“Okay, before you do anything, I can explain!”

As soon as Zoe said that, she realized that it might not have been the smartest way to begin approaching things. It wasn’t like Millie had actually done anything to accuse her of anything yet. So basically, she had just alerted the girl to the fact that she had done something ‘wrong’ even if Millie hadn’t even been sure of that yet.

To her credit, Millie composed herself quickly. She remained where she was, meeting Zoe’s eyes with a neutral expression. Zoe could tell that she was scared, though. She’s probably deliberately stopping herself from freaking out because she knows I could outrun and kill her fairly easily.

Zoe decided not to linger on that thought.

“So,” she cleared her throat, “I guess it’s time to go ahead and tell you what I actually am.”

Millie just stared. Zoe sighed. “I’m a demon. Sort of. I wasn’t always one. Honestly, I don’t actually know much about what demons actually are or what it means for me to be one.”

“Then how did you become one?” Millie asked. “I’ve only heard of cultists being able to turn themselves into demons.” While the girl’s voice carried a hint of suspicion and fear, it didn’t quite sound accusatory—more like she was just stating a fact.

“Well, I didn’t do it to myself,” Zoe replied, “err, well, not exactly. I mean technically, I chose to go through with it, but I didn’t really have much other choice.”

Millie looked down. “Oh.” She remained silent for a moment. “Wait, so what were you before? I’ve never met a demon before, but I thought they usually looked more human…”

“I wouldn’t know,” Zoe said a bit bitterly, “but actually, I was human too. I think you’re probably right though. I guess I’m just unlucky.” Sighing, she glanced over at the skeleton standing watch several meters away. “I know you admire paladins or whatever, but I had to fight her. She was definitely going to kill me.” She glanced back at Millie. “I mean, I’m not trying to argue that they’re actually bad or anything like that. I wouldn’t know that either. But given my current circumstances, we’re not exactly on friendly terms.”

Shivering slightly, the girl looked out at the water. At first Zoe mistook it for fear, but then she realized the kid was just a bit cold. Remembering one of her newer abilities, she fed a rather small amount of mana into {Thermal Manipulation} to warm up the air around them.

Noticing immediately, Millie actually scooted closer and relaxed a little. “That feels nice.”

Pleased, Zoe looked around once more. She didn’t know exactly how intelligent the skeleton was, but it probably either had some bit of intelligence, or the Lich could control and perceive through it directly. There would have been no point to sending it along as a chaperone otherwise.

Not willing to let her tenuous new allies in on the secret yet, Zoe bend down next to Millie’s ear to whisper. The girl tensed, but didn’t actually shy away. “I’m actually a worldwalker.”

Millie nearly jumped to her feet at that. Whirling around, she gazed at Zoe with wide, wonderous eyes. “Really? For real? You are?”

Zoe glanced over at the skeleton. It hadn’t moved. “Uh, yeah,” she whispered again, “but please don’t tell anyone, okay?” The girl nodded quickly. A bit too quickly, but what could Zoe do? Sighing, she decided to continue. “I only arrived here—this world, I mean—like a month ago. Unfortunately, the very first people I encountered were infernal cultists, and I ended up having to go through a demonic ascension in order to survive and escape.”

Millie blinked, eyes still wide. “Wow,” she whispered back—rather loudly. “That’s awesome! Or—well—I mean, that sucks but also that’s really cool!”

Laughing, Zoe reduced her useage of {Thermal Manipulation}. It was already starting to get a little too warm for her comfort. “Yeah, well, I haven’t actually had much downtime. Believe it or not, things were way crazier before I first met you. I still know hardly anything about this world.”

Chewing her lip, Millie seemed to ponder something for a moment. “I could help you!” she blurted out suddenly. “You said not to tell anyone else, so I could help teach you things!”

Zoe had to deliberately hide the smug look that threatened to creep across her face. After all, that was exactly what she was leading up to. In fact, she had been hoping that she wouldn’t have to explicitly ask. It turned out she was right. The girl was so enamored by the idea that she felt like she was the one who had to convince Zoe.

“Well, I’ll consider it,” Zoe hedged, peering down at the girl as she stared up at her. “I’m kind of dangerous to be around, though.”

But to Zoe’s surprise, Millie just shook her head at that. Rather defiantly, she might add. “Not really. Everything is dangerous. You’re strong, so that means you can kill all of the dangerous things.”

For a moment, Zoe just stared. Then she really did laugh. Oh, that’s great! On the one hand, it sounded really naive and stupid to her. But on the other hand, Millie was actually probably right. While Zoe probably had still been pretty unlucky so far, she supposed that perhaps this world was just super dangerous and chaotic. Really, it seemed quite likely.

And on the third hand, Zoe definitely was strong—at least for her current level. She still didn’t have a sense of the scale of hard power at play here. Were immortal realm people like the paladin and the lich, or the pirate captain—were they fairly common? Or was she just chancing upon a lot of outliers?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Well, almost everyone I’ve encountered has been awakened, but I think I remember someone saying that the majority of the population isn’t even connected to the System at all. So yeah, my experience so far is probably a bit skewed.

But on the fourth hand, Zoe didn’t know how skewed it was. Looking back at Millie, she realized that she could probably just ask. But first—

“What is this world even called?” It was a question that had recently started bothering Zoe. Because really—if she were going to be transported to a new, magical, hyper-violent world after dying on Earth, she felt like she should know what this universe was called.

Millie looked confused though. “Uh, what do you mean? It’s just the world.”

“It doesn’t have a name? Then how do you talk about it?”

“By just saying the world?” Millie drew out her response like she were talking to a small child and not the other way around. Disproportionately ruffled by that, Zoe glared at her. “What else would it be?” Millie continued, “did your original world have a special name?”

“Uh yeah,” Zoe said, “it’s called Earth.” She blinked. The last word—Earth—that had been in English, not whatever language she had been speaking since she arrived. Weird. She hadn’t thought much about the whole linguistic aspect in a while.

“Huh. Earth.” Millie chewed over the word. She didn’t quite get it right—no, it wasn’t even close. “No, we don’t really have a special name like that. Well, not one that I’ve ever heard anyone use.”

But reflecting on it, Zoe realized that it wasn’t actually that weird. The name of her home planet wasn’t all that unique, actually—in fact, it was basically just a term for the stuff that the ground was made of. Like rocks, dirt, mud, or clay—that sort of thing. It was only when astronomy advanced and people started realizing that Earth was just one particular planet that the name started being more special.

Or at least, that’s what Zoe assumed. She wasn’t an etymologist. Or an entomologist. Even if I look part bug. Snickering at her own lame joke, Zoe looked out over the pool of water. I think I want to go for a swim.

“Alright, I’m going swimming,” she announced. “You wanna join?”

Millie shook her head violently. “No. I hate being wet. I never get wet.”

Zoe would have arched an eyebrow at that if she still had one. “You literally live in a jungle. What happens if it rains? How do you bathe?”

“I just find shelter.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes. “Okay, that explains the rain. But what about bathing?”

Millie shrugged. “Why would I do that?”

You have to be shitting me. Zoe felt a deep numbness settle over her as she stared at the girl. I think she’s actually serious… Expression hardening, Zoe retreated into the shallows near the edge of the dark pool. “Yeah, okay. We’re definitely going to work on that.”

Glaring, Millie crossed her arms. “Only if I don’t get wet.”

Zoe was not amused. “Are you a fucking cat? No, you’re not. Cats are very clean animals. You know what?” Before the girl could react or respond, Zoe kicked up a big splash of water, instantly drenching the child from head to toe. Sputtering, the girl drew the wet hair out of her face with trembling hands. “You—you—!”

Zoe didn’t wait for her to finish. Fully submerging herself, she began swimming down deeper into the pool. It was quite dark. But ironically, the light level actually increased as she went deeper, as a result of the various bioluminescent organisms. Able to better appreciate it now that she wasn’t being dragged along by the kraken, Zoe eagerly soaked it all in. Really quite lovely. Until something bit at her thigh, but that nuisance was short lived. Zoe didn’t even know what it was, but it tasted okay.

Making her way even deeper, Zoe began to explore the submerged tunnels. By this point, she was basically out of air—but that wasn’t actually a problem. Once again, {Corrupt Wound} took care of that.

Hmm, I wonder if {Water Meditation} has any benefits in a place like this. Zoe wouldn’t be surprised—the ability had tiered up with {Water Manipulation}, after all. Worth a shot.

A quarter of an hour later, Zoe came to the conclusion that while {Water Meditation} did absolutely benefit from the aquatic environment, being submerged did literally nothing to help her with the task of smoothing out the flow of her mana. As far as she could tell, the environment mainly made the ability both more potent and easier to use.

Zoe briefly wondered if her little swim would look like an escape attempt—but by this point, she wasn’t worried. If the others had thought that, she would already be in trouble by now.

Catching sight of a faint, multicolored, sporadically shifting glow deep below, Zoe swam deeper. I wonder what that is. A lot more intense than the other glowy things. As she swam deeper and had to start using {Kinetic Enhancement} to ward off the pressure, she realized it wasn’t normal bioluminescence. It was some kind of magic, with a variety of different mana signatures.

Now even more curious, Zoe hastened her pace.

The lights rapidly grew brighter, and bigger—and then with them, Zoe began to hear sounds through the water—rapidly increasing in loudness. Bubbles began to rise up. Okay, never mind! As the noise turned to a roar, Zoe came to the conclusion that whatever it was was something that she did not want to get caught up in. And it was approaching.

Desperately flinging herself back upwards, Zoe streaked towards the surface as flashes of violet, red, green, icy blue, crimson, and even regal gold erupted just below her. A colossal tentacle lashed up past her. Zoe didn’t have to analyze it to know it was the kraken.

At the same time, Zoe learned that while {Kinetic Dash} still worked underwater, it didn’t work particularly well. It carried her just as far and just as fast, yes—but it did nothing about all the water in the way. The end result was that she endured way more turbulent pressure than one might expect, followed by being flung into a chaotic spin at the end of the trajectory. Not good! Very dizzy!

She was nearing the surface though, and she didn’t have to dash in the same direction she was facing. Flying backwards up towards the surface of the pool, Zoe began rapidly analyzing the various obscured figures rising up below her. She was pretty sure that whoever they were, they were all fighting each other. To make matters worse, she had no idea how many there were, but she suspected it was a lot.

Spamming analyze, Zoe saw a good number of cultists, generic combat-oriented paths, a paladin, a couple of so-called acolytes of lux, an alchemist, an ice elemental summoner, a normal healer, a whole bunch of infernal paths that weren’t specifically cultists, and then she was gasping for air.

But not before she caught sight of a god-damned level one hundred archmage. Flopping onto the shore besides Millie, Zoe pushed herself up, grabbed the child, and ran.

The girl stopped protesting as the surface of the pool exploded.

As Zoe headed towards the fountain with the now-concealed secret passage, she went back over all that she had seen during her rapid-fire use of analyze. She nearly tripped when she got to the ice elementalist, alchemist, and the high-level archmage.

There’s no fucking way. There’s no way.

Zoe wanted to glance back, but she didn’t. Got to get away. I am totally not ready for those idiots again.