Back where Alex and Nibbles were trapped.
Sowhere above reality, in the sacred crawlspaces where only dust bunnies and plot advancent dared linger, a tiny, lava-veined squirrel of fury and flas skittered through a ventilation shaft.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The sound of his claws echoed faintly, matching the rhythm of his determined little heartbeat.
Behind him oozed a slithering black tendril of molten sli—Blargh’s other pinky, crawling like a gooey worm possessed by sarcasm and suppressed comntary.
Alex had decided to send another for an ergency.
After all, the more Blargh Nibbles was covered in, the stronger he would be.
But too much Blargh can also harm his body since he wasn’t the one who was bonded. So, it wasn’t good for the little guy to roam around with too much Blargh on his body.
"You know..." Blargh muttered in his rumbly, volcanic voice. "This is the weirdest Tuesday I’ve ever had."
Nibbles squeaked back.
Blargh paused. "...No, I don’t think we’re getting paid for this."
He could understand Nibbles because he had gained the ability from Alex, and since he was very talkative, he rely wanted to speak.
Squeak.
Nibbles didn’t mind entertaining him.
"Yes, I know I don’t have a wallet. That’s not the point."
Squeak-squeak.
Blargh sighed. "Fine, if we survive this, I’ll talk to Raven about unionizing the familiars."
Their vent crawl continued in tense, heroic silence, broken only by the occasional sneeze when Nibbles passed particularly aggressive dust colonies.
Then—light.
It was a vent grate.
Nibbles slinked up like a furry ninja, his lava-eyes glowing and ears flicking with hyperfocus.
He peered through the slits.
And instantly regretted it.
Below the vent, the room was crawling with guards.
Not just any guards. These were human-shaped, sure—but their twisted horns, glowing eyes, and slightly too-long arms scread, "Hi, I’m possessed and not in a fun spa-treatnt way."
At least ten of them.
One was licking a sword.
Another was just...hissing at a wall.
Nibbles blinked.
Squeak.
Blargh whispered, "Yup. Classic demon infestation. You can tell by the fashion choices and the complete lack of dental hygiene."
But Nibbles wasn’t looking at them anymore.
His eyes had found it.
Next to the thick, tallic door behind which Alex was waiting, a small, discreet switch was blinking red on the wall.
It was a switch.
A glorious, suspiciously switch-shaped switch.
Nibbles narrowed his eyes.
It was ti for a solo mission.
It was also the ti to release the monster trapped behind that door.
He squeaked to Blargh in a whisper.
Blargh hesitated. "You sure? That’s like... a ten-to-one death party down there the mont you are discovered."
Squeak-squeak.
"You’re a brave, flaming squirrel. Got it."
With one last nod, Blargh oozed backward through the vent, his pinky-puddle-form sliding off into the darkness like a determined shadow slug with purpose.
Nibbles turned back toward the room.
The demons were milling about like underpaid henchn waiting for the next cutscene.
He scanned the floor.
Then—there.
A stone. Round. Small. Suspiciously throwable.
Nibbles’ tiny body tensed, his mind narrowing into a single point of concentration.
He raised one paw.
Deep breath.
It was ti to use the skill he had awakened thanks to Raven.
Nibbles, like so other squirrels, was lucky enough to be there during the fight with the demonic gatekeeper, so he was also rewarded.
His reward was awakening a Super Ultra Rare skill—Telekinesis.
He had never had a chance to use it in a situation as tense as this, but he trained a lot.
Now, it was ti to put that training into practice.
"Nnnnnnnn!!"
With a grit of his teeth, Nibbles activated his power.
The stone trembled.
His paw quivered.
A tiny glow ford at the edge of his claws, and ever... so... slowly...
The stone lifted.
It wobbled in midair like a confused potato.
A demon guard turned slightly.
Nibbles froze.
"What? Is this stone flying? Or am I seeing things?"
The other demon beside him didn’t even turn back. "Fuck off. If you want to blabber about your drunk imagination, go talk to soone who wants to listen."
"Man," the first demon rubbed his eyes, but the stone remained hanging in the air. "I’m sure I ain’t seeing things! Look at this!"
"Gah! Where is it—?" The second demon, annoyed, turned around, only to freeze at the sight of the stone.
"It’s floating?" The demon tried to touch the stone.
Nibbles’s eyes sharpened as he saw this.
’Squeak!’ (Now or never!)
With that thought, he roared.
The tiny fuzzball puffed up his chest, bared tiny teeth, which weren’t so small in Blargh-Nibbles form, stomped its little feet, and unleashed a fierce war cry—
"SKREEEEE-chu!"
Only to end up with a high-pitched sneeze.
The dust he inhaled in the last deep breath did that.
Clatter.
The rock fell the mont his concentration wavered.
It spun.
It twirled.
Before it finally ca to a pause before the drunk demon’s feet.
"...squeak." (Oh, no.)
Nibbled ducked, hiding his eyes with his long ears, fearing that he would be discovered.
"See?" The drunk demon below turned to the other demon. "There was a floating stone—"
By mistake, he stepped on that tiny rock and tripped.
"Oh, shit."
That was all he could say before he crashed into the wall.
CLICK.
By whatever coincidence, his head crashed on the switch, flipping it green.
"...Squeak?" (It worked?) Nibbled thought with a tilt of his head, rubbing the back of his head in confusion.
.................................
Back in the prison chamber, Alex and Blargh stood by the door, both tense like wrestlers before a dramatic intro the.
Blargh’s voice rumbled in his chest. "Did you hear that?"
Alex’s eyes widened.
Click.
"...That’s a click."
They grinned together.
Both said, "NOW."
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
Each step thundered as Blargh-Alex charged.
Lava veins lit up like festival lights.
The door was braced.
Then—
KRA-KA-BOOOOM!!
The gate exploded outward as it owed them rent. tal flew. Dust erupted. The drunk guard and his buddy were blown away by the gate while the others turned—
And in the center of the smoke, in the most protagonist pose known to man or monster, stood Blargh-Alex.
Eight feet of molten glory, grinning like a Saturday morning cartoon villain with a gym mbership.
"PROTAGONIST MONT, BABY!!!"
The demon-possessed guards blinked in unison.
One pointed.
"Is that... a flexing lava monster screaming catchphrases?"
Another whispered, "Should we be concerned or impressed?"
Nibbles dropped from the vent like a fuzzy grenade of glory, landing on Blargh-Alex’s shoulder with a squeak of triumph.
Alex grinned.
"Guess we’re back, boys."
Blargh snarled with joy. "Let’s make this loud."
The ten demon-possessed guards—eight of them still conscious—suddenly realized sothing.
They were locked in a room...
With a monster and a tiny, cutely horrifying monster.
They exchanged a glance before they gulped.
"I swear," one of them muttered, "hell was better than this."
.....................................
anwhile, sowhere not far from there.
The deep woods near the capital whispered with old secrets—secrets Raven had already kicked in the teeth years ago during Crisaius’s forest-from-hell training arc.
Now, those sa woods flew past him in a blur of wind and instinct as he sprinted like a low-budget superhero—shirt flapping and boots barely touching the mossy ground, every tree a familiar blur.
Above him, a crow with more attitude than feathers flapped lazily through the treetops, cawing every few seconds like it was mocking him.
The path the crow was leading him to was fortunately one he had been through, so it was easy to follow.
"Why is that thing glancing at as if I owe it sothing?" Raven muttered.
"You an that flying rat with wings?" Omni’s voice echoed in his head.
His sword-buddy-slash-tattoo-pal pulsed faintly on his arm, the outline of a blade flickering with violet color like a bad hologram. "I swear, if I had wings, I’d slap it upside the beak."
"You sure would’ve, but right now, we need to focus," Raven said, leaping over a fallen log like a forest ninja. "We don’t know how many we’re up against. I need options."
"Alright, alright." Omni sounded like he was chewing gum and scheming at the sa ti. "Worst case, you fight solo till backup arrives. Mid-case, we carve through so idiots, and then Jake shows up like Batman but angrier, giving us so support. Best case? The enemy’s dumb enough to monologue, and we slash them all before they can even complete it."
So distance away from Raven, Jake was following.
Like a ghost with fists, he silently leaped from one thick branch to another, not making a sound, not disturbing a leaf.
Every ti Raven landed, Jake would land a few trees behind and leave behind a subtle mark only trained Vaise eyes could detect.
It was the plan.
Raven would go "alone," but Jake would tail silently, leaving signs for the rest of the group.
Of course, convincing them had been harder than breaking a myth-grade artifact with a spoon.
Clara almost killed the crow. Siris volunteered to find Travis and kill him, calling it a payback from last ti. Selena nearly summoned the royal knights under her, wanting to make this issue national.
Jessy brought out snacks and made popcorn.
Then there was Graye, who said that she could disguise herself as Raven and follow the crow.
... It was honestly a good idea, but unfortunately, she was a girl.
As for the guys in the group, none of them could act like Raven.
Above all, Raven was still the strongest.
There, however, was one calm person. It was Lia, but the only reason she was quiet was because she was still internally screaming.
But now, they were following protocol.
Alex and Nibbles were out there sowhere.
And nobody ssed with Fluffy General Nibbles on Raven’s watch.
’Alex as well,’ Raven added inwardly with a cough. ’Nobody sses with my friend Alex and the Fluffy General Nibbles on my watch.’
Then, he shook his head.
"Alright, ti for a quick system check," Raven said, flicking open his interface mid-sprint like a pro gar who just drank three energy drinks and didn’t fear death.
[System Interface—Opened]
[Plot Points: 475,908 ( 50,000)]
Looking at the added 50,000 plot points, Raven didn’t feel shocked in the slightest, as he had been receiving notifications about the drastic change in the plot.
After all, he had upgraded his group with so OP powers.
The best thing about it was that these plot points weren’t a one-ti thing.
As long as his group grows stronger, he will farm plot points.
"Damn," Omni whistled. "That’s so increase. If you keep this up, then it won’t be long before you have more divinity than your average low-ranked gods."
"Wow," Raven blinked, jogging to a brief stop behind a tree while the crow still led ahead. "I wonder if I would receive more divinity if I made the squirrels start a cult in my na."
"How do you know they haven’t already?" Omni asked, making Raven pause.
Caw!
He only continued when the crow cawed annoyingly as if asking him to keep moving.
So, shaking his head and swatting the strange image of squirrels wearing dark, hooded capes, Raven focused ahead.
The sprint continued, but then, Omni coughed.
"Yo, buddy. You seriously gonna act like there’s nothing wrong with the system?"
Raven blinked, squinting. "Huh?"
"The SYSTEM, Raven. Where’s your focus?" Omni’s voice wavered, clearly baffled. "Wait—are you not seeing that warning? Like... did the divinity ss with your head or sothing? ’Cause that thing’s flashing right there, man. That big exclamation mark. You seriously missed that?"
Raven opened the notification panel, expecting a boring system ssage or sothing like, [Congratulations! You’ve achieved ’Most Reckless Dumbass 2025’].
But no.
It was worse.
Way worse.
There were six unread notifications.
Without pausing or even changing his expression, Raven clicked on the notification tab, and the next second—
[New system notification: You have crossed the 100,000-point barrier.]
[Plot Point Balance: 130,919.]
[New Feature Available: Random Voucher.]
[New Feature Available: Divine Trade Auctions.]
[New Feature Available: Talk To .]
[The first trade has been successful. A Random Voucher has been transferred to the trade storage.]
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