《World Fusion-When A Fantasy World And Earth Combine》 Prologue To: Denizens of Earth From: God Date: October 21, 2018 Subject: World Fusion Dear denizen of Earth I am giving you a formal notice to advise you that the world you are familiar with will be going through a drastic change. Earth as you know it has reached the breaking point where It can no longer tolerate the abuse it has endured. In order to counteract the destruction of my most precious creation, I will need to combine it with another world also on the brink of destruction. The world I am combining it with its known as Mystova, it is the equivalent of what you would call a fantasy world, where creatures such as goblins, orcs, and dragon reign. Humans were also a part of Mystova, but they went extinct due to decisions of their own making. To prevent that from happening again I will enact a level and job class system so Humans can grow stronger as they triumph. I will also grant you the ability to request three skills, I will grant you one of the skills requested. No skills will be repeated, it will be first come first serve. Skills to take other skills are forbidden. Also please be advised that all Material that can further cause irreparable damage will be removed. That includes but not limited to Fossil Fuels, Nuclear material, and gun power. You have five minutes to decide. 1. 2. 3. The worlds will begin fusing at midnight. Complete fusion will take twenty-one days. Best regards, God. "What a weird chain text, but If I had to choose my three choices would be 1. Extremely fast leveling 2. Multiple jobs 3. Augment Reality Send." Tonight, I was up to my usual habits, I came home from work showered, ate, and was now reading a book on my phone when a weird chain text popped up. I responded because it was pretty interesting, and it was a situation I read about a lot. The chance to start life over in another world. Of course, the more privileged people out there wouldn''t be interested in something like that, but as for me; someone who recently outgrew the foster system and was now on his own it would be a golden opportunity. DING! My phone rang again with another message from the source claiming to be God. Jordan Cain Requested received, first response bonus acquired for being the first denizen to respond to the message. All the skill request will be given as a reward. To confirm skills, open status screen by thinking it in your mind or simply saying "Status." Please be aware the monsters will get stronger each day they are assimilated into one world. Make the necessary arrangements for your safety. Hopefully, this will be the golden opportunity you seek.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Yours Truly "What...how...?" I was mystified by two things in that response. First was the first line. Who is doing this and how do they know my name.? Second was how did this person know about the golden opportunity comment I thought to myself just moments ago? I didn''t really know anyone, a matter of fact I knew absolutely no one. I just relocated to this area a few weeks ago. I live in South Florida with some rather vile foster parents until my eighteenth birthday. I bounced around a few shelters before I found a job in a more rural area of central Florida as a storekeeper for one of those military surplus stores. My job benefits included the use of the small attached apartment in exchange for pretty much being on call 24/7. I reread the message again to make sure my eyes weren''t deceiving me before I timidly decided to "Status" Name: Jordan Cain Level:1 Job: HP: 25 MP: 18 Attack: 8 Defense: 8 Magic Affinity: 0 Magic Def: 6 Speed: 8 Dexterity: 14 Job Points: 10 Skill Points: 100 My stats boxed popped up in my mind, it was as clear as reading a sheet of paper in my hand. "My stats don''t look very awe-inspiring." I was talking to myself of course not that I actually knew the significance of what each number meant, but all in all the numbers didn''t seem very large. Except for the skill points, I had one hundred of those. No Skills Available "This is all very strange." Those words appeared in the mind of my mind while I was looking at my skill points wondering what to do with them. With that, I change my line of sight the Job Points. Jobs Available: Thief (2), Apprentice Swordsman(3), Beast Trainer(4), Apprentice magician(4), Brawler(1), Healer(2), Farmer(1), Laborer(1) "Ok, I think I get it now I have to choose a job before a skill will be available." I''ve read a lot of books where situations like this happen and the protagonist makes a stupid decision and waste his skills on the most senseless things. Fortunately, the skill I requested from God, the ability to have multiple jobs was now present in Occupationalist. It granted me the ability to wield three jobs. "I only have three minutes left before the set time, I need to make a decision quickly I don''t know what will happen after time runs out." I think two of my three will be Beast trainer and apprentice magician. With no fossil fuels that means no gas. Means of transportation will become an issue. Taming some kind of Steed to be my wheels and companion will be of great help. In a fantasy world magic is usually a very versatile, and finally ill think ill go with Thief. I don''t have any weapons apart from a kitchen knife. Usually,thievesare the ones the most adept at using those kinds of weapons and sneaking around undetected, which in a world of monsters will be of the utmost importance. "submit." Increase to MP, Magic affinity, Magic defense, speed, And Dexterity. Skills Available. Bonus skills available for choosing a job prior to the deadline. "Yes! That''s what I''m talking about!" Choosing a job increased my base stats and opened skills for me to choose from. **Storage**(40), **Appraisal(20)**Body Strengthening(5); Poison Resistance(2); Paralysis Resistance(2); Fear resistance(2);Increased Endurance(1); Blade Skill(2); Burn Resistance(2); Casting skill(5); Low Tier Earth Magic Lv 1(10); Low Tier Fire Magic Lv 1(10); Low Tier Water Magic Lv 1(10); Low Tier Wind Magic Lv 1(10); Fear Resistance (2); Attentive Hearing(5); Sneak(5); Hide(5); Detect Life(10); Danger sense(5); Taming(10); Mount Riding(5) Note: **Bonus Skills** Will no longer be available once the time is up The Skills list was a lot longer than I expected it to be but these were the skills I was considering mainly at the moment. Upon seeing the note I quickly decide to use skill points on the storage and appraisal skills and it cost me a grievous amount. Though if the skills worked the same way here that they do in the books I''ve read they will be well worth it. Now I only have forty points remaining. With my Remaining forty I decided onBody strengthening, Earth Magic Lv 1, Casting skill, Taming, Blade Skill, Danger sense, Paralysis resistance, and used my last job point on increased endurance. I felt like that combination makes me the most well rounded. Once I submitted everything clicked. I felt all the skills I added in every cell in every corner of my body. It became a part of me, the system integrated with me as easy as my respiratory system. GONG GONG GONG My house went black all my electricity was off, even my cell phone was off and it was fully charged prior it this. "So this is the beginning of the end." The time came, and three loud consecutive gongs marked the change of the world as we knew it. The Beginning Once the last gong hit the screams outside started ringing through the night, I knew I didn''t have time to dilly dally. I quickly readied myself to go on the move. My Apartment wasn''t the safest place. Actually, if I stayed here I was fairly confident it would be my coffin. It''s not in the best area, the walls are thin, one way in one way out, and very meager food supply. "Dammit, five minutes isn''t a lot of time to prepare for the end of the world, God." Well technically he gave us twenty-one days, but who cares about technicalities at a time like this! I ran to my closet and threw on some pants and a shirt with my sneakers, I had a feeling I was going to spend some time on my feet. "I''ll try my storage skill and try and take everything I can." Once I submitted on the skill I had a decent grasp on them all, I knew space was pretty much limitless and exactly how to use it. Anything I was within ten feet of all I had to do was think about it being stored. Within a minute I had all the things in my bedroom stored including my bed. "Now then to secure some form of weapon." The only thing that fit the bill for a weapon was an 8-inch cooking knife that was in the apartment when I moved in so I grabbed that and stored all the remaining food in my fridge and cabinet. I began formulating a plan in my head on what to do next and where to go. "The store, ill take every single thing In that store. It''s the perfect place to start. The army surplus store I worked in downstairs would be stocked full of all kinds of things I would need. I knew this because I stock them of course. I cautiously opened the door to be greeted by the dead of night. I instantly regretted not taking the night vision skill. I didn''t even think to consider what a rural area would be like with no streets. "That was very dense of me.'' However, my danger sense skill didn''t detect any hostility within my vicinity. I made my way to the door with the continuous screams of people replacing the eerie music of the crickets. I made it in safely and locked the doors behind me. "Ok, I should start with food." This wasn''t a grocery store but it had what the doomsday junkies needed for a fix including a long term emergency supply food in the back storage. It was freeze-dried meals which only require adding boiling water. They had a shelf life of twenty-five years. We charge $10,000 for them; they have 4,320 servings of various food and could feed a family of four adults for one year. We only kept four in the store at one time because of the large cost, but I''ll be helping myself to them. I put them all in storage. Ideally, I will find a continuous food supply and not depend on freeze-dried which honestly did not taste the best. My storage skill also had a preservation function, which means time doesn''t affect anything stored and they come out the exact same way they went it. "food supply, check. What''s next? Well, why am I being picky? I''ll never know what I need down the line." I made my way through the store putting almost everything I could find in storage. I acquired multiple first aid kits, cooking supplies, various tools, repellents, a canoe, and even some weapons. "This place is a gold mine, I wonder why more people don''t look for these stores in more end of the world books." I changed to the clothing in the store; I start with a pair of long black cargo pants, which was made of some form of military grade fabrics which was tear resistant. I picked up a combat knife with a thigh strap and wore it on my leg. We also had an assortment of bulletproof vests, the average consumer would just grab one and go, but working here I had knowledge most didn''t. With God taking gun powder there was no need for an actual bulletproof vest, it would be best to prepare for a blade. The normal bulletproof vest does not offer stab protection and was a total waste in this situation. However, in the store, we have two high-quality vests that offer bulletproof, stab-proof, and spike proof qualities that came with a staggering $550 price tag. Safe to say I grabbed both put one in storage and put on under my shirt and a jacket. My final piece of equipment was a utility belt that I strapped two sheathed eighteen-inch black carbon steel combat machetes. I was ready, but for what exactly? It''s 12:30 am. "It would be in my best interest to remain indoors during the night. There is no reason to expose myself to needless danger." So I decided to spend the night in the back warehouse area of the store. It was designed to be steal proof with a steel door and deadbolt locks. I took my bed out of storage laid down and thought over my future plans before falling asleep. ???????????If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The next morning I woke up and ate some of the food I stored from my apartment. It was nothing fancy a few slices of bread and a bowl of cereal. Last night my danger sense went off waking me out of my sleep. Nothing tried breaking into the warehouse, but the sound of glass shattering and grumbles made its way back to me. The entrance to this area doesn''t stand out much so I assumed they didn''t find anything and left. I was able to fall back asleep after they cleared out. I woke up again to a very dull reaction again to my danger sense, so I woke and readied myself. I had my combat knife in my hand and slowly opened the door to peak what was one the other side. Goblin Grunt Lv 3 My AR interface activated, my vision now looked like a 1st person game screen. My health bar was in the top left corner; my MP bar was in the top right corner. Probably with the aid of my appraisal skill it showed me what the creature was that activated my danger sense and its level. It was a goblin; a goblin grunt to be exact. It didn''t have any really alarming feature and looked how you would expect a goblin to look. Green, short as a grade school child, big nose, big ears and was equipped with nothing but a loincloth. He was alone. I gagged to myself when I finished my visual check to find a human arm in his right hand with flesh ripped of still dripping crimson blood on the floor of the store. I began putting two and two together and realized the situation I was in. In this new world humans no longer reign supreme. It will be a fight for survival every day, and the quicker we as a species accept that the faster these days of being monster fodder will go by. Humans are a resilient race and will find a way to cope; it''s just a matter of how long. "I''ll have to do it." I was now regretting not having the sneak skill, thankfully having the thief job offered some minimal sneaking ability and I was attempting to use it to quietly sneak up behind the goblin. I made it within a fifteen feet undetected. I thought about trying to throw my knife, but shot down that idea when I remembered I wasn''t some master assassin and was a store attendant. As I was quietly stepping closer I made a mistake. I stepped on a glass shard that creaked and shattered under my weight. The goblin picked up on the sound and stopped chewing on the human arm and began turning around. "Fuck it!" I went into a full dash and the moment its body fully rotated I was there. I used my running momentum and led with my knee, I forced it directly into his sternum. The force knocked him onto his back where I jumped on him and brought my knife down with my weight behind it into his throat. I didn''t stop pushing the knife in until the tip of my blade hit the floor under the goblin. Then I rotated it. I stared in the goblins eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and rage. His body convulsed twice then went limp as I watched his soul leave and descend to the pits of hell. My first kill. Ding!..Ding!...Ding!...Ding!...Ding!....Ding!...Ding! LEVEL UP! I leveled up seven levels for killing a single low-level goblin grunt. "Status" I decided to check my stats out. "..........." I was a little dumbfounded about what was going on. I understand my unique skill allowed for the accelerated leveling up, but my stats increase a lot more than It should. I mean I don''t understand the number scale yet, but is the difference between a level one and a level eight supposed to be this big? After thinking to myself and going over everything for a couple minutes it dawned on me. My burgeon skill gave me the ability to level up fast. My Occupationalist skill gave me the ability to have three jobs. So I''m leveling up fast yes, but I''m leveling up 3x as fast as the skill intended because I''m leveling up for each job. So although I''m level eight my stats are on par with someone that''s level twenty-four.
Everything has been moving so fast, I don''t think my mind is keeping up. "Well, I guess I''ll properly use the points while I can." I added the Night vision lv 1(5), Detect Life(10); Fear resistance(2); Poison Resistance(2); Cold Resistance (2); Heat Resistance (2); Low Tier Fire Magic Lv 1(10); Low Tier Water Magic Lv 1(10); Low Tier Wind Magic Lv 1(10); Attentive Hearing (5); Enhance vision(5); Mount riding (5) I added a few I wasn''t really considering yesterday because I had such a surplus of SP now. Those skills costed a total of 66 points. So now I could focus on leveling them up. Apparently leveling up a skill from level one to level two cost ten points, but every time after that I level it up after that it''s twice the points of the previous level up.
With leveling up my Low Tier Earth Magic and purchasing new skills my surplus was quickly dwindling. Last night I decided to boost my earth magic skill as much as I could because I didn''t want to become a jack of all master of none and not have a way to fight higher level opponents. Job points went a little easier it was ten JP to level up from beginning to end. When you think about it though I leveled up seven levels with 3x the growth and only received 105 JP. So the average person without my unique skills could find raising their job level to be just as taxing. I made up my mind to just level up one job to the max, but I couldn''t decide between beast trainer or apprentice magician. If I wanted to continue on my initial plan of becoming earth magic oriented the plan was easy to see but at the same time the benefits of training a high-level companion, it was evident why the choice was hard. Earth Magician; Fire Magician; Water Magician; Wing Magician; Earth Magician selected Level Six Low Tier Earth Magic has been Upgraded to Level Six Earth Magic And to finish my upgrade by going to Body strengthening Lv4; Taming Lv 4; Blade Skill Lv 4; Danger sense Lv3.
"Wow, these stats look a lot better than they used to. It''s time to set out." Vera My morning was very dramatic and the clocks had yet to strike 8:30 am. The outdoors greeted me with a dew covered grass, clear blue sunny skies, and the heavy smell of fresh blood. The air was so thick with it you could choke. My AR vision thankfully came with a map, I also had paper maps I took from the store but this one kept track of my current location very similar to a navigation system. I knew my way around somewhat, but not to the point that I felt comfortable navigating blindly. I set off walking in the general direction of town. I expected it to be two hours on foot. "This is going to suck!" My detect life and danger sense skills were active but it was very quiet. I knew goblins to be nocturnal creatures and this supported my theory. Every so often I would find the body of citizens I became familiar with since I moved here, they''d been completely mauled and laid out on the roads. There wasn''t much discrimination from what I could tell apart from the fact that they were all males. Age wise there was young and old alike. The lack of female bodies is also typical for goblins. Goblins are an exclusively male race. So in order to reproduce they need females of another race. They were a vile and disgusting creature that had a breeding rate on par with rabbits if they can find enough females. Now they were let loose into a world with an exceedingly high human population that doesn''t really have a way to combat them, yet. They will quickly become a major problem. I walked along what was interstate with nothing but green grass and scattered trees to my left and right, this was a very rural area and not a lot normally went on here. Along the walk, I found time to test my magic. My new job made me a full tier mage specialized in earth magic. So far, I was capable of six spells. 1. Earth Shot, created a baseball size mass of stone and was thrown at a target 2. Earth javelin, created a spear made of complete stone 3. Earth Wall, created a wall of stone, was mostly a defensive skill 4. Ground Eater, the ground opened up a hole under a target 5. Small Earth Golem, created a small earth golem about the size of an average man to be my ally, it only lasts for one minute 6. Earth Surge, causes spikes to rise from the earth and attack a target I also learned I can create my own stone, but it costed a lot more MP compared to using the natural earth, natural earth also did not mean asphalt or concrete, I was unable to manipulate man-made structures. Two hours later, I could tell that I was getting to a more populated area because the bodies became more frequent. My detect life skill could also detect the presence of others in the apartments I walked by. They seemed to have bunkered themselves in. That may work on goblins, but as the day goes by it will only get harder. What will they do when their food supply dwindles? I decided to reach out to them. This was the closest town to the store I worked for. "IS ANYONE OUT THERE?" A few people came to the balcony to see what was going on. A rather large man with a beard came out onto his balcony. "Shut the hell up dude! You''re going to attract those things." His voice was filled with fear. I quickly shot back, "Those things are goblins, and they are nocturnal it''s best you move during the day to prepare for the night, arm yourselves and fight back." More people started coming onto their balconies as I was speaking, they had a rather hopeful look in their eyes until.... "hell no! where will we go? those things killed my brother!" "My wife." "My husband." The fear started to spread like a virus and they all ended up isolating themselves back in their homes. "We will wait on the army to come." "Yea they will sort this out." I''m not sure if they understood the gravity of the situation they were in. I said an internal prayer for these lost souls and continued along my way. I was a non-argumentative person by nature. Who am I to force these people out of their home? But he had a point. Where am I going? I didn''t really know. It would be nice to find a nice human settlement built to combat the incoming threat instead of people like this who want to wait on their own death. " I guess I''ll keep wandering until I find a place to belong. New world same problem. " As an orphan, you never really belonged anywhere. You go where people tell you to go when they tell you to go. So what? I''ll continue on this path until my time comes. Someone will need me somewhere. Chapter 2 I continued walking for hours after I left the apartments, I continually detected the presence of people, but the response was the same no matter where I went. People were afraid to leave, I also couldn''t convince them because I didn''t know where I was going. But not everything was bad, I stumbled upon a shopping center which took me three whole hours to empty into my storage. It was perfect. One of the stores were a warehouse bulking shopping stores that required a membership to shop from, a pharmacy, a hardware store, and even a clothing store.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I was confident I had everything I needed to survive by myself for at least ten years. It was around 5 pm now, the sun would be setting soon, and I needed to find some shelter. I was walking through another apartment neighborhood, but my life detection skill was discovering a staggeringly lower amount of human life here. And then I detected the presence of four goblins....and someone else. "Please stop! Someone help me! Please! Help me! Help me!" Someone was screaming frantically. The voice was small and feminine; it was clearly a little girl. Around the corner she was being held down by a group of goblins, the sound of her cloth being ripped off and the cackling of the goblins made it pretty obvious what was happening. I considered using earth magic here, but there was no guarantee I wouldn''t hit the little girl too. I was still very new at this stuff after all. Goblin grunt level 5 Goblin grunt level 2 Goblin grunt level 3 Goblin grunt level 3 Vera level 3 "She actually managed to level up too, She''s the 1st I''ve seen. Well time to move." I grabbed my knife; my combat machetes weren''t designed to stab and were more of slashing blades. I launched from behind the building and dashed towards the group they pick up my presence and turned to face me. I don''t know what their speed was, but they were moving very slow. My first target was the strongest of the grunts, I aimed my knife at an upward angle going up straight from his Adam''s apple to the base of his brain the force caused him to leave his feet and I was already aiming for the next target. In one spin motion, I pulled my machete from the sheath on my waist and with a horizontal slash, I loped off the head of another. The goblins were still reeling from my movements and I had no intention of allowing them to mentally catch up. One of the last two goblins charged at me, but they were weaponless I''m not sure what it''s plan was. I took advantage of its reckless charge and with a downward slash my machete splits its head down to its nose and was lodged in its head. The final goblin was the lowest level and tried a rear assault. -Earth Javelin- The attack formed in the space between the goblin and me and launched at it, completely obliterating its entire chest cavity. There was a number of Dings! Going off in my head, but I didn''t have time to focus on that right now. The little girl, Vera, was still laying on the floor in the fetal position shaking. I took a knee next to her. "Hey, are you ok? It''s over now they won''t bother you anymore you are safe now." "..............." No response she looked at me briefly before breaking down and the tear-free fall began. She cried and sobbed so heavily I was wondering if there was enough water in her little body for this to continue. She was even younger looking than I anticipated, she looked to be about eight years old and was very skinny her hair was a gray color littered with dirt. Her skin was in no better shape she had scratches from the goblins and was muddy as well. She was wearing a potato sack dress. Something wasn''t right, her condition looked like it went back far before the fusion of the worlds. I repositioned myself and was getting ready to stand, that''s when she launched herself into my arms buried her face in my chest and hugged me while she cried with the little strength she had. "Please.... Don''t.... leave.....me....too....." Her words were heavy and shaking between her cries, I had to listen carefully to make them out. I held her in my hands and looked down at her. "It''s ok, I won''t leave you alone." A shift in her head her hair rested on her face revealed her ears. "you''re not human?" My words frightened her, even more, her body shook in fear as if she made some mortal mistake. Her long-pointed ear peaked out between the strands of her gray hair. "It''s ok, it doesn''t make a difference to me." I picked her up and walked up to the apartment building we were in front of. There was no human presence detected in here, so I decided to be a temporary squatter. I ascended to the top floor and tried a few units and stumbled onto one that was open. It was in crappy shape whoever was here left in a hurry. "How about you get cleaned up and ill prepare you something to eat and new cloth to wear?" Hearing the word "eat" seemed to get her attention. She meekly nodded. I brought her into the bathroom, the shower was something she never has seen before. Fortunately, we still had running water for now, but no hot water. I really didn''t feel comfortable bathing a little girl I just met so I explained the best I could so she could do it herself. "This is like taking a bath in the rain, ill have cloth for you laid out here on the counter. This is shampoo squirt this into your hands and wash your hair. This is soap squirt it on this washcloth and use it to scrub your body. Do you understand?" A nod yes. "Ok, ill be out here getting something ready to eat, ill close this door so you have pri...." She ran to the door and stopped me from closing it and shook her head, no. "Ok, I won''t close it." I left her in the bathroom and used the Earth wall to create two slabs of stone on both sides of the front door for extra security. The stove in this apartment was a gas top that used syngas, a non-fossil fuel. Since there was no electricity there would be no spark to start the flames, but I had a way around that. I activated the gas and used my elementary fire magic to light the stove. This was basically the most low tier magic could do. It wasn''t fit for combat. It also used an exuberant amount of mana by comparison. Generating this candle size flame cost me as much mana as my earth Javelin. I boiled multiple pots of water and stored them. They would stay hot once they were stored. I pulled out of the freeze-dried meals and added the appropriate water. I took some fruits out and a bottle of water I took from the warehouse store and served dinner at the dinner table. Right on time, Vera emerged clean and fully dressed. Her hair went from dark gray to shimmering like melted platinum. Her eyes were a beautiful hazel and fit perfectly. The cloth I prepared were some children''s cloth I picked up from the store I worked at. They weren''t as high quality as the adult''s cloth, but they were still built to be very durable. She was wearing olive green long fitted pants with a matching dry fits shirt and a black jacket, I also had the matching boots but they weren''t needed right now. The undergarments I took from the clothing store at the shopping center I raided. I had her put on her full uniform because I was sure of the security of this place or what monsters would emerge after the gong tonight. If we needed to make a quick getaway I wanted us to be ready. "Come eat." She slowly approached the food I set aside for her and sat down. She showed no restraint once she started eating, she was done before I picked up my fork. "would you like more?" She vigorously nodded her head yes. I took four more servings out and gave them to her. I ate while she was practically inhaling the food. I didn''t want to interrupt her from her actions it looked like its been a while since she''s had a decent meal so I let her do as she pleased. I finished a little before her, so I just sat and waited. Once she finished, she looked up at me as if waiting for something. "do you want more?" She shook her head no "Well my name is Jordan, we will be spending the night here tonight, Make yourself comfortable. Let me know if you need anything." "Vera." Her first words that were accompanied by a rainstorm of tears were said under her breath, but I guess progress is progress. I responded with a smile. "nice to meet you, Vera. Are you tired would you like to lay down and get some rest?" "You...?" her response was still very timid, but I somehow understood what she was asking. "I will be here, I still have to do a few more things before I go to bed but, I won''t be leaving you behind." Her eyes glistened as her lips somewhat curved upwards. It was like she wanted to hear those words more than anything else. I showed her to one of the rooms in the apartment and laid her in the bed. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Remembering her request, I left the door open and quietly exited the room. I prepared for bed myself with a cold shower, looked through the house for any items that might prove useful and then laid down on the bed in the master bedroom. "Time to address those dings." Vera Part two ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­.This might be too much¡±
Name: Jordan Cain Level:28
Job: Earth Magician lv1, Thief lv1, Beast trainer lv1
HP: 835 MP: 518
Attack:335 Defense: 335
Magic Affinity: 98 Magic Def: 85
Speed: 347 Dexterity: 280
Job Points: 300 Skill Points: 1800
Skills: Earth Magic lv 6; Body strengthening Lv4; Taming Lv 4; Blade Skill Lv 4; Danger sense Lv3; Casting skill Lv1 ; Paralysis resistance Lv 1; Increased endurance Lv 1; Night vision lv 1; Detect Life Lv 3; Fear resistance Lv 1; Poison Resistance Lv 1; Cold Resistance Lv 1; Heat Resistance Lv 1; Low Tier Fire Magic Lv 1; Low Tier Water Magic Lv 1; Low Tier Wind Magic Lv 1; Attentive Hearing Lv 1; Enhance vision Lv1; Mount riding Lv 1;
I laid in bed and planned out my points. I ultimately decided to use my job points and level up all three jobs Earth Magician level raised to max upgraded to Supreme Earth Mage Peak job reached. Earth Magic is normally among the most versatile of all the elements and offers the strongest defense. If I can pair the defense it provides with the attacking ability my thief skill provides ill be more well rounded. Thief Level Raised to Max; New Upgrade Available. Assassin. Assassin Selected. Beast Trainer Level Raised to Max; New Upgrade Available. Beast Master. Beast Master Selected. Level Six Earth Magic has been Upgraded to Level Six Advance Earth Manipulation Level One Casting Skills has been upgraded to Level One Casting Termination. Level Four Taming has been upgraded to Level Four Beast Dominance. Level One Mount Riding has been upgraded to Level One Mount Supremacy. New Skills Available. That was a lot to process, but once the upgrades were confirmed my body felt the difference. The skill and job upgrade assimilation was very smooth, I was able to grasp the minor and major changes. Advance Earth Manipulation made me think more of earth bending than magic. Earth magic limits my manipulation of the Earth to the magic skills I was able to use. While Advance Earth Manipulation allows me to use a stone like play-doh. The bigger the surface area or more complex the change the more mana I deplete. Casting Termination allowed me to cast a spell without saying its, name of it as I''ve done prior. Beast Dominance allows me to tame a monster I''m two times stronger than, The taming skill prior made it so I had to be three times strong than. However, the skill can fail depending on the beast''s level and level of my skill. While mount supremacy simply made it much more difficult for me to fall off any beast I was riding. ¡°1800 Skill points, seems like a lot but they go so fast.¡± I contemplated the use for my points one whether to save them to upgrade my current skills or purchase more. As I looked down the skills log I noticed some new skills became available so I just decided to purchase them. Silent Movement(10 SP)- The upgraded version of sneak it erased all sound I cause during movement, excludes running. Beast Communication(10 SP)- allows me to communicate with various monsters. Reduced MP Consumption(10 SP)- Reduces the MP cost of each spell. Increased MP Recover Speed(10 SP- Increases the speed my MP recovers. Pertification Resistance(5 SP), Charm resistance(5 SP) and Psychic Resistance(5 SP). ¡°Now what''s next?¡± Ultimately it took me hours as I wrestled with my choices on what to do next. My decision was to stay the course and I leveled up Advance Earth Manipulation to Level 8 which cost me 960 SP, I have 785 SP left, which isn¡¯t enough to upgrade it again. My decisions were to upgrade body strengthening to level five, Beast Dominance to level five, Blade Skill to level six, Detect Life to Level Four, Danger Sense to Level Four. The attentive hearing, night vision, enhance vision, beast communication to level three and Enhance endurance and low tier fire magic to level four.
Name: Jordan Cain Level:28
Job: Supreme Earth Mage, Assassin lv1, Beast Master lv1
HP: 1235 MP: 1018
Attack:595 Defense: 435
Magic Affinity: 305 Magic Def: 301
Speed: 595 Dexterity: 395
Job Points: 0 Skill Points: 5
Skills: Advance Earth Manipulation lv 8; Blade Skill Lv 6; Body strengthening Lv 5; Beast Dominance Lv 5; Low Tier Fire Magic Lv 4; Detect Life Lv 4; Danger sense Lv 4; Increased endurance Lv 4; Attentive Hearing Lv 3; Enhance vision Lv 3; Night vision lv 3; Beast Communication Lv 3; Casting Termination skill Lv1 ; Paralysis resistance Lv 1; Fear resistance Lv 1; Poison Resistance Lv 1; Cold Resistance Lv 1; Heat Resistance Lv 1; Low Tier Water Magic Lv 1; Low Tier Wind Magic Lv 1; Mount Supremacy Lv 1; Silent Movement Lv1; Reduced MP Consumption Lv 1; Increased MP Recovery speed; Lv 1; Petrification Resistance Lv1; Charm Resistance Lv 1; Psychic Resistance Lv 1
I noticed that the Supreme Earth Mage job had no level so I considered that it was a job that couldn¡¯t be upgraded anymore. And my new jobs gave a considerable boost to my stats.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Since I can¡¯t level it up anymore I wonder what should I do next with it. If I swapped it out for another job would I lose the stats boost from it or my ability to use Earth Magic? ¡± I didn''t have enough job points to purchase another job for now so I''ll stick with it. By the time I finished upgrading myself the time displayed on my AR screen was 11:30 PM, it was almost time for the next transmigration. ¡°I should go check on Vera.¡± I walked to her room and confirmed she was still sleeping soundly. She reminded me of a foster sister I had in my foster home. They were about the same age and had many similar physical traits. She used to cling to me a lot and called me her big brother. Apparently, she had a real big brother who died due to the negligence of her drug seeking parents so to get that title from her was an honor. That was about two years ago. I pray she is doing good somewhere and is safe, I truly cared for her. However, a girl that cute and sweet wouldn¡¯t last long in the foster system. She was only with us for two months before a nice looking family adopted her, I was very happy for her. But She''d gotten too clingy and didn¡¯t want to go. She kicked, screamed, cried, and begged them to take me with her, but to no avail. A sixteen-year-old boy wasn''t attractive to new families. She gave me one last hug before she finally resigned to her new, better life. There was no future for her there. GONG GONG GONG The loud gongs went off marking the second transmigration. I didn¡¯t know what monsters would come across this time. The next morning didn¡¯t have a bright and sunny outlook like that last. Today thick gray clouds drifted across the sky obstructing the sun¡¯s rays from reach the earth below. Last night was uneventful; I didn¡¯t hear any loud wails or the cackling of goblins. I went to sleep around 2 am after verifying our surroundings wouldn¡¯t be severely altered leaving us, Vera and I in an unsafe environment. My watch told me the time was still before 7:30 am. My body was accustomed to being an early riser, even 7:30 am was considered somewhat later than usual for me. In my foster home, I normally woke up around 6 am. I was the oldest of the eight kids there, so I was accustomed to getting up and making sure they had a nice breakfast, their cloth was properly ironed and didn¡¯t oversleep. I didn¡¯t want their looks to attract the malice of the bullies at school, i wanted to be sure that even if they were foster kids you couldn¡¯t tell just by looking at them. A smile crossed my face for the first time in a few days as I reminisced about the few good memories I had. ¡°I should check outside and then on Vera and prepare breakfast.¡± I walked through the hallway of what I considered to be a fairly large and luxurious apartment. I pulled back the vertical blinds in front of the glass balcony sliding door and made my way outside. ¡°What the hell.¡± I was caught off guard by what greeted me. The neighborhood I was in, half of it was gone. No signs of destruction, no rubble, no nothing. Even the asphalt roads, and cars that were once there were gone. In its place were tall trees that I was certain didn¡¯t exist yesterday and beautiful green grass dancing with the push and pull of the gentle blowing breeze. ¡°Is our God a God of irony?¡± This was clearly his work. I don¡¯t believe any other living thing could do something like this. Dryad? They were powerful forest spirits with the ability to alter nature. Maybe, but something of this scale would take an army of druids, and from what I know they were a considerably rare species. Yesterday morning the atmosphere was the polar opposite of this, a bright clear sky filled with the odor of blood and mangled corpses lying across the street like they were pavement markers and today such a gloomy atmosphere presented a clean refreshing air and a beautiful landscape. I walked back down the hallway to the room I rested Vera in last night, the door was still open so I let myself in. As I approached the bed I noticed it was wet. ¡°Did she¡­.is she still at that age?¡± I knew elves aged differently when compared to humans and had a much longer life span, so in spite of her childish appearance, she was most likely much older than me. There was a lot of question I wanted to ask her, but I wanted to wait until she was more comfortable with me. Simple yes or no¡¯s wouldn¡¯t offer me the education I was seeking. ¡°Wait, something not right.¡± As I began carefully analyzing her, I noticed she was sweating profusely and her skin was flushed. The house was a little warm because there was no A/C, but not to this extent. I was getting worried she clearly was unwell. ¡°Vera...Vera.¡± I gently moved her trying to get her to wake up. Her eyes opened slowly and she turned to look at me. Her movement looked like it hurt. Her neck moved like a mechanical joint that severely needed to be oiled. ¡°Yes¡­Ready?¡± She tried rotating her body to get up from the bed and I immediately stopped her. I put my hand on her forehead and she was burning up. ¡°You aren¡¯t going anywhere you need to stay here.¡± My words were low and calm, but somewhat distressed. ¡°No..please no¡­no..no¡­no¡­PLEASE NO!.¡± Tears began forming in her eye, I was truly troubled by what was happening to her. She was very weak, but she was putting all her strength into fighting me trying to force her way out of the bed. ¡°I can go..I¡¯m ok...Please!¡± She raised her voice slightly, but It didn¡¯t look like she even had the strength for that and erupted into a coughing fit. I had to get her to calm down. ¡°Vera, please calm down!¡± Her body jumped at my words, and she was trembling. I raised my voice to combat her screams, but In hindsight that was a bad idea. She was just a scared little girl. I was usually a lot better with kids than this. Especially damaged kids. She finally stopped fighting me for a brief moment and with her beautiful hazel eyes filled with tears pleaded with me.¡± ¡°Please, don¡¯t leave me. I¡¯ll be better, I will fix it, tell me what I did wrong. I promis---.¡± I embraced her and held her close cutting off her final words. ¡°Vera, please listen to me. I am not planning on leaving you, but you are not well, you are clearly sick. I need you to rest properly so your body can fight the source. Now please lay down I will go and find something you can tolerate for breakfast.¡± She gradually began calming down. I moved her into a different room because the bed sheets she was sleeping in were too wet. I also gave her a change of cloth; a children¡¯s nightgown. She was warm I need to cool her off. Once she laid down I put a cold washcloth on her head. ¡°Please trust me and allow me to take care of you.¡± I looked at her with stern unshaken eyes; I needed her to see my resolve. She nodded. I left her in the room to go to the kitchen to prepare her breakfast. ¡°Damn it, what should I do now?¡± I paced back and forth in the kitchen as I analyzed my options. I didn¡¯t have any form of healing magic, not that I knew if it would help with a sickness anyways. ¡°Healing magic... That¡¯s it!¡± During my brief expedition, one of the stores I raided was a drug store. Antibiotics weren¡¯t something that would normally be found as an over the counter medicine and would normally require a prescription to get. But if someone was waiting on an order then the pharmacist would have kept it in stock until they picked it up. I began looking through my inventory to see what I had. Some¡­..most of these medications had tremendously long names which I had no idea did what, but I knew exactly what I was looking for. A while back one of my foster brothers ended up with a bad infection after swimming in dirty water. My foster parent weren¡¯t good people by any stretch of the word, but the government provided free healthcare for us and if a child were to die due to negligence the consequences would be severe. So they brought him to the emergency room, which I was made to accompany. ¡°Found it!¡± The doctor prescribed something called azithromycin or Zmax for short that he had to take for five days. ¡°Thank you!¡± Finding it excited me tremendously, but I didn¡¯t want to give it to her on an empty stomach. I prepared her some oatmeal with banana slices with some coconut water. I was going to treat her the same way the doctor advised us to treat my little brother. After I finished I went into the room to find she wasn¡¯t asleep. Matter of fact she was staring at the doorway when I entered. ¡°Still don¡¯t trust me yet huh.¡± Her eyes quickly darted to a different location, but I already caught her. Nonetheless, I had a job to do. ¡°Here eat this.¡± I handed her the bowl of oatmeal, while I read the direction of the prescription bottle. ¡°500 Mg by mouth for the first day and the 250mg daily for the next four day. Ok to five days with no fever.¡± Each tablet was 250mg so I gave her two with breakfast. ¡°Here please take this, its medicine.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± I sat on a chair in the room as she finished her breakfast. I convinced her to lie down and get some rest. Her body would need to conserve its strength to fight whatever it was dealing with. After she fell asleep, I left her in the room and sat on the balcony enjoyed the fresh air and observed the changes in the world. In the sky, the storm clouds went from gray to black and continued to swell. On the ground, I began seeing new critters that I didn¡¯t see before. Thanks to my AR screen and appraisal I was able to get some information about various ones. Some of the wildlife like deer¡¯s, squirrels, and iguanas were native to my world but some were not. I see a rabbit with a spiral horn protruding from its forehead like a narwhal¡¯s my AR told me it was simply called a horned rabbit, another rabbit-like creature that looked a lot fluffier and less dangerous it had a green and brown body that camouflaged perfectly but instead of large rabbit ears, it looked like wings. They were using them to glide from tree to tree. The resident badass was a herd of about twenty deer, but the alpha was a muscular stag that was about the size of a full grown horse. Its antlers were like an S shape. They were serrated and the curved area came out above his head then curved back down his back before bending forward again. Its tail was long and towards the end half, it had downward hanging feather starting from the mid portion on both sides down towards its tip. All in all, it was a beautiful creature, it was level 25 and was called and Feathertail Stag. All the wildlife interacted peacefully grazing on the newly grown grass. It showed Mother Nature had no issue with the transition. The children of the herd of the stag and the deer were playing jovially on the plain. I went back in the apartment check on Vera again who was sleeping soundly and made myself breakfast. After breakfast, I sat on the sofa and read a book for a few hours. I considered going out for a walk but quickly decided against it after considering what would happen if Vera woke up and I wasn¡¯t there. So instead I just prepared our meals for the day. I was planning on giving her soup for lunch and dinner so it was pretty easy for her, and I''ll have one of my emergency food meals. Things remained that way for five days. I refused to leave the apartment until Vera was back to 100%. Every day she got stronger and became more energetic, she was also feeling a lot more comfortable around me. She picked up a bad habit of calling me ¡°master¡±. I didn¡¯t ask for nor wanted such a title. On day six we were dressed and ready to head out. This area was pretty quiet and there wasn¡¯t a lot of monster activity, but this isn¡¯t where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. ¡°Master, where..?.¡± ¡°Vera my name is Jordan please stop calling me master.¡± ¡°Master Jordan?¡± ¡°Just Jordan.¡± ¡°No I can¡¯t, that¡¯s not right. You should be addressed with proper honorifics.¡± ¡°Fine, Mr. Jordan is ok.¡± ¡°Ok¡­.. Mr. Master Jordan, where are we heading?¡± Apparently, she was pretty stubborn as well. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet, the world is changing and I don¡¯t really have a home so I¡¯m looking for a new one.¡± ¡°Oh, WE are looking for a new home then, she replied.¡± She put a major emphasis on the word we and put on a charmingly infectious smile. I responded with a smile of my own. ¡°Of course, I¡¯d never leave you behind.¡± ¡°You promise?¡± ¡°I promise.¡± Over the course of her sickness, we became very close. For the 1st few days every time she woke up from a nap she would run out to the living room to make sure I was still there. Then I would promptly escort her back to bed. Because of that her trust in me blossomed, day after day she began expecting me to be there instead of hoping. I destroyed the stone slabs guarding our door after verifying no activity with my danger sense. I realized detect life wasn¡¯t good to use here because it also picked up all the wildlife nearby and didn¡¯t differentiate between good or bad. We were fully dressed in our combat gear and headed out. Vera Final Part ¡°Vera, do you know how to use any weapons?¡± ¡°Hmm, I use to use a bow to hunt food.¡± ¡°You use to hunt? What about your parents?¡± I knew I was approaching a very delicate area, but it was information I should try to get sooner or later. ¡°I never had parent¡­..My grandma raised me in the forest, but she said I should be self-sufficient and know how to do stuff myself.¡± I was happy to see her demeanor didn¡¯t change when I asked about her parents, but I didn¡¯t understand what she meant by saying she didn¡¯t have any parents. Our walked continued and our landscape alternated almost randomly from a full cityscape to lush grasslands every so often. I couldn¡¯t determine what caused some areas to change while others remained the same, but if the cause of this truly is divine intervention as I anticipated, logic may not matter here. I did our best to keep us away from anything that set off my danger sense because I wanted to keep Vera safe and I was prioritizing that over leveling up for the time being. It wasn¡¯t only goblins that needed to be feared anymore. There weren¡¯t any other predatorial monster that I came across or that I detected in this area, but some of the herbivores were very territorial. While we were walking I was mentally going through my inventory for a bow that would be small enough for her to use. I was pretty sure I had a youth bow in my storage I took from my store. Archery or hunting, in general, was something a lot of parents were interested in sharing with their kids so we kept a few youth sets on hand. ¡°Ah, I found one.¡± Bows were very different from guns that were pretty much on size fits all. Bows had to fit the user properly or it would affect its accuracy and power. We walked from about 8 am to 1 pm and I decided it was time for us to take a break. I stopped under a tree that provided us shade from the sunlight while I rolled out a blanket picnic style and passed out the sandwiches I prepared beforehand. For such a small frame Vera proved to be a big eater, she wasn¡¯t at the level of being a bottomless pit, but she ate as if she was trying to make up for every meal she ever missed. While we stopped I took out thirty aluminum arrow shafts, and steel three blade broadheads. These were the highest quality material we had in the store and would cost more than $500 to produce. Any archer would cringe to see these going to a child. Vera watched every move I made to prepare the arrows in a semi memorized state. The arrows came in two parts. The shaft was the body of the arrow and the broadhead was basically the arrowhead. Different kinds of arrowheads were used for different situation or wildlife, so it made sense for them to be removable. To make the arrow I screwed the broadhead I wanted on to the body of the shaft, this required a set of tools; I thankful had. Because broadheads were very sharp and designed to pierce thick layers of skin and muscle it wasn¡¯t recommended to use your bare hands to screw them in. Once I was finished I produced a black quiver bag from my storage where I placed the arrows. ¡°Vera listen, these are yours. These a very dangerous and not a toy please do not play with them. Also, it will be very hard to get more so always try and retrieve the arrows you can do you understand?¡± ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t have a bow. Should I try to make one?¡± I retrieved the compound bow from storage I pick out for her earlier and presented it to her. Her eyes intently assessed the bow. ¡°This is a strange bow.¡± She commented. ¡°Yes, but It should do the job pretty well.¡± ¡°Also master has an item box skill. That¡¯s a very rare gift.¡± ¡°Yes please don¡¯t tell anyone about it.¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s best to not. Can I test the bow?¡± ¡°Sure, just remember to try not to lose the arrow if you can. Would you like me to show you how it works? And what do you mean by its best not to? ¡± ¡°No thank you, I think I got it. Other people tend to abuse people with that skill, some just ask a lot of the user and others would go as far as trying to enslave the skill holder.¡± ¡°I see.¡± She stood up, and knocked an arrow on the string and tested the draw. ¡°It¡¯s so smooth, it¡¯s even better than the bow of elven nobles.¡± She was muttering to herself and I just sat and watched.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. She finally pulled the arrow in and aimed, I looked to see what she was aiming at, and it was a horned rabbit, but it was more than fifty yards away. She couldn¡¯t be aiming for that right? She released the arrow and it whistled as it pierced the sky spiraling towards the very rabbit I gave her no chance of hitting. Then a thunk sound was followed by the cry of a rabbit and then silence. I packed our picnic up and walked to retrieve the arrow. As I approached the rabbit I was taken aback to find not only did she hit it from fifty yards away, but the arrow pierce the rabbit''s neck and nailed it to the ground. ¡°That was amazing Vera.¡± ¡°Thanks, Master, but with this bow and these arrows it was no biggie.¡± She grabbed the rabbit by the horn and said, ¡°Today, I will make lunch for us.¡± This was my first time being so close to one, they were normally pretty skittish and avoided us as we walked. The closest one I have seen was when I was above it the 3rd-floor balcony of the apartment. Its horn was almost twice as long as its body; I¡¯d say about twenty inches and at its thickest point was about as thick as my thumb. ¡°Thanks, I don¡¯t know how to prepare rabbit, but I¡¯m more than willing to try it.¡± The quiver I gave her had a place where the Bow could be strapped and we continued our walk. I plan was to gently glean as much information as I could. ¡°So did you hunt a lot in your world?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that no, not any more than usual. About ten rabbits a week.¡± ¡°How long have you been doing that?¡± ¡°The last fifty years or so.¡± Fifty years¡­¡­.. ¡°Wow that¡¯s a long time; I guess its true elves do live long.¡± Then her demeanor changed, the energy a vibe she had was gone. Blown away like a leaf in the wind and her head hung as she watched her feet while she walked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Master, I have a confession. Please forgive me, I¡¯ve meant to correct you, but I never got the chance. Truth is I¡¯m not an elf.¡± Strange she looks like the spitting image of an elf from the books I¡¯ve read. ¡°Then what are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m what¡¯s called a Halfling. I¡¯m only half-elf.¡± She didn¡¯t make eye contact or even look at me, she was ashamed of what she was, but I didn¡¯t have enough information to figure out why, so I, unfortunately, had to press the issue. ¡°Can you tell me more and how old are you really?¡± ¡°I¡¯m 435 years old, and I¡¯m a half-elf half dwarf. I didn¡¯t know my parents; my grandma really did raise me. I was raised in the forest away from people. She always told me it was for my own safety, but I didn¡¯t know why. I didn¡¯t figure out until a few years ago why. One day I was hunting in the forest and a small group of dwarven soldiers came to our forest. All I heard them say was ¡°It''s her, It¡¯s the heretic, tell the commander! And they all ran. So, I ran home to my grandma and told her about what happened.¡± I was listening to her story while still reeling about the fact that this little girl was almost half a millennium years old. ¡°She got frantic and began quickly packing and screamed get ready! We ran out the door to find a battalion of Dwarves waiting on us. They looked at my Grandma and said ¡°You know why we are here. Give us the Heretic.¡± My grandma responded with a calming smile and told them ¡°over my dead body.¡± Did they send a battalion to capture a little girl? I mean yea her skills with a bow are impeccable but something seems wrong about that. That¡¯s a minimum of three hundred soldiers. ¡°She pushed me away and screamed at me to run while casting some spell that bought time for me and I ran away as fast as I could for as far as I could with nothing, but my hunting bow. I had to survive on my own ever since. I learned later that elves and dwarves were natural enemies and were not supposed to be able to produce a child so to both races I was a stain on their planet.¡± ¡°That¡¯s awful Vera, but I promised you I will always be here for you.¡± She walked closer to me and leaned into my arm. ¡°I know.¡± We stepped onto a vast green plain where I saw a small herd of massive creatures. ¡°What are those?¡± My AR screen told me exactly what they were, but asking what you do not know was still a force of habit. ¡°Pentracellas.¡± They looked like a cross between a triceratops and an elephant with a sprinkle of ankylosaur mixed in. My AR told me apart from the elephant size babies romping around all the adults were between level 65-75. There was one that looked more ferocious that all the others standing on top of a hill looking down watchfully over the rest that was level 93 and it was labeled as the Alpha Pentracella. It had two separate tusks. One smaller set behind a larger up curving set and on its head was a crest with one larger horn poking out. It had a terrifying appearance that screamed danger; Avoid. Following my gaze Vera and confirmed what I was seeing, ¡°That¡¯s the Alpha, usually the herds have one alpha male that rules from the top.¡± ¡°What is something that big being so watchful for?¡± On Earth, the largest land animal was an elephant and it had no natural predators, even during prehistoric time¡¯s large dinosaurs like the brachiosaur didn¡¯t have a natural predator. ¡°The only thing that can kill a full grown Pentracella is a dragon, but not even they want to deal with them most times. They would waste a lot of energy killing it, and then they are too heavy to pick up and carry away, so they would have to eat it where it¡¯s killed, and naturally, the rest of the Pentracellas in the herd wouldn¡¯t let that happen peacefully. Monsters never go for the adult. It¡¯s the babies that are their prime target. They are delicious, big, slow, and don¡¯t have any natural defenses other than their size.¡± ¡°That makes sense, let¡¯s keep moving. I¡¯d hate to be caught up in the middle of a big monster hunt.¡± ¡°Yes, master.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Jordan!¡± - After an hour we came across another set of stores that featured a liquor store I emptied; I¡®ve never drunk anything apart from a beer with my boss, but I¡¯m pretty sure this would have some value somewhere down the line. An electronic store which was of no benefit to me, we had no power so left it, and another hardware store I emptied. That took me almost two hours. It was approaching evening and I knew we needed to find somewhere to rest for the night. The path became asphalt again and we were walking down the center of what used to be a busy eight-lane road with various cars abandoned and parked on the side of the road. However, something else caught our attention; something was in the middle of the road. ¡°Master, someone is there.¡± She reached for her bow and an arrow. ¡°Someone?¡± I came to the conclusion that Vera¡¯s natural vision was better than my enhance vision level 3. I could only make out the outlines of whatever it was. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a person. What should we do?¡± I used my hand to point her bow down which she was putting in a firing position. I have seen what she could do with that thing. ¡°Well, there¡¯s no need to commit murder. Let¡¯s get closer and see what it is.¡± I took two bookbags out of storage for Vera and me and stuffed it with various things. I put one on and gave one to Vera. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of this master?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone knowing about the storage skill, and if that¡¯s a person, seeing us without any belongings it would look strange.¡± It stood still as we walked in its general direction; I was still on guard and was ready to draw my machete at any given moment. Central Village As we walked closer the person came into view was indeed a human and began waving vigorously trying to flag us down. Jakob Watt Lv 5 Apprentice Spearman Level 2 The AR and appraisal skills began providing me with information. ¡°If he¡¯s level 5 I wonder why he doesn¡¯t upgrade his job more,¡± I spoke under my breath to myself. I couldn¡¯t see his face, but from his frame, I was able to identify that this person was a man. He was also fully equipped. He was wearing a football helmet equipped with a facemask and a dark visor, a baseball umpire gear set, chest protector and shin guards, football pants with the pads in them, he also had an ironing board he seemed to be using as a tower shield. His weapon was a pool cue, but he had what looked to be the horn of a horned rabbit duck tapped securely from the midway point of the cue giving it a pointed end. I must say even though he looked absolutely ridiculous his gear looked somewhat effective. His body had a very small amount of areas that were exposed. He even looked to be equipped with a cup for his baby maker. He approached me as cautiously as I approached him, I guess he has seen the two machetes hanging from my waist and Vera still had her bow locked and loaded because the closer we became the slower he walked. He was at least four inches taller than me, a muscular build. Seemed like an ideal football player. I¡¯d guess about 6¡¯4. ¡°Hello, I mean you no harm.¡± He was the 1st to speak. He raised his hands in a surrendering posture. That was enough for Vera to remove the arrow from her bow. She quickly ducked behind me as he approached. I guess she was still somewhat shy, but I couldn¡¯t blame her. Her childhood was worse than mine. ¡°Hello, my name is Jordan. This shy girl behind me is Vera. You looked very well equipped.¡± "Anything to help me survive out here, times have changed,¡± he answered. I was glancing up at the sky the sun was beginning to set and we were still out in the open. I couldn¡¯t drag these introductions on for too long. ¡°My name is Jakob; I see that you noticed the monsters hunt predominantly at night. I was just going to head back myself before I seen you, would you like to come with me?¡± ¡°Come where? And what exactly were you doing out here?¡± ¡°I was tasked with scouting this area for monster activity and survivors. There was a settlement established at a local high school. The best part is its safe. My father is the principle so he established it the day all this stuff began taking place. It¡¯s what is called a high-risk school because it¡¯s in an area that had a high crime rate. So it had a level two security requirement. We haven¡¯t had any monster incident there to this point.¡± What he was saying sounded pretty good to me I had no reason to say no, the fact is we need somewhere to stay, but it¡¯s best to make a decision with all the necessary information. ¡°What does a level two security entail?¡± ¡°Well, half the school is bordered by a neighborhood so the shared border is separated by a twelve foot stone wall. The other half is a ten-foot steel fence with welded metal mesh. The only way in or out is through gates we keep manned and closed.¡± ¡°Mr. Jordan, what does that mean?¡± Vera spoke up for the first time since we got in the range of Jakob. ¡°Oh, so she does speak I was concerned she was mute.¡± He said it with a laugh. ¡°What he is saying is its pretty safe from monsters.¡± ¡°The safest.¡± He confirmed So I ultimately decided to follow him to the school. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a quick rundown, my dad normally gives a full orientation to all the newbies every day to help them get settled.¡± ¡°That sounds good.¡± ¡°The cafeteria was turned into a general population area and that is where most of our residents are staying, there is still running water so the bathrooms and water fountains still work. ¡° ¡°Sorry to interrupt, but what¡¯s the population?¡± ¡°The last count it was an almost five hundred people.¡± ¡°And you keep all five hundred in the cafeteria? Why not use the classrooms?¡± ¡°No we don¡¯t keep them there, but most find comfort being around others. I personally hate the cafeteria, it¡¯s depressing and I try and avoid there as much as possible. ¡°Why is that?¡± He didn¡¯t seem annoyed by my barge of questions. ¡°You would just have to see for yourself. There is no hope to be found in there. We are trying to keep the classrooms reserved for people who make contributions to the establishment in some form or another. Since there is no way of paying for them. That¡¯s the only reward we could think of for people like me and the others who leave the safety or the premises to do things like hunt and fight. There are a lot of people who just want to sit and wait thinking the army is going to come and save the day.¡± ¡°That makes sense; even if the army does come they have no vehicles, weapons, or technology. At that point, they are just civilians like us.¡± ¡°Yes exactly.¡± ¡°And what are the chances the school will disappear like everything else?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been carefully observing the disintegration happening to the buildings and roads, we came to the conclusion that it only happens after there is no living human activity for 24 hours.¡± During the course of our walk and talk after fifteen minutes, we made it to the gates of the school. I was fairly impressed; it was as imposing as he said. I thought for a brief moment he was just being a used car salesman. Vera noticed we were heading into a populated area and pulled the hood of her jacket over her head to hide her ears. Up to this point, she¡¯s kept them tucked under her hair. We walked along the sidewalk to a single person entry gate that had two individuals manning it in similar attire to Jakob standing on the other side. They both looked to be about Jakob¡¯s age and seemed to be on friendly terms judging by their interactions. ¡°Hey, Jakob you found another?¡± ¡°Yes, are the others back?¡± he asked one of the guards. ¡°Yea man, you¡¯re the last as usual.¡± ¡°Ok, I''ll introduce you guys later; I want to bring him to dad straight away. He doesn¡¯t like doing the new booty orientation twice.¡± ¡°Yessir.¡± I nodded as a quick hello to the guards and followed behind Jakob. The Parking lot of the school was pretty large with only three cars present, but fireplaces were set up throughout and various people were hanging out around them talking. ¡°Seems like people are beginning to cope with the changes.¡± The thoughts on my mind slipped out of my mouth. ¡°Yea, some people have a stronger will to live,¡± He confirmed. ¡°I see.¡± Vera was quietly following behind me she was being very mousy reverting to herself the 1st time we met. It concerned me a little, but I assumed she would get comfortable as time rolls on. In her world, humans were extinct so it must be pretty odd to find yourself suddenly in the presence of such a large group of them. We made it to the school courtyard and more fires were blazing these had large stainless steel pots on them. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of those?¡± ¡°There just for boiling water, we try to keep a few pots on at all time so we have drinking water. We weren¡¯t sure how the shutdown would affect the filtration system so we began doing this for health purposes.¡± It seems like a good idea in theory, but in my mind, it was somewhat wasteful. With everything going on death by stomach bug was down my list of ways I could die. The wood being used to maintain all these fires could serve better uses else, but that was just my personal opinion. We finally made it the main office portion of the school, and Jakob escorted me in where I sat on one of the available chairs in a room with a man and two ladies. They didn¡¯t seem to be connected but, they were both looked severely frightened, dirty, and had a cachectic appearance to them. ¡°Hey guys sit tight my dad should be out in a few, I have to go check in so I have to run.¡± While I was a student, this was a place I avoiding with every fiber of my being. There were a very small amounts of reasons a student would want to be in here. The office looked like it was in very good shape pretty much untouched since the last day it was used. The lack of AC caused this tightly sealed space with the body heat of its occupants to be a little warm, but it was tolerable. ¡°Vera, Are you ok?¡± ¡°Yes, there¡¯s just so many things I haven¡¯t seen before in here. Are these floors made of some kind of stone?¡± ¡°I guess you can call it that.¡± I wasn¡¯t a genius by any stretch of the word. So I wasn¡¯t sure about some of the how it¡¯s made questions that she seemed to ask a lot. I guess that¡¯s her dwarven side peaking. She was still holding the dead rabbit in her hand and I know she was really getting excited about making it. ¡°Are you getting hungry?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± Hearing the talk switch to food, our office mates pick their heads up and stared intently at us. Their glares were so intent it frightened Vera who was now gripping my arm. ¡°Your glares are pretty harsh,¡± I said to them. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I haven¡¯t eaten in days. Please if you have anything to spare.¡± The gentleman jumped at the opportunity to start begging. ¡°Yes me too please it¡¯s been at least four days.¡± ¡°Anything at all please!¡± At this point, they were beginning to scare me too. Then the door opened, cutting through the tense atmosphere like Swiss cheese. In came a fairly large physically imposing man. He had to be at least 6¡¯6 with a barrel chest and large guns attached to his shoulder. He gave off a terminator feel. ¡°Hello, my name is Tyler Watt. I¡¯m the former principal of this school and founder of this settlement. We¡¯ve taken to calling it Central village named after the school.¡± Principle? He looked like the powerlifting coach! ¡°Is there food!¡± The gentleman from earlier yelled out. ¡°I will offer you one meal. From that point on it''s your responsibility to find ways to feed yourself.¡± His words offered some form of relief to the starving people I was sharing the office with, but in hindsight one meal isn¡¯t going to do much. He glanced back and forth quickly forming a first impression; his gaze was heavy and felt packed with a lot of pressure. They made me want to tattle on myself for something I didn¡¯t do. This gentleman was fit to be a principle. His eyes eventually landed and began appraising the rabbit Vera was still holding. ¡°I see you guys brought dinner.¡± She tighten her grip on the rabbit and buried her face in my arm and tried avoiding the pressure he was exuding. ¡°Very well then let me continue, the key to making this work is everyone has to do their own part. There are multiple ways you can help here. Whether you cook, hunt, clean, or you have a unique set of skills that can help us here.¡± He took time to explain the various things they need here and how we can contribute in depth. The information though seemed like pretty common sense. Somehow he managed to talk for fifteen nonstop minutes before he looked around making eye contact with each of us just to make sure we weren¡¯t in a daze from too much information. I guess that¡¯s the teacher in him. ¡°You will be assigned a space in the cafeteria where you will sleep, however, it¡¯s not a demand you sleep there you may sleep anywhere on the compound it''s entirely up to you.¡± ¡°I would like a classroom, how do I get one?¡± I was ready to get to business. ¡°Classrooms are designated private rooms assigned to families that contribute. The benefits are obvious they are private and every classroom has a key so it¡¯s secure. In order to get a classroom, you must take an off-campus job such as a scout, hunter, or participate in any battles. Or contribute something that covers the value of a secured classroom. ¡° ¡°What kind of contributions are you currently looking for? I¡¯m not comfortable leaving a small child by herself while I¡¯m out hunting.¡± I was speaking of course about Vera, and he seemed to understand. This was a gathering of people of various backgrounds. Not everyone has good intentions. ¡°That¡¯s very understandable. Let¡¯s see we can use weapons, food, and anyone with medical expertise. All healers can also get a classroom.¡± Vera began tugging on my shirt; I know she must be getting very hungry I need to wrap this up soon. ¡°Oh, you have healers here as well?¡± ¡°Yes, of course, we have four. However are you familiar with what Mana or MP is?¡± ¡°Yes, I am.¡± ¡°Well, their mana only gives them the ability to heal at most five people a day each. Depending on the severity of the injury all four could use up their entire mana just healing one person, but a few of the healers are nurses so they are capable of patching people up with old fashion elbow grease and gauze.¡± ¡°I get it; well can we do a quick negotiation. I¡¯d like to not take up much more of your time; I will commit myself to the defense of this campus and combat any force that attacks this compound. In addition to that, I have a five lbs. bag of rice in my book bag.¡± ¡°Well, I would be willing to offer you the room just for your combat potential. That little one is carrying a bow and you are equipped with blades at your waist. ¡° ¡°She is not to be involved in any conflict without my consent. The rice was to help feed those three. Also please use it for any women and children who are hungry. It should be able to feed at least ten people.¡± ¡°Thank you so much!¡± ¡°You kind soul!¡± After a quick nod of his head the principle Tyler walked to a different room and came back with two keys. ¡°Please be careful not to lose them, I only have two keys for each and one master key. So they will not be replaced. You will be in Room# 2-212. Also, I¡¯d like to ask a personal favor. We are having a combat meeting to discuss a potential rescue operation tomorrow. I¡¯d like if you can attend. ¡° ¡°No problem, I will be there.¡± ¡°Ok allow me to get back on track and finish up. As for rules, basic laws apply including the golden rule. If you follow those you shouldn¡¯t have a problem.¡± ¡°What about coming and going?¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t really had an issue there; most people would rather stay put and only a select few leave on their own. I guess it should be fine the gates are manned 24/7, but if you are chased back here by a hoard of monsters don¡¯t expect someone to put the lives of many at risk to save the lives of a few.¡± ¡°That¡¯s perfectly reasonable. Last question, there are a few open flames out there are we allowed to use one or do we need to set our own.¡± ¡°Open flames are set for a designated area, so please only set a fire if you see another fireplace close by. There are also children on the compound whose safety we have to think about, but if you see an open fire you are welcome to use it. Rule of thumb, the ¡°dibs¡± method doesn¡¯t apply here.¡± ¡°Thank you, very much I¡¯m sure this little one is hungry and exhausted. We¡¯ve been walking for a while.¡± ¡°Understandable we are all done here.¡± With that, we exited the office first leaving the those three there with Tyler Watt, and then we walked back to the parking lot where most of the fireplaces we saw were located. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that took so long Vera, I know you¡¯re hungry.¡± ¡°Well yea, but that wasn¡¯t why I was trying to get your attention.¡± ¡°Ok, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I was trying to tell you that I am able to use healing magic, so if you wanted me to help I am ok with that.¡± ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know you could use healing magic.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t ask. Light Magic is a racial skill among the elven race.¡± I felt like there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. ¡°Tell you what, let¡¯s get comfortable and you can cook the rabbit and you can tell me more about things I don¡¯t know.¡± This was the golden opportunity I was waiting on. Her response was a quick nod. The Orange sun was now kissing the landscape and would be gone in a short while. The weather was also noticeably chillier. That¡¯s only natural when you consider we¡¯ve been heading north, but it wasn¡¯t intolerable. I welcomed it. This felt a lot better than the stuffy sealed building¡¯s with no A/C, and with the fireplace it was perfect.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Mr. Jordan can I use your knife to skin the rabbit?¡± ¡°I put a knife for you in the book bag I gave you, it¡¯s slightly smaller than mine, but should be very easy to use.¡± The thought of her using a knife didn¡¯t sit well with me. She was just too young looking. I had to get over that. She¡¯s obviously from a world a lot harsher than mine and has been catching and killing her own food for a lot longer than me. She held her knife in hand and I was awestruck by the way she handled it. It was as if she was an orchestra conductor and she was in the middle of a grand symphony. In a few minutes, the rabbit was skinned as easy as peeling a banana. ¡°Mr. Jordan¡­.I feel pretty uncomfortable with you watching so intently. Maybe you should just come back in thirty minutes.¡± ¡°Wha¡­.fine¡± I was definitely disappointed to learn that I wouldn¡¯t be able to watch her work so beautifully anymore. But it was refreshing to see her exert her independence, she went from PTSD induced separation anxiety to ¡°leave, but don¡¯t go too far, and be back before too long.¡± I would say we were heading in the right direction. She was clearly in her element here and my presence wasn¡¯t needed, so I left her to do her thing. I was planning on walking to the cafeteria to check out what the general living situation was like there before heading to our newly assigned room before I heard frantic begging from someone coming out a room my right. ¡°Please I¡¯m begging you, I have children.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you know the rules this is a trade shop and you have nothing to trade.¡± I heard the back and forthcoming from out of what used to be the school store I assumed. ¡°It¡¯s getting cold and I just want my kids to have something to wear. We sleep outside in the courtyard at night it¡¯s going to get really chilly tonight.¡± I walked into the store because my curiosity had a stranglehold on me. There was a lady I would say mid thirty¡¯s brunet, long thick messy hair. Well, she overall looked a mess but was still very pretty apart from the fact that she looked like she¡¯d been through hell. She was in a stained tank top and ripped jeans, not by design. Behind her were two boys, twins maybe, they were almost identical. They looked a lot like her in shorts and a t-shirt. ¡°My daughter went to this school, I know they kept jackets here for sale and I know you have more in the back.¡± ¡°What do you have for them?¡± In the middle of their back and forth bickering, something on a shelf behind the store attendant was catching the attention of my AR. Unhatched Divine dragon egg. It was a pretty large egg about the size of a basketball. Its shell was a beige color with a rough texture that looked like the skin of a crocodile. What the hell. What¡¯s something like that doing here? ¡°Excuse me I¡¯m sorry to interrupt, but I was interested in acquiring one of the items you have displayed.¡± Barbara Watt Lv 1 Merchant Lv 1 Her last name Is Watt. I assume there is a relation to Principle Watt since she is running the store. She gave off a stern skinny librarian vibe the complete opposite of Tyler and Jakob who were both physically imposing. Also, why chose a non-combat job in a time like this? Eh, to each their own. I had no place to judge. Her husband established this entire mini-city; she would likely never need to fight. My AR didn¡¯t display the information on the others they likely haven¡¯t assigned a job yet. ¡°Sarah please step back I have a customer.¡± As desperate as she seemed to be, she complied without question and took a step back allowing me to pass. ¡°I¡¯m interested in that.¡± I pointed at the egg and she turned and picked it up off the shelf. ¡°This isn¡¯t any good, I was completely jipped.¡± She responded honestly, ¡°I traded for it thinking it would make a pretty big breakfast for my boys but it¡¯s fossilized and is nothing more than a pretty big rock.¡± She demonstrated by dropping it on the floor. I felt like it was falling in slow motion like an expensive smartphone. My heart was shaken. Bang. It smashed into the floor but was completely unharmed. I breathed a massive sigh of relief. It actually had enough power to crack the tile under it. I picked it up. The egg was remarkably light in spite of the damage it just did. ¡°I assume by boys you mean Tyler and Jakob?¡± ¡°Yes, as well as Daniel, Jakob¡¯s brother, my other son.¡± Ding ding ding I figured it out. I had to trade for this egg. ¡°Well, Tyler must be under a lot of pressure from all these responsibilities along with his son being on the front line. But he''s probably used to the pressure since he was a principal for a school like this.¡± Bait set. ¡°I think the one under the most pressure here is me younging, ¡°she said with a sigh. ¡°But you¡¯re right; He does have a lot of pressure on him right now. This all just happened so fast, and sometimes there are times I feel so helpless. Before shit hit the fan here he uses to come home, kick off his boots, I would pour him a glass of wine and rub his shoulder and help drown his troubles away. Working at a school for troubled children isn¡¯t easy, but he had such a big heart he never gave up on anyone.¡± Hooked. ¡°What kind of wine did you use to poor for him?¡± ¡°He was a red wine kind of guy,¡± she was speaking in a passionate voice as if she was fantasizing about the good times. In the art of negotiation, it¡¯s best to know what your adversary wants and how bad they want it. It clear to me that she doesn¡¯t know what that egg is and doesn¡¯t think highly of it and would probably trade it for a stick of gum. However, I don¡¯t know what skills her merchant job gave her so it¡¯s best to be cautious. There is always the chance she is trying to pull a fast one on me. Merchants can be very sly people. ¡°Do you still do that for him now?¡± ¡°Heaven''s no, we ran out of our house so fast wine was the last thing I was concerned about grabbing and it¡¯s hardly worth risking my life out there to find.¡± I took out a bottle of unopened red wine from my book bag via storage and set it on the counter. I bet raiding that liquor store makes me look like a genius now doesn¡¯t it. Her eyes became as big as dish saucers. ¡°Whatever you want, tell me what you want for it!¡± ¡°I want this,¡± as I grabbed the egg of the counter, ¡°and whatever they wanted,¡± I pointed to the lady and her sons. She went in the back and came back with three sweaters, sweatpants, blankets, and various snacks. ¡°Here, about the bottle, can I have it now?!¡± The wine worked up Barbara; she was on the brink of a tizzy. I just nodded, she was scaring me now, her gentle librarian vibe was gone without a trace. ¡°Thank you, if that¡¯s all the store is closing.¡± She pushed all four of us out the door and locked it behind us. ¡°Thank you very much, I appreciate what you did for us more than words can ever explain, but to give up something so valuable for people you don¡¯t know,¡± Sarah began thanking me as soon as the door closed behind us. ¡°It¡¯s no biggie; I¡¯m not a big wine drinker. I brought it just for that purpose.¡± I put the egg in storage via my book bag. I don¡¯t know when it will hatch, but I didn¡¯t want it to hatch here. It might cause a national crisis if a baby dragon suddenly started flying around. ¡°My name is Sarah; these are my sons James and Joey, What¡¯s your name? Is there anything I can do to pay you back? I don¡¯t have much but I¡¯m a fairly competent cook. It¡¯s just things have been very hard on us since my husband died. ¡°Oh, did he get caught up in the monster madness?¡± ¡°No, he died a year ago overseas. He was stationed in a highly volatile combat zone and¡­...¡± ¡°I understand, I¡¯m sorry to hear that, my name is Jordan,¡± I cut her off because I felt bad about making her talk about such sad memories. ¡°If you¡¯re in trouble I¡¯m in room 2-212 I don¡¯t mind sharing some space the classroom should be large enough to accommodate the five of us.¡± ¡°Wow you¡¯re so kind; I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± She began tearing up; I¡¯ve honestly had enough crying. I knew sharing a room would make it a little more difficult to do things how I wanted but, I didn¡¯t want the kids sleeping outside in the cold. I used to be a foster brother. I still have a soft spot for them. I got down to eye level with James and Joey. ¡°Hey, your mom is going to cry. You guys must take over the role as the man of the house. Comfort your mom.¡± They both nodded obediently, and they all embraced each other while her tears fell. ¡°Well, I have someone waiting on me. So, I have to go, but I should be upstairs in about an hour. It¡¯s an open invitation you can come if you like or not.¡± I walked away and I heard her saying thank you repeatedly until she was out of range. I approached Vera and the fire while she was preparing a plate with the roasted rabbit. ¡°Hi Mr. Jordan, I¡¯m all done.¡± ¡°Awesome let¡¯s eat.¡± We sat and ate around the fireplace, the rabbit meat had a very lean taste to it, but it was still pretty good. It didn¡¯t have an overly strong gamey taste. It¡¯s honestly something I would have eaten without questioning it was some kind of monster. ¡°Hey Vera, what can you tell me about dragons?¡± ¡°Hmm, well they are the reasons humans in our past world went extinct.¡± Shit. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I guess I''ll have to explain it from the beginning for it to make sense. There were Four main human nations. Each nation was larger than all the demihuman nations combined. However, they all had hostility against each other to the point where traveling from one nation to the other was strictly forbidden. They were equal in power and desperately wanted a way to gain more power than the other. So, one of the kings decides to try to use dragons. He established a unit of knights to try and subjugate a dragon to add to their fighting force. All the other nations got wind of it and then tried the same. When they all failed terribly at subjugating adult dragons, they tried young dragons, and when that failed, they resorted to stealing eggs. Safe to say the Dragon God Typhon got words of the humans¡¯ action.¡± ¡°Sorry to interrupt, but Dragon God Typhon? Is he an actual God or a dragon?¡± ¡°Typhon is the strongest living being in the world. It¡¯s safe to say he¡¯s a little bit of both.¡± ¡°I see for please continue.¡± ¡°Well, Typhon became so powerful he had a restriction placed on him by the Gods. He¡¯s not allowed to attack and only allowed to retaliate. The actions of the human counted as an attack on the dragons so it was within his means to retaliate and he declared war on the entire human race. They were hunted down and in less than a year not a single human was found.¡± ¡°Maybe they went into hiding?¡± ¡°Dragons are the alphas of the world Mr. Jordan. Once you''re marked as an enemy of dragons there is no hiding and there is no surviving. Only death. I began thinking about the egg in my book bag. I would hate for it to start another dragon-human war. Or who¡¯s to say that the war is even over in the mind of the dragons. This is stressful. I thought about the title of the egg I found and it dawned on me that it wasn¡¯t simply a dragon egg, but it was divine dragon egg. ¡°What makes a dragon a divine dragon?¡± I asked. ¡°There are four divine dragons. They are Typhon¡¯s second in command. Each has a hemisphere they are responsible for supervising. North dragon Kur, South Dragon Shenlong, East Dragon Eren, and West Dragon Wawel. They are only second in strength to Typhon himself. Rumor has it that the reason Typhon became involved was that one of the eggs of the divine four went missing.¡± Shit! It¡¯s in my damn book bag! ¡°What happened with the eggs that the humans stole? Were they able to raise them properly? ¡°They were not able to hatch them. Dragon eggs don¡¯t simply hatch over the course of time. They require a strong elemental exposure.¡± Vera¡¯s explanation up to this point had been easy to follow up to this point, but she completely lost me at strong elemental exposure. ¡°What do you mean by strong elemental exposure?¡± ¡°Hmm, the thing that determines what element a dragon is going to be is the element used to hatch the egg. For example, if a dragon breathes fire on an egg and hatches it, the dragon born will be a fire dragon.¡± ¡°Wow really? I always thought that it was the same as its parent.¡± ¡°Well 99% of the time that¡¯s accurate, because a fire dragon won¡¯t take its egg to the depth of the sea to use the water pressure there to hatch it.¡± ¡°What about the existence of dragon knights?¡± Vera looked at me as if a second head began growing out of my shoulder. ¡°A dragon knight?¡± she asked perplexed. ¡°Like a dragon that has a human ride him to battle.¡± ¡°A dragon? Being used as a horse¡­has never and will never happen. They think of all other races as rats and cockroaches. Would you let a cockroach ride you?¡± ¡°Point taken.¡± Vera was beginning to shiver I didn¡¯t understand, we were sitting in front of a warm fire and it felt very pleasant outside. Then I looked around and noticed everyone was bundled up. In Florida, the weather is fairly tropical year round and in the winter you get cold fronts where the temperature would drop drastically for a few days. ¡°Vera, are you cold?¡± ¡°Yes Mr. Jordan, it is very cold outside.¡± Damn it, I forgot I had a cold resistance skill and as a result what I was feeling and what she was feeling was very different. The sunset and the only light were the various fireplaces around the campus, but it wasn¡¯t that late yet, about 8 pm. ¡°Ok let¡¯s go inside. Do you want to take a shower before we head to our room?¡± We were on the road all day under the sun and became fairly sweaty. Since we were at a high school, I was confident they had locker rooms which were normally equipped with showers. ¡°A shower sounds wonderful!¡± She was very excited. I learned she thoroughly enjoyed showers, during our stay at the apartments we were at prior, I would often have to remind her that she needed to get out eventually. Well, that was settled. We both went to the respective boy and girl locker room and took a shower. The locker room was pitch black due to it being in the heart of the campus with no windows. You couldn¡¯t see your hands in front of your face, but I gave Vera a candle because I foresaw this being a problem. After the shower, we went to the room we were assigned. We found Sarah and her sons waiting at the door. Sarah looked a lot different from an hour ago. She looked refreshed, in new clothing, her hair was no longer messy, it now looked freshly washed, and she was now neatly groomed. It¡¯s safe to assume she probably went to clean herself up after we separated. ¡°Thanks again for allowing us to stay. The Weather took a turn for the worse.¡± ¡°No problem, but why don¡¯t you sleep in the cafeteria? Since it¡¯s closed it would be a lot warmer.¡± ¡°Have you been in the cafeteria? The place is awful. The nonstop crying, the putrid smell, and the overall sense of despair that hangs in the atmosphere. Most of the people in there have completely given up on life. I can¡¯t do that I have to get my daughter back, or I wouldn¡¯t be able to face my husband in the afterlife.¡± She echoed the same sentiments of Jakob. I opened the door to the classroom in the middle of Sarah¡¯s explanation. I was planning on checking out the cafeteria, but I didn¡¯t have the time yet. Now I was thinking of avoiding it altogether. Inside the classroom was very standard, the tile floors. Five rows of six desks facing a white dry erase board. It interestingly had a bathroom on suite which would come in handy, I was sure. There was a large window with horizontal shutter blinds closed preventing the moonlight from coming in causing it to be almost as dark as the locker room. With my night vision, I was fine, but it would pose a problem for the others, so I used the candles Vera and I use for our shower to illuminate the room. ¡°Your daughter?¡± I questioned. I didn¡¯t know she had a daughter. ¡°Yes, my daughter is among the women taken by those fiendish goblins.¡± I didn¡¯t want to say it, but if her daughter was taken by goblin then she is probably dead or wants to be dead. Reading the look on my face she spoke up,¡± I know what you¡¯re thinking, but my daughter is alive and unhurt. She is one of the forty-five women currently being held captive.¡± I wanted to refute her delusions of grandeur, but her eyes were burning with pure confidence. ¡°Why do you think so?¡± ¡°A thief snuck into their base and confirmed a group of girls barricaded themselves in a bathroom and are safe. My daughter is resilient, like her father. I know she will fight her most damn to live. We were finally able to convince that damn coward Tyler to plan a rescue mission. It took him three days!¡± Her voice was gradually climbing. ¡°Ohh, I was invited to attend that meeting tomorrow,¡± I recalled. ¡°What¡­. he said only select participants. I don¡¯t have the right to ask you for anything else but please help save my daughter.¡± This day and age bowing and groveling wasn¡¯t really a thing nor did I want her to, but she was going to start crying again, and I was really at the limit with all the crying so I responded quickly give her something else to talk about before she started. ¡°Where are they being held?¡± ¡°The goblin made their base in a large store. It¡¯s about three miles north.¡± With the lack of caves, they decided to use a big building for shelter. ¡°I will see what the plans are tomorrow. It¡¯s been a very long day and I¡¯m exhausted so I¡¯m going to call it an early night.¡± ¡°O yes me as well. My boys have already found a spot and are fast asleep, ¡°She said pointing at them who were huddled in a corner on the opposite side of Vera who fell asleep sitting up against the wall. The next morning I was in a solemn conference room in the same office I gathered yesterday for my orientation. It was dark, illuminated by two candles on a long oval table. There were only six people seated at the table including myself, Vera was also here standing to my right. I was told only certain individuals were allowed to sit. There were people gathered around the circumference of the room silently observing the conversation that was about to begin. At the top of the table. Daniel Watt was sitting at its head with His brother Jakob and his father to his left and right respectively. Daniel Watt Lv 13 Brawler Lv 3 He was the strongest person; apart from myself, I¡¯ve seen thus far. The Brawler job was fitting for his frame. He was larger than his father and his brother, but they all looked pretty similar. He looked to be at about 6¡¯7 265lbs. He had a shoulder-length black hair and a full-length beard. He gave off a barbaric vibe and his eyes were stern and intimidating. I felt the urge to question what Barbara was feeding these guys. To the bottom of the table, there was a portly, posh looking gentleman who looked out of place for the hard times at hand. He looked very noble and was in a clean black three-piece suit. He reminded me of Dr. Penguin. John Harrington III Lv1 Apprentice Magician Lv1 Standing over his shoulder where two men who looked to be his henchman. Both were level five with a level two brawler job. The last person was sitting directly across from me. Joan Pearl Lv 1 Healer Lv 4 She was level one but was a level four healer. I didn¡¯t understand that, but I¡¯m sure there was a lot I didn¡¯t understand, this change didn¡¯t exactly come with an instruction manual. I¡¯d be foolish to act as if I knew everything. She was a plain middle-aged woman with brown hair pinned neatly in a bun and was wearing scrubs and a lab coat. ¡°Hey, Tyler, whose the brat? Why is he sitting at the executive table? ¡° His sight was set on me and his tone left a lot to be desired. It was easy to identify the kind of man he was. He¡¯s looking at me down his nose before I even introduced myself. ¡°Do not start Joseph, now is not the time there are serious things to be discussed. My father feels he has potential, then he is welcomed here.¡± The voice that answered came from Daniel. ¡°My name is Jordan Cain; I was invited here, so here I am.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have a lot of time to waste, every moment is precious we need to save those girls before it¡¯s too late. As most of you know this is our fourth attempt to come up with a plan. Hopefully, Jordan will offer a new point of view. ¡° ¡°Do we even know what his level or Job is? Shouldn¡¯t we start there to know whether the kid is worth our time?¡± The eyes in the room gather on me. Including Vera who had the most curious look of all. I forgot I never actually told her about any of my skills. I thought about outright denying telling them. If I told them my real level I could get expect my responsibilities to rise dramatically and I¡¯m not certain I want that quite yet. I¡¯m using to being the kind of guy that can disappear into a crowd and I prefer it stay that way. ¡°Is that something that you guys share regularly with others?¡± I asked. There is also a risk of everyone knowing exactly how strong you are. Not everyone is your friend. ¡°If he¡¯s not comfortable sharing then it is perfectly fine. All I want to know if you are capable of killing goblins?¡± Daniel asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Was all I needed to say to ease the tension in the room. ¡°Very well allow me to continue. The throng of goblins that are holding the women hostage is being held in a large department store three miles to the north of here.¡± He rolled out a large store map on the table. There was a corner of the map circle identifying that this was the location the girls were barricaded at. ¡°Thanks to one of our thief¡¯s we were able to get a map and have confirmed that somehow the ladies have barricaded themselves in this bathroom here. He was also estimated there to be over 250 goblins hold up in this store.¡± I heard Vera¡¯s subtle gasp when he said the numbers. ¡°You know my plan. Put a weapon in those lazy bums¡¯ hands and blossom our numbers. It¡¯s not fair they get to rest on their laurels while we work,¡± Joseph grunted. I had a feeling this guy has never left the campus since he¡¯s been here. The only reason he was at the table was likely because of his job. I noticed that there were no other apprentice magicians in the room. The second person to speak was Tyler. ¡°I agree, but in a less extreme sense. We need to grow our fighting force. They have to accept the fact that this is our world now. We need to encourage more participants.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I disagree with that proposal. Forcing someone to fight won¡¯t raise anything, but or mortality rate. The healers can hardly handle what¡¯s on hand as it is.¡± Joan seemed to be the voice of reason in this room. They are basically suggesting using human beings as meat shields. I can understand the need for bolstering your number, but I think high morale is just as important as having numbers. Sending people who don¡¯t want to fight, to fight will do just as Joan said. Cause more deaths. ¡°What is your thought Jordan?¡± Daniel spoke up before the meeting became too frenzied. He was good. He had a firm control over what was going on here. ¡°I think that plan is vile. Using other human beings as meat shields is basically what they are recommending¡­..¡± ¡°Mr. Jordan, can I speak?¡± Vera gentle words whispered in my ear completely changing my train of thought. ¡°Sorry, my friend would like to speak please hear her out.¡± This was very unlike Vera. So I assumed it to be very important. ¡°Hello, my name is Vera. I¡­¡­ I¡¯m not good at speaking to a lot of people, so please bear with me. ¡° ¡°It¡¯s ok Vera go ahead.¡± I encouraged. She took a deep breath and firmed her resolve. ¡°There should be another thing you should be concerned about when facing goblin hoards that large. Goblins only gather in a hoard that large when they have a strong leader. That said leader will normally also have a few executives under him. Their strength will normally be far superior to the goblin they rule over. However, you can take solace in the fact that the horde in question is most likely made of goblin grunts, so a goblin king might not be involved here.¡± ¡°What the fuck! Why are we now listening to a damn child!?¡± Joseph yelled. His killing intent was raised and his loud voice was aimed at Vera causing her to shudder nervously and she withdrew herself to behind me and began trembling, she was shaken. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I was just trying to hel¡­.¡± She tried explaining herself. ¡°Shut your pie hole or ill shut it for you.¡± He barked back. I began seeing red. I was seething with rage. The amount of effort I put into raising Vera¡¯s confidence for her to finally be able to speak up in front of a group. Knowing how much effort she was putting into this just to be treated so rudely set me off. Before I knew it I had my knife in my hand, I jumped on the table and ran towards him. My knee to his chin forced him out of his seat. I grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and forced him back against the wall. The tip of my knife was pressed against his throat. I pricked his skin and a single drop of blood flowed down his neck. His bodyguards were caught off guard by the speed of my movements and weren¡¯t sure what to do now that he was in the predicament he was in. ¡°I will slit your throat and watch your blood stain the floors! You will never speak to her like that again! Do I make myself clear!¡± My words were clean, clear, and concise. His eyes were shaking with fear as he slowly nodded. ¡°Please calm down!¡± Daniel was trying to deescalate the situation in the room I let him go and his body collapses to the floor. I calmly returned to my seat. ¡°I apologize for my outburst.¡± ¡°Umm, sure it''s ok. Can you two get him up off the floor? Anyways, I must ask how do you know about this young lady?¡± Vera was done speaking. She was trying to stay out of the line of sights of everyone here. ¡°Vera please show them, it might help save the lives of a lot of people.¡± She pulled her hair back and showed them the pointed ears hidden underneath. ¡°As you can see she is not from our world, she is from theirs. Though you might call her a child she is over four hundred years old, so I do recommend listening to her. Daniel, you asked me what¡¯s my plan I will tell you. Starting an all-out battle will be costly and could attract the attention of even more monsters. This should be a covert op.¡± ¡°We only have one thief who agreed to scout and he is deathly afraid of returning back to that building.¡± He responded. ¡°I am a thief. I will sneak in and do what I can to rescue those girls. In the meantime, you should prepare for the arrival of forty-five girls in any given condition. That includes hurt or severely hungry. ¡° ¡°By yourself¡­.surely you¡­.¡± ¡°There are more benefits to it being this way. I honestly don¡¯t have a lot of time to waste. I¡¯d like to head out immediately. The goblins should be in the midst of their deepest sleep right about now. ¡° ¡°Very well, all other parties prepare for a large scale hunt. Joan, have the healers clear the clinic for all non- fatal injuries. Dad, have the cooks prepare everything in stock, get a large amount of water ready. Jordan we are going to bank everything on you. ¡° ¡°Thank you, I must go to my room to prepare.¡± With that, With Vera at my side. I exited the conference room and returned to my room. Conference room- ¡°Why do you trust him? That kid is clearly a murderer! He almost killed me we should do something about that thing he keeps with him too!¡± Joseph¡¯s voice was filled with a murderous rage. ¡°Joseph calm down,¡± Daniel gently replied. ¡°Did anyone else see him move when he attacked Joseph?¡± He asking while looking around the room, but there was no response in the affirmative. ¡°That because he was too fast, I¡¯ve learned that every time you level up your speed and overall strength increases as well. Thief class also prioritizes speed. While I don¡¯t know what his level is. It may be as high as or higher than mine. Maybe he has a skill we can bank on. Besides, I agree with him, I think it¡¯s best that this job is done as a covert situation, but didn¡¯t think anyone would be willing to volunteer.¡± ¡°Maybe? You¡¯re banking all our resources on a maybe? That is unlike you my son.¡± ¡°No, not necessarily father. We do not have a refrigerator or a freezer anymore; if we don¡¯t regularly use and restock our supply will go rotten. Also, we need to be encouraging hunting more regularly, it¡¯ is a good way to level up.¡± ¡°What about that she-devil! Then thing isn¡¯t of this world and we are just going to mingle with it? We should burn it on a stake.¡± With a heavy sigh, Daniel cold eyes ran over Joseph whose rage was burning like a million suns. ¡°Joseph, that girl has done nothing to deserve your wrath, but give us advice. I can tell you with great certainty, anyone who touches her, he will kill. Plain and simple. ¡° ¡°You¡¯re such a fucking coward. I¡¯m done here.¡± Joseph spat and exited the room Central Village Part two ¡°Mr. Jordan, how do you plan on fighting more than 250 goblins by yourself?¡± ¡°While I was working for my boss prior to the world going to hell I developed a set of skills, A set of skill that will make me a problem for those goblins. I don¡¯t plan on fighting them. I will bring the whole building down on top of them.¡± ¡°What about the girls?¡± ¡°The map showed that they were in a bathroom in the in the back corner of the building. I will break through the wall and evacuate them beforehand.¡± That map gave me all the information I needed. I look through my storage to make sure I had the item necessary to make them all suffer. Since there is no more gasoline, I will have to make do with something else. My plan was fairly simple. Save the girls, trap them in the building, then set the building ablaze. ¡°Do you know fire magic? Setting a large building on fire would require an advanced spell.¡± It seems Vera was in my head; she was beginning to piece together what I had I planned and how I was going to do it. ¡°No, but I have a plan,¡± I answered. She had a puzzled look on her face, but I didn¡¯t have time to explain. It was about 12 pm now and the goblins would be in their deepest sleep cycle right about now. ¡°Vera, I want you to stay here, keep the door locked and don¡¯t let anyone in.¡± ¡°Why? Why can¡¯t I come with you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous, and I don¡¯t think you will be fast enough. Please trust me. I didn¡¯t forget our promise.¡± She was reluctant, but she agreed at the mention of our promise. I felt bad about treating her like a child and made a mental note to do some leveling with her in the near future. I prepped her lunch before I left the room and made my way to the front gate. There was a lot of commotion outside. People were buzzing about like ants. Some were in full gear others were getting ready, and some just looked completely lost. Looks like Daniel wasn¡¯t kidding about the big hunt party. However, I had my own mission and I wasn¡¯t going to be a part of this. I made my way to the exit gate and the same guards that were there when I first arrived let me out. After waking out of there sightline I took off. It was my first time running at full speed, but it was clearly abnormal. I wasn¡¯t very fleet of foot, to begin with so the feeling of the air pushing against me was a feeling I wasn¡¯t familiar with. I was sure I exceeded at least 20mph. The street I was running down was littered with abandon cars, like every other street I''ve been on thus far. There weren¡¯t as many bodies as I was getting used to seeing, likely because of the school being established as a shelter so close. It was a heavily residential area, so my left and right were all single-family homes. After running for ten minutes I arrived at the top of the street which was a four-way intersection. On the edge of the neighborhood, things became more commercial once you made your way across the street. The department store I was looking for was the largest and only stand-alone building in the shopping center. It wasn¡¯t a big plaza and only had four stores. I didn¡¯t have time to stop in and raid any of them; I wanted to prioritize those girls. I didn¡¯t forget Sarah¡¯s request. I ducked behind cars and bushes as I made my way towards the entrance of the department store. The front door was an automatic glass door that was shattered and glass fragments stained with blood covered them was scattered across the entrance way. I expected bodyguards, but there was none. My detect life confirmed that this was the home base of the goblins, it picked up the presences of close to three hundred different lives. I used all the assassin skills in my arsenal including my silent step to quietly make my way through the front door. My danger sense was also going off, but the alarm was very dull. When I peeked in all the goblins confined themselves to the darkest areas of the store so there was none close to the entrance. I used my night vision and enhance vision to confirm they were all sleeping. The odor in here was horrid; it would put a landfill to shame. I gagged and instinctively covered my nose. Inside the store wasn¡¯t for the faint of heart. They used the bathroom just about anywhere a piles of dung and puddles of urine caused me to have to watch my every step. There were also human carcasses half eaten laid about with rotting flesh and flies buzzing. I did find the bare bodies of multiple females. Naked stretched across the bare floor littered with scratch marks lying in a dried puddle of blood. They were all dead and likely died due to the strain the goblins with their vile habits put on their body. But, death was a compromise compared to have to live through this hell. I quietly proceeded into the store as quietly as I could. I began taking the things I needed out of storage. The first item was a large bottle of acetone, which women use to remove nail polish, but this was an industrial canister. This was among the items I got when I raided the hardware store and it was an unnecessarily large two-gallon bottle probably used by painters. I unscrewed the lid and the powerful odor wafted through the air but was buried under the unpleasant stenches already present. I began pouring it on the floor from the entrance and proceeded as deep in the store as I could. I began to find goblins soundly sleeping on top of each other in large pods of 10-20. I couldn¡¯t blame the thief that came here for never wanting to come here again. I noticed quickly that Vera was right. Among the goblin grunt, there were slightly larger ones. Goblins Lv 11 Goblins looked a lot like the goblin grunt but the came up to about my abdomen while the grunt only came up to my waist. I continued pouring the acetone through the store getting as close to the pods of goblins as I could. I managed to do it without waking a single goblin. There were a few close calls where I had some bounce of the floor and a few drops splashed on one of the grunts, so I quickly hid my presences until it fell back to sleep. I ultimately finished four canisters of it and three jugs of cooking oil before I was satisfied. Honestly, if this place wasn¡¯t so filthy the strong odor would have alerted them.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. After I was finished, I quickly returned to the entrance. I needed air! ¡°That was awful.¡± I gasped and sucked in as much fresh air as I could trying no wash out the stench of inside that store out of my notrils. Iron Stone Wall. I activated my spell and created a wall eight feet high and four college textbooks thick. Positioned it directly in front of the door to prevent their escape. I circled the building and found all the alternate exits or emergency exits and seal those as well. The building was a single story so I didn¡¯t have to worry about them seeking refugee on a different floor. On to step two. I identified the wall separating the girls from their sanctuary and pulled out a sledgehammer. I didn¡¯t feel any movement on the other side, but I did confirm forty lives. I pulled a sledgehammer I had out of storage and using the power of my body strengthen. Bang! I slammed it into the wall. I felt the people inside jumping and getting farther away. I aimed toward the bottom two feet of the guard. I managed to chip the concrete wall. Bang! Bang! Bang! I was aiming at the same spot repetitively, after five hits a baseball size hole appeared where I was aiming. The crying of women reached my ears. They were deathly afraid that whatever was trying to get through the wall was not a friend, but a foe. ¡°Hey, my name is Jordan I¡¯m here to rescue you. Please get away from the wall. Is there anyone in there that is unable to walk on their own?¡± Yelps of excitement sounded and they began to cry amongst themselves. ¡°Yes, two, but we can help them,¡± The response came from the voice of a mature lady, but it sounded weak and fatigued. ¡° ¡°Listen do not come across the hole until I say it¡¯s safe. Does anyone know where Central high school is?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s where I go to school,¡± This response came from someone slightly younger than me, but the fatigue was still clear. ¡°Ok, head there as fast as you can. Stay together in a large group. Help the weaker ones I will cover your back but please go as fast as you can. I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t need me to tell you what will happen if they catch you.¡± Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! I continued slamming the hammer around the edge of the hole I created enlarging it ever so much. It grew to the size of a dog door and then the size of an oven until I was about on par with a refrigerator. ¡°Come on injured first please.¡± The 1st person to come out came with the assistance of two other women. Her leg was in bad shape. She has a compound fracture, her distal femur was completely snapped in two, and it was coming through the skin. Her foot was black, was clearly limb ischemia. Any doctor from our world would only recommend amputation. To lose a foot in this time was the equivalent of death. The second injured came out was in better shape. Her ankle was swollen, and she was hoping on one foot. It looked like a broken ankle. But they both need treatment sooner than later. I began feeling the goblins stir inside. It was only a matter of time before the banging and the commotion in the bathroom woke them up. They had guards or perverts; depending on who you ask stationed right outside the door. After the last girl was out I began feeling them push back on the wall I used at the front door to trap them in. ¡°Go quickly!¡± I was impressed that they managed to stay together and didn¡¯t abandon one another. I turned my back to them and made my way to the front of the store. Bang! Bang! Bang! Something was banging against my wall. And it was not a goblin. The force it was generating was far above what a goblin was capable of. I kept glancing behind me to make sure that the last of the women were out of my sight. I wasn¡¯t 100% sure this was going to work, and I didn¡¯t want them to become a victim of my mistake. But my wall wouldn¡¯t hold up much longer, but before I knew a small hole was pierced in the center. Goblin General Lv 23 Once he put his eye up to the hole my appraisal skill was about to identify what it was. I verified that the last of the women were out of my range, I pulled one of my machetes from its sheath and in my other hand, Since my level of fire magic was low I use up a majority of my mana generating a softball size fireball. I launched it at the hole the goblin general created and the stone that I also drenched in cooking oil and acetone light ablaze like a candle. The fire spread quickly, climbing up the walls like a snake before the entire building was completely set ablaze. I heard the shrieks and cries of the goblins and it brought joy to my heart. Bang! The wall I created was weakened by the fire and with one my slam it completely shattered. Ahhhhhhhh!!! The Goblin general emerged with a roar filled with the rage of a hundred bulls. My AR display showed his health bar was half gone and dipped into orange. His body was badly burned, but the adrenaline in him was pushing him to continue. Behind him, Goblins began pouring out. They were in even worse shape and their health was in the red. There were about 20 of them. There were full on goblins, ranging from level 11 to level 17 and three were level 19. I pulled my other machete and took a combat position. I used a lot of mana to generate that fireball and would need to recover more before I could depend on my earth magic here. The silver lining was their rage was focused on me and they didn¡¯t pursue the girls. AHHHHHHH!! With another roar from the general, the goblins charged at me. There fangs and claws were their weapons of choice. The three-level 19 goblins stood at the side of the general and they were holding baseball bats. ¡°Those must be his high rankers.¡± One of the goblins reached me before his comrades and was vertically bisected. I kept moving around, I couldn¡¯t let myself get surrounded. None of the jobs I leveled up were really met for close combat, and I was only fighting them with the overwhelming difference in base stats and my skills. Two more jumped at me through the air and met my right and left blade respectively before hitting the floor with one less limb. I was carefully monitoring my mana, it was rising ever so slightly. I didn¡¯t want to expose myself to mana exhausting here, so I wanted to have more than enough to cast my spell. Another goblin began its reckless charge at me and I held the sharp side of my blade in his direction to aide in his suicide attempt. Now! I stood still waiting for them to come in close. Earth surge! I activated my spells and stone stalagmites rose from the earth impaling the bodies of the goblins. Their body hung in mid-air while their blood dripped to the ground. Only four left. They charged at me and I dashed towards them. I used my speed to avoid the goblin aides to get to the general. The same tactic I used with Mr. Penguin. I went up for a vertical slash as he looked up in horror as my blade came down to end his life. But, These Goblin were no rookies at fighting. One of his aides pushed him out of harm''s way at the cost of his life. The general tried to use that was an opening to attack me and swung the sledgehammer in his hand down at my head. I stepped back and the hammer hit the pavement with a resounding bang. My counter attack slashed through his bicep separating his arm and hammer from his body. He stepped back and fell to his knees in pain. He gripped his shoulder where his arm used to be with his left hand and the blood profusely continued pouring out through his fingers. He looked up at me with red eyes as he gritted his teeth fantasizing about ripping me to shreds. ¡°In my world, we call this karma. Now go to hell,¡± I spat at him. I readied to deliver my final blow before his aides rushed in to stand in my way. Gahhhh!! One of them yelled at him and he snapped back to reality. He grabbed his hammer with his other hand and made a run for it. I was ready to set chase, but the resolve in the goblins eyes told me they would die before they let me go. ¡°I¡¯ll gladly oblige.¡± Earth Lance. Two large lances pierce their chest cavity before they could take a step forward. Blood came up out their mouth as their bodies fell to the floor. ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let you get away.¡± The Goblin General was no longer in my line of sight, but my detection skill told me that was only because he ran behind a building, but he was hauling ass. ¡°arghhh,¡± I screamed in agony, I was suddenly assaulted by a massive migraine by the like I¡¯ve never felt. My vision became blurry. I turned and attempted to run back towards the school while trying not to stumble over my own two feet. My consciousness was fading and I didn¡¯t know why. If I fainted here I there was a chance I would never wake up again. I clumsily stayed on my feet running in a straight line banging into cars and rolling from one to the next. I kept running until I felt the presence of life. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was friend or foe I could only hope. I ran in its direction until I knew I was in its line of sight. ¡°help,¡± were the only words I managed to get out before I felt my body hit the hard asphalt and my vision went from blur to completely black. Central Village Part Three I don¡¯t know how much time has passed or where I am, but I began regaining my senses little by little. I felt my bare back was laid on the hard floor with a smooth texture, most likely porcelain which would me I was inside a building. I felt small, soft hands on the base of my stomach working there was up in a diagonal matter separating before converging in the same manner at on my chest. I could feel my fingers and toes; I knew I was still in one piece. That was good this must mean that I was found by a human and not a monster. The hand kept caressing me and feeling on various ends of my body, the source of the hands avoided my private areas, and was very gentle; it felt good like the touch of a masseuse. I spoke too soon on the avoiding my private areas. Now the unnamed hands were just wondering to wherever its curiosity took them. My hearing was returning to me. It started with a ringing in my ears, but it became clearer over a few minutes and I heard a soft, feminine voice. ¡°Thank you. Thank you¡­ thank you¡­ you saved her. I promise I will pay this debt back in full.¡± I could not yet confirm with my vision, but the source of the voice repeated that same sentence at least ten times. Her hands kept wondering. ¡°You certainly aren¡¯t a just a boy.¡± Well, thank you. I heard a door open. ¡°Mom, what are you doing?¡± This voice was also familiar to me, but I couldn¡¯t confirm it without my sight. I felt her body jump from the surprising new addition to the room. ¡°Hi Sally, don¡¯t frighten me. I was checking him over for any new wounds that might have caused his current condition. There could be a delayed onset.¡± ¡°Ok whatever, can you just step back Vera is on her way back with the warm water to wipe him down.¡± The new voice, Sally, didn¡¯t sound like it believed the load of crap that was being fed to her. But the mention of Vera made me more comfortable. I was in Good hands, I was found by a familiar party that brought me back to the school. I was happy to hear to my Vera is thriving and interacting with other people. A period sized hole of light pierced the dark void my conscious was trapped in. It gradually became bigger and bigger. I began focusing with all my might on this light and the bickering of the two ladies faded into the back ground. ¡°Argh.¡± My body felt unbelievable stiff. ¡°¡±Huh!!¡±¡± I came too and managed to get into an upright position. ¡°Mr. Jordan!¡± Bang! , the sound of the pot hitting the floor echoed through the room as Vera dropped it and made a mad dash to me. She dove into my chest with no restraints as I was rubbing my eyes trying to get my vision to adjust. Thud. She bounced off my chest with little feedback to me and rolled back onto the ground. That didn¡¯t stop her she crawled back to me and threw her arms around me while sobbing into the side of my neck. ¡°I was so worried! We couldn¡¯t find what was wrong! We tried very hard! I was so scared,¡± She was getting more hysterical with every word that came out her mouth. ¡°Oh Vera calm down, I¡¯m fine and you were just growing out of the endless crying phase you big cry baby, ¡°I said teasingly. ¡°Your body was dragged here!!¡± She stopped crying, but now she was fuming. I honestly preferred the crying I¡¯ve never seen her this way. ¡°I told you to not be reckless! I told you to come back safely! You promised you would never leave me! If they didn¡¯t find you who knows what would¡¯ve happened!¡± I sincerely regret teasing her. The rage she was unleashing on me was intimidating. For someone with a racial affinity for light the darkness oozing off her was like a blackout. I and the other occupants in the room shuddered back a little. Sitting to my right was Sarah and a young lady I believed she call Sally while I was out. They looked very similar so I assumed it was the daughter she was looking for. She also looked very familiar. Vera handed me a blanket which I wrapped around my exposed lower body. ¡°You¡¯re the young lady that led the other women back to the school,¡± I said. I did my best to avoid Vera¡¯s eyes and try to change the subject and by the grace of God she relented and followed my eyes to Sally. Sally Stevenson Lv 3 Apprentice magician Lv 4 Impressive. Vera Lv 4 And Vera leveled up while I was out? I distinctly recall telling her to remain in the room until I was back. That means I¡¯m not the only one who will be getting yelled at. Having that ammo in the back of my mind bought me more joy than it should¡¯ve. ¡°Yes that is right, I was the girl. I don¡¯t know how I can thank you from saving me from that hell. A lot of the girls mentally broke and prayed for their death more than their salvation,¡± She explained. ¡°It was a no brainer, so it no big deal. So why didn¡¯t you break down? You¡¯re so young it¡¯s hard to imagine you being so unaffected,¡± I asked Sally. Her expression changed, she was wearing a soft smile and was looking in a dark corner at the room at nothingness, and her thoughts were wondering somewhere else completely. ¡°I was raised by Sgt Lance Stevenson of the Marine FORECON he drilled mental fortitude in me daily. He claimed since I was his oldest I had to be the toughest but one of his brothers in arms told me my dad didn¡¯t want any boys taking advantage of me while I was having a weak moment.¡± ¡°Sounds like he is a wonderful man, can I ask you another question?¡± ¡°Off course anything,¡± her response was vibrant and the determination in her voice made it seem like I could ask for her hand in marriage and she wouldn¡¯t bat an eye. ¡°What¡¯s your level?¡± I asked even though I knew. ¡°Currently I am Lv3 with an Apprentice magician job at Lv 4,¡± she answered without hesitation. ¡°I see you did a fair bit of fighting.¡± ¡°Not really, When we were locked in that hell, to force our way through I pushed over a isle rack in the store crushing a hoard of them all at once and my level jumped to three all at once,¡± She explained. ¡°I see then how did you get your apprentice magician job to level four?¡± ¡°It grew gradually as I kept using it. I used my Life Magic skills that came with the job to clean the water we were drinking in the bathroom, clean the area, and try to keep the suffocating odor out. Before I knew it made it to level four.¡± Life Magic¡­. I need to look through the skills inventory again. I didn¡¯t recall seeing it, but I jumped from Apprentice Magician to Earth Mage relatively fast I may have over looked it. ¡°I see, thank you. I¡¯m happy you¡¯re safe. How long was I out?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s been about 24hours,¡± Sarah answered. ¡°Mr. Jordan, what lead to this situation?¡± Vera asked quizzically. ¡°I¡¯m honestly not sure, when I was preparing to deliver the finishing blow on a retreating foe, my head began feeling like it was going to explode so I retreated to the nearest life source and fainted.¡± ¡°You were recovered by one of Daniel¡¯s men that were trailing you at a safe distance. We passed him during our retreat. I begged him to go help you, but he was too much of a coward,¡± Sally said with her fist clenched. I see, so they had me tailed. Well it didn¡¯t matter that may have saved my life. I was semi concerned that he seen me running at full speed and probably reported that to the Watt¡¯s by now, but I didn¡¯t really care. ¡°Were you sickly when you were younger Mr. Jordan?¡± ¡°Not with a body like tha---¡± ¡°Sally! I¡¯m sorry for her,¡± Sarah jumped in to cut off her daughters lust charged comment. ¡°It¡¯s fine, but to answer your question Vera no I wasn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t afford to get sick growing up I had a lot of people to look out for, so I took very good care of my body. Speaking of which, can I ask why I¡¯m naked?¡± All of them became beet red and all avoided making eye contact with me earnestly for the first time. ¡°Wel..We¡­Well Mr.Jordan, what happened was¡­it¡¯s simple really. We had to do a full body inspection to see what the source of your injury was. Then I was going to clean you up. We didn¡¯t find anything so we were stumped I thought it may have been something you at.¡± Was it? I couldn¡¯t think of a reason either ¡°I see, thank you. Anyways let¡¯s start moving. Can someone tell me the results of the hunt?¡± I went in my storage via my book bag and removed a change of cloth similar to what I was wearing before. I could still see the sun outside the window, so it was still the daytime, and I was starving. ¡°Well Mr. Jordan, The hunt was meager. I managed to strike down ten horned rabbits on my own after I insisted on being allowed to participate, but in total we came away with sixteen.¡± Vera was the one who responded with the results. Well that explains her level growth. ¡°Oh, so after I asked you to remain indoors, you decided to join the hunt,¡± I said with a wry smile. ¡°Jordan things aren¡¯t good outside,¡± Sarah inputted. ¡°Well things haven¡¯t been good since---¡± ¡°No not that, all our food was prepared and the hunt didn¡¯t turn out enough to feed more than 30 of the nearly 500 people here. Joseph has demanded everyone be armed and force to participate in a night hunt.¡± Sarah cut me off and advised me of the seriousness of the situation. ¡°That¡¯s not the worst part Mr. Jordan. Last night after the Gongs sounded, I heard the howls of black wolves,¡± Vera added. ¡°Black wolves? What can you tell me about black wolves in comparison to goblin grunts?¡± I asked. ¡°There is no comparison sir. They¡¯re bigger, stronger, among the fastest of monster, and built to kill. They are fearsome predators. They hunt in packs of 10-20 and are intelligent beast.¡± ¡°I see so we have to stop this hunt tonight or it might be a massacre.¡± ¡°No Mr. Jordan, It will be a massacre. ¡° I guess I won¡¯t be getting a break. My body began feeling better after every passing second. I felt really good overflowing with more vigor than I remembered having. ¡°Ohh before I go Sarah, we will talk about your ¡°checking¡± later,¡± I added. She was at a loss for words after, she realized she was caught red handed and simply nodded. Status. ¡­¡­¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­¡­. What The fuck?
Name: Jordan Cain Level: 173
Job: Supreme Earth Mage, Assassin lv1, Beast Master lv1
HP: 7,760 MP: 6,289
Attack: 3,081 Defense: 2,687
Magic Affinity: 1,884 Magic Def: 1,859
Speed: 3,125 Dexterity: 2,440
Job Points: 2,175 Skill Points: 4,355
Skills: Advance Earth Manipulation lv 8; Blade Skill Lv 6; Body strengthening Lv 5; Beast Dominance Lv 5; Low Tier Fire Magic Lv 4; Detect Life Lv 4; Danger sense Lv 4; Increased endurance Lv 4; Attentive Hearing Lv 3; Enhance vision Lv 3; Night vision lv 3; Beast Communication Lv 3; Casting Termination skill Lv1 ; Paralysis resistance Lv 1; Fear resistance Lv 1; Poison Resistance Lv 1; Cold Resistance Lv 1; Heat Resistance Lv 1; Low Tier Water Magic Lv 1; Low Tier Wind Magic Lv 1; Mount Supremacy Lv 1; Silent Movement Lv1; Reduced MP Consumption Lv 1; Increased MP Recovery speed; Lv 1; Petrification Resistance Lv1; Charm Resistance Lv 1; Psychic Resistance Lv 1
My level skyrocketed! I assume It was the experience I received from blowing those goblins to hell. Maybe that¡¯s what caused me to blackout. I grew too fast too quickly. It was going to take some time to go through these so I tabled it for later. After I was fully equipped and ate a small meal from my ¡°book bag.¡± I exited the classroom we were using as our room with Vera following behind me. Sarah gathered her sons who were outside playing and brought them back to the room. She decided her and her kids were going to stay behind because they needed to talk, was what I was told. The hallway was lined with lockers and entrances to other class rooms, but was still dark. The only source of light was the sunlight shining in through both ends of the hall way. As we proceeded to the exit it opened into three way intersection. If I continued to the straight I would walk into another hallway and to the left were three sets of double doors leading onto the 2nd floor walk way. I proceed to the exit and where I heard the Joseph¡¯s voice booming. I made my way to a guard rail where I could see what was going on. There were about 250 civilians all adult males. Lined up in neat military style columns, I was impressed by their organization. When I looked closely it changed to disappointment. They looked like a rag tag group of misfits. There were some in makeshift gear and others were wearing nothing but the cloth on their backs. ¡°Tonight we will show them human superiority!¡± Joseph was riling them up with a fire and brimstone speech. ¡°We will go into the night and conquer it! Because that¡¯s what we are! We are humans and we are conquers!¡± ¡°Conquers!¡± ¡°Conquers!¡± The crowd chanted with him. I had to give him credit he was an emphatic speakers and it¡¯s easy to tell he was some form of politician before everything changed. ¡°He¡¯s foolish,¡± Vera commented. ¡°Indeed. I don¡¯t see Tyler or Daniel so let¡¯s see if we can find them.¡± I assumed they would still be in the front office which served as their rooms and base of operation. The problem was we were at the West end of the campus his office was to the East on the first floor. In order to get there we needed to go through the large congregation on the 1st floor. ¡°Let¡¯s go Vera,¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± The stairs we took to the first floor brought us directly behind Joseph who was still addressing the crowd on an elevated 3rd step. When he turned and realized who I was he had a wicked grin on his face as we made eye contact. ¡°Look at this Heathen!¡± He has bought one of those monsters on our grounds!¡± He of course was talking about Vera, who was clinging to me, but surprisingly didn¡¯t duck behind me or wasn¡¯t shaking in fear. ¡°That is not little girl! That is a monster child from the other world seeking to destroy our lands! He allowed it on our lands!¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I wasn¡¯t getting as angry as I did the last time because Vera showed less reaction to him. He was impart helping her grow more courageous. There was a stir through the crowd as they began talking amongst themselves. Truth is Vera was far more popular here than me because of her cuteness she stood out. So a lot more people knew her, and most knew the word monster wasn¡¯t the appropriate world to condemn her with. More murmurs began rising up though the crowd ¡°The huntress?¡± ¡°She¡¯s adorable could she be a monster?¡± ¡°My son played with her yesterday¡± But there was also an overwhelming amount of people who agreed with Joseph. Of course he wasn¡¯t foolish enough to make any physical moves because of the example I set last time. He was trying to isolate me and making me seem like the enemy of man. I stepped up next to Joseph and we stood shoulder to shoulder. I forcefully cleared my throat. ¡°Anyone who leaves this compound tonight will die,¡± My message was clear and hid nothing between the lines. Murmurs rose through the crowd, a lot of people didn¡¯t know who I was, but they did hear my message. ¡°You all are foolish to risk your lives for someone who hasn¡¯t left this place since, he¡¯s gotten here. Ask him. Was he planning on leading this expedition tonight?¡± I continued. Joseph¡¯s expression was warped with rage as the crowd began discussing it among themselves. But, I was done here. This isn¡¯t what I came here to do. At that very moment I decided it was almost time to move on from this place. It wasn¡¯t the home I wanted. Anyplace where someone was deemed a monster for a reason as simple as being different was no place I wanted to be. ¡°What will you do then? Will you starve? Joseph barked at the confused crowd. ¡°The day hunt was fruitless! Our food stores have been depleted! If you don¡¯t hunt you don¡¯t eat! Conquer!¡± The crowd started their conquering chants again and I left them to their own devices as we made our way to the main office. ¡°Vera, this might not be the right home for us.¡± ¡°Mr. Jordan, my home is wherever you are. As long as you¡¯re there I can call it home.¡± She was a really sweet girl. I enjoyed seeing her growing as a person more and more every day. The door to the main office was open so I let myself in. My skills confirmed the entire Watt family was here; they were all gathered in the conference room where we had to original meeting. ¡°Ah, Jordan, please come in. I must thank you for freeing those girls. Most are still recovering emotionally and spiritually with the help of the healers, but without your help this wouldn¡¯t have been possible.¡± Tyler Watt was the first to greet me sitting at the far end of the table facing the door. ¡°It¡¯s only natural that we should help each other during this rough time¡±, I replied. They were all sitting around the table eating what resembled a thanksgiving dinner. There was a flame roasted horned rabbit on a silver dish at the center of the table. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard,¡± Daniel began to address me, but his attitude left a lot to be desired his head was hung low, he looked ashamed to be speaking to me. ¡°My big hunt plan was a complete bust. It shames me to see that you did the most fearsome job and I couldn¡¯t live up to the one part I said I was going to take care of.¡± ¡°I see so that what this is about. You¡¯re pretty hard on yourself.¡± ¡°This is the last of our food; we decided to eat it as a family. Joseph has taken control of this city with promises of prosperity and hope. People just believe all the foolishness he¡¯s spewing because there is nothing left to believe. I¡¯m a fake leader, everything about me is fake even my level.¡± ¡°No my son, you mustn¡¯t speak like that¡±, Barbara, his mom, put her arms around her sobbing son trying to console him. ¡°I¡¯m a diesel mechanic and a part time bus driver here,¡± he continued, ¡°the night all this started I was driving a bus I finished repairing back to the school. Suddenly it cut off and a goblin ran out onto the road. I swerved thinking it was a kid. I lost control of the bus and it flipped over and started rolling down the street. While the bus was flipping it took out a large squadron of goblins and I was given credit for the kills.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make you fake¡±, to my surprise Vera stepped out from my shadow, eyes brimming of confidence and rebutted Daniel¡¯s claim. ¡°My grandmother taught me that luck is as much of a skill as an ability to swing a sword. Embrace your luck because luck is a gift from the Gods.¡± Hearing Vera¡¯s words Daniel finally picked up his head and gazed at her with a look of hope and wiped the tears that were forming in his eyes. ¡°Are there any buses in the bus loop here?¡± My question was directed at Tyler Watt. ¡°Yes, I believe there are seven, but as you know they are useless,¡± He answered. I thought of something, but it may be a long shot. Daniel stood from his chair with newfound confidence, interrupting my thought process. ¡°What do you think of the plan for a night hunt,¡± He asked, but his question wasn¡¯t directed to me, it was directed to Vera. Seeing it warmed my heart. He was looking to her for help. Small steps like this will go a long way in raising her confidence. She still retreated to slightly behind me and was holding my shirt so tight I was confident she would wrinkle it but, ¡°I think it¡¯s a very bad idea, if the black wolves are in the area they will kill them all in an attempt to claim this new territory as their own.¡± She found it in her to answer. The answer however wasn¡¯t what he hoped to hear. ¡°Jordan, please help them,¡± He asked me. ¡°I don¡¯t know who you think I am, but you¡¯re asking a lot. I actually came in here to give you a heads up that I was leaving soon.¡± All sense of hope left the room at the end of my sentence a look of dread began to creep its way back on the faces of the Watt family. ¡°However, I¡¯d like to propose a trade. I¡¯ll accompany them on the hunt tonight for the buses in the bus loop.¡± ¡°Deal!¡± Tyler couldn¡¯t have answered any faster. ¡°Mr. Jordan, I don¡¯t know about this.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be ok Vera, I promise,¡± I said to her before switch my attention to the Watt¡¯s, ¡°that being said, just because I am going, doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ll be able to do much to help.¡± ¡°I¡¯m well aware of that, but even if you are able to save the lives of ten of the hundreds. I can only be grateful.¡± Tyler genuinely seemed to care about the people of this makeshift city as if they were his own. He had to right personality to be a principle, whose job it was to oversee an entire student body as well as faculty. After that we sat with the Watt family after their insistence and ate with them while talking until the sunset. They were a very nice family. Good people like them aren¡¯t seen a lot in the world. They were curious on what my plans were after leaving here, but I honestly didn¡¯t have any plans yet. A few hours later, I was ready to set off to join the large hunting army that was gathering in the courtyard. ¡°Daniel, Vera will stay here with you please make sure nothing happens to her.¡± ¡°I will look after her, I promise.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t I come? I can help you. As you¡¯ve seen I¡¯m a skilled hunter¡± She began trying to negotiate with me. ¡°This is your punishment for going on the hunt after I expressly told you to stay in the room until I returned.¡± That was enough to end her negotiation attempt. Much to the entertainment of the Watt family, whom she¡¯d grown comfortable with. She was probably right though, but there were more cons than pros to bringing her with me. For starters she was still only level four. If these black wolves are as she said they would be far more superior. She used a bow as her primary weapons, and while she has amazing vision she doesn¡¯t have night vision. Also asking her to use light magic would cause her to stand out way too much and she would end up targeted first. It was about 8pm when I joined everyone in the courtyard prior to the departure. The light the sun produced was now gone, the atmosphere was chilled, and there was an eerie silence on the opposite side of the fence. The new moon was hiding in the sky. I didn¡¯t see Joseph anywhere, so I assumed my deduction was right and that he wasn¡¯t participating in this hunt. People can be so stupid sometimes. One of his goonies was here in his place leading everyone out the gates. My night vision skill was active, but the people here would be hard pressed to see three inches in front of their faces. Some of the less equipped people were assigned as torch holders and we filed out in a discombobulated line. There was no kind of grace to be seen here. I mixed myself in with everyone else trying to keep a low profile. They were marching northwest away from the school. My detect life skill was being bombarded because of the large crowd so I was force to switch it off and paid full attention to my danger sense. I was going to have to participate in this hunt the old fashion way. But, is this really a hunt? It began to cross my mind that this was very inefficient. Hunting parties were meant to be small and stealthy. What creature can we sneak up on with a group of 250 people? This entire arrangement was simply asinine. There was a gentle breeze out tonight it felt very nice, to me at least. There were some among us who weren¡¯t dressed properly and were shivering. We were walking down the six lane road way avoiding the abandon cars left in the middle of the street. We were still in an area that was regularly patrolled by the street so a lot of the cars look to have been broken into and raided for supplies. We walked for a little more than a mile, this area was still a city scape and we were approaching a large shopping center. ¡°This must be what they meant by hunting.¡± It seem as though they were searching for goblins while also looking to gather supplies for abandon stores. In the shopping center we arrived at was bigger than most of the one¡¯s I¡¯ve passed thus far, and was featured by a large Paul-Mart Supercenter with hair salons, fast food joints, an electronic repair store, gas station, and a furniture store. I had a small twitch to leave these sheep¡¯s to their business and go raid the furniture store, but that would mean failing to live up to the word I gave the Watt¡¯s. A small blip on my danger sense reoriented me and I picked my head up and began focusing on my surroundings. They were still marching senselessly to the store, so I assumed no one picked it up. ¡°Was I mistaken?¡¯ I began to question myself. But, something was off. The area seemed a little darker than it was. I continued looking around until I found a piece of wood that was being used as a torch lying lonely on the ground. ¡°We are under attack! Everyone we need to get out of here.¡± My warning caused a panic and everyone started looking around at their surroundings. Things were about to erupt into chaos as everyone was going to make a mad dash back to the stores until. ¡°Everyone chill out!¡± the booming voice of Joseph goonies chased away the anxiety everyone was feeling. ¡°Consider the source, it¡¯s this kid. He¡¯s one of the Watt¡¯s puppets. He¡¯s clearly here to sabotage Joseph¡¯s good name.¡± Puppets? I put my hand on the hilt of my machete as I considered taking his tongue out of his mouth for insulting me. He felt my frigid blood lust and stepped back in fear, but it was too late. His comments reached the ears of everyone gathered and they began agreeing with him. In those few seconds I was distracted the atmosphere grew darker again. This time eight out torches were rolling across the asphalts parking lot. There was only eight left. If those torches went out it would be pitched black out here. As another small blip on my danger sense happened. ¡°Look out they are targeting the people with torches!¡± I screamed at a torch hold toward the back of the congregation and everyone turned to look at this poor random soul. Then like a shark out of water, massive jaws emerged for what seemed to be nothingness, it wrapped it¡¯s jaws horizontally around his head, then decapitated him before disappearing into the darkness once again. Another creature emerged and grabs his body before it had a chance to hit the floor and was gone. To everyone without a night vision skill it would still have been very hard to grasp what just occurred using the light from the torch alone. The entire chain of events happened in less than two seconds. But, I saw it. Massive pack of beasts had us completely surrounded in the parking lot. These creatures were black everywhere except the white of their eyes. They had paws that would put a bear to shame and were as big as a moose. My AR display identified them as Black Wolves ¡°These are wolves?¡± I asked myself. They we all level 40 and up from what I could see there was twenty of them. I felt cold swept beginning to form on my forehead as I realized the situation we were in. Vera tried to warn us. These monsters were skilled enough stealth hunters to hide their killing intent from my danger sense. The crowd was stunned into silence. I began analyzing what to do mentally, my plan was to gather the people tight and form and earthen dome protecting everyone until. But I needed to get everyone in tight, to use the Earth magic here I needed to added almost 30% more mana to get in to break through the asphalt. ¡°Run!!!¡± One of the hunters yelled and ran with two others into the direction of the store. Their bodies faded into the darkness accompanied by the sounds of their sneakers tapping rapidly on the asphalt, and nonstop screams. Unfortunately I was able to see their fate before them. The screaming of all three people stopped suddenly and was replaced by the grotesque sound of bones crunching. They ran blindly into the center of the wolves¡¯ formation. They rearranged their formation and were no longer surrounding us. Now they were aligned in more a ¡°U¡± shape, with the opening being from the direction we just came A few of them emerged from the shadows with arms and legs of our dead allies in their mouth. ¡°Ahhhhhh!!!¡± More frantic screams filled followed after everyone realized what happen to the three people that made a mad dash to the plaza. Then like a dam bursting, the crowd of people all began to run back from where we came. There was no way for me to regain control here. Following the sudden rise in activity the wolves were spurred into action. They started running through the crowd, grabbing a random individual before darting back out into the darkness. A few of the wolves didn¡¯t care about the consequences and jumped into the center of the crowd grabbed a body and stood there firm shaking it from side to side and slamming it into the floor like they were chew toys. The sight of someone dying a death like this combined with the reveal of what was hunting them caused all logic to fall to the back of everyone¡¯s mind and people erupted in to a mad dash in every direction but north. The people who were running to the east and west were being cut down at a much faster rate, so people started heading south, which I was sure was what the wolves wanted. I seen a few people attempt jump in the broken down car which was a good idea of these were dogs, but these were complete monsters. The wolves smashed the window out the door with its paws then, grabbed the door in its jaws and effortlessly ripped it off the hinges. The man in the car was kicking and screaming on the back seat trying to get away, but it ended with his blood splashing on the back window of the car. After a few minutes the escape attempt became slightly more organized and now people were spread across the six lane road running towards the school, but there was still a little over a mile to go. If the wolves really wanted to turn things up I was confident that they could kill everyone here well before we arrived. At this moment they were just coasting and observing us, we were being herded like cattle. As an avid manga reader I found myself to have a new found respect for protagonist. I was thinking of everything I could to save lives here. I thought about creating a massive stone wall separating the wolves running on the edges from the group, but there were wolves also running in the center of the group and that would only serve to locking them in a box with a group of people. I thought about creating elevations of stone and raising people above the wolves, but no one is listening to me and running frantically if I raised the ground under them they would simply keep running and fall to their death. I¡¯ve always been the type of guy that could find the obvious solution to problems while I was kicked back in my bed reading. But, I was total stumped on how to figure this out. I needed to give credit to people who could be in such a high stress environment and think clear enough to analyze the pros and cons of your decisions. To compare go kick a Rottweiler in the balls and do your multiplication table while you run. The wolves were also very cautious of me. They made it so that I didn¡¯t have the ability to change the outcome solo. ¡°Please stop! Spare these people; you¡¯ve hunted plenty to eat!¡± I begged with my beast communication skill, but my pleads fell on deaf ears as the scoffed completely ignoring me. So I finally decide to go on the offensive. With my machete in hand I dash towards one of the wolves running alongside the crowd of people with intent to kill. It responded with a shallow howl and retreated away further and further pulling me away from the group. I heard cries of pain and the sound of death circulating within the group again. ¡°I see,¡± I thought to myself. If I decide to go on the offensive and target one wolf in particular the remaining nineteen moved in and returned the favor. ¡°hahakekekeke¡± There was no mistake that was the laugh of the wolf mocking my failed attempts. I just couldn¡¯t figure it out. What¡¯s the plan? Why are the wolves herding these people like this? Was it food? No that couldn¡¯t be right they didn¡¯t eat anyone of the people they¡¯ve killed thus far. ¡°For fun.¡± Vera¡¯s word began to ring in my mind. The group was running for about ten minutes. People were running out of stamina and the pace was on a gradual decline. Some people just couldn¡¯t keep up opting to accept their fate and gave up. I ultimately came up with a plan of action; I couldn¡¯t allow these monsters to get into the school. It was hard for me to accept that no matter what I did here, a lot of people would die. I charged to the front of the group leaving them behind. After I reach about 10 yard ahead with a massive stomp on the ground along with ? of my mana a large wall emerged from the ground. IRON STONE WALL The wall stretched the width of the six lane road. Three additional walls emerged adjacent to the front wall forming a massive cube. I created eight small entrances that stretched horizontally on the front wall of the cube. The entrances were narrow enough to only allow for a single person to enter and short enough to require anyone over 6ft wound have to duck to enter. The important aspect was that there was no way the wolves would be able to make it through here. I used the last ? of my mana to make flames that would help identify the entrance. I began to feel the effects of mana exhaustion for the first time. I didn¡¯t black out largely due to my own will power, Reduced MP Consumption,and Increased MP Recovery speed skills. But I was still feeling very woozy. ¡°Everyone enter here!¡± I yelled from atop of the structure I just created. The crowd identified the structure as a sanctuary and all hell broke loose. Everything became about the preservation of self and it became every man for them self. Multiple people raced to one entrances and pushed each other out the way to secure an entrance. It reminded me of Black Friday, but a much bloodier version. People were pushing each other down and out of the way. People were being trampled to death, someone was pushed while running to an entranced causing him to trip and his head slammed into the wall. Unfortunately, this was the best I could do. We were running on asphalt which I couldn¡¯t manage directly with earth magic. I watched the mayhem unfold as I allowed my mana to recover. The wolves began to see what was going on and charged into attack. I jumped down from my perched position to intervene, but the black wolves reacted accordingly. They were still playing hit and run with me. One wolf would show himself to me, which would cause me to react and get out of position then the others would jump behind me and take a life with them once they retreated. This outlined the difference in our experience. These creatures have been hunting all their life. Nonetheless, after a few more minutes there was no longer any living man outside of the box behind me. I didn¡¯t know how many people actually made it inside vs how many people died trying. Now I stood alone with in front of the entire pack. For the first time all night I had their complete attention. Then as if on cue they all charge at me with killing intent. ¡°Enough!¡± I yelled backed with the power of my Beast Master¡¯s, beast dominance skill. They stopped in the midst of their attacked. I¡¯ve been trying to use this skill, but the requirement was that the beast it question had to be focused solely on me. They casually walked away, separated and sat on the left and right of the street respectively. They went from aggressive man-eating canines to sitting calmly, tongue out, and panting pooches. However, something wasn¡¯t right. My beast master skills were telling me they weren¡¯t fully under my control. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± I used my beast communication skill to ask the closest wolf to me. ¡°To be the alpha you must beat the alpha,¡± was his brief response to me. He didn¡¯t actually speak. His words seem to have been transmitted directly into my mind. Then I felt a cold chill as my danger senses began ringing like a fire alarm. Than standing in the middle of the street was. Alpha Shadow Wolf Lv 75 This monster was not like the others. I felt nervous sweat beginning to gather on my forehead and the hair on my body began to rise in respect for this monster. He was bigger than the other wolfs thus far, His clench jaws displayed his white fangs stained reddish shade to it due to repeated exposure to blood, and His black fur looked thick and ready for the winter. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of your kind from my father, but not only are your people delicious, but clearly you are foolish as well. To challenge a Shadow Wolf on the night of a New Moon.¡± His words were also transmitted directly to my mind. His blood lust was spouting from every pore in his body like a broken fire hydrant. My heart began to quiver. My fear resistance skill was working overtime; if it wasn¡¯t for that I would have succumbed to shock. ¡°Stop you will not fight me,¡± I activated my beast master skill here as well. ¡°Taming skills don¡¯t work on Alphas kid.¡± Of course it wouldn¡¯t be that easy would it. ¡°Please is there any way we can come to an agreement? I don¡¯t want to fight you; I only want to survive the night? My voice was shaky and I was forcing out every word. I couldn¡¯t afford to fight this guy with my current Mana levels I was still only about 15%. But why was I so frightened even though there was a major difference in our level? My body was reacting on it¡¯s own to this thing. The fear I was feeling was coming from the depth of my heart. ¡°Let¡¯s begin,¡± he said. I grabbed my combat knife and prepared for combat. His massive paws slapped the ground quickly, but made no sound. I was within striking distant in a second. He opened his mouth aiming for my jugular, I nimbly ducked under his jawline and thrusted my knife upwards through the base of his throat. I got him! But, there was no reaction. This isn¡¯t what I¡¯ve grown accustomed to feeling when I pierce somethings flesh. Then to support my monolog the body I pierced dissipated like fog. ¡°What the¡­Ahhhh!!!!¡±¡¯ Before I had a chance to analyze the situation I felt a massive pain in my right shoulder as my skin was being punctured, the massive weight on my back forced me down onto my knees. This was the worse pain I¡¯ve ever felt in my life. I could feel my bones fighting hard to not shatter. My screams broke the night silence as I yelled as loud as I could. I was confused my level was more than twice as high, but yet I was in this deplorable condition and the fight just started. I used what will I could manage to try and use my other hand to stab this monster in the eye, but I felt the pressure be released and my blade hit nothing. ¡°Truly Impressive, Not only did your shoulder not completely shatter, but it maintains function. You¡¯re different from the others in your race. Your much stronger, but still well too inexperience to challenge me and on tonight no less.¡± He wasn¡¯t lying, most my fights to this point were heavily dependent on the element of surprise. ¡°What¡¯s the significance of tonight? This is the second time you¡¯ve mentioned it,¡± I asked. ¡°Alpha Shadow wolves such as me become twice as strong on the night of a new moon,¡± He answered. Damn, that was the last thing I needed to hear so now he was basically at level 150. My left shoulder was still throbbing in pain and I needed to do something about this blood lost. I¡¯m technically still much stronger than him, but he is vastly more skilled than I am. My Mana is at 20% now. It¡¯s only been a few minutes but it feels like hours. He started walking to his left in a circle around me and then fog began spreading out of his body creating five copies. They were circling me like curious sharks observing my wounded state seeing how I would react to being back into a corner. Then the attack begun again, I couldn¡¯t tell which of the shadow clones closing in on me the real one was, but I did know I never wanted to feel that pain again. They were perfectly sync and were all mirror images of each other. The moment the wolves entered striking distances they lunged jaws open for another finishing move. I used earth magic and created a stone column under me that shot upwards through the air. I began feeling dizzy again as I fell to my knees. Crashhh! I didn¡¯t have time to catch my breath. The real shadow wolf crashed in the back of the stone column from behind me. He hit it with so much force it shattered and began to tumble over tossing me on top of a broken down car. The debris from the stone column came crashing down on the very monster than ran into it. I laid on top of the car I crashed on trying to catch, not foolish enough to think this fight was over by; I had a sense life skill after all. I took my jacket and shirt off and wrapped in around my forearm to make a makeshift bite sleeve. I couldn¡¯t afford to have this fight drag on much longer. The longer this goes the more the advantage weighs on the more experience side. ¡°You are truly annoying,¡± He said as her emerged from the rubble that buried him. ¡°I would also prefer it if you left me alone,¡± I rebutted. He started with another frontal assault. ¡°I maybe inexperienced, but I¡¯m not an idiot,¡±I said as I turned my back on his oncoming frontal attack. Which dissipated, it was another feint. ¡°There you are,¡± his jaws wrapped around my bite sleeve wrapped forearm. Holy shit was it painful! His bite force easily exceeds that of a crocodile. I was thankful my arm remained attached but it was only because of my body strengthening skill, but I pushed though ¡°You made a fatal mistake, Alpha. You made the assumption that you are vastly more experienced than me and that would be enough to overcome the difference in our strength, but you have zero experience fighting humans. We are capable of learning and to try the same attack repeatedly was your mistake. ¡°Wha¡­¡­¡± Was what he could get out before he realized what he had done, but I wouldn¡¯t give him the opportunity to regret it. Using my free hand my knife hit the mark I was aiming for on my first attempt. He staggered back as his blood squirted from his neck on to the pavement. He wore a bewildered expression on his face disbelieving in his defeat, but It was over. -Earth Surge- A stone lance broke rose from the ground, breaking through the asphalt road before impaling it through the stomach and out through his back. That final move may have been overkill, but I had to make sure this fight was over, I was at my breaking point. Ding..Ding¡­.Ding¡­Ding..Ding Awoooohh Awoooohh Awoooohh The wolves that were peacefully watching up to this point did a deciding howl to my victory.