Chapter Thirty-Eight – Rebound – Part One

Life never goes in a straight line, it's a series of choices. Each one defines us.

-WHA Gold Rank Hunter Aladak-

So… everyone knows now. Everyone that really matters to me at least. Gilroy is still talking with Mwangi about the potential ramifications of shooting a WHA member. Tran and Barlow are talking amongst themselves. Cortez and Dorliac are arguing over the fox now. Leaving me with my thoughts… fuck.

"Novak, you good?" Mwangi asks.

"Roger, sergeant."

Everyone's gone silent, staring at me now. Mwangi, he's just standing there looking at me with folded arms still. Doing his regularly scheduled brooding session.

"No, I'm not okay actually," I admit.

More silence, averted gazes. Mwangi steps forward, unfolding his arms.

"What's the problem?"

"No one's talked about the fact that I fucked the mission up and got everyone killed," I say, my speech a little pressured, "Everyone's acting like I'm not responsible for twenty-four…"

"You're not," Gilroy says, in a very unlike him tone, "I'm responsible for one of those."

"No," Dorliac says, shaking her head, "Both of you did what you had to do."

"I should have told you no when you said go get the mace, I knew Abyss might…"

"What are you on about?" Mwangi asks, crossing his arms again.

"The quest changed, fucking us over, sending that big ass dragonfly thing, because of me."

"I don't think he saw the map update," Tran says.

Map update? What are they… right, when I took the mace, it updated where the altar was so we could deliver it.

"What about it?" I ask.

"Did you not look at it?" Barlow asks.

"I was a little busy with…" the memories try to flood back in, but I white-knuckle them down. Keep it corked.

"No one told him, or thought to check?" Mwangi asks.

"I was going to, sergeant, but you called us over too quickly," Cortez says, her eyes look worried for me. Shit. I need to tighten up. I can't be the weak link here, not when everyone is covering my ass.

"The map updated directly under the ocean," Dorliac says, her face looks worried for me too, "We were never going to clear the quest. We would have had to wait for the gate to open fully to request a submarine from command."

"No telling how long that would have been, especially with the recalibrations," Gilroy adds.

"But the…" I begin.

"That big fucking Dragonfly was already inbound before the quest updated," Mwangi explains.

"The boglands are their spawning grounds, Tenny thinks that's why they started attacking us in the first place. The air recon report said they migrate, probably to avoid overeating the local ecosystem," Dorliac explains, putting her hands on her hips, "We were already going to be screwed."

"What…" I breathe out.

"You saved the day," Cortez says, nodding to me.

"But I…"

"Also, I don't think that WHA mage would have helped much," Barlow interrupts, shaking his head, "Remember how him and that gnome guy just watched when we got attacked the first time?"

"Total dickheads," Tran says.

"Look, Novak, you know I'm not going to sugarcoat it," Gilroy says, giving me a serious look, "You're quite literally the reason most of us are breathing."

"Agreed," Mwangi says. The others echo the sentiment.

"The gate's recalibrating that's still…"

"Did you ask for the divine item?" Dorliac chimes, without letting me answer, "No you didn't, some entity decided that they wanted to give it to you. That's not on you."

"Your shoulders are broad, but not that broad," Mwangi says, clapping me on the shoulder, "Don't try to carry the weight of the world."

Everyone nods in agreement again. I can't help but feel responsible still, in part, even if I didn't choose it. But as I ask myself would I take it all back, never getting Respec on Death… if it meant most of them would be dead… no, I wouldn't. My eyes fall to the ground, maybe I am carrying too much. I'm just a man, stuck in some kind of divine battle between Red and Ulana. If what they say is true, maybe today I did change the tide.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Take the wins. Roll with the losses," Tran says, grabbing my shoulder, "Besides, it might be selfish of me to say this, but I'm pretty happy it's one of us that got the Divine item drop. Those WHA fucks already have their six heroes. Only fair we get one."

Six heroes. The pinnacle of the WHA. Their most elite. It's rumored they sniped some from the UWO, though no one knows for sure. Their identities are all hidden for security reasons. The one thing we all know though, is all of them have the most legendary and coveted class… hero.

"I'm not a hero."

"Yeah, you kind of are though," Dorliac says, with a smile, not the business kind, a real one.

"Agreed," everyone says, except Gilroy, Mwangi gives him a nudge.

"Agreed," Gilroy sighs, giving me a nod.

The tension feels like it's lifting a little.

"Alright, let's talk shop," Dorliac says, rolling her neck again, "Everyone needs to go through their item drops for the quest. From what Novak said, it sounds like Epic class has a decent chance of evolving Abyss. But we should also test out…"

"Ma'am," Tran interrupts, she raises an eyebrow, "Shouldn't we have him eat the weapon depot?"

"That would draw a lot of attention, we're already going to be on thin ice," Mwangi says.

"Right, but like, imagine, there are thousands upon thousands of rare and below items stored there. He could like, instantly become…" Tran begins.

"Instantly become the number one person of interest?" Dorliac asks, eyebrow still raised.

"But like, ma'am, just imagine, he'd be unstoppable," Tran says, looking at everyone, trying to get people to agree, "Like super unstoppable."

"We don't know if Abyss has limits to what it can consume, and from what he said, it still hasn't… digested?" Cortez chimes in, musing the word, "It still hasn't digested the bow he stole."

"Yeah but like," Tran starts.

"Tran," Mwangi groans, "We will take it under advisement."

"For now, let's try to pool the weapons and armor drops we get that might be useful," Dorliac continues, "If it bears fruit, we can look at expanding the amount."

"We need to get him past level forty," Cortez says, silencing everyone in the tent.

"Why?" I ask.

"The person who I know," she shoots a look at Dorliac, "The one with enough rank, they'd be more likely to help if you were that high."

Level forty is insane though. The highest I've ever heard of was a guy in Japan who's level fifty-two, and even that I have doubts about.

"Progress," Dorliac says, giving Cortez a tilted nod.

"I don't think we have that kind of time, not with the investigation coming," Mwangi says, musing his chin in his hand, "Even with the special experience boosts he talked about, it would take many, many years."

"There are items," Cortez says, pushing back her hair, "Items that can boost experience gain."

She's not wrong. But, they aren't great. I'm not going to correct her though, I want to see what kind of ideas they all get. It's nice to not be the only one thinking about all this.

"Yeah, but they give fractional boosts and they cost more than a house," Barlow says.

"Plus, trying to stack them, he'd be walking around with a jewelry store just to get a small amount," Tran says, then his eyebrows raise like he's had an epiphany.

Cortez nods to Tran, and Dorliac squints at her for a moment.

"But if Abyss…" Dorliac begins.

Cortez nods again, "That's what I'm thinking. That with his… entity blessing, he might be able to power level."

"If he can manage to get the last hit on bosses with that new class…" Tran says, squinting like he forgot the name.

"Witherbrand," I say.

"Right, if he can always manage the last hit…"

"He can't choose when it activates, remember?" Barlow says, rolling his eyes, "Besides, I think people will start noticing if he starts using blue fire all the time."

Everyone nods, musing it for a few seconds.

"A weapon like Mace of the Ardent Flame," I say, summoning it, the fire dances on the top, and everyone's eyes follow the flames, "This one is probably out, since they will be looking for it, but if we find something else like it, I can store it."

"Good idea," Mwangi says.

"He'd need to get assigned to higher class gates, those are the ones that usually have boss-related quests," Gilroy adds.

"Indeed," Mwangi says, nodding.

"I can try and pull some strings for that, but no promises," Dorliac says, looking at me, "If you figure out how to get back your healing skill then it will be a lot easier to get you picked up."

"We'd want to go too," Tran says, Barlow nods with him.

Mwangi gives them an eyebrow raise.

"No," Dorliac says, then looking at Cortez, "No to you as well unless you know who pulls strings. Higher gate companies, they don't want grunts, healers can be an exception. That's how I leveled so fast. Kept volunteering. Even did a few WHA run gates."

"Bet that was fun, ma'am," Gilroy says. He seems to have relaxed a bit. So have I, hopefully.

"Speaking of leveling, how many did you get for killing the emperor?" Dorliac asks.

I shrug.

"Well, get on with it," she says.

"Right," I say, everyone's looking at me now. I've never had an audience before. It feels weird.

"We should all go through our notifications," Cortez says, giving me a weak smile.

Tran looks back and forth, "Yeah, totally, I definitely didn't already do that."

Barlow does some fake ass moving his hand through the system motion. I can tell he's still watching though. Tran and him have never been good actors. That is part of why we became best friends. Both of them are honest, well, mostly, Tran's a dirtbag with women, but the rest of him, pure unfiltered gold. Wouldn't trade them for a hundred friends.

"When you finish, open the Cosmic Exchange, if you can buy back healing, it will probably be there," Mwangi says, shuffling through his own interface now, or at least acting like he is, I don't know.

The one saving grace about everything that's happened is that sharing interfaces is impossible. That's why we do yearly evaluations. There's a rare class in the supporter branch that can read status sheets. Thinking about it, that Lich, the one that worked with Mira during the fox quest, he read my status sheet. There must be a skill that isn't class bound which allows it as well, since that Lich definitely seemed like a combat class. Maybe they don't have supporters and hunters… yet more questions. Sighing, I swipe open my interface pulling up the quest completed one.

[ System Notice ]

[ Rewards for gate completion issued ]

[ View rewards now? ]

[ Yes / No ]

Clicking yes, the menu opens up, the fanfare is not the standard one for a green gate.

[ Quest Completed: Kill the Emperor Dragonfly (C-Rank) ]

C-Ranked?

"Did the gate classification change?" I ask, staring at it.

"According to air support, it was," Dorliac says, sitting down on a half-sunken chair, she crosses her legs and says, "Don't keep us in suspense. Keep going."

"Roger, ma'am."

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