It’s hard to overstate how important it is for an adventurer to have a good party. A good party can overcome any single member’s shortcomings, and it’s always stronger than just the sum of its parts.

However, that’s just a good party. For a great party, that’s a group that you can trust to take on anything.

If you had to ask me, I think that this next tale is when we finally went from being a good party to a great one. Though that may just be hubris on my part.

---

I screamed my battle-cry and charged at my hated foe. It didn’t respond, and I closed the distance quickly. I stopped right in front of it and leaped with all my might.

The wall didn’t move, and my hands scrambled to try to find a hold before I fell back down to the crater floor.

I sighed and glared at it. Who knew that the hardest part of this boss fight was going to be getting out afterward?

I debated claiming the obelisk that had appeared in the middle of the crater and having it teleport me out of the “dungeon” to see where that would take me. However, I really didn’t like the idea of claiming the zone. If I did, that would mean that the mobs would be in my “faction,” and they would all focus on the rest of the party, which was why I had to fight the boss early in the first place.

Not that a part of me wasn’t tempted. The 4 perk points I got for being the “First Explorer” put me up to 7, so I had enough to buy the [Party Interface] perk. However, a party interface isn’t that helpful if your party dies, so it wasn’t tempting for very long.

I tried one more jump, and my vertical was honestly enough to make an NBA player jealous. However, that still put my reach nowhere close to the 20 feet I needed it to be. I grabbed uselessly at the wall and fell back down again.

I sat down with a sigh. So, what are my options? I can’t jump up there. I didn’t see any handholds anywhere. Wait for the party? I shook my head. No, me beating the boss wouldn’t change anything with their situation. They’re still in danger.

“And so the party was slain because Titus couldn’t figure out how to climb a frickin wall,” I berated myself and then sighed. Hmm. I guess I don’t know what happens if I fail to save the party again. Will it just continue on? Do I only get a single shot?

I thought about that for a bit, then shook my head. Doesn’t seem likely. If one of them dying- I remembered what AltSys said about it being Tim’s death that mattered and not Andrew’s. Or I guess if certain party members dying is enough to force the server to go to a backup, then I don’t see why me failing a second time should matter.

I nodded my head. I was slightly relieved to know that at least some of my party members had System-mandated plot armor. However, that also gave me another realization. Doesn’t that mean that the server could put me back before the boss fight? I chuckled nervously. There’s no way, right? I beat it. It should put me back to sometime after the fight, right?

Unless the entire point is to keep the [Hero] and his party alive until they defeat the [Demon Lord]. And what if the only way to keep the party alive is to kill the [Demon Lord] early?

“Let me out!” I started jumping uselessly at the wall again. “Please! Just get me out of here!” I still made no progress, and I was panicking.

I only won because I got lucky and caused the boss to hit itself in the face! I can’t go through that fight all over again! “Wait. Hit itself.” I had an epiphany. “It knocked itself back! Maybe I can do the same, but upward!”

I was going to need the full 8 feet of the buggiest interaction I found if I was going to get out of there. So, like any (mostly) sane scientist, I started with a smaller dose.

1 cc of [Air Strike]. I flicked myself in the chest and expected to be knocked backward.

Nothing happened.

I flicked myself again.

Still nothing.

Wait, is the skill not even activating? I checked my SP, and it hadn’t gone down. “One thing left to try then,” I said. I punched myself in the chest as if I was trying to violently clear my throat, and I turned it into an [Air Strike].

I was immediately knocked backward and onto my backside.

I was horribly confused. Wait. Why do the flicks not work anymore? My eyes widened. It got nerfed! I can’t use it to get out of here!

I looked up at the sky and yelled at AtlSys. “You couldn’t have waited two more minutes for me to get out of here first!?”

My anger was growing, and I could tell my wrath aura was out. No one else was around, so I didn’t care.

I paced as I stewed.

I could try to use my shirt and pants as a rope? … So that I can run around naked and not have anything to tie it to. Great. Another fantastic idea.

I punched the wall. Surprisingly, it didn’t even hurt. Which meant it was an enemy that wasn’t going hit back, which was exactly what I wanted at the moment.

“Stupid wall!” I punched it again, and it gave a dull thud. “For a stupid world!” I kicked it, with still no result. “With a half-baked user interface…” I gave it two [Fire Strike] jabs. “Terrible mob diversity!” I gave it an [Air Strike] left-hook. “Awful dungeon design!” I pointedly ignored my own contribution to that one and gave it an [Ice Strike] uppercut. “And the worst [Demon Lord] class I’ve ever heard of!” I kicked it as hard as I could with an [Earth Strike].

That strike made a clunking sound.

“Clunk?” I was so shocked that I forgot my tirade and my wrath aura. I looked down to where my foot had made an indent into the wall.

“Fantastic. Great. Yet another interaction I probably would’ve known about if it weren’t for [Memory Protection],” I said.

I could’ve spent more time complaining, but I knew that I should get a move on sooner rather than later. The lives of my party mates, or my life if the System chose a sadistic reset point, were on the line.

I made a running jump and slammed my fist into the wall with an [Earth Strike].

It left me dangling from a single hand, but it was only uncomfortable, not painful.

I guess that wasn’t enough to do damage to me, I mused.

I swung myself upward and then planted my left fist into the wall. Then for good measure, I also kicked myself a foothold.

This sure makes rock climbing easier. I wonder what people on Earth would say? I jumped up and planted my right hand into the wall. I chuckled to myself as I could imagine the clickbait already. Rock climbers hate him because of this one weird trick!

I continued my climb upward, even as I kept on that train of thought. Huh. Admin’s quest didn’t specify how I’d be returned home if I completed it. What if he left me like this but just dumped me back at the empty Comic-Con auditorium? I shuddered but then had a thought. Or maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? I mean, I might get to keep my magic! I bet the daves would be a big hit. I mean, even worst-case scenario, they could help out with waste management.

I reached the top and pulled myself over.

I let my ruminating about being a [Demon Lord] on Earth go as I prepared to be attacked at any moment. However, I waited a few seconds, and nothing happened, so I began a slow walk forward.

“No monsters yet,” I said to the empty air. I almost said that was a good sign, but I honestly wasn’t sure at that point.

However, I was still missing a hefty chunk of my resources, so I took the reprieve and slowly walked north.

My thoughts again turned towards thoughts of Earth. These were a bit less… Pleasant.

Was AltSys right? If everything was just a program sitting on a server, was home even real? Worse, if I didn’t have any memories of my parents, did they even exist? Or were my memories of them just ones that were coded into me?

I wrestled with thoughts like that long enough for all my resources to recover, and then some, and I was quickly working myself into a funk.

Then I was interrupted by wolf howls.

“Thank goodness,” I said. It was something else to focus on. Then I realized what I had just said. “Did I really just say thanks for having to fight or run for my life?”

The first wolf made it to me, and I put it down. “I think I need therapy.”

I pushed that aside momentarily and fought the 15 wolves that showed up. Why stand and fight instead of run? I was curious to see if I was out of the area with increased spawn rates. However, the howls that came when I had 3 wolves left to kill nixed that idea pretty quickly.

I took off running once again. You know how that song and dance goes, so I won’t bore you with the details. However, during my downtime, I did start wondering about therapy.

Is there a [Therapist] class? Or a [Counselor] one? I wonder how much they cost? My thoughts turned to the rest of the party. One guy with anger issues, one with drinking issues and [Enrage] issues, a grieving dad and kid, a kleptomaniac, a mute, and a girl with daddy issues. Hmm. I wonder if we can get a bulk discount?

Then I realized something.

“Sam wasn’t on the list,” I murmured to myself. She was just as vehement about not going back as the rest of them, though. So I wonder what her deal is? However, that was when we got back to phase 2 of Titus running for his life because a bear showed up.

“Looks like break is over,” I sighed.

Fallen tree, by fallen tree, I slowly made my way northward. I started to worry about what would happen when I ran out of forest, but midmorning the next day, the party solved my problem for me.

System: Zone, Starry Forest, has been claimed by the Hero Faction

Of course, I didn’t immediately realize that would solve my problem. It took until I heard the first set of howls.

What? More of them? I thought as I was running to the next tree. I thought I was at the spawn cap!

The white-furred wolves charged into their black-furred enemies. They brought down several of them but were quickly killed themselves. However, [Monster Magnet] was now working on my side as the noble monsters just kept coming.

I climbed the tree, sat down, and simply watched the blood-bath (well, there was no blood, but you get what I mean). Eventually, the only dark monsters remaining were dead ones, and I was absolutely surrounded by my quasi-allies.

I hopped down from my tree, and they growled at me a bit. However, I didn’t make a move towards them, and they eventually dispersed into the forest.

“I guess I should clean all this up?” I asked the air. I was absolutely surrounded by monster corpses, and I was sure that was more than enough to create another undead boss.

I summoned a dave and prepared to start a long cleanup when I paused. “But is creating a boss monster a bad thing?”

Now, I promise that question wasn’t as idiotic as it first sounds. I knew firsthand just how terrifying an undead heart could be. However, I still hadn’t leveled to 10 even though I had killed 3 bosses while at level 9.

My level 9 is basically level 11 XP-wise. Maybe the progression is 1 boss for level 10, 2 for level 11 (or enough high-level monsters), and then 4 for level 12? That means just one more to go then!

I rubbed my hands together. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” I started dragging bodies into a pile when I was interrupted.

System : That won’t help you know

I dropped the wolves. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite game admin!” I said.

System : That’s not saying much when you only know two and the other is Admin

I shrugged. “So what do you mean it won’t help?”

System : I capped your level. You can’t go past 9

“What?”

System : Temper. Temper. There. I’ve uncapped it. If you kill two more bosses, you should level now. By the way, at an effective level of 11, a normal boss monster gives exactly half a level, so your guess was close but not quite on the mark

I took a deep breath, then facepalmed and dragged my hand across my face. “And why pray tell, did you cap it in the first place?”

System : There’s a feature that you’ll gain with level 10 that may have gotten you killed

“Oh,” I said. “And let me guess, you can’t tell me what it is?”

System : Nope

“Of course.” I paused for a moment. “And why’d you choose right after the boss fight to nerf [Elemental Strike]?”

System : Because you were going to do something stupid with it. Like try to fly by flicking yourself repeatedly

“What? I wouldn’t…” I didn’t finish that thought. He had a point, after all. “Would it have worked?”

System : What do you think?

“Given this world’s coding? I bet it would’ve.” I frowned. Darn. I missed a chance to fly! I should’ve thought of this sooner! “Any other fun interactions I’ve missed that I should be aware of?”

System : Oh, no. I’m not giving you any ideas

Drat.

System : I need to get out of here, so if you have any more questions, make them quick

I had one that I needed to ask immediately. “My family. Do they actually exist?”

System : Like I told you. I don’t have any access to your old world. If they do or don’t, I don’t know

Well, I guess I’ll never know then. I sighed. Is there anything else that I should ask him?

System : Last question

“Uhhhhh,” I stammered. “Do you like being an admin?”

System : No

I almost flinched back from the terse reply.

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“And let me guess. On that note, you’re out of here,” I stated to the empty air. “Typical.”

I looked back at the bodies. “Well, he said it wouldn’t help because he capped my level, but now that it is uncapped… I guess I’m good to go? He never said I shouldn’t do it, right?”

I shrugged and got to work piling up the bodies. It took quite some time, and I took a quick break to regain 5 MP and summon another dave.

I stood there, staring at the pile for a while. Long enough to summon several more daves, in fact.

“How long does this take?” I asked myself. “I mean, I didn’t get to see the process for the other one, but…” I paused as I realized something. Wait. The undead heart didn’t get to FarOff until Consume Degree did. It was super-slow, but still. Could it have taken days to form? Or maybe even a week?

I frowned. I’m not going to leave an undead boss monster unsupervised, but I can’t just wait here for days. The party might find me, and then how would I explain this?

“You’ve been busy,” Jake said from behind me. I had been so lost in thought that I hadn’t noticed our entire party walking up to me.

I spun around and cursed the god of irony (don’t try this at home) while trying to come up with a good lie.

“Yup, you know. The usual. Running for my life. Fighting monsters. Punching a constellation in the face,” I said.

“A constellation?” he asked.

“Yeah?” I mirrored his confusion. “Didn’t you see it when you took the zone? Big bear constellation? Shot frickin laser beams?”

“So you did solo the boss! We were wondering why there wasn’t one guarding the obelisk.”

“Wait, you just got to walk up and claim it?”

Jake nodded.

“Dang. Well, it did save my life, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”

After that, the party decided it would be a good idea to swap stories, so we did that while everyone but me looted all of the bodies. Fortunately, that meant I got to avoid any awkward questions about why I had made such a huge stack of bodies in the first place since they thought I had just been making it easier for them to collect.

I relayed my relatively calm first day, my dashes from tree to tree, my fall into the boss arena where I had to solo it to get out, and then how the party claiming the obelisk caused a monster vs. monster war that I got to sit and watch.

When I was done, Jake relayed their version of events. How they had a very peaceful time traveling, and then they randomly had a massive wave of monsters attack.

I grinned sheepishly at that part and apologized, but he reassured me that the party had it covered, so it was nothing to worry about.

He then explained how they followed my trail of fallen trees, both to the unguarded obelisk and then finally to my position.

“Ah, I was wondering how you guys found the crater. I got shoved pretty far off course,” I said. Then I finally remembered one detail of my story that I forgot to tell. “Oh yeah! For naming the zone I got 4 perk points, so I finally have enough to get the [Party Interface] perk. Next time we claim an obelisk in the middle of nowhere, I can finally join the party for real!”

Everyone was pretty happy to hear that, and Sam even ran over to hi-five me. However, Jake’s reaction puzzled me. He just stood there for a second and looked like he was thinking hard.

“Something the matter, [Hero]?” I asked.

“Oh. Sorry,” he said. “It’s just… I mean, there’s a cleared out obelisk right back there just a few hours away. I’m just wondering if it’s a good idea to go back and use that one instead of hoping we’ll stumble across one on our journey.”

“That’s a great idea!” I replied, but I noticed he was still concerned. “Isn’t it? I mean, I get that we don’t want to spawn a whole bunch of dark monsters again, but I’ll be quick. I promise.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just… I’m trying to take the [Demon Lord’s] threat as seriously as possible. At the end of the day, the race may come down to a few hours. I don’t want a delay here to be the cause of us losing to him.”

That’s literally impossible since you’re delaying him too.

I tried to think of a good defense that didn’t include telling him straight-up that I was the [Demon Lord], but to my surprise, Tim spoke up instead. “Given Titus’ propensity to attract difficulties…” he shook his head as if trying to clear out those words. “Sorry. Given the fact that Titus is a trouble magnet, I believe that perk will end up paying for itself before long.”

I grinned. “See!” Then I realized what he said. “Hey! I’m not a trouble magnet!” I paused as there was no reply to that. “Right?” I looked around at the party that was studiously avoiding my gaze.

Jake ignored that and sighed. “Okay, anyone against heading back and getting Titus the perk?”

A quick show of hands and there was no dissent. We finished clearing the monster corpses, at least, the rest of the party did, and then we headed back to the crater.

Not much of note happened, and soon enough, the party was gathered around the obelisk. Well, I was actually touching it, and Jake was standing beside me, getting ready to reclaim it, but everyone else was gathered around because there was nothing else to do.

“Ready?” I asked.

Jake nodded. “Yup.”

I claimed the obelisk and saw the usual System message.

System: Zone, Starry Forest, has been claimed by the Demon Lord Faction

However, I was already diving into perk selection and picking my perk. [Party Interface].

Right as I said, “Done!” Jake was already reclaiming it, and the message displayed right after.

System: Zone, Starry Forest, has been claimed by the Hero Faction

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out all the information that the new perk was giving me. Let’s see. I looked up at the top left and saw everyone’s resources. Resource bars, check.

However, that completely derailed my thoughts. I guess I dodged the bullet of having to ask everyone their last names… They were kindly listed out for me. Jake Smith, Garrett Newman, Emilia Reed, Lindsey Noble, Samantha Riley, Andrew and Tim Pace, and Megan Pope. Honestly, there was a lot I could laugh at there if I wanted to. Whether it was the absolutely generic last name added to Jake’s already common first name, the completely on the nose addition of Lindsey’s last name, or the complete contradiction of Megan’s last name with her morality.

“By the way, what does the party interface list my last name as?” I asked Jake.

He looked confused by my completely random question. “It doesn’t show one,” he replied. “Remember? You said it was probably something to do with your transfer over and you losing your memories.”

At least that retcon gave a decent cover story for once… I also saw that their classes were the upgraded versions, and I belatedly realized that I had still been internally calling them by their old class names. I went through each of them really quickly.

[Berserker] -> [Woad Raider]. Hmm, that name’s a bit clunky. To me, he’s still just a [Berserker].

[Ranger] -> [Scout]. But… Doesn’t [Ranger] sound better than [Scout]?

[Knight] -> [Defender]. Ehhh.

[Sorceress] -> [Elemental Sorceress]. That’s a mouthful. I’ll take the shorter one, thanks. I also wondered how long it would be before it became [Sorcerer] again.

[Cleric] -> [Bishop]. I.. Guess? Bishop seems much less, “wack you with a mace,” though.

[Wizard] -> [High Wizard]. … I know that high is supposed to mean that it’s better and grander, but I just keep thinking of a [Wizard] on shrooms or something. Why not Grand Wizard? I paused for a second. Wait… Isn’t that a position in the KKK? Nevermind. Carry on, System! I retract my critique.

[Rogue] -> [Thief]. That’s hilarious! I couldn’t believe she got such a fitting class, and it was hard to not break into a fit of giggles.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jake said.

I snapped out of my completely tangential thoughts and nodded in agreement. However, there was still more of the party to check out.

I focused on the weird 6th sense that I now had for where everyone was. There’s Sam, Garrett, Megan. Huh. I guess Megan won’t be able to avoid me with [Sneak] anymore. I shook my head. Part of me was going to miss that for some reason. What else was there? Oh, shouldn’t [Enhanced Party] mean I can sense party intents? That one confused me.

Then I suddenly felt one from Jake. I just suddenly knew that he was planning on teleporting us out of the crater using the obelisk. It was a strange feeling, and before I had time to process it, we were standing back on the outside of the crater.

“Wow, this is going to take some getting used to,” I said.

“Yup,” Jake said with a grin. “Just wait until we get into our next fight. That’s when the perk really puts in work.”

He then sent another intent that basically boiled down to “move out,” and the rest of the party took off at a jog. However, I had an idea, so I sent back, “wait.”

Jake turned around and gave me a puzzled look. “Something the matter, Titus?”

“You put the obelisk in training mode, right?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“And [Sunder] has a 1-minute cooldown, right?”

“Yes?”

I could tell Jake was getting more confused, but I decided I wouldn’t fix that just yet. “Then can we spend 15 more minutes here, max? There’s something that I want to test. It may get you guys a level too.” Wait. I’m in the party. It should level me too!

Jake looked at the rest of the party, who mostly just returned shrugs.

“Okay, fine. What’s this detour of yours?” he asked.

I ignored him. “Everyone back in the crater!”

They followed me back in, and Sam immediately exclaimed. “Woah! Who turned out the lights?”

It was indeed night time in the boss arena, even though it had just been early afternoon.

Part of me thought about that and realized that I could have been in real trouble in the fight without [Dark Vision], but the other part of me was excited because my plan worked. “Yes! The boss respawned!”

As the party pulled out torches, I finally explained myself. I told them how I remembered being trapped inside the Faroff Forest dungeon because the boss respawned. However, the party didn’t have to fight a respawned Ursa Major, so something was off. The only thing that I could think that was different was the fact that we bounced the obelisk back and forth between the Hero and Demon Lord Factions, and the currently respawned boss told me I was right on that one.

“And we just farm the boss for a level?” Jake asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. With [Sunder], this’ll be a piece of cake.” We walked to the glowing rock in the middle of the crater as I explained the boss’s different phases and what we needed the party to do.

When everyone was ready, I touched the rock, and we began phase 1 of the boss fight.

It was, by most metrics, a disaster.

We all looked for the shadow that I assured the party would come. It never did.

“Titus, you’re sure that-“ Jake didn’t even get through half of his question before the boss made itself known. It crashed down near Megan and Andrew and sent them flying.

I even got to see that it dropped their HP more than half.

Fortunately, Jake recovered and quickly [Sundered] the boss before it got to unleash any other attacks. It jumped back into the air, and then a “star” spawned in the sky.

“I thought you said there was only 1!” Emilia shouted at me, and I could see her rapidly switching between multiple targets, with none of them in the direction of the actual enemy.

“What?” I was so confused that I forgot to dodge the laser beam that the star shot, and I took 11 unnecessary damage.

“Ow,” I said. “Alright, something weird’s going on, and I…” I finally realized what it was, and I started laughing. Which was a distraction that cost me another 11 HP to yet another laser beam, but that’s not important.

“Titus?” Jake asked. “What is it?”

“Illusions and torches!” I shouted. “We couldn’t see the shadow because we brought torches in-“ I dodged a laser. “And you can’t see the real star because this boss fight uses illusions!”

The party wasn’t terribly happy with how phase 1 went, but I convinced them to put away their torches for the next phases, and it went without a hitch. I was able to point out where the boss would fall to the party, and thanks to [Enhanced Party], they could tell exactly what I meant and get out of the way in plenty of time. Then, since we gave him ample time for his cooldown in between phases, Jake [Sundered] the boss to immediately drop it the next quarter of its HP.

However, the part of the fight that disgusted me the most happened when we were getting ready to enter the last phase, and we had 3 “stars” to kill. It had barely started, and I was just beginning to point out the three real enemies to the party when an arrow pierced one, and a [Mage Bolt] killed another. The third one was left to buy time for Jake’s cooldowns, but I just stood there and blinked for a second.

I know that I was sending the intent for that to the party, but… Still. I shook my head. In that short amount of time, Tim, Sam, and Emilia coordinated who would shoot which enemy and made sure to leave one of them alive.

“Hey, [Hero],” I called out. “How much was the [Enhanced Party] perk again?”

“Just 2 points,” he said. “Why?”

“Just curious,” I replied. Good gravy. 2 points buys you this? Really glad I decided to not try to fight the party after all.

The rest of the boss fight was finished up soon enough, and Jake was getting ready to teleport us out.

“Wait! Do you have enough SP for another run-through?” I asked. Then I realized how stupid of that question was because I could see his SP bar, and he wasn’t even down to half.

“Status,” Jake said. “Yeah, I should have 100 SP or so left after another run. You really think it will respawn again, though? Forcing it to respawn once makes sense, but twice in a row?”

I shrugged. “I mean, just another bug, right? Why not make use of it?”

“I guess we can give it another go. You were right that it didn’t take that long.”

We repeated the claim back and forth, teleported out, and then hopped back into the crater. The boss was back just like before.

Jake seemed excessively antsy about the whole thing. “I dunno man. This seems like the kinda thing that would get you banned for exploiting back in Earth MMOs.”

“Pfft. It’ll be fine!” I replied. “The worst that could happen is that it gets nerfed, and then you all lose your memories about how it worked beforehand.” The words were already out of my mouth before I realized it.

The entire party turned and stared at me.

I had done so well with keeping that under wraps. I sighed.

“Titus? Care to explain?” Jake asked.

“Sure. Observe,” I said. I flicked Jake and said, “[Air Strike]!”

Jake didn’t even flinch. “So? We all know that doesn’t work. We watched you test it.”

“Oh, really?” I challenged. “Then why did Tim finally interrupt my testing with a [Fire Bolt] if it didn’t work? You don’t remember me wasting time flicking one of the earth golems?”

“No, but-“

“And what about using a dave as an underwater propulsion system in the swamp? I used flicks then too!”

“No, you didn’t. You…” Jake trailed off and seemed to be fighting a headache.

I wasn’t sure why I was so intent on trying to convince them, but I figured I was basically all-in now. “See! The System tries to go back and retcon everything after it changes something,” I said with a smug smile. “And then I’m immune because of [Memory Protection]. Which has been a bit annoying, gotta tell you. I mean, I don’t even have a last name because of it.”

“Wait,” Tim said, still fighting a headache. “That’s why you don’t have a last name?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It added everyone’s last name in a patch just a while back. Why?”

“Then…” He trailed off. And then he started laughing. Madly.

“Uhh, Tim?”

He fell to the floor and huddled his knees to his chest. “WE DON’T EXIST! OF COURSE! WHY DIDN’T I SEE IT BEFORE?!” He trailed off with another laugh that seemed more like a cackle.

I looked around at the party that seemed to be having varying degrees of headaches, psychotic breakdown, and general confusion, and I just stood there. You know, it looks like keeping that to myself was the right idea. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with the party after that, and I was worried that I might have completely fractured Tim’s psyche.

“I dunno man. This seems like the kinda thing that would get you banned for exploiting back in Earth MMOs,” Jake said.

I was once again startled by the sudden reset, but I just shook my head and tried to direct the conversation away from the absolute disaster that happened last time. “Too late for that, I can’t leave until we beat it again.”

Jake grumbled some more, but I was lost in my thoughts. I guess their plot-armor is a bit more robust than I thought. That’s good. I sighed in relief. I’m really glad that wasn’t permanent.

“Titus!” Jake’s shout was finally enough to jar me from my thoughts, and I belatedly realized he had been calling my name before that.

“Uh, yeah. Ready when you are!” I called back.

The second time through the boss fight was a snore-fest. It didn’t help matters that all I had to do was point out targets and then let someone else take care of it. Though, that did give me a weird idea.

Is this what it’s like to be an actual [Demon Lord]? Go, my minions! Destroy them! I chuckled to myself enough that Sam asked me what was going on. I just waved her off and said it was nothing.

Then Jake’s final [Sunder] landed, and his level up to level 13 caused him to faceplant once again. He grumbled a bit as I laughed at him, but I didn’t tease the [Hero] overly long because I had something else to think about.

Did I level too? Status.

Status

Name: Titus

Level: 10

Class: Demon Lord

Race: Demon Lord

HP: 228/250

MP: 187/187

SP: 375/375

Age: 24

Nice. Looks like I gained 60 HP for that level. I almost sputtered when I saw my MP. MP!? Are you okay? You just decided to double randomly?

“[Summon Dave]!” I cast. The ball of slime appeared and dropped to the ground. “[Summon Dave]!” I tried to cast again. The spell failed, and I could vaguely tell that I had about half a minute left on cooldown.

“Titus! Hurry up and upgrade your class!” Jake called out from near the obelisk.

“Sorry, was just testing the cooldown on my summon!” I called back. Wait… “And… Could my class have auto-upgraded or something? I somehow have double the MP that I had before the level.”

The party shared some looks. “That level of increase would seem to correspond to a class upgrade,” Tim finally said slowly. “But why would his class upgrade not require the use of an obelisk like the rest of us?”

I shrugged. “No idea. It did have the same name as my race, too, remember? Maybe I can’t upgrade from a [Half-Demon], so it just stays the same but gives me more stats?”

Jake looked like he was debating something and then asked, “Do you want to see if you have an upgrade available anyway? Just take a quick second and look through the obelisk options?”

“Hmm,” I thought about it. “Guess it couldn’t hurt. Why not?” I went up, claimed the obelisk, and then flipped through the options. “Nope, I don’t see anything.” I paused when I got to the spell options. What? I can still get [Summon Monster]? It’s repeatable? I reminded myself that I was under a time crunch and quickly pulled out of the interface.

Jake immediately reclaimed it. “Nothing?” he asked.

I nodded. “Nothing.”

“Huh.”

Having the option for [Summon Monster] made me realize something. I complained earlier about there being so few types of monsters… Could it be that… I’m supposed to be the one that populates them?

I thought back over the creation of the daves and how they were now found in the wild. That’s definitely something I need to be careful with. Daves aren’t terrifying in most cases, but I imagine that they’ve killed at least a few adventurers. I frowned at that thought. Glad I didn’t try to design another monster while on a time crunch. I wonder if that was the feature that AltSys was warning me about? Or if it was something else?

I flipped through my status to see if I could find anything else and realized that I had a new skill. Its level was listed as “Demon Lord,” and I immediately tried it out. “[Disrupt]!”

Or at least, I attempted to try it out.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had been going through the obelisk to check out skills or spells. They weren’t having much luck, and Jake had been done for a while.

“Is that a new spell?” he asked me.

“Skill,” I told him. “I didn’t purchase it, so I think it comes from my class, but I’m not quite sure how to activate it.”

“Well, what’s it supposed to do?”

It’s a strange feeling knowing that your subconscious knows how something works, but not your real mind. I tried to think about the skill without thinking too hard about the skill, which was confusing enough. Eventually, I came up with something that sounded plausible. “I think it disrupts spells or skills? And maybe other things?” I felt like there were other possibilities, but I couldn’t imagine what they would be.

“Hmmm, maybe you need a target?”

“Good idea.” I tried to think about what would make a good target, and I spotted my dave sitting there with Sam cooing over it. I shrugged. Sorry. “[Disrupt]!”

That also did nothing.

“There’s still something missing with the activation,” I muttered.

“I have to do a sword strike with [Sunder]. Maybe you have to hit it?”

It finally clicked. My body had been subconsciously trying to make a motion with the skill, but I had been suppressing it. I let it go and then tried one more time. “[Disrupt]!” This time, my hand pointed towards the unfortunate dave, and I snapped my fingers. The sound echoed, and though nothing happened physically, I could almost feel the disruption to the magic holding the dave together.

It dissipated right after.

“David Junior! Nooooo!” Sam cried out. “He was so young!” She ran up and started weakly hitting me. “You murderer!”

I held off the blows with my left arm. “No,” I replied. “He’s fine! Uhh. See! [Summon Dave]!”

I plopped the dave right into her waiting arms.

“David Junior! Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe from that mean, abusive [Half-Demon]!” Sam said as she cradled the acid monster.

Meanwhile, Jake had made his way over to obelisk. We shared a quick nod, and the party, sans David Junior, was teleported outside the crater.

“Nooooooooo!” Sam cried and held her hand out to the dave that was now left in the boss room. She was about to leap back into the crater, but Lindsey held her back. “I have to go after him! He’s all alone in there!”

I sighed. “Just leave him for the next party that decides to fight Ursa Major, okay? I’ll summon you another one in 30 more seconds.”

She pouted. “You better.”

The party laughed at her expression, and when everyone calmed down, Jake shook his head. “Well, that was one heck of a diversion, but I think it was definitely worth it. Shall we?”

And with that, our party took off to the north once more. Stronger, more united, and ready to face everything that could come our way.