After finishing our breakfast and glancing uncomfortably at the untouched rice ordered by Koris, we paid for our meal and went outside.

The atmosphere is strangely tense right now. I heard from the chatting of the patrol soldiers that the Demons show no sight of continuing their siege. Normally you would feel reassured by such fact, but this peacefulness instead added anxiety. Their instinct is telling them that something big is coming.

I guess at most, it would be your typical four heavenly kings leading the invasion. Demon Lord himself or herself probably wouldn't be here this early, right?

Seeing the level of our Protagonist, and comparing it with Esant, the painter, he is still far too weak to face the Demon Lord.

It's questionable whether he could win this war or not, but I'm 100% certain that Koris will survive somehow. One of the strong points of every Protagonist is their insane plot armor. He might suddenly gain a huge boost in power or some hidden master might come to rescue him at the last minute.

After chasing away some pervert who tried to flirt with Lin, we reached the gate of the fortress.

My plan for today is to test Lin's fighting ability, including her Skill, and increase my level further.

In Quintet of Symphony, her AI is the definition of bad despite having the most potentially strongest skill. It's called 'Reflection'.

It literally does what its name suggested. To reflect something.

As a glance, most players want to have such a Skill, but after a lot of experimenting and testing, it came to be known that Lin will randomly cast it. The 'Reflection' will last for 1 second after casting and it could reflect only once. If the timing is right then you could prevent a fatal injury while dealing a huge ton of damage back to your opponent, but that depends on luck because of its randomness. It was casted even when you're idling in the safe zone, and sometimes she wouldn't cast it at all for the whole day. Who programmed such a shitty AI?

Now that she has a mind of her own, I could rely on her to perfectly cast it at a critical moment. However, I still have to worry about its cooldown which is 3 minutes.

After paying for the fee, I left the fortress with Lin, moving towards the white forest where I first arrived here.

I came to know from a passerby that it's called Rak Forest and then I went to the local library to search for its information.

Learning about this world is important, but right now, I focused all my attention on everything related to Rak Forest because my current priority is to increase my level.

There is nothing much about Rak Forest. It's mostly an uncharted area after it's colluded by Death Aura which is believed to be caused by the Demons. It causes every living being in the area to be tainted with various diseases and die painfully.

The path I traveled through yesterday is the safe route without any Death Aura.

Are they really from the Demons, I wonder?

I'm very tempted to go and check this Death Aura. Also, I have Lin, who's a Goddess. She might be able to identify it far more accurately than my Object Identifying Skill.

Arriving at the Rak Forest, Lin who quietly following me all this time turned her head towards me, "Master, I do think you will be affected by his misfortune. (Master, I don't think you will be affected by his misfortune.)"

"Huh, why?"

Lin heaved a sigh and looked at me as if I'm an idiot, "You didn't defeat me and all other gods in the Heaven Realm, so right now, you are a mortal anymore, master. (You did defeat me and all other gods in the Heaven Realm, so right now, you are not a mortal anymore, master.)"

I tilted my head, confused by her statement, "Is that how it works? After defeating your kind, I became a God?"

"That's exactly right, but you can treat it that way. (That's not exactly right, but you can treat it that way.)"

Her words sounded a bit confuse there. I still need a lot of time to get used to her speech.

"So what you're trying to say is part of me is now a Deity and thus, I shouldn't be affected by his fate?"

"No, master. (Yes, master)"

"Is that so... I still won't become his companion though, it sounds like a pain."

Lin happily nodded, "I disagree! (I agree!)"

After walking for about half an hour, we finally found our first enemies of the day. Well, it's just another group of Frogbits.

I shook my head disappointedly, "Are they the only monsters in this forest?"

Lin was, however, strangely excited. She said with sparkling eyes, "M-master! I don't want to fluff them! (M-master! I want to fluff them!)"

Rabbits are indeed fluffable, but these things have frog legs, "Do you like frogs?"

"I hate all animals! (I love all animals)"

"Cockroach? Snake? Spider?"

"No! I hate all of them! (Yes, I love all of them!)"

I frowned. No offense to everyone who loves these animals, but Lin doesn't seem like the kind of person who loves them.

Sighing for a bit, I told her, "Then I have bad news for you."

"No? (Yes?)"

I feigned ignorance and said with a straight face, "Go beat them up."

Her face turned ashen white as her body tremble, "What?! Y-yes?! (What?! N-no?!)"

"Unless we found a different kind of monsters, you have to bear with it."

Lin threw a tantrum and protested, "Y-you're not cruel! (Y-you're cruel!)"

"Look, I don't want to force you, but apart from your Skill, you have to show me your physical capability."

"Then don't spar with me, master! (Then spar with me, master!)"

"You can't. I'm not bragging, but you won't be my match."

She tilted her head cutely while knitting her brow, "It's not just a spar, so why would you not go all out, master? (It's just a spar, so why would you go all out, master?)"

Oww! She hit where it hurt!

This is rather awkward... Will I lose my dignity as her master if I tell her that I can't control my strength due to my unique circumstances?

I coughed and persuaded her, "Who knows what the future will have in store for us. For that matter, you have to prepare your mentality by beating up those cute-fluffy-rabbits-with-frog-legs!"

"Yes~! (No~!)" Tear started to form on her pitiful eyes.

Goddess damn it! Who set her personality to be this timid towards cute things! I know she is a girl, but still!

And those innocent eyes... Please, stop it... You're making me feel guilty...

Ugh.. what to do.

After some thought, I patted her shoulder, "Fine, I still need to raise my level so I will go beat them up myself."

Lin seemed a little sad but didn't say anything.

.

Leveling up to 10, I massacred 26 Frogbits. It's getting harder and harder to raise my level.

Wasting more weapons and potions, we rest under the shade of trees.

At that moment, my Map detected something, "Hey, Lin."

She turned her head towards me, "No, master? (Yes, master?)"

"Someone is being attacked by something, Demons perhaps?" I said as my gaze head towards the south.

"Demons?" Lin mumbled with boiling anger.

Uh, I almost forgot that most Gods in Quintet of Symphony hate Demons to the core.

While grinning, I asked her, "What do you say? The attackers might not be fluffy rabbits anymore, so are you willing to beat them ups?"

"Not gladly! (Gladly!)"

"Great! After making sure that the one being attacked is safe, I will leave the enemies to you and if it gets dangerous, I will help you out."

"No! (Yes!)"

We nodded at each other and dashed off towards the place.

.

"They really are Demons..."

As we arrived at the place, we saw a group of people dressed like normal villagers being ambushed by the Demons.

Well, they are probably not your average villagers, given by the fact that they're still alive and even fighting back.

Spys? Scouts? Messengers?

Either way, we have to quickly save them.

With a lowered voice, I whispered to Lin, "Lin, you deal with the Demons. I will go and protect those-..... huh?"

"GO DIE IN HELL, YOU FILTHY UGLY HEIDOUS DEMONS!!"

I couldn't immediately identify whose voice was shouting with burning anger and hatred.

It's Lin's voice, but she said those words like a normal person would!

How much hate one must have against someone to even forget their persona?

Before I could tell her the plan, the moment we arrived here, she already went on ahead and murdered those poor Demons.

"DIEEE! I WILL PERSONALLY SEND YOU TO AFTERLIFE!"

Well, at least I get to confirm that her physical capability is quite strong despite being a Mage type boss. As expected of a Raid Boss with little to no weakness, I guess.

Her stats might be weak due to her current level, but her Martial Art Skill is a work of art. She dodged and countered with perfect maneuvers without wasting any movements while precisely using Reflect to reflect the damage. Although she couldn't finish them off with one hit due to her stats, that doesn't post any problem for her at all.

However, this annoyed me a little.

Why is she able to control her strength, but I couldn't? What kind of realistic punishment game is this?!

The highest level Demon is at 20 so I guess she will be fine on her own.

I took out 2 daggers from my Inventory and dashed towards the Demons who were fighting with those villagers but are now dazedly watching Lin massacred their kins.

Throwing both daggers without using any Skills, I aimed at the 2 Demons, closest to the villagers, and instantly killed them.

While my hands still shake a little due to fear of killing human beings, it's a lot better than when I fought using Raven's Form.

Reaching my destination, I stood my ground, guarding the villagers against other Demons while drinking the potions to heal the injury from the recoil.

After seeing their peers perished instantly by my daggers, other Demons got cold feet and started retreating, disregarded any hope that they could beat both Lin and me.

Sorry guys, I don't think that girl will let you off.

Lin, seeing the Demons retreated, glared at them furiously, "DON'T YOU DARE ESCAPE GODDESS WRATH!"

"G-goddess? What is she-"
"D-did she just proclaims herself as a Goddess?!"
"This girl is crazy!"

Hey Lin, you shouldn't be screaming about your identity to those Demons. Luckily, both Demons and these 'villagers' don't seem to believe it. What kind of a Goddess goes on a rampage like that?

However, I have to talk to her about this later. Losing your rationality after seeing the Demons Race, where is your dignity as a Goddess, Lin?

Her rage doesn't seem to affect her fighting capability, but better be safe than sorry. Unless you have Berserker as your class, being calm during a fight is possibly the best course of action.

Though I have to admit, she moves as if dancing, it's very mesmerizing and bewitching.

Hold on... if a Mage like her could do this much physically, what about my 2 other pets who focus solely on melee combat and physical capability?

I fell a cold shiver running down my spine.

While my thought ran wild, Lin has finished her job and is now beating their corpses...

Huh...?

"DIE DIE DIE YOU DAMN DEMON!"

"Lin! Stop! They're already dead!"

Lin stopped her fists and turned her body that's covered in Demons' blood towards me. "Ah? Master?"

Scary!

Seeing my gaze, she discovered that her entire body is stink of blood as she became panicked, "Ahh! How not unsightly! I won't go clean myself up immediately, master! (Ahhh! How unsightly! I will go clean myself up immediately, master!)"

And... she's back to her usual confusing wordplay again, what a handful.

Where did she go to clean herself anyway, are there any river nearby?

I sigh resignedly and shifted my attention to the 'villagers' behind me.

They already recovered from the shock of seeing scary-looking Lin. How professional.

The one who's probably the leader stepped forward and bowed his head, "Thank you both for saving us, may we know your name?"

"I'm Leon, and that girl is Lin. Why're you being attacked by the Demons?"

Their body tensed after hearing my question, but the leader still answered, "We are the scouts, sent by the Humans kingdom to invigilate the Demons' movements and we saw a large legion of Demons a-and..."

"And...?"

He swallowed his saliva and said dryly with a face full of despair, "It's personally lead by the Demon Commanders and the Demon Lord himself!"

My face frowned and turned a bit pale.

Shit! Already?! The final boss is here when I'm just a level 10?! Oh wait... the Protagonist of this story is Koris, not me. Why should I feel startled? This all-out war is obviously not for me, but Koris to handle.

I'm a little curious how high is the Demon Lord's level though. All things considered, it shouldn't have exceeded 100, probably.

Staying silent for a while, the scout leader continued, "B-but, that's not the most shocking thing!"

Great, here comes the possible extra boss...

"What is it?"

With an expression full of even more despair than when he mentioned the Demon Lord, he said, "Nast Solanst has allied himself with the Demon Lord!"

Uh... who?

I coughed and asked, "Excuse me, but who is that?"

"Y-you don't know who Nast Solanst is?!" His gaze that has been looking at me changed from respectful to that of someone who is looking at an idiot.

Hey, it's not my fault that I don't know him. I just arrived here, you know?

"So, who is he?"

Seeing my serious gaze, he calmed himself down and replied calmly, "He is the worst kind of Human. Kidnapping, murdering, blackmailing, and even enslaving, he has done all of them."

Well, definitely the kind of person I would like to punch to death.

"He also has a well-known alias."

"What is it?"

"A Chess Master."