The first thing I thought when I saw that good old Hazimon was coming back was:

  'Oomph. He does not look good. Maybe I overdid it a bit.'

  The second thought that went through my head was:

  '(Gnome) me. He really did a number on his face there. It isn't healing.'

  Then the air shivered with that all too familiar rush of light and displaced air and my third thought was:

  'Holy (Gnome)! If looks could kill then he'd be in breach of contract and we'd both be dead!'

  Indeed.

  There was something about the way the Dragon had rent his own face to bloody ribbons with his own claws towards the end that didn't quite signal mental stability. Quite the opposite in fact. I had a distinct feeling that he would had one of those World War 1 thousand yard stares on his face if he were human.

  'How odd that he can look so human with the whole seahorse thing going on.' I mused.

  'Okay. Okay Sully. Be cool. He's ben through a lot. Yes. But he ASKED for this. Even after you explicitly told him the experienced would not be pleasant and even after you asked for an extra stipulation to the contract. He knew what he was getting into and he knows it. Besides, it's not all bad. I mean, the guy has lived for a long, long , LONG time. Surely someone who's been around the block as many times as he has come across all sorts of nasty business in his life. Surely this can't be all that bad in the grand scheme of things. And besides, he got, what? 92 levels out of the whole deal? In what amounted to 6 real-life hours on this side? I know plenty of people who would sell their families for those kinds of gains.'

  Naturally, by plenty of people, I meant the Seeking (Gnome)ing Drake. But the point still stood.

  If I were a Savant who's lived longer than some civilizations have existed and I finally got a second Type, I'd be pretty stoked about levelling it up too.

  Okay.

  Right.

  It's okay.

  Play it cool.

  Cool as a cucumber.

  "Hey buddy! I saw you from here! You did amazing! I can already tell that you're a natural at this!"

  The air shivered as the master split the atmosphere in half. The world suffering the weight of a preternatural charge as he rushed me. Then, he stopped. His bloody claws mere inches from my throat.

  His eyes went sideways.

  "System notification?" I guessed. "Maybe about the whole Total Atomic Annihilation business?"

  Hazimon did not move his claws. Only his eyes.

  Yet that was more than enough to send shivers up my spine.

  'Oh yeah. [Social Hunter IV] is doing it's thing alright.'

  "Look, I get it. Okay? I do. But I know you have a perfect memory due to the whole supreme Enhancer deal you've got. I know that I warned you and you know that you blew me off. You said something along the lines of doing anything you possibly could to get ahead after those eons being stuck and I said it would be terrible and you said it would be fine and that it wasn't anything you couldn't handle. You will also recall that I repeated myself at least three times and that I made you sign that additional contract because I knew what was coming. You can't really blame me for this, can you?"

  The Dragon kept looking at me with that haunted expression. The bloody strips of sundered flesh on his face looking more and more like trails of crimson tears as the seconds passed.

  The Dragon blinked. As if I were some dog that got up on its hind paws, walked about the room, put on a shirt and a pair of pants and asked for an allowance.

  "You hurt me on purpose." He finally managed.

  I winced. Visibly.

  Then I spoke once more. Making sure to sound as empathetic and understanding as possible, while keeping any hint of sarcasm out of my voice.

  "Well, yeah? That was the whole point. Right? To push yourself to your limits and overcome them? That's what being an Esper is all about. You said so yourself. You even threw me into an Instance filled with a storm capable of killing just about anything given enough time and a bunch of highly-lethal super techy traps that got worse the more people progressed. Now, I didn't have a good time and I let you know that. But I was still thankful. I got a lot out of the experience and given the option, I'd be on board to do something similar."

  I gave him a few more seconds to digest the argument.

  "You... where did you get the idea for such a horrible place?" He asked out of the blue.

  "The DMV?" I asked. Then I shrugged. "Oh, I may have exaggerated some things here and there. But it's something all humans in my part of the world had to deal with once they turned 16."

  I let out a dry chuckle.

  "You know that lady with the feet? The one you kept running into and that was mostly immune to Telepath powers? I actually know her in real life. Or, rather, I knew her. Ran into her once in a real world DMV when she was having some kind of breakdown. Didn't inconvenience me overmuch in the grand scheme of things. But her antics did put her in the crosshairs of the Tall Man. She... uh. Didn't have a happy ending."

  "She is fortunate." Hazimon declared. "The Drake's blackest deeds would have seemed as if they were overflowing with the milk of Gozo's kindness; Compared to what I would have done to her."

  The news did seem to calm him down a bit though.

  "It would seem I underestimated your species." He said with a low grumble. "This whole time, I was under the impression that you were a slovenly, lazy race. Content with wallowing in hedonism and debauchery as soon as you got any small amount of power. I did not consider that your kind at large might have such terrible trials in place to grow your mental fortitude. And that you make 16 year old children go through this."

  He shuddered.

  "I am no stranger to terrible trials of initiation into adulthood. But the ones I am most familiar with involve the hunting of some great beast of the climbing of a tall mountain or... other things. Some species force siblings to kill each other or lovers to separate."

  His beady eyes stared into mine.

  "This DMV trial seems singularly cruel. Even for gnomes."

  Ouch.

  That...

  That actually hurt.

  "Well, now. I don't know if it was that bad. I mean, come on. Everybody goes through it and ... yeah. Nobody likes it. But its part of growing up you know? I just exaggerated a few things to help you improve."

  His eyes went from hard, judging orbs, into something resembling pity.

  "Oh my goodness. You... you actually think that."

  He put a bloody clawed hand to his mouth tube.

  "To think that you have all internalized your trauma to the extent that you don't view it for the torture that it is."

  He choked back a sob. Then placed a re-assuring hand on my shoulder.

  "Forgive me, Solomon. I was... I was insensitive. Please know that you will always have me if you need someone to help you get through this. Scars never fully heal, but we can allow them to fade given enough time and help from our friends."

  'Okay that was pushing things a bit too far.' I thought.

  "Thank you. Friend. For your understanding." Is what I said.

  The Dragon nodded.

  "Indeed. I... please. Give me a few moments to take stock of my surroundings. I... I have to remind myself that I really am here ad that I'm not going to wake up in that..."

  He gulped. Loudly.

  "In the bad place again."

  That worked for me.

  I went over to a distant corner and started working on my new combined abilities some more. Pushing more Psy into my body while absorbing the different minerals found within the walls.

  I spread then around my outer layers and my bones, just as before. But now I tried to bring more of the metals into my other organs. My hearts and my liver. My lungs and my stomach. My brain and the spiraling tangle of nerves going down my spine.

  'Strange.' I mused. 'I thought it would feel more... different.'

  I decided to change tactics. Forming a layer of metal on my hands, before I started punching the walls. Over and over again. With slightly more Psy each time.

  The exercise proved to be monotonous. The motions breaking my fingers into splinters over and over and over again while the Dragon went from shivering in the corner to sipping juices to sudden bouts of sobbing while curled up in a ball.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  'Honestly. I didn't take him for such a drama queen. I mean sure, he was dropped head first in a vat of saturated human misery with no way out and no way to tune out the dread and despair flowing around him while it also slowly consumed him from the inside out until there was nothing left but the desire for the sweet release of death... but that was just the average Tuesday at the DMV.'

  I nodded to myself. Knowing I was right.

  'Being a Telepath is all about being in tune with the world beyond the Veil. The world of the mind beyond reality. With all its joys and crushing pits of sadness. If he's this beat up about a few thousand minds walling in inescapable, all-consuming despair, then he's in for a really rough time when he starts levelling it more seriously.'

  People would always have their own feelings after all. They would have their highs and their lows. Their good days and the days where death seemed preferable to life. No one would stop feeling that consuming dread because someone else was listening.

  Six-year-old me learned that lesson all too well.

  'Wait, do I need to see a therapist?'

  Henry had certainly thought so. And now the Dragon.

  'Nah. I'm fine.' I thought with certainty.

  Then I went to punching the walls with all my strength and breaking my fingers over and over again.

  "I'm ready to talk now." Hazimon's voice called out from behind.

  "Nice." I said. "Now we can talk about this new deal you want to make."

  "Not a new deal." He corrected. "More of an amendment. One based on the things I've seen over the last few days."

  I nodded along.

  "Fair enough." I waved him forwards. "What do you think we should change about our deal?"

  "You need to leave Expert Difficulty." He stated solemnly.

  I didn't say anything.

  He went on.

  "Stop for a moment and consider what the Tutorial is for. Really stop to think about it."

  "It's there to prepare Espers for the wider Labyrinth."

  "Exactly." He brought out another glass of juice and downed in in one long slurp. Almost as if to get the taste of old DMV lady socks out of his mouth.

  "And what do you suppose you are getting out of the Expert difficulty by this point? Hmn? What part of that Tutorial Instance is helping you grow and develop?"

  I started nodding along.

  "Okay. I see your point."

  "I'm not finished." He cut me off. "Not only are you not developing any more, but you are having a detrimental effect on all the other Students around you. Things have become far too safe for them."

  I narrowed my eyes.

  "Roughly 4 out of 5 of us are dead." I pointed out. "Are you saying that things should be more difficult than that?"

  "Yes." He answered at once. "Mind you I'm not saying that more of you should die, but at this point all those who've been artificially brought up to the top of the first Tier are going to stay there. That is, they are currently level 50 in one or more Types, but most of that work was not their own."

  He pointed at me.

  "It was yours. And now you've also become a safety net that keeps the weaker members of your group from properly pushing themselves. They will not earn new Types. They will not enter into the second Tier."

  "I was under the impression that such outcomes were par for the course." I countered.

  "They are." He allowed. "But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm sure there are enough talented young ones in your current group that one or two of them should stand out. Or more. You aren't doing them any favors by being around them like an overbearing mother. Nor are you helping them in the long run. You know this already, but the Tutorial offers opportunities that no other part of the Labyrinth has. The ability boards are one, but there is also the relative lack of competition to consider."

  He threw a thumb at a random wall to indicate the wider multiverse.

  "Out there, the gnomes ae real. As are many, many other threats like pirates, slavers, petty warlords and... let us not forget... other Savants. Those who may or may not be as talented as you or I or the Seeking Drake, but who will be head and shoulders above whatever your people can throw at them. I say this again. You do your people no favors by coddling them."

  The Dragon leaned back in his chair.

  "Not to mention the other pressures I am facing."

  "The Spider still tattling on me?" I scoffed. "I haven't even done anything wrong!?"

  He stared me down.

  "What? I haven't! I'll even go so far as to invite you to look at all my recordings through the System."

  His stare deepened.

  "I have had suspicions that you were stupid before. The Instance's design proves otherwise. Stop dancing around the issue."

  I made sure to sigh theatrically.

  "Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Difference between the letter and the spirit of the rules and all that. I got so much stuff out of the few months I've been here that it could be argued that I shouldn't be considered a Student anymore."

  I raised a finger to forestall him.

  "But that is just an opinion. An opinion that doesn't even come from a normal sentient being to boot. I still get the final say on whether to move out of here early after our deal."

  "You do." The Dragon confirmed. "Which is why I am offering you a deal in the first place. I have considered the Spider's arguments. As well as those of my fellow, lesser Enforcers. The former wishes you kicked out of the difficulty and moved on to Master. The latter wishes you expelled from the Tutorial entirely."

  I raised an eyebrow.

  "Yeah? I am actually aware of that. Orphan Maker was never under direct control and the others should have been freed after you were alerted. I foresaw those possibilities. Though none of the futures I saw had anything to do with you."

  I crossed my legs.

  "I believe some of them mean to ambush me with a bunch of old master working together as soon as I leave."

  I shook my head.

  "None of the futures I saw end well for them."

  The Dragon let out a dry chortle.

  "I'm no Seer and I could have told you that. But, well...."

  He hesitated.

  "I'm afraid that I still have a job to do and... the more I see of you, the more I think they have a point. I wouldn't throw you out of the Tutorial entirely yet because I want you to be as strong as possible to fight the Drake of course. But I do have to see their point. I am nothing if not fair."

  I nodded again.

  "Okay. So you want me to move up a difficulty. With Vince and Thunder Fist."

  "And your friend Henry and some of the others you improved so much during the punitive actions." He added. "As clumsy as he is, that man is currently overqualified even for Master difficulty. Regardless of his actual skills, the numbers on his status would have local warlords running for the hills."

  The idea seemed to amuse him.

  "I will allow the tall one to stay in his Instance. Since he seems to rely on diplomacy more than anything else. But the others have got to go."

  "Okay then." I said calmly. "What's the incentive for me in all this? Why shouldn't I just point to our already existing deal and say that I'm not interested?"

  "Mainly because I suspect that you will be very interested." He replied. "I mean to give you early access to my own Type, should you accept."

  It was very hard to keep myself from jumping up and down like a monkey in heat at that.

  Indeed, if the Dragon had made this offer before I got all those weird effects applied to my body that suppressed and later controlled my expressions, I'd probably be doing cartwheels all over the place. Howling like a mongoose on a whole cocktail of illicit substances.

  (Gnome). I still might do that away from prying eyes.

  'Thank you [Social Hunter IV]. You get more useful by the second.'

  "I'm interested." I said instead. "But we already agreed to that. And I don't see any reason to leave my team to get access early. It is only a few months after all. I have an eternity to look forward to with my current Shifter powers. Even if I never ascend."

  "Your team would also be coming with you." He assured me. "In fact, that would be preferable. They too have outgrown that difficulty. Though not by the same margins as you."

  I nodded along.

  "I don't suppose there is anything else you can offer to sweeten the deal?"

  "There is. In fact."

  'I knew it! This guy's a total airhead! Ha! And Henry said I'd never make a good poker player!'

  I managed to keep the giddiness away long enough to talk once more.

  "And what would this added incentive be?"

  "Access to Projector at the same time." The Drake answered promptly.

  I stared.

  He stared back.

  The two of us sitting in our chairs in that desolate, sandy arena.

  'Sweet Buddha. I wonder if this is what it feels to bend someone over a table?' I wondered to myself.

  "Well all right!" I said with a very convincing display of agitation. "You've twisted my arm! I guess I have no choice but to accept your offer!"

  He nodded.

  "Excellent."

  He snapped his fingers.

  The air shivered.

  Then, out of nowhere, came Randall.

  Popping out like a (Gnome) in the punchbowl.

  I stared at him. So did the Dragon.

  "I was planning on saving him for later." I informed him. "When you said you'd give me Projector, I was expecting someone on your level. I won't get many combined abilities if I kill him now."

  "We." He corrected. "We won't get too many combined abilities if we kill him now."

  He nodded again. More sagely this time. Like someone who didn't have their head up their own (Gnome).

  "That is fine. Part of the deal is keeping him alive and working. On Master difficulty."

  He paused to wave at him, then at me.

  "You will link us. Only briefly. I will get Shifter from you. Though only the first level. Then I will get Projector from him. Again, only the first level. You will get Enhancer from me and Projector from him. All of them also at the first level. A brief moment of exposure would be... unpleasant. But there is no need for him to die."

  "None of us will get any combined abilities that way." I pointed out.

  "That is fine. I never intended to cheat in any case. I will work hard and earn the combined abilities. I have more than enough time on my hands, after all."

  "Yeah. You showed that in the DMV." I blurted out on purpose.

  "YOU SHUT YOUR (Drake)ING!!!" He stopped himself. Curled his clawed fingers into a fist and the slowly exhaled as he relaxed back into his chair.

  "I take it this also means you never intended to give me any of the combined Enhancer abilities either." I muttered.

  "No. Of course not." He confirmed. "That's why the contract didn't specify how I would be teaching you."

  Randall started to open his eyes now. Taking one look at the Dragon and staring at him with a stupid expression. Then he turned to me and had a much different reaction.

  "EEEEEEEEEEEKK!!!" He launched himself in the opposite direction. A brown stain appearing on his pants.

  "Kneel." I commanded.

  The degenerate stopped dead in his tracks.

  "Be silent." I followed up.

  The degenerate stopped screaming.

  I turned to the Dragon. My eyes now narrowed.

  "I must admit. I was not counting on this turn of events." I glanced at the wretch, but only for a moment. "I was more or less hoping that I could let him grow a bit more before absorbing him. I was hoping to get at least three combined abilities from him. And from you."

  "He is not the Seeking Drake." Hazimon pointed out. Willfully ignoring the accusation. "He would not have survived the process."

  "His survival was not my primary concern." I spoke. My voice colder than the raging storm I'd endured. "For the likes of him, a swift death is mercy enough. He knows this all too well. If you'd care to ask him."

  The Dragon did not seem perturbed in the slightest.

  "Getting those abilities on your own will provide far more for you than stealing them form him." He pointed out. "Even if the going is harder and you need to spend a few decades figuring things out, you will still have improved all your other Types with the lessons you learn from his own. It is worth it."

  "There's more to this than you know." I said again. Tapping the armrest with my fingers. "I need him to teleport out of the Tutorial when the time comes. I need to have a sufficiently powerful teleportation ability or..."

  The Dragon stood and presented me with a Token.

  "I took the liberty of asking the other Enforcers about your plans. This is the date of your prediction, yes?"

  He did not wait for a reply.

  "That will allow you to leave and go to the gnomish world instead of Human City. Though you will not be able to return to the Tutorial after that."

  He laid back into the cushions.

  "I believe that should cover all your objections."

  He was wrong.

  I stared at Randall again.

  "He is a murderer." I said. With complete confidence.

  "I am aware." The Dragon replied. "Look around you, Solomon Carter. We are both burdened by grandeur and the weight of responsibility. We've both had to do things we did not enjoy. You cannot tell me you and I are not killers too."

  "It is different." I snarled. "He did not have to do it. He had no further goals. He was not trying to save anyone or improve the world. He is an animal."

  "And yet he remains more innocent than most petty warlords I've met." The Dragon chuckled.

  "Besides." He continued right away. "From where I sit, it looks like he's suffered more than enough."

  He turned to me again.

  "Why not take this as a chance for rehabilitation? Hmn? Why not be as merciful to him as you were to so many others?"

  I huffed.

  "And if it gets you another disposable bomb to distract the Drake, then so much the better."

  He donned a sly smile.

  "Now, now. I never said anything about being disposable. A lot can happen in a few months. Especially with teachers as talented as us. That goes for you too by the way. I jest, but imagine what you could do with two other Types? Imagine what you could do with my help and his help as well?"

  "I was kinda counting on your help already." I told him bluntly. "And we don't need his help to kill the Drake."

  He gave me another smile.

  "Of course." I sighed. "There's always a catch."