“How many different colors can you make?” Orrin asked excitedly.

“I have no idea,” Madi responded, as Orrin grabbed the staff and sword. He walked to one end of the courtyard and stabbed the sword into the ground.

“Does it do any damage?” Orrin asked, walking to the other side and wedging the staff so it stood up. He tried to straighten it but gave up quickly. It did not matter for his experiment.

“Not much more than your [Lightstrike].” Madi was intrigued and caught up in Orrin’s fervor.

“But you have to aim it, so you can hit a specific area instead of a monster if you want to right?”

“Yes, but Orrin why would I want to do that? This spell was something I should never have wasted a point on. It’s weak and pointless.”

Orrin smiled as he stood next to Madi. “You know something I keep reading is that everybody is so focused on overall damage output. Why?”

“The party wants to take down the monster quickly. If you don’t, it is more likely that someone gets hurt,” Madi explained as if by rote.

“I don’t think that is the reason.” Orrin took the spear and drew faint lines in the sand of the small enclosed space. He split the rectangle into thirds. “I think everyone wants bragging rights for doing the ‘most’ damage.”

“I think-“ Madi began.

“Hold on, listen. You get the same amount of experience whether you do one or ninety-nine percent of the damage to a monster right? So, why don’t groups have more healers? Every healer has at least one offensive spell, but party structure is based on single battles. What if instead, we played to our strengths and did just enough to hit each creature, distract them, herd them into the meat cleaver that is Daniel or Brandt? You are good with that spear, but honestly, Daniel could probably wipe the floor with you.”

Madi stuttered and tried to come up with a retort.

“No offense, you still kick my ass easy enough. But that’s the point. Here, look.”

Orrin had finished setting up his grid. The courtyard had been split into different sections, with the sword and spear at the left and right portions. Orrin and Madi stood in the middle.

“Let’s say both of the weapons are monsters. We have the whole party here. Me, you, Daniel, Brandt, and another fighter. What would happen?”

Madi looked around for a second and played along. “Daniel would take one, while the other fighters took the other monster. We would support whoever needed help the most. After one fell, the other would be the main target.”

“Classic strategy. But what if we did this instead...” Orrin pointed as he talked. “If both monsters are rushing us, could you hit one with [Shimmersight]?”

“If they were coming right at us, yes. It’s hard for most monsters to dodge out from a charge. But then whoever took it on would have to deal with it flailing about. Monsters are still dangerous when they can’t see.”

“What if we ignored it though?”

Madi looked stumped. “Why would we do that? We need to kill it before it attacks.”

“Would it attack if it can’t see?”

Madi paused. “I don’t know.”

“So if you see two or even more targets rushing us, you hit one with a red firework. We know that’s the target you are going to hit with [Shimmersight] and we focus on the others. You can also come up with other signals. Toss out a yellow if someone needs help reinforcing. Throw a green on something we should all target faster. You be the eyes telling the pieces where to move. You’ll be playing Kala, while the rest of us are the pieces.”

“That seems like a lot to keep track of during a fight.” Madi shook her head as she realized the pressure Orrin was hoisting on her.

“Oh, don’t think you’ll be in it alone.” Orrin smirked. “I’m a backline fighter like you. I think if we stay close, we can have the melee fighters take out most anything while we orchestrated the battlefield.”

“Brandt, come over here,” Orrin called to the knight. “Let’s try it like this. The weapons are monsters. Direct us. I’ll be Daniel.”

Madi pursed her lips.

“Yeah yeah, give me a break.” Orrin explained what he wanted Brandt to do.

“Attack a staff in the ground?” Brandt had obviously not been listing to their conversation.

“It’s a big monster coming to kill Madi,” Orrin explained. Brandt stood up tall and drew his sword.

“Madi, it’s your show,” Orrin handed control over.

Madi had been raised to take over her house someday, but bucking the tried and true method of an every man for himself fighting style threw her. She hesitated.

After a few seconds, Orrin tapped the spear butt on Brandt’s turned back.

“Dead.”

“What?” Brandt turned around at the gentle ting.

“We’re dead,” Orrin explained. “She hesitated. The staff monster barreled into us, and she didn’t stop the sword monster. We got pincered. Dead.”

Madi scowled. “Ok, again.”

Orrin smiled. “On your mark.”

Madi drew herself up and tossed a red firework light out at the sword and a green one at the staff, “Brandt and Daniel, take out the green. I’m casting [Shimmersight] on the red.”

Brandt blurred and the staff was in two pieces. Orrin hadn’t meant for him to actually attack the weapon but forgot Brandt was pretty literal.

“Great, now on to the sword monster,” Madi pointed.

“Ok. We don’t need to destroy more stuff,” Orrin quickly cut in. “You see what I’m getting at though right?”

“You want to use battlefield tactics against monsters,” Brandt stated.

“Basically, yeah.”

Brandt scratched the side of his head. “Won’t that put more pressure on us? I mean, I’ll do as the Lady demands, but it’ll just tire me and Daniel out if the party doesn’t do any damage.”

“Who said we won’t be doing damage? Madi will just be directing our focus instead of everyone fighting whatever they want. We’ll have to learn to trust each other. If she says run, you need to run because she signaled Daniel to blast the whole area. If she says charge, you better expect me to buff your strength up to maximum. Stuff like that.”

Brandt looked at his sword for a long moment then nodded. “I trust her already. I like this plan. But who will keep her safe if something slips by? You?”

Orrin smiled. “I promise you Brandt, if something gets close to us, I’ll [Teleport] us both out.”

“You have [Teleport]?” Brandt and Madi yelled at the same time.

Fuck, not again.

After calming Brandt and Madi down enough, Orrin went back to his room. Well, Daniel’s room.

Daniel was waiting.

“This damn book,” he spat when Orrin closed the door. “This damn book is the worst.”

“Hello to you too,” Orrin tried to lighten the mood.

“You seriously couldn’t read it?” Daniel asked hopefully, as he handed the book over the Orrin.

Orrin looked down and saw only blank pages. “Sorry D.”

Daniel sighed. “Ok. Here are the highlights. This isn’t just a guide for heroes; it’s a history book. It describes all the ways that past heroes tried to stop Demon Lords from coming back. Because they always do Orrin. They spawn from places of Dark Essence. It’s like hell magic from the description. So what do these idiots do? They try to reshape the world and end up destroying it instead. Or creating seas of fire. And those are the ones who succeeded!”

“Some of the information is helpful. Like I wish I had found it before helpful. I’ve been stressing so much about points, but at level ten, I get some choices. I can basically add a moniker to my [Hero] class. The dude who killed a Demon Lord a thousand years ago and then made the Sea of Fire? His name was Darius. He decided on fire. The Fire Hero. How original. But whatever I pick has consequences and there are only a few known paths. I think Darius might have started this leave-a-note-for-future-heroes thing. But I’m spiraling a bit here now.”

“Calm down,” Orrin put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Should I cast [Calm Mind]?”

Daniel nodded and Orrin dosed up his friend with some sweet mind magic. Daniel sighed.

“That’s better. The book has a lot of great information, but none of it is organized. There will be a long paragraph about the best skill choice progression, then someone else writes at the end, ‘This will make you easy to kill by X magic type’ and ‘do this instead.’ It is so frustrating.”

“Well figure it out. We can lay out the options and pick one that works best with what you want,” Orrin said. “How do other heroes end up finding the book? Or is just luck?”

“There’s a skill that one of them created that makes people want to give it to us, I think it’s the same one that let’s only heroes read it. [Through the Ages] or something.”

Orrin froze. He recognized the name of that skill from when he had been looking at time and space magic and skills trying to piece something together to get back home.

Daniel noticed. “No fucking way.”

Orrin pulled up his store. He found it easily.

[Through the Ages]- a unique skill created to pass knowledge through the ages. Only those with the skill or those deemed as the chosen target can read and write information using this skill. -2 AP

Daniel shook his head in disbelief. “You are a fucking cheat code.”

“Did you already buy it?”

“I don’t have to, I think [Hero] is the ‘chosen target’ so I can already read and write in the book.”

“Should I?” Orrin whispered. “I don’t want to impose on your [Hero] gig.”

“Please,” Daniel dramatically wrung his hands together. “Save me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!”

Orrin grimaced as he used two of his remaining points. Down to six. We really need to level more.

The book in Daniel’s hand wiggled. Then lines of ink crawled across the paper. It looked like a madman’s manifesto. Different hand writing, different color ink. Drawings typically found in high school textbooks. Seriously who draws genitals on the holy hero book.

“I can see why you’ve been having trouble.” Orrin nodded.

“YES.” Daniel threw the book to Orrin. “Have fun decoding. I can’t stand this shit. Did I see Brandt down in the training yard? I need to hit something.”

“Sure, just leave me here to figure out the musings of crazy people,” Orrin yelled at his friend’s back.

“Thanks buddy, I owe you one.”

Daniel had come back after two hours, bruised but happy. They spent the rest of the day locked in the room. At some point, a maid brought lunch and another magicked an actual bed for Orrin. The suite had more than enough spare room for it.

By dinner, Madi had shown up to ask for them to join Silas and her for dinner. They’d declined, electing to receive dinner in their room. Once the moonlight shone through the window, Daniel and Orrin had decided to stop until morning.

The following day saw them decipher enough of the book to break it down into parts. It had only taken another solid ten hours of locking the door and taking copious notes.

The first half was generally about Demon Lords. Spotting signs for increased activity, best tactics, and levels for when Daniel should take certain skills or spells. At level 50, his class gave him the [Demon Seal] skill that had stressed him out for so long.

“Level 50 is far away though,” Orrin had countered. Daniel had waved away his concerns.

"By the time we get to level 50, I should have a much clearer idea of my strengths anyways. Maybe I won't even need the seal."

The remainder of the book described different paths the [Hero] could take at level ten. Fundamental nature monikers, like Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Metal, and Ice were common and safe. Other heroes had tried stat paths, like Dexterous Hero or Strong Hero. At some point, those had plateaued. Of the nearly twenty heroes they could differentiate, only one had gone another route. Magic Hero. His notes were the most sporadic, crossing out lots of what the nature heroes had written and describing them as short-sighted fools who did not understand what they were talking about. He theorized that the moniker gave insight into a particular skill field. That was why every [Hero] should choose magic, as it covered the largest spread and allowed knowledge that touched almost everything.

“So, the broader the moniker, the better?” Daniel scratched his head as Orrin put their findings together. They’d already decided to burn all their notes as soon as they finished. Some of the secrets they’d found were too valuable to share right away.

“I don’t know if he’s right,” Orrin argued. “Remember, he couldn’t explain why the Metal Hero could take on people with his axe that had a higher level in weapon proficiency so easily. And the Magic Hero really focused on long range spell casting. I mean, he ended the war at level 40 by just wiping out an entire city.”

“Sounds like he nuked it.” Daniel shivered. Orrin agreed. That section had been particular brutal to read.

“So, I think you should really go with your gut,” Orrin suggested. “But all the other tips and level-up tricks are nice to have.”

“How soon are you running down to buy those plants?” Daniel grinned.

“Tomorrow,” Orrin confided. “It’s not like I could do it today.” He looked out at the setting sun. Another day of potential leveling gone.

One of the female heroes had listed different ways to increase skills and upgrade spells. One had stood out to Orrin immediately. [Meditate].

[Meditate] currently allowed him to regain 1 MP per minute or 60 MP an hour. It was passive and he forgot about it most of the time. Other spell casters had to drink MP potions or sleep to regain their mana. It was already a cheat for Orrin to have it. Plus any regained mana wouldn’t count against his daily mana use before being overexerted.

The Ice Hero had written about a few plants used to calm nerves or increase clarity during regular meditation rituals. She’d played with them and found a certain combination allowed for a temporary increase in the regeneration. For one hour, the regen went from one MP per minute, to one MP per second. The downside was it was only useable once a day. She’d tried it twice and burnt out her [Meditate] skill for a week. No mana regeneration except through sleep like all the other normies.

Orrin was going to get some of those plants and make a few of the Regen Potions, as it was not an actual alchemy skill but rather mushrooms floating in water. He also planned to finally pick up some MP potions. Although such potions were supposedly expensive, they’d decided the price worth it. With the extra MP, Orrin could heal someone in an emergency. As HP potions cost almost twice that of an MP potion, it was another loophole to be exploited.

“I’ll keep reading our notes for now,” Daniel said. “Maybe something will click for me. Thanks for the help, I never would have gotten through this without you.”

“You would have managed.” Orrin rubbed his eyes. All the reading had worn him out.

“I’ll burn these when I’m done.” Daniel waved his hand over the paper they’d commandeered. “Get some sleep.”

Orrin passed out before his head touched the pillow.