Ian blinked a couple of times as he looked at the woman in front of him. “And I think now is the time for me to be going, Walter.”

  “Wait!” Claire blurted, waving her arms in front of her. “Please don’t leave. Look, I’m sorry about the way I acted yesterday, and I have no excuse. You were right, I believed what I saw on TV and never even thought that it could have been wrong until I saw the way you looked last night when you left.”

  She put her arms down and stared at the floor. “So, I went into work this morning and tried to pull up your file. It is…rather extensive, and most of it is locked and not able to be viewed without your expressed permission. It’s safe to say the AO did a very extensive investigation after what Avra said about you, but they found no proof of any of her claims.”

  Ian just stared at her with a neutral expression.

  “Why don’t we all sit down and have a nice chat?” Walter suggested with a smile. “I think you two got off on the wrong foot yesterday, and I have a plan that will benefit both of you. Well, it’s actually my wife’s plan, but don’t tell her I admitted that.”

  Ian sighed and took his seat. When he looked at Claire, she was frozen in the doorway.

  “Did you just say that Mom is the reason you called me last night?” Claire asked, her voice cold as she stared at her father. When he nodded, her eyes narrowed, “Why didn’t you tell me that when you called? Maybe I wouldn’t have made such an ass of myself!”

  Walter began to chuckle as he looked from his daughter back to his coffee while shaking his head. She glared at him for a full ten seconds before taking a deep breath and coming to take the seat next to her father.

  “I swear, both of you can be so insufferable,” Claire muttered as she put her head in her hands.

  Knowing who her parents were, Ian was both intrigued and terrified to hear what Walter had to say. His wife was said to have the power to see snippets of potential futures, and she apparently saw him in one of her visions. On second thought, he was just going to be terrified.

  “You both look like this is the end of the world,” Walter said, waving his hand like this was no big deal as he turned his attention to his daughter. “As I told Ian last night, I want you to become his new Keeper, Claire. And before you give me any lip, there are a lot of reasons for it. The first is that your mother said it needs to happen, which should be enough for you.”

  Claire looked up at her father and sighed.

  “I’d honestly prefer it if you didn’t tell me what she said at this point,” she said before turning to Ian. “The AO has a standing notification that you are to be provided all available assistance when found. It has been in the system for nearly 14 months, and they have over 70 pages on the avenues they have used in their attempts to find you, but you completely vanished! You don’t have a cell phone, car, or apartment, and you have no bills, bank account, credit card, job, or anything. You were even reported as a missing person by your sister over a year ago, who seems like the only person in the world who tried to publicly fight back against Avra—though she got less than zero airtime and the media completely blocked her out.”

  Ian was stunned. His parents had instantly disowned him when the story broke without even talking to him. He hadn’t ever really gotten along with his father, but even his mother had messaged him telling him that she was disgusted with what he had done. His sister had been off on her senior trip in Europe, and he had already sold his phone to help pay for necessities by the time she had returned. He had always assumed that if his parents hated him, his sister probably would as well.

  “Honestly, most of that isn’t surprising.” Ian sighed, deciding to go out on a limb. “I have a fast-food job that pays me under the table, and I live in a crappy apartment under a fake name. I give them cash; they don’t ask questions.” He shrugged before continuing. “Honestly, other than my boss at work, I’m not sure anyone knows for sure who I am.

  “As you can see, I’ve taken to wearing glasses and bleaching my hair. My nose was also broken pretty badly and hadn't healed very well, so I didn’t look too similar to the old pictures, but you didn’t seem to have any issues figuring out who I was, though.”

  “And that brings me to the second point,” Walter cut in as he put an elbow on the table and leaned in. “My daughter here knows how to keep secrets and help hide people’s identities. This is something that I think you will find invaluable over the time you two work together. And as to how she figured out it was you, even in the dark…well she was blessed to receive one of her parent’s inherent gifts when she reached level 100.”

  Ian’s eyes went wide as he looked between Claire and Walter. He was at least relieved to see Claire panicking as she looked between him and her father.

  “Dad!” Claire hissed.

  “I already told him who I was right before you came in,” Walter said nonchalantly. “Your mother said there was no chance of him giving away our secrets, especially since he is going to have to trust you with his. I know you can’t see his skills yet—as your inherent skill is still at its base level—but his are incredible.”

  Walter looked over at Ian, “Mind if I explain them to her? Because let’s be honest, we all know that she is going to become your Keeper at this point. I didn’t expect her to be here tonight, but in my wife’s vision, you accepted based on our offer of trust and the opportunity this partnership provides you. My wife has seen you accepting my offer, so we are just playing games at this point while taking up time you two could be spending more productively.”

  A part of Ian wanted to bolt out that door and never look back. He realized there was a large part of him that had lived in fear of everyone over the past year and a half. However, the man in front of him was Vision—the Vision! A man who was one of the greatest rankers alive, and his wife, who could literally see the future, said Ian was going to do something. They were his childhood heroes, the very reason that he fell in love with the idea of entering dungeons and working towards being the first one to ever reach the pinnacle. Part of him wanted that and wanted it desperately.

  Ian just nodded his head, causing Walter to chuckle. “Good, I’ve never seen someone win an argument with my wife, regardless of if she was there or not.

  “But let’s talk about how your skill is different than the normal version. He has the skill, Prestige Mode. Unlike normal prestige-type skills that just reset a person back to level 1, his version allows him to keep all of his skills and half of his stat points. His current version only allows him to reset at a milestone—which he already used at 100. However, the way it is written has me believing he will be able to do it multiple times as he breaks leveling thresholds. It states that he will get a multiplier for every time he prestiges to increase the amount of SP he gains per level while also giving him an enhanced experience multiplier.”

  “That’s got to be a top-tier morph of that skill,” Claire muttered, lost in her thoughts. She turned to her father and asked, “What type of modifiers are we looking at for his prestige?”

  “It adds 100% bonus per level,” Walter said while pumping his eyebrows.

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  “That’s an insane boost…and stop that. You know I hate it when you do that.”

  “The biggest question about his ability is how often he hits a new charge to prestige. The stat bonus is nice when he prestiges himself, but if the gaps are too far apart, the stat bonus will amount to less and less as time goes on.”

  “Forget the stats, Dad,” Claire said, staring at him like he had grown an extra head. “His skills are going to be off the chart for any level range he is at. Even if he never prestiged again, he will have twice as many skill points to utilize as nearly everyone at his level while getting twice the experience gain. Though that will make it difficult to stay even with a team.”

  Ian looked at her as he smiled, “Actually, my second inherent skill is Prestige Leader, which allows—”

  “Wait,” Claire interjected, holding her hands up. “Did you say second inherent skill?”

  “Yeah, second skill,” Ian said, giving her a sideways look. “Anyways, it says the experience bonus is to be applied to my entire team.”

  Claire’s eyes went wide as she turned to her father, who only started pumping his eyebrows at her with a large grin. The withering look she gave him caused him to chuckle.

  “It actually states that it applies to ‘dedicated party members,’ which may take a bit to figure out,” Walter clarified. “Skill verbiage can require a bit of trial and error sometimes, plus the system knows possible futures far better than we do.”

  Claire just stared at Ian for a moment with a blank expression before shaking her head. She went to say something but caught herself and closed her mouth with a thoughtful expression. She repeated the same motions three more times over the next twenty seconds before her shoulders slumped and she sighed.

  “Ian, I know we got off to a rough start, but you need a Keeper,” Claire said before grimacing. “Starting out having two inherent skills is extremely rare, and having two that complement each other is nearly unheard of. If you don’t have a Keeper, you are probably going to get scalped by the first clan that finds out, and they won’t ever let you out of their sight. It would probably be a cushy life, but you would have absolutely no freedom. If you don’t feel comfortable with me doing the job, I can help set you up with a couple of others that I know would take care of you.”

  Ian just waved his hand to stop her, “That won’t be necessary. I’ll put my trust in you, though I can’t say I fully trust you. Trust really isn’t something I have a lot of anymore. But let’s start with how we can make this easier on both of us. I picked up a new alias, so my new name is Zero. I also picked up the Conceal Identity skill,” he said while activating it, causing the hood to appear and the shadow to hide his facial features, “to make sure I can walk around without people knowing who I am.”

  Claire stood up and pointed at him, “You came out of the dungeon earlier and walked right past me! I spent all day here waiting for you!”

  Ian smirked behind his shadowy mask when a thought hit him, “Why couldn’t you tell it was me if you have the same ability as your dad?”

  Claire’s cheeks pinked as she sat back down, “My skill only works if I can see someone’s face.”

  Ian blinked a couple of times before he started laughing, “God, I love this skill.”

  “It was one of my favorites as well,” Walter said with a chuckle.

  “Damn it, this was the only afternoon I had off this week, too,” Claire muttered into her hands. “Anyways…that makes doing this much easier. If you want to come with me, we can head to your apartment, get your stuff, and have you signed into one of the AO’s dorm rooms in just a couple of hours.

  “But you won’t ever be able to walk around without your skill active if you want to keep your identity a secret. Thanks to my parents, it is pretty common for people to wear their armor and have skills active everywhere. So, it shouldn’t be a problem as long as we can get you a comfortable set.”

  “You should have seen how much flak we got when we started walking around like you all do now,” Walter chimed in. “It was great to hear people get angry because they couldn’t figure out who we were. They even used to offer tons of money for someone to get a picture of us, they were like locusts.”

  “Which is why there are now laws to prevent that type of silliness,” Claire cut her father off. “Besides, the mystery helps increase ratings for some streaming networks, so there is a lot of support for anyone who wants to keep their identity secret. But that is something we can talk about in greater depth during the drive to your apartment. We need to get going so I can get everything processed and get some sleep tonight.”

  Ian canceled his conceal spell and just shook his head, “I can’t head over there tonight. I have work in the morning. I can’t just quit without giving a proper notice.”

  Claire just stared at him with a dumbfounded expression while Walter nodded at him.

  “I knew I liked you, son,” Walter said.

  “Dad, he just works in fast food. People stop showing up in that line of work all the time—it’s not that big of a deal.”

  “It is kind of a big deal—at least it is to me,” Ian stated. “The manager there is the only person who I’ve been able to rely on during this entire ordeal. She took risks to help me, and I’m not going to repay her kindness by just disappearing and leaving her short a worker without notice. You might not see the job as important, but I bet you’d complain if you had to wait in line ten minutes for a burger and fries.”

  “You’re right, I’m sorry,” Claire said with a small bow of her head. “I spoke without thinking of how it would impact others. Though I’m kinda surprised. I didn’t think that, with all the things you have gone through, you would still care about others.”

  “I’m not a monster,” Ian said with a gentle smile. “But I’ve had some guidance to help me focus on what’s important. In the parting words of one of my greatest childhood heroes, ‘No matter the situation I find myself in, it doesn’t define me. M—”

  “My mind, my heart, and my actions are who I am,” Walter said as he looked across the table at Ian. “I’m truly honored. Those were my last words from my last interview. That asshole had the nerve to ask me who I’d become without the adventure to define me.” Walter smiled as he looked over at Claire. “It’s honestly a shame that they can’t see how great of an adventure I’ve had raising my little girl.”

  Claire smiled and gave her father a hug.

  “Love you too, old man,” she whispered before releasing him.

  Ian smiled at the two, though he felt a small spike of jealousy. He never planned on speaking to his parents again, but he wished he had a connection like the two in front of him did. His parents had never really been supportive of him in any way, but he decided that comparing his experiences to Claire’s probably wasn’t fair to either of them.

  “Alright,” Claire said as she stood up. “Let me just get your number, and you can call me when you are ready for me to come get you. I’ll have everything set up and ready for you tomorrow morning.”

  “Claire,” Ian said, feeling a little embarrassed. “I don’t have a cell phone, remember?”

  “Uh, you really don’t?” Claire asked, looking shocked. “I figured you had worked it out like the way you got past the apartment and job thing.”

  Ian started laughing at her expression, “I barely make enough money to pay rent. I have more money from selling the extra small essence stones today than I’ve had in over a year. Hell, this is the first coffee I’ve had in over a year.”

  Claire just looked at him, dumbstruck, as Walter had a sad look on his face as he watched his daughter.

  “But you only make a few bucks from each stone,” she said. “Sure, a cheap cell plan costs a couple hundred a month…but you probably only make a few hundred a week. Tack on a cheap apartment still being somewhere around a grand, and you…I am so sorry someone didn’t find you sooner, Ian.”

  Ian watched the pained expression on her features as she squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Ian said gently. “Now that I can level, things are going to get better. So, how about I come ask for you at the AO’s customer service counter at the end of the week? That should be more than enough time for Jen to find a replacement for me.”

  “Sounds good,” Claire replied. “But I’ll get everything set up for you tomorrow morning, just in case you are ready early. Do you need any help getting out of your apartment lease?”

  “Nah, it’s a pay by the week thing.”

  “Good, then I'd better get going. Sleep is precious, and I rarely get enough as it is.” Claire said before giving her dad one more hug and leaving.

  Ian turned to look at Walter, “I really should get going as well.”

  “Of course, but how about you let me pay for the coffee?”

  Ian just waved him off, “It’s the first time I’ve been able to buy something for someone else in a long time. Let me have it.” He paused as Walter gave him an understanding nod and put his wallet back in his pocket. “Besides, I have the feeling that this might be the best ten dollars I’ve ever spent.”

  Walter chuckled as he walked Ian to the door of the building. As he opened it, he reached out and grabbed Ian’s shoulder.

  “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you, but make sure to be safe in those dungeons, son,” Walter said before adding, “And I don’t think I need to tell you how dangerous it can be to trust the wrong people as well.”

  “Thanks, Walter,” Ian whispered, feeling a warmth in his chest he hadn’t felt in a long time. “I’ll be careful.”

  “Good, now go on and git. Go live your life. You’ve spent way to long at this dungeon over the past year.”

  Laughing, Ian promised himself to do just that.