Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG

Miranda nods calmly while Eric sneers at Ali. I let my gaze roam around the room, gauging the mood and seeing that while the people might still be quiet and terrified, they look more thoughtful now too. Maybe, just maybe, what I’ve said has done some good. After confirming there’s nothing more they want with me, I leave on that thought.

That, and the knowledge that unless we figure out an actual, workable plan, we’re arsed anyway. It’s one thing to say we shouldn’t give in, and another to watch your friends die one by one.

Two days later, I’m finishing up my breakfast when a knock resounds off my door. Standing in the doorway is Vir, trying to look stern and implacable as always. However, I’ve spent enough time around him and his kind to read the lines of tension in his body and the wrinkles near his eyes.

“John, your presence is required.” Vir says.

I nod. I glance around the room, noting that there’s nothing for me to grab, and follow him out. In short order, he’s led me up Main St. to the City Center. Interestingly enough, Lana’s pets are seated outside the City Center, giving hint of what is to come.

Lana and Mikito are with Roxley in his offices, tension radiating from everyone. Behind the seated Lana is Amelia, one arm casually resting on the butt of her gun and looking thoroughly displeased.

“What’s going on?” I send to Ali, who grunts.

“I’m asking,” Ali says. “Doesn’t look good, does it?”

I repeat the question aloud while waiting for Ali’s answer.

Roxley’s face grows tighter for a moment before he replies. “Ms. Pearson has betrayed us.” He continues, cutting me off before I can. “As you know, she is a major landowner in town. As I got ready this morning, I was alerted to a sudden drop in the stability of the city’s Mana flows. It seems Ms. Pearson sold her buildings back to the System.”

“Lana?” I ask her, shocked by the news. “Why?”

“I needed the Credits,” Lana says, not daring to meet my eyes.

“So she has stated. However, the sale of System-owned lands back to the System is significantly lower than a resale to another individual,” Roxley says.

I remember that now, having sold the Key to Haines Junction to the System myself. It was a cents-on-the-dollar kind of thing.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” I look at Lana, hoping she has an explanation.

Lana sits there in silence before she looks up, defiance in her eyes. “I had a contract with the Envoy. If I sold my land to the System, they would give me the full purchase price for it and twenty percent of its worth and I got to keep what I received from the System too.”

I closed my eyes. So. She did betray us. “What percentage are we at?”

“66%”

“And before?”

“We lost 7% through her sale. We lost another 6% from others.”

“She’s not the only one,” I state, meeting Roxley’s eyes, and he slowly nods.

“They approached most others who had residences in Riverdale and made the same offer,” Vir explains.

“So why is Lana being singled out here?” I ask pointedly.

“Ms. Pearson was the single largest landowner who took advantage of the offer. And through her control of your foundation, she might be able to affect us by another eleven percent,” Vir says.

I frown, staring at Lana before I speak slowly. “Are you Contracted to sell the foundation assets?”

“No!” Lana snaps. Amelia behind her stirs a bit then stills when Lana doesn’t make any threatening moves. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“But you would sell your land, knowing what it means for the city,” Roxley says, his voice filled with disapproval.

“It’s my land,” Lana states again.

“You could have sold it to me. Or anyone else,” Roxley said. “Instead, you destroyed our ability to become a Town.”

“Lana, why did you need the Credits?” Mikito asks.

Roxley stays silent, his jaw flexing as he works through his emotions. Lana shuts her mouth, refusing to say.

“Ms. Pearson, your reluctance to answer is not helping your case,” Vir grates out while Lana’s lips tighten.

“I think I can help…” Ali sends to me. I’m surprised. He normally just jumps in, but for once, he’s hesitant.

“Go ahead. Can’t make it worse.”

“Har!” Ali floats down to her. “Lana. I know what you’re trying to buy. I can say it or you can. Truthfully, it’ll sound less crazy coming from you.”

Okay. Maybe I was wrong. Lana stares at Ali, her lip curling upward in disdain, but she stays silent.

“Lana was looking over the details for resurrection in the Shop, searching for a way to bring Richard back. She hit upon the Frinkzin Replicas,” Ali says.

His words draw indrawn breaths from Vir and Roxley.

“Can the System bring people back to life?” I frown, not entirely sure how I feel about that idea. It seems impossible, but so much of our lives are impossible that I can’t discount it entirely. For a moment, hope blossoms in my heart and I move to squelch it—there’s always a price for things like that.

“Sorry, boy-o. Dead is dead,” Ali says. “Frinkzin Replicas are one of many attempts to get around that. Not the worst, since Richard’s rotten enough that I guess Lana decided against the reanimation option. The Replicas pull data from the System and upload it to an artificially created body.”

“Oh my God, Lana!” Amelia gasps while Mikito looks ashen, staring at Lana in horror.

“You don’t…”

“Don’t you dare. This, this will bring him back.” Lana’s voice grows shrill as her nose flares. “I’ll bring him back and we’ll be… we’ll be fine.”

“Not so much, toots. Frinkzin Replicas aren’t the people who left. Even individuals who lived their whole lives in the System aren’t made properly. Aren’t made right. The System can only register actions. Words. Events. It doesn’t understand, doesn’t record motivations, reasons, choices,” Ali says. “The monsters that came out of the Replica creation—and they were almost all monsters—were what got it banned.”

“Richard’s no monster!” Lana snaps, her fist closing.

“No. But his Replica would be. Think, Lana. What does the System know? That he owned pets. That he used them to kill monsters. That he hunted and let the pets eat their kills. That he chose to fight instead of running,” Ali states. “Our lives, your lives, in the System, it’s all about death and fighting and leveling. The monsters that come out of the process—that’s all they do. They can’t, won’t, care. They just kill and level and often don’t make a distinction.”

Lana shakes her head, refusing to listen to Ali. He growls, floating upward while Roxley and Vir trade glances again.

Finally Roxley steps forward and squats next to Lana. “The Tuinnar have many experiences with the resurrected. With those who would bring back the dead. We live for hundreds of years with the System, but that is often not enough.” Roxley pauses, his hand opening and closing unconsciously. “Four hundred fifteen years ago, we fought a war across all our holdings because a son could not give up his mother. The Tuinnar no longer allow the dead to be raised, in any form or visage. Only grief comes with their resurrection.”

“I don’t care. I just want him back,” Lana says, fingers digging into her arms. The sharp smell of blood cuts through the air, bitter iron on our tongues.

“Perhaps, but who will you sacrifice for that?” Unlike the rest of us, Vir’s voice is hard, caustic. “Will you let him kill Mikito? Andrea? The children? Who are you willing to sacrifice for your selfish desires?”

“I won’t let him do that,” Lana says bitingly.

“Will you kill him then? Frinkzin Replicas are notorious for lacking a sense of self-preservation. Once they begin, they will not retreat,” Vir says. “You will have to choose: an innocent or your ‘brother.’”

“Stop it!” Lana shouts at Vir, standing up swiftly and glaring at the Tuinnar. “Just stop it.”

“Or will you let us kill him? Because I guarantee you, Lord Roxley and I will not see such a creature in our city.”

“I won’t let you kill it. Him,” Lana says, correcting herself almost immediately. Yet I can see the way her eyes dart from side to side, the increased respiration and the white-knuckled grip as her careful control gets pushed further.

“You were right the first time,” Ali says. “We Spirits don’t really get into this entire soul business, but calling a replica soulless would be pretty damn accurate.”

Again, silence. I gritted my teeth, before I spoke again. “Lana, think of Richard. Do you really think he’d want you to bring him back and hurt those he loved. You? Mikito? His children? Think about how much damage you’ve done already, doing this.”

“Enough!” Lana says, her voice breaking. “I just… I just want my brother back. I don’t want to be alone anymore.” The last is said barely above a whisper.

Mikito pushes forward until she’s in front of Lana, then she enfolds the larger woman in her embrace. The tiny Asian murmurs something in Japanese, words that no one else understands, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because it’s her tones, her presence that makes the difference. Lana finally breaks down, harsh sobs erupting from her throat as she holds on to Mikito.

I watch this, a lump in my throat, and I curse myself. I missed it, missed the depth of Lana’s pain, of her need. I missed it not because I wasn’t looking but because I wasn’t willing to confront her about it. To push it. And now, we’re here. All I can do is watch, unshed tears burning my eyes as I wait.

In time, Lana stops crying and pulls herself together. Mikito pushes away, and Amelia hands them tissues. There are a few quick, slightly embarrassed smiles before I find myself fixed with glares by all three women.

“What?” I say, blinking.

“Idiot.”

“Baka.”

“Oh, John…”

“What?” I state again.

“Redeemer, you are hopeless. Handsome, but hopeless.” Roxley sighs, coming back from the corner where he and Vir have been working quietly while waiting for the group to get themselves sorted.

“That’s my boy-o.”

“Ms. Pearson, am I to believe that you have given up on your plans?” Roxley says.

Lana slowly nods. I stare at her, wondering if we can believe her. It’s strange—I’ve never asked her what she believes in for the afterlife. Yet her choices here are insane, more so when you consider the fact that she might have believed in souls. Grief makes us do stupid things, and from experience, it takes more than just a single crying session to get over it. It’s unlikely she’ll do it and I hate to doubt her, but…

“Ali…”

“I know. I’ll keep an eye out for purchases.”

“Good. I must admit, I would feel more comfortable if you did not have access to the foundation and its resources,” Roxley says before his shoulders slump. “It does not matter that much, I guess. We will not be able to meet the requirement in time. Not now.”

Lana winces, opens her mouth, then shuts it before she adds, softly, “I’m sorry. I’ll give up control of the foundation if you want. I can’t even buy any more land, not in Whitehorse. It was one of the stipulations.”

“That’s it then? They’ve won?” Amelia cuts in, glaring at all of us.

“What can we do?” Roxley says, shaking his head. “The taxes on my lands are coming due and I have not the funds for them. Even if I sold all my gear and released my guard, I cannot cover both the taxes and the shortfall in land. And if we somehow miraculously managed to become a Town, we would have no defense against Labashi and his people.”

Of course, that elicits a quick discussion of people asking what taxes and lands he’s talking about. It doesn’t take long, but at the end, everyone is depressed with the realization that they’re coming for us every way they can.

“And you’re going to give up?” Amelia says, leaning forward and glaring at us with fists on ample hips. For a moment, I’m back in grade school, being told off by Ms. France for sticking another eraser up my nose.

“We are not giving up. We will do our best, but we cannot win on this path,” Vir says, a hand held out placatingly to Amelia.

“Then change the path!” Amelia says.

“We’re trying. Lord Roxley and I have attempted to contact our allies for aid and Credits to no avail. We have begun to speak to less savory organizations as well. We are trying,” Vir states while Roxley’s lips twist.

Mikito is crouched next to Lana, who has retaken her seat, a hand on her knee while the redhead looks guilty.

“Your liege, he raised your taxes knowing you could not pay it?” Mikito says slowly, searching out Roxley’s eyes. Black eyes meet, and on the confirming nod, Mikito continues. “A liege who does not reward the loyalty of his citizens has no honor. In turn, he is owed none any further.”

Roxley frowns, meeting and weighing something in Mikito’s eyes.

It’s Lana who asks the question we humans all carry. “Aren’t you samurai all about, you know, following your lord till death?”

“And where did that lead us?” Mikito shakes her head. “The samurai aren’t, weren’t, as… Hollywood as you believe. The code of Bushido that is in the movies, it was not as universally accepted as they would have you think. Loyalty is important, but it is only one aspect of the code. And Lord Roxley has obligations to his people too.”

I shut my mouth, clamping it tight. Right. I kind of feel like an ass for forgetting that stereotypes are just that—generalizations that might hold some truth, but lie just as often. I should know better—not every Chinese man knows martial arts and can’t roll their Rs.

“Ms. Sato, you have given me much to think about.” Lord Roxley executes a formal bow to her, which has me raising an eyebrow.

Mikito nods back to Roxley.

Ignoring the byplay, Amelia snaps, “It still hasn’t fixed our problem—we’ve got a bunch of murderous assholes coming to take over our city. I’d almost rather see the city burn than let them take it.”

“That’s helpful.” Ali snorts, spinning upside down. “Let’s just burn the town, salt the earth, and invite a bunch of Goblins to stay too. That’ll stop them. Not.”

“Ali, stop flying. And we’re not burning the town…” A nagging thought pushes against my mind, forcing me to trail off. Something. Something… flying. Burning…

“Redeemer…”

“Shh….” Lana shushes Roxley as she stares at my face. “He’s thinking.”

“Oh, hell. Not again,” Ali says.

But I barely hear them as I try to find what it was that was niggling the back of my mind. Something…

Oh.

“I think I’ve got a plan. Well, sort of. Maybe.”

Chapter 13

Completing the basics preparations takes two days. Two days of scrambling and sneaking around, of putting plans into play and talking to the right people. Two days of cajoling, threatening, and otherwise speaking with old friends and new enemies.

I find the mage late at night, looking tired and grumpy after he finished another private lesson. His long hair looks a touch greasy and unkempt, released from its manbun as he shook it out while the student ambled out. I don’t think I improved his mood.

“What are you doing here?” Aiden says.

“Looking for the best mage in the city.”

“Nope. I’m not going out. I can’t. Not again,” Aiden says, and even at the mention of it, I see a slight tremor in his hands.

“I know.” I wish I could ask him to come, but he’s made his views clear. And even if the mage shows a level of unexpected bravery at times, what we’re about to do is something I want only volunteers for. “Wasn’t here for that. But the city’s going to need you, need your gifts and Skills while we’re gone. The Swarms won’t stop coming, the Bosses are still growing. The System is popping monsters in. None of that is going to stop, and the city needs to be ready for it.”

“You make it sound like you’ll be gone for a bit.”

“For a bit. Maybe a long while.”

“John…”

I shake my head, clapping the mage on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You just take care of our city.”

After that, the rest of the preparations are simple enough. More gear to buy, more Contracts to write, more instructions to give. All the while trying to keep the damn Envoy and her people ignorant. Thankfully, everyone is willing to accept the fact that we want to take the time to shore up our equipment before heading out again as a good enough excuse for our continued and unusual presence. All of it is simple enough to do without arousing suspicion, till we leave one morning before the sun crests the horizon.

Which is why I’m surprised to see someone waiting for us on the Robert Pearson road, seated on her bike.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Ingrid, noting how she’s cut her hair short and increased the armor and insulation she’s wearing.

“You guys suck at this entire sneaking around town thing,” Ingrid explains. “So where we headed?”

“None of your business. We got this,” I say.

“Not a chance. I’m coming and you aren’t stopping me,” Ingrid retorts.

“This…” I open my mouth and shut it, glaring at the three who aren’t backing me up. “You know we’re going to do something really stupid, right? Possibly fatal?”

“It’s your team,” Ingrid says, shaking her head. “Of course it’s stupid and dangerous. But it’s effective and it’ll screw with them if you get it right, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m in,” Ingrid says. “So where are we going?”

“Carcross.”

The ride to Carcross is fast and easy. While the roads might not have been cleared, they’re still mostly level, which lets the pets keep a good pace. Anna, strapped in her usual place on Howard with Lana, cracks a yawn and sleeps through even the short fights on the way in. Unlike what her brother would have done, Lana has left Elsa in the city, having decided that a pet turtle—even one that breathes fire—isn’t particularly useful for what we’re about to do.

When we get through the gates, which are higher and stronger than they’ve ever been, we’re greeted by Jason and Elder Badger. I grin, waving as Ingrid stares around the changed town with wide eyes, taking in the sights. I admit, I find some joy in her expressions, knowing we probably looked the same when we first arrived ages ago.

“Andrea. Jason.” I get off Sabre, sending a command for it to follow as I shake their hands. “Didn’t expect you to meet us.”

“Our sensors told us you were coming. Figured we’d say hi,” Jason said, smiling and glancing over at Ingrid. “You recruiting?”

“Of sorts. There’s a lot we need to talk about,” I say. “Can you invite whoever is appropriate from the Guild?”

“Very well,” Andrea says, bobbing her white hair before she stomps away.

I frown, noticing the cane she’s acquired, and raise an eyebrow at Jason.

“She’s tired. Complaining about her arthritis,” Jason says.

I blink, staring at him as I parse that together with my own experience of having my tendinitis disappear on the System’s appearance.

“Probably psychosomatic. Her mind’s way of establishing control,” Ali sends to me.

I grunt, deciding not to pass on that information. Whatever gets us through the day, I guess. Still, I make a note to have a word with Andrea later on.

Since Lana and Mikito know the rough outlines of the plan, they split off, leaving me to explain to the group that gathers in their city center. I quickly go through the pressures Whitehorse is facing, outlining some of the things the Envoy and her people have done.

I end with, “And that’s why we’d like your help. If Whitehorse falls, it won’t be long before they come for Carcross.”

Flanked by Eilon and Ixlimin, the Guildmaster has stayed quiet through the entire explanation. Seated on a child’s booster seat, the four-foot-tall pixie stares at me with multi-colored eyes, absorbing every word I said. When I’m done, he speaks. “This is dire news. We, of course, knew the Duchess had targeted Whitehorse but did not realize matters were this grave. Thank you for the information.

“But I am unsure what, if any, aid we may offer. Angering the Duchess of the Pourquoi States is dangerous, especially for a Guild of our size.”

“You know we’ll help you, John, but what do you need?” Andrea says. “We can’t afford to give you much Credits. We’re on a tight budget here too. And you know we’re low on fighters…”

I shake my head, dismissing her words. “The Credits might be useful, but it’s something you should speak with Roxley about directly. As for fighters, I think we’ve got that covered. I have a plan.”

I’m really beginning to get a complex from the way every time I use that word, people wince. At least the humans do.

“What is it?” Jason asks, his head tilted.

“Well, there’s this Dragon, you see…” I savor the wide-eyed expressions as I explain the plan. Or at least, as much as I can tell them.

“You know, you’re absolutely insane,” the Guildmaster says.

“I’ve been told that, Jin,” I say, glancing at him before smiling. “So you guys going to help?”

“It is a risky plan. Too risky for the Guild to take part in.” Jin turns those multi-colored eyes on me. Green, red, and pink swirl as they lock on me with a mischievous glint. “However, I cannot stop my adventurous colleagues from taking on a legitimate Quest if one were to be offered to the Guild.”

I grunt, already wincing internally. “And how expensive a Quest would this be?”

“Expensive. We are talking about tracking a Dragon to its home and leading a group of under-leveled Adventurers there,” Jin says, tapping his lip. “I could not, in good conscience, offer such a Quest without suitable reward.”

Andrea cuts in, her voice curt. “Jin, we will speak of this Quest together. We’ve got to discuss your people’s most recent incident anyway. Partying with the Dwarves after shift and leaving our pub wrecked is not acceptable.”

Jin’s mischievous look falls away and he leans forward slightly, his wings fanning out behind him before they retract behind his back. For a moment, I get a chance to view them fully in all their splendid, multi-hued glory. At Andrea’s gesture, I walk out of the room with Ingrid following me, hands on her hips. It’s only when we’re most of the way out that she breaks the silence.

“So. A Dragon,” Ingrid says leadingly.

“Yeah…” I glance at her from the corner of my eyes. “You know, I’m kind of glad you’re here. Your Skills…”

“Yup.” Ingrid shakes her head. “And you didn’t want me to come.”

“Insanely dangerous, remember?” I point out.

“Luthien was right. You’re a damn softie,” Ingrid says, smirking. “I’m a big girl. And this world isn’t safe.”

I nod, falling silent while I figure out where the girls are. It takes a few seconds to guide the pair of us to them. At some point, I’ll have to brief Ingrid a bit more. I told the Carcross council part of the plan, enough to convince them. But with the way the System works, I need to keep most of it close to my chest. Either way, it’s time to get Lana for the next step.

“Shaft Leader?” I inquire, staring at the four-and-a-half-foot tall Dwarf who has his greying hair in dreads.

He’s got his feet up on the table, relaxing after a hard day’s work, with a big pint of beer in his hands. Light gray eyes stare at us inquiringly, weighing and assessing with practiced ease.

“We understand you’re part of a larger clan?” Lana asks, flashing him one of her patented dazzling smiles.

The dwarf blinks, sitting up as she hits him with the charm offensive. It’s unlikely that anyone of his rank can’t shake off the effects of a charm spell, but having a beautiful woman talk to you still wakes up any red-blooded male.

“That I am, and that we are. The Stonebottom Clan.” The dwarf grins, offering his hands to Lana. When she takes them, he pulls her to him, knocking heads with her gently and sneaking a look down her blouse. “Romi Graniteknee. What can I do for you?”

“Well, we’ve got a little business proposition for your clan, if you’re willing to listen,” Lana murmurs, still bent over until Romi nods. Then she straightens up and takes a seat. “Now, we were thinking…”

I lean against the wall, watching her work the poor dwarf over. Not that she has her way completely, but Lana’s experience at negotiating deals shines here. It’s a delicate task and one that I’m glad she’s heading, even if Romi drives a hard bargain. Still, at the end of the conversation, we have what we need, if not what we want.

The evening before we embark on the most dangerous thing we’ve ever done, we spend our time doing something entirely pedestrian. Perhaps it’s by choice, perhaps it’s just the way people deal with mounting pressure, but we spend the evening hanging out with Jason, Mike, and Rachel over good food and alcohol. No hunting, no fighting, just tall tales and ribbing. Unsurprisingly, we shoot down Jason’s offer of coming along—something that Rachel looks entirely grateful for. Mike’s offer is harder to turn down.

“Seriously, Mike, we don’t need you,” I explain, waving and trying to settle down the ex-Constable. “We’re getting the Guild to help, so that’ll boost our numbers. And we aren’t exactly intending to fight our way in. Kluane’s well outside our Levels, so stealth is the watchword.”

He grunts, rubbing at his cyberarm unconsciously while we talk.

“And Carcross needs you,” Lana adds, prodding the big man. “It might be a lull now, but the Swarms are going to keep coming and there’s no guarantee the System won’t drop something new. Best thing you can do is keep leveling out here.”

“Doesn’t sit right with me.” Mike chugs his beer. “But you’re right. Just seems like I’m always being excluded from all the fun things.”

“Eh, it’s a good thing. Merrow won’t bitch to me about you being gone,” Jason says.

The girls, as one, turn to stare at Mike.

“Merrow? Wait, the Cat-girl?” Rachel asks, her eyes wide.

“Yup.”

“A Cat-girl?” I ask, my voice rising slightly.

“That’s not their—” Ali says and gets popcorn thrown at him.

The women lean forward, fixing their gaze on the large and suddenly shy constable.

“So, Mike, this Merrow…”

As the girls prod the poor man for more information, I sit back and enjoy the show. For all his grumbling, Mike doesn’t actually mind speaking about his new girlfriend once he gets rolling. Who’d ever thought he was that open-minded?

“Eilon. Ixlimin,” I greet the pair as we meet up with them the next morning. A quick glance at their Status Bars is all it takes to get information from them. Not a huge change in their stats, to tell the truth, which works for me.

I let my gaze wander to the other three in their party. One’s a wolf-human hybrid, a staff in her hand; another is a blue-skinned humanoid with four hands; and the last is a Yerick. All are clad in high-tech skinsuits, thin armor plates lining their bodies, and both melee and ranged weapons are slung across their bodies. Interestingly enough, the Yerick has a bow across his body, though I see no arrows.

Jakrim Lurra (Level 3 Axe Warrior)

HP: 1020/1020

MP: 530/530

Condition: None

Valeria Iillora (Level 42 Elementalist)

HP: 230/230

MP: 1430/1430

Condition: None

Jazae Lamarr (Level 4 Scout Leader)

HP: 840/840

MP: 790/790

Condition: None

“Nice team,” Ali says, his eyes roaming over the group. “But are you guys going to be enough?”

“Ixlimin can run interference for the System while Jazae will scout ahead and swing us around as many monsters as we can. When we can’t, Valeria has a number of concealment spells,” Eilon says. “We’re also the only team that volunteered.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Lana says and nods to them. “Day’s not getting any younger.”

Rolling out, our newly enlarged group reaches the woods within minutes with Jazae leading the way. We could use the roads and go faster, but the plan is to do this quietly, which means we skip the roads and go cross-country.

Watching the Galactic team in action and the various options they’ve chosen to navigate the wilderness is interesting. Mikito and Lana ride the huskies, of course, and Ingrid’s bike, like Sabre, has been outfitted with anti-gravity plates that keep it off the ground and handle the terrain easily. Like us, Jakrim uses a bike, somewhat more rugged and post-apocalyptic but still very much a bike. Valeria and Ixlimin both fly on their own power, using Magic and integrated technology in equal order. Interestingly enough, Eilon and the Scout are on foot. Jazae walks but somehow still covers more ground than a flat-out run, while Eilon’s just freaky. The Eldritch Knight floats alongside us, never seeming to strain no matter how fast we’re going. I guess being partially incorporeal has some benefits.

Since we don’t need to hide till we’re at the icefields, Jazae leads us on as straight a course as the terrain allows. Of course, that means we end up meeting more than one group of monsters. For the first fight, we step back and watch the Galactics go to work. Even as Jakrim, Ixlimin, and Valeria attack from a distance, pounding the unfortunate slimes, Eilon floats right into the center of the group and attacks with his sword, slicing and dicing without care. Attacks mostly pass through him, doing damage but not displacing his body. In short order, the slimes are dead and we’re moving.

The Galactics take the lead on the next encounter as well, before we start working on figuring out how to fight together as a group. Jazae never makes an appearance at this or the other fights, always staying a step ahead of the main group as she trailblazes for us.

After a bit of a rough start, we start gelling. It’s a not difficult transition—most of us melee fighters just have to remember to hold back and let the ranged attackers pound our enemies a bit till they arrive. After that, we’re normally too tightly packed for ranged attacks, but with the monsters we face, that’s rarely a problem. While they aren’t under-levelled, there’re just too many of us to make most groups a credible threat. Sadly, that also means we aren’t getting much in terms of experience.

By the time we call it a night, we’ve covered about two-thirds of the distance to Kluane. We could have traveled faster, but toward the end, we started running into Level 70 monsters. Still not impossible, but the fights are tougher and require us to rest and wait for Mana and health to regenerate. We start being more cautious as well, because as we get closer, the zones will get higher and higher.

Setting up camp is quick, with a series of portable force fields linked to keep out potential trouble and a quick clearing of snow by Anna. Tents are pitched, additional security measures like automated gun turrets are added, and a fire is started within minutes. Watches are divided based off rest requirements, and the mages and Ingrid crash out after a warm meal. The melee fighters stay up later, our enhanced Constitution ensuring that we handle the trip better.

Having volunteered for first watch, I’m surprised when Lana sits down beside me, Anna flopping her head on Lana’s legs for a good scratching the moment she does. Red fur is combed and ears are gently scratched as Lana stays silent. I look at the redhead, noting that helmet hair or not, she looks ravishing. Not knowing what she wants to say or why she’s here, I find myself speechless as always. This is the first time we’ve had a chance to really talk since the meeting with Roxley. Ali floats away from us, engaging Eilon in conversation.

“I’m sorry,” Lana says after the silence has stretched on too long.

“There’s no need,” I say automatically. Even as I say it, I realize it’s the truth. She might have betrayed us in a way—but she was right, the land was hers to do with as she desired. We might have wanted a say, but we didn’t have a right to it. And… “You were hurt. In pain. I’m sorry. I should have talked to you more. Helped more.”

“I didn’t want any.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I say, shaking my head. “I should have been a better friend. I’m just not very good at this. At that.”

“Being a friend?”

“No. About, well, talking about you know.” I grimace as I struggle against my old training, my old social conditioning.

“Opening up? Showing people you care?” Lana says, and I nod. “It’s not easy for anyone.”

“It seemed easy for you,” I retort.

“Seemed. It’s never easy. Caring for others, empathizing, you just get better at it with practice.”

“Yeah…” I fall silent, staring into the darkness. I glance at my minimap, seeing nothing new of note, before turning back to Lana. “So how are you doing?”

“It hurts when I think of him. Hurts worse when I realize I’ve forgotten about him, that I stopped hurting. I know it’s stupid. I even know what my old therapist would say. It’s not as if I didn’t experience this when our parents died. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty for living, but it still feels wrong.”

“I know…” I say, rubbing my face. Gods, do I know. “Emotions never do want to listen to logic.”

“I wanted him back so much, even when I knew it was wrong, I ignored it. Knew that it wouldn’t be him, couldn’t be him. But I thought maybe if it was even mostly like him, it’d be okay. Enough to make it stop hurting,” Lana confesses.

I almost say something about how it doesn’t make sense, what she said. But then again, pain and grief don’t make sense. It just is.

“I used to love the Yukon. Couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. The woods, the winter, the weather. Now, every place I look, every person I meet reminds me of him. And I hate it. Hate that Richard gave his life up for this, for us, just because he couldn’t look away. I wish…” Lana stutters to a stop and shakes her head. “I should have burnt all his comics.”

“All?”

“Yeah. We got into a fight once when we were kids. Stupid sibling stuff—I can’t even remember what about. I was so angry with him, I walked into his room and grabbed some of his comics and threw them into the stove with the firewood,” Lana says, and I look at her in horror. She ducks her head slightly, the blush setting off her freckles for a moment. “I know. But I was only ten. Our parents took away my allowance for weeks till I paid him back.”

“Huh. Spiderman, right?” I say, and she nods. “He told me about it. I don’t think burning them would have mattered. He’d have found another reason to be out there.”

“Yes. The idiot always wanted to be a hero.” Lana bends down, burying her face in Anna’s fur.

I shake my head, looking away, then grunt reflexively as Howard drops his head onto my lap, looking for a scratch too. I peel off my gauntlets before I comply with his furry demand, digging my flesh into silky fur while I check my map again.

We fall silent for a time, scratching the fox and puppy in silence. It’s a companionable silence, a mutual moment of peace in an otherwise deadly and dangerous world. We’re silent for so long, even the animals trade places.

Lana finally speaks. “John.”

“Hmmm…?”

“Do you…?” Lana blushes slightly before catching my eye and tilting her head toward her tent.

“Uhh…”

“I’m not emotional. Well, I am but not, you know,” Lana says. “No promises. Nothing more than friends.”

“I’m on watch.”

“Ali?” Lana calls, and the Spirit, who has returned to floating above us, comes down.

“Got it, toots. Go clean your tubes, boy-o.”

I growl at the Spirit, then turn to look at Lana, really look at her. I take in her pale, freckled skin and the disarrayed red hair. The all-too-serious expression that’s contradicted by the rising blush. The straight back that reminds me of the strength she carries, and the smiling violet eyes.

I’ve said no before. I get the feeling if I say no now, it’ll likely be the last time she would ever ask. And for good reason. There are a million and one reasons to say no. The fact that I don’t know where this is going. That she’s still vulnerable. That I’m still vulnerable. In the end though, the only real question is—do I want this?

Five hours later, we’re on the road again. Everyone but us has gotten some rest. I’ll admit, I’m grateful that the high-tech Galactic-made tents are soundproof. Otherwise, we would not have created a restful environment for anyone else. Or at least the humans—the gods know what the Galactics might think of sex. Perhaps it would have been restful for some of them.

We’ve only been moving for a short period before Eilon comes floating back to where I ride Sabre.

“Among my party, when someone is skipping his—or her—watch rotation for any reason, we generally inform the next on the list,” Eilon says as he floats next to me.

“Sorry. My Spirt was watching,” I mutter, looking down as I throw out my feeble excuse. It’s not as if I had much longer on my watch—we’d split it such that there were only two watchers a night.

“Yes, well, Spirits generally aren’t considered substitutes. Same with drones or AIs. Too easy for the System or monsters to fool. They’re also often not effective as first responders,” Eilon says, chiding me.

I take it with stride, nodding.

When the Eldritch Knight feels the rebuke has sunk in properly, he adds, “I’ll admit, your Spirit is different from most. His scanning abilities are impressive.”

I grunt, not caring to let him know that Ali’s Linked to me. While not unique, it is rare since the Mana cost of having a Linked Spirit is high. In my case, I don’t have to pay for it since it’s being paid for by the System, but for most, it would be another drain on their Mana regeneration rates and thus too expensive.

Having done his duty as the leader of the group, Eilon moves back to his place in line. Once again, I let my eyes rove over the group. Jazae’s out of sight as always, while Eilon and Jakrim play point man. Mikito and Ingrid bring up the rear, while the mage, Ixlimin, Lana, and myself are in the center of the group with the puppies. We’re in a tighter formation than yesterday, the puppies not as spread out since the terrain we traverse forces us to stay close.

We’re passing through a small gulley into a clearing, exiting from trees that have gained a metallic sheen and sap that dribbles silver, when they hit us. Eilon and Jakrim are out of cover when our attackers open fire, bolts of blue and red tearing through the air. At the same time, additional energy beams strike at us within the trees, Hakarta appearing in shimmers of light as their shielding falls. Attacks flash forward, converging on us from all directions in an attempt to surprise us.

All to be met with layers of shields and Mana. I almost wish I could see their faces when their ambush fails. Already Valeria is casting a Wall spell, sealing off one side of the battlefield for a few moments while the rest of us focus on the other side. Most of my Mana is gone, having used it to layer Soul Shield on my teammates, but I’ve got enough to spare for a Blink Step. When Sabre completes its change, I trigger the Skill, putting me behind the Hakarta team.

The Hakarta are smooth, trained. A pair spin around, searching for me, while the others focus fire on the rest of the team. Unfortunately for them, the pair who spin around aren’t the ones I picked to attack. My sword cuts into the black armor-plated back of the Hakarta, duplicate blades trailing along behind my initial strike and cutting again into our ambusher.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse the rest of the team at work. Ingrid and Ixlimin are gone, disappeared completely from sight. Mikito takes a more direct route, charging the group that hit us from behind. On top of Wynn, the Samurai and puppy cover the ground in fractions of a second. Ghostly armor surrounds both of them, beams of energy impacting and creating a scatter of rainbow light as it washes backward. Anna, released from Howard, is bathing one side of our line with flames, the same side that Valeria is busy throwing up reinforced earthen walls to provide cover against. Howard drops to the ground and slinks forward to the untouched side as best as he can, lowering the bulk of his body out of the range of fire. Shadow takes a more direct approach since he was closer, attacking the closest Hakarta, shadowy and real teeth closing on different limbs. Lana’s hiding behind a tree, tossing out smoke grenades to give us additional cover while the occasional beam bounces off the remains of my Soul Shield. In the vanguard, Eilon separates into four copies, each of them charging a different Hakarta. Jakrim, on the other hand, just guns his bike, letting loose with his own integrated beam weaponry as he closes in on his attackers.

That’s about all I see before I’m caught up in my own fight. Damage readouts flare as beams dig into Sabre’s armor, its shield finally failing. I kick away the son of a bitch that’s trying to gut me, then turn fully down the line to make sure it’s clear of friendlies. Once I confirm that, I trigger a barrage of missiles that coat and lock the Hakarta in place. Lana and the puppies take full advantage of the break in fire, tearing forward to close in on the trapped soldiers.

Two more directly behind me are still free, so I focus on them, running and dodging as I close in on them. Ali floats down to the injured Hakarta that I kicked away and plunges tiny hands through his armor before doing something that elicits a bone-chilling scream.

I watch the damage readouts flare in my HUD even as I close in on the shooter, duplicate blades flickering to life. The rifle comes up, blocking the cut, and I let my sword disappear while I stab outward with my other hand even as I quickly step sideways to cover the ground. The Hakarta jumps back as he’s forced to dodge the two duplicates that I haven’t dismissed, but it does mean that my thrust catches him straight on, Mana-infused blade cutting through armor as though it’s not there.

“Walls failing, boy-o. The mage is good, but earth walls can only take so much,” Ali sends, urging me on.

No time. Mana’s nearly out, so I raise my right hand while dismissing the duplicate blades and trigger the Inlin, letting projectiles rip into the Hakarta’s body on full auto. Seconds pass and the bullets tear a hole all the way through the Hakarta, his armor unable to withstand the assault. I’m on to the next attacker, forced to duck and dodge as the Hakarta fires.

Hakarta Private (Level 35)

HP: 450/450

MP: 153/240

Condition: Afraid (Reduced Reaction Time)

Not strong individually. But they’ve got good gear, good tactics, and the numbers. When Ali first noticed them, we did a count and worked out the plan. Unfortunately, because they were shadowing us, we couldn’t break anyone else off and had to literally walk into their trap. Good news, we were able to quietly put together a retaliatory plan of attack.

I make my way to the last free private on this side, grab him by his neck, and throw him with all the strength I have through the trees and into the crumbling earth wall. Sabre’s Shield flickers on as I bounce forward, taking the rocket that the private launches as he scrambles to his feet. My newly reformed Shield crumbles under the force, but the explosion isn’t enough to throw me back. Powered armor and System-enhanced strength power me through the explosion to plunge my blades into the body. Dust and rocks explode around us, and I’m glad I don’t breathe the air directly.

In the midst of the new group, I open up with the sonic pulser for a few seconds. Not long, not with the pets here, but long enough to hurt the privates and disorient them while the team regroups. Inlin reloaded, I open fire, projectiles ripping through metallic foliage and striking flesh. I rake my gun over the group, not trying to kill but rattle. They fire at me, and I focus for a second, dropping Sabre into my inventory and taking the shots directly. Pain rips through me as beams burn and cauterize flesh. The minimal armor of my armored skinsuit shreds.

Even through my Greater Regeneration, I can see my health drop, but it’s better than letting Sabre get ripped apart. I hunker down, hiding as best I can amongst the churned earthen remnants of the wall and hope that my team can get here before I have to run. The sudden slacking of fire makes me look up to see that the rest of the Hakarta are engaged with the team and getting torn apart. A quick glance at the minimap shows that Jazae’s already sneaked back, and together, the three Galactics have dealt with the attack from the front and are returning to help. I’d been slightly worried about that, since the Hakarta had concentrated their forces on the front, but it seems I shouldn’t have bothered. Their initial assault blunted, the Hakarta never stood a chance.

“What was that about?” Jakrim asks later on, when we’ve healed, looted, and dispensed the goodies.

Dimensional grenades, beam rifles, and badly mangled armor suits are the loot we acquired—that, and a small portion of their Credits. Still, it’s a better haul than some monster fights we’ve had.

“Ambush,” Ali says, smirking.

“Seems like they could have hit us harder,” Eilon says, shaking his head. “Twenty-one privates, two sergeants, and a lieutenant don’t seem to be enough.”

“Probably didn’t expect to have to deal with your team,” Lana says as she casts a Heal spell on Shadow. As we watch, the Husky’s broken leg slowly regenerates under the focus of her spell.

“Too bad our mysterious attacker wasn’t here,” I say, staring at the bodies. I’d hoped, but I think if he had come out, he probably would have left when he spotted Eilon’s team. The Weaponmaster might be tough, but he’s not that tough. I think.

“So you were expecting to be attacked,” Eilon snaps, floating closer suddenly. “You put us in danger without warning us?”

“We told you the ambush was coming when Ali picked up the group. You didn’t seem that bothered,” I state.

“That you expected an ambush before we left would have affected the Quest,” Jakrim growls. “Is there anything else you are not telling us?”

“A ton,” I say. “But nothing that changes the Quest. Nothing that will affect you guys. Unless we do get hit again by the guy we expected.”

“Your mysterious attacker,” Eilon says, and I nod. “Any thoughts on why these fellows and not him?”

Ali floats down and flickers through a series of his clothing to draw attention to himself. “Best guess? They weren’t sure exactly where John and his team were going. We left enough breadcrumbs to make sure they knew we expected to be gone for a while. Since our mysterious attacker can’t leave the city for too long, they must have decided to use the B-team.”

“Twenty-three Hakarta.” I stare around at the corpses, doing the math. Yeah, that’d make sense. Good as we are, twenty-three of them with the benefit of surprise against the three of us? That would do it.

“Deep waters,” Eilon mutters, and I shrug.

“You were there when we talked about this,” I say.

Eilon grimaces, nodding slowly. Politics are politics. After all, it wasn’t as if he didn’t know what he was getting into when he signed on.

“So we going to go or we going to just hang out here, talking about our feelings?” Ali says.

He might be blunt, but he’s right. Within minutes, we’re on the move again for our main objective. The icefields.

Chapter 14

The start of the Kluane National Park is only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Whitehorse. It’s a gorgeous, sprawling wilderness that covers over twenty thousand square kilometers of space, and the icefields comprise about eighty percent of the land area. And somewhere in those icefields that constantly tick upward in zone levels, a Dragon lives.

Now entering the Kluane National Park zone (Level 100+)

Note: Zone levels are currently in flux during transition period.

We’re hunkered down just inside the zone level, Jazae taking the time to scout our approach a bit more carefully now. Ali’s had to limit his scans significantly since some of the monsters at this level might be able to pick up a broader, less guarded scan. Luckily, my own Skill is significantly more short-ranged and passive, so it acts as a good secondary safeguard.

“John?”

Lana’s voice cuts through my reverie as I stare at the notification. I dismiss it with a thought, looking at the redhead who has ridden her puppy close. Now that we’re in, we won’t be fighting as much as hiding. While there are monsters within our level here, any fight increases the likelihood that someone, something at a much higher level will find us. Better for us to stay hidden.

“This is where it all started, you know. For me,” I say, pointing farther north. We’d adjusted our angle of approach a bit since we want the icefields and not the lake, so we never saw Haines Junction or the lake. “Kathleen Lake.”

“Ah.” Lana slips her hand into mine and gives it a squeeze. “You don’t talk about it much. Or your past.”

I nod. Compartmentalizing my life, pushing aside the past so that I can live in the present. Dwelling about what was lost, who was lost is not my way. Can’t be. Because if I did, I don’t think I could keep going. Still… “Not much to say. Spent only a few days here, running from one monster to the next, desperate to get out of the zone before the really nasty monsters came into play. I started at Level 1.”

“Boy-o had to be forced to fight a damn ant,” Ali says, chuckling.

“Do you remember the hare?” I laugh silently. “You thought it was a rabbit.”

“I figured you wouldn’t make it past a week,” Ali adds while Lana and the rest of the team watch us reminiscence.

“Nearly died probably a dozen times. That giant almost got me.”

“I remember you staring at his dong,” Ali says.

I snort. Yes, that was one memory I wish I could forget. “Gods. Was it, like, eleven months ago?” I shake my head, realizing how much and how little time has passed. So much has happened since then.

“What was your first day like?” Ali says, turning to Lana.

“Terrifying. Richard…” Her voice breaks for a moment. “Richard and I, we accepted the System’s ‘suggestion’ for the Class right away. It seemed right, you know? We had the ranch to watch out for and the animals. When we tried the truck, it didn’t start. So we waited. Our first kill was this segmented, caterpillar-like thing. Richard used the axe while the dogs tore into it. We didn’t dare leave, not the first day. Just stayed home, killing the things that came for us.

“Sometimes… sometimes I think we should have gone out. Found some of our neighbors. Maybe we could have helped them survive.”

I give Lana’s hand, which I haven’t relinquished, a squeeze, the pressure more a sign of comfort than physical reassurance—not with the gauntleted gloves we both have on. When she looks at my face, I shake my head. “Don’t. You did what you had to do. Maybe you could have helped them. Maybe you would have died. There’s no way of knowing. So don’t kick yourself over it.”

Lana nods slightly, giving me a wan smile.

Ingrid turns her head toward Mikito. “How about you?”

Shit. Lana and I wince, knowing this story.

“I… my husband and I were at the hot springs. At one of the cabins. He died,” Mikito says flatly then clamps her mouth shut.

Ingrid rolls with the answer with equanimity as she adds her own story. “Yes. My husband and my sister-in-law too. They were visiting us, in our apartment. Dawson. There weren’t many of us. But the monsters that came, they were big. Nasty. There was this slug-like thing that crashed through houses and attacked those hiding inside. Killed dozens before it finally died. Then there was this raven—it’d evolved. Burnt down the houses on the other side of the river. We couldn’t hurt it—but we didn’t need to. It flew over the river and a tentacle snatched it out of the air. That was on the third day though. I think. It kind of blurred together.”

The Galactics listen but say nothing, watching the trees while we wait. I wonder how they feel about this, about our stories. The little I’ve gleaned, their lives varied as much as, if not more than, humanity’s existences on Earth did before the System. Some might grow up in large, settled, stable zones while others grow up in small, impoverished towns where the monsters are just a step away. No different really than a first world or a failed state denizen. Whatever else the System brings, it surely doesn’t bring equality.

“Time to go,” Eilon breaks in, nodding toward the treeline ahead.

We stow the bikes except for Sabre, which I keep in mecha mode, and take to the mountains on foot. A few additional bags of easily disposable equipment is grabbed, though we carry the vast majority of what we need in my Altered Space and our inventories. From now on, we’re going on foot. It’s easier to hide when we’re walking.

We walk up and up, hiking through the mountains with ice and snow beneath our feet. Wind howls, sending loose snow skirting around our bodies and chilling exposed skin, senses stretched to their utmost as we search for trouble. Snow-capped peaks with granite peeking around the edges greet our vision, dark clouds gathered above us as we climb ever higher.

We’ve dodged a series of issues already, most notably a clan of Snow Giants and a pair of Ice Elementals, but we haven’t been able to skip everything. A Snow Leopard with an extra pair of tentacles on its back pounced on Ingrid, taking her down and savaging her before we managed to kill it. We had to rest and hide while Valeria manipulated the snow, clearing the blood from the ground, and Ingrid regenerated the lost limb.

The climb is nothing for us, enhanced Constitutions and occasional spells of regeneration keeping us on our feet. We cover good ground even if we spend large portions of it hiding, backtracking, or skirting around potential problems. Thankfully, the monsters that pick up our presence are often too smart to take on such a large group without backup—another change from lower-level monsters. These ones have some level of basic sentience and control over the stupid aggression the System instills in them.

Two days of this and we finally make the icefields. In just over two days, we’ve covered more than seventy kilometers, walking for over twenty hours a day. Pristine white snow covers the ground, occasionally broken up by dips where packed, blue-white glacial walls show up. It’s a barren land, much more than anything else we’ve seen before.

Now entering the Kluane Icefields zone (Level 130+)

Note: Zone levels are currently in flux during transition period.

The zone notification makes us all draw a deep breath, the unspoken tension ratcheting up further. But finally, we’re getting closer.

The cave Jazae finds for us to rest in is small, cramped, and cold. However, a simple portable shield keeps the wind out, and a secondary exit gives us a quick escape if something big and nasty finds us. It’s good enough for the few hours of rest we need before we continue.

Two weeks of trekking through the icefields. Late-February and the weather is utterly atrocious. We’re constantly fighting through snow and freezing winds, backtracking and hiding in the snow while we wait for predators bigger and nastier than us to leave the region. Pushed, battered, and frozen, we struggle on every day, some days barely covering a few kilometers. In one particularly unlucky day, we lose nearly ten kilometers as we backtracked. Temperatures range from a balmy -10°C to a lung-hurting -40°C. And that’s all before we add on the wind chill.

We lose Wynn first. An Ice Worm—Level 137—comes out of the ground, teeth snapping closed around the puppy. Mikito barely rolls out of her seat in time, Haste and enhanced reflexes throwing her out of suddenly unsteady seat. She lashes out with her weapon as she falls, scoring the only attack. The Ice Worm comes up and goes down, still holding Wynn in its mouth, and never returns, the puppy’s surprised yelp the last noise we hear. Lana screams and scrabbles, trying to go after it but it’s useless. Lana spends the next little while sobbing into Mikito’s back but we can’t stop. Not now.

Jakrim dies next. A clan of Ice Yetis evades Jazae’s recon and spots us. Together with their tamed Snow Leopards, they hound us for hours while we attempt to lose them and fail. We end up having to make a stand, fighting the score of Level 90+ monsters against a giant snowdrift. A spell pulls more snow from the ground, creating a magical blizzard that hampers the effectiveness of our beam weaponry. No one dares to use projectiles—the loud noises would likely bring something even worse. The fight devolves into a close combat melee, with Eilon, Mikito, Jakrim, and me on the front lines. Jazae and Ingrid fade in and out behind enemy lines, striking and disappearing before they can be injured, while Ixlimin, Lana, and Valeria take them on at range with spells and beam weaponry. Anna and the pets fill in when they can, striking and backing off from the frontlines.

When he dies, it happens fast. We’re all bleeding, all damaged, life sapped as environmental cold damage slows our regeneration. A missed parry, a cut that disarms the Yerick, then the blade slides in. It injects a poison that starts freezing his blood, and while Jakrim is scrambling for a potion, an Ice Spike rips out from the ground. It catches him in the stomach, punching through armor already weakened by the cold and battle, and hangs him in the air. By the time we can get to him, the Yerick is dead.

The Galactics grow grim at his death. It’s one thing to know that this was a dangerous, probably even suicidal, mission. It’s another to lose a friend, a party member.

Luckily for us, as we get closer to the Dragon’s lair, the fewer monsters there are. Not even the stupidly aggressive creatures of the System want to annoy a Dragon. When we reach the base of the giant mountain, we’ve barely seen a monster in hours.

“This is as far as we go,” Eilon says after we hit the base of Mount Logan.

Jazae has returned to the group, and we’re hunkered down on a small overhang in the rock, one made of equal parts snow and stone.

“Fair enough,” I say and glance at the shared map. Another five kilometers from here—though it’s mostly up—before we’re there. A cave in the side of Mount Logan, one that the Dragon has made its own. I wonder if it carved it itself or if the cave was always there, waiting to be used. I look up, staring at the stars that blink in all their glory out here, and make the decision. “We’ll hit it tomorrow.”

At my word, we break for the day rather than just take a quick rest stop. We’ve gotten so used to doing this that the shield and the reflective camouflage wall go up in minutes while Valeria weaves additional spells of concealment around the camp. Everyone settles in quickly, pulling out food and resting mats in quick order. Even if today—really, tonight since we’ve been traveling at night mostly—was shorter than normal, we’ve still been moving for eight hours.

I don’t sleep, instead standing against the edge of the camouflage wall. There’s a stark beauty to the icefields, white snow that dances with the colors of the Northern lights. I look up, seeing the purple, green, blue, and yellow shift as the bands of color illuminate the sky. Stars, so many damn stars, the band of the Milky Way clear to the naked eye. Not a single human, monster, or spirit in sight. Just nature in all its scary glory.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lana says as she comes up to my side.

“Yes,” I reply softly. “One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

“John. Tomorrow…” Lana stops, seemingly unsure of what more to say. “Come back safe.”

“Repetitive,” I mutter, and she shoves me in the shoulder with her own. I flash her a quick grin before I grow serious. “I’ll do my best.”

Lana falls silent, snaking gloved fingers into mine. We watch the icefields for a while, just enjoying the sight. If I’m going to die tomorrow, this isn’t a bad last night.

It’s later that evening, when everyone but Ixlimin, who is on watch, has gone to sleep that I call Ali over. We’ve not had much time or space to do this, but with a few hours left and a mind that threatens to overcome itself with jitters and concerns, I need to take my mind off the upcoming day. Elemental Affinity training works as well as anything else. Eyes closed, legs crossed, I reach out once again to sense the world.

You’d think, being in the barren edges of the world, it would be easier. There’s only ice and snow covering hard granite out here. You’d be wrong—since every molecule, every single inch glows with power. But this time round, I’m not looking at the whole rainbow. I’m searching for individual lines of power, ones I can play with and adjust. Some are wider and stronger than others—though that doesn’t say much, since we’re talking in terms of millimeters at best—and those are the ones I focus on.

It’s a long, tedious, and often frustrating process. And it’s just what I need as I work to calm my mind.

Chapter 15

“All right, you all know the plan. Ingrid and I will sneak in. You hold and stay here for a day. If we don’t get back by then, we’ve failed. Get out, get home, and do your best,” I say, meeting my team’s eyes.

Lana refuses to meet mine, but Mikito nods quietly while Ingrid yawns, looking bored. A part of me wonders how I ended up with three women on my team, but another can see how everything happened, step by bloody step.

“Any questions?” I ask.

“Who gets your PAV?” Jazae asks, pointing at Sabre, which I’ve left on the ground in its bike form. As much as I’d like to bring the mecha, we’re going for stealth. She just won’t be of any use if we get found out.

“Mikito. Ali’s added her to the software. She won’t be able to control it as well as I can, but it’ll do,” I answer.

Mikito nods again, shooting me a grateful smile. The choice wasn’t hard, not really. I still recall Mikito’s excitement at seeing Sabre the first time. Sometimes I’m surprised she hasn’t bought her own yet—but I guess none of us have had Credits to spare. Not yet at least.

“Anything else?”

Receiving no other questions, I jerk my head toward the door. Within seconds, Ingrid and I are out, tramping through the snow. It’s surprisingly warm today, barely -10°C, so under our high-tech layers, it could have been a balmy 25°C. Ali floats next to us, keeping an eye on his screens as we tramp on in silence. There’s nothing to say, not yet at least. Both of us know the plan.

The decision to enter during the day was hotly debated during the last two weeks. Dragons have a tendency to sleep a lot, resting for days between meals. Ice Dragons in particular are well known for their long periods of inactivity—days, sometimes weeks, might go by before they decide to stir themselves. Laziness, or perhaps a lack of immediacy from being effectively immortal, characterized Dragons. What that meant was that we could hole up for days or perhaps weeks before we could find a time when the Dragon wasn’t in its lair. Sneaking in while it was there was always an expectation.

That left the question of night or day. Since there was no way of telling if the Dragon was awake or not, it seemed to me that the most logical choice was to sneak in when it most benefited us. No point in worrying if it was asleep if it slept for days. Going in during the day also had the added benefit that if the Dragon did wake and get itself a Giant snack, we’d have a chance to exploit it.

Unsurprisingly, none of our plans involved fighting it face to face.

The cave entrance is surprisingly smaller than I expected, just over twenty feet tall and half again as wide. While I’ve never seen the Dragon up close, it looked huge, but somehow, the entrance isn’t as big as I thought it’d be. I guess the fact that the Dragon’s thin and long rather than fat and bulbous like a Western Dragon accounts for the difference. Or you know, the monster might just be cheating and using a Class Skill or something.

“Ali?”

The Spirit floats forward, shrunk down to only a couple of inches tall as he scouts ahead. Ingrid and I squat a short distance away, camouflage clothing keeping us from being spotted while we wait.

“First cavern is clear. Waiting at the entrance to the second,” Ali sends.

We climb up, our bodies tight to the ground and sneaking forward as quietly and quickly as we can. Ingrid’s Class Skills make her invisible to my naked eye, but as we’re partied, I can watch her dot on my minimap. As planned, she stays ten feet behind me, just in case. Really, with her Skills, it’d make more sense if she was the one leading, but I’m the one with the link to Ali. If any one of us has a chance of getting an early warning, it’d be me. Anyway, she isn’t the one who came up with this stupid plan—Ingrid’s not even supposed to be here.

Light, coming from the sun outside, glints off ice crystals. Curls and whorls of frozen water that illuminate green and blue walls of dihydrogen monoxide. Black granite peeks out from underneath the snow where claws the size of my torso have dug into the earth. The only sound I can hear is the howling wind, bringing ever more snow and cold. Even through the filtered air of my helmet, the chill cuts into my lungs, waking me.

“Here,” I say, spotting Ali as I creep forward. I crouch low, not in the entrance but near it, and wait.

“Have I told you how much I hate being bait?” Ali grumbles as he floats forward.

“Not bait. Scout.”

“Doesn’t feel like that to me,” Ali shoots back. Still, for all his complaining, he goes in.

There are stories about Dragons. Stories about their strength, their power, their wisdom. There are millions of tales carried through the Galaxy via Mana to at least give us a little bit of a heads-up, a minor chance of surviving. Splintered, shattered into a million different versions. But some things are so strong, so powerfully key to their narrative, that they carry through. Their strength. Their power. Their wisdom. And their love of their hoard.

When Ali gives me the all-clear, I slide into the next cavern, keeping to the shadows. What I see next takes my breath away. Crystals and gems of all shapes and sizes are piled high and glowing ever so gently. Tiny ones barely the size of a dime, some the size of a human torso, and everything in between. Red, green, blue, yellow, all of them burning with a familiar blue light. They’re piled high, but not carelessly like in the movies. Small forcefields all around the treasure keep the crystals and gems neatly contained. Behind me, I hear a soft, quickly muted gasp as Ingrid spots the treasure trove as well.

At Ali’s prompting, I head left, carefully edging up a staircase of frozen water. It takes me above the cavern floor, curling around and over the force fields that hold the crystals together. Up here, the subtle glow is almost painful to look at, the accumulated intensity reflecting off frozen walls. For all their brilliance, all the wealth, my attention is taken by the Dragon.

Ice Dragon (Level ????)

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Condition: Sleeping

Long and sinuous like a snake, flared crests all along its back. Not pure white, but a white streaked with the green and blue of glacial waters. Lanky, scaled legs—six that I can count easily—and a pair of small, almost dainty hands near its front. Each pair of legs contains claws that could rip apart a school bus. Wings, folded up against its body, rise and fall as the Dragon breathes.

“The light…” I send to my Spirit, who sends back a sense of affirmation.

The light from the crystals is rising and falling with the Dragon’s breathing. As it sleeps, the Dragon is channeling Mana unconsciously through the crystals, turning them into Mana batteries. The action is so subtle, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it months ago. As it stands, I can’t tell if the Dragon is adding to or taking power from the hoard. A creature of legendary power unconsciously manipulating Mana even as it sleeps.

Quest Update: the System

The Dragon’s secret

Exp +5,000 XP

“That’s it?” I send to Ali, staring at the brief Quest update.

“That’s it, boy-o. Nothing else. Just that.”

I hear the confusion in his thoughts, and I don’t blame him. 5,000 XP is an amazing haul. And for what? For watching a Dragon sleep? I don’t understand, I don’t get it. It’s obviously an important piece of the puzzle, but I don’t understand where it fits.

Damn it, not now. I bite my lip, the pain forcing my mind back to the task at hand. Questions or not, I have something more important to do.

Right. I’m in, staring at the Dragon and its hoard. The easy part is done. Now comes the real challenge.

“Can we still do this?” I stare at the Spirit then again at the flux of Mana, the way the crystals charge and disperse. They seem to be fully connected to the Dragon sleeping on them.

“I don’t know. Shifting the crystals right now might wake it,” Ali sends back, obviously mulling over this new development as much as I am.

“That’s what I was scared of.”

If we can’t even touch the crystals without waking the Dragon, then we’re in trouble. Not completely screwed, since we could potentially hide till it leaves, but we don’t know how long that would be. And the longer we wait, the higher the chance something else will go wrong or some other monster will find us. Add in the fact that we’re on a deadline of sorts, and I’m not sure we can wait long enough for it to awaken naturally. Still, I have a little time, so I spend it watching the flow of Mana, trying to understand the connection.

Wind flows, snow gusting in a bit from the outside, depositing snowflakes on the crystals. The Dragon breathes and crystals shift, seconds turning to minutes to hours. Inside the cave, nothing much changes and I gain no enlightenment.

In the end, I make a decision. A hand twists, slowly packing a small snowball before I take aim farther down the cavern. A gentle toss and I watch as the snowball arcs, splattering against the ground and breaking apart. It’s only slight, but a crystal moves, shifting in position.

A snort and a rumble as the Dragon turns uneasily in its sleep. Claws knead the crystals beneath its talons, its tail shifts, then slowly, slowly it settles. I find myself exhaling slowly, not realizing I’d held my breath.

Another snowball, this time a little larger, a little more compact. I choose another spot, a distance away from the first, and toss it before shrinking back against the wall. A futile effort if the monster wakes. The Dragon shifts again, obviously cognizant of the changes in its hoard. Twenty minutes later, when the Dragon has settled, we pull out, making sure to leave as little disturbed as possible.

Well, time to scrub that plan and come up with a new one.

“John!” Lana calls a relieved greeting as we arrive back at our resting spot finally. “Did it work?”

“There are complications,” I reply while shaking my head.

Unsurprisingly, that comment makes everyone perk up and gather around. When everyone is there, I quickly explain what we found. Interestingly, everyone gets a quest update too for the information on the Dragon and its hoard. It’s not just seeing it that matters, it seems, but actually knowing about the Dragon’s mana manipulation.

“So we need the Dragon to not be there when we do this, eh?” Lana says, and I nod.

“Guess we’re going to be waiting a bit.” Eilon rubs his chin as he stares outward.

I know his feeling. We’re safe here, mostly, from random monsters. Too close to the lair for random monsters to stumble on us. But…

“The longer we stay here, the more chances the Envoy has of causing trouble. And the year will be up soon,” Mikito says.

Unconsciously, we all look it up, checking the countdown. Two and a half weeks. That doesn’t leave us a lot of time at all.

“Not it,” Ali says immediately.

“What?” Eilon looks at the Spirit while Lana snorts.

“He’s not volunteering to be bait,” I explain.

“Not it,” Valeria adds, and I mentally groan.

“Why do we need bait?” Jazae asks.

“Well, duh. We need it out, so we should make it come out. That means someone has to be bait,” Ali explains.

That a number of the group are nodding is not good, especially since the plan was never to interact with the Dragon.

“I should point out that our quest was to bring you here and back. This portion of your journey is entirely up to you,” Eilon adds. “In fact, if you intend to do this, I’m requesting that you give my team a chance to move to a safer location.”

I stare at the Death Knight, pale white flames dancing in his eyes, and I try not to feel betrayed. He’s doing the right thing by keeping his team away from this insanity. Mentally, I understand. Emotionally, I want to scream and shout at him. The simple fact is that we’ve been at this for ages and tensions are high. I force myself to breathe deeply instead of replying.

“That’s fair, Eilon,” Lana says. “And fighting the Dragon is still not the plan. We just need it out of its lair.”

“When we hunt moose, it is easier to call them to you rather than search for them. Can we not do the same with the Dragon?” Ingrid asks. “There is so much land out here…”

“We set up the bait beforehand then attract its attention. Draw it to the location we want while a second team sneaks in and completes the mission,” I finish, nodding. “That can work. So we split three ways. Eilon and his group head off, escorting the bait team till they break away. We give them time to get away and have the bait team set up. And the third team waits here for their chance.”

I get nods all around, then we get digging. The rough plan is there, but the details still need fleshing out.

Two days later, we’re finally ready to do this. Here I am, all by myself on the frozen plains, corpses all around me. We discussed and planned this every way, and in the end, even if the original plan was mine, the best place for me is right here. Playing bait. Of course, Ali bitched and moaned about it, but he’s here too, floating alongside me, listening to his latest singing reality TV show. For all his bitching, the Spirit is a good friend.

I walk in a spiral, dumping corpse after corpse from my Altered Space, their bodies cooling immediately. Steam comes off some. Others are already so close to frozen they just land with a thud. A feast for our Dragon. This is all or nothing, so I’m getting rid of it all.

Other than Ali, I’m the only one here. Mikito, Lana, and her puppies are with Eilon and his group, farther down the icefields. Ingrid is at the cave, waiting for me to make this work. When I’m finally done, the bodies artfully displayed, I draw a deep breath and work up my courage to take the next step.

Drop the bodies, move away, and hide a distance. Remotely trigger the explosives I’ve set up in the center of the spiral. Sit back and wait and hope that the explosion and resultant spray of blood and bone will be enough to awaken the Dragon. A simple plan that should be easy enough to do.

What I didn’t expect was that by the time I’m done, I’ve attracted quite a bit of attention. Most of the monsters involved ignore me as I run away, the feast in front of them too damn attractive. Unfortunately, most does not mean all. I get a half kilometer away before I get pounced.

Even when it hits me, I can’t really see it. Sabre’s shield takes the brunt of the damage while I spin, the sword I conjure cutting lightly into a paw. A spray of blood as I hit, then it’s gone, the monster’s invisibility exerting itself fully. Just a second and all I saw were claws, scales, and a hissing visage that looked like a cross between a tiger and a dinosaur. That, and it’s information.

Zainuk Stalker (Level 121)

HP: 4338/4538

MP: 1529/1787

Conditions: Invisible

I throw up a Soul Shield, crouching low and edging to the side as I search for the monster. Ali’s got nothing and neither do I, so I can only wait. I spin around slowly, hands held wide and to the side, almost taunting it to strike at them. When the next blow comes, I’m two thirds turned away from it. Claws strike my arm, the shield surrounding it sparking. By the time I recover to swing at it with my sword, the Stalker is gone.

Again and again, it taunts me with strikes even as I back away. When I draw my hands back, making it have to come a little closer to attack me, I can never hit it. Attacks come quickly and from my blind spots, striking at my legs, my shoulders, draining the shields at an alarming rate. Frustration mounts as fast as my shields fall, each blow by the monster dropping ten to twenty percent of my shields. First, Sabre’s goes and then Soul Shield.

“Help?”

“Sorry, boy-o. Can’t see anything. Also… ummm… you guys are attracting more attention,” Ali sends back.

I take a quick glance and realize that the monsters attracted to my meal are tearing through it pretty fast. And some on the edges have decided that it might be better to find food outside of the main pack.

If they finish everything before the Dragon comes, we might not be able to keep it here for long. Hell, it might go looking for what woke it up. Neither of which is optimal. We want it annoyed, with an easy target, and well fed.

The next attack by the Stalker tears through my armor and claws open my leg, flesh parting like plastic wrap under the assault. I stumble a little and the monster jump on me, throwing its weight against my body, claws punching through armor. I fall and roll around, landing on my back as a great weight lands on me. It pins my arm and chest, a scaly, long-nosed snout rearing back to finish the job.

“Do it.”

At the same time as I send the thought to Ali, I trigger the sonic pulser. The explosion and the sonic attack distract the monster on top of me, giving me time to buck off the creature. I roll and twist, triggering the mini-missiles that splash and solidify, trapping the monster. For a second, I think it’ll work, the monster outlined as it struggles around the fast-set concrete. Then it surges forward, shattering its encasing, hissing through rows of needle teeth.

Not fast enough to avoid the Blade Strike I send crashing into the charging monster, tearing apart scales and flesh. The blow rocks it, and it darts sideways, dodging the follow-up attack, then it’s gone again.

I snarl, edging away and eyeing Mount Logan, wondering when we’ll see a reaction. Where the bodies were, a small distance away, the planted explosives have left a giant crater, flames from the white phosphorous still burning through the snow. Some of the smarter monsters have fled, others have fallen to preying on injured brethren, while some of the greediest have just returned to eating.

The next attack rips armor along my chest plates, opening up my chest and armor. Stumbling back, I know the follow-up attack is coming, my sword held in front of me as I get ready to fight back. I’m trying to figure out another way of dealing with my attacker and wishing I had the QSM. I keep backpedaling, waiting for the next attack. It never comes.

Fear Effect Resisted

The roar that emanates from the lair shakes the ground, even kilometers away. Snow ripples, an avalanche begins on a distant mountain, and the monsters stop their current activities, turn tail, and run. Emerging from its lair, the winged Dragon soars into the sky and circles as it gains altitude.

“Move, boy-o!”

Realizing I’m just standing there, not moving, I boot it as well, going from standstill to a full sprint. Once I’m certain the Stalker is doing the smart thing, I trigger the switch, Sabre transforming into its bike mode. Wheels inflate, sliding down from the back, armor pulling away from my extremities and back even as the gravity plates trigger, keeping me afloat as the transformation occurs. The transformation is smooth, and within seconds, I’m riding the gravity bike and beating a hasty retreat.

As I gun the bike and let her rip—metaphorically, since the bike is entirely silent—my mind is rolling over my options. Me being delayed near the food was considered and planned for, but not as thoroughly as we could have. Adding the fact that I’m injured and bleeding alters the equation further.

So long as we’re on level ground, Sabre’s faster than the Dragon. Probably. Problem is, pushing her at any serious speed will drain her Mana battery, and while the recharge rate in the higher-level zone is amazing, it might not be enough. The fight and the use of Sabre’s shield earlier means I start running away with the battery at 86% charge. Worse, while the fields are mostly flat, there are a number of mountains, hills, and ridges that jut out. I’ll have to curve around them and avoid other known dangers, all of which the Dragon can ignore. In the long run, even with my initial head start, things could be dicey. Really dicey.

Right now, the goal is to put as much distance as possible between myself and the other monsters. The more we spread out, the easier it’ll be to tell who the Dragon is going after. After all, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be picked on. Until we split apart enough, it’s all guesswork. If the Dragon decides to go after other prey, I just need to find a spot and hide, making sure I don’t attract any further attention. So long as the Dragon isn’t too annoyed, it shouldn’t be willing to waste its time hunting me down.

As I gun the bike and hunker down low, willing every ounce of speed possible from the bike and my Skill, I pray the Dragon isn’t chasing me. If it is, my options are significantly less attractive.

Chapter 16

There is a statistic, an attribute in our status screen, titled Luck. For most games, the Luck attribute is broken. It either does very little or it does too much. There’s no real middle ground—and really, for such an obscure-sounding attribute, that’s no surprise. Defining the attribute and how it works guarantees that someone will try to exploit it. It’s why good game developers keep the information hidden.

Call it luck. Call it fortune. Call it random chance. We humans have a tendency to blame our misfortunes on a higher power, on things we cannot control. Or at least that we don’t believe we can control. I’ll admit, I did—I do—the same. I dumped points into Luck, thinking I could tilt the odds in my favor. A lifetime of bad fortune and bad breaks, now regulated by an impartial System.

It’s a sweet lie that a few points here and there can change your life. It’s the same lie that faith healers, homeopaths, and diet plans peddle—that with just a few easy steps, you too can change your life. No mess, no exertion, no pain.

I moved north and my girlfriend broke up with me. But I should have paid attention, noted the long calls and the long trips up here, the way she avoided my touch when she came back. I lost a job, but I could have put in more effort rather than coasting by, doing the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid being the first person on the chopping block. I could have saved more, eaten out less, canceled the cable TV I barely used.

That’s the thing—past choices impact our future, sometimes in ways we can never foresee. All the choices I made before led me to this park when the System came into play. That gave me a slew of powerful Perks, granted me a chance to survive and thrive. Gave me something to do that truly mattered. Not just another client’s shitty corporate website, but something meaningful. Something important.

We make our own luck, and whether good or bad, we’ll never know.

Which is a long way of saying that I’ve got a Dragon on my tail, annoyed and probably going to rip my head off when it finally catches me.

About ten minutes into my ride, we’d plotted the Dragon’s path and knew it was coming toward me. There were still a few other monsters it could have been chasing, so I kept low and pushed Sabre even more. Five minutes after that, it was pretty clear the Dragon had decided that the unnatural, technological marvel was the cause of its premature awakening.

In the corner of my eye, I see the power bar. 78%. “How long?”

“Well, if Ugly doesn’t pick up speed again and you don’t have to curve around another mountain or the wind doesn’t…”

“How. Long,” I snap at Ali, knowing he can plot the go-point better than I can.

“Six minutes. Give or take.”

Mostly take. I look at the map again, wishing there was something, anything I could use to hide. Unfortunately, on top of the mountain range as we are, on snow-packed glaciers, there are no forests to hide in or caves to duck into. That means all I can do is run until it’s time to kick off the next part of the contingency plan.

We’re moving at around 210 kilometers an hour, faster than I’ve ever pushed Sabre. Yes, yes, I know that F1 racing cars can go faster, and hell, some car racing enthusiasts have done more—but they don’t have to worry about monsters and traps trying to kill them.

I have to admit, there’s a shot of adrenaline to this, a thrill I never felt in my pre-System life. I never drove a car anywhere as fast—and I don’t think I’d be able to do this with Sabre without my enhanced attributes. As it stands, my arms are twinging from the exertion of holding my body down as winds buffet it.

There’s a fine line to this. The faster I go, the higher the drain on the Mana battery. Do that too long, and Sabre stops and I get eaten. Go too slow and the Dragon catches me and eats me sooner rather than later. Either way, at this point, I’m about to get eaten.

Of course, there’s no subtlety, no stealth to this. Which means sooner or later, I’m likely to run into trouble. Even as I think that, an Ice Worm breaches the ground ahead of me. I swerve, the link sending my mental commands to the PAV even before my body can react. I curl around it, missing its mouth by inches.

“Time?” I send to Ali, breathing deeply as I try to get myself to calm down.

“Two minutes.”

Ahead of me, a herd of brown-furred, six-legged wannabe wooly mammoths in a circular, defensive formation. They have tusks and horns and are about twice the size of an elephant. They are at the minimum Level 105, their fur so strong that my guns won’t penetrate to do any real damage. The only mercy is that they’re placid creatures. For System animals.

That means that instead of charging me, they only lash out when I’m close, heads dipping to wave ice-covered tusks and horns at me or to whip trunks at my speeding form, their actions generating waves of spiked ice. Can’t afford to stick around, so when I close in on them, I gun the engine and whip past them. The sudden burst of speed throws off their aim and the Soul Shield takes the few attacks that manage to hit, dropping ever lower.

I still lose a bit of time, swerving around the group and ducking between waves of ice, draining the battery further as I push the gravitics and engine. I watch as the battery drops by another five percent and I grit my teeth.

“Time.”

Almost at the same time that Ali sends that thought, I hear the explosions. Each set is another twenty kilometers from the initial explosion, on opposite sides of each other, creating a simple triangle. Explosives dug into the ground, encased with ice and System-generated meat.

I risk a glance back, seeing the Dragon stop its direct pursuit, banking to the side to consider my distractions. I turn back to the road, listening to Ali’s report.

“He’s circling and rising. Higher. Higher. Oh crap… yeah, he’s got enough height to call the bluff, boy-o. Sorry. He’s straightening out and coming for us.”

The explosions were meant to draw the Dragon’s attention. They were kind of a last resort, never meant to be set off. A way of giving me a chance to get away while it flew off to investigate. It didn’t work. That’s it. No more tricks, no more plans. All I can do is hunker down and trust in Sabre. Run and hope.

71%.

“Persistent little lizard, isn’t he?” I growl. I’m long past where I should have met Lana and Eilon and the rest of the team. I’ve blown past them and numerous other monsters in my headlong rush out of the icefields.

47%.

I smile grimly, watching the numbers flicker again. Even as I weigh the new numbers in my mind, another imperious roar erupts behind me, a reminder of my pursuer.

Fear Effect Resisted

Shuddering, I push aside the effects and correct Sabre’s course. I force myself to breathe properly, to even out and calm down. I might resist the effects, but that just means I still have conscious control. It does nothing for the gnawing pit in my stomach, the adrenaline surge, or the slight tic in my eye. Or perhaps the fear effect is so great that this is the result even after being resisted. I no longer have the adrenaline or the distraction of a fight, so I can only hunker down and push past it.

The only good news is that the Dragon’s occasional roar of irritation has ensured that my way forward is cleared. I’m making great time, mostly because anything and everything with half a brain has gone into hiding or otherwise taken a defensive posture.

46%.

Minutes seems like hours, the bike speed having dropped to a sedate 90 kilometers per hour. I peer ahead, my eyes peeled for the slightest motion that might indicate a dumber monster than usual. Searching for potential exits, maybe a cave or two I could slide into and eventually lose the Dragon. But the terrain is barren, beautiful, and absolutely boring. There’s only so much white you can see before your brain just stops registering it. Within minutes of the roar, my mind drops back into the meditative state it has acquired from driving through the icefields.

Behind my visor, my eyes narrow as my vision shifts, the flow of Mana and energy becoming clear to me again. I see the currents of Mana, the ripples of energy that powers everything in the System and beyond. A slightest twitch of my hand and I guide Sabre into the deepest currents, the Mana engine pulling deeper and recharging the battery faster. It’s a miniscule improvement—the sheer depth of Mana in this zone is staggering as it stands. But every little bit helps, every iota of power we can draw forth gives me a few more seconds as the kilometers flash past.

45%.

The state I’m in, the mindset that allows me to tap into my Mana Manipulation skill, is the same one I use for exploring my Elemental Affinity. Manipulating both is not physically hard. It’s not even mentally difficult to see the lines of power, not right now when the pressure is on, when every movement, every thought, every second matters. The only problems are the occasional roars, the screams that make my body shudder and twitch even as I force myself past it.

Lines of energy, waves of forces, shifting all around me. There’s so much, I still can’t grasp it all. In some ways, I find it easier to focus as the shifting flows of Mana overlay everything, hiding some of the interactions from view. Yet the more I watch, the clearer the interactions between the two forces are. Mana is the air, the substance that everything, even the Elemental Forces, resides in. And yet when manipulated, it can affect the forces directly, increasing, decreasing, loosening, or tightening bonds.

We’ve crossed the Kluane Glacier, all 160 kilometers of it. The zone notification tells me as much, if not the change in the scenery. Barren, snow-swept glacial lands lead to frozen rivers that I glide down, taking the twists and turns as fast and tightly as I can. Each time I do so, I lose ground to the monster above me, the thread of worry gnawing at my gut.

“Boy-o,” Ali sends, pulling me from my thoughts, “he just picked up speed.”

I blink, the vision falling away, the memory of what I grasped disappearing. The minimap tells the story as the monster closes in. It’s only a few kilometers away now, each flap of its wings bringing the Dragon closer. Fast. Too fast.

29%.

That’s it. That’s all there is. I have no choice but to push Sabre, even if it means the battery drains faster. On the other hand…

10%. That’s when I’ll stop and turn around. Because if we hit 10%, I’d rather fight and die than get caught running.

“So… I’ve been thinking.”

“What is it?” I send back.

Before he can reply, I shudder, my hands clenching the handlebars as the roar comes, shaking its frame and creating spidery cracks in the snow. Echoes of its roar cascade back, but the initial effects die away, resisted once more.

“I might be able to adjust our speed a little. Reduce the air resistance of us moving by manipulating the molecules ahead.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Yeah, about that. I’ve never done it before, not in this state.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Boom.”

“Still better than chomp,” I point out wryly.

“On it.” Ali floats down, his body just above the front of Sabre.

For a moment, nothing seems to happen. Then I notice it. The slightest shift, a minor alteration in the air resistance. Our speed ticks up slowly for a moment, then I drop the power usage. Our speed drops again, but it’s easier to breathe, to hold my position. We creep back up as Ali gets better at it.

Through our connection, I can feel some of the concentration Ali is exerting, the focus that is required to do all this. It’s like a diamond edge of pure concentration that cuts into my mind unknowingly, a shared pain that the Spirit forgets to block.

Curiosity tugs at me and I open myself up to see what he’s doing. Colors flow, forces shift and swirl under my eyes, and I see the little Spirit, hands splayed outward, surrounded by tendrils of golden force. Those tendrils flow outward, wrapping the bike and the air ahead of us in a cone of power. Lines of force between molecules dance as electrons and protons, hundreds, thousands of them are manipulated. The sheer complexity is breathtaking, something I can’t even presume to grasp. So I don’t.

I watch, and eventually, I reach out, taking a bit of the burden off the Spirit. I join him, focusing on Sabre and myself. I have no chance of matching his ability, of touching and adjusting millions of air particles before they hit us, but the PAV and myself? That, I can handle.

Pain comes with this. My body feels as if it’s being pulled apart, nerves on my skin on fire. Worse is the mental strain, a pounding headache growing in intensity with each second. Pain that leaches through my mind, and in a corner of my mind, I feel the strain on Ali increasing as well.

Above, in my display, I see my hit points drop. The System might compensate for some damage, but what I’m doing to Sabre, to myself, is too great for it to handle. I don’t have the expertise, the skill that Ali has.

But it’s working. Even as I’ve dropped power on the bike, we’ve sped up. At first, keeping pace, then slowly out-distancing the Dragon. I hear a roar, but I’m so focused, so wrapped up in the pain that surrounds me that the fear effect doesn’t even affect me.

My world narrows further to my Affinity, the bike, and the terrain before me. It narrows till all I know is that. And nothing else.

A shift in the flows in front of me finally draws me out. Something has changed. Something significant. Only when I realize that Sabre is beeping and slowing, the Mana Battery drained, do I understand what happened. The change is due to how much slower we’re going, the bike no longer able to sustain forward momentum. It’s only good programming that shuts down the engine before the anti-gravity plates, ensuring we don’t just crash.

I lick my lips, tasting blood from my nose. My head throbs, my eyes are sandpaper dry, my mind muddier than the edges of a leech-filled lake. We’re stopping… something important about that. Something to do with movement and speed. Something…

My mind snaps awake, understanding flooding through me. Perhaps the System heals me sufficiently or perhaps I just needed time, but I remember why. I look at the minimap, searching for the tell-tale deep black of the Dragon. Nothing.

“Ali!”

“Flurgle-wurk .”

“ALI!” I shout as I twist around the bike, searching the skies. Nothing. Nothing at all.

“What? I’ll be right there, Heidi,” Ali mutters. “Just got to get the chocolate…”

“Ali. DRAGON! Where is it?” I snap, craning all around.

“…shǐ.” Ali finally pulls himself together enough to pay attention.

Silence, but I keep my temper intact now that I’ve got a semi-coherent answer from the Spirit. I can tell, through the connection that is slowly fading into the corners of my mind again, that he’s mostly back to normal. Interesting that I could sense him like that. I’ve never before, but then again, he’s never been that distracted either.

“Nothing, boy-o. Well, okay. No Dragon,” Ali says, frowning. “Pulling up historical data…”

I ignore his mutterings as I guide Sabre to a nearby clearing before it finally comes to a full stop. I get off the bike as it drops like a stone, my feet sinking into the ground and compacting snow and earth as the vehicle shifts into battery-saving mode. Walking away from the bike for a bit, I eye the surrounding trees and skies, searching for trouble. Nothing.

“What happened?” I whisper, my memory foggy. All I remember are the streams of power, of riding and riding. Around me, I notice the snow-covered trees, a feature that was missing from the icefields. How long were we driving? How far did we go?

“Right. So the Dragon dropped off about twenty minutes ago. Turned around about a good forty kilometers back, twenty kilometers after we exited the last zone change,” Ali says. “We must have gotten far enough away from its lair that it decided it’d had enough.”

I nod slowly. That was our only hope really, that we moved far enough away from its lair that the Dragon would decide to return. It wasn’t as if we had actually damaged its lair or even attacked it. All we did was disturb its sleep.

A small, niggling part of me wonders if the team might have done something else to draw it back. Another explosion, another attack. It’s a niggling worry, one that I can’t shake. Especially since being out here, wherever here is, means I can’t head straight back to Whitehorse or contact them. On the off-chance the Dragon just got distracted, I need to make sure it’s not about to hunt me down. The last thing I want to do is lead it to Whitehorse.

For now, all I can do is wait while Sabre slowly recharges and I figure out where I am.

Chapter 17

Where I am is about a hundred kilometers or so north of Haines Junction. Following the Kluane Glacier and the river that led out of it meant I swung much farther north than I had planned. It puts me a good hour’s drive from Haines Junction and another three or so—on the highway—from Whitehorse. Hundreds of kilometers away in the best of conditions.

It also puts me smack dab in the middle of a Level 80+ zone. Not completely insane, considering Sabre gives me a bit of a boost, but not ideal either. In fact, standing around quietly while I wait for the bike to refill its battery to a useful level leaves me feeling pretty exposed.

“I’m really getting a feeling of déjà vu here,” I think to Ali.

“Under-leveled, all alone, and with some big nasty potentially about to eat you?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah, it’s real nostalgic. I was kind of hoping we’d given up on this part of the insanity,” Ali sends back, a wry tone in the thought.

I smile, slowly stretching and reveling in the lack of pain. There’re a lot of things I hate about the System—the way it forces us to join it, the constant shifting evolution of monsters, and the need to kill and fight constantly—but its ability to heal damage quickly and constantly is a blessing. Having lived with the on-going pain of tendinitis, I can’t help but revel at the lack of pain most of my life now involves.

“So, boy-o, figured you’d want to see this,” Ali says and twitches his hand.

A few seconds later, data pops up in windows.

Mana Manipulation Increased to Level 28

Elemental Affinity Increased to Low

System Quest Update (+500 XP)

As you increase your understanding of how to manipulate Mana, so does your understanding of how the System influences Mana.

“A few other updates on skills too, but nothing particularly important,” Ali adds as I finish reading.

I grunt, considering the new information. One of these days, I really should take a look at my skills list—but as Ali pointed out a long time ago, what’s the point? I can either do it or not—it doesn’t matter if I have points in a skill or not. That and staring at numbers, watching them go up just for the sake of the increase, seems a touch narcissistic. I’ve got better things to do than stroke my ego.

“Four hours,” I mutter, staring at Sabre.

You know, this is the first time in a while that I’ve actually been in a zone that would be a challenge. Lips pursed, I stare into the forest, my hands flexing unconsciously. I have four hours…

“Oh hell, here we go again…”

Sneaking through the snow-covered forest without the backup of the QSM or Sabre is probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. On the other hand, I kind of justify it as not wanting to be near the mecha if the Dragon decides to come back. If it does return for some reason, the chances are it’ll be within the first twenty-four hours. After that, if it doesn’t hunt me down in a week or so, I figure it isn’t that interested and I’m in the clear. I’m probably being a bit paranoid to wait that long, but in this case, paranoid works.

What it does mean is that over the next little bit, I’ve got nothing better to do than go hunting. Luckily, I’ve got all the gear I need to live out here by myself, and with my Altered Space, I’ve got the space to store any corpses I come across, so I won’t even be losing out that much.

Of course, first I have to find monsters. Even the low-level critters that would make up the ecosystem of a high-level zone are scarce. Mostly, I ignore them—there’s little point in killing oversized rats or lightning squirrels. Not only will it not give me much experience, it’ll mark my location to some of the predators. While I’m not opposed to the fight, I’d rather be the one doing the stalking than the other way around.

An hour and change of me slowly wandering through the forest finally finds me some proper trouble. Peeking around the edge of the tree, I stare at a group of long-limbed, humanoid monsters with grotesquely long noses and oversized fingernails. Pale white with grimy black hair, the creatures huddle around a brazier for warmth.

Huldrekall (Level 78)

HP: 470/470

MP: 1030/1030

Conditions: None

A quick count brings the total on hand to eight monsters. With the hit points they have, they won’t be particularly hard to kill. Hard-earned experience tells me that if they don’t have significant levels of hit points, that generally means they hit hard. Truthfully, I’d prefer the other way around since I’m not running Sabre right now.

Based off pure levels, I’m approximately Level 70 right now, give or take a few levels due to my unique situation. However, the numbers by themselves don’t tell the full story. Within each Class Level, there are variations in the strength of Classes. These are generally categorized as Basic, Standard, or Prestige Classes, with each level indicating the differences in both attributes gained and Class Skills available. Of course, it isn’t exactly clear-cut—with so many variations, it’s inevitable that there are Classes that provide Standard increases to attributes but have horrible Class Skills or vice versa. Still, it’s generally believed that monster levels are rated for Standard Classes.

That means that an equivalent Basic Class would be seriously underpowered facing the monsters ahead of me, while a Prestige Class of the same level would be roughly twenty percent more powerful. Of course, that assumes the individual has a Prestige Class through both Beginner and Advanced progression, which is not a guarantee.

Add weapons, training, and the unfair advantage of access to the Shop and a large Credit pool and you begin to realize why levels are, at best, a bad approximation and, at worst, a misleading statistic. Taking all that into account, I shouldn’t have a problem with just one of the Huldrekalls. There are, however, eight of them, which means I have be smart about this fight.

I guess it says something about me that I don’t ever consider not fighting them.

Twenty minutes later, my preparations are complete. Nothing too elaborate this time, since they do say that surprise triples your force. I figure surprise and a bag of high-tech weapons puts us just about equal. About 30

away from me on either side, a pair of automated beam-rifles sit on their mounts. The targeting mechanism on the rifles isn’t particularly sophisticated, but attacking from surprise, they should do their jobs. Beneath our feet and facing outward, I’ve got a series of explosives set to go off once the rifles and I are charged. As a fallback position, I’ve linked a pair of Chaos grenades and smoke grenades.

In an ideal world, I’d have set up another surprise or some explosives on the other side of the clearing as an additional distraction mid-fight. Unfortunately, the trees over that way are pretty sparse, and even working slowly, I’ve probably taken more risks than I should have setting up the weapons. Making my way all the way over there and back might be pushing my luck too far.

I’m ready, so in the end, there’s nothing to do but kick it off with a bang. Or in my case, a slowly and carefully built-up Fireball that takes a few seconds to cast. I toss it overhand toward the center of the group. Three of the eight are staring roughly in my direction and look up at the movement, the fastest already standing as the Fireball arcs toward them. The other five are clustered around the brazier, alternately rubbing their bodies or holding their hands toward it in an attempt to get warm.

What looks to be lousy security practices are shown to be extreme confidence in their shielding. The Fireball splashes against an invisible barrier and explodes, flames washing over the group and outward in a truncated sphere of flame and smoke. Even as the fire dies down, I’ve triggered the guns, whose beams do just as little.

Three of the Huldrekalls stay crouched, hands held toward the brazier. The other five twist toward the threats, raising their own hands. In seconds, the clearing is filled with magic—shards of ice, swirling green balls of power, and cyan rays of light slamming into my pair of portable shields and my Soul Shield. I twist and duck, scrambling away even as the portable shields fail within seconds.

Oh shit. Mages were not what I expected. I recall the Mana portion of their attribute and kick myself mentally. I should have guessed—but actual monsters with the ability to cast spells is just new. Ali, hovering low to the ground, is waving in concentration as he remotely works one of the beam rifles, taking over from the automated targeting software. Assuming those three who didn’t rise are supporting the shield, I can’t win this fight. By the time I chip away at their shield, mine will have failed.

So I call a strategic withdrawal, scrambling away as fast as I can. Howls erupt from behind me, the noise so alien I can’t tell if it’s rage or excitement. Alongside the cries is a sudden explosion, then silence as my rifles are destroyed. Within moments, Ali is darting alongside me, flying backward and fading through shrubbery as he keeps an eye on the monsters.

I zig-zag as I retreat, trying to throw off their aim. My Soul Shield fails a few seconds later, a cyan ray of power tearing through my torso and cooking flesh beneath it. A stone dart clips an elbow and tears a chunk out of my thigh before I finally scramble over a nearby rise, disappearing from view. In my haste to get over, I flop flat and slide down on my back, leaving a wide and clear trail of blood as I dig snow into my open wound. A hand twists and turns, pulling forth a health regeneration potion that I drain. My sword in my other hand digs into the snow to help guide my descent.

“Gotcha,” comes Ali’s triumphant cry, a cry punctuated by a series of explosions and a sudden in-rush of air. Inrush?

Huldrekall Slain +784 XP

(Out of level and Dungeon World resolution bonuses applied)

“What the hell?” I send to the Spirit even as I leg it further.

Ali rarely bothers to show me this information, though in this case, the knowledge is useful. From my minimap, I can tell the Spirit is on his way to me, having stopped briefly, but the addition of a glowing red dot is troubling.

“Chaos grenade opened up a rift, sucked in one of the Huldrekalls before it closed. The other Chaos grenade joined two of the Huldrekells together. That’s the new dot,” Ali sends back.

The Chaos grenades look to be buying me time, even if the smoke grenades were drawn into the rift. As I run away, I can’t help but glance at the small rearview window that my helmet overlays, hoping to see something. Which is why I catch the glimpse of the column of white light that slams into the hilltop behind me a few seconds after I’ve left it.

“Satyr’s hairy butt,” Ali swears. “That would have hurt!”

“That was for you?” I send back, feeling irrationally cheated. They didn’t throw anything that nasty at me.

“Yeah. So that Chaos grenade? It kind boosted mashy-boy.”

“Thousands hells.”

That piece of information is enough to make me pick up speed. Not that it helps. When the combined monster crosses the ridge, my mirror treats me to a firsthand view of the spell it’s casting. The only good thing is that the spell has a bit of a lag-time in forming, so I manage to get partially out of the way. Even then, the light sears away my armor and cooks my flesh, my hair sizzling beneath the strike. My legs are the worst damaged, being the longest in there, nerves on fire as I bite back my scream.

I land on the ground and roll, the cold snow a relief along cooked flesh. Powerful regeneration or not, the bubbled flesh and stripped bare muscles will take a while to heal. Pain pounds me. A bare few months ago, it would have been enough to put me down, leaving me curled up in a corner and whimpering. Long days and hundreds, maybe thousands, of battles have seen me cut, stabbed, impaled, burned, and torn. I’ve been injured again and again and had to fight through it. This? This is bad, but it’s not the worst I’ve had. A glance at my hit points shows I’m down to half, most of it from that single hit.

First things first—I throw up a Soul Shield. Second, I cast Greater Regeneration, layering the heal-over-time effect on the potion. Thirdly, I trigger Blink Step, getting away from the lights forming above me as Ugly casts his spell again. Should have done that earlier, but that’s the thing about fights—you do the best you can, and sometimes, you forget to do the right thing. I Blink above Ugly, calling my sword into hand and triggering Thousand Blades a micro-second later.

I drop, falling like a stone, ready to cut apart the combined Huldrekall. It’s an ugly sight, the Huldrekalls that made up this creature having been smushed together like an angry toddler with new plasticine. It’s a monster, a Frankenstein creature with an oversized heads and multiple limbs, screaming in pain through one distorted mouth while its health slowly see-saws as the System alternately punishes and rewards it.

It doesn’t see me until my blade cuts into the top of its left shoulder, tearing through skin and bone. My angle of descent changes with the attack, and I end up falling sideways a bit more than I’d like, so I twist, shifting my trajectory. That pulls out my sword, but the creature is already turning toward me, a hand waving through the air. Bad for it, good for me as the follow-up blades cut into its newly exposed body.

I make my sword disappear a second before I fall, my extended hand hitting the ground first, then my elbow, absorbing a little of the impact with each second. I twist and roll, pain flaring through my arm and shoulder and back before flaring into aching agony when my legs hit the ground as it reminds me that I’m still not healed. Above me, the monster roars as my blades take their tribute of muscle and bone.

Just like I knew it would, his life points drop like a stone. No defense, all attack. Unfortunately, while I’m rolling to get back up, it’s his turn. A pair of raised hands, separate spells forming. Then Ali is in front of its face, distracting it with music. It’s loud and brassy, screaming guttural heavy metal of some form. The distraction works for one hand, but the other stays pointed, Ice Darts pinging off the Soul Shield. Funny that the Soul Shield didn’t react to my drop when I reappeared

Sword reappearing, I lash out diagonally, calling forth a Blade Strike. Once. Twice. Thrice in quick order. Blades of projected power impact the monster, ripping skin and breaking bone. Injuries pile one on another as it staggers backward, an arm flying off from the final attack.

Before I can throw a fourth attack, a beam of power hammers into the side of my Soul Shield and cuts right through. Flesh sizzles and my reflexive flinch sends me twisting away and off the crest of the hill, rolling down the packed snow. I dig fingers into the snow, pulling myself to a stop while Ali jinks above me, drawing fire and dodging as best he can.

A Fireball spell thrown above to explode near the combined Huldrekalla. The creature attempts to dodge, but the Fireball is an area-of-effect attack. No dodging a giant sphere of flame, especially when it curls and reflects around the hill. Finally, finally, it dies and Ali, dodging back to me, flicks up damage reports for the two Huldrekall on the other side of the hill that got caught in the blast radius. It’s mostly incidental, but it’s better than nothing.

I have a few seconds before they cross the ridge, so I take it to cast a Greater Healing. Between the regeneration effects and the spell, I’m back up to half my health again, which isn’t great, but I can survive. If I can avoid getting hit, I can win this. I don’t know why they split up, but without their shield, it’s now just a question of who can hit harder and more often. As I pull myself up and crouch low, I can’t help but grin widely. My turn.

Never split the party. Even a non-gamer like me knows that rule. Every time you do, bad things happen to you. In this case, the bad thing is a pissed-off Chinese man with a grudge. Blink Step takes me in close. My sword, my fist, and a few spells do the rest. By the time they get a bead on me, their health is already a sliver of what they started with.

The trio at the base camp who keep up the shield are the only ones who survive. I can’t take down their protection, not with all three of them supporting it, and an attempt at Blinking in results in me bouncing off the shield itself, my body shuddering with shock as an overdose of Mana runs through my body. Luckily, they don’t drop the shield, just staring at me with disapproving and angry eyes.

The loot from the System from these guys is weird. I don’t even know where to start with the crystal skulls I’m given. Like most things with the System, you just have to shrug and move on. That being said, there’s something strange about looting and storing dead humanoid corpses. Even if I don’t see them, I can’t help but feel that it’s a bit morbid to carry around humanoid corpses in my Altered Space. Perhaps it’s because with a good squint, you might even call them human.

After I give up on killing the remainder of the Huldrekall, I make my way back to Sabre. By the time I get back—after swinging wide and hiding my tracks as best I can—she’s charged enough to be useful again. After tossing the remnants of my skinsuit armor and dressing in another one, I’m pretty much good to go again.

I’ve got a week till I’ll consider it safe to head back. Add another week or so for the rest of the team to make it back to Whitehorse. That gives me two weeks and change to train out here by myself, and now that I’ve got an idea of the actual degree of difficulty, I can truly begin. I learned something while running away, tapped into something new. I’ve got two weeks to figure out if it’s real or just another pipe dream.

A mental command has Sabre wrap itself around me before I stride forward. Time to get to work.

Two weeks. Two levels in that time. The out-of-zone bonuses and the Dungeon World resolution bonus both helped in the experience gain, along with the fact that I’d been most of the way to my last level before I started. Having nothing better to do but hunt and fight for two weeks has been very good for the experience gain, even if I took the last day off to relax and meditate. For what’s coming, I want a clear mind.

The hunting and fighting wasn’t just for the levels. I’d picked up some new abilities and toys a while ago, and fighting alone, I have a chance to really test them out. The Freezing Blade spell is interesting, if not as useful as I’d hoped. It’s cumulative but not directly—it seems to be somewhat multiplicative. So the monster kept getting five percent slower than before, which meant after four hits, they might be only twenty percent or so slower than they started. Still pretty good, but not groundbreaking. On top of that, the duration isn’t a guaranteed minute since resistances can reduce the duration by varying amounts. Sometimes on the same monster type.

Since I have a very limited supply of webbing missiles, I declined to test them further. I know how they worked and I’ve tested them enough. The sonic pulser is probably my favorite toy of the lot, since its attack often gives me a brief opening to lay down the hurt. Polar Zone sort of helped but wasn’t powerful enough in its current level to add more than a minor slowing effect. It was nice if I needed to muddy up the fight or slow down a group, but the mana cost made it less useful than Freezing Blade for single attackers. Of course, I had to hit with Freezing Blade first, while it’s hard to escape a damn blizzard.

Once my prey was slowed or otherwise disabled, Fireball became the go-to spell, especially against the cold-resistant monsters that run around out here. Lightning Strike did the same damage as usual, but it didn’t have the benefit of Elemental Weaknesses being applied to these monsters and it’s more dependent on the situation. Fireball throws up a giant sphere of damage; Lightning Strike hammers attackers that are close to each other.

I also realized I was beginning to have problems with having too many choices. Sure, a bunch of my Skills are passive, but between my weapons, my Skills, and my spells, I have a plethora of options for any fight. Having to balance Mana usage among Skills and spells and decide which option is best became a headache. One that, on a few occasions, had seen me get hurt while I decided on the optimal choice.

All things considered, I’d probably be best limiting anything else I bought for a little bit until I got used to using what I have. Or perhaps just focusing on upgrading each Skill, spell, and weapon. It’ll keep decisions in battle easier.

Two weeks of grinding has definitely helped smooth out my fight style and gained me the pair of levels. Before I finally take my leave, I take one last look at my status screen.

Status Screen

Name

John Lee

Class

Erethran Honor Guard

Race

Human (Male)

Level

37

Titles

Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead

Health

1700

Stamina

1700

Mana

1310

Mana Regeneration

98 / minute

Attributes

Strength

94

Agility

161

Constitution

170

Perception

58

Intelligence

131

Willpower

133

Charisma

16

Luck

30

Class Skills

Mana Imbue

2

Blade Strike

2

Thousand Steps

1

Altered Space

2

Two are One

1

The Body’s Resolve

3

Greater Detection

1

A Thousand blades

1

Soul Shield

2

Blink Step

2

Tech Link*

2

Instantaneous Inventory*

1

Cleave*

2

Frenzy*

1

Elemental Strike*

1 (Ice)

Combat Spells

Improved Minor Healing (II)

Greater Regeneration

Greater Healing

Mana Drip

Improved Mana Dart (IV)

Enhanced Lightning Strike

Fireball

Polar Zone

Freezing Blade

It’s a pity I never hit Level 40, and one of the reasons I’ve been pushing so hard. But my leveling has slowed down ever since I hit Level 30, and gaining two levels in two weeks is amazing. My System inventory is full, my Altered Space is full, and I’ve used up the vast majority of projectiles and missiles. It’s time to go back and get this done.

Chapter 18

Before the System, it would have taken me four hours or so to drive back to Whitehorse. Roughly four hundred kilometers. A tiny road trip by Canadian standards. Except that was before the System, before the winter and a highway that hasn’t been cared for in nearly a year. Now there are monsters and snowbanks and a smorgasbord of dangers in the way.

The choice is always to go fast or slow. And when you put it that way, of course I’m going fast. Gunning down the road at just over a hundred kilometers an hour, the sounds of the wilderness drowned out by the wind screaming around me, I shoot past groups of monsters before they can react, before they can hope to launch more than a few attacks. The few attacks that hit bounce off.

Ali is flying ahead of me, scouting for potential problems. And there are some. Trees that have fallen, creating impromptu barricades. Snowbanks that have accumulated to the point that Sabre couldn’t take them straight-on. Ambushes laid by monsters—spells to slow or capture prey, ropes and vines to block off escape, once even the corpse of a previously slain giant.

I have a day and advance warning, so I take the threats straight-on for the most part. Most ambush creatures just don’t have the ability to take a punch, and when counter-ambushed, they end up slain easily enough. Four times, I avoid the fight. The first is the shifting, amorphous humanoid figure that had slain the giant. That Ali couldn’t read his Level was warning enough.

The second is another group of Huldrekalls crouched above a brazier near the road. Memories of their powerful shield spell are enough for me to avoid that fight. I don’t have time to draw them away, and running into a prepared position against those guys is a bad idea.

The third happens at a river, a group of water elementals crouched under the tottering bridge. No way was I going to start a fight with a bunch of elementals standing in their element. The last group is a bunch of tiny humanoids that looked like children. Their levels were extremely low, but I draw the line at some things and killing creatures that look like human children is one of them. I still have nightmares and flashbacks to the Goblin dungeon, tight corridors and small bodies clutching each other as we did what needed to be done.

A day and a bit to get back to Whitehorse. I admit, I take great pleasure in sneaking into the city, bypassing the walls. Of course, I couldn’t bypass the shields if I hadn’t had them keyed to me already, but coming down the cliffs from the airport keeps things quiet. Sneaking in while its dark, I take the time to make sure no one sees me as I enter the City Center and sell my stuff at the Shop. Refueled and rearmed, I exit the Shop to find Vir waiting for me.

“Adventurer Lee,” Vir says, inclining his head.

“Vir.” I look around, noting that he’s the only one here. “Roxley not back yet?”

“There was a slight delay. He will be here in two days,” Vir says.

“The others?”

“Not here. Did you fail?” Vir asks, his eyes tightening in concern.

“Depends on what the others say. We were separated,” I answer, my lips flattening. “Plans changed.”

Vir’s face twists as conflicting emotions war for control. In the end, he nods resignedly. “They always do. It will be less than optimal if your team failed.”

Less than optimal. The euphemisms that we use. “Will Roxley be able to handle his end?”

“My last communique with him indicated his side of the plan is progressing well,” Vir replies. “We will be able to trigger the first part of the plan.”

Unsaid is the truth that the first part of the plan doesn’t matter if part two isn’t ready. Unfortunately, we don’t have much of a choice—each part had nearly as much lead time as the other. All we can do now is wait.

“Should I?” I incline my head toward the door.

Vir stays silent, considering the question. I can understand that. I was never supposed to be back here alone. My presence could throw things off. But on the other hand, you don’t have so many people disappear and not raise a few suspicions. Having me here alone could buy a little more time. Time that we need for my team to show up. On that note…

“Should we?” A thumb jerks backward toward the floating silver sphere, the connection to the Shop.

“Trust in your friends, Adventurer,” Vir says, shaking his head. “Best make yourself known. Might make them ask a few more questions.”

“And if I’m asked?”

“Be your usual friendly self,” Vir states flatly, getting a choked laughter from me.

Right. Rude works. Rude definitely works.

Breakfast the next morning in the Nugget is an affair. I get more than a few looks, but no one is willing to talk to me, to be the first to breach the cone of silence I sit in. Food arrives, hot and delicious, and I eat and eat.

“Labashi,” I greet the Major when he arrives, my message having finally gotten to him.

“Adventurer Lee.” Labashi drops his big, bulky, green ass in a chair. He glances around, eyes roving over the plates of food and drinks and my sole presence.

“Got something for you.” I nod to Ali, who floats over, a hand hovering over the table for a few seconds before the tinkle of fallen electronics and metal resounds through the room. Scraps and dogtags taken from the fallen Hakarta that ambushed us rain down

“Ah…” Labashi stares at the pile, running his fingers over the scrap. Tusked lips twist before he takes them into his inventory. “My thanks.”

“How much did they pay you?”

“Enough.”

“You know, I’m less than impressed with this. I understand why, but still, less than impressed. So you’ll do anything for the right amount, eh?”

“Not anything. We will not destroy the Corp—whether it be physical or with acts that would be anathema to the acquirement of future contracts,” Labashi says. “What we can and will do is covered in our contracts.”

“Good to know. Now, about our Contract.” I lean forward, fixing him in the eye. “I figure trying to kill me pretty much invalidates any previous relationship or contract.”

“And if I disagree?”

“Then we’re going to have a spirited discussion, right here and right now.” I open the gates and let my anger out, let him see it. My hands clench, my breathing tightens, and unconsciously, I shift forward in the seat slightly as I ready myself for battle.

The Hakarta doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t even seem particularly worried. No big surprise. He’s got a ton of levels on me and probably more combat experience than I’d care to guess at. My threat to him, personally, is less than spectacular. Then again, that isn’t the point.

“Very well,” Labashi says as he reads the determination in my eyes. “A pity, but understandable.”

Contract with Labashi Rukar Voided

“Well played, boy-o. You were right that he wouldn’t want to keep the contract if you pushed it. Not anymore,” Ali sends. “Still, did you have to threaten him?”

“Have to? No. Want to? Yes.” I nod at Labashi, letting him know I’ve received the notification. I sit back, breathing slowly as I put a lid on the anger.

“John…” Labashi stops, frowning before he continues slowly. “You do understand that we know of your plans. Yours and Roxley’s?” I grunt while Labashi continues, his voice low. “Standing up to me, while foolish, is courageous. Doing so with the Marquisse is foolhardy. She knows Roxley has secured additional loans. They have already taken steps to backdate the taxes owed.

“Your own attempt at the icefields has obviously not worked the way you wished it to. It would be a waste for a promising warrior like you to throw away your life in a futile battle.”

I keep my face utterly still while he speaks. I’m not good enough to fake a reaction, so I go with the non-reaction route. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing. Growing up in my family, keeping my feelings and reactions muted became almost second nature. I let Labashi stare at me, dark green eyes searching my brown ones for a reaction.

The Major sighs, shaking his head. “Adventurer Lee, it was interesting meeting you. And I hope you understand that none of this is personal.”

“No. Not personal,” I murmur, watching him leave. Just cataclysmic.

Watching the Major leave, I know I’ll have to stick around and keep their attention for the next few days. Have to be prominent enough without being too interesting. The last thing we want is for them to really dig.

The ship drops out of the atmosphere to land at the airport with nary a noise. It’s enormous, three times the size of a 747, wide and bulbous. The ship, shiny green steel, is bulbous and twisted, using force fields rather than physical structures to streamline the body while descending. It’s a transport ship, big and blocky and perfect for traveling between the stars and occasional landings. For a transport ship, it has quite a few guns sticking out at all angles. Makes you wonder if Roxley chose the ship because of the additional weaponry or if interstellar travel is just that dangerous.

Anyone who is anyone is here, waiting on the ship to dock. Capstan, Vir, Amelia, most of the hunter teams, and a bunch of curious lookie-loos. And of course Labashi, his people, the Envoy, the Weaponmaster and his guards, looking as if they’re just here because they’re curious and not because a giant transport ship wasn’t part of their plans.

When the ramp drops and the doors open, Roxley walks out, dark green hair framing pointed ears on dark skin, clad in a new left-button tunic in silver and gold. What’s missing on the tunic is his house’s crest, the small embroidery of crossed sword and rifle worked into Tuinnar words. I never did ask what they meant. Roxley’s lips are twisted in a mocking half-smile as he walks down the ramp, a small distance between him and the other Tuinnar, who follow hesitantly. Those behind him span a wide range of body types, from short and stubby to tall and elegant, old to young. They all carry some form of weaponry, but their clothing is informal, relaxed, and lacking the armor plates of hunters or adventurers.

As interesting as Roxley always is, I’m more curious about the Envoy’s reaction. Her eyes narrow as Roxley comes down, taking in the change of appearance and the growing stream of Tuinnar citizens, who are met by Vir and Minion in all their officious capacity. Within seconds, the newly arrived Tuinnar are escorted to the back of the ship where their belongings are being unloaded under the watchful eyes of an ex-baggage handler. The corralled help are efficient, if unskilled.

“Lord Roxley,” Lady Priya the Envoy says as she walks up. Her eyes rake his trim form, stopping for a brief moment on the missing crest. “What is the meaning of this?”

“A minor correction. I am no longer Lord of the Seven Seas, Lady Priya,” Roxley says, eyes glinting in humor. Not that she wouldn’t know that if she didn’t look carefully.

“So it is true then. You have given up your claim on the Seven Seas.” Lady Priya stares behind him at the people exiting the freighter. “And those behind you? Traitors the same?”

Flanking her, the Weaponmaster clenches his fist slightly, while Labashi looks bored.

“No traitors. Just citizens invoking their right of free movement afforded to all,” Roxley says.

“You emptied the barony of your people,” the Envoy hisses. “You took them all out and hid that fact from watchers. The barony is nearly empty, devoid of citizens. You have weakened your House.”

“Not my House, as I have stated.” Roxley steps forward, lowering his volume even as he raises his intensity. “You, your Duchess, and the Duke gave me no choice. You gave my people no succor, no help when we needed it. When we sought to better ourselves, you raised our taxes and forced me to choose—to wallow in our poverty or to strive for something more. Are you surprised that we chose not to lie down and die?”

“And so you took the Credits you borrowed from the disreputable and dishonest and decided instead of paying your taxes to hire the freighter,” Lady Priya says, dark eyes glinting. After a moment, she laughs, peals of laughter that ring out through the tarmac. “Well done. Very well done. You have dealt with one of our plans. “Now what?”

“Now my people go to the City Center and purchase places to stay, stores, and land throughout Whitehorse. And with their help, their funds, we should meet our target. In time to ensure that my Contract is fulfilled,” Roxley answers, hands behind his back.

“Ah, of course. And with that, our legal leverage,” Lady Priya says, continuing to smile. “Except, well, Ms. Lafollet?”

Miranda walks forward, the matronly lady bundled up in layers of sweaters, jackets, and a toque against the cold. “Lady Priya?”

“I believe it is time for us to complete our transaction,” Priya says imperiously, turning to stare at the cold-looking older woman.

“You asked me to come out here to do this? I could have done this at home. Inside,” Miranda says, hunched around the cold. “Some of us didn’t put points into Constitution you know. It’s -40

right now with wind chill at least.”

“Ms. Lafollet, the deal,” the Envoy says, her voice making the air even chillier.

“Fine. Fine.” Lafollet raises a hand. After a few quick stabs at an interface only she can see, she adds, “Done.”

Priya turns to Roxley, looking to gloat before she pauses, her lips tightening as she reads over a screen only she can see. “What is this?”

“All the lands owned by the City Council, as agreed upon,” Miranda says. “The city building and the dayhome.”

“Where are the parks? The butchering yards?” Priya snaps. “If you haven’t completed your end of the contract—”

“The System would know and have registered it,” Miranda says, shaking her head. “If you look, you’ll see the contract is complete. We did what was agreed upon. Now, I’m going home where it’s warm.”

“How…?” the Envoy begins, her eyes narrowed.

Capstan, who has been quiet thus far, rumbles a reply, “You spoke with the City Council, but never the General Council. All those lands you are looking for, they are held in trust by the General Council. City lands, city property.”

“You sold them…” Priya shakes her head. “No. Impossible. I have notifications with the Shop. You could not have outbid me.”

“We didn’t. Those lands were transferred long before you came,” Capstan says. “We had certain… problems with the City Council before you arrived. Much has changed, and while the human council stands, the General Council is what makes the decisions and owns most of what you seek.”

I swear, I can almost see the Envoy’s desire to growl or stamp her feet. Instead, she twists her fingers as she manipulates the System notifications. After a moment, she turns away from the screens to stare at Roxley, her voice calm once more. “It certainly seems you have won this round. You will have your town upgrade. Congratulations.”

At those words, she stalks off, trailed by the Weaponmaster and Labashi. Roxley watches her go for a moment, lips thinned.

“Well, that went well,” Ali says, drawing a slight smile from Capstan.

“It is but the beginning, Spirit.”

“Duh,” Ali says.

Roxley walks up to me, lowering his voice as he nears. “John, good to see you.”

“And you.” I glance at his hair. “Changed it again?”

“Yes. Like it?” The Tuinnar flips his head, sending his hair billowing around him. I grunt at the display, even if I do enjoy it. “I thought it appropriate, considering my new status.”

“About that…” I place a hand on his arm. “Are you okay with this?”

Roxley’s face flashes with anger before he smooths it out, his voice calm and controlled. “Of course. As I mentioned, they gave me no choice. At least here, my people have an opportunity to improve.”

“I’m sorry…” I begin, unsure of what else to say. Roxley just gave up his birthright, his peerage for his people and this city. I have no idea what that’s like—I’m just a pitiful commoner after all. Still, no matter what kind of brave face he puts on, it couldn’t have been easy.

“Nonsense. This was the least of my duties.” Roxley turns, letting his eyes rake over his people, who are already tramping down the staircase toward the city that’s set at the back of the cliffs.

I grunt, falling silent. Fine. If he doesn’t want me to say things like that, I won’t.

Still, as I turn away, I catch his last whispered words. “And thank you.”

Since the Envoy hasn’t decided to kick things off yet, there’s nothing more for me to do. Not yet. Now all we can do is wait for the other shoe to drop.

“Mikito.” I exhale, spotting the young lady at our shared apartment.

She lowers the naginata, looking drawn and tired before nodding in greeting. A hand moves up, twitching, and I exhale as I see the notification.

“You did it,” I say, relieved.

“We did,” Amelia answers, making me jump and spin.

I dismiss my half-conjured weapon, growling at the black-haired First Nations woman as she smirks at me. “Lana?”

“She’s alive. Out of town,” Mikito answers, waving outside. “Her pets aren’t particularly sneaky. She’s at the Cutoff.”

My chest releases, a tension in my shoulders and back that I hadn’t realized I had been carrying finally relaxing. “Any casualties?”

“No more. The dragon stuck around for a few days, so we had to go slower than we liked. After it went hunting and finished eating, we were able to get back without running into much trouble. Now if that’s it, we’re going to sleep.”

The pair walks to the bedroom, long weeks on the road obviously having taken a toll on them. When the door closes, I find myself slumping against a nearby wall, knees suddenly weak. This might just work.

Chapter 19

Another three days pass without incident. The newcomers are welcomed into the city, nearly doubling the city’s population with their presence. As expected, their Credits and land purchases are sufficient that we finally cross the eighty percent threshold, triggering the transformation of the city from Village to Town and stabilizing the Mana flow all around. I think it’s the fact that people can now walk the city without looking over their shoulders that helps with the integration of the newcomers. At least the number of incidents Amelia has to deal with is down, even if the numbers of aliens have grown.

Whitehorse is no longer recognizable as the town it was before. With the integration of the newcomers, the gradual transformation is now complete. Shops owned by the Tuinnar and the Yerick have transformed the downtown core, many of them widening doorways and changing architecture to suit our new alien friends and their taste. Some of the changes are subtle—lights that shine slightly cooler than normal, counters that are a little higher than normal. Other changes are more drastic as our alien guests make things their own-automated steel doors, liquid metal doorways, or wide-open stores protected by clear shield enclosures.

It’s more than architecture though; it’s the populace. We still don’t have a public transportation system, so most people walk. Of course, the occasional high-tech car, truck, bike, or giant rolling armored personnel carrier makes an appearance, but mostly it’s pedestrians. A mixture of humans, Tuinnar, Yerick, and the occasional Kapre or other exotic alien wander the streets. Everyone but the smallest child carries a weapon or two on them at all times, a hard-edged wariness in their movements.

Three days of relative peace and quiet as the downtown changes quickly under the combined efforts of the populace and the System. Three days till the alarm goes out. Practiced movements clear the streets within minutes as hunters head to their posts and civilians hunker down for the danger to pass. Those that don’t know what the alarms are are quickly told. No one is surprised, but this time, it’s not a Swarm. This time, it’s something more dangerous.

“How many?” I ask when I finally make my way to the wall at Robert Service Way.

Roxley, Capstan, Jim, and more of the usual suspects are here, waiting. Interestingly, Vir and Amelia aren’t, but I guess they’re at one of the other posts. Not that we intend to fight. If we have to, we’re truly hosed.

“Most of the Company,” Roxley answers.

“Not military,” I reply.

“One hundred twenty-three, boy-o,” Ali answers loudly for everyone’s sake. I’m glad he did. I’m sure there are others who had no clue as well.

“That’s quite a few,” I mutter. They outnumber the full complement of our hunters, Adventurers, and guards. Not to mention the fact that their lieutenants and sergeants probably out-level the majority of people here. Heck, some of their privates are probably just as strong as ours.

“Not unexpected. A show of force might bend us to their will without a fight,” Capstan rumbles. “My people will not fight a losing battle, Lord Roxley.”

“Not a lord anymore,” Roxley absently corrects while he stares at screens only he can see. “And I understand. I will not be placing any of our people in that position.”

That quiets the group, and we end up standing around in silence, many pondering his words. It’s not as if we’ve spread the full plan around much. I stare at my minimap, watching the dots shift and move, telling a story of what is to come.

The Envoy stands at the front of the column, Labashi and Hondo next to her. The gleaming group of black-suited Hakarta move in well-ordered columns on foot, a pair of large, hovering vehicles with an intimidatingly large gun trailing behind them. A series of smaller vehicles follow the mobile artillery pieces, each of those vehicles wielding their own smaller but just as worrying weaponry. Not as many vehicles as you’d expect, but the data Ali sends me about them tells the real story. Each of those vehicles are hand-crafted and fully registered, built up lovingly and carefully tendered by mechanics. They’re the equivalent of any four mass-manufactured vehicle and probably have a few tricks Ali isn’t aware of. The entire column moves in lockstep formation, taking their time and letting the sheer force of their presence do all the talking.

The column comes to a halt a distance away, and the Envoy walks forward flanked by her minions, ahead of the company of armed and armored Hakarta. She comes to a final stop a hundred meters from the wall. Well within range if we decided to shoot. She doesn’t need to worry though. We aren’t going to be the first one to shoot and she knows it.

A brief hesitation, then Roxley steps forward, dropping over the wall onto the ground. I follow him a second later, Ali floating down alongside me. The others, the rest of the team, stay above since this conversation… well, it’s just going to be a few of us.

“Mr. Roxley,” Lady Priya says coolly. “We are here to take the city.”

“As the humans say, the gloves have come off, have they?” Roxley looks at me. “Why do you say that? It seems silly to take them off, especially in these climates.”

“I think it’s got to do with the way people challenged each other to duels before,” I blithely answer, ignoring the Envoy.

I see the Weaponmaster twitch at the blatant disrespect. He steps forward and is held back by the slightest shake of the Envoy’s head.

“Your actions do you no favors for when the city is taken,” Lady Priya says. “Your obstinance and childish actions will, in fact, reflect badly on your people.”

“Don’t do me any favors,” Roxley says, that sardonic smile on his lips. “If you take the city, I will not survive. Having me alive does your Duchess no good. Though perhaps you will return me in chains to my former Duke. I’m sure he would be happy to extract his own form of vengeance.”

“Are you intending to fight?” Hondo steps forward, and now the Envoy doesn’t stop him. His lips twist, sneering. “You have not the people to stop Labashi and his men. And if you think you can beat me—”

“Actually, that’d be me,” I interrupt Hondo, walking to the side to give myself space. Sabre’s wrapped around me, protective armor and its shield and mine enclosed around me.

“You?” Hondo smirks, holding his hand out to the side. The polearm, a too-familiar polearm, appears. “I beat you without breaking a sweat last time.”

“Me. You know, you guys are very predictable. Is it because you don’t think we’re worth it?” I ask, shaking my head. “Did you not think we’d take steps to deal with you? We knew you’d do this. It was a predictable play. So we needed a counter for it.”

“Your trip to the icefields. Yes, we know. You gained a few levels, but you failed in acquiring the loot you needed to hire your own mercenary company. Insufficient funds for the fight. Pity about the deposit,” Lady Priya says, shaking her head. “Did you really think that would work?”

“Not really. Be nice if we did, but not really.” I turn to Labashi, my eyes glinting. “Major, what would it cost for you to fight an Elder Dragon?”

“We would not,” Labashi says. Droll and bored though his tone might be, I see him glance up and to the side. “Are we expecting one?”

I fix my gaze on the lady. “Depends on what the Envoy decides.”

“If you’ve done with the melodrama, perhaps you’d care to inform us of what you did?” the Envoy says.

I chuckle softly. I let the silence extend for a bit, waiting, waiting, waiting until just before she’s about to speak again. “We planted a bomb in the Dragon’s lair. Left enough material in it so that when it explodes, it’ll leave a ton of evidence of who did it.” Before they can object, I continue. “And no, it isn’t powerful enough to kill it. Heck, it probably won’t do much more than annoy it. But it’s planted right in the center of the Dragon’s hoard, and the explosion should, at least, damage that.

“Way I understand it, Dragons aren’t particularly forgiving when things happen to their hoard. I wonder what it’d do to any person, city, or entity that would dare damage its hoard?”

“We have nothing to do with that,” Lady Priya says, but I can see her heart isn’t in it. She understands.

“No. And you’re welcome to take the city. But the moment you do, I’m pulling the trigger.”

“And you doom yourself and your friends.”

“Yes, there is that wrinkle. But since you and the System decided to come to Earth, every day seems to be the day I’m going to die. At least this way I get to say I punched a Dragon in the nose,” I say, keeping my voice light and flat. I have to, because under all this, my rage has begun to froth. “And before you ask, my friends know. We all signed up for this.”

“And the civilians? The humans you are looking to protect?” Lady Priya turns, staring at Roxley. “Your people?”

“Adventurer Lee told me once of a period of time in human history called the Cold War. Two superpowers facing off against each other but living in peace and prosperity for many years. All because of something called mutually assured destruction.” Roxley sighs. “But you are right. I could not do this to my people.

“That’s why Adventurer Lee has the trigger.”

Oh shit.

Hondo doesn’t ask for permission, moving in a flash. He crosses toward me, swinging his polearm in a strike meant to decapitate me. If not for the fact that I’ve layered my shields, he would have. My reflexive jerk doesn’t get me out of the way of the initial strike, Sabre’s shield flickering and failing as the blow lands.

The second attack I manage to block, my sword catching his polearm, sparks flashing as the blades clash. I keep my sword in hand, calling forth another with Thousand Blades to block the next strike with my other hand, then it just becomes a flurry of strikes. Between the blades, my shielding, and Sabre’s armor, I manage to get away without getting hurt too badly during the initial rush.

I trigger the sonic pulser, the shrieking throwing Hondo off for a micro-second as the Tuinnar refuses to let up. Long enough for the missiles to launch. This close, Ugly slices a couple apart, but this time, all that means is that their payload explodes closer than I’d like. Hondo still takes the majority of the coating, but I get splashed too, the mixture slowing me down as I scramble aside. I circle away from Hondo, pulling myself apart from the little of the insta-concrete as I call forth my last additional blade.

Even as Hondo breaks free, I’m triggering Blade Strikes with all three weapons, arcs of power cutting through the air, each wrapped in the icy-glow of the Freezing Blades spell. The Tuinnar dances through the first two cuts but gets hit by the third, slowing down slightly. Then again and again as I layer attack after attack. Each attack slows him a little more, evening out the fight.

Slowed down or not, he still makes his way to me, thrusting with the polearm and forcing me to give up my attacks. I can keep up with him now, I’m even a little faster, but he’s still more skilled. A strike I never see coming, a projection of attacks that chip away the shield, then a powered cut that rips right through it and the chest armor leaves me sprawled out next to the Envoy. I catch his last attack with my blade, shifting it aside just enough that it plunges into the right of my chest and not left.

I grab the weapon, trying to stop the Weaponmaster from pulling it out. I succeed, mostly because Ugly’s not trying to do that. He twists, opening my wound wider and making me choke on blood, pain racking my body. I can feel Frenzy wanting to activate, to take over my body and finish this fight, but I push it aside. Not. Yet.

When the blade comes out, pulled from my weak fingers, I scream and gurgle in pain. Polearm raised, Hondo begins his final strike, not even bothering to use a Skill to finish me off. Only a last-minute twitch in his body and a weak deflection by me keeps it from decapitating me, instead leaving a long cut along my face that I barely feel. The polearm stays buried in the ground next to my face as the Tuinnar arches his back in pain.

“That’s for Bill,” Ingrid snarls, pulling her daggers from his body. “And that’s for Luthien.” Another Skill-aided stab, the Assassin now fully in view.

Hondo is too high level for her to sneak up on while he’s paying attention, but during the fight and just before he finished me? Obviously she’s good enough to do that. Even with her Skills and her attacks, the son of a bitch is still standing.

Hondo Ehrish (Weaponmaster Level 39, Master of Blades and Guns, Slayer of Orcs, Goblins and Unika, Destroyer of Monsters, The Unbroken Warrior)

HP: 1,775/4,340

MP: 1,183/1,900

Recovering from the attack, Hondo shows his mettle as he shrugs off the freezing effects, poison, and shock effects, and strikes with the body of his polearm as he levers it out of the ground. The haft hammers into her center, the muted crack of the blow landing and the much louder snap of broken bones resounding through the road. The blow sends the Assassin spinning through the air to land, crumpled. The way she’s twisted, the angle of her back speaks of very bad things.

I struggle to my knees, grip Hondo by the top of his armor before he can continue his attack, and pull him toward me as I crumple backward. Hondo releases his polearm to lash out with a fist, cracking my helmet. Another strike smashes into my face again, throwing my head back against the ground and splitting my head protection. A third strike crashes through the helmet, and I feel my nose break along with one of my cheekbones.

“A sneak attack, human? Is that all you have? Tricks and subterfuge? Answer me!” Hondo punctuates the last few sentences with strikes, pummeling my face and cracking bones, sending my health spinning down.

“Can’t. Concentrating,” I manage to spit out.

There. Right there. I find what I’m looking for in him, around him, and all around us. Holding tight to the connection I can feel through my Elemental Affinity, I give it a nudge. Just the way I learnt to do. Just a little.

My words only briefly confuse Hondo, but it does resolve his desire to finish this. He raises his hand, the fist glowing red with an activated Skill. Even as he throws the attack, I get my feet on his hips and I kick upward with both feet with all the strength I can muster. The shove sends him flying through the air, higher and faster than even my System-aided muscles should have been able to do so.

The Elemental connection frays, threatening to disappear as he moves away faster than a speeding bullet. I hold on as tight as I can to the connection, my eyes fixed on his disappearing body. I hold on to the connection with everything I have, my eyes fixed on the glowing tendril that spools out from my body with every second.

In seconds, he’s out of sight and the connection snaps, leaving me groaning as the rebound pounds into my head. Everything disappears for a second, backlash and damage from the fight dogpiling my consciousness and shoving it under the bus after having their way with it. It’s only the automated software in Sabre that injects me with healing potions and slowly brings me back to consciousness, my health given a temporary boost. Ali is whooping it up, laughing his ass off.

“What did you do?” The Envoy strides up to me, her eyes wide.

Hondo is gone, arcing through the air to land somewhere. Enhanced or not, it’ll take him a long time to get back.

I look up, coughing hard as my body heals the open wounds and spraying Lady Priya’s beautiful green gown with a touch of blood. I reach out with a bloody hand, gripping hers for a second before she pulls it away with a sniff as she steps back. Done.

“Friction. Boy-o killed the friction all around the lunk.” Ali laughs, shaking his head.

“You…” The Envoy pulls her hand back, murder in her eyes.

“Enough!” the command, sent with all the force of personality and Skill that Roxley can wield, freezes everyone for a second. “Enough, Lady Priya. Attack again and I will not stay my hand.”

Lady Priya nods jerkily, stepping away from me as she looks back toward Hondo. I can see the wheels turning in her mind. “Something this intricate would not be reliant on the Adventurer alone for its final success.”

“Got it in one, lady,” Ali says. “There are a few people with the trigger, including John. Killing him won’t remove the threat.”

I can see Lady Priya working the plan over, working the angles. I would say something, anything, but I’m finding it hard to breathe, let alone speak.

“A few more things to note. We have just marked you and the Weaponmaster. When the Adventurer or any of the others die, the explosion will trigger thanks to a deadman switch that now implicates you and Hondo directly. Along with the Adventurers, of course,” Roxley says, walking forward.

“My Duchess—”

“Will not want to trade yours and the Weaponmaster’s services for the shell of a border town on a new Dungeon world. The trade-off is inequitable,” Roxley states.

“Splashdown, boy-o. Roxley needs to get this finished.”

I’d say something, anything, but my breathing is rough. The wound he opened in me is stopping me from speaking, and all my spells, all my attacks have drained my Mana. I mentally trigger a second dose of the instant heals, knowing the backlash will harm my regeneration but needing to be healed right now. At least enough…

“Enough…” I croak before spitting out globs of congealed blood. “Leave. And stop bothering us.”

“I will…”

Roxley steps forward, approaching the Envoy and lowering his voice. He speaks in Tuinnar, and for a second, I can’t understand it. Then Ali translates and the words sounds familiar, even if they don’t make sense.

“Parley… parsley… party.” I find myself giggling slightly, the world swimming in and out of focus.

“Redeemer?” Capstan walks over to me, squatting and frowning. He pokes at my wounds, then he growls, picking me up even as the sound of trees crashing erupts from the forest.

Hondo comes rushing in, looking pissed. Before he can reach us, a wolf hits him low, hamstringing the Weaponmaster. As he stumbles, a flash of fire erupts, sending him sprawling. Even as he struggles to his feet, Lana is walking out from the treeline, unloading blast after blast from her shotgun. She hits him a few times before he dodges, only to be met by Mikito. They dance, polearms clashing and striking in circles of death that are dodged by millimeters.

“Hondo!”

The command freezes the Weaponmaster and he disengages, stepping back swiftly. Mikito, crouched low, is holding out her naginata, watching the Weaponmaster warily as she bleeds from a cut along her leg.

“We are under the rules of parley,” the Envoy says.

I relax into the big, furry pillow carrying me. Finally.

Chapter 20

Double dosing the healing potions added to the poison effects and the damage put me down for hours. If I had to guess, the accumulated stress of the past few months didn’t help either. Double dosing harmed the System-gifted regeneration so sufficiently that it was supposedly touch-and-go for a few minutes, the continual bleeding and poison effects dragging me down. Good thing both a pre-System doctor and Nelia were on-hand at the wall.

I get filled in on the blanks a little later. When Hondo attacked me, the Hakarta didn’t join in because they were only hired to attack the city. A finely-cut line by Labashi, but one he insisted on holding. The Envoy didn’t dare move since Roxley had headed her off, and everything happened so fast, she never got a chance to renegotiate the deal with Labashi.

“So they left?” I murmur to Roxley, who has come to visit me in the apartment. I’m fully dressed and seated on a comfy sofa, staring at the Elf.

“Yes. The parley was successful. We reached an agreement that will ensure that Whitehorse will stay under my control,” Roxley says slowly. “I had to make certain concessions.”

I frown, staring at the Tuinnar. “Why?”

“You know why. The threat could only hold them for so long. We still needed to get a signal to the bomb, and once they blocked that, we’d be back to square one. We had a small window of opportunity where the cost of taking us on outweighed the compromises they had to make,” Roxley says, his voice calm and collected.

“What did you give them?” I reply, my voice tight with doubt.

“Me. I am Lord Graxan Roxley of the Yukon now, or will be soon,” Roxley answers. “I answer to the Duchess as the ruler of Whitehorse, Fairbanks, and Juno. All the lands between are claimed by us, and we will expand until we have it in fact, as well as name.”

I blink, trying to understand why they’d hire him. After all this. “Why?”

“It seems the Duchess admires men with spirit and the ability to thwart her. Rather than destroy us, she prefers to co-opt useful assets. Our continued rebuttals of her attempts have moved us into the asset column.”

“So they won,” I hiss as the initial shock wears off. “You gave them everything. Just for a job.”

Roxley is calm, though there’s a touch of wariness in his eyes and stance. One that most would miss, but I’ve been around the damn elf long enough. “There was no other way to win. We were never going to stand them off, never win fully. You cannot have expected your plan to last forever.”

“No, but we could have found another solution, another way around. Earned the Credits to hire our own forces.”

“At what cost? Putting the city’s progress back months, years? This way, I have control, the ability to ensure that nothing happens that I do not want. The city will grow, prosper, and at a higher, better rate than before,” Roxley insists, leaning forward. “This is the best way.”

“Best?” I laugh bitterly, shaking my head. “Best. For you perhaps, Lord Roxley.”

“Damn it, John, for the city. This way, we’ll be able to pay you and Lana back for your loan from the foundation. We’ll be able to build the city up and make it safe. Make it a real place to live in again,” Roxley says, reaching out a hand for me. “You have to trust me on this.”

I pull away from the reaching hand and point at the door, my voice low and hoarse with controlled emotions. “We’re done here.”

“John…”

“Go.”

Roxley walks to the door, where he pauses and turns to me, his voice low and raw with emotion. “Damn you, John. Your naiveté, your insistence at finding your own way will kill you. And others eventually. I made the right choice.”

I don’t answer, turning away to stare at a wall.

Roxley stands there in silence for a second before he speaks again, his voice calm and controlled. “There was one other thing. Hondo is furious that you managed to disgrace him like you did. They will return in six months to check on the city. It is best you not be here then.”

In the silence of the empty apartment, a pain in my gut, an emptiness in my chest consumes me. I reach for my anger, that comforting old friend, and find it elusive, hiding. I shut my eyes and curse myself for trusting as I work on blocking the pain away. No one to blame here. No one but me. I should have known better.

Lana finds me later, lying on the couch and staring at the ceiling. She squats next to me, placing a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry. Ali told me that Roxley told you.”

“Huh?”

“John…” Lana looks at me, concern in those violet eyes that I love to stare at. She squeezes my arm till I give her my attention. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I answer truthfully, my lips twisting in bitter recrimination. “I should have known. Eric warned me. Should have known…”

“It’s not that simple,” Lana says, squeezing my arm again. “You know that.”

“You on his side now?”

“I’m on the truth’s side.”

“Huh.” I stare at her, that gnawing pit in my stomach aching, and I snap. “Fine. Just go.”

“John…”

“Just leave me alone,” I say before reining in my temper a bit. I hold up a hand placatingly as I grind out the words. “Not that I… well, not… I just need to be alone. Please. Not trying to be an ass, just not in the place to be good company.”

Lana compresses her lips, obviously struggling not to say something as she searches my face. Finally, she stands. “I’ll be around. You don’t have to do this, you know, not alone.”

I give her a quick nod. She’s right. But just because she’s right and I can now acknowledge that doesn’t mean I’m ready yet to take help. Finally she leaves me to brood alone in the darkness. Except for Ali, who I have to threaten to banish before he shuts up. So many deaths, just to find ourselves under her thumb anyway. No control, no say, just another group of slaves to an uncaring Lord and the System.

I sit and think, wondering about the choices I made and the lives I’ve sacrificed. All for this bittersweet victory.

Epilogue

Congratulations! The planet you know as Earth is now a fully integrated Dungeon World.

We’re impressed. 9.69% of you humans managed to survive the transition period. Some of you even managed to develop some impressive cities in this year. All survivors have now been Credited a one-time survival bonus of 20,000 Credits.

As a new Dungeon World, there might be some little irregularities with regard to zone levels and monster spawns. Expect new and exciting immigrants as Mana flows stabilize. We hope you’ll accept them with open arms and provide the necessary information and goods to make their experience in your Dungeon World a pleasant one.

Once again, welcome to the Galactic Council!

Cheering and screaming resounds through the city as bottles of beer, wine, and champagne are popped and shared. Humans, Yerick, Tuinnar, and Kapre all rejoice as the notifications appear, celebrating their survival. The humans most of all, as the Credits appear in our System accounts.

On a stage, Roxley is chatting with the General Council members, shaking hands and passing words of congratulations. Seated on Sabre, a short distance away, I watch the celebrations, plates of food flowing out from the Nugget and other establishments, as the band plays and dancers take to the street. It looks as though it’ll be one hell of a wild party.

I watch it for a moment more, drinking in the scene and parking the celebration in my memory. I even drink a mug of beer that gets passed to me. When the initial jubilation dies down, I tap my new helmet control, letting my new headgear form around me.

I’m not angry—well, not much—about how it all panned out. Betrayed and hurt, but not angry. Not anymore. If I could go back… but I can’t. So it is what it is, and Roxley is right—the city is in better hands with him than before.

“You know, we could wait a day,” Ali says longingly as I swing Sabre around, the silent Mana engine pulling us forward on the road out of town.

We could. We could stay, enjoy the party, bask in the celebration. Even let a few people know that we’re leaving. I’m sure some of them want to say goodbye, might have words or gifts to commemorate my leaving. But this way is better—less emotion, less awkwardness. I don’t want, I don’t need, their thanks. What I did, I did for myself. My dad never really had much to say that was worthwhile, but one thing I do remember—if you’re going to do something good, you don’t ask for thanks and you don’t expect gratitude. You do it because it’s right.

Fourth Avenue is clear all the way to the wall as everyone is downtown already. The guards are a little surprised to see me leave. I offer them a nod and ignore their questioning looks as I slip out.

“Seems a pity to miss out on a party like that. Maybe meet another cute girl…” Ali continues while I ignore him.

Today, now, is the perfect time. If I need to go, best just go. The city will survive. While I might dislike what Roxley did, he’s unlikely to screw the city over too greatly. Not any more than he has already. In the end, what I told the council holds true. Better the devil you know.

As we crest the hill that leads out of Whitehorse, I stare at the group awaiting me. My eyes narrow, noting a rather familiar bike-like item that Mikito sits on, before traveling to Lana, who’s busy scratching a puppy on its belly. I open my mouth before spinning around, glaring at Ingrid as she sneaks up on me.

She sighs, clearly disappointed. “How’d you know?”

“The extra bike. Also, you’re getting predictable,” I answer.

She smirks at me.

“What are you all doing here?” I let my gaze travel over the equipment they’ve got secured to the bikes and the puppies, noting how they’re set up for quick release in case of trouble.

“What do you think, you big idiot?” Lana says, shaking her head as she walks up to me. When she gets close, she kicks my foot sharply. It’s hard enough to hurt, a bit, even through the armor. “You thought we were going to let you leave? Just like that?”

“Lana…”

“I have nothing left here. No business, no family. Just memories of a life that…” Lana stops, choking a bit. “I’m coming, John.”

As my eyes travel to Mikito, she mouths, “Baka.”

Even I’m not so stupid as to try to dissuade her. What Lana said goes doubly for her.

“Trust me, I’d rather be home. But considering I stabbed the asshole in the kidneys and he didn’t die, I figure I need to not be here when he’s back,” Ingrid says.

“How did you know?” I mutter.

Ali just grins at me. Of course. Betrayed again. Except this time, I find I’m not angry.

“We going or we going to cry about our feelings more?” Ali says, prodding me along.

In answer, I start Sabre rolling down the road. Howard crouches, and Lana smoothly grabs his collar, swinging herself on him. In moments, the entire party is moving down the snow-covered highway, heading south. I cast one last glance backward, at Whitehorse and the world I left behind, before I look back at the road and pick up speed. I find myself smiling as I stare at the road, feeling some of the worries, the burdens I’ve carried fall away. There’s an open road and a new world out there. And I still have a promise to keep.

“So where are we going?”

###

-

Glossary

Erethran Honor Guard Skill Tree

Mana Imbue

Two are One

Thousand Steps

Blade Strike

The Body’s Resolve

Greater Detection

Altered Space

A Thousand Blades

Shield Transference

Soul Shield

Blink Step

Army of One

Sanctum

Body Swap

Portal

John’s Skills

Mana Imbue (Level 1)

Soulbound weapon now permanently imbued with mana to deal more damage on each hit. +10 Base Damage (Mana). Will ignore armor and resistances. Mana regeneration reduced by 5 Mana per minute permanently.

Blade Strike (Level 2)

By projecting additional mana and stamina into a strike, the Erethran Honor Guard’s Soulbound weapon may project a strike up to 20 feet away.

Cost: 35 Stamina + 35 Mana

Thousand Steps (Level 1)

Movement speed for the Honor Guard and allies are increased by 5% while skill is active. This ability is stackable with other movement related skills.

Cost: 20 Stamina + 20 Mana per minute

Altered Space (Level 2)

The Honor Guard now has access to an extra-dimensional storage location of 30 cubic feet. Items stored must be touched to be willed in and may not include living creatures or items currently affected by aura’s that are not the Honor Guard’s. Mana regeneration reduced by 10 Mana per minute permanently.

Two are One (Level 1)

Effect: Transfer 10% of all damage from Target to Self

Cost: 5 Mana per second

The Body’s Resolve (Level 3)

Effect: Increase natural health regeneration by 35%. On-going health status effects reduced by 33%. Honor Guard may now regenerate lost limbs. Mana regeneration reduced by 15 Mana per minute permanently.

Greater Detection (Level 1)

Effect: User may now detect System creatures up to 1 kilometer away. General information about strength level is provided on detection. Stealth skills, Class skills and ambient mana density will influence the effectiveness of this skill. Mana regeneration reduced by 5 Mana per minute permanently.

Soul Shield (Level 2)

Effect: Creates a manipulable shield to cover the caster’s or target’s body. Shield has 1,000 Hit Points.

Cost: 250 Mana

Blink Step (Level 2)

Effect: Instantaneous teleportation via line-of-sight. May include Spirit’s line of sight. Maximum range—500 meters.

Cost: 100 Mana

Frenzy (Level 1)

Effect: When activated, pain is reduced by 80%, damage increased by 30%, stamina regeneration rate increased by 20%. Mana regeneration rate decreased by 10%

Frenzy will not deactivate until all enemies have been slain. User may not retreat while Frenzy is active.

Cleave (Level 1)

Effect: Physical attacks deal 50% more damage. Effect may be combined with other Class Skills

Cost: 25 Mana

Instantaneous Inventory (Maxed)

Allows user to place or remove any System-recognized item from Inventory if space allows. Includes the automatic arrangement of space in the inventory. User must be touching item.

Cost: 5 Mana per item

Sabre’s Load-Out & Other Equipment

Omnitron III Class II Personal Assault Vehicle (Sabre)

Core: Class II Omnitron Mana Engine

CPU: Class D Xylik Core CPU

Armor Rating: Tier IV (Modified with Adaptive Resistance)

Hard Points: 5 (5 Used)

Soft Points: 3 (2 Used)

Requires: Neural Link for Advanced Configuration

Battery Capacity: 120/120

Attribute Bonuses: +35 Strength, +18 Agility, +10 Perception

Inlin Type II II Projectile Rifle

Base Damage: N/A (Dependent Upon Ammunition)

Ammo Capacity: 45/45

Available Ammunition: 250 Standard, 150 Armor Piercing, 200 High Explosive, 25 Luminescent

Ares Type II Shield Generator

Base Shielding: 2,000 HP

Regeneration Rate: 50/second unlinked, 200/second linked

Mkylin Type IV Mini-Missile Launchers

Base Damage: N/A (dependent on missiles purchased)

Battery Capacity: 6/6

Reload rate from internal batteries: 10 seconds

Available Ammunition: 12 Standard, 12 High Explosive, 12 Armor Piercing, 4 Napalm

Tier II Sword (Soulbound Personal Weapon of an Erethran Honor Guard)

Base Damage: 63 (back at level 15!)

Durability: N/A (Personal Weapon)

Special Abilities: +10 Mana Damage, Blade Strike

Type II Webbing Mini-Missile

Base Damage: N/A

Effect: Disperses insta-webbing upon impact or on activation. Dispersal covers 3 cubic feet.

Cost: 500 Credits

Shinowa Type II Sonic Pulser

Base Damage: 25 per second

Additional Effect: Disrupts auditory sense of balance on opponent during use. Effects have a small chance of continuing after use.

Cost: 25,000 Credits

Author’s Note

This concludes the first arc of the System Apocalypse and ends our time in Whitehorse. The current plan is for the next arc to take around three books and will take John and crew around the world. Each arc is meant to be readable as a stand-alone and continuation of the series, but with distinct phases. I always say ‘planned’ when I talk about what will happen because John, Roxley and crew have a tendency to write themselves, scuppering my plots. As such, expect there to be a shift in tone and focus in Book 4.

I’d like to reiterate that I am grateful for the support all of you have provided. While I’d still be telling myself John’s story, I certainly wouldn’t be spending time writing it.

If you enjoyed reading the book, please do leave a review and rating.

In addition, please check out my other LitRPG series, the Adventures on Brad for a much more light-hearted, slice of life take on a fantasy LitRPG (available on Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks and more!)—

- A Healer’s Gift (Book 1 of the Adventures on Brad)A Healer’s Gift (Book 1 of the Adventures on Brad)(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KD1X35)

- An Adventurer’s Heart (Book 2 of the Adventures on Brad)An Adventurer’s Heart (Book 2 of the Adventures on Brad)(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075NT92ML/ref%3dseries_rw_dp_sw)

- A Dungeon’s Soul (Book 3 of the Adventures on Brad)A Dungeon’s Soul (Book 3 of the Adventures on Brad)(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077NNGXKY)

For more great information about LitRPG series, check out the Facebook groups:

- LitRPG SocietyLitRPG Society(https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/)

- LitRPG Books- LitRPG Books(https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/)

About the Author

Tao Wong is an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader who spends his time working and writing in the North of Canada. He’s spent way too many years doing martial arts of many forms, and having broken himself too often, he now spends his time writing about fantasy worlds.

For updates on the series and my other books (and special one-shot stories), please visit my website: http://www.mylifemytao.comhttp://www.mylifemytao.com(http://www.mylifemytao.com)

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Cities in Chains: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 4) Wong, Tao

Cities in Chains

An Apocalyptic LitRPG

Book 4 of the System Apocalypse

by

Tao Wong

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cities in Chains

Copyright © 2018 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2018 Sarah Anderson Cover Designer

ISBN: 9781775380917

Contents

Copyright

What Has Gone Before

What Has Gone Before

More than thirteen months ago, the System came to Earth, bringing with it monsters, aliens and glowing blue boxes of notifications that detailed their lives in this new Galactic System. Humanity was forced to evolve, their lives dictated by statistic screens, Classes and Skills that gave them strength and abilities beyond the norm, providing them a fighting chance to survive. Still, the apocalypse saw the death of nearly 90% of humanity, the malfunctioning of everything electronic and a new, blood-filled existence.

John Lee was camping in the Yukon when the change occurred. Gifted with perks beyond the normal, he journeyed to Whitehorse and aided in the establishment of the city under the rule of the alien Truinnar, Lord Graxan Roxley. With the help of other survivors, the Village of Whitehorse was quickly established to provide a stable environment for growth, battling rampant dungeons, monster hordes and crazed humans in equal measure.

As Earth’s Mana levels and the System stabilized, new alien threats appeared that sought to takeover the city. After a heated battle and political maneuverings, John is able to push back against the Truinnar Duchess’s Envoy and her Weapon Master, only to be betrayed by Lord Roxley.

With Whitehorse now firmly under the aegis of the Duchess, John has left the stable, if alien owned, Village with his team mates and journey’s south to lend what aid he may to the surviving members of humanity.

Chapter 1

The world has changed. Over a year ago, a series of blue boxes popped into existence, notifying humanity that we’d joined the Galactic Council. Along with that, we inherited the System—a reality-bending setup that appeared to us as a blaze of blue boxes—and it gave us strength, endurance, Skills, and healing beyond human norms. The new System was more akin to a video game, with magical spells and Skills, but dying was still very real.

The world has changed. I get that.

But that still doesn’t explain the evolved tiger trying to eat my face.

“This is a tiger, right? And we’re what? A good hundred kilometers south of the Yukon?” I say, holding the monster around its neck with one hand as it attempts to escape and claw me. The occasional scratch is painful and annoying but not at all life-threatening.

“Just hold him still a little longer,” Lana says, laying a slab of steak a short distance from me. The buxom redhead is clad in Adventurer chic—a skin-tight armored jumpsuit with a weapon vest, along with the requisite weapons, and straps criss-crossing her toned frame. “And yes, it’s a tiger.”

“What? My Status information not good enough for you?” Ali, my three-foot Spirit companion says as he floats cross-legged next to me. He might look Middle Eastern, but Ali’s got as much relation to them as I do an amoeba. Since there’s no real threat right now, Ali’s choosing to be visible.

I glance again at the status information hovering over the tiger.

Evolved Tiger (Level 27)

HP: 358/478

MP: 275/349

Condition: Enraged

Of course, the tiger isn’t willing to just be held in the air without a struggle. With a flick of his tail, the tiger glows, calling forth its Skill—Sharp Claws—again. Okay, Sharp Claws is what I’ve named it since it’s not as if I have access to the tiger’s Skill menu. Twisting around, its legs scrabbling against the ground, it tears into me. Wounds that have been clawed open and healed are widened under its newly empowered attacks. Dealing with the damn cat just because Lana demanded we herd it here once Ali picked it up is annoying.

“Owww! You ready yet, Lana?”

“Done. Don’t hurt it!” Lana calls.

I roll my eyes and toss the kitty cat toward Lana. The animal twists and lands with grace, bunching its legs and snarling at me. Before it can lunge, Lana’s pets ring it while the redhead shifts to put herself directly in front of the animal. Considering the pair of pony-sized huskies are nearly the same size as the evolved tiger, it’s not as unfair a fight as you’d think. And of course, a single look from the tiger is enough to make Anna erupt with flames, fire dancing along her lean, foxy body. Elsa, Lana’s turtle, is no longer with us, having been gifted to a child as a pet due to its inability to physically keep up with us. Says something about the world we live in that a fire-breathing pet turtle is considered an appropriate gift by a tear-filled mom.

“Now there, boy, calm down. We’ve got food for you…” Lana says to the tiger, holding out the piece of meat. Her voice is low, soft, soothing, and almost seductive.

I turn away from Lana and her weird taming session, asking the question that has been on my mind. “So how does a tiger end up so far north? I mean, sure, if it was a monster, it could have spawned here. But a tiger?”

“Someone’s illegal pet?” Ingrid says. The dark-haired First Nation woman is seated on the roof of the truck that she’s pulled over to the side of the road, taking in the sun while she waits for Lana to finish. Who would have known that the woman is a sun-worshipper, being the Assassin/Thief/something sneaky Class that she is?

“A zoo?” Mikito says. The tiny Japanese lady dangles her feet off the edge of the mecha she rides. Mikito’s personal assault vehicle is somewhat different than Sabre, being both lighter and more agile with significantly less armor. Also cheaper. I’m just glad that the System-bought language pack Mikito got for English gave her a slight Japanese accent, rather than something like Australian or Irish. It’s very, very strange to look at a giant, green, tusked alien and listen to him talk in a strong Australian accent.

“Makes sense.” I glance at where Lana is wrestling with the tiger. I never saw her tame Anna, so I have no clue if fighting is supposed to be part of the entire taming process. “You think this is going to take long?”

I receive shrugs in return, so I pull out a bar of chocolate to snack on. A few moments later, I’m handing out bars to the ladies. One nice thing about the System, there’s no more concern about weight loss. In fact, most of the time, we work hard to eat enough calories to handle the stress we put our bodies through. Admittedly, a significant portion of our energy needs are supplied by Mana, that weird all-encompassing thing that makes our spells and Skills work, but we still need to eat. Somewhere out there, I bet there’s some Personal Trainer Class who has worked out the exact calorie and Mana requirements to make the most efficient use of our Level-ups and everyday skills. I just know it.

“Is she going to be okay?” Sam asks from the driver seat of his truck. He’s one of our more recent additions to the retinue since we left Whitehorse.

Behind him, on the flatbed, a group of hunters are carefully watching the surroundings, taking care to not just look around but up as well. In the distance, another hunter is on his way back on Ingrid’s borrowed hover bike.

I could tell them not to bother—Ali’s ability as my Spirit Companion allows him to scan data from the System directly, and my own Skill – Greater Detection -is picking up no major threats currently. But I don’t tell them that for a few reasons. Firstly, constant alertness is a good trait to train. Secondly, what Ali and I consider a significant threat is rather different than these guys. And thirdly, we won’t always be with them.

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Ingrid says, yawning slightly. “Lana’s got a base heal spell she can toss on if things get hairy.”

“Which she’s using on the tiger,” Sam says incredulously, stepping out of the truck. His salt-and-pepper hair and beard suit the man, as does the worn leather coat and easy air of command. Helps when you top six feet. Maybe I’m still a little jealous of people that tall, even if I’m no shortie anymore, not since the System. Whatever he was before the System, Sam was certainly in a post of authority.

My eyes sweep over the convoy of refugees we’ve picked up, most of them whispering furtively as they watch Lana put on her one-woman taming show. The convoy’s a weird mixture of vehicles, most from the early part of the twentieth century since they don’t need the electronics that were inherent in newer vehicles. There are a few exceptions—a Lamborghini that’s been designated as a “personal vehicle” via a Skill, and the minivan that its Mechanic owner modified stand out. Most modern vehicles don’t work well with their electronics fried by the Mana that surrounds us all.

“Probably trying to mollify it,” I say, answering Sam’s unspoken question. “We might be here for a while. Might as well tell them to get out, stretch their legs and have lunch.”

Sam’s the de facto leader of the refugees, being one of the few willing to actually talk to us. I admit, walking in covered in the blood and guts of the monsters that had been laying siege to their town might have something to do with their wariness. I kind of get the feeling the refugees consider us as much a group of monsters as the ones made by the System. Still, they’re with us because staying in their various small towns was a death sentence.

“You…” Sam starts to say but stops as Mikito chuckles softly. After a moment, Sam decides to do what I say, calling out orders to the group.

The hunters drop out of the flatbed and step out of the other vehicles, spreading out to cover both sides of the road while we wait.

“Nice day for a picnic,” Ingrid says, her eyes closed. “Want me to pull some more monsters for them?”

“Sam asked us to stop doing that.” I walk to the edge of the road and dump out some camping supplies, including a camping table I appropriated recently. Even as I begin getting lunch going, I can hear the snarls, growls, and occasional yips of pain coming from Lana’s scuffle. “Something about scaring the kids.”

“Wimps,” Ingrid drawls.

Mikito joins me, helping with prep and getting more than a few envious glances. Since my Skill Altered Space basically gives me an extra dimensional space I can store anything I want in, I have a lot more leeway than most people in what I can drag around. Everyone else has to contend with good old-fashioned luggage or the System inventory option, and the System inventory only works for System-registered items. Which, for the refugees who have never visited a Shop, is nothing.

“Think we’ll make it to Fort Nelson soon?” Mikito asks Ali.

“We’re about a hundred kilometers out,” Ali says. “An hour’s drive if the roads were good. About three with the state they’re in now—if you guys stop babying the children. And if we don’t find anyone else holed up.”

“They need the experience,” Mikito points out, retreading the old argument. “We’ll be leaving them in Fort Nelson after this anyway.”

“If it’s still in one piece,” I add, grimacing at that thought.

We know, thanks to Ali, that Fort Nelson has a Shop, so the chances of there being no survivors is low. Any location with a Shop has a distinct advantage. The ability to purchase System-registered weapons, Skills, and trade loot in for Credits makes a huge difference. The fact that the Shop connection is still present after the grace period of a year means that someone has spent sufficient Credits for the link to be kept up. Not all the locations that had a Shop managed to keep theirs after the first year ended. Based on all this, the town and some of its inhabitants should still be there.

Theoretically. It is an apocalypse after all.

“Hey, watch the meat!” Ingrid calls out.

I quickly flip the steak, realizing I’d begun to overcook it, lost in my thoughts as I was. Right. Time to focus on the important things. Like lunch.

“What was this again?” Lana says, holding up the strip of green steak on her fork before dabbing it in the gravy. The tiger lies curled up next to her possessively, gnawing on a three-foot-long haunch of the same creature.

“Mer… M’r… the green worm mantis thing,” Ingrid says, snagging another piece from the pile we’ve cooked. There’s enough food on the table to feed a hockey team after a game, which is just about enough for all of us.

Lana brightens up as she chews and swallows. “Oh, right! Think we’ll run into any more of them?”

“Hopefully. That was the last of what I had stored,” I say. “I’ll ask Ali to keep an eye out.”

I think toward Ali. Since my Level-ups, our connection has extended quite a distance, allowing the little Spirit to do a lot more scouting for us. Since the Spirit can’t actually eat, I sent him out on a scouting trip. While none of us really expect to find survivors in the middle of nowhere, hope burns eternal. That, and it’s not exactly as if I have to cover the ground. “Hey, Lana wants you to keep an eye out for the green worm mantis things. Maybe drag them back if you see them.”