Craig Rothburn

What had happened to him scarred him. Deep down he would never be the same. His shining light and his reason for living had been taken from him. He always knew that the world was cruel but this was something beyond that.

The fact that this scenario was designed, was manufactured, broke him more than if it was chance. Craig Rothburn spurned at the thought of other people in this tutorial who were living.

Why did they get to live while his family was killed? Why did they get to survive while his family did not? It drove him to madness. Wandering the forest with the group of refugees he had led was difficult.

Every day thinking it would be his last. Every waking moment was spent struggling to survive. The only benefit that came out of it was his increase in power. If he was being honest with himself, which wasn't often anymore, it started long before that fateful night.

He lost his family, almost lost his kids, and watched his world burn. It started then and only got worse. The anger and hate at what had happened ate at him and twisted him into something he was not.

His wife, bless her soul, was what held him in check. His two little girls pushed him to be better. Now they were gone. Now there wasn't anyone to stop him from the path he set himself on.

Anger and hate manifest in different ways for different people and his manifested in ways his past self would balk at. Leading his group of survivors gave him skills that he wasn't sure he wished he had.

[Mental Inhibitor] sounded so wrong when taken out of context. What did it matter that he was aiding people who were stressed and broken like he was? Calming the minds of people who had lost everything. Easing their burden.

[Mental Suggestion] presented itself as an evil skill filled with misuse. He came to know better though, as all would. It didn't usurp their minds like they thought it did. It only stoked the fires of what was already there.

His class was the worst part. But like all things, it was a matter of perception. He didn't break the minds of people, he led them to the right conclusion. The broken and wondering people who had lost everything, like him, needed a new purpose.

There was enough blame to go around. He blamed himself for being too weak to stop it, he blamed his family for the same. Who he blamed the most were the others.

They reached out for help and were denied. Everyone watched as they drowned, asking for a life raft. His letters went mostly unanswered and his pleas for help were ignored.

If they wished to ignore him, then he would show them the consequences of that decision.

It was a gradual slope that led to madness and one usually noticed too late. If his wife were here, she wouldn't recognize the man he had become. It didn't matter, he would join her soon and be who he once was. All he had to do was finish his task.

It started innocently enough. His skills boosted the people he gave orders to. He became a leader who had power in what he said. If someone was going to gather food, an order from him would make them better.

Him saying 'Go gather food.' would end with better results. That quickly spiraled into everything that happened. He was given a new choice for his class evolution at level 25 and it was too strong to pass up.

What did it matter if he suggested that they do something? They were going to do it anyway.

He noticed over time that it got easier. The more suggestions a person followed the more he could push it. It started as a simple experiment, to see how far outside their normal actions he could push it.

He should have stopped there. He should have been appalled at his actions. Instead, he saw a plan. A dangerous and sinister plan, but one that would work to punish those he blamed.

He started with the faction that caused it all. The Gavin's. They were directly responsible, so he would start with them. Breaking someone's mind was a touchy operation.

Too much and they would be useless, too little and it wouldn't work. The system called his finished masterpiece a thrall. It took a lot of effort and trial and error, but he did it. It was an unexpected obstacle that others would be able to see it.

Some people had a more powerful [Identify] and were able to see what he had done. It was supposed to be subtle and undiscoverable, but he was wrong. That sped his plans up significantly. He couldn't allow them to tell others what they saw.

He didn't want to use his skills on them, but it was too late. They would tell people and he couldn't let that happen.

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Craig upgraded his skills and he leveled up his class from his experiments. He worked through his group faster than he expected. Soon, everyone answered to him.

He set his minions against those who denied him aid, those who killed his family. People who forced him to watch his little girls die. The fact that his pride and joy were murdered by humans fueled his revenge.

If it were monsters, it would have been expected. They fought and struggled against them every day. No, it was people who had done the deed. He was off hunting, trying to bring food home for his family when the group attacked.

They waited until most of the warriors were gone before attacking their camp. It wasn't a camp like what others had, necessity demanded it be mobile, but they had a central location to store everything they had.

Furs and hides of the beasts they had fought. Weapons and gear they managed to scrape together. All of it was gone when he returned. He remembered seeing the bodies sliced not by claws, but by swords.

His wife's body hugging his two girls with blood covering them from the wounds. Their lifeless eyes stared into his soul. Their futures cut short.

He didn't remember much after that. He took the deepest parts of his skills and pulled on what he promised to himself he wouldn't.

After that, his course was already set. He would have his revenge.

Finding the bandits responsible was easy. Almost laughably so. Spending so long in the forest hunting beasts, his rangers picked up skills quickly. [Tracking] and other ways to find what he sought.

An order from him was all it took. 'Find them' and his will was realized. They weren't suggestions anymore.

They came from a nearby camp, one that had laughed in their face at the thought of helping them. That made his decision easier.

He stalked and waited until the time was right. Waiting was the easy part, his thralls didn't care about the time passing. His anger only increased as he watched them live a life his family should still have.

The perfect moment showed itself. Some form of stone lizards attacked during the wave and their camp barely held on. They expended consumables and all of their mana on killing the monsters.

They were the weakest now that they would ever be. After the monsters were dealt with he sent in his army. The wall was broken by the boss and they entered swiftly. through the hole it had created.

The camp didn't expect to be attacked so soon and weren't ready. Most didn't have mana and some were too injured to react. He lost some of his believers but he gained more afterward.

He told his thralls to capture, not to kill.

He took the camp over and grew his army. The people responsible for his family's death weren't so lucky. A small suggestion was all it took to find who did it. They wouldn't get the honor of joining him on his crusade.

No, they deserved something else. Breaking minds was a skill he had learned in his early testing and he knew how to cause the most pain. He also knew how far to push it without causing death.

A month ago he would have never imagined himself doing the things that he was doing now.

It took time to convert the camp into believers, into people who worshiped him. His skills weren't powerful enough for quick conversion. They fought him every step of the way and some were better at it than others.

The camp's leader took the longest. Nearly a week of fighting his skills until he converted. He had to fight off two waves in this new camp, but that was fine with him.

He could direct his army better than they could fight themselves and they had a pain tolerance that only made them better. He lost some but that mattered little. His believers leveled slower than they should have and they gained little in terms of experience. Their growth was stifled.

His growth was even worse. The way the system handled the share of experience was weird and he didn't have time to figure out why. Two waves should have pushed many people into higher levels and it simply did not.

He knew his mind powers would have a drawback but not something this severe. It basically crippled all under his control. It changed his plans but it affected little else. If he couldn't level his army, he would find people who were stronger.

The points he received only made him stronger. There weren't any skills that he wanted to buy but a profession was what he wanted.

Getting rid of his old profession was painful and took most of his wealth to buy a way to do it, but it was worth it. He wasn't the Leatherworker he used to be. He wasn't the man making armor for his family any longer.

He had a list to choose from and this camp was higher level than the one he used to have. They had more choices and he debated on which to pick.

In the end, he chose what called to him the most. Conductor sounded like a useless profession that only dealt with music, but it did so much more.

He conducted his thralls like an orchestra and his profession aided in that endeavor. It took time to level but that was what he had. He didn't want to move before he had the previous camp leader under his control.

After the week was up and he had a new general in his ranks, he set his sight elsewhere. He remembered a particularly annoying camp leader that he met before that was perfect for his next target.

He waited until the time was right and attacked. Attacking after a wave left them the most vulnerable and he didn't care about the camp he left behind. He could always come back and reconquer it from the monsters later.

He wondered what his old camp looked like now. After a pylon fell, it turned into a pseudo dungeon almost. The system didn't call it a dungeon but that was what it was.

What else would you call a lair of monsters that you had to fight through for a reward?

With every new believer, his cause for his crusade changed. At first, it was because he wanted to punish those who wronged him, but now it was looser than that.

He reveled in the power he had attained and he knew of only one way to get more. He didn't want to attack the innocent but there were hardly any saints left in the world.

People weren't as good as they believed themselves to be and experiencing this tutorial unveiled that to him. They had to have done something to deserve what he brought them, it didn't matter that he didn't know what.

He wasn't the weak warrior he once was. He wasn't the sad, depressed man who cursed his fate any longer. He took power into his own hands and used it to show others why they were wrong.

He showed them the error of their ways. They didn't deserve to live the life his family should have.

His girls were dead and he would burn the world for the fate that they didn't deserve.