(Max)

Boss sad! Very, very sad! Talk blacksmith private, get sad! Max no talk blacksmith private. Ever. Not get sad. He bad, make Boss sad. Max try talk Boss, make feel good, no work. Max no candy.

Happy Boss stay training. Max not good sharpen knives. Calm patient, sad. When finished, Boss take Max home. Max happy! Boss sad. Max make food! Max happy! Max food make Boss happy, Max confident!

Max make burgers. Max like burgers! Boss said 'make whatever', so Max make burgers! Max never choose food before! Max always told make specific food, never 'whatever'! Max very happy! Cheer Boss up, Max hope!

When food finish, Max put front Boss. Then walk away, only then Max ground, staring sky.

What happened?

"Max," Boss say. "You forgot to lace up your boots and tripped over your laces."

Max look at boots. Oh. Unlaced! Max sit up, lace boots. Know how, Master made Max lace boots. Not Max boots, Max never have boots now. Boss so nice! Now boots laced, Max take own seat. Max eat people!

"Max," Zack says. "You are people, too."

Right! Max people, too!

"It okay," I tell Boss.

"Max," Boss dry tears with sleeve. "It's okay. Not 'it' okay, okay?"

"It's?" Max ask.

"Yes," Boss nod. "It's, it's short for 'it is', in this case. What you're saying is 'it is okay', so it would be it 'it's okay', okay?"

"Okay, Boss!"

"Okay," Boss smile. Max know hard smile Boss. "Max, why don't we work on your grammar some? You leave out words a lot."

"Max do?"

"Does," Boss say. "It would be 'Max does'."

"Oh," Max say. "Max does?"

"Yes," Boss nod. "And I know you're very intelligent and learn quickly, so it shouldn't be too hard to fix. Now, let's go with 'Max do' – it should've actually been 'I do', not 'Max do'. Since you said your name, it's 'Max does'. Thing is, you use the name when it's someone else, not you. For you, it's 'I', 'me', 'my', and such, okay?"

"Okay, Boss!" Max say.

"Now say 'I laced my boots'."

"Boss laced boots!"

Boss smack forehead. Boss okay? He check temperature? Max good temperature-guesser! Max put hand Boss forehead, Boss chuckle. Boss feel fine.

"Boss fine!" Max say.

"There's one," Boss chuckle. "It would be 'Boss feels fine', Max. Can you say that?"

"Boss feels fine!"

"Yep," Boss smile. "I wasn't checking my temperature, Max, so don't worry about, it okay?"

"Yes, Boss!" Max nod.

"Now," Boss say. "Say 'I laced up my boots'.

"Boss laced boots!"

----------------------------------------

(Zack)

That was exhausting. I think Max learns to speak properly faster by listening to people talking than actually being taught it, since he picked up on a couple of things I wasn't trying to teach him. It took most of the day, though, and now he's happily sleeping in his bed.

Well, my bed. The brat wants to snuggle a lot at night, probably from the wolf side of him. Wolves tend to sleep in their packs.

After asking Aurum to keep an eye on Max – and making sure he knows to let the other beastborn sleep – I head to the temple to check on Luca. We're finishing up day six of this, and have possibly another four.

I want to introduce him to Max before taking Max out into the fields for more practical training.

Sitting by Luca's bed, I watch the sleeping healer. After a few minutes, I kiss his forehead. If my sight is right, and I'm inclined to believe it, then one of the other two members of our team is named Braden, too.

That can't be coincidence. The Crystals are bringing us another Braden on purpose, aren't they? Why, though? Is it to try to help us heal by forcing us to face the situation? I'm going to deal with the situation, Crystals, I don't need your help.

Maybe a little, but seriously? Giving us someone with his name for a teammate? Why do that?

"Everything is going to be okay," I whisper to Luca. "I promise. I've lost Bryce and Braden, and I'm going to make sure I never lose another teammate. I know I failed in that promise the first time, but it's not going to happen again. We'll get through everything.

"We have a new teammate already," I tell him. "He's a beastborn I rescued from an evil master. He's happy and cheerful and eager to have fun. I'm sure you'll enjoy his presence. I brought him here earlier, even if you couldn't see him. His name is Max, and he's a wolf beastborn. He's going to be an elementalist, too, just like Braden, but he's going to be a fire-based one instead. Hurry and finish recovering and paying off your mana debt, okay? I want to introduce you to him soon.

"I'm going home, now," I tell Luca. "But I'll be back in the morning, okay?"

I kiss him on the forehead, then leave. Instead of going home, though, I find myself at the steps to the Dark Temple. Taking a deep breath, I enter, tracking down Gold in one of the training areas, the same one where Nik first had me fight the golems.

He's sparring against four of them, and losing badly, letting out yelps every time one smacks him with its training blade. Gold ducks under one blade only to be struck in the back by another, and he yelps as he stumbles forward.

"Need help?" I offer, and receive a mental impression of me obliterating the dummies.

That's a 'yes'.

I turn off the training program, and the dummies return to their spots on the walls. Gold gives me an embarrassed look as he remembers that that's a thing.

I grab a wooden training sword, then walk towards Gold, beginning to spar against him, helping him improve his technique until he's too exhausted to continue. Then, he moves to a spot on the sidelines to watch while I trigger the training program on a tough difficulty, pull out one of my actual swords to begin sparring with the magical training dummies.

This is one way to improve my skills while not going too far away from my team, but it doesn't net me Experience, and my Skills are already high enough that this won't work for those. It's all about the practical experience, for now.

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Once I'm exhausted, Gold and I hit the bath, and I watch as he plays with his little wooden dog, doing his usual routine of woofs and barks with it. When we finish, we dry off and start to get dressed. Right after I pull on my pants, he gives me a hug before taking off to his room.

Smiling a little, I step into my boots, pull on my lower armor and equip my sword and knife to my hip, before slinging my tunic over my shoulder and holding it there as I leave the temple, feeling the cold air biting at my skin.

There's a light snow again. According to Nik, we can expect snow until the end of winter. If that's the same as on Earth, then it'll be almost the end of their 'March'. He says that around a month after the Love Lord's appearance, which sounds about right. A month and a week, though with the Boundary's wonky time, that could be a week or two off in either direction.

Then around a week after the last freeze, the Candy Rabbit arrives. That's going to be fun, I think.

Chuckling at the thought of fighting a rabbit that actually shoots eggs out of its ass, I almost miss her. Well, I noticed her, but didn't pay much attention since there wasn't hostility. Then I registered who it was, so I stop walking and turn around.

"Hey, Kylie," I greet my friend, who's wearing a cloak over her usual garb.

"Hey," her face flushes. "Aren't you cold?"

"No," I answer. "I can feel the cold, but a perk of being me is a little bit of an immunity to it. I was just heading home. What about you?"

"I-I-you-I-nice abs."

"Huh?" I look down, then back at her and smile, before pulling on my tunic. She lets out a small breath of relief. "Sorry, I just had a bath with Gold at the Dark Temple, and decided to let the cold air bite me as I went home. There's usually no one on this path. You were waiting for me, to see how I'm doing?"

She nods, looking a bit embarrassed to admit that.

"It's okay," I tell her. "I know you like me, Kylie, so you being concerned… it makes sense."

"Okay," she smiles a little hesitantly. "I heard you've a beastborn on your team, now. Other than Gold, I mean."

"Max," I nod. "He's a bundle of fun. If you stop by in the morning, I can introduce you two. Be forewarned: he talks."

"So it's true?" She asks. "Those weren't just rumors people were spreading?"

"It's true," I nod.

She squirms uncomfortably, and it takes everything I have to not push further into her mind. I can sense she's uncomfortable, but also anxious about something.

"Do you need a hug?" She asks. "I-I know you said-"

I interrupt her by moving to her at max speed, wrapping my arms around her and pressing my face against her shoulder. A hug would be nice. Kylie wraps her arms around me, and we just hug for a few minutes.

"Do you," she says once I release her. "Do you maybe want to go somewhere and talk for a bit? I know you said you'd rather focus on your team than dating, so it wouldn't be that. You made it clear you weren't interested then, and even if you were, after what happened to Luca-"

"I am interested," I interrupt her. "But… I've a team, Kylie. And they're all complete novices. I do promise that once things calm down, if we're still friends and still like each other, we can definitely give it a try. But that'll probably be after the big battle for sure."

"Alright," she smiles.

"Where were you thinking?" I ask.

"Just… maybe somewhere to eat?" She asks. "Or we could head to where we're staying. I mean, me and my fellow apprentices. And we could just talk."

"No offense," I say. "But I don't trust the others not to eavesdrop."

"The hideout's guarded against stuff like that," she smiles. "So we'd have privacy. Plus, I think they'd be too scared of you to try to eavesdrop on a private conversation involving you."

"Maybe," I shrug. "There's a tavern that's pretty nice, come on."

I lead Kylie to the tavern, and we take a seat. I hold up two fingers to one of the waitresses, who nods, then resumes her work.

"Samantha never lets us come here," Kylie tells me. "We always have to eat at one of two restaurants or at the hideout. No actual taverns."

"You didn't protest," I say.

"I probably won't get into trouble," she smiles. "Since I'm here with you. Is it okay if I ask how he's doing?"

"He's doing fine," I answer. "We think he'll be out for around ten days, so probably another four. It's all my fault."

"You can't say that," she says.

"But it is," I tell her. "I had a special, powerful robe made just for Braden. It greatly augmented his magic and magical defense. I then went to a meeting. I shouldn't have left him alone after giving it to him, I knew he was wanting to prove himself to me. I should've realized that if I gave that to him and given him plenty of time, he'd… he'd try to prove himself against something tough, just to show he could handle it. Because of that, he walked straight to one of the most powerful Bounty Beasts in the entire valley. Possibly the most powerful one, outside of Kaelmar. And now he's dead, and Luca went into Zero Down."

"I don't understand that part," she frowns. "What did… what did he do? If he'd tried using Heal, it wouldn't have worked, since there was no 'target' for it to latch onto."

"It's…" I try to figure out how to word it. "You know how there's runic magic?"

"Yes," she nods. "Luca knows some?"

"No," I answer. "But it's without Skills, right?" She nods. "How do you learn Skills?"

"You train," she answers. "You focus your inner powers and shape it into the force you want. If you succeed, you acquire the Skill."

"That's because you've used the Skill," I tell her. "You acquire Skills upon using them the first time. But that means you're using a Skill without a Skill. It's possible to use Skills without them even after obtaining the Skill or with runes, you just have to focus on not using the System for it.

"That's what Luca did," I say. "He expended all of his magical power, and then some, in a heightened emotional state to perform a healing spell to try to heal his brother's body."

"Oh," she says. "But even then, it wouldn't have-"

"The Skills require a target," I say. "For healing magics. Using them by themselves doesn't, and Luca wasn't using 'Heal', but something far more potent. And it worked. Braden's body was healed. The spell wasn't resurrection, though, which means that while Braden's body was healed, there was no return of his soul. Luca's heightened emotional state and the potent power he used allowed him to borrow power from the future, which led to him being in Zero Down.

"It really is all my fault," I say as the waitress arrives with two plates of brisket and potatoes and two mugs of ale. "If I hadn't given him the stupid cloak, none of this would've happened."

"You can't change the past," she tells me. "Just look forward to the future and to do a better job, and to learn from your mistakes."

"I know," I rub my temples. "I tried finding him, after."

"Braden?" She asks.

"When I lost myself into training in Talorn," I nod. "I tried finding him. A'Lutar definitely hid him away so that he'd become a Fallen Adventurer. I… I wanted to put him down, before Luca woke up. Wanted him to know his brother was at peace and his body wasn't defiled any further."

She drums her fingers on the table, and I start eating. After a few minutes, she does as well, and the rest of our meal is in silence.

"Do you still want to do that?" She asks. "To purge the Fallen Adventurer?"

"It's useless," I shrug. "He's probably being guarded and hidden by A'Lutar, who I can't fight."

"Not alone," she says. "But I heard from Samantha that you did damage to the Avatar of the Shadow of Life, that you fought it – barely – with your Demon Form and a Blessing from Normar. If the Avatars are more powerful than a Level 25 Bounty Beast Goblin…"

Then I might be able to kill A'Lutar with Nathan's help.

"Maybe," I say. "But I have Max to take care of and train, now. Once my full team is assembled and at least Level 5 each, then I'll take them into Talorn for greater training. Maybe I'll ask Nathan to come along."

"I have the next couple of days off," she tells me. "Samantha's doing… something, so we don't have training. I heard you'd been training him with a knife. I could teach him a bit more, if you wanted."

"You'd have communication issues," I snort at the thought of her trying to talk with Max. "It's easy to misunderstand him. Plus, he's actually going for Novice Elementalist. Once Luca wakes, I'll take them out of town so Max can get some practical training. I'd probably trust Max more with Blaine than anyone."

"The alchemist?"

"And magician," I add. "Or I could leave him with the servants at the Dark Temple. They're all beastborn, so they'd have no issues communicating with him, and I know they're fascinated by him, since they knew in advance that Big S was going to grant another Access, and already knew which it would be."

"Yes," she frowns. "About that – why is the Crystal of the System so selective with it? Why not just start granting Access?"

"Several reasons," I answer. "The first of which is that there are plenty who'd use it to start killing humans. Train up in secret so they could get strong without being noticed, then just eradicate Cities at a time. Then there's the fact that it exhausts him. He runs the entire System by himself, and it requires a lot of energy. Manually connecting someone into the System tires him out and it takes awhile to recover from that. Can take years, actually."

"Oh," she says. "I didn't know that."

"The ones acting as servants do," I tell her. "That's why they're patient and eager to prove themselves as not being in the former category, but in the category that will serve the Crystals just like those who choose to come here, in most cases."

I put some money on the table, then stand lead her out of the tavern.

"Let's go back to the hideout," she tells me. "We can talk more there."

"Yeah," I grab her hand. "Thanks, Kylie."

She's making me feel better, in a way different from Max. He cheers me up, and she's making me feel better.

Maybe I should figure out something to do with Max for a few days? So that I can see if Nathan will go with me… I do want to put Braden to rest for Luca.

By the time we reach the hideout, I've made up my mind. I'm going to wait for Luca to wake up, so that I'm not leaving anyone behind. So that he can be there when his brother's corpse is finally put to rest.