(Luca)

Whoooaaaa! This place is cool! We left Mr. Zack behind awhile ago, though I think he's probably already deeper in the mines than us, he's gonna be killing lots of stuff. We're on the third lower level of the mines, where Sir Travis said there are some undead creatures I can try my hand at. He's promised to make sure I don't get into danger.

"Eek!" I exclaim as I'm suddenly lifted into the air, and when I look down, I find myself over a hole in the ground.

"Watch where you're stepping," Sir Travis tells me as he finishes walking by the hole, then sets me back down.

"Sorry!"

"You're very observant," he says. "But be more observant of the ground, too."

I usually am. How else am I supposed to crunch uncrunched snow?

Sir Travis and I continue walking, and we find ourselves in a small cavern with crystals protruding out of it, along with the stalathingamobs that hang from the ceiling and rise from the ground. I can hear skittering. Rats?

"Here we are," Sir Travis says in a low voice. "Remember, use Holy Arrow to kill them, but make sure they're undead first."

I nod, gripping my staff tightly and looking around. The skittering sounds like it's coming from all directions. Focusing, I try to pick out the closest skittering as I slowly move through the chamber, until I find myself face-to-face with a rat with bits of itself falling off.

Dead Rat Level 1 Health: 19 Mana: 3

Eek! It's ugly! But A'Lutar is uglier and meaner! Holy Arrow!

An arrow of pure-white magic shoots out of my hand, slamming into the rat's side.

Target -5 Health!

Oh, good! Holy Arrow!

I cast three more Holy Arrows as the Dead Rat tries to scamper away, and the four attacks kill it. Whoo. That was scary. I wish Mr. Zack was here, he'd just glare everything into pieces. Lemme check my Experience. Yay! It went up! Not by much, though.

Priests are healers and purifiers. We can't even gain Experience from buffing someone. But we can from 'purifying' the undead by way of using holy Skills to kill them. That's awesome! But at the same time… I'm not that big of a fan of it. What if that had killed me? A good clomp of its jaws, and I'd probably be gone by now.

Not Mr. Zack. He'd just stare at it as the rat tried to bite through his skin. I bet Mr. Zack is immortal and invincible.

Focus, Luca! You need to get stronger so that you can support him better! What if he's not immortal? Then you'd definitely need to be able to heal him. Oh, and not invincible, too. And your weak Heals aren't enough right now. With everyone else training, you need to up yourself, too, but you can't just rely on using Heal to do that!

So I find another Dead Rat and kill it, then Sir Travis and I back out of the cave. My Experience didn't go up again, but I probably did acquire some. It just wasn't enough to equal a full percent. Once my Mana is back up to full, we reenter the cave, and I kill two more of the Dead Rats, then hurry back out to rest.

My third trip in, I face something new. It's a rat, but it's made entirely out of bones.

Skeleton Rat Level 2 Health: 43 Mana: 5

I don't think I can kill that with all my Mana. Holy Arrow!

The arrow strikes it.

Target -4 Health!

Yep, I'm not going to do enough, but I cast all of my Holy Arrows I can at it, taking it down to only 3 Health. Then, I charge forward and smash its head in with my staff.

There we go!

"Yeah," Sir Travis says. "I can see Zack's influence in your training."

What does that mean?

Whatever.

It takes me a few hours to kill all of the Level 1 and Level 2 Dead Rats and Skeleton Rats in here, and Sir Travis protects me from the stronger ones. Well, I can also kill the Level 3 Dead Rats, they average around 38 Health, it seems.

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Rawr! I'm fearsome!

Hehe.

Once I finish all of that and return to the tunnel, since that rats seem content to stay in that big chamber of theirs, I assess my stuff.

Character Information Light of Air Name: Luca Primary Class: Novice Level: 1 Unavailable: Unavailable Title: None Unavailable: Unavailable Health: 40/40 Mana: 19/1,100 Strength: 6 Intellect: 18 Endurance: 7 Willpower: 14 Vitality: 4 Wisdom: 110 Agility: 7 Perception: 13

I've gone up 1 Willpower, 1 Wisdom, and 1 Intellect during the fighting.

Primary Class: (T1) Novice 1 14%

I've gone up a total of 4% of Experience. I guess I don't gain much here, either. I killed lots of the horrid rats. But it's still improvement, and it's more than I normally get in a day, so yay!

Active Skills: (T1) Heal 3 (T1) Holy Arrow 2 (T1) Blessing of [Stat] 1

And Holy Arrow went up a Level, right after this last kill, so now, it does twice the damage! Instead of 6 Health it'll take, it'll take 12 Health! Or maybe 13 Health? How does rounding work?

Most importantly, whatever happened to that demon? Yeah, yeah, totally unrelated, but it's been on my mind. Did he save me, back when A'Lutar tried to kill me? Does Mr. Zack know him? Is that why he had Mr. Zack's sword and armor?

Why did he save me? Aren't demons scary monsters who kill everything and hate everyone? I don't know why I think that, but I do. I definitely do. Is that something from when I was in reality?

"What are you thinking about?" Sir Travis asks.

"Demons."

"Demons?" He asks. "There aren't any such creatures."

"One saved me."

"Ah," he says. "That. Demon is a Rank 3 Class, and one of its Skills is the ability to take on a demon's form. The person who saved you back then… is the only person so far who's ever achieved Ascension and acquired the ability to take on a Rank 3 Class."

Mr. Zack knows the highest-Level Adventurer? Who is it? Why were they wearing his armor and using his sword?

They must've been a midget. A pretty fit midget, 'cause the demon was very fit, just like Mr. Zack.

Sir Travis pulls out some sandwiches, and we eat them as I try to figure out who that could have been. I don't know anyone who it could have been. I mean, realistically, it probably could've only been Mr. Zack, since he matches the size of Mr. Zack, and was wearing his-

Armor.

"Mr. Zack's Ascended?" I ask, and Sir Travis gives me a surprised look. "He… he's the strongest in the Boundary?"

"Among the strongest," Sir Travis sighs. "He doesn't want the rest of you to know, because he fears it might hinder your training. While he's not the strongest yet, we're sure he'll reach that before the battle comes. Zack adapts and adjusts easily, which has given him a higher rate of acquiring Experience. Finish eating, I'll show you where he's training."

I finish eating, curious to see how Mr. Zack trains when he's not with the rest of us. My party leader is the strongest there is. I did not see that coming. I knew he was powerful, but not that powerful. And he can turn into a demon.

But he wasn't strong enough to kill A'Lutar and recover my brother's body. Becoming stronger… he agreed to this training not just for us, but for him, too. He wanted to become stronger as well.

So that he can protect all of us, no matter what.

Sir Travis leads me through the tunnels, and I realize that we're going back the way we came. Mr. Zack didn't go past us?

Eventually, we come to a chamber with hundreds of dead kobolds, maybe even thousands of them. I can hear the sound of a sword clashing against something else, coming from the tunnel at the other end of the chamber.

So many dead kobolds… Mr. Zack did all of this?

They're ugly.

Sir Travis leads me down the tunnel at the other end of the chamber, where the big daddy of all giant, ugly, stinky kobolds is fighting… the demon from before. Sir Nik is here, too, and he walks over to us, inquiry on his face.

"Luca figured out that Zack can turn into a demon and is one of the strongest in the Boundary," Sir Travis tells him. "I figured that I should probably show him."

The demon is flying around – literally flying, with wings! He soars up and around, his tail flicking out. That looks so cool. He's wearing his armor this time, including his chestplate, but he's not wearing a tunic, probably because of the wings. Those would probably put holes in it.

At least I know why the modification to the back of his armor was made. It must have been impossible to stretch those wings with their spots covered by metal.

I want wings. I'm not sure why, but I feel like angels are the holy version of demons. Maybe if I became one of those, I could have wings? Oh, but people who aren't Angels or Demons have wings, if Mr. Zack's the only one who can be a Rank 3 Class and those are Rank 3 Classes.

So I just need to be able to get wings, however that's done.

Will Mr. Zack let me fly with him? I think that would be cool.

Mr. Zack reverts back to his normal form. Why did he do that? He still looks cool, but… oh, he's got lots of blood on him. And in his hair.

He lands on the ground and is immediately sprinting, deflecting attacks from the big daddy of the ugly, stinky kobolds faster than I can see. I only get to see him for a moment, hear the sound of metal on metal, and he's gone again.

"Luca?" I realize that Sir Nik is trying to talk to me, so I look at him. "Please don't tell anyone else about this. Zack wants to avoid frightening the team or making them feel inadequate, and such."

I nod. Mr. Zack can have his secrets, he'll tell us in time, when it's important.