It’s sometimes hard to fathom that I’d been on my own at this point longer than I’d spent with the party… Well, I guess if you count the tutorial, I reached that point almost immediately. That was a long frickin’ time to be alone trying to solo that boss fight.

Anyway, I guess it’s just weird looking back at all of this and realizing things.

Like, maybe I spent longer telling the parts of the story when the rest of the party was there because… I miss them.

Or less charitably, maybe I just didn’t have as much to say about the literal months I spent running.

Either way, in case you couldn’t tell by my nostalgia or the story itself, this first part of my tale is rapidly approaching its end.

… And since I hardly want to spoil the ending, I think I best leave it there.

---

Although I’d probably drunk multiple times my body weight, my drunken stupor still only lasted about an hour after I stopped drinking.

That left me hungover, broke, in jail, and still not feeling any better about Megan’s death.

I was hoping I could at least pass out if I drank too much. I guess that was a no-go.

In other words, my attempts to drown my sorrows were a complete bust. They mostly just left me wondering why people drank when they were miserable because it sure hadn’t helped me at all.

Anyway, when my hangover eventually subsided, I figured I could either wait a boring night in jail or fight my way out that night.

I decided to wait.

The only crime they have me on is threatening a [Guard Commander]. That should be a small fine, right? So, no point in breaking out if they’re just going to release me tomorrow.

I checked my quest and still had almost 4 months left, so I wasn’t pressed for time. I idled away time until morning by messing with my bounds and even managed to free myself without resorting to summoning a dave.

Then, early in the morning, the [Guard Commander] showed up again, so I made sure to hide my freed hands behind my back.

“So, you’re here to release me, right?” I asked. That was when I noticed a dozen heavily armed and armored [Guards] following up behind him.

He swallowed heavily, paused, and then locked me with a steely gaze. “[Demon Lord] Titus. By command of [King] Vir, and in agreement with System’s designation, you have been labeled an enemy combatant that is at war with Vir and her people. You are to be held indefinitely under guard.” He paused. “Do you have anything you would like to say?”

I processed that for a few seconds before saying. “I have just two words.” He gave me a quizzical look, but I didn’t keep him in suspense for long. “[Summon Dave]!” I cast as I punched the slime ball through the opening in the cell.

His yell of surprise and pain echoed through the dungeon but was eclipsed by the sound of me kicking my cell door down with an [Earth Strike].

“[Halt]!” a dozen voices called in unison. It made my first couple of steps sluggish, but that was all. The two front [Guards] jabbed at me with spears, but I knocked the attacks to the side and [Flash Stepped] past them.

Meanwhile, my dave had taken the [Guard Commander] down, and he was no longer moving. I was about to call the dave off, but 4 of the [Guards] had managed to force it off him and then killed it with repeated stabs.

That left just 6, but they had taken up position around the door leading into the dungeon. To make matters worse, one of them had blown a horn, and I could be sure that reinforcements were now on their way.

I activated my fear aura and tried to force the soldiers to run. It might have worked, but I forgot about a certain [Guard Commander]…

“[Hold Your Ground]!” he shouted. The effects of my aura on the men dissipated before my eyes. They got back into formation, and I could see their posture flip from terrified back to professional.

What? How can he use a skill when he’s downed? I turned back to look and barely caught one of the [Guards] putting away a mostly empty red potion as he helped the [Guard Commander] back to his feet.

With him recovered, I was now surrounded with 6 [Guards] in front of me and 7 behind me.

“Surrender quietly, [Demon Lord],” the commander said. “We have you outnumbered, and you’re unarmed. I confiscated your weapons myself, remember?”

“Again with the outnumbered bit,” I muttered. “Also, didn’t me kicking down a cell door clue you in that I don’t need a weapon?”

We were in a bit of a stalemate, but only because I was still trying to figure out how to get out of there without using lethal force. [Hell Blaze] was out; it would deal far too much damage. [Elemental Strike] was risky; it didn’t seem like everyone had the same HP, so I couldn’t know if it was lethal or not. That left daves, which I had a limited number of, or normal [Martial Arts] attacks which I wasn’t sure would be effective on people wearing full metal armor.

The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching also told me that I was running out of time.

I just need to get them away from the door!

That finally reminded me that I had one last trick I could play. So, I activated my wrath aura instead and focused it on just two of the [Guards] in front of me.

My bet paid off. [Hold Your Ground] may give some type of defensive buff, and it definitely helped people not run away, but it apparently didn’t do anything to stop people from charging like hotheaded idiots.

I dodged and grabbed the left [Guard’s] spear before yanking it to toss him into the men behind me. Then I ran and slid past the other [Guards] before they could recover, and I was out the door.

However, out the door didn’t mean I was home free.

“There he is!” came a shout from my right.

I whipped my head in that direction and saw a group of adventurers charging towards me. His shout also ruined their surprise attack because it gave me enough time to dodge the arrow that had been shot my way. It whizzed past me, and I heard it strike something metallic.

“Watch where you’re shooting!”

I looked toward the voice and saw that I was currently in a three-prong pincer. Adventurers on the right, [Guards] to the left, and [Guards] in the dungeon I’d just left behind me.

I made a snap decision and sprinted to the right. Why? Because then I wouldn’t have to hold back.

“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast.

As the sinister red and black flames engulfed the charging adventurers, I at least had the decency to feel a bit bad about it.

However, decency didn’t stop me from blasting my fear aura as I ran at the now-burning adventurers.

They fell to the ground in terror or ran away in panic. All of them except for one plucky [Cleric] who shouted at me. “[H… [Heal]!”

I growled through the pain, ran up to him, and then [Air Strike] kicked him into the wall.

“I hate [Clerics],” I spat. I was also frustrated that apparently, the word about me taking damage from healing was out.

However, the [Cleric] wasn’t getting back up, so I must have knocked him into the negatives, and I didn’t hate [Clerics] that much. With a sigh, I opened my inventory, found one of the “cheap” health potions I’d bought on my spending spree, and tossed it to one of the terrified adventurers.

“Make sure he doesn’t die, okay?” I asked as the adventurer vigorously nodded his head.

My little detour there gave the [Guards] a bit of time to catch up, and one of them shot an arrow at me that I easily dodged. I took off running again.

Okay. What’s my plan here? I ran into another pair of [Guards] as I rounded a corner, but I just dodged around them and kept running. I need to get my weapons back. I paid good money for those… Where would they keep them?

I ran through the halls, bursting into rooms aimlessly as I heard shouts and sounds of panic in all directions.

Eventually, I found it.

“Jackpot,” I said as I found myself in the castle’s armory.

A man sitting at a desk near the front of it stopped writing on a scroll for a second to look up. When he saw me, he blanched.

“Hi, as you can see, I’m free now,” I stated. “Where’s my stuff?”

He made choking noises for a second, and then I realized I still had my fear aura going. I let that up, and he finally stuttered out. “O-o-over there.” He pointed at a chest.

I walked over to it, then frowned as I realized that I didn’t know how to open a storage container besides the dungeon chests where I knew I had to say “loot.”

“Hey, how do I open this?” I asked.

“Y-y-you can’t. You don’t have permission.”

I tsked, paused for a second, and then put my hand on it. “Loot.” That at least seemed to work, though the window that popped up with the chest’s contents helpfully informed me that I was currently stealing. I’m stealing my own stuff? That’s stupid.

I grabbed everything, then went over to the next box. If I was already going to be a thief, I might as well see if there was anything else good in there, right?

“W-w-what are you doing?!” the guy who was starting to get on my nerves asked.

“I’m taking my stuff back… with interest,” I replied. “Ooo,” I said as I pulled out a bow. “This looks nice.” I also found a quiver and a bundle of arrows. “Anything else in here that you wouldn’t want me to take?” I jokingly asked him.

His eyes briefly flashed down to the desk he was sitting at, so naturally, I walked over to that and looted it as well.

Scrolls… Could these be? I almost gasped aloud. Are these spell scrolls? Without another thought, I shoved all of them into my inventory.

“Y-y-ou won’t get away with this! [Guards]! [Guards]!” he hysterically shouted.

However, part one of my mission was already complete. I’d gotten my stuff back, so it was now time to get out of Dodge.

I went and stealthily checked the drawbridge and gatehouse, but it was raised and under heavy guard. However, I quickly realized that I didn’t actually need to go out that way. With a grin, I sprinted up the steps to the castle walls.

I ignored the shouts and continued running on the top of the wall. [Guards] were hopelessly trying to catch me from behind, and some were running to intercept me from the other section of the wall.

However, I had a free straight-stretch in front of me, and that was all I needed.

I put on a final burst of speed when I reached the end of my runway, jumped to the top of the crenellations, and then leaped with all my might.

I easily cleared the moat and even stuck the superhero landing this time.

I couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across my face. You know… I think I might miss Placeholder a bit when this is all over.

Then the startled townsfolk that I’d landed near all burst into a panic and fled away from me shouting about the [Demon Lord].

Nevermind. I thought with a sigh.

Either way, it seemed that my stay in inhabited lands was over, so it was time to hit the road.

I took off at a relaxed run and soon left Vir behind me.

----

The [Record Keeper] sat with his head in his hands at his desk. He had tried to recreate what was lost, but there was only so much he could do even with skills.

Duty rosters, pay charts, weapon and armor maintenance schedules. He nearly burst into tears as he thought about his work of the past several months. “Why would the [Demon Lord] take them!? What could he possibly gain!?”

He had no idea what he would say if the [Steward] asked him about it, much less the [King]. He knew he’d be exonerated if it went to a [Trial], but…

“I need a drink,” he said to himself as he shakily got up and left the castle.

Unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t find a drink. The [Demon Lord] had seen to that too.

----

I didn’t make it too far out before I decided to check my map of Vir and a bit of the surrounding lands. I stopped a few minutes, made sure that I had a good route that would avoid mountains at all costs, and then nodded and put the parchment back into my inventory.

However, that reminded me of the other scrolls that I’d procured.

Right! Let’s check some of those out!

Needless to say, when I finally understood what exactly I’d stolen, my disappointment was immeasurable, and my day was ruined.

“What the frick am I supposed to do with all of these?” I grumbled.

I definitely wasn’t turning around to return them, and I also didn’t want them cluttering up my inventory.

I dumped all of them on the side of the road and then hesitated. Then I hesitated about my hesitation.

Am I really wanting to draw the line at littering? I sighed. I broke out of jail and stole from the castle armory, but I feel bad about littering?

After a minute, I came to a compromise.

“Well, it’s all combustible, right?” I shrugged. “[Hell Blaze].”

As the black and red flames engulfed the parchment, I likely set the Placeholder world-record for the most wasteful use of MP.

I also finally heard the thundering gallop of horse hooves and realized that the cavalry was here.

Dozens of them were galloping down the road toward me, and as they got nearer, I heard one of them shout. All of them lowered their lances.

Why won’t you just give up? I grumbled to myself. I could have tried to run, but unfortunately, horses were still faster than me, even at level 20.

Instead, I just watched their approach.

The horse in the lead broke off a bit from the others, and the rider readied himself to impale me with his lance.

He didn’t get that far. I [Air Strike] punched the lance as it got in range, and our attacks bounced off each other.

However, either the guy wasn’t prepared for it, or I was even stronger than I thought because that ended with him being unseated from his horse while I didn’t move an inch.

His horse slowed to a stop about a dozen feet away, and I saw my chance. I ran for it, leaped into the saddle, and urged the horse onward down the road. I think it mostly ran because I terrified it, but I was willing to take it.

“Thanks for the ride, gentlemen!” I waved and called back to the horde that was still in hot pursuit.

----

“So, let me get this straight,” Jake said with a sigh as the party sat down for a midday break. “He sent us a [Message] telling us there’s a time limit on the portal. Then next we can tell, he took down a [Bandit Lord] and left some random girl from Placeholder in charge of over a hundred slimes.” Jake continued, with his voice increasingly incredulous. “And all of that before he heads to the capital city to… buy random stuff, commit crimes, drink himself into oblivion-“ Garrett shook his head at that. “-break himself out of jail, and then finally commit medieval grand theft auto before finally escaping all pursuit.”

Tim paused. “He also allegedly stole a majority of the castle’s mundane records.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Allegedly?”

“The [Record Keeper] believes that Titus was… well… out to get him? He claims that he burst into the armory, stole the records, and then finally combusted the purloined documents right in front of the [Riders] that were sent in pursuit.”

“I want to say that’s ridiculous...” Jake sighed. “But, when I remember it’s Titus, I can’t say it’s impossible.” Jake shook his head with a wry smile. “We really do have the weirdest [Demon Lord] I’ve ever heard of.”

However, break time was over, and it was time to get back to walking. Jake still had some things to discuss with Tim, but he didn’t want the rest of the party to hear. Or at least, he didn’t want Andrew and Emilia to hear. Emilia had managed to convince Andrew that Titus saving his and Tim’s lives was just a part of Titus’s con. So, it wouldn’t do for Andrew to know that Jake was trying to use his son to reconcile with Titus behind his back.

He managed to convince Andrew to let him talk with Tim alone as they traveled that day, and so Jake traded whispers with him.

“What about the [Message]? Have you been able to get through to him?” Jake asked.

Tim shook his head and whispered back. “Unfortunately, it seems that the spell simply doesn’t function when anyone attempts to send to Titus. Unless we find some other way to contact him, I am afraid it will come down to the final confrontation.”

“Maybe he’ll give up when we confront him again,” Jake replied and tried to inject more optimism into saying that than he felt. The silence dragged on. Then it was time for the discussion that Jake didn’t want the other half of the party to hear. “And if the worst comes to worst… Any thoughts on the strategy for our fight?”

Tim hesitated for a second. “We all have trouble landing blows on him, so it will mostly come down to you. He should start the fight off with a [Disrupt] for your [Enhanced Party], then you will just need to bait out his movement skill as reports indicate it has progressed.” Tim paused and frowned. “And then… end him with a [Sunder] before those two cooldowns have returned.”

Jake didn’t reply for about a minute. The plan was sound… but…

“Jake, are you going to be able to do that if it comes down to it?” Tim finally asked.

Jake clenched a fist. “I’ll do what I have to do.” Then he looked away. “And pray that I don’t have to do that.”

---

I ended up running the poor horse practically into the ground, but I did stop once all of the horsemen following me gave up. After all, a horse was only helpful for me in the short term anyway, so I just left it behind and went back to running.

From there, I headed northwest to the river, and my travels were unexciting. Even after making it to the river, that continued. It was just swimming… and swimming… and some more swimming.

It turned out that the map showed no towns or villages on either side of the river after where I got in, so there was no need to get out. I didn’t need to breathe, so I did my travel in the water, I took my breaks in the water, and part of me wondered if demons were actually a type of fish because of how easy all that was.

When I finally reached a similar north-south fork like the one I saw in the east, I had to finally get out. I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t turned into a prune, but thankfully that didn’t seem to be implemented.

“Note to self,” I murmured. “Don’t bring that up to anyone from Earth.”

It wasn’t like I had any plans on causing any more patches anyway, but that did give me something entertaining to think about during my monotonous journey.

I wonder what the limits are for the System patching? I thought back over the many different patches I’d noticed. Lighting and torches. [Sorcerer] vs. [Sorceress]. Even the most recent ones with [Hell Blaze] and the holy water. It mostly seemed to happen when something wasn’t like how people thought it should be.

That gave me pause.

So, I know this world isn’t complete but is all the finishing up just based on what the Earthers think? I frowned at that. What if I convinced an Earther that my class should be stronger because I’m the [Demon Lord]? Or that there should be more spell options? I raised an eyebrow. Or, to take it as far as possible, could I convince them that the medieval fantasy world setting’s overdone and get it changed? Like, to a sci-fi world or a modern-day fantasy?

I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I barely noticed something important as I ran through the shrublands to the west of the river. It finally dawned on me that night.

“Oh. No wolves,” I muttered as I realized I hadn’t had a single encounter all day. “Huh. I guess the river and ocean biomes aren’t the only ones without any spawns.”

I did notice a dave or two later on, which just proved to me that those suckers will spawn anywhere that doesn’t have water, but that was it.

That made my travels even more boring until I finally saw something looming in the distance.

“You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me!” I groaned.

There was a mountain range stretching north to south as far as my render-distance limited eyes could see.

Maybe I can convince the [Hero] that mountain climbing’s stupid, and they’ll patch it out.

I snorted. I didn’t think there was much chance of that.

I kept running towards the mountains as I debated whether I wanted to go around them from the north or south side. It turned out that the answer was neither.

Is that… A mountain pass?

There was a wide stretch of land that eased upward into the mountains, and I eyed it suspiciously.

That seems too convenient.

That thought was probably a bit paranoid, but it’s hard to break that habit when you spend so long being weak and having near-death experiences every other day.

After reminding myself that I had a giant rage monster as a backup plan in case things went sideways, I finally convinced myself to at least give it a look.

I was glad I did.

“Does this go all the way through?” I asked myself after a few hours in.

It wasn’t completely devoid of monsters since some gargoyles flew down from the mountains, and I even got attacked by a troll. However, the path was wide, easy to travel, and zone-free.

You could march an army down this dang thing, I noted after traveling through the night on it. And that’s when it finally clicked. Oh… That’s the point.

A giant mountain range separating the land in the west from the rest of Placeholder. A single wide path that could take you through them. A pending demon invasion that I was about to kickstart unless the [Hero] did his job and nipped that in the bud.

I guess they’d need some way to get through. Though, if they get on it right away, maybe the Placeholderlings… Placeholderians?... people from Placeholder can make a wall or something on this end to defend? I shrugged. Or maybe there’s supposed to be a giant black gate at the other end. Then I just need a giant flaming eye, and I could never tell my story back on Earth because the Tolkien estate would have a fit.

I chuckled a bit at that, but it died in my throat as I finally got a glimpse at the land to the west of the mountains.

“Oh yeah. The prophecy did mention the ashlands, didn’t it?” I asked as I stared at… well… death.

As far as I could see, there was only grey and blowing ash. There were a few shriveled trees here and there, but they were the exception to a featureless plain.

It makes sense as the land where demons will come from, but I guess I expected more fire or something.

I made my way down the mountain path and then began my travels across the ash plains.

The wind picked up, and I ended up running into a headwind.

“Real lovely place,” I snarked at the blowing ash.

Then I got some of it in my mouth. You know how I claimed that food tasted like ash before that? I take it back. This was worse. Much worse.

However, that might have been the status effect at work.

System: You are blighted

I hacked and coughed and tried to get the taste out of my mouth. Eventually, I figured out that the only solution was to not inhale the stuff. A feat that was easy to do since I didn’t need to breathe in the first place, but made more difficult because that meant I couldn’t talk out loud to myself… In case you didn’t notice, I had a tendency to do that fairly often.

I also didn’t quite figure out what the blighted debuff actually did. The System didn’t say what it did, and it never told me when it went away (if it ever did), so I couldn’t easily compare before and after.

Anyway, along with frequent ash storms, the ashlands were also a host to… no monsters.

That made my travel easy but incredibly dull. I didn’t realize how much I missed punching monster wolves until they were gone, I guess.

----

“Must be getting close,” I murmured. Then I hacked and coughed a bit to get the blight out of my mouth.

Anyway, the reason for my statement was a bunch of black, jagged mountains that I saw off in the distance. They stood out quite a bit against the barren plain, so I assumed they had to house my destination. At least, based on how the placement of the elemental dungeons worked.

As I got closer, I realized they formed an open ring with the opening facing the east, so I, fortunately, didn’t have to do any mountain climbing to take a look.

Then I finally saw my castle. It was made of black stone, had a lava moat, and then one last detail that made me cringe when I was finally close enough to make it out.

It was a red flag with a black, horned figure on it.

“Really!?” I shouted at the System, ignoring the blight. “You hadn’t made it obvious enough that we were the bad guys, so I get my own nazi-inspired flag, huh?!”

I was peeved as I crossed the drawbridge into my castle, but at least I got two pleasant surprises.

System: Zone entered, Demon Lord’s Castle. Faction - Demon Lord

System: No hostiles detected. Would you like to perform dungeon setup?

“It’s already claimed, and I get an entire dungeon to defend the portal? That’s too kind System, I almost forgive you for the nazi flag.” I glowered at the sky. “Almost.”

I debated about doing my setup right then, but I realized I had something I should probably take care of first. I searched around for my castle’s obelisk before I finally found it in the throne room.

Part of me wished I hadn’t seen it. The throne room itself almost killed me with pure cringe.

It was a wide-open room with black pillars spread throughout. That part was fine. The cringey part was the edgy black throne with about a dozen obsidian steps leading up to it and the two hanging red and black banners on the walls behind the throne.

“I get it!” I yelled at the ceiling. “I’m the bad guy! Stop trying to make me an edgelord!”

To make matters worse, the obelisk was peaking out right from behind my throne, so I had to climb the steps to get to it.

I grumbled as I did and then finally was able to buy the [Message] spell that I’d paid the [Spell Tutor] to teach me back in Vir.

Now. To find out why the heck they didn’t send me a freaking [Message] like I asked.

I flopped down onto my throne and leaned on my hand.

“[Message] [Hero]…” I trailed off. Wait. I need his full name. “[Message] Jake Smith.” Something felt off, but I didn’t focus on it. I had a [Message] to send. “It was really rude of you to not return my [Message].” I sent.

Jake Smith: Titus!? Wait, how did you do that? We can’t send you

“You can’t send me a what?” I asked. Then I counted. “Oh. 11 words. Huh. I forgot that’s how that works.”

Getting details across via [Message] turned out to be an absolute pain. Especially with Jake, since he didn’t seem to have the hang of it. However, after some back and forth, I finally learned that no one could [Message] me for some reason.

Jake also spent an inordinate number of his words attempting to convince me to give up.

That wasn’t happening, but instead of trying to convince Jake of that, I instead tried to convince him that he should just let me win so that they’d be fresh to take on the demon invasion.

Obviously, he was about as likely to go for that as I was to go for his idea. So we were at a stalemate. Or, I guess, not quite since I was the only one who could send the [Message] spell.

Either way, after ensuring that he was on track to make it to the portal in time, I pretty much just hung up on him.

I finally took a look at my mana bar after all of that. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t run out since I was sure I had used more than the 262 words that my mana pool should have allowed. I was shocked to see that it was still above half.

“Does [Message] use less mana than I thought?” I flipped open my status…

Status

Name: Titus

Level: 20

Class: Demon Lord

Race: Demon Lord

HP: 1750/1750

MP: 1012/1310

SP: 2625/2625

Age: 24

To be honest, when I first saw those resource numbers, I just froze. Then I laughed. “Okay, the System’s pranking me. So, I just go out and back in…” I closed and reopened my status. The same numbers stared back at me.

“[Summon Dave]! [Hell Blaze]!” I cast one after the other. The dave flopped down the steps as my red and black flames impacted against the far wall of the throne room.

My MP read correctly at 862 out of 1310. 50 mana for the dave. 100 mana for the edgy flame spell.

I threw a flurry of 10 [Fire Strikes] and threw in a [Flash Step] for good measure. My stamina bar barely budged, and my status confirmed it. I was at 2595 SP out of 2625.

“So my resources just quintupled… for no apparent reason,” I muttered to myself. I’d kept an eye on my stamina as I’d traveled, so it had to have been a recent occurrence. I cast a suspicious eye at the throne and decided to step down to the floor and check my status away from it. It remained the same. I debated a couple different possibilities for why it could be like that, including the fact that it might be a temporary buff from somewhere. However, I finally stumbled on the answer when I decided to exit the throne room.

Once I did, my HP dropped back to 350/350, MP went to 173/262, and SP went to 525/525.

I went in and out just to make sure, and whenever I entered, my current and max values were multiplied by 5. Same when I left, they were divided by 5. And I was pretty sure my regen was still 100% of my MP every hour and 100% of my SP every 15 minutes because the SP I’d wasted had returned by the time I left the room.

“Throne room buff. Huh.” I shook my head in disbelief. “No wonder [Demon Lords] are always waiting for the [Hero] in their castle at the end of the game. If they didn’t, they’d get their asp kicked.”

I stepped back in and looked at the numbers. Okay… 1310 MP. I get all of that back every hour. Round down to 1200. Divide by 60. 20 MP per minute?! I looked at the slime ball that was at the base of the steps. “I can summon a dave every two and a half minutes.” I checked the quest timer. “For a bit more than a month.”

Honestly, a large part of me had been wondering how there was any possible way that I would be able to complete the quest like AltSys claimed I was going to. I think I mostly chalked it up to either the party arriving too late or to AltSys lying.

That revelation made me wonder how on Earth the [Hero] was supposed to have a chance.

My rational mind took back over after that. There was still a chance that [Sunder] would one-shot me. I couldn’t let my guard down about that.

“I still need to be stronger.” I threw some random [Elemental Strikes] and [Flash Stepped] again. I couldn’t help my wide grin as I flipped open my status and could watch my SP regenerate 2-3 points every second. “Good thing I have the perfect room to train up my skills.”

That almost lead me to a debate about how weird it was that I was getting the opportunity to do a training montage before the final fight instead of the [Hero], but it’s not like that was the weirdest part of my story anyway, so I didn’t question it too much.

It took a while, but I eventually ran myself low on stamina.

Since regen is percentage-wise and the buff is too… As long as I only spend mana and stamina in the throne room, I can regain it anywhere.

“Okay, base setup time,” I said.

System: Demon Lord perk verified. Performing Demon Lord Castle setup!

It was a long time since I had gotten the initial prompt, but I was glad to see that it still worked. If I’d been stuck with my castle exactly as I’d gotten it, that would have been super embarrassing.

The first thing I did was remove the banners. No way I was keeping those up.

Next, I toyed with placing a monster or two in the throne room itself. However, the System wasn’t having that.

System: Cannot place monsters in the boss room

Hm. I guess I never tried that in the other dungeons. I wasn’t too put out about it. Sure, usually bosses had a bunch of small fry that they got to summon for the [Hero] to mow down, but I figured that was mostly covered by the daves.

After that, it was time to decide what type of design I was going to go with.

I think I went with something fairly standard. There were four different sections, and I was able to put a different sub-boss in each and then make it so you had to defeat all four of them before you could go to the throne room.

I also added in some potions as loot as a reward for beating each of the mini-bosses, but only health and mana regeneration ones.

[Heroes] always arrive at the very last minute, right? So, if I can force him to waste most of his stamina, that’s fewer [Sunders] that he can use on me. I frowned. But that also means that he won’t have any SP for anything that comes out of the portal… I’ll have to have a stockpile of stamina potions at the ready for the party after I open it.

There were a couple of other rooms that I was a bit surprised to see. Rooms like a kitchen and an armory, to name just two. They had their own unique setup rules, which were a bit irritating, but I mostly got them figured out with a bit of trial and error.

However, my base setup was derailed when I got to the basement. Or I guess… The dungeon of my dungeon. It had an actual cell block like you’d expect, and beneath that, an open central area that housed a familiar-looking portal.

“Well, hello there,” I murmured at the portal that could only lead to the dragonlands.

I’d given up on grinding extra class levels, but if they were going to just put the chance on a silver platter for me, I could hardly say no.

Not that I immediately said “yes” either. I figured I’d need to pop out an army of daves, and the throne room was the best place for that.

I headed back up there and tried to finalize my dungeon setup since I figured it was good enough.

System: First Dungeon Setup Warning. Dungeon Master class is missing. Are you sure you want to complete setup without that subclass?

System: Error. No exit location for the demon portal has been chosen

System: Error. Monster allotment exceeded

“First dungeon setup? Well, I guess this was supposed to be my first, but I started at earth…”

I kept reading. “Wait. There’s a freaking [Dungeon Master] class!? Why the frick don’t, I have that! I’ve set up 4 dungeons already!”

That outburst wasn’t enough to get it either. I thought back to how I got my other subclasses and then wearily said, “I’m a [Dungeon Master].”

System: Dungeon Master subclass has been set

I ended up getting three skills. [View Dungeon Properties], [Edit Dungeon properties], and the one that nearly made me pull my hair out in retroactive frustration. [Dungeon Setup Tutorial].

After activating the last one, the System literally gave me a walkthrough of setting up a dungeon. Including all of the stuff I’d tried to figure out via trial and error not just in this dungeon, but in all 4 other ones.

That just left the two other errors. I basically just shoved the portal off to one side of the throne room. I figured there wasn’t any better place to put it.

As for monster allotment, I was confused because I didn’t think that I’d used that many monsters. However, it turned out that it kept a running total of all the dungeons that I set up.

The ice dungeon that I had way overused monsters for? Yeah, it was basically singlehandedly putting me over budget. I had to ax most of the monster spawns in my castle, but I was fortunate that it counted sub-bosses separately, so I at least got to keep those.

There was one last thing that the System also ended up telling me over the course of my tutorial. Apparently, my castle could be equipped with a scrying station.

I set that up near the throne. It made a simple pedestal with a mirror on it, and I picked it up to try it out.

Just like that, I could see and hear whichever part of my castle I wanted. In fact, the range even extended all the way out to the enclosing mountains.

I finally finished setup after that, and the System didn’t give me any more warnings or info. A part of me was thankful for that. The System was being helpful, and it seemed like a lot of things were going my way, and it was seriously creeping me out.

I shook that feeling off. I still had a dragon or 10 to hunt.

I summoned my army of daves and headed to the dragonlands to do just that.

I wondered what it would look like on the other side of the portal, but apparently, the part where the biome’s the same on either side seems to have stuck.

The main difference is that I found myself in a ruined castle instead of my real one. It took a bit of excavating to finally get out of the basement, but that also ended up providing me with the perfect ambush point.

I set the daves up and then walked outside into the blowing ash.

I wonder if dragons out here get blighted too?

When I finally found a dragon, or I guess when the dragon finally found me, I realized that I needn’t have worried about them.

This one was grey in color instead of the red of the previous ones, and its leathery wings had several holes worn through them that didn’t seem to affect its flying at all.

“[I-[Identify],” I shakily cast at the dragon that was maybe half again as big as the ones I’d fought previously.

The result was a level 35 adolescent ash dragon.

It inhaled for a breath attack, and I took off running. I needed to save my [Disrupt] for when it got to the daves, so I threw myself to the ground to try to dodge the breathe instead.

The good news? I finally got to learn what the blighted debuff did.

The bad news? … I finally got to learn what the blighted debuff did.

As the dragon’s ash breath spewed over me and the System helpfully informed me I was blighted, I struggled to my feet.

The quickest way to describe it would probably be “status effect soup.”

My HP was slowly dropping over time, similar to a poison effect. After being stopped in place completely on the ground for a brief moment like a stun, my legs felt sluggish, like I’d been chilled. I was also suddenly confused as to where I was trying to go. Finally, there was a part of me that just immediately assumed the dragon was friendly. Charm effects are weird.

Either way that left me in no position to dodge the dragon after it landed and swung its tail into me.

However, my luck held, and I was propelled towards the ruined castle even as I lost more than half of my HP. After being launched about a hundred feet, I tumbled a couple dozen feet more before finally sliding to a stop.

“Ow,” I muttered as the status effect finally faded. I got up and ran into my underground bunker, and I waited for the dragon to follow me in… It didn’t.

At least, not immediately. The first thing that it did was send a breath attack down the hole. I [Disrupted] that to protect the daves, but it sent another breath attack down before [Disrupt] was off cooldown.

If it wasn’t such a serious situation, I would have laughed at the daves’ antics when that happened. Have you ever seen a confused dave? They fall off of things they’re latched onto, and they jump around and run into each other.

The less comic part was that they died one by one.

When I saw that, I decided it’d probably best to retreat and try again later.

I went through the portal and started walking back to the throne room.

“Well, that was a bust,” I muttered. “I guess I expected fire-breathing lizards, not ash-breathing ones.” Also, that one seemed a bit smarter than the ones I fought previously. What can I do differently next time?

My internal debate was interrupted as a gout of ash blew through the portal, and I was hit with the blighted debuff again.

It cleared up quickly enough that I was able to round a corner and avoided getting blighted a third time.

Then, the dragon followed me into my castle, and I nearly panicked as its head poked through… Only its head poked through, though.

It kept trying to send breath attacks at me, but there was enough of a wind-up that I was able to get to cover before it could hit me.

I now had a level 35 sitting duck in the basement of my castle. I didn’t quite know how I was going to kill it yet, but there was one thing I did know.

“I’m going to cheese the heck out of this fight,” I said with a grin as I retreated to the throne room to prepare some more daves.