What is his game? What is he planning?

I know the prophecy. I know what comes next. I know what I deserve. So… why? Why is he doing this? What does he gain from dragging me around instead of just killing me once and for all?

The ironic thing is that I could probably ask him and he might just tell me. That’s how little of a threat I am to him.

I mean, it seems like he knows everything that I’m thinking and planning. How do you beat someone like that?

And besides all of that, every time I look at him, I get the strangest feeling. It’s a mixture of guilt… and déjà vu.

A part of me swears we’ve met before, but that’s impossible. I would remember.

Especially with [Memory Protection].

… Right?

* Excerpt from my journal

-------

“Cut there… now here… hold it still,” came Joshua’s voice.

I followed his orders to the best of my ability but couldn’t help voice a complaint.

“You know, when you said that we had a lot of work to do… I didn’t think that work was carpentry,” I stated as we finished cutting a board.

“And what kind of work did you assume we would be doing?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

I opened my mouth and then quickly shut it.

My initial thought had been fighting demons. And then I remembered that their leaders were all still dead and that all of the rank-and-file ones had pretty much been killed off in the last battle.

“I don’t know,” I finally admitted. “But, I guess I just assumed it would be something that wasn’t so… unimportant?”

Joshua paused. “Hold off on judging the importance of this work until it is completed.”

“Is that an order?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“More of a suggestion,” he replied, turning to the next board and measuring.

“Good,” I muttered too softly for him to hear. “Because I don’t think I’ll be able to do that.”

I was feeling irritable about being reduced to a common laborer… and also because I basically felt naked.

I was fully clothed, of course, but I wasn’t wearing my armor. At Joshua’s insistence, both Herobane and my armor set had been yeeted into the corrupted void of the tutorial before I was allowed to leave with him. After centuries of having an armor rating that made me invincible to most of Placeholder, I had never felt more vulnerable.

My only defensive measure was a blue tint to my eyes courtesy of some contacts I still had in my inventory. Joshua had nixed my request to use [Disguise Self].

At least I’m not completely disarmed. I thought as I scrolled through my inventory for a quick moment.

I still had Demon Slayer’s twin paladium blades, a few backup swords, and my backup wand.

I was regretting not recovering what remained of Demon Slayer’s armor set, but in my defense I had no idea that I would possibly need it. It was also a strict downgrade.

Not that any level of gear would be enough to take him down. I thought, glancing over at the admin [Hero]. He easily beat me at my absolute best, so a fight was a no-go.

Which meant it was time to examine other options.

I initially wondered if I would be able to make a break for it with a [Teleport], but I quashed that idea down as quickly as it came. I seemed to be on his good side… somehow. I was still 100% positive that he was going to be the death of me in order to fulfill the prophecy, but that didn’t mean that I had to speed up its completion.

And so, my only option was to play along and try to figure out what he was planning… which wasn’t made any easier as we went to a few different merchants, and he picked out some supplies.

Supplies that I had to grudgingly pay for as he only spawned in with 100 gold. Apparently, not even admins were immune to the stinginess of the tutorial.

From there, we walked to a more residential area of Faroff and then into one of the lower-income neighborhoods.

I was shocked as he went up to a door, seemingly at random, and knocked on it.

“Can I help you?” a woman in slightly shabby clothes, carrying a baby, asked as she came to the door.

“Ah, yes,” Joshua replied. “I’m a [Carpenter], and the two of us have come to work on your roof.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “I never hired anybody to fix the roof.”

“The materials and labor have already been paid for in full by someone else,” he replied.

I frowned slightly as I realized that “someone else” was me.

“Do you mind if we come in and take a look?” he asked with a disarming smile.

She eventually acquiesced, and we got a tour of the dilapidated building.

I didn’t have any experience with roofing or construction, but none was required to tell that the amount of sagging it was doing was not a good thing.

However, I apparently didn’t know quite how bad it was.

“My dear,” Joshua told the woman. “This roof could collapse any day. Why haven’t you gotten it replaced earlier?”

The woman went pale. “Well… money’s been tight, and my husband’s off to fight the [Demon Lord], and we were hoping we’d have enough when he got back to take care of it then.” She looked down. “And we’d have nowhere else to go while it was getting fixed.”

With just one woman and a baby, I was sure they’d find some place to take them in. However, I finally noticed another pair of eyes peeking at us from about waist height in the other room.

And another. And another. And…

5 children? I mentally tabulated. Ah. That makes things… a bit difficult.

Joshua nodded. “Not to worry. Your roof needs replaced, and replaced it shall be. My assistant and I will have it done before tonight.”

My head snapped in his direction. “We will?” I asked.

“We will,” he replied. He clapped his hands. “First, we have to prepare for removal. Assistant, help them move their belongings outside, and then we’ll get to work.”

I grumbled a bit but gave in. The woman roped all her children into helping, but they almost needn’t have bothered.

The nice thing about Placeholder over Earth was that moving stuff is a lot simpler, especially with my ridiculous inventory space as a level 25 with [Pack Mule]. I was able to basically just pull everything in and then go and set it back out on the street.

I would have set it on their lawn, but they didn’t exactly have one.

That left a conundrum. Leaving a poor family’s entire life out on the street was just asking for a robbery, and I assumed that was a bit counterproductive to what Joshua was attempting to do.

“Hey, Josh!” I called out.

“Permission granted,” he called back from inside.

I sputtered. “You don’t even know what I was going to ask!”

He poked his head out of the doorway. “Permission to use summoning magic to protect their belongings is granted,” he said. “Keep it low-level. Also, daves are likely too slow to help. I would recommend something else.”

I was non-plussed. How the frick did he know that I was going to summon a few daves and call it a day? I asked internally. With a shake of my head, I thought about alternatives. And he was right. If I used daves, someone could just run up, steal something, and then run away.

So, I needed both low-level and fast. That was a no-brainer.

“[Summon Wolf],” I cast.

My expectations there were as follows. One, a dark wolf would appear since it was in my faction. Two, I would have to explain myself to the woman and her children as they would recoil in fear. Three, I would snicker at the awkwardness I caused for Joshua.

I didn’t even make it past step 1.

“What the-“ I muttered as a bright-furred wolf appeared from my summon.

“Doggy!” shouted a boy who was maybe 5 or 6 years old.

Before I could stop him, he’d wrapped his arms around its neck.

I half expected it to snap at him and that we’d have a dead child on our hands, but it didn’t seem phased. It just sat there panting and awaiting my orders.

“Guard all of this stuff and bark if someone comes near,” I ordered. Then, remembering something obvious. “Unless it is me, Joshua, or any of those six, got it?”

It barked in acknowledgment and then stood up, nearly throwing the boy off.

The boy squealed in delight and then mounted the wolf like a horse.

I… decided I would just ignore that.

“So, you’re some kind of magician?” the woman asked curiously. “How did you end up as an assistant to a [Carpenter]?”

“It’s… a long story,” I replied. A very long story. I added internally.

From there, I went back inside, and Joshua started directing me for the tear out of the roof.

I was too curious. I had to know.

“How did you make me summon a noble wolf?” I asked. “I’m not in the hero faction.”

“You are so long as you’re in my party,” Joshua replied. “I temporarily disabled your demon lord faction allegiance when you joined. It would be harmful if you summoned a monster wave against a town while the world’s armies are still returning from battle.”

“I didn’t know you could do that,” I stated. Then, I remembered him crushing corruption with his bare hands and mentally figured it wasn’t that big of a deal.

It also wasn’t the last surprise of the day. It wasn’t exactly a large house, but I figured that redoing the entire roof in a day would be a stretch.

It wasn’t. To say that Joshua was a machine wouldn’t be doing it justice.

When it came time to nail boards in place, he [Hasted] himself and drove them in with a single swing of his hammer. I almost struggled to keep up and all I had to do was move things into position and hold them.

We worked all day with practically no breaks. I managed that with strategic use of “resting” according to Placeholder’s terms and the power of [Biologically Needless]. Joshua managed that by… I’m assuming some sort of secret admin voodoo.

One of the breaks came midway through the day.

“Mister, mister,” the same boy from earlier said as he tugged on my shirt sleeve.

“Not now,” I replied gently, not wanting to deal with the kid at all. “We have a lot of work to do.”

“We can break for a few moments,” Joshua said. “Why don’t you see what he wants?”

Mentally cursing his sudden but inevitable betrayal, I turned toward the kid.

“Alright, what is it?” I asked.

“I got you something!” he shouted as he thrust forward…

“A cookie?” I asked. “Uhh… thanks, but I’m not really hungry.”

“Oh,” he said, deflating and pulling it back.

That wasn’t going to do. Inwardly, I groaned and [Got Into Character].

“Actually,” I said with a cheerfulness that was at odds with my inward misgivings. “A cookie sounds great. I’d love to have one if my boss over there is okay with me taking a break.”

I turned and shot him a pleading look… which he ignored.

“Go ahead,” he stated.

I turned back to the kid with a fake smile as he handed me the cookie. I hesitated for a moment and then took a big bite.

The ashen taste of food hadn’t gotten any better over the last millenium.

“Mmmm,” I stated, fighting to keep smiling and not to gag. “It’s great. Thanks.”

The boy beamed and ran off.

I waited until he was gone to use [Create Water] and rinse my mouth out a bit.

“Why did you accept the cookie?” Joshua asked as we began work again.

“Don’t you already know?” I retorted instantly.

“I do. But do you?” he asked.

That caught me off guard.

“Well… because… I mean… he’s a kid,” I stated lamely as I held up the next board.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“He would have been upset if I didn’t let him give me the cookie he probably worked so hard for.” I paused. “Or stole.”

“He didn’t steal it,” Joshua immediately stated as he rapidly nailed the board in place.

“Oh good, I would have felt bad if he committed a crime just to give me a mediocre cookie that I couldn’t enjoy.”

“And why would you feel bad about that?” he asked as I readied the next board.

I sighed. “Look. I get it. I’m a [Demon Lord]. I do bad things, so why do I care? Well, I care because I don’t like being pointlessly cruel. In fact, I don’t like being cruel at all. And shutting down a kid giving me a gift just seems like mustache-twirling levels of pointlessly mean.”

Joshua nodded. “Or is it because you have a higher standard for how the weak should be treated, especially children, and you always have?”

“I don’t know that I would go that far,” I muttered.

Fortunately, that was the end of that conversation. It wasn’t the end of me thinking things over, though, which I could only assume was a part of his diabolical master plan.

Just as promised, we finished the entire roof before sundown. From there, it was just a matter of getting everything back inside and then saying goodbye.

“Goodbye, mister [Carpenter]!” the little boy shouted. “Goodbye, mister beast guy! Goodbye fluffy doggy!”

And that last goodbye was the problem. All of the other children, who spent far more of the day than I expected petting the unmoving summoned monster, were watching it go sadly.

And yes, we were walking away with the wolf because I didn’t think traumatizing the children by “unsummoning it” (AKA killing it) was a good idea.

I hesitated and looked at Joshua, who just gave me a slight nod.

“Hey,” I said, turning around and addressing the mother. “I don’t really need the wolf, especially in town. And if I did, I’d just summon another one. Would you like to keep it?”

She furrowed her brows. “Well…”

And was met by an onslaught from her children.

“We’ll take care of him!”

“He won’t be any trouble!”

“Please!? Please!?”

Her guard weakened, she looked back at me.

“I’m just afraid that we can’t afford another mouth to feed,” she stated feebly.

I blinked.

Oh. Right. Summoning isn’t very common, is it?

I coughed. “Well, that’s actually fine then. As a summon he doesn’t eat. However, there’s the downside that if he loses any health or stamina that he won’t get it back.”

It was her turn to blink in confusion.

“Oh… then… what do we need to do to take care of him?” she asked, to her children’s cheers.

From there I ordered the wolf to obey her and then gave her the basic guidelines. No having it run unless necessary since it would eventually run out of stamina. No rough play with the children because it wouldn’t regain HP (which I doubted she would allow anyway). Other than that… do whatever.

And then it was finally time to leave.

We walked away, and I couldn’t help but notice the slight smile on Joshua’s face.

“What?” I asked in irritation.

“Oh, I just think that was kind of you,” he stated.

I gave an exasperated sigh. “The summon cost me practically nothing.”

“Mhm,” he nodded his head.

“It was going to be more annoying to have to kill it off or [Disrupt] it.”

“Definitely.”

“It wasn’t a big deal!” I finally finished. “It was-“

“Unimportant?” he asked.

I stopped in the middle of the road, flabbergasted for a moment.

“You know what?” I replied, catching back up. “Yes! I stand by what I said! There are way more important things that we could be doing!”

“According to you? Or according to the family whose roof would have collapsed on them during the rainstorm in three days?” Joshua asked.

That shut me up until we reached our next destination.

“An orphanage?” I asked.

Joshua didn’t pause and headed right in.

I shrugged. I’d been to an orphanage before. Whatever we were doing couldn’t be that bad, right?

------

“Save me,” I pleaded silently to Joshua as the unending horde swarmed me. I had made the mistake of bending over and allowing one of them to touch my horns. That had left me wide open to an assault from behind as another overeager child climbed onto my back. From there, it was over. As if they could smell my fear, the others struck en masse, and soon they were crawling all over me. It was all I could do to keep them from falling and hitting the ground.

“Settle down, children, and I’ll tell you a story,” Joshua bartered with the tiny terrorists.

I scoffed. Didn’t he know never to bargain with-

The children all immediately surrounded him, and as he sat down, they did too.

It was probably a good call revealing he’s the [Hero]. I thought. Not the least to help with the children, but because the orphanage caretaker, rightly, didn’t want to allow two strange men to come in off the street and help out.

Before I knew it, it was time for their bed, and it was time for us to leave. We said our goodbyes and headed towards an inn.

“Well, that was… an experience,” I finally stated after a bit.

“Yes,” Joshua nodded. “It was quite amusing watching them walk all over you.” He chuckled. “You truly have no defenses against children, do you?”

“Well, what was I supposed to do?” I asked in exasperation. “If I made the wrong move, children are tiny and have next to no HP! I didn’t want to go in there and accidentally kill one! Or make one cry!”

“You were right to think about that,” Joshua said before pausing in the street and turning to me with a serious look. “Your last moral code was that you drew the line at harming children. Correct?”

I nodded. “Yes, children were off limits. Why?”

Joshua nodded slowly. “Then, I want you to think about this and take your time. Why did we go to those places today?”

He turned and started walking, and I quickly caught up.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Because you know my weak spot is children,” I started.

“A partial answer,” Joshua said. “Keep going.”

“And you wanted me to learn something,” I stated. “Something like… there’s still kindness in me or some BS?”

“It is not BS,” Joshua stated. “But that is also only partially correct. Even evil men can act kindly towards some, even if that circle shrinks ever more as their selfishness increases.” He stopped again and sighed. “No, there is one specific reason I took you to that family and that orphanage.”

“What?” I asked after a few moment’s pause.

“They are all in their circumstances directly by your actions,” Joshua stated. As he turned to me, I caught something I had yet to see on his face. A hint of anger, tightly under control. “And as the children and their mother wait for a father who will never come home, you, must understand that you took his life and took him away from them.” He stared at me intently. “For the children of the orphanage, your selfish actions and the wars that you started merely to gain experience were what placed them there. All those places and people that you viewed as unimportant when you destroyed them have led directly to this and to a population of orphaned children who have night terrors of the [Demon Lord] who has taken everything from them.”

His words hit me like a sucker punch to the stomach, but I could only stand there and take them. After all… he was right.

His gaze softened after a moment.

“Take the night and think things through. You have my permission to go hunt wolves in the wilderness if you wish.”

I looked back up at him. “And what are you going to do?”

“Get some sleep,” he replied. “Unlike some, my body is fully mortal with all that entails.”

Without another word, we parted ways. He went off to an inn, I guessed, while I headed out into the wilderness to deal with the turmoil in my head.

And so, I began a time-honored tradition of working through things by punching wolves.

First question is… is Joshua even right about all of this? I asked as I decked the first howling enemy.

“He doesn’t seem like the type to lie… or be wrong about something… but maybe he was exaggerating?”

One wolf jumping from in front got a fist to the face, while the one behind got an elbow.

The good news was that I had a way to check on that. I cleared out the few wolves that had spawned in that wave, [Disrupted] [Monster Magnet], and then pulled out my wand and mirror.

A quick [Advanced Scry], and I got to take a peak… at some situations that were much less joyous than earlier in the day.

“Mom, I miss dad,” the boy from early in the day whimpered. “When is he coming back?”

“Soon, don’t worry,” his mom comforted him, patting his head.

But I knew that wasn’t true. I could already picture the same scene as soon as word was received from the army about casualties.

Feeling nauseous, I turned my scry to the orphanage. I felt a bit weird spying on kids as they slept, but… it wasn’t the worst I’d done, and I needed to know.

I saw them tossing and turning in their sleep. Some of them crying out softly for their parents. Others awake and weeping silently so they wouldn’t disturb the children in the other beds.

The saying goes that a single death is a tragedy, and a million deaths is a statistic. And up until that point, I had only made it through because I had played the role of the cold statistician.

Joshua’s gambit had succeeded, though. My impersonal dealings with the world were stripped away, and I was given a front-row seat to the tragedy I had caused that was taking place all throughout the world.

My previously buried conscience was stricken, and that left me with only one question left to muddle over.

“Why show me all this?” I asked. “I’m destined to die. What does this change?”

I had some suspicions, but nothing concrete. However, there was one thing that I did know.

I could at least make the world just a little less awful and fix just the slightest part of my sins before I died.

The rest of the night was spent scrying and sending messages.

With the [Demon Lord] dealt with, the civilian branch of the Hero’s Shadow was going to get beefed up a bit, and they were going to have some new orders.

Also, I figured that I had plenty of gold in my inventory to get some new beds for that orphanage. They were looking a bit ratty.

------

Back at the inn, in the middle of his night’s rest, a small grin broke across Joshua’s face.

------

We ended up staying in Faroff for about a month. Then, almost without warning, Joshua informed me that we were leaving for Dryadal.

And instead of just letting me [Teleport] us there, he decided we would run.

It had been ages since I’d literally run across the world, and that was all sorts of nostalgia… mixed with a hint of some new stuff as well.

[Haste] made things go even faster, and Joshua’s surprising willingness to spam [[Restore Resources]] left me scratching my head.

When I questioned him about it, he simply told me that the conversion rate for the world of Placeholder made it nearly free.

… Which, given how much mana I had to pour in to make a single manipulation point, that made sense if [[Restore Resources]] was essentially the opposite.

Almost before I knew it, we were there.

------

“When we get into town, leave my party,” Joshua stated as we waited in the line approaching the gate.

My head snapped to face him. “What?”

“From there, limit your level to 10 and all skills to 5. Then, go into the adventurer’s guild and look for a party named ‘Lhoris’ party,’ they are looking for another frontline fighter for their day-to-day monster hunting.”

I was starting to wonder if I should have been writing this down. “Uhh… okay?”

“Accept the position and go with them on their hunts. No using magic except for [Repel Monsters]. Avoid lying, except I will allow you to claim to be a Bestian [Monk] named Jake who is level 10.”

“Jake?” I asked.

“Is that not what you would have gone with?” he asked.

I opened my mouth and shut it.

I need to come up with more aliases. I thought.

“Good,” he continued. “We will meet again tonight at the Little Stag Inn.”

“Okay,” I replied again as the guards waved us in. “But where’s the-“

Joshua pointed at an inn that practically slapped us in the face as we arrived.

I gave an exasperated sigh. “Alright, see you later, then.”

With that, I dropped out of his party and moved my levels and skills down as he requested.

I didn’t use that perk much, which showed as I nearly ate pavement right after.

“It’s like moving through molasses,” I grumbled as I recovered and tried to get used to my new speed.

From there, things went pretty much as Joshua said. I pulled out my wand to cast an [Extended Repel Monsters], walked into the adventurer’s guild, and found the request just as expected.

I sat down at the table to talk with the party, and it was pretty obvious that I was overqualified.

They had a male beastborn [Knight], who had a lion mane, as their leader. A timid female elven [Cleric]. And an elven [Ranger] who spent most of the time glaring at me.

She reminded me a bit of Emilia if I was being honest.

For the interview, most of my answers didn’t matter much. I was, supposedly, a level 10 frontline fighter interviewing for a spot in a party that had just started out and was at levels 2 and 3.

I was a shoo-in.

The only weird part was that they insisted on pressing a paladium coin into my hand at one point during the interview and were confused when I didn’t have one to do back toward them.

I’d kinda forgotten about that anti-demon part of Dryadal culture.

Anyway, my holy resistance meant I didn’t react to the coin and I was okayed to join them on their hunt.

The rest of the day was a snooze fest. It was the easiest grinding I think I’ve ever done.

The rest of the party, or at least two-thirds of the party, was ecstatic, though. Which made sense because their previous party composition was lackluster… especially since the [Knight’s] sword was a piece of junk.

After that, I returned to meet with Joshua at the inn.

He asked me a question I didn’t expect.

“How was your day?” he asked.

… Okay, I expected that one.

It was the question after I gave the noncommittal grunt that got me.

“And what were your party member’s names?”

I raised an eyebrow.

What does that have to do with anything? I asked myself.

“No idea,” I stated with a shrug.

Joshua shook his head with a slightly disappointed sigh.

“You should have at least been able to determine one name. I did tell you that the party was called ‘Lhoris’ Party.’”

“Oh, yeah, the leader was named Lhoris,” I stated half-heartedly. “He couldn’t think of a better name for the party.” I shook my head. “Still beats Zoom Jury…” I muttered under my breath.

“Your orders for tomorrow are to find out your party members’ names,” Joshua stated, ignoring my dig at the first named party in Placeholder.

“Okay,” I accepted.

“-as well as the names of their immediate family members.”

“Ugh,” I groaned. “Do I have to?”

“As a reminder, you are still only on a stay of execution at the moment,” he stated. He said it without a hint of malice but between his tone and the look he was giving me, my blood practically froze solid. “If you would like to have your retrial moved up, that can be arranged.”

One part of me argued that maybe that would be for the best; I could get things over with. The other part that was trying not to lose control of my bowels quickly agreed instead.

-----

Finding out my party member’s names was easy enough. All it took was paying attention after being added to their party during our monster hunting the next day and then making sure I drove the names home during our walk outside of town.

Lhoris Fentoris. Party leader. [Knight]. Beastborn. I thought. Kythaela Valmys. [Cleric]. Elf. And with the extra attention I was paying, I finally noticed the flirting that our party leader was doing with our [Cleric]… and her soft giggles that accompanied it.

And those two are either together, or they’re going to be.

I looked over at the final member of our party, who saw my gaze and glowered at me.

Jhilsara Elyarus. [Ranger]. Elf. Perhaps the only sane one in the party because she doesn’t trust me and is sure that I’m hiding something… which I am.

Family member names were a little bit more difficult to find out, though.

I mentally groaned. Just… feign curiosity. It’ll be fine.

However, “Do you have any family, and what are their names?” Seemed like a kinda weird one to start with.

I took a different tact instead.

“So, why did you three decide to make an adventuring party?” I asked, to the party’s shock.

I had kept quiet the previous day and given only one-word replies where necessary, so it was a pretty sudden shift in behavior.

They shared a look, and Lhoris answered.

“We were too young to help with the attack on the [Demon Lord] and only became old enough for advanced classes these past few months,” he said. “I wanted to be strong in case the attack failed, but, with his defeat… I’m not as sure of my path anymore. I might sign up to defend the wall?” he asked, half to himself. “Some days, it’s hard to believe the [Demon Lord’s] gone.”

I’ve been defeated plenty of times. I thought. But then, I realized where he was coming from. He’s only been alive while I was going to war against the entire world and winning. I frowned at that thought but then directed my question to Kythaela, the [Cleric].

“What about you? Were you also wanting to defeat the [Demon Lord]?” I asked, lightly ribbing Lhoris in the process.

“Oh, no,” she said with multiple shakes of her head. “I just wanted to be a healer like Saint Sarah… and adventuring means I will get more mana to heal with.”

“Ah,” I replied. “Subclass of [Priestess]?”

She nodded, and I thought for a moment.

“As a healer how do you get enough contribution to get levels?” I asked.

“Contribution?” Lhoris asked.

And that explained why she was at level 2 while the others were at level 3. The good news was that Kythaela seemed to be getting experience even when she made no outright contribution to our low-level kills. Otherwise, she would have been stuck at level 1. The bad news was that she was still leveling slower.

Unfortunately, she was unreceptive to any of my possible solutions.

Wielding a weapon herself was a no-go. Trying to take a more leaderlike role and order people around to see if that helped was not in her wheelhouse. And when I finally suggested that she could go to the deathlands and fight undead who would be damaged by healing, she looked at me like a deer in the headlights.

Lhoris assumed the last one was a joke, so I caved and went with that, even though it seemed like it was 100% the best way for a healer to level since that annoying patch.

After that, we were attacked by our first wave of wolves. Only 10 of them; completely boring. Jhilsara sniped half of them before they got to us, I killed three, and that left two for Lhoris.

He had a shield and sword, but his sword was in even worse shape than I thought.

Wolves have 5 HP. Any weapon that can’t kill one in a single hit is either a knife or it belongs in the scrap bin.

I kept that thought to myself as he managed to two-hit the wolves, and then we decided on a short break as Kythaela [Healed] him back up to full.

“What about you?” Kythaela asked as we sat down to rest. “Why did you become an adventurer?”

It was the obvious question after I’d asked my own, and I internally groaned as I forgot to consider that. I wanted to just make things up, but I was also under orders from Joshua not to lie about anything except my name and level.

I could have just lied anyway, but I was strangely confident he would know.

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” I replied. “Being an adventurer was basically forced on me.”

“Oh no!” Kythaela gasped with a hand to her mouth. “By your parents?”

I shook my head. “By my circumstances. It was essentially learn to fight or die.”

I figured that was mostly the truth. And I also realized that I now had my opening with Kythaela bringing up my parents.

“As for my parents… I never met them,” I stated.

“I’m so sorry,” Kythaela said, reaching over and putting a sympathetic hand on my leg.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Can’t miss what you don’t know, right? Anyway, the only family I really know about is my older brother, Jared. We… are kinda estranged.”

Probably the understatement of the year, but hey, at least it wasn’t a lie.

“Jared…” Lhoris said, creasing his brow in thought. “Wasn’t that the [Hero’s] name?”

“Yup,” I nodded. “Same name as the last [Hero]. It’s a small world, isn’t it?”

My downer backstory given, it was easy to reflect the question back to them.

Lhoris and Kythaela gave up the names easily. Jhilsara, on the other hand…

“You are being far too trusting of a random beastborn who we’ve known for only two days!” she said with a scowl. “Who knows what he could be plotting to do with this information!”

I mean, I was kinda plotting, but…

“What do you think that I would be able to do with a bunch of names?” I asked out of genuine curiosity.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out and-“

I held up a hand as I heard a distant howl.

“Don’t cut me off!” she growled. “I’ll-“

“Shush!” I whispered urgently as I tried to listen. I heard even more howls, and my stomach dropped.

I’d left [Monster Magnet] alone today to make things more interesting, but if my hearing was right, it turned out that more interesting might be too much.

It sounded like a wave of 50 normal wolves and alpha, and yes, the fact that I could tell that just by their howls meant I had spent far too much time killing them over the years.

I could handle that myself, even at level 10, but I didn’t know if I could keep two level 3s and a level 2 alive through it.

“Battle formation,” I barked, shocking even the annoyed Jhilsara into position. “Big wave incoming!”

Then, realizing that we needed all hands on deck, it was time to hand out some equipment upgrades.

I pulled Lhoris’ sword out of his hands, to his shock, and then gave him an even bigger surprise when I shoved one of my adamantium backup swords into his hands.

“Don’t lose it,” I stressed. “It’s worth more than your party makes in a year.”

Leaving the stunned [Knight], I went over to the [Cleric].

“And for you,” I stated as I pulled out a crossbow.

“But I-“

“If you want your party members to live, we need another damage dealer. Congrats on the promotion,” I stated. “Load it like this,” I said as I pulled out a bolt and pulled it back. “Then, point and pull the trigger.”

“But… but…”

“Oh, right, you need more ammo,” I muttered and then dumped all of my bolts out of my inventory and on the ground. “Sorry, you’ll have to make do with that.”

I spun to face Jhilsara.

“And as for you…” I paused. “Actually, I don’t have anything for archers, and you’re doing fine on your own. Best of luck.”

From the look on her face, that offended her more than anything I’d done up to that point.

I didn’t have time to care. The wave was on us.

The first wolf sprouted an arrow between its eyes. And despite her misgivings, a crossbow bolt was soon launched as well.

… It missed by a lot, but hey, it was progress.

Jhilsara sniped 5 more, but then the rest were on us.

I kept a close watch on the party’s resources as I beat down wolves as fast as I could, and to Lhoris’ credit, he was more than twice as useful now that he had a decent weapon.

However, there was one more problem that we had to deal with than expected… there were two alphas.

“I’ll take them!” I called, moving forward and pouring out wrath aura to draw aggro. “Keep those two safe!”

Soon, I was encircled by both alphas and a dozen regular wolves… but there was no reason to be worried. I’d been through far worse.

I took a deep breath… and the wolves attacked.

It was over in a matter of seconds. The alphas took far more [Fire Strikes] than I remembered them taking, but that was the downside of having both [Martial Arts] and [Elemental Strike] reduced to level 5.

When I was done, I turned to look at the rest of the party, who were no longer under attack and were instead staring at me in slack-jawed amazement.

I saw they were above half in all their resources and paused.

I may have been a bit overly cautious. I thought. Aloud, I called out, “We should hurry and loot all of this before more come!”

That got everyone to work, and Lhoris joined me in my field of bodies.

“This monster attack, it was something that you caused?” he asked.

“I may have accidentally had a monster lure active,” I replied.

The monster lure was me with [Monster Magnet], but I figured that was close enough.

He looked at me in excitement. “After we rest, could you do it again?”

-------

Monster hunting got quite a bit more entertaining after that. I pretended I had an enchanted ring that was the monster lure (by never actually saying that it was, just implying it), and we took on much bigger waves than before.

The others started slowly gaining levels from the alphas and then finally decided they were ready to take on a nearby dungeon.

… Well, it was in claimed Dryadal territory, so there was a queue, they had to go in with other people, and it was in training mode, so it wasn’t a life or death scenario, but hey, in the end, they got their 10th levels.

All the while, I slowly got to know them more and more as Joshua continued pestering me to find out things about them… and then eventually continued learning about them even when he stopped.

I got on fine with Lhoris and Kythaela, but Jhilsara wasn’t so easy to convince.

In fact, one day, she confronted me.

-----

“I know what you’re planning,” she said one day after we parted at the guild.

“You do?” I asked. “That’s impressive because… I don’t even know what I’m planning.”

“You haven’t been taking your share of our hunting per our contract!” she said. “You’re going to take us to court once the amount has reached high enough and take us as debt slaves!”

“Debt slaves are a thing here?” I muttered and then realized that it was an elvish term I was unfamiliar with and that that was just the closest approximation my translation could give me. I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to do that.”

“Then why has your portion of the funds been 473 gold coins shorter than it should be?” she stressed.

Wow. I thought. That’s a precise number. Looks like I accidentally ticked off the accountant.

I sighed. “Because I didn’t need the money, and you guys looked like you did,” I stated. “I kept just enough to pay for my inn stay.”

“We are settling up now,” she stated. She pulled a few coins out, adding up to the 473 gold, and handed them to me. I didn’t object. Then, she stated, “And as you have been contributing more to combat than the others, I will not let you also take us to court over an unfair contract. We will renegotiate right now.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t the others be here for this?”

She glared back. “Would they be any help?”

I thought about what I knew of their money habits and contractual prowess.

“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.”

The contract was basically the same as the other one, but she was trying to bump me up to 40% from the 25% I had previously been getting.

“Let me make some modifications, and then you can look them over,” I stated as I pulled out a pen. I adjusted the amount and then added a few lines to the end. When that was complete, I nodded.

She snatched the paper up and read it through. “No pay…” she muttered. “And waiving any rights to sue about this contract?” Her glare was turned up to 11. “What is the meaning of this? I won’t accept paying you less after our renegotiation!”

“I don’t need money,” I stated flatly. “And 437 gold will pay my inn fee for a long time. I doubt I’ll even be in town that long.” I paused. “And if we do stay long enough that that gets used up, well, I’ll just have to have my roommate chip in.”

What is Joshua up to during all of this grinding? I asked internally as Jhilsara frowned.

“I don’t trust you,” she said. “I think you’re hiding something, and I think our party should just walk away here before it comes back to bite us.”

I groaned. “You know what? Yes. I’m hiding something. You wanna hear it?” I asked rhetorically and then continued before waiting for an answer. “The fact of the matter is that my past is so dark and sordid that all I can do now is wait for my coming execution. And the only reason I joined your party is because my executioner told me to after he decided to hold off on killing me for a couple months or years.”

Jhilsara was taken aback. I could tell she didn’t believe me, I mean, who the heck would ever say something like that, much less have it be true?

I looked up at the ceiling of the adventurer’s guild. “You know what? If you want answers, why not go ask the guy who has them? Head over to the Little Stag Inn. Ask for Joshua. I’ll wait here until you get back.”

“I will,” she said, snatching the contract away.

I waited there, bored, for what felt like ages but was probably just an hour or two. I would have loved to spy on her, but the whole no magic thing was a real downer there.

When she finally returned, she was white-faced and unwilling to look me in the eye.

She signed the contract with no complaints, we left a copy with the guild, and we both took a copy for ourselves.

Over the next couple of weeks, her expression towards me changed quite a bit. Some days, it was fear. Others, it was anger. Some it was loathing.

When it finally settled on a neutral expression, I finally decided to ask her what Joshua told her.

“I took an oath not to reveal anything he told me,” she stated flatly.

So, I asked Joshua. He was no more help than her.

“I told her what she needed to know,” he replied simply.

And so, we would have eventually parted ways on that awkwardness if not for another occasion.

-----

“We have a big announcement,” Lhoris said one day as we met up at the guild. He took Kythaela’s hand, and they both grinned. “We’re getting married!”

“Congrats!” I replied. “When’s the wedding?”

“Next week!” he beamed.

“Wow,” I replied. “Isn’t that… a bit fast?”

“They’ve been talking of marriage since they were 10,” Jhilsara stated. “In some ways, it is about time.”

A part of me hoped that was hyperbole, but I supposed it didn’t matter.

Either way, hunting was mostly put on hold as the happy couple prepared, and before I knew it, the day was there.

The ceremony took place at a Dryadal chapel, and while it reminded me of a normal marriage ceremony back in the United States on Earth, there were a few key differences.

No white for the bride. No tux for the groom. In fact, I think they were allowed to wear pretty much whatever they wanted. Kythaela ended up wearing a beautiful green dress, and Lhoris just… wore his armor. Polished to the point that it almost hurt to look at it.

There was no flower girl, or music as the bride walked down the aisle, but they did at least keep the tradition of her dad walking her down.

However, instead of going to vows right after that, another section was apparently common.

The audience was encouraged to stand up and tell a short story about the couple. There were several. Some were cute, some were embarrassing, and I even threw my own into the mix about the time when our party discovered that Lhoris was intentionally letting himself get hit a few times during hunting so that Kythaela had something to heal.

And then, it was finally time.

“Do you, Kythaela Valmys, and you, Lhoris Fentoris, agree to be bound together by the sacred rite of matrimony?” the [Priest] asked.

“We do,” they replied together, but I couldn’t help but notice their eyes had both flickered briefly away, likely to look at a System prompt.

“Then, by the power vested in me as a [Priest] of the System, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may seal your union with a kiss.”

The crowd stood up and cheered as they did, and I stood along with them.

And that jostled a familiar weight around my neck that I had almost forgotten.

I clutched at it and then realized.

What am I doing? I asked myself. I kept it together until the official ceremony was over and then waited until I was fairly confident I wouldn’t be noticed.

I slipped out undetected.

At least, so I thought.

“So this is where you ran off to,” Lhoris said as he found me leaning against the wall, staring blankly at the emerald necklace I still kept around my neck.

I quickly plastered a smile on my face as I looked up.

“Hey, sorry,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Either my smile was faker than I expected, or Lhoris was more perceptive than he looked.

“Jake, are you okay?” he asked, concern covering his voice.

Once again, Joshua’s stupid no-lying rule had me stuck. So, I told part of the truth.

“This necklace belonged to a woman,” I stated. “I loved her. Was thinking about marrying her one day. But now she’s gone.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “It was a long time ago, and I just thought I was over it, but your ceremony brought back memories. Just give me a few, and I’ll be right back in.” I shot him another slightly less fake smile. “Can’t have you missing your own big day, can we?”

That was enough to get him off my back, and once I had a few moments to gather myself, my [Actor] levels were enough to get through the rest of the celebration without incident.

After all, what else were [Actor] levels for if not for disguising your pain while you felt like you were dying on the inside?

------

I was on the balcony when Joshua found me in the inn later that night. My hands were white-knuckle gripped around the railing, and if I had my full levels at hand, it probably would have been torn apart.

“Why?” I asked him, my voice calm and at odds with my bubbling anger.

“Why what?” he asked gently.

“Why would you make me care for them!?” I exploded as I rounded on him and got up in his face. “Do you get some sick pleasure from torturing me like this!? Do you enjoy taking everything from me, again and again!?”

He didn’t reply. Even as my wrath aura lashed out, he deflected it with his own aura and made no move to counterattack.

I’m not sure I ever had seen something as effective at defusing my temper.

I started breaking down and turned away from him, slamming my fist on the railing.

“I had finally figured it out. You can’t have something taken away from you if you don’t have anything. I didn’t have to worry about betrayal or watching someone I care for die!” I gave a bitter laugh. “But then, you tricked me. Started me with innocuous questions. What’s their name? What’s their family like? All stupid, small things, but before I knew it, I was a guest at their wedding!”

Joshua came and stood at the railing next to me.

“So, you are upset that you came to care about people?” he asked quietly.

“Yes!” I responded, turning to him. And then I realized how that sounded. “No!” I groaned, looking away. “You know why I can’t care about them! They’re just going to die and leave me like everyone else! For someone in my position, relationships are stupid and… and…”

“Unimportant?” Joshua provided.

“No,” I scowled. “Not even close to the word I would have used. They’re stupid and I don’t need them, and I’m better off without them. And…” My scowl deepened. “Fine. They’re not important. I said it.”

“Are you done?” Joshua asked after a moment.

“I could keep ranting at you all night,” I grumbled. “But, if you have something to say, go ahead.”

Joshua nodded, and there was silence for a few seconds.

“This would not be comforting to most people, but you will likely die before them this time,” Joshua started.

“That… actually does make me feel better for some reason,” I said, furrowing my brow, trying to figure out that tangled mess of emotions.

“And as for all of the things you have deemed unimportant, helping a widow and her children, taking care of orphans, and even your relationship with Lhoris’ party, on what basis do you claim they are unimportant?” he asked.

“On the basis of having seen things that are actually important,” I replied. “Ripping open a portal to Hell. Defeating armies. Heroes stopping me from doing all of that.”

“The creation of the deathlands?” Joshua asked.

“Sure,” I nodded, and then I realized I’d fallen into his trap. “Wait. No, not them because-“

“Because they were an accidental creation,” Joshua replied. “An amalgamation of several small, seemingly insignificant decisions to summon daves and leave them lying around.”

“Yes,” I groaned. “But that just means that the dave summoning was important in an accidental roundabout way.”

“Or, to put it another way, it was important, but you had no idea it was at the time?”

I groaned. “Fine, you win. Just make your point already.”

“Very well,” Joshua nodded. “My point is this. You have no idea what may or may not be important unless you can look out into eternity and see every interaction that springs from every small, seemingly unimportant choice.”

I started to object, but he held up a hand to stall me.

“There may still be some things that are obvious in their importance. Stopping Admin from opening the portal in your first life was an important sacrifice that saved many lives.” Joshua paused. “But I am merely telling you to never underestimate the smaller decisions. Because while they may seem insignificant, every single one has an impact, if not on the world at large, on the one who is making them. And who you choose to become will echo on into eternity, whether you would like it to or not.”

“Okay,” I replied after a moment’s pause.

“And that goes for relationships as well.” He turned me to look him in the eye. “It is not good for man to be alone,” he stated. “You were made to know others and to be known by them. To impact each other for the good of all. To claim that relationships are not important is the height of folly because there are few things more fundamental to being human.”

I snorted. “But I’m not really human now, am I?”

He shook his head. “Your status menu attempts to categorize you. Not to define you. If you were truly a demon, you would have no choice but evil because that would be your sole nature. No, to be human is to have a choice between good and evil.”

“If that were true, then I would have had a choice about being the [Demon Lord],” I said quietly.

When Joshua didn’t immediately reply, I turned back to the balcony and looked at the stars.

“I’ll keep up my relationships with the party,” I said, not looking at Joshua. “I don’t see how they could possibly be important if I’m going to die here soon, but if you say so, I guess it won’t hurt.”

“Good,” Joshua stated. “Unfortunately, you will need to temporarily say goodbye to them tomorrow.”

“What?” I sputtered indignantly as I spun to face him. “After all that talk, we’re just up and leaving!?”

“Yes,” Joshua replied. “We’re needed at the western wall. The demon underlords have respawned, and soon this world will be facing a more perilous threat than them.”

I chuckled. “Well, unless you plan on letting me off my chain, I don’t see how that’s possible. I’m the only bigger threat there is.”

“You are the only bigger threat that is currently in this world,” Joshua pointed out.

My eyes widened. “Wait… you don’t mean.”

“Yes,” he replied. “This world’s [Demon King] is returning. The one you know as Admin.”