With the Demon Sparhak rescued and no events that had a set time limit, Colin’s life had fallen into a solid routine.

  He spent a few hours after recovering from his Aetheric Radiation Sickness, finding a few locations around the city that he wanted to use. First was a training yard, one that Nox had mentioned specifically was suitable for weapons training beyond straight combat. Then he found the library and book store to do both research for his Knowledge skills and buy reference books for Enchanting. Then there was the Mage’s Foundry, which was used to train Mages and their skills.

  Lastly, Colin had found and secured a deal with an Enchanter shop that agreed to let him work there to increase his Enchanting Skills. The deal was simple, Colin would learn a little and practice as much Enchanting as he wanted, and the Enchanter would keep the proceeds. This was unless Colin produced something of higher quality than his current standard. Then he would earn the profit the item earned. Then Enchanter, Quan Li, had used this tactic with his more official apprentices as a training tool and found it surprisingly rare for it to occur.

  With exhaustion creeping in, Colin returned to his shared room and went back to sleep with a happy groan.

  First thing in the morning, Colin ate breakfast, used the restroom, and went to the Mage’s Foundry. It took a few minutes of jogging to get to the reinforced tower that stood taller than most of the buildings around it. He paid the entrance fee and took a ‘Blasting Chamber’ on the third floor. The room was around fifteen feet wide by thirty feet long, covered head to toe in its advertised enchanted walls to reinforce the walls against destructive magic. On the opposite side of the room, several wooden dummies were erected and waiting for whatever punishment awaited it.

  So Colin got to it, and for the next two hours, Colin moved through all the skills he had spells for and practiced all his skills. He flipped between Force magic, Shadow Magic, and using the subskills for fire and water magic. When his MP ran out, he’d sit down, grab a book he brought with him, and read. Then he’d rinse and repeat until his time ran out.

  After that, Colin would go to the Enchanter’s shop and work on his skills until he got hungry. Quan Li was rather happy to not have someone who needed constant guidance and to deal with making the low-level enchanted weapons, armor, and items. While he did spend most of the first day correcting Colin’s technique, he was rather impressed at the broader array of Magic Manipulation Skills that Colin had.

  With lunch done, he went to the library and just started to read anything recommended to increase his knowledge skills.

  His first impression of the structure was that it was smaller than he thought it would be. Disappointment filled him as he thought about the massive gothic libraries of Europe that were works of art as well as stores of knowledge. He got instead a clean, furnished, and loved building the size of a city library. Go figure.

  When a Librarian asked him why he looked so glum, he explained, “I just expected this building to be… eh, grander.”

  The older lady smiled politely and approached Colin; her voice was low and conspiratorial when she explained. “There’s a taboo in bookkeeping circles like Libraries and Bookstores, do not let the book count on any given property get above a certain count. If it does… It is said that a creature will come and take all the books and the entire building and add it to its horde. All Dragons hoard treasure, but only Lenova hordes whole Libraries.”

  Colin looked at her in disbelief, but she assured him that this was considered superstition. But he remembered the name from a piece of lore that he was directly connected to. A Golden Dragon named Lenova was related to the death of the third Demon Lord Krvavy Hlad.

  Curiosity sated, he focused on the task at hand, starting with history books, then moved on to anything else that interested him when he got bored. Outside of a few specific branches of knowledge, Colin wasn’t really much of a book learner. You put Colin in a Machine shop, and in a day, he could have a small functioning firearm. But learning about how sausage was made or how televisions worked was just… boring.

  Then he’d meet up with Rielle, with Nox in her shadow, at the training grounds. It was a building that looked like a University gym with a grassy field the size of a football field connected to it. Inside was built like a warrior’s dojo with racks lined with rental wooden weapons, training rings for instruction. Many people that Colin suspected were players practicing their craft in groups.

  Colin observed them getting their training and was begrudgingly a little impressed. The trainers moved with an absolute sureness and fluidity of movement with their chosen weapons that would warn Colin of trouble should he have to face them head-on. As it was, he watched the players for a few moments as we walked to his and Rielle’s appointed area for training.

  It ended up being more like practice since Colin was already trained and Rielle had been instructed by the Fey since she was young. While there was more they could learn, Colin and Nox both agreed that, for the moment, simple practice would suffice to increase their weapon levels.

  So they grabbed their training weapons, Colin with a short sword the approximate length of his Mythic Xiphos, and Rielle with a longsword for her long blades skill. They faced off with each other and trained. Focusing more on exchanging blows on their blades and attempting to make contact with the other. The exchanges started slow, then moved faster and widened across each other’s threatened ranges as they circled. At the end of their first exchange, Reille won mostly due to her fake swords added range.

  They repeated the exercise for over an hour until they were tired and hungry. At the end of the practice, the win count was, annoyingly, Rielle - five wins, and Colin - four wins. Colin assured himself that he would have won if it was life and death, but even to him, he sounded like he was deluding himself.

  After that, they parted ways again. With the sun going down, Colin decided to do a Bardic Performance to increase his skill level. He returned to the Miranda’s Echo, where Trent, the bartender that initially hired him, was doing his job. It took a little convincing since Colin had vanished for a week and did only one show, but Trent agreed to let him play again. On the condition that he plays every night this week. This was quickly countered by Colin telling him that he wanted a copper coin every night if the house was filled.

  Trent was smiling when he agreed, admitting to Colin that he’d never seen a full house in the ten years that he’d been working there, once the deal was struck. Colin smiled back but said nothing openly.

  That night, he didn’t get a Copper Coin, but that was expected; nobody knew that there would be a performance there. Especially a performance where Shadow Magic and Fire Magic was used along with Bardic Magic to animate the room with his playing.

  The first night was the one where he discovered the real strength of Bardic Magic. While most other magic that he had seen needed the structure of spells to work correctly, Bardic Magic didn’t appear to require that structure. It required the music to function and the musician’s Will to direct the power. He knew that he would have to experiment to discover how much music was necessary or how much mana was needed for different effects. Still, Colin was happy about the addition to his tool bag.

  After his performance and dinner, Colin started prowling the dark streets looking for a Player to kill. It took over an hour to find an appropriate target and stalked him for a half-hour until he was alone. The heavily armored Player barely reacted when Colin dropped on top of him, driving his Mythic Xiphos into the top of the Player’s head.

  Colin hopped off the body, and to his astonishment, found the Player still alive. The Xiphos had been plunged through the top of his skull and through his chin, blood pouring through the wounds. The Antagonist had heard of this but had never seen any survive a usually instantly fatal injury by the pure effort of their Build Attribute. As the head turned to face him, he activated the subskill for Shadow Magic called Shadow Cowling.

  The effect caused his body to be covered in a layer of ephemeral shadow, making him little more than a silhouette in the almost pitch black. The eyes locked onto Colin’s form, and a gurgled growl escaped blood drooling lips as the critical bleeding status killed the Player. The experience came, he withdrew his blade with a sucking slurp, and Colin left the body where it lay, reasoning that the Player would be just a little less pissed off if he wasn’t missing gear.

  It was at this point that he was tired, so he went back to his hotel and met up with Rielle, who was applying some medicine to some wounds she’d received in her ‘Secret Training’ with Nox. He assured Colin that everything was fine and that with the medication he had on hand, her wound would be gone by morning. Colin was annoyed that Nox was still refusing to tell Colin what this training was giving Rielle, or even what it was, but let it go. The Goblin was not going to say until he was ready, and Colin was just tired enough to not press the issue.

  He went to bed a little earlier than he initially intended that night, his eyes burning from exhaustion. The Antagonist figured that this was some residual effect of the Aetheric Radiation sickness he’d been treated for. That, or he simply worked himself too hard today and simply hoped for the former.

  He hoped for the former because Colin repeated the schedule for the next three weeks without fail.

  He would have stopped if the gains weren’t worth the work, but that was quickly proven not to be the case. Every day, he gained some kind of level and reveled in the growth. New knowledge skills were acquired, and old ones grew. His skill level and proficiency in Enchanting and its subskill grew, and his weapon skills increased.

  Even his nighttime assassinations had been going well. His notoriety as the BriarThorn Killer grew from obscure to boogeyman status after killing a level twenty-one Player. This wasn’t really much of an accomplishment in Colin’s book, considering the aforementioned Player was a spellcaster who must not have put much into his Build Attribute.

  With all that said, a few exciting things happened during this time.

  After one of his training bouts with Rielle, where she won, Colin received a Prompt.

  Colin looked at the Prompt with both joy and fascination. He could make weapon techniques like he made spells, only the initial level was higher than magic, but that made a little sense. Anyone could pick up a sword and swing it around with some practice making it readily usable. Magic had no such immediate usability, so it made sense that its spellcrafting would occur at a lower level.

  He told Rielle this, and she nodded in understanding, “I haven’t gotten to that level in any of my weapon skills yet, but I know of the process. I think it would be wise to look into the tutorial if you want to be safe,” she stated. “I can wait for a few minutes.”

  Grinning, Colin said yes. The Prompt may have said that it was virtually the same, but the differences could cause him to make a mistake.

  With Rielle waiting patiently, Colin said, “Personal Blades.”

  So Colin quickly obeyed and filled in the prompt as he was instructed, ending up with a simple chart.

  While this seemed like a simple named attack, Colin could easily see the usefulness in a two-in-the-time-of-one attack. He could combine it with his Aligned Strike skill and increase the damage exponentially. He wasn’t sure if it would work in conjunction with his Assassination skill, but the potential was fantastic if it did.

  The Prompt continued.

  Colin dismissed the prompts, glad that he’d taken the time to read through the tutorial. He was only a little disappointed that it didn’t sound like he could add magical effects to these techniques. So far as he knew, at least, he couldn’t. Maybe at higher levels, he could do some stuff that he couldn’t imagine.

  But for the moment, Colin was satisfied and returned to training with Rielle.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The next notable event happened after he killed two Players that were making out in a dark alley outside Miranda’s Echo. She was a Priest, judging by her fitted white robes with amethyst accents, and her partner was a thief-like man in soft-dark leathers. They went at it non-stop for long enough that Colin wondered how they were breathing.

  So Colin crept close, his newer Demonic Trench Knife drawn, and his Shadow Cowling skill active to increase his stealth in this low-light environment. The kills were swift. He activated Aligned Strike, Double Stab, Kinetic Vigor, and Assassination on the Thief, killing him instantly as the blade punctured the base of his neck with the second strike.

  The Priest died a few moments later with the Trench Knife in her neck and three other stab wounds in her sternum. This killing was nothing really notable for Colin since he’d been killing Players for over a week with a single level to show for it.

  This time though, he got a Prompt that he had not seen before.

  From the final wound, ruby-red light sparkled and flowed like a stream of glitter and was absorbed into Colin’s chest.

  With a quickly beating heart, Colin opened his Hubris Menu, and there it was.

  The grin on Colin’s face was wide as he realized what this meant. He could have access to healing magic! This will increase his survival rate by a considerable margin and give him access to other useful anti-undead abilities. He knew it had other possibilities as well, but these were what he was more excited for.

  Colin thought about the twenty-five point total that he needed to unlock everything and the five points he already had. Luckily, with a little discussion with Nox, they had a possible solution for his points deficiency.

  From inside his Jacket, Colin withdrew two small pieces of parchment the size of a credit card and tucked them inside each of their clothes pockets. They were something that Rielle had actually suggested after hearing about how his Hubris Ability, and suggested something that might stretch an ego.

  The parchments read, ‘Your Death has been brought to you by your friendly neighborhood BriarThorn Killer.’

  The only flaw in this idea was that they had no idea whether or not sicking something in their pockets would make them stay there when they respawn.

  When he awoke the next morning, the answer was waiting.

  Colin’s cheers woke a tired Rielle from her exhausted slumber.

  A week later, Colin bought the Class and both skills from the Priest in his Hubris Menu.

  Luckily, there was literature in the library on the Priest Class’s common choices when it came to this Ability. Most people chose one of the seven Gods of Rosengard for their Divine Channel. Others chose a concept to gain their powers from, like war or beauty. From what he’d read, people had taken choices like Death, Trickery, Strength, Chaos, Devastation, Knowledge, Magic, Light, Dark, and even Glory were listed. The books only gave him an idea of what these abilities did, and none of them sounded like him.

  Then he had an idea that would be useful sooner or later. It was one of those thoughts that when it hits, you can’t shake it. So when this moment arrived, Colin immediately stated the concept he wanted.

  “Slaughter,” Colin intoned.

  Colin sighed with the change in his wording but shrugged as he read the following prompts.

  While he was initially annoyed to the point of fuming at the change to his Divine Magic Manipulation Skill but calmed when he realized that healing wasn’t beyond him. He wondered what spell he’d learn at level five if it wasn’t going to be a healing spell like all the books stated that he’d get at level 5 of the skill.

  The look from Rielle when his joy woke her up again brought to mind the phrase, ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’

  The last, and arguably, the most important event that happened over these calmer times was that he reached level 15.

  After a mostly successful Assassination of a Player dressed in an actual Chainmail Bikini, the short-lived battle after had given Colin the Experience he needed to level up with the following Prompt.

  The new choices all made Colin salivate with anticipation.

  Though, there was only one option that he knew he had to take now to take full advantage of. Colin accepted Anatomy of a Boss 1.

  This would give him several more abilities than the average Player, especially with the previously unknown retroactive status of the Ability. This means when he leveled up again, he will gain another Ability, putting him one Ability or skill ahead of the crowd. Then the fact that it was one of several abilities made him grin in satisfaction at his choice. Under the assumption that Anatomy of a Boss 2 worked the same as the first tier, then he’d get powers up the wazoo.

  Since there was nothing more he could do with this Ability until he leveled up again, Colin took a moment to look at his other new Ability.

  “Well, that’s interesting,” Colin mused, considering actually using the Ability. While Rielle and Nox were excellent sources of information, neither knew the full breadth of what Colin could be capable of. He wasn’t either but a surrogate for his ArchDemon Lucifer, a statement of his future if there ever was one, should be able to help him realize it and plan.

  Looking around the darkened back room where he’d killed the Chainmail Bikini-clad woman, he decided that here was not a good location. He took out the parchment note that he wasn’t sure where to put it. After noticing how she was lying on her back, Colin turned her over and found a pouch connected to the back of her Bikini Bottom. He slipped the note in before anyone else showed up and hurried out the window he entered from and headed back to his hotel.

  Once there, Colin drew a relatively simple in the center of the restroom of his hotel room. A circle within the center of a pentagram, inside a double circle, with what sounded like holy script written inside the double rings. According to the knowledge granted by the Ability, the summoning had to be very nearly perfect to work correctly.

  Only, when it came time to trigger the ritual, it took his mana, around 150 points to be exact, and what happened was not what he expected.

  A dark-skinned woman with platinum blonde hair, soft golden eyes, and in a modestly cut pantsuit stood patiently as he took her in. Especially the fact that she must have been nearly five to six inches taller than his almost six feet of height, had small elk-like horns and a thin barbed tail. All these confirmed that the transparent woman was not actually human.

  “Hello, My name is Hautley; I am the Secretary to the Steward of Hell, Baal. Unfortunately, the one you were intended to get was unavailable for the moment. He wanted me to take care of your needs for the moment. Do you have an inquiry as of now?” she asked, her tone all business and completely serious.

  “I, uh, yeah, I do. You are aware that I am the Antagonist, Correct?” he asked, knowing the answer from when he spoke to gave Sparhak to Astaroth. All Demon’s knew that he was the Antagonist, so why would the Steward of Hell’s Secretary be any different?

  “I am aware,” she spoke succinctly.

  “Well, I am stuck in this world and cannot leave until I either fulfill my role or find some special door without knobs or hinges, but it is locked with four different locks. Does that ring any bells?” Colin asked her, getting right to the point. He did have other curiosities, but this was the main thing that he wanted to know.

  “No, I cannot say that it does. I will admit that I do not know everything that involves your plane of existence or my own. My Lord Baal or one of the other ArchDemon’s might know something, but I do not. Would you like me to put in a request for the information?” she asked, pulling a piece of paper from the inside of her suit jacket.

  Colin nodded, “yes, also, how much do you know about the Antagonist Class?” he asked.

  “Not much beyond the basics and your role with Demonkind, My Lord would know more, but I do not. Shall I put in a request for that?”

  Sighing, Colin nodded again, “please do. Also, can you put in a request for me to speak with Baal?”

  “I can,” she said, writing down the notes. “Will there be anything else?” she asked.

  “No, thank you for coming,” he said, grumbling about a wasted amount of time. The woman nodded and faded away, the draw summoning symbol on the floor fading with it.

  When he turned to look away, a new prompt was waiting for him.

  He opened them up and read through them.

  Yet another thing that could provide Colin with some advantageous capabilities and more things to research. When Nox and Rielle came in for the day, he’d have to talk with him about it before playing with his new tool. For now, he grabbed a book he borrowed from his Enchanting Master about specific effect Enchanting and tried to relax.

  When they did come in, Colin was asleep on his bed with the book open on his chest. He did ask the next morning, but Nox told him to hold off on playing with either of those skills until he had more time to explain them. His own skill in Ritual Magic was mediocre at best, but summoning was something he was familiar with and would happily explain after Colin finished buying all the ingredients that he was owed for services rendered.

  At the end of the fourth week since returning the Demon to Astaroth, Colin was extremely pleased with his progress. Just from what he’d heard of the leveling system, he knew he still had a long way to go until he was one of the strongest in the game, but he was proud of his specific progress. He’d grown his personal level and the level of his skills, as well as gained many new ones, mostly knowledge skills, but they still counted.

  This was the day Colin got word as he left the hotel in the morning from Henrietta’s network of thieves and intelligence agents. Volkiere was confirmed to be still in the city, and the Krimson Spire Guild squad he was currently a part of was getting ready to have him finish his job. Finally, Colin felt ready to exact only one part of his revenge.

  And nothing short of doomsday would slow him down from it.