“Alright, so, due to wanting to relax, we are now behind the other countries with the exception of Britain, who is a bit delayed due to travelling, and South Africa who is missing a member due to him looking around for the creators of Forza… am I correct?”

I made sure I looked him in his eyes as I nodded to the words of President Clayton, who sighed and leaned back in his chair as he looked at me for a moment… then he just gave a small smile.

“Alright Arthur, I trust you to catch up as soon as possible though. I understand that your new fame is kind of stressful to you as it is.” I smiled and nodded, and with that, the video was cut off, and I sighed…

It was two days since Michael’s birthday (it was now the sixth of March) and we hadn’t gone into the Dungeon today or yesterday and Shaun apparently snitched on us… ass…

“Hey Arthur, you done talking to President Clayton?” I heard Emilia and blinked as I turned on my swivel chair (I needed one of these) and called out.

“Yeah, I’m done. Come in.” I called and Emilia walked in (wearing a Jeans and a T-shirt… it’s dangerous…) as I swivelled back to my old position now typing a bit on the laptop in front of me.

I had finally swapped out my book for a laptop and had begun to transfer the information to my laptop (under password protection obviously) but for now I was writing down the information of my teammates as well as getting ready to contact Drew and his team.

Despite not going to the Dungeon, I was surprisingly even busier? What kind of life am I going to live from this point onwards? I really worry…

“Uh, Arthur?” I froze and shook my head before turning back to her, handing her a template I had printed (set that up as well) and turned back to the laptop, typing in some projections and estimations.

“Sorry about that, I’m really busy… plus, I was a bit late to send a report to the Guild…” I had forgotten that bit as well… As the top adventurer of the country, I’m supposed to be the representative… I had gotten some messages (at an email address made by the Guild) and was now summarizing and reporting the stuff to the Guild…

I felt a bit of fur rubbing against my cheek and smiled even as I typed… I wonder where Sidhe was during Michael’s birthday? She seemed to be doing her own thing for most of that day, though she was in the Dungeon with me… well, she’s my familiar, she’d be back.

“Oh… okay… so, why the sudden interest in knowing our exact stat and skill layout?” Emilia asked as she noted that the template I handed her was to find out that knowledge.

“Well, I’ve realized that everyone has already fallen into certain roles, and I’ve figured that using your stat arrangement as a template, I might be able to help Drew and his team, as well as possibly get some extra income by creating a book about stat builds and how the stats affect us. No one has done that yet right?” I explained, and I noticed that Emilia suddenly went quiet… I turned and looked to her to see her staring at me with some semblance of surprise on her face.

“Wow, hadn’t thought of that… I mean, you are the one who tells us that information, but I hadn’t thought of selling your information…” I smiled at her words as I finished the report and saved it to be sent later, then re-opened the bit of Drew’s contact information, copying the information to my web-browser to send him an E-mail telling him to bring his team two days from now, on Friday.

“I don’t plan on selling it for a lot though, only around five dollars since it’s meant to be an affordable book of information. In fact, I’m even going to specify that it should be made easily affordable, but only available to people with LEV’s…don’t want a child without a LEV doing something.” I frowned at my own words, remembering my family…

My younger sister was a child with a LEV and Anima, and she had a powerful Anima, luckily she didn’t use it, but I was always worried that she'd abuse that power… but she had gotten much quieter since our parents and younger brother died, so while I didn’t worry as much… it was sad.

Personal Information

Name:

Emilia

Level:

69

7 219 EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Rogue

Kingdom:

Camelot

Knight

Anima:

Dual Combat Knives

Stats:

Strength: 74

Dexterity: 75 (112)

Intelligence: 53

Wisdom: 41

Vitality: 64

Constitution: 63

Skills:

Quick Reflexes (A), Blade Wielding (B), Close Combat (SS), Survivalist (F), Shooting (D)

Class Skills:

Stealth step (J), Critical aim (J), Acrobatics (J)

“Alright, I’m done… here.” Emilia finished writing in her information, and handed me the page as I looked it over, entering it into the pre-set tables I had set up. Currently, it took twelve separate pages which also had links to notes in another document I had made which commented on the stat layouts. Each page was for one person, six kept for Drew’s team too.

…I’ve noticed this, but why is it that the people on my team have such… messy, stats… I liked having my stats very close to each other, and in multiples of two or five. So it must end in a zero, five, or an even number… plus… she left out her surname… Oh, and her Close Combat skill was much higher than her Blade Wielding at this point I see.

Personal Information

Name:

Michael Grave

Level:

68

1 981 EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Archer

Kingdom:

Camelot

Knight

Anima:

Longbow

Stats:

Strength: 80 (120)

Dexterity: 80 (116)

Intelligence: 51

Wisdom: 42

Vitality: 32

Constitution: 80

Skills:

Shooting (SS), Overflowing Strength (A), Close Combat Modified (D), Quick Reflexes (B)

Class Skills:

Take Aim (J), Hunter Sight (J), One-Shot (J)

Well, at least my second in command had some idea of equality… the problem was his atrocious Vitality stat, but he rarely needed it… rather, he got tired from shooting at full strength all the time, so the Constitution was surprisingly necessary? If he were to just add seven points to wisdom he could finally fight a Wisp or deal damage to Ignus without help though…

When I mentioned that he blinked and face-palmed, having not thought of that apparently… well, the most powerful magic user around us was actually a cat so I didn’t blame him, but still.

Personal Information

Name:

Matt Jacobson

Level:

68

1 981 EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Defender

Kingdom:

Camelot

Knight

Anima:

The Protector’s Shield

Stats:

Strength: 74

Dexterity: 40

Intelligence: 25

Wisdom: 25

Vitality: 81

Constitution: 120 (216)

Skills:

Stand Strong (SSS), Shield Bearer (S), Knight Stance (A), Spatial Understanding (B)

Class Skills:

Metal Skin* (J), Sacrifice (J), Taunt (J)

…Is it just me, or is Matt actually the one with the most potential amongst us? His Shield was better than the standard ones, his ‘stat’ skill was on par with my own Tactician, and he has a rare skill for his class which fits with his own magic element even…

His magic stats are very low, but with his role in our team, he doesn’t even need it much beyond using it to even further increase his defence… hey, won’t he be unable to be hurt at this point… it’s seriously making me wonder why Matt didn’t mention this… I mean, two hundred and sixteen constitution points!

Personal Information

Name:

Alice Grave

Level:

68

1 981 EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Warrior

Kingdom:

Camelot

Knight

Anima:

Weapon-Meister

Stats:

Strength: 95 (147)

Dexterity: 50 (72)

Intelligence: 60

Wisdom: 60

Vitality: 50

Constitution: 50

Skills:

Quick Reflexes (B), Overflowing Strength (S), Enemy Sense (G)

Class Skills:

Weapon Appraisal (J), Tough Skin (J), Spatial Understanding*(J)

Ah, considering Alice was similar to me, it’s easy to see that her want for multiples of five to appear… but… apparently her magic stats haven’t been raised in the past ten or so levels… she had little skills due to Weapon-Meister actually.

Well, her magic element, Darkness (the element of dishonesty and trickery, it was a toss-up there) required a lot more magic than normal, which is why that happened. Her second element was Mind, much like Sidhe, which meant her next element would be Earth… she apparently didn’t like that fact though… not flashy enough apparently.

Personal Information

Name:

John Collins

Level:

69

7 219 EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Cleric

Kingdom:

Camelot

Knight

Anima:

Healing Scripture

Stats:

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 23

Intelligence: 100

Wisdom: 100

Vitality: 57

Constitution: 53

Skills:

Staff Arts (K), Magic Conservation (S), Magic Sense (A), Hide Presence (B)

Class Skills:

Recovery Up (J), Auto-Self-Recovery* (J)

…I don’t know what to say, but… he apparently recently got his third element. Without a stat boosting skill, Sidhe still has better stats, but… when it comes to magic and healing, he has a skill that boosts the effects of recovery magic too.

…You know, I forgot his surname? It’s so generic I completely forgot it… I mean, Fife (Shaun) is different, Grave (Michael and Alice) is unique, Jacobson (Matt) is long and memorable, and Emilia’s can’t be pronounced (I swear it’s a tongue-twister.)

What’s with that Hide Presence skill though… isn’t that a Rogue skill? No wonder he can hide well…

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

70

14 321EXP

Rank:

J

Class:

Smith

Familiar:

Cait Sith (Sidhe)

Kingdom:

Camelot

King

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 57 (71)

Dexterity: 80 (160)

Intelligence: 46 (50)

Wisdom: 90 (186)

Vitality: 57 (71)

Constitution: 45

Skills:

Shooting (K), Blade Wielding (A), Tactician (SSS), Recovery (S), Close Combat (B), Enchanting (S), Soul Reading, Dual Wielding (F), Quick Reflexes (S)

Class Skills:

Blacksmith (J), Fire Resistance (J), Metallurgy (J), Armour Appraisal (J), Weapon Appraisal (J)

…You know, if I take my boosted stats and take away my base stats, I end up with 208 stat points… that’s roughly 41, almost 42 levels worth of stat points… so my effective stats were around the stats of someone of level 112 or so.

That’s terrifying. Plus, I had much more skills than the others, which I still didn’t know the reason for. At this point the Recovery only made me bleed 8% more than normal, which was negligible at this point with my vitality stat… I hid the Soul Reading Skill though… it’s a unique skill, not rare…

Familiar Information

Name:

Sidhe

Level:

66

2 912 EXP

Rank:

J

Race:

Cait Sith

Master:

Arthur Clive

Elements:

Darkness

Mind

Earth

Metal

Stats:

Strength: 27 (33)

Dexterity: 95 (104)

Intelligence: 99 (104)

Wisdom: 94 (104)

Vitality: 27 (33)

Constitution: 28 (33)

Unlike the others, Sidhe got the same boosted experience points I got when I killed with my Dagger so she levelled up slightly faster than she should, plus she had an extra element before she even had the stats for it apparently, so now she had her fourth element already, Metal.

In addition to that, she got a percentage of my stats depending on her level (at a level higher than 60, she got 12% of my base stats, at level 400 she’d get 80% of my stats apparently)

Mobile magic battery for sure, Sidhe was one of the best sources of support for us as we went through the dungeon… very much a glass cannon though.

“So, are you done inputting the information?” I heard Emilia ask as I nodded with an awkward expression on my face as I looked at the data… what was with this team…

Our Cleric had a Rogue Skill, our Defender (a Guardian which can also taunt and use swords instead of maces and hammers) had a rare Warrior skill and a stat in the 200’s, the Rogue’s stats are kind of over the place and bland, the Archer takes forever to recover and the leader just had a bit of everything but couldn’t take a hit or use high powered magic… oh, and our Warrior was becoming focused on strength only…

I actually think our team wouldn’t be a good example to others… well, if I edit the information a bit… nonetheless, our team did what we had to do and we did it very well.

“Yeah, I’m done… our team is a bit weird looking over it like this, but I think it’s the weirdness getting us through the Dungeon despite originally being slightly weaker than our competitors.” I explained as I swivelled back to Emilia, noting her holding two cups, one of which was passed to me…

This woman, she kept bringing me tea instead of coffee… I don’t know if she’s psychic or it was just on my expression, but she smiled wryly at my expression as she sipped her tea.

“Tea occasionally instead of coffee is good for you.” She said and I nodded at her words, knowing it to actually be true, despite my complaints… I just complained because I could honestly.

“So, back at the Dungeon starting tomorrow right? Should we aim for deeper in the Dungeon, or do the levelling up thing again? Apparently you were spot on about Michael’s leadership skills.” I nodded at her words, taking a sip of the tea (she made good tea when she tried) and putting the cup down before I looked at her.

“Well, I knew what kind of leader Michael was for a long time… he’s a… how to put this, a secondary commander. He has the charisma to lead but not the tactical mind-set, which makes him suitable for being a second-in-command instead of a leader.” I admitted, despite knowing that I at one point wanted him to lead, I, during my tenure as leader of this team, had realized that Michael wasn’t actually suited for it… in fact…

The person best suited to be leader in my place was actually Matt or possibly Alice, Matt for his ability to survey the battlefield and his combat sense, Alice for her ability to come up with plans and recognize mistakes in them.

Huh… that’s a plan right there… but that depended on other factors I’ve noticed… by my calculations, we can get more experience points going from floor 21 to floor 24 than we can going from floor 11 to floor 16 like we did (though Michael’s team went to floor 15) so moving to the twenties would be worthwhile.

“Anyway, I’m not sure about what we should do yet, but I think we should get together once more, and go a bit deeper in the thirties… floor 38 is where everyone is, though apparently Albert has found the stairs, so we’re out of this fight for now unless we pick up the pace.” I admitted, and Emilia nodded at my idea…

Then I stood and motioned for her to follow as we left my workshop behind, and I held my chin… what to do about this… it was still kind of early, but we weren’t going into the Dungeon today, and I needed to do something…

I turned to Emilia, noting her tilting her head at my appearance as I shook my head to snap back into reality.

“Let’s go for a walk for bit.” I said and she blinked at my words before smiling and nodding… well, that was easier than I thought, as Sidhe meowed by my leg and I already knew the cat wanted to come along…

Sidhe was smart so I didn’t need to worry about her getting injured or anything like that… she’d follow around using an illusion to hide the fact that she had two tails, and that would be that.

Michael caught me walking towards the door from the lounge and moved his head upwards in a questioning gesture as I shrugged.

“Just going out, we’ll be back in a while.” I said and Emilia was behind me and nodded at Michael who slightly widened his eyes before they calmed down and he nodded, going back to his video game.

I don’t need to be psychic to see that he noticed me walking with Emilia alone (Sidhe didn’t count apparently)… though this had happened before, especially during our college days…

Not that Emilia had met Michael and the others then, so I guess it was a bit of a surprise for him since our group usually stuck together these days.

“So where are we going?” Emilia asked as Sidhe meowed to insert her bit of questioning as well as I looked up… then I shrugged.

“No idea, I just wanted to walk with you.” I admitted as embarrassing as the sentence sounded, it was the truth and Emilia blushed at the bluntness of my answer.

“O-oh… okay…” she seemed a bit embarrassed by what I said as I sighed, placing my hands in my pockets… then turning to see her walking next to me.

She didn’t remember what happened during Michael’s birthday party apparently (she was sitting with a couple bottles of vodka actually…) so she didn’t remember kissing me…

That was a surprise for sure. I hadn’t expected it at all during my slightly drunk haze, and by the time I realized what had happened she was passed out… then the next day she revealed that she couldn’t remember what happened after getting to the club.

Michael was just laughing with Alice too… I have no doubt that those two saw everything, and that made it even more embarrassing in my opinion.

Unfortunately for me, of the two parties I was the only one who remembered the event so Emilia just looked confused on why I was embarrassed every time Michael mentioned the club.

So we walked for a bit before I started talking, and Emilia began to respond… and so we walked around, followed by my black (demon) cat as we just talked, laughed, joked around, even stopping at a fast food place to get something to eat as we continued walking around after eating.

It was… relaxing, and I enjoyed it a lot. During our walk though, we came across a certain High School known as Eleanor Roosevelt High School. It also happened to now be around one, which meant that it was almost time for break.

“Hey, Emilia, can we stop by here?” I asked as she blinked at the question before she nodded and we walked into reception where a secretary looked up at us.

“Hello, how may I help you?” she asked without much feeling… though she narrowed her eyes when she saw me, I can only guess she felt my face to be familiar… well, considering my face is now the ‘face’ of Adventurers in America, she might have seen it a few times.

“Hello, I’m here to ask about six students who have applied to join a Dungeon team. I’d like to speak to their teachers and the Principal if possible.” I said and the woman blinked at my words while Emilia smiled at having figured out why we were here.

“Uh… I’ll get the Principal, may I ask who is requesting them?” she asked as she walked away and I nodded with a small smile, glad that this place wasn’t crowded despite it almost being break… she seemed annoyed with Sidhe though.

“Yes, my name is Arthur Clive; I’m here to ask for Drew Simmons and his teammates.” I said as the lady blinked, and walked away, still looking confused. I shared a glance with Emilia and we chuckled and giggled (because I don’t giggle… much) as we realized that the secretary would soon realize just who she didn’t recognize… I also noticed the ‘no animals’ sign and realized why the secretary was annoyed with Sidhe… tough luck, she wasn’t leaving.

I wasn’t a celebrity on the level of people like Justin Bieber or Johnny Depp (favourite actor by the way) but I was most certainly a celebrity on the level of famous athletes at the least.

Sure enough, five minutes later the woman came back looking flustered as she nodded to Emilia and I will adjusting her spectacles.

“Sorry for the delay Mr Clive, I hadn’t recognized you. The Principal and the relevant parties are all gathered in a classroom down the hall, I’ll show you where.” The secretary was trying to make up for the lack of recognition huh…

We soon entered the classroom and I found two teachers, an older chubby man and the six students who I came into this horrible place (read: school) for.

“Ah, good morning Mr Clive, it’s an honour to have you visiting my school.” The Principal stood and shook my hand easily as I gave a small smile… though I heard Emilia giggle when she recognized my smile as a fake one.

“It’s a pleasure sir. I see you’ve gathered my future teammates.” I said easily as I turned to the six who widened their eyes with glee at my words as I walked over to Drew, who sat straight and looked back at me, unwavering.

“It’s been a while, Drew… I heard what happened. You have my sympathies. On Red Sky Day my parents were both killed along with my younger brother, while I wasn’t there.” Drew widened his eyes as he heard my words as I grabbed his shoulder and looked him in the eyes (despite hating it when people met my eyes)

“But don’t worry. I’m not having your team join mine out of sympathy. I recognize your talent and that your team is one I can trust, even if one of you is annoying.” I said, clenching my hand slightly, making Drew wince and the jock gulp loudly as I stood, turning back to the teachers.

“But yes, I came here to inform these six that they are welcome to join my group of adventurers, and to inform your school that they will often be called out of school to go into the Dungeon with my team.” I waited to see something…

“But won’t that damage their studies?” Ah, one of the teachers was quick to ask and I smiled at his words as I nodded with a genuine smile.

“Indeed, normally it would, but you won’t have to worry there, I believe having an education is very important. From my understanding, all six of them are in the eleventh grade?” I asked as the group nodded.

“Well, all of the people in my current team finished High School with good marks, and I’m sure we can arrange for their studies as long as they collect a schedule for what they need to know for when.” I explained, making the teacher nod with a smile in return for my understanding.

“Good, so it’s settled, I was just walking by and stopped to inform your group of this. Drew, come to this address-” I handed him a slip of paper containing the address of our home base and felt Sidhe jump onto my shoulder (I heard one of the girls in Drew’s team, Emma I think, mention something about Sidhe being cute)

“And we’ll have some introductions and such. My phone number is also on there, message me and I’ll give you the plan for… say Friday, come Friday morning, around eight or nine.” I said and Drew nodded at my words.

“Uh… sorry for the late question, but who are you?” the other girl (according to the file of Drew’s team, Taylor) asked looking towards Emilia who smiled at the question.

“Oh it’s alright, Arthur has a way of getting the attention of a room quickly. My name’s Emilia, I’m the rogue of Team Caliburn.” She introduced herself making the group look to her with shining eyes… what, am I chopped liver? Then I noticed that it was the girls who were mostly there and realized it was some feminine spirit vibe.

“Oh, your team, how many girls does it have again?” Emma asked (I figured that she was the one with the shorter brown hair, and Taylor had the slightly longer black hair) as Emilia blinked at the question.

“Oh, it’s just me and one other, the warrior.” She said making the girls look at her with wide eyes as Drew stage whispered to me (though the girls couldn’t hear him)

“Hey… if she’s a rogue and the other one is a warrior, the guys…” he asked as I blinked at his words and realized what he was asking as I patted his shoulders with a mock sad look.

“Drew… women are scary… other than our shield user, the front line is only girls…” I explained making Drew pale a bit… yeah, the strongest team in America has two girls as their damage dealers and the men as support… like I said; women are scary, females for the win in my team at least. In Drew’s it was apparently the opposite.

“Ah… I know that women are scary… I’m the leader but I’m not always the one giving orders…” we (along with the two jocks and the shorter healer) all looked at each other and gained a sense of camaraderie that day… of fear of women.

I left the place soon after with Emilia (who was blushing after some girl talk apparently) and we moved on our way back to our home to relax there instead now…

Though I grasped her hand as we were leaving making Emilia look at me with wide eyes as I looked to her then looked away to hide my own embarrassment.

“…Emilia, do you know what happened at the club?” I asked and she shook her head… might as well…

“Well, you got very drunk… and some girl tried to make a move on me… you punched the girl…” she seemed a bit surprised and confused there, then I continued.

“Oh, and then you kissed me.” I said, feeling her grip my hand tightly (I’m lucky my strength stat combined with constitution was enough to make it not hurt)

“…I did?” she asked as I nodded, still not looking her in the eye as Sidhe meowed behind us… Sidhe was a nice constant presence today…

“Oh… um… so I guess you weren’t mad?” I smiled at her words as I looked at her to see her looking at me hopefully as I stroked her hair, making her blink.

“No, I wasn’t mad… I was surprised yeah, but I enjoyed it. I… I do like you. A lot actually… I just… I’m embarrassed to admit things like that…” I said as I smiled softly, Emilia smiling back as well (and Sidhe was meowing cutely on the side)

“Emilia, I… I want to go out with you honestly… that’s why I asked you to go on a walk with me… wasn’t it like a date?” I asked and Emilia blinked and blushed realizing that was exactly what it was like… why is it me as the more attentive one between us?

“But… I also heard something that makes me think we shouldn’t really start dating yet… I guess I just did this because I know I’ll want to do this another time.” I said, and Emilia blinked at my words, now pouting (that was dangerous, cute is dangerous)

“Why not?” she asked and I sighed, thinking back to the club, just before the incident with Emilia… George and that Felicity girl warned me.

“Oh good, the flashback started… ahem, sorry, ignore that. Anyway, I need to warn you. The number that kidnapped your comrade is dangerous, and will harm something you care about. The situation will be solved, but be warned, you won’t win, but the you from before can. Now this flashback can end.” I had blinked at his words and looked to see Felicity sigh and grab George and Jade (who waved as she left)

“And no dating until the Great Secret is revealed!” Huh?

I explained what George had told me, and Emilia blinked before smiling… then reaching out and holding my cheek as she grinned.

“So, you don’t want to date me because you want to protect me, and you’re waiting for some secret? Well if you can’t win we should fight together… but I see your point. George was saying we shouldn’t date?” she asked and I nodded, even as she took her hand away from me.

“Fine, though I’m going to roundhouse kick him the next time I see him. His words are making this take longer. The moment this situation is done, you’re taking me to watch a movie and get dinner, no exceptions.” I held in a chuckle at seeing her look so serious… it didn’t work quite right though.

“As you wish, milady.” I replied and she raised an eyebrow before we both laughed at the nature of my reply.

“Milady, that’s certainly different… I like it. Now come on, let’s go home.” She said, dragging me by my arm as we moved towards our home, which was three blocks away.

Once at home, we separated, but we stood all the more closer and seemed to smile every time we noticed each other… although Sidhe occasionally meowed for attention whenever we were weren’t paying her any attention.

We were just sitting in the lounge watching Michael practice his skills at Devil May Cry (which I totally owned him in, hack and slash was really easy for me to play, though he was good)

Matt and John were busy at the pool table (we only played pool away from here during Michael’s birthday because the bowling alley was just next to it) and Alice was waiting for her turn at the Pool table…

Then I heard a knock on the door and I went to open it only to find Agent Shaun who looked at me with a raised eyebrow…

“Enjoy your walk?” I froze at his words and then sighed… right, despite how much I disliked him and he was lazy, he was still the strongest Agent in America (and possibly the world, though George was a surprisingly close competitor)

“So, people following us? Who was it by the way?” I asked out of curiosity as he stepped into the building and walked to the lounge with me following.

“My wife. She saw you and Emilia walking past with your cat earlier. She was busy shopping.” I cursed in my mind for having missed a chance to meet his wife. Who would marry this guy, and how did she deal with him?

“So… no one following us?” I asked, noticing that bit of information was missing as we entered the lounge (Emilia froze at my words and blushed a bit)

“Nah, we don’t see the need to. We do so rarely, today was just one of those days we didn’t bother. Anyway, I’m here to ask that you switch to the Adventurer News Channel.”

Ah, the ANC… for some reason that name made me think of John and his ‘black power movement’ ideas… but the channel was quite annoying, seeing as how it had mostly gossip. The theories and knowledge section was alright, but some of their information was a bit false (such as how Goblins give three experience points… no, they gave eighteen, just divided into six)

“Yeah, that channel. Grave, pause your game and put on the channel, it’s something important.” Shaun referred to Alice by name and Michael by his surname usually. Was surprisingly friendly with those two actually, something about his father and theirs being war buddies.

The game was paused (with much reluctance, as he had finally managed to unlock Dante Must Die mode and was in the middle of a difficult boss fight… even for me that mode was annoying… I think he was fighting the Succubus?) and the channel changed, to show a video of Sheikh staring back at us.

“This is a challenge, to you who would call yourself the strongest, Arthur Clive.” Oh… so that’s why I had to see this… this guy was kind of difficult to talk to.

“A contest of strength is what I would prefer, but we, as humans against demons, are not to fight each other.” No duh hey, that would be pointless. All wars had practically stopped as even terrorists found it better to be killing demons, though that’s not to say that they had stopped illegal activities.

“So instead, it would be a race. Who can kill the fourth Demon Lord first? Your team, or mine? That would be a bit too simple though. Should one of us reach the fourth Demon Lord first, we may only fight with two teammates, for a total of three.” I blinked at his words… then smirked… oh…

“So then, whether or not you accept this challenge, I will go down, and should I slay it before you, I will hold the title of strongest!” he declared as the video ended, going back to the news anchors as Michael switched it back to his game.

“So, Clive, what will you do? This is a matter of proof between the strongest of Saudi Arabia and our own America… will you back down or take up the challenge?” Agent Shaun asked as I smirked.

“Of course I’ll take up the challenge… or rather, Michael will.” I said, making Michael miss a hit and take huge damage in his game as he paused, turning to me with a look of heavy confusion.

“Come on Michael… Emilia and John are both higher levelled than you, Alice and Matt, and I’m the highest levelled in the world.” I said, making him blink before he realized what I was saying.

“But I… I shouldn’t lead that team.” he admitted, though Agent Shaun realized what I was saying and he seemed a bit amused… guess he also noticed what I did, seeing as he nodded at me when I said it (though his approval was a bit of a confusing prospect… did I get annoyed or be grateful?)

“That’s fine, but it will be you three fighting the Demon Lord. As for your team leader how about… Matt, Matt will be the leader.” I looked to the tall man taking his shot on his pool game (he sunk the black ball with a chip shot, nice move) as he stood straight after finishing his shot.

“You sure?” he asked as I smirked, looking to Agent Shaun… eh, he could be trusted, as much as we disliked each other.

“Of course I’m sure… you are the secret weapon of our team after all…” I said making everyone pause and look to me to make sure of what I had just said… then turned to Matt.

“…I’m a secret weapon?” Matt actually looked confused as I smirked… I was the only one who knew everyone’s stat and skill setups, meaning I knew how to make this work.

“Yeah… They’ll never see it coming.” I would have begun to cackle like a mad scientist but the last time I tried that I got slapped at the back of the head by Emilia… and Michael… and Alice and John… basically everyone disliked it except Matt who joined in and didn’t get hit.

“…Alright, I’ll lead the other team. If you expect me to do that though, you should give the map information to Alice, she’s better at memorizing than I am… oh, and healing methods.” The others seemed a bit surprised at his words, but I had expected it (Agent Shaun actually seemed delighted at what he was hearing, if his wide eyes and small smile said anything)

“Alright, I’ll make arrangements, as long as Alice makes sure to pay attention to the plans.” I said as I planned out our strategy… if this works, not only will I maintain my lead as the ‘strongest’ but all of our members will also overtake my ‘rivals’ in levels…

“Alright team… this is what we’ll do…” I let Agent Shaun listen in to provide his own input though he seemed to agree with my tactics…

I have no doubt that this will be a challenge we can win… besides, I’m not even the one taking it on.

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, unbeknownst to me, Sheikh received the reply that I’d accept his challenge… and he had one of his compatriots mention that with our team which only had me as a leader, the other three would slow down in hunting…

“No they won’t… their second-in-command Archer isn’t a true leader… but that Defender in their team makes me uneasy…” Sheikh would return in Arabic as he contemplated…

The world was not yet aware, but this was not a challenge between the strongest and one of the strongest six, but instead a challenge between two who have the duty to defend their teammates.