So many things could have gone wrong during the battle at Fort Oak, but it seemed that luck could indeed be even on Jacob’s side from time to time; or, as someone else would have put it…

THIS GREAT KEVIN SAVED THE DAY ONCE AGAIN!

Jacob was helping Geneva with some wounds she had received.

“Thank you for teaching Andrew some Healing Spells, it was cool,” Geneva said, “I know he’s having problems adjusting.”

Jacob shrugged.

“He just wants to stay with you. You should go easier on him. Not everyone is born to be a bloodthirsty warrior; actually, I would prefer people not to be so. It’s one thing to step up when a calamity strikes, another to look for one.”

Geneva knew she had been pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone, fighting more and more, stronger and stronger enemies. She finally felt as if she had come to a place that fit her, a position that was cut exactly to her measures.

“I told him he doesn’t need to try too hard,” Geneva rebuked.

“Yeah, after you told him that he was not trying hard enough,” Jacob looked at her with an accusatory gaze. Andrew loved to talk to him, apparently, and that had Jacob discover his talent for Healing, a very rare and sought-after Affinity.

“He shouldn’t squander his talent,” Geneva mumbled.

“And he shouldn’t be your personal healer, at your beck and call,” Jacob observed.

He could be in a child’s body, but he had extensive experience in seeing marriages implode. Therefore, he could at the very least give her some decent advice. He wasn’t the best at using his own advice, but he had given some good relationship advice in his past life.

“Jacob,” Marina’s voice materialized behind him. “I had them pack up. The horde of Demonic Beasts was a great incentive. I almost wish we could have one on command every time we need to evacuate a city.”

“Well, I’m not sure there are many cities to be evacuated in the North at the moment. If these Demonic Beasts reached us, they probably already killed everything they found on their path. We are talking around four or five thousand people that we now need to consider as well as dead.”

Marina’s expression became dark.

“What now?” she asked.

“We’ll send a team up North to clean up as many of these Wolves as possible. I met an old acquaintance… She will lead the team in my place. I need to stay in St. Peter and teach the people there some of the crafts we need for the future.”

Jacob explained his past life to both of them, since he couldn’t really justify Epagogia in any other believable way.

…

“Wow,” that was all Geneva had said.

“And Marcus guessed it? Marcus, the one who thought you were a government spy who crossed his boss? Are you pulling my leg, Jacob?” Marina was skeptical.

“I am as bewildered as you are, Marina. But that seems the case. Lucius said that Marcus advanced that hypothesis multiple times during this month and that it became his main guess on my background. I know it’s very hard to believe, but—”

“No, Jacob,” Marina cut him off, “Marcus guessing this is the hard part. Believing that a fifteen-year-old who could suddenly do all these incredible things and had knowledge from God knew where came from the future, that’s the easy part to believe.”

“Yeah, it does explain everything perfectly,” Geneva added.

“Well, everyone is taking this news in stride, I see,” Jacob thought.

“What did Linda say?”

Shit.

“I—forgot to tell her,” Jacob couldn’t believe his own words. “Well, I mean, I heard the pack howling as soon as I met her and Joseph. I guess I’m partly justified. But yeah, I’ll go back to St. Peter now. Just hurry everything along. Since we killed the whole package we should probably be safe for a while. Plus, we will need those corpses. Their hides are good enough to make a lot of armor for the Mantis realm cultivators. Oh man, I’ll have to organize supply lines, won’t I?”

…

Jacob could already feel a splitting headache at the thought of having to organize not just the team for the cleanup of the Demonic Bloody Wolves, but also the supply lines to get back all those crafting materials. But, on the other hand, the corpses of Demonic Beasts were extremely resistant to decay, and he could further extend the ‘expiration date’ with some simple Inscription Patterns meant for preservation.

I wish I had an Interspatial Ring, Jacob sighed.

TSK! THOSE USELESS LITTLE THINGS WITH NO SPACE? THIS GREAT KEVIN HAS ENOUGH SPACE TO STORE AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN, YOU TINY LITTLE HUMAN—

Jacob, this time punched out the car’s door. He literally made it fly out. He punched so hard he was pretty sure he broke his wrist or at least something that would take at least a day to heal. But his nerves had just snapped.

“Kevin, for Christ’s sake! How can you be a fucking dimensional storage? You are lying!”

THIS GREAT KEVIN NEVER LIES! HIS WORDS MIGHT BE AS SHARP AS ADAMANTIUM BLADES, BUT HIS HONESTY IS AS CLEAR AS AN HEAVENLY CRYSTAL! CHECK FOR YOURSELF, PUNY HUMAN, JUST USE YOUR SOUL TO—

Jacob knew the process and immediately reached with his soul for—

Jacob stopped the car, went back to take the car door he had punched out, and started smashing it on the ground.

AH! THE PUNY HUMAN IS LEFT SPEECHLESS AGAIN IN FRONT OF THIS GREAT KEVIN’S MIGHT!