~~~~~~

Germany - 2005

"Hello, I'm Doctor Paul. I'm going to be working with you on something we call PTSD. Do you know what that is," the Doctor asked.

"I do," Bob answered. "We had to do some training modules on it before deployment."

"Good, before we get started, do you have any questions or concerns," the Doctor asked.

"No," Bob answered.

"Okay, since you started treatment here have you been having any thoughts of suicide or self-harm?"

"No"

"Have you had any feelings of violence towards anyone?"

"I want to fucking kill those fucking cocksuckers who blew up my convoy."

"Okay. Before we get into that last question. Upon discharge from the Army do you have a safe place to stay stateside?"

"No."

The Doctor looked up at him. He stopped writing in his notepad.

"No family you can stay with?"

"No. Parents died before I joined, and I don't know of any other family I might have. My parents kept to themselves most of the time, and there were never any parties or events I can remember having family members there."

Concern grew on the Doctor's face.

"What was going to be your plan after the military?"

"I had hoped to buy a house while I was still in. Looks like that is getting cut short. I am going to get an apartment back in Minnesota."

"Is there a VA near where you are planning on living?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, I will find out where all of them are in Minnesota and get the locations to you. It is going to be important to visit regularly and continue your mental health care, as well as you physical care. You have already started your disability claim it looks like, and after seeing your charts it shouldn't be a question of if, but when you get approved.

"Good to hear."

"Now then, tell me about the feelings you are having about the ambush."

~~~~~~

Bob half expected to wake up to a searing pain somewhere, instead, he woke to his stomach growling. He was confused as his brain told him to wake up so his stomach would quiet down. He turned his head and saw a plate of food waiting for him. It was still the same bread and meat, but he could swear he got an extra slice of meat this time. He sat up, grabbed his plate, and devoured his meal. He washed it down with his cup of water that was provided. With something finally in his stomach he tried to remember the end of the last fight.

"I threw my flask," he thought to himself. "And everything went black. I guess that is what happens when you zero out your mana. I don't want to do that again. What went wrong during the fight? Why didn't I see any ability activations, or were they happening and I didn't recognize them?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Bob had been so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice the Pitboss enter his cage.

"You're awake finally," the Pitboss said. "About damn time, I need to go over the post-fight brief with you. Your opponents were both in the Barbarian class. It was a tough matchup for your team, your former partner was an assassin class."

"How did she get caught," Bob asked. "I saw her disappear into nothing, how did they see her?"

"I can't tell you about abilities, you know this," the Pitboss said. "She probably made a mistake in that smoke cloud of yours. Incidentally, that was a really good choice on your teams part. The smoke should have been perfect for your assassin."

Bob felt like he should feel sad for losing his partner, but with the fights being setup the way they were, he was glad none of his secrets would get out. He shrugged off the feeling and brought his focus back to the conversation.

"I wanted to ask about the gods," Bob said. "Do the ascended gods give better favors than the lesser gods?"

"Better is one way to put it," the Pitboss answered. "You received one piece of armor with one blessing correct?"

"Yes."

"An ascended god, on their first granting of a favor can grant two pieces. That is why the barbarians you faced were so well-equipped. Now back on to business, you are still recovering from your fight. You took a nasty injury to your side, but Esmay was able to patch you up. Your next fight is going to be back to a single opponent, but that won't be for another two days. You have been asleep for two days by the way."

"I must have been near death if I slept that long."

"It was a close thing, it's good the fight ended when it did. Your next opponent's name is Alexander. Another thing, if you win your next two fights, you will no longer be sleeping in a cage. Your accommodations will be upgraded. I highly recommend you win those fights, the living conditions greatly improve."

"I will do my best."

The Pitboss nodded and left Bob's cage. Bob continued to sit there, he decided it would be worthwhile to meditate on his previous fight. He went over the fight again and again in his head. He realized some of the mistakes he made during the fight, and what to try and avoid next time. He needed to make sure he didn't hesitate for anything, and to also keep an eye on his surroundings at all times. After seeing Ally disappear the way she did, made him worry about future fights against an assassin class. He had to hope that his senses would register their attack before it killed him. Another consideration was the difficulty of going against another ranged class. He guessed his wasn't the only one, so he concentrated on figuring out how he would dodge his own attacks. He sat in meditation for hours. He came out of it when he heard the clink of his plate of food. After eating and bathing he went to bed expecting to get a restful nights sleep. Instead he had a dream.

In his dream, he was sitting in a comfortable chair in a large blank room. Everything was monochrome in color, including himself. Everything was in shades of grey, black, or white. Sitting across from him was what looked like a boy. The boy was staring at him with a small smile on his face.

"Hello Bob," the boy said.

"Uh, hello," Bob replied.

"You are very important to me Bob, I hope you know this."

"I don't know who you are."

The boy laughed. "Where are my manners, I am the god of Games."

"Okay, why are you in my dream?"

"I have a task for you Bob, and it is absolutely necessary you complete the task."

"Why, and why me?"

"Do you remember when you were creating your avatar?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember the anomaly that was detected?"

"Kind of, a different box quickly appeared and disappeared, I think it said "Admin Override" or something like that."

"Good, that was me. The system would have stripped five of your attribute points if I hadn't override it."

"Woah, why?"

"You were given an extra five ability points by the Barkeeper."

"Who is the Barkeeper?"

"Another Bob, you will get those answers later, as long as you fulfill my task."

"Okay, and what is the task?"

"You must survive ten matches."

"Ten? I barely survived my last fucking match, you want me to survive, what seven more?"

"No, I need you to survive ten more matches, something very special is going to happen after the thirteenth match."

"And what is that?"

"All in good time. I will visit again in the future, I just wanted to stop in and make sure you understood, you MUST survive."

Games and the room vanished from Bob's dream. He sat up and looked around, the lights were dimmed and he could hear people snoring, so it was still night time. Shaking his head he went back to sleep.