《Battle Necromancer》 Chapter 1 It was just another normal day for Terry when the world went dark and he got to speak to the Universe. Terry was on a road trip, driving to see his brother. He was on the East side of Nebraska, going West. Traveling in his Buick, jamming to his music. There was nothing but fields for as far as he could see and the traffic wasn¡¯t terrible either, only passing a few cars on the road. He was grateful for the light traffic as he hated driving in rush hour. Terry was driving along, day dreaming when it struck. His car stalling and slamming him against the wheel as it skidded to a halt, stopping in the middle of the road. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw a few other vehicles skidding and swerving on the road as well. One even crashing into the ditch. Same with the ones in front of him. Luckily there was enough space in between them that there were no serious accidents. He went to get out of his car and take a look around when suddenly he felt his head spin and he became light headed. Last thing he knew was his head hitting the steering wheel. When he woke up, there was nothing but darkness. He knew he was awake but he couldn¡¯t see or feel anything. He tried moving his head or even his eyes, everything around him stayed black though. In the distance he could swear there were stars or something shining, casting just enough light to make him feel like he was awake. Trying to move around and look at his surroundings Terry thought he might be in space, if he wasn¡¯t going crazy. As Terry was trying to move and look around, he suddenly felt a slight pressure start building in his head. Or what he figured as his head. When he tried to turn his attention towards the pressure it squeezed his head even more. Wanting to scream as it became more unbearable, he wanted to open his mouth but there was no mouth to open, so he just screamed in his mind. As the pressure built and built, he was on the verge of unconsciousness when finally, it eased up, but he could still kind of feel it in his head. ¡°Hello, young one.¡± An elderly sounding voice said in Terry¡¯s mind. ¡°Hello? Who¡¯s there?¡± Terry thought back. ¡°I am the consciousness of your Universe.¡± ¡°The Universe?¡± Terry asked uncertainly ¡°So, are you the one responsible for what happened on Earth?¡± ¡°In a way, yes.¡± ¡°How so?¡± Terry asked. He had played plenty of games to know what was happening and he wasn¡¯t going to waste the chance to talk to this entity. ¡°Well, every planet in this Universe has a rule. That rule is when the planet¡¯s inhabitants create a certain technological advancement they will be added to the wider Universe, through the use of mana.¡± Terry wasn¡¯t sure how that made sense but he had read things that made less sense. ¡°That doesn¡¯t really make any sense. Will the technology be useless once mana gets involved?¡± ¡°Yes, that is correct but with the use of mana the people of the planet will be able to advance much further than with technology alone.¡± Terry wondered how many people would die because of this change and if any of his family and friends would make it. ¡°What¡¯s the survival rate of the inhabitants when a planet is added?¡± ¡°It depends on the people. I¡¯m estimating your race to have a survival rating of about 11%. That¡¯s after the eighteen-month waiting period though.¡± ¡°11%, That¡¯s it?¡± Terry felt his heart sink at that number. It was hard to hear even with his gaming experience. ¡°I don¡¯t know, humans are pretty resourceful.¡± ¡°Yes, but they also like to war among themselves and are not very good at becoming unified.¡± ¡°I suppose that is true.¡± Terry thought about it for a minute. ¡°Though I¡¯ll still hope for a higher survival rating than that.¡± ¡°With your hope there may be a chance it could be higher, after all it is just an estimate. Now then, I suppose I should let you get to picking your class.¡± With that a list of classes appeared, there had to be hundreds of them. Scrolling through them and selecting a few of them to see what the descriptions were, Terry looked at a few. There were basic classes like rangers, druids, warriors, mages, wizards, thieves, etc. There were also classes the he couldn¡¯t even pronounce and the descriptions were weird. He did notice that he could filter things, like weapons used, armor type, pets, etc. He filtered out a few and looked at them but didn¡¯t really see anything he liked. ¡°I could be any one of these?¡± Terry thought to the Universe. He felt himself get giddy at the thought of being able to wield swords and spells, mostly spells though. He had played most of his Role Play Games (RPG) as a spell caster and loved the idea of being able to sling spells. ¡°Yes, though humans may be better suited to some, more than others, so choose wisely.¡± ¡°Are there any classes that there are limited numbers of?¡± ¡°Yes, there is a list of classes that are unique, only letting a handful of people choose them.¡± With that a new list appeared, this one much shorter, less than one hundred classes. Terry took a look at the list and read a few of their descriptions. Some of them were pretty sweet and looked like they would be really strong classes. He filtered the list to only show classes that only humans could be. That narrowed the list down to five classes, Lich Lord, Star Master, Greater Elementalist, Greater Light Wizard and Battle Necromancer. Terry selected each of them and read their descriptions, each one sounding like they would be badass. The one that really drew him though was the Battle Necromancer. It could do everything, tank, heal, melee damage and ranged damage. In the games he played he always tried to choose a class that was multipurpose. He liked being able to be in any position that was needed. Selecting the Battle Necromancer class brought a message up. Would you like to assign the Battle Necromancer class to yourself? Yes/no. Selecting yes, Terry felt a wave wash through him and what felt like a tingle go up his spine, even though he was pretty sure he wasn¡¯t in his body. Congratulations, for being the first of your species to select a class you have been awarded a boon. Congratulations, for being the first of your species to select a unique class you have been awarded a boon. Reading the two messages Terry felt giddy at the prospects of getting two rewards just for choosing a class. ¡°Congratulations, young one on choosing your class and a unique at that.¡± ¡°Thank you, I think it¡¯ll serve me really well.¡± Terry felt giddy at the class he chose and what he could one day do with it. ¡°Now¡­ I was wondering about pets. I have two cats and a dog; will I be able to use them in battle when things wake up?¡± ¡°There are some classes that use pets as battle companions.¡± ¡°Yes, and I¡¯d really like to have mine as battle companions, even though I don¡¯t think my class uses them.¡± Terry said, he figured he was talking to the thing that could get him advantages and he was going to use to as best as he could. ¡°You are correct that your class doesn¡¯t use battle companions. And I don¡¯t see why I couldn¡¯t do this for you, it has been so nice to be able to talk to someone else.¡± Congratulations, you have been awarded three battle companion slots. They are prefilled with your previous pets. ¡°Wow! That¡¯s awesome, thank you.¡± ¡°You are most welcome, young one.¡± With all the games that Terry had played they had all had an inventory system that allowed for storage of items. Plus, he really didn¡¯t want to have to carry everything in a backpack and get weighted down. So he asked, ¡°will there be an inventory system or will we just have to carry bags and such?¡± ¡°There is indeed an inventory system. Each sentient creature starts out with twenty slots and it will increase by five slots every five levels.¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing only things generated after this will be able to be placed in there?¡± ¡°Yes, that is a drawback but as you level up you will be able to carry more and most creatures use their previous technology less and less as they level up.¡± ¡°Okay, that does make some sort of sense. Is there any way to increase inventory slots other than levels? Or what about inventory bags, ones that can carry even previous world things?¡± ¡°Some classes have inventory skills that can increase the slots they have. As far as bags go there are some though they are rarer.¡± ¡°A bag of holding sure would be a great asset, I¡¯m sure.¡± ¡°Yes, the people who have had them have said as much.¡± Congratulations, you have been given a bag of holding by the Universe. ¡°Wait¡­ What?¡± ¡°I have given you a bag of holding. I am enjoying talking to you and would like you to survive long enough to have another conversation. So, if giving you this bag will help you, I will do that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve enjoyed talking to you as well. Will this be the only time we¡¯ll be able to talk?¡± ¡°For right now, it is the easiest, yes. When you wake up it will be more difficult but still possible.¡± Congratulations, you have been granted the ability to converse with the Universe. Congratulations, for being one of the few sentient creatures able to converse with the Universe you have been awarded a boon. ¡°Mana has almost covered your entire planet so you will be waking up soon. Is there anything else that you might need in order to survive?¡± ¡°Could I get some starter spells?¡± ¡°Yes, that is within my power to do.¡± Congratulations, you have been given 3 Apprentice level spells. Apprentice heal, apprentice firebolt and apprentice ward. ¡°Now it is time for you to wake up.¡± With that Terry¡¯s vision faded to an even darker black and he lost consciousness. Feeling like it was just a second, his mind woke up first. Opening his eyes and then shutting them tightly, he groaned as the sunlight streamed in. Slowly opening them again he lifted his head and slowly looked around. As he did, he noticed a blinking envelope in the lower left-hand corner of his vision. Focusing on it brought up a message. Congratulations people of Earth, you have finally been introduced into the wider Universe. Mana has flooded the planet and everything on it will be changing over the next eighteen months. As you wake up you will be able to select a class (Notice, you will not be able to go past level 5 without choosing a class.) and with that class you will be able to get stronger and live a full and adventurous life, so choose wisely. With that, the message blinked out of Terry¡¯s vision and another message popped up. Welcome to class selection. You have already selected your class, Battle Necromancer. You will get +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom and +1 Strength and 5 unassigned stat points per level. With that the class selection window closed and a new window came up. You have 3 boons would you like to redeem one now? Yes/no. Selecting yes, Terry thought about what to ask for. After a bit he thought he¡¯d see what he could get. So, speaking out loud he asked if he could get +1 to all his stats per level and double the amount of stat and skill points he got per level. After a minute of silence, he thought he might have made a mistake or something but then he got his answer. Your boon has been accepted and granted. +1 to all stats per level and you will get double the amount of stat and skill points per level. You have 2 more boons to redeem, would you like to redeem now? Yes/no. Selecting Yes, Terry thought about what he wanted next. Wanting to be able to get stronger faster, he decided on what he wanted. Speaking out loud he asked to get triple the experience from all sources and four times the amount of credits from all sources. Waiting for the answer he thought about what he might like for his last boon. It wasn¡¯t long before he got his answer.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Your boon has been accepted and granted. Triple experience and four times the credits from all sources. You have 1 boon left to redeem; would you like to redeem now? Yes/no. Selecting Yes, Terry knew what he wanted this time. Speaking out loud he asked for the ability to resurrect any of the dead, with no time limit on how long they¡¯ve been dead. This time thought it took almost five minutes before he got his answer. Your boon has been accepted and granted, with the change that you will only be able to resurrect three times a day. Sighing with relief Terry brought his stats up and looked at them, he had ten unassigned points to put in. He decided to try and even out his stats, so he put three points into constitution and agility and two points into charisma and luck. He then switched to his skills tab and looked at what he had. At the very bottom he had summon bone weapon and summon minion that he could get at level one and connected through a line Just above those was summon bone armor and increase minion health. In between them and just above were leech life and slowing curse, everything else above them was covered in a fog. He had two skill points so he put one into each summon bone weapon and summon minion. His stats and skills looked like so.
Name: Terry Roth Level: 1 Health: 90 Mana: 80 Stamina: 90 Race: Human, Male Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 9 Constitution: 9 Agility: 8 Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 7 Charisma: 6 Luck: 7
Non-Combat Skills: None Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Combat Skills: Summon bone weapon 1 Summon minion 1 Spells: Apprentice Heal 1 Apprentice firebolt 1 Apprentice ward 1
Terry went through all his skills and focused on each. Connection to the Universe seemed like it was just that, a connection to the Universe so they could keep talking. He would have to investigate that more when he had time. Summon bone weapon was a class skill that allowed him to rip and shape the bones of a corpse into a weapon of his choosing. His level determining how much damage the weapon did. Summon minion allowed him to use the corpse of something to summon a minion of the same creature, with reduced stats at lower levels. His spells were a little more forward, Apprentice heal healed a target for fifty health. Apprentice firebolt shot a fireball at a target dealing fifteen damage. And apprentice ward wrapped the target in magic that absorbed fifty damage. They weren¡¯t things that would be powerful, but at the lower levels they should come in handy. Once Terry was done with his stats, he just sat in his car for a few minutes thinking about what had just happened. He almost couldn¡¯t wrap his head around the thought that life was now more like a game, or at least had aspects of a game. He didn¡¯t know what to feel as he was excited, scared, happy, and so much more. He knew he should be feeling more scared right now but he couldn¡¯t. He had played plenty of RPGs to know that this could be a great thing. Plus, with all the technology and stuff offline, it would mean that he wouldn¡¯t have to pay his student loans or credit cards anymore. As of this moment, he was debt free. With that thought Terry looked up with a smile and looked for his first monster to kill. Looking out the windows of his car he looked around and saw the cars that were in front and behind him. Some had movement in them others he didn¡¯t see anything, though that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t still in there. looking to his left, there was a field that was unplowed and there seemed to be creatures in it. From his position they looked fairly big and rat like. Looking to his right he saw pretty much the same thing, though a few more of the creatures. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he then got out of the car and inhaled deeply. Something about the air had changed, he just couldn¡¯t put his finger on what it was. Patting his pockets, he looked for anything that he might use as a weapon. That was when he noticed a bulge on his belt, pulling it around, he took a look at it. It was a black leather and cloth bag that was kind of small, similar to a fanny pack. He focused on it and it came up as his bag of holding. It lessened the weight of any item that was put into it by ninety percent. Readjusting the bag, he opened his back-driver¡¯s side door and looked at what was in the back seat. Terry grabbed his backpack and wished he could put it in his bag of holding. With that thought his backpack disappeared, looking around for it he wondered where it went. It didn¡¯t take him long though and he put his hand in his bag and thought of his backpack. It appeared in his hand. Smiling, he thought his backpack back into his bag. Looking in his backseat he didn¡¯t see anything else that might be useful. Going back to the driver¡¯s door he popped the trunk and went to see what might be useful in there. There were a couple of blankets, some reusable bags, a battery starter and a few other things that he took that might be useful. He also lifted up the center and took out the tire iron. Shutting the trunk, he looked around again and saw a few people out of their cars and milling about. Gripping his tire iron, Terry looked to the fields on his left and right. There were only four of the rat like creatures to his left and about a dozen to his right. So, going for the fewer rats he started walking to his left. The rats were about a hundred feet from the road, so when he got onto the field he slowed down and tried to crouch down, hoping to get into a sneak mode. Luckily the rats weren¡¯t facing him so he slowly walked towards them, trying not to get their attention. As he got closer, his heart was hammering in his chest so loud he thought the rats might hear him. There was one rat that was kind of outside the group, so he angled towards that one. As he got close enough to strike, he took a deep breath and leaped upon the rat creature. Hitting it from a sneak position caused him to get a critical hit and stun it. Even though the rat was stunned the others still whirled around as Terry hit it again and killed it. Seeing them turn around he quickly cast summon bone weapon on the rat corpse. As the skill was cast, he heard cracking and ripping as something bone white popped out of the corpse. Grabbing it he pulled it the rest of the way out, he held a long sword that was about four feet long in total with a three-foot blade. He quickly focused on it and it came up as Bone Sword, damage six, durability twenty. His tire iron had only had a damage rating of 3, so with this sword he should be able to make short work of the rest of the rats. Terry unsheathed the sword and brought it up in front of him. The three rats forming a semi-circle around him. The rat on his left lunged at him and he brought his sword down and across the rat, slicing it in two. While his attention was turned away, the rat on his right jumped and bit his calf. Screaming at the pain he slashed down at the rat, scoring a hit on its back. It let go of his leg and the middle one jumped at him. He reversed his sword and brought it in front of him, blocking the attack. The rat on Terry¡¯s right lunged at him again and he kicked the rat away, plunging his sword into the rat as it fell. Quickly extracting his sword, he turned towards the last rat and cast summon minion on the rat he just skewered. The minion rat coming to life on his right. With that the last rat turned tail and tried to run away, but Terry lifted his hand and shot it with a firebolt. As he looked around at the two bodies, he saw a flashing sword in his vision. Focusing on it brought up his combat log. He scrolled through it a bit and saw his damage output; it wasn¡¯t terrible but definitely not the best. He did see that he had gotten 720 exp from the fight. Going back and grabbing his swords sheath he put it on his belt and sheathed his sword. walking to the bodies he put his hand on one and thought loot, which gained him some rat meat and rat teeth, which he put in his inventory. Turning around Terry headed back towards the road and the other side. When Terry got to the road he looked left and right, looking for the people that had been milling around their vehicles. He didn¡¯t see anyone though. Figuring they must have wandered off he headed towards the dozen rats that were on the opposite side of the road. They were about two hundred feet into the field, so he started walking towards them, his minion following him. As Terry got within twenty feet or so of the pack he went back into a crouch, his rat trying to do so as well. He pulled his sword out and got ready to sneak attack the closest rat. As he got closer to it, he took a deep breath and brought his sword up and struck the rat, killing it in one blow. He readied himself for the rest of the pack but they didn¡¯t turn around. So, he kept in his crouch and waddled his way to the next rat, doing the same as the first one, killing it in one blow. Terry continued to sneak attack the rest of the pack until they were all dead. Then he went around and collected the loot, mostly getting rat meat and teeth, which he dumped in his inventory, luckily the items stacked. Taking a look at his combat log he saw he did twice the damage from a sneak attack, he would have to keep that in mind. He also saw that he had gained 2160 exp from all the rats. Which brought his eyes to the lower left-hand corner of his vision. Bringing the message up it read. Congratulations, you have reached level 2! You have 10 unassigned stat points. Looking at his experience he saw that he was fairly close to level three as well. He decided to put three points into constitution and agility and then four points into wisdom. He also saw he had gained the sneak skill and the sword mastery skill, both of which were level three. Before Terry left, he used summon bone weapon on one of the corpses to get a new sword, cause every little bit helps. When Terry was done, he turned back towards the road and went to his car, he leaned against it and slid down to sit. Looking at his hands they were shaking so much that he could barely control them. Taking a few deep breathes he tried to steady his nerves. When he was fighting it hadn¡¯t seemed so bad but now that he was done he could feel the adrenaline wearing off. After a few minutes of sitting there and breathing he stood up and made sure he had everything that he could use. Then he looked up and down the road and figured he would try and go back home. As Terry made his way back East, he thought it weird that he didn¡¯t see anyone else on the road. He kept his eyes on the fields and his ears open for any sounds of fighting. He made it about a mile before he heard the roar. There was a curve in the road that it sounded like it was coming from. Terry broke into a little run and got to the curve in a few minutes, rounding it he came to see what looked like three minotaur¡¯s running after a dozen or so people. Terry took off at a run and chased them down, once he was within striking distance of the middle minotaur he jumped and slashed at its back, drawing its attention. He ordered his rat minion to get the right minotaur¡¯s attentions and to trail it along until he could get to it. The third one was still chasing the people but with the other two occupied they were in less danger, than they were before. Terry¡¯s minotaur charged at him, trying to tackle him down to the ground and gore him. He sidestepped the charge and sliced the minotaur on its back again and then jumped back. The minotaur turned around and tried to backhand him but he was already out of reach. Focusing on it he saw that it was a level five and had about sixty percent of its health still. Terry circled the minotaur and waited for it to charge again, which he sidestepped again, cutting its stomach this time. It stumbled and went down on one knee. Terry took the advantage and plunged his sword into its back and through its heart, killing it. He then looked around at the other two, trying to decide which one to take care of next. His rat was trailing its minotaur very nicely so he decided to go for the one still chasing the people. As Terry got within twenty feet of the minotaur chasing the people, he let out a yell that felt primal and instinctual, drawing its attention to him. As the minotaur came at him, he brought his sword up in front of him and got ready for it to charge. As it charged, he tried to sidestep it like the last one, but one of its horns caught his arm and flung him around and to the ground. Rolling out of the way and getting up as fast as he could, he faced it again. This time when the minotaur charged Terry whirled around it and sliced its back open, causing it to stumble. He then run up to it and raised his sword up high and brought it down on its neck, decapitating it. Looking around for his rat, he saw it about fifty feet away still trailing the minotaur. Focusing on the minotaur he saw it was down to eighty-five percent help. At least his rat was doing some damage to it. Terry ran after his rat and the minotaur and when he caught up to them, he used his yell again to draw its attention and then ordered his rat to jump on the minotaur¡¯s back, tag teaming it. As the rat jumped on its back it charged Terry, who whirled out of its way, and stuck his foot out, tripping it. His foot hurt after that but he powered through it and sliced the minotaur as his rat chewed at its face. Finally killing it, Terry looked around the area and saw the group of people off in the distance. Looking at his combat log he had gotten 1260 exp from that fight, which means he leveled up. Looking at his messages: Congratulations, you have reached level 3! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 4 skill points. Terry decided to put three points into strength, constitution and intelligence and then one point into luck. Looking at his skills he couldn¡¯t use any of the skill points so he closed out of that and went to loot the bodies, getting a few minotaur horns. He then went to the least damaged Minotaur and cast summon minion on it. It rose as his rat collapsed. He took out his previous bone sword and handed it to the minotaur, who took the weapon and looked at it. Swinging it a few times, it then looked at him and snorted. By this time the people that the minotaur¡¯s were chasing had started to come towards Terry. He waited for them to gather around him, there were about twenty people in the group now. As the group got closer and gathered around him, they all started talking at once. He waited for them to quiet down before talking. ¡°Everyone, just quiet down.¡± Terry shouted. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Someone in the crowd shouted back. ¡°Did all of you read the first message?¡± ¡°What message?¡± ¡°If you look down in the lower left-hand corner of your vision you should see an envelope flashing, focus on that.¡± Terry waited a few minutes as people glazed over and read the messages. He did some deep breathing while he waited and kept an eye out for anything that might attack them as they read and chose their classes. It took about ten minutes for the first to come back out of it. He signaled for them to keep quiet as the rest finished up. ¡°Did everyone pick a class?¡± Terry asked as everyone seemed to be back. ¡°What do we do now?¡± A woman at the front asked. ¡°You can do whatever you want, no one¡¯s stopping you.¡± ¡°Yeah, but what about the monsters? Who will protect us?¡± ¡°If you couldn¡¯t tell already, it¡¯s kind of the apocalypse.¡± Terry scoffed. ¡°So, you¡¯re just going to leave us to die?¡± ¡°Not necessarily, I¡¯m heading back to Minnesota, so if you want to go that way, I guess you could come with me. If you¡¯re wanting to head someplace else, yeah, you¡¯re on your own.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not fair!¡± ¡°Honey, life isn¡¯t fair, especially now.¡± ¡°But we won¡¯t survive.¡± ¡°Then you might want to get a move on and try and find a safe place before all the monsters get too high level.¡± ¡°Ugh!¡± The woman grunted. Terry turned and headed back towards the road, if any of them wanted to follow him they could, but he wasn¡¯t a babysitter. When he got to the road, he looked back to see who had followed him. There was only a handful of people. He started walking East, following the road. He turned and talked while they were walking. ¡°What classes did you all pick?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Robert and Fisherman.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Jeremy and picked Lumberjack.¡± ¡°I took Blacksmith and Richard.¡± ¡°I got Fletcher and my name is Dean.¡± ¡°I got Illusionist and you can call me Pope.¡± The last man said excitedly. ¡°Seamstress.¡± The first woman said. ¡°My name is Sam.¡± ¡°Guard and I go by Izzy.¡± ¡°Enchanter and Penelope.¡± Terry looked back at the one woman who took guard, Izzy. ¡°Is that a combat class?¡± ¡°Not really, I don¡¯t think.¡± She shrugged. ¡°At least it doesn¡¯t sound like it is. It seems more like a defensive class.¡± ¡°Well that may still come in handy. You could always defend the rest of the group while I take on the monsters. Same for you.¡± Terry nodded at the illusionist, Pope. ¡°You may come in handy too, especially if we run into too much trouble.¡± They kept walking, following the road, each in their own heads, thinking about what the coming days would bring. Chapter 2 It had only been a few hours since Terry and his group set off from the others. They had run into quite a few abandoned vehicles on their way East, taking the time to search each one and take what they thought might be useful. They didn¡¯t find a whole lot, mostly blankets, some food and water a few other useful items. Terry kept his eyes and ears open, making sure to keep a close eye on the fields, even though they were all open. It was getting darker out as they moved along and he started looking out for a place to camp for the night. He saw a sign for a rest stop one mile ahead, he told the group they would probably be able to hole up there for the night. Terry pushed the group to get to the rest stop before full dark, there was some complaints about the pace but they made it. The rest stop came into view and it was a brown brick building, with pane glass windows on the front and two glass doors on each end of the windows. As they got to the rest stop, Terry went in first to clear it out. The building consisted of a front foyer with vending machines and a men¡¯s restroom on the left and a women¡¯s restroom on the right. Not finding any monsters in the building he motioned for the rest to come up. Each person had a backpack with some supplies in it, that they got from the vehicles. Jeremy had a crowbar and they used that to pry open the vending machines in the foyer. They could use what was in the vending machines and it should last them a few more days. As the group started in on getting the machines open, Terry went outside and went around the building. Making sure that there were no other places of entry, he also scouted the area. It was mostly open with a few trees and picnic tables, so he should be able to see anything coming at night. When he got done scouting, he posted his minotaur minion to guard one of the doors and he went inside and sat down against the other one. The minotaur would wake him if anything came. As Terry sat on the floor, he tuned in a little to what the others were talking about but only caught snippets of the conversation. He leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes trying to get some sleep while they were up. It wasn¡¯t long before he was asleep, and seemed even shorter when he felt a thrum in his head from his minotaur. Terry¡¯s eyes flung open and he looked around. It was pitch black with just a little bit of moonlight streaming in from the windows. He saw the rest of the group laying around sleeping, he tried to be quiet and got up. Slowly turning around to look out the windows, he saw his minotaur in a ready stance and looking off into the distance. He tried to look out at what it was seeing but didn¡¯t see anything within the darkness. Terry slowly and quietly opened the door and stepped out into the moonlit night. It wasn¡¯t completely dark as there was a partial moon and the stars shining down. He put his hand on his sword and walked over to his minotaur, putting his hand on it as he got close. It turned towards him and snorted, then looked back to what it was staring at before. He caught a glimpse of something out in the darkness from it but couldn¡¯t make it out. Just as Terry was about to leave, he heard something running. Turning to look back he squinted and just barely saw some shadow coming towards them. He drew his sword and got ready, the minotaur raising his own sword. Out of the darkness came a kid, running towards them followed by another and then a woman. They were all followed by about a dozen monsters. ¡°Over here!¡± Terry shouted. Watching as the kids and woman veered towards his voice. He then stepped over to the window and pounded on it, yelling to the ones inside. ¡°Wake up, we¡¯ve got incoming.¡± Without waiting for a reply, he hoped they would wake up but didn¡¯t have time to make sure. He stepped forward and waited for the group of kids to get to them, not wanting to be too far away from the building. The first kid got to him and he pushed him towards the far door telling him to go inside. The others followed suit and he could finally make out what the monsters were. There was a dozen or so of them that were coming towards Terry. They were about a foot tall with fluffy looking fur and wicked looking fangs that shone in the moonlight. As he focused on the closest one it came up as a level six furball. Laughing at the little monsters he stepped forward and met them as they got close. They were short so Terry had to watch his swings as he met them. One jumped at his head and he ducked under it, thinking quickly he cast his ward spell, feeling the magic wrap around him. Just as a second one jumped at his chest and tried to sink its fangs into him but bounced off the ward. He backhanded it, knocking it back, then kicked the next one that was by his foot. The minotaur was swinging his sword back and forth as six of the little monsters swarmed around it. The other six were swarming around Terry as he backed up against the building trying to keep them all in front of him. He brought his sword up and slashed as the next one jumped at him, slicing it in two, but the halves fell to the ground and suddenly there were two furballs in their place. Looking over at his minotaur he saw that instead of six of the little bastards there were now eight. He ordered his minotaur to stop using the sword and just smash them with its hooves or hands. Terry kicked one that jumped towards him and bolted away from the group of monsters. Looking behind him, he saw the furballs following him, so turning around he let loose a firebolt and hit the lead one. Leading them on, he kept turning and firing when he could, slowly whittling them down until the last one fell. Looking over at his minotaur he saw that it had stomped on all the furballs. Going around and looting all the bodies Terry got some fur and sharp teeth, all of which he put in his inventory. Going back to the building he looked around before entering it, ordering his minotaur to keep watch. Looking at his combat log he noticed that indeed they would multiply if cut in two. He also got 5760 experience from the fight. Pulling up his messages he saw: Congratulations, you have reached level 4! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 6 skill points available. Terry put three points into constitution, six into agility and one into luck. Making his stats fairly well rounded. He also couldn¡¯t use any of his skill points so he just saved those, making his stats look like so.
Name: Terry Roth Unassigned Skill Points: 6 Level: 4 Health: 240 Mana:230 Stamina: 240 Race: Human, Male Pets: 3/3 Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 24 Constitution: 24 Agility: 23 Intelligence: 23
Wisdom: 23 Charisma: 12 Luck: 15
Non-Class Skills: Sneak 2 Sword Mastery 4 Commanding Roar 1 Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Class Skills: Summon bone weapon 1 Summon minion 1 Spells: Apprentice Heal 1 Apprentice firebolt 4 Apprentice ward 1
Terry saw that he had gained the sneak and sword mastery skills and had leveled them up a bit. He guessed trailing those furballs had helped level his firebolt some, that should help, since he gained some damage from each of the spells level. After Terry was done looking at his stats he looked around at the people. Everyone was up and milling about, the newest members were being comforted by the old ones. So, Terry sat back down against the door and tried to go back to sleep. All that running around wore him out. The sun was cresting the horizon when Terry opened his eyes and looked around. Everyone was still sleeping and it looked like the women and children were grouped up with the men circling around them. He quietly stood up and opened the door, stepping outside and looking around the area. He saw all the furballs bodies and wondered if they would just disappear or what. Since there were so many of them, he decided to see if he could make weapons for everyone. He walked up to the ones his minotaur had stomped and cast summon bone weapon on the one, pulling a long sword out from it. Repeating the process, he cast it again and again, pulling five long swords out for the men and then daggers for the rest of them. Putting them all in his inventory he went back inside where the group was just starting to wake up. When the whole group was awake Terry asked the new woman what her plans were. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not even sure where exactly I am.¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯re heading to Minnesota, you¡¯re welcome to join us if you¡¯d like. Are those your kids?¡± ¡°No, I just found them when I started getting chased by those fur things.¡± ¡°What about you two, what are your plans?¡± Terry asked as he turned to look at the kids. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± the girl whispered and looked at the boy. ¡°Where¡¯s your family?¡± ¡°They were killed when we were on the road, my sister and I hid while our parents drew the monsters away from us.¡± The boy replied as tears started to form in his eyes. The boy looked like he was ten, maybe eleven, and the girl looked to be about eight or nine. They had a family resemblance so Terry believed them. He wasn¡¯t sure what he was going to do with them but he supposed he couldn¡¯t just leave them to their own. Even if he brought them back to Minnesota with them, they would at least be safe. Or so he hoped. ¡°What classes are you guys?¡± Terry asked the three new people. ¡°I¡¯m a light shaper, can bend light and blind people and such.¡± The woman answered. ¡°I took the thief class.¡± The boy answered. ¡°But I don¡¯t just steal things, it¡¯s more like a rogue.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a ranger.¡± The little girl answered. ¡°I liked that I could have animals and commune with nature.¡± ¡°Well those are all pretty good classes; they should come in handy for you. Like I said you¡¯re all welcome to come with us, but only if you¡¯re going the same direction.¡± ¡°So, you would just leave us if we didn¡¯t want to go with you?¡± The woman asked aghast. ¡°We¡¯ll I¡¯m not a babysitter, so yeah.¡± ¡°Well then I guess I¡¯m going with you.¡± She pouted. ¡°What about you two?¡± Terry asked the kids. ¡°Well we really don¡¯t have any other place to go and we don¡¯t have any close family, so I guess it would be best if we came with you.¡± The boy answered. ¡°Okay, good. We should get going then while the day is still early. We have a long way to go. Also, I got these for everyone.¡± Terry said as he pulled out the first long sword from his inventory and went to hand it to one of the men. ¡°You¡­ Want us to use those?¡± The man asked cringing away from Terry. ¡°They¡¯re weapons, they would come in handy if you needed them. So, yes, I want you to use them.¡± The man tentatively reached his hand out and took the sword. He still cringed when he touched it but the reasoning was sound so he swallowed and put the sword on his belt. Terry handed out the rest of the swords to the men, all of them having the same reaction. Then he pulled out the daggers and handed them out to the women and children, the boy taking his with a smile on his face. ¡°Are you sure you should be handing sharp things to the kids?¡± The seamstress asked. ¡°They may be kids but they deserve to be able to protect themselves as well. Plus, we can teach them while we travel. And they both have classes that daggers will work good with.¡± ¡°I love it, thank you!¡± The boy said and rushed forward and hugged Terry. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. And hopefully I¡¯ll be able to get a bow for you to use soon.¡± He said to the girl. Now that all the weapons were handed out and on their hips, Terry got them moving and back on the road. He thought they were making good time when they didn¡¯t run into any monsters, which was nice. Though they didn¡¯t run into any humans either. He wondered where everyone was at, as it was weird not seeing any people. They peeked in most of the vehicles that they passed and he picked up a few more items they might be able to use. He still hid the fact that he had a bag of holding, so he would secretly sneak things into there when he could. After another day and night of walking Terry¡¯s group got closer to Des Moines, Iowa. He thought they had been lucky that they hadn¡¯t run into any monsters but as they got closer to the city he started to get worried. The terrain had changed around the city, instead of being flat and nothing around, a forest had started to grow up around the city, it wasn¡¯t very big just yet but he thought it would be eventually. They were going to be passing through the city on their way East, so he was thinking the illusionist guy might get some good experience. Just before they entered the city Terry and the group got ambushed by some monsters. They jumped out of the nubile forest and surrounded the group. There were eight of them and they looked like sponges, the green and yellow kind, except they were about four feet tall and two feet wide. They had arms that ended with clawed hands and fans that looked sharp. Terry quickly casted his ward spell and felt the magic wrap around him. Looking around he yelled for the men to surround the women and children. The light shaper and guard though stepped forward and pulled their daggers out. The guards¡¯ skin shimmered and Terry saw magic swirl around her as she cast a spell. The first sponge creature jumped forward and swiped at him, the rest following it. Terry knocked back the one that had jumped and focused on it, it came up as a level nine sponge warrior. Ordering his minotaur to try and get as many of their attention as he could, while he used his own commanding how to draw his towards him. Reaching out his hand he let loose a firebolt at the closest one and heard it sizzle. Turning around he sliced and cut at the sponges, drawing gashes and screams from them. Terry took off, drawing his sponges around the group, turning and firing a firebolt at the lead one and turning and slashing with his sword when they got close. It took a while but they finally got them taken care of, though with a few more cuts and scrapes. As Terry went around and looted the bodies, he got some fangs and claws, but not much else. Looking at his messages as he got done with looting, he focused on them. Congratulations, you have reached level 5! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 8 skill points. Congratulations, you have reached level 6! You have 20 unassigned stat points and 10 skill points. Terry looked at his stats and decided to put five points in constitution, agility and intelligence and three into wisdom and two into luck. He didn¡¯t have much luck in his previous life and if he could change that just by putting a few points into a stat, he would take it. He also looked at his skills, and since he was past level five, he could unlock a few more. He put a second point into summon bone weapon and summon minion. Following those strings up he put a point into summon bone armor and increase minion health. In between those were leech life and slowing curse. Summon bone armor allowed him to rip the bones from a corpse and form some armor around himself. Leech life damaged an enemy and then he absorbed the damage as health. Slowing curse allowed him to slow an enemy by 50% for 10 seconds. All of them seemed like they would come in handy in fights. His stats looking like so.
Name: Terry Roth Unassigned Skill Points: 4 Level: 6 Health: 330 Mana:360 Stamina: 325 Race: Human, Male Pets: 3/3 Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 32 Constitution: 33 Agility: 32 Intelligence: 36
Wisdom: 34 Charisma: 16 Luck: 19
Non-Class Skills: Sneak 2 Sword Mastery 5 Commanding Roar 1 Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Class Skills: Summon bone weapon 2 Summon minion 2 Summon bone armor 1 Increase minion health 1 (Passive) Leech life 1 Slowing curse 1 Spells: Apprentice Heal 1 Apprentice firebolt 5 Apprentice ward 2
After Terry was done looting and checking his stats, he got the group moving again, wanting to be far enough away from the bodies before something came to eat them. As they got in the city limits Terry turned to the illusionist and asked him what he could do. ¡°Well I have a spell that will put an illusion around a three-meter area, but I can¡¯t move from the area.¡± ¡°That should work well for when we camp. What about you light shaper, do you have anything useful?¡± ¡°My name is Tamara.¡± The light shaper woman replied. She was about five foot eight with long black hair and dark skin. She looked like she at least knew how to handle herself.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Okay, Tamara. Do you have anything useful that might help us out?¡± ¡°Not really, I only have one skill and it¡¯s only for me. I can bend the light around my body to become semi-transparent and it only lasts for thirty seconds.¡± ¡°That would be useful for scouting. Anyone else have anything that might be useful on the journey?¡± Most of the rest didn¡¯t have any combat skills, but they did have ones that would be useful. They made it to a gas station that was still mostly intact, so Terry cleared it and they settled down for the night. Having the illusionist put up a simple illusion Terry looked out the windows at the approaching darkness. Looking back at the group, they had grabbed what they could from the shelves and were chowing down. Terry let his minotaur stand guard at the door while he sat down and closed his eyes. He brought his stats up and looked at them, then focused on pets tab. Bringing it up he focused on the first one, pumpkin. When he selected pumpkin, he felt a connection come to life and he could feel him. He got flashes of things, hunger, silence, screams. He tried focusing on the hunger, it had been a few days now since the world went black, and the cats were locked in his apartment. Terry worried about them and if he would get there in time. He focused on Bella then, and got the same feelings. Sighing, Terry closed the connections but he could still feel them a bit. Selecting his third pet, Claire, he reached out to her. This time he got a clearer picture and could make out some words. She was with his parents and was helping them gather survivors. He could also feel that she had grown and was about twice the size she was normally. He told her she was a good girl and to keep doing what she was doing, but to be careful. Closing that connection left a little bit stronger one than the cats, Terry thought that it could have to do with she was being fed and leveling up. Turning his attention back to his surroundings, he saw the group sitting on the floor, chatting quietly. ¡°Do you think anyone is left alive in the city?¡± One of the men asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I don¡¯t really feel like going too far into it. Those monsters that ambushed up earlier were higher levels than us and that was outside the city.¡± Another man replied. ¡°I¡¯m with you, I¡¯m not risking going into the city.¡± ¡°So, what¡¯s everyone¡¯s plans now that we¡¯re close to Des Moines?¡± Terry spoke up. The group turned and looked at Terry, one of the women speaking up. ¡°I don¡¯t know about the rest of you but I¡¯m going with him.¡± She nodded at Terry. The rest of the group nodded in return. ¡°Okay then, we¡¯ll try and skirt around as much of the city as we can tomorrow. Tamara, you should try and keep that camouflage up as much as you can, just in case.¡± ¡°I will keep my shield up as well; in case we get ambushed again.¡± The guard woman, Izzy, said. ¡°Yeah that would be wise. I think tomorrow I¡¯ll see about getting a new minion too. I love the minotaur but he¡¯s only a level five. Now we should all try and get some sleep; the illusion should help us sleep a little better.¡± With that Terry closed his eyes again and tried to sleep. It only felt like it had been a minute when Terry opened his eyes and the sun was starting to shine in. Stretching and groaning he looked around at the rest, he was the first one up. Getting up quietly he grabbed some food and went outside to eat. There was a bench so he sat down and waited for the rest of them to get up. Terry had just finished eating when he heard chittering and chirping coming from up the road. He looked around and figured this might be a good time to do a little hunting. Opening the door, he brought the minotaur out and started heading towards the noise. When he got closer, he ducked into a crouch and started sneaking forward. He peeked around the building corner and saw seven creatures that looked like goblins, standing around a fire. Off to the side he saw cages made of debris and garbage but he couldn¡¯t see what was inside. Trying to focus on the closest one didn¡¯t bring anything up, so he figured he must not be close enough. Looking around, he saw some abandoned cars, so staying in a crouch he ran towards the nearest one. His minotaur trying to be stealthy as well and doing a surprisingly good job at it. Though it was funny watching it try and hide behind a Prius. Terry peeked over the hood of the car; they were still about twenty yards away from the creatures but they hadn¡¯t noticed him yet. There was another vehicle between him and them, so he rounded the car and headed for it, they were now about ten yards away. Making sure he had his ward spell up, he peeked around the vehicle and shot a firebolt at the closest one. The firebolt hit his target and they all spun around to look at Terry. Terry focused on it and it came up as a level nine goblin. The one he hit started running towards him, raising its sword and yelling. Terry stepped out from the vehicle with his own sword raised and waited for it to get to him. He was able to fire off one more firebolt before it got to him, when it did it swung its sword and he blocked it with his own. Kicking out with his foot, he knocked the little guy onto its butt and then plunged his sword into its chest. Pulling the sword out, Terry brought it up and blocked a strike from the next goblin. Getting a sword in his left side for his efforts, he ordered his minotaur to come up behind them and start in. He quickly cast his heal spell and back handed the goblin that had struck him. Pulling back his sword then pushing forward with it he knocked the goblin off balance and then swung his sword across its chest, cutting it deep. He didn¡¯t have time to finish it off, as another goblin came at him from his right and he jumped back from it. Looking around him Terry saw his minotaur pummeling goblins in the back, it looked like it was taking a beating as well. Using his commanding roar, he drew all the goblin¡¯s attention to him. Gripping his sword tightly, he swallowed and stepped into the goblins, swinging like a madman. He felt his sword connect more than a few times but he could feel his ward getting hit as well. It was at this time that his mind went to the fact that he actually didn¡¯t know how to use the sword, he was just going on what he had seen in movies and anime. Terry felt his ward spell shatter and with a thought he targeted one of the downed goblins and cast summon bone armor with a crack and rip he was suddenly encased in bone armor, covering his chest, legs and arms. He still had about twenty seconds left on his ward spell cooldown so he started to back away from the goblins and keep them fighting one on one. While their attention was on him, he could see his minotaur slashing at the backs of the goblins. It took them nearly twenty minutes to kill all of the goblins, but they finally got them. There was a trail of bodies all over the road, it looked like a massacre, but Terry and his minotaur looked just as bad. His bone armor had cracked and chipped in places and both their swords were nicked and down to single digit durability. Going around to the bodies he quickly looted them and then cast summon bone armor on one, summon minion on another and summon bone weapon on the rest, getting a long sword for himself, a couple bows and quiver of bone arrows and a dagger for his new level nine goblin minion. After Terry was all done summoning weapons and armor, he went over to the cages and looked inside. What he saw was not pretty, in one cage there was a man looking like he was tortured. He was curled up in a ball and mumbling about something. His hair and pants were a mess and he was missing his shirt, his torso cut and bloody. Terry cut the chain and opened the door, then moved to the next one. It was a similar scene but with a woman and she seemed to be even more out of it. Neither one of the people moved, even after Terry had moved off a ways. They were too broken by this new world and he didn¡¯t feel like taking them with and caring for them, especially with how unresponsive they were. He knew they were someone¡¯s mom and dad but knowing that they were like this just made it worse. Going back to the cage with the man in it, he knelt down and put his hand on him, the man pulling away from him. The woman did the same thing. Sighing, Terry knew what he was going to do. He couldn¡¯t leave them and he couldn¡¯t take them with. He went to the first cage and pulled the man out and pushed his blade into the man¡¯s chest, then doing the same with the woman. he said a few words for them then turned and went back to the gas station. Knowing he did the right thing but still feeling sad for them, he decided not to tell the rest of the group what he¡¯d done. As Terry headed back to the gas station, he saw a message blinking in his vision. He focused on it and brought it up. Congratulations, you have been awarded the title of Slayer of the Innocent. With this title you will do 15% more damage to innocent¡¯s and +100 reputation with certain races. Well crap, this ought to be good. Terry thought and focused on the title, hoping he would be able to hide it or something. Would you like to hide your title? Yes/no. Yes. Know this, creatures with higher levels or certain skills may be able to see your titles even when hidden. Well that should help a little at least. Terry thought. Getting to the station he looked at the illusion that covered it, it was pretty good. No one would even give it a second thought unless they knew. Going inside he found the rest of the group awake and eating, they all started when they saw his new goblin minion. Going over to the little girl, Susan, Terry pulled out the smaller bow and a quiver of arrows. Handing them over to her he told her to take them and start practicing with them. She took the offered gifts and hugged him, smiling as she did. He helped her strap the quiver onto her back and showed her how to attach the bow when not in use. ¡°Okay, everyone, are we ready to head out?¡± Terry asked as he stood up. ¡°Yeah! I¡¯m ready to kick some ass.¡± Susan shouted and lifted her bow. Terry laughed and patted her on her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be plenty of ass to kick today.¡± Grabbing a map Terry opened it and started looking to see what the best path to take would be. There seemed to be some back roads that would take them mostly around the city, hopefully there would be less monsters going that way, but he wasn¡¯t too convinced. The group grabbed what they could for food and water, Terry sneaking some into his bag of holding and then they took off. Taking the road to their right would avoid the scene he created earlier. Taking it slow and steady they tried to make as little noise as they could, while making the best time as well. Though it wasn¡¯t too long before they came upon a single rat that was only a level three. Terry took care of it quickly and quietly and they continued past. That scene happened again and again, at least a dozen times, each time Terry took care of them. Congratulations, you have reached level 7! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 6 skill points. Terry quickly put five points into constitution, three into wisdom and two into agility, then turned his attention back to the road. They made a little better time after the twelfth encounter but that didn¡¯t last long, as they came upon a group of eighteen or so goblins encircling a group of humans that were fighting them off. The humans were holding them off but they were taking a beating as well. Terry stopped the group and had them head off the road a bit and hunker down. He told the illusionist to put something up and he made sure Tamara watched out for any stray goblins or monsters. Susan wanted to go with him, but since she was a lower level and didn¡¯t have any practice with the bow, he was afraid she would do more damage to the humans than to the goblins. Once they were as safe as they could be, Terry took his goblin minion and headed towards the ring. Getting there he crouched down and snuck up behind the closest goblin since they were all focused on the other humans. Striking the goblin, he then stood up and cut it again, killing it. After that he ordered his goblin to attack and he also waded in and started hacking and slashing any goblin that came within. Making sure to keep his leech life and slowing curse up as much as he could as well. With Terry and his goblin¡¯s entrance the circle of goblins broke and the ones closest to him turned and started for him. That also gave the humans the courage to push forward and attack the goblins with fervor. Terry had six of the goblins on him and when he focused on the next one he attacked, it came up as a level ten goblin. He could feel their clubs and swords hit his wards and when that finally broke, he felt them cut into his skin. Though luckily, he had his armor on so his chest was mostly protected. When they had finally taken care of all the goblins everyone was out of breath and a few of the humans were down. Looking around him, Terry sheathed his sword and started to loot the bodies around him and where his goblin had been. He and his goblin had killed twelve of the things so they had more bodies to loot. As he went around, he also cast summon bone weapon and got himself a new long sword and a new dagger for his goblin and repaired his bone armor. When Terry was done with looting and the weapons, he turned towards the humans. There were eight still standing, three were tending to the wounded and there were five that were already dead. ¡°Do any of you know any healing magic or something to help them?¡± Terry asked as he walked over to them and indicated the wounded. ¡°No, we don¡¯t.¡± A man said as he stepped forward between Terry and the rest. ¡°Well I do, if you¡¯d like me to take a look at them for you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s alright, I think we can handle it.¡± The man stepped forward more, stepping up on Terry. ¡°Maybe you should just leave.¡± Terry caught the man glancing at his goblin and took the hint. ¡°Alright fine, have it your way.¡± Terry turned and started to walk away when a woman rushed up to him and grabbed his arm. ¡°Please, don¡¯t listen to him, we could really use your help.¡± Terry turned and looked at her, her face was dirty and tear streaked. She was about five foot four with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. He let her drag him back to the man that she had been tending and he cast his heal spell on him until he was fully healed. His wounds had closed and stopped bleeding but he still looked like he had taken a beating. He then went and did the same for the other wounded people. ¡°Thank you for that. I don¡¯t think we would have survived if you hadn¡¯t come along. I¡¯m June by the way.¡± ¡°Victor, and you¡¯re welcome, it was lucky I had been passing through and I could always use the experience. Will you guys be okay, now that the goblins are gone?¡± ¡°I¡­ I think so.¡± June said and looked around at the group of people. They were all dirty and looking like they had seen better times, though at least they still seemed to have some fight left in them. ¡°Be careful then. There¡¯s lots of new and dangerous things out there.¡± Terry turned and walked away, going back for his own group. He looked at his messages and read them while he walked. Congratulations, you have reached level 8, you have 10 unassigned stat points and 8 skill points. Congratulations, you have rescued survivors from certain death. You receive 2,000 experience. (6,000 exp total). Congratulations, you have reached level 9, you have 20 unassigned stat points and 10 skill points. Terry quickly put eight points into charisma and luck and four into agility. He looked at his skills and saw he had unlocked two new ones, slowing curse extension which added ten seconds to the curse and leech life compression which made leech life last one less second which dealt the damage faster. Closing out his stats he got back to the group, they all wanted to know what happened. Terry quickly gave them a rundown of what happened and the group he rescued, then they got on their way. It was already past noon when they started up again and he was worried about how far they would get before dark. He was right to worry though as they didn¡¯t get too far before monsters started coming for them. Terry urged the group on ahead and he turned around and started shooting firebolts at the closest ones as he continued to run. Luckily, they could keep ahead of the monsters that were chasing them and his firebolts whittled them down. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t take the time to stop and loot the bodies but as long as he kept them at bay, he wasn¡¯t worried about the loot. Terry lost count after three dozen monsters fell to his firebolt, but they were still coming and he was still firing as much as he could. They ranged from level five to level eleven and it didn¡¯t seem like they would stop anytime soon. After a while the group finally came to rest stop area and the monsters seemed to be thinning out. Terry urged the group to get inside as fast as they could, while he kept shooting firebolts at them and waited for them to get to him. There were a dozen monsters that reached him, ranging from level six to ten. They attacked him all at once and his goblin jumped in to help him. They fought, side by side, hacking and slashing and cutting their way through the bastards. When Terry killed the last monster, he looked around and it was almost dark out. He didn¡¯t realize that they had been running and fighting for that long but he was glad it was over. Walking around he looted the bodies and repaired his armor and weapon, also getting some more bone arrows as well. He didn¡¯t get much from the loot but he would take what he could get. He wanted to try and start using his bow soon too, and also let Susan practice with hers as well. Terry brought up his messages then: Congratulations, you have reached level 10, you have 10 unassigned stat points and 12 skill points. Congratulations, you have reached level 11, you have 20 unassigned stat points and 14 skill points. Congratulations, you have reached level 12, you have 30 unassigned stat points and 16 skill points. Terry quickly put ten points into constitution and agility and five points int charisma and luck. And finally, since he was level ten now, he unlocked his other skills. He put a point into each of them, making his stats look like so.
Name: Terry Roth Unassigned Skill Points: 4 Level: 12 Health: 600 Mana:600 Stamina: 580 Race: Human, Male Pets: 3/3 Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 56 Constitution: 60 Agility: 60 Intelligence: 60
Wisdom: 61 Charisma: 41 Luck: 46
Non-Class Skills: Sneak 3 Sword Mastery 9 Commanding Roar 1 Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Class Skills: Summon bone weapon 2 Summon minion 2 Summon bone armor 1 Increase minion health 1 (Passive) Elemental bone infusion 1 Summon minion army 1 (Passive) Corrosive coating 1 Summon goliath minion 1 Leech life 1 Slowing curse 1 Leech life compression 1 Slowing curse extension 1 Minion leech life 1 (Passive) Slowing curse AOE 1 Party leech life 1 (Passive) Slowing curse reversal 1 Spells: Apprentice Heal 7 Apprentice firebolt 14 Apprentice ward 9
Terry went into the building and saw the group sitting all huddled together. They all turned and looked at him as he closed the door and slid down the wall, having his goblin watch outside for anything moving. ¡°Well that was interesting.¡± Terry chuckled. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever ran that much in my entire life.¡± The lumberjack said. ¡°Me neither, I thought I was going to die a few times there.¡± Susan said. ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t have let that happen.¡± Terry replied. ¡°Do you think we¡¯re past the city yet?¡± The seamstress asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I wasn¡¯t paying enough attention while I was fighting but I hope so. I don¡¯t know if I could do another day of fighting and running again, especially without a break.¡± ¡°Well with how many monsters there were, I¡¯m not sure stopping and fighting would be an option.¡± Tamara chimed in. ¡°That¡¯s something we can worry about tomorrow, let¡¯s try and get some rest. I¡¯m tired.¡± With that the group settled down and tried to get some sleep, Terry fell asleep almost as soon as his eyes shut. He had dreams of stars and blackness and flashes of pain and hunger. When he opened his eyes in the morning, he felt hunger pains like he hadn¡¯t felt before. Reaching out to his connections for his pets he felt his cats barely moving and starving, having eaten all the food available as they had grown some over the last few days. His dog though was big, almost the size of a Shetland pony and bounding with energy. She was still helping his parents protect the survivors they had saved and there were still more coming in daily. Wishing he could make it to them sooner, he knew all he could do is trudge along and get there when he got there. Hopefully getting strong enough to handle most things on his way there. Getting the group up and moving took some work, as some of them didn¡¯t want to get up and were sore from all the running the day before. When they finally got, moving, the sun had already risen and was already heating up the day. They moved as fast as they could while trying to be quiet so they would attract less monsters. After what Terry thought was about an hour, they passed a sign that said Des Moines was ten miles away. Thanking his lucky stars they were past the city he had the group pick up their pace. When the sun got to be high in the sky, it felt like it was in the eighties and it was starting to take a toll on the group. There still wasn¡¯t much cover along the road and things were still fairly flat as they made their way East still. They had only met a handful of creatures this day and they were easily taken down by Terry and his goblin. When they came upon a row of trees, Terry called for a break and they all went to sit beneath the shadows of the trees. They were small cedar trees but they gave some good cover for them. As they broke out the food and drinks, Terry looked around and thought it would take them forever to get back to his place. Terry looked at Tamara as she was sitting with the kids and talking with them. She looked up and met his gaze, tilting her head indicating she wanted to speak with him alone. He moved off to the side and she followed. ¡°I don¡¯t know about you but this heat is killing me and it¡¯s not doing any favors to the kids either.¡± Tamara said. ¡°Yeah, I was just wondering if it might be better to try and travel at night. The only thing is that I don¡¯t know what kind of creatures we might face during that time.¡± Terry replied. ¡°That is true but if you keep pushing these people any further, you¡¯ll have to wait for them to recover from heat stroke or fatigue or something.¡± ¡°Good point. If we did travel at night do you have any light spells or skills that might help fight back the darkness if needed?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve gained a couple new skills that might work.¡± ¡°Really? Have you been leveling up?¡± ¡°We all seem to get a fraction of experience from your kills.¡± ¡°Huh, must be a party thing then. And I also think you¡¯re right, or at least we will try not to travel during the hottest part of the day. Hopefully that¡¯ll help with not wearing everyone out so fast.¡± ¡°I think that will work better besides I think we will only have to wait four or so hours while the sun is high and then be able to travel again. And with my new skills the dark won¡¯t be so bad either.¡± ¡°Okay everyone, we¡¯ll stay here for a while until the sun starts going down. Try and rest and catch your breath. Susan, once you¡¯re rested up come see me.¡± Terry raised his voice as he gave instructions. They all sighed with relief and tried to get more comfortable, some falling asleep while others talked amongst themselves. After about ten minutes Susan came up to Terry. ¡°You wanted to see me?¡± ¡°Yes, I think while we wait to get going again, we should have you practice with your bow. I know I could use some practice as well.¡± Terry said and he got out his bow. Susan got hers out as well and she got a quiver of arrows our and put it on. Terry looked around the area for a good target but didn¡¯t find anything. He did think he might have something they could use in his bag, so he secretly put his hand in and thought of a list of what was in it to take a look. The only thing that he had that might work is a blanket, so pulling it out he tied it to the trees and stepped back about ten yards. ¡°Okay Susan, go ahead and take a shot and let¡¯s see how you do.¡± Susan pulled an arrow from her quiver and put it on the right side of the bow and attached it to the string. She tried to pull the arrow back but it kept falling to the side. ¡°Here, let¡¯s try this.¡± Terry said and knelt down switched the arrow to the left side, just above her hand. ¡°That way you can use your fingers to keep it in place while you draw it.¡± After that, Susan drew the arrow back and let it fly. It wasn¡¯t a bad shot, though they were only ten yards away from the target. The arrow hit the blanket and fell to the ground. Terry told her to try again, this time she put the arrow on the left side and drew it back better than the first time but she was still a beginner. He told her to just keep shooting arrows and try and get a feel for pulling an arrow out, notching it, drawing it and shooting. They could work on aiming later. Terry and Susan kept shooting for over an hour and only stopped when Susan said her fingers hurt. After they collected the arrows they could find they went back to the group and sat down. Thinking this might be a good time for some experimentation, he sat down and closed his eyes, concentrating on his link to the Universe. Hello¡­ Universe? Ah, young one, it is good to know you are still alive. You mean you can¡¯t tell I¡¯m still alive? I could if I wanted to, it¡¯s just that I have a lot of other things I need to concentrate on. Oh, that makes sense. I guess I was just contacting you to see how you were doing and to get some information on a shop or something. Ah, yes, that would be useful information for you. Well, everyone is able to access the shop and get basic supplies that are still useful. In order to get a shop with better items and access to the wider Universe there is a shop seed that is available but isn¡¯t usable until level ten and it can only be planted in a safe zone. That¡¯s all that needs to be done? Yep, that¡¯s it. Well that¡¯ll make things easier than. Are the seeds expensive to buy? Not too expensive, a few hundred credits. So, what designates a safe zone? A safe zone is designated when monsters haven¡¯t passed through the area for 24 hours but that¡¯s only temporary ones. To create a permanent safe zone, you must create or take over a town, at any level, and secure it. That will then keep the mana at bay which will keep monsters from spawning inside it. At least until it gets overrun or taken over by someone else. That¡¯s encouraging. That¡¯s just the way it works. This has been most informative, thank you. I think that¡¯s all I have for now. Keep up the good work. You¡¯re most welcome and yes, I must be going as well, lots to do. Opening his eyes, Terry looked around, the sun seemed to be on its way down and the rest of the group was lounging around. Taking some food and drinks out of his backpack he nibbled on it and thought about his conversation with the Universe. He opened his inventory then and looked to see about his credit situation. Surprisingly, he had quite a lot, though thinking about it he did get four times the credits, times that by all the creatures he¡¯s killed. With that knowledge Terry closed his eyes and looked for the connection to the basic shop. He found it easily enough when he was actually looking for it, though he could see how it would be hard to find if one didn¡¯t know to look for it. He thought there really should be a tutorial or something when this shit happened. Terry got into the shop and started looking around it, the Universe was right this was just basic gear. He did find some clothes that he bought and put into his bag of holding and a few shop seeds. Other than those things there wasn¡¯t much that interested him but he did look around some more to see what else it had. He wondered what the safe shop would have, it would probably be a while before he got to find out. ¡°Okay everyone, let¡¯s get up and get moving.¡± Terry said as he got up and dusted himself off. Terry took the map out and looked to see where they were. His best guess was that they were about twenty-five to thirty miles outside Des Moines, Iowa and they still had a long way to go to get to Minnesota. Though at least it was mostly a straight shot up now. Chapter 3 It took Terry and his group about three days to get to Albert Lea, Minnesota. Having to stop during the middle of the day to keep the fatigue down and avoid heat stroke, not to mention the times they had to stop and fight creatures. Terry had to have killed over a hundred of them, ranging from levels six to sixteen. Making his stats look like so:
Name: Terry Roth Unassigned Skill Points: 16 Level: 18 Health: 920 Mana:890 Stamina: 860 Race: Human, Male Pets: 3/3 Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 80 Constitution: 92 Agility: 82 Intelligence: 89
Wisdom: 90 Charisma: 63 Luck: 68
Non-Class Skills: Sneak 12 Sword Mastery 21 Commanding Roar 1 Bow Mastery 12 Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Class Skills: Summon bone weapon 4 Summon minion 4 Summon bone armor 2 Increase minion health 2 (Passive) Elemental bone infusion 1 Summon minion army 1 (Passive) Corrosive coating 1 Summon goliath minion 1 Leech life 2 Slowing curse 2 Leech life compression 2 Slowing curse extension 2 Minion leech life 1 (Passive) Slowing curse AOE 1 Party leech life 1 (Passive) Slowing curse reversal 1 Spells: Apprentice Heal 18 Apprentice firebolt 24 Apprentice ward 17
When Terry saw the golden arches come over the tree tops in the early dusk light, a little hope sprung up in him. The last few days had been rough, having to camp out in the open and keep watch. Resting during the day had helped some, but he was getting tired. When they finally got to the ramp that led to the truck stop, they could see cars in the lot and on the road. It looked like a ghost town though with how silent it seemed. They hurried down the road as the sun faded from view. Terry stopped just outside the building as he thought he saw movement inside. Pulling out his sword and getting his minions ready he knocked on the door. Not hearing anything at first, he tried again and tried to open the door, it was barricaded from the inside. ¡°Hello? Anyone in there? We just need some shelter for the night.¡± ¡°Do you really think someone is in there?¡± Tamara asked. ¡°I think so. I thought I saw movement and the door is barricaded from the inside. Plus, I¡¯d rather not have to break the door down if I don¡¯t have to.¡± ¡°Yeah, it would be nice not to have to keep watch for a bit.¡± ¡°No kidding.¡± Terry said and knocked on the door again. This time he definitely saw someone inside. ¡°I know someone is in there, I can see you. We just want shelter.¡± ¡°Go away.¡± Someone shouted from inside the building. ¡°No, we¡¯re not going away and I will break this door down if I have to.¡± Terry heard some mumbling coming from inside and then saw someone reveal themselves and come towards the door. Moving things out of the way they unbarricaded the door and opened it. Standing in front of Terry was a girl no older than sixteen. She had long brown hair and brown eyes standing at about five-foot two. ¡°Fine, you can come in and stay the night but you have to stay away from the rest of us.¡± She said and looked at Terry¡¯s minions. ¡°They have to stay outside though.¡± Terry turned and looked at the creatures, one was a purple fox with three tails and the size of a saint Bernard and the other was a red and black scaled kobold that was about four feet tall with a three-foot tail ending in spikes. ¡°That¡¯s alright, they¡¯ll stand outside and guard the place for us.¡± ¡°Whatever, just get in here so I can barricade the door again.¡± Gesturing for the group to go inside Terry ordered his minions to watch for anything coming towards the building. He took one last look around and went inside with the rest of them and then helped the girl re-barricade the door. Moving over to where the girl indicated he joined his group. ¡°Would it be possible to get some food or something to eat?¡± Terry asked the girl before she turned and left. ¡°I thought you just wanted shelter?¡± She replied. ¡°We do but if you have any spare food it would be much appreciated.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ask but don¡¯t get your hopes up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all we ask, thank you.¡± Terry watched the girl go and then turned back to the group, watching as they settled down and got comfy. He went and looked out the windows and watched as the darkness set in. Terry wanted both his minions to be watching out for things, but he also didn¡¯t trust the people inside that much either. So, he had his fox make sure to keep an eye on the inside and warn him if anyone came near them as well as keep an eye looking out. Terry sat down in the corner facing into the store, looking around his group was laying down and relaxing, as much as they could. Before he knew it, his eyes were closed and he had already drifted off. Terry woke up from a prick in his mind from his fox minion, meaning something was coming. When he opened his eyes, it was still dark out though with the moonlight he could make out someone coming towards them. They stopped in front of him and it was the girl from before. She looked down at him and then out the windows, he could see her face fall at what she saw. Terry felt the vibrations first and when he stood up, he looked out the window as well and what he saw made his face harden. He thought he could at least rest for a night but no, the world just didn¡¯t want him to. Standing up he went and woke Tamara and Izzy up, pointing out the window he watched their faces fall as well. ¡°Looks like we won¡¯t get to fully rest tonight.¡± Terry said to them and then walked to the barricaded door. ¡°They won¡¯t be able to get in if we just stay quiet.¡± The girl whispered. ¡°This has happened before?¡± Tamara asked. ¡°A couple times, yeah. They usually just pound against the walls for a couple hours and then they leave.¡± ¡°No one has tried to fight them off?¡± ¡°None of us are high enough levels or have good combat classes to even think about fighting them off.¡± ¡°Well we do have combat classes and we¡¯re going to take care of them.¡± Terry said and started to take the barricade down. ¡°No!¡± The girl almost shouted and tried to stop him. ¡°They¡¯ll get in.¡± ¡°No¡­ They won¡¯t, we won¡¯t let them. And you can barricade the door when we go out.¡± The barricade came down and Terry opened the door and the three of them stepped out into the night, his minions gathering around him. Drawing their weapons, they moved out away from the building about ten feet and casted their buffs and waited for the monsters to reach them. It felt like an eternity waiting for them to get there but they didn¡¯t want to wander too far away from the building. As the monsters came into view Terry readied his sword and started casting his firebolt. Lighting up the night his firebolt streaked across the air and slammed into the lead monster. It was a troll about seven feet tall, and from what he could tell it had green skin and orange hair and it was pissed. He continued to shot his firebolt at it as it continued to run towards him, the rest of the group getting ready for the tidal wave of monsters. As the front line of monsters got within striking distance of them, Terry cast is AOE skill and slowed what monsters down that he could. Terry ducked under a swing from the troll and sliced into the monster¡¯s thigh before blocking a swipe that it took at him. Luckily his corrosive coating stopped the trolls accelerated healing from kicking in and he scored another hit on the troll¡¯s stomach. The troll kept swinging at him and he almost got hit a couple times but with his enhanced stats it was somewhat easier to dodge. After Terry took the troll down, he moved onto the next monster, and then the next. They fought for what seemed like hours, but was probably no more than thirty minutes. When they finally killed the last monsters, they took a look around and saw the carnage that was their fight. Going around to the bodies they looted them, not getting much for items but got some crafting things. Taking the time to move as many corpses as they could off to the side, so hopefully nothing would come to scavenge too closely to the building. After that they made their way back inside, Terry¡¯s minions staying outside like before. The people inside coming out of hiding as the group moved away from the door. ¡°Thank you for that. They have been a nuisance from the beginning.¡± An elderly man said as he came up to Terry. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll give you some food for what you¡¯ve done.¡± ¡°That¡¯s very kind of you, though if we could get that in the morning, I¡¯m kind of tired after all the fighting.¡± ¡°Oh, sure sure. Rest well then, we¡¯ll talk more in the morning.¡± With that Terry and the other two moved over to where the rest of their group was and settled back down to get what sleep they could. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking about how much the world has changed in just a week. Except he¡¯s been happier in that week than he ever felt back in the old world. Finally feeling the darkness creep up and slip into his mind he fell asleep to the sounds of everyone¡¯s breathing. The next morning when Terry woke up the sun was already up and shining. He stood up and stretched, rubbing his eyes and looking around, he saw the rest of the group up and about and the other people moving about as well. Reaching into his backpack and pulling out something to eat, he made his way over to the elderly man.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Morning.¡± ¡°Ah, good morning to you as well, did you sleep well.¡± ¡°Well enough.¡± Terry said and started eating what he had grabbed. ¡°Hopefully having that horde taken care of will help you guys out. Has anyone tried venturing out towards the town or looking for any other survivors?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it will help out. And a couple people did in the first couple days but since they haven¡¯t come back no one else has ventured out.¡± ¡°Well, you may want to think about it, since you¡¯ll run out of food eventually and you should try and level up while you can. Maybe now that the horde is taken care of there will be more single monsters that you guys can take care of.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, of course but for now though we have plenty of food and water.¡± ¡°Well, just something to think about then.¡± Terry said turning and looking at his group. ¡°We should really get on our way though; we still have a lot of ground to cover.¡± ¡°Ah yes, of course. Let me get you some food for the road.¡± The man said, then turned around and left Terry standing there alone. Turning around and heading back towards his group, Terry went up to them and told them what the old man had said. After about ten minutes they gathered their things up and got ready to get back on the road. As they gathered at the door to leave, the old man came up to them with a couple bags of food and drinks for them. Saying their goodbyes and everyone thanking everyone, the group left and started back up the road. It was still early morning and the sun was shining down with a lite breeze blowing to help keep them cool. As they walked down the road Terry took the time to check his stats and realized he had leveled up a couple times since they fought the monster horde. He was now level twenty, making his stats look like so.
Name: Terry Roth Unassigned Skill Points: 8 Level: 20 Health: 1000 Mana:1010 Stamina: 960 Race: Human, Male Pets: 3/3 Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 92 Constitution: 100 Agility: 94 Intelligence: 101
Wisdom: 98 Charisma: 67 Luck: 72
Non-Class Skills: Sneak 12 Sword Mastery 23 Commanding Roar 6 Bow Mastery 12 Abilities: Connection to the Universe Resurrection Class Skills: Summon bone weapon 5 Summon minion 5 Summon bone armor 3 Increase minion health 3 (Passive) Elemental bone infusion 2 Summon minion army 2 (Passive) Corrosive coating 2 Summon goliath minion 2 Leech life 2 Slowing curse 2 Leech life compression 2 Slowing curse extension 2 Minion leech life 2 (Passive) Slowing curse AOE 2 Party leech life 2 (Passive) Slowing curse reversal 2 Spells: Apprentice Heal 18 Apprentice firebolt 24 Apprentice ward 17
As Terry looked at his stats, he hoped that the luck stat was something that actually helped him, seeing as how it was getting higher with each level. He was also excited that he could have another minion now too. That would definitely come in handy as the monsters seemed to be getting higher in levels as well. When the group stopped to take their afternoon break, Terry and Susan took out their bows and practiced with them. Over the last few days Susan had been taking some shots at monsters as they charged towards the group. She had been getting better from it but Terry still wasn¡¯t sure she was ready to be in a battle just yet. Bradley, the boy thief, had also been training some with Izzy, the guard. They had wanted to try and get stronger after the first day of Terry being the only one that could fight against the monsters coming for them. So, the days continued like that, Terry and Susan would practice with their bows and Bradley and Izzy would practice with their daggers. It took them about three days to get close to Minneapolis. As they got closer, they had to start being even more careful because the sights they saw scared even Terry. There were columns of black smoke all around and roars as well, yet they couldn¡¯t see anything. They did hear plenty of screaming and yelling, mostly from humans Terry figured. ¡°Are you hearing that?¡± Tamara asked as they heard the first high pitched scream echo around them. ¡°What the fuck was that?¡± Robert, the fisherman asked. ¡°Someone screaming, probably running from a monster.¡± Terry replied ¡°We should try and help them.¡± Sam, the seamstress, said. ¡°Are you kidding me?¡± Izzy said. ¡°Do you know how many monsters were in Des Moines? There¡¯s probably that many plus more around here. We would get slaughtered.¡± ¡°As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with her. We¡¯d be no match for that many monsters, even with Terry.¡± Tamara chimed in. ¡°Look, anyone that wants to go and try and save those people is more than welcome to go but know this, I won¡¯t be going with.¡± Terry said. ¡°But¡­but.¡± Sam stammered. ¡°It¡¯s just the way it is. I can¡¯t save everyone. At least not yet.¡± With that the group moved on with Sam lingering a while longer than the others. Terry looked back at her and could see that she was hating that she wasn¡¯t able to help the people. They took their time moving through the suburbs of Minneapolis, only fighting creatures when they had to. The creature¡¯s levels had gone up as well so Terry was working harder to fight them. The one good thing was that he wasn¡¯t the only one fighting them now, Tamara and Izzy were helping out as well. And Bradley and Susan helped out when they could and helped protect the group when they couldn¡¯t. Making their way up highway 494 took them longer than Terry would¡¯ve liked, but to keep themselves hidden it was a must. As they made their way up the highway, they ducked into underpasses and bridges when they rested, at least two people would keep watch at all times, as they were still hearing screams and roars. Terry took most of the watches and slept the least, he knew the others were starting to get capable but he still wanted to be ready if anything should pop off. When the group finally got to the 494/694 merge, the group was dead on their feet. At least now that they were getting out of the bigger suburbs though they should be able to rest a little better. If it weren¡¯t for Terry¡¯s minions though they would all be sleep deprived even more so than they were already. It took them another three days or so to even get to Albertville, killing a more mobs of monsters as they walked on, getting Terry to level twenty-two. He put five points into strength and agility and ten points into constitution, cause having more health is always good. As the group was making their way past the Albertville mall, they heard a scream pitch out from nearby, making them all turn, because they hadn¡¯t heard as many screams since leaving getting onto the 694 highway. When they turned to see where it was coming from, they saw a group of people running down the road towards the mall. The group was being chased by a group of monsters that, from the distance, looked like giant stick bugs. And there were a lot more of the bugs than there were of the humans. ¡°Are we going to leave them too?¡± Sam asked sarcastically. ¡°No, we can help them. Just because we had to leave some people doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯ll leave everyone and you could¡¯ve stayed and helped them if you really wanted to.¡± Terry snaps back. ¡°And what could I have done? I don¡¯t have a combat class.¡± ¡°That¡¯s my problem? You think just because I have a combat class, I¡¯m supposed to help everyone I see.¡± ¡°No but you could¡¯ve at least tried.¡± ¡°And I would¡¯ve most likely been overwhelmed and killed if I had, then where would you be?¡± ¡°Stop arguing you two. We better move before those people get eaten.¡± Tamara said stepping between the two. Terry scoffed, turned and started jogging towards the group being chased. He looked back and noticed that Sam was the last to get moving. They jogged down the ramp and then turned right on the road, they were still about a half mile away from the group being chased. When the group being chased got closer to the mall they turned and started running on the sidewalk in front of the shop doors. Terry could see them trying each door, which only slowed them down and let the bugs catch up to them faster and If they made it to them it would be close. The group finally found a door that was open and they all rushed into the store, closing the door just as the first bug got to it and started hammering on the glass. It was only about thirty seconds before Terry and his group finally got to the bugs and laid into them. Terry cast his slowing curse AOE on the bugs first, catching most of them in it. Susan started shooting the ones in the middle with her bow while Bradley, Izzy and Tamara spread out on the right side, with Terry and his minions taking the left. The group made short work of the bugs and when they were finished and the rest of them were going around looting, Terry went up to the door and knocked on it. ¡°Hey, you in there, it¡¯s safe to come out now.¡± Terry waited a minute, then pounded on the door again. Cupping his hands, he looked inside but didn¡¯t see anything moving. Whatever, he thought and walked away and started looting his bodies, summoning weapons as he went. When he finished looting, he went back to the door, knocking once more. When no one came up again he tried the door but it wouldn¡¯t open. So, turning he started back towards the highway. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Sam scoffed. ¡°We saved them, that¡¯s what you wanted isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Well, yeah but what about now? We can¡¯t just leave them.¡± ¡°I knocked on the door and said it was safe to come out. No one did. They don¡¯t want to come out, that¡¯s their choice. They¡¯re at least safe for now.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m not leaving them to their fate.¡± ¡°Fine, then stay with them.¡± Terry said and started towards the highway again. Not looking back Terry kept walking, and whoever followed, followed. It wasn¡¯t his job to babysit these people, especially if they didn¡¯t want to come out. He was really starting to dislike Sam too; she was going to get him or someone else killed if she kept acting the way she was. When he got to the ramp leading up to the highway, he glanced back to see who was still following him, to his surprise Sam was at the back. Rolling his eyes, he started up the ramp, they were getting close to his place and he wasn¡¯t looking forward to what he¡¯d find when he got there. He hadn¡¯t been able to get a connection with either Pumpkin or Bella for a couple days now. They didn¡¯t make it to Monticello before dark but it wasn¡¯t too much later when they did. As they got to the first exit and looked over the town, it was dark except for some fires spread around the town. Terry didn¡¯t like the look of it but they were so close now. They walked down the ramp and came to a stop light, looking both ways they crossed the road and continued into the Target parking lot. Going up to the doors and looking in he didn¡¯t see anything; it was completely dark. Pushing on the doors to open them they walked quietly inside and he drew his sword, just in case. Luckily, they had some lighters that helped light the place up, if only a little bit. Terry knew the place, to the left were the registers and to the right was the produce and food isles. Staying to the right he led the group to the food isles so they could replenish their stores. He led them to the isle with canned goods, since they would last the longest. He loaded his bag of holding up with some more food than his backpack and just in case someone tried to steal their food. When they had loaded up as much as they could he led them back out the way they came. Then started back up the road to his place, it was only about a mile to his apartment but it seemed like it took them hours to get there. When the group go to his building, a three-story white apartment building, there were no lights or anything on in the windows, that they could see. There were garages on their right that they skirted around and got to the main entrance. Luckily Terry still had his keys but with it being night out they decided to just stay I the entry way and go check it out in the morning. Terry took the first watch, which allowed him to sneak into the building after everyone was sleeping though he left his minions to guard them. He snuck up the stairs going to the third floor, using his lighter to light the way a bit he slowly made his way down to his apartment, 308. Taking his keys out and unlocking the door, he cracked it and the stench that hit him made him recoil and almost slam the door shut. He took a minute to take a few deep breathes and then inhaled deeply before opening the door, going in and closing it. With his lighter he could make out a little of the place, though it mostly looked the same but it was kind of a mess. To the right of the door led into the dining area and the kitchen, which was strewn with items that had been on the counter and table. Making his way through the mess he came upon a giant feline body the size of a tiger. Squatting down he held the lighter above it and looked at it, it was white with brown and black spots. Holy shit, it¡¯s Bella Terry thought as he stroked the cat¡¯s body, feeling bad that he hadn¡¯t been there for them. He closed his eyes and reached his mind out for his resurrection ability and cast it, watching as a faint golden light surrounded her body and after a couple seconds faded away. He watched as she took a breath and lifted her head, he stroked her a few times and she purred, even though it was weak. He pulled out some meat he had saved just for this reason and put it in front of her, then walked over and grabbed a dish, pulled some water out of his bag and emptied it into the dish. He brought the dish over to her and set it down next to the meat, splashing some of the water into her mouth, her tongue lapping it up. Terry stayed like that helping her drink some water and then tearing some meat off and putting it in her mouth while she slowly chewed. After about five minutes of that he remembered he had a heal spell and quickly cast it on her, watching her as the magic seeped into her. He quickly cast again and again watching her get better with each casting. After he used all his mana to heal her, she tore into the meat much better than she had before. He pulled another piece out and left it for her and then he went and looked for Pumpkin. Terry found Pumpkin laying on the bed under the blankets. He threw the blankets back and stoked his fur before casting resurrection on him. When he saw the cat¡¯s head move and his lungs fill, he started casting his heal on the cat. After emptying his mana on him as well, he put some meat in front of him and then went and got a dish to put some water in. Letting them eat and drink their fill he went around the apartment and opened the windows and balcony door to let the stink out. After about thirty minutes the cats were doing much better and even walking around some. Terry made sure to pet them and play with them some before telling them he would be back when the sun came up and would get them out of there soon. Once he was done with them, he made his way out the door and locked it again, then headed back down to the entry way and quietly got back to the group. Terry stayed up the rest of the night and thought about how things had changed in just a few weeks. With his higher stats he was able to get by on less and less sleep, which came in handy for when creatures attacked the group. The others seemed to be needing less sleep as well but still not as little as him. So, when the sun started rising up, he got the group up and ready. Everyone was getting better at getting up so it didn¡¯t take them long to get ready and moving. The group entered the building and swept it one floor at a time, checking each apartment as they went. Luckily, they didn¡¯t find any monsters but they did find some dead animals, cats mostly. By the time they got to Terry¡¯s apartment everyone was sick of the smell and wanted to get out. Terry unlocked his door and opened it, the smell was still stronger, but not as strong as when he opened it the first time. When he walked in Pumpkin was the first to come around the corner and pounced on him, scaring the rest of the group, Tamara and Izzy drawing their weapons. ¡°Stop!¡± Terry¡¯s muffled shout escaped from under the giant cat. ¡°Ah, are you alright?¡± Tamara asked warily. Terry pushed the big cat off him and got up. ¡°Yeah, he was just excited to see me is all. Guys this is Pumpkin and that¡¯s Bella.¡± Terry pointed at the big white cat coming through the dining area. ¡°Aww, so cute!¡± Susan squealed and wrapped pumpkin in a hug, then grabbed Bella when she came close and hugged her as well. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they¡¯re still alive after all this time,¡± Izzy said. ¡°Yeah, everything else in this building was dead, how did they survive.¡± Richard said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how they did it, I¡¯m just glad they¡¯re alive.¡± Terry replied. ¡°Well now that we found them, can we get going. This smell is getting to me.¡± Sam butted in. Terry took a few minutes to gather up a few clothes and some items he wanted, notebooks, pens, rope, some oils, you know things that might be useful. After he was done, he got Susan off the cats they went down stairs and outside. The group was outside and Terry was leading them towards the highway that will lead them North. When they got to the intersection, there was a Holiday store across the street that looked like it was trashed and dark. The group had enough food to last them a few days so they didn¡¯t bother to stop and restock. Instead they turned North and headed to Big Lake. Chapter 4 It only took the group about an hour to get to Big lake and when they came into the town, they heard shouting and yelling around the curve in the road. Picking up their pace Terry lead the group towards the sounds. Coming around the curve they saw a group of monsters surrounding a group of humans. Looking around to make sure there weren¡¯t any stragglers, Terry had Susan and Bradley take the group and hide behind a building. He then took Tamara, Izzy and his minions and ran towards the monsters. Terry cast his slowing curse aoe on the monsters before they got to them. He had his minions spread out and Tamara and Izzy by his sides when they met the back of the monster group. All three of them swung into the group taking a few of the monsters by surprise and breaking their ring enough for the group of humans inside it to start fighting back. Terry ducked a swing by a standing pig monster and lashed out with his sword, striking a pony sized hyena that was about to strike Izzy. Blocking the blow that it reacted with, he sliced into the hyena¡¯s neck and kicked it back, just for it to meet Izzy¡¯s dagger in its eye. He blocked a blow that would have knocked Tamara back and kicked the monster in the balls. When it bent down he cut its head off and kicked it back into the rest of the monsters. It went on like this for a while until all the monsters were dead, the group that was surrounded covered in blood and panting. Tamara and Izzy started going around looting the bodies while Terry walked over to the ones they had saved. There were two men and three women standing there. ¡°Thanks for the help stranger.¡± The man closest to Terry said. ¡°Names Jason.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome Jason. My name¡¯s Terry, that¡¯s Tamara and Izzy.¡± Terry said pointing to the two women. ¡°Do you know any healing magic?¡± A woman asked as she supported the other man. ¡°I do.¡± Terry cast his healing spell on the man until he was healed up. After Terry was done healing the man one of the other women came into view then and bent down to loot a body. She was maybe five-foot six with shoulder length brown hair and nice tan skin, that was covered in blood. When he saw her his heart sped up and his stomach dropped. When she was done looting her bodies she stood up and looked at him, she had amazing sky blue eyes. Terry licked his lips and tried to think of something to say. ¡°So, um, which way are you guys heading?¡± ¡°We actually just met, they were coming from the East and we were running from the North when we got to this intersection.¡± The man that was wounded said. ¡°My wife¡± He indicated to the woman who had supported him ¡°and I are heading West.¡± ¡°What about the rest of you?¡± ¡°We tried to make it North but got over run and chased from Elk River.¡± The woman that caught Terry¡¯s attention said as she came forward. ¡°What about you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to make it up North as well. The rest are just following me.¡± ¡°Well where else are we supposed to go?¡± Izzy said as she came up to them. ¡°I¡¯m not complaining, I¡¯m just saying.¡± ¡°So, you guys are heading North as well, huh. How far?¡± ¡°I¡¯m heading to Grand Rapids. I have family up there.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the North is pretty dangerous so you might not like what you find up there.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m tough. Izzy would you go get the rest of the group.¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± As Izzy walked away, Terry left Tamara to talk with them and he went and looted his bodies and got some more weapons and picked up a new minion. He got the hyena monster, the standing pig monster and one that looked like a giant walking porcupine. When he was done he walked back to Tamara and Izzy was walking back with the rest of the group. ¡°So, you guys are welcome to join us if you¡¯d like.¡± Terry heard Tamara say as he came up beside her. ¡°Thanks, I think we will join you. They want to try and get to Atikin and I¡¯m not sure where I¡¯m going just yet.¡± The woman who caught Terry¡¯s eye said. ¡°Her name is Lena.¡± Tamara leaned over and whispered in Terry¡¯s ear. Terry blushed a bit as he cleared his throat. ¡°And what about you two?¡± Indicating the couple. ¡°We have family over in Saint Cloud so we¡¯re going to go there.¡± ¡°Okay, I hope you find them and they are alright. As for the rest of us, we should get going before it gets too dark out.¡± With that they bid farewell to the couple and started off down the road. With the information that Elk River had been overrun and the other group hadn¡¯t been able to get past them. Terry decided to try the back roads. They made pretty good time going the back roads and other than a few stray monsters it was pretty quiet. Which made Terry¡¯s neck hairs stand on end. As they walked Terry took a look at his messages and combat log. He had gained 28260 exp from that last fight. Congratulations, you have reached level 23! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 14 skill points. With that Terry put five points into constitution and intelligence then closed his stats page. He did notice that he was close to leveling up his firebolt spell, he wondered what kind of improvement it would get once he did. He also wanted to know when he could get more spells. He hadn¡¯t really looked in the basic shop for spells, he might have to do that when they stop one time. As Terry came back to the present, he heard Izzy and Lena talking off to the side and Susan was riding on Pumpkin. Nothing big attacked them but they were still on high alert. It took them most of the day to get to a nice spot on the road to Zimmerman where they could camp for the night. It was a parking lot for access to a hunting area next to the road. It was surrounded by a fence and then mostly open area around that, so they would be able to see most things coming at them. They settled down to eat in a large circle. The ladies sitting and talking while petting the giant cats and the guys just munching while resting. Once Terry was done eating, he wandered off a bit and laid down to get some rest so he could be on watch that night. With his higher stats he needed less sleep than the others and so he was the one who usually took watch. Though sometimes one of the others helped keep watch, if they couldn¡¯t sleep. When Terry opened his eyes, it was already dark. Tamara was up keeping watch and sitting by the fire. ¡°Hey sleepy head.¡± ¡°Hey, I miss anything?¡± ¡°Not really. Just discussed some plans and learned some more about the new people. They were coming from South Dakota heading to some family up North here.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s cool. They tell you anything about their classes?¡± ¡°Not really, just that Tammy was a javelineer and Lena was an elemental archer.¡± ¡°A jalelineer and elemental archer?¡± ¡°Yep. From what I can tell the elemental archer sounds just like it is, an archer that shoots arrows imbued with elements. The javelineer is a little harder to describe, but it sounds like she can create javelines and throw them with pretty good accuracy and power.¡± ¡°Huh, interesting. It would be nice to have some more ranged power.¡± ¡°Yeah, and maybe someone to help Susan train some more.¡± Tamara said and yawned. ¡°Well, I¡¯m tired so I¡¯m going to bed.¡± ¡°Okay, sleep good.¡± Terry said and threw some wood on the fire. Watching as Tamara went and laid down Terry walked outside the firelight and started walking the perimeter, passing his minions as he did. He couldn¡¯t believe they had traveled so far just by walking and everything they¡¯d seen was unreal. He kept watch and thought about what he wanted to do once he got to his parent¡¯s place. Since his goal was getting closer, he would need a new one soon.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Before Terry knew it light was starting to stream over the horizon. With the light coming up he decided his minions could keep watch now so he connected to the basic store to see if they had any other spells he could buy. He had been putting that off for a while now and he was getting tired of just using firebolt. When he was in the store he searched for spells and found six different ones, though three were ones he already had. The others were apprentice frostbolt, apprentice shock and apprentice push. They were each only one hundred credits so he bought the three spells he didn¡¯t yet have. Closing the store connection Terry got up and started waking the rest of the group. While they roused, he went and gave each of the cats some food and poured some water into a bowl he had. He then pulled some food out for himself and started to eat. Once everyone had eaten they got on their way. Traveling down the road the women chatted quietly with the kids while the men talked amongst themselves. Terry was out in the lead with one of his minions, the other two were guarding the rear and the cats flanked him. This time Susan wasn¡¯t riding on Pumpkin. As they neared the town of Zimmerman they looked around at the houses and saw that there were doors torn off their hinges and places that had caught fire. When they got further into the town, they saw stores with busted windows and products strewn over the ground. They did stop at a grocery store to restock some supplies but they did it quickly. The group silently signed with relief when they made it through the town without running into anything. Though for Terry that was also troublesome as it meant there were probably no humans left there. Getting back onto the highway they turned left and started heading North. They didn¡¯t quite make it to the town of Princeton before night fell, so they found a flat spot off the road and settled down for the night. Terry opened his eyes and they felt heavy; a lot heavier than they should have. He also had a splitting headache and the light hurt his eyes. Groaning as he sat up, he felt something under him. It was bars. His eyes snapped open and he looked around through the pain. He was in a cage made of wood and bones. He saw the rest of the group in similar cages but they all seemed to be unconscious still. ¡°This one be awake.¡± Terry heard a guff voice saw off to his right say. ¡°What want done with him?¡± ¡°Leave him be for now,¡± a more sophisticated voice said. ¡°The master will be wanting to view what we caught when he gets here.¡± Looking around some more Terry saw a fire off to his right and sitting beside it was a giant of a creature. He couldn¡¯t see who had answered the big thing but he knew there was at least two of them there. He wondered how they had managed to capture all of them without him or his minions noticing. Though he could figure that out later, right now he needed to get out of the cage. He didn¡¯t feel any of his weapons on him so they must have taken them, but he did feel his bag on his belt. Terry slowly reached into his bag of holding and pulled out a bone dagger. He tried to cast corrosive coating on it but he didn¡¯t feel the release of the spell like he normally did. Cursing under his breath he started to try and cut the ropes that held the cage together. After about five minutes, he was still sawing at the ropes with none of them being cut. He stopped what he was doing and put the dagger into his boot. ¡°Hey, ugly.¡± Terry shouted at the big thing by the fire. Terry saw its head turn to look at him, ¡°what puny human want.¡± ¡°Shh, don¡¯t talk to him,¡± the sophisticated voice said. ¡°What puny human gonna do,¡± the big creature laughed and then stood up, he had to be over ten feet tall and six feet wide. The creature turned towards Terry and he could see what looked like the torso and head of a small child sticking out of the creature¡¯s chest. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything stupid now.¡± The child like tumor said in a sophisticated voice. Terry couldn¡¯t help but cringe at the sight. He could feel the ground shake a bit as the big creature walked towards his cage. It squatted down in front of him and he could just make out the features of the thing on its chest. It had gray leathery skin and was bald with warts on its scalp. He couldn¡¯t quite tell what color its eyes were but he guessed they were black from how dark they looked in the firelight. It smiled at him and its jagged yellow teeth showed and his skin crawled. ¡°Master won¡¯t miss puny human.¡± The big creature spoke and its breath hit him the face, almost knocking him down. ¡°No, the master will notice. You will not touch him or any of the others.¡± ¡°What do you want with us?¡± ¡°The master want puny humans for fun stuff.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± ¡°What fun stuff?¡± ¡°No, you won¡¯t get any information from us. Now go back and sit down you big oof.¡± The big creature groaned turning around and headed back to the fire. Terry stood there watching them then turned his attention to the bindings on the cage. They looked like plain rope bindings but obviously they were something more. Along with the fact that he couldn¡¯t cast his skill was worrying. His skill wouldn¡¯t work but he wanted to try his spells so he tried casting each one and all of them failed as well. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on?¡± Tamara asked groggily. ¡°Apparently we got captured.¡± ¡°What? How?¡± ¡°I have no idea right now and these cages are special, I can¡¯t cast any of my spells or skills.¡± ¡°Well, shit, that¡¯s not good.¡± Terry heard more groaning and the rest of the group started waking up. The big creature looked back at them as he heard them all moving but just went back to doing what he was doing. Even when all the guys started shouting at him. ¡°Hey, let us out of here.¡± ¡°Why are we in here?¡± ¡°Hey fucker, you let me out of here or else.¡± The threats and shouts continued for almost twenty minutes and Terry just kept trying to think of a way out. He was getting tired of them shouting and the big creature must have too. The big creature reached forward grabbed a log from the fire and hurled it at the cages, knocking one of them on its side. Terry sat down after that and when he did, he felt his bag of holding. I wonder Terry thought as he put his hand on the cage and thought to put it in his bag. With that thought the cage disappeared and he was standing in the open. Quickly crouching down so as not to be seen he quickly and quietly moved over to the cage with Tamara and Izzy. He put his hand on the cage and it also disappeared. ¡°How¡¯d you do that?¡± Izzy asked. ¡°Shh!¡± Terry shushed her. ¡°Let¡¯s take this guy down so he won¡¯t hurt anyone else.¡± ¡°What about weapons?¡± ¡°Here.¡± Terry reached into his bag and pulled out a couple of daggers, handing them to the women. ¡°Hey, What about us?¡± Lena whispered. Terry thought about it and figured why not. He went over to their cage and put it in his bag. Bringing a bow and a quiver out he handed them to Lena. ¡°Sorry I don¡¯t have any javelines.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay, I can make my own.¡± Tammy said and materialized one into her hand. Terry went over to the cage with Pumpkin and Bella and released them. They were still a bit groggy but they got up in a crouch and moved in with him. They all spread out with Terry and his cats in the middle. He cast his slowing curse on the big guy and it was on. Tammy and Lena were next, they each shot and threw their weapons hitting the creature in the back as it moved slowly to turn around. With that the cats moved in to rip the ankles with Terry and the girls moving in after. Terry focused on the big guy and found he was a level thirty with his health going down slightly with each attack. Izzy and Tamara went to work with their daggers trying to stay at his back. Terry went around to the front of the creature and swung his sword at the child like tumor but it moved and ducked away from his swing. He stepped back and fired off a firebolt at the tumor hitting it in the face. Stepping back in he thrust his sword at the belly of the creature. Pulling the sword out he started swinging and cutting it. It took them about ten minutes to kill the creature. When the big guy went down, they were glad that it was over but when they turned around to go free the others, they heard laughter. When they all looked back, they saw the big creature roll over and the tumor pop up. They heard cracking and ripping as the tumor seemed to absorb the big guy it was attached to. When it had absorbed everything, it stood about four feet tall with big feet and had green skin. ¡°Now it¡¯s my turn.¡± It screeched and thrust its hand out at them. With that the ones that were closest flew back ten feet. When they got back up Terry cast slowing curse on the little guy and ran forward. He swung his sword and hit an invisible barrier. He moved around so its back was towards the others. It was small enough where it was hard for everyone to attack it at once. Even the ranged women had a hard time hitting it. As they kept dealing damage Terry could see cracks forming on the barrier. As the group kept hammering on the barrier it finally shattered, throwing the group back again. They got back up and started attacking the little guy again. This time though their attacks were cutting into it. With its barrier down it didn¡¯t take them long to cut it down. When they finally killed the creature Terry¡¯s head felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off it without him even knowing it was there. He went and looted the body and then cast summon minion on the creature. When the skill was complete the body of the little creature rose up. He figured it must be more of a magic user, which may come in handy if it has mind magic. Going over to the other cages Terry put them all in his bag. He kept moving so as not to have to answer any questions about how he got out. Now that everyone was out he took a look around to try and figure out where they were. ¡°Hey over here,¡± Izzy said. ¡°I¡¯ve found our things.¡± Izzy was standing next to a large chest, just like the ones you would see in a movie. She had it open and was digging through it. Once everyone gathered around her she started handing out their things. ¡°There¡¯s a lot more stuff in there than just ours it looks like.¡± Tamara said as she looked in the chest. ¡°Yeah, we probably weren¡¯t the first ones that thing attacked.¡± Terry added. ¡°I wonder where all the others are then.¡± ¡°That thing mentioned something about a master. So, I would like to get out of here before they get here.¡± ¡°You¡¯re probably right, should we look for where we camped?¡± ¡°No, as long as we got our stuff we should just try and get back on the road as fast as we can.¡± Once everyone got their items back Terry went over to the chest, closed the lid and put it in his bag of holding. ¡°Dude where did you get that?¡± Bradley asked coming up next to him. ¡°It was a gift.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so sweet! Do you think I could get one?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I think there may be a way to get one but I¡¯m not sure how. Though they¡¯re probably expensive.¡± ¡°Aww.¡± ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get going.¡± Terry said and started off towards where he thought the road was.