“Yes! YES! That’s what I’m talking about!” I cheered as I watched Lexi stab Ven. Raymond was busy drinking Peter’s blood before it all drained away.

All in all, a pretty successful encounter, if I do say so.

“Interesting.” Auto said, his voice coming from somewhere behind me. I turned, but, of course, I saw nothing.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Her performance was quite adequate. It is likely she will become quite strong in the future.”

“In the future? Isn’t she strong now?”

“No, not really.” Auto replied, his tone smug, “Those were Bronze ranked adventurers and she had to use trickery, assassination and a supplemental magic item to face them one on four. She is strong for her level… but no, she is not yet strong.”

I felt an unpleasant feeling welling up inside.

“I thought Raymond did well…” I mumbled in response, “Tricks, assassination and magic items are all part of the equation, right? Using them doesn’t mean she is weak.”

“Do not misunderstand my intention. I am not devaluing her accomplishment. I speak a warning because I find you and her to be interesting. I do not wish for you to fall because of overestimating her power.”

“... Overestimating? I didn’t…” I started but Auto cut me off.

“The use of external sources of power is a valid strategy in fighting and war. However, to use these sources as a measure of an individual’s strength is foolish. Do not let your pride blind you or her to this fact… otherwise, she may bite off more than she can chew. There are forces on this world that could erase her… true immortal or not.”

“So what are you suggesting?” I asked as I returned my attention to Lexi. The catgirl was quivering slightly as she looked at the bloodstained sword in her hands. Then. trembling, she interacted with the screens that only she could see.

“You two have already attracted a lot of attention from very powerful forces. I would suggest you lie low, gather followers in secret and build up your strength.

“And ignore all the slaves and people in front of us who need our help?”

“If Raymond comes into conflict with any of the other current Tethers she would not even last five seconds in a fight.”

“...”

“She is decades of experience too young to be leading in the inevitable war that will start over this. It is YOUR responsibility to prepare her as she will be leading YOUR armies. Control your emotions and do not give her an idiotic Divine Mandate like your last one.”

“Idiotic?! Slavery is wrong! Besides, it worked out...” I said, motioning towards Lexi.

“You put her on the warpath against all of the human race when she was level ten!” Auto said, a hint of sarcasm entering his robotic voice, “Granted, it seems to be an inevitable conflict but she could have had more time to train and grow.” he growled.

“As for the cat beastkin... let me take a look…”

Auto paused for a moment.

“Oh… oh, this could be very interesting…”

“What?” I asked, intrigued.

“You seem to have acquired a very special follower here. She’s unlocked two of three requirements for a unique class in her Job slot!”

“... I have no idea what that means.”

“Beastkin are a race of people that were once human… as such, they benefit from a human-specific racial trait that allows them to have both combat and job class slots. This is another advantage humans have over the ‘monster’ races.”

“So as a beastkin, she also has two types of class slots?”

“Affirmative.”

“Huh, that sounds cool, I guess.”

“My database does not include information on any unique classes for the Job slot… I am most intrigued…” Auto mused.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out then, right?” I asked, my mood soaring again at the discovery that I may have just recruited another person who will become really powerful.

“You’re going to completely ignore my warnings, aren’t you?” Auto asked, sounding defeated.

I mentally shrugged. “Warnings exist to be ignored. There wouldn’t be any point to them otherwise, right?”

“You are the most illogical Overseer I have ever encountered… and Mumblegrumble is on this world.”

I glanced at the strange name on my chat log. I briefly wondered about my fellow Overseers… I should probably make contact with the others soon and learn more about them…

But you know… I’d much rather learn more about my new follower right now.

With that thought, I moved over and followed Lexi and Raymond as they were finishing draining and looting the bodies.

***

Congratulations, you have accomplished a task in your Overseer’s Divine Mandate! Updating log...

Divine Mandate of Legion:

Free the catgirl! Free the slaves!

Reward: Blow some steam, potentially new followers… who knows?

Level Upx3! You are now a level 13 Guardian!

Guardian skills Defensive Stance and Redirect have been unlocked!

Sneak has reached level 2!

Reduced chance of being detected!

Power Strike has reached level 2!

Damage increased by 5%

Current ratio: 1.05:1

Vampiric Bite has reached level 3!

+5% more hp per point of damage inflicted.

Current ratio: 1.10:1

Vampire Lord Racial Pathway progress: 12/100 entities of higher level drained of blood.

Raymond scanned the notifications as she finished draining the fourth and last body of blood. She was starting to worry that she hadn’t yet implemented all of her already existing skills into her fighting before getting new ones…

Defensive Stance was an ability that increased her defense stats when she was holding a position… likely a useless ability for her. Redirect would allow her to alter the trajectory of an attack towards her own body.

Naturally, leveling up some of the skills she used often was nice…

She walked over to stand beside Lexi. The girl was quivering as she looked at the bloodstained sword in her hands. Raymond reached out and placed her hand over Lexi’s.

“Well done.”

Lexi nodded slightly, her shaking slowing as she turned. She kept her eyes focused on the ground, unwilling or perhaps unable to meet Raymond’s gaze.

Raymond shrugged. She figured this girl had been through a lot of torment at the hands of her masters… it would likely take time for her to recover and that was fine. For now, it would be best to focus on moving forward.

“Did you get any levels?” Raymond asked.

Lexi hesitated for a moment.

“I… uh… unlocked the Fighter class…” she whispered.

“Nice! Did you take it?”

Lexi shook her head. “I… I’ve always wanted a combat class… but I figured I should ask you first...”

“You don’t have any other classes, do you?”

“I have the Slave class in my job slot…”

*ring, ring* *ring, ring*

Raymond opened the connection, motioning to Lexi to be quiet for a moment.

“Hey, Legion, you need something?”

“I have two things. First, I want to officially welcome Lexi into our little growing family…”

Raymond nodded. “Legion wants me to tell you that he welcomes you to the family.”

Lexi teared up. Geez, she cried a lot…

“Th..thank you…”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, I want her to reject the Fighter class. Have her pursue Acolyte and I’ll grant her a special class when she reaches level ten... a reward for being the first convert to our cause.”

“Oooh, what did you have in mind?”

“I’ll leave that as a surprise. Get her to Acolyte level 10!” Legion said, his voice sounding like it was moving further away.

“Wait, I don’t even know how to unlock the Acolyte class…”

“Ask the goblins when you get there, they’ll definitely know.”

Raymond groaned in frustration. Legion definitely had their best interests in mind but she wished he could have told her more information. At least the new assignment wasn’t really complicated…

Raymond relayed Legion’s instructions to Lexi and the girl nodded.

“I just rejected the class offer… what class do you think he’ll give me?” she asked, excitement filling her voice.

Raymond crouched down and started searching Ven’s body for his Bag of Holding.

“I don’t know… but you’ll be the first non-human with the class so it’ll be special no matter what it is.”

Lexi grinned widely, her tail waving.

Raymond found the bag she was looking for and moved on to the next corpse. After collecting the bags from all four bodies, she started to strip them of their armor. Because of her methods of fighting, the armor was mostly intact and she thought she might be able to reuse, repurpose or sell it at some point.

After stripping all of the bodies, she placed all the items in her Bag of Holding and connected the other bags to her belt. She tried putting them in her bag but the magic rejected placing a Bag of Holding into another Bag of Holding for some reason.

Then motioned towards the path. The sun was still high in the sky and they had several hours before the sun set.

Plenty of time to reach the goblin village.

The two of them started walking down the path. Initially, Lexi trailed behind but Raymond shook her head, waving Lexi forward.

“No need to walk behind me,” Raymond said, “friends should walk side-by-side, right?”

“F..friends…” Lexi whispered the word reverently, “Is it really okay?”

Raymond nodded, waving her forward again. Lexi increased her pace slightly until she came up beside Raymond.

“I’m sorry, I'm just not used to…” she trailed off.

Raymond gave her a quick smile, “Don’t worry about it. Old habits die hard, right? Take it at your own pace… just remember that you are free now and I am not your master.

Lexi nodded and they walked together in silence for a short time.

Raymond opened up her skills list and looked over it.

Fighter Skills:

Guardian Skills:

True Vampire Racial Abilities:

Tether Skills:

Skills:

Traits:

Power Strike (2)

Shield Slam (1)

Vampiric Bite (3)

Commune with the Great One

Sneak (2)

The First Sin

Rend (1)

Provoke (1)

Vampiric Strength

Sneak Attack (2)

Immortal Body

Devastate (2)

Defensive Stance (1)

Summon: Vampiric Familiar I (1)

Immortal Mind

A Fighter’s Strength

Redirect (1)

Immortal Soul

Deflect (1)

Body Shifter (1)

Uncanny Accuracy (1)

Art of War

Two caught her eye. She had a unique trait that she didn’t even know she’d had… The First Sin… she opened the window.

The First Sin

For committing the first ever act of murder, your soul will forever be marked by the taint of sin.

Effects: Damage received from Holy Magic increased by 500% and ignores resistances.

What…?! This had to be a remnant from Evelyn. That jerk actually had to go and ditch Raymond with a terrible trait like this one?!

Raymond shook her head and moved on to the ability Summon: Vampiric Familiar I. She figured she might as well pick a familiar and start leveling up the ability now. She opened the list again and scanned the options.

Bat, Rat, Cat, Spider, Raven, Wolf, Mimic

She didn’t know what the last option was at all. From the name, it sounded like it might have the ability to mimic… or in other words to copy something else. Not exactly an ability she really needed right now.

The bat and rat options didn’t seem particularly appealing either.

She already had Lexi who could likely do anything a cat familiar would be able to do for her.

She hesitated between spider, raven and wolf, finding it difficult to decide. She turned to Lexi.

“Hey, would you rather have a spider, raven or wolf around?”

Lexi gave her a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“Just curious about your thoughts.”

Lexi thought about it seriously for a moment.

“I guess that depends on what you want to do.”

“What do you mean?” Raymond asked.

“Well, you’re a Guardian, right? How far ahead have you planned your levels? When you reach level 30, what second class will you pick?”

“I have no idea…” she responded honestly.

Lexi shrugged. “Then I can’t tell you which of those animals would be better to have around.”

Raymond stared at the girl. “That was an unexpectedly intelligent response…”

Lexi’s cheeks turned red, “I was a slave but I’m not stupid…” she muttered.

Raymond realized what she’d just said. “Ah… sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that…” she said, scratching her ear idly. “I just didn’t realize you know so much…”

Lexi glanced at Raymond. “What do you mean? This is pretty elementary.”

Raymond winced. Her lack of knowledge that she should have was really starting to get on her nerves. If she had to hear one more time that she should already know something…

She returned her attention to the skill with a ‘hmph’. Lexi, as if sensing the change in Raymond’s mood wisely decided to not press the matter.

So what did Raymond want to become?

She tried to picture herself with more abilities, more levels, more strength. What did she want to do?

Images of a small figure tearing through the battlefield, crushing all her enemies with unrivaled power and strength crossed her vision. With her experiences so far, there was really only one style of fighting that could hold appeal for her now. Magic was just too slow and Raymond hadn’t yet seen it do anything too impressive.

So what kind of familiar would best benefit a raging storm? A wolf would likely be big and get in the way. It needed to be small, nimble, and able to escape the area quickly.

There was only one option that she knew would fit all of those criteria.

Raymond hovered over the option, hesitating only briefly. The deciding factor for her was when she glanced through the information and noted that the number ‘1’ was in parenthesis. Likely, she would be able to get more familiars, so if the mimic, cat, wolf or spider ended up being something she needed later then the option would probably be there in the future.

Also, she just happened to get a healthy respect for how dangerous birds could be a few days ago.

She chose and a small black sphere with reddish streaks running down the side appeared in front of her followed by a notification.

“Congratulations! You have contracted with a level 1 Raven!”

Level 1 Raven skills: Rake, Appraise

You have unlocked the Familiar skills: Remote View, Remote Cast

Due to your unique racial pathway, Level 1 Raven has been upgraded to Level 1 Raven Lord.

Raven Lord skill: Curse of Fate has been unlocked.

As Raymond finished scanning the displays, the black orb began to writhe. A small crack appeared on the side and, after a moment, the orb shattered. A small, black raven emerged, flapping its wings as it oriented itself.

Lexi stared at the small black bird, her eyes following it’s fluttering wings as if she was hypnotized her mouth opened slightly as she stopped walking. Raymond stopped to look at her.

“Good Afternoon, Master.” a new, raspy voice said.

Raymond returned her attention to the raven.

“You can speak?” she asked, surprised.

The raven moved forward and settled on Raymond’s right shoulder. Due to her small size, it looked much too large to be there but she didn’t mind.

“Master, what is that infernal creature?” the bird asked, eyeing Lexi.

Raymond glanced back and forth between the two. Lexi raised a hand, her fingernails extended into sharp claws. The Raven Lord glared at the catgirl.

“Raymond… can I eat it?” Lexi begged, her stomach rumbling.

With a start, Raymond realized that Lexi had probably not eaten anything in a while. Having just eaten herself, the thought had never crossed her mind. She reached into her Bag of Holding and tossed some Adventurer’s Rations at Lexi.

“Eat these. The bird is not food.” she ordered. Lexi caught the rations and purred contently as she sat down and began to tear into them. Raymond then addressed the bird.

“That ‘infernal creature’ is my friend.”

The bird shivered uncomfortably. “Cats…” he groaned.

Raymond sighed. She’d gotten two new companions in one day and it already looked like they would have an interesting relationship. But at least it should keep things interesting, right?

“I hope you two get along…” Raymond muttered.

“Master…” the raven started.

“Yes?”

“As your vampiric familiar, I feel duty-bound to notify you of any danger in your surrounding area. My first warning is about the company that you keep…”

“If you’re going to keep complaining about my friend, I don’t want to hear it.”

Lexi glanced over, smiling widely as she tore into the salted meat she’d pulled out of the rations.

The bird grunted, “Then, my second warning is that I sense potentially hostile entities moving around us.”

Raymond froze. “What?” she asked anxiously, looking around. They were on a path in the mountains. They had been ascending for a while but there was not much space to hide. A few dead trees were scattered to the side of the path and small mounds of snow-covered rocky terrain.

“This is no time for jokes…” she said.

The raven fluttered his wings angrily. “I would not joke about a matter as serious as this.”

“Then where are the ‘hostile entities’? Raymond demanded.

“Right behind you.” a masculine voice said from behind her. Raymond twirled around and found herself facing a small, green humanoid with a large two-handed hammer slung across his back and glowing blue eyes.

“Who…” she started when Lexi cried out. She looked over and saw the catgirl laying on the ground, unconscious.

Raymond jumped backward as the small figure in front of her grabbed his hammer and swung, barely missing her torso.

“Replicate.” he said.

Raymond felt an intense, crushing force slam into her side. She felt her insides shift and her ribs snap as she fell over. The raven leaped into the air and flew up, hovering above the group.

The little green man walked over to her fallen form, aiming his hammer at where he would strike next.

“W..wait…” Raymond spluttered, coughing up blood, “You're goblins, right? We’re not here to fight…”

“You adventurers are all liars.” the goblin grunted. He raised the mace to strike. Raymond reached up and pulled her eyepatch off, revealing her red eye.

“Stop!” she demanded, “I’m a True Vampire!”

The goblin hesitated, his mace stopping just before it crushed Raymond’s head. She stood, unflinching despite how close she had come to experiencing her head being splattered.

“What?” he asked, staring at her dumbfoundedly.

Another goblin appeared beside the first one. This goblin has a small mole on his nose and carried two daggers. He took a step closer and looked at Raymond carefully.

“Who are you?” he asked, a dangerous glint in his glowing eyes.