I landed in front of the magic shield I had cast around the other three heroes and took a deep breath. I figured this might be a mess when they woke up and weren't standing in the cleric's main hall. There wasn't really anything that I could do about that, so I dismissed the protective shield and hooked myself up to the harness again.

I took off flying again and flew back to the recent battlefield, since that was the closest I could safely get to what could possibly be the next battle. I landed in a safe area and disconnected myself, then stepped back enough to let them see where we were. I waved my hand over them to remove the Sleep spell and the three of them groaned and started to stir.

The man named Anthony jerked awake. “Hey, what...” He blinked his eyes and looked around. “What the hell? Where are we?”

“We're currently in the middle of a huge destroyed area that the undead are responsible for.” I said and his mouth dropped open in shock. “It's all right. All of them in the immediate area have been taken care of. I wouldn't bring you here, otherwise.”

The other two women were awake now, too.

“I have something to tell you, so please, don't jump ahead of me and...”

“What's this thing floating in my vision?” Farrah asked and then her eyes widened. “How did I become level 82? I didn't do anything!”

“That's what I want to talk about.” I said and saw Anthony's and Ksenya's faces twitch, so I waved at them to get their attention. “Don't spend your available points yet!”

“You can't tell us what to do.” Anthony said.

“I'm trying to save you a lot of pain if you do it wrong, for god's sake!” I said loudly.

It looked like they weren't going to listen to me for a few seconds, then a bright light covered the four of us, as if we were under a spotlight.

Why is your compatibility matrix not activating? A loud man's voice asked. You should all be friends by now.

“Who's that?” Farrah asked and looked up at the light. “Oh! It's you!” She said, I assumed because she could feel his presence as she peered up at the sky, even though he wasn't actually there. It was probably just her own mind's way of dealing with the knowledge that she was talking to a divine being.

Yes, it is I. The god's voice said. You all seem to be fighting the urge to get to know each other.

“I wasn't fighting it at first.” I said without looking at Farrah. “I started off trying to be nice and it only got me distrust in return.”

“I'm not giving my real number and address to a man I JUST MET!” Farrah yelled.

“Why not?” I asked. “Look where we ended up together. Would I really have an ulterior motive to get to know you, other than trying to help? What would be the point if you knew that I'm not asking you for sex?”

Farrah opened her mouth to say something, then she sighed.

“Yeah, I know you're angry about that whole thing.” I said and she gave me a look that said to shut up. “Look, I needed to relieve some tension and to wait for my mana to recharge. I was only going to have a nice meal with a powerful woman and Anthony there blew my chance.”

“Hey!” Anthony spat.

“I diverted to you and didn't hit on you or ask you to dinner. I talked and asked you what you did back home.” I said. “I thought we could start a good friendship...”

“...and I shut you down.” Farrah said, finally understanding it. “Then you acted like an asshole.”

“Being abrupt with someone that doesn't want to be friends with me, doesn't mean I'm an asshole.” I said in my defense. “Would you want to bother being friendly with someone that lied when asked a simple question and then made disparaging comments to you?”

Farrah didn't say anything, so I figured I'd keep spelling it out for her.

“You could have just said it was too soon for that, or you needed my information first, or a whole bunch of other things... including saying a simple 'no'.” I explained and all three of them looked surprised. “We're on a different world, people! A god we've never heard of before gave us the ability to gain massive amounts of power! Do you really think I need to try to be friends with three people I've never met before? No, right?”

The three of them exchanged looks and looked back at me.

“Right. I don't. I was brought here against my will and forced to deal with this world's problems before I can go back to my own. I have to do that with you, since there's four of us for a reason. It doesn't really matter to me if we're friends or not. As long as the task gets done, I can go back home to the little girl that's waiting there for me.”

The looks on their faces were priceless, especially Farrah's.

The compatibility matrix seems to be stabilizing. The god's voice said with satisfaction. You may continue your verbal engagement.

The spotlight faded away and left me standing there and them sitting on the padded bench.

“What the hell was that about?” Anthony asked.

“I accidentally called for help when I said... yeah, I'm not saying it again.” I looked at Farrah. “Remind me to not say it again.”

After a few seconds, Farrah spoke. “Hey, Damon.”

“Yes, Farrah?”

“Don't say it again.” Farrah said with a smile.

I chuckled. “Hey, do you want to have sex?”

Farrah looked angry for a second, then she sighed. “You're obviously joking.”

“Of course I am. No one in their right minds says something like that, except maybe to a longtime wife or someone they've been with for a while.” I said and then smile. “Or an old friend that's had the hots for you for years.”

“That looks like experience talking.” Ksenya said.

“It is, and I said no for years, too.” I responded. “I mean, she's gorgeous and gets a little crazy when she doesn't get what she wants...”

“I've been there.” Anthony said. “Sometimes crazy's good, especially the sex... as long as they're on your side.” He shook his head. “You do not want that crazy used against you.”

“Oh, I know.” I said with a chuckle. “How else do you think I know she's a little crazy?”

Anthony laughed. “Good point.”

I waved at the destruction around me. “There's dangers all around us. Acid there...” I pointed at a large pool of it. “...poison there...” I waved at some of the desiccated trees in the distance. “...and monsters and creatures, living and undead, that can kill you faster than you can react.”

“You really know all of this?” Farrah asked.

“I'm not going to claim I know everything, since facing undead is not something I thought I'd ever have to face.” I said and the three of them nodded. “I do know the proper way to allocate your stat points so that you won't suffer from what I call power sickness.”

“How?” Ksenya asked.

“I've done it myself, obviously.” I said and waved at myself. “Go ahead and identify me.”

All three of their mouths dropped open at seeing that I was Level 99 already.

“How is that possible? I'm only 82.” Farrah said.

“It's because you weren't physically involved in the actual fighting, despite being in my party.”

“Party? What party?” Ksenya asked and looked around.

“He means us.” Anthony said. “The four of us are a party.”

“I don't understand.” Ksenya said. “We don't have alcohol, music, or even walls around us.”

Farrah laughed. “Not that kind of party.”

“Let me.” I said and explained what a party was, namely a group of adventurers or heroes that banded together to fight some battles or face a powerful foe. When someone in the party did something big, like beat a bunch of monsters, the party gets a share of the experience, which levels them up and gives them points to spend on stats.

“So, if we were here, we would have gotten even more?” Ksenya asked and I nodded. “How much more?”

“It would depend on how much you participated, I think.” I said. “Which we'll find out soon, since it's going to take you a while to add your stats and skill points to the things you have access to.”

“There's no limit showing on mine.” Anthony said.

“That's because it's a mental deficiency that the numbers can't account for.” I said. “I'll explain all about it if you give me a chance.”

Farrah and Anthony nodded right away and Ksenya looked doubtful.

“Can we have a party after?” Ksenya asked.

“Do you mean after the talk or after we deal with this world's problem?” I asked.

“Can I say both?” Ksenya asked with a smile.

“I don't have anything on me to give you a party. However, once word gets around that the Divine Chosen have begun cleansing the undead from the world right after being summoned...”

“We'll be lauded as heroes!” Anthony said, happily. “Everyone will want to give us a party!”

“The whole world will.” I said and all three of them smiled. “Now, the first thing you need to add points to is Intelligence. It'll help your mind accept the changes you'll be doing, then you add Wisdom to help you with understanding the adjustments...”

My lecture went on for quite some time and the three of them listened and added the points where I told them to at first. I warned them that after the base for each is established, it was up to them to find what they were good at and add points to them on their own. Just like how I taught Idhyl, I taught them the technique to feel out how much their tolerance was for each stat to accept over a certain timeframe.

Thanks to their higher intelligence and wisdom, they caught on fairly quickly and I left them to it. As they worked at getting themselves up to speed and adjusted to their much higher stats and power levels, I walked around the area and kept casting Holy Cleanse and Holy Purify to clean the ground and acid splashes. To my surprise, the combination left behind nice little pools of pure water. When I glanced at it, my auto-identifier told me that it was actually Holy Water.

I thought that was hilarious and took out a dozen empty soda bottles, used Cleaning Hands on them to clean them, then filled them with the Holy Water. Of course, now that I had the idea, I walked over to one of the larger acid pools that I hadn't cleaned yet, and started throwing out all of the garbage and wrappers for everything that I had automatically stored after using or eating the food they contained.

Oh boy, it was a lot. I was glad that the acid was as voracious as it was, because it sure would have been a huge mess to leave it all behind somewhere else. I stood there for about two hours and kept tossing in garbage, chuckling as each piece was consumed, because the acid pool didn't increase in size. I wasn't going to question it, though. Magic was real and something disappearing was not a surprise at all.

“Having fun?” Farrah asked.

“I'm just about... hold on...” I took out a huge bundle of meat wrapping paper that I had saved up from all the meat I had eaten back on the other world. “Ha ha, you don't realize how much you have until you start taking it out and look at it.”

Farrah stared at the huge bundle as I tossed the whole thing into the acid. “How long...” She barely had the words out of her mouth as the thing sunk down like it was quicksand. After about five seconds, it was gone. “Never mind.”

I laughed and turned to face her. “I assume you're all done?”

Farrah nodded. “Other than Anthony being a dick about saving some points, just in case, we're all set.”

“Great.” I said and waved back at the bench. “Now it's time to teach you the most important spell you can have.”

“Holy Light?” Farrah asked as we walked over to the other two heroes.

“No, it can't be taught.” I said. “The head cleric was right. It really is a chance that you're supposed to only get if you're a high enough level and then you have to try and pray to get it to be added to your spell list.”

Farrah gave me both a questioning look and a disbelieving look, which made me laugh again.

“I really was lucky when I received my power.” I said and she sat down on the bench. “I was about to tell Farrah that I didn't fight all the undead with the Holy Light spell. It's too specific and narrow to be effective on multiple targets.”

“Then what did you use?”

“Holy Cleanse mixed with a fire based attack.” I said and the three of them looked shocked. “Yes, I'll explain how, because both fire and Holy spells work phenomenally against the undead. I'll also teach you the basic flame spell and how to cast that and Holy Cleanse to get the same effect.”

The three of them listened intently as I did and I felt something shift slightly inside. It was similar, on a very basic level, to what I felt with Nat. If I had to compare it to something, it was about the same reaction that Angel and I had to each other. We could be friends and that was it. We wouldn't call, send messages, or even care about each other once we were out of sight for a short time.

I looked at the eagerly learning faces of the three people around me and I was fine with that. I wasn't really here to make long lasting friends, anyway. I had a job to do and a world to return to as quickly as possible. With three people using a similar Holy Cleansing Fire attack, I could let them handle the normal enemies and I would only have to worry about the main bad guy.