Did you notice it?

[What?]

The Limitless Trait. Remember, I said Dan purchased Efficient with his token.

[I noticed.]

I’ve never heard of anything like that. The channel’s Trait often upgrades, but it upgrades in the same way every time. And it upgrades just the thing the Trait is about.

I’ve never seen a new Trait just upgrade itself and add in a ton of different shit. I don’t even know what energy and harmony are. There’s no mention of either in the self-cultivation book.

[I assume energy refers to its mundane sense, such as from the food mortals eat for sustenance. Harmony is a resource used…know what? Just as you wanted me to factor the value of the information I received from the book into your reward, I must now factor every bit of knowledge I part with into your reward too. If you end up deserving one.]

What? That’s crazy! Just tell me. Please. Please!

[No. Not at this time.]

How very prudish of you. And savvy. What a power move. I have no choice but to respect it. How you used my own words against me.

I probably should give an update on what was happening with my supervisor, Zixy, at the time. Gabrodyl had put that dumb broad in her place but good. She was ordered to provide me with any assistance I needed or requested. Within the rules, of course.

And I requested a ton of shit. Anything I could think of. For the dumber stuff, I didn’t copy Gabrodyl to the message. Bob and Az’ga said I shouldn’t do it, but I told Zixy I needed all the information she could get me on time travel.

She copied Gabrodyl to her response. Let me have a sec to find it. Here it is. “Xotl.” See? That dumb broad still refused to use my real name. She’s probably jealous of how glorious it is.

She continued, “Here’s all the information on time travel. Notice there’s nothing attached. That’s because time travel isn’t a thing, you tiny-tentacled fool. I copied your new girlfriend to this message since you forgot to add her. I wonder why? Imagine unironically requesting information on time travel, you STUPID IDIOT!”

My reply back was, “Imagine unironically being a woman.”

Then she…oh, in case my inflection didn’t make it clear, she capitalized stupid idiot as if my stupid idiocy is legendary.

All know that Ace Blacky is legendary in many, many regards. I’m not sure how I’ll add lasso into my name, but when I do, my new name will be in all capital letters.

I still haven’t received any actual information from Zixy regarding time travel. I’m almost certain that dumb broad didn’t even check on it or ask around.

[She’s right. Time travel is not real.]

Possibly. Like Dan’s redemption status – it’s questionable. Before you say anything, just let me have this one. Please. So, Zixy said…

[What layer is Gabrodyl from?]

No idea. Not mine. Maybe the second, maybe the third. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn she’s from the fourth.

When I’m warming my frozen nubs in Bob, I often pretend he’s Gabrodyl. I bet she has a ton of extra orifices, even facial ones. I can’t wait to meet her. She’ll definitely want to fornicate with me.

She’ll want to spawn some get with Ace Blacky too since she’s a woman of refined taste and quality. And I know she’s super-hot. I can tell by how she types. I assume she looks more like a Kobalite than Chamosite’s usually do.

Anyway, as I was saying, Zixy repl…

[Unless it’s relevant to Dan, I don’t care.]

It kind of is. It’s all related to him. But Ace Blackey hears and obeys.

Dan ran back to the tutorial area. On the way, he found two corpses. Both were females and both were killed by invocations. I couldn’t figure out what mana-type or invocation killed them, so I doubt Dan could either.

The corpses didn’t have anything good on them. Dan still took their shoes and put them in his belt. He had quite a shoe collection. The two just taken from the females were way too small for him. Maybe he has a foot fetish? Most mortals that are weirdos do.

Dan told Chet and Nick to go to sleep since he had Ashen Ruin guarding near the Core Trial. No disagreement from me there. Ashen Ruin would’ve destroyed even the best Sortilege we could’ve spawned in the tutorial area at the time. If we had another to use. Which we didn’t.

Az’ga had finished scripting two new ghosts. As soon as Dan fell asleep, I appeared, and I sneakily woke him up.

The ghosts of his ex-wife and her father greeted him.

Dan had paid for a paternity test when the child was an infant, or else we would’ve had the ex-wife tell him Amanda wasn’t his child.

Instead, Marisol said, “I never loved you because you’re not a real man. You’re a failure. You failed at everything. You captained our ship right into the rocks. I tried so hard to make our marriage work, and you killed our daughter.”

Az’ga thought we should script Marisol’s father to elicit guilt within Dan since the murder was unplanned.

Bob and I had a much better idea. We…I should explain some things about mortals first, or our script won’t make much sense.

If Dan and Nick began to kiss or if one murdered the other, mortals would see these acts differently than if either of them kissed or murdered someone else.

I’m guessing where you come from is not too unlike my layer. We grow to age in a large brood where we are encouraged to fornicate with and murder our siblings.

On becoming an adult, our mother, or at least the good ones, personally ensure we won’t embarrass her by being bad at fornicating before ejecting us from her brood.

Surprising as it may be, many mortals know who their own father is, and the father even sticks around and helps raise the mother’s brood. For some silly reason, they consider a father fornicating with his own get as a bad thing.

Since Dan had so passionately defended his father, and since the two seemed to have gotten along so well, Bob and I assumed they must’ve been romantically involved.

We don’t know how far this romance went. The mortals of Earth break fornication down into four different categories they call bases. First base is only kissing and touching butts. I think fourth base is spawning get.

We had Marisol’s father tell Dan, “Your father told me you were a terrible kisser and really bad at touching his butt. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

We were playing it on the safe side and sticking to first base. We assumed if Dan had been able to achieve second or higher base with his father, Nick would’ve mentioned something about it, even if only out of spite or jealousy.

We didn’t mess with or change Dan’s own father’s script. We all know how those of the mortal plane feel about love being spurned. The father not even mentioning their romance was making what he was already scripted to say way more hurtful and so much worse.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Wow, I’m literally freezing to death. My nipples are like little diamonds. I could cut glass with these things. Would you mind if I destroyed that table against the wall and started a fire to stave off my untimely demise?

[You’re fine. Carry on.]

Well, if my diamond-hard nipples are any indication, I’m not fine. If you need proof, just touch one of them. I bet it slices your finger open.

I can’t even feel any of my many genitals. Look at this one right there. That used to be my favorite. Now it’s just a puckered-up little ice-flap.

I truly hope the agony of slowly freezing to death as I tell this story is factored into the giant reward you promised to bestow upon me.

[How did Dan react to the new ghosts?]

Ah, pulling the old topic-switcheroo on Ace Blacky, are we? Nicely done, Boss. Respect. What a power move.

Since Dan’s mentals were always in the red, we can’t know how the new ghosts affected him for certain, but I’m sure he found them devastating and soul-crushing.

I woke Dan up a couple more times throughout the night, but not as many times as I would’ve liked. Unlike ghosts or images, appearing drains a lot a Veil, so I couldn’t get too crazy.

We may only need a fraction of the amount of sleep mortals require, but we do need some, and we hadn’t gotten much downtime since Dan barely slept the night before, and didn’t sleep at all the night before that.

For us Game techs, when our team is asleep is when we can relax and unwind. We use that time to get in some serious meditation and fornication, smoke some rock, reminisce about the good old days, share unsolicited pics of our genitals with strangers, all that.

Nothing of note happened in the morning. Leena left Dan alone, but Becky sent her daughter over to harass him for a few minutes.

When Dan was done exercising and meditating, my other team members were already training at the Core Trial. He stood about 50 meters from the group, called Ace over, and asked, “What Trait you got?”

“Healer,” replied Ace. “I wanted…I didn’t…this isn’t going as I envisioned when I picked that Trait. I’m not sure how viable it is now. I don’t think I can get away with being a healer. Not to put the others down, but none of them have much experience fighting.”

“That ain’t a bad Trait to have,” replied Dan. “There’s a lot of fighting builds it could benefit.”

And that’s what Dan spent some time doing. He’d call someone over and talk to them one-on-one about their Trait, skills, and what kind of role they’d like to fill in a party. Besides Carlos. Luke was there with him.

Let me tell you, most of these fools picked a terrible Trait, completely wasting a major opportunity not afforded to participants of garbage and turd worlds. Then he…

[What Trait did each have?]

Jeez, showing you would be a lot easier if my tentacles weren’t all rock-hard nubs of ice. I’ll soldier on through and show you still, regardless of all the pain and discomfort.

Ace’s Trait.

Healer: Any Orbment you use to heal others is stronger based on invocation's unmodified cast time. Min benefit is 10% for instant-cast invocations. Max is 25% for invocations with a First Rank cast time of over 2s.

Austin’s.

Orbment Master: Orbment Rank requirements are reduced a tier for you.

Becky’s.

Boost Mana Weapon: Every mana-weapon physical Orbment you slot does between 10% to 15% more damage.

Carlos’.

Flexible: You're more pliable and can more easily bend or twist the body and its parts without injury.

You already know Chet’s and Leena’s so I’ll…

[Show me.]

Uh, okay.

Chet’s.

Lucky: Things usually work in your favor.

Leena’s.

Ageless: The anti-aging aspects of the Health Attribute are increased for you.

Luke’s.

Devotee: Any bonus or penalty from patronage is 50% stronger.

Luke’s Trait would never be useful at all unless he joined our side. As we already talked about, the other side never offers patronage.

Here’s Nick’s.

Strong: Your Strength Stat is increased by a full grade (F to C, C to B, etc.).

And that’s it. Unless you want to see Dan’s again. I only showed you his status a couple minutes after I originally showed you Leena’s Trait so you may have already forgotten by now.

[If you’re expecting a reward, smarmy comments such as this are doing you no favors.]

Right. The freezing cold must be numbing my brain along with the rest of me. Sorry about that, Boss.

Well, it’s pretty easy to tell which participant selected a Trait on purpose, and which just randomly selected something. The only one I wasn’t sure about was Luke. He’s stupid enough he may have picked that on purpose, along with Hell difficulty and Lone Wolf.

Dan almost laughed when he learned of Carlos’s Trait. I told you Carlos was a fat, right?

[Yes.]

He was a real big guy on top of being a fat. Even just picturing him stretching makes me laugh. Ha! See, I just pictured it.

This was the first time Dan had talked directly with some of my other team members. He talked to Luke for a while. I have no clue what Luke said, but Dan could understand the garble, even though the guy’s mouth could barely move due to his injury.

Once he finished talking to everyone one-on-one…oh, I should say Austin gave him a lot more shit for abandoning them. After that, Dan addressed the group as a whole, his anxiety spiking into the red.

“Once I head out, I want Chet to instruct y’all on what he learned of cores and forming cores from the book he read. Spend half the day training on forming cores, other half training for your assigned Trial. Same tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, y’all are forming your cores. If you fail, you die, so don’t fail. Take this sh…this stuff serious.”

Chet asked, “Are you bringing the camera?”

“Naw. I’m meeting with them folk you wrote that letter for. Y’all just focus on training hard.”

Nick said, “I ain’t had much of a chance to train for my Trial, Danny. I need more time. I can almost put my full weight on my leg again.”

“You’ve always been faster than me,” replied Dan. “You’ll be fine if you give it everything you got. And you just got to rate. F-rating works. You don’t need SS.

“And don’t none of y’all worry about being attacked again here. Our grievance ticket was replied to, and it was confirmed we only have three techs assigned to us. They lied and said they had three on us since the start. I doubt that, but it is what it is. Don’t matter none now. Chet, let me talk to you before I take off.”

Chet and Dan walked away from the group. Dan asked, “How’s your back doing?”

“It hurts terribly. I dislike pain, but I’ll live.”

“About that personal training. There’s no sense doing it before a certain point. I’m hoping you understand.”

Chet sighed and said, “I guess I do. May I ask what you and Leena were doing yesterday? Are you trying to steal my love from me?”

“Naw,” replied Dan. “Ain’t no time for none of that here. I want you to put some thought into how y’all should train now that you know the ins-and-outs. I’ll get the book back at some point too.”

“I told you that I have an excellent memory,” said Chet. “I also made a lot of notes. I copied verbatim what aspects I had trouble understanding.”

“Good. You understand the parts on revelations and the Soul Nexus?”

“Not perfectly,” replied Chet, “but I took good notes. I’ve also been reflecting on a concept to see if I can initiate a revelation and gain a better understanding. No luck so far.”

“It takes a while. Keep at it.”

“Some information stated in the book and given by the Profile Reader don’t always correspond. For instance, the Profile Reader states a Class should be taken first, which grants a mana-type. Then a revelation is worked on after. It doesn’t mention a connection between revelation and mana-type. The book states mana-type is based off revelations.”

“Both is right,” replied Dan.

Chet sighed. “I was hoping I could change the revelation I’ll probably get stuck with. I want a really OP and destructive mana-type. I’m starting to worry. Please tell me ‘lust’ gives a powerful mana-type.”

“Naw. That ain’t how it works. We all lustful. That’s just part of being human, especially at your age.”

“Oh, good. That doesn’t seem like a mana-type that a major character would have. But are you certain? I think about that stuff all the time. I can’t help it.”

Dan said, “We all get hungry too. You worried about getting ‘hungry’ as a revelation?”

“No,” answered Chet. “Any advice?”

“Naw. No different than the book says. Some fundamental truth about yourself or how you see the world. Mana-type for each revelation can be a ton of things too. And like the book says, keep everything about your revelations and Spirit Nexus private.”

“I know. I will. The book only lists a few examples. I’ll see if I can think of something that resonates. Something that will give me a very destructive and OP mana-type.”

Dan turned his eyes towards Chet and studied him for a few seconds before saying, “Thank you. I appreciate how much you helping out.”

Chet smiled before saying, “Just don’t forget my personal training.”

“I heard about how you charged right at them hobgoblins. That was brave. Stupid, but brave. I know you know you ain’t stupid, or I wouldn’t’ve said it, but that was stupid.”

“I was very brave,” proudly exclaimed Chet. “In the books I read, it always just works out. The MC charges the bad guys and always wins. Bravery leads to power which leads to being overpowered.”

“This ain’t no book,” said Dan.

Chet sighed and said, “Obviously. Still, I was very brave.”

“I know it,” replied Dan. “Maybe try being a little less so. We need that brain of yours. Now go get to teaching everyone. Let me know if there’s anyone you reckon’s not grasping what you teaching. Make sure Carlos understands. I know you speak Spanish.”

Chet scoffed and said, “Not all that well. Now I’m wishing I never bragged about my perfect Latin to impress Leena.” His shoulders slumped and he said, “Ugh. Fine. I’ll do it.”

Dan watched Chet mope away before heading out himself.

Except Chet didn’t do most of the training or explaining. Leena did. It didn’t take her much longer to get through the book than it had Chet.

I know it’s hard to think of her as intelligent from what we’ve seen so far, but she had always received better grades than the rest of her siblings, and all her siblings became physicians. Her older sister was a surgeon. If she was a full person, Leena could’ve really made something of herself.

She had a natural grasp on how to form a core. Much better than Chet’s own. She added a bunch of nonsensical yoga bullshit into it though, some shit called chakras and some hippy bullshit about what goes around comes around.

None of her yoga nonsense made any sense, but the stuff she got from the book, she explained wonderfully. Much better than the book itself explains.

She even taught meditation to the group too. She did so in a much clearer and more understandable manner than Dan had. Minus all the yoga bullshit she added in, of course.