[Tortured Soul: You have tasted the disgust that comes with having your soul defiled, however, you were lucky and came out unharmed. Maybe even stronger than before. +2 Mind.]

Not the best time for a notification, but I don’t have a choice but to take it, I need all the stats I can get my hands on. At least my Mind seems to want to stay about level with my Might at eleven. My Agility though… still at a measly five. Anyway, I have to refocus.

“The 'Champion War’?” I asked. I had dropped most of the aggression in my voice. Don’t get me wrong I was still unhappy with the man, but that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. If I yelled and screamed at him now, I would probably end up brushed aside, left alone in the dark again. I had no choice.

The old man looked up at me again, furrowing his brow in suspicion.

“Shouldn’t you know this?” A little bit of spite leaked into his voice.

“You mean the bunch of people sent from my world over here?” I asked, I was being genuine. Right now, I was regretting not having listened to the God when he was doing his speech. But, whenever I tried to remember, I could only pull up memories of the pain in my head and confusion.

At my words the old man looked at me in disbelief, an eyebrow raising to accompany.

“You’re telling me that you don’t know? Honestly?” He didn’t seem to know what to make of this. I’m not sure what it was that he expected from me, but I obviously wasn’t up to par.

“No! I mean, I think I know what you are getting at, but only through context. I was probably told at some point, but I don’t think I was listening, or that I could listen. I had a massive headache, still do.” I blurted, flustered by the expectations that he had on me, temples still pulsing with pain again. But now it just seemed like he thought I was stupid. He had that look on his face, as if he were talking to a child. Well, I kind of was in comparison to him, I guess.

“Don’t look at me like that! Any normal person would be despondent like I was when they were suddenly teleported into a massive white room. Not to mention being talked at by a dude calling himself God! Saying stuff like, ‘You are all part of a test and-’," I stopped speaking for a moment, almost shocked by what I had remembered.

“Oh. That’s not good.” The old man looked at me curiously for a moment, then his brow furrowed in thought. I could almost see the cogs turning in his head, while he appraised me.

“You really didn’t know, did you?” I shook my head, a questioning look on my face.

“Should I have?” I said. I know that it was stupid that I didn’t take this all in whilst I was in the room with the God. But I was in pain and bewildered. Was it really all that strange, especially when in that sort of situation?

“If you were the same as the rest of that group, " He said with some acid, "At least you are reacting normally to having your soul messed with. Headaches and brain fog are usually the least of the concerns when playing around with souls.” He said. I don’t know if he was being deliberately vague, or was just lost in his own thoughts, so I decided to take the plunge.

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“Alright man, I’m not sure what you are trying to get at here, but I really need a place to stay, somewhere safer than out here. You can question me all you want if you can give me a place to stay and preferably a bed to sleep in along with it.” I looked at him. I tried not to sound like I was pleading, but it was probably so obvious that it hurt to look at. The man’s face stayed still, almost as if he didn’t hear me in the first place. You wouldn’t be able to tell at all if you didn’t notice the tiny movements of his eyelids. A small tell-tale, but one nonetheless.

The old man took a while before he spoke again, only adding layer upon layer of insecurity to the pile of anxiousness that was my mind right now.

“Fine.” The old man said, staring into my eyes for a moment. I was overjoyed, finally securing a place to sleep was a glorious feeling, especially after the day I’ve had. However, he quickly turned and started walking at a brisk pace. A pace that was far too fast for my tired legs, at least with me dragging the stupid hammer behind me

But I didn’t have a choice, I just had to suck it up and start walking. I hefted the massive shaft of the hammer and started to pull, desperately forcing my legs to push forward to keep pace with the old man’s footsteps.

I had only moved a few paces before the old man turned to look at where all the noise was coming from, which was my hammer being dragged behind me. He looked at me funnily, almost as if I were a court jester.

“You can put the hammer away, kid. I’m not going to attack you, not like you could do anything if I did anyways.” He said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips as I stared, dumbfounded.

“Put it away? What do you mean?” Then the man froze.

“I mean unsummon the thing.” His left eyebrow reaching an all-time high.

“W-wait. I can unsummon it?” I said, disbelief washed over me, shortly before a tidal wave of shame hit me, knocking me to my knees. Oh my God. I’m actually an idiot. The greatest idiot that ever was. My head screamed in sadistic, gleeful laughter, like a villain cackling after a completed evil invention.

The old man looked at me, with my hands covering my face and back to the humongous hammer that laid in the dirt behind me. Then he connected the all the dots, his eyes lighting up brilliantly with humour.

“Wait, you’ve been dragging that massive thing around the whole time?” He giggled slightly, before waiting slightly, baiting out an answer.

“...Yeah.”

There was a moment of silence before a roar of laughter so loud that it hurt my ears came from the old man. I thought I knew shame, but this was on another level. Why the hell didn’t I think of that? It’s so simple, if you can summon it, you can unsummon it. It was simple stuff, but in my hubris and brain-fog, I had completely forgotten myself.

The pain of my body only served to deepen my shame. It was as if my body itself was lambasting me for my idiocy, whilst the roaring laughter of the old man continued on for minutes. He only stopped to catch his breath before continuing.

After what seemed like half an hour, the old man’s roaring laughter managed to taper off into the occasional uncontrollable giggle. After a while he patted me solidly on the shoulder, while chuckling.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in my entire gods-damned life,” he paused to giggle a bit more, “Come on, unsummon your Soul Weapon and I’ll bring you back to my place for the night. If I wasn’t sure you weren’t like the rest of you are, then I’d be damned sure now.” He punctuated his comment with a short giggle and started to walk again, albeit at a much more casual pace.

I removed my hands from my face and placed a hand on my hammer. From there it was only a thought and the massive hammer once again returned to the strange liquid metal state that it had been when I first Summoned it. It leaked into the hand that was touching it like water down the drain of a bathtub.

I sighed, then got to my feet and started to walk after the old man, following the warm light of the little ball of fire in his palm.

God damnit I was an idiot.