Rowan tore into his lunch with gusto. He wasn’t exactly the cleanest or most elegant eater in the world but there was a different reason the villagers were giving him odd looks.

He was on his fifth plate of monster meat, and probably still had room for another five plates. After adding Lavish Feasting to his deck, Rowan had set out to make a dent in the food supply of the village. And being one of the five who faced down the demon, the villagers were more than happy to keep cooking for him.

As the plates began stacking up beside him, their happiness had transitioned into a quiet weariness. Olivia, meanwhile, was busy glaring at him.

Ever since he told her about the class he chose, she had decided to give him the silent treatment. As Rowan reached for his sixth plate, she finally decided to break her vow.

“I see now, that I’ve made a mistake,” Olivia said, crossing her arms and leaning back into her seat further. “I should not have passed on those two cards.”

“You couldn’t use them anyway,” Rowan said between bites. Monster meat beat normal animal meat hands down. This was some of the most tender, juicy, and satisfying food he had ever eaten. And the best part? With each bite, he could feel some new part of himself filling up. It was basically a dream come true. He could eat as much as he wanted and not have to worry about stacking on the pounds.

“True, but considering those cards have enabled your madness, I feel personally responsible,” Olivia teased.

“You have to see how this is the ideal class and cards for me, right?” Rowan insisted, refusing to back down. “It’s the perfect combination for what I need to do, what I need to become.”

“A reckless food master?” Olivia motioned around them, indicating the gawking villages.

“A near immortal, powerful damage dealer,” Rowan corrected, though he was forced to make an admission. “At least if the cards work the way I think they do.”

“Well, congratulations! You’ll have the chance to perform testing faster than you might like.” Olivia deadpanned.

That one brought him up short. Rowan paused his eating. “Why? What’s happening?”

“What’s happening? Well, let’s see.” Olivia lowered her voice, leaning in towards him so she could hiss at him at a barely audible volume. “Bron is stuck in a sickbed, and hasn’t even woken up yet.”

“Yes, and we should go visit him later, I still haven’t seen him," Rowan reminded her, earning a glare meant to shush him.

“Then, there’s the fact that beast attacks are ramping up again, and the blasted things are still in the late teens when it comes to their levels, so we need to be careful when handling them,” Olivia hissed.

“We should head out ourselves, that way I get to practice and we take care of the issue. Two birds with one stone,” Rowan said confidently.

“Would you please just listen for a second? That’s nowhere as bad as our final problem.” Olivia paused, closed her eyes, and finally sighed before making the admission like it dearly hurt. “We’re blind.”

“What?”

“We’re blind. We can’t do any scouting. We won’t have advanced warning. All of our scouts were wiped out by the demon.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Horrible. It’d take me hours to explain all the things that a scout does. They give us enough warning so that we know what to expect and how to defend against them. Without scouts, we have to prepare for everything, which means that we can’t prepare well for anything,” Olivia said. She sounded so defeated that Rowan was half-tempted to give her a hug again.

“There’s no one to replace them?” Rowan asked. “Not even among the mercenaries?”

“Not even close. Mercenaries don’t need scouts, they’re all small parties. If it’s danger that they can’t beat, they can run. A solid scout needs the right build, the right cards, and the right mindset. It’s a role full of danger, and it’s not even really a proper combat role. Most people just won’t have anything close to it.”

Rowan sighed, rubbing his forehead. He had no real idea he could offer up there. “We can do some light scouting when we go out there, right?”

“We?” Olivia asked back. “With Bron out of the picture, we don’t have a commander anymore. I’m all we’ve got. If I leave, who’s left?”

That was a good point. Rowan almost said that he could just go alone, but shut that thought down. If he was ambushed by some monster and hurt, he’d just be creating more problems for Olivia. More than that, if he was caught in front of some monster wave that was coming and it became a choice between saving Rowan or putting the village at risk, it’d be a no-win situation.

He couldn’t really afford to traipse around on his own.

“But we need someone to look around. If scouting really is that important, we need to at least try something. Maybe we can’t get a couple hours worth of notice, but it’d be better than nothing. And I bet some of the soldiers could take up the command responsibility for a few hours. It’d be good for them to get some leadership time in,” Rowan added. “You can’t direct everything when we’re in battle.”

“You are so infuriating sometimes, you know that?” Olivia hissed, but he could tell that she was coming around to his reasoning.

“There’s a whole list of reason why we need to go out at least today.” Rowan concluded for her benefit, ignoring her comment. “After that, we can figure something out for the long term.”

“Fine, but I seriously hope you know that I won’t tolerate more stupidity than is absolutely necessary.” Olivia pushed the last word in and Rowan let her. She needed the win.

—

In spite of Olivia’s agreement, it took a while to actually organize their foray into the forest.

Now that Bron was completely out of commission, everyone from soldiers to villagers and mercenaries looked to her for instruction. Rowan thought he could understand why she was losing her patience more often.

He could understand the questions about defense repair and guard shift schedules. But most of what took up Olivia’s time was stupid stuff like a mercenary arguing that a villager had stolen a monster carcass that he had marked. Rowan just wanted to stab everyone involved.

In fact, he reached for his spear to hopefully strike a more imposing figure and stop people from bothering Olivia with their trivial problems. That’s when he realized what was happening.

Rowan scanned the pair and the other parties waiting for Olivia’s arbitration, and he came to a simple conclusion. Those people were all just scared, and upset because of that emotion. They weren’t there for her to solve their problems. They were looking to whine at a figure of authority. It didn’t matter to them that the person in question had twenty better things to be doing.

And in his newfound wisdom, he decided to step in himself.

“Okay, that’s it,” Rowan said loudly. “Commander Olivia is leaving now because she has a previous appointment. You can disperse and solve these problems on your own.”

Several voices rose in protest immediately, but Rowan was through with their nonsense. He lifted his spear by a fraction and slammed the butt down on the ground. The tip of the spear ignited in a haze of red colored mana. It was absolutely perfect for sending a message in a hurry.

“Do you think that your problems are so important that they need to get solved when we have potentially another monster wave on our hands? Olivia Sutton, of House Sutton, needs to join me on an important scouting mission. Or would you like to volunteer to scout instead?”

Rowan swept his gaze over the crowd, and they predictably backed away. He used the chance to tug Olivia out of her seat and quickly shuffle her towards the village gates. Surprisingly, when he turned to look at her reaction to the turn of events, she just looked amused.

“You know that I was dealing with relatively important duties for a commander, right?” Olivia said.

“Listening to people whine like children is considered an important duty?” Rowan countered.

“No, but ‘relieving the rising tension in the settlement’ is. So we don’t get a coup on our hands is,” Olivia said with a smile.

“Do you really think they’ll do anything? They just want you to take their side in useless arguments. If something really important came up, we’d have likely heard about it, no?”

“Probably.” Olivia admitted with a sigh, looking tired again. “But my father always taught me not to let these things fester.”

“And did you see Bron spend all his time on resolving petty disputes?” Rowan asked.

“Well, no, but he didn’t need to deal with the aftermath of a demon attack.” Olivia protested, though Rowan could tell that the further they got from the village, the more tension left her body.

“All I’m saying is, let’s just take some time to ourselves, get some scouting and hunting done, and see what greets us when we’re back, okay?”

Olivia hesitated for a few moments, but by that point, she’d had stopped glancing back. “Fine.”

—

Rowan’s new build was working like a charm, and he couldn’t resist taking another glance at his status screen. Especially the fact that his deck now held five cards instead of four, courtesy of his new uncommon class.

Rowan Clairfont

Level 20 Reckless Spear

EXP: 0/5000

STR: 25*

VIT: 12

DEX: 25*

PER: 14

INT: 10

WIS: 11

Deck (5/5):

* [Heart] Keen Spear (Epic)

* [Class] Empowered Thrust (Common) (Active)

* [Class] Blood Siphon (Uncommon, Passive)

* Persistent Regeneration (Rare, Active)

* Lavish Feasting (Rare, Passive)

Blessings:

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* Blessing of the Stalwart Hero

The screen was glorious. Rowan loved every single thing about it. His new stats, his new cards, the stars attached to his strength and dexterity thanks to the class. They were all great.

He felt a ridiculous surge in the quality of his strength and dexterity when he passed the twenty mark. And yet, that didn’t even compare to what he felt when he picked his [Reckless Spear] and it improved the effectiveness of those stats even more.

Rowan knew it was ridiculous, but he could feel the higher weight of investing in those two categories compared to his other stats.

His body definitely reflected all the changes, at least. It wasn’t like he had gone from skinny kid to ten-year bodybuilder. The muscles seemed more defined now, but that was mostly it. The real change was in the way he walked. There was a certain grace, an innate balance and strength that simply weren’t there before.

Rowan certainly felt like a whole new person moving through the forest. The last time they’d visited, he still felt a little awkward and unsure. Now, he was positively thrilled at an idea of finding a monster to fight.

Thankfully, they didn’t even need to go too far for that.

Halfway through the cleared fields, a large black figure tore away from the trees and charged at them. A wolf. A quick glance at Olivia confirmed his suspicion that she was still running Inspect when she informed him the wolf was level fourteen.

Even just a few days ago, Rowan wouldn’t imagine a world in which he’d be so relaxed that it was almost negligent as a giant wolf sprinted at him. But he did feel that way. His spear lit up red and when the wolf jumped at him, he almost rolled his eyes.

The dang thing is so slow.

Rowan dramatically twirled out of the way and stabbed at the wolf’s side. The blade of his spear neatly parted flesh like it wasn’t even there, and when he flicked it back, there was a giant burst of blood from the wound.

He had his new class card to thank for that.

[Class] Blood Siphon (Uncommon, Passive)

Each wound your spear inflicts will provoke severe bleeding, draining your foes of their life essence. The bleeding effects grow in proportion to the damage dealt.

Blood Siphon wasn’t some fancy vampiric ability that healed him for damage dealt. It wasn’t even particularly spectacular, as far as effects went. And it certainly couldn’t apply to all enemies, either.

But as long as his enemies had something flowing through their veins, the card would be invaluable. It was a solid all-around card that made his attacks stronger and also gave him the chance to pick away at an enemy instead of trying for devastating attacks.

Not that Rowan was above using devastating attacks. His strike against the wolf had been strong enough to throw the beast back and Blood Siphon had created a geyser of blood to add to things.

There was another side benefit. The card, or perhaps the [Reckless Spear] class, had the effect of dyeing mana blood-red. In Rowan’s humble opinion, that made his Empowered Thrust glow effect much, much cooler. That was important, especially now that he had someone to impress.

The battle, if it could even be called that, ended shortly after. The wolf was dazed from losing so much blood so quickly, and Rowan easily finished it.

Really, it struck him that the card might have been made for hunters. There was no need to drain blood from meat after Blood Siphon was through with them.

—

“This might actually be what I needed,” Olivia admitted, sword shearing ruthlessly through a fox. She controlled her mana edge card much better than before, using it just for the single strike rather than draining all of her mana on just a couple of opponents.

“See? I told you it was a great idea for us to come out here,” Rowan teased, strolling ahead of her.

They were taking turns dealing with whatever popped up, since it seemed highly unlikely that anything truly challenging was about to make a move against them.

In fact, they’d spent most of the day exploring, scouting, and fighting common beasts that no longer gave them any experience. The one exception was a fox that had somehow made it to uncommon.

Even then, that battle ended in record time, giving Rowan his first experience points at the uncommon tier. He really hated thinking it or feeling that way, but he was worried he’d not get properly challenged any time soon. It was a conflicted feeling. No danger meant safety to everyone but it meant stagnation for him.

“It seems like all the demonic creatures really did stick to the demon who led them here in the first place.” Olivia confirmed his suspicions.

“Well, at least we don’t need to worry about them sneaking up on the villages and soldiers and just exploding, I guess,” Rowan said.

“True. Honestly, it’s a pretty well-known phenomenon.”

“What, the sneaking?”

“No, the creatures following a demon thing. For some reason, the higher tier demons seem to have absolute control over the lower tier ones and the demonic creatures.”

“That’s the reason he could more or less treat them as his personal army?” Rowan asked. One thing that had stood out to Rowan was the fact that the demon minions never broke rank. Even when the hounds were getting slaughtered, none of them ever backed away. The corrupted beasts, on the other hand, fought until their terror overwhelmed their bloodlust.

“Yeah. There are a lot of theories on why, but my money is how they’re raised or something imprints the demon’s mana on them.”

Rowan was silent for a few moments, his feet moving on auto pilot, before something finally occurred to him. “Wait, does that mean that if we ever start seeing creatures like that again, we’ve got a demon inbound?”

Olivia grimaced, but she still nodded. “Exactly.”

—

In spite of how much fun Rowan was having hunting monsters and chatting with Olivia, they eventually had to head back. She steered them back well before darkness started falling.

According to her, if the heroes of the village were still missing at sundown, it could cause a panic they didn’t want to deal with. But as they stepped foot in the village again, Rowan hated it.

It felt like they were stepping foot in hostile territory. Everyone they passed stopped to glance at them, discretely and openly. Olivia took it in stride, but Rowan had to work on keeping his displeasure off his face.

The soldiers were skittish and nervous. They kept sneaking glances at the house Rowan knew Bron was located in. Mercenaries, funnily enough, seemed largely indifferent. Most of them would offer acknowledging nods or similar, and then go back to their own tasks.

The villagers, on the other hand, alternated between being deathly afraid for their lives and acting like they were the most awe-inspiring beings to ever walk the lands.

“You know,” Olivia said, in a voice low enough that only Rowan could hear, “as much as I enjoyed that, I don’t think I’ll be able to join future scouting sessions.”

“Why not? Do you really want to spend entire days just trying to solve petty disputes?” Rowan asked with a frown.

“No. The thing is, petty disputes or not, I have a lot of organizational stuff I need to do. There’s food logistics, deciding on the best repairs, directing said repairs, organizing guard shifts, handling communications with the mercenaries, and more. It’s a mess.”

Rowan blinked. “And Bron was handling all of this himself before? Doesn’t he have assistants you can rely on or something?”

“No, I guess not. If he did have assistants of any kind, they’re either hurt or dead,” Olivia said.

“What about the village chief? Desimir was his name, I think?” Rowan offered.

Olivia paused in her step. “That’s, actually, a good idea. I haven’t seen him lately but I’ll go check with him.”

“So I guess it’s solo scouting trips for a while?” Rowan said. He hated the idea, not just for all the practical reasons but also because the trip today had been fun. It was a much-needed change of pace compared to the earlier fighting. And Rowan wouldn’t have admitted it at the moment, but he was beginning to enjoy spending time with Olivia.

“Actually, I really don’t think you should,” Olivia said.

“So you’ll find time out of your schedule?” Rowan asked.

“No, you’ll just have to sit around and look pretty,” Olivia teased, sticking out her tongue. “How about partying up with Marcus and Milena?”

“Marcus? Milena?” Rowan asked. He had no clue who Olivia was referring to.

“The beast folk twins. They’re pretty good. Plus, their party only has two members,” Olivia said.

Rowan reeled from the information being thrown at him. For one, he had a hard time picturing the short and stout shield bearer being twins with the tall and slender mage. Rowan made the assumption that Marcus was the shield bearer while Milena was the mage. And second, perhaps more seriously, was the implication that Olivia was going to leave his party.

“You’re telling me to leave you for a different party?” Rowan asked.

The baron’s daughter sighed, briefly looking skyward. “Yes, Rowan, I’m telling you to go with a different adventuring party. They haven’t actually accepted my suggestion yet. They might say no even if you agree to the plan.”

“With my charming looks and personality?”

“More like because of your just-barely uncommon level and tendency to do stupid stuff.”

“You take that back!” Rowan faked outrage, placing his hand over his heart. “My stupid actions look genius in hindsight and you know it.”

Olivia grinned. She turned toward the makeshift cooking tents near the central fire pit.

It didn’t take long before Rowan heard the twins. Milena was laughing, or at least that’s what Rowan assumed based on the fact that the sound was an octave higher than normal laughter. It didn’t particularly help that the sound was a blend of howling and laughing.

As he got closer, Rowan found quite the crowd of mercenaries gathered around them. The two seemed to be at the center of attention, and were being plied with food and scavenged drinks.

Alcoholic drinks were quickly growing rare in the village. Where they had been plentiful when Rowan first arrived, the combination of the mercenaries and stressful sieges had wiped out most stores. Nowadays, most of the alcohol being consumed were abominations that could have given Olivia’s potions a run for their money.

But the shield bearer, Marcus, was earning every drink.

He hopped around the campfire as he gestured around with a meat skewer like it was a sword.

“And then the hero threw that spear of his, and I swear he obliterated the huge mauler’s head!” Marcus paused and spread his arms apart to show just how large the head was. Rowan didn’t remember the mauler’s head ever being that big. “Lady Sutton was incredible too, and her potions burned so hot I thought she was summoning hellfire to burn its own spawn to cinder, and then two of us…”

Marcus’ eyes widened and he suddenly trailed off when he saw Rowan and Olivia approaching. The mercenaries roared their displeasure and only quieted when they realized why he had stopped.

“I realize we’re being rude, but I hope we can briefly borrow this bard of yours and his sister,” Olivia said, amusement plain in her voice.

“Of course, Lady Sutton.” One of the mercenaries was quick to agree. Before Olivia and Rowan could even bid them stay, most of the group had already retreated. Rowan would have found it funny if there wasn’t a trace of fear and concern on their faces.

“My brother and me, that is, we didn’t mean to insult you.” Milena rushed to assure them, her eyes on Rowan nervously.

Rowan tried to make sense of things. This was a time where he really wished that it was socially acceptable to walk with a spear in his hand. He had left his weapon near the wall after returning to the village.

Was there some kind of unwritten rule that people weren’t supposed to talk about their exploits against demons? Or perhaps anything about the heroes was considered off-topic? Or was it just getting caught gossiping about their employer that was the issue?

Regardless, Rowan didn’t really find any reason to drag out the misunderstanding. “That’s not why we’re here, and we’re not upset, I assure you. Do you two have a place we can speak in private?”

The twins tensed up at his question, but they eventually nodded, and Rowan followed them into the home they’d managed to rent from the village natives.

—

Olivia showed off her noble upbringing by claiming a seat first and motioning for the twins to do the same. If Rowan wasn’t completely sure that the baron’s daughter slept in the room next to his, he might have thought that this was Olivia’s home with how confident she seemed.

Once everyone was settled, Olivia began the conversation. “You two are good fighters. There’s no doubt about that. But you’re also lacking. You have a tank and a mage. That’s good if you find something that’s slow. But the moment you’re up against a fast opponent, they’ll tear through you.”

Rowan chose to be the good guy. “But you guys were invaluable in the fight against the demon. Saved all our lives several times. If it weren’t for your magic, Milena, I don’t know if we could have done as much damage without being hurt ourselves.”

Neither of the two beast folk responded. They sat in their chairs and fidgeted under the combined gaze of Rowan and Olivia.

“That means a lot,” Milena said. “Really, a lot. Our family…” She paused. “Thank you, Hero Rowan.”

Rowan noted the reluctance that Milena had when talking about her family and filed that little tidbit of information away. “Well, I meant it. And it’s with what you’ve done in mind that I’m asking this. Would you like to team up with me?”

Olivia jumped in to clarify things. “What Hero Rowan is asking is if you’d like to join his party as he goes out to scout and clear the surrounding monsters. It won’t be completely safe and you’ll receive no additional pay besides what you kill on these scouting trips. But now that the demon is gone, the danger should be minimal. We just need to keep the monster numbers low.”

It was true too. Rowan still wasn’t entirely sure how corrupted beasts were made but Olivia had explained that most of them were ordinary animals tainted with demonic mana. But they still held their original instincts, including a tendency for stronger beasts to drive their weaker counterparts to soften enemy defenses.

“With our scouts gone, we can’t afford to stay idle,” Rowan continued. “But since Olivia needs to lead the village, I have to face all the enemies on my own. I probably could, but it’s not ideal.” Rowan ignored the glare Olivia sent him for the bragging. “That’s why I’d like for the two of you to join me.”

The two beast folk stayed silent. Rowan waited just long enough for a shadow of doubt to cross his heart.

Is the stock of a hero that low? Or do they think I’m that weak?

Those doubts were quickly driven away when the twins released high-pitched squeals that reminded him of young puppies.

“Really? We’d get to be part of the hero party?” Marcus shouted.

“Temporarily.” Olivia made sure to emphasize. “But yes. You get to be a part of the hero’s party. That should be enough stories for the rest of your life.”

“Yes. For as long as you’ll have me.” Marcus rushed to agree, then shot his sister a rueful look. “As long as I get to be with my sister.”

“She’s invited too,” Rowan added.

Milena smiled. “I would love to, of course. This is a tremendous honor. Thank you, Hero Rowan.”

“Call me Rowan. Please. Thank you both, really. Here, I’ll invite you in a second,” Rowan said, navigating to his party menu. That’s when he spotted Bron’s name there and froze. The name was currently grayed out.

Olivia must have noticed something because her gaze went blank as she looked at her own system screen. A moment later, she nudged Rowan. “Push Bron out. We’ll talk about it later,” Olivia whispered.

Rowan's heart thumped in his chest. He was the only one who could remove Bron from the party but doing so felt like a betrayal to the man who had sacrificed everything for them.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and removed Bron from the party, then sent out the two new invitations. They accepted almost instantaneously.

Marcus and Milena have joined your party.

Full party assembled.

Conditions met:

Blessing of the Stalwart Hero has been fully activated.