I sighed. “All right, lay it on me.”

“Come with me. I’ll explain on the way.”

“Can I have a little time to you know, give Mewi here some context?”

“...I’ll allow one minute.”

And she actually took out what I had to assume was a timepiece.

“Okay, super short version then. So, when I was on my way to finding you on Marital, that thing that I JUST said must never happen...happened. Now, this guy who somehow found it out has me by the scrotum and I gotta do whatever he says, and I have to assume he sent her.”

“So, you’re being blackmailed then. What are you planning to do to him?!”

Aeselvell gave Mewi a patient look. “My client simply instructed me to collect Lheticus, so that he can do him a small favor. Mortal danger will not be involved, and you will have him back safely in a short time. In any case, your minute is up, Lheticus.”

“Then let’s go, I suppose.”

Now it was Mewi’s turn to get upset at me. “Just like that? Do you seriously trust her?!”

“No.” Was that the barest hint of a snorting laugh out of Aeselvell? “But like I said, her ‘client’ knows that, so he has me by the scrotum.”

We got into a waiting hovercab. “So,” I said, “what can you tell me about this favor?”

“You are to participate in a certain training exercise. It will take place in time-dilated virtual space, so your partner will not miss you for long. In addition, we will not set foot outside Safe Zones at any point, so no mortal danger will be involved, as I said.”

We got out at the nearest minor teleporter, and took it to the nearest major teleporter. When I saw the destination she entered, my eyes widened. “Satslik? Your client is based there?”

“That is correct.”

“Teleporting to there is an arm and a leg, even for me...”

“My client will cover the expense for transportation to and from where the training exercise will take place.”

“Ok...”

This was definitely not typical blackmailer behavior. There had to be something kept from me.

That feeling only got stronger as we moved through Satslik. I don’t know how there existed a place that was as out of the way as the warehouse we ended up at. The person I bumped into was just inside. He seemed to be in a terrible hurry. “Good, you’re here. Call me Otto. What I need from you is simple. My team is coming along well in their training. In fact, they’ve reached a level where they can’t get much benefit from facing virtual opponents anymore, so I thought I’d start getting them real sparring partners.

To be honest, I never really intended to reveal your secret, but I wanted to make certain you’d agree to come. For now, I just want you for one 12-hour session. I’ll pay you 20 Smekkers—for the session, yes, but call most of it due compensation for emotional damages.”

Something still seemed off about all this, but Otto was doing a marvelous job keeping me too off balance to get suspicious. “Okay,” I shrugged.

“Good, the team and their trainer are already warming up and waiting for you in the virtual space. We have a guest pod all set up with the maximum membership level for you, please get in now.”

I almost mentioned that I have the highest membership level anyway, but decided to keep my mouth shut. I entered into an arena-like training space. There with me were four more children, at least one clearly even younger than Otto, and a man who looked of middle-age who had a serious drill sergeant vibe. “I am Ramesthes,” he said, “my employer is a man who does not believe in wasting time, even time dilated x20, so I will not and I expect you not to either. This exercise is simple. Each of Otto’s teammates will take turns sparring with you. The virtual environment will restore your health, stamina, and mana to full after each match. There will be no downtime between matches. You can quit on us before 12 hours if you really feel you need to, but if you do you forfeit the agreed payment. Do you understand?”

“All right.”

“Then let’s begin.”

The lone girl on the team stepped up first. “Hi, I’m Julia. Let’s have a good match.”

Haha, a good match. Right. First Julia, then Jeremy, then the small boy Elliott, then finally Jason who was apparently Otto’s brother. It quickly became apparent that when Otto had mentioned emotional damages, he wasn’t talking about the blackmail.

I got beat up, over and over and over. I knew there had to be a catch. He must have thought there was no way I would last the entire 12 hours. Well, even if I was nothing but a glorified punching bag, I’d be @#$%ed if I let this go all his way.

***************************************

Six hours into the exercise, Otto had joined the virtual space, and was looking on the time-looped massacre along with Ramesthes. “He doesn’t quit easily, at least,” said Otto, “but what do you think?”

“Remarkable,” said Ramesthes, “possibly as remarkable as any member of your team, only lacking in polish and the experience, the strengthening of his stat numbers, his tactics, and his mentality from clearing the floors and going through the training they have. And he lacks spells—doesn't seem to have anything to attack with but Mana Bolt and Lesser Fireball. But he’s making the fights with each of them last longer and longer as he goes. At the start of this, he’d be lucky to last ten seconds per fight. Now it’s taking each of them almost 30 to put him down. Sometimes more than half a minute.

His rate of adapting to them is incredible. Maybe not as good as Jeremy, but still. Jason in particular is getting frustrated enough that he might end up using a summon and costing the team the exercise.”

“He’s trying to benefit from a situation as unpleasant as this, improving his technique and battle sense bit by bit as he goes,” said Otto, “that is remarkable. He might even be able to give me trouble one day, if he lives long enough. I wonder if I’m really doing the right thing, helping him to understand just how far above him some existences in the Tower, even in Area 1, can be?”

Ramesthes shrugged. “He could be a good ally too one day, just as easily—depending on his character.”

“Yes, his character...someone with a class like his is volatile by definition, so I wouldn’t want us to work with him directly after this, but if he’s a bomb that we can convince to go off where we want him to, that would be useful.”

***************************************

It wasn’t even that unpleasant anymore. I still wasn’t anywhere close to beating any of them, but I was much better at surviving. At least the looks they had been giving me at the start—derisive from Jeremy and Jason, questioning from Julia, and pitying from Elliott—had faded, once I started making them try a little. When a loud tone sounded, signaling the end of the 12 hours, I almost wanted to keep going. I could feel I was a better fighter, or at least much more used to fighting, just from this.

After the tone ended, I heard slow clapping—from Otto. “Good job everyone, good job Lheticus. Before you go, there’s something I need to tell you. This training exercise wasn’t actually as straightforward as I made it out to me.

It was an exercise for my teammates in hiding their power. And if you had called them out at any point that they were much stronger than they were acting, they’d have failed.

Elliot can actually use Water element as well as Wind, but was restricted to just Wind. Jeremy was forbidden from making himself undetectable. Jessica was limited to only three special moves, and Jason is actually a summoner class—he usually doesn’t fight directly at all.”

Otto clapped his hands. “Now for the final part of the exercise. It’s time you guys revealed to our guest what you can really do. Let’s have a 4-way spar, and the winner gets a reward.”

What happened next, I wanted to shit myself from. I thought they had been holding back, but I had no idea how much.

“I thought...I thought I was actually making progress against them. They were all holding back that much the whole time?!”

Otto ignored the question. “Tell me something, Lheticus. I saw your entire status. What was the level of difficulty you cleared the Tutorial on?”

“High difficulty. I thought...from what I’ve found out since then, I thought I was really strong already but...”

“Exactly. And let me tell you, there are still those in this Area, let alone the whole Tower, who I would have my team steer clear of.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Otto continued, looking much more friendly now, “taking on the Tutorial, or any floor, on High difficulty and clearing the mission is something to feel good about.” His teammates gave him some skeptical looks at this, as if to say this wasn’t something he would ever tell them. “It puts you in a very high percentage among everyone in Area 1. But you’re still nowhere near the very top. And another thing. In case you’re thinking of trying even higher difficulties at some point—and honestly, knowing what I know about you, about that secret of yours, I’m not even sure I’d really blame you for thinking you could—but in the Tower, every higher difficulty is an entire realm above the last. Don’t even think of trying Extreme until you can fight as well as they can and don’t try Very High lightly either.”

“I see. Well, I don’t really get why you’ve done all this, but thanks I guess. But you’ll keep your word and not blackmail me, right?”

Otto waved his hand. “We’re done here. I assume you’re going to share what happened with that person you were looking for that you told me about, but just don’t go shouting in the streets that I helped you. As much as I’d prefer otherwise, I now have a reputation to keep. I can’t have people thinking I do favors for nothing. Probably there aren’t many who’d believe you anyway. But in any case, your secret’s safe with me.”

“Absolutely. I am grateful to you, and I take this gesture in the spirit in which it was intended, so I hope you understand I mean no offense when I say I hope we don’t meet again.”

Otto laughed. “No, you’re right. That would probably be for the best. Goodbye.”

To my surprise, Otto exited the virtual space when I did. “Oh, before I forget, here.” He handed me the Smekkers almost carelessly. “I’ve spent quite enough time on this,” he muttered, “I have so much to do, too much to do, if I’m going to contain the fallout from revealing myself at the Constant Competition. Aeselvell, I hope you enjoyed this little mini vacation because things are gonna get crazy...”

Conjecture #7: To Otto, time was MUCH more valuable than money.