Nothing is going to plan.

  I waited for seven days. A whole week of slacking off and hanging out with my sister while waiting for someone to apply to my proposition. I’d hire anyone at this point.

  I’d given up on hiring aliens at this point. No matter what station or what species I tried getting attention from, they all just ignored the posters.

  And then the station custodians came by and cleared the spots where I put up the posters along with the other old posters. I didn’t bother putting new ones up.

  The humans weren’t any better. They probably thought it was a joke or simply didn’t trust me enough to ‘sell their soul to the devil’ as they saw it.

  I could easily prey on the weak willed and desperate, but they had something already giving them magical assistance.

  Since I introduced The System, anyone who clicked yes would get powers of their own. Not some generic form of power, but power specially suited to them.

  No one, no matter how desperate, had no reason to sign on with me. Even if I could offer infinitely more stuff or abilities.

  “... Well that dream is a bust.” I sighed woefully while I lounged on my moms couch.

  I honestly didn’t care all that much, but it would have been pretty damn cool to experience.

  Monsters could work but I would have to train the smart ones to do one specific task like a trick. The Cabold is the smartest I’ve seen a monster get, but she’s basically a violent monkey. Trainable, but I’d need a really big stick and equally big carrot. Too much trouble for what it’s worth.

  The grace period has ended and Dungeons started popping up a few days ago. The people knew they were coming so when a Dungeon materializes there’s a lot less shock.

  Most of the time the cops show up and barricade it off, but there’s the rare occasion where they actually send in a SWAT team to scout it out.

  No bold adventurers to charge in quite yet. Which is honestly sort of disappointing.

  I was so sure that there would be at least one dumbass to go into a Dungeon with a bat or cheap fake sword. Though it has only been a few days so there might be hope for my species yet.

  With nothing to do, and boredom sinking in like dread, I reluctantly got up off the couch.

  “I guess I can do that Quest…” Mumbling as I stood, I began looking for Layla.

  She would kill me if I didn’t at least try to include her in this next Quest, since I made her clean my house the last time I had one.

  Using my “Uberly Awesome Busted Senses” I found her quickly and Gated to her bedroom door.

  Sure I could just barge in, but I learned early on in life that if I wanted to survive, I needed to give my sisters privacy.

  “Layla~, it’s Quest time. Do you want to come?” I knocked on her door and heard her scramble.

  “YES!” She yelled as the door flung open.

  Layla was already wearing her “Isekai kit” so she was probably waiting for me this whole time.

  “This Quest might be dangerous, and something weird might happen, but I thought I’d ask anyway. Are you absolutely sure you want to come?” I got all serious on her and she just looked up at me with a slight startle.

  “Then that just means I have to come. Someone has to cover your sorry ass.” She recovered quickly and answered resolutely, leaving no room for negotiation.

  “Alright then. Let’s go.” I nodded in appreciation, even if my intellectual side wanted me to go alone. My gut on the other hand was telling me to bring her.

  “So what’s the Quest? Something incredible no doubt, if you say it’s dangerous.” She smirked, clearly itching for a fight.

  “It’s called metamorphosis and I need to gather some things. The last thing it wants me to do is completely blacked out though, so I’m not sure what to do about that.” I replied honestly, half expecting another one of those censorship things to happen.

  “So you’re going to transform like a butterfly~?” She teased, nudging my leg with her elbow as she walked to my side.

  That surprised me.

  Not the action, but the fact that she had actually been allowed to hear that. Once again my stomach proves to be omnipotent.

  “I have no idea, but the Reward details are hidden. So maybe?” I joked back as we made our way to our mom.

  We didn’t want to get scolded again. Even though we were both adults well past 20, mother dearest couldn’t see us as anything but her children I suppose.

  “Greg has another Quest thing to do, so we’re heading out mom!” Layla called out as we got closer to her bedroom.

  The door was slightly cracked open so she heard her clearly.

  “Alright, but be back by sometime tonight! Not tomorrow!” Mom yelled back.

  I could feel that she was still displeased about the whole magic stuff, her emotions immediately going negative at the mention of my ‘Quest thing’.

  “Do you want to pick up… ugh, Lil’ Lay?” I had regretfully started using the monster's name, much to the delight of my sister.

  “Yes please~.” She smiled, clearly basking in the glory of her victory.

  With a sigh, I opened a Gate to my suite.

  It had been remodeled to be more accommodating for monsters rather than myself, since it seemed like I’d be using it for storing beasts for the moment.

  The Cabold, who my sister insists be called by her name Lil’ Lay properly, was currently sleeping in a makeshift nest crafted from torn pillows and blankets. It looked like a shitty pillow fort.

  I of course didn’t allow the blasted creature to use my precious Dungeon pillows, and it doesn’t appear to mind regular ones at all. So it’s a win win.

  While my sister wrangled the Cabold awake, who was back to wearing that dang magic necklace that made her taller, I opened the Quest window.

  My gut was telling me not to trust whatever this was, and to gather as many friends as I could.

  Which is strange in itself because what could my friends do that I couldn’t against this window? It reminded me of that feeling I had when I first got ready to go home.

  Like something bad was going to happen.

  ‘Maybe I should send Layla home after all.’ I thought to myself, but my gut told me that was wrong. Like I would need her here for some reason.

  “Okay, I’m ready~!” Layla cheered as she brought Lil’ Lay over by the hand.

  I stayed quiet as I made another Gate to the lab, where the Parabox was.

  “Hey Sally. Just making sure the Parabox was here. I’m going to need it.” I answered, and the robot immediately stilled.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  It was my turn to go still as a very worried expression formed on my sisters face. Lil’ Lay just wiped her eyes tiredly.

  “I have no idea. Possibly?” I answered, since my gut was still sounding the alarm.

  “Greg, what is she talking about?” Layla glared at me, her eyes boring into my head.

  Layla’s head slowly turned from Sally to look at me in horror.

  ‘Maybe that’s why my gut is telling me to collect friends?’ I pondered and then shook it off to reply.

  “I came back after a short while, it didn’t last that long. And I got a lot stronger because of it too.” I answered Layla's pleading gaze and she frowned.

  “When was this? And why would you need to become stronger?” She asked, her eyes slightly watering but she was pushing through it.

  “Back when I reached Level 10, and I needed to beat the faker guy I told you about. The pseudo demon lord.”

  “But you don’t need more power now, do you? You can just keep putting off the Quest forever and-”

  “I could, but if I don’t reach a strong enough point to pass on the power to fight entropy to Jimmy, then the multiverse is doomed. Or whatever the hell Barney was ranting about. That issue will eventually reach Earth, so it’s best to just get the annoying part out of the way.” I cut her off, but if I was being honest with myself I truly didn’t know why I was suddenly pushing towards the Quest completion.

  It just felt like I had to do it. My gut said so.

  “Besides. I won’t be alone like last time. You and everyone else I know will be there, just in case.” I gave Layla a smile and she looked away.

  “...Fine. But if it goes wrong, I’m killing you at least once.” She huffed and I laughed.

  “You can certainly try.” I teased and pat her head.

  Which pissed her off and so she sent a mean right hook directly into my groin. It didn’t hurt but I crumpled anyway, playing the part of a subdued villain.

  Sally asked, ignoring the ridiculously display.

  “Yeah, gather our friends up and tell them what’s up. I’m going to go get the next piece solo.” I stood, brushing off my knees.

  “I can’t come with you?” Layla asked and I shook my head.

  “Nah, I gotta go back into the Tear or a bit. I’ll be back as soon as I can. See you in a few!” I waved and Gated to some random bit of space, far from any solar system.

  Wasting no time, I opened the Tear and floated inside.

  ‘Now that I think about it, I should really take the Kuppens out for a walk.’ I pondered and nodded to myself.

  Ruth Hedge and Claws were wild in nature, and while I did raise them, they wanted to leave the pack. I wouldn’t let them leave though, because they were my precious little babies.

  A walk would be fine though.

  So I had an instance take the Kuppens out into the forest for a quick outing.

  It was less of a walk, and more of a “release the beasts and then gather them back up later” sort of deal. They would hunt and prowl around the trees, enjoying the wilderness. Thanks to the Rules I wrapped around them, they won’t die to anything short of a nuclear war. It also made them easy to locate for when it was time to go home.

  “Now to find a local…” I hummed to myself as I began zipping around the space, quickly looking for a local to steal a tentacle from.

  Ignoring how space bent unnaturally here and the fact I couldn’t really see anything besides the collage of every color conceivable in no recognizable pattern, it was like taking a walk myself.

  So in only a few minutes, I found a local and stopped moving.

  “There you are. Now how do I chop something off of you…?” I rubbed my chin and then snapped my fingers.

  “I know! I’ll make a saw blade out of a star! I’m such a genius~.” I chuckled to myself and put an absurd amount of Energy into crafting a star.

  Which left me with a large orb of white fire, the hottest I’ve ever made one of these things.

  I began to move the nuclear reaction around, shifting the atomic makeup into the vague shape of a circular saw and started rotating it faster and faster.

  Would this actually do anything? Doubt it, but it looked cool as fuck.

  Weapon made, I charged towards the local as it came at me.

  I’m a ranged dealer most of the time, and I rarely go toe to toe with enemies. But this time, I wanted to shake things up a bit.

  The fight was fun, but extremely short. By following my gut instinct I could dodge invisible attacks, and the tentacles moved too slow to catch me.

  Were they tentacles?

  I had no idea.

  But they were long, slender, and completely unidentifiable so it was close enough.

  The fight ended when I collided with the main body, with the white star buzz saw floating a few feet above my hand.

  Instead of it being solid material, I just went inside it like it was water.

  Except it wasn’t water either, or anything I could reasonably figure out. I merely went from being surrounded by a colorful vomit backdrop to sheer dark void.

  I couldn’t even see my star saw thing. Though I knew it was there since my Telekinesis was still making it spin and had a hold on it.

  Making my way out of the void stuff and back into the color soup, I noticed that I was covered in the weird goop.

  Just absolutely smothered head to toe in black ooze.

  But something told me it didn’t count as the Quest objective, so I went after a tentacle instead. Which was extremely easy as the local was trying to hit me with them all the time. So I easily lopped one off and collected it into my magic pockets.

  The whole affair took a couple of minutes. From looking for the local, to falling into it, getting out, chopping off a tentacle, and then throwing a gazillion stars at it to scare it off.

  “Alright I’m bac- and no one’s here.” I sighed as I popped back into the lab.

  My senses only spread across two solar systems worth of space, and I went pretty far to go into and out of the Tear.

  Though now that I was back, I knew where they were. They even had the Parabox with them.

  Opening a Gate, I plopped on over to the moon. Right by the Guild HQ.

  “Sup guys.” I waved and everyone turned to look at me.

  Lots of faces I knew, and a few I didn’t.

  Freya and Xyke weren’t here, but that made sense. Becoming parents is quite the big deal, and they would probably be back in another week or so.

  There was Gill, the overly confident and smug grey looking alien. The Guildmaster Christinia, a super tall alien of the same species as Gill, Freya, and Xyke but with a special ability for Telekinesis and some other mental abilities.

  Sally was holding the Parabox and my sister Layla was obviously also here with her pet monster Lil Lay.

  For the two faces I didn’t recognize, were some new aliens who I assumed were stepping in for Fraya and Xyke. They were shorter than Gill but still much taller than Sally or Layla, so almost the same height I was.

  “There’s the troublemaker! Going to cause more issues money bag?” Gill teased and I tilted my head.

  “Money bag? Really?” I scoffed and he chuckled.

  “Well you are the reason our Guild is filthy stinking rich now.” He explained and I nodded in understanding.

  “How have you been Azurath?” Christinia asked, all prim and proper with her weird alien etiquette speech.

  “I’ve been pretty good. Met back up with my family and the like. How about you guys?” I asked and they responded positively. They’d been doing pretty well for themselves.

  “These two are Fraya’s and Xyke’s replacements for the time being, Jorn and Kikk.” Christinia introduced them, placing her hands on their shoulders. “My nephews.”

  ‘Ah, good old nepotism.’ I joked to myself but nodded to them in turn.

  “Nice to meet you, though I’m sorry to say you might see something weird.”

  “It’s fine. We’ve been briefed on you.” Jorn, the slightly taller of the two with surprisingly small eyes said.

  Kikk just stayed silent, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at me.

  ‘Right, aren’t I like, sort of famous here?’ I smirked smugly.

  “Oh god, his ego is growing. Let’s get this over with.” Layla groaned loudly, getting a few chuckles.

  “Yeah I think so. Parabox?” I held out a hand and she placed it in my palm. “Thank you.”

  So there I was, standing on a moon with a group of friends. A weird box in one hand and a whole ass ‘tentacle’ in my pocket.

  And then nothing happened.

  “Ah, I probably need to take out the other item.” I clarified to the confused looks and took out the impossibly large slab of not flesh void slop thing.

  Everyone immediately recoiled like they had been struck, then their faces eased as Christinia did something.

  “I haven’t felt that sense of disgust in a while. Where did you even get this thing?” Gill asked, and I was reminded of the feeling I used to put off long ago.

  “From beyond the veil. Anyway, I think it’s… starting?” My speech began to slur the moment my hand landed on the tentacle next to me.

  My mind felt light, like I had suddenly become weightless.

  It felt good. Or maybe it didn't?

  I was having a hard time thinking straight. My mind was calm even as I looked down at my arm bending unnaturally.

  Like the bone was melting and it was now drooping like a slack rope.

  “...Wellll thhhattsss…” I tried to say something, but quickly forgot what I wanted to say.

  My eyes felt heavy, and suddenly I found myself on the ground.

  I don’t remember when that happened, but I was sitting on a weird skin toned puddle.

  There was so much noise. Talking?

  I got a notification from something green but ignored it.

  ...Who were they?

  As more and more of me began to droop, I lost balance and face planted against the dusty surface of the moon, darkness enveloping everything.

  I felt so… tired.

  So… at peace.