Kevin had never cooked and eaten a monster before. Even in his past life, when he'd been a knight, there had always been something else to eat less…exotic. Back then, there’d also been fewer monsters than demons, and there was no way in hell he would consider eating something like a demon unless he was starving, and maybe not even then. But monsters in this world, as long as they were not of the demonic variety, were far less disgusting. And if a creature was dead, it stopped being intimidating or scary. The pieces of tail that he'd cut had cooked up nicely in a pan, and Kevin had plenty of seasonings packed as well. It smelled delicious.

It still took a moment of steeling his nerve before deciding to take the plunge, though. Then when he took his first bite and swallowed, he almost choked when a sudden screen popped up in his vision. The screen was blue and somewhat translucent, but the wording on it was extremely clear and easy to read. The phenomenon wasn't entirely new for Kevin, although now the screen looked different than others he'd seen in the past, and the lettering looked different. He quickly focused and read what it had to say:

Royal Venom Tail Lion Iguana consumed.

From consuming the flesh of this elite monster, you have acquired a new ability: [Lion Iguana Neurotoxin Venom]. Congratulations!"

Kevin stared at the screen for a while, so long that Branch actually settled to the ground and raised an eyebrow at him. The fairy had been watching from a distance until this time. Kevin was being unusually quiet, and Branch seemed to sense the mood–just making faces instead of actually saying anything.

After brief hesitation, Kevin activated his new, mysterious skill, and raised his eyebrows when he could feel something thin and sweet dripping from his fangs. He wasn't sure if swallowing the venom would be harmful for him, so he spit to the side and stared at the screen again before dismissing it.

Suddenly, the woods around him grew dark. Branch gave a small squeak and actually ran closer to him until his shoulder was pressed against Kevin's knee. Despite the fact it was the middle of the day, the sky went black. The surrounding darkness was foreboding and thick. But Kevin didn't panic. He'd experienced something like this before. He stood and sketched a brief but respectful bow.

When he stood straight again, a beautiful woman was walking out of the darkness. She wore an elegant robe above laced gold sandals. Her forearm sported golden armbands that appeared both decorative and functional at the same time. A diadem rested on her forehead, and all of her clothing had deep, glossy black accents. A pair of lustrous wings emerged from her back. The woman's aura was strong enough to suppress any background noise or energies in the entire area.

"Goddess Morrigan," said Kevin, "greetings, it has been a while."

"Yes, it truly has," she said. “From your perspective at least.”

The goddess gestured, and a throne appeared out of nowhere, all dark and beautiful with Celtic and Gothic themes carved into the heavy wood. On the back of the throne, above her head, was a group of three perched crows that looked so realistic they could have flown out of the wood at any moment. Maybe they could. She crossed her legs. Morrigan was beautiful in a way that defied mortal common sense, but Kevin wasn’t affected by it, not anymore.

"I was beginning to wonder how long it would take for us to meet again," she said.

Branch's hand was on Kevin's calf now. The fairy was shaking, and his knees were beginning to buckle.

"I greet you, O Great Deity!" shouted Branch. His body was ramrod straight. He did something with his arm and hand that looked something like a military salute.

The Goddess smiled and said, "Peace, little one, I am Morrigan. For you to not know me truly shows how far this world is from the central conflicts."

Kevin asked, “Are you going to teach me magic?”

Her attention went back to him. “No.” The answer was simple, but said without malice.

“Then you must have come because of what just happened.”

"Yes. I never would have imagined, after offering you a contract to become my Champion, that it wouldn't be until your fourth lifetime that you would stumble upon the key to upholding your side of the bargain."

"Three lives," Kevin absently corrected.

The goddess grinned without any real humor. "You may seek to forget what has transpired, considering it nothing but detriment, but those experiences may prove crucial one day."

Kevin stubbornly remained silent.

"So be it," said the goddess. "It is not important."

Kevin frowned. "So about why you are here, I have a question. I have to admit that I don’t understand why I had to flail around so long before this. Why? All this time, I thought I needed to learn some sort of magic to trigger becoming a full-fledged Champion, when all I needed to do was eat monsters."

The Morrigan shook her head. "It is not quite that simple. And there was no one Path for you to take. This is just the one that you seem to have chosen by choice and by fate."

Kevin absently nodded. "So you showing up and talking to me is obviously confirmation that what I've stumbled into is enough to make my position official."

"It has always been official, my Champion. But now you can actually join the fight, the Eternal Struggle. Eventually. Your timing is good as well, because this world will receive trials soon."

"What sorts of trials?" asked Kevin. He had a theory, though.

Over his time on different worlds, he had learned a lot about the rest of the universe. He’d even came to understand most of his experiences had been pretty tame compared to many others–especially the types of warriors that would normally become a god’s Champion.

But his lives still hadn't exactly been roses. In his first life, portals had opened up on Earth, and he'd become an adventurer, a portal hunter for profit and to help resist the destruction of his planet. In his second life, two other worlds had collided with his own, instigating an enormous global war. And now that he was in this life, he was wondering what could possibly happen to threaten a world that had literal dragons in it. Almost every situation he'd seen or even heard of in his past lives would have been easily solved by beings as powerful as his parents.

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With all those thoughts running through his head, he got a really bad premonition.

Morrigan said, “I think you can probably deduce some of that yourself.”

“What if I can’t?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Do you truly wish to attempt–badly–to deceive me?“

"No," Kevin grunted. “No point and I know you are not my enemy. On that note, I don't mean to be impolite, but would you mind if I sit down?"

"Go ahead," said the Morrigan. She waved her hand. "You are the first Champion I took after a very long time, and I will admit, despite the length of time it has taken you to find your Path, I still have a special place in my heart for you, as well as high hopes."

"Great," said Kevin. "Am I still your only champion?"

"No," the goddess shook her head.

"Can I hear about the others? Are they bumbling around like I was?"

The Morrigan laughed, the sound like caltrops falling on steel. "Not quite. I have a Champion named Jacob who is on a path of cultivation. He is no longer human, but ironically has one of the most human hearts I have ever encountered in my existence. There is another, a magi, a wise one. She has an incredibly strong will, but she has a long way to go. Lastly, there is a truly unique champion named Max. He is," she paused, "difficult to describe. He is walking many Paths at once in a way that only one with monstrous talent could possibly manage."

Kevin chuckled. "And meanwhile, I'm a goblin now and it took a bunch of lives to eat some monsters and get a skill. Great."

The Morrigan shook her head. "That is perhaps not a fair statement to make of yourself. After all, you have reaped a great deal of experience and knowledge over your lifetimes. Some of the other Champions have actually taken a similar path to yourself in that regard. It is ironic, and perhaps the winds of fate, that I have begun specializing so heavily in reincarnation for my various Champions."

"Speaking of that," said Kevin, his voice grew hesitant because he was nervous, afraid to ask the question, but he pushed through. "You never actually told me how many lives I would have. In fact, I was surprised when it ended up being as many as it has been. Is this my last life, or do I have more?"

The Morrigan gave him an enigmatic expression. "Any reincarnation must be paid for. This is the rule of the universe that even one such as I cannot break. However, you accrued a great deal of karma in your first life, perhaps more than most other non-Champion warriors could ever possibly manage. This is why you have lived as many lives as you have."

Kevin wanted to say that wasn't an answer, but the amusement in the goddess' eyes showed she already knew what he was thinking. She wasn't going to give him a straight answer anyway, and he didn't want to risk pissing her off, so he let it go.

"So what now?" he asked.

The goddess shrugged. "Now you need to acquire power as quickly as you possibly can because you are no longer under any sort of protection from me. Your presence is no longer hidden."

“Didn’t you say that I was already a true Champion before?”

“You were. But I am not going to hide your presence anymore. While I am not throwing you into the Eternal Conflict, you are…a soldier now.”

“So the training wheels have been taken off, huh?”

“Exactly.”

"Too bad I already used up all the points I have in the Eternal Struggle Reward System." He groaned. "Using my points before ended up feeling completely useless."

The Morrigan shook her head. "Not at all, because now you have a lifetime of experience in living, moving, and fighting with far greater, with superhuman strength and speed. But you already know that, don’t you?” Her smile wasn’t warm, but wasn’t cruel, either.

“I suppose so.”

“If you survive on this world, your past experience will likely serve you well."

Kevin grinned ruefully. "It's not every day that I get a pep talk from the goddess of war."

The Morrigan waved a hand and said, "You are one of my favorite Champions over my entire existence, and we have only ever met twice before. In some ways, you have been adrift, undersupported, but this was also because my power is not unlimited. I must make hard decisions sometimes on where I go and how I spend my resources. Now that you have found the Path you will tread, I was able to descend to this place to meet you again." She twisted one wrist in a rueful, whimsical gesture and said, "Truthfully, I did not have full control over how you would reincarnate in this world. The twist of fate that led to you being adopted by the Paxdraconis of this world.

“It is an outcome I would not have cast dice on. And I am known these days as quite the gambler."

Kevin looked at the ground. "I'm glad they are my parents. They're the best parents I've ever had. My first true parents. I love them." He looked up, and there was fire in his eyes now. "Whatever calamity is coming to this world, is it possible it could actually be strong enough to hurt my parents?"

"Assuredly," said the Morrigan.

"Okay," Kevin stood up and bowed at the goddess. "I was going to get stronger anyway, but for what it's worth, I promise I'm going to give it my all. I've really come to love this world. If I can try to protect this world and be your Champion at the same time, which I believe I can, then I suppose I don't have any complaints."

The goddess stood, and her magnificent wings spread. She said, "I am glad we have an understanding.” She smiled at him. “I truly treat you differently than the other Champions. If they were to see this, I wonder what they would say?”

“You treat me differently?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “You have not asked, but I will give you direction. There are many choices you can make from here. How you acquire power, how you conduct yourself, and what role you decide to take in this world. You will likely meet other divine Champions along the way, both friendly and enemies. I bet heavily on you a long time ago, from your perspective, and I still believe that I made a good bet. Kevin Ambrose, whether you do great or terrible things will be your choice. And you have the luck of being the son of the Paxdraconis. Merely following their will and helping them defend the peace of this world gives you an effective path to develop your skill and power."

“I think I should probably follow through with what my parents asked me to do. If war comes to this world, it’ll just make it easier for any kind of outsiders to attack and destroy it.

“You said it, not me. All I can do is tell you that I find no flaw in your logic. She smiled and her conjured throne disappeared. Then the goddess moved backward as she faded away. When she was gone, the artificial darkness cleared all at once, and suddenly it was late afternoon in the forest again. Kevin glanced down at his meal that he'd only taken one bite of so far, shrugged, ate more of it, chewing thoughtfully. He'd almost forgotten about Branch.

The fairy asked in a quavering voice, "So you weren't lying about coming from the mountain, huh?"

Kevin shook his head and took another bite of his monster meal.

"Are you going to have a proper adventure?" asked the fairy. “A tale for ballads and books?”

Kevin looked into the distance, giving it some proper thought instead of reflexively answering. Finally, he grudgingly said, "I suppose I am."

“Is the goddess still looking for Champions?”

“Uh, I suppose so.”

“I want to be a Champion!”

“...What?”

Branch hopped forward on shaking legs, turned, and sketched a bow. "I, Branch Wirt Tappit sal Boletus, a named fairy, affiliate of the Plantaemanus, pledge to follow you in your service in the hopes that I will be recognized by your dark goddess and become a Champion too."

As soon as the fairy finished speaking, there was thunder with no sound as magic exploded in the vicinity. Branch looked dazed, and Kevin shook his head.

"You little idiot. That was a binding oath, and you just told me your real name. You really feel that strongly about this, huh?"

"Yes! I will be a Champion. It's my new dream! A big dream! The biggest dream! My kind would laugh at me. They laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a warrior, and then they laughed at me more when I heard stories of the gods, and wanted to meet one.

“But now I have met a god! A pretty and dashing goddess! And becoming a Champion is what I want! Yes, I'm long-lived, but what is a long life if one doesn't do anything with it? I want to be more, see more. It's one reason I approached you in the first place, because you felt so different. I am what you humans might call…an outcast, but I am still an affiliate of the Plantaemanus. Getting kicked off the hill was their loss. Now this is my chance. You can still make me leave, even after making my oath, but I want to show you how serious I am."

The fairy stood straight, his shaking legs settling down, and he held his arms behind his back in what he probably thought looked like a military pose. Kevin wasn't sure what to think. Honestly, fairies weren't known as being the most courageous or dependable creatures in the world. He also thought Branch could be a little annoying, but being an underdog and having dreams was something that spoke to him, spoke to his soul.

He chewed another bite of monster meat as he thought. Finally he said, "You can follow me on a trial basis. But if you get too annoying or you're a burden, I'm going to send you right back to this forest. Or at least you won’t be allowed to follow me anymore."

"Yes, Boss!" said the fairy. He darted forward and pointed at the monster meat. "Can I have some of that?"

"I thought fairies don't eat meat.”

"Normally we don't, or at least my kind doesn't, but if you got power from it, maybe I could too. It seems like a Champion thing to do!"

Kevin made a face and gestured at his meal. "If you want to take a piece, knock yourself out."

Branch grinned and dove in. Twenty seconds later, he was puking on the forest floor.