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‘What the hell?’ I wondered. I raised my hands in a calming motion.

I’d just saved our skins, so why was she suddenly threatening me? A chill swept through the air in what I’d learned was likely a precursor to her unleashing her fire.

“Wait!” I exclaimed. “We just cleared a dungeon. I’m not with them.”

I gestured toward the air, where the dungeon boss had disintegrated. Eve’s eyes flicked toward the empty air and back to me.

“Explain why the fog didn’t affect you,” she said coldly, the heat warping the air around her hand.

Alikr, the demon traitor, already knew about my second system, but it still wouldn’t be the best idea to go around telling everyone about it. On top of that, there was something strange about Eve as well.

‘Wait…’ I thought to myself, ‘how did she know about the fog, and why didn’t she run?’

When I’d turned around, she’d already been aiming her hand at me. Had her power not been disrupted either?

‘If she was still able to use her abilities… does that mean she also has something like the second system?’

Just then, more system windows popped up.

[Quest Complete!

Investigate the Blockade

+500XP Received!]

[Total XP: 32,000/32,000]

[Level up!]

My flickering eyes must’ve given it away.

“You see a system message right now, don’t you?” Eve asked. “How were you able to fight in the fog? I’ve only ever seen demon abilities work inside of it.”

I thought of her fire again and carefully considered my next words. I didn’t know if she was bluffing or not, but I wouldn’t blame her for attacking me if she truly believed me to be a demon.

“Do you want to answer that question as well, then?” I asked. “You were still gathering your power in the fog, weren’t you?”

Her eyes narrowed at me, wondering what I was playing at.

I let a slight grin creep onto my face in the hopes of empathizing with her. “Are you going to tell me how you were still able to use abilities, then?”

“…” She remained silent.

That, in itself, was answer enough. We both had our secrets, after all.

To drive my point home, I said, “I’ve been fighting these demons pretty much non-stop for the past while, and I’d be happy to take any help I can get.”

Giving her a pointed look, I lowered my hands, took a few steps toward her, and held out my right arm for a handshake.

Finally, she lowered her right arm as well and returned the gesture with a firm grip.

“I can’t say I disagree with that sentiment. Aizen, was it?”

I nodded. “Yeah. What brings you here, anyway?”

It was the question that had been lingering in my mind. Not only were elves somewhat rare in the human territories, but why was she headed to Karfana?

After unclasping her hand from mine, her gaze unfocused for a moment, as if she were in deep thought.

“I guess you could say I’m a demon hunter,” she finally said. “Karfana survived an attack, and I want to take a look.”

“Take a look at what, exactly?” I asked.

“The aftermath.” A certain gleam shone in her eyes.

“Well, it’s much less… messy…” I looked around at the human-demon sludge left behind from her initial fire attack on the corrupted Awakeners.

A hint of a smile tugged at her lip for a moment. Suddenly, a thought came upon me.

“Say… you mentioned being a demon hunter, right?” I asked.

“I said I was something of the sort,” she corrected, as if there was a significant difference.

“Something of the sort… right… Well, do you have any idea what just happened? I’ve never heard of a delayed dungeon.”

“Mmm… Well, you can’t really apply logic to demons. We know dungeons can have certain triggers, such as an item being picked up or a trap being activated, so I imagine it’s something of the same sort.”

She didn’t seem too surprised, and I idly wondered just how many demons she’d dealt with.

Had they been around much longer than I initially imagined?

Bernard took a long drink.

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.

Idly tracing his eyes over the cracked wooden mug he was drinking the terrible, somewhat acidic alcohol from, he thought over his predicament.

“You know…” he finally said, his face slightly relaxed from the intoxicating effect of the drinks he’d already consumed. “It’s funny, Endurance makes it much harder for us to get drunk.”

Of course, he was referring to melee-type fighters.

“We shouldn’t relax yet, you know. We have to figure out food, clothing, shelter arrangements, a management rotation, and not to even mention the problems with the missing caravans.” Velle, still only halfway through her first drink of the night, sighed and tapped her mug.

Bernard idly waved his hand in response, as if trying to wave her concerns away. “We’ve been at this together for a while now. Nobody expects us to be awake 24/7, and we have others helping us. Like that Rhil girl.”

“You mean the one who was recently a demon prisoner?” Velle pointedly asked. “She probably needs the rest even more than we do.”

“My point is… we haven’t had a proper rest since the demons first attacked. One night isn’t going to kill anyone. You wouldn’t have even agreed to this if you truly thought differently.”

Velle smiled slightly. “You know me too well, huh?”

“Travel with someone for a year and try not knowing them,” Bernard chuckled.

He waved his mug around, indicating more than just the dimly lit bar around them, patronized by a few other Awakeners, whose chatter provided a steady murmur of background noise.

“Didn’t exactly sign up for this, you know? Do you remember why we set out on this whole business to begin with?”

Velle took another sip. “Of course. For the sake of saving people, right?” she answered in a somewhat mocking tone.

“It’s nice, reuniting people with their families, but I admit, being hailed as heroes feels just as good, if not better. I just didn’t expect to get dragged into the end of the world on the way.”

Velle leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes tracing the cracks in the wood. As much as she wanted to, she wouldn’t be finishing her drink.

There was still too much to do.

“That makes two of us.”

***

Eve remained mostly silent on our way back to Karfana. Neither of us was quite as cautious of the other as in our first meeting, but there was still that awkwardness between near-strangers.

I somewhat doubted she was much of a talker anyway, with what little we did speak. Clearly, she had more questions and curiosities regarding my abilities, but she kept them in check.

In turn, I kept my own questions to myself. She never once removed her cloak, and it became apparent at some point over the long trek back that she also never used or revealed her left arm from beneath her cloak.

Theories bounced around in my head, of course, but it wasn’t important to our mission.

Strangely enough, she also didn’t make use of an inventory bag and instead pulled dense packets of rectangular food that looked somewhat like bread from the interior of her cloak during our breaks.

‘She really can’t go any faster?’ I wondered at one point during our trip. Even Velle, a mage, had a few points in physical skills and could keep a light jog for quite some time.

Eve, on the other hand, seemed almost melancholic. She moved in a determined yet casual manner, not seeming to be in any rush.

‘How old even is she?’

Elves hadn’t been around in the new world for too long, but many had already lived for decades or even hundreds of years before they were suddenly pulled there in much the same manner humanity and the other races had been.

Given the slow pace of our return, I had much more time to think.

We saw more goblins and other monsters waiting in ambush by the road as well but largely ignored them. They weren’t quite dumb enough to attack, and I again wondered how they knew who was weak enough to risk attacking or not.

Did monsters also have their own version of a system?

Finally, after around two days of travel—a distance I’d covered by myself in around half a day—Karfana’s walls greeted us on the horizon.

Compared to the walls of the northern city, they weren’t exactly what I’d describe as ‘grand’, but they were what I considered to be home. Just seeing them made me relax a bit, and I let out a sigh.

“That’s the city, then?” Eve asked me, gesturing toward the walls. “The walls look mostly intact.”

“That’s Karfana. As for the walls… Well, the demons didn’t exactly ‘attack’ it in the way you’re probably thinking.”

I was surprised by her next words.

“An attack from within, I take it? Corrupted priest, official, or something of the sort?” she asked. It was more of a statement than a question, as if she’d seen such things before.

Her claim of being a demon hunter seemed to be true, at least.

“You’re not far off.”

By that point, we were approaching the sole guard at the gate, who straightened when he saw us. It didn’t look like he’d been expecting me to return so soon, if at all.

I nodded to the guard, who, eyes wide, stared at Eve as we walked by, mouth almost agape in shock at seeing me return with someone else, and an elf, at that.

“I’ll tell you more over a drink. It’s a bit of a long story. Welcome to Karfana.”

In hindsight, humanity would have been better off if we’d been a bit faster.