Chapter One-Hundred and Forty-Eight: Wait, you're actually not useless?

Drake swung his arms, trying his best to get rid of the guck that had begun piling up on them from the day. Looking at the Guardian he had just killed, he sighed.

"Ya know, I used to love these rings. But now? I wish I was a damn sword or gun wielder… The insect stuff sticking on my arms is getting on my nerves," he mumbled.

"The blood never seemed to irritate you before?" Natto questioned.

"Yeah but that's one thing, I never liked it. But something about the insects gives me bad vibes ya know? Call it a preference but I'd much rather have red blood than this green goo…."

"I do not believe having a preference on blood is something you would originally have… Are you sure you are well?" Natto asked.

"No, probably not. I have been on a killing spree for about two weeks with no sleep or rest," he said, picking up the body into his inventory, "Before I would probably deny it, but at this point I don't think I can hide it anymore. I've become numb to it all but it isn't like I'm complaining. I've got a job to do right now and as long as it stays that way, my failing psyche can sit on the back burner."

"Drake, you are not some battle-hardened veteran. But a few months ago you were sitting at a desk doodling to make wage."

"You know I don't appreciate you calling my illustrations doodles… I was pretty good at what I did," Drake grumbled, setting up his fire mine spell to detonate the Hive entrance.

"Regardless, my point still stands. You are not prepared for the life you have been thrusted into, I will help you as best I can, but you can not expect to be fine after taking as much life as you have in such a short time. Even with the skills the system provides it will take its toll if you are not careful Drake. I understand and agree with your decision to forge your path forward, but lest you forget who you are, you will turn into another oppressive dictator and killing machine made by the system once you reach the end."

"Wow Natto, that was profound," Drake said, walking out of the entrance.

"This is not a joke," she admonished.

"Never said it was. I've always made mistakes as I went forward. I never said I was perfect. And just because there's some system here now spelling out a few things, doesn't mean I still won't. We all have our problems, we all have our vices. Mine are just you know, mental insanity from killing well over a few thousand bugs that may or may not have sentience," Drake said, waving his hand, the Fire spell behind him doing its job of collapsing the last of the four Hives he was set to destroy.

"When will you ever give yourself credit not veiled in self-loathing jokes? It does the opposite of being humble when it is every time you know," Natto sighed.

"Coping. Coping remember? I thought you were part me, you should understand I bottle up things inside by now. Stoicism and all that. My problems and mine alone, I don't need to puke my mental state on everyone I see," Drake chuckled.

"You say that, but you really should share your troubles with at least someone, even the oaf would be fine at this point in time!" she grumbled.

"Natto, you are privy to everything in my head at all times, whether I want you to be or not. I think that's good enough don't you?" Drake laughed, walking down the hill.

Drake and Natto may have been casually speaking, but outside of the Hive entrance, Drake had just destroyed. Laid a still very full sea of Tyrant Ants. All more angry than ever that their Hive was constantly under attack.

Their party had waited until nightfall, anticipating that the Ants would retreat back into the tunnels underneath during the dark. But unfortunately, that was not the case as every single Ant stayed on alert into the night.

[You have increased Elemental Endowment to Proficiency 3(0%)]

[You have reached maximum Proficiency with skill: Elemental Endowment]

[You have increased Elemental Conflux to Proficiency 3(0%)]

[You have reached maximum Proficiency with skill: Elemental Conflux]

[You have increased Weapon of Choice to Proficiency 3(0%)]

[You have reached maximum Proficiency with skill: Weapon of Choice]

Drake raised a brow as he looked out onto the sea of red in front of him.

"Nice, some skill ups, but I don't really have anything to select… I only use the rings and my staff, so guess we put it on hold for now," Drake said some of the skill ups tasting bittersweet, "Now I just have to get back to everyone else."

Drake looked back his way blocked by a few Tyrant Ants that had filled in the opening he had made to get to the entrance.

"We are not done with our discussion Drake," Natto said firmly.

"We are for now. Seriously, I'll deal with it after the tutorial is over. I'll last another couple weeks, we don't have time to waste about the voices in my head," he joked.

"You have voices in your head other than I?" Natto asked seriously.

Drake coughed as he ran forward breaking through the Tyrant Ants.

"Drake! Drake, I am talking to you ape!" Natto yelled.

I'm busy! Drake thought, throwing an Ant to the side as he made his way to the group's fortress.

It was not as if Drake did not want to talk to Natto about his problems. In fact, he would like nothing more than to dump his mental payload on anyone he could. He had been feeling an ache he couldn't get rid of for quite some time now.

Thankfully it wasn't the voices he had joked about but it might as well have been. And they could still be on their way if he was being honest.

It had started when he ranked up and began taking in skill stones, but if Drake had to say, he noticed it the most when the Goblin Invasion began. He was becoming more and more cold to the feeling of taking life, but not only that, he was enjoying the thrill of fighting, of getting stronger.

Drake remembered the words Bjorn had said. And cursed inwardly that it made more sense now. Drake couldn't fathom just how much mental fortitude it took for Bjorn to stay sane. Assuming the effects were that much more with two legendary skill stones.

But the time Drake had given into the feeling, the urge. Was when he fought the King. Seeing such a monster of complete and utter low quality, put on the title of King. One who was supposed to be above all else had lit something instinctive in Drake. Something that wasn't there before.

Drake shook his head, pushing it to the back of his mind since he had just arrived back at their base.

"All done?" Bjorn asked, greeting him at the fortress wall with a wave.

"Pretty much," Drake said, giving a wry grin, "The Ants keep coming, but for now all we have to worry about is the last entrance and the one direction for their reinforcements. I'm concerned though."

"About?" Bjorn asked.

"Well one about this nagging voice in my head," Drake smiled.

"Fuck you! Fine, go insane! See if I care!" Natto shouted.

"And about the Ant, we saw that night. I haven't noticed it at all since we came here, and it doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it want to defend its territory or just fight us in general?" Drake pondered aloud.

"Voice in your head huh?" Bjorn mumbled, "You treating that young lady right, bro?" Bjorn asked.

"Yeah of course," Drake said flatly.

"No, he is not!" Natto answered in Drake's head.

Bjorn looked at Drake skeptically but moved forward with the conversation.

"I'm not sure either," Bjorn answered, shrugging his extremely large shoulders, "I haven't seen or noticed anything on our end. There have been a few strays that found us early on, but nothing even close to the level we saw."

Drake crossed his arms thoughtfully before sighing, "Guess we can only prepare and move forward then. But, that's good timing, I left the last Guardian for everyone to practice against."

"Practice?" a voice asked behind Bjorn.

Drake smiled mischievously, "Oh, Tom! Yes, practice," Drake snickered.

"This is not practice!" Tom screamed, "Do you like putting me through shit like this you asshole?!"

Drake stood behind Tom, making sure he was actually fine, but only stepping in if he was becoming overwhelmed.

"Would it make you feel better if I said yes?" Drake laughed, throwing an ice shard into the head of an Ant sneaking up behind Tom.

"No! Ah! Don't bite that! You fucking red bastard!" Tom shouted, throwing his shield into the head of an Ant that was gnawing on his leg.

"Shouldn't we help?" Claire asked next to Drake.

"In a bit. I won't let him get seriously hurt. I need to regauge how well he can deal with large numbers before we go down into the tunnel," Drake said, not taking his eyes off Tom in case he needed to step in.

"Why's that Mr. Shot?" Harley asked, walking up to them.

"Well," Drake said throwing another ice shard out, "We can think of the hive as basically a large system of tunnels. So if Tom, the party's main Tank can deal with the amount of monster's here. He should theoretically be able to handle the ones in the tunnels when they are only coming from one direction and have limited access to him."

"Is that why you are killing all the Ants that are attacking him from behind?" Claire asked, looking on.

"Yep. I want him to get comfortable with leaving his back to his support, which will be all of you and me of course, but for the purpose of this, we'll call dungeon dive, it will be everyone else," Drake answered.

"But what happens when it isn't us and you behind him? Like after the tutorial?" Chelsea asked.

"We'll get to that, baby steps though. In games, it's easy enough to know what is going on around you. There is 3rd person perspective when you're playing, you have numerous notifications telling you what is going on. But here in real life, we have a status bar but your vision is limited. It's one of the things that I had a hard time dealing with when the tutorial started. Blind spots are not something you get used to quickly," Drake explained.

"So you're letting him practice with multiple enemies. Makes sense. But aren't the monsters too high above our level to be using them as practice?" Harley asked, looking a little worried.

"True, but that's only on an individual basis. When we work as a team that level gap is bridged pretty easily. All the Ants that are here right now are just small fry. Warriors, Foragers, and more of the basic variants right now. I'm keeping an eye out for the dangerous ones. And surprisingly Tom is a pretty good meat shield, takes hits like a champ," Drake said, then frowned, "Wait maybe Tom enjoys it… is he an M…?"

"I can hear you!" Tom shouted, throwing his shield into another Ant, splattering its head against the ground and his shield.

"Keep it up, buddy! No kink-shaming here!" Drake shouted back, looking over at Jacqueline, "Make sure you keep an eye on his health. I don't want him getting seriously injured alright."

Jacqueline scoffed, "I know my bloody job."

"Good," Drake said, looking over to the rest of the support squad, "Julia, make sure to keep your buffs up on him. But don't go overboard, maintain the spell enough that your natural mana regen is keeping up, if you need to break the spell to maintain it, it's fine. We have Jacqueline here for emergency heals, your job is just to buffer the blows as he works through the monsters."

"Got it, Lord Shot," Julia saluted, then refocused on Tom, her brow beginning to sweat.

"And you…." Drake said, looking over at Megan, "Do you do anything useful..?"

"I'm useful!" Megan shouted her hands gripping her staff angrily.

"Then, what exactly do you do? I've yet to see your skills or spells. Chelsea told me you have a pretty good buff, but I've only briefly noticed it when we were on our way here. What exactly does it do," Drake asked flatly.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you," Megan said pensively.

"Well," Drake began, having to pause to rush forward, a Tyrant Ant Reaper sneaking out of the crowd, "Sneaky little bugger…." he grumbled, walking back to the group, "Right, where was I? Yeah, well, either you tell me. Or I send you back to Shigure's, I don't have time or the luxury of dead weight on this one. There's too many things about this Hive I don't know to be catering to people anymore."

Megan grounded her teeth, staring back at Drake, but eventually, she opened something, then walked closer to Drake. The next moment a window opened showing Drake a skill.

[Foster of Light Proficiency 2(23%) [F-Rank]

You are the tool through which the Goddess of Light works.

Beneficial Spell Buff: Bringer of Light - "In the name of she who is the light in the dark, to which all are welcome. These unworthy servants seek sanctuary. Foster of Light"

Benefit: Increases Defensive Proficiency by 100%, Increases All Stats by 20 Points, All damage is converted to Holy. (Increased based on Proficiency)

Duration: 10 Minutes (Increased based on Proficiency)

Cooldown: 5 Minutes (Cooldown begins once cast.)(Reduced based on Proficiency)

Cost: 50% of Maximum Mana. (Reduced based on Proficiency)

Drake's jaw dropped, "Wow, you really aren't useless…"