When managing your territory, there is always a tradeoff between claiming zones or leaving them to the neutral faction.

Claimed zones will be, next to cities of course, the safest places in the kingdom for your subjects. As such, it is prudent in most cases to maintain the claim of the zones that fall along your trade routes. Not only will the monsters therein be non-hostile to trade caravans, there have been tales of faction-aligned monsters protecting caravans from bandits.

Whether that is cause to reduce money spent on patrols in the area is not a question I ever found a satisfying answer for. Do so at the peril of your own reputation.

At this point, you may be wondering why you should leave any zones to the neutral faction. To answer that, if you claim too many zones, the monster-killing squads of your army will have no place to work. As I am sure you are well aware, monster killing is the only true source of income, so without it, your kingdom will soon find itself in dire straits. (Well, the only source aside from gold veins in the rare mine shaft that has them, but relying on just one or the other would be foolhardy).

Speaking from experience, you do not want to be the [King] who is lax in paying System’s tribute for your cities.

In addition, there is one last type of zone to consider: Zones claimed by the [Demon Lord]. These function in many ways like the neutral ones, but they also have one vital difference. From time to time, groups of monsters will pour forth and seek the nearest zone.

Allowing them to prevail and take the zone is disastrous. However, there is a side benefit to their attacks.

Should a fortified city be placed as the nearest zone, that would mean that the monsters will charge walls they have no hopes of destroying, only to be cut down.

To put it another way, I recommend leaving them alone. The forts along eastern Gram have been quite… lucrative.

- Effective Kingsmanship, a series of letters left from [King] Frederick Gram to his son

-------

With my [Teleport] successful at saving my life, it was time to get back to the next stage of my plan.

I can’t exactly get supplies in Deepmine or Faroff. I thought. Also, they’ll probably know about my disguise now.

I reluctantly took out my contacts and thought for a bit. I don’t look forward to sleeping out in the elements...

Further debate was forestalled when I heard the oh-so-familiar howls of Placeholder’s most common enemy.

I watched impassively as around 20 of them charged me across a grassy field.

Last life, I would’ve burned them to a crisp with [Hell Blaze], but I guess this will have to do…

"[Mage Bolt]. [Mage Bolt],” I cast.

I nodded in satisfaction as the front wolf toppled to the ground. Then, I continued my spell slinging until the wolves got in range.

Fists or sword? I asked myself as the first wolf leaped toward me. Eh. Why not both?

I slammed the jumping wolf with my left hand, even as I pulled my sword out of my inventory into my right.

I watched the wolf go tumbling for several paces but froze in shock when it staggered back upright.

What the heck? I asked. However, I didn’t have long to worry about it. The other enemies were on me.

It could have been dicey, but there weren’t that many of them. I mean, I was just outnumbered 15 to 1.

As the wolf I thought I killed charged into the flank of another and took it down, I belatedly wondered if it was actually a 15 v 2.

I finally put the dots together when that one also got back up.

Ah. A zombie. So, it’s 15 v 2 v 1. With a shrug, I spent a chunk of my stamina bar to [Flash Step] outside the encirclement and stopped flooding the area with my aura.

That was enough as the two hostile factions turned and fought each other immediately.

“I’ll just be waiting to pick up the pieces,” I said as I stretched and watched the show.

The zombies slowly but surely won. While the ordinary wolves were smarter and faster, it turned out that the tactic of “leap at your enemy and bite them” doesn’t work so well if that is also your enemy’s tactic. That is doubly true if the enemy can survive the first attack, get a kill, and then get reinforcements.

So, instead of facing off against 15 normal wolves, I would now face off against 10 zombie ones.

The fight was nothing to write home about. The only problem was that I forgot that my aura didn’t affect zombies much, and I nearly took a bite for the trouble.

No, the weird part came after I put them all down again.

“I wonder why that one turned to a zombie so fast,” I muttered as I bent down to loot the corpses. I would have had a dave do it, but I didn’t have enough mana, so it was either loot it myself or wait for it to come back later and cause me problems.

I reached my hand out to the zombie’s head. “Loo-“was all I got out when the corpse suddenly snarled and snapped at me.

I jerked my hand back even as the other came down in a [Fire Strike].

It immediately started stirring again, so I pulled Insurance back out and stabbed the zombie clean through.

What’s going on? I asked with a frown. I tentatively reached toward the skewered zombie, but it didn’t stir this time. Is the enchantment running out of power or something? I would’ve sworn I killed this one with my sword.

So, with unbridled curiosity, it was time to do some testing.

Loot a body while my sword was still in it? Nothing happened.

Stab a body, pull the sword out, then try to loot it? Zombie.

The weird thing was, that even held for the normal wolves I had killed with [Mage Bolt]. Trying to loot them didn’t work unless they were treated to a round of sword acupuncture first.

When all of the bodies were clear, I sat down to rest and think. Zombies didn’t use to form nearly this fast, and didn’t they need a heart nearby? I wrinkled my brow. It could be a part of the new patch, but that doesn’t seem right. The adventurers would have been complaining up and down about this because zombies don’t give good loot.

Unless I randomly [Teleported] much farther than I expected and ended up in the deathlands… I looked around at the vibrant green grass. It doesn’t make sense unless there’s a heart nearby. Or maybe a lich.

The word lich got the gears turning. I thought back to the last one I had met. I killed him and…

“Frick! He actually cursed me!” I groaned. “I didn’t even know curses were a thing! And it lasted through my respawn!” I sighed. “Does that mean I’m stuck with it forever?” I flopped onto my back. “No, calm down, Titus. When you get enough mana back, see if you can take it out with [Restore]. If not that, then maybe some type of [Cleric] or [Priest] has [Break Curse] or something.”

To that end, I figured it would be best to get moving. I could rest even while walking, so there was no point in just sitting in one place.

After taking an embarrassingly long time struggling back to my feet, I pulled out my wands and my “cane” and then checked my status.

Status

Name

Titus

Level

8

Class

Demon Lord

Race

Demon Lord

HP

90/90

MP

1/209

SP

12/54

Age

24

“Wait, my mana went down?” I asked incredulously. Then, I looked at the two wands I was holding in my left hand.

I shifted one wand to my right hand. My max mana jumped up to 359. I moved it back to my left. It went back down to 209. Then, just for kicks, I stowed both of my wands to drink in the glorious 9 maximum mana I had without gear.

Got it. Can only have one wand “equipped” per hand. I pulled both out and awkwardly clutched one in the same hand as my cane. It’s too bad. Otherwise, I would’ve just stocked up on as many as possible and put my max mana through the roof. I paused. Yeah, that’s probably why it’s not allowed.

I continued on my way east as I debated back and forth about what I should spend my mana on. There were several options. I could [Restore] myself like I’d wanted, summon up some reinforcements, or there was the last option I decided to go with as soon as I had the 50 mana I needed to cast it.

“[Scry] Samson Stonebreaker,” I cast. Or at least, I tried to cast. The spell fizzled, and fortunately, my mana was refunded.

“[Scry] Samson Stonebreaker,” I said again with all the confused determination of someone pressing the power button harder on their dead remote.

The 2nd time that it fizzled made me pause.

Did I just not learn the spell correctly? I frowned. Or maybe Primavia pranked me… I didn’t think the 2nd one sounded right. I was pretty sure that I had managed to cast it back during our little impromptu spell training sessions, and it would have taken quite a bit to pull off a deception against me with my whole “not seeing illusions” thing.

That left one last possibility.

“I’m an idiot,” I said. I went to facepalm, accidentally stabbed myself with my wand in my left hand, and then shook my head. “I need a scrying mirror… or a pool of water… or something.”

I shuffled through my inventory but didn’t hold out much hope. I don’t think Pride ever picked up a mirror, so I probably don’t- I paused as I saw a hand mirror in my inventory… right next to a pair of scissors.

“Oh yeah, back from that time when I was a [Barber],” I said. I pulled out the hand mirror and then tried one last time.

“[Scry] Samson Stonebreaker,” I cast. This time, the mana was used up, and the mirror stopped reflecting my own image.

I was expecting a view of Faroff since I was sure he would have returned to town after I got away.

Instead, I saw Samson and a group of adventurers of different races all riding horses. Yes, that included the dwarf [Hero].

Anyway, they were driving them hard, and I came in the middle of a conversation.

“-accurate is the skill?” Samson asked with a shout.

“It’s more accurate when he isn’t on the move!” a human man shouted back. Based solely on his armor, I was guessing some type of [Warrior]. “But I can tell we’re gaining on him and I think he’s only a few miles away!”

The dwarf nodded. “[Son of Dave] is truly a formidable class. I am grateful to have you in my party.”

The man only nodded in reply to the praise. Meanwhile, I-

“Son of a dave,” I cursed. So that class does have some type of skill for finding me. That explains why I keep managing to run into them.

I didn’t have too long to dwell on that. I had high-level adventurers on my tail, and I was currently standing out on an open plain waiting for them to come and cut me down. I ended the [Scry] and stuffed my gear into my inventory.

Next, I tried to run up the nearest hill to get a better lay of the land, but it turned into more of an awkward shuffling jog.

Stupid body, move faster! I mentally berated myself. If they catch you, you’ll die for good this time!

I was under no illusions I could take the [Hero] in a fight, and talking my way out of things again was just as far of a stretch after our “duel” not even an hour ago.

Fortunately, when I crested the hill, I saw salvation to the south.

A forest. That means cover, which means [Sneak]. I might be able to lose them in there.

It was out of my way, but I didn’t exactly care at that point. The only thing that mattered was survival. I ran toward the forest at top speed… which wasn’t nearly as impressive as I would have hoped.

The only saving grace was that [Athletics] at level 7 meant I didn’t run out of stamina, even with my pitiful amount.

After what felt like an eternity, and with my lungs burning from exertion for the first time in memory, I approached the edge of the forest.

I’m safe. I thought as I was a mere 100 feet out.

And that’s when I felt the impact between my shoulder blades that instantly halved my HP and took me to the ground.

It might have taken me a bit longer to figure out what had happened… if I hadn’t been shot in the back by an arrow before. Instead, I pulled it out and then rolled to the side as another arrow thudded into the ground where I had been not a second before.

I popped to my feet and saw the Hero’s party bearing down on me, with their elvish archer taking impossibly long shots while still mounted on horseback.

Speaking of, the third arrow was already on its way to me. I batted it out of the air with a [Fire Strike] and then ran towards the forest.

However, the archer had succeeded in his goal. He hadn’t been trying to kill me outright, and I doubt he knew how close he had come. He was just trying to slow me down enough for the others to catch me, and it turned out that forcing me to awkwardly watch behind me while I was trying to run for my life did that well enough.

The [Hero] closed the gap, even as the archer swung wide on his approach to continue peppering me with arrows.

However, neither of those things mattered. I was close enough to the forest.

Get just a bit closer to ensure this works. I need to go as deep as possible.

And so, I continued running until I had an arrow and a Hero’s Hammer headed directly at me for the kill. Then, without further ado, I [Flash Stepped] into the forest and behind a tree.

I broke their line of sight for just a second, but that was enough time to activate [Sneak] and then begin creeping off into the forest.

“Where did he go?” the [Hero] called out.

“Into the forest!” the [Son of Dave] shouted. “Quickly! We can’t let him get too deep!”

Meanwhile, I received a zone entered notification and almost immediately after heard the howl of my favorite monsters.

Of course, it has to be a zone. I grumbled. Well, as long as I can make the monsters go for the [Hero]-

I paused as I finally read the notification.

System: Zone entered, Peasant Forest. Faction - Demon Lord

Demon Lord. Demon Lord! It’s perfect! I couldn’t help the grin that split my face as the first wave of wolves bolted past me and directly at the [Hero].

It took his party all of a few seconds to wipe the floor with them, but that was a few precious seconds where I was getting deeper into the forest.

“Which way?” the [Hero] called.

“This way!” the elf replied. “I’ve picked up his trail with [Tracking]!”

Frickin’ [Rangers]. I thought as I continued moving as fast as possible while [Sneaking]. Unfortunately, that meant they quickly caught up.

“The trail ends here. He must be close!” the elf called.

I had no choice but to stay as still as I could as the party fanned out looking. Fortunately, the ones that went in my direction were the [Hero] and their… mage? I wasn’t sure if the wolf-eared adventurer was a [Wizard] or a [Sorcerer], but he was carrying around a staff and looked scrawny, so I had to assume he was some type of caster.

Why was that fortunate? Well, of the people in that party who were likely to have [Detect], those two were on the bottom of the list. In fact, the beastborn stared directly at me for a brief moment before calling it clear in his direction.

If I had been against a typical adventuring party, I’m sure they would have moved on by then. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I was against a party that had a [Ranger] and a [Son of Dave].

“The trail ends here, right?” Dave asked. I assumed the [Ranger] must have nodded or said something too quiet for me to hear because Dave continued. “Then he must be close by. The [Demon Lord] has [Sneak], so does anyone else have [Detect]?”

I heard a group of murmured nos, and then the [Son of Dave] sighed. “Figures. Well, there are ways around [Sneak] if you’re clever enough. If you make contact with him, that will break the skill, so fan out with your weapon outstretched.” He paused. “Or a stick, whatever gives you the most reach. Meanwhile, I’ll see if level 3 in [Detect] is enough to beat his skill.”

I was sure it most certainly would. I was basically just standing still on the shady side of a tree. I had caught Megan in a similar scenario with a lower level in [Detect].

I had mere moments until he was on me. I frantically thought over my options.

[Flash Step] away? That will just reveal me. Try to fight and take out just the [Son of Dave]? A single hit, and I’m dead. [Teleport]? Not enough mana or time!

During my brief moment of indecision, the [Son of Dave] came around the corner. He looked directly at me and then turned as if he was going to continue searching in another direction.

I almost breathed a sigh of relief that would have given away my position. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have mattered either way.

His move was a feint to help disguise a sword thrust he sent directly at my chest.

With barely a conscious thought, I sidestepped the thrust, stepped in closer to the man, and punched him in the face with an [Air Strike].

I immediately took off into the forest and heard the party’s yells behind me. I would have been dead there 100% if not for the other sound I heard.

The sound of reinforcements.

An even larger wave of wolves crashed through the forest at the party and stalled them for a few brief seconds. However, two important things came with that wave.

An alpha and an idea.

“Alpha! To me!” I shouted as I realized my only chance. The large wolf sprinted over to me, and I awkwardly threw myself onto its back. “Go! Deeper into the forest!” I shouted. The wolf took off like a shot, and I barely managed to hang on. I was sure that I was safe.

That thought was quickly dashed when I looked behind me and saw the dwarf sprinting towards us and rapidly gaining. I had forgotten I was dealing with a level 25 [Hero].

I needed to slow him down, so I did the only thing I could think of.

“[Mage Bolt]! [Mage Bolt]!” I cast as I awkwardly tried to maintain my grip with just one hand.

The armored [Hero] didn’t even deign to acknowledge the bolts. I felt like I may as well have been shooting at him with a pellet gun.

He swiftly closed the gap. He was just 10 feet away when I saw another flash of movement come from above.

A trio of forest daves landed a direct hit on the [Hero], and they grappled him into place.

“Get off me! You stupid slimy monsters!” he shouted even as he pushed at them ineffectually. He slew one with a single hammer swing, but the other two were tenacious and moved around. They both went towards his back, where it was harder for him to reach, and one went high while the other went low.

I was sure that wouldn’t be the end of a [Hero], but I was long gone when he managed to get them taken care of.

I got a general sense of how far behind the party was by the howls, and after several minutes, I finally told my mount. “Okay, you can slow down now.”

The alpha slowed to a walk, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’ll both catch our breath and then be ready to run again, okay?” I continued.

I pulled out my wands to regen a bit of mana, and fortunately, staying mounted on the monster with just my legs wasn’t taxing enough to stop me from “resting.”

I was gearing up to have to fight or flee again almost immediately but was surprised when the cries of the friendly monsters got farther and farther away. Eventually, they stopped altogether.

“Did they… run?” I asked incredulously.

I wasn’t sure if it was the best use of resources, but as soon as I got 50 mana up again, I pulled out my mirror and cast a [Scry].

The [Hero] was pacing around furiously.

“But I almost had him! I’m sure I can get him if I go back in!”

Dave shook his head. “The [Demon Lord] isn’t the problem. It’s all the monsters. And trust me, it just gets worse the further you go in. The spawn rate will just keep climbing, and with the [Demon Lord] there, soon you’ll find yourself surrounded by monsters that come back faster than you can kill them.”

The older dwarf deflated. “You’re right.” Then after a deep sigh, he looked at the human again. “But how does a young man your age know so much about the [Demon Lord] in the first place?”

The [Son of Dave] gave a wry grin. “Well, our family swore vengeance on the [Demon Lord] ages ago, so I’ve had everything we know about him pounded into my head since I was old enough to understand it.” He looked around. “Speaking of, if you didn’t know about the [Demon Lord’s] [Sneak] or the fact that more monsters spawn around him, maybe I should go over everything that my family knows about him?”

The party agreed, and they gathered around to listen.

It was odd hearing about my supposed capabilities as viewed from an outside source. What made it even more uncomfortable was that he was mostly correct on everything.

He briefly described [Sneak], [Monster Magnet], and [Fire Immunity] to start before partially blowing their minds by explaining [Healing Inversion]. There were several laments among the party about not bringing a [Cleric] with them, but it sounded like that was caused by a bit of Gram politics.

Anyway, when the [Son of Dave] got the floor again, he described my fighting style. Or at least, he started to before the wolf-eared man interrupted him.

It turned out that he was a [Wizard] who was raised in Besti, so he had a pretty good grasp of what I was capable of once he saw me [Flash Step]. So, he took over for that portion of the story while the [Son of Dave] rapidly scribbled some notes.

However, the human took over when that portion was done and went on to spells. [Hell Blaze] was the first one that he listed and also the first one that he got flat wrong. He claimed that I could cast it as often as I wanted, but when the party challenged him on that, he reluctantly admitted that he didn’t know why I wouldn’t have cast it against them.

However, that wasn’t even the thing that he got most wrong.

“Perhaps the most important thing about the [Demon Lord] is that he’s responsible for creating monsters out in the world,” Dave continued. “He can summon them, and they’ll stay around almost indefinitely, so be prepared for a huge swarm of any type of monster that can be found.”

I frickin’ wish. I thought as the party murmured in concern. Just summon a frickin’ adamantite crawler. Or a dragon. Heck, even summoning a bunch of forest daves seems way better than my list.

I briefly checked over my spell list just to make sure, but no new summons were there. Just [Summon Dave], [Summon Heavenhound], and [Summon Infernal Dire Snail].

That would be one heck of a mount. I thought as I stared at the 5000 MP cost of the final summon.

“I’ve seen firsthand what a dedicated swarm of daves can do,” the [Wizard] stated and snapped me out of my musings. “Are we sure it’s okay to leave him alone in there?”

Dave shook his head. “No, but we don’t have a choice. We’ll have to wait until reinforcements get here tomorrow from Fort Faroff so that we can punch through all of the monsters. Then, we need to either kill the [Demon Lord] or drive him out of the zone. Honestly, the number of summons he can get in that time should be just a drop in the bucket.”

Samson gave him a quizzical look. “If the zone is the problem, why don’t we just go in and claim the dungeon?”

The [Son of Dave] snorted. “Good one.” When the party redoubled their confusion, sans the [Ranger] who nodded in understanding, he sighed. He was about to continue when the [Ranger] interrupted him.

“Based on the name and faction, this is a tyrant dungeon, isn’t it?” the elf asked. The man nodded, so the [Ranger] continued. “In which case, I would much rather fight the [Demon Lord] and his horde of monsters directly. Or, if you insist we capture the dungeon, I would insist that we wait for at least two more parties of adventurers.”

“Adventurers?” the dwarf asked.

“You mean dungeon squads?” the man asked.

That led to a very off-topic discussion of the different nations and their “adventurers.”

Gram didn’t really have an adventurer’s guild anymore, so dungeons were mostly cleared by dedicated military squads (and when those squads were used to level other squads up, they were often called “babysitting squads”).

In Besti, most people had a combat class of some kind, so there wasn’t a reason to have a guild for it.

Finally, in Pumil, most combat-oriented dwarves weren’t out clearing dungeons. They were usually defending people from the threats from the Below.

Speaking of the Below, I also learned that I had played a much larger role in the Below invasion than I thought. They wouldn’t have had nearly as many tunnels going down that far if Pride hadn’t pushed for so much magicite production for the time magic ritual.

Oops.

I think I’m good here. I thought. I tried to speed up the [Scry] for a moment before I remembered where I was. Then, after another thought, I tried to move around the [Scry] like I always did. Unfortunately, this version didn’t budge.

I guess it makes sense that this version isn’t as advanced…

I quit the [Scry], even as my mount stopped in front of a mossy stone-looking building.

This must be the dungeon. It would be good to pick up another spell or skill. I thought. I strode in without a second thought. Yes, the [Hero’s] party’s afraid of it, but this is my dungeon. It should be a piece of cake without the monsters attacking.

-------

Almost 4 hours later, I crawled into the dungeon’s obelisk room.

“Pride, you frickin’ stupid piece of sit! If you weren’t already frickin’ dead, I would murder you a second frickin’ time, you a-hole!” I muttered. Then, I groaned as I pulled the trio of poisoned darts out of my right leg and the paralysis one out of my left.

I slowly pulled myself up to my feet and to the obelisk. “Upgrade,” I intoned.

The first order of business was that I needed a mount. The alpha wolf saving my bacon showed just how useful a summon with the same speed or even more could be.

Unfortunately, that hope was dashed.

“Where did it go?” I asked as I looked at the blank screen under spell options. I went out and back in. I went to skills, which were populated, and then back. Then, I finally groaned.

“You took over creating monsters, didn’t you?” I asked the System. “Awesome. Thanks. Glad I got a heads up.”

So, that left my choices pretty anemic. I could pick up a skill, but all I had were [Swordsmanship], [Knifemanship], or…

“Upgrade [Sneak],” I stated as soon as I had the thought.

System: Applying experience retroactively for Sneak

I was hoping for 7, maybe even 8, but it only went up to 6.

Better than nothing. I thought with a sigh. At the very least, it would give me a better shot of slipping past the [Son of Dave] undetected.

However, I got one other upgrade, though I had to check my subclasses to see it.

[Dungeon Master] jumped up to level 3. I got two new skills. [Dungeon Warp], and [Create Miniboss Room].

I obviously had to try both of those out. The first one was nice but had less utility than I expected. It let me warp directly to the dungeon’s boss room from anywhere in the dungeon. While that seemed pretty handy, its cooldown was several hours, and I got a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t be able to use it with hostiles breathing down my neck.

As for the miniboss room, I backtracked a bit through the dungeon, took a few more poisoned darts for the trouble, and then changed one of the rooms. I waffled back and forth on what to make the miniboss, but I knew it should be something the [Hero’s] party would struggle with.

I must have still had the infernal dire snails on my mind because my first thought went to them. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get to plop down a level 25 monster as a miniboss in a dungeon where the actual boss was only level 15.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t take inspiration from it, though.

Most of them are melee… So, is it possible to make it immune to melee attacks?

The answer, unfortunately, was no. However, I was able to create a giant Naga[1] that had immunity to damage on its scaled lower half. So, in some ways, I thought that was even better.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait for the next day when the [Hero] would charge the dungeon with his reinforcements.

“I wonder where Fort Faroff is anyway,” I asked. Then, stifling a yawn, I remembered that there was something else I would have to take care of.

I made my way back to the boss room, edited it to put a bed in one of the corners, and then drifted off into a fitful sleep.

------

I woke to the sounds of battle outside the dungeon.

I gave a few bleary-eyed blinks before I remembered where I was.

Looks like I overslept.

Fortunately, I had kept my wands out, so I was at my full 359 capacity. I pulled out the mirror.

“[Scry] Samson Stonebreaker,” I coughed out. The magic popped into place, and I soon watched the [Hero] lead more than a hundred men in a charge through the forest. The monsters were spawning near-instantly, but they were also being cut down quickly.

Alright, time for phase 1 of my plan. I walked over to the obelisk and had it teleport me to the dungeon's entrance. Then, I looked at the mirror in my left hand. I could save some mana by keeping the [Scry] going even when he gets here… but I think it’s best if they don’t know I can cast that.

Reluctantly, I stowed the mirror away. “Not like I need a [Scry] spell to track that group,” I muttered as battle sounds got closer.

So, I ended up waiting for them at the dungeon entrance. It took them a lot longer than I expected, and I was half-tempted to start up the [Scry] again when I finally caught sight of the raiding party.

“So, we meet again, [Hero]!” I boomed out with [Project Voice]. He said something back, but I had misjudged how far away he was. I didn’t catch a word of it, so I just had to guess. “It doesn’t matter how many men you bring! You’ll never be able to take me down inside this dungeon!”

I didn’t hear his response, but I didn’t have to. I was in bow range.

I [Flash Stepped] away as more than a dozen arrows peppered the area I had been standing in not a moment earlier.

After that, I warped directly to the dungeon boss room.

Was doing any of that necessary? Probably not. They would likely have assumed I was hunkering down in the dungeon either way. However, this way, they knew I was in the dungeon, and if they knew I was in the dungeon, the [Son of Dave] wouldn’t be thinking of using his skill when I teleported back out and made my break for it.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait.

I pulled my mirror out, set up the [Scry], and then watched as most of the army took a break directly inside the dungeon.

Dang. I forgot that zone monsters don’t like going into dungeons. I thought as the wolves circled the entrance. However, I had [Scryed] Samson, so I didn’t get to look at that for long. His party, along with about 20 others, all started making their way through the dungeon.

They’re halfway. Time to port out. I thought as I watched them take on the Naga. That poor boss went down way faster than expected. After they figured out the scales were immune, Samson caught its spear, which it came equipped with, and flipped the boss onto the ground.

It didn’t last long after that.

Well, that was frickin’ terrifying. I thought as I stowed my mirror, toggled [Sneak], and then put my hand on the obelisk to teleport out.

That was the make-or-break point. If the army noticed me there, I would have stalled the [Hero’s] party but still had a high chance of being killed by the random mooks he had brought along.

Fortunately, [Sneak] at level 6 was enough. I reappeared in front of the entrance at midday with a group of [Soldiers] staring right at me.

I snuck away from the dungeon, called an alpha wolf, and then I was off to the races.

Then I just had to figure out what the heck I would do from there.

I initially decided that I would just have the alpha take me as far east as it could, but even that ran into problems sooner than I expected.

“Come on!” I said with a groan as the alpha refused to budge at the very edge of the peasant forest zone. With even more grumbling and some complaints from my back, I dismounted and started walking.

At least it bought me some miles. I thought. I… didn’t like my odds.

“I need somewhere better to hide,” I muttered as I made my way up a small hill.

I blinked as I reached the top. “Well, if you need to hide a tree… Use a forest,” I said with a grin as I continued on my way to the fortified city up ahead of me.

I was pretty sure I had found Fort Faroff, and with a quick haircut and just a hint of luck, I could blend in there until I could take care of my Dave problem.

------

Theo Blair was a [Watch Officer]. An off-duty [Watch Officer] who had just finished an overly long night shift and was more than ready to get some shuteye.

Even if someone gets mugged right in front of me, right now, it’s not my problem. He told himself. Just head home, get some sleep, and then go back to dealing with the “evils of the world.”

He couldn’t help a soft chuckle at that last bit.

But of course, he couldn’t get off that easily. He saw a cloaked figure walking down the middle of the street… with his hood up… in the middle of the day… and who was miraculously going unnoticed by everyone around.

With barely another thought, he immediately classified the figure as a potential [Rogue] with at least 5 levels in [Sneak]. However, that made him curious. No [Rogues] would be that stupid, so he wondered if it was someone of a… different persuasion of lawlessness.

I swear if you cause us trouble because you came towards Faroff to gawk at the [Demon Lord]… Theo thought as he followed behind.

Theo was pretty sure he wasn’t noticed, but he did have a few concerns as he got dragged along into the back alleys.

What is he still [Sneaking] around for? Theo thought.

Then, as if sensing his thoughts, the figure darted around a corner.

Theo bit back a curse as he quickly followed… Just to find himself face to face with a white-haired man with a long beard.

He wouldn’t have believed it was the same person if he hadn’t caught the slightest glimpse of the cloak before it vanished into the man’s inventory.

“Who are you, and why are you [Sneaking] around?” Theo asked.

“Oh, I’m no one important,” the old man replied with a wave of his hand. “Don’t pay me any mind.”

Despite the circumstances, Theo suddenly thought that sounded quite reasonable.

“Of course,” he replied.

The old man took three steps past him before Theo’s screaming instincts finally jolted him.

He drew his sword and leveled it at the man’s back. “I don’t know what you just did to me, but I’m a [Watch Officer]. Whatever skill you just used, I won’t fall for it twice.”

The man shook his head before turning around and glaring at him. “Are you sure you want to do this, officer?” he asked.

Theo suddenly felt small, and the man before him seemed to grow in size before his very eyes.

His sword arm started shaking, and he would have had trouble holding it…

If he had planned to hold it after that anyway. He had recognized the signs and even caught sight of the small horns cleverly hidden under the man’s white hair.

He sheathed his sword and fell on his face.

“HAIL TO THE LORD OF FLAME!” he shouted.

---------

I had been getting really worried that I might have to murder a [Watch Officer] to keep him quiet. Though, I had been hopeful when the deception aura seemed to work like a charm.

… The Jedi mind trick hand wave might have been a bit much, though.

Now I was faced with another problem. My cult.

“Never expected a [Watch Officer] to join,” I muttered, even as the man stayed prostrate in front of me.

“We have waited so long for your return, your lordship!” he said. Then, he finally snuck a peak upward. “You… looked different than I expected, so forgive me for not recognizing you earlier.”

“Yes, yes, that’s no matter,” I replied. That’s kinda the purpose of a disguise. I thought.

With a motion of my hand, the man stood back up.

“Will you be staying in our fort long?” he asked. “Oh! What am I doing!? I must tell the others immediately!”

Great, all this on top of running for my life from the [Hero]. I was a second away from dismissing him and making the mistake of that life when I finally realized. Wait… [Cultists] should know how to blend in, right?

Yes, my opinion of my cult was so bottom-of-the-barrel low that it took me that amount of brainpower to realize that they might be useful for once.

“Before that,” I interrupted the man. “I need time to recover my strength from my last life, and the [Hero] is not even a day behind me. Take me somewhere I can hide and recuperate.”

“Of course, my lord,” he replied. He began leading me away, but he couldn’t keep his curiosity down. “Is there anything else you would have us do for your greatness?”

“Possibly,” I replied. “I might just have a Dave problem that you can help me take care of.”

As the [Watch Officer] led me to a safe house, I’m sure he was confused by the wicked grin that had split across my face.

[1] Naga – A mythological creature that is half cobra half human