Gerald's eyes scanned the room as he studied the 'heroes'. This was the first time he'd seen a 'hero' before, and he wasn't sure what to think. None of them were like how he imagined them to be. Some of them looked like a simple gust would knock them down. He could see that he had his work cut out for him.
Unfortunately, all he had to go on were the stories his grandparents told him. He had heard all kinds of tales about how they triumphed against the demons, bringing peace to the land. Almost none of them talked about their early days when they were new to the world.
The last of the heroes from the previous generation died out more than 50 years ago. It was unfortunate what happened, but they died for a good cause. Sacrificing themselves to bring down the demon king was indeed hero worthy. If it weren't for the devious demon king's tricks, the demons would have been wiped out by now.
Now it was up to them to end it this time. He had been preparing for this m
"Grace, we need to have a talk," Luke said once they had gotten a fair distance away from everyone. At his words, she jerked as if she didn't expect him to say such a thing and stopped in her tracks. Fortunately, it was only the three of them standing in the hallway, but that could easily change at any moment. It was best if they found a place to talk privately, and he knew several places for them to hide out for their conversation. After several moments of silence, she finally said, "I-I guess this has to do with my lying about my stats." "Yes, but I don't think we should have this conversation out in the open. Follow me," he said. They entered an empty room, and he indicated to 'Kayla' to use her abilities to hide their conversation from possible spies. Luckily, despite being turned into a human, she still had access to the abilities she had as an angel though they were much weaker. She would only be able to disguise their conversation for a few min
"Why should we tell you?" 'Kayla' asked, once again undermining his authority. He glared at her, conveying exactly how he felt about her actions. She shuddered before continuing. "You've already proven that you will lie.""Th-that's—" She didn't even get to finish her sentence before she mowed down."How can we possibly trust you? You think we're suspicious, but you're just as suspicious as us. Can you give us one good reason we should tell you anything?" 'Kayla' said as she jabbed her finger in Grace's direction.At his furious expression, she finally backed off. It looked like he hadn't realized anything yet, but she had already received her first quests since becoming a human. One was from her system while the other had come from his. She hadn't expected to receive a quest after losing her system but less one from the latter so when she had gone to her room to think about everything that happened, she nearly jumped out of her human skin at the sight of
Seeing how out of breath Grace was, Luke said, "Let's take a short break.""N-No, *pant* I can *pant* keep going," she said as she leaned against a tree for support.He and 'Kayla' stared at her. She was obviously struggling to keep up. Honestly, it was impressive she had been able to keep at their pace despite never having to do such an intensive exercise. It was one thing walking on a sidewalk and another to traverse through a dense forest.Even he was breathing heavier from all the walking they did. His body was currently that of a teen whose only exercise was walking to school and playing some sports, and he assumed Grace was the same. It was only thanks to his stamina stat being slightly higher than hers that he wasn't in the same condition. He needed to quickly get his body back into shape.Actually, even 'Kayla' was a bit flushed despite being an angel. He supposed it couldn't be helped since she was currently no longer an angel, and her stamina st
Luke stared at the collapsed figure of his future party member. Grace was currently passed out from exhaustion. She had really not been prepared to travel another three miles and had actually lost all steam in the final mile to get there. He and 'Kayla' had to carry her the rest of the trip which was why it ended up almost taking another two hours to reach their destination.'Kayla' wasn't in the best shape herself considering how she was bonelessly resting against the wall. It was clear that the drop in her stats had gotten to her as she had mumbled to herself about how she had gotten so weak.He himself felt that his legs had turned to jelly and wasn't looking forward to the training that was planned the next day. It was going to be hell trying to get back into shape. Unfortunately, he didn't know any shortcuts for improving his stats outside of training and fighting demons.Scanning the training grounds, he saw that it hadn't changed much from what he remembe
"Thank you for the meal," Grace said as she accepted the sandwich from the servant.The servant bowed in return. "It's an honor to serve the heroes."Luke murmured a quiet thank you as he bit into his meal. 'Kayla' accepted the food with a look of disgust that the servants ignored. They had explored quite a bit of the place and occasionally bumped into some people as they saw what the training grounds had to offer. The only person who was remotely amazed by the place was Grace who kept asking questions they pretended to not know the answer to."Why don't you join us?" Grace asked as she indicated to the woman to sit down on the ground with them."I have to go back to work," the servant said before leaving."Are they really that busy?" she asked. "I mean there doesn't seem to be a lot of people here, and I can't imagine what they would need to do besides some cleaning."After swallowing his food, he said, "Who knows."Grace frowned bef
"What's going on here?" a knight demanded.Just like he expected, people were trying to see what the commotion was about. A very small crowd was beginning to form, and he could see a few more people coming to see what was happening."Buzz off," Theodore snapped.The knight frowned. "Heroes shouldn't be fighting each other.""Did I say I want to hear you talk? I don't think so," he spat.The other knights shared grim expressions at his words. Despite that, none of them reached for their weapons or demanded he take his words back. His status as a hero was keeping their tongues in check and left them to endure his verbal abuse. This was perfect."Do you have no shame?" At the sound of a woman's voice, everyone turned to see said woman with her hands on her hips. She crossed her arms as she continued her rant. "You're despicable. Ever since we got here, all you've been doing is spewing out toxic words. Seriously, does picking fights with everyon
Luke didn't get a chance to process what he had just read before he was forced to dodge another swing. He could feel the wind brushing against his cheek and hear his opponent ordering him to fight back, but his mind was too busy trying to figure out what was happening. He had just received a quest from the demon's system, right in broad daylight and in front of so many witnesses. While it was true that none of the humans could see the windows, that didn't mean the angels couldn't. To think he would be exposed too early. But was he? Not a single angel appeared to smite him. There was no way they would ignore such an obvious sign. Two reasons came to mind for why this was. One of them was that no angels were currently watching them, which was discarded the moment he thought of it. The idea that they weren't constantly monitoring them was ridiculous. The other reason was that they couldn't see the demon's system. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time to be thinkin
"Y-you were amazing," said Grace after she and 'Kayla' managed to squeeze past the meager crowd. "Thank you, but I was lucky this time," he said as he took them away from the crowd. "Next time I might not be so lucky. I need to get better." 'Kayla' huffed. "Obviously. Seeing you stumble about was so embarrassing to watch." Though he was still smiling, he swore to punish her the moment Grace was out of sight. The sight of her uneasy expression was enough to tell him that she heard those particular thoughts. He hadn't yet determined how much of his thoughts she could 'd have to see what she could hear from him later tonight in his room. "I-I'll do better too. You can count on me," said Grace as she raised her clenched fists. While he hadn't intended for her to get fired up, he had no reason to put her down. "I look forward to seeing that." Grace beamed at him as if he had praised her even though all he said was he was interested in her p