I didn’t want Opix to think I was insane. If Cerus had asked me why I wanted to get stronger, I’d have been straight up with her. Knowing her, she would’ve agreed with my reasoning before turning it into a Felzian Queen hate session for the next hour. Opix, though? I knew he wanted to kill Final Testament, but he wasn’t nearly as bloodthirsty about his target as Cerus was about her’s. There was no telling how Opix’s opinion of me would change if I just told him I wanted to kill Rangers, so I decided to ask him how he felt about them first.

“I don’t sympathize with them, but I understand them,” He began. “Reincarnators have to be killed to end up in the Ellalara Belt. Imagine living a life that ends either in murder or suicide and waking up somewhere like this!” Opix said, motioning to the city around us. “It’s like waking up in a video game. One where you’re free to do whatever you want.” He scoffed, his previously calm demeanor shifting into one of tempered rage. “Everyone in the Ellalara Belt, Native and Reincarnator alike, deserves to be treated with dignity. They shouldn’t be used like things. But the Rangers don’t care about that kind of thing, and the Felzian Queen knows they don’t care and uses that to make them loyal to her. She gives them the freedom to act as recklessly as they do.”

I recalled the System’s long message about the Rangers. They wanted to break the Ellalara Belt and build something new from its ashes. Despite the lives they lived… hell, because of the lives they lived, shouldn’t they want something more for themselves? They had the freedom to become anything and they decided to become Ellalaran terrorists. Why? Anger rose in me the more I thought about it, but it waned as I recalled Mrs. Gertrude’s opinion on the subject.

”Live a bitch, die a bitch,” I muttered absently.

Opix blinked. “What?”

“Remember the lady from Earth I was talking about? Mrs. Gertrude? She said that to me before I got killed by those Isekai Cultists. ‘Live a bitch, die a bitch, wake up a bitch.’ I know that’s pretty general to say about all the Rangers, but honestly? I don’t give a shit.”

Opix leaned forward. “How come?”

“Because I’m going to kill them.”

To my surprise, Opix laughed. “I’m guessing your mind’s set on that, huh?”

“I… guess?”

“Welp, guess it’s time for the Rangers to start praying to whoever’ll listen.” His face hardened, intensity returning to him. “What brought this about?”

I explained to him everything I’d felt up to this point, both to catch him up and to help make sense of my own thoughts. While I hadn’t truly interacted with the Rangers – or the Felzian Queen for that matter –, I could feel the effects of their influence over the Satyrsong. Hell, we were standing in them. The entire town was celebrating like it was the 4th of July because we let some mercenaries poach a few Battle Network Quests from us. Nothing was stopping them from participating in the Territory Quest outside of the perceived threat of the Felzian Queen and their lack of fight to challenge that.

I don’t lack that fight, though. Not anymore. If you all can’t do it, I’ll do it for you.

“When I go back to Earth, I wanna be the kind of person I’d be proud to be. The Rangers are lost causes that find pleasure in terrorizing the weak, and I don’t want to be the kind of person who lets that slide.” I said… and regretted saying as soon as I said it. I sounded like I was trying to be a fucking superhero. Hopefully, Opix wouldn’t–

He laughed. Whether it was at how cringy I sounded or some other reason I couldn’t tell. Either way, when he spoke he didn’t sound judgmental at all. “I was right, Chancellor would love you.”

“Right! I meant to ask, do you have him in your chat?” I asked. I hadn’t been curious, I just wanted to change the subject a bit. “If you do, you can put in a good word for us.”

“Sorry, I don’t. Even if I did, I doubt he’d respond. He has other things to worry about. Like making sure Final Testament doesn’t decide to wipe out half of the Ellalara Belt on a whim.”

“Can he do that?”

“Not anymore. Chancellor weakened him in their last battle, but he did so at the cost of his vitality. Both Final Testament and Chancellor Kato are weakened right now, and so Final Testament created the Felzian Queen and a few other creatures similar to her to do his bidding.” He sighed. “The Serenth Sector is safe for now, but it’s only a matter before that all changes; especially since there are Heavenly Gems here.”

“What’s Chancellor Kato doing? What’s his response to that?”

“Us,” Opix said matter of factly. “There’s a reason he’s so eager to train whoever joins him. He can only fight Final Testament for so long.”

I shrugged. “That’s something to look forward to then. I wonder how long it’ll take for us to be strong enough to kill Final Testament? You said he can destroy half the Ellalara Belt, right? Would that mean that we could do that if we were that strong? That’s kinda scary.”

Opix raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you’re looking forward to it.”

“Like I said before, I want to be the person who stands up for the weak. It just… feels right. When I killed those Rangers, it felt like a bunch of people held the knife with me, you know? If Final Testament is the source of that, then I know killing him will feel…right…” I said, unintentionally dragging the last word. I was trying not to sound like an edgy teenager, but here I was talking about killing somebody feeling right.

I blame Cerus.

“Guess that makes us partners?”

“Partners?”

“You wanna kill Final Testament, I wanna kill Final Testament. Partners.”

“Cerus does, too.”

“Cerus would kill an old lady if I asked her to. She just likes killing stuff. She doesn’t count.”

Opix extended a hand. “Hmm?”

I thought back to Cerus’ assessment of him from earlier. At the end of the day, Opix was just like me; he wanted friends. It wasn’t like I had a ton of offers on that front. Actually, considering the events of the day I likely had more enemies than friends right now.

I met Opix’s handshake. “Part–”

Cerus: oh my days where are you two

Cerus: are you guys making love

Cerus: can you two hurry up i want to open my achievements

Grim: We were taking a walk. Also, no one’s stopping you from opening your Achievements, Cerus.

Cerus: who would i show off to if you guys were somewhere else?

Cerus: hurry up i am tired

“I don’t know how you put up with her,” Opix groaned.

“Neither do I,” I lied. She was one of the two only friends I had in my life. Besides… I had a soft spot for her. She’d grown on me a bit.

Grim: We’ll take the long way back just for you.

Cerus: in that case take your time thrall you have earned it

Cerus: get home safe grim

Cerus: haha

***

Despite my “back-and-forth” with Cerus, we walked back to the inn as soon as it’d ended. Thankfully she didn’t do anything drastic, but she did say that she would’ve “hunted me down” had we taken longer than ten minutes to get back.

I took my shower soon after getting settled, and Opix shortly after. I’d expected Cerus to try and prod me as soon as I came out, but to my surprise, she was fast asleep… With my sheets on her bed. Opix looked half-asleep by the time he came out of the bathroom and decided he’d open his Achievements in the morning. I didn’t want to wait, though. I’d show them what I got in the morning. I’d been looking forward to this for a while.

I’ll start with the Achievements, then my Level.

Achievement Unlocked: I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!

You fought a Presence without using a Presence of your own! That’s pretty taboo, but you do you I guess.

Reward: You have received a 0-Star Accessory.

Achievement Unlocked: I ONLY SEE RED.

You brought an enemy at least two Stars above you down to under 10% Health! That is wild! This is one of those Achievements that’s only possible to get at the low levels. Even so, you’re in elite company!

Reward: You have received a 1-Star Weapon!

Yes!

I ignored the Accessory to focus on the Weapon.

High-Quality MMA Wrappings

1-Star Weapon

What happens when you ask a rookie Final Blacksmith with no clue what Mixed Martial Arts is to create a set of hand and foot wrappings for Mixed Martial Arts? Well, what you get is some magic gauze that was infused with a bunch of local fighting disciplines over the course of an anxiety-fueled weekend. Sure, Sonia Lockheart was a strict boss, but she did produce quality. Speaking of quality…

This Weapon provides the following benefits: +3 Strength.

Just like the System suggested, the MMA Wrappings were literally just shimmering gauze. Thankfully I didn’t need to wrap it. As soon as I equipped it my hands and feet were wrapped under my clothes like I was about to step in the ring. This was still a 1-Star Weapon, though, and I didn’t have the Dexterity to use these scott-free just yet. My Dexterity Bar appeared and went down to about 40%, but wearing them only felt like wearing weighted gloves and ankle weights.

Not too bad, all things considered. Maybe it’ll be better after I Level Up?

Before I did, though, I needed to open the next Accessory. It was a fuzzy red headband with a poorly replicated Adidas logo on the front. I scanned it.

Clover’s Stamina Band

0-Star Accessory

This headband was originally designed by Clover Lockheart. It was supposed to be an 8-Star Accessory that let her work endlessly, effectively removing the need for sleep completely. What it ended up becoming was a popular gym item all over Sera Town. Why? Well, that’s because…

This Accessory provides the following benefits: Reduces Stamina drain as long as lethal weapons are not being used.

I equipped the headband, mainly just to test the limits of my Dexterity. It only went down by 5%, but I didn’t feel any different than I did moments ago. I swapped from the MMA Wrappings to the Gnomish Spear Cerus got me and immediately got hit with a warning that the Stamina Band was ineffective. Once I swapped back to the MMA Wrappings the notification went away.

After a few more minutes of testing the limits of my Dexterity, I decided to finally check my Level. I’d begun to finally get tired, and I didn’t want to wake Opix and Cerus with my experimenting.

Level Up!

You are now Level 63

Here are your Current Stats:

Health: 51

Stamina: 65

Strength: 78

Intelligence: 52

Mana: 73

Dexterity: 60

New Skill Unlocked: Hot Shower - Negates all debuffs on self. Low MP Cost.

Holy shit! That’s a good Skill!

The fight against Ysnik wouldn’t have gone any differently given the level difference between us, but the fight against Ciz’s Presence certainly would’ve been different – though I imagine the debuffs worked in my favor in that case. If anything, Hot Shower would be a good carryover for–

My thoughts were interrupted by what sounded like a Geiger Counter going off near the window. Opix and Cerus were still asleep, so I decided to check before I woke them. The moment I pulled the curtain back to see what was making that noise, though, my heart sank.

Ysnik was there with a thick scientific-calculator-looking device in her hands staring straight at me. She was accompanied by two boys; one was a stocky goblin boy dressed in all black and another was a lanky goblin boy with thick-lensed glasses dressed in black robes. The moment I made eye contact with them they shrank back and ran out of the village. The Geiger Counter sounds stopped the moment they left, but that did nothing to stop my growing unease.

“Opix! Cerus! We’ve gotta move! We–”

Stunlocked. Both of them were fast asleep, fully Stunlocked.

Shit. Their inventories. Wait… My inventory!

The fact that nothing had been taken didn’t calm me down as much as I thought it would. No, they were there for a reason, and there was a reason Ysnik was in such a rush to leave. I have no idea why I did it, but I decided to check the Battle Board just to see what our current total was.

0. Zero. We had zero fucking Battle Points!

“Shit! You guys!” I shouted, shaking them in hopes they’d wake up.

Goddamn it, Ysnik! This is way too fucking far!

“I don’t know if you guys can hear me right now, but Ysnik just took our fucking Battle Points! I’m gonna go after her and get them back! Whenever you guys are out of that Stunlock, come after me!”

I took everything weapon I had in my pack and threw it on my bed. I equipped the MMA Wrappings and the new outfit I bought and prepared to leave. The last thing I needed was Ysnik stealing more stuff from me. While this meant I wouldn’t be able to heal, I didn’t want to risk her having healing potions for her allies.

“Alright you guys, I gotta go!”