“Unbelievable,” Soise growled.

  “Soise, I feel fine!” I swatted feebly in protest as she dragged me by the ankle, to a nearby hill.

  “That’s precisely the problem! Don’t you think about anything?” The moment she saw my condition, Soise had sent everyone else away, as if I were some sort of biological hazard.

  Then again, I was struggling to keep my stats down, actually blowing a hole in the sand after my concentration slipped. Funny. For whatever reason, my head felt fuzzy.

  She sat me down and jabbed a needle into my leg. “Did you feel that?”

  “Of course.” Actually, it was surprising how much I felt it, even with reasonably high stats.

  Soise poked a few other pressure points, watching my reaction.

  “You’re not acting like you feel anything!”

  “I do. It’s just not a big deal.”

  The healer rubbed her forehead. “Grind, I want you to spend a few seconds attempting to process the condition you’re currently in.”

  I glanced at myself. Stretched a little. “Feels pretty good.”

  “How much health do you have?”

  “Negative one hundred billion.”

  “And how many of your internal organs ruptured?”

  “All of them?” I scratched the back of my head, letting out a nervous chuckle. “But I can move and talk, and the screens are frozen anyway, so it’s not a big deal.”

  My vision lurched and I coughed up blood.

  Soise braced me. “So? Want to get healed yet?”

  I was about to make a witty comeback, before my stomach churned and I puked, which, frankly, wasn’t much of a point in my favor.

  Soise cleared her throat.

  “Yes please,” I groaned.

  ...

  “Are you sure this is safe?” Harva whispered, failing to keep her hands from shaking. “He’s missing…a-a…a lot of health.”

  “The city’s already gone,” Soise stated. “Besides, you said the blast only hurts enemies, didn’t you? We were fine when you healed Ardenidi so we’ll be fine now.”

  Harva swallowed hard. “You might want to stand back. And grab onto something.”

  {Full Restore I : Combat-Type}

  [Lead]

  [[100%] of Target’s missing hitpoints are converted in a magical blast, dealing damage to enemies while restoring target’s health.]

  Her ability activated.

  Soise and I grit our teeth, standing low to the ground.

  Harva cracked an eye open.

  “Oh.”

  {Notice}

  [Ability Deactivated : Insufficient Mana]

  [Mana Required : 100k]

  Harva bit her lip. “Sorry guys, I’m a little short. Only got fifteen thousand max mana.”

  “Hey, no worries,” I said, pulling an orb with a hundred thousand mana from my system. “I got a lot from fighting the core, so just consider it payment for my treatment.”

  Soise stared. Her gaze slowly drifted over my head. “You’re…a silver?”

  “Yep.”

  I paused.

  “You know, all things considered, the core only dropped a few million stats.” I let out a sigh. “That was after it took a couple billion stats from the nightmare. I know it’s a lot of power, but I feel a little cheated after all the work we did.”

  Soise nodded. “Something’s clearly not right. You noticed the core was only a two-star, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “If I had to guess, the mystery infection these monsters are dealing with makes them much stronger than usual, giving the appearance of high stats but not the knowledge and experience that’d actually make them dangerous. Or the…actual stats. So they’re really just a pain to fight in general.”

  “Brr.” Harva broke the orb in her hands. “It’s so cold.”

  “Ready when you are,” I stated.

  She was breathing heavily. “You guys are crazy.”

  Her ability fired.

  ...

  Ardenidi smirked. “You’re joking.”

  I glanced down at my clothes.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? These are nice.”

  “You’re wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt and pink shorts.”

  “So?” I asked. “The explosion vaporized my jeans and T-shirt. Even if my boxers are invincible, I can’t go around in just those.”

  Ardenidi blinked. She started laughing. “Give me a second to process that. Your boxers are invincible?”

  “Of course. Part of the game’s rules for decency.”

  “You’ve tested this.”

  I blinked back.

  “So?”

  You never know. Might come in handy.

  “Okay,” Ardenidi shook her head. “So after Harva healed you, causing…that…” she addressed the pool of magma stretching past the horizon, leaking sulfurous orange light through the flap of fabric in the tent. “You decided to summon yourself some clothes?”

  “I only ever wear jeans and a t-shirt,” I stated. “It doesn’t hurt to mix it up every now and then.”

  “Grind, how could you have possibly thought that would be a good idea? Your clothes are burning my eyes.”

  I huffed, dulling the hue of my shorts to a warm fuchsia, perhaps better complimenting my neon green shirt with blue palm trees. “Better?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “No,” she said, chuckling so hard her scarf was getting loose.

  Wow, she’s hot.

  Ardenidi froze. “Did you say something?”

  I didn’t say that out loud, did I?

  She nodded slowly.

  Beans.

  C’mon! Think! Say something!

  I cleared my throat. “Hey, wanna get ice cream some—”

  “Grind!” Sip cried, bursting into the tent. “We’ve got a problem!”

  He pointed at the four-year-old clung to his leg with tears streaking the sides of his face.

  Screech.

  “Oh,” I knelt down, spreading my arms out.

  Screech walked slowly toward me, breaking into a run, latching around my neck and wiping his face in my shoulder.

  Ardenidi cleared her throat, pulling Sip out of the tent. “We’ll give you two some space.”

  I bent to the ground, hugging Sip. “Talk to me.”

  Screech sniffed. “Where’s Grey?”

  “Gone,” I said.

  “Forever?”

  I nodded.

  He pushed away from me, rubbing his nose on his arm. “Why didn’t you save her?”

  Not starting with easy questions, apparently.

  I had to think for a couple minutes. “Screech, I can’t save everyone.”

  “Y-you saved me.”

  “There was a cost to that.”

  “Can you get me a new momma?”

  I choked in shock. “What?”

  “Please?” He started crying again, pressing his head against my chest. “Please? I’ll be nicer this time! Promise!”

  “Screech, I…”

  I could, couldn’t I?

  My mana channels were severed, yes, but there had to be some sort of work around. Some kind of screen manipulation.

  Grey was a spontaneous creation born from a vast quantity of mana stuffed into a small place.

  With the amount of power I had now, I could make a manifestation even more advanced than Grey. Grey was just a summon after all. And she wanted nothing more than to protect Screech. She would want this.

  Right?

  I motioned Screech toward me. He walked forward.

  “No.”

  I hugged him close. “No.”

  “But I need a momma,” Screech whispered. His voice strained, destabilizing with a frail warble. “I don’t want to be alone.”

  Ah.

  When we found Screech at the nest, I’d assumed the monster had taken Screech in. But what was a four year old boy doing that far into the desert?

  There was only one way I could see it. Screech must have ignored everything else but finding a mother. Because he ignored all stats, monsters had little reason to fight him. Invulnerability through ignorance.

  I held him tighter. “Talk to me. You’ve been alone?”

  “I’m always alone,” Screech growled. “Nobody likes me.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “They keep leaving.”

  “Leaving?”

  Screech blew his nose on my shirt. “Gone. Forever. They’re always gone.” Something sparkled in his eyes, and his tone lifted. “Grind? You love me enough to stay. You do, don’t you?”

  “People don’t die because they hate you,” I stated.

  “They leave me alone,” Screech snapped back, coming to terms with the darker parts of his mind. “You’re not going to leave me, are you? You’re not, are you?”

  I sat him on my lap. “Screech, how many moms and dads have you had?”

  “I dunno. Lots?” He spread his arms wide. “Lots like this much?”

  He was speaking simpler now, tapping more into the mindset of a toddler than his true feelings.

  Who are you?

  How old are you?

  I nodded. “Lots? Tell me about them.”

  Screech faltered. “Why? You don’t care.”

  “And you don’t know that,” I whispered. “Maybe we’ll learn something.”

  Slowly, I got him to start explaining.

  A player first sheltered him ten years ago. She died. Her best friend took care of him, but he died too.

  The boy started talking faster.

  Screech made friends with the players who found him, alone in the dungeon, and they took care of him, until a pack of goblins killed them. So he made friends with the goblins. They let him tag along for a year or two, until they died of starvation. Monsters were drawn by the goblins spilled loot, finding the boy in the process.

  The list kept going.

  There were shopkeepers and Union workers and monsters and slaves.

  When he started, Screech was angry. But that softened.

  And softened.

  The floodgates opened, pouring down his face.

  I rubbed his back, summoning a mug of warm tea and some blankets. “Here.” I pressed it into his hands, but he wouldn’t drink. “It’ll make you feel better.”

  “Why do people die?”

  “I don’t know,” I sighed. “Sometimes people die who shouldn’t while others live despite all odds. It doesn’t always make sense, does it?”

  “Magic?” Screech whispered.

  “Something like that. But most of it’s all up to chance.”

  “I don’t like that.”

  “Even good people suffer. That’s just how the world works.”

  I wrapped the soft blankets around him, like a cocoon. “You’re tired, and this has been a long, stressful day. Sleep a little, and then we’ll talk more.”

  His hand grabbed the hem of my pants.

  “Don’t leave.”

  “I need to check in with everyone else. They’re worried.”

  “Okay.” His grip slackened. “I love you.”

  I smiled, scruffing up his hair. “I love you too.” The flaps in the tent closed themselves, enveloping the room in warm darkness. “Get some rest.”

  His eyes flickered shut, and he was asleep.

  I left, closing the tent behind me. “This game is messed up.”

  Even if I could summon Screech, a new friend, would that be fair? How would the summon feel? What kind of life would it be, living at the complete and total mercy of your creator, uncertain of your purpose or meaning? How “alive” are summons really? Is anything here alive?

  Am I alive?

  What was I supposed to do?

  Sip ran into me, pale as a ghost and shaking.

  “Don’t worry, I think Screech is going to be okay,” I said, smiling. When I tried to push him back, he clenched my shoulder.

  “GRIND! DO SOMETHING!”

  “Uh…okay,” I gestured toward the tent. “Be quiet or you’re going to wake him up.”

  Sip pulled on his hair. “Are you blind?! Look!”

  A shadow passed over our makeshift camp, like a descending mountain.

  I looked out, feeling the blood rush from my head.

  My hands went numb.

  A giant two-headed nightmare blotted out the sun, trailing behind four arms, so long and with so many joints as to appear like black rivers, stretching endlessly far over the rippling crater of magma. Rolling clouds of hostile mana swallowed the desert behind, flashing scalding red.

  [You have been afflicted with [Bloodpox]]

  [Bloodpox : Extreme Muscle movement causes damage to self]

  I raised my hands, channeling my mental energy like a lance.

  “I’m so sick of these things,” I hissed.

  The Giant took another step forward, splashing molten rock in every direction.

  It staggered.

  Sip twitched. “Oh.” He started laughing, smacking me on the back. “Oh! Nice shot!”

  “I didn’t do that,” I stated.

  The Giant tipped over, two heads separating from the monster’s shoulders, kicking up geysers of lava.

  Then we saw the line, extending from the east to the west, thin as a string.

  100x{Greater Nightmare : (-11m) -0.1b Hp}

  A speck stood at the monster’s feet, sheathing his sword with an imperceptible click of metal.

  He stepped over the seam in the rock. The man stopped. He glanced at a mountain in the distance as it crumpled along one side.

  Master Tenatazui let out a sigh. He stuffed the sword back in his inventory.

  “What happened here?”

  Sorry for the late chapter. Feel free to relax a little. We're rounding out the book with a chill arc.

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