“It’s hot…it’s hot…it’s too hot!” I sighed at the words of Alice as I looked around…

It was now the 17th of January, 2019, and for some strange reason the weather had snapped from cold to hot… it was still January, why was the climate changing so suddenly?

Well, I blame global warming… according to President Clayton that wasn’t an issue anymore since Chronos didn’t want us to lose due to our planet killing us, so he was somehow fixing global warming and the water shortages around the world…

You know, ignoring how much I wanted to rip off Chronos’ skull, and his slaughter of almost two billion people, he had done a lot of good things for us… all under the assumption that we would fight him and he doesn’t want us to die before we straight out fight him… annoying bastard that he was.

But it was causing the weather to be a bit strange… some days it would be hot, others it would be cold, but apparently the whole world was somehow synching into one standard season, so instead of the northern and southern hemispheres having different weather, we all would start having the same weather…

Seems to be based off the southern hemisphere considering that it feels like summer in January of all months… oh man, there’s going to be snowfall in July.

“Let’s go swimming or something… Coney Island, Long Island, which one?” Michael asked as I blinked… no…

“Coney, they usually have other stuff there… come on, let’s take the cars.” No…

“Alright, pack your stuff, let’s go.” No, no, no… this can’t be happening.

“Come on Arthur get done.” I choked a scream as we ended up at the beach, with its crowds and semi-carnival vibes within the hour, everyone having changed into swimming outfits.

The guys were all wearing swimming trunks rather than anything remotely speedo shaped, thank the lord we all thought those looked like female underwear on men.

I felt a little self-conscious in what amounted to just a shorts and sandals but at least I wasn’t scrawny. I had an average build with slight definition, I was better than most who had no definition, but considering I was slightly shorter than most people…

“Come on, let’s go swimming!” I heard and looked over at Alice and Emilia, both wearing swimsuits that made me unsure where to look before I just kept my gaze at hair and eyes and nodded…

Then I walked to the edge of the water… and just stood there.

“Arthur, why are you there? Come on, the water’s nice!” Michael called as I stared at the huge expanse of the ocean, a blank gaze as I looked out to the sea.

“…Arthur?” Emilia asked me from next to me as she tilted her head to look at me from slightly below my chin and to my left as I turned my head to look at her, my face neutral.

“I… I don’t feel like swimming… I’m just going to go sit in the shade or something…” I tried to get away from what was likely about to happen, before I had both sides of my chest grabbed… then I was lifted using that Strength stat that was likely around 50 to 60, and then thrown into the water.

“NO!” I screamed as I went, as the saying goes, ass over tea kettle (or something like that) and flew head first into the water…

Ah… I’m dead… the light is fading…

“…So you can’t swim.” I just lay on the beach after they managed to get me out of the water, uncaring about the sand sticking to my back as I just stared at the sun.

“…The ocean is evil, and entering it is evil. I refuse.” I calmly said my argument, so to not enter the water… only to be dragged into a standing position by Matt and Michael who both towered over me by a good 20-30 cm (I used Metric instead of Imperial for quite a while… as someone who wanted to work abroad, I needed to learn it.)

“…You could learn.” They looked at me with pity as I growled and walked away. No, I was not entering that death trap!

“No, no, the ocean is evil and will kill me! I refuse!” I shouted, trying to force my way out of the grip of three people who all had Strength stats roughly as high as my own.

“Why would it try and kill you, it’s just water?” John asked as I glared at him, how could he not understand the danger?

“The ocean is freaking huge! You don’t know what’s in there, and just about everything in it can kill you, including the water it consists of!” I shouted as I tried to escape before I was once more sent flying into the water, this time thankfully not as deep…

After fishing me out one more time, I coughed and gagged a bit at the taste of sea water before I glared at my ‘subjects’, stood and frowned.

“…I’m going.” I said, lightning crackling from my feet (interesting how you don’t see bone when that happens) and walked off, I wasn’t dealing with people trying to drown me or feed me to the beast known as the ocean.

“…He really can’t swim? The hell?” I sighed at Matt’s words as we watched our ‘King’ walk off into the distance…

“Yeah… I had thought he had solved that problem by now though…” I admitted as the group turned to me.

“Really Michael? You knew?” I nodded; frown on my face as I thought about Arthur’s complaints…

We actually sorted that out when we were younger and he went to the beach with me and my family… Oh… it’s not the swimming part that he’s dealing with.

“Well… he can physically swim. He’s dealing with a mental issue, that’s why he isn’t swimming.” I added, though everyone just looked confused at my words, though I can’t say I blame them.

“What… mental issue, are you talking about?” Emilia asked as I frowned… she was the one who asked the most questions about our ‘King’ after all, we all knew him for more than a few years, but she had only known him for one after all.

“Ah… I guess it’s his fears… to be more precise, Arthur has two things he is very scared of, not counting people he cares about getting injured.” I explained, thinking of how to word my next point.

“Agoraphobia. He has agoraphobia… it’s not as well-known as ones like claustrophobia or arachnophobia but it’s pretty common. He has a fear of wide-open spaces, crowds and travelling alone.” I explained, making the group as whole surprised… well, they would be.

Arthur very, very rarely shows signs of his particular phobia, but that’s mostly because he deals with it by having friends near him so that he has someone to trust.

I only know about it because when we were younger it was much easier to notice and I asked him once, and he told me that his parents (bless their souls) checked him out and diagnosed him with agoraphobia… of course, back then we were kids and it sounded like agro-phobia which sounded funny back then…

But he usually only stays in areas he’s comfortable with, doesn’t go to wide open areas (and in New York getting to ‘wide and open’ usually entailed parks, and he wasn’t one to go to such places alone in the first place) and he had a hatred for encountering crowds when he was alone.

In fact, a lot of his nervous habits show when he thinks he’s alone (I’ve seen him in the distance once almost flinching away from crowds of people he didn’t know… even if someone in the crowd knew him, he still wouldn’t go near the crowd)

But yeah, considering how conservative Arthur is, and that one of his friends is always with him to keep him calm, it’s rare that something sets of his agoraphobia this badly.

“So… fear of wide-open spaces?” Matt asked, referencing towards the beach and the huge body of water as I frowned and gestured with a tilt of the hand.

“So-so… it’s not just that… beaches are public areas, and public areas draw crowds.” I said, showing the fact that a huge amount of people were all around us, even if they weren’t too close, they were there.

“It’s such a heavily congested area that even he freaked out a bit… but it’s also his second fear acting up.” I explained, knowing that Arthur, even when faced with irrational fears, he would continue doing what he had intended to do, not caring for how others saw him or his friends.

“His second fear is tied to his lack of self-confidence. There isn’t really a word for it that I know of, seeing as it’s a fear everyone has, but Arthur is afraid of failure. Not in the sense that he hates losing, but in that he hates losing when he can be seen losing…” I pointed out that aspect of Arthur…

Honestly, this was one even I hadn’t really noticed until Arthur was in the twelfth grade (and I was working) and I only noticed due to his complaints…

“But, even with hating to lose, Arthur has something he hates a bit more than that… he hates drawing attention to himself, he hates succeeding above expectations even more than losing.” It was such a strange habit of his that it honestly confused me…

Then again, Arthur was very strange, even as, no, because I’m his best friend, I noticed that he was very weird… It didn’t bother me, but it was something that I could see.

“…That’s weird. Who doesn’t like overachieving, and failing, at the same time? So he just likes… what, being average?” Alice asked as I gave an awkward smile at her words, John also giving a similar smile… figures he also noticed.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Arthur wants to be average. See, he hates failing because he feels that he’ll be made fun of, or forgotten, ignored, or thrown away…” I explained that part with a bit of pain in my heart… Arthur was really scared of being alone. He’d do anything to fit in when we were younger, even deal with mine and Jason’s stupidity (I really regret how we acted when we were younger)

“And he hates overachieving because of fear of expectation. He’s scared that if he proves to be too amazing, people will expect constant greatness from him, and he’s scared he’ll eventually let them down.” I explained, this part was easier to get, all one would have to do is listen to him complaining about his exams (for example: I didn’t study. I don’t need to get high marks after all, and as long as I don’t fail its fine… and if I get high marks, they’re going to keep expecting that level of marks.)

“That sounds more like a fear of being seen compounding what fears he already has… or possibly… what was that word…” Emilia spoke to herself as she went up to her car (we moved in two cars, four in the BMW, and two in Matt’s car due to no back seats. I was in the BMW obviously) and removed her phone, checking something.

After waiting a bit she spoke up, and I listened to hear her opinion. “It… it sounds like he has atychiphobia, a fear of failure… just that. His fear of excelling is likely from the same phobia as his fear of failure.” Emilia added and I waited.

“It’s… it makes sense if you think about it. Failure is something everyone is scared of, to an extent, but how often do you meet someone who is scared of succeeding? He hates failing, but he’s even more scared that if he excels and then fails that it would be worse…” Emilia put her phone down, and at this point we were all frowning.

“So… us having so much faith in him… and making him the leader of our group… all of that was actually making him scared and insecure?” Alice asked as I frowned and looked away.

“Yes. He spoke to me about it… I got him to go along with it by telling him that even if he failed we wouldn’t care, but I can tell he’s still quite scared of making a mistake in his judgement.” I admitted… I was the second in command after all; I was the only one Arthur spoke to about those points of fear.

“…Do we continue doing this then? Having Arthur stand in the limelight be amazing, and our leader… but if he fails…” Matt asked and I kept a smile back at his words… for all that he sounds mad and crazy most of the time, Matt just did that because he disliked people who hid their true nature all the time… and he was good at seeing when someone was lying.

“That’s our job, to make sure he doesn’t fail. But still, this issue involving swimming… he can swim, but he’s honestly not very good at it. So he doesn’t want people to see him fail and possibly drown, so he doesn’t even try.” I added.

Right, it’s good that I mentioned that when I did, I dragged the conversation back to the issue that started this whole mess, and everyone looked down in a bit of shame… yeah, if we hadn’t dragged him out here they wouldn’t have learnt of his fears, but Arthur wouldn’t have reacted as poorly as he did… we all made mistakes here.

“Still… we knew him that long and we didn’t know this?” Alice said as John sighed, stepping forward a bit as he scratched his cheek.

“Well… I also knew about it, but I don’t talk about it… see, I had considered psychology as something I wanted to do, and I got lessons from his father… of course, I do art now, but I still remember some of the things I learned.” I frowned… I had a feeling I knew what John was going to say… and while it would be good for the group to know…

“Arthur isn’t normal, mentally, even counting his phobias.” Oh man… I was hoping this wouldn’t be mentioned…

Those assholes, trying to toss me into the ocean and have me swim; they were making my agoraphobia act up… I don’t have hydrophobia though, seeing as I can swim pretty calmly in pools… but the ocean was another thing altogether.

So I was just walking along the beach, just thinking… most of them didn’t know about my phobia, but Michael should have… no, I won’t blame him, he was thinking for my benefit. He always did, so I’d trust he just wanted me to be with the group.

Still, he pushed a bit too far… and I was rash in running away honestly… still, who knew what else could be wrong with me?

Agoraphobia was something my parents explained to me when I was younger, but if I had some other problem, I didn’t know at current.

I didn’t exactly trust any psychologist out there, and I only spoke to John usually… but even then I didn’t speak about all my problems… Shaun Fife was apparently a psychologist (he started studying after being a soldier for a few years, or something like that)

Maybe that’s why I didn’t like him. John was my friend and the only other psychologists I knew were… my parents, but obviously my parents never acted like one with me. I just didn’t like those eyes of his that seemed to see all my problems and failures and drag them to the surface… he seemed to judge me for them, going by the way he kept getting annoyed with me and avoiding me (not to say I wasn’t avoiding him myself)

“Sigh… why do my fears have to make everything so complicated?” I asked, sitting in a small area where no one was around… ah, this was relaxing…

I didn’t like wide-open areas due to my phobia, but I could appreciate the beauty… from a distance… and the ocean honestly looked beautiful, but my brain screamed danger whenever I got near it. Silly, knowing I can kill a Demon Lord but I’m scared of the ocean…

I heard some footsteps and froze; turning my eyes to the direction of the steps… that was… it was people I didn’t know. Six teens, likely all in high school (there was one kid who looked like he was still in middle school though) and I blinked as they stared.

“Oh, someone’s here today… uh, sorry, we train here every once in a while… would it be alright if we asked you to move?” Their leader was surprisingly nice, if a bit shy as the burlier guy behind him ribbed him using his elbow as I nodded slowly, standing…

Oh why was I meeting a crowd without my friends around? I hate crowds… even if there were only six of- wait, six? Oh, a Dungeon going team… guess that explained the Lantern Swords and such… most Dungeon goers were usually out of school (even Alice had just recently finished school, her results came out with a pass mark, so we were glad for her… and if you are wondering why she passed her finals in December, the school we went to uses a different timetable than typical American schools, considering this was a private school)

“A-alright… I’ll…go.” I stuttered… how embarrassing… I stood, suddenly feeling very self-conscious as I tried to walk away, when I heard a shout of surprise making me flinch as I turned to look at the teenagers, a girl in the back with a bow pointing at me with surprise… what?

“His level, his level is super high!” Huh? Oh, she saw it! I forgot to hide it since it’s usually hidden by my clothes… I looked at my left wrist frowning at the LEV 43… you betray me…

“Huh? What level is he?” He is standing right here… I couldn’t say that aloud… even as an older person who has a well-paying job and position of authority (to be decided) I still got nervous when dealing with people when I didn’t have my friends around…

“I didn’t get a clear look, but it looked like it was in the forties… even Brandon was only level twenty-five…” I have no idea who Brandon was but he sounded kind of delayed or weak.

“…This guy? This guy is level forty? That sounds impossible though…” Another girl said as the boy who looks like he was in middle school stared at me…

“Yeah, Emma’s right, he’s a higher level than all of us…” I really, really couldn’t take this anymore… if it weren’t for the fact that I know it would look weird, I’d just run by now.

“Uh, I’m right here… can you stop talking about me as if I’m not here?” I asked as politely as possible as the buff guy walked forward swinging his arm in a mock-warm up.

“Ha, I want proof! Hey, kid, take this and we’ll see.” …did… did he just call me… kid?

Oh he was going to get hurt now… See, I finished school early due to having gone a year early, but due to my age and grade not matching I was typically looked at as a ten year old back when I was in the eighth grade… and I still felt annoyed by that…

He swung, a text book right straight as I glared, stepped forward until my left shoulder touched his chest (damn that height difference) as my right arm snaked around his, my left hand grabbing his thigh as I used my left leg to knock his knee forward, sending him a bit off balance as I tilted, a full shoulder toss as he slammed into the sand and I glared at him.

“Hey, kid, I’m older than you.” I said in a low growl as the jock (what else could he be) just stared at the bright blue sky as I faced the rest of his team, who now seemed to be worried and getting ready to fight as their leader spoke.

“W-w-wait, Eddie, Eddie’s actions are not our fault, please don’t get mad…” their leader spoke as I glared, noticing that the jock had finally sat up after catching his breath, not bothering to try anything against me for now apparently…

“…Fine, I won’t…” I was getting ready to leave, because I really didn’t want to deal with these guys… it’s been two years since high school, and I still see it as an irritating time in my life, and I didn’t like dealing with people who were still in high school (with the exception of Alice, but then again, she’s practically family and just about finished with said group) but then their leader spoke up once more… I contemplated murder and hiding the bodies.

“Wait… um… could you train us? Please?” I was actually surprised he said please, considering how privileged most American teenagers felt in our day and age… and yes, I know I sound like an old man, my team tells me so all the time. I’m obviously not old, just old fashioned because back then respect was much more important than privilege.

“…Why? You don’t know me and I don’t know you beyond wanting to discipline a member of your team. I’d rather leave before I get any more uncomfortable or possibly hurt you all.” I said as I turned, raising my left arm, showing my level (even if I didn’t like showing off my level, they already knew I was in the 40’s so it was fine by this point) as their leader flinched (Whether it was how I said the word discipline, or my level, or a combination of both, I wasn’t sure… probably both)

“…It’s because you’re so strong… the strongest person I’ve ever seen was only level twenty five… you’re more than fifteen levels higher.” He pointed out as I shrugged.

“That’s just because that person doesn’t fight as much as I do likely… Dungeon going is my job after all. And I’m very good at it. But you all… aren’t you still in school?” I asked as a girl at the back (this time with a staff… they actually have peaceful girls unlike my group… how lucky… I think?) spoke up.

“Ah, we’ve quit. We’re not going to school anymore… though we do plan on studying and writing exams at some point.” Education is important you know? Well… their choice.

“Besides, aren’t you in school as well?” asked the middle school looking child as I sighed and shook my head… seriously, there is a limit to how young a person can look…

“I finished school two years ago you know? I’m nineteen, and I was at college until the Dungeon appeared… I’m different.” Why was I even explaining all this to people I did not know?

“Huh… you look young…” Seriously, do you want me to shock you to death? I can’t use a lightning bolt but I can most certainly hurt you a lot…

“Still… even if I did train you, what would you have me do?” I asked, because seriously, I have no idea what they’d have planned in that case.

“…Fight us.” Their leader said as I nodded with a small smile on my face… that was a good answer, not that I had any real reason to fight them…

Then I saw the jock (Eddie?) stand up and I grinned, cracking my knuckles as smirked. “Oh… well, I can do that. Don’t worry, I’ll leave you at one health point.” I joked as I stepped forward… this might let me relax a bit…

It really was relaxing to an extent… I was quite relaxed fighting six level eighteen people who were clearly only getting used to fighting recently… though I was also like that…

But still, their group had a good set up, that middle school kid (who was similar to me in being short despite being in high school) was their healer, and the two girls their magician and archer.

As for the front line, the jock was some sort of berserker who had an Anima that related to making his arms act as if they were covered in steel, and their leader (I found out his name was Drew, a strangely unique name…) was a shield and sword user, but wasn’t a tank… he just filled in gaps where necessary apparently.

There was another jock in the group, but instead of huge and steroid filled like the other looked, this one was a bit more lanky and used… honestly, I think we should get Matt a shield like that, because it doubled as weapons.

It was practically two tower shields with a bladed edge that somehow connected into one massive shield… I think I’ve seen something similar in a game involving a dragon without scales and some strong skeleton king looking guy. Still, it must need a huge Strength stat to carry like he does… but he gets tired quick I noted, meaning his Vitality/Constitution stat wasn’t too high…

All in all, I wasn’t even hit once, considering I was much faster than all of them. I hadn’t even used a spell, and I pretty much just beat them up one-sidedly… it only took five minutes for all six, and I’d have finished much faster had I used magic… I mean, with my speed and flexibility, I easily reached their healer and punched him into unconsciousness with one solid head shot, and then they panicked from there.

“…Damn… strong…” I heard Drew speak as I looked at their group as he was the only one really awake at current, though I suspect one of the girls (Uh… Emma) was actually awake and eavesdropping, but I’d leave her.

“Well… obviously I’m stronger than you. I’m almost thirty levels above you, and considering how stat points are gained… well, you’d be… just under four times as strong as a base human. I’d be eight times stronger than normal humans, twice as strong as any of you at the least, that’s how it is if you just look at numbers. Truth is, stats scale as you get more. You gain more strength than expected at higher levels… as if their numbers mean more even if you don’t add to that stat.” I explained some of my observations as Drew breathed heavily on the floor, as he looked up at me…

“…How… how strong are you… roughly…” he asked, and I accepted the question, it wasn’t a problem for me to be honest, seeing as I’d very soon be becoming a public spectacle (oh god that was going to be embarrassing… especially for my Agoraphobia if I was forced in front of crowds)

“Well, like you’ve seen, I’m level 43, I’m not that far off from level 44… I also happen to be the highest levelled adventurer in the world.” I admitted making Drew stare at me with wide eyes…

…Emma, if you’re going to pretend to be unconscious, don’t twitch so badly at my words…

“Well, even though I say that, my competitors are all around level 41… that, and I’m really disadvantaged. My Anima isn’t very good offensively and defensively it’s also lacking, plus my Class is Smith, so I get no combat boosts… quite honestly, I’m amazed that someone like me is considered the strongest.” I explained as I heard footsteps in the distance… I turned and narrowed my eyes… oh, it’s my team… well, I’m calmer now so I won’t run away like last time (as long as they don’t throw me into the water…)

Something seems strange though, they have… a cat? The cat is following them, it’s easy to see on this beach when a black cat is following you, though why would you see a cat on the beach…

“Arthur, here you are… so, who are these kids?” Michael has no sense of care for the unconscious people (I had to stifle my laughter at seeing Alice nudging that Emma girl with her foot) and plainly asked me his question.

“Just some people who wanted to spar… took my mind off of my problems for a bit.” Michael seemed surprised but smiled at my words… guess he didn’t expect me to meet anyone here…

He’d be right though, normally I wouldn’t, considering I hate crowds… but I was provoked and then given permission to fight them, so obviously I’d then beat the hell out of them, or so I explained to Michael who accepted the explanation.

“I see… well, we’re in luck. We found a part of the beach where there aren’t a lot of people. You’ll swim now, right?” I frowned at his words and then looked at the ocean… maybe…

“Please? I’ll swim with you…” I blinked at the words of Emilia and sighed… if a beautiful, model-level girl asked you something like that, you’d fold, right? As a man, I had to.

“Fine… though before that… what’s up with the cat?” I asked, and suddenly they all seemed confused… hey, you all seriously seem confused here…

“What cat?” See, they didn’t even see the cat? I walked over to the cat, wondering if it would run, but instead of running it sat and looked at me… it also didn’t seem normal though… why though…

“Huh? There was a cat following us… I didn’t even notice.” John said as I looked at it closely… I have the feeling I’d seen this cat a few times… I leaned down and stretched a hand, scratching its ear a bit, as it purred into my hand…

…I kept scratching a bit, before picking up the cat that seemed to be between kitten and full grown cat sized, and then started scratching its belly a bit…

[Demon tamed! Set as Familiar?]

…I…I’m not even going to comment. I just looked at the cat, and it looked back up at me…

“For cuteness.” I said as I accepted the Familiar question, and suddenly some section of my mind corrected what I was seeing, as one tail suddenly split into two and the cat seemed to grin at me as I continued scratching it and hearing it purr.

[Familiar set as Cait Sith! Grant a name to Familiar?]

…what is this, Pocket Monsters? I looked at it, trying to pick a name… considering its origins (an Irish origin of some kind, something about witches and ten lives or something) I looked at the cat and smiled.

“Well guys, I apparently have a demon familiar. This is my Cait Sith, Sidhe (pronounced as Sid-hey).” I explained, the cat mewing cutely as I fought valiantly… but failed as a small ‘Aw…’ came out of my mouth… what? I liked cute things, and while cats were usually temperamental, they were my favourite animals, not counting snakes and lizards… because they are the closest things we have to dragons.

“…Seriously… there’s a demon… outside of the dungeon? How did it even form? I mean, considering what floor we’re on, why is it here?” Michael asked as I shrugged… the answer to all questions is the Internet.

“Well… goodbye Drew, I hope you survive long enough in the Dungeon for me to hear of you again… because honestly I don’t want to meet your group again… good luck.” I said as we walked away, and Drew just lay there, unsure of what happened.

“So… the cat’s your familiar? How’s that work?” John asked as I checked out the functions myself… it really was interesting though.

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

43

1220 EXP

Rank:

K

Class:

Smith

Familiar:

Cait Sith (Sidhe)

Kingdom:

Camelot

King

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 38 (45)

Dexterity: 53 (63)

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 53 (84)

Vitality: 38 (43)

Constitution: 29

Skills:

Shooting (K), Blade Wielding ©, Tactician (S), Recovery (B), Close Combat (E), Enchanting (D), Soul Reading

Class Skills:

Blacksmith (K), Fire Resistance (K), Metallurgy (K), Armour Appraisal (K), Weapon Appraisal (K), Weight Reduction (K)

It appears that having a Familiar adjusts your information… though I really need to consider taking certain things away… hiding information from myself seemed stupid, but there were some areas that I knew innately, like what my Anima were, or Soul Reading and its rank…

I could get rid of my Class skills if it weren’t for the fact that I occasionally forget certain things there, such as Weight Reduction, which reduces the weight of any equipment I use by a small amount… I keep thinking that my Strength is the reason why that happens…

But other than this (unimportant) information, when I actually focused while looking at Sidhe, this would pop up:

Familiar Information

Name:

Sidhe

Level:

30

2130 EXP

Rank:

K

Race:

Cait Sith

Master:

Arthur Clive

Elements:

Darkness

Mind

Stats:

Strength: 20 (21)

Dexterity: 50 (52)

Intelligence: 50 (51)

Wisdom: 50 (52)

Vitality: 10 (11)

Constitution: 10 (11)

The heck, her stats are higher than they should be, it has magic at a pretty high level, and considering its two elements… wait… wow, darkness and mind… that’s a strong combination. Going by Sidhe’s stat distribution, she (yes, it was a she… though I’m not sure if I read somewhere that they can change genders, or was that nine-tail foxes?) was a magic-type familiar specialized in dodging…

It worried me for her health if she got hit, but with that Dexterity stat, she’d be fine… there was also the issue of her having boosts to her stats… and judging from the boosts, she gets a certain percentage (6%) of my base stats in all of her own.

It might seem like the familiar would end up much stronger than the master, but apparently that wouldn’t happen… because unlike the familiars, the master has something that tilts the scales by a huge amount… namely, Anima. They can’t use them.

“Sidhe’s a magician actually… look, we have more magic firepower now.” I said, holding up the cute cat as the group seemed surprised.

“Which elements does the cat use?” Matt asked as I smiled… because her elements had a nice compatibility with my own, but only in certain areas.

“Her main element is darkness, and her secondary is mind.” I explained, as Emilia smiled and scratched Sidhe’s ears as the cat purred into her hand… I looked at Emilia, and we both smiled a bit…

“Flirt somewhere else, you annoying two!” I blushed and cursed a bit at John’s words as Emilia stopped scratching Sidhe’s ear, making the cat… was the cat glaring at John?

“Meow!” with a fierce… meow (I’d say roar, but it was too cute to be one) Sidhe twisted out of my grip, rushed up to John… then its fur stood on end and jumped at John’s leg…

“Ouch, damn cat, get off!” We all laughed at his pain as we watched the healer get bitten by a cat… well, ignoring John’s pain (serves him right… I was having a moment with Emilia) we continued our walk.

“…So, you somehow managed to deal with a ‘crowd’ of people while we weren’t there… I’m proud.” I heard Michael say as he threw an arm over my shoulder, smiling as I turned to him.

“…Well… I’m scared of crowds… and when I first saw them I was stuttering and… well, I looked afraid. Then well…” I thought about what had happened, and Michael smirked as I sighed.

I guess… “I was scared I guess… but I moved past that fear to help them out a bit… and discipline that one idiot.” I admitted the last part quietly but I have no doubt that Michael heard my complaint.

“…That’s a good thing I guess… even if you hadn’t, we’d still approve you know… still… we also found another phobia you probably have.” I blinked at his words and sighed… this is why I said I have no idea about myself… no, that wasn’t quite accurate.

I understood myself. I understood enough about myself to not want to… so I’d just ignore things I’d notice, and I was happy like that.

“Emilia’s the one who checked it out, you very likely have something called atychiphobia… a fear of failure.” I… I did… have that fear I mean… I didn’t know the name, but I acknowledged that I was scared of failure… huh, guess they are discovering more faults in their ‘King’…

“Still… even with a fear like that, you still continue to put us ahead of you… well… thanks, Arthur. For being having the courage to put yourself in a position uncomfortable to you, just to help us.” Michael said, taking his arm away as I looked at him and sighed.

“…So what? I fear a lot of things, I’m a person who gets scared surprisingly easily you know…” I said as Michael smirked, and I just stared a bit at my second-in-command.

“Fear and courage aren’t mutually exclusive… you have both, and that’s fine with us.” I sighed, a small smile on my lips as we walked home, a new ‘friend’ with us in the form of Sidhe, and once again getting come inspirational closure from Michael…

“That’s right, so don’t worry Arthur.” I twitched in surprise as Emilia patted my arm. “We’ll accept you, no matter if you were a saint or the most vile person on the planet.” That… while strangely rude, it was comforting… huh… I’m glad I have friends like this…

“Stop flirting!” “Damn it John!” Yeah… even with our strangeness.