This time I arrive back in my fortress as it should've been the first time. The others are here as if nothing ever happened.

Chloe collects the dungeon spoils from everyone.

"Can you give me the loot? I want to head to the gate to blow off some steam and the vault is on the way anyway."

"Eh, sure. That is actually quite helpful, I have some other business to take care of."

"Sure, see you later, Chloe."

Chloe heads toward the marketplace and Geoffrey and Marca leave towards the training room.

Lucia suddenly stands behind me and whispers angrily into my ear, "We will talk LATER".

She resumes in a normal voice, "I'll wait home for you, Jared. Come, you two.", then she heads home taking Iris and Anna with her.

Guess I'll sleep on the sofa today...

But what's been done is done.

I go to the vault to hand over our loot.

Today, there's only one person present.

"Hey, I have some spoils from Chloe's group."

"Chloe's... ah, you're... master Delacroix."

Do I know him? He seems kinda familiar.

I might have met him once before when I handed in material drops before but I don't recall.

Seems like whoever he is, he didn't leave much of an impression on me.

"Just Jared is fine, Ephran. Anyway, Chloe was busy today, so I am here to hand over today's loot. Can you receive it?"

"Yeah, sure, give me a moment."

We finish the handover with no issue.

Before I can leave, Ephran stops me, "There's... something I wanted to ask, if I may..."

"What is it?"

"It is about Chloe... how is she doing? I haven't seen her in quite some time."

"I'd say she is doing fine considering the circumstances. Why do you ask, what relationship do you have?"

"...we have none. But that is something I wish to change."

And now I recall... he was the guy that was a bit too enthusiastic to talk with Chloe on my first visit here...

"Is that so? Did you try to ask her out then?"

"No... I never have the opportunity or courage..."

"Sorry, can't help you with that."

"That's why I wanted to ask... if I could... join your team so I get a chance to... you know..."

I'm no goddamn dating assistance service, Ephran!

"Ephran, I take my duty very seriously. If you want to join, we can talk about that, but once you're in, you're in for good, do you understand that?"

"I do..."

"Then think about that once more. Seeing how you don't really have much combat strength, we'd have to invest a lot of time and resources into you if you were to join us. You better take this seriously and not just join because you're too cowardly to ask your dream girl out and then regret it for the rest of your life if she rejects you."

"So... can I?"

A love-blind fool who won't listen... I should just say no. I really should.

"Let me first ask you, what do you see in Chloe? I doubt just from receiving dungeon loot every few weeks you could learn much about her. I mean, do you even know that she is a shapeshifter or what her true form looks like?"

"Yes, and that makes it even better. I mean, at first, it was just a crush at first sight and then once I found out-"

I seem to only attract weirdos lately. I wonder what issues Geoffrey and Marca have... Doctor Freud, could I ask you for your help here? Or really any therapist, preferably without a space in the title.

This whole world is just a mess. The majority of people are force-orphaned, monsters are everywhere, glitches run amok, the gods treat this as entertainment... just bullshit.

I'm not even sure anymore what Ephran is rambling about, I already zoned his praising of Chloe out a while ago.

I mean it wouldn't hurt for her to gain another friend, people seem to be wary of her but... does it have to be that nightmare fetishist?

He has absolutely no combat skills. Well, with only one class he still has the potential to go in almost any direction we choose. Currently, his only worth is this one passive.

So given equal DEX and his skill level of twenty, this would be two percent. If we could one-hit everything this would be two percent more loot, but since we can't probably somewhere between five and ten percent. Not too shabby. Every additional chance to obtain something stupidly rare like a Class Core certainly helps. Especially if we make him our familiar and give him classes with high DEX and maybe another class with that skill, this could easily double our haul.

...no, Chloe is not just some bargaining chip. She is a real human being, or whatever you want to call it. She is a person and should be treated as such.

If I cared enough about this skill I could make a spirit with possibly four classes that each grant it, which would currently already result in skill level 24.

Chloe should be old enough to decide for herself, right? Well, she doesn't call me daddy in either sense of the expression, so who am I to decide what is good for her?

A friend, that's what.

I have no idea what the local customs are, rather I'm in charge of guiding those. All the more reason for me to watch out for her. If she wants to give him a chance I won't stand in her way, and if she says no this love story better end there.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I get it. She is the best thing in the whole world for you."

"Yes, exactly!"

"Okay, so here is the deal. Since this is all about her for you, Chloe will decide. You talk to her, confess your love, and if she accepts you're in. After that, you'll have the better part of eternity to spend together with your crush. You just need to be slightly useful to us. But if she says no that's the end, don't pressure her any further. Understood? And don't you dare pull any funny business with her! If I find out you used blackmail or mind control or any other shit to get her to agree, your free trial of living will be expired! The same applies if you should cause her harm of any form, got it!?"

Ephran starts shaking, "Y-yes, sir, I understand. I won't let any harm befall her!"

I guess that is somewhat reassuring. At least he seems to value her more than his own continued existence.

"Here", I hand him the recipe of today's delivery, "use that as an excuse to meet her if you need one. If someone asks, tell them I was in a hurry and forgot to take it from you. Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Th-thank you, Jared, sir."

"Yeah, yeah."

I leave and make my way to my usual spot atop the gate.

It seems the monsters have once again changed. I see... only umbrella-wearing slimes. Nothing but umbrellaed blocks of jello.

I don't like the skill name [Rain Guard] one bit.

Great, this day wasn't already a total disaster.

It is weird that there's only one monster type today... do they adapt to what I can do? They are immune to my best exp grinding skill and have no weakness I can currently exploit.

My MP is full, the talk with the lich took long enough for that and the xenophile gave me the rest.

Maybe I should go back to my old ways and try my luck with status effects. Cold status is now 'only' like a critical hit but if I can inflict that status reliably enough, it might be worth the 30 MP cost increase over the 145 MP area spell. Worth a shot.

That's a lot, easily two-thirds got the status. [Appraise] tells me a slime sits at 1296/2040 HP, the direct hit took off over seven hundred HP. Three hits to kill, or two hits and a status infliction.

That's a tough call. Should I spread out the spells so no slime gets hit twice to maximize the exp gain or should I for once focus on taking out as many as I can?

Basically long-term versus short-term...

Nah, long-term wins. The guards have been holding on well so far and there's still a very long war ahead of me. And if I see the stats correctly, this stage should be like a vacation for them, 312 STR monsters with no dangerous skills to amplify it should mean they are safe - unless they are unarmed attackers which I haven't seen on the frontline. Only those would suffer from their [Acid Skin].

I fire sixteen more ice blasts with cold status effect added.

When all is said and done and the status effects expired, I've gained 534 exp.

That's like a quarter of what it should be... The rain last week was easily 700 exp per cast and that would now be over 2100 with full MP.

Let's hope the next flood stage will be more abusable...

Oh, wait, I still have the Blood Burst skill. Given my SP I have nine casts of it.

First need some slimes that are already hurt...

And then spread the ten projectiles of it around.

And repeat eight more times. 29 more exp. What a letdown.

Elly and Maria are still unconscious so they can't add any damage here.

Well, time to go home and get shouted at.

After I climb down the tower stairs I see a small group high-fiving and celebrating. What's going on?

I sneak closer and listen in on them. It sounds like that group managed to beat their first boss in the dungeon.

Is that really something to celebrate?

Hmm... I guess so, normal people have a very strict limitation of how much SP they can use in there. The dungeon's effect of preventing sleep benefits will see to that.

Maybe I should note them down and publically congratulate them later. If Lucia can use the titanium stuff to make some nice weapons that should serve as advertisement for that.

Chris, Kyle, Gus, Blake, Brooke, Sam, and Harley... noted.

I will decide that later.

I continue my walk home.

"Hey, Lucy, dear? I'm back."

"Hey, Jared, now, mind explaining to me why the hell you gave me this stupid class?"

"Pardon?"

"I know you did something after we left the dungeon, and now I have a class I didn't want and whose name is very insulting."

"Well, what happened is a bit of a long story... but I swear I didn't make a choice for you!"

"Then who else did? I don't want to be known as a goddamn trickster priest."

Really? That is what she is angry about?

First, a look at where her status stands.

Nothing looks particularly problematic here. Exactly as she said she has now the Trickster Priest class and a new skill from it.

So a utility skill. Might be a decent way to deal some damage for a pure faith type but since she has a more melee-oriented build her SP is better spent swinging that hammer around.

"If you dislike the class name, can't you just use your [Forgery] skill to pretend you are a regular priestess?"

"...doesn't change that I didn't want it. That's already the second class I was forced into against my will!"

"Welcome to the club, Lucy. I have the same problem with Survivor and Blood Mage but neither of us can change that."

"...fine. Now tell me, what happened after we left?"

I tell her about my meeting with the lich Basluth and its offer of assistance - is it a 'he' or a  'she'? Could've asked that before... Eh, 'it' will suffice.

While I'm reciting the events, the two spirits wake up again, first Maria and then Elly, so I have to start over from the beginning. Twice...

"And that's what happened, now you know as much as I do."

Elly teases, "That's another big problem on our plate. Good work stumbling into that mess, Jared."

"That's not really fair, sis", Maria interjects, "that wasn't his choice."

"It doesn't even matter whose fault it is. Me getting a demon lord class was already inevitable for a long time and what kind of class it becomes was never in our hands. This way the one responsible at least knows what I want from the result instead of being completely up in the air."

Lucia pouts, "That's unfair, I want a custom-made class, too!"

"Sure, I'll ask the lich at our next meeting for that."

Maria asks, "So what now, my lord? Does that change anything?"

"Not really. We'll abuse the lich's help to destroy the artifact and then hopefully live happily ever after. The only price until then would be hosting an undead summoned spirit under the control of the lich. And that one will be on the same level as you two, so nothing to worry about there. At worst it can give troublesome advice."

Lucia adds, "Then you may need a shoulder angel to balance out that devil."

Elly scoffs, "That's what you have me for!"

"Okay, make that TWO shoulder angels then."

"HEY!!", shouts Elly.

"Jokes aside, we'll take care of it when the time comes. Until then... Lucia, can you make something with these metal bars?"

I hand her the Titanium bars I created earlier. She inspects them for a while.

She shakes her head, "I'm afraid not. Or at least not yet. They are too high level. I think regular bars of that material should be material level 60, these are 63. My crafting skill level is only 39. If what I've learned is correct then for each level you're below a material the failure rate increases by 5%."

Elly adds, "I think that part was redesigned by a tabletop nerd, so 5% steps sounds likely."

"How do you even get that crafting level? I don't see it anywhere in your status screen."

"You just sum up the levels of your smithing-related classes. Battle Smith, Lead Singer and Forge Wizard in my case."

Elly chimes in, "Don't forget the level of the 'Master Smith' title and half the level of dwarven race levels if you had them."

"Alright. Can you try anyway, Lucy? I can create as many of those bars as we need for free. If only one in twenty tries succeeds and gives us superior equipment that should be enough for now. Or do you need other limited materials for that as well?"

"That depends on the weapon I try to make. But if I try to make just a regular sword or hammer I don't need other materials."

"Then start with that. If you have no results after a week we postpone it until you have at least five more crafting levels. Say, don't you have a master that teaches you smithing? How about asking him?"

"I... have already surpassed him due to that event."

What? Does that mean Lucia is already our highest-leveled weapon smith? Well, given how it is calculated and the steep exp cost increase for each further level this isn't that big of a surprise.

"And if you work on it together? Are there synergy effects possible? Even if your skill level is now higher that doesn't mean his practical experience is lacking. Together you might come up with a way around that barrier."

"I have never heard of something like that but I'll try to ask him."

"Good, please do. I'll put a few hundred Titanium bars into the inventory later. Tell me when you need more."

Too bad. I had some hope that at least an equipment upgrade with this magically-created material would be possible. But it turns out the material is too good for what our smiths can handle...

"If the crafting skill is calculated the way you said then I assume there are no armor smiths that can handle this material either?"

Lucia thinks for a moment, "At least no one I can think of. I guess we could send Carl around to perform the relevant survey with a few sample bars in hand."

"Yeah, good idea. Please tell him to do that tomorrow. He doesn't particularly like talking with me..."

"Sure, will do. Anything else we need to take care of or can we get to the issue of the third summoned spirit?"

"No, that is next. So to recap, we need just any third spirit and all three of you out at the same time to take the 'Summon Master' title. After that, the race classes of spirits no longer cost us upkeep and we can upgrade a spirit up to four classes so the familiars can also take up to four classes. Did I get that right, Elly?"

She nods, "On the spot."

Lucia interjects, "How exactly do you want us to stem the upkeep cost? I don't want any more interruptions during our alone time."

"You take the spirit with four classes, I the other two. We need all the exp we can get and currently I'm much better at generating those with area damage. That shouldn't be up for debate. Maybe once you reach 2500 max MP you could take over one of the two I hold."

"Alright. So what should we create as the third spirit and who of the three spirits will get the three extra classes?"

Elly fidgets, "Can I? I've found a class I want to take. Can I have it, please?"

I'm afraid this will be a long planning session...