I followed Jilly south, but I walked beside her so I could talk to her about the world. Now that things with the girls seemed to like it was straightening themselves out, I really needed to get on top of learning about the world.

“So, are there any other humans like me?” I asked. ​​

“No, there are some that look close to you, but they are some of the worst monsters. All they do is latch onto you and drain your thoughts until you’re left to drool and starve to death. I can’t remember what they are called, but they have eyes in their hands and much sharper teeth, but that is about as close as it comes to looking like you,” Jilly explained to me, but I was noticing that the canyon was starting to arch up.

“Hmm, that’s fine, not like it would make a difference. As you can see with me, humans are just monsters without visible natural weapons,” I said as we started to get higher, and I was able to start seeing treetops, which reminded me of the wood that had just been cut up, and we ended up leaving behind.

“What do you think of the Builder System that you have? Is it to your liking? Not that I think that I can change the system, but I might be able to show how to get to where you want if you tell me what you want,” I said to Jilly, as Mary slept on my shoulder and the Cerberus girls in my arms, so it was just the two of us.

Jilly didn’t answer me right away, so I had a moment to look around at the forest we were walking into. I was really excited to see the world, but I needed to get stronger.

I didn’t want to rely on the girls for help. None of them were using Combat Systems, and the ones that they had shouldn’t have to be used as ones.

“I guess I don’t mind it, but I have never really done anything that I truly enjoy because I could never do it the right way, and then I would just give up. I am just worried that I will hit a wall and not be able to progress further, and then at that point, what is the point even?” Jilly asked while looking forward.

“Yeah, makes sense, but, like mine, your life has just changed. I didn’t really like the idea of having something forced on me that was going to let me breeze through here. You might think that is stupid, but that’s just the way I felt about things,” I said to her as Jilly pointed to the left path of a fork in the road.

“The other way is to the Minor Oni Demon lords keep; this path will take us to the town,” Jilly said as she guided me, but I stopped her; I had an idea.

“Now, we are all here together, and it is my job to keep pushing you forward, so just keep looking forward. If you feel like going back and stopping, I’ll be there to push you forward or take your hand and pull you. So, what about this minor Oni guy?” I asked now that I had stopped her.

“Mex? For a demon, you might consider him nice, but she will usually rope you into doing things for him in the guises of his niceness. Still, if you complete the tasks, you can earn some MP. What did you have in mind?” Jilly asked, coming down to my height.

“Good, I kind of assumed he might be like that. It was either that, or they would be horribly spiteful to everyone,” I said with a smile.

“That would be the other minor Oni, Neft. That one is on the other side of the island,” Jilly said while rolling her eyes.

“Good, and she can stay there. I think that we should go visit this guy and earn some points, and maybe we can rent a stable or something to rent,” I said absentmindedly.

“What is a stable?” Jilly asked me.

“It’s a place to put horses, but they are an animal humans like me rode. So, I don’t know if monsters would ride other beasts or monsters,” I said, tapping a finger to my chin.

“There are races that do, or at least I have heard of something to that degree. Though, there is nothing like that on the island,” Jilly explained, and we both started to walk down the path that led to this minor Oni, Mex.

“So, you said, he is nice, but what do you mean buy that?” I asked a little worried that this might be another one of those varied opinions.

“If we can be of help to him, he will more than likely give us a place to stay in his Keep. Though, we might be sent out to kill other very powerful monsters that can’t be killed by the average person. So, yeah, a place to stay if we survive,” Jilly said with a half-hearted laugh.

“That is a pretty steep bargain, but I think that we are above average. We will see what Mex has to say; worse comes to worst, we can sleep outside,” I said as we walked along.

“That would definitely be the worst. The monsters that come out at night here are far worse. I usually pull a big rock in front of my cave and then roll one from the inside to discourage other night monsters from trying to attack me,” Jilly said.

“Okay, well then we had better kill whatever he wants us to, or we are going to have a very long night. I need to get in some monster killing anyways, and maybe we can get some new kinds of meat to try, I said, smiling up to Jilly, but then I felt Mary stir on my back.

“Meatsss?” Mary hissed softly and then fell back asleep.