(Zack)

There are a total of twenty of us to fight the Greed Lord. The ten Fallen Hunters, Nik's entire team, myself, and then Peter, two of his teammates, and Mama Bear.

Nathan's currently admiring my armor while wielding his own Normar Staff of the End, which apparently only finished shortly before we met up for this. Now, we're at the Haeus River in the northwest, in the clearing where we battled the Santa Boss. The fight turned it into an open space more than three hundred feet across, and according to the Clover Slime, this is where the monster will spawn.

"So what's it like, being a Dark Knight?" I ask Nathan, which gets the attention of, well, everyone else.

Nathan pokes at his armor, which is of the same style as mine. He also had the smiths make that last night. Meant for agility with only certain parts covered.

"He's a Priest," one of Peter's teammates asks. "How can he be a Dark Knight, too?"

Everyone else gives him an incredulous look. Except for me, my look calls him stupid.

"What?" He asks.

"So you acquired Adventurer after Ascending?" Nik asks Nathan, who nods. "I didn't know that was possible."

"According to Big Flame," I say. "Adventurer is possible after Ascending if you gain a new Skill Level and have a Total Skill Level 100 for Skills not relating to any Class you have. So any Skill that gives you Experience for a Class you have doesn't count. Take out all of those, add up the sum of the remainder, and as soon as you have 100 Total Skill Levels of that, you'll acquire Adventurer – so long as you haven't gained a single Level for a Class."

Which makes it very difficult, but Big Flame says that Nathan decided to play a Dark Knight and Blood Priest with the Skills for them that weren't locked due to his holy Classes, and acquiring their Skills and Leveling them did nothing for his other Classes, which earned him the required Skill Levels.

All because he wanted to see if it was possible to acquire Adventurer in the First Ascension. And since he was already Level 250, Adventurer is at Max Level. It didn't retroactively add Stat Points, but he doesn't have to wait for it to go up to max, earning the full plus-five to every Stat every fifth Level from the first.

He's currently a Level 18 Dark Knight, though he's acting in his capacity as a Priest, Paladin, and Holy One for this – buffs and healing all the way.

"By the way," I tell Nathan. "I know how you get into the Lost Territory."

He gives me a curious look.

"You take on your animal form," I tell him telepathically, and he flashes me a cheeky grin. "Yeah, I figured it out. Nik pretty much smacked himself when I told him. It was so obvious."

"How?" The mage on Peter's team asks.

"Animal form," I answer. "If it's an animal that can live in the mountains, then it can go through them without issue. Nathan's animal form is a mountainous animal, and one that thrives in colder environments, too. That's how he sneaks into Lost Territory."

"Final checks!" Nik calls out. "Almost time!"

We give our equipment one last check. I'm wearing my Armor of the End, my Sword of the End and Knife of the End equipped as well. We're not taking second chances, and each of us is wearing our most powerful gear.

Since my stats in Demon Form are higher than most of these peoples' stats and I have the best gear, Nathan will be using his Blessing of the Crystal on others. It turns out that he can only have one active per Level of it, so he can only grant it to ten people at a time at most.

If I need the boost, he'll grant it to me as soon as it runs out on someone. The boost will obviously make others higher than me, since their stats are already higher, but that doesn't bother me too much.

As we finish up our checks, a cloud of rainbow dust explodes in the middle of the clearing, and a goblin about as tall as I am appears. It has a slender body, is lean in form, and is dressed in blacks and purples with accents of green. Pouches and balls hang from straps around its body and on its belt, and a pair of knives are in its hands.

Greed Lord Level Null Health: 57,894,672 Mana: 43,942,891

"Man, you're ugly!" I exclaim.

That slipped out.

There's no pot of gold or rainbow! I was fooled!

The goblin quickly takes a pink ball off of its chest and throws it at me, a new one appearing, its Mana dropping by 10 as it does. Before I do anything, the ball is flying upwards in a gust of wind Blaine created, the mage protecting me from whatever the effect is.

The ball explodes as an arrow of bluish light strikes it, creating a cloud of pink dust in the air. The Greed Lord isn't deterred at all, launching several more balls at all of us. We scatter as the archers shoot them out with Magic Arrows.

They explode into clouds of dust, glitter, or gas, into infernos and shards of ice, into gusts of wind, and more.

Getting near this thing is not going to be easy, with how it keeps its front facing the strongest of us. When we try to split up, it tosses a heavy amount of the balls behind it to cover its back.

Jesse manages to get in close first, and when his knives meet the Greed Lord, they pass right through it, the creature appearing just behind him, throwing a pink ball at him. It explodes, and the first Greed Lord disappears, the illusion finally fading.

"I'm getting a vantage point," I project to the other Adventurers, all of whom were warned beforehand about my telepathic abilities.

Nik and I worked on them the last few days, in case of something like this. The Greed Lord has some sort of short-range stealth teleport it seems. We weren't expecting that, but we were expecting the afterimages.

I switch into Demon Form and fly up out of range, watching as the others fight against the Greed Lord. In addition to my telepathy, we worked on my gift of sight as well, so that I could retain my full senses during it, obtaining a second set of senses for the sight.

We knew it was possible because Big S mentioned it a long while ago, but I never tried it before because it sounded tiresome.

Focusing my powers, I open up my Sight and look for the Greed Lord's immediate movements. The closer to now I look, the far more accurate it becomes.

From above, I direct the battle, warning people when the Greed Lord is teleporting and where it's gone to. Its range seems to be ten feet, which makes it a lot easier for them to keep track of, and I make sure to fly at least fifty above, enough for me to quickly switch back into Demon Form when it runs out and return to my vantage point.

The first person to be struck by one of the clouds we can't identify immediately is Jesse, who was struck when we discovered the Greed Lord could teleport. He was turned into a chicken, though it seems his stats were intact with the transformation. It takes five minutes for the effect to wear off.

It doesn't take more than ten minutes for the Greed Lord to realize that I'm the one directing them to it, which is longer than we expected it to take. The moment it realizes this, it throws several of its balls at me, but I easily avoid them by shifting my spot just a little.

Everyone manages to drop its Health, little by little, but it's not much. An Ultimate Boss really is a lot different from a King Monster.

A series of images comes to me through my sight, and I grin, readying my tail. A moment later, the Greed Lord appears in the air. A second afterimage appears even closer to me shortly after, creating a trail leading to me in its attempt.

"Zack!" Nik calls out.

I lash out with my tail when the afterimage appears eight feet away, using Demon Sting as I block its knives with my sword and a knife. I strike it with Demon Sting again, then allow myself to drop as the Greed Lord disappears again, its afterimage remaining.

Its attempt at getting me with the balls fails, as they fly through the space I was in rather than the space I am in, and I return to my starting position.

"Sadly, only one of my Demon Stings struck an injury," I tell them. "Sadly, it's not enough to kill it, but that's a 20% reduction to its regeneration. That should help us a bit."

The battle continues, and I feel myself being drained. Sustaining an active sight attempt at all times while using telepathy on up to nineteen people at once is not fun to do, especially since I have to evade the Greed Lord several times.

Fortunately, my reduction to its regeneration is enough, barely, and for hours, they whittle it down with my aid. I have to continue to evade attacks, and at one point, do get struck with one of the frost bombs, but the ice is melted easily with my fire, after Nathan boosts me with the Blessing of Mind.

After nearly six hours of battle, we are all exhausted and ready to drop, but the Greed Lord finally, finally dies, dissolving into a shower of rainbow glitter.

Greed Lord Slain! +9 Demon Levels +8 Paladin Levels +Ultimate Slayer +10,000 Platinum +10 Primordial Essence +10 Primordial Ore +10 Crystal Essence +10 Crystal Ore +Greed Lord Medallion

Since I was at Level 1 Tier 4 Demon, that was enough to put me up to Level 10. Due to Demon not needing Skills, that was an auto-bump to Tier 5, so the equivalent of 10 Levels granted from that. I was at Level 2 Paladin, so that was enough to put me up to Level 10. Due to having the required Skills, that was an auto-bump to Tier 4, Holy General, giving me another 9 Levels total from that.

19 Levels acquired, and all I did was give it Demon Sting and give to the Adventurers advice from above. Then there's the new, Rank 4 Title, the money, and the resources. The medallion seems to just be a badge – an actual, golden medallion.

I land with the others and discuss the rewards. Everyone received enough Levels to advance all current Classes to Level 10 of their current Tiers, with the same other rewards.

As we talk, I feel my exhaustion overtake me, and everything goes black.

(Luca)

Sir Nik and Sir Travis show up with Mr. Zack, Sir Nik carrying him. Mr. Zack is wearing just pants and boots right now, no tunic or armor, which is really weird. Really weird.

Sir Travis stays down here as Sir Nik takes Mr. Zack inside, and I follow him upstairs.

"Which bed is Zack's?" Sir Nik asks me.

"Um," I think, then point at the bunk that's actually his. "But he sleeps with me there," I point at my bunk. "Because I get scared."

Sir Nik nods, then gently lays Mr. Zack on my bed, adjusting the blanket until he can cover Mr. Zack with it, then does so, tucking him in like I imagine a father would do. Like Mr. Zack does to me whenever he's not going to bed at the same time as me.

Or when he sneaks out and thinks I'm asleep because he's managed to pull in his power.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Nothing," Sir Nik answers. "He exhausted himself during the fight, then passed out shortly after. He'll be up and acting like his normal self tomorrow, no doubt, though he might wake for a bit this evening.

"When he does," Sir Nik tells me. "Could you let him know that I have it? He'll know what I'm referring to."

"Yes, sir," I answer.

"Thank you," he ruffles my hair, then leaves.

I look at Mr. Zack, then change into nightclothes and climb onto the bed. He shouldn't be alone. What if he gets nightmares, too? I know he doesn't sleep that well, maybe it's because he gets bad dreams when he does sleep?

I know that if I had as much on my shoulders and had been through as much as him, I would have bad dreams every night. I already do, and went through a lot less than him.

Rather than snuggling in his arms, I carefully climb behind Mr. Zack. He usually comforts me, so I'm going to comfort him, in case he wakes with a bad dream. He better not have bad dreams, though, or I'll be really upset with them.