Level Thirty

That night, Nero waited until Alicia was asleep before he rolled over and, speaking softly so no one would overhear, said, "You're a demon."

I just blinked at him. It wasn't like I could talk to reply.

Nero blinked back for a while before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You don't seem evil, though. Are you really a demon? Lift your right paw if yes, and your left paw if no."

I considered that, then raised both paws.

"...you don't know?" Nero asked.

I left my right paw up.

Nero’s expression softened, and he nodded. "Alright. So you can buy your own skills?" Right paw. "Are you okay with working with me?" Right paw. "Do you have any evil plans?" Left paw.

Nero sighed and rolled onto his back. "Alright. Well… I mean, the whole ritual’s ‘pray to God and He sends you a summon.’ If you were evil, He’d never have sent you to me, right?” He was quiet for a while, and I couldn’t begin to guess what thoughts were churning through his mind. At last, he turned his head back toward me, grinning. “Maybe it’s actually a sign that I’m really awesome. Like, maybe I have what it takes to become a Hero!”

My evaluation of him immediately dropped, and I raised my left paw. I felt strongly that if he became a Hero, it would only go poorly for us. A Hero definitely sounded like an anti-demon sort of entity. Nero glared at me, voice rising. "Don't go knocking me down before I've even tried!"

"Tried what?" Alicia mumbled, sounding half-asleep.

Nero stiffened and looked over to his other side. "Nothing... Hey, Alicia, do you want to become a Hero?"

She hummed and shook her head. "I wasn't planning on it. I figured I'd stick around the minimum amount of time before I retire and do what I want." She sighed. "Why'd I have to summon an SR? They're gonna make me work for decades before they let me go, and a horse isn't going to fit in a bookstore..."

"Oh yeah, you wanted to move to the city and run a shop," Nero said. "I forgot you used to say that. What was it you said you'd summon? A wind elemental? You know that's an SR, too, right?"

There was a rustling sound, and then Nero yelped. I assumed she’d hit or kicked him. "Yeah, well, I do now! That's from back when I was like six or something!" She huffed and rolled away from him. “Jerk.”

“Aw, come on, Alicia, I was just teasing…”

I lowered my head onto my paws and sighed. Kids, I thought as I fell asleep.

I awoke to an entirely different sort of ruckus.

"Don't look, kay?"

"What? Just let me get out of here!"

"Too late, already changing! Don't look or I'll hit you!"

I watched both of them, feeling nothing but exasperated.

"So, uh, was there anything weird about Heather's status?" Nero asked as he stared intently at the tent’s canvas. My ears perked up.

Alicia pulled her shirt over her head and glanced over. "Weird? Like what?"

"Luna apparently bought her own skills," Nero said. He didn't mention what I was, which I appreciated. I could understand his decision to share this much. Unless someone used Assess on me, they weren't going to find out what I was, but someone watching me would probably realize there was something strange about my skill acquisition. With us spending all our time together, Alicia was the person most likely to notice that.

"Huh, really? Luna's pretty smart, then, isn't she?" Alicia giggled. "Good. I'd be uneasy about leaving that kind of thing up to you. You're not exactly a planner."

"Hey!" Nero threw a spare shirt at her. A moment later, it came sailing back.

I nudged my way through the tent flaps and left them to their squabbling.

Like that, my first month in a new world was spent learning the ins and outs of adventuring from Green Wonder alongside Nero and Alicia. (Heather didn’t seem to be anything more than a Fly-enabled horse. I don’t think she was learning much of anything during that first month.)

Given the alarm surrounding my dark magic, I decided to obtain light magic as well. Rather than buy Light Claw, I picked up Blessing, a specialty skill that cost three times as much as regular skills but offered a unique benefit: at level 1, it healed living targets or damaged undead targets for 30 Health. Healing magic was difficult to obtain, usually requiring specific summons, so by offering my services, I was able to bring Green Wonder around to accepting me.

I later found out that Alicia had bought Heather Wind Stomp, STR UP, and END UP. Alicia liked the increase to her own stats that Heather’s passives offered. A horse was awkward to take in some places, so Alicia thought it was better for her to be the primary fighter while Heather acted as support. That was fine. I admired the intention, really. However, it seemed that people in this world could only see their summon’s Status and not their own, and that included Available Skills, preventing her from choosing the skills she needed. It was too frustrating watching her (and Nero’s) skill points go into things like 'cooking,' 'horse-riding,' and 'etiquette' instead of anything useful.

Throughout that first month, I kept an eye out for reflective surfaces. I hadn’t seen a single mirror since arriving here, and the quality of reflection I could get from water or someone’s buckle or a sword was less than ideal. I was able, eventually, to determine that my initial suspicion about my appearance, based on Alicia naming me Luna, was wrong. Regrettably, I did not have a crescent moon on my forehead like a certain magical girl’s cat. My fur was all black, the pads of my paws and the insides of my ears were gray, and my eyes were silver.

I wondered what the difference between a Shadow Cat, a Demon Cat, and a regular black cat might be. Everyone seemed awfully convinced that I was a Shadow Cat when they first saw me, but the only thing that separated me from a black cat was my eyes. Was there any difference between a Shadow Cat and a Demon Cat? Maybe I was the lucky result of an artist reusing art and hoping no one would notice.

This was the kind of silly and petty concern that took up my waking hours. Even with the training Green Wonder put us through, it’d been an easy-going life so far.

At the end of our last day of training, Green Wonder said their goodbyes and returned us to the church. Brad pulled Nero aside and clapped him on the shoulder, nearly dislodging me. “Take care of that girl of yours,” he said. “The two’ve you’re good kids. I hope you get a good party and…. Look, I know becoming a Hero sounds cool and all, but don’t forget what’s really important.”

Nero shrugged the man off him. “I know,” he said in that special tone teens everywhere develop. “You don’t have to tell me.”

Brad took it in good humor. If his party took this quest often, he probably had a lot of experience with surly, know-it-all teenagers. “Of course. Good luck, Nero.” He glanced at me. “Take care of them, Luna.”

I sniffed and looked straight ahead. I didn’t need to be told to take care of my Master.

The sisters prepared a simple meal for us, including a rat for me, and we went to bed full of expectations for the next day.