by Tao Wong
“Fuck…” I snarl, considering going in or not but as Richard comes out, he shakes his head. Right, not our place for now. I stare at the twitching body and I snarl slightly, walking away from the cave entrance to keep an eye out. Fuck. The world ends and people go all Lord of the Flies.
It takes hours before Mikito comes out with the other survivors, hours for us to make our way back to the vehicles. We have to deal with one predator in-between, drawn to the smell of blood and Richard has to send the puppies and me out to deal with threats on our walk back. Mikito stays next to the women, helping them along as Richard plays close-quarter guard.
It’s more hours before we get back to Whitehorse and all through the journey, silence is all we get from the kids. When I tried to offer them some chocolate, they flinch from me. There is a look in their eyes, a knowledge that should never be there that makes me wince and the rage boil in my stomach.
When we get back to Whitehorse, we drop the survivors off with the Council. Richard explains while Mikito stays close by, the women unwilling to let her go as yet. I watch from my seat, unable to do anything, feeling useless.
Finding survivors was supposed to be a good thing, a victory. I don’t feel particularly victorious right now.
“You’re my group?” I stare at the small number of wannabe-combat classers who are part of my team today. I look them up and down, the short Filipino father, the pair of gym junkies who look tough but haven’t even leveled yet and the single lady of the group with a cat t-shirt and short blonde hair. I get nods from them all and I flick my gaze over the weapons they carry, a mixture of loaned rifles and scavenged bats and axes.
“Right, those of you with rifles. You know how to shoot right?” I make sure and get confirming nods from the two gym rats and the lady. The Filipino just shakes his head and I grimace, pointing a finger at him. “Keep your finger off the trigger. Don’t raise the gun until you get a clear shot. That means no one in your way.” Turning to the girl, I pull my rifle off my shoulder and hand it to her. “Doesn’t have kickback. I expect it back.”
She nods gratefully and I notice one of the guys shift on his feet, opening his mouth to say something and then deciding against it. Good.
“Rules are simple. I’m in front, you guys are behind. We’re going to head through Long Lakes and hunt for low-level monsters for you to fight. While we are out, I expect you to be working on moving silently and quietly - and when we’re done today, I expect you to continue practising that. The Stealth skill will keep you alive if you ever have to hunt. Stay behind me, listen to me or Ali and wait for me to give you the go-ahead to attack. If I say run, you run back to the last point I told you to wait or the school. Got it?” I wait for confirming nods before I turn and head in, rolling my shoulders in an attempt to get rid of my tension. I really don’t want to be doing this, not today, but we promised.
The first few hours are the usual, slow-going and boring for me though not for the newbies. They scream, throw up, run and on one occasion nearly shoot one another as we deal with the low-level monsters around here. Mostly, the throwing up is when I make them butcher the carcasses and put the bodies in their bags to carry, getting more than one dirty look since I don’t help.
We’re coming up to the three-quarter mark of their training session when I turn to them. “Right, time to pay up. If you don’t know how think about sharing the inventory to me.” It takes a few seconds before the first few trade offers are made, but one of the gym rats crosses his arms, shaking his head. “What is it?”
“No. You didn’t do shit. You just walked around with us, let us do all the killing and then you’re going to take our stuff. No way,” gym rat says and I look up at his Status bar, reading the information.
“Okay, then Peter. You can go now,” I state and wave him away as I confirm acceptance of the other trades. His friend hesitates, looking between the two of us. “You too if you don’t want to pay.”
“What do you mean, go?” Peter bristles.
“Go. Leave. Head home,” I wave again, grinning at him savagely. “Take a walk through the woods.”
“Fine, I will,” Peter turns and then takes a few steps back from where we came. He frowns, pausing and then looks around. We’re a few hills past Whitehorse and since we’ve been following Ali’s directions, we’ve been off-trail from the very beginning. He frowns, staring around as he tries to figure out which way to go.
I ignore him, turning to the two who have paid me, “Right. So, we’re going to keep going for another hour…”
“Hey man, you can’t leave Peter out here,” his friend says, already sending over his own payment. I accept before shrugging.
“All of you knew the deal before we came out. He wants to break it, he can figure out how to get home himself,” I state and then nod. “Right, this way.”
As we start walking, Peter follows and I turn to him pointing in the direction we came from. “You’re not following us. Go.”
“You can’t stop me!” Peter smirks at me. Patience gone, I cross the distance between us and shove him ever so slightly. He flies backwards a few feet, rolling over his shoulders before coming to a stop. He coughs a bit and I idly note he’s lost a few hit points while he struggles up.
“You want to play games? I can play games. Keep following me and I’ll break both your legs and leave you here,” I snarl and point a finger at him.
“You can’t…” the Filipino man looks at me, shaking his head. “That’s not right.”
“Neither is he stiffing me. He wants to be an ass, so can I,” I snap. “Except I’ve been going out, fighting while you guys sat around so I’m a much better asshole than you guys.”
Peter’s friend has rushed over to him, whispering to the man. Peter snarls, pulling himself up but his friend pushes against him, whispering again. To the side, the lady has moved away to watch, the rifle slung down low and not pointed at anyone. Eventually, Peter sends me a notification and I look it over, accepting the loot.
“This way then,” I point again and start walking, Ali watching the group for me. Fucking little shits.
Chapter 16
Life falls into a routine. One day on training, one day hunting and another looking for survivors. The city slowly comes back to life though I guess you can’t really call us a city - more a small town now. Either way, the news of the the boss monster fight spreads quickly and everyone begins to work harder. It’s strange, that the constant harrying attacks of the spawning monsters did nothing but the potential that we might actually face a horde of monsters galvanises the population. They begin to take an active interest in their life again, actively attempting to level themselves, to build themselves up. Roxley hires builders from within the community and they begin to construct stone walls at the three natural choke points that surround the city.
We’ve not made much more progress in finding other human settlements. The few further settlements North of us that we’ve journeyed to have had scattered survivors, the vast majority hiding in cracks and dodging monsters as best they can. None refuse our offer of moving down to Whitehorse, which makes Roxley happy at least.
Roxley comes through on the second invitation and I found that speaking with him was easy, he never had any expectations and he gave as good as he got, providing me information about the System and how it affected the wider world around us. Afterwards, we retired to his private workout room where he deigned to give me a few pointers on my sword technique. Somehow, celebratory dinners and after-dinner training sessions with the sword become a routine thing after each successful rescue.
One of the survivors actually becomes the fourth in our small party, a female mage named Rachel Martin. If it weren’t for the scar that cuts down the left side of her face, her dark hair, high cheekbones and dark brown eyes would have the boys clustering around her. Unfortunately, the scar and her refusal to have it removed at the Shop along with a hundred-yard stare seems to keep all but the bravest young men away. It’s Mikito who ins
ists she join us, making a point that Rachel’s safer with us than going out alone as she threatened. Truth be told, after our first day out, I’m glad to have her on our side. She specialises in earth magic, combining moving sheaths of earth with warping the greenery around us to create effective barriers and weapons.
As for myself, I can’t help but feel frustrated at my lack of progress after nearly a month of training. I have barely made any progress with expanding my understanding of my Elemental Affinity, snatching a few minutes here and there to work on my connection. I can now find it within 5 minutes of intense concentration which is a big improvement, but until I can actually grasp the connection instinctively, I can’t even begin to work on additional spells.
I have improved my overall Mana Manipulation though, even if it has come at the cost of my pride and self-esteem. I probably could have progressed that faster, if I could stand to deal with the teacher Lana found for me for longer than 20 minutes in a row. Unfortunately, even with the death of the world, hipsters have managed to survive. The only good thing I can about the man-bun wielding mage Adley is that he’s not part of the Raven’s Circle. Sadly, he’s still the best option to learn since he somehow has a better understanding of how to manipulate mana than anyone else in the community.
In fact, working with Manbun, I’ve been able to improve my Mana Dart and Minor Healing spells to send a second dart and heal more respectively, though neither are spells I’d care to use in the middle of a fight. As a backup, I’ve also picked up a single, area effect spell, though it drains a ton of my mana. I haven’t had to actually use it in a do-or-die situation, though my one test a grouping of yellow gremlin-like creatures was more than satisfactory. Satisfactory for me anyway – Rachel proceeded to show me what a real mage could do a moment later by pin-point attacking the remaining creatures with a single earth spike spell.
So much has changed, but I’m still stuck, just a short distance away from finally unlocking my class skills. We’re no closer to figuring out how to speed up my acquisition of a new title, but at least we should have a lock-on the level minimum for being a Guild Leader soon.
Status Screen
Name
John Lee
Class
Erethran Honor Guard
Race
Human (Male)
Level
14
Titles
Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead
Health
710
Stamina
710
Mana
570
Status
Normal
Attributes
Strength
48 (50)
Agility
66 (70)
Constitution
71 (75)
Perception
24
Intelligence
57 (60)
Willpower
57 (60)
Charisma
14
Luck
13
Skills
Stealth
6
Wilderness Survival
4
Unarmed Combat
6
Knife Proficiency
5
Athletics
5
Observe
5
Cooking
1
Sense Danger
5
Jury-rigging
2
Explosives
1
Blade Mastery
7
PAV Combatics
5
Energy Rifles
4
Meditation
5
Mana Manipulation
2
Energy Pistols
3
Dissembling
2
Erethran Blade Mastery
1
Lip Reading
1
Class Skills
None (7 Locked)
Spells
Improved Minor Healing (I)
Improved Mana Dart (I)
Lightning Strike
Perks
Spirit Companion
Level 14
Prodigy (Subterfuge)
N/A
The last skill still makes me smile slightly. I’d accidentally stumbled onto it while waiting for Richard to arrive one morning. Increased perception meant I could easily see Lana’s lips while she and Mikito were talking, and I might have been staring a little much. It still made me feel strange to have gained such a skill, but it has come in use more than once when I’ve been dragged into the City Council deliberations.
We’ve managed to kill over a half dozen Boss monsters, but it never gets easier. No matter how much we level, it’s never enough. Monsters slowly increase outside of our immediate vicinity, forcing us to range further and further in search of the Boss monsters, leaving us exposed. Multi-day trips are now not uncommon and the strain is beginning to wear on all of us.
As Lana said so long ago, it’s all about Credits. There’s not enough of it, especially when the only decent source of income is monster slaying. As much as I want to be out hunting, today the first order of business is a damn city council meeting. Thankfully, the council has gotten its act together for the most part, though I still worry about their interaction – or lack thereof – with Roxley. We could do so much more if they’d just work with him instead of trying to make everything work around him. Unfortunately, the fact that we managed to get past the food shortage seems to have bolstered their belief that they can manage without interacting with Roxley. Frustratingly, he doesn’t seem to want to push the issue either, content to rake in his taxes from the Shop and leaving us to self-govern ourselves.
If we get out in time, we’ve got a supply run to finish to Carcross. The town finally managed to pool enough Credits together to buy it from the System a few days ago but Shop supplies still have to come through Whitehorse. At least until they save enough to purchase permanent Shop access in the town itself.
Walking out of my room, I nod to my party as we gather around the kitchen table as is our custom. Bacon, eggs and pancakes in large quantities litter the table – a side effect of our increased constitution is an increased calorie consumption. Even now, with food supplies stabilized, I notice most combat classers don’t eat in the cafeteria. Putting away as much food as we do gets more than one dirty look. Flashing the team a quick smile, I take a moment to review their Status Bars.
Mikito Sato (Level 30 Samurai)
HP: 470/470
Richard Pearson (Level 27 Beast tamer)
HP: 210 / 210
Lana Pearson (Level 25 Beast tamer)
HP: 230/230
Rachel Martin (Level 26 Mage)
HP: 220/220
We’ve slowed down significantly in terms of gaining Levels - our other responsibilities and the need to actually work on our skills means we aren’t fighting as much as we could be. It doesn’t help that we barely get any experience from fighting monsters around Whitehorse anymore - it’s only creatures in higher zones that worth anything. On the other hand, we did get Lana to come out on a few hunting trips with us which has resulted in small increases in her level. Richard found the trick to that one by pointing out that her pets were fast becoming pudgy little creatures through lack of proper exercise.
Fighting at higher levels has required a change in tactics and gears though. All of my party members are now clad in real armour, lightweight bodysuits like the one I wear but with even more armor plating than mine. It doesn’t hinder their movements and gives them a layer of added protection with the goal of getting them even better armour eventually. So far, Mikito has refused to buy a helmet like the other two, saying it restricts her field of vision too much.
Breakfast is an efficient if friendly affair, conversation held to the minimum as we get ready for our days. Lana is fast becoming a player in the local scene, though so far, her presence on the
City Council has not been requested. I still can’t pin down if she’s happy or upset by this, but as she manages both my residence, her loan business and the pooled resources of the group, she has significant say in the city anyway.
We take our trucks and Sabre into town via Alsek and Lewes, the trip giving us full view of the school and the suburbs. In the last month, the houses near ours have started acquiring residents even though we’re not in the most convenient location. I guess Lana’s ranging pets help keep the overall incident of random spawnings down. Each ranch style residence is packed, anywhere from twelve to fifteen people living in each house, but they are the lucky ones. With the municipal water system back in play, the residences have basic hygiene facilities and are significantly less crowded than the schools. At night, volunteers keep an eye out for more spawnings in shifts, a post-apocalyptic neighborhood watch.
The unlucky or unmotivated remainder still live on the school grounds, under guard by volunteer fighters and Roxley’s men, still cramped in classrooms, hallways, gyms and offices. Mana-fueled stoves have been supplied to the main cook areas, though individual camp stoves can still be seen in use on occasion.
As we cross the bridge, the work on the park-turned-farm across the bridge continues. The first mana-fueled harvest has already been taken in and the next crop has been started, the farmers weeding and watering. As we drive by, I can see smiles of joy crossing more than one face on the workers. Everything grows faster and more aggressively under the System and the last harvest was amazing. In fact, as I understand it, they expect an even better harvest next time.