[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
Frostbound Apocalypse — a LitRPG progression fantasy. I would like to thank you guys for reading and please leave a comment if you see any mistakes. Enjoy! Callum, The Sovereign of Flames

Callum stood at the edge of his domain staring off into the direction where his entertainment would soon take place. All around him, blue-white fires burned with enough heat that the air warped and distorted. The heat didn't bother him, even as he stood right next to the blistering flames, for the fire was his.

## Main Character
Name: Kyle | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Granddad, Points, He

## World & Power System
level-based progression; class system; skills (e.g. Healer's Hands, Splitting Shot, Foraging Sense, Sweeping Slash, Power Shot, Cleanse, Human – Level 10, Crude Iron Knife)
System notification style: "System protected space to process incoming integrating populations "

## Writing Style
first-person narration, past tense. Dialogue-heavy (76% dialogue). Balanced pacing.

[User]
Write Chapter 122 - Frostbound Hammer
Target length: ~2500 words

[Assistant]
After choosing the permanent option, there was a further choice that I could make. This one was optional and it was my chance to influence the result in some way. I could have the boost focus more on the Vitality and Endurance enhancement if I wanted to, or the magical enhancement.

I wasn't able to change it much but I decided to leave it as was. The vitality, endurance, and magic boost were all something I needed. One wasn't that important over the other and I didn't want to mess with something I shouldn't.

It was already hard enough trying to contain the concentrated heart energy coursing through me. I wanted this to be over as soon as possible before I went pop.

My body was strong enough that it was able to integrate the Frost Giant heart but I didn't have time to muck about choosing my options. It was a higher-tiered energy that I was using and it wasn't playing nice.

I was glad I chose the material I did, though. It was just high enough that I was able to use it without going too far and reaching for too much. It felt like if it was any stronger, unpleasant things would have happened. Like trying to fit 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag.

With my choices made, the energy flooded into my chest and started revolving around my heart. Pain blossomed and it felt like I was having a heart attack.

Alarm spread over me as the pain intensified because none of the others said anything about pain. They all said after making the options the energy would rush into their core and settle there after some time, not start stabbing pins into my chest.

There were two things it could be and there was no way for me to know which one it was. It could be the material's tier coming to bite me in the ass or it could be the permanent changes being made to my physiology.

I elected to think it was the physical changes to my heart being made rather than the risky decision of using the heart.

It made me feel better at least.

After the pain I went through refining my body, this was nothing. It was rather unpleasant but it wasn't the sharp, sustained pain of the Wind Chamber.

It took a few moments to finish the changes before the process was complete. My eyes opened slowly and the only thing I could see was a face millimeters away from mine.

"AH!" I screamed.

"AHH!" Austin screamed back.

"What the hell, man! Why were you so close?" I accused while trying to calm myself from the jump scare.

"It was taking longer than normal and you were grunting. I wanted to get a closer look." He answered like it was totally logical to be that close to someone else's face.

"Well, what did you see?"

"You need a shower,"

Gee thanks, asshole.

I most certainly did but he didn't need to point that out. Time had been fleeting trying to get all of this done and my hygiene took a back seat for a few days while I was rushing to evolve.

"I'll get right on that, princess," I said.

He nodded, "See that you do. You're stinking up my cabin."

After saying that, he just stared at me expectantly. I turned to see that everyone was also staring at me. It was unnerving seeing everyone look at me with such curiosity like I was a zoo exhibit.

"Well, what did you get?" Austin was the first to break, unsurprisingly.

If it was only him with me, I might have played around a bit but the 16 other sets of eyes disabused me of that idea.

"Legendary,"

Gasps were audible along with Jonathan's rueful smile. He was no doubt thinking about the fact he just caught up to me with his new Rare class only for me to up the ante again.

Everyone knew that my new class was going to be up there but we didn't know if it was enough for Legendary.

There was still another Path of Power out there that we had no knowledge of which I had yet to do. While the store gave a lot of information, we didn't know everything, and assuming we did was asking for trouble.

Higher rarities were notoriously hard to get information on and we didn't have a single information booklet on classes higher than Epic. We didn't know their requirements or their unlock conditions.

For all we knew every Path of Power was required.

There was still a rarity above Legendary so maybe that was the one that required all four.

We didn't know.

They stayed huddled around me until they got all of the details out of me. Nothing was spared and they didn't stop until they had me tell them the four classes I didn't choose as well.

Stats, distribution, requirements. I held nothing back. While this information could be used against me, I trusted my family more than anything. Now that there wasn't a risk someone was mind-controlled, that trust was absolute.

After Christian, we didn't take any chances and bought a trinket from the store to make sure. It wrapped around the head to check if there was any mental magic or compulsions in effect and we all underwent the test. Even me.

There would not be another incident where family had to kill family.

I almost missed the stat bonus from evolving because of the pain of having my heart altered. It was usually obvious when I evolved as it worked through every cell of my body with every stat getting a boost but the pain took my mind off of it.

I opened the notification to confirm how many stats I received.

Racial Evolution: F->E

All stats +16

Along with the stat boost, there were two new skills that I received. The profession skill was generic and I knew what it was going to be before I evolved. The book about how to get the Runesmith class said which skill it came with.

It came with [Runesmithing(Rare)]. Similar to [Warding(Un)] and [Formation Mana Flows(Un)] it helped with the runesmithing process. It gave knowledge of how to combine smithing and enchanting to make the best product possible and a boost to the finished product.

While the skill would help a lot in my craft, there was another skill I was more excited about. The skill that came with my Legendary class.

Frostbound Hammer(Legendary) – A splinter of the weapon once wielded by the Jotnar King Thiassi thousands of years ago. The ice this hammer was forged from still holds some of his spirit and must be awakened to show its true power. Combine with other splinters to bring back its full might. Only given to the mightiest of warriors with a strong ice affinity and bound to them by frost once summoned.

Reading the skill was eye-opening. The ancient weapon of a King of Old? What did that even mean? It said that power was still inside the weapon and I had to awaken it to show its true might but it didn't come with an instruction manual.

People were still around waiting to see it and excitement was building up in me as I read the skill description aloud. All of us wanted to see what a Legendary skill would be like.

Without further adieu, I went to activate the skill.

I began with just a trickle of mana into the skill but when nothing happened, I upped it to a little more.

Nothing continued to happen and I had to use more. And more. And more.

I was pouring my mana into the skill by this point.

The skill was sucking up all the mana I was giving it and it started taking more. Pulling in mana faster than I could push it. This was the first skill that had done anything like this and it was slightly worrying. None of the other ones were this hard to activate.

Just like [Mighty Blow(R)], it started taking stamina as well and started pulling on my stamina just like it had with my mana.

What kind of skill is this?

Ice started to coalesce in front of me and frost started to form in the area from the drop in temperature. Snowflakes froze around me as the air couldn't hold the moisture anymore. It was making... something inside the fog but I couldn't see very well and my senses were all messed up.

My mana pool was rapidly depleting and the amount of mana going into the skill was making it hard to tell what was happening. My vision was blocked by the foggy frost and it was too much to take in with my mana sense. The sheer mana density and concentration made it too blurry to see.

As it continued to build, I felt a tug on my mental energy where my Law was held as well. I had more control over that than I did mana, but I allowed the skill to take it anyway. I needed to find out what the skill did and I didn't want to cancel the activation now.

It took over half of my mana pool already, damnit!

The skill kept taking more and more building in concentration. The ice and fog grew until it extended out into the area around me.

My head started to hurt from everything that was happening. My Law being poured into the skill didn't help matters creating a headache of its own from the rapidly depleting mental energy.

Lastly, it pulled on my spirit. I wasn't as familiar with the energy that my Spirit used since I had only recently formed my Spirit Anchor but it was similar enough to the others I had used before.

While thicker and harder to move than mana, it could flow into and around my body in the same manner. I used it to strengthen things most of the time but it had more uses than that, I was sure of it.

Laws were similar. The way I used them, and the way most people used them, was to strengthen the attacks you made. Me with Ice, Jonathan with Stone, and Rachel with Fire.

It boosted the element that you had a Law in. Pushing it further than what only mana could.

It was amateur to think that boosting attacks was the only thing you could do with it, we just hadn't found out the rest yet. We had only been living with the System for less than 90 days and weren't that well-versed in it yet.

We focused on staying alive which meant producing the strongest attacks we could. Playing with Laws and Spirit Energy could come later.

All of that meant I had no experience with what was happening with the skill. It was taking everything I could give it while asking for more. It took mana, stamina, my Law, and my Spirit.

I didn't know skills could do this.

The skill continued drawing on everything I was giving it and it was draining me dry. This was the first time I had used a Legendary skill and it was proving difficult. My mana was nearly empty and the rest of me would soon follow if it didn't let up soon.

It was hard not to wonder why it was so hard to use. What was it taking all this energy for?

The suction on my power soon evened off before petering out completely. It drained me completely to create what it was doing. It left the frost in the air for a moment before that too was sucked away.

What I was left with made everyone speechless.

In my hand was a hammer. Not the hammer I usually used, but a massive Warhammer that looked infinitely stronger than mine.

The skill summoned a hammer from nothing.

This was the first time I had seen a skill summon something. Something that was real. Better than real actually.

Most of the time, skills were just mana conjurations that were lesser than the real thing. While my ice looked and felt like ice, there was a difference between it and the real thing.

Not the mundane ice on Earth from before, but the mana-infused Ice I had seen up in the mountains. My ice was better than normal Ice, but not the Ice in the tutorial. It was close, but there was something about it that was lesser.

I didn't have the senses to tell what it was that was different, but the ice conjured by skills was different than real ice. That was why using the naturally formed ice from the Frost Rune worked better than the stuff conjured from [Hail(C)].

It wasn't that much better, but in a fight every little bit counted.

The hammer in my hands looked magnificent. Better than anything I could have made and then some.

The hammerhead was similar to the one I was using now but it looked even better. With a massive blunt face on one side and a huge spike on the back. The ice itself was a striking Blue that mine didn't have. An inner glow and an ephemeral quality to it that mine was missing.

The head was mesmerizing to look at. It drew my eye and it was hard to look away. I swore I saw movement inside of the Ice. Like a living blizzard of snow revolved around the inside of the hammer.

That was just the head of the weapon. I didn't even get to the rest of it yet. The shaft was made of intricately carved wood in Formations and patterns that were different than the ones I knew.

The wood itself had frost growing off of it up and down the length of the weapon making it look even colder than it was. The weapon was so far above me I couldn't even tell what kind of wood it was, let alone the Runes running along its length. Their meaning was above me and seemed like they would stay that way for a while yet.

While I sat dumbstruck gazing at my new weapon, Austin couldn't hold back anymore and reached to touch it. The drawing effect too much for him to leave alone.

I was still stuck gazing at what looked like the insides of a snow globe and didn't notice his encroaching hand.

His fingers hovered over the ice before reaching down to glide along the surface. I didn't know what he was doing but he pulled his hand back quickly.

"Ah, fuck!" He exclaimed while shaking his hand in the air.

His scream drew me out of my reverie and made me look up from the magnetic effect of my new weapon.

He stood shaking his hand back and forth while Rachel created some fire to warm his hand up.

The tips of his fingers were black.

"Your hammer bit me!"

[User]
Write Chapter 123 - Pylons
Target length: ~2300 words
Key events: level-up occurs

[Assistant]
The hammer was AMAZING. It was everything I wanted it to be and more.

After Austin's frostbite was cured, he was kind enough to spar with me to break the weapon in.

With his misfortune of touching it known, I refrained from hitting his uncovered skin with it, but the rest of him was fair game. The fact the weapon was so cold that it caused frostbite just by touching it excited me to no end.

The weapon was that cold. I didn't even have to use mana or skills to get it to such temperatures, the ice it was made of was just that cold.

It was great.

During testing, I used a few skills through the weapon and couldn't help but laugh manically at the result. It was like a mage's staff. It worked as a focus to amplify spells.

It only worked on Ice based skills but that was most of my arsenal. [Mighty Blow(R)] didn't get the boost but every other skill I had did.

Casting [Ice Arrow(Un)] or [Sweeping Snow(Un)] through the hammer strengthened the skills with less effort.

[Icy Bastions(R)] came out stronger and larger, [Ice Arrow(Un)] came out bigger and flew faster.

[Pervading Cold(R)] got a huge boost to its effect, freezing Austin's armor completely and we had to stop to let it thaw out. I worried that it would break after it frosted over and became brittle.

It was perfect. Everything about it was perfect.

The wood felt good in the hand and the Ice was the strongest material I had seen. The knots and intricately carved Runes along the wood brought the whole thing together into a majestic weapon of war.

The ornamentation was subtle enough that it didn't come off as a showpiece but stood out as better than average.

To test the effectiveness of my new hammer versus my old one I set up an... experiment. What better way of comparing them than to hit my new hammer with my old one.

There was little doubt that the new one was better, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I had no need of two hammers and would most likely melt my old one down anyway, might as well have it go out with a bang.

I laid my new one up against an elevated rock while I hefted my old one up over my head.

To give it the best test I could, I layered [Mighty Blow(R)], my Law, and my Spirit into my old one to make it as hard as possible and maybe give it a shot.

The only thing I didn't do was use my boosting skill or get [Avalanche(R)] built up. The test wasn't worth racing around for two hours building it up.

The ending surprised no one.

My old hammer shattered into a thousand pieces. Ice shards exploded out from where the two hammerheads collided and showered me in slivers of Ice along with a few others that were standing close enough to the explosion.

The only thing left of the weapon was the wooden rod that used to be the shaft of the weapon and even that was vibrating uncomfortably in my hands from the impact.

Now it was reduced to a wooden staff instead of the hammer it used to be. Maybe someone could use it as a Bo staff or quarterstaff? It was a strong wood and I had no further uses for it.

I wasn't upset about the outcome, far from it really. The result meant my new weapon was that much better. There wasn't even a trace of the impact on the new hammerhead and I hit it with everything I had.

It proved sturdier than my Law and Spirit combined and that was a hard thing to do. Even the E-Ranked beasts with sturdy bodies from previous waves couldn't say the same.

Another thing that I noticed after using it and testing it out, was that there was a connection between me and the hammer. It didn't feel like anything bad, but there was certainly a link that connected us. Bound us together.

The skill said that it would be bound after being summoned but I wasn't sure what that meant at the time. I still didn't, but now I knew what it felt like at least.

No one I mentioned it so I assumed no one was able to see the link and neither did they know anything about bound weapons when asked. It didn't sound bad and it didn't hurt, so I could only dismiss it to look into when I had more information.

While I sparred to test it out and get a feel for it, it wouldn't get its real test until later. The last wave was due tomorrow and it would get its christening in blood then.

While swinging it around there weren't many things that I didn't like about it. It was an overall upgrade from the weapon I had used before with only one difference.

The only downside to the weapon was it was heavy, but that wasn't really a downside in the long run.

It put the heavy in heavy weapon.

Now that I could level again that wouldn't be a big deal after a few rolled in and my strength started to shoot up again like back before I was level capped. Now that I was getting 21 strength a level, heaviness wouldn't be a problem for long.

With everything regarding my evolution was over, I pulled up my new status to give all the changes a look.

~~

Name: Christopher Zalenski

Race: (E) Human

Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) – Level 50

Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) – Level 50

Affinity: Ice

Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)

Strength - 478

Agility - 264

Perception - 142

Fortitude - 391

Endurance - 200

Vitality - 151

Intelligence - 143

Wisdom - 244

Acumen - 102

Free Points: 0

Laws: Lesser Law of Ice

Body Stage: Body of Wood(Northern Wind Body)

Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation

Class Skills:

Frostbound Hammer(Legendary)

Pervading Cold(Rare)

Icy Bastion(Rare)

Righteous Fury(Rare)

Frost Armor(Rare)

Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare)

Glacial Presence(Rare)

Frozen Patchwork(Rare)

Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)

Mighty Blow(Uncommon)

Reinforced Body(Uncommon)

Sweeping Snow(Uncommon)

Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)

Cold Meditation(Uncommon)

Ice Arrow(Uncommon)

Shatter(Uncommon)

Permafrost(Uncommon)

Mental Freeze(Uncommon)

Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)

Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon)

Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)

Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)

Identify(Common)

Hail(Common)

Profession Skills:

Runesmithing(Rare)

Mana Engraving(Uncommon)

Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon)

Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)

Warding(Uncommon)

Formations Mana Flow(Uncommon)

Sense Metal(Common)

Create Weapon(Common)

Create Armor(Common)

Metallurgy(Common)

Mana Infusion(Common)

Forging Proficiency(Novice)

Coins: 0

Points: 1,497,200

~~

It was looking mighty fine. With the stat boost from the Racial evolution, all my stats were now over 100. It didn't come with any achievement or anything like that, but it felt nice to have all of my stats in the triple digits.

My points took a hit after buying the Heart but I didn't need them anymore anyway. All the points I earned in the last few days of the tutorial would be going to my family for them to buy bloodlines and get them ready for their own evolution.

Abigail evolved not long after Jonathan did which made me the 6th of my family to reach the E-rank. Rachel was level 50 but she was waiting for a few more things until she went through with it. I wasn't sure exactly what she was waiting on but I guessed it was her Law.

She wanted to push it to Lesser like I had before going through with it.

Plus, she wanted a more expensive bloodline than what we could currently afford. She really wanted a draconic bloodline but I wasn't sure we would be able to afford it.

There would be a lot of points to be had conquering the fallen pylons but we still had the others to think about. 11 people still needed to get a bloodline and we weren't going to blow all our points on Rachel's.

She had her own points that she had been saving up and had a few more days to push for more, but we were returning to Earth in under 4 days.

It felt weird to think that. In just under 4 days we would be back home. After everything we had been through, it didn't seem right somehow. 90 days passed in the blink of an eye and it felt like only yesterday we were getting inducted into this new System.

Without anything left to do, I decided a change of plans was in order.

Instead of waiting for the wave to come to me tomorrow, I would go have a workout fighting a few of the pylons on my way back north. It wouldn't make it easier to conquer since more would fill back in after I left, but we might just be able to get Rachel a dragon bloodline yet.

* * *

Defend your claim!

Wave Start: 0:59

I heard the ding for what would be the last time. No more waves would come after this one. No longer would we be forced to fight for our lives every three days.

We knew that cities had waves like this but they weren't nearly as frequent as the tutorials had been. They would come once a month and sometimes not even that frequent.

It was a hotly debated topic based on the information we had on city ownership and something I took a keen interest in giving my intentions.

While everyone had the ability to buy a Civilization Pylon from the store if they had sufficient coin, that didn't mean everyone was able to found a city.

When someone founds a city, the surrounding land gets claimed by the pylon when it is placed. Similar to what happened when we claimed a pylon in the beginning. It was like owning a deed to the land the pylon claims and the leader obtains that deed. No other Pylon would be able to claim the land that another pylon had ownership of unless it was from the same faction.

Pylons placed under the ownership of another were called subordinate pylons.

If one pylon claimed a vast swath of land from being leveled up a few times, another pylon was able to be placed inside that radius if it was owned by the same person, or faction, that held ownership the first one.

Creating a Village or Town that was tied to the original City. Owned by the same people.

It was how Kingdoms set up their land and what brought about the Noble hierarchy that the System used.

That was a whole different can of worms that I didn't want to open. I didn't want to be King or start an Empire, just one City was enough for me. A heavily fortified and defensible city, but a City nonetheless.

I could let other people have the fun of starting Kingdoms and fighting each other for land. I would be able to stay isolated up North and maintain neutrality. A don't mess with me stance.

Or that was what I hoped.

There might come a time later when I had a few subordinate pylons but that would be a long ways off.

The subordinate pylons would never be able to grow past a certain rank though. They would be capped by the level of the first pylon. If the first rose to City level, then the subordinate pylons would be able to go to Town level.

There was also a cap on how many subordinate pylons one could have. A City couldn't have countless Towns and Villages under its control and could only have a few of each.

The only other way to conquer land was fighting for pylons in battle.

The rules on placing pylons and claiming land kept people from placing them too close together or claiming land that others already held ownership of which caused fights for land to happen more often. If land was already claimed, you could only gain it by fighting for it.

Now, placing a pylon was all well and good, but the System didn't want just anyone to own a city. It sent tests to make sure the owner was of sufficient strength to own it.

Those tests came in a few different forms but they were similar to what we had faced with the waves.

It was the System's way of making sure millions of Cities didn't pop up by making people earn the right to own one.

Similar to the reason we had to fight off a wave to upgrade our pylons to the next rank. The System was full of fun little tests like that.

And that was all only for Planetary City structure and Planetary Nobles. There was a whole other level above that going as far as Galactic Scale. High-Tiered people weren't satisfied with only holding ownership of a planet, they needed more.

Planetary bodies and Galactic Sectors of ownership were common in the multiverse with their own set of noble titles. Calling someone a Planetary Duke instead of a Galactic Duke was a grave insult and could be punishable by death in some Duchies.

I didn't get much more time to ruminate on that whole jumble of problematic societal structure as the countdown reached its end.

A wave of monsters spawned in for the last time.

With the arrival of the last wave, the end of the tutorial is near. With all of the achievements that Chris has racked up, what do you guys think he will get as his prize?

[User]
Write Chapter 124 - Zwahelios
Target length: ~2300 words
Key events: level-up occurs

[Assistant]
It was always fun smashing around the beasts of the wave but this one was going to be different. I could feel it.

The difficulty level was in for a sharp incline but I didn't think it would be out of my reach. All the different Paths of Power that I had stepped down added up to a substantial differential between the beasts and me. It was a divide between normal E-ranks and ones who had stepped down every avenue. Well, almost every avenue. At least that was what I thought before the wave started.

What ended up spawning in created an oppressiveness that closed in from all sides surrounding the camp. A weight that started to close in on me. Even from as far away as I was, the feeling was clear. I was in for a fight, a bloody one.

The sun was high in the sky casting light down without a cloud intercept it, yet it somehow managed to get brighter than before. The light got so bright I had to squint to make anything out. The monsters were somehow producing it and it was focused on the walls lining the camp creating a nasty glare that I had to shield my eyes from.

With a bit of maneuvering, I managed to get an [Identify(C)] on one of the leading monsters and I was finally able to see what I was up against.

[Zwahelios – Level 50]

They looked like avian velociraptors. Well, more avian than normal velociraptors. The birds reached my chest in height but they were longer than they were tall. Bird-like beaks protruded out of their head with sharp spikes of teeth jutting out of their mouth.

Feathers led down their short arms and ended at their pointy elbows, accentuating the corner. Taloned feet thundered on the ground as the hundreds of Zwahelios closed in. Their tails counter-balanced them letting them run upright on two legs and were thick in both muscles and feathers.

Now that I was in E-Rank myself, the level and name of the monsters were no longer blurred or filled with question marks. The rank difference not being there let me see what was approaching clearly with the skill.

That was something I had meant to change but never had the time to get around to it. Upgrading the rarity of my [Identify(C)] skill would let me see more information than what I was being given and wouldn't fail when there was a high-level difference.

Some upgrades even gave insight into the stats of the thing being identified. Some went broader and gave more detail about what the thing was while others gave deeper insight into the skills a beast had. There were a bunch of different variations that [Identify] could upgrade into but I hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.

The same was true for picking up an [Identify Block] skill. While we were still in the tutorial I hadn't thought it was necessary. I knew, roughly, the people that were in here with me and what strength they held and they knew mine.

It wasn't worth it to buy the [Blocker] when Tracy had already seen what I was capable of. Plus, not being the highest level inside the tutorial worked to my advantage. I didn't know if it worked or not but seeing my level being stuck at 50 might have made people underestimate me.

They would have had to have been ignorant of who I was, but it was still a possibility.

With us returning to Earth soon, getting a [Blocker] was something I needed to do. Giving information to people for free wasn't something I wanted to do. Best case scenario, I got one so strong no one would be able to see anything.

I didn't hold my breath for that though. For every strong [Identify Block] skill, there was an equally strong [Identify] to pierce it. It was the nature of skills. If one got stronger, the other would have to get stronger to keep up.

The monsters didn't care about my [Identify] predicament and closed in regardless. Javelins of ice met them when they got in range and kicked things into motion.

The [Avalanche(R)] was building.

The oppressive weight that the monsters carried with them followed them as they neared. It tickled the back of my neck, making my hair stand up. It was a different feeling than what being outmatched felt like but it was close to it.

Usually, when this feeling came about, it was because of a boss or a monster significantly higher level than me. The level difference had a weight to it. The difference in the essence between us.

That wasn't true this time. These were level 50 beasts the same as I was.

The reason they had such a weight to them was because the tutorial wasn't done trying to kill us yet. It threw one last thing at us as a final send-off. I picked up on it as the rolling wave of might tried to force me down.

Every one of the monsters running my way carried a Law with them. All of them had Least Laws of Light.

The Laws they had added together, rising on top of each other creating a wall of force that built on my shoulders. Pressing me into the ground from their collective weight.

The tutorial could have been nice and had them capped at level 50 without having a Law but that would be too easy. That wasn't fit for the grand finale. Even with the surprise of all of the monsters having Laws, I didn't think that was the end of it.

There would probably be a few more surprises headed my way before the wave was over. The death throes of trying to kill us one last time.

So be it.

My new hammer twirled in front of me in preparation. A flourish I had come to like while wielding the heavy weapon.

Up and around before smashing into the ground next to my feet.

It was both showboating and a provocation. Not that the beasts knew that, but it wasn't for them.

It was for me.

The tide reached me and I started swinging.

* * *

My hammer rose and fell as more beasts joined the fray. The monsters were falling but not as fast as more joined in. Their numbers kept rising even as the crushed and deformed dead rose with them.

It was endless and unstoppable.

The pressure inside me built and I couldn't help but feel the heat of battle in my soul. The song being sung inside me built into a rising crescendo. The pressure reached new heights as shafts of light pierced through me, searing through my armor.

Blood leaked from the seared holes before freezing over with ice.

My armor wasn't enough to block them. It was the same reason fighting Austin was so annoying, the beasts were able to get through my armor with their light-based attacks. The Ice only blunted the worst of it before the rest made it through. My Law and Mana couldn't hold up to the onslaught of hundreds of attacks all backed with a Law.

I could handle one or two, maybe even a few, but not the amount that was being leveraged against me.

While I focused on swinging my hammer, the Law reinforcement on my Armor was worn through by cascading beams of light before the rest smashed through and into my flesh.

[Frozen Patchwork(R)] worked overtime to freeze the holes that were burned through me.

Through it all, my hammer rose and fell, sweeping arcs in front of me when more joined in. It was an all-out battle and I didn't even have time to cast magic. I couldn't bear the distraction from the melee I was in to launch any [Ice Arrows(Un)].

Snow revolved around me faster and faster in an attempt to ease the fight but more of it began to shatter from the oppressive Light. [Sweeping Snow(Un)] did what it could but the tide of beasts overwhelmed the newly upgraded skill.

Mana flowed through my hammer, building up ice atop the end until it tripled in size. The massive clump whipped through the air like a maul taking numerous beasts with it until the end of its arc.

Before the momentum of the head could end, [Shatter(Un)] sent the extra ice exploding out, taking yet more foes with it to the grave and returning my hammer to its original state.

My hammer came back through for another pass with the spike leading this time, stacking bodies atop its length before the force died out. My swings increased in intensity as the [Avalanche(R)] built behind me.

Rise and fall. Up and down. The rhythmic swings felled the beasts as fast as I could.

[Icy Bastion(R)] bloomed around me as I felt a strong light beam close in. It had the strength of more than a few of the monsters combined into a concentrated lance. They were adding their skills together, concentrating the light and layering their attacks on top of each other to get through my guard.

Yet another unwanted surprise.

[Reinforced Body(Un)] wasn't enough to stop the lance from piercing through me the first time it happened and I threw an [Icy Bastion(R)] when I felt it coming the second time. With [Frozen Patchwork(R)], my body could take a beating, but I burned a bit of mana to save me from the wound. While the skill could patch me up, deflecting the blow with a bit of mana was better.

The attacks against me built as I did what I could to ward them off. Ice shattered from claw and talon around me before getting launching out into the sea of bodies.

Any of my ice that was broken by enemies turned into a projectile for me to use.

Both [Ice Manipulation(Un)] and [Throwing Proficiency(App)] applied to the shards of ice before they slunked into their waiting partners

[Righteous Fury(R)] ignited and burned inside me as I couldn't hold off not using the skill any longer. If I tried to save it for the boss I wasn't sure I would make it through the wave.

Hundreds of Least Laws added up, worming their way through my guard. Their collective might was enough to stomp down on me. Pushing my domain back, making me either wade through the thick hostile atmosphere or spend more mana to keep my domain secure.

The Frost Rune tried to fight back but it wasn't enough against the hoard of monsters. The Rune wasn't made to fight against that kind of force.

[Permafrost(Un)] helped keep the space steady but it only worked on the area closest to me. The ice lining the inside of the walls already starting to melt, the heat building from the focused light too much for it to handle.

Throughout it all, the [Avalanche(R)] built.

Grunts of pain were fought through along with the wounds building on my body.

My body showed its might for the first time and I couldn't help but marvel at what it had turned into. Body of Wood was more than what I gave it credit for. Attacks that would have cleaved flesh from my bones were turned into nicks that barely drew blood.

Piercing beams of light that would have burrowed clean through me only penetrated a few inches deep. Seeing how my body stopped most attacks cold was the reason they began to combine their power.

The concentrated beams of tens of monsters were enough to pierce through me, even with my Refined body.

My Spirit began to infuse me and the fight escalated yet again. During the waves, I usually adhered to a continuous escalation of power. Starting with [Avalanche(R)], using my Law and Spirit sparingly, and saving my bloodline and [Fury(R)] for the boss.

This wave wasn't allowing me to do that.

It was making me burn hot and fast to last through the throngs of lesser monsters. Everything was coming out as the pressure mounted. My [Fury(R)] was burning inside me, my Law and Spirit infused my attacks and body.

The only thing that I had held back was my bloodline. If there was one thing I wanted to save for the boss, it was that.

Ever since I evolved, my bloodline took on a new life. Having the Heart of a Frost Giant turned the bloodline from a decent power boost, into a devastating jump in power.

My Heart amplified the powers of my Bloodline by a significant degree and I was able to use more of it than I had before. Like jumping from low to high octane fuel.

The only problem was the length of time I could call upon it shortened to compensate. It was a tradeoff between a bigger boost in power for a shorter period of time.

As the last of the Zwahelios clawed and fought their way through the gates, finally letting me see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was time to do so.

I almost felt bad for the little lightblasting shits.

Without the need to hold my bloodline in reserve any longer, I called on the power buried deep in my core. Ice spread through my veins and my muscles bulged as they tried to contain the boost in strength.

While my Heart could output more power, my muscles struggled to contain it. Without having a Body of Wood my muscles would have popped like a grotesque balloon from the strain.

I was sure that the physical manifestations of my bloodline were more pronounced but without anyone else here to tell me, I wasn't sure the form they took.

All I could hope was that I didn't start glowing.

[User]
Write Chapter 125 - End
Target length: ~2200 words
Key events: combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Austin

He could feel the Light Law the beasts had resonating with his own. His attacks were being bent by the monsters as they closed in, going where he hadn't intended for them to land.

It was frustrating not to have them go where he wanted them to, but the deviation wasn't much. A few inches here and there at most, but that changed a lot when the things he was aiming for required precision. His attacks were aimed with pinpoint accuracy at weak points and the deviation affected that.

In-between ribs to penetrate deep into the chest cavity, through the eye socket for easy access to the brain without having to punch through the skull. While a nudge here and there wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, it threw off his attacks mightily.

Also, it came at a time when he needed to be at his best.

The final wave was proving more difficult than any had anticipated and he wasn't like Chris. He couldn't solo waves and stay on his feet through brutal injuries.

Austin saw what Chris walked away from on a daily basis and still wondered how he managed to keep going. If Austin got even half as damaged as Chris, he would be down for the count needing a healer to put him back together.

While his Vitality was higher than the Icy Juggernaut's, his Fortitude wasn't. The point of all of his Agility was to not get hit in the first place. He could afford to have a lower Fortitude if he dodged more attacks than what landed on him.

Austin's eyes sharpened as he pulled on his bloodline. He had been experimenting with its use and he realized that short bursts were best. Whenever he was about to get overwhelmed or he needed to kill the beasts around him quickly.

It conserved most of the energy and he could use it over a longer period of time.

His speed soared and his spear shot out, piercing through the monsters around him in quick succession.

The rest of the family was getting battered by the beasts but nothing too serious had occurred. The gate wasn't able to hold up for long, only rewarding them precious minutes to attack with abandon, the time for full-on battle had come.

Austin's family showed their experience from previous waves and dealt with it in a calm and collected manner. The warriors were veterans by this point and took up their place at the front, placing their full trust in the backline to see them through the battle.

Austin didn't even want to think about how Tracy's sides were doing. They were wholly unprepared for what was about to happen. They placed their full trust in the walls and defenses they had built and now those defenses were crumbling.

Falling apart under the might of nearly a thousand Least Laws the beasts carried.

He was surprised the gate lasted as long as it did honestly. Even with all of the explosions and elemental attacks launched from the top of the wall, monsters sprouted from nothing to continue the advance. Biting and clawing at the gate to get through.

Taking one down did little to stop the tide. Even with all the traps laid scattered in front of the wall, it wasn't enough. It was never going to be, but Austin couldn't help but imagine the despondent faces of Tracy's members right now.

He knew they placed too much trust in their defenses. They didn't have the experience of fighting in the thick of it like his family. They weren't ready for the battle that had started inside the walls.

They were weak.

It was what he had been trying to push Chris for in the beginning. Austin wanted to push his family just as much as himself but he hadn't gone through with it.

Maybe if he had there would be more of them still here today. Or more of them would have died during the fight with the Mindbreaker.

There were no absolutes with what ifs but Austin couldn't help but regret his decision. He knew Chris did, even though he didn't like to talk about it.

Chris was bottling up everything that had happened and he wasn't in for a good time when that seal finally cracked. He kept trying to put one foot in front of the other and he would eventually falter because of it.

Going from pressing concern to pressing concern couldn't last forever.

When Austin had tried to broach the subject with him all Chris would say was 'I will deal with it when I find the time.'

Austin couldn't help but pity the person that made him finally explode.

* * *

Chris

"AHHHH!"

A primal roar escaped me as more and more blood leaked out of me. My fighting had become more savage as the wave continued and I couldn't help but shout in frustration. It wasn't even because of the beasts anymore.

It was me yelling at the world.

As the beams of light kept finding their way through my armor, more of my mana flowed through me to intensify my attacks.

[Sweeping Snow(Un)] revolved around me, nearly turning the sky white as I pumped rivers of mana through it. My Law and Spirit flowed liberally into all the ice and snow in the area. My hammer whizzed through the air trying to keep up with the last of the monsters.

The end of the wave was coming and I was gearing up to meet it.

The floodgates were opened and I could feel the mental strain building from using my Law like I was. When I said all the ice in the area, I meant all.

It flowed into every snowflake and spec of broken ice around me as I flooded the area in its might. My Spirit did the same and I could feel its power reservoir falling at a commensurate rate. Same with my mana keeping all of my skills active.

If I hadn't seen the end of the tide working its way through the gate this would have been suicide. Draining myself like this would leave me high and dry when the boss showed up.

But I could last long enough now that the end was in sight.

The increased brutality added to the drops of blood flying through the air. The beasts were fast and nimble but they were not very durable. A hammer blow was enough to end them if I hit the right spot.

A therapist would probably say that I was projecting but I couldn't give a rat's ass about their opinion right now.

My increase in brutality was perfectly justified.

These were the monsters sent to kill us every wave. These were the beasts sent to challenge us and stand in the way of our return to Earth. The tutorial that was supposed to ease us into this whole process.

The System that uprooted our life and sequestered us into this hell. My life that had turned upside down on a random Saturday in March.

This wasn't how my life was supposed to go. I didn't plan to wade through the blood of thousands, smashing down monsters and snuffing out lives with my hammer. I wanted to be an engineer.

Get a cushy job somewhere and retire early. Maybe start a family in a few years while watching my niece and nephew grow up. Teach them cuss words and buy them beer after they turned 18.

Not... this.

My hammer caved in the skull of another monster, showering me in brain matter and blood. Little chunks of skull rained down around me and it was hard not to be frustrated at what I was made to do.

What the world had made me do.

The killing would never end. It wasn't the way the world worked now that there were levels and essence. I would never be free of it, never get the chance to live a peaceful life.

It made me angry. Angry about the choice that had been taken from me. The option that was removed from my future.

And what made me the angriest? What made me seethe with rage?

I liked it.

Maybe some of my frustrations were at myself. At the person that I had become now that I had a hammer in my hands. At the person that had died and been reborn 88 days ago.

At the person my father would barely recognize.

So much anger was bottled up inside me there was enough of it to go around. All of my regrets flashed through my mind and it was hard not to be angry at myself. At the stupid choices made along the way.

If I had started slaughtering beasts at the start, would more of my family still be alive? If I went and massacred every human in the tutorial would my family be intact?

Maybe the Chilling Death of Helheim was who I was. Maybe it was through the blood of thousands that I would rise.

Maybe it was just my grief.

"GAHHHHH"

I chose not to contain it anymore. To stop repressing the emotions inside of me. I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to deal with what was in there. I wanted it to go away.

It wasn't the anger at myself that I drew on, it was my fury at the circumstance I was forced into. I couldn't fight the System, or the tutorial grounds I was in.

But I could kill the beasts.

Unfiltered rage flowed through me and I swung.

And swung, and swung, and swung.

At some point I started screaming as I brought my hammer down, bringing death to another being.

Smashing the thing that blocked our exit out of here.

Even as the last of the lesser monsters were ground into the dirt, I didn't stop swinging.

I charged the four bosses who tried to impose their aura on me. Charged at them with abandon and swung.

The beast didn't go down with the first blow so I did it again. And again. It finally died making me move on to the next one. There was no grace in my swings, only destruction.

My body wasn't handling the punishment I was making it go through but that didn't matter to me right now. Maybe it was the tiny part of me that wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. The part that wanted to take them down with me. The part that didn't want to be here anymore.

I wasn't sure of the reason, but I was sure of the outcome. They would meet my hammer and they would die.

My mind went blank and I let go of everything else. Of everything except for one thing.

My desire to kill the things that had ruined my life.

With single-minded purpose, I swung.

And I swung.

And I swung.

And I SWUNG.

The boss showed up but I didn't change in my approach.

My hammer came alight with the powers flowing through it and almost matched the preceding beast's luminescence in intensity.

The boss felt different, like it was stronger than it should have been but that flowed through my head like water on a duck's back. In one ear and out the other. It didn't change anything.

The only sounds that rang out from inside the camp were my guttural screaming and the squelch of flesh being pounded in.

Booming thuds upon flesh as liquids splattered outward. Of repeated pounding almost incessant in pace.

Thud

Thud

Thud

Thud

The thuds lessened until they became dull, then changed further before finally turning into squelches.

It wasn't until I couldn't physically lift my hammer that I stopped. The failure to lift it was the only indicator that I shouldn't continue.

My mind came back to me slowly and I took in the scenery around me.

Bodies littered the area in various states with the biggest one lying in front of me. My body was screaming at me in protest to rest and there were more holes in me than Swiss cheese.

The four mini-bosses were easy to spot because of their size difference, they too were smashed beyond recognition.

But the one that was by far the worst, was the boss.

It was little more than a mangled lump of flesh at this point, smashed beyond all recognition.

I couldn't even point out the different parts of the body it was so disfigured.

It was easy to see that I snapped. The level of destruction was unnecessary even against monsters. The entire boss was unusable after the treatment I put it through.

Blood saturated my armor and the frozen blood upon it looked purposeful in its intensity. The crimson layer evenly distributed throughout my form.

I just stood and stared at what I had done. The realization that the tutorial was over didn't hit until a few moments later.

With everything that I had been through, of the trial that my family had been put through, it wasn't relief I was feeling at the end of it.

Without a better way to process, I sat and cried.

Cried for the people who weren't here and the things that I had done. Of the people I had killed and the blood that I had reaped. Of the empty feeling inside me.

I cried.

[User]
Write Chapter 126 - Closing Hours
Target length: ~2200 words

[Assistant]
Picking myself up took longer than I cared to admit. It was more than just my body I had to put back together. I had prepared for injuries, though, and potions to help with healing, my outburst... not so much.

Healing potions were stashed inside the keep to use and I had a few on me for emergencies. I had to keep a few stashed to make sure not all of them broke if I got pummeled a little too hard. If I kept all of them on me, like I did for the Vine Bears, there was the possibility of them breaking.

These healing potions were a bit better than normal because I anticipated needing a decently sized pick-me-up. Plus, we had plans starting not long from now that I needed to be fighting fit for.

I bought some of the more expensive materials for Conner to use and he managed to brew a batch of peak grade Common-tier healing potions out of them. They worked significantly better than the generic ones we bought from the store.

The pylons wouldn't conquer themselves and my body needed stitching back together. Ice wouldn't hold it together forever.

Still, I took a bit of extra time to get myself in order before meeting up with everyone. I wasn't sure how well they would have handled the wave but I didn't fear for their safety.

After feeling the wave for myself, I was confident that they would be fine. Jonathan and Austin together would be able to dull a lot of the force and the rest were strong enough to handle the leftovers. Only having to fight one wall worth also helped matters.

Tracy and the new group, on the other hand, would probably have casualties depending on how well they did. I suspected Tracy's group lost quite a few.

They weren't on the same level as us in terms of strength. Both in levels and experience fighting which would hurt them when it came down to it. They weren't prepared for what was going to happen.

Limping back down South gave me the answer I was looking for. 16 faces met me halfway into my journey and I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. Even though I expected to see them, I couldn't help but hold doubts.

It was hard not to worry, even when I knew they weren't weak.

"It's good to see you," I huffed at them.

Abigail came up to me with glowing hands to start the healing, "It was as bad as we thought."

The other healers came up to add their skills to the bowl as I turned and we headed back up north.

Abigail and the other healers worked to fix me up and make me a little less holy while everyone else started walking back to our camp. It was a bit of a waste for me to turn around and walk back to where I started, but it saved time in the long run.

Giving the healers time to work through all of the wounds I had endured before we kicked our plan into motion.

"How did they fare?" I asked.

"Tracy's camp lost 22 people. The Eastern wall fared the worst and had the most deaths of the wave. Kurt, the newcomer, lost 5 defending the Southern wall."

Tracy losing that many was surprising. I knew they wouldn't handle the last wave very well but that number was still higher than I thought it would be.

"Why so many?" I questioned.

"There was some... collateral damage." She said cryptically, she looked around to make sure none of the kids were in range before continuing with a quieter voice.

"Some of the explosions and traps went off when people were still fighting at the gate. I wasn't able to see all of it, but it looked like she went scorched earth when the gates fell even though people were still there fighting."

With everything that had happened, that wasn't all that surprising. The type of person Tracy presented herself as in my head wasn't someone above doing something like that.

She didn't have an attachment to the people in her camp like I did. She didn't really care if they lived or died. She only cared about living through the tutorial and she got her wish.

It was a distasteful thing to do but not all that shocking. It made what I was about to do easier at least.

Tutorial End: 01:19:32:43

One of the first things we needed to do was allocate the next 44 hours. We already had plans set up but now we knew for certain how much time we had left and could draw up a timeline.

The wave and subsequent healing, along with travel time, took 4 hours giving us just under 2 days to conquer as many pylons as possible. We didn't even plan to get all 50 as that was unfeasible.

We had estimates we had come up with but those were just guesses at how many we would get.

The teams were planned out and we had all prepared for the coming hours. Austin and I would go out alone together. Rachel, Jonathan, and Hal would go together. Carrie formed a team with a few other family members and the rest stayed at the camp.

They needed to watch the kids and keep hold of our camp. Abigail was one of the people who stayed behind as well to coordinate and keep track of the points coming in. We needed to buy a few last-minute things before the timer ran out and she would be able to message me if anything came up. It wouldn't do to have Tracy or Kurt try something while we were out.

I almost wanted it to happen just to have an excuse.

"You ready, buddy?" I asked to my partner for the coming days.

"Woo, can't wait!" His flatline tone and dripping sarcasm weren't enough to get him out of it. All the fighting was going to be tiring but it was something we needed to do.

"Let's go then,"

* * *

We fought and fought, well past sundown and late into the night. Austin's skills were nice for being able to see without the sun and his nightlight powers were getting better. Even if he didn't like me calling them that.

We got 4 pylons before we called it a night, which was a decent haul for the time we spent. Austin was slagging by the end and I wasn't much better. He didn't have the sun to give him strength and my outburst took more out of me than I thought.

The next day, we managed to get 8 more. Austin was a lot more powerful during the day and we grew more experienced with the monsters we were fighting. We understood their tactics and habits after fighting them for nearly 32 hours straight.

We didn't sleep that night, fighting throughout as we were leaving the tutorial at noon the following day. We didn't have that much time left and I wanted to squeeze every last drop of effort out of it as I could.

Throughout the night we only got 3 more before the sun came up. Both tiredness and being out of steam played a role in our stalling effort.

The sun crept along its path in the sky and it was time for me to depart. All told, Austin and I fought and conquered 19 pylons. 19 out of 50 for just the two of us wasn't that bad.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Austin said, knowing I wasn't thrilled with what we had planned.

"Getting cold feet now? It was your idea." Even my half-hearted chuckle managed to sound unenthused about the course I was on.

I had tossed and turned about the idea and no matter how I thought about it, I didn't like it. Even though I didn't like it, I would do it anyway.

Tracy doing what she had eased my conscience but not enough to be comfortable with it.

"Have fun with the rest of them," my parting words said, I marched back to camp. There were a few things I needed before heading to my final destination.

Tutorial end: 00:02:03:34

The timer ticking down added to the suspense and the closing hours were upon us.

Abigail gave me a once-over as I walked into camp making sure I was fighting fit.

"How many did you get?" She asked for the number even before any healing flowed through me.

"Not even a hello? How are you doing Christopher? Oh, I'm fine, how are you?"

She gave me a flat look until I gave her the information she wanted, "We got 19."

She was unfazed by the number which hurt my feelings a little and barreled on without comment, "Jon managed to get 11 so far and they're out trying to get another before the time's up. Everything is packed and ready to go, all we have left is for you to give me your points."

Everyone was using Abigail as a bank for points so that we could get a quick total for how many we had.

On every trip to camp, Austin and I dropped our points on her and the others were doing the same. I handed over the points from the last few pylons and couldn't help but startle at the total we had managed to accumulate.

The pylons rewarded nearly a million a pop, making Austin and I rake in nearly 10 million points each from the 19 we conquered.

The others conquering 11 meant another 11 million would be added to that total.

Overall, with the points we had saved up and the haul we had managed to pull in, Abigail was most likely the richest person in the tutorial right now.

"What does that bring us to?" I knew roughly what the number was but it never hurt to hear it out loud.

"Austin hasn't been back to give me his share and Jon and them still have a pool to give me," She said dragging it out, "But, I have over 40 million right now."

"Is that enough for everyone? We need what, 11 more?"

Her nod confirmed that 11 people still needed a bloodline, "We have enough for the bloodline essence, but not enough to buy all the materials people want. Some might have to make do with a less expensive part or a lesser tier."

I mulled over that information and nodded. That sounded about right. We would be able to get everyone a bloodline but wouldn't be able to get the parts for everyone.

We hoped that they would be able to get them as prizes for the tutorial if we didn't make enough for everyone and had plans for the occasion we didn't make enough.

"Do you think she will be able to do it?" The she I was talking about was Rachel.

She had been fighting nonstop trying to get enough points for the bloodline she wanted. She got less sleep than even I did as fires raged through the night.

"I don't know." Abigail shrugged, "She hasn't been back in a while so I don't know how many she has. Jon tried to get her to slow down but she refused. I wouldn't be surprised if she passes out from exhaustion after the time is up."

At least she was persistent. We went over a few more things until the conversation ground down. The timer was ticking down and I lingered for probably longer than I should have.

"You know you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Abigail said.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"What? What's funny?" She asked, confused.

"Nothing, it's just the second time I've heard that today."

With nothing left to say, I began my march down south for the last time.

Everything was packed up and everything I wanted to take with me was accounted for. I wouldn't be taking anything with me during my trip but the others would make sure everything made it back.

I didn't have a lot of things that I wanted to take but there were a few that stood out. I was wearing my armor and the only other things I wanted to keep were my tools.

The blacksmithing tools I had made were something I would take with me. I could make them again but why waste them? Plus, some of the trophies I wanted to keep.

The pelt of the Vine Bear especially.

We didn't know how our stuff was going to work but we assumed anything being carried would be transported with us. We had Sam and Ashely make up a few backpacks for us to store everything in and to make it easier to carry.

Mine was already packed and ready to go.

With nothing else to delay myself with, it was time to do something less than honorable.

I'm sorry, Dad.

[User]
Write Chapter 127 - When Words Fail
Target length: ~2800 words

[Assistant]
Tracy

She felt it before she saw it.

Since the last wave finished, every bird that Kathy had sent North was killed indiscriminately. Arrows of Ice, spears of light, or balls of fire killed anything that got close to what their camp was doing.

Her eye in the sky was blind and she wasn't warned of his approach.

She knew what was coming, it was hard not to after she had met the man. The way the northern faction exited her camp left little doubt. The only reason to depart as quickly and as orderly as they had was because of only a few reasons, and all of them were bad. Only minutes after the wave ended they were up and out of here with prepacked luggage.

She could honestly say she saw this coming. Tracy thought it would be Kurt first rather than Christopher, but knew one of them would probably do it. She was wrong on who it would be.

The slight chill in the air gave away who it was that approached her camp and the accompanied dread was unmistakeable.

Her control over the camp was already slipping and she was barely holding on by this point. She didn't hold the same power she once did. There weren't enough people that would stand with her this time.

Even if she still had that kind of power, she wasn't certain it would have worked. After the last wave ended, no one wanted to give up their points anymore. They didn't want to live by her rules and they refused to listen to her.

The threat to their lives was over and they expressed their discontent with the way they had been treated. Some left. Others stayed but they wouldn't cooperate with her. Most refused her outright.

Staying only to use the facilities that Tracy had built during the tutorial before they were whisked away and back to earth.

Without the influx of points, she had to go out and earn them herself. Kathy stayed with her and she cut a deal with Damien to keep some muscle on her side, but she didn't trust the rest of her camp enough to keep them close.

She had to offer outrageous rewards for people to go out and conquer pylons under her faction. Most scoffed when she began to ask for their support but some were willing to listen. Unable to ignore what she was offering so quickly.

She only managed to get 5 other pylons in the last few days which was less than she wanted. None of her camp had the motivation to charge into battle after they had just been freed from the torment which left her with fewer pylons than she predicted.

Added to her original pylon that still stood, she had 6 total. Without birds to keep track of everything in the North, she didn't know how many the freak of nature was able to take over.

His family was nearly as strong as he was and they all were starting to become freaks of nature. She saw the looks of distaste at her before they left. The unconcealed faces of disapproval.

It had started ever since she refused to help them with the Mindbreaker. Tracy had felt the shift inside her camp after that. They came back a few members short and barely spoke with her anymore.

Their representative, Abigail, would only engage in the bare necessities before ending contact. It was clear where the rift had started.

All of the signs pointed to this happening but there was nothing Tracy could do to stop it. She had spent all of the points she had acquired on trying to survive the final wave and didn't have the major income that usually came after a wave.

All she had left was the points she earned from fighting nearby pylons and they weren't enough to stop what was coming.

She had watched as the man who closed in on her camp demolished waves on his own and was under no delusion that she could contend with that. She could only hope that he wasn't out for blood.

She had seen the outcome of that movie before and it ended with an exploded head.

While Tracy could say that she had seen this coming, she could also say a part of her was surprised. During her conversations with the man, as brief as their contact was, he didn't seem the type to go down this road.

He seemed more like the stoic type that would abstain from doing something like this.

The light show with the spear, though, he had something like this written on his face. If it was him coming down here she would understand. She wouldn't be able to defend against him either, but at least it wouldn't be out of character.

Still, she wasn't going to roll over and give up all her hard work. She had traps planted the second the wave was over specifically designed for humans instead of monsters.

She bought a few materials with what little points she had left that targeted Ice powers specifically. If she was going down, she was going down fighting.

The rising sense of dread signaled the distance closing. The temperature began dropping faster and everyone inside the camp noticed the change.

Not all of them had seen the man fight and hadn't put the two together yet. They didn't know the force of nature that was coming and were blissfully unaware.

She didn't have enough points to repair the gates after the wave and had to settle for some of the builders doing less-than-stellar repairs. She lamented her lack of points once more at that thought.

Those repairs weren't going to be enough. They weren't going to hold out long against the kind of force she had seen him deploy.

While she had traps armed and a few consumables for such an occasion stashed away, she didn't think she was going to win. The best she could do was delay until the timer was up.

Tutorial End: 00:00:47:56

Christopher was cutting it close. Only 47 minutes until the tutorial ended and the man was only just now arriving. He was either too busy to come sooner or confident he could finish it in the time they had left.

One of the other mages that she had paid to stay started casting a two-way scrying pool, the same as the first time they had spoken.

If she was going to delay as long as she could, fighting wasn't going to be her first option. Maybe she could get him to change his mind.

The portal snapped up without resistance and she saw the hulking form of chiseled ice wading through the jungle. He wasn't in a rush and walked almost leisurely toward her northern wall.

The portal moved to keep pace, only bobbing slightly from the motion.

"Christopher," Tracy greeted.

The man's gait didn't falter as he took off his helmet of ice. Well, less taking off and more letting it fade away.

"Tracy," He returned. There was a tightness in his face that was new and she saw the barest hints of hesitation in his motion.

He stopped for only a brief second before continuing his march when he saw the portal keeping pace.

"So it has come to this?" Tracy didn't mince words. Over the short time she had known him, she knew this was the best way to get him to speak.

His audible sigh told her more than he probably intended. The resignation and unwillingness were clear. All of the signs kept pointing at him not wanting to do this.

Even more questions bloomed in Tracy's mind.

"I am sorry," he said softly, "I have given this extensive thought and contemplation and have come up with what I think is reasonable. I am not here to kill you or take your points, that's going too far in my opinion. You've earned those and me taking those away would cross a line I am unwilling to cross."

Him not being here to kill her eased most of Tracy's worries. She didn't think he would do something like that but it took a weight off her shoulders to hear him say it.

"I am also not here to take your pylon away from you. You've defended it successfully through 30 waves and it is not my intention to take it from you like that."

Hearing that made her stiffen. If he wasn't here to kill her and he wasn't here to take her pylon, what was he here for?

Revenge? Tracy hadn't done anything that would call for revenge.

"But." His words jarred her back to attention, "To get the most out of this tutorial and the prizes that will be given out at the end, I need to do the most I possibly can. All I ask is that you subordinate your faction to mine."

He paused to let her mull over his request.

"It is what I feel comfortable asking without going too far in my opinion. You get to keep control of your pylons and points while I get a bit better of a reward having a subordinate faction with pylons under their control.

"In the grand scheme of things, I think what I'm asking for is fair. We helped tremendously during the waves and asking for this doesn't seem like too much." He stated.

Subordinate? That was the reason that he came all the way down here? He brought down a mountain of dread on her head only to ask for her to bend the knee.

It was ridiculous. If she had the power that Christopher wielded, she would be asking for a lot more than just subordination. She had already exploited the southern camp with subordination and he was in a better position than she was when she did it.

The southern camp was going to fall during the last wave and all of them knew it. Their camp wasn't able to hold up to the monsters of the 27th wave and they were bleeding people trying to hold on.

Her repeated attempts at getting them to merge were initially ignored until people started to die. They lost over 15 people before they eventually said yes.

The only holdout was their leader who found her terms were too much. Subordination was too far and he wasn't willing to give in. He eventually agreed only because the rest of his camp convinced him. They saw the writing on the wall and managed to sway him into saying yes.

Tracy was certain they would have died to the last wave if they stood alone.

The only reason that she hadn't insisted on the same thing for Christopher's camp was because she needed them more than they needed her. Plus, she was positive they would have said no if she insisted on that point.

Tracy wasn't sure that she would have been able to survive without them holding a wall for her for as long as they did.

She only had to focus on three directions of attack instead of all four and it took a load off of her that was desperately needed. Her traps were more concentrated on the other three gates and her forces were able to deal with the waves easier. It also alowed her to start banking points for later waves rather than spend everything as she earned it.

Without them defending a wall, things would have ended a lot differently. It was closer than she would have liked already and that was with the two other factions helping, letting her limp over the finish line mostly unscathed.

Subordination wasn't that bad all things considered, but she didn't want to roll over so easily.

"And if I say no? What will you do then?" She pushed back.

Poking the bear wasn't what she had in mind when this conversation started but she wasn't going to give in so easily.

The few minutes of back and forth since the conversation started had taken enough time for Christopher to reach the edge of the jungle. He was standing in clear view of her camp now and finally came to a halt.

Her question was left unanswered for an uncomfortable amount of time while he stood looking over her camp. He no doubt saw the repairs to the gates she had made and was evaluating the state of the defenses.

"I asked myself the same thing," he said slowly, "How far I was willing to go for this? It wasn't even my idea in the first place."

Tracy jumped on the weakness she saw. Any way to get out of subordinating her faction she would take, "You don't have to go through with it if you don't want to."

Her hopes were dashed when emitted a short laugh instead of considering her words. She wanted to ask why he laughed but wasn't given the chance.

"If not now, then when?" He said, "I hope to build a city when we get back and the same problems are going to come up then as they are now. There will be times I must be proactive instead of passive, times when I must be the aggressor instead of the defender.

"Being neutral is my goal but that does not mean I will be passive. There will be things that I have to fight for. Resources people will wish to control and dungeons people will wish to claim.

"I have read the things that have appeared on Earth. The resources that people will flock to in hopes of leveling up and stepping on the Paths of Power."

He paused before continuing, "There will not be a place for pacifism. Remaining passive and non-confrontational will get me nothing. What should I do if someone takes control of something I want? When they have something that will make me or my family stronger and they refuse to sell and deny any trade?"

He considered for a moment before changing directions.

"Would you give up your pylon for points?" He asked.

Tracy shook her head.

"Would you trade it to me for something I could give you or a favor I would owe you?" He asked again.

Tracy shook her head once again.

"What should I do then?" He asked, "When you have denied to sell and refused other options? The only thing left is to use force and we both know how that will end."

The intensity of his stare as he said that made something inside of her shiver. Sweat began to build on her lower back and goosebumps appeared on her arms.

Yes, she knew how that would go.

"Saying that doesn't mean force will be my first option, hopefully not my second either, but I cannot dismiss the possibility that force will be necessary in some cases when words fail. I have given it a lot of thought and I came up with a process that I feel comfortable with doing. The most honorable way I can think of to go about using force.

"I will challenge you for it." He said.

It took Tracy's brain a second to comprehend what he was saying. When it finally did, she couldn't help but say what instantly came to mind.

"You'll challenge me for it?" Tracy said incredulously, "Like a duel? When people used to throw gloves to declare a challenge."

Tracy couldn't help it. The thought was absurd. Who challenged people anymore? There were no duels anymore like there were in the past.

Well, except in Texas, but mutual combat was different.

"Yes, like a duel. It is the most honorable way of going about it that I could come up with and the way my Dad would find least disappointing." Christopher said softly.

There was a moment after he said that when he unstrung the hammer from his back and brought it around in front of him. He gave it a twirl, up and around before smashing it into the ground.

"You've heard my terms, I require an answer." He stated.

Tracy looked at the timer and clicked her tongue. There was still too much time on the clock and she wouldn't be able to get out of this.

I have seen the comments of the last chapter and have heard what you guys are trying to say. I hope that this chapter clears some of the confusion up regarding the path Christopher will tread in the future.

Chris was never going to be the hero, the selfless and caring. He also wasn't going to be the villain who took what he wanted from who he wanted.

I think I laid out his philosophy well in the chapter but if there are any more questions feel free to drop them in the comments and I will try to answer them.

[User]
Write Chapter 128 - Curtains Close
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
Chris

Tutorial End: 00:00:25:12

I knew that Tracy was stalling but I allowed myself the chance to voice my thoughts. I wasn't required to do so but it felt good to get it off my chest. It was different than discussing it with Austin or Abigail, they were biased to what I had to say.

Tracy, though, jumped headfirst into the kind of thinking that was required when back on Earth. Maybe a bit too much for my tastes, but she would see what I was talking about without me having to explain it or justify myself.

And if I was reading her expression correctly, she thought I wasn't going far enough with what I was asking for. The initial surprise when I asked for subjugation was hard to miss along with the glint that arose after hearing it was only that. Like she was looking at her future reward for keeping her pylon.

That didn't bother me though. I was asking for what I felt was right. A fair enough compensation that it didn't feel like extorsion or stealing, but enough to feel rewarded for the work we put in. We helped with the waves, helped her survive, and now we would be getting something out of it.

My challenge also gave her the opportunity to defend herself. As the challenged, she would be able to dictate the kind of battle that would ensue.

One-on-one, group, army, it didn't matter much to me, and was left up to what she wanted to do.

Refusal was also an option but at that point, I could say I tried the honorable way first.

When Austin first proposed the idea, I wanted nothing to do with it. It was a needless way to make enemies and was ultimately unnecessary. The marginal gain wasn't worth antagonizing her or others in the future.

I wanted to build a city without the fighting or wars that most would endure. A way to isolate myself and my family away from the fighting we had been forced to go through.

Making enemies was counterproductive to that goal and antagonizing her would turn her into an enemy for later. Killing her would accomplish the same without making enemies but I was unwilling to stoop so low.

It was only after a lot of thought and consideration that I came around to the idea. The thing that changed my mind, and the reason I proposed what I did, was because of the future.

While burying my head in the sand and taking an isolationist policy sounded good, it would eventually lead to problems. If I created my city up North and stood alone without fighting for the things that would make me stronger, others would.

Others would fight, claw, and strive for every scrap while I took the slower way, without fighting for things and rising in levels at a more sedate pace. The problems wouldn't show themselves immediately, but over time, they would show up.

In 10 years, 20, years, 100 years, what would the power difference be? I had to consider longer stretches of time now that my lifespan had been extended. I wasn't sure of the exact length I would live naturally but it was close to 200 years now that I was E-rank. Longer if I kept rising in level.

If I didn't gain strength at the same rate as others, I wouldn't be able to keep up. If I didn't seek out resources and opportunities and left them alone because of an unwillingness to fight, I would fall behind.

My family would fall behind.

And after 50 or so years of not keeping pace, what would I do when someone stronger than me, a rank ahead with better gear, came to conquer my city? Came to subjugate what I had built?

This new world necessitated conflict and I couldn't shy away from it. Wouldn't shy away from it. If I did, it would lead to paying fealty to someone else down the line or worse, death. While being under someone and paying fealty to others wasn't a bad thing, generally speaking, it depended on who it was you paid fealty to.

It was subject to change and could become someone who was unworthy of it.

It was better to not take that chance in the first place and stand on your own two feet. To remain independent of anyone else's influence. To do that, to remain independent, I needed to fight at times that required it. To challenge the people who needed it. To gain the resources and opportunity I required to stand on my own.

Which was what led me to what I had come up with.

I would try words first, buying what I wanted or trading for it, then, after words failed, I would resort to challenging them. If that didn't work and they refused to entertain that.

Well, I did my best.

I took every step towards a solution that didn't require such lengths and was refused at every turn.

After that, what happened wasn't my fault anymore.

War was bloody and most often needless, but it still had a place in history for a reason. It was my goal not to resort to that, but sometimes doing something I didn't like was an option I couldn't refuse.

It was better than what others would no doubt do.

Comparing myself to others wasn't a good way to judge the morality of my actions but it helped ease my conscience. Made me feel better about the path I had come up with.

I could only hope my father didn't disapprove. I didn't think he would but it was a constant on my mind.

After issuing my challenge, Tracy stared at me in contemplation. I had little doubt she was going over everything in her head that she could do but in the end, I expected her to agree without a fight.

At least that was what I hoped. I didn't desire to fight again. I didn't want to fight. Not for a while really.

The timer ticked away and she finally gave an answer.

"Fine," It was hard not to hear the disappointment in her voice but she had agreed nonetheless.

Without being prompted she continued, "I, Tracy Litterman, Leader of the Hoosier faction, do swear fealty to Christopher Zalenski, Leader of the Zalenski Family. May my pylons and lands be under his and may my vassals become his."

The oath was bare bones but I didn't need it to be anything more than that. The System took her words and made them true, my status sheet had a few more lines on it and the deal was done.

Being in the tutorial changed a few things and things that would have happened back on Earth didn't. Being subjugated here was only a pylon ownership shift with only a faction hierarchy order change.

We didn't have noble ranks or cities to think about. If this were later, and back on Earth between two cities or kingdoms, there would be a levy paid to me from Tracy. She would pay me some of the taxes she earned along with a few other things related to city governance.

There wasn't a tax that the camps were able to collect as we didn't deal in coins and there wasn't a material tax on dungeons as there were none. Both were missing from our agreement.

Usually, a city had a percentage tax that the Lord decided upon along with a few other things that were also up to their discretion. Any dungeon controlled would also have people pay to use or tax some of the materials earned inside of it.

We had none of those things so it was only pylon ownership that I gained from the oath.

Tracy's 6 pylons were now under my control and she even had a vassal of her own. I didn't know that the Southern camp had sworn fealty to her but now they were under me as well along with the 5 pylons they managed to capture.

With the time that was left, there wasn't a chance of me making it back up North. It wasn't like I had to, as everything was already planned for, but that meant I had nothing to do for the last 20 minutes of the tutorial.

I couldn't conquer a pylon in that time or do anything of significance, only sit and wait for the end.

Not wanting to loom around Tracy's camp, I walked a bit away into the jungle before sitting down on a rock. Hammer to my side and waited for the tutorial to end.

I couldn't help but think over everything that had happened. The changed man that had entered and turned into what I was now.

Wonder about the fate of humanity, whether my Mother and brother were still alive.

I didn't like to think about what she and Gabe were doing. It wasn't healthy to constantly think about. There was no way to know what they were going through or confirm whether they were alive.

They would be my first stop when I returned. Running home as fast as possible to make sure both of them still lived.

If they weren't... no. Don't think like that.

As the timer approached zero, Abigail's voice sounded in my head.

"They managed to get one more. 31 total. Rachel succeeded. Bloodlines secured."

At least there was some good news to end this nightmare. We accomplished what we had set out for and we were ready for the return to Earth.

With 31 pylons under our faction, along with 6 from Tracy and 5 from the Southern camp, we had 42 out of 50.

84% of the total pylons in the tutorial were ours.

Tutorial End: 00:00:02:01

I couldn't help but think about the prizes we would get for accomplishing such a feat.

* * *

Tsurandom

Sweat pooled on his face as he paced outside the opulent doors. The heat bleeding through even the strongest of formations lining the entry to his patron's domain was higher than normal. Waves of it rolled off of the doors visible to even the lowest Rank eye.

The worry he felt was almost debilitating and his knees felt like they were about to give out. While keeping track of the integration tutorial he couldn't help the mounting dread that built up.

There weren't supposed to be any survivors yet there had been many. Under 10% was still wildly outside the average deviation compared to all of the tutorials taking place but that wasn't how his patron did things.

Caring not for the fact that they most likely had the lowest survival rate in all the integration, the fact there were survivors was a problem.

Not a problem for the participants, but for Tsurandom himself. Survivors in the tutorial he supervised did not lead to a healthy and fulfilling life. It led to a short and hot end with his family soon to follow. Probably everyone he knew soon after if his patron was in a particularly bad mood.

Still, it was his duty to report the end and there was no getting out of it. No matter how hard he tried and wished to be anywhere else in the multiverse.

He steeled himself the best he could before pushing through the heavily decorated plated doors and into the inferno. The doors scalded his scales as he brushed them open.

The fires raged hotter than normal which did not signal a good start to what would surely be his end. They nipped at him as he passed through, burning and searing his flesh.

Even his body which had been tempered by fire couldn't handle the flames his patron controlled.

Sweat traced down his features for more reasons than one as he knelt down at the foot of the Sovereign Flame's throne.

No acknowledgment came until blackened and burnt scales marred his form. The raging fires were too much for his defenses to handle but he stayed silent as he burned. He would not add to his transgressions by speaking out of turn.

Finally, he was given permission to speak.

"My Lord, the tutorial draws to a close and I need your approval on matters concerning its end," Tsurandum spoke in the clearest tone he could even as his body wanted nothing more than to sprint away from the being he faced.

With there being survivors, Tsurandom couldn't close the tutorial under his own power. The sponsor of the tutorial, his patron, had a chance to bless any participants that he chose before the other Gods who watched had the chance.

There was little possibility of that happening but it was still outside of his control. The System itself wouldn't let him bring the tutorial to a conclusion, hence his presence here.

The fire flared briefly before leveling out at the heightened intensity it had reached.

"I am aware of what is needed." Short and clipped was his patron's response.

Tsurandom didn't have the courage to defend himself. 113 survivors out of an initial 1,344. A survival rate of 8.4%, the lowest of the subject's entire world. Lower than even The White Hoard's, even those lunatics had more survivors than his.

Once the tutorial was planned, it took significant effort to change and how was he supposed to know they would all come together and only defend one camp?

That rarely happened and if it did, it was too late to do anything. There weren't enough people to defend against the waves to survive. Except this time, that didn't happen.

Plus, the aberration that his tutorial involved was outside of his power to control. Rather than crumbling under the pressure and loss, the being leaned on his warrior's spirit to survive.

The likelihood of one of his participants forming a Spirit of the Warrior was so minuscule, statistically, that it wasn't even considered. The odds were so low they were effectively zero.

Still, he clamped his mouth and awaited his punishment. Not daring to say anything else less he curse his family line worse than he already had.

Except, the flame and heat never came. The burning end he anticipated never came.

"Go, I will take care of it." His patron said and dismissed him with a heated wave. The scalding air blackening more of his scales as he knelt.

At first, he thought it was a trick and stayed kneeling where he was. A test to see if he would leave with haste and run from punishment. It wasn't until his patron's aura bore down on him that he was forced to flee.

His body refused to endure and made him leave instinctively. Not willing to stay in the same room as the being pressing down on him and fled without his brain being able to do anything about it.

Even as he rushed away, he couldn't help but dread the other shoe dropping.

* * *

Flame Sovereign Callum

The flames rose to the ceiling, turning white hot after the peasant left. He could feel the trembling his assistant was trying and failing to hide. There was nothing that could hide inside his domain.

His fire saw everything.

The Dragon-kin was so weak his scales burned from his fire. Callum took a perverse pleasure in burning things that weren't meant to be burnt. A Fire Dragon's scales were almost indestructible against flames yet he had done it anyway.

That did little to ease his frustration.

While abnormalities were possible and had happened before, they ruined his experiments and fouled his mood. They were outliers that were unaccountable for which was a constant bane he had to deal with over the integrations.

Watching the broken one corrupt others and break their minds was thrilling to watch but it was hard to ignore the ending he had lived. His fun had ended and his fascination was no more.

This wasn't the first time it had happened and it wouldn't be the last but it still frustrated him every time an aberration popped up. The incomplete feeling of a job not finished was hard to get over.

Still, he had to do what was required of him or the System would penalize him and no one wanted that.

He prepared some of his pre-recorded endings and called it a day, unwilling to spend any more time on the failure. Instead, he thought ahead to what he could do better.

The ants would die in a few years anyway, what did it matter that they lived for a few more? None of them would make it to godhood.

Increasing the rewards for conquest should incite more violence. Changing the pylon structure could incentivize it even, by making them closer together. Boosting the rewards for killing others more than stray monsters could be a fun avenue to test.

His mind forgot the inconsequential ants that lived and began toiling with ideas of his future experiments. Looking ahead to the next chance he would have.

For he would do to others what was done to him.