With Victor’s help, Zoey narrowly managed to avoid being wanted by the entire magjistar community during her first week after the bullying she did with Victor. The twins were unable to remember anything about the case because of their severe head injury from the D-Grade daemon and definitely not because of a magji tool Victor got from the underground magjistar community. This allowed Zoey to peacefully go about her life for a short period of time until she was forced back into the magji world by the OM “urgently requesting” that she takes on some important cases.

The whole thing stunk of shit and Zoey was suspicious of anything that the OM wanted her to do. So, she immediately called up Victor and told him about the case they wanted her to take. The case involved several other magjistars. It was a joint operation with multiple magjistars to take down a large group of daemons that have joined together for some purpose. That was as much information that Zoey was given as a “lowly Bringer.”

“Sounds great for a little monster like you to run wild, gain some merits, and advance. Make sure you make yourself look good for the other magjistars so that you can rank up to Grade-D quickly. Keep your guard up for anyone trying to kill you, assassinate you, or get you killed by daemons. Don’t nearly kill any magjistars unless you record them trying to kill you first.” Victor rambled off at the mouth. “There will definitely be someone that tries something against you. Expect it and plan for it. Besides that, that’s all I need to say, I think. Have fun!” Victor hung up the call and Zoey felt confused and upset.

So, guarding her life against assassins, people that wanted to involve her in shit to incriminate her, and trying to make friends all at the same time is just how it's gonna be from now on then, huh?! It was only a couple of months ago that she was just a normal high schooler doing absolutely nothing with her life! Realizing this made Zoey think deep and hard about her life right now. Then she laughed after thinking about the words deep and hard.

“Focus, Zoey!” She giggled.

Was all of this even worth going through? Did she need to be involved with all this complicated shit when she could easily live an easy life without being involved in the magji world? Thinking about her goals, Zoey understood that if she got up, moved somewhere else in the world, and left this magji stuff behind. She could lead a completely easy life anywhere in the world thanks to the skills she’s gained with the Box.

With the seal that Victor put on her, bringing her strength down to a level where she could fairly compete with normal human fighters isn’t impossible anymore. That meant she could reenter fighting competitions without feeling like she was entirely cheating. A handicap that limited her strength would improve how fast her skills grew. It lets her reexamine her options and capabilities when she’s weaker. If she’s normally capable of smashing a grown man’s rib cage with a single punch, what would she do if that punch was reduced to the level of a simple bruise? Stuff like that lets Zoey think of more ways to hurt people, which she felt was never a bad thing.

But did Zoey want easy? If it was the Zoey who hadn’t taken boxing lessons for protection, then she knew damn sure she would say yes. Now was a different story. Inside her, she could tell that she wasn’t completely sane anymore. There was a craving in her heart that slobbered for violence, for improvement, to see the numbers on the Box increase day by day. She wanted to fight, win, and get stronger constantly!

What better way to fill this craving than to fight daemons?! Chosen enemies of humanity that no one would feel bad for if they disappeared or were bullied to death by her fists! Daemons were born through humans and humans weren’t disappearing anytime soon. This meant that Zoey had a seemingly endless supply of enemies to fight for the rest of her lifetime!

It was just really fucking annoying and unlucky that she got on the bad side of the OM. Now that she thought about it, was the OM the only organization facing off against daemons? That had to be impossible, right? Because that would mean the Organization of Magjistars is a worldwide organization solely responsible for taking care of daemons for the safety of humanity.

Now Zoey wasn’t the smartest girl around but she knew that the OM couldn’t be the only group facing off against daemons. But even if Zoey decided to leave the OM and join another group, that didn’t mean it would solve any of her problems. She bet that those assholes would immediately frame her as a criminal and still try to secretly kill her. So, Zoey’s options were limited in how she could enjoy herself by fighting daemons and growing without being annoyed by assassins and the OM.

The only feasible option she could see was growing so quickly and rapidly within the OM, gaining friends and people to support her, until she was strong and popular enough to go head-to-head with the top of the OM. If she won, no one but daemons could bother her anymore. If she lost, well, she’d either be dead or imprisoned for life in some magical prison. Zoey doubted they sent criminal magjistars to normal jail because it didn’t make sense.

Thinking of her only feasible option, Zoey felt overburdened by how big a task that really was. The scariest part to her was the friends and getting people to support her. Getting stronger was only a matter of time and not something Zoey was worried about. Scratching her head in frustration, Zoey grabbed everything she might need for the joint daemon case and told her mom she was going out to solve a case.

“Be safe.” Her mom replied from the couch.

Zoey texted Alexander and Lindsay to see if they were also headed to the joint daemon case as she jogged all the way to the city.

“Joint daemon case? 😕 😕 😕” Alexander texted.

“I haven’t received a notification about something like that. Magjistars at our grade usually don’t participate in dangerous cases like that until we’ve reached Grade-C with plenty of successful cases under our belt and the recommendation of at least three Grade-B magjistars or the level of a Grade-B magjistar.” Lindsay explained.

So, those OM bastards were definitely trying to get her killed here. Both Lindsay and Alexander are considered talented magjistars but both of them were left out of this case while she, ‘a lowly bringer’ was called in? That’s bullshit and this case was full of nothing but shit. But Zoey was a little excited to fight the daemons. As if there was anything else to look forward to with this case.

If she could help it, she planned to level up her Grappling during this case. Besides the two new magji techniques that Victor taught her, Grappling was the lowest leveled skill she had at the moment. Zoey liked to keep her skills mostly around the same level because it looked nicer when she brought up her status screen. But not every skill was as easy to raise as Grappling because certain skills could only be raised in special situations. Focus, Abnormal Conditions, and Terrifying Aura were some of these skills. Focus couldn’t be used unless Zoey felt her life was in danger during a situation or she was pushing herself to her absolute limit. Abnormal Conditions needed her to be affected by something. Like being burned, cold, frozen, poisoned, or sick. Terrifying Aura needed people to be afraid of her for some reason first.

Leveling Grappling with daemons is always a risk because no two daemons are completely alike. Being in such close proximity to a daemon can easily lead to Zoey being caught off guard by them. Either a long controllable tongue that can wrap around her throat, become sharp, or growing their own limbs, suddenly combusting into flames. A bunch of uncontrollable situations that Zoey could only respond to by not trying to grapple them anymore. Like with the skills that needed specific conditions to be fulfilled before they can be used, Grappling was similar when it came to daemons. Zoey needed to identify and learn about the daemon she was facing before deciding to use Grappling to ensure her own safety.

Despite how tough Zoey was, enduring pain for the sake of it wasn’t something she enjoyed. Now enduring pain for the sake of leveling her skills was a different thing altogether. It has been a few weeks since Zoey has last slept in order to cheaply level her Endurance skill. Zoey still couldn’t help but laugh as she realized this bug in the system. The longer she went without sleep, the more experience was gained for Endurance and the more experience gained, the more the skill leveled up. It was a loop of infinite experience that could only be broken if Zoey was knocked unconscious!

“Maybe this case won’t be as bad as I'm thinking.” Zoey had a smile on her face, eager to have some fun.