Even though Placeholder was a world of levels, spells, and skills, its development was still very medieval in many ways.

You couldn’t stroll down to a convenience store and buy prepackaged snacks of dubious levels of nutrition. You couldn’t get on an airplane and get across the entire world in a few days. You couldn’t use a handheld device to talk to someone halfway around the world or use GPS to tell precisely where they were at.

Well… I guess there were some exceptions to all of that…

---

A few months prior

“After we clear ice, we’re headed straight to air,” Jake said.

The party gave him some confused looks, but Sam was the first to speak. “What do you mean we’re going straight to air? You really think we can just skip the fire dungeon?”

“Yeah,” Jake nodded. “I’ve been thinking about the prophecy because I was worried there was some hint that I might have missed in it.” And wondering if we can trust it.

He decided not to share that thought and continued. “Since Titus is way faster than us, it didn’t seem like there was any point to this entire race. He’s just going to beat us to each dungeon. But then I remembered that it only said that was the order the [Demon Lord] was going to go in. It didn’t say we have to go in that order too.”

Tim nodded. “So, you recognized that as our opening. If we know that he is en route to the fire dungeon, we can instead head towards the air dungeon. Even with his lead, we should be able to arrive there before him.” There were grins as the rest of the party caught on, but then Tim dashed them. “However, what about the combat mode that Titus spoke of?”

Jake frowned. He’s right. And it’s not like there’s another party that could clear the dungeon… He accidentally blurted his next thought out, “Doom Fury!” When everyone else gave him strange looks, he continued. “We can send Doom Fury over to clear the dungeon!”

“Would Doom Fury really be up for that kind of challenge?” Garrett asked.

Tim shook his head. “Also, the issue is not clearing the dungeon but claiming it. I have not heard tell of anyone being able to claim a dungeon besides our group.”

“Has anyone even tried?” Jake countered. “As far as I know, aside from Titus, we were the first ones to clear a dungeon. Then Doom Fury cleared Faroff Forest, but that was already in my faction, so there was no need for them to claim it.”

Tim sighed. “Very well, I grant that there have likely not been a plethora of dungeon clears. However, what faction would their claim even put the dungeon under?”

Jake was stumped. Dang, it. He’s right. It’s not like there’s an “adventurer” faction. Then he had another thought. Wait. What if there’s a way to claim it for Vir? Or maybe another one of the kingdoms?

He felt a slight headache coming on, but he powered through. “Maybe there’s a way that they can claim it for Vir instead?” he asked. “Didn’t they have an in with the [King]?”

Tim hesitated. “I suppose that might be possible.”

“I think we should do it,” Sam said resolutely. As the party turned to look at her, she continued. “This may be our only chance to stop him without a fight, and I… I don’t want to fight him again.” She looked at her pet that was sitting on her shoulder and gently stroked it. “Even if Doom Fury can’t clear it, we can just head there after we deactivate the air dungeon. Right?”

Everyone seemed to be in agreement. Except for Emilia, and Jake was kind of glad she didn’t speak up. He was very aware of where she stood on all matters related to Titus.

“Well, I better get the [Message] off to Doom Fury so they can begin preparations,” Tim said. Jake didn’t quite catch the contents of his [Message], but he soon followed up by saying. “Doom Fury is agreeable to the plan.” He paused. “Or I guess in his words, they’re down.”

“Perfect,” Jake said.

Now… For clearing this dungeon. He looked at the door to the next room and noticed that it had a single star made out of ice above it. What could that be for?

He moved towards it but was interrupted by a [Message].

Ethan Chambers: [King] Vir will help. Will take a few days. Can we test claim Faroff?

That’s… How many words? Jake counted mentally. 14. Now, what to say… He started counting on his fingers, “Go ahead, but keep us posted.” 6. 8 words left… uhh. This is hard. He glanced over at the resident [Wizard] in the party and decided it was time for a bit of delegation. “[Message] Tim for anything else.”

He still had a few words left, but he could tell the [Message] was sent off. Tim also gave him a raised eyebrow.

Alright, now back to the dungeon-

Ethan Chambers: Haven’t met Tim. Can’t [Message]

“Wait. But you just [Messaged] him a second ago!” Jake said. Then he realized that had counted as his reply. Not only that, but he went over the length, so it only sent…

Jake Smith: Wait. But you just [Messaged]

Jake sighed.

“You do realize that you have to have met the target to be able to send them a [Message], don’t you?” Tim finally asked.

“Yeah, but how come you can [Message] him then?”

Tim shrugged. “It would seem that them introducing themselves up on stage was essentially enough for most everyone in the tutorial to meet them. However, the opposite is not true.”

That’s dumb. Jake thought. If you receive a [Message] from someone, you should be able to [Message] back!

Jake got yet another headache. What is this? He grumbled internally. Is it like the glare from all the ice or something? If so, why just now?

Then he noticed that Tim was also squinting and shaking his head.

“Anway,” Tim said. “As you requested, Ethan will [Message] me for anything further.” He raised an eyebrow again. “Though that was a bit rude to foist that duty onto me without warning.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jake replied a bit distractedly. But… There was just a [Message]. They didn’t stick around in your “screen” long when you got one, but Jake was sure one had just been there.

Am I going crazy?

“Hey, Jake,” Garrett said. “Let’s get a move on. This dungeon won’t clear itself.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jake said. He stared at the lone star above the next door for a bit but decided there was nothing else to do but move in.

They moved into the next room cautiously. There ended up not being much of a need. There were only three icy enemies in the next room.

However, in addition to the lesser and minor elementals, there was one that dwarfed even Garrett.

“[Identify]. It’s at level 15!” Tim shouted as they went in.

Jake needed no more prompting, though he got some from the party anyway. It should need quite a bit to take down… Jake took a random guess and dumped about a third of his stamina bar into charging his attack.

“[Sunder]!” he blinked forward with the skill, and it was, fortunately, enough to dust it.

That still left its smaller siblings to take care of, but the party dealt with them after about another minute of combat.

Alright. First room down. Jake thought as a chest appeared, and they looted an “ice dungeon key #1” from it. The key also disappeared after they used it, so Titus must have gotten the kinks worked out of his dungeon creation.

The next room was completely empty but had some benches made out of ice. It also had another door, this one with two ice stars carved above it.

That fight had two enemies of each type, but Jake was able to manage a double-kill on the ice elementals to make it a lot less sketchy.

Ice dungeon key #2 led to a similar breakroom and another door with 2 stars above it. The party decided to let Jake get some stamina back before going on, and Jake was glad they did. The room beyond that door was a repeat of the exact same fight they had just completed.

Jake was starting to notice the pattern, and it was confirmed for him when the three-star room had three of each elemental in it.

Okay, so that probably scales up to 5 stars. That’ll be tough but not too bad.

----

A few days of slogging through the dungeon later, Jake was fed up. Titus, you a-hole. Who the heck has 7-star difficulty ratings?

And that was just what they had seen so far. It was getting to the point that every fight was tapping Jake completely out of stamina, and it wasn’t uncommon for Andrew to be completely dry from casting his healing spells, either.

“Hey, we received word from Doom Fury,” Tim said. “It seems they are attempting to lay claim to the Faroff Forest dungeon for [King] Vir’s faction, but it is prompting them that to do so may constitute an act of war against the Hero faction.”

“I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do about that from here,” Jake replied.

Tim paused and seemed to be reading something. “Ethan has asked if you perhaps have a menu or something for your claimed zones?” he finally asked.

Jake flipped open his status. “I don’t think there is, but maybe-“ he trailed off as he saw a new section for “claimed zones” in his status. What? I don’t remember that being there. Another brief headache hit him, but after it cleared up, he finally remembered. Oh yeah, this first showed up way back after I claimed Faroff Forest.

Then why didn’t I remember it a second ago? The headache came back, and Jake clutched at his head. And why does this keep happening? If anything, that made it worse, and Jake almost doubled over.

“You alright, Jake?” Garrett asked.

“Yeah, just… headache outta nowhere. Maybe it was something I ate?” Jake chuckled and tried to deflect.

Garrett frowned. “Jake, there’ve been stretches where we ate nothing but monster meat for weeks. What could you have eaten that would disagree with you that much?”

“Anyway,” Jake turned back to Tim. “I did find a section for claimed zones in my status.” His status flipped open unintentionally, and he grumbled a bit but flipped to the zone section. “I do have the option to relinquish the claim on that zone. Should I go ahead and do that?”

Tim relayed the [Message] to Doom Fury, and they gave Jake the go-ahead.

Faroff Forest disappeared from the list, and that left Jake with… two zones?

What the heck? He recognized “DeepMine Mines,” but not the other one. It took him a moment, but he figured it out. Right! I left DeepMine Mines in combat mode! It must have taken over another one. He contemplated his list a bit more. Hmm. Titus sounded all worried about combat mode, but it’s been months, and I only have 1 new zone. He shrugged. So, it’s probably not a big deal.

Tim interrupted his train of thought and said, “It seems they were able to successfully claim the zone for the Vir faction.”

“That’s good,” Jake nodded and then had an interesting thought. “Hey, what did that do to the wolves that are outside in the forest?”

“Should I really use MP on a [Message] to ask about that?” Tim asked.

“Yeah, aren’t you curious if the wolves are still friendly?” Jake asked.

“Very well,” Tim said. He sent off another [Message] and then replied, “It appears to have turned the wolves blue at least.” He paused. “Oh. Another [Message].” He took a moment to read and then said, “They still seem to be non-hostile, and they have also been renamed to Vir Wolves.”

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s good. I was worried that we might have just screwed over Faroff just to test a hunch.”

“Fortunately, that seems to be an unfounded concern.” Tim paused. “Another [Message]. They are heading out. Oh. And it appears that Rich is planning on, and I quote, totally stealing the spotlight from us by claiming the dungeon before Titus gets there.”

Jake snorted. “If he can, more power to him.”

“What if they run into Titus, though?” Sam asked.

“You’re right,” Jake said. “We should probably tell them what to prepare for and how he fought us, too.”

Sam’s eyes went wide. “What? No! What if he becomes that Demon Lord of Wrath again?! I’m saying we should tell them to avoid fighting him!”

Jake sighed. “And I’m saying that Titus might bring the fight to them. Especially if he feels cornered like we had him.”

Sam’s cat ears drooped. “You might have a point.”

“Anyway, we should at least warn them, just in case,” Jake said. “Especially that trick where he [Disrupted] our party. That was pretty devastating.”

“Do they even have [Enhanced Party], though?” Garrett asked.

“Oh. Right. I forget that not everyone has been getting perk points.”

Tim muttered another [Message]. “It turns out they do have it, so they appreciated the heads up.”

“Speaking of,” Jake murmured. “Maybe we should try some fights without that active.”

“Wouldn’t that be a bit… Dangerous?” Sam asked.

Jake sighed. “Yeah, but if we get into another fight with Titus…” He could tell she didn’t appreciate that line of thought, so he switched tacts. “Or with something else that can somehow stop our party from working, I don’t want us to be helpless… Ya know?”

“That is a fair point,” Tim said. “Up until now, we had treated that perk as inviolable, so practice making do without it would be a good idea.” He paused. “Though, I am not sure fights of this difficulty are the place to do that.”

The party discussed that a bit more but then decided to go back to their previous point. Doom Fury could use all the help they could give them.

After discussing and getting the word count as low as possible, they sent Doom Fury all the details on Titus they could think of. [Elemental Strike]. Healing spells hurting him. And they especially stressed his other form.

“What about that skill where Titus disappeared for a split second?” Garrett asked.

“You mean the one where he vanished and reappeared a foot away and fell on his face?” Jake snorted. “I don’t think it’s worth mentioning.”

After they were finished, Garrett said, “Can I talk to you a second?”

“Sure,” Jake replied, and he let Garrett lead him to the side of the room, which was about the extent of privacy they could get in that situation.

“You sure you’re alright?” Garrett asked. “You completely ignored me earlier. That’s not like you.”

“I’m fine!” Jake snapped.

“Breathing,” Garrett said, more out of reflex than anything.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jake muttered and focused on his breathing, which he hadn’t had to do in quite some time. In. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. 4. Out. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. 4. Jake repeated it only once more and then felt in control. He let out another deep breath. “Okay.”

“Any idea on the trigger?” Garrett asked.

“I think it’s just these dang headaches.”

“How’d you even manage to get a headache?” Garrett chuckled. “Did you pull something when you came up with your grand plan to go to the air dungeon?”

“Har, har, har,” Jake said as he rolled his eyes. “No. I didn’t start getting them until after we finished planning.” He focused in. When was the first? There was the bit about claiming zones… The headache started coming back. And then again after Ethan’s [Message]. The headache intensified, and Jake wanted to think about anything else.

However, years of attempting to work out triggers and exactly what made his brain tick paid off, and he realized something. The desire to just stop thinking about it wasn’t… normal. So he kept pushing.

His head was pounding as he also brought in the most recent memory that caused a headache. The list of claimed zones. How did I forget about that?

The feeling that he should just ignore it intensified, but that made it even easier to notice its influence. He continued pushing and remembered other times that a headache had cropped up.

Back in the tutorial cave, after Titus mentioned lighting.

Months later, when Titus mentioned Emilia reclaiming her arrows as if it was odd.

And yet again, with Sam’s [Sorcerer] class.

As each memory came up, his headache grew. Eventually, he ended up on the floor, and he could vaguely hear the rest of his party cry out in concern, though they sounded like they were far away and underwater.

There’s something here. It’s important.

However, Jake’s consciousness was starting to fade, and he was sure that he wouldn’t have a second chance to track this line of thought down.

No. He grit his teeth. Stay. Awake. What do those memories have in common?

Despite all of his efforts, he would have succumbed to the darkness if time hadn’t slowed around yet another System prompt.

System: Heroic Mentality detected. “Press on through difficulty”

System: Heroic skill unlocked. Grit

Jake wasn’t sure if the pain lessened after that or if he was just able to deal with it better. Either way, he was sure of one thing. Something’s very wrong with these memories.

Jake was about to open his eyes that he had shut against the pain and ask the party their thoughts when he got another message.

System : Woah there. Hold your horses

What the frick? Jake thought as that random message completely stopped him short. It also had the side effect of stopping him from thinking about the memories, which significantly lessened the headache.

System : Look. You may be able to handle the mental strain you’re putting yourself under here because of sheer… Grit… but your party isn’t so lucky. I recommend you just drop it

Oh? And why should I trust you? Person who’s somehow managed to impersonate the System?

System : Look. You don’t believe me? Just try it yourself. Bring up the memories. See what happens. Then drop it. Okay?

Maybe I will see for myself! There wasn’t an answer for a second. Hello?

“Jake!” Garrett said, and Jake shook his head and opened his eyes to see everyone staring down at him.

He smiled weakly. “Uh. Sorry about that, everyone.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I think so…” He let Garrett help him up.

Surprisingly, the party mostly dropped the matter after that. A bit later, Jake tried bringing up the memories that had caused him to have the headaches, and they were met with the same reactions from the other party members. Headaches and them trying to change the subject.

Pressing the matter just made the headaches worse for everyone, so he eventually stopped bringing it up. Unfortunately, his attempts to figure it out on his own didn’t get any further. Also, the constant headaches were becoming a distraction when they still had a lot of dungeon left to cover.

So, he eventually took the impostor’s advice and let it drop… At least until he could find some more clues. Besides, a dungeon crawl wasn’t the time to be thinking about that kinda stuff anyway.

----

Jake had underestimated how much his party had relied on the [Enhanced Party] perk. Fortunately, there were some easier rooms to practice because if he had tried deactivating it on the 7-star fights, he was pretty sure someone would have gotten killed.

However, they eventually made it to the boss room with him only having to reactivate it on a few of the sketchier fights. Like, the 8-star room that slightly made him wish he had just [Sundered] Titus when he had the chance.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the boss ended up being a nightmare.

It looked like a straightforward setup with one extra-large ice elemental as the boss and one ice elemental mob. That lured Jake into thinking it would be an easy fight and that he could finish it with just a single [Sunder].

He panicked when half of his stamina bar didn’t even budge the boss’ health bar. Then, to make matters worse, it spawned a second level 15 ice elemental.

Fortunately, Tim figured out that its immunity was tied to having another elemental around, and they eeked out a win.

“That took way too long,” Jake complained as they walked out of the deactivated dungeon.

The rest of the party gave noises of agreement.

“You don’t think our boat left without us, do you?” Sam asked.

Jake froze. “I sure hope not. Tim, can you send them a [Message]?”

----

Their ship had, fortunately, not left without them. The crew had been starting to get a bit worried, though.

They set off to the south immediately and had fairly smooth travels. A storm cropped up, but the expert crew guided their ship through it without a hitch.

Though, they did make some claims about seeing a forested island off in the distance that wasn’t there the next day.

The next several weeks passed without incident, and they were a few weeks out from the central mountains when they got an unwelcome surprise.

System: The fire dungeon has been claimed by the Demon Lord! Only 1 elemental dungeon remains!

That’s not as much of a lead as I was hoping for. Jake sighed.

“Understood. I will relay that information,” Tim said to thin air. At the party’s confused looks, he said, “[Message] from Ethan. They could not claim the fire dungeon, and Titus is on his way towards the air dungeon as we speak.”

“Frick. So much for that plan,” Jake muttered. He opened his map, and the distance they had left to travel suddenly felt a lot longer. “Is there any way that they can buy us some time?”

Tim sent the question and then said, “Ethan has some ideas to help with that. But he says that you’re going to owe him one.”

“As if I don’t already,” Jake shook his head. “That’s fine. Anything they can do to buy us some extra time is worth it.”

----

Back where I last left off

I had left the fire dungeon in a panic because I knew that Jake now had a massive lead on me. However, panic didn’t magically make me able to sprint the entire way there.

Don’t get me wrong, I could go full-speed for an incredibly long time, especially by Earth standards. However, that would leave me out of stamina and dead to the first sand wolves I came across.

Reluctantly, I slowed down and went back closer to my normal pace, though a bit faster because there was no way I would practice [Flash Step] when I was in that much of a hurry. Or at least, not practice it much. I did use it just once to see what it looked like on my stamina bar.

It’s pretty nice to be able to see that. It’s looking like [Status Di–

I didn’t get to complete my thought as my status opened up in front of my face, and I ended up tripping and eating dirt. Or I guess sand, but you get my point.

I sputtered the sand out and then scowled. “Absolutely garbage UI,” I muttered. “That opening when you don’t want it to is practically an attack.”

Eventually, I made it back to the river.

Okay, just follow this to its source, and I’ll be right at the central mountains.

I turned south and ran alongside it and was thankful once again that no mobs spawned in river biomes. That particular stretch of my journey ended up barely taking half a day, and I reached the spot where the river split off to run north and south.

After a brisk swim, I got on the elf side of the river and continued my trek to the west.

I assumed that my trip would be as uneventful as my trip going north along the river had been. In some ways it was, but I guess I also forgot that in my “uneventful” trip, I had spawned two monster waves and almost got into fights with two groups of adventurers as well.

Anyway, the first sign of trouble I came across was when I ran into a patrol of elves coming out of the forest near one section of the river.

Given the panic that came over their faces, I could at least hazard a guess that they weren’t adventurers. The fact that they immediately pulled out bows also informed me that they knew who I was.

I snorted derisively as they nocked arrows and lit them on fire. Yeah, go ahead. Light them on fire. Deal less damage to me. My plan was to just run past them since there wasn’t any way that they could pose a credible threat to me.

However, I hadn’t noticed that one of them had pulled out a horn instead of a bow. He blew a long, piercing note, and the [Archers] shot their arrows straight up into the sky.

Frick! I tried to curse as I realized their intent. Fricking medieval signal flares!

I put on an extra burst of speed to try to lose them, and it was a good idea because the next volley was neither on fire nor aimed up at the sky.

While my sprint was enough to make most of them miss, I was still not faster than an arrow. One attack struck me directly in the back, and I winced as a mere sliver of my HP bar went down.

Yup. Definitely not adventurers, was all I thought as I yanked it out. I almost snapped it out of habit, but I realized if my enemy is willing to give me perfectly good ammunition, I may as well try to find a bow and use it later. I stored the arrow in my inventory and kept up my sprint until my pursuer’s shouts faded.

The next couple hours of running were eerily quiet. The only change was that the forest off to my right was getting thicker and thicker.

Shouldn’t I have run into their reinforcements by now? I debated what the lack of response could mean and could only come to a few conclusions. 1, I already outran them. That’s entirely possible if they didn’t know how fast I was. 2, their reinforcements are incompetent or somehow missed the signal. Or 3…

I stopped on a dime, and an arrow whizzed past me with much greater force than the one that hit me earlier. “They’re waiting ahead of me,” I muttered.

“Now!” I heard a shout. Immediately, dozens of people from each of the four races burst out of the treeline.

Without even an [Identify], I could tell that those adventurers were all lower-leveled than either of the parties I’d faced in recent memory. However, there were enough that even a single attack from each would be enough to force me into wrath form.

As such, I decided to try to just sprint past them and break their encirclement. However, their ranged attackers were ready and sent multiple arrows and bolt spells my way.

I [Fire Striked] the arrows and dodged the [Air Bolts], [Earth Bolts], and [Mage Bolts], but one of the [Wizards] went with an [Overchannel] instead. The overly large [Air Bolt] flew towards the ground in front of me, and I leaped backward to avoid taking the hit.

However, that allowed the adventurers that were in front of me to finish the encirclement.

I mentally kicked myself for not just [Disrupting] the attack instead, or even just taking the damage since it wouldn’t have been that much.

Beating myself up didn’t change the facts, though. I was surrounded, and it was looking like I would have to fight my way out. I backed up toward the river as the adventurers closed in.

I dodged more ranged attacks, but soon I couldn’t go back any farther.

Or could I?

I turned and dove into the river.

More spells and arrows came after me, but I dove deeper, and they couldn’t touch me.

Next stop… The beastborn side of the river. Good luck following me.

I swam until I could pull my soaking wet body up onto the opposite shore. Then I [Fire Striked] myself dry and kept running.

----

“Yup, I see him,” the dwarf [Ranger] said. He was slightly regretting picking a dwarf because he could have used a bit more height at the moment, but at least his [Enhanced Senses] still worked. “He got out on the other side. I’d say about… 3 miles downriver.”

“Got it,” the human [Wizard] replied. “[Message] Ethan Chambers. Target fled 3 miles downriver. Exited Besti side.” There was a pause as they all waited for the reply. “Move to position C. Then await further orders.”

They all moved off and were secretly glad they didn’t have to try to fight a level 18 [Demon Lord]

----

Ethan chewed on his lip as he thought about the last [Message]. Did he position everyone correctly? Did he take into account everything Tim had told him about Titus’ abilities?

“You sure this is gonna work?” Richard interrupted his train of thought.

Ethan sighed. “For the thousandth time, yes,” he lied. He went back to studying the crude map that he’d sketched on a piece of parchment. “In the worst-case scenario, we’ve already pushed him back a few miles. It’s not much with how fast he can run, but we have to buy Jake whatever time we can.”

“I guess,” Rich replied. “What’s the plan at position B again?”

“Position B’s where we hope that Titus counts as a monster,” Ethan said. “If not, I’m not sure any of the other positions matter.”

----

I hadn’t heard any shouts, warhorns, or other indications that I’d been found, so I hesitantly thought that I might have gotten away clean.

I should probably head a bit further south, though, I reasoned. It wouldn’t do to have them see me from across the river.

I made my way through the forest and didn’t see a soul for about an hour. However, I did eventually hear some howls.

Just run and let them trail… I initially thought, but then I realized something. Wait! They’ll give away where I am!

I killed and looted the dark wolves in record time and then took off running again.

When nothing happened for a minute, I thought I might have gotten away free.

Then the arrow sprouted out of my chest.

I spun around and tried to find where it had come from.

I got nothing. Even with [Detect].

I didn’t take that much damage, but an attack from a completely unseen assailant was enough for me to decide to sprint and not stop until I’d used up half of my stamina bar.

----

The wolf-eared, level 8 [Hunter], frowned as he deactivated his [Hunter’s camouflage]. His breath had caught for a moment when the target had looked right at him, but he wasn’t the best [Hunter] in Besti, if not the world, for nothing. His camouflage held until his target turned and ran.

There was a part of me that was hoping that wouldn’t work.

[Locate Quarry], and [Marked Shot]. He knew both skills would have no effect if he tried to use them on an ordinary citizen of Besti. Having beast-like traits didn’t make someone a beast, after all.

So, when [Locate Quarry] succeeded in finding the uncannily beastborn-looking figure, he finally convinced himself to take his shot with the second skill.

If they hadn’t told me that was the [Demon Lord]… he shook his head. His horns don’t make him that different from any number of us.

Either way, he had landed his [Marked Shot], and he could mentally track the “beast’s” location up to half a kingdom away.

He walked back to the [Wizard] who was eagerly waiting for him.

Now for the boring part, he sighed as he prepared for several long hours of doing nothing but relaying which way the [Demon Lord] was going.

----

“Holy sit,” Ethan said as he marked down more of Titus’ movements. “He can really fricking move. Positions C and D are already useless.”

He sent off orders to have the people at position C move back to position E, but he was worried that they may have already been too far behind to be of any help.

“At least position F should be able to stall him for a bit if they play it right,” Ethan muttered. Then he realized that Titus was a bit off course from going that way.

He sent another [Message] telling his people to try to force him that way, and hoped he would take the bait.

----

When I heard shouts coming from the direction of the river, I decided to put a bit more distance between it and myself.

They faded away, so I assumed that I got what I wanted. The fact that the forest thinned out, and there were a bunch of people up in the trees with bows at the ready told me that I had been played instead.

I had a split-second where I debated going around, but I didn’t want the delay. Forget it. Punching through. I picked up speed and charged their line.

I dodged some arrows, [Fire Striked] others into non-existence, and then finally caught a few to store in my inventory for later. There weren’t nearly as many adventurers as the previous ambush, and they didn’t have any melee attackers to try to keep me in place. I wondered what they could honestly have been hoping to accomplish.

It paid for me to be suspicious. The ground underneath my foot gave slightly as I dodged another arrow, and [Detect] practically screamed at me.

I pushed off with a [Flash Step] and cleared the hole that opened up underneath me.

A pitfall trap. Clever. I thought as I continued making my way forward. I kept my eyes peeled for any more surprises. However, I guess with how fast I was going and with pointy distractions being sent my way from all angles that [Detect] wasn’t up to the task.

I broke through the ground yet again and didn’t have [Flash Step] off cooldown to save myself.

I fell to the bottom of the hole and landed on a bed of spears.

Ow. I looked down at the blurry spears poking up through various places in my body. “That’s just rude.”

----

“Yes!” Ethan shouted and fist-pumped. “Got him with a pitfall! Now they just have to rotate people to keep watch and keep him down there.”

He paused as he got another [Message]. Already climbed out? Punched handholds into the walls?

Ethan crumpled up his scrap of parchment with the map on it, and he tossed it away. Then he sighed and put his face in his hands.

However, the [Message] was still awaiting a response. “Good try,” he finally sent back. “Fall back to the last point.”

“I take it it’s not going well,” Samuel said as he came and sat next to Ethan.

“You could say that,” Ethan muttered. “Aside from the first ambush that pushed him over to the Besti side of the river and the second one that got him marked, absolutely nothing has gone to plan.” He sighed. “He’s just breezing past everything, and I just… Feel like I’m useless.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Samuel patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “You are useless.”

Nick bust up laughing, and Richard snorted while trying to hold back his own laughter.

Ethan glared at the [Cleric] who was grinning cheekily, but he eventually broke too. The entire party devolved into a laughing fit that made Ethan have to wipe tears from his eyes.

“I ever mention I hate all of you?” Ethan asked.

“Love you too, Ethan,” Nick said.

When the last remnants of laughter died down, Samuel finally asked. “So, what’s the plan at the last position?”

Ethan sighed. “Not much of one. It’s the last spot I thought we would be sure to catch him. I pretty much just put all our reserves there and told them to try to stall him however they could.”

Richard raised an eyebrow. “You told dozens of adventurers to just try to stall Titus however they could?”

“Yeah?”

Rich chuckled and shook his head. “I wish I could see the absolute cluster-fudge that will become.”

----

After those initial run-ins, I went a few days without seeing anyone, so I finally assumed that I’d left them behind.

Okay, back to following the river. Monster spawns were easy to deal with, but that didn’t stop them from eating up valuable time.

It was smooth sailing for a while until I entered a gorge. There was a sheer 50-foot tall wall to my left and a 10-foot drop into the river on my right.

However, there was more than enough room to run on the pathway I was on, so I just kept going.

Until the final ambush occurred, of course.

“Halt, [Demon Lord]!” a voice shouted from atop the cliff. “We have you outnumbered!”

I looked for the source and noticed the adventurers lining the ridge.

I sighed. “Has that line ever worked for anyone?” I shouted back.

They must have, correctly, took my snark as a no.

A few bold adventurers just jumped off the cliff, landed heavily, and then charged me.

The lead [Berserker] shouted… something about glory, and taking down the [Demon Lord] with his own two hands. I don’t really know. I wasn’t paying attention.

Should I just cross the river back to the other side? I asked myself as I easily dodged his telegraphed two-handed greataxe swing. I shook my head. No. I’m tired of this. I dodged another swing, and my frustration continued building. If I run, they’re just going to keep trying to stop me. It’s time to teach them not to mess with me.

The [Berserker] was still in his monologue about how I was powerless to face him, or something, when I decked him in the gut with an [Earth Strike]. He doubled over, and I grabbed his arms and turned to toss him several feet into the river.

His friends that had followed him all blanched after I easily defeated their leader. Or maybe they were just trying to maintain bowel control since I put my fear aura on full blast.

Either way, I made short work of those terrified adventurers and also tossed them in the river.

Unfortunately, that had left me open to ranged attacks, and I was busy for the next bit just dodging. That gave time for the melee adventurers who were smart and actually brought rope to finish their descent.

What followed were the least effective attempts I had ever seen to try to trap or kill a [Demon Lord]. Though, I guess they might have gotten close to killing me with secondhand embarrassment.

A group of 4 adventurers charged me with a large net and threw it at me. I was tempted to [Flash Step] passed it, but I came up with an even easier solution. I grabbed it out of midair and put it in my inventory.

They didn’t put up much of a fight as I tossed them in the river.

Next up, some genius ran and threw a vial at me while I was busy with the four net idiots. He actually landed the hit, and it broke on my back.

Maybe if it had been some legendary liquid, he would’ve had a chance. Some special brew made only by the highest-level [Alchemist] in the land.

It was, in fact, something made by an [Alchemist], but the guy clearly hadn’t done his homework.

“Alchemist’s fire?” I asked with a sigh as I turned to him with flames roaring on my back. “Really?”

He didn’t put up much of a fight before I tossed him in the river too. And I think that a flaming [Demon Lord] must have been even scarier than a normal one because I’m pretty sure that I saw some other adventurers just jump into the river without my assistance.

Most of the other melee adventurers just tried to attack me. I initially just dodged around them and tossed them in the river, but then I had an idea. Hey… Wasn’t I going to try to get some equipment?

I dodged a [Warrior’s] [Power Strike] and then hit him with an [Earth Strike] to the chest. Then I followed it up with a [Fire Strike] chop to his hand.

My plan was a success, and he dropped his sword as he grabbed at his hand in pain.

I picked it up and tried using it, but it was awkward. I’m pretty sure this is lowering my DPS too. The level difference meant that I was still more than able to duel anyone there without an issue, but the only benefit I got from it was that it was easier to block. I put the sword away in my inventory as a failed experiment.

However, as I [Air Strike] kicked a [Rogue] away from me as he was lining up for a [Backstab], he dropped his knife. I picked it up with a dubious expression.

What would I even use a knife for? My answer came as another [Power Strike] came my way and threw up my knife hand to block it.

The knife chipped a bit but held.

“Huh,” I said as I [Air Strike] kicked the [Warrior] away. I tested it out a bit more and then eventually held the knife in a reverse grip so that I could still punch people. I kept one hand free for grabbing people and tossing them in the river, but the knife ended up being pretty helpful. Though, it was looking much worse for the wear as I kept blocking attacks with it.

However, not all of the remaining adventurers tried to just attack me. There were still two that I have to give an honorable mention to.

The first one was in the backline, and I initially couldn’t see what he was doing. I only heard a loud clanging of metal on metal. That piqued my curiosity, and I fought my way to him, only to see him tethering a bear trap to the rocky ground.

“Seriously?” I asked him.

He froze up. “I-i-it works on most monsters,” he finally stuttered out. I put my knife away, picked him up bodily by the shirt, and then set his leg down on the trap.

The trap clamped down, and he screamed. Then, I yanked him, bear trap and all, and tossed him in the river.

The final adventurer of note was a [Cleric] that ran forward with yet another vial. “The power of the church compels you, demon!” he shouted as he… splashed water on me.

I spluttered a bit but then just glared. “What the frick?”

He paled. “But… That was holy water! I had [Priests] [Bless] it! It should have hurt you!”

I heard murmurs of agreement, and then everyone around me clutched their heads.

Oh. Great. I thought.

After rolling on the ground in pain similar to that of a [Cure] spell, I may have given that [Cleric] an extra [Elemental Strike] or two before I launched him into the river.

Anyway, I’d thinned out most of the melee crowd, but that still left a bunch of [Rangers], [Sorcerers], and [Wizards] shooting at me.

If only I had an AOE spell. I thought, but then I corrected myself after I remembered my most recent spell purchase. A castable AOE spell. One that doesn’t have the word heck in it. But unless that part of the chat filter gets patched out…

That gave me an idea, and I grinned.

Instead of tossing the next [Rogue] that I got off-balance, I instead got him in a headlock. “Hey,” I said. “Where do demons come from?”

He just looked at me in terror, and I belatedly remembered I still had my aura running. I deactivated it and then asked my question again.

“Uhh… Heck?” the [Rogue] replied timidly.

I maneuvered him in the way of his allies so they couldn’t attack me and then asked. “What? What’s Heck?”

“I mean Hail,” he said.

“How could demons come from frozen ice?”

“It’s Heck!” he shouted with frustration. “You know what I mean!”

“I guess,” I replied. “But isn’t it weird that you can’t just say the name of the place demons come from?”

“Yeah, I guess that is kinda weird,” he said. Then he and everyone around him clutched their heads.

I tested the spell name out mentally. [Hell Blaze]? Booyah! I tossed the unwittingly helpful [Rogue] into the river and then turned to the ranged attackers.

“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast. My MP dropped to half, and an orb of red and black fire shot out of my hand. It pegged one of the adventurers at the top of the cliff and exploded outward.

Then I heard screaming.

“I’m on fire!”

“Send help!”

“[Cleric]! [Cleric]!”

“Oh, frick,” I muttered. I looked around at the few remaining adventurers around me, reactivated my aura, and then yelled. “Roar! I’m a scary [Demon Lord]! Run for your lives!”

It was… not the best intimidation attempt in the world.

Fortunately, without ranged support, they were willing to accept my advice.

They joined their friends in heading downstream along the river as I frantically [Earth Striked] my way up the cliff.

Please, tell me it didn’t kill anyone. I silently begged.

The good news was that everyone was still up on their feet when I got to the top. The better news was that they all took off running in terror.

That thought made me pause a bit, though.

Am I really happy that people are running away from me in fear? I sighed. “I need to get out of this heck hole.” I paused at the censor. “Wait… What? Heck. Hail. [Hell Blaze]. Heck. Demons come from Hell.” I shook my head. “Freaking contextual censoring?”

I internally wondered how advanced this System was to allow that but decided it wouldn’t do any good to dwell on it.

“Okay, fun diversion. Now, back to running,” I said.

Surprisingly, no one bothered me the entire rest of the way to the central mountains.