Luke had made his choice. He didn't feel a shred of regret about leaving the Deep Botanist behind. Honestly, either option would have been excellent, both would have given him profession skills suited for combat, and that was what mattered most.

[You have become a Guardian Botanist of Mother Freya]

He stared at the system interface, waiting… and nothing happened.

Huh. I thought some of my skills would evolve.

Not that he was complaining. Most of his abilities were already tied to Mother Freya; this wasn't some radical new path, just a sharper step along the same one. Every profession option had been bound to her legacy anyway. What mattered now were the skills he would gain in the future. With the decision made, he pulled the system interface back up, now freshly updated to reflect his new profession.

Name: Luke Level: 43 Race: Half-Demon Rank: F Class: [Demonic Predator (Lvl 56)] Profession: [Guardian Botanist of Mother Freya (Lvl 50)] Titles: [Dark Lord] Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Dark Demon] Health Points (HP): 3530/3530 Mana Points (MP): 3250/3250 (3330) Stamina: 2430/2430 (2630) Soul Fragments: 62/1000

Stats: Strength: 544 Agility: 408 (458) Endurance: 243 (263) Vitality: 353 Perception: 418 (428) Intelligence: 375 (380) Free Points: 0

Class Skills: [Advanced Blade Handling (Uncommon)], [Profane Knife Throwing (Uncommon)], [Twin Blade (Common)], [Basic Dark Dash (Rare)], [Basic Blood Regeneration (Rare)], [Predator's Mark (Rare)], [Demonic Blade Dance (Rare)], [Wraith Form (Ultra-Rare)], [Force Infusion (Rare)], [Advanced Stealth (Rare)], [Assassin's Tracking (Rare)], [Mana Infusion (Rare)], [Basic Archery (Common)]

Profession Skills: [Herbology of Mother Freya (Ancient)], [Precise Extraction (Common)], [Basic Potion Crafting (Common)], [Corrupted Plant Growth (Rare)], [Plant Sensor (Uncommon)], [Botanical Bond of Mother Freya (Rare)], [Seed Conversion (Rare)], [Plant Manipulation of Mother Freya (Rare)], [Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya (Ultra-Rare)], [Thorn Mutation (Uncommon)], [Soil Analysis (Uncommon)], [Botanical Purification (Uncommon)]

Race Skills: [Identify (Common)], [Demonic Perception (Uncommon)], [Dark Blood (Uncommon)], [Meditation (Common)], [Demonic Endurance (Uncommon)]

Bloodline Skill: [Servant of the Dark Lord (Unique)] Servants: [Princess Charlie (Skeleton) - Lvl 27], [Servant Slot Available]

So much had changed since the day he first set foot in the capital. New skills, new powers, he was far stronger now. And yet… he still hadn't managed to find a monster willing to become his servant.

"Months in this place and not a single creature has agreed to join me," he muttered.

It only made him realize how valuable his bond with Princess Charlie truly was.

"What about making one of those armored zombies from the Wild Zone? Those damned Wardens," Artemis suggested.

"And have a servant that reeks of rotting flesh?" he shot back. "No. Zero interest in having a Midnight Warden as a servant. In fact, I want every last one of those bastards dead."

He closed his interface with a flick.

"Wardens are basically zombies. And Princess Charlie can already go toe-to-toe with one."

Choosing a new servant had become less about raw power and more about how the creature would fit into the team. Would it fight beside him in the rear or charge forward alongside Charlie? He was leaning toward the second option, especially since he planned to use the servant's strength to help finish the tutorial.

Shame none of the minotaurs were willing to sign on. They would've made perfect tanks. Could they have even worn gear?

Then it hit him: there was one creature he could use as an ally, and it was already with him.

"Hey, snake. I'm a lot stronger now. Might even be able to finish you off in five minutes. How about accepting the familiar contract so we can test it?" Luke asked the stone.

Franky's tongue-click echoed. "I'm not falling for your dirty tricks… again."

Instead of tossing the stone back into his inventory, Luke slipped it into the pocket dimension within his necklace. He'd discovered Franky could speak to him from there just like Artemis did.

"You should be helping me, snake. If I die, you die. Get it? You should be working with me."

"Mr. Coward probably got so scared he'd rather hide in that rock forever," Artemis chimed in.

"I AM NOT A COWARD!" Franky's voice flared.

"Then take the contract and prove it," Artemis goaded.

Another sharp click of the tongue. "You're both trying to trick me. I'm not falling for it."

Luke leaned back in his chair. "You've tried to kill me more than once and I never took it personally. I'm even willing to get you your own little doghouse."

"What's that?" Franky asked.

"You don't know? Oh, right. You're not from Earth…" Luke said.

"I will never be your friend, human. In fact, I'll be thrilled when you die. I've already died once, I don't care."

"Wow, you're really holding onto that. You need therapy," Artemis said.

"What's therapy?" Franky asked.

"Long story…" Artemis sighed.

The snake clicked his tongue again. "I won't listen to either of you. Die for all I care. I'll celebrate it. I hate the human for humiliating me before killing me!"

"Oh, this is because I gave you that medicine?"

"YOU HUMILIATED ME! It was cheating!"

Luke stood from his chair. "Not cheating. You had a super poison, you were massive, and you spat acid. I had to fight you to the point where you ended up biting off my arm instead of melting me alive. You were insanely powerful."

"Yes. I am powerful," the serpent replied, pride dripping from every word.

"You're pretty amazing. Shame I don't have anyone that amazing available to be my familiar… you know anyone better than you?" Luke asked.

"I'm the most amazing!" Franky declared.

"Really? Hm… I'm not sure. If you agreed to be my familiar, I could see if that's actually true."

"It is true, I am the most amazing! Wait, hey! You're trying to trick me!"

Luke kept walking. "Me? Trick you? I don't think so. Unless… are you trying to trick me right now? Didn't you just say you're amazing? I just want to find out if it's actually true."

"It's true! I am amazing," Franky insisted.

"So, snake… what's it gonna be? Are we settling our differences?"

"No. I still hate you. You humiliated me and you insulted my mother," the snake replied.

Luke paused. He did remember insulting the Beast Lord's mother during their fight. "The humiliation part, I could argue. But about your mother… I'll apologize for that. Mothers are sacred. I was… heated. You'd just ripped my arm off. The pain was doing most of the talking."

Franky went quiet.

"Hey, Mr. Coward," Artemis cut in. "How do you even know what he said was an insult to your mom? You're, uh… not exactly a genius."

"I felt the intent in the human's words. There was hate in his voice, so I knew it was something bad. See? I'm very smart."

Luke raised a brow. "So you managed to work around your limited reasoning and lack of Earth references just by reading the intent behind someone's words. Not bad. But don't rely on it too much. If I'd said the same thing without the emotion, you'd never have caught it."

"I trust my instincts. They never fail."

"Wow, incredible. I wish I had instincts that strong. That's the kind of thing only a really powerful sucker has," Luke said.

"Sucker? What's that?"

"Someone really powerful in analysis, instinct, strength, and skill. Not everyone is one. I'm not at that level myself."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"I'm a sucker," Franky said proudly.

"No, I don't think so. You'd have to be really powerful."

"I'm powerful! I'm the biggest sucker that's ever lived!" the stone proclaimed.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Artemis muttered.

Luke took a piece of meat. "So, snake… I apologized for insulting your mother. How's our relationship now? Can we seal the familiar friendship pact?"

There was a brief silence.

"I accept your apology for insulting my mother. She was someone special to me, someone I respected deeply. When I was twelve, she swallowed me whole to drown me in stomach acid. It was the happiest day of my life."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What?" Artemis blurted.

Luke froze mid-bite. "Your mother tried to kill you?"

"Yes. She was incredible. She gave me the highest honor a mother can give her child."

"By trying to kill you?"

"Of course. It meant that even at twelve, she saw I had the potential to surpass her, and therefore, I was a threat. Being devoured by your parents is the greatest honor in my species."

"And how exactly did you survive?" Luke asked.

"I didn't get dissolved in her stomach acid and managed to escape when she went to drink from a river," Franky said with pride. "A few centuries later, I returned, and we fought to the death."

"Yeah… you definitely need therapy," Artemis said.

"Okay, I think I'm a little traumatized now. The animal kingdom is weird," Luke muttered as he got to his feet. "So… are we going to seal the friendship pact and make you my familiar? I promise to give you the honor of devouring you if I ever get really hungry."

"NO!" Franky shouted. "The humiliation you put me through is unforgivable!"

Luke exhaled slowly.

"All right, snake. Stay in the pendant, watch the world go by, see me fighting incredible battles while you sit in some corner, useless. I'll be out there having fun while you do nothing," he said.

Franky said nothing, and Luke took the silence as a sign the snake was done talking.

"Who knows? Maybe after you watch me being amazing in battle, you'll think I'm a decent guy."

"That will never happen. We will never be friends," Franky replied.

***

Luke ran his hand across the counter, the table, the chair, the workbench. He took everything that mattered, then looked back one last time. This was it, his journey back to the Wild Zone, to trigger the second mechanism. He doubted he'd ever set foot here again.

His gaze lingered on his greatest treasure, the result of two months of work.

[Healing Potion (Common): Restores 503 HP.]

That was the crown jewel of his efforts. He'd managed to craft exactly five of that quality. They were all he had left, every other lesser potion had either been used or dismantled to reach this level of refinement. When he'd first started, the best he could manage restored a measly 33 HP. These five bottles were the equivalent of seventy-five of those early failures. What once took him days to produce a single 33-point potion now yielded one worth 503 HP.

But, of course, nothing came easy. The recipe demanded rare ingredients, most of which were anything but abundant. He'd burned through almost everything he had. And even then, he'd cheated, substituting part of the formula with his own blood, thanks to its absurd catalytic properties. Without that shortcut, he would have walked away with maybe two potions, not five.

"I hope I don't have to use one anytime soon," he muttered.

They were strictly for emergencies. With his current HP pool, it would take a lot to push him to that point. Once he had his own fortress and weekly chest access, he could restock from there.

He slung his bow over his shoulder and poured mana into the enchanted quiver.

[Arrows in Quiver: 20/20] [MP: 3700/3800]

The conjured arrows would vanish in about twelve hours, the cost of existing purely from mana. Since he naturally regenerated 208 MP an hour, he made a habit of keeping the quiver full. That way, the mana would recover quickly while the ammunition stayed ready. In half an hour, he'd be topped off again, with every arrow still in place.

As an archer, details like that mattered.

"With almost four thousand mana, I guess this isn't something I really need to worry about," he said with a faint chuckle. But truthfully, the habit had stuck. An empty quiver made him uneasy.

Stepping out of the cave, he glanced back once more.

"It was nice while it lasted… these little vacations," he said.

He and Charlie stood outside for a moment, bidding the place a silent farewell. Then, with a sigh, he recalled her back into his soul, pushed stamina into his legs, and launched himself forward at full speed.

The forest blurred around him, each stride pulling up memories, stepping through the gate for the first time, wandering the capital, facing down the Beast Lord. Every level, every fight had built him up for this moment.

One goal had carried him from the start: return to Earth. And today, he was closer than ever. Strong enough, maybe, to trigger the mechanisms entirely on his own.

***

Luke sprinted through the forest, moving faster than ever, Dark Dash flaring almost at will thanks to his massive mana reserves. The skill only burned 5 MP per use, each activation hurling him several meters ahead.

"You know, this is kinda like going back to your ex," Artemis said. "Your current one's gonna get mad."

"Ex and current? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know. Allison and Charlie."

Luke's grip tightened on the pendant. "Stop spouting nonsense, you novel-addicted maniac."

The exit was close now, the treeline breaking in the distance.

"So, what's the plan? I get the feeling you're not exactly welcome in Haven," Artemis pressed.

"I'll work solo at first. Pretty sure I'll be starting a war with Bartholomew, so I need to move carefully."

Branches whipped past as he ran. "They probably think I'm dead. That gives me the upper hand, at least for a while."

"All this because you're trying to be the good guy and not just activate the mechanisms, bail on your own, and let the rest of the NPCs rot?"

She wasn't wrong. He could make this easy, trigger the second and third mechanisms, survive the castle, grab a handful of decent fighters, and get out. But it wouldn't be right. He'd made a promise to Angelica. And there was something else…

"If my mom had been in a tutorial like this, she'd be one of those NPCs," he murmured. "There are a lot of moms out there just like her. I can't be selfish."

Artemis sighed. "Always taking the hard road, huh?"

"You're the one who decided to tag along. Could've stayed in your palace."

"I still need to try Earth's pizza. So, I hope you survive."

The forest rose around him in towering walls of wood. He leapt upward, bounding from branch to branch, the massive limbs like natural platforms. Below, a few statues stood frozen, locked in place by daylight.

He reached the crown of a giant tree. The massive barrier ahead shimmered, except it didn't show the Wild Zone at all. It was like staring into a mirror, reflecting only the capital behind him.

The only way through to the Wild Zone was the double gate. And yet…

"The gate's blocked," he muttered.

It hung open, but something, something on the Wild Zone side, sealed the way forward.

"This doesn't feel like anything good."

***

After circling the area and watching from a distance to make sure it was safe, he finally moved in. A massive concrete block sealed the gate shut. Definitely not natural, this was man-made.

"The people in the Safe Zone must've found out the gate was opened," he muttered, studying it.

He'd known this might happen eventually. In his mind, there were only two possibilities: either the entire tutorial had been notified that the gate to the new area was open, or someone had stumbled across it while passing through.

Sweeping his gaze across the clearing and treeline, he crouched and activated Assassin's Tracking. No mana footprints. Just scattered fragments of broken statues littering the ground, their weathered edges telling him they'd been destroyed long ago. Nobody from the other side had been here recently.

"They came here once, explored a bit, smashed some statues, and then built this barrier," he concluded.

Stepping closer to the portion near the gate, he tried peering through. Nothing. Just like he couldn't see beyond it, whoever was on the other side wouldn't be able to see him.

Is there even anyone on the other side right now?

He thought it through. News of the gate opening would've been huge for the Safe Zone, but in the nearly four months since he'd crossed it, he hadn't seen a single trace of human presence here. Sure, most of that time had been spent exploring other parts of the capital, but the last two months had been quiet, no Beast Lord, no disturbances. His cave was only a few hours away at a normal walking pace; if a big expedition had come through, he would've known.

"Could a group be camped out in the forest or the city?" he wondered.

The killer statues were still a threat, but the giant serpent was gone. That alone made this place far safer. But then he reminded himself to think like someone from the other side. He wouldn't mind living with killer statues; he could wipe them out easily, even without the mask. A few arrows were enough to drop a level 55 forest minotaur, after all. But would some Safe Zone person, someone who struggled against a level 22 orc captain, be able to survive here?

No. Absolutely not. They'd have pissed themselves the moment they saw the threats on this side.

Level 30 undead, level 45 statues, beasts between 50 and 55, and a level 83 giant serpent. Yeah, no way they'd dare. Which meant the obvious answer was…

"They sealed this place out of fear," he said flatly.

Fear that something from this side might get out.

"Not the brightest move," he added, glancing at the tree line. "Plenty of statues out in the forest. Perfect for leveling without having to deal with the hordes in the capital."

"So, what now? You gonna go full Minecraft and punch the wall down with your bare hands?" Artemis asked.

A grin tugged at his lips as he drew both kukris from his inventory.

"I've got a better idea."

He focused, channeling a thin layer of Force Infusion and Mana Infusion into his kukris. His arrows couldn't handle that combination, their common rarity made them brittle enough to snap just from Mana Infusion alone. But these kukris were rare-grade, sturdier. Push too much stamina or mana into them and they'd still shatter, but a slice of stamina with a dash of mana was enough to make things interesting.

Luke stepped back, eyeing the faint white glow running along the blades, and hurled the first kukri. The moment it struck, the impact detonated, blasting the concrete wall into a cloud of dust and shards. Pebbles and chunks rained down around him.

When the haze cleared, he raised a brow. "Well… they didn't skimp on this."

Behind the rubble was another layer, solid metal.

He gripped the second kukri, fed it a little more mana, and threw. The strike rang out in a sharp, deafening crack, and sunlight spilled through the gap. A hole, jagged but wide enough to step through. Luke retrieved his blades, walked forward at a steady, unhurried pace, and crossed into the opening.

On the other side, he stopped. An entire camp stood there. Armed people. Pale faces. Some shaking. Every pair of eyes fixed on him, wide with shock.

"Uh… hi," he said, trying, pointlessly, to cut through the tension.

A tall man stepped forward, planting himself at the front. "Y-you…" His voice wavered. "You're Luke?"

That doesn't sound promising.

Luke met his gaze. "Yeah. That's me."

"I'm Ronan. One of Bastion's main leaders. Bartholomew's right hand. You're coming with me to Bastion, where you'll be taken into custody."

Whatever trace of friendliness had been on Luke's face vanished. Angelica's face flashed through his mind the moment this man mentioned serving Bartholomew.

"And if I don't feel like going?" His voice was flat now, all pretense gone.

The camp bristled. He spotted mages, archers, sword-wielding soldiers, already spreading out, forming a half-circle around him. They weren't planning to let him leave.

Part of him wanted to cut them all down right here, but there was something else he wanted first.

"Then we will use force if necessary. You're coming with us. That is an order," Ronan replied.

He locked eyes with Ronan. "Then you can give your boss a message for me."

Raising his kukris, he showed exactly what that message was.

[Predator's Mark activated]

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