Desiree wanted to stop time. She wanted to enter combat and let it never be her turn, so she could take all the time in the world to read and re-read her status sheet.

  DEMON SLAYER class is now available! Accept?

  That wasn’t even a question. Any class was better than Child, which existed entirely as a placeholder until something better came along. The sooner someone could prove themselves worthy of another class, the sooner they could gain experience for more than just existing.

  Congratulations, Demon Slayer! A difficult road lies ahead of you!

  Name: Desiree

  Race: Human

  Class: Demon Slayer

  Level: 10

  HP: 100/100

  MP: 100/100

  EXP: 10/15,000

  Stat Points Available: 5

  STR: 10

  AGI: 10

  INT: 10

  WIS: 10

  CON: 10

  Skill Points Available: 1

  She read and re-read the list. Five whole stat points awaited her. Gaining the class was a substitute for leveling up; the Child class didn’t receive any experience points for combat, so her role in killing the Magma Demon didn’t count towards her experience total.

  And a skill point to go with it. What kind of crazy skills would she have access to now, as a Demon Slayer? She wanted to spend hours in the skill list, reading and comparing all the options.

  But she couldn’t do that, not while Billy was looking shell-shocked and the town was still burning around her. There could be any number of demons still walking the streets, and she had the power to stop them.

  She grinned wickedly. She had the power to slay them.

  James approached Billy. The poor kid was very low on health; it wasn’t hard to piece together what he’d been through before they arrived.

  The Hero held out an apple. Billy snatched it away and ate it quickly, his health rising with every bite.

  That was her doing, Desiree thought. While all the adults talked and worried about the Demon King, she actually went and did something about it. She summoned the Hero! She rushed in to save Billy’s life!

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  No wonder the System had given her the new class. She’d more than earned it.

  Inara’s hand rested on her daughter’s shoulder. “We should go,” she said.

  Desiree looked up at her mother, still vibrating with excitement. “Did you get the class too?” she asked. How cool would that be, running alongside her mom, slaying demons? The two of them would be so badass they might not even need the Hero!

  Though of course she would allow him to stay in the party. The poor man had nowhere else to go.

  Fear flashed in her mother’s eyes, so briefly she almost missed it.

  “No.”

  Before she could say more, James came jogging up to them. “Billy says there’s more in the town square. They rounded up most of the villagers, and he ran off, which is why that other demon chased him.”

  Inara’s eyes widened. “We’d better hurry!”

  The small group dashed down the streets, with James following behind since he didn’t know the layout of the town as well as Desiree and her mother.

  Desiree wanted to rush ahead again, like she had when she’d saved Billy. She knew it was reckless, but it gave her a heroic feeling, like she was the knight that dashed in at the last moment to save the princess.

  She was already feeling fatigued from the earlier battle, though. She’d had to run all the way to the well to get the water, and she’d been so afraid it wouldn’t work.

  The water! She slapped her forehead. Those other demons were probably the same kind, and she didn’t have any weapons.

  “I’ll be right back!” she yelled.

  “Desiree, you get back here—” her mother shouted, but Desiree ignored her.

  It was so tempting to stop and rest. She had a stitch in her side, but she was only halfway to the well. Desiree put three stat points into agility and the other two into strength. Immediately, she got a second wind and felt like she could run for hours.

  She grinned. That’s what heroes did. They overcame obstacles and got stronger after every difficulty.

  Desiree had to double back to where they’d left Billy so she could retrieve her bucket. He was still in the same cowering position they’d left him in, with the only difference being that his health was almost full.

  Desiree wrinkled her nose. With that kind of attitude, he’d never be a hero. Back when they were kids, Desiree had looked up to Billy. He was the ringleader of the other boys, and he always seemed like he knew what to do. When she got older, though, she realized the truth: he was all talk. Rather than fight his own battles, he preferred to persuade other kids to do the work for him, and he was charismatic enough to pull it off.

  She didn’t hate him or anything. In fact, when she thought back to the times she’d joined his posse, she thought fondly of him. They’d been friends, once, and maybe one day they would be again.

  Billy flinched away from her when she leaned down for the bucket.

  She paused. She wanted to say something to him, but she couldn’t decide what. It was like part of her wanted to encourage him, tell him it was going to be alright, that sort of thing. The other part wanted to sneer at him and tell him that if he was going to cower like this he might as well be dead already.

  In the end, she said nothing. She grabbed her bucket and ran back to the well. It wasn’t far, but it was a lot of ground to cover, and she still had to make it back to the town square before the fighting started.

  She grinned again as she filled her bucket with water. She was ready to slay another demon.