“I know that you want this dungeon closed pretty badly, so I want to know how much it’s worth to you.”

  For a moment, nothing happened, but then the words repeated themselves.

  What is it that you desire?

  I should have known better. Never negotiate against yourself. Of course, the system, or heavens or whatever this was, wasn’t going to bid against itself. It had offered me 5000 world points as part of the optional mission. Now, I had to make a counter-proposal.

  “Make it 500,000 world points oh, and some loot for my team.”

  I added the last part on a whim, but the more I thought about it the more appropriate it seemed. My team had struggled to help me close this dungeon they deserved more.

  No items will be rewarded. The ambient mana is corrupted. Proposal is unacceptable.

  Hmm… well, it hadn’t said no outright to the points. But now I wasn’t gonna bid against myself. “Then make me an offer.”

  You may have your choice of 100,000 world points and a permanent 10% stat effectiveness boost to each of your teammates, or you may have 500,000 world points.

  I groaned, or at least I felt like I groaned. There wasn’t any sound in this place, and I didn’t feel any connection to my body at the moment. My mind raced. There was a huge difference between 100,000 and 500,000 points. The latter would do a great amount to close the gap. Especially since I’d already reconciled myself to choosing the 500,000 points, I’d been offered earlier. More than a million points added to our total in a single night. I didn’t know how I could turn it down.

  Except, my team deserved a reward, too. I cursed. This was another freaking test. The system wanted to see how selfish I was… or maybe not. Maybe it was measuring something entirely different. I needed to be careful not to ascribe the same types of motivations that I might have to the system or the heavens, whatever the case might be.

  Worse, the team would never know if I didn’t choose to reward them. They’d even be happy for me if I chose the world points. But, while I got the opportunity for stat bonuses again and again, I’d already been told that such titles were things that were unavailable for most people.

  Ten percent might not seem like that much if your stat was 20, but when your stat was 2000, it was huge. The benefit would only scale as they grew stronger. I groaned. I couldn’t believe I was going to do this, but it felt like that was the right thing to do.

  “A 20% boost for each of my teammates including Samvek and 250,000 world points.”

  The 20% boost is acceptable but no more than 100,000 world points if you wish benefits to be provided for your team.

  I stared at the line and then another appeared.

  Final offer. You have 10 seconds before all offers expire.

  Dammit. I accepted. Then I was back in my body and it was like no time had passed. Nevin was still explaining some theories about negotiating with the system that he’d read about. A second later, all four of them staggered and gasped for air.

  Crag groaned, “By the heavens.”

  Samvek was the first to recover. “A 20% boost to my Agility Stat’s effectiveness? How?”

  Dori answered before I could. “Look at your titles.”

  Samvek’s eyes grew wide before he made the title visible to me. They all did, in fact.

  Friend of Silas- some friends are fools but worth more than gold. +20% effectiveness to your highest current stat.

  Then the dungeon core began to collapse on itself. The others were thanking me, but the world began to close in and then fade.

  Prepare for return to Earth.

  The last thing I heard were the words, “Thank you.”

  Chapter 43- Remembering Why?

  Earth Countdown: 387 days, 4 hours

  New compiled results:

  Bar’jek- World points: 31,629,190 Forerunner points: 3,628

  Forerunners: 1/5

  Nargossa- World points: 22,914,050 Forerunner points: 1,164

  Forerunners: 5/5

  Earth- World points: 20,765,400 Forerunner points: 8,310

  Forerunners: 5/5

  Furloon- World points: 18,962,020 Forerunner points: 1,682

  Forerunners: 1/5

  Crembor- World points: 18,897,800 Forerunner points: 2,129

  Forerunners: 5/5

  It took me a bit to wake up or rather to get up. When I teleported in, I collapsed to the floor. It was like a lifetime of strain hit me all at once. No, not a lifetime, just about five months’ worth. Yeah, I’d felt some strain when returning before, but this was the longest time dilation by far. From what, Samvek had said, the greater the dilation the more severe the strain. I supposed that made sense.

  But it was 6 am, and I didn’t have to be anywhere immediately. Classes didn’t start until next week, assuming I actually went through with that. So, I just laid there and stared up at the ceiling. After a bit, I pulled up the notifications. Getting the timeline for Earth was always a good reminder.

  There’d also been some changes on the leadership board. I checked and saw that Furloon had lost two Forerunners during last night’s mission while Nargossa had managed to fill their fifth Forerunner spot. We had taken a huge step forward and now third place felt more secure than ever. Yet even after gaining a huge amount first place still felt impossibly far away.

  It hit me that I needed to coordinate better with the other Forerunners. What good did this do us if we didn’t win? Even becoming a dungeon world was going to result in the majority of humanity dying.

  I groaned and started to sit up, but then I noticed another tab.

  You have now reached Uncommon Tier and gained access to your world’s leaderboard.

  Name World Point Rank Forerunner Kills

  Jiang Bai 3 16

  Anika Patel 4 6

  Nuri Khalid 2 7

  Emil Larsen- Inactive 1 2

  Silas Renner 5 4

  That revealed some interesting information, but at the bottom of the tab, I also got a map which showed where all their bases were located. Emil’s base was outside of Oslo. I tucked that into the back of my mind, as it seemed like I might want to get to know the man before I tried to get him out of prison.

  The fact that he was the leader in number of world points gained meant something. From what Anika had said, she and Nuri were the only remaining original Forerunners. The rest of us were replacements when others died and Jiang was the most recent besides me. I didn’t know how long Emil had been a Forerunner.

  Then there was the fact that Jiang had already passed Anika in points accrued. As I thought about it, I admitted that both the women had seemed overly casual about it all. It worried me. If I couldn’t trust my fellow Forerunners, then who could I trust?

  I shook, my head. I needed to get some perspective. I hopped up and ran into the house. Mom was already up. When I ran in, she asked, “What’s the rush? Got time for a cup of coffee with your old mom?”

  I just laughed. “You’re like forty-five mom, that’s hardly old.”

  She grinned. “That’s not what you said when you were younger. Back then you said, that thirty was old and forty was just plain ancient.”

  “Like when I was six or something.”

  “Doesn’t seem that long ago to me. You’ll always be my little boy. You know that, right? You’ve probably felt like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders since your father died, but I don’t want you to feel alone. I’m sorry that his death shook me so hard. I should have been the one taking care of you, but you were there for me and I want you to know I’ll always be here for you.” She reached out her hand as she was speaking and put it on my cheek.

  After a moment, she asked with a note of surprise, “Have you grown again?”

  “Just working out a lot.” Then I pulled out a chair and sat down. She looked at me for a moment longer before going to pour me a cup of coffee.

  I sighed. I’d almost cracked the chair when I grabbed it and the front door was probably a bit loose on the hinges after I’d hurried inside. Looking at mom was a reminder of how soft and weak normal humans were. And this was happening after I’d had a couple days of battle after tiering up and months of training in handling my body. Being back on Earth just drove home the fragility of life.

  Then I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and relaxed. I needed this. It gave me perspective on everything. I smiled at mom and let her tell me all about what she’d been up to. At one point, she asked me why I was looking at her like I hadn’t seen her for months. Of course, I couldn’t explain.

  Forty-five minutes later, I was headed up to the shower. That was relaxing, but I was pretty much stuck in sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Even then, they were stretched by my new mass. I needed to go shopping.

  Cece passed me in the hallway after I left the bathroom. “What’s up lunk?”

  I just smiled. I used to find her so annoying, but in the grand scheme of things this sibling banter was refreshing. “Nothing much shrimp. Have you gotten smaller?”

  “Nope, but whatever roids you’re taking, they sure are working.”

  I just grunted and walked past her. “Hey, I’m gonna go work out at the student gym this afternoon. I figured it might be a good way to meet some people and since you apparently aren’t a total dud with the college girls, maybe you could meet me there…” She let her voice trail off at the end.

  Normally, I would have refused out of hand, but then I thought better of it. I needed perspective. I needed to do some normal people stuff. “Okay, I gotta go pick up some new clothes, so what time are you thinking?”

  “Like one maybe?”

  “How about eleven? Then that way we can get some food after we workout.”

  I thought she’d protest that none of the cool people would be at the gym till after noon at least, but she just nodded and agreed. Maybe high Charisma was good for something.

  A few minutes later, I found myself at a strip mall. My mom still swore by places like this, but to me they seemed like part of a bygone era. Still, shopping for clothes online when I didn’t even really know what would fit me wasn’t gonna work. I just hoped I stopped growing at some point. The good news was that I’d only grown an inch taller even with all the stat increases. Mostly, I’d just packed on sixty pounds of solid muscle.

  I walked into one of the box stores there and went to the rack to find stuff. So, a few minutes later, I realized, I was gonna have trouble. One of the clerks saw me as I dumped some clothes that wouldn’t fit me properly onto a shelf outside the changing room. She smiled, “Something wrong?”

  I hesitated for a moment, but then said, “I’ve been bulking up and nothing seems to fit anymore.”

  I don’t think she made eye contact with me at all, but seemed to be checking me out. It was so blatant that I coughed and she just shook her head and blushed. “I’m sorry… but yeah, you’re jacked. I don’t think we have anything that will fit you here, but there is a big and tall shop at the other end of the mall.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. I was getting pretty frustrated.”

  She took a half step forward and held out her hand. “Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in for you. Maybe we can get coffee later or something… you know, if you want to say thanks.”

  She wasn’t anything amazing, but was probably twenty-five and decently pretty. Shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, a few freckles and a decent figure. Stars above, what was I thinking? I didn’t have time for this. Somehow, I had handed her my phone while I was in the middle of my own mental dueling. I thought I’d gotten past this before. But then it hit me. I’d been gone for five months in the most spartan of conditions and this was hitting me hard now. I wondered if this was how guys who’d been in prison felt like when they got out.

  I took my phone back and mumbled thanks again before heading out. Enhanced Perception meant that I caught it when she whispered, “Can’t have you all frustrated, can we?”

  Rather than drive, I decided to walk down the sidewalk in front of the mall. There was an empty arcade. Dad said he used to go to places like that when he was young, but I never saw the appeal. We had all the games I could ever want at home. Every time, I walked past someone; I ended up in a conversation. Three more women offered me their numbers, and I was pretty sure that one of them was closer to my mom’s age. Even the older couple I met wanted to talk.

  It ended up taking me till almost 10:30 to get to the shop. Apparently, I was irresistible, and I didn’t even have my aura going. People just found me approachable or appealing in some way. As I thought about it, I realized there might be a real merit to getting Emil out of prison. My Charisma was over 100 now and it was clearly having even more of an effect than when I’d gone out in public before. I began to worry that this might not be possible.

  Then at the shop, I ran into an older salesman. He ended up being just what I needed. He clearly wanted to sell me clothes, and we were actually able to find some that fit. But beyond that, he didn’t want anything from me. It felt like a much more real conversation even if it made me wonder if he had some type of resistance. Apparently, Charisma wasn’t fool-proof, it was just a powerful social lubricant.

  I texted my sister to let her know I was running late, but apparently, she was too, so it didn’t cause a problem. We ended up pulling into the parking lot at the same time. The student center was pretty nice from the tour I’d gotten and the gym was top-notch. It wouldn’t be of much use to me now, but if it made Cece happy then all the better.

  After checking in, we both went to our respective locker rooms and changed. The gym wasn’t super busy, which was better as far as I was concerned. Students were starting to trickle in and I’m sure there were plenty who lived here year round not to mention faculty and staff. I definitely got eyed a couple of times, something I’d never experienced in a gym before. In fact, I’d always been a bit nervous about how skinny I was, thanks to the scarecrow nickname.

  Those days were gone. It made me stop, though. Assuming Earth held onto third place, or even took second, we were going to become a dungeon world. The system would hit the entire world and people would get the chance to gain classes but the wild influx of monsters was going to cause mutations and all kinds of monsters. Judging from the squirrels and evil grass that I’d fought—Earth was in for a hard time.

  Would they listen to me then? Were there things that I could do to help ensure that more of humanity survived? Those thoughts plagued me as I went out and waited by the water fountains for Cece.

  Chapter 44- UFO

  I didn’t have to wait long for Cece. I’d been doing my best to not notice the amount of attention I was getting. I activated Stealth, but knew that it had a diminished effect without a mana rich environment. The skills still worked, of course, but there was only so much hiding I could do while standing out in the open. Stealth did seem to blunt some of the attention, but not as much as I would have hoped.

  You’d think it would be flattering, but at some point it was just disgusting. These people didn’t know me. I’d already come to grips with my guilt over the way I’d looked at girls in the past. I understood now. Being in the gym drove the point home. Of course, my gym shorts and t-shirt were purposefully much looser than the yoga pants I’d already seen a couple of girls in.

  Cece walked past a girl who’d been lingering at the water fountain longer than was plausible and mumbled, “Thirsty much.” Then she looked at me. “I don’t get it. I mean I know you put some muscle on and yeah it looks good on you, but still.”

  I just laughed. “Little sisters aren’t supposed to get my raw animal magnetism.”

  She glared at me for a second. “That sounds so lame coming out of your mouth. Promise me you’ll never use that phrase to describe yourself again.”

  I shrugged noncommittally. “Starting with cardio?”

  She looked around the gym and then saw a group of guys by the benches. “Nah, lifting’s where it’s at. Haven’t you read the latest stuff? Cardio’s so 2010.”

  I just chuckled and followed her over. Cece was serious about working out, so even if she was trying to meet people, I knew that at least she’d try for a real workout. We started with some lighter weights and worked through super-sets for major muscle groups like dumbbell bench press into goblet squats or deadlifts into shoulder presses.

  As before, my Charisma seemed to pull people to us. Sometimes, it was a guy asking for a tip or a girl being a bit too obvious. Most of the time, I directed them to Cece and said; I was just her bodyguard. That got more laughs than it should have, but hey if people acted like my jokes were funny for once, I’d take it. Then one of the guys upped the ante as he started trying to impress Cece. He asked her to spot his bench, but already had 275 on there, so there was no way she was gonna be able to handle that.

  “I got ya, man. My kid sister couldn’t help out if you need a real spot.”

  He looked at me for a second with a bit of aggression, then seemed to shrug it off. “Sister huh, you both students here?”

  “She’s a freshman, and I just transferred in.”

  Then his eyes lit up. “Oh, wait. You’re that guy who tuned up the football team, right?”

  “Uh, you heard about that?”

  “Half the school has, and that’s only because class isn’t in session yet. Once everyone is back on campus, everyone is gonna know about you. Silas right?”

  “Yeah, so is this a bad thing?”

  He held out his fist, and I bumped it. “Not to me it isn’t. Football acts like it’s the only sport, but the wrestling team has three guys who are nationally ranked.”

  I take it you’re one of them. “Damn straight. I’m Jim, but all my friends call me Jimbo. Don’t ask why, I’ll need a few beers in me before I start spilling about that story.”

  I just laughed and lost myself in a moment of camaraderie. It got going and pretty soon; I found myself benching between Jimbo’s sets. That started attracting more people and before I realized it, there were like twenty people standing around watching me bench.