The message goes black once again, before reappearing. This time, Solace seems to have grown considerably, appearing to be around the age of fifteen or sixteen.

  I watch as he trains silently, alone in the woods, much like I used to do.

  While practicing, a familiar but changed voice shouts out.

  “Solace! Solace where are you!”

  “Right here mother.” Solace says stoically.

  A slightly older version of Solace’s mother trots through the brush.

  “Solace, please stop this nonsense! We haven’t seen you in weeks! Your father and I miss you, not to mention your little brothers.”

  “I’m busy…”

  “When are you going to let it go Solace! Please! There’s nothing we can do to bring her back Solace! All we can do is move on! When are you going to stop this nonsense and be a part of out family again!” His mother shouts with tears filling her eyes.

  “So what?! I should just forget she ever existed! Just act like the people here didn’t murder her!”

  “No Solace! No. We should cherish what we have now, together! You have a beautiful family waiting for at home! Getting stronger won’t bring her back Solace!”

  “But it’ll stop me from losing any more of you! I’m doing this for you, Mom! For Dad! For my two baby brothers!”

  She bites her lip, and turns around, running away as a trail of tear follow in her wake.

  Solace stand there and grips his sword tight, before swinging it at a nearby butterfly, slicing it half.

  “I’ll get strong enough that no man, machine, or beast shall dare take what’s dear to me!”

  The message then cuts multiple times to Solace adventuring throughout his planet and gaining his strength. Going in dungeons, killing bandits, he even manages to assassinate a king. Years pass as Solace continues his quest for strength.

  Finally at the peak of the first realm, tier 9, he travels back to his small, isolated village for his revenge against its people.

  When he finally reaches it, there’s nothing but rubble where the village once was. The once large and towering gates are far gone.

  I watch as he shakily runs through the ruins, searching for any sign of life in the small village. Finally he reaches the familiar small house he use to know, but it is now destroyed and crumbling.

  He tears through the rubble gently, searching for anything, something to tell him his family is still out there.

  After a few minutes of searching, he finds the very thing he dreaded to see, four skeletons huddled up together in their last moments.

  Solace screams out in disbelief, falling to the ground, covering his face with his hands.

  Then he screams out again, but this time in anger, and brings his sword to bear against anything in his sight. Trees, rocks, plants, animals, nothing is safe from the devastation he brings in his wake.

  I watch on as the man I’d come to know as relaxed and unserious, demolishes miles and miles of forest in his rage.

  His rampage continues, until finally, he stops and falls to the ground once more.

  “What has this all been for?! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT!” He shouts out bitterly.

  Everything goes black and instead of cutting to another part of Solace’s life, I wake up, back in the real world.

  My eyes are wide in shock at what I had just witnessed.

  ‘Was… was that really Solace?’ I think to myself while comparing the person I had just saw with the person I had spent ninety-nine hours with.

  ‘I guess Solace showed me that at a cautionary tale of sort, of what happens when you get blinded by the pursuit of power or revenge…’

  I allow my thoughts to stir for a few more minutes, until my contemplation gets interrupted by a firm hand on my back.

  “Rowan my boy! How was it? Useful I hope?”

  I turn and see the familiar man smiling widely.

  I nod in response.

  This causes him to tilt his head in confusion.

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  “You okay kid? You look… I don’t know, shaken up? What happened in there?”

  “Well, a lot of things, but I just got a glimpse at the creator of my class’s past, and it was… interesting to say the least. I’m fine though really.”

  “If you say so kid…” He says skeptically as he turns and walks towards Gael.

  ‘Alright I can think about that later, I’ve got things to do and notifications to go through!’ I think excitedly.

  I go through the first couple of notifications.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  ‘Those must be from the first exercise Solace had me doing. Five mastery level in less than one real time hour is absurd though, and that was only the first thing I did!’