As they kept walking – Alain, Ur, and Brian at the forefront – the bickering behind them started to fade out to nothing. That was a good indication they were getting closer.

Following the butler and Ur’s steps, Brian’s brain burned. He felt a tangible twinge of uneasiness phase through him. The young man’s wristbands pressed uncomfortably against his skin – he hadn't had the time to figure out what was going on as the sensation abated as quick as it came. Indomitable human Spirit pinged him, confirming he hadn’t imagined it. Someone had just used a detection Skill, he knew that feeling. Although, the fact that his brain wasn’t overheating meant there was no harm behind the intention. He hurried on forward, increasing his pace.

Indeed, after some time, even the heavy gait of the big fellow had stopped. Brian closed the distance as he’d rather stay close to people he was familiar with than to what he presumed were other guards behind him.

“Sir Brian, please don’t feel concerned, and behave like you normally would. Our king is not so–” Alain had already knocked. The sound reverberated through his bones as he stood there, shoeless.

“No time for bickering. Let us go in. I’m sure you cannot wait as well.”

The door opened from the inside as a gust of wind blasted against his face, tickling his visage.

Whispers and gossip frolicked in the air, high above them. So much for a private audit. Shadows flickered in Brian’s eyes as they advanced, light sources hitting him from all over the room. The tiled floor was refreshing to the touch, cooling his agonizing thoughts. After a moment, the entourage stopped on what seemed to be soft fur – this time he wouldn’t need to worry about spearing the carpet with his talons.

The discord above intensified… he truly felt out of place. “Your Majesty, we have arrived. We eagerly await your instructions.” Alain’s voice resounded from slightly lower than usual, indicating he had bowed. Brian awkwardly followed suit, seeing the butler would’ve been helpful, but he was familiar with submission stances. His eyes tuned out the light as he looked down. Darkness once more hugged him.

A deafening smacking sound echoed from just ahead. Sudden and whip-like, it took him all he had to not jump back as Brian’s head snapped up. They’re high up. The bickering in the room ceased to exist. By the reverberation of the sound through the room, it had to be at least as big as a football field… which was completely unnecessary for a guest room – not to mention unmanageable.

Palpable tension formed in the air, and as he lowered his head again, that crushing feeling intensified. His skill alerted him but didn’t try to fight it back. Tap.

No one said a thing. Was he supposed to speak now? Brian’s thoughts whirred as he felt his bald head heat up. Tap. Tap. Was the king waiting for his answer, or just thinking?

“Hi, uh… hello.” He cringed at his own choice of words. A hand gently pressed on his shoulder from his bowed form. He got the memo to shut up. Social hierarchy was hard, it was a miracle he still remembered how to do it. He reminded himself he wasn’t in a world where the one who ate the opposing rival’s face the quickest ruled until they got their face bitten off.

Right. Customs.

That was a much simpler life, he mused, you just needed to have the power, although… personal strength wasn’t everything.

Weakened as he was, his knees were beginning to buckle under the strain of his weight under the awkward pose. He could feel the tight dress tickling his achilles tendons. Brian just hoped no one would notice his bloody and torn dress. It was red on red, so maybe…

Nah, they were probably staring at him like a lab rat – his right shoulder strap was hanging by a thread.

“Mmm…”

Just when his legs were about to snap, Alain’s voice intervened to his aid.

“Your majesty, as the –'' Honestly, Brian tuned out to the conversation for a moment, the butler’s tone again sounded up from above, so he stretched his crackling knees back up. The young man remained in a hunched posture, ready for anything that could throw him off balance.

Again, he felt that grip on his being. It was becoming increasingly obvious to know that someone was focusing their attention on him – and also annoying. Was it perhaps some kind of Skill pushing down on him, making him behave differently? Or maybe soothing his actions to be more agreeable? Could something like this be possible? Ur had definitely used his own powers outside of his body to heal him. Brian didn’t feel any different. He was confident Indomitable Human Spirit would detect the opposing threat and squish it under its metaphorical boots.

The young man figured it would be a good time to listen up again, and this time Ur was the one speaking. His soothing voice carried his words through the room.

“ –ppreciate it. Thank you, Alain.” As if hung by a cord, Brian’s head snapped up. He could feel a gaze creeping down on him. The hairs at the base of his neck straightened, pushing uselessly against the thin collar of the red dress.

A kind of hum. Then, a voice.

“Brian Spencer.” The goosebumps on his nape intensified. Something just didn’t sit right with him. Ur had clearly relayed his status to the king – that included his information pertaining to his credentials – but it still felt strange to be called with your name when you didn’t know the opposing party yourself. “First of all, let me tell you that I am grateful for your acceptance of this invitation, truthfully, this will be brief, as nothing of this had been planned in advance, and I have other matters to attend to.” The king’s voice carried a tangible feeling of power. More than Esenaji, Ur, or Alain. More even than that icy sculpture. It was a tangible feeling he could almost taste with his tongue. “My name is Yidogui Bethany. It means withering beauty in my tongue. As you can see, only one part of that holds true at this age.” His gentle laugh bellowed out as he spoke again. Brian’s entire attention was honed on him. He’s like the Chief…

Yitougi, what a strange name.

The young man’s posture couldn’t help but straighten slightly, although he was permanently bound to have a hunch on his back, a bit of dignity didn’t hurt anyone.

Oh, who was he kidding, he had lost that long ago, dignity didn’t feed you when you were starving.

His voice was rough, as if talking itself demanded great attention. “If that is alright with you, I shall ask you some questions before we depart. Nothing personal, I do not desire to know about your personal life. Everyone has its secrets. I only have to confirm something – I’m sure you’re aware of what you mean with that – with my own eyes.” He stopped talking. He sipped on something. “Good tea. Could you please show me your Status screen in full?”

Brian did so after a brief moment of hesitation. Again, the room fell in silence. The man in front of him had the leisureliness of someone talking with their lover. Not too harsh, nor too gentle.

The silence only hung for a couple of moments.

“This is… astounding. I was briefly informed about your – no. No. I watched your fight, too many times at that.” Another sip. “Was anything you just showed me – I’m talking about your status screen – falsified in any way, shape, or form? Or did you alter its properties, rendering it the absolute truth for mere moments? Please do not lie, as I will latch on to it with my Echo. If you can… try to keep your answers to a simple yes or no.”

“Uh. No. Is… such a thing possible?”

Yitougi’s voice returned, even gentler. “Child, because that is what you are – what a wonderful thing to be. The answer to your question is both a yes and a no, but I understand. As we’ve found, Pioneers such as yourself – heroes at the top of your species – do not hold the same restrictions that we do. This is most evident from the appearance of your Racial skills on top of the Natural ones. We are restricted only to their natural counterparts. They are not present in our interface.” His voice sharpened. “Although, that does not make us weaker or inferior.” Brian immediately believed his words. A being like this would have been able to wipe everyone in the Pits in less than a year. “Thank you for your question. You may ask me for one in return. As you didn’t know of my behavior, your previous one does not count.”

The sipping sound was becoming routine at this point. He seemed in total control of the conversation as Brian felt out of his element.

Afraid of losing his chance, he settled for a statement instead of a question. “Uh, your Highn – your Majesty, I’d rather – if that’s alright with you – keep my questions to a later date…if it’s not too troubling.”

The room reverberated in genuine laughter. “You are playing the smart game. Yister.”

“Yes, your Majesty!” An eager feminine voice sounded near the vicinity of the king. Brian regretted not having sight. He hadn’t felt her breathing before.

“As I probably won’t be remembering this, please remind me of the number of questions our guest has asked since the start of the meeting. I’ll find a hole in my itinerary to clear his mind, or his doubts. It has to be sooner rather than later.”

“Yes, your Majesty!” The king sighed and started tapping again. “Then… let’s get straight to the point, I’m sure the suppression bracelets are as uncomfortable as I remember them to be.” Again, he felt that pressure surrounding him, but this time it was less overbearing.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Brian wasn’t going to withhold his knowledge from him. He wasn’t sure he could even keep a straight face without his Skill. More than anything, he didn’t want to keep secrets from the man. Tranquility bathed his skin from within.

King Yidogui’s next question caught him off guard. “Is the color blue your butler’s son-in-law? Please answer with a lie.”

What? “Yes...” This time the pulse tightened his body, stiffening his already weak limbs. Spit formed in Brian’s gullet as his fingers twitched. Vomit was the next to surge up, but as he was reaching his breaking point, the pressure abated. His cheeks bulged, containing bile.

“It is indeed working as intended. Good.. “ Another pause ensued as he sipped the last of his tea as a refilling sound could be heard. The king seemed to take his time a lot. “Are you aware of the rarity of the level of the skills you possess?” Was it a tricky question? He was aware of them, as Alain had explained them to him by now, although he was just a clueless bum a few hours ago, working only by estimated guesses.

Brian swallowed the bile back as it traveled his esophagus. He was familiar with its tartness and rank – it was almost pleasant.

“It seemed my question was foolish. Lucky for you, no? You have another question in your arsenal, now.” Did he do it on purpose? Brian hadn’t even answered yet, but wasn’t going to complain.

He heard scribbling, and then another question was posed to him. It really was an interrogation veiled as a regular conversation at this point.

“Is your body, mind, or soul, that of a human being?”

Well, that was definitely strange. Was he trying to figure out if he was a spy or something else? Maybe one of those shapeshifting monsters he heard from Alain? It was true that he was beginning to see his Skills in a different light, and there was the matter of the Tutorial plaguing his mind. But that could wait.

A cough sounded from his right, which he recognized as Alain’s, and the old man immediately apologized out loud for doing so. Brian was reminded that he wasn't the only one with the king in there. He got the clue to speak.

Oh right, he should also blink sometimes.

“Yes. I am a human being.” Another beat around his body.

That got a chuckle out of the man. “Excellent. I must apologize for the rudeness, that must’ve been a bizarre question from your perspective. I too would doubt the sanity of the man who asked me if I really was a Gaian if such a thing ever happened.”

He clapped his hands.

“Truly excellent. Then, the last questions. Please continue to answer in the most straightforward way you can – you’re doing great. Were you aware of our presence, or of anything related to Gaians before being called here in this world? And… Do you hold any kind of animosity, hatred, or feelings about us Gaians, toward individuals or groups?”

This really was the easiest interrogation in the history of mankind, he thought. Breezing through it without even thinking about it, Brian answered, tongue still tasting his puke. “No.”

Another pulse. As he said nothing, Brian’s restlessness grew, and his mouth again traveled quicker than his thoughts.

“How can I learn a skill like that?” He heard the first part of a shout before it was immediately cut as if nothing happened.

“Young Brian, that’s one question down for later.” He chuckled. “This is not a Skill. It is a property of my aura, you’ll learn about Echo soon enough, I’m sure. I can satiate your curiosity, but this must wait for later. What was troubling my mind earlier has been solved. I must thank you. ”Something creaked. “Bitterly as it is, my Echo is one of the reasons as to why I'm sitting on this throne.” A deep sigh. “Unfortunately, it is not something that’s replicable. I was born with it. I have it,and so do my children.” The lights in the room dimmed, flickering out. “Brian Spencer, as of now, I’m talking to you not as the king and ruler of the whole Red Line, but as a peer. Before I go, I’d like to hear your story, if that’s okay.”

“Um. All… right.”

***

Damp, squelching feces squished under Brian’s feet to muffle his steps in tunnel number thirty-two. His new temporary home looked lovely as the other ones before it. He placed an ear on the rough wall near the opening to the small chamber. No sound. No breaths. He sliced open his earlobe as fresh blood trailed down his fingers. He threw the droplets in the chamber ahead, and waited as his back pressed uncomfortably against the dark corals that were the walls.

As nothing stormed out to attack him, he entered the dark room. A spongy carpet of moss stained by shit and urine oozed its contents on his feet. Two steps ahead, five on his right, and there it was, the alcove he had dug for the past month. Only small enough for him to cover his body. He climbed up, some two or three times his height, until he was wedged in the tiny hole. Jagged pieces of rock croaked under the strain, flaking off like dead skin.

Not a minute later, they threw themselves in the room.

Brutish and ugly, bulbous and misshaped, these were the lowest pieces of trash in the Pits. Miserable beings. Sacrifice, bait. His pupils dilated to take in the light, faint as it was.

His daughter was there in the midst. She had sold him out.

He’d need to kill her sooner than expected, then.

They approached the hole from underneath. Brian’s body went as still as the piece of rocks he lay in. They searched under the moss, looked around the room, but couldn’t find him. They quietly gestured in their sign language. Mmm. So they do have a tracker.

That makes it all easier!

His right hand threw one of the pieces of coral he had dislodged from the wall like a projectile at the monster’s skull below. He knew the blow struck true before he even had the chance to look at it. His thighs tensed but he didn't move… there. They were screaming now, frantically pacing around the room, looking for the culprit. They looked above, too, but every time they did Brian retreated a bit in the hole, and with the absence of light he might as well have been made of smoke. He could faintly see them. All they could see was silent death.

As he had expected, one of the stupid ones approached squirming bloody sack on the ground. Another rock, and he went down as well, on top of the other one. He was out of projectiles now.

Now that he had a soft patch of ground to descend and not slice his feet open on the jagged protrusions below, he stealthily stepped down, careful to walk on their back and bellies, as there was more surface area. Their cold skin threatened to rupture open, but his meager weight made it manageable. Some had left the room and were looking around the corridors. In the meanwhile, other goblins were in the room, searching again for the new sound. Not having Brian’s senses meant only death. Those didn’t last long. Brian lunged at a goblin, it sensed a change in airflow, and dodged – this was the tracker – his fingers barely managed to grip its cheek. It squealed like a pig, and brian lobotomized it with his left hand, clawing up the left eye socket, and scrambled around in its brain. It fell on the ground with another audible quench. His fingers were rooted so deep in his eye socket it took a bit of pull to take them out. Broken. They bent at a weird angle, but they’d heal in a few days.

Some of the monsters had already fled, running to alert their chief. Brian couldn’t hear anyone. They were all gone. He sucked his blood out of his fingers and approached the squirming mass of meat on the ground over his companion. He was the chubbiest one.

As he bit into its flesh, his eyes bent into crescent moons. It was still unconscious. He slit its throat for good measure as his fangs stripped pieces of its muscles.

“... toku’un…” Would you look at that? Brian’s head had snapped to the left, using the now detached head as a shield, but it seemed his fears were unfounded. The goblin he had blinded was looking at him from the ground, head pushed low. His only functioning eye bore into him. He can see me in the dark?

The suffix “un” indicated family. He approached the pathetic tracker and started eating his father – or son – in front of him. How pleasant to the eyes was to see fiery emotion on display in front of him. It was just like a theater, two puppets dancing just for him. The others would return, he was sure of it. It would take a while until they reached the Chief and back. Brian could take his time.

A twisted idea polluted his mind, and he gave in to his desires, he turned the dripping head so it was facing him – dent in its skull from the rock – and passionately kissed it in front of his only dying spectator. The taste of sewer filled his nose as snot bubbles burst in their mouths and nostrils, popping. His thoughts churned in his head as his tongue found the other’s and hooked it. Bah. Dead goblins aren’t good kissers.

The spiky tongue came off along with a piece of the lips as he bit all of it off, blood gushed out and painted his face red like lipstick. The goblin below looked at him with a single, functioning trembling pupil as blood continued pooling out of his other eye socket like red rain. His wheezing breaths sounded like high pitched whistles as his chest slowly stopped moving. He would die in a few moments.

The young man straightened his hunched back as best as he could.

He yearned for fish.

Brian’s new smile threatened to deform the eyes above.

It was time to hunt down a mermaid after a while.

***

His skill pinged him through the confines of his skull as Brian recounted a piece of his story in the tutorial. He omitted the most gruesome moments he was… forced to partake in to not kill himself due to the agony, but it’ll have to do.

He told Yidogui about the goblins, the mermaids, about his human loneliness. How he spent 10 years chained there, with no way out.

He had probably disclosed a bit too much, but it felt good.

To his surprise, the king’s voice was as agreeable as ever. Huh? Was that how the tutorial was supposed to be, after all?

“T-Thank you. I will savor it once I’m in my private quarters. Brian.” He stood a bit straighter as he heard his name. “To find a suitable teacher, may I know from you where your talents lay in?”

Right. Alain wasn’t the one being assigned to him for everything. The wrist shackles were starting to get annoying, so he’d rather take them off. As that’s all he really knew how to do, Brain almost uttered the word “Survival.” Then he stopped to ponder the decision. What was he good at? He turned his head on his right, where Alain stood, but all he could see was black.

Eating. Sleeping. Ambushing. Hunting, hiding, and tracking. Put a sprinkle of torture in and he was set. Yeah, that seemed appropriate.

“Warfare.”

“Warfare.” The ugly word rolled beautifully out the king’s tongue. “Then, how about this… would you be willing to show me your – what you learned in the tutorial in a friendly bout in a few hours? I’m afraid I’m already running late. I’ll come to referee your match.” This time the whispers above intensified again. They reminded him of the voices inside his head during his first few years there – always ready to blurt out incomprehensible jabber.

A thought birthed in Brian. Would his life get significantly easier if he accepted – and if he won? If he could, certainly. That was bound to make him popular. If he was going to push forward, he needed influence.

Brian nodded furiously, his head bobbing up and down along with his thin earrings. “I’d like to choose the grounds of the bout, if it is allowed.”

If he won – indeed. His life would definitely get easier. His Skill overheated his brain again and washed him with calmness. Tri–

“Insolence!” A voice boomed from ever further behind the king. A mighty meaty slap sounded immediately, but the voice sounded again.

Brian thought he had already heard this voice before, in this room.

“Father, I'll be his opponent! Please, let me teach him a lesson!”