was pretty large. But with his superior’s
help, he knew it was just a matter of time before he found them.
As he glanced around, he looked up and saw something in the
distance. Perched up on one of the rocky spires poking through the
sky was a Dragon. Its shimmering white scales glinted in the
uncomfortably bright sun as it glared around the range of mountains
encircling it.
“You said he was northwest?” he asked, looking up at the distant
Dragon.
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
“No problem, just a roadblock. There’s a monster I’ll have to go
around if I want to go that direction.”
“Just be sure you don’t miss the fugitive if you’re going around
something. He could be hiding near that monster.”
“No way he is. It’s a Dragon. And I can’t think of any reason he
could convince another Dragon to help him. If I go and confront it, it’ll
just attack and slow me down. I’ll move around and keep going until I
find him.”
If he got too close to the Dragon, there was a likely possibility it’d
attack him on sight, which would either end in his projected body’s
death or with him having to flee, neither of which would be good. And
there was no way it was guarding Arlan Nota, or anything. Why
would it be? Agreeing to fight off their enemies for them? It would
have nothing to gain, and everything to risk. No, Arlan Nota had
probably just intentionally moved to position the Dragon in between
the Devil and them to try and get the Devil to antagonize it and die.
He wouldn’t be falling for that.
So he began moving in a wide arc around the massive beast as it
perched atop its crag, looked around and surveyed the terrain
around itself. He marched through the rocks and shrubbery, half
hiding from the monster and half looking for his target. As he moved,
though, the monster suddenly flapped its wings and took flight. After
a moment’s fear, thinking it may have spotted him, he was relieved
to see it was moving away from the Devil, not toward him.
It turned and moved in the direction of the Empire, which wasn’t
actually too far away at this point. Maybe it was leaving to go to its
home, which was in that direction? But wait, no, just as the Devil
thought it’d fly up and disappear into the skies, it suddenly moved
back down and landed on another cliffside, only about a hundred
paces away from its starting point. And then it simply continued
surveying the landscape below it.
Huh. Weird. The Devil wasn’t totally sure what had caused the
Dragon to move to some random other nearby mound of rock just to
continue sitting around and doing what it’d done before, but it didn’t
matter. At least now, it wasn’t in the way of his attempt to get to Arlan
Nota.
So he just continued on, no longer forced to move in such a wide
arc. Although he was still in range of eyesight of that massive thing,
so it wasn’t like he could totally ignore caution.
He continued on for a few more minutes, until out of the corner of
his eye he saw the Dragon flap its wings and take flight again.
Watching it, he saw it move along yet another couple hundred
paces, perching itself again on a random mountain ledge and doing
nothing.
He stopped. This was getting weird. What was it doing? What
was the point? His suspicions that this Dragon had something to do
with Arlan Nota began to mount higher and higher. Why would it
move like that?
“Superior,” he said, “what direction from me is Arlan Nota now?”
“The fugitive is north, slightly northwest.”
He looked upward to the sky so he could orient himself with the
cardinal directions—something he’d learned how to do recently when
speaking to the Human subordinates he’d hired. Yes, it was as he’d
suspected. The direction the Dragon had moved perfectly lined up
with the direction Arlan Nota was in.
There was something going on here, and he didn’t like it.
He waited a couple minutes, and like he’d suspected, the Dragon
flew up once again to fly just around a hundred paces away,
perching itself once again.
“He is still in the same direction?” the Devil asked.
“Yes.”
That confirmed it. The Dragon, for some reason, was following
Arlan Nota. Or maybe the Human was following the Dragon.
Whatever it was, it seemed he could follow the monster to find the
fugitive. The Devil had no idea how the man had convinced that
damn thing to not kill him, but whatever the method, it seemed like
Arlan Nota and the other fugitives had somehow grouped up with a
Dragon following them in their travel to the Empire. If the Devil had
just passed the thing by, he’d effectively had been led on a wild
goose chase through the wilderness, trying to find the fugitive while
never being able to actually approach him because of the Dragon
guarding him.
But was the Dragon actually guarding them? The Devil couldn’t
think of a world where that was the case. They had absolutely
nothing to offer in exchange. So why was it helping? And if they had
gotten it to follow them, why would they do it if it wasn’t to get it to
guard them? He was stuck knowing exactly where the damn man
was, but completely unable to approach because they’d somehow
convinced the strongest beast in the mountain range to kill him if he
did.
He frowned. Maybe that was the point. Maybe it wasn’t guarding
them at all. Or, at least, not knowingly. They could have come up
with some random bullshit reason for the Dragon to follow them—
leading it to some valuable made-up treasure, or something—in an
attempt to make it look like the Dragon was their guard. It’d scare the
Devil off without even knowing it was doing so.
He grinned. Clever tricksters. He’d always known the Humans
were crafty little fuckers, but this was the first time he’d been the one
on the receiving end of their deceptions. But he’d seen through it.
So he walked straight forward toward them, intent on confronting
his target directly.
52
THE CONFRONTATION
THE PLAN WAS SIMPLE. The Dragon, Paiiniak, wanted to keep the
peace between Xhag’duul and us. So all we had to do was go along
with that. A simple “yes, clearly you are wiser than us, please help us
accomplish peace,” and Paiiniak went along with it.
And what did it do to help? Well, perch up high above us, as
visible as it could be, to signal to Xhag’duul where we were.
Something so obvious, he would have to come to us, right?
Obviously, I was taking advantage of the Dragon’s kindness a bit
there. But I was also taking advantage of its ego and utter lack of
perspective. It seemed like it was so completely out of touch with
reality that not only could it not understand the idea that maybe
peace wasn’t possible here, but it also didn’t realize that Xhag’duul
would probably want to stay away from a massive Dragon, not go
near it.
That was the main thing we were banking on, at least. The
gamble was that if Xhag’duul saw the Dragon, he would avoid it. But
it was the best chance we had. If he had some way to know our
general location—knowing that we left the road, where we left the
road, and what direction we left the road would all require that—then
the Dragon would be our last hope. If he didn’t have any of that basic
information, he wouldn’t have had any way to see the Dragon
anyway, so it wasn’t like we were taking some huge risk, either.
But if he did have some way to find our general location and he
saw the Dragon, scaring him off was our best bet. Otherwise, he’d
easily zero in on us. It also served to ward off any other predators.
So, with Paiiniak getting attention for our “peace meeting,” we set
off and continued forward to the Barinruth Empire. We had to be
close by now, I thought. I didn’t expect the Dragon to buy us an
infinite amount of time, but if we could just get a bit more, maybe we
could get there. We, of course, explained to Paiiniak that we were
just running in an attempt to find Xhag’duul ourselves, too, and to
just stick above us if we ever moved too far away.
As we swiftly moved through the forest, we tried our best to keep
an eye out for any threats and cover up the tracks we left behind. I
kept track of the time, too. When we’d died in the last timeline, it had
been around noon. Then I reset time and went back a few hours, but
by this point, enough time had passed that it was a bit past noon
now. That meant the Demon had probably gotten to where we’d
been before. If he had any way to track us, he’d probably be close
on our tail by now.
Stressful minute after stressful minute passed as we traveled
through the rocky mountains as quickly as possible while also being
as stealthy as possible. Every now and then, Paiiniak would swoop
through the air to keep itself above us, which I was thankful for
because of the protection, but it also startled me beyond belief every
time because of the noise. Despite my heightened nerves, we didn’t
have any hostile encounters. Maybe our strategy with the Dragon
was actually working. At the very least, it seemed to be deterring the
nearby Drakes; every time it moved, I could see a couple more of the
smaller scaled beasts fly off from their resting points, away from its
intimidating presence.
Who knew how long it’d take until that Demon saw through our
ruse, though.
Another minute passed. And another, and another. Every hill we
climbed, every corner we turned, I hoped more than anything we’d
see a sign of civilization. And every time we didn’t see it, I lost a bit
more hope. If we couldn’t reach them now, while we were moving as
quickly as we could, how could we ever hope to survive the Demon?
I had exactly one more try after this. If we found out it was
impossible to reach now, what could we even attempt next time?
I climbed through a gap between two boulders, squeezing
through the wall and tumbling out the other side. And once I was
through, I looked around at my surroundings, trying to figure out
where to go next. But when I glanced ahead, I saw something that
almost made me cry from joy.
Civilization.
Not anything huge—no city, or even village. But it was a small
outpost, probably around a thousand paces away. From my
perspective, it was a tiny dot in the landscape, but I could see some
figures moving around on it. Were they guards? It made sense that
the Barinruth Empire, whose borders were nestled up close to
Kingdom’s Edge, would need to keep guard outposts near the
mountain range that housed Drakes and Dragons nearby. And if they
did employ these guards, they’d obviously have to be seriously high-
Leveled in order to repel such monsters.
In short, it was our salvation. So close! It wouldn’t take more than
a few minutes to get there.
I looked back and hurriedly helped Erani and Ainash through the
gap between the boulders, too, silently messaging Ainash and
asking her to pass the word along to Erani. “Guard outpost! A
thousand paces or so ahead, right where those paths cross!”
I watched as both of their expressions lit up in joy and relief and
they gazed upon the same sight of salvation that I’d seen. There was
the slight issue of the Dragon above us and how it’d probably follow
us right up to the guards employed precisely to repel such a
monster, but that problem was much preferred to the Demon chasing
us. We just needed to get help from them, and our lives would be
saved.
Taking care not to trip and fall, I quickly began making my way
down the steep slope down the mountain range, beginning what
seemed to be our last journey alone in this gods-forsaken valley. But
just as I took my first steps, I heard movement from above. Glancing
upward, I saw the Dragon, Paiiniak, shift its head to look over behind
us. What was it looking at? It squinted its eyes, like it was trying to
confirm what it saw, and then…
“Ah!” it exclaimed in a thunderous boom of a voice. “A Demon!
You must be here for the peace treaty.”
Blood drained from my face. I couldn’t even yell up at Paiiniak to
shut up, because to do so would give my position away regardless. I
mentally screamed at Ainash to please ask the Dragon to shut its
mouth—make up some sort of lie, quick, to get it to feign aggression
and scare it away, or act like it was some peace treaty involving
people other than us, or something. But as I did so, I heard a muffled
voice come up from behind us, shouting up at the Dragon. I couldn’t
make it out, but I recognized the tone.
“Yes, yes, with those two Human fellows and the Nymph,”
Paiiniak responded to the voice’s question. “They’re right down here,
below me! I do hope you can hash out your differences.”
With that, I simply made the decision to sprint away as quickly as
I could, Erani seeming to arrive at the same conclusion as I did and
running alongside me, pulling Ainash along by the arm. We were so
close—so gods-damned close—to safety. If we could just make it a
bit further, we’d get there.
I activated Expedite on all of us time after time after time, pushing
every one of us to our limits with the Spell in order to squeeze out as
many paces of distance as I could until the Demon inevitably saw us
and approached.
And, as if on cue, I heard a smashing sound and looked back to
see the two boulders we’d squeezed through blasted apart, shards
of stone exploding across the mountainside to reveal a familiar
Demon, sadistic grin on his face. He glanced back and forth until he
locked eyes with me, and his smile grew wider.
“Take care not to hurt each other!” Paiiniak shouted from above,
watching us both with a self-satisfied smile. Fucking idiot! I’d even
asked it not to call out to the Demon if it saw him. Why couldn’t it just
listen to what I said?!
“Sure, sure,” the Demon—Xhag’duul—called back up to it. “We’re
just going to have a little spar. Prove who’s stronger, just for fun.
Thanks again for pointing him out to me. Huge help.”
I looked back at our destination. We’d barely made any progress.
It was still nine hundred paces away, at least. With how much faster
this thing was than us, there was no possibility we’d even make it to
the halfway point before he slaughtered us all.
So I made a split-second decision.
I stopped in my tracks and turned to face my opponent.
“Arlan!” Erani turned to me, trying to tug me along.
“Go!” I said. “Get help, now! I have Dark Plate and Expedite, I
can probably hold him off for a bit of extra time.”
“I’ll leave Ainash to help you⁠—”
“No!” I said, remembering the grisly sight of her head being
crushed between the monster’s fingers. I didn’t care if I could reset
things, I couldn’t watch it happen again. “Take her along. Protect her.
Just get help, and come back for me.”
Ainash, no doubt feeling the emotion I felt in that moment, looked
at me with teary eyes.

deepened.
changes:
I suppressed a laugh at the notification. What a consolation prize.

Maybe the two extra Stats would help me with the Demon that could
one-shot me?
Erani took a fraction of a second to get one last look at me, and
then turned and ran, tugging Ainash with her and continuing down
the hill and toward the outpost.
“How sweet.” I heard a voice directly behind me.
I jumped and turned to face Xhag’duul, who was standing with his
face right up to mine. I could feel his breath as he exhaled a sigh and
leaned back, putting maybe a single pace of distance between us.
He’d really crossed all that distance in the time I’d just exchanged a
few words with Erani.
“At least, I’d say it was sweet, if it wasn’t completely idiotic,” the
Demon continued. “You think you can hold me off? For that long?”
I took a few steps back, trying to control my breathing. Just keep
him occupied. I knew from experience that he liked to talk. Maybe
he’d lose track of time if I kept him going.
“I mean, you’ve fought me before, right? Well, I assume that’s
what this was all about.” He gestured all around himself. “You’ve died
to me once before, and now that you know you can’t beat me, you’re
trying to run? It’s pathetic. But at least I get to know for sure that
you’re weak enough to know, yourself, that you can’t do anything to
kill me. Boosts my confidence a little. Tell me, how many times have
you died to me so far? It’s been my little theory so far that you only
get one reset per day, but maybe it works more like Temporus and
you get a couple?”
I just looked at him as he peered through the gaps in my helmet,
saying nothing.
Then he shrugged. “Fine. If you don’t want to have a little
conversation, we don’t have to. Let’s just get this over⁠—”
“Once,” I spat out, desperate to keep him from initiating combat.
“I’ve died to you once.”
“Just the one time, huh?” He nodded. “Makes sense. You fight
and die, so your next plan is to just run. You got any more lives in
that little Class of yours? Or is this your last? Will this version of me
get the pleasure of keeping the memories of your death?”
Mind racing, I began to form a plan in my head. Something that
may be able to put him on the backfoot. If my goal was just to keep
him talking, keep him occupied, maybe this could work. And… I went
over all of the different possibilities. Yes, yes, I could even spin this
around. I could get him on my side with this. If I played my cards
right here, I wouldn’t just stall the threat, I’d neutralize it completely!
With what little knowledge I had of this guy, he may have given me
just enough to pull this off.
“I’ve got more resets,” I said.
“Oh? How many?”
I straightened my back, trying to show as much false confidence
as I could. “One hundred.”
Xhag’duul’s face went slack.
53
THE CONVERSATION
XHAG’DUUL BLINKED, and for the first time, I saw this unbeatable
being actually show a bit of fear. “One…hundred?”
I nodded, getting a bit more confident. “Yeah, a hundred. How
else do you think I got past your forces every time? They were
competently set up, you know. Killed me a few dozen times each.
But it isn’t really fair when your opponent gets that many tries.
Wasn’t your fault, really.”
His hands shaking, he snarled at me. “You’re lying. That’s
absolute fucking bullshit. No fucking way it’s that powerful. I'm aware
of your Classes, you know. They don’t give you so much power right
away.”
“Mm.” I nodded. “Sure, you know about the common Classes, but
you don’t know about the rare ones. My Class comes from killing a
one-of-a-kind monster. It obviously rewards you for that.”
“No, no!” He shook his head. “No fucking way!”
I nodded. It was working even better than I’d expected. I knew
from the previous timeline that he seemed to feel like it wasn’t his
fault that he’d failed to kill me for so long. At least, his whole rant
about wanting to see me feel the same way he’d felt suggested that.
So I was basically just validating all of his fears and frustrations. His
whole operation was doomed from the start, I was telling him. He’d
never had any chance of beating me. And maybe, if I pulled this next
part off, I could convince him that he didn’t need to fight me at all.
“I get it,” I said. “You probably had nothing to do with this in the
first place. It sucks that you got pitted up against me. I’m sorry for
anything the people who forced you into this did to you for failing.
But, you know, I’m actually a bit surprised they expected you to win
in the first place.”
He shook his head. “How the fuck were any of us supposed to
know you could just get out of any fucking situation we put you in?!
We all got unlucky, nobody could have known!”
“No, I mean, Demons have a longer lifespan than Humans,
right?” I said. “Plenty of people have gotten this Class in the past.
We’ve got it in some of our history books. I looked into them and
found some basic info. So wouldn’t most Demons already know
about the things the Class got?”
He looked into my eyes. “…What?”
“Well, I get that most of you guys wouldn’t know. It was a long
time back, after all, and it isn’t all that well-documented on our side,
either. But I’d be willing to bet that some of the Demons would’ve
lived long enough to have encountered the people who stole this
Class from the Underworld, too. They’d definitely know it’s basically
impossible to beat the Class.”
“…No,” he said. “That’s ridiculous. I haven’t heard of anything like
this. Not from my superiors, not from any of the Diviners, not from
the underlings who worked closely with the Overworld…”
“Weird.” I shrugged, trying to find the perfect time to hit him with
the biggest part of all this. Putting all the pieces together, I had a
basic idea of what had happened with this Demon. When Ripley had
warned us about all of this, she said that she used to be given orders
by one Demon, whose name was something along the lines of
“Xhag’duul.” And then, he was replaced with another Demon whose
name started with “Quinmorada.” And she was both the one who
said she was ”dealing with” the first Demon, and the one who
announced the fact that they were sending in ”special forces” to kill
me now.
Obviously, that first Xhag’duul Demon was this one, who was
standing right in front of me. The second one, though, must have
been someone who was in charge of him. If she got to make the
decisions over what he did, that must have been her. And
considering the number of times he’d derided the people above him,
he probably held some resentment toward her. In fact, it seemed like
he felt like she was just lording her power over him and forcing him
into unwinnable situations. That’d been what he’d said in the
previous timeline. So, if that was the case…
“In the books, they actually mentioned the Demon who the most
recent user of this Class fought against,” I said. “Maybe she’s
already dead, though. Could’ve been too long ago.”
He looked at me. “What was her name?”
“Oh, I don’t remember that.” I shrugged, trying to keep myself
from shaking. “You know how Demon names are, I’m sure. Us
Humans just don’t get them.”
“Just…” He closed his eyes and shook his head again. “Do you
remember something, anything, about it? Tell me the name.”
I put a hand to my chin. “I think it started with a…K? Something
like Kwit…or, no. Was it a Q? Right, right, it was something like
Quitnorda, or, or was it something like… Quinmorada?”
His eyes lit up with rage the moment I said the name. “That
name. Wh-where did you hear it?”
“Yeah, yeah, I think it was Quinmorada,” I said, nodding. “Why?
Do you recognize it?”
He shook his head, laughing in frustration. “I fucking knew it! I
knew she was pulling some shit! That fucking bitch. She just set me
up for fucking failure. She hasn’t even beaten these bullshit fucking
powers, either! She lost, and she knew it was impossible to beat.
She knew it wasn’t my fault, any of the fucking times you got away.
She just wanted to get rid of me. Just wanted to berate me, demote
me, try to fucking kill me.”
I did my best not to sigh in relief. He’d bought it. It was a gamble,
that was for sure, but he’d actually bought it. People believed what
they wanted to believe, and it seemed like whatever was going on
with this guy, he desperately wanted to believe that none of this was
his fault. He wanted a scapegoat. And I’d given him one.
He continued rambling about how he’d been set up, and I fought
my urge to look back at Erani and Ainash still on their way to the
outpost. It’d been a while. Had they gotten there? Were they on their
way back yet?
“Were there any other names?” Xhag’duul’s voice snapped me
back to our conversation.
“What?”
“Did those history books mention anyone else who knew?”
“Uh, no. No, just the one.”
“Hm.” He nodded. He seemed a lot more composed now. Ideally,
he’d conclude that he just needed to go back down to the
Underworld and kill the people that’d wronged him, or whatever. Or
just desert from their forces and live on his own, away from me. “I
honestly thought a couple more would be in on it, but I guess it
makes sense if it’s just her.”
“R-right,” I said. “So, truce?”
He squinted at me. “What?”
“I mean, if you have this enemy in your ranks, why would you
want to do just what she wants?”
He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think you get it. I have to
do what she wants.”
“What? No. No, you can beat her, right? I mean, she wants you
dead, remember what you just said? Why would you go along with
her plans?”
He laughed bitterly. “Yeah, you definitely don’t get it. Y’know, I
didn’t ever think I’d say something like this, but you Humans are
lucky. You have no idea how good you have it down here. I don’t
want to go along with her plans. I have to operate within the bounds
placed around me. It’s completely impossible for me to survive
otherwise.”
“But don’t you understand it’s impossible for you to survive if you
do? I mean, even if you do kill me, you still have to face her. She’s
plotting against you, right? There’s no way she’ll just let you go.”
“But there’s an even lower probability I’ll be let go if I don’t kill
you.” He shrugged. “Simple game of odds. And I intend to win.”
“You don’t have to⁠—”

Your Health is 240.
I was interrupted by an impact to my chest, and my body went

flying. I ragdolled through the air, hitting the ground and rolling
downhill as I struggled to control my flailing body.
“Don’t hurt each other, you two!” I heard the voice of Paiiniak
halfheartedly call out as I tumbled along the rocky ground.
Eventually, I came to a stop, sick to my stomach from the pain
and from the fact that my vision had been spinning the whole way
down.
C’mon, I mentally urged the Dark Plate. Fix yourself.

After triggering, the plate would be ”broken” and unable to trigger
again for around the next forty seconds. It still stayed on me, though,
so as long as I could survive that off-period, the armor would be able
to protect me again afterward. And with Regenerate, I was able to
get my Health back up to a point where I’d be able to survive another
hit equal to half my maximum Health.
The problem was surviving the next forty seconds.
“I don’t care if I have to kill you ten times,” Xhag’duul said,
marching slowly down the hill. “I don’t care if I have to kill you a
hundred. Fuck, I don’t care if I have to kill you a thousand times. It’ll
happen.”
“But don’t you…” I coughed, trying to pull myself back to my feet
as he approached. “Don’t you realize you can escape the people
above you? It doesn’t have to be this way. You can live the life you
want to live.”
“No, no,” he said, “that’s not on the table for me. And I don’t
suspect it’s on the table for you, either. I’ll kill you. And you know I
will. Your little show back there, trying to convince me to spare you?
It proves it. I don’t know how much of what you said was a lie.
Probably most of it. But at the very least, you don’t seem to be very
confident in your abilities to beat me. If you were, you’d just get rid of
me and be done with it.”
“What, I can’t try to solve things peacefully?”
He laughed. “Peacefully? We both know you would never do that
willingly. I’ve killed thousands of your species. I’ve destroyed your
home. I’ve made your life a living hell—nearly as bad as the one I
live every day. And I know damn well that I’d take any chance I got to
kill the people who made my life the way it is. Hence why I’m not
passing up this opportunity to end you. And you’re the same as me.”
He reached out his hand and snapped his fingers.
You have been cursed with Inferno. You have been set on fire.
Instantly, my body burst in heat and flame.
You have been burned. 18 damage.

13.
Your Health is 243.
I dropped to the ground, trying to ignore the agony of the fire and
roll around in my clunky armor to extinguish it. It didn’t work, though.
I knew it wouldn’t—you couldn’t end magical fire through mundane
means. But my mind wasn’t thinking rationally as I attempted to stop
my skin from melting.
“There’s something you don’t seem to get here,” Xhag’duul said,
continuing to calmly approach.

13.
Your Health is 230.
“No matter how many tries you get, no matter how many attempts
you make,” he said.

13.
Your Health is 217.
“No matter how clever you are, or what ideas you come up with.”

13.
Your Health is 204.
“If someone is stronger than you, and they’re faster than you, and
they’ve got big enough numbers.”

13.
Your Health is 191.
“Then you simply can’t beat them. No matter what. You need to
learn what I did long ago, Human. Sometimes, it’s just hopeless.”
“Talking with guards now!” I got a message from Ainash. The
signal was faint, probably because she was so far away, but I could
still barely pick up what she was saying. “Hold on little longer, and
will come with help!”
But it was too late, anyway.
Xhag’duul stepped over my body as the flames began to die out.
He lifted his foot above my face and sighed. “You just gotta learn
when to quit.”
You have died.
And then I was back, five hours before. No more uses of Time Loop
left. This was my last shot.
We were all moving down the road, currently. We’d probably only
recently left after I woke everyone up last time.
Erani turned to me, seeing that my expression had changed.
“What’s wrong?”
But before I could respond, I saw Ainash. She was wide-eyed,
staring off into the sky with a shocked expression on her face. She’d
stopped in her tracks the moment I arrived in this timeline. This didn’t
happen before; what had changed?
“…You okay?” I asked.
She frantically turned to me. “Memories! Have memories, from
future! Know what will happen! Need to get to the outpost, with
Humans, they will help!”
54
THE GOODBYE
AINASH FRANTICALLY TURNED TO ME. “Memories! Have

memories, from future! Know what will happen! Need to get to the
outpost, with Humans, they will help!”
For a moment, I stood there, trying to process what she was
saying. Memories? From the future? How in the hells⁠—
Erani spoke, breaking me from my thoughts. “Arlan, did you hear
her? What’s going on?”
“I…I don’t know.” I shook my head. I was still reeling from the
recent death, and now this? I couldn’t think. “I just got back.
Xhag’duul killed me, and⁠—”
“Wait, you had to go back again? So our new plan didn’t work?
We’re on our last try?”
“Y-yeah,” I said. “Just let me⁠—”
“There was this bad guy Demon, and he broke a big rock, and
there was this big Dragon, and it told on us! And then I went and
talked to Humans, and mother, you were there too, and you said
‘please help’ and the Humans said something and I couldn’t
understand them but I could tell they wanted to help but they were
scared and so were we and then⁠—”
“Please just hold on!” I said. Her mental words were loud and
frantic enough that I physically couldn’t hear anything else. I took a
deep breath and sat on the ground, trying to calm myself.
“Father, why are you sitting? We have to go! There is a bad guy
coming! He killed you!”
“I—I know,” I said. “Just please give me a moment. I have to
think.”
Ainash pouted, but relented in her speech.
“Index,” I said, “why is this happening? Why can she remember?”
“Well, think about it. What happened differently in the last loop
that hasn’t ever happened before?”
I tried to calm my still-racing thoughts and remember the events
that’d transpired. What had happened that hasn’t ever happened
before? It couldn’t have had anything to do with the Demon
Xhag’duul, we’d already met him and it didn’t seem like he’d done
anything. And I couldn’t think of anything Paiiniak could have done,
either. What else was new?
No, I was thinking about this wrong. Something had happened to
Ainash, not me. What had happened with her that had never
happened before? My mind instantly went to those other Humans
she’d met. Could they have done something? I don’t know, cast a
Spell that Ainash hadn’t noticed?
“Check Time Loop’s description again for me,” Index said, clearly
trying to steer me onto the right track.
I looked over the description.
Time Loop – Rank 18

+ Extended Loop
Type: Activated
Go up to 5 hours back in time, resetting your Health, Stamina,
Mana, and other cooldowns—as well as the rest of the world—but
preserving your memories and the rest of your Status.
This Talent activates at will, or automatically when you would die.
This Talent may only be activated twice per day.
Yeah, everything looked normal. But apparently there was

something here that was supposed to tip me off to what happened? I
looked over it again, eyes drawn to the phrase “your memories and
the rest of your Status.” If something was happening, it had to have
been happening there—that was what talked about what it
preserved.
So, my memory and the rest of my Status. Obviously, my
memory was being preserved as intended. What about my Status? I
looked it over, too. Yes, yes, everything seemed to be in order. Even
the next Rank of the Bond I’d gotten in the previous timeline was
there.
Wait. The previous Bond Rank? How did that work? It made
sense that it was preserved, I supposed—Time Loop said it would
preserve my Status, so if it was a part of my Status, it would be
preserved.
But the Bond wasn’t a simple arbitrary number, like my Level or
Stats. It represented something real. The actual emotional
connection between me and Ainash. And that emotional connection
was made up of…memories. Memories that, in the System’s attempt
to preserve my Status, it preserved, too.
And so, since at least some of those memories were housed in
Ainash’s mind, that meant that the System decided to allow her to
keep them. That all made sense. Except…
“You’re wondering why she kept all of her memories of the past
loop, right?”
Index was spot-on. Sure, she kept her memories of what
increased the Bond Rank. But why did she also keep her memories
of what’d happened after? She only spoke to the Humans after the
Bond Rank had increased, after all.
“Well, you’re pretty much there, so I can take you the last bit.
Basically, memories are really, really complex things. And the
System…doesn’t really like complexities. It operates in numbers,
right? And sure, it can sometimes make programs like me that can
better understand your little minds, but it’s one thing to understand
something, and a whole other thing to change it. To selectively keep
some memories while deleting others? That just isn’t something it’s
meant to do. So, instead, it just keeps the whole lot of them.”
“Wait,” I said, thinking about the implications of this. “So if I ever
reset time to a point before I increased our Bond Rank, then she’ll
keep all of her memories, no matter what?”
“Precisely.”
That was certainly good to know. I mean, the implications of the
many ways this could be abused practically flooded my mind,
threatening to keep me locked in place forever just pondering the
opportunities. But I got myself back on track. That was neat and all,
but I needed something that could help now. It was good that she
remembered everything, but without any more uses of Time Loop, I
couldn’t abuse that quirk of the Talent any further. I needed to make
do with what I had.
“Index, do you know what we can do to escape that Demon? You
said before that you get a bunch more information you can tell me
once I’ve died to something, and I’ve died to him twice. Does he
have some great weakness, or something? Something I can exploit
to kill him, or at least make him go away?”
“Well, I definitely have a lot I can tell you about him—I can tell
you about Devils as a species, about that one’s specific abilities, and
about some of the general societal concepts of the Underworld. But
as for some great weakness that’ll kill the thing instantly? I’m not
sure.”
“Fuck,” I said more loudly. “Fuck!”
Erani put a hand on my shoulder. “Arlan? Are you okay?”
“No,” I said. “I’m not. We’re fucked. We’re going to die. That thing
—that Demon. He’s way too strong. We can’t run, we can’t hide. And
for some gods-damned reason, he has it in his dumb fucking head
that the only way he will ever be happy is by killing me. So I can’t do
shit to convince him to leave us alone.”
“Are not going to die!” Ainash said. “Have visions! Can go to
Humans and ask for help.”
“We don’t have time to get to them,” I said. “Those visions came
from my Talent. I know as well as you do. By the time you got to
them, it was too late. I was already dead.”
“Just needed little bit more time!”
“The Demon killed me the moment he knew you were talking to
them. The only reason it was so close was because he let it get so
close. We’re fucking putty in his hands.”
“I…” Ainash paused, brows furrowed in thought. “You go with
mother, I will fight Demon.”
“What?! No. Absolutely not.”
“If I fight Demon, you get help, you will not be hurt.”
“But you will. And he’ll end up killing us all anyway. In fact, he’s
probably quick enough that he’d just go right past you and still attack
me. It’s me he wants, not you. You wouldn’t do anything but be an
obstacle he has to run around.”
“Arlan.” Erani looked into my eyes. “Don’t talk to her like that.
We’re going to survive, because that’s what we do.”
I sighed and shook my head. She was right; I didn’t need to be so
harsh. “I’m sorry. But we can’t fight that Demon and win. It’s
obvious.”
“Then what can we do?”
I rubbed my temples, wracking my brain for some semblance of
an answer. We couldn’t fight, we couldn’t run, we couldn’t hide, and I
was the only one who even had a chance of stalling the Demon for
time. And even if I did stall him for a bit, he’d still just end up killing
me and then he’d…he’d…
He’d go home.
He’d leave if I died. It was obvious. He didn’t give a shit about
Erani or Ainash. He didn’t want them dead. They were just obstacles
in his goal to get to me. That was why I worked as a distraction in the
first place.
“Erani, Ainash, I do have an idea,” I said. “I just don’t think you’re
going to like it.”
“What?”
“I’m the one he’s looking for. He wants me dead. So if I’m with
you two, I just endanger you both. We need to split up. You two go
ahead, and I stay here to keep him busy.”
“You just said you’d die if you did that.”
“I…I have an idea. Something to keep me alive,” I lied. Of course
I didn’t have anything. They just needed to get away from me. “If I
can stay alive for long enough, you two can get help and come back,
and then you can fight him off and we’ll all survive.”
“What? What are you talking about? What could possibly keep
you alive?”
“I can’t tell you,” I said. There was no way they’d let me leave
them otherwise. They had to believe I wouldn’t be in danger. But if
they went to the Barinruth Empire while I was fighting Xhag’duul,
they’d be safe. And by the time they’d get back, Xhag’duul would be
long gone, and so would I. I didn’t intend to just lay down and let him
kill me—I’d fight for my gods-forsaken life—but I didn’t expect to win.
At the very least, if I had a bad read on the thing and he did want to
kill Erani and Ainash after he killed me, I’d make sure they’d have a
bit more time to escape.
“Arlan,” Erani said, “what is this plan? I can’t just go along with it
without even knowing what you’re talking about.”
“Just trust me,” I said. “You’ll be safe. This is the only way.”
Ainash looked at me strangely, but didn’t protest.
“Listen,” I continued, “we’re wasting time standing around and
arguing. He’s already on his way. We need to move as far as
possible before he gets here, so it’s a short distance for you to travel
when you get help.”
She exhaled. “Fine.”
Hours passed. Hours when I went over everything I knew about my

enemy. And hours when I came up with nothing better than just
letting him kill me and fuck off forever. After everything, after coming
so damn far, I was going to die here. Minutes from safety. Minutes
from being able to live the rest of my life. But the effort wasn’t
wasted. I’d tried to save myself, and I’d failed. I made my peace with
that. But if I could save the people I cared about, I’d do it in a
heartbeat.
And that was what I intended to do.
Erani tried asking several more times what I planned to do over
the course of the first couple hours, which I of course refused to tell
her each time, but after a bit she stopped asking. Both she and
Ainash were quiet after that—I supposed they both understood some
of the gravity of the situation, even if I was hiding most of it.
Eventually, it got to be time. Around ten minutes before the
Demon had arrived in the previous timeline. I stopped, and motioned
for them to stop, too. I’d been using most of my Mana to keep us
moving quickly with Expedite, and I needed to stop now if I intended
to regenerate it all in time—I wasn’t going to put myself in any sort of
weakened state before the fight. If there was anything I could say, it
was that the timeline Xhag’duul remembered killing me in would not
have him remembering it as an easy fight. He wouldn’t get to feel
good about it, he wouldn’t get to feel proud. It’d be a beatdown both
ways, one where I did my damndest to kill him, too.
“Erani, Ainash, you two still have your invisibility rings, right?” I
asked. I’d used both of mine back in the fight with Astintash, so I
didn’t have any left. But Erani and Ainash had only used one each,
so they still both had one remaining.
“Yes,” Erani said, looking at me strangely. Ainash confirmed as
well.
“Good,” I said. “Use them now, when you leave to go to get help.
That way, if Xhag’duul manages to slip past me or something, he still
won’t be able to find you.”
“Sure,” Erani said, nodding. I was glad she wasn’t arguing
anymore, at least. My worst-case scenario would be her and Ainash
coming back after leaving and realizing I was going to lose the fight,
trying to interfere, and then dying themselves. No way I would let
myself lose my life for nothing.
“Okay,” I said. “Then this is where we part ways.”
“It is,” she said. “Don’t die, okay? I’ll kill you if you do.”
“Father, if you get in trouble, try to sever the Demon’s head from
his body. It will kill him.”
“Sure, kiddo.” I laughed and patted her head, though it ended up
being a bit awkward, with her being taller than me. “Erani, I’ll do my
best to stay alive.”
“You say that like you don’t know whether you’ll succeed.”
“Everything’s a risk.”
“But you shouldn’t take any unnecessary ones.”
“But sometimes you just have to.”
“Arlan.” Tears were welling in her eyes. “You absolutely cannot
die, okay? Don’t play with me like that. You just can’t. It’s not
allowed.”
“I wasn’t aware you made the rules,” I laughed. I didn’t want to
cry, but I couldn’t do much to hold back tears of my own, either. “But
if you say so. I’ll try not to break your rule.”
“Promise me?”
I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around her. Our faces were
close enough that I could see the salty tears roll down her cheeks
and fall to the dry ground. “…Yeah. I promise.”
“And if you break that promise?”
“I think I’ll be dead if I break it,” I laughed. “Not sure I can do
anything about it then.”
“Then you’ll just have to pay it forward. Give me something. Call
it collateral.”
“What, you won’t give it back to me if I die? Not sure if I’ll be
using anything at that point.”
“Just humor me, dammit,” she chuckled, body pressed against
mine, shaking more tears from her cheeks.
“Fine, fine. Tell you what. I think I have a great idea of what to
give you. If I live, you have to give it back to me, though.”
“And what’s that?”
I leaned forward and pushed my lips against hers.
For a moment, a brief moment, it was like nothing was happening
but that. But that small, insignificant kiss. A brief moment that meant
everything in the entire world. Everything and more. Something that
consumed my mind and my worries, refusing to allow me to think
about anything else.
She froze for a second, then leaned into it herself. A few seconds
passed, and then she pulled away. Our cheeks had pushed together
and made watery messes of both of our faces, and we were each
blushing hard enough to make it look even worse. My heart was
beating faster than it had in any fight for my life, and I could feel hers
pulsing to the same rhythm.
“I expect you to give me that back if I live,” I said.
She smiled a bittersweet smile. “I guess that makes for some
good encouragement. But it just makes it worse for me if you die,
too.”
I sighed. Telling her this one lie over and over felt like it’d kill me
before the Demon would. “Trust me. I’ll live.”
“Okay. You better.” She took a deep breath, and I could feel her
hands tightly clench the fabric of the back of my shirt. “I love you,
Arlan.”
And then she vanished into invisibility. I looked over, and Ainash
was gone, too. I wasn’t sure if she could hear me, but I said quietly,
“I love you too. Goodbye.”
And then I turned around, looking toward the empty stretch of
road I’d just traveled, canyon walls on my either side.
“Alright, you Demon motherfucker. Do your worst. Because I sure
as the hells just did mine.”
55
THE LAST STAND
SECONDS PASSED. Then a minute. Then two, three, four, five. I

stood there, waiting for the Demon that would be my death to come
to me. I had 480 Health, 231 Stamina, and 1220 Mana at my
disposal, and I intended to use every last point, every last Stat, every
last Spell and Talent, every last muscle in my body, thought in my
mind, and droplet of determination left in my soul to bring that
Demon’s home plane up to the Overworld and make him experience
a living hell. I didn’t care if I died. He would not get to enjoy it.
I felt completely paranoid in my time waiting. There were a few
boulders around me, fallen from the sheer cliffs making up the walls
of the canyon, and I kept hearing footsteps or hearing movement
from around here. But when I checked my surroundings for the
hundredth time for some sort of ambush, I saw nothing. It was only a
few minutes, but evidently waiting any amount of time for your
certain demise wasn’t exactly healthy for the mind.
So when I saw, over the horizon and down the road, a cloud of
dust approaching me, it almost felt like a relief. Followed directly by
what seemed like a heart attack as I realized that, realistically, I
probably only had a minute or two left before I was dead. I’d
experienced death before—seen my Health drop to 0, seen the “you
have died” notification, everything—but I’d never experienced that
feeling of losing consciousness and never regaining it. Seemed like
I’d finally get to know what the full package was like.
The cloud of dust came closer and closer, and I saw more and
more detail in the familiar sight. The silhouette sprinting at
supernatural speed. It was him.
Step after step after step after step as he traveled pace after
pace after pace after pace. Closer and closer, until⁠—
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Crippling Chill. For the
next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina
each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
Frost.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Ray of Frost. For the next
5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 7.76.
I unleashed my barrage of curses on the Demon the moment he

was in range, and then sprinted forward, myself. Crippling Chill, Ray
of Frost, Gravity Well—all of the effects tore into his Status and
weakened his immensely powerful body. Not a terribly impactful
effect, but every bit counted.
“Right into it, huh?” I could hear him laugh right before I got into
striking range.
Index, I thought, I want live readouts on whatever you can tell me
about this guy. Health, Stamina, abilities he might activate, stuff like
that.
“Health? Well, after that Ray of Frost and about a second of
Crippling Chill, we’re at, what, ninety-nine point…eight percent? Not
much to tell you in that department.”
Just tell me when it starts falling low!
I knew about some of his abilities from experience, and Index had
given me a bit more specific knowledge while I’d waited for him to
arrive. I knew he had two main pieces to his arsenal: first, his
physical power. That much was obvious. One hit from him was
enough to kill most low- to mid-Level things. Second, his ability to set
pretty much anything he wanted on fire at will. Honestly, despite the
fact that his physical attacks dealt so much damage, that was what
scared me most about him.
The thing about the physical attacks was that I could at least
control when he hit me. Sure, I couldn’t control it very well
considering his immense speed, but it was at least something I could
attempt to protect myself from. The fire? That was at will. No
defense, no countermeasures. And even if it would take longer to kill
me that way, I would pretty much have nothing I could do about it the
moment it started. I certainly couldn’t fight against him while my skin
was melting off, that was for sure. Maybe once that Bond with
Ainash Ranked up more, and I had a more sizable Heat Resistance
to protect me from the fire, but as is, I had basically no options
against that ability.
So while being within melee range of him was absolutely
dangerous, it was also my core strategy. If I kept him moving,
dodging, and on his toes, he wouldn’t have the time to stop and set
me ablaze. I just needed to keep him busy. And maybe, just maybe, I
could somehow chip away at his Health until he died. Or, more likely,
I could at least force him to work a bit before he killed me. And
maybe feel just a little bit of pain.
The moment I got close enough, I reached out to try and grab his
arm in an Expedite-boosted lunge, the spiked gauntlets of Dark Plate
forming a claw ready to grasp him and activate Noxious Grasp. But
just before I could reach him, he shifted his body to the side, leaving
me nothing to touch but air.
I stumbled past him and instantly turned to lunge again for
another strike.
“Eager, are we?” he asked in an infuriatingly conversational tone.
Why couldn’t he just take this seriously?
I once again fell past him as he easily dodged my strike. I turned
around and, this time, tried a new strategy. I still needed to make
physical contact in order to get that Fester with Noxious Grasp
active, as well as initiate Sanguine Bond. Every piece of my arsenal
mattered here. So I reached out in an attempt to grab him with my
right hand once again, just like I’d done before, but this time, while
my left was moving back as I twisted my body for more reach, I turn
my left hand’s palm to face the Demon just before he dodged and
shot a Ray of Frost straight into his eyes.

Frost.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Ray of Frost. For the next
5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 7.76.
“I really thought—ah! You dick!” He shouted in pain at the sudden

source of damage.
And in that moment, my hand reached his arm and brushed past
it.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Sanguine Bond. For the
next 10 seconds, or until Level 61 Devil is further than 10
paces away from you, the following effects are true:
He loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and 9.31 Mana per
second.
second.
With a split-second activation of both Sanguine Bond and

Noxious Grasp, I managed to hit him with both effects. At this point,
he had five separate debuffs wracking his Stats, Health, and
Stamina. Certainly nothing to scoff at, but he still seemed relatively
unfazed—only a minor fleck of annoyance on his face. Maybe some
of it was a ruse, though—acting tough just to get under my skin. I
hoped that was the case.
I turned again with my hand raised, ready to cast Ray of Frost. At
this point, my goal was just to keep him within ten paces, but far
enough away that he couldn’t hit me. And whenever an effect wore
off, I needed to approach again to reapply it. Not exactly an easy job,
but maybe I could manage it.
Xhag’duul turned toward me. “Okay. It seems like you want to
skip the formalities. If anything, I’m pleased. At least you understand
the gravity of what’s about to be done to you.”
And then he lunged forward. The moment he began to move, I
activated a stack of three Expedites on myself and stepped to the
side in an attempt to avoid his strike. And with the extreme boost in
mobility, I actually managed to do so. In what felt like slow motion,
his open hand flew right past where my head used to be, a gust of
wind blowing by my right ear in the wake of his arm. I backed away
again.
With my Mana running so low after all three activations of
Expedite—it’d just run below 550—I was forced to deactivate the
constant drain of Gravity Well, or be forced to face running out of
Mana very soon. And the moment I turned it off, Xhag’duul stood up
a little bit straighter. Though honestly, when comparing his immense
strength to his relatively light body weight, I doubted Gravity Well
had been doing much to actually hinder him.
He sighed and shook his head. “So you actually managed to
avoid an attack, huh? It’s fine, I guess you’ve gotten some practice
against me in a previous timeline. Though really, that terrified look on
your face really does make up for the extra effort I have to spend. It
is just so cathartic to look at. Maybe you’ve already heard me say
that too, though? Say, where are those two others you keep hanging
around? The girl and the pet?”
I took a breath. With my passive Mana regeneration and
Sanguine Bond running, I was getting back around 6 Mana every
second that passed with him just standing around talking. “Nowhere
you’ll find them. They’re long gone by now.”
“Oh, so what, this is some sort of distraction, then? Hate to break
it to you, but that’s a pretty moronic plan. I’m not looking for them,
dumbass. I’m looking for you. It doesn’t matter if they survive—I still
win. I’m happy whether they live or die. Did you not even think about
that?”
What was he talking about? This wasn’t some game with win and
loss conditions. My goal wasn’t to just make him unhappy as
possible. Did he not even realize? He must’ve had a pretty twisted
view of me in his head.
“Oh well.” He shrugged before I could respond. “I was looking
forward to killing them in front of you, but I guess I’ll just have to
settle with seeing you scream in agony.”
He raised his hand in a familiar motion—he was about to try and
use that Inferno ability on me! Before he could, I dashed forward in a
desperate attempt to keep him occupied. One, two, three Rays of
Frost shot from my hands, all hitting his body as I sprinted at him.
His hand continued to raise, his fingers closed together to snap,
but just before he did, I tackled straight into him, body colliding with
his in a rush of Dexterity-enhanced speed.
And it was like hitting a solid stone wall.

Your Health is 457.
My body crumpled up while he stayed completely still, not

relenting or moving a single bit despite my best efforts. I heaved out
an “ugh!” from the sudden, unexpectedly solid impact of what could
only generously be called a “tackle.”
I stumbled back with a groan.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Xhag’duul laughed. He took a step
forward. “I’m playing with you. You’re a toy to me. This is fun. What,
you really think you can hurt me? You think you can stop me from
doing something I want to do? You think you can kill me? You’re
even more of a complete fucking idiot than I thought.”
Crippling Chill’s timer wore off, and so did Sanguine Bond.
“Well?” he said. “What do you have to say? Got any grand
speech? Last words?”
I stood up straight, looking into his eyes. He looked at me. Then I
rushed back at him again, recasting Crippling Chill right before I
reached him in an attempt to catch him off guard. But, faster than
he’d been before, he sidestepped and slammed his fist into my back.
You have been punched. 61 damage.

Your Health is 396.
I stumbled forward from the sudden impact, falling face-first into

the dirt.
“Holy shit!” Xhag’duul laughed. “You are trying so hard! It’s
pointless, man! Pointless! There’s nothing you can do here. Total
waste of effort.”
I got back to my feet, breathing hard. Fuck. Why was I doing this?
He was laughing. Laughing! I knew I was going to die. And I’d
promised myself that if I died, I wouldn’t let this asshole enjoy it. But
here he was having the time of his life.
What’s his Health at? I mentally asked Index.
“Uh…above ninety percent.”
I let out an exhausted sigh. Stamina?
“That one’s below ninety percent, but not by much. Closer to
eighty.”
Well at least I’d made a dent. Still, seeing that his Stamina was
still so high while my Mana—the main method I had of draining his
Stamina—was already below half wasn’t exactly encouraging.
He wasn’t immortal, sure, but my efforts to hurt him were clearly
not working very well. I just didn’t have the methods to deal any real
damage to this guy. And the harder I tried, the more he seemed to
enjoy it.
Though that did make sense. Every time he fought me in the
past, he took joy in my suffering. He killed people in front of me just
to see how I’d react, he pretended to believe my lies just to see me
try and then burned me alive afterward, and now he was letting me
fight in this sham of a battle just for the sake of the apparent hilarity
of it all.
Or, no, not the hilarity. He was laughing, sure, but I thought back
to when he’d first killed me. He was upset. He was stressed, and
frustrated, and mad at the world, and he wanted to see someone
else feel the way he did. He wanted to upset me, to hurt me, to make
me feel hopeless, because that was what I’d inadvertently done to
him.
So, to make him suffer, to make him look back at this moment
and hate the memory, instead of love it, wouldn’t I just have to show
him it was impossible to make me feel that way? Show him that his
efforts were wasted?
Despite the physical pain and the emotional turmoil of knowing
my time alive was just about up, I laughed. And honestly, it was a
pretty genuine laugh. It may have been dark humor, but my situation
was still objectively funny. Someone as close as I was to escaping,
losing my life now? After everything, all of the enemies I’d slain,
some asshole I’d never even met was coming to end it all? So I
laughed.
Instantly, I could see some annoyance flash across Xhag’duul’s
face. “What? What’s so funny?”
“No, no, don’t worry about it,” I said. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“What wouldn’t I get? Have you just gone completely insane, or
something? Fucking dementia-ridden Humans. Maybe putting you
out of your misery would be doing you a favor.”
“No.” I laughed some more, settling with a simple smile on my
face. “I guess I just made my peace. I can’t control this stuff, so you
win. You did well, and you deserve the victory. Good job, man.
You’re strong, and you’re a pretty talented fighter to boot. It just
makes sense that someone weaker, like me, would lose to someone
stronger.”
“W-well, yeah, that’s true.” He seemed like he was trying to
convince himself. “Yeah, it’s true. You’re weak and I’m strong. It’s
ridiculous for you to resist. You’re a complete idiot for even trying,
actually.”
“That’s fair.” I nodded. “I guess I’m a bit dumb. Maybe I was an
idiot, but at least I realize now that I can’t fight fate. And I’m not doing
something so hubristic as trying to claim my death isn’t fair anymore.
I mean, saying something like ‘I don’t deserve this,’ when that’s just
how strength works? It was pretty idiotic of me, I agree. I do deserve
it. Every last bit of suffering. So lay it on me.”
Xhag’duul furrowed his brows. And I knew why. Whatever his
situation was, he felt like we were in similar predicaments. And he’d
said countless times how his suffering wasn’t fair, and how he didn’t
deserve any of it. This whole time, he wasn’t just trying to hurt me,
he was trying to goad me into agreeing with him, by having me say
the same things about my own life. All he wanted was for someone
to validate those feelings. And I refused to give it to him.
“Listen,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it isn’t
working.”
“What? What am I trying to do?”
“You’re trying to…get in my head, or something. This is just some
mind game to you. I know how you work. You trick people into
helping you. That’s how you got those royal guards to spare you,
how you got the Faeries to cure you, and probably how you got your
two little companions to like you in the first place. You’re a fucking
liar.”
“I don’t really see how that applies.” I shrugged. “I mean, I can’t
really convince you to leave me alone, can I? I have literally nothing
on you. You’re above me in every way. To assume that I could ever
hope to escape your grasp, get out from under your thumb, take any
sort of retaliation, that’d be pretty delusional of me, right? Even if you
spared me, you’d just lord that over my head for the rest of my life.
That I owe you everything. I don’t want an existence so pathetic that
I have to live every day worrying about what someone else wants me
to do, what someone else thinks of me, worrying about if that
someone else decides I’ve outlived my usefulness, and they want to
kill me now. I’d rather just be free.”
He snarled and began walking up to me. “You know what? Sure. I
think you have outlived your usefulness. Fucking asshole.”
I tensed up as I knew what was coming. But I couldn’t let the fear
show. He’d just enjoy it if I did. “Sure. Go ahead. I deserve it for
being so incompetent as to let you catch me in the first place.”
He grabbed me by my neck and threw me into a wall. Hard.
Harder than he’d done before, apparently fueled by anger.

Your Health is 156.
I coughed out in pain as the Dark Plate crunched and took the
blow for me. At least, it took most of the blow. I was still left with quite
a bit of damage.
I fell to the ground in the familiar scene, reminded of the first time
he’d killed me. But this time, I knew not to give him anything to cheer
him up.
I looked up at him as I activated Regenerate, healing what I
could. If nothing else, just to help relieve the pain. “Nice arm.”
“Shut the fuck up!” he screamed as he approached me. “Why the
fuck aren’t you dead?!”
“Got a Spell. Pretty useful sometimes. But feel free to try killing
me again. Should work eventually.”
“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Shut the fuck up!” The
Demon stomped his foot into the ground over and over, causing a
localized earthquake in what could only be called a child’s temper
tantrum. “You’re going to fucking die! Don’t you get that? Die. You
won’t exist anymore. Are you so fucking stupid that you don’t
understand that?! How can you not be afraid? How can you not want
to avoid it? How do you think it’s fair?! It’s not! It’s not fair! I’m killing
you for literally no reason! You did nothing wrong, and yet you’re still
being punished for it! Wanna know something? It was my mistake
that caused all of this. I was the one who didn’t maintain our prisons
well enough and let Temporus get loose. And because of that, all of
this happened to you. My mistakes led to your suffering. How is that
fair?!”
“Well, the powerful get to choose the punishments for the weak,”
I said, trying to hide the fact that I was gasping rasps of air through
my lungs. I slid up, so I was at least sitting instead of lying on the
ground. “I’m just not good enough to be able to defend myself. And
I’m at fault for that. Even if you made a mistake, I still mishandled the
situation afterward. And if you decide to punish me for that, then you
get to do so. You’re probably wiser than me anyway.”
“You are so fucking stupid! You just don’t get it! How in the fuck
do you not understand how fucking horrible this is?! What I’m doing
to you is the worst thing a person could ever do to someone else!”
I just shrugged. Let it be over, I thought. The pain from hitting that
wall, even with Regenerate, was awful. Maybe it’d get better in thirty
seconds or so if I kept activating the Talent, but I didn’t think I’d be
able to go that long without another hit. All I hoped was that the hit
would come before Dark Plate came back. That way I’d at least die
instantly.
But there was one source of solace from the pain. From knowing
I’d disappear for good soon. From knowing that I wouldn’t, after all,
get that kiss back from Erani. From knowing I’d leave Ainash with a
dead parent a second time. At least, even if I caused all that
suffering to the people I loved, I’d get to cause all this suffering for
the person I hated. It certainly wasn’t worth it—not by a long shot—
but it was something.
“Fuck! You!” Xhag’duul screamed and marched toward me, fist
clenched.
Guess this is it. I nodded to myself. End of the line.
But then, before he could reach me, Xhag’duul exploded in a ball
of fire.
…What?
56
THE TRUE BATTLE BEGINS
THE EXPLOSION DISSIPATED, leaving the Demon staring off to his

side with a scorch mark on his enraged face. Then something flew in
from the side again—a Firebolt, I recognized—and impacted him,
resulting in another explosion.
I looked over in the direction the Firebolts had come from and
saw nothing.
“Arlan, you fucking idiot!” a voice shouted. “You told me you’d do
your best to not die! What the fuck was that?!”
“Erani?!” I recognized the voice, the realization that she was here
enough to spur me from my stunned position sitting on the ground. I
quickly pushed myself up to my feet, trying to ignore the pain in my
body when I did so. “Why are you here?”
“Ainash could tell you were lying, you idiot,” she said. She was
tearing up—I could hear it. “You never had any intention to survive.
No way to survive. And I am not going to let you just give up like
that!”
Her voice was coming from my left, where I was looking, but I still
couldn’t see her. She was still under the effects of invisibility, I
realized. “Ainash is here too?”
“I am little bit far away,” the familiar voice said in my mind. “But
do not tell bad guy! I am sneaking.”
“You shouldn’t have stayed,” I said. Relief cracked my voice, but
also fear. It was one thing for me to lose my life at the hands of this
Demon. But if they died, too? It would’ve truly all been for nothing.
“You need to leave, before⁠—”
A scream of rage interrupted me. I turned back to see Xhag’duul
swipe his fist through the cloud of smoke that enveloped him. “You
think you can kill me with some puny fucking Spells?! Where the fuck
are you?!”
I backed away, eager to put some distance between me and the
clearly deranged Demon. Regenerate had finished doing its thing,
putting my Health back up to 186, but it wasn’t enough. Once Dark
Plate was active again in around 30 seconds, I needed to be above
240 to survive another hit. So I activated Regenerate once again,
praying that I’d be able to buy enough time to at least survive a bit
longer.
Since Erani and Ainash were still invisible, they were mostly safe
for now. I was still vulnerable, but thankfully Xhag’duul didn’t seem to
care about me at the moment.
“Interrupting my fucking execution! What the fuck is wrong with
you people?!” He stomped away, in the direction of where Erani’s
last Firebolt had come from. But I had no doubt that she was long
gone from there by now.
“What’s the plan? How are we escaping?” I mentally asked
Ainash.
“We are not escaping!” she replied. “Are going to kill the bad
guy!”
“Okay, please pass that question along to mom and tell me what
she says, not what you want to do.”
“Mother says so! Says that running will only lead to bad guy
catching up and killing us. So will kill the bad guy and then will be
safe forever.”
“What? How would we even begin to do that?”
“My job to kill bad guy!” she said. “Your job to get bad guy in right
spot to be killed.”
“And where’s that spot?”
“Do not know yet. Will tell you.”
“Arlan Nota!” Xhag’duul whipped around after searching the area
and not finding Erani. “What the fuck are you trying to do?”
I continued backing away. Regenerate had finished again, and
Health was up to 216, so it was time to activate it again.
“Not sure what you mean,” I said, trying my best to stall for time.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You called your fucking lackeys on me, huh?! I know you and
your devious little fucking lies and manipulations. You can silently
talk to those other two somehow. Probably have them stationed up in
sniper positions somewhere.” He looked wildly around at his
surroundings, up at the cliffs and at the few trees in sight. “This
whole time you were fucking mocking me to them. This was all
planned out, huh? Thought you were so fucking sneaky? Thought
you could plan out all those little jabs and comments just to make me
mad? Well, I figured you out, you stupid fucking dumbass!”
“You’re not quite there,” I said. “I didn’t really know about any of
this, either. Just got saved by some people who care about me.
Think you’re a little paranoid.”
“You smug motherfucker,” he growled, taking a step toward me.
Then another Firebolt appeared out of nowhere and sped
forward, straight into Xhag’duul’s face, exploding on impact.
“Fuck!” he screamed, holding a hand to the cheek it impacted. “I’ll
fucking kill you!”
I held up a hand, shooting him with a couple Rays of Frost. 57
damage. 62 damage. Mana was down to 514. Just keep him from
thinking. If he weren’t so angry in this moment, he’d probably have
understood that the correct course of action would just be to ignore
the distractions and kill me anyway. It wouldn’t take much time, and I
highly doubted the Firebolts caused him any more pain than
something like a wasp’s sting to us. Annoying, sure, and it would
definitely leave a mark, but not anything that was actually
concerning.
But in his current state, he wasn’t thinking about this logically.
And all we had to do was keep him like that. Well, evidently that was
the plan Erani and Ainash had made. Ainash had some sort of idea
to kill him soon, but first we had to buy her time to prepare whatever
it was she was doing.
“Arlan Nota, I swear to the lord below,” Xhag’duul growled, “you
will regret this so much. I will make you watch every single person
you love die. I will keep you alive just so you can see them scream in
agony. And then I’ll do everything I did to them, to you. So that you
know exactly how it felt when they died. So you know exactly how
much your decisions made them suffer. I will fucking⁠—”
He was cut off by another explosion coming from yet another
location. I kept backing away, trying to put enough distance between
us that I’d at least have some time to react if he ever made a move
toward me. But ten paces, even twenty paces wasn’t enough. Really,
I wouldn’t have any time at all.
Once again, Regenerate wore off. My Stamina was pretty low by
this point, so I didn’t want to activate it again if I didn’t have to. And
since my Health was at 246, I technically didn’t—it was above 240,
Dark Plate’s threshold. And I’d gotten another notification, too.
Dark Plate is no longer broken.
I was safe for one more hit, now. Though even if Dark Plate
saved me, I certainly wouldn’t be in very good shape afterward.
Xhag’duul picked up a loose stone from the ground around as big
as my head and threw it in the direction Erani’s last Firebolt had
come from. It was slung so fast through the air that I couldn’t even
follow, but a chest-shaking crack told me that it’d apparently
embedded itself in the stone wall behind the area. At least it hadn’t
found its target.
“Where the fuck are those damn Spells coming from…”
Xhag’duul muttered, glancing around the area.
Again, trying to keep him occupied, I fired off a few more Rays of
Frost, all of them hitting his back. “Hey bud, I’m still here. You’re not
done with me.”
“Oh, believe me, I am not done with you,” he said, turning to face
me. He seemed only slightly hurt by the hundreds of damage I’d
done to him with the Spell—and the probably thousands of damage
he’d taken from Erani.
“Yeah,” Index confirmed. “He’s still a bit above eighty percent.”
Yeah. We’d certainly dealt a significant amount, but we were low
on Mana, and I had a strong feeling that Xhag’duul would just kill me
instantly if he ever started to genuinely fear for his life. The damage
was just a distraction. If it kept him talking, it was working.
He continued, “I just want to get rid of your annoying little friend,
first. If you die before her, you don’t get to see her in pain. So you’ll
just have to wait, bud.”
“Well, good luck finding her,” I said. “Lost cause, if you ask me.
You can’t do anything, so just give up.”
“Me?” He laughed. “Give up? Yeah, sure. I’m the one who should
be afraid. I’m the one who should be hopeless. Go fuck yourself.
How’d you even get access to invisibility, anyway? Is this some other
miraculous fucking Spell you got that can save the day? Is there
anything you can’t do?”
“Maybe,” I said. He was still gazing across the edges of the cliffs
and along the ground, no doubt looking for hints of movement from
Erani. Just keep him distracted—apparently Ainash was working on
something. “I’ve definitely got a decent repertoire. What are your
Stats at, anyway? You don’t seem too hindered by my debuffs.”
“Oh, enough,” he said absentmindedly, seeming to grow more
and more frustrated as the seconds passed and he continued to see
no sign of Erani. “Oh, I remember now! You got those damn
invisibility rings from the stupid fucking scout we sent! The one you
murdered and looted the corpse of.”
“Not sure you get to be the one to criticize us for killing. You’ve
done more than enough. Tell me, how many people have you killed?”
“A few,” he said, squinting curiously and pausing for a moment.
Then he shrugged and quickly turned to me. “But I think I’ll go ahead
and add one more to my count.”
And then he sprinted straight at me, a crazed look of
determination on his face. I tried to backpedal, raising my arms in
defense despite knowing they wouldn’t help at all. Fuck, I was using
up my last lifeline already?! If he hit me here, I’d⁠—
But Xhag’duul’s advance was stopped short by an explosion at
his feet. Two more followed, each Firebolt being thrown straight into
his head. Xhag’duul bent over in pain, crouching down, his fingers
gripping in the dirt as he looked over at where the Spells had come
from.
Wait, what? How were they so painful that they stopped him in
his tracks and even knocked him to the ground? Something wasn’t⁠—
“There!” he shouted and flung his hands in the direction Erani
was still in. A barrage of rocks and pebbles shot through the air,
perforating the cliff face with the extreme force they’d been thrown
with.
I heard Erani scream in pain and she suddenly appeared, mid-
retreat from his attack. But evidently, she hadn’t been quick enough,
as the damage from the stones had cut her invisibility short.
Xhag’duul laughed and got back up to his feet. He shook his
head. “Stupid fucking Humans. Your flawed, emotional nature always
gets the better of you.”
I reached into my mind to try and activate as many curses on the
Demon as I could—maybe I could slow him down. But before I could
even cast a single Spell, he took a step forward so he could touch
me, reached out, grabbed the bicep on my right arm, and squeezed.
Hard.
You have been crushed. 70 damage.
Your Health is 176.
Your arm has been broken.
A snapping sound filled the air and a bolt of pain rushed through
my arm, shoulder, chest, entire body. I screamed and recoiled away,
trying to escape his grasp. And, surprisingly, it actually worked. I
looked up and saw that Xhag’duul had let go of me.
Then he reached up and slapped me across the side of my face
with the back of his hand, hitting me so hard I was tossed across the
air and to the ground.
You have been hit by something. 52 damage.

Your Health is 124.
I tumbled across the dirt. But in the instant he was touching me, I
managed to get off one Spell.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Sanguine Bond. For the
next 10 seconds, or until Level 61 Devil is further than 10
paces away from you, the following effects are true:
He loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and 9.31 Mana per
second.
second.
Not much, but I was below the necessary threshold of 240 Health
now. Maybe I could get enough Health regeneration to push me back
above it. But that would take a lot of time. Time I didn’t have. He was
here, and he was going to kill me.
But just as I thought that, my enemy turned away from me. I was
still groaning in pain, unable to do much in terms of inquiring what he
was up to. Then I remembered what he’d said. He had just revealed
Erani from her invisibility. And he wanted me to watch her die.
“Fuck,” I coughed weakly. “No. No!”
I raised my only good arm and pointed my hand at the Demon as
he began to walk away, hitting him with a couple poorly aimed Rays
of Frost for a few dozen damage apiece. He ignored them,
continuing in his stride toward her. I chased after him, trying my best
to ignore the pain in my arm as it flopped uselessly by my side.
Erani was backing away, hand raised in preparation to cast, but I
could see the fear in her eyes. What could I do?!
“Ainash! Can you save her?!”
“What going on? Not watching fight right now!”
“What?! Where the fuck are you, then?!”
“Getting something to kill bad guy with! Stay alive for just little
longer and then can kill him.”
“Please just come back! We can get her and run!”
“Cannot right now! Please help mother if she is in trouble!”
No! She wasn’t going to die. I wouldn’t let her die. But I couldn’t
do anything! My Spells were pointless, I’d even lost use of an arm. I
had no options. Nothing to hurt him with.
“Fuck you!” I could hear Erani shout as she shot off Firebolt after
Firebolt at the approaching Demon. They did nothing to slow his
progress.
“Stop!” I shouted after him.
He kept going, running at a speed that just barely outpaced her.
At some point, he got past the ten-pace limit of Sanguine Bond,
breaking it a few seconds early. I knew he could easily catch up to
her in an instant, so it was clear he was just toying with us at this
point. I couldn’t even see his face.
“Fight me!” I yelled.
Nothing.
“You’re here for me, not her!”
He just kept moving. Only a few paces between them, now, and
Erani had turned to run in a full-on sprint. He was still gaining on her.
“I’ll do anything!”
The Demon reached out and caught her by the wrist. She pulled
and tugged to get away from him, and as I watched, she even shot
off a point-blank Firebolt straight into his face, enveloping them both
in an explosion. But when the smoke cleared, he was still there,
holding onto her. She’d obviously taken some damage, but it
seemed like the fire resistence from her Bond with Ainash had saved
her from the majority of it. Not that Ainash was of any help now.
Where the fuck was she?!
“You seem a lot less confident, now that you’ve lost your
invisibility,” I could practically hear the sneer in Xhag’duul’s voice.
“Let me go!” she responded. He didn’t.
It was only then that he turned back to look at me, and I could
see the expression on his face. It was one of pure glee. Pure, insane
happiness. Excitement that he’d get to see me suffer, after all.
“Xhag’duul!” I screamed. “I will fucking kill you!”
He actually paused, at that. For a moment, I thought it was the
threat, but then I realized I’d never actually called him by his name
yet, in this timeline. He was probably just somewhat shocked I knew
it. But I did my best to capitalize on that.
“I know everything about you,” I grunted, stumbling toward them
in spite of my pain. He was probably over fifty paces away by now,
but I knew that with his Stats, he probably had the senses to hear
me just fine. “I know your name, I know what you want, and I know
what you’re afraid of. I know your boss, Quinmorada, and I know she
thinks you’re a failure. I know you can’t stand how unfairly you’ve
been treated. I know you just want your life back. I know you need to
have your life back. Please. I’ll work with you. I’ll help you get your
life back. Just let her go. Let all of us go. We’ll help you. We can
work together.”
“Together?” he asked. His tone was almost hopeful. He began to
walk toward me, pulling the still-struggling Erani along with him.
“Y-yeah,” I said, still pushing the words out through my pained
grunts. “I won’t hold any of this against you. Promise. Just let her go.
Please.”
“But I’m worried,” he said. “I’m scared of them.”
“I know. I can help,” I took a deep breath. We were close, now.
Just ten paces away from each other. “Just let Erani go, and we can
talk about it.”
“But…but…” His expression suddenly changed, from the
genuine, hopeful one, back to a dead face with a permanent half-
snarl etched onto it. “But I want to see you suffer.”
He reached back with his other hand and grabbed the base of
her forearm, so one hand was on her wrist and another just below
her elbow.
“Fuck!” Erani yelled and shot off another desperate Firebolt
straight into him, her own Angelic Shield protecting her, but it still did
nothing to stop him.
And so his arms tensed. And I realized he was pulling. One hand
pulling her wrist away from his other hand, keeping her arm in place.
Erani screamed in pain, and he pulled harder. I shouted and stepped
forward, trying to stop him.
But I was too late, and he finished pulling.
Erani’s hand was ripped off of her arm.
The fraction of a second felt like an eternity. I could see the
image of her hand, half of her forearm still attached to it, separated
from the rest of her body. Her skin tore, the bone in her arm cracked
in half, strings of muscle stretched and then snapped, and her hand,
wrist, and the top half of her forearm were ripped away.
And then the eternity of the moment ended, and time continued.
Blood splashed against my face, the iron scent oozing into my nose.
Xhag’duul’s wicked laughter mixed with Erani’s bloodcurdling scream
to make a horrifying cacophony of noise assaulting my ear. The pain
of my own fractured arm faded into a dull hum as I saw the exposed
white of Erani’s stump turn red from the blood that squirted over it.
And in that moment, I realized. I was going to kill that
motherfucker. I didn’t give a damn what was considered physically
possible.
He had to die.
57
THE TRUE BATTLE RAGES
I STOOD HOLDING my broken arm steady, looking at Erani, who

had collapsed to the ground, with her entire forearm ripped from her
elbow. Xhag’duul had let her go at this point, too busy doubling over,
cackling with his hands on knees.
I ignored him and rushed over to Erani. My hands were shaking.
What do I do?
Erani half-groaned, half-screamed in pain, her remaining hand
holding onto the stump as it squirted out more and more blood.
“I-I,” I stammered, frantically looking around, “let me help you up.
I’ll get you away from here. Just—just let me…”
Erani looked up at me, face white and forehead covered in sweat.
She breathed shakily, gasps of air the only noise she made. She
looked like she was completely in shock. Difficulty breathing, pale
skin, probably too in pain to speak at all.
I knelt down, trying to wedge my one good arm under her arms to
help her up. “C’mon…let’s get up, and then we can⁠—”
“Arlan,” Index suddenly said, “behind you!”
I looked back and saw Xhag’duul, who had stopped laughing,
standing behind me. He lifted up his foot, and stomped on my
kneeling leg.
You have been crushed. 89 damage.
Your Health is 46.
Your leg has been broken.
I screamed and fell to the ground, dropping Erani with me. My leg
was bent in the middle of the shin, and bleeding from the blunt
impact of the Demon’s heel.
“Oh, shut the fuck up,” he spat. “You won’t die. I made sure it
wasn’t enough to kill you. Because you need to see what happens
next. Your insults and mockery, your fucking disrespect, this is where
it all landed you. You’re being punished. Take it like someone who
actually respects themself. Not the whimpering fucking loser you are.
At least pretend to be worth something in your last moments.”
He walked over and nudged Erani with his foot. She stirred,
looking up at him. Hair matted over her face. When she saw who it
was, her eyes widened and she began to kick away from him. She
held her hand up, shakily pointing at him.
“Don’t shoot him,” I coughed to her. “Won’t do anything. Don’t
lose any more Health.”
With an injury bleeding as much as hers was, I knew she was
probably slowly losing Health from the blood loss. She couldn’t afford
to lose any more shooting Firebolts that just splashed back to hit her.
I didn’t know if she heard me—or if she even processed what I
was saying—but she didn’t end up firing anything off. Just frantically
pushing herself away with her feet.
Xhag’duul looked back at me, shaking his head. “It’s like you still
think you’re going to live through this. What the fuck do you think is
going to happen?! Some god is going to descend from the skies to
kill me for being a bad guy? You’re fucking delusional. It doesn’t
matter if she dies by my hand, or from the bleeding, or from a
suicidal point-blank explosion. She will not make it out of this.
Neither will you.”
“Father!” Ainash’s voice interrupted the response I was preparing
to make. “Am almost ready to kill the bad guy!”
I fought back a gasp of relief. Thank the gods. We were saved.
“Good! Please hurry, this motherfucker needs to die.”
“He did what to mother?!”
“Wh—no,” I said. This was not the time for misunderstandings.
“Well, he did hurt her. But not—listen. Get over here quickly. We’re in
trouble.”
“Okay. But first, need you to put bad guy in very specific spot.”
“What?”
“It is the plan! Need bad guy to be in specific spot to kill him.”
“Why do—” I sighed. “Where?”
“Do not know yet. But it will be close to cliff.”
“Which one?”
“Um. Do not know how to tell you. How do I tell you which cliff?
Do not know what way you are facing, so do not know if it is in front
of you or behind.”
Xhag’duul shook his head, looking at me. “Uh, hello? Are you
even paying attention? Ugh, are you having a panic attack or
something? Fuck, if you aren’t even conscious of what’s happening,
there’s no point.”
“Do you remember when I taught you the cardinal directions?” I
frantically asked. “Which direction? East, or west?”
“Umm, umm…east! Need bad guy near east cliff!”
“Okay. Working on it. Tell me when you’re ready.”
I pushed myself up to my feet, which was difficult, considering the
broken arm and leg. I was pretty much completely supporting myself
with the good one, which wasn’t good for my balance. And I was
sure attempting to stand probably also wasn’t good for my injuries.
But we were almost there. I couldn’t worry about pain right now. We
were almost out of this.
“Oh?” Xhag’duul watched me make my pathetic attempt at
standing. Behind him, I could see Erani. Using her one hand and her
teeth, she ripped off a strip of fabric from her shirt and was currently
trying to tie a tourniquet around the still-bleeding stump on her arm. I
needed to keep him away from her, and I needed to get him to the
east cliff face, about ten paces behind me. Thankfully, that wasn’t in
the direction of Erani, so I at least didn’t have to get him past her.
I backed away, limping heavily, as he watched me.
“You’re just going to abandon her?” He nodded his head back at
Erani, who was still working on bandaging her wounds, wincing as
she tightened the knot. “I guess you don’t care as much as I thought
you did.”
“Xhag’duul,” I said once I was leaned up against the cliff face,
“you’re a worthless piece of shit.”
He laughed. “Name-calling, eh? That’s what we’ve devolved to?”
“No. I mean it. Think about it for me. Can you name one person,
one person who would disagree with me? Someone other than you
that actually values your contributions to the world?”
His face soured. “I…I don’t need to prove myself to you, Human.
You’re calling me worthless? What have you ever done to contribute
to your little society?”
“Don’t change the subject.” I coughed. “It wasn’t a rhetorical
question. Seriously. Name one person. Someone who genuinely
feels like you matter. I’ve already told you, I know a lot about you.
And I know you aren’t very valued. Your boss would certainly agree
with me. She hates you. And I’d suspect whoever she got to replace
your old position doesn’t think very highly of you, either. So then,
what, do your underlings think of you as some wonderful boss?
Could you honestly tell me you’ve been a good, effective leader for
them?”
“What the fuck is your point? So what if people don’t like me?” He
took a step forward, scowling. “They’re fucking stupid, anyway. They
don’t get it. They don’t understand what it’s like to be in my position.
You think it’s easy?”
“My point is that you’re incompetent,” I said. “You can’t do
anything right. First, you let Temporus escape, and let me kill it. Then
you botched the initial invasion, and let me get away. Then you
fucked up every single attempt you made after that to kill me. You
fucked up your relations with the kingdom and had to take manual
control over Koinkar just to get him to do what you say, you fucked
up your little wall project because you forgot Dragons existed, and
now you’re fucking this one last objective up.”
He squinted. “How do you think I’m fucking this up? Do you think
you’re somehow winning the fight? I’m going to kill you. That’s my
objective. To kill you. Tell me, how is this not going exactly as
planned?”
“You just said it. Your superior told you to kill me, right? So why
the fuck are you not doing that? Seems like you’re taking extra care
to keep me alive, actually. You don’t give a shit about actually doing
what you need to do. You just want to satisfy yourself by making me
mad. If you understand that makes you a horrible subordinate that
isn’t capable of following the most basic orders, then fine. Carry on.
But I feel like you don’t even understand how fucking useless you’re
being right now.”
“If you die in the end, it doesn’t matter, moron. You die, you suffer
and then die, it’s all got the same end. Who said I couldn’t enjoy
myself first?”
“So then you’ll tell your boss exactly what happened when you’re
done? You’ll give a report talking about how you disobeyed orders to
‘enjoy yourself?’”
His frown deepened. “You know what? Maybe you’re right.
Maybe I should just kill you right now. Seems like that’s what you
fucking want. But do understand that you aren’t saving anyone. I’ll be
sure to take the time to kill everyone you care about afterward. All
you’re doing is just quickening your own death.”
“No.” I leaned my head back, breathing heavily. Staying standing
like this was taking a lot out of me. “I’m not quickening my own
death. I’m not going to die. I’m going to escape because you’re too
incompetent to kill me. You’re too stupid to actually do it. You can’t
do anything right, and you’re going to have to say exactly that to your
boss when you’re telling her about how I got away once again.”
Xhag’duul gave a low chuckle as he walked toward me. “You
know, you are somehow really talented at convincing people to kill
you. You’re just this perfect fucking combination of arrogant and
irritating and idiotic. What the fuck makes you think you’re escaping
this?”
He stood close to me, now, pinning me to the wall of the cliff. But
that was perfect—he was right where I needed him. And just in time,
I got word from Ainash.
“Father, I see you, and I am ready to kill the bad guy!”
“Perfect. Let’s⁠—”
“But first, need you to get him to the right spot. You are on the
correct side, but need him to be about…um…ten paces to your left.”
I fought back a groan. He was just about ready to kill me right
now. Not ready to go for a walk together. How was I going to get him
to move again?!
“Sorry!” Ainash said, apparently sensing my frustration. “Can—
can move over to where you are. Just give me couple minutes…”
“We don’t have a couple minutes,” I said. “I’ll get him to the right
spot. Hang in there.”
“Okay, will—wait. What is wrong with mother?!”
“She’s hurt,” I said. This was probably her first time seeing her,
now that she was done doing whatever she’d been doing to prepare.
I understood her reaction. Erani was currently finishing up her
makeshift bandage. Completely covered in blood, and occasionally, I
saw Angelic Shield pulse on for a moment around her wound, only to
flicker back off right after. She was probably out of Mana, having
spent it all on the Spell protecting herself from the bleeding damage,
and so she was spending each and every point of Mana she
regenerated on the Spell as she got it.
She was still breathing heavily, but I was glad she was at least
moving. Losing as much blood as she had would be enough to put
anyone out of commission soon enough. Even with a barrier of
Health and Mana to stem the damage, they’d each eventually run
out.
“You have that ability from being a Dryad, the ‘touched by the
grace of nature’ thing, right? What saved me from the Banestinger
venom. It can heal wounds? Can it help her?”
“D…do not know. Will try as soon as possible, though! Hurry and
help kill bad guy!”
“Okay, I will.”
“…You’re a fucking idiot, and you’re weak. Do you understand
now?!” Xhag’duul finished a rant he’d been on for the entire time
Ainash and I had been talking. I’d basically tuned it all out.
I nodded, just trying to keep him going while I wracked my mind
for a solution. How could I get him to follow me? I only needed him to
move a short distance, but ten paces to my left was a massive ask
when he had his hands pinning me to the wall, just about ready to kill
me. How could I convince him to move without making it obvious?
“Say it!” he screamed. “Before you get the pleasure of me ending
your fucking misery, I need to hear you admit how fucking worthless
you are. To think you’d dare call me incompetent when you’re so
helpless yourself.”
“I…” I coughed out a breath. Sweat beaded my forehead, the
stress of standing on my own two legs almost too much to bear, at
this point. “I’m still going to escape you.”
His eyes widened and he laughed incredulously. “Are you fucking
serious? How do you expect to do that?”
“There’s help nearby. So I’m just going to run and get them.”
I ducked down, underneath the arm he’d put up against the cliff
wall, and stacked as many Expedites as my Mana would allow—five,
bringing my Dexterity up to a staggering 185. But it didn’t matter if I
could actually move very adeptly under the effects of the Spell, it just
mattered that I was fast.
I dashed off, pushing myself off the ground with my one good leg.
One step.
Xhag’duul snarled and looked down at me. “Are you fucking
stupid?”
Two steps. I stumbled slightly from the weight I put on my broken
leg, but the massive boost in Dexterity helped.
He leaned away from the wall and turned to face me as I
continued to sprint away.
Three steps.
He moved way faster than I could ever hope to, reached out, and
grabbed me by my broken arm. I could feel the two ends of the bone
scraping together inside my body, and let out a gasp of pain.
You have irritated an open wound. 19 damage.

Your Health is 27.
I hadn’t even moved three paces.
“How braindead are you?” Xhag’duul laughed. “You think you can
escape me by running kind of fast?”
I tugged and pulled on his grip, ignoring the intense pain that
flared in my arm with every jerk, and activated Noxious Grasp with
the few points of Mana I had left. Hopefully I could annoy him into
action.
“Holy shit, can you just stop trying for one fucking minute?!” He
growled, grabbed my hand tightly, and then threw me in the opposite
direction I’d been running. I tumbled ten, fifteen, twenty paces across
the ground. It seemed to be his favorite thing to do—showing his
dominance over someone by just throwing them across the area.
He’d done it in every timeline, every chance he’d gotten. So of
course he’d throw me directly away from the direction I’d shown so
much desperation trying to reach.
And that was exactly why I’d gotten myself caught on purpose.
Ainash needed me to go to the left. So I ran to the right, got caught
by Xhag’duul, and had him do all the heavy lifting by having him
literally throw me to my destination.
I sat up and watched as he slowly walked his way over to me.
Trying to keep a smile off my face, I feigned horror as I kicked away.
It wasn’t hard to fake being afraid and in pain, though, considering
how afraid and in pain I was. I was already past the point Xhag’duul
needed to be in, so it was just a matter of him crossing the area
while trying to get to me.
“Are you ready?” I asked Ainash.
“Yes! Tell me when he is in position. Cannot see.”
He marched slowly toward me, obviously relishing my terrified
expression. “Everything seems to go wrong for you, doesn’t it, Arlan
Nota? You can’t catch a break. Y’know, at first, I actually felt bad for
you. Well, not at first. At first, I thought you were a disgusting piece
of sub-sentient filth like the rest of the Humans. But I learned a bit
more about your kind after forming that opinion, and discovered that
Humanity isn’t actually as bad as the Demons make it out to be. So
when I thought about it, you really seemed to just be a particularly
unlucky one. You needed to die, but I didn’t think you deserved it.
You were just an unfortunate being placed in unfortunate
circumstances. An object of pity.”
He took step after step, pace after pace.
“Now? I’ve changed my mind. You deserve everything that’s
happened to you. It’s not that everything goes wrong for you, it’s that
you make it go wrong. You’re a disrespectful, stupid, conniving little
weakling who can’t do anything without his unfair tricks. And now
you’re all out of them, Arlan Nota. You have nothing left. Nothing to
help you. And what are you reduced to? This sniveling little whelp.
Humans are trash, but you’re even worse. You’re somehow
subhuman. I’d almost say it’s an accomplishment, how awful you
manage to be. You’re going to die at your worst, lowest moment.
This is how I’ll remember you. I just want you to know that.”
He took one more step, placing himself perfectly in position.
“Now!” I mentally screamed to Ainash.
“Good, just keep bad guy in place for couple seconds!”
Instantly, I screamed something to shock him enough that he’d
stop in his tracks—the first thing that came to mind. “You’re going to
fucking die!”
“How?!” He stopped and screamed back with equal intensity. Up
in the tops of the cliffs, something rumbled, but he wasn’t paying
attention. “How are you going to accomplish that?! You keep saying
you’ll kill me, you keep saying you’ll escape, and yet you haven’t
once shown me how you’re going to do so. Show me or face it! This
is your last moment! You will die here, and I. Will. Live. So show me!
Show me how I die! Because you are not going to kill me! I’ll kill you!
I will not! Fucking! Die!”
And then the rumbling stopped, and I glanced up and saw it.
And then Xhag’duul fucking died.
58
THE TRUE BATTLE ENDS
I LOOKED up as Xhag’duul ranted at me. Ainash was putting her

plan into place to kill the Demon. As he screamed at me, there was a
rumbling up in the tops of the cliffs. Slowly, something came into
view.
Something that rolled over the edge of the cliff. Something
massive. It was…a boulder?
I limped back, away from the area it would impact, but Xhag’duul
didn’t notice.
The rumbling stopped as the boulder left the edge of the cliff and
entered free fall, meteoring down to the ground. It plummeted further
and further, going faster and faster, the massive stone that was at
least twice as wide as I was tall. A hunk of a mountain. A shadow
formed around Xhag’duul’s feet, and he squinted at me.
And then he looked up, and for a split second, his eyes widened
and I saw his face show fear.
And then the boulder crashed directly into him, shaking the entire
earth with it. An ear-splitting BOOM rang throughout the entire
canyon—the entire mountain range—from the hundred-pace drop of
such a massive object. It literally split the earth as it sunk deep into
the ground. The destabilization pushed me to the ground, and I was
unable to support myself through the veritable earthquake with my
broken leg.
Blue blood, brown dust, and gray stone shrapnel scattered
through the air, covering everything nearby. I could barely see
through the airborne debris, and dirt filled my lungs, forcing me to
cough it back up as I lay on the ground.
Seconds passed, and the chaos settled. Silence filled the air. I
rubbed my eyes and looked at the sight in front of me. The stone had
sunk at least half a pace into the ground, crushing the gravel and dirt
beneath it, as well as its intended target. The glowing blue blood that
splattered against the ground around the impact was enough
evidence of that.
He was dead.
The absolute behemoth of a stone had killed him.
But…no. He didn’t die. I hadn’t gotten a kill notification. I’d
obviously contributed to the damage dealt, so I should have gotten
one. But there was no way he’d survived that. Maybe…maybe the
System was just running behind? I’d get the notification in a bit?
Seconds passed. Nothing.
“Ainash,” I said, “did you get any⁠—”
I was cut off by a noise. A groan. Coming from underneath the
boulder. No. No, no, no. He was alive?! How?!
“He is,” Index said. “Still has a decent bit of Health.”
“…What?” I muttered.
Slowly, I saw the gigantic stone begin to shift. A tiny shake. Then
a larger one. Then, to my horror, the boulder was lifted up. And I saw
Xhag’duul underneath it. Covered in cuts and wounds, more blue
than he was red from the blood that covered him, but he was there.
And his eyes showed nothing but unbridled fury. He groaned as he
pushed himself up with his hands, lifting the boulder with his back.
“Ainash! He’s alive!” I said, frantically.
But she didn’t seem afraid. “Will fix!”
And then there was another rumbling sound. This time, Xhag’duul
seemed to recognize it. His eyes widened, and he looked up at me.
He lifted up a hand, his other arm falling down so he was just on a
single elbow, the boulder pushing him back down, and he brought
his shaking fingers together in an attempt to snap them and set me
ablaze.
But before he could, another boulder fell from the skies, and
smashed straight into the first one, pulverizing it and crashing right
into the crater the other had made. Another impact that shook the
earth, filling the air with yet more dust. I could barely see now, but
when I looked, I could still make out the scene of the destruction in
front of me. The second boulder was slightly smaller than the first,
but not by much. Its rough edges had cracked straight through the
first, splitting it into pieces and replacing it to fill the crater.
He had to be dead by now. Or at least put out of commission. But
before I could even ponder that, I glanced up and saw the silhouette
of yet another object being pushed over the edge of the cliff. Where
in the hells was Ainash getting all of these?!
It tipped over the edge and fell. I could only barely make it out
because of the dust filling the air, but I felt the impact all the same.
The third boulder crashed into the sizable crater that’d already been
made, full of shrapnel and rubble and blood. Once again, I was left
coughing as dust filled the air.
I opened my eyes yet again and looked onward. The entire crash
zone was a mess, no longer filled by a single stone, or even a stone
that’d been split by another. It was just shards of rock piled on top of
shards of rock, no discernable “main” piece that filled the hole in the
ground. Everything was destroyed.
But there was still no kill message.
“He’s alive,” Index confirmed. “Low now, though. Extremely low.
And unconscious. He had to use some sort of ability to keep himself
alive, but it drained pretty much all of his strength.”
I grabbed onto the rough cliff wall and pulled myself up with my
one good arm, standing on my one good leg, and limped forward,
over to the crash site.
“Heal mother,” I said to Ainash. “I’ll take care of him.”
“Okay, will go and help mother!”
Step after step, pace after pace, I moved closer and closer to the
pile of rubble that buried Xhag’duul alive. It was at least five paces
wide, itself, the massive hole that was full of rock. Each of the stones
could, in itself, be classified as a boulder—many were larger than my
entire torso—but none of them were so massive as to be completely
immovable by me.
So I fell to my knees and began digging. My hand gripped around
the rocks and tossed them away, my own red blood mixing with the
glowing blue of Xhag’duul which covered the rocks already.
For some of the stones, I was forced to leverage my entire body
to roll them aside, using my boosted Strength to lift the weights I’d
normally never be able to budge. But slowly, I was able to dig deeper
and deeper into the hole, until I saw it. A scrap of red beneath it all.
Not from my blood, but from the Demon.
I brushed more rocks and dust aside, and was left staring down
at the bastard’s face. His mouth was half-open, leaking blood, and
his eyes were in a daze, looking off at nothing. His hands and legs
were splayed out, beaten and battered, bent in too many directions
to count. His body was completely destroyed. But I didn’t waste time
appreciating the damage that’d been done to him. I needed to finish
things.
So I reached down, and placed my hand on his chest. And I
activated Noxious Grasp.
Seconds passed. I’d emptied out my Mana pool earlier, when I
stacked all those casts of Expedite, but enough time had passed by
now that it’d refilled quite a bit. So I silently drained away the
monster’s life.
He blinked and his eyes came into focus, as I was sure the
steady damage woke him from whatever stupor he was in. He
looked over at me, but didn’t move otherwise. Must’ve been
paralyzed, with whatever ability he’d activated and the drain of
Noxious Grasp active on him. But he could still talk, just barely.
“P…please,” he gasped. “Don’t…don’t…”
I just stayed silent and continued draining. I didn’t even meet his
eyes.
“Please…spare me,” he got out. “You don’t…you don’t
understand. What they’ll do to me.”
I just took a breath and kept casting.
“I won’t die,” he coughed. “I’ll be sent, sent back to the
Underworld. They’ll know I failed. You don’t…you don’t understand
what they do to failures there. It’s a fate worse than death.”
I only barely listened to what he said.
“We live for so long in the Underworld,” he coughed yet again.
“We experience time differently. They’ll keep me alive forever. They’ll
torture me. You don’t understand what it’s like…to be seen as
useless to them. They don’t ever let you forget it. How useless you
are.”
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 449 damage and drained 449
Stamina over the course of 21.6 seconds using Noxious
Grasp.
My Mana ran out, and Noxious Grasp shut off automatically. So I

retracted my hand.
His eyes widened as I did so, mistaking my action for one of
mercy. “Th…thank you! Please, let me go, and I’ll leave you alive. I’ll
stay in the Overworld and hide. I won’t ever do anything to you
again. Thank⁠—”
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 29 damage using Fist.
I interrupted him with a punch to the face. His head was forcefully
turned to the side, and he spat out a glob of blue blood. I drew my
hand back again.
Another hit. He coughed and looked up at me, now with a snarl

on his face. “Y-you…you’ll regret this. You can’t just kill someone like
me and get away with it. I know things, too. The Faerie Queene, I
made a deal with her. She’s going to destroy the kingdom unless I do
something. Nobody else knows what to do to prevent it. If you kill
me, she’ll go on a rampage. And the Demons, too. I don’t care if I
die, the rest of the Demons will never forgive you. It won’t even be
about Temporus anymore. It’ll be about revenge. You hear me?
Justice. You will never live another peaceful day in your⁠—”
He was interrupted with another strike, coughing up more blood.
And another.
And another.
He gasped for breath as his Health was chipped away. And the
less Health he had, the less of a shield there was to protect him from
bodily harm, and from pain. As low as he was right now, this was
probably the most he’d been hurt—the most pain he’d felt—in a very,
very long time.
He looked up at me, breathing heavily. Blood dribbled down his

chin from his mouth, and down the cheek I’d been striking with my
one good hand, several cuts and bruises having formed by now.
“You will regret this every day. For the rest of your life,” he
coughed. “You can’t…you can’t kill me.”
My Mana was back. So I grabbed onto his face by the chin and
the same cheek I’d been hitting, and activated Noxious Grasp again.
He gasped out in shock and pain the moment I toggled the Spell on.
“You can’t…please…I don’t…I don’t want go back. Not back
there. I don’t want to go back to them. They’ll…they’ll…”
He sobbed, though whether it was from the pain or from the fear,
I didn’t know. Nor did I care.
Seconds passed. Smoke seeped from my fingers as I kept the
Spell active for as long as my Mana would allow, forming a steady
stream that rose into the air, mixing with the kicked-up dust that
already filled the skies around us.
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 114 damage and drained 114
Mana ran out again. I drew my hand away from him. This time,
he didn’t react at all. He knew what was coming.
“He’s just about there,” Index said. “Maybe forty, fifty Health left.
A Ray of Frost should do it.”
I nodded wordlessly and stood up, looking down at him.
He gazed up at me.
I needed to wait a few seconds for my Mana to regenerate up to
25—enough for a Ray. In that time, I just stared into his tear-filled,
begging eyes.
“I can be useful to you,” he sobbed. “I don’t—I don’t have to be
your enemy. I’ll do anything! Anything! Don’t make me go back!”
I breathed. Mana was up to 10.
“Please! Don’t do this! Don’t! You don’t have to! This—this isn’t
self-defense anymore, it’s an execution! Don’t you have some form
of empathy, Human?! Don’t you care?! All you’re doing is hurting
someone, someone who doesn’t deserve it. For no reason. Leave
me be! Please!”
Up to 20.
“Please, please, please! Don’t do this!”
25. I raised my hand and pointed at him.
For a moment, I considered saying something. There was a lot I
could say. Some sort of eloquent diatribe, explaining the exact
reasons he was such a terrible being. I could point out the hypocrisy
in his actions, trying so hard to make me suffer, only to turn around
and cry when he was faced with the same fate. I could give a witty
monologue, quoting him and turning his own words back at him.
Something to humiliate him, turn him into a laughingstock, destroy
his entire sense of self-confidence. I could give some rousing
speech, something to show the pure evil of the Demons to everyone
in the vicinity—to inspire Erani, Ainash, even me, into dedicating
ourselves to fighting off the vile fiends.
There was a lot I could say. But, in the end, there was only one
thing I wanted to tell this Demon.
“Please, spare me!”
“No.”

Level 61 Devil.
You have earned 3.1k XP. Your XP is 4.93k.

the slaying of Level 61 Devil.
Your XP is 5.09k.

Endurance, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Intelligence.
- Recursive Growth has improved from reaching a tenth Level.
You now gain 6 random Stats each time your Level increases.
Strength, 1 Endurance, 1 Dexterity, and 1 Conjuration.
- Time Loop has received a Usage Increase.
-You may choose an Upgrade for Time Loop.
59
THE FINISHED JOURNEY
THE ICY BEAM impacted straight into Xhag’duul’s face, killing him
instantly. His head fell back into the dirt, and I received my
notifications. Thousands of XP, two separate Level-ups, everything.
But my mind was occupied by none of that. Instantly, I turned and
stumbled over to where Erani was lying. She was alone, but as I
approached, I saw Ainash suddenly appear out of thin air and run up
to her. She must’ve just gotten down from the mountain and
deactivated her invisibility.
At this point, Erani had tightly wrapped the wound from her
missing hand in fabric torn from her shirt, which slowed the bleeding
somewhat, but clearly didn’t do enough. The stump ending halfway
down her forearm was still leaking blood despite the makeshift
bandage and tourniquet she’d used, and her clammy, halfway-
conscious face did nothing to make it look any better.
I’d gotten a Usage Increase for Time Loop from Level 20, and my
first thought was that maybe I could go back and redo the fight to
prevent her from getting hurt. But honestly, I didn’t trust myself very
much to be able to actually do that fight any better than I already
had. Really, it was a miracle that we were alive. Getting through
uninjured would be impossible.
Besides, the idea wouldn’t work, even if I wanted to try. I
remembered from my first Usage Increase that I had to wait until the
next time Time Loop refreshed at midnight to actually get access to
the new use of the Talent, so I still had zero uses remaining. I’d just
have three tomorrow.
Ainash knelt down next to Erani as I continued to stumble over.
With a broken right arm and left leg, I didn’t exactly have much
mobility, and my Health, down to 27, was low enough that it didn’t
assist me in dealing with the injuries at all.
My Stamina was still low, at 59, but I desperately needed the
healing from Regenerate. The moment I got over to Erani, I
collapsed down next to her and activated the Talent.
Ainash looked over at me and, upon seeing my own various

injuries, began to panic. She kept looking back and forth between
me and Erani, hands shaking as they hovered above us.
“C…can only use ability to heal one person in week,” she said. “If
heal mother, cannot heal father.”
“It’s okay,” I responded, breathing heavily. “My wounds aren’t
lethal. And they’ll heal eventually. Use it on her.”
“B…but do not know if⁠—”
“Just do it!” I said. Erani was losing more blood and more Health
every second. Now wasn’t the time for uncertainty.
Ainash nodded and gingerly reached down, removing the
makeshift bandage Erani had wrapped around her stump. Erani
barely reacted, staring off into space with only a slight wince when
Ainash pulled the cloth away to let me know she was still alive.
When the patch of fabric fell from her wound, I felt a wave of
nausea overtake me as I gazed at the horrific injury. Strings of flesh
hung down, still barely attached to her main body, blood continued to
leak from the ripped-open veins, and the white of her exposed bone
stared at me like the eye of some horrific monster.
Ainash slowly placed her hands on the messy mass of flesh, and
closed her eyes.
Seconds passed, and I waited with bated breath. Please, I
thought. Please work.
Suddenly, a flash of light flared around Erani’s arm. I saw the
various cuts and wounds covering her skin close up. Her face
regained its color. And her arm…it began to mend!
The stringy bits of flesh dangling from her arm patched
themselves together. The bleeding stopped. And as I watched, the
wound itself began to cover itself. Skin grew around the stump,
slowly closing the open wound, covering the red tissue, and
eventually covering the bone. It’d healed the wound, now it just
needed to regrow the lost limb. The light seemed to glow especially
brightly around her arm, and I held my breath, waiting for the ability
to work its magic.
But then…it stopped. The glow faded. It was done. Erani had no
more bleeding cuts or purple bruises. But she was left with a single
hand.
Her eyes fluttered, and she seemed to regain the half-lost
consciousness now that she’d been healed. Her breathing quickened
and she looked around, clearly trying to find the enemy we once
thought unbeatable.
“He’s…” I coughed. Regenerate had helped with my own injuries,
but it didn’t do much to heal the worst of them. At least now I wasn’t
as susceptible to further damage. But I took a breath and continued,
trying to calm her fear, “He’s dead. We killed him.”
Erani took a breath, and I could visibly see the tension leave her
body. “Thank the gods. I didn’t know if we were ever getting out of
that.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled as I lay in the dirt.
She looked over at me, and suddenly her eyes went wide when
she saw my rough shape. My right arm and left leg, each bent in one
too many places, the rest of my severely beaten body…I was sure I
didn’t exactly look healthy.
“Arlan! Are you okay?” She rushed to get up and bend over,
reaching out to grab me. “Ainash, why did you heal me and not⁠—”
She stopped when her arms got close to me, and I saw her eyes.
They were staring at her left hand—or rather, where her left hand
should have been. At the arm that ended in nothing.
“I…” I breathed out, “I’m sorry. We couldn’t⁠—”
“Mother! Am so, so, so, so, so sorry!” Ainash flung herself at
Erani, tackling her with a hug and knocking her to the ground. “Could
not, was not able to, the ability…I failed! Am so sorry! You, I, I will, I
am, I will try to fix it! Will use ability next week, as soon as is
available, to heal you. Will see if it works. I…”
“We’ll figure something out,” I nodded.
Erani didn’t respond. Her eyes showed the same far-off look now
as they did before, when she was only barely half-conscious.
With a grunt of exertion, I sat myself up, holding myself up with
my good hand planted in the ground. The adrenaline had faded by
now, and the bolts of pain began radiating through my injured limbs
once again, but I still couldn’t worry about that. There were more
important things at stake for now.
“C’mon,” I said. “Let’s get moving. Those boulders made a lot of
noise, and other monsters might be on their way now to investigate.
We’re close to Barinruth, we should get there while we can.”
Ainash nodded and stood, with Erani hesitantly following soon
after. She still didn’t say anything. Ainash bent down to help me
stand, letting me wrap my arm around her shoulder so I didn’t have
to put pressure on my leg. If I used Expedite on myself, I could
probably keep myself standing and walking for at least long enough
to get us to safety. Then I could rest.
“Erani, are you good to move?” I asked. I knew she was probably
physically fine, but mentally…losing an arm would be a big shock for
anyone. I also had another motivation for asking—getting her to talk
at all. She’d been completely silent ever since she noticed.
She looked over at me, and I looked back. I wouldn’t move until
she confirmed she was okay to continue. A few seconds passed,
before she muttered, “Y…yeah.”
“Okay. We’ll get you some help as soon as possible.”
“I… We should get help for you, first.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I don’t die,” I chuckled, pain radiating
from my broken arm from the slight shake. “But just know that this
isn’t permanent. We can do something, somehow. Alright?”
She was silent after that.
“Okay,” I said, taking that as her telling me she needed some
time to think. “Let’s get moving. Shouldn’t be too far until we get to
safety.”
A few minutes passed as we traveled, and eventually the battlefield

behind us faded out of sight. We were moving much, much slower
than normal, due to my injuries—I had to be constantly supported by
at least Ainash, if not Ainash and Erani together, and even then I
could only stumble along—but we were still making steady progress.
It’d probably only be a couple hours before we got to the nearby
outpost we’d seen before.
“Keep an eye out for monsters,” I said to Ainash as we moved.
“You’re our main defense against them. Don’t worry about dropping
me if you need to defend us. Both Erani and I are really low on
Health, so keeping any attackers far away is a must.”
“Okay. But will try not to drop you. That would hurt.”
“Thanks,” I laughed. “If something unbeatable attacks like that
Dragon we saw before, though, then, I don’t know, we can figure
something out. Try to run off with Erani and I’ll hide, or⁠—”
“Do not think that will be problem,” Ainash cut me off. “Dragon
was who helped me kill the bad guy!”
“Wait, what?” I asked. “How? What even happened back there?”
“When you first came back with time power and said you could
survive attacks from bad guy, could feel that you were lying. Knew
you planned on dying to save us. So told mother what you were
planning, and we made plan, too. Did not leave when we turned
invisible. Mother stayed with you to make sure didn’t die, and I went
to get help from Dragon. Knew where it was because of knowledge
from future!”
“But I never even saw it during the fight. How did it help you kill
the Demon if it never showed up?”
“Dragon was one who brought boulders to kill bad guy with!
Could not convince it to fight bad guy with us, but could convince it to
bring very heavy boulders. Did not tell it that I would use boulders to
kill bad guy, but it does not need to know!”
“Oh, huh.” Yeah, I supposed it made sense that she’d have
needed to find those massive boulders somewhere. No way she just
found them lying right by the cliff edge, at least. “Well, I’m glad you
were smart enough to come up with a plan like that. Thanks for
saving me.”
“It is okay. But only if you promise not to do that ever again! It
made mother very sad. And me too.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. I won’t. At least, I’ll consult you two before
trying to let myself die like that again.”
“Apologize to mother, too!”
“I will.” Glancing over at Erani, I saw that her gaze was cast
downward, watching the dirt as we walked. “Hey.”
She looked up and over at me.
“Sorry for, uh, not keeping my promise. I shouldn’t’ve kept you in
the dark like that. You didn’t deserve it.”
“Um…” Her voice rasped, and she coughed to clear her throat.
“Uh, it’s okay.”
“I’ll make it up to you, alright? Take you out on the nicest date
once we get to Barinruth. Good food, maybe we can see a play…”
She laughed. “As nice as that sounds, I don’t know if we’ll have
the money for that.”
“I’ll make some, then.”
“Okay, sure.” She rolled her eyes.
“No, seriously. I’m taking you on that date. I think we’re long
overdue for one. And we could probably both use some cheering up.
Just a bit of regular life to break up the…all of this.” I did my best to
gesture all around myself with one arm broken and the other hanging
around Ainash’s neck as she helped me walk.
“Well…okay. Yeah, that sounds nice. Thanks.”
“Besides, I also need to get back my collateral,” I smiled. “I
stayed alive, didn’t I? You gotta give it back, now.”
“Hm.” She smiled back, “I suppose that was the deal.”
“Yeah, though it’ll probably have to wait. Not exactly in good
enough shape to go exploring a city right now.”
She nodded. “We can find you a Cleric. Maybe that outpost you
found at the end of this road has one?”
“Ainash is the one who remembers what was there.” I nodded to
my side, where she was helping to support me. “Did you see
anything like that?”
“Um, no, do not think so. Mother was one talking, and only talked
to some Humans. Do not know what ‘Cleric’ Human looks like.”
Yeah, that made sense. Hopefully we’d be able to figure
something out. Though even if we didn’t find anyone, Regenerate
would eventually heal me. It would bring my Health back to full, at
least, and having a high Health value would accelerate and
strengthen my body’s natural healing process. It’d still definitely be
easier to just get someone to heal me instantly, though.
As for Erani…well, she clearly didn’t want to talk about her injury.
But there were ways to work around it. Powerful magic could do just
about anything, as long as you could find someone to do it for you,
so I was confident we could solve that problem.
We continued traveling in relative silence for a while longer. Slowly

and painfully, we continued to make our way through the canyon. My
Stamina/Minute was at 1.63 after my most recent Level-ups—which I
was still hoping to make my choices for, after we got to safety—and
that high amount of regeneration seemed to more than make up for
the amount of Stamina I spent on my slow, careful walking.
It was nice to travel and gain Stamina while doing so, feeling
slightly more refreshed as the time went on, though the net amount
of Stamina I gained after the expenditure from movement was pretty
miniscule. I still desperately wanted to sit down so I could give my
broken leg a break, but with Ainash helping me walk, it wasn’t too
bad.
But despite the fact that I was slowly gaining rest as I limped
through the mountain pass, I was suddenly made aware of how
exhausted and vulnerable I was when I saw something.
A trio of figures approached in the distance, coming from the
direction of the Barinruth Empire.
“Halt!” one of them shouted. I could tell they were probably
guards, with their crested armor and weapons in hand. They were
still pretty far off, though, so I couldn’t make out many details. The
speaking one stepped forward. “Who are you, and why are you
here? We heard a disturbance earlier, did you have anything to do
with that?”
Ainash instantly reached for her whip, but I squeezed my
supported arm around her to stop her. These weren’t enemies. At
least, they didn’t seem like they were.
I cleared my throat, preparing to respond. But before I could, the
same lead guard continued, “Don’t bother answering yet. We have
Truth Stones, and want to make sure you aren’t telling any lies.
Either turn away and leave this place, or come with us so we can
verify your statements.”
I looked over at Erani. Seemed like the guards at the outpost
came to us after hearing those boulders fall. “Should we go with
them?”
“I don’t think we have any choice,” she said. “Unless you plan to
head back to Koinkar.”
Yeah, seemed like it. Though the Truth Stones would be an
issue. I, for one, didn’t exactly want my identity getting out. They
probably didn’t know my face, but I was sure that at least my name
had probably gotten to the neighboring countries. And even if these
guards didn’t recognize it, someone would.
We needed to figure out a plan for that, and fast. But for now,
there was only one real thing I could say.
“Sure,” I called out. “Just get us some medical attention first.”
60
WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM: DEMONS

AND THEIR HOSTILITY
ASMO SAT at a desk in King Koinkar’s repurposed quarters. “King

Koinkar,” of course, had no need for these quarters anymore, so she
was allowed to live in them instead. Well, what she considered
“allowed to live in” others would consider “imprisoned in,” but what
others thought was of no importance to her. She technically wasn’t
allowed to leave without supervision, now that she was privy to such
tightly held secrets about the conspiracy surrounding the kingdom,
but as far as she was concerned, that just meant she had more of an
opportunity to push herself up in the ranks of the Demons.
Right now, though, she wasn’t actually doing any of that work.
She was sitting at her desk, waiting.
Her new boss—Quinmorada-something-something—had just
introduced herself as the replacement to her old boss. And
apparently, that old boss had been sent on a mission to kill the
fugitive himself. That certainly seemed like an airtight plan; Asmo
had seen that monster of a Demon fight, and there was no way
someone as weak as the fugitive could fairly beat him. However,
Asmo had also seen the fugitive fight. And she knew he never fought
fair.
So while she had faith in the raw power of her old boss, she also
had a glimmer of doubt. There was a chance this wouldn’t be the
end of things.
Ideally, the fugitive would die here. What that would mean for
Asmo would be that the Demons would have much less of an
interest in micromanaging the Koinkar Kingdom. There would be no
real reason to spend many resources on keeping a foothold in the
Overworld when they had wars to wage in the Underworld, so what
would they do? Well, it wasn’t like they’d just pull out for good—why
waste a perfectly fine opportunity to just passively keep some
influence in this realm? Especially if it didn’t cost anything.
And Asmo was the reason it wouldn’t cost anything. Even if the
Demons decided to pull every single one of their troops out of the
Overworld once the fugitive was dead, they’d have to leave Asmo
here. So she would become the de facto leader of their entire branch
dealing with the Overworld—she’d be the only one left, after all. If the
Demon playing the part of King Koinkar left, too, there’d be nobody
else to play ruler than her.
In short, she’d become the monarch of the entire kingdom.
Sure, she’d have some superiors above her making sure she
never stepped out of line, but with no direct goal other than
expanding the influence of the kingdom, she’d effectively have free
rein. This was her shortcut to absolute power.
And all it took for her to get it was for one man to die in these
next few minutes.
What kept poking into her mind were thoughts of Ripley Tenet,
the woman that’d abandoned her. While under influence of her
Berserk Talent, Ripley had stayed behind to continue the fight with
the fugitive. Certainly not very surprising, given how Berserk affected
the mind, but what was unexpected was the fact that Ripley never
came back. If she’d just retrieved that ring she’d thrown off later,
once Berserk had worn off, she would’ve been teleported back
instantly. But she never had. Asmo had come back to the destination
and waited for her partner, but she never came.
The logical part in Asmo was screaming at her that Ripley was
simply dead. The woman stuck behind to fight someone, she lost the
fight, she didn’t come back. Pretty simple argument. But…that just
couldn’t be the case. Asmo knew Ripley. No way she’d just let
herself die like that. She survived, for sure.
As for why she decided not to come back…well, there would’ve
been plenty of reasons for that. Namely, the fugitive had done the
exact thing to Ripley that he’d done to Camilla before. He somehow
convinced her to defect. One thing Asmo was kept in the dark about
was what Class the fugitive had. She’d asked several times about it
before entering combat with him—it was important to know things
like that before battle—but they’d refused to tell her every time. All
they told her was that it was Magic-Type.
Presumably, it was some sort of special or unique Class, and
they didn’t trust her with that information yet. But she assumed his
seemingly silver tongue had to come from that. No way he just so
happened to luck himself into saying exactly what would convince
Camilla to spare him, and now, he’d apparently done the same with
Ripley. Probably had some sort of way to see into the minds of his
victims, or something. She wasn’t sure about that whole soul-
stealing rumor that was floating around about him, but maybe it had
some truth to it. Maybe he could steal peoples’ memories. How else
would he gain this impossible knowledge?
But her mind was wandering. Back to the topic at hand, Asmo
needed to get Ripley back. She knew that if Ripley was aware of the
full truth, she probably wouldn’t want to come back—maybe that was
what the fugitive had told her to get her to defect in the first place—
but Asmo didn’t care. Ripley would be coming back, and that was
final. It was the only demand she’d made to the Demons when
agreeing to work with them—Ripley had to stay safe and by her side.
Asmo stood from the wooden chair that’d been thrown into the
room when she moved in, scooting it back along the pearly-white
marble floor. Enough waiting. Whether or not the fugitive died, she
needed to talk to the Demons about Ripley. She’d just do that now
and get them moving as soon as possible. So she exited her room
and swiftly moved through the many hallways, aiming for the
audience hall. That was where “Koinkar” spent most of his time,
mainly holding meetings with underlings and random begging
nobles.
When Asmo opened the door, entering through the back of the
throne room, she saw that Koinkar was, indeed, in the middle of a
meeting. He sat on his throne with perfectly fake posture, feigning
the physical feebleness that was characteristic of the old king. Sitting
at the end of a table set in the middle of the hall was some well-
dressed man with a trimmed beard. She walked up and stood next to
Koinkar, nonverbally telling him she wished for a word.
He gave a miniscule nod, and looked back at the nobleman. “If
you require more food, simply tax your peasants more. The higher
taxes will encourage them to work harder to pay them and thus
produce more.”
“If I raise taxes, the citizens of Willowdale will surely riot! I have
already had trouble containing the villagers’ anger after your
kingdom-wide tax increases, and they will not stand for another.”
Asmo watched as Koinkar gave a hint of a sneer at the man.
“Remember your place, and remember who I am. As the king, it is
my duty to ensure the entire kingdom prospers. Not to serve the
interests of one puny settlement. You will receive no food rations
from our stores, and if you continue to bother me about this, then
perhaps a second round of the draft will visit Willowdale Village. We
always have a need for more soldiers, after all.”
The nobleman’s face contorted with anger and disbelief. His eyes
flitted to Asmo, as if asking for some form of assistance in this
discussion. But she said nothing. She could sense his rising
frustration, and wondered if the man would dare to challenge the
king’s words.
But then, to her surprise, the nobleman bowed and backed away,
his eyes never leaving Koinkar’s face. “Of course, your majesty. I
understand. I will see to it that my villagers work harder to meet their
obligations.”
Koinkar nodded curtly. "See that you do. And if you fail, you know
the consequences."
The nobleman turned to leave, and for a moment, Asmo’s heart
threatened to give a pang of sympathy for him and his villagers, who
would surely see their lord return and demand greater work and
greater sacrifice from them. More would starve, more would die, and
more would lose their family members to an uncaring leadership.
But in the end, she didn’t really care. It was only a temporary
feeling that subsided soon enough, anyway. Of course, citizens
dying was never good for a kingdom, but in this case, it was
necessary. At least, there was nothing that the kingdom could have
done for that village of Willowdale, even if they wanted to help. And
the reason for that was simple. The food stores had run out. There
was nothing to give.
Normally, using some magical preservation methods, the Koinkar
Kingdom held a decent supply of food in several storage rooms, kept
in case of disease or famine. In emergencies, this food could be
distributed into the economy at a low price to both stimulate any
stagnant workforce and keep the citizens fed. However, this store of
food had been sold already, and not to the citizens of the kingdom.
This food had been sold off to neighboring countries to help fund the
war efforts. More equipment, more weapons, hired mercenaries,
training, that was where the bulk of these resources had been going
for some time now.
This was, of course, a horrible idea if the goal was to raise a
healthy kingdom. The Demons clearly didn’t care about that, though,
so they didn’t mind if the kingdom fell into ruin, as long as they
accomplished their goal.
This was what’d been explained to Asmo during her debriefing.
While she understood the logic, she didn’t really agree with it. Sure,
it would work as long as the fugitive was killed in the next day or two,
but if he wasn’t? Suddenly, the kingdom would be forced to fight a
longer-term war after having destroyed all prospects of any long-
term prosperity. Everything would be spent. And, of course, even if
the fugitive was killed here and Asmo was left in charge as was her
plan, she would also be left to clean up the mess that was made. So
she didn’t exactly appreciate the Demons seemingly making as big a
mess as they could.
“What do you want?” the being running Koinkar’s body said,
breaking her out of her thoughts. Once the nobleman had left, he’d
shifted his posture from the hunched, feeble slouch it was in front of
others to the way the Demon actually preferred to sit—straight up
with a scowl on his face.
Asmo frowned at the indignant acknowledgement. “Do not speak
to me like I am one of your lackeys. We are equals in this war.”
The Demon snorted. “Sure. Listen, you can pretend you’re on par
with us, but I’m not going to buy into your delusions that Humans
could ever be equal to Demons. You’re a tool at best.”
Asmo just rolled her eyes. The Demon playing the part of Koinkar
had had this attitude for a while now, ever since it’d become clear
that Asmo intended to actually play a role in this new chain of
command, and not just act as a mindless pawn. But their new
superior, Quinmorada-something-something, at least acknowledged
that Asmo had the same potential of any Human. At least, she did
whenever she actually took the time to step in. Which wasn’t often.
Normally, Asmo was stuck talking to this one.
“So, what are you here for, Human? As you can see, I’m in the
middle of some very important meetings. If you have nothing
significant to say, I’d suggest you allow me to get back to them. You
are, after all, only hindering the cause you claim to support for every
second you keep me occupied.”
Asmo fought back an audible sigh. “I am here to ask you about
Ripley. If you have any soldiers to spare, it may be wise to send out
a search team to⁠—”
“Uh, expression of apology, but who is Ripley?”
“…Ripley Tenet. The other former royal guard, who went into
battle alongside me. You have interacted with her on several
occasions.”
“Oh, yes, yes, I think I may remember her. You Humans all look
alike, anyway.”
“Okay. Anyway, she is currently missing in action after a fight
gone wrong against the fugitive. We should send out a search team
to⁠—”
“Apology, she fought Arlan Nota?”
“Yes.”
“And didn’t kill him?”
“…Yes.”
“So why do we care about recovering her? She seems rather
useless to us, as far as I’m concerned.”
Asmo gritted her teeth. “That is of no concern. When I made my
initial agreement with you, you promised that Ripley would be kept
safe and kept unknowing of what is going on here. By allowing the
fugitive to come into contact with her, you are threatening to break
both of those promises.”
“So you plan to harm our cause just for your own personal
interest?”
“I plan to hold you to our deal.”
“Hm. I’ll look into it. Maybe, sometime, if we can spare the
manpower, I might decide to send out a soldier or two to look
around.”
“Do not act like you can treat me like this. Do not act like there
will not be repercussions for your attitude here. You may not think I
am your equal, you may even think I can do nothing to harm you. But
believe this: I will ensure⁠—”
Asmo was cut off by a familiar chime, and a bright light coming
from beneath Koinkar’s robe. They both looked down at it—that was
Koinkar’s Communication Crystal. It was ringing.
He reached into his robe and withdrew it, answering the chime.
“Hello, superior Quinmorada’qualticularoohdodon⁠—”
“Don’t bother,” the voice of their superior cut him off. “We need to
talk. Xhag is dead.”
61
WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM: HUMANS

AND THEIR SCHEMES
A SUCCUBUS SAT on a throne in a large, bright audience hall. The

Succubus, currently using its shapeshifting powers to take the place
of the late King Koinkar, had been cut off in the middle of an
argument with some idiotic Human named Asmo by a call from its
superior. At first, it had assumed the call would be a short one with
some basic commands, and that afterward it could get back to
putting Asmo in her place.
But then its superior said, “We need to talk. Xhag is dead.”
The Succubus blinked. “W…what? He is? So does that mean…”
“Yes. Arlan Nota will likely make it into the Barinruth Empire. We
do not have more Demons to expend trying to reach him.”
The Succubus just sat for a moment, shell-shocked by the
revelation. Arlan Nota had…survived? How did a puny Human like
that beat a Devil?!
“So we will move to long-term plans, then?” Asmo spoke calmly
in its stead, and it barely noticed.
“Ah, Asmo, you are here?” the superior said. “Good. We can get
this meeting done all at once. To answer your question, yes, we will
be moving to the previously made long-term plans. That means no
more selling crops, disregarding citizen happiness, or over-drafting
the populace. For now, you will have at your disposal the Infernals
and Hellions that are still alive in the Overworld. No reinforcements
will be available for some time. As such, Humans will be your main
soldiers. Keep them alive and well. Otherwise you will have no army
to wage a war with.”
The Succubus was still reeling at the news that Arlan Nota had
somehow survived. What was that Human doing to be able to beat
Demons in a fair fight? He must have been using some sort of trick
or cheat, especially since the Humans already seemed to love
cheating. Maybe⁠—
“Succubus. I am speaking to you. Acknowledge.”
“Y-yes,” the Succubus said. “Expression of apolo—formal, formal
expression of apology, superior. I understand. But, er, we may be too
low on resources to effectively wage a war, currently.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, food stores are currently extremely low. That is, er, we
have none. I made the decision to sell the food and draft the farmers,
as I believed the war would only last a couple more days. So⁠—”
“Who told you to do that?”
“Well, er…” The Succubus had technically done that of its own
volition, since its previous superior, Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook,
had effectively given it free rein, for the most part. But if one looked
at it in a certain way, wasn’t it technically that Devil’s fault? Yes, yes,
clearly he was incompetent if he allowed himself to be killed by some
Human. So it wasn’t the Succubus’s fault. “It was the fault of
Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook, superior. He told me to do it.”
“Ugh. Even after dying, that cretin still seems to make problems.”
The Succubus’s eyes widened. “He’s dead? I thought he was
projected into the Overworld like normal.”
“Oh, well yes, he’s technically not dead yet, but you know how
getting killed as a projection goes. He’s currently unconscious, and
we’ve decided not to make any efforts to revive him. So he’ll either
die unconscious without the medical attention, or he’ll wake up in an
Underworld month or two, and then we’ll just throw him somewhere
to keep him occupied.”
“Ah.” The Succubus nodded. “Well, I will do my best to rectify his
mistakes, as he clearly made quite a few while in power. He was
tyrannical, forcing me to do all kinds of things against my better
judgment.”
“If I recall correctly,” Asmo began, “he only spoke to you once or
twice in the time⁠—”
“Well, you clearly didn’t hear all of the calls!” the Succubus
interrupted. “Stupid Human. Go clean something somewhere, or
whatever. We more intelligent beings are having a discussion.”
“No,” the superior said. “Stay here, Asmo. This conversation
involves you. And Succubus, do keep in mind that Asmo is currently
your equal. Do not speak to your coworkers that way. Sowing dissent
in our ranks only harms our cause. Do not allow your own personal
interests to harm our organization as a whole.”
The Succubus’s face whitened involuntarily, making the facade of
King Koinkar look quite inhuman for a moment. “Y-yes, superior.”
“Anyway, I was calling to inform the two of you of your newly
divided responsibilities. How many of the VIP strategists that Xhag
had appointed survived the Dragon attack?”
“Oh, a few. I believe most of them ended up living, but there were
some injuries. Do you want me to kill them off? Hiring them was
another of Xhag’duulinithar’obabaiidook’s idiotic plans. Relying on
Humans to make decisions…no wonder that wall fell.”
“No. In fact, I believe it was one of his better ideas. Division of
labor is important, and off-loading as much work as possible from
Demon hands onto the Humans was quite astute, on his part. I
intend to promote them to higher positions, directly under you two.
That way, you can worry about high-level decisions while they carry
out the smaller things. You said a few survived? Which ones?”
The Succubus blinked. “Uh, er, yes, of course. I was simply
making a joke. A-Asmo was the one who thought the idea was
stupid. I, I was mocking her, you see.”
“Noted. Answer my question.”
“R-right. The ones who survived were, um…uh…ugh, Human
names are impossible to remember. I’ll go find them. Give me a
minute.”
“No need,” Asmo interjected. “I spoke to them recently. The
names of the ones who survived were Winic Vigandoth, Carison
Aakbi, Keiki Umesai, and Jon Mourn. They were the mage,
merchant, warrior, and healer, respectively. Though Jon is upset
about the failure. I can speak to him and try to calm him down, if
needed."
“It would be perfect if you could speak to Jon Mourn, Asmo; you
will be in charge of their squad.They will answer directly to you. I
believe your being a Human should allow rapport to be built more
quickly and efficiently, and you should be able to anticipate the
Human-specific problems they may face more quickly than the
Succubus.”
“I, I,” the Succubus spluttered. “I could anticipate Human
problems just fine! Just give me some time, and I could become
more familiar with them than they are themselves!”
“Negative. Succubus, you will continue in your duties as they are
now. Manage the kingdom, and keep everyone happy. We will take a
short break from waging active war in order to rebuild and
consolidate our power. Focus on research of new warfare
technologies and strategies. Doing so will most likely require high
morale among the populace, as well as a growing population with
abundant resources. So try to end whatever famine is going on.”
The Succubus furrowed its brows. Rebuild? That was effectively
impossible. Trying to make all of these Humans happy and
comfortable? Pointless. And how could it even do so in reasonable
time? There was no way it could solve this food shortage. “Would
it…be possible for the Underworld to lend more manpower? Perhaps
if we used Infernals—or, or perhaps Nefariors—as manual laborers,
we could⁠—”
“Negative. As I said before, no reinforcements are available to be
sent to the Overworld. The Fourth Circle is making moves—we
believe they’ve joined in with the alliance group run by the Second,
which is of course a problem. As such, our armies require as many
soldiers as they can get. We do not have the soldiers to waste
playing around in the Overworld. So make do with what you have. If
you need advice in running a Human kingdom, feel free to ask
Asmo, or perhaps one of the advisors. Asmo, you said one of them
was a merchant? So he should be more than able to⁠—”
“What?! I would never need help from a Human. The pathetic
beings would just make things worse. I…I can do things myself. No
issues. Give me…a month. No, half! Half of a month, and this entire
famine shall be no more. The kingdom will prosper infinitely! Without
the help of some Human.”
“…Sure. Do that. But there is no need to operate on such a tight
schedule. We are moving to long-term plans, remember. From what
I’m aware of the Overworld, solving a famine in such a short period
will most likely be impossible. Take your time, and do not act hastily,
as that will only lead to further mistakes.”
"Of course," the Succubus rushed to answer. No way it would let
itself get replaced. What did its superior even want with these
Humans, anyway?! If it lost its job, and to a Human, no less… "There
will be no mistakes on my part."
“Okay. Get that solved, and then move to research. Asmo, you
and the Human subordinates that have been appointed to you will be
tasked with managing intelligence on Arlan Nota and his location.
For now, do not attempt to attack the Barinruth Empire, but rather
gather information on its military power, local geography, possible
points of assault, and any weaknesses you may be able to identify.
Also, feel free to assist our acting king in repairing damage done to
the kingdom. However, keep the facade going that Koinkar is leading
alone, and nothing has changed in the way leadership has
managed.”
“Acknowledged,” Asmo responded. “I am aware that a criminal
underbelly has been growing in influence in the kingdom. Perhaps I
may be able to use a subordinate to infiltrate their ranks and control
them from the inside. From there, we could carry out internal
assassinations on dissidents and stimulate the economy via the
black market.”
“Perfect, that’s a great idea.”
“And I will manage this criminal underside once you have
infiltrated it!” the Succubus said. No way it could allow Asmo to freely
manage things like that. She could not be allowed to have that kind
of power.
“With all due respect, my coworker,” Asmo sneered, “I believe
you would best befit continuing in your current duties, instead of
adding on more responsibilities to your already-cluttered job. I know
how hard it is to even do as much as you currently do.”
The Succubus looked over with a stare worth a thousand suns,
certain Asmo would shrink back immediately. The bitch couldn’t talk
to it like that! But she just looked back with a faux-professional gaze.
Their superior responded, “Yes, it would most likely be best for
Asmo to manage any criminal organizations she is able to infiltrate.
Again, operations of subtlety would most likely befit a Human, rather
than a Demon, as Humans will be better at naturally blending in.
Acting as Koinkar seems to only have worked as well as it has so far
because Koinkar already had a reputation for being somewhat
strange, so inconsistencies in behavior have gone unnoticed. Rather,
mostly unnoticed, as can be evidenced by Asmo here instantly
seeing through your facade. I do hope you learned from that mistake
of yours.”
“I regret it every day of my life,” the Succubus said through
clenched teeth, glaring at Asmo.
Asmo wasn’t looking, though, as she spoke to their superior
through the Crystal. “Also, superior, would it at all be possible for us
to send out a rescue team for one other VIP? She is currently
missing in action after a fight with the fugitive. However, I do suspect
she is still alive. She may hold valuable information after interacting
with him.”
“Hm. Seems like it could be useful. But your coworker is the one
who handles things like troop assignments. Speak to her about it.”
“Yes.” The Succubus smiled a poisoned grin. “We have already
spoken about it, and I said I would get to it as soon as possible. It
should not be an issue.”
“Great,” the superior said. “If that is all, I will leave you be. From
here on out, you will each need to give daily reports to me to ensure
everything is going smoothly. Call me when you have those ready.
Do well, subordinates.”
“Yes, superior,” the two said in unison. With a chime, the
Communication Crystal’s light faded, and the room went silent.
“Damn this shit!” The Succubus spiked the crystal into the marble
floor and it bounced up with a high-pitched clang. It stood from its
seat. “What is she thinking?”
“Something wrong?” Asmo asked, still calmly standing by the
throne.
“Oh, of course the idiot Human can’t figure out what the issue is.”
The Succubus rolled its eyes. “Get out of my sight.”
“Certainly,” Asmo said, a grin threatening to spread onto her face.
“Before I leave, though, I do have a request of you.”
“What? I’m not sending out some squad to save that moronic
Human. She failed, she should die.”
“I’d like to be given some Message Papers,” Asmo said. “I will
need to speak with my new subordinates often, and some
Enchanted papers will do just fine in that endeavor. That way, we
can write back and forth without needing to worry about long
distances.”
“Message Papers? Aren’t those just like, worse, slower versions
of Communication Crystals?”
“Yes, it is true that they take longer to send messages the further
apart one is from another person, but that shouldn’t pose any issues.
Besides, since Communication Crystals can only be made by
Demons, I felt that the Message Papers should be easier to acquire.”
“Fine.” The Succubus huffed out a breath, shaking its head. “You
have four new subordinates, right? I’ll just give you one for each.”
“Hm. Well, yes, but it would do best to have some redundancy.
Perhaps give me fifty?”
“Yes, fine, whatever.” The Succubus waved its hand, barely even
registering Asmo’s words as it shooed her away. “I’ll grab an
Enchanter or something to make some. Just get out.”
Asmo smiled and turned to leave. “Great. Get them to me as
soon as possible, please. Wouldn’t want word of your incompetence
to spread to our superior.”
"You don’t even know her name, Human scum!" the Succubus
screamed back as Asmo. But she was already walking away.
As Asmo walked through the hallway leading out of the audience
hall, her face fought between sneering and grinning. That amatuer
Demon wanted to fight over power with her? So be it. But that thing
had no idea the world of hurt it was in for. After all, it’d already signed
its own death warrant.
Fifty Message Papers? No way she’d need to use that many to
talk with a few people. But the extra would be more than enough for
what she was planning. And with the ability to work with some others
in the criminal side of the kingdom, out of the knowledge of the
Demon, it wouldn’t take long before she was done.
This whole kingdom would be hers, whether “Koinkar” willingly
gave it up or not.
62
THE ANTICIPATED FUTURE
THE GUARDS BECKONED US OVER, down the road toward them.

“You’ve got medical personnel, right?” I asked as I limped forward
alongside Erani and Ainash.
“Yeah,” one of them said. “We’ve got—woah! Hold on!”
I stopped short.
“You’ve got flamin’ monsters with you?! The Hell’s wrong with
you?! Get back!”
Confused, I looked over at Ainash. Did he say she was…on fire?
Also, there was only one monster here. Not multiple. What was this
guy talking about?
“Uh,” I said with a wave, unsure what to do, “we’re friendly. She’s
friendly, too. Just got out of a really bad fight, and we could really
use some medical attention. If you have Clerics, or potions, I’d be
more than willing to pay back any sort of debt⁠—”
“Dry yourself! And stay there!” the guard yelled, and then turned
to his two companions, whispering among them.
I frowned. Dry myself? What were these guys talking about? After
so long not really talking with anyone other than Erani and Ainash
outside of strict combat negotiations or interrogations, I suddenly felt
completely out of my depth in a normal conversation with a few
weirdos.
I turned to Erani. “Do you know what’s up with these guys?”
“Not really.” She shrugged back. “But I guess they want us to
wait?”
“Father, what is happening?”
“I don’t know. Don’t think they want us here. You remember
talking to them in the previous timeline, right? Were they like this
then, too?”
“Do not know much, mother was one who spoke to them. But
they are same people, and seemed much more friendly. Can
sense…fear, nervousness, hostility from them.”
“They’re probably on edge because of the noise from the
boulders dropping. Assuming there’s some sort of monster attack
going on, or something, and now they see us. A monster and a
couple Humans, one without an arm, and the other looking beaten
up and…well, they probably don’t actually see my injuries because
of my armor.”
“Yes, Humans do not like me or you. Seem okay with mother.”
Yeah, my Dark Plate was probably causing some issues. It was
apparently pretty scary-looking, if Erani was to be believed. I’d kept it
on just to ensure we’d be safe in case of an ambush, but suddenly I
was regretting that decision.
Or…no. No, maybe it was helping more than it hurt. The Demons
had obviously spread my name and face around, but Dark Plate
covered my face. And considering I’d only actually used it in front of
Xhag’duul—who was now dead, and assumedly not in good standing
with the Demons anymore—they almost certainly hadn’t spread any
depiction of that armor. Light Plate showed my face, but Dark Plate
didn’t. So as long as I didn’t lose the armor in front of anyone, I could
probably appear in public. And people like Erani and Ainash would
have been spread around much less than me, since I was really the
only one they were looking for. Plus, Ainash had also recently gone
through an evolution that changed her appearance. Erani was really
the only one who might have been recognized, but I hoped she
wouldn’t be remembered as much as I was.
After a moment of the three guards talking among themselves,
they turned back to us. “Listen! You are in the presence of three
high-Level, trained guards of the Barinruth Empire. Do not try to
attack, do not try to fight.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at their sudden change in disposition,
calling back, “Uh…are we under arrest? What’s going on here?”
“We just want you to know, you should not try anything.”
“Yeah, we’re not going to,” I said, trying to both convince them we
were safe and come up with some sort of story about our identities.
“We’re hurt. We can’t fight anyway. Listen, just please get us some
help. We were attacked earlier by a, uh, Demon.”
“Yes,” Erani cut in, “we’ve been fleeing from the Koinkar Kingdom
because of the Demon invasion. Please, we’re desperate. We only
barely fought off the Demon that chased us, but it’s dead now.
Please let us pass.”
“Then what in flamin’ Hell do you have a monster with you for?”
“She’s friendly,” Erani practically begged. I could tell she was
desperate to just finally get to safety by now. I was too.
“Yeah. She’s like a…” I tried to figure out a way to explain things
to them that’d just get us by as quickly as possible. ”Surrogate
daughter” would probably raise more suspicion than we already had.
“A pet, or something.”
Since we were still mentally relaying all of the conversation to
Ainash, she heard what I said, and sent a general feeling of
annoyance to me afterward. But I knew she understood that I was
just dumbing things down for them. Not that I assumed she was
happy about it—I wouldn’t be either.
“Pet?” one of them asked. “What kind of monster even is that?”
“She’s a—” I stopped myself. “Listen, now isn’t the time. We’re
standing in the middle of Kingdom’s Edge. Let’s get to safety, and we
can talk.”
“You mean Empire’s Edge?”
“Sure.” I shook my head, exasperated. “You said you had Truth
Stones back at your outpost, right? Let’s just head there and you can
test us on everything we say.”
The three soldiers shared a glance once again. “Fine. Come
along. But can’t you take off that helmet? Your armor’s…creepy.”
“No. It’s Enchanted.”
“Ugh. Okay. Come along.”
“Thank you,” I sighed.
The guards walked alongside us as we moved through the tall stone

walls of the mountain path. The three of them were obviously still on
guard, with them standing on the side opposite Ainash, so Erani and
I were stationed between them. I supposed that made sense; her
stature being a full head taller than anyone present definitely made
her cut an imposing figure. But I still felt like it was pretty rude. She
was nice.
And that standoffish demeanor extended to me and Erani as well.
During the long walk, they made no attempt to make conversation
with us. Though I somewhat welcomed that, since I was constantly
talking to both of my companions through Ainash’s mental link
throughout the walk.
The one who looked most like a leader among them—at least, he
was the one who’d done most of the talking—introduced himself as
Bon. I deliberately responded with nothing more than a "nice to meet
you," not wanting to commit to any story regarding my name or who I
was before we got to the interrogation stage with a full plan of what
we were going to tell them.
Once I’d gotten a closer look, I took basic note of our “escorts.”
They wore some basic chain armor with leather and layered cloth
beneath, and each had melee weapons that gave me a decent idea
of their Classes. Two of them, including Bon, had swords—so
probably Swordsmen—and the other had a two-handed war hammer
strapped to his back—so probably a high Strength or Endurance
build, most likely Berserker, or maybe Paladin. Though generally that
weapon could pair with a decent number of Classes.
The moment I’d mentioned the possibility of Paladin to Erani, she
began mentally spiraling down the rabbit hole of what Spell builds he
might be going with. Paladin was a Hybrid-Type Class, so it was one
of the very few that got both Mana and access to man-made
weapons with specialized Talents. Though Erani’s speculation of his
different Spells lost a lot of its meaning going through Ainash, since
we had a lot of trouble trying to translate names and specific wording
to and from her.
In the time that passed, I managed to squeeze in a couple
activations of Regenerate while keeping my Stamina at a decent
level, which helped my confidence in our contingencies in case a
fight broke out, and it also did a bit more to heal my broken limbs.
Still, no matter how much I examined them, I couldn’t really get a
read on their exact Levels. As guards, they probably shouldn’t have
been too high, but then they were guards for a place as dangerous
as Kingdom’s Edge—or Empire’s Edge, as they apparently knew it—
so maybe they’d be a lot stronger to fend off such powerful
monsters.
Needless to say, neither our side nor theirs displayed much
friendliness during the walk.
But we got to our destination all the same, the full hour passing in
relative uneventfulness. They probably kept this whole area clear of
monsters, so luckily we hadn’t had to deal with any Shadow Panther
attacks. Though forcing the guards to tip their hands in terms of how
strong they were would probably have been good for us.
The outpost we arrived at was small. I’d seen it from afar, up in
the wild mountains, but not up close from below. And it seemed like
I’d overestimated how large it was at the time. It only seemed large
enough to house a few rooms, and was made of simple, rough
stone. Seemed like the stone they used was magically sourced; I
could tell by comparing it to the magically cut stone that made up the
Demons’ barricade. It didn’t seem very high-quality or high-
protection, really.
“So, do you guys have any Clerics that can heal me?” I asked as
we approached the stone hut.
“No, we don’t. But Jannin here,” Bon replied, tilting his head back
at the one with the war hammer, “is a Paladin. He’s got a basic heal
that can help you out. You got some scratches or something?”
“Little more,” I said. “Right arm and left leg both have their bones
shattered. Health has regenerated a bit, but it’s mainly the bodily
harm.”
His eyes widened. “What in hell…? You’ve been walking on a
broken leg?”
“She’s helped me this whole way, didn’t you notice?” I said,
gesturing at Ainash, who had, as I’d said, been helping me walk the
entire way here.
“W-well, I didn’t…listen, get in and lie down. We’ll help as much
as we can. But I don’t know if…”
The Paladin—Jannin—stepped forward. “I’m not going to be able
to fix a flamin’ broken limb. Much less two. But I can at least top off
your Health.”
“Good enough for me.” I nodded.
“Okay. Let’s get inside.”
We walked through the creaky wooden front door. Inside was a
small common room with little in it to decorate the bleak stone walls.
“Make yourselves at home,” Bon said. “Uh, armor guy, take a
seat in one of these chairs. Woman, monster…I don’t know. We’ve
got some food rations you can munch on if you’re hungry. Don’t
expect anything fancy, though. Just check those cabinets in the
kitchen. Oh, and don’t touch that book.”
After the few chairs and a small kitchen, the man gestured to a
full notebook of what I recognized to be Message Paper sitting on a
table. Seemed like the entire budget of this outpost went toward that
single Enchanted item. Or, rather, tome of dozens of Enchanted
items. It certainly looked out of place, that was for sure.
“Those two doors lead to the bedrooms and the toilet. If you need
to go, feel free.”
And that concluded the tour. Ainash helped me sit down in a
creaky wooden chair—though “collapse” would probably be a better
word for what I did—and then she s wandered off, apparently
deciding to explore this new, man-made environment she’d never
seen before. Erani grabbed a chair of her own, one that was up
against a wall. Yeah, we may have been hungry, but I wasn’t eating
their food. At least if the Paladin tried to cast a damaging Spell on
me, I could react quickly and fight back. Eating poison wouldn’t leave
me nearly as much wiggle room.
Once I sat, the Paladin, Jannin, sat down next to me and reached
out to grab my leg. “Oh, you may want to remove the armor. I need
direct touch.”
“You’ll be able to grab right through it,” I grunted. The soreness
and pain seemed to flood into my body the moment I sat down.
With a curious look on his face, he did so, and looked surprised
when, as I’d said, he reached right through the plate armor and
touched my leg. We’d been aware of this property of Ethereal Armor
ever since I’d taken it and had that unfortunate run-in with the
Ghouls, but since then, with some experimentation from Erani, we’d
found that an outside being could effectively choose whether they
wanted to touch the armor, or touch me. From how Erani had
described it, it was less of a conscious choice and more of a
measurement of subconscious intent. If someone actively wanted to
touch the armor, their hands would stop on its exterior. Otherwise,
they’d pass through as though it were an illusion.
With his hand on my leg, Jannin closed his eyes and muttered
what sounded like a prayer. After he was done, he kept his eyes
shut, and after some time, I got a notification.
You have been blessed by the mercy of god. 5 Health

restored.
Your Health is 51.
Seemed like it worked. But not much healing. This would

probably take a while. Still, it was certainly better than my natural
Health/Minute, which was still less than 0.2.
Now that I saw that the guards didn’t seem to mean us any harm
—yet—I relaxed a little. “So, how far are we from the nearest
settlement?”
“Nearest?” Bon asked. “Not too far. In fact, you should just barely
be able to see it from here if it’s bright enough.”
He turned and walked over to a slice of the stone wall that I
realized was actually on a metal track, so it could slide away to
reveal an inlaid window. He slid it open, and a ray of sunlight blinded
me in the dark room. I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the sudden
light, before fully opening them to gaze out. Ainash walked over to
the window, and Erani stood to look through as well.
Through the hole in the wall, we could, indeed, see it from here.
Out across the rolling hills, opposite the mountains, there were the
tiny protrusions from the ground that I recognized as buildings. And
not just one or two, but a whole swarm of them. They were
farmhouses and barns on green fields. And further out than that, I
could just barely make out the sight of walls. Walls! Society was
there. In our sight. Not guarded by Demons, or destroyed by an
invasion, or swarming with hostiles. Just plain old people.
Good food, a warm bed, Spell Crystals, a fucking break from the
constant fear of monsters, we were here. The promised land.
You have been blessed by the mercy of god. 5 Health

restored.
Your Health is 56.
Another trigger of healing went off from Jannin, who was still
casting his Spells. Blessed by the mercy of god, huh? Yeah, we sure
were.
The Demons would be plotting to start a war, but we still had the
first move here. And with the innate safety and resources of society,
the ability to work and purchase some gear of our own, the ability to
make allies—maybe even work alongside the Barinruth Empire to
repel the Demons? It seemed like we might just be able to shift our
strategy from reactive to proactive. Defensive to offensive. We were
safe now, so we could finally focus on procuring the power to finally
end these Demons, and maybe give them a taste of what it was like
to live in fear. With that, plus two more Level-ups waiting on me to
make my Talent and Time Loop Upgrade choices, there was a
chance here that we may be able to do more than just survive.
We finally had the tools to get stronger, and eventually take the
fight to them.
The story will continue in Minute Mage 3.
THANK YOU FOR READING MINUTE
MAGE 2
WE HOPE you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

We just wanted to take a moment to encourage you to review the
book. Follow this link: Minute Mage 2 to be directed to the book’s
Amazon product page to leave your review.
Every review helps further the author’s reach and, ultimately,
helps them continue writing fantastic books for us all to enjoy.
ALSO IN SERIES:
Minute Mage 1
Minute Mage 2
Minute Mage 3
Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)
Want to discuss our books with other readers and even the authors?
Join our Discord server today and be a part of the Aethon
community.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website
You can also join our non-spam mailing list by visiting

www.subscribepage.com/AethonReadersGroup and never miss out
on future releases. You'll also receive three full books completely
Free as our thanks to you.
Looking for more great LitRPG?

Lives are a currency, and Noah Vines is rich. After
standing around in the afterlife for thousands of years, Noah is
all out of patience. So, when the opportunity to steal a second
chance at life arises, he doesn't hesitate. Reincarnated into the
body of a dying magic school professor, Noah finds that he got
more than just a second chance — he got infinite. Every time he
dies, his body reforms. With countless variations of runic magic
to discover and with death serving as only a painful soul-wound
rather than a final end, Noah finally has a chance to wander the
lands of the living once more. This time around, he plans to get
strong enough to make sure that he never has to wait around in
the afterlife again. Don't miss the next hit Progression
Fantasy series from Actus, bestselling author of My
Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror. Featuring a strong,
determined protagonist, a detailed runic magic
system, loads of power progression, and so much
more. With 10 million views as a webserial, you can
experience the definitive version of this smash-hit series on
Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
Get Return of the Runebound Professor Now!

The Connected System has come to Earth, bringing
with it the apocalypse... In an instant, life as it was known
is gone, replaced by a System called The Connection. It doesn't
come quietly as earthquakes rock the planet, the chosen
survivors falling unconscious as the Connection takes their
bodies and Adapts them. Lochlan Brady and his family were on
their way home from a camping weekend when the Connection
appears. He awakens with a new Adapted body, finding his wife
missing. Now Loch must survive and thrive in this new world
with his two teenage daughters, Harper and Piper. All Loch
wants to do is protect his daughters and find his wife. A chance
encounter with creatures straight out of myth will force the family
to quickly confront the reality of their new lives, the changed
world and give Loch a jump in power. But with that power will
come responsibility and more danger. Along with the attention of
some of the most powerful beings in The Connected System.
Get Warbreaker’s Rise Now!

If he hopes to survive, he must discover a whole
new kind of magic. Ekavir is a hardworking lumberjack's
son. It isn't his fault crows speak in eldritch voices when he
walks through the forest, or that his blood-red eyes leave the
village kids shaking in their shoes. He might be the latest
incarnation of a dreaded god known as the Primordial, but he
never asked for that. He doesn't even know. When knights
arrive hunting for the Ender of Realms, Vir loses his idyllic life
along with his chance to be anything else. To grow strong
enough to survive, he'll have to become the Primordial. There's
just one problem: Vir can't do magic. Not even the simplest
spells to light a fire or conjure a breeze. To take back control of
his destiny, Vir will have to find a new kind of magic. He'll have
to forge his own path, and he'll have to do it while running,
fighting, and clawing for survival. It might be that Vir is destined
to live out his days without magic...Or maybe his brand of magic
just defies all the known rules. Don't miss this epic new
progression fantasy from bestseller Vowron Prime.
Featuring loads of action, detailed worldbuilding,
unforgettable characters, south asian/indian
cultivation elements, LitRPG lite elements, weak-
to-strong progression, a rational MC, and so much
more. Game elements: An internally consistent magic
system with named spells, ranks, and affinities. Named martial
abilities with ranks. A combat power ranking system. No d&d
style stats, no blue boxes, no levels.
Get Ashborn Primordial Now!
For all our LitRPG books, visit our website.

GROUPS
Don’t forget to join LitRPG Addicts and come hang out with me!
I’m also very active and thankful for Redditserials, LitRPG Books,
GameLit Society, Western Cultivation Stories (Xianxia and Wuxia,
etc), Cultivation novels, LitRPG & GameLit Readers, and LitRPG
Books Group!
LITRPG
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and

just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.

Minute Mage 2_ A LitRPG Adventu - Reg Rome

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Minute Mage 2_ A LitRPG Adventu - Reg Rome

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

MINUTE MAGE 2

©2024 REG ROME

Published by Aethon Books LLC.

All rights reserved.

Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)

ERANI, the Dryad, and I walked through the dead, decolorized

While we walked, I took a moment to cast Ethereal Armor and

It stumbled past me and I raised my arm and pushed it further

You have been scratched by claws. 2 damage.

"Shit!" I cursed, and I pushed the Ghoul away, causing it to

You have struck Level 11 Ghoul for 58 damage using Ray of

That seemed to finally be enough to kill it. I glanced around and

You have slain Level 7 Ghoul.

WELCOME TO HELL. THIS IS YOUR LAST

ONCE WE FOUND the entrance to the wasteland, we decided to

As we walked, we had to fight off the Ghouls that approached us.

THE BEAST in the cave with us lunged at me while I leapt

You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling

You have been slammed against something. 32 damage.

"Fuck," I muttered groggily, trying to stand myself up. Yeah, it

You have been bitten. 17 damage.

You have offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level 8

I sighed. I hadn’t expected there to be Ghouls⁠—

You have been scratched by claws. 6 damage.

You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 53 damage using

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 50 damage using

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 57 damage using

It turned and roared yet again, obviously upset at its unsuccessful

You have been sliced by claws. 41 damage.

I rolled across the ashy ground of the wasteland, tumbling across

I STUMBLED TO MY FEET, looking around in search of the

You have been sliced by claws. 33 damage.

I slid across the ground, narrowly missing the claws of some of

Wait—why were the numbers there so low? I should’ve gained a

You have been slammed into something. 29 damage.

I groaned. It fucking hurt, but at least I still had a good buffer of

It turned and took another swing at me, which I dodged. It

You have been sliced by claws. 18 damage.

Still, as it touched me I managed to get off a split second of

You have been bitten. 20 damage.

Shit! I glanced behind me and found a Ghoul that’d snuck up and

You have been slammed into something. 36 damage.

"Fuck," I groaned, and I stumbled back to my feet. Gods-damned

You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling

With its already-low Stamina, the Dexterity debuffs really hit it

Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

I LOOKED over my Level-up when the notification came in, sitting on

Choose one Spell to learn:

Choose one Talent to obtain:

Yeah, these options were even more difficult to choose from.

MAKING THE CHOICE

Choose one Spell to learn:

TO BEGIN WITH, I decided to pick a Spell. Honestly, they all looked

Choose one Talent to obtain:

Status Reconstruction was obviously useful in a fight. I could run

Right. Now it would multiply Conjuration by 2.42. So it’d go from

You have learned the Spell Expedite.

You have learned the Talent Exponential Reclamation.

And now I just needed to test them out.

WELCOME TO THE OUTLAWS: GETTING

I SAW him while practicing Expedite.

Threshold reached. Expedite XP has reached 10.