Chapter 79: Mansplaining

Drake sat down on top of the newly made glorified box, looking out to the forest, his legs dangling back and forth as he listened to Natto rack the new people over the coals beneath him.

He smiled each time he heard a dolt, imbecile or ape. Beginning to count them like a game as he made sure the Goblins were dealt with.

After a few hours, they had been put through the ringer enough and discussed enough to come to Drake during a lull in the attacks.

A quick tug on his pants leg from below alerted him to hop down. His gaze going over the group that was slightly more amenable.

“All set?” Drake said, looking down to Natto.

“They are a bunch of fools! Not a single one has a full set of skills, not a single one took the time to optimize their skills!” Natto shouted her hands up in the air.

Drake winced.

“But that should be alright as long as we fill the remaining ones correctly?” Drake asked.

“It will be difficult. Especially her,” Natto pointed at Claire, “her support class is too specific and unique for the skill stones we are obtaining at the moment. She requires Lightning Stones and Water Stones, but we have only received them from the Generals at the moment, and each are of Rare quality. Luckily her class skills give a substantial buff to your spells, so we should be able to manage until the end of the tutorial where she should, if we are lucky, be able to purchase the stones she needs through the shop.”

Claire deflated at being called out, but it was needed to get the information out there so Drake could make sense of it and plan accordingly.

“That’s fine Claire. Your class alone is worth the investment, in fact even if we don’t get a single stone for you to use I wouldn’t call it a loss. Also there is a big thing I'm banking on for everyone once I squash the King!” Drake grinned.

“Be that as it may… we have other problem children,” Natto pointed to Jacqueline, “She is a healer but somehow hasn’t been able to get her hands on Healer and Prayer Stones. Even after the ones you provided she will still need several to fill out. The old man does not need much, the common stones you have can finish up his empty skill slots, unless you wish to wait for rarer stones,” Natto explained.

Drake looked over to Hudson, “What do you think Hudson? Do your little guys need more bang for the buck or can they hold out until we get better stuff?”

Hudson mulled over the question for a minute then answered his eyes inspecting the ceiling as he ran through the logistics.

“Right now I can only make two big guys, but with the stuff you’ve given me and if you aren’t lying about the mines, I can make as many of the stationary boys as we need. It will be really expensive but with some Mana Steel and quality Monster Stones, we should be cookin’, he explained.

“Good, then we wait so we can get you to tip top toymaker quality,” Drake said, looking to Natto for more of her report.

She sighed before continuing, “Dear Theo’s woman has filled up her slots, so there was nothing I can offer there, but as a pure ranger class, she had little options of stones in the first place. The annoying yappy one is also the same. Her skills are slightly better surprisingly but she is more of a reconnaissance based class, somewhat a ranger version of Theo.”

Natto’s description earned her a quick glare from Chelsea, but she went straight faced as soon as Natto glared back, her hand reaching into her sleeve.

“The one of the last two is also going to need a lot of resources. You must already understand that young Amir needs Greed Stones for the majority of his skills,” Natto said, to which Drake nodded, “But thankfully, the food snatching child!” Natto screamed then paused for a moment, “Only needs common Mage Stones outside the Restraint Sub-class stone you picked up. Her main skills come from her base class, and every other skill will only benefit the effects of those skills as well as keep her from dying too quickly as she doesn’t have a single bit of combat usefulness….”

Natto finished with a huff, “And this one,” Natto pointed to Tom, “He is… I must be honest, even if he receives the necessary stones to complete and boost his class. I certainly do not feel like it will be a well spent investment…”

Drake changed his focus to Tom, as the man shirked away under the gaze.

He wasn’t sure what to do with the man either. He was supposed to be a frontliner but had no backbone to speak of. Drake wasn’t willing to inflict purposeful trauma onto someone he hardly knew, so he was currently at an impasse on how to deal with Tom.

“Tom,” Drake said.

“Y-yes?” Tom replied.

“Why are you here?” Drake asked.

“What do you mean? I told you I just didn’t want to interrupt.

“No I don’t mean why are you here physically in this place right now. I’m asking what goal or what drives you to want to be here?”

“I-i mean I’m a nice guy and just want to help, and I would hate to leave Chelsea and Jacque-” Tom was cut off by a bolt of lightning passing by his face.

“Leave the bullshit and the ‘I’m a nice guy’ garbage for the old world. I’m talking about real drive, real motivation. Amir here, who says the same, that he wants to help. I know he sees the injustice after being locked up in a fucking cage, and wants to change for the better. But you. Is the only thing that motivates you is chasing tail? Or being threatened by someone stronger than you?” Drake asked, his eyes going cold, “Because if that is, then you're worthless here.”

The makeshift room went more silent as Drake confronted Tom. Chelsea and Jacqueline shifted back and forth uncomfortably being mentioned by Tom.

“I-i don’t know what you mean. I’m just a nice guy and..” Tom repeated trailing off as Drake stepped forward.

“Tom, have you ever heard of the saying, nice guys finish last?” Drake asked.

Tom nodded.

Drake took another step forward, “What about the term that nice guys aren’t actually nice guys?”

Tom shook his head, confused. “How can someone nice not be nice?”

“Nice guys, nice men, men who are always polite and never confrontational. Do you know what they are? They are liars. They don’t speak their minds, they never bring up when a friend is making a genuine mistake because they don’t want to get into a fight. Nice guys lie. Nice guys are snakes,” Drake spat distastefully.

Tom backed up, eventually hitting a corner of the earthen room.

“If you want to say, you are getting stronger, willing to kill monsters all for a chance to sleep with one of them,” Drake said pointing to Chelsea and Jacqueline, “That’s fine. And I would respect you more for being honest. But if you want to lie to me and tell me that you're just a nice guy who is doing nice things out of the goodness of your heart. Specifically for them. You are not only lying to them, but you are lying to yourself and it's disingenuous.”

Both of the women turned away from Tom and Drake, shifting awkwardly foot to foot.

Tom began forming a cold sweat. Drake not breaking his gaze.

“I-I think they're both pretty yeah… Even Megan back at our old camp was really cool, and nice, and cute..” he stammered, Chelsea turning back with a scowl on her face, “And I really just wanted to impress them, it’s why I chose my class even…”

Drake raised his hand and placed it on Tom’s shoulder.

“It’s alright. There is nothing wrong with having attraction to someone. But you know why I pressed you?” Drake said.

Tom shook his head.

“I need people who are going to have a baseline of honesty with me, and everyone on this team. I don’t care if you like them, that is your prerogative and how you go about it as long as you aren’t forcing yourself on them, or making them uncomfortable. I think it’s fine. But, the best thing you can do is become the best version of yourself now. And do it for you first, because they won't be the ones coming to your rescue. Hell even I won’t be. You are going to be the one who has to dig yourself out of your own shit every time when it boils down to it. You need to be strong enough to carry your weight and there’s. That’s the class you chose, that’s the road you’ve decided to take. And I can help you get there, but you have to be the one to ultimately change and do it for yourself first,” Drake said, gripping Tom’s shoulder slightly tighter.

Drake quickly turned and scratched the back of his head.

“Sorry about that, I just have a big problem with the term nice guy. Last one did frame me, and try to kill me but that’s a story I’m not willing to share. Glad we got that cleared up, hope that wasn’t too awkward haha…” Drake chuckled wearily.

“Anyway… Now that everyone has a plan for stones and such, what question have you all decided on to ask before we get the formal contracts all done?” Drake asked, trying to move the conversation quickly.

The group looked to each other pensively after the scene Drake had just caused out of nowhere. But Sherry seemed to not care in the slightest and moved at her own pace.

Waving her empty bag of food in her hand she spoke up, “They want to know what class you are. Also I need more grub…” she pouted.

Chelsea spoke up next agreeing with her.

“Exactly. I think the biggest question is what class are you? None of us have ever seen someone use magic so strong, but be able to fight evenly with monsters of higher level in a brawl.”

“Classes,” Drake stated.

“Excuse me?” Jacqueline asked curiously.

“Not class, classes. I have two classes,” Drake said again, clarifying.

Chelsea’s mouth opened slightly then closed as if a light bulb lit up.

“That person was right then? You chose to start over with another basic class? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard how the fuck are you alive?!” she shouted.

Drake laughed softly as he remembered his ‘choice’. Natto stepping to his side, the sound of her geta tapping on the stone below her.

“I didn’t have a choice. I rolled a one, three times,” Drake explained, his eyes glazing over as he tried to block out the memory while speaking.

Amir laughed, then covered his mouth, coughing. “That’s impossible, or well very unlikely. That is a one in eight-thousand chance.”

Drake just laughed as everyone looked at him in disbelief.

“I’m going to go kill something, we can do the contracts in a little bit,” Drake said, nearly chuckling the words, as he moved to the edge of the wooden wall of the Outpost.

A second later he snapped his hands summoning yellow circles of magic, each one snapping with more mana and enormous balls of lightning than his previous spells.

Without uttering a word he began firing the condensed spheres of energy into the forest, with no regard to where they landed, or if they were actually hitting the Goblins.

Natto sighed from behind the eerily laughing Drake.

“I fear that you may have broken him,” she muttered, Drake’s laughing growing louder as he fired off more bolts of electricity, “Yes, certainly you have broken him. Alright it would seem we shall have to break for a snack until he returns to his senses or exhausts himself,” Natto finished, pulling a bag of roasted nuts from her sleeve.

Sherry spotted the food and moved closer to ask for some.

“No! Filthy peasant! These are for I and I alone! Begone thot!”

Author Note: I may change the interaction after waiting to re-read the chapter. I do like the interaction I have between Tom and Drake, but it seems a bit forced without Drake doing an internal explanation that he is projecting Stewart onto Tom. There is a small snippet where he mentions the person that 'framed' him but I'm not sure if it's enough.