A bunker, two teens continuing to chat while a dramatic monster battle reached its climactic moment outside.

Henry explained the rough outline of the monster king ordeal, omitting a few details like the warp portals and shadow demon.

“That sucks,” Caramel said when he’d finished the doctored retelling.

“So," said Henry, making his request, "do you mind helping put down the pup and any additional monster kings that come afterwards?”

He could do it on his own, but with his low level, it would take hours of continuous fighting to grind through the Wolf Emperor’s massive health bar. Also, if the next monster king was even harder, it'd be nice to have some assistance.

“What about You-Know-Who? Your bet?” Caramel asked.

All of their inner circle were aware of Henry and Alex's wager, including the prohibition from using guild resources.

“Not a problem.” Henry cracked a small smile, turned around, and sneakily twisted the rusty ring.

Caramel's babushka face instantly lost all trace of humour, as though the family rooster had escaped the pen and hopped in her borscht. “Really? That’s so dumb."

Henry'd done nothing more than swap to his main userID and booted her from their guild. Now, she wasn't technically part of their guild resources.

He raised a smug, lecturing finger. "The greatest stakes demand the greatest measures."

This had been one of Henry's aces for the recruitment tournament scheme.

Due to the secretive nature of their agreement, Alex had to review the contract himself rather than using his legal team, yet the beaver-head, a lifelong gamer, also happened to have the attention span of a mosquito when it came to paperwork. This allowed Henry to sneak in a loophole. Unfortunately, Alex patching this problem be trivial once discovered, and her being kicked from the guild would not go unnoticed.

That Henry would have to burn this ace on his very first day here...could there be anything more tragic?

"What are you guys betting on anyway?" asked Caramel.

"Basically, after this last tiresome rodeo, he'll stop harassing me about retirement and I can ride off merrily into the sunset."

Caramel, not buying it, held back the strong doubts on her tongue.

Others might be fooled, but, after years under Henry's leadership, she knew he could never be driven by something so trivial. However, she also knew the utter pointlessness of inquiring about his concealed motives, the truth always buried under a mind-boggling number of layers.

The whole retirement was similarly doubtful.

“Anything extra I should be aware of?” she asked.

"Nope."

Henry, in his original plans, given the impossibility of escape, would've had her kill The Wolf Emperor and ‘accidentally’ assume the quest burden while he went off and trained. However, such a transfer seemed unlikely now.

“I'm in," Caramel said. "What's the plan?"

She didn’t need to think for long. Henry had helped her out of many binds in the past. At another level, she was one of the few members of the inner circle that supported his retirement, assuming it were real. Perhaps because she was a girl, she wasn’t as emotionally stunted as the rest and could understand some of the downsides of being 'The Tyrant'.

The pair getting down to business, Henry summoned a stack of paper and floating quills to jot down a section from the flowchart. The notes included a scale map of the fortress and a list of The Wolf Emperor’s presumed abilities, with some alterations to account for further level-ups after eating the players still fighting inside. As he walked Caramel through the steps, she constantly envisioned herself in the fight.

Their planning process was watched silently by the bald trainer, increasingly dizzy.

At some point, a crunch sounded in the background, marking the inner fort being damaged for the final time that the Villagers could repair it. The heros' final defence having crumbled, the wolves began to clean them up.

Caramel stopped Henry midway through his outline. “Steps C and F-4 are too demanding. Simplify them.”

“Has something changed recently?” Henry didn't understand.

It had been about two months since he’d last helped her team, and, in that time, her level and gear had been upgraded. He’d tried to account for this.

“Killer hangover," Caramel tapped some of the pain in her temple.

Henry summoned a potion.

She shook her head. “Real-life, dude...from the dinner party last night. I thought you’d know. You were there.”

Henry frowned.

He had been there, in person, but he'd been holed up in a corner researching schemes for his wager.

A hangover could be a serious problem. The game system fixed major physical defects but not neurological ones - missing limbs but not missing braincells.

“Current condition?” he asked.

“Mechanics are...160 - it’s inconsistent. I noticed the telegraphing effect for the about...two-hundred milliseconds after it began, but I was still too slow to block it. The other aspects...just thinking about them is hurting my head...so 90?”

Henry sighed.

“Impossible?” Caramel rubbed her hair in embarrassment.

“Not quite, but if I’d known in advance, I wouldn't have let the Empire's forces die so quickly.”

In fact, he could have saved them all. However, he despised The Slum Empire, much more than this invading wolf army.

Anyway, the plans with Caramel didn't need to be re-designed. With her current status, almost all pathways of them trying to tag-team the monster would end with her tripping and getting eaten.

He would have to draw his second ace.

Henry sighed. “Hands.”

Caramel presented her palms and caught a stream of condensing motes.

The summoned item was a rapier.

The handle, carved with continents and oceans, was almost fully enclosed by a handguard that resembled a basilisk. The blade, coloured a flawless ivory, showed no stain or dent.

Beside the two, Instructor Apari, drawn by the powerful aura of cleanliness exuded by the sword, couldn't help inching closer. As he neared them, he extended his consciousness to the weapon, and a voice roughened by the aeons replied to him, 'Worldpiercer.'

The Instructor stumbled back in shock.

Worldpiercer...this was one of The Twelve Swords that the war god Ortheer had brought back from his travels through the cosmos!

The Ortheerian blades...these weapons were coveted by all disciples of the battlefield! The Sagas told of Warrior Kings who’d exhausted their treasuries to attain one! Upon their discovery, century-long companionships had dissolved with a dagger through the lung!

Caramel's expression as she studied the weapon shifted from curiosity to amazement, to wonder, to, finally, a self-pleased smile that, with her current avatar, resembled a grandmother who’d caught her grandson stealing nickels from her glove box.

-Caramel_Sprinkles_Sunshine: Henry, how long exactly have you been hiding this?

This was the Legendary item Henry'd picked up from King Torc’s loot pile. It had unique features that made it almost custom-built for slaying giant monsters, the weapon no doubt a key piece in this questline of fighting a series of monster kings. Henry hadn't collected it with that aim, however; he'd just wanted to sell or trade the rapier to Alex, who'd been collecting the sword set. In the end, though, it seemed Worldpiercer would get used for its intended purpose.

-Bob From San Francisco: Not long. Couple of weeks. From back in Nilke. Do you remember when I stopped the battle between The Demon Prince’s forces and The Alliance? After I used the Skeleton Dragon Behemoth to bully Lord Zulfikar, he handed it over as tribute.

Henry lied, having good reason to. His guild's inner circle had their suspicions, but they weren’t quite aware of the exact rate he solved Legendary quests and picked up these items because he downplayed the magnitude by spreading out the revelation of his discoveries. If they knew the truth, all of them, and it wasn’t just Alex and Caramel, there were 50 in total, would be knocking at his apartment door from sunrise to sunrise, harassing him to do a world tour finishing up his quest logs until each had a full set of Legendaries. Obviously, as a retiree, he didn't want to do that.

-Caramel_Sprinkles_Sunshine: So you were strolling around The Slums, without an escort, carrying this on your person?

-Bob From San Francisco: I know it’s risky, but I needed an item with more gold value than The Ring in case some hooligans jumped me. Plus, I thought it might speed up the levelling process.

-Caramel_Sprinkles_Sunshine: You’re totally lying. So the others were correct. The theory is confirmed...

-Bob From San Francisco: Don’t say it.

"Cheat Magnet," Caramel whispered out loud. "Cheat Magnet. Cheat Magnet. Cheat Magnet. Cheat Magnet..."

The chant continued for a while.

"Just don't tell them," Henry warned.

"I'm not heartless, Bob. I would never betray someone who gave me a Legendary sword and a free pony farm."

Henry groaned.

These awful, manipulative 'friends', he cursed internally, completely ignoring the fact he'd initially planned on saddling her with this questline and ditching her like everyone else.

But he wouldn't give it to her. "You can't have it, but you can borrow it for three months as long as you don't reveal it to anyone within the next two weeks.”

“And the ponies?”

“You could buy those yourself at any time...”

Saana had made all of them filthy rich.

“It’s not the same," Caramel whined.

When Henry was younger, this reply would have made no sense to him. These days, however, he was understanding it more and more. It really wasn’t the same.

“Fine, whatever," he agreed. "I'll buy you a pony farm. Now, let’s go finish this off.”

Caramel tucked the Legendary rapier under an armpit and spat on her palm.

Henry, sighing, shut off all feeling in his hand and muted the game volume so he wouldn’t hear the squish as they shook spit.

Following that, he gave her a new plan that fit on a quarter-page. Then, telling the bald trainer to stay behind, he pulled out a Tome and began to cast a spell on her. The pair then set off to slay the monster.

After their departure, Instructor Apari lingered alone in the bunker, his mood having become increasingly solemn over the course of their teenage conversation.

Since the two had alternated between private messages and speaking out loud, he'd missed a lot. However, what he had been privy to left him in utter shock.

To have The Defiant Flame at his beck and call...to hand over an Ortheerian sword as casually as one might a shovel...who was this Offworlder who'd signed up for his class?

Realistically, not many could fit this description.

"Could it be...The—"

Instructor Apari clamped his lips, shutting away the word about to spill from them.

No. That his trainee, in this destitute, out-of-the-way Slum, could be that titanic figure was simply too hard to believe. The evening's events must have made him lose a part of his mind.