The house was almost symmetrical. The path ended at a large porch with a balcony on top. On the sides of the entrance, were two half towers extending a little over the red, slanted roof. Beyond them, the walls were flat, with floral decorations around the windows. On the right side of the mansion, stood a wider tower, with a round roof. Maybe an observatory?

All of the windows seemed to be darkened and had a slight, red tint. On the edges of the roof and the square balcony, stood hunched gargoyles. Between the sculptures, the railing was made out of black, wrought iron, extending up with sharp spikes.

We stopped before the door. The knocker was shaped like the head of a hideous devil, holding a ring in its mouth. 

"If you could wait a moment, masters?" Cate asked and disappeared. At the same time, I heard the sound of the door closing.

Moments later, the maid came out. "The mansion has been cleaned of dust, mistress."

"I found that all rooms are lightly furnished and have personal bathrooms," she explained while leading us inside. "If you'd wish, I would do some shopping to fill four rooms with additional necessities."

I nodded and threw her the pouch. Cate disappeared again, accompanied by the sound of the closing door.

"Well, then... let's chose our rooms?" I proposed to my friends and jumped off from Tom. I set down our luggage, picked out my backbag and looked around.

We stood in a spacious hall. The walls were covered in arches and faceless portraits. The wooden floor was covered with a thick, red carpet - with simple shapes sewed throughout its entirety - in the middle and small dark-wood tables by the walls.

I walked up the stairs, passing more portraits with washed out or cut out faces, stopping at double doors on the first floor, in front of the stairs.

Inside was a studio, decorated in subdued greens. In the middle of the room, stood a desk with a green velvet covered top. Between the desk and the glass entrance onto the balcony, stood a comfy looking leather armchair. On the ceiling was a painting of bats flying under the night sky.

The walls were covered in empty bookshelves and small carved tables, lacking any decorations. The left wall had a door poorly masked to look like part of the surroundings. I pressed around it for a bit, until finally, a small magic circle lit up, where the handle should have been.

The door swung outwards, revealing a spacious bedroom. By the wall ahead, stood a four-poster bed, covered with black sheets and curtains. There was no door back into the corridor on the left wall, it's entirely covered in a mural showing a scene of various nightmares of the night galloping into a dark forest.

I slid over the smooth wooden floor and checked what was beyond the doors on the two sides of the bed. The one on the right led to a walk-in closet, while the left one revealed a bathroom. It was tiled in black, with scarce rose decals breaking up the monotony.

There was also one of the ghosts, hiding in the bathtub. When it noticed me, the spirit got up and began wailing and waving its arms towards me. I formed an infernal halo above my head and began gathering mana between my horns.

The ghost slumped its shoulders and fell through the floor. I shrugged and jumped into the tub.

Once I got out of the bathroom refreshed, there was a flat, black stone lying on the bed. I slid my hands on the runes on it and the surface lit up. The drive asked to set up an account, so I filled in my information, under the name "Luci".

I giggled to myself and waited for the system to load. It seemed to be a regular personal computer. I put the toy away and came out of the room.

Cate stood by the door of the office. I waved to her in greeting. "Done with the shopping?"

The maid nodded and handed me the pouch. "I've purchased communication-slates for everyone, as well as spare sheets, notebooks and other small items." With those words, she bowed a little.

"Do we have some open space around here?" I asked the woman.

"There is a rather wide, open space in the back, mistress," Cate answered.

"Alright, if you could get Tom and Diada and I will wait for you three there," I said and made my way to the garden.

Indeed, behind the mansion was a wide, open space with short grass. The maid already stood in the middle, when I reached the place.

The spiderling skittered from the large tower and jumped down to us from the roof. Tom walked out calmly, from the back-terrace.

"Let's spar against Cate." I proclaimed and got in position. I looked at Cate and flexed my mana. Tom stood, sabre drawn, in front of me and Diada took a spot on my right.

The maid bowed and just continued to stand at easy. I could not read her expression at all, but I bet she was yawning internally.

I shot a probing manaball at the woman and she just let it splash against her. She fixed a wrinkle on her jacket and Tom jumped, holding his sword high.

His slash was backhanded by a lazy wave of a hand. The boy quickly fixed his stance and took a step back. I boosted up and shot four fireballs on curving trajectories.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Cate danced between them, with minimal movements and deflected two more slashes and a stab from Tom. Diada shot out all of her limbs. 

The maid evaded seven, but the last one pierced into her arm. The woman glanced down at the wound and without looking, caught my fifth fireball. She threw it at the spiderling, forcing the girl to cross her legs before herself.

When Tom stabbed again, Cate let his sword connect. The blade helplessly skidding off. The woman nodded and suddenly stood behind Diada.

The maids kick, ripped off the spider's right arm just below the shoulder. Before the girl could scream out in pain, the woman put the arm back in place and splashed a healing potion over it.

"I apologize, mistress," Cate said and bowed. Diada just flexed her arm and stabbed six limbs at the woman. This time, the maid avoided four and grabbed two. She pulled the spiderling towards herself kicking out against the black part of the girl's arm.

The girl flew off to the side but was mostly unharmed. I boosted just behind Cate's back and blasted out with a torrent of fire. A pane of mana redirected my spell to the right, blocking the way for Tom.

The cat jumped over the flames. Cate grabbed his leg and the boy dissipated. His thinned form cut at the woman's left arm. The maid guided the sword away from herself and down, with an open palm.

I rolled by her feet and shot three fireballs up, gathering mana between my horns. The spider jumped back into the fight, pelting the maid with a dozen weak manaballs.

Cate seemed unaffected by the flashy distractions and kicked me away while punching Tom in the snout. The woman pushed a wave of mana at Diada, throwing the bundle of spider limbs over at the tree crowns.

I smelled sulfur and shot the fireball I was gathering at the maid. A roaring, yellow ball of destruction... uselessly flew by Cates titled head. I raised my right hand to wave at the spell, but mid-wave, I flew back from a punch to the gut.

Toms fur took on a red tint and his mana took on a slightly smoky form. Before he could slash out, he got smacked over the head. He high-fived the ground with his face.

"Control yourself," Cate admonished him and deflected the thrusts from Diada.

The spiderling raised herself on three legs and struck with a mana-whip from up high. At the end of the silk-line, was attached one of the gargoyle statues.

The maid cut through the whip with a mana-blade extending from her fingers and the sculpture crashed into the tree line on the other side of the clearing.

The whip unravelled, and as tens of strings flew around Cate. I threw volleys of three fireballs at a time at the woman, boosting to fly over her.

Tom stepped in with a quick slash. Just before our attacks connected, the maid got tied up with the mana-silk. Just as Diada was putting on a proud expression, Cate bent back, turning around. The spiderling flew at the cat, tangling the two into a ball of limbs.

The woman spread her arms, easily ripping apart the silk and jumped up. Suddenly, she was above me and I got punted down at my friends.

Cate stayed in the air, standing on a pane of fluctuating mana. "You've improved, mistress," she said and smiled.

I rolled off the body-pile and laid on the ground, catching my breath. I stuck out my tongue at the woman.

Diada stood up, on Tom's stomach and waved her spider-limbs at the maid. Then she slumped them on the ground and shuffled over to the chairs on the terrace, dragging the limbs behind herself.

"Anyone got some water?" the cat asked. I patted myself, but it seemed I left the pouch inside.

Cate disappeared from the air and suddenly stood next to the kitten, holding a carafe filled with juice in one hand and a tray with glasses in the other. She then slowly walked over to the terrace, where she poured the drinks.

"Rude," I informed the world and lifted Tom on a manapane. He jumped down from it, once I got to the terrace and we sat down at the black wrought-iron table. Diada was already eating popcorn and looking into the distance.

We drank in silence for a while, just enjoying the fresh garden air. Well, Cate stood at the side, all professional. I waved for her to also take a sit and down the rest of the juice.

"So... how do we go about getting those points and everything?" I finally broke the silence.

"We can look for part-time jobs on the web, or go to the Adventurers Guild to search manually," Tom said with a heavy voice and massaged his nose. "Your maid doesn't hold back, does she?"

"I hold back plenty, master." She said, then took a sip of juice.

"You heard her." I shrugged and leaned back. I tapped my fingers on the table. "The web we can check from the stuff Cate bought?"

"That's correct, mistress." The maid answered.

"I guess we can do that in the future..." I had trouble gathering my thoughts, as the image of a soft bed kept surfacing in my mind. "Let's go to a Guild office tomorrow." It would be fun, probably. Maybe it was just a white office with number-tickets and long queues.

----------------------------------------

School sucked. My stupid parents called me during class and the dumb teacher confiscated my phone. I saw how everyone in the class was looking at me as if I was worse than them.

They were going to serve me burgers when I got rich!! I kicked a can of beer, laying on the pavement.

I glanced up, I had the green light. I fixed my earphones and entered the crossing.

I heard the horn of a truck and suddenly, I stood in a white space. In the distance, behind a low, polished wooden table, on a green sofa, sat an old man in white robes.

I run towards him and plumped onto the armchair opposite the old man. The elder smiled and nodded his head. "Welcome, o'hero."

Yes!! YES!! YEAAAASSSSS!!! I stopped myself from jumping up and pumping my fists. I fixed myself and sat up straight, putting on a dignified face. "What do you need of me?" I cocked an eyebrow and tilted my head, smiling coyly.

"Enter the world and do what you do best!!" The old man proclaimed, with a voice like thunder.

Behind him, a door materialised out of nowhere. I sat, waiting for him to grant me my awesome powers. We sat like that for a minute or five.

"Enter the world hero!!" The old man yelled out and got up. The furniture dematerialised and I fell on the ground.

I quickly gathered myself and marched evenly, to my destiny. Maybe I would gain powers from the potential of my soul. Like a shadow, I would prowl the lands and save the world!!

On the other side of the door, people of myriad races strolled, wearing modern looking clothes. I looked around... there were skyscrapers all around.

Some people glanced at me occasionally, but no one paid me any mind. Most didn't even seem to notice me. I was indeed, a shadow. I chuckled and skulked into the city. Where were you hiding, demon lord?

After I crossed a couple of streets, I got stopped by a dwarf in a cop uniform. He glanced over me, his eyes flashing blue. He nodded, handed me a flyer and was gone before I could blink.

I looked at the paper, it seemed to be a hand-drawn guide. I didn't understand the language in which it was written, but it had a map. It seemed my position was marked with a red dot and a line led towards some building marked with crossed sword and wand.

----------------------------------------

I stretched, it would be a couple more hours until my shift ended. This Transported, at least didn't make a ruckus about dying. The damned kid still took his sweet time, though.

I crossed out the fifth comer of the day and prepared for the next one. It seemed to be an old woman, directed towards the far east.

Just another month and I would be done with this damned job. I promised myself, to never again gamble with the Gatekeepers.