Still, I’m very surprised. I honestly thought the whole “gains a human form after reaching a certain level” thing was just in-game lore that didn’t mean anything. I should have known better. This game has been upending all my expectations so far.

  Adam wanted to ask Titania more questions, but someone appeared in the living room as if by magic. Lilith looked at them all with a cool expression. Like Adam, she never took off her veil. Now that he was thinking about it, he and Lilith were the only ones who still wore something to cover their face no matter where they were.

  “Welcome back,” Adam said.

  “I am ba… ck?”

  Adam noticed the pause in the woman’s words and realized that she was now staring at Kureha. Lilith was obviously trying to deduce who this little girl sitting on her master’s lap was. Her brows were furrowed as she glared at the child with a look so intense any normal kid would have run away in tears.

  “Lilith, this is Kureha,” Adam re-introduced them.

  Kureha’s eyes lit up. “Ah! Hello, Big Sis Lilth!”

  Adam’s lips trembled as he tried to contain his mirth. It seemed Kureha was unable to properly say “Lilith.” He thought it was cute.

  “S-so cute…”

  And, apparently, so did Lilith.

  Adam took some time to explain Kureha’s new form to Lilith, who accepted the explanation easily enough. She didn’t even seem to be phased, now that he thought about it. The assassin seemed more interested in petting the now human-shaped Kureha’s head than his explanation.

  Susan arrived several minutes later, and Adam had to explain everything all over again. At least she reacted as he’d expected. Susan was shocked to learn that Kureha had gained a human form and asked all kinds of questions, leaning toward Adam with a look of such excitement that she reminded him of a dog whose master had finally returned after a long day at work. She only realized how invasive she was being several minutes later. After which, she stuttered and began apologizing over and over again.

  “I forgot to mention this, but now that she has gained a human form, she also has a beast form. If you look at her status screen, you’ll see them under her skill list. She can wear equipment now too,” Titania said.

  Since Adam was curious, he opened Kureha’s status screen.

  Name: Kureha

  Class: Fox Yokai

  Lvl: 22

  SP: 0

  AP: 3,137,100

  Experience: 14,165,416/52,428,800

  Strength: +10

  Constitution: +370

  Dexterity: +100

  Intelligence: +940

  Speed: +200

  Physical Attack: +10

  Health: 3,800/3,800

  Hit-rate: 100%

  MP: 44,380/44,380

  Movement: +400

  Physical Defense: +420

  Magical Defense: +1,580

  Dodge-Rate: 100%

  Magic Attack: +3,760

  Kureha’s Skills:

  Skill Name: Fireball

  Description: Kureha has incredible control over fire thanks to her first tail. She can create fire through the power in her tail and launch a fireball at opponents.

  Current lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Deals 500% damage

  Has a 100% chance of causing burn damage

  MP Cost: 5,000

  Cooldown Time: 10-seconds

  Skill Name: Firestorm

  Description: Kureha has incredible control over fire thanks to her first tail. She can create fire through the power in her tail to unleash a powerful storm of fire.

  Current lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Deals 380% damage to all enemies within a 15-yard radius

  Has a 100% of causing burn

  MP cost: 4,000

  Cooldown Time: 10-seconds

  Skill Name: Fire Whip

  Description: Kureha sprouts a whip of fire from her first tail and uses it to lash at the enemy. This skill remains active for as long as Kureha pumps magic points into it.

  Current lvl: 1

  Ability points needed to reach next lvl: 15,000

  MP Cost: 100 MP per every second skill is active

  Cooldown time: 15-seconds

  Skill Name: Thunder Bolt

  Description: Kureha’s second tail has the power to control lightning. She can launch a powerful lightning bolt at her enemies.

  Current lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Deals 660% damage to one enemy

  MP Cost: 6,000 MP

  Cooldown Time: 10-seconds

  Skill Name: Thunder Storm

  Description: Kureha’s second tail has the power to control lighting. By gathering magical power into her tail, she can create a massive thunderstorm that rains down on enemies from above.

  Current lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Deals 580% damage to multiple enemies within a 10-yard radius

  MP Cost: 7,000

  Cooldown time: 10seconds

  Skill Name: Blinding Flash

  Description: This is not an attack. Kureha releases a flash of lightning so bright it blinds all the enemies around her. Does not affect allies.

  Current lvl: 1

  Ability points needed to reach next lvl: 15,000

  Ability: Has a 50% chance of blinding enemies at the same level or lower

  Has a 25% chance of blinding enemies 10 levels higher

  Has a 10% chance of blinding enemies 20 levels higher

  Has a 0% chance of blinding enemies 30 levels higher

  Skill Name: Water Spear

  Description: Kureha’s third tail has the power to manipulate water. By manipulating water molecules in the air, she creates a spear that can pierce through all but the most powerful of substances.

  Currently lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Deals 200% water damage

  Ignores 60% of enemies’ defenses

  MP Cost: 3,000

  Cooldown time: 5-seconds

  Skill Name: Overflowing Cascade

  Description: With the power of her third tail, Kureha draws a massive amount of water from the atmosphere and creates a waterfall that sweeps away her enemies.

  Current lvl: 10 MAXED

  Ability: Does 300% water damage

  Has a 60% chance of sweeping away an enemy

  Chance of sweeping enemy away decreases to 30% if the enemy’s Constitution is higher than Kureha’s

  MP Cost: 5,000

  Cooldown time: 10-seconds

  Skill Name: Blinding Mist

  Description: Kureha creates a thick mist that blinds enemies.

  Current lvl: 9

  Ability Points needed to reach next lvl: 3,500,000

  Ability: Creates a mist with a 19-meter radius around Kureha

  All enemies within the mist are affected by the blind status effect

  Mist lasts for 60-seconds

  MP Cost: 3,900

  Cooldown time: 15-seconds

  Skill Name: Beast Mode

  Description: Kureha can transform into a large fox. Her size can vary depending on what she wants.

  Ability: Kureha can transform into a fox

  While in Beast Mode, all of her physical stats (i.e., Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Hit-Rate, Dodge-Rate, Speed, and Movement) are doubled

  Beast Mode lasts until Kureha decides to change into her human form

  MP Cost: 10,000

  Cooldown Time: 12-hours

  Equipment:

  Item Name: Child’s Kimono

  Item Type: Clothes

  Grade: 1-Star

  Use Requirements: Can only be worn by children.

  Description: This kimono was fashioned from [Man Eating Spider] silk and has decent defensive capabilities.

  Abilities: Physical Defense+50; Magical Defense+100

  Adam took a moment to admire her new stats, which had grown so much after their dungeon clearing quest, then glanced at her skill list. All her skills were fairly impressive, but it was the skill at the bottom that really caught his attention. Beast Mode. It sounded like the kind of trump card ability people used when they were in a pinch. Unfortunately, he didn’t think this skill would be all that useful since her Strength stat was honestly pathetic.

  Maybe I should have focused on increasing her physical abilities too.

  He pursed his lips. There was no use crying over spilled milk. Her Beast Mode was an incredible ability, but it wasn’t some be all end all skill, and he still believed her magical abilities were far more useful.

  He also noticed that she did indeed have an equipment list now, something she didn’t have before. She was only wearing the [child’s kimono], however, and he didn’t know how much equipment she could use. Adam decided they would check out a store soon and get her some more defensible outfits and maybe even a weapon.

  “I believe we should head out now,” Adam stated. “We’re going to split into groups of two, with me and Aris in one group and the rest of you in another. My goal is to help Aris reach level 20. I want the rest of you to continue doing your best to level up in the meantime.”

  “I hate to put a rain on your parade, but Kureha and I cannot be removed from your party.” Titania crossed her arms. “I am the Guardian of the Spear, which means I can only be in the party of whoever wields the spear in your hand. And Kureha is your pet. She cannot be removed from your party.”

  “Haaah. I see.” Adam ran his fingers over his mask and closed his eyes for just a moment. “Okay then. Aris, Titania, Kureha, and I will form one party. Meanwhile, Fayte, Susan, and Lilith will form another party. Let’s head to the Guild Association and look for some quests we can take.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Aris declared.

  “I am fine with whatever decision you make,” the quiet Lilith added.

  “I-I’m fine with it too,” Susan said.

  Fayte smiled as she removed her veil from her inventory and placed it over her face. “It seems we’re all in agreement, so what are we waiting for?”

  They arrived at the Guild Association and were met by Clarise, who once more took them to the room where they chose missions. The room, he learned, was actually Clarise’s office. It seemed when associate employees were assigned to work with a specific guild, they were given an office space that could be used for guild business.

  On a side note, Clarise had been very shocked when they introduced Kureha to her.

  Clarise set two stacks of papers down on the coffee table for them to peruse through. Adam could only gawk when he saw how many more missions there were today.

  “Is it just me, or are there even more missions than usual?” asked Aris.

  “That’s only natural,” Clarise said as she sat back down, smiling at the group. “Word of your feat spread not long after you returned. It isn’t often someone goes toe-to-toe with a demon commander and wins. Because of that, a lot of people have sent quests specifically to you.”

  “So these are all quests where we have been requested?” asked Fayte.

  “Not all of them.” Clarise corrected with a headshake. She then gestured to the stack on their right. “These are the normal quests that anyone can take.” She moved her hand until it was pointed at the other stack. “And these are quests that you have been personally requested to take.”

  Clarise had already explained the difference between these two types of quests. Generic quests, as they were called, were quests that anyone could take regardless of what guild they were from. Personal quests were ones that could only be accepted by a specific guild.

  Aside from that, the difference between a generic quest and a personal one was the difficulty level. Personal quests often had an increased difficulty but offered higher rewards. Adam picked up a personal quest from the top of the stack, read it, then blinked.

  “Please teach my son how to wield a spear. That’s a pretty unusual quest. Let’s see… the reward is… thirty million gold?! That’s a bit surprising. However, it doesn’t offer many experience points. Just a paltry one million.”

  While one million experience points sounded like a lot to normal people, to Adam, it was minuscule. A pittance. A drop in the bucket. One million experience points wouldn’t even fill up one-hundredth of his experience gauge.

  “There are some quests like that,” Clarise said. “These quests are from members of the nobility. The Sun Continent has a number of aristocratic families that are very powerful and very wealthy. They’re more than willing to spend millions on their children. Of course, because these are quests to teach, the amount of experience you earn is far less than a normal mission of this level.”

  Adam glanced at the mission level requirements… only to find none. Instead, the level requirements had been replaced with his name, meaning he was the only one who could accept this quest.

  Since that was not his goal right now, Adam set the quest down and picked up another one. There were quite a few teaching requests. Not all of them were for him. There was one that requested Fayte come and teach some nobleman’s daughter magic, another that requested Susan teach an archery class for students of the Hunter’s School, and one that even asked Lilith to become a young noble’s personal bodyguard. All of them were quests that paid a large amount of money but offered very little experience points.

  They ignored those for now.

  “Th-there are so many quests to teach,” Susan muttered. “They even want me to teach people archery.”

  “I think there might be more quests for you than there are for the rest of us combined,” Fayte added as she placed another quest on the stack of ones they had rejected. It was another quest for Susan to teach a nobleman’s son archery.

  “It is likely because of your class,” Titania informed her. “The Fairy Archer class is one that has not been seen for thousands of years, after all. Not only is your class rare, but the Fairy Archer class is considered the best among all the archer classes available.”

  “S-so that’s how it is,” Susan muttered.

  “One of the aspects of the Fairy Archer Class that makes it so powerful is both its versatility and the power of its skills. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but a lot of skills were made available to you after reaching level 20, and all of them are quite varied. There are skills that allow you to shoot targets from afar, skills that can ignore all of an enemy’s defenses, and even skills that can offer a wide range barrage and area of effect attacks. As a Fairy Archer, you can choose to specialize in just one aspect of archery, or you can diversify yourself and become a jack of all trades. No other archer class offers such a wide range of skills.”

  Titania was puffing out her chest as she spoke, showing the pride she had for her race, though she certainly had a reason to be prideful. It was true that the Fairy Archer Class offered a lot of skills. Adam had helped Susan choose her skills the other day, so he knew how many she had available to her.

  The skills Adam had Susan learn were meant to make her into a more jack of all trades type. He wanted her to be capable of fighting at both close and long range. Perhaps it was a result of how he was trained, but Adam believed that versatility and adaptability trumped complete specialization. That was why he could also use daggers, blowguns, various forms of weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and even a sword on top of the spear.

  Of course, he was still better at the spear than anything else.

  “Adam. Adam. What about this one? It’s a request from Watershore’s Mayor,” Aris said, leaning into him and showing off the quest she had grabbed. Adam looked at it with her.

  Request: Several dozen women have gone missing in Watershore and the city is under attack by [zombie pirates]. Your mission is to defeat the pirates and, if possible, rescue the women who have been kidnapped. Level Requirement: 45-50. Reward: 10,000,000 gold coins; 160,000,000 experience points.

  Adam noticed how high the experience points reward was and decided this quest was perfect. He didn’t know if they would be able to rescue the women since it depended on whether they were still alive, but someone wouldn’t post a quest that was impossible to complete. At least, that was his hope.

  It took one full day for Adam, Aris, Kureha, and Titania to reach Watershore. They rented out a pair of horses and rode through the day, stopping only to log off, eat, and use the restroom. Night had fallen by the time they reached Watershore.

  “Halt! Who goes there?!”

  A large group of guards was standing at the front gate when they arrived. The gates were closed at the moment. Torches lit the area around it, revealing two guards standing by the gate and even more standing on the crenelations above. The ones above had their bows pointed at Adam and his party.

  “This is quite the rude welcome. Are they so nervous they have become incapable of showing common courtesy?” asked Titania with a huff.

  Adam ignored the woman as he pulled the reins of his horse to stop it from continuing. He climbed off. Behind him was the horse with Aris and Kureha. The younger of the two was seated in front. Though they looked nothing alike, Adam could not help but think they looked like sisters.

  “We mean you no harm,” Adam said, announcing himself. “My name is Adam. I’ve come here because the Mayor of Watershore has requested my help.”

  “Ah! You’re Adam?! THE Adam?!” one of the guards shouted.

  “Uh… yes?” Adam said, taken aback.

  “I can’t believe it’s really you!” The guard, a young man with brown hair and eyes, came over to him, expression shining in the firelight. “I wasn’t able to see the tournament, but I heard all about it from a friend who lives in Solum. I’m so honored to meet you, sir! Will you shake my hand?!”

  “Er, um, okay…”

  Adam felt uncertainty creep into his gut as he shook the man’s hand.

  “Aaaaaah. This is great. I’m never washing this hand again.”

  “Please do. Wash it. Not washing your hands is unhygienic.”

  Adam felt an odd sense of déjà vu. Hadn’t Fayte had to deal with something similar not long ago with Clarise?

  “Humans are so weird,” Titania muttered to herself. Adam said nothing, but he agreed with her.

  “Idiot!”