Chương 40: Chapter 36 – Preparations (part 1)

There has been much speculation about the identity of the new [Hero]. Who would Joshua have chosen as his replacement? And who would be strong enough to defeat a [Demon King]? There are some conspiracy theorists who say that the "Titus" that the almighty System informed us of was the [Demon Lord] himself. However, they conveniently forget that he was slain a year prior and that it was confirmed for all of us, even had we not seen it with our very eyes. No, the solution is much more obvious.

All tales of Joshua's deeds mention the assistant he had with him, who often went by Jake. However, it was likely not his given name. Due to his skillset and appearance, it can only be assumed that he was raised by the [Demon Lord's] cult to mimic him, and that likely included his very name. So, we can hardly blame a [Hero] who was born in such troubling circumstances for wanting to keep his name and himself out of the public eye. Excerpt from "The Second Coming. Jake or Titus?"

System: The first thing I have for you is an apology. I never did figure out where code for that was…

"The code for what?" I asked. System: Hero Titus has slain the Demon King! The realm will have relative peace for the next 50 years. Demon morale will be reduced for the duration"What the frick? His death triggers that message?" I asked. Then I frowned. There go any chances of keeping my new class lowkey. Maybe I can convince people that I'm a different Titus? There were two problems with that.

The first was that I wasn't sure I could get away with the deception after plastering my own face all over a worldwide broadcast. The second was that… I no longer felt as comfortable with deceiving random innocent people. Dang [Hero] class already getting to me. I internally grumbled. System: Aside from you getting doxxed as the Hero, we've got bigger problems. It isn't going to be 50 years before Admin shows back up again"More like a few days or months, right?" I asked. System: No, not that fast.

I maxed out the time dilation for Placeholder to buy you as much time as I could, but the most I could get you is about 15 years That released a tension in my shoulders that I didn't even realize was there.

"That's a lot better than expected," I muttered.

"Got a specific date?" System: April 17 th, 449"More time than I thought we'd have," I muttered. Then, because I hadn't been keeping track, I cast a [Get Date]… which promptly failed. I forgot about the whole currently at negative mana bit.

"And what day is today?" I asked the admin instead. System: September 4 th, 434 I nodded slowly.

"Alright, and since you know all that, I take it you're still from farther ahead in the future? How is that possible since you don't have my time magic ritual to piggyback off anymore?" System: I'm still piggybacking off it. There was no reason that it had to only go backward from the point that you cast it, after all"What?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, there was! It was designed to only go backward. How the heck could it also allow you to go forward?" I frowned as I realized the answer.

"It was that clockwork heart, wasn't it? What kind of meddling do you do with the creation of that time anomaly boss?" System: A lot of meddling. Anyway, to answer your next question, I won't really exist until after you wrap up this whole business with Temper Tantrum. So, I would really prefer that you win; otherwise, I won't be created to take his place. The frown didn't leave my face.

"So, if you're created to take Admin's place, does that mean that you're also a demon?" System: The answer to that is… complicated. But you can trust me. I have a vested interest in defeating Temper Tantrum, and, like you, I also owe Joshua more than can be easily put into words I thought that over for a minute before narrowing my eyes.

"But can I trust you to take over for Admin?" I asked.

"How do I know that once you're in power you won't be worse? System: I solemnly swear by the System that, after Temper Tantrum's defeat, I will seek the best for the world of Placeholder as a whole and that I will try to keep other demons from interfering with it I nodded slowly.

"Probably plenty of loopholes you could've worked into that, but at the end of the day, it still sounds better off in your hands than Admins," I stated. AltSys was still my second least favorite admin… but that would still mean it was an upgrade.

"Deal." System: Good. Now, with that all out of the way, I think it's time we gave you something back… I cocked my head, but before I could ask, I was treated to a message from the real System. System: Unbalanced change rectified. One strike removed. System: Candidate privileges restored"What? But I didn't make any changes?" I asked. System: Yeah, but your class is [Hero] now. That class is allowed to be all sorts of unbalanced, so, it works. Oh, by the way, congrats on the new eye color"New eye color?"

I muttered as I pulled out my mirror. My contacts hadn't stayed in through all the abuse that Admin put me through, so it was quite a shock to see blue eyes staring back in my reflection. System: Don't spend too long checking yourself out. You need to get to work. I'll try to stick around and answer any important questions you have but don't rely on me too much. I need to save my manipulation points"For anything in particular?" I asked. System: You'll see I snorted. And there it is.

The admin who is only cagey with the important stuff.

"Fine, any advice for what I should do to prepare?" I asked. System: Remember who you were created as I shook my head.

"Like I could ever forget that I was made into a [Demon Lord]," I replied.

"How does that help?" System: No, not who you were made into, but who you were created as… a nerdy programmer from 21 st century Earth"How would that…" I paused.

"Actually, that does give me some ideas. Huh." System: You're welcome. Now, break time is over, the demons are about to discover you're still here One of the doors to my throne room creaked open.

"Ten thousand pardons, your lowliness!" Trickery stated as he came into the room and fell on his knees.

"You have proven your strength! We will never again side against-" He paused and seemed to be looking at something. Wait. I'm in my throne room, even if my class isn't [Demon Lord] anymore. Do I still have a health bar?

"He's near death!" Trickery shouted.

"Everyone, attack!" Yup. Must have. I groaned inwardly.

Despite the precarious circumstances, the fight wasn't much to write home about. The only demon who had a chance of hurting me through the Hero's Regalia was Anger… and that only held true until I swapped it to adamantium mode. Then, no demon on the other side was able to hurt me. That left their attempts to dogpile me and take off my armor… which were mostly foiled because of their cowardice.

My [Swordsmanship] wasn't exactly top tier, but it was more than enough to keep them wary, even if I was moving like a slug due to my negative SP. So, I regenerated my MP and SP with my back into a corner, poking my sword out at whichever demons drew the short straw before I finally gathered enough resources for an [Advanced Teleport] out of there. My goal had just been "somewhere out in the ashlands," which is a terrible target for the advanced version of the teleport spell.

Once again, I ended up completely buried. However, unlike the last time, it worked in my favor. It gave me a nice, safe place to regenerate all my resources and plan my next move. And the next move would also involve a teleport. It was time to visit my oldest friends on Placeholder.

When I scried on, and subsequently [Advanced Teleported] to, Secondavia she didn't look so great. She was in the middle of dozens of pink crystals that held her sisters, and she could probably best be described as despondent. That look went away as soon as I appeared… because it's hard to throw a pity party when you're in a blinding rage.

"Intruder!" she shouted.

"Interloper! Seize him!" The fey were still under oath not to hurt me, but I didn't exactly want to find out what loopholes that left them. I avoided them with [Flash Steps] as I realized that I wouldn't have enough mana for my plan.

"Well, sorry about this in advance," I stated as I pulled out a small chunk of magicite. Magicite in the fey forest was just as spectacular as always. The ambient mana was sucked in like a vortex, and the few remaining fairies who had answered Secondavia's call fled. Secondavia flew over to me for a moment, and then her flight gave out, and she crashed to the ground.

"Stop, fiend!" she shouted as she ran up to me and banged uselessly on my armored leg.

"Hath thee not taken enough from us already!?"

"I have," I replied.

"Which is why-" I awkwardly cradled the Hero's Staff and pulled out my mana-stealing dagger that I swiftly plunged into the magicite crystal.

"It's time that I give you back some of what I took." I touched my staff down on the nearest pink crystal and cast.

"[Holy Restore]." The hero skill that I cribbed off Sarah made it much more efficient than the last and probably used far less mana than it had any right to. Anyway, I left a stunned Secondavia alone as I went around curing each of the fey until there were no crystals left. Finally, I put the magicite crystal away.

"I'm counting that as one of my three favors, by the way," I stated as Secondavia checked over the now-recovered fairies.

"But… why wouldst thee-" she started.

"Later," I said as I cut her off.

"There's someone else left to heal." Her eyes widened.

"But… my own queen still hath years to recover."

"And I could have healed her all along, but I didn't because I was worried about you all getting in my way," I replied.

"I'm… sorry about that. I've caused you so much grief and pain and tried to destroy the world. But now, I need your help… both yours and Primavia's, to save it." Secondavia was taken aback but seemed to believe me.

"Leadeth onward," she stated. And so, we went to my last patient. Primavia, her crystal still covered in the runes that were slowly healing her.

"Sorry for not doing this earlier," I muttered.

"[Holy Restore]!" I cast. The crystal slowly faded under the spell's effect. It was even easier than the others because of how much had already been healed. Then, Primavia groaned and sat up wobbly.

"Couldst thee hath not given me 5 more years?" she asked grumpily.

"My rest was quite pleasant."

"My queen!" Secondavia shouted as she tackled the newly recovered fairy while wailing. Never before had I seen a fairy ugly cry, and it wasn't something I wanted to see again. Primavia sat there, unamused, as the current [Queen] of the fey got tears and snot all over her shoulder. After a moment, she looked to me.

"So, I'm here because I need another favor," I stated. At that, Secondavia recovered herself.

"The balance still art towards us for two," she stated.

"I shalt not grant thee another favor until I hath been repaid."

"I still have a few years before the favors are due," I countered.

"Also, I have some ideas for the repayment, but it would be easier if I had your help."

"What art the favors Titus owes?" Primavia interrupted.

"And what became of the ritual 'pon which we sent the [Hero] and his steed?" Secondavia looked to me and then Primavia. I sighed. This was going to take a little longer than I expected.

Catching Primavia up took less time than I anticipated. Even though fey love stories, they were willing to let me keep it to a much-abbreviated account. However, the end result was that I still owed them two favors, and, with Primavia's encouragement, Secondavia wasn't willing to grant me another favor until I had repaid them. I eventually haggled her down to settling for the specifics of the favors I would repay and an oath to do them exactly as I stated. The first was a simple one.

I would give them an enchanted item with limited uses that could cure the same crystalline malady that had taken Primavia. I figured I could probably make a permanent one… but I didn't think that giving the fey the ability to mess with the whole world without consequence was a good idea. The second was a bit more convoluted. I knew that the fey fed on stories, but they essentially just had to rely on whoever happened to wander in. I offered them an alternative.

I figured that the people who wandered in often had stories the fey didn't care about, so what if they had a more curated list of better stories? And stories that people would willingly forget so there wouldn't even be a fight about it? They seemed skeptical of that, but I was reasonably confident I could pull it off. … I just had to make sure that Placeholder had enough sponsored book clubs going forward. After all, who wouldn't want to forget their favorite story and read it all again?

With that taken care of, I warned them of the coming threat with Admin and how I doubted that he would leave the fey alone. They didn't care. They were sure they could handle a few demons. Then, I told them that there would likely never be a good story again once he was in control. That got them on board fast. They were willing to help out with the defense wherever they, sneakily, could.

And even more critical than that, they were able to help me out with a [Grand Teleport] that was currently out of reach due to my limited mana funds. So, with their help, I arrived there once again.

"I'm not sure I'll ever miss this place," I said as I stood in the boss room of the tutorial. I was attacked by the tutorial boss, but [Sunder] was OP, and that fight only took seconds. Then, a quick stop at the obelisk had me heading down to the lower area where I had literal tons of magicite crystals. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I had teleported all of them with me back when I used [[Edit Character]] on Jared… on my brother.

So, I needed to bring back as many as I could… or make use of them right there.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" I muttered. Creating a simulacrum was a painstaking process that took metric tons of mana. The good news was that most of that mana was supposed to be stored inside the crystal. So, it took relatively little out of my actual pool. The bad news was that most of the crystals were mostly empty, and I could barely scrounge up enough mana between all of them for a single clone.

"Do I really not have enough?" I grumbled as I estimated.

"Did I come all this way for nothing?" I couldn't get back there easily, and I could only take a couple arrays with me due to their sheer weight. I was getting worried that I had bothered the fey and wasted a trip for nothing when I remembered something. I went over to the obelisk. System: Options Teleport out of the tutorial Tutorial Settings Move to upper floor Choosing tutorial settings, I flipped over to the mana drain options.

System: Current mana drain settings Entity Titus: Drain excess All other entities: Drain excess"Switch entity Titus to reverse drain," I commanded. System: Passphrase verification required. Please speak passphrase Right. The passphrase. What the heck could it be? It must be something AltSys set… but he's from the future and knew I would be here. I nodded to myself. So, if he wants me to use it without bothering him, it must be a password I would have set, right?

Blinking back tears from my eyes, I said the first passphrase that I could think of.

"Megan, I'm so sorry." System: Passphrase verified. Welcome, [Hero] Titus! Now that I was "verified," I did some more looking to see if there were any other options that would be helpful. I didn't really find any. However, I was able to flip every other entity to "full drain." That wasn't much help, but it gave me some ideas for later on. Noticing my full mana bar, I got back to work on the simulacrum, and soon my clone was finished… and then the second one, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.

It stopped feeding me mana after that, so I took what I could. I didn't have any spare armor, but I did have a few other outfits to hand off to my clones… well, I guess they were usually disguises, but you get the point. I named them Titus 01 through Titus 05 and gave them their orders. We warped back to Placeholder proper in order and then went our separate ways. 01 was headed to the Below. 02 to the wall to keep an eye on the Ashlands. 03 was headed to Gram do some historical research.

And 04 and 05 were sent off for some monster farming. For the last two, I figured that I would need gold in the upcoming years. Probably a lot of it. And that left the most unpleasant job to me. However, it needed to be done.

"You have a lot of nerve showing your face here!" Lhoris bellowed at me as soon as he came through the door of the adventurer's guild. I stood up to meet him… and decided to let the fist coming toward my face land. His fist thudded against my face and didn't deal any damage.

"Sorry," I stated.

"Here. Activate every day mode," I ordered my armor. The shape-shifting armor turned into normal pants and a shirt… and Lhoris clocked me in the face again. My head snapped to the side with the blow, and I rubbed my cheek at the one point of damage I took.

"Please take a seat," I stated after.

"We're still waiting on Jhilsara." Despite the theatrics, Lhoris sat at the table, and Kythaela warily sat beside him, looking back and forth between him and me. Jhilsara also had a reaction upon seeing me, but hers was a lot more subdued.

"So, it was true," she muttered. She joined the table without complaint.

"Why have you called us all here?" Jhilsara asked once she was seated.

"That's a long story," I replied.

"But you'll need to hear at least a bit of it." And so, I came clean. I told them about being the [Demon Lord]. I told them about my plans and how they were foiled. And then I told them about Joshua and how he had saved me.

"And what does all of this have to do with us?" Jhilsara asked.

"I need your help," I stated plainly.

"The [Demon King] is coming back in 15 years at double the level I last fought him. I need every scrap of help I can get to prepare both myself and the world of Placeholder for when he comes back." I spread my hands.

"What do you say? Will you help me defend Placeholder?"

"Why should I trust a liar?" Lhoris growled. I winced but then looked to Kythaela.

"Th-the church expressly forbids fraternizing with the [Demon Lord]. I can't, and…" Kythaela took in a deep breath.

"I won't. Sorry." Things were going worse than I hoped… but a little better than I expected. I was sure that was that, but Jhilsara hadn't had her turn.

"Oh, would you two grow up?" she asked, shocking everyone at the table.

"I spent hours telling you how untrustworthy he was, but you just would not listen! I knew something was off from the beginning, but you refused to trust my judgment!" There was fury in her eyes… but I was shocked to find it wasn't toward me.

"And now that I tell you he can be trusted, that he's the [Hero] now and will have to face down exactly what he just said you two decide to throw my warning away once again! No!" She slammed her hands down on the table.

"I've put up with your nonsense my whole life. I've even dealt with being the third wheel in your little party so that you could actually hunt. Now, you will shut up and help because you two know from firsthand experience that this [Demon King] is a bigger threat than the [Demon Lord] ever was."

"But, how do we know that we can trust him?" Kythaela asked weakly.

"If you believe him to be untrustworthy, help me keep an eye on him!" Jhilsara snapped. Then, her tone softened just a bit.

"You know the tales of the [Demon Lord]. How he can appear anywhere at any time." She looked over to me as if to confirm the stories, and I just gave a weak half-shrug.

"If you refuse this opportunity, I doubt you will see him again. And then, you have given up your chance to influence his decisions."

"But why would he care what we think?" Kythaela protested.

"Because the [Demon Lord] has caught feelings," Jhilsara muttered, looking at me. I sighed.

"It's… true. I care about you three," I replied. Then, looking up at the ceiling.

"But at the same time, it's… hard. I've known so many people over the centuries. Lost so many people. I don't know how to have a real relationship anymore." I looked down at the table and gathered myself.

"But I know I need to try," I said softly.

"It is not good for man to be alone. That was what Joshua said about being in a party with you three, and I believe him. So…" I sighed and prepared myself for rejection.

"I need you. To remind me what I'm fighting for. To help me push myself. And… to show me what it's like to be human again." There was a long pause, and I expected the "no" to come at any time. But it didn't.

"Alright, what exactly do you want from us?" Lhoris asked with a slight growl.

"We'll at least hear you out." I jumped on the opportunity.

"For you, I need some leaders for a rapid response team in case the [Demon King] teleports demons around again," I started.

"Never-before-seen armor and weapons. Probably a new class." I winced.

"Likely incredibly dangerous, even to train." He nodded thoughtfully, so I took that as a solid maybe. I turned to Kythaela.

"I need any church connections you've got. I've got some ideas that should probably go through them for making healing more available to the masses, and I'm going to need a lot of stuff blessed." I paused.

"Oh. And I think it's finally time we took care of that whole deathland mess." That raised a couple pairs of eyebrows, and Kythaela nodded after a moment.

"I am an average archer at best," Jhilsara cut me off before I could speak.

"You will easily find better than me, so I must decline." I shook my head.

"I don't want you for your archery. No, I need your organizational abilities and financial acumen. I'm going to have dozens of projects in the fire for these next 15 years, and I need help keeping track of all of them." She cocked her head and then frowned.

"You… wish me to function as some sort of [Secretary]?" I winced.

"I mean, it sounds bad when you put it like that, but-""10, 000 gold a month," Jhilsara interrupted.

"And you will pay for any of my expenses." A quick mental check-in with Titus 04 and Titus 05 gave me a general idea of things. They had already gathered more than that.

"Shouldn't be a problem," I agreed.

"Write up the contract, and I'll check it over." She seemed stunned at my easy reply. As much as I wanted to stick around, Titus 01 had found what I sent him to look for, and I needed to get moving.

"I've got to run, but please, all of you think it over," I stated as I stood up.

"As the [Hero] of Placeholder, I could really use your help." I left them in contemplative silence as I prepared to head down to the Below once more.

"Good work finding it," I clapped Titus 01 on the shoulder… which was a bit like patting myself on the back. We both looked at each other and then cleared our throats awkwardly as we disengaged.

"You sure that I shouldn't go up there instead?" he asked, looking at the unburied hole in the ceiling.

"We still aren't sure you can go up there without getting fried."

"I think it has to be me," I replied.

"Though… I'm a bit shocked that you care." I looked at him and frowned.

"What?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"We have no idea what happens if you die. For all we know, the rest of us could go kaput too. Might as well not kill off all of us if something goes wrong, right?"

"I guess that makes sense," I nodded slowly.

"Alright, wish me luck."

"Good luck," he stated as he stepped to the side. Without any further hesitation, I strode forward and entered the hole that I had punched in the Below's roof… And I got the same errors as last time. System: Warning Demon Lord moved wrongly! System: ERROR Invalid dimension ID selected There were a few seconds where the System seemed to sputter, and then things resolved. System: Error rectified. Dimension ID set to 2 Just like last time, I found myself in Heaven. Near-blinding light. Streets made out of gold.

And dozens of wary angels who surrounded me with weapons drawn.

"I'm not here to fight," I stated as I held up my hands in surrender. The angels muttered to each other, and I was worried that a fight was inevitable anyway. Then, Mishael flew in. He landed in front of me and gave me a calculating gaze for several seconds. I felt very uncomfortable, but I returned it. He finally broke it by giving the slightest of bows.

"Redeemed one," he said.

"How can we help?"

"I need a new weapon," I replied, my shoulders untensing.

"I'm positive that when the [Demon King] returns that he's going to have near-impenetrable armor, and a high-damage longsword isn't going to cut it." With that final sentence, I pulled out the Hero's sword and showed him. He shook his head.

"That is already a finer weapon than any of us wield," he replied.

"And our weapons are bound to us and cannot be loaned."

"Kinda figured," I said.

"So, how about the materials to make a weapon instead? If I had to wager a guess, in a gamified version of Heaven, you have to have a mirror to the Hell materials, right? So, if there's demonite, there's gotta be angelite or something like that."

"Angelium," Mishael replied. He seemed to be considering it and then nodded.

"For most, it would be certain death… but I shall take you there." Apparently, the "take you there" part was literal. He went behind me, hooked his arms under my armpits, and then took off flying. … It wasn't the most embarrassing way I had been carried, but it certainly made the list. I couldn't help but notice a large number of angels in a certain plaza, all watching with weapons out as we flew by.

"What's that?" I asked.

"That…" Mishael started and then seemed to be struggling with himself.

"Is our source of strength and our weak point. I ask that you-""Does Hell have one, too?" I interrupted excitedly.

"Can we use that against them?" He paused for a moment longer and then relented.

"Similar to the obelisks down on Placeholder, ours shall only appear when our leader is slain… or absent," Mishael replied.

"Under a technicality, I believe you still count as a leader of the Demon Lord faction. As long as you are present, the demonic version will likely not show itself in Hell." That made sense. I hadn't seen any special obelisk in any of my adventures down in Hell, which was a pretty big bummer. I can't go in person… but who the heck could I send? Someone who can deal with constant fire damage from the flames of Hell and can fight through hordes of demons? Good luck finding someone like that. But then…

I realized something.

"I might actually have someone who fits the bill," I muttered. Mishael and I flew upward through a tuft of cloud and then came to rest on top of it. The clouds in front formed a domed area that screamed "boss room."

"We are here," he stated.

"Yeah, I figured," I replied. Mishael didn't seem like he was willing to go forward, so I went in alone. System: You have entered a special boss room! You will be unable to leave by any means until the boss is defeated. And speak of the boss, and he shall appear.

"A new challenger approaches, but does he have the speed to be a challenge?" came a rapid-fire voice.

"He seems more like one who lacks the wisdom," came a soft, hooting voice.

"Hmm. Not strong enough," came a third gruff voice. After that, my question of who was speaking was finally answered. A three-headed being came down. Its body was vaguely canine if you discounted its two pairs of wings, but it had heads from three different species. An ox. A cheetah. And an owl. I looked at them and then frowned.

"Okay, given that you don't have a boss health bar, I'm betting that I'm not supposed to beat the stuffing out of you," I stated.

"So, what's your schtick?"

"Right to the point!" the cheetah head laughed.

"I approve. To defeat us, you merely need to get a token from each of us. Then you will prove that you have the necessary speed-""-wisdom-" added the owl.

"-and strength," the ox finished.

"Easy enough, where's your token, cheetah head?" I asked.

"Right, here," the head stated as a yellow token appeared in its mouth.

"You must simply snatch it from me. I [Blinked] forward and swiped at the odd creature's mouth, but it pulled away faster than I could even see.

"Too slow!" it mocked around the token. And… I was. It didn't take a genius to realize that. Maybe with [Haste] and [Limit Break]. I thought as I continued trying to swipe the token, and it easily dodged around me, even while going backward. No. I thought with a grin. I had another idea. The beast took several steps backward, and I let it.

"Giving up so soon?" it taunted. I [Flash Stepped] forward, and we soon were repeating the same song and dance. I swiped and it dodged in the exact same way.

"Have you learned nothing?" the owl added to mock me as the beast came to rest and my assault stopped.

"Plenty," I said right after I snatched the token from the cheetah head and allowed the illusion of myself to dissipate.

"You didn't pay much attention to your surroundings while I was chasing, so I was pretty sure I could get away with [Sneaking], and I was right." I flipped the token and then caught it.

"One token down, who's next?"

"He-he cheated!" the cheetah sputtered.

"I didn't hear any rules against what I did," I shrugged.

"Patience, my friend," the owl head consoled the cheetah, who seemed close to popping a blood vessel.

"He will not pass the second trial." With that, the beast stomped the ground, and an apparatus appeared in the middle of the room. It reminded me of one of those brain teaser puzzles with wire, rings, and a frame, except scaled up and much more complex. The blue token was threaded through the wire in the middle of the mess.

"Claim the token from the test and prove your wisdom," the owl hooted.

"Lovely, a puzzle that tells you absolutely nothing about actual intelligence or wisdom," I muttered. The first thing I did was get a feel for the wire and the contraption… and that was tough stuff. I had to assume it was made out of the angelium that I was there to get. Part of me wanted to just pocket the whole thing to melt it down later… but I didn't see any ore veins of angelium anywhere in the dome. That would mean it was all the angelium I would ever get, as I would probably have to fight the boss…

who seemed a bit special and might not respawn. Anyway, tossing that out, it was back to solving the puzzle. I thought I saw the solution and carefully threaded the token through two loops, under a ring, and then around one of the frame's poles… only for it to not fit around.

"Ohoho!" the owl hooted.

"A nice attempt, but that was not the way. Try again, and perhaps you will solve it within this century!" I'd heard enough. No time for this puzzle BS. I grumbled to myself. So, with a quick cast of [Strengthen], and an activation of [Limit Break], I was soon yanking at parts of the angelium frame.

"Temper, temper!" the owl called.

"You won't find it so easy to break or bend the- How are you doing that!?" And that's because while it wasn't easy it was definitely possible to bend that material when you're a level 25 [Hero] who's buffing his strength out the wazoo. I bent the frame just enough to sneak the token past, fed it down the line, and then popped it off the end.

"Alright, two down. Over to you ox guy. Whatcha got?" I asked.

"I call fowl!" the owl protested.

"You haven't-""My turn," the ox stated.

"But he hasn't-" the owl tried again.

"MY TURN!" the ox bellowed. The owl conceded the point, and the puzzle disappeared. In its place in the middle of the room appeared a large pedestal. It had a heavy-looking rod embedded in the middle of it with some parts sticking out for grip points, and the token was sitting inside a case below it.

"Pull rod to end, get token," the ox grunted. I nodded and then took a closer look at the contraption. It was heavily enchanted, and I took a second to puzzle out what it was doing. Pulling the rod would indeed open a compartment for the token, so that was what I tried first. I couldn't budge it and had to resort to [Limit Break] and [Strengthen] to even get it to move. Eventually, I let the rod slam back down into place. That's not gonna work. I thought.

And then, I took another look at the enchantment and the physical mechanism. It's an enchant that handles the weight… and the opening of the door. But it's a physical mechanism that keeps it locked until the rod is moved all the way up, so… I nodded. Guess I'll just have to be quick. A quick cast of [Haste], an uneeded deep breath to steady myself, and I flew into motion.

I snapped a [Disrupt], swiftly shoved the now-incredibly light rod to the top, manually flipped open the compartment, and then snatched the red token out before the enchant took effect again, and everything slammed back down.

"Got it!" I said, standing up and showing the beast.

"Cheater! He's a cheater!" the feline head shouted.

"I wholeheartedly agree! He doesn't deserve our prize!" the owl bobbed along.

"Got tokens. Wins game," the ox grunted. The other heads swiveled to look at him.

"Demonstrated all. Wisdom. Strength. Speed. Is winner, deserves prize," he… elaborated?

"I… I suppose he did demonstrate strength when he tore apart my puzzle," the owl muttered.

"And wits when he caught me off guard with his tricks," the cheetah added.

"And speed at end," the ox concluded.

"[Hero] is proven. Give prize." The two other heads looked at each other and then nodded. Right as they did, an ingot of pure white metal dropped from nowhere and landed in front of me. I scooped it up.

"Several pounds of the purest angelium," the owl stated.

"It shall make for a fine improvement for the Hero's sword." I hefted it a moment before stowing it in my inventory.

"Yeah, not nearly enough for the idea I have," I replied and turned to walk towards the entrance.

"Anyway, thanks for everything!" I called over my shoulder and waved.

"You'll see me again next month and every month after that until the end of the world!"

"Did he say every month?" the cheetah asked.

"Oh, Heavens preserve us," the owl added.

"See you soon!" the ox bellowed. I met Mishael outside, and he looked a bit puzzled.

"Are you truly going to visit here and challenge them every month?" he asked.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Special boss room's loot only respawns that often. Otherwise, I would be grinding here every day for a year." I paused.

"Oh, and don't worry about escorting me out. I'll teleport. I just need to put down a [Teleport Beacon] so that I can get back here easier." Mishael hesitated for just a moment before flying off. I barely overheard him mutter.

"Just what sort of [Hero] has Joshua chosen?" Good question. I asked internally. I'll let you know if I ever figure that out myself.

After setting up the beacon and then teleporting out, I got back in touch with Jhilsara to see how things were going on her end. It turned out that she had the contract ready and was willing to sign it. The pay was, as she already said, 10, 000 gold a month plus expenses, and her duties amounted to… well, pretty much being my [Secretary], though neither of us would have called it that. I could also tell that she had her doubts as to why the heck I needed someone doing that function.

I decided to level with her sooner rather than later.

"Before either of us sign, I want you to understand exactly what you're getting into," I stated. She gave me a quizzical look, and I nodded to the hooded figure over in the corner, who subsequently [Flash Stepped] over to our table and took a seat.

"Yo," Titus 01 said. She looked between the two of us in shock.

"There… are two of you?" she asked in disbelief.

"Technically, there are 6 right now. One is doing some historical research in Gram, looking up a prophecy I've forgotten. Another's watching the wall for demons. The other two are farming monsters for cash," I stated.

"And that number's likely to grow, so I need your help keeping track of what all of the mes are up to… as well as dealing with some other potentially thorny situations. For example, I want to meet with the leaders of the different nations. Do you think you could set that up?" She recovered from her shock admirably and thought it over while chewing her lip.

"They often communicate with certain artifacts, so I could likely set up a meeting between the [Governor] and the [Hero]. It would take some time, but-""I was hoping for a meetup in person," I stated.

"With all of them. At once. They need to know what's going on, and that includes knowing exactly who I am. And I don't want any hurt feelings because someone was the last one to find out."

"Titus," she hissed, leaning in.

"That is a bad idea."

"It was either that or we do another big message to everyone with the projectors," 01 chimed in.

"Figured that would cause a massive panic. So, we figured we'd contact the leaders to sidestep that whole mess."

"He's right," I nodded at… myself, which was always weird.

"And I have no idea how to go about getting that meeting, and I'm going to be constantly busy with other things. So, that's where you would come in." I paused.

"That's all my cards on the table. What do you say?" She looked up at the ceiling and sighed before grabbing a pen and making a change to the contract.

"We will renegotiate this contract at the end of every month," she stated.

"I required 10, 000 gold because no sane person would accept that for this kind of work, but I am beginning to think that I was the one who got the worse end of the bargain." However, as she said that, she swiftly signed her name.

"Here's to 15 years of utter insanity," I stated as I signed my own. Her only response was a groan.

Elsewhere"Your most lowliness, I succeeded! Joshua is dead!" Temper Tantrum said, his face once again to the floor.

"Most excellent," the emperor laughed.

"Now, you need only bring me the shard of his essence he loses upon death, and I shall forgive your uselessness." Temper Tantrum froze.

"Be not angry, your lowliness, but my avatar on that world has… well… ummm."

"Spit it out, you simpleton!" the emperor shouted, along with a crushing pressure.

"My avatar died, but I will get it for you right away!" Temper Tantrum squeaked. The pressure relented.

"See that you do or do not bother coming back," the emperor stated. Then, with a snap of his fingers, Temper Tantrum was thrown out of the door. He was only mildly panicking. I'm almost out of manipulation points. I can't afford another avatar! What do I do!? He screamed internally as he made his way back to the out-of-the-way sector he was from. I know! The Sector Admin can loan me some! Or maybe a Hypervisor! His heart sank as he realized that he likely couldn't afford it even with a loan…

and that the traitorous [Demon Lord]/[Hero] would likely manage to kill him again. There's only one option left, then. Temper Tantrum nodded to himself. I will go in person. And that filthy traitor will die by my own hand.