(Trigger warning. Abuse. There is implied abuse in this chapter. I just wanted to be sure to do my due diligence as a writer. It ends after the first dashed line.)

'I felt so powerful. How did I lose to them.' Norman thought as he sluggishly hobbled to camp.

His body was on fire. The critical hit dealt by Darius set the stage for the end of the fight. In all of Norman's life, he had never been hit this hard. He thought back to his life before coming to college. Throughout his life, he has tried to be powerful. There was always a fight, always a battle. He needed to be powerful, it was a matter of survival. He came from a world where his greatest enemy lived right under his nose. After years of abuse and struggling, the strength he gained saved his mother and himself.

He flashed back to when he was younger.

A young boy no older than 10 is running up a flight of stairs. When he gets to the top of the stairs he quickly rounds a corner and sprints full speed down the hall.

"Get doownn here you little shhhhhhittt." A gruff man comes running up the stairs after him. The man makes it to the top of the stairs and starts gaining on Norman as is running down the hall. "I will break your feet if you keep running."

Norman looks back to see the man gaining on him, and runs even faster. Right before the man catches him, he stumbles and falls. "I'm going to beeeaat the shiiitt out of you when I catch you," The man slurred in his drunken state.

Norman quickly slammed the door to his room closed after entering and locked his door. He slid down the door and cupped his hand to his face covering his eyes. His heart was beating fast, and his adrenalin rush was still in effect. A loud thud could be heard in his ears.

Suddenly there was a loud bang on the door. Norman felt the door hit him and caused him to slump forward. The man was trying his hardest in his drunken stupor to break into the room. Suddenly, the door's look gave in flinging young Norman onto the floor. As he turned over he could see the silhouette of his tormentor in the doorway.

"I told yoooou what would happen w*%&# I caught you," he said as he entered the room. Hours later Norman uncurled from the fetal position. As he moved, pain shot through his back and abdomen. "I swear one day I'll kill you. You won't put your hands on me or my mother ever again." Norman mumbled these dark thoughts to himself. He swore he would save himself and his mother from their grim fate.

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(If you skipped to this point because of my trigger warning, just know that Norman is obsessed with becoming strong so that he never feels helpless again.)

Norman snapped out of his flashback as he realized he was standing face to face with Zack.

"What the hell happened to you?" Zack asked, looking really confused about the current state Norman was in.

"It was a result of our sparring. Do you think one of the medics can give me a once over? I normally would just brush it off, but I can't keep training if I have something broken." Norman avoided making eye contact with Zack. He knew he brought this on himself. 'How could I be so cocky. I went into that fight without knowing what they were capable of. I should have thought about this more before challenging them at the same time.'

"Come with me to the field hospital. I will use my mana to see the extent of the damage." Zack led him towards the field hospital. 'What the hell went down in that training session.'

After a few minutes, Zack was able to pinpoint the issues that were ailing Norman. His knee was bruised, his kidney was heavily bruised, some of his ribs have hairline fractures. Zack pictured each of these systems in his mind and his mana flowed to each of these issues.

Norman felt a familiar sensation. It reminded him of when he got cut when they were fighting the goblin near the mushroom forest. As the pain of his injuries flared up from the healing something in his mind clicked. 'How could I not see it. They all have abilities and skills that are really useful. I call them trash yet they are not falling apart given the situation. I need to make myself stronger. I can't fall behind them.'

The healing session lasted for 30 more minutes. Most of the damage he received has been mended. He opened his system menu to look at his stats. He was currently sitting at 50 Health. He was only 10 away from being full Health. He focused on the amount of exp he needed to level up still. "I need your help."

"Excuse me?" Zack was confused. He realized that he was already helping him, so there must have been something more he wanted. 'Norman hates everyone. I never thought I would hear him ask for help.'

"I want to level up," Norman said directly. "Everyone else is useful to the mission in their own way. Adriana can create things, you heal, your girlfriend can scout and ambush enemies. I need to be stronger so that I can destroy anything that gets in my way. Will you help me level up?"

"I see what you are getting at here. How do you plan to pull that off?" Zack asked.

"We are going to hunt more goblins, just the two of us." Norman stood proudly.

"You mean just the three of us," Mike said, walking up to the two of them. "I have a feeling we all could use a bit more fighting experience. I can claim that we are doing a scouting mission to make sure that no more goblins are planning to attack the camp.

"I guess it was meant to be then. Let's go." Norman's frown disappeared as he walked towards the gate.

"I guess I don't have the option to back out. Just so you know I am a pacifist." Zack followed after Norman to the gate.

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"I think we should call it quits for now," Darius said, finishing the last rep of their exercise. "You two did great today."

With that, they all received a notification that they received a strength Stat Point. X could feel the tingling sensation of his stat point increasing. This was something he could get used to.

"Have you guys taken the time to check out the guild info yet?" X asked as he plopped on the ground.

"I did. I was really surprised when you added the entire Patrol Team to the list." Elana expressed. "Also, why invite the professor?"

"I was also wondering about that," Darius chimed in.

"That was a coincidence. Originally I just wanted to provide proof of our power before telling them about the quest we have. The system tried to invite him to the party, but because it was full it ended up creating a guild." X explained.

"Well, at least we know the base will be defended with that buff we get while we are here. I'm glad you were able to turn that off before that fight. I don't think we would have been able to beat Norman if he had that stat boost." Darius pointed out.

"Now the only issue is filling out the last slot." X scratched his head. "I need to pick someone that will benefit from having the skills associated with the system. I was thinking about someone who crafts, but I couldn't see anyone immediately come to mind."

"I'm sure Adriana would appreciate not being the only crafter in the camp with the ability to use the system," Elana said. "What about the person that is in charge of building structures. I heard she was an Architecture major."

"Oh, that would be really helpful actually," X said as he leaped up from the ground. "I need to go and see her. What is her name?"

"I think it was Candy or Carolyn... something along those lines." Elana chuckled uneasily. "She is usually near the center of camp when she isn't inspecting the structures she has already built. I imagine that Adriana would know her."

"Thanks, Lana, I'll go see if I can find her," X ran off to attempt to find the Architecture major.

"Lana... Is that my nickname now?" She cast Darius a puzzled look.

"I think it fits you," Darius said before he took a swig of water.