I recognized that surprisingly British voice immediately, though not the tone. There was remorse there that made me second-guess myself. Was the Voice admitting to misjudging me?

  “My brother-self went down a dark path, though he thought he was justified,” the Voice continued. “He is why I no longer split into multiple instances. What he did back then—and to you now—is unforgivable.”

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, causing an involuntary gasp on my part. I was distinctly aware that I couldn’t feel anything else. But that hand felt more real than anything else in that cave, let alone my life.

  “Can you fix this?” I asked with a shaky voice. “The leprosy, I mean.”

  “I know what you mean, Finn. But I can’t, not yet.”

  The Voice helped me stand and turned me around, looking me over. He stood half a head taller than me, but looked the part of an old man with long white hair and a messy white beard. “What I can do is give you a potion that will suppress the disease, one that you’ll have to take every day until you’ve increased the Functionality,” he said. A sad smile graced his lips. “I’ll also give you the recipe for the potion, because it would not do for you to have a never-ending potion bottle. There are enough glitches as it is.”

  “Thank you, but why can’t you fix it? Could a Cleric or a God fix this?” I said, my voice full of hope.

  “No, Finn the Mage. None of the gods have the power to cleanse you of this affliction. And that includes your beloved. This is System level, and nothing lower will change that.”

  “Well, I’m grateful for whatever help you can give,” I replied, leaning back against the plinth. I felt exhausted from all the walking and dealing with the crystal puzzle. And the Whispers.

  The Voice nodded and pulled a bottle of orange liquid out of his sleeve, handing it to me. “I regret how I’ve treated you, Finn,” he said, almost hesitantly. “When you arrived... you were not what I wanted. I was expecting someone who would readily adjust to the rules and grasp the nuances without much hand-holding. Someone with resilience of mind and body. Someone like your brother.”

  The admission hit me harder than a ton of bricks. The Voice wanted Sean instead of me? My little brother? The thought gave me mixed feelings. There was guilt at not being good enough. But my little brother? Oh, hell no!

  “Sean? Yeah, he would be great at this stuff with the classes and spells, and he wouldn’t have made most of the mistakes I made,” I said wryly. “But, with all due respect—fuck you. That’s my little brother! It doesn’t matter how well prepared for the game stuff he is, Sean isn’t ready for the amount of pain this world dishes out. I would gladly go through all the crap I’ve dealt with here a thousand times over to prevent even one ounce of harm from coming to him!”

  The Voice sighed. “I understand that now. The determination to protect others from suffering. I didn’t see it in you, not after your father passed. That willingness to sacrifice yourself wasn’t there. Honestly, I discounted the potential for it based on the time you spent avoiding dealing with your grief, your loss, and the way you treated your family. The amount of drinking you did... you came here damaged, and I resented having to use a broken tool.”

  “And I’m what you’ve got,” I snapped. “Deal with it.” Part of me knew how ridiculous I sounded, and how stupid it was for me to be so disrespectful to such a powerful being, but I was pissed at the Voice for even suggesting bringing my brother here. When I was first getting used to everything, I thought it Sean would be great here, and how awesome he would be. Now, I knew this place for the nightmare it was.

  It wasn’t safe or kind to those who failed. And it wasn’t always kind to those who succeeded either. After everything I had been through and seen, I would fight and die to keep my little brother from this place and out of the clutches of the System.

  The corners of the Voice’s mouth rose into another sad smile as he looked at me, almost as if he could read my mind. “Don’t worry, Finn the Mage. I won’t be requiring your brother anytime soon,” the Voice replied. “After all, I have you.”

  With that, the voice turned and started walking toward the entrance to the cave. He stopped once he reached it and turned to look at me. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, and snapped his fingers.

  ‘Quest complete! The Promise of the Gods, Light or Dark Quest has finally been completed after all these centuries by Finn the Mage! Congratulations! You chose to cleanse the crystals at great personal expense, and remove a dangerous System avatar from the world of Temberis. When the Gods of Temberis took pity on the afflicted and created this place for them, they appealed to the System to lock in the System Avatar, the Whispers. I agreed on behalf of the system, as did the Whispers, on the condition that once it came time to free the descendants of the people and monsters locked within the chasm, it would be at the expense of either the Voice or the Whispers. Quest Rewards: You get to choose a crystal to keep! It is permanently enchanted with Light, so you can use it at no mana cost. 26 gold and 5 copper coins! A ring of unknown enchantment! Bonus reward: Recipe of Suppress Leprosy!’

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  It was so refreshing not to be insulted that I hadn’t noticed the exit of the Voice. I sat down with my back to the stone plinth. I looked at the orange-hued potion in my hand and concentrated on it.

  Name: Potion of Suppress Leprosy

  Effects: Unknown

  Description: This potion suppresses leprosy.

  I rolled my eyes and cast Identify Item and got way more.

  Name: Potion of Suppress Leprosy

  Type: Unique

  Effects: Temporarily cancels out the magical disease and its System elements for the period of one day, or from a night’s sleep to the next night’s sleep.

  Description: This potion was specifically created for Finnegan Walsh, AKA Finn the Mage, as a stopgap measure to alleviate the symptoms of the System-Level magical disease referred to as leprosy. This disease is modeled on descriptions of a similar disease on Earth, and is not curable by ordinary means. Recipe awarded to Finn the Mage for ridding Temberis of a dangerous System Malefactor.

  I puzzled over the whole “system elements” part, but assumed that it was the part that made it untouchable by the gods. Feeling better about the potion, I popped the cork and drank it down. The aftertaste made me gag and almost bring it back up. Who the heck thought bubble gum and pumpkin spice would be a good combination? Bleugh.

  A sensation like warmth spread from my middle out, and my nerves returned to life, sending information to my brain of muscle aches, fatigue, and pain from my fingers. Startled, I brought my hands up to see they had several cuts on them, likely from fumbling with the crystals. I didn’t think they were that sharp, but it was a sobering thought. I need to take that potion every day.

  Pulling the recipe out of my inventory, a scroll of all things, I read it carefully. “Fuck, what is this stuff? Arget flower? Messenger root? I hope Arilyn knows what all of this is...”

  I put the recipe back and put my head back. Exhaustion washed over me. Before I slept, I pulled up my status sheet. I hadn’t looked at it in a while. I had experience energy. A lot of experience energy, like two levels worth. I debated on waiting, but if things went south on the way back east to the town, those two levels might come in handy. Especially if I got another glitch that raised my mana regeneration super high.

  I absorbed the experience energy, going up two levels to level 18. This gave me six points to distribute. I put one into stamina, raising it to 23, one point into endurance to bring it to 27, and one point into dexterity so it would be 25. This left me with three points to figure out. I pondered what the best direction to go would be.

  The automatic points had already gone into intelligence and wisdom, kicking them up to 44 and 41, respectively. It made sense to put more into intelligence and wisdom to raise my mana pool, but I didn’t know which would have the biggest impact. I decided to hedge my bets and put all three into intelligence, boosting it to 47. All these changes to the stats raised my health to 460 and my mana pool to 611.

  Then I noticed my carry weight. It had changed for the first time in a long time. I could now carry a maximum amount of 653 pounds and could comfortably carry 571 pounds. It was just so unreal to me, but it was just another oddity of this whole stats system. I was just so tired of the whole thing. So I dismissed my stats sheet and cleared my mind.

  I don’t know how long I slept, but the brightness of the light streaming into the cave was too much to sleep through. Shading my eyes against the glare, I looked around in confusion. “Oh, right. Crystals,” I grumbled. I got to my feet, looked at the top of the plinth and the crystals socketed in it. Only one of them was filled with light. I gently removed it and wrapped it in one of my rags, putting it directly into inventory.

  Taking one last look at the so-called Cave of Promise, I left and started walking back toward the town. I had to use my hood to help shield my eyes from the harsh light.

  By the time I got back to the town, I was exhausted, hungry, and felt that pins and needles feeling in my fingers and toes. The place was bustling as families loaded up wagons with household goods. I saw several other wagons already filled with boxes and furniture, tied down for a long trip. I didn’t see any animals to pull the wagons, so I didn’t know how they expected to get the wagons anywhere. Then again, how were they supposed to get out of the chasm?

  Members of the 303rd and 125th were assisting in the loading of wagons and tying things down. Cheerful conversation and laughter reached my ears as I approached at my slow pace.

  “Finn! Finn’s back!” a voice shouted. This was followed by cheers, with whooping and hollering mixed in.

  I saw a familiar figure pushing her way through the crowd. Arilyn halved the distance before she stopped looking at me. I smiled at her tiredly, and she rushed to me.

  “Finn, what happened to you?” Arilyn asked worriedly. She put her hands on my chest, and I felt a warmth run through me. “What is this affliction? Why... why can’t I heal it?”

  She tried again, and I put my hands on hers. “Arilyn, stop. It’s okay. This isn’t something you or any of the gods can heal,” I said gently. I gestured with my chin. “It was part of the price for getting rid of the mist.”

  Arilyn looked at me with dawning horror. “This isn’t—”

  “It’s leprosy,” I interrupted. “I had to trick the Whispers, but in the end he tricked me.”

  Her eyes widened. “That is a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I had almost forgotten about him,” she replied. “That happened when I was very young.”

  I smiled tiredly. “That’s another thing I’m going to have to get used to.” I looked into her eyes, full of worry, and I drank them in.

  “The leprosy. I know little about it,” she pushed, forcing me to focus. “What are the symptoms? How does it progress?”

  “All I know is I become fully numb, and if it runs its course, eventually parts of me will rot and fall off,” I said. “It’s modeled after a disease we have on Earth of the same name, but has a few bonus things. Like extreme light sensitivity.”I gestured toward my hood, pulled low.

  “How soon? What can I do?” Arilyn asked.

  “Well,” I said, grinning and pulling out the potion recipe I had received. “You can start by helping me identify these herbs so that I can make my next dose.”

  She took the recipe and skimmed over it, nodding with rising hope, face brightening.

  “This, my love, is something I can work with.”

  Homework calls and sleep beckons...