...what?

Skill termi... No, no no no!

Is this a dream? It has to be!

That couldn't have just happened, no way! No way in hell!

That... That...

...

Something is watching me.

I... I don't know what to do.

Is there even anything I can do?

...

I guess, for now...

All I can do... Is try it?

Let's see... how about...

Fire magic?

Ahhhh, obviously…

It wouldn’t just let you get anything you want, of course, of course.

I think I can probably guess what SP is, but how do I get it?

The most likely possibilities are… either killing things, or leveling up.

We’ve killed plenty of things up until now though… and we’ve also leveled up quite a bit…

Shouldn’t we have tons of SP stockpiled?

Is it because we haven’t killed anything or leveled up since the skill terminal was installed?

That makes sense, but… Isn’t that kinda unfair?

...I feel tempted to complain about this mentally, but, well, that’s why this is happening in the first place.

I don’t wanna take too many favors from the unknown person watching me.

In fact, I’d prefer to not take any more from here on out.

Hear that, whatever or whoever’s watching me? No more stuff like that!

Please and thank you!

Is not getting stalked really too much to ask for?

It’s terrifying, the thought of someone listening, watching me when I don’t kno-

[Fir!]

{Gah!}

[You’re alive!]

{Barely! You nearly gave me a heart attack just now!}

[You were gone for a super long time, I was worried!]

{Really? How long was I out for?}

[Uhhh… Probably like… I dunno! It was a long time though! So much happened while you were gone!]

{Yeah, I can tell. I took a look at our status.}

[Oh? So, whatd’ya think? Impressive, right?]

{What do you mean?}

[All the skills I worked so hard to level up! I spent a suuuuper long time locked in a chamber just training, and I think it payed off!]

{Oh, I see. Yeah, you did great!}

[Hehehe, I know!]

{So, what, uh… happened in here?}

[Huh? Oh, right! I killed the ant’s boss!]

{You wh- huh?!}

[Yeah! All the ants started leading me towards this place, where there was a suuuuper scary looking ant.]

{And where is that ant now…?}

[See that hole over there?]

{...Yeah?}

[It’s in there!]

{And… how did you manage that?}

[I tricked it into jumping onto a weak spot on the ground!]

{I… I see. And what about that wall of rocks there?}

[That was the entrance.]

{What’s going on behind the rocks?}

[A bunch of super mad ants!]

{I see. Is that the only entrance?}

[Yeah, I think so.]

{So, how do you plan on getting us out of here?}

[Uhhhh… I dunno!]

{Great…}

[Can’t we just go out there and fight ‘em?]

{I’m incredibly surprised you managed to survive on your own with that kind of thinking.}

[Hey!]

{No, we can’t just fight them. There are definitely too many too beat.}

[Ugh, you’re such a scaredy cat! We’re way stronger now. Trust me, we can win!]

{I’m not having this argument again! I’m not going to just lie down and die because you think you can win a fight. As long as I’m still around, I won’t let you get us killed!}

[Tch, you’re waaaay too stubborn. If you won’t budge on this, I guess I have nooo choice~]

{You- don’t you dare do anything stupid!}

[Toooo baaaaad!~]

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Taunting me, Gloria begins walking towards the sealed doorway of the chamber, the sound of ants on the other side growing louder and louder as we approach.

Before I can even begin to protest, she rams into the wall of rocks, making it collapse, and opening the entrance to the chamber back up.

Immediately after, a wave of writhing ants forces it’s way in, approaching rapidly.

[Here we go!]

Shit, am I going to have to use soul control, so soon after swearing to seal it away?

[Ooooooraaa!]

With a single slash from our claws, Gloria kills three ants.

...What?

Not slowing down, Gloria rushes forward, creating a pile of corpses as she crashes through the crowd of ants like a truck.

Well… I guess I should help out?

I manifest my soul, and shape it into a simple spear.

[Haha! That’s more like it Fir!]

{I’m still not happy about this, just so you know.}

Ugh, let’s just get this over with.

As Gloria continues charging into the horde, I stab any ants that approach us from the side.

Hm… she wasn’t lying, we are stronger.

But…

There are still a lot of ants.

Can we really beat them all?

The ants keep coming, and Gloria keeps killing them as they get close.

Blood splatters everywhere. As time goes on, the ants become a strange tint of yellow-green from the blood of their kin covering their bodies.

Or... maybe it’s not blood? I don’t know if what ants have is technically blood or not.

I just know it’s very gross.

And it stinks!

At least it seems their numbers are stretching thin now. If I wasn’t busy killing these things, I’d actually be able to count them. Just from a glance, I’d say there’s only a few dozen left.

Can’t we just run at this point? Surely we’d be able to get away with how few there are left.

[No way! Don’t you wanna level up?]

Ugh, thought she’d say that.

Ants hardly give any XP at all! What’s the harm in skipping a few dozen?

From what I know about Gloria, she never really played video games, but if she did, she’d definitely be the type to one hundred percent every game she played.

Ugh, I’m getting tired. Gloria can handle it from here.

I dispel the soul spear, and immediately it feels like a huge weight has been lifted.

Hahhh, I wanna learn magic already. Soul control is useful, but it’s also really taxing on me.

It makes sense, I’m literally forcing my soul into the shape of a weapon and swinging it around. Obviously that’d be harmful in some way.

I’m very glad for that new soul regeneration skill.

Not enough to actively train it though. I don’t want to accidentally take it too far and end up in that hell again. No thank you!

[Hahaha! Those ants were nothing!]

Ah, Gloria’s done.

We can finally leave.

Actually…

{Gloria, I think we should head back down to the ruins. I think we might be able to do something now that our magic skills are a little better.}

[Okay! We can leave after we have a little to eat.]

{...And what do you plan on eating?}

[Isn’t it obvious?]

{Can’t we just wait until we get back?}

[Nope! The journey’s long, we need to be full!]

Ants taste gross!

Which is why I’m very glad we won’t have to eat anymore for the foreseeable future.

Neither are good, but I definitely dislike this sandy area more than the area we were in before, so I’m happy we’re leaving, to say the least.

The trek back is long, but we’re already about halfway to the small tunnel we crawled through to get here. I don’t think out evolution made us a significant amount larger, so we should be able to fit back though.

The hardest part about this journey is remembering the pathway back.

It’s not hard when there’s a path of ant corpses though.

Like a way gorier trail of breadcrumbs.

Makes it easy to tell if we’re going the right way though, just have to follow the smell of rotting meat.

I don’t really know how much I like leaving a trail of rotting corpses in our wake…

It’s not my fault though! If it were up to me, we’d either not kill so much or clean up after ourselves.

I have no say though, since Gloria is so stubborn over the strangest of things.

“No, we have to kill every monster we come across. How else are we supposed to level up?”

“Clean the corpse? Why would we do that? Something else will come and eat the rest, it’s the circle of life!”

I guess she’s not wrong, it’s just… she adjusted to being a monster pretty quickly. It feels like while I’m struggling so hard to retain my humanity, she’s just accepted what she is and has thrown away her past.

It makes me worried about what will happen when- or maybe if- we find a somewhat humanoid evolution.

If it’s significantly weaker than the other option, or has some kind of major downside, I worry Gloria will refuse to pick it, even if it’s our only option for returning to normal human life.

Well, as normal as human life could be in a world of magic and monsters.

I’m sure it’s better than this at least.

I wasn’t exactly the most social guy in my last life, but now that I’m a monster, I’m missing human interaction more than anything else in the world.

Actually, I miss the food a bit more, but still, I miss socialization.

Gloria doesn’t count, she’s weird.

----------------------------------------

Man! Having Fir back is so nice!

It might sound bad, but annoying him is kinda fun…

How else am I gonna have fun like this?

We don’t do anything but eat, sleep, and fight.

Well, the fighting’s fun!

Apart from that though, nothin’!

So, I just tease Fir a lil every once in a while… yep, every once in a while.

I don’t do it with the intent to be mean, so it’s fine!

Yep, it’s fine!

----------------------------------------

Here we are.

The same hole we crawled through to get to this underground desert, right here.

A gentle stream of water still flows down it, filling the eerily silent area with a small bit of noise.

Time to go back!

With our newfound skills in magic, we stand a much better chance at understanding and possibly fixing those magic circles that were on the ground.

But, um, are we gonna be able to fit in here?