When I woke up, I was flat on my back, staring at the sky. A few stars blinked overhead, which meant the sun was about to head out. I sat up, still trying to remember who I was and why, when something wet and squishy slapped me right in the face.

  I turned, and my stomach hit the floor before I did. The giant turtle from this morning was right here, staring at me. It had probably done a little tongue test first to see if I was tasty.

  I panicked and bolted. But it grabbed my collar and lifted me up anyway. My legs kept pedaling in the air while my arms flailed.

  “No no no. Please don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me!”

  “What? No, silly, you’ve got it all wrong,” a woman said, her tone teasing and calm.

  Then the turtle dropped me, and I face planted into the dirt with maximum dignity loss. I scrambled up and looked around. No one. Just me and this giant turtle, alone in the middle of nowhere.

  “I’m not going to eat you,” the voice said.

  I froze, staring at the turtle. Not sure if I was imagining things, I swallowed and tried anyway. “Uh, could that be… you talking?” I stammered.

  “It took you a while, but yes… hey, wait a minute, do you understand me? That’s amazing!” the turtle’s eyes gleamed.

  “Yeah, I think so,” I muttered, still staring, trying to understand how any of this was even happening.

  I stared at the turtle for a while. It stared back. We spent a solid moment just... blankly looking at each other. Then my eyes drifted to the little river nearby. I went over, scrubbed myself clean, and splashed some water on my face, just to make sure this wasn’t another dream.

  I drank a bit to stop my stomach from growling and pushed my hair back. That’s when my hand bumped into something that absolutely should not have been on my head.

  I slowly reached up to check with my fingers. And there, I felt it again. Two tiny, sharp things were sticking out of my head. I bent over the water, saw my reflection, and forgot how to breathe for a moment.

  “Why the hell do I have horns?!” I screamed.

  “Oh my. Horns, you say?” the turtle said. “So, are you some kind of mountain goat… or a demi-human of some sort?”

  "No, I—”

  "Anyway," it said, way too excited. "It doesn't really matter. I just want to thank you for saving my life. I honestly don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up.”

  “It’s fine… wait, what? I saved your life? How even?!”

  The turtle lowered its head and pushed a book toward me. The same book that so-called goddess used to dump me into this mess. The same one that somehow made that giant scorpion dry up and die.

  “With that,” it said.

  I picked it up and flipped through it. Every page was blank. No words, no runes, just empty. It was like someone had wiped the whole thing clean in a fit of anger.

  “Hey, where are the words? This thing is empty!”

  “What? I have no idea.”

  “There were writings here before… but now nothing!”

  “Maybe it was only for one usage?”

  “I-I didn’t use it. I don’t even know how to use it!”

  “But didn’t you kill that scorpion with it?”

  “No. I only used it as a shield so I wouldn’t die. It all happened on its own. Wait… I think that guy said something like that too.”

  “What guy?”

  “The Demon Lord… or whatever you call the last fragment of his soul. He… he said I was almost killing him with that.”

  "The Demon Lord? Where?!” the turtle squeaked, spinning around in panic.

  “Inside me… it's a long story.”

  “Inside… you?”

  I sat down and told it everything; goddess, demon lord, scorpion, the book. I talked, it listened, no doubts, no interrupts. By nightfall, the turtle had heard it all and treated my nonsense like it made perfect sense.

  “Well,” it sighed, “you sure lived a lot in one day, really a lot.”

  “Yeah," I signed back.

  “But after hearing it all, some things look pretty clear now.”

  “...Like what?”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “The book. It was probably under some divine protection or something, made so demons couldn’t even touch it,” it said, nodding knowingly. “Must be one of those godly things.”

  “Oh!”

  Looking back, it kind of made sense. The scorpion was controlled by a demon, it touched the book and died, the Demon Lord almost faded too, and then the pages went blank. It sure was what happened. Then I remembered what he said before leaving.

  “The Demon Lord…” I began, then faltered. “He said I drained him… like I’m some empty bowl or vase, or… missing something.” I looked at her. “Does that mean anything to you?”

  “I’m not sure,” the turtle said, eyeing me up and down. “But now that you mention it, I can’t feel any mana from you,” it added, squinting, “…especially from your head.”

  “...Huh?! What?”

  “Mana, you ask? It’s the magic source of this world. The core of all living things—”

  “No, no. I mean why can’t you feel it from me?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’re not from this world. Maybe the other summoned hero is like you… but no, that can’t be it. He can cast crazy high level magic. If you have no mana, you can’t do any magic at all.”

  The turtle moved closer and started looking me over once again.

  “No. Really,” it said. “I can’t feel anything from you. I hate to say this, but it seems like you’re not built to cast magic.” Then it tilted its head. “And yes… that actually explains it.”

  “Explains what?”

  “Why the Demon Lord couldn’t take you over, obviously,” it said. “He failed because he couldn’t put his mana into you. There’s nowhere for it to stay, not even for him… You’re empty. Completely empty.”

  “But this is stupid!” I nearly shouted. “I’m supposed to be a hero, but I get no blessing. I’m thrown in here like an empty bowl. Even the Demon Lord can’t take me over, and all because some stupid goddess messed up the summon!”

  I laughed, dry and bitter. “Meaning I’m actually worse off than some random guy over there. I… I can't even use magic, let alone save the world!”

  I sat on a cold stone. Moonlight spilled over the river, painting everything silver. I stared at my sad reflection in the water and wondered what any of this was supposed to mean. The turtle slowly moved beside me and lifted its head, looking up at the stars.

  “Well, fine… forget that for now and look at this. Isn’t it amazing? Countless stars out there.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” I mumbled without lifting my head.

  “I mean, life is like that too,” it said. “Full of paths you don’t notice at first. So what if you have no mana, or some empty vessel that doesn’t even belong here? There’s always a way. There has to be! Even for someone… well, as pitiful as you. You just have to keep looking.”

  “I don’t think so, but I also know nothing. I just want to sleep. That's… all I need.”

  “Sure. But don’t worry, okay? It’ll all be fine. I guess… it always is,” it said, even though it clearly didn’t believe a word of it.

  Then it lowered its head. “Come on. Get on. The ground gets nasty at night. Especially for someone like you… very possessible.” It said, forcing an awkward smile.

  I tried to climb onto its head, but there was no way I could reach the top with my human legs. Its head was huge, and its skin was so tough with nothing to grip. I struggled for a while, but after getting nowhere, I gave up.

  “Maybe I should find a higher place—”

  The turtle grabbed me by the collar and tossed me onto its head, in the gentlest way it could manage. In reality, that meant a brief tornado of a ride, spinning through the air, seeing my life flash before my eyes, and somehow ending up on its head anyway, rubbing my sore backside.

  “Are you okay up there?” the turtle asked, like it hadn’t just catapulted me into the air.

  “Uh, yeah… I guess.”

  “Fine, then good night.”

  “Good night.”

  It lowered itself close to the ground and settled in to sleep. I rested on its neck, staring at the endless stars. My head was a mess, my thoughts a bigger mess, and I had no clue what to do next.

  All I knew was that I was hungry, tired, worn out, and tossed aside by life yet again. I didn’t expect a wonderful new life, but I also didn’t expect it to slap me this hard. With those thoughts swirling around, I drifted off without even noticing.

  I slept like a rock, and the only reason I woke up was because the sun was seconds away from frying my face. When I sat up and looked around, I was shocked. This place looked nothing like where we slept.

  “Hey, where are we, and when did we even get here?”

  “Oh, not long ago.”

  I glanced around, making sure my eyes weren’t lying. Nope. Not a single sign of last night’s little camping spot. This was a whole new place. Far ahead, I could barely see what looked like a town, but it was so faint it might as well have been a mirage from my sleepy brain.

  “But how did we get here?” I asked, sleepy and confused.

  “I teleported us, of course.”

  “You can teleport?!”

  “Sure I can, it’s my... inherited talent. But only once a day. It drains almost all of my mana.”

  I tried to slide off the turtle’s head before the sun turned me into toast. Predictably, I didn’t slide, I more or less fell straight onto my butt. I pushed myself up, still rubbing my unlucky backside, and slipped into the turtle’s shadow. Once the sleep haze cleared, its earlier words finally clicked.

  “What is this inherited talent thing?”

  “As the name suggests, a power you’re born with. Mine is teleporting.”

  “Do… do all creatures have that?”

  “Oh no, of course not. Inherited talents are the rarest kind. You only see them in noble-blooded humans or boss level monsters. Like... me.”

  “W-wait. You’re a boss level monster?!”

  “Yes, just like that scorpion you killed. I’m also a boss level monster,” it said, snickering. “Now that I think about it, you might be the only person alive who has taken down a boss in one hit.” It put on a sarcastic smile.

  

  Of course, my stomach chose that exact moment to announce its suffering, loud and dramatic, like a dying boar putting on its final performance. The ground trembled. Birds fled. Even the turtle froze and scanned the area like we were under attack.

  “Shh. Something’s here.”

  “What? Where?” I looked around, clueless.

  “That horrible roar just now… some animal is close by—”

  “Oh no, uh,” I said, scratching my neck, dying from shame. “That was… my stomach.”

  “…What?” After the turtle got over the shock, it sighed. “Well, you have been starving for a long while.”

  It walked a bit ahead and pointed its huge head toward the distant shape I had noticed earlier.

  “But it’s fine. There’s a town right over there. You can eat something. Maybe even find someone who can help you too."

  I took a few steps, squinting at the horizon. When the town finally came into focus, a faint smile slipped onto my face. Actual people. Actual food. I was ready to sprint there right away. I walked forward, excited, then stopped. I looked back. The turtle just stood there, not moving.

  “Come on then. Let’s go!”

  “I can’t. You have to go alone.”

  “What? Why?”

  The turtle moved back a few steps. When it was far enough for me to see its whole body, it let out a long, tired sigh.

  “Look at me,” it said. “Do you really think there’s a gate in this world big enough for this body? And even if there was, the moment I showed up, they’d either run screaming or start a war. I’m a monster. The worst kind.”

  “You’re not! I mean… well, you are, but not like—”

  “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go alone. Don't get me wrong, I'd go with you if I could. But right now… you’re on your own.”