Desiree’s mom (whose name turned out to be Inara) put together a hearty meal of steak and vegetables. The whole time she was cooking, she refused to answer any of James’s questions; she actually pretended not to hear them, which was incredibly frustrating. Instead, she let Desiree teach her everything she had learned from James about birds while the little girl helped chop and prep the vegetables.
When Inara finally set a plate in front of James, he was starving. He took a big bite of steak and closed his eyes to savor it. It was perfectly cooked, seasoned just the right amount, and it was incredibly tender. He’d been to some top tier chop houses in his day, but this steak put them all to shame. It could have been something Inara did to it or some magical quality to the creature it came from, but the why didn’t matter.
“This is incredible,” he said to Inara. “Thank you.”
It was hard to tell with her — she did such a good job of keeping a straight face — but she seemed pleased by the compliment. They ate in silence after that, all too focused on enjoying the meal to speak. James took the longest; whenever he had a truly delicious meal in front of him, he took care to take small bites and savor each one.
When at last he pushed his empty plate away, he saw that Inara was looking at him curiously.
“Do you truly come from another world?” she asked.
James nodded. “I was killed in my world, but then instead of dying I woke up in the forest. In the three circles. I heard a scream, and that’s how I found Desiree treed by a bear.”
Inara looked sharply at her daughter.
“Mom, I’m fine!” Desiree shot an exasperated glance at James. “It wasn’t even a very big one. Anyway, I think it was only there because of him! Tell her the rest!”
James explained the tutorial he’d gone through. Desiree gasped in all the right places — she hadn’t known his point of view through the ordeal — while Inara remained completely stoic.
When he got to the part about turning the bear into a rug and adding it to his inventory, Inara steepled her fingers.
“I see,” she said, but did not elaborate.
James waited awkwardly for a moment, expecting her to continue. When she didn’t, he said, “It’s pretty obvious that the next thing I should do is check my quests and my character sheet. Is there anything I should know before I do either of those?” Had he been alone, the decision would have been easy. With an audience however, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she might know something he didn’t.
Inara considered the question.
“Level up!” Desiree interrupted. “Put all your stats into strength and you can punch the next bear in the face!”
Inara gave her a look. “What have we said about min-maxing?”
Desiree slumped. “Don’t do it.”
James had to hide his smile at the exchange. That definitely wasn’t the sort of conversation mothers and daughters had back home.
To James, Inara said, “Check the quests first. The nature of them might influence how you want to allocate your stats.”
“Right! Good thinking.”
[-] Quests
[-] Keep the Doctor Away!
- Mrs. Fitz needs six tomatoes, and for some reason she doesn’t want to do it herself! Maybe she’s allergic to gardens? Maybe she’s lazy? Either way, better hurry before she needs a seventh!
[-] No Stone Unturned
- Dungeon clear! That means kill every monster, loot every chest, and leave no suspiciously loose brick untouched. If there’s still a single rat scurrying around by the time you're done, you’ve failed.
[-] To Rule or To Ruin
- The Demon King awaits, brooding on his big, evil chair. Defeat him in battle and bring peace to Grimora? Or maybe… that throne looks comfy? No judgment. (Okay, maybe a little judgment.)
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James read the quests aloud. By the end, his hands were clenched into fists and he felt some tightness in his chest. That was one hell of a difficulty jump from the first quest to the second, and the finality of the third made it sound like these were the only three quests he was going to get.
The last quest in particular set his teeth on edge. He almost didn’t read it all; he was afraid they might think he really would become the next Demon King and choose not to help him. At the very least, it added a layer of suspicion, like helping Frodo get to Mordor but worrying that he’d take the ring for himself instead.
“See! Put all your stats into strength so you can punch the Demon King in the face!” Desiree crowed.
Her enthusiasm cut the tension, and everyone laughed.
James shrugged. “I guess I really am here to save the world, huh?”
“And to help Mrs. Fitz with her groceries, apparently,” Inara added.
Desiree wrinkled her nose. “She is lazy. She makes me get fennel for her all the time, and apples are easy!”
“I guess that’s a good place for me to start, anyway,” James said.
Inara waved her hand dismissively. “We can do that tomorrow. She’s not going anywhere, and we still have more to talk about. Let’s see that level up.”
James brought back the Level Up! notification and focused in on it. A status sheet appeared in his vision.
Name: James
Race: Human
Class: Hero
Level: 3
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
EXP: 10/100
Stat Points Available: 20
STR: 10
AGI: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CON: 10
Skills: NONE
He rattled off the numbers. Desiree clapped her hands in delight.
“You’re so strong!” she said. “That must be your Hero class, that’s why you get so many stat points every level!”
Even Inara looked impressed by the number. “I’ve never heard of someone gaining so many points every level,” she said. “Most classes award two or three, and the highest I’ve heard of was five.”
James winked. “I’m just that good.”
Inara rolled her eyes. “Your class is just that good.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” James rubbed his hands together. It had been a while since he played a video game, but the stats were familiar and they always meant basically the same thing. STR was strength, AGI was agility, INT was intelligence, WIS was wisdom, and CON was constitution. Each of those meant exactly what it said on the tin, with CON being the only wildcard. Sometimes it was straight HP increase, but sometimes it granted improvements across the board.
Inara looked impressed when he asked her, and that little bit of validation settled like a warm ember in his chest.
“It’s an overall improvement,” she said. “As a result, HP increases much slower than MP. That’s the downside of it.”
“Got it. In that case, for now, I’ll just keep things balanced.” Ten points per level meant two points per stat, which meant an overall increase of four each.
Name: James
Race: Human
Class: Hero
Level: 3
HP: 120/120
MP: 140/140
EXP: 10/100
Stat Points Available: 0
STR: 14
AGI: 14
INT: 14
WIS: 14
CON: 14
Skills: NONE
Laid out like that, it felt like a smaller increase than he’d been hoping for. The math lined up, but… well, 20 was just a much bigger number than 4.
He shook his head. Saying something like that out loud would only sound stupid. Instead, he said, “I don’t feel any different.”
Inara raised an eyebrow, than seemed to remember that of course he didn’t know how any of this worked.
“Stat changes don’t take effect right away,” she explained. “When you wake up tomorrow, you will feel the difference.”
“Huh. Is that like… Would I feel it tomorrow no matter what, or does it happen in my sleep? Would sleeping sooner make it happen quicker?”
She blinked. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t know anyone who has ever tried, but if you could sleep earlier and get the increase sooner, I imagine that would be valuable.”
James’s mind immediately went in a darker direction. If you could lock up an enemy and prevent them from sleeping, you could prevent them from ever accessing their gains. Aside from the obvious benefits of having a sleep deprived enemy, there were very few instances where that would be helpful. You’d have to know they just leveled up significantly and get to them in time. The more he thought about it, the more the logistics of it stopped making sense.
Maybe it didn’t matter.
Either way, he’d had a long day. He’d woken up at 5am to go test breakers, dealt with Andre’s drama all morning, then died, then fought (and killed!) a bear, and learned that he was the Hero chosen to fight and kill the Demon King, which sounded, let’s be honest, real fucking dangerous, and the craziest part was — he wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t even a little bit scared, and that worried him more than anything. He was in a new body — a younger, stronger, hotter version of the one he was used to, and now maybe it turned out that his brain wasn’t working quite right.
He should be scared. It would make total sense to be scared. Instead, he felt determined. He had a purpose.
He was made for this.
James leaned forward. “Tell me everything I need to know about the Demon King.”
