Waking up to the cute face of a sleeping girl cuddling me was something I had only ever dreamed of. Waking up to a sleeping girl with her mouth half-open drooling on my shoulder, well…

“I already said I was sorry!” Alice pouted again.

“And I already said it’s fine, it’s really not that big of a deal!” I answered. Again.

Alice was upset because she thought I wasn’t paying attention to her discussing mundane plans for the day while we ate breakfast downstairs. The truth was that I had far too many thoughts of my own plans distracting me at the moment. It also didn’t help finding out that at least three people were required to form an official party with the guild, so the two of us couldn’t try going the ‘traditional’ route of finishing party quests for gold and glory even if we did want to. And the alternative would be even worse; we could be stuck here for months grinding this newbie guild’s crappy solo offerings and get hardly anywhere at all.

That said, I’d been thinking since last night that I might be able to get us another ‘party member,’ among other things like some nice new gear. I wasn’t being selfish; I was looking out for both of our best interests in the long run, really! But I had no way of knowing how Alice would react to my plan, and wasn’t it better to ask forgiveness than permission?

Eventually I decided it was best to just go with the straightforward approach. “Look, there’s actually some things I want to do today. You know, by myself. Just for a little while.”

“Wh-What?” Alice stammered. “It’s not because of—”

“No, it’s not because of that,” I sighed. “I’ll make it up to you later, okay?”

She bit her lip and fell silent for a minute before responding. “You… You’ll come back, right? Promise?”

My heart sank a little at hearing the ‘p word,’ but the more I thought about it, she hadn’t exactly specified a time limit. This should be easy enough!

“Yeah. Promise.”

***

While I got some strange looks from passersby as I stood in the street memorizing The Roach and Rat’s exterior, it was worth it in the end so I could set a Recall point outside the guild for later convenience. Aside from what happened here, I didn’t think I would ever want to repeat everything that happened last night. But regardless, I finally came close enough to the ‘shortcut to the top’ I’d been wanting since I came to this world. And it was time to put it all to use.

Step one: ditch the dress.

After some shameless trial and error in the Upper District, I managed to find a clothier who was willing to buy my torn and tattered dress—for a single piece of gold. I didn’t really care it was only a fraction of the original price or that it would probably get salvaged for scraps; at this point, I just wanted to be rid of the damn thing.

Step two: get new gear.

Having to wear my starter tunic all over again made me feel kind of naked, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Even though I was tempted to try on some fancy sets of armor and I could afford almost anything thanks to yesterday’s loot, I wanted to start with something simple and ideally fitting for my ‘mage class.’ I quickly picked out a comfortable outfit of light adventuring gear, including some short shorts for mobility and a decent top that totally wasn’t just an upgraded tunic. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, a sports bra or two would have been rather useful given my chest’s… status. I wasn’t in the inventive mood to attempt creating this world’s first of its kind, so instead I settled on a tight-fitting undershirt for a similar purpose. And while I was at it, I figured I might as well pick up some extra panties…

Changing tops with my long head of flowing hair made me want to get my ponytail back. Thankfully, I could take care of that and start getting rid of some of the near worthless copper coins I was lugging around for the price of a small new hair ribbon.

Even after changing, my satchel was starting to overflow with my additional unworn purchases, so for a few gold I bought a quality leather backpack that was outfitted with some extra side pockets and two straps for holding a bedroll.

Finally, I had to check out some shops that sold enchanted gear. My obsidian dagger was already looking like a scarily good enchanted weapon, and I didn’t want to carry around anything heavier, so I narrowed my search for armor and other apparel.

I froze when I saw it: a hooded cloak that appeared simple and unassuming, yet was labelled as impervious to tearing and all sharp weapon attacks! At first I was afraid it was too good to be true, and the merchant looked as if she wanted to throw me out of her damn shop when I asked if I could test its enchantment with my dagger, but eventually she relented when she saw I could afford its staggering price of one platinum. I ran the tip of my dagger across the soft fabric, my eyes widening when it didn’t leave any trace of a scratch. This had to be one of the best defensive options I could get with that coin; the cloak’s modest appearance would make keeping a low profile that much easier, but it was surprisingly lightweight and far more durable than armor that would be many times heavier. Sold!

Step three: summon a demon.

My palms started sweating now that I had reached this point, even though I was nowhere close to getting started. I went back to one of the first places Alice took me on my first day here—the low stone wall over the river that ran through the city. It really did feel like this particular spot was in the middle of the whole capital, but I wasn’t here to take in the sights. I set down my new bag and pulled out that book I received yesterday, resting it on top of the wall before giving the title another glance.

“‘Demon Summoning for Dumbasses,’” I read aloud with a groan. “Just how bad can this be?”

Sighing, I opened the cover and turned to the first page.

You’ve just taken your first step toward summoning your own demon. Nice going, dumbass!

Fuck, I already hate this book!

***

After skimming past a needlessly edgy introduction with too many warnings and other crap that was beneath me, a couple things became readily apparent. The good news was that the ritual process itself looked simple enough that I was sure I could pull it off today. The bad news: there was absolutely no guarantee I would get anything out of this, and definitely not a minion who would obey my every command.

The summoning process had essentially four parts: prepare the catalysts, cast the ritual, negotiate the terms, seal the contract. And every summoning ritual needed at least three catalysts to start, which included a source of stabilized mana to power the spell, vital essence to act as a focal point for the summoned entity, and a unique item specific to the type of demon the summoner was trying to summon. Actually, the word ‘demon’ seemed to be used pretty loosely here; the term apparently covered all kinds of spirits and otherworldly entities who normally lived in some sort of parallel dimension the book called the Spirit World, which also included the Underworld? Maybe that was just a translation error…

Regardless, basically with a bit of Soul Magic said demons could allow themselves to be summoned through this ‘standardized’ summoning process. Rather than setting magical compulsions to carry out the summoner’s orders, some kind of payment was offered in exchange for the services of the summoned to form a contract, although the book got unnervingly vague about exactly what payment was expected. Aside from being able to detect where the contracted entity was at all times and banish them back to the Spirit World should they go rogue, the only guaranteed benefit from sealing a contract through the ritual was that the summoner and the summoned both shared their mana pools. For a magic user, that boost to spellcasting capacity was good enough on its own!

I flipped through the second half of the book to all the listed options for summoning. Many of them were various lesser demons and spirits I hardly recognized, and the ones I did gave me pause. I definitely didn’t want a creepy gargoyle like that witch had, and as much as summoning a succubus sounded fun, if something went wrong I’d be the one she would be having fun with…

The thought made me shiver, so I continued ahead to a section at the back called ‘Advanced’ to look for more options. Then another shiver trickled down my spine.

Fox spirit! There’s literally all the detailed instructions for summoning a fox spirit! The diagram, the catalysts, the ritual, they were all right in front of me!

The brief memory of that beautiful three-tailed lady with fluffy fox ears I saw the night I met the Demon King came rushing to the front of my mind. If only I could get an elegant, womanly companion like that… and the book even said most fox spirits were fairly skilled with magic!

“A powerful mage and a gorgeous new addition to the party?” I mused aloud. “Ohh, I can already see it now! I’ll give her a gentle pat on the head and say, ‘Hmm, I wonder which tail I should play with today?’ And she’ll squeal, ‘No, master, not that one~!’ Yeah, a fox spirit is definitely the way to go.”

“Sounds like you’re having fun,” Zack said.

“Shit!”

I jumped away at the sudden intrusion. Standing by the riverbank’s wall next to me was that friendly guard back in his usual armor I… actually, were we even friends? More importantly, how long had that sleaze been there?!

“Don’t sneak up on me like that, man!” I said. “I’m a little busy right now. And what are you even doing here?”

“Hey, I gotta keep tabs on my favorite troublemaker,” he winked.

Seriously dude, get a life!

I snatched the open summoning book and shoved it into my bag. What would he say if he caught on to this? I could tell him off, but when I thought about it, he did do something pretty incredible for me before…

“Um, I guess I never did say thanks for last night. That was pretty badass of you back there, even though you did kind of lose your duel, and I had to save you, and you got all—”

“You could have just stopped at ‘thanks,’” he grumbled.

“A-Anyways, your face is looking a lot better. How did you come away from that with only a little bruise?”

“What can I say?” Zack replied, patting a new healing potion in the pouch at his side. “Modern medicine is pretty good.”

Hearing that from someone in a medieval world like this made me feel sick, but he did have a point…

“Looks like you got some nice new getup,” he said, eyeing my fresh equipment. “I take it everything went okay on your end? After you teleported away with the, you know…”

I really did not want to get into this right now! “Yeah, kind of. I mean, we should be in the clear. Probably.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“It’s complicated, but you don’t have to worry about it, alright?” I finished.

At first it looked like he wanted to protest, but in the end he settled for a sigh and left it at that. I was glad he didn’t want to press the issue any more than I did.

Well, since the guy was here anyway, I might as well ask him for some assistance with my current project. The book said that the unique catalyst for summoning a fox spirit was ‘the physical aspect of a fox.’ I figured that could mean all kinds of things, but the best bet was likely…

“Listen, I need to get a fox pelt. Do you know a decent place to buy one here?”

He cocked another eyebrow. “And what could you possibly need something like that for?”

“Let’s call it a… surprise?” I tried.

He let out a quick laugh. “Well whatever you’re going to do, just don’t do it inside the city. Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t even planning on that.”

“Alright,” Zack sighed again. “I know a guy. But there’s something that’s been bugging me about… that thing you said last night.”

He awkwardly scratched a reddening cheek.

“Who’s John?”

I groaned. “You really don’t want to know…”