The fountain was in front of me, and in my hand, I had a ball of light... a ball of Points. If I threw them in, I could make a wish.

"Tell me, Fainn... What is it that you want? Truly? What do you wish for?"

My eyes were stuck on the fountain. It was shimmering. Someone was reflected in its surface.

"Why do you keep asking me this?"

"Because there is an incongruity that I have yet to resolve. What do you want, Fainn?"

"I want what Svilran wants. The eradication of the evil Earth's destruction unleashed."

"But why?"

"People don't need a reason to be good."

"I suspect you tell that to yourself to settle your heart."

"Why are you grilling me on this?"

"Because you're telling yourself you don't need a reason so that you don't have to confront your--"

"Who are you even?"

"Someone who is interested in your safety and future--"

"Then leave that door closed."

"But I don't understand why--"

"We don't need to understand why."

I walked onto the edge of the fountain, and as soon as I did, it turned into the edge of a beach. I turned on my heels and closed my eyes.

"Just let it drown... What I want... When I was a kid, I wanted..." I fell backward and into the water, letting it rush over me.

I sank deeper into the depths.

***

I yawned and opened my eyes. I looked to my right and my left. There were no rotten fruits, but I was also missing Svilran. The last time I saw her, she was sleeping next to me.

"... I'm lucky I didn't have a nightmare..." I cocked my head as I wondered--it felt like I had forgotten something. "What do I want?"

I got up and out of bed and started throwing my clothes on.

I glanced to the side at the dresser and at the picture of me, Svilran, Elma, and Dorthaunzee.

"Damn, it's embarrassing, but I just want to be with the girls and explore and save the world. What young man wouldn't want that? I just want a simple life... One free of nightmares."

Yeah, that was good enough for me. I was happy with myself. I walked over to my door and stepped out into the main room.

"I could probably use some hobby, though... Hmm?"

My heart jumped. Holy moly, I was surprised. Was I dreaming?

"Hi, Fainn!" Svilran happily said. She pranced up to me and spun around. The moment her back was to me, I saw that ass in all its glory. "What do you think? It's cute, right?" Svilran averted her gaze and blushed. "It's kind of sexy too, right?"

Svilran was in an apron and just an apron. I managed to peel my eyes away from Svilran long enough to see the many slices of watermelon she had on the table.

"Wow, you've been busy," I said with a smile. I was a little nervous, but I went and hugged her.

"Aww, Fainn! You're so warm," she said as she nuzzled me. Her breasts--those deific breasts--they were pouring happiness into my body.

I was overwhelmed. What a wonderful way to start the day. I kissed her on her forehead.

"This is what I want."

"Fainn?"

"I... I want you around, forever."

"Fainn!" Svilran hugged me tighter. "Me and you, Fainn! We won't stop! We're the Hero Hub! All that stands between the Imaginal Realms and destruction!"

"Hey..." I said.

"Yes?" she replied, peeling her head away from my chest to look me in the eyes.

"Do you want to do stuff?"

She smiled deviously. "Aha! Got you!"

"What?"

"You're going to have to wait until nightfall, mister!" She put her hands on her hips and stuck out her chest. "Those types of activities are reserved for the night."

I flicked her nose, a little miffed but happy.

***

Onto Business

January 10, 0001, Hero Hub Calendar.

 

Yup, we decided to start a calendar. For ease, Svilran and I just stuck to the months I knew from Earth. Who knows. It was still up to change. Anyway, Elma and Dorthaunzee were out on another Auxiliary Mission--one where they had to help a Hero slay a monster, leaving Svilran and me to ourselves. Oh, they also had, before this mission, completed a super easy mission we had found and earned us some points.

We decided to start our day at the <Observatory>. Svilran wrote our points breakdown on our board and went through them. She could have just shown me some menus, but her liking to do things by hand was cute.

"So, we have 100 Build Points. We'll be able to build one Rare facility. We have 125 Resource Points, 145 Terraforma Points, 190 Upgrade Points, and very excitingly, we have 345 Summon Points. At our current level, we'll be able to summon three heroes if we find them."

"Assuming they're Rare or lower, in terms of the ranking system, right?"

"Yes."

It was a little strange to talk about them like that, but Heroes were also ranked. What it really meant was that some Heroes were capable of more, faster than other Heroes. Some Heroes were also more versatile, while some were likely to be extremely useful in one specific arena. How the ranking was calculated was beyond us, but it was likely a complex calculation.

Anyway, there were two ways of referring to the Hero ranks. When summoning Heroes, they had the Basic, Rare, Super Rare and so on, system. Once one had a Hero, they were on the Letter Grade Ranking where they would have a grade from F to A or something like that. We actually hadn't seen that system yet. We only knew about it thanks to Svilran's initial information.

"So what do you want to build, Fainn?"

"Well, I want to build a Resource Square, but what can we do when we don't have the Resource Points..."

"Well, we could build a few."

"But what if we need the Resource Points later? I just don't think 125 is enough. These are going to be the hardest points to manage since they're used for so much... The Resource Squares must have crazy future returns..."

"Well, if that's how you feel, all we can do is wait for the girls to return in that regard."

"I'll think about it some more... I mean, I would love to surprise the girls with a new fruit... Anyway, first thing we should do is upgrade this wonderful telescope. We can't keep working the way we have."

"With our points, we can buy two upgrades. Should we commit?" Svilran asked.

"Do it," I happily said.