The family of three and Rose's close friend Vanessa had played games from noon late until the evening when Rose had gotten tired and shooed everyone out so she could sleep.

Just before Daz had left, however, she had told him something very important.

"Tomorrow."

"What?"

"That's when I'll level up Full Boost, my esper power. I can feel it. I've been trying my best to hold back the awakening for months now, but I can't stop it anymore."

"... Your esper power, huh?... Does Maddy know?"

"No. I considered having her help me with her healing powers, but I think her heart would break if she saw me screaming and clawing at my bed like a madwoman."

"Fair. I trust you made other arrangements? I don't have a single ability to heal, not unless you want me to keep Rimmy's main body within 30-feet of you, though I suspect you'll need more direct assistance since you don't have a bloodline, right?"

"Yeah. I found someone else willing to help."

"Good. I'm kinda scared, in all honesty."

"You, the big bad king of New Earth, the recently emotionless son of a world-leading esper and the heir to said esper family, is scared? I'm sure I'll be fine."

"I'm not scared of you dying, I'm scared of you getting smarter. You're already too big for your boots as it is."

"Hey, don't pet me like I'm a dog! Shoo, shoo!"

"Haha, good night, Rose. I love you."

"I love you too, you idiot..."

Daz couldn't help grinning upon recalling the conversation as he sat in his workshop. He had told Madison to go to sleep without him since he would be busy tonight.

His goal in staying up and not visiting Cecil in the dreamscape today was to hopefully learn how to manipulate his internal energy.

Daz would be lying if he said that he also wasn't hopeful of gaining an Ember since anything of permanence would help him greatly against the Truthians up in New York, but for now, internal energy and how to move it was his main goal today since he wanted to help Rose as much as possible during her awakening.

"Thing is, how do I even sense my internal energy?" Daz asked himself.

He glanced up at the rim of his halo only to see a pair of feet dangling over it. "Reika, any ideas?"

'Huh? No. We did not have esper ability on our homeworld. The concept is as new to us as it is to you,' Reika answered lazily.

"Hmm..." Daz tapped the skull on Hamson that represented Mofolo, summoning the soul.

'Do you need something from me, Child of Man?' Mofolo asked in a respectful tone as he appeared like a genie out of a lamp.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about internal energy or esper powers. I need to learn how to manipulate internal energy as soon as possible," Daz explained.

Mofolo held his chin as his large astral body floated there in the middle of the reaper's workshop. 'I am unsure, in truth. I have thought over this matter for some time since learning of these mysterious powers, Child of Man, however, everything that I have learned from following you thus far would suggest that my empire fell long before the Children of Men gained such strange abilities. My apologies. I wish I could be of more help.'

Daz shook his head. "I can't fault you for not knowing something that you had no reason to know."

Reika yawned despite being a soul as she readjusted herself on Daz's halo. 'Didn't you feel a lot of that 'internal energy' when your father helped you during the auction? Maybe you should remember how that felt and go from there.'

Daz frowned. "That's... that's actually a pretty good idea, though I really don't like thinking about him even if to better myself."

'Then stop complaining and get to meditating or whatever, Insolent Fool,' Reika said with plenty of cheek.

"... Have you been hanging around Rose or something? To be spoken to like that by someone who I've promised to help bring back to life... I guess gratitude is dead as well, huh?" That flustered the little demon princess, resulting in a laugh from Daz.

Not long after, he chose to take the soul's advice and he filled his mind with the scene from the auction.

He sat there for at least 30-minutes trying to glean some insight from the memory but Daz was never very creative, so despite how hard he tried, he just couldn't properly mentally recreate the interaction with his father. At least, he couldn't gain anything from what his mind was capable of.

"I have a great memory, so I wonder what's the issue here? Is it my imagination? It's only at times like this that I regret abandoning the Ingenuity stat... It helped a lot with crafting too," Daz sighed.

"Well, it really is a brilliant idea. I can't just give up on it because I'm shit at immersing myself in my own mind. System, can I buy something that'll help me out here?" Daz asked.

Confirmed. 23,203,189 such skills exist, 427,440 of which are restricted to species of which the host is not. 1,450,100,239 such items exist, 123,300,783 of which require certain specifications to be met for the host to view them.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Well, that's a good sign. System, can you please narrow it down to just items. I don't want to waste a skill slot on this. Also, it can be a 1-time use item that only shows a specific memory. Ideally, though, I'd like to be able to actually relive the memory. I want to feel everything that I felt when it happened," Daz said.

Confirmed. 204,042,023 such items exist, 53,300 of which require certain specifications to be met for the host to view them.

"Now we're getting somewhere. System, narrow it further to only mass-produced items and only ones that cost 100,000 merit points or less," Daz added.

Confirmed. 19,020 such items exist.

"Oh, nice. That knocked off all of the extra requirement ones. Final filter, System. Please remove all items that have negative side-effects, temporary or permanent," Daz said.

Confirmed. 559 such items exist.

"Fantastic, I'll purchase the cheapest one, and yes, I confirm," Daz happily said. At this point, he'd gotten rather good at quickly searching for and finding whatever he needed when it came to the system's shop.

Having above ruby-level access definitely expedited the process a lot. The system factored in what it was he was actually looking for on top of what he had told it, which helped a great deal with the whole human error aspect of it all.

Confirmed. The host has successfully purchased a [Lowest Grade Memory Induction Pill (Kalhopstocic Brand)].

The total merit balance of the host is now: 243,996,647 [-25,000].

As evidenced by the additional 40-million merit points in Daz's balance, another Monday had come and gone during the past 3-days.

His current account at the bank now held 12 merit stars while his savings account contained over 320-million merit points, however, he was still only ranked second in the merit ranking list. He didn't know exactly how much money his father had and he was too proud to ask Rose, which kind of irked him.

Regardless, a suspicious-looking pill appeared on the top of Daz's palm after a short burst of light. "... This looks more like a poison pill than one to relive a memory. I guess some things had to be compromised to make it not come with side-effects and still be affordable. Still, I wonder how it was made?"

He didn't really care if such a cheap product that came with no drawbacks was created immorally. As far as he was concerned, he needed it, it existed, he could afford it, and thus, he bought it.

"Well, here goes nothing," Daz said as he shoved the marble-sized pill into his mouth then briskly swallowed it after giving it a good crunch.

----------------------------------------

"What...?" Daz felt himself muttering.

He was back in the Grand System Auction and he could see both his father and the strange octopus host, Pheldorapod.

He wasn't in control of his body nor his voice, but he could feel everything perfectly. His head was throbbing violently and his heart was shaking with fear.

'This is... certainly something,' Daz thought as he watched his father approach him and stretch his arms out. 'I never thought I'd experience this again...'

"Rimmy, crush him!"

"Rimmy!"

Like a perfectly performed play, everything that had occurred originally happened once more. Daz could feel the sense of dread and the overwhelming panic consuming him but he tried his best to ignore it. He needed to be focused right now.

"Well, I can't exactly avoid all of those, now can I?" Again Daz was able to witness his father's second esper power, Shift Locking.

'Now that I understand it, it's a lot less frightening... I still have no way to deal with it or his stronger instincts, but just knowing why my attacks didn't hit him really makes him a lot less intimidating,' Daz thought.

"Why don't you find out, Darenzo?" The look of omniscience on his father's expression as he perfectly read his original confusion and thoughts at that moment annoyed Daz. "I do not mind if you look at my status and my skills. In fact, I encourage it."

'I really should have taken him up on that offer. I had The Crystal Digger's Master Identification at that point already. Worst-case scenario, he blocks it with another Master Identification variant and I learn about that. God, I was a fool for thinking he was playing a mind game with me,' Daz lamented.

"Clone One, Clone Two, kill him."

'What an idiot. I should have fished for information. It's clear as day now that Father had no intentions to harm me. I have no idea why he wanted me to win, but it was so obvious. Damn... The headache from awakening is no excuse. I was coherent enough to see this... I was too afraid. A mistake I won't make the next time we meet,' Daz declared internally.

"A shame. You are smart and confident, Darenzo, but you are too agitated right now to think wisely."

'For the first time in my life, I agree with you, Father,' Daz thought mockingly.

"Get away from me..."

'Here we go. The important moment is coming.' Daz prepared himself to carefully analyse the sensation of his father's help. It was only a memory and he had enough sense to ignore the man hugging him, thankfully.

"Oh, Darenzo, Darenzo, Darenzo." Davido patted Daz's back softly as he smiled from ear-to-ear, just as he had remembered it.

"How proud you've made me. You're a perfect survivor, you're a perfect son, you're a perfect creation, but above all else, you're a perfect Hamilio."

'He definitely means something by 'Hamilio'... I can't quite put my finger on it, but he isn't just referring to our family name or to the esper bloodline, is he?' Daz had made an unexpected discovery. 'I never noticed that the first time around... Maybe level-4 of Survivor's Instincts was needed to pick up on his intent? Regardless, here it comes.' Daz cleared his mind as he waited.

"You have met my expectations and blown them out of the water, my son."

"You're handling the side-effects of your level-3 awakening expertly, but allow me to help you."

Daz immediately felt the rush of energy flowing into his entire being. He watched it carefully with every sense he had access to. He also made sure to firmly pay attention to his father to see exactly how he was transferring the energy.

'I... I think I got it? He's drawing his own energy from... his heart? He's moving it somehow from there to his lips then through my forehead... Now it's moving like a... snake? It's slithering through my body, though it's hard to sense since it's so thick... Just how much internal energy does he have?' Daz wondered.

"Continue being a perfect survivor, a perfect son, a perfect creation, and above all else, a perfect Hamilio."

That was all that Daz needed since his father was done helping him awaken, so he ended the memory.

Like a light had been turned off, everything went black. A moment later, Daz was back in his workshop sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Opening his eyes he saw a curious demon princess staring at him as she floated in front of his face upside down. 'Good. You're fine. We protected you while you were dreaming.'

"I wasn't dreaming, but thank you regardless," Daz replied with a warm smile.

He slowly stood up and stretched as a complex look overcame his expression. 'I think I can mimic what you did, Father. I still hate you, but I have to thank you for giving me this knowledge for free, so thanks. I appreciate it.'

"What time is it, System?" Daz asked.

Confirmed. The local time is currently: 11:52PM.

"Almost midnight, huh? Well, I've got some time to practice, at least," Daz said as he cracked his neck then got to work.