It doesn’t seem like my minion cares much for the people I’m introducing her to. I can feel the tension in her posture and I see it in the way she’s constantly monitoring them.

Well, it’ll be fine. She’s just shy around new people. She even gave Nevan a chance and she liked Duplicaniel because he looked like me. Vega’s a good girl! They will not become friends in the 24 hours we have, but she will bear with it for my sake.

But damn, as I listen to her telling me how she found a lair of gray lizards and spent a day collecting kinetic energy to collapse the roof on top of them, I can’t help but be moved. She is indeed a good disciple.

“So where are you currently in your world?” I ask her.

“I left the village after beating the snot out of a few people! I know master told me to lay low, but I couldn’t help it. Plus, I didn’t even tear their limbs off, and their broken bones will heal soon enough,” she declares somewhat satisfied. “You said you would do much worse, but I held back!”

I wish Sophie and Maya wouldn’t look at me like that.

“It was also really easy to steal from them. The locks were easy to break and no one used any mana-based defenses! After an hour, I left half of the things I stole behind because they were too heavy to carry with me.”

Just how much did she take?

Minion continues, “I tried to steal as much as I could, just like you showed me in that bunker! You know, ‘take and sell anything that’s not glued to the floor’!”

Nodding at her statement, I look away from the rest of Group 4. I don’t think I deserve the looks they’re sending my way.

Vega’s eyes shine as she happily describes how weak-hearted most of the people from the village were and how easy it was to deal with the monsters and animals further from the village.

It looks like she’s been having fun even though she is on her own now. Well, it’s only been a few days, so she might get bored after a while. But so far this minion of mine is happier than she ever was in the village. It’s certainly not something she would have been able to achieve without getting stronger.

“Wanna check on the wolf?” I ask when she finishes her story.

“Yes!”

With her answer, I stand, and Sophie, Maya, the twins, Izzy and Lily follow us to the rest of Group 4 with Biscuit and the black wolf.

“So your name is Vega?” Lily asks with a soft voice and gentle smile, in a clear attempt to be friendly.

The other members of Group 4 seem to be curious though they view her with a sense of caution. That tracks given that I haven’t really told them much regarding Vega.

My minion glances at me then our black haired healer and nods while answering Lily’s question, “Yes. Vega is the name master gave me! He said I’m the brightest star of his tutorial. That in the darkness of the tutorial, he found…”

I quickly cover her mouth with my hand, but the expression she makes tells me that she knows very well what she is doing.

Little devil.

As a punishment, I flick her nose.

Tess, seeing us coming, leaves Gareth with the others who’ve gathered around the wolf, to meet us. She surrounds us with a barrier to keep anyone from listening in, and Sophie supplements her efforts by jamming any foreign mana with the aid of her web.

“Are you going to introduce us?” she inquires.

“Sure. Vega, this is Tess. Tess, this is my disciple Vega.”

“Hello!” Vega says simply, and Tess smiles at her understandingly.

Probably by intention, she doesn’t pressure my minion, knowing the little half demon will be happier that way, and turns to me instead. “Did you know about this?” she asks, gesturing behind her at the giant black wolf.

“All I knew was that Biscuit liked his disciple,” I say watching as Biscuit floats out of our house.

In one of his tentacles, he holds a piece of deer jerky he clearly stole from the sealed cupboard I was hiding it in. He sets the small piece of jerky in front of his disciple.

The giant wolf looks at the ground where the small piece of deer jerky is and then at Biscuit, who floats proudly.

“Anyway, he seems surprisingly reasonable. And not just because of Biscuit, he just seems to be like that,” Tess continues. “He knows about the tutorial and tournament, but some kind of custom or rule seems to be preventing him from acting in aggression while he’s here. Though I suppose it could just be an aspect of his personality. He is surprisingly naive.”

The black wolf lowers his maw and sticks out the slightest hint of his tongue to lap up the jerky along with a few stones and some dirt. Yet he doesn’t seem to complain and eats it all while thanking his master.

“I’m lost here,” Tess sighs. “All of our disciples were so much weaker than us. The others seem to be the same, and yet Biscuit’s is so strong. I bet he could take out most anyone from Hell difficulty with ease. We are trying to get information out of him, but he refuses to share anything of use, and he doesn’t want to tell us his name. He just says that there are some things he doesn’t want to say and that the system will censor the others.”

“Of course, it would.” The system is an asshole.

“He also said that we should just be patient, that most things will be revealed in the course of the tutorial,” Tess mentions. “He’s placed a lot of trust in the system and the tutorial.”

“Master, I want to pet him! Like the Ashenwolf!”

“Soon, minion, soon.”

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“I’m Vega, not a minion!”

“You just said you were my First minion and that other minions had to listen to you.”

“I’m Vega!”

Nice strategy, acting dumb while looking cute. Classic minion.

“Maya said you spoke with Miwa?” I ask, turning to Tess.

“Yes, just visit her at her house. I was able to make another deal. You’ll see when you speak to her, consider it a small surprise from me.”

“What have you done? Tess?”

“You’ll see.”

Haaa. Bullied in front of my minion. My image will never recover from this.

(You, Asshole with too much mana and a weak body!) shouts the telepathic voice of the wolf.

Surely he isn’t speaking to me? My body’s gotten quite a bit stronger, and my passives and traits are helping a lot, so I wouldn’t consider it too much mana. Actually, I’m sure I can raise it even more. It’s been too long since it threatened to break my body.

But the glances being thrown my way as the wolf speaks tell me more than enough. Well, no worries, I will convert them soon enough.

“If you don’t want to share information about the tutorial, the system, and stats, I don’t know what we could be talking about.” I say, coming to a stop at Gareth’s side in front of the giant wolf.

Biscuit is already sitting on top of his head. It’s nice to see minions respect their masters.

(My master has summoned me for only 12 hours, asshole. In that time, I have decided to observe you and the other assholes to see if you are a fitting company for my master!)

The way he speaks it’s almost like Biscuit’s some kind of mystical guru, and the respect he gives him makes me curious. I just wish he wouldn’t talk to us like that.

“So you want a fight?” I ask.

(Great! It’s good you understand! Yes! I will fight you and…) then he stops mid sentence, his golden eyes looking up at Biscuit, (But master! I promise I won’t hurt him… much!) he complains.

Even though Biscuit doesn’t say anything, I can see bits of his mana flickering around his body.

The ensuing messages exchanged between wolf and corgi alone, and after a minute, the black wolf turns to me again. (Asshole with too much mana. Surprisingly, my master is worried that you might hurt me, rather than me hurting you. I do not understand; you feel weak.) The giant head lowers, as the black wolf sniffs me.

His head alone is as big as a bus.

“Ten pieces of jerky if you let me fight him,” I tell Biscuit.

(Food!)

“I don’t have that many. Twenty.”

(Sustenance!)

“You won’t die of hunger, but okay, thirty.”

(Friend.)

“I won’t hurt him, don’t worry. He is your disciple after all.”

(Food!)

“Okay, deal.”

The black wolf seems to be shocked. (M-master, did you just sell me out for a measly…)

I ignore the wolfy and turn to Tess, “Can you take care of Vega for a bit? I will go to Miwa to get the stuff.”

“I wanna meet minion Miwa too!” Vega in my arms says.

“It’s a surprise for you. And you should get to know the others at least a bit. I’ll be back soon enough.”

“It’s not a problem. I’ll keep her safe, and we’ll send you a message if anything happens,” Tess smiles at Vega. “You can call me Sset in front of the others.” She says gesturing at Gareth.

The definitely-secretly-evil man looks at Vega with a weird expression, especially at her red eyes and horns. I wonder what’s going through his head as I remember everything Brainiac told us about Gareth during the Avatar challenge. That also makes me wonder about Gareth’s disciple and how Gareth sees him.

Damn, I love this place. So many interesting things to see and think about.

Anyway, “Minion, if anyone attacks you, fight back. Use the kick or kaboom. Otherwise, you can trust Sset and the others, and I will leave an anchor on you.”

Then I turn to Biscuit’s minion, “See you soon, wolfy. We will fight before you leave.”

The giant monster just snorts, putting its massive head on the ground, and looks around while communicating with Biscuit.

I create an anchor and then fly for a short moment, stopping in front of Miwa’s workshop. As one might expect, heat pours from within alongside the ringing of iron.

I have to wait ten minutes before the second ranked craftsman calls for me, “Just come inside and don’t touch anything.” Then the clanging continues.

“Already preparing the pizza?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood as I enter the smithy.

The place isn’t that big, but there is a massive anvil in the center, and just a step away from it are a few tables bearing inscriptions, a wall covered in tools, and a floating stone that radiates a lot of heat, while being powered by Miwa’s mana.

Miwa doesn’t seem to be amused. “I picked out the items you offered. I want that small dagger made of voidsteel and a mid-sized piece of broken voidsteel blade. For that, I will make the pizza you want and add in some extra ingredients.”

“Deal.”

Miwa, holding a silver hammer in her hand, smashes it into a piece of mystery alloy a few times, working it on the anvil while feeding more mana to the floating stone. The heat spikes, and she redirects it towards the anvil which absorbs it and then emits into the metal being worked.

While it is heating up, she turns to me, “I’ll also show you this arm.” She lifts her right arm made of a silvery metal with a slight pink luster. Even with all the heat in here, it doesn’t seem to have absorbed any. It’s just as cold as it would be outside. And that just seems to be a property of the metal, not the inscriptions within the arm.

“So what do you want?” I ask.

Tess is really good at dealing with people. I could get used to such surprises.

“Sset told me you know somebody I want to meet.”

Huh, I don’t know all that many people. Tess could probably do the same, so why bother me?

Miwa continues before I say anything, “I’ve been wanting to meet that person ever since I bought one of their items.” She gestures at one of the darker corners of the room.

As I look I notice a number of items laying on the table. Items I immediately recognize. None of them are pretty but they apparently perform fairly well. And Miwa has more than half a dozen of them.

“I want to meet Tent C… Fuc… the person who’s taken first in the crafter rankings. Sset said you could connect me with them.” Miwa seems to be ashamed to say those words, but her expression changes for the first time.

She ignores the metal on the anvil as it starts to melt, and a deep look of interest takes root in her eyes. Nearly a creepy amount of interest.

Is it how she saw me looking at her arm?

But now I also know why Tess seemed to be having so much fun. Damn it.