Chapter 51: Working Out.

“Nice! I got two more Enhancer levels! [Enhanced Concentration] got to 5! Now I can finally get [Enhanced Balance]! Just use the free point aaaand its done!”

“I’m so happy for you Kaito.” I said through gritted teeth.

My legs were shaking again. Burning with strain and agonizing pain.

I bit my lip and kept moving through sheer willpower.

Staying in motion in spite of the weird way the walls were turning.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take a break Sully?” Olga asked for fifth time today. “You’re really pushing yourself.”

“I’m fine.” I lied. “Pushing myself is the only way to improve!”

I almost fell flat on my face, but managed to catch myself at the last second.

My vision was getting more and more blurry. My bones threatening to give way under the pressure of Olga’s ability.

“I’m only asking because Kaito and P.R. already took two breaks. And they have abilities that help them with the increased gravity. I don’t know how I feel about you doing this.”

“She’s right.” Borislav commented. “This isn’t going anywhere.”

“Nu uh. Its already working! I too have those abilities! My hums are working their magic! I’ll get another level any minute now! I can feel it! Look at how much bigger my muscles are after only three days!”

It wasn’t too visible due to Buddy’s natural bulk, but the changes were astounding.

All for a fairly simple training regimen.

First, break your muscles by exercising under the effect of [Amplify Gravity].

Then, have a Shifter nearby to heal them as soon as you collapse.

Eat enough meat in a short amount of time and all the protein literally built up what should have been weeks of hard-earned muscle in three or four hours.

I mean, yeah, it hurt.

A lot.

Like, holy cow.

The nerves continued to fire even after the healing and it sometimes felt like there were a bunch of giggling gnomes stabbing me over and over again.

Totally worth it though. Almost all of my team abilities had levelled up at least once, while a lot of my hums had grown to 5. With [Hum of Cleansing] levelling to 6.

The trick was that these powers created a positive feedback loop when training with others.

[Team Spirit] allowed for people to give Psy to each other, so I could train by giving someone with [Team Doctrine], like Slab or Ryan, a lot of excess Psy. This would allow them to keep their Enhancer boosts active for much, much longer.

Better yet, [Team Doctrine] allowed for members in a group to use the caster’s abilities at a lower degree of efficiency. Meaning I was juicing myself with all my hums AND all of their active Enhancer boosts. Also, it meant that they could buff themselves and me by borrowing my hums when I used [Team Doctrine].

[Team Resilience] made it so that pain and psychic attacks were weakened by spreading them out among team members instead of having them focused on the target. Which lead to me bearing the pain a whole lot better by spreading it around to people who were on their break. It did make them cranky, but that was cheap price to pay for these gains.

[Team Momentum] made it so that boosting abilities targeted multiple people, instead of a single person. This allowed our Enhancers to use their active boosts on others as well as themselves, which led to two, or even sometimes three cases of overlapping Enhancer buffs without my hums coming into the equation. (Gnome), it would even someone with the Shifter and Telepath Types, like Prudence, to heal all of us at once with double the potency, as they used [Regeneration] and [Regenerate Other] at the same time. This worked wonders alongside [Hum of Cleansing], which also provided active healing effects.

On top of all that, [Hum of Harmony] spread a calming effect to all of us that increased the efficiency of our physical abilities, allowing all of us to keep buffing ourselves using less Psy than we would’ve otherwise needed.

Those effects let us train harder without dropping.

Which led to us pushing our bodies further. Which led to [Team Resilience] getting more usage. Which led Slab or Ryan, or Kaito to use more of their [Team Doctrine] to buff me and the others who didn’t have Enhancer as a second Type. Which led me to keep using their abilities and lending them mine. Which caused our own physical prowess to skyrocket as all of us were being boosted by each other through hums and active Enhancer abilities. Which in turn led me to push my hums harder while giving them more Psy through [Team Spirit].

All these abilities coming together, combined with my passive experience bonus, made our levelling speed skyrocket.

Name:

Solomon Carter

Psy:

40, 399 / 159, 120

Type:

Telepath III Level 136

Abilities:

[Solomon’s Inescapable Domination X] 18 / [Solomon’s Overwhelming Delusion V] 12 / [Solomon’s Inexorable Suppression V] 12 / [Solomon’s Calamitous Insight VII] 19 / [Delirium III] 6 / [Sense Thoughts] 14 / [Message] 5 / [Mental Bolt] 5 / [Hide] 3 / [Faint Presence] 2 / [Mental Map] 10 / [Team Tactics] 5 / [Electronic Interface] 4 / [Floral Interface] 1 / [Fungal Interface] 1 / [Sleep] 1 / [Team Spirit] 4 / [Team Resilience] 3 / [Team Momentum] 2 / [Team Doctrine] 4 / [Imposing Presence] 1 / [Alluring Presence] 4 / [Mask] 1 / [Hidden Danger] 1 / [Muffle] 1 / [Flash] 1 / [Persistent Message] 1 / [Mark Target] 2 / [Sobriety] 1 / [Hum of Attack] 5 / [Hum of Striding] 5 / [Hum of Defence] 5 / [Hum of Harmony] 3 / [Hum of Discord] 1 / [Hum of Cleansing] 6 / [Hum of Mist] 1 / [Painful Gaze] 1 / [Cleansing Gaze] 1 / [Entrancing Gaze] 2 / [Degrading Gaze] 1 / [Stable Reality] 1 / [Unstable Reality] 7 / [Manifest Intruder] 7 / [Seal Intruder] 5 / [Banish Intruder] 1 / [Psionic Jinx] 1 / [Heart Attack] 2 / [Drown] 2 / [Indigestion] 2 / [Psionic Hex] 1 / [Psionic Curse] 1 / [Blind] 1 / [Deafen] 1 / [Anosmia] 1

Ability Points:

0

Case in point, Ryan and Kaito were at the forties now. Even stronger than Prudence in terms of pure levels. Though Ryan didn’t seem too happy about it for some reason. The man always had tears and snot flowing down his face whenever we ended things and he even went so far as to beg us to stop.

Honestly. What a weirdo.

As for Slab, he had hit the cap of 50 for both his Types and would need to combine an ability if he wanted to progress.

I’d be getting Enhancer or Shifter any moment now. I knew it deep inside. Either that, or a combination of my hums or my team abilities.

This much effort had to lead somewhere.

After all, Prudence got, what, four levels in the past couple of days?

Kaito literally got two less than a minute ago too.

I could do this. I would do this.

My legs were trembling as I began turning around for another lap through the oval chamber.

The grounds had been cleared of dead gnomes and other monster waste while I was asleep, so the bottom of the pit was now a smooth track.

Perfect for jogging and for more destructive sparring matches that would’ve been out of place on the sand-covered ring the Warehouse had.

I was thinking about the possibility of organizing a controlled hunt down here using my mind-controlled monsters, when my legs gave out.

It was, a strange sensation.

Or, rather, a strange lack of it.

It was as if the limbs that I had been moving just, stopped.

Like two construction workers refusing unsafe conditions.

I called to them and they ignored me.

I tried to bring up my arms, but they too failed to respond.

Instead, a heavy throbbing redoubled inside of them. Crippling agony pulsating like a thousand conjoined tumours.

Then my fall was halted.

Olga’s [Local Stop] freezing time around me for the briefest instant.

Next thing I knew, my head was being cradled by Borislav. His symbiote mimicking the Funny Bunny costume he’d worn during our first encounter.

I looked up at him.

‘Fool boy. Going to get himself killed. Going to get us all killed when Dusty and Slab come back.’

“I can keep going.” I muttered. Struggling to avoid wincing as his bony hands held me down.

“You can. But you shouldn’t. This isn’t the way to go about improving.”

“You’ve been doing these exercises too.” I countered. “It seems to be yielding results.”

“Don’t try to spin this around Sully. You’re smarter than that. Both my Types are physical in nature. Furthermore, I’m contributing to the ability boards by experimenting with new powers and seeing how they interact with their more popular variants. What you’re doing is self-flagellation. There’s a difference.”

I opened my mouth, but ended up gasping as [Regenerate Other] passed through me. Healing tears while leaving behind the soreness.

“You should stop worrying about your hangups with the Telepath Type already and train up those abilities instead.”

“I am working on my Telepath abilities too! Have you not been paying attention!?” I yelled, truthfully.

“What I need now is more physical powers to fall back on. Periwig said it was possible to get all four Types. Stellio, Subutai and Gina have three already. There’s no reason for me to stop.”

“I’m not asking you to stop altogether. I’m telling you to stop for today.”

“Listen to him Sully.” Kaito interjected himself. “Its not like we’re in any kind of hurry. The Tutorial is, what was it again, six months in total? We have plenty of time left to work out. Risking an injury this early on is the height of folly.”

I turned my head to look at him.

Name:

Hanamura Kaito

Psy:

532 / 535

Type:

Enhancer Level 42 / Telepath Level 45

Enhancer Abilities:

[Enhanced Strength] 2 / [Enhanced Dexterity] 5 / [Enhanced Constitution] 4 / [Enhanced Reflexes] 4 / [Enhanced Concentration] 5 / [Enhanced Vision] 2 / [Enhanced Hearing] 2 / [Enhanced Memory] 5 / [Enhanced Learning] 2 / [Enhanced Training] 5 / [Heat Resistance] 2 / [Slashing Resistance] 1 / [Piercing Resistance] 1 / [Blunt Resistance] 1 / [Enhanced Processing] 3 / [Sudden Strength] 2 / [Sudden Dexterity] 2 / [Sudden Constitution] 2 / [Sudden Toughness] 2 / [Sudden Flexibility] 2 / [Sudden Reflexes] 2 / [Sudden Concentration] 2 / [Sudden Recovery] 2 / [Sudden Agility] 2 / [Enhanced Balance] 1

Telepath Abilities:

[Message] 1 / [Sense Thoughts] 5 / [Mental Bolt] 4 / [Faint Presence] 5 / [Hide] 5 / [Fever] 5 / [Mental Map] 3 / [Drunkenness] 1 / [Sleep] 1 / [Electronic Interface] 1 / [Floral Interface] 1 / [Fungal Interface] 1 / [Fear] 1 / [Block Mental Detection] 2 / [Static Illusion] 2 / [Team Tactics] 1 / [Team Spirit] 1 / [Team Resilience] 2 / [Team Momentum] 2 / [Team Doctrine] 5 / [Hum of Attack] 1 / [Hum of Striding] 1 / [Hum of Cleansing] 5

Ability Points:

0

‘Of course you would say that. You’ve progressed so much in so little time. Thanks to me.’

I tried to push down my bitterness. Really, I did.

“I’m not amplifying the gravity anymore for today.” Olga informed me. “Not for you anyway. Kai and P.R. get to keep going because they paced themselves.”

My eyes found the two of them standing side by side.

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Olga’s posture was stiff and unyielding.

As if she was half expecting a violent comeback.

Prudence didn’t seem worried.

In her mind, Kaito had the right of it and not trusting me was a waste of time.

Either I’d turn out as well-meaning as my memories suggested, or I’d enslave them all without issue.

My eyes passed over Olga and took in her changes.

Name:

Olga Akerson

Psy:

340/385

Type:

Enhancer Level 30 / Projector Level 27

Enhancer Abilities:

[Enhanced Strength] 3 / [Enhanced Dexterity] 3 / [Enhanced Constitution] 3 / [Enhanced Stamina] 3 / [Enhanced Agility] 5 / [Enhanced Toughness] 3 / [Enhanced Reflexes] 3 / [Enhanced Concentration] 5 / [Enhanced Recovery] 3 / [Enhanced Vision] 3 / [Enhanced Flexibility] 1 / [Enhanced Hearing] 1 / [Enhanced Balance] 3 / [Enhanced Training] 5 / [Enhanced Respiration] 1 / [Enhanced Digestion] 1 / [Enhanced Circulation] 3 / [Sudden Strength] 1 / [Sudden Dexterity] 1 / [Sudden Constitution] 1 / [Sudden Agility] 1 / [Sudden Toughness] 1 / [Sudden Reflexes] 1 / [Sudden Concentration] 2 / [Sudden Recovery] 1

Projector Abilities

[Force Bubble] 5 / [Force Wall] 1 / [Force Bolt] 1 / [Accelerate] 5 / [Decelerate] 1 / [Local Regression] 1 / [Local Progression] 2 / [Local Stop] 1 / [Absorb Heat] 1 / [Absorb Radiation] 1 / [Absorb Kinetic] 1 / [Absorb Sound] 1 / [Resonance] 2 / [Amplify Gravity] 3

Ability Points:

1

‘Weak. So weak. Started out with such an advantage and (Gnome)sed it away by being lazy.’

Yet, saying that wouldn’t help matters.

“All right.” I said.

Letting go of the tension in my body.

“I guess I can take a break for now. If you guys are willing to share some tips. Specifically, anything to do with your own perceptions of power. Or which abilities go well with each other. Which ones give you the greatest bang for your buck? Any new standouts since the last time we spoke?”

Prudence shrugged.

“I don’t know what there is to share. I’m not a generalist like Boris here. I’m keeping my points concentrated on what I can use. [Regeneration] is still the best one hands down. Every single Shifter ability relies on it to some degree, kind of like [Sense Thoughts] does for Telepaths.”

Borislav huffed.

“More fool you. We’ve been told that the boards will be gone after the Tutorial. Better to stock up while we can.”

Prudence rolled her eyes.

“As for our own perceptions, I really don’t know what to tell you. I can’t seem to feel any strings like in your memories. My Telepath abilities just sort of, come up when I call them. I’ve been having trouble overcharging [Mental Bolt] and [Fever] too. It might be a question of personal talent.”

She turned back to Boris.

“Which is why I’m not splurging on points. I’m going for quality instead of quantity. I want abilities that have an oomph behind them, instead of a bunch of weaker effects that don’t quite cut it. It might be working for this guy right now, but that’s because he’s got more than twenty levels on me. I reckon things will be different once I’ve caught up.”

Borislav shook his head. Funny Bunny’s dead eyes swivelling as he did so. It was so weird to see them like that. Especially because it wasn’t a suit. It was a Symbiote taking the shape of a suit.

‘I’ll have to ask him about that one of these days. I hope he doesn’t brush it off as weird kink.’

“You say that like generalising is a bad thing. All the abilities I’ve gotten complement each other in some for or another. Every single one. This holds true even across Types. For example, you probably know that [Enhanced Training] helps you build muscle faster and [Enhanced Learning] helps you learn how to fight in a fraction of the time it otherwise would have taken. What you probably didn’t know is that they improve the efficiency of all Shifter abilities by a noticeable margin when you level them. Every, single, one. Its not shown in the status so you wouldn’t notice unless you experimented, but I can heal faster now. It feels like I know how to guide the energy better, and that my muscles and bones are more adept at re-growing without my input.”

He showed off his new gains. Flexing a thick bicep.

“This bonus only improves when I use [Muscular System] to re-shape my muscles and it improves even more when I circulate Psy through food consumption. [Enhanced Digestion] and [Enhanced Circulation] are Enhancer passives that don’t use Psy but they affect [Cardiovascular System] and [Digestive System]. Two active Shifter abilities. The active ones help break down food into Psy and charges for [Mitosis] much faster, while the Enhancer passives make it so I get more Psy from food and aid me in keeping the bonus going for longer periods of time. Since [Mitosis] is a passive that stores extra charges for [Regeneration], the combination effectively gives me two more lives. Far more than the ability level would suggest.”

I listened closely.

Making sure I remembered every detail for later.

Borislav was no longer hunching down like a sullen loner.

Now, he had the posture of a teacher.

Appearing wise and learned in spite of having me in his arms.

“And that’s only one of the combinations I’ve figured out. [Enhanced Circulation] and [Cardiovascular System] also improve [Regeneration] in and of itself. They work with [Muscular System], making it so that the muscles form faster and come out stronger. They boost [Adrenaline] and make the bonuses last longer. They make it so that I can recover from the aftershocks of [Overcharge Self] and [Berserk] quicker than normal too. Everything is already connected. Everything has hidden interactions with everything else. Those five points you spend on one ability might have given you ten or fifteen points worth of improvements if you’d spread them around.”

“That sounds nice old man. Too bad my second Type is Telepath and not Enhancer. Must be nice having so much overlap.”

“You’re a fool if you think those two don’t have overlap.”

Prudence smirked.

“Yeah. You’re right. I have it pretty good right now. Can’t really complain.”

She hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“Some of us have been talking about it. About the best way to merge abilities. A few of us, myself included, reckon its easier to merge the ones that you know best and that have the highest levels. We only have you and Dusty as references so far, but you were pretty deft with [Fever] when you merged [Delirium]. Plus, your [Precognition] and [Premonition] were way up there when you made [Insight].”

“I was also drunk out of my mind and not really thinking clearly.” I reminded her. “But you do have a point. Maybe I should knock back a few and see what…”

Borislav leapt backwards, opening his arms and dropping me as if I was a scalding metal rod.

“NO!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Please no!”

“NOOOO!”

“All right! Jeez! I get it. Just putting it out there.”

They all looked spooked out of their minds.

Like a bunch of schoolchildren facing down a giant serpent.

Prudence was the first to recover. Coughing into her hand.

“Look. I get that you’re not comfortable with being a Telepath. I’m still working things out….”

“Nuh-uh.”

She paused.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me P.R. Speak for yourself. I love being a Telepath. I’ve saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives so far if you count what happened in Excursions. I’m awesome. Its just that I can appreciate that having more than one Type will make me more awesome. Look at Granny Golden. Only merged abilities on her Telepath side, but she had a bunch of other surprises and four times the Psy and points to work with. I’m not being sour here. I’m stating an objective fact. Having dual or triple Types makes someone exponentially more powerful.”

She sighed and brought a hand to her face.

“Okay, look. What’s your Rank right now?”

“I’m on the 3rd Tier?”

“No. Not your Tier. Your Rank. You, Boris and myself all come from the same world. You know Thunder Fist. I saw you had the same lunchbox as me when you shared your memories. He was A-Rank. With him as a reference, what do you think your Rank would have been back home?”

I stopped to think about it.

Considering everything I knew about the United Militaries’ ranking system.

They would designate personal rankings based on a mixture of individual achievements and what the strongest monster you could hunt was.

At my current level, I’d say…

“B-Rank?”

“Bull(Gnome). You know that’s not true. Dolce, you little pet floating above us this very moment chews on B-Rank monsters like they’re dog food. It is at least A-Rank. At least. I’d reckon Thunder Fist would have his hands full dealing with him. There is no way in heck you’re a B-Ranker.”

I laughed in her face.

Moving so much that sharp pain shot up my spine and down my unresponsive limbs.

“You’re saying I’m stronger than Thunder Fist? Are you out of your mind?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying and no, I don’t believe I am.”

“Thunder Fist brought down a dragon! A real, honest to goodness dragon! By himself!”

“And you’d enslave that dragon in less than a heartbeat. Probably without it even realizing you were there.”

“Thunder Fist can tank missiles like they’re nothing! I’m a squishy human! I can’t even take a bullet!”

“That’s because your specialties lie elsewhere. Thunder Fist has no sensing abilities. Nor can he control monsters or fry their brains with a twitch. He has to get his hands dirty during every fight. You don’t.”

I kept laughing for half a minute.

Revelling in the comical absurdity of her words.

“So you’re saying I should stop complaining because I’m better than Thunder Fist?”

“I didn’t say you were better than Thunder Fist. You’re not.”

‘Well, we agree on that much at least.’

“What I am saying is that you need to stop whining because you’ve read my diary. You know what I went through because of a (Gnome)ing C-Ranker. People protected him because of what he could do for them. Because of the lives he could have saved. Imagine how many lives you could save? Do you think any of my dead friends would have turned their noses up at you if you’d kept them alive?”

I winced once more.

The pain from my body exacerbated by my growing shame.

“I won’t be like that guy. I’ll make good use of my powers. I’m going to help people.”

“That’s what I’m saying. You’re good enough as you are because you actually care. You don’t need to be a Shifter or an Enhancer to be a good person.”

“I know that.”

“Then start acting like it. Stop trying to kill yourself through training. Because if you keep going at this rate, chances are you’ll succeed. Trust me. Being a Shifter isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

Both Prudence and Borislav thought of [Predator’s Instincts].

Of the little voice they referred to as the dark passenger.

“I. Yeah. You’re right. I’ll try to ease off a little bit.”

“Its fine as long as you don’t ruin your body. I know you don’t see it, but Dusty is seriously terrifying. She might actually take our heads off if you cripple yourself.”

“For real.” Olga confirmed. Shuddering at the thought.

‘I don’t even know what she sees in him to begin with.’ She sighed internally. ‘I suppose I should be happy she isn’t going after my prince. Oh Charlie. Why can’t you pay attention to me? What do I need to do to catch your eye?’

I pulled my fog away from her at once. Not wanting to get into it.

I knew what Charlie thought of her of course, but I wasn’t about to say it out loud.

Looking at Prudence and Kaito, that seemed like the right choice.

“Okay. I guess I’ll go to bed.”

I tried moving my arms, and found that they were still unresponsive.

The same went for my legs.

“Uh. Okay. Awkward request. Can I get someone to help me back to my room?”

“I got you.” Kaito said. Pulling me up and placing my arm over his shoulder.

Agony flared all over my shell and it took every ounce of willpower to keep myself from screaming.

‘Control yourself Sully. Otherwise, they won’t let you train for a few days. Keep it together.’

I couldn’t hold it.

Whimpering softly as me entered into the Warehouse.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve told you how much I admire you, Sully.” Kaito said off handedly.

“Because I work hard?”

“That too. But no. Its more than that. I really admire your spirit.”

“My spirit?”

“Yes. Right. I realize it might be hard to understand. Look at my memories.”

“I…don’t really want to. It seems like a breach of privacy.”

“Not if I’m letting you. Go on. Do it.”

I felt his sincerity and let the Psy flow into him.

I saw Kaito, chained to a post inside a factory. Overburdened and exhausted. The person I saw resembled the man next to me only in appearance though.

Their insides couldn’t be more different.

The other Kaito was so depressed that his emotions struck me, almost literally.

A mailed fist of repressed rage and self-hatred. Of unrelenting nihilism.

It was the emotions of someone who wanted to give up. Who only wanted an end to the pain.

I surfaced again, choking.

“Did you see it?”

“What was that!?”

“Nice, you did see it. Huh. I sort of expected a level or two. Maybe a memory ability of my own. Guess it was too much to hope for.”

“Don’t ignore me man! What the (Gnome) was that!?”

“That was me. Before I came here.” He didn’t look shocked by the intensity of his own emotions.

Nor put off by me seeing them.

“You see, I was a different person back then. Someone without perspective. I felt like the world was crumbling all around me and that there wasn’t any way out. In fact, I’d already given up. Being kidnapped literally saved my life.”

He said all of this without a care in the world.

Like it was all good now.

“I was raised in a competitive environment.” He continued. “One where I was constantly falling behind. My average test scores were around 97% in a school where the class averages ranged from 98.2% to 99.8%. To put it another way, my status as a stupid person isolated me from the beginning. I always felt like I was less than the others. Like I had something to prove. I was afraid. Afraid that I’d never amount to anything. That I wouldn’t get into a good university and that I wouldn’t be able to care for my parents when they were older. Then they went and died. One after the other. Stomach ulcers from overworking.”

His face remained impassive. Not giving away anything while his mind was roiling with the release of pent-up rage and impotence.

“I felt like it was the end. That I shouldn’t be alive when they died trying to provide for me. Their passing meant that I couldn’t afford the school fees anymore as well, so I had to resort to public schooling. That pretty much disqualified me from any higher education and I had to scrape by day after day just to put food on my plate. All the while thinking that I shouldn’t be alive. That it would’ve been better if I gave up.”

He laughed.

He actually laughed.

“Then, my friend, one of the only ones I had. The one person I thought I could trust, bailed on a loan I had co-signed. The bastard actually took the money and ran! I was forced to pay off the debt through servitude sentencing. Its actually very popular back in my world. I was strapped to this hot, oily thing. Spending 16 hours a day slaving away. Making phones, if you can believe it. All to pay for a crime that I didn’t commit. Through it all, I thought of giving up. Of how good my life had been when I was merely bullied and isolated. Of how much I’d taken for granted. Of how much I’d fallen short of my parent’s expectations.”

His laughter died down.

His voice lowering until his next words were mere whispers.

“The few times I wasn’t contemplating an end to things, was when I was thinking about revenge. I fantasized over it. About the things I’d do if I ever got out. I though of, terrible things, Sully. Things that would make your skin crawl. Back then, it was all that kept me alive. In truth, I had all but given up already. Those actions would have been my last act of defiance.”

He snickered.

“What a fool I was.”

“It doesn’t sound foolish to me. I…I saw that you were in pain. A lot of pain. Its normal to feel that way. What happened to you wasn’t fair.”

“You’re missing the point, Sully. I gave up. My parents worked so hard to raise me, broke their own bodies so that I could have a head start and I was ready to throw it all away. All for a few lost years. It seemed like an eternity back then, but it would have been over before my mid twenties. I wasn’t even thirty yet, and I had already given up.”

He shook his head.

“When I was taken…. that first day. I awoke to find a cavernous tunnel filled with puddles. I was cold, wearing nothing but rags and a pair of shoes whose soles were coming off. My body was thin. Much thinner than it is now. I looked around, saw the screen and laughed. Its was, a similar scenario to novels I’d read you see. I saw it as my ticket to power. To finally getting my hands on some respect for once in my life.”

His face droops down. His eyes watering.

“I…I did things then. Things I’m not proud of. My first instinct was to level up. Doing everything and anything to advance. I…I could have saved lives. If I had wanted to. I could have saved twenty or thirty more people. It…it didn’t occur to me at the time. The thought didn’t even enter my mind. I wanted to be strong. To be somebody. No matter what I had to do to make it so.”

He snickered derisively.

“That’s how I ended up laying on my back. One leg short. Slowly bleeding out. Its was one of the lobster moles that did me in. I usually handled them just fine, rubbing mushroom paste atop stone spikes and throwing them towards their eyes. That one specimen brought up a claw to block and that was all it took.”

His eyes went to his right leg. Focusing, and making it so that his Symbiote retreated. There was a discoloration running along the middle of his thigh. The telltale sign of a re-attached limb.

“I was sure that was the end for me. Certain that there wasn’t anything else I could do. I…I wept. Thinking back to all the chances I had passed up. To all the allies I could have had if I hadn’t been so…greedy. That was the moment Prudence came. She finished off the mole and healed me back to health. Never asking for anything in return.”

A smile appeared on his face once more. Marked by tenderness and care.

“Meeting Prudence allowed me a new perspective. Yes, I had suffered, but I was also given a chance. One any of my peers would have killed for. I realized then that I could move forward, no matter what happened prior to that point. It took several near misses, several beatings, for me to realize that life was worth living.”

He turned his head, and his eyes met mine.

“The reason I admire you is that giving up never even occurred to you. At least, not in the memories I saw. Not only that, but your first instinct was to help others, where I only sought to protect myself.”

I was speechless.

He snickered when I didn’t respond and kept going.

“You wanted to be a hero, so you sought out other people, even when it would have been safer to keep to yourself. You wanted to help, so you started leaving behind messages. You wanted to save everyone form the gnomes, so you went out and killed them all. The, not content with that, you got drunk and killed some more. I mean, yes, you did make us hurt. But hardly anyone begrudges you that. I sure don’t. In fact, I’d dive headlong into another thousand visions if it helped me improve.”

His eyes broke away. His steps becoming lighter.

“Life will go on Sully. Things will be better. People will appreciate you. I know they will, because you’re a good person. Don’t ever doubt that.”

We reached my room soon thereafter.

Kaito opening the door and turning on the lights before laying me down.

“So, keep your chin up, okay? You do have friends now. At least, I hope we’re friends. Let’s keep going at it until you get Enhancer. It shouldn’t be too long now.”

He left me there. Unable to move from the pain and the numbness.

The door closed and I tracked him through the fog and my map.

It was…so weird.

So very, very weird.

Kaito’s life story had been awful. Made all the worse because I knew that he was underselling just how bad he’d felt. How deep his depression had taken him.

And now he was comparing his suffering to mine?

It didn’t feel right.

I…I didn’t have it as bad he did.

Sure, my childhood wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but I had both my parents and a grandparent left.

I grew up with friends who wouldn’t betray me and I had a nice career lined up.

So how could Kaito think that I went through the same things he did?

It didn’t make any sense.

I laid there for minutes, following him as he started training again. Pushing against Olga’s [Amplify Gravity] while sparring against Prudence and Borislav.

I was thinking about him, and the despair he’d gone through, when sleep finally came.