Sevs and Dan continued their conversation for a while longer, now getting into more details. Dan actually didn't know everything, so Sevs had to fill him in on a few details about resistance and the floor plan.

As they were studying the map drawn on the table in marker, Dan rubbed his chin. "I think I see the problem."

"Oh?" Sevs couldn't see it, however much he looked.

"See, no one could reasonably expect you to take the whole facility in that short of time. Especially since you only had one team. Even if the rest had all made it, and that was near impossible, it should have taken you twice as long." Dan explained.

"Did we cut any corners? I don't think we missed anything." Sevs said. He was trying not to be defensive but was feeling slightly attacked.

"So, how did you manage to not slow down at all? Are you sure your timing is accurate here? You pretty much just ran from where you entered here till you took the roof. It was as if there was no resistance." Dan pointed out.

Sevs flipped back through his recording and double-checked the time. "Yeah, that's right. We also weren't able to run because Jason got hurt. Though that was near the end."

Dan just shook his head. Sevs laughed at him. "You know this is a game, right? It's not going to take as long as a real op like this."

"I'm not comparing you to a real op, but the rest of the teams," Dan complained. Sevs laughed at his tone.

"This is what we get for listening to Zim too much and then having to deal with Doomslayer. We have the discipline, but keeping up with Doomslayer's recklessness made us really adapt and optimize for speed." Sevs postulated. "I wouldn't recommend it, but it seemed to be effective."

"You also forget how much more practice you have. No one else here has your experience." Dan pointed out.

"Maybe, but I don't have the leadership experience and not that much sci-fi combat either," Sevs said. "Also, the speed is more from my team than me."

"If we asked them would they say the same?" Dan asked.

"I'm sure they would," Sevs said, and Dan threw him a dubious look.

"Maybe… but total combat experience counts for something. Besides, I know you aren't just experienced. You were one of the best. I have read the guides you wrote. And you know people have written accounts of their encounters with you on the forums, right?" Dan asked.

Sevs nodded uncomfortably. "I'm sure they are mostly exaggerations. Wait. So you knew my name as being more than just a beta tester?"

Sev was honestly shocked. Dan hadn't given him any of that impression when they first met. Dan threw back his head and laughed. "Of course! Well, maybe not your name but your ID. The forums censor the nicknames sometimes to preserve anonymity. I bet you can't find someone who doesn't know your ID."

"Robert and Soshal didn't. They tried to threaten me the first night when they found out I was a beta tester." Sevs said. But now he was wondering if the way people treated him when they heard his ID was less about the beta tester and these forum posts he had always ignored. "I had to drop Robert even."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Haha, They are young, I guess." Dan laughed. "I imagine when they are done with this playthrough, there will be another five myths floating around. Or maybe they didn't believe you?"

Sevs groaned. Well, with some luck, he wouldn't have to worry about it after this playthrough. "But so you really knew about me? I couldn't tell at all from how you or Alex reacted!"

"Alex would have called me either way, but he was quite a star stuck. I'm glad I didn't seem nervous, though." Dan said sheepishly.

Sevs shook his head, trying to reconcile the confident figure of stability he had first met with a friendly man sharing a beer with him now. Sevs supposed that now they were the same rank, the officer mask could come off. Still, it was a bit jarring. "No, you did well. I couldn't see past your officer demeanor at all."

"Good, I work hard on that. I find it helps the newbies adapt to the new world. It's a rough transition as it is, even without getting exposed to too much right away. Best if it seems we have everything under control." Dan explained.

Eventually, they ran out of beer and headed off to go grab another one.

Sevs was a bit suspicious of Dan's choice of a pub when he found the rest of his team there. Not that he was avoiding them or anything. Still, when Jason hopped up and handed them both cold beers, he was pretty sure this was set up. Pulling over a chair, he joined the group.

"So what's next, Sevs?" Bexy asked.

Sevs looked at Dan, who shrugged unhelpfully. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we are going to a planet now? The game is changing. What are we going to do next?" She clarified. Sevs looked around at the rest of the group, and they all met his gaze waiting for him to speak.

Sevs winched as he realized that he was going to have to decide for them all instead of just him. "Well, I can tell you what I am doing. Then you can choose if you want to come. I'm not taking responsibility for your choices."

Robert laughed. "We all made our choice. It's not your responsibility, though. We want eyes wide open."

Sevs took a long pull of his beer. "Why would you want this? Don't you have your own thing going on?"

"What's one playthrough?" Carl asked. Then Sevs remembered what it was like before he had decided to try and ascend. This wasn't going to be any other of their last games, so they were just having fun. Maybe make some new friends that they might message between games or look for when they hit a new world. He was in a different boat. He was going to grow this character and understand it.

"Well, I'm going to go help take the planet. I don't expect the system to give it to us easily. Then we will see where the game takes me. I'm not going to retire and be a merchant. I'm also not going to be a mercenary. So expect more of this. Constant fighting and growing our skills. They are likely doing more raiding than a guardian, at least compared to what we do now. There are so many things a new planet settlement needs.

"We need to get resources. We need to get defensive. We need new people. Who knows what will happen to the newbies? Also, the space elves won't just leave us alone. No, there is pretty much endless work we need to do." Sevs finished his little speech, and Jason stood up and raised his beer.

"To endless work!" He toasted.

"To endless work," The rest of the group echoed, clinking their bottles and glasses together. Even Dan joined in, but Sevs didn't think that he was really along for the ride the same way his squad was.

Then Sevs got a notification.

Leadership has reached level 100!

Huh, that was odd, Sevs thought. Skill-ups didn't come through like this anymore. Checking it out, he realized it was the first charisma-based skill he had ever leveled this high. He knew what that meant. Quickly he flipped through his menus to check to see what perk he had been awarded.

Each playthrough was slightly different when you got skills to 100, but generally, they were really good for the first category. You reached 100 at that playthrough then they quickly dropped off in effectiveness. So Sevs really had no idea what the charisma options would be as he didn't really think to check them before he dove in with this build, as it was a long shot to make it this far in his mind.

He still hadn't even got a tier IV skill yet this play through at all. He didn't really expect to yet, but if he already got leadership to 100, he might need to start paying attention to his skills again as the game was changing, and the monotony of guarding ship hallways was likely to end.