Girls are scary.

Now, I feel like I should qualify that last thought since it’s basically an insult to half the world’s population. I didn’t interact with women too much in the old world (that I could remember). Then in the new world, I had met, in order: a [Ranger] who shot a man in the foot before I knew HP was a thing; an excitable [Sorceress], who was the most normal of the bunch; a [Knight], who could probably kick my butt in hand to hand combat; a [Rogue], who just blackmailed me to ensure a better reward when they finally “defeated” me; and then Gertrude. I don’t want to talk about Gertrude since I’m afraid she’ll appear behind me if I do.

So, please forgive my blanket sexist thought. I know that the weirdos that I associated with are in no way representative of all women.

----

We made it back to the village without any further difficulties, which is a good thing because I am pretty sure any additional problems would have resulted in a dead [Demon Lord].

At Megan’s urging, because I had to play the part of “cooperative party member,” I apologized to everyone just like Jake asked me to. I then also swallowed my pride and apologized to the tiny [Wizard] for fighting him. He didn’t seem to really accept it, and his dad glowered at me quite a bit, but he also didn’t [Mage Bolt] my face off, so I counted it as progress.

My plan after that was to just rest and recover my HP, but Megan had another idea. She determined that my “poker face was atrocious” and that I couldn’t “fool a five-year-old when I lied.” And that was how I found myself sitting across from Megan getting coached on both of those things.

“Honestly,” she muttered. “I have no idea how you managed to fool us even for the couple days we’ve known each other.”

“Well,” I said sheepishly. “AltSys gave me the idea to say I was a [Half-Demon] and then changed my display; otherwise, I would’ve been caught right away.”

“And why are you able to tell that lie so easily compared to anything else?”

I thought about it. “Well, it’s not really a lie. If I count my demon stuff as one half and my human brain as the other, that makes me a [Half-Demon], right?”

Megan nodded slowly. “Okay, we can work with this. It was actually a tip I was going to give you. If you say things that are technically true, or true from a certain point of view, you’ll probably do better than just flat out lying.”

I frowned. “So… I’m spinning things like a politician. Why does that almost feel worse than lying outright?”

Megan laughed. “Aren’t you the king of the demons or something? I think you are stuck being a politician either way.”

She had me there. “Fair point.”

There was finally a lull, and I remembered there were a few things I wanted to ask her. “By the way, what’s the deal with you stealing from the village?”

“Ugh, couldn’t you ask someone else?”

“When I did, they said I should ask you.”

She sighed. “Fine. I stole from the village the first night that I was here, but the stupid [Hero] got me caught.”

“Oh.” I paused for a bit. “And why did you steal from a bunch of villagers who probably don’t have much?”

She eyed me, “You keep asking too many questions, and I might just turn you over to Jake.”

“Okay, okay. I give.” I held up my hands in surrender.

She thought for a second or two. “Actually, I guess I’ll answer that, but that’s the last question… I’m a kleptomaniac. Unlike Tim, who got a brand new pair of legs, my condition seems to have gotten worse. And it was bad before I came here. Now it seems like I can’t go a day without the urge to steal something.”

I looked at her incredulously. “So, you’ve just been getting away with stealing things for the past 6 months?”

“I’m not an idiot. If anything goes missing, I know that I would be accused immediately. So… I just take things and then put them back.”

“And that… Works? For your kleptomania?”

“Yup, and it didn’t use to, so whatever they did to bring us here must have messed with our brains too.”

She suddenly stood up. “Jake wants the party to meet up.” She gave me a hand up to my feet.

That made me curious. “How does that work, by the way?”

“Hmm? Oh, the party stuff? Yeah, it’s weird, but the best way I can think of to put it is that we can kinda send thoughts about our situation, or what we’re going to do, or something we want other people to do.” She looked at me critically. “And you’re lucky it’s vague, especially about non-combat things or my distress call would’ve been ‘Titus is actually the [Demon Lord] all along’ and you wouldn’t have made it 5 steps.”

“And then you would’ve been cheated out of a bigger reward. Partner.”

She smiled. “There you go! Now you’re in the right mindset!”

I don’t know which thought surprised me more. The thought that Megan had just congratulated me for playing her greed against her, or the thought that even after all this I still enjoyed seeing her smile.

We walked together to go meet with the party and were the last to arrive.

Jake greeted us. “Oh, good. Titus was with you, I was worried we’d have to go looking for him again.”

I scowled a little but decided against saying anything back. Instead, I got to the point. “So, why did you call a meeting?”

“Two reasons, the first one should be quick, so I’ll just get that one out of the way. I picked up [Resource Increase - Stamina], and I’m up to 270 SP now.” He raised a hand towards Garrett, and they hi-fived.

“Dang,” the [Berserker] said. “You passed me. Though I bet I’ll catch up next level.”

270? The number sounded familiar. I double-checked my status just to be sure. Yup. I’m also level 8 with 270 SP. And I don’t remember seeing a perk to increase stamina.

“But the main reason I called a meeting-“ Jake continued.

I interrupted him. “Wait [Hero]. Why are you only up to 270 with that perk?”

He looked confused. “I was only at 180 without, that’s a pretty big jump.”

“But I already had 270, and I guess I’m surprised you needed a perk to have the same.”

Garrett spoke first. “Ahh, but what’s your MP at? I’m betting that your stats have the same growth as mine.”

That was a number I had checked a lot less, so I wasn’t even sure off the top of my head. I pulled up my status and then replied. “90.”

Garrett whistled. “Nevermind, that’s almost like a caster’s MP.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “So, what were your three numbers?”

“180 HP. 90 MP. 270 SP.” I replied.

“Huh. Mine are the exact same.” Jake had the distracted look that came with people viewing their status. “And the weird thing is that my MP is higher than most [Warriors]. So, it’s almost like you had two stat boosts somehow.” He focused back on me. “In fact, if I didn’t know how much your class was missing, I would’ve called it OP[1].”

“Yeah, it definitely isn’t OP… Isn’t it weird that we match up exactly, though?”

“Eh, not really. As far as we can tell, each class just gains a set amount of stats per level. And it also seems like a lot of classes use the same progression. Garrett, Lindsey, and I have had the same HP this entire time.”

I had one more thing I was curious about but realized that I had left most of the party sitting there watching Jake catch me up. “Sorry for derailing the meeting, but I’m also curious about the perks everyone else got. Could someone fill me in on those later?”

Jake looked around at the party and said, “Sure, I’ll fill you in. Let’s get to the main point of the meeting.” He looked at Garrett.

Garrett sighed. “Prep for clearing the dungeon?”

“Yup.”

“Oh, you guys were already planning to do that?” I asked. I was surprised because clearing the dungeon had also been my plan, but I guess I shouldn’t have been too shocked that the party also came to the same conclusion.

“I have my reservations about it,” Garrett said. “Apparently, dungeons have been the cause of a lot of adventurers disappearing.”

“But we have up to four dungeons that we will have to clear anyway.” Jake countered. “So, it may be a better idea to find out why people aren’t coming back.”

“Yeah, and our party has the [Hero], so we’re probably the best guinea pigs for finding out,” I chimed in. “Though, unless people fought the dungeon boss…” I trailed off as I remembered back to my fight.

“Titus, something up?”

“I may have figured it out.” I groaned. “Dungeon bosses don’t let you leave once you enter their room! And even the tutorial dungeon had a huge flaming ant as its boss. I can easily imagine other parties getting caught off guard and then being stuck in a fight that is over their heads.”

“Jake,” Garrett said. “I really think we should reconsider.”

“If the bosses are the problem, then it really is up to us to take out dungeons. I’m the only one with [Sunder],” Jake said.

“I agree with the [Hero],” I said. “If he can’t take out this dungeon, I don’t know that we would be ready for any other dungeon. And we need to get out there and stop the [Demon Lord] sooner rather than later.”

Garrett found himself outvoted once again and conceded the point. We spent the rest of the meeting determining any last things we needed before we went dungeon delving. And then finally, we just needed to pack up and head out. Or so I thought.

Perfect, now if we can just clear the dungeon today, I won’t have to worry about standing watch tonight.

“But we’ll probably have to wait for tomorrow since it’s getting a bit late to start a dungeon run.” Jake continued.

I bit back a censored curse as I finally realized that we had spent almost half the day already. I thought quickly. I need an excuse to stay outside of town from midnight until dawn. A decent one clicked. “In that case, I think I might go get some shut eye right now then. I’ll go ahead and keep watch during the time when the wave can start.”

Jake thought that through. “That’s a good idea. You were the only one who resisted it, so we do want you awake in case it happens again. We can just put you right next to the bell, and you can ring it if you see anything coming.”

No! I need to be outside the town! “Actually, I think I’ll keep watch outside the village near the forest so that I can tell immediately if a wave’s coming. Also, I can’t be sure I’ll resist the sleep effect again, right?”

“Oh. Good idea.” He thought for a second. “In that case, we can take shifts then. You and I can take the first one, and then we can trade-off after 2 or 3 hours.”

No! Dang, it! It was quickly getting out of control. Fortunately, Megan came to my rescue. “But Titus can just stay on the entire time, right? I mean, didn’t you mention that you think your race is nocturnal?”

I took the lifeline and yawned. “Yeah, I am awake during the night. In fact, I am feeling as tired now as I have been since I got here. But I’m sure I could stand guard for the entire stretch if I got some rest now.” I tried to appear thoughtful. “Having two people watching at a time is still a good idea, though. You can trade off on that.”

Jake bought it. “Huh. Didn’t realize that. All the stuff today must’ve been rough. Are you going to be okay during our adventures?”

I nodded emphatically. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out.” I turned and gave a sloppy two-fingered salute. “Well, I’m off to rest up. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Oh! Before you go, you asked about our perks, right?” Jake followed after me a bit.

Oh. I did forget about that. “Yeah, if you have a minute.”

Jake nodded and then thought. “Well, the first thing to go over is the restriction perks. Pretty much every class has them. They make it so you can’t use certain stuff. [Warriors], [Knights], and [Berserkers] have a restriction against using mage gear. [Wizards] and [Sorcerers] have one against martial gear, which we think is just most weapons. [Rogues] and [Rangers] have one that doesn’t let them use mage gear or heavy weapons. And [Clerics] have a restriction against using offensive magic.” Jake trailed off. “I think I forgot one.” He looked back at the party and then snapped his fingers. “Oh! Right! [Berserkers] have an extra one where they can’t equip armor or clothing on their chest.”

I laughed. “Ah, is that why Garrett is still running around without a shirt on?”

Jake nodded. “Yup. But the [Berserker] class has 2 innate perks instead of just 1. Oh, right. Innate perks. Each class has a perk that they get for free, and the [Berserker] gets two. They get one that gives them extra damage with two-handed weapons and another one that gives them resistance to cold.” He paused for a second. “Huh. You probably have that one too now that I think about it. It’s a bit cold to be running around in just the starting clothes.”

I stooped and picked up some snow and let it trail through my hands. It didn’t feel that cold. “Yeah, that would probably make sense.”

“We’ll have to figure out your full list sometime… Anyway, where was I…” He started counting on his fingers, and it looked like he was looking through the party listings. “Emilia has better senses, especially hearing. Sam has lower cost spells. Lindsey has some built-in resistance to damage. Tim has more experience gain for his highest spell skill… Which hasn’t helped much since that’s for things like [Ignis] not [Overchannel]. Andrew heals extra with healing spells. And that leaves.. Megan. She has better drop chances when she loots stuff.”

I followed along with all of that. Huh. I think my innate perks might be better. I know I at least have [Dark Vision], something that makes me not need food, air, water, or sleep, and then I might have [Cold Resistance]? Neat. I finally noticed the one person he left out. “And what perks do you have [Hero]?”

He sighed. “I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t ask since you’re just going to call my class BS again.”

“Probably.”

“Okay.. I get increased experience gain towards my [Swordsmanship] skill. And that one actually isn’t from my [Hero] class. That’s just the [Warrior] base class perk. They get increased experience toward their highest weapon skill. I also level up faster than other people and gain skills faster.”

“Wow. That is BS. And also explains why you got your skill up to 6 when the rest of us are at 3 or 4.”

Jake looked sheepish. “So, nows also a bad time to tell you I’m not done, right?”

“Really? What else could they give you?”

“Apparently, my class ignores the restriction perks. So, I could use mage gear if I wanted to.”

I just sighed. “Well, thanks for letting me know [Hero]. I did end up asking for this, didn’t I?”

“Hey, look on the bright side! Maybe your class has some super-OP perks that you just don’t know about!” He tried to cheer me up and was actually a little successful.

“Thanks. See you later [Hero].”

“See ya.”

As I walked back to the house, I vaguely heard Jake giving orders to prepare both for the night and for a dungeon run tomorrow. I laid down and prepared myself for a couple hours of boredom when the door opened and shut seemingly of its own accord. I stood up and looked around. I squinted at the door and then around the room. “Okay, I give. I have absolutely no idea where you are, even though I know you came in through the door.”

She appeared literally right in front of me, and I barely kept myself from jumping in fright. “[Sneak] is the absolute best skill ever. I was right in front of you waving my hand in your face, and you still couldn’t tell where I was.” She grinned smugly.

I snorted. “Oh yeah? If it is so great, how did I catch you back in the tutorial cave?”

She sighed. “It doesn’t affect noise, and you also caught me the second time because you saw me go into [Sneak]. If you can see me when I activate it, it doesn’t work on you. Observe.” She crouched down, and I could still see her walking around. “Now close your eyes and count to 3.” I did, and then I opened them again. Just like before, she was gone.

I waved my hand in front of me and accidentally hit her on her shoulder. As she reappeared, I said, “Chalk up physical contact as another weakness.” She scowled at me, and I laughed.

Her look turned flat, and she just said, “Nope.”

Uh oh. What did I do? “Nope?”

“No flirting. We’re accomplices now.”

“But you started it!”

“I started it when I thought you were a dimwitted [Half-Demon] that I could easily get on my side.”

“Oh…” That actually hurt a bit, but I shook it off. Now’s a horrible time to be looking for a girlfriend anyway. “So, what brings you here? I’m assuming Jake didn’t ask you to keep track of me while I was asleep.”

“Ah, yes. We need to get our story straight. I mentioned that you’re nocturnal, and you went with it, but I don’t know if that will hold up over time.” She gave me an approving look. “Also, your lies were decent this time. Much better than earlier. Glad to see our work is already paying off.”

I interrupted her. “Well, technically, I am actually nocturnal. And diurnal. Because I don’t actually sleep at all.”

She fumed. “Then why didn’t you say anything! Just tell Jake that, and we wouldn’t have had a single problem!”

“I didn’t want people to be even more suspicious of me! And I wanted to keep my options open in case I needed to sneak away in the middle of the night or something! I don’t know!”

She facepalmed. “Okay. We’ll go with ‘you are nocturnal and need less sleep than normal people’ for now then. Which honestly is just about as suspicious. You kinda shot yourself in the foot here.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m a criminal mastermind! I don’t know how to do this stuff!”

She grinned. “Don’t worry, that’s where I come in.”

She ended up going over our story a couple times, and we came up with some contingency plans in some different scenarios. I wasn’t exactly a fan of some of the plans (they seemed to favor her a bit more than me), but she reminded me that all she had to do was let Jake know about my actual class, and I could kiss my dreams of going home goodbye. After about an hour, she left to let me “sleep” and wait for my time to keep watch.

The hours went slowly, and not much happened. The same could be said for when I went out and stood watch from about 11:30 until dawn. I chatted a bit with the different party members who came to stand watch with me, but it was just that. Idle chatter.

When dawn finally came, no one was more excited than me. “Alright, no [Demon Lord] attack. Let’s get going! We have a dungeon to take down!”

Garrett, who was the one who took the last watch shift, put a bit of a damper on my mood. “Easy there. We still have to get everyone up and have breakfast. You could probably take a quick nap if you want.”

Plebs and their need to eat food and sleep. I grumbled internally. “I’m fine, I’ll just wait.” The rest of the party ate and then made sure to stock up on supplies, including torches, some food, arrows for Emilia, and several health potions. The last item on that list caught my eye when a villager brought out several of the red potions from storage. I mentioned it to Garrett, “They have an [Alchemist] in this village?”

He just laughed. “You’ll have to ask Megan about those.”

I put two and two together. “Oh, she stole them back in the tutorial, didn’t she?”

“Yup, you got it.”

I just shrugged and kept waiting. About an hour of boredom later, everyone was ready, and we prepared to head off. Jake spoke up before we did. “Okay, everyone, the goal is the dungeon in the caves, so make sure to not overexert yourselves on the way there. Hold off expensive spells and skills, this might be more of a marathon than a sprint.” He paused and thought for a second. “Not that we should have more than 1 encounter on the way there.”

Yup. He jinxed us.

The first encounter was fairly typical if a bit large. 20 Dark wolves with a single alpha. Jake and Garrett formed the Vanguard with Lindsey and me protecting our casters. Since the wolves went down with a single arrow or [Fire Bolt], they got cut down pretty quickly until only the alpha was left. We surrounded it and peppered it with ranged attacks while swapping off aggro until it went down.

At least, that was the plan.

“Watch it, Titus!” Jake yelled as I accidentally bumped into him when it was my turn to keep its attention. I also managed to get in the way of Garrett once, and Lindsey twice.

Overall despite my bumbling, no one took much damage, and the damage they did take was quickly [Healed] by Andrew. Since the normal wolves didn’t even get to me, and I just got in the way while fighting the alpha, my contribution was honestly pretty much negative.

The party thankfully didn’t say anything and just looted the bodies without fanfare.

“Huh, normally it’s a bit longer before we get attacked by a wave this big. You’re not back to being a mob magnet, are you Titus?” Jake laughed and hit me on the shoulder. I just chuckled weakly because I had a suspicion he was right.

That suspicion grew when we were attacked again in just 5 minutes by an even bigger pack of wolves. This time there were about 30 of them along with yet another alpha.

A few wolves even managed to get past Garrett and Jake. Eager to redeem myself, I ran forward to meet them only to get a [Fire Bolt] to the back. It didn’t do any damage, but I spun around and raised an eyebrow at a chagrined Sam. “Sorry!” she shouted. “It’s just hard to tell what you’re going to do.”

Does she mean the party thing? Ah. I wondered how they were able to shoot into melee without hitting our own people. I didn’t have too long to think about it, though, because soon the wolves were upon me. I dodged around and put one down with a [Fire Strike]. I dodged another leaping wolf, and an arrow hit me in the back. I shouted in frustration and yanked the arrow out of my back and threw it onto the ground.

I spun around and glared up into the tree where Emilia had already drawn another arrow. “Hey!” I shouted up at her as she loosed another arrow directly at me. I barely managed to dodge it by hitting the dirt... Err.. snow. The arrow passed over me and hit a leaping wolf in the head. I got up and yelled in her direction, “Watch where you’re shooting!”

She yelled back. “Pay more attention to the battle!”

Her words were accompanied by a growl and claws that tore into my back. I tossed the impertinent wolf off me, and Emilia shot that one too.

Fortunately, there were not that many wolves that got past the frontline, so I was soon back to just watching and waiting. After another minute of fighting, we were once again down to the single alpha. We took it down the same way, except this time, Megan was the one who finished it off with a [Backstab]. I fortunately only had to draw aggro once this time and managed to avoid running into anyone or getting in the way. I had to pay more attention to my allies than my enemies to do it, though.

After the last enemy was down, Jake looked over everyone’s stats and saw that I was down a small chunk of HP. “Titus, what happened?”

I grumbled and jerked a thumb in Emilia’s direction. “It turns out friendly fire[2] is still on.”

Jake looked between the both of us and then sighed. “Emilia, try to be more careful shooting around Titus, okay? You know he doesn’t get your intent from the party like the rest of us.” She looked like she was about to protest, but Jake just held up a hand. “And Titus, also try to be aware of her lines of fire, okay?”

Neither of us was happy, but we both agreed tersely.

“Fine.”

“Whatever.”

As the party finished looting, Jake asked me. “Need a quick rest to restore your HP?”

I waved him off. “No, I’m only down 16 HP. Let’s just get going.”

We started walking again in awkward silence when we heard another set of howls. However, this time it wasn’t just in front of us, but all around us. Soon wolves came into view. 50 of them, along with 2 alphas.

The [Enhanced Party] perk must have been working overtime because everyone burst into action. Emilia immediately dematerialized her bow and ran over to Garrett. Garrett tossed her upwards towards one of the higher branches of a tree, and she latched on and swung up on top of it. Her bow and arrow reappeared shortly after.

Tim, Sam, and Andrew stood back to back, and the rest of the party made a circle around them, which I joined once I realized what was going on. I belatedly noticed that Megan was nowhere to be seen. Then the wolves started circling us.

I barely had time to wonder who would break the stalemate when Tim, Sam, and Emilia all started firing at the same time. I was a bit surprised that Tim and Sam both cast [Fire Bolt] without any addons. No [Overchannel] from Tim, and no [Quick Cast] from Sam, but I realized that made sense when I remembered they were trying to conserve resources. Fortunately, Emilia seemed to have no compunction against using her [Double Shot], so that helped thin the herd a little. Unfortunately, that left a lot of wolves and 2 alphas for the rest of us.

That party system allows a disgusting amount of coordination. I barely had time to ponder that before the wolves were upon us. All things told we cut through the wolves like wheat. I could kill a wolf with a single [Fire Strike], and I wasn’t even the fastest. Jake also one-shot wolves with his sword, and Garrett often took down two or more at a time. The issue was the alphas who both decided to charge the group at the same time.

At a mental command that I was not privy to, half of the party immediately split to the right (Jake, Tim, and Andrew) and the other half to the left (Garrett, Lindsey, and Sam). I didn’t react as fast and, as such, became the new target for both alphas.

Panicking and not entirely sure what to do, I missed the opportunity to disengage. Instead, I dove down through one of the alpha wolves’ legs. The confusion that my action caused was probably the only reason I had enough time to get back up and not take massive damage. As I popped the wolf in the back with a [Fire Strike], I heard the familiar thunderclap of Jake’s skill. Alright, just have to keep this one busy for a bit then, and we’re good.

Fortunately, I managed to dive backward out of the way of the claw swipe that came my way. Unfortunately, I lost my balance and fell to the ground because of it. I then realized I was surrounded by most of the remaining wolves. Focus Titus. Okay, this will be just like fighting the ants, except they’re faster and deal more damage. No big deal. The alpha charged me, but I was ready. I spun around it and, at the same time, ducked under the arrow that Emilia was sending its way. The arrow struck its flank, and I managed a quick [Fire Strike] jab into it as well.

That left me open from behind, and a wolf lunged from there, but I simply dodged to the side. A [Fire Bolt] that would have hit me if I hadn’t moved took it down.

I was starting to wonder where the melee help was when I finally realized what Tim was doing. A growing orb of fire was hovering in front of his wand, and I guessed what was coming next.

Grinning, I just kept the wolves’ attention as he launched a [Fireball] at the alpha wolf. My grin vanished as I realized the trajectory. He had aimed too high. Instead of aiming for the ground, he must’ve aimed for the alpha’s head for some reason. With how fast the alpha was, I knew it would dodge it.

Sure enough, the ball of fire had barely left Tim when the alpha started moving out of the way. I only had a split second to react, and I barely made it in time. I jumped into the path of the [Fireball] and caught it. With my face.

The world exploded into an inferno. It’s a strange feeling being at the epicenter of a wave of fire that you know is incapable of hurting you. I felt the heat course through my body, the normally dangerous temperature just seeming like a hot sunny day. I also had a brief thought while the flame was engulfing me that I was very grateful that clothing damage didn’t seem to be a thing in this world.

I got launched a few feet away by the explosion, and I went tumbling through the snow. I sat up for a second and saw that the alpha wolf was still left. However, Jake, Garret, and Lindsey had moved in on it, so I decided to just keep my seat for a bit. They got it covered. I sat on the dirt that was now visible thanks to our resident pyromaniac and checked my status.

I finally noticed something. Since when has my mana been full? I tried to think back to the last time I had checked it and realized to my shame that I hadn’t actually checked MP since I had gotten out of the tutorial. I had gotten so used to snapping my status open and checking HP and SP that I almost completely forgot MP was a thing.

I was snapped out of perusing my status screen by Jake, who was now looming over me. “Titus.” His voice was flat.

“Yes?” I asked as I got up off the ground.

“Want to tell me why you didn’t help with that last alpha?” He was gritting his teeth.

I was puzzled. “Because you guys had it under control, and I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way like the last two times?”

His eyes narrowed. He started taking deep breaths. “That’s not the point. The rest of the party was still in the middle of the fight, and you just sat there.”

“It was just one enemy left, I guess I don’t see what the big deal is here?”

Jake almost said something but bit back a response. Instead, he called over to the party. “Garrett, you’re in charge for a bit. I’m taking a walk.”

He left without another word.

Garrett walked over to me. “Wow. Twice in two days. You must have a special power for getting under his skin or something.”

“Do you really need a special power to tick off a [Hero]?” I muttered.

“Pretty much actually,” Garrett responded, to my surprise. “Think back a second. You’ve ticked him off a couple times. What did you notice?”

I didn’t follow. “What do you mean?”

Garrett sighed. “Look. I don’t want to outright tell you since I don’t think it’s my secret to tell. Just think about it for a second.” I just gave him a puzzled look. He continued. “Okay... a hint. The breathing?”

The breathing? “Yeah, I guess he did take deep breaths each time.. So what?”

“Not just breathing, a breathing technique.”

I nodded my head. “Ah. A breathing technique.” Garrett nodded along. “So, he’s a monk.”

Garrett groaned. “No!” He looked around at the party. “Walk with me for a minute.” Then he called out. “Andrew, you’re in charge for a minute. Titus and I need to have a quick chat.” The poor [Cleric] didn’t have a chance to respond before we were already headed off into the woods in the opposite direction of Jake.

As soon as we were out of earshot, he stopped and spoke up. “Jake hasn’t specifically told me to keep this a secret, but before I tell you, I still want you to promise that you don’t tell this to anyone else unless you get permission from Jake, okay?”

I gave a hesitant reply. “Okay?”

Garrett nodded. “Okay. How to put this.” Garrett looked thoughtful for a second. “When I’d mentioned the breathing techniques, I was trying to give a hint. I’m sure you already know that breathing in a specific way is an anger management technique?” I nodded. “That wasn’t the only thing that Jake learned from those classes, but it was the most visible.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Jake took anger management classes?”

“Yes, and that’s what I was trying to hint at.”

“I guess that makes sense. He does seem like he gets angry a lot.”

Garrett sighed. “You are literally the only one I know who would describe him like that now. Jake’s already mentioned to me that for whatever reason, you just rub him the wrong way.” I gave him an offended look for a second, and he corrected himself. “By that, I mean that we think it is something to do with your classes. He thinks that [Heroes] generally don’t get along with demons, so there’s probably some system-based animosity there.”

He paused again to collect his thoughts. “Most people who meet Jake these days would describe him as laid-back. But I do admit that when I met him, he was just an angry kid. It took months of therapy and anger management courses for him to start seeing results, and years before he started finally feeling like he was getting control of it. Not that he would ever claim to have complete control, but the breathing techniques, going on a quick walk to sort himself out, and then later he will probably talk me through his feelings, those are all things that he learned from the classes and therapy and really put into practice.”

He paused again. “I guess what I’m trying to say is do your best not to antagonize him. The system seems to do that for you.”

I thought for a second. I guess I also probably have my own system-based anger issues too, so I don’t have much room to judge… “Okay, sounds good. I’ll apologize to him when he gets back.”

Garrett looked relieved. “Thanks, Titus.”

“No problem.”

We made our way back to the rest of the party, and Jake wasn’t back yet. I climbed up into a tree and laid down on a branch to wait for both Jake and my resources to return. It was around 7 minutes later, I could tell by my increasing HP, that Jake came back to the party.

I hopped down from my perch to go meet him. “Hey [Hero], sorry about sitting out like that. After the last two fights with alphas, I was just trying to stay out of the way, but I shouldn’t have zoned out like that during combat. My apologies.”

“No worries,” Jake replied. “And I owe you an apology too. The rest of us have been fighting together for 6 months. We also have my perk to help us know exactly what everyone else is doing. So, when it came to fighting with you, it was frustrating because we can’t tell where you’re going or what you’re. All in all that led to me getting frustrated with you even though it isn’t your fault. I’m sorry about that.”

“Apology accepted.” I offered Jake a hand, and we shook. “But we should probably do a bit of brainstorming about how I’m going to fit into the party now that we have fought together a few times.”

He nodded. “Agreed.” We gathered everyone up and tried to brainstorm ideas. The issue was that no one really knew where I could fit better.

“He could go on the front line?” Garrett suggested.

I shot it down. “No, the problem with that is that Andrew can’t [Heal] me like he can you guys.” Then I had a thought. “Unless I don’t stay on the frontline. What if I start out as the frontline just long enough to draw aggro for a [Fireball], and then I drop back?”

Jake nodded. “That would help us cut down on enemies at the start of the fight, sure, but what then? Also, we can only do that once or twice until Tim’s out of mana.”

He’s right. Then what?

The answer to that came from Tim, who seemed to be struggling with his word choice. “What if he just kept the attention of the smaller combatants... enemies? He didn’t seem to have difficulty dodging around them. It was only the larger ones that were causing him issues.”

“That could work,” I mumbled. “So basically I play this as the off-tank while Garrett and the [Hero] tank the stronger enemies. Then since I’m immune to fire, Tim has a free shot at the largest concentration of enemies if he has any mana left for it.” I shot a glance over at him. “And that strategy is in no way a means for you to get to [Fireball] me multiple times a fight, is it?”

Tim looked away. “I.. have no idea what you are insinuating.”

I guess it doesn’t matter either way. If that lets him work out his anger toward me, that is just two birds with one stone. “Alright, I’m game. What do we do when we’re fighting bigger enemies?”

“For now,” Jake answered. “I think you should leave them for the rest of the party. Until we get used to fighting together and can stop stepping on each other's toes, I think you will end up being more of a liability. Also, you will have a higher chance of getting hit by our backline. Though you did seem to do a better job of working with them last fight.”

I gave a forced chuckle. “Yeah, definitely.” I had hundreds of hours of practice dodging projectiles, thanks to the ranged ants in the tutorial. I didn’t have the heart to tell Jake that the only difference between the last two fights was that I pretended our backliners were enemies.

“Alright, enough yackin. We have a dungeon to clear! Too bad we won’t get to try out our new strategy before we get to the caves, but there’s no way we-”

Garrett put Jake in a headlock and muffled him. “I think you’ve jinxed us enough for one day.”

Jake struggled free. “Fine! I won’t say it then.”

And surprisingly, we didn’t have another fight the entire rest of the way.

It was enough to make a [Demon Lord] suspicious. Jinxes aren’t actual things here? Are they? Fortunately, I didn’t have enough time to establish a conspiracy theory or build a tinfoil hat because we arrived at the caves.

Andrew and Jake both pulled out torches that immediately lit. I frowned as I realized that we would basically be announcing our presence to anything that was in the caves. However, I decided against saying anything because the only other alternative was to have everyone with [Dark Vision] scout ahead, and I was quite finished with soloing dungeons.

We had barely entered the cave when we heard the familiar roar of one of the bears. We snuck back out quietly. Jake looked at Garrett, “Lure it out, you think?”

Garrett nodded. “Good idea. May as well use the space we have out here while we have it.”

The party formed up. The frontline in front, the backline in back, and me as far away from them as I could comfortably be. When they were ready, Jake yelled into the cave, “Hey ugly, come out and fight!”

The giant bear lumbered out. Without any verbal communication, Lindsey stepped up first. The bear charged her and swung one of its huge paws at her. I winced as I recognized the same attack that had launched me end over end the last time I had fought them. And then was shocked when my mind finally caught up to what I had seen.

Lindsey made no attempt to dodge. She simply caught the huge swipe with her shield. The only evidence of the attack was that she had slid backward a few feet in the snow. Quick as a flash, she also lashed out with a counterattack and sliced through one of the bear’s forward legs. The only things that were evidence of her strike were a roar from the bear, and I’m assuming a decent drop in its HP.

Meanwhile, the backline also started getting in on the fight. [Fire Bolts], and [Earth Bolts] flew along with Emilia’s [Double Shot] arrows.

The bear roared and turned towards them, but Lindsey slashed it as soon as it had its back to her. She then raised her shield up and blocked another heavy swing that came her way. Suddenly there was a lull in the ranged attacks. I had only a second to be confused before Megan appeared behind the bear and [Backstabbed] it. She immediately darted out of the way as the bear turned to swipe at her.

It chased her but was headed off by Jake. The bear stopped and tried to swipe at him, but he dodged backward out of the way. Unlike Lindsey, he didn’t take the opportunity to try to counterattack but just focused on dodging like he was waiting for something. Soon enough, his opportunity came as the ranged attacks started back up, and the bear turned towards them and roared. Jake used the opening to land 2 quick cuts on the enemy, and it once again turned back to fight him.

Meanwhile, I just watched and observed. Huh. I hadn’t thought this through much, but these monsters really do act more like video game monsters than animals. A real bear would probably just bowl its opponent over and then maul it to death. This one seems to prefer making claw swipes even though it has a huge size advantage. I thought back over the wolves. The wolves are also weird, aren’t they? Wouldn’t they force humans to the ground where they have the advantage? And they lunge all the time, almost like they were made to be easy for melee fighters to take care of. I shrugged. Eh, I don’t know why I would expect anything different from a game world.

My attention snapped back to the fight when I heard a loud clang, but that was just Lindsey blocking another swipe with her shield. All in all, the fight was pretty anticlimactic to watch as they just rotated out whittled it down. When it was dead, I walked back to the party.

“Good job, everyone! Great teamwork!” Jake praised the party. “And now.. Onward!” He lofted his torch and led us all into the Faroff Forest Dungeon.

[1] OP – Overpowered. Commonly used gamer term for when something is stronger than the other comparable options

[2] Friendly fire – Military term coopted by gamers which means to hit an ally with weapon fire. In many games this is a setting that can be enabled or disabled. If it is disabled hitting an ally with attacks doesn’t do anything.