Tess had spent the three weeks since her promotion to Blue rank in a flurry of activity. She would wake before sunrise to meet up with Hepha, then the pair would spar with weapons. Afterwards, she would take on the open target quests to slay monsters for continued practice. She would return near sundown, then spar with Hepha again with spells. Despite the mundane nature of the training routine, Tess did feel herself getting even stronger.

“So why do you believe that you’re the hero?” Hepha asked.

Tess paused mid-swing, allowing Hepha to bat away her sword and lose this spar.

“Why do you ask now?” Tess replied.

“Reports don’t make their way this far from the front often. One just did the other day. The royals and such will say it’s fine. Acceptable losses or something like that. Anyone with a thought, those that want to at least, can see the losses piling up with no end in sight. Throw in some talk of a hero and more boys sign up to die. There’s also a rumor of an expedition being prepared, with the prince saying he would be the hero the people needed.”

“The prince? Not another woman?”

Now Hepha looked confused.

“Another woman?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Pick up your blade and let’s go again. And tell me about it.”

Tess grabbed her fallen blade and the two resumed their sparring. As they were, Tess explained how she was not of this world and how she came to be here. She also outlined that Olivia had tagged along, then betrayed Tess before the goddess Oena. She had no idea where Olivia was, but it was reasonable to suspect that, being chosen by the goddess, she had ended up in a much safer location than falling from the sky.

“Well, the rumors are probably a couple months old. If she arrived at the same time you did, we won’t hear about it for another month at least,” Hepha said, blocking another of Tess’s strikes.

“Does information really travel that slow?”

“Depends. The big cities swap information fast. Something about mages in training getting practice. Towns like us aren’t big enough or too remote to have trainees like that, so we get it via merchants and travelers.”

Tess dodged and parried a series of attacks, thinking both about her movements and the speed of information. If a town like this got information that slowly, then a village like Kelt would be truly in the dark.

“Well, I suppose I need to go join that expedition.”

This made Hepha pause, giving Tess an opening. She struck towards Hepha’s hand to disarm her, only to be parried at the absolute last second.

“How?” Tess complained.

“Instinct. Skills are good, but when you train enough, you get a sense for things. Once you hit that stage, even when you lose you can still win.”

Hepha and Tess took a seat in the field they used just outside the town.

“You really think that this Olivia isn’t going to fulfill her role as the chosen hero?” Hepha asked.

Tess pondered the limited information she had about the young woman. She could work hard if pressed to do so, Tess had proven that. The lies made sense when she considered how Olivia had responded after being summoned. She was self-centered, more than a little vain, and likely had always gotten what she wanted. When Tess tried to destroy those elements of her personality for her own survival, she had fought back.

“I am at least partially at fault if she doesn’t.”

“Are you now?”

“I did what I thought I needed to in order to point her in the right direction. But now I think I went about it the wrong way.”

Hepha nodded at Tess’s admission.

“You mentioned others you trained, yes? How many results of your influence have you seen from them?”

“Um, none?”

“Exactly,” Hepha said, pointing at Tess, “This is the only one where you will bear witness to the methods you’ve used. Who says you didn’t screw up many times before?”

Tess thought about it. Perhaps it was naive to think that she was a good teacher. She had certainly tried to be, tailoring her method for each apprentice. Had she noticed any of the hostility that Olivia showed her before? There were many that resisted at first until Tess had done her thing. Yet none had shown this level of vitriol, or Tess had been ignorant of it.

“Maybe I have. Regardless, I have to set things right.”

Hepha sighed.

“You’ve got a strong conviction at least. Maybe a little too good-natured too.”

“After pointing out my failures, you compliment me?”

“I’ll show you some more of your failures. Get up, let’s go again.”

The clash of weapons as the two women dueled again had a certain rhythm to it that notified the townsfolk as to where they were, and they avoided that area as much as possible.

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Much like Hepha had said, news of the Champion of the Goddess arrived in Langison about a month later in a large trade caravan. Alongside it came the news that the rumored expedition was now going to be a reality, and that the local militias out here were to join.

“They’re only calling for the militias. Would they take adventurers too?” Tess asked, leaning against the rickety counter at the guild.

Hepha shrugged.

“Don’t see why not. You’re better than the entire regional militia here.”

“How do you know?”

Hepha stared at her.

“Why do you continue to doubt yourself? You’re the highest rank in town. You’re practically Purple, but I can’t authorize that test myself. Anyway, most of the militia has watched you train with me over the past two months.”

“They have?”

Hepha gestured towards the quest posts.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“The militia doesn’t pay well out here, not that we do either, but it is generally peaceful out here too. So the governor lets the militia train as they see fit. Most do adventuring work.”

Tess had noticed a significant drop in the adventurer count since the news arrived, but had not put the two pieces together.

“So will you go?” Hepha asked.

“You really want me around?”

“Not really. Being the only high ranker around was nice. The break from dealing with high rank threats was better.”

“So I’m just an excuse for you to not work?” Tess joked.

Hepha merely smirked and did not elaborate further.

“We’ll miss you out here.”

“I might come back after things are done. This is a pretty nice area.”

Hepha could only agree.

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Getting ready to depart with the militia had been a sinch. Tess had already acquired most of the basics she needed, leaving only her traveling foodstuffs to be picked up at the last minute. Her ability to create the magic bags she utilized also saved on space, so she carried relatively little compared to the militia members.

“What we lack now is speed,” Tess grumbled.

It had been a week since they had left Langison, and while the journey was going well by the standards of the captain, to Tess it felt as though they were a week behind. The size of their group, a few hundred members, scared away not only the beasts, but also the monsters. It left Tess with nothing to do other than travel with the group. She could have forged ahead alone, but it was unlikely that she would then be recognized as a contracted member of the Langison militia.

The captain, a man by the name of Lyle, had readily accepted Tess accompanying the militia. To help guarantee her position on the forthcoming expedition, and the position of the handful of other adventurers that were not already militia members, Lyle had them sign a contract that appointed them as an independent unit of the Langison militia. It meant that they answered to Lyle, but otherwise they continued to operate in their adventuring parties. In Tess’s case, a party of one.

“May I join you?”

Tess glanced up from her meal at the small campfire she had going. It was the only other woman in the entire militia force, adventurers included. Like Tess, she was a member of the independent unit, but she operated in a party of five.

The woman was tall and had an athletic build. Her eyes were a deep green and her brown hair was always kept short. Slightly pointed ears stuck out through her hair, a signature of the diluted elven blood within her. Though she currently was unarmed, Tess had recalled seeing her wield a rapier or something similar. She also usually had something else slung across her back, though Tess had never seen her use it.

“Sure,” Tess said after swallowing.

The other woman sat, placing a small bundle next to the fire before turning her attention back to Tess.

“Ezandra. I’m an Encanter.”

“Tess. I’m a… Witchblade? I’m still working on what to call what I am.”

Ezandra let out a small laugh.

“Everybody here knows who you are. The woman who has been going toe-to-toe with the Bladestorm for two months.”

“Bladestorm? You mean Hepha?”

“Yeah. Apparently it was her adventurer name. Earned it because she dual wields and cuts through everything so fast. At least that’s what they said when I joined.”

Tess had not heard that story. Of course, there were still a lot of things Tess had not heard.

“I see. What’s an Encanter do?”

“Primarily I use song magic to aid my party. I cause harmful status effects on enemies and helpful effects on allies.”

“Interesting. A support role.”

“Well, it’s supposed to be. I’m not good at it. If I was then I’d be able to sing the entire battle.”

“You can’t?”

“No, my mana is low, so I can only maintain a few minutes. If I had more than I could last longer.”

“Why not make your one song into smaller songs that you can rapidly use then at the impactful moments?” Tess asked.

“I wish that it worked that way. The longer a song goes, the more impactful it becomes,” Ezandra replied.

“Oh. So you would be starting over each time.”

“Yes. It’s why I’m only Orange. I may make it to Yellow one day, but I’ll be stuck at a low Yellow then.”

“Why come on the expedition then?”

Ezandra looked thoughtful. She took the small bundle away from the fire, opening it to her now warm meal. The silence continued for a few minutes as they ate.

“I guess I’m hoping that I can learn how to increase my mana. Maybe find some elves.”

Tess nodded, scanning her exhaustive list of skills. Mana Regeneration was useful, but did not work in combat and was slow.

“I think what you need is Mana Pool, but it isn’t easy to obtain,” Tess said.

“Mana Pool? What is it?”

“It increases your mana. Gives a lot based on your Knowledge stat. But like I said, not easy to obtain.”

“It sounds like what I need though. How do I get it?”

“You have to completely drain your mana daily for ten years.”

Ezandra’s eyes went wide.

“Ten years? That’s… that’s a lot.”

“Yeah. Haven’t had mana problems since I got it by surprise.”

“You have it? Just how old are you, Tess?”

“Now that is rude.”

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Elsewhere on Iriea

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Pain.

Pain was how he came into being. The pain of death brought on his life. And now through the pain of those who brought him his life he grew stronger. Every one of the monsters he subjugated joined the collective which fed his pain. Every one of them called out for the same thing: to end the pain.

The source of the pain he struggled to understand for a while. At first it was a jumbled mess of images from the minds of his subordinates. It was not until he saw for himself the source of the pain that he understood.

They had been a group of four, two who used sharp sticks and two who used magic. They had attacked him for no reason, inflicting the first pain on him directly. In that moment he understood what the pain was that his subordinates felt. The group’s sticks and magic inflicted pain. They needed to be stopped. He had torn them apart easily, but now the disjointed images had a face to them. He needed to stop them. With more subordinates, his power grew fast, and he learned. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastkins, all of them caused pain. He would stop them from causing pain.

He had an army of monsters under his command, obeying his every order. They brought pain to those that inflicted it. There was no mercy for those that brought pain. He had seen some beg to be spared from pain, a foolish endeavor. He made sure their pain was greatest. If he could not live without pain, then neither could they. He heard them call him a name, yet he cared not what it was.

There was an issue. Those that caused pain had formed a line of pain. No matter how many subordinates attacked the line of pain, they could not break it. It was growing difficult to command all of the subordinates, thus why he did not fight much anymore. But he would have to break the line of pain himself.

As he rose, he felt a deep pain that he had never felt before. It seemed to almost pull him in a direction, towards the line of pain. No, not towards the line, behind the line. Something beyond the line caused him pain just being there. He needed to find it. He needed to stop it.

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Elsewhere over Iriea

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“You are a nameless lesser deity. You worked for MSI. And now you want to directly fix my copy of the System?” Oena asked.

“Well, fix is a complicated way to put it.”

“Fix is an easy way to put it. I received two heroes. I recognized one as my champion, like I’m supposed to. But it was the wrong one. I want to change that.”

“You want to change it? Why?”

Oena visually materialized the two profiles of the two hero candidates.

“Which one do you think is better?” Oena demanded.

“That one,” the lesser deity said, pointing.

“Exactly, so what I really want to know is how this other one tricked me.”

Oena shook the other profile to emphasize her frustration.

“I will have to look in depth at it. May I access your System?”

“Fine.”

The lesser deity manifested his holographic keyboard and started furiously typing at it. Lines of code in countless languages criss-crossed his holographic screen as he went through, searching for the answers being demanded by the client goddess before him.

Why was he actually here? He was not actually interested in fixing this goddess’s issue. He was not even sure he could do what she wanted. Godly blessings were complex things that wove into the code of the System in a way that he never understood. It was theoretically possible, as if he unwound the blessing code from the profile code he could apply it to a different profile.

What he really wanted was to observe the wondrous profile that had been stuck in the Tutorial. That one was sure to do great things without his involvement, but he wondered just how far it would go if he tweaked things. He was going to enjoy this hobby project immensely.