Chapter 245: Chapter Two Hundred Forty Six

It took several hours before we were beaten enough to be considered  finished. Abel apparently didn't subscribe to Alden's theory that giving  up was enough, and forced us to keep going. Luckily we had Jessie to  heal us up after he crushed us. Speaking of being crushed though, we  were substantially better prepared than last time, and did pretty well  for the first hour or so. We barely got destroyed at all for a while,  but eventually the damage started to add up, and slowing down produced a  vicious cycle.

Once we finished our day off, we headed  home, and I proposed probably the weirdest possible date. "Hey, I was  thinking of logging in to Doom Sovereign." I said in a faux casual tone.  "I'm hoping that playing a bit will help me get some ideas for  alterations to my sub skills to help me rank it up. Do you want to try  it out?" Callie had never played to my knowledge, which made sense. I'd  mostly played as an escape. Callie had reasons to dislike her life when  she was younger, but she'd just LITERALLY escaped from them rather than  playing video games. I kind of thought her way was better.

She  chewed her lip. "Oh yeah, I've heard Benny and you talking about  playing that a few times. I haven't heard you mention it lately though,  so I kind of assumed you quit. You were pretty into the game before  Ascending right? Why hasn't it come up before?" Her tone was curious,  but also kind of flippant, like she was trying to let me know I could  blow it off or change the subject if I wanted to.

I smiled  at her softly. "Mostly a mix of not having time and not really having a  reason. I can use most of those abilities in real life now. I played it  for adventure and fun, but my life is plenty adventurous now, and I  have fun with you. I've also been like...on the edge of death for a  large portion of the last few months, so there wasn't a ton of spare  time. I still won't get much from it granted, given my Beginner Skill  makes me the best player who has ever lived, but I want to see if I can  get ideas on how to guide my subskills as I upgrade them."

"Huh."  She said in interest. "Virtual reality date. I can dig it. Sure. I'm  in." She shot me a wide grin. "But you can't peak when I design my  character. I want to have fun with it." I agreed and she hopped up from  the couch and ran off to find one of the scan boxes around the house. I  considered inviting Benny, but he was at the Academy with Celine, and I  doubted he wanted me interrupting girlfriend time any more than I wanted  to give up time with Callie. I promised myself we would do something  just the two of us soon though.

I waited about ten minutes  before I got a text with a screen name for the game and headed to my  room to boot up my own scan box. I booted up the game and waited,  logging in to my old character for the first time. The world of Doom  Sovereign faded in around me, and I found myself standing in a familiar  house. I pulled out a magic mirror and contacted Callie at the address  she gave me, giving her directions to get here. It didn't take too long,  she skipped the tutorial under my instructions. I could give her  lessons better than the game itself at this point.

When  she finally knocked on the door I let her in with a smile that froze on  my face when I opened the door. I tried my hardest to suppress a grin,  but failed as I took in her avatar. "You're playing a giantess? Really?"  Callie looked...well, like Callie, only about twice her size. She had  to stoop to come into the house. I rolled my eyes. "Did you specifically  agree to this so you could be taller than me? I thought you liked the  height difference."

She snickered. "I do, but this is fun.  I wanted to be the one towering over you for a change." She grunted.  "Callie want manling. Callie drag manling back to cave." Her gruff, faux  cavewoman voice was ridiculous and I rolled my eyes so hard I briefly  worried they would get stuck that way.

I turned to head  back into the house. "Ok, first of all, I think that's speciesist. Not  that I know if giants are real. But if they are, not cool. Second of  all, I was planning to give you rogue lessons, but it doesn't work so  well if your physical dimensions are dramatically altered. Your legs go  up to my collar bone. Anything I show you is going to be completely  useless."

She snorted. "Um, no? This is my actual  dimensions, just doubled. The giant race on here has like, a thousand  different physical modification options. Seriously, if I didn't have the  Focus I do, I'd have spent about an hour going through the options.  Regardless, I'm the same size I am normally, just...like, bigger.  Anything I learn will still be applicable. But why teach me rogue  skills? Do you think I can get the DS Mastery Skill?"

I  shrugged. "The Minor Skill maybe. It's kind of personalized past that.  Might not even work, I've never asked anyone if you can teach Unique  Skills. I feel like you have to be able to, but most of my knowledge  won't translate up to Lesser for you. It's all pretty personalized.  Still, I mostly just want to have some fun, and teaching can be a great  way to understand the finer points of your abilities, right?"

"Well."  She said contemplatively. "I guess that's true. Learning seems like it  might be neat, and even if I don't get the Skill, it'll help me  understand your abilities better, which should help with team combat."  She shrugged. "I'm in. Show me what I'm doing, little guy." I glared up  at her. Oh I was not enjoying this at all. I made a note to never grant  her any height wishes. I ALSO liked the height difference.

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So  we spent the next hour or two working on Rogue skills. I tried to teach  her some of my basics. Touch of Tears, Double Trouble, just whatever  came to mind, and as I went I started to pay more attention to how all  of my skills built on each other. How they interacted and how that  interaction played into my fighting style. I started to alter my skills  slowly like I'd been planning, letting Callie practice on her own as I  worked on them. First up was Mercy Kill. As a finisher it was strong,  but it was also limited. It was useful as an add on, but it wasn't the  final blow it used to be.

I considered how to make it more  useful, and decided to extend the time. I started warping the skill,  the soul weight difficult to manage, but not impossible. I had plenty of  charges, forty eight of them at the moment, and I took my time, trying  different configurations. I tried making it a persistent effect, but it  almost crippled the boost. I tried increasing the boost. I tried doing  both, but the soul weight was too much for both me and the skill, and I  got the feeling if I kept pushing I might break one of us.

I  cast the skill again and again and again, I let myself get lost in the  pain and the concentration, until finally, I found a configuration that  worked. Once I'd done that I started casting it over and over again.  Each time was painful and difficult but each one got easier and easier  until finally, I could cast it easily with no weight on my soul and I  felt that click of recognition from the skill. Mercy Kill had changed.  Instead of one bulk attack I'd managed to split it into three separate  fifty percent boosted attacks.

As soon as I finished it I  dropped to the ground, exhausted, head swimming with pain. I might have  rushed it a bit. Callie said my name a few times and then cut the game  off to run across the house to check on me. I closed my own game down  and lay there on my hands and knees eyes closed as I tried to make the  pain go away. Callie arrived and held me as I shook on the ground. I  needed to be careful. Having more charges meant more chances to strain  my soul, but it didn't mean my soul was up to that strain in the first  place.

Eventually, the pain receded, and I was lying there  in Callie's lap as she shushed me and stroked my hair, telling me  things would be ok. I opened my eyes with a groan. "I resent past me for  agreeing to wake up today. Existing hurts. I think my hair aches." My  voice was rough and even my own words sent spikes of agony through my  head, but they were lessing in severity as I went/ I hadn't pushed TOO  far past my limits. Just a bit. It was a relief feeling myself recover.

Callie  chuckled softly, which felt like knives in my brain, and helped me sit  up. She kept her voice quiet as she responded. "Alright you giant baby.  You're ok. You had me worried there you know. I've never seen it that  bad before. What the hell happened? Your head gets a bit sensitive when  you work on your soul strength, but you don't black out from the pain."  Her blue eyes bored into mine intensely, as if trying to scan my brain  for damage, and I felt like shit for making her worry.

I  leaned down to kiss her gently for a minute, pulling back with a tender  smile. "I just misjudged something after a rank up. It was my bad and  it won't happen again. I'm sorry to worry you, but I'm glad to know how  much you care." I pulled her against me and she rested her head on my  shoulder, closing her eyes as she sat there and drank in my presence.  I'd really scared her this time.

She'd  seen me hurt before, but we had a healer for that. Soul damage wasn't  something you could heal. If I accidentally shattered my soul I'd be  fucked, and there was nothing Jessie could do. Seeing me black out like  that must have been terrifying. She took a deep breath and opened her  eyes, apparently ready to resume talking. Her eyes pinned me in a harsh  stare. "Be more careful in the future. Ass. I love you, and..." She  looked away shyly. "I don't know what I'd do without you." She cleared  her throat. "But, so I can keep an eye on you I think you should sleep  in my room tonight."

I  gave her a lopsided grin. "Hey, don't worry so much I'll be fine. I'm  right down the hall and...oh." I froze as the meaningful look she was  giving me sank in. She meant sleep in her room. Or like. Not sleep. That  was...well my headache was suddenly much less of a priority. I  swallowed hard. "I...um, are you sure? Or like...not that there's  anything you need to be sure about if you don't want to be sure or  anything because we're just going to be sleeping unless sleeping isn't  what you mean-"

She  reached up and put a finger to my lips, trying not to snicker as she  stood up and strolled over to the door after cutting me off, she opened  the door. "Well? Are you coming or not? As for sleeping..." She  shrugged, giving me a wicked grin. "We don't have training until later  tomorrow. We can afford to sleep in." I blame the pain for tripping as I  scrambled to my feet and bolted after her. That was definitely the  reason.

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