June 29:

The boys took to their punishment quietly; there was no arguing that they had gotten caught. So for the next three months they would do all the dishes and cleaning around the house and except for the daily hunting trips they would spend the rest of their time in their rooms studying.

The problem was Roku. He had returned with Ryoko in a somber quiet mood, he seemed scared of something.

"Ok spill, what is bothering you?" Beast asked calmly and quietly startling the boy out of his day dream.

"I'm ok…" he started to say but when he met Beasts eyes he knew he had been busted. "Promise you won't be mad?

"We can not promise that till we know what happened," Ryoko answered as she sat down beside Beast.

"Well…a week ago when I was at the quarry, the master Mace and Hammer trainer showed me a new trick," He started slowly.

"As you know one of my strongest skills, 'Earth Shaker' has a forty-five second cool down, and the trainer told me to learn to make potions."

Here the boy stopped and went in his inventory and next thing the adults knew, there were about 100 potions bottles.

"Most are simple healing potions, but I got my skill up high enough to make these," and he picked up a yellow bottle.

Beast looked at in and the description read: Level one Paralyses potion. Apply to a weapon for a 50% chance to paralyze enemy for 30sec.

"How many did you make?" Ryoko asked after she finished reading.

"Forty,"

"Wow that's good, combine that with 'earth shakers' AOE and that will make a lot of fights safer. Why are you so worried?" Beast asked confused.

"It's not these that I am worried about…it is this," Roku replied and pulled out a large bottle that was black.

Level 10 Paralyses and poison: Paralyze enemy for up to five minutes, poison enemy causing them to lose 1% max HP per second for up to five minutes.

Both Beast and Ryoko were stunned, that was a deadly potion,

"How did you make this?" Beast asked concerned.

"I didn't mean to, I swear I was working on the yellow potions and I got a notice that I had failed one. Well truth is I got that notice a lot it takes some practice. Anyway when I checked my storage I found this potion." Roku quickly explained he was starting to sound scared again.

"You are not in trouble." Ryoko quickly told the boy, she spoke clear and looked him in the eyes. He finally relaxed.

"But I do want you to let me have this; it's a very dangerous potion." Beast told him and was shocked at how relieved the boy looked.

"I never wanted to make anything like that, I just wanted to help out, the skill is strong but the cool down makes me a…"

"Finish that sentence and I will ground you with the others." Beast interrupted. He knew he was going to call himself a 'burden'.

Roku smiled and nodded, after they helped him put all his potions away, ether in his storage or in the group storage they sent him to go work on his math for the day.

"I'm shocked, he has worked really hard on this I can barely make healing potions and I still have a 50% fail rating" Ryoko started. "To be able to make the level one paralyses potion is really good."

"But that black bottle, that's a death sentence to almost everyone. We need to know how he made it and why the system called it a 'failure'," Beast added nodding his head. "Call the Rat."

Ryoko frown, the 'Rat' was an information broker that they had met that named her self Argo the Rat, she was smart and helpful, for a price, but Beast did not seem to like her.

"Why do you hate her so much?" she asked as she opened her message screen.

"Cause I think she has the hot's for you, I am jealous and worried you will leave me for her." He replied smiling.

"Why would you be scared of that?" Ryoko asked shocked.

"You are a strong intelligent woman, sooner or later you are bound to learn something I learned a long time ago." He replied. "Women are better than men."

She laughed so hard she had to sit down. She knew that wasn't the reason well maybe it was one of the reasons, she also knew he would not tell her the truth till he wanted to.

"I have known that for along time," she smiled as she finished her message "You can still do thing no woman can do," she finished and went over to kiss him. "No one fights like you, and I love watching you fight."

July 2, 11:35pm

Su was sitting again and since she was not happy with the older boys 'actions', it was shaping up to be a quiet night for them. Ryoko and Beast went on one of their dates but this time instead of hunting they went to a small lake.

Argo the Rat moved through the trees quietly, after she spotted Ryoko sitting serenely by the water she started to move quicker, that is till she realized, Ryoko was alone, and the beast never left that woman alone.

"You're too loud," His voice was a low whisper…and right behind her.

Argo jumped and in midair spun around pulling her claws out in defense. At that point she realized two things, one; her feet never found the ground and two; she had a massive hand around her neck.

He had caught her by the throat and was holding her up one handed. "Put them away." was all Beast said.

After she did he let her throat go and carried her by the collar of her shirt over to Ryoko, but to Argo's surprise he set her down gently. Argo looked over the woman again and she was still shocked, every time she saw her she looked more and more like a Samurai, even now she was dressed in a lovely lilac kimono.

"Hello Argo, I hope you are well," Ryoko smiled.

"Well enough, considering," she replied and eyed the Beast.

"We called you because of this," Ryoko started speaking as she showed the rat the black bottle.

"My god…that's the rarest potion there is, and the only one that's rumored to actually work on a floor boss who…Roku, the youngest of your boys?" she asked shocked. "How did..?" she started to ask but stopped.

For good reason, she could feel the blades of Beast's claws against the skin of her throat.

"This potion is too dangerous to be mass produced, yes it could help clear field and floor bosses, but if players start using it on other players…we are talking nasty murder" he growled.

"Beast is right, this is to dangerous, you have to swear you won't sell this information to anyone without our consent. And defiantly not now, we wish to wait to see what the new lead groups are like, The Knights of the Blood Oath look to be good but we will wait and see." Ryoko told her and Argo could see if she went against her Ryoko would send the Beast out to hunt.

"I swear, not to give this information you are about to give me to anyone without your consent."

"You have to fail, a lot." Ryoko started to exsplain. "He was working on the level one paralysis potions, and after about 100 attempts he got a fail notice, and he got this bottle from that failure."

"So that's how you do it, there are potion makers searching high and low for a quest or a random drop for the recipe for this. No one thought about it being a fail creation." Argo replied. "It is funny people are doing there best to level that skill up to make this potion, and the higher the skill the less failures you have. That is almost to funny."

At that point a small screen popped up, it was from Beast and it had a trade…25,000col.

"Like we said keep your mouth shut, I am paying you not to speak." He growled.

Ago just nodded, she knew this guy could be just plain out insane.

July 6:

The weather had changed, today it was a calm rainy day, and the streets were fairly empty.

"The temperature is still the same, but I guess people just don't like the rain." Ryoko chuckled as she looked out the window.

"Yep, only the true insane gamer would wish to level in this weather…well I'll be back later!" Beast replied smiling.

Ryoko's laugh was something he truly enjoyed hearing, and would make any bad joke to her could just to draw it out.

"Are you sure it was right to let the boys go out to help Su level? They are still grounded after all," he asked her as he sat back down at the table.

The three boys were on floor 8 helping the woman gain a few levels, seems in the mad dash after floor one was beaten, she was caught up in the tides and never leveled.

"Yes," she replied. "Su needs to level and the boys are working hard trying to get their punishment lifted."

"Not going to happen," Beast replied.

"No, but it's nice to see them acting like gentlemen for a change."

The two boys had indeed changed in just a couple days, please and thank you's had become common place as well as their willingness to be helpful in anyway. Beast and Ryoko both knew they were just kissing ass and trying to do anything they could to get out of being grounded, but it still felt good watching them.

"Will you be ok if I go out for a bit?" he asked her.

"Yes go do what you need to do; I want to work on some skill leveling. My cooking is good but my potion making and my jewel crafting is…behind," she smiled.

"You know the xp trick does work on those skills too, but be careful, if you cut your finger it hurts like hell." he laughed as he watched her change the settings.

"Just remember to take a nap, I plan to take you out tonight and I will need you fully rested," he smiled at her suggestively causing her to giggle again.

A few hours later, Beast was walking out of the jewelry store; in his hand was a small ring box. In the box was in fact a wedding ring, with a slim gold band, but instead off the traditional diamond, Beast never liked diamonds he felt they were dull, it had a simple yet skillfully cut ruby.

Walking back, the rain had increased so it was now coming down hard, and he could see lighting off in the distance. A message popped up for him, it was from Kiba. Beast's blood ran cold it only said one word…

HELP

He had never known himself to move so fast, he didn't even remember his feet hitting the ground as he ran. Beast got a second message from Ryoko saying she had also gotten a 'help' message, this time from Toma. Quickly he opened his friends list and map. They were on the eighth floor close to the town.

The biggest problem was a name was missing from his list, Ryoko, the boys and Su's name were the only ones he had, but now Su's was missing that only happens when ether you remove the name or the person dies.

Going through the teleport into the town on floor eight, everything was a blur; his eyes were locked on the map and list…

Toma's name vanished and before he could even think Kiba's name followed. Rounding some bushes he saw them, four men in heavy armor, one holding a massive Great-Axe. Ryoko was on the ground she looked like she had been hit, but suddenly was on her feet and charging. As he ran Beast saw something, Ryoko was not wearing her armor, she must have rushed out in fear and forgot to equip herself. She was knocked back down after her strike hit the guy.

Roku screamed and swung his hammer hitting the man that Ryoko had attacked, causing him to derezz.

A second man hit Roku with a large two-handed Great sword, knocking the boy to the ground, as he lifted his sword to impale the boy Ryoko jumped and covered the small boy with her body, just as the sword pierced her back and went all the way through.

Roku derezzed but Ryoko just shook in silent pain, there was blood pooling on the Grass.

Beast saw red, the second he was in range he took his throwing axe and threw with all his might and hate.

The man with the Great axe just smiled as he used a teleport crystal to head 'home' as he called it. The forth guy followed, but the one that had stabbed Ryoko was laughing, amused as he watched the blood that slowly drained out of her. He held his own teleport crystal when he heard a 'thunk'.

Looking he saw an axe stuck in a tree, the axed derezzed as the tree read 'IMMORTAL OBJECT' he turned and saw Beast running at him with all his speed, hate and loss evident on his face. The man just smirked and grabbed the hilt of his sword with one hand and went to use the crystal with the other.

Only it was gone, not just the crystal but his hand too. He looked down and saw it derezzing on the ground at his feet, and in slow motion he looked at the ground, the stub of his arm and the tree where the axe hit…

"Oh shit," he turned only to be face to face with Beast. Or more like face to fist.

Beast did not stop after the first hit. His fists and feet glowed almost constantly as he beat the living shit out of the man, slammed him into trees and a large rock, driving his Hp all the way to red before stopping.

He turned and fell down beside Ryoko, her Hp were almost gone as he life bleed away. Beast reached for a healing potion, but her hand stopped him, the wound was too bad a potion would not work now.

He looked at her face unable to speak as she met his eyes…and smiled.

Derezzing in his arms as he tried to hold on to her, the tears started. The sky changed and like on the tenth floor, rain started to come down hard, it felt as if the game too was crying for her. The killer on the ground started to laugh he had regained enough movement to open his menu.

That's when Beast moved, faster than a flash of lightning he grabbed the man's hand,

"What the hell?" he screamed as Beast used his own finger to change the detail setting to max and turn the pain dampener to off. He also found out the man had a healing crystal.

"What..?" he asked but Beast did not speak, instead he showed the man what was going on. First he used the crystal on him bringing him back to full health. He started to beat the man again this time using his claws as well. He carved, beat, kicked and basically torn the man apart. Bending his fingers and arms till he heard a 'snap' breaking the bones. By the time his hit points hit zero, he as well as Beast were covered in blood the rain only adding to the visual effect.

Standing there in the rain alone covered in blood beast collapsed, a dead look in his eyes…

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