For the next three minutes everything happened so fast, even Eli could barely tell what was happening. Bethany used her will skill to boost herself even beyond Eli’s stats and was moving with speed, strength, and flexibility that were beyond what anyone could have thought possible. Five times in those three minutes a broken spear went flying out of the fight, sticking into the ground nearby or sent off into the distance. As for the boss monster it could not tell what was happening either and it was just wildly swinging all four arms to try and hit her and was having no success. As far as Eli could see there were some glancing hits but Bethany never slowed or even seemed to be taking a breath, it was just non-stop attacking for the full three minutes.

  After the time she had given herself was up she stopped right in front of Eli, badly beaten with blood covering her from head to toe, some of it was hers but mostly from the boss. She collapsed into Eli’s arms and held him. Everyone looked up at the boss and saw it shaking, trying to move, when Eli looked closer, it had been cut on every major artery and tendon repeatedly until her cuts got through its scaled and tough flesh. The boss fell over into a pool or its own blood letting out its last breath. Bethany had successfully killed the boss monster with a thousand cuts, he was so proud of her he picked her up and started walking back to the stone pillar to get back to town but she stopped him.

  “Wait, I want to know where I placed for this event.” she said.

  So they waited until the event ended, he stood still holding her gently in a princess carry. Tara came by and kissed Eli on the cheek before going back to the town. The others stayed with them and waited to see what they would get. Alora walked through Lucy’s group of people checking each one for serious injuries, but none of them were very hurt.

  “You did good Lucy, teaching others suits you.” Alora said to her in a sincere tone.

  “What makes you say that?” Lucy replied skeptically.

  “They listened to you, they followed orders and learned what you taught them. Ask anyone who has ever taught before how often that doesn’t happen.”

  “Hmpf, I guess, I just want to be more useful to him.” Lucy said in a whisper as if his hearing wouldn’t pick up their conversation.

  “Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, the only person you have to get better than is who you are right now. I don’t think I’ll ever catch up to Bethany, and she won’t ever reach Eli’s strength, but we will all be stronger tomorrow than we are today. Focus on your own growth, not chasing someone else’s.” Alora said that whole thing with a soft sincere smile and glanced at Eli at the end of it, they locked eyes and she winked at him. The smile he sent back to her pulsed a shiver of joy down her back, Eli had recognized Alora’s other personality coming up for air and she loved him for it. No one knew about her except Goshen, and in just a couple sentences he knew it was her, which made her loneliness melt away.

  “I’ll try,” said Lucy.

  Mint came running up to Stevens, “Oh you all did such a good job keeping the people safe, as one of those people I want to thank you.”

  “That's nice, but we don’t care.” Arinya said, surprising everyone. She looked at all their shocked faces and brushed it off, “Well we don’t.”

  “I mean, you're not wrong, but it's a bit blunt and rude to say it.” Beau said.

  “Pfft, I don’t care, I’m part of this group and I want to speak my mind. What’s wrong with that?” Arinya said in a tone that said she didn’t really want a response and wasn’t really defending herself.

  “That’s right, you tell me. Everyone should be just as rude and blunt as I am.” Bethany said in tired but loud solidarity.

  Mint looked to Eli to see how was going to react. “Don’t look at me, I’m just here to kill spiders, the ladies are the ones running the show.”

  Mint looked saddened to see that her heroes were really just a bunch of jerks, but then she stopped her own train of thought and looked closer. Everyone was exhausted and wounded, they even had some new people that they took care of and made sure none of them died or got hurt too badly. They suffered for the people of the safe zone, they just don’t want people to acknowledge it. She looked at Eli again, holding a bloody and broken woman who he clearly cared for deeply, he would glance at her with a look of concern ever so often. These people might not be heroes to everyone, but they were to her.

  “How did you get down here, only people Eli puts on the list can use the teleporter pillar.” Stevens asked.

  “Tara let me down, I guess you will have to let me back up. Let’s get you some food and some rest.” Mint said to Stevens.

  “I don’t think rest is what he has in mind Mint,” Beau said and got an elbow from Arinya. “Ouch.” he said.

  “Serves you right, let them go at their own pace.” Arinya said. “We need to get our rest too.”

  “Rest?” Beau said questioningly.

  “You are going to give me a hot bath, then you don't leave my bed until I order breakfast.” Arinya commanded.

  Beau stood at attention and gave her a salute, “Yes ma’am” he said. Then she grabbed him by his shirt and started dragging him towards the pond.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Luce, I think now is the time to go over some more training with your group. Discuss corrections and such with them and what they did right and wrong.” Alora said and put her arm around her and walked her over to the group. She looked over her shoulder at Eli and winked at him.

  “Well now it's just the two of us, what do you want for…” Eli started to ask but Bethany put a bloody finger over his lips to stop him.

  “After” she said.

  And as If the system was listening, the event ended. Eli didn’t even read his system windows except the part about getting experience, he got enough for one level.

  “Magic Level increase from 109 to 110”

  And after that he put his stats in so they looked like this:

  “Magic Level 110”

  “Stats: Strength 103, Reaction 110, Vitality 110, Intellect 110, Wisdom 110, Resistance 110”

  “Free stats: 0”

  Then, with all of his stats finally over 100, it hit him, a system window came up but he couldn’t read it. Eli’s entire body tensed with pain, but he didn’t drop Bethany, he stood still and took it. A full minute passed before the pain started to go down. It was ten minutes before he could breathe normally again, and he could check the system window.

  “All of your stats have reached 100 or greater.”

  “This ‘Jack of all trades’ style is rare but beneficial”

  “Effectiveness of all stats increased by….”

  “System Error: Will value not found.”

  “Recalculating reward”

  “Effectiveness of stats increased…”

  That was it, the windows didn’t say anything else, he tensed in anger, but remembered he was holding Bethany so he forced himself to relax. This was just another one of those things that the system was going to have to answer for when he figured out how to make it answer for things.

  Bethany was looking up at him concerned. “Sorry, I got a system error when I leveled, what did you get from the event?” Eli asked.

  “I got a couple levels, and I got 1st place in the safe zone overall.” She said, making a sour face.

  “What's with that face, I thought you wanted first place?”

  “I did, just to prove to myself and to you that I could do it. But now that I did, being above you doesn’t feel right.”

  “I don’t think you understand…” Eli started to say but she cut him off.

  “Let's finish this talk in our room, I could use a bath.” Bethany said. Eli used blink and they were instantly in the bedroom. He set her down and she immediately grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against a wall. She was weak from her skill’s downside so he knew he wasn’t in danger, but the wild look of determination and pleading in her eyes made him pay close attention. “My three hours start now and I need you to put me in my place.”

  This was puzzling to Eli but he had let her push him back because he felt the turmoil in her and he would let her play this out. From the feelings he was getting from her, she was so uncomfortable at even the hint of being above him in any way that it was making her skin crawl. When they were getting to know each other, Bethany had repeatedly told him that she always chased a relationship with powerful men but never wanted to be the one with the responsibilities that go along with being on top. Her comfort zone was being the mistress of the powerful, often being her boss’s, boss’s, boss’s lover, her actual position didn’t matter only how close to someone at the top she could be.

  Bethany had never explained why this was, but there was a story there that ran deep into her identity and self image. From what Eli knew about psychology, something that shapes a person so thoroughly had to be traumatic and it had to be from when she was a kid or teenager. No matter the reason, from feeling her emotions he could tell that she needed this to be ingrained into her in a rather rough way. It was the only thing that this piece of her that felt this way would understand. Eli didn’t really care for rough stuff in the bedroom, he preferred passionate and energetic love making but if this would help her and it was what she wanted, he would do his best to oblige.

  He grabbed her arm, the one that had a hand around his throat, and broke it by squeezing tightly. “You belong to me. I’m going to carve that into your bones.” Eli said out loud and in will speech so she could really feel it in her actual bones. It almost made him sick enough to vomit doing this to someone he cared so much about but this is what she wanted and from the feeling he was getting from her, it could be something she needed too. For the next three hours he gave her pleasure and pain unlike anything anyone else on the planet could manage. Then when she was barely conscious he carried her to the bathing pool and he gently washed her body from head to toe and placed her in his bed and she fell asleep.

  The whole experience had him feeling off and worried, what had just happened made him doubt if the people around him would be better off without his influence. He went to talk with Tara who was over at Stevens place with Mint working on cooking. Taking her aside he explained everything that had happened to her, every detail of everything before, during, and how he felt now afterwards.

  “Not that I’m an expert, but we both know about how people work. Some people just respond differently to things than others.” Tara said to try and comfort him.

  “It just didn’t feel right to me.” He paused with a long and weary sigh. “But I could feel her emotions and even how her soul was reacting to it, and to her, it somehow felt right. Not that she wanted me to hurt her, but that she wanted an inarguable place at my side. She didn’t want to be an equal, it was like her self-image couldn’t handle that even being a possibility.”

  “It sounds like you have it figured out, it may have been distasteful to you, but it sounds like she is better off than she was before you did it.”

  “But did I do the right thing? Just because she wanted me to do it doesn’t mean it was right, and just because it turned out to be a positive doesn’t mean I can use any method I want.”

  “I think the fact that you feel bad about it is enough proof for me to say that you are a good man and that you did the right thing.”

  “How so?”

  “Here you are tearing yourself up inside while Bethany got what she needed. All of us have what we need, so you need to let yourself off the hook and trust us. She knew what she was asking for and likely how much you wouldn’t enjoy it, but she trusted you to do what you did because she needed it, not because you would want to do it.”

  “You’re right, you always are right. Now what I need is some tender loving, do you think you could help me with that?” Eli asked. Tara grabbed him and pulled into a passionate kiss.