Don’t worry, we’ll get to your precious status soon. It’s better this way. You’ll see why.

Dan was all down and out. All my loser team members were. The surviving ones, at least. Ha! We managed to kill a ton of those shitheads!

Mystozagan was correct about Dan wasting his resources on healing all the other losers. He handed out healing pills and beast cores to healers like they were going out of style.

Not only for his instances. And gave out extras for people to bring into their own instances of the Boneyard, Castle, and Court and all that kind of hippy dumb shit.

A lot more people lived than you’d assume. Participants weren’t expecting the wave for two days, but they had been preparing and knew what to expect.

The initial waves that get sent to the tutorial area are pretty small and pathetic even on Nightmare and Hell difficulties, and us techs usually blow our Sortilege there within the first couple days, so a ton of participants in tutorial areas survived.

The majority of deaths happened in the Nightmare and Hell difficulties, and in the instances we focused on – the ones containing participants Dan knew personally.

Dan’s Boneyard instance got hit a lot harder than others since so many tutorials fed into it, so there were a lot more techs hitting Sortilege than in normal-sized instances.

And because Dan’s Boneyard was so populated, his Castle area was too, so that had a lot more Sortileges available than the others.

The Court and the Crucible area were filled with the stronger participants, and the death counts were super high, but not nearly as high as we expected, so that kind of sucked.

We still managed to murder an absolute shitload of those fools though. Probably just a little less than half the remaining total population.

The numbers didn’t matter. That wasn’t the point. What really mattered was how it affected Dan. And it affected him better than we could’ve hoped for. We were definitely breaking him.

Leena was being a real Debbie Downer too, just moping around like she hadn’t recently banged Hector’s brains out and gained the release of tension only proper fornication can give.

Wait! I know you disagree, but Bob, Az’ga, and I assumed it was due to the penalties she was now subjected to from her bargain Trait.

Just let me tell this my way with the assumptions we were under. It won’t make sense if I’m forced to change my beliefs and opinions after the fact.

Leena, Becky, and Dotty all helped each other work through what terrors we inflicted upon them. A new party was formed with those three, Nick, and Chet. They invited that Mandy lady, but she wanted to stay with her current party.

Dan pretended he wasn’t a crazy and tried to help everyone out as best he could, but only if that help didn’t require him to talk a lot. Though there wasn’t much he could do other than give out his wealth.

Leena did admit that she had a bargain Trait, and that it was now broken. Dan took her to the high pantheon shrines to see if she could get rid of it.

After hours of Leena pleading and praying, she stood in frustration. “Argh! I don’t even know why I bothered. I follow the Eternal Way.”

Dan looked away from his dead daughter’s ghost and told her, “It was worth trying. And you did the exhibit, so you know how this fits into Hinduism. God is Brahman, and the angels are some of the…what’s it called? Divas?”

“Ishta Devata. It’s not the same. And I wasn’t very religious. No one reads the Vedas so the stuff about how the Game started and your Christian Job made little sense.”

“The Hindu one don’t even mention the name Job,” replied Dan. “And Job ain’t just Christian. Jews and Muslims got him too. And ain’t none of that really matters. I just don’t want you giving up, is all.

“You saved Chet. You saved a young kid from being tortured to death. And how you done it wasn’t easy. That’s big. If anything, that should give you more resolve. I ain’t saved no one that day. So many died. I was safe in the Sanctuary of Revelations the whole time.”

Leena’s shoulders began to shake as she quietly sobbed. Dan’s eyes turned back to his kid as he waited for her to finish crying. I think most other mortals would’ve tried to comfort her in some way and not just stood there waiting for her to finish sobbing.

After a minute or so, Leena was the one who walked over and grabbed onto Dan. He put one arm around her as she cried into his chest.

After a few more minutes of crying, Leena looked up at Dan and asked, “Is there even a point to me trying now? With all…with how the Trait will slow down my progression so much?”

Dan took a couple steps back away from Leena before saying, “How much of that was you and how much was your Trait? If you don’t know the exact answer, then I reckon there ain’t no reason to slow down none at all.

“You keep going. You remain. When it gets harder, you get twice as hard and go twice as hard. And keep going till you die or this is over. That’s how we win this.”

Leena scoffed. After wiping the tears from her face, she said, “I’m not even sure I have the motivation anymore. My family hates me. I doubt my husband will take me back.”

“You won’t know until you try,” said Dan. “I reckon if that’s what you really want, it’s worth trying for. Trying hard. And there’s eight billion other reasons not to give up. Eight billion good reasons.”

After a moment of silence, Leena asked, “Is that why you try so hard? Just to save Earth? Or is it your brother? Or something else? Your ex, maybe?”

Dan looked Leena in the eye. “My maw too. And your maw. And Ace, and Carlos, and Luke, and Austin, and everyone that already done gave everything they could. If they gave everything, I reckon I always got a little more in me to give. And if truth be told, my daughter and my paw too.”

Leena studied Dan for a while before saying, “Please don’t tell Nick I said anything, but after you told Ace you were responsible for your child dying, that got around, and Nick told us you weren’t. That it was all your ex-wife’s fault, and you just feel responsible.

“He didn’t tell us details, but he said you weren’t even there when it happened. I can’t imagine what that would be like, losing one of my kids. And she was so young too. I’m so sorry.”

“Nick should keep his mouth shut about what ain’t his business,” replied Dan. “I can speak for myself.”

Leena smiled and said, “But you don’t. We know all about Nick and your parents. I know more about your daughter than I do you. Nick won’t say much about you. I understand you gained some knowledge in a way you’re not allowed to speak of, but what about the rest of your life? Why all the secrecy?”

That may seem incorrect since we know a lot about Dan. We heard him talk quite a bit. But keep in mind that over five weeks had gone by, and I included nearly every time Dan spoke. She was right from everyone else’s perspective.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Dan looked at his daughter as she asked him why he didn’t love her and why he killed her for half a minute or so before saying, “I reckon I’m just not big into talking. Not much to say, really. I failed in just about everything I done. I want…I guess that’s about it.”

Leena kept studying Dan as she walked up to him. She sat down and pulled him down to sit next to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder and rubbed his back. I could tell he was tense and very uncomfortable with the physical contact.

“You’re a good man,” said Leena. “You want to prove to your daughter that you’re worth something.”

Dan nodded but Leena couldn’t see the gesture. He said, “Nicky too. And my maw and paw. I feel so little when I think of my daughter. Her looking down at me and seeing what she sees and knowing what she knows.”

“You already heard my shameful story,” said Leena. “How I ruined my own life. Talk to me. Tell me about yours. It’ll help unburden your soul.”

“Naw. Talking never helped or fixed nothing.”

Leena bumped Dan with her shoulder. “Maybe that’s true. I highly doubt it though, and I already told you all my dirt.”

Just a reminder that she didn’t. She told him a very pruned down version of her story.

“I won’t tell anyone,” continued Leena,” and I want to know more about our mysterious benefactor. I have a feeling that your daughter doesn’t see you how you think she does.”

Dan grunted. I think he wanted to change the topic. He asked, “Don’t you believe in reincarnation anyhow?”

Leena laughed and said, “I was never very religious, unless you count trying to stay young and beautiful as a religion. If you do, I was a religious fanatic.”

“As I told all y’all before,” replied Dan, “you got to be careful with what you say. The demons are always listening, and they use what they know against you.”

“They haven’t used anything against me yet,” she said. “Nor Nick. Becky claims she saw her husband’s spirit once. I know they were going hard at Ace. Dotty and Chet saw some stuff in the beginning. Chet is actually disappointed he hasn’t seen more. He’s such a strange boy.”

“Yeah,” said Dan, “he is. Good kid though. And smart as hell.”

Leena tilted her head to look at Dan. “Nice diversions but start spilling. I won’t take no for an answer.”

After some time, Dan complied. So, we would’ve got all his information anyways. He even told her about murdering his ex-wife and her father.

Not much was said after he finished all the blabbing. Well, a lot was, but repeating all that wussy blather will make me throw up in my mouth again.

I was hoping the two would fornicate or try to murder each other. They did neither, much to my chagrin. Bob and Az’ga’s too.

That conversation did give me an idea though. We could have the mortals sworn to our side spread rumors about Dan.

He would assume Nick or Leena blabbed their mouths and he’d hopefully kill one of them in retribution. Or both, if we got lucky.

As for everyone else, Dotty proved the most resilient of those dumb broads. She bounced back the fastest and started mothering everyone again.

Becky put on a brave face and continued being kind to everyone, but you could see the defeat in her eyes. It could’ve been lust or sadness or murderous intent or some other strong emotion too. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m not that great at deciphering the emotions of mortals.

Leena continued progressing along, just a lot more slowly. Not as much as I assumed considering that Trait, but her effort increased too.

Nick continued to be Nick, just less so.

Chet doubled down on his commitment to becoming overpowered.

And everyone continued to grind and ascend.

Three different shitheads were added to their five-man party at various points, but these additions always died, so they stopped inviting people to fill that sixth slot. They’d just invite a proven participant for solo runs or grinds.

And you’ll see how they addressed their lack of heals in a moment.

As I said, that first wave was about three months ago. We couldn’t really afford to mess with Dan much besides keeping those ghosts on him. It was just waiting for the next big push to drive him mad or kill him.

The subsequent monster waves weren’t much of an issue. They just had the fourth wave about five days ago now.

Dan was a grinding machine. When he finished his allotted time in the Sanctuary of Revelations, he had an SS++++ Soul. Or SS for us. He switched to a 7-Star Class but didn’t level up.

I think he was hoping to gain another step. If so, he never did.

He ran Trials like a beast, helping his friends and anyone else that showed a little promise by handing out beast cores, Orbments, Foundations, Orbment Fragments, and advice.

Everyone knew the weirdo Dan. The guy that knew shit he shouldn’t. Maybe no one hated him for getting the day and time of the first wave so wrong because he gave out so much treasure.

[Or they assumed he got that information from the Profile Reader the same as everyone else.]

Not the time! He said it’d be at night! He was way off with that. The wave came pretty early in the morning. But point taken.

Anyway, I think he realized an 8-Star Soul wasn’t in the cards for him. That sounds crazy to say, doesn’t it? He had achieved a 7-Star Soul, something none of us had ever previously seen before.

He had really great gains otherwise. He applied all the SS rewards he hadn’t taken and leveled up in his strange way.

[Wait. You skipped so much, are you sure you didn’t miss anything important?]

Acesso LaBlacky is confident. I’m trying to get to the next great part. The greatest part. You’ll love it. I’m certain you’ll stand and slow clap with watery eyes.

[In all that time, nothing else of note happened? Only that one conversation with Leena was noteworthy?]

Yes.

[You’re sure nothing important happened?]

Nope. Nothing worth the time it’d take to tell. Just make-me-throw-up-in-my-mouth-a-little drivel.

[I disagree. Tell me a conversation he had with Nick.]

But the time!

[Do as ordered.]

Jeez. You got it, Boss. Since you asked so nicely, you shall receive. Let me think for a minute.

.

.

.

Okay. I think I got it.

Nick said to Dan, “You had me at hello.”

Dan said, “You complete me.”

Nick said, “I just can’t quit you,” and then they put their mouth orifices together and started kissing. That led to fornicating. Nick is pregnant now.

[Stop. That didn’t happen.]

You got me. It didn’t. I couldn’t think of a fitting ‘Over the Top’ quote to use either. Seriously though, I can’t think of anything worth the time to explain. Not between Dan and Nick.

[I told…]

One second! I got an okay one with Dan and Chet.

This happened over a month ago. They were training together, and Chet quit in frustration.

“I’ll never be good at this,” whined out Chet. He flexed an arm and said, “See? Look at how small my arms are still. I’m just not built for this.”

Dan said, “This is just to shore up your weaknesses. I heard you a beast in Trials. I seen you a little during the monster wave we just had too. You’re doing fine. More than fine. I reckon you’ll get there with this physical stuff. Just takes time, is all. I ain’t a big guy neither.”

Chet sighed and said, “You’re way taller and bigger than I am.”

“And Hector’s way taller and bigger than me. When I go to the last area, I reckon they’ll face me against him in the arena. You’ll see size don’t always matter. I’m fixing to tear his head off.”

“You’re going to level up first, right?”

“Naw. Don’t need to. You’ll see.”

At the time, we thought he really wasn’t going to level up. Fat, lying prick.

They continued to sit together in silence. Chet asked, “Have you seen any girls around my age in any of the other areas?”

“Why? Giving up on Leena?”

Chet sighed again. “I love her, but she asked me to stop thinking of her in that way. After what she let Hector do to her to save me, I feel I owe her that. But my heart disagrees. Becky’s a lost cause too. All the girls I know just see me as a kid still.”

“I reckon you’re doing the right thing, respecting Leena’s wishes and all. What about that one girl? The one I seen you talking to in the castle?”

“Oh, her? She told me she was a lesbian but I’m almost certain she lied to me.”

“Why’s that?”

“She has a boyfriend now,” said Chet, sighing again.

And more wussy blah blah. Sorry, that’s the best I got. Time’s ticking and we’re getting to the important stuff.

Back to Dan leveling up.

Oh, I should mention we did the rumor thing I talked about earlier. Or Mystozagan did. He had those working for us spread rumors that Dan murdered his wife and kid.

Nothing much came of it. No one seemed to care.

Only Nick asked Dan anything about the rumors. He asked if it was true about Marisol, and Dan said, “Yeah.”

Nick said, “Guess she had it coming.”

And that was it. Dan didn’t even ask Nick or Leena if they were responsible for the rumors.

As I said before, they can’t all be brilliant ideas.

Okay, now we’re really back to Dan leveling up. It took him more than four days to finish.

[What?]

Yes.

[Why?]

You’ll see.

Keep your eye out for some suspicious items on his status. Remember, he didn’t get the last Trait token yet.

[I detest these stupid games of yours. Review what SS rewards he applied again.]

Sure. An enhancer for both Durability and Health. The Trial of Death gave a point to either Durability, Health, or Spirit. He selected Health for that, bringing that up by a total of 2.

He had Step-Enhancers for Mana, Reaction, and Agility. He had already applied those 10 Stat points too, the 3, 3, and the 4 he got as SS rewards that I mentioned he already applied before.

Oh, and one Crown Orbment Foundation. Jeez, I can’t believe how often I say ‘oh.’ It’s a lot, isn’t it?

[I haven’t noticed.]

Well, I have. Don’t blame me though. Blame Bob.