Come morning I want to get up but Lucia won't let go of me.

"Lucia, dear, you know you can't come with me. The sun would kill you within seconds. I need at least to organize a 'Sun Guard ring' for you before we can go anywhere together."

"Yes... I know, but what can I do all day alone..."

"You are not alone, all right? You have at least Elly, Maria and the little kid to command around. What was the name again, Carl?"

"That's not the same. I don't really care about them. I want you."

"I'm sorry, but you have to get used to other people occupying some of your time. Especially if you want to accompany me wherever I need to travel to address this end-of-the-world business."

"That I do... but there I'd still be with you and not only with strangers."

"Then you have to learn to endure it."

"Right..."

"In that case, while you wait for me you should think about what you want to do with your class choices. Combat will be inevitable. According to your [Unholy Matrimony] skill, you should be able to take three more classes now since I have that many more than you. Only think about it. We can make a final decision together later. Find something that works well with the existing team."

"Hmm... no, I think I'll find something nice by myself to surprise you~"

"Good, but then have at least Elly help you once she wakes up, she should be able to help you with figuring out some of the stat requirements or searching classes based on skills they get later."

"Yeah, I'll... do that."

I give her a goodbye kiss and then get out of bed.

Down on the first floor, I see Maria instructing the two kids on some household chores.

"Hey, Maria."

"Good morning, my lord. What can I help you with?"

"Today it is about Anna. I hope she talked with you about the 'hero business'?"

"Yes, she has."

"Good."

I turn towards the little cat girl, "So, have you made up your mind, Anna? Do you still want to become a hero?"

"Yes, I think so."

"No, 'think' doesn't cut it. Either you do or you don't. Once we've started there's no turning back. If you want, you can think about it for a few more days, but I need a definitive answer."

"I'm fairly certain that I want to do it."

sigh

"Maria, when she talked about it, what impression did you get?"

"She seemed to want to go along with it but honestly I didn't get the feeling she fully understands what you want from her."

"I see... hmmm..."

Yeah, what did I expect? Mentally, she is stuck somewhere between six and eight years, specifically from an environment where these dangers we encounter here are nothing but fiction she may know from TV at best. I really should've considered that before...

"Okay, change of plans, Anna. I'll give you a crash course today. You'll come with me and I'll show you some of the monsters you would have to deal with in the future. Don't worry, we'll be a safe distance away from them. This is just so you can get a look at what we'll be up against eventually. After that I'll take you to the rest of our group, they'll show you what regular training would be like. This is not a commitment either way, you can still decide during the next few days. Sound good?"

She thinks for a moment, then nods, "Yeah, I'm okay with that."

"Good, you heard it, Maria. Anna won't be able to help you today with chores."

"No problem, my lord, we'll manage, right, Carl?"

The little paradox continues hiding behind Maria and just nods, seems like he is still afraid of me. I mean I get it, he was there during the announcement but his first impression of me was that of a bloodthirsty monster, and first impressions are hard to overcome...

Well, that's a problem to solve another time. I pity you, future me.

"Alright, we're off then. Come, Anna."

We start walking towards the door, Anna a slight bit behind me.

(Lucia, we're leaving now. Mind talking for a bit? I want to check out if there are any limitations to this communication channel.)

(Yeah, sure, darling. Anything specific you want to ta-)

And the connection is cut off the moment the door closes behind us.

(Lucia? Are you still there?)

I wait about a minute but no response, I guess that is the range limit. I turn around and enter the mansion again, (Lucia? Are you back again?)

(Ah, now I hear you again.)

(The connection was cut off the moment I was outside, so I guess the range is about 'shouting range'.)

(That's a bit disappointing. I was hoping I could at least chat with you while you are away.)

(Yeah, but that isn't something we can change. Well, we're off for real now. See you later.)

(Sure, later. Don't let me wait too long!)

(Yeah, I'll do my best.)

So for the purpose of communication, it is only like regular speech that no one else can hear but it doesn't come with a bigger range. Can't win them all but it should still be mildly useful.

Anna asks me, "W-what are you doing there?"

"Just checking out the range of a certain ability. Was sadly shorter than I hoped for. Whatever, come, we've got a few things to take care of today."

"Uh-huh."

"Mind telling me a few more things about your previous life while we walk, Anna?"

"I don't really have much to tell. Dad died in a traffic accident, mom was always busy at work and then I was just always in the hospital."

"Didn't you need to go to school?"

"I went for about half a year before being stuck in the hospital."

"So no education worth speaking of. Yet another reason to look into the education system here. Or rather invest in it. Had many friends?"

"A few but I quickly lost contact with most of them. They visited two or three times at first and then I never heard from them again."

"And here?"

"None. Didn't get along with the other... slaves", she makes a pained expression while saying the latter part.

I pat her on the head, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get along with the rest of the team."

She pushes my hand away, seems like she doesn't like it.

"What about you? What... were you like before you became... a monster?"

"I honestly don't remember too much, and parts of what I remember seem to be false. At least a truth-verifying gem claims as much... But until proven otherwise, my life was quite uneventful. Parents were still alive last I checked, I had a stable office job, neither married nor a life partner of any form. At most I went to some parties with coworkers, but no real friends beyond that. And then I just randomly died."

"Huh. Does the memory thing also apply to other vampires?"

"Supposedly getting turned into one does something with one's mind or memories."

"That's... not what I expected. In the movies I watched, there was no mention of that."

"Would it have been relevant to the story?"

Anna thinks for a moment, "I guess not."

Hmm... Lucia still seemed to be herself and what she remembered at least made sense with what I knew but... I... turned her into a vampire before she got her [Living Undead] skill, so who is to say there wasn't some damage done before? The skill only said that it prevents changes, not that it undoes already existing ones.

Can we even find out if something about her changed? I don't know her for long and she said, that she doesn't really know who she is since everyone always forced her to conform to their ideas of what she should be.

Figuring that out will be yet another problem...

"I'm curious, Anna, where are you originally from?"

"Why would it matter? Do you... plan to take over my world as well?"

"No. I guess no one has explained the 'Lost One' business to you?"

"Nah, they haven't. Why? I understand it makes you 'different' but nothing beyond that."

"Right, so... 'Lost Ones' are those that were sent by something like a god and originally come from a different world. Like you. That's why I don't understand why you don't have that title."

"I guess that explains a few things..."

She thinks for a moment.

"...Khisall, I'm from Khisall, the capital of Vricmond."

"Never heard of those. So I guess the chance of us being from the same world is now basically zero."

"So... what? What does that change?"

"Nothing really. I was just curious."

"Okay, if you say so."

We finally arrive at the gate.

"See all those soldiers in the gateway, Anna? They prevent the monsters from coming in. Come, we'll watch it from the top."

I lead her towards the tower with the stairs that get us to the top.

"Here, take a look, you can see all kinds of monsters down there. What do you think of them?"

"Whoa, there's so many, do they even end?"

"I hope so. Otherwise, there is no saving this world before the artifact does its thing. Whatever that really is."

The monsters seem the same types as yesterday, except there are now also Teddies again in the mix.

What is the condition for reaching the next stage anyway? Once every week doesn't work since it stayed the same for the first three weeks. Does this even count as a new stage with only adding the teddies? This really needs a whole lot of research.

"Give me a moment, I have to cast some magic."

"Magic?"

"Just take a look."

I cast my two rain spells as usual. After a moment it starts raining small chunks of ice.

Your 'Ice Rain' spell has inflicted a total of 1124771 damage.

Your 'Ice Rain' spell has inflicted a total of 1201337 damage.

Hmm... my exp went only up by 1508, so I do get less for having Lucia in a pseudo-party.

I need only 334 MP for the next cast, I should be able to squeeze that out on the way back and have then enough exp for the 5th Lore Seeker level.

"Does that mean you're responsible for ruining my birthdays with bad weather?"

"Unlikely. We're neither from the same world nor was there magic where I came from."

She doesn't sound convinced, "Oookay."

"So what do you think of monsters? Do you think you could fight them if we train you?"

"I think so. They don't really seem scary, just... weird."

"Trust me, it is a different story when you are up and personal with them, some of them are unreasonably strong. As you are right now, some of them could kill you instantly with one attack. So don't take them lightly. But that you are okay with them so far, means it isn't a totally hopeless cause."

"As weak as I am that is no surprise."

"Maybe you'd just have to see them in person when we go to the dungeon next week. Honestly, I wouldn't want to take a child in there but this world doesn't really care for child safety. We can decide that later, let's go meet the others."

"Sure."

We go to the training room and chat a bit more on the way.

"Uh, i-if I may ask, who is the lady that stays with us? Maria said that you had a guest over?"

"That would be Lucia, who is apparently my wife now."

"Why apparently? Sh-shouldn't you know if you're married?"

"That is... not that easy to explain. We were kinda dating before and our relationship could still go either way but then we had a magical contract forced on us and that set the relationship status in stone."

"Yeah, I don't get it."

"It isn't really easy for us either. The point is we still try to figure out what we really are for each other. But as it stands, she'll join our group in the future. You could get to know her properly then."

"Okay. I look forward to it, I hope she's nice."

So do I, Anna, "Yeah, she is, don't worry."

I guess I shouldn't bring up the option of adoption until Lucia has made up her mind. There's no point in getting her hopes up for nothing and that way Anna has some more time to get used to being around vampires.

Speaking of Lucia, I hope Elly doesn't give her too many weird ideas regarding what role she could play in our party. We have already enough physical attackers, summons are shared between her and me so that's pointless as well, as a fellow undead she is also barred from healing magic and because of her past she rejected anything to do with faith anyway - I guess that would include buffing magic? What does that even leave...

sigh

Please don't tell me she was serious about the singing comment... Please don't make her a spoony bard, Elly.

Hmm... Thinking about it... is it even true that she can never use healing magic? Her bugged magic skill said that if she could use Curse Magic she can use Cure Magic. Would that bypass the [Undead] restriction?

...

No, Jared, don't think like that. Just because she is the love interest slash girlfriend doesn't mean she has to be the healer. Trust in her, she can find her own purpose.

Not that healing seems to be worth much in this system. 500 MP for exactly one time FTH in healing, while for the same MP I could do up to ten times MAG in damage by casting five projectile spells, or even twenty times if I have a weakness to exploit. Healing needs a serious buff over here!!