I think that technically, being one second away from death makes my fight with “A Giant Dave” the closest I got to dying for real during my adventures related to our grand quest.

Honestly, I should have realized that daves are terrifying enough. There was no need to make a boss out of them.

---

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, letting Megan hold me. I do know that when I finally managed to pull enough of myself together to function, the rest of the party wasn’t around. It was just the two of us alone in the boss room.

I gently pulled out of her embrace. “Thank you,” I said. “I really needed that.”

“I would say any time, but I would rather you not become an inconsolable mess regularly,” she said with a wry expression.

I chuckled dryly. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

We stood up.

“I… Don’t think I can continue with the plan,” I said.

“Yeah,” Megan sighed. “I think we can safely say that this job has gone bad. If every dungeon is going to be that dangerous for you, I can’t ask you to continue.” Megan thought for a second. “So, you’re going to tell the party you’re the [Demon Lord]? I guess I should get my ‘completely shocked that Titus was the [Demon Lord] all along’ face ready.”

“I haven’t decided yet,” I answered.

Megan raised an eyebrow. “But you have to tell them. Otherwise, we’re headed right off to the ice dungeon.”

“It should be fine. The dungeon monsters and traps don’t really exist until I set them up.”

“What.” It should have been a question, but Megan’s voice was incredibly flat. And intimidating.

When I next spoke, my voice came out a bit faster and higher pitched than I would have wanted. “I had to set the dungeon up. That’s how I was able to clear it in an hour.”

Megan’s voice was strained. “And that included the traps? All of them?”

I was tempted to lie, but I figured that she would be able to tell. “Yes?”

She started hitting me to punctuate each of her words. “You stupid.. idiotic.. imbecillic.. moronic..”

Though a part of me was curious how expansive her vocabulary was for telling me I was dumb, I cut her off by grabbing her hands.

“As much as I deserve it, you were doing damage,” I said. “I would rather you not have to explain to the party that I survived the boss only to die to what they would assume is domestic violence.”

She pulled her hands out of mine and stalked off. “Well, if you’re good enough to joke, I guess my work here is done.”

“Wait! Megan!” I called after her.

She made it out of the boss room and rounded the corner. By the time I made it there, she was gone.

“Hey, he’s up!” Jake stood up from where he had been seated and came to the door. “Are you okay, Titus?”

“I’m just dandy,” I snapped. Jake didn’t even have to warn me before I sighed and pulled my aura back in. “Let’s just… Get out of here.”

---

Megan was once again grateful for [Sneak’s] social utility. In other words, its ability to let her avoid talking with the rest of the party.

She had a mess of emotions to deal with, and she was glad that no one could see her trying to deal with them. Though, she really wished she had somewhere that she could just go and scream.

Titus isn’t Xander. Titus isn’t Xander. She repeated to herself. As soon as she learned Titus had setup the boulder trap, she had been furious. First, Titus didn’t share vital information about the heist, and then second, she immediately suspected that he had orchestrated the entire event.

The event where his powerful arms had wrapped around her, and she had felt safe for the first time in a long, long time.

She shook her head, violently. No, no, no! You promised you wouldn’t! Not after what Xander did to you! She sighed silently.

It didn’t help matters that she had lied about many things, but she hadn’t lied when she had told Titus that brooding bad boys were her type. That, along with the fact that Titus seemed to be brooding enough to summon a thunderstorm, did not help her think objectively about the situation.

By the time the party reached the entrance room, Megan had reached a decision. It’s just a stupid crush caused by being with him too much. It will go away if I just stay away from him for a while.

She turned visible. “Can I have a moment alone with Titus, please?” she asked the party.

Jake looked around at the party and then shrugged. “Sure, I guess we’ll go on ahead.”

After the party finished diving into the water, Megan turned to Titus. “I think we need to break up,” she said.

He was poleaxed. “What?”

Wow. Good job, Megan. She sighed. “Our pretend relationship. And our partnership. I want to end both of them.”

“Oh,” was all Titus said. His face turned a little downcast.

She wanted to comfort him again. No! Break it off now before he hurts you!

“Be thinking of ways that we can break that news to the party,” was all she said as she turned and dove into the water.

---

I had watched a kid die, almost died myself, and now my fake girlfriend broke up with me right when I was starting to think that maybe our relationship could become real.

Could today get any worse?

Megan’s head popped back above the water. “Party’s in trouble!” she shouted. “We need you!”

I dove in after her. I had to ask.

---

Daves are not very smart. In fact, that is being pretty charitable. By themselves, daves are perhaps the most idiotic sentient beings in the omniverse.

But Titus! You say. The giant dave managed to ambush the party! And the smaller daves pushed Sam out of the way!

Yeah, yeah, that did happen. However, that related to the only instincts daves have. First, they like to climb things. Second, they like to fall on things. Third, they can tell when other daves are about to drop. That third instinct is the most interesting because they like to all drop together when there’s a group (which basically makes them Placeholder’s version of lemmings).

So, how did the daves manage to push Sam out of the way? Well, that’s a bit of trickery with the [Summon] spells. Since summons have to follow basic orders, the spells help summoned monsters out a bit with following them. That, added with the dave’s instinctual knowledge that “big dave about to drop,” lead to her being saved. Even still, shoving someone out of the way of a falling dave is about as impressive as you will ever see from those little guys.

I digress. Why does it matter that daves are idiots? Because their summoner was an even bigger idiot and didn’t give specific orders to help them be useful.

My command to the first 25 daves had just been to “charge forward.” It worked great for clearing the way. However, any of those daves that remained alive kept going forward. And forward. And forward. In other words, they were long gone by the time the party got back.

What about the other 25? I had sent them back into the lake with a command to “fight whatever enemies they found.” That was better but still flawed. They initially found no enemies, so they waited for enemies right outside the entrance. Then, as enemies started respawning and populating the lake, they slowly got more and more spread out.

What did that mean for the party? It meant that they went out into the lake expecting no resistance and instead found a lake teeming with enemies.

That wasn’t the only problem. I knew the party needed help, but I couldn’t tell where any of them were through the murky water. I looked around, paralyzed in indecision.

However, an enemy helped snap me out of that. A crocodile came out of the murk and snatched Megan by the leg right in front of me.

“Megan!” I screamed and swam after the croc. I expected it to begin its death roll immediately, but it instead just started dragging Megan downward.

I managed to latch onto it and finally realized what it was doing. It must need actual ground to death roll against. I need to kill it before it can get to the bottom!! “[Summon Dave]!” I cast and stuck the amorphous ball of slime to the croc.

I started slamming it with [Fire Strikes] with my free hand, and Megan knifed it repeatedly in the face.

It wasn’t going to be enough. We were going to hit the bottom of the lake. In desperation to try to keep it from reaching, I threw an uppercut [Air Strike].

A [Thief], a croc, a dave, and a [Demon Lord] were all shocked by the result. We all shot upwards in the water 2 feet.

Emboldened and quite bewildered by my success, I repeated that same attack over and over again. When the croc finally expired, we had actually ended up gaining some altitude in the water.

I looked at the [Thief], I looked at the dave, and I looked at my hand. Well, if there was ever a time for mad science, it’s in a life or death scenario, right?

“Megan!” I gurgled out. “Point towards who needs help, and then go get air!”

She looked at me in confusion for a few seconds while she tried to parse what on earth I had said. When she finally figured it out, she closed her eyes and then pointed to what I assumed would be the party members who were in the most trouble.

I swam up next to her, held my dave out in my left hand in that direction, and then thought. I really hope this works.

My mad science thinking was as follows. 1, grapples are dumb and seem to apply knockback to everyone involved. 2, [Air Strike] doesn’t seem to care how much damage I deal; it always applies the same knockback. 3, I can use multiple strikes from [Elemental Strike] simultaneously (since I punched two things with it at once before). 4, I have 4 fingers I can flick with on a single hand. 5, I sure hoped that knockback stacked.

I prepared myself, then I flicked the dave with 4 simultaneous [Air Strikes].

Right as the flicks landed, I vaguely remembered something that I had missed during my calculations. Back during the 2nd fight with the Elemental Wolf Matriarch, the air wolves had knocked the daves back a lot farther than they had knocked me back.

My head snapped backward, and I barely held on as the dave and I rocketed through the water like a low-budget superman.

With how fast we were going, I was worried that I had somehow missed where I needed to go. Then I ran into Andrew. Literally. He was so strung up that he had no chance of dodging out of the way.

The crash was heavy enough to knock some of the air out of his lungs (which was dangerous, given the circumstances). However, he didn’t care and immediately said, “Save, Tim!”

I almost hesitated, but fortunately, I realized I could multitask. I sicced my dave on the vines wrapping up Tim and started punching the ones on Andrew. Soon enough, they were free. I retrieved my dave, and they started swimming towards the surface.

“Wait!” I called. “Point me where to go!”

They both looked at me for a second, but Tim figured out what I wanted quickly.

He pointed and said, “That way!” I lined my dave up and rocketed away.

The next pair I ran into, this time NOT literally, was Sam and Lindsey. Lindsey was trying to keep the vines at bay with her sword, but she still had a couple wrapping her in place. Meanwhile, Sam was practically covered but was still managing to shoot off a spell here and there towards the vines attacking Lindsey.

Dave took care of the vines on Sam, and some of the vines switched to attacking me instead of Lindsey. That was enough for both of them to break free. A repeat of the earlier gurgled conversation and pointing occurred, and I headed off.

Surprisingly, the last group of three were all together. Emilia was decently wrapped up, but she was hacking away at the vines, somewhat ineffectually, with her knife. Garrett was less enveloped but was struggling to make his greataxe useful. However, Jake was completely free, and he was immediately cutting any vine that approached him.

I didn’t have long to admire his swordsmanship before I saw a shadow move towards Emilia. A crocodile was moving in.

I panicked and tried to redirect my dave to intercept it.

I needn’t have bothered. Jake saw it first.

“[Sunder]!” Came the distorted skill call-out.

That should do it. I thought. Wait. Isn’t that an electrical attack!? My internal question was answered by a wave of electricity that shot out in a widening sphere from where Jake hit the croc.

I turned away from it out of reflex. It hit. Ow. I checked my HP, and it had only done 15 damage. Well, it did get pretty diluted by the time it got to me, I guess.

I looked back towards Emilia and Garrett and realized they were free. Oh, it killed the stranglevines too. Nice.

The entire party was saved, so there was nothing left for me to do. Except show off, that is.

I rocketed past them with my motor-dave… my dave-boat… my submardave?

I rocketed past them with my dave and shot them a salute with my free hand. I only got to briefly enjoy the looks of confusion on their faces before I couldn’t see them anymore.

I also found out too late that I had overshot.

I broke the surface of the water with a good bit of speed left. I was like a leaping dolphin. Except minus the grace. And the smooth landing. And any other thing that would make it elegant.

I splashed back down into the water and resolved to be a bit more careful in the future.

Meanwhile, the party had gathered back up on shore. I swam over to them and was greeted by Jake.

“How the heck did you do that?!” Jake called out.

I ended up explaining the video game physics behind it to the party and how grappled characters had the same knockback applied to them. I also tried my [Air Strike] on my dave when I was above the water and confirmed that it was sent 4 to 5 times farther than the elemental had been. I wasn’t sure if that was because the dave was smaller and had extra knockback applied or something else was going on.

That fun bit of science over, we decided we would head back to camp. It was early afternoon, but we figured we would just take a break there and head out fresh first thing in the morning.

Just before we headed back, Jake took me aside and asked, “Everything okay with you and Megan?”

The science experiments had completely gotten my mind off everything that had been going on. Jake’s question brought it all back. I sighed. May as well use this. “Actually [Hero], Megan and I have decided to break up.” Our partnership. I mentally added. Which meant it was still technically true.

“Aw, that sucks, man!” He paused for a second. “Is it something you want to talk about?”

“I mean, there’s not too much to talk about-“ I started saying. Then I got the fourth unpleasant surprise of the day.

system: DEMON LORD, WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG?

I paused mid-sentence. Crud. Need to get away from the party for a bit. “I guess I can’t really talk right now,” I said to both Jake and Admin. “I think I need some time alone to process everything. Can I meet you back in camp tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah, that should be fine,” Jake nodded. “I’ll handle any complaints with the party. Just stay safe, okay?”

“Sounds good [Hero],” I replied and started my trek off into the swamp.

system: Wait. That’s the hero? WHY ARE YOU NOT FIGHTING HIM?

I was still in earshot of the party, so I wasn’t free to respond. There was a bit of a delay before the next message.

system: You are IN HIS PARTY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? ANSWER ME, OR I SWEAR I WILL DELETE YOU!

I rolled my eyes. Yeesh. Saw a kid die, almost died, fake girlfriend broke up with me, and now I have to deal with this A-hole. I was finally far enough away that I could risk a whispered conversation.

“Question 1, what is taking me so long? You mean for the dungeons? The dungeons that you specifically never mentioned where they were and this one was hidden underneath a lake inside a giant swamp?” In general, it’s not a good idea to tick off admins when you’re in a gamelike world. However, I was beyond caring at that point.

“Question 2, why am I not fighting the [Hero]? First reason, I’m not an idiot. He would one-shot me with [Sunder]. Second reason, I don’t even need to because I’m not going to finish your stupid quest.”

“Question 3, why am I in his party? Oh, I don’t know. He invited me? That’s really all there is to it. That and we’re friends now. So, once again. F you and your stupid quest.”

Fun fact, whatever chat filter restrictions I was under that automatically replaced my words didn’t seem to affect Admin.

The amount of expletive-filled vitriol that was sent my way almost made me physically recoil.

system: … AND I WILL PERSONALLY END YOU!

“Then do it!” I replied. “Oh, wait, you can’t. Can you? I wondered about that earlier. You couldn’t change my class, you provided no help, and you didn’t stick around long. You’re powerless because of the write-locking, aren’t you?”

There was a stretch of silence that spoke volumes.

system: I will find a way around the write protection eventually. When I do, my face will be the last thing your pitiful existence will see.

“If you’re coming down personally, then maybe my face will be the last thing you see!” I shouted. To the air. He had left after that last message.

That was probably dumb. My rational mind finally caught up. I ignored it. It felt good to vent, though.

System : Hey, the coast is clear

Oh great. The other one.

System : You do remember I know what you’re thinking, right?

Oh. Right. “So, what do you want? Want to pressure me into making a snap-decision with dubious benefit?” I snarked.

System : … I’ll talk to you tomorrow when you are less on the warpath.

I paused for a second and then sighed. “That’s fair. Sorry. It’s been a long day.”

System : I understand, don’t worry about it. Talk to you tomorrow night, think about what you want to ask

With that, I was now finally alone. Well, except for Dave.

I looked down and tickled the slime blob. “Thank you for not being able to speak. You’re a great minion.”

The dave didn’t reply.

---

Megan was kind of grateful that Titus went off on his own. It made it easier to stop thinking about him.

“Since Titus isn’t present, can we debate some of the theories I have about his class?” Tim asked.

So much for that. Megan sighed.

Jake raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you didn’t think he’s the [Demon Lord] anymore. What’s there to discuss?”

“You are correct. With Megan performing as his alibi, I don’t currently envision a way that he possibly could be.”

Megan suddenly remembered all of the other reasons why she had avoided having partners in her jobs wherever possible. Stupid, stupid, stupid! When they find out he’s the [Demon Lord], I’m sunk. They’ll know that I helped him.

She stopped paying attention to what the party was saying and then came to a conclusion. Sorry, Titus. But there’s only one way that criminal partnerships ever end, and it’s either you or me.

Megan deactivated [Sneak] and said, “Actually, I’m not 100% sure that I can be his alibi.”

The party all looked at her in shock. Whether it was what she said or the fact that she was actually contributing to a party discussion, Megan wasn’t sure.

“Didn’t you say that you were with him the whole time?” Sam asked.

Megan sighed. “I did, but he spent quite a bit of time under the water. Maybe he somehow had time to activate the dungeon?”

Tim shook his head. “No, that’s simply not plausible unless we are missing something drastic. Titus would still not have had enough time to deal with the dungeon alone.” Tim paused. “However, the entire rationale behind me bringing this up was to state this. If, and by if I mean on the remote chance, that Titus is the [Demon Lord], I doubt he is a willing participant.”

“You think he’s being forced to play along with the quest somehow?” Jake asked.

“Again, in the hypothetical where he is the [Demon Lord], yes. I reason that there is either some tomfoolery-“ that word was enough to make even Tim pause. “I just accidentally illustrated my point. If the system is able to make changes to my brain and how I think, what if it is doing similar to him? Or what if it is holding something over him in order to ensure his cooperation?”

The party stood quiet for a moment. That’s scarily close to the truth, Tim, Megan thought.

“However,” Tim continued. “I believe that is currently the less plausible option of my two theories. My second theory is that there isn’t actually a [Demon Lord] at all.”

“What?!” Jake exclaimed. “We’ve seen a monster wave caused by him, and we have the prophecy and everything!”

“Sorry, allow me to clarify. I mean that the [Demon Lord] doesn’t exist yet,” Tim said. The party was still not following, so he sighed. “Triggers. You are all cognizant of them, right? You take a certain action in a video game, and that triggers a modification to the state of the world. Frequently it opens up the path so that you can continue the story. However, what if stats and levels and monsters aren’t the only gamelike portions of this new world? What if there are triggers as well?”

Tim started pacing back and forth. “What if Titus showing up and completing our party was the trigger for the monster wave? And what if one of our party members getting too close to the dungeon was the trigger for the [Demon Lord] claiming it?”

Tim sighed. “A while back, Titus brought up how he was curious about the prophecy mentioning all 4 dungeons. If a telling of the future was clear, it would know we should only need 1 or 2 of them. However, if the world is operating on trigge, then we are basically doomed to end up fighting the [Demon Lord] in a final climactic showdown. Either at the fourth dungeon or right before he opens the portal since that is the only location where he will truly exist.”

Garrett scratched his chin. “That’s… An interesting theory. It would also explain why Megan and Titus didn’t see the [Demon Lord] leave, and we didn’t run into him in the dungeon.”

Jake thought for a bit and then shrugged. “Does it matter at the end of the day? We still have the quest to do, and it sounds like what we need to do is the same either way.”

“That’s true,” Tim replied. “I just… Wanted everyone to be cognizant of my thoughts on the matter.

There was more discussion that night, but none that Megan particularly cared for.

Soon enough, it was the next morning, and Titus rejoined them. He still seemed preoccupied, but the party mostly just gave him space as they went out.

Megan did catch snippets of him muttering things, though.

“Reality.. Home.. Memory.. Clairvoyance?.. Perks.. Brainwashing.. Knockback..”

She wondered what on earth that was all about.

---

I was pretty distracted most of that day while I was thinking of what I should ask AltSys. It was a good thing the monsters weren’t much of a threat.

Eventually, we made it to another campsite, and I asked the party to leave me alone for the night again. I walked off by myself a fair distance and then asked the open air, “Alright, you there, AltSys?”

System : Yes, I’m here. And I owe you answers. What do you want to know?

I had several questions, but I knew which one I had to ask first, though I didn’t know exactly how to phrase it. “This world, and all the people in it, including me.. Does it? .. Do we?.. exist?

System : That depends. What do you mean by existing?

I scowled. “You know what I mean.”

System : I do, but do you?

That actually gave me pause. “You know. That we’re real. We aren’t just computer programs sitting on a server somewhere.”

System : What if the entire universe was “computer programs sitting on a server somewhere?” Does that mean the universe doesn’t exist?

I scowled again. “I don’t want a philosophy debate. Just tell me the dang answer.”

System : You are talking to essentially a higher being with the capability to rewrite reality, you are asking about some of the secrets of the universe, and you don’t want it to get philosophical?

I sighed. He has me there. “Fine. Concrete question then. Am I and everyone I know in this world just a program?”

System : There’s a lot more to it than that, but to put it simply. Yes

I was honestly… Not too shocked.

“And why doesn’t that freak me out more hearing it?” I asked that aloud more to myself than anything.

System : Because you’re doing what you always do. You are compartmentalizing it right now, just like you stuffed your anger in a bottle, and how you refuse to actually sort through your feelings.

System : That strategy works great for the short term because it lets you function, but you should really try to stop. You aren’t doing your sanity any favors.

“Well, then.. Moving on.” I ignored the probably correct life advice, and I thought about my list of questions.

I thought about going to the second question, but AltSys’ answer made me curious. I decided to hold onto the list for now. “What about you? Are you just sitting there in the real world watching over everything?”

System : I am not. I am a resident of the same System as you are. Albeit with better access

Huh. I guess I imagined AltSys as some random programmer dude sneaking around his boss to talk with me. I guess that was pretty far off.

System : Yup. 100% off the mark

Oh. “If Admin isn’t your boss that you’re sneaking around… Who is he then? Why can’t you let him catch you?”

System : The administrator you know as Admin is a literal demon. He wanted to make this world into his own barren hellscape which is why he wants you to open the portal to the demon realms. He is also an idiot and has little to no practical knowledge of how to use this System.

System : He also, unfortunately, has better access rights than I do, which is why I had to sneak all my changes in and then use an exploit to make the world write-protected so he couldn’t muck them up

Oh. So there’s good versus evil even on the admin level of scale.

System : I never claimed to be on the side of good. I’m mostly on the side of screwing Admin over because I hate his guts.

Huh. “And how do you do that?”

System : Read your mind?

“Yes. Admin didn’t seem to be able to.”

System : It’s because… Sorry. I can’t answer that question

That had me confused. “Why can’t you answer? I thought you were an admin or something. Or are you just saying that because you don’t want to?”

System : I mean that I am physically incapable of telling you the answer to that question no matter how I try. The System won’t let me

“Wait. I thought you admins were in charge of the System?”

System : It’s… Complicated. In some ways, yes, in some ways, no.

System : For example, the System sets and maintains the rules that admins have to follow for each world. It governs how we can interact with it, our capabilities, and associated costs.

System : As an aside, yes, making changes to a world is rarely free.

System : Admins, in turn, are there to help with balancing things, fixing bugs, or rebooting things when fatal errors crop up. Like it did when you killed that first elemental.

I chuckled. “I forgot to add that one to my list. How on earth did I trigger a null pointer exception just by killing an allied mob?”

System : It was actually my fault. The System has some pretty robust error handling, and it tried to basically reset you back to factory settings. I had… Removed those and not replaced them with anything else

“Why would you do that?”

System : It was either that or let it overwrite you. Then the world would have had a real Demon Lord, and you would have ceased to exist

I was about to go down yet another rabbit trail, but then I remembered. I should probably focus on the most important questions first. Who knows when he will just vanish again.

System : 1, I still know what you’re thinking. 2, don’t worry about it. We’ve got plenty of time

“Ah.” I was still not used to him reading my mind, I guess. “In that case, what do you mean by a real [Demon Lord]?”

System : Think about your class for a second. What comes to mind?

“Weak. Underpowered. Useless. Lot’s of random utility-“ I could have gone on a rant if his next message hadn’t interrupted me.

System : Well, the original Demon Lord was none of that. And it was a monster class, not an adventurer one. Or at least… Not a horrid amalgamation of monster, non-adventurer, and adventurer class, which is what you’re stuck with. Sorry.

System : Anyway, the original Demon Lord class was only good for one thing. Pure destruction.

“Then why did I get stuck with this lame version!?” I yelled.

System : Because it was a tradeoff for allowing you to level up and get stronger. And a tradeoff for not being a barely-sentient being of pure evil.

System : Also, I had to make sure that every class coming across was fairly balanced.

“Except for the [Hero],” I muttered in sync with AltSys’ next message.

System : Except for the Hero class.

That made me realize something. “Wait, does that mean you designed our classes?”

System : I designed your class, but none of the others

“So, you’re responsible for all the struggling and near-dying that I’ve done.” I could feel my wrath aura coming up but didn’t care. “Why couldn’t you just give me a normal class!” I shouted.

System : Think about it for a second. What would have happened if you had a normal class? If you were a Warrior, for instance.

“I would have had an actual weapon and been able to fight for real right from the beginning,” I muttered.

System : You’re avoiding the real answer, and you know it.

System : First, if you weren’t the Demon Lord, then the world would have had a real one. You guys would’ve never stood a chance since he would be a level 25 monster. Yes. Level 25. That’s what level the supposed “final boss” of this world was supposed to start at.

“Then why couldn’t I have started at level 25?”

System : I already told you. Balance. You think there was any possible way I could have you start at level 25 and be balanced?

System : Anyway, back to the other ways I had to set you and your class up for success.

System : If I hadn’t carefully designed the tutorial to require the boss fight for you and only you, you would have never gotten the perk points you needed for Memory Protection.

System : If I hadn’t pushed you towards Martial Arts, you wouldn’t have been able to buy Elemental Strike. Without that skill, you all would have died in the Faroff Forest dungeon.

System : Finally, if I hadn’t intervened to make sure you got the First Conqueror achievement, you wouldn’t have had Summon Dave in time for the earth dungeon. Can you imagine trying to take that swamp on without your summons?

“That’s… A lot of planning ahead.” Looking back, I could definitely see what he was saying. A lot of the challenges did seem almost tailor-made for me. “How much of this did you know was going to happen?”

System : All of it

“All of it,” I said dubiously. “Do you have clairvoyance?”

System : Ha. I… I guess you could call it that in this case

I thought for a second. “You told me what Admin’s goals are, but what about yours? What do you want out of helping me?”

System : Nothing. I am literally being forced to by the System. Though, seeing you tick Admin off did bring a smile to my face. I guess, in that case, my goal was to keep you alive until you could stick it to him.

We lapsed into silence. I finally realized that was only question number 1 on my list. It’s a good thing we have time. That one really got into the weeds… What was my next question?

I finally remembered. “How do I get home? Or can I get home without doing Admin’s quest?”

System : You… Okay, can’t answer that directly. Got it.

System : What I can tell you is that the quests, as listed by the System, are binding. For the quest clear awards, the System helps enforce that the quest giver gives them out. For the failure rewards, they are usually the natural consequences of failing the quest.

System : Or at least, the System has to believe there is a high enough probability that failing the quest will cause that result.

System : The quest he gave you was a bit unfair since it was compulsory, meaning it had a punishment for declining too, but that means Admin believes you won’t go home without doing it, and the System agrees.

System : To answer your next question, no, I couldn’t help you before with getting home, and I can’t help you now. And you would definitely need an admin’s help

“Great. Guess I better get used to this world.” I sighed. “Can you at least let me know if my family is okay?”

System : I can’t. Sorry. I don’t have any access to your old world, and I don’t know what the state of your family is

I miss you. I hope you are getting along okay without me. I hadn’t realized, but I had started tearing up.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and moved on to the next question on my list.

“What is [Memory Protection], really? Don’t give me that same BS you gave me about remembering the previous world. Everyone else in the party can remember home just fine.”

System : You’ve already seen it in action enough that you should have it figured out by now. What do you think it does?

I furrowed my brow. “First off, I don’t think it helps at all with memory from home. As for what it does do…” I thought back a bit. “It doesn’t let the obelisks overwrite my memory with how to use skills, or at least not my conscious mind. Which is irritating. It also made it so that the System didn’t overwrite my memory back during the elemental incident. Which is a good thing, I guess, but I still don’t see how it’s worth 50 points.”

System : You’re missing the other two events

“You mean…” I trailed off as I realized. “When the [Hero] was eaten by a mimic and the world reset. Then Tim and Andrew were killed by the giant dave, and the world reset again. But how could…”

I had a flash of realization. “You said the world’s a server, then that means…” I finally understood how [Memory Protection] could equal clairvoyance. “I saw something that happened that somehow put the world in an unrecoverable state, so the System restored it from backup! Then it couldn’t overwrite my memory, so I remembered what happened!”

System : Correct, well done

“But why is the [Hero], Andrew, or Tim dying enough to warrant a revert?” I asked.

System : I can’t answer that, though I can say that it was Tim’s death, not Andrew’s, that was the cause for the second revert

“And let me guess, you can’t say why Tim is more important than Andrew?”

System : Correct

“Cool.” That segway ended up knocking item 4 off my list. I had been very curious about what on earth had allowed me to see the future, not once but twice.

That moved me on to question 5. “Can you tell me what my perks are supposed to do? Since I bought [Memory Protection] on your recommendation, I can’t get info on them like everyone else can.”

System : Ah. Right. You already figured most of them out, but I’ll explain anyway.

System : Decreased Skill experience means your skills level up as if they were a level higher than they actually are. Healing Inversion you figured out. Heavily Decreased Class XP means you count as 2 levels higher than you are for XP. And Monster Magnet… Does what it says on the tin.

System : Asexual is actually a bit more subtle. You were correct that you can’t have kids, but you will also notice that you have no sex drive.

“Wasn’t that a 0 cost perk? Shouldn’t that have been a negative?” I asked.

System : Trust me, I did you a favor there

System : Most of your other perks are straightforward. Fire Immunity. Dark Vision. Cold Resistance. Status Effect Resistance… Actually, Status Effect Resistance is incredibly strong for only being 15 points. I was surprised I could get it for that cheap. You have resistance to almost every type of status effect out there and complete immunity to several. Exceptions being knockback and grapple that you have no resistance to.

System : Anyway, you figured Biologically Needless out already, and Ageless is straightforward. The rest of the perks that you have to worry about for now are all mostly pieces of the standard adventurer class that I had to gut to even out the starting perk point balance of your class back to 0.

“That… Explains a lot about the perks that I saw available.” I mulled over his statements and then realized something. “Hey, you left out the [Demon Lord] perk. What does that do?”

System : It… It is responsible for your wrath aura and also wrath form. That is all I can tell you for now

“So… Wrath form just activates when I get angry, right? I’m assuming that’s a really bad thing that I should avoid.”

System : It also… It also… Correct. It activates when you get angry. I recommend that you talk with Jake about managing that since he should have a pointer or two.

Secondhand anger management courses for a [Demon Lord]. I guess it isn’t a bad idea. I was also slightly worried about what he had tried to tell me twice but was unable to. I decided to move onto my next question.

“You mentioned that the System adjusts people’s thoughts when they go into a new world, and I’ve seen it firsthand with Tim.”

System : Is there a question there?

“I don’t know exactly how to phrase it. I guess why? And how much does it do? I don’t see the reason to suddenly give a kid such a large vocabulary and to modify his thoughts like that.”

System : Tim’s actually a bit of a special case, along with the rest of the kids. When someone becomes an adventurer in this world, they are rapidly aged up to 18 years old if they aren’t already. That plus the fact that the System tries to modify everyone who was transported over to match the personality of their chosen class means that he’s dealing with a double-whammy

I was about to ask a follow-up question when the next message cut me off.

System : And yes, the System has different archetypes. Wizards are smart and condescending, which explains Tim. Sorcerers are more free spirits, but Sam already was, so that’s why you didn’t see much of a change. Same deal with Lindsey and Megan. Knights are the stoic type, and Rogues are… well… what Megan already was.

System : The rest of the party is where it gets interesting. Garrett is a Berserker, which means he should become battle-crazed, but his natural personality is so diametrically opposed to it that it isn’t taking much effect yet. Except for when he Rages, but that’s more a consequence of the skill itself.

System : Emilia is a Ranger, which means she should tend more towards being outdoorsy and being a lone wolf. The effects on her have only been minor so far.

System : Andrew is a Cleric, which is supposed to make him more pious and caring. However, his concerns for Tim have basically drowned out everything, so there hasn’t been much effect.

System : Jake is a Hero and a Warrior. He already fits the mold for Hero, so there hasn’t been much of a change there. However, Warriors tend to be obsessed with mastering a single weapon, so his love of swords may have meant there was nothing to change.

I was waiting for him to get to my class, but he stopped there. “What about me?”

System : Demon Lord depends on your form. And your form depends on a negative trait that has been expressed. Basically, your anger was the first thing to take root, so now the class is reinforcing it

A vicious cycle. Yikes. I shook my head. I was getting towards the end of my list, and I was thankful for that. There was… a lot to process.

“What’s the deal with grapple and knockback?” I finally asked question number 7 on my list.

System : It’s a buggy interaction that will basically never get fixed. Admin could have, but he didn’t, and I’m incapable of fixing it

“I thought you knew the system better than he did?”

System : Yes, but similar to the System forcing me to help you, I am not allowed to fix that bug. And I don’t have a clue why

System : Sidenote, your flicking with Air Strike is going to get nerfed some time in the future. Just a warning, don’t become overly dependent on that. I’m leaving it for now, though, so abuse it while you can

“Thanks. I appreciate the heads up.”

I thought about the last question I had. I wasn’t sure if I should ask it.

System : Go ahead

I sighed. “Should I tell the party I’m the [Demon Lord]?”

The immediate reply didn’t happen.

I waited. And waited.

“AltSys?”

System : No

“No? Why do you think that?” I had been somewhat leaning that way since the party didn’t have to know that it was me in order to stop me at the ice dungeon, but I was curious why AltSys thought so.

System : I… Can’t tell you, but the answer is no

That’s a bit strange. I shook my head. I guess I hold the course for now.

“Thank you, AltSys. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, even if it was forced on you by the System.”

System : You’re welcome. Oh, before I go, you should head back to camp early tomorrow morning

“Okay? Any reason why?”… “AltSys?” I asked the air. He was gone.

I spent the rest of that night thinking through our conversation, and just like AltSys recommended, I headed back to camp early in the morning.

The party was frantically tearing down camp.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re back, Titus!” Jake called out as he stuffed his tent into his inventory. “We got a [Message] from Doom Fury! Faroff’s under attack!”