"Since you guys are headed that way anyways, I think it would be a good idea for me to tag along." Thomas said, standing beside the City Monolith with his son.

"We'll need to see your status screens if you don't mind." The short lady said, smiling as she looked at the two cheerfully. She examined their screens for a bit, then looked back to Thomas once she finished. "We can help you with training <Familial Duty> once we find him."

"Only on the condition that we don't have to fight." Thomas said, making his stance clear. "I can't risk my sons' lives, and by extension I can't risk my own. I hope you understand."

"Of course." She agreed. The woman was Teresa, a notable figure that had arisen in the settlement. She had managed to beat the Tutorial, her and her team had saved the lives of multiple people within the settlement.

This wasn't exactly how the conversation went, but it was close enough. Thomas' memory got the gist of it anyways. He was looking for Gabriel, his other son, having already found Mathew. Despite his best efforts, he could only sense his children, not Sara.

Not long later, they were traveling through the woods being given piggyback rides. It was ridiculous to Thomas, why not just take the time to make a wagon or something?

Thankfully they were moving fast, since Thomas was in a bit of a rush. It was incredibly uncomfortable, the entire trip, but it was for Gabriel. He was a good father, he'd die for his kids after all. He could keep his mouth shut.

Days passed while he traveled with the group. Some of them seemed intent on training Mathew, despite their earlier agreements. Sarah, one of the party members, was particularly rude in Thomas' opinion. She shared a name with his ex, Sara, who was also the mother of Mathew and Gabriel. Maybe that was one of the reasons Mathew seemed to like her, most likely that was the answer.

"Why the hell does Mathew have a skill?" Thomas asked, sometime. He explicitly said that Mathew shouldn't be fighting monsters, he was just a kid. How was his stance so difficult to understand? He was a good father, he was just looking out for his kids, and not only were they taking Mathew out to fight monsters but he had just recently been hit by a blast from a missile that came far too close.

"Why the hell does Mathew have a skill?" Thomas asked, again. Was that how it went? He could swear he only asked that once. It's not like his memory was perfect or anything, but he was positive he hadn't repeated himself like a stuttering mess.

"Why the hell does Mathew have a skill?" Thomas asked. Oh, Thomas got it now. This part played a lot. What was going on again?

I can't believe it! A voice had said, sounding as though it had come from Thomas' mind itself. The first time this had happened, the scene had needed to play out again and again, each time it was cut short Thomas had paid the price. The thought of those… things…. crawling inside of him, tearing away at his flesh, no. Not that again.

The full argument in the cave played in front of Thomas' eyes, though many of the words were randomly cut off. Sentences blitzed past, sections of the conversation being glossed over entirely. While Thomas was in the right, the argument didn't seem to be going in his favor. They would see it one day, if they ever had kids of their own. Seeing he wouldn't be able to convince them that children shouldn't have to fight for their lives, he eventually decided to stop the argument like a mature adult.

"I need to think about things." Thomas said. His dislike for Sarah was cemented, but while things seemed tense for now, they would eventually die down. From their passive aggressive attitude, he could tell several people were upset with him over the next day. It was just their generation, younger people thought they knew it all sometimes, but Thomas wasn't going to cave in.

When he had finally found Gabriel, he thought he would feel relieved, like all of his concerns would go away once he knew his kids were safe. Instead, they had simply changed. Both of his sons had been fighting monsters, more than him. Thomas had done what was necessary in the Tutorial, putting up a fight most probably wouldn't have expected of him. To think they went through that, but more? It was like catching his kids smoking, except he would probably prefer that to fighting dangerous animals for fun.

"Are there a lot of people who beat the Tutorial?" Teresa asked, but the man at the desk in the Guild shrugged.

"There used to be more, but we had some losses lately. I'd say there are around 50 people left in Arconette who fully beat the Tutorial." The man answered. Thomas saw his chance. Everyone had been upset with him for some time now, but this was his opportunity to make them calm down. The Guild was a lot like a union, and if Thomas knew anything about unions he understood how important a reference was to get in. Younger folk didn't get just how valuable a good first impression was, so he spoke up on Teresa's behalf.

"Well I guess that number just went up." Thomas said. What could he say, he was just a really nice and mature guy. Surprisingly, multiple people gave him a glare that seemed like they briefly considered if keeping him around was worth it.

I know it's rich coming from me, but wow! The voice had said in his mind again, an incredibly amused tone in his voice. You fucking suck.

"What?" Thomas asked as the dream faded away, and he was standing in an empty void. His heartbeat sped up as he recognized the place. He had been here, multiple times now. Every time he appeared in the void dream, abuse had followed. Early on it had been largely physical. Centipedes made of razor blades had crawled through his veins, he had been impaled by a burning iron, his eyes had-

"You know, at first I was thoroughly impressed." The voice said, in Thomas' ears this time. "I thought you were obscuring your dreams on purpose, that you were blocking out your memories because you're just one tough son of a bitch. I had a lot of respect for you because of that. Now, though? I get you now."

Eventually the abuse had taken a more psychological format, toying with Thomas' emotions. He was alive, but by this point he long wished he hadn't been.

"I'm well aware that you can't trust someone's dreams to tell an accurate story, and you are just such a perfect example. You're not some badass, holding down the fort and refusing to give in. You're ashamed, a pathetic little man who was given a million chances to improve and never took any of them. You think you're always right, and the second anything challenges that ideal you shut down. I've never seen someone with cognitive dissonance this extreme."

Thomas woke up, though he couldn't see anything in the dark cave. He was alone now, the torture having ended some time ago. He wasn't sure how much time that was exactly, but he had slept as much as his body would let him.

<Familial Duty> activated, and he sensed both of his sons were incredibly far away, but safe. That was his only reprieve now, and one of the only skills he could still use. If he had to guess, they both went to The Mall shortly after his kidnapping. It was strange, he hadn't wanted to leave Mathew behind in what amounted to a large campground surrounded by monsters. Arconette had seemed safe, being an actual city with walls being constructed, but somehow it had been far more dangerous than The Mall itself.

Having someone skim through his memories while torturing him whenever he resisted had forced him to face some difficult truths. The fact even a psychopath had called him out for his bullshit made it worse, how could he not see how rigid he had been? How inflexible?

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Thomas had thought he was mature, that somehow others' criticism had just been proof he was right. It was a roundabout system of logic that, now that he confronted it, he realized it was heavily flawed. He had tried using the norms from a pre-System world in an apocalypse, and it had cost him and those around him dearly.

It had been his decision to bring Mathew along on a dangerous road trip with no training, ignoring the advice of those around him who had demonstrated their success in this new world, and then was shocked that things kept going wrong.

Now, he was alone in a cave, his body ragged, immobile, and unable to escape.

He had tried to be a good father.

But maybe he hadn't been one.

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This was not the fucking time.

Teresa was waiting outside of the tent, the screaming having devolved into a whimper as Henry began to spill the beans. It turns out, Sarah's approach of going from zero to one hundred in terms of torture had been extremely effective. She had only needed to stab him once, then both Henry and Sindri began talking.

It didn't sound good.

There were 20 Completionists that had come out to stop them, something they were not equipped to deal with at all. Morale had already dropped when the torture started, but it plummeted after the numbers came out. Of course, Henry could be lying, but there wasn't an easy way to verify that.

Allegedly, they were camped out to the west and would be coming any minute now. Upon hearing this, Nikolas began to maneuver more troops to the western edge of the camp while giving instructions on where to reposition should they be attacked from the west. Of course, the entire perimeter was still secured in case the information was wrong, but the western front was the most fortified.

They had been organized by a man named Angelo and his party, someone Teresa had to go through her memories to remember. He had been the Completionist with <Lucid Dreams> covered during a meeting. Angelo had convinced them that this operation was a terrible idea, that this was somehow an attack on the lower class and a misuse of power, that Arconette needed to bring in outsiders was somehow proof of treachery.

Sarah had tried to pry for more information, but Henry and Sindri both continued to place the blame on other people. They even claimed that the Avatars didn't attack Angelo, and repeatedly insisted this was all him.

This was a learning experience for Teresa. They wanted to turn the Contaminated Zone into a farm, while hoping to help the very people they were putting in danger. The only way that would be possible is if the vast majority of both Arconette and The Mall banded together, which would still result in massive casualties and may not work anyways. Politics weren't always about who was correct, sometimes all that mattered was who was more convincing.

Sarah had always been rather ruthless, at least amongst Teresa's group. She had been the one to come up with the idea for keeping monsters alive to prolong the Tutorial, she had been the first to recommend torture for the multiversal invaders that jumped Teresa, and her skills were even rather ruthless. <Air Burst> was a violent skill that blasted clumps of monster flesh apart, and when she used her bow she tended to aim for sensitive areas like the throat, spine, and groin.

That didn't mean this wasn't an extremely traumatic experience. Sarah wasn't some lunatic, she was terrifyingly practical. She was also human, and torturing someone wasn't something most people could do. Teresa herself had demonstrated ruthlessness on multiple occasions, and even she was feeling nauseous about this whole ordeal. Sarah had been shaking before going in there, Teresa knew this wasn't easy for her, but all she could do was be there for Sarah when she was done.

Which was why this really wasn't the time for that damn cult to track her again. She had realized it happened rather frequently, even if she didn't always notice it. Her party had questioned if it might be <Familial Duty>, but after Teresa explained that whoever was tracking her almost always remained on the opposite side of the Contaminated Zone they began to understand her suspicious approach to it.

As soon as she felt that tug in her Soul, she grabbed onto whatever spell was tracking her and refused to let go. Her control over Karmic Magic had never felt consistent, there were definitely factors she didn't understand yet, but this time things clicked.

A golden thread appeared in the air, leading out from her torso in a straight line. She tugged on the thread in response, ready to teach this fucker a lesson in Karmic Magic. Information on her tracker flowed into her brain, though it was minimal.

Whoever it was, it was a man more than double her age, and he was close. Alarmingly so. He was miles away, if even that. Was it one of the Completionists? What skill would let them do that?

That wasn't the only worrying thing either. While Teresa was grabbing onto this thread, refusing to let go, she could see a thread that wasn't attached to her. A golden thread with hints of bronze led into the tent, and somehow even without interacting with it Teresa knew it was leading to Sarah. Not Henry, not Sindri, but Sarah.

Someone was tracking Sarah too.

Before Teresa could do anything with this information, Nikolas' voice shouted out instructions to cast <Light Shield> just in time to block multiple spells, arrows, and other ranged attacks.

The tent ruffled as Sarah came out, her skin pale. Regardless, she had her bow in hand and was ready to go.

"What should we do with them?" She asked, her voice hollow. It was a good question, if they were under attack by 20 Completionists they certainly couldn't leave two in their backlines.

"Let me." Teresa said, placing her hand on Sarah's shoulder before entering the tent herself in a rush. Sarah had already done enough, and from one look Teresa knew it had taken a toll on her. There was no time to waste, she couldn't even hesitate when she saw the arrow sticking out from Henry's pants.

"Please, wait!" He yelled, but Teresa wrapped her hand around his neck and pinched. Henry let out a gasp as Teresa broke his neck, <Healing Touch> active in the very hand that did it. Sindri looked over in horror and tried to crawl away, but Teresa repeated the process and had both of their necks broken in seconds.

"Holy fuck Teresa!" Jake yelled, but Teresa gave him a sympathetic look.

"They're alive, I just broke their necks. They won't be moving, and if a healer gets to them soon they'll live." She said. Teresa looked to the west where the battle was happening, and thankfully the repositioned army was holding out for now.

"That's some evil Invincible shit." Preston said as he drew his sword. "It works though. Let's go."

The party made their way towards the battle, one they were likely to lose if what Henry had said could be trusted. If there were 20 Completionists, that would be 4 parties, so 4 of each class archetype. The most of a single archetype she could spot was 3, which would hint towards roughly 15 Completionists instead. If Henry and Sindri were included in that 20, then there would only be 13 to 18 Completionists to deal with.

Due to sheer numbers, the army was maintaining a wall of <Light Shield> along the west, continuously blocking numerous projectiles that would otherwise decimate the low leveled people from The Mall. Transparent shields were shattering only to be immediately replaced by another as the tanks of the army worked together to deflect the damage.

Things were going shockingly well. While a certain level of competency was required to be a Completionist, Teresa had seen firsthand in the past how multiple low level humans could overwhelm someone even with a large level gap. The army was organized and prepared, having used their formation against Avatars that drastically outleveled them already.

Teresa took her bow out from her <Inventory> and took aim. She fired at a warrior type that was advancing, but a tank from the opposing side blocked it with <Light Shield>. Numerous other arrows followed shortly after as others fired at the attackers, preventing them from gaining any ground as their tanks were forced to use all of their skills to keep their allies from death.

This was going shockingly well. From what Teresa could see, the Completionists were acting as three separate parties, with a fourth potentially hiding somewhere out of sight. Meanwhile, the army was acting as a singular large 46 person party. Teresa had expected this to go in a completely different direction as she fired her bow again and again, not making a significant impact alone but rather contributing to the army as a whole.

"No…" Sarah whispered, as several ranger archetypes among the army suddenly became even more alert. Teresa didn't have to ask, as a second later she understood too.

She heard a faint buzz.

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