James turned the portal key over and over in his hands. His fingers traced over the pattern of runes that were etched into every stone, as if by staring at them hard enough he could understand their meaning.

  The key was a perfect replica of the summoning circles that were scattered across Grimora, and it could grant him and his party a one-way ticket to the Demon King’s Lair.

  James looked across the room to where Inara and Desiree were sleeping. Mother and daughter curled towards each other, not quite touching.

  The three of them had been through a lot together. Desiree was the one who had used the summoning circle to bring James from plain old Earth to the magical world of Grimora. It was thanks to her that he was given the Hero class and all the blessings and burdens that came with it.

  Desiree had then introduced James to her mother Inara, who taught James the rules of the world. From an Earth point of view, Grimora was like a video game. He could fight monsters to gain experience, enough experience would let him level up, and each level up granted stat and skill points.

  James reviewed his current status.

  Name: James

  Race: Human

  Class: Hero

  Level: 34

  HP: 400/400

  MP: 710/710

  EXP: 59,000/104,000

  Stat Points Available: 0

  STR: 100

  AGI: 90

  INT: 71

  WIS: 90

  CON: 70

  Skill Points Available: 1

  Skills: Meditation 1, Mana Bolt 2, Vital Pulse 1, Fireball 2, Immobile 1, Dip 1, Dive 1, Dodge 2, Duck 1, Battle Axe

  Fire Affinity: 14

  Water Affinity: 11

  Earth Affinity: 7

  Infernal Affinity: 46

  So much had changed in just a few short days. If someone had told him a week ago that he’d have magic and superhuman strength, James would have assumed they were crazy and moved on with his life. But here he was with a set of system assisted skills, and a collection of affinities that stemmed from a growing understanding of how magic actually worked in this crazy new world.

  People really can get used to anything, though, he thought, shaking his head. Back when he first arrived on Grimora, seeing a character sheet floating in front of him was enough to make him fear he was losing his mind… Now, the only thing that worried him was the rapid rise of his infernal affinity.

  Inara had told James that the current Demon King used to be just like him, yoinked out of Earth and given the title of Hero and a series of quests. She’d even journeyed with him to defeat the previous Demon King, but when the time came to make the final decision, her Hero chose to take up the mantle himself.

  That decision led to hundreds of subsequent deaths, many of them horrific. And the worst part was… James understood. Sort of. He could at least see how a person could make that decision. He could see the chain of logic that could lead a man to think that all those terrible actions would be worth it in the end if he could only accomplish his goals.

  And that was what worried him. Every time James used his Bloodhound Axe, the strongest weapon he’d found in the dungeon, his infernal affinity increased. It was subtle at first, but there were moments now when he thought he could feel its effects. A thought or a feeling would rise up. At first glance, that thought would seem reasonable, and it was only when he took a step back that he’d realize he was being self-centered or careless.

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  He wanted to throw the weapon away. Even his starter sword would be better, surely, than something that slowly poisoned his heart and mind? But in his brief time on Grimora, James had been flung from one fight to the next, each one bringing him closer and closer to death’s door.

  His enemies were getting stronger, and he couldn’t afford to give up such a clear advantage. Besides, the damn thing was soul-bound, so even if he wanted to, he couldn’t be rid of it. James had thought he’d left the axe in the dungeon — not on purpose, but he’d lost it in the final battle — only to wake up with the axe taking up space in his inventory.

  Even though that worried him, he was also glad. There was a part of him (the same part of Frodo that kept putting on the Ring) that loved the power of the axe. It was such a brutal weapon, and when James wielded that power, it fueled him with bravado he’d never experienced before.

  He couldn’t give that up. So it was something of a relief to realize that even if he wanted to, he couldn’t give that up.

  A soft snore rumbled to life. Inara’s lips were just barely parted, and if the room wasn’t so silent, James might not have heard it at all.

  All thoughts of the axe slid away, and he smiled. All the difficulty of Grimora was worth it just to have met her. James had never found anyone on Earth that he really connected with, but from the first moment he met Inara, he knew she was someone special. It didn’t hurt that she was beautiful and hands down the strongest woman he’d ever met. She was ten times the warrior he’d ever be, and he wanted nothing more than to earn the respect he saw in her eyes.

  His smile faded. Their latest fight worried him. The final boss of that dungeon had been the First Demon King, a dungeon-spawned recreation of the first demon king of Grimora. He’d told James that the System which granted everyone stats and skills was also the same reason the demons were able to cross from the infernal realm to this one.

  After an increasingly unhinged rant, the demon king had used a skill to temporarily remove the System. Desiree had then been attacked by a demon, and when her wound didn’t immediately heal, she went into shock. Inara then made the perfectly rational choice to put all her attention towards protecting her daughter…

  Leaving James completely alone against the First Demon King.

  The more James thought about that fight, the more it bothered him. The System granted so many advantages in a fight. It turned combat into a turn-based arena, which gave them time to plan and orchestrate their moves. It also allowed them to experience earth-shattering pain and debilitating wounds, only for those wounds and that pain to completely disappear as soon as the turn was over. Pain management on Grimora was as simple and straightforward as gritting your teeth for a few more seconds, and then all was well.

  It was an incredible advantage. It was also a crutch.

  James slid the portal key under his pillow and laid down. He pulled the covers up to his chin as if that would disperse his anxious thoughts and rolled over onto his side.

  Inara and Desiree had lived their whole lives with the System propping them up. They knew it as well as James knew the physics of his own world, and he never imagined that could be a liability.

  Until their fight against the First Demon King. Before the dungeon had twisted Virgil beyond recognition, the scholar had told him that if he really wanted to save the world, James would have to dismantle the very System that seemed to hold it together.

  How he was supposed to do that was anyone’s guess. Even Virgil hadn’t known before he died, and the closest he got was to gain a System-based skill that temporarily lifted System controls.

  James tightened his grip on his blankets and twisted onto his back.

  If he ignored the how… If he assumed that somewhere along the way, he’d figure out the details… Then the end game goal was to dismantle the System. With the amount of fighting he’d done since arriving on Grimora, that pretty much guaranteed that in the end, there would be a big fight without any System protection.

  The problem, then, was that James couldn’t trust Desiree and Inara in a fight like that. Desiree completely fell apart the first time she experienced lingering pain, and Inara’s first priority was always going to be her daughter.

  James didn’t want to change that about her — he loved that about her — but he did need to take it into consideration when he determined who was going to watch his back when it mattered the most.

  James continued to toss and turn. His thoughts chased each other in a circle until at last, he fell into fitful sleep.