Professor Springston and I trudged through a thick jungle. We had been away from the city for five days, and I had no idea where we were going. Springston did though, and everytime I asked he just shrugged and said “You’ll see.”

The trees parted and we came into a clearing, and I noticed him looking at the ground. He was tracking. But what was he looking for?

“Okay Frederick, we’re almost there. Before we get there, you need to know something.” He gestured for me to come closer to him. “Villains are naturally stronger than heroes. It’s always been that way. We continue to fail however, because of our pride. For some reason the AVS isn’t interested in correcting this, and they are fine with you getting killed as long as you fit the script.”

“You mean as long as I’m a prideful prick that a hero can kill without remorse.”

“Exactly. I’m going to teach you how to be a strong villain, like your father. Maybe you can retire like him if you’re good enough.”

When a villain passes a certain power threshold, or commits an act so vile, it’s as if mother nature can’t take it. The world itself offers the villain retirement, which gives a piece of the world's power to the villain allowing that villain to create, and to lord over his own world.

The catch however, is that the villain has to choose one living hero to have the power to summon the villain at any time. Most villains who were able to retire gave this power to a hero who they had either befriended or who respected each other as foes. Heroes like that were hard to find though. Most of them wouldn’t keep their word, and summon you in an attempt to kill you for a better reputation.

My father was one of these villains. He was able to retire when I was a boy, so I very rarely see him.

“You have a long road before you can retire Frederick. The first step in your journey is to choose the villain class you want, and to start perfecting it.” Professor Springston opened his inventory, I could tell because he grabbed a book from thin air.

“This is a class guide. I recommend going to the human section for classes that will benefit you most.”

“I told you, I want to be a mage with a greatsword!” I didn’t know exactly how that would work, but it looked cool in my head and I wanted it.

The old teacher rolled his eyes, and produced another book, a cloak, and a greatsword. He handed them to me and said, “I was hoping you weren’t being serious, but I knew you would choose something weird so I brought a variety of items just in case.”

I looked down at the book, it was shiny and oddly beautiful. I ran my finger along the inscription on the dark leather cover. The letters started to glow, and it read ‘Warrior Mage - Villain Class Book’. I opened it and the pages began to fly out of the book and flutter around me. They began disappearing, one by one until I noticed them disappearing inside me. When it was over, text popped up in front of me.

You have selected Warrior Mage - Villain Class. This class allows you to wield the powers of a mage, as well as wield medium and heavy weapons.

“Holy shit! I’m a mage! And I have a great sword!” Before this I used basic spells and martial arts. That was the basic villain class and it was meant to allow you to get a feel for all of the powers available. Now I have chosen my class. Another text appeared:

With your new abilities, you can no longer use the powers provided from the Villains - Basic Class

You have lost Villains - Basic Class

I looked at the robe. It was long and dark, and had a pointed hood on it. I drew it around me, and pulled up my hood. “Do I look cool, professor?” He studied me for a second. “Your looks will improve with time. Let’s practice your new abilities.”

I picked up the heavy great sword. I found I could cast spells with one hand while the other held the sword- well more like dragged it on the ground. I closed my eyes and focused, feeling my abilities inside of me. If I listed them out here, it’d be a pretty long list. The coolest ones were Fireball, Freeze Blast, and Empower. Fireball does exactly what you’d think it does, I can shoot a fireball! Freeze Blast is pretty self explanatory too, allowing me to freeze my oncoming enemies, good for crowd control. Empower allowed every aspect of my being to improve while the spell lasted, it actually made me grow in size! The purpose, at least the purpose I would be using it for, was to make my physical attacks with my sword stronger.

Springston lunged at me with a dagger, I rolled out of the way and hefted my great sword at him. He lunged to the side, straight into my fireball. Ha! That wasn’t enough though. The fireball singed his hair and did some damage, but it didn’t stop the Dark Elf from coming at me again. He cut at me with his dagger, and drew blood from my arm. I should have used Freeze Blast, damn it. I swung my sword at him again, missing him again. This time he came closer, too close for my sword. I tried to kick him, but he swept my leg and I landed on my head. The next moment I was on the ground looking up at him, his dagger to my throat.

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

“Gotcha bitch.” He said, standing up and sheathing his dagger.

“I just got these powers, give me some time man!” I said, brushing the dirt of my new cloak.

“You’ll have time Frederick. I think you’re ready for what’s next. Some.. hands on training.”

He walked away, and I followed.

* * *

Springston and I snuck along a path quietly. I tried to say something earlier, but he shushed me so I knew this had to be serious business. We crawled over to a patch of bushes and looked through. On the other side was a very small clearing, just large enough for a small house. A group of five heroes were camped there, it looked like they were getting ready to leave.

“We’ll get everything ready tonight, and we’ll leave first thing in the morning.” I heard a woman say to the others. She must have been their leader. She was a shield maiden. That was a subclass of the warrior class, so they must have had some idea of what they were doing.

I watched as they put all of their food and supplies into rucksacks, and piled them up in a tent. These heroes looked much more proficient than the ones I had fought who were fresh out of the Academy.

“What are they doing here, this is Villain country?” I whispered into Springston’s ear.

“I think they are scouts. I was training another student on the other side of the city when I saw their tracks. I didn’t think I would find them, but here we are.”

“Scouts? What are they scouting for?” The heroes finished up their work and began eating around a fire.

“I’ve heard rumors that things aren’t going so well between the AVS and Heroes’ government. Something to do with politics. Last thing I heard, some minor battles were planned to happen on the border of Hero and Villain’s Country, but never in capital cities.” He emphasized the word politics as if it were bitter to say. Springston always hated politics, that’s why he became a teacher at the Academy.

“So what do we do, Professor?”

“We wait until night, once they are all asleep. Then we attack, quietly if possible.”

Just then something gleaming in their pile of supplies caught my eye. Treasure. What are a bunch of scouts doing with treasure? I pointed it out to Springston.

“What’s that they have there?”

“Treasure,” he said. “The kind you get from a church. The bastards must have ransacked a nearby village. It’s not like us Villains, especially our common folk, have any treasure.”

“Judging from the green tint, that treasure looks like it’s from the Church of Greed,” I said. “Do you know of one close to here? Maybe we can return it.”

“There’s one maybe 20 miles from here. But we’re villains Frederick, not heroes. Our job isn’t to return stolen treasure, our job is to do the stealing.”

We sat in silence for a while until the hero’s started to lay down.

“Alright,” Springston said suddenly. His voice startled me, and I jumped a little bit. “You stay here, I’m going to circle around to the far side of their camp. The signal to attack is an owl. When you hear me hoo, start killing heroes.” With that, he crawled around the clearing and got into his hiding place.

I waited for what felt like an eternity when I heard footsteps in the camp. I was starting to doze off, but I jerked up and looked through the bushes. There was the group's ranger standing not 3 feet from me, taking a piss. On the bushes. The ones I was looking through. He saw my face and jumped, pee splashing my face.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I had no idea what I was doing, so I yelled the first word that came to mind and jumped through the bushes at him. I casted Empower, and thrusted my sword into him. He rolled out of the way, and this time I was ready. I freeze blasted his ass in place, and for a split second he couldn’t move. I swung my sword down on his head and split his skull. One hero killed, four to go. The others were up and in the fight now, but so was Professor Springston. He took their healer and their rogue before they knew what hit them. That left their mage and their shield maiden. The shield maiden lunged at Springston, and they began to fight. Each threw blow after blow. I was surprised the woman could keep up with my professor.

I casted Fireball at the mage. He raised his hand and some sort of golden light exploded out of it and towards me. Holy magic. It was most effective against villains. If they are using holy magic, they are here to kill villains, not monsters. Professor Springston was right, they were here for war.

With this realization I lunged at him with my great sword in anger. Most villains were innocent people, just like their common folk. Sure we had opposing views about everything, but these were supposed to be heroes! Killing innocent people and ransacking churches was our job. These heroes needed to die. He shot more holy magic in my direction, and I thrust my sword into his chest. The magic flew into me the second my sword entered his chest and the force threw me across the camp. I was seeing stars.

A moment later, I was once again looking up at Springston from the ground. This time his dagger wasn’t on my throat. He stood over me, hand outstretched. “Did you finish them off?” I asked him. He smiled at me, “I killed the shield maiden. I didn’t have to kill the mage, your sword made it into him before you retreated.” “I didn’t retreat,” I said. He took two minor health potions from his inventory and handed one to me.

“Drink this.”

I popped off the cork and tilted it up, it tasted like strawberries. Then I walked over to the mage's body and pulled my sword out of it. I wiped the blood off with his robes.

“I know it’s not our job, Professor, but can we find that church and return them their gold?” He was already looting the camp.

“No, that isn’t our job. Stop trying to act like a hero Frederick.”

“So what, we’re just going to take it for ourselves? I want my half then, I’ll take it to the church myself later.” Taking gold from a church just didn’t feel right, even if it was the Church of Greed.

“How about this, we’ll take this gold to AVS and let them decide what to do with it. It is our job to report our findings with them, so there may even be a reward in it for you.”

I didn’t like it, but that was the best I was going to get.

“Sure,” I said. “Where to next?”