Lee’s mouth hung open. His eyes wide with disbelief. Lee thought there was no way he should have gotten that amount of experience. He healed those around him, yes, but he didn’t participate in the actual combat much. His Earthen Strikes shouldn’t have counted much for nearly enough for the amount of EXP he attained.

Lee quickly looked at the other prompts he had been given.

 

Lee stood dumbfounded, surrounded by resting elves. He wanted to scream in joy, but he didn’t want to wake the weary.

Anya seemed to have taken notice of Lee’s emotional rollercoaster. She motioned him over while raising an eyebrow.

Lee carefully moved past the resting elves with an exuberating smile. “Holy fucking shit Anya. I’m level 21! I got a new skill that seems overpowered as all hell and…”

Anya held up a single finger to his lips with a serious but also guilty look. “That is personal information, Lee. You must be careful who you tell things like that too. I know you’re excited but think for a moment. Am I someone you should be telling this information too?”

Without a second thought, Lee said. “Yes. You’re someone I’m fine with knowing.”

He wrapped his arm around Anya’s shoulder and started to move out of the tent excitedly. “Anya! This is fantastic! I even got a repeatable class quest!”

He turned to Anya after exiting the tent and realized he made a mistake. Anya’s face was no longer the pale gray all Dark Elves had. It was a bright red. Lee’s arm had never moved faster as he unwrapped it around Anya. His face also slowly turned bright red. “I… I’m sorry, Anya. I wasn’t thinking in my excitement.”

Anya shyly looked down to the ground as her face burned bright. She twirled her hands around each other nervously. “It’s okay, Lee. It happens to the best of us. I was just surprised.”

Lee coughed into his hand as he quickly changed the subject. “How long was I asleep? Is the battle over? The Troll leader sent the giants and other Trolls after us earlier, right? Since I’m still alive, wasn’t that the end?”

Anya, also very happy to change the topic, followed suit. “You were asleep for only an hour. The higher leveled fighters went out and started their counter-offensive. The battle is still raging…”

Anya slowed as she realized she didn’t know how to tell Lee the next bit of news. She decided that this was still a better subject than the last, so she carried on. “Also… Neia is going to fight the Troll leader.”

Lee was mid-drink from his Conjure Water spell as he coughed and sputtered it across the dirt and grass. “She’s WHAT?!”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neia was checking her gear when she heard her father from behind. “You’ve checked it three times. It’s all there and ready.”

She looked down at her supplies: two Mana potions, a Healing potion, and a Stamina potion, along with her twin Khopeshes, a dagger, and her monster hunter leather armor.

Neia turned to look at her father’s kind smile and sighed. “Wish I had better armor…”

Nitis chuckled and ran his eyes across the leather armor. “Your armor is serviceable. Plus, this gives you more incentive to not get hit.”

Neia looked down at her equipment once more and whispered. “What if I fail…”

Nitis smiled ruefully, walked forward, and patted her back. “Then you fail. Failure is a way to learn. Do not be dismayed by what if’s, Neia.”

Nitis held his rueful smile until he heard the next set of quiet words from Neia's mouth. “Do you think she would be proud of me?”

Nitis moved his eyes from the equipment to his daughter. He saw a single tear fall and splash against the wooden table. He stared at the tear for a single second, then spoke solemnly. “She would be very proud. Nothing you could ever do would change that. You know that.”

Neia took a shaky breath, face hidden from her father. She wiped her eyes with her elbow and grabbed her gear. “I’ll be out in a minute, father. I’ll show you both what I’m capable of.”

Nitis slowly nodded and turned to leave the room. He opened the door and spoke without turning. “You don’t need to show us anything. We already know that you’re the best of both of us.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And WHY is she doing it and not Nitis? This seems unreasonably dangerous! NO! This whole fucking siege was unreasonable to begin with! He could have killed them all without anybody dying! This is such horse shit!” Lee unleashed his litany of curses in front of the medical tent, not directed at anybody in particular.

Anya shook her head. “Lee, all those levels you got and all the others who got the same is worth a lot…”

Lee looked at her in disbelief.

She did not just fucking say that.

Lee was livid. All the happiness about his levels and his new skill flew out the window as soon as he realized the cost of it all. People. People were the cost. “You’re telling me those people's lives were worth the experience we all got? YOU!? A person who runs a clinic to save lives?”

Anya was struggling to get her point across. “Lee! This is how things work! People go out, fight monsters, and get experience! Would it be nice if nobody had to die? YES! But that’s not how it works!”

“So you’re saying class quests and doing your profession isn’t enough? I get five hundred XP every time I heal five thousand HP. That seems good enough to me! So? Does it take time? Yes, so what! You all live thousands of years, and I might live a hundred! Anya, you know this is bull shit. Those people didn’t have to die!” Lee was screaming now. His unrelenting rage consumed all his thought.

Anya was still trying to defend the process, though. “What if we didn’t have Nitis, Lee? What if he falls, and we are left with what we have?”

Lee couldn’t believe his ears. Of all the people thought would be on his side, it was going to be Anya. “What if?! WHAT IF?! There is no fucking what if Anya! He’s here! He could have let everybody live! Instead, he threw us into the fire and let the weak perish! That’s fucking insane!”

Anya was done with the conversation. She looked at Lee with pity. “Just stop, Lee. You’re making a fool of yourself.”

Lee was flabbergasted and absolutely raving. He looked around at the small crowd which formed during their argument. He looked at their faces and saw confusion marked upon all of their faces.

Are these people for real? This isn’t how things are meant to be!

He was about to explode once again when a heavy hand rested itself upon his shoulder. He looked over and was about to burst when he saw the hands owner. Juris.

“Lee, stop.” Juris said with no emotion.

No. He was not going to stop. This was wrong. He calmed down just a tad to collect his thoughts. He spun toward Juris and spoke with anger but no longer unrelenting rage. “Juris, we both went through all that together. Tell me those people had to die. Tell me that straight to my face.”

The whole crowd was silent for a few seconds as Juris thought about his response. “No, Lee, they did not have to die.”

Finally! Someone with a working brain!

Lee was about to speak when Juris’s hand raised in front of his face. “But, it is better this way. Power is not consolidated to a single person. All who lived benefitted greatly, you included.”

Lee froze once again. Unable to think of any reason why people had to die when they could have lived. He felt betrayed. He looked up at Juris and those around him and said something without thinking of the consequences. With anger and frustration in his voice, he said his final words. “This isn’t right. I see why you’re all stuck in this forest now.”

He turned and stormed off towards the battlement’s wooden stairs. He pushed his way through the crowd, and they let him pass. He didn’t want to look at any of their faces, not yet. Not until he calmed down.