Adventurers almost always do their mission in groups, usually called parties, due to the fact that going alone is too dangerous, since there's the possibility of being attacked by large groups of enemies or being hit in your blind spot, also there's the chance of needing cures only possible to do by someone else. As such going solo is allowed only to high rank adventurers. Average adventures will have to rely on their companions and be able to properly cooperate with them, else the possible annihilation of the party.

Adventurer's Guide,chapter 2

"It's really cute when you hide your bloodlust with that smile"

"Ehm..thank you?"

"....You don't seem really fazed by that"

"Well, i mean, you just complimented me, even if it was in a strange way...ehm, no offense, i'm still thankful for it"

Andrew didn't exactly know what to say, mainly because of his general lack of actual social skills and the strange situation he was dealing with. His awkwardness was increasing, when he saw Rulia's mouth twitching, like she was trying to stop herself from laughing like a madman.

"What's the matter?"

"N-nothing"

*This is soooooooo cute, i mean, even with that smell of blood on him and my question he acts like a normal person, it's amazing! Oh,i want to see him agonize and flinch in pain, NO, i must do it, or else i won't be satisfied.I'm gonna have so much fun!* Rulia began thinking of the most evil and sadist fantasies in her head, she could not help but desire to see her new companion suffer, not for hate, but for simple joy and fun.

"Well, i'm gonna go ahead....ehm, you didn't tell us your name,did you?"

"Oh,shit right. I'm Andrew. How could i forget that?"

"Everyone makes mistakes, don't worry about it. I'll be going then"

Rulia sped up her pace and reached her companions, while giggling like a little girl that found a new toy. Which wasn't far off from the actual situation actually.

"So it seems my worries about her were kind of justified, uh?"

"What worries? I'm having a real good feeling about her"

Murgin voice invaded abruptly Andrew's mind, as usual with a hint of amusement. Andrew's confusion turned quickly to surprise and annoyance.

"Well,Murgin, i'm NOT. I'm actually kind of worried"

"Don't say nonsense, everyone likes crazy, psycho, bloodthirsty girls! Think about yanderes! Also you didn't seem to have many problems when she said that "compliment""

"That's because i'm use-"

Andrew stopped communicating with Murgin for a minute.

"Kid, what's the matter? You just fell silent, is something wrong?

".....No, nothing.... Anyway how can you still communicate with me? I'm really far away from the altar"

"You see, Andrew, the fact that you, my champion, created that dungeon, technically puts it under my protection, meaning that i get power from it"

"Wait, the only intelligent monster there is Nero, how can you get so much faith?"

"I don't, in fact. It seems that the dungeon itself gives me power constantly, though it's never the same quantity and for no apparent reason at all. It's quite strange really"

Andrew thought about the situation for a second,he couldn't understand anything about it. Why did the dungeon just give random power to Murgin?

"Murgin, what do you know about dungeons?"

"Ehmmmm.... they appear from out of nowhere... and spawn monsters?"

"Wait, you said you're a Primordial Elder, meaning you're a really old God, Devil or whatever. How can you not know?"

"Hey, i'm not old! Anyway the thing is, no one knows what dungeons or Miasma leaks actually are, nor why do they exist.It's kinda like one of the greatest mysteries of our world"

"Damn, so not even ancient divine beings know,uh?"

"Nope. And we didn't really care in my times, they weren't much of a bother"

"I see.... well, now i gotta go, i can't just stand here alone forever, they'll think it's suspicious"

"Right, right....stay well boy, and kill some Lux lovers if you can! BYEEEEE!"

Murgin's voice finally disappeared from Andrew's mind, who was now walking towards his new "buddies". Rulia was still minding her own business, probably thinking on how to skin babies, while Grodia was quarreling with Owa and Frea was trying to get chummy with Drei, who, not surprisingly for some reason, didn't manage to notice her charms.They all had simple armors and equipment now that Andrew looked at them carefully: Grodia had an heavy steel armor and a huge sword, Owa a mage robe and an iron staff, and both Frea and Drei had light bronze armor, but she had daggers while he had a shield and a short sword. Rulia wore some kind black skin tight assassin suit, which was covered by a dark red cloak that reached her legs and also didn't let Andrew see her weapon. Not knowing what she was hiding worried him a little bit, but not much.

"Hey, Mr.Nomad!"

Drei suddenly called him,somehow not noticing that Frea was glaring daggers at him for leaving her.

"My name is actually Andrew, but no problem,what do you need?"

"Oh, sorry you didn't tell us before so....anyway i wanted to know how you got so strong"

Andrew suddenly froze up.He had no idea what to tell him, all of his power was given to him on a silver plate. He had to tell a really good lie. But first he had to get a little time.

"Uhm,why do you want to know?"

"I saw you defeat those bandits so easily, only someone strong could do that"

"I see..... but i don't think my method fits you"

Drei showed disappointment.

"Uh, why?"

"First of all, what's you fighting style?"

"I'm kind of a mix, i change my style to adapt to the situation, for example if Owa has to prepare a spell i concentrate on defense or if Grodia is holding off a monster i attack it from behind"

"As i thought, i can't teach you"

"Again, why?"

"I trained to fight alone, so even if i taught you anything you may get stronger but you'll become a liability for your team, simply because you'll become inefficient in collaborating with them"

"I guess you're right..... thanks anyway"

Andrew luckily managed to avoid a bullet, he had NO idea on actual fighting techniques, till now he only relied on his enhanced strength and natural reflexes in sword fights. He sighed silently in relief, then noticed that Rulia was watching him with a very suspicious smile on her face. Then she began slowly moving her lips.

"What is she saying? You....are......lia-Oh, bitch, fuck this"

*Fantastic, she can read my mind, am i THAT obvious or is she just good?* He thought to himself, knowing that this would have been only one of many of the things he would have to suffer by her hand.

When she finished "speaking", she simply resumed walking, like nothing happened.

They walked for a day and when the sun began setting on the horizon Drei decided that it was time to rest, so everyone prepared the tents and the campfire in a fitting place of the plains right outside of the forest.There were only two tents so they had to decide who would sleep and who would guard. Drei, as the leader, chose.

"Ok, in the first tent there's gonna be Grodia and Owa"

"Why do you always put me with this buffon?"

"Oh shut up girly, it's just that my pecs make you feel inferior"

"I prefer having a working brain in place of those"

"Oh,really? Oh,really? Do i have to punch you?"

"Try me, man-ape"

They continued their bickering for a while, till Drei somehow stopped them and sent them into the tent.

"Now,Rulia and Frea will sleep,and i'll guard with Andr-"

A mysterious and ancient instinct suddenly awakened inside of Andrew, which led him to knock out the poor kid with a wooden stick he found laying on the ground. Frea began panicking,while Rulia just watched with curiosity.

"H-hey, Andrew, what are you doing?!?"

"Just wait"

He then proceeded to take the first rope he could find, tie Drei with it with a reaaaaaally tight knot, and took the unconscious adventurer on his arms and showed it to Frea, who was still baffled about what was going on.

"Take him"

"E-eh,wha-"

"Do your worst, you're not gonna have a better chance"

Frea finally understood and her eyes began sparkling.

"C-can i really?!?"

"Do it"

"OH THANKYOUSOMUCHFROMNOWONWEREBESTFRIENDS"

Frea quickly grabbed her leader and brought him to tent with her. Rulia could barely hold her laughter at the sight of such a spectacle and the fact that Andrew was now at her mercy, alone in the dark, cold night, with no one who can help him.

"Why did you-pfff, do that?"

"I don't know, i just thought it was right, even if they're kind of assholes"

"I see-ppfffff. You're such a good guy"

They stayed silent for a while, with only the sound of the grass moved by the wind accompanying them. The night had already fallen for a while, showing its mysterious beauty with a sea of stars and a white, round moon, that looked like an infinite amount of little diamond eyes looking at them with passion,as if to witness the light of a single flame in the unyielding darkness of the plains... Andrew gazed back in owe to the stars,his heart full of calm and unexplainable happiness.

"You like the stars?"

Rulia asked,strangely without any hint of amusement or cockiness, while making a relaxed and peaceful smile. Andrew woke up from his trance, quite confused by her abrupt change.

"Well, yes, i think they're very beautiful. Why? You like them too?"

"Yeah, i like them a lot"

"Uhm, i didn't expect that"

"What? Why?"

"You seem more like the kind of person that likes to get creative with knives"

"That's also true but it doesn't mean i don't like normal things. I'm offended by that, really, i may have to get creative with you"

"Oh God, please don't"

"It doesn't matter what divine being you ask for help, you're stuck with meeeee"

"Dammit"

They continued talking to each other like this for four or five hours, then Grodia and Owa came out of the tent.

"Hi,guys what's the matter?"

"What are you talking about Andrew?It's time to switch turns.You didn't think of staying awake all night, did you?"

"Oh,right, i'm quite sleepy... zzz... i mean, yeah, right,i 'm going... zzzzzzzzzz"

Andrew fell on the ground, his face getting intimate with it. The others just looked at him in confusion.

"He didn't even notice he could have fallen asleep any moment?"

"Guess he was too distracted by dealing with red-head"

"Hey, i can still hear yooouuuuu"

"Umph, yeah, whatever. Owa you sure we can leave him alone in the tent with her?"

"We don't have many options"

"Right... Hey, Rulia don't do anything strange to him"

"Or what? You didn't do much when i did something strange to your first leader"

"You bitch!"

"Calm down Grodia, we can't do anything. Let her be"

"See? Not a thing you can do"

Rulia took the sleeping princess with her and carried him to the tent, where she covered him with blankets.Then she lied down next to him.

"A funny guy whatever you do"

She was amused by most things he did, even simply falling asleep. Everything he did wasn't like something anyone else would do: being friendly with a supposed psychotic girl, treating her well despite what the others said, discussing calmly about random things, even when she made some insane threats he didn't panic.He definitely wasn't like most people. Rulia didn't have many friends, but he was definitely one of them, and it took her only one day to realize that.

"Oh, i can't wait to tell aunty about it!"

Saying so, she went to sleep, waiting for the next day with her new friend.

The next morning Andrew woke up,realizing that he was alone and that there was a strong smell of meat in the air. He got out of the tent ,seeing that the others were all eating around the campfire, apart from Rulia, who simply stood a few meters away. Frea was the first one to notice him.

"Andrew, you're awake! Come here! We have some really good meat!"

"Oh, thanks Frea"

Andrew sat with them around the campfire and took a huge piece of meat, since he was tired of eating small, charred animals. Frea was happily humming a song, while Drei tried to stay away from her, his face as red as fire. Andrew leaned towards her, whispering.

"So, how did it go?"

Frea made an enormous smile.

"It went perfectly! I think i owe you a house now"

"What happened?"

"Secreeeeet"

"You don't need her to tell you Andrew, me and Grodia heard everything"

"Eh? W-what are you saying?!?"

"Frea,i think you forgot that the tents are right next to each other"

Frea froze for a second, then she simply kept her smile.

"Drei, now they know, so it's official"

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Drei didn't seem to be of the same opinion.

"Come on, accept it. It's fate"

"You did all those things to me...."

"Oh, you didn't try to stop me though"

"BECAUSE I WAS TIED! NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, ANDREW WHY?!?"

"It was my duty as a fellow man"

"WHAT?!? DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID TO ME?!?"

Drei complained for quite a long while, but then he simply accepted what had happened and helped the others take all the stuff. And so they continued their trip towards Kieris, which according to Drei was only one day away, so they would have reached it the next morning. They walked for the entire day, till they got out of the plains and set camp in a small forest right before the city. This time Frea and Drei had to guard the tents, but Rulia decided to stay with them since she was bored, at least that's what she told Andrew, who now had the tent all for himself.

"Murgin?"

"Yaaaawn...yeeees?"

"Stop acting, i know you don't sleep"

"What makes you think i don't sleep? It's not like it's just an excuse to sla-i mean, hem, nothing. What do you want?"

"Any ideas on what i should do once i reach Kieris? I thought of getting information then going on my way, but what do you think?"

"Uuuuuhm.....i think you should make me another Altar before doing anything"

"Oh, yes, let's make a dark Altar in a religious city full of light zealots. Great plan, best plan"

"Hear me out. In such a big city there must be plenty of dark spots where no one would suspect there's anything, like the sewers or some kind of slum underground building"

"I guess you're right, still it's not gonna be easy"

"I never said yours was an easy job. Anyway, don't get too friendly with those adventurers.They're your enemies,r emember?Well, Rulia is okay. I like her"

"Yes i know, i know, but i can't just be the loner, it wouldn't be very beneficial. And it's not like i'm going to kill or hate every single adventurer i meet"

"You didn't seem to be of that opinion when you asked me for power at my Altar"

"That was different. That time i was enraged at those Gorwyn guys and i wasn't thinking clearly. Now that i'm calm and i spoke with them, i know that at least a few adventurers must be decent people.Though these guys barely fit the bill, at least now i know they're not total bastards, even if for some reason they treat Rulia like shit"

"If they barely fit the bill, then why did you help those little lovers?"

"Now, Murgin, that's the duty of every man of every race in the universe"

"If you say so. Anyway why do you think they treat Rulia like that. It can't be only because she's so fabulous"

"Yeah, i wonder why... i can't just ask them though. I'll ask her tomorrow if the mood lets me. Good night Murgin"

"Good night, kiddo"

The communication ended,l eaving Andrew alone with the silent and comfortable hug of the blessing known as slumber.

And so he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep...

"Uh, wha.... what's this smell.... meat again...?"

Andrew suddenly woke up, due to a strong smell that was lingering the air and a really bad chill that passed trough his whole body. He slowly got out of the blankets and opened the curtain of the tent to see what was going on, but the fire was out, so there was only complete darkness. He exited the tent. The smell got stronger and he still couldn't see anything. He slowly walked forward but when he put his foot down he felt a squishy sensation.

"What did i step on...?"

He looked down ,but his eyes were still getting used to the dark. After a minute the image began getting clearer.

It was a thick and short object.

The image got clearer.

It was brown,with stains of red.

The image got even clearer.

It seemed to be very damaged,with many cuts over it.

And finally Andrew could see what it was. His heart was filled with disgust and his face twisted in horror.

It was an arm.

Right there in front of him there was a ripped off arm, not just cut, but literally ripped off. He turned his gaze away from it and tried to look around.There was blood everywhere,but he couldn't still see well in front of him.

Then a small flame lit up in the darkness. And there, sitting right next to the campfire, there was Rulia, completely covered in blood and surrounded by the corpses of her party. Grudia was completely splattered on the ground, Owa was impaled with his own staff to a tree ,Frea's head had made a 180 degrees turn, with her guts spilling and Drei was dismembered through the whole camp. And Rulia just stood there, beside the campfire, smiling.....

"Oh, Andrew, sorry i woke you up.I tried to not make too much noise, but i guess i couldn't do much about the smell"

"Rulia,what happened? Why is everyone.... dead?"

Andrew was sweating heavily. He somehow managed to calm down but he was still confused and horrified by what was happening. He could have been killed as well if he wasn't careful.

"Andrew, are you scared?"

"Wha-ehm....a bit"

She chuckled.

"Even when being surrounded by bodies you act like this. It's amazing really. But if you want to know why i killed them...i t was just in self defense, really"

"Self defense?"

"Yeah,while i wasn't paying attention Owa casted a bind spell on me and the others tried to maul me, even Drei, who was supposed to be the peaceful one. It's only normal that i retaliated. You believe me..... don't you?"

"......I can't say i'm sure, but it makes sense. You didn't seem to care about their abuse, and i can't think of a good reason for you to do it"

"I like your honesty a lot, you know....usually people just lie, to save their lives and say yes. But i know when i'm being lied to, and it makes me mad when someone does it"

"I see, that's good"

Andrew prepared to take Perditor in case he needed to.

"I wouldn't do that if i were you"

"Eh?"

Andrew froze for a second, he thought he fucked up.

"I noticed that, i'm not dumb.If you try to fight me you'll just break your bones in vain"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, i wouldn't kill you, since you're my friend, but i'm not good at holding back"

"No i meant what makes you think i can't win"

Rulia just looked at him and sighed,then she disappeared from where she was sitting and appeared right behind Andrew, with her finger pushing into his neck.

"What t-"

"Andrew, how can you even think of winning against me with mere raw power and good reflexes?You have no real skill in fighting ,even if you have a great amount of dark magic power in you. It's like fighting a warrior with the mind of a baby. I think you belong more in the rear lines, seeing your plans unfold, like Gorwyn's fall"

Andrew's eyes widened.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW?!?"

Rulia smiled at his reaction,thinking of it as adorable.

"Please, someone with such an amount of dark energy surrounding him coming straight from the direction of Gorwyn,who else could it be?"

"DAMMIT, WHO ARE YOU?!?"

Andrew had completely lost his calm by now. All of his weaknesses were slapped in his face, he couldn't help but be furious, with both himself and her.

Rulia let him go and walked towards the fire ,then a strange red aura began coming out of her. Suddenly 20 cm long red horns came out from her forehead, along with a tail that ended in a triangle-shaped tip and her tattoo started shining like a ruby. Andrew could only compare this to a bloody rose blooming in the middle of a mountain of corpses.

"I am Rulia Slakte, Blood demon and high-ranking member of the Darksider Guild, and my mission is to find whoever caused the fall of Gorwyn and see if he's worthy of joining us. And you Andrew have proved yourself to be the best and funniest candidate i've ever found. Now, please scream in terror as i capture you. Also beg me to free you if you can"

She smiled at him, looking at him with eyes full of sadistic enjoyment and expectation, like a hunter gazing at a prey he knew would fight back with all its strength.

For Andrew there was only one thing to do.

To run.

RUN LIKE HELL!

Howdy boys! Enjoyed the chapter? I posted it later than usual but it's also longer than usual so i guess it's okay. Annnnnnd SHIT hit the fan. Like hard. Like, i'm gonna need a new damn fan. DAMMIT, WHO THREW SHIT AT MY FAN?!?.......... Anyway, so Rulia is a sadist Blood demon part of some other Guild, uh? Who expected something like that? Apart from me obviously.

Well, let's see how our MC deals with that..... or gets captured, i mean everything is possible. And he's still in the friendzone, imagine what would happen if he got out of it. Andrew, for your own sake, do what no other man would ever do:

STAY IN THE FRIENDZONE!