It took several hours before we were beaten enough to be considered finished. Abel apparently didn't subscribe to Alden's theory that giving up was enough, and forced us to keep going. Luckily we had Jessie to heal us up after he crushed us. Speaking of being crushed though, we were substantially better prepared than last time, and did pretty well for the first hour or so. We barely got destroyed at all for a while, but eventually the damage started to add up, and slowing down produced a vicious cycle.

Once we finished our day off, we headed home, and I proposed probably the weirdest possible date. "Hey, I was thinking of logging in to Doom Sovereign." I said in a faux casual tone. "I'm hoping that playing a bit will help me get some ideas for alterations to my sub skills to help me rank it up. Do you want to try it out?" Callie had never played to my knowledge, which made sense. I'd mostly played as an escape. Callie had reasons to dislike her life when she was younger, but she'd just LITERALLY escaped from them rather than playing video games. I kind of thought her way was better.

She chewed her lip. "Oh yeah, I've heard Benny and you talking about playing that a few times. I haven't heard you mention it lately though, so I kind of assumed you quit. You were pretty into the game before Ascending right? Why hasn't it come up before?" Her tone was curious, but also kind of flippant, like she was trying to let me know I could blow it off or change the subject if I wanted to.

I smiled at her softly. "Mostly a mix of not having time and not really having a reason. I can use most of those abilities in real life now. I played it for adventure and fun, but my life is plenty adventurous now, and I have fun with you. I've also been like...on the edge of death for a large portion of the last few months, so there wasn't a ton of spare time. I still won't get much from it granted, given my Beginner Skill makes me the best player who has ever lived, but I want to see if I can get ideas on how to guide my subskills as I upgrade them."

"Huh." She said in interest. "Virtual reality date. I can dig it. Sure. I'm in." She shot me a wide grin. "But you can't peek when I design my character. I want to have fun with it." I agreed and she hopped up from the couch and ran off to find one of the scan boxes around the house. I considered inviting Benny, but he was at the Academy with Celine, and I doubted he wanted me interrupting girlfriend time any more than I wanted to give up time with Callie. I promised myself we would do something just the two of us soon though.

I waited about ten minutes before I got a text with a screen name for the game and headed to my room to boot up my own scan box. I booted up the game and waited, logging in to my old character for the first time. The world of Doom Sovereign faded in around me, and I found myself standing in a familiar house. I pulled out a magic mirror and contacted Callie at the address she gave me, giving her directions to get here. It didn't take too long, she skipped the tutorial under my instructions. I could give her lessons better than the game itself at this point.

When she finally knocked on the door I let her in with a smile that froze on my face when I opened the door. I tried my hardest to suppress a grin, but failed as I took in her avatar. "You're playing a giantess? Really?" Callie looked...well, like Callie, only about twice her size. She had to stoop to come into the house. I rolled my eyes. "Did you specifically agree to this so you could be taller than me? I thought you liked the height difference."

She snickered. "I do, but this is fun. I wanted to be the one towering over you for a change." She grunted. "Callie want manling. Callie drag manling back to cave." Her gruff, faux cavewoman voice was ridiculous and I rolled my eyes so hard I briefly worried they would get stuck that way.

I turned to head back into the house. "Ok, first of all, I think that's speciesist. Not that I know if giants are real. But if they are, not cool. Second of all, I was planning to give you rogue lessons, but it doesn't work so well if your physical dimensions are dramatically altered. Your legs go up to my collar bone. Anything I show you is going to be completely useless."

She snorted. "Um, no? This is my actual dimensions, just doubled. The giant race on here has like, a thousand different physical modification options. Seriously, if I didn't have the Focus I do, I'd have spent about an hour going through the options. Regardless, I'm the same size I am normally, just...like, bigger. Anything I learn will still be applicable. But why teach me rogue skills? Do you think I can get the DS Mastery Skill?"

I shrugged. "The Minor Skill maybe. It's kind of personalized past that. Might not even work, I've never asked anyone if you can teach Unique Skills. I feel like you have to be able to, but most of my knowledge won't translate up to Lesser for you. It's all pretty personalized. Still, I mostly just want to have some fun, and teaching can be a great way to understand the finer points of your abilities, right?"

"Well." She said contemplatively. "I guess that's true. Learning seems like it might be neat, and even if I don't get the Skill, it'll help me understand your abilities better, which should help with team combat." She shrugged. "I'm in. Show me what I'm doing, little guy." I glared up at her. Oh I was not enjoying this at all. I made a note to never grant her any height wishes. I ALSO liked the height difference.

So we spent the next hour or two working on Rogue skills. I tried to teach her some of my basics. Touch of Tears, Double Trouble, just whatever came to mind, and as I went I started to pay more attention to how all of my skills built on each other. How they interacted and how that interaction played into my fighting style. I started to alter my skills slowly like I'd been planning, letting Callie practice on her own as I worked on them. First up was Mercy Kill. As a finisher it was strong, but it was also limited. It was useful as an add on, but it wasn't the final blow it used to be.

I considered how to make it more useful, and decided to extend the time. I started warping the skill, the soul weight difficult to manage, but not impossible. I had plenty of charges, forty eight of them at the moment, and I took my time, trying different configurations. I tried making it a persistent effect, but it almost crippled the boost. I tried increasing the boost. I tried doing both, but the soul weight was too much for both me and the skill, and I got the feeling if I kept pushing I might break one of us.

I cast the skill again and again and again, I let myself get lost in the pain and the concentration, until finally, I found a configuration that worked. Once I'd done that I started casting it over and over again. Each time was painful and difficult but each one got easier and easier until finally, I could cast it easily with no weight on my soul and I felt that click of recognition from the skill. Mercy Kill had changed. Instead of one bulk attack I'd managed to split it into three separate fifty percent boosted attacks.

As soon as I finished it I dropped to the ground, exhausted, head swimming with pain. I might have rushed it a bit. Callie said my name a few times and then cut the game off to run across the house to check on me. I closed my own game down and lay there on my hands and knees eyes closed as I tried to make the pain go away. Callie arrived and held me as I shook on the ground. I needed to be careful. Having more charges meant more chances to strain my soul, but it didn't mean my soul was up to that strain in the first place.

Eventually, the pain receded, and I was lying there in Callie's lap as she shushed me and stroked my hair, telling me things would be ok. I opened my eyes with a groan. "I resent past me for agreeing to wake up today. Existing hurts. I think my hair aches." My voice was rough and even my own words sent spikes of agony through my head, but they were lessing in severity as I went/ I hadn't pushed TOO far past my limits. Just a bit. It was a relief feeling myself recover.

Callie chuckled softly, which felt like knives in my brain, and helped me sit up. She kept her voice quiet as she responded. "Alright you giant baby. You're ok. You had me worried there you know. I've never seen it that bad before. What the hell happened? Your head gets a bit sensitive when you work on your soul strength, but you don't black out from the pain." Her blue eyes bored into mine intensely, as if trying to scan my brain for damage, and I felt like shit for making her worry.

I leaned down to kiss her gently for a minute, pulling back with a tender smile. "I just misjudged something after a rank up. It was my bad and it won't happen again. I'm sorry to worry you, but I'm glad to know how much you care." I pulled her against me and she rested her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes as she sat there and drank in my presence. I'd really scared her this time.

She'd seen me hurt before, but we had a healer for that. Soul damage wasn't something you could heal. If I accidentally shattered my soul I'd be fucked, and there was nothing Jessie could do. Seeing me black out like that must have been terrifying. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, apparently ready to resume talking. Her eyes pinned me in a harsh stare. "Be more careful in the future. Ass. I love you, and..." She looked away shyly. "I don't know what I'd do without you." She cleared her throat. "But, so I can keep an eye on you I think you should sleep in my room tonight."

I gave her a lopsided grin. "Hey, don't worry so much I'll be fine. I'm right down the hall and...oh." I froze as the meaningful look she was giving me sank in. She meant sleep in her room. Or like. Not sleep. That was...well my headache was suddenly much less of a priority. I swallowed hard. "I...um, are you sure? Or like...not that there's anything you need to be sure about if you don't want to be sure or anything because we're just going to be sleeping unless sleeping isn't what you mean-"

She reached up and put a finger to my lips, trying not to snicker as she stood up and strolled over to the door after cutting me off, she opened the door. "Well? Are you coming or not? As for sleeping..." She shrugged, giving me a wicked grin. "We don't have training until later tomorrow. We can afford to sleep in." I blame the pain for tripping as I scrambled to my feet and bolted after her. That was definitely the reason.