We hadn’t stopped the full summoning, but at least we’d prevented its completion and managed to slay the partial demon that had manifested. We’d prevented the calamity from hitting the city with no further mortal casualties, and best of all I hadn’t done anything to hinder Teams Legion and Spice from being the ones to do it. I’d call it a win.

While the other Players were busy congratulating each other, I went over to Annabelle to thank her for her help.

“Whoah, whoah, whoah there,” she said, holding her hands out in front of her and backing away. “Don’t you dare touch me with all that gunk on you.”

She didn’t seem to mind it when I was feeding her mana potions, but she did have a point. I was pretty gross. Demon gore is sticky and putrid.

“Here,” she said, “hold still. I just happen to know a handy spell for situations like this.”

She raised her staff and a magic circle appeared over my head. I felt a pleasant tingling as it descended around me, traveling down from head to toe. The blood and residual goop vanished as it passed down my body, along with any other accrued filth, leaving me sparkling fresh and clean.

“That is handy,” I said. “By the way, we’re going to have a little talk later about the appropriate use of explosion magic.”

She puffed out her cheeks. “You sound like my stupid sister.”

Whoops of joy erupted from Achmed, Tiff, and their teammates. I could tell they’d just received their quest completion notification by the load of reward boxes that appeared at their feet.

“Yes!” Achmed shouted. “We even got bonus rewards for killing the demon!”

A curious observer applauds your involvement

A curious observer wishes to reward the Player with a Random Gold Reward Box

A mysterious observer wants to do the same

A mysterious observer enjoyed the show

System sees no issue with that

A curious observer whoops

A curious observer cant wait to tell unnamed about what they missed

A casual observer had fun too

A casual observer wanders off in search of something else to watch

System: You have received Random Gold Reward Box X 2

“And a random skill box!” Tiff said. “Thank you, observer.” Observers must have given them rewards too.

The other members of Team Spice also said their thanks. Seeing that, the Legionnaires did too.

Oh yeah. Had I ever thanked the observers? Let's see what’s in my reward boxes first.

Leaving Annabelle, who had started going around and collecting the demon's teeth that had been strewn everywhere by her explosion, ignored the talk of observers and rewards, but I did notice her glance at the reward boxes when they appeared, so she clearly knew they see there.

I went over and clapped Achmed on the back. “Congratulations, man. You sure earned this one.”

“Thanks Daniel, but I’m not sure we could’ve done it without your help. So thank you so much.” He pressed his palms together in front of himself and bent at the waist in a bow.

Tiff joined us. “Daniel,” she said, “a word, please?”

“Sure.”

Achmed took the hint and left us alone, joining his teammates.

Tiff took a deep breath. “Listen, I think I may have been wrong about you. Achmed was right to trust you, you really helped us out. So yeah. Thanks.”

“Thanks, Tiff, I appreciate that. But you’ve got some strong Players with you and you work well together. I’m glad I was able to help, but I’m sure you would’ve done fine without me.”

“We both know that’s not true.” She’d curled the whip I’d given her into a tight coil and held it out. “Here. Thanks for the loan.”

“You keep it,” I said. “You’ll put it to much better use than I could.”

“Oh I couldn’t possibly,” she said, although the longing look in her eyes as she stared at it betrayed how she really felt.

“Tiff,” I said. “Please take it.”

“You sure?”

“It’s yours.”

She dipped her head in a little bow. “Thank you. I hope your reward boxes have something good in them.” She looked around, then frowned. ”Wait. Where are your rewards?”

I shrugged. “Wasn’t my quest.”

“You didn’t get anything?”

“The observers gave me something.”

Achmed rejoined us. He’d given us space, but clearly had been listening in. “Well that’s not fair,” he said. “You should get more than that for all you did.”

Tiff nodded her agreement.

Achmed tried handing me one of his rewards and I shook my head. “No, it’s fine, really.”

“No, it’s not,” Tiff said. “I wouldn’t feel right either if you didn’t get something more out of this.”

“But I did get something, something better than a reward box. I made some new friends.”

Achmed laughed. “So cheesy!”

Tiff smiled awkwardly. “That’s not what I meant.”

I could tell she wasn’t going to cave on it. “Well, if you’re going to insist, I won’t be polite. There is something I’d like to take, if it’s okay with you.”

“Name it,” Achmed said.

I pointed at the big tome on the lectern that the head cultist had been using. “Can I have that?”

Achmed shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

“Me neither,” Tiff said. “Consider it yours.”

“Thank you.”

“Is that all you want?” Achmed said. “I don’t even know what it is or if it's worth anything. I mean, can you even use it?”

“I’m more than happy with just getting the book.”

I neglected to tell them that in order to make use of my new Thaumaturgy skill I’d need to learn rituals, and that thick grimoire was probably full of them. Who knows what I’d find in there. To me, it was much more valuable than a reward box.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Tiff frowned at me. “As long as you promise not to sell it. I don’t want it falling into the hands of some other freak and have to go through this all over again,” she said.

“Consider me warned. I promise I’ll keep it safe.”

“Good enough for me,” Tiff said. “I trust you.”

Then I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Outside the room in the hallway I saw something move. But there was nothing there. I nonchalantly sidled over to the doorway, ears and eyes open, searching for any hint that someone or something was somehow concealed there.

Then I heard something. I definitely heard something rustle in the hallway.

I left the others and went to the doorway facing and pulled out my knives. “Okay,” I said quietly. “I know you’re there. Reveal yourself.”

“Wow,” a woman’s voice said. “I can’t believe you knew I was here.”

I’d half expected it to be Daruka lurking out there, but that wasn’t her voice.

The shimmering outline of a person appeared, quickly twinkling away to reveal a woman with pink hair wearing stylish armor.

I’d seen her before. Akari, the Wyvern-killing S-ranker NPC.

Figuring she posed no threat to us, or rather that she was unlikely to attack (she’d probably be a worse threat than the demon if she did), I sheathed my knives again. She strode toward me and surprised me by extending her hand.

“I’m Akari.”

I raised my hand and she gripped it firmly.

“Daniel. It’s a pleasure, I guess.“

Annabelle came up beside me.

“So it is you,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

Akari let go of my hand. “I could ask you the same thing, Annabelle.”

“I happened to be nearby with Daniel when things went down and chose to join him in lending my assistance.”

Akari’s eyes tracked up to the crumbling ceiling over the demon. “Yeah, I saw your handiwork. Really, Annabelle? An explosion indoors? Haven’t you learned anything?”

Annabelle pouted and pointed at me. “Don’t blame me, he’s the one who said I should do something big.”

Akari rolled her eyes. “You just can’t resist, can you?”

“Hey, gimme some credit. I held back,” Annabelle said, puffing out her cheeks again. “A lot.”

“Uh huh,” Akari said, then addressed me again. “Mind if I take a closer look at that demon?”

I stepped aside and gestured into the room. “Be my guest.”

Akari brushed past Annabelle and me and, with a curt nod toward the other Players, strode over and started climbing the three steps up to the platform.

“So you two seem to know each other,” I said to Annabelle. “Old friends?”

“Worse,” Annabelle said. “Remember I mentioned I had a sister?”

“Vaguely,” I said.

“Yeah. This is her. Akari the hero.”

Now that she mentioned it I could see a family resemblance.

Up on the platform, Akari prodded the remains of the demon with the toe of her boot. “Well, nice job dealing with this.”

“Um, excuse me, but who are you?” Tiff said.

Akari hopped off the platform in one graceful bound. “Name’s Akari. I help out when there’s bigger trouble around.”

Tiff’s eyes widened. She’d just evaluated the newcomer and seen her impressive stats.

“I was up north dealing with some unruly ogres when I got the emergency signal from the city.” She held up a glowing gemstone. It reminded me of Ruka’s message cubes. “I flew back right away and saw the Cathedral. Honestly the first thought that crossed my mind was that a certain someone had used her explosion spell on it.”

“Hey,” Annabelle said. “Don’t be mean.”

Akari ignored her sister and continued. “Then I saw the suspicious hole drilled in the floor so I came to investigate.”

“I see,” Tiff said.

“Uh, thanks?” Achmed said.

Akari laughed. “Don’t thank me, I didn’t do anything.”

“It was touch and go for a bit,” Tiff said.

“Yeah,” Achmed said, “I was sure we were done for there when it pulled that regeneration trick out of its ass.”

Above us, the damaged ceiling groaned and some of the cracks spread.

“I think that’s our cue,” Tiff said. “Okay team, I know we’re all eager to open our rewards, but how about we take them to some place that isn’t about to collapse on top of our heads to do that.”

“We’re gonna head out too,” Achmed said. “Thanks again, Daniel. You too, Annabelle, thanks for all your help. And Akari...”

Akari laughed. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for nothing, right?”

“Not how I would’ve phrased it,” Achmed said, laughing with her.

“You’re very welcome, Achmed,” I said. “Thanks for letting us tag along, it was fun.”

I held out my fist and he bumped it with his own. “Yeah. It was, wasn’t it?” he said with a grin.

As he and his legionnaires followed Team Spice out, the Players I’d helped out with healing and debuffs thanked me, leaving me alone with the pink and purple-haired sisters.

“We’ve met once before,” Akari said to me.

“You remember,” I said.

She nodded. “Took me a while, but it came to me eventually.”

“It was twice, actually.”

“I only remember the one time,” she said. “With the Wyvern. One of your companions healed me.”

“The other time I was meeting your sister in the arena. You were practicing with some living armor.”

“So how long have you known I was watching you here?” Akari said.

“I thought I’d heard something right before we went in, but I didn’t know for sure until right before I called you out.”

“You must have sharp senses, most people can’t see through my concealment.”

“Just got lucky,” I said.

“Somehow, after watching you in here, I doubt that. You’re very...capable.”

Annabelle wrapped her arm around my shoulders possessively. “I know, isn’t he?” she said, beaming as though she was one who’d just been complimented.

Akari looked back and forth between us with one eyebrow raised.

“What?” Annabelle said.

“What’s the deal with you two, anyway?”

Annabelle quickly retracted her arm like I’d just given her an electric shock. “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing, is it? So why is he meeting you in the arena? How come you were together when this went down? What were you two doing together?”

“We’re just, you know, business partners,” Annabelle said with uncharacteristic timidity. “That’s all.”

Well now I know for sure who the older sister is.

The ceiling creaked again and some bits of rock fell from it as the cracks widened.

“We should probably leave now too,” Akari said.

“Yeah!” Annabelle said. “Let’s go.” She seemed glad to be off the topic, and Akari seemed to notice this too.

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Akari said.

Annabelle sighed. “Fine. But let’s get out of here first.”

“Let me just grab that book,” I said.

“Yes,” Annabelle said. “No way we’re leaving without that.”

I got the feeling she was as interested in the spell book as I was. No doubt that was the magical researcher in her talking.

We all looked up as more groans from above triggered more falling rocks and saw the cracks widen considerably.

“That’s not good,” Annabelle said, then lifted her staff. A large magic circle appeared on the ceiling. “This’ll hold it for now, but be quick, huh?”

As she and Akari backed up to the door I dashed over to the lectern and grabbed the book, then stuffed it into my inventory. On the way back I took one last look at the demon, then stopped.

“Can you hold it just a bit longer?” I said.

Annabelle pursed her lips. “A bit, why?”

I ignored her and took the biggest, sharpest sword I had out of my inventory and went up onto the platform. I lifted the sword over my head and brought it down hard onto the wreckage of the demon, cutting deep into the swollen mass of flesh. Then I did it again. And again.

“I think it’s already dead,” Akari said.

I ignored her too and kept hacking at it, slicing its body to shreds before I finally found what I was looking for: a huge black mana crystal buried in its chest. I dismissed the sword and bent down to grab the crystal.

“Time’s up!” Annabelle said. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her sister caught her as she started to fall.

The magic circle vanished, and the ceiling began to collapse in earnest.

Holding the crystal under my arm like a football I charged toward the doorway as chunks of rocks crashed around me. When I was close enough to the door I leapt forward, barely managing to escape before the entire room came tumbling down, burying the remains of the demon and its foolish followers.

If I’d been wearing a fedora, it would have fallen off and I would’ve had to reach out to snatch it back a split second before the crash. You know what I mean.

A dust cloud billowed around me obscuring my vision, so I stood up and felt my way along the wall. Once I’d turned the corner into clear air, I saw Akari holding her sister and tipping a potion into her mouth.

Akari looked up at me. “That was cutting it close.” Then her eyes focused on the big black mana crystal I carried and she whistled. “But looking at that, I would’ve done the same. That’s some crystal.”

Annabelle’s eyes fluttered open and she groggily found her own balance on her feet. She took one look at me and scowled.

“That was a very stupid thing to do, Daniel,” she chided, then she too saw the size of the crystal and the scowl was replaced with a look of surprise. “Whoah, that thing’s huge! But still,” the scowl was back, “it was very stupid of you. As punishment, I’m not cleaning you off this time.”

The discovery and removal of the crystal had drenched me in demon blood again, with an added layer of dust sticking to the icky thick ichor.

“That’s okay, I can do it myself.”

A magic circle appeared in the air above me, identical to the one she’d created before.

I had copied her sorcery power the moment I saw her use it. Every spell she used with it created a different magic circle. Thanks to that ever-so-useful eidetic memory skill, all I had to do was see a circle once to be able to replicate the spell.

The circle lowered around me, cleaning me off as well as cleansing the goo from the crystal.

“There. All good.”

The sisters stared at me with complicated looks on their faces.

“Annabelle?” Akari said.

“Yeah?” Annabelle replied.

“Who the hell is this guy?”