Megumi waited in the guild hall for a good hour before a beleaguered group of individuals dragged themselves back to the building. She breathed a small breath of relief seeing that these guys weren't so incompetent that they had been wiped out or anything. Now to find out what happened. She gave Poro-tan a knowing look and he seemed to get the message.

"How did it go, Lucien? What was in that toy store, and did you kill the demon?" he asked.

"All things considered, it went well. You stumbled on a den of evil, Hideki. There, right in plain sight, was a hidden enclave of villainous individuals. It wasn't just the demon, but rather 30 enemies of many different types. We lost almost half our guild today," he grimaced as the words came out, "but we just did the world a huge favor by exterminating those monsters!"

The rag-tag group of adventurers let out a cheer at that last part. Excellent! Megu is so smart for thinking to use these gullible idiots as her own personal extermination squad. She ran over to the man. "You really got them all? You're such a great man! Megu will be safe now?"

"We got them all." He patted her on the head. She bore it with good grace. After all, she was now in a fantastic mood. Poro-tan did his job well, and she decided she would reward him for it by feeding him some good food tonight. Even though her pet was technically dead, he would still need fuel to keep his body looking alive.

"Is it okay if Poro-tan walks Megu home, just to be on the safe side?" she asked the man.

"The guild doesn't need him for anything else tonight. He can do so if he wishes."

She saw that her pet frowned at that last bit. Actually, he can't do as he wishes, he can only do as Megu wishes. Poro-tan sighed in resignation and told the man he'd be walking her home. Megu did her best to act elated at this and jumped up and down excitedly before the two of them turned to leave.

"Hideki! One second!" Lucien ran over to the two of them.

Ugh! What now? Megu wants to go find some food and get a bit of rest before our long journey tomorrow!

"What is it?" Poro-tan asked.

"In light of what you did for the guild today, I'm going to promote you back to Class C. By coming here rather than charging in blindly like you normally would have, it shows some personal growth. Keep being a team player, and you could go far one day."

For the first time since Megu had trapped Poro-kun's soul, he actually smiled in earnest as far as she could tell. She shrugged. What's a rank other than a letter on a piece of paper? Oh well, if it makes him happy, I guess it is fine. When the two of them finally left the adventurer's guild, she took Poro-tan to Elise's Confectionary, her favorite place in town. The woman who ran the shop was a gifted Cryomancer who got tired of adventuring, and instead used her talents to create delicious frozen treats.

"Poro-tan, you did such an amazing job today that I'm going to let you pick our treat!"

He looked at her with a flat expression. "Do I even need to eat? I don't feel hungry or anything, and I'm not a big fan of sweets."

"Nonsense! Of course you need to eat! Megu's trying to show you some good will here. Don't let it go to waste!"

The adventurer just nodded his head in resignation and the two of them went inside. The menu featured all kinds of things, but he chose to get the banana split. Megumi couldn't complain as she always liked those. They took a seat by the window and she quietly explained their next move to him.

A couple minutes passed in silence and then Elise brought over a large glass dish containing three scoops of ice cream covered in chocolate fudge with a banana cut in half along the edge. Megumi took one of the spoons that were stabbed into the ice cream and jammed a gob of chocolate ice cream into Poro-tan's mouth. He looked as though he was disgusted. What kind of weirdo doesn't like sweets? Seriously! Megu is being the kindest master ever and he can't even put on a grateful face? He's ruining Megu's good mood!

"It's good to see you, Megu-chan! Looks like you have company today. That's pretty rare. You on a date? He's pretty cute, but isn't he a little old for you?" The middle aged woman let out a giggle. It was clear she was joking.

Megumi put on her cute attitude and quickly dismissed the idea of Poro-tan being her date and explained that he was just escorting her home from Whitegrove after the whole mess that had happened there. The cryomancer smiled and went back behind her counter to help another customer a short time later and Megumi dug into the delicious ice cream. It was sunset by the time they finally arrived back at her place.

Megu is beat. Toppling the local villain guild and stealing a dungeon core is a lot of work for one day! She willed Poro-tan to go sleep in her closet, and she cuddled up against Kuma-chan, her gigantic stuffed bear, and quickly fell asleep.

********************

"It took balls to screw the guild over like that, Megumi. If not for my special skill, I would have never made it out alive." A sinister voice said.

What the⁠—!?

Her eyes shot open and saw the glowing red eyes and visage of an angry Tylus. His sharp, talon-like fingernails were just barely off of her throat, and if he squeezed, her life would end. She was in complete shock and stared up at the demon without saying anything.

"What you did was vile, underhanded, and clever. I would commend you, but the sanctity of the guild hall and our code of conduct is iron-clad. Goodbye, Meg⁠—"

A blast of ki struck the demon in the back, shredding him from behind. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it did knock him off of her and stun him. Thank the gods I put Poro-kun into my closet and left the door open! She jumped up and ran over to her minion. "Get him, Poro-kun!"

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He jumped out of the closet with his sword flashing in the dim light of her bedroom and slashed off one of the demon's bat-like wings. Tylus shook off the stun and screamed in pain and rage. The demon came at Poro-tan with fury in his eyes. A tear in reality formed to the side of the enraged demon and he reached in, pulling free his cursed longsword. It glowed with an eerie purple light. Shit! Poro-kun wasn't fast enough. This is going to be bad.

Nobody really pursued the necromancer class because of the stigma of playing around with dead bodies. It was due to this that her class was so rare that virtually nobody knew what kind of spells she could wield other than re-animating the dead. That was exactly the way she liked things. The element of surprise had always served her well.

Everybody always underestimated her. Megumi's low level made it appear that she was far weaker than she really was. Sanguine Infusion had served her well over the years. The guild had her appraised every month to update their records on her level, but the level was just a number. Sanguine Infusion had allowed her to amass more than double the amount of TPs a person her level should have and so she was far more powerful than she appeared. Megu needs her staff! She ordered her pet to stall the demon and prevent him from pursuing her through the link and then dashed out of the room.

"This low-level trash won't save you, Megumi. Face your fate with dignity!"

Megumi didn't turn around and grabbed her bag from its hiding place near her kitchen. Smashing could be heard in her bedroom, but from her link, she could tell that Poro-kun was still hanging in there, although he must've taken some sort of heavy damage. His health was nearly half gone.

He had bought her enough time, however, and she pulled her staff clear of the bag and ran back toward her bedroom. The demon's purple sword was stabbed cleanly through Poro-kun's shoulder and the skin on her minion's arm was turning a dark purple, bordering on black. Megu doesn't have long!

She commanded her minion to grab the demon with his free arm, and he did so. He wasn't strong enough to throw Tylus anywhere, but he could hold him in place just long enough for her to cast. She jumped onto the bed and now stood high enough to have a clear shot. Green energy formed at the tip of her staff and Tylus struggled to escape Poro-kun's grasp.

Too late! Checkmate! Megu wins again! The green blast of Eldritch energy slammed into her foe's head, exploding it and causing black blood to splatter all over her stuffed animals. Not taking any chances, she cast again and pulverized his body. Lastly, she cast Sanguine Infusion on what was left of the body. The life essence of the former guild hall master rose into the air and into her. Since the spell didn't fail to activate, it meant that he was dead for real this time. She breathed a sigh of relief. That was when she was greeted with a happy surprise in the form of two distinct noises. *Ding* *Ding*

Congratulations! You have reached level 17!

+1 TP

Congratulations! Sanguine Infusion has succeeded.

+1 TP

Megumi grinned with satisfaction. Tylus had always looked down at her, and now she could have what was left of him wiped off her floor. Not only that, but she had just gotten his cursed sword for Poro-tan! Things couldn't have worked out any better. If only the fool hadn't made the mistake of waking her up to get in the final word. What a dumb-ass!

Megumi resolved to make sure that Poro-tan watched over her when she slept from now on. He didn't really need much sleep anyway; a few hours a day would be enough to maintain his body.

"Poro-tan, clean this up. I'm going to go take a shower and sleep on the couch." She placed her two new TP as she walked out of the room and toward the washroom.

Spoiler: Poro-kun's Stats

Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 012 (5011/5194 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 253/500 MP 50/50 TP 2 Adventurer Rank C Attributes Vitality 20 Magic 2 Endurance 16 Magic Resistance 5 Strength 15 Luck 4 Agility 11   Dexterity 12 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 3 (+30 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 2 (+20% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 1

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+5% natural defense) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade)

Spoiler: Megumi's Stats

Name Megumi Level 017 (11,203/13,655 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 350/350 MP 625/625 TP 0 Villain Rank C Attributes Vitality 14 Magic 52 Endurance 7 Magic Resistance 40 Strength 5 Luck 13 Agility 6   Dexterity 9 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 4 (+120 MP regeneration/min) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 7 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 7% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims)

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 6 - (+60% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorption (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 11 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)