Chapter two

Mr. Fipples sat back in shock at what he saw, as the system announced the cruel child's achievements. "The system actually awarded that sugar plum bastard a class without completing the tutorial." The words left his lips in a whisper as he stared on at the screen in wonder. Standing erect from his seat, Mr. Fipples screamed out, "Get me everything that we have on that class and tell me everything we have on the new ones that are being integrated into Galaria". The scream shook everyone out of their bewilderment as they got to work.

"Sir, here is a list of some of the new classes and the rest of the bizzare classes that are coming through, about the class slasher. We have nothing on it, Sir." One of the head tech managers said. The fucking pixie had nothing more to say, so Mr. Fipples left it at that.

Going through the new classes was a pain, but he didn't trust anyone else to do it. Glancing through the list, he saw some strange names and what the class entailed, but most were of no consequence. Like the class bioengineer was just idiotic. Turning to find the very same tech that brought the list to him, he found him in the corner tracking data on the class slasher. "You, Sixal, come here and explain to me what the hell these classes are and why these things even exist." Mr. Fipples said in a casual tone, but in his eyes, there held a fire of promise to inflict pain.

Sixal came over in a rush to not catch the ire of the head sect, preparing to explain something so complex. "Well Sir, as you can see, these humans that have been left for too long by themselves have started to develop a unique system. If you remember in one of my reports that I hypothesize that if we left a race alone for longer, then what is slated to reap, then the said race makes new classes that correlate with their planet and time of reaping, Sir." The nasally voice that came out of Sixal was too much for Mr. Fipple to follow. Shaking his head, he dismisses the tech as he moves onto the next problem.

If this fucker actually gets out of the tutorial, then he loses his entire pay for a year, and that, my friend, just couldn't happen. Getting in his chair again, he moved over to the control console and started inputting data, he looked around to make sure no one was watching. Setting the difficulty to increase with every failure, he presses the ok button and sat back to watch the show unfold.

______________________________________________________________________

Zayne finds himself in the woods once again in the same spot as a fluffy fuck talks gibberish to him. NO-NO-NO-NO-no-no-no was the only thought that he had, as the words from the fluff fell on deaf ears. "What's wrong, oh. You don't have the machete anymore," Jiminy said in a considerate tone. "Well, we could always get another-'' A husky voice broke in with a snarl. "Kill it, kill it now, and feed on the flesh of it. Oh, the juicy flesh!" The voice faded out into some kind of weird noise that was slowly growing louder. The noise cut through Zayne like the machete he just lost, making him more frustrated.

"Was that a fucking moan?!" Jiminy scrutinized. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Oh great, another bleeding-heart pussy in the world! Well I got news for you, bub, there is only room enough for one occupant on this ride," Foulness said in a ridicule manor.

"Bleeding-heart pussy!? Listen here you overzealous fuck, I was here way before you and I'll be here way past you!"

The noise reached to a crescendo as Zayne saw red. Moving in a fury, he lashed out with his hand, reaching for the cause of (what he believes to be) his pain. But like last time, the infuriating fluff disappeared before he could cause any harm.

"Whoa, hold on there, Zayne. The ragamuffin was in the middle of explaining on what was going on here and you go and scare it off. It said something of a tutorial and that you have to complete something or other." Jiminy said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No, you let it go like a little bitch. Now we have no juicy flesh to feast on." Foulness said. "But why would I expect better from someone that can't recognize true food when they see it?"

Zayne was getting a headache with all the thoughts going through his head. There was only one way he knew to fix it, by bashing his head in. With that thought, he went to the nearest tree and lined up his sight to start the ever living bashing he was going to do.

"Stop that!" Jiminy and Foul said at the same time. Jiminy took over the conversation from there. "Listen Zayne, you don't want to do that."

Zayne did it anyway.

Later, Zayne awoke to more thoughts going through his head. But these, oddly enough, were his own. He thought so anyway. Picking himself up, he looked around to find that it was now dark out in the forest. Much like the basement that they locked him in for however many years it was. He picked a random direction on which way to go, but those very same thoughts came back, and not the ones he enjoyed.

"That's why I told you not to do that." Jiminy said, but it was flat and distant. The sound of his voice was something that Zayne couldn't quite hear all that well. That made him happy in a sense, but the pain that came from his fixing was something else entirely.

The second voice that followed made Zayne pause, as he wasn't quite sure how to take it. "Now you've done it, you little shit." Foulness said belligerently. The only one to ever say that phrase was his father and mother. The words that Foulness said made memories of Zayne's start to resurface. That was something he never wanted to hear again. The urge to run away from those memories overtook him, so he ran off in the direction that he was facing. Hoping to out run from the past that was still haunting him.

After a time, Zayne found himself on the outskirts of the village watching the lights get blown out one by one. The sight was one that relaxed him after the fear that he felt running through the woods. Standing there for a time, the sound of Jiminy came to him in a soothing tone. "Listen Zayne, I know you can hear me. We, Foulness and I were talking and as much as we hate each other we need you more. And before you block us out again with that head butting thing, just take a second to send a thought so we can at least start the talking phase." The words weren't hostile and held what could only be interpreted as a plea.

"Yeah." Foulness followed up. "That head bashing shit was- "he never got the chance to finish what he was going to say.

"We talked about this, just let me handle the communication until we get this straight." Jiminy stated in a stern voice. "Listen, being part of you, I have access to your memories and feeling and I know that somewhere you know how to talk. Now I'm not saying that it's all going to come back at once but sending a feeling or short thoughts to us we can work on this together."

"Gaaaaaayyyyyy." Foulness put in.

"Listen here, you one cell thought processing ass. This shit is getting old. Now Zayne, what do you say?" Jiminy said, attempting to be someone that Zayne needed to be, cause the other choice was that foul mouth fuck.

Zayne's answer was to go back to the nearest tree and try the treatment over again.

"NOOOOOO!" the voices said again, but it was too late. The last thing he heard was that of Foulness uttering a sound of bewildered laughter.

Later, after the they will never talk about it again incident, Zayne Jiminy and Foulness made their way to the barn where Zayne found his beloved machete. The latter two ceased talking entirely out of fear that he would put a dent in yet another tree. This was all good for Zayne because he couldn't cope with the multitude of voices that rang inside of his head. Moving stealthily through the overgrowth of the forest to reach his barn, Zayne started to call it his barn. He came to the outstretched where the barn doors were open. Dashing inside, He looked to the wall that once held his eye of adornment to find nothing. The machete was missing and so too was a hand full of other tools that weren't particularly used on a farm. Sure, there were a few saws and axes, but nothing quite worked like a good old fashion machete.

"How the hell did you make it here without making a sound? No, seriously, the chains are like four fucking feet in length and rattle around like a whore trying to get paid. When you aren't trying to creep." Foulness was yet again the first to break the silence. "And another thing, what the Jimin's ass crack is up with your fixation on this small knife. If I had to choose, you're more of strangle kind of guy you even have the fucking chains to do it with."

This too broke Jiminy out of his silence. "The fuck you just say about my ass crack!" He shouted in Zayne's head. "We agreed to stand back a bit and work on Zayne slowly." Jiminy spoke quietly, although there was an underlining torrent waiting for Foulness.

"I worked slowly with your mother" left Foulness' mental lips before he could stop and think of the implications.

Jiminy squawked out, "I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch." In Zayne's head, Jimin's consciousness bombarded Foulness' making color fly in Zayne's peripheral vision. In doing so, the colors momentarily distracted Zayne and leaped to the side to get away, only spooking some of the horses that were stabled in the back. The noise caused some unwanted attention from the proprietor, that was only 50 feet away. Zayne, in his moment of confusion, didn't take notice of the light coming to life in the home next to the barn.

Putting as much focus that he could put into it, he yelled "Stop!" in the unused part of his brain capturing the attention of both occupants that were currently fighting there. The yell also came from his mouth, which made the unease horses that more unsettled. But this too escaped the notice of Zayne, who was dead set on focusing, sent all of his rage at the loud pair. The two in question separated and made as much of a feeling of unabashed shame as they could, attempting and failing to calm Zayne down. That's when shit started to hit the fan.

When Zayne yelled out stop at the annoying voices in his head, the farmer named Patrick knew where the problem was, incidentally Zayne didn't know the problem that was lurking behind him. The pitchfork pierced through his lower abdomen with blood squirts shooting out, hitting the dusty floor. The impact made Zayne stumble forward as the base of the pitchfork hit to the base of the forks, bring this to a pretty quick close for Zayne. Farmer Patrick, shocked from the blood hitting the floor, let go of the pitchfork, taking a few steps back, looking bewildered at the scene in front of him. Zayne for his part was pasted shock at the metal prongs leaving his body, it was the most pain he's been in for a long time. Slamming a foot down, he spun to take on the bastard that attacked him, while Foulness was making weird noises in his head.

"Zayne! There's something going on with your interface. The screen with your name and letters on it just got cut in half and is slowly dropping. It says that there is a bleed effect going on, maybe this would be a good time to do something about it before we die!" Jiminy was in a panic while Foulness checked out to take care of some personal business.

Zayne didn't care about anything other than inflicting as much pain as he could on the man that hurt him. Dashing forward to the farmer, Zayne ducking low to avoid the wild swing the old man let loose. Getting in front of the Bastard, Zayne threw out his palm to the farmer's chin, cracking the jaw, making the poor man's head snap back. Old Patrick cried out in pain, leaving the deviant child to clutch his jaw. Pulling with all his might, Zayne ripped the old man's lower mouth out entirely. The farmer's eye went wide with shock as blood flew out, gurgling he was startingto choke. The man was drowning in his own blood. Zayne, still in his rage, curb stomped the farmer's throat, ending him in an instant. The adrenaline was starting to leave Zayne as pain came back tenfold. Reaching behind him, he caught ahold of the shaft of the pitchfork and started yanking on it to pull it out. Being wedged in past his ribs and through his lung made pulling it out that much more difficult and blood was still pumping out of him. He got lightheaded, and it was that much harder to breathe, slowing his progress down and lowering his hp even further.

"You're going to have to listen to me very closely, Zayne," Jiminy intoned. "The only way to get that out of you is to-" Started Jiminy.

Foulness cut in, screaming in ecstasy. "Ram your body against that post there!"

Zayne, with the little brain function that he had left, looked straight at the pole that Foulness stated and charged it without a second thought. Ramming two out of the four forks into the post dislodged the pitchfork out of his body, but left him in sore need of some medical treatment, which Zayne knew nothing about.

"The bleeding debuff has 20 seconds remaining on it." Jiminy said, there was some worry there, but Zayne didn't know what it was that made him worry. The blood loss was making him less responsive to the current events. Getting up, Zayne went over to the body, grabbing the dead man by the leg and headed off to the woods. A thought came to Zayne, and it was "what fixes a stomach in pain was only food." Trailing blood through the woods for what felt like forever, he came to a ridge with a small cave outlined at the base. The entrance was just big enough for him to pull the corpse in after him, fitting the small cave snugly. With nothing to prep for dinner, he went right in, starting at the neck. It only lasted for about 15 minutes before Zayne was full, drifter off to sleep.

Waking up, Zayne was met with Jimin's worried voice. "That was too close, you had less than 3% of you hp bar left, the bleeding would have killed you if Foulness didn't tell you to ram it out of your body quick." He wasn't done with just that. "If you ever get that close to death again, then just run. Nothing is worth dying over, not when it means ending all three of us." Jiminy told Zayne that as if it was that simple.

"Give it a rest already. He's good. And we got that taste morsel over there all rigor mortis like." Foulness interjected. Zayne liked to agree with Foulness but the whole multi voices in his head was still too much, and he needed to come to terms with that.

Sensing Zayne's emotions, Jiminy spoke up. "Yes, I think we all agree that this matter should be taken care of. The first thing that should be taken care of is the notices that you keep ignoring. Hold on as I pull them up." Jiminy went through his interface and pulled out all the notifications that came to Zayne during the tutorial.

Congratulations you have entered the tutorial, just listen to your guide and all of your question's will be answered.

Zayne couldn't read, so Jiminy did so. "You know how to read, or you use to, until the whole basement thing happened." Jiminy explained. "Somewhere in that unused part of your brain, the knowledge still exists and I'm able to dive deep, deep down there and pull it out. Unfortunately, you only know how to read small words, so the system keeps dumbing things down for us." Jiminy sounded unhappy about this for some reason, but he wasn't sharing. "Ok, on to the next one." Jiminy continued.

Congratulations, you have learned the skill tracking. Your skill level is level one. Tracking: able to find and track footprints that are a day old or younger.

It went on like this for what took too long in Zayne's perspective, but he power through and ended up with Zayne's character sheet. Jiminy had to explained what that was and why that was good. Jiminy knew most of this, but there were a few tidbits that he just left hanging. Mainly because Zayne wasn't bright enough to ask.

Zayne

Class: 90s Slasher

Level: 0

Hp 120 Stam 120 Mp 4,

-Hp regen 9 per hour

-Stam regen 6 per minute

-Mp regen 2 per hour

Vit 12 End 12 Str 12

Agi 6 Percep 10 React 12

Will 15 Intell 4 Wisdom 3

Skills-Tracking lv.1 Stealth lv.3 Machete apprentice lv.7 pain tolerance lv.2

Abilities: Supernatural healing lv.4 the ability to heal 50% faster

Everything that jiminy said Zayne knew nothing about. It ended up with Jiminy sending mental pictures to him to help make Zayne understand. Jiminy was quite pissed when he didn't think of that first. It took a little bit of trial and error, mostly it was the numbers and letters that Zayne didn't recognize. Really, the only thing that he seemed to know was the machete, and they had to take a little bit of time to mourn for their (Zayne's) fallen friend.

"So" Foulness broke the wake of the fallen machete. "Are we not going to address the fucking elephant in the room? Or am I going to have to be the one to bring up the fucking thing." The seriousness that Foulness spoke was uncommon for him, and Jiminy was quick to shush him up.

"SHHHHHHuuuuuuusshhh! this is a serious moment for him. I've never seen him show remorse before and it's healthy to let go." Jiminy silently exclaimed. After that little trade off, the moment was gone and so Zayne moved on from his hurt emotions, silently vowing to himself that he will bring back machety. He named it. Too late to turn back now.

The day was silent and was gradually getting darker the closer Zayne got to the small hamlet. He was looking to start the next murder when he spotted a silhouette of a small man, much like himself, off to the south of the town. The figure was covered in shadows and was barely seen from this distance. Zayne, set on his new target, headed to the strange man.

Swinging wide to the west, going around the village, he crept closer to get a good look. The two passengers that rode in his head stayed awfully quiet after the near death that they shared together. Zayne got close enough to make out some features of the man, or should he say green man? Right when he had a clear sight of the creature, it turned his way, snarling and started running south deeper into the forest until it blurred out into the shadows. He just stood there, shock still from what he saw. The thing in question was about a foot shorter off from him, or that's what Jim would letter tell him. (Jim was the Zayne short way of thinking Jimin's name.) He would also tell him he was roughly 5 ft 7 in tall.

"YOUR 5 ft 7 in TALL!" Jim bellowed. "AND THAT THING WAS ABOUT A FOOT SHORTER than YOU!" the yelling continued. "I've tried to tell you that there are 12 inches in a foot and 3 feet to a yard, but no you can't keep that little bit of know how because your intelligence is 4!" It was true, he's gone over numbers, letters and colors to Zayne for the past 3 hours in hopes that he would start to work what was left of that useless brain of his. Jiminy said it countless times over the walk as they got nearer to the hamlet. "It's in there, I know because I know what they are." He would say often enough in a snarky voice.

"Now for the love of god get away from the-" Jiminy rant ended when Foul interrupted.

"Did you see that? That shadow ben thingy." Foulness snarled happily. "You think we can give it a try? Think of all the ways that we could kill with it, and then you wouldn't have to worry about getting stabbed in the back because you'd be the one doing the stabbby thing… guy." Apparently, Foulness ran into a wall with what he was trying to convey.

"Are you a complete moron? In what way could Zayne meld into the shadows? If you forgot what I said earlier about a high intelligence, he's not smart enough to use that!" Jim said in a cutting tone. But Zayne didn't seem to notice. Over the course of the day, he's gotten used to them bickering back and forth between each other. No, what he was looking at was how that small green man was able to do that magic trick. He watched the whole thing and was left confused; at the way it just left his sight. Giving over to his determination, he went through everything he'd seen and did it back over again and again. Time pasted as he focused until finally Jiminy got through to him. IT was a shame because he felt that he was getting really close.

"Hay! Stupid. I've been trying to get through to you for the last 7 hours and you just stood there, gazing at the mist that's been clinging to the forest floor. What kind of stupid thing are you trying to do now? At the sudden word mist, a prompted appeared in his face. Zayne was about to push it away when Jiminy shouted.

"WAIT! We've gone over this too. When a blue screen appears, you let me try to piece it together not you push it away!" Jiminy was starting to get on Zayne's bad side again and was contemplating on cutting into his head to find the little man but he couldn't see inside his head, so he let the small idea go.

"I agree." Foulness said in a confident tone. "He's an ass whole."

"Hardy har har, Dick." Muttered Jiminy. He went quiet and Zayne felt the snarky voice grow surprise too until he announced, "Well, somehow you did it, but I don't quite understand on what it means on stamina. Must be some kind of mental state." The way Jim said it left no question of him being right, and that was it.

Well, for the most part, until Foul decided on stating his opinion "That's a made-up word! Stamina doesn't even sound like anything I've ever heard of before."

"Is too, out of all of us who here has the ability to read mmm." Now he was getting smug, the ass. Jiminy went on, "And if the answer is no one, then maybe some of us should learn to read right."

Foulness had enough, "Piss of you cretin. I could read if I wanted to, but it doesn't sound like it would help Zayne and me to kill." Zayne had to agree, the idea of him going through those strange words in his head again was something that he didn't want to do.

"Right, let's forget that little charade of you trying to sound smart and get back to the n-o-t-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n again." He uttered each letter, trying to help Zayne into remembering the little blue box again. "For some reason you got the skill just like I said, but it's weird, like it's saying that you got it wrong."

Congratulations, through the perseverance of trying to learn the skill -Shadow meld- you have gained the skill Mist step.

Mist step: able to step into the realm of mist, you are none detectable and can travail silently for the length of time that is your stamina. Stamina used is shortened by the total level of the sneak skill, equals the percentage halved.

Jim conveyed what he could read about the notification. Luckily, he had the ability of -sound it out- which every life form picks up along the way. "The percentage is of the current skill level Sneak, and yours is 3, so that would make it 3% which is then halved so that would make it 1.5%? I'm not entirely sure if that's right." Jiminy was muttering to himself, which in turn was to both Foulness and Zayne.

"So, you're saying that Zayne, my main man here, can't do what that little green thing did and something that we can't even use? That's a load of shit, way to go there, Zayne. You piece of shit you." It was spiteful the way Foul said that to Zayne, and he let him know that by going to the nearest tree to bash his brains out, in hopes of shutting the little fucker up.

"Aw, look at what you did now you insufferable fool!" Jiminy shouted at Foulness as Zayne got in a squatting position to begin the "shutting up". "Apologize for that unneeded snippet that you gave Zayne!" Jiminy said in a rush. He was panicking now.

"Fine, I'm sorry." Foulness said. Zayne stopped what he was doing to hear the rest of the apology. "I'm sorry that you're a little bitch!" Nope, never mind. Zayne went through on his threat.

In the darkness of his unconsciousness, Zayne began to dream. It was the day that he got locked in the basement of his parents. The details weren't perfect, but they were close enough for him to make out some of the thing that his father was saying.

"No Sharen, we can't call the cops! The little bastard was killing the neighborhood's pet for the last three months. We knew about it but didn't do anything about it, all because you were worried about destroying your suburb mother image. Now that he's killed three of the neighbors' children, there's no way we're getting off the hook now." His father was shouting at what he thought was his mother, making air quotes as he was saying image, but Zayne paid little attention to him. What he was looking at was the absolute disgust on his mother's face as she stared daggers at him. If looks could kill, she would have strapped him down and put a car battery with jumper cables to him.

"So, what do you suppose we do now, Dennis? Lock him out of sight and pretend that he doesn't exist. There is no way that we can do that because we will be the first place the parent look and the cops interrogate. No, I say we just kill the little bastard and put his body with the other kids. That way, we can feign ignorance and say we haven't seen them. They were playing in the backfield and then they just disappeared, making it look like someone else killed them." She exclaimed, making Zayne wince in pain from his ears. "Yeah, that's right you little fuck, this is because you couldn't keep killing the dogs and cats that you so loved to eat." Sharen went up to him and smacked him full force in the face, knocking him over. Zayne's eyes welled up with tears at what she did, as Sharon stood over him, she continued "Why couldn't you continue on the vegan diet that I had planned for you Zayne, nasty little shit!" pulling her arm back Sharen throw out a punch this time instead. It clipped him on the left arm that was clothes to the ground, breaking the bone in multiple pieces.

Shrieking out, Zayne said, "I'm sorry, mommy, I wanted meat. Kelly said Kylee was so pretty that she was good enough to eat!" the speech that came out was barely understandable and he worked through the sobs that came from the pain in his arm.

"Sharen, that's ENOUGH. I told you that a 5-year-old couldn't take a beating like that. And I told you to give up on that shitty idea of feeding our kid that crap. You should have known that he wanted meat the first time that he came home with blood all over his mouth and shirt. Fuck, he's been watching the discovery channel since he was three and always talked about the lions." Dennis was stricken with fear, looking at the boy as he talked with Sharen.

"Like that's my fault Dennis," she hissed. "The kids too stupid to talk. He barely says anything all day, just going on his merry way playing with his toys. That it's like living with a mute. Do you know how hard it is to show off our child at getting to gather when Zayne here doesn't even say a word. NOT ONE WORD. And all the parents think that the kid is a retard. The looks they give me like it's my fault, that why I tell the mothers that most of the DNA came from you!" Sharen was smiling maliciously at that last part.

"Fuck you, stupid bitch! Let's just think. I've been watching cop shows and they say that when a murder takes place there has to be a motive, and since Zayne here is still alive, they'll be looking for him." Dennis rushed though talking mainly to himself. "So, if they don't find Zayne, then they'll think it was a kidnapping and will go on leads that we can feed them." The last part came flooding out as he came to a conclusion by himself.

"Yeah and?" Sharen stated, looking at Dennis as if he were a moron. "We still have him here and it's not like we can through him in the basement and keep him there for the rest of his life. We need to put Him somewhere they won't-"

"That's it!" Dennis shouted, scarring the still sobbing Zayne. "We can put him in the basement. There we'll chain him up so he can't get out."

"Why can't we just off the little fucker now? I hate him with every fiber of my being!" Sharen said, cutting her hand in a swift motion at Zayne.

"Because there is no way that we can hide the body, and we don't want any incriminating evidence coming back to us. In the show, the idiots always killed the victims and got caught. The smart ones kept them alive, hidden somewhere they couldn't find." Dennis was telling this while Zayne was inching away. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to be near his parents anymore.

"Don't go calling him the victim now! Were the victims in this. I had such a perfect life too, until that kid came out of me. I still haven't gotten my figure back yet and I've been doing everything that I can to get it back." The sadness in her voice didn't reach her eyes.

"Then it's settled. I have the dry wall that I was using to refurbish the garage, but I can use that to make a secret door down. I'll give you some tools so you can chain him up, don't want the little guy to escape now do we." Dennis ran to the back door that was connected to the house and leapt through, leaving Zayne alone with his mother.

"Now listen to me Zayne, gods perfect little blessing blah, I'll give you food as long as you follow mommy. And if you don't, well I guess I should show you what I mean." She got right above him again. Grabbing the flower vase that was on a shelf hanging from the wall, Sharen emptied the thing, grinning down at him. All Zayne could do was look up in horror as his beloved mom came crashing with the vase in hand.

Later, Zayne woke up in his parents' basement with his mother, taking an impact gun to the bolts that he was chained to. "Damn Sharon, is that the chains that I was planning to used to work out with? They weigh like a shit tone, like 60 pounds per chain rope." Dennis said in amazement as his wife bolting them down.

"Well, he won't be running away now will he." Sharon said with venom. The last thing Zayne seen for a while was that sadistic smile she would so often give him from now on, and how much he would grow to hate people.

______________________________________________________________________

Mr. Fipple was leaning back in his chair as the news of his latest winnings came through his screen. He had betted on the human Zayne to try to kill the new guide that he had sent. The fairy didn't even last more than 5 min. The kid was a killing machine that was so predictable, and that's how he liked his betting mark. Mr. Fipples was currently watching the said kid roaming in the forest, looking for the goblin that he spotted a mile out to the south of the little village. He was starting to get worried that the kid might take his blood thirst out on the creatures instead of killing the villagers, but he remembered that he increased the difficulty and relaxed. On that thought, he looked over to the data tech that he left in charge of getting records on if there was ever a case that the people attacked anything that threatened the town.

"Hay, Sixal!" He shouted out across the main screen room as more betting was going around. "Did you ever get any records that said anything on the tutorial allowing the townspeople to defend themselves?" The question stopped all the betting that was taking place, making the room go an eerie silent. Every fairy present stared first at the chief, then turned as one to look at Sixal, the head tech department. He got a promotion recently after an accidentally came across the data that turned the tutorial difficulty up. Everyone suspected that he found out something, but for what they didn't know.

"Yes, chief, I found that there was a case once, but it was minuscule. The dwarf that killed a villager that moved in front of his axe as he was cleaving through a group of goblins, trying to protect the town. A few of the townspeople that seen it happen started arguing with him, saying the dwarf could have stopped the swing but chose not to resulting in two more deaths. The town took it hard and wouldn't allow entry for the first tutorial trial, but that reset after he failed. Everything went back to normal afterwards." Sixal said exhaustedly, everyone loses interest in the topic except for the chief.

"So, this happens but once in a while, well that's not really what matters here as long as we monitor it." Mr. Fipples intoned.

"Sir, if I may be so blunt and ask that if there is any data that comes of this, that you would let me and me alone run through it. I am fascinated with this particular human, and it would help with the research that I'm running." The excitement in Sixal's voice was clear, but the chief of the tutorial sect didn't much care and gave it over to someone that would keep a lid on it. He didn't want this coming out that it was his fault and would keep this going as long as he had to.

"Oh, by the way. What was the skill that Zayne got from staring at the mist for so long?" He was generally curious about that because he had some money on if it was something he could actually use or if he got something for being stupid. Mr. Fipples was in thought when Sixal replied with something he didn't expect.

"Err, well, the skill that he got was called mist step. I believe that the system named it that because it was truly a missed step on Zayne coming upon it. As for what it does, give me a sec and I'll send you over the spec on it." Sixal did a little typing in the air and moved two of his fingers across the screen that was in front of him.

Mr. Fipples received the data and glossed over it, taking in the words, then stopped and reread it to double check if what he read was correct. "You have got to sugar plum fucking be kidding me. There's no way that he got something like this. The idea of that psychopath with this skill, he'd be a danger to everything and everyone that he came across." He breathed out, then taking a breath that he was forced to learn from that mandatory team building, he continued.

"Do we have any data on this skill and how to shut it down?"

"No Sir, I triple checked it through the system list of skills and this seems to be something new. As for how to shut it down, there were a number of ways of doing that, but one would have to be an even greater level in skill to counter it and that's assuming that one skill would be enough." Sixal looked around with just his eyes, making sure no one was looking too hard at them as he said his next phrase.

"There is one deterrent that we could do to ensure that no one will ever be harmed from Zayne." He winked at the chief as he said this. The bastard was spending too long with the earthling culture and was picking up on a few of their quips. But that was bound to happen after spending over 230 sun rotating cycles. (that's 230 years) And that was rushed to get the humans over to Galaria.

"Yes, and that would be?" Mr. Fipples said to get the conversation moving again. This data streaming twit was getting on his last nerve acting all chummy.

"We always keep him locked up there, and we could change a few settings on the tutorial with the townspeople. They could keep the memories of the past events that happened, so they could interact better in our cause for preoccupying Zayne's attention, so he won't pass." The nerd had a nasty smile on his face that gave the chief sugar bumps up his back.

Coughing in his arm, he looked the geek in the eyes and told him to proceed with the plan. If things got bad, he now had a simple escape fairy to throw in front of the sect console. "How many days can you go back to?" he asked the data tech.

"Just to last night, but it will start the cycle. That's what is most important." Sixal said. He turned and walked back to his screen to start on another stream of the data that he loved.

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Old farmer Patrick wasn't that old, at least in his perspective. He was roughly 54 years old and was a little more the 6 ft 1in. Blond hair with salt at the temples went past his blue eyes. The beard that was growing had a 9 o'clock shadow that came too quickly for him to stay on it. Toned and tanned from plowing the fields through the years, he felt that he had some life in him. Or he did till he had the worst nightmare that he ever had in his life. He stopped with that and shifted to the new thought that he had. The so-called life that he lived was all but one day long. Where did the years go? Getting back on track, he thought of the dream of last night and sat bolt right up in his bed as he scanned his bare body, waking the misses up in the process. Jenifer was 5 years younger and more than a foot shorter than him, with brown hair that went all the way to her ass. Her eyes matched her hair in a way that made him fall in love all over again.

Shaking her, he said, "Honey, do you remember what I was doing last night?" he left the question in the air.

"Yes Pat, god can you calm down a little. You're scaring me with all this jittery shat that's going on. Last night you went out to the barn and didn't come back until I was passed out in bed. I swear if I catch you drinking moon shine with Harrison again then I'm going to make you cold dinner again." With that, she turned in bed on her side and went back to sleep. Patrick scanned the room; it was a humble place to call home with only two bedrooms and an outhouse out back near the field. That was to keep the smell away from the house because Jenifer said if she had to smell it one more time in the heat again, she would bury him in it. The home was a log cabin with a thatch roof like all the homes here in the hamlet. He looked at the walls like it was for the first time. Pine lined the room and the rest of the house with dry clay in between.

The furniture in his room was the bed that was thick with wood to make it stable for the late nights with the misses and a chair to help him put his socks on before he left to start the day, a window was straight across from the bed, the only light that came in. The nightstand that was still in dire need to be finish carving. An oil lamp was there but nothing else, and the last thing in the room was the dresser.

He made his way over to it and got undressed. He needed to go to the barn and see what happen in there, or if it was a dream. Getting dressed was hard on him, still waking up, his body hurt from the fast movement that he was doing. That only came from old age, so he guessed that the life in him wasn't that young. Stepping out of his room, he walked quietly past his two sons, Henry and Jacob's room, as he went to the door. Making it to the barn wasn't a problem. What the problem was, was that there was blood all over the place and a trail that was leading north into the woods. That's when the unthinkable happened to old farmer Patrick. He got a blue notification in his face stating that he learned the skill tracking.