TaoWongEng

“Thanks. If you don’t mind, there are a few people who’d like to talk to you,” Melissa says and waves me to the Tagish First Nation’s offices. I park Sabre there once I can and after a moment’s hesitation grab the rifle from its holster on the bike. Looks like everyone is armed in this town.

The meeting hall is buzzing, people moving with purpose. Random snatches of conversation that I overhear give a sense of organisation, of people working towards a common goal, something that was missing in Whitehorse. Surprisingly, I notice that everyone here has a few levels, a vast change from the majority in Whitehorse. I don’t get to linger though as I’m directed towards a boardroom where three others await – a gaunt, tall teenage Wizard, a matronly First Nation Shaman elder and a local member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) still in his uniform.

The last makes me pause, a part of me wondering about the lack of RCMP members in Whitehorse. I’d have thought they’d be in the front-lines of this. I frown, and then push the thought aside. Something to look into when I’m back if I really was that curious. In the meantime, introductions seem to have been made for me, but I’ve missed it. Ah well, not as if I need to remember their names, what with Ali providing their Status bars. Interestingly enough, the kid is the highest level at 36, the constable is a level 34 Guardian and the elder only a level 8 Shaman.

“So Mr Lee, you came from Whitehorse,” Constable Mike Gadsby says, his heavy Francophone accent taking me a moment to decipher. “Can you tell us about the state of the city? We have had no word.”

I nod and settle into a chair, getting ready for a long talk. We start out with Whitehorse and then I get a briefing on Carcross before we range back to the System. Once they realise I’m a fount of information, the kid takes over the conversation, sending probing and insightful questions my way. More than once Ali has to provide me with the answers to questions that the kid raises.

When the first message came, quite a few of the residents of Carcross had congregated at the RCMP’s office. That meant that when monsters spawned, there was much less ground to cover, allowing the RCMP to organise and protect them. In the meantime, it seemed the kid - Jason Cope - had convinced his Mum, Ms O’Keefe that he knew what he was talking about and then dragged her along on a monster hunt to ‘power-level’ themselves, picking on the various lower leveled monsters that cropped up. Working together with their neighbors, they quickly managed to not only level but work out the party system and proceed to sweep the surroundings repeatedly, keeping the residents safe and gaining experience constantly. When an initial monster horde had rushed the crowd, it was only the timely intervention by the O’Keefe’s that managed to keep the casualties to the minimum.

In the meantime, I learnt about the Party System in more detail. Seems it was both obvious and annoying, much like most of the System. I could make a party at any time with anyone I wanted, though I could only have one party. A party shared experience to some extent, but only if party members actively helped during a fight. The actual division of experience varied depending on the contribution offered and included damage done, healing or buffs provided or just general support. It seemed that disparate levels in the party meant that people gained experience in different ways and the System actually registered groups that moved together as unofficial Parties whether we wanted it to or not.

In addition, the other thing I picked up was that it was quite viable to increase levels outside of fighting if you were a non-fighter based class. Leveling in those cases focused on the development of their class skills, with increases in class skills providing experience that then increased their overall Levels. In addition, it seemed non-fighter characters seemed to gain Quests at a much faster rate which were mostly focused on developing those skills. It was one of the reasons for the levels I had seen as everyone worked on developing their skills and completing quests in Carcross to grow stronger. They had people working on the various Loot drops right now, making makeshift armor, weapons and even cooking using the materials. Amazingly enough, bodies that were worked by the proper Class could even generate additional materials over and above what the System gave. While they couldn’t keep the city itself safe from random spawning, everyone had leveled up enough that your average monster mutation was less of a danger.

We talk for hours; the ubiquitous meat stew and bannock being brought in while we continue the conversation. They probe me for more information continuously, pausing only when they learn of my time in Haines Junction to relay the news of the tragedy. By the time they’ve finished pumping me, it’s past midnight and darkness has finally fallen. I’m offered a place to stay which I take gratefully, happy to let someone else keep an eye out for potential trouble while I rest.

Chapter 10

“Interesting,” I look around the automotive shop that’s been turned into a community workshop, various residents already hard at work at their respective stations this early in the morning. I’m sipping on the coffee that’s been offered to me, eyeing what the crafters are up to. 4 of the workbenches seem to be devoted to armor making, 2 working on various insect carapaces and another 2 on leather. Another pair of benches seem to be creating makeshift melee weapons while the last is the most interesting, a broken-down energy rifle laid out next to a normal gunpowder rifle. Soldering irons and electronic equipment are laid out next to it.

“That’s mine,” Perry, my guide, waves to the bench I’m eyeing. “I’ve been focused on trying to replicate their laser guns, but haven’t had any luck. Got a level in Energy Weapons at least when I took it apart.”

Ali snorts floating above the disassembled weapon, “It’s like watching a monkey try to build a spaceship with a stick.”

“You probably need a few more levels,” I reply diplomatically. I’m still impressed, all things considered, and I shake Perry’s hand as I take my leave.

“Good. You’re still here,” Jason runs up to me, his gangly frame doing the weirdest run I’ve ever seen. He must have dumped all his stats into Willpower and Intelligence, he definitely isn’t doing anything for his Agility. Behind him, moving much slower is Gadsby who looks like he could use a couple more cups of coffee.

“Long night?” I enquire.

“Rough. We had another breakthrough – lost a couple more to a spiked creature that rolled right over our trenches,” Gadsby replies, grimacing. “It’s why we need to talk to you. We need to visit this Shop of yours. We need to make this a Safe zone, get better weapons and supplies.”

I feel a flash of guilt at that, remembering the weapons and armor I took off the Orcs. I pause for a second, a selfish, small ignoble part of me not wanting to give them the guns. I need money for better weapons, for better defenses, to fix Sabre for myself if I want to continue this stupidity of running around outside of town. Unfortunately, so do they.

“Nope. No way, not happening,” Ali floats in front of me and stares me in my face. “First rule of the System – no one gets anything for free.”

“People are going to die if we don’t help them,” I think back.

“I’ll deal with this you bleeding heart Qwixly,” Ali spins around and waves. “Alright you crazy humans. My man here picked up a few guns, some armor and some ant carapaces that you fashionable humans could easily use.”

“What the hell!” Gadsby pulls out a gun, pointing it at Ali and Jason just stands there staring before blurting out. “It’s a fairy!”

“Fuck you. Price just went up. I’m no fairy,” Ali glares at Jason, ignoring the gun completely.

After that start, Gadsby and Ali get down to haggling. Jason, on the other hand, pulls me aside to get a debrief on Ali, which I refuse to elaborate upon beyond the basics of the System. After a moment, I realise the two hagglers aren’t going to stop their haggling anytime soon.

“You mentioned that you send sweeper units to deal with the monsters out there?” I enquire of Jason, absently pulling out a chocolate bar from my inventory and breaking off a piece. I sigh and toss the other half to a kid that has magically appeared next to me, eyes wide.

“Yeah, why?” Jason frowns, moving to adjust his glasses which he no longer wears. He paws at his face for a moment before giving up.

“I’m not in the mood to listen to those two. I’d rather go kill something,” I answer and walk over to a corner, dumping out the weaponry and armour from my inventory. Once done, I repeat, “Let’s go.”

Jason blinks and then looks over to the two, “I’m not really supposed to go past the barrier without my mum or Gadsby.”

I just look at him, letting the teenager hear what he just said. After a moment, he grins wide. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Four hours later, we’re back for lunch, chatting happily. Hunting without Sabre and Ali is an interesting experience, one that makes me glad for my advantages. Once outside the barrier, Jason starts sneaking and I follow his lead. Most of the time, we spend hunting for trouble to get into and twice, he moves away from a fight. In reflection, I think we could have taken them but with no armor and no backup, our margin of error is much thinner. When we do attack, it’s from hiding and with overwhelming force, working to kill the creatures as quickly as and efficiently as possible. It’s also my first experience with a formal party and being able to watch Jason’s mana pool go down while he casts spells is quite an interesting experience. I kind of have to say though, I’m truly jealous at the ease that he wields his magic, changing from homing darts of blue energy to ice blasts and ivy chains without a thought. Of course, I could do without the waving hands and twisting fingers, but everyone has their own process. Truth be told, out there, he does most of the damage and I’m just there part of the mop-up operation.

The moment we cross the barrier, we run into the fiercest resistance yet – Ms O’Keefe. I idly note that at least a few of the guards have acquired new weapons that look very familiar.

“Young man, where were you?” she stands there, tapping her foot with one hand casually on the hammer. I call a tactical retreat, waving goodbye to them both and making sure not to meet Ms. O’Keefe’s eyes as I head for the restaurant where lunch is being served, ignoring the beseeching looks for support sent my way.

Ali floats back up to me soon after, glowing from having a good haggling session it seems; “Alright, we traded the guns and armor for 10,000 credits on an IOU basis. They need to keep what credits they have, so we got a better deal. I figure we can collect it in a month if they survive.

“Also, you’re going to take the old lady with you into Whitehorse and carry whatever you can of their loot in your inventory. We help them buy and sell and cart her back here too.”

Quest Received – Help Carcross

Help Carcross make their first successful visit to the Shop in Whitehorse. You will need to get Elder Andrea Badger to Whitehorse and back.

Reward: 2,000 XP

Nice. Maybe I should let him talk more. “When?”

“Right after you finish stuffing your face,” Ali says.

The ride in is surprisingly comfortable and quiet. I don’t slow down, not for anything and Ali keeps us informed of any potential problems so I know when to really speed up. Elder Badger just laughs when we do speed up, obviously the old woman enjoys going fast. I don’t tell her of the dangers Ali informs me of, but I can feel my shoulders relax, my grip loosens slightly when we finally get within the lower zone around Whitehorse again. Some of the monsters that prowled the mountains and forests would not have been fun to fight.

In Whitehorse, I slow down for safety’s sake and for the elder to take it in. Not much seems to have changed from a few days ago, with only guards and the occasional hunters moving around other than in the Safe Zones. It is a stark contrast and again, I wonder what the major differences is. It almost seems that not having a safe zone forced the people of Carcross to step-up, forced them to either face the challenge or die.

Dropping Ali and the Elder at the city centre, I decline to join them. Ali has full access to my inventory in the Shop, so there’s no point in going in directly. Instead, I ride the elevator to see Roxley himself to turn in my quest. Interestingly enough, Ali still can’t provide any further information even with his higher level. I guess we’re still not up to snuff.

“So, there’s a settlement of humans in this Carcross numbering hundreds. But you only brought back one – who isn’t even going to stay. Is that right?” Lord Roxley stares at me with those soulful black eyes under long delicate eyelashes.

“Yes.”

“And you wish to be rewarded for this,” Roxley continues and I admire the way his lips twist as he speaks, the barest hint of a smile on the lips. “Even if your quest is for bringing survivors back to my city?”

“Mmmm… yes?” I pause, seeing his point.

“Well, I really can’t do that,” Roxley shrugs shoulders that are surprisingly broad for such a willowy frame, muscles rippling beneath his silver and black tunic.

I shoot him a rather pitiful glare, one lacking any real heat. He is right after all – the citizens of Carcross aren’t actually contributing to his city. Not that the citizens of Whitehorse are contributing either, but that’s a different thing entirely. Still… “I’m sure this information is worth something. And eventually, some might come.”

“Eventually is not now,” Roxley picks up a glass, sipping on it and adds, “Did you Level Up while you were gone? You seem… broader.”

“Yes, thank you,” I answer back, wondering if he’s going to offer me a drink again.

“Well, I can’t really reward you for the citizens you didn’t bring back, but the information is valuable…” Roxley runs a finger along the edge of the glass before smiling. “Yes, this will do.”

Quest Completed!

Bring News of the Survivors

Reward: 2,000 XP and 1,000 Credits

Roxley watches me for a moment before realising I’m not leveling up and then he flicks his hand, dismissing me. I shrug and head off, the Credits better than nothing.

Now what? A quick stop in the Shop shows that Ali and the Elder are really going at it, so I leave to head out. When I walk out, I see Sabre and realise that someone needs some loving. Right, Ali mentioned there was an Armourer in town. Let’s see what they can do about poor old Sabre then. I follow the small map in my helmet to the building and stare at it, frowning. It looks like your typical concrete and metal warehouse, no different than any other building in the industrial park. Well, no different except for the sign out front saying ‘Don’t shoot the proprietor’.

I walk in, wondering what the sign is about. I tape the button, withdrawing the helmet back and walk into the building. I look around for a moment, eyes adjusting to the darkness and then I pull my sword, jumping a good foot back as I choke back a scream.

I’m not scared of giant spiders. I’m not scared of giant spiders. I’m not scared of giant spiders. Squatting in a web that crosses above a workshop counter in front of me, a giant black and gold spider sits chittering and working on a dismantled energy pistol. The spider looks up as I wave my sword around and for a moment, seems to even sigh; “Please put sword down.”

I inhale and then exhale again before finally making the blade disappear. Right. That’s what the sign was for. “Sorry! Sorry!”

“No shot. Good. All good. You work?” the creature chitters and sets down the pieces its been working on.

“Yes. I have a damaged Omnitron III Class II Personal Assault Vehicle that needs fixing,” I mutter, staring at the creature. My feelings slowly start to settle, adrenaline dropping as my instinctive response slowly subsides. Right, giant spider can talk and is sentient and is the mechanic.

“I open. Bring in. I look,” the spider chitters.

Damn, without Ali around, I can’t read its name. “Sure.”

When Sabre is rolled in, the spider flows out from its web and begins to crawl around, chittering to itself and poking at damage areas. It twists to me halfway and at its prodding, I engage the transformation sequence. Ten minutes later, it comes to get me.

“Damaged. Not bad. Superficial mostly. Some electrical. 5 hours. 2,700 Credits,” the spider chitters and I shiver.

“Ummm…” I stare at it, realising I’m out of moves. I have no idea if he (it?) is quoting high or low, though if it’s a mechanic, then it’s probably on the higher end. So, umm… “That seems high.”

The creature chitters and I swear, it’s laughing at me. “2,700 Credits I fix. System fix, more.”

“Fine. Fix it,” I grumble.

The creature flicks a bunch of things in the air and then a moment later, a text window shows up confirming our agreement. Easy come, easy go.

Time to find something else to do then. 4 hours… there was another building wasn’t there? An alchemist? I just hope it’s not another giant insect creature staffing it.

It takes me nearly half an hour to walk back to Main St. which makes me think I should really plan my trips without my bike better. Still, the alchemist shop is much closer to what I’d expect even if it is set in the middle of Whitehorse’s quaint, 1960s strip of shops.

“Welcome!”

The chipper greeting makes me smile and look for the greeter. It takes me a moment to find her. “Hi there.”

“Oooh, can I try that again? Welcome to Sally’s Alchemical and Magical Emporium,” the gnome, because really, that’s what she looks like announces. 4 feet tall, bright purple hair that comes all the way down to her tiny, shapely ass and clad in a smock, Sally bounces with pent up energy. “Was that better?”

“Yeah, better.” I can’t help but return her smile, looking around the insides. The shop is filled with rows upon rows of potions and bottled ingredients, a weird mixture of a spice shop and liquor dispensary. “So, what do you sell?”

“Alchemical and magical ingredients galore. If you name it, I have it. Well, except for Tier I, II and III ingredients right now, and I’m missing some Tier III ingredients too for strength potions, but otherwise, I got it all!” Sally nods emphatically, waving her hands around.

I ponder what I recall of magical potions and give a shot, “So, you have some health potions?”

She nods emphatically, walking over to a corner and pointing at an array of bottles. The first shelf consists of bottles in different tints of orange, the second in purple and the third in blue. “They are all Tier III to V. I even have a few Tier II potions, but those aren’t on display.”

Seeing my hesitation, Sally smiles and continues on, “I bet you haven’t seen these before have you. These are potion regeneration, body regeneration and straight healing potions in order. The first heals using the ingredients inherent in the potion itself, the second boosts the recovery rate of your body and uses your body’s physical resources. The last and most expensive tap into ambient mana and the System to generate direct healing of your body, much like a healing spell.”

Beneath each potion, the credit costs display. The cheapest starts at 50 for the body recovery potions and rise from there, going up to a staggering 2000 credits. Considering these are consumables, I can see my Credits burning through at an astronomical rate. And these aren’t even the good stuff “How much do they heal?”

Sally pauses and then admits, “I’m not entirely sure for the regeneration potions. I haven’t had any human customers yet, so the effects might vary. The potion regenerators should be anywhere from 20 to 50 health for the lower end. The body regenerators have always been dependent on the individual, but should be between 2-4% increase on the low-end again. As for the System Health Potions, well, those are regulated and will heal you a minimum of 25 and increase in increments of 25 per size and tier.”

I might not be Ali, but I can sniff out a deal myself, “So, you need a guinea pig don’t you.”

Sally’s eyes widen and then a playful grin crosses her face, “Well, that depends. I’m sure those Raven Circle humans would be happy to work with me too.”

Unlike Ali, I don’t live for the haggling, but I do well enough to get a bottle of each of the potions for only 50 credits. Of course, I have to promise to actually use it within the next day and report back, but I don’t expect that to be a problem.

Soon afterwards, Ali and the Elder make their way out of the Shop with the Elder heading off to speak with some others at the school. I escort her most of the way there but not before she drags a promise for me to pick her up the next morning. Seems like she has a lot to discuss. After that, Ali and I take a walk back to grab Sabre, stopping long enough at the river to get in some target practice before we pick her up and head home. I also learn the mechanic’s name at the same time, though I can’t even attempt to speak it. We settle on Xev.

What a strange couple of days I can’t help but think as I drive home. It certainly turned out so differently from what I had expected or planned for. Then again, at least it provided sufficient distraction.

My head twists slightly as the slap comes in, moving in what seems to be slow motion. I turn to let the blow slide along my face, cheek feeling just the lightest of brushes as Lana clutches her hand. “What the hell! Are you made out of rocks?”

“I’m sorry. Didn’t realise not showing up was a problem,” I say, smiling slightly at the buxom redhead. Good lord, where the hell did she find that fragrance? I rub at my nose covertly, trying to get rid of it. She smells divine but that’s so not the right thing to be thinking as she glowers at me.

She shakes her head, “Don’t you dare disappear again.”

I raise an eyebrow at her, a part of me wondering when I managed to get myself a wife before I speak, “Yeah, sorry. I’ll make sure to leave a note next time I head out. I just figured that I should take a look for some more survivors since I have the only working bike.”

Gorgeous blue eyes narrow at my words and then she draws a deep breath, taking visible control of her emotions. She rubs at her eyes, head down before she speaks, “It was a good idea, John, it’s just…”

“Yeah,” I hesitantly reach out and give her a hug before looking around the empty house. “It’s late, isn’t it? Where’s Mikito and your brother?”

“Out,” replies Lana, waving her out to where the school is. “Seems like the hunters are busy bonding.”

I nod at her words then grin, “Got a gift for you. Come on.”

In the kitchen, I pull up my inventory and note that Ali’s swapped out the food stores from the Hakarta for human appropriate ready-meals. Good – I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to try eating whatever it was that the Hakarta ate. I pull the stove out and lay it on the counter with a flourish, spoiled only by the confusion on Lana’s face.

“It’s a stove that is fueled by mana,” I explain.

At that, she grins and hurries over to poke and prod at it. I say my goodbyes, wanting to get washed up. In my suite, I find myself standing in front of the bathroom half-naked by sheer habit. Gah! It is a chilly day today, barely above 5 Celsius. I have no desire to go outside and take a bath from the rain barrel but even I can smell myself.

Well, I do have some money…

89 Alsek Rd. (Residence)

Current Ownership: John Lee, Adventurer

Current Occupants: 4

Upgrades: None

I concentrate on the Upgrades, curious to see what is available:

Upgrades Available

Grounds

Structure

Add-On Buildings

A quick perusal shows that add-on buildings, even the existing workshop is well out of my price range. Grounds are particularly interesting, especially the ability to add some much-needed security options like a wall. On the other hand, if we can make the entire city a safe zone, I wouldn’t have to worry about the occasional random spawning or mutation. Upgrading the Grounds would also mean I have to worry less about the mess the dogs are making of the front lawn as they guard the house. Lastly, I’d really, really like to get something a bit more interesting than a stone wall – those force fields mentioned in here would be amazing.

After playing with the other options, I pull the one that I’m most interested in.

Structural Upgrades Available for 89 Alsek Rd.

Security

Structural

Utilities

Décor

Miscellaneous

I’d love to look at Security a bit more, I’m sure there’re fun things to have but funds are limited and Utilities make more sense. I pull it up and after scanning the information available find what I want. An atmospheric hydro generation machine that connects directly to our existing plumbing, providing both drinkable water and showers. Cheap too at less than 2,000 Credits after I add the upgrades to make it possible to produce hot water.

Nothing seems to happen after I confirm the prompt and for a moment, I wonder if nothing actually happened. A quick check shows that the upgrade is there, but then I notice the rather annoying notation that the generator would need a few hours to fill the tanks.

Well, that sucks.

I sigh and head back upstairs, holding my towel and rifle in one hand. Cold bath it is. In the kitchen, Lana is hard at work making a meal and I pause long enough to let her know about the recent changes. She stops chopping up her vegetables, staring at me in silence and I have to repeat what I say before she acknowledges it. Guess she was concentrating pretty hard on finishing dinner.

Cold. The water in the rain barrel is cold. I shiver, toweling off quickly and glad that this is my last cold bath. When I get inside, towel wrapped around my waist, Lana calls me over before I can get dressed.

“One second, let me get dressed,” I reply but she snorts and waves me over.

“Food’s ready now. Just sit down. I have something to talk to you about,” Lana gestures to the table and after a moment’s hesitation, I comply. The lady can cook after all. Whatever she has to say, it gets set aside as we delve a bit deeper into what I was up to, Lana asking a few probing questions about Carcross and the fort.

“That’s pretty interesting.” She smiles slightly, turning her glass of plain water in hand as she peers at me over its rim. “It seems they’ve gone down a more community model of development, where everyone is working together.” At my nod, she continues; “Won’t work here though. Too many people.”

I raise an eyebrow and she waves her hand, speaking; “Barter and community systems like that break down over time due to the lack of personal bonds between all participants. It’s fine when the community is small, but in a larger community, there is nothing to stop free riders from derailing the system.”

Seeing my raised eyebrow, Lana explains, “Business major with a minor in Economics. Richard dealt with customers, I dealt with the books. We both took care of the dogs of course.”

“Doesn’t explain why people aren’t doing anything though,” I grumble as I remember the large swaths of people just sitting around the schools.

“They are, you just don’t see it,” Lana explains and then shrugs. “What we have is a lot of manpower, but no resources. Most of what we had before doesn’t work and though some have Skills, they don’t have the tools or resources to actually do anything. The only people with any Credits are the hunters and most of their money is being devoted to upgrading weapons and themselves.”

I grunt, acknowledging her point, “Kind of hard not to, what with death being the alternative if you are one of the hunters.”

“Oh, it’s understandable but it’s not true for all,” she points to the sink and continues. “You just spent what? A few thousand Credits on getting hot water? What if you had used that money to buy a basic toolkit and passed on some of the materials like those Ant carapaces? They’d be able to start training their skills just like Carcross.”

I grimace, wondering what it is with people making me feel like a selfish idiot. I risked my life for the guns, for the Credits. Shouldn’t I deserve something for it? Still, I hadn’t even thought about her point either.

“Nope. Not happening toots,” Ali focuses and begins visible, floating next to me. Lana reacts poorly, screaming and falling off her chair to which Ali giggles a bit over. It takes a few minutes to get her to calm down and to explain who he is before we can return to the conversation.

“It’s all puppy dogs and rainbows, but we’re not giving away shit for free. First rule of living in the System, it’s all about me,” Ali waggles a finger at her.

“Did I say anything about charity? It doesn’t work, not in the long run,” Lana replies bitingly, glaring back at the foot and a half tall brown man.

“So what are you thinking?” Ali says.

“Microloans,” Lana replies promptly.

“Ooooh… I like you. John, keep this one. She’s got great tits and a brain!”

I roll my eyes at that and Lana, after realising that she can’t actually hit the Spirit, starts expounding on her point. I check out at that point, going to get dressed. I did not survive the Apocalypse to listen to economic theory or whatever the heck they are discussing now. I’d rather watch paint dry.

Problem is, staring around my suite I realise I’m at the same point as I was before I left. Not a lot to do these days and I can feel the edges of my emotions, my worries worrying at me. I should really spend some time, think and feel. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and trying to open the boxes and realise that I don’t really know where to start. I shut the boxes tight, but it’s not as if I have a key, that I can just switch off the blocking and it comes back to me. I prod at it cautiously and realise I’m not sure how to do this, not without tearing the entire thing down and I can’t, won’t, do that. Too much, too fast.

I flex my hands, staring into space and then take a deep breath, exhaling. Alright, find something to do.

Outside in the backyard, I shoo the dogs aside and begin. It’s strange trying to practise a fighting form that doesn’t really require you to hold on to a sword. It’s entirely different from the memories and skills I’ve purchased from the Shop, so much so that the forms that I practise don’t really seem appropriate. Without an enemy to work with, it seems strange to attempt to swing the sword and make it disappear and appear at unseen enemies. Eventually, I settle on splitting my practise in two parts – firstly, on recreating one of the fights of an actual Erethan Honor Guard to mimic as a form and secondly, on practising calling forth the weapon and making it disappear at speed, switching hands as I do so.

When Ali and Lana are done, they come to the backyard and Ali just starts laughing while Lana has the grace to at least attempt to hide her giggles. I know exactly what I look like, a crazed man spinning and swinging around his hands, only occasionally catching and grabbing the weapon that appears out of thin air. Calling a soulbound weapon into being when still is easy. However, calling a weapon requires me to specify the exact location and it can only be within a certain distance from my body so I have to understand not only where my hand is going to be but how long it’ll take for the sword to appear. Add the fact that I can start moving in all 3 directions and things start getting complicated.

Overall, it’s been a frustrating couple of hours so when Ali asks to speak with me alone, I’m more than happy to comply. Rather than elaborate on what he and Lana were cooking up, other than the fact that he’d be using some of my Credits, he instead wants to talk about magic.

“We’re level 10 now. That means I can share my Elemental Affinity with you, if you’d like to learn it,” Ali speaks, hesitant for once.

“More magic? Of course!” I grin, dismissing the sword and looking excitedly at Ali. Nice. I’ve been wanting to get a new spell from the Shop, but this would be even better.

“An elemental affinity,” corrects Ali.

“What’s the difference?” I ask him, eager to learn and a bit annoyed at the pedantry.

“Magic as you currently wield it is just using Mana to have the System create the effect for you. That’s why you had to get Mana Manipulation before you could learn your healing spell. Each spell is like a ready meal and the Mana you put into it is the energy you need to cook it,” Ali says.

“Yeah, still not seeing the difference.”

“If you’d just shut up for a moment,” Ali says and then continues, “Using Mana isn’t the only way to use magic though. Spirits like myself are made of the elements, the forces that dictate the world. It’s like gravity – just because there’s a spell that can affect gravity doesn’t mean there wasn’t gravity before the System came along. An Elemental Affinity means you have a connection, an access point to manipulate that element directly without learning spells. You don’t need to use Mana anymore to do it, though most do.”

I raise an eyebrow at the last and Ali shrugs, “It’s easier. Imposing your will on the elements directly is like shifting a car with your bare hands. You can do it if you’re strong enough, but isn’t it easier to just use a lever? Mana is the lever in this case.”

“Okay. Sounds great. Let’s do it,” I continue on, wondering what is up with him.

“Chill John. Not all Elements work well with others and creating an affinity with one element might mean you lose access to others. Maybe all of them if the conflict is too great. And there’s no way to tell for sure,” Ali explains. “It really depends on the individual.”

“What’s your affinity?”

“Electromagnetic force.”

“Umm…” I pause, staring at Ali. Well, electricity then – which explains Ali’s preference for energy weapons and his coveralls. Still, “Lightning?”

Ali rolls his eyes at that, just giving up and walking away with his hands in the air shouting, “God damn corporeals. I say electromagnetic force and. Every. Single. Time. It’s Lightning Bolts or Electric Shocks. Get some fucking education.”

I blink, watching the Spirit walk away and then just disappear. I scratch my head, wondering what the hell has gotten into him. Fuck. Well, that ended just dandy. I sigh, staring at the sky and then stretch, walking back to the gardens.

Fine. Fuck him. I’ll just keep training then.

Chapter 11

The next morning, I’m up well before Lana. At Ali’s insistence, we head out to ‘get some mats’ for Lana in the surrounding low-level region. Clad in Sabre, running and bouncing through the woods at Ali’s directions against these low-level animals is actually quite relaxing. None of them can actually do damage to me inside my armor so I can practise my burgeoning style to my hearts contents.

The guards at F.H. Collins are rather surprised when I start bringing back my kills, dropping off the various mutated animals for the cookpot. Ground squirrels, a couple of wolverines, various hares, a pair of foxes, marmots and shrews are all the recognisable animals, even if they are at the minimum the size of a big dog. Then there are groups of creatures that I’ve never seen before, creatures with 3 legs or 7, with a dozen eyes or none, furred, scaled, sometimes both or with carapaces. Interestingly enough, I begin to notice that the plants are beginning to transform too, growing thicker and wider as well as adding defenses to protect themselves. Even our usual pines mutate, the sap becoming thicker and stickier – I found one particularly unlucky hare stuck to a pine, unable to move with the sap beginning to congeal around it and liquefy its flesh. Seems like the peaceful, easy going hikes of pre-System life are gone.

On my last trip in a female guard walks up to me. Tall, wide, with dirty blonde hair, she could easily be put in a pioneer dress and get away with it and clomps her way to me to prove it. She gives off the vibe of tough competence and the remainder of her RCMP uniform speaks of previous experience. That and her Level of 14.

“Thank you. This is going to help a lot. Though I’m not sure that’s edible,” Amelia Olmstead gestures to the most recent carcass that I have dropped off. It’s spiky and a lurid blue and missing its claws and seems to have a weird rubbery thing around its face for its eyes.

“It should be,” I glance at Ali who gives a nod back. “Seems like the System makes sure that most animals are now edible to each other. If you avoid the poison sacs – and I’ve got those out already.”

Amelia falls silent digesting the information. I take the chance to ask something that’s been bugging me, “So, what happened to the emergency services personnel? You’re the first RCMP member I’ve seen in Whitehorse.”

Her eyes darken at that and she looks down, her words a whisper; “Most of the others are dead. There was a monster a few days after it started, this rock thing. We tried to kill it, but guns didn’t hurt it much and hitting it just didn’t do anything. We… I… ” she stops, forcing back a sob.

I bite my lip and put a hand on her shoulder for a moment and she doesn’t push it away, shivering before she looks up at me, eyes filled with unshed tears. “I hate this world.”

“Don’t we all,” I agree with her, though a part of me wonders. It’s kind of been fun, especially the fighting. At least when I’m fighting, I don’t have to think and there’s a thrill to it, a rush that makes me feel well and truly alive.

Amelia smiles at me again, pulling away from my arm and then bends down, grabbing the blue creature by its tail and hefting it. “Thank you again.”

I nod and watch her walk off for a moment before heading back to the house to enjoy the luxury of a warm shower. Ali goes to Lana’s room to ‘report on our excursion’ but the glint in his eye makes me think he has other motivations. I consider going after him, only to deal with him of course, but I dismiss the idea after a moment. It’s not as if he can’t go spy on her when I’m asleep either after all. Seriously, how can a sexless spirit be such a pervert?

Shower done, it’s time for me to meditate again. No skipping more than one day of this, otherwise, I’m sure I’m going to have problems. Strange that such a simple thing is so important to my stability. I spend over an hour, sitting and breathing and find that by the time I’m done, Lana has left with my materials and nearly all my Credits.

“You know, I’m not entirely comfortable with this taking my stuff without my permission thing you’ve got going on here,” I eye Ali and he snorts, waggling his finger at me.

“Spirit companion. Can’t do anything that could harm you,” he reminds me.

“Yeah, I recall an Ant. And a bee. And that weird plant thing,” I reply.

“The first two were for your own good. You needed to level,” Ali points out.

“And the last?”

“It was hilarious?” Ali grins and then holds his hand up horizontally, waggling it side to side. “Rules are a little shaky on non-lethal amusements.”

I stare at him, not sure if he’s joking or just telling the truth. I sigh after a moment, rolling my eyes and head out after finishing the meal Lana set aside for me. Time to finish my escort quest and make some more money. It seems some things hold true - money or Credits, they never last long.

Unfortunately, my plan of a nice and easy ride back followed by more hunting is interrupted by that annoying thing called humans. In this case, it’s Jim with my escort standing together waiting. At their insistence, I’m brought into another boardroom to have a chat. Really. Boardrooms? More of them?

When I get in, there is quite a bit of a crowd. There are Jim and Badger – sorry, no laughing, it’s a traditional name – sitting together on the left and in the center, a cluster of six boomers, four men and two women arrayed facing the door and me. In addition, both Richard and Mikito are here along with Nicodemus and that woman clustered together on the right with some of the other hunters. Interesting, the fact that all the boomers have a non-combat class with class levels ranging from a level 8 Minion to a level 12 Dealmaker.

“Mr Lee, thank you for coming. We understand you’ve been very busy and we were hoping we could have some words with you about your recent actions,” the man in the middle, slimy and overweight breaks the silence. Mr Slimy and overweight looks really familiar…

“You’re the ex-Mayor right?”

“I am the duly-elected Mayor of Whitehorse, yes;” Fred Curteneau says, leaning forwards with a smile on his face that makes me need another bath. “The council and I would be grateful for any help you could provide.”

“Boy, this looks real fun doesn’t it?” Ali asks rhetorically to me as he yawns, lounging on a bean bag and floating next to me.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I spot Luthien smile at Fred’s words, absently running a finger along her cheek. Next to her, Nic just stays silent while I spot Mikito waggling her fingers at what is likely her Status Screen. At least someone’s getting some use out of this time.

“Of course,” I reply, deciding not to commit to anything. This isn’t going to be good either way, but let’s see how this plays out.

“Well, let’s start with your report on Haines Junction. I understand you informed one of the Raven Circle members that it has been destroyed entirely?”

“Yes. A group of Ogres had entered the town and killed all the residents,” I pause then continue, trying to tread lightly here. “They were killed off after that and I managed to bury what bodies I could find.”

“And you somehow gained access to the Shop in Haines Junction and purchased a working motorcycle at that time,” short and florid next to the Mayor whines.

“Yes,” my eyes narrow at the unsubtle accusation.

“How… convenient,” shorty continues to whine. I ignore his name for now though I wonder why anyone would take the class ‘Minion’. If they don’t want to introduce themselves, that’s fine. I’ll give them a name myself.

“It was, wasn’t it?” within me, I can feel a little bit of anger pulsing through me, attempting to escape the restrictions I’ve placed on it and my other emotions. Anger – the one emotion I always had trouble handling. Love, compassion, sadness, I could always contain those. Anger somehow had a way of bubbling up, escaping, drowning me in it. Perhaps as another ex had pointed out, I just had too much anger to contain.

“Elder Badger says you’re quite knowledgeable about the System that’s imposed itself on us. That you have a short fairy friend that aids you?” the Mayor continues and I nod slightly, grumbling mentally at Ali for making himself known. Not that he’d be hidden forever, but I really hadn’t wanted him to show himself immediately. “Could you elaborate on that?”

I pause, considering my options for a moment and then shrug, “I managed to acquire a Level 1 System Spirit Companion very soon after all this started. He’s sort of like a giant help desk with a personality. Of course, most of what he’s told me is covered in Thrasher’s Guide in the Shop.”

At my side Ali snorts, flicking his hand.

Skill Acquired

Dissembling (Level 1)

The truth is such a bendable thing in your hands.

The Mayor nods at my words and there’s some quick discussion about the revelation of the guide with a single pointed question letting them know how much it costs. I’d send them the Guide myself but I’m restricted. On the other hand, 50 Credits isn’t that hard to get especially if the Hunters pooled their resources. Christ on a pogo stick, what have they been up to?

Minion looks like he’s eaten a lemon, his face all screwed up as he speaks, “Show us this fairy.”

“Mmmm… unfortunately, my spirit companion is an independent entity. I can’t make him do what he doesn’t want,” I shrug and glance to where Ali laughs at my description of him.

“So you have little control over your companion,” Minion sneers.

“More or less,” I can feel my lips pulling into a smile, one that holds no humor in it. To my side, I can Luthien begin whispering to Nic. She knows what that smile means.

“Mr. Lee, would you tell us about your interactions with Lord Roxley?” Fred takes control of the discussion again, dismissing the other thread of enquiry.

“I’ve seen him twice. He gave me a quest to find other survivors the first time and the second, I went to complete part of a quest by informing him of Carcross,” I reply, watching their reactions.

“You let that invader know about Carcross?” this time, a grey-haired, flower wearing old woman hisses at me. “Why would you do that?”

“Quest.”

“You betrayed us for a quest!?!” she leans forward, glaring at me and I decide to call her Battleaxe. Minion is nodding in agreement, joining the glares while the rest of the group stay silent. Interestingly enough, Ms. Badger doesn’t seem as concerned.

“Betrayed? I didn’t realise there were sides,” I snap back, then draw a breath trying to push the anger down.

“He invaded us, stole our town and declared that he owns it!” she smacks her hand down on the table, half-standing now as she snarls. “He’s an invader. He took our lands! How can there not be sides!”

“He’s also the one who bought the schools and has been sending his guards to deal with the nastier monsters. Seems he’s doing as much good as he has done bad,” I point out.

Battleaxe is about to start shouting when Fred cuts her off. “Miranda, not now. This is a discussion for later. Mr. Lee, we’d like it if you perhaps worked with us, perhaps reporting in on your activities? We didn’t know about Carcross until Elder Badger herself walked in.”

Struck by a thought, I look up to my companion, “Ali, why aren’t I getting a quest like you did with the Elder?”

“It’s a matter of importance, hierarchy and levels. If you don’t have a high enough level or status, the System only recognises quests that are important. Getting the Elder here and back? Important. Making reports on a daily basis? So not important to the System,” Ali replies.

While I listen to him, I pretty much ignore the group who are just glaring at me as I stare into space. I hear Fred clear his throat but I ignore him as I think about it. Importance… Okay, let’s see if we can actually get something out of this then, “Why should I?”

“We are the Council of Whitehorse, your government!” Minion barks, glaring at me.

“Yeah, and you guys do civic planning and ummm... whatever it is you did,” Alright, so I’m not actually all that knowledgeable about local government responsibilities. “I’m still asking why.”

“Young man, certainly you can see the advantages of working together in such a time. We humans need to stick together,” this time, it’s the other old lady speaking in an English accent. She’s very average, other than being in her 60s I’m not even sure I’d remember her if I saw her again so I mentally name her DA for Downtown Abbey.

“That still doesn’t say why you need me to report back,” I say.

“You are being very confrontational. It’s such a small thing…” DA continues to speak, taking the lead for the moment.

“He started it,” I point to Minion and he bristles.

“This is a waste of time,” snaps Minion and I widen my smile. Well, if I’m not getting a quest, we’re both in agreement there.

“Are you refusing to help us, Mr. Lee?” Fred speaks now, his voice growing stern.

“I’m refusing to dance without knowing the song,” I say.

“We cannot make plans without knowing the status of the world around us. You seem to have acquired transportation, are actively exploring the lands around us and have a knowledgeable companion. We just ask that you provide us information that might benefit the community when you come across it,” the Mayor snaps back.

Quest Received

Report the Council of Whitehorse any information of importance.

Rewards: XP Reward Varies

Accept: Y/N

I watch everyone around me jerk as I mentally accept the quest and they get their own notifications. A quick confirmation with Ali leads me to talk, drawing everyone’s attention; “Okay, lesson 1 then. Simply put, you guys can’t create quests unless it’s important. However, if you do designate an activity that is important enough, the System will generate the quest for you. This holds true until you guys level up. A lot.”

I leave out the part of hierarchy, no need to rub it in their face that they actually aren’t officially part of anything. At least, not as far as the System is concerned.

“Second thing, you want information? There’s a fort out at the Carcross Cutoff. Found a bunch of Space Orcs there wielding energy rifles. I’ve got control of the fort now, but it looks like forts can be created or designated all around the city as buildings of strategic importance. It’s also in a zone that’s significantly tougher than the surroundings, so I’d recommend not going there yet for the majority of you guys.” In the corner of my eye, I see Ali create ultra tiny pop-ups of XP rewards pop-up before making them disappear as I speak.

“Third? You guys need to get on the entire buying up buildings in Whitehorse. I’m not sure why Roxley isn’t buying more, but as residents, we get a discount. Buying a place makes it a safe zone as you guys probably know, but what you might not have realised is that if you get 80% of the buildings in the Whitehorse city zone claimed, the entire city becomes a safe zone.

“That what you’re thinking of for information?” I smile widely, knowing that it is.

“That… that will do,” the Mayor just blinks at the series of notification windows popping up in front of him as I get my quest rewards. I smirk mentally, noting how it has derailed the rest of their enquiry. Right, time to get out of here before they remember they had anything else to ask me. “Good. Ms. Badger, let’s go.”

I turn and start walking away before Luthien finally speaks up. “What are you planning to do John?”

“What I’ve always done isn’t it? Whatever the hell I want,” I shoot back and walk out.

“John…” Ali is floating beside me as I walk to Sabre, leaving Ms. Badger to catch up. Ah good old Chinese culture, not even able to think of her as Andrea in my mind since she’s an old person. “Not saying I’m a people-person, but what the hell?”

“I don’t like those guys,” I say.

“No shit.”

“They’re idiots. They want to start a fight that they can’t win with Roxley. Hell, they had the Shop from day 1 and could have gotten knowledge of the System pretty fucking easily, but they’re so affronted by Roxley that they refuse to talk to him or go into the Shop and use it properly. Luthien and her friends obviously know about it, but somehow, they haven’t mentioned shit. Or perhaps they haven’t been listening. They let Jim and his people run around not knowing about looting for over a week!

“They’re so fucking incompetent and then they fucking start accusing me of whatever the fuck it is they were accusing me of, they can go fuck themselves,” I can feel the frustration that’s been building up inside me want a release as I snarl out at Ali mentally, “I get it, we need to work together. They don’t have money to pay me, don’t have any resources and are desperate. They could have asked nicely, but they decided not to. So fuck them, I’ll be damned if I let them drag me into their petty games. My life, my rules. I’ll help them the way I want to and for the rest of it, they can fuck themselves.”

Ali backs off a bit as I bite his head off, a hand held out placatingly. I draw a deep breath, forcing some calm over me and hit the button on my helmet as the Elder comes out, hiding my face as I straddle Sabre. Time to get this shit done.

The ride back is held mostly in silence. This time around, my inventory isn’t stuffed to the gills with cheap materials, so I’m guessing the Elder hasn’t really done as much buying as I thought she would. Then again, I have no idea how many Credits she managed to get. We only stop once, pausing long enough in the fort for me to show it to her and switch ownership briefly to allow her to gain the experience before I take control again. She doesn’t protest when I do it, which is good. I’m not sure what I need a fort for, but I bled for it.

Back at Carcross, the moment I roll in, the quest completes.

Level Up!

You have reached Level 11 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 11 Free Attribute Points to distribute.

Finally. Unfortunately, from now on Level Up’s are going to slow down again with experience requirements for each level twice as much as previously. I’m still far behind most of the combatants in Whitehorse, at least in terms of absolute levels which is not surprising. From what we’ve worked out, it’ll take me roughly twice the amount of experience to go up a level compared to those who started with a Basic class.

The Elder heads into the Tagish Centre almost immediately, leaving me to sit on my bike in the middle of the road wondering what next. Beyond curt nods, no one pays attention to me. Everyone is obviously caught up in their own work and I realise, for all that I’ve done them a favour, I don’t belong here.

I feel a wry twist crossing my face, a half-remembered piece of advice coming to me - do good, but never expect gratitude. I give myself a mental shrug and turn the bike around, waving the guards to open the door. Right, there’s another town to check out anyway, just about 20 minutes down the road - Tagish. Ali tells me no one from Carcross has tried to make contact that far as they’ve needed to keep their fighters close on-hand. It’ll only take me a few minutes and if I find even a couple of survivors who want to head into Whitehorse, I’ll earn more Credits than hunting.

I take the Highway down, though really, it’s a 2-lane road that’s pitted and potted. The scenery is gorgeous and dramatic as usual, towering cliffs next to the road and straight drops with untouched forests and mountainous vistas in the distance, bisected by the glacial Tagish river that can be spotted once in a while. Occasional birds flap in the distance, some looking larger than normal and something that I can only describe as a short-nosed pterodactyl.

At Crag Lake, Ali starts telling me to slow down and I spot the group soon after. There are about a score or so humans walking together and eyeing the scenery for potential trouble, mostly adults with a small scattering of children. They look rough, beaten and scared and there is more than one injured among them. As I approach, the leaders in the front level guns at me and I stop a good distance away. It’s only when I drop my helmet and show my human face that they actually relax.

These are the survivors from Tagish, everyone that is left. They’ve left a trail of bodies behind them, those who never grouped up in time, those who died defending the group and the fallen from the initial monster attacks. The entire group looks like they would shatter in a stiff breeze and it’s only the insistence of the leaders that have kept them moving.

I channel my healing magic and do what I can for those that need healing, offering up the bike to the young to speed up the group as I walk. It’s not the best option for defense, but since Sabre can self-balance, it’s the fastest option. I keep my rifle with me as we make the trek to Carcross, my head swiveling for potential dangers as the occasional sob is choked off behind me.

It’s a strange thing, escorting such a large group on foot. The first time we are attacked, it’s by a spine monster which rises from the cliff face, its presence hidden by simple camouflage. It starts the ball rolling by firing spines into the group from its back, each spine over a foot long and dirt brown. We lose another human that time, a spine impaling her chest and heart. I’m wounded too in my shoulder from the initial barrage as I move to put myself in front of the kids on my bike, which means killing it was not the easiest with a single hand to maneuver my rifle. Luckily, the fact that I’m doing the most damage drags its attention to me so we spend a few minutes shooting at each other from the cover of rocks away from the main group. Damn but sneak attacks suck.

The second and third time, Ali warns us well in advance and I’m able to intercept the danger. The first is a crazed wolverine, so fast and vicious I end up having to fight it in close range since I couldn’t manage a killing shot at distance. As fast as the wolverine is, it doesn’t have a sword and lopping off its paws is sufficient to end the fight. The third time, I fight my first slime monster, a gelatinous greenish-purple creature that rolls along the forest floor leaving a trail of slimy destruction behind it and which sits at Level 42. It’s only Ali’s coaching on where to shoot that lets me defeat it – seems like the creature uses a diffused nervous system with a small number of clusters that must be destroyed, otherwise, it’s pretty much immune to most damage. Unfortunately for it, slime doesn’t work well against beam weapons and being able to attack from a distance forces the creature to chase me around in a futile attempt to hurt me. The slime gets me a slime nervous system core as loot, a spongy mass that makes up its central nervous system. According to Ali, it’s quite prized as a material for bioware implants.

Other than the occasional fights, the rest of the journey blurs into one long, tedious and mentally wearing half-day. Every time there is a monster close enough to be a danger, I head out with Ali to deal with it. It’s possible I’m being paranoid, that many of those monsters would never have known or cared about the group, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Each time, I collect the loot but leave the bodies, mentally making a promise again about finding a storage solution in the Shop when I get back and have enough Credits.

“Ali, what’s up with the monsters? We’re in a zone 40 plus area, but we’ve only seen one major monster,” I ask the Spirit in my mind as I walk alongside the children.

“A few things. We’re just starting the transition, so higher level monsters aren’t that populous yet. The Council normally grabs a few high-level monsters at a time, dumps them into a Dungeon World like this and basically lets them breed. In a year, this place will be crawling with monsters,” Ali says. “Also, don’t forget – monsters need to eat. A high-level zone also means a higher number of low-level monsters, most of which are created from mutations of local animals. Of course, the mutations might actually come up with something really interesting too; but that’s normally in the later half of the transition.”

I nod slowly, reviewing what he said; “So, if we kill off a bunch of high-level monsters now, does that mean we can lower the level of the area?”

“Yes, no, maybe?” Ali shrugs. “Depends on how major a change it is and what the Council decides. It might lower the level here or the Council could just grab more monsters to add directly if they think the zone needs it.”

“Why create a Dungeon world in the first place?” I ask.

“Resources and power. The best way to get both is via the System, which requires fighting like what we’ve been doing. The Dungeon Worlds allow the Council to ship off the dangerous activity of resource gathering and leveling out of their backyard, basically creating farmland. Not to say that there aren’t Dungeons in other worlds, but Dungeon worlds are purely dedicated to it.”

When we get back to Carcross proper, most of the survivors are just grateful to be somewhere relatively safe. Only two want to actually go to Whitehorse, but 2 is more than I can carry. That’s another thing that I need to fix at some point, though I’m loath to trade in Sabre. Perhaps a sidecar? Elder Badger has picked up the parts needed to rebuild a few trucks as Ali points out, but it’s not going to help me right now. Well, nothing to be done about it right now so I just plan to do a pair of speed runs, blazing through the turns at speeds that leave monsters that want to fight me at odds.

That is until I’m on my way back after the first run. Increased Perception lets me spot the problem a few moments before I hit it, the spider silk strand so thin I don’t see it till then. I don’t bother attempting to stop as I’ll never make it, instead I engage Sabre’s transformation so that I can keep hold of Sabre when I hit the strands.

I end up spinning through the air, skipping along the pavement and only coming to a stop after smashing through a couple of trees by the side of the road. I groan piteously, a flashing notification letting me know I’m stunned.

In the distance, Ali is bouncing up and down and letting me know of the incoming monsters now that they’ve revealed themselves. Not that I can pay much attention to them as I struggle to bring my thoughts into focus. I swallow the pooling blood in my mouth, realising I bit my tongue somewhere along the way as well as adding a concussion to my list of ailments. I slowly push myself up, reaching to detach my rifle and realising it is not even there.

Shit.

I look around for it but doing so makes my head spin and I have to focus on casting a Minor Heal on myself instead. It takes precious seconds to cast the spell in the state that I am in and by the time I do so, the spiders are on me.

Except these aren’t really spiders like Xev - they are a weird hybrid spider-wolf creature. Spider legs and their bulbous body carry the creature forward as it is clad in dark black fur, a snarling canine head with all too sharp teeth bearing down on me. Calling forth the only weapon that I have, I lunge forwards and skewer the first monster. Unfortunately, it doesn’t kill the creature and it tosses me aside with ease, sending me spinning into the ground again. I stumble up and recall my sword immediately to swing to the left, catching another of the creature on its front legs.

After that, things get really hectic. Even partly healed, the mild concussion keeps me off-balance, though not nearly as off-balance as the creatures circling me, attacking one after the other. It takes only a few hectic minutes of swinging before I realise this isn’t a fight I can win, not injured and outnumbered like I am. Their bites scratch at and damage the armor bit by bit and they work like wolves, wearing me down for the final strike. I can’t win this, not in the state that I’m in so I trigger the QSM and run away. It’s a lurching, scrambling run that I’m glad no one but me can see.

When I get far enough away that Ali says they have given up looking for me, I start casting Minor Heal to fix the majority of the damage and down all the potions that I have. What’s not great is that I need to use my entire mana pool and Sabre’s pretty battered too. Structural integrity’s down to 48% and from what Ali tells me, my rifle is broken.

Not a good day. No mana, no rifle and creatures that Ali can’t spot automatically makes the way into Carcross dangerous. I groan, staring out into the distance and remember my promise to bring the other lady out. Fuck. Better to be safe than sorry though, I can’t afford to test those spider-wolf hybrids again. I just hope Ali is right and the slime’s nervous system is something that’s wanted because I’m going to need Xev to fix Sabre.

Worst part? I didn’t even get a damn level from all that.

Chapter 12

“Wexlix Spiders,” Mikito repeats after Ali, waggling her chopsticks in my face as we sit around having dinner together for the first time. Seems like both Richard and Mikito decided to stay and visit with Lana and I instead of going out again tonight and we are having fried noodles for dinner. We’re all working with the chopsticks that I keep in my drawer, chatting about our days. Both Richard and Mikito were both a bit surprised to be greeted by Ali at first but after the initial shock, they’ve taken it in stride. I guess small, floating brown men in overalls who isn’t attempting to kill them is not a problem. “Mixed wolf and spider?”

I nod firmly, rotating a shoulder again. I know it’s healed, my health bar says it’s full but my mind insists there’s still pain. “Tough bastards. Broke my rifle too while fighting them and I damaged Sabre significantly. Zev says it’ll take her at least a few days to fix it, some of the parts aren’t actually available till tomorrow.”

I’m already missing Sabre, having to walk all the way back on foot was less than optimal, stopping only long enough to let Sally know the results of the potions and let Jim and thus the Council know of the fate of Tagish. Unfortunately, I had to give nearly every single credit I had to Zev to fix the major mechanical issues. I’ll just have to deal with the fact that the armor isn’t going to be fully up to snuff for a bit.

“Nasty,” Richard shakes his head and uses his fork to spear more noodles. “Things are quieting down around here, most of the really bad monsters seem to have been dealt with by the guards by now. Mikito and I spent most of today just hunting for the pot. Seems like the Mana mutations have also increased the speed these animals grow and populate, otherwise we’d be in trouble trying to feed everybody.”

I nod at his words, glad to have caught up with them. Now that the hunters knew how to loot properly, they were able to generate actual Credits from the System. Right now, everyone was putting a small portion of their earned funds into a pool so that the Council could purchase the community garden from the System with the goal of creating and stabilising the city’s food sources. On top of that, Lana reports that the initial batch of materials I gave have mostly been used up and either resold to the System or given to the hunters as protection. The levels of the crafters were increasing and some were even talking about getting the hunters to sell their materials direct to them so that they could process the materials and sell it all at a higher price to the System. Looks like we are slowly getting an economy into place, but we’re miles away from creating a safe zone for the entire city.

“You tired of running around alone yet?” Lana asks, finished with her meal already. I’m not exactly sure where she put it either – one moment there’s a full bowl of food need to her, the next it is empty and she’s eyeing her brother’s. He surreptitiously moves his own bowl closer to him and away from her.

“I was the only one who had a vehicle,” I point out defensively and Lana shoots a look over at Mikito and Richard. The two look at one another and then sigh.

“You haven’t asked us what we’ve been doing with our credits,” Richard says.

“Didn’t think it was any of my business,” I reply and then exchange a nod with a departing family. While we were gone, it seems Lana had let it become known that we had a working hot shower and we’d become hygiene central – for a modest fee. Between those who wanted a hot shower rather than washing in the glacial river and the workers on the concrete wall that Ali and Lana had arranged to start building in front of the house, my once peaceful abode is busy little haven. Still, it leveled up the construction workers skills and gained me a System recognised set of defenses so I’d call it a win overall.

“We bought a mana engine and a mana battery from the Shop. We’re installing it in a truck now, should be ready in a day or two,” Richard shares and points a finger at me. “Raven’s Circle actually has a truck of their own too as of today.”

“How much did it cost?” I enquire, curious.

“6,000,” Mikito replies, finishing up her noodles and holding the bowl out for more from Lana. Lana complies, filling it up while I blink. Not as bad as I thought, but still, yeesh.

“So you don’t have to play Lone Ranger anymore,” Lana follows up, blue eyes narrowed at me. “If you’re willing to wait a day.”

I nod slightly at her words, recalling the fight earlier today. She’s right – if I hadn’t been able to slide into the next dimension, I’d be dead right about now. Then again, I’d be dead many times over without the QSM. “Be good to have some company. Most times, I’ve been finding people in groups anyway so this could be helpful.”

Richard nods and Mikito inclines her head before returning to her food, “You planning on hunting tomorrow then?”

“A bit. There’s a conversation I need to finish first though,” I give Ali a very pointed glance before continuing, “and then I might need to do some training. After that, yeah, hunting. Need to earn my keep.”

“There are reports that the eagles are mutating, the one’s near the cliffs? I’m thinking I might see if I can tame one of them. I could use the help though,” Richard says.

“Sure,” I glance past them out to the backyard where the puppy-ponies sit. Most look the worst for wear, scars indicating where previous injuries have accumulated. Interestingly enough, Lana has added a mutated red fox to the group who lazes in the sun by itself, watching the gamboling Huskies with a lazy eye. Surprisingly, they all seem to get along quite well – a side effect I’d guess of being pets now.

I smile quietly as they nod back to me and then I look down, staring at my right hand as it holds the chopsticks. I put them down quickly and slip my hands under the table, not wanting them to see the trembling. Yeah, okay, company would certainly be nice.

The next morning after my shower, I turn to Ali, “Alright, care to explain?”

“Well, a man and a woman really love one another…”

“Ali!”

“Electromagnetic force – it’s one of the fundamental forces of nature,” Ali sighs and waves. “It does include electricity, but it also involves things like light, magnetism, hell, even friction. You’ll gain an affinity for it, so you’ll be able to manipulate it in small doses.”

“Ah… well, let’s do this then,” I shrug. I’m not sure I understand the full uses of this, but there’s no point in worrying till I can actually use it.

For a moment Ali just stares at me before he grumbles, floating up and putting a hand to my forehead. The next thing I know, I’m lying on the bed with the worst headache I’ve ever had.

“What the hell! You could have warned me!” I shout at Ali and then immediately regret it.

“I figured you’d faint again anyway,” Ali smirks, looking me up and down and sighs. “Good news or bad news?”

“Just talk. Quietly,” I hold my head in my hands, already casting a Minor Heal. Instead of speaking, Ali just flicks up the notification.

Elemental Affinity Gained (Electromagnetic Force)

Affinity: Very Poor

Congratulations!

For gaining your first Elemental Affinity, you have been rewarded 2,000 Experience Points.

“You suck at this. Seriously. You’re barely above the grade that the System recognises and that’s because I had to get in there and shove,” Ali shakes his head. “You won’t ever be able to use this fully, but at least you aren’t blocked off other affinities either.”

I groan, clutching my head. Minor Heal doesn’t seem to help, so I keep my eyes shut and focus on the most important thing that Ali said. This headache – it’s all his fault.

An hour later, I’m able to open my eyes without ice picks being jammed into them. At that point, Ali makes me start training. Makes, as in nags me till I agree to actually spend some time exploring this new ability. The exploration itself is relatively simple, a form of guided meditation. Surprisingly, the spirit’s actually serious and there’s not even a single joke about my too tender feelings or the like.

It’s a frustrating couple of hours, the feeling that he’s speaking about at first not at all graspable and then when I finally manage to sense it for the first time, only for brief moments. It takes until nearly the end of the session when I begin to really feel it, to be in the moment and sense the forces flowing through me and around me. It’s only for a moment when I finally manage to grasp the senses, I realise it’s all around me, the shifting of forces. For a moment its like I live in the Matrix except instead of ones and zeroes it’s a humming stream of energy that encompasses everything.

I definitely need to work on this.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to play with my new toy, I’ve got plans for the rest of the day. As I join both Mikito and Richard outside the house, we start walking towards the bridge and the Millennium Trail. Walking through the neighborhood, I can see the beginning of decay throughout the subdivision. Destroyed windows, uncollected autumn leaves, dry and brown lawns and discarded garbage that hasn’t been picked up, snow run-off that isn’t taken care of, even the occasional unwashed blood splatter. No one is here to clean up, take care of the homes and it shows, even the occasional whiff of rotted meat reminds me of the compost bins that haven’t been collected.

When we leave Riverdale itself to cross the bridge, I note that the ice still hasn’t left the river though the fishermen are out. Interestingly, a new addition to the fishing groups are the hunters who stand with guns at rest, watching over the fishermen. I guess even the fish have gotten more dangerous. We pass by the S.S. Klondike as we come off the bridge and I pause, staring at it for a moment, an idle thought passing through my mind. I push it aside though, the white sternwheeler has been laid up for years.

As we continue the walk, Richard waves to the puppies, bringing them back to him and he absently ruffles their fur as he walks.

“You ever try riding one?” I enquire and Richard chuckles, shaking his head.

“No, I like my own feet. I’m really not much of a rider anyway.” Richard answers as I start eyeing the clay cliff faces that surround the downtown, trying to spot the eagles who nest there. It’s only a few more minutes before we realise we’re not the only one’s who have heard about the mutating eagles – Raven’s Circle is here.

“Ah fuck…” I mutter and Mikito flashes me a quick sympathetic glance. Richard just snorts and takes a few quick steps to bring himself in front.

“Afternoon everyone,” Richard flashes a big charming grin, looking utterly relaxed while surrounded by four dogs each the size of a pony.

“Afternoon Richard,” Nicodemus replies, walking forwards and engulfing Richard’s hand in his. The red-haired giant seems to have gotten bigger I swear, now topping over nine feet at a guess and with muscles that go on for days. I’m kind of jealous – I’ve bulked out a bit, but nowhere near his extent. I’ve got more of a gymnast figure while he does the man mountain thing. “You guys here to deal with the eagles too?”

“Actually, I was hoping to tame one or two of them,” Richard explains and Nicodemus nods at that.

While those two talk, Luthien and Kevin make their way around the group to talk to me. I brace myself internally, wondering what these two want.

“John…” Luthien doesn’t stop at a normal distance, instead approaching close enough to reach up to put a hand on my chest. I step back smoothly, noting her new level and her class as an Elementalist.

“Yes?” I keep my voice level, even if my words are curt.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You’ve been avoiding me,” Luthien continues.

“I’ve had things to do Anne,” I pause and shrug, “And I’m doing fine.”

She looks at me with sympathy, just the barest flash of anger at the use of her real name as she continues, “What happened to your bike?”

“Being repaired,” I tell the truth, not particularly caring if she knows.

“Oh, John! Do you need some Credits, I’m sure we could spare some,” she tosses a glance at Kevin who nods agreeably.

Tired of this, I wave my hand, “Anne, just, go away.”

“Why are you being so rude?” she pouts at me now, switching tactics.

“Because I know you. Perhaps a bit late, but I know you,” I turn from her and start walking to Nic and Richard when Kevin grabs my arm and glares at me.

“Don’t speak to her like that. I’m willing to put up with some shit because of what we did, but…”

I shut him up by punching him hard enough to break his nose and when he lets go of my arm, I kick him away from me. I stop then, though his friends already have swords drawn and a bow pointed at me. Impressive. Luthien doesn’t do anything though, running over to her boyfriend.

“Don’t touch me. Either of you. Don’t come near me, don’t talk to me, just don’t. I want nothing to do with you people,” my voice comes out in a whisper, rage that rushed into me the moment he touched me barely contained.

Richard looks between us all, a hand held out to his side to the puppies while Nicodemus waves his guys down. I stalk away from them all, giving them my back as I try to calm down. Damn. I played into her hand again. Now they are the ones who are the injured parties.

A short while later, Richard comes up to me and points so I follow him up the trail, Mikito trailing along behind. The first minute of walking is done in silence before Richard finally breaks it, “Are you going to explain why Mikito and I nearly got killed just now?”

I shake my head, knowing that the Circle probably wouldn’t have killed them. Or me for that matter. Still, it’s nice they were willing to back me up, even though we barely know each other. My hand still trembles from the adrenaline at my side and I fight to keep my voice steady as I answer him, “Anne – Luthien’s – my ex. You know that. What you don’t know is that we were a couple for years, though every summer she’d travel up here for work. Didn’t think much about it, but when I lost my job in Vancouver and my place burnt down, she suggested we move up here together permanently. A new start. So I did. Uprooted my life and left my friends and family to be with her. Except she and Jeff had been cheating on me this whole time and I finally clued in.

“You know the stupidest thing? I realised I stopped caring about her a long time ago. Stopped loving her, but every time we’d talk about something serious, she’d redirect it. I’m not even sure she ever loved me either, I was just another trophy, another admirer. But mostly,” I draw a deep breath before continuing, “mostly, I just want it done and over with. I’m done being manipulated by her, and if the only way to do that is to avoid her, so be it. I won’t get drawn into her web again. Not if I can help it.”

By the time I’m done, we’re nearly at the top of the short hill and looking towards the trees that the eagles normally nest at. Not surprisingly, the eagles haven’t stuck around while we hiked to their nest which leads to a more interesting question. “Richard, what exactly was the plan here?”

“Well, if we can net one of them, I can dominate it and make it a pet if I can enforce my will on it. Tame it if you will,” Richard explains.

“Great. But they aren’t coming back till we’re gone so…?”

Richard pauses, staring up at the empty tree and then looks back at me and then Mikito, “Oh, right. I didn’t really think about that.”

I exhale slowly, carefully and pull the trigger. When the shot finally comes, it’s a surprise that makes me lose a few precious seconds, the tubular shotgun that Richard lent me going off with a hiss rather than a bang. The other eagle that I wasn’t aiming at takes off while I recover, making it well out of range before I can even try to take a shot. I stand swiftly and walk over to my netted target as it struggles, attempting to free itself from the slowly constricting metallic net that covers its body.

The bald eagle is definitely mutated. For one thing, it’s about six feet tall and on top of that, I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with its wings – the way the air ripples around them now and when it was landing seems to indicate something more is going on. Thankfully, the netting and gun were bought from the Shop especially for Beast Tamers looking to capture new pets so it can’t get out.

I can see Richard and Mikito scrambling up the cliff now that I’ve taken my shot. The other bald eagle that fled is circling high above me, it’s unmutated form watching what we are doing to its sibling. I’d feel sorry for it but I just spent the last three hours squatting in a crudely built camouflaged dugout, hiding from it and its brother till they returned to their nests. Seems like neither Mikito nor Richard had bothered to learn any Stealth skills as yet, something we’ll have to fix if we are to work together.

When Richard does make it up, what he does next is truly mystical. He squats down next to the eagle, meets its eyes and they engage a staring contest. That goes on for nearly ten minutes before he finally breaks away and starts untying his new pet. Yup, real mystical.

With most of the day spent getting Richard a new pet, one that he quickly names Orel, we don’t have a huge amount of time to hunt. With that in consideration, we decide to head straight along the river, moving across the trails that line Miles Canyon in search of prey. Richard sends Orel in the air and keeps the Huskies ranging in front of us. Ali’s almost superfluous in the beginning with Richard’s pets in play, Orel sending us in the direction of potential prey and the Huskies running them down. The dogs are well trained though, often just hounding the monsters till we arrive so that we can finish them off and get the experience as a group. Otherwise, Richard would just be getting all the experience.

We don’t get very far, even with all three of us having a high enough Constitution that we’re moving at a brisk walk the whole time. We still have to fight and kill the monsters and we stop every single time to firstly loot and then butcher the monsters to let a Husky bring the butchered carcass back. It’s an efficient method of transportation, though it does mean that we run out of puppies after a while. Ali takes over guiding us to the prey that Orel spots from above and he even drags us off to deal with some monsters that the eagle misses. Without his pets in play, Richard isn’t as useful so both Mikito and I get a chance to shine, fighting the monsters in close combat. Sad to say, it is quite obvious quite quickly who is better at that - and it’s not me. Unfortunately, once we kill a few of the monsters, we realise we still have to wait for a puppy to get back which means we still have to wait anyway. As frustrating as it is, we’re all conscious enough of the food situation back in Whitehorse that no one even voices the option of leaving the carcasses behind.

The fights themselves are interesting as it’s clear that Mikito and Richard have worked out a system to deal with monsters. Richard stays back, opening fire immediately with his shotgun-ish weapon in battle, using a somewhat more traditional shell and ball bearing load out. According to him, other than nets, he’s also got shells for instaset glue, explosives, electricity and even a grappling hook. Seems like if you could think about it, you could buy a shell for his weapon in the Shop.

Mikito on the other hand still uses her naginata, wielding it in close combat and taking on the monsters directly. Since we last fought together, she has gained a new Skill that causes the head of her weapon to glow red hot with each strike, sizzling through flesh and bone. I wonder if we could use the blade as a hot plate for cooking but I’m too scared and too smart to ask. In battle, the quiet Japanese woman becomes a focused whirlwind-of-death, sliding past attacks with ease and crippling creatures with swift, accurate strikes before moving to the next monster while Richard finishes off the cripple.

For the first few battles, I watch them fight without taking part. I watch how Richard focuses on commanding the dogs when they are around and how the dogs work with Mikito to take down the monsters they face. Once I get the gist of the idea, I step in and try to help and let’s just say I’m more of a hindrance than help. I’m in the wrong place for Mikito’s strikes, I pre-empt the attacks by the dogs forcing the monsters to move in the wrong direction, I even dodged straight into one of the animals in an attempt to get away from an attack. I’m all wrong for a party fight like this.

Who’d have thought that the fact that you could hurt your friends would make such a difference in combat? Mixing up melee and ranged fighters in a swirling arena of blades and teeth seems to require a lot more co-ordination than I’d have expected. Damn movies, making it seem so easy.

When we get back to my house, we agree to postpone dealing with the spiders for at least a day. Better to stay close to town and work on our teamwork. It would be tragic to be shot in the back by a friend in the middle of combat against the spiders. Or elbow a party member in the face. Or cut one of the puppies. Purely as an example.

In the evening, when the others have broken off to do their own thing, I join Lana in washing the dishes. She has her hair in a bun, in a tight blouse and jeans, bright evening sunlight highlighting her hair and cute button nose. For a moment, I just admire her from the side before I forcefully remind myself of an earlier promise.

“Lana, can you tell me about the town?” I begin.

“Huh?” Lana turns to me, puzzled by the generic question. I quickly clarify, “How are the people? The microloan programs? What’s the City Council managing to do and what are they failing at?”

“Oh… not asking for much are you,” she smiles at me before handing me another plate to dry. “I really miss dishwashers you know. Where do we start? Things are getting… better. People are moving around more, focusing on what they can do. Even if it’s nothing more than taking apart a door and putting up again, now that they know they can level and do something to improve themselves, it’s helping. We’ve got a few people working as lumberjacks, fishers, carpenters. All of that. We still don’t have enough guards and things are still dangerous, but people are I guess, getting used to the world.

“The loans are working well, we’re getting more and more of the hunters to sell the materials to us. Profits are abysmal, but the training is more important. Once they level their Skills up and produce better quality items, the amount we’ll make will improve. A few of the workers have even reported getting specific quests, pieces that they need to make.

“The Council… well, they’re organising the guards and the food. Until your announcement, they were really focused on the food situation so they had the farmers organised at the parks and the garden. Now, I think they’re looking at the housing situation more closely and are trying to work out who is still alive and what buildings to buy next.

“The problem at the end of the day is money, John. Credits. No one has enough and as much as people want to help, there’s only so much they are willing to give.”

She falls silent, the spiel coming to an end. The bright, bubbly personality is gone, the worried sister and citizen making a showing. “We just don’t have enough, not for everyone. Those that don’t hunt are rationed, those that do get double portions and often supplement with the Credits they earn from looting. That makes everyone else angry, especially the Citizens who don’t have a class that automatically gives them a way to earn Credits. Teachers, doctors, scholars - those classes can level their skills but they are dependent on an economy that we just don’t have. Worst, we’ve got people who are still in shock and people are still disappearing. The hunters report a few bodies every day in the river…”

Lana has stopped washing, her hands clutched around a plate. I hesitate before closing a hand around hers, squeezing it and she looks up at me, unshed tears in her eyes, “I don’t know how you do it. The hunters, even Mikito and Richard aren’t willing to go as far out as you did. You just drove all the way to Carcross as if the monsters didn’t matter, that it was just another day before this shit happened. And the rest of us, we’re just trying to get through another day.”

I blink for a moment, staring out the window at the lounging puppies and fox as I attempt to answer her, “I… I guess I’m just too stupid to know better.”

“Don’t you feel anything? Didn’t you lose anyone?” she pulls her hand away from me to stare at my face, searching it.

“I…,” I struggle for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain my own complicated life. “I did. I think. But…” how to explain my relationship with them, the dearth of love and the parade of nannies and then later, boarding school. How I barely saw my father through my youth, and even less as an adult while my mother had left when I was born. I’ve never even met her. Of all of them, only my sister had ever been close to me and even we had drifted apart as she grew older. How to explain the irrational grief for something that I never really had, the way I learnt to tune it all out just to get through another day. Better not to. “It’s over. I can’t do anything for them even if they were alive, not from here.”

She shakes her head, sitting back down at the dining room table. I watch her for a moment as she collects herself, uncomfortable in the silence so I get back to washing the dishes. I’m nearly done when she speaks again, her voice soft. “We have thousands of people, and nearly half of them are combat classes but so few dare to go out. It’s too much, too dangerous and we keep losing people, here and there. The hunting groups get smaller, the food gets less and people get more and more scared.”

I frown, shaking my head and I stare into the distance. Shit, that doesn’t sound great. In an MMO, in a game, there’d be noob training grounds, places where people could start fighting monsters that were level appropriate. Maybe go out on quests and kill 10 rats or something.

Here though, we’re stuck in the real world and even the zone around Whitehorse is in the 10’s to 20’s. Sure, there are monsters that are lower leveled, in fact, the vast majority are low-level mutations but now that it’s been over a week and a half since the System came into play, even the mutations aren’t in single digits anymore.

I can’t blame them, can’t blame the citizens for not wanting to go out. We aren’t used to this, fighting and killing. I’m not used to this - but I can’t sit around either. Caught up in our own dark thoughts, the two of us sit quietly as the evening comes to a close, sharing some chocolate.

Chapter 13

In the morning, as we pass by the school, I spot the Constable heading out.

Amelia Olmstead (Level 14 Guardian)

HP: 410/410

“Still Level 14 eh?” I mutter and wave to the Constable. My companions look at me, wondering what I’m up to as Amelia trudges over, looking exhausted.

“Amelia, that your weapon?” I point to her beam rifle and Ali snorts, muttering something about how you couldn’t call that a weapon. I ignore him as she nods, thankful the little bastard is not visible or audible.

“Good. Come on, we’re going hunting,” I jerk my thumb to the trail that heads out to Long Lake, our current hunting ground.

“What? No! I just got off a shift,” she protests.

“Yeah, but you’re tough. A few hours, come on,” I reach out and grab her arm and start dragging her along the trail. She tries to yank her arm out of my grip and finds she’s unable to, while I continue to speak. “Look, Amelia, you want to get stronger, right? Protect people and all that jazz?”

“All that jazz? What are you? A ’50 crooner?” Ali next to me snorts.

“I… well… yes,” answering me, Amelia forgets about fighting me.

“Good, then come on. Only way to level up in this crazy ass world is to go all murder happy,” I suddenly chuckle and the three others stare at me as I begin to giggle, doing my best to explain. “Constable. Murder happy.”

“Baka!” Mikito mutters stomping pass me as I continue to giggle and pull Amelia along while she keeps casting very worried glances at me. She can’t escape my grip and after a while stops trying to which is good since I wasn’t really going to drag her the entire way. Only so much forcing I’m willing to do.

Amelia does well, though, by the time we pass the third hour, she’s nearly falling off her feet. I let her go then, smirking as I watch her glowing Status. Yeah, Level Up as promised. We escort her back of course and help drag the meat with us and when some guards hear about what we did, they quickly ask us to help out. For the next few hours, we cycle back and forth dropping off new low-level volunteers in our party, occasionally lending out weapons for them to use. Mostly we do our best to ensure they stay safe, though my Minor Heal spell comes into use more than once. After a quick discussion, we get an on-going agreement where we keep most of the Loot drops except three from the escorted parties. We leave them with a little since that’ll give them something to sell and buy in the Shop and at least helps pay for our time a bit.

Over the next few days, we spend most of the day playing escort for new guards and hunters, helping them slowly level up and learn to fight the monsters. With the three of us on-hand, we can keep even the Level 1’s safe which means we focus on bringing those volunteers with us as much as possible, giving them a quick level up. It’s slow going though - most of them don’t have the stamina that we have, at least until they get their first few levels. In the evenings though, Mikito, Richard and I spend time hunting by ourselves and learning how to fight together. It’s also when we can make the most money as we target bigger and nastier monsters.

Standing in the Shop, it feels like it has been ages since I’ve been in. I know exactly what I want to purchase this time though which is good because I don’t have that much to spend. Unfortunately, while fighting weaker monsters is great for our teamwork and the cooking pot, it doesn’t do much for our wallets.

To start, I pull up information about electromechanical force. The costs for simple, college level knowledge about the force is quite low, only a couple hundred credits. However, costs keep going up after that in leaps and bounds and there’s even a notation that leads me to information about the elemental affinity itself. My jaw drops at the price though – a million credits!?! Definitely buying the basic physics understanding of electromechanical force, I’ll leave the understanding of the affinity aside for when I’m rolling in riches. As it stands, I can, if I work real hard, actually feel the force for a brief 10-second window.

Since I’m thinking of spells, I spend a few minutes perusing the spell lists. I’ve been feeling rather naked without a ranged offensive option, though the only spell I can afford is something called ‘Mana Dart’. Not exactly thrilling and the details on the spell itself is less than inspiring.

Mana Dart

Effect: Creates a dart out of pure mana which can be directed to damage a target. Does 10 damage. Cooldown 10 seconds

Cost: 25 Mana

I could flick my finger at a monster and do more damage! Okay, probably an exaggeration and I guess it is a beginner offensive spell, which makes it one more offensive spell than I have and it’s ranged too. Still not thrilled but it’s better than nothing.

Noting that Ali is finally coming to a conclusion in his haggling from the tone of their voices, I skip over to what I came here to buy – a sidearm. I scan through the various options, finally selecting one that meets all my criteria.

Silversmith Mark II Beam Pistol (Upgradeable)

Base Damage: 18

Battery Capacity: 24/24

Recharge Rate: 2 per hour per GMU

Cost: 1,400 Credits

It’s not a great damage dealer, but the Silversmith can be upgraded which means that I’ll actually be able to use it in the future. It’s a good backup short-ranged weapon at least. As Ali concludes his haggling, he flicks the total over to me and I let out a low whistle. He might scream, shout and throw a tantrum, but his results are impressive. I still don’t have enough money to buy a Class Skill, not with the way my funds keep draining but at least now I’ve got more offensive weaponry.

Breakfast is sober in the morning. This is our first real test as a group, the Wexlix spiders significantly more dangerous than anything we’ve dealt with so far. On the other hand, the half dozen or so that I spotted shouldn’t be impossible. I’ve got my new pistol strapped to my thigh and I’m somewhat comfortable with it now after spending the previous evening practicing. I’m no crack shot, but I can hit a barn door at twenty paces.

Just as we’re about to leave, Lana moves to give Richard a particularly hard hug and whispers into his ear. Richard nods firmly while Mikito escapes from the culturally inappropriate touching by virtue of using her naginata. The two of them headed out, Lana corners me and pokes a finger into my chest, “Don’t you dare let my brother get injured, do you hear me?”

I nod, a slight smile twisting my lips, “Did you tell him to abandon us if it got too dangerous?”

She snorts, obviously not finding me amusing right now, “No. I told him not to die.”

Impulsively, I give her a hug and whisper, “I promise to send him running first if things get bad.”

Lana’s stiff at first but relaxes after a moment, pleasant squishiness reminding me suddenly that it’s been a while since I’ve actually touched another human being in this way. I release her quickly, flash her a smile and beat a hasty retreat. I’ll deal with that later, it’s time to go kill some monsters. A little trick of anger runs through me, a vicious streak that demands I take revenge.

The Huskies sit in the back of brand new dark blue truck that Mikito and Richard have acquired. It’s huge and monstrous but strangely silent, the mana engine and battery not making a single sound as they run. It’s an incongruity that clashes with my understanding of how things should be that I struggle with even with Sabre. Still, the good news is that Sabre runs smoothly even if it does look like its seen better days.

Of course, Xev was less than impressed considering I had just gotten it fixed and had rather firmly told me to be careful. You’d think she’d enjoy the extra business, but I guess having your work wrecked in the space of a day was a bit frustrating. I’m definitely going to have to see about getting on her good side soon though since she’s the only Master-class Armorer in town. It’ll take months if not years for the rest of the humans to catch up with her and till then, it’s either her or the System.

Idle thoughts as we drive down the Highway, heading to fight the Spiders. We stop only long enough to switch the fort out between all of us, Mikito and Richard gaining the experience bonuses before I take it back. I should make a note to bring Lana out while it’s still in our control. Easy experience for her and there’s no reason not to. In fact, I bet we could run a train of people through here to give them the experience and get them a significant way to their first level.

When we start getting close to the original ambush point, we pull the truck over and disembark. I trigger the change and feel Sabre slide all over me, locking into place and giving me a sense of invulnerability and safety. My smile widens and it’s only the barking of the dogs that brings my attention back to our task. I’ve missed this.

“Mecha!” Mikito is pointing at my newly power armored clad form, her jaw on the ground. Oh shit, I forgot to tell them.

“Yeah…”

“Fuck man! How come you didn’t tell us about this?” Richard swears, eyeing my armor clad form.

“Ummm… I forgot? I’ve been trying to keep this quiet. Don’t want it stolen and what not, you know,” I shrug uncomfortably, feeling a bit like a jerk. They are working with me after all, they deserve to know some things.

Ali is laughing his ass off, invisible as usual. “Real smooth boy-o.”

Richard continues to glare at me before he visibly shakes himself and lets it go and walks over to inspect Sabre. “Damn, but that’s cool. Like, really cool. How much did it cost you?”

When I name the number, their jaws drop again. They just stare at Sabre and me and then Richard barks a laugh, “What’s your class? Moneybags?”

“No,” I begin to protest and then realise he’s teasing me.

“You are going to let me test this out,” Richard points his finger at me and Mikito nods firmly at that. For the first time, there’s a look of wonder and glee on Mikito’s face, the first I’ve ever seen. Mostly, she’s this quiet, reserved, perfect little Japanese girl until she fights, then she’s just death on two feet. But now, now she seems almost happy. It’s gone in a moment and her face closes down again. Thankfully, the PAV can resize to a certain extent though I’m not sure it’d fit Mikito. Still, we can give it a shot.

“Of course. Just, keep this quiet will you?” At confirming nods from both of them, I breathe a little sigh of relief. Not sure if matters, but keeping a few aces up my sleeve still seems like a good idea. “So, we follow the plan?”

Once I get their acknowledgment, I draw a deep breath and head into the woods first with Mikito and Richard following a good distance behind. Small radios clipped to their body and installed into my helmet lets us keep in contact at a distance while I scout out the spiders. It’d taken nearly a full day for Richard to learn Stealth, Mikito only needing a half-day but neither had very good levels yet which is why I’m in front.

Getting all the way to the ambush point takes nearly an hour of slow, careful moving. I can’t rely on Ali’s abilities so I have to look for them myself. When I do spot the first spider, it’s lying in the tree tops among its webs, just waiting for prey, occasionally shifting its head to sniff at the air and twitch its furry ears. The creature is still weird looking, a strange mixture of a wolf’s head on top of a spider’s furred body.

Wexlix Spider Adult (Level 34)

HP: 780 / 780

The moment I spot it, I start scanning the ground and I begin to see the thin threads of spider-silk laid around the base of trees ahead of me, ready to catch and hold unsuspecting prey. There’s no way in, not without triggering a trap or alerting the watching spider so I call a halt to Richard and Mikito over the radio before hunkering down.

“Ali, you can still spot them using your eyes,can’t you? And they can’t see you right?” I think to my companion and he nods, flying forwards. It’s nice that he actually can be serious when he needs to be.

It takes nearly an hour before the Spirit returns to my position, floating above me and wiping at non-existent cobwebs. “Yeah, you’re fucked.”

Okay, mostly serious.

“Details Ali,” I mutter in exasperation. We’re far enough away that the Wexlix Spider guard can’t hear me, especially while I’m in my helmet but I still curse myself out. No need to talk when I can just think at my orange-clad companion.

“Right, remember how you fought 5 of them and got your ass kicked? Well, there’s about a dozen adults and a half-dozen youngsters. And a spider that’s about half again the size of the biggest one whom I’m guessing is the Alpha,” Ali says. “Oh, and I found your rifle. It’s in the middle of the road, in enough pieces I’m not sure even Zev can fix it.”

I crawl back carefully, making my way over to my companions before letting them know the bad news. They fall silent at my news, the numbers well above what we had initially expected to fight. As much as I want to get my revenge and pick up the young lady for the quest, this is way too challenging for us right now. I’m doing this for, well, money and a distraction. Getting killed is definitely not on the cards.

“Time to leave?” I suggest.

Mikito shakes her head, anger flaring in her eyes at even a mention of running away. I’m somehow not surprised, I’ve never seen her decide not to fight.

“Mikito…” Richard begins.

“No. They will kill others. We are here. We kill youkai,” she insists and clutches her naginata to her.

Richard frowns, looking at the determined widow and then me. I groan slightly, shaking my head. “Mikito, this is insane. There’s more of them than there are of us.”

“We fight. I fight,” she points to herself, standing up and I growl, grabbing her arm and pulling her down. She isn’t able to fight my strength and has to sit, though she glares at me till I let her go.

“This is a bad idea,” I say and Mikito looks at me and then Richard who looks between the two of us.

“Boy-o, one thing to note. The longer we wait, the harder this is going to get,” Ali chimes in next to me, pointing backwards. “These guys have an Alpha which means they’re breeding. Longer you wait, the more there are.”

I grunt, shaking my head and then relay the information. Richard draws a deep breath and Mikito looks triumphant. Shit. Still, there’s no reason we couldn’t get a few more hands - but really? Who would we ask? Most of the others are too low level or just not equipped enough and the only other option is Raven’s Circle. You know what, fuck that shit. “Okay, fine.”

“How are we doing this then?” Richard says. I frown and then stare back, thinking about our options before I start speaking.

What do you do when you’ve got to fight a force that outnumbers you? Fight them piecemeal of course. Seems like not all the spiders will leave to attack immediately, at least from my experience. If my rather limited encounter experience holds true, all we need to do is make sure we attack and pull back, drawing them to us and killing them in small bursts. It’s why I’m back at my original scouting position while Mikito and Richard have drawn the truck further up the road, only a short run from where I am.

Can’t hit it with my pistol or the Mana Dart from this range, so I get ready to trigger the Quantum State Manipulator. When I do activate the device this time, I can feel the QSM extend its field, enveloping my body and shifting me to another dimension I guess. I can feel the effects, the field that wraps all around me and the energy that floats through me, around me. For a moment, I just stand there in surprise, taking it all in.

“You can feel it now can’t you? It’s our affinity,” smirk Ali.

“Yeah…” purchased knowledge comes flooding in now that I think about it. I stand there for a second, trying to understand what I already do - which is as strange and confusing as it sounds before I shake my head. Something to look into later, I got things to kill. Later. Always later.

I ignore the need for Stealth, just making sure my escape route is clear of spider webs before I grin, focusing on the creature as I trigger the QSM off. Time to test out my new spell. The moment I phase back in, I cast the spell, sacrificing Mana so that the floating blue bolt of energy can form in the air. I gesture with my hand and the dart flies straight out, slamming into the creature’s eye, blinding and angering it. The Wexlix spider howls in anger and a moment later a reply comes moments later from its pack mates.

Ali stays behind, floating in the air and counting, “1, 2, 3… and that’s 5 adults and 3 of the juveniles. Best run fast boy-o!”

No need to tell me twice as I bolt for it. Good news is that I’m able to stay ahead of them, though I have to duck and roll once when a Spider shoots its web at me. Other than that, I manage to make it back to the road without much trouble, the Spiders only 20 feet behind me. I run straight towards the truck and my team, spinning around with my pistol in hand to snap off a shot. The creatures burst out of the foliage even as I turn around, clustered in a clump of skittering spider legs and howling wolf heads.

Richard on top of the truck opens fire, launching an explosive shell into one side of the group and then another, tossing spider bodies around like so much confetti. Even as they begin to recover, I add to the carnage with my pistol, targeting the injured to end their lives quickly. As much damage as the explosives do to the ones that they hit, there’s too many for Richard to stop and the remaining spiders flow across the gaping holes in the asphalt and around their dead or dying friends.

Mikito and the four Huskies are there to meet them, both sides clashing in a maelstrom of fang, fur, claws and metal. Mikito slides past the lunging bite her first opponent makes, the blade of her naginata leaving a scorched wound across its body as she dodges, engaging the second almost immediately. Her blade flashes, blocking and cutting at legs as she dances between the two adult spiders.

The Huskies each take on the rest individually, pouncing forwards to bite at a leg before scrambling back. The juvenile spiders are out-weighed by their opponents and seem to be getting the worst of it, but an adult spider slams into the black and white puppy that attacks it, a leg rising and pinning the dog to the ground. Before it can attack again, I turn my pistol on the creature, burning a hole in its neck. It distracts the creature for a brief moment, long enough for Orel to swoop down and pin the spider into the ground, claws piercing the body. Orel doesn’t stop there though as it flaps its wings, the elemental blades of wind that surround them shifting the air to help it lift the creature off the ground.

I stop paying attention to Orel as I take off to help Mikito, swinging my sword at a back leg that comes into range. It causes the spider to lurch, giving Mikito a chance to open its chest up. The rest of the fight is actually relatively short, Richard and the puppies working to stall their opponents till Mikito and I finish off ours. Once that is done, we use overwhelming numbers to kill the remaining spiders, massacring them with ease.

I exhale, staring around at the various Spider corpses and a part of the tension I’ve been carrying since Mikito first insisted on this fight dissipates. Yeah, we can do this.

As I move to cast my Minor Healing on the injured dog, Ali shouts, “Incoming!”. The dog that I was about to touch lunges forward, putting itself between me and the launched webbing. The injured dog staggers and the web stream continues, sticking its body to the asphalt. Another dog is caught in the sticky web attack and restricted but everyone else manages to get away unscathed. Behind the flying webs, the remainder of the spiders come rushing out from the undergrowth, baying their need to extract revenge. At the back of the group, a truly massive Wexlix Spider looms, its fur dark grey and its eyes glowing red.

Wexlix Spider Alpha (Level 42 – Boss)

HP: 3280/3280

“RUN!” I shout to my companions, grabbing a plasma grenade from my inventory and tossing it into the incoming horde. A rainy day has definitely come and my only regret is that I don’t have time to get a second one out. Mikito ignores my order, flashing forwards as she activates her skill Charge and then goes into a slide underneath one of the creatures, her naginata held upwards to disembowel it.

On the truck, Richard curses the woman and unloads a round of normal shot before he begins to return the favor by using an instaglue shell on one of the closer Spiders, eyes flicking down to where his target just shot, “They webbed the tires!”

The explosion of the plasma grenade is less intense in the open air, heat and flames rushing out in a sphere of super-heated air that bowls the spiders and my companions over. Sabre’s extra weight and its gifted strength help keep me on my feet, while I spot Mikito slowly stagger upright leaning on her polearm, having been partially shielded by the body of the fighter she had been fighting under. I take the extra time that I’m given to sprint forward and behead a juvenile spider as our enemies recover. Screeching its anger, Orel returns to the battle from the skies and picks up another adult into the air, circling to gain altitude immediately as she gets ready to drop her opponent. The remainder of the adults including the boss recover quickly and I see little choice but to wade into the middle of them to distract the creatures before they can focus on my companions.

There are too many though, too many for me to distract completely. The injured, black and white husky has its throat torn out, unable to avoid its fate as it struggles to free itself from the webbing. Another has its side pierced by a spider leg, the creature rearing over it to finish it off. Richard screams in anger, unloading shot after shot into the spider and manages to punch a hole through the creature’s chest where it collapses on his pet.

I only catch glimpses of all this as I spin and attack in the middle of the spider horde. A leg slams into my shoulder, spinning me around and I take the momentum to slice off another foot that comes towards me. I no longer have time to think, reacting purely by instinct as fangs and claws come at me from all directions. Ali pops into existence occasionally throughout the fight, adding to the confusion as attacks pass through his incorporeal figure and buying me slivers of time.

As I fight, I catch a glimpse of Mikito. Her face is one of intense concentration and rage, lips pulled back even as blood drips from a cut down the side of her face, her skin red as if she’s been standing in the sun too long, portions of her long black hair burnt off. The naginata twirls in a dance of light and fire, slicing first one, a second and then a third leg off before burying itself in the throat of her opponent, all in the time it takes for me to exhale. Even as she finishes it off, she instinctively steps away from a lunging bite that comes from her side, swinging the butt of her polearm into its throat.

A mistimed block ends up with a Wexlix spider’s mouth around my right arm, attempting to crush and rend. Hundreds of pounds of pressure come to bear and even under the armor, I can feel my bones begin to crack. I release the blade from that hand and transfer it to my left, angling my cut to slash open the throat that is so invitingly positioned.

Even as blood gushes and the creature flops forward, pulling me off balance, another blow catches me from behind and I am sent sliding along the asphalt. Before I can recover, a leg pierces through the armor into my abdomen, pinning me face down on the ground. I scream into my helmet, activating the QSM to fade out from the pinning leg and scramble away to see my attacker.

Wexlix Spider Alpha (Level 42 – Boss)

HP: 2430/3280

I know the creature wasn’t directly in the blast of the plasma grenade, but I know it was close. I groan mentally, backing up as much as I can to give myself space, mind racing. Blood drips down from my wound even as Sabre reacts to the damage, applying pressure through electronic sheathing around my stomach, slowing the bleeding. Adrenaline is keeping most of the pain away for the moment, but I know if I stop now, it’ll come back with a vengeance.

No time to treat the wound properly as the Alpha gets over its confusion at the disappearance of its original prey and skitters to the truck and Richard who stands on it. I don’t let it as I take a few running steps and leap into the air, calling the sword into both hands as I angle to land on the creatures back. Just before I do, I release the field and come back fully to this reality, sword landing first into its back.

The blade sinks in deep, cutting through coarse fur and muscle into vulnerable organs beneath as I land with one knee bent, the other splayed behind me as I try to keep my balance. Or at least, I hope vulnerable organs. I twist the blade with both hands, then as the creature bucks I fall flat and take a grip on the open wound. I dig enhanced strength hands into its back, crushing flesh as I attempt to stay on the monster.

While I keep the Boss distracted, my companions take the fight to the remaining spiders. Orel returns after having dropped its latest prey, this time landing on and staying on top of another wolf to peck it to death, beak tearing into the creature’s neck and spine. Richard has switched to slugs, each shot tearing a hole into the spiders he targets, creating distracting, painful openings for the Huskies to finish the monsters off. Mikito seems to have lost her naginata in the body of a spider, switching to fighting with a pair of glowing curved short swords that she wields with finesse and speed.

The Alpha, unable to buck me off, spins towards the truck again and launches itself at Richard without warning. Only battle hardened instinct alerts Richard, making him throw himself off at the last second. He’s unable to escape completely and the creature’s fangs clamp down and rip off his foot as he dodges. For a brief moment, Lana’s face flashes before my eyes as I see Richard almost lose his life and that centre of peace that I fight in shatters. Rage comes in its place, the same cold angry focus that I felt when I saw Haines Junction and my world narrows down to one goal and one goal only – ending this thing before it hurts anyone else. As the Alpha attempts to stabilise himself on the truck, I shove my left arm all the way into the wound to my shoulder, grabbing at whatever organ I can find.

The Alpha rears up, howling in surprise and rage as I dig around its abdomen and grasp hold of something slimy but tough. My position fixed, I call my sword to my right hand and begin thrusting it into the abdomen, twisting and repeating the attack again and again. When the creature slams itself into the truck to throw me off, I don’t dismiss the sword but instead throw my weight behind it, letting the creatures own momentum widen the wound.

I don’t know how long it takes, my world taken over by my need to end this creature, to kill it and all its kind. I vaguely recall a tree shattering around us in the eternity of bucking and stabbing. When the Alpha stops moving, collapsing on the ground, I find myself a hundred yards from the original scene of battle in the woods, alone. Hovering over me, Ali is silent and worried. Extracting my arm from its innards is a disgusting, revolting process and once again, I really wish there was a magic dissolving corpse option.

Free of the creature, I drop to my knees and focus, working on rebuilding my self-control. The aftershocks arrive soon after, my entire body shaking and I have to pull my helmet off when I begin to throw up, pain dragging me to my feet as my stomach wound makes itself known. When the smell finally hits me, I begin retching again, stomach clamping around my open wound and making me fall over to my side in pain.

“Boy-o?” Ali whispers worriedly after I finally stop shivering and whimpering in pain long enough to cast a Minor Heal on myself. My body’s System assisted regeneration helps too, patching together my body even as I damage it by throwing up.

“I’m okay. I’m okay,” I close my eyes, the rage driven away by the pain. I work on my self-control, rebuilding my walls as I put the anger aside. “The others?”

“Safe. Injured but safe,” Ali replies and I nod, slowly pushing myself up and hurry over to my companions to provide them with a little bit of healing. Mikito has already bandaged Richard’s leg, the man caring less about his foot then the corpse of his dog. For a moment, I feel regret that I’ve not taken the time to learn their names and resolve to do better as I watch Richard grieve. Richard holds the corpse close, sobbing into it even as the other dogs snuffle around them, letting loose occasional howls of grief. All I can do is cast Minor Healing on both of them, helping to speed up the process.

Ali floats over to me, his usual sardonic smile back on his face as he waggles his fingers to throw up a pair of notifications, “Congrats boy-o. Your first boss kill.”

Congratulations! Wexlix Spider Alpha – Boss Slain

+11,700 XP

Level Up!

You have reached Level 12 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 14 Free Attribute Points to distribute.

When I finish reading, I cast another healing on Mikito before turning back to Ali who has continued speaking after I’m done, “That could have been worst. Looks like easy mode is over though if boss monsters are beginning to appear.”

“You mentioned that earlier. Care to clarify?” I ask for clarification. Better not to make assumptions.

“Boss monsters are leaders of a group of monsters, always the strongest son-of-a-bitch. Their presence generally increases the breeding and mutation rates of their followers.” Ali shakes his head. “Good thing you killed it, Wexlix Spiders are nasty predators and could easily have made this entire region a lot harder to deal with. Of course, there are worst things out there.”

I look around the carnage, the dead body of Richard’s pet and our injuries and shiver at his words, looking out into the wilderness. If what he’s saying is true, then out there, there might be more monster hordes breeding and growing unchecked. Monsters that we know nothing about, growing unchecked till the horde comes crashing down on us in an unstoppable wave. Ali sees my reaction and just nods soberly. We’re running out of time.

Chapter 14

I stay silent while we loot the bodies and get Richard back into the truck along with the rest of the animals. I stay silent when, at Ali’s urging, Mikito and I head into the webbed forest and find the eggs, collecting them all for sale. I stay silent through the entire drive back till we drop Richard off with Ali at the Shop.

Once Richard disappears, I turn to Mikito and snarl, “What the hell were you thinking!” She looks right back at me impassively and I continue, raising a finger. “I said run. That was a fucking plasma grenade. If you had been any closer, you’d have died. Hell, it’s pure luck you didn’t die. Richard stayed back because you fucking didn’t run and he nearly died for it. I nearly died.”

She looks to the side, not meeting my gaze and I growl, raising a finger. “Don’t ever fucking do that again. If I say run, run. Hell, if Richard says run, you run. If you don’t listen to us when we fight, you’ll get one of us killed.”

Mikito looks up for a moment, meeting my eyes briefly before looking down again, her hand clutching the naginata tightly. She jerks her head slightly at my words and then without saying a word further walks to the crystal and touches it, disappearing into the Shop. I snarl, shivering with rage at that crazy woman. Fuck!

A small part of me knows that it’s not just her that I’m angry at. I’m angry at me, for agreeing to it and I’m angry at the System. I thought I had begun to get a hang of it, thought I had an idea of what to expect. But each time, things just keep getting worst and worst - more monsters, higher level monsters, Boss monsters. Monster hordes next.

“Adventurer Lee is it not?” the voice is urbane and cultured and sends a shiver down my spine. I turn and spot Roxley and once again, I am struck by just how pretty he is. Delicate features that still hint at the strength of his body, a commanding aura that attracts attention. I blink when I realise I’ve probably been staring longer than I should have.

“Yes, sir,” I reply immediately and then pause, considering what to call him. Lord just seems pretentious but it is what he is.

“And where is your Companion?” Roxley looks around, smiling slightly as he speaks.

“… with a friend. They’re selling our loot,” I say and then I realise something. “Oh, I have some things you might want to know.”

“Do tell,” Roxley says.

“Yeah,” I pause, trying to decide if should hold out for some reward. However, after a moment I decide against it. He’s been pretty generous so far and goodwill can often be better currency than actual currency. Old friends are important. “Well, firstly, did you know that there’s a fort at Carcross Cutoff? I kinda own it now, but yeah, there’s one there. Also, there are boss monsters now.”

“Really. A fort?” Roxley smiles slightly, looking at me as I stare at him. “Well, you have been fast at picking up property have you not.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I reply and shrug, my lips twisting into a slight smile.

“Well, I’m sure there’s a story there but I was just about to go for lunch,” Roxley says and nods to me. “Adventurer Lee.”

“Lord Roxley,” I reply automatically, trying to get my brain back into gear. Switching from anger to fear to lust in a short span of time seems to have short-circuited it. Or maybe that’s just my consciousness.

As he walks to the doors, he stops and then smiles slightly, “Perhaps you’d care to join me while you wait for your friends? You can tell me more about the fort and these boss monsters then.”

“Ummm…” I reply and then realise my stomach is growling, letting me know that running around fighting and killing and healing does require a large number of calories. “Sure.”

Lunch itself is amazing. I stare at the plates, scraping the last of the dessert up with the spork that seems to be utensil of choice here and sigh, leaning back contentedly. Roxley is smiling slightly as he watches me. “It is good to see that our civilizations share certain taste.”

I blink then nod, sitting up, “Yes.”

“I am surprised that you had no trouble with the Urike tentacles though, I understood that North Americans were pickier,” Roxley says and I know exactly the dish he was speaking of. It looked like a lurid, purple mess of suction cups and twitching meat.

“Ah, I’m a CBC. Canadian Born Chinese. My father was very traditional and I grew up eating, well, everything,” I explain and smile slightly, remembering pig brain soup and snake blood shakes. Yeah, trips back to his hometown was always fun and I quickly learnt to just eat.

“I see,” Roxley gets this far away look for a second before those dark eyes of his snap back to me. “A melting pot of cultures then. Interesting.”

I just nod to his words, sipping at the water that is laid out for me at my request. Over lunch, Roxley had extracted the story about the fort and the Wexlix spiders from me though he seemed significantly more troubled by the Hakarta than the spiders. Then again, I guess the boss monsters were something he knew to expect.

Gods, I hate being behind the curve, knowing less than everyone else. It reminds me of every time I was put into a new school as a kid - never knowing where everything is, always bumping into existing friendships and missing all the cues that everyone else who had a shared history got. Don’t date this person. Don’t talk to this one. That teacher was particularly stern.

“Adventurer Lee?” Roxley says again and I blink, coming back to the present.

“Sorry!”

“As pleasant as this was, perhaps we could continue this at another time. I have other matters to attend to,” Roxley says as he stands, pushing away from the table and I stand quickly too.

“Thank you,” I offer him my hand and he stares at it bemusedly before taking, shaking it once and letting go before he walks away.

Once more at the doorway, he turns to look at me, saying, “I shall have my companion contact yours to continue this then,” before sweeping out. I stare at him for a second, blinking and walking down to the Shop. Well, that was interesting.

“Boss monsters?” squeaks Minion, staring at us.

“As we said, they’re more powerful leaders of the normal monsters. They increase the speed the monsters under them breed and mutate,” Richard repeats again, standing on his own two feet. I glance down at them again, marvelling at the Shop. It hadn’t even been that expensive to have them regenerate his foot for him all things considered and we’d made enough that I had Xev fixing up Sabre fully right now.

“Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Pearson, for informing us,” Fred says, waving Minion down. Minion subsides like the good little minion that he is, glaring at us and I can’t help but smirk. “This is disturbing news. The Council will have to discuss what we should do about it.”

I blink, staring at him. Do about it? Do what? There’s not a lot that I can think of that we can do beyond what we’re doing now. Maybe work a little harder to level up, get tougher, get a militia together, maybe get some defenses? Okay, maybe there are things that can be done.

“In the interim, will your group continue to locate and attack these creatures for the Council?” Fred says, leaning forward. “Your actions will provide immediate relief for the city while we work on other options.”

Quest Received (Repeatable) - Kill the Boss Monsters around Whitehorse

Boss Monsters are appearing around Whitehorse. To reduce the danger of a monster horde, you must kill the boss monsters before they grow too strong. To succeed, kill 4 Boss Monsters.

Rewards: 20,000 XP

I blink, staring at the Quest as does Richard who flicks his hand to the side, waving the screen away most likely. Arse. Perhaps if we stick to around Whitehorse itself, the bosses will be more manageable. In fact, put that way, it’d be an easy way to game the System. I feel my shoulders loosen a little as I rationalise things, the recollection of the creature pinning me to the ground still fresh.

Richard is speaking again and I sigh, turning my attention back. Not that I expect I’ll hear anything useful but you never know.

Lana, not surprisingly, wasn’t particularly happy with us when she heard our story. She glared at all of us before walking away, leaving us staring at the half-made meal and wondering if dinner would be served. We sit around awkwardly, wondering if she’ll be back for nearly 15 minutes before we give up and Mikito takes over the cooking.

“John,” Richard says as I stare to where his sister left.

“Yeah?” I glance back at him guiltily, hoping he didn’t realise what I was thinking.

“We were talking and we were wondering, would it be possible to turn the lights on if you had the Credits?”

“Definitely. Just depends on how, but it’s not actually at all expensive. Just need a mana engine and battery for the generator and that’s not too expensive. About five hundred Credits,” I answer him and then shrug. “Don’t have the money right now though.”

“Yeah, about that,” Richard waves his hand and I blink at the transfer notification. “Call it rent.”

“Uhh… sure,” I accept it and then put it straight to buying the generator, smiling slightly as I feel the shift around us. I walk over to the light switch, testing it out before popping back down. “That’ll be useful.”

Richard nods, smiling slightly. It’s still light enough that we won’t need it right now, but at least we have electricity again, even if all our electronics are broken. Oooh, maybe we could get someone to fix up a TV.

Mikito waves to us, bringing us back to reality as she drops our plates in front of us. I nod to her in thanks and so does Richard before we get down to the serious business of eating.

“Are we doing this? Hunting the bosses?” Richard asks and I blink, the forkful of meat halfway to my lips. I frown, popping it in and chewing as I look to Ali who shrugs back at me. Going out, hunting and visiting Carcross, fighting. It was fun sort-of and necessary but after today, the threat is all too real. If there was anyone else…

“It’s not a great Quest,” I offer and Richard nods. Mikito stays silent, probably because we all know what she’d recommend. “But if we’re out hunting anyway, I guess it can’t hurt to have it.”

Richard nods and I go back to my meal. I guess that’s settled then.

Chapter 15

Rather than head out immediately, we spend the next day hunting around town, bringing new people out with us to gain some experience and meat. It’s interesting, working with the lower levels and after a quick discussion, the three of us split into two groups. Richard and his puppies lead one group of newbies, Mikito and I another. It helps us cover more ground and bring in more food and train up more newbies in the same time frame. Of course, we barely get any experience but after yesterday, the change of pace is rather relaxing. I can’t wander around in Sabre, but with Mikito and I around, the monsters we meet are more than easy to deal with if they get out of hand.

We keep each group with us for about half the day, each time we get back most of the members have leveled up at least twice. It’ll be a while before we can get most of them to decent levels, but as I understand it, even the normal hunting groups are beginning to bring one or two of the more advanced newbies with them.

The problem mostly is that of equipment. If we could get some of these groups outfitted properly, they could start hunting on their own. Unfortunately, till they have better equipment that they own themselves, they have to rely on us. However, that’s a raw deal for them too since we take most of the Loot afterwards as payment for our time. It’s still a lot less than what we’d earn if we were working ourselves but it’s better than nothing.

As evening comes, I make my way to the Shop. My original rifle is unfortunately too broken to use so I have to buy a new one and my share of the Loot drop and the Boss fight should cover it I hope.

Ferlix Type II Twinned-Beam Rifle (Modified)

Base Damage: 57

Battery Capacity: 17/17

Recharge rate: 1 per hour per GMU (currently 12)

Yeah, the battery capacity is a bit lower but the base damage is significantly higher. I’ve also been able to salvage the mana battery from the other rifle so I can just swap it out as necessary if I need to. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that of course. As I walk out and straddle Sabre, I sigh as I stare at my Credit balance. Damn world. Credits fly out as fast as I earn them, fixing Sabre, getting new weapons, healing myself, learning new Skills. The list is endless and the only way to earn, at least for me, is to go out and risk my life. Again and again. I draw a deep breath and let it out slowly. Right, what is, is.

“Where’s Richard?” I ask, pulling up a seat next to Lana and Mikito.

“Mmm… with one of his ‘friends’ I believe,” Lana’s lip quirk slightly, waving her hand to the front door. “He’s gotten quite popular as I understand it.”

I nod slightly, recalling the way the majority of his group had been made of women. I guess his increasing Charisma score had certain side benefits. After a moment’s hesitation, I bury myself in dinner, murmuring words of praise to Lana. Conversation quickly devolves to the inanities of life, mostly led by Lana since Mikito and I know what we did.

“The Council sent Jim and his group into the dam today and they swept the area for monsters. They can’t afford to buy it right now, but with some work, they believe they can at least get the emergency release valves set to fully open so that the dam isn’t at threat,” Lana explains and I nod. Huh. I didn’t even realise that was a problem but I’m glad someone looked into it. As a kid runs up to me, I sigh and reach out, pulling a snack sized chocolate from my inventory and hand it to her. She grins, gives me a quick hug and runs off and I find both Lana and Mikito eyeing me.

“Bad,” Mikito points a finger at me and I shrug. Hey, I like chocolates - and the kid probably doesn’t get much in terms of treats these days.

When we finish up, Mikito takes over the dish washing and Lana grabs my arm, pulling me to the backyard. She tosses the remainder bones out where a brief scuffle settles who gets the scraps before she turns to me, waist length red hair swaying above her bottom.

“John, you’re headed out with my brother again tomorrow aren’t you?” Lana says and I nod in confirmation. Her lips purse as she visibly struggles with what to say next, arms crossed underneath her bosom. Eventually, she lets out a little huff, “I can’t stop you. Or him. If I told him no, he’d just go. Just, watch over him, will you? He’s my little brother and he’s, well, he’s stupid.”

I grunt, scratching at my head as she says that and then glance back inside to where Mikito washes the dishes silently, “I’ll try, but…”

“I know. I know it’s not safe. Just be careful, please. He came back without a foot. And Jim, he loses someone every few days. Just yesterday they lost half a hunting party,” Lana says and hugs herself tighter. “I can’t… if I lose him…”

I nod and then after a brief moment’s hesitation I walk over and give her a hug. She is stiff at first and then relaxes into my arms, just letting me hug her as she shivers. I push aside the tightness in my own chest, my own fear and loss for a moment. I can deal with my own issues later.

The next morning, I spot Richard as he drives up with the truck. He whistles and the puppies dash out from the back, looking to start clambering onto the truck bed. Time to go hunting.

“Why am I here again?” I whisper to Richard as I survey the boardroom a few days later. He grimaces and kicks me under the table and I sigh, leaning back. Fine. He’s right.

“We cannot keep adding citizens to our population. As it stands, non-combatant personnel are receiving a daily allocation of 1,400 calories which is significantly below what is recommended and we’ll need to drop that to a 1,000 calories next week once the last of the perishables are used up. Worst, a significant portion of that comes via protein intake as that is our most reliable food source,” Miranda states, leaning forwards and eyeballing both Richard and me. Mikito has run-off, citing the need to continue training new combat classers and she even managed to drag Lana with her this time. That means the two of us have to take the brunt of the meeting. “Until we get our first harvest in, we just don’t have enough vegetables and fruits.”

“Are you saying we should leave them in the wild?” Norman speaks from the corner, peering at Miranda over steepled fingers.

“Well, we can’t take them here,” Miranda states again and adds. “Unless the hunters are willing to give up a larger percentage of their earnings, we just don’t have the resources.”

Jim shakes his head as the other hunters start speaking up behind him, a low-voiced grumble that he cuts off, “We’re already contributing over 30% of our Credits. We need the Credits to get better equipment and better skills.”

“How about the Raven’s Circle and Richard’s group?” Minion adds, staring at Nic and Richard. “As far as I know they don’t contribute to the city at all.”

“That is not true,” Nicodemus rumbles. Even talking softly, it comes out as almost a shout as the half-Giant continues, “We provide 10% of all our earnings. It is smaller in percentage, but as we fight more powerful enemies, in total the Circle provide more Credits than any other group.”

“And we spend every other day currently training up your combat classers so that they can gain some levels and become useful,” Richard adds, tapping his fingers on the ground. “We’ve already had one full hunting party graduate and they now add to the food supply and Credits.”

“Yet you don’t supply the city with any Credits at all,” Minion presses.

“We need that money to upgrade ourselves! You’ve requested that the Circle and us hunt down the Bosses, how the hell are we supposed to do that without better equipment?” Richard states, glaring at him. “The last time we met one, we nearly died. You can’t expect us to fight, train your people and look for others while giving up all our Credits. The Circle doesn’t do any training at all!”

“That’s because we are busy hunting the Boss monsters,” snaps Nicodemus. “We aren’t waiting to level up like you guys.”

Fred speaks up, looking from group to group, “Please, let’s not get personal. We are all here to work together for the City.” As the participants all settle down, he adds. “Now, I know we are asking a lot from our premier parties, but as Miranda has stated, we desperately need more food. A 1,000 Calories is insufficient. We are here to work together on this matter.”

“How about asking Roxley?” I ask. I can feel my stomach clench at the idea of reducing food to the population even more. As it stands, those of us who have combat classes and are fighting are already looking significantly healthier than the general populace. I can just imagine what it’d be like if we had to put them on starvation diets and the kind of unrest it would cause.

“Well…” Fred pauses, looking around.

“Why would he help?” says Minion and I see a few heads nod.

“Well, for one thing, he’s taxing anything we buy in the Shop right now. If there’s a tax, there should be services,” I say and then shrug. “He’s also not going to want us to starve to death.”

“I don’t like it,” mutters one of the councilors, a pinched face portly gentlemen. “He’s an interloper.”

“He’s taxing us already whether or not you like it. We should be talking to him about this, not excluding him from these meetings,” I shoot back, glaring at them.

“That would give his government legitimacy,” Minion snaps and shakes his head. “We won’t do it.”

“Then people will starve,” I say, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

Voices rise again, some people calling for us to talk to Roxley, others like Minion refusing to do so. In the end, Fred has to hammer his hand on the table repeatedly to get us to shut up. “Enough. Mr. Lee has put forward that we speak with Lord Roxley about the food situation. Do we have a seconder?”

Richard backs me up quickly but we lose the vote and I growl, shaking my head. Idiots. The fight starts again about how we’re going to fund the purchase of additional foodstuff from the Shop, everyone refusing to give up a little bit of the pie.

I fall silent, watching as Fred wheedles, cajoles and pleads with everyone, finally getting the Circle to agree to help out with training and reducing the time we spend training to twice a week. It’ll give us more time to hunt and earn money, but that means we take a 10% contribution. I’m still not happy about this, but what can you do? Until the local economy recovers, we’re reliant on the System to provide the carbohydrates and vegetables needed for survival.

Once that particular fight is over, another one begins as the argument about what next to buy in terms of buildings. I grunt, shaking my head and sink further into the chair. This part I really hate and I so only pay partial attention, letting the arguments wash over me.

“John?” Richard says again and I blink, realizing I’ve been zoned out for a while. He sighs, shaking his head and stands up and I realize we’re nearly alone. Everyone else has left and I grunt, standing with him. “You know, you really should pay more attention.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say and wave my hands. “It’s all bullshit really. They need to be talking to Roxley.”

“I know John, but you got to admit, it sticks in the craw that he’s the Lord of the city just because he bought it from the System,” Richard points out as we walk out of the school boardroom.

I nod at his words, letting my eyes wander over the inhabitants of the school and trying not to wrinkle my nose too much. Washing in the river is both dangerous and cold and so few people go down often enough and with so many crowded into the hallways, the smell lingers. As we walk through the hallways, we attract quite a bit of whispered attention. More than one woman shoots Richard an admiring glance, flashing smiles at him that he returns.

“Richard,” a young lady, probably no more than 18 and wearing a pair of tight pants comes up to him, placing a hand on his chest. “Will you be coming by tonight? Or I can come over…”

“Tonight? I’m ummm… busy,” Richard says as he stops.

“That’s okay, I’m willing to share,” she smiles at him again and then runs a hand through her hair. “I can meet you at your house…”

Richard looks at her for a moment, eyes raking her body and then he nods jerkily, “Sure…” She grins, going on tiptoes and kissing him on the lips before dropping down and moving away. Richard stares at her sway away before looking at me and my raised eyebrow. “Hey, it’s the end of the world. And she’s… nice.”

“Uh huh,” I mutter and wave him on.

He chuckles, looking at me and shakes his head, “If you didn’t glower at everyone all the time, you might have some better luck.”

“No time Richard,” I mutter, waving out. “We’ve got monsters to kill, skills to train and people to help.”

“Still no reason not to have fun,” Richard says.

I just grunt in answer. He’s right and yet, the idea of engaging in those kinds of conversations, of talking to someone and building a connection, of even just having those kinds of interactions makes me twitch. I just don’t have the energy or desire to do so, not right now. Sex might be nice, but there’s so much to do. Maybe later, when I have time.

As we exit the school, we glance around. No Mikito yet, so we’re on our own. Richard grins slightly at that, waving goodbye to me to work his emotions out. I watch him leave and watch again as he’s surrounded in moments by others and I shake my head. Well, he’s got his own thing to do.

I’ve got monsters to hunt. I’ve wasted enough hours listening to inane chatter. Time to go do something useful, work out some anger and some of this energy. I still need more Credits, especially if I want to buy some of the things I’ve been eyeing. I send a mental call for Ali, pulling him back from wherever he is and getting on Sabre. Perhaps I’ll try the area around Fox Lake today.

“Down!” I shout, bringing my rifle to bear. Mikito ducks, giving me the opening I am looking for and I open up, tearing a hole in the lizard creature she is fighting. She stands up, spinning the naginata as she does to get momentum and slams the blade into the creatures side, opening another wound and moving forwards to target their leader. I move to the left, breaking from the circle in hopes of getting a shot. To my side, three of the puppies are nipping at the creature that Richard glued to the ground, tearing into its legs as Richard unloads shot after shot into the lizardman.

“Right boy-o,” snaps Ali and I duck and spin, bringing my rifle to target the third lizardman that rises from the ground, snarling at me. I blast it in its face and watch the creature stagger back before I put one last shot into it and wince as a notification shows that I’ve got 2 shots left.

“Left!” Ali shouts and I spin, calling my sword into being and letting the creature run itself onto it. My momentum lets me tear the sword halfway through it before I finish and then I boot the dying lizardman away, making the sword disappear as I let it go and grab my rifle looking for more trouble.

Even before I can bring my rifle to bear, a pair of dogs tear into the last remaining lizardman that has shown itself and I breathe a sigh of relief. I look around, breathing fast and as always, glad that the helmet filters the smells of combat away from me and find nothing.

“We’re good!” Richard calls out and I let out a low exhalation as Mikito relaxes too, bending down to begin looting. As an official party, we don’t have assigned bodies to loot so Mikito and I just loot everything while Richard and his puppies keep watch.

“Damn invaders,” Richard mutters staring at the lizards. I can’t help but wonder if they were sentient like the Ogres. If they had come on purpose or were just caught up in the transfer. Perhaps they were here because they had sold themselves to the System like Ali. The System was unforgiving in such cases but it always had a use for you.

Once we finish, we get moving again with Richard driving and Mikito in the back while I range ahead. We’re headed to one of the smaller communities today, hoping to find some survivors. I don’t hold much hope for that but we’ve got to try.

An hour later we finally reach the series of rundown houses that make up this community. I look around, at the shattered doors and windows and even one torn down wall and I shake my head slightly. Small communities are hardest hit - too remote to make it to Whitehorse by foot, too few to mount a proper defense against larger predators, no access to the Shop. This is the third community we’ve visited in the last week and once again, it looks like no one is around.

Richard whistles and the puppies move out, searching while Ali turns around, scanning. If there are living humans around, they most likely learnt a Stealth ability of some form which means Ali’s System scanning might not bring them up. Thus the puppies.

They spread out and after a few minutes, the black Husky called Shadow barks. I blink, swinging my head in the direction of the noise. It only takes a few moments for Richard to discern what is going on and then we are moving, weapons drawn and on foot to follow the puppy into the forest. Looks like we might actually find someone.

Two hours of pushing through the forest and one brief encounter later, we are halfway up a mountain and coming close to a stream. I frown, tilting my head to the side as I catch a whiff of something and one of the puppies is barking at it. A brief investigation indicates that humans are living around here and they need more fibre in their diet.

Our first indication that something is out there is the voice, calling out to us. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

We freeze and look around, Mikito crouching low as the puppies let out a low snarl. They hold though at Richard’s command and after a moment I spot the barrel of the rifle poking out at us and the head of the man behind it. Balding, white and squinting at us, the weapon he’s using is probably a .56 calibre.

“Easy there friend,” Richard calls out behind me and I can hear the smile in his voice. “We’re not here to harm you. We’re actually here to bring you to Whitehorse where everyone’s gathering and it’s safer.”

“I ain’t trusting you,” the man waggles the rifle barrel again. Even as he speaks, Ali darts past him into the cave, invisible to the naked eye. “You guys just get going. I’m fine here.”

“Well, we won’t force you. But perhaps you can ask your friends?,” Richard continues behind me and I mentally sigh. Yeah, he’s not the only holdout we’ve run into - people who are too distrustful, too scared to come. We can’t force them, but sometimes, I 'think we should.

“Ain’t no one else here. Now you best get going, you’re drawing attention,” the man answers again curtly.

“John, he’s not alone. There’s a pair of women in here and a couple of children. You better get in here,” Ali sends to me and I frown beneath my helmet.

I step forward, hands held out to my side, “Look, we got it. We do have some food to spare though, so if you let me just drop it off, we’ll be on our way. Got some ready meals that you could use and even some chocolate.”

I can see Mikito tense at that, crouching lower as she eyes the rifle. Richard behind me falls silent, watching me walk forward even as the gun barks and a stone shatters next to me.

“I said stop!” the voice goes higher, sounding a bit more panicked.

“Yeah, sorry, sorry. Thought I’d make it easier for you. One second,” I bend down, pulling some of my ready-meals from my inventory and placing them on the ground. “Here, just going to grab the chocolate…” I mutter and as I see him relax slightly, I move.

Before the System, I hated running. I was never good at it and my knee always ached when I ran on pavement. Too short, too slow, too untrained to really be good at it. Now though, now I could move. I cover the forty feet that separates us in less than a blink, his reflexive shot missing me. He doesn’t get a second as I grab the rifle, pulling it aside and then grab him, lifting him from the concealed entrance with one hand. He gurgles as I hold him up by one hand, and as he tries to kick me, I slam him into the cliff and make my sword appear in my hand, holding it against his neck.

“Mikito, Richard. He’s not alone. Check the cave,” I bark, staring at him. I idly slap his hand aside as he attempts to go for the knife at his side. “Stop it.”

I keep an eye on the man and the surroundings idly while the noise of the two moving into the cave ahead of me comes. After a moment, Richard starts cursing and then cuts himself off. I blink, frowning and then Ali comes floating back up to me.

“What’s going on Ali?” I ask the Spirit.

“Goblin-shit here thought to play king of the mountain. Unfortunately, it looks like his subjects didn’t agree and he’s been, well, lording it over them,” Ali spits to the side as he glares at the man. The man in turns looks at me speaking to thin air and his eyes widen further.

“Do I want details?” I say softly, a tightness in my stomach.

“No,” Ali says and I nod. I look at the man, considering if I should kill him now or leave it for his subjects…

Mikito walks out, looks to me and then without a word flicks her naginata at the man. It catches just above my arm, slicing through the lower half of his jaw. I reflexively jerk and then throw the man away, glaring at her as I shake the blood off. She doesn’t even spot me doing so as she’s headed back in.

“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 insists 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.

Pulling up to the building that the City Council has taken over right opposite Roxley’s building, I watch as Mikito and Richard clamber out of the truck. Rachel shakes her head, detouring to spend some time window-shopping at the Shop as she’s not invited, already pulling a cigarette from her pocket. From the number of vehicles outside, it looks like we’re one of the last to arrive. Luckily, most people aren’t that particularly bothered by things like that anymore – after all, most time-keeping devices have gone on a fritz. Inside, we move to our customary seats and I put my feet on the board table, half-closing my eyes as Richard and Mikito move to mingle. Even hindered by her incomplete English, Mikito’s still more of a social butterfly than I am.

Underneath half-lidded eyes, I read lips, flicking from conversation to conversation as I dismiss idle gossip and pleasantries, my lips twisting in a half-smile. Yeah, I might not want to be here but there’s no reason I can’t learn something. This time around, I learn nothing of import before Fred and his entourage enters to bring the meeting to order.

“In conclusion, food stores continue to hover at the 2-day mark. While the hunters have been able to bring in higher number of animals due to their level increases, many of these animals are not as suitable for mass cooking. As per the Council’s decision, we have canned and stored a fifth of the most recent harvest which will provide a small vegetable surplus during the winter months but our projections show that we will need to purchase a minimum of 8,000 Credits worth of supplements. I again must request that the Council earmark these funds,” Battleaxe – Miranda Lafollet pronounces.

Fred thanks her for her presentation, pushing her request to another budget specific meeting while we continue the updates. The next by Minion is shorter as he’s not only purchased the ability to but spent the time learning, how to manipulate the System screens to send information direct to us. He instead just highlights the information we need on the buildings. I tune him out and not just because he’s nasally – I have learnt most of this in much more detail speaking with Roxley directly. We’ve purchased just over 30% of the land in Whitehorse as a group, with the parks-gardens and the community gardens taking up a major portion of that.

“Once again, I must insist that we purchase and upgrade the dam. We’ve been inspecting the dam for potential failures and while the spillway and emergency releases continue to function as designed, the potential for damage is significant. In addition, purchasing the mana engine and upgrades required would provide us a consistent energy source which will be important during the winter,” Minion concludes and I have to admit, he has a point.

Nic taps at his screen for a moment and then with a frustrated sigh, swipes it away and leans forward, “For those of us who weren’t here, how much is that going to set us back?”

“350,000 Credits,” drawls one of the other councilors – Norman Blockwell. He doesn’t speak often, but when he does, most people listen. Nic chokes at the number, eyes widening further as Norman continues, “Just for the structure.”

Fred raps his hand on the table, stopping any further discussion and nods to Jim. Jim stands, looks around and says, “We’ve got nearly three hundred hunters now, about half of them on rotating guard duty. Roxley has half of those on his payroll keeping an eye on the roadways. Two thirds of my group are in the low-teens in levels, the rest below that except for my three strike groups who are above level 20. ‘Course that doesn’t include the Circle, John’s Group or the Brothers of the Wolf.”

The Brother’s grin and I swear, the two kids who represent them almost look like they are about to howl. Kid is the right term too since the entire group is in their late teens. I’m both extremely proud of the kids and rather perturbed at their inclusion – they are our first true success of the babysitting program but they are still kids. They’ve been throwing every Credit they’ve made into upgrading their equipment and themselves which didn’t sit well with Fred. So, he got them to contribute to the city by bribing them with a seat on the table.

The conversation drones on, going on about less important to me subjects. Non-combat characters are working on their levels and skills quite well and the stuff they’ve been producing has actually started getting good enough that our combat classers will actually use them directly. It’s helping to keep some of the Credits we make in the local economy.

I tap my fingers on the table, trying to distract myself as they drone on and on. Fuck, but I hate this shit.

“And that is everything on the agenda,” Fred smiles at all of us. “Great job everybody.”

Thank god…

“The Raven’s Circle would like to bring an expedition to Dawson City to the table again,” Luthien speaks, flashing a smile at everyone at the table and I do my best to suppress a groan. An elbow by Richard to my side tells me I am not as successful as I thought. “Dawson City is the most likely location in the Yukon for a large group of survivors. We have abandoned them without access to the Shop for over a month now. There have been no supplies, no survivors who have traveled from there. If we are to help them, it has to be soon.”

Luthien leans forward, her voice urgent with need, “The Circle is willing to risk the journey, but we can’t do it alone. We need more volunteers, more supplies, more help. Are you willing to abandon them to their fate?”

When she finishes, the room erupts in discussion. I groan, burying my head in my hands as everyone has something to say. Fuck me sideways, we’re not getting out of this room for hours.

My guess is just about correct as it’s well past lunch before we finally exit the room. The Council is deadlocked, our resources spread thin but the call of a rescue tugging at heart strings. I let Richard do the talking for us since my history with Luthien is well-known by now. Better to keep out of it, since we strongly oppose the idea. It’s a 7-hour drive to Dawson City pre-System on a good-day and there aren’t any good days anymore.

We find Rachel sitting on the bed of her truck, working on a spell while waiting with one hand, an unlit cigarette in the other. Mikito, who snuck out the moment the Dawson City discussion broke out, is going through forms next to her. I pull a liquid meal from my inventory as I walk up, waving to our waiting passengers as I eat a quick lunch. Richard makes a face as he sees what I’m doing but does the same, rapping on the truck to get Rachel’s attention. Where there’s space, the trucks are loaded with non-System supplies, mostly excess food and clothing though the vast majority of the supply run lie in the body of the passengers that join us. Using the System’s trans-dimensional inventory option makes supplying the town significantly simpler than before. No more giant trucks making daily trips. Of course, it comes with the added danger of losing all the inventory stored if the individual dies which is why they hire us.

“Constable,” I nod to Gadsby who is engrossed in his conversation with fellow ex-RCMP member Amelia. Gadsby has gone down the cybernetic route, a chrome left arm replacing a damaged limb rather than regenerating it and I have to admit, the look suits him. As I come close, they fall silent though what I lipread is intriguing.

“... not just me, Fred tried to Kevin and at last three others.”

Gadsby smiles at me, offering his hand as I straddle Sabre. Outside of the party, I’ve been able to keep her full abilities a secret, at least as far as I know. You never know when having your personal mecha in your back-pocket would be useful. “Good to have you on this run. Something was moving around Archer Lane, something about 30 feet long and blue. Looked like a weird lizard, snake hybrid with a horn coming out of its head. Gave us the shivers from the glimpses we saw.”

I glance over to my team, Richard is already in the driver’s seat and Mikito has taken her preferred place in the back with the huskies and his most recent acquisition, a foot-long pet turtle. Yeah, someone’s pet turtle mutated and now breathes fire and Richard just had to tame it when we found it on one of our rescue runs. In the other truck, Rachel sits behind the wheel as one of Gadsby’s men climbs in to play shotgun.

“We can handle it,” I assure him and roll my neck in my helmet. I touch the radio for a moment and speak to everyone, “Usual routine everybody. I’ll ride ahead, Richard you’re next, then the trucks from Carcross. Rachel, you bring up the rear. We run when we can, we fight when we have to. I make the calls. Ali’s in charge if I can’t, then Mikito, Richard, Gadsby and Rachel. If we’re all dead, the rest of you are fucked.”

“Real inspiring boy-o,” smirks Ali as he spins next to me in all his 2-foot glory. He gets a few snorts of laughter at his comments which of course makes him preen. Unfortunately, a side-effect of my increased levels is Ali’s growing ability to interact with the world. He can stay visible without effort now and with a push, even physically effect the world. He’s also got very, very limited access to his Affinity, which thus far he’s mostly been using to play practical jokes with. Making a person blind after they get hit on the head in the middle of the fight is not funny, no matter how hard you laugh. Asshole.

Once I get everyone’s acknowledgement, we roll out.

The trip to Carcross is pretty quiet at first. Regular hunting by Jim’s teams have reduced the number of hostile monsters near the city significantly, so for the first thirty minutes, the drive is almost peaceful. When we hit the Cutoff, we make the customary stop-off at the fort to switch control around to give his people a little experience boost before I take it back.

The Hakarta – a race of mercenary space orcs - are still an anomaly, their original presence at the Cutoff a strange blip in the radar. It’s just another thing to worry about, but since no one has attempted to take the Cutoff by force in the month I’ve had control of it, it’s a concern for another day. Experience farming completed, I depart first to scout ahead. It’s a ten-minute drive to where Gadsby’s spotted his monster and I intend to take it slow.

Gadsby is correct, there is something in the woods. He was incorrect on the number though, there being a couple. I’m a good 300 hundred yards distant, watching them through the scope in my helmet as they move around in a dip in the road. Considering the creatures have managed to fell power lines across the road in the time since Gadsby has come through, I can’t decide if they are either sentient or just lucky.

Xu’dwg’hkkk Beast (Level 44)

HP: 2380/2380

Behind me, I can hear Richard pulling to a stop, the rest of the convoy a little further back. Mikito hops off the back the moment the truck stops, that disturbing smile already making an appearance. Her naginata levels against one and I nod absently, exhaling as I pull the trigger of my rifle. The flash and hit happen almost instantaneously, my target shrugging the beam off without seeming to be injured. I trigger another shot soon after with the same pitiful results but this time, I notice the way the energy seems to disperse around the skin, concentrating on the horn.

Shit. I throw myself aside a second before the creature returns fire, the shot disappearing off into the horizon due to the slight upward angle the creature has to shoot from. I drop the rifle into my inventory with practised ease and start running to the side of the road, looking to split the two creatures attention and take it away from Sabre. Fighting without her in mecha mode always sucks but I’m pretty sure we can handle it.

Richard spots the difficulty almost immediately and lets out a whistle, signaling Bella, Max and Shadow, the huskies to join the fray even as the turtle – Elsa - trundles off the truck. I doubt Elsa is going to make it there in time, but she always tries. She’s our heavy hitter if something charges us, though we do our best to ensure she isn’t needed.

Bella and Shadow are clad in newly made bone-armor taken from a loot drop picked up by the Brothers. The entire armoring project is where Richard’s funds have been focused in the last month. The bones have been shaped to fit the dogs, covering their body and the crown of their heads, gleaming a dull red. Whatever creature it was that the Brothers of the Wolf killed, it must have been a tough fight as the bones themselves are harder than steel but significantly lighter pound for pound.

Mikito is running at an angle to her target so that it can’t get a good shot, occasionally switching directions. The moment it gets within fifty yards, Mikito changes direction again and sprints directly to it, activating her latest ability. A flicker of fire engulfs her and she accelerates, a fiery homing missile that slams into the creature at an angle and staggers it. She doesn’t stop though, unleashing a flurry of blows with another skill that she calls the Thousand Cuts.

I don’t have time to pay attention to her fight anymore since my opponent has charged up its horn again, using the leftover energy to send another sizzling blast to strike at me. This time, I don’t get out of the way completely and catch a touch of it on my leg, causing muscles to clench in agony. I hit the ground and roll, crouched over with a hand splayed before me as the monster charges me with intent to gore.

A screech is all the creature has time to hear before Orel lands, smashing into the monster at an angle, throwing the creature’s momentum entirely off even as claws dig into eyes. The Huskies arrive moments later, tearing into flesh and bone as the monster is distracted. Thankfully, the puppies haven’t grown larger, though the constant hunting and leveling has given them new gifts. Bella bites and rips, her jaws encased in a metal that crushes through the monster’s thick hide like it’s nothing. Next to her, Max blurs as he jumps back to avoid a clawed foot, moving so fast that for a brief second, he almost seems to be in two places at once. Shadow is most disturbing of all, as its very shadow joins in on the attack, tearing into the monster’s body and gulping down raw flesh into its dark throat. Leg recovered, I run in to join the fight, though really, I’m superfluous.

By the time Richard’s animals and I are done killing our oversized lizard, Mikito is finished with hers and is cleaning her naginata, all calm and collected. I shake my head at that sight, once again deeply thankful she is on our side. I’m a jack-of-all trades with the ability to take a ton of punishment but she’s just death on her feet if she can reach you.

We loot the body quickly but Ali warns us against eating the creature, one of the rare cases where eating it would be bad for us. I somehow don’t think his advice include Shadow’s shadow. We shove the bodies aside and clear the road to complete the quest in Carcross. The town is as busy as it always is, walls fully built and reinforced with carefully spaced lookouts and gun posts. Inside, children play in the streets under the idle supervision of teenagers as the entire town is now a safe zone. You can guess how happy that made Roxley and the City Council in Whitehorse to learn especially when people started asking to be moved there.

As we get ready to turn around after depositing the supplies, Elder Badger comes out. “John. We need a word.”

Seated around another board room table with the ubiquitous bowls of meat stew and bannock, we listen to the scout’s report on his findings. The room is now filled with maps, colour coded with various pins stuck through them and a giant white board with projects outlined. I glance at the maps, smiling slightly as I realise they are keeping track of which houses and subdivisions they’ve raided.

“Ali,” I shoot a look over at my Spirit when the scout runs dry, waiting for his assessment.

“No idea boss,” Ali states. “The way he reports it, it’s probably a monster lair that hasn’t become a dungeon yet. Leave it alone long enough though and it’ll become a full dungeon.”

There’s more than one stifled groan, Gadsby’s face drawing in a grim line.

“Ali, care to give more details on Dungeons? The notes I have are rather short – ‘Don’t. Just don’t’ isn’t particularly useful,” I prod my Spirit for more information.

“That’s a pretty sound advice there boy-o,” Ali points out before he flashes a pair of fingers up, “There are two kinds of dungeons really. You’ve got the natural ones – places where monsters congregate or just mutate into because of the extremely high mana density. That’s what it sounds like the scout find. The Canada Games Centre would be such a place if those Circle members didn’t go into farm it so often. They’re the easiest to deal with, normally the monsters aren’t significantly more dangerous than the surrounding zone. Of course, if you leave them alone long enough, the monsters get more powerful and the mana itself will warp the space. Always better to deal with them before they become full dungeons.

“The second are temporary dungeons. Those are dimensional holes in space connecting two high mana areas together. Those generally aren’t very stable, and don’t always lead to dungeons. However, since most high mana hot spots are in existing dungeons, it’s a pretty good bet it’s a dungeon behind the glowing blue portal of doom. Most smart people don’t go in to those – since the locations are random, you never know what you’ll find. Of course, that means there are about a hundred or so Guilds dedicated to finding and jumping down those rabbit holes,” Ali spins a finger next to his head as he speaks before continuing. “Either way, temporary dungeons are bad because they start warping the areas around them as they shift the mana flows around both locations significantly.”

“Lastly, you have the System created ones. You know how your entire world is a dumping ground for mana for the galaxy? Well, on a smaller scale, System created dungeons in a city work the same. Mana is drawn out from the surroundings and focused into the dungeon, forcefully speeding up mutations and breeding in the dungeon and creating occasional rifts. That reduces the total mana flow in the city though which means that zones around the city lower too, eventually forcing bigger monsters out. System created dungeons are weird. Since most dungeon owners are too frigging lazy to manage the day-to-day operations, they purchase dungeon cores to handle it and those cores, well, they make some truly insane decisions sometimes.”

“You said two,” Jason points out.

“Bite me pimple face,” Ali retorts.

“Children!” Jason’s mum barks and the two fall silent, though not before Ali sticks his tongue out.

“John, I hate to ask this of you…” Andrea Badger starts and I look over at the old lady, actually look at her for once. She’s tired, so very tired and even with the rejuvenating properties of the System, she’s old.

Quest Received – Clear the Caves

Clear the caves found by the scout and report back to the Council of Carcross.

Rewards: 10,000XP

I look at her and then at the group, getting nods of confirmation from everyone. Including Jason who isn’t included and isn’t going to be considering the look his mum is giving me. It’s one thing to take the kid out for a stroll in the woods, another into an untested cave location against unknown monsters. I’m not that irresponsible.

Also, his mum scares me.

At night, we break up to catch some rest. Orel is sent off with a note to let Lana know that we’re staying the night and we quickly set-up a large tent to crash in our usual spot near the river. The eagle disturbs me - nothing outwardly has changed but I could swear it’s getting smarter.

It’s not our first night away from Whitehorse and the System purchased camping gear is much more convenient than anything we ever had as humans. Touch a button, you get a tent large enough to fit 6 normal sized humans or in our case, 4 humans and a turtle. The tent comes with internal heating controls, a humidifier and lighting.

The girls kick us out to get changed first and Richard and I manage to catch a few minutes alone. All around us, the town is quieting down as people get ready to sleep. In one stubborn corner of the camp, a small band entertains a few stragglers but overall, most people are turning in. There might still be light in the Yukon at midnight, but most still need their eight hours sleep.