For two weeks, Lester's life revolved around hunting with the others—now only four of them—as they had found Lance's ripped-up body hanging from a tree, presumably killed by the liquid cat. Their hunts went so that Lester carried the heavy bag, and the other hunters, Armie, Whiskers, and Red, shot monsters. Then they dragged the monster parts, which was often the toughest part of the job, to the camp to be sold.

  His life had, Lester felt, improved in the last two weeks. There had been, for sure, some close calls. Once a mushroom had taken a bite out of his butt. Another time, a big bird had managed to grab him in its talons, but his fellow hunters had been able to shoot it down while it had been flying away with him. But on the whole, things were definitely getting better.

  The best part of it was that he actually got paid. His portion was only a tenth compared to the others' individual portions, but he had still made almost two thousand in only two weeks. With that money, he'd been able to buy new clothes and a new cell phone from a small store in Juniper Grove. He also had a place to sleep in—the attic of one house in town. He even had a bank account. This just so happened to be a benefit of being a registered henchman at the Guild of Calamity and Woe. He'd found out about the benefit when he'd talked to the bartender—whose name was Rolf—who acted as the representative for the guild in Juniper Grove.

  And on top of it all, he had also just gotten a gun.

  Now, as he walked through the forest with the heavy backpack, Lester brushed his fingers along his new gun, feeling the metal and the plastic. It was his first gun, a 7.62x39 assault rifle. An AK-3000. It was all black, and it had thirty rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. He was, and this was, for a fact, not just his own opinion, a fairly good shot with it. He had had only a couple of misses in the firing range, and some of the targets had been moving. They hadn't given him one of those grenade attachments yet, but his weapon was already quite deadly indeed.

  Lester let out a silent hum as he went, gently brushing his gun with his fingers.

  Whiskers signaled the others to come near, and all four of them gathered around him. He pointed to their left and whispered, "A bone cow. One hundred meters."

  Lester peered in the direction, and he could just make out, behind trees and bushes, something moving.

  "Okay Lester, this one's yours," Armie said.

  Lester nodded, thoughts already racing. He would soon be killing something. But he had to keep it cool. Cool and simple. One shot, one kill. He would not mess this up.

  Lester switched off his safety and went forward, slowly moving toward his target trying to reach a better place to shoot. He found a large rock and managed to climb it. From there he saw the beast. It was a cow-looking thing with a bone head. Not that different from the beast he'd seen when he first left the city. It might actually be the same one.

  Lester took aim. He only had iron sights, but the target was close. He knew he would not miss. But this was not the firing range. This was real. A real life and death situation.

  Nothing fancy. Just one shot to the heart.

  Lester let out a deep breath. Then he fired. The gun in his hands gave him a slight kick as the bullet flew forward, smacking into the beast and making it jump and squeal. It pounded forward, but in its panic it chose the wrong direction and ran toward Lester, who fired again, this time hitting it in the center of its bony head, and the beast slumped down onto the ground.

  After the beast had fallen, Lester took a deep breath then jumped down from the rock and walked toward his fallen prey, arms and legs shaking from the adrenaline. As he arrived at the corpse, he saw it. It was indeed just like the one he'd seen back then, a cow with a skinless skull head. This one also had a third eye on a periscope, on its head. The periscope had popped out. But it wasn't looking anywhere. There was a bullet in the thing's head.

  Lester sat down on the ground, still shaking from the experience.

  The others came to see his kill.

  "Good job," Armie said. "Just remember to put your safety back on after you've finished shooting."

  Lester put on the safety and remained silent while the others patted him on the back.

  "Quite good for your first kill," Red said. "The first bullet should have downed it, but maybe the thing's heart is in a different place. You never know about these mutated beasts."

  Whiskers examined the dead beast. "Looks like this one has an extra mutation—a third eye on top of its head."

  Lester thought about what his fellow hunter had said. If other bone cows didn't have a periscope eye. That would mean that this one, indeed, was the same one he'd seen when he first left Recalm City.

  After a while, Armie said, "Okay, let's get going."

  Lester looked at her wondering. "Aren't we going to dismantle the kill and pack it?"

  Armie shook her head. "Nah, it's not worth anything."

  Lester felt her words shake something in him. He looked again at the beast. It wasn't worth anything, Armie had said, but the thing was dead now. They'd just let him kill it just to give him the taste of blood.

  As they left, Lester glanced back at the corpse. It lay there silent, soon to be eaten by something, and then the remains would rot, just another corpse in the forest. But he would remember it. The first monster he'd ever killed.

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  ***

  After walking around in the forest for four more hours, they hadn't come across anything worth killing, and they had decided to go back to the small village.

  Now, Lester sat at a table at the village's only bar. He was eating soup that had some vegetables and some mystery meat in it. As he chewed and swallowed a piece of the meat, the Henchman Interface gave him a message.

  Quest Complete: Get rid of the negative status effect Mild Muscle Atrophy.

  Award: 1 point.

  Lester watched silently at the words, which hung in front of him for only him to see. He'd finally finished that quest, which also meant he'd healed from all the health issues half a year of not eating had caused him.

  As the text faded, Lester looked at himself. And he did indeed look better. Much better if you compared to the man that had crawled out from Doctor Nastybrain's secret lair only five weeks ago. No one could connect him to his old skinny self. This was a good thing even if there weren't any bounty hunters here looking for him.

  Lester's thoughts were interrupted by Armie, who joined him. She said with a slurred voice, "Is it okay if I join you, young man."

  Lester noted her drunken manner. She actually couldn't get drunk from simple alcohol, but there were other substances at the bar.

  "Sure," Lester said.

  "You know, I've noticed that you've gained some muscle there." She pointed at Lester's bicep, which was still small compared to hers.

  "Must be all the running around the forest and dragging around dead monsters."

  "I was thinking, what is your strength multiplier? If you're okay sharing it with a lady like me."

  Lester tried to think of what he should say. He could actually give her his multiplier, which was really the same as his stat Might in the Henchman Interface. It was six, which meant he was six times stronger than his body normally would be. The number was used in arranged fights to make sure one side didn't totally destroy the other.

  "If you don't want to tell me, it's okay." She smiled, showing a row of large and mostly clean teeth. "My multiplier is twenty."

  "Six," Lester finally said.

  Armie smiled. "In that case, you deserve a sip." She extended her bottle toward Lester.

  Lester took the bottle and examined it. It was unmarked with a dark liquid inside. An unbranded mystery drink. Probably something strong. But he had a Might of six and a Vitality of three. Nothing would probably go wrong.

  Lester took a deep sip and grimaced as the liquid went down with a burn. He said, "Whoah, what's in it?"

  "Pure courage."

  Lester smiled at the remark.

  Armie herself took a long sip from the bottle. Then she looked at the bottle, seemingly noticing that it was empty. "Looks like I'm out." With that, she got up, wobbled a bit, and headed toward the bar, where she called for the bartender, "Rolf dear, I need more of that good stuff."

  Lester took another spoonful of the soup, chewing it as he pushed away his thoughts on what had just happened. Had she hit on him? Nah. She'd just been drunk and would probably not remember their conversation in the morning anyway.

  Text appeared in his vision again.

  New Quest: Survive sex with Armie.

  Note: Quest will be canceled if your Might gets to 7 or higher.

  Award: 1 point.

  Lester coughed, spitting out soup. He felt his heart jump. Survive sex. That was what it said.

  Just calm down and think.

  He was a man and Armie was a woman—a very strong woman. There was nothing wrong with this. If they so wanted they could maybe do something.

  Lester glanced at Armie, who just leaned in to get a bottle from the bartender. This move really showed her butt, bulging muscle which stretched her pants tight.

  Lester knew he could just let this quest go. And maybe that was what a reasonable person should do. All he had to do was to put a point into Might, and the quest would be gone. What was one more failed quest? It's not like he would regret it. He would definitely not regret it.

  Lester glanced again at Armie. She'd gotten a new bottle of whatever the drink was he'd tasted. She was so wasted already.

  For a moment, Lester stood there thinking, and he felt something inside him, like another voice, trying to tell him something.

  The old Lester would give up.

  Lester shook away the stray thought. But still, there was something there—nagging. If he always took the easy way, would he ever amount to anything?

  You're a villain now.

  Lester stood up.

  Be the new Lester.

  He walked to stand next to Armie at the bar. As she took a swig of her new bottle and turned to look at him, Lester said, "So, that stuff you're drinking, do you think I could handle one more sip?"

  ***

  The morning sun shone in through a window, and Lester woke up. He was in a bed, and, as he looked around, he saw a form next to him. It was a big lump under a blanket, and the head poking out had a buzz cut. Definitely Armie.

  Lester looked under the blankets. She was naked. He was also naked. Also, there was pain. Something had definitely happened and something had, for sure, broken. Lester looked and touched around his body. Sore in many places. And he was most certain that he had had sex, or at least something that was equivalent to sex.

  The Henchman Interface sent him a message.

  Quest Complete: Survive sex with Armie.

  1 point gained.

  Lester nodded. The interface agreed. He had definitely had sex. And he had survived. There was still some healing to do, but he healed faster now with his Vitality at three. On that thought, maybe he should put some more points in there. He had been neglecting Vitality for a while. And they were off to the wilds again in a couple of hours.

  Lester made a quick decision. He whispered, "Interface, put two points into Vitality."

  Vitality increased to 5.

  Lester sensed a burning within his body. It was like his blood was gasoline and someone had thrown in a match.

  But before he could scream, the feeling was over, and Lester's focus was drawn to the interface message. This would mean, if he remembered the instructions correctly, that he would now heal twenty-five times faster.

  After a while, Lester started to wonder what he should do next. Might it be appropriate to leave? Or would Armie want him to stay with her? Did they maybe have a relationship now?

  Armie muttered in her sleep, "Where are you, my little Lance."

  Lester noted the name of their dead colleague. Lance might have been more important to Armie than he'd realized. And this thing tonight had perhaps definitely been a one-night thing.

  He found the remains of his torn clothes, managed to put them on by adding a couple of knots, and then he sneaked out.