Letting the system interface dissolve into darkness, Benjamin still found himself quite a lot further from the world than he should have been. He’d thought that it would have just been a matter of opening his eyes, but he was still somewhere close to deep sleep in the depths of his mind, and it took several seconds of forcing himself to wake up to even begin to move toward the surface.
After that, things began to move, and he felt the terrible tension that was something like sleep paralysis began to slacken. The further up he went, the more he felt like himself, mostly. He could still feel the dark shadow of the Prince, or at least what remained of the man, lurking behind him, but that was all he was anymore, and Benjamin did not concern himself too much with him.
When Benjamin opened his eyes, the sun was high in the sky, he took a moment to appreciate how sore his throat was and how sore his muscles were. It was only after that, that he noticed he was bound hand and foot and was being guarded by a very angry-looking Matt. “What the hell is wrong with you!” his friend demanded in frustration as soon as their eyes met, in exasperation.
Benjamin didn’t even try to defend himself. Especially not since he now knew that all of his protective measures to save his friends had been borderline useless. It didn’t matter that Benjamin had locked out all of his passwords and diffused his spells but that prick could have just turned them back on and melted Matt’s face with almost no effort.
Benjamin didn’t say any of that, though. Instead, he just said, “I’m sorry, man, I fucked up.”
“You’re damn right you did,” Matt agreed. “How do we even know you’re still you?”
“Well, beyond the fact that I can tell you what you got for Christmas and what your Major was, not much.”
“Did it work at least,” Matt asked as he produced a knife and moved forward to cut Benjamin out of his bonds.
In that moment, Benjamin cringed at how trusting his friend was. Maybe he wouldn’t have if he didn’t have the ghost of a suspicious prince running around in his head, but as his wrists and ankles were being cut loose, all he could think about was what a mistake that could have been.
“I mean, I think so,” Benjamin said, looking at his character sheet briefly and noting that his soul damage was all but gone. “Honestly, I haven’t felt better in a long time.”
“Even after grafting part of a madman into your skull?” Matt asked as he offered Benjamin a hand and helped him to his feet.
“It’s not really grafting,” Benjamin lied, not wanting to upset anyone by telling them what had happened. He certainly didn’t want to have to explain his sudden insight into Rhulvin society. It all blurred together a little bit now that he wasn’t being forced to live through it, one debauched day at a time, but he knew enough to do what he needed to do. “More like… spare parts, you know? Stealing bits from a junker in a wrecking yard to keep your car running.”
It was only after he stood up that he noticed how far they were from the rest of the camp. He adjusted his estimate of his friends. Maybe they hadn’t been too trusting after all. That made Matt’s gesture to be out here alone with him, even if things went wrong, all the more touching.
“You make it so casual,” Matt said as they began to walk back to the larger camp, which was visible through the wide streak of trampled down grasses.
“I mean, nothing to it, right?” Benjamin said with a shrug. “Just write a script and wait for it to replace all the damaged sectors with good copies.”
“Nothing to it, huh? Not major surgery? Just a little tune-up?” Matt said skeptically. “Is that why you’ve been out of it for the better part of two days?”
“Well, uncomplicated doesn’t mean…” as he turned, he found that Matt had his knife back out, and it was millimeters from Benjamin’s throat.
“Or why you were thrashing and screaming?” Matt asked. “We didn’t just tie you up for the hell of it, Benjamin. Do you know what it was you were screaming?”
He flushed slightly as he realized he’d been caught in his lie. He was actually more embarrassed than that than he was concerned about the blade at his throat.
Benjamin didn’t move a muscle after that. He didn’t try to raise his hands and surrender or smile and play it off. He just asked, “What did I say?”
“A fucking lot, man!” Matt said with tears in his eyes. “You begged us to kill you, you swore to kill yourself. Both you and the Prince or whoever else was in there with you. It was like you were possessed. We didn’t know what the hell was going on, but we didn’t want you nuking the camp, you know, and now you can’t be honest with me to what? Spare my feelings?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Benjamin said, trying to meet his friend's gaze before he looked down at his feet. “My head… you don’t want to know what happened in there… I’ll level with you. It was a rough night.”
“Benji,” Matt sighed, lowering the knife half an inch. “I just want to know that you’re still rattling around in there. We’re worried about you. All of us. You can’t just keep throwing your life away and hoping that it all works out because one of these times, it won't, you know?”
“Yeah,” Benjamin sighed, “I get that.”
“What is this, the third time?” Matt asked in exasperation, as he counted the foolishly recklessly things he’d done off on his left hand, one finger at a time. “You Broke your system, you jumped off the cliff, you detonated your soul, and now this?”
“Fifth, actually,” Benjamin said with a smile. “I didn’t jump off that cliff; that was all you, but I did melt my brain to get the tools to free you, and then there was the Elemental and going off with the molten sky Goddess. Actually, depending on how you count the two times I went off with the Arboreal Throne and—”
“Can you promise me that this is the last time you’re an idiot, at least?” Matt interrupted.
“I mean, I wish I could,” Benjamin shrugged. “Sadly, I think I have to do one more stupid thing before we can put this…”
Even before he finished telling Matt the next stupid thing on his list, his friend had dropped the knife and was hugging him so tightly that he was having trouble breathing. For a moment, Benjamin wondered what had flipped the switch, but then he realized the truth: someone else would have been smart enough to lie, only He was stupid enough to tell Matt what he didn’t want to hear while being held at knifepoint.
The thought chastened him, and after a moment, he hugged his friend back. Then, the two of them returned to camp, and after he had something to eat and drink, he told his friends everything. Well, everything he remembered, anyway.
“I mean, how could you not expect that this was exactly what was going to happen?” Raja asked, showing none of his characteristic humor as he looked at Benjamin with a mixture of frustrated gratitude. His friends were clearly relieved that he was still breathing, but none of them were happy with him.
“I clearly didn’t include enough magic in my metaphor,” Benjamin agreed. “I thought of it as a simple database operation and—”
“It’s not a program man, it’s your freaking soul!” Raja exploded.
“So he’s still in there with you?” Emma asked before Benjamin could respond to Raja’s outburst. “What’s that like? Being trapped with a crazed narcissist all day long.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Maybe you should ask your fiancée that question, he thought, but he didn’t say it. Instead he countered, “Look, I remember a lot of the things about his life. I know a lot more about these systems and the way that the Rhulvin operate, but he’s not a real person anymore, he’s just a a pile of memories. I scrapped him for parts.”
“What if that’s only true while you’re awake?” she pressed. “Maybe as soon as the good you falls asleep, the evil you wakes up and kill us all.”
Benjamin actually laughed at that before he countered, “I’ve been asleep for days; by that logic, you’d already be dead.”
That, at least, was enough to ease up the conversation to some degree, and he did his best to answer all their questions. Yes, he was still himself, mostly. No, he didn’t feel much different. Yes, he had learned things that made it worthwhile. Most importantly, he felt like he’d gotten enough insight for all this to be worthwhile.
“So what are we doing next?” Matt asked as the four of them sat there together, and things were winding down.
“I mean, I’m not the only one that gets to decide that, but I have a few ideas,” Benjamin answered. “Maybe we can discuss that tomorrow. I’m kinda all talked out.”
It was only when the sun set and the campfire had grown low that he’d finally convinced them things were going to be okay enough for Emma to give him back the files he’d given to her for safekeeping. That finally allowed him to unlock the constraints he’d put on his own system and let him put everything back into place.
After everyone had gone to bed, he lay there staring at the beautiful night sky that he opened up his character sheet and finally spent the points to level up to level 9.
It had been a long time coming, of course. He’d leveled back when he’d been in Miku’s little pocket of hell. He hadn’t been in the mood to give it deep thought and lock himself into anything back then, though. Now he was, and he settled down to see what he could do to max
NAME: Benjamin Newsome
RACE: Human
CLASS: Runic Mage
LVL: 9
EXP: 16,011/20,000
BPs: 9
Mind
INTELLECT
18
WILL
12
MANIPULATE
10
Body
AGILITY
6
STRENGTH
11
APPEARANCE
10
Soul
ANIMA
7
SPIRIT
12
CHARM
10
RESOLVE: 77/77
HEALTH: 77/77
MANA: 126/126
STATUS EFFECTS:
Soul Strain: -1 to all actions related to runic magic
Nature’s Gift: +5 to all actions,
SKILLS
Knowledge (academics): 35
Craft (programming): 65
Knowledge (internet): 25
Magic (Runic): 80
Dodge: 25
Team Work: 40
Diplomacy 63
Leadership: 20
Awareness: 35
Resist (Social): 35
Survival: 20
Athletics: 15
Craft (primitive): 10
ABILITIES
Obstinate: +20% resistance to social attacks and charm magics
Blood Mage: Reduce Mana by half. Mana may be freely refilled at the cost of one health per mana. Immunity to life drain effects.
Optimized Mage: All spells cost 1 less mana
Diabolic: Summoned demons are 25% stronger.
Privileged: Gain extraordinary access to lower system users and states.
Elemental Attunement: +10% effect to all elemental spells
As much as a level-up strengthened him, of course, it was nothing in comparison to the removal of his soul scarring. It wasn’t even about the mana pool or the numbers at this point, well not completely. He could finally feel the magic flow through him as he respirated the essence from the world around him. It was something he’d never really known he was missing until this moment.
The pieces of Prince Agardian’s soul might still feel like an ill-fitting suit, but even with that discomfort aside, it was all still worth it. Benjamin finally felt whole again, and he went to bed that night; his heart sang that he’d finally been able to fix that grievous wound.