Eve led Anna down to a side room and had her sit down on a couch. “Alright, before we get to any actual training, what’s your Class? I cannot allow myself to be ignorant of my subordinates’ abilities, especially when we are going to be fighting alongside each other.” She flopped down on the couch next to Anna, lying down and stretching herself out to her full length, which didn’t quite fill the available space. Eve had to admit that was one perk of being smaller that she hadn’t considered; it had been a while since she was able to fit herself all the way onto a couch without some part of her hanging over. The wings were a little uncomfortable, but so long as she didn’t lay on her back, they weren’t too much of an issue.

She propped her head up on her hands and started to bounce her feet gently off of the cushion, looking up at Anna, who was just watching Eve, transfixed. “Well? Out with it! We don’t have all day.” They did, technically, have all day. But she had to be firm here; if Anna was to be her subordinate, she was going to have to learn that things operated on Eve’s timetable, and Eve’s timetable only.

“R-right.” Anna said, blushing slightly. “I was distracted with how cute you are, sorry. I was still barely processing the fact that Lilith is Lucas, and it’s even harder to reconcile a cutie like you being him.”

Eve resisted the urge to get away from Anna and hide behind a piece of furniture. Even if her mind was screaming at her that her dignity was in danger, she wouldn’t always be in a position where she could make a retreat. Better to practice now than to be caught off guard in a more precarious situation.

“So, I chose to be a Beast Tamer.” Anna continued, unaware of Eve’s inner struggle. “I’ve always liked animals, so I thought it’d be really cool to be able to get even closer with them.”

Eve nodded. “What have you got tamed, then?”

Anna scratched the back of her neck. “Only Fluffy for now, but I don’t want to actually bring him into combat. He’s getting on in years and I thought maybe I could help him if I advance in the Class more.”

Eve had to agree with that. Fluffy was Anna’s dog, a golden retriever, and age aside, he didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body, so she didn’t think he’d be all that helpful outside of an emergency situation.

“I’ll look into providing you with some, then.” Eve offered. “What are your limitations on what you can tame?”

“Um, if it willingly submits, I don’t have any, other than the fact that it can’t be a person. Otherwise, it can’t be more than 5 levels higher than me if it’s trying to resist. I think there’s some sort of battle of will, but I haven’t actually tried it with anything other than Fluffy and he submitted right away. And then, until I level up the Skill some more, I can’t have more than two tamed creatures that haven’t willingly submitted.”

“Sounds good. I’ll bring them to you tomorrow. Any preferences?”

“Maybe just some wild dogs for now? I’m not sure I could handle anything scarier. I’ll work my way up eventually, but even just regular dogs should be helpful with my Class buffing them.”

“Alright, I’ll get you some dogs you can tame tomorrow. Give me a second to let people know so we can get the process going.”

Without waiting for a response, she contacted Siph. Mama, I need you to do something for me.

Of course, pumpkin!

Eve chose to let the “pumpkin” slide. Before tomorrow, get five of the strongest dog monsters you can think of. Like, Fenrirs or something if those exist. If you can find a variety that are similarly powerful, that’d be preferable, but if they all are the same kind that works too. Oh, and they need to have some sort of intelligence, enough to listen to what I say. Anyway, just subdue them and bring them here, I need to give them to Anna so she can actually use her Class.

On it! Love you!

“OK, done. But, even if you’ve got a bunch of dogs to help you, you’re going to need to know how to fight. You’re going to end up in a situation where something’s all up in your grill, and if you don’t know how to deal with it, you’re going to get seriously hurt.”

“So…what? Are you going to teach me martial arts or how to use a weapon? I know you’ve been training, but it’s only been a couple of months. You can’t possibly be good enough to be a teacher yet.”

Eve froze. “Oh, right. Um, we’ll figure something out. We can at least get your level up in the meantime. It’ll make you capable of taking the hits until someone can help you.”

“Um, sure.” Anna said. “What’ll you be fighting with? Lilith said she uses guns, but you wanted to distance yourself from her, so you probably won’t be using them, right?”

“Unlike some people, I don’t have a built in aimbot, so I’m going to stick with melee combat for now. I’m going to be a magic swordswoman, except instead of being middling in both magic and swordplay I get to be great at both of them.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “And where are you going to learn swordplay? The internet?”

“I said I’ll figure it out! Now, before I take you to the actual training room, I’m going to officially make you one of my subordinates. If you accept this, there’s no turning back, you hear?”

“Yeah, I got it, go ahead.”

Eve checked her Worship. She was at just under two thousand, which wasn’t bad considering it’d only been a couple of weeks since she’d blown it all. She hadn’t actually created a Champion yet, but hopefully it wouldn’t cost too much to just make one without giving them any special abilities. So, she went to give it a go.

Immediately, a window popped up with all sorts of options. There was a message customizer, as well as a huge list of potential blessings she could give. She ignored the blessings, choosing instead to make a message and then send the request to Anna. Even without the blessings, though, it still took 500 Worship just to make the appointment. Still, it wasn’t like it was being used anywhere, so Eve was sure Lilith would forgive her for making their best friends Champions.

Oddly enough, Eve was able to see the window that Anna was looking at. Come to think of it, she could see windows made when giving someone a Geas, too. Was it because the source was her? Could Kali see everyone’s windows? However it worked, it was nice to see that the message was delivered as she intended.

Anna looked over to Eve and raised an eyebrow but pressed yes anyway.

The moment she did, Eve got to work on the next part of the process. It obviously wouldn’t be good if someone appraised Anna and found that she was under the command of the enemy of all sentient life, so she needed a way to hide that from others. Fortunately, that was well within Eve’s capabilities. Patron allowed her to bestow a degraded version of one of her Skills upon a subordinate, and she just so happened to have the best appraisal-blocking Skill out there.

She set to work granting the Skill to Anna, but it wasn’t quite as simple as she was hoping. Apparently, Patron gave a randomly degraded version of the Skill by default. If she wanted to give a more specific version, she had to pay more Mana and take more time.

Well, nothing to do about it except get started, really. As she worked on gathering the Mana, a strange purple light began to seep out from underneath her feet, bathing the room in in an eerie glow.

“Uh, is everything OK? What’s going on?”

“Shush! I’m concentrating!” The Skill lapped up almost 10,000 Mana and took another 10 seconds before it finished, causing another window to pop up in front of Anna.

“Oh, right, thanks. That’ll probably be handy.” Anna said, somewhat startled. “I didn’t even think about that.”

Eve stuck out her chest proudly. “Of course it will! I can’t just let my followers be exposed the first time anyone tries to identify them, so I took measures! Now, come with me, it’s time we really started to get your level up. Trust me, whatever you were doing before isn’t going to be nearly as good as what we’re going to be doing now.”

Jameson hit send on the message, letting Carmen know that the meeting was over, and he was ready to be picked up. About a minute later, there was a knock on the front door, and he stood to go get it, but his mom tried to stop him.

“I got it, honey.” She said, already moving towards the front entry.

“It’s just one of my friends, here to pick me up, mom.” He said hurriedly. “There’s really no need for that!”

“Nonsense, I’m always happy to say hi to your friends. Just stay on the couch and I’ll invite them in.”

Jameson was following close behind but wasn’t fast enough to stop her from opening the door.

His mom let out a confused yelp when she saw Carmen waiting on the porch. “Y-you…” She stammered nervously.

“Hey Mrs. Myers.” Carmen said jovially. “Long time no see!”

Jameson’s mother sent Jameson a look that was clearly requesting help, causing Jameson to sigh. “I told you, you didn’t need to get the door. This is Carmen, mom. It’s a bit complicated, but she’s an alternate personality of Lilith, the High Arbiter, who was Lucas Clements.”

Carmen nodded. “That’s me! I’m the same kid that used to come over all the time and get into all sorts of trouble with Jameson and Anna, just a little different now.”

“What’s wrong, honey?” Jameson’s father asked, walking into the entrance. He froze upon seeing Carmen, looking between her, Jameson, and Jameson’s mother.

“Hi Mr. Myers!” Carmen said, waving. “I’m just coming to pick Jameson up and then I’ll be out of your hair!”

Jameson’s father gave Jameson a look not dissimilar to the one Jameson’s mother gave.

“If you remember the broadcast, dad, the High Arbiter was our Lucas Clements. This is Carmen, one of her alternate personalities, and she’s taking me to meet up with her and Anna.”

Jameson’s father chuckled nervously. “You’re…not going to be doing anything dangerous, right?”

Carmen shook her head. “Just helping them level up. It’s perfectly safe, so don’t worry about it.”

Jameson could hear his siblings and cousins starting to whisper from behind them, so he quickly cut off any further questioning. “I’ll explain more when I get back. I don’t want to make any more of a scene, so I think it’s best if we leave now.” He said, stepping outside and giving Carmen a pointed look.

His parents looked like they were going to protest, so he quickly shut the screen door and grabbed Carmen’s hand, leading her out of view of the door. “You enjoyed that way too much.”

Carmen giggled. “I can’t wait until I get to introduce them to Kali.”

He rounded the side of the house and stopped. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

“Got it. Step back a bit.”

Once he did, Carmen swiftly began to draw a circle on the ground using her appendages. By the time it was about half completed, he could hear the screen door open and shut, and just as it finished his parents came into view.

He quickly stepped into the circle, felt a tugging sensation, and then he was staring at a door that read “Lilith’s Dungeon”.

A moment later, Carmen was behind him. “Alright, follow me. I can give you the tour later, but Eve’s impatient so you’ll have to go without for now.”

“Is she the new Parallel you were talking about?”

“Yeah. Not going to say any more, though, that’d be spoilers.” She said with a wink.

They walked down a hallway to another teleporter, which took them to a large circular room with a bunch of doors. She led him through one of them, stopping before a room about a quarter of the way down the hall.

“Alright, here’s your stop. Don’t get too overwhelmed, alright?” Before he could ask what she meant, she took off, leaving him alone.

He tentatively knocked at the door.

“You may enter.” The voice was quite a bit younger than he expected, but he opened the door and stepped inside.

Immediately, he was grabbed from the side. “I have captured him, mistress.” Anna monotoned. “Would you like me to restrain him while you work?”

“That would be wonderful, minion.” A small girl said, walking up to Jameson. For his part, Jameson struggled in Anna’s grip, but she was far stronger than he remembered. He didn’t want to hurt her, and this girl was probably Lilith’s new Parallel, so he decided to just go with it for now.

“Who are you, and what have you done with my girlfriend?!” He asked theatrically.

The girl gave her best approximation of an evil laugh, but despite her efforts it wasn’t very threatening. “I am Eve, Queen of Monsters! Say goodbye to your free will, for I am about to enslave you forever, just like I have your girlfriend!”

“Do not resist. Your fate is inevitable.” Anna said in that same monotone voice.

Just then, he got a window.

Jameson grinned. “What if I say no?”

Eve froze. “D-do not even attempt it, mortal!” She managed. “That option is merely a shortcoming of the system. While I have managed to disable its functionality, the system keeps it visible in the messages.”

“So, you’re saying it’s fine if I say no, because nothing will happen.”

Eve shook her head vigorously. “It would be a waste of time, and my patience is thin. Just say yes already!”

“I’m feeling like if it was truly inevitable, the system wouldn’t present this option, instead just letting me know that I have become your slave.”

Eve floundered, and Anna came to her rescue. She let go of Jameson, giving him a swat on the arm. “Stop teasing her.” She said, emotion once again present in her voice. “It costs some of her Worship to do this, so it’d be a bunch of trouble if you really said no. It’s actually a request to be her Champion, it’s perfectly harmless.”

“Anna!” Eve whined, dragging out the name. “I thought you were going to play along!”

“You weren’t going to get anywhere going on like that, so I decided enough was enough. If he actually said no, joke or not, that would have been a huge waste of Worship.”

Jameson accepted, and Eve brightened. “Excellent! Now, hold still while I give you my dark blessing!” She screwed up her face in concentration and began emitting a sort of purple aura. Once she was finished, Jameson read over the Skill and nodded, looking back to Eve. “Alright, so, what’s this all about, anyway?”

“You are to be one of my minions!” Eve said haughtily. “We will infiltrate the world of people together, sowing chaos from inside their ranks!”

“The three of us are going to be a party.” Anna translated. “Think of the Queen of Monsters as like a demon lord or something. Her goal is to give people an enemy to fight against and use to get stronger. But, since she won’t need to constantly be at her main base, she’s going to spend the rest of her time with us.”

“That’s right! Prepare yourself to cast off your human selves, for you will be reborn as the loyal servants of the Queen of Monsters!” She said, dead serious as far as Jameson could tell.

“Wait, are you going to actually change us into something non-human?” He asked, taken aback.

Eve looked to the side. “N-no, not really. Not unless you want me to.”

Anna crept a couple of fingers up Jameson’s chest. “I could have her turn me into a sheep girl for you.” She said seductively. “I know you’ve always had a thing for them.”

Jameson swallowed. The offer was far more tempting than he cared to admit. He frantically studied Anna’s face, trying to tell whether she was serious or just teasing him.

She was apparently serious, as she gave him an appraising look, then turned to Eve. “Yeah, do it. You can always turn me back if I don’t like it, right?”

“Wait, seriously?!” Eve replied, her haughty façade shattered by the shock in her voice.

“Yeah, seriously. As long as it doesn’t hurt, anyway.”

“Um…no, it doesn’t hurt. Are you sure, though? It’ll be kind of hard to explain to people.”

Anna shrugged. “If the internet’s to be believed, people who liked what the fae transformed them into were able to stay as they were, so I can just say one of the fae did it. I wouldn’t technically be wrong.”

“What about your family?” Jameson asked cautiously. “It’s kind of a lot of trouble to go through just for me.”

“The family will understand if I just say I asked Lilith to do it. You know they’re pretty accepting about this sorta stuff. As for it being trouble just for you, I think it sounds pretty like a pretty cool experience myself, so it’s not just for you. And besides, even if it was just for you, it’d be worth it.” She punctuated the sentence by giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Eve seemed to catch a sort of second wind at this. “That aside, it’ll also make her stronger! She’ll get two Racial Classes instead of just one!”

Anna grinned. “See! It’s a good choice!”

“W-why are you so passionate about this?” Jameson asked, bewildered.

“Because it sounds fun and I get to do something nice for you! It’s a win-win! Besides, it’s not like there’s anything stopping me from just going back if I don’t like it, so it’s not even a commitment. Now, we doing this or what?”

They were interrupted by Carmen opening the door and stepping into the room. She walked over to Anna and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not going to stop you from doing this if you really want to, but you should think this through first. It can’t be spur of the moment, OK? I know it’s something new and exciting, but it can wait until tomorrow.”

“Oh…right.” Anna said sheepishly. "I got a little ahead of myself there, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Carmen told her. “Trust me, of everyone here I probably get you the most; change is fun. But I’ve also learned that doing this sort of thing without thinking is probably going to cause trouble in the future, especially with something this visible. So, just take a night to think about it.”

“I get it, I get it.” Anna said, scratching the back of her neck. Then almost as an afterthought, gave a mumbled, “Thanks.”

Carmen nodded. “Text me about it tomorrow, OK? If you decide you still want to go through with it, I’ll make it happen.”

“Yes, yes, now shoo!” Eve said impatiently, “We’ve got levelling to do!”

Carmen gave a lazy salute and left the room.

Eve turned her attention back to Anna and Jameson, adopting an imperious posture. “Since we’re all here, it’s time to get serious! Now that you’re officially working under me, the more Skills you get, the more Skills Lilith and I have, so you’re not just working for yourselves anymore! Get those rears in gear!”

Jameson frowned. “You mean the more Skills you have at your disposal, right?”

Eve smirked. “Nope. I have a Skill that gives me a copy of all my subordinate’s non-Exclusive or Unique Skills. Anything you can do, I can do better.”

“What kind of unfair Skill is that?!” Jameson complained. “You get to benefit from all our hard work just because you’re our “boss”?!”

“Hey, I’m supposed to act as a deterrent for entire nations! If I didn’t have unfair Skills, then I couldn’t exactly do that! Now, less whining, more working!”

Fighterman481

Hey friendos, it's me! The glossary has been completed, so go check it out, even if you've got a good idea of who everyone is. It's got better physical descriptions of people, last names for (almost) everyone, as well as current Class and total level, and a couple of fun facts that sometimes aren't in the main story (and won't be, since they're not important at all and it'd be weird to bring them up).

Another question, when the Dungeon Master Parallel eventually comes online (spoiler alert: I'm projecting 3-4 chapters from now for this), what's everyone's interest level in a full dungeon-building chapter? Vote in the poll and let me know why or why not!

That aside, also a "deleted scene" of sorts, I was planning to end on a scene of Jameson coming back home and having to explain everything to his parents, but when I went to write it I realized that I didn't really have an idea of how it would play out and in the grand scheme of things just wasn't important.

And that's all of my commentary for now, really. Next chapter we go round up some "dogs" and give them to Anna. Personally, it's one of my favorite chapters, so I hope you all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!