You know, There is a certain beauty to a wasteland at night. I wouldn't call it majestic, or even pretty.

But its quite. Peaceful. Like there is nothing else in the world but you. Feeling like you have everything completely to yourself like that is terrible when you're alone. It's comforting when you have company.

Not that that was likely, given just how empty the desert was. I'm not sure if it is actually a desert given the trees and shrubs. But their isn't really any grass so I cant call it a plains.

It's probably for the best that I had already slept for as long as I have, because I don't think Mya had slept at all from the moment she got here.

After a while the inevitable of being board settled in.

I thought about practicing my Spirit, but if I screwed up, which was unfortunately very probably. I'd end up blasting myself and waking up Mya.

I would mess with my Mana, but who knows what changes I made, and I didn't wanna be in my happy place if any monsters arrived. Also I'm supposed to be guarding the "camp" though really its just a hole in the ground and the sleeping girl.

She snores by the way. Not loudly, or enough to be obnoxious, just enough that I could annoy about it later on. It's actually kinda cute, but I'm probably not going to mention that part. After that stopped being funny and I could stop suppressing my laughter, I was back to being board.

The night passed uneventfully, and I walked around the area. Nothing interesting really to find at all, I'm not sure if their isn't any animal life in the netherworld, or I'm just not perceptive enough to find it. I could see it either way. I'd lean towards the perception deficit simply because I know demons eat food, and that food has to come from somewhere. Unless its made through magick. I was hungry, but I hadn't really gotten hungrier despite the amount of time that had elapsed.

Come to think of it neither of us had eaten from the time our bodies where made. I guess she really wasn't joking when she said demons could go a long time without food or water, some kind of magick is likely making up the difference.

Daybreak was very pretty.

I don't think I ever watched a sunrise before. It wasn't as much fun as people make it out to be, although its often implied you do it with a special someone, so maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I sorta vegged out after a bit letting my mind blank as I looked over the vast expanse. Letting my mind wander, it mostly went to thoughts of my previous life. I guess I'm a bit of an oddity in that respect as based on Mya's explanation from earlier most demons lose their memories. Though I knew of a number of exceptions from the games.

That sent a coldness down my spine.

'For the record, if anyone is playing this as a videogame. I hope you get hit by a truck'

It was midday when Mya came too, where she caught me building a little fortress out of a cannibalized bush twigs, which I stacked up like Lincoln-Logs using the leaves to make a roof.

She snorted "Glad to see you spent the evening productively." she said sarcastically.

To which I replied. "Oh, I did spend the evening productively, watching for nefarious types, securing perimeters, all that kind of fun stuff. It is now however somewhere between late morning and early afternoon, and I had to do something quite that also helped stave back the mind crippling tedium, without disturbing you, and that would also allow me to keep my eyes out for anything trying to approach." That shut her up.

That little spiel along with a couple of others, was more or less prepared an hour after sunrise, once it was apparent she wasn't going to wake up soon.

I hadn't really expected to get to use any of them. Just killing time thinking along the lines of what kind of sass she might give me upon waking up, and what I could say back.

She blinked a couple of times before nodding. I apparently caught her off guard when she was waking up, so I decided to back off. Not being a morning person tends to makes you nicer to people who are just waking up, or at least that's how I am.

"Any chance you found a coffeemaker while you where securing the perimeters?" She asked, clearly not expecting me to of.

"Nope, sorry." I shrugged the offhand question aside.

I leaned back against my boulder. I noted it was likely kicked up from the crater due to the coloration and how it differed from the rest of the local geological features. I was a 'C' student in my geology class, but I had a lot of time and I did learn some things. The scorch marks helped.

"So once you wake up, whats on today's agenda? I asked. She took my words at face value because it was a minute or two before she answered.

"I think you should try again with creating a base. We really do need it. Also you need to check out the damage from your last wish." she noted.

"Actually I thought about that a bit", I said. " I think in both the short run it's going to be a very nice asset. And its going to stay that way for a while." I had a lot of time the previous evening just to think. More than I've had since I arrived.

She nodded understanding "Well that's good to hear, but could you explain why?"

I sat up, and started a bit of an extended explanation. "Okay so my biggest problem has been my lack of understanding of the netherworld. For whatever reason I don't have the instincts I'm supposed too, so it's been hit or miss with me stumbling about trying to figure out how to use my innate demonic abilities."

"Furthermore, as you said earlier, every overlord has additional abilities using Mana that they can use to interact with the world in ways normal demons can't. Am I making sense so far?" She nodded so I continued.

"Well, my last accidental wish should, in theory, put my powers into a format that I am readily able to deal with."

"Short term, I ought to be able to get a very large jump start in my ability to control whatever abilities I have, as well as give me some knowledge of what it is I can do. The only reason I can't say it doesn't give benefits in the long term Is I don't know how much limitation my wish is going to put on me, or I had in the first place. But I can most likely remove any wish-based limitations later on anyways." I concluded.

'Also games often have some sort of exploits that can be abused.'

So does reality, but it normally takes a genius to realize that if you curve a piece of metal just right and move air over it it starts to rise up due to the pressure difference, thus inventing artificial flight.

Human invention normally occurs when you find an event, then right rules for it, then you work to take advantage of it.

Games on the other hand have rules all laid out, skipping the hard part of noticing something unique. All you have to do is look at them long enough you will notice cool things happen if you make 'x' event happen under circumstance 'y'.

I have no actual clue if I will find one, but hey even the possibility is exciting.

Mya thought about my conclusion for bit before commenting, "you have a lot of 'could's and 'should's in that theory of yours"

"Plan 'B' , where we both crawl up in a ball and cry as we give up all hope, is still an option of course." I said dryly.

"Yea nothing is sure yet, but then again nothing has be a sure deal from the start, that's kind of been the problem. My abilities are all hit or miss, and have been coming up as miss more often than not. At least in my purview there is a chance things are going to start getting better."

I like to try to be optimistic when I can manage it. Being depressed doesn't accomplish much other than being miserable and it cuts you off from trying to see new solutions. I am however a pessimist by nature, so it can take a lot of work to pull off for me sometimes.

She snorted slightly, and threw up her hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, fine. Not like we can just take it back anyways. Go ahead and access your Mana, and see if the changes helped at all.

I nodded, closed my eyes, and did just that.