I slowly blink open my eyes to a crick in my neck and several System windows in front of me.

[ Through owner ship of the title: Void-touched you have unlocked the skill: Void Resistance(Medium, Passive) ]

[ Through owner ship of the title: Void-touched you have unlocked the skill: Abstraction Resistance(Medium, Passive) ]

[ Through owner ship of the title: Void-touched skill: Night Vision(Passive) has evolved into skill: Dark Vision(Passive) ]

[ Void Resistance - Allows the user to resist the mana disrupting and absorption effects of Void essence. ]

[ Abstraction Resistance - Allows the user to resist the matter and skill disruption and absorption effects of Abstraction essence. ]

[ Dark Vision — An upgrade to Night Vision. Whereas the previous iteration required a minimum amount of light to operate, Dark Vision allows the user to see in an absolute lack of light. ]

[ Curse: Weak Solar Constitution(Medium, Passive) has been applied due to possession of title: Void-touched ]

[ Curse: Weak Solar Constitution — Due to being touched by the primal source of Darkness in the multiverse, you are physically weakened in sunlight. ]

[ As a result of title: Void-touched, the user has increased their affinity with pure mana. This will have consequences. ]

[ Name: Alice Windshaw

Species: Lunares Wolf Beast-human

Age: 24

Level: 12

Experience: 120/1475

Titles: Rank F Adventurer, Hero's Disciple, Void-touched

Effects: Mana Under-saturation, Dazed

Health: 540/540

Magic: 1/60

Mana Regen: 34.3/hr (x1.1)

Power: 200

Endurance: 167

Intelligence: 159

Wisdom: 146

Agility: 144

Dexterity: 160

Skills: | Press to drop down the menu / |

Curses: Weak Solar Constitution(Medium, Passive) ]

Well, damn. I guess that solidifies my job being primarily nocturnal now. What with Sleep Immunity, Dark Vision, Lunar Power, and my new curse. That screen about consequences worries me though.

With great difficulty, I wave away the screens and sit up. I'm back in Thomas's penthouse, and all of the curtains over any windows are closed. A thick, woolen blanket had been draped over me and tucked into my sides like a burrito.

Thomas, stumbles out of, I think, his bedroom, much more haggard than I remember him being. He has a thousand-yard stare before sneezing into a yawn. Sparing a glance in my direction, he then pauses.

He looks again just to make sure, but he's probably doing a double-take over my being awake.

"Ah, the defiant child lives," Thomas says with a chuckle and a smile while limping over to me. Limping? He notices that I notice his limp. "Yeah, you were not in a very kind place." He sits down at the other end of the couch.

"W-What happened?" My voice shakes, but I need to know. Know what events happened after I was…whisked away.

He sighs. "For starters, the B-Listers all got sent to jail. They'll probably break out; they have a knack for doing so, but it'll be a while." He readjusts his leg and continues, "All the Nazis got dusted—I mean, all the undead got dusted. Even those on our side are gone."

"Graves' body wasn't found. It seemed that whatever device he used absorbed him into the singularity of a black hole, stretching his molecules into an atom-thin line of spaghetti." His imagery isn't that great, is it?

"Then there's you." He says with more ire in his voice than sentences previous. "We thought you died as well, but then the System gave us dimensional coordinates. There was just one problem."

He sighs again. Contemplation painting his face as he chooses his next words carefully. Whatever he says can't be good if it takes him a minute to figure it out.

"Sophia and I… We both use Spatial magics; we've told you this before. Dimensional coordinates are a useful thing, used to figure out where to place a portal. Spatial can only work in three, maybe four, dimensions. Traveling across planes, like where you were, requires an upgrade from Spatial magic to Dimensional magic… Neither of us possess an affinity for Dimensional magic. I mean, we might, but it's hard to get."

"We hatched a plan. I say plan, but it was more of a hare-brained idea. I've said that one can unlock mana for a type even if they don't possess the affinity; it just takes more mana and less the closer you are to said affinity."

"How much mana do you think it takes to bridge from Spatial magic to Dimensional magic?"

He's said that they're close before, yeah? I wouldn't think it's too much. However, they're also both high ranking affinities.

"Thomas. Where's Sophia?" I know it's rude to answer a question with a question, but I have to know.

He gives a mournful smile. No, please no. "Don't get too worried. She's still alive, just…not doing so hot right now." That's a relief.

"She used up all her mana—just to put in perspective this is practically billions of mana—into opening and holding the portal. I jumped in, got you out, and had to carry the both of you back here."

He sniffs a little. "She's fine. Adjusting. Kinda incapable of using magic and skills, but fine. She's in bed right now, but yeah, she'll be out of hero work for a while."

"Do you want to see her?" I nod, and Thomas helps me walk over to their room. Both of us are hobbling, so it's like a three-legged race, almost.

Walking into the room, I'm met with white.

A white spider, one the size of a car, sits perched on top of a queen-sized bed. Like a parasitic mushroom, a female body sits on the head of the spider. I have to clamber around the legs tucked under the abdomen, but I eventually climb up the pillow tower to Sophia.

Her breathing is raspy, and her cheeks are hollow. She stirs slightly as I approach and gives a kind smile when she sees me.

"W-What?" That's all I can stammer out.

"Yep," she chuckles. "I, uh, yeah. This is my true form. I am technically using a human-form skill constantly, but that's…taxing, right now. I'll get better with rest though."

I stagger, mainly due to exhaustion, but also shock. "You look like you're on death's door!" She disregards my shouting with another chuckle.

"Have you looked in a mirror? You aren't doing good either."

I calm down. Just slightly though. "Well, what now?"

Thomas takes this opportunity to speak up. "While Sophia…recuperates, I'm going to be your temporary mentor. I'm her spouse and a high-ranking member of the Villain's Guild."

"Is that fine?"

"Ah. Right. You don't know IT yet. Well, you don't need to know IT. Just know that we'll be working together much more often for the foreseeable future." He extends his hand for a handshake which I reciprocate.

"Though, Aria and I have to drop off Nora at school tomorrow. It's her first day!"

I ignore Thomas's squealing in lieu of another thing—summer is over.