"I'm refusing service to you!" The clerk declares, still looking nervous, but also more confident, now he has soldiers here to back him.

"But it's for a human!" Adam protests. "He needs a pouch to store his money in, so I'm buying it for him! You won't sell it to me for that?"

"So he's buying it," the lead guard looks at me. "For you?"

"He is," I answer. "I'm new, and don't have one."

"Abandon him," he says. "His kind bring nothing but bad luck to those who follow them, and they're nothing more than monsters. The moment you upset him, he'll rip your head off."

"He's been nothing but friendly to me," I state. "And I'll make that decision. He hasn't shown any indication of being the 'monster' everyone seems to think he is. I'll decide to leave him if he ever breaks the trust he's built with me."

"Oh," he walks over to me with what looks like disgust on his face. "He's yours, isn't he?"

"Mine?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says. "Yours. It's not friendship you two have – you're just using him for your own needs."

As a slave? Is that better or worse?

"And if I am?"

"You are," he picks me up by the collar of my shirt. Whoa. I thought that only happened in anime and shit. Is my shirt even strong enough to do that? "Do you know what we do to people like you?"

"You're really strong," I grab his wrist with both of my hands and squeeze as much as I can. It's not like I can do anything to him. I'm doing my best to hide the fact that I am terrified shitless. Well, nearly shitless – it hasn't come out yet. "Please let go of me."

"Or what?" He asks. "I can't even feel your grip through my armor. By associating with that thing, you've broken the moral codes of our people. We're going to lock you up, and have our-"

New Skill! Iron Grip Active Increases the power of your grip based on this Skill's Level, go break those bones! +1 STR! +1 STR! +1 STR!

As soon as that third increase popped up, my body growing a little stronger with each boost, his look of confusion from my sudden increase in strength turns to pain as the bones in his arm break. I don't crush them, but it's enough to at least crack them.

"The hell?" He lets go of me, and I release his arm.

"Uh, Jamie?" Adam says from the counter. "He was referring to using me as in sexually. We haven't had sex, sir, though if he wanted to, I'd be happy to indulge him. He's hot enough for that. Nah – we're just friends, and I'm spending money on him, because he's a newbie and needs help – and a money pouch.

"So," Adam looks back at the clerk. "You going to sell me the pouch so he – a human – can have something to store his money in? Otherwise, I'll have to hold onto it, and since you clearly distrust my kind, do you really want me to hold onto a human's money?"

"So," the guard looks down at me. "You're just using him for his money?"

No, but I probably shouldn't say that.

"Yes," I answer. "I am."

Adam glances at me, then looks back the clerk.

"Well?" He asks, as if I didn't just say I'm only friends with him for his money.

"Enough," the soldier growls, walking over to the counter and dropping a couple of talons on it. "I'm buying it for him. A Level 1 Human strong enough to wound me is impressive, but one gusty enough to use a half-dragon? Deserves more than dealing with its kind."

The soldier snatches the pouch from Adam's hand and tosses it to me, then looks at Adam.

"Give him whatever money of his you have," the soldier orders. "Now."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Adam salutes mockingly, then walks over to me and hands me the eighteen feathers. "Here, you go!"

I put them in my pouch, then tie the pouch to my belt, and look at the soldier.

"Are we done, here?" I ask.

"Once it leaves," he jerks a thumb toward Adam. "I'd recommend you cut off any and all ties to it. You will suffer for relations to it."

"Well," I say. "He's the reason I have a place to sleep, so I don't think I can. Plus, now that I know that you were referring to using him for sex, I'm assuming that what you were saying when I cracked your arm was that you'd have your way with me, and in a sexual sense. Sorry, but you aren't my type, and I'd rather not get roughed up by someone who hates someone who's been nothing but nice to me."

"You have until the end of the day," he growls. "To get out of town. Its kind is not welcome here, and nor are those who would be friendly with them. We gave you a chance, and we're giving you another. If you don't leave-"

"I'll leave," I say. "I'd rather not be in a town where the guards abuse their power to satisfy their perverted need to rape people. Come on, Adam – let's find somewhere that isn't filled with douchebags."

"Oh, that's everywhere!" Adam says happily, but follows me out. "Nobody will like me! Being friends with me will only bring you headache, heartache, and suffering, because you'll be punished just for associating with me!"

"That's nice," I say. "Do we need to stop anywhere before we leave? Got things at the inn?"

"Nope!" He answers. "And since we did turn in our keys before we left this morning, since we'd only paid for the night, we don't even need to return there! Oh, but we could stop and pick up some food for the road. Nah – we probably won't get sold to. I can hunt, though!"

Perhaps we should go to a smaller village, where it's as unlikely where they'll have a fighting force that could defy us.

"By the way," the guards follow us out. "We can't let you just leave, especially since you injured one of us. We're going to have to rough you up a little bit, before you can go."

"Really?" Adam looks at him. "You really want to rough us up?"

The next moment, Adam is standing in front of the guard – or rather, where the guard had been. The guard himself has flown back, slamming into the shop door, breaking it and still flying backwards. Adam drops his fist back to his side, then smiles at me.

"Silly humans," he says. "Forgetting that I have the blood of a dragon flowing through me, and that no one can kill one of those! They're way too strong!"

He grins at the soldiers, then turns and starts walking, and I follow, wondering what the hell just happened.

"Remember," Adam tells me as we walk toward the edge of town. "Your stats are amplifiers. They don't necessarily show your actual power levels. Sure, I'm at 15 STR, but does that mean I'm as weak as a human with 15 STR? Hell no! Silly humans – forgetting that my body is naturally stronger!"

Much, much stronger…

No wonder he doesn't seem bothered by the way people look at him – it's not acting, it simply doesn't bother him. He's powerful enough before his stats that their amplification to him means he's a badass after them.

I wonder what someone's Total Level would have to be for them to equal him in strength or power. They'd probably need to have a few Classes to do that.

Quite a few.

Adam and I leave town, and are on the road past when the sun begins to set. I'm exhausted, but feel like I have enough stamina to keep going. Is that Limitless Adaptation, granting me more stamina? Increasing it? Decreasing how quickly it runs out? Increasing how quickly I recover it?

It takes me a couple of hours to realize that there are three moons in the sky. Two are silvery, like Earth's moon, and are roughly the same size as each other. The third one is much larger, and glows blue. They're all full moons. The light filling the air down here matches Earth's moon's, though brighter.

"You know," Adam leaves the path and sits down. We've long since last seen anyone on the roads. "It's rare for all three moons to be in the sky. Vaefar doesn't usually show himself, unless there's something special going on."

"Something special?" I ask. "Which one's Vaefar?"

"The blue one," he looks up and stares at the moons. "Vaefar is said to be not just a moon, but a whole world, and is where the greatest go when they die. The happiest people are the coolest people, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I look up at the moons, and while I'm taking them in, a tingle goes down my spine. I look at Adam. "Did you feel that?"

"That was probably me," he shakes his head. "I just cast a perimeter. Basic, but it'll let me know if anyone enters it. We can sleep without worry of being looted or raped or something."

Is rape really that common here?

Hesitant, but trusting him, I lie down as well, closing my eyes. The night air is cool, but not chilly, and it feels nice.

Moments after I close my eyes, I'm waking up to the sun on my face and Adam cooking a handful of rabbits over a fire, along with a deer. There's a boy with straight, dark brown hair and bright blue eyes sitting across from him.

Caleb Demon

"Demon?" I ask.

"Yup!" Adam nods. "He's super-friendly! Apparently, he just turned eighteen a this morning and decided to travel, now he's got access to the System. He, ah, didn't aim the portal he moved through, and landed on me. What a way to wake up! He's decided to join your party."

My party?

"You're the stronger one," I say. "How come you aren't the leader?"

"Because I'm the half-dragon?" He asks. "I mean, seriously? The human's better off as the leader than the half-dragon, and since we were a party before he joined, it's not like it'd be right for him to be the leader. Also, he finds you very attractive, too."

"What kind of fighter are you?" I ignore Adam's comment, implying that he finds me attractive.

"Magician," Caleb holds up a hand. "Fireball."

A ball of flames forms above his hand, and he curls his fingers into a fist, the flames vanishing.

"Most of my magics are fire-based," he informs me. "Though until I start using the ones I know, I won't have the Skills for them."

"It only adds," Adam must have noticed my confusion, despite my thought that I concealed it. "The Skills you have before you gain access once you use them after you gain access."

"Ah," I say. "Thanks."

"No problem!" He says, then looks up at the sky. "Cay – what do you think of Vaefar staying out?"

"Past night?" Caleb looks up, and I realize that in addition to the sun, Vaefar hangs in the sky as well. "I don't know. I've never heard of that happening before. I noticed that he was out the last couple of days."

He was?

"He was?" Adam asks, then frowns. "I didn't see him."

"He was hiding himself," Caleb shrugs. "But we could sense him over in the demon lands. Two evening's ago, around dinnertime, was when he appeared."

Around the same time I came to this world…

Are the two related?

Probably just a coincidence, though part of me hopes it isn't, and that it does have to do with my being here.

"So, um," I look at Adam and Caleb, deciding to get my thoughts off of that. It's highly unlikely it'd be related to me, as much as I wish I'd be one of those 'chosen ones'. To be honest, I think finding a place Adam doesn't have to live in worry of being chased out would be nice. "How, exactly, do Classes work?"

"What do you mean?" Adam asks.

"Do they provide any benefits, outside of their stats?"

"Oh, definitely," he nods, but doesn't elaborate.

"They provide small boosts," Caleb rolls his eyes. "Based on the Class's Level. The boosts could be a minor assist to learning certain types of Skills, or it could just be a bonus to certain things. If someone had the Prostitute or Slut Class, they'd have a small bonus to resisting diseases. The Prostitute would also have a slightly-higher chance at being able to charge a little bit more than they're actually worth for sex."

"Oh," Adam adds. "They can also have physical effects on your body as well. If you go into the Harem Leader Classes, it would actually boost your charm when you're talking to someone attracted to you, regardless of whether or not they'll admit it to them, or if they're even aware they have an inclination towards you."

"Also," Caleb nods. "The Prostitute and Slut Classes also boost certain physical aspects, depending on what you do, though it's more noticeable for a woman than a guy, since the boobs in a woman are almost always affected."

I can see that.

"So the bigger the boob, the bigger the slut?" I ask, and Adam laughs, looking at Caleb.

"I like him more and more as we talk," he tells the demon.

Speaking of… Caleb looks remarkably human for a demon.

"Hey, Caleb," I look at him, deciding to move away from this subject, especially since they both apparently find me attractive, and I'm not sure what they're trying to say. "Back on my world, demons usually have horns and don't look human, in the stories. You look completely, entirely, and incomparably human. A very attractive human, but human, nonetheless."

"Ah, that," he stands up and exhales, his body morphing for a moment, a pair of black, leathery wing sprouting out of his back, ripping his shirt open in the process. His eyes turn crimson as a pair of black horns sprout from his head. "Ah, crap."

"What?" Adam asks.

"I just destroyed the back of my shirt," Caleb looks behind him. "And it's not like a demon could just go into town and buy a new one, and you said that you two were run out of town. Even still, I couldn't afford a new shirt – haven't gotten any loot since leaving, and it wasn't exactly with my tribe's blessing."

"You ran away from home?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "Not chased out, like Adam was, after his parents were killed, but still – I don't exactly have a place to go back to."

He focuses again, and returns to his human form.

"Most demons," he says. "Can change into a human form, as long as they're already humanoid in nature. For those that aren't humanoid, they'd have to reach a pretty high Level and get a high enough INT before they could manage the shift."

He pulls the remains of his shirt off and tosses it in the fire, and I raise an eyebrow.

New Skill! Eyebrow-Raise Passive You have the ability to raise a single eyebrow, and whenever you do, the desired effect is now stronger – be it questioning, irritation, sexiness, or something else altogether

That's nice. It's apparently already at Level 2, too.

"It's not like we could repair it," he says, then smacks his six-pack abs. "And I'm fit enough in either form that it's not like I'm an eyesore – unless you find me distracting?"

"Just a little," I say. "But I can get used to it."

"Alright," he says. "Wearing clothes is a new concept to me, though I felt it'd be more appropriate to at least do so."

"Wearing clothes is a new concept to you?" I ask.

"Demons generally don't walk around clothed," he explains. "Even for those with humanoid forms. Then again, we also usually just loot and pillage and rape villages and towns near our realm, so it's not like we need to conform to the ways of civilized society."

"And you're not like the rest of the demons, because…?"

"We aren't inherently evil," he responds. "But when everyone treats you like you are, might as well just give in to your nature."

If it's part of your nature, then isn't it somewhat inherent?

"I burned the rabbits," Adam realizes, looking at the fire sadly. "I guess we can share the deer."