Waking up was a study in pain management as I groaned, every part of me aching and screaming in pain. Laying there, red words popped up on my UI, startling me. They flashed and flickered like they were unable to properly manifest, and while I watched, the rest of my UI behaved the same. I felt weird, like I was weak and lighter than air, almost as if I’d cease to exist if I wasn’t careful. Which was a weird thought, but it’s the only one that I could come up with. Reading the error message took me several goes as the words were jumbled and messy, flashing chaotically and with symbols and numbers having replaced several of the letters.

3rr0r# 5y5tem M@1funct*0n
W@rn1ng: Ar3a Unst@b13

“What the…? The system is on the fritz or something,” I muttered quietly, trying to see through the inky darkness around me. Curiosity got the better of me, and I tried to open what I liked to call my ‘character’ sheet, although the UI called it a status screen. I winced from what felt like railroad spikes stabbing into my brain as more error messages appeared. I giggle-moaned as I shook my head, I had known that was a bad idea, and yet did it anyway.

As I climbed to my feet, I thought I heard the creepy, incomprehensible whispering again. It set my nerves on edge, even more than the fact that my instincts were telling me that they were dangerous. I knew following the whispers was an extremely bad idea, which is why I turned away, and walked the other direction. Slowly I hobbled forward until I bumped into a wall that I hadn’t seen until it was too late, the oppressive darkness almost entirely impeding my vision. 

After circling the entire area that I had fallen into, I discovered a small crevice that I was able to slip through by crawling. Getting back to my feet, I noticed that the new area had a thick fog with a creepy and ominous blue glow that made my skin crawl and my fur stand up. Shivering from a temperature drop, I avoided the brightest patches of light, circling the edges again, which was made easier by the faintly luminous areas.

 Making my way through the creepy fog, I shuddered as I noticed several of the spots of lights moved eerily around, slowly bobbing and weaving. Cutting through the fog as quickly as I could, I managed to slip past the weird lights only to come across something equally weird and creepy. A crumbling and partially collapsed church surrounded by graveyards sat on a slight hill, covered in fog and with even more of the floating blue lights. The church bell swung slowly, to and fro, making a creepy, creaking noise as it moved without any visible method of doing so. Staring at the church set all of my instincts screaming to run the other way as quickly as I could.

Too late I realised that this was where the whispers were coming from when they suddenly became louder, and yet I was still unable to understand what they were saying. Somehow I had gotten turned around and ended up exactly where I didn’t want to go. I flinched as another warning flashed across my vision, this time it was even more degraded and jumbled than the first, barely recognisable as words at all. At the same time, my body started shaking uncontrollably and I felt sick and weak. Just as I was about to move back, several more notifications popped up on my UI, and I glowed brightly as strength surged into me. I screamed in pain when what felt like fire seared its way through my body. Looking down, I didn’t see flames surrounding me, instead I saw my body flicker in and out of existence multiple times while I glowed.

[Wør1d Nøt*fi*©@t*0n]
Th3 tit√3 of [D3m0n √ørd] is award3d tø th3 fa*rÝ kn0wn as Azalea.

[W0r1d Nøt*fi*c@t*øn]
⨏r0m th*s day ⨏ørward¿ anÝ and al√ ©lass and ra©*a√ sp3lls and 3ff3©ts ©an nø √ønger b3 appl*3d to anÝ Celestial Object.

I stumbled backwards, tripping over as I moved, my vision blurred from whatever caused the system to fail, pixelating wildly – like a netflix movie buffering badly – I crawled away as quickly as I could until the warnings vanished and I began feeling a little stronger. Ignoring the rest of the notifications until I could get out of this dangerous area, I began looking around for some way to escape this Evil Pit of Doom.

Using the ominous glow, I managed to find a rocky wall that was at an angle that I could climb, with most of the walls being far too steep and smooth. It wasn’t without its difficulties, with me slipping and nearly falling twice, but eventually I managed to climb back up and out of the pit relatively unscathed.

Panting hard and laying on my back with my tail curled around my waist, I tried to look around as much as I could from my awkward angle. Thankfully nothing seemed to be nearby, not that I could see the daemon – Oleander – before she had decided to reveal herself and attempt to make a pancake shaped me. I rubbed my limbs and body, attempting to keep some of the warmth that the climb had given me, allowing me to ignore the chill in the air easier.

I was just about to check the rest of my notifications when a bush nearby shook. Freezing in place, I tensed my body, preparing to twist around and get to my feet to either fight or run away. Moments later, I sighed with relief and smiled as Emmie slunk out from the forest. 

Giggling, I patted the raptor’s nose as she bumped my shoulder affectionately, cooing and chirruping. “There you are, girl, I’m glad to see that you managed to survive too.”

Once I felt strong enough, I climbed to my feet with the help of Emmie pushing on my butt. We began our slow hobble away from the pit, staying as quiet as possible to avoid attracting any more attention. Unfortunately that didn’t last when, only a few minutes later, the noise of someone stumbling through the forest up ahead could be heard.

Looking at Emmie, I put my finger on my lips and made the ‘Shh’ noise while we crept forward to see who it was. Panting and leaning against a tree, holding the stump with her missing arm was the female adventurer who had attacked me earlier. She was looking far worse for wear than last we had met, clearly in dire need of medical attention.

Watching her attempt to stem the flow of blood from the dozen or so wounds I counted that she had, I was torn about what to do. On one hand, I could leave her to the fate that she had brought upon herself. Or I could be merciful and end her life here and now, temporarily ending the threat to my life. Not that she was much of a danger to it in her present condition. On the other hand, perhaps there is a way to get that kill quest rescinded if I helped her get to the village that I had spotted before. 

Sighing, I warily stepped out and in front of the wounded adventurer-slash-hunter, holding my hands up to show that I wasn’t holding any weapons, nor did I have my claws out. “I’m not here to hurt you,” I said, watching the much taller woman awkwardly stand up straighter and attempting to hold her sword up in between us. For the first time, I noticed that her sword had been broken in two and she was only holding the handle plus half of the blade, jagged and broken at the end.

I smirked in amusement. “Clearly good ol’ Spike took a shine to that sword of yours. He seems to like doing that to them, I lost one to him myself.”

The woman looked at me with confusion, her sword arm wavering badly before with a grunt, she slid down the base of the tree and lay back against it, the sword falling out of her limp limb as she passed out.

Pulling out a spare shirt from my inventory, I used my claws to tear it up and applied them to the worst of her wounds. Finally after long minutes of applying improvised bandages, I had managed to staunch the majority of her wounds, throwing my last spare shirt over her to keep her warm when I noticed she was shivering.

For several hours I watched over her, replacing the bandages when I judged they needed it. At one point Emmie got bored, hungry, or both and decided to go attempt a hunt without me. While I waited, I decided that I had the time to check over my notifications, since they seemed to be working fine again.

Error: Two users detected, attempting to correct…
Correcting…
Correcting…
Error: Correction failed!

Ding!
Congratulations! Your Power Level is now 3,128

“Whoa! Apparently I’m a Demon Lord now? Perhaps I should congratulate myself, if I ever meet me,” I murmured quietly to myself, recalling the message earlier and the confusion about having someone who is apparently me, with an alias I used to use frequently for games before I died. But it was more than just that, though. The first error message was pretty obvious in its meaning, and the glow that I’d gained when the world notification had come through wasn’t just a coincidence. The icing on the cake, however, was the deep set feeling that I really did know the new demon lord, personally, even if I had only just been born. I had more notifications, but I ignored them for now, I still had a bit of a headache from the system glitching on me, and reading was causing it to ache more, so for now, I just rested while I waited.

Finally my ward – Nez, according to [Inspect] – woke up with a grunt, startling me while I had been thinking about the world notification. On top of the fact that I had jumped up to over three thousand Power Level instantly from barely nine hundred, and compared to me, Nez’s Level 97 Warrior class was small fry now. At least I assumed as much, I hadn’t gotten a handle on the differences between Power Levels and class levels just yet, but three thousand was a lot bigger than ninety seven, any way you looked at it.

Nez looked dazed and confused for a moment, looking around without noticing anything in particular, before her gaze fell on me and it sharpened in alarm. The warrior attempted to move, jerkily bringing her sword arm up and looking confused about why no sword was in her hand. I had taken it and placed it behind me for just this eventuality. 

Slumping forward in defeat, Nez spoke beyond grunts for the first time since our fight earlier. “If you are going to kill me, just please, make it quick.” Her voice was toneless and void of emotion, resigned to her fate.

Shaking my head, I sighed. “I’m not going to kill you. I don’t wish to kill anyone, but everyone keeps attacking me, forcing me to defend myself.”

“Yeah, right. You’re a monster. Monsters attack humans and the other races on sight.”

I snorted. “Is that a fact? Then why are we talking? Shouldn’t I be attacking you right now? I was newly hatched when those humans stumbled upon me. They attacked me first, stating that I might drop valuable loot.”

“You shouldn’t have killed them. You killed the son of an important Droconist. He wants you dead,” Nez replied, shaking her head.

I cocked my head to one side, curious. “What’s a Droconist when they’re at home?”

“What’s it matter if they are at home or not?” Nez asked, confused. “They are important religious leaders, and you killed one of their sons.”

Snorting again, I let out a grim chuckle. “Would you let people go who had attacked you, showing no remorse for killing what is essentially a newborn?”

Nez twisted her mouth into a grimace, like she was tasting something bitter, before she answered. “No, I suppose I wouldn’t have either. Between you and I, the whole Dragon worshippers thing honestly creeps me out.” She sighed. “I suppose I have you to thank for all of these bandages, then?”

My eyes widened with surprised delight. “So there are dragons in this world? I had wondered about that.”

The warrior stared at me for a second before shaking her head and grimacing from the pain. “I forgot that you are only like, two weeks old. Yeah, there are dragons, although most of them are huge assholes.”

My first impulse was to make a bratty comment about how much they eat, requiring a large exit point for the food, but I suppressed it. Weeks of almost constant fighting had worn out some of my carefree and smartass side. Smiling at my new companion instead, I looked her over before standing up and offering my hand. “Do you think you are strong enough to walk to the village with my help?”

Nez paused for a moment with a shocked look on her face, before she hesitantly grasped my proffered hand. “You aren’t like any monster I have ever met before,” she muttered as I helped her to her feet.

Looking up and up and up, it had been easy for me to forget how much shorter I was now, not having much to compare my height to. Although considering how tall she had been around her group, she was still a fairly tall lady. Unless the man she had been with were all short, although I kind of doubted that, considering the muscle man with the giant sword. “Sheesh, you’re tall.”

Chuckling, Nez wobbled on her feet while I stabilised her. “Or you are just tiny.”

Not having anything that I could say to argue that, I shrugged and began moving towards where I knew the village was, scooping up her sword as I went.

At first Nez was tense and wary of having me so close to her as I helped her walk, but eventually she relaxed enough to make the journey easier for the both of us.

“Sorry about killing your friends before. Or that elf guy, at least. The other deaths weren’t my fault.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. No, that’s fine. We only teamed up for the one quest anyway.”

I snorted. “Must’ve been a substantial reward, then.”

Nez looked embarrassed before she glanced down and saw the curiosity in my eyes. “Ah, yeah. One hundred gold each for a five person group quest, we decided to risk only four, that was apparently a mistake.”

My eyes widened in surprise. I wasn’t sure what the monetary value of gold was, but it sounded like a lot. Someone must’ve really wanted me dead. Which made what I was attempting all the more risky, and important, if I succeeded.

“I’m hurt that you thought so little of the danger I posed,” I replied dryly.

“Greed cometh before the fall, I guess.”

I looked up at my would-be hunter. “You aren’t going to try and kill me again, or recruit more people when we get to the village, are you?”

The rather large and muscular lady grimaced, looking embarrassed. “Honestly? No, not anymore. I wish I’d never taken this job. That damn dinosaur is evil. Not to mention you somehow pretty much tripled my level in the time we first fought till now.”

Giggling at her expression, I shook my head at the position I was in. Not more than a few hours ago, this woman and I had tried to kill each other, and now here I was, helping her get to safety from an undead and evil fairy infested forest. “Oh, yeah? Well if you think Spike is bad, you should meet his master, mistress? Controller? Whatever. She was one scary, evil little lady.” I shuddered at the memory of the crazy smile she had.

“Spike? You mean the allosaur? I wasn’t aware he had a name, and what are you talking about? I didn’t see anyone else there.”

I sighed, my shoulders were getting a little sore from carrying her weight for so long. I was just grateful that she wasn’t wearing heavy armour. “You wouldn’t have seen her, she was invisible. But don’t you remember the voice telling you that I was hiding up in the tree? Then again right before the dino showed up to snack on your buddies?”

Nez looked down at me, a puzzled expression on her face as she searched my eyes. “Hmm. Now that I think about it, I do recall that happening. I was too pumped in combat mode to think much about it, to be honest with you. I always get a little narrow vision when it comes to fighting. It’s helped and hindered me over the years.”

We fell silent for a while, Nez slowly hobbling along with my help, Emmie eventually catching up, reappearing suddenly, licking her face clean. Nez was startled at Emmie’s appearance, but otherwise didn’t comment on her. Watching Emmie clean herself made me please, I had to assume that she had been successful in her hunt. Something that I was grateful for – it meant that I wouldn’t have to worry about feeding her for a little while longer. My own hunt on the other hand was more of a concern. After all the exertion and healing that I had done today, I would need to feed by the night, or I’d start to get hungry. Eating solid food would help delay it for a time, but not forever. I would need to hunt for blood eventually.

We were close to the border of the forest when I stopped suddenly, the feeling that we were being watched making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“What is it?” Nez asked, looking around cautiously, scanning the forest like I was.

Ignoring Nez, I focused on a specific part of the bushes in front of us. “You may as well come out, I know that you are there. We mean you or your village no harm.”

There was a pause of several seconds as Nez focused on the spot I was looking at as well, before the bushes parted and a catgirl walked out. I could tell that she was trying not to appear embarrassed at being caught, but I had an unfair advantage with my instincts. I hadn’t seen her, I had just felt her presence, and knew she was there. Her cat ears and tail were predominantly black, but had splotches of white mixed through it. She was wearing leather armour, much like Nez was, although the catgirl’s was far cleaner and a lot less wartorn.

I inspected her while waiting for her to reach us, I liked to see what I was dealing with when I had the time.

Zylar Greensmythe
Level: 118 Arcane Blade (Rare)

Her class was Arcane Blade? That sounded cool. Looking her over, I didn’t see any weapons on her, perhaps she created them magically? Or kept them in her inventory like I did. Either way, it sounded like an awesome class to me.

I watched with amusement as one of her ears and her tail flicked in annoyance and she looked me up and down, inspecting me warily, glancing briefly at Nez. “Just so you know, I have called for backup.”

Nodding, I smiled at Zylar. “As long as you don’t attack me, we’re all gravy.”

Zylar cocked her head to one side, clearly confused. “Gravy? Why are you talking about sauce for?”

I was thrown for a second at the catgirl not getting the reference. It’s not like I had many chances to have a good chat with someone from my new world before today, after all. Smiling, I shrugged. “It means ‘all good’.”

“Uh… sure. That’s good. Anyway, I admit, it’s a surprise to see the asrai who is being hunted coming here and trying to save an injured hunter. I thought I had seen it all before. Well, it’s been a number of years since one of your kind has graced our village. I wonder if you knew her?” She tapped her chin thoughtfully, before her eyes widened as she gave me a closer look. “Hang on… we need to visit the village elders. We can get your friend the care she needs while we are there. Do you both promise that you are not here to harm anyone from the village? And follow our rules while you are here?”

Nez and I were both quick to nod our agreement. It was interesting to note that Zylar had seemed to focus those questions on the human over the monster. Clearly the line between monster and human was just as blurry here as it was back in my old world.