“Is there even anything you can wear here?” Lola asked. “Won’t that chest of yours just burst out of everything?”

“Rude! As if you’re one to talk. Your outfit doesn’t even have a back. It’s perverted!”

“It’s not perverted,” Lola protested. “It’s sexy!”

The two of them got into fights like this all the time, but this one seemed more like they were just blowing off steam. They even looked strangely relieved when they finished bickering. That said, I didn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of town, so we all headed toward the shop together. However, before we could reach it, Luna called out behind us.

“Watch out! You’re going to run into—”

“Huh?”

Lola bumped into an older woman who was walking behind us. I quickly pulled Lola away to avoid a total disaster, and we both bowed our heads in apology. That sort of thing was probably unavoidable when the city was so crowded.

“Guys,” Leila said, grimacing, “I’m going after her.”

Leila? But before I could ask her what was happening, both she and the older woman took off running. I had no choice but to go after them.

Leila was the most physically fit of all of us, so there was no way a mere housewife could outrun her—or at least, there shouldn’t have been a way! But this woman was shockingly fast.

Just not fast enough to evade Leila’s grasp.

“You stole her wallet, didn’t you?” Leila demanded. “Hand it over.”

“Excuse me?!” the woman protested. “I’ve done no such thing!”

“Don’t play dumb. I saw you take it!” Leila shoved her hand into the woman’s purse. When she took it back out again, she held Lola’s wallet.

“I think that belongs to me!” Lola took it from Leila’s hand.

“She snatched it when you ‘ran into’ her,” Leila explained.

The thief couldn’t say a thing. The evidence was indisputable. Instead, the woman pulled a pair of daggers from her skirts, twirling them around her fingers. Leila took a step back, pulling Luna and Lola out of the way.

“I think that’s my cue!” Emma jumped into the fray. After all, she knew a thing or two about daggers herself.

As she and the woman exchanged blows, I cleared the area of bystanders to make sure no one got hurt. I thought it wouldn’t take Emma long to deal with this thief, but after a few moments, it became clear that I was way wrong. This woman was going toe-to-toe with her! Emma still had the upper hand, but there was definitely something different about this woman. I used my Discerning Eye on her.

Name: Lanessa Caccaro

Age: 44

Species: Human

Level: 48

Occupation: Unemployed

Skills: Dual Wielding Daggers (Grade C); Stone Bullet

She might have been unemployed, but she was actually pretty strong! I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she was an adventurer or something.

“Dammit! Why are you so strong, you big-boobed bimbo?!”

“Who are you calling a bimbo?!”

Emma put all her weight into her next blow, knocking one of the woman’s daggers from her hand. After that, the woman didn’t stand a chance. At least, not in a fair fight. She must have realized this, because she pointed her remaining dagger at me. I thought perhaps she was looking for a way out, but the second she extended her arm, I knew what was coming. Sure enough, a moment later she fired off a Stone Bullet. I countered it with one of my own, and of course, mine was several times larger. Once again, the thief found herself outclassed.

“That doesn’t look like a normal Stone Bullet!” she protested.

“Apologies for interrupting your moment of shock.”

I kicked the remaining dagger out of her hand, then grabbed her arm and threw her over my shoulder. She screamed, but I didn’t let that distract me. Once she was on the ground, I restrained her with one of the joint locks Leila had taught me. The woman struggled at first, but before long, she accepted her loss.

“You’re strong, kid!” she said.

“That was so cool!” someone shouted.

A crowd had started to gather around us.

“The guards will be here soon, so it won’t be much longer.”

One of the other passersby broke into spontaneous applause. It was all a little embarrassing. In any case, with Lola’s wallet back where it belonged, all that was left was to find out what this woman had thought she was doing. After all, she was hardly pickpocketing for the cash. Her clothes and her weapons were too well made for that.

“I…just need money,” she said.

“Why don’t you just sell those daggers then?” I asked her.

“If I did that, Master Iesu would…”

But the moment that name crossed her lips, her whole demeanor changed somehow. Her mouth opened wide and she started panting, like she was in pain. I was worried I was holding her too tightly, so I loosened my grip, careful of the fact she could be acting. But almost immediately, her face turned purple and she started to foam at the mouth.

“Noir, get away from her!” Emma shouted.

I jumped back, and it was just as well I did—an ominous purple liquid pooled under her body. Was it some kind of magic? It looked like some kind of poison spell.

Luna rushed to try to help, but it was too late. The light went out of the woman’s eyes and her heart stopped beating. I scanned the area and soon spotted a masked figure standing on a rooftop.

“Up there!” I shouted. “He must be the one responsible!”

But as soon as I’d spoken, the man jumped onto another roof and took off running.

We were still standing there stunned when the guards finally showed up. At least the bystanders were kind enough to explain what had happened, and that we weren’t responsible for the woman’s death.

“The masked man I saw used some kind of magic to kill her,” I said. “He might have even been someone she knew.”

I was mumbling, but the guard heard me. His face turned grim at my words, and slowly, he filled me in on what was happening in Rosette.

***

“He’s the leader of a vile insurgent group trying to usurp the throne,” the guard explained as we stood over the thief’s body. “The Fangs of Wrath. Their leader is called Iesu, and some of the group’s members are fanatics.”

So this woman was a member of the Fangs of Wrath and had been killed for failing to complete her job. Apparently, the group’s “fundraising” activities included everything from pickpocketing to robbery and muggings. Nothing was off the table. The more they disturbed the peace, the better.

“Why are they trying to overthrow the government?” I asked.

“Iesu probably can’t stand the fact that he isn’t king himself,” said the guard. “They’ve been getting more aggressive lately too. We’re having trouble keeping them in check.”

Emma leaned over to mutter in my ear. “We really can’t catch a break, can we?”

I had to agree—trouble seemed to follow us wherever we went.

“Maybe I’m cursed or something…” Luna said, echoing my own thoughts.

For now, we let the guard deal with the woman’s body and headed to the castle. All the same, I had a bad feeling about what would happen next, and my bad feelings tended to be right.

We made our way toward the castle, and when we gave our names to the guards at the gate, they let us in politely.

“Hey, how much do you think this carpet costs?”

“Gotta be something crazy expensive. Like, way out of my price range. I bet Emma’s family could afford it, though.”

“Oh, don’t be silly!”

I smiled at their banter as we climbed the stairs to the third floor, where the throne room was located. The moment we reached the top of the stairs, a row of soldiers parted to let us through. I was startled for a moment. Back home, my family were little better than commoners. I wasn’t used to respectful treatment.

The throne stood on the far side of the room, decorated with gold and copious details. The man sitting in it had a profoundly impressive physique—I’m not sure I’d ever seen a quadruple chin before. He must have been around forty years old, while the queen sitting beside him was a beautiful blonde woman who didn’t look much older than us. That was some age gap there!

We came up to the throne and knelt before the king, as was proper.

“We are called Gyro,” he said. “Tales of your great deeds in Honest have reached our ears. We commend you.”

“You are far too generous, Your Majesty,” I replied.

“Noir Stardia, we presume? We have heard of your skill and the competence of your companions. Thus, we must solicit your assistance.”

I knew it! My sixth sense was always right about these things. Whatever he was about to ask, I was sure it would have something to do with the Fangs of Wrath. It didn’t take long before I was proven right. As we listened, the king asked us to deal with the Fangs—and to take out Iesu if we could. It sounded like a lot of hassle. All I really wanted to do was go home.

And it wasn’t even just that I wanted to. I had to go home. I had schoolwork to do, and Lola and Luna both had work-work. It wasn’t like we could just hang around here as long as we wanted.

“I apologize, Your Majesty,” I said. “But we really need to head back.”

But the king wasn’t done yet. “We shall grant you titles if you kill Iesu!”

“That’s nice, but—”

“Very well then, Stardia,” he said. “We shall ask for your assistance and yours alone. And we shall not suffer ‘no’ as an answer.”

He signaled to the burly soldiers near the stairs, and they moved to block off our escape. What exactly was Gyro’s plan here? I couldn’t imagine he was going to execute us if we refused. Then again, judging from what we’d seen of him so far, he didn’t seem like a particularly wise ruler.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll stay behind by myself.”

Emma looked dismayed. “Noir?!”

She was worried about me, but I reassured her that I’d be fine. Although, to be honest, nothing about this was fine. I still had to say something to make her and the others feel better.

“Yes,” said Gyro. “We are most pleased that you’ve chosen to take the mutually beneficial route. You are wiser than your years, Stardia. But before you leave, we wish for the blonde one to stay—she has piqued our interest.”

Why did he want to see Emma alone? I asked, but Gyro insisted that he’d only speak to her directly. I didn’t trust him, but it wasn’t like we had much choice. We headed downstairs to the entrance and waited for Emma.

“Why do you think he wanted to talk to her alone?” Lola asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t think Emma’s family has anything to do with this kingdom, but maybe it could be diplomatic?”

Leila frowned. “I’ll ask around.”

She spent the next few minutes talking to several of the maids who were cleaning the palace’s elaborate furnishings. When she came back, she looked concerned.

“They said that this King Gyro guy is a sucker for curvy blonde women,” she said. “Apparently, he has eight mistresses, and they’re all blonde.”

“I’ll be right back!” I shouted.

Almost before the words were out of my mouth, I was racing back up those stairs. I knew that bastard was going to try to coerce Emma into becoming mistress number nine.

This time, when I reached the line of soldiers on the third floor, they stood firm, blocking my way. Behind the door, I could hear the king shouting angrily in the throne room.

“You dare make a mockery of us?! However friendly you may be with Stardia, we shall not suffer such mistreatment!”

Was he actually trying to threaten her?

“Get out of the way, please,” I told the soldiers.

But they just shook their heads.

“We’ve been ordered not to allow anyone inside. Even with everything you have done, Mr. Stardia, you must wait here. If you attempt to force your way through, we shall have no choice but to take serious action.”

They meant it too. They even drew their swords. I’d wanted to resolve this without causing any more trouble, but by now I was pissed.

I fired a foot-wide Stone Bullet at their feet, knocking a number of them over and clearing a path to the door.

“Ow!”

“Ouch!”

“Ugh.”

“What?!”

While the soldiers clutched at their injured feet, I leaped over them—the sound of their shouts echoing behind me as I burst into the throne room and raced to Emma’s side.

“Noir?!” she said. “What are you doing here?!”

“He’s trying to convince you to become another one of his mistresses, isn’t he?” I said. “And he was yelling at you because you said no, right?”

Emma blinked at me. “Right! That’s exactly what happened!”

I smirked, but now wasn’t really the time to be smug. If nothing else, we were surrounded by irate soldiers. This was going to get messy.

King Gyro was beetroot-red with rage. I wondered if name-dropping Duke Schoen and General Stey might help, but I soon dismissed the idea. After all, Gyro was a king. He outranked both of our allies.

“Even if we both end up wanted criminals and on the lam,” Emma said, “I won’t mind at all as long as I’m with you, Noir.”

“Wanted criminals within hours of reaching the capital, huh?” I said. “That sounds like fun.”

“Fun?! I thought you would say the opposite.”

“Exactly!” I shouted, almost in tears.

The king’s shouting grew louder and louder as he struggled with his meager vocabulary to find new ways to insult us.

We put our lives on the line to save Honest and this is the treatment we get?

“King Gyro,” I said. “You can say what you will, but know that I possess abilities that will allow me to strike you ill without so much as lifting a finger.”

“S-surely you jest?!” Gyro spluttered. “We will not be deceived!”

“Your funeral, buddy.”

I was within range and I had plenty of LP, so I could Bestow a skill on him if I needed to. Maybe Feeble would work? No, it needed to be something obvious. Emma stepped in front of me, gripping her daggers. The king realized we were serious, because his tone immediately became more pleading.

“Wait! Let us be civil!”

“We’ll think about it,” I said. “If you accept Emma’s decision and forgive us for our actions in this incident.”

“Well,” said Gyro. “Forgiving all of your impertinence may not be possible…”

“We are from a neighboring kingdom, and you are not our king. You have tried to take Emma against her will,” I said, drawing my sword with a flourish. “We are simply defending ourselves.”

I was getting desperate, but I would fight if I had to.

According to my Discerning Eye, the soldiers around us varied quite a lot in strength and ability. Still, if I targeted their weak spots, I was confident that Emma could get away, at least.

“Noir!” Emma cried. “Are you really going to use that sword? It makes people sick with a single touch!”

It took me a moment to see her angle, but when I did, I played right along.

“What choice do I have?” I said. “You know my plague sword is so effective. Ah ha ha ha ha ha!”

I brandished the sword and cackled for good measure. Glancing over my shoulder, the soldiers were backing away. I could hardly blame them. I mean, who wanted to end up on the end of a plague sword?

The king realized he was losing his men and, at length, swallowed his pride. “Very well,” he said. “We shall…overlook all of your many offenses. Sheathe your blade, sir.”

He signaled the soldiers to back off, and I obliged by putting my sword away. I kept my hand on the hilt just in case.

But the problem was solved for now, right?

***

Maybe not. The atmosphere in the throne room remained tense. I really didn’t want to be there. For one, I didn’t want to put Emma and the others at risk, but I was also sick of being such a bottom-rung aristocrat and having to grovel to everyone all the time. Thanks a ton, Dad!

At least what Gyro wanted was simple: Justice brought to the Fangs of Wrath, to repay them for all the troubles they’d caused the town and their attempts to seize the castle. Of course, this included their leader, Iesu. King Gyro had no qualms about flat-out asking me to assassinate the guy. It seemed Iesu was resourceful and charismatic enough to be a real threat.

“Those cretins have been using assassins not even ten years of age,” said the king. “We must destroy them by any means necessary !”

Wow, this guy really did not have a filter. I was glad he wasn’t my king.

“That’s easier said than done,” I replied. “This is a big risk for me. I mean, you guys haven’t been able to deal with the Fangs yourselves, so what do you expect an outsider like me to do?”

“Hrmph…”

Gyro had pissed me off, so I had to get that jab in. Then again, he was a king, so it was best to leave it at that.

Regardless, there was no way I was going to assassinate someone just on Gyro’s say-so. Instead, we settled for me assisting in his capture. Once we’d been briefed about the Fangs of Wrath, we headed out of the castle to join the others.

Emma clung to my arm the whole way. Seemed she was pleased that I’d stepped in to defend her honor. Also, having her body pressed against mine earned me some LP on the way down the stairs, so I couldn’t complain.

We headed straight to the town gates so I could say goodbye to the others. Of course, they all wanted to stay and help, but I wouldn’t allow it. They all really needed to get home.

“Promise me you’ll run away if things get too dangerous?” Emma said, almost tearful. “I swear, if you don’t come back, I’ll punch you so hard, you’ll never forget it!”

I had to admit that she was kind of cute when she got like this.

I stood and watched their carriage pull away, then returned to town to gather information. What Gyro had told me wasn’t exactly useful. With so few leads to work with, it sounded like this Iesu was a slippery fellow. Even so, everyone in town had heard of him. With every story I heard, he sounded a little more terrifying. This guy had handed adventurers their own asses and fought elite soldiers who hadn’t been able to lay a finger on him.

Um, you folks realize I need to fight this guy, right? Couldn’t you give me a happier version of these stories?

Apparently, there were even a number of local factions that supported the Fangs. It didn’t take me long to find an old man who sympathized with them.

“I mean, sure,” he said, “the Fangs are pretty radical, but they want to kill the king and end the monarchy. As far as goals go, well…”

I got similar stories from a bunch of people. In private, it seemed a lot of folks would be pleased if Gyro was killed.

That made me kinda curious, so I started asking about why people had such bad feelings toward the monarchy. It didn’t take long before I started wishing that I hadn’t asked. Apparently, the nobility in this country often abused their powers. The worst of it was something called “Noble Fight Club” where poor commoners were used for sport. Of course, it was only a “game” to the nobles involved. Just the thought of it made me sick.

Maybe I’d be better off heading home. Almost as soon as that thought popped into my head, I found myself walking back toward the city gates.

“No!” I said for the benefit of the man who was following me, who I assumed was one of Gyro’s subordinates. “I have to keep trying! I’m gonna get this guy, no matter what it takes.”

Was that the right amount of enthusiasm? Who could tell?

Either way, I turned to the Great Sage for help: Is a man named Iesu, or someone operating under that name, to be found in this town?

<There is one approximately 256 yards south-southeast, and another approximately 439 yards north-northeast.>

I’d narrowed it down to two already? That was good going!

I followed up by asking the Great Sage for any particular physical characteristics for these two individuals. Apparently, they were both young men. One was slender with long brown hair and a prominent mole on the back of his neck. The other had short, ash-gray hair and a scar on his right elbow.

That was enough questions for now. I did have some immunity to the Great-Sage-induced headaches, thanks to my skill, but it wasn’t perfect, and Emma wasn’t here to kiss it better if I got reduced to tears by some massive migraine.

Instead, I started with the man who was closest, using my steps to measure the distance until I ended up in a park.

“A slender brown-haired man with a mole…” I mumbled to myself.

I glanced at everyone I passed, but they all looked normal. Completely normal, in fact. Then I noticed someone lying on a bench and smoking a cigar. I approached slowly, planning to use my Discerning Eye to determine his identity. It wouldn’t work if he had a Conceal skill, but it was worth a shot. But before I had a chance to activate the skill, the man locked eyes with me.

“Hey, kid.”

“Huh? Wh-who, me?”

He had a deep, commanding voice. It startled me.

“You ain’t from around here, are you, kid?” he asked.

“No, I’m not. I actually just got here. I’m sightseeing.”

“Now that’s hilarious,” he said, getting to his feet.

Before I could stop him, he reached out and covered my eyes with his hand. I panicked and reached for my sword. Had he seen through me already?

“Now, now,” said the man. “Don’t be hasty. I just wanna hear about this place you’re from.”

He drew his hand back and showed me the mosquito he’d caught between his fingers. He crushed it and smiled at me.

Oh, I see. Maybe he’s not a bad guy after all?

He did have a mole on his neck, so he had to be the guy I was looking for. I thanked him for saving me from the bug bite and quickly used Discerning Eye.

Name: Joss Trovia

Age: 24

Species: Human

Level: 69

Occupation: Explorer

Skills: Swordsmanship (Grade A); Stone Bullet; Improved Tackle

He was stronger than I’d expected. I was still much more skilled, but that A-Grade Swordsmanship skill was impressive. Since his only occupation was “explorer,” he probably wasn’t the Iesu I was looking for. Although would Iesu’s ambitions even show up in occupation field? Pseudonyms didn’t appear, after all.

“I was thinkin’ it was about time I get exploring again, so I wanna hear about where you’re from,” he said.

“I’d love to chat, but I’m a little busy right now.”

“Then promise me you’ll tell me about it next time we meet, kid.”

I nodded and made a swift retreat, heading toward the other potential Iesu. It was just gut instinct, but I was fairly certain the man in the park wasn’t the one I was looking for. He didn’t seem particularly on guard…just like he wanted to talk. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it was time to find the second man.

I backtracked to where I’d begun, then headed north-northeast until I found myself in a city square. The place was full of street performers using their skills and sleight of hand to entertain their audience. There was a big stone stairway nearby where people from all walks of life sat to watch. The square brimmed with a comfortable, laid-back atmosphere. It was a shame that Emma and the others couldn’t stay to see it.

Bringing myself back to the task at hand, I searched for the ashen-haired man until one of the performers—a man with a face painted white and a bright red nose—beckoned me over. He handed a bunch of beanbags to me.

“Uh-hoo!” he cried in a strange voice. “Why don’cha give those a throw, buddy boy?”

“I’m not your buddy, and I’m definitely not a little boy—I’m sixteen!”

“All the same,” said the man. “I’m sure we can surprise even someone as self-assured as you!”

No way in hell am I gonna be surprised, I thought as I tossed the beanbags like he’d asked.

The performer caught them one after another, then held his hands up for everyone to see. The beanbags had vanished. The crowd was delighted.

I squinted at where the bags had been and used Discerning Eye. Just as I suspected, he had C-Grade Pocket Dimension. He must have been making a pocket just in front of his hand and stowing them away before anyone could notice. It was impressive, but more than anything, I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. He held up his hands again and the beanbags had returned. The audience was amazed.

“I can do that too,” I said. “Throw them at me.”

“Hm? It’s not easy.”

“Trust me.”

He looked dubious—then he threw them at me all at once.

Hey! I meant one at a time!

I somehow managed to get them all stowed away, although I was pretty sure the audience saw exactly how I did it. For his part, the white-faced man looked confused.

“That’s a rare skill,” I told him. “I’d never considered using it like that. Thanks for the inspiration!”

However talented someone was with their skill, it was the user that made a skill worth it. A brilliant, creative person could use any skill to turn the tables in their favor, but the opposite was also true. An average person would only ever get average results. That’s why it was important to remain focused and not get too big-headed—wait, I didn’t have time for this philosophizing! I had something important to do!

I went back to looking for the ashen-haired man. He had to be around here somewhere, but before I could find him, my attention was drawn by a fight on the other side of the square. One of the other performers was arguing with a gray-haired man. Could he be the one I was looking for?

As I hurried over, I listened to what they were saying. From what I could gather, the portly performer had misjudged his fire-breathing act and sprayed fire all over the other man’s clothes. Even though it had been put out right away, the gray-haired man was furious, and now the performer was getting mad too.

I was firmly on the spectator’s side, though—the performer had made a mistake and just needed to apologize. Surely it wasn’t that hard! I don’t know, maybe it was more difficult for adults. They had too much pride in the way. I hoped I didn’t end up like that when I grew up. As I mulled over that, the fight developed into a real brawl.

“Eeek!”

The gray-haired man drew a sword, and the crowd scattered as the two of them faced off. The performer made the first move. He took a swig of alcohol and blew a plume of fire, large enough to engulf a whole person. Wasn’t that a bit much? Even if his opponent was armed, it seemed like overkill. Yet when the flames dissipated, no one stood where they had been. What was happening?

“Huh?”

The performer was just as confused as I was, but a moment later, his face went white as a sheet. The point of a sword pressed firmly against his back. When had the gray-haired man gotten behind him?

“You’ve got two choices: You either die, or I beat the hell out of you. Choose.”

“What if I say neither?” the performer asked.

“Then I wish you the best of luck in the afterlife.”

“Stop! You can punch me once, okay?! Just don’t kill me, please!”

After that, the performer was beaten to a pulp. Despite the fire-breather’s pleas, the gray-haired man didn’t stop after one hit. I counted twelve before I had to close my eyes, shutting out the sight of the performer’s swollen face.

When the swordsman was finally satisfied, he turned to leave. I was just about to follow him when something stopped me dead in my tracks. Another person emerged from the crowd to quietly follow the swordsman. His hair was gray as ash as well.

How many of these guys could there be?!

I was happy when she finally let go. I could hardly breathe!

When she drew back, I saw that her eyes were wet.

“I knew you’d be okay. I knew it. But I was so worried about you. I had to do something to deal with my anxiety.” She looked back at the men she’d been arm wrestling. “Now that you’re back, I can finally be done with these guys.”

That was an intense way to deal with stress! The men didn’t even seem upset when she said she was done with them. If anything, they were almost weeping with gratitude. She’d hurt their arms, sure, but it had hurt their egos more to be beaten so thoroughly by a receptionist.

Sorry it took me so long to get back, guys!

Lola and I sat down together and had a long chat, but nothing much seemed to have changed at Odin.

“I just wanted to drop by and say hello,” I said. “But I’ll be back again tomorrow.”

Lola smiled. “I can’t wait.”

“Are you going to keep working as a receptionist?” I asked. “You’re so strong now!”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But I’m happy where I am. And besides, I want to help you get stronger too, Noir.”

She reached out and tapped me on the nose. This cute side was the secret to her popularity. I asked her about Luna, but as soon as I mentioned her, Lola’s expression darkened.

“Honestly, she hasn’t been by lately. I think she’s dealing with something pretty serious, but she won’t talk to me.”

If Luna couldn’t even speak to her best friend about a problem, then it had to be bad. Maybe Luna just didn’t want to trouble Lola with it. Or perhaps talking about it wouldn’t help.

“You may have a better shot of getting something out of her, Mr. Noir,” Lola said. “Just let me know how I can help.”

I promised I would and got to my feet, but Lola called out after me when I tried to leave.

“I-I wanted to give you this! Please feel free to use it at any time.”

She grinned and handed me a slip of paper on which the words “Naughty Game Ticket” were written. I asked what kind of naughty game she meant, but Lola just said I’d have to use it and find out. She loved doing stuff like this, so I tucked the ticket into my pocket for later and headed to the temple.

Luna worked mostly as a cleric, but she adventured on the side. Sort of like me. The townspeople all admired her for the great work she did, and it probably didn’t hurt that she was a beautiful half-elf.

When I arrived, the temple was overflowing with people coming there to be healed as well as to worship. You didn’t even have to be particularly devout to receive treatment, so long as you said you believed in the gods. As you might expect, that meant a lot of people came when they couldn’t visit a regular clinic for whatever reason.

Luna’s line was usually the longest, but I couldn’t see her today. I went over to one of the people standing in line and asked them about it.

“Is Cleric Luna off today?”

“No, she’s just on a break. I think she stepped outside, but you shouldn’t bother her.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

I left the line and headed around the side of the building. It seemed there was a rule about not bothering Luna when she was on a break, but I hoped they’d at least let me tell her I was home. I followed the wall around until I got to the back of the temple, wondering where she could be. But when I found her, she was with someone. I hid in the shadow of the building. Not because I shouldn’t be there—I just didn’t want to interrupt.

“I know I’ve mentioned it a thousand times, but it really is for your own good. At least give it some serious thought,” said the man.

“I know,” Luna said. “But…I’m still not ready…”

“Would you at least agree to a meeting? That way, at least I can save some face.”

He bowed his head to her, almost pleading for her help. He was a little older, perhaps in his fifties, and I’d seen him before around here. He was one of the priests at the temple.

“Well,” said Luna. “If it’s just a meeting, then…”

“Wonderful!” cried the priest. “Let’s make it next Sunday!”

He looked overjoyed and started to walk in my direction. In a panic, I hid behind a tree until he was gone. When Luna started to follow, I stepped out in front of her. She was walking slowly and hanging her head. What exactly did he want her to do?! It had to be awful.

“Luna. Luuuna!”

I waved at her, and her face brightened instantly. “S-S-S-Sir Noir! You’re home?!”

She raced over to me and grabbed my hands, jumping up and down excitedly. She was really pleased to see me! She almost never dropped her cool, collected exterior.

We chatted for a while after that. I reassured her that I wasn’t injured and gave her a brief summary of everything that had happened since I last saw her.

“I’m so glad you’re okay! I’ve been so worried about you. I’ve barely been able to sleep!”

Well, she did have dark circles under her eyes.

“I’m sorry if I made you worry,” I said. “Is there anything else that’s bothering you?”

Luna started. “Ugh…wh-what do you mean?!”

“To be honest? Lola’s worried about you. She said you seemed really down.”

Luna smiled a little. “I guess I can’t hide anything from her.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.

Luna hesitated, then sighed and shook her head. “One of the priests I work with is trying to match me with a man, but I don’t want to get married! But…the priest has done so much for me… I can’t just say no.”

I nodded, and Luna kept talking. Apparently, the priest I’d seen her talking to was friends with a wealthy merchant, and the merchant’s son was looking for a wife. According to Luna, this guy was very particular and disliked regular humans. He wanted an elf, a half-elf, or a beast folk.

“Why does he hate humans?” I asked.

“He doesn’t want someone who’ll get old and unattractive,” Luna said. “I can’t understand that. Isn’t it better to see someone’s life when you look at their face?”

It sounded like this guy just wanted someone who’d stay young and beautiful forever. Unfortunately for him, most of the people in town were human.

“I think it would be best to meet him and turn him down gently,” I said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Luna’s eyes lit up. “Could you…maybe…pretend to be my little brother and come to the meeting with me?”

“Sure. What’s the plan?”

“I guess just…say lots of disparaging things about your big sister in front of him?” Luna asked.

Psychological warfare, huh? Convince him there was a massive disconnect between her physical beauty and ugly personality? It made sense, so we discussed the matter a bit further and decided to ask Lola if she’d mind playing Luna’s little sister. The meeting wasn’t until Sunday, so we had plenty of time to get our act together.

Luna went back to work after that, and I was left a little unsure of what to do next. The sun was already getting low. If I went to the hidden dungeon, it would probably be dark by the time I got back. Still…

“I’m going! I want to see my master! And Dory too!”

It’d been a long time since I’d laid eyes on either of them, and I was sure that they’d be pleased to see me.

I went straight there, recited the dungeon’s password, and headed inside. By then, I was used to taking out a few of the golden slimes that attacked me on my way in. The first time I’d killed one, I’d shot up a bunch of levels all at once. But I was so strong now that it barely even registered.

I headed down to the second floor and opened the door to Oliva’s room quietly, planning to sneak up on her.

<Uuh…it hurts…>

It sounded like she was in a lot of pain. I stopped in my tracks.

<It’s a little rough…today…>

She’d been bound in the same chains ever since I met her, and for a really long time before that too. Even though her eyes were closed, she must have realized that I was there, because she immediately snapped back into her usual, cheerful self.

<Just kidding! Did I fool you? Ah ha ha ha!>

But she was speaking more slowly than usual, and I could tell she was trembling. Olivia wasn’t the kind of person easily ruffled, so this was no joke. Also, if she didn’t want me to hear, why was she using telepathic communication?

I chewed that over, examining the Death Chains that bound her with my Discerning Eye for Items. They were S-Grade and designed to last as long as the target they were attached to. Olivia had already told me that she would die if they were severed, but I hadn’t known they hurt her too.

“Master, have you been in pain all this time?” I asked.

<Still buying my little joke? Ha ha, you’re so cute, Noir!>

Guess I wasn’t going to get anywhere by questioning her. Clearly she didn’t want to talk to me about it, so I dropped the topic for now. Olivia seemed to have the same idea.

<I’m more interested in talking about how you abandoned poor, sweet Olivia down here for ages and ages. You know, if you want to try out new fetishes, I’d rather do it in bed!>

“You haven’t changed, I see. Honestly, I just ran into a lot of trouble on my trip. It wasn’t personal.”

<I want to hear all about it! Especially the one-night stands!>

Did she really think I was the sort of person who had one-night stands?!

In any case, I told her all about my trip, and we exchanged jokes about it. She seemed to enjoy the story, so I told her all about the situation with Iesu.

“Did I make the wrong choice?” I asked.

Olivia didn’t even have to think about it. <There isn’t always a right choice or a wrong one. Sometimes it just depends on your own sense of justice. That said, I probably would have done the same as you. That is, if the Great Adventurer Olivia still possessed all of her faculties!>

“Thanks!” I said, feeling the awkward lump in my throat dissolve.

I really was lucky to have her as my master.

I promised to come back and visit again soon, then jumped in my Dungeon Elevator and headed down to the seventh floor to see Dory. The Dungeon Elevator skill was really handy, but it was frustrating that I had to wait an hour before I could use it again. I couldn’t even Edit the cooldown time on it; the LP cost was way too high.

When I reached the seventh floor, I slipped through the verdant green forest until I spotted a girl of about seven or eight with emerald-green hair.

“Dory! How have you been?”

“Noir! You came back!”

Dryade might have been a monster, but she was a kind and gentle soul with the appearance of a little girl. She ran over and took my hand, and we spun around like we were dancing.

Jonathan had heard everything he needed to. He got to his feet, enraged. “What a vulgar woman! That really is inexcusable. Let us forget this ever happened!”

Excellent decision, old man!

Lola and I smiled, already congratulating ourselves, but Sopan didn’t budge from his seat, even when his father called for him.

“Daddy, I know some of Luna’s actions are a little problematic, but as long as she isn’t violent toward me, we have nothing to worry about, do we?”

Uh oh! This guy was a more powerful foe than I’d anticipated.

Sopan’s father looked almost as shocked as we were.

“Cleric by day, violent monster by night,” said Sopan. “The contrast turns me on. People are so much more interesting when they have more than one side to them, don’t you think?”

Crap! He was only getting more determined. We had to think of something—quick!

“My sister has always been violent to those closest to her,” said Lola. “It’s hard to imagine that you’d be the exception, Mr. Sopan.”

“Nonsense. Money will solve that.”

“No! I’m sorry, but my sister cannot be moved by money. She enjoys watching people suffer too much!”

What a horrible thing to say! Of course, it wasn’t even remotely true, but Luna looked wounded all the same. Nevertheless, Sopan wasn’t convinced at all. He just kept insisting that she would shower him with love instead of violence. What was going on here?

“I want to speak to you alone, Ms. Luna,” he said. “I trust my gut, and it is telling me that you are kinder than you look.”

Ooh, so he’d rumbled us. That was the problem. It seemed Sopan had a better nose than his father.

Luna seemed to pick up on it too. “Thank you, Lola, Sir Noir, but you have done quite enough. I should have just been honest from the start.”

Our little farce was over. Luna looked Sopan straight in the eye.

“I have no intention of marrying you, but I could not turn down this meeting without hurting a dear friend. That is the only reason I am here.”

Sopan made a dismissive gesture. “I really don’t care. Are you with anyone?”

“N-no, not really.”

“Then there is no need for you to think about marriage. At least, not yet. I shall come and see you every day until I convince you. Until I steal your heart.”

Oh no! Our enemy had revealed his final form! I mean, sure, I guess there had to be some people who enjoyed being pursued like that, but this guy was something else. I was sure he’d end up a real stalker.

I looked at Luna and Lola, but both of them seemed to be out of ideas. There was nothing for it. I’d have to use my ultimate weapon. I gestured to Luna to get her permission and she nodded silently.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Sopan,” I said. “But my sister is deceiving you. You see, she hides her true form with a special skill. Fortunately, I have a spell to show you what she really looks like!”

Butterface — 200 LP

I cost a heft 800 LP to Bestow it on Luna, for a total of 1,000 LP. I’d wanted to avoid using it, but this guy had left us with no other choice. As soon as I was done, Luna’s face twisted into something hideous.

“What in the world…?” Sopan was in shock.

“Could you love her like this?” I asked calmly.

“I’m going home,” he said, getting to his feet. “Clearly, I should have been more thorough in my investigations.”

Boom! I had discovered my enemy’s one weakness. We were victorious! I still couldn’t resist asking Sopan one thing before he left.

“Tell me, what would you do if you married a beautiful woman, then she got in a terrible accident and ended up looking like this?”

Sopan scowled. “I’d dump her ass, of course.”

“So looks are the only thing that matters?”

“They’re not the only thing,” he said. “Just the most important one. If you fell in love with a kind woman, would you stay with her when she turned violent? Of course you wouldn’t, you bloody hypocrite. This is no different. Goodbye.”

And with that, he and his father swept out of the room.

What a pair of asses! I mean, wasn’t a relationship about the love and memories between two people? Even if that person’s appearance changed, you’d still love them. At least, that’s how I felt about it. Someone like Sopan would probably just laugh at me and call me naïve.

As soon as they’d left, I used Editor to destroy the Butterface skill for 300 LP. At a total of 1,300 LP, this had been one expensive date. More importantly, Luna’s face returned to its usual form. For a moment, I was impressed by how powerful these skills were—they could even alter the very fabric of reality.

“You must have used a lot of LP on that,” Luna said. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it wasn’t that much. And besides, Sopan and his father are going to repay me.”

After all, they’d told the establishment to put everything on their tab as soon as we walked in the door. They may have left, but we were still getting our meal!

“Look, Mr. Noir!” Luna said. “Shrimp!”

I smiled. “Don’t mind if I do!”

Since we weren’t paying for it, I stuffed my face with enough food for lunch and dinner. Everything was so delicious! The steamed shrimp almost fell apart in my mouth, and the sashimi was heavenly. We ate until I felt like I was about to burst. As we headed out of the restaurant, Luna stroked her belly suggestively.

“Look, Mr. Noir! You got me pregnant.”

I nudged her playfully. “Stop it.”

“Heh. Well, let me know if you ever want to make that a reality.”

We were both smiling, but Luna looked serious.

“I want you both to know how grateful I am for what you’ve just done for me,” she said. “I know that money is important, but there are other important things in life too, and I think I already have them all in spades.”

Lola and I flashed her a thumbs-up, and Luna finally cracked a smile. It truly was so good to have friends.

“Is there anything that either of you need help with?” Luna asked. “I want to pay you back for all your kindness.”

“Hmmm, I can’t really think of anything in particular,” said Lola. “Although…I have been struggling a little with my makeup recently.”

Lola was lovely even without makeup, but image was all-important for receptionists. Makeup was just another weapon in their arsenal.

“Of course!” Luna said. “What about you, Sir Noir?”

“I suppose…there is one thing,” I said at last. “I really want to save my master.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about Olivia, suffering down in that dungeon while we were stuffing our faces. If there was a lead on the fifteenth floor, then I needed to get strong enough to face it, no matter what it took. I opened my mouth to explain it to Lola and Luna, and everything came spilling out. They listened carefully.

“If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it,” Luna said at last. “Whenever you need me, Sir Noir, just ask. But I am sure you will overcome this challenge. You always do!”

“I agree!” Lola said. “But I’ll support you from the shadows while you run headlong into danger, Mr. Noir. Don’t you worry!”

“Thank you, both. I’m going to do everything I can to save her!”

This was probably the toughest problem I’d faced yet, but I wasn’t about to give up.

I said my goodbyes to Lola and Luna and headed for the dungeon.

***

Level: 148

Current Weapons: Two-Edged Blade (Sharp Edge, Good Luck); Piercing Spear (Piercing); Shield of Champions (Durable, Fire Resistance [Grade A], Water Resistance [Grade A], Wind Resistance [Grade A]); Unnamed Mallet (Stone Crusher); Octopus Killing Harpoon (Octopus Killer [Grade S])

Skills: Great Sage; Get Creative; Bestow; Editor; LP Conversion; LP Conversion (Money); LP Conversion (Items); Stone Bullet; Holy Flame; Lightning Strike; Thunderbolt; Water Drop; Icicle; Iceball; Blinding Light; Swordsmanship (Grade C); Archery (Grade S); Exploding Arrow; Throwing (Grade B); Jumping (Grade A); Alchemy (Grade B); Discerning Eye; Discerning Eye for Items; Variable Visual Acuity; Pocket Dimension (Grade C); Dungeon Elevator; Exorcism; Excavate; Improved Lunge; Improved Side Step; Improved Back Step; Passive Defense; Magical Fusion; Deodorize; Lucky Lecher; Shoulder Rub; Night Vision; Tail; Headache Immunity; Poison Resistance (Grade A); Paralysis Immunity (Grade C); Heat Resistance (Grade A); Petrification Immunity (Grade A); Abnormal Condition Recovery (Grade C); Mental Status Effect Immunity (Grade C); Courage; Hearing Protection; Dancing; Diving; Zero Breathing

That was where I stood as I headed back to the hidden dungeon to tackle the thirteenth floor.

I took the Dungeon Elevator straight down and stepped out into the long hallway leading toward a vast, open arena. The floor was made of dirt, dry and dusty, and I really didn’t like the idea of how easily it’d get churned up in a fight. Wasn’t like I had much choice, though. I steeled myself and stepped out into the arena.

The center ring was surrounded by huge, step-like tiers of seating for the audience, stretching up toward the sky. Even more impressively, the place was completely full. The audience all looked human, but I was sure the dungeon had created them. Some of them were so far up that they just looked like dots.

In the center of the arena, there was a man dressed like some kind of host or ringmaster hyping the crowd up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our next challenger has finally arrived. Here he is, ready to get himself annihilated!”

It was annoying, but I held my tongue. The whole crowd swelled with a roaring cheer. I could have sworn some of them were chanting, “Die! Die! Die!”

Guess there was no question about who was the away team here.

Directly opposite, another corridor led into the darkness below the arena. Maybe that’s was where I’d find the stairs down to the next level. The entrance was closed off with metal bars but, as the host started shouting again, two teams of men pulled them open.

“And now…it’s…Bernardo the Tiger!”

Almost before he’d finished speaking, a huge tiger charged out of the opening and swept across the distance between us. He lunged gracefully through the air, striking out with its claws. I used Side Step to dodge out of the way, and it was just as well that I’d upgraded the skill. This thing was fast!

I fired off a few small Stone Bullets and managed to hit the tiger in the eye with one of them. It didn’t do any real damage, but it stopped the creature for long enough that I could use Discerning Eye.

Name: Bernardo the Tiger

Level: 148

Skills: Sharp Claws; Overpowering Roar; Empowered by Death Fivefold

He was the same level as me. I decided to investigate his skills a little more.

Overpowering Roar: Freezes all creatures in a three-yard radius. Consumes a large amount of stamina.

Empowered by Death Fivefold: Greatly boosts the wielder’s power for three minutes if the user makes five kills within thirty seconds.

Both of those sounded annoying, and the tiger could roar without warning. It’d probably be best to stay out of close combat.

“Grrr!”

Eek!

Turned out, Bernardo could lunge and roar at the same time. I skipped back to safety, but the tiger was still lightning quick. I fired an Iceball at his feet to slow him down, freezing him in place. Before he could thaw out, I pulled my Enchanted Bow of Progress and some Exploding Arrows out of my Pocket Dimension and fired one off. It struck Bernardo before he could get out of the way and promptly exploded. Thanks to the Enhanced Archery skill on the bow, all the offensive abilities I used with it were augmented further. I’d obtained the bow during the Gaien incident in Honest, and it was already proving to be extremely useful.

“You just won’t die, will you?!” I shouted.

Bernardo glared at me with bloodshot eyes, but I could see a smoking wound in his body where the arrow had struck. The tiger had clearly taken some damage. This time, when I fired off an arrow, Bernardo ran away from me—jumping over the wall into the crowd and… surely he wasn’t going to…

“Yikes!”

Nope, he definitely was going to do it. Bernardo attacked members of the audience indiscriminately—roaring to freeze them in place, then biting off their heads and tearing them apart with its claws. After he’d killed five or six people, he returned to the ring.

Level: 248

Skills: Sharp Claws; Overpowering Roar; Empowered By Death Fivefold; Fire Resistance (Grade B); Water Resistance (Grade B); Thunder Resistance (Grade B); Ice Resistance (Grade B); Pain Tolerance (Grade A)

He’d gone up a hundred levels?! Worse than that, he’d gained a ton of elemental resistance skills too.

The tiger lunged at me again, and I threw the largest Stone Bullet I could manage straight at him. It struck him right in the head and the blood trickled down his muzzle, but Bernardo didn’t even flinch. That must have been that A-Grade Pain Tolerance skill. Pain was nature’s warning system, stopping creatures from putting themselves in serious danger. That skill allowed him to ignore those red flags. Really, it was more of an offensive skill than a defensive one.

I couldn’t parry his charge with a sword, so I pulled out the Shield of Champions and braced myself for impact.

“Ugh!”

My feet skidded through the dirt as I tried to hold my ground, but at least I wasn’t overwhelmed. Somehow, I managed to counterattack, pulling my trusty double-edged blade from my hip and—

“Rwaaar!”

Crap! I can’t move!

My body was stiff as a board. I was stuck like a statue with my sword raised over my head while Bernardo launched toward my defenseless body.

Move! Move quickly! Move, or you’ll die!

But I barely managed to twitch before the tiger was on me. His claws tore through my skin, but fortunately, I managed to get away before he did too much damage. As soon as I could move again, I leaped as far back as I could.

“Rwaaar!”

That was close! I barely got out of range in time. I braced myself, preparing to dodge again, but the tiger stayed where he was—panting and out of breath. He had overused that roar skill and exhausted himself.

This was my chance! I stopped making poorly thought-out attacks and used Editor to put an end to the situation.

My first priority was breaking that Empowered by Death Fivefold skill, but destroying it would cost 1,800 LP. Instead, I Edited “boosts the wielder’s power for three minutes” to “one minute.” That reduced the cost to a much more reasonable 500 LP, and I was pretty sure it had been over a minute since he killed those five people, so I went ahead with it.

Sure enough, Bernardo’s level promptly dropped back down to 148 and all his elemental resistance skills vanished. Before he could jump into the crowd again, I fired off another Exploding Arrow, aiming for the same place I’d hit him before.

Bernardo let out a low, pained howl. He tried to keep fighting, but his movements were sluggish and pained. This time, I nailed him with a normal arrow, but it was enough to finish him off. The tiger slumped down into the dirt and died, and the host’s voice rang back out through the arena.

“What a stunning upset! The challenger, as weak as he looks, has overcome the first trial! Ladies and gentlemen, please give this scrawny pipsqueak a round of applause!”

A weighty silence fell on the arena, but then, I hadn’t really expected a response. I was more worried about the other thing the host had said.

My first trial?!

***

Sure enough, my next opponent walked slowly into the arena. I thought about trying to get past them and into the corridor beyond, but in the next second, the iron gates slammed shut. I’d have to take this guy down first.

The enemy in front of me was humanoid and clad in gleaming silver armor. They were clearly much smaller than me, which seemed rather unusual. I tried to use Discerning Eye to figure out why, but their information and abilities were concealed. However, I could get a read on the morningstar they were carrying: an A-Grade weapon with the skill Shockwave. The skill did more or less what you’d expect, creating a blast of air during an attack, but that was all I could get. What’s more, their plate armor had C-Grade Physical Defense.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” shouted the host, “please welcome the Armored Knight to the right! I know you can’t wait to see him in action!”

The crowd responded with an appreciative roar, but I had more important things to worry about.

For starters, the morningstar was generally classified as a blunt striking weapon. There were a number of variations, but the one the knight carried had a large spherical head with a number of sharp spikes attached to the handle by a long chain. It wasn’t hard to imagine how it worked—namely by spinning it around on the chain and using the centrifugal force to attack.

Sure enough, the knight spun the flail about his head, and a moment later, the ball came hurtling toward me. I took off running as fast as I could, getting out of the way of the strike but not the explosion that followed as soon as the ball hit the ground. That Shockwave was really something else.

“Whoa!”

I’d managed to get clear, but the blast swept through the entire arena and knocked me off my feet. I tumbled over and over before coming to a stop and taking up a defensive posture. Unfortunately, the impact had scattered dirt into my eyes and mouth.

“Argh! Gah!”

I choked and rubbed my eyes, trying to bring everything back into focus. I couldn’t even rely on my ears because the spectators wouldn’t shut up! One thing was for sure: If I stayed in the same place, I was done for. With that in mind, I started moving, but as soon as I did—

Bam!

The head of the flail slapped into the dirt right next to me, and I was sent flying again.

“Whoaaaa!”

I know I’d always said I wanted to fly, but this really wasn’t what I meant! I hit the ground headfirst and skidded across the arena. There had to be some way to catch my breath, but if I paused for even a second, I’d be toast.

I jumped back to my feet and fired off an Icicle, but the Armored Knight skillfully deflected it with his morningstar. Next, I launched a max-size Stone Bullet at him. The three-foot rock sailed through the air but fell short of hitting him directly.

Perfect! Just as I’d planned!

It was extremely easy to kick up clouds of dust in the arena, so I used it to my advantage—by memorizing the knight’s position before he disappeared from view.

The knight didn’t say anything, but he looked flustered as the dust cloud rose up and swallowed him. As soon as he was gone, I pulled out my Piercing Spear and charged toward him, thrusting with my entire body weight toward the spot where he’d been standing.

The spear entered the dust cloud and immediately encountered something hard, but while the knight’s armor had a physical defense ability, my spear had a piercing skill. With a running start, it would get through the metal with no problem.

Fortunately, my aim was good. The knight collapsed to the floor, and I drove my spear between the joints in his armor to deliver the final blow. I had no idea what kind of monster he was exactly, but at least it was over.

“What an unexpected turn of events!” the host cried. “Who could have predicted it?! Which of you ever imagined that this mere boy could defeat the Armored Knight?!”

Honestly, I was mostly just surprised the host was safe. Things had gotten dicey down here during that last round. But that was two rounds down, which meant I only had one more to go, right?

Ugh, I’m getting tired.

Before my next trial, I walked over to the Armored Knight and retrieved his Shockwave Morningstar. Then I stowed it away and waited. Finally, my final opponent entered the arena.

He was a lizardman covered in vermillion scales who had two horns growing from his head. He kind of reminded me of a dragon, although his upper half was bare and he wore pants that cut off below the knees. Luckily, his build wasn’t so different from mine. I tried to use Discerning Eye on him but, once again, it didn’t work.

However, from appearances alone, I could tell he was quite skilled, and his weapon was…wait. That sword looked strangely familiar. I promptly used Discerning Eye to check.

It was called the Blade of Growth, and it had five skills: Sharp Edge, S-Grade Destructive Edge, S-Grade Enduring Edge, Flame Blade, and Wave Slash.

I know that sword!

“Noname, is that you?! What are you doing here?!”

But Noname didn’t respond. Strange. He had been so talkative on the twelfth floor. Maybe he’d lost his spirit? But why did a lizardman have that sword of all the possible—oh, yeah. I got it. I thought it had been strange that the dungeon gave me a weapon that could so easily increase its power. It had even handed me a bunch of easy enemies to help build it up! Turned out that the dungeon was just leveling the sword up to give to this lizardman. I probably should have been used to the sting of betrayal by now, but it still hurt.

Before I had too much time to dwell on my feelings, the lizardman lunged in for the kill—swinging Noname and unleashing a Wave Slash at me.

“I taught you that!” I complained, dodging out of the way.

The lizardman fired off one Wave Slash after another. I had to start running laps around the arena to avoid them. Was there some way I could take the weapon back? The fight would turn a lot easier if my enemy didn’t have a weapon that was effective at long range and close quarters. For the time being, I focused on dodging out of the way, hoping he would drain his stamina.

“Hissss…”

At least I was managing to annoy him. Once he realized that he couldn’t get me with Wave Slash, the lizardman stopped firing off ranged attacks and enveloped the blade in fire. I really didn’t want to get hit with the Flame Blade skill. Even if it didn’t set me on fire, the sword still had S-Grade Destructive Edge, so it wouldn’t make much difference to my life expectancy either way. Although…did the S-Grade version of that skill mean the blade was much more likely to break?

I settled on blocking with the Shield of Champions and attacking from behind with magic. The lizardman moved like he’d been training with the sword since he was a child. It was quite a while before I got an opening to counter with a Lightning Strike.

“Hssssrrrrrgg!”

Electricity shot from my fingertips and spidered over his body. While he was paralyzed, I bashed him as hard as I could with my shield, then lopped off his right hand—taking the sword with it. The lizardman staggered back, clutching at the stump of his arm. I put my shield away and picked up Noname.

“I did it! This is going to be awesome!”

But I shouldn’t have let my guard down. The lizardman whipped out with his tail, aiming straight for my heart. I barely got away in time to avoid it. I’d heard that some lizards could regrow their tails if they got cut off, but this guy was clearly a step above that—he was already regrowing his hand. Strands of goo hung from his new fingers and he leaped forward. This time however, he wasn’t aiming for me. Instead, he destroyed one of the boulders in the arena.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

He was so strong! He probably could have killed me with his bare hands. It didn’t take me long to work out what he was up to—he needed some appropriately sized stones. When he found one that fit nicely in his hand, he flung it at me.

“Huh?”

Fwing!

The rock hurtled toward me, and I instinctively raised Noname to block. Somehow, I managed to deflect it, but only by pure chance. The lizardman’s throwing was impressive—he must have had an A- or S-Grade skill for it.

Time to pull my shield out again. The rocks weren’t anything special, so I hunkered down and started launching Wave Slashes from behind it.

“Gah?!”

The lizardman spluttered, stumbling back. The slash connected in a direct hit, slicing his body in two. I really didn’t want to watch him regrow a whole new set of legs, so I activated Flame Blade and charged forward, burning his head clean off.

Finally, I plopped down onto the ground beside him.

“Ugh, I really hope that’s the last of them.”

If a fourth enemy appeared, maybe I could try to escape. Although, if I called the Dungeon Elevator now, I’d probably just have to start all over again the next time I came down here. But the audience groaned in disappointment, and my fears proved to be unfounded.

“How awful!” cried the host. “How dastardly! This mere child has bested all of our heroes. How could this be?! Well, I don’t want him to kill me, so I’m going to open the gate.”

The path forward opened up, and the audience didn’t seem like they were about to riot either. Time to get out of here before anyone changed their mind. I shuffled toward the gate in a very unheroic manner, when suddenly the host started shouting again.

“Oh, what is this?! I have a bad feeling about this guy!”

Crackle crackle crackle…

What was it now?!

Thunder rippled through the arena, followed by black lightning. Soon, a crack opened in midair, revealing black nothingness and within it a rider on a red horse. The horse was majestic, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the rider. He had long black hair, and he would have looked human if not for his fierce red eyes. He wore no helmet, but his black armor was edged with gold. He carried a black lance, and I didn’t have to use Discerning Eye to know he had high defensive stats.

“The strong one,” the rider rasped. “Where is he…?”

I stood there in silence for a moment. I had to remind myself to look at his abilities.

Name: Black Lancer

Level: 666

Skills: Devastation Thrust; Elusive Thrust; Javelin Throw (Grade S); Total Magical Resistance (Grade B)

Are you kidding me?! I might as well just give up now!

This had to be the creature that Dory told me about. Even a cursory glance at his stats convinced me that I didn’t stand a chance.

Was he really looking for me? He had to be, right? But instead, the rider turned toward the screaming audience.

“Where is he…?”

He spurred his horse on, and it leaped easily into the crowd. Once the Black Lancer was over the wall, he started spearing everyone who tried to run.

“I don’t want to die!” cried the host. “I’m too young to die!”

The guy was out of his mind with fear, but when he turned to run, the lance flew out of the crowd and speared him straight through the head. I had to admit, that was a spectacular throw. Before I could spend too long admiring it, the Black Lancer turned his horse toward me.

“Sometimes it’s just best to hit the bricks!” I reminded myself.

Time to make a break for the exit. It was right in front of me, but the Black Lancer wasn’t far behind. He retrieved his spear from the host’s body and drew back his arm, aiming it straight at me.

I have to make it. I have to!

If I didn’t, I was dead.

I reached the gates and, sure enough, the stairs were at the end of the hall. But I could feel the lancer right behind me. Goosebumps sprang up all over my back.

“Not even the weak shall escape,” he intoned.

Moving almost by instinct, I parried the lance with the flat of Noname’s blade. A horrible screech chased me down the corridor, but I had faith in this sword. Or maybe I just had faith in the Enduring Blade skill I’d given it.

Either way, my trust was tragically misplaced. Noname crumbled on impact, and I tumbled to the ground.

The whole world spun around and around. My only thought was getting away. The stairs were right in front of me. If I ran as fast as I could, I might make it.

“I see that you are not one of the weak,” said the rider.

At least that’s what I thought I heard him say. I was so afraid that I might have imagined it. At any rate, I reached the stairs and managed to tumble down to the fourteenth floor. An impenetrable darkness flooded out from the bottom of the stairs, but I didn’t have time to investigate. If the Dark Lancer had appeared on Dory’s floor too, then he could probably appear anywhere.

I reached the checkpoint for the fourteenth floor and hurriedly summoned the Dungeon Elevator to return to the second. I still don’t want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t.

***

“Master, please listen to me. I almost died!”

<Aren’t you always almost dying, Noir?>

“I mean, yes. But this time, it was serious! I’m sure even you would have a hard time with a Level 666 opponent!”

<Don’t be silly! The Great Olivia has bested opponents with four-figure levels!>

“You…you have?! Master, I think you might be the real monster here.”

<Really? How rude! Anyway, sounds like you did the right thing by running. The way you are right now, you probably couldn’t put up much of a fight.>

She was right. Despite how powerful Noname had become, one thrust from the lancer had destroyed him. Even the Shield of Champions probably wouldn’t have stood up against those attacks.

<At least he doesn’t seem to be targeting you specifically, so you probably won’t encounter him often. If you’re worried about it, why don’t you take the Dungeon Elevator down and wait until it recharges before you explore?>

She was right, just like always. And this was the first time I’d run into the Black Lancer. The timing had just happened to be particularly bad.

<Although…it is said that he wanders aimlessly around the deeper floors. The further down you go…>

“St-stop it! Don’t try to scare me!”

<Ah ha ha ha! But you look so cute when you’re scared!>

This was no time to be joking around! It just sucked all of the tension out of the situation and…wait a second. Was that what she was trying to do? I mean, I did feel much more relaxed now. Was she trying to make me feel better?

The moment that thought entered my mind, Olivia guffawed so hard that I dismissed the idea instantly. She was just trying to mess with me, as always.

“I have to go,” I said. “But don’t worry. I’m going to find a way to get you out of here.”

This time, it was still light when I left the dungeon. But I’d been through three tough fights and I was exhausted, so I headed straight home.

That was the plan, anyway. But for some reason, I kept running into people. It wasn’t unusual to happen upon other adventurers, but today, I seemed to encounter a lot of them who wanted to know what guild I was in. That was always a dicey situation. The answer I gave could provoke wildly different reactions.

“I hear Odin’s been hard at work lately.”

“Tch.”

“Scram, scumbag!”

And so on.

There were a lot of polite people, but there were just as many who didn’t even try to hide their animosity. I’d just brushed off another curious stranger when I noticed something weird.

Out on an overlook, a woman was facing off against a group of three people—Luna. And Leila was in the group facing her. This was trouble. Like me, Luna was in Odin, but Leila was in Lahmu, our rival guild. We’d joined forces temporarily during the Phantom Thief incident, but generally speaking, relationships between our guilds were strained. As I got closer, I realized I was right to be concerned.

“This is our kill. Get outta here!”

“No. My shot hit first. You clearly fired your arrow once it was already dead.”

Wow, it had been a while since I’d seen Luna so worked up. She was normally so coolheaded. She was arguing with a man in his twenties who sported a rather unusual moustache.

“All right, guys,” I said, slipping between them. “Stay calm.”

Luna and Leila smiled at me, but it only made the mustachioed man scowl more.

“What, you know them or something? We’re trying to have a conversation here. Stop sticking your nose into other people’s business!”

I raised my hands. “I just want you to hear me out.”

There was a dead rabbit between them with two fatal wounds. From what they were saying, I gathered Luna had killed it with her magical firearm, and that when she went to retrieve the kill, this other guy hit its corpse with an arrow. Leila was doing her best to calm the mustachioed man down, but the guy who was with them kept egging him on. Things were getting out of control.

“That’s Luna’s kill,” said Leila. “We were too late.”

“What?! Whose side are you on exactly?”

“I’m just looking at the situation objectively.”

“Screw objective!” he said. “You’re Lahmu, aren’t you? What’s ‘objective’ about siding with Odin? You’re out of line!”

Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s you who’s out of line…

To be fair, Luna seemed worked up too. At this rate, the argument would turn into a brawl. I really didn’t want to get dragged into something like that.

“Luna, I’ll find you another one,” I said. “Will you let them have it?”

“But…”

“Please?” said Leila. “As a favor? I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

Willowy Dodge — 800 LP

Power Slash — 1,000 LP

Looking into them, Willowy Dodge required a high level of concentration and could fail in specific situations, while Power Slash boosted your offensive power and speed with a blade but at greatly increased stamina cost. What’s more, the movement itself was rather expansive, so I’d be leaving myself open to attack. Timing and judgment would be critical.

I wanted to pick up some midrange skills, but those two would do for now. After all, I needed to do some more training in the dungeon.

Today, however, I had some adventuring work with Emma and Luna. They were likely already at the guild hall, so I headed out. When I reached the school gates, I found Leila waiting for me.

“I wanted to thank you again for yesterday,” she said. “Is there anything I can help with?”

“I mean, we’re going to pick up a quest and hunt some monsters,” I said. “But I’m not sure if your guild would be happy if you joined us.”

Leila shook her head. “No. I think it will be fine. I’ll help.”

With that decided, we headed to the Odin guild hall. It wasn’t a good idea for Leila to come inside, so I headed in alone. I soon found Emma and Luna and headed toward them to explain the situation, but something seemed off. Even Lola looked flustered.

“Emma, did something happen?” I asked.

“Yes! It’s really bad! A little girl was kidnapped just outside town by goblin thieves!”

That was really bad. Goblin thieves did abduct children for food from time to time, and it generally didn’t take long for them to tuck in. We were officially in a race against time. Fortunately, the request had only just come in. Her parents were even still in the guild hall—the mother was crying, and the father was trying to comfort her. Apparently, the girl had only been taken half an hour ago, at the foot of the mountain near town.

“We’ll do it,” I told Lola.

After all, most of the other adventurers were off on other requests.

“Of course. I expected nothing else of you, Mr. Noir.”

If I had Emma and Luna with me, I figured I could handle it.

The girl’s father bowed his head to us. “Please, save my daughter!”

“We will. Can you please tell us her name?”

“Sena Hitaru,” he said. “She’s five years old. She wears her hair in pigtails. Please help!”

We had everything we needed. We headed out of the guild hall and explained the situation to Leila.

“I’ll help you,” she said.

I didn’t argue with her. I’d never fought goblin thieves before, but I’d heard they could be troublesome. It would be better to have her with us. The four of us hurried together to the mountain where the girl had been abducted.

Great Sage, where is the girl, Sena Hitaru, who was taken by goblin thieves?

<She is 723 yards to the northeast.>

Now that we knew exactly where she was, all we had to do was come up with a plan. Unfortunately, none of us had any experience fighting these kinds of monsters.

“I’ve heard they steal all sorts of things.”

“Yeah, me too. Apparently, they take weapons and even skills!”

“They must have some kind of special skill to do that.”

“Which means that we can’t drop our guard.”

That made things tricky, but time was of the essence. We hurried in the direction the Great Sage had indicated. But before we got into this, I wanted to check everyone’s current abilities.

Name: Emma Brightness

Level: 68

Skills: Dual Wielded Daggers (Grade A); Wind Strike; Wind Slash; Run Like the Wind

Name: Luna Heela

Level: 74

Skills: Magical Firearms (Grade B);
Energy Shot; Healing Shot; Increased Magic Capacity (Grade A); Fainting Spell; Lift Curse

Name: Leila Overlock

Level: 160

Skills: Boxing (Grade A); Kickboxing (Grade A); Hand-to-Hand Combat (Grade A); Stoneskin; Stealthy Step; Demon Fist

Weapon: Magic Glove (Magic Conductivity)

It looked like everyone had leveled up on our trip, not to mention all the work they’d been putting in. Luna had even increased her magic pool, so she wouldn’t have to worry about passing out unless she really overdid it. Leila’s Hand-to-Hand Combat skill had leveled up too. That was Leila for you. We were in pretty good shape for this!

We slowed our pace as we saw smoke rising in the distance and crept toward the clearing where the goblin thieves were camped. There were eight of them in total—all around five feet tall. They had long, pointed noses like normal goblins, but they also had thick heads of greasy hair. Half of them were unarmed, and the other half had clubs.

The biggest one was probably the group’s leader. I watched closely as it gestured at the other goblins, giving out orders. They had a fire going and were setting up a spit to cook Sena on. I was too far away to use Discerning Eye, but I could hear Sena crying, and we didn’t have time to spare.

“Let’s go!” I shouted, jumping out into the clearing.

The others were right behind me.

“Reeee!”

The goblins snarled and swarmed around us, emanating hostility.

“I’ll get Sena!” Emma shouted.

“Good idea!”

Meanwhile, I focused on taking out the goblins. I drew my sword and charged toward their leader. If I could figure out a way to deal with him, the rest of this would get easier.

“Reeee!”

“Huh?”

My sword disappeared, clean out of my hand! Curiously, it somehow reappeared in the goblin’s hand. What kind of trick was he using?!

Name: Goblin Thief

Level: 53

Skills: Gambler’s Pilfer; Superhuman Strength (Grade B); Jumping (Grade B)

I couldn’t let my guard down. Its stealing ability was clearly a skill.

Gambler’s Pilfer: Consumes magical power to randomly steal a weapon, tool, skill, or memory from a target. Weapons are the most likely steal, whilst memories are the least likely. If the pilfer fails, it consumes a large quantity of magic regardless.

That was terrifying. And risky! If the skill failed, you could easily burn through all your mana and pass out. But goblins weren’t very smart. Did it even realize the danger?! Either way, I needed to get my sword back. I also needed to make sure that everyone else was safe.

Looking around, I saw Emma split the goblin nearest to Sena clean in half with a Wind Slash, while Leila was busy exploding goblin heads, one after another. Meanwhile, Luna had snuck around behind the goblin I was facing.

Bwing!

My double-edged sword went flying.

“Augh?!”

The goblin collapsed to reveal Luna standing behind him. She’d shot my sword straight out of his hand!

“Thanks!”

But it wasn’t over yet. The goblin and I both grabbed for the sword at the same time. I kicked him away as hard as I could but, before I could grab my sword, one of his friends launched toward me.

Pew! Pew!

Luna took it out with covering fire. I seized my sword triumphantly and charged toward the goblin leader. He staggered back and I whipped my blade around, cutting him down with a single swipe.

There were only two left, and one was already fleeing, with Leila in hot pursuit. I went after the other. It snarled and pointed its club at me, probably imitating some human it had fought in the past. It seemed like a good time to try out my new skills. This guy was the last one, and even if I failed, my friends were here to back me up.

I rushed forward and performed a Power Slash. It was a huge, extravagant swing and gave the goblin plenty of time to raise his club and block it. Unfortunately for him, my sword sliced both him and his club cleanly in half.

“Oooh, that’s powerful, but I can feel my heart pounding.”

I would probably struggle to use it more than once at a time. By the time I caught my breath, Leila was back with the final goblin corpse in tow. We rushed over to Emma, who was carrying Sena in her arms.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” I asked the little girl.

“No, the soft and fluffy lady protected me.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “She has always been very kind.”

Emma looked embarrassed by the compliment. “I-I guess I can’t argue…”

Before we went back, we made quick work of taking apart the goblin thieves for materials. They were rare, and I wanted to make sure we got anything that might be useful. Afterward, we took Sena back to town. She was very brave and never cried once the whole way home, although of course, the tears came pouring out as soon as she saw her parents again.

“Mommy! Daddy! I was so scared!”

“Oh, Sena! I’m so sorry! It’s okay!”

We watched them and smiled. This really was one of the perks of the job. Emma even gave me a little high five in celebration.

“Be careful around the mountain in the future,” I told Sena’s parents. “There are certain times when monsters are more likely to appear.”

“We will. Thank you. Thank you so much for saving our daughter!”

We said goodbye to Sena and her parents, then headed into the guild hall to collect our reward.

***

It was Sunday morning, and I was helping out in the shop. I put the goblin thief parts out for sale, along with some materials from monsters I’d defeated in the dungeon. We also had the herbs and materials that Tigerson had collected. Also, I could use alchemy now, so it would probably be a good idea to produce or refine some more products. Sales were good, and my parents’ clothes were getting finer by the day. They’d even started wearing fur coats—in the middle of summer.

“I’ll let you handle the rest, Tigerson. I’m heading home.”

<Indeed. Take care.>

He’d become really good at attracting customers, so I headed home without a care in the world. As I went, I picked up some interesting food to boost my LP. Technically, I had access to LP Conversion (Money), but I wanted to save that for emergency situations. After all, 1 LP cost a whopping 100,000 rels. At that rate, I would burn through my entire savings and not even earn 1,000 LP, so I only planned to use it when I had to.

Currently, I had 3,400 LP. I’d spent a lot on producing new skills, but Emma had been keeping me topped up with kisses and hugs. Even so, maybe it was time to use the LP Conversion (Items) skill. After all, my Octopus Killing Harpoon had served me well on the water level of the dungeon, but it wasn’t likely to see action again. And it had an S-Grade skill on it, so it would probably earn me a lot. In the end, destroying it gave me an extra 2,800 LP, so it was worth it.

“Guess it might not be a bad plan to buy things with skills on them and convert them for the LP.”

My alchemy skill could help with that too. My options were definitely improving.

I was almost home when I stopped and turned my head to listen. Was that…someone shouting in the yard?

“I came here to hang out!”

“Well, I came here to hang out and make out!”

“What did you just say?!”

“Nothing, did I?”

Why did those voices sound familiar? I headed inside to discover Emma and Lola waiting for me.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“I came here to visit you,” Emma said.

“Yeah?” Lola shot back. “Well, so did I!”

So that was how they’d run into each other.

“All right, all right,” I said. “Why don’t you both come in? I’ll make you tea.”

We headed into the living room and I served them some tea, along with a few snacks my father had brought back. We all sat, happily eating them together.

“Oh, what about these?” I asked. “They’re the boiled grasshoppers my mother made.”

“I, uh…” Lola said. “I think I’ll pass this time.”

“Me too,” Emma said. “Your mum’s cooking is delicious, but sometimes it’s a little…you know.”

I guess Mother did have the occasional catastrophic kitchen mishap. I thought the grasshoppers were tasty, though.

We sat around for a while, eating snacks and chatting about everything and nothing—how my father’s newfound wealth was earning him more influence, and who was dating whom in Odin. But after about an hour, Lola stood up suddenly.

“Wait! I didn’t come just to eat snacks and chat! I came here to help you save Ms. Olivia!”

Emma frowned. “Olivia? What are you talking about?”

“Sorry, Emma,” I said. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you about it yet.” I gave her a quick overview and explained why I needed to reach the fifteenth floor so urgently.

“Oh, then I’ll help too!” Emma said. “What do you need?”

“Yeah, yeah, you can help on some other day,” said Lola. “Today is my turn.”

She took my hand and tried to drag me away, but Emma grabbed my other hand to stop her.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, Lola. But whatever it is, you’re doing it here.”

“Oh, well, in that case… If you’re sure, I mean!”

Without waiting for her answer, Lola promptly pulled out a blindfold and put it on me. Wait, how long had she been planning this?! It was a little scary not being able to see anything, and there was something warm pressed against my cheeks—probably Lola’s hands.

“Just relax, Mr. Noir. You have nothing to be afraid of. I just had an idea for a little LP-earning game! Emma, would you like to join in?”

“S-sure,” Emma said. “Although…what is it we’re doing?”

We both listened while Lola explained the rules. One of them would hide a cookie somewhere on their person, and I had thirty seconds to find it. And, because of the blindfold, I’d have to rely on my other senses to do it, while the two of them tried to lead me astray. If I failed to find the cookie in time, they could touch me anywhere they wanted. That didn’t sound like much of a punishment to me, but who was I to argue?

“What?” said Lola. “You’re going to put it there?”

“Don’t worry,” Emma replied. “He’ll never figure it out.”

What were they talking about? Hopefully they were hiding it somewhere that wasn’t too embarrassing—a pocket, for example, or the waistband of their outfit.

“Okay!” Lola said cheerfully. “We’re ready! Come and get it!”

I took a couple of hesitant steps forward and reached out my hands. My fingers sank into something squishy.

“Eeep!”

Emma made a strange sound and I pulled away.

“Sorry!”

“Oh, come on,” said Lola. “Anywhere is fair game, remember? Your only enemy is time.”

I tried to remember what Emma was wearing and think of places where she could have hidden it. Of course, it could have been somewhere between her clothes and her bare skin, but she could also have it under her foot or tucked in one of her hands. Wow, this was much harder than I’d expected! I started searching around Emma’s waist.

“Oh, Noir, you’re so…”

“Are you sure you’re not wasting time there, Mr. Noir?” Lola asked. “I mean, Emma’s not the only one here, you know.”

She was right. Maybe she had the cookie. I moved over to Lola and started by checking her hands. Nothing. Did she have any pockets in her clothes? I checked around her stomach.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Lola said. “It’s about eight inches above where you’re touching right now, but I won’t say if I have it or if Emma does.”

I was running out of time, so I reached out for both of them at the same time. About eight inches above where I’d been touching was…something warm and round that didn’t quite fit in my hand. I blushed.

“Wait, is it somewhere on your chest…?”

“Oh, Mr. Noir!” Lola teased. “You’re so daring!”

She was having fun with this.

“I’ll give you another hint,” Lola said. “It’s near Emma’s most developed asset. Don’t think too hard. Just go with your gut.”

“So it’s…somewhere on her chest.”

“Excuse me!” Emma bit back. “I think you mean my brain!”

Damn it, where was it?! That’s when it hit me: They were allowed to lie. The cookie was probably far away from the direction they were leading me. I crouched down and started hunting around the floor.

“N-Noir?” Emma asked.

“Is it under your foot?” I asked. “Or in your sock?”

I patted down their feet.

“You know,” Lola said. “If you looked up now, you could see our panties.”

“I’m blindfolded, Lola!”

And worse than that, I was wrong about it being around their feet.

“You’re out of time,” Lola said.

Defeated, I stood up and removed my blindfold, only to see the cookie right on top of Emma’s head.

“Wait, really?”

“Urgh, I even gave you a hint!” Emma complained.

She was right. I’d lost because I hadn’t had faith in my dearest friend.

“But it was stimulating, right?” Lola asked.

Oh, that’s right! I’d earned…800 LP? It seemed the blindfold had added another layer of excitement.

“All right, Noir, you lose,” said Emma. “Time to pay up with your body.”

I mean, I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue. I gave in and abandoned myself to them. Lola stared at me hungrily.

“I think I’m gonna go for you know where.”

“Wait,” Emma said. “What? You can’t!”

“That’s funny coming from you, Emma,” Lola said. “I know you want it too.”

“I…”

Emma glanced at me briefly and looked away, her cheeks turning red like a guilty child. Meanwhile, Lola didn’t have any such reservations. She jumped right in.

“It’s so hard! Wow, Noir, that’s amazing.”

“Ooh,” said Emma, sounding relieved. “That’s what you meant.”

To be honest, I was a little relieved too.

“Ms. Emma!” Lola said, feigning shock. “Where did you think I meant? Don’t tell me you thought—”

“I’m doing it too!” said Emma. “I’ve always wanted to. Oh! It’s rock hard!”

Argh, two beautiful women are touching me, but for some reason, I just feel filthy. Why is that, oh, Great Sage?

<Beats me.>

I guess some things were beyond even him.

Although apparently, my butt was very firm.

***

It was finally time to tackle the fourteenth floor. I headed to the dungeon and used my Dungeon Elevator skill to go straight there. I hadn’t really paid much attention to it the last time, but now I could see it was a straight corridor with a sign at the end. Beyond it, the way split into four paths, each with a number written on the ground.

The trials beyond this point will vary, the sign read. If you are a party of one, take the first path. If you are two, take the second. If you are three, take the third. If you are four, take the fourth.

I’d come here alone, so I guess that meant I should take the first path.

The corridor led straight away from me, but it was really long. I must have walked for fifteen minutes by the time the corridor started to feel different. There was a turn in the path ahead of me with another sign on the wall. I paused a long way short of it and used Variable Visual Acuity to adjust my eyesight enough to read it. After all, it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t want any enemies getting the jump on me.

Do not kill a single one, this one stated. If you do, you shall have to start again.

I wonder what that meant. I hurried forward and looked around the corner. The sight on the other side took my breath away. The entire hallway was moving. Or at least, something was moving over it. There were snakes on the floor, spiders and lizards all over the walls, and some kind of black insects on the ceiling. There were so many of them that I couldn’t see the surfaces beneath. Now and then, bugs fell off and spattered down onto the floor like black rain.

A shiver went down my spine. I wasn’t afraid of a few bugs, but this was way more than just a few. I retreated a few steps to compose myself.

“Guess I’ll just have to roast them…wait…”

The sign said not to kill a single one. Really?! That was impossible! If I went anywhere near them, I was bound to tread on something. I couldn’t even slap them away if they crawled up my legs! Was I meant to befriend them? I wasn’t sure I could manage that.

I stood there for ages, trying to think of some skill I could make that would help, but I kept coming up blank. Still, failure wasn’t going to kill me, so out of curiosity I went and trod on a bug to see what would happen.

“Hngh…”

A strange feeling came over me, like falling from a great height. The world distorted, and when it cleared, I was standing somewhere else.

“I’m back at the start of the floor? Urgh, I really can’t get away with killing any of them…”

For some reason, that made me feel utterly hopeless. I slumped down onto the floor and sighed. There was no way I could do this. In the end, I took the Dungeon Elevator back up to the second floor.

<Dun dun duuuuun! Noir has arrived!>

“Glad you’re in a good mood. I’m stuck.”

<Oooh, and you have come here to rest your head on your dear Olivia’s bosom? Tell me what happened.>

I wasn’t sure about that first part, but I did explain the situation in the hope that she could help.

<Maybe you could try some kind of armor? Oh, but I guess they might get inside the joints or something.>

“Exactly, and there’s no way I could walk down the corridor without killing a single one. Maybe I could put them in suspended animation first? But there are so many! I’m not sure if that’d even be possible.”

<So why don’t you pick a different path next time?> she asked. <Or ask one of your friends for help. You do have friends, right?>

“I do, but I don’t really want to bring them here. It’s so dangerous.”

<I know how you feel, but you need to trust your friends. I never had anyone I could depend on. You can choose to live another way, Noir.>

I nodded vaguely and left the dungeon.

Olivia had never had anyone to lean on? Maybe that was why she’d ended up trapped in those chains… No matter how strong you were, if you didn’t have anyone to watch your back, you could never let your guard down. And Olivia was hundreds of times more powerful than me, but, well.

She was probably right. It was best to get help. Still, I wanted to get some fresh air and chew things over on my way home, so I stopped at the Arrone Plains. As I walked through the grass, I caught sight of someone battling a monster. The fighter’s red clothes really stood out. I could tell from miles off that it was Emma, facing off against a large hare. She’d had so much trouble with them before, but now she cut through them like butter. Run Like the Wind made her much lighter on her feet. She had her opponent wrapped around her little finger long before she used her signature Wind Strike to blow its head to pieces.

“Yeah!” I cheered her on. “Perfectly executed!”

I came closer and checked on her with Discerning Eye. She’d already gone up a level from when I last checked. She was Level 69 now.

“What are you doing here?” she asked me.

“I got stuck on something in the dungeon,” I said. “Thought a change of scenery might help.”

“Well, at least you can relax here. There aren’t any monsters in the area.”

“Not anymore, at least,” I said, eyeing the dead hare.

We headed a short way into the grass and sat down to watch the sunset. The breeze was warm and light and Emma’s blonde hair danced in it. She was so beautiful in the long golden light. No wonder she had so many admirers. I must have used up all my luck just getting to grow up with her.

“I know you want to save Ms. Olivia,” Emma said. “But don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

“Don’t worry. You know I’m a coward.”

Emma shook her head. “You keep saying that, and maybe you’re cautious when it’s just you, but I’ve seen you get really reckless when someone else needs your help.”

I’d never really thought about it like that. Had I been wrong about myself all this time?

“Don’t forget that you have me,” Emma said. “I’m always here if you need someone.”

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy to hear that. I reached out and hugged her.

“Did…something happen?” she asked.

“I want you to come to the dungeon with me,” I muttered into her hair. “I swear I’ll make sure you stay safe.”

“Noir… Of course I’ll come. You know I’d go to the ends of the earth for you!”

“Thank you.” I squeezed her a little tighter.

“Quit joking around,” I told Olivia. “This is serious! We need to find a way to beat this double. Surely you’ve at least had some close calls before, right?”

<Hmmmm…maybe? Once…I think…?>

“You don’t even remember?”

<Hey! I’m sure it must have happened at some point! Maybe it was even in your town…>

I guess it would have been over two hundred years ago. It had to be easy to forget the details after so long. But she also had to have stories about her exploits. Most of them were probably made up, but I hoped to hear some kernels of truth.

<Why don’t you just ignore her? You already have a way down to the sixteenth floor.>

“No,” I insisted. “I’m going to defeat her. No matter what.”

<Okay, well…I guess I am a tiny bit excited. But remember: The number one thing I need you to do for me is not die. Really, remember that.>

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. And I’m going to find a way to set you free. I swear it!”

After that, Emma and I headed out of the dungeon and went back into town.

“My parents know a scholar,” she said. “I’ll see if they know anything.”

“Thanks. I’ll see what I can find out too.”

We parted ways, and I headed to the largest library in town. It cost a little money to use, but only as much as a couple of meals, so that didn’t deter me. The real problem was that they didn’t lend their most valuable texts to normal people.

I scanned over what I could find about the town’s history and any records of adventurers in the area. Unsurprisingly, Olivia’s name showed up a bunch of times, although the people who wrote the books didn’t seem to know where her power came from. Most of them just described her overwhelming opponents with a mysterious force.

I had more luck looking into the town history, and I soon found an account of Olivia’s stay at a famous inn, as well as her victory over someone called Litorean. But who was this person? They must have been pretty famous to appear in the town records. It was time to do some more digging.

It turned out she had been a well-known cleric who had contributed to the development of the town. Why hadn’t I learned anything about her in school? It seemed that a lot of incredible people had lived here in the past.

In the end, I couldn’t find any more information about other people Olivia had fought nearby, so I focused my efforts on Litorean. Apparently, she had been skilled at healing wounds but had also been known for having quite the temper. She was described as “tall” and “unusually strong,” which I supposed made her both a healer and a fighter? That was all I could get out of the books in the library, so I decided to ask Luna.

When I got to the temple, I was immediately discouraged. Why did the lines always have to be so long? But I didn’t really have a choice, so I got in place and waited. It was over an hour and a half before I reached the front.

“Sir Noir!” said Luna. “You don’t have to stand in line like that. Why didn’t you just say something?”

“Wouldn’t be fair on everyone else. Listen, there’s something I wanted to ask you: Do you know anything about a cleric named Litorean who lived here about two hundred years ago?”

“Of course!”

Bingo! Apparently, the temple even had a collection of books about her. It was part of their training to learn about famous clerics who’d worked there in the past. I explained the situation to Luna and asked for permission to read them.

“We don’t normally allow outsiders to see them, but… Just give me a moment.”

Luna approached one of the older priests and bowed her head. She was such a good friend. I was so lucky to know her. It wasn’t long before she headed back over.

“He says that you can read them as long as you stay here at the temple.”

“Thank you so much!”

The priest showed me into a small room, then brought the books in and set them on the table. I thanked him for his help and started to look through the collection. They covered everything about Litorean’s life.

She had been an unusual cleric—as belligerent as she was benevolent. Her personality might have caused trouble, but she’d also saved untold numbers of people. She’d defeated enemies with her strength in combat and made free use of healing magic. Apparently, she’d learned an offensive skill called Sacrifice that allowed her to give up one of her own skills to make herself stronger.

I’d never heard of such a thing. It had to be really rare. A skill could be relearned after it was sacrificed, but it was still a hefty price to pay—giving up in an instant something that had taken months or even years to master. It wouldn’t even be feasible for most people, but for some reason, Litorean had the ability to learn skills very easily.

“I see. That’s why she was able to sacrifice them, then.”

She’d even defeated dragons that way. This had to be the person who’d given my master a run for her money. If I had that Sacrifice skill, maybe I’d stand a chance against the fake Olivia.

Sacrifice — 500 LP

Well, that had been much easier to make than expected. It still sounded scary. I needed to check the details first.

User may sacrifice a skill to temporarily raise physical and magical ability. The stronger the skill sacrificed, the more powerful the boost. The duration of the buff is proportional to the number of skills sacrificed: one skill results in a one-minute buff, two extends it to three minutes, and three skills extends it to five.

Wow, that buff window was really short! I’d thought sacrificing a skill would buy you a little more than that. The mechanics of it were complicated too. It seemed like the strongest combination was achieved by sacrificing three S-Grade skills, which would massively buff my abilities for five minutes. But I had to do it all at once. If I sacrificed them one after another, it would only earn me three minutes. I really needed to be careful with how I used this one!

The skill was cheap though, so I coughed up the LP. It must have been unusually compatible with me. But I could use Get Creative to remake any skills I burned, right? Also, how would the cost of the sacrificed skills balance out against the buffs they provided? To find that out, I’d have to do some testing.

It was already dark by the time I left the temple. I stopped by Emma’s house to tell her about Litorean and to ask her to keep me updated as to what she discovered through her own research. Then I headed home to get some rest.

The next morning, I headed out of town to experiment with Sacrifice. I walked out to the base of the mountain where we’d fought the goblin thieves and took a few moments to prepare myself. It felt like a waste to sacrifice skills just to practice, but that would be better than getting confused and panicking in the middle of a fight. That said, I didn’t want to waste a strong skill, so I started with Improved Lunge. It had only cost 300 LP to produce, so I could replace it easily enough. I focused my intent on the skill and activated Sacrifice.

“Whoa!”

An intense feeling washed over me, filling my body with power. I felt as light as air! But I couldn’t waste any time enjoying the sensation. I only had a minute before the buff wore off, so I hurried to try out various techniques.

For starters, I fired Holy Flame up into the air. The flames were at least a foot longer than usual. Anyone who knew the skill would have noticed the difference.

Next, I tried Lightning Strike. Electricity jumped from my fingers. Again, the bolts were stronger, and the range was greater than usual.

Sacrifice might have been a temporary effect, but it could still change the inherent qualities of other skills and spells, just like Editor. It was much more impressive than I’d thought.

Time to try out its effect on physical abilities.

I kicked a small tree, which snapped in half with ease, then pulled a bunch of things out of my Pocket Dimension to crush. I’d never been able to do anything like this before but, before I could test it out any further, the effect wore off. It didn’t hurt or anything, but the change in sensation was obvious enough.

“So even a common skill like Improved Lunge makes a big difference, huh?”

That was probably how Litorean had been able to afford to sacrifice enough skills to fight Olivia. Although the truly terrifying thing was that my master had still beaten her.

The one problem now was the short window of time the buff provided. If I was going to face the fake Olivia, I’d probably have to sacrifice three skills—I’d need the full five minutes. Fortunately, if I burned all three of my basic movement skills—Improved Lunge, Side Step, and Back Step—it would only cost me 700 LP. From what I could tell, even the weaker skills buffed my abilities two- or threefold.

I wanted to test a more powerful skill, but the thought of sacrificing thousands of LP for mere practice was too much for my miserly heart. I’d just have to save it for the real deal. At least I understood the gist of it now. I could probably figure out the rest on the fly.

I replaced my Improved Lunge skill and headed back toward town. There had been two guards on the gate when I left, but now there was only one. And he looked anxious.

“Is it thieves or something?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” he said. “A mercenary was attacked and had all his money stolen.”

“A mercenary? Whoever did it must have had guts. And strength.”

“Supposedly, the culprit was a woman. Several people were attacked overnight. I’m not sure if the same person was responsible, but you should be careful.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Who’d be stupid enough to go after a mercenary for money? Just the thought of trying to rob someone like Ms. Elena gave me the shivers.

I walked down to the market to pick a few things up. It was still early, and all the shops had just been restocked. I bought some fresh fruit, already sure that Mother and Alice would be delighted.

“Dammit, who is that woman…?”

“She got you too? Is she that strong?”

A man covered in bruises was talking to a guard at the edge of the street. He must have been the mercenary that was attacked. I was curious, so I slowed down to listen.

“She played with me like some kind of demented cat. She even stole my sword!”

“She did?! And you’re no joke with a blade either. What did she look like?”

The mercenary rubbed his head. “Light blue hair. A total knockout.”

Huh?!

That comment stopped me in my tracks. I’d lived in this town for sixteen years, and I’d never seen a blue-haired woman before. I needed to be sure.

“Excuse me?” I called out. “Was this blue-haired woman wearing a white dress?”

“Yeah! Why? You’re not a friend of hers, are you?”

“No! I mean, of course not! I just think I saw her earlier. She was about this tall, and…”

I gave a rough description of my master while the mercenary nodded along. So it was her! What in the world…?

Had the fake Olivia somehow escaped the dungeon? I mean, was that even possible? The only reason Tigerson had been able to leave was because he had come from the outside to begin with, but Olivia’s double had been made by the dungeon itself. How could she leave?! You needed the password to get out too—how had she learned that?

Does she have a copy of my master’s memories too?! I asked myself.

Even after two hundred years, I was sure Olivia would recall the password—it was pretty memorable, after all.

After some more questions, it became clear that the mercenary had been robbed about half an hour ago, but then…the gate guard said several people had been robbed in the night. Had she arrived here yesterday? And why was she stealing money?

I asked the Great Sage for her location, worried that I wouldn’t get an answer. In the end, my fears were unfounded. I hurried in the direction he gave me, but no one was there. She had moved on already. There was a bakery on the corner, so I asked the owner if a blue-haired woman had been by.

“Yes, she was here. She bought a lot of bread! She was quite beautiful, but friendly, you know? I even threw in some extras.”

“And she paid you?”

“Of course!”

“Did she say anything else?” I asked.

“She wanted to know about any restaurants that sold good food and alcohol. Sounded like she was planning a night on the town.”

Is she stealing money to pay for a shopping spree?

I asked for the direction she had gone in and headed off in pursuit.

“This is bad.”

It was really bad. How much LP had the fake Olivia earned already? If she’d spent the whole night indulging, it could be an awful lot. For me, the most effective method of earning it was through sensual thrills, but delicious food was a close second. Achieving things that were important to you was a good way of earning it too. I’d gained a ton when I got accepted to the Hero Academy.

The same principle was true for my master. Two hundred years ago, her lust had been her main drive, but maybe the fake Olivia’s main priority was food. Either way, the more LP she had, the more dangerous she was.

“There you are!” I shouted. “Stop right there!”

She was walking right down the middle of the street. She had some nerve being out in the open like this.

“Aha, Noir Stardia.”

Before we could get into it, I used Discerning Eye. Her level hadn’t changed much, but she’d gained some new skills. For one, she had Discerning Eye now too. It was the perfect thing to go with Editor. She really did know what she was doing. But before I could look much further into her new skills, I noticed something else. Something that made me want to cry.

Her sword. It was probably the one she’d stolen from the mercenary. It was still sheathed at her hip, but it was insanely powerful. It had Lightweight Blade, Sharp Edge, and Thunder Blade. That was a hell of a sword for a relatively weak mercenary. The fake Olivia must have improved it once she took it from him.

“You’re checking me out too, aren’t you?” she cooed. “I’m doing some peeping myself!”

And then, all of a sudden, I couldn’t see the sword’s skills anymore. Had I lost my Discerning Eye for Items?!

“Ah ha ha ha! Did you notice yet? I broke it! He he he.”

Did she not want me looking at her weapon? No, she was probably just messing with me. That was just the sort of thing the real Olivia would do.

I quickly replaced the skill, but I didn’t like that she could see right through me, and I had no intention of entertaining her any longer. I rushed her with my blade, and the sound of clashing metal rang through the town. I was fast now, but she blocked my attack as though it was nothing. Our swords ground together and we pushed against each other. She was so strong! In a contest of pure strength, I would lose. I gritted my teeth, struggling for traction, while she smiled, relaxed. I shoved her back and unleashed a storm of slashes and cuts.

Kling! Kling! Shhk! Kling! Kling! Shhk! Kling! Kling! Shhk!

She blocked my second strike and dodged the third. That was three strikes for me. My pride was dismissed from the field.

“Would you stop that!” I shouted.

“Okay. Byyyeeee!”

I swung again, and she dodged back smoothly. She didn’t even have Improved Back Step, yet she was still far quicker than me. Just how outclassed was I?!

Even monsters would run from a fight like this!

“There she is!” someone shouted. “Get her!”

We’d made quite the scene, and half a dozen guards had spotted us. I didn’t have time to stop them from encircling the fake Olivia. My heart kicked up another notch. She could slaughter them all on a whim if she wanted to.

“Awww, this is depressing,” she complained. “Can’t you just leave li’l old me alone? It’s okay. I’ll even wait while you escape.”

“You think we’re going to run from you?” asked one of the guards.

“Hm,” Olivia mused. “Maybe S-Grade Jumping next?”

In an instant, she leaped over the guards’ heads and touched down on a nearby rooftop. Then she skipped across to another roof, then another, and disappeared out of sight, leaving the guards with their jaws on the floor.

“Wh-what is that thing?”

“Be careful!” I shouted. “She isn’t human!”

“Wh-what did you say?”

“She’s a sentient magical artifact called the Death Chains—she may look like a person, but that’s not her real form. Don’t engage her unless you have to. She’s Level 420!”

“She’s what?!”

“There isn’t much time. Please, tell your superiors about this at once.”

As confused as the guards were, they agreed. Hopefully, that meant they wouldn’t treat the real Olivia like a criminal when she finally got free. Wasn’t I a good little disciple?

Still, that didn’t help me figure out what to do with fake Olivia. She was so strong. I wanted to keep running until I couldn’t even see her with a telescope. At the same time, I had a feeling that my master’s devotion to a life of hedonism meant that she, and her copy, could earn LP much faster than me. If that was true, every minute I wasted was making things worse.

I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger, but there was no way I could handle this alone. Time to turn to my trusted friends.

***

A short while later, Emma, Luna, Leila, and I gathered in the street. I would have asked Lola too, but despite her superhuman strength, she didn’t enjoy fighting, and her lack of experience made me nervous. I felt bad about getting the others out of bed so early in the morning, but that couldn’t be helped. I gave them a quick summary of what was going on while the rest of the town carried on as normal around us.

“Are the four of us really strong enough to beat her?” Emma asked.

She’d already encountered the fake Olivia, so she understood what we were up against. We could potentially have gone to the guild for more help, but most of the higher-level adventurers were away earning money on expeditions. And I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk.

“We have to try,” I said. “I’ll do most of the fighting if you back me up. If she’s too strong for us, we’ll go to the guild master.”

“I will fight with you, Sir Noir,” said Luna.

“You’ve already done so much for me,” Leila said. “I want to repay you.”

Luna held out her gun, and Leila put her fist on top of it. They were all so beautiful and brave. Finally, Emma placed the flat of her dagger against Leila’s hand.

“I’ll do what I can. We can do this!”

I added my sword. “We’ll take her down. No matter what.”

After all, I had my friends with me. What more could anybody want?

Now that we were all decided, I checked on Fake Olivia’s location with the Great Sage, and the four of us hurried to find her. She’d already crossed half the town from where I’d encountered her earlier. Eventually, we found her on a bridge over the river that flowed through town. She was sitting on the railing, eating an apple.

“Ooh, you brought friends this time? Think you’ll be enough now?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked her. “What do you want with this town?”

“Olivia’s job is to give intruders hope, then eliminate them. But I thought about it, and I didn’t fancy that.”

She must have been talking about her role on the fifteenth floor. I guess we were supposed to defeat her before we could progress to the next level, but she had a copy of my master’s personality as well as her body and skills. In the end, she was too mercurial for the life of a dungeon obstacle. Even now, she didn’t seem that inclined to fight us.

“How do we free my master?” I asked. “The real Olivia.”

The double shook her head. “There’s no chance. You’ll kill her if you try. And besides, why do you want to save her so badly?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. She’s spent two hundred years trapped in that tiny room. It’s awful!”

“Oh, but she’s not just trapped,” said the double. “She’s also in terrible pain! But I bet you’d already figured that out, hadn’t you?”

My blood went cold. “I knew it…”

“And you wanna save her?” she asked. “How adorable! Do you really think you can take me down?”

“I’m sure gonna try!”

I fired off a Stone Bullet, but she jumped onto the handrail and launched herself into the air, landing a fair way back, in the middle of the bridge. It wasn’t the worst place for a fight. At least there was no one around at this time of the morning. Time to get things started.

I sacrificed my three basic movement skills and closed the distance between us in an instant. Our swords clashed together. This time, I held my ground.

“Oh, my, you’ve suddenly gotten stronger!” she said.

I was on more level ground with her, but Sacrifice would only last for five minutes. After that, I’d be hopelessly outmatched again. I’d have to make this quick.

The double muttered to herself as she dodged and defended, still clearly unconcerned by my attacks. Maybe she was using Discerning Eye? She seemed confused about why I was so much stronger when my skills hadn’t changed.

“Aww, poor sweet Olivia’s gonna lose!” she cried.

I smacked her sword away and she recoiled from the impact. This was my chance!

“Noir!” Emma shouted. “It’s a trap! Her sword!!”

Her voice knocked some sense into me. The double’s blade crackled with electricity. That had to be its Thunder Blade ability. I tried to retreat, but I’d burned my Improved Back Step skill, so I couldn’t get away fast enough. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, then numbness spread out over my body. I couldn’t move! I had C-Grade Paralysis Immunity, but whatever she had was stronger. If I couldn’t get out of the way, I was dead meat.

“I win!” Her sword came straight for my neck.

“Aaarrgghh?!”

I braced for the end, but Emma jumped between us—blocking the crackling blade with her daggers. She was protecting me, even though she didn’t have any resistance to thunder or paralysis…

“Aaahhhh!”

As soon as I got free, I lunged for the double’s defenseless flank. She got away, but at least I’d forced her to release Emma from the electric shock. Luna and Leila jumped into the fray, giving me the chance to catch Emma as she fell.

“N-Noir…are you okay?”

“You should be more worried about yourself,” I said gently. “Don’t worry, Luna is coming to help you.”

“Th-thank you. Be careful…please?”

“I will,” I promised. “Just look after yourself, okay? You saved my life.”

And now she was suffering because of it. If only I’d been stronger.

Emma passed out in my arms, but her breathing and pulse were steady. Fortunately, her injuries didn’t seem to be life-threatening.

Out on the bridge, Leila was struggling to keep her distance from the lightning-covered sword. I needed to do something, but it would cost too much LP to give everyone elemental resistance. It would be easier to break the skill on the sword.

I looked into it with Editor. Breaking the Thunder Blade skill would only cost 400 LP. That suggested that the sword was already on its last legs, which made sense if it was just a normal blade she’d stolen from some mercenary. It wasn’t made to withstand all these special skills. It would probably break on its own soon, but I couldn’t take any chances. I got rid of the skill and still had 6,000 LP to play with.

“What?!” the double cried.

“You should know better than to drop your guard,” said Leila.

As the electricity dissipated from the fake Olivia’s blade, Leila went on the offensive. Leila seemed to realize that the double would dodge any attack she threw, so instead she used Demon Fist to smash the sword to pieces. It was time to get in there and back her up.

“Luna, please take Emma somewhere safe and heal her!”

“Got it!”

As Luna got Emma out of the way, the fake Olivia watched them go. Before she got any ideas, I stepped in to block her view.

“She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?” said the double. “I’m so jealous!”

“Eat this!” I said.

Leila coordinated her attack with me. “It’s over.”

But somehow…both of us missed. Despite our confidence, the fake Olivia flitted like a butterfly. We couldn’t lay a hand on her. The double leaped straight up into the sky, easily avoiding our attacks.

“My, my, aren’t you two fiery? How about a little heat to match you!”

That Fire Dragon Strike again?! Sure enough, that awful dragon formed beside her and streaked toward us. At least this time we had more room to maneuver. Given that we could hardly face it head-on, we made good use of the bridge to kite it around while the fake Olivia deftly moved the dragon after us. And she wasn’t making it easy—constantly watching for the right opportunity to shift targets, keeping us both on our toes and protecting herself from any possible incoming attack. Destroying the skill would cost too much LP, but examining it with Editor did yield something useful: The skill had a time limit, and the longer the dragon was summoned, the weaker it became. If we could just keep running, then…

“Leila!”

She almost lost her footing and didn’t respond when I called out. Something was wrong. The fire dragon was right behind her, but she just stood there in a stupor. I pulled out the Shield of Champions and charged toward the fire dragon.

I barely made it in time. Flames roared around the edges of my shield, but its A-Grade Fire Resistance held out.

“Ugh,” said the double. “You’re so annoying! I’m leaving!”

“Don’t you dare run away!” I shouted after her.

But it was useless. I couldn’t leave Leila like this. Something was clearly wrong with her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I feel…like I’m burning up…”

I touched Leila’s forehead. She definitely had a fever. I checked things out with my Discerning Eye and found something that shocked me.

Body Temperature +5 Degrees

Having a temperature of just one or two degrees above normal could cause problems, but five degrees? That was dangerous! The fake Olivia must have done something. How crafty! I broke the offending skill quickly, as it didn’t cost much LP.

“She messed with your abilities. I’ve fixed things, but you need to rest until your temperature comes down. I’m going after her.”

“The moment I’m better, I’ll be right behind you,” Leila said weakly.

I didn’t doubt it. For now, I left her on the bridge and chased after the double. She was skipping away as though she didn’t have a care in the world, so I soon caught up with her. To be fair, she didn’t really need to run. She’d already wiped out the rest of my party.

“Oh, no!” she cried as I got closer. “Looks like someone’s going to catch me!”

“And yet you’ve stopped moving,” I observed.

“Of course,” she said. “This place is perfect for a fight.”

She was right—it was a big level section of road with nobody around. Before she could attack, I checked my abilities. The last thing I wanted was for her to break some skill or another without me noticing. And there was one thing that I absolutely could not let her destroy.

“Worrying about whether I’ll break your ability to Get Creative?” she asked.

“Wh-what?! No!”

“Ah ha ha ha ha! What a reaction! Truly, I’m convinced! Don’t worry, I don’t intend to break your precious skill, and anyway, it would cost too much LP.”

What a relief! Good to know the gift my master had given me didn’t come cheap. Get Creative was my primary skill. Losing it would be a total disaster.

On the bright side, the fake Olivia didn’t have any weapons now. That meant close combat was the obvious option, but unfortunately, my Sacrifice buff had worn off. Of course, I could have just remade the skills and sacrificed them again, but I had a feeling that the time had come to bite the bullet and sacrifice something more powerful. While I was struggling to work out what to do, the fake Olivia vanished.

“Huh? Where’d she go?!”

I looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen, and there was nowhere she could be hiding. Wait! Above me!

I looked up to see Fireballs raining down from the sky. Was her plan to stay out of my way and rain magic down from above? It was a good strategy. With all her fire magic skills, the Fireballs were huge.

I dodged out of the way, missing the first, then barely escaping the second. As the third came blazing toward me, I suddenly felt strange. I had to keep running, but I felt slower somehow. I just managed to avoid the third fireball, but it grazed my clothes, and that was enough for the fire to spread. I hit the ground and rolled until it went out.

“That’s weird…”

I checked out my skills and realized she’d given me Heavy. I erased it quickly and fired another Stone Bullet at Fake Olivia as she descended back toward the ground. But just before the stone hit her, it made an impossible curve and boomeranged back at me.

“Gah?!”

There was no way to avoid it, so I ended up eating my own attack. My whole body ached. I was so confused. What had she done?! I hadn’t seen her cast a spell or anything. Was the problem with the skill itself?

Stone Bullet: Consumes magic to generate and fire a stone of five inches to three feet in diameter. It then returns to the caster.

She had changed it!

“Oh, you figured it out?” asked the double. “You shot one at me back on the bridge. And you seemed comfortable with it, so I figured you’d try it again.”

Damn it, she was too clever! And observant. And she probably had at least some of my master’s vast combat experience. But the most frustrating thing was how much better than me she was at using these skills.

“You can always just give up,” she taunted. “I’ll let you live. I mean, it’ll be a pathetic and miserable life, but still a life.”

“I’m not afraid of living a pathetic and miserable life,” I shouted back. “I’m the third son of a baronet—I’ve tasted more misery in my life than most commoners. But I’m still going to defeat you.”

“Because you want to save your precious master?” she teased.

“She’s suffering. She deserves better.”

“She’s weak. And the strong make use of the weak.”

She was wrong. My master wasn’t weak at all.

“She changed my life,” I said. “I’m going to save her, no matter what it takes!”

I sacrificed my S-Grade Archery skill and tried not to think about the 3,500 LP it had cost me to make it. It was only one skill, and the buff would only last for a minute, but I could tell right away that the power it gave me was on a whole different level from before.

A Lightning Strike surged through my fingers and leaped out into the air. Its range had doubled, and it reached the fake Olivia with ease. Of course, there was no way she’d let such an obvious attack touch her, but I’d planned for that. I just needed some time to get in close, and with my increased physical strength, a single leap took me exactly where I wanted to be.

“Do you expect me to swoon over how fast you are?” she asked.

She stuck out two fingers and stabbed them toward my eyes.

Willowy Dodge!

I smacked the double in the belly with the flat of my sword and used the momentum to push myself out of the way. It threw her off balance, and I saw the moment of panic on her face. By the time our eyes met, I’d already made my move.

Power Slash!

I put all my strength behind it. In the end, it was more than enough to take her down.

“Auuugh?!”

It didn’t feel like cutting down a human. It was more like severing through metal. As I stood back, the double’s hands turned to chains. Soon, the whole of her body was just links of metal that were no longer pretending to be my master.

“I curse you,” the thing spluttered with the last of its strength. “I curse you to…”

I couldn’t hear the rest, but it didn’t matter. It was over. The chains dissolved into rust and melted back down into the earth.

“Curse me all you like,” I said. “I have a friend who can break them.”

And besides, my thoughts were already elsewhere. As the last of the rust blew away, I turned and ran back toward a certain room inside the hidden dungeon.

***

I stopped in front of the door to Olivia’s room and took a deep breath. I hadn’t seen my master on my way in, and that made me anxious. I mean, if I’d freed her, surely she would have left the dungeon already, wouldn’t she? I braced myself for whatever was inside and opened the door.

She was standing right in front of me—the chains that had bound her to the walls lying limp on the ground. The real Olivia Servant smiled back at me.

“Noir… I’m free.”