Now, at this point, you may have been wondering what happened to my party that had been teleported away. Well, fortunately, it’s high time for a break from ants, so how about I tell you what Jake was up to?

------

While the rest of us were making schemes or fighting ants, Jake was being teleported. How could he tell? Well, he didn’t currently have a body, but he felt like he was going to hurl anyway.

Then just as suddenly as the feeling came, it stopped. He found himself with his hand on a dark blue obelisk about 20 feet tall. Huh. I guess obelisks aren’t just a tutorial thing. His attention turned to the night sky that was lit by a single large moon. “Only one moon? Lame.”

He then finally noticed the system notification.

System: Zone entered, Faroff Village. Faction - Vir

His gaze went out over the village that he was in. And village seemed to be the correct term. The area he was standing in appeared to be a simple central plaza that was connected to some hard-packed dirt roads going in different directions. The roads themselves meandered past simple thatch-roofed houses of varying sizes. Though most of them seemed a bit small.

Jake took a deep breath of the cool night air. So, this pretty much clinches it, right? Medieval fantasy world? He continued looking out over the village and also listened. It is really quiet. Almost eerily, but instead, it seems… Peaceful?

He was startled by a crash. He spun and saw a young kid that was staring at him wide-eyed with a lantern that was now on the ground. Before Jake could gather his wits, the kid took off. “Dad! Dad! There’s a weird guy touching the upgrade stone!”

“Wait!” Jake took off after him but stopped himself. Yeah, no. Stranger chasing after a little kid in the middle of the night? Good luck explaining that. Also, I should probably wait around to see if any of the party made it to level five too. Instead, he walked over and picked up the lantern.

Out of curiosity, and since he had nothing better to do but wait, Jake activated his only spell. “[Identify],” Jake intoned. The system, as ever helpful as always, told him that it was a simple lantern. And that was it.

He didn’t realize that he had an audience. Jake looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a simple, but well-made brown tunic who was holding a pitchfork. The young boy was peeking out from behind him. The man spoke to the boy, “You didn’t tell me he was a [Magician]!”

“How was I sposed to know?”

The man turned his attention back to Jake and asked warily, “And what does a [Magician] want with this town’s upgrade stone in the middle of the night?”

Jake set the lantern down and held up his hands to show that he was unarmed. Crud. How much do I explain here? “I don’t mean you or your town any harm. Also, I’m not a [Magician]. I’m actually a [Hero]. My name’s Jake.”

The man’s eyes narrowed even more, and he pointed the pitchfork threateningly. “Sure, you’re the [Hero]!”

“It’s true, though!” Think Jake. You can’t help these people with whatever quests they will have if they don’t trust you! An idea came to mind. “I have a way to prove it, but it will require pulling out my sword. Is that okay with you?”

“Don’t make any funny moves!” The man continued threatening Jake with the pitchfork. “Jack, go and ring the emergency bell if he is a [Magician] who can use a sword, he has to be dangerous!”

As the kid ran off, Jake was starting to get peeved at the treatment, but he stopped himself. Okay. Breathing. In. He slowly inhaled. Two, three, four. Hold. He held his breath. Two, three, four. Out. He slowly exhaled. Two, three, four. Hold. He held his breath again. Two, three, four. Okay. Now, see their point of view. To them, I am a stranger doing magic, which is apparently more rare than I thought. I also claimed to be armed when it seems the most protection they have here are pitchforks. So, I need to be calm and polite until they feel safe. He repeated his introduction, “I’m Jake the [Hero]. What’s your name?”

That surprised the man. “Well, you are an odd one for a stranger and a trespasser. I am Wilfred, [Village Elder].” As he was speaking, an alarm bell started ringing out. Soon, people began pouring out of the different homes and into the plaza. More men with pitchforks also came to surround Jake. Meanwhile, everyone else was watching from a distance and trading whispers.

It was about this time that Jake heard a familiar voice. “Jake? Is that you over there? Have you seen Tim?” With no fanfare or indication, Andrew had appeared at the obelisk.

Some of the men turned their pitchforks towards the newcomer. Jake just sighed with his hands still raised. “Nope haven’t seen him. By the way, that is Andrew, our party’s [Cleric]. Oh, and you can expect 6 more of us here soon.”

Andrew frowned and raised his hands as Wilfred commanded some of the men to surround him. “4 actually, since Garrett and Lindsey both got taken out right before the rest of us leveled.”

“Aww, really? That leaves only you and me for frontline, and that sounds really dicey.”

“Nevermind that, would you care to explain why the townsfolk have us surrounded with pitchforks?”

“Well, I showed up in the middle of the night around their upgrade stone.” Jake put air quotes around upgrade stone. “I then also made the mistake of using [Identify], which was apparently a big deal. So, I’m a threat, and that means you are too since you are with me.”

Then a worried Sam made her appearance. “Will she be okay without me? She might have to actually ask strangers for help! No, no. She has Garrett and what’s his face. I’m sure the three of them will make it out.” She then noticed the pitchforks. “Jake, did you go and get us arrested?”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Sam the [Sorcerer]. Sam, just hang tight. We showed up in the middle of the night, so these guys are super suspicious right now.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked over at one of the young men surrounding her. “Why, hello, handsome. Meooowww.” She made a pawing motion with one of her hands and twitched her cat ears. Her unfortunate victim turned bright red and looked away.

Jake sighed. “Please stop flirting with our captors.”

“Awww, but the shy ones are so much fun to mess with!” She shot the guy a wink and whispered, “Maybe later.”

Wilfred finally addressed Jake, “You keep odd company. A beastborn and your... [Cleric]?... Is a dwarf?”

Jake nodded, “Yeah, and we also have an elf. Oh, speak of the elf. Meet Emilia, our [Ranger].”

A confused Emilia was looking around. She spotted Wilfred, and it was as if she was suddenly locked on. She strode purposefully towards him, ignoring the pitchforks pointed towards her. “I assume you are the one in charge here? Would you care to tell me the reason my party and I are being detained? And it better be a good one.” She hit Wilfred with a glare.

While Wilfred squirmed under her gaze, Jake couldn’t help thinking to himself. She’s actually kinda cute when she’s angry.

Eventually, Wilfred mustered up his courage and answered, “You all are strangers and are trespassing on our land in the middle of the night. Of course, we have cause to be worried and keep you under guard until we determine who you are and if it is safe to have you in our village.”

“Very well,” she said imperiously as if she was actually the one who had made the decision. “But know that if we are detained longer than necessary, you will certainly hear from my lawyer!”

“What is a loy year?” came a confused and startled question from one of the men surrounding them.

“My lawyer, really?” Jake whispered.

“It just slipped out! I’m still not used to medieval fantasy worlds, okay?” Emilia hissed back.

Jake addressed the questioner. “Ah, yes. Lawyers. Definitely beings that you don’t want to cross. They hold great power.” Jake's flippant response caused murmurs to spread through the crowd. Great. They’re even more concerned now. Jake turned back to Emilia and gave her a couple obvious winks. “But there is absolutely no reason you would have to call such a being here. Right?”

Emilia caught on and played along. “No.. Of course, I wouldn’t... Need to call a powerful being like that?” Jake nearly facepalmed at her acting, but at least the villagers seemed to have mostly bought it. Where’s Garrett when you need him. The big lug would’ve already found a way to defuse this situation, and we would be laughing by now. Jake then remembered Garrett’s new appearance. On second thought, I guess it is good Garrett and Titus won’t be making it soon. They look super intimidating.

“Dad, dad! You were so cool!” An excited Tim ran past the confused villagers. He then noticed the situation. “Are these bad guys? Can I [Fire Bolt] them?”

Jake pinched the bridge of his nose. “And... Tim. Our [Wizard] everyone.”

Andrew put his hands on his son’s shoulders. “No, son. No [Fire Bolting] innocent villagers. Also, you hit Garrett with your last [Overchannel], and that was part of the reason he died before I could [Heal] him. That is not okay, son, and the next time you see him, you need to apologize, okay?”

“Okay, dad.” Tim’s dog ears drooped as he looked down at his feet.

Meanwhile, the crowd had latched onto different parts of the conversation.

“[Wizard]?”

“Killed him... Next time you see him!?”

And another from a man who was looking back and forth between the rugged dwarf and the downcast dog-eared boy. “Son?”

Introductions have definitely not gone well. “Okay everyone, I am sure you have a lot of questions. From what it sounds like, we have one more member of the party that should be showing up soon, Megan, our [Rogue]. After she shows up, I will do my best to answer any questions. Also, we don’t intend to harm you as long as you don’t intend to attack us.”

That quieted the crowd for a minute, and that minute was spent with everyone uneasily looking back at the obelisk. Com’on she should’ve been here by now! He felt for her through the party. Wait a second... “Megan, please stop [Sneaking] around. I would like to get the Q and A done with sooner rather than later.”

“Oh, fine.” Megan appeared over in a group of now shocked villagers.

“She can turn invisible!” came a shout from the crowd.

“No, no, no. She’s just a [Rogue]. Really good at sneaky types of things. Things like sneaking up on enemies, laying traps, stealing...” The last word came out of his mouth, and he almost facepalmed. Me and my big mouth.

“You are in league with a thief?! Men bind them! We can’t let a thief loose!” At Wilfred’s command, the men grabbed each of the party members and bound their hands behind their backs. Jake just sighed as he got a system notification.

System: Your arms are bound. Skills and equipment use are restricted.

“So, what are you going to do with us now?” Jake asked the [Village Elder]. As long as they don’t plan to kill us, I think we can still talk our way out of this.

“Hold a trial, of course. William! Bring out the truth stone!”

“Wait. Truth stone. As in, you can use it to see if we are telling the truth?”

Wilfred looked at Jake as if he had grown two heads. “Of course! How else would we hold your trial?”

Jake had to calm himself again. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Hold. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Hold. Despite his best efforts, his irritation still leaked through. “You mean to tell me that you had a way to verify our story this entire time, and you are just now bringing it out?”

“Of course! You weren’t on trial until now!”

Jake nearly exploded. He tried his breathing technique again, but it wasn’t enough. He tried to see the elder’s point of view but was too livid. Hold it in Jake. You’ve dealt with worse before. Just pretend he is a customer. Annnd, that’s making things worse! Now I’m remembering all of the idiots I had to try to help at work. Just stay quiet for now. No matter what. It will be over soon. The truth stone will clear us, and we will all laugh at these misunderstandings later.

The party was lined up with their hands bound facing the obelisk, and the [Village Elder] stood with his back to it. Meanwhile, William had brought out a plain-looking piece of glass.

“Is that the truth stone? Finally! Give it here!” At Jake’s insistence, William placed it into Jake’s hands that were still bound behind his back. “My name is Jake, and my class is [Hero]!” Jake practically shouted. The stone didn’t react. “Why isn’t it doing anything?”

The entire crowd started whispering and wondering if he was crazy. Wilfred answered. “Please wait for me to activate the trial [Hero].” You could practically take a bath in the sarcasm dripping off the last word. “By the power vested in me as the [Village Elder] of the town of Faroff in the kingdom of Vir, I hereby commence these proceedings. [Trial]!” At his last word, the stone started emitting a soft light. “Jake, assuming that is even your name, you and your party stand here accused by your own words of harboring a thief. We also try you on the charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace of this town late at night. What say you?”

Jake stood up straight and made sure to make his statements one at a time. “Greetings. My name is Jake.” The stone shone a bright white light behind him. It was a bit difficult to tell what it was doing, so Jake had an idea. “The moon is made out of cheese.” The light immediately dimmed, and the crowd and the elder all stared at him. “Sorry, I’ve never seen one before, so I just wanted to see what it did if I lied.” The stone immediately lit back up.

“Anyway, my class is [Hero].” The stone continued shining, and that caused a murmur to start running through the crowd. “We didn’t mean to trespass or cause any trouble, but we were transported here by magic and didn’t know where we would end up.” The stone continued shining. “Also, we are the first six out of a group of a thousand people that were brought to your world from another one.” When the stone continued its white gleam, the entire village turned into an uproar.

“Quiet! Quiet! Oh for the love of.. [Crowd Control]!” At Wilfred’s last statement, the crowd immediately calmed down. “To reiterate, you claim to be a [Hero] from another world?”

“Yes.”

“I have never heard of your class. In fact, I have never heard of any of your classes. Would you explain them?”

“Sure. I’m a [Hero]. That one’s the least well defined, but basically, I am supposed to go around helping people in your world.” Jake paused. “Do you have any [Demon Lords] or evil [Kings] that need defeated or anything? [Heroes] usually get sent to another world to help out with stuff like that.”

Wilfred’s eyes widened for a second, but his face went flat again. He coughed. “No, nothing like that.”

“Drat, I was hoping to get an easy lead on what my epic quest was gonna be. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. My class is [Hero], but it seems like it is based on the [Warrior] class, and I am personally working on [Swordsmanship].”

“I.. see.” Wilfred motioned for him to continue.

“Andrew is a [Cleric]. That means he focuses on magic that heals and buffs people. He also isn’t that shabby with his mace. Emilia is a [Ranger], so she focuses on tracking enemies and stuff. She also is a great shot with a bow. Sam is a [Sorcerer]. She’s a magic caster. Tim is a [Wizard]... Who is also a magic caster.” Jake paused for a second and then turned to Sam. “Sam, how do I explain the difference between your two classes?”

Sam shrugged, “Well, it seems like [Wizards] are better at putting more into their spells since he has that whole [Overchannel] thing. Since I have [Quick Cast], I think that means that we both are similar, but I will probably get more ways to change around my spells where he will probably have stronger ones. Not sure though, I never did play too many RPGs.”

“Well... Yeah, Sam has more flexible casting probably, and Tim has more powerful casting.” The truth stone dimmed slightly at that.

Wilfred raised an eyebrow, “[Hero], was that a half-truth?”

“I’m not sure honestly. We don’t know all of the details about our classes, so that one was kinda a guess.” The stone went back to shining, and Wilfred gestured for Jake to go on. “And that leaves..” How do I explain a [Rogue] without getting us in more trouble?

Wilfred noticed Jake’s reluctance. “Is there something you are keeping from us [Hero]?”

“No!” The stone stopped shining. “I mean, yes, but it’s difficult to explain!” The stone started shining again. “Megan has the [Rogue] class. That class is usually good at doing sneaky, underhanded things. They are the experts at setting and disarming traps, and also sneaking around.”

“And that includes stealing.”

“... Yes. But to my knowledge, she hasn’t stolen anything!” The stone was shining, but then Jake remembered how they met. The stone slowly stopped. “Okay, fine! She did steal! From me!” The stone shone bright again. “I forgave her. She was just trying to show off that she knew how to do it so she could join the party! She hasn’t stolen from anyone else!” Jake looked over at Megan and saw her turning pale. The stone slowly started fading. “You haven’t… Right, Megan?”

Megan stammered just slightly, “Yeah, of course not!”

Jake caught her hesitation, and his eyes widened. He turned to William, “Hey, would you hand this stone over to Megan. I think we are all very interested in what she has to say.” The stone turned bright again right before William took it.

William forced the stone into her bound hands. Wilfred asked the first question. “Have you stolen anything from this village?”

“No!” Megan shouted. The stone immediately went dark.

Wilfred’s gaze turned threatening. “What have you stolen from this village?”

“I stole some trinkets, okay?” The stone confirmed it was the truth.

“I am tired of your games, girl.” Wilfred practically growled. “You will list everything you have stolen from this village, and at the end, you will state ‘that is everything I have stolen.’ Are we clear?”

Megan started trembling and listing everything she had stolen. The list was surprisingly long. “And that is everything I have stolen from this village.” The stone did not confirm the story. “Fine! I also stole a hundred gold pieces directly from you, okay?! And that is everything I have stolen from this village.” The stone finally confirmed the story.

Wilfred announced. “We have heard the testimony, and I will now pronounce the verdict.”

Oh great. I should’ve known she was an actual thief! We are so hosed.

“For everyone excluding Megan, I find you guilty of the crimes of trespassing and harboring a thief. For that, we will throw you...” Jake braced himself and missed the mischievous look in the [Village Elder’s] eye. “A feast!”

The crowd cheered, and the bounds were undone on everyone, but Megan. The stone also stopped glowing. Jake sputtered. “How- wha- noo.” He finally settled on looking at Wilfred and uttering a simple, “Huh?”

The elder laughed. “My boy, you are not the first one to claim to be a [Hero]. You are also not the first one to act like they didn’t know what was happening as if they had ‘come from another world.’ The fact of the matter is we do know all about the prophesied [Hero] and the prophesied [Demon Lord] he will defeat. You would be hard-pressed to find someone in the entire realm who didn’t! Because of that prophecy, [Conmen] keep trying to fool people by pretending to be that class. When you showed up in the middle of the night with a strange story, I just assumed you were running some type of scheme. That’s why I had to get you on [Trial] so that we could be over and done with this.”

He chuckled again, “Imagine my surprise when we found out you were telling the truth!” His gaze turned a bit harder. “Though that does leave the question of what to do with your thief. As a party member to the future [Hero] of the world, I could probably let her go fairly easily. She will, of course, have to return everything that she stole and apologize to each victim personally-”

Jake interrupted. “Actually, about that... Would you be willing to do another [Trial]?”

“What for?”

“I think she stole more things than she admitted here. Back in the Tutorial before we came here.”

The elder frowned. “Unfortunately, that crime would not be one committed under my jurisdiction. I don’t believe we have enough for the skill to activate.”

Jake thought. “Well... What about smuggling stolen goods? If she stole things back there and brought them into your village that breaks your laws, right?”

Wilfred grinned. “I suppose you are right there [Hero].” He turned back towards the still bound Megan. “By the power vested in me as the [Village Elder] of the town of Faroff in the kingdom of Vir, I hereby commence these proceedings. [Trial]!” The truth stone reactivated. “Megan, you stand here accused of smuggling stolen goods that were stolen in the ‘Tutorial.’ What say you?”

Megan had given up. “I am guilty.” The stone confirmed it.

“Please list every stolen thing that you have smuggled into my village. And make sure to qualify that that is everything.”

She pulled up her inventory and seemed to be doing some math. “I smuggled in 2550 gold pieces, and 46 health potions. That is everything that I smuggled in from the Tutorial.”

Wilfred turned to Jake, “I am not sure I can be lenient-”

Jake cut him off. “Please throw the book at her. The maximum possible punishment, please. Also, Megan, for that stunt, you are out of the party.” He went into the party interface and kicked her. He turned to the rest of the party that was giving him surprised looks. “What? Any objections?”

“Well, it was a bit harsh, but she did steal from a lot of people... Yeah, no objections here.” Sam murmured.

“You’re right, I don’t want someone like that hanging around Tim.” Andrew nodded.

“Agreed. Thieves are some of the worst scum in the world.” Emilia glared daggers at the downcast [Rogue].

Wilfred seemed the most troubled. “Please [Hero], don’t be too hasty! Your party is a part of a prophecy, and I would rather not be the one to break up such a close group-”

Jake cut him off. “Ya see? That’s the thing. We aren’t actually that close. We may have fought together, but we’ve only known each other for a day.” He paused. “Maybe a day and a half? Also, she was on thin ice even before this.” He raised his index finger. “First, she abandoned the party in one of our fights. She said that she was scared, but I don’t think we can trust her word about that.” He added his middle finger. “Second, she barely contributed to the fighting when she was there.” He looked over at Megan. “Don’t think I didn’t see you sandbagging in the fight where we were trying to level Titus.” He turned back to the group and raised his ring finger. “Third, she and Titus don’t seem to get along, and it was causing a bit of tension. Titus has a difficult class to deal with but has been overall a great help to the party. So, if it comes between choosing him or her, I choose the helpful party member with a difficult class over the one who has lied and stolen.” He held up his pinky. “And finally, she stole something. Not once, not twice, but based on the numbers, she stole hundreds of times. I am on a mission to defeat a [Demon Lord] apparently. I don’t want to have to deal with guards or stupid B plots every time my [Rogue] decides something was just too shiny. In other words, Megan, you are out. Hope the wheels of justice run you over.”

Jake’s tirade over, he stalked away from the bound Megan. The party slowly followed suit. A completely silent Megan was left alone as she was guided away by some of the villagers.

------- A few hours later --------

I was also alone. And I was doing what any reasonable human being would do when faced with insurmountable odds. I was in my room, sulking.

“I give up. I don’t care. I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t wanna die anymore.” I was curled up in a ball on my bed. Once again, I had found out that I couldn’t fall asleep. I don’t know how long I just laid there doing nothing, but soon enough, my pity party of one was interrupted.

System : Hospitality protocol expired. Ejecting all residents from the instanced spaces.

I found myself warped through space again, and I was now lying on the hard floor of the obelisk room. I didn’t care and just stayed curled up in a ball.

“Were you the one who interrupted my lunch? Don’t you know that’s rude!?” I was shocked to hear a familiar voice. I couldn’t immediately place it, so I turned to look.

“Oh no, not you.” I sighed and curled back up into a ball at the sight of Gertrude, the red-headed [Berserker] who needed help with game terminology earlier.

“How dare you, young man! Treat your elders with respect! Also, you never told me how to log out of this thing, so I have been stuck here for days!”

I snapped at her. “I don’t know how to log out! Okay? Leave me alone!”

“Well, everyone else seems to have figured it out. We are the only ones here, aren’t we?”

“That’s because, unlike you, they were going out and leveling! They hit level five.” My voice lost its vitriol and started cracking. “All of them. They’re all gone. And I will never be able to leave here because of this stupid class. I’ll never be able to find a way home. I’ll never see my parents, my brother, or my friends ever again.”

That part gave Gertrude pause. She leaned down and put a hand on my shoulder. “There, there, sonny. If you wanted to look for a way home, why didn’t you just say so! I want to get back, too, so why don’t we look together?”

She held a hand down to me, and I took it. She easily helped me to my feet. And that is how I ended up working with Gertrude. The red-headed [Berserker] who was about 3 times her apparent age and who had never touched a video game in her life.

It felt like it took eternities to get her to be able to do simple things like pull out her greataxe. Not even because she couldn’t figure out the commands, but because she would fight me every step of the way. I had to convince her a weapon was necessary since there were monsters. I had to convince her that the way home probably wasn’t in the tutorial, so we needed to hit level five. I even had to convince her that she didn’t want to fight with me in the same room. That one took the most explaining. “There’s a problem with my class. A bug probably. But if you kill an ant while they can see me, they decide to call for reinforcements and all come and attack me. There will be way too many for us to handle.”

It took a bit of arguing, but we eventually went our separate ways to go try to level up. I decided to try some different paths. I think I can take on a group of 5 now, but maybe I can find a smaller group and just grind that one. I found a group of seven ants, which caused me to immediately turn and go back the other way. Another group of five down another tunnel, a group of six, and then finally the jackpot. A group of four ants in their own room that had only a single entrance.

I applied my earlier tactics against the ants. A bit of hit and run mixed in with focusing down the leading ant as fast as I could. The pointers Lindsey gave me also paid off, and I didn’t struggle nearly as much to deal damage.

I checked my status and was mostly pleased too. Nice, still have 85 HP left. That is infinitely better than 0. Hmm. 122 SP left, though. I guess that means I could afford to do more kiting.

I exited the room and took a seat since I had nothing better to do than regain stamina while I waited for the ants to respawn. I thought about just sitting down in the room, but I didn’t particularly feel like testing whether or not enemies would respawn if I was occupying their spawnpoint.

I had successfully won my first fight on my own! But I was left alone with my thoughts again since I had nothing to do but wait. My thoughts turned toward home. If I make it back... No. When I make it back. I wonder how much time will have passed? Is it going to be one of those cases where days or months pass here, but no time passes at home? I hope so. I really don’t want to worry mom and dad more than I have to.

The tears started falling before I knew it. I miss you. Don’t worry, though, I will make it back to you before you know it. I wiped away my tears and checked my status. I wasn’t sure how long my break was, but it looked like it was enough to recharge my stamina all the way. “Alright, ants. Round two. And currently, you are the ones standing in between me and the way home. You’re going down!”

I did slightly better than before and only lost 10 HP instead of 15, but I did use more stamina since I spent more time running around and dodging. Still not enough to level, but it wasn’t last time either. How many do I need? 20? 40? Or does it have to be the fire ants? I frowned. At the current rate, with no HP regen, won’t I end up dying anyway before hitting level 5?

I needed to take a break to recover my SP again, but I didn’t feel like sitting in the hall by myself. I’ll go check on Gertrude. I started a slow walk back in that direction. I guess I can also check whether SP recharges when walking or if you have to actually sit down and rest. When I finally meandered back into the obelisk room, Gertrude was waiting for me. And she was ticked. Well. More than usual.

“I was wondering where you ran off to! Leaving me alone to deal with this conundrum!” she harrumphed.

“Uh... What conundrum?”

“My torch, obviously! I dropped it to fight those ants, but when I died, that means I left it there!” She glared at me.

“Oh. Sorry, I guess I didn’t expect you to die.”

“It’s all because I randomly tripped for no reason because my body started acting up.”

I recognized the symptom. “Ahh. You probably leveled up. It makes you faster and stronger, but it takes a bit to get used to.”

“Then why didn’t you warn me that would happen?” She glared, and I decided not to respond. Richard from Broom Derby had warned basically everyone, so it wasn’t on me that she didn’t listen. She continued her accusation. “You also didn’t tell me about the fire-breathing ants! Or the stronger ones!”

She did have me there, and I nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess those didn’t come up either..” My brain finally caught up. “Wait. You fought fire-breathing ants? Not the normal black ones, but the red ones? And stronger ones... The elites?!”

She crossed her arms and looked offended. “That’s what I said, isn’t it? Aren’t you a bit young to be going deaf?”

I didn’t want to fight the elites, but I was definitely curious about the fire ants. “How many fire ants were there? Can you show me where they spawned?”

She smiled. “Of course, sweety.” Then it disappeared, and the anger was back. “As soon as you get me my torch! I swear, how do you expect me to guide you around in the dark!”

“You know what, just point me towards the tunnel that you went down and I will go look for your torch, okay?”

“That one.” She pointed at a tunnel. “And hurry it up! I don’t want it going out on me!”

“Yes, ma’am!” I took off at a run into the tunnel, if anything, to escape the conversation sooner. Wait. Stamina. Do I have enough to run around like this? I did a quick check and noticed that it had, in fact, gone up and was now sitting at 82. I think that is enough? No protracted fights on this amount but should be enough to run, I guess.

I hit some dead ends on my search, but soon enough, I saw a faint light coming out of one of the rooms. There it is! Looks like it is still lit and everything! I ran into the room and grabbed it triumphantly.

I wasn’t sure what I expected when I found out that Gertrude had fought fire ants and elite ants, but it definitely wasn’t expecting as many as I found. There were 20 normal ants, 10 fire ones, and 2 elites that seemed to be guarding one of the tunnels out of the room.

I hightailed it out of there. The ants followed hot on my tail. I can outrun them, I got this. I don’t know if it was the torch I was carrying affecting my running form or what, but before, I was able to match the speed of the giant ants. This time they were catching me. Soon they were biting at my legs from behind. I turned around and swung the torch at one of them. The normal ants all recoiled away from the fire, but the fire ants were not deterred.

Disaster also struck as I had a repeat of my experiment with my party’s gear. I barely finished my swing before the torch phased through my hand and clattered to the floor.

I took several bites and flame attacks as I scrambled to get ahold of it. The attacks barely hurt, but they were enough to cause me to fumble the torch twice. That was enough time for one of the ants to get a hold of me.

System: You are grappled and cannot move

“I’m not dying here!” I slammed my free arm into the pincers and yanked my arm free. I took off running before even noticing the notification.

System: You are no longer grappled

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it when suddenly I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Err… I meant that literally, though I guess the idiom works too. I saw the lights from the obelisk room. At the end of the tunnel, I was running down. Anyway, I was going towards the light... Not dying, of course. Though I guess I was probably below 10 HP at that point, so maybe I was dying? Then I made it to my final destination… Again. Not dying. Urgh. English and its stupid idioms.

I made it into the room, and Gertrude immediately stood up from where she was sitting near the obelisk. She pulled out her axe and charged towards us.

“Wait, wait, wait! No! Stop!” I shouted and waved my arms at her. “If you kill one, we will be swarmed from all of the connecting tunnels!”

“Then what should I do?!”

“First, put this away!” I tossed the torch in her general direction and continued running with my train of ants behind me. This was the first time I got a good look, and I sighed in relief when I noticed the elites didn’t follow me.

Then I remembered. Stamina! Oh, crud! I bet I am almost out! I led the ants in a loop towards Gertrude and called out to her. “Put away your axe for a second! Then be ready to catch me!”

To her credit, she only paused and looked like she questioned my sanity for a moment before she complied. “What on earth do you mean by catch you?”

“This!” I reached her and then jumped into her somewhat waiting arms. She stumbled, but [Berserker] strength prevailed, and she kept her feet. “Now, lift me up so they can’t reach!” She followed through, and she seemed shocked when the ants just encircled her and then stared at her.

“Well, now what Einstein?” There was even more vitriol than I expected in her voice at the word Einstein, but I didn’t worry too much about it.

“We have about a minute before they decide to start attacking you. As for what we do next... I’m open to suggestions?”

“If I toss you to them, will they be appeased and leave me alone?” she deadpanned.

I looked down at her in fear, but then saw a hint of a smile on her face. “Why Miss Gertrude, I am shocked. Did you just make a joke?”

“I make jokes! I just have to be in the mood. And I guess seeing you run like your tail was on fire was amusing enough to warrant one.” A somewhat awkward silence fell between us. She was the first to break it. “I imagine we only have a few seconds before they start attacking me. I don’t have any ideas. Have you come up with any Einstein?”

“Nope.” I paused. “Well, I got one, I guess. I won’t like it, but it should get you out of this. When I die, the ants will attack you until I am back, so I guess we just minimize that since I am dead either way here. I want you to throw me as far as you can into those ants and then run the other way. That should buy you enough time to keep from getting killed.”

She actually looked troubled at that. “Are you sure? You would sacrifice yourself to save me?”

“Eh, I’m dead anyway. Might as well make it count, right?”

She suddenly had a faraway look in her eyes. “We’ll remember you, Henry, give ‘em hail.”

“What?” She didn’t respond and simply threw me as far as she could over the encirclement of ants. It wasn’t far enough to clear it, and I landed heavily on the abdomen of one of the final ants. Somehow, that was enough to kill it. And based on the fact that they all stopped and started screeching, it even credited Gertrude with the kill. I wasn’t sure exactly how I felt about my new life as a projectile, but if we didn’t have our chat filtered, several four-letter words would have been strung together here.

“Get to the dorms! They shouldn’t be able to follow you in there!” Gertrude took off running, and I went the opposite direction.

She reached it and then called out. “It says hospitality protocol isn’t active! I can’t go in!”

“I’ll reactivate it! Just wait there!” I changed direction and headed towards the obelisk. Meanwhile, the enemy reinforcements were starting to pour in. I had just jumped up onto the obelisk platform when my earlier fear was realized. I ran out of stamina. I was only a few feet away. I tried to force my body to move. It went painfully slowly. I was just five feet away. Three feet away.

System: You are grappled and cannot move

“No!” I shouted as the ant grabbed my leg. I tried to move but couldn’t. The ants closed in. Gertrude was going to be stuck in the endless hoard with me. Doomed to die over and over again. I fell to the floor and reached out my hand, it was so close to touching. Other ants reached me, and as the attacks hit, I knew my HP was almost at an end. “Come on!” I shouted. My finger managed to barely brush the obelisk. “Activate hospitality protocol!”

I could no longer move. My HP had reached 0. However, I had done it. The lightning from before started collecting on top of the obelisk, and then just like before, it zapped me.

System : Mana fingerprint verified. Re-activating hospitality protocol

I laughed. It’s saying something unpleasant about my experience when this situation, where I hadn’t even managed to reach level 2 before dying, felt like my greatest triumph since coming to this world. I didn’t even mind the ants nomming all over my body since 1HP worth of damage is barely noticeable.

I was awaiting my fate of being stuck in these ants for eternity when I heard Gertrude let out a war cry. I couldn’t even turn over to see what she was doing, but I could practically feel the vibrations as she cut a swathe of destruction through to me. She killed the ants on top of me and then kicked me over face up while destroying another.

I stammered. “Wh.. why would you come back for me?”

She grinned ferociously and cleaved through another two ants with a single swing.“Well, sonny, you managed to remind me of Henry. We served together back in the war, and I never knew a more courageous man. A true war hero.”

“I reminded you of a war hero?” I was touched. Until she scowled.

“I said you reminded me of him. You still don’t even have a tenth of the courage he had in his big toe!” She continued cleaving through the enemies that were trying to reach me. Then a hint of a smile played across her face. “But... That is more than I thought I would ever say for anyone in your generation. So I guess there is hope for you yet.”

As I watched her cleave another pair of ants, I remembered to check my status. “Gertrude! I’m going to be dead here in a few seconds! When I die, the ants will all attack you!”

“I know, got any plans, Einstein?” She punctuated her question with a grunt and a kick that sent a fire ant flying back into the hoard.

I thought as quickly as I could. “I’m assuming the main thing you died to was the fire ants last time, right? Clear out as many as you can from around you, and then also clear out that area over there!” I tried to point it out and then remembered I couldn’t.

“Where?” She struck through an ant that had reached me, and her axe thudded next to my head.

“Remember the spot that you reappeared after you died? I am going to come back to the same spot! If I am surrounded, I will probably just die, but if you clear out an area, I should be able to buy you more time!”

“Got it!” She started clearing a path in that direction, and then I died yet again.

“Welcome back, sonny.” She took yet another large two-handed swing and cleaved through an ant that was about to grapple me. “So, how do you plan on buying time?”

“It’s stupid, but don’t laugh, okay?” I used the small amount of space the [Berserker] had cleared to jump off the platform and onto the back of a waiting ant. My game of leapfrog continued once again.

Gertrude watched for a bit. Then she planted her axe on the ground and leaned on it. “That’s all fine and good, but don’t you have anything you could do to help clear the enemies out? I’m too old to be doing all the work here.”

“I guess I can try punching them while I am on their backs?” I said dubiously. Gertrude nodded, so I gave it my best try. The next time I landed on an ant, I began punching it.

Gertrude was not impressed with my form. “Put your back into it! You ain’t gonna love tap them to death!”

“I’m trying! It’s hard to hang on and also punch, okay? And don’t you have something to be doing besides critiquing my form?!” I snapped back.

“Pfft. I can do both.” She grinned as she went back to ant slaying while also shouting out very unhelpful critiques. Her critiques came to a welcome stop for a moment after she landed yet another kill, and this time stumbled a bit. “What the hail?”

I realized what had happened, “Oh, you killed enough to level up to 2! Nice!”

“Less yacking and more killing, Einstein!”

I groaned and jumped to the next ant since my original steed had stopped his spinning. I began punching once again and tried my best to tune out Gertrude’s heckling. I decided to jump back onto the original enemy to see if I could finish it off in two sets of spins. Unfortunately, between trying to keep my balance on a spinning mount and me “hitting like a girl” (Gertrude’s words, not mine), it took three sets before I even killed the first ant.

Killing the first ant also led to a problem. I was now back at ground level and had to get back up on an ant soon unless I wanted to be surrounded, grappled, and killed. I jumped to try to get on top of one of the ants. I didn’t make it. Instead, I only managed to land a single foot on top of its head. However, that gave me enough to push off. I managed to clear the ant behind me and land gracelessly on its back.

Gertrude held up a pretend scorecard. “5 out of 10!”

“Not helping!” I snapped back and held on for dear life as I tried to stay on. I was able to stabilize in the second after the spinning stopped and get onto another ant. Then it was back to punching.

I repeated my process and managed to kill another ant. Come on, Titus, you got this! I used my limited space and focused on my form and managed to clear the ants head and mandibles by sucking my legs into my chest. The landing wasn’t great, but I made it. I fist-pumped. “Booyah!”

“6 out of 10.” My personal heckler called out.

“No one asked you!” The process continued for a few more rotations. Aside from the scuffling of ants and the occasional punch, the room was actually awkwardly quiet.

Eventually, Gertrude broke the silence. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but what are these skill point thingies listed in the screen doohicky? It says I have 8 of them now?”

“8 skill points? Ah, you must already be at level 4.” I momentarily forgot where I was and almost fell off. I got back into the rhythm and tried again. “Anyway you can buy skills at the obelisk by touching it and saying upgrade.” I managed to squeeze out that sentence in between punches. “You should go do that. It will help you clear out ants faster. I think you should be able to pick between [Rage] and [Greateaxemanship] based on what Garrett had. At least, if you have enough points.” I jumped to another ant. “I would choose [Greateaxemanship]. [Rage] turned Garrett into an unstoppable ball of murder, but he was in a haze for most of it and wouldn’t listen to anyone.”

“10-4.” She nonchalantly carved through the few ants that were between her and the obelisk. She touched it and said the word. “Upgrade.” There was a lull for a few moments, and then she said, “I think I got it.” She turned back from the obelisk towards me. “So how do I activate this [Rage] thing? Do I just think about turning it on?”

I was in the process of jumping to yet another ant and was slightly distracted. “Yeah, I think so. I don’t have any skills myself, so I couldn’t tell you for sure.” Then my mind caught up. “No! Wait! Why’d you buy that one! Don’t activate-” She burst out screaming and started cleaving a path towards the largest concentration of fire ants. “[Rage]. I’m almost out of stamina..” She could no longer hear me, but I finished my sentence softly to myself anyway.

While she was busy doing her best impersonation of a one-woman hurricane, I finally ran out of stamina and failed a hop between ants. Needless to say, I went down pretty quickly. Or at least, as quickly as 1 HP bites can take someone down.

I respawned, and half expected Gertrude to be in trouble since the ants would switch focus to her. My fears were, of course, unfounded as she seemed to be still going strong.

I managed to get my game of leap-ant going again when suddenly Gertrude stopped and called out. “It says that I am out of stamina. How do I get that back?”

I guess running out of stamina cancels [Rage]? Either that or it has a time limit. I shook off the off-topic thought and tried to answer her. “You can either rest for a bit...” I looked around at the swarm of enemies. “Which isn’t very likely to happen. Or I guess you can die since that resets your HP and SP?”

Gertrude waited for a few seconds and then swung her axe at her own leg. I couldn’t help but call out, “What are you doing?”

“I have to die somehow! And these pansies still don’t want to attack me!”

My slip in attention was enough to accidentally help her out with dying. I fell off the ant I was riding and was quickly grappled and nibbled to death.

I respawned, and then after a moment, Gertrude respawned next to me. She cracked her neck and smiled the largest I have seen her. “Ahhh, that was fun.” Slightly more intimidated by her than I was before, I ran to go jump back on top of the ants. She caught me by the collar of my shirt with a single hand. “I’ve had enough of doing this your way. Now we are gonna do it my way.”

I spun around to look at her and almost wished I didn’t. The look in her eyes was pure murder, and I felt like she could even give Emilia some tips about a good death glare. “And what is your way?” I managed to keep the trembling out of my voice.

“Simple.” She cleaved through the first ant to reach us by one-handing her greataxe. “You put those chicken wings up in a defensive position, and fight. When we die, we come back, so we should just keep fighting.”

Too afraid to argue, I raised my arms in a simple boxer stance and prepared to fight. Why are all the women I have met here so terrifying? I was almost immediately surrounded, and I began trying to fight. I guess that isn’t fair. Sam isn’t exactly scary, and neither is Megan.

I paid the price for not paying attention to the battle, and I quickly found myself grappled from too many angles to escape from. There was also no help from Gertrude as she had entered another [Rage]. I died.

When I respawned, I was determined to last at least a bit longer since I was currently being outdone by a retired grandma. I focused primarily on just dodging or breaking grapples at first. There really wasn’t much room to do that with since I was surrounded all the time, but I felt like I lasted maybe half a minute longer.

I kept trying. And I slowly started to pick up the patterns. Next will be a bite from the front. I dodged. Then a grapple from behind. I kicked the offending pincers away. Now attacks from left and right. I dodged forward and realized that I somehow had an opening. I punched the ant right in front of me and then went back to dodging. It wasn’t perfect, and I definitely didn’t have their entire behavior figured out, but it was progress.

While I had finally managed to land a punch without taking too much damage, Gertrude interrupted my elation. “I need to get my stamina back! Die again!”

I didn’t feel like correcting her that I had already died a few times, and I simply obeyed the scary lady. When I respawned next, Gertrude also spawned next to me a few seconds later. All she did was grin and let out another [Rage] infused roar and charge right back in.

The hoard was starting to get a bit thinner, and I could tell because I was beginning to face fire ants. I had noted before that they were the tiniest bit smarter, so I wasn’t overly surprised when they behaved differently than their normal ant peers when they had me surrounded. Fortunately, fire damage immunity meant that it didn’t take many more deaths than the normal ones did before I started getting them figured out.

It was slow progress. 1 ant killed. 2 ants killed. Made a mistake and went back to 1. Nearly 3 ants killed. Barely 2 ants killed. Another reset request from Gertrude. The cycle continued until I managed to kill 15 ants in a single life. Then I ran out of stamina. Dang it. Is that really my limit? This class sucks!

If I was a hero in a shonen anime, my rage would have powered me up to take on my foes and beat them down. Instead, it just made me sloppy. I missed dodges. I tried to press openings that weren’t there. And the more I dwelled on it, the worse it got. It didn’t help that my only company was mindless drones and a [Berserker] who couldn’t hear what I was saying anyway. I started railing against the world I was in. I screamed about the unfairness of my stupid class. I complained about how I would have been the [Hero] if I hadn’t let that idiot go into the event before me.

I was starting to see red. I no longer cared about dodging and just was throwing myself into enemies in anger. And then I saw it.

System: Attempting to activate Wrath Form

System: Insufficient level. Cancelling

Red text is bad! That was enough of a shock to kick me out of my downward spiral. Or at least, it was enough to distract me, so I died again and realized I needed to calm down a bit.

There honestly was not much to the rest of the fight. Gertrude did all the work, and I simply tried to stay alive until she would want her stamina reset. My heart simply wasn’t in it anymore.

There was no spectacular ending to our battle. Gertrude and I simply ended up face to face as we both realized that she had just killed the last of the enemies. She was breathing heavily, and I could still see the [Rage] in effect, but that slowly faded, and she let out a sigh. “Phew. If I knew there was that much fun to have in this game, I would’ve been out here enjoying myself sooner!” She grinned as she sat down on the obelisk platform. She looked like she was concentrating for a few seconds, and then her battleaxe disappeared.

That made me curious about the battle maniac. I sat down next to here. “So, I can tell you don’t have much experience with video games, and sorry if this is stereotyping, but you don’t seem like the type of person that would enjoy Comic-Con. Why did you come? Much less get a VIP ticket?”

She frowned. “That’s a long story, sonny. You really sure you wanna hear it all?”

That just made me more curious. “Yes, please.”

“Well, it all started back in the last big war-”

I interrupted. “Which one? Iraq? Korea? Vietnam?”

She scowled. “I said, big war sonny. I wouldn’t call Iraq a big war, and even you should know that Korea and Vietnam were police actions.” There was an extra helping of sarcasm on the last two words.

“Wait..” A look of pure disbelief spread across my face. “No way.”

“Yep, World War 2. Now that was a big war.” I swear there was a hint of a grin on her face when she said that.

“So were you... A kid when it started?”

That brought back the scowl. “Are you kidding? If I was a kid, how would that be a part of the story?! I was fighting in it, of course!”

“But that would make you almost a hund-” I stopped myself short before I accidentally offended her.

“Well, now you are just getting ahead of the story! I am, in fact, 100.” She then gave me a level look and said without a hint of malice in her voice. “Now, no more interruptions, sonny, or we are going to have to have a good old fashioned sparring match.” That shut me up instantly.

“Now where was I.. I was young. In my 20s. Angry at the world and always looking for a fight.” She chuckled. “Guess not much has changed. Anyway, after the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor I saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to actually get paid to fight. The only problem being that I’m a woman, and that meant I would be kept away from the actual fighting.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “So Einstein, what do you think I did?”

I took the easy guess. “You pretended to be male and signed up with a fake name and ID?”

“Close, but not quite. I’m no actor, and I knew I would forget any made up name that I came up with. So I did get a fake ID, but I just kept my own name.”

“Noooo... You didn’t.”

“Yessiree, I did! I walked up to the recruitment office, got in line, and introduced myself as Gertrude. The recruiter and a couple of people in line laughed at my name, so I popped him a good one. Gave him a nosebleed. Wasn’t the first time, wouldn’t be the last. Most of what I remember from training was getting into fights and more demerits than you could shake a stick at. To be honest, sonny, I don’t know how I didn’t end up court-martialed or executed.”

They probably just wanted to ship you off to make you a problem for the Japanese instead. I made sure to keep that thought for myself.

She told me a long story about how she ended up in a combat unit and got put in a squad with some other trouble makers. Henry, Harold, and Charles were their names, and they soon became thick as thieves. In some cases literally, as they would occasionally “liberate” certain luxuries from their superiors whenever they thought they wouldn’t get caught. They would fight together, get in trouble together, and face the consequences together.

She went on to talk about the different battles they fought in together on the Pacific theater. She culminated with how at one point, their unit was entirely surrounded, and Henry had taken a bullet. He knew he was a goner, so he sacrificed himself so they could escape.

“I knew then that I could stop at nothing to get my revenge on those dang Japs. Then that Einstein egghead came up with that E equals M whatever equation, and those other eggheads in Project Manhattan made those big bombs.” She scowled. “They ruined a perfectly good war.”

Got it. She is absolutely insane. I decided to follow up to get the actual answer to my question. “So, how did that end up with you coming to a con?”

“Well, to this day, I still hate those dang japs. But Harold and Charles went soft on me. In their later years, they got into that horrid animu stuff. They always tried to get me to watch some of that garbage or play one of those silly Japanese games.” She paused. “I never would’ve come here if those two bass turds hadn’t teamed up and included it in their will. They both added a clause to their will.” She looked like she was thinking hard for a second and then snapped her fingers. “If Gert reaches 100 years of age, my estate will pay to purchase the most expensive ticket available to the comic con nearest her birthday. The exact same wording in both wills. I couldn’t even go and fight them since they were both dead, the cowards.” She scowled.

“So I gave up and came, and I will tell you I had an absolutely miserable time up until this last bit.” She gave me a curious look. “I take it you actually like these video things. Why have you been having such a miserable time?”

My guard was down. “Well, I got stuck with this stupid [Demon Lord] class.” At that, Gertrude started repeating [Demon Lord] under her breath like she was trying to remember something. “It’s why I look like this and can’t use any weapons. I don’t get any skills either-”

Gertrude’s battleaxe reappeared, and she stood up. “[Demon Lord]! I knew I remembered Harold going on about that!”

I didn’t think she would recognize the term! I hopped to my feet and tried to placate her. “I may be a [Demon Lord], but I’m not evil or anything! You don’t have to-” My next word was cutoff as I had to dodge a diagonal swing of her axe.

“Liar! Harold always said people were taken away on adventures to kill the [Demon Lord]!” I feinted right and then barely managed to dodge a huge overhead swing by rolling to the left. “That means you knew all along how to get out of here! And who knows what else you lied to me about!” I dodged another swing and took off running, but a level 4 [Berserker] is much faster than a level 1 [Demon Lord]. I felt the axe carve through my back in a blow that would have literally split me in half in the real world.

I screamed and fell to the ground in pain. I could only look up and see her approaching with her axe. “Please. Stop!” I begged her.

My request was denied with a hefted axe and a sneer. “Goodbye, Einstein.” The axe flew down into my chest. I went a bit delirious from the pain, but I still managed to notice. It looks bizarre to have an axe sticking into you and no actual blood.

She pulled out the axe, and as expected, there was no visible wound. The only indication that it had been there at all was my plummeting HP. I was tired of dying. I was tired of this insane lady pushing me around. Out of nowhere, my rage came back, and with it, my meekness vanished. “YOU’RE GOING TO BETRAY ME? DO IT THEN. FINISH ME OFF!”

She seemed mildly surprised, but simply hefted her axe again and brought it down again and again.

I was startled by the system notification when I hit 0 HP.

System: Berserker Gertrude has slain the Demon Lord! The realm will have relative peace for the next 50 years. Demon morale will be reduced for the duration

Gertrude disappeared, and I was stuck there, slowly losing HP for the next 5 minutes.

I respawned at the obelisk and thought about the strange notification. I wonder what that notification meant? Then out of nowhere, a huge headache came on. Oww. Ugh. My head hurts. I stumbled a bit and then decided to sit down. Thankfully, it cleared up soon. What was I thinking about? Some notification? The pressure started building again, and I dropped the line of thought. Eh, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t one. And if it was important, I’m sure I would remember it.

Instead, I remembered the terror I felt when Gertrude chased me and the look of absolute murder that she had in her eyes. I shuddered. I thought about how insane and battle crazed she was. How great she was at fighting. And then that gave me one last thought. Why wasn’t she picked as the [Demon Lord]?