Before they set out, Inara insisted on preparing for the journey. She was in the kitchen putting together travel rations, and when James questioned how they were going to carry everything that she’d laid out, she coolly reminded him of his inventory.

  Feeling thoroughly chastised, James backed out of the house. For whatever reason, his Inventory was the one piece of magic he couldn’t wrap his mind around. Most people in Grimora didn’t get an inventory, for one. As a Hero, James had five slots that worked just like a standard video game inventory. Similar items could stack, and when he viewed his inventory the five little boxes appeared at the bottom of his vision, and stored items were shown as cartoon versions of themselves.

  It was cute, and maybe that was why he had a tendency to dismiss it.

  “Hey James, do you want to spar?” Desiree held her staff in a fighting stance and swung playfully in his direction.

  James hesitated. “Is that a good idea?”

  Friendly fire was definitely a thing in Grimora, and the last thing he needed was to accidentally hurt one of his party members.

  “Sure, why not?” She jumped around like she was fending off his blows already. “I mean, your axe would probably kill me, but you could use your spells and stuff. Or if you want to practice dodging, I could work on my spells and even if I hit you, your stats are so high you’d definitely be fine.”

  James had to smile at that. Desiree had a great attitude. Nothing could keep her down for long, it seemed, and she was willing to put all her energy into becoming a better fighter.

  She was just so small. So young. And he couldn’t shake the image of her curled up in a fetal position, clutching at her cheek where the demon had wounded her, unable to move or fight for the rest of the battle — not because the wound was debilitating, but because the shock of continuous pain was too much to handle.

  “Come onnn,” she begged. “Please?”

  “Alright,” he caved. “Let’s give it a try. Hit me with your Holy spell and we’ll make sure I can survive it.”

  “Here goes! Sanctified Bolt!” Golden light shot from Desiree’s staff and slammed straight into James’s chest. The attack hit him like a bolt of lightning, and his whole body convulsed from the shock. Holy magic arced through his every nerve, searing him from the inside.

  But at the same time, it felt… good? It hurt like hell, but it also felt like baptism. Like the magic sought out the darkest corners of his soul and forgave them. Like there was a chance for him to be a better man, if he would only reach out and take it.

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  “James?! James, oh gods, are you okay?!” Desiree was shaking his shoulders when he blinked open his eyes.

  “Huh? Jeez, stop. I’m fine. I think.” James put a hand over his eyes. Everything seemed too bright all of a sudden. And when had he ended up on the ground?

  “What are you doing?” Inara’s voice cut through the haze. She had her scythe at the ready and looked ready for war.

  James winced. He was more afraid of Inara’s wrath than he had been of Desiree’s spell.

  “We were just sparring,” he said.

  “Yeah!” Desiree added. “He told me to do it.”

  James shot her a look, and she stuck her tongue out in response. He bit back a laugh.

  Inara’s expression softened just a touch. “I saw your health drop. You scared me.”

  James checked his health bar and winced again. Desiree’s attack had knocked out just over half of his overall HP. No wonder Inara came running.

  “Yeah that did a bit more damage than I expected,” he said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  Inara’s frown returned in full force. She looked from James to Desiree and back again. “Be careful,” she said, then went back inside.

  Desiree fell to the ground in a dramatic flop. “Whew! That was a close one.”

  James laughed. “Give me a chance to heal back up, then we’ll try again. Now that I know how bad that hurts, I certainly have the motivation to dodge.”

  “Okay!” Desiree rolled around on the grass. It was like she was allergic to sitting still. “Can you do other things while you heal or do you have to focus?”

  James double-checked the skill. “I can do other stuff. It just takes longer to fully heal.”

  “Perfect!” She jumped to her feet. “I want to dodge stuff, too!”

  James glanced back at the house and hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he hedged.

  Desiree scoffed. “We’re the same level, you’re not going to hurt me any worse than I hurt you. Well, I guess your stats are a lot higher, but it won’t matter anyway because I won’t get hit!” She performed a couple cartwheels to demonstrate.

  “Hmm.” James reached for his fireball skill in his mind. He tried to feel it like he had when he learned the spell, and the way he’d controlled it when the First Demon King stripped away the System. If he could control the spell so that it was weaker than the standard spell, he could fling practice fireballs without worrying. No matter what he did though, he couldn’t quite touch it, like the spell was sitting behind glass.

  “Your mom would kill me if I hurt you. Like, actually kill me.”

  “Ughhh,” Desiree flopped her arms. “You’re no fun!”

  “Well, what about rocks? I could throw rocks at you, and that probably wouldn’t hurt as bad.”

  “Brilliant! I’ll go get some!” She was off like a shot.

  James watched her go. Maybe this was what they needed. If she could improve her dodging, he wouldn’t have to worry so much about a devastating hit knocking her out of the fight.

  Improving his own dodging ability would be good, too. Throughout the dungeon he’d pumped a lot of stats into Agility, but all the stats in the world couldn’t help him if he wasn’t used to moving his own body. And with how quickly the stats changed what he was capable of, that was a real concern.

  James got to his feet and practiced a couple cartwheels of his own. He’d never been able to pull it off on earth, so the first couple ended with him falling flat on his face, but after a couple tries he was cartwheeling down the field as if he’d been doing it his whole life.

  A rock whizzed by his face. James collapsed to the ground in a tangle of startled limbs.

  Desiree laughed. “I don’t think that counts as dodging!” she teased. She had an armful of small stones, each about the size of a baseball.