I’m not actually an [Adventurer,] you know.

From what Rare told me, for the first year of my life with the Destiny Deck System, I was actually a [Demigod,] the most powerful and most deadly class in the entire list. There is no one who has ever controlled these powers and lived to tell the tale... Except for me, apparently.

So I was a [Demigod,] but thanks to a sealing spell by Miss M (Mestopholees) and Malia, my powers were trapped and my memory was erased. Due to some complicated methods that are hard to explain, I was able to live again in physical form via an astral projection. But that projection was given the [Adventurer] class.

When I was killed by a carriage, The Goddess reincarnated me on Earth, and that took not only my astral projection, but my original body as well. You would expect that I would revert to my original [Demigod] class, but instead I kept my [Adventurer] class.

I wonder what that means. I wonder what my powers truly are if I have some sort of second layer [Demigod] class hidden underneath.

And... I absolutely, certainly will not tell Francis or Delta. This is not something for them to know, not until I have all the answers. Francis, in particular, would freak out far too much to handle.

I learned a terrible truth.

Oh, and that reminds me: I unlocked a new achievement. I wonder what that will give me?

I look once more at my Achievements Board:

Level up for the first time.

✓

Join the Adventuer’s Guild.

✓

Draw a Rank 8 card.

Eat a food with a Quality Rating of at least 850.

Obtain your first map.

✓

Duel another System user.

Sleep at 10 inns.

✓

Customize your HUD.

Pray to The Goddess every day for a week.

(Progress: 0/7)

Gain 10 DP in one day.

✓

Unlock and use the Costume Changer.

Complete the tutorial softwae.

✓

Travel over 100,000 miles.

(Progress: 65%)

Sleep at 125 inns.

(Progress: 44%)

Defeat a member of royalty in battle.

Kill your first monster.

✓

Fight a B Rank opponent.

Defeat the boss of an Apex Lair.

Uncover buried treasure.

Adjust the System Personality settings.

✓

Use the Wedding function and marry another System user.

Become drunk to the point of passing out. Keep going.

Draw a Rank 5 card.

✓

Frighten a goblin away from its gold.

Perform a stunt so impressive that a bystander shouts “Superb!”

Slay a Skeleton Army General.

Kill an unarmed opponent.

Kiss someone while underneath a waterfall.

Reach E Rank.

✓

Access your Sorting Scepter to assess your options.

Reach the Top 16 of the Grand Tournament.

Sail over 10,000 miles. (Progress: 92%)

Soak at 15 hot springs.

✓

Rescue a damsel in distress.

✓

Recite the Great Commandments of the Adventurers 5 times.

Reach C Rank.

Defeat a [Toxin.]

Make love under the twilight moon.

✓

Obtain six Inventory Slot cards.

Go undetected by ten opponents for five minutes.

Perform a triple jump.

Discover a new location for the first time.

✓

Figure out a terrifying secret.

✓

Obtain a Dragon skull.

Defeat 100 enemies in a single day.

Travel over 1,000 miles in one day.

Draw 1000 cards.

(Progress: 65%)

Draw 100 cards.

✓

Draw 10,000 cards.

(Progress: 6.5%)

The new achievement: Now that I have figured out a terrifying secret, I get a new reward! Though some might say that knowledge itself is its own reward.

But the true reward for this achievement is...

A boomerang scythe?!

In The Goddess’s name, I got a brand-new cool item!

It appears right in my hands, which of course freaks out all of the people around me.

Luckily, I have an empty inventory slot, so I can poof it away very quickly.

However, Delta gets a good enough glimpse to get extremely suspicious.

By the way, we had a great time exploring the city of Santa Barbara today. It was not anything spectacularly new, but it was some interesting sights, with several gained, and 81 Destiny Points in total.

The zoo in particular was extremely fun. I met a whole tribe of otters who seemed extremely interesting. When I greeted them it caused a ruckus with the zookeepers, but I sorted things out fairly well. At least, I didn’t get in any fights. That would have been unbecoming for a Very Important Dude.

Now, of course, with lots of shopping done and lots of sights finished, it is about time for the three of us to depart Santa Barbara and continue our trip down to the fabled land of Los Angeles, where many legendary events await. That is why we are approaching the Amtrak station once again.

Francis is busy streaming a game called Chibi-Robo Park Patrol on his 3DS. Delta is busy side-eyeing all the people also going to the Amtrak station. They almost all appear to be tourists.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” she says to me. “If all these other people are trying to leave too, customs is going to be a nightmare. I doubt we’ll leave before nightfall.”

“What is customs?” I ask.

“Hell, pretty much. Just waiting in offices and being bored and then being slightly stressed out.”

“That does indeed sound like Hell, though The Goddess herself confirmed that Hell, in fact, does not exist.”

“Oh yeah, that.” Delta rolls her eyes.

We reach the front of the line pretty soon afterwards, as it appears that people disperse very quickly from this customs place. It must not be as difficult as Delta says.

A blonde, shirtless man with nasty look in his eyes stops us dead in our tracks. He says nothing.

We wait for him to speak, either to berate us or to ask us to buy a ticket or do some blackmail-filled demand for our possessions, but he does none of that.

“Hello,” I say. “We would like to depart from Santa Barbara city so that we can be on our way with our journeys.” I would like to have seen the Great Barbara Games a little bit more, but we must be getting on our way so that we can reach closer to Los Angeles, our ultimate goal for the time being.

“No,” the man says.

“N...No?”

He shakes his head. “No trains out until next week.”

“But...”

The man takes a closer look at me. “Listen, Mister... Solbourne, wasn’t it? You are King Bodhi’s Guest of Honor. Her Very Important Dude. Bro, if you missed the Great Babrara Games... That’d be the opposite of gnarly.”

I sigh, but only internally.

Yes, I could easily defeat this man and most of the soldiers of Santa Barbara who would come to face me. But that would still leave us with little progress and stuck in a hostile nation. I’d run out of Life Points sooner or later, as long as they sent enough men my way.

So I take the threat with solace and decide we’ll be staying here for a little bit longer. I am extremely “pissed off,” as Delta would say, and I am not going to do much about it.

But I’m not going to take it sitting down. Nor will I take it merely standing up. I’m not some sort of passive being to be pushed around—I’m Eryk Solbourne, future hero of Earth! And nobody’s going to stop me!