Stormblade [Skill Merge Portal Break] (B1 Complete)

Carlos hadn't been a father. That was the only good news, because everyone else he could have left behind, he had.

Almost ten minutes passed before I stepped inside the community center. I hesitated outside as people filed in; I didn't recognize anyone, and I didn't want to be here. Would Carlos's widow blame me? Or worse, would she cry on my shoulder, and forgive me, and say she understood that I'd sacrificed her husband in the name of victory? Neither was something I wanted, and by the time I made up my mind and followed the paper signs down the hall and to the room, I was convinced it would be both.

I'd expected a full-blown church service, even in the community center he'd been a fixture in. Instead, it was low-key. Business casual dress code, although some people showed up in T-shirts and shorts. It was Phoenix, after all. Friends, family, and a handful of delvers he'd worked with. No gaudy decorations. No fanfare. Just a closed casket, a bunch of people I didn't know, and a few printed-photo portraits of him at different ages.

A baby picture of him in a tub with red and orange buckets of water. Him playing soccer in a green-and-yellow uniform and oversized shin guards. Graduation from a high school I didn't recognize. And a photo that'd clearly been taken on a phone, of him in leather armor and a bow. That had been only days before he'd entered the portal with Jeff's team. His brown eyes looked determined and serious.

It turned out that they'd already had a more religious ceremony, and this was less a funeral like Jeff had said and more a semi-formal get-together of the people Carlos had known in his life. And a chance to share stories.

"I asked Carlos not to go," Victoria Alvarez spoke softly into the microphone at the front of the too-small room. She wore a black sweater and jeans. Her fingers gripped the lectern she leaned on with white knuckles, and she couldn't keep the shake out of her voice. "It felt like a bad day for him to go, but he said we needed the money. He wanted a kid, but I wouldn't until I knew we'd have the money."

She went on and on, first about their fight over the D-Rank portal and Carlos walking out with his gear, then about everything Carlos had done to move them both up in the world. And, gradually, a picture started to become clear: who Carlos was as a delver—the speed archery, the frustration over Erik's passiveness in the first half of our clear, and everything else—was who he'd been as a person, too.

He'd been aggressive. A go-getter. Someone who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty with work, but also someone who'd inevitably end up losing his job when he got into a fight with his coworkers or boss. And, according to Victoria, it was always over something he thought was wrong, and over how to make it right. I'd done a handful of portals with Jeff's team, and while Sophia and Angie were the types to air their grievances after a clear or not at all, Carlos was more than willing to fight with Jeff the second a fight was over, if not in the middle of it.

Victoria talked about his childhood friends and their high school romance, then breaking up while she went to college and he bounced between construction firms. And then getting back together, her car accident, and how his system had awakened right after that. It was, according to him, perfect timing. A job he could do without having a boss—except Jeff—and without rushing her back to work.

He'd been delving for about nine months. I'd thought it was longer.

She stepped away from the lectern, and Jeff plodded down the makeshift aisle between fold-out chairs. He took the mic, coughed into it, and started talking haltingly. "I…I was a friend of Carlos's. He and I went back about two years. Before he unlocked his system, and way before he'd cleared an E-Rank portal. He was a good guy, a friend, and someone I could talk to when I needed an honest take. In a lot of ways, I wish I was more like him.

"And I was with him when he died. He fought hard. If we'd realized what we were walking into, I could have made different choices. Called it good, handed the portal off to someone better, and let a C team mop up the bosses. And he'd still be here. It's not the first time, but…but I hope it's the last. I'm going to do better. I promise."

He pulled a folded paper out of his button-down shirt's pocket and glanced at Victoria apologetically. "I'm not supposed to talk about that, though. Sorry. That's not what I'm here to do. I'm here to tell you about Carlos's first portal. About how he shot me in the ass."

For a few seconds, the packed room was so silent I could hear the air conditioning humming.

Then Victoria laughed. It wasn't a long laugh, and she tried to stop herself, but it was like a floodgate opening. Soon, everyone was cracking up as Jeff told the story into the mic, and no one cared about the feedback when he got too close to it.

As the get-together finally wound down, Jeff made his way through the mourners. He talked to almost everyone, offering condolences or accepting them, before he stopped in front of me.

I was just as happy not to talk to anyone. This wasn't about me, and no one who'd spoken had brought up how Carlos died. That was a good thing as far as I was concerned.

Jeff put a hand around my shoulder and pulled me aside. "Thanks for coming. You might not realize it, but it meant a lot to Vicky. She's been hurting. Hasn't blamed you, but she knows who you are."

I nodded. If she'd wanted to blame me, that would have been fine. She could even come yell at me later, or call if she needed to. I could take it. But not publicly.

"Let's go find Sophia," Jeff said. He let go of my shoulders and started looking for our former team's healer.

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We found her near the automatic front doors. Our team's old healer was one of only a handful that had ignored the dress code; she wore a calf-length black dress and heels. She looked beautiful. Not hot, not sexy, but like she'd spent a lot of time making sure she looked the exact part she'd wanted to: a mourning friend and colleague.

Jeff stuck his hand out, and she shook it. "I was wondering how long it'd take you."

"It would have been inexcusable to do it before we mourned Carlos," Jeff replied, "but I needed to talk to both of you as soon as I could. I'm not ready to be done yet. I'm putting together a team for low D-Rank portals in the Peoria area. A stronger team that covers its weaknesses better, so we can deal with ambushes like that one. Right now, Erik's in if I can get a striker, support, healer, and either an archer or fighter. I want the two of you as our healer and support."

"I can't," I said. Jeff stared me down, and I summoned the Stormsteel rapier. "I merged my skill, thanks to you two, and the merge pushed me toward striker—right where I wanted to be. I'm building toward a striker/fighter/mage hybrid magical duelist, but for now, I'm pure damage and evasion."

"That's fine," Jeff said. He was recalculating, and I hoped he had a backup support in mind. Not many people willingly took support skills unless their Uniques pushed them into it perfectly, but unlike healers, demand for the role was only high instead of overwhelming. With a mage like Erik, we'd either need a support that could keep him online or a second tank to slow down fights for him. "It's just me and Erik right now, so I have room to be flexible."

"There's another problem," I said. "I need to get to D-Rank as quickly as I can. That means—at minimum—one more merged skill before I try anything harder than a low D, and I'd need assurances that I get the next D-Rank boss core."

I was being greedy, and I knew it. But I also knew that Jeff's team wouldn't be ready for a couple of weeks. It was likely that I'd get my core well before then; now that I brought some value to a team, I could actually carry my weight in low Ds. Jeff had to know that, too.

Even so, he shook his head. "Erik gets the next one we clear. Part of the deal for bringing him on board. How long until you're D-Rank, Sophia?"

"I'm…I can't," Sophia said.

"Why not?" Jeff asked. He seemed suddenly frustrated. "Still hurting from Angie and Carlos? Me too. It sucks, but we have to keep going. I've got too much at stake to stop. Too many people—" He cut himself off suddenly.

"I just can't."

"Alright. I can try to find someone else, but you're the best healer I know, Sophia."

She smiled, but her eyes were watery. "I'm the only healer you know, Jeff. But even so, I can't. I'm sorry."

Jeff nodded stiffly. "Kade, are you in?"

"I'll let you know in a week or so. At the very least, that gives me some time to get my second merge under control. If I rush it, I've got a good shot at being at the middle of E-Rank by the time you get a team together. But I need those cores."

"Everyone needs those cores," Jeff said.

He was right. The whole city ran on cores. They did everything from running buses to powering air conditioning to turning on the lights at night. Everyone, from the weakest unawakened human to the strongest S-Rank guild leader, burned cores daily—whether it was to merge skills or just for the convenience of daily life. And I was being stingy about my personal needs.

But at the same time, I had to be. I had four more merges, and I had to finish all of them before the egg hatched. And even if I had the money, the Governing Council and Phoenix's civilian government bought every core they could get their hands on, at a premium price. There was no way to buy them. I'd need to earn them in dungeons.

Jeff knew that. "Okay, Sophia, text me if you change your mind. Kade, text me when you're ready to go. I'll figure out a way to get you some of what you need. We've got to get moving, though. It's been over a week since any of us cleared a portal, and I don't know about you, but I need the money. I've got to find another support and sustained damage-dealer—and a healer, if you won't change your mind, Sophia."

"I won't. I can't." She paused again, looking at the tile floor, the ceiling—anywhere but at Jeff as he walked away. "I'm sorry."

As soon as Jeff left, Sophia's gaze fell on me. "Kade, you're really considering this, aren't you?"

"I am," I admitted. "It's too good an opportunity to pass up. You?"

"No. Not at all." Sophia went quiet. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out the front door and into the palo verde trees and saguaros that surrounded the rec center. It was already hot, and a bead of sweat worked its way down the back of my neck as she dragged me to a spot well away from the entrance. "I got a job offer."

I'd wondered why she hadn't gotten one earlier. Even an E-Rank healer was a commodity for the guilds, and they'd almost certainly spend the resources to get her to at least B-Rank if they got their hands on her. It'd be expensive, but the Portal Dragons were always recruiting healers. Always. All she would have had to do was sign up, and she'd have been set for life.

"Which guild's it with?"

"The Governing Council." She paused again. "They've got a program for healers that gets them to C-Rank, then finds a position for them with a team—or in one of their facilities. I've got a three-merge build lined up for me, and a timeline. I'll need to run some E-Rank dungeons, but only three to six D-Ranks. Then I'll never have to fight another monster again, and I can use my skills the way they were meant to be used—helping people."

I closed my eyes. Tried not to sigh. Sighed anyway. "You're sure about this?"

"No. I haven't been sure about anything since I woke up in the hospital, Kade. But…look, the system gave you a gift in your Unique skill. It's a gift with danger, and consequences, and opportunity. It did the same thing with me. Touch of Warmth has consequences. I'll never be able to heal efficiently from far away, and after…after watching Angie die…I can't be next to someone when they're burning to death. It can't be my fault again. I've tried to clear two portals since I got out of the hospital, and both times, the group had to turn around because I couldn't heal them. I can't keep doing this."

She thought Angie's death was her fault. It made sense, in a twisted way; she'd been the group's healer, and she hadn't been able to keep Angie alive. That had to weigh on her. But Jeff thought the same thing—he'd been in charge—and I had plenty of guilt over Carlos. "Have you looked into how high-rank healers handle this?"

"Yes, Kade, I've looked into it. The answer is almost always therapy, drinking, or quitting. Usually at least two, and sometimes all three. There aren't less healers than other roles. There are just less active healers. You know that. And I don't want to be an active healer anymore. I want to patch up training injuries, or put people back together in the safety of a hospital, not in a portal world."

I nodded. There wasn't anything left to say; she'd made up her mind, and all I could do was accept it. But without a healer, Jeff would need to rework his entire strategy. A slow grind while saving a mage like Erik's power just wouldn't work in mid-powered D-Rank portals, to say nothing of another C-Rank—and that's where Jeff's team was heading.

If I wanted to keep up with them—or even surpass them as my build came online—I had a lot of work to do. It was time to hit the books.

And the gym.