I put on my best poker face while failing miserably. My thoughts were in chaos as I wondered how it could be possible for her to level up so many times over the short duration of a week. The others were looking at me, wondering why I had shouted out and Aston asked helpfully,

“Is something wrong?”

My mind wasn’t working properly and I spoke out what was in my mind,

“Gracie was just level fifteen a week ago! How could she have gotten to level thirty three in such a short time!?”

Once I realised what I had spoken out loud, I quickly covered my own mouth, unable to take back what I had said and pretend that I didn’t know of such a thing. They reacted differently; Shocked at how fast the leveling was, and suspicious on my knowledge on her.

“How did you know?”

Gracie said that with a clear display of wariness, she had also put on her hand on her mace, ready to swing it at a moment’s notice. Knowing that I couldn’t hide the truth from her forever if she were to continue helping us, I decided to reveal the facts.

“I was the one last week.”

“The one? Which one?”

Although she said that, she seemed even more cautious than before. She must have guessed what I meant.

“The one to attack the lumberjacks.”

With that said, Gracie unleashed her rage aura at full strength. While Aston and Chris had some idea on what could be going on, the siblings were clueless and worried that our saviour was going to turn into our enemy.

“Wait a moment! What’s going on!? Please do not fight! Can’t we talk this out? Or can at least someone tell us what happened!?”

Ignoring what Slyvie said, Gracie confirmed my answer with other questions.

“So you were the one, but how did you do it? No one saw your presence.”

“I was hidden under the cover of the shadow in the corner of the room. I have an ability that allows me to move swiftly. I did what I had because I wanted to expand the influence of my ability.”

“Ability? What’re you talking about?”

“I’m a parasite. I spread my spores to others to make use of my abilities.”

“Does doing that harms the people? Are there any effects?”

“They don’t seemed to harm the host, but they seemed to do something.”

“That is?”

“Mutation-”

“What!? How would that not be harmful!?”

Gracie shouted, cutting me off as the first word came out. I continued, giving her a satisfying explanation.

“That is a possible outcome. It may just stop at larger growth rate, meaning easier to level up. Like how Aston and Chris leveled five times within a few days time-”

I checked Aston and Chris’ level as I was speaking,

“-and now they had already leveled six more times!? Still, you leveled eighteen times in a week. I doubt that you fought such a huge amount of monsters as we just did at a daily basis.”

“I just fought in some cave that had these hobgoblins that speaks too much.”

“What!?”

Now, it was our time to be shocked. How could she have defeated hobgoblins by herself when each of them averaged over level twenty, with some having levels as high as forty. As our jaw stretches towards the floor, the murderous aura that she had been releasing diminished to nothing. We remained too shocked to notice the change in aura.

“Well, if that was all you did, then I’ll forgive you. But if you were to harm anyone-”

Her aura returned, even more intense than before. I cut her off as I knew what she was thinking.

“You will roast and skin me alive before cutting each piece of my muscle and force me to eat them till I die.”

Her face distorted.

“That-”

“That’s one of the benefit of my ability. And yes, I know you didn’t really mean it.”

Her face continued to grimace but she decided to say nothing. Taking her silence as her willingness to let me live to see another day, I let out a sight. Believing that it was already safe to ask for her help, I questioned,

“Are there any chance of us winning if we were to go back and fight them again right now?”

“What are each of our levels?”

“You’re thirty five, I’m twenty two, Aston and Chris are both nineteen, Raoul is eighteen and Slyvie sixteen.”

“What about the enemies?”

“The bats average thirty and the boss is fifty nine.”

Although the party didn’t question my decision previously, confirming the level of the boss had made them understood why I made them ran immediately.

“No chance. Not with that swarm of bats. If I were to solo the boss and nothing else, then I might be able to win him.”

We could only stay silent on her declaration. She had fought with enemies that were up to level forty when she was just fifteen and won.

“Then, when will we be able to win him?”

“In three days.”

“Huh?”

That leaked out from the others. I already knew what she was going to said as I could read her mind. There was no escape.

“You’re all going to undergo some training.”

The fearless smile that she displayed wasn’t anything short of that of a devil to us. It felt like we had sold our souls to the devil and that she holds the fate of our lives in her hands. She could do whatever she could to us and we would have no choice but to follow it through. It might really help us out in the future but we would regret every moment of it.

Sweat poured profusely from every spores of our bodies and the air freezed. I asked the dreaded question that the others were avoiding.

“What kind of training?”

The smile that had turned our hearts cold changed to something that came out of another world, even more scary than it was before, which should have been impossible.

“Hell.”

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