I woke up and- 

“AHH!” 

Why?! Why do I feel so sore? It’s like my whole body cramped all at once, and then became a cramp on top of that. It’s like my muscles were screaming. It’s insane that I can’t feel pain but I can feel sore and itchy. Hell must have gone easy in those areas or something. 

Eventually it passed, thank god, and I sat up onto the bed. 

The bed… right. Right. I… wow. I have been really out of sorts. I hadn’t even realized how tired I was. My thoughts felt like they had gone from using dial up to a super computer. Thoughts flashed through my mind and- 

“Oh shit. Oh fuck oh shit oh fuck.” 

What on earth was I thinking?! How long have I needed a good rest? Had I really said ‘Whatever’ to kingdoms worth of people wanting to kill me? I mean, it’s not like I’d change my actions too much, but if I had known I’d be in so much danger just by hanging out with Tyler and everyone, I’d have probably just gone my own way. I’d put a damn target on my back the size of Texas. 

I groaned. Xilvia had been pretty adamant that I was screwed. 

No, it just got worse and worse. Let’s go down the list of things real fast. 

I, for being a demon in a Hero party, have or will essentially piss off most humans. Especially most kingdoms and the Empire. 

An Empire, that apparently has a Psychic, which apparently are just things that exist here, that can essentially kill across continents worth of landmass. 

Tyler, True Hero that he is, is not just ‘dangerous to be found out about’ but ‘so dangerous to be found out about, that the entire world is willing to kill eight times the amount that died in World War two as a warning.’ I really, really, needed to read up on more history, right now. No wonder Konohora had always seemed livid any time she talked about the Mauv King. 

Seriously, was he insane? Telling that secret to a Truth Priestess… the pure insanity beggared belief. I have an idea of why he did that but… I really hope that small suspicion isn’t true. 

And let’s top off that shit sandwich with the fact that I’m apparently in the same boat. Except instead of annihilating a kingdom or just being a ‘Territory’ issue, it would probably cause everyone to team up and wipe out the demons, and me. Maybe less dangerous because I had ‘potential’ instead of was actually summoned… at least, so people would think. If they found out that I really was summoned, my life was forfeit. 

This was ignoring the assassins Xilvia seemed confident would come after me, and the C and B rank people that would come after us if we decided to enter the dungeon. 

Honestly… coming into this city and sticking with this group might be the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life. The only balm was that trying to go alone across the elven territory might have been even more dangerous. 

Oh yes, and Xilvia seems to hold immense blackmail material over me with this but… I honestly don’t see her actually using it. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what her goals or intentions are. I don’t want to be distrustful but I also don’t want to be stupid. If she really just sees me as her student and is dedicated towards me… great. She is my Mentor, no matter what. But if she has any hidden motives… well… best not to bring it up till I know that I can beat her without dying. Hell, she even mentioned some kind of secret yesterday. My Analyze can confirm that she definitely has one. I still can’t pierce that information block. 

At least that’s a good thing. I fought and tried to Analyze her for so long, that my Analyze got a lot more use to dealing with “information blackouts.” I can sense a lot more people around the City with those information blackouts, things I just can’t know that easily, and it doesn’t feel like I’m being punched by a fist wrapped in darkness anymore. Now it just feels like I’m seeing black voids in the middle of paintings. Much more preferable. 

Alright. We need to a hard reassessment. Of… everything at this point. We should probably just leave. Why are we even going into the dungeon? Xilvia recommended we go down in order to ‘grow through danger’ but I’d really rather not… Hell, she used the words ‘If you survive.’ But that’s a conversation I’ll need to talk about with my team- 

Oh. Oh no. 

Suddenly, an image popped into my mind. One I had seen in my tired state yesterday. Tyler retching, Konohora stricken with horror, Riary reliving a tragedy. I don’t blame them, that was a lot of blood. No, even more than that, I could feel my own face morphing into one of shame and horror. They saw me like that, like a bloody fucking psychopath from Hell. Horror, disgust, fear. I mentally hammered at them with my visage alone. 

And now I have to go see them again. 

God…. damn it. This is going to be so fucking awkward. 

*****

I walked out of Xilvia’s compound and really, that was what it was. This thing was made to last. I’d only really focused on the front entrance and the training yard before but if this thing was any bigger I’d have to come up with a new name for it. It was a pretty massive stylized tree. Well ‘tree’. My definition of that word has jumped by leaps and bounds. Every house in this City is a plant or a tree. It’s pretty amazing really. I shook those thoughts off. I needed to focus and figure out what on earth I was going to say to my “friends”. I chewed on that word. They were my friends… I just didn’t like them very much. Good and the bad Derek, gotta take the good with the bad. If it was a different Hero Team, they could’ve just killed me and that would be it. We’d fought together and had hitched each other to the same boat. Our month of traveling was even pretty fun, overall. We had fought against Vanessa together, the cultists, the bandits, and I survived for a pretty damn long while while relying on Konohora. When the chips were down and when they weren’t, they were there. I needed to stop being a fairweather friend. 

Hell, Riary had swallowed her hate, Tyler tried to open up and be better after criticism, and Konohora well… we’d gotten decently close I’d like to think. The only reason I don’t like them is because they seem like the source of almost all of my problems. If not for them, I’d probably have not fought a vampire and made it to the town without issue. From there, I’d have relaxed for a good long while before eventually resuming my travels. 

…or I’d be dead to that vampire…. Or made it to the town and gotten fucked over by Happy… God, I almost slept with the man… Or decided to travel to Prinsk on my own after hearing about a ‘Dungeon’ and wanting to check it out and try to find party members to continue my travels with… only to probably end up dead as I went in without training and knowing just how much people hated demons everywhere. 

Alright, so I should really cut them some slack. Starting now… I sighed. Starting now, I’m going to try and make an effort to be a team. Do some team bonding exercises, maybe cook (ha) or buy lunch or something for them. Honestly, that’s probably a good idea. I should order lunch for them. I still have a dozen gold coins left over that I didn’t give to the team fund. Sometimes you can’t choose your friends, because they’re like a quagmire you stepped in. Might as well make the most of it and actually try and do more than just ‘get along’ casually. 

I had walked out from my room and back the way I’d come, only really knowing that route. In doing so, I’d passed through the training yard and been pretty dismayed to have lost my sword. It wasn’t there. Xilvia must have stored it somewhere. 

Continuing towards our house, I was both relieved and nervous as I saw Xilvia there, my sword in the ground, talking to my teammates. As they saw me get closer, there eyes seemed to turn wide. 

“Derek!” Tyler was the first to call out, sounding shocked. 

Xilvia shook her head slightly, seemingly in exasperation. 

Then, to my shock, Tyler began to barrel down towards me. The others following shortly after him. It wasn’t just that he seemed to be running towards me that was shocking… I couldn’t forget I was not the only ‘true hero’ in the party. I don’t know how he hid it from Grant but… Tyler had gotten a lot stronger. They all had. It had only been a month yet their growth was shocking. I could feel it in each of us now. How we’d all hit a wall, metaphorically speaking. How there was some kind of… barrier. This one didn’t come from my ‘Power Gauge’, this was pure Analyze. I could feel that wall and barrier myself. It was almost… no, it was part of my soul. That was… unnerving. I knew B-Rank was different but I’d never seen anyone actually break through. I could ‘see’ other’s souls, kinda, but B-Rank souls didn’t ‘look’ any different. But then again… my Analyze and Power Gauge portion of it didn’t have much to say. Only a few souls were ‘on’ like Tyler’s and Riary’s. 

“Are you okay?!” I was knocked out my musing as Tyler finally got close enough to practically shout in my face. 

“Uh, yes?” 

Tyler still looked worried but he practically seem to melt on the spot. 

“Thank god…” He said, like a great weight had been lifted. 

I blinked in surprise as Konohora and Riary caught up. 

“He was worried, despite Xilvia ensuring us you were fine.” Konohora said, but she looked just as relieved. 

Riary snorted, but I could see some mixed emotions on her face. Less than I had expected though. Namely her normal angry personality, but it just seemed a bit more… brittle. 

“I told you that you didn’t need to worry. He’s a demon, soaking in blood is one of their favorite hobbies.” She said, glaring at me.

“What kind of weird hobbies do you think I have… blood is blood, it should stay on the inside of most people.” 

“Sure.” Riary said, in a tone that made it clear I was full of shit. 

Ah, normalcy. It felt good to return to it. 

“Now that you’ve reunited,” Xilvia started. “I shall leave you to it. Try to survive.” 

Saying so, she began to leave. Hey, wait a minute! 

“Hey! You never trained me how to use a sword!” 

Xilvia turned to look at me like I was an idiot. 

“Of course not. You are barely ready to begin moving your body. Don’t you dare use that sword right now. You will die in any real battle.” She said sternly, before leaving. 

I turned to look at my friends, taking a deep breath, before smiling. Things were fucked, again, but this time I had friends with me and time to prepare. 

“It’s good to see you all again. Come on, I want to hear what hellish training you guys went through. Mine was pretty brutal. I have never been so tired in my life. I thought I was going to die a hundred, no, a thousand times over.” 

Walking, I headed back inside, as Tyler immediately begin to launch into his training about his time with Grant. I smiled, even as some of it sounded pretty… suspicious, and watched as everyone seemed to lighten up. Even Riary seemed to be happier. She’d never say it… but I bet she was worried about me too. 

We’d improved by leaps and bounds. There was a lot to discuss about whether we wanted to go into the dungeon or not but… I grinned. 

Either way, I felt ready. 

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