63) Body building

I guess I didn’t need to be in a party to get the reward for destroying a Dungeon Core after all, or even do anything to destroy it myself.

It might be that I just had to be here to witness its destruction.

But in either case, five more points are five more points.

Hiram had the widest grin I had ever seen on him. Turning to me he began to laugh. “That was enough to get me to forth Harry, and a sweet new power.”

I stared. “... Congratulations? Can we go find the exit now?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Since we don’t know what we might be walking out into, I want to level up and fix up my knees at least. We might be running.”

Well, that would help. “Good idea, let's take care of that in another room. I'd like to be sitting down for this.

I also made him go and find his own office to use his Condiditon points in. “For one thing, each room only has one chair, and I want to be able to hear myself think.”

Pulling a couple of plastic bowls out of my storage, I split three bottles of water between myself and the three bowls for the coyotes and ate a cheap meat stick while pinching off bits from a couple of others to toss to the coyotes.

“Don’t give me that look. I know all three of you filled up on bats. And this is salty, it’s only going to make you thirsty again.”

They finally settled down, and I got the easy part done first.

“Brackets, show me the numbers.”

[ Hermit 4 ]

[ You have 13 out of 20 Advancement points needed for level 5 Hermit ]

[ Might 11 { 7 due to Conditions }]

[ Health 25 { 21 due to Conditions}]

[ Agility 10 {8 due to Conditions}]

[ Insight 12 { 10 due to Conditions}]

[ Grace 7 ]

I stared at the blue box for a moment. Even with my conditions, my Insight was up to a ten, which is what was considered a normal human being.

“Is this what normal feels like?”

Blue raised her head up to give me a curious look, as I looked her in her eye her tail heistantly began to wag slowly back and forth and she started to tense her body to rise up.

I lifted my hand a bit to stop her, and she sighed before settling back down. Her head rested so she could keep her one eye on me.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Would I have even known any of that before? Seen anything in her but an animal doing animal stuff… Am I still me?”

I had cared about a suffering animal in an alleyway, and for another one that was dying below my back steps. But that was about seeing something suffering and trying to see if I had the power to do something about it other than put them down for lack of anything else in my power to help them.

But I don’t think I would have cared about them, not as living things that I liked knowing gave a damn about me.

Other than Chubby. I was still just a convenience to him, but I could respect that.

I still hated that I was needed by anyone. That I had responsibilities for anyone other than myself. That hadn’t changed. But I had always done what I felt was right for those that were mine to care for, but now… Now, there was something in it for me other than feeling like I was better than the people who had failed me in life.

There were lives I cared about losing, not because it would be a failure, but because they would no longer be part of my life.

“Shit…” I rubbed at my forehead. Had this ever been me?

I had never been afraid of loss, because I had learned to never value anything but my own sense of self worth.

Now, I would compromise myself for others. “I hate this. I hate this.”

I sat there for a while until I spotted Hiram peeking in. “We’re going to want to be over by the elevator shaft when the exit opens back up Harry. We might be able to make a break for it if no one is waiting for us right outside.”

Nodding, I was surprised to feel something wet run down my face. “Just let me spend my condition points Hirum. I’ll meet you there.”

No more time to fret, to reflect, to morn.

“Brackets. Conditions please.”

[ Eyesight 1 ]

[ Teeth 2 ]

[ Body 4 ]

[ Pancreas 2 ]

[ Libido 1 ]

[ Senility 2 ]

If I was going to be running anywhere, I only had one choice. Eyes, teeth, diabetes, and my libido weren’t going to help me run. And the last thing was to have my brain working well enough to have an even better understanding of how I wasn’t the person I had chosen to be anymore.

“This is going to hurt isn’t it.” I dry swallowed eight pills expecting the pain. They wouldn’t help with what I was about to go through, but they might help me later on.

“Put all four points in body Brackets.”

[ You know you could do them 1 point at a time.]

I began panting. “It would only make it harder to go through each one, and I need to do this now. Hit me!”

It burned.

Just at first, and I would have enjoyed that compared to what came next.

You ever had a Charlie Horse? Where the back of your lower leg hurts like it hates you and wants you to suffer, and you end up even punching it to try to drown out the pain?

When the muscle clenches up and pulls your leg up tight and you can’t make it relax?

Everywhere. Every muscle everywhere all over my body.

I had grabbed a hold of the armrest of the chair and clenched my teeth to try to brace myself.

It didn’t help, in fact, as I heard and felt something crack in my mouth I realized having something to bite down on would have been a pretty good idea.

I twitched and tumbled forward out of my chair onto the ground.

The coyotes circled around me, whining, but seeing the look in my eyes they cowered back, more confused and uncertain than scared, but still upset with their tails between their legs. Not understanding why I was hurting, but not wanting anything to do with it.

They didn’t go all that far, at least not Blue, and Wylina kept nervously looking at me, and then around for anything that might be coming for me.

After what seemed like forever, my whole body relaxed. Feeling weak I pushed myself to my hands and knees and leaned back away from Blue’s attempt to lick at my face.

“It’s…”

I stopped as I felt the sharp pain in my mouth and something hard rolling around between my tongue and teeth.

Spitting into my hand, I looked at the good sized chunk of what had to be a tooth.

“Well, it's a good thing I’m close to Fifth level. Teeth are next on the list.”

Good thing I took all the pain pills too, now the part of my mouth that was hurting just felt like a dull stabbing pain rather than a blindingly sharp one.

“All right coyotes, time to make our exit.”