The woman stared at Ashton in disbelief. She stood there like her brain had short-circuited, but in a moment of clarity, she dropped the 'weapon' she was holding and pulled him into a hug.

  "I'm so glad you're okay." Clementine sniffled, and didn't seem to want to let go of Ashton.

  "Clem, how are you here?" He asked, still in disbelief. He really hoped that this wasn't what he thought it was. But the moment Ashton asked this, Clementine had a moment of clarity. She pulled away and asked her own questions.

  "Wait, why are you here? When did you get here? What the hell are you wearing?" Clementine asked, looking Ashton up and down. He sighed slightly, trying to figure out what to discuss first.

  "More importantly, were you here when all of this started? Or did you cross the region boundary afterward?"

  Clementine looked at him confused, not sure what that had to do with anything. "I was here... I was coming to visit my parents," she explained with a bitter expression. "But while I was on the road, all this shit happened, my car broke down, and I hid nearby with a bunch of others. Then those lizard guys came, took us, and stuffed us in here..."

  "When was this?"

  "... Three days ago? A bit after the start of the quest. But there are people that have been here for much longer than that, since the first quest, even." Clementine looked over to the corner of this space. "Some of them... weren't even able to clear it before they were brought here, and just collapsed when the quest was over."

  "Hm. Yeah, I figured that would have happened." Ashton sighed, angry that this was happening to these people. Constant death and destruction was something unavoidable in this current, new world, but now that he actually had the power to change things, he wanted to do as much as he could. He wouldn't let anyone else here die.

  "It's your turn. Ash, what's going on with you? Why are you here?"

  "To save you all and kill all the lizardmen," Ashton said immediately and bluntly. Clementine let out a scoffed laugh.

  "You are going to kill all of the lizardmen? There's like dozens of them out there!"

  Ashton shook his head. "327 regular, 7 elites, 3 of which seem particularly powerful, and one boss. From my count so far."

  "Wait, what? That many? Hold on, you counted them all?"

  "No, not all of them. I counted around 80% of them, the rest I extrapolated a bit. It's generally accurate, I would say. Give or take ten regular monsters. There might be one or two more elites, too."

  Clementine narrowed her eyes. "Why are you talking like that?"

  Ashton groaned. "Sorry, habit. I always had to speak like an ass when giving reports to them. Hard to throw off."

  This explanation absolutely did not help Clementine's confusion. But before she could ask, Ashton stepped past her.

  "We can't stand here and talk for too long, the lizardmen will notice the eery silence in here at some point, too. Just ask your questions while I'm working," Ashton said, quickly squatting down in front of the injured people that Clementine had been trying to protect. "Backpacker, give me some potions. And... urgh, Spawn of Akrazoth, you're still there, too, right?"

  Immediately, Ashton could feel something pulling on his arm, as something crawled out of his sleeve and out of the cloak he was still wearing.

  "What the fuck is that?!" Clementine yelled, seeing that thing made of two fused-together, scorched hands. Ashton turned and stared at her.

  "Calm down, will you? I'm a Summoner. This is another one of my summons. As is the Drunken Bear, and the Backpacker, and a few more," Ashton told her, and the injured. "This one here is a doctor. The best surgeon in... the place it's from."

  That was another reason why demons were an awkward thing to summon. It was hard to explain what they were without people getting terrified. And the Spawn of Akrazoth was an unequal summon in it's favour, so the demands this thing could make could be unreasonable at times, and Ashton had to generally comply.

  It was clear that the people here didn't quite trust what Ashton was saying, so he rolled his eyes and pulled off his cloak and jacket, giving both to Clementine.

  He held his hand out to the Backpacker, who complied hesitantly. They gave a knife to Ashton, which he quickly used to cut into his arm.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "What the- Ash, what are you doing?" Clementine dropped the cloak and jacket, but Ashton pushed his hand toward her to stop her. Her eyes lingered on his hand for a moment. She mouthed something, as if she was counting the fingers again and again to make sure she wasn't wrong.

  He noticed and pulled his hand back down, as the Spawn of Akrazoth stared at Ashton's arm with its beady little eyes.

  "What?" he asked, and the demon's fingers wriggled lightly. "... The payment you got earlier should still be enough for something like this."

  Ashton could feel the spawn tell him something, and his eyes wandered toward the corner of the room, to the pile of corpses. "... Later. All I want you to do for now is to clean and stitch up and potentially serious injuries on these people. First on me, though, to show them that you can do it."

  The Spawn of Akrazoth seemed to think for a few moments, and Ashton sighed, leaning in to whisper. "Take a pint of my blood if you need."

  Now, with that promise, the demon seemed ready to work. Of course, it didn't seem like that meant it had given up on tearing apart the corpses in the corner. That was the most annoying part of these contracts.

  In an equal contract, basically anything would do. Of course, they could reject an offering if it was insulting or too bad quality. The wisp didn't have to work for spoiled and rotten food, for example. But anything reasonable would be accepted as the offering. And if the summon rejected a reasonable offering, it would experience some backlash in return.

  But for these inequal contracts... the Spawn of Akrazoth could be extremely picky with the offerings, rejecting anything they didn't want. They could also demand specific offerings, and it was almost impossible to decline if you wanted to use their service, unless you offered something even more valuable.

  Of course, there was a limit even there. The spawn couldn't take a much more valuable offering than the task prescribed. It couldn't ask for Ashton's finger in return for stitching up a few injuries.

  But for now, the demon got started. The two hands closed around Ashton's arm as he could feel a pint of his blood be pulled out. He felt dizzy for a moment, but would recover soon enough. A moment later, the spawn pulled back and started stitching up the self-inflicted wound on Ashton's arm within just a few seconds. You could barely even see the stitches. If it weren't for the rim of blood around the cut, you would never know anything was even there. Ashton would still need to treat it with a potion for an hour or two, but then he would be fine.

  With this display, though most of them were still unsure, at least one person had been convinced. They came and pushed forward their foot. It was swollen and cut up. It seemed like they had stepped into shards of glass, and the wound got infected. The spawn quickly got to work. At this point, Ashton didn't need to worry anymore.

  Akrazoth had a level of pride in their work that was passed on to all their offspring. If they treated a patient, they would do so perfectly.

  The spawn took out all the tiny splinters left in the foot, cut out all the dead skin, and stitched up the foot easily. Once that was done, Ashton came and wrapped the injury up with a bit of the healing potion. Like this, Ashton and the spawn continued to take care of everyone that was too injured to move until now.

  Luckily, the spawn was able to secrete something like an anaesthetic, so they didn't feel the surgery at all, and even afterward were pain-free for a while.

  Clementine silently watched it all happen, though at some point, she went over and grabbed some food and drink for everyone here. For herself, too.

  "... You said you're a summoner? Is that your 'class'?" she finally asked.

  Ashton slowly nodded in response. "Yeah. I form contracts with certain beings and can then summon them in return for an offering. The Drunken Bear, the one you hit, is a Spirit. Absolute non-combatant, hates pain, hates fighting, but they're ridiculously strong and handy. In return for their service, I give them alcohol."

  Clementine looked over at the bear, who had already begun helping others out again. They even waved over at her.

  "... Is it safe for bears to drink? Also, its name is 'Drunken Bear'?"

  "As I said, they're a spirit. They're not actually a bear, they just look like that. And no, 'Drunken Bear' is the name of their species, tribe, family, whatever you want to call them. Spirits don't reveal their true names to anyone."

  "Huh... And that kid over there, what's that?" Clementine looked over at the Backpacker, standing there with the phone in hand, tapping excitedly to fight through a dungeon.

  "Also a spirit. They're a 'Backpacker'. Right now, their bag has a capacity of around... I think 21 cubic feet? My initial deal with them was for my phone, which bought a couple weeks, and then I gave them a quest reward, which bought me some more time with them."

  Clementine was still in complete disbelief. She was just waiting for Ashton to trip up and reveal that this was some kind of joke or trick. But no, the more he spoke, the more obvious it was that he was telling the truth. And of course, that something was wrong.

  "What happened to you?"

  Ashton stopped for a moment. He turned his head to her and smiled. "I'll explain everything to you when we get to Calibur, okay?"

  "Wait, Calibur? As in, Calibur Games? Sam's studio?"

  "Mhm. It's one of the bigger and stronger camps that have popped up already. It's my main base of operations, too. You didn't read about it in the community?"

  "The community?"

  "You know, the community? On your phone?"

  "My phone died in the tutorial."

  Ashton slightly opened his mouth, and nodded. "Right, that makes sense. The batteries seemed to last a bit longer after the community opened up, but before then, I guess not. Do you still have it on you?"

  Clementine slowly pushed a hand into her pocket and pulled out a phone with a shattered screen. "I was hoping to find some outlet to charge it at, but electricity isn't working anymore."

  "Right. You charge these things with magic stones now."

  "Hm?"

  Ashton looked over at the Backpacker, who was already tossing one of the bags over to him. He grabbed a magic stone and pushed it against the screen of Clementine's phone. He approved the charging, and watched as Clementine turned her phone back on.

  "Oh, shit! Wait, what are those stones, how can we get some ourselves?"

  "Don't worry. I'll explain everything in time. But for now..." Ashton looked around the place. He looked at the people finally eating something properly, and drinking as much water as they wanted to, "... I'll make sure to rescue everyone here."