I knock on Cayden's door, no Answer. I knock harder, still nothing.

He's not inside. A pull, a feeling, an intuition, a little something tells me he's in the park near the inn. The cold night air brush against my skin as I step on the short grass, looking left and right for Cayden. I hear a whoosh sound, as if a stick is being swung around in the air; it's Cayden, he is sparring with an invisible opponent, thrusting his sword at them, dodging and parrying attacks that I cannot see.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

He freezes, his sword stopping mid-swing. "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping? I'm sure Eda's waiting for you," he says, still staring at the invisible opponent.

"I thought you might need help." I sit down on the wet grass and pull out a few ingredients. I quickly cook some mushroom tea, I don't need a fire to heat it up, I never did.

"I'm doing fine, it's just that back then... I was about to make a big mistake." He sheathes his sword and sits next to me, accepting the tea I offer him. He takes a long sip before continuing, "I don't think we would've won this fight, I could feel it. I thought that because we managed to beat a core once, we could do it again, but I... we were just not strong enough."

"It's okay, you don't have to-"

"IT'S NOT OKAY!" Cayden suddenly shouts, his voice echoing in the night. "If someone's hurt, and I'm just not strong enough to defend them, then it's my fault. If I lead my friends into a dangerous situation, then it's MY fault! I have to do something because otherwise who will? Who will act when everyone's standing aside? Who will protect those we need protecting when every other adventurers flee because there's no money to be made in doing the right thing!"

I wrap my hands around his waist, and pull him into a hug. "I will."

He drops the tea, it spills on the grass. "But I'm supposed to be the one to... I promised..." He quietly sobs as he melts into my arms.

"It's okay. I'll protect everything for you." I gently stroke his hair. I'll make sure to keep all of them safe, but for that I need a new goal, a tangible one.

I have to get stronger.

****

I'm weak, much weaker than everyone else in my party. My class just isn't built for combat, but there must be ways to circumvent it, my main limiter is how much food I can eat at a time, most of the food will spoil before I eat it all--so I need to find a way to speed up the digestion process.

I flip through multiple books in the library. Books about skills, cooking recipes and whatever else is relevant to my class; War Chefs are not particularly rare in adventuring parties, but there's no obvious way for them to grow faster than other proper adventuring classes.

However, there is one thing that would make my class better than others combat wise. Because other classes are limited by levels, this means they will eventually reach a 'level cap' where levelling up is near impossible without grinding for a very long time. My class gains stats linearly because of the food I eat, this means that if I were to live for a very long time, I would eventually beat other classes as most of my stat gains do not come from levels.

Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time. I may be immortal, but my 'death' would still result in losing everything I'm trying to protect here, so I need to find an alternative. And if I can't think of an alternative right now, then the answer is obvious: I have to raise my intelligence too. If my intelligence is high enough, I'll be able to come up with a solution much faster.

I drop my books on the counter. Cel doesn't take her eyes away from the book she's reading. "Why are you bothering me again?" She sighs, and just pushes the books back to me with one hand. "You always give them back. It's not like anyone will notice they are gone."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I nod. "I'll protect you too."

She raises her head, a confused look on her face. "...Okay?"

I leave the library, I have work to do.

****

As long as I stick to my schedule, my progress will be exponential. I found a way to bypass my biggest weakness: replica scrolls. Replica scrolls can make a perfect body copy of yourself, but it cannot act by itself--as such it is mostly used to fake your death or as a decoy, but it has another use.

The body will disappear after an hour, and reintegrate whatever buff that body had into the original. In other words, I can double the permanent stat buffs I'm getting, although I hear it's possible to have three replicas of yourself, the dangers associated with it are really high, so I will only make one copy of myself at a time. The reason this technique isn't used by everyone is that nearly no permanent buffs are capable of stacking--but war chef meals are a notable exception.

Replica scrolls are unfortunately expensive, but Eda has enough money saved up to afford those expenses. She's usually pretty stingy with money, but she said she trusted me with it. But it's still not enough, even with my growth essentially doubled, I'm still behind Cayden and Eda. I need to find more loopholes, more ways to get stronger, I need more of everything if I want to protect everyone.

We still have to gain money before Eda's reserve run out, and the most profitable thing monster to hunt right now are goblins. Goblin hunting became an integral part of our party's routine as a result.

I wonder if I could use their teeth for something. I heard goblin teeth could be used in potions, perhaps they would have some unique properties if cooked into a meal?

I parry the goblin's strike with my wooden stick, and bat its head straight off its body without trouble. I could use a stronger weapon, but this stick has served me well thus far, surprisingly sturdy. Cayden and Eda have no issue with their own goblins, but there's still a lot of them left--still nothing we can't handle.

More goblins come out of the woodwork. Some bigger than others, some riding wolves, some equipped in what looks like quality heavy armor.

An ambush, a big one. There's roughly a hundred of them, that might be a bit much, even for us. But I swore I'd protect them no matter what, and I won't back down now. As I try to figure out a plan, a beam of light goes straight past me and directly into a nearby goblin's torso. The goblin starts to emit a purple glow, and its head explode into a million, thin spikes.

"The one and only hex goddess, at your service!"

The spikes contort and pierce the head of each and every goblin in range. Their head explodes into more spikes, more gore, more corpses.

"The forces of evil shall tremble before their own power!"

Eventually, the battlefield is nothing but spikes; they somehow always contort around us, never touching our party.

"Beware, friend or foe, as my magic is too AWESOME to be contained!"

A figure lands in the middle, she twirls and strikes a cute pose. All the spikes suddenly disappear, the sound of a dozen headless goblin corpses can be heard falling on the ground, their executioner standing tall and proud in the blood soaked earth.

Cayden waves in the figure's direction. "Thanks Lexia." He then turns to me with a smile. "James, we should probably get out before more show up."

Lexia pouts. "Thanks? Is that all you have to say. I just- I thought you found that stuff cool, Cayden! I prepared my entrance and all that!"

Eda gives Lexia a thumbs up. "W-we're thankful, we're just very busy."

"We haven't seen each other for a YEAR, I was expecting a stronger reaction! Wait, since when did YOU stutter, Eda?" Lexia stomps towards Eda. She squeaks and hides behind me.

"I- I don't stutter, I- I'm just-"

"You're doing it again!" Lexia rolls her eyes. "Seriously, you're usually so confrontational, and now you're hiding behind someone else. Why... Why am I getting angry over this. I just thought you guys would be happy to see me, but it doesn't even look like you care."

"I'm happy to see you again, Lexia," I answer.

"Yeah, at least someone is..." She eyes me up and down, and after a long pause, she takes a step back. "Something's not right here..."

Eda hugs my arm from behind. "I think he's very right!"

"That's not what I-" Lexia frowns. "Are you two a thing now? I know a year is a long time but I didn't expect you guys to change THIS much. Although..." Her gaze fixate on me, her left eye twitches. "Hey, James. Can I talk to you alone for a few minutes? It's very important."

I nod. "Sure."

Eda protests, but I assure her it's okay, I don't think Lexia would hurt me for no reason, or at least not permanently. I'm actually kind of happy to see her again, it makes it easier to protect her this way, although she's a lot stronger than I am, so maybe she's the one protecting me.

Lexia leads me behind a big boulder, so that no one else can see us. She takes a deep breath, and grabs my neck with one of her hands, pushing me against the rock. "You might be able to fool these two, but I know fake when I see it." She digs her fingers into my throat, it hurts. I can't breathe. "What the fuck are you, and what did you do with him?"