Even after all of this time, it’s still painful remembering Megan’s death.

However, since I made it through telling you of it, the rest of my story should be easy.

Easy to tell, that is. I don’t know that I would ever characterize my life as “easy.” And being back on my own didn’t exactly free me of obstacles...

---

After freeing myself from the cave, I made a quick stop before resuming my course to the north. That stop was in the village nearby that had been attacked by the dragon.

It was after dawn, so I didn’t have to worry about a monster wave, and I made my way to the middle of the town. Sure enough, I saw it.

I walked up to the obelisk, put my hand on it, and debated.

I don’t know what claiming a village’s obelisk will do. I mulled that thought over a bit. There has to be a way for them to reclaim it, right?

Now, you may be wondering why I would even think of claiming the obelisk in the first place. The reason was that I still knew that I wasn’t a match for the party in a straight-up fight. I still also remembered AltSys’s recommendation to save up to 10 skill points.

Part of me wanted to reject that advice just because it came from him, and if I hadn’t had the hours of digging myself out, I might have just ignored the obelisk and gone on my way. However, the hours of digging had turned my rage from searing hot to cold and calculated. I had started considering it almost a bit of dark irony if I used his very own advice to help me take him down.

Anyway, that led me back to my conundrum. I need the upgrade, but I don’t know what this will do to the town. I frowned. And all this after they’ve just been attacked by a dragon. Maybe I shouldn’t-

My thoughts were interrupted in a way that rendered all of my internal debate moot.

“It’s Mr. Horny Guy!” a little girl shouted. I turned and looked in her direction as she ran up and tackled my leg.

“Oh, uhh. Hi there.” I awkwardly replied to my tiny assailant. My brain managed to finally catch up to both the girl’s identity, as the little girl I saved from the burning house, and what she had called me. I crouched down and gently patted her on the head while trying to disengage her. “It’s… not very nice to call people Mr. Horny Guy.” And that was the limit of explanation I was willing to give to that particular topic. “My name is Titus.”

She still refused to let go of my leg. “Then thanks, Mr. Titus! When the big monster blew all that big fire, I was so scared. But then you came!” As soon as she said that, it looked like a thought struck her. She finally released me, looked down at her feet, and shuffled them awkwardly. “And I thought you were scary too. I thought you were a flame monster that had come to gobble me up. I’m sorry!”

I couldn’t help it. I chuckled a bit. “It’s okay,” I replied. “I’m kind of used to people reacting like that.”

She brightened back up and started talking a mile a minute. “So did you kill the monster? I hope you did. It was really big and mean.” I was about to reply, but I wasn’t given a chance to. “What’s your favorite color? Mine’s blue. The [Hero] left, why didn’t you go with him? I wanna go on an adventure sometime too! You’re so lucky! What were you doing at the upgrade stone? Were you going to upgrade your class? I wanna get a really cool class when I grow up!”

I was saved by calls from the distance. “Lizzie! Lizzie! Where are you?”

She immediately called back. “Over here, mom and dad! I’m with Mr. Titus at the upgrade stone!”

“Who is Mr. Titus?” the mom called back, but it was about then that they rounded the obelisk and saw me.

She and the girl’s father froze in place.

“Lizzie,” the mother called softly but urgently. “Come here right now.”

“But moooooom,” she whined. “I was talking to Mr. Titus!”

I looked into the woman’s eyes and saw nothing but fear. Fear that I hadn’t used an aura to place there.

She knows, I thought and sighed aloud. I nudged the little girl. “You better listen to your mom. I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”

She pouted but then ran over to her mom, who scooped her up. The mom looked ready to flee at a moment’s notice, and the father shifted himself in between them and me.

“What are you doing with our village’s upgrade stone?” the man asked.

I stood upright and looked at the obelisk. Then I looked over at the little girl who was still looking at me in awe. I shook my head. No. Not worth it. “Nothing,” I said. “In fact… I was just on my way.”

I started walking, and the girl called after me. “Goodbye, Mr. Titus!”

I couldn’t help the slight smile that came over my face. “Goodbye, Lizzie,” I called back.

Then I took off at a run.

I stopped briefly once I exited the village’s zone and berated myself for wasting time. However, I at least came to a conclusion. No claiming town obelisks. I don’t know what will happen, and each town will have little children like that one. I absentmindedly pulled out Megan’s necklace and clenched my fist around it. I thought back to DeepMine town. And if there was anyone that Megan cared about, it was the kids… I will not betray her memory.

With my mind made up, I had another choice in front of me. Do I follow the road north, or do I go cross-country? I decided to think about the pros and cons. I can’t really get lost on the road, pro for road. The road will be easier to travel terrain-wise, another pro for road. Then I frowned. Pro for cross-country, I didn’t catch more than a glimpse of the road on the [Hero’s] map, so I don’t know how efficient the route is. Then I realized the most important fact of them all. If I go along the road, I’m sure to run into the party at some time before I make it to the ice dungeon.

“Open-world RPG[1] pathfinding[2] it is,” I said. I estimated north as best I could off the sun, which fortunately still followed “rises in the east and sets in the west” in Placeholder, and took off at a run once again.

I wonder how long I can run with my upgraded stamina pool, I wondered idly. Then an idea struck me. Wait, can’t I go forever? I immediately stopped, took stock of my stamina, and then took off at a run with slightly longer strides. The goal? To convince myself I was resting when I was midstride.

It took a couple of hours to get it down. My strides were a bit quicker than the punches I had done when I last performed the “resting exploit[3].” However, level 4 [Athletics] combined with my increased stamina pool and increased stamina regeneration rate meant that I eventually stopped losing stamina. The only cost was that it took way more focus to keep up than just running like normal.

However, that was more of an upside than anything. It kept me from simply stewing on thoughts of revenge for my entire trip. Instead, I didn’t have much room to worry about things beyond my footfalls, the path in front of me, and mentally tricking myself that I was resting.

Not to say that those were the only things that came up. I still had to worry about the occasional monster attack, and I also had to worry about entering zones, especially at night. While I was pretty confident in my ability to handle just about any number of dark wolves, I didn’t want to summon another heart of undeath. I also didn’t want to have my running bogged down since I could only take on an unlimited number of wolves if I went forward at a snail’s pace.

So, I both quickly and slowly made my way northward. When I was in the wilderness, it was smooth sailing, and I ate up ground. Then I would encounter a zone and debate trying to cross it in a single day or going around.

I initially decided on the latter. I even had a decent idea of how to handle the fact that I had no idea how big the zones were. I started in the zone and ran in a straight line east until I was back in the wilderness. Then I turned north and repeated, this time running until I was back in the zone. Repeat those two steps while trying to point myself a bit more northward on the second step each time.

If that sounds like a major pain, you’re right. However, it worked. Well… It worked right up until it didn’t.

I ran into a zone sandwich.

More specifically, I encountered a zone with another zone to the east and one to the west. How did I figure out that it had one to the west too? Well, I earned the joy of that discovery after I backtracked and decided to try going around the other way.

Either way, I was stuck.

I could just keep going around to the east? I asked myself. But what if there’s just another zone after that? And then after that? I groaned. It sounded incredibly unlikely, but I wasn’t willing to put anything past Placeholder. For all I know, this one specific region of Vir could have been designed with a massive wall of zones all the way across. Because frick me. Right?

I looked to the east and west and then nodded. “That settles it,” I said aloud. “First light, and I’m just booking it.”

I looked up at the setting sun and sighed.

“What to do for the night, though?” I muttered. [Martial Arts] is capped. Oh, wait! [Elemental Strike] is only level 3. I wonder if throwing [Fire Strikes] at midair counts towards the next level?

I shrugged. “Guess I’ve got nothing better to do.”

----

“[Power Strike],” Jake yelled. His sword cleaved through a tree, and it collapsed heavily to the ground.

Meanwhile, Emilia just watched from a distance and sighed.

“He still going at it?” Garrett asked.

Emilia jumped as the [Berserker] somehow managed to sneak up on her even with [Enhanced Senses]. I must have been more distracted than I thought. Out loud, she said, “Yes. Just like every evening.”

The two watched as Jake dodged an imaginary enemy with a diving roll, and then he popped up, and another tree was felled. Garrett winced. “I bet it’s good practice and all, but my subclass doesn’t like trees being wasted like that.”

Emilia didn’t reply, and the two stood there in awkward silence for a bit.

“Has he talked to you about it?” Garrett finally asked.

Emilia sighed. “No. He’s been pretty distant ever since the Dragonlands.” They watched as yet another tree was massacred. “He’s been getting barely any sleep, and every time I ask him about it, he just blows me off.” She adopted a gruffer tone to imitate him, “’My stamina regen still resets, so I’m fine,’ is what he tells me. Even though he looks like a wreck.”

Garrett sighed. “Yeah. I was hoping you would have a better chance of getting through to him than me. He blames himself pretty hard for all of this.”

“Why?” Emilia snapped. “Why can’t he see that this is all Titus’ fault! He lied to us! He used us! He had monsters attack innocent villages just to throw us off! Why can’t Jake see that!?”

Garrett winced, and Emilia decided to leave it at that. There was no point rehashing one of the many arguments the party had regarding Titus and what to do about him. Arguments that had gotten worse after the party had gotten word that Titus was seen in his normal form outside of the Dragonlands.

Emilia decided to change the subject. She watched Jake do another roll and another [Power Strike]. “Why does he keep using [Power Strike] over and over?”

“He wants to level it up,” Garrett replied. “Jake mentioned that he had pretty much neglected it once he got [Sunder], and I guess the fight with…” Garrett paused and then changed his wording. “I guess our last fight showed him its usefulness. I think that’s another part of the reason why he’s pushing so hard. He probably thinks that if he hadn’t been slacking off on that skill that we could’ve fought back instead of just ran.”

Garrett shook his head and continued. “Not that I agree. I don’t think having that skill up a few more levels would matter. A Level 25 boss? A maximum power [Sunder] doing maybe a third HP? That was just a fight we couldn’t have won.” Garrett looked a bit distant. “Even if we had wanted to.”

Emilia was a breath away from ignoring her decision about not arguing when she noticed that Jake was walking over to them.

“Hey, Em. Hey, Garrett,” Jake called out. He gave her a smile, but it almost tore her heart in two. It was weary and pained.

“Hi Jake,” she replied and wrapped him in a hug when he got closer.

Garrett looked on awkwardly and coughed, “Well, I’ll leave you kids alone.”

“So, what were you two talking about?” Jake asked as he waved at the retreating [Berserker].

“Oh… Nothing,” Emilia replied. “Did you have a good practice?” They made idle chatter as they made their way back to camp, but when they finally sat down inside Jake’s tent, Emilia finally asked. “So… I know something has been bugging you even before… The fight.”

Jake didn’t reply immediately, so Emilia softened her tone. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jake sighed. “Not particularly.”

Emilia frowned. Of course. “If it’s eating you up that badly, I want to help. And I can’t be there for you if you just keep shutting me out.”

“It’s for your own good!” Jake snapped. He took a deep breath. “Sorry. Give me a moment.”

Emilia waited patiently as Jake went through his usual breathing exercises. When he was done, she asked, “Better?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He paused and looked deep in thought. “How do I explain it?” He thought a bit more then finally said, “Right. Got it.” He turned and looked at Emilia. “Do you know the story of Pandora’s Box? The old greek myth?”

“It sounds familiar,” Emilia replied. She furrowed her brow. “That’s the one where the gods punished humanity by giving a woman a box that was full of everything evil, right? They told her never to open it but also gave her insatiable curiosity, so she opened it anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s the basics of it. The greek gods were a bunch of colossal dirks.” They both paused and chuckled for a second. “Well, that’s a new censor. Anyway, you got the basics of the story. She opens the box and unleashes disease, war, poverty, etcetera etcetera.” Jake waved his hands a bit at that, then continued. “Now, since the myth’s older than dirt, there are different versions of the story. In the more common version, the gods weren’t complete a-holes, so the last thing that came out of the box was hope. So humanity would still have to deal with all the carp, but as long as they had hope, they could still survive.”

The story didn’t exactly put Emila on the same page. “Well, that’s nice, but where are you going with all of this?”

Jake sighed. “Where I’m going is the other version. In the other version, Pandora just barely manages to shut the box before the last and most devastating of its evils was released. In that version, the thing that she manages to seal away is foreknowledge.” Jake paused, and his voice turned to a whisper. “Along with all of the other curses, humanity would be doomed to know exactly when and where all of their suffering would occur.” Jake snorted. “You know? I didn’t think that knowing the future could be that bad, but after getting just a little taste of it, I think I can appreciate that version a bit more.”

Emilia stayed silent for a moment. “So, you don’t want to tell me about the prophecy because ignorance is bliss?”

Jake nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s the simpler way to put it. But then I don’t get to flex my knowledge from my Greek Mythology humanities class.”

He shot her a quick grin, and Emilia rolled her eyes. When his grin faded, she finally replied. “I don’t know if keeping it to yourself like this is healthy, though. You need to talk to someone about it, even if-“

“I did,” Jake interrupted her quietly. “I told Titus. Right before… Right before he betrayed us.” He clenched his fist, and tears started forming in his eyes. “He even told me that we would fight the prophecy together.” He laughed mirthlessly. “I guess that was just another lie.”

Emilia didn’t know the words to comfort him as he began slowly shedding tears. All she could do was hold him and continue to hold him as he finally drifted off to sleep.

Jake was supposed to have a turn on watch that night, but when Garrett went to get him and saw him sleeping soundly for the first time in ages, he quietly left and took a second shift without another word.

----

“Alright, sun’s up, stamina’s back to full. Let’s do this,” I said to myself. I took off at a run through the zone. All told, the start of the day went just about like any other except with a few more attacks that I had to fend off. However, it didn’t stay that way forever.

When night hit, the number of monsters increased dramatically. It still wasn’t as bad as Starry Forest or the unnamed zone outside of HoldOver, but it was enough to impede my progress quite a bit.

“So many frickin’ wolves,” I grumbled as I finished off the end of yet another wave. They’re like freaking zubats[4], except worse. I can’t run, and I can’t buy repel. That thought made me pause. “Wait…”

I got back on course and thought, If this works, I’m going to be so upset.

Soon enough, I encountered another wave of monsters, and I… Kept running.

Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier? Maybe it was because I wasn’t used to being able to outrun wolves long-distance. Maybe it was because I was still in the mindset that I had to worry about my stamina when running, even though that was no longer an issue. Or maybe I was simply that much of an idiot that I couldn’t see the obvious solution.

… My bet’s on option 3.

Anyway, with my brilliant newfound stratagem of “just keep running and take care of the wolves later,” I was able to stay at my normal run speed all throughout the night. I did have an increasing horde of monsters following me, but that wasn’t exactly a new experience, so I wasn’t too worried. As it was, I slowly started losing the normal wolves, and even the alphas were unable to catch me.

The only hitch with my plan was that I would occasionally have to dodge wolves that spawned ahead of me, but otherwise, there were no problems.

In fact, there was something that made my plan even better than I could have hoped.

Is it just me, or are there fewer monsters following me than there should be?

I spared a glance back and happened to do it at a lucky time. I managed to watch as a far-off group of wolves suddenly dropped to the ground.

What the frick?

Now, I had two options. First, I could take whatever blessing had caused those particular wolves to stop chasing me and just keep running. Or two, I could waste my time and go back to try to figure out what happened.

In favor of option 1, I had the fact that I was in a race to the ice dungeon. It was also the safer option since I would have to loop back around or fight my way through to get to them.

In favor of option 2… I was bored. I hadn’t done anything besides run for days, if not weeks, at that point.

Needless to say, option 2 won, and I looped my way back around to the collapsed wolves.

By the time I managed to get my somewhat diminished horde of monsters turned around, the collapsed wolves were already back on their feet and chasing me.

Weird, I thought to myself. I started looping my entourage back around the correct direction and tried to figure out what could have possibly caused it. I was about to chalk it up to them tripping or something else equally stupid when the same set of wolves suddenly collapsed again.

No way… I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. I looped back around, watched the wolves get up and chase me, and then collapse after a few seconds once again.

“They ran out of stamina!” I laughed. I made one more loop to heckle them a bit and then headed off on my way.

The zone ended up being pretty big, and when I finally reached the end of it, I had barely any monsters left chasing me. I went ahead and took that opportunity to practice [Elemental Strike] on some live targets before summoning a dave to mop the bodies up.

After learning that it was more efficient to just keep running, I made excellent time. I was sure that I would be at the ice dungeon in no time at that rate.

Then I finally ran into an obstacle that I couldn’t simply run past. It was large. Foreboding… Completely stationary.

It was a freaking mountain range.

I stopped in my tracks. “Okay. How did I not see you before now?” I asked the looming mounds of earth.

I also took a few attacks from some stray wolves that were still chasing me. “Ship. Ouch. Get off!” I shouted. A few punches and kicks, and another cleanup dave spawned, I was back to my puzzle.

I’ve been running north this entire time. I didn’t see any distant mountains that were slowly getting closer. I frowned. I guess I was just in a forest, so I didn’t exactly have very much visibility, but shouldn’t I have seen these from a ways off?

I also had another problem. Mountain climbing wasn’t exactly on the list of things I wanted to do while in a timed race. I looked off to the east and the west, hoping I could see a path through, but they went as far as I could see. “This is what I get for trying to go in a straight line, huh?”

I sighed. Nothing for it. Here we go.

I initially tried to keep running up the increasing slope, but that ended up being a mistake.

I hit a patch of loose gravel and lost my footing. My landing was less than graceful, and I ended up sliding and rolling most of the way back down to where I had started.

As I was left lying there staring at the sky, I couldn’t help but wonder. Why the heck does this world have physics setup down to individual gravel pieces when it doesn’t even have more important things? Like monsters that aren’t wolves? Or a legal system that actually makes sense when you look at it for more than a few minutes?

I dusted myself off and got back up to my feet. I started making my way back up the mountain a bit more cautiously this time and came to a conclusion as I did. “It had to be AltSys that caused this, right? If the world’s not set up, it has to be the fault of either the System or an admin. Admin doesn’t seem like he would want a half-setup world, but then again, AltSys did say that Admin basically wanted to rule over it as a barren wasteland…”

The mountain path got even steeper. Soon it was vertical, and I had no choice but to actually climb. Punching and kicking holds for myself with [Earth Strike] made that easy enough that I still had time to think things over.

I want to go home. And I want to make AltSys pay. But… “Ow,” I said as a bit of rock fell down on me from above after one of my punches. I swiped it away and tried to regain my train of thought. If AltSys wasn’t lying, then Admin will do terrible things to this world when I open the portal.

In my anger, I punched my next handhold a bit harder than I needed to and accidentally got my hand stuck. But then what am I supposed to do!? The party watched me turn into a demon and murder someone right in front of them. There’s no going back.

I paused for a bit as I used my free hand to wipe the tears that came unbidden to my eyes. I’m sorry, Megan. If only you had run, or if we had never gotten close. Or if I had told the party sooner… I unconsciously clutched at the necklace I had in my pocket.

When I finally finished crying, I still hadn’t reached an answer.

I looked up at the mountain in front of me. Is there even a point? I asked myself. Is there even a good ending left?

I looked down at the drop of a couple hundred feet and briefly toyed with the thought of just letting go.

I didn’t think about it for long. I snorted. “I don’t even know if that would be enough to kill me. Or if it would just be enough to bring… that… back.”

Whatever my plans, I knew that they would not be served by going into wrath form.

I yanked my fist free and kept climbing the wall in front of me. I was going slower than I had been previously, but I at least continued upward despite that.

I was in a foul mood, but that, of course, meant that everything conspired to make it worse.

System: Zone entered, Unnamed. Faction - Neutral

“Oh, come on!” I shouted at the sky.

I punched my next several handholds a bit deeper than I needed to.

Okay, Titus. Logic says that you should be fine because the mob diversity of this world is ship, and wolves aren’t a threat up here. That conclusion made sense, which is why I immediately rejected it. That means that instead, I’m going to get the worst-case scenario. I looked around me. That would be… a new type of flying mob that will try to knock me off the side of the mountain. Probably high level.

I kept a wary eye out as I continued my climb. I didn’t see anything for several minutes.

If entering a zone had made me nervous, the lull immediately after it was enough to make me a wreck.

Soon, but not soon enough for my poor frayed nerves, I finally saw the first enemy. I let out a sigh of relief but then immediately frowned. What the frick is that thing?

Flying towards me was a rocky being. Its body looked like someone had torn a chunk of rock out of the cliff face, but what confused me even more were its wings. They were made of solid stone, and they were not moving it all. Yet it was somehow flying towards me anyway.

Okay, you got me. I have no clue what you are.

I braced myself and then angled a free hand in its direction. “[Identify].”

That… Flying rock is a gargoyle? I also saw that it was level 7, but I had much more important things to complain about. “Seriously?!” I shouted to the sky. “You have physics for the gravel but couldn’t be bothered to make a real gargoyle?! And am I just supposed to believe that having wings is what lets you fly!? Not, you know, physics?!”

I almost facepalmed at the sheer stupidity that was on display, but I, fortunately, didn’t add my own idiocy to the mix. A cliff face that you are climbing free-hand is not the time to make useless gestures.

With that, the… gargoyle… was upon me.

It angled downward and dove at me. I braced with my hands and lashed out with an [Air Strike] kick.

The monster was knocked back and shook a bit. I’m sure if it had actual working wings that it would have been flapping them frantically to keep itself up at that altitude, but instead, it just looked ridiculous as they still remained completely stationary.

It dove at me 3 more times and was treated to 3 more helpings of [Air Strike] before it finally died and went crashing down to the ground far below.

However, I hadn’t exactly earned myself a reprieve. Two more were already on the way.

I need to keep moving. I urged myself. I kept climbing, even as I had to get a limb free to [Air Strike] the monsters whenever they dove at me. However, I was starting to panic slightly.

I flipped open my status. 281 SP of 495. What’s my regen? I regretted not calculating that out when I wasn’t in a fight for my life, but hindsight is 20/20. Let’s see. 15 minutes for 495. I reached up and made another handhold and barely managed an elbow [Air Strike] into an oncoming gargoyle.

I also saw 3 more approaching from a distance.

Frick. Hurry. Napkin math. 500. Divide by 5 and 3. 100. 33. 30 SP a minute is- I missed one of the gargoyles, and I was slammed into the wall.

There was a brief moment where the gargoyle had me pinned, but that was over quickly.

I lost my holds and started falling.

No! Not like this!

I had already fallen 30 feet, but I managed to jam my hand back into the wall with an [Earth Strike]. It hurt a bit, and I was left dangling by one arm, but I was saved.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I could have died.

Then I froze and remembered what I had already contemplated earlier. The tension left my shoulders, and I gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “Or I guess, I could have fallen and ended up in wrath form.” I looked up at the flying rocks. “You hear that? You can’t kill me! The best you can do is waste my time!” I jeered at them.

The gargoyles didn’t seem to care much. Another one dove at me after that, and I batted it away just like the others.

With the worst-case scenario downgraded mentally from death to “being stuck at the bottom of the mountain in wrath form until it expires,” I was able to plan a bit more calmly.

I’m running through SP way too quickly. I get 1 back about every two seconds, but I still have to spend 3 per [Elemental Strike]. I batted another gargoyle away and winced. Does it make sense just to turn around? Eventually, I’m going to be a sitting duck. I had an idea. Unless…

I decked the next oncoming enemy without making use of a skill. It saved me 3 SP… And also had absolutely no effect on the monster that crashed into me and almost made me fall again.

Hey, I didn’t claim it was a good idea.

Okay, physical attack resistance or immunity. Makes sense because they’re freaking rocks. I frowned but kept thinking. “Alright, plan B,” I said. “Don’t fight the enemies.”

That was basically the same plan that I employed earlier with the wolves when I realized I could outrun them. However, this was definitely upping the difficulty as I would be trying to outrun flying enemies… While scaling a cliff.

It honestly went better than I expected.

Since they seemed to lack an actual attack beyond just running into me, I easily read which one would be attacking next. From there, it was a matter of shifting my body weight and making a new handhold off to either side as the gargoyle crashed into the wall. Even more fortunately, the gargoyles seemed to have taken their lessons on mook chivalry[5] seriously. They always attacked one at a time. They also never came at me from directly above or below, which would have made them much harder to deal with.

However, my rapidly draining SP was soon going to give them the victory anyway. I tried to switch to just using natural handholds instead of making my own, but I gave up on that after another near-slip.

Great. If this is how mountain climbing’s going to go, I really should have just gone around. No matter how far away it would have taken me.

I was almost tempted to expedite the process by dropping down and just getting the wrath form portion of events over with when I heard a strange grunting noise.

A bear? No... It’s deeper than that. I looked up and to the left where the noise had come from and saw an opening in the wall. Let’s see… continued bombardment by gargoyles and run out of stamina, or fight with an unknown monster on solid ground? Two more deep grunts answered the first, all from within the cave. “Multiple monsters. Of course. What did I expect?”

However, it still sounded like better odds fighting on solid ground, so I made my way over to it. I dodged one final gargoyle attack, grabbed the ledge, and then practically threw myself upward into the cave.

Cave was a bit generous of a term since it went back maybe 100 feet. I also hadn’t gotten an accurate count of the number of enemies. There were 10 black figures in the back of the cave that were rapidly approaching me. They were about twice my height, even though they were hunched over, and they had long gangly limbs.

They also had the traditional red eyes.

I had a good guess of what they were but shot off an [Identify] anyway.

Dark Mountain Troll. Level 12? Yikes.

I mentally reviewed what I knew of trolls. Usually weak to fire or acid. Daves or [Fire Strikes] then? They kept closing the distance. I doubt daves will be enough, and I’m low on SP. I was sure that the trolls were going to force me into wrath form when I remembered I had one last thing that I could use against them.

The first troll reached me. I sidestepped to the left and ducked under its sweeping claws…

And gave it an [Air Strike] chop to the back that sent it tumbling down the cliff.

Honestly, the fight was pretty boring from there. I baited the other trolls close to the edge and knocked them off too. I still had to deal with the gargoyles attacking from behind, but they weren’t too bad since they still insisted on going one at a time.

It also turned out that a tumble from that height wasn’t enough to kill a troll. I started debating about which tropes could be in play. Do they just have insane regeneration? Do I have to kill them with fire?

It didn’t really end up mattering. I sat down with my feet dangling off the edge of the cliff and just rested. As for the gargoyles, I found out that I could just grab them out of the air without taking damage, and then they didn’t seem to know what to do.

“Aren’t you normally supposed to have claws or a bite?” I asked one helpless gargoyle that I captured. “I think I’ve even seen gargoyles that have weapons too. Like a trident or something usually. But this world is too garbage to even give you that, huh?” I tossed it away from me, and it fell a few dozen feet before stabilizing and then flying back up to the group.

So, I idled my time away playing catch and release with gargoyles and then [Air Strike] kicking the trolls off whenever they managed to climb back up to me. I also had a scare or two when more trolls spawned behind me, but I managed to get up and knock them off to join their friends without any issues.

I also had time to think, and my mind immediately went to the previous topic. “How do I even want this to end?” I asked myself. “I want to finish the quest. Both to go home and to make AltSys pay for what he’s done.” I paused. “But… Is it worth it if he wasn’t lying about what would happen to the world?”

I pulled out Megan’s necklace and stared at it.

That was almost a disaster.

A gargoyle dove at me, and I raised my hands to catch it out of reflex.

Unfortunately, that includes the hand that held the necklace.

It slipped and went tumbling down the cliff, but I managed to just barely shove the gargoyle out of the way and catch it.

“Too close,” I muttered as I put the necklace back in my pocket. I sighed and pushed the gargoyle away.

“Isn’t the [Hero] supposed to be the one who has to struggle and fight to become as powerful as the [Demon Lord]?” I asked the air. “Why am I stuck fighting for my life all the time?”

I didn’t dwell on the answer because I knew it would just tick me off more. Freaking AltSys’ class design.

I caught and tossed another gargoyle back out into the air and decided to internally complain about something else.

Meanwhile, the freaking [Hero] has it so easy. Just [Sunder] all your problems away. Not that [Sunder] had helped him in his face-off with the dragon or against me in wrath form, but I was sulking and deliberately ignoring that for the moment. He and his BS class could probably take on the entire demon invasion alone.

I entertained that idea for a brief moment before shaking my head and letting myself be reasonable. “No, a demon invasion should be stronger than a single dragon. Maybe if he was higher level…”

That stopped me short.

“Wait…” I muttered. “Can’t I help with that?” I asked myself. There are still 3 dungeons left, and I have to set them up. What if I only fill them with high-level monsters? I can force him to level up enough that he can be a match for whatever Admin throws at him!

I got hit in the face by a gargoyle as I was too distracted with my thoughts. However, even that wasn’t enough to take the grin off my face. I knew that I was basically betraying Admin, but I didn’t particularly care. He gave a quest. He has to fulfill his end of the bargain. It’s also not like he has to know.

My grin faded a bit as I kept thinking. However, that means I’m deliberately feeding the party power. What if we get into a straight fight? The [Hero] will tear me to shreds. I thought of the one time he had accidentally cut me in the Faroff Forest dungeon and the burning pain that had accompanied it.

And that was before he got his class upgrade. And several levels ago. And even his sword upgraded its damage type, whatever that means. I furrowed my brow and absentmindedly caught the next gargoyle. His sword… That… That could work… I might need my inventory first, though.

My thoughts weren’t exactly coherent, but I came to a shaky plan. A shaky plan that I was hoping I would never have to implement, but a plan nonetheless. Plan A is still to just never fight them, but I doubt that I’ll be that lucky. And I still need to work out how I would handle the rest of the party.

I didn’t come to an immediate solution, and I also belatedly realized that I was probably done regaining stamina. A quick check confirmed that, and I was ready to keep working my way up the mountain.

However, I had a decision to make. Do I just keep going, or do I try to thin them out a bit? Thinning the monsters out would take longer, but I was worried that cave would be my last chance to rest.

I had to briefly pause that thought as I kicked a troll back off the edge again. I was surprised when it didn’t get back up that time.

I was half expecting another gargoyle to swoop in or for another troll to spawn in behind me immediately. However, when none did, I was a bit confused. Aren’t spawns based on a cap? … A cap that I reached a while ago? I thought while looking out over the dozens of gargoyles hovering off in the distance and the 13 trolls that were climbing back up toward me.

I caught the next gargoyle and decided to hit it with [Fire Strikes] until it died. I may have also used its rocky corpse as an improvised projectile to try to hit a troll. However, I was more concerned with the mob count, so I didn’t pay much attention to whether I succeeded or not.

I repeated that a few more times, and I only saw a new gargoyle come 1 in every 3 times or so.

Guess I’ll stay here a bit longer. I shrugged to myself.

I slowly whittled their numbers down and took breaks occasionally to regain my stamina. It took long enough that even all of the trolls had died from gravity-inflicted wounds. However, I eventually looked out at a completely clear sky.

I’m in a zone. Things have stopped spawning. That was incredibly unusual for me, and I was understandably getting worried. The only time I remember that happening is when I completely capped out Starry Forest.

I was on high alert for quite a while after that. However, I didn’t see a single monster, even as I finished climbing the vertical wall and was back on somewhat level ground for a stretch.

There was another cliff-face ahead of me, but that looked like the last one, and then I would be over the hill… Literally.

That’s probably why I let my guard down.

I was about a quarter way up the final wall when something struck me in the head… And stuck.

What the frick!? It was burning, and I tried to wipe it off out of reflex but failed. Then I finally recognized my assailant.

A wild dave.

I looked up and found where all the monsters had gone.

I dug my feet in deeper into the wall as a veritable wall of slime fell down the cliff toward me. I batted away falling daves with [Air Strikes] while also frantically trying to kill the dave on my head.

Which may have involved essentially [Fire Striking] myself in the face.

Anyway, that humiliating aside done with, my [Air Strikes] flew true, and I was able to keep all of the other daves off of me.

I also didn’t have to worry about killing them because… Well… Gravity took care of that for me.

That left me with only one last thing to think about.

Why the frick were they all waiting at the top of the mountain?

I thought about that for a bit, even as I began climbing again. What do I know about daves? 1. They’re stupid. 2. They like climbing to drop on things… I put it together and almost bust out laughing. “The daves couldn’t find me. So they just… Started climbing. And they never questioned that the thing they were climbing was a freaking mountain?”

I kept moving and laughed internally. I hereby name this phenomenon a dave-alanche. Even though I’m probably the only one who will ever experience it. Thanks a lot [Monster Magnet].

Another dave tried to drop on me from above, and I quickly batted it away. Crud. More are spawning. I need to hurry.

I had 3 more dave attacks and 3 more gargoyle attacks before I made it to the top.

But of course, the view made all of my struggles worth it… Is what I would like to say.

Instead, it went a bit more like this.

I had just pulled myself up, and I looked around to try to get my bearings. I saw for miles back the way I had come, and I saw more mountains ahead of me for miles as well.

I also saw something else that immediately made me groan and facepalm. “Really?” I asked as I stared out at the fog that cut my visibility off at several miles in all directions. I was pretty confident that all of Placeholder wasn’t currently experiencing a freak weather event, so I had only one explanation…

“Render distance[6]. Fan-fricking-tastic,” I muttered.

If I had any hopes of charting a course from up on those mountains, they were thoroughly dashed. I also had miles worth of mountains ahead of me.

However, I had already filled my quota of self-pity for the day, so I stepped over to the ledge and looked down.

“Alright. What’s the best way to do this?” I asked myself. I looked for a good path but needn’t have bothered.

A flying rock with wings attached crashed into my back, and I was left free-falling.

The air blew past me as I kept picking up speed.

“I guess that works,” I muttered.

[1] Open-world RPG – Open world Role Playing Games are games where the quests are nonlinear and you can usually explore the world as you see fit.

[2] Open-world RPG pathfinding – This is referring to a common habit of open-world RPG players. Oftentimes there are nice roads layed out by the devs to lead to different places, but players ignore them and instead try to travel in a straight line to their destination. Even if it means they have to try to cross terrain that isn’t meant to be traversed on foot.

[3] Exploit – The simplest way to describe an exploit in gaming is when you find a way to circumvent the “way the game is supposed to be played.” Here it is being able to rest while doing something, but other examples would be doing things like using a glitch to generate infinite money, or to skip fighting bosses that are supposed to be mandatory.

[4] Zubat – A pokemon that players almost constantly run into inside caves in the Pokemon games

[5] Mook chivalry – The trope covering standard behavior for cannon-fodder enemies. Things like “attack one at a time,” “always charge straight ahead,” and “attack as infrequently as possible”

[6] Render distance – The amount of distance away from a character that the computer will render (that is display) objects on the screen. Usually, games optimize performance by not displaying everything since far away objects don’t impact the player