When Tom eventually came to, his body itched. He had no idea why soul damage came across as itchiness, but his entire body felt like it was covered in ants. Tom writhed around in his bed, casting water cantrips on his body to relieve the itching.

  The water helped a little. As soon as the itching receded, he checked his soul. His soul was cracked, and small bits of it appeared to have broken off, floating around his soul space like debris.

  DING!!!

  <[My Mind is a Temple, My Soul the Altar] has Reached Level 35>

  <[My Mind is a Temple, My Soul the Altar] has Reached Level 36>

  <...>

  <[My Mind is a Temple, My Soul the Altar] has Reached Level 43>

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 26>

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 27>

  <...>

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 30>

  Ironically, this was pretty good as far as soul damage went. Nothing he had done was permanent. Still, the loss of [Spell Trap] would be a pain. He didn't like losing one of his best defence skills.

  Tom rolled over and spat the remaining bile out of his mouth.

  "Tom, are you ok?" Alex asked as she knelt down next to him.

  “How long was I out of it?” Tom asked

  “You’ve been unconscious for an hour,” Duncan said as Tom sat up.

  He suddenly realized he was in the triage area, which consisted of what had been the main office, the nearby computer lab, and the classroom beyond that one. It wasn't the best, but it was comparable to a poor man's emergency room. Eve, Alex, and, for some reason, Duncan were there with him.

  "An hour, not great, but you know, the funny thing is, I actually thought that would be worse," Tom muttered as he wiped his mouth clean. "It must be the soul resistance."

  Alex smacked him.

  "You freaking moron!!" she screamed at him. "How the hell did you even damage your own soul?! I thought you were just doing a basic class fusion!! What did you do?!"

  "I um," Tom mumbled. "I followed the Black Dragons tutorial on manipulating the soul space."

  Alex smacked him again while Duncan facepalmed.

  "Ow," Tom yelped more out of surprise than pain.

  "You followed the tutorial of a bunch of assholes who killed their characters off … what a dozen times before they got it right?! Are you insane?! You could have killed yourself, you idiot!!"

  Eve didn't stop Alex from wailing on Tom, though she did heal him as she did it.

  "What exactly did he do?" Eve asked Duncan. “My skills couldn’t even identify what was wrong with you.”

  "He damaged his soul," Duncan said. "He might have lost skill levels, actual levels, entire sections of his status could be offline. Or he could have destroyed his soul, gone into shock, and died!"

  "I tricked the system into giving me some skills from a class that I wasn't supposed to have," he grunted as he healed his body and then cast a water cantrip to clean himself.

  "Took some soul damage, but it was worth it," Tom muttered.

  Alex smacked him again.

  "What was your backup plan? We don't have any [Soul Mage]s at the moment. What was your plan if everything went wrong?"

  "Technically, I am a [Soul Mage], and I would have shut it down before it got to that point." Tom protested.

  Alex gave him a look. A look that she usually reserved for when Lucy pooed on the carpet.

  "Ok, I can see now that's not a good excuse," Tom admitted shamefully. "A couple of my skills are offline for the next few hours. [Hand of Mercy] is still working, so it's fine." Tom said as he rose to his feet. His body felt uncoordinated, like his limbs had all fallen asleep, and the blood was just starting to flow again.

  "It's not fine. We have a problem, and we need you at full strength," Duncan said.

  "What happened?" Tom asked as he pulled himself out of bed, all levity gone.

  Duncan and Alex looked at each other before Duncan spoke.

  Duncan cleared his throat, breaking the tension. "We had a crime committed."

  Tom’s eyes narrowed. "What happened?"

  "Chad, Kevin, and their friends decided to pick a fight with Abaddon," Alex stated.

  Tom blinked, then tilted his head as if trying to understand the sheer stupidity. "Chad decided to pick a fight with the guy trying to turn himself into a raid boss?"

  "Yep," Alex said, smirking faintly, "and Abaddon turned them into meat paste."

  "Thank fuck," Tom muttered under his breath.

  Eve’s eyes went wide. "I'm sorry, what?! How can you say that?"

  Tom didn’t flinch. "You think I wanted to resurrect Chad?" he asked rhetorically. "The guy was our bully before the apocalypse. The system didn’t exactly improve his sparkling personality."

  "Then why resurrect him at all?" Duncan asked, crossing his arms.

  Tom leaned back in his chair, the weight of his calculations evident in his tone. "Publicity. The guy who resurrects everyone is a hero; the guy who only resurrects his friends? He’s a tyrant. They’d start whispering that I was playing god, deciding who lives and who dies. And it would only take one loudmouth to start a riot. This way, I look like the bigger person."

  "Jesus," Eve muttered, horrified.

  "It’s not personal," Tom said sharply, his eyes locking onto hers. "It’s pragmatism. Do you think I wanted to bring back someone who spent every waking moment making my life hell? No. But I don't want to run around killing people. I want my settlement to grow, and that means keeping the peace. Chad was a necessary evil—a PR move, nothing more. Besides…"

  "Besides what?" Eve asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Tom smirked, though his voice carried a sharp edge. "I figured he’d screw up sooner or later, and when he did, I could exile him without anyone batting an eye. I don't have to kill anyone, and it saves me the headache of dealing with his garbage long-term."

  "This is so fucked up," Eve muttered.

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  "Hey, I didn't make Chad do anything," Tom corrected. "I didn’t tell him to go and poke the dragon. I might have suspected he was going to do something. But he made his choices, Eve. No one forced him. We didn't even trick him. Choices have consequences. I mean, I wanted to kick him out of Hopkins three days ago when we had that meeting in the gym. Unfortunately, if I did that, I could be labelled as immature or some other bullshit, and then they might have tried to get us kicked out of Hopkins, and then we would have to kill them.

  Better to keep everything above board."

  "Well, congratulations," Duncan interjected sarcastically. "Now we’ve got people calling for Abaddon’s head. The Major is barely keeping the mob from rioting. Public opinion is a mess."

  Tom’s expression darkened, his mind already calculating. "Do we know what happened?"

  "The Major ran an investigation. TLDR: Chad tried to bully Abaddon. He told them to fuck off.f Chad escalated to lethal weapons, then Abaddon killed him."

  "I can work with that."

  "Hold on, there's something I don't get it," Eve asked. "I mean, I've seen what you guys can do. Abaddon can walk off bullets, Alex can rain fire, and you can bring back dead people. What exactly do you need public opinion for? I mean, I'm not complaining; I would rather avoid seeing my boyfriend turn into Voldemort."

  "Because we can't stay ahead of the curve forever. Each and every person only has a hundred levels. All the beta-testers got a headstart with the tutorial, but that's temporary. Even with Meta-gaming, all the spells we can recreate, game lore and our previous experience with the system will let us stay ahead of the curve for a little longer. But sooner or later, that advantage is going to disappear. At which point we will be well established enough that no one will be willing to try and dislodge us, or the governments are going to crush us as terrorists, or worse, everything will just go back to normal." Tom said.

  "Then now is the best time for a show of strength," Alex pointed out. "Tom, I love you; you're my best friend, but you are your own worst enemy sometimes. Right now, we don't need an overly complex plan to make everyone like us. Right now, we need to remind everyone why they don't dare take what's ours before they catch up to us."

  Tom considered her words. He wasn't sure if she was right; in fact, he kind of wanted to argue with her. He preferred a light touch, only resorting to violence as a last resort.

  But he also knew that he had a tendency to overthink things and focus on the long run over the short term. Alex had the opposite problem, as she focused on the short term. But that didn't mean she was wrong. Also, there was the very real fact that her opinion mattered more to him than the opinion of everyone else.

  "Alright, let's make a big display. But let's start with a light touch. If that doesn't work, … hopefully, we don't have to kill them all," Tom gripped.

  Tom pushed himself to his feet, gesturing for Alex and Duncan to follow. "Eve, get ready to receive some new patients. Duncan, Alex, let’s go put this fire out before it burns down the settlement."

  "Finally," Alex said, cracking her knuckles. "No more pussyfooting around. Time to drop the hammer."

  Tom rolled his eyes. "Actually, I was thinking of a bit of trickery. Show them what a high-level character can really do."

  "Ugh, fine, but don’t think for a second I’m letting you out of my sight until your soul is back to normal."

  "Wouldn't have it any other way," Tom said, offering his arm as he activated [Paper Armour].

  All of the paper in his inventory flew out and assembled around in what might have been Japanese samurai armour, only out of paper. Of course, that wasn't the only thing he was doing; at the same time, he was using [Shape Paper]. The paper folded, adding layers upon layers to his armour until each plate was six layers thick. Then he added more plates of paper on top of the ones he originally created until he was in a thick suit of paper. It was no steel plate yet, but it could turn away a sword easily enough. Now, while there wasn't a dedicated crafting skill for paper, he should be getting …

  DING!!!

  <[Miscellaneous Crafting] has Reached Level 2>

  <[Miscellaneous Crafting] has Reached Level 3>

  <[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 2>

  <[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 3>

  <...>

  <[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 10>

  <[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 15>

  <[Art of Water] has Reached Level 15>

  Tom grinned as he finally started to feel a little less vulnerable.

  "So this is what we are going to do," Tom began explaining his plan to Duncan and Alex.

  His two friends listened, skeptical at first. But then their grin started to grow wider and wider as he explained his plan. It was time to remind the people who were in charge.

  You may skip to the next chapter.

  Base

  Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA

  Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT

  Bloodline: +5 PER +5 INT

  Level Bonus: +2 to all Stats

  Mini-Character List

  Tom: Guild Leader, Party Healer

  Alex: Vice leader of the Awoken Myths Guild and the Party Wizardess

  Duncan: Original member of Awoken Myths and the Head craftsman Eves Boyfriend

  Eve: Cheif medic Duncans Girlfriend

  AN: