{Notice}

  [You have entered an area of substantially lower magical density.]

  [Additional effects may apply.]

  As I crossed through the storm, my body shuddered, like a plane dropping altitude. My ears popped and bursts of nausea threatened to knock me off my feet.

  And then, I felt suddenly lighter.

  The smallest movements propelled me forward. With each step, the ground bowed outward beneath an incomprehensible weight, snapping flat with a plume of dust. Even with my stats reigned in, my actions had a noticeable pull on the ground, imprinting footsteps into sheer rock.

  I had grown so used to suppressed stats, I’d forgotten how to keep them low on my own.

  It took me hours before I was down to something reasonable.

  {Grind}

  [60 Hp 45 Str]

  “You know,” I began, chuckling to myself. “Those used to be awfully big numbers.”

  One of these days, I’d look back on a million strength, or a billion health, and I’d have the same reaction.

  But those days would have to wait. Here, and now, I had a job to do.

  The city was as I remembered. Exactly as I remembered.

  Between Dena and the three-star Core, I’d stopped two world-ending disasters. Considering their current rate, I’d half-expected a horrible tragedy to take place in my absence.

  Instead, things went on as they always had.

  I recognized each of the Npcs walking, and the places they walked to.

  The unnamed city had seemed vast when I first arrived. But you could walk from one end to the other in an hour. You could count every building without too much issue. Even the people milling about were all relatively familiar.

  Especially the players. There were fewer than I remembered, but enough to bicker over who got to fight which dungeons. Unlike the second area, dungeon supply was limited.

  Come to think of it, that must’ve been intentional. It would keep rookies from jumping into dungeons before they’re part of an established party—

  Someone plowed into me.

  Next thing I knew, I was belly-up on the street, wheezing air from my flattened lungs.

  “Watch where you’re walking, rookie,” Leo hissed. He had a hand on his side, where a bruise would start forming. “You’ve got a thick head,” he muttered.

  I was a hundred times his power, and here he was, knocking me off my feet.

  He wasn’t wearing his uniform, which was unlike him. Either this was his day off or he had recent beef with the academy. His pants and hair were dusty, and there were a couple cuts on his cheek, so I could assume he’d been in the dungeons sometime recently. Given that he was slightly injured, it must’ve been today, or a sleep would’ve healed him—

  Leo squinted. “What’s with the smile?”

  “Oh, it’s just good to be back,” I admitted, grinning wider. “Say, you don’t know where Harva and Ardenidi are, do you?”

  “Sure,” Leo huffed. “The girls are looking around for work. Some idiot at corporate put us on the wrong mission.”

  Beef it is. I can’t imagine it’d be easy fighting a monster that’s already dead. And if they couldn’t return until they found that monster, they’d be here a while.

  He almost left then, before spinning toward me in confusion.

  “Hey, how do you know them? Why are you looking for them? Are you friends or something?” His eyes went wide. “You’re not Harva’s boyfriend, are you?”

  I blinked. “She has a boyfriend?”

  Leo blinked back, stuffing his oversize hands in his little pockets. “Well…no.”

  “Huh,” I said. I got to my feet. “Anyway, did you guys hire Dexten? You probably did. Say hi to him for me, would you?”

  “Sure we did.” Leo blinked. “Who are you?!“

  I suspected the two groups would get to know each other without my intervention, but it was nice to have some confirmation. My friends were now in the strongest hands of the first area. They’d be safe.

  Dexten always gave off an energy unlike the other players. I could reasonably assume he had some sort of special ability or artifact or something.

  “Who are you?!” Leo shouted.

  When I didn’t respond, he rolled his eyes.

  “Probably Ardenidi’s boyfriend.”

  He found this quite funny and continued chuckling about it long after I left.

  From a little poking around, I learned that Dexten’s group had briefly joined up with Irion’s, as I’d advised.

  They went on a couple dungeon raids before the group split up, due to conflict. But they didn’t split quite as before. Actually, two of Irion’s crew, Quin and Eere, joined Dexten’s, while Cierin joined Irion.

  “Seriously?” I asked the merchant.

  He nodded, picking between his chipped teeth. “There was a squirrely little mage and this one guy who…how do I put it?...He seemed kinda like a lonely person’s idea of a lone wolf, ya know what I mean?”

  “That’s Quin,” I sighed.

  The merchant snorted. “You shoulda seen him. Spitting fire at the guy with all those blades. Circuit or whatever.”

  “Cierin.”

  “I said whatever. You get the point, anyway.” He raised an eyebrow. “I expect a fee for my information.”

  I gave him all my second area coins, along with sixty inventories worth of busted metal and wood. “Think you could get me some first area money?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I got every ring in his inventory, and in the inventories of several nearby merchants.

  Money would not be an issue for a while.

  From a little more digging, I learned about some rivalry between Cierin and Quin, and other rivalries between Dexten and Irion.

  Because of those, the two groups broke up, but not before they gained a reputation as some of the best adventures in the first area, which led to Ardenidi picking Dexten as her guide, in order to research the smoke in the distant forest, as well as the disappearance of a two-star core.

  I got some food, met up with some of the other merchants, and almost went to the old man’s hut.

  By that point, I realized what was going on.

  I was stalling.

  Sern was in who knows what kind of condition, locked up inside the Bestiary.

  I had to go back and rescue her. I had to. No matter how much she seemed to hate me.

  But, if she used to hate me, then she’d definitely hate me now. Axel died. I allowed him to join the monster hunt.

  No, not allowed. I encouraged him. I thought he would keep Sern safer, and now Axel’s gone and Sern hates me and I don’t have the faintest idea how in this forsaken world I’m supposed to get them back, beyond just killing myself.

  And death is a bandage patch. It won’t solve the real problem. But what would!?

  I can only get stronger by putting the people I love in active danger, danger which I can only stop by getting stronger. Because every now and then some two-star core, ancient monster, or belligerent slave driver is going to come and kill everyone I hold dear while I sit on my butt, waiting until power falls into my lap.

  And then once I have the power, I wait around to learn to use it.

  Before I’d fully understood where I was going, I was inside the alleyway, one hand on a cage.

  These cages were freshly stained with blood.

  I took a deep breath, steadying myself on the metallic fumes and nauseating musk.

  This was an evil place. I am stronger. Now, it’s time to prove it.

  Children huddled together, clawing at cages and shackles. Everyone was in a cage. Not only that, but these were newer. Stronger.

  The Bestiary had returned, in full force, within two weeks.

  I turned over my shoulder, drawn by a familiar mana.

  “Madelaid?” I called.

  She held her hands in front of herself with her head pointed to the floor.

  Madelaid swallowed hard.

  “Master Urgot would like to have a word with you, Sir.”

  “Good.” I nodded. “Take me there.”

  Urgot’s office was more cluttered than before, overflowing with pictures of children. Their portraits were rough, but showed enough features that a bounty hunter could track them down. Besides, who cares if they captured the wrong monsters? All the more to sell.

  Urgot spun around in his chair, offering me the biggest, widest, smuggest grin his fat cheeks could withstand.

  Thinking back, he’d actually lost a few pounds. The aftermath of my attack must’ve been too stressful for him to go about his usual indulgences.

  Which meant he was probably really mad right about now.

  Urgot leaned forward, cracking each of his knuckles. “Tell me, boy, do you have any idea how much money you’ve cost me?”

  I summoned Crapshoveler. “Goodbye, Urgot.”

  “Woah! Okay!” He shouted, dropping the menace as he threw his hands in the air. “Think about what you’re about to do! You don’t want to get somebody hurt, do you?”

  “Sure I do.” I sighed. “You. I want you to die. So I’m going to stab you.”

  Urgot flashed that grin of his again. “I wasn’t talking about myself. Madelaid, bring her in, would you?”

  Madelaid opened the door with a slight tremor to her hand.

  There was a little girl standing in the doorway, clutching a teddy bear.

  To have a bear in the first place was unusual, but it was stranger still to see its quality. Despite the decrepit surroundings, the bear had not a speck of dirt or a hair out of place. It must be new.

  I frowned.

  The girl was not Sern.

  She had pointed ears, but those were pierced, and her hair was black with white lines and her blue eyes had flecks of green and gold, not to mention she had to be at least a few years older, possibly thirteen or fourteen.

  So what was he getting at?

  “Come here, would you?” Urgot asked.

  The girl obeyed, staggering forward in jerky, almost robotic motions. She squeezed the bear tighter, looking at me with wide, open eyes.

  “As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, she’s under my control. My absolute control.” He reclined in his chair. “Shall I make a demonstration? Sueiaie, gouge an arm off, would you?”

  Her whole body trembled as one hand reached up, sprouting bone-white claws at the fingertips. But before the hand dug into her skin, I grabbed it out of the air.

  “You’ve made your point, Urgot,” I said. “I assume you’ve got Sern in the same state, along with plenty of others?”

  Urgot nodded. “It’s quite easy, really. As long as I’m willing to try a little, the results speak for themselves. Now that we’ve got this out of the way, shall we talk business?”

  I summoned a gold ring. “One for Sern.”

  His smile sharpened. “No.”

  “Don’t try me.” I hissed. “I’m willing to leave with just Serenity.”

  “No,” Urgot chuckled. “C’mon, adventurer. Try harder.”

  I suppressed a groan, dropping two more gold onto the table. “Fine.”

  He shook his head.

  I added another. Then another.

  Finally, Urgot began to laugh. “I’m not a fool, boy. I know what you really have. Tell me, how much is this girl worth to you?”

  I ground my teeth. “Five gold. Final offer.”

  “Nope.”

  We stared at one another.

  He had me right where he wanted.

  Something within me faltered.

  What matter did it make how much money I gave him? This world was already ruined.

  I poured a heap of sparking gold, silver, and iron rings over the table, spilling onto the floor and carpet, rolling out the open door.

  “There. You win. Give me back my daughter.”

  Urgot rubbed under his chin..

  “No.”

  I looked down at him, then to the absolutely ridiculous amount of money. An amount that could, beyond any doubt, buy and sell every building in the first area several times over.

  “I don’t have any more money, scumbag,” I hissed. “Take it, and give me back my daughter.”

  “Why would I do that? Money like this is too valuable to spend,” Urgot whispered. “What could I possibly buy? There’s only so many slaves in the first area, after all, and what could I, an Npc, buy beyond that? This much money is fundamentally and entirely useless! USELESS!”

  Urgot smacked the rings off his table, laughing uncontrollably.

  “No, I want you to beg, Grind. I want you to apologize for what you did to me with every fiber of your being!”

  My hands shook.

  I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him so bad. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

  So I knelt on the floor. “I, Grind, hereby formally and sincerely apologize for all the financial, physical, and reputational harm I have caused Urgot the slaver.”

  His eyes widened. “Well, now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “Give me back my daughter.”

  “Say please.”

  “Please, Sir, give me back my daughter.”

  He craned forward until his face was an inch from mine and his rotten, sulfurous breath stung against my eyes. When he spoke, it was slow and measured.

  “No.”

  Urgot snapped his fingers and the girl died.

  Hi! Hope you enjoyed a fantasy story. But as much fun as a fantasy is, there’s things in the real world beyond what writing can fix. That’s where you come in.

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