“I thought they’d made a mistake,” says the man who in all seriousness calls himself Master Sparkles. "But it looks like you're really an A-rank."

Snickering, he dangles 11’s license in front of her face. “I still find it hard to believe, though. Tell me, who did you have to bed with to this?”

“No one,” says 11, grabbing for her license. “I earned it.”

Sparkles doesn't let go. “You know," he says. "The more I look at you, the more I’m convinced I’ve seen you before.”

He tilts his head to one side comically before feigning realization. “But of course, the Silky Maiden! I just didn’t get a good look at your face, since you were spending the whole night underneath me.”

The young adventurers behind Sparkles start to guffaw like a bunch of schoolboys, all except one. An older man, dressed in black with his face covered, stands off to the side of the group. He looks to be a part of Sparkles's party but has a vastly different demeanor to them. Instead of talking or laughing, he studies 11 with an unknowable expression.

11 makes it a point not to get angry. She can almost imagine Yue’li saying, 'I told you so', and that’s enough for her to bite back her annoyance.

“Terribly sorry to disappoint you,” 11 says. “But we’ve never met before and especially not in the place you’re thinking.”

Moving too quickly for him, she snatches the license from Sparkles. Then unable to help herself, she adds, “If we did, I’d remember a dumb name like Sparkles.”

The boys start to oooh and jab at each other. The mysterious man just keeps on looking.

Sparkles’s eyes narrow. He’s almost two heads taller than 11, which makes her wonder if either the humans in this world are too tall or she’s been built too short.

“Sharp tongue on this one,” he says. “Remember this, Grunt. I paid a hefty sum for an A-rank so you better do the work of one. Otherwise, you’re going to make up for any differences in your service some other way.” A slimy smile creeps across his face. “Ways I’m sure a little snack like you knows all too well.”

"Yea, yea." 11 waves her hand at him. “You just worry about your thing and let me do mine." She hefts the empty loot bag over her shoulder. "As long as we stick to the script I guarantee there will not be a problem.”

Sparkles tsks. “Let’s see if you carry as good as you look.” He waves for his party to go. “Slay anything that drops anything,” he tells them. “We have a top-class grunt today so put her to work!”

11 spends most of that afternoon running behind the roaming party, picking up leftover pieces of whatever low-level Demonic Entities they kill.

She learns two new things about her mortal enemies.

First, not all of them are mutated animals. 11 scans the Eastern Plains as she follows Sparkles’s party. Dotted across the vast greenery, she sees the usual herds of two-headed raccoons and six-legged slimes, but among them hides some unusual creatures, ones she has a difficult time calling Demonic Entities.

Which brings her to the second thing.

“Look, Boss.” The tracker of the party, a tanned-skinned kid with skinny arms, points to the distance. “Goblin. Fifty yards north.”

A small humanoid creature is squatting by a cluster of rocks, poking at something with a stick.

Sparkles shields his eyes against the sun. “Nicely spotted, Tracker-Cracker,” he says. “Let’s go boys!”

The party whoops as they sprint head-on towards the creature. The tracker whips out a bola. The mage unhooks his staff from his back. The black-clad man doesn’t take out anything.

11 jogs to keep up, feeling the bag of Demonic Cores shifting around inside.

When the party gets within twenty yards, the goblin lifts its head out from the rocks. It spots them and hisses loudly, then starts to flee.

“Raitkanri!”

The mage swings his staff and a burst of lightning slashes through the air, impaling through the goblin.

The creature falls, screaming.

“Nice shot, Magic Man!” yells Sparkles as he closes the distance and stomps on the goblin’s head until blood sprays across the grass.

The air is tinged with the stench of burning flesh.

“Nothing to it,” says the mage, a giant grin on his face. “I could’ve hit it with my eyes closed.”

The goblin’s form disintegrates into a puddle of black goo. Sparkles wipes his boots on the grass and points to 11.

“Make sure you pick up everything,” he tells her. “By day’s end, any space left in that bag gets filled with your body parts.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

11 ignores him and bends down in the goo, carefully picking out the shiny marble left behind in the rapidly decaying flesh.

> Object of unknown properties; some form of carbon-silicon-based rock-formation.

“Looks like a pearl to me.”

> It’s not.

A scream catches everyone’s attention. Behind the rock formation, another goblin is screeching and pointing at them with its wooden spear. It is much smaller than its slain friend, and whereas the first one had barely any hair, this one has dirty dreadlocks running down to its shoulders.

11 realizes she can understand the goblin.

“Monsters!” the creature cries as it tears at the rags covering its body. “You will pay for this!”

No. It’s the goblin who is speaking the common tongue.

The boys laugh. Sparkles draws his sword and steps up to the creature.

“Come on then,” he says. “Let’s have at it, you ugly beast.” He holds out his arm like a fencer, hopping from foot to foot.

The goblin gives a startling war cry and charges, spear aimed right at Sparkles’s head. “For Gauga!”

Sparkle’s sidesteps the thrust and slashes down hard, shearing through the goblin’s arm.

Black blood sprays into the air. The goblin’s cries turn into agony. It tumbles to the ground, groveling for its severed arm and the spear held within it.

Sparkles steps down on the creature. His boot covers its entire back, from neck to waist.

“Is this it, then?” he says, grinding his heel into the goblin’s flesh. “Big words for something so pathetic.”

The goblin starts to hurl profanities, cursing the boys and their mothers. “The land remembers this,” it says into the dirt. “The land shall repay the debts owed!”

Sparkles keeps his boot on top of the struggling goblin, until the blood finishes flowing from its wound and the creature goes quiet. Only then does he lift up his sword and end the goblin's life.

11 looks away, an explainable churning in the depths of her stomach.

“Let’s go,” Sparkles says, wiping his sword before sheathing it. "I want to catch a family of these things before we end."

The party steps over the decaying goblins without a second look, and continues the hunt across the plains.

Another orb is left in the second corpse. As 11 picks it up, her mind flashes back to Gargoloth, the level 70 mountain demon. It too, spoke when it fought 11, but she killed it without thinking twice about it.

But now, as she watches the remains of the goblin gloop seep back into the ground, 11 is struck with a strange sense of guilt that makes her suddenly regret killing the mountain-sized Demonic Entity.

Maybe it had a family too. Maybe it had dreams, just like I do.

11 stuffs the orb deep into the rucksack and trails on after the boys.

> Targets identified.

>

> Species: Humans.

>

> Age: 16 to 21.

>

> Damage Output Levels: 7 to 16.

>

> Threat to humanity: Unlikley.

11 waits, expecting to hear Mother’s cold voice reminding her that humans are not to be harmed.

She does not get a reply, though.

“Mother?” she tries asking tentatively. “Are you there? I’m having thoughts about bad things, Mother.”

There is only silence.

“Who are you talking to?”

It’s the black-clad man. He is the one walking closest to 11. The others are too far in front to hear anything.

“My conscience,” answers 11. “She’s not answering though.”

The man chuckles. “That’s not a bad thing. Out here, conscience is good for only one thing.”

“Getting you killed?” asks 11.

“That’s right.”

“Is that what you tell yourself?”

“Only in the mornings.”

They continue in silence for a while longer.

“You should go back,” the man says. His voice is muffled against the black mask but there is something familiar to it. “You can pretend to be injured. Guild’s rules protect you from being forced to carry on if you’re hurt.”

11 looks around them. The plains are an endless stretch of green with the occasional stone and mineral arrangement.

“I doubt Sparkles will let me off with a sprained ankle,” she says. “But why do I even need to fake anything? This job isn’t as terrible as everyone is telling me it is.”

“That’s because they’ve just started.” The man slows his pace so he’s walking just slightly to 11’s side. Dropping his voice he says, “But by the looks of that bag, they’re not going to fill it before sundown.”

“That’s not really my problem,” 11 says.

“No,” the man agrees. “But Sparkles is not known for his empathy or ethical decisions.”

“And you are?”

“You’re not a very good listener, are you?”

“I don’t need to be with you lot.” 11 slows so the distance between them grows. “You just do your job and I’ll do mine, alright? Whatever happens after, happens. I can take care of myself, though I thank you for your concern.”

The man sighs but his eyes are glowing behind his mask, almost like he’s happy with 11’s response.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he says, then gives 11 one more lingering stare before walking away.

“Boss, I’ve got something.” The tan-skinned tracker holds up a finger to his temple. The party stops, watching him.

Sparkles taps a finger against his sword belt. “What you got, Tracker Cracker?”

A pleased snarl spreads across the tracker’s face. “Ooh, yea I do.” He points towards a patch of grey in the far distance. “In the Stone Forest. Something crazy strong. At least a D-Plus. Maybe even C-Minus.”

The boys cheer as if they’ve just discovered the location of a gold mine. Sparkles slams his knuckles together. “Time to haul ass, boys! Follow the Tracker Cracker!”

The three boys start racing across the field, shouting with joy. The man follows at a distance.

No one glances back to make sure the grunt carrying their loot is following.

11 throws the rucksack down on the grass, its contents clanging against each other.

As if sensing her thoughts, Mother responds.

> Abandoning your post is against the rules of being a grunt.

11 kicks at the bag. “This is what bothers you? They literally murdered a goblin couple back there!”

> There is nothing incorrect in their actions. Those were Demonic Entities.

"That doesn’t matter!" 11 says. "They were just as human as -” she stops that line of thought just in time.

Already, she can feel the presence of the Synapse-Mother-System blanketing her mind, enveloping consciousness with the promise of death.

> You? Or that monster you think is your sister?

11 doesn't know which one Mother is talking about, Hikari or Yue'li. But she can hear the echoes of the command that will end everything she knows. All she needs to do is say the right words, and it will all be over.

"No," she says, picking up the bag. "That's not what I meant."

Without saying anything else, she hurries on after her employers.