Ding!

　　Bashing and prying off one of the Bonecat`s armor plates was easier than expected once it was down. Between his club and shovel, Matt was able to loosen one of the plates enough to get his stabilization spike in well before the entire monster dissolved.

　　Matt couldn`t have imagined that the meat itself would have been very popular among Gaians, if they ate it at all. It was tough, dry, and flavorless and overall just unappetizing. But there was a big gap between a bad meal and an actively gross one, and Matt knew better than anyone how thankful he should be that this meal wasn`t on the wrong side of that gap.

　　The ding! that popped up now was in the colors Matt had come to associate with the Gaian system, the one that had messed with him in the first place to create Palate of the Conqueror*.* He eagerly threw it open to see what he had gained.

　　Palate of the Conqueror Activated!

　　Bone Plate trait discovered.

　　Bone Plate reinforces your physical defense in a way that mimics the bone plates some Gaian animals have developed to protect themselves. It grants resistance to piercing damage as well as a buff against damage that would compress your structure, such as blunt or crushing damage.

　　Meta-Trait Occupied: Defense.

　　Alert: Meta-trait category filled. You may store a total of (1) acquired trait for later use. In the act of replacing a trait, the replaced trait will be lost and must be reacquired to be used again. Would you like to store Bone Plate, or replace Worm Skin?

　　Matt considered his choices for a moment before declining to replace Skin of the Worm. As far as he was concerned, the worm skin had been a literal lifesaver in his recent fights, and it wouldn`t be easy to reacquire. The bone plate sounded great for a lot of situations, but his big, present threat was still Leel, and Leel appeared to work mainly with elemental damage rather than piercing damage. Matt would keep what he had until he had a reason not to.

　　He had expected the Bonecat`s traits to revolve around durability, and wasn`t surprised to see that eating it produced a defensive skill, although he was a little disappointed that he couldn`t layer it on top of worm skin. Still, he had learned something, and that was important. Next time, they`d fight something incredibly different and see what lessons that offered.

　　"No Barry?"

　　"Not in an obvious way. Honestly, we don`t exactly need his help at the moment. I`m glad he`s lying low. I think it`s the right choice."

　　Lucy humphed. "Yeah, I guess. Still, he`s the only non-you person I like on this planet. It`s a little sad we can`t visit."

　　"Yeah. But I think he gets it, and it`s just some more motivation to put the hurt on the system."

　　Lucy nodded. "True that."

　　—

　　It wasn`t until they had accepted some estate credits as a prize and teleported out that they heard a large cracking sound.

　　"Matt, what the hell?"

　　Matt had tied Leel`s amulet to the outside of his pack, hoping that this would keep it far enough from his body if Leel pulled a quick one with some unknown functionality of the amulet. It only took a glance to figure out where the loud cracking sound had come from. The amulet had split completely in half, with one portion of it falling to the ground.

　　"Did it get hit during the fight?"

　　Matt shook his head.

　　"I don`t think so. It shouldn`t be that vulnerable, anyway, if it`s survived through centuries of use by magician douchebags."

　　"Then what?"

　　"I can only think of one thing that would break this, if Leel was telling the truth."

　　Lucy looked confused for a moment until the realization dawned on her. "You think he`s dead?"

　　"It`s either that or this thing just can`t be away from him that long. But you would think he would have told us, if so. I can`t imagine he`d risk&"

　　"Matt, look!" Lucy pointed at the pieces of the amulet. They were glowing. Suddenly, little motes of light started streaming out of the thing like a swarm, coalescing into the shape of what looked to be a young man. He was perhaps twenty or thirty years old, wearing a robe not entirely unlike what Leel had worn.

　　When Matt had been younger, he and his friends had sometimes hung out in a particular park, one of those that a city had clearly spent a lot of money on in an effort to make the surrounding area nicer. The city`s plan had worked to some extent, too. People drove in from all over town to use it. But it didn`t do anything to help the fact that it was close to the center of the city, and that the walking traffic that reached the park wasn`t always the safest or best people.

　　Matt had found the quickest way to identify a person who might not be the safest to talk to were their eyes. Were they open wide, not just from surprise but just all the time? Usually, a guy you`d be better off not talking to. Did they never seem to be able to focus on anything, either for very long or at all? Either drunk, high, or something else, and in any case a conversation to avoid if you could.

　　It only took one glance at this guardian to know it wasn`t in a good place. Whatever was left of it was dangerous, or at least not right. This fact was driven home even further when the guardian opened its mouth and started screaming.

　　"Matt&" Lucy was already visibly upset. This was the closest thing to blood she could have had, and he was in worse condition than they had imagined.

　　"I know, Lucy. I know. But there`s nothing we can do." The guardian thrashed around, at nothing, then momentarily focused on Matt before charging him. Matt flinched at the pure, screaming insanity in that attack before the guardian went straight through him, unable to touch him as much as it might have liked to.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

　　It then set its sights on Lucy, who slowly backed away with her hands up. The guardian charged her, then stopped halfway, seeming to realize something about her.

　　"Guardian?" he said, cocking his head to the side as if remembering something. "You& a guardian?"

　　Lucy took a breath before speaking. "Yes, I am. Can I& help you? Is there any way for us to save you?"

　　The guardian suddenly screamed again, holding his head and bending over double before seeming to regain his bearings.

　　"No, no. No saving. You can`t save me." His face was twitching all over, like he was struggling to hold himself together, both metaphorically and literally. "I remembered things. For so long. Important things. I didn`t share them. Nobody asked about them. I remembered them."

　　"And that`s&" Lucy struggled to speak without her voice breaking, clearly upset. "That`s good?"

　　The guardian shook his head. "Not good. Necessary. I had to. All I could do to stay sane. For so long. So, so long. I saw, I remembered. I thought."

　　He bent over again, not so far, holding his head, before coming up again.

　　"Now I`m dying. But before that, I can share."

　　Lucy nodded. "I`d be glad to hear."

　　The guardian paused for a moment, confused. "No. Share. Like this." He reached out and touched Lucy`s forehead. Actually touched it for a moment, from what Matt could see. Lucy looked shocked for just a moment before her face contorted into a soundless scream.

　　Then, like nothing, both guardians were gone.

　　—

　　Matt had been frantic for hours. He had run all over the surrounding area looking for any sign of Lucy, or for Leel for that matter. He hadn`t found either. He had screamed Lucy`s name the entire time, trying his best to make himself as visible and loud as he could. There was no sign of her, and no way to soothe his hysterics.

　　Eventually, he collapsed in a heap, weeping until his face was snotty. For the first time since he was a child, he managed to cry hard enough to tire himself out. Even the cancer hadn`t done that to him. After an hour of crying himself out of breath, and without even knowing it happened, he fell asleep.

　　—

　　"Look at you. I`m off in the unknowable aether, and you take a nap. It`s like an even more screwed up garden of Gethsemane."

　　Matt immediately leapt to his feet, faster than he had ever done before. STR and DEX propelled him from his stomach up into the air, where he barely caught himself on his feet before rushing to hug her. Having forgotten he couldn`t actually do that, he skidded past her and fell down to the ground again before standing up and approaching in a slower, more respectable fashion.

　　"Lucy& what the fuck? Where did you go?"

　　"Nowhere."

　　"Nowhere?"

　　"Yeah, Matt, nowhere. I think in both senses. Like I wasn`t not here, and I was also in a place that wasn`t anywhere. I`m going to be honest, I don`t quite get it myself."

　　Matt stood for a moment, trying to find any response to that.

　　"Could we speak English? What happened here, Lucy?"

　　Lucy waved her hand in a placating manner.

　　"Matt. Listen. I`m trying. It`s confusing for me too."

　　"Well, try harder."

　　Lucy rolled her eyes. "I will, I promise. The deal is that I think what that Guardian was trying to do was download everything he knew to my head. But by the time he did it, and he`s, well, he`s gone now near as I can tell, he couldn`t remember everything clearly, and he wasn`t thinking normally. So it did something weird to me. I don`t know how to explain it, but while he tried to do it, it sort of turned us both partially off for a while. That`s the best I can describe it, Matt. I have no idea how I even WORK, let alone where I went. It was black, and it was like I had even less of a body than I normally have."

　　"Oh, okay. It was the in between place."

　　"The fucking what?" It was Lucy`s turn to be confused. "You`ve been there?"

　　"Yeah. It`s like& the space you go through when you teleport if it`s the same thing. Normally, I can`t see it, but sometimes Barry has stopped me there to check on things. It`s weird, like I can ONLY think, like I`m ONLY thoughts."

　　"Yup, sounds like it."

　　They both paused for a moment.

　　"So, I`m glad you are alive."

　　"Yeah, I gathered that from the wet weeping spot on the ground, you baby."

　　"Shut up. Did you at least get anything out of it?"

　　"Oh, yes." Lucy grinned like a maniac. "I absolutely, absolutely did."

　　—

　　Matt and Lucy had retreated back into the dungeon entrance. It wasn`t perfect, but at least it was out of the sun.

　　"Okay, so I`m trying to figure out how to say this. So, you know how there`s a level designation on dungeons? If you finish that dungeon with a team at a level that matches the dungeons, you get rewards appropriate to that level. If you try to do a bunch of dungeons above your level, you advance faster but eventually, you die. That`s enforcing balance."

　　Matt had a lot of experience with almost eventually dying. "Yeah, that part I get."

　　"Okay, so now imagine that on a planetary scale. The system puts in some kind of major risk, and then it puts reincarnators in place to stop it, and even gives the normal people a bit more power."

　　"And all this is balanced, so they can win, but just barely?"

　　"You`d think so, but no. It`s balanced so they can never win. And never lose."