Diana is thoroughly impressed. Smiling at all the right parts, too. "So the Hyena was, was that just Tuesday for you?"

"Oh no, not at all, I did get a scar that's possibly gonna stay there forever, but I like to think I'm rather resourceful."

"Okay. Well, since you are already way too committed to this, you can ask me for help next time. Equipment at least."

He grins. "Thank you. ...it's not too late to back out and decide not to have anything more to do with me, though."

"That wouldn't solve the problem where you're going to get yourself killed. I did mean it about you being way too committed; you just also don't sound very deterrable."

Well he thinks she should be kissed for that.

An excellent way of changing the subject.

He's not really changing the subject, he feels like this should be discussed. "I'm an ambitious person and this system is terrible. I'm really, really going to do my best, but that does mean I'll risk my life repeatedly. And of course every success gets the spirits on my side—and the fact of the matter is, the Seal that goblin is under has my name on it, not Conquest's. So I got more powerful than he did, doing that. And the world is—a tiny bit better because of it."

She hasn't felt the need to let go of him.

"Every success helps. Maybe even saves lives, if you pick targets well. But any failure could get you killed, and you came close today."

He nods. "Yeah. I'm writing my story here, the spirits love narratives, and mine is the powerless nobody who became somebody through cleverness, bravery, and sheer force of personality. In the end I'll either be dead or powerful enough to change big things."

"Dead. There are always bigger things, and the narrative you're writing doesn't have a stopping point. At least decide on some achievable goal where you'd declare victory and then stop."

"Lordship over a city," he suggests.

"Well, at least that's something that some people have succeeded at ever. Okay. You become a Lord, or some equivalent amount of success if that comparison works, then you stop going looking for mortal danger."

"At that point I expect mortal danger will come looking for me," he muses.

"Probably, but if you were a Lord now I wouldn't tell you to quit. Besides, by then you'd be a Lord and could probably handle it."

"Mmhm. How about this: I can promise that when I'm a Lord I'll at least take a sabbatical and establish some power before revisiting the subject of going after bigger things?"

"It's probably a bad idea to actually promise, but more importantly, no? The point is for the story to end with "happily ever after," not "until the sequel."

Except then you'd just put off aiming for a Lordship, wouldn't you. Never mind."

"I want to make the world a better place, I don't want power for power's sake. If I reach Lordship and conclude that the best way to improve things is staying there then I'll do that, and that's not too unlikely—I do get in more danger the more powerful I become, at some point the balance will in fact tip."

"It has already tipped. You're almost punching above you weight with the Hyena, let alone the Charybdis, and you're planning to keep going."

"I don't mean tipped in the sense that I'll be fighting stuff more powerful than me, I mean tipped in the sense that the probability that I'll succeed times the rewards becomes less than whatever I'll get if I stop."

"That too. On the probability you'll succeed front. There'd be a lot more fights before you get anywhere close to a Lordship."

"Not necessarily. And I needn't personally fight all of them."

"Just don't die, okay?" Her eyes are kind of fixed on the column of stitches.

"I'll do my best."

"I'll hold you to that.

I'm being so hypocritical. You didn't even know the Hyena's victims, just that they existed, and of course you can say that doesn't matter.

I've been assuming for a long time I'll probably go against Conquest eventually. And that's at least as dangerous."