I woke up.

This was not my room.

Is this the Outpost Leader’s office? Why am I here?

Though the second I asked myself that question, all the memories from before I fell unconscious began pouring in. Did people die? How long was I asleep? And that word Vo…I didn’t finish that word. My flames…they were warning me. I shouldn’t say that word again. I was about to get up and rush outside, but I decided to stay seated for a moment. I needed to sort my thoughts out.

I fought a 5th Cycle Hobgoblin, then tens, or maybe even hundreds of 4th Cycle Hobgoblins attacked the Outpost. I had a really bad feeling about something, while I readied myself to defend from the front, then I heard screams, because they attacked from the rear.

I felt immensely angry and everything that was going, angrier than I’ve ever been before, and that feeling of absolute rage continued to grow once I leapt over the walls of the Outpost and witnessed the bodies of others on the floor.

Hobgoblins were attacking. Most of them had some sort of burn wounds on their bodies, some were dying after a few seconds and becoming ash, others were losing body parts as they attacked, but none of them gave up attacking despite the black fire eating them alive.

Richard and the others were wounded, Nate even appeared dead, and something about seeing all of this happened really drove me to the edge, and I don’t understand why. It makes sense to be angry at enemies attacking your allies, but my anger felt like it was more than that, deeper than that. Something else was at play here and I couldn’t understand it.

Then there was that voice…someone…or something…was calling out to me. And to add to the list of things I don’t understand, I listened to it. Why would I do that? Who listens to random mysterious voices calling out to them? Am I losing it? I don’t know. For some reason in that moment all I couldn’t help but thinking to myself that it felt okay to listen to the voice, that it wouldn’t harm me. Was I being mind controlled or something? Then it got worse from there because, not only did I listen to what the voice had to say, I actually repeated it. The V word my flames are warning me not to say at the moment.

Some random voice came into my head whispering things and I repeated what it had to say out loud, which of course had implications beyond just saying it out loud. My entire world went black, and everything became a sort of hazy daze. I don’t understand what that was and I don’t understand exactly what it did. Of course, that was all. The feeling of being watched. I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt it. With every bone in my body, I felt it. Something was watching me.

I don’t know what was watching me, but I know it for certain. And that thing…whatever it was, felt like family. What the hell does that even mean? How does something I can’t see, hear, touch, taste, or anything else for that matter feel like family? What the hell does it mean to feel like family? I don’t know but that’s the feeling I got. Which makes no sense whatsoever. There are only two people in this world who could likely ever give me that feeling and it’s my parents, yet I attended their funeral. I saw their lifeless bodies.

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They are no more.

So, it wasn’t one of them who was watching me. I am certain of that. If this was something I could control, maybe I would be more upset than confused that some alien presence gave me that feeling, but I cannot change that. This is not a battle I can fight at the moment, even if I wanted to. Something that’s more relevant to me at the moment, is the fact the Hobgoblins were able to survive my flames long enough to cause damage.

Of course this was something I’ve noticed for a while now.

The normal Goblins burned to ash almost instantly whenever they had the unfortunate chance to come in contact with my flames, but as I’ve done the same strategy with stronger Hobgoblins, they each could resist it slightly, and the stronger the Hobgoblin, the stronger resistance. And even though I’ve grown significantly in strength since I started this Tutorial, the strength of my flames has not grown with me.

Another thing I don’t fully understand.

What I do understand is that I’m not strong enough. People were hurt, some of them might’ve even died, who even knows if any of them are alive.

Sigh.

It all boils down to the same thing.

I need to get stronger.

I knew this already though so no need to dwell on it. Nothing has changed. Get strong enough to control my own life. That’s it.

Let’s move on.

“Are you done now?”

Hmm? When did he get in here.

“I am. Are they-”

“Stop, you will need to go check on that for yourself. Though here’s what I will tell you. You have been asleep for over a day. I’ve used measures to ensure the Outpost wasn’t attacked during this time, but that has repercussions of its own. The System does not want us to provide direct help, so once those measures are removed, the danger you face will increase once more.

“These are the consequences of your actions. These are the consequences of being weak, these are the consequences of not having the power to control the lives of others alongside your own. Remember young Infernal. If you are weak, then you have no rights in the face of the strong. The strong makes the rules, the strong breaks the rules, the strong backs the rules, the strong rule.

“There is no such thing as fairness, only who has the strongest fist. I don’t know what type of world you lived in before was like, but understand, the Multiverse is truly a ruthless place. There are people who destroy entire planets as a casual pastime, yet they remain untouched because they are strong. That is reality.”

I took in everything he said calmly. I know he did not have to explain these things to me, and part of me already knew the concept behind his statement. It’s been reinforced through the Tutorial. Be strong or you will live at the hands of the strong.

And life wasn’t fair? We all knew that. Sure, we didn’t have to worry about a random man waving a hand and wiping our planet away, but would life care if your car was hit by a drunk driver? Would life care if you failed your exams? Would life care if you spilled coffee on your clothes? No, it wouldn’t. Earthlings knew life wasn’t fair. Yet we persevered. And we will continue to do so. Before an Infernal I’m a man of Earth, and we never been the type to run when the going gets tough.

We are people who fought in more ways than one for generations of generations. Whether it was in the classroom, or perhaps the emergency room, and of course the battlefield. Regardless of the time and place, Earthlings have fought.

The indomitable human will or something.

I might’ve seen that on social media somewhere.

Anyway.

I took a deep breath, stood up and then looked towards the Outpost Leader.

“I will be cultivating to the 9th Cycle right now.”

The Outpost Leader looked towards me for a moment and simply nodded before speaking.

“You know the room.”

For some reason, he reminded of a proud dad at the moment. Weird.

Moving on, I headed to the room and prepared myself to break through. The dangers were already a lot currently, and he mentioned they will be increased. There was no use in going out there still in the 7th Cycle, just to have the same result repeat itself.

Right here right now, I will go from the 7th to the 9th Cycle.